Let's be real: a rant

Before reading: I realize that this entry is has a negative attitude, just what I've been trying to avoid, but I was having a bad day when I wrote it so, as you should with everything I write, take this with a grain of salt. Also know that I am posting it with good intent: to be honest with myself and others about the fluctuations of emotion in the study abroad experience. Our program coordinators call it culture shock. Also, I know I make it sound like my life at home is less than optimal which is untrue. However, I felt like I was lyon to everyone when I wasn't including the bad days as well as the good.


There are 117 days left until I leave France. Of those days, 41 are vacation (aka I won't be in Rennes, not even counting a few 3-day weekends).

That's not the point of this entry. Today I'm having one of my homesick days and I want to make sure whoever reads this has an accurate depiction of the study abroad (and host family) experience, at least for me.

I just wanted to say that it's not all fun and games. Sometimes it can be very frustrating, confusing and, in a word, heavy.

Usually when things are frustrating, they're little things that could easily be handled on a normal day but if I'm tired or hungry, forget about it. Examples: the overly crowded university restaurant, people literally pushing me out of the way in stores, silly French ways of doing things that are different from American, and using a fork and knife properly.

Things that are confusing usually stem from cultural misunderstandings. For me, that happens a lot in my home. I like my host family and I enjoy the time I spend with them, but according to my friends some of the rules I have to follow are weird and not typical.

Examples: 

Only showering between 5:30pm and 9pm (honestly I hate that rule and I won't ever understand it)

Not being allowed to close the bathroom door in the morning when I brush my teeth

Not being allowed to eat breakfast after 10am because that's when food for lunch is prepared (even though I've never seen that happening...)

The regimented-ness of the chore lists

Doing certain things on certain days (like every Thursday trash from the bedrooms is taken out. once I told my older host sister that I didn't have much in it so it was fine. I heard her talking to my younger sister about it and she was very unusually bent out of shape about it. It was bizarre, but I feel like maybe I'm missing something...?)

The style of "talking" that my host mom and sister sometimes have: they yell at each other, like at the dinner table...and then a millisecond everything is fine. I know that isn't that weird, but I just don't like yelling I guess. 

My host parents are anti-gay marriage. They said that they don't want gay people to be able to marry because then they could adopt a baby, and babies raised by gay parents will be "psychologically traumatized."

Every Sunday my host dad jokes about how I'm not wearing a dress and that's what girls are supposed to wear on Sundays...and my host sisters and host mom actually do it. He's joking, I know, but there is a small element of seriousness to it. He's kind of not joking...but I'm not going to follow a rule like that, it's sexist. It's not a matter of dressing up, it's a matter of wearing a dress.

My host mom says my youngest host-sister, who turns 13 tomorrow, is too young to do the dishes. At 13, I think I was helping with just about every chore in the house. 

When I talk to my friends about these things they all agree that it's just a very traditional French family, despite the nontraditional family structure.

Since I'm making a point of being honest, I'll throw it out there and say that sometimes I just don't want to be here. The rules, the schedules, the routines, they make me feel so stressed and uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong: I have no problems with doing chores, following loose schedules, and following rules.

And I'll be honest, again: I don't spend as much time as I'd like to with my host mom in the evenings. I just don't know what to talk to her about; I don't like what she watches on TV, I don't like being preached to about what's right and wrong in this world. I enjoy dinner time because I can just sit and listen to conversations and pipe in sometimes if I need to, but a good 25% of the time I am zoned out, in my own head thinking in English. If I lived in a dorm, I might actually have something to talk to the other residents about.

I'm slowly making French friends though, it's just taking some time.

Sometimes I think I've gotten over the culture shock, then I have a day like today where it all bubbles up and I think "what I wouldn't give to be at home on the couch watching tv with my family right now." It's funny though, because literally just this morning I was walking around thinking, "wow, I'm in France. This is so awesome, I can't believe it."

