First, my room. It's tiny with white walls and furniture, but a teal comforter ad teal curtains, which is super cute. One wall is slanted away from the street. It's the one wall with a window, so I don't get to see out into the street unless I stand on my tiptoes and peer out below onto the street. Hopefully I can figure out how to upload pictures on here so you all can see it! And yes Mom, I have been making my bed every day.
There are quite a few differences between Europe and USA, but the most noticeable is the size of pretty much everything. It's so little over here! No big skyscrapers, no grand houses, all the cars look like bubbles, and I've only seen one Escalade since I've been here! Kinda makes me wonder what Europeans think of America when they visit. It also makes me appreciate the things I have back home and the ability of Americans to buy whatever they need, when they need it. Furthermore, being around people who really use the resources they are given encourages me to try and be more environment-minded when I come back home.
But enough reflection... this weekend we had orientation in Vannes, France! It's northwest of Nantes by about an hour and 15 minutes. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Thursday we set out for Vannes, and visited an old king's castle called Suscino. They have totally restored a lot of the castle so it's not the REAL thing, but it was still pretty old- think like 13th or 14th century. I couldn't tell the difference between the new and the old, so I didn't mind too much. The king was known as the Ferret King so there were random pictures of ferrets all around the castle. It was pretty cool to walk around- the toilets were hilarious (just big random holes) and the fireplace was ever cooler- picture a giant fireplace (one that we'd have at home), but one you can stand in! It went up, up, up, and at the top is a giant metal covering. They would pull the cover down and it'd be open sky. So if you want a fire and it's snowing or raining, it would probably come down into the fire. I thought that was pretty cool; I've never seen a fireplace that big before! While walking up the stairs of the castle, there were super thin, but long, spaces in the wall meant as windows. As those were the only sources of light at the time, I felt bad for all the little castle children who probably didn't want to walk down the staircase at night. Heck, I get scared doing that in the dark and I have electricity!
Friday (my favorite day!) we left the hotel early and drove on megabuses to the Golfe du Morhiban (Morbihan Gulf) which is basically just an inlet of water with islands in the middle. We spent the day traversing across one island, called Ile aux Moines. It was, by far, one of the most beautiful islands I've ever been on. Considering I've never been on an island, that's saying A LOT ;) But seriously, it was too gorgeous. I would have been fine with just walking around, but IES is way too cool for such simple enjoyments and instead let us rent BIKES! and basically let us have the run of the island. I spent the entire day biking around. There are these things called Dolmans and they're basically mini-Stonehedges. We found one, so naturally I felt way cool climbing on top of it and overlooking the sea. For lunch, IES gave us bags with food for a picnic! The friends I've made here and I decided to spent our picnic sitting on top of a stone ledge overlooking the sea. Older couples who live on the island would walk by, smile, and say "Bon appetite!". So freaking cute. Imagine sitting near a beach overlooking sailboats and a clear blue sky, eating a ham, cheese, and egg baguette with couscous, discussing how beautiful the island is in French, and the soft sounds of French and seagulls in the background. I felt tres francaise. That was my favorite part of the day.
Saturday we visited la Fortresse de Lagoet, which is basically a military fortress. I don't know when it was built, but it was awesome to walk around in. I was greeted by an a smaller building, I assume used for greeting opponents as they tried to enter the castle walls. There were a lot of holes to shoot guns from and quite a few different perches for cannons and the like. The fortress was absolutely massive! About 5 or 6 stories tall! The view from the top (ok, not THE top because they wouldn't let us up on the roof) was seriously cool. I got to see a prisoner's bedroom and lots of old toilets (what's up with the toilets??) and old entertainment rooms. The main chamber's floors were knocked out so I could stand in the middle of the ground on the first floor and look straight up to the top. Very cool. *Get ready, cause this is the best part of the whole day*--> Afterwards, we went to a CREPERIE!!! I ate my first crepe in France :D It exceeded all my expectations. It was ham, cheese, and eggs, and for dessert we ate a caramel crepe! So good. I can't wait to eat another. And Mags, my host mom made crepes the other day- and I told her I wanted to eat one with Nutella. No words can describe the awesome-ness.
Sunday, we had to take the dreaded language placement exam. I did alright on the dictation, grammar was a bit harder- I really had to reach back into my freshman year at Miami. The last two sections though- oral questions and comprehension- absolutely impossible. As I walked out, I kept telling people "Man I hope they let me take classes!" Haha, so it was pretty tough. I'm trying to keep a sense of humor about it, so I let people translate for me when I don't understand something.
ANyway, today was rough- we had seminars about everything IES and I had a tough time trying to follow French instructions all day. But I'm gonna go watch a movie with my host sister, so I'll write about it later!!!
A bientot!!!
1 comment:
sounds excruciating
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