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!)