before, during and after vacation

hello everybody! i sincerely apologize for my lack of blog writing. i dont want to call it hate mail, but the 'disappointment mail' has been coming in, so here i am, yet again, writing a lengthy blog to keep you all updated on my frenchy life.

so its already march?! can you believe it, its been over a month since my last blog and for that i am sorry! february went by SO fast, as it usually does with its short 29 days. PLUS for over half of february i was on vacation! i know, the french life is a hard one for me ;). but before i talk about vacation, just before vacation, the teacher i assist most, Céline, was taking some of the students along with another teacher to <<classe de la neige>>, which is basically they all pack up in a bus and head to the mountains to have class there AND learn how to ski! how fun, right? so while she was gone, i took over the english classes for her and it was quite the experience. it actually went fairly well, but i give mad props to teachers. kids are exhausting. and they are there all day, everyday! i was only there for a couple hours each day. wow, they really are some of the heros of the world! but i was asked to teach them all about the UK, which was interesting considering i knew practically nothing about it. but it wasn't difficult, just had to talk about the countries, their capitals, their symbols and how to say "Where do you come from?, I come from ________. I'm _______ (give their nationality). so nothing too strenuous. all in all it was a good experience. i learned i have to be more stern before being fun, and thats always hard for me! and although i was exhausted and frustrated about 80% of the time, the kids are good kids and always fun to be around. plus, i just had to remember that i had a 17 day vacation just around the corner!

vivement les vacances!! LONG LIVE VACATION!! i think that is france's motto. if not, it should be. so to start off my vacation i went to paris to see mon chéri, alex! we were going to celebrate valentine's day a little early since it fell during the middle of the week when he would be working and i would be jetting of to portugal (yeah, i know, portugal, right!? more on that later.) so we did the usual, walking around paris, hanging out in his tiny apartment, watching tv, doing a little window shopping, etc. also, we hung out with alex's friend hadrien and his girlfriend alexandra on sunday and that was fun, and alex hadn't seen hadrien in a long time so he was happy to catch up with him. but i must mention how strangely (well strange for france) cold it was! like MN cold, and its hardly EVER like that in france. so after walking around all day in the freezing, blustery cold we parted ways with hadrien and alexandra with the intentions of meeting up with them later for a drink or something of the sort. but by the time we made it back towards alex's apartment, we knew that we were ready for a night in. so instead of going to a fancy restaurant to celebrate our valentine's day, we snuggled in and ate kebabs (sidenote:kebabs are like gyros and SO FREEGEN DELISH!) that we picked up on the way. it was nice to warm up after a bone chilling day (you'd think i wasn't minnesotan at this point!) and exchange gifts with our bellies full of kebab. i bought alex some cuff links to go with some new work shirts he bought, and he bought me this lovely perfume with a pretty poppy on the bottle. it was a nice relaxing night, all we needed.

so the weekend was over, but i wasn't leaving paris yet! so i got to see alex extra this time around :). but he had to work monday, so i spent all day at the louvre, walking around, seeing my favorite pieces and reading my book surrounded by sculptures. it was a good day, indeed! after a lovely day at the museum, i went to get alex's shirt that was ready for pick up at the store (successful french speaking experience!) and then i went to the grocery store to get the fixings for a yummy nacho/fajita dinner to surprise alex when he got home! i also bought some chocolate and strawberries to make what turned out to be some of the ugliest, but tastiest chocolate covered strawberries. he was very happy to come home to a cooked meal and his girly. :) so we ate and ate until we could eat not more and then went to bed early because i had to be at the shuttle bus station to go to the airport at 7AM, ugh! next stop, oporto, portugal!

so from paris, my friends valeria, aaron and i flew to portugal (for 60 euros roundtrip!). it was about a two hour flight, but there is a one hour time difference so we only lost one hour. i'm not gonna do a day by day recap of what we did, but i will tell you that portugal is beautiful! we went to oporto first and then lisbon, but i have to say that oporto was my favorite. so much to see and do and the view from everywhere is breathtaking. a few highlights of oporto:

