a little overdue update

Yikes! I haven't written a new post in the past 2 weeks. Well you'll all have to excuse me, because I've been really busy and I've just kept putting it off because the list of things I wanted to blog about just kept getting longer and longer. Now it's pretty long, so I need to sum everything up. Here goes:

Trips: I've gone on a few trips close to Bordeaux. Last weekend I saw the Pyrénées and a medieval city still surrounded by ramparts and a moat (no water though. I guess they don't want tourists to fal in or something). This weekend I went to the Dordogne Valley where I got to visit some prehistoric caves. It was pretty awesome, but we were so tired from walking everywhere for the weekend. At 2 out of the 3 caves, we met a North American couple (one American and one Canadian) who didn't speak French. I got my first taste of what it would feel like to be an interpreter. (Is that in my future? Only God knows!)

School: I finished up my classes last week-- I'm now done my degree! Well, sort of. Now I just need to get back home to transfer all of my credits. So I'm done all the courses I need for my degree. Now I just need to graduate in October! I wrote my last exam on Thursday and I'm just waiting to find out my mark for that class. I did better than I'd hoped in my other two classes, and I'll know my marks for my evening classes by mid-May, even though I won't be here!

Tour de France: My friend Alannah is arriving tomorrow (still can't believe where the time's gone) and after staying in Bordeaux for a couple of nights, we're starting our BIG trip, aka the "Tour de France" on Friday. I'm super-pumped but at the same time I don't really know what to expect. I've never been traveling for more than 10 days at a time. Our itinerary is pretty packed: we're going to be traveling for 21 days straight before we head back to Bordeaux. But even then we're only planning on staying for the night and then it's off to Paris for the weekend so we can both fly home on the 26th. We're sticking to exploring France although right in the middle we're going to London for a few nights.

Life: Just when I think I've gotten the hang of living here, I have to leave. I'm not lying when I say that the months have flown by (although my family and friends I talk to assure me it hasn't for them). I really do like it here; I actually have a life here with friends, a church, school, and a place to live. I do my grocery shopping at Auchan every couple of weeks. I don't even really have to think about which stop to get off at any more when I'm on the tram. I don't need a map of downtown Bordeaux anymore. This has been "a home away from home," and leaving will be bittersweet. Oddly enough I feel almost just like I did before I left Winnipeg: I liked the familiarity of my life there. But now things here are familiar (and random! Last night an old guy told me I look like Hilary Clinton. Huh?). It's not that I'm not looking forward to coming home; not at all. I miss everyone back home. But it's just that coming home means that this little time that I've had abroad is really over and done with. I have to transition back into real life again. Granted I'll have my sister's wedding to preoccupy me for the first couple of weeks, but then it's back to work and back to Winnipeg life for the summer.

I can see that I've grown a lot being here. I can also see that I've learned tons too. I can't really say if I'm a "changed person"-- I'll let you all be the judge of that when I get home. I definitely know I definitely do not regret doing this. This time's had its ups and downs, but the hard times have made me stronger and wiser and the fun times have really made me realize how blessed I am and how much I can appreciate in my life. Thanks to everyone who sent me encouragement through emails and letters while I've been here. It's been so great!

So I don't know how much time I'll have to write on my blog while we're traveling. If possible, I'll write little updates once in awhile, but if not, consider this my last blog. I'll write a big one when I get home about my big trip. It's been fun keeping you all updated. Thanks for reading, and bye for now!

arrrgh

Ugh. I have to say I know what an administrative headache is now, unfortunately. I haven't had many since I've been here, but this one tops them all I think. So, what I didn't know when I signed the contract to stay in residence here in January was that it said I need to give a month's notice when leaving, which is reasonable, but I didn't know. I've known for a few weeks that I would only need my room until May 2, because after that I'll be travelling for the month of May before I come home, and there's no sense in keeping a room just to leave a suitcase in it. So I realized on April 9 that I should go to tell them about this, and on the 10th I went and got an immediate response: "Ce n'est pas possible." So first of all, the rooms are rented on a month-to-month basis, so I had to ask for special permission to stay in my room for those 2 days after April 30 and pay for each individual day (even though I did arrive January 8 AND paid for the whole month upon my arrival). Secondly, since it was already the 10th, it was too late to give a month's notice and thus they informed me I would not get my deposit back (which equals out to around $200). C'est nul!!! I was upset, but there was nothing I could do. So I went back a few days later to talk to them again, this time bringing my friend Laura to help me out with the talking/convincing. It didn't work. Basically no matter what they're keeping my deposit. So, now I told them that I'm staying in the room until the end of May, and I'm pretty sure I can just use my deposit to pay for the month now. At least Alannah and I will have a place to stay for April 30 and May 1, and again when we get back to Bordeaux on the 24th. This is a good thing, but it just really sucks that I have to pay for May when I didn't want to. Boo French administration! Even Laura says that the administrative system here isn't good at all. Every one is always rude and they make up rules and exceptions all the time. That's one thing I'll be happy to return to when I get back to Canada: a (somewhat) fair and objective system of running things.

can't fight the travel bug

Hi Everyone!

