As you can tell by the title, this weekend clearly wasn't dominated by French. I rejoined many fellow Canadian exchangees for two days of fun, action-packed English festivities! (In fact, I think I may have back-pedalled progress-wise! D'oh!) Photos have already been posted below, so enjoy!
PS. I haven't blogged in awhile, so get ready for a bunch of photos as compensation!
Day 1. Road trip and Dinan
My journey began after lunch on Friday, following my constant watching of the clock and tapping of my toes. Natalka and her partner Adelie escorted me to my house so I could drop off my school bags and pick up my other luggage (which turned out to be overkill, but hey, like-mother-like-daughter). Juliette was there to give us the official cheek bisous and a bus ticket so we could get to Natalka and Adelie's house. Go figure, Natalka had already given me a ticket, so woo, now I had two! Then I was informed that Mont St. Michel had had 20cm of snow with previous week, so I swapped out my winter coat for one of Marie's. (AND THANK GOODNESS I DID.) We bid Juliette farewell (I found it odd that we'd have an exchange excursion without our partners, but who wants to deal with 100 teenagers?) and set off for the bus stop, where I realized that I'd left BOTH bus tickets in my other coat. Blonde moment, much? However, I managed to crank out one Euro and 50 centimes just as we were getting on and saved the day.
We had a five minute bus-ride to Natalka's house, and I discovered we were meeting up with another exchange student to walk him to the meeting place, within walking distance of Adelie's house. His name was Jordan and he wasted no time jumping into the conversation en Francais. The three of them had a jolly good conversation while I derped my suitcase around in the background. After lunch, we took a quick tour of Natalka's bedroom and scurried out again to meet for our coach bus.
As soon as we arrived I recognized Elise (a friend from W-O) and we chatted about how crazy our lives had been for the last month. Eventually the bus pulled up and we all piled on, only to be shooshed off in order to take roll call. Then we piled on again, with Natalka et moi sitting relatively close to the back. (Big mistake, we later learned). Let the fun begin!
The first stop on the Canadianstravanganza was the picturesque village of Dinan, complete with a mini-walking tour past the Rance river. However, we discovered that the volunteers running the trip were expecting us to fill out question sheets in a little booklet that we all came to despise. Few people took it seriously, even when the volunteers warned we wouldn't be getting dinner without it. Surprise! We filled them out, but we didn't like it.
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| A view of a village just outside of Dinan on the Rance river... gorgeous! |
In Dinan we had about 2 hours to kill. Elise, Brittany (another girl from W-O), Natalka, myself and two new Canadian girls we met wandered around to buy postcards and squat in cafes. I even forced myself to use a sketchy public toilet, because there was no way I was using the one on the bus. I discovered I either have a keen sense of direction... or just a knack for noticing revolving bra-stands. (Unfortunately, this was my point of reference many times.) We also stopped in at an expensive chocolate shop, and I managed to hold myself back until we passed a bakery, where I caved and bought a pain-au-chocolat for 95 centimes.
Finally we all regrouped at the bus and continued on to our first hotel. Along the way we overheard a conversation from a few other Canadian girls, who said that a woman had come out of her house and invited them in for a drink, since she was American and missed speaking English. What's more, they obliged! Creeper alert, much? (Over the course of the weekend, a lot of people noticed we weren't exactly French. Unfortunately, they all thought we were Americans!)
As we filed off the bus, we were given our room keys. Natalka and I had agreed to stick together for the weekend, although we were hoping to room with Brittany and Elise as well. No such luck, the rooms were 2-person only. After wandering around trying to comprehend the numbered room signs, we found room 21 on the top floor. It was a sketchy little room, the only accessible outlet being above the toilet and the lack of shampoo and a hair dryer. (You may laugh, but for teenage girls this is a catastrophe).
