FIN

So the semester is really over. Sad times. Luckily, I don't have to say goodbye quite yet, because I'll be back in Nantes with my host family in august for a few days.

This week has been the most ridiculous thing, and awesome. My friends are the thing I'm going to miss the most (luckily I still have time to appreciate France, so I don't have to start missing this lovely country quite yet), so it's been lots and lots of hanging out.

Sunday I watched the Rescuers Down Under with Katie and Stewart, in French. This is a rather significant event because Katie and I decided that I am basically Joanna, the endearingly stupid goanna who eats raw eggs. Katie, Sam and I cooked veggie lasagna and garlic bread for my host family on sunday night, which turned out really great and ended up being a really fun dinner. I think my host parents really liked meeting my friends.

Monday and Tuesday my host mummy was gone, so I had two super secret sleepovers, which involved fun music-playing and ghetto movie watching. Katie and I also went on a really epic hiking adventure on tuesday. Seeing as it was finals week, I did have a bit of homework, including a Spanish paper about Aztec sacrifice (easiest the worst paper I have ever written) and a Spanish oral exam about the environment. Easiest finals week EVER.

The last two days have been lots and lots of goodbyes, which sucks. Alot. But I'm fairly positive I'll be seeing all my good friends here again at some point, since most of them conveniently live in either the midwest or the northwest. Even though I'll be seeing them again, my host parents decided to say goodbye officially last night by giving me presents and being over complementary (I had lots of nice things I wanted to say to them as well, but had a rather hard time getting them out. That's what cards are for.) I'm going to miss them alot. My last night in Nantes was spent in a park (where else?!) snuggling/huddling for warmth with Katie, Stewart and Jessalyn. Parfait.

So. Summer plans.

May 14th-26th wwoofing at a farm near Mouzeil, a baby village 40 km NE of Nantes. Sam will be with me until Tuesday, then he's off to Germany.

May 28th- June 18th wwoofing near Boussens, in the Pyrenees, with Stewart. We're staying with a middle aged couple who have oodles of animals on their farm.

June 18th-July 3rd (ish) wwoofing near Bagnères-de-Bigorre all by my lonesome, which is real high up in the Pyrenees, right at the base of the highest mountain the Pyrenees.

July 4th- August 6th wwoofing in Tarragona, Spain. I'll be at a farm/campsite/eco resort 4 km from the beach. So excited to practice Spanish! And it'll be real exciting to be in a new country!

August 7th-August 10th A few days in Nantes with my host family to say goodbye, see Nantes again and buy touristy junk.

So there's my next three months. Should be grand.

the end's not near...

Well. It's my last sunday in Nantes. It's been an oddly normal weekend, since it's been maybe a month or so since I've had a weekend with no plans or commitments. I'm having quite the hard time believing that in 7 days I will no longer live in Nantes and will no longer be seeing my friends and host pappies on the daily.

So I never got around to writing about my spring break trip with mummy, so I will not go into super lengthy detail. I met mummy in Paris and we saw the Musee d'Orsay, the catacombs, an art exposition at le grand palais and walked around alot. Then we went off to Giverny/Vernon and stayed in a big and bitchin' house in the country with Sarah, Glenn and Morgaine. Monet's gardens at Giverny were soooooo pretty, especially the house, which was all sorts of pastel colored, like an easter egg. I want a yellow dining room one day. Then we came back to dear old Nantes, where we visited the chateau and spent a day at La Baule, St. Nazaire and Guerande with my host parents. The last four days were in Bretagne, spent at a campground near the Point du Raz. Bretagne is soooo pretty and precious. I love me some rocky coast! I also had a plethora of good crepes during the trip. Actually the whole time mummy was here was chock full of delicious food, although I am glad to be back to my normal eating habits this week. I'm so glad mummy came and I got to see more of France! There is way too much to see here. I realized this week that I have SO much left to see of France (basically the whole Eastern/Southern part of the country).

It was a bit surreal coming back to IES on monday morning (especially since mummy was still around!), but just grand to see everyone again. Break was very fun, but ten days is a long time without friends/people my own age around. Since it's the last two weeks here, there's been alot of hanging out with friends and not alot of class time, because university classes are already over, as is my teaching internship and IES theatre class. Things I did this week: watched the Barcelona-Madrid soccer game at La Bodega, a Spanish bar, hung out at the fac/watched people slackline, pique-nique at the chateau, IES end of the year reception (hot and mildly claustrophobic times).

I also went out to dinner with my host parents on Thursday night. They insisted we had to go out to dinner before I left, which I was very much okay with. We went to a Reunionnais restaurant, meaning cuisine from La Reunion, a French island in the Indian ocean. I got curry tuna, and it was delicious and mildly spicy. And then we went to a bar to watch jazz afterwards. I have the coolest host parents ever basically and adore hanging out with them. Friday was also an eventful day, because it was the last day of Madame de Pous's grammar class, as well as our grammar final. I'm going to miss de Pous, because she is an amazingly awesome and sassy lady. Luckily the final was not too difficult, despite the fact that I probably studied for it for a total of an hour. The fabulous Katie Lei organized a photo scavenger hunt for friday afternoon. There were 4 teams of 5-6 people and a list of probably 30 things to find/do and take pictures of. Epically fun (especially when Katie when swimming in a fountain), but my team got 3rd place.

It's been a lovely but not horribly eventful weekend. Friday night was supposed to be a Symposium at Erin's house (meaning wine drinking and discussing philosophical junk), but it turned into a dance party/general shenanigans and resulted in me only getting 4 hours of sleep. Yesterday I went to the mediatheque market for the last time with Sam and Stewart and bought some amazing strawberries, and then we proceeded to spend far too much time in IES for lack of anything better to do. Last night: Indian food, a movie and pool. Stewart decided that we should play music in the Place Royale (he plays guitar and Jessalyn plays cello) but of course it decided to rain. Harumph. I think I have decided to bring my violin wwoofing with me this summer.

So evidently there's not a whole lot of French being spoken/French stuff being experienced my host bit of time here. I think the general consensus among my friends here is that one of the things we will miss most (if not THE thing) is each other, so social things are taking precedent over profiter-ing from our last weeks of being in France. And I'm okay with that since I still have 2 months in France. Tonight Sam and I are going to cook dinner for my host pappies (lasagna and broccoli and garlic bread!). And I forgot to get ricotta, so off to le supermarche!