Monday, February 2

The Beginning . . .

Bonjour from Rennes!


I’m sorry it has taken me a while to get this going but I have no wireless at my host family’s house – so I will have to write this at school. Please feel free to read what you want or even just ignore the email, but I had so much to say and I couldn’t stop myself!



Paris/Orientation:







Orientation was a lot of fun. Everyone on the program is really eager to get started and get settled in Rennes. We were so excited to see Paris – we went four days on very little sleep. The first day we were up for just about 38 hours without sleep. Our first full day we went on a tour of Paris, hitting Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, the Sorbonne, and the Luxembourg Gardens (where the Senate is). After lunch we were given a private tour of L’Hotel de Ville, which is where most city politics, meetings and such, take place. We then went to a very small playhouse and saw a play by Moliere, which was very clever but we were so exhausted it was hard to stay focused. We then went to a French restaurant to try some local (and cheap!) food. By then it was around 11 and some friends and I decided to wander down to the Eiffel Tower. It was so much fun – and of course we brought red wine to celebrate our arrival in France. Because the metro closes at 12:30, we had to walk home, which was beautiful as we walked along the Seine and saw the Louvre, Musee D’Orsay, and the Champs D’Elysee, but it took us and hour an a half to walk back to the hostel, so we didn’t return until 2 am! The next day we slept in and found a café with free wifi for a café au lait and a croissant. In the afternoon the whole group ventured to the Sacre Coeur and Montmatre, which was beautiful. That night we were given a tour on the Seine, on the Bateaux Mouches, which was beautiful. It was our last night in Paris, so we found another local restaurant in the Latin Quarter and we were able to meet up with my bestie from camp, Julia, and her roommate, as they are both studying in Paris this semester. It was then Thursday and we began our route to Rennes!







En Route to RennesChartres:

We stopped a saw the castle Chartres, and we had an amazing tour guide who had been studying Chartres for over 50 years! He was adorable and taught us so so much about the castle. We arrived in Rennes around 6:30 pm and our families met us at the University. We were all so nervous – but I had a lovely first dinner with my family. The next day was pretty much business as we had to meet at the university, for a language placement test, and the rest of the day was spent filling out school information and getting a tour of the university layout. Saturday, we all met in le Centre Ville, for a tour of the actual city.

We’re here! Rennes

If you picture the most typical, adorable, old French city, you have Rennes. All the streets are cobblestones, and the buildings are all from the Middle Ages. Friday night my host mom made me a typical meal in Brittany which is a galette, essentially a crepe with ham, cheese, and an egg, served with hard cider. Saturday morning the group took the metro, which has one line and is the easiest transportation I’ve ever used, and met at the morning market, which has every kind of fish, honey, bread, vegetable, and olive you can imagine. Some friends and I went to a bar in town and got vin chaud (warm red wine) and kir (white wine with fruit syrup) which was absolutely delicious. Both are typical apertifs (drinks before dinner). I’m so excited to go back and explore the city! That night she made me a “salade Americain” she called it, because I told her craisons, nuts, and cheese was a popular salad in the states. Sunday, I woke up late and my host mom, Francoise, and I went into town and got a tour of the Parliament building. In the late 80s early 90s there was a huge fire, started by revolting fisherman, which burned a lot of the parliament building, and all of the archives! Some rooms were preserved which were amazing, but renovation has taken years, and is still far from completion. I was surprised by how much I understood on the tour. I can understand when most people speak, but my French is only slowly improving. Monday begins two weeks of language classes and culture classes, as the university classes don’t start until the 29th. On Tuesday we are having an inauguration party for Obama, and will be learning about French perception of Americans. The French love Obama and never hesitate to ask and make sure you voted for him.

My host family:
Currently I live with a woman, mid-sixties, Francoise, and her daughter, Lucille. Francoise is a pediatrician and did doctors without boarders in Central America almost 30 years ago, which is where Lucile, and her other adopted son Jose, come from. Jose lives outside the city with his wife and two adorable little boys, (ages 6 ½ and 1), and Lucile lives at home, as she is 23 but she is mentally retarded. This whole situation started off really rocky as I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and sometimes I really lost my patience both with my family and my lack of ability to understand, but I really am spending so much time in my cozy room, or out with my friends, which is perfect. And I know as soon as I get into a routine, I will feel much better.

Second Week:

Now that language classes are finally over – today is our first day of actual classes. Today also happens to be the biggest strike across the country. I don’t mean like oh, school teachers decided they wanted more money so they marched through the street. I mean like, millions of people in France are not working and protesting. Because our building is in the university but not technically part of it, we still have school. But for kids that have to travel by bus and the metro, they don’t have to come because the buses will not be working. Tonight some friends and I are going to dinner then going out into the city, as Thursday is one of the only days people in Rennes go out. The weekends are semi-dead, and Sunday is eerie. There is a huge market we have been going to on Saturday mornings which has the most amazing bread, honey, fish, vegetables, and anything else you could imagine. There are a couple stands with every kind of dried fruit and it is so amazing. This weekend I will hopefully be going to a cute town north of Rennes (famous for their oysters) with my friend Lindsay and her family. Lindsay and I also just planned and booked our first winter break! We are going to Seville, Spain from the 14th to the 19th and hopefully also spending a night in Paris. Other people are going to Morocco, Austria, Paris, and the Alps. My program has also been planning small things for us. Like on Monday afternoon we had a wine tasting by a man in Rennes who owns a winery. And at the end of the month, we are taking a trip to Mont Saint Michel, which I have heard is unbelievable. As for my French … I am defiantly able to understand a lot more now, especially since I decided to take a women’s studies class at the University, for credit, which is hard because you really have to pay attention to order to understand, but there is no homework or anything, just one paper at the end of the semester. In terms of speaking, not so much. While I’m less hesitant to speak, I still need help with vocab and grammar, so I’m taking an oral expression class this semester which will be great.


I will be emailing again soon as I’m still bursting with info I want to share! But for now this is it. Please email me and update me on all of your lives. I will have internet during the day (early morning/early afternoon your time), but I will still be able to check my email at night and I love hearing about everyone’s life.



Vous me manquez, bisous!



Some things I have learned:


In the morning, we drink coffee out of a bowl.

Brittany consumes more butter then any other region in France.

Brittany consumes more alcohol then any other region in France.


There is a lack of understanding of personal space

Lunch is biggest meal, so if you don’t eat a lot you will be starving after your small dinner.

French women DON’T get fat

As a girl, don’t even think about making direct eye contact for long with someone (a man), it doesn’t just mean hello.


Bread is served at every meal. My host mom thinks it is weird that I eat yogurt for breakfast, because it is usually dessert.

If you don’t know a French word, try to resist just using a French accent on the English word, we’ve learned the hard way some of those words are extremely inappropriate.








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