Oh, to live on the beaches of St. Malo...

Bonjour!

It is Tuesday morning here (well, actually noon) and I already want to go to bed. Mom told me that you can be jet-lagged up to a month after switching time zones. I wonder if this is possibly the case with me because I am always, always tired here!

This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday afternoon we went on a tour of Nantes and it was interesting to see a different side of the city. The IES center is in the heart of downtown Nantes but on Friday we explored a different part, a part that so far I like better! We discovered more creperies, cute restuarants and cafes and such... so I'm excited to go there (maybe this next weekend). We were also given a tour of the famous cathedral here and saw a bit of the castle. It was cool to understand more behind the history of the city that I'm actually living in! Afterward, some girls and I went to see Revolutionary Road at the local theater. The movie theater here is ginormous and we were in a theater that seats 500 people! It resembled a theater from a movie with the red plush seats and long, long rows... I went home for dinner after the movie to find my host family having "un aperatif-dinatoire" (basically a dinner of appetizers). In the Catholic tradition, when children are baptized, their parents designate a "second father" for them. It is traditional to have these families over for dinner to celebrate Christmas or birthdays, etc... Therefore, we had two families over this past weekend. It's always interesting to interact with another French family... it intimidates me quite a bit, actually! Tiphaine (the 17-year old in my family) and I ended up just hanging out and talking. It was really fun to talk with her and to get to know her better. She's studying English and she's hopefully going to start coming to the Conversation Club we have at IES. She also asked me if I would mind practicing with her sometime to which I gave a resounding "Oui!"

Saturday, we took a trip to Mont St. Michel and St. Malo (they're a few hours north of here). Mont St. Michel looks like a castle on top of a mountain but it's actually a monastery in a little village in the middle of nowhere. I'll post pictures soon so that you can see. It was absolutely beautiful... it's surrounded by water and when the tide comes in, it comes right up to the castle. We ate lunch in a little boulangerie in the village. The woman there was completely folle (crazy)... she was screaming instructions at everybody that walked in. But then she told us that we speak French very well, so that won her some points in our book! After walking around Mont St. Michel (or should I say, climbing - we climbed about a million stairs to get to the top!), we headed to St. Malo. I'm not sure if St. Malo has any historic significance, but it's a really cool city that sits right on the water. We were able to walk along the beaches because it was about 50 degrees and sunny. It was beautiful. There were some apartments overlooking the beautiful aquatic view and I just kept wishing I could live in one of them! We also spent some time exploring the city and the streets were just really cute. There was a boulangerie making crepes in the street so we indulged in a nutella crepe - it was fantastic. :)

Sunday, we had another family over for lunch. The father in this family is the "second father" of the 15 year old, Adelaide. They came over to celebrate her birthday. The lunch/dinner was VERY long as we had every course known to man (appetizers, large appetizer, main dish, cheese, salad, dessert, coffee/chocolate). It was delicious but it was enough to last me two days! After the meal, all the kids (the 4 Roberts, me, and three from the visiting family) gathered in Tiphaine's room to play games. We listened to the Titanic soundtrack which they LOVE here. And I discovered that they like the same random games I play/or have played with my friends! We played the French version of Maffia, the French version of "Ha," and the French version of "Do you know how to play the game?" Some of you may not recognize these names but these are camp games I've played or games we've played at school occasionally when we're bored. It was nice to feel connected in that way, though.

I gave Adelaide a scarf from H&M that I bought for her birthday. I've never seen anyone appreciate a present so much! She kept telling me thank you and the whole family was examining the scarf and exclaiming how pretty it was. It was sweet of them. :)

Two more interesting things I've learned:
1. Christmas doesn't really end for the French until February. They're not actually celebrating, but Christmas decorations are still up - everywhere! It's rather amusing.
2. When you have a formal dinner here (as we did on Sunday) it is proper and polite to wait until the mother who made the meal eats the first bite. Then you may commence eating.

I think that's all for now. I'm starving (not sure why, but I am), so I'm going to go eat lunch.
I will update later this week with class observations and other little things I have on a list to tell you. :)

Love to all!