End/Beginning?

Dear faithful blog followers,

I'm afraid I have to bring this blog to a close. I'm sorry it's taken me so long since my return to write this post (well I guess it hasn't been that long...about a week now). I am slowly readjusting to life in the United States, but France is missing dearly to me. I miss my friends, my host family, and not having to drive anywhere. I also miss galettes. But that goes without saying. Haha. Fortunately while my mom was here, my host mom taught me how to make them. I failed miserably, and all in all it was a pretty hilarious evening. She gave me the little tool thing I need to make them as well as some of the flour I'll need, so now I just have to practice.

I will give you a few highlights of my mom's visit. I met her at the airport in Paris, and thank goodness I did...I'm not sure her jet-lagged non-French-speaking self could have made it past the train station without me. In fact I was the leader and almost always in charge during the trip, which I think is very funny. She was a pretty good sport about it though, most of the time.

We did a lot of lovely things in Paris, including some things that I had intended to do all of the other times I'd been but never got to do, like go to Versailles. It is completely absurd and definitely worth the visit. Also while we were in Paris I took advantage of my E.U. status for the last time and got in free to just about everything. Love that.

The weather was completely perfect during the whole trip, which totally blows my mind because that is so uncharacteristic of France. Well, I'm certainly not complaining.

After a few days in Paris, we headed off on a train to Nice. It was a long train ride, but the train went along the southern coast, which is absurdly beautiful. I hadn't even gotten off the train and I was already scheming about how I could possibly live there someday. Nice was really great...you can definitely tell that it's Italy's next-door neighbor. We ate a lot of great Italian food, including at this restaurant we happened upon on the harbor that turned out to be a vegetarian restaurant (in France!?!??) with a surprise menu. That meal turned out to be 5 courses, each one unbelievably delicious. We just cracked up every time they brought us more food, because we had no idea when it was going to end. Finally, stuffed to the brim, I asked our waiter if we could share the desert, and his response was "no! of course not!"

Then we headed back up to Rennes to meet my host family. I'm not sure how it was for my mom, because I often forgot to translate, but I think she had a good time nonetheless. My host family was very generous and wanted to make sure her experience was a good one. The next day my host mom drove us and Eric to Mont Saint Michel and Saint-Malo. That evening I had my last dinner with them, and the whole family came over. Ahh it was hard to say goodbye. Except they all said "à bientôt" instead of goodbye. Thank goodness for that.

We spend the next day strolling around Rennes. It was very strange without all of my friends there, but we had a nice day. And then we headed back to Paris, where we struggled to get all of our luggage through the metro (horrible idea...never do that). Four different strangers helped us get things up and down stairs and through gates. My impression of Parisians was totally altered at the last minute. Turns out they are pretty nice folk who are willing to lend a hand. Very fashionable, nice folk. Hehe.

Leaving France was awful, but I know I'll be back. Nothing felt permanent as I was leaving...catching a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower for the last time at sunrise the morning I left didn't really feel like a goodbye.

I miss a lot of things about France, but most of all the language. When I landed in the United States, I definitely accidentally spoke French to an airport employee. Oops. I am going to have to search out francophones in Charleston this summer. Either that or my poor brother is going to receive the brunt of my language frustration (of which he will understand about 50%).

Thank you for sticking with me on this journey! I still have lots to say and plenty of stories to tell, so if you are interested, feel free to come find me, give me a phone call, shoot me an email. All I ask is please don't pose the question "How was France?" I will reply with "Do you have 6 hours and a lot of coffee?"

Now I will be like the French and say à bientôt!

<3 becca

Summer...?