1. our hostel: SUPER nice and SUPER clean and SUPER cheap. not to mention the very friendly faculty and the nice big open kitchen to cook dinner and stay on budget!
2. the 2 1/2 hour FREE walking tour: there were some non official tour guides who come around to the hostels offering free walking tours, we thought why not. it was a great way to see the city and learn some history behind it at the same time! and a great opportunity to some picture snapping :)
3. port wine cellar tour: we got to tour the cellar and try port wine, which was a first for me. very yummy, very sugary. much different from the wine in france, but really good. great, educational, and delicious tour!
4. the river/bridges: the views along the river and from the bridges was amazing! the sunsets, impeccable.

here is a little picture tour of our time in oporto (because pictures are worth a thousand words!): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150641525342137.414503.503662136&type=3&l=91c3e9876b

after 3 days in oporto, we boarded the train and headed to lisbon (a nice 3 hour journey!) and upon our arrival we found a beautiful downtown square just along the riverbank with a beautiful view of more bridges! must be a thing down there in portugal ;). some highlights of lisbon:

1. yet again our hostel: we didn't think our hostel could get any better than in oporto, but oh were we wrong! the hostel in lisbon was cool and artsy and quirky, just the way i like all my things to be :). the best part about the hostel was the chef, pedro. oh my good googly goo, if i could hire that man on as my personal chef, i would do it in .02 seconds flat. every night he would cook a 4 course meal (all for the small cost of 9 euros, yeah you heard me NINE euros!) soup, salad, endless wine, main dish and dessert. oh man, we ate to our hearts content. my favorite meal, chickin piri piri. seriously, i have dreams about this stuff.. so damn delish. i bought the piri piri sauce in hopes of trying to replicate it, but have yet to attempt. so good. ok yeah, im done. sorry. :)
2. nice downtown area: fun to walk around, soak in the sun that was beating down on us CONSTANTLY, which was a nice change of pace from the frigidness that was france.
3. met some nice people: francine is brazilian and was traveling with her whole family (mom, dad, sister, brother, sister's friend AND grandparents) to celebrate her grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. they all ate dinner one night at the hostel with us and were super nice. we also met jan, a 50 yr old or so man from holland who was really funny. ate dinner at the hostel with us a couple nights and played cards with us late into the evening. he was a hoot.
4. the belem neighborhood: lots to see here! gardens, cathedral/monastery, art museums, belem tower, some yummy pastries that are super famous but i cant remember the name, etc. a nice place to stroll around. we went twice, it was a good time.

pictures from lisbon:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150641560977137.414514.503662136&type=3&l=124628dc7e

so all in all it was amazing. good sight seeing, great food, and nice company! after 4 days in lisbon, valeria and i took the bus back to oporto where our flight was leaving from, but aaron was going to do a little more traveling in portugal. so after a LONG day of traveling (3 1/2 hours on a bus, 40 minutes on metro to airport, 2 hours in the plane, 1 hour on the shuttle to the city center, another 30 minutes on the metro and FINALLY a short 10 minute walk to our hotel in paris!) we finally made it back to france. val and i spent the night at the hostel and then took early trains back to laval/la roche sur yon. the next 4 days of vacation, i did a whole lot of nothing! laid around in my pajamas, did a little working out, ate dinner with ben and mark every night.. it was lovely.

this week was my first week back to school. it wasn't as hard getting back into as i thought it was going to be. the kids are having a hard time getting back into the grind i think, but that'll come with time. and lets get real, only one month until our next vacation!! i love france :)

i'm leaving to see alex at his parents house tonight and will be there for the weekend. i havent seen him in about three weeks so i'm really looking forward to it, as always! :) we are going to go see the movie 'the artist' and see what all this hype is about. should be fun!

i hope this blog didn't tire you out like it did me! oofda, but you all should know that i miss you like crazy and i am STILL waiting to hear more about all you back home (that goes for you grandmas and grandpas and aunties and cousins! i know you are all reading!)  i love you all very very much! talk soon.