If you're wondering why I haven't written a post for the past 10 days, it's because I've been keeping pretty busy. It seems that it's just hit me that I only have 3 weeks left (tomorrow) until I leave Bordeaux and start my 24-day trek around France, and I'm starting to panic. Thus, this last week or so has been jam-packed with things to do practically every spare afternoon and evening. Instead of boring you with a list of all my day-to-day activities, I'll only talk about the most exciting experiences I've had, namely the trips!

So last Friday I got up super-early to catch a train to Arras, a city in Northern France in the region called Flanders. While there I got to visit the Vimy Ridge Memorial park, the place where Canadians helped the French push back the German troops during WWI. It was a moving experience to be there, to see some of the trenches, and to see the totally uneven land deformed so much from trench warfare. I think you can see a bit of what I'm talking about in the pictures below. Being there made me feel like I could have been back home again, what with all the Government of Canada signs and Canadian flags everywhere. I felt proud to be Canadian, even if I was a little homesick.

Also while I was in Arras, I visited the Jardin des Boves, and underground tunnel system that's existed since the Middle Ages, that is decorated every year with tons of plants and flowers. It was a very interesting tour. You'll see a picture of part of that below too. At the end of my first day there, I tried to go to sleep in the hostel, but right outside my window in the main square, there was a huge fair going on, so of course the music and French announcers were booming until 1am. But what better place to put a fair than a big open Place downtown? It is France, after all. But notice the beautiful Flemish-influenced architecture of all the matching facades of the buildings in the picture below!

The next morning, I caught another train to Bruges. In case you're wondering, yes, that's in Belgium. I love how close everything is here! It was just a 2-hr ride to get there and suddenly I found myself among Flemish speakers, Belgian chocolatiers, canals, and windmills lining the river! Bruges is a beautiful city. While I was there I got to visit a museum detailing the history of chocolate, a basilica where the Holy relic of the blood of Christ is housed (apparently it's really the blood of Jesus! Imagine that!), a lace-making demonstration with some elderly ladies, and a medieval hospital.

After having my fix of Belgian culture (but I didn't eat enough of the chocolate, that's for sure!), I headed back to Bordeaux, but I stopped for the afternoon in Amiens (back in France), where I visited the really impressive Jules Verne house (the author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days among others) and then got a tour of France's largest cathedral. I got home late and had a much-needed sleep back on campus in my bed.

Apparently I couldn't stay on campus for long though, because on Wednesday 3 of my friends and I decided to go on a day trip to the Pays Basque, which is just south of here. When I went to Spain back in January I was in the Pays Basque too, but this time I got to visit a Basque culture museum in Bayonne to learn a bit more about their culture and language, which is super-interesting from a linguist's point of view... and I think I can safely say after taking so many linguistics courses that I am a linguist. It was a beautiful day so we walked around Bayonne a bit and bought some regional specialties to try on our picnic in the park, including Country Ham, a particular cheese, and a Basque cake. Mmmm...

Then as if one city wasn't enough, we took a 30-min bus ride to Biarritz, which is a lot classier but where there's not much to do except lie on the beaches and appreciate the view. So that's what we did! And it was free too. This is the third time I got to see the ocean, and it's still amazing every time. After spending a couple of hours there relaxing, it started to rain a bit, so we left to go find a chocolatier, because there are also regional chocolate specialties that we wanted to try. After this, we headed to the train station to make our way home to Bordeaux.

So, as you can see, I've done quite a bit of traveling this week, and I plan to do a lot more in the weeks to come too. My friend Esther and I were just discussing today when we're going to visit the caves in the Dordogne, a region close to here. And I think next weekend I'm going to go to Roquefort, where the world-famous cheese is made to see how they make it. Then on May 2nd I start my Tour de France with my friend Alannah. I'm pumped!

