Last day of Orientation

Today (Friday) was the last day of our official orientation into the IES Nantes program! Wehoo!! All week long we had to be at the IES center for 3 one-hour long classes (Grammar, French Language, Discussion) each day along with a bunch of random orientation activities. We learned all about French manners and French culture, as well as all of the bureaucratic details of registering for our classes at IES and at the University of Nantes, etc. So essentially all week we have had 9-10 hours of orientation activities every day. It was exhausting! Luckily I have met a great bunch of people, and we did our best to have fun this week.
Typically our lunches have consisted of walking to the closest market, the "MarchePlus", or the Monoprix (big French store that vaguely resembles a Super Target with groceries, clothing, and cosmetics all rolled into one) to buy a baguette or two and fancy cheese and some meat. Divided among the 2 or 3 of us, it's our cheapest find yet--- about 1.50Euro. It's crazy how cheap cheese is here. The fancy bries and fromage de chevre (goatcheese) would probably be 4 times the price in the US. Same with baguettes. One baguette measuring about 2 and a half feet long is .80Euro. I think I have eaten more bread here in the last week and a half than I did all summer. Yesterday I felt like my mouth is running out of spit to chew any more.
We went on a 2 hour long walking tour of the history of Nantes yesterday with a guide who was quite knowledgeable and sympathetic to us, tired, non-native-french speaking students. She was sure to talk slowly and only tell us the main stuff. We were thankful.
I will be sure to upload some pictures from the journey soon!

Here is a photo of our fantastic French lunches--- Anna and Emily E. laughing