We managed to dig up some answers for our questionnaire, but we definitely weren't giving it our A-game. Finally we marched off to dinner, which was supposedly at 8:30, but at 8:22 we were scolded for being late. We arrived just in time to sit next to Elise and Brittany, and witness the oncoming landslide of questionable food that lasted the entire weekend. First up? Mystery meat loaf. No, that's not "meatloaf", the ground-beef compressed log we Canadians associate the term with, but various meat-bits stuck in a
pâté and sliced into squares. I hate to say it, but it looked like cat food. Surprisingly, it tasted okay when smeared on bread, thank goodness. There was also a piece of ham and two bits of salami, all resting atop a piece of lettuce. Being the polite Canadians we are, most of us managed to throw it back.
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| Something similar to what we ate the first night... However Google says it's made with rabbit! *gulp* |
Unfortunately, the majority of us forgot that the French usually have around 4-course meals. After we'd choked down the meat platter, the main course arrived! This time it was undercooked noodles and some kind of fish in a dill sauce. It was pretty good until the sauce was all gone, and we were left with rubbery pasta and limp fish. Despite the fact that these dishes were served a good half an hour apart, some people still chose to be picky, and left their food on the plate. (I lived through my food touching!) Our saving grace was dessert... Chocolate lava cake! If only they came in bigger portions... (sigh)
After a long day of walking, talking and sleeping in uncomfortable bus seats, we were all ready to hit the hay. However, the volunteer leaders had a different idea. They decided it would be dandy to shove us all in a small room to discuss the ups and downs of the exchange so far. The general consensus was that everyone was having a good time, although one boy commented that he felt "like Harry Potter living under the stairs". Holy crap! Talk with your family, maybe? Another common point was that we Canadians miss snacking, but I guess the meal times are another part of the culture we have to adjust to. After a couple heated discussions, we were finally let loose to our rooms, but not before we got lectured about conducting ourselves. They added that last year, 2 Canadians were sent home for acting disrespectful in the hotel. Whoa now! Guess that ruins my plans for the night...
Day 2. St. Malo and Mont St. Michel
The second day was even more tiring than the first, but super worth it! After 5 "snoozes" Natalka and I finally made our way down to breakfast, and were late
again. What's worse, the pain--au-chocolat basket was empty! NOOOO. We settled for croissants and ham instead. Fortunately, more pain-au-chocolat arrived, but it was a mad dash to get it. Hunger Games, anyone?
After breakfast, we trudged back to our room to collect our meager belongings, when the the first of many bizarre weather fluctuations hit. Pouring rain. (Of course, we'd all been prepared for the 20cm of snow that never showed up, so it hadn't really occurred to us to bring along umbrellas.) Despite booking it down 3 flights of stairs and across a parking lot, I still managed to get soaked by the time I threw my bag in the bus and clambered inside. I was also plagued by the shouting of the rambunctious group at the back of the bus, but I managed to tune them out.
Two-ish hours later, we pulled up in St. Malo! Unfortunately, the pouring rain had stayed to give us a warm, er, wet and soggy welcome, and our walking tour was replaced with extra individual exploring time. That was fine by me! (Thank goodness I'd exchanged my non-waterproof coat ahead of time, I was one of the few who didn't get drenched!)
We began our tour of St. Malo by heading the
opposite direction of the loud group from the bus, and walked towards a pathway that led all the way around the outskirts of the city. Our first mission was to get past a tiny walkway sandwiched between a wall and the thrashing sea (I don't actually know what body of water it was, but the tide was super high!) After a bunch of photos and deep breaths, we squealed our way past without getting too wet. I also tried my hand at dare-devilry, by running towards the tide and sprinting back.
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| YOLO, right? |
After that, Elise, Brittany, Natalka and I wandered around the town for about 3 hours. We stopped to buy postcards, accidentally walked into a men's clothing store, and found lunch in a Creperie! I enjoyed a ham and cheese "galette" for the first time, followed by a sugar, lemon and whipped cream crepe. (OMG) I also tried to practice
some French, by waving over the rather ignorant waitress. I managed to communicate as I paid as well, with the 4 ten Euro bills we'd each been given as lunch money. We were livin' the life!
