Some tidbits and photos from awhile back

Today started badly. I went to bed at 1am after not being able to sleep, stubbornly dragged myself out of bed at 6:40am after waking up about five times in between, showered, ate a waffle, and at 7:30, I was out in the 9 degree (C) morning before the sun. Fortunately, France has helped to create a strong bond between me and my iPod, and fortunately (a fact that never fails to surprise and reassure me)... other people are actually awake at this hour too. High school and college students, we all make the trudge down to the Erdre River together, in (what I'd like to believe is) a silent camaraderie of disliking mornings, not talking, only smoking or listening to music (or both), quietly contemplating and anticipating the coming day. I did the usual tram cram, which I suppose is convenient-- you are so tightly squeezed into the tram (we're talking full body contact on all four sides) that you don't even have to hold a handrail; you just have to hope that the person behind you doesn't lose their balance. 


My three-hour Pharmacologie class was a little more dur (harder) today than usual, but I don't know if that's because my brain refuses to do a three-hour dictée on such little sleep without caffeine so early in the morning or what. Luckily, the information overload and French speedwriting contest doesn't leave any room for falling asleep in class, so that was avoided. I did a little reading before lunch, then had to preface Lauren with a warning about my mauvaise humeur; I was just frustrated with being bored. Bored of everything being the same and always having the same goals and the same things to do and bored of feeling like I'm not getting anywhere. I didn't have enough change to get an 80-cent café, so I stuck out the food coma for my two-hour Psychologie class... while I didn't nod off, I do admit to breaking out a pencil to draw in the margins to keep myself alert. It's so much easier because he projects, word-for-word, everything we need to copy into our notebooks. I did the usual dash back to IES for Commerce, which makes me realize how backwards my schedule is. I'm not a morning person, and yet I start with the longest and hardest class and, by hour 5 of class, all semblance of the French système d'education is basically gone. It's frustrating, to say the least.


I came home by 6:45pm to have a short conversation with my host mom; I waited awkwardly in the foyer while trying to piece my words together and come up with conversation when she was standing right there, but it was so worth it. Of course, it was interrupted by my two little sisters (who are CRAZY). One was strangling a stuffed animal, and the other was in a silk flowergirl dress and pretending to be a dog. I went up to my room to put down my stuff, and within five minutes, they were playing "défilé de mode" (runway show) in my high heels, competing to see who could be uglier wearing my shoes. While I adore them, the last thing I was in the mood for was two little kids yelling and stomping around in my shoes, no matter how many times I say, "Chute! Doucement!" ("Shhh! Quietly!") But five minutes later, one was in my lap sucking her thumb and twirling her hair, and the other was telling me that she would make me a book full of recipes because I love the food here, while my ten-year-old host brother who had just come in was conjugating the verb "to be" for me (in heavily French-accented English), and all was blissfully peaceful. I spoke with my host parents a little more, which I simultaneously hate doing because I feel stupid but love doing because I feel like I am actually doing SOMETHING. I got my point across. I got to see my host dad's face light up when I told him I had to write a paper on Baroque Art for next week. I curled up with some Camus and my tisane (spicy tea you drink at night) next to the fireplace, with some crazy music playing in the background and all was wonderful. Nights like these, I always need them, and they always come at the right time. Every so often, every two weeks or so, I get annoyed with myself and my lack of progress, so I blunder my way through everything, then it turns out okay. It's funny how that works.


Here are a few gorgeous photos from a few weeks ago: 

Ok well this one is actually from September, but it's the sunrise view from my room.

The sunset light completely illuminated ONLY the spire in Place Royale (that is St. Nicolas, btw, where my family usually goes to church)

The house next to my siblings' school (which I pass on my way to the musée every other Wednesday and the gare whenever I leave)

The apartment building I pass every day

Leaves from one of the châteaux we saw this weekend

These are all pictures from Oct. 29: I didn't have my afternoon Psych class, so I walked from the university to IES all along the Erdre River. It happened to reach 70 degrees and was sunny all day, though ironically it was the day that the Christmas decorations started going up all around town...

I kind of live behind that building, but for simplicity's sake, I live on the left and downtown is on the right.

On the downtown side of the Erdre. I love this picture because it is the combination of old Nantes with the only bit of "new Nantes", the Tour Bretagne (which is in my header picture at the top too)

That's Saint Pierre and Saint Paul cathédrale from the base of the Tour Bretagne