London

So I spent the weekend of my Toussaint break in London with Matt, Sally, her friend Helen, and MEGAN, who also goes to Doane and is in my sorority!  She's studying in Wales, where I am currently staying with her. London was super fun. Exhausting. But fun.

Matt, Sally, and I left Rennes at 5pm Friday afternoon for Paris.  We arrived around 7:30 and left to find something to eat.  We returned to the train station to find that we had missed our train to London. Panic ensued.  For one, I had no way of telling Megan we would be late to the hostel. For two, if there were no seats left on the last train out, we'd have to stay overnight.  Luckily, we were able to get on the next train.  Quite an adventure that was....

Me and Sally on the train to London.  Our car was full of loud, drunk French students.

 

Thankfully, the hostel was easy to find, and I found Megan!!  After a long wait to check in (at midnight, go figure), we were able to get into bed and try to sleep.  Keyword being try.  We slept in a tiny, tiny room with 20 beds all crammed and stacked together (which I forgot to take a picture of, unfortunately), and it was kind of loud all night.  People coming and going and trying to find their stuff, etc...  I probably slept two hours or less.  Oh well.  That's a hostel for you.  I've decided I'm not cut out to be a world traveller since I'm so paranoid about having clean sheets...  but I didn't contract any diseases so we're all good.

 

Saturday we all took a bike tour of London which was really fun.  Our tour guide was great and I got to ride a Fat Tire bike named Alexander Graham Bell!  We saw all sorts of things, including Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Westminster Abbey (where I'm still convinced I saw the Queen), and the Houses of Parliament.  Our tour guide told us about a guy who succeeded in breaking into Buckingham Palace, and made it all the way to the Queen's sleeping chambers, where it had a conversation with her at four in the morning.  He also gave us a delicious description of being hung, drawn, and quartered (because of Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up Parliament once. V for Vendetta).

 

Will and Kate weren't home.

 

After all that, we tried to find an Indian restaraunt down in Chelsea but decided not to eat there since it was take out only.  After four hours of walking in the cold, rain, and even a little random hail, we found a place to sit down and eat basically right by our hostel, where an American couple bought the five of us beer and extra rice to go with our meal.  How crazy is that!  It was all very good.  Then Sally and her friend left and Matt, Megan and I went back to the hostel and watched the Adjustment Bureau before bed.  Thankfully I slept a lot better.

 

Sunday was a random day of walking and taking the tube.  We saw the changing of the guards and walked across Tower Bridge.  We also saw Big Ben and Parliament, and went to the humungous British Museum. (I tried really hard not to geek out.)

 

I'm wearing that hat because I hadn't showered in three days... no way was I getting in the shower at that hostel after I forgot a pair of flip-flops.

 

MUMMIES

 

Then we left Matt to catch his train and Megan and I tried to do a Harry Potter walking tour I found.  We ended up spending more time lost than actually seeing things, but it was a good try nonetheless.

Supposed to be Honeyduke's. =)

 



See ya at Hogwarts!

 

Then Megan and I decided it was cold and we were tired and it wasn't going to be very much fun wandering around London aimlesslessly in the dark.  So we spent the next four hours in the train station waiting for our 11:30pm train to Wolverhampton, where we would spend another four hours in the waiting room there, trying to sleep until our train to Bangor came at 6am.  Except there was a little kid there too, who spent the whole night shouting about wanting to go home and/or wanting an apple.  What a typical college world travelling experience, haha.  It was the cheapest train, so of course we took it.

 

Finally we made it to Bangor around 8:30am, where I took immediate advantage of Megan's shower, which RUNS CONTINUOUSLY and has a CONSISTENTLY WARM TEMPERATURE.  I was so happy.  Won't have that again for another two months when I leave here... sigh.

 

I'll write more about my Wales adventure this weekend when I get home and have a chance to upload the pictures from my iPod. =) I'm so happy I'm here with my friend!  I was needing something from home to help me get through the last two months.  I think it will go a lot faster now.



 

 

 

Mont St. Michel - without an omelette

Hello!  I'm feeling slightly better now.  I'll feel even better once all my exams are over and I can be in London and Wales with one of my best friends and sisters... but I gotta get through four more days!

Saturday I went to Mont St. Michel with CIREFE.  I was in kind of a poopy mood, there was a lot of ugly construction, and the weather wasn't great, but it was still a good way to spend a day.  The abbey was amazing... and huge.  It's the main attraction there.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the inside right now, but I did touch a 1200 year old stone wall.  It felt old!  The top of the tower has a gold statue of the Archangel Michael, which should protect it, but really just attracts lightning and causes fires.  The rest of the place was basically tourist shops and little restaurants... not too exciting.  I ate some pretty good ice cream though (not an omelette, like Rick Steves told me, oh well).

Buy ALL THE T-SHIRTS.

Me and Kelin. We found a little tiny quiet chapel behind the village and sat on the wall there for a long time because it was calm.

Don't wash your feet!!!!!!!!

Someday maybe I'll go back on a nicer day with less construction.

Honesty

Ok hi. This post won't probably be one of my happier ones but I feel obligated to share my true experience here.

