This week was pretty incredible. Although I was starting to get slightly bored with Nantes(being a small city and all), it went way up in cool points over these past few days. So Monday was pretty chill, nothing major happened. Tuesday I had mon stage pédagogique aka my teaching internship. It was pretty fun; I did tongue twisters with the boys and I had them look at some Fox Trot comics (my favorite comics in the world!!!!) They were great and it was funny to see them try to do the tongue twisters faster when they could barely say them slowly. A few of them even had me try some French onese- not easy at all! That night is when all the action happened. I was invited to go to the movie premier for the new french film La Premier Étoile by Deedee and Justine- the two French people I have become well aquainted with- because their cousin directed and starred in the movie. It was so awesome! When I arrived at the cinema with my friend Kelsey M. we were introduced to a bunch of French people (adults mainly) and they were all fascinated by our American-ness. They all pretty much interrogated us about our lives and told us about their experiences in the states. Before the movie started, the director came to the front of the "stage" by the movie screen and gave an introduction. He is a pretty clever and funny guy. Anyway the film was hilarious! I had never seen a black comedy before in French- by black comedy I mean about black people and black sterotypes. The whole time I was thinking how much my mom would love this movie if she a) spoke french or b)had english subtitles. It was a family comedy about this out of work black man with a small gambling problem who goes agains his white wife's wishes and promises his three kids that he will take them on a ski trip. The wife is pissed because they don't have the money for it, and all of the friends of the kids and the dad laugh at him because black people don't go skiing. The joke was: the snow is white therefore only white people do it." The father manges to scrounge up the money and the supplies for the trip and tricks his crazy uber religious mom into going with them so maybe she'll pay for some of it and take care of the kids because the wife refuses to go and divorce is imminent(or is it?) The real fun starts when they hit the slopes and a lot of the people in the mountains are racist- but in a funny way if that's possible. Its a really good movie though! At the end, the director took questions and talked about his efforts to make the film happen. It took him 4 years to get his movie in to cinemas! Apparently the film was pretty autobiographical. When everyone went outside of the movie theater (to smoke of course), I got to talk to him one on one. He told me about his journey to becoming a director and what I need to do to make it. He never went to film school, he was an actor originally and he's been in tons of films. It was an incredible experience getting to talk with the star/director. He gave me a huge signed poster of the film. Then Dee Dee and Justine invited Kelsey and I to go for drinks to celebrate their cousin's success. It was really exciting! Wednesday was pretty chill. I hung out with Thomas before dinner, and Thibaud helped me with practically all of my homework. It was cool. Thursday was a majorly hectic day. My art history class met at La Musee de Beaux Arts at 10. We observed and analyzed several paintings, some of which we talked about in class. It is a nice museum and not to big. I'd say you could cover all of it in half a day. After the museum, I went to the Fac for African dance classe. It was a real intense work out, but it was so much fun. Our instructor really gets into it when he dances and it makes us all want to do the same. I worked up quite a sweat, which made changing back into my normal clothes and running to my teaching internship oh so sweet! haha I was working with 2 new classes this time and 1 new teacher. The first group was interested in talking about what American high school is like which was fun to talk about. They all hate school, but I loved high school so I explained to them what made the experience so great. They were a large group, probably the biggest I've had so far. Some of the guys were kind of mean to the others and called them geeks when I asked if all of them hang out together. For the most part, though, they were a good group. My second group was much smaller with 4 boys. One of them, Christian, is very weak in English so we are going to have to work extra hard. Funny story, so I asked my student Maxhause what he did for winter break, and he replied "Orange Juice?" haha I had to resist laughing my head off, but all the other boys laughed including Max so it was okay. When I asked them what they thought of Americans, they told me that the believed Americans all have guns and are all violent. I was quick to correct them about that stereotype. They told me they thought that because of all the American films they've seen. Sorry to rain on your parade boys but the only gun I've come in contact with is a water gun!! Right after my internship, I had to run to my phonetics lab. I didn't have anytime to eat lunch so I felt like I was going to faint the entire time. I actually fell asleep while we were playing a game, and when it was my turn to go everybody cracked up because I had crashed in the minute that passed between my turns. My teacher was