But again, in all honesty, I'm not immersing myself in the language as much as I should be. However, I'm not sure if my brain could handle all of this emotion without being able to process it and de-stress in English. Speaking is a difficulty for me in English, so when I try to do it in French sometimes it's just a train wreck. If I'm with people who I know aren't going to judge me, I'm fine. If I'm with professors or my host parents, not so much. Sometimes it's also hard for me to understand people, like store workers or whatever, when they're talking to me. A way to help that would be to watch French movies at night but my brain just can't handle it. I know my limits and what I'm capable of, I just need to take this at my own pace. Another part of it is that when I don't have something to say, I just don't say anything (in English or in French).

And that contradiction right there, that's what's so confusing and heavy. Luckily I don't feel this way that often though.

Living in a host family is hard, and to anyone considering doing it I would greatly advise you to think long and hard about who you are as a person and if you could actually handle living in a new house with new rules and new people.

Living here really is helping me get to know myself as a person though, so I'm glad I did it and I'm trying not to let the little things bug me too much. It's not worth it anyway, cause I'M IN FRANCE!

I'm not trying to give the impression that my host family isn't nice, they're all very nice agreeable people. Monique has done and continues to do great things for other people, including me by allowing me to stay in her home and learn from her family, but she's just not the type of person with whom I get along on a deep level. I'm sure some of it is cultural, some of it is generational, and some of it is just human nature.

What's important is that I'm learning what I like and don't like in other people and their lifestyles, which will (and is) helping me figure out and define who I am based on what I'm not.

I just wanted to put it out there, that I'm not trying to give anyone the illusion that my life here is all sugar-coated chocolate-filled French pastry, sometimes it's the crappy kind that you get out of a vending machine.

Valentine's Day!

So as I'm sure you know, today is Valentine's Day.

My friends and I decided to do a sort of "secret Santa" except for choosing our Valentines! I really love coming up with gifts for people so I was pretty happy :) And for some reason, I decided to take a picture of my breakfast.

As usual, I had cereal. Here you can see our cloth napkins and the different containers that milk and orange juice come in! And also the REAL CHUNKS OF CHOCOLATE in my cereal. So good.

I had Tanya for my Valentine, but I forgot to take pictures of what I got and made for her. I'm sure she'll post them soon enough so I'll update soon. However I'll just tell you now: I got her an 8-pack of Bueno bars, a candy bar she really loves, a Brittany shot glass (don't worry people, she's 21 :p) and I made her a coloring book :)

Amanda had me though, and this is what she got:

On the left is a card all in French. Then there's chocolate (soo goooood), dried fruit (because she and I have bonded over our love of pruneaux!) and almond paste..aka marzipan. She got that because one day we were walking around the store and I told her how much I love to eat it. So she got it! I wasn't expecting the gift to be so thoughtful so I'm very very thankful to have such a great friend :)

This is the other side of the card that she made me.

And this evening, we went to go see Cyrano de Bergerac at the Theatre National de Bretagne (missing some accents, I know). I'm not in that picture, by the way.

The play was...different. It was a modern version, so all of the action took place in one big room...the setting was a mental hospital, and the inpatients put on the play. It was weird, but interesting. I would have liked to have seen the original version, because it's more romantic and it is, after all, Cyrano de Bergerac, but this was free so I'm happy with what I saw!

l'université Rennes 2

At the metro station called Villejean (the name of our campus)

These pictures are in no particular order because that is just how it works when I post from my phone and I do not feel like editing. Also, there will be a lack of contractions since I cannot seem to find the apostrophe on this French keyboard (posting from the library).

That's the library...also found the apostrophe!

School lunch: jambalaya: That shrimp was fresh, the benefits of living in Brittany! and alcohol soaked dessert again...

Building E, where I have most of my classes. Pretty, right?.........

Spiral staircases everywhere here...like the miscellaneous matter growing there (and on vitually everthing)? rainy climate...

Trash covered stairs that I take every day. But look how green the grass is! benefits of the rain

Bathroom stall art!

I will post pics of the craz and terribly laid out cafeteria soon.

In other news: the other night I made a French friend at English night at a bar called O'Connels and we talked about French milk. I was super happy because you don't often find people who are willing to talk to you about weird things like milk so you have to hold on tight when you do!