Well, this is it. The next time you hear from me, I will be back in the States. I feel so weird about this. Leaving, that is. Friday morning (the day after tomorrow) I am leaving Rennes to meet my mom in Paris, and then we are going to travel for a week in Paris, Nice, Rennes, Saint Malo, etc. It's going to be really great. I just can't really handle leaving Rennes and all of my friends here. I adore the people in my program, and we live in every corner of the United States, so it's going to be hard to see some of them. My whole concept of distance has sort of disappeared since I've been in Europe though. Hopping on a plane to Seattle doesn't really seem like that big of a deal to me anymore. I'm sure being back in the U.S. will be a wake-up call though. Part of me says that I'm going back to real life, that life in France isn't real. But when I think about it, my life is in France right now. But leaving doesn't feel permanent at all. As I left campus for the last time this afternoon, I had the weirdest feeling that I would be back here. So au revoir, Rennes. A plus....

I'll be back to tell you about my "reverse culture shock" experiences. Hehe.

Les Chateaux de la Loire

This past weekend, we went on an excursion to the Loire Valley to see the chateaux. We saw four in total: Brissac, Villandry, Chenonceau, and Amboise. We saw the first two on Saturday and spent the night in Tours. I wish we could have spent some more time in Tours because it seemed like a really cool city. There's a museum of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions there, which would be so awesome. Someday I'll go back.

The chateaux were cool...they were all very ornate, very ridiculous, and very French. The gardens, too. You know what the gardens in Versailles look like...well that is what gardens à la française are like. Last week, my art history professor was talking about how she doesn't like gardens like that because it is silly to try to tame nature in that way. And also you're not allowed to walk on the grass in France. I agree with her. They're still pretty epic though.

The last chateau we went to, Amboise, was in a little village on the Loire where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last part of his life, and he is buried there. And we saw his house, also. Apparently when he was 64, he rode a horse from Milan to Amboise, which is in like middle-northern France.

Things are winding down here. I'm now finished with four of my classes...four more to go. My friend Haley's 21st birthday is tomorrow, so hopefully we will do something exciting. I know things are going to start moving very fast, but I'm all antsy right now because everything is so strange and transition-y. Incidentally, I am turning 21 next Tuesday, and my host family is throwing me a mega-teuf on Sunday night. It is going to be the most hilarious birthday party I have ever had.

Where has the time gone?

Well, it's getting to be that time. The time when I start to feel weird about leaving. I only have two more weeks in Rennes, which I just can't even believe. There are so many things I still want to do here, and my stupid classes are inhibiting me from doing them. Because it's starting to be exam time, and all of my professors are realizing that we don't have any grades, so they have all decided to give us as many things to do as possible. This would be normal for finals time in the U.S. except that here I have SEVEN classes instead of four. Super.
But the weather hasn't been nice lately, so it's not as painful to sit in my room and study. It's May and I've had to turn the heat back on in my room. What in the world, France? Also, apparently it hails here all the time during the spring.

But things are good, for the most part. For a while I thought I had mono, and there was a big hullabaloo, but I got tested and I don't. So that's good. This weekend I'm going on an excursion with my group the the Loire valley to see the chateaux. I'm really excited! We are going to sleep in a castle. It's going to be great.

Oh, I haven't mentioned that there is a new guy living with us. He's from the Congo, he's 17, super nice, rather shy and in culture shock (he has only been in France for like 3 weeks). I think he's glad that there's another foreigner around who doesn't always know what's going on. Hehe.

I'm not sure what's going to happen when I go back to the States. I'm trying not to think about it. Yeah, there are a lot of things/people I miss a lot, but it is going to be so strange to leave France. I walk down the street and see all of the people with baguettes tucked under their arms, the perfectly trimmed trees, the cobblestone streets, the medieval houses, the carousels, bakeries on every corner...
And what am I going to do when I can't just hop on the metro to go to school or walk to the middle of town? When I won't be able to go entire days without hearing a word of English?

I guess I'd better just seize the day and take advantage of the last bit of time I have left. My mom is coming at the end, and we are going to do a bit of traveling in France together. It's going to be great! I have a lot to look forward to yet.

Barcelona (continued)

Barcelona

More Pictures (Greece still)