understanding though because she knew what my day was like. That night, my family ate galettes and crepes!!! My favsies- to reprise, galettes are crepes made with buckwheat so they look black and you put egg, ham, bacon, mozerrella, goat chesse, any kind of cheese on it and cook it in a frying pan. It is so good!!! We eat it almost every week. Friday, my class at the Fac was again cancelled because my prof is still on strike. I've only had 2 classes there!!! This is week 4 of no class at the Fac and I'm really getting worried. Friday night was incredible though! Thibaud took me with him too a bar to meet his friends and watch a rugby match between France and Wales. His friends were so cool and really nice. I had never seen a rugby match before, and all the guys were so helpful with explaining the rules of the game. The bar was so packed we had to sit on the floor right in front of the big projector screen. I was virtually looking straight up to see what was going on. Thibaud had me try this strange drink called carton rouge which includes tabasco sauce and a few other mixes- if u really want to know, ask and I'll message you. Anyway it was intensely hot and I decided that was probably a one time thing. The guys watching the game were outrageous! Screaming "ALLEZ! ALLEZ! ALLEZ! NON! NON! Oh Putain! EN TOUCHE!" It was crazy! Guys were screaming, singing, throwing there arms up. France won 21-16! It was awesome. Thibaud was like "You better have been rooting for the blue!" and "Congragulate the French!" We hung out at the bar for a little while and I met Thinaud's cousin Delphine. Then we went to his friend- now girl friend, as of that night- Lucie's apartment for a small party. It was so much fun! All of his friends were really nice and they talked to me a bunch about where I live and what I think of France. Then we had a dance party and went nuts! It almost reminded me of the parties I have at school with my friends only with French music. We listened to a lot of english songs too. This curly red head named Benjamin was probably one of my favorites. He was so cool and really funny. He did silly dance moves with me. I got to know Lucie and Delphine a bit and their friend Brunie (they call her that because she's brown, but she chose that nickname for herself). The music was soo loud, and everyone smoked excpet me and Thibad but it was cool cause they only smoked out the window. This may sound terrible but I'm starting to get used to the smell of smoke. Its not like I enjoy it or anything, but it isn't terrible anymore. Anyway, long story short, I love Thibaud's friends, and I loved friday night!!
Saturday, I met up with my friend Megan and we went exploring. We checked out a cool open air market- the biggest one I've ever seen! They had everything. They were selling underwear, blank dvds, fresh fish and fruit, meals, converse sneakers, clothes, jewelry, perfume...anything legal that you can think of, they had it. The centre ville was packed and the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day, and I didn't even need my coat! Then we went to The Ile de Versaille. I've been longing to go their for the longest time. I pass it everyday I take the tram. Anyway its this little island in the middle of the river that is decorated in the Japanese style. Its so beautiful and peaceful with waterfalls and rock bridges and ponds. It was a nice escape from the crowds. We even ran into a gril from IES there. Later we grabbed lunch and ran some errands before grabbing dinner at her place. Megan's host family is so nice, and we ate galettes for dinner. I made the mistake of telling the host mom about my grammair exam, and she went on a 45 minute lecture about the passive voice. It was very helpful, but we were late meeting up with some friends because of it. Megan, Anna, Lauren and I met up and randomly ran into 6 other IES people at Place Royal just sitting at the big fountain. Its crazy how we run into people everywhere! I don't go a day with out bumping into someone I know on the tram, the bus, or a public place. Anyway, the 4 of us wanted to check out Havana Club, but when we got there it was empty- probably because it was only 10:30. Havana Club is located just up the stairs from the Karaoke bar I went to 2 weeks ago, so we chilled there for a while. It was so much fun! I sang "Its My Life" with Anna, "SOS" (the ABBA version) with Lauren, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" with Megan. We got so into it and the French people at the bar loved it! Sometimes they even sang along, and they cheered for us at the end of each song. All of the French people sang really depressing songs like "Ziggy" by Celine Dion. The lyrics talk about a girl who is in love with her one and only best friend but he like boys. It was such a downer. And this other guy was singing a song about being all alone in the world and the karaoke guy actually cut him off because he sounded so bad! It was hilarious!! After our grand finale with the Bohemian Rhapsody- which I went all out with- we went to Havana club, which was packed, and salsa dance for a while. It was so much fun! The place we went to has like 6 different dance clubs/bars on different floors. Its like a mall made specifically for the night life, and you never even have to go outside to find another place to go! Well, now its study time! Later!!
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