New motivation...

So as I went to upload more photos this afternoon, my video of me making a crepe at Margot's house somehow popped up and uploaded. And here I thought it was lost and gone forever... So here it is!!! My first crepe carefully overseen by Margot's mom, Françoise. Merci, merci encore!

In other news, Sarah and I have officially decided to work out (via our stairwell, as our elevator is broken- yay for living on the 7th floor) and eat much better.
This is my fully-stocked cabinet with HEALTHY FOODS. Note that there is no longer any chocolate pain. (I call pain au chocolat that p.s.) All that is left is corn and spinach and a ton of kiwi and onionsssss and potatoes. And rice and dried apricots.

So the menu for tonight is chicken breast with sauteéd veggies and I can't wait to eattttttttt!
But, what else is new?

A Weekend in St-Brieuc...

This weekend I visited my dear friend, Margot and her family in St-Brieuc! It's about an hour away by train from Rennes. So I departed early Friday evening and had a wonderful dinner of raclette with her whole family!

The next day, Margot's mother, Francoise made galettes and crepes and we all helped to make some! Here's Margot making a crepe! :) She is un professionelle, non?

After crepes and galettes galore, Margot took me to Binic to see the ocean, which was just a mess of turquoise beauty and white caps. We walked around and even got some ice cream because it was so warm out... in the soleil, mostly. :)

We went to her friend's house for dinner, which was lovely not only because the dinner and appetizers were fantastically mouth-wateringly delicious, but also because it was really nice to meet les francaises who are my age!! Finally! Also, I got to experience full-on informal and slang without being it being taught to me. Which was interesting and difficult, but mostly just enjoyable :)

And today, Margot's parents took Margot, her sister Romane, and moi to les felaises- the cliffs! Very close to Saint-Brieuc are these beautiful, massive cliffs that are simply breathtaking and thus I have a picture or two of them up here... Unfortunately, my battery on my camera was dying, so I don't have as many as I would like.
After the cliffs, we went to Dinan and walked around. This is a small city from medieval times and has fabulous architecture and ramparts around the city, too. It was such an interesting day that I am exhausted- haha.

The best part about the weekend though was that I had NON STOP french in my brain for two days. This doesn't usually happen when I'm with the other American girls because although we do make a point to speak in French, it doesn't always happen and we get used to our own vocabulary. I learned so many different french words this weekend just from speaking with Margot and her family!!!!! Un phare = a lighthouse. Not une maison de lumiere as I had originally guessed.
Just before I left, too, I got to check out their backyard with their chickens from which they collect about 6 eggs from every day- her little sister, Romane, adores the chickens and showed me them. :)

Really though- it was a lot of fun and it was incredible to meet such kindhearted people who let me stay with them for a whole weekend!!! :)

And now I'm going to pass out before I have to get up for my one class tomorrow (bahaha) at 1:30PM. Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Bonne nuit!

To Saint-Brieuc!

This is only a quick update because I'm nearly off to the Gares station to take the TGV to St-Brieuc where I will spend the weekend with Margot and her family!

Last night, went to a huge party and had a fabulous time meeting a zillion new and wonderful people from all over! :D

Anyways, I'll be back for a long update on Sunday afternoon or so.

Hope the weather wherever you are is as beautiful as it is in Rennes right now!!!!

Ireland. Enough said.

Five days in Ireland and I am speechless.
Ballyvaughan is a BEAUTIFUL place and I cannot WAIT to return. Sarah said it best on our somber journey home yesterday, "I fell in love with place- and that's never happened before!!"
I completely agree. We cried a lot on our way home to Rennes.

This was our adventure:

We found a woman through a carpooling website that was going to Paris on the day of our flight. We each paid her 25 euros and we were off to Paris- a 3 hour drive. It went by pretty quickly however and we arrived at Porte Maillot where we needed to take a bus to the Paris-Beauvais airport, which is a tiny little airport about an hour away by the bus.

Once at the airport, we checked in, ate some food and took our very short, hour long flight to Shannon. Once we arrived Shannon, it was late- around 8:00 and there were no more buses to our hostel that was only a few miles away. So, we hailed a taxi and went to the little town of Sixmilebridge, where we stayed for the night. After making tea and some dinner at the cute hostel (called the Jamaica Inn) we passed out.
We woke up at 7:00 AM to catch our bus, as we had to walk into town- a short walk. We got on the first bus and the bus driver was AWESOME. He told us all about the history of Ireland, which was interesting. We had to switch buses at Clarenbridge, but we had an hour and a half to kill before we could get on it.

