Weekend in Fougères!

Peek-a-boo from Fougères castle!

In the spirit of doing as much as I can at the end of my time here, I hopped a bus to Fougères with Katherine on Friday evening. About 90 minutes later, we were there, the home of the biggest medieval castle in Europe and of the American assistants Amanda and David. Caitlin had already arrived, so we all walked to their apartment through the hilly streets.

Basically, this weekend we did a lot of eating, dancing, and wandering. Friday night we drank wine, ate a platter of cheese and falafal, and went bowling until 3am. Saturday we spent mostly outside--buying food at the market, picnicking at the foot of the castle, napping in the grass with Pride radio on, walking around the castle, sitting at a cafe, napping in the apartment, watching youtube videos together, and eating mussels and fries and ice cream while finishing a mini-keg. Dancing was interspersed throughout the days. Sadly, I did get a touch of sunburn, so I was sore on Sunday morning. We ate a breakfast of coffee, eggs and sausage à la américain and chilled until taking an afternoon bus home. It was low-key but very satisfying--good company, gorgeous weather, and great fun! I was so content in that park on Saturday!

Caitlin, Katherine and me--my France clique

Fougères' castle!

More photos in my Rennes Spring album (link on right).

Only 20 Workdays left!

Golly gee whiz! As the title says, only 20 workdays left! I will be quite relieved because right now my schedule is a wreck... and it changes every other day :/ It's an odd mix of old and new groups, plus some teachers are (just now after five months) giving me assignments to work on with their classes... It's rather frustrating to have everything change so much in the home stretch--but it will all be done soon!

At least today I had my favorite group EVER!!! The prof gave me these girls for two hours straight to prepare for their final oral exam. They will have to present themselves, talk about their internships (since it's a professional school, they have work placement periods), and then present a document, all in about 15 minutes. Without warning, I had to help them write out blurbs about themselves and their work to turn in to their prof, and then I had to dash to a computer to print articles for practice document work!

Since all of that was boring--and we had two hours to kill--we also played some games :) The girls were pretty good at English and all very sweet. They're actually all going to be preschool teachers! And they actually asked me questions and tried to get to know me! I hope I keep working with them!

What else have I done this week...? Caitlin and Katherine were around on Wednesday, our day off, for H&M shopping, walking in the blooming park, and chillin' in a café with GIANT chocolate cookies. It was almost like being at Panera or ABC.

Thursday, of course, was St. Patty's Day, so I was at PA's apartment party that then bar-hopped for the evening... I was home around 1am so I could sleep for work the next day. It's still so awkward to be at French people parties. I always feel a bit paralyzed--though I understand what is going on around me, I can't move or speak fast enough to take part.

I'm also VERY angry with the New York Times for charging for online access. Jerks! I guess they need to make money somehow, but I'll just be a poor student who doesn't know what is going on in the world now!

PA just left for KFC-ing with friends and going home for the weekend. I'll be joined by Caitlin and Katherine tomorrow morning to go to the market and hang about. Fingers crossed for a nice day!