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