Also tonight we are going to see Cyrano de Bergerac which I am suuuuper excited to see. I'm done writing for now though, this keyboard is giving me a headache.

Dear France

I think it is time to let go of our long-standing relationship with mayonaise:

You are so much better than the fatty condiment that is associated with the one and only Paula Deen (even though you, being the "gourmand" country that you are, have no idea who she is).

In order to better understand why you so often resort to mayonaise I did some research. As it turns out you all started to enjoy this condiment back in the days of Louis XIV and a century later it was named one of the five "mother sauces." I get it...back then, flavor enhancers were needed. Not to mention being fat was a sign of wealth.

Old habits die hard, a phrase I know and understand well, but let's be real. Nowadays, the stuff comes out of a jar. Nowadays, obesity is a problem (even the French will admit it). Nowadays...we just don't need mayonaise. There are so many other sauces that I have seen here: Dijon mustard, vinaigrettes, even ketchup. Why keep resorting to mayonaise if there are so many other better options?

So, my dear friend France, put that jar of mayo back on the shelf.

You know I just want what's best for you, what's best for us. It's time to end this toxic relationship.

With love,

Holly

L'avenir

So I was just thinking about writing this post and what I would call it when I realized what the word "avenir" (for those who don't know French, it means the future) is actually composed of: à + venir (and for the non-francophones, it's like saying "to come" like, what's to come.). 

Isn't that an awesome way to say the future?

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about mon avenir and what I hope to do/how I see my life being in a lot of different ways. Since this post is going to be dense, I'll add random pictures throughout to keep you entertained!

We actually did a bit of rock climbing at St. Malo :p I cut my thumb! The rocks were super slippery because they get covered by ocean water at high tide.

It started with how my house will be run since I was thrown into a new home with new rules and customs, some that I like and some that I don't.

Things I'll try to keep from my French life:

drinking espresso, not crappy watered-down Starbucks

eating breakfast every day...

using cloth napkins, not paper ones

conserving heat by sleeping with thick blankets and wearing slippers

conserving water by showering for less time (however, I won't be shutting off the water when I shampoo like I have to hear...ugh)

not using the dryer, but hang-drying my clothes

early to bed, early to rise (although some might say that 7:15 is not early...)

having music playing (jazz, foreign) while I eat/work in my house

composting 

recycling as much as possible

eating quality cheese/meats/bread

drinking herbal tea (loose leaf) before bed

decorating my house with things from all over the world in lots of earth tones

having dessert right after dinner with everyone at the table

making sure I have an adventure every day, even a little one (today I walked around town by myself for an hour or so and discovered a bunch of new things!)

drinking wine with big meals

Lord of the Rings moment...that's a FIREPLACE. And there were two in the same room!

Things I won't be keeping from my French life:

a regimented lifestyle

any sort of house rules in general that aren't very very important (although I know this may change as time goes on)

talking about politics

only watching the news/classical music/educational programming

the Sunday ritual of staying in the house all...day...long...

showering at night (aka NEVER being able to find a good time to exercise)

living with a bunch of people (this probably stems from the fact that I usually live with 2 other people, if any at all, and now I live with 4 or 5 others...)

What this all seems to boil down to is: conserving energy, eating/drinking well, having a tranquil and flexible routine, and doing relaxing things, often. 

Do I want kids? No. Not at this point. (They would completely ruin my plans...) In fact, I can't even imagine children having any sort of role in my life over the next ten years and that's perfectly fine since I want to adopt/foster parent anyway.

My latest plan with school is: finish my French major (check), get a social work minor and an English lit major, then do the MAT at Pitt (a 1-year masters degree in education). From there, I'm not 100% sure what will happen. I could find a job teaching in the USA and live incredibly meagerly to make an attempt to pay off a good chunk of my loans for a few years (and in the summers travel throughout the world volunteering/teaching English), I could move abroad and teach English as a second language right away, or I could move abroad and just...stay there. Forever.

I was talking to one of the program coordinators yesterday and she was telling me about the year she spent in Syria (before the war) teaching French. She wants to go abroad again but for now she's doing this because it was a good opportunity. Her degrees are in teaching French as a second language and teaching English, but since she's French she didn't really have any loans....

