Updates!

Let’s see, the last time I updated was a long long time ago. I really am sorry about not giving regular updates. It’s so hard to find adequate time because I always want to include all the details but can never find the time to, so I just don’t write anything instead of giving a minimum account. Not good. But let’s start out with some good news. Leah and I are in the process of finalizing paperwork for our new apartment!!! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our accommodations. It was definitely not coincidence how we came across this apartment and how everything has worked out
so well. One of the Erasmus students left the semester early to finish his studies in Spain, and a mutual friend of ours told us about it. It is directly in the Center of Nantes, which is absolutely incredible, and it was affordable. Leah and I were so excited and thought it would be perfect until we contacted the owner. He told us that on top of the monthly fee, we would have to pay hundreds in agency fees along with buying insurance. We would also have to give a two month notice of when we were leaving. This was a perceived problem as we are only staying in France for two more months. All of these factors combined seemed to turn this awesome apartment into a definite no. BUT, Max (the owner) said he could wave 90% of the agency fees and that the two month notice wouldn’t be a problem, the bank is allowing us to only buy two months of insurance, and the agency we’ve been working through has been really helpful. Not going to lie, it’s still an incredible hassle trying to communicate and get all the correct paperwork everywhere it needs to be on time. Between arranging insurance, contracts, and an electric company on top of about 6 school projects, WEI (more to come on that), and living out of a suitcase, it’s been a semi-stressful two weeks. It’s also been so incredible. We have been staying with our friend Peter and his three French roommates since we moved out of Claire and Julia’s apartment. It was really convenient because they have two
extra mattresses and a massive apartment that is about a two minute walk from where we are keeping our large suitcases. They are all so much fun and so wonderful to house us so long. We were planning on moving out last Friday, but that failed miserably and here we are the next week Tuesday. We cooked them dinner last Thursday (quite delicious if you ask me) and spent almost an hour doing all their dishes and cleaning the kitchen (nasty boys), so we hope that it’s not too terrible living with us.

WEI (Weekend of Integration)

So.Much.Fun. We left this past Saturday (4/2-4/3/11) at 7:40 am. Aka, too early for Jessica. Leah and I (America) were on a bus with Elias (Sweden), Peter, Janina, and John (Germany), Melissa (Scotland), Alice (UK), Mathieu (Canada), Anna (Mexico), the 4 Korean girls, lots of Chinese,  and other wonderful friends that sat in the front of the huge bus; I believe I counted 13 nationalities on the bus. I don’t know I think that’s pretty awesome. We sang songs and then had a competition to see who could guess parts of songs and from what movies they came from. We also had to fill out a questionnaire about ourselves and then come up and talk about the most embarrassing things we wrote down. Apparently they liked my sheet because I had to tell two stories. I also had to explain the meaning of skinny dipping to the entire bus..potential culture shock for most of the Chinese. Whoops. Our first stop was to go paintballing. I had never been before and was honestly a little nervous. However, that didn’t last long. I now love paintballing and have several battle wounds to prove it. Except some not so nice dumb guy came up and shot my ankle while my back was to him and he was about two feet away from me. I was about to shoot his face off but the ‘overseer’ person made him leave the game first. Probably a good thing for his sake. (mostly kidding). I killed a total of around 9 people and got killed 4 times. If anyone ever wants to go, count me in. We all ate lunch at the paintball place, and had an..let’s just go with the word interesting..lunch. It was bratwurst, but instead of a bun, they gave us crepes. Ahh France. It could have potentially not been bad, except the crepes were stone cold. Regardless, I was famished so I ate both my brats and some chips and maybe three cookies. (Spring Break diet starts next week) Then our bus switched locations with the other bus and we went to tree climbing while they did paintballing. This tree course was incredible. It was
about 5 times the size of the one I work at and everything was attached to the actual trees, not just posts, so it was integrated into the nature and it was just so beautiful to be climbing in the trees. I don’t think I have ever had so much fun. There were so many zip lines, plus two that went over a gorgeous lake, and tons of different elements. Five other people and I decided to climb on the
highest elements that were 30 meters high. I know I keep saying it was beautiful, but the view was breathtaking. After a few hours of climbing, we were bused to the hostel we were staying at. It was very nice for being a hostel, but the rooms got messed up and mine and Leah’s room got combined with Elias, Peter, and Constantine’s room. We were given a grand total of 25 minutes to get ready and leave for the restaurant. Four speed showers later we got on the bus and went to this very nice restaurant. Our table was next to a full length window where we watched the sun set over the ocean during our dinner. It was incredible. The food was delicious too. We had some chicken and vegetable
goodness wrapped in a type of rice paper and covered with this creamy mushroom sauce. For dessert we had an apple pastry of sorts and a glass of white wine. We went to the beach after dinner and then to a club that night. The next morning we took a walk on the beach and through the streets of St. Malo. It was so adorable and the flowers they had planted were (I’m running out of positive
adjectives) spectacular. Lunch was back at the hostel and then we had about a 45 minute bus ride to Mt. St. Michelle. (Please research images on Google because I forgot my camera when we went and words will not do this place justice). We toured around there for a few hours and then had about a 3 hour bus ride back to Nantes. All in all the weekend was so much fun and I got to know a bunch of the French and other Erasmus students a lot better. Yay new friends!

Hopefully I can get details up about Missy’s visit soon!