Long time, no update. Sorry about that.
I had exams for history, conversation, and grammar earlier this week. It was all really intense and I'm glad it's over. We had study sessions in the Japanese garden for the history exam and celebrated the end of all the exams by buying pastries.
The other day, Jeana and I booked everything for our independent travel period. Our itinerary is looking like this:
October 2: train from Dax to Bordeaux
October 2-4: Chill with Sara H. in Bordeaux
October 4: train from Bordeaux to Paris, spend the night in Paris
October 5: flight from Paris to Dublin
October 5-10: stay in Dublin
October 10: flight from Dublin to Brussels
October 10-13: stay in Brussels
October 13: train from Brussels to Paris
I'm really excited about our plans. I'm just hoping something doesn't change at the last minute that throws everything else off.
Today is my last full day in Nantes. We're leaving tommorow morning to spend two days at Futurscope in Poitiers. After that, I'll be in the Pyrenee mountains for two weeks with no internet connection. However, that is not an excuse for any of you not to leave me some love on my birthday.
Ok, I need to pack...
~Sarah, who is leaving Nantes tommorow
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Mont-St-Michel, Saint-Malo, and Class in the Park
Yesterday was our day trip to Mont-St-Michel and Saint-Malo.
Jeana ended up staying over for the night because her bus doesn't run early enough for her to make it on time. It reminded me of all those horse show nights spent in hotels with the team. Anyway, alarm goes off at 5:00 AM (not cool), we grumpily get ready, and set off for the train station to meet up with the rest of the group. Everyone shows up, and we hop on our private bus to Mont-St-Michel. I mostly slept during the ride, but the scenery that I did see was beautiful. There was a traffic jam at one point that was caused by a flock of sheep that wandered into the middle of the highway.
This was actually my second time at Mont-St-Michel, but it was just as beautiful as I remembered it to be. It was pretty foggy out, and even though it made it all look so eerily beautiful, it ruined any chances of taking pictures. After our guided tour, we had a few hours of free time. Justin, Jeana, Mandi, and myself all got some lunch and found a secluded balcony to sit and eat at. After lunch, we wandered around for a bit, then went down to the shore surrounding the castle. I took off my socks and shoes and walked around on the sand. I love the feel of sand on my feet. It's common for the water surrounding the castle to go all the way up to the castle during high tide, so the sand was relatively packed down. I dug my toes in, and it felt amazing. I really love the beach.
After that, we piled back on to the bus and set off for Saint-Malo. We walked around on the ramparts for a while and enjoyed the view of the city. The ramparts are built right next to the shoreline, so I really enjoyed the constant salty breeze that came in from the ocean. We walked around the town for a bit, windowshopped, etc. I also ate crepes with Mandi, Justin, Jeana, Candice, and Claire. I really enjoyed spending some down time with Candice and Claire. They're such great people and wonderful program leaders. After our crepes, we headed back to the buses and returned to Nantes. It was around 9:30 when I got in.
Today was a nice day, too. We were given the morning off in order to recooperate from yesterday's adventures. Today is also Jeana's birthday, so a bunch of us met up and had a picnic for lunch. After lunch, we met up with the rest of the group for a tour of Tour LU, which is an old cookie factory. It was ok, but seemed a bit weird for a cookie factory. We then had class in a park by the train station. We had a great time acting out random skits based on a poem that we read. After class, Mandi, Jeana, and I headed out to celebrate Jeana's birthday with crepes. A nice guy who worked at the restaurant gave Jeana flowers that he found on the street. We found out that today was his birthday, too!
My host mother is gone all weekend at a wedding, so me, Chloe, and Audrey have the apartment to ourselves. Tommorow, I'm going to a horse show with Jeana and her family, and most likely spending the night there.
I'll try and update again later this weekend.
~Sarah, who is sick of crepes
Jeana ended up staying over for the night because her bus doesn't run early enough for her to make it on time. It reminded me of all those horse show nights spent in hotels with the team. Anyway, alarm goes off at 5:00 AM (not cool), we grumpily get ready, and set off for the train station to meet up with the rest of the group. Everyone shows up, and we hop on our private bus to Mont-St-Michel. I mostly slept during the ride, but the scenery that I did see was beautiful. There was a traffic jam at one point that was caused by a flock of sheep that wandered into the middle of the highway.
This was actually my second time at Mont-St-Michel, but it was just as beautiful as I remembered it to be. It was pretty foggy out, and even though it made it all look so eerily beautiful, it ruined any chances of taking pictures. After our guided tour, we had a few hours of free time. Justin, Jeana, Mandi, and myself all got some lunch and found a secluded balcony to sit and eat at. After lunch, we wandered around for a bit, then went down to the shore surrounding the castle. I took off my socks and shoes and walked around on the sand. I love the feel of sand on my feet. It's common for the water surrounding the castle to go all the way up to the castle during high tide, so the sand was relatively packed down. I dug my toes in, and it felt amazing. I really love the beach.
