Bonjour Paris!

ahh so turns out I'm not a good blogger.
sorry about that!

I've done a ton of stuff this past month! I've had an amazing time including a weekend with friends in London, taking a trip to Mont St. Michel, going on a weekend trip to see the Chateaux de la Loire, participating in a Fest Noz (crazy galic sqaure dance) at the Aumonerie (Catholic students' club), and, this past weekend, a Parisian adventure!

Here's a link to my facebook album of photos from the weekend (photo uploading on Blogspot is incredibly slow and frustrating!)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036958&l=bf333&id=17703396
I stayed with my friend Devon from UPS and Theta. We also hung out with our other friend Abbey, who is also a Theta!

I'm happy to say i've been making French friends at the Aumonerie as well as bonding with other American girls from IES. My midterms for my classes are spread out all month, so I've been trying to focus and study hard, but I just have so much free time that it's hard to focus any time, if that makes sense. My friend from IES Laura and I have been going to Aquagym (Water Aeriobics) classes on mondays which is fun! The instructor is not too nice, and we always miss the cue to change legs, so we're both going to come back to the US with one giant right quad and one meager one.

Wednesdays I spend the evening at the Aumonerie. It starts at 7pm with Mass, followed by a picnic dinner consisting of what people bring in-- usually frozen pizzas, quiche, bread, cheese, and dessert! French people never forget dessert! Then After dinner, at about 9pm we start the topic of the week which ranges from anything from the economic crisis to a guest speaker young Priest to a study of St. Paul. Last week we actually just played Cranium! It is much harder for me in French! like word puzzles and such... very difficult. Anyways, the night usually ends at about 11 or so, after we've washed all of the dishes (usually we try to use as few as possible) from dinner. The Aumonerie typically has about 20 students from week to week. Usually a mix of new people and weekly returning people. It's fun. I like talking to people, though I've gotten quite tired of telling my story ("my name is Emily (aaee-meeelll-eeeeee).. yeah, sorry i can't say it with a french accent....i'm here with an american program taking classes both at the university of nantes and at my program itself.... i live with a host family.... my parents live in colorado (a center state) but my university is in Washington state (no, not DC.. and yes, there is a difference.... it's on the east coast.... no not california.... blah blah blah")

This upcoming weekend I am going to Italy! We have our Fall break from classes at IES, so me and 3 girls from IES are jetting off to Milan and Venice! I'll be sure to write back later to tell all about it. (hopefully!)