Thanksgiving in France

So yesterday was Thanksgiving, as you all know!  As many of you also know, it is a strictly American holiday. Meaning that there was still school (not for me, but I never have class on Thursday), people still worked, and life went on as normal.  Luckily my program thinks of the needs of its American students, so I still celebrated turkey day... with turkey!  (Turkey in French is la dinde, pronounced dahnd.)

I had lunch at a retirement home, along with some other American girls.  They invited us because they put on a Thanksgiving lunch as a cultural event for their residents.  It was funny because they called it "The Christmas of the United States" and a lot of French people seem to think Thanksgiving is actually more important than Christmas!  It was funny to explain that, no, it's really not as important as Christmas, we just are lucky because we get an extra fancy holiday.  One lady thought it was kind of like July 14 (Bastille Day) in France, but I had to explain that no, our equivalent of that is actually July 4.  Thanksgiving just makes no sense to French people!  I have one picture to show, and it is hilarious (I think).

As part of the introduction to the lunch, the director reminded everyone that Barak Obama had just been reelected as President of the US.  She then proceeded to welcome the home's very own Barak Obama.  I cracked up when one of the chefs came out with a flaming turkey, wearing an American flag hat.  So goofy.

We ate pumpkin soup, turkey with cranberries (apparently the French don't eat those either... there was a lot of "Ohh... that's what that is!" going on), some kind of orange puree (possibly sweet potato? possibly carrot?), and pecan pie and coffee for dessert.  I also found it funny that they served kir (white wine with fruit syrup) and red wine with lunch. I feel like that wouldn't happen in a retirement home in the States!

I really enjoyed talking with the residents, and one woman told me she was happy to hear me speaking French so well, since a lot of other Anglophones don't really make an effort to do so, when the French work hard to learn English.  All of us girls had different experiences, since we were all in different parts of the room.  But at the end, one man came up to us and said "Thank you Americans for saving me from a German camp during WWII."  He was 20 years old at the time (our age) and is now 94.  What can you even say in response to that?  We were all kind of dumbfounded, but it was really incredible.  That's Thanksgiving, right there.

Sally, Kelin and I did some shopping after, then I went home and chatted with Mom for a bit on Skype.  Then I went to the Thanksgiving dinner the program had arranged for all of us.  I arrived at 7:30 or a little before, but in true French fashion, the meal didn't start until an hour later than we were told.  Oh well!  We started with more kir (an aperitif), and little finger sandwiches.  Then they brought out plates of turkey, sweet potatoes (SO GOOD), corn, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, family style.  I personally thought it was all really good, but others weren't quite so satisfied I guess.  Either way, we all laughed a lot and had a great time in general.

While it wasn't Thanksgiving at home, it was still a great, great day.  I'm thankful to have had the chance to live here in France and have at least a mostly good experience, and I'm also thankful that I only have exactly one month to go until I am home, back in good old Nebraska!

Carnac

Sunday after Nantes, MP took me to Carnac!

We got lost, I got carsick, and she got agitated about being lost... all to be expected on a car trip with my host mother.  But we finally made it.

Carnac is a town famous for having a huge arrangement of prehistoric monoliths.  In French, these are called menhirs (the single standing stones) and dolmens (the ones that look like tables, such as Stonehenge).  The rocks we saw were 6,000 years old!!!!  No one knows exactly why they were placed, but theories range from burial markers to alien landing strips.  We'll probably never know.

We were lucky to have nice weather.

There were sheep hanging out with the old rocks!

My watch stopped at this time. I noticed it an hour later. Carnac is radioactive or something!

It's a joke. =)

Not a very good picture of the dolmen.

I would have liked to have just sat and been quiet with the history for a little while, but MP wanted to point out every potential rope mark on every little stone.  Haha. Oh well!  After we saw the rocks, we got some more lost and finally made it to Lorient where MP's aunt and uncle live in a home for the elderly. I sat in the car and read Jane Eyre while she visited with them, then we drove home!

Now I've seen Carnac!

Just another niiiight in Nantes

Song lyrics for my title. Oooh yeah.

So first of all, all my tests went really well, I managed to get A's on them all except one (a B in my grammar class), so that's happy news. It's also happy news that my grades will transfer in the French equivalent, because if I scored a 15/20 on a test at Doane, that would not be an A at all.  Different grading systems stress me out!

