I am so sorry for not keeping up with my blog lately! It has been an absolute rush these past few weeks... but I'm currently sitting on the train with my family headed to Normandy, so I have some time to finally type everything out. The last time I wrote I believe was right before my birthday, so we'll start there.
Tuesday, November 17th
I woke up greeted by a cute note from my host mom telling me Happy Birthday - I have class quite early on Tuesdays so no one was really awake. But I got to IES, had an uneventful sociology class and headed to the IES library to get some work done. Even though it was my birthday, I had a lot of papers to finish before my family arrived, so there was no laying around on this birthday! After a few smiles and hugs from friends, and a few cards received in the mail, I went to lunch with 2 friends from IES. There's a cute cafe pretty close to IES run by an American woman who moved here a few years ago. Her place is hilarious - it's the only restaurant in town that serves legitimate Mexican burritos (Mexican food is severely lacking in France), she refuses to speak French to customers, and classic American music plays all day long. Plus, a burrito, drink, and cookie are all only 5 euro - aka great deal for poor students. Afterwards, I returned back to IES to keep working. The afternoon passed somewhat uneventful, but that's ok because the night soiree more than made up for it.
I had invited a bunch of friends to come out to dinner with me, along with my host sister, and to go out afterwards for anyone that wanted to. Marie had suggested earlier in the week that I make reservations at a restaurant called Un Amour de Pomme de Terre (Love of Potatoes) and I happily obliged. Everyone met up at the theater near IES and we walked over. All I can say about this restaurant was Holy Cow. Imagine a plate about the size of a cake platter filled with salad, french fries, potatoes, different types of cheeses, a cheese soup, and sausage. it was the first time in a long time that I felt like I needed to unbutton my pants afterwards! But dinner was wonderful - we ordered some delicious cider and wine, the conversation was great, and the atmosphere was incredibly genial. Everyone spoke "franglais" the entire night.
Afterwards, about 6 of us headed to the bars. The first bar we went to wasn't serving liquor that night (who does that?) but the bartender hates the americans that frequent the place, so we left. Luckily, we found a different bar that already had a fun atmosphere going, so we quickly ordered 2 rounds of shots and thus, the night began. I had brought a pack of cards with me in my purse (you never know when they'll be useful) and taught Marie how to play American drinking games, like Kings. Everyone was having a great time together when suddenly, a song came on that made Marie jump up and run over to the bar. Apparently there's a song in the southwest of France that's caused a tradition of sorts in France whenever people hear the song. Everyone who knows it's significance sits on the ground in a line, puts their hands in the arm, and sway them backwards and forwards to the beat of the song. During all this, younger adults (mostly women) make their way to the front of the line, face the crowd, and essentially body surf over them. That is to say, they fall forward and get passed along from person to person. I was sufficiently tipsy at this point in the night and asked my friends if they thought I should go body surf. Being the great friends that they are, they enthusiastically responded YES! and off I went. It was quite the experience, let me tell you haha and definitely one of a kind.
A little bit later in the night, my friend Julie dragged me over to a different part of the bar where drunken French men were singing songs together. As soon as I arrived, they started in on Happy Birthday! Julie had sneakily asked them earlier in the night if they would sing to me. Luckily for me, every time I was anywhere near that group of men or near the bar, I'd get sung to. This continued for the duration of the night.
There are other events that happened, but I'd rather leave them off the blog haha, so ask me about it when I see you next!
Julie, Marie, and I stayed at the bar until it closed and hung out with the rest of the drunkies outside the bar for a little bit. Afterwards, we all called it a night and caught a taxi home.
To give you an idea or how much fun I had, I felt like the grim reaper had cursed me to death the next morning. All stars had aligned to hate me. To add to my misfortune, I had a grammar test just after lunch, so I had to pull it together pretty quickly after waking up. For it being my 21st birthday though, I didn't hate myself for the night before. If anything, it made for some great stories to recall to my friends the next day :)
I also have a give a BIG shoutout to everyone who emailed and sent me letters on my birthday - Mom, Dad, Nana, Aunt Sheebs & Co, Aunt Crissy & Co, Aunt Ann & Co, Aunt Teets & Co, Aunt Mo & Co, Tristan, Kelly, Steph (and parents), My BIG! ... you guys made it feel like I was right back in the states! (I hope I didn't forget anyone! If I did I am incredibly grateful for you too haha I just don't have everything in front of me right now)
November 20-21
I planned a weekend with some girlfriends to head out to Marseilles for another adventure of a different French town. Since Marseilles is along the southern border, right on the coast of the Mediterranean, November was a perfect month to go. We flew from cold and rainy to warm and sunny. I flew out of Nantes Friday morning with 2 friends (Hannah and Emily) and we arrived by noon, to meet up with 2 other girlfriends (Cori and Jade) who had flown out the day before. Marseilles is the second largest city in France and is famous for its port, its fish market, and its SOAP! My friends and I strolled along the boardwalk, checking out the fish market (the fish are MASSIVE), and ate lunch at a quaint cafe right along the port, with a beautiful view of all the boats. Hannah has a friend (Greg) who lives in Marseilles, so he was kind enough to come and meet up with us after lunch. The 6 of us then decided to check out the islands that are just outside the port. The boat ride gave us gorgeous views of the sea, the landscape of Marseilles and I even got to drive the boat! The Island of Friloux was gorgeous - I felt so outdoorsy as we climbed all over the cliffs that jut out into the sea, wadded in the Mediterranean, explored the old military fort there, and admired the gorgeous views of the city. I felt on top of the world. We spent so much time there that we caught one of the last boats back and freshened up at the hostel before dinner. Greg invited all the girls back to his apartment for dinner, which consisted of a very student-type meal, pasta with spaghetti sauce, but we had a great time all enjoying each other's company. Greg used to work as a bartender, so after dinner we showed off some skills and made us flaming shots (shots topped off with real flames, but don't worry , you drink them out of a straw). And off the bars we went! Marseilles was playing Paris for the semifinals of the Champions League, so I bought a Marseilles scarf and cheered on my team. Cori and Jade decided to call it a night and headed back to the hostel. Saturday we woke up bright and early to walk around the city some more - we found a beautiful old church, more views of the sea, and different markets occurring around town. We ate lunch around the Port again and then headed off to the airport. Overall, it was a lovely place to spend some time with friends and marked the end of a great birthday week!
As for right now, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I am so grateful for my family coming to France - we have had a great past 2 days exploring Nantes. They have finally gotten to see where I've been living and what I've been doing for the past 3 months! I'm also incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful host family - they made our Thanksgiving dinner last night absolutely delicious. I will do a separate update on our activities of the weekend so as to include everything in one post. And I promise I will update soon - not wait 3 weeks like this last post!
Love you all!! I hope ya'll can walk today after all that turkey! And my family sends their love as well :)
Molly
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