XOXO,
france-y pants

p.s. only 59 days 14 hours and 15 minutes until mom and diana arrive!!! can't wait! :) :) :)

strolling the streets of pareeee with my chéri :)

hi everybody,

 just a short blog to tell you i had an amazing time in paris this last weekend. the weather was brisk, but the skies were a lovely blue and the sun was beating on our faces! we did a little of this, and a little of that. some strolling, some shopping, some snuggling. all in all a great weekend! (except i was on the hunt for the perfect pair of boots and i was unsuccessful :/) here are a few pictures to share with y'all:

here we are, sitting in the park soaking up the sun!

these two chairs are waiting for mom and diana! :)

along the seine

blue skies

notre dame

there you have it! i hope all is well with everyone back home, i'm missing you guys a lot and i think about you everyday.

i love you! XOXO,

france-y pants

the start of a new year

IM ALIVE! i swear, i know its been a while, and so much has happened since i've last written to all of you!


so as i indicated in my post before break, i started my christmas vacation by helping alex move out of his apartment in rennes. i arrived late friday night and everything had to be out of his apartment by 10AM saturday morning. we were pressed for time because a guy was coming that night to buy alex's car and so that took up a lot of our time, so by the time that was all said and done, it was close to 11PM. so we did a little organizing and then called it a night, and planned on waking up early the next morning. welllllll we all know what a monster i am in the morning, so alex was less than impressed with my help, something i'm not very proud of. (sorry alex!) but in the end, everything was out of the apartment and clean by 10AM. after a pit stop for a hamburger (duh!) we headed to alex's hometown of Le Mans in the big moving van. When we got to his house, we had the pleasure of unloading everything from the moving van into his garage because we had to bring the van back that night. let's just say not the best thing that happened over break! haha :)


it was nice to be in Le Mans with alex and his family. they are super nice and especially during the holiday season, it was nice to spend family time, even if it wasn't with my family. so we spent a few days at his parents house, just hanging out, doing some last minute christmas things, going to the movies, walking around the christmas market and so on.


on the wednesday before christmas, alex and i headed to PARIS! :) i was super excited to see the big city during the christmas season (it was the only season i have never been). we stayed with alex's brother, romain, and we brought some of alex's things to bring to his new (tiny!) apartment that friday. so we spent most of our time seeing the touristy things around the city. we went and saw where alex will be working in the business district of paris. (i'm really proud of him, he seems to be enjoying his internship so far, and is looking forward to working on some projects he has been assigned to involving a little bit of traveling). we went to my favorite part of paris, montmartre. this is where all the artists are painting portraits and little paintings and selling them in the square, not to mention the beautiful view down on the city with the amazing church, le sacre coeur, just behind you. ahh, bliss! :) love it! we also walked the champs elysees and saw some lots of christmas markets, christmas lights, and dad's favorite, l'arc de triomphe. then, of course, you can't leave paris without seeing the eiffel tower! still as magnificent as the last time. :) and this time, not far from the eiffel tower, there was a christmas market and a little ice rink where kids were ice skating, it was super cute! it was a short lived trip, only three days, but we packed it full of things and had a great time, i can't wait to get back and now that alex is living there it will be much more often. :) so excited!


visit this site to see a few pictures from the trip: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150516413462137.397612.503662136&type=1&l=1de4de3dda


on friday night, alex, romain, romain's girlfriend eva and i headed back to Le Mans to celebrate christmas with his family. eva is from estonia, so i wasn't the only non french speaking person, which took a little pressure off of me! and she is super nice, as is romain, so it was fun to get to know them better. we got back really late friday night, and then saturday was already christmas eve! time was already flying by, but thats what happens on vacation. so for christmas eve, we had fondu and it was DELICIOUS. we did fondu with meat, and the last time i had done that was prom junior year. i forgot how delicious it was, and lots of fun! it was a nice relaxing day and before we went to bed, we watched a movie. :)


after a good nights sleep, it was CHRISTMAS!! it was weird not to have maddie knocking on my door at 8AM to open presents this year ;) (love you moo!) so we slept in until about 10:30AM, took a quick shower and headed downstairs to open presents. thanks to my LOVING family and alex's very generous parents, i had many presents to open. (thank you family! you are the best! :D) alex's mom and dad bought me two bracelets and a jewelry box and some chocolates, romain and eva got me some bath scrub and such and alex bought me a ring! :) i was so surprised, i was shaking. it was a little bit too big, so we brought it back to get resized so i won't have it until next weekend :( i can't wait to have it back! apparently everyone back in the U.S. thinks that this ring has to have some sort of meaning, so to all of you who want to know what it means i asked alex: 'so apparently this ring has to have some sort of meaning behind it, so what does it mean?' and he said, 'it means i like you'. so there you are folks. :) 


