Day 28: Final Review

Our project today went excellent. I think we did pretty well. All together, projects lasted about three and a half hours. I kind of stunk though because I knew our observers didn't understand everything that we were saying, especially big business terms. However, we had a great lunch at a tapas bar that consisted of chicken, pork, potatoe things, sangria, and fries. Loved it. I went home, packed up my suit case, and headed to the reception where I drank way some good wine and great food. We headed out to the bar afterwords and had too much fun. I'm going to miss France. I've learned so much here, but I've also learned a lot about myself and my own culture. Being here has really allowed me to "put the pieces together" in life. We're all different, there's no right or wrong answer to any problem or culture. I've enjoyed my stay here. It was the adventure of a lifetime. Headed to Paris tomorrow, Au Revoir!

Day 27: French Final

I got up early this AM to meet Whitney to go over our french final. It seemed like we had everything down pretty well. I wasn't that nervous at all, considering the fact that our actual teacher would not be grading us and the substitute that was did not speak a lick of english. We walked in, sat down, and began our gig. After the end of our prepared conversation, the woman politely said, "Switch!", and smiled. We asked what she meant, and it was clear that she wanted us to switch roles. We didn't know what to do because we weren't prepared for that! However, we winged it and did a pretty dang good job at it! I'm pretty sure we aced it, but not everyone can get an A with the French grading system, so I have no idea how we did compared to everyone else. Oh well! After this, we had a whole THREE hour lecture on bread. Biggest waste of time. I don't even remember much because the lecturer was extremely boring and I couldn't pay attention. All I really learned was that french bread is healthier and better than american bread because our government makes us fortifye ours with nutrients and fat content. Oh well. Mrs. Bairds would have smacked down that professor; I'm sure she's rolling over in her grave. After this, headed home with a bottle of wine that was given to the students as gifts from ESA. Tonight I hung out with Elly and her friend, Yassin. We drank some cassis liqueor and then came to find out that it had no alcohol in it yet and host mom got a big frustrated with that. Tyler came over and we watched YouTube videos of Jay Leno and tried explaining American life to the french. It's a dead end. They'll just have to come and see for themselves. Don't think I could live in Europe. I can't wait to get home!!!

Day 26: Last Day of Classes!

Today we learned how to make bread. It wasn't all that fun, but it was pretty interesting learning about the process. We made two different kinds; a fast and slow bread. The main difference was that one had more yeast than the other. During the baking times, my group and I worked on our project for our final. It seems to be going well, except for the fact that there are some people in our group that seem to not want to put in any group effort. After we did this, we got the bread back out and began eating it. It tasted like bread, I wasn't expecting anything more. Wasn't blown out of the water. It was a baguette, end of story. However, I did suck up and take one back home to the host family. We ate it at dinner and they seemed shocked at the fact I would do such a nice thing (little did they know...?). Dinner was cold artichokes with fromage blanc mixed with balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pretty simple, but yet, a boring day. I studied my french the rest of the evening for my french final. I'm pretty confident. Hope it goes well.

Day 25: La Baule

Today, Sunday, was my last free day in France. So, what better way to end my last free weekend than a trip to La Baule and the beach! I met up with some other students at the train station in Angers early this morning around 8:00, walked there. We got a pretty sweet deal on tickets; five tickets for 40 euros! It was pretty sweet. The train ride seemed like it took forever. For some reason, we thought that it would only take about an hour to get there, actually, it took two. We got off the train in this pretty tiny, quaint, city with some pretty aesthetic architecture. We decided to meet up with some other students who had stayed the weekend there. We walked down the main drag, met up with them, and baught some lunch at this sandwhich shop. The sandwhich was inexpensive, huge, and delicious. Filled me for the day. After this, we finished the walk up the main street and came to the seawall, and there it was, the gorgeous beach. I immediately took tons of pictures! It was great. The ocean was crystal blue, people everwhere, some topless that shouldn't have been, etc. We got down to the beach and the first thing that I noticed was that the sand was sparkeling. I think the mineral content of the sand made it do that. It also made the water sparkle. I hadn't seen anything like that before. The water was pretty chilly, but I numbed up to it pretty quickly. We laid out, got sunburn, drank some drinks, and stayed through the entire day. Near six o'clock, we headed back to the station and ate galettes at a nearby restaurant. Mine was egg, ham, and cheese. Was delicious. Got on the train, headed back, and got home just in time for dinner (ugh...I had to eat AGAIN, but it was good). Elly made pasta with some white onion sauce. Was also delicious. Went to take a shower and realized I was as red as a lobster. Let the peeling begin.

Day 24: Sleep

I literally did nothing today but sleep. I have nothing to report on. In other news, the bars are open this evening!