We finished up our shopping and somehow found ourselves back on the beach... At low tide! This time we could walk across what had previously been ten feet of water and ventured over the rocks and sand. I even found the beginning stages of a sand dollar, which easily amused me. Thank goodness for waterproof boots! Unfortunately we could only spend a short time on the beach before we had to get back to the bus, but it was a totally cool experience!
Next up on the Canadian band wagon - Mont St. Michel! I'd have to say the abbey is one of the most picturesque places I've been yet... So I didn't stop to buy a postcard, because I could practically make my own! (Not a bad idea? ;) ) Here's a taste of what we saw:
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| Holy crap Batman! |
To get close enough to take this picture, our entire group had top hop on to a transport bus that took us down a long road. After we got off we had to walk a bit further before we were in distant photo range, but that didn't stop everyone from taking at least 50 photos along the way. (Myself included) When we finally entered the village, we were surrounded by school tour groups and other tourists. We wound our way through the adorable little village inside the walls (Diagon Alley?), and found ourselves turning sharply... Into a wall? No, this wasn't Platform 9 and 3/4, it was a 2 foot wide staircase! The group of us squeezed between the buildings and tried not to get sandwiched. But the stairs didn't stop there. My initial reaction:
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| I'll never skip leg-day again! |
The view, however, made it all worthwhile, and you can view my photos below (or here,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/93492064@N06/, for you lazy people) for proof! Inside the abbey we saw many rooms with sweeping ceilings and vast chambers. There was even a man in the main room who was praying, so we tried not to disturb him. Th windows inside the abbey provided a great view from Mont St. Michel from many angles, so again, check out the photos!
After we'd completed our tour of the abbey, we still had more individual exploring time (and that dumb question pack to fill out), but we almost had too much time on our hands! Elise, Brittany, Natalka and I spent our time wandering "Diagon Alley", popping into shops and checking out the cafes. Around that time, the rain decided to make another guest appearance. Rain pelted every surface and the steep pathways closely resembled Niagara Falls. Unluckily for Brittany and Natalka, they didn't have hoods, so we tried to stay under a roof as much as possible. In one of the stores we were squatting in, we noticed a variety of revolvers, swords, and even Trojan helmets. (We later learned two boys on our bus had bought just those - minus the revolver. Good luck getting those through customs, kids!) Eventually we decided to sit in a cafe to wait out the rain, and I recommended "sirop de l'eau" to Natalka and Elise. Unfortunately it left us a little disappointed, but we made up for it with Natalka's smuggled chocolate cookies. That's tourist spots for you!
Eventually we regrouped and began to head back to the transport bus. As we were walking along the pathway, we noticed dark clouds overhanging Mont St. Michel. There was even a crack of thunder, to our dismay. We began to scurry when it started to drizzle, and faster yet when the thunder continued. Finally, the sky let out one more war-cry before letting loose its full-fledged fury.
We had just reached the bus station, and there was only one bus in sight. To make matters worse, it was already full of people! Just as the doors opened, crap hit the fan and it started
HAILING. Ice balls the size of large peas pelted us unsuspecting exchangees and we all shoved to get into the bus. (I regret nothing.) In our desperate attempt to avoid the hail, we hadn't noticed who was getting on, or who
wasn't getting on, aka two of our leaders and half of our group! As the bus pulled away, a bunch of kids were still standing there, taking the hail! I felt pretty badly about it, but so did my face!
We finally arrived at the bus stop, when we braved what had now turned into heavy rain and ran as fast as possible to a nearby restaurant with patio umbrellas. However, our guide kept motioning for us to run to the hotel, so we did, for as long as our lungs could handle it. (My main priority was keeping my leather purse safe, but it got soaked nonetheless.) Turns out we couldn't even go in the hotel, we had to wait for the bus driver to open the doors to escape the returning hail storm. I didn't even want to think about what had become of the second half of our group! Thankfully it seemed the hail hadn't dented them too badly, they eventually climbed onto the bus in one piece. (And the one guy's helmet was still intact!)
