RachelWilliams

Well, picking up where I left off. The flight to Nantes was fine and I got off and walked into the passport area and I hear "Rachel!". I turned around to see Lucy and Helen, two of the Leicester girls, behind me. They'd been on my flight but I went to the boarding gate at the last minute so we didn't notice eachother getting on the plane. That worked out especially well as we shared a taxi to the train station- just like 1 Euro more than the bus and 100% less hassle. I arrived just in time to meet Sarah who was coming from Le Mans and we headed into town to look for the hotel. It was raining but wasn't too bad and we found it fairly easily. I asked at the desk about ... read more

Again, I'm updating this a week late, but oh well. Wednesday I went into town to meet Jeffrey and Sylvia and Xavier who is hopefully going to the UA next year to talk about campus and such. He is very nice and very excited about the UA, but Sylvia had already warned him before I got there not to bring the UT sweater he was sporting. On the way out I noticed a poster for a "Contry Punk" band from Paris (their spelling error not mine) and I was just TOO curious what that would sound like. So Thursday night I talked Fiona, Alix, Sarah and Nicky into checking it out with me. We got there just before the time it was scheduled to start and for about an hour we were practically the only ones ... read more

Well, the semester is off now. I like most my classes and am taking: Translation French into English (2 of these, one for 2nd year and one for 3rd year students) Translation English into French (also one from each year) Intro to Translation (the first year class that goes both ways) Commercial Translation from the English department and Commercial Translation from the applied languages department 20th Century Lit 17th Century Lit French for Foreigners The translation classes really help with my vocab and grammar and my professors are all very lively and interesting to listen to for the most part (there's just one I could do without). I especially like that my year 3 (the last year for a diploma here) into French professor writes everything out as we translate. It really helps since that's the ... read more

Well, another school week came and went without much worth reporting after the Roma plans. But on that front, we rented an apartment right between Campo dei Fiori and Corso Vittorio Emmanuelle. That means minutes from the Vatican and Forum areas, right near the Pantheon and Piazza Navona AND right across the river from Trastever, yards from Primo and the study center... basically the best place ever. Thursday after French class Ruth made curry which was yummy and then she and I and Leanna, Sarah, Fiona and Alix all went across the street to McKinley's for another one of those campus organization sponsored soirees. We had fun. I got a glow in the dark swizzle stick in my drink and the DJ played a lot more music we recognized which was nice, though he mixed it ... read more

This is just a quick one to post some photos of the other international students, so you'll have an idea of who I'm talking about!... read more