Bateau!

Bonjour!

So last weekend, amongst all my studying for finals, my family decided to take me boating on their sail boat! However, the weather took a turn for the worst about half way through our time on the water, and it started pouring! But, despite being soaking wet and cold, it was really fun! Here are some pictures of the experience....

Marie and Christophe

Guillaume

Guillaume, Christophe, Marie
The name of the boat is O hayo, which means Hello! in Japonese

There was some major boat tiltage...

However, although fun, I cannot say that sailing is my cup of tea...maybe it was the weather? But I don't see myself having the patience with all the ropes and cords and putting the sails up and taking them back down....after we were done on the water, we had to then get the boat out of the water, with a ginormous crane, get it on the trailer and park it at the yacht club where they keep it. Another hour in the pouring rain....i'm thinking it was the weather that turned me off of this sport...

crane to get the boat out of the water

attaching the boat....

and it's up!

the boat was then swung around to be placed down on the trailer...

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with final exams. All i can say is that I'm glad they're over. I mean they all went decently, but definitely not my best work, except my Middle East exam, which I dominated on :) Now it's officially SUMMER TIME!!

Wednesday night, my grammar professor, Madame de Pous, had us all over to her house for drinks and snacks - a good way to wind down the semester and say some good-byes. Afterwards I went to my friend Lisa's house for dinner. Excellent food and fun conversation. There was also a coworker of Lisa's host-dad there, who's name was Remy. And once I knew that, I had to tell him that I once had a fish named Remy...he got a kick out of that. Plus he was a young guy and had a pretty good sense of humor. He came back that small red fish are good on a barbeque...ha...ha.

For most of the day today, there isn't much going on. I tried sleeping in, but only made it to 8:30. I have a gelatto date downtown with some friends at 2, and then tonight is the big river boat dinner with IES. We all get to dress up and be fancy, so I'm pretty excited about that! No worries, pictures will be up! Probably by tomorrow, considering I have all this free time now!

Meanwhile, I'm going to attempt to put my bags together and tackle packing...it's going to be a task and I don't really want to do it, because that means I actually have to go home, which I'm super excited about, but it will be tough to say goodbye to the people here and this place that I love so much. Especially because everyone at IES is from all over the United States, and I probably won't see very much of them once I'm back home :( Good thing we all have cell phones and facebook!!

Have glorious Thursdays! Only 4 more days!

Kelsey

And the studying begins...

Cou cou!

I finished up my last classes this past week, but unfortunately am not feeling the relief of being done with them. Once finals are done with next week I will feel a lot better about life :)

On Wednesday, IES had a reception for all the students, professors and families. Appetizers and rinks were served and the director and student president/vice president gave some pretty humorous speeches. I also managed to get some good pictures of the people I've been hanging out with the past 4 months.

Yummy appetizers...no idea what half of them are :)
Ana

Kat

Monsieur de Berranger - the director of IES
Maryn - IES student president

Amy, Emily, Michelle, Madelyn, and Alyssa

Cindy and Lisa

Friday, May 8th, was another national holiday in France - the liberation of France in 1944 - so once again, there were no classes. IES took us to the village of Clisson, about an hour from Nantes, where we visited the medieval chateau, the open-air market there, and the beautiful parks along the river. We then went to a vineyard outside of Nantes, which made white wine. We took a tour of the vines and then had a degustation - a tasting of 3 different white wines from different years, made at this particular place. This vineyard was very different from the ones I saw in Bordeaux last week. The fields were very flat, and the vines seemed bigger. Wine from this region also isn't that popular in respect to the rest of France, so it could simply be this difference in ambiance that made the difference.

Chateau at Clisson

Chateau at Clisson

Prisoners in the Dungeon!!

Picnicking in Clisson - always laughing :)

Kelsey, Laura, Emily, Stephanie, Alyssa, Anna, Lisa, Michelle, Ana and Elizabeth

Clisson

Lisa and myself

Vineyard

Afterward, I went to the Creperie on the boat in Nantes. I LOVE CREPES. I know I've said it over and over again, but really, I just can't say it enough. This time around I also took pictures of my dinner before I ate it! Just for all of you :) I'm working on finding a good galette recipe to bring back to the states. Don't worry, I already have one for crepes!

Emily and Stephanie

Galette! Ham, potatoes, cheese and a special sauce...

