Bonjour à tous et toutes!
I hope that you are all doing well!
As for me, while this past week has still been fun, I've had an annoying cold since Monday, which has definitely put a dampener on everything. Nonetheless, this was still another phenomenal week in a series of many.
This week started off with my first ever football (soccer) match on Sunday night. Rennes faced off against Lyon. Lyon was slotted 2nd and we were slotted 5th, so we weren't expected to pull through, but we managed to scrape through with a 2-2 tie, despite Lyon's early lead. I still don't really understand soccer, but it was wonderful to be surrounded by the crowd, hear the French and Breton chants, and get to enjoy a nice night out with my friends. Warning for anyone who's now considering a trip to a Rennes game: while they do have plenty of Breizh cola, the only beer that they have is non-alcoholic (weird, right??).
My host parents were actually in Seville this past weekend, leaving me and Malo (my host brother) with plenty of food and specific instructions on what had to be done while they were gone. Malo and I had a pretty calm weekend, as I spent a lot of it out with friends and he was studying for some very important tests that he had at the start of the week. While it was nice to be able to set my own food schedule and have plenty of time to myself for a little while, I was really happy to see my host parents when they got back. They're both wonderful (further shown by the fact that they brought me back a souvenir), so I like spending time with them.
So they got back Monday night, and we all fell back into the normal swing of things. Overall it was a pretty normal week, although on Thursday there were manifestations again, which actually led to afternoon classes at CIREFE being cancelled. Happily this didn't effect any of my classes, but it was still interesting to see this precaution being taken.
Thursday was also St Patrick's day, which is not as widely celebrated here as it is in the US. However, since Rennes is a university student city, there were plenty of people out. There are always a lot of students out on Thursday nights (it's the start of their weekend), but the number was upped this Thursday, especially at O'Connell's, which is both the go-to bar for us CIEE folk and the only Irish pub in Rennes. And there's no open-carry law in France, so drinking in the square is perfectly fine. I bet you can imagine the crowd.
And then to finish off a solid week, yesterday we CIEE folk took a trip to Vitré, a city with medieval roots, and Fougère, where we toured an actual medieval castle, which was awesome. (There will be pictures below)
But alas, the week is done, and now it's Sunday and I have to start tackling homework.
I hope you all have had a wonderful week (and that you aren't sick!)
A la prochaine fois!
Evelyn
I hope that you are all doing well!
As for me, while this past week has still been fun, I've had an annoying cold since Monday, which has definitely put a dampener on everything. Nonetheless, this was still another phenomenal week in a series of many.
This week started off with my first ever football (soccer) match on Sunday night. Rennes faced off against Lyon. Lyon was slotted 2nd and we were slotted 5th, so we weren't expected to pull through, but we managed to scrape through with a 2-2 tie, despite Lyon's early lead. I still don't really understand soccer, but it was wonderful to be surrounded by the crowd, hear the French and Breton chants, and get to enjoy a nice night out with my friends. Warning for anyone who's now considering a trip to a Rennes game: while they do have plenty of Breizh cola, the only beer that they have is non-alcoholic (weird, right??).
My host parents were actually in Seville this past weekend, leaving me and Malo (my host brother) with plenty of food and specific instructions on what had to be done while they were gone. Malo and I had a pretty calm weekend, as I spent a lot of it out with friends and he was studying for some very important tests that he had at the start of the week. While it was nice to be able to set my own food schedule and have plenty of time to myself for a little while, I was really happy to see my host parents when they got back. They're both wonderful (further shown by the fact that they brought me back a souvenir), so I like spending time with them.
So they got back Monday night, and we all fell back into the normal swing of things. Overall it was a pretty normal week, although on Thursday there were manifestations again, which actually led to afternoon classes at CIREFE being cancelled. Happily this didn't effect any of my classes, but it was still interesting to see this precaution being taken.
Thursday was also St Patrick's day, which is not as widely celebrated here as it is in the US. However, since Rennes is a university student city, there were plenty of people out. There are always a lot of students out on Thursday nights (it's the start of their weekend), but the number was upped this Thursday, especially at O'Connell's, which is both the go-to bar for us CIEE folk and the only Irish pub in Rennes. And there's no open-carry law in France, so drinking in the square is perfectly fine. I bet you can imagine the crowd.
And then to finish off a solid week, yesterday we CIEE folk took a trip to Vitré, a city with medieval roots, and Fougère, where we toured an actual medieval castle, which was awesome. (There will be pictures below)
But alas, the week is done, and now it's Sunday and I have to start tackling homework.
I hope you all have had a wonderful week (and that you aren't sick!)
A la prochaine fois!
Evelyn