My life might end up being like that though; different jobs every few years that will eventually add up to something.

Yay for legalized gay marriage in France! Et vive La Bretagne!

The thing about living abroad (and Charlotte, the program coordinator, confirmed this for me) is that you don't really want to do it alone. It's lonely and less safe. I have a friend who wants to teach English abroad as well, so maybe we'll do that together. And there's always Darren, I know he's going to end up abroad at some point!

Things I love about living in Europe:

You can eat this for dinner and it's so cheap, so satisfying, so delicious. It's perfect. A lot of picnic dinners like this...that's what I see in my future.

Le dimanche

Sundays can be pretty boring here, being the "sacred day" and all...

However, today was not too terribly bad! I was La Reine for the first time when we had our galette des rois today. For those of you who don't know, it's a pastry in which there is a little figurine inside and and whoever gets the figurine gets to be the king of queen. So I wrote a cardboard crown while we ate dessert :p But I got this little spiderman out of it! And the galette was delicious, it had almond paste in it mmmmm.

And I also ate rabbit for the first time! It just tasted like dark chicken meat. But it had a white wine/cream sauce and was delicious.

L'alimentation

Now it's time for the food post.

Every morning, my host mom sets the table for everyone in the house (even though we all eat at different times). She unloads the dishwasher around 7am, which can get a bit...noisy, because of the whole open-air spiral staircase thing. But it's still nice, nonetheless.

For breakfast, I always have cereal because most of the cereal my host mom buys is DELICIOUS. Chunks of real chocolate...so good.

Then during the week I have lunch at the university. (I'll add more pictures later, once I start taking them :p). You get one main plate and either 2 or 3 sides, depending on the main dish that you get. Everything I've had there is pretty good though! Way better than Pitt food, I can tell ya that. I like to get the plat du jour because then I get 3 sides (I usually get bread, a fruit or vegetable side, and a dessert---yogurt, pudding, rum-drenched-cake covered in whipped cream...). Sometimes I get cheese for a side though, when I'm feeling particularly French.

As much as I enjoy the food, sometimes I hate the cafeteria because it gets so crowded that we have to stand with trays full of food and wait for someone to get up. But that's only if the universe is particularly angry at me. Oh, and usually after I eat there I'm pretty dang full. I make sure I eat a lot because then I usually won't eat again till 7pm since they don't snack much here.

Oh, and what I just said is a lie. I feel like they snack here a lot, and it's on pain au chocolat or some equally rich pastry. The French paradox...so I don't snack a lot, and if I do I buy dried fruit.

After lunch, I usually get a coffee in the same building because it's much cheaper and very good. When I come home I'm probably going to end up buying myself an espresso machine...used, of course!

And thennnn eventually it's dinner time. A typical (winter) meal: soup, then a protein and carb (usually fish/turkey and pasta/potatoes/rice), then cheese and bread (if you want, not always), then dessert (yogurt, pudding, fruit, fruit salad, little cookies). It doesn't sound like much, but by the end of dinner I'm usually pretty stuffed.

But sometimes my host mom will switch it up for dinner. Last night we had a more adult-like dinner since the kids weren't there: different smoked meats, bread, tomatoes and lettuce. A few nights ago my host mom made this Asian-like soup which was spicy and deeelcious, and then another day she used a wok and made a stir-fry with Vermicelli noodles.



Of course since this is a food post, I cannot neglect to mention galettes/crepes/wine.

If you've read my previous posts, you've seen a galette. If you haven't, click here.

This is a crepe that Amanda and I split in Nantes. If it looks like there's a pool of butter and sugar sitting in the middle, that's because there is. There are also toasted almonds :)

And in all honesty, I haven't drank that much wine. But when I do, it's either on Sunday at lunch with my host dad or it's vin chaud (which is hot red wine with spices in it). 

A few more adjustments...

And here are updates to Email Series #2

This household is not perfect...the only household that is perfect for me are my parents' houses or when  I live on my own. I think I was in the honeymoon phase of culture shock when I wrote that. However, I don't hold it against them that it isn't the perfect household. I still reaaaalllly like it here and that's what matters, not the little things that I don't like.

