Orientation and the TEST

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Hello all,

So I'm a little behind on writing my blogs so I'm going to try to catch up. So Friday was sort of "Orientation" to the program so it was just some informative meetings and what not. But for lunch we had a very very French meal: Subway, Lay chips and Coca-Cola 😊 Haha. It did the job though. We had some more meetings in the afternoon and then we walked around the campus. It began to rain, and the it would be beautiful and then it would rain again. Apparently, that's how the weather is here most of the time. However, it's been a gorgeous weekend, so I'm not judging Bretagne yet.

After the tour, Abbey (who lives on the same street I do) took the local transportation for the first time. She was a bit nervous because she doesn't take public transportation that much, but I am an expert after this past year in Minneapolis, so it was fine. The bus lines and metro line are super easy to decipher and use and there are maps at every stop so it's hard to go wrong. The metro is the nicest I've ever used. It's clean, there are doors that prevent one from falling on the tracks and genial music plays over the speakers. So first we take the Metro and then we take a bus that takes us a block away from our houses. Now I've taken many buses in my day, but never as nice as this. They are once again clean and play music, but there are also screens that tell you what stop is next, the next five stops coming up, how long it'll take to get to those stops--everything you need to know. So once again, you really can't get lost using the Rennes public transportation. So that's nice to know because Abbey and I don't actually live in Rennes, we live in the suburb of St Jacques de la Lande. I love living out here because I actually live in a house and we have a great backyard and the neighborhood knows each other, so we'll be going to different neighbor's houses during my time here. Plus, it's only like a 30 minute commute to school. Not bad at all.

Speaking of which, Friday night we went to a neighbor's house. It was really fun but understanding French get much more difficult when there are two or three conversations going on at once. I had some delicious "amuse-bouche" and a little salmon quiche that was surprisingly yummy. I wanted to stay, but I was extremely tired and the main course was put in the oven at 9:30, so I decided to walk home. Everyone was really nice though and they accepted my mediocre French. That's been the truth with everyone. When I do make my frequent mistakes, they just tell me how to say it correctly so I'll know how to say it next time. It's quite nice and a great way to learn.

Oh, I forgot. I met Nathan on Friday. He's the 5 year old son (I haven't met the 13 year old yet). He's quite cute, full of energy and loves sticking his tongue out at me 😊 It was a bit funny because I was skyping my parents at the time so I showed him and Cecile my parents on the computer. Later we watched French cartoons together which was super fun. On the Disney channel there is a dubbed version of Wizards of Waverly Place, that was so bizarre but fun to watch.

Saturday morning half of our group met in "centre-ville" which is like downtown Rennes. We walked around and were shown where some restaurants, shops and the historical sites were. It's a lovely city and I like downtown much more than where our university is. There are some houses that are still standing from centuries ago. It's so lovely. Then we went to the open-air market and bought some fruit and veggies and had a picnic next to a lovely old church which is now a theater. Then we walked to where our Language classes will be for the next two weeks and then, most importantly, we went to go buy cell phones. After that a small group of us walked around, went to a patisserie and got some delicious desserts (pain au chocolat pour moi) and then we made our way home.

Saturday night I found out we were having mussels for dinner and I was a little nervous but I knew that I would try everything at least once while I'm here in France. So Laurent gave me three mussels to try and they were....SO GOOD. I then had 3 plates of mussels along with some artichoke leaves and dip, fries and some wine. It was a splendid meal. During dinner we watched a French game/adventure show. It was super entertaining to watch and am hoping it's a Saturday tradition.

Alright, I'm still not caught up, but this will have to do for now since I start Language classes tomorrow morning. Much love to all!

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Comments

[Mary Lynn]

thanks for posting
Keep up the blog, Meg, love to hear what you're doing!