In fact this week was actually pretty rough. After 97 wonderful years of life, my grandpa (my mom’s dad) passed away on Wednesday. This was my first experience with death and it awas made just that much more difficult by being away from my family and away from anyone who really knows or loves me. I just wanted to be held and I woke up Thursday morning with a migraine and my eyes glued shut because of the amount of crying that I had done. Needless to say, please keep my family in your prayers, especially my grandma who is now going to be alone after 59 years of marriage. Anyway, I tried to fill my head with other things and keep myself very occupied this week. Here are some of my highlights:
-Monday: I got to read Harry Potter in the sunshine and then teach English to my little 7 year old French girl, Elisabeth, who really doesn’t understand anything I say in English or in French and just responds “Yes” to everything…I guess that a repetition of yes is better than a repetition of no. Monday night I had my volunteer group and the theme for the week was “Game night” so I got to play dominos and cards in French!
Tuesday: We had our Middle East mid-term in the morning and then after conversation club I went out to dinner at guess…? My favorite creperie with two of my friends that I met through my volunteer group who are university students and super nice!
Wednesday: No highlights.
Thursday: Lea was at school this week, but her parents had invited me over for dinner so after class I went to her house and had a wonderful evening with her parents. They were so kind to me and literally opened their arms to me and let me cry and talk about grandpa and they cried with me. Her mom, Catherine, made a wonderful shrimp linguine dish and I brought my homemade chocolate chip cookies…The topic of America came up, as it always does with them, and it was so funny to hear what they find so intriguing about America: when they visited NYC two years ago (all of their first time in the states) they bought two suitcases full of America things, including suspenders and American light switches (which are very different than French light switches). So funny!
Friday: I spent a wonderful afternoon in the 60 degree sunshine walking along the river with my French friend, Sophie, another friend that I met at volunteering who is also a university student. She is SO incredibly sweet and unaffected and when it came out that I had had a hard week because of my grandpa she just embraced me so hard and was so understanding and, she is a Christian, and prayed for me. It was a wonderful afternoon in the sunshine! Then, Friday night, I showed Lea what an American sleepover was (soiree de pajamas!). We walked her dog all over town in the balmy spring air, drank a coke at one of the many outdoor bars that was hoping, ate dinner, and watched a movie, then snuggled into her bed and looked at the People Oscar issue that my mom had mailed to me! French sleepover!
Saturday: Lea gave me a REAL French manicure (except with orange nail polish!), I went to my first football game (soccer…the fans were just as interesting as the game, they get SO in the sport) and saw the film Marly and Me!
Sunday: Lea and I took advantage of the beautiful sunshine and visited the most famous tourist attraction in Nantes, this enormous elephant that makes a ½ hour walk with 50 people on it. It is really bizarre in my opinion, but all the Nantais are really proud of it…? It is really interesting, but after ½ hour on a really slow large elephant the view begins to look the same from every part of its body. But, it is something that you have to do in Nantes. Then, Sunday night crepe night was invaded by the grandparents…the parents of my mom were here for the weekend, so we had a very fun lively dinner with a grandma who couldn’t really hear very well and kept slipping their enormous dog crepes under the table! (They brought their dog with them).