And yet I didn't even need to use my inhaler.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Just a quick picture
Remember when I said everyone was smoking in the halls for Les TransMusicales? Well here's what it looked like. My friend just put up this photo.
Wrapping up
I have six days left. Well, really almost five. I've been kind of busy doing things with my friends before we all leave each other, so here we go. Just some short little blurbs.
Sunday after Les Trans was Rachel's birthday so we went to her house for cake and snacks and wine and games and Christmas songs performed by Matt on guitar and Rachel on ukelele!
Wednesday I went and saw The Hobbit! (Two days before it came out in the States. 12/12/12!) That was my reward for surviving my French History class, the final exam was that morning.
Thursday I rode the metro from one end (Kennedy!) to the other (La Poterie)! No pictures. =(
Friday was the end of the year party, so there was a performance of all the CIREFE clubs (music, choir, theater, cinema, journalism). The theater kids did a part of Cyrano and I was excited that I recognized the lines in French when I had seen the show in English. Anyway. After the spectacle we FINALLY ate at Creperie St. Georges like I've been wanting to since the beginning! I had a George Perros, which had beef, peppers, onions, and cheddar cheese. And a glass of Cote du Rhone red wine.
Then I went to L'Espace discotheque and danced until 1am! Probably not the best idea since I'm a little sick but it was super fun and it's my last weekend in Rennes so I figure I should do stuff. Yesterday I went to Jenny's to bake and watch movies. We watched Love Actually and Intouchables (french). At the end of Love Actually, they show scenes of people meeting their loved ones at the airport. My friend Matt (other Matt) turned to me looking like he was about to cry and said, "That's going to be us so soon!" I gave him a big hug and said, "I know."
I can't wait for that moment.
Friday, December 14, 2012
This doesn't have anything to do with France, but read it anyway.
Friends, family, possibly strangers. Please forgive me for what follows, as it is a shameless plea for money.
No, not for myself, but for my cause.
As some of you (probably many of you) know, I am very involved in Relay For Life at my school, Doane College. For those of you who don't know, Relay is a world-wide event affiliated with the American Cancer Society, which aims to not only provide funds to researchers around the country looking for cures to cancer, but also provides valuable services to cancer patients and their families. Some examples include Hope Lodges, which are housing for patients receiving care far from home, and Look Better, Feel Better, which helps cancer patients receiving chemotherapy feel confident about their changed appearance. Just to name two.
Last year, I was a member of the Executive Planning Committee for Doane's event, and we managed to raise nearly $75,000. Our little school of 1,000 or so students once again became not only the top fundraising school per capita in our division, but in the entire nation! Unbelievable, and wonderful.
This year I am the Executive Co-Chair, which means that when I get back to the States, I will be diving in to the planning process headfirst, and in the highest leadership position no less! I worked hard over the summer to make sure things went smoothly without me, of course. ;) And so far it seems like they have! I'm so excited to get back into it. Relay is one of my favorite things about Doane.
I am also on a fundraising team, which I founded as a freshman and lead as captain for the last two years. We've successfully raised over $1,000 each year! I've stepped out of the captain position this year, but I'm still planning on being highly involved. And part of that involvement includes asking for money. So I'm taking advantage of my wide audience here to ask for your support.
I Relay for my dad, who is a survivor of non-hodgkin's lymphoma; my good friend's dad, who lost his battle to the same form of cancer; my grandma, who succumbed to breast cancer; and for everyone else who has been, is, or will be affected by cancer. Please consider donating to me and my team, the Minions, or even buying a luminary in a loved one's name, by clicking on the link below.
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=48673&pg=personal&px=9078219
Relay For Life of Doane College takes place on April 12, 2013 in Haddix Recreation Center.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail!
cali.neuberger@doane.edu
And thanks for following my French journey. All of your support means so much. =) I'm down to the last week! This time next Saturday I'll be on a plane back to the States. Definitely bound to a bittersweet moment. Stay tuned.
No, not for myself, but for my cause.
