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.