Howdy Gang.

Lots of happenings and thoughts over the last few days, so i will try to fill you in on what's been going on. First, I never actually made it to frisbee last week. It turns out the gym that it was supposed to be in, was out in the middle of Nantes no-where-ville, and it took over an hour to get there. Once we were out there, we couldn't actually find the gym, thus being forced back onto the bus, which was on it's last run and couldn't take us back to where we originally got on... so we had to take a mystery tram all over Nantes, back to downtown, to catch another tram to get back home. It turns out only the Wednesday practices are far away, and the Thursday night one is within walking distance from my house.... i won't be going to Wednesday practice ever again. The end.

The 21st birthday went well. Nothing very exciting really. I had my first class at the University on Thursday, and it was scary. I couldn't find where i was supposed to go, and then once i did find it, i was about an hour late, and then the prof spoke so quickly i thought i was going to pass out from concentrating so hard. I don't think i'm going to keep this class....

During the afternoon i went and saw a movie with another girl from the program. We saw Revolutionary Road (Les Noces Rebelles) in English, but with French subtitles. I'm not quite sure what i thought about it, but it was very well done. It was one of those movies that just makes you think and evaluate life. The big question throughout the entire movie was 'What happens if life doesn't turn out the way you imagined it?' And according to Kate Winslet's character, all hell breaks loose and then you just give up because apparently we have some right to hold ourselves above the rest of society and not try to make the best of the situation we are in... I disagree. Life will have disappoints and often go in the opposite direction we want it to, but that's what life is made of. Both good things and bad things, and you can't appreciate the good until you've experienced some of the bad. France is offering some trying and frustrating times for my life, but deep down i know that it's all making me a stronger, more cultured, more confident person. I wish i could just skip ahead 5 months to see how great this experience will be end up being for me...

I went to a party at the University Thursday night with some friends from IES and also some new French friends. There was live music and drinks and LOTS of people. The music was pretty interesting. The first band was made up of 5 middle aged men, all dressed like they came out of 'Saturday Night Fever,' singing American oldies in French. My favorite was when they covered the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann.... except it came out babannnnnn. Haha. The second band was from England, but you wouldn't have known they were singing English. They were sporting a very funk-techno-regae-metal sound (if you can imagine that) and after the first song, we decided we couldn't take anymore of it... My first purchased, alcoholic beverage was a Monaco (beer with Grenadine?). Basically chick beer, but I enjoyed it :) I tried to keep up the turning 21 excitement, but it was hard considering you can drink when you're 18 here...

On Friday I went to Guillome's (host brother) voice recital. He basically rocks. He has a fantastic tenor voice and it was really fun to watch him perform. He's convinced we're going to sing a duet, and i keep telling him no. The recital was basically equivalent to my many piano recitals, with performers of all ages and levels, and I even recognized two of the songs as ones i had performed myself! However, i'm not sure if the solo in 5th grade All-district Choir can measure up to the performance the girl who sang it here gave. I was excited though! Friday night, my host family realized that they forgot my birthday, and basically spent the entire evening apologizing. My host mom improvised though. Before dinner, she turned off all the lights and brought out a 'cake' and everyone sang to me...joyeuse anniversaire, joyeuse anniversaire... The cake was a plate full of clementines and each clementine had a candle stuck in it. It was really funny. I've never had a clementine cake before!

Oh and get this. Nicolas, the fiance of Segolene (one of the daughters of the family), said on Friday that he's seen Fargo and really likes it. As in the movie. He then asked me if Fargo is close to Minneapolis and if all Minnesotans talk with such a strong accent...haha.

Saturday I visited Le Mont-Saint Michel and St. Malo. Below is a picture of Mont Saint Michel. It is a monestery, built on an island so to speak, on the coast of Normandy. When the tide comes in, the monestery is surrounded by water, as you can see, but when the tide is out it is surrounded by sand, much of which is quick sand. It's beeeauuuutiful. It's also quite a hike to the top, but the view is unbelievable.


St. Malo is a small city, also on the coast of Normandy. The center of the town is surrounded by walls, and the beach and ocean are just outside the walls. It's extremely touristy, but also very quaint and welcoming. My favorite part was the ocean of course. I collected some shells from the beach and enjoyed walking around in the sunshine a bit.

As you can probably tell I didn't take these pictures, but my camera arrived on Friday! So i will work to get some pictures up from Nantes and my house and everything soon!





Well that's all for now. I miss you all! It's hard being here, experiencing things without you. I saw a WWII monument yesterday, and at the tope it said "Those we love and those we have lost are always where we are." I like that. I like to think that you guys are here seeing these things with me (even though you physically aren't here). At least i can share with you through this! I'll try not to see too many cool things without you. Right now i'm working on figuring out a trip to Malta! I'll let you know how that turns out!

Talk to you soon!

K :)