Would you like that yogurt with a side of brown sugar?

There comes a point in time when it's just too late to fix a misunderstanding. As I ate breakfast with my host mom the other day, I realized we had come to that point. She offered me a yogurt and, when I accepted, grabbed it along with the brown sugar and put it on the table in front of me. (I mentioned in an earlier blog post that on the first night I was in France I translated oatmeal into "hot cereal"  and ever since they think I eat brown sugar with my cornflakes; however, I have no idea where she got the idea I eat it in my yogurt) Here's the thing though...I didn't know what to do when she put the brown sugar down in front of me....so logically, I ate it. I put brown sugar in plain yogurt. And i ate it. In other words, I've officially reached the point of no return. She has now witnessed me putting brown sugar into yogurt and now I'll always be the weird American who liked brown sugar a little too much...

The next night she tried out a new recipe for dessert featuring, you guessed it, brown sugar.

So a bird walks into a bar...

Le Nid is a bar on the top floor of the Tour Bretagne (a 33 floor skyscraper). There is a fenced-in balcony so you can walk around the entire building and see the city of Nantes in all directions. I forgot to take a picture of the inside but I found some courtesy of google images...

So the inside has this giant bird that wraps around the whole floor and all the chairs and table look like hard boiled eggs. I'm not really sure why exactly but it's a pretty cool. The body of the bird (right) is where you can order drinks.

Here's a few of the pictures I took out on the balcony:

The look of confusion says it all

Miscomunication of the Weekend:

I was going to let a couple of friends leave some stuff in my room at home because we had been shopping and were going to a carnival later on and when we walked in my 16 year old host brother (who I met for the first time the night before) was sitting at the table. So I introduced them and tried to say that we just wanted to leave our extra bags in my room. I think what I really said translates to "We want to leave all our clothes in my room".......so that happened.

Comment dit-on "I need a lawyer"?

So I visited one of my IES friends at her house on Friday night. It's important to note that her host parents were gone for the weekend (visiting the ocean *sigh*). I asked if she could show me around her house before I left cause it's fun to see the different places people are staying. This was a super nice three story house with a cute back garden. Walking around we got to two doors that had post-its stuck on them saying "Do not open the door" (in french) and something at the bottom that we couldn't read (it's also important to note that the french teach cursive a little differently than we do so it's kind of difficult to read some letters). I don't know about french kids but I know that if I read that, the first thing I'm going to do is want to know what's behind the door. So she's like oh it's totally fine, we'll just crack open the door so I can show you this super nice room with a bunch of breakables.....
10 seconds after we open the door an earsplitting alarm goes off and we freeze. Turns out that last word we couldn't read was "alarm." You know what "alarm" is in french?...."alarme"..../: Of course we don't know how to turn it off and we're freaking out cause we think the police are about to burst through the door at any second. And while it wasn't really a laughing situation, we looked at each other and couldn't stop giggling which added to our unproductivity. Thankfully, a french university student is also living there so she was able to call the host mom and get instructions on how to turn it off. So no harm done, no police record...don't really know if I'll be allowed back over to her house but you win some you lose some.

21st century...Is that you calling?

It's hard not to enjoy a flashback to life before the iphone. Thought you'd all enjoy this gem....

.....my cell phone while I'm abroad. Anybody remember T9, actual buttons, and limited texting /:

Orientation in Vannes

So everybody arrived by Wednesday and they gave us most of Thursday to sleep but on Friday we got to take a 3 hour exam to determine our proficiency in french...needless to say no one was feeling super confident. But they semi-bribed us because after the exam they took us to Vannes, a city in Brittany by the sea, for the weekend. They called it an orientation but while we were all expecting it to be like the first few days of summer camp, lots of name games etc, it turned out to basically be a vacation without adult supervision. It's pretty crazy but they actually treat us like we're adults here....we're all not really sure what to do with that yet but it's pretty fun. The first night we got to explore downtown Vannes and check out the local bars (with our "social coordinator" of all people). There's a drink called a "Monaco" like the place that was pretty good. New vocab of the night: petite joueuse = light weight

The next day was spent on the l'Ile aux Moines where we road bikes all day, hung out on the beach, and swam. We met this super cute dog on our bike ride. He was sleeping by the fence while his owner worked in the garden and when we asked if we could pet him she told us his name was Ceasar (/say zahr/). He looked like a golden retriever puppy but she told us he was full grown...they have golden retrievers that never grow up....MIND BLOWN

On Sunday we visited three different cities, Saint Goustan, Plougoumelen, and Rochefort en Terre. They were all really picturesque and beautiful (see pics below).

Saint Goustan - those were ramps you could climb to get to the top where there were more shops and houses.

This is the view from the top of those stairs. I was standing on the bridge when I took the above picture. 

Plougoumelen - where we ate lunch at a creperie. A savory crepe is called a gallette; this one was cheese and ham. Very yummy (:

 Rochefort en Terre - This was what a lot of the houses looked like

I took this at the chateau there. There was a huge wishing well with a crank the size of a car tire.

Until next time, au revoir!

Le Vol, Le Train, et Le Taxi (the flight, the train, and the taxi)

Having never been on an international flight before, I was expecting the worst from an 11 hour flight (San Fran to Paris). The reality, however, was much better than I expected. They served us dinner and breakfast, as well as, an ice cream sandwich in between for a snack. I was in the middle seat which always kind of sucks but my neighbors never talked so that was awesome. The best part was the TV screens in front of each seat basically offered On Demand with a bunch of movies, shows, and games. All n all one of the better flights I've ever taken.

I had about two hours to kill at the Parisian airport before my train to Nantes and I decided it was the perfect time to exchange the few dollars I brought with me to euros. It was my first interaction with someone whose primary language was French in France. I walked up with a "bonjour" and proceeded to understand nothing of what she said in return. My blank look must have spoken volumes though cause she immediately switched to English and said "oh you don't speak french." Not exactly the greatest first interaction. With that morale boost, I set out to wait for my train.

I don't remember much of the train ride because by that point it was about 2 am US time and those of you who know me know I can barely stay awake until 12. But I managed to get off at the right stop where two of the IES teachers were waiting for us to put us in a taxi that would take us back to school. The whole car-pedestrian dynamic is really scary in France. I'm not sure who has the right away and I don't think they do either...our driver almost took out about five different people on the five minute drive. I was a little over tired at the time and got the urge to yell out 20 points if you get the grandma but I restrained myself.

At that point I thought we were supposed to have an on-site orientation for the first few days before we met our host families, but instead they took us to the school so the the host families could pick us up. So they could pick up our jet lagged, hungry, English speaking selves for our first dinner. Tons of great impressions were made that night which made for some interesting stories the next morning. (: The best was probably the guy who told his host mom he had brought them chocolate covered penises for a host gift (he tried putting a french accent on the word "peanut" because he couldn't remember it in french). I myself was trying to explain that I generally eat oatmeal for breakfast but tried translating it as "hot cereal".....they now think I put brown sugar on my regular cereal and put it on the table every morning.  

Mis-communication of the day: If you directly translate "I am full" like at the end of the meal...."je suis pleine" what you're really saying is you're a pregnant deer

Where's Taylor?

Nantes is the sixth largest city in France and is the capital of the Pays de la Loire region, It's about 30 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and about two hours away from Paris by train.