Vacances de la Toussaint

As you all already know, I have been on vacation the last week or so. I finished with classes Thursday 22 Oct at noon and do not start again until Wednesday morning (4 Nov).

Friday we had a nice dinner together, the three roomies and Miguel's cousin, Jesus. Saturday Julia left early in the morning to get the bus to Quimper, to get the train to Brest, to get a flight to London, to get a train to Glasgow, to wait for a ride to Ivernesse. Yikes! Better her than me.

That Saturday was the day I got all the bank & carte 12-25 business worked out. I got home around noon from those errands and then we three left for Quimper around 2:30, meeting two other assistantes from Quimperle on the coach. We got to Quimper around 3pm and proceeded to show Jesus the town a little bit (including the St Corentin Cathedral) before meeting up with the other assistants who live at Quimper.

We then headed back to the apartment of Zach, an American assistant, before heading towards downtown for the Festival Insolent which was in the Pavillon de Penvillers. We intended on first taking the bus, but then thought it would take less time on foot than waiting 10mins for the bus, plus the time to arrive there....well we were wrong. Mostly because we got turned around several times, separated, and needlessly confused.

We did, however, finally arrive at the venue (around 1.5hrs late), having missed only Yodelice. It was fun, a cool experience with good people.

Me, Kymberley and Sarah (the two girls from Quimperle) stayed in a lycee internat with an assistant who lives in Quimper (Josh). I got up alone the next morning to catch the coach back to Concarneau, unfortunately, I didn't account for the time change so I was an hour early. I grabbed a coffee while waiting and then headed home. I crashed for a couple of hours before getting my bag together and taking the coach back to Quimper for a 7pm rendez-vous in front of the train station for my rideshare, but the woman never showed. I learned later that she had expected me to confirm the r-v time and as I didn't, she didn't not come.

Instead of heading to Nantes I stayed another night with Josh and had breakfast with him in the morning. At the time the whole thing seemed pretty terrible, but by the time I was in bed in the internat I felt fine. It was a smart thing I had gotten my carte 12-25 the day before because I ended up buying a ticket to Nantes for Monday morning. It only cost 16€, 5€ more than the ride share and an hour shorter trip. Sure, it would have been cool to do the rideshare, but the security of the train was worth the loss.

St. Nicholas, Nantes

I got into Nantes around 1:50pm and walked with my things to IES, where I had studied in Spring of 2008. There I talked for around 30 minutes with various administration before my old host mom, Roselyne, showed up. It was a good feeling being back in some place so familiar. The articles posted on the billboard were the same, with a few additions. The messages Mme Rouchet posted on the mirror in the main hall were on the same paper, in the same ink, with the same handwriting as they'd always been.

Statue of General Cambronne, Cour Cambronne, Nantes

The Institute has 90 students this semester. They did have 91, but one went home due to homesickness (crazy). The institute is definitely not suited out for this many students; the administration knows it, the students know it, the parents of the students know it. The only people not recognizing this are in the administration in Chicago who just so happen to have the power to decide. With this responsibility, Mme Rouchet is busier than ever and asked me to come back not before Wednesday to talk as she wouldn't have the time.

Roselyne then took me back to my old house in Nantes, making a stop at her father-in-law's old apartment which she was in the process of having emptied and the stuff auctioned off. He really had some interesting stuff. He owned a huge apartment right in downtown Nantes full of paintings and trinkets. In the middle of his salon was sitting a tabernacle that had been given to him by a church. I wish I had seen it while the apartment was still occupied; most of the stuff was in boxes or pushed into piles so that you couldn't appreciate everything.

La Place Royale

Monday night I ate dinner with Roselyne & Jean Noel (my old host parents), Charlotte (their daughter), and Caroline (the new American student). It was a great time being together with them all again and it made me realize how lucky I was to get along so well with them and still have contact.

The house was relatively the same with only a few things here and there added. The main differences was that Jypsey died the fall after I left and in her place there is now a new golden retriever, Dubai, which they got as a 2 month old puppy two days after I left. An almost two year old dog is quite a change from the 13 year old dog I was so used to. He was a bit much to deal with, but the family couldn't be happier with him, so good for them.

Tuesday I copied some recipes from Roselyne before having lunch and then heading into town to do some shopping (new jeans & a black fleece jacket for under 20€--yay for sales!). The afternoon Roselyne took me by car to Suce-sur-Erdre and the Chantrerie, two towns on the Erdre north of Nantes. They were gorgeous...

Wednesday I went back to the Institute to chat with Mme Rouchet which lasted around an hour, after which I headed straight back to the house because Aurelien was arriving at noon for lunch. In fact, when I got there he was already there. We took port as an apero and ate crackers before setting into lunch--a sort of pot roast with vegetables topped off with gateau au chocolat.

Then I headed off to Pornichet with Aurelien, but that will have to come in another post.