This most recently past Saturday, I went to Nantes with some friends. We took the train. I enjoy train travel.   The weather wasn't great, but thankfully it didn't pour rain because I forgot my umbrella. Our first stop was the castle of the Dukes of Brittany (even though Nantes isn't a part of Brittany anymore).  That's where Anne de Bretagne was born, and she's important because her marriage to the King of France made Brittany a part of France, no longer independent, and sort of saved it from disaster.

We visited the museum inside, where I learned that Nantes was a major port in the slave trade, and also had a big resistance movement during the occupation of France by the Nazis in WWII. 

This guy made me laugh.  I'm assuming he's a figurehead from the front of a boat, but I'm not sure.

We ate pizza for lunch, and it was very good. We were also all very hungry.  After that we went to the cathedral and looked around. It was pretty, another old cathedral to add to my list.  Ya know.  Then Sally, Jenny, Rachel and I got macaroons (I had a bergamot and a coffee flavored one - YUM!) and we all walked to where La Machine is.  They have a giant mechanical elephant.  We didn't ride on it, but it was fun to see.  It sprayed water out of its trunk, and one little girl started bawling because she took a direct hit.  Sad!

After all that, it was unfortunately already time to go.  It was nice to see another city, though!  Lots of shopping to be done there, apparently.  Seemed like they were about to have a big Christmas market in the near future too.  All in all, a good day out.  I only wish we would have had time to go into the gallery of La Machine... line too long... poor planning.... that's how it goes.

I'm sure I'll return one day.

Stay tuned for a post about Carnac!

My photos

I don't put all the pictures I take up here, because that would take up a LOT of space.  So I've created a site where I can dump all my pictures in a somewhat organized manner.

http://rennesadventure.shutterfly.com/pictures

Cool!  It's not exactly how I want it (as in, most of the pictures don't have captions or anything yet), but I think it will get there.  If you want to check it out, go for it.  If you want to wait until I have everything captioned so you know what you're looking at better, that's cool too, but that will be a while I think.  Maybe not even until I get home. (IN SIX WEEKS!)

There are no pictures of Rennes, the city I'm staying in, at this point. Simply because I have a lot, I want to take more, and I want to put them all up at once. Those might have to wait until I get home too, or my very last day.

Loire Valley... two weeks late

So I realized I never posted about my day trip to the Loire Valley with my host mom. Probably because it wasn't hugely fun... but whatever.  We went there the day after my meh trip to Mont St. Michel.  I was having a very off weekend.  BUT.

Our first stop was in Angers, after two hours in the car, where we thought we were going to have time to see the chateau but thanks to poor planning we got right back in the cars to drive another two hours to another place.  MP is part of a group that organizes outings and carpools to them together, and you don't necessarily know the people it's with... you just go.  I'm not sure I necessarily enjoy that, but I've done it with her two or three times now.  Anyway.

That's the castle we didn't get to go in.  I was really sad because it also houses the Tapestry of the Apocalypse  which would have been cool to see because we talked about it in one of my classes last semester at Doane. Sigh.

Then there was a bunch of madness about trying to eat lunch, trying to pay for the castle entrance, and blah blah blah... stressful.  Then a two hour tour of a castle that was only sort of cool on the inside but had really cool gardens.  Also, the woman who "organized" the whole day, and who doesn't know me at all, had to stop the tour guide in the middle of a sentence to say (in French of course), "We have a young American with us, is there anything you can do to make it easier for her?"  Um, excuse me lady, I've been here two months already, after 7 years of school French which I realize isn't the same thing, but I can still understand spoken French pretty dang well.  Way to embarrass the crap out of me in front of all these people I've never met before.  I almost cried right there because it was already such a bad day.  But I didn't.

Part of the really cool gardens at Villandry.

I guess I didn't take many pictures of the castle itself.

After that lovely experience, Marie Paule decided it was time to leave the group and go off on our own. Thankfully!  We went to one last castle, Azay-le-Rideau, and it was much prettier and much better because we just walked around on our own.  And there was sweet fog on the lake nearby.

Then we drove home along the Loire river at sunset and at least that was gorgeous.  Four hours is a long time to be on the road though!  I guess it was a good experience. I got to see some more neat things.

