La plage.

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Today was probably one of the best days of the trip so far. We spent the entire day visiting Mont St. Michel and the beach town of St. Malo. We left around 7:45am and took a 2 hour bus ride to Brittany, another country of the Loire Valley. The drive was beautiful...tons of land with cows, sheep, and the most beautiful flowers you could ever imagine. I still can't get over how gorgeous the hydrangeas are here! They look like huge pieces of cotton candy in every color you could imagine! Mont St. Michel is an ancient castle, well city I suppose, built on the island in between Brittany and Normandy. It's HUGE! It also dates back to the year 706...it was eerie standing in someplace that old. The architecture was amazing...even though I think I dropped 30 pounds climbing all the way to the top. It was pretty nice that I had my cute Canadian to hold my umbrella for me and buy me a cafe au lait at a little cafe on the mountain. At least the guy is good for something, right! The entire group had a picnic on the rocks outside the castle...ham, tuna, and egg sandwiches. Yeah, I'm telling you, this food is really different, but delicious!! That brings me to what was the absolute best dessert I've ever eaten...a banana split in St. Malo. We left for St. Malo right after luch and got there around 2:30 where our teacher immediately took us to the best ice cream cafe in town. The weather was perfect!! I was in jeans and a long sleeved white t-shirt and felt wonderful. Funny, I went to the beach in that ensemble but it was cold and rainy this morning! You never know what the weather will do here. I actually went to a bar last night in a turtleneck...and actually had some guys flirting with me...in a freakin' turtleneck! My friend Justin who was with me even said that some girls he knows from school came up and asked if he was chatting up some French girl...I guess I fit in pretty well. Anyway, St. Malo was 2 more hours out as well...another long drive but well worth it. We walked around the beautiful city for a bit then walked along the beach for an hour. The beach was gorgeous!! We climbed all over the rocks and took lots of pictures. The water was so incredibly blue! There were little kids running and just having the time of their lives. I wish the U.S could have that sort of joie de vivre. Everyone here seems to enjoy life...every aspect: food, love, the beach, anything and everything. Life is good. My friend Jennifer and I are researching Ibiza, Spain so we can maybe spend some time there before we have to leave. Student discounts are awesome here...the train is pretty cheap. We'll have to see. This weekend the whole of France is celebrating Bastille Day! In Angers, where I live, the entire city is coming out to watch fireworks by the chateau and then dance all night by the river. I can hardly wait! Classes are so hard, we need some sort of release on the weekends. I'm learning a lot of French though...I'm going to be fluent by the time I get back. I'm missing home a lot...I could probably kill someone for some Los Vaqueros right about now. Hope you guys are doing well...I have to do tons of homework now. Ugh. Love to you all!!!

-Sone

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