Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Back in Rennes..

Finally, Sarah and I managed to make it back to Rennes safely.
After many adventures in Limerick after we left Shannon, we hopped on a bus Saturday morning to Rosslare Harbour, where we waited for a few hours with our respective reading books until we could board the ferry.

We boarded the ferry around 5 PM Saturday and set sail around 6:30. We arrived in Cherbourg, France around 12:00 PM the next day after sleeping in the chairs that were our reserved seats.
Uncomfortable? Yes. Unbearable? Not really.
We made a French friend, Thomas, on the boat who hung out with us while we passed our time on the ferry eating, reading, and later on in the evening, watching a man play guitar and sing amid a large group of truckers. Sarah and I were two of the five ladies in the bar area while watching the musician and it was pretty hilarious to watch all the older men progressively getting more and more drunk and singing Irish tunes.
The icing on the cake was that for the last song played, one man grabbed Sarah and made her dance with him in front of everyone, making up the steps as he went along. I just about died laughing.

Once we were off the boat and went through "customs" which consisted of the three of us simply walking through an empty building with no one to even show our passport to, we took a shuttle to the city center (AKA the train station) and got on the very next train that would take us to Rennes. 
After parting ways with our friend when we had to switch trains at Lison, we fell asleep for the last leg of the journey. 

Once we arrived in Rennes, we hopped on the metro and practically collapsed.

The most brilliant thing, however, was climbing the escalator out of the metro into the 70 degree and sunny weather. The trees were green, everything was blooming, and it actually felt a little bit like home to walk into my little single room that I never imagined would feel like home.
This is the view of spring outside my window! 


It really did though and it does even more now that I got a wonderful package from my dear mum with some arty things that I hung up.


This wall has certainly been spruced up :) The string of felted hearts is my favorite :)


Now that I'm back, however, I'm completely not in work mode, which isn't good, but it's to be expected after two weeks of vacation. I'm already thinking about my next vacation, which will be at the end of May and I'm hoping to get to Germany to visit the grandparents and maybe Angie too :)

And now, I have to get to class on this exceptionally gorgeous day. Schade.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

More pictures from Ireland.....

There is not much to do in Shannon, that's for sure.
Last night we went to a medieval dinner at Bunratty Castle because it was half off due to no one being able to go because of all the delays from the volcanic ash mess... Which I have to admit, I'm a little more than frustrated with. Also, my stomach is having severe pains and I'm not too happy about that either.
*sigh*
Really I'm just super frustrated in general...
So here are some more pictures in any case.

 Horse and buggy ride on one of the Aran Islands!
 dandelions in doolin
dinner!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

A week in Ireland... that is being extended.

This past week in Ireland has been amazing- beautiful weather, great food, spending all day outside, the Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, Doolin, and traditional Irish dancing!!!!

Due to the volcanic ash issue, Sarah and I are staying close by the airport in Shannon now, waiting for Tuesday when our flight has been rescheduled.
Who even knows if THAT will even happen though- with all the glass and ash in the air, there's no telling when we're actually getting back home to France.

For now, I'm just enjoying it. Tonight we're going to a medieval banquet at Bunratty Castle! It should be a blast...



And here are some of my photos from this past week! :) More to come when my computer is recharged!! :)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

This blog is WAY overdue for an update.  Last week, my camera finally bit the dust and so I was unable to upload new photos.
Luckily, I now am in possession of a new one that is very pretty and works beautifully.

Last week was lovely because our Etude de la Langue professor was in Morocco for the week and thus there was no class! Of course we had to make up the hours the week before AS WELL AS do the regular hours for the course for the week. It was a looooong week, but it was very nice to have last week off.

This week is already flying because the Easter weekend was a long one and we had Monday off. Friday morning, Sarah and I will be leaving for Ireland for the week and then we will be on our separate ways for the second week of vacation.

I am most likely going to be visiting a good family friend, Angela in Baden Baden, Germany which is very close to Strasbourg. And I CAN'T wait! Lots of pictures to come from this vacation, I assure you.


This was dinner last week- fajitas!!! As messy as they were, they were deliciousssssss. Now it's back to good old pasta and sauce to save on cash for vacation.....
À plus!