Bonjour à toutes et tous!
I hope you're all doing well!
Once again I'm a bit late -- you can tell the end of the semester is quickly approaching because I am becoming less and less organised, whoops!
Anyhoo, last week was, once again, pretty darn awesome :
It started off per usual, classes and homework, nothing too exciting. Then Thursday there were, once again, manifs contre la loi Travail (aka protests). This time our classes weren't cancelled, but when my friend and I went downtown to get lunch we encountered police barricades that they didn't have last time. For those of you who haven't already seen my pictures on Facebook, see the pictures below. Also I will repeat : I'm fine, I wasn't there when any of the bad stuff was going on, and the majority of people in Rennes are very peaceful, it's just that looters/troublemakers will latch on to protests to create trouble.
Anyway, Thursday night a chunk of us CIEErs went to an Atelier de Cuisine (cooking workshop), where we made samosas, other students prepped their fish, and we all made our dessert (sablés with chopped up, cooked apple on top). See pictures below :)
After that we went out to one of our local watering holes (aka the same Irish pub we always go to), and hung out a bit longer, which was wonderful.
Friday was also a great day, because I no longer have any classes on Fridays, so after lunch with friends where we worked on our group project, I went shopping with another friend. We somehow got caught in a sudden hail storm, and, of course, I hadn't brought my umbrella, so we both had to hide behind hers. We managed to make it into the mall where we were going to shop, but we were both significantly more wet than 15 minutes prior.
Despite the weather, we had a wonderful shopping trip, then made our way back to our homes for naps, some homework, and dinner.
Friday also happened to be one of my closest friend's birthday, so, bien sûr, Friday night we went back out to the same pub to celebrate. Before that, my host mom and I actually went out to dinner for the first time. All of the sons and my host dad were elsewhere, so Danielle decided that she didn't want to cook, so we might as well take advantage of one of the many awesome restaurants nearby. I had what I have to say was probably the best pizza of this whole trip, and it was wonderful to sit and chat with my host mom for a while.
Saturday was another fun day, because I met up with a couple of friends so that we could go grab lunch from the market and take it to the Parc du Thabor to eat. It is finally starting to warm up a bit, although it was still pretty windy this weekend. As the end of the semester approaches at a terrifying speed, I am more and more thankful for days like this, when I just get to spend time with my wonderful friends, because I probably won't see most of them after this semester.
Spoiler Alert: For those of you who didn't know, one of the joys of studying abroad is that you meet and befriend people from all around the US and the world. The downside: they're from a different continent, or maybe five states over, and it's really, really hard to stay in contact once we all go back to our "normal lives". Which sucks.
Anyhoo, back to my weekend. Sunday was great, because my host mom and I went up to a plant sale where two of her friends were selling their baby tomato plants. We did get kinda lost on the way there (once again, I missed my data dearly), but we managed to make it there when their were still enough plants so that Danielle could get all of the ones that she wanted. Then her friends invited us back to their house for lunch, which was lovely because it wound up being a beautifully warm day. They also have a donkey who was very friendly, which added another layer to the fun :) After lunch we headed back home, and spent the rest of the day at home, working on our own things.
All in all, it was quite the fun week :)
I'm trying to stop myself, but I am a very sentimental person, so with each passing day I find myself growing more nostalgic and melancholic, even though I still have 18 days to fill with awesomeness. It's hard to explain if you haven't studied abraod (and liked where and with whom you were studying), but it's really hard to know that my life in Rennes is going to come to a close, sooner rather than later. While I'm excited to see my family and friends, I also have family and friends here, and I am going to miss them like crazy.
On that happy note, à la prochaine fois,
Evelyn
PS - la traduction du titre: "What is normalcy?"
I hope you're all doing well!
Once again I'm a bit late -- you can tell the end of the semester is quickly approaching because I am becoming less and less organised, whoops!
Anyhoo, last week was, once again, pretty darn awesome :
It started off per usual, classes and homework, nothing too exciting. Then Thursday there were, once again, manifs contre la loi Travail (aka protests). This time our classes weren't cancelled, but when my friend and I went downtown to get lunch we encountered police barricades that they didn't have last time. For those of you who haven't already seen my pictures on Facebook, see the pictures below. Also I will repeat : I'm fine, I wasn't there when any of the bad stuff was going on, and the majority of people in Rennes are very peaceful, it's just that looters/troublemakers will latch on to protests to create trouble.
Anyway, Thursday night a chunk of us CIEErs went to an Atelier de Cuisine (cooking workshop), where we made samosas, other students prepped their fish, and we all made our dessert (sablés with chopped up, cooked apple on top). See pictures below :)
After that we went out to one of our local watering holes (aka the same Irish pub we always go to), and hung out a bit longer, which was wonderful.
Friday was also a great day, because I no longer have any classes on Fridays, so after lunch with friends where we worked on our group project, I went shopping with another friend. We somehow got caught in a sudden hail storm, and, of course, I hadn't brought my umbrella, so we both had to hide behind hers. We managed to make it into the mall where we were going to shop, but we were both significantly more wet than 15 minutes prior.
Despite the weather, we had a wonderful shopping trip, then made our way back to our homes for naps, some homework, and dinner.
Friday also happened to be one of my closest friend's birthday, so, bien sûr, Friday night we went back out to the same pub to celebrate. Before that, my host mom and I actually went out to dinner for the first time. All of the sons and my host dad were elsewhere, so Danielle decided that she didn't want to cook, so we might as well take advantage of one of the many awesome restaurants nearby. I had what I have to say was probably the best pizza of this whole trip, and it was wonderful to sit and chat with my host mom for a while.
Saturday was another fun day, because I met up with a couple of friends so that we could go grab lunch from the market and take it to the Parc du Thabor to eat. It is finally starting to warm up a bit, although it was still pretty windy this weekend. As the end of the semester approaches at a terrifying speed, I am more and more thankful for days like this, when I just get to spend time with my wonderful friends, because I probably won't see most of them after this semester.
Spoiler Alert: For those of you who didn't know, one of the joys of studying abroad is that you meet and befriend people from all around the US and the world. The downside: they're from a different continent, or maybe five states over, and it's really, really hard to stay in contact once we all go back to our "normal lives". Which sucks.
Anyhoo, back to my weekend. Sunday was great, because my host mom and I went up to a plant sale where two of her friends were selling their baby tomato plants. We did get kinda lost on the way there (once again, I missed my data dearly), but we managed to make it there when their were still enough plants so that Danielle could get all of the ones that she wanted. Then her friends invited us back to their house for lunch, which was lovely because it wound up being a beautifully warm day. They also have a donkey who was very friendly, which added another layer to the fun :) After lunch we headed back home, and spent the rest of the day at home, working on our own things.
All in all, it was quite the fun week :)
I'm trying to stop myself, but I am a very sentimental person, so with each passing day I find myself growing more nostalgic and melancholic, even though I still have 18 days to fill with awesomeness. It's hard to explain if you haven't studied abraod (and liked where and with whom you were studying), but it's really hard to know that my life in Rennes is going to come to a close, sooner rather than later. While I'm excited to see my family and friends, I also have family and friends here, and I am going to miss them like crazy.
On that happy note, à la prochaine fois,
Evelyn
PS - la traduction du titre: "What is normalcy?"