after christmas, alex and i spent some nice quality time relaxing and doing a whole lot of nothing. it was nice to be with him! but on the tuesday after christmas, he left for london to celebrate new years with some of his childhood friends. it was hard to share him with his friends, but christmas break is really the only break they all have at the same time, so i had to put on my big girl boots. :) so since alex took off to england with his buddies, i met up with ben, steven and ben's american friends, phil and molly who came to visit ben for the holidays in Caen, France. Here we visited the Peace Memorial Museum and explored the town a bit. i got to spend some good time with steven, the other Cobber studying in Tours, France because there were only 3 open slots for the Normandy Beaches tour, so while ben, molly and phil were on the tour, steven and i explored downtown Caen. after Caen, we headed over to St. Malo for a day or so. it has to be one of my favorite cities; right on the ocean! although, it is a lot more enjoyable when it isn't super windy and rainy, but it was still fun to do a little more exploring with steven! after our short tim in St. Malo, steven and i headed to Tours for new years. so we said goodbye to ben, molly and phil and made our way by train to meet up with our friends. 


when we got to Tours, we met up with grant and valeria and headed over to fanny's apartment. fanny was nice enough to let us crash at her apartment which was really nice of her! we hung out for a bit, and then grant, valeria and i headed back into town to go to our host families house for dinner. it was really really nice to see them! pretty much the same old same old with them, although mathias has grown SO much. it is so nice to feel welcomed in their home every time we go back. they are such a great family, and i am so grateful to have been a part of their little family. after a long night of catching up, we went right back to fanny's and went straight to bed. 


the next morning we slept in super late, preparing for the nights festivities because it was new years eve! once grant and i were up and ready for the day, we hit the town to do a little bit of exploring and we also wanted to buy fanny a present to say thank you for hosting us for the new years celebrations. she spend all day cooking an AMAZING four course meal. seriously, it was so delicious. we had some appetizers, foie gras, duck and potatoes as our main course and caramel cheesecake for dessert. after our delicious dinner, we could barely move. but we drank in the new year and played cards and called a night around 2AM. it was a really nice night had by all! 


after new years, i took the train back to la roche and it felt nice to settle back into my apartment after being gone for so long. it has been hard getting back into a rhythm after vacation, and only 31 days away ;) school is pretty much the same as before, nothing too exciting. just yesterday i went out dancing with the other teacher ladies from my school. that was pretty fun to get out and to be able to get to know them a little better. they are fun and super nice! this weekend im going to paris to see alex and i am SUPER anxious and excited! i will be going thursday night and staying until sunday evening. he will be working on friday, so i plan on spending most of my day at the musée d'orsay soaking in as much impressionist art as possible! :D i can't wait, and then the rest of the weekend we will be hitting up the sales that start this week and relaxing. its going to be great! 


sorry for taking so long to write this post! it was quite daunting, considering so much has happened since i last wrote. but now you are all caught up! and i promise to blog more often to appease you and make it easier on me! 


i love you all and miss you to pieces! i hope you all had an amazing christmas and a happy new year. it'd be good to hear from some of you soon, seems like its been forever!


XOXO,
france-y pants

its beginning to feel a lot like christmas!

greetings friends! so, i am OFFICIALLY ON CHRISTMAS BREAK! :) and i'm super excited. on the agenda for break:

1. go to Rennes and help alex pack up his apartment and move all his stuff home

2. go to PARIS: in all its christmas glory! can't wait!!

3. spend christmas with alex and his family in his hometown of Le Mans

4. travel a bit in the northern part of France with ben and his american friends who are coming to visit

5. go to Tours to celebrate new years eve with my friends Fanny and Steven and Co. 

a lot on the agenda, and i am SO looking forward to it all! the weather has been really crazy here lately with storms and what not; apparently the trains are cancelled until 2pm due to fallen trees on the train tracks. my train is suppose to leave at 4:38, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes as planned.

well i know its a short post, but i have got to get on the ball today! i have to shower (a must!), wrap alex's christmas present, PACK!, and i'm making rice krispie bars for one of my classes at school :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! i'm sure i'll talk to a lot of you before then, but just to be sure!

