In which things happen

So I realize it's been a while since my last post, sorry about that... I'm in the process of writing about our trip to Paris a few weekends ago, but for now I'll just tell you a bit of what's been going on lately.

First off, classes here are officially over (the last one was last Friday), and I am nearly done with finals as well. I took three of the four on Monday, and all that's left is Expression Orale tomorrow afternoon. Doom. I will be very glad once it is over with. On a related note, I can finally show you a picture of (some of) my classmates and our main professor, M. Kersaudy:


Secondarily, this past weekend I went to Lille to visit Anaïs who is studying there, and Camille who lives very close by. I had an absolutely wonderful weekend; we went on the Ferris Wheel in the downtown area, walked around the Christmas market and poked through a used book market, watched Le Dîner de Cons (which is quite funny by the way), and went out with a bunch of Anaïs' friends for one of their birthdays. This was all on Saturday. I ended up spending most of Sunday with Camille and her family, but before I took the Metro out to her house Anaïs and I went to another, different market (not a Christmas market, just the regular traditional French kind that I love so much and wish existed in the US) and looked around for some things, got some Clementines and gaufres (delicious!), etc., and then I headed out to Tourcoing while Anaïs went back to study for her midterms the next day. Once there, we headed out into the countryside and had lunch at a traditional Flemish restaurant, saw a windmill, and even took a brief jaunt into Belgium (really brief, as in 5-10ish minutes). I had a great time revoir-ing everyone, meeting lots of people, and also getting a chance to put my French to the test. It survived, though just barely.


Moreover, I have also been to the Christmas market here in Nantes a few times now; the first trip was highly of note. It was pouring down buckets the whole time, so much so that the rain soaked through the windbreaker and sweatshirt I was wearing right down to my shirt, and got my jeans so wet it took nearly two days for them to dry. Also, when coming back, we had to walk through a large lake that had formed at the end of the parking lot. This is how deep it was (note our shoes):

And this is how wet we were:


Sixth and lastly, two nights ago we went to a soccer game between FC Nantes and Arles-Avignon. Nantes dominated pretty much the whole time, but it was scoreless until the last five minutes of the game, when we finally got a goal to win 1-0. Pretty exciting stuff. It was absolutely freezing the whole time, not helped by the fact that I'd gotten my shoes wet earlier and they hadn't dried out. My feet probably had mild frostbite by the time we got back. But it was a fun time nonetheless, helped by Sophie long hair figuring out that there was indeed a bus we could take back to the dorms and thereby saving us the 45 minutes we might've had to endure by taking the tram.

Thirdly, there is a small war being waged on our floor between the cleaning lady and the occupants over the subject of the kitchen. It has been closed numerous times now due to uncleanliness, each time with a nice little passive-aggressive note informing us that it is our responsibility to clean the kitchen. Okay, I am d'accord, but is it not also her job to clean the kitchen? I would understand if it were horribly filthy and disgusting every single day, but oftentimes she will close it for something as small as leaving an empty jar of spaghetti sauce or a sponge in there. I mean REALLY!! Recently, however, the conflict has escalated, resulting in a series of less and less passive and more and more purely aggressive notes. It started with this one:

"Hello,
Given the state of the kitchen on Thursday, Dec. 3 and Friday, Dec. 4, so disgusting it will therefore be closed for the weekend. The same as if the paper should have been torn down, or the right to a written remark (not sure I really understand what she's trying to say here...).

Thank you.
(Try to take a little responsibility for yourselves, at the least for the clean occupants who would like a clean kitchen."

When I got back from my weekend in Lille the kitchen was still closed, and that note had been replaced with this:

"For the kitchen to be reopened, volunteers will ask for it to be opened to clean it (it will then be open).
Thank you for the Ss, if you get my meaning: low, very low."

(Regarding the Ss, someone had written on the window over her first note where she misspelled "si" as "çi" and changed the "ç"s to "s"s)

Shortly after, this note appeared on the door below hers:

"We've had enough with the kitchen being locked. You do not have the right to penalize those who keep it clean. WE always throw away our garbage!!!"

The kitchen is now open.

And, to conclude, we have been wrapping up a lot of things here with the group. Yesterday we went to La Cigale for breakfast, and spent the afternoon wandering around downtown. In the evening there was a "welcoming" ceremony from the Seattle-Nantes-Jacksonville Association (now that most of us are about to leave...), where we saw Anne Marie and André for the last time, as we had our soirée d'adieu last Thursday (sniff). I'm not really sure why we were there, to be honest. It was a bit like when we went to the fête for Memoires de l'Outre Mer, our presence there was a bit superfluous even though they said they were freaking out thinking that we weren't coming when we were a few minutes late. Then, once we got there, what was going on was hardly related to us. This time, it was an exhibition of Salish art, which was a bit closer to home than the other, but still... We left after about an hour or so, seeing that our presence was obviously not indispensable, and went to the symphony. I enjoyed it a lot; we heard Symphony 1 & 4 by Schumann.

Tonight, we went out to get crêpes for most likely the last time :( and then went ice skating!! It's been years since I've been. However, I did manage to teach myself how to do that cool foot crossover thing figure skaters do when they're turning corners (it's not that hard, really, just kind of easy to trip yourself up). I fell a total of three or four times, mostly trying to figure out how to do that, but nothing serious. I also managed to literally rub the skin off part of my ankle, and not even notice until I took the skate off. Ew. A good night, all in all. And now, to bed so as to be well rested for my LAST final!