"Summer" classes have ended!

                Woo! Done with my first round of classes! Since the fall semester here starts in October and goes until the end of January, I had to take a September summer course in order to have a full US semester worth of classes when I come home right before Christmas. And I made it through September! The September class is a little different from the regular semester because it is very focused on the language and the only class I had that wasn’t language was civilization and class was almost always 9-5 whereas the real semester will have more diverse courses and less intensive hours. We don’t have our certificates back yet but we got all our assignments back and I think I did pretty well J

                Friday evening we had an International Soiree where people performed skits, dances or songs to represent their country. Seeing as my brother took all performing talents in the family, I just watched but all the performances were awesome! The funniest was a skit that a class did about the first day with your host family; hilarious. The cutest was a really awkward and adorable Taiwanese kid singing a song form a musical and he totally rocked it out and my favorite American group was definitely a couple who sung a duet of A Whole New World from Aladdin. Fantastic.

                Afterwards we all went out for the last time with the students who are not staying for the regular semester and the goodbyes were hard but we all had a lot of fun. We have a week until regular classes start so what seems like everyone is going on some sort of adventure this week. I’m leaving for Ireland in a few hours (can’t wait!!!) a group of kids are going to Marseille, some are going to Belgium, others to paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels, all over. So look out this week Europe, CIDEF is coming! (CIDEF is out program title.)

                So I suppose you want to know a little about my Ireland trip J I am leaving in three hours and am taking train, airplane and bus to stay at the University of Limerick until Friday with my friend Lauren from home! We both happened to be studying abroad in Europe this semester so we HAD to see each other and who needs a better excuse than that to see Ireland? My birthday falls during this week too so happy birthday to me! A good friend, a new country, and a week off, can you imagine a better way to spend a birthday?

                Alright well I have to go finish getting ready so be ready of lots of pictures and great stories when I get back J

Studying, beaches and castles, oh my!

Wow have they been keeping us busy! Class is (almost) always until 5 and there are (almost) always activities for international students afterwards. For example I went bowling last week and it was great! A lot of people had never bowling before so I felt like a champ! Yesterday was presentation day for these projects we've been working on... guess who saved the unfinished version to her USB instead of the beautiful finished one. You guessed it, this girl! My group took it well (we were in the middle of the presentation when we realized) and I hope we spoke well enough to override that little fiasco.. But other than that things are great! I went on an excursion Saturday to the Golfe du Morbihan on the coast in Bretagne!

It was amazing! We went on a boat tour of the Golfe, had lunch on the beach after which we got to explore a bit and I collected a few shells and saw a crab or two! Then we went and saw some megalithic rock formations. They were sweet! Huge and all lined up perfectly for a solstice? Haha no one knows what they are for. After that we went to Vannes, the capital of Bretagne. We had two free hours to explore the old village and try some regional pastries - SO GOOD! Then we headed back to Angers and I went out to eat with some friends! It was a great time but suuuuper exhausting. 

Sunday was great too because my host family took me to a castle 20 minutes away! I got to invite my friend Min with me, she is from South Korea. We had a great time! It was beautiful and an interesting mix of middle ages style architecture and 18th century styled rooms. There was a room with the ceiling painted and apparently one of the stories is a barber who talked so much that he accidently cut one of his clients and so the moral is to never do two things at once because you can’t concentrate on both at the same time. Haha it was a good time.

In other news my flat mate moved out…she got yelled at from trying to do the laundry (a past student tried and broke our host mother’s dryer so she is very strict on students not using her washer and dryer) and so Kacey got all freaked out and they just have very conflicting personalities to start so now she lives in a girls’ dorm. But things are well between me and my host family so no worries! Wee! Now it is picture time!      

Journées du Patrimoine

         Wow, where to start? This week seems like it went by so fast! Tuesday night we had another soirée, this one was "chic" themed and it was so much fun! My classes have been going well, we go through so much material though, it is har to retain everything! We had our first test on friday though and it went alright-ish? I don't find out my grade until tomorrow and grammar is hard so I don't want to jinx it  :)
         I didn't go on any excursions this weekend but that was alright because there was plenty to do in town! Saturday it rained most of the day so a friend of mine invited me and a couple other kids over for lunch! His host family gave us full rein in the kitchen and we made couscous and cut up a ton of vegitables, then we for dessert his host parents came down and we share a pie. It was a lot of fun and was super interesting because all of us were from different countries so we had a lot to talk about! 
         After lunch I met another friend Min at the school and we went downtown to check out a museum. This weekend is les Journées du Patrimoine, which is a holiday throughout France to encourage people to check out their history. All museums, private historic homes, and castles are free to get into! We didn't have any time to see anything other than a museum Saturday, but it was really cool and we went out to eat afterwards and we had a really good time! So much so that we decided to meet up again Sunday (today) to check out a cathedral, the castle, and whatever else we had time and engery for. My flatmate Kacey came too and we had a great time. We went to the cathedral first, then the castle, then an art gallery! The castle was my favorite, probably because they were selling comic books about the castle and the authors were there to sign it! (insert excited nerd dance here) 
And now, for what you've all been waiting for; the highlight photo reel!