At this moment, I just want to go home.  There are tears rolling down my cheeks as I type. I miss my parents and my dog and my family and my friends and my sorority and my Relay.  I'm starting to feel like I'm imposing on my host mom (even though I know in my heart that's dumb because she chose to have a host student).  I don't know how to keep myself busy enough and I'm having trouble taking my classes very seriously (due to a significant lack of homework).  Time seems to be crawling by and two months seems like it's going to be forever.  Not to mention I have a mini panic attack when I even think about Canadian / Chicagoan / Omahan snow at the end of December.

So here's what I think I need to do:

• Limit my contact to home via Skype / text / Facebook.
• Force myself to study more.
• Take walks (if it's nice enough).
• Read.
• Figure out a way to get out of the house, or not come home right away after school.
• Try not to count down the days so much.
• Focus on things I can look forward to doing here.

So that's what I said. Hopefully I can do it.

Here are things I should be looking forward to:

• Mont St. Michel (tomorrow)
• Angers in the Loire Valley (Sunday maybe)
• Intercultural Soiree (next Wednesday)
• Carnac (next Thursday)
• LONDON AND WALES (starting next Friday through the following Friday)
• Nantes (sometime)
• Thanksgiving dinner with CIEE (November 22 - exactly one month from when I'll be flying home)
• Strasbourg for the Christmas market (maybe hopefully)
• Transmusicales festival (2nd weekend in December)
• End of the year party with CIREFE (December 14)

Look, that's something almost every week I have left.

Ok, now I need to say something happy.  Today wasn't ALL a bad day.  Before lunch, I sat in the CIREFE cafeteria with Kelin and Matt, Laura from Columbia, Leandra from Germany, and Zhen, Tsing Tsing, and another boy from China.  We were all laughing really, really hard talking about the different random vocal sounds each culture has. In France, it's "Baah-ouais," for example.  We talked about "Uh-uh" for no and "Yuh-huh" for yes, which are American things.  And we all laughed REALLY hard because the universal sound one makes for an attractive person is "Mmmmmhmmmmm."  And it was extra awesome because this was all in French.

Plus, last night I went to the most fun concert I've ever been to. =)
See... I'm doing OK here.

Best Concert Of My Life

I saw these guys tonight! IT WAS SO FUN!!!!



http://mamarosin.com/

Proof I go to school here

Some of you have expressed doubt that I'm actually going to classes here. Well I'm about to prove to you that I do, in fact do school work!

Those are just a few of my notebooks and a couple assignments I've done.  And yes, they are all in French.

But the good news is, I usually have about three hours to kill in between my TWO classes a day.  Part of that time is spent eating.

Here's a not very good view of what part of the cafeteria (called an R.U. - Restaurant Universitaire) looks like.  I usually eat a salad or pizza (yes, I'm lame like that... you can only eat so much chicken though, too.)

Then I spend the rest of the time doing homework or reading in the cafeteria at CIREFE (they have vending machines for coffee and candy, so it's a cafeteria).

And when I leave, I laugh at this graffiti on the library:

It's Midterms time here, so wish me luck!  I've had two so far, and I already know one of my grades. I got a 20/20 on my oral expression test!  The other one (written comprehension) I'm pretty sure I did pretty well on too.  I'm super, very, incredibly nervous for my civilisation and history tests though. Those are next week.

 THEN IT'S FALL BREAK AND I'M GOING TO LONDON AND WALES!!!

This weekend I'm going to Mont St. Michel and Angers (that's in the Loire Valley... to see a chateau).  We're trying to plan a trip to Strasbourg too, in December, but who knows if that will happen.  

Until next time!

Weekend in Finistere!

Hello! This weekend my host mother took me to visit her friends in Daoulas, which is near Brest on the westernmost coast of Brittany.  We left Saturday morning around 10:30 and had adventures around the Cote de Granit Rose before we made it to her friends' house.

We stopped for lunch at this AMAZING creperie. I had a gallette complet as usual, followed by this beast of a crepe with bananas and chocolate. I almost died.  It says BZH, which stands for Breizh, which is Bretagne in Breton.  Neato!

And this was our view from the creperie window while we ate lunch.

Rocks!

More rocks! And ocean!

Me with some rocks and sky!

We made it to her friends' house around 6pm I think, and we took a walk in the forest near where they live.

Yup, that's what we saw on our walk!!

Then we ate a wonderful dinner of fondue and zuchini and wine. They served me kir, which is wine with a fruit syrup. Grapefruit and rose, yum!  Followed of course by more crepes (fig jam, sooo goood).

The next day we went to a little market in town to get things for lunch.  It was pretty adorable, and it was a delicious lunch. Chicken, salami, and fresh french fries!  I showed them pictures of my house and university using Google maps. Fancy shmancy.  M.P. and I left their house around five pm for some more adventures, including a stop at this huge bridge over the bay in Brest.

That's the bridge for cars. We were on the pedestrian bridge. We did drive over that bridge though. (Mom would have hated it.)

