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.