How to pass the election results day in France in 15 easy steps

1) Wake up early to see if the results are in yet.
2) First news comes from FranceInfo app on the iPod: "Obama est réelu President...." and that's all you need to know. 
3) Make breakfast, feed the cat, give the cat insulin, and head to school.
4) Wait for four metros to pass before one comes that isn't too stuffed with people and you manage to squeeze on.
5) Manage to be on time to French History class. Give your other American friend a small high five without saying anything. Then the teacher talks for an hour before giving you your test results back.  
6) Find out you got a 15/20 (the equivalent of a pretty solid A) when you were expecting no better than a 10 (a C).
7) Do a little dorky happy dance during the break.
8) Go to class number two.
8) Hear the Italian guy say "Obama won!" and reply with a little "Woo!"  Then hear the other obnoxious American shout "OBAMA!" as he walks into class late as usual. Give him a small thumbs up but also roll your eyes because he's so obnoxious.
9) Find out you didn't do quite so well as you would have liked on the Language Study test.
10) Eat a mediocre lunch since you have to wait until 1pm on Wednesdays to avoid the crowd, but all the food is gone, instead of 11:30 when everything is fresh and no one else is in the RU.
11) Study for your phonetics lab exam.
12) Take said exam.  Feel like you did at least ok.
13) Go home.
14) Wait for host mom to return from Paris and hope she's in a good mood.
15) She wasn't but you watch the news, eat not-so-good corn on the cob, drink two glasses of pink wine, and eat ice cream together anyway to commemorate Obama's reelection.

I'd say it was a pretty average day.  Yes, everyone else in the rest of the world was for Obama.  The Italians were happy, the Colombians were happy, the French were happy... everybody's happy here.

Llyfergell and llefrith

Which means "library" and "milk" in Welsh.  Ask me to say them out loud when you see me next, it's hilarious. =)

So after London, Megan and I caught an 11:30pm train to Bangor, Wales!  Not after a 4 hour connection in Wolverhampton, though... starting at 2am.  Haha.  Oh well.  Now I can say I've slept in a train station!  Or tried to at least.  

Megan and I at 2am in Wolverhampton. Oh joy!

We finally made it to Bangor around 8:30am and went grocery shopping.  Then we didn't have anything better to do, so we took the train to:

This place.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.  Which translates to "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave" or something like that.

I almost fell on to the tracks... not really.

And of course we had to participate in Chi Delta Monday together.

There wasn't much else to do there, haha.  But now I can say I've been!!!

Tuesday Megan had her outdoor pursuits class all day, so while she was out climbing mountains and stuff, I took the bus to Caernarfon.  To signal a bus, you do not wave at them, you stick your hand out straight. I may have made the bus driver mad, but hey I'm a newbie. Cut me some slack man.  Anyway. Caernarfon was really neat, it's a freaking old castle where the Prince of Wales has been crowned since forever. Meaning Prince Charles was crowned there!

Eagle Tower, supposed birthplace of Edward I. I think.

That round thing is where Prince Charles and the Queen stood!

Pretty view.

Then I wandered around the city for a while, but it was getting rather chilly so I ended up heading home around 1pm and waiting for Megan to get back.  Then we made dinner and just hung out the rest of the night.  Then Wednesday it was rainy and gross all day so we just stayed home and played Nancy Drew. Which was fine.  

Thursday we went to the pier for fresh scones and hot cocoa!  And when I say fresh, they were still steaming when we were served.  So delicious.

After that, we climbed a huge hill to get to "Roman Camp," where we had a nice (if somewhat foggy) view of the straight. 

That little building is where we had the scones!

And fish and chips for lunch of course!

After lunch, I sat in on Megan's Welsh language class, where I learned such useful phrases as "Dw i'n licio nofio efo dolffins" - "I like to swim with dolphins." and "Ga'i beint o lager plis!" - "I'd like a pint of lager, please!"  Hahaha it was really fun though. Welsh is a crazy language.

Thursday night I finished Nancy Drew and Megan and I had hot chocolate with real marshmallows! Since she got two bags of them in two care packages haha.  She ended up sending me home with popcorn (SO HAPPY)!

Friday I went home.  I was nervous about getting between the train stations in London and Paris, but it ended up being really easy. Thankfully. I made it home on time and went straight to bed!  

It was great to be away and see a friend from my "other" life back home.  She's having a great time in Wales, too, but we're both excited to get home.

Now I have to actually go back to school and face my exam results... yikes!  Cross your fingers for me!