After that, we piled back on to the bus and set off for Saint-Malo. We walked around on the ramparts for a while and enjoyed the view of the city. The ramparts are built right next to the shoreline, so I really enjoyed the constant salty breeze that came in from the ocean. We walked around the town for a bit, windowshopped, etc. I also ate crepes with Mandi, Justin, Jeana, Candice, and Claire. I really enjoyed spending some down time with Candice and Claire. They're such great people and wonderful program leaders. After our crepes, we headed back to the buses and returned to Nantes. It was around 9:30 when I got in.
Today was a nice day, too. We were given the morning off in order to recooperate from yesterday's adventures. Today is also Jeana's birthday, so a bunch of us met up and had a picnic for lunch. After lunch, we met up with the rest of the group for a tour of Tour LU, which is an old cookie factory. It was ok, but seemed a bit weird for a cookie factory. We then had class in a park by the train station. We had a great time acting out random skits based on a poem that we read. After class, Mandi, Jeana, and I headed out to celebrate Jeana's birthday with crepes. A nice guy who worked at the restaurant gave Jeana flowers that he found on the street. We found out that today was his birthday, too!
My host mother is gone all weekend at a wedding, so me, Chloe, and Audrey have the apartment to ourselves. Tommorow, I'm going to a horse show with Jeana and her family, and most likely spending the night there.
I'll try and update again later this weekend.
~Sarah, who is sick of crepes
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Fun-Filled Weekend!
So, a lot has happened since my last entry...
Let's start with Thursday. Hauled my ass out of bed at 6:00 AM, met Jeana at the tramway stop, went to the train station, met up with Candice and everyone else, and set off for St. Nazaire. Took lots of pictures, toured a museum about ships and their importance to Europe, at lunch on the beach, took pictures of Dan in his speedo-esque bathing suit (Claire made me do it.), ended up seeing a really cool Estuaire exhibit that made me want to have a seizure, almost passed out on the boat ride back to Nantes, searched for other Estuaire exhibits with Mandi, Jeana, Candice, and Claire, found one and looked around in it, and finally went back to my host's apartment, only to be asked why I was back so early.
Friday: no classes, but we did have a test. After the test, Jeana, Justin, and I all went to an Estuaire exhibit in Tour LU. There were actually two exhibits there. One was this odd video thing of this woman who was underwater, but it was three different videos of the same woman being shown on three different screens at the same time. Slightly confusing. The other one was really cool. You walk in the room, and all you see is a screen with light reflecting different patterns. When you walk around the screen, you see a pool of water directly in front of it with lights shining on the water. The patterns were reflections of the different ripples made in the water. I thought it was fascinating.
Saturday (yesterday) morning was spent at Commerce. I woke up early and met up with Jeana, and then we went to the flea market. It started off as disappointing, but I quickly found some really cool things. I bought three books for 2.50 euros. One has a picture of an old lady who looks too much like the equestrian team coach at Earlham. After the flea market, we walked around commerce and stopped into random shops, just looking at things. We also went to Beaulieu, where I got two much-needed tank tops to layer under my white hoodie.
I haven't done much today, but I think I'm going to go to a cafe (if I can find one that's open) after lunch and work on my homework. I also need to find a way to print out my paragraph on St. Nazaire.
I hope the rest of you are having great semesters!
~Sarah, who is waiting for lunch
Let's start with Thursday. Hauled my ass out of bed at 6:00 AM, met Jeana at the tramway stop, went to the train station, met up with Candice and everyone else, and set off for St. Nazaire. Took lots of pictures, toured a museum about ships and their importance to Europe, at lunch on the beach, took pictures of Dan in his speedo-esque bathing suit (Claire made me do it.), ended up seeing a really cool Estuaire exhibit that made me want to have a seizure, almost passed out on the boat ride back to Nantes, searched for other Estuaire exhibits with Mandi, Jeana, Candice, and Claire, found one and looked around in it, and finally went back to my host's apartment, only to be asked why I was back so early.
Friday: no classes, but we did have a test. After the test, Jeana, Justin, and I all went to an Estuaire exhibit in Tour LU. There were actually two exhibits there. One was this odd video thing of this woman who was underwater, but it was three different videos of the same woman being shown on three different screens at the same time. Slightly confusing. The other one was really cool. You walk in the room, and all you see is a screen with light reflecting different patterns. When you walk around the screen, you see a pool of water directly in front of it with lights shining on the water. The patterns were reflections of the different ripples made in the water. I thought it was fascinating.
Saturday (yesterday) morning was spent at Commerce. I woke up early and met up with Jeana, and then we went to the flea market. It started off as disappointing, but I quickly found some really cool things. I bought three books for 2.50 euros. One has a picture of an old lady who looks too much like the equestrian team coach at Earlham. After the flea market, we walked around commerce and stopped into random shops, just looking at things. We also went to Beaulieu, where I got two much-needed tank tops to layer under my white hoodie.
I haven't done much today, but I think I'm going to go to a cafe (if I can find one that's open) after lunch and work on my homework. I also need to find a way to print out my paragraph on St. Nazaire.
I hope the rest of you are having great semesters!
~Sarah, who is waiting for lunch
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