I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

So I'm on my way home Saturday! I have my last exam (French Grammar) tomorrow and then I'm taking the train to Paris and staying over night since my flight is Saturday morning. I can't believe I've made it through the first semester. I'm so glad I'm coming home for the holidays, it just wouldn't have be the same had I have stayed. I've tried listening to Christmas music but I'm just not in the mood, it doesn't feel like the holidays at all here. I need snow, my family, and a Christmas tree to get me into the holiday spirit. Going home is the best Christmas present ever!

mmmm...Shark

Yep, that's right. Last week they served shark at the university cafeteria. Where do they come up with these meals? I just thought it was some kind of regular white fish, but once I finished eating it a friend mentioned that it was shark...I'm not sure if I would have eaten it or not had I have known before hand.

The day after the soirée was the Journée de Huit. Every rowing club in France rows in an eight on the same day to get rowing noticed. Here are some of the girls who were in my boat. It was freezing cold that day and it started to rain right before we went out on the water.

A couple of weeks ago there was a rowing soirée and I had a conversation with some people about stereotypes of French people and Canadians. This guy was my description of a stereotypical French guy:

I don't really have time right now to write about my trip but here are some pictures from my few days in Paris.

For the most part, when I come across differences between Nantes and Canada I have three main reactions.

1. Why doesn’t Canada have this?
2. That’s different…but I guess I can understand.
3. Is that really necessary? / How is that legal? / Stupid France.

Here is a list of differences I have come up with since I’ve been here. I didn’t include all of them but they’re ones that I found interesting or most significant:

· Nutella craze

· No front yards, however I think there are many hidden gardens behind closed doors.

· Coucou and bises. I haven’t quite figured out the meaning of coucou or the translation into English and when/how you should use it. Also, I’m still not 100% accostumed to giving les bises.

· There are no such things as measuring cups here. Either you weigh everything, or there is this weird multi-usage measuring glass that I can’t figure out.

· The only things open on Sunday are a few cafés and some boulangers.

· Girls do not dress up to go out at night to bars/clubs.

· Going on strike is normal.

· There are these scary tram people in suits that come out of no where to check for your metro pass.

· Windows do not have screens on them.

· There is always a line at the post office.

· Pink, blue, & yellow toilette paper.

· Very hard to find oatmeal, peanut butter. Impossible to find graham crackers, oreos, and Reese’s peanut butter cups, tahini, cranberries. I’ve asked some people about tofu, they say it exists but I have yet to find any.

· Can’t recycle cans (ex. tuna can).

· Cars can park front to front, back to back, on the sidewalk, and it’s completely normal to nudge yourself into the parking spot.

· Regular bus lines stop running after 21h00.

· Last Saturday downtown, I thought it looked like there was another manifestation, but wait, no; it was just the swarms of people shopping.

· I’ve made cookies a couple of times and everyone thinks it’s weird that I would make them instead of buy them.

· You can get a doctor’s appointment after 5p.m.

· The internet is ALWAYS down in the residence. There are people here fixing it everyday. May I suggest Wifi?

· Pains au chocolats, Canadians are definitely missing out on this one.

· Cheques are still accepted everywhere.

· Nobody wears bicycle helmets.

· All children are dressed really really well.

· Anything you have to apply for you need a passport size photo to accompany it.

· What is the point of €0.02?

· There is a line-up at Mcdonalds 24/7 and the only thing to eat after midnight is a Kebab.

· Everyone owns a pair of converse.

· Everyone owns a scarf.

· Not the best place to be a vegetarian.

· Rabbit is common in the university caf.

· Never heard of smores.

· Metro is cheap @ €199/year for a student.

· The normal time to eat dinner is about 20h00

· The French are super laid back (at least in Nantes) so things seem to take twice as long to get done.

· Milk is bought at room temperature in jugs and you don’t have to start drinking it right away.

· Everything is in individual quantities so it’s more fresh I guess, but more expensive.

· Buddy lifeguarding is encouraged.

· People sing along to English songs but don’t know what they’re saying and wear shirts with English written on the front and don’t know what it means.

Should I really be a Lifeguard?

I had a scary experience on the Nantes version of a subway/streetcar yesterday and I was on my way to Ikea and Decathlon (like sporting life). It was morning rushour so the tram was really busy. I was standing and all of a sudden this girl sitting down near me (in her 20's) either fainted or had a seizure...I'm not quite sure. Her head fell back and she made some weird gurgling noises and everyone sitting beside her got up and made room for her to lie down. The woman beside her reacted really quickly and helped her lie down. If my french was better I would have tried to help a little but all I did was watch. So she regained consciousness pretty quickly and the woman asked her if she had eaten breakfast; she said no, so she gave her this sugar cube or something like that. I didn't quite understand what was said between them after that so I'm not really sure if the girl new what happened to her. The girl sat up but said she was really hot so she took her jacket off and laid back down. Someone asked her when she was getting off and it was in the next fews stops.