I haven't been going out as much, to bars I mean, because my classes start too early and it's wayyy to expensive. I have discovered a love for mojitos though. Sugar and mint, that's literally all I taste in them. And you can make them last FOREVER by eating the mint leaves :p Oh, the college life...

Since sending the email on Jan 23, I've stuck to using the subject vous with Monique. So far she hasn't told me to use tu, which I'm supposed to wait for, so I guess I made the right decision? I use tu with my host dad though, so I still find it kind of bizarre.

Oh, and I still haven't gotten a haircut. My friend Amanda said she'd do it for me if I buy scissors, so she's been watching youtube tutorials and we'll see how it goes! I'm hoping to get that done by the end of next weekend...

And I was correct about the Nantes trip. It was VERY damp...aka freaking TEMPESTS. My friend's umbrella flipped inside-out and then broke...it was crazy. Also I forgot to mention in my other Nantes post that for dinner one night, my friends and I just bought bread, cheese, and meat (like cured ham or whatever) and had that for dinner. It was sooooo cheap (4 euro per person, unheard of!) and delicious.

Also I went to a fest-noz! (The Breton party thing, in case you forgot). I didn't dance; there were sooo many people and I didn't know the dances, but I'll also make a separate post about that because it was pretty interesting.

I still love Brittany just as much now as I did a few weeks ago! If not more...yesterday I had a crepe filled with honey. Literally filled so much that it was leaking honey out the sides...it was heaven.

Oh, and this is what I do to count my money when I'm going to pay for something. I still can't tell exactly which coin is which when they're all jumbled in my wallet so I just make a fool of myself and lay them all out, face up, on my hand.

Minor Adjustments

I've been looking through what I've posted and realized that there is A LOT that I'm missing. I'll try to post more over the next few days, but I figured I'd start now.

The plan (since it's been drilled into my head here in France that you always start by telling your reader your plan):

Go through the series of emails, one by one, and add more description/tell what has changed since then.  Starting with the post A Series of Emails

My 15 year old host sister Monica is from the Congo, but she's been living with Monique for 7 years. This weekend I met her older brother, Vincent. He lives in St. Malo and he's nice enough to take the time to talk to me :)

My 13 year old host sister's name is Morgane; she's been here for 2 years but she goes home on the weekends. Apparently when she came here she could hardly write and wasn't very good in school, but she's improved drastically (with the help of Monique) and I never would have guessed that she ever had difficulties like that.

My 12 year old host brother's name is Aurelien; he's partially blind and he also leaves on the weekends.

Sleeping is still a weird-ish thing here, or at least different from at home. I have classes at 8:30 three days a week and I always hear Monica when she gets up in the mornings around 6:30 because she lives in the attic above me.  I usually go to bed around 9:30 or 10, and every single night I wake up between the hours of 3:30 and 5:30 for no reason at all, so I usually check my email on my phone and respond to any new ones I get...I'm well aware of how weird that is.

The preliminary language course that we had for 2 weeks was a bit of a joke...but it killed time and I met some interesting professors. At the end we got to taste all kinds of Breton specialties (aka cakes with 10 pounds of butter in them and cidre --mildly alcoholic, carbonated apple cider is how I would describe it) and it was allllll freeeeee!

How'd I do on the placement test? I got into the C2 level...which is the highest possible. So woohoo! Speaking French is still pretty hard, but I'm realizing that I just have to let go of the notion that I need to speak without making mistakes which is difficult for me to do, but once I get past that I know I'll be fine.

Like I said in the last email, I still don't understand how the French are so skinny. I do feel like I might have lost a few pounds, but still how that happened is beyond me.

I'll dedicate an entire post a little later to the French traditions (that I've experienced) surrounding food and meals.

And now for your entertainment, let's play a game of find the Frenchie! Hint: there are 4. This should be rather easy for you since you may have already seen pictures of my friends...

Think you've got it? The only boy in the photo, that's Matthieu. Then behind him on the left with the black and white scarf is Pauline. To his right with the glasses is Lola, and to her right is Lise. They're the program monitors.

