Bonjour! :)
First of all, I'm sorry for not updating in a while... The past two weeks have been extremely busy. More of my classes started (so now I have a full schedule) and I've had some visitors! Seeing people from home while I'm far away is such a treat. One of my best friends and her family (which is practically my family, too) came to Paris for a few days, and we had a great time. Then, this past week, my boyfriend came to see me during his break. Hi, guys! :) :) :) I loved seeing you. As it turns out, I'll be having a few more visitors (you know who you are) soon, including my mom!!!!!! So, overall, things have been good!
Two weekends ago I went on a trip to Normandy, St. Malo (in Brittany), and Mont St. Michel with my program. What a great trip--I like history (although I don't really have the brain for it), so the trip itself was interesting, but everything was just so beautiful. The weather itself is so different here--I see bright green grass all over the place; beautiful, colorful flowers; and (when it's really nice out), clear blue skies. That's how it was in Normandy. We took a coach bus, which took about 5 hrs to drive from Paris. It was great to get away from the city for the while and see the gorgeous countryside. The first day we visited the D-Day Museum in Arromanches, the German beach (giant craters everywhere), and the American cemetery--which is considered American soil. So, technically, we were back home for a little while. The whole experience in Normandy was incredibly unique and very touching. After spending the day there, we got back on the bus and drove to St. Malo, a beautiful town that inspired the look of Quebec City in Canada. I've never been to Quebec, so I just had to take my program director's word for it, but the town was almost breathtakingly beautiful. I had a great dinner with the students in my program.
Brittany is known for a few things, food-and-drink-wise, particularly crêpes and seafood. I got the best of both and had a savoury crêpe with salmon, scallops, leeks, mushrooms, and cheese. It was delicious. Everyone seemed happy with what they got and after eating, we went our separate ways and explored. My group of friends and I went walking around and saw a lot. We even walked down to the beach at night and looked at the stars. It was a great end to the night. The bed & breakfast we stayed at was nice, too. Cute, clean rooms with a NORMAL sized bathroom (if there's one thing I can tell you about the bathrooms I'm used to here... it's that they seem to be made for ants)... and a great breakfast, of course. We had to get up early for it, but it was worth it. Delicious bread, jams, croissants... you name it. It was awesome. After that, those of us that were awake took a tour around the outer walls in the town. Soon after, we got back on the bus to head to Mont St. Michel.
I feel like I'd say too much about that part of the trip... but just know that it was probably my favorite part. I did a project on Mont St. Michel when I was in 8th grade and I've wanted to visit it since then. It's a beautiful church/town that rests on its own island, pretty much--I'm terrible at describing it, but the tides usually make it so that it's separate from the coast. Our program director actually told us that this would probably be the last time for a very long time that it would be possible to get there by bus. I've attached a picture of it, if you want to see. I'd send more but my Internet connection is too slow to send multiple files.
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| View of Mont St. Michel from just outside of the bus |
Anyway, my classes are good. Grammar is difficult but, hey, that's what I need. Phonetics is interesting, if not for the schedule alone--it meets every weekday for one hour, every other week. Bizarre. The class is split into two sections--repetition, where we take some notes and, well, repeat stuff that our professor says... and the lab, where we sit with headphones and a microphone and do audio recordings of our pronunciation. The professor gives us what to say, and we record over and over again--she can even listen to us individually and help us out. It's very useful, and much different than the phonetics class I took last semester, so I don't mind taking this one. My lectures meet once a week each for two hours. I'm in a 20th century theatre class and one on the history of Paris. I won't bore you with the details.
This weekend is looking interesting... I guess I'll have to discuss that in a later update. :)
Miss you all!
Take care.
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
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