Busy, Busy!

Hey everyone!
You know what, I'm not even going to apologize for being late in posting anymore because it seems like my "late" has now become my "on time"....
In one of my last posts, I talked a bit about my midterm exams and how one of them was horrible, remember? Well, after that post, I had two other exams as well and one of them went well but the other I felt was only ok.. I got all of my tests back the next week, though and found out all my grades! I did a lot better than I expected to.  My lowest grade was a 9, which is about a C- so I was feeling pretty good =] It was a little bit of a damper to find out that my highest grade was a 12.5, though (A-)... I was hoping for at least a 13 or 14 somewhere in there. Oh well! That just means I have to try harder for my final exams!
Last week, on Thursday, we had the Festival d'Etudiant (Student Festival) in Caen! All classes after 1pm were canceled so that we could all enjoy the day.  The Festival is kind of a cross between Mardi Gras and Halloween, in the States, so everyone gets dressed up in costumes or over-the-top clothes and then proceeds to get fairly drunk in the streets haha.  I dressed up as a gypsy!

(Tons of other pictures are available on my FB account!) We started drinking in Mira's room with Brittany, then we met up with Preston, Cat, Iris, and Tim, who were all wearing togas.  All together, we headed down to the courtyard by the Phoenix, where live music was set up and all of the students were gathering before the parade. Once there, we met up with another huge group of friends and basically had ALL of the Americans in Caen together =D We hung out in the courtyard for at least a couple of hours - losing parts of our group here and there - until we accidentally missed the parade.  Honestly, though, that was ok with me because we were having a blast! After a while, we finally started making our way downtown.  On our way down, everyone either had to go to the bathroom or was hungry so we decided to stop at McDonald's.  Here, I ran into my friend Sofie and we talked for a bit, but then our group split up quite a bit until I was only with Preston and Irish Dan. Dan, who was ridiculously drunk, was trying to order food, but only had two euros and couldn't figure out how to speak French anymore.  When the cashier couldn't understand him, he started yelling and the lady kicked him out so, of course, Preston and I followed.  Outside, I finally convinced him to give me his money and I ordered him a panini next door, which we all ended up splitting haha.  Down the street we found part of our group and then promptly lost Preston and Dan haha.  The rest of us went back to our rooms to get warmer clothes because it was chilly with the sun going down.  When we got back out, we all went down to Ross & Co's and split a pitcher of Embuscade.  Mira and I ended up talking with a group of Frenchies for nearly an hour outside, which was really fun! They were very nice and easy to talk with.  I made my way home at about 11, while the rest of the group moved on to O'Donnell's.  All in all, the Festival was a rollicking success =]
The next day, at 1230, I met Iris downtown again, but this time it was to get tattoos! We went to a place that a friend had recommended to me and it was very nice =] The artist was...interesting.  He was funny and nice but he was teasing us almost the whole time - sometimes it almost seemed rude, but I think that's just the French tone... Iris went first and got "Non, je ne regrette rien" and "La vie en rose" one under the other on her ribs in pink.  She said it was really painful but she took it like a champ and it turned out beautifully in the end! I got a quote from Oscar Wilde wrapping around my right ankle and down onto my foot that says "Ils disent que lorsque les Americains bons meurent, ils vont en France" which translates to "They say that when good Americans die, they go to France." I love it! It's gorgeous and it's healing really well =D

Afterwards, she and I got some coffee and crepes at a nice little cafe, where we met up with Cat to do some shopping.  I got two new pairs of springtime shoes and a cute springy outfit!
On Saturday, Cat, Iris, and I went to a city nearby Caen called Lisieux.  If any of you know St. Theresa, this is the city where she grew up and is now buried.  We got to see her tomb and a couple of really gorgeous churches and the Basilique.  Then we took a tour of the house St. Theresa grew up in! It was interesting and a very fun day of tourism =]
Sunday, I went with part of our class to Mont Saint Michel and St Malo near the boarder of Brittany.  Mt St Michel is an island city created around a large chapel and surrounded by quick sand.  The streets are so narrow that cars are not allowed inside.  It's a beautiful place (Google image it or look at my pictures on FB) but it was quite chilly because there is really nothing between it and the ocean.  St Malo is a port town that we spent a few hours in. It has an awesome beach and the city is very nice but I'm not entirely sure why they brought us there because there wasn't a whole lot of interest there... We had a great time anyways =]
Now, I'm on my spring break!! (finally...) I have two weeks off and I'm spending the first part in Casablanca with Kirk and Sarah and the boys.  So far, it's been a blast and they've shown me a lot of really cool things around here! I can definitely see why they chose to live here! It's nice to be on break and just relax and hang out with kids! I've missed hugs and games with kids so much since getting to France!! I will post about my time here in detail at the end of the week and put pictures up once I'm home in France!
I hope everyone is doing well!!
Gros bisous!
A bientot!!
Morgan