Other than all the traveling plans, I am still in school. One of my profs decided to move up our "exam" (or should I say our devoir sur table, or in-class assignment) to next Thursday instead of the Thursday after, which is apparently not a problem for anyone. That's what they do here. I can't imagine any prof at the UofW doing something like that, because all due dates and tests are pretty much planned out at the beginning of the term. I mean it's happened, but not on a week's notice, and I guess I just don't expect it as much back home. Nevertheless, I have my DEFLE exams next week too, which I can't really study for, and after that I have 2 more devoirs sur table and then I'm done my degree! I really can't believe the term is almost over. It's gone by way too fast and now I actually have to think about going home and getting back into my old life. I also have to think packing and selling my frigo. It seems like just last month that I bought the frigo! And as for packing, well, I don't really have to do it before I start my Tour de France in May, but it'll be easier to do it now instead of waiting until I come back to Bordeaux for one day near the end of May. I'm starting to worry a little that I may have bought too many souvenirs... Oh well, they'll get home one way or another!

Well, that's all I have right now. Below are some pictures of my trips. The ones I haven't mentioned yet are as follows: part of the Canadian monument at Vimy, called Canada Weeping for her Children, sheep at the Vimy park (they keep the grass trimmed, since it's so hard to maneuver a lawn mower over it), the workshop in the chocolate museum where we saw a trilingual demonstration of how chocolates are made, a beautiful bed of flowers by the river in Bruges, my friends taking a picture of a cathedral in Bayonne (what tourists!), the cool staggered and sloping apartments along the river in Bayonne (painted in the Basque flag colours), and me on the beach in Biarritz.

dunes, boats, and… oysters!

Yesterday was a pretty great day. One of the reasons was that it didn’t rain once! It was super-sunny and warm all day long and it actually felt like spring is supposed to feel. The other reason was that I got to go on a tour with a student group to see a little more of the southwest region of France and the ocean!

We loaded the bus in the morning and our first stop was the Dune de Pyla (pronounced pee-lah), located right on the Atlantic coast. It’s about 45 minutes from Bordeaux and it’s the highest dune in Europe, therefore a big tourist attraction. Climbing the dune kind of makes you feel like you’re in a desert, only there are trees surrounding it, and once you get to the top, you can see the ocean. At the top we encountered a sandstorm (which I guess wasn’t really a sandstorm; it was just the wind blowing some sand… but it’s the closest to a sandstorm I’ve ever experienced!), and when we finally descended, I got to dip my feet in the ocean for the second time in my life! (The first time was in Spain in January)

After having a nice little pique-nique by the water, we climbed back over the dune to catch the bus to go to Arcachon, a little city on the coast located on the Bassin d’Arcachon. We took a 3-hr boat ride around the basin, where we learned about the basin and the cultivation of oysters, which is a huge region specialty here. There are so many oysters in the basin that they actually export them early in their lives to other coastal towns around France, Spain, and Italy. There’s a whole world of oyster trading I had no idea existed!

The highlight of the day was when we stopped at a tiny little coastal town called Le Canon for our dégustation des huîtres, or “oyster tasting.” Yes, that’s right: I tried an oyster! And it was raw! I figured I had to because a) I paid 10€ for this day and I needed to get my money’s worth, and b) I didn’t try the escargot at Laura’s the other day, so I felt that I needed to try a regional specialty while I was in France. So, I loosened the little sucker with a fork, squirted some lemon juice on it, closed my eyes, and slurped it back, swallowing without chewing it. But I suppose I have to explain that it didn’t go exactly as smoothly as that: it took me about 10 minutes to work up the courage to pick up the thing, then another 10 minutes to separate it from the shell, douse it with lemon juice, and then interview everyone who’d just done it (which included every question about the process I could think of). Then I did it, or at least I tried to do it: the first time I tried to eat it, I only got the juice. Then I had to go through the whole process again. My friend Carly came over and almost made me call the whole thing off when she said, “Jenny, just do it! They’re not good anymore after they’re dead!” I had forgotten that I was about to eat a live animal until she said that. See, if you eat an oyster raw, it is technically still alive until you detach it from its shell. I yelled at her for that comment. But then I ate it anyway. Honestly, it didn’t taste like much of anything. It was just really slimy and the lemon juice covered up the real taste. But I did it! I was very proud of myself.