It was a pretty relaxed, nice weekend. M.P.'s friends were wonderful, and invited me to stay with them in the house they rent out to tourists if I ever come back. Not a bad idea! (Here's the website: http://kichenarmor.free.fr/)

They also had a beautiful cat.

Its name is Fermoze (sp?) which is Italian for magnificent.

Random things

Yesterday, I ate tongue for lunch.  I didn't know for sure it was tongue until I had almost finished all of it.   I had a sneaking suspicion due to the bumps... it wasn't terrible but bumpy food freaks me out a little.

I played Nancy Drew again with Sally, Kelin, and Jenny. It was really fun.  We also watched New Girl.

I found a place to buy American soda, Reese's, and microwave popcorn.

I finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the French version) yesterday and now I might move onto Les Miserables... in English.

Today my creative writing teacher told me "Tres bien! C'est pas mal ca," three times.

Last week there was a strike at the R.U. so we had to eat elsewhere.

And this:

I am going to Brest this weekend with my host mom, if she can find someone to take care of her cat. AND she told me we could go to Carnac a week from next Thursday!!!!!! =D 

Cornouaille

Never will I be able to spell the name of this Breton coast. Never.

This weekend was the last CIEE excursion... we went to the southern coast of Brittany for who knows why... but it was nice to get out of Rennes for a minute.  Except it rained all weekend. Sigh.  We went to Pont Aven, Quimper, Concarneau, Pont du Raz, and Locronon.  The bus had door problems on the way home so we were late, but that was ok.  My favorite places were Concarneau and the Pont du Raz.

In Concarneau we stayed at an auberge right on the Atlantic Ocean.

That's the view we had from our window.

Then we accidentally found an "exploding fire mime show," but not before Kelin, Sally and I tried and failed to do the Monkee walk.  When we all nearly fell over, Jenny kindly reminded us that "There's an ocean right there."  We were far enough away from the edge of the wall that we would have been ok. Haha.

There were also live drummers to help make the show more exciting!

They started off by blowing a HUGE plume of flame, which unfortunately there are no photos of, that was so large and hot it nearly burned our faces!

Sparkler Hula Hoop

Then there was a less cool acrobatic show on the church. Meh.

After the exploding fire mimes, we found a bar/restaurant to hang out in for a little bit. We had two monitors AND both of the program directors with us even. They were playing Latin music so Sally taught me to Samba and Meringue, and we ordered drinks. Most of us just had a glass of wine, I had Sauvignon.  We had a good time but it was really hot.  Kelin and Jenny and I left while the others went to find a concert somewhere.  The window of the room was cracked all night, so we fell asleep to the sound of the waves breaking on the shore. Yeah. Jealous?

The next day we went to the Pont du Raz, the westernmost point of France. Unfortunately it was rainy and very foggy, so we couldn't see much, but it was still cool.

Yup, I'm really in Brittany!

There were SO MANY SNAILS. I don't know if you can see them but there are two or three in this photo.

If you see a little yellow dot way out there, it's my friend Matt. He took off right away and was climbing on the scary parts of the rocks haha.

We had lunch in Locronon, which included KOUIGN AMANN for dessert. My life was happy.  We had an extra hour to wander around while the bus door was getting fixed. It was a pretty place, I liked the cemetery.

The bus ride home was long but it was a pretty good weekend overall. 

My tasty Traou Mad cookie ice cream in Pont Aven.  Not bad!

I want to hear from you!

Also, there's this.
If you are reading my blog, I want to know how YOUR life in the States is!
You should send me a letter (my address is posted twice in here somewhere), Facebook me, send me an e-mail (cali.neuberger@doane.edu), or comment on this post!
I want to know how everyone else is doing, too! Because chances are, I miss you!

Stones are telling us history - Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on Puz/zle

Thursday

I don't have class at all on Thursdays, so that leaves time for adventures!

Marie-Paule and I went for a walk around a lake in the afternoon, it was a gorgeous day.

Some little kids learning how to kayak!

I thought it was pretty.

It reminded me of Standing Bear!

After our walk we went shopping. Lots of shopping! It was nice though, to spend an afternoon together.  There was this weird thing in the plaza at Charles-de-Gaulle:

There were plants everywhere!  There was also a band playing some really fun music.

I looked up "Expedition Vegetale," because the guys running around had that printed on the back of their jumpsuits.  

http://www.lamachine.fr/en/

It's in French but you might be able to translate it? At least look at the pictures, it seems pretty neat. They're a travelling theatre company, I think, but they do things that are pretty innovative. I like it because it's vaguely steam-punkish.

And then we went to a spectacle at the T.N.B. (Theatre National de Bretagne) It was weird to say the least. But I enjoyed it for the most part. There was some impressive music (chanting and drumming and a flutist) and modern dance.  It was called PUZ/ZLE.  The beginning made me crack up because the first thing the dancers did was repeatedly run into a solid wall. Kelin told me, "I don't think it's supposed to be funny." I found an interveiw with the director on youtube so I'll post that next. 

All in all it was a good day! Looking forward to my trip to Bretagne Sud this weekend!

And don't worry, I'll post about school soon ;) Yes, I am actually going to school!