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.