Below are a few photos of the Dune and the place where we had our dégustation. In the first pictures, you’ll notice Carly pretending to grimper the Dune (grimper is French for “to scale”). In the picture of the little village, you can see some sticks sticking out of the water. These are called pignettes because they are young pine trees (pin, en français) and are used to mark the spots of the parcs à huîtres, little areas where the oysters are cultivated. We saw tons of clusters of these sticks everywhere around the basin. The last picture is of the beau bâteau that we took for our cruise.

A la semaine prochaine! (Till next week!)

rain, rain, go away

I'd heard that instead of snow they get rain here in the winter. This turned out to be true: there's been no snow at all, just rain, but not too much. On Easter Sunday though, it started raining off and on, and it's been doing that ever since. It's been 5 days straight of rain! Sometimes it'll pour, then it'll stop for an hour or two, then it'll start up again. I know it's spring and rain is good, but I'm beginning to feel kind of water-logged. Too many puddles everywhere! I just can't wait till the warm weather comes for good (sunny days have a way of lifting spirits... not that I need lifting of my spirirt for anything in particular, but it's always nice to feel happy :D).

joyeuses pâques everybody!

Easter Monday I had the privilege of being invited over to Laura’s place to partake in a real French Easter meal! I’m not going to lie: it was AMAZING!!!! Let me describe this meal and f then let’s see if your mouth isn’t watering by the end of this post:

We had the apéritif first, which is a pre-dinner drink, a little stronger than wine, along with some little snacks. After that we went to the dining room table, where I kid you not, we stayed sitting for the next 4 ½ hours! There we had the cold entrée first, or appetizer. It was smoked salmon in lemon juice and dill, French devilled-eggs (similar to our version, only more mayonnaise and some tune mixed in there), and broccoli that was marinated in something delicious. After the cold entrée came the dish of ris de veau (veal) and the escargots. The escargots were cooked, and I really wanted to try them, since I’m in France and all. Laura’s dad showed me how to take the shell in my hand and scoop out the insides with a toothpick, only when I pulled it out, it was a little longer (and curlier) than I anticipated, and I totally freaked out! (I was partly shocked, partly grossed out). Everyone laughed at the foreigner and her dad quickly took my plate away so I wouldn’t have to look at what was left on my plate. So that was my experience tasting escargots. I wonder if I’ll be able to taste oysters this weekend in Arcachon…

After the entrée, we had the main course: lamb and roasted potatoes… mmm mmm! I’ve had lamb before, but Mme. Chilon made this rack with some mixture of seasonings that made it taste delicious. She actually used to be a chef, so this meal was vraiment magnifique! Keep in mind that with every course there was wine to be drunk and of course a replenishment of pieces of fresh baguette. I myself had one glass of red and one glass of white wine with the meal.

After the main course came the cheese course. Laura’s mom brought out a huge platter of about 8 different kinds of cheeses (“only good cheese" she informed me), which we got to eat with more baguette and a little salad. Mmm I love French cheese!

Last but not least came the dessert: an invention of the cuisinière which is hard to describe, so I’ve attached a picture of it. The dessert doesn’t have a name, but if I had to name it, I’d probably call it something along the lines of “Strawberry-lemon-crème-layer-furnished-with-fresh-mint-leaves-amazing-goodness.” As if that weren’t enough, she’d also baked fresh canalés, including chocolate flavoured ones. The best way I can describe them is that they little fluffy cakes with a glaze on the outside. I attached a pic of them, too.

Needless to say, I was full for the rest of the day. I was super-content because I had had my first real French meal with a French family and it was hyper-hyper-délicieux! When Laura’s mom said, “A la prochaine! [Till next time!]” I answered with an emphatic, “Uhh... Oui, oui, bien sûr!” (Like I'd say no to coming again!) It would be awesome to go back some time, with cooking like that! I’ll let you know if that happens.

a fantastic week

This week started off great: on Monday, I found out I got a 14/20 on my French-English translation test (may I just say "Woohoo!!!! Go me!!!!"). Then I registered myself and some friends for a visite around the Bassin d'Arcachon, a place not too far from here. Arcachon is a fishing town where they mainly catch oysters. We get to have a tour of the Bay aboard a "beau" boat (don't know what that means yet), learn about oysters from a "ostréiculteur" and try some too, and then climb up the Dune du Pyla on the other side of the bay. This dune is the highest in France (or possibly Europe), so I'm excited.

Carly and I did breakfast yesterday-- mmm fresh croissants and fruit salad, with a lot of Nutella mixed in there somewhere (or rather, everywhere). I enjoy hanging out with friends here. Impromptu hang out sessions in my room and theirs will be greatly missed when I leave here. So will eating hordes of Nutella (I've been converted unfortunately).