As some of you (probably many of you) know, I am very involved in Relay For Life at my school, Doane College. For those of you who don't know, Relay is a world-wide event affiliated with the American Cancer Society, which aims to not only provide funds to researchers around the country looking for cures to cancer, but also provides valuable services to cancer patients and their families. Some examples include Hope Lodges, which are housing for patients receiving care far from home, and Look Better, Feel Better, which helps cancer patients receiving chemotherapy feel confident about their changed appearance. Just to name two.
Last year, I was a member of the Executive Planning Committee for Doane's event, and we managed to raise nearly $75,000. Our little school of 1,000 or so students once again became not only the top fundraising school per capita in our division, but in the entire nation! Unbelievable, and wonderful.
This year I am the Executive Co-Chair, which means that when I get back to the States, I will be diving in to the planning process headfirst, and in the highest leadership position no less! I worked hard over the summer to make sure things went smoothly without me, of course. ;) And so far it seems like they have! I'm so excited to get back into it. Relay is one of my favorite things about Doane.
I am also on a fundraising team, which I founded as a freshman and lead as captain for the last two years. We've successfully raised over $1,000 each year! I've stepped out of the captain position this year, but I'm still planning on being highly involved. And part of that involvement includes asking for money. So I'm taking advantage of my wide audience here to ask for your support.
I Relay for my dad, who is a survivor of non-hodgkin's lymphoma; my good friend's dad, who lost his battle to the same form of cancer; my grandma, who succumbed to breast cancer; and for everyone else who has been, is, or will be affected by cancer. Please consider donating to me and my team, the Minions, or even buying a luminary in a loved one's name, by clicking on the link below.
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=48673&pg=personal&px=9078219
Relay For Life of Doane College takes place on April 12, 2013 in Haddix Recreation Center.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail!
cali.neuberger@doane.edu
And thanks for following my French journey. All of your support means so much. =) I'm down to the last week! This time next Saturday I'll be on a plane back to the States. Definitely bound to a bittersweet moment. Stay tuned.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
SUPERPOZE
This was the first act we saw last night at Les Trans. Fun to dance to! And watch other people dance!
Les TransMusicales
So last night I went to that big famous music festival I was so excited about. Sally and Jenny were my dates for the evening. Turned out to be not quite what I was hoping for (seems like the theme for the semester...) but it was still pretty fun. An experience to add to the list. At least the first and last acts we saw were pretty good!
Before the concert, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant We were laughing because the guy was obviously turning people away because he didn't feel like serving them (however I don't blame him in the least as he was all alone in the place). We were also laughing because of all the franglish we kept speaking on accident. Then we took the metro to the place where the shuttles were, as the Parc Expo where all the shows were is pretty far out of town. So we got there around 9:15 or so I think, and it was pretty empty (and still very clean, more on that later). We checked out the "lounge area" (there were lots of cool, pretty lights!) before heading to Hall 9 to hear some music!! When we got there, a guy who goes by Superpoze was doing a techno set. It was actually really fun, and there weren't too many people in the room yet.
Then the night got less fun. We went to another hall just in time to see an act leave the stage, and found out that there was nothing else going on for another half hour, except a band back in Hall 9 where we had just come from. So we went back to the lounge area, grabbed a drink, and headed over there, hoping it would be something good! Turns out it was just weird. More techno but with a guy in a silver suit and large mustache singing weird lyrics. Soooo we left there.
We went back to the lounge area to get some water, and I think at this point is when all the vomit started appearing on the floor. Sorry for that lovely image, but I guess that's what you expect at a music festival like that? Oh, also, everyone was smoking in all the halls (I swear France is going to give me lung cancer... knock on wood). I think this was about 11:00 by then, and we sat there for a minute before heading over to Hall 3 to catch the end of The 1969 Club. I liked them alright, but we only heard 2 songs. They were a little more punk rock, which was refreshing after a lot of techno. So after that was over we went to try and catch another act, St. Lo, which turned out to be some weird techno jazz hip hop. I really didn't like that at all.