Crepe - banana, chocolate with vanilla ice cream :)

Today has been spent studying, doing laundry, making my last banana bread, and watching the France cup for soccer - 2 teams from Brittany, apparently it's a big deal? Meh, I'm enjoying it! Tomorrow will also be spent studying, but I will probably be going out on the boat with my family, so that should be fun! I'll try to get a couple of blogs in before I head home!

Love to you all!

Kelsey

What?! Today is the last day of Grammar??? Dang it.

Salut!

Terribly sorry for the negative blogging over the past few weeks. Here's a recap.... homework, papers, homework, sleeping, eating....

After vacation I came back to a bunch of due dates, and granted I worked SO hard over vacation of course it was a breeze jumping back into everything....ha.

However, the weather has been wonderful, so that's provided for some lovely distractions and outside fun. The last weekend of April I found one of the huge outside markets here in Nantes. Fresh fish, vegetables, red meat, bread, cheese, fruit - basically any food item you could ever want. There were also vendors selling clothes, furniture and other odds and ends. Overall - very cool. I know we have markets back home, but they just don't compare to here. Everything just looks soooo good. I managed to decide on a few things for a picnic lunch in the Park Proce, which is absolutely gorgeous now, as every single flower in the park is in full bloom. There are tulips and lilacs and just so much green. Very relaxing.

This same weekend I also discovered a restaurant called "The Burger House," a tiny hole in the wall, run by an American. All i can say is YUM. I didn't realize how much I missed hamburgers. And having one made by an American, who knows what a good burger is supposed to taste like, it was great. He's from Seattle, but his wife is French. Apparently they just moved back to France a little over a year ago, and decided to open up the restaurant at that point. It was strange having so much America in the middle of this town. Completely out of place, but it felt good to have some familiarity :)

As summer gets closer, my family is also super busy getting wedding stuff together for Segolene's wedding in August. The last couple of weeks have consisted of making table clothes, sending out invitations, making gifts for the guests and starting to sew dresses. I got to help somewhat with the gifts. Each guest is going to get a small jar with a prune soaking in a special type of alcohol. By soaking in the alcohol for a couple of months, the prune will taste absolutely delicious by the time the wedding comes around. It's a specialty of the region where she's getting married, at their country home south of Bordeaux. Here's a look at the process...

Nicolas and Segolene

Then this past weekend, we all had a long weekend, as May 1st is Labor Day here in France, so no one has school. I went to Bordeaux (southwestern France) with some friends for the weekend. The weather was beauutiful. I officially got my first sun burn of the year :) We stayed with some relatives of my host family, but we basically just got to stay in their house all by ourselves. Juliette, the daughter in the family, was there to let us in, but she was in and out all weekend. It was nice to have a kitchen to cook in and a place to just hang out after sight-seeing and walking around all day.

Highlights of Bordeaux: Getting stuck on a sketchy train on the way to Bordeaux, wandering a giant antique market, the reflection pool, wine tasting in St. Emillion (a small village about 30 min. out of Bordeaux), and hanging out with good friends :)

Roman Ruins

My travel buddies for the weekend - Cindy and Lisa

The reflection pool in front of la Place de Bourse

The pool shot up fog...

St. Emilion Vineyards

Well tomorrow is my last day of classes at IES. Then Friday, May 8th is another national holiday - the liberation of France in 1944. IES is taking us to a Nantes vineyard to learn about how wine is made and do some wine tasting! This weekend will then be filled to the brim with studying for finals which are Monday-Wednesday. Then i'm DONE! I'll leave Nantes the morning of the 16th, head to Paris for the day, and will then fly home on the 17th. 10 days. I can barely believe how fast time has gone by here. I'm super excited to get home, but it will be sad to leave.

Here's a little list of what I'll miss...
-my host family
-crepes/galettes
-fresh bread
-people calling me Kesley
-the beautiful parks full of flowers
-all of my IES friends, who live in just about every corner of the U.S.
-wearing the same thing 2 days in a row and having it be ok
-cafes
-the lack of work ethic
-the ease of public transportation
-speaking French
-speaking franglais (French/English combination..)
-being able to communicate with French people
-being able to knock down culturel barriers by talking about Obama
-slow dinners

So I guess that isn't really a short list...but there you go. Right now I'm in the midst of making a batch of cookies for my grammar class. It's our last class today! Dang it... :)

I hope you all are having a good week and that the month of May has started off well for you! I can't wait to see you all!

Love, Kelsey