one week down

Well. I wasn’t kidding when I said I might be able to update this weekly! It should be easier to update more frequently in the future, though, because this past week was complètement FOLLE! (completely INSANE!) The days would start at 9.30 in the morning and we wouldn’t get back until 7 or 7.30 – sometimes as late as 8 o’clock. Most of it was just typical start-of-college orientation; safety, meal planning, guides to the “campus” (heh rather the large confusing city of Nantes!), that sort of thing. There were also three “classes” – conversation with Mme Rouchet, langue Francaise with Mme de Pous, and grammar with Julie. Mme Rouchet is pretty much the most adorable French woman I’ve ever met! She’s the epitome of une femme francaise…sophisticated, chic and so composed. She’s got that air of a French woman I would LOVE to possess, but it’s something that you acquire only through being French and living in France for your life.

Anywho, the week was a roller coaster, to say the least. There were some absolutely exhausting days where I wound up with a headache by 11am from having to think and concentrate so much and crashed into bed at 10.45. At the same time, though, there were days where I was so exhilarated to be here, speaking French and living in France that nothing else mattered. Mme Chancerelle had invited a couple of her friends over one evening for an apéro (aperitif) and it was so much fun…though those women (and the teenage daughter) talked si si si vite (so so so fast) that it was so hard for me to keep up…but I held my own relatively well. It was nice to just sit and be social and have fun!

Its just so interesting how different some things are here. Meals, for example…I still haven’t gotten used to eating dinner between 8 and 8.30…if you know my family, you know we eat between 5.30 and 6. Now I’ll have class from 5.30-6.30! Plus the meals are smaller…the French tend to go for quality rather than quantity, something SO different from the supersized MacDo meals in the states (heh they call McDonalds MacDo here). The other thing I’ve noticed is that at least in Nantes they know how to do more with less. Less space – my aparte is so much smaller than our house at home, but the huge windows and furniture arrangements seem to open up the space a lot better. Not to mention the fact that said huge windows reduce the need for turning lights on significantly. And the really neat thing is their “billboards.” Rather than being these huge monstrosities that require huge amounts of paper and lumbar and can only advertise one thing at a time, they have essentially big tv screens that rotate digital advertisements! Definitely less of a waste of energy and resources here. Granted, nowhere’s perfect, obviously, but…it’s nice to see progress all the same.

All in all, things are going pretty well here. I finally had a breakdown moment last night because I was so overwhelmed and tired and we had free time…now I see why we keep kids so busy at Whitman: give them time to do nothing and the homesickness and loneliness will swamp them. But I’m better now =D and I’m very much looking forward to starting classes tomorrow! Despite the homesickness/feeling lonely, it's amazing how right it feels here. I'm so happy I chose Nantes over Paris...of course I want to go visit Paris (et, bien sur, ma cherie Alex!), but I'm glad I'm here. Nantes feels right =)