i love you and miss you lots. XOXO,

france-y pants.

long time, no blog!

hello strangers!
 again, my apologies for my absence, but a lot has happened since my last blog so this should be an interesting one :) so, for thanksgiving, my friends and i made a mock-up thanksgiving dinner. it turned out better than anticipated, but NOTHING compared to the delicious feast i missed back home! we made some turkey breasts and mashed potatoes with some carrots and broccoli. it was a decent substitute, but i definitely missed you all back home. it was good to see everyone on skype thanks to gary's iPad, but also kind of bittersweet.. i just wanted to jump through my computer to be with you all!
 the friday after thanksgiving, us americans here in france had our appointments at the immigration office in Nantes, France, a town about 45 minutes north by train. so we made a weekend of it, and some of our british friends accompanied us and we met up with valeria and some of her friends from her town of Laval. The appointment ended up being pretty straightforward, just a little visit with a doctor and an x-ray to test for tuberculosis and then a little meeting with a woman to get a stamp in our passport to complete our visa process. so now, i'm not going to get kicked out of France, woohoo! so after our 2-hour rendezvous at the immigration office, we were free to explore the city of Nantes. it was really quite nice, a lot different than i had anticipated, but still really nice. it was nice to spend time doing a little exploring and spending time with friends. one of my friends, sean, who went with us actually studied in Nantes for a semester, so he was a great tour guide! my favorite part of Nantes, was the castle in the middle of the city and the christmas market! it really is beginning to look a lot like christmas here in France, lots of lights and christmas cheer :) the christmas market in Nantes had a lot of little trinkets and treats and the christmas vibe is always fun! the downside of Nantes was the whole weekend i had been fighting a terrible cold! it was quite frustrating and annoying, but it happens. we ended up going back to the hotel quite early both nights because we all weren't feeling in tip top shape and anna had actually twisted her ankle on some sketchy stairs at a bar we had went to. so that was crappy, but Nantes itself was nice! another fun part of Nantes was we went to a museum of machines, where they had a life size machine of an elephant that walked around, sprayed water out of its trunk and made elephant like noises! it was really cool, and there were many other little gadgets and machines which were super interesting. there were little skits for some of the machines and they asked for volunteers and acted out certain scenes on the machines to demonstrate how they worked. all in all, it was a good weekend!
 so, after our fun weekend in Nantes, it was back to school. it is still going really well, and the kids still enjoy when i come, so that can only mean good things! pretty much the same old at school, kids are still cute, eager to learn and nice. however, i am surprised by the discipline at school. it is much harsher than i remember when i was in elementary school. so that is hard to get used to, but i just do my best to be nice and have fun while i am there and pass that on to the kids. i'm like that annoying person that winds them up and then leaves, haha! no, not true. the teachers enjoy my help and what i have to offer as a native speaker.
 after the work week, on thursday night i went to see alex to give him a little break from the massive amounts of studying he has been doing. he has ELEVEN exams in about a week and he has been working his butt off to prepare. it worked out well, because anna, ben, mark and i were going to go visit valeria in her town of Laval because it is all decked out in christmas decorations and we had seen on the news that it was a site to see and alex only lives about 30 minutes by train from valeria. so since i don't work fridays (woohoo!) i went to alex's in Rennes and then we all met up in Laval. it was really nice to see alex, and give him a little break. we watched some modern family and the hangover 2. for lunch on friday we had mcdonalds, and i had my FIRST big mac, ironically in france. :)
 after saying goodbye to alex, i took the train to Laval to meet up with val. she hasn't had the best of luck lately; she got some sort of bug bite (assumed to be a spider) and it has become SUPER infected and so she has been to the doctor three times now, and has made a consultation with a surgeon! i feel so bad, and it is SUPER nasty and painful. so she has been taking it easy and missing her classes for the time being. so i met her at her apartment where we tried to sort out the doctors and all worked out well, thanks to some help from alex who found the phone number/address to the emergency room. everything worked out fine and they put her on some antibiotics. since then she has been back twice and then that is when they told her to call the surgeon. i'll keep you updated on what happens, but keep her in your thoughts! so besides the drama with the crazy bug bite, we explored laval a little bit, drank some hot chocolate in a nice café, saw all the beautiful christmas lights and fun was had by all! :) on saturday night we went to a club and danced the night away! we got there around 2:30AM and didn't get home until 6AM! it was fun, but the next day we did absolutely nothing until our train left around 8pm. it was a nice little weekend away.
 this week at school, we are gearing up for christmas. the kids get pretty jealous when i tell them about all the snow back in MN. so feel free to send some this way! :) (but not too much!) i've also asked one of my teachers when her class does art, and i am going to help them with a few art projects before the christmas break, and hopefully continue to do so after break as well.