Finally we wandered back over to Hall 9 to see the band we left leave the stage and another techno DJ (in a mask, of course), take over. He was entertaining enough, but what was more entertaining was the fact that the security guard was hitting on Sally. We walked through that hall at least 4 times, so he saw us each time we passed. He stopped Sally twice to say something flirty to her. We sat in the stadium seating this time around, right behind a guy totally passed out drunk (his friend kept smacking him to wake up, but he wasn't moving, nice). What I did find cool was that the whole hall was full by this time, and all the lights were going and everyone was jumping up and down. A good image. This was still masked techno guy.
FINALLY the time came to see the band that I actually looked up before we came and wanted to see. On the way back over to Hall 3 we saw a guy from our program who has a reputation for partying hard. He looked shocked to see us, and we had a hilariously awkward conversation before leaving him to get trashed (he was sober at the time) and "rage his face off." We got a good place in the room to see the band. They were called The Struts and they didn't disappoint. They aren't my favorite new band or anything but they were much more entertaining than anything else we saw that night (including the guy in the Pikachu suit, or the guy wearing a flowered bonnet). The frontman reminded me of a cross between Russell Brand and Mick Jagger. AND THEY DID A COVER OF TWIST AND SHOUT (the Beatles song, of course). I think that was the highlight of the night.
Then we left, because it was 1:30 and the buses and metro stopped running at 2am, and none of us wanted to stick around until 5am when they started up again. Shame, there was another band I would have liked to see but things were getting weird. On our way out, there was a guy laying in the grass, obviously on drugs, happy as a clam. We giggled but it was really sad.
I managed to make it on the metro at exactly 2am, thankfully. Downtown was still hopping when I walked through, so that was nice. I'd rather walk through a crowd of drunk people than walk alone, believe it or not. I walked in the front door, texted everyone to let them know I was safe, and went to sleep!
I'll post again later to share pictures/videos (from youtube) of some of the music I saw.
Much love and TWELVE DAYS LEFT!!!!!!!!
Before the concert, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant We were laughing because the guy was obviously turning people away because he didn't feel like serving them (however I don't blame him in the least as he was all alone in the place). We were also laughing because of all the franglish we kept speaking on accident. Then we took the metro to the place where the shuttles were, as the Parc Expo where all the shows were is pretty far out of town. So we got there around 9:15 or so I think, and it was pretty empty (and still very clean, more on that later). We checked out the "lounge area" (there were lots of cool, pretty lights!) before heading to Hall 9 to hear some music!! When we got there, a guy who goes by Superpoze was doing a techno set. It was actually really fun, and there weren't too many people in the room yet.
Then the night got less fun. We went to another hall just in time to see an act leave the stage, and found out that there was nothing else going on for another half hour, except a band back in Hall 9 where we had just come from. So we went back to the lounge area, grabbed a drink, and headed over there, hoping it would be something good! Turns out it was just weird. More techno but with a guy in a silver suit and large mustache singing weird lyrics. Soooo we left there.
We went back to the lounge area to get some water, and I think at this point is when all the vomit started appearing on the floor. Sorry for that lovely image, but I guess that's what you expect at a music festival like that? Oh, also, everyone was smoking in all the halls (I swear France is going to give me lung cancer... knock on wood). I think this was about 11:00 by then, and we sat there for a minute before heading over to Hall 3 to catch the end of The 1969 Club. I liked them alright, but we only heard 2 songs. They were a little more punk rock, which was refreshing after a lot of techno. So after that was over we went to try and catch another act, St. Lo, which turned out to be some weird techno jazz hip hop. I really didn't like that at all.
Finally we wandered back over to Hall 9 to see the band we left leave the stage and another techno DJ (in a mask, of course), take over. He was entertaining enough, but what was more entertaining was the fact that the security guard was hitting on Sally. We walked through that hall at least 4 times, so he saw us each time we passed. He stopped Sally twice to say something flirty to her. We sat in the stadium seating this time around, right behind a guy totally passed out drunk (his friend kept smacking him to wake up, but he wasn't moving, nice). What I did find cool was that the whole hall was full by this time, and all the lights were going and everyone was jumping up and down. A good image. This was still masked techno guy.