Last night I decided to go grocery shopping, and since I knew I'd be buying a lot of heavy stuff, I gave in and took my rolling suitcase with me downtown to Auchan. Now it's a very common sight to see people with rolling suitcases around campus. I'm constantly hearing the sound of little wheels rolling across the extremely rough and uneven paths around Village 5. At first I was perplexed: surely people can't be moving in all the time? But then I realized that lots of students go home for the weekends, but others just use suitcases to carry their groceries instead of buying a little grocery cart. Smart! So I did just that last night. I have to say, I'm really glad I did. It was so much easier on my muscles! And grocery shopping was a pleasant experience, too. I even found the new French Céline Dion CD for 9,99€! You can't get much better than that! (Although I'm sure a lot of you readers would think otherwise!)

taking tours in tours

This weekend, 3 friends and I took a little trip to Tours, located in the Loire Valley just north of Bordeaux by 2 1/2 hours. While there is not much to see in Tours, there are hundreds of châteaux in the region to visit, and so we stayed one night at a hostel in the city but went on a little day trip both days we were there.

All in all, it was a pretty awesome trip. We saw two beautiful castles: Château Chenonceaux and Château Royal d'Amboise. Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years in Amboise, and so he is buried in the chapel of the château there. Down the road from this château, we got to see the smaller château where da Vinci lived during his time in Amboise. The château, called the Clos Lucé, is now a museum and is surrounded by a park showing his inventions, built to scale. This last stop was actually my favourite out of all three, perhaps because I actually know some things about da Vinci, whereas I don't know as much about Henri II or François Ier or Catherine de Medici. The Clos Lucé was cool because we got to see the room where da Vinci slept, where he relaxed by the fire, where he ate, etc. The basement of the château was also really neat because on display were little models of all of the inventions he made diagrams and outlines for. The park was really nice to walk through, although we had to wait until it stopped raining to venture through it.

Another thing we saw in Amboise were these houses called maisons troglodytes. They are houses that are built in hollowed out rock walls... really cool! I'll put pictures of the Clos Lucé and these houses on later; my camera's battery died and I couldn't take any pictures after the Château d'Amboise.

I do have to make mention of the other highlight of out trip: the man who ran the hostel. He was so awesome! We'd called to reserve the room about a week ago, but every couple of days I'd call again to add one more person. I know he was going to say something about this when we arrived, and sure enough, he remembered me and told us he'd been waiting to hear from us again so we could add a fifth person to our room. He's one of those people who really likes to talk, and so we ended up talking for 1/2 hour about what we were studying, why we were in Tours, etc etc. It was he who recommended Chenonceaux to us, cuz we hadn't planned on visiting that one. I'm glad we did though. Anyway, my favourite was when we said 2 of us where from Canada and the other two from the States, and he went a pulled out a huge map of the USA so Danielle and Nancy could point out their cities. He really likes meeting people from all over the world it seems. At the end of our stay when we went to pick up our bags, he was all proud and showed us 2 little pins, one of the Manitoba logo and one of the Winnipeg airport logo. Turns out a Winnipegger had stayed there at some point the year before and sent him the pins after she got home. I think Kristin and I may need to send him a postcard when we get back home...

Here are a few pics from my trip. The first two are 2 different angles of Chenonceaux. As you can see, it's really beautiful because it's built over the Cher River. The next two are in Amboise, the first near a church built in 1521 (L-R: Nancy, Danielle, Kristin). If you're wondering why Danielle looks pregnant, it's not because she is, it's because she was on a mission to take a picture of a big stuffed cow puppet with a castle for her Sunday school kids back home, and didn't have a bigger side bag to carry him in. Thus, the only solution was to carry him under her jacket... of course. The last 2 pictures are in Tours: there are poppies everywhere there, and it was the first time I've ever seen a real live one, never mind all the different colours! The last one is the Cathédrale St-Gatien in Tours, a beautiful cathedral that looks a lot like Notre Dame de Paris on the inside. And that's all for now!

mon anniversaire!