things to look forward to:
1. paris during christmastime!: alex is taking me on a little trip to paris before christmas so we can see all the lights and what it is all like during the christmas season. i am SO excited!
2. christmas with the garennes: alex mom has kindly asked me to join them for christmas. although its not the same as being with all you crazy people, it is nice to know that i have somewhere to go and nice people to spend it with.
3. the massive package from my amazing family! :) can't wait to see what's inside!
4. new years with friends: i'm planning on spending new years with my friends fanny, steven, grant and valeria in Tours! should be a good time :)

i'd love to hear from all of you more often (just like you LOVE when i write my blogs) this writing thing goes both way people! so auntie, grandma, and all you others out there feel free to write me! i will definitely be missing all of you even more than usual around the holidays! MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU ALL!!

XOXO,
france-y pants

meet and greets and lots to eat!

  Hello again! Sorry I haven’t written in a while, but I have had an eventful week or so to share with you all! So last week on Thursday, I went to Rennes to celebrate my one-year anniversary with Alex. We had a busy weekend ahead of us so we decided to just relax in his apartment and exchange gifts. I got him the Hunger Games trilogy and a nice necktie for his internship and he bought me a necklace and a pair of beautiful red leather gloves with a cute little bow on them. I love them; they will look so cute with my black and white winter jacket. On Friday morning, Alex and I took the train to Le Mans, the town where Alex’s parents live and where he grew up. It was my first time meeting his parents, and I was very nervous. But turns out there was no reason to be nervous, they were super nice! Alex’s mom prepared a delicious lunch and we sat and talked for a while. After lunch, his parents went on a long bike ride like they do every weekend, and Alex took me downtown and showed me around the city. It is really nice, seemed pretty calm but definitely bigger and more things to do than in La Roche, where I live.

  That night, after my little tour of Le Mans, Alex and I headed by car to Tours, where our friends Fanny and Steven live, and where I studied abroad. It was Steven’s 21^st birthday on Thursday, so we thought it would be fun to stop by and celebrate. It was about an hour and half drive, so nothing too terrible and when we arrived we were greeted with hugs and smiles and some delicious aromas of food! Fanny had made us all little individual lasagnas for dinner with a nice little side salad. It was so tasty!  And for dessert we had chocolate cake, with a gooey center and English cream. Yum yum! After dinner, we sat around and talked while having a few drinks. We then proceeded to head downtown and got a drink at a bar called les Puits Sait Tous. It was fun to sit around and chat with some Cobbers J. After the bar, we hit the dance floor at a club called Le Pacio. It was pretty fun, but the music was kind of lame. But we made the best of it and had a good time.

