Almost April! YIKES!

The photos (from top to bottom)
-Making crepes in the yurt!
-Me learning to drive a carriage in the forest
-The yurt
-Me and Adele, one of the refugees from the volunteer group
-Us in the carriage
-Me at St. Croix with the best crepe ever!!!
-Sophie and me under the Duplicity film poster
-Me and Mylene making crepes Tuesday night...yum...eleven...
-The Bradurie Saturday: even the patisseries bring their goods into the street!
-The Bradurie: it was crazy!!!










You’ve got to be kidding me…THE END OF MARCH ???

Monday: The usual Monday, with the inclusion of a “Translation” midterm, English lessons with my little Elisabeth and Henri (Elisabeth requested a song so I taught her the hockey-pockey to learn the parts of the body!), then volunteering. My good friend Sophie who I met through volunteering (she is a 20 year old student at the university and the sweetest, dearest Frenchie-and a Christian!) was there, like normal. And, she shared with me that just the day before her grandmother who lives in Nantes passed away. It was actually really comforting because she was so wonderful to me when my grandpa passed away, and now we could share the same emotions and I could at least try to be a comfort to her. Emotions and feelings of grief are universal.

Tuesday: My professor of the Moyen-Orient class is HILARIOUS! I love her, and I have that class two separate times on Tuesday. Well, in the middle of class in the morning she started to tell us this story about how she was in her elevator the day before and saw this white satchel. She was curious and thus stuck her pinky in it and tasted it. She said that later in class (she teaches at another university too) she couldn’t remember ANYTHING and was saying weird stuff…thus she told us that she had her first experience with cocaine just the day before! And we asked her what she did with the satchel-she left it in the elevator! She is so funny! Then, I went to the conversation table for lunch where a “native speaker” eats with us, and my professor also ate with us! She told us more crazy stories, all about her interviews and different stories with these famous people (she is really well known in her field and thus has met all the presidents of the US, all the leaders of the Arab countries, all the big-wigs of the UN) and all the faux-pas she has made---like when she accidentally asked the head of the UN if he was gay (another language, that is why it was an accident) and how that made it so she had the chance to interview him…long, complicated, hilarious stories!!! Anyway, after lunch I went to my French lessons with the mom of my English students, and then back to school for the second Moyen-Orient class and then my phonetics class. Then, Tuesday night, Lea and I were invited (this is a bit complicated) older brother’s, wife’s, younger sister’s house (she is our age and lives in Nantes and works at H & M) for crepes, cidre, and watching “Nouvelle Star”-the French version of American Idol, complete with the same theme music as American Idol. It was super fun and filling-we each ate ELEVEN (no lies…) crepes filled with either jam, nutella, or caramel-or a combination. And of course, cidre, which always compliments crepes!

Wednesday: I buckled down to work, hard core. I brought my laptop to school and set up shop at the center and worked all day in the library in between classes to research and write my big research paper (in French) for my Moyen-Orient class. Wednesday night was low-key as I snuggled up with Harry Potter.

Thursday: I buckled down to work all day Thursday too! On top of my papers for each of my IES courses, I just got my final assignment from my professor from the Fac (the French university---and remember that we are STILL on strike there so I have had that class ONE time, thus I don’t even know the subject really, but apparently it is France in the 16th, 17th, and 18th century…) and she sent me 5 pages of bibliography, plus 10 different topics that I can chose from to write my final dissertation for that class. Thus I need to research (all in French) and write a dissertation (all in Frenhc) on a subject that I have NO idea anything about-and I picked the class because it was the only history class that worked with my schedule, not because of the interesting subject. Thus, lots of work. But, Thrusday night I relaxed…Lea came over and we snuggled in my bed (it is a twin only!) and watched “Le Boum” a really popular 1980 French film about growing up…It was really good.

Friday: Grammar midterm straight up in the morning. Then, I came home and organized my life, or so it felt like: such as changing my sheets, responding to BEAUCOUP to emails, tidying my room and the such-things that I had let go while I was working so hard this week…Then, later in the afternoon I went to the LU-the old factory that used to make the Le Petit Ecolier and all those cookies that I have never realized originated in Nantes-you know, the red background of the big LU sign? Well, we got to go to the top of the tower and have a view of Nantes, then see the art exhibition, and then drink a coffee in the café! Then, Friday night I had a spectacular evening at Lea’s house! Her neighbor came over for a beer before dinner and I learned all about renting and buying apartments and real estate in Nantes (her dad is a real estate agent and they were talking about buying and renting property). Then, her parents and I had a spectacular dinner that her mom made: vegetable seafood pasta followed by a lovely fruit salad for dessert-it was perfect. And, like always, the conversation was so wonderful and we shared hours of laughter. After dinner we watched their home videos from their visit to NYC and then the home videos of Lea when she was a cute little 7 year old…until midnight!

Saturday: Today was SO fun! I woke up and went running along the river, and then I went to the market where all the spring time fruit was available. I wanted to buy all of the strawberries that were delicious and such a good deal, but I am leaving in a week, and it is just ME so let’s just say my stomach was bigger then my eyes. But, I dried kiwi for the first time-it was really good! Then, after buying pineapple, strawberry and grapes, I spent the whole afternoon with my friend afternoon in the Dradurie---the one day of the year where all the streets in Nantes are closed and all the stores come out INTO the streets, even the boulangeries, and all their products are on sale. EVERYONE was out in the streets and it was crazy and super fun! Then, Andrea and I met up with my French friend, Sophie, who I volunteer with, and the three of us went to the new Julia Roberts film, “Duplicity.” Well, it was actually dubbed in French, no subtitles, and I must confess that the spy/thriller was a little bit difficult to follow in another language and I am excited to see it in English. But, none the less, it was good and I understood MOST of it, just not all…Then, Andrea and I had a lengthy creperie delicious meal at, where else, my favorite creperie: St. Croix. We both had two giant crepes (seafood for me, followed by tomato that is more like a pizza crepe). Tonight we lose an hour of sleep, the French daylights saving…

Sunday: Another wonderful day! I spend the whole day with my volunteer group in the forest about an hour from Nantes. We learned how to clean and take care of the horse and then we got to take a carriage ride and walk through the forest all afternoon! Then, we got to go inside their yurt where they live and they made crepes for all of us! It was a wonderful afternoon. Sunday night I spent another wonderful dinner with Lea’s family: her mom made a wonderful salad and this potato/seafood/vegetable dish followed by a homemade real French apple tart!