Well, Thursday morning I set out bright and early for Nantes to rescue my monkey. I got a free stuffed monkey (see photo below) with my big box of PGtips tea in England and then promptly left him in the hotel in Nantes in February. So I got myself out of bed and onto the 7:22 bus to the station. Nearly left my 12-25 Discount card in my room which would have meant getting to the bus station, turning around and going back to bed. Got a one-way ticket to Nantes so I wasn't commiting to a return time. I [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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to quote the Mighty Boosh (drug induced BritCom). Well, a week break came just in time! I spent the first few days (the weekend) getting some work together for my literature class and battling French bureaucracy. I have a small victory to report: I got my medical exam rescheduled! This means there is a CHANCE I may get my titre de sejour (which allows me to stay... you'd think they'd have gotten around to it sooner as my visa expired at the end of November...) before April rent which means I can finally get the government subsidy for my rent (a [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Well, I'm updating from a few weeks back, but better late than never. This was quite a nice weekend. First, Sylvia and Mylène, the two French girls who studied at the UA last fall, invited Fiona, Sarah, Alix and me over Friday night. Sarah unfortunately wasn't feeling well and didn't make it. Sylvia picked us up at the dorms and we picked up another friend of hers by the train station then headed to her apartment. Another friend, Amelie who is also in our translation class, got a little lost but Sylvia went out and found her. Then we had a [View Full Entry]

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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 t [View Full Entry]

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Well, as you can see it has been months since I've been able to update. I hope to fill you in on the semester, but I think it's best to start with the most recent and work back. I'm back in Le Mans after spending the Christmas break with Ruth's family in Brigham, a little town in Cumbria. Cumbria is the very north-west of England. You can see Scotland from Ruth's window and the sea is a short ride to the west. Brigham itself is an adorable little town with houses that are older than America. It's the English village you'd [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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I can hardly believe it's the middle of October! Dad comes in: Yeah!!! Well, I've kept busy. Classes went fine last week and then Thursday evening Sarah and I met with Jeffrey Hopes, our advisor who is an English professor here (from England originally). He had to stay in town Thursday night (usually commutes from Paris) for late meetings Thursday and early ones Friday. So we went to an Irish pub called McKinleys to catch up on how things were going and just generally visit about France. Turns out (not surprisingly, if you've seen many French films) Woody Allen [View Full Entry]

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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! [View Full Entry]

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