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