So as soon as she was fine, sitting back up, and everyone on the tram was back to doing their own thing I started feeling really dizzy. I have a history of fainting but this hasn't really happened to me for a while. All of a sudden I got really lightheaded and I knew that I was going to faint. I wasn't exactly sure about what I should do. It was really crowded and I was still standing up so I asked someone if I could take their place to sit down. I started getting really hot as well and I stripped off my jacket and sweater. I was sweating like crazy and I'm sure I was pale as a ghost. I sat with my eyes closed trying really hard not to faint. This woman asked me if I wanted her to call 15, which is the number for an ambulance here. I said no and that I would be fine. I wasn't sure if I should get off the tram or not but I just sat there until I felt better. Eventually I felt normal again and I was almost at the end of the line where my destination was.

Saturday there was a trip with the other Canadiens to Guérande. Guérande is known for its sea salt but also for its fortification which is still intact around the village from the middle ages. Afterwards we went to La Côte Sauvage. We were only able to stay for 15, which sucked because it was so beautiful...it reminded me of Nova Scotia, except warmer.

Saturday was my first trip site-seeing. I went with Joanna to see the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul and the Château des Ducs de Bretagne which are both in downtown Nantes. The castle is also a museum so we went to the Anne de Bretagne exhibit. Anne de Bretagne was born in Nantes an lived in the castle. She married Charles VIII King of France, and became Queen of France. He died after hitting his head on a door frame coming inside from a tennis match so then she married Louis XII who was to be the new king since Charles died...Anne became ill in the winter 1514-1515 and passed away. Anne was very intelligent and fought very hard for the independence of Brittany. At the time she was the richest woman in Europe.

Nantes has been hosting some of the World Cup Rugby games. The other night Argentina and Namibia were playing and they had a big jumbo-tron for everyone to watch downtown.

There was an ocean rowing regatta last weekend. I went to go watch and had a chance to meet some of the other students on the team. The girls' race was 6km and the guys' was 13km...I'm glad I didn't have to race that. It was nice to spend the whole day speaking French. I'm in residence with 8 other Canadiens so when I hang out with them we just end up speaking English with eachother.

If you're bored you can try finding out what kind of bird this is. I saw it outside my window yesterday.

The Jardin des Plantes covers 7 hectares and contains varieties of plantes from all over the world. It's quite lovely and would be great for picnics however "their grass is reserved for the little birds".

La Baule

So I took a trip to la Baule Escoublac yesterday. It's a nice sandy beach on the coast about an hour by train. I was asleep on the beach for about an hour and when I woke up I had a nice hand print burn on my stomach. A lovely souvenir. I guess I should have worn sunscreen...

So this picture was up around the train, does it mean to turn your cell phone off?

For some odd reason Gael had complete confidence in me that I could row. He didn't even go out with me for my first row. It was really weird. He just told me which boat I could use and showed me the map and boating directions then sent me off. There was barely anyone else out on the water so I rowed 15km aller-retour by myself. I could have been the worst rower ever, crashed or flipped yet trusted me with this boat. I don't know why because I'm this random foreign person who he's never even met. It was a bit lonely though...It would be nice to start rowing with other people. The scenery along the Edre is so beautiful. You row past the country side with castles and farms. It's so green and pretty!

Université de Nantes Aviron

I just went on a long walk with two other students on the exchange, Sebastian Joanna, down to the rowing club. The river they row on is called the Edre and you can keep going for like 30km. The club is pretty big, they have way more boats than Hanlan and they're super organized. Each boat has it's personal label on the rack and matching labelled oars at the back of the boat house. I was impressed. The head coach Gael showed me around and said that I could come by tomorrow and start rowing. Everyone seems really nice there and I can't wait to get on the water tomorrow!

Welcome to Nantes

So one of the first things I noticed while being driven to my residence was that there is a lot of cement in Nantes. As in, there are no front lawns, gardens, bushes or anything rmotely green. Yes, there is the occasional tree but it's just sticking out from the cement zith no grass surrounding them. However, about a &à min zalk away is this "Jardin des Plantes", a big garden thing with a pond and walkways. It could be nice for the occasional jog. I think I'll need some sort of plant for my room. I'm really gettting my 134€ worth of residence, I don't think it could get any worse. First of all I'm on the main floor, so my window faces a parking lot and my curtains are see through. So I can either have a nice sunny room but let everyone see inside or close these metal shutters and feel like I'm living in a dungeon. So far I've let the sun shine in but I'm going to eventually get some more useful curtains. Also, I'm going to starve here. Or I'll just eat horribly. The fridge is divided up into square foot cubicles that you have to share with two other people. Mine has already filled up. So I have no place to keep anything cold or frozen and all there is to use in the kitchen is a hot plate and a microwave. Awesome. There were a fez things I was happy to see though. 1. At this walt-mart-ish store called Carrefour they don't have plastic bags and you have to buy these 0.60€ reusable recycled plastic bags and 2. The hallways of the residence are always dark. You turn the light on in the section you need and they are on timers so in 1 minute they'll turn off automatically. Other than that I have to yet to be impressed, however I was pretty tired and out of it all day.