Thus, the delicious IRISH BREAKFAST. I really wish I did not like black pudding, but I ADORE IT. It is heavenly and homey and a complete comfort food. I looked for it at the very small grocery store in Ballyvaughan, but they didn't seem to have it. :(
So sad. I would have left ALL my clothes and hairdryer just to fill up my backpack with pudding. But I think it's the kind of thing that you make.
However, there is a lot of blood involved, so I don't know if I'm up for that. I just want to eat it- not make it.

So after the breakfast, we got on the bus to Ballyvaughan and met yet another talkative and friendly bus driver. Upon arriving in Ballyvaughan, we had instructions from Sarah's friend Seth (who we stayed with for the week) on how to get to the house. We had to wait until he was out of class, so we decided to walk slowly and take TONS of pictures.
We passed the house and were planning on walking up towards their school (a ten minute walk from their house) but we got distracted by some big rocks that looked comfortable and decided to sit and wait for Seth to meet us when he got out of class.
He met us soon after and we went to his house. After showing us around, he had to go back to class. Since they were all letting us stay there for days, we decided to clean their kitchen and living room and such.
After doing this and showering, we started playing cards whilst speaking french, eating croissants that we brought with us and drinking until Seth came back with his roommate Brad. As soon as they walked in, we all started talking at once and they were a bit overwhelmed.

After some more card playing and getting to know one another, we headed off for a pub crawl downtown. The town is about a fifteen to twenty minute walk down a very gravelly and muddy road. We went to one bar that was really cool where we tried hot irish whiskey. It was almost like a tea and was not bad at all.

The next day we took a long walk up to these faerie forts (picture below on the left) and also went to Aillwee Cave and took a tour. It was amazing! The best part about being in the cave was that they turned off all the lights and let us "see" what complete darkness is like. It was a little frightening, but incredible.

On Friday, we went to Galway and stayed in a hostel. We had REAL fish and chips. It was the best fish I have ever eaten in my LIFE. After this, we stopped at a little shop to get some drinks for the night before we went out. Brad and I both bought this drink called "Buckfast" which is a wine that is made by monks. It had the consistency of cough syrup and had caffeine in it. Which is probably why I danced like a fiend all night until 2:30 AM when we had to head back to the hostel because the club closed.

The next day we went back to Ballyvaughan and relaxed. We went out again that night to meet more of the art students! On the way to the bar I made Brad carry me and he tripped and we fell on the gravelly road and I got quite the bruise. Hilarious. Never going to let him live it down.

Once at the bar, there was live music!! I requested my song, "Galway Girl" and the guitarist played it! It was wonderful to be in an Irish bar, relaxing, drinking a Guinness and listening to my song LIVE!
Also we met a whole bunch of the other art students, who were all incredibly nice and cool. Some of them even live near us!

Sunday we got to see the school and the studios where they all work. Incredible artwork, I have to say. I was very impressed. (Photo above of Brad's portraits). We also did a polar dip at a beach a few miles away! It was freezing, but I insisted on going in twice!!!! With my bathing suit ON I might add- though most everyone else went in naked. (Photo below of us after the dip!)

Monday, we had an early morning and had to start our journey back home. This was exhausting as we had to take a bus from Ballyvaughan to Clarenbridge, then a bus from Clarenbridge to the airport, then the plane to Paris-Beauvais, then a bus from Paris-Beauvais to Montparnasse, then a train from there to Rennes, then the subway back to Kennedy, then a short walk to our dorm.
We got back around 11:30 last night.

And we cried a lot on the way back just because of the love of Ballyvaughan and the fact that we had to leave all its beauty behind.

All in all, I had an absolutely amazing time, though and I could not have had any more fun if I had tried. Everything was beautiful and perfect and so, so real.
The whole experience changed and widened my perspective, which is what traveling and meeting new people is all about. Thus, I would not change anything about our trip at all!


There is nothing like that place in the world and I would give ANYTHING to go back.
Another trip will have to happen. Plus, we didn't visit the Cliffs of Moher and I'm DYING to do that. So of course we have to return!!!!!!

In other news, I will be visiting Margot's family in Saint-Brieuc this weekend and I cannot wait!
It's a town about an hour by train from Rennes. Since it's so close, the tickets are cheap, too!