 

 

   

Alllll the Cultural Activities!

The past three days have been so busy!! Between class, exploring the town and my first excursion I have barely had time to think! We have done lots of cultural activities (events that get you in touch with the culture as well as the language,) so my French professors back home will be super happy! :) Thursday night the monatrices (the french students studying to be French as a second language teachers that help out with our program,) set up a  french themed soirée, so we all went out together and wore blue, white and red. It was super fun and it was nice to hang out with other students outside of school. Yesterday (Friday) night after school we had our first excursion!! We went to Puy de Fou, this huge outdoor play about the life of a guy named Jacques as he lives through the important chapters in France's history. It was AMAZING! Here are some pictures:

Today I hung out in town with my flatmate, Kacey (we live with the same family) and a couple of friends of ours. We went shopping and enjoyed some shows happening in the streets! This weekend is a festival called Accroche-Coeurs (Ah-crosh-cur) which roughly means "Catcher of Hearts". It is a local festival to bring the town together and bring in tourists. It was awesome! We saw a couple artists showing off their work, band after band was playing at a stage set up in a big open space and we even saw some acrobats!

A painter working and
displaying his work!

 

Whirlwind!

Time is moving so quickly! It is incredible here! It has been in the 90s the past two days, which is a little hot for me but I have not seen a single cloud. It's like magic! Everything is seriously gorgeous! So I will run through the past two days with you all, we have been so busy! Yesterday morning started a litte rough because I had the time zone wrong on my phone and I woke up and hour late and had only 5 minutes to get ready!! My host mom had set out some of a baguette for me though so I was able to eat on our way to school. We are only a 5-10 minute walk away! So that is fantastic!

      Once there, the administrators of our program welcomed us and we had our placement test! It was pretty difficult, however I did pretty well and placed into the 5th of 7 levels! So that was exciting! Next we had lunch in the staff cafeteria and it was incredible! Four courses, just for lunch! We had fruits and veggies for an appetizer, then some cut up pork in a yummy sauce on some grains, followed by cheese and baguette, then apricot tartes! I was glad they gave us so much food though because next they took us on a tour of the town to show us all the practical stuff like the post office, banks, where to get school supplies and food close to the school and where all the best shopping is (CANNOT WAIT!) After that we hung out at school for a while then I went with some girls to go get a phone and browse some shops! So that was fun and we made it home just in time for dinner (delicious, of course) and I fell asleep soon after!

     Today we started classes! At first I wasn't sure where to go, so me and another kid in my class (from Germany!) searched around until we had to ask a librarian for help! But we found it alright after that and classes were great! So far I just have Langue, laboratoire, civilisation, and oral expression. Once the regular semester starts in October I will get more selection. My classes are at different times and in different orders every day so that will be cool to switch things up, however they are mostly in the same few rooms in the main building on campus. (Le Palais - can you believe they have a building called the Palace?!) So now that I am sure you are dying to see some photos here you go:

Le Palais

My first glimpse of le Chateau d'Angers!

Trains are hard.

I made it! My travels were relatively smooth, I made some friends on the plane from Philly to Paris since all the people in my row were either study abroad students like me, or going on a vacation! That was awesome because helped relax me on the plane and we were able to help each other out navigating the Charles de Gaule Airport (which is crazy!)

The worst part of my journey by far was the train. I was the only one of my new friends riding it so I had to find it on my own and my first issue was figuring out where to go since Angers was going to be one of many stops and I didn't know where to find what gate I needed. I figured it out though by asking an employee and made it to my train with ten minutes to spare! My next trouble was finding my seat! I couldn't find my coach and by the time I did we were already moving! But it all worked out and I arrived with all my luggage and no other issues! Phew!

My host family is great so far! They are an older couple and super sweet. They talk slowly for us and Mme is walking us to school in the morning and M. is really funny and gives us a hard time about our state capitols. (He had a hard time believing Portland wasn't the capital of Oregon.) AND if you are wondering why I keep saying "we;" I have a flat mate! Her name is Kacey and she is from Oregon studying international relations. She is a sweetheart so far, we just have to work on not speaking english to each other!

So that's all I have for today, I did take a few pictures of the town so I shall include those tomorrow after we take an official tour! For now I will just put up the one of my room and my view! It's amazing!