So I must say that it was pretty cool being in France for my birthday this year. I spent most of the day by myself, which was a new experience, but after my evening class I did go out for supper with my friends. Here's what my day consisted of: I went downtown in the morning to print off our train tickets (I'm heading off to Tours this weekend; I'll explain more about that in a moment) and I wanted to walk around and maybe relax and read a bit in the Jardin public, but it was way too blustery and it was raining off and on, so sitting in the park was out of the question. Kind of a gloomy day for a birthday, but by far the best weather I've ever experienced on March 11 (I'm used to cold and snow and the occasional blizzard on my birthday, so this was a nice change). Instead of hanging out downtown, I decided to treat myself with a trip to IKEA, which was awesome. I love going to IKEA, and since we don't have one in Winnipeg, I always find it fun to visit the store. So I went and had some Swedish meatballs for lunch (they call them "boulettes" here) and then went shopping. It was difficult to limit myself to small, lightweight items that I could bring home with me eventually, but I did it. I bought myself little rug for my room, some coasters (yup, Sarah, more coasters for our coffee table!), lingonberry sauce, and some potted gerbera daisies, which I know I can't bring home with me, but I've been wanting to get some flowers for my room for awhile now, and these were reasonably-priced IKEA flowers, so I bought them. Now I just hope they don't die on me!

So after my evening class, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant downtown, which was something new for me and for most of the other girls who came. I was really blessed to be joined by 9 of my friends to celebrate my birthday. It's cool because I met all of them except Laura and Myriam (my French friends who came to the UofW last year on the exchange) when I got here in January, and they are now my "family" here (or the people with whom I spend the most time... besides myself!). Having the Ethiopian food was neat, too: they serve it to you with galettes, or crepes made with whole wheat flour, and you rip off pieces of them to pick up your food. No utensils required. We all had a good time, and it was the best birthday I could have asked for here: good food, good friends, and an amazing birthday cake that Michelle (a fellow Winnipegger) bought for me.

By the way, thanks to everyone back home who sent me birthday wishes. I feel very loved!

So, re: my trip this weekend, I'm heading to the Val de Loire, or the Loire Valley, where all of the French medieval castles are found amidst the beautiful rolling valley hills and landscape. We're going to be staying in Tours for one night, which is a good base to explore these castles. I'm also excited to go to Tours because the Tours accent is considered the most pure, standard French accent in France (no, it's actually not the Parisian accent! I was surprised to learn that). We plan on spending one day in Amboise, a smaller city 20 mins from Tours, so that we can visit "the most beautiful castle in France," according to my guidebook, which is also where Leonardo de Vinci is buried. I'm pretty pumped.

I came to the realization this weekend that my time in France is almost half over! I can't believe that! I remember thinking when I got here, "4 1/2 months is a really long time: how am I going to get through it?" But it isn't a long time at all! It seemed long when I got here because I wanted to come home so badly. But now I feel like I've just gotten started here. Although I miss my family and friends back home, the more time I spend here the more I realize that I really like it here. Not that I want to move here or anything, but I'm just enjoying myself and I'm becoming less and less homesick all the time. I'm learning lots of new vocabulary all of the time, and although I still have moments when I feel overwhelmed at all the things I don't know yet, I know that I need to take everything one step at a time. And I am, too. I just can't believe that I only have 10 weeks left here! And only 7 weeks left in Bordeaux (my last 3 weeks I'm going to be traveling around France and maybe some other parts of Europe)! Despite this fact, however, I'm trying not to think in terms of what little time I have left, but how much time I have to try more new things and visit more place, if that makes sense. I'm trying to seize every opportunity I can.

I'll write about my trip after I get back and post some pics too! Until then, here are some more pictures of Bordeaux around town: the museum with the sex shop right beside it, the skate park, the quais, etc. There’s also a fair going on right now, so you can see some pics from that. You know you're in France when you can buy a baguette sandwich or a crepe at a carnival! When you buy cotton candy here, you can pick your own flavour. Pretty cool. One of the rides I saw was also called “Sexy Dance.” Lo and behold, the ride has absolutely nothing to do with dancing, as you can see in the photo. It’s just a regular ride with an English name. Pretty funny. Well, enjoy!

11/20!! Woo-hoo!

So I got my first "controle continu" back in my English-French translation class today, and I got 11/20!! I never thought I'd be so happy to barely pass something. I'll try to explain the French marking system a little bit, even though I still don't understand it completely. Everything is marked out of 20. If you get under 10, then you fail, but if you get 10 or over, you pass. It doesn't matter your mark out of 20, just as long as you pass. An 11 or 12 is really good, a 13 or 14 is excellent, a 15 or 16 is amazing, and nobody ever gets a 17 or above, as far as I know. I'm not exactly sure where profs get these marks from, but I'm content with my 11, especially because it was a difficult text and I was translating into French; this is harder for non-native speakers, so I'm assuming the prof went a little easier on me. So I'm excited.