FINALLY the time came to see the band that I actually looked up before we came and wanted to see. On the way back over to Hall 3 we saw a guy from our program who has a reputation for partying hard. He looked shocked to see us, and we had a hilariously awkward conversation before leaving him to get trashed (he was sober at the time) and "rage his face off." We got a good place in the room to see the band. They were called The Struts and they didn't disappoint. They aren't my favorite new band or anything but they were much more entertaining than anything else we saw that night (including the guy in the Pikachu suit, or the guy wearing a flowered bonnet). The frontman reminded me of a cross between Russell Brand and Mick Jagger. AND THEY DID A COVER OF TWIST AND SHOUT (the Beatles song, of course). I think that was the highlight of the night.
Then we left, because it was 1:30 and the buses and metro stopped running at 2am, and none of us wanted to stick around until 5am when they started up again. Shame, there was another band I would have liked to see but things were getting weird. On our way out, there was a guy laying in the grass, obviously on drugs, happy as a clam. We giggled but it was really sad.
I managed to make it on the metro at exactly 2am, thankfully. Downtown was still hopping when I walked through, so that was nice. I'd rather walk through a crowd of drunk people than walk alone, believe it or not. I walked in the front door, texted everyone to let them know I was safe, and went to sleep!
I'll post again later to share pictures/videos (from youtube) of some of the music I saw.
Much love and TWELVE DAYS LEFT!!!!!!!!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
What I've been up to
Sorry again for the delay between posts. I don't know what got into me! So I'm going to try to do a quick recap of what I've been up to the last couple of weeks.
The Thursday after Thanksgiving (I think) I went ice skating with some people. We were five Americans, two French girls (I have French friends!), a Syrian, and a Colombian. It was the first time ice skating for the Colombian girl and the Syrian boy, and it kind of blew my mind that I was there, holding their hands and helping them learn. That's one cool thing about being here: meeting people from all over the world.
Lisa, Laura (From Colombia), Rachel, and Me
Two Thursdays ago, I went to Les Champs Libres with Sally and Jenny. There we saw the Bretagne museum, the Dreyfus affair exhibit, and an exhibit about photography in Bretagne. I was excited about that one because it reminded me a lot of what I did over the summer for my internship at the Durham.
Cameras!
After that we went to the Haricot Rouge for some hot chocolate, brownies, and cards. We had time to kill before we went to see a movie.
From out the window, we were watching someone film some kind of movie or something. It seemed pretty dramatic because there was a guy and a girl on the ground in front of a car, and the guy was holding the girl and like screaming. Oh the drama! Then we still had more time to kill, so we went to the Christmas market.
Pepe Noel!!
The movie we saw was called Populaire, and it was so adorable. It was set in 1959, and it was about a girl who wanted to be a secretary and could type really fast on the typewriter and so she like won some competitions and stuff. And that was two weeks ago I think. Unfortunately I can't remember everything.
This most recently past Sunday, I went to St. Just to see some more rocks.
It was super pretty there. I was glad to get out of the house.
This week wasn't too exciting, if I remember correctly.
Eating truffles on the steps of the Opera.
Thursday I went to La Gacilly and Rochefort en Terre to see the artisan shops and Christmas lights. I don't really have any pictures because my iPod takes terrible pictures in the dark and I wasn't smart enough to bring my real camera, unfortunately. Because it was really gorgeous. Sorry =(
We saw Anna Karenina last night, it was really good. Tonight I am going to the TransMusicales, a big famous music festival here in Rennes. I'm pretty excited! I'll try to blog about that right away before I forget anything. Haha.
Two weeks left. Here's hoping they go pretty fast, pretty smoothly, and I don't cry too much. (I've been crying a lot. Gotta admit that. I'm very, very homesick despite all the things I've been doing.)
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