   On Saturday morning, we woke up and made some pancakes for breakfast and then Alex and I were off to his cousin’s 20^th birthday party in the town of Blois, just about an hour northeast of Tours. It was a beautiful, sunny day so it was nice to spend time outside and chat with his family. I met his grandparents, his brother, a few of his aunts and uncles and some of his cousins. They were all very nice and I immediately felt like I fit right in! So we got there around noon and had little appetizers and a few drinks and around two we started eating lunch. We ate and drank and ate and drank until I thought I was about to die! There were about 7 different courses and we didn’t stop eating and drinking until about 8pm! It was crazy, and I thought I was going to explode! I wish I had taken a little copy of what was on the menu, so I could explain it all to you, but seriously there were so many things! So around 9pm we were all just talking and hanging around when Alex’s uncle announced that we all had to go back downstairs because they were going to serve dinner soon! I couldn’t believe it, I was still SO full from before I couldn’t imagine eating one more morsel of food. So I opted out of eating dinner, I didn’t want to be rude but Alex said it was okay.  It was getting late, and we were getting tired, but we had planned on going out later that night with all of Alex’s cousins. We went over to his cousin Maude’s and her boyfriend Medhi’s apartment and sat around and drank and listened to music and talked. It was really fun to get to know Alex’s cousins. They are all so nice and friendly, I felt like I had known them for a long time. After quite a few drinks, and quite a bit of walking, we found ourselves at a club downtown. Alex’s cousin, Julien got us in for free (don’t ask me how!) and we danced the night away! It was super fun! There were these ‘cage’ thingies in the club, and the boys kept dancing in them, and us girls could not stop laughing! J After some time, the night started to wind down, and we were all so tired after such a long day. In the morning, we headed back to Alex’s aunt and uncle’s house where we ate lunch and sat on the back deck and chitchatted. After soaking up some sun, and playing some Wii, Alex and I decided to head back to Le Mans to return his mother’s car and where I would take the train back to La Roche, and Alex back to Rennes. The GPS took us on this super long way on all these curvy, tiny roads and Alex was getting really annoyed. But we made it back and had just enough time to eat a little dinner and head to the train station. It was hard to say goodbye after such an eventful weekend. I had so much fun, and didn’t want it to end! 

This past week, I had to help some of the english teachers with a training course on Monday and Wednesday. it was fun to help, and to meet some more people. I was helping them with vocabulary concerning things around the house, so I got to talk all about my lovely house in the U.S. It was nice to share about my house, but made me kind of homesick! In other news this week, I wasn't feeling very well, so I had to go to the doctor. :/ I was really nervous to go, but it turned out to be a good experience. The doctor was really nice, and told me that I spoke French really well! So that was a little confidence booster! I also started a new class at a new school, and it went really well. The kids are always so excited to learn about the U.S., so that's always fun. (One kid asked me why we eat eggs and bacon for breakfast? I guess I never really thought about it!) But they seem enthusiastic to learn, so that makes everything more enjoyable. This weekend, I spent the weekend with Alex in Rennes. We had some good quality time, relaxing and watching movies and TV shows (what we do best!) He has exams coming up before Christmas break, so I'm not sure how much time we will be spending with each other before then. But his mom invited me to their house for Christmas, so it is nice to know I will have nice people to spend the holidays with.  

 Next weekend, I have my immigration appointment in Nantes, so I'm excited to explore the city with some of my friends. I've heard there is a big Christmas market opening the day we get there, so that will be fun. 

I'll be thinking of all of you on Thanksgiving and wishing I were there to spend it with all of you!! I'm preparing myself, because I know around the holidays is when it is going to be the hardest to be away from all the people I love. So eat some extra turkey for me, and if anyone wants to Skype just let me know!

I love you all. Sending you my love from France!!

XOXO, 

francey-pants

back to the.. grind, which isn't so grindy.

hello everybody!!
 hope all is well back home, i'm missing you guys a lot lately! just must be the timing.. its been over a month now since i've left. crazy, huh? but anywho, i am here to tell you all about my adventures during my vacation. now don't get too excited, because it was a pretty relaxed vacation, which i'm cool with because i'm learning the art of doing nothing here in france, and getting pretty fricken good at it! :)

 so to start my vacation, i headed up to rennes to see alex. :) it was a typical weekend up in rennes, lots of relaxing, walking around, meeting up with his friends. yadda yadda yadda. but it was super fun. we watched a soccer game, and all the boys ordered burgers from speedburger, its like delivery pizza, only burgers and fries. lol. needless to say, the boys were in heaven as they wolfed those suckers down. i opted to cook my own pasta and beef patty. count that as money in my pocket! :) (plus, why would i want to eat a burger? it would waste up all that room i save up for pastries and cheese and baguettes!) after that, we headed over to a little soirée at another friend's apartment. it was fun, but i've come to learn that i need to come out of my shell. yes, i know, hard to believe that crazy mamie has a shell.. i get really self conscious about my french and what to say, and it is about time that stops! anybody who knows me knows i'm not a wallflower, so i've promised myself i have to take the plunge and dive into conversation, and not worry about sounding stupid. (note to self: bring bottle of wine for liquid courage) but all in all, its always fun going to rennes, spending time with alex and his friends and i LOVE that city.