You can't really tell in this picture, but Pauline is adorable and very French. Matthieu is hilarious, Lola is super classy and sarcastically funny, and Lise is sort of quiet and sort of a hippie if you can't tell :p

Act Natural

Tell the four of us to just act natural and this is what you'll get.

However, take a candid photo and you'll get something like this...

Okay, it's later!

You can't study in France without doing a bit of wine tasting!

I know it looks like I wear the same outfit every day but...(at Mt. St. Michel)

With Tanya in Le jardin des Plantes (Nantes)

I've been waiting to see this fountain since 8th grade when I did a project in Ish's class on Le Jardin du Luxembourg. (Paris, with Amanda)

We found a cool cafe that I fell in love with! I got tea -- herbal, of course -- and it's brewed loose-leaf in those awesome kettles! Also tea and coffee are usually served with a little chocolate or cake. Deeelicious!

Oh, and the first bar I stepped foot in and ordered a drink was in Paris. (things I like to be able to say :p )

Lost Time

I'm realizing that my life here is pretty awesome and I have pictures to prove it...or rather my friends posted pictures to Facebook which prove it.

Anyway, to remember that fact I'm gradually going to go through and pick out pics/explain why the day/mini-adventure was awesome!

And it'll also make up for the density of some of my posts :P

Need I elaborate?

I took part in a REAL FRENCH PROTEST! I was dying the whole time.

The very beginning of our friendship! I really never would have guessed that we'd become so close, so quickly. (at an Italian restaurant in Paris)

My host mom gave me free tickets to a tourism expo outside of Rennes. We went and this is what we found! Okay by me :)

I'll leave the rest for later!

Le Mont Saint Michel et Saint Malo

Today we had an excursion with our program. Mt. St. Michel is an abbey from the middle ages...it was very overcast and rainy today and I'm too lazy to edit my photos (as per usual) so the pictures are dark. 

Mt. St. Michel is actually an island though, and during certain parts of the year it's completely surrounded by the sea. The Bretons (people of Brittany) and Normands (people of Normandy) both claim it's part of their region, but my host dad told me to say that I was in Normandy. So...there you go!

Another awesome thing is that Mt. St. Michel was actually what inspired the design for the city Minas Thrith in the Lord of the Rings! And if you know me, you know I was geeking out about it. 

On the left is the LOTR city, the right the one that I visited today (not my photo, of course). But that's the coolest thing ever right?!

We also visited St. Malo, which is an awesome beach and it's only an hour away from Rennes!

And here's a picture of my friends and I all together. Tanya on the left, Amanda on the top right, and Kelsey bottom right.

It's so awesome to walk around medieval towns, I really did feel like I was in the Lord of the Rings at certain points. There were also all kinds of little shops and cafes throughout.

Bad news though: I'm becoming  a 2 cup-a-day addict...of ESPRESSO. Oh well, c'est la vie! 

Le soleil!

It was beautiful and sunny today! A rarity in this town.

The view from my bus stop, the metro station, my morning coffee (and Tanya, one of my good friends here!), school lunch (so good) and the library! Oh, and that dessert is cake soaked in so much rum that I couldn't even eat it...

aaaa

Thought of the day

Life is one big adventure, every single day is a new experience. People come and people go so instead of being sad when they're gone, enjoy the time that you have with them. Everything and everyone in life happens for a reason, it's just up to you to find it.

Un weekend Nantais et la vie en France

Life in France is like nothing I've ever experienced before. It's pretty regimented for me since I live in a family with kids. Every day I get up and go downstairs for breakfast, which my host mom sets out. Like, she sets the table and has all the breakfast things out and I always have cereal and milk...and the cereal she buys has literally chunks of REAL chocolate in it.

Classes start tomorrow, so that's going to change things a tiny but but not too much. I'll just go to class, have lunch in the cafeteria place (the food is delicious) and then go to class/go home, eat dinner, and then do my little workshops for singing/cinema/photoshop (none of which have started yet).

But when I'm at home, the kids are usually doing their own thing so sometimes I stay downstairs and do work, sometimes I go to my room and sit on my computer, sometimes I sit in the living room with my mom and watch the news.