And that is all I have for today :)

Paris and Packing

So I have neglected my blog a little bit, but it's going to be that way again for about a week!
Tomorrow, the girls and I will be setting off for Ireland. Specifically, Ballyvaughan, which is very close to Galway. We're staying with Sarah's friend from high school who is studying abroad there and can put us up for free! (Hence the change from Italy to Ireland)
Luckily enough, there's a bus that goes from Ballyvaughan to nearly anywhere else in Ireland!
I'm definitely ready to visit the Cliffs of Moher, even if I have to sit on a bus for hours.
It's supposed to rain for most of the days we are there, but I plan on going out no matter what!
To prepare myself, I'm listening to Flogging Molly. ("If I Ever Leave This World Alive") Also, I subjected Matt this past week to P.S. I Love You, which he gave a 5. And rightly so. It's not THAT good, but I have to admit, it makes me a little teary-eyed. And I do love Gerard Butler. Sigh.

When we looked up trains to take him back to Paris for Sunday morning, we realized there weren't any that would be early enough for him to catch his flight. So, we went to Paris Saturday evening and stayed in a pretty nice hostel. We arrived so late however, that, ironically, the only place open for dinner was an American burger joint, which was absolutely disgusting to say the least. The best part about the meal was definitely the margarita.

I dropped him off the next morning at Charles de Gaulle and had a really long journey back to Rennes, arriving at 8:30 PM. I have to admit, I was not dry-eyed, but there's only three months left! And I intend on making those three months count.

Saturday before we went to the hostel, however, we walked around a lot and I found REAL WINE IN A CAN! Which, as all of you know who watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, is AMAZING. I should have bought some, I know, but I can always go back now that I know exactly where the wine shop is.
All those times we poured wine into a can, gang! We could have just BOUGHT some! ...In France.
I also like that in the picture there's a romantic couple together right next to canned wine.

Also, wanted to let you all know if you have a Flickr account, I'm uploading all of my photos from France to my account! My ID is galenchanted and if you can't find me- let me know!

Talk to you all in a week-

Bisous!

The Louvre, my love, and Le Haricot Rouge

I know that I've been MIA for almost an entire week.. Well, I suppose it is a week today, but I've been super busy showing Matt around Rennes! Also, Matt has been showing me around Rennes... While I was in class a few times, he explored Rennes by himself and even made a few friends, who we ran into already!


Last week before I even picked him up, I spent the weekend with Margot, which I enjoyed immensely! She made delicious dinners and we watched the Olympics and had a super fabulous time. She got me into the Louvre for free, too! I took tons of pictures, got lost in the Egyptian section and had a great time all in all.
The next day was Valentine's Day and she gave me a tour of the city, pretty much. We walked by Notre Dame, the Sorbonne (which she attends) and then to Montmartre. The picture of the delicious pastry and coffee was from Montmartre.

She also helped me a lot with getting to Charles de Gaulle to pick up Matt, which was not the easiest thing, I have to admit. It's absolutely huge.

After picking him up, we were delayed for hours at Montparnasse (the train station) because of a suicide on the tracks. Horrible, I know.

The rest of the week has been quite nice, though. Yesterday we went to Le Haricot Rouge and got the hot chocolate extravaganza and moelleux chocolat- molten chocolate cake.
Somehow we ate it all, too.

And that has been my week in a nutshell.
Next Tuesday I'll be off to Ireland for five days as Sarah has a friend in a little town near Galway called Ballyvaughn. So, no hostel fees! And we can bring our own food! I think we'll have a great time. I plan on finding a nice field and relaxing and reading. If it rains, I'll probably do the same.

Bonne journée to you all!!!!!

Labo!

Today we had our class called "Labo". It's called this because we are in a sort of lab/classroom where we have huge headphones with microphones and we record ourselves and then listen to them. The teacher can stop our separate tapes at any time and correct our work. Sarah is demonstrating with the headset for me, down below, haha.
Basically, you work by yourself in this class. It's my favorite class. I wish that it wasn't only an hour a week. I would easily get rid of the Comprehension Orale and instead have another hour of Labo. Plus, our teacher is really nice and pretty understanding.
Also, I leveled up in my Oral class- from level 5 to 8!
And now, I need to make some pasta for dinner before heading out!
A bientot!