 after rennes, on sunday afternoon i headed over to laval to visit my bestest friend valeria. laval is a short 30-40 minute train ride from rennes, and only costs about 7euros ($10ish)! so it was an easy and affordable jaunt. ben also headed over to laval on tuesday so we did a lot of what we usually do: talking, watching a little tv, eating, playing cards and walking around discovering the town. laval is really nice, really quiet like where i live in la roche, but laid out more like a french city in the sense that the streets are windy and long and you could get lost for days. it was really nice to spend some time with great company. it was pretty uneventful, so don't think that our life is so glamourous and lovely. we do spend a lot of time watching tv, playing cards, being bored.. but i'm not complaining, don't get me wrong! we did make sushi, which was almost a success! it was still good, but we accidentally bought NON sticky rice. whoops! but alls well that ends well. after sushi night, we decided to pass the time we would have a mock up america's next top model shoot downtown by an english style red telephone booth. see, we know how to pass the time! haha. it was really fun, and funny! pictures of the laval vacation, and of course, the photo shoot:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150393449937137.379605.503662136&type=1&l=f0e98849cd


so on thursday, i headed back to rennes because i am lame and forgot my hairbrush. it ended up working out fine though because it costs the same to take the train from laval-rennes, rennes-la roche. plus it was nice to see alex one more time :) because he has been stressed out with studying for some huge exams, , and when i am at his apartment i'm eating all his food, i decided to take him out to eat to a restaurant of his choosing. after some walking around, we gave in to our temptations and went to the 'back to the 60's' themed restaurant. (they really mean back to the 50's, they just got a little confused i think) it looked just like the old fashion 50's style diners back in the states. we got to drink our american sodas (dr. pepper and root beer, a&w no less!) and of course we ate burgers and finished off with a banana split for dessert! yummy! it was really fun.

did you expect anything else outta this kid? :)

so on friday i met up with ben at the rennes train station and we rode back to la roche together. our friend fanny came to visit us on saturday-monday morning so that was fun! we went out saturday night and then sunday afternoon we walked around and went exploring (i think we discovered just as much about la roche as fanny! we stumbled upon a few new parks and monuments..) also, in the town center, there was a fair going on. so that brought lots of life to our usually calm town. so it was fun to walk around and people watch. also, on monday was, obv, halloween! so the a bunch of the assistants in town got together and had a little party. ben and i were the only ones to dress up, but we wore our costumes proudly! we were 'stereotypical french people' clad with striped shirts, red scarves, berets, finger mustaches, bottles of wine (which came in handy at the party) and baguettes (which came in handy after the party) :) *see pictures* it was super fun. then on wednesday, ben, mark and i went to la rochelle, a nearby coastal city for a little day trip. it was a really nice city, but the weather was crap. so that was a bummer. but nonetheless we enjoyed ourselves, even if we cut our trip a little short and had to stand on the train on the way back. we were all in good company, and in FRANCE!

some major frenchies :)

la roche pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150392110562137.379314.503662136&type=1&l=96a0b2c28e

la rochelle pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150395268222137.379936.503662136&type=1&l=08d7444f49

yesterday was my first 'day' (and by day i mean hour) back to school. i had my hellion class, which has become a lot better now that the teacher has split them up into groups of 5-6. much more manageable. next week, i have to prepare lessons on family and colors (again.) and coming up, the big lesson on thanksgiving.. i'm thinking i'm going to concentrate on the whole giving thanks and stuffing our faces aspect. i'm really gonna miss you all around the holidays..

things to look forward to:

1. meeting alex's whole damn family next week! scary, but exciting.. hope they love me as much as you all love alex. we are making a little stop in tours, where i studied abroad, to meet up with some friends from concordia. its steven's, alex's concordia roommate, birthday next friday. so we are all going to celebrate! COBBERS UNITE!

2. weekend getaway in nantes: the weekend of the 25th, valeria, ben and i have immigration appointments in nantes, a city about an hour north of la roche. its suppose to be super nice, so we are going to make a weekend of it! some of our friends from la roche and val's friends from laval will be joining us, too! fun fun! 

ok this is getting long, but i hope you are all caught up! keep me posted on things going on back home. the kids looked ADORABLE in their halloween costumes.. but i didn't expect anything less. :) i love you all! keep in touch.

XOXO,

france-y pants.