After that catastrophe, we were given our hotel keys. This hotel was a definite step up from the previous one, and at 4 stars I would hope so! Natalka and I blow dried our soaking pants (she'd only brought one pair) and we surfed the Internet for some answers to our questionnaires. After some much needed down-time, we were off again for dinner. We ventured into an adjoining building with two other boys who were apparently lost, but turns out that was a different hotel altogether! (Mega-awkward.) We finally found the actual restaurant and sat down, look forward to some food.
But, returning for a second night in a row... The Mystery Meat Lord! That's right, featured this particular evening was some sort of half fish-pate, half white stuff with green specks. This was even more inedible that the previous night's, so I decided to get creative. I didn't want to appear ungrateful and not eat it, so my decision? Mash it around to make it look like I ate some. The end result was an awful mess, but the waiter's reaction when I gave him my plate was priceless! (I apologize for insulting your food, France :( ) Following that was some type of meat we think was probably duck which was kind of tasteless and dry. The final course was a type of meringue whipped substance floating on a custard sauce. The meringue itself was like eating insulation, so what did I do? Mashed that around too! Once covered in the sauce, however, it proved to be edible. After that ordeal, we retired to our rooms for the night, when the fun really started.
While Natalka was showering, I got a knock on my door. (Several, actually.) I opened to see no one, but Elise jumped in front of me and screamed. To her dismay, I didn't have much of a reaction. (Sorry, but I have a 13 year old brother ;) ) They stayed for a bit to watch Fail TV, when I had the bright idea we should gang up on Natalka as well. I ushered them into the closet as Natalka came out and innocently asked that she get my coat from the closet, but she was so preoccupied with the fact that LOST was on TV that she wasn't really paying attention. We she finally looked into the closet -SURPRISE!- she screamed so loudly I bet they heard her at Mont St. Michel! We shared some candy and watched TV before curfew called and Elise and Brittany had to go back to their room. Even after, Natalka and I watched 3 more episodes of LOST before finally calling it quits. We were getting up bright and early the next day!
Day 3. Coming Home!
We grudgingly awoke Sunday morning by racing to breakfast,
not to be late, but to be so early they wouldn't let us in! After 5 minutes of standing awkwardly outside the restaurant, we ambled in and sat down to a pre-served breakfast of two croissants and a mini pain-au-chocolat. Darn, I'd hoped for some fruit! It was good nonetheless, and I saved my pain-au-chocolat for the bus ride home. (Rebel!)
I tried to sleep on the bus, but it was too uncomfortable, even after switching to an empty seat so I could sprawl out. Luckily the trip was only 3 hours, and we were even ahead of time! When we arrived at the Externat (my school!!) we unloaded and waited for our host families to join us for a meal in the school's cafeteria. I think Juliette may have temporarily forgotten about me though, because I was the last one to find my partner, haha!
Anyways, we all headed inside for a pretty decent meal, and Adelie (Natalka's partner) informed me it was better than what's usually served in the cafeteria! I chatted with Adelie, her sister Albane, Juliette and Marie about the weekend over the course of the meal. We ate a mussels/shrimp dish, pork filet mignon, cheese, and a variety of chocolate mini-desserts. Afterwards, we all met in a large auditorium (I didn't even know they had one!) to review the suggestions that we'd collected on the trip. Prizes were also awarded to the people who'd answered the most questions correctly in the questionnaires, but despite our effort, neither Natalka or I won. (And good thing, too! The prizes were books, all super-heavy!)
At long last Marie, Juliette and I left early to catch a movie, but I'll describe that in my next post.
Thanks for staying tuned, I think I may have undiagnosed ADHD, and this post took me WAY too long. (Sorry, Natalka!) So grateful for the opportunity this weekend to get to know some other exchangees and visit the beautiful sites! More posts to come soon!
Bisous, Lia
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| I'm a nutball. |