I've been going to bed pretty early because we start early...actually the days I have class (M,Tu,F) I start at 8:30. I also haven't started teaching english in schools yet but I'm really looking forward to it.

I like to go to bed early. Some nights I'm asleep by 10pm, and that is the BEST.

I have a core group of friends, if you haven't seen in pics or whatever, but it's Amanda, Tanya, and Kelsey. They're the girls I went to Nantes with this weekend.

The trip was really cool; we saw the castle of the last queen of Brittany (the region where I live...its called that because the celts from Britain came here), so it's really really old. We also bought souvenirs...of course the ones I bought are all food related. Little jars of jams, caramels, and a Breizh Cola class.

Breizh Cola is a type of coca cola that is made in this region. Breizh is a Breton word (the regional language of this area). I LOVE this region though, it has such a rich culture that isn't completely French. It started off as it's own nation, then eventually had to be added to France or else it would have been defeated.

But anyway, I eat a lot of galettes here. It's a regional thing. They're like crepes, except made with buckwheat flour.

Okay, so there's a joke in that. I'm not sure if I'll explain this well but...first of all, there are a lot of "phares" or lighhouses, in English, in Brittany. Since we're, ya know, completely surrounded by coast. Secondly, to be "à l'ouest" is an expression that's sort of like "not all there" sooo a little crazy. So basically it's the Breton's themselves laughing at their reputation for slight insanity...and we're also on the west coast, so that's another thing.

and the chateau

And that mote around it is real! Those pics are just from google by the way.

Some other things that are cool about Brittany is that prunes and kiwi are very plentiful and inexpensive cause they're grown here! As well as seafood.

And generally cheese in France is inexpensive, even the fancy kinds, because it's made here. Last night we didn't feel like spending so much money on dinner so we just bought bread, cheese, and meat and ate it in the hostel. It ended up being only 4 euro a person (whereas eating out can be between 9 and 12). So that was a bargain and it was delicious.

You'd like it here.

Because of all the cheap fruit and delicious food and food culture and relaxed-ness of my household. The decor in here is really global bc my host mom has been all around the world and she buys it there/people send her things. It's actually pretty cool.

And staying in a youth hostel is great because it's inexpensive...but it's not fancy, so if you ever do that don't have your expectations too high haha. Breakfast is included though. There's coffee, cereal, tartines (which is like...pretoasted bread, i don't know how to else to describe it cause that's what it is haha), orange juice, hot chocolate, bread, jam, butter, honey, tea, dried apricots, and prunes. All buffet style, so it's pretttty awesome.

Oh and yesterday I bought a watch! it was 29 euro, which is a STEAL in this country. It's white and I really like it and I feel european wearing it.

And also on Friday, our first day in Nantes, it rained allllll dayyyyy. All it every does is rain in this region because it's surrounded by coast...Nantes was way worse than Rennes though. Luckily my host mom insisted that I bring her rain jacket because my friend's umbrella literally broke because of the "tempests." It gets crazy windy and it's not uncommon to see people's umbrella's flip inside out. It's actually pretty funny! Luckily the castle we saw is a museum so we spend a good 3-4 hours in there. 

Saturday was BEAUTIFUL though. We went shopping, walked around, saw brass bands playing in the streets, saw a chalk artist, went to a huge beautiful garden, and then ate dinner/hung out in the hostel. That took up the whole day and it was really great!
That's all I can think of for now, but that's the gist of things I think...

Oh, and how a youth hostel works:

Check in is between say 8 and 10 and then later in the day, say from 3-7. Your breakfast is included, but you have to be out of the hostel by 10 and you can go back in around 3 or 4 ( so they can clean or something, I don't really know).

You get sheets to put on your bed that you use the whole time. Showers and toilets are separate out in the hallway. It's very basic but also very economical.

We got our own private room because there were 4 of us but you can end up in a room with random people you don't know also.

And also I had to participate in the blog for my program so here's the link! feel free to look through previous entries, that might give more info on what it's like here.

http://study-rennes-la.ciee.org/