I am SO sorry it's been so long since I last posted!! It's been absolutely crazy over here! So, in an attempt to make up for it, I am going to post twice today! I'm going to break my rule about chronology just this once because I have three weekends to write about and the one in the middle has enough material to make a book out of haha.
So, in my last post I mentioned that I was giving a solo presentation the next day and that I was a little bit nervous about it, if you remember. Well, as time went by and the presentation got closer, I got more and more nervous until I could barely talk through my heartbeat and stutters... It was awful!! Especially since I've been doing better with public speaking and not really having trouble with it.. I think the main reason was that I didn't give myself enough time before hand to prepare and rehearse.. I wish I could say lesson learned but if you've known me for any length of time you'll know that procrastination is hardwired into me haha.
The presentation was on Thursday and Friday's are our days off so I watched movies, ate chocolate, and drank a bottle of wine on Thursday night haha. It was definitely what I needed. Then, Friday practically made me forget my horrible Thursday! In the evening, Mira, Brittany and I decided to go out to a fancier restraunt so that we could dress up a little bit and just spend some time out. We went to a Thai restraunt called Tai Pan where we had had coffee a couple weeks before and the food was absolutely delicious!!! Mira's friend Karima and her friend Duk joined us as well, which meant that we had to speak French all night because neither of them speak very much English. It was incredible!! About halfway through the night, we were listening to Karima tell a story and I actually forgot that we were speaking a foreign language for a moment, because it had just gotten so comfortable and fluid =D We also had a very French meal - we started with a couple of appetizers (which are called entrees here..) then moved on to the main dishes (plats principals). I had a salad because there weren't many veggie options; I was a little bit disappointed that I would just be eating a salad but this was the most delicious salad I have ever eaten in my life!! It had grilled eggplant and another veggie that I can't remember right now and it was all drizzled in this tangy-sweet sauce that I could have eaten alone... Then we had a break and chatted until dessert time, when I tried my very first creme brulé! I can't believe I've never had it before... it was a lot different than I thought it would be and it was very tasty =] After that came the petits cafés! All in all, our dinner lasted almost 4 and a half hours!! VERY French ;P It was amazing and I'm so glad I've finally had a chance to hang out with some real French students!
Saturday was very eventful as well. I had planned on going to Rennes - the capitol of Brittany, which is the province directly below Normandy, where I am - with a group of about 4 people but two bailed at the last minute so it ended up being just me and my Norwegian friend Sofie. Sofie lives in Bayeux, which is about 15 minutes away from Caen by train, so we were going to meet on the train towards Rennes, but I overslept a little bit and missed the train by literally 2 minutes... When I got on to the platform and asked where my train was, the man pointed to the one that was pulling away... Of course, I also didn't have Sofie's phone number so I had to run home (the next train wasn't for an hour) and ask people on facebook if anyone had her number. Thankfully, someone got it to me quickly and I was able to let her know that I was on the next train instead of the one we had planned. When I got to the station for the second time to buy my tickets, I asked what time the latest train would return that same day and the ticket man said 6pm....My train there would arrive at 4pm... That wouldn't have been worth it at all since it took 3 hours on the train one way! Sofie had already planned on staying the night in Rennes, though, so I texted her and asked her to get a double room at the hostel instead of a single. All of this meant that I spent a whole lot more money than I had originally planned on, but I think it was worth it, in the end.
Once I actually got to Rennes, the challenge of finding Sofie began! It took us about 45 minutes to finally meet up at one of the bigger bus stops and then we went back to the hostel to check in. Do you guys remember me mentioning a guy named Richard closer to the beginning of my trip that I said I really liked? Well, I met him at the same time that I met Sofie, and I found out while we were there, through her, that he really liked me too! I know this doesn't do me any good because I will probably never see him again, but it made me happy to know that =D This was also the first time since I met her that I had actually had a chance to hang out with Sofie - we get along really well! After we asked the woman at the front desk to point out some things we needed to see on a map, we headed off on our adventure and didn't really stop laughing for the rest of the night! We saw a lot of cool buildings and walked through this GIANT and gorgeous public garden, then we went out to the Rue de Soif ("street of thirst" aka the street with all the bars haha) in the evening and had a couple of drinks before turning in early. My stomach and face were definitely sore by the end of the night haha. I put a few pictures up on facebook of this adventure if you'd like to go check it out!
*Skip ahead one week*
~See my next post to read about Ireland!~
This past week has been insane! It's midterm time around here (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'm halfway through this??? Whaatt??!?!?!) so I had 3 tests last week, two of which weren't too bad, but the third one was in our Structures class (grammar) and every single person in that class is absolutely convinced they failed it! She put too much information on and a lot of it was from the beginning of the semester or things that we had only barely covered in class.. It was very difficult and if I get an 8 out of 20 it will be a miracle!! (In France, though, a 13/20 is an A so an 8 is more like a D than an F and since I'm doing this semester as a pass/fail, that's what I'm shooting for in this specific class because I'm not sure I will be able to get any higher...)
After class, on both Wednesday and Thursday, it was warm enough and sunny enough, that Mira and I lie out on the grass and sunbathed in tank-tops and jeans for about an hour both days! It was so fantastic! I've found that I appreciate a blue sky, sunny day much more since coming to France...
On Thursday, Mira and I went swimming again at SUAPS, though I was a little nervous because I got pretty sick last time.. I did almost 30 laps though and am still healthy! Hooray! haha After that, we went out with Tom to the bars and bounced around a couple of times. At the second little bar, however, we started talking with the two French girls at the table next to us who were very drunk but very nice and amusing haha. We talked about a few different things (they kept saying that they were not a good representation of the French, but I thought they were awesome haha) and when they made jokes, I understood them and they said they were really impressed that I understood everything they were saying and that Mira and I both spoke very clearly! (Tom doesn't speak French, so he kind of just chilled while the girls talked.. ) That made me feel really good and like my French is actually making progress! Wohoo! Later, Mira taught me a little more Finnish so that when I go visit her in Finland, I can (kind of) make my way around the country =] Now I can also say "how are you?" and "I'm good!" =D After we had some drinks in us, we went over to O'Donnell's to meet up with some other people we had seen out and to do a little dancing! It was a very good, very fun night =]
On Friday, Mira and I made dinner together - just some stirfry and pasta (original, right? When I get back to the States, I'm not going to want to eat pasta for 6 months!! Haha) and hung out and talked, which was nice =] Since then, I have been enjoying probably the laziest weekend ever. I didn't get out of my bed yesterday, except to go to the bathroom and grab some food from the fridge, and today hasn't been much better...At least I took a shower today, though and I'm writing this, so that's me being productive haha
<3
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire