The Past Three Weekends

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Hello Everyone,
Sorry it's been such a long time since my last entry! Things have definitely picked up here a lot, with classes underway and a few weekend excursions. Let's try to remember where I left off...

Since my last entry, I've had three very interesting weekends. The first included dinner at (what else) a creperie, an opera at the Theatre Graslin, a day trip to Mont St. Michel and St. Malo, Pizza Hut, my first church service in France, and lunch with a very classy french lady. Friday night, a few friends and I ate at a creperie before going to the theater to watch the Caisse Noisette (The Nutcracker). The play was DEFINITELY NOT the Nutcracker, just a very strange modern play set to the same music. The play may have ruined that music for me, but overall the experience was cool. The theater was beautiful, and we got to sit in little boxes off to the side on the first balcony. Fun! Then Saturday the whole IES group loaded into buses early in the morning to visit Mont St. Michel, an island in the English Channel with a town and an abbey covering it. The ride there was beautiful, with fog covering the entire countryside. When we got there, we went on a tour of the abbey, took some fun pictures, and then had free time to buy sandwiches for lunch and walk around the shops. From there, we drove to St. Malo, a very old walled port city. We took a tour of the ramparts, then again had free time. Me and a few others bought some gelato and walked out on the beach to what would be an island at high tide. From the island there was a beautiful view looking back at the city, and it was nice to be in fresh air. Then we drove back to Nantes, and Christine and I decided pizza sounded lovely for dinner, so we bought some Pizza Hut and ate it on the sidewalk. A strange way to end the very cultural day, but it was delicious:-).

Sunday deserves its own little paragraph. First of all, a little side-story is in order. I met (through this travelblog actually) a girl from the US who's studying here with a group of other students from her college (Grove City), living in a house together and taking classes through intercom with their professors at home. It was such a coincidence that I started talking to her, but she told me of this little baptist church that she and some other Americans have started going to. So that Sunday, I decided to check out the church, and my friend Derek came along as well. The service was all in French, with French songs (although I recognized some of them that we sing at home in English), but I understood most of what was said, and it was a somewhat surreal experience to be worshiping with such a different group of people. After the service, I met the group of students from the US, who were all very nice, then Derek and I went to his host mom's house for lunch. Getting to her house was a bit of an adventure, because most buses don't run on Sundays, so we decided to try and walk back. We got a bit lost, called his host mom, and she said she would come pick us up at the nearest tram stop. The problem was, we didn't have a way to get to the tram stop, so we flagged down a taxi (we later found out that stopping taxis on the street is ILLEGAL in France. Oops!), and finally made our way back to his house. Lunch was great, and I spent the rest of the day doing homework and hanging out at my house.

The next weekend was a lot more relaxed. Friday night was another play, this time with actual speaking, and although it was long and I was very tired at the end, I understood the gist of it and overall enjoyed it. Saturday I spent a relaxing morning hanging out at home, talking to my host mom, and eating a long lunch. Then I walked over to the Jardin des Plantes, strolled around for a bit, and wrote some postcards. That night, Christine and I had dinner at a creperie, then met our friend Kara to watch the rugby game, France v. New Zealand, in Centre ville (downtown). That was a little too intense for me, with screens set up outside all over the city, and TONS of people crowded into every bar and restaurant that had a TV in it. We couldn't get a very good seat anywhere, so we ended up wandering around most of the evening. We did manage to see the end of the game, in which France miraculously beat New Zealand, who had been expected to win the entire World Cup. After that, car horns and yelling were heard until morning, practically. Sunday, I went back to the little baptist church, this time with Christine, and we had a potluck lunch at the church afterwards. We were talking with some of the Grove City kids, and discovered that one of them is from Hudsonville! Small world, it was crazy. Then in the afternoon, my host mom, dad, and little sister went to Clisson, a small town just outside of Nantes. The town is built in an Italian style, and there's a beautiful park that has sculptures and romanesque buildings scattered throughout. That was a great afternoon, and I think my family had a lot of fun sharing their knowledge of the town with me.

Okay, now for this past weekend. Friday night I "reposed" at my house, doing a bit of homework and watching yet another Hitchcock film (that makes 3 now that I've watched here). Saturday morning, we loaded into buses and headed East to the Loire Valley. Our first stop was Serrant, a private chateau, and we couldn't have gotten there at a more perfect time. The fog was still hanging in the air, and leaves were falling from all the trees. The colors were beautiful. The visit inside the chateau was amazing as well. The chateau still has all of its furniture, which was incredible, and the library was to die for. They have an original edition of the De La Fontaine fables (ex. the tortoise and the hare), and a first edition encyclopedia collection, just hanging out on the shelves. Cool! The next stop was the chateau of Azay-le-Rideau. We first walked around the town and bought lunch (sandwiches and pastries), then went to the chateau. This one was gorgeous as well, and Christine and I spent some time sitting on a bench overlooking the field and the chateau, watching a group of IES students playing Ultimate Frisbee. Then we drove to Villandry in the late afternoon, which is a chateau famous for its gardens. We didn't even go into the chateau, but spent the entire time walking outside. The pictures explain better than I could with words, so I'll load a couple of those here. Then we headed to the hotel for dinner, and Jenna and I hung out in her hotel room doing homework and watching England beat France in rugby. The next morning we got up early, had a delicious breakfast at the hotel, and headed to the chateau d'Amboise. This chateau is perched on a small cliff overlooking the city, and happens to be right next door to Da Vinci's house. I'd visited Da Vinci's house my first time in France, but hadn't gotten the chance to see the chateau. Again, the fog was beautiful, and the view was breathtaking. Da Vinci is also buried in the small chapel of this chateau, which was unbelievable to see. The tour of the chateau was also very interesting, and our tour guide was cool. After visiting the chateau, we bought some picnic supplies, then drove to Chenonceaux. We picnicked outside the grounds first, then visited the chateau. I'd visited here the first time I came to France, and everything was just about as I remembered it. The afternoon turned out to be gorgeous, and we had a nice time walking around the grounds, goofing off in the labyrinth, and just enjoying the fall weather.

I guess that brings you all up to date on my weekends, at least. There's a couple other things that I want to briefly mention as well:

Derek's birthday: For our friend Derek's 21st birthday a few weeks ago, we bought a bunch of frenchy picnic stuff and headed to the university after class. We'd planned on watching Braveheart outside, which was scheduled to be shown at the university, but because of rain the movie had been moved inside. So we set up our picnic on the steps of an academic building, and planned to watch some of the movie after our picnic. We ended up just hanging out the whole time, which was just as fun. I've really enjoyed getting to know some of my new friends here. And having our picnic at the university was just kind of funny. We also saw lots of crazy french students dressed up in kilts and blue-painted faces.

Last week Tuesday night, I had my first kebab experience here with Jenna and Alison. Kebabs here are not meat and veggies on a stick. Instead, the restaurant has a huge some-kind-of-meat on a vertical rotisserie, and when you order a sandwich, they shave off the outer, cooked layer and serve it to you with french fries and their "special white sauce" (ranch dressing). These types of restaurants are found all over Nantes.

One more thing, and this just might be my favorite. I've gotten involved in a sort of youth group at the baptist church I've started going to. It's called Agape, and it's run by (I think, I'm still figuring out how it works) leaders from the church and about 10 Campus Crusades interns from the US. It's mostly for kids my age, a lot of french, some kids from other countries, and the Grove City kids have been going too. I've met so many interesting people, I can't even name them all. It's been so great, and just what I needed to feel like I'm connecting to the French people here. It'd been so frustrating trying to talk with students at the university during lunch, or make conversation with people in my university class. But at Agape, the kids are all so friendly (my first time there, I was "bisous'ed" by at least 10 people (that's the cheek-cheek greeting the french do) and really easy to talk to. My first meeting, I went all by myself, hoping to see some of the Grove City kids there. I was really nervous to go, but as soon as I got there I met some Campus Crusades girls, and met some nice french students, and also a few guys from Brazil who are studying here for the year. Last week, I brought Christine along, and we both had SUCH a fun time, we were talking about it the whole rest of the week. Tonight we're going again, and can't wait! It's pretty much the highlight of our week:-).

Oh, forgot to mention something else. There's a TAN strike going on today, that you may have heard about in the US. All throughout France the train workers are on strike because of all the changes Sarkozy is making in the government. You'd probably be able to read about it better than I could try and explain my small amount of knowledge on the subject. For me, it hasn't made much of a difference. The trams and buses are still running, but may be a bit delayed because of all the "manifestations" throughout the city. Nothing too crazy is going on here in Nantes, though!

Alright, this has gotten long enough. I still want to be able to write a bit about my dailly life here, which I promised to write about last time. Hopefully soon I'll find time for that. Until then, I've been making lots of mental notes of things I want to mention. I hope that everything is going well back in the States. Feel free to fill me in on everything that's going on with you guys!

A bientot,
Caitlin

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Photos

at the Theatre Graslin
Me and the girls on the steps of the Theatre after seeing "Caisse Noisette"

at Mont St. Michel
a beautiful view from the abbey at Mont St. Michel, with some of my new friends!

streets of Mont St. Michel
Little town, it's a quiet village.
Everyday, like the one before...

St. Malo
the view of the city from the island we visited

A view from the park in Clisson
the church across the river from the park in the town of Clisson

Serrant
The chateau of Serrant, with some friends, during the Chateaux weekend

at Azay-le-Rideau
Our second chateau of the weekend, having fun on the balcony

Chapel at Amboise
This is where Da Vinci is buried

view from Amboise
typical french town:-)

in the Labyrinth
having some fun in the labyrinth at Chenonceaux

Derek's Birthday
Celebrating Derek's birthday with a picnic at the university.