Best of March

The time is absolutely flying by! I feel like I just landed here in Nantes for the semester, but here I am already at the end of March. The last few weeks have been pretty busy for me between studying for and taking midterm exams (which went pretty well!) and enjoying the warm Spring weather. Here the some of my March highlights:

When I returned to my room after my first day back to classes after winter break, I found a vase of flowers and a little wrapped present from my host mom. The present had a post-it note that said "petit cadeau de printemps" (small gift of spring), and turned out to be a beautiful beaded bracelet. My host mother is so sweet. Since then, she has replaced the flowers in my room a few times with fresh different varieties, which puts me in such a spring mood.

A couple weekends ago, I went to a (free) tasting of local wine, cheese, and other regional specialties. I don't know much of anything about wine quality or taste, but it was a lot of fun to talk to the vintners of Nantes and get some free samples. I also tried escargot, salsa, cheese, and a little individual-sized cake. If I wasn't afraid of breaking a wine bottle or spilling snail juice all over my luggage, I would love to bring some Nantes delicacies back to the States.  

Cheers! Wine tasting with my friend Jacob

Last week I finally went kayaking for the first time! Every time I walk home along the river I see a bunch of people canoeing, kayaking, and rowing, and I wanted a piece of the action. My friend Devin and I signed up for a canoe/kayak phys. ed. class with the University of Nantes, so we met up with the "professor" and four other students to head to the river. It was so much fun, but we didn't bring a change of clothes, so we were pretty wet for most of the rest of the afternoon. So worth it. Next week we're going to play a game that looks somewhat like basketball, but you use your kayak paddle to gain control of the ball and launch it into the basket/net. We watched some people do it last week, and it looks pretty awesome.

I promise we actually went in the water, I just didn't want to get my camera wet

For St. Patrick's Day, I met up with a bunch of (American) friends from IES and some French amis from Conversation Club and various activities at the University. We naturally gravitated towards the only Irish pub in town, John McByrne's, as did seemingly everyone else in Nantes. Despite the enormous group of people in the street, it was a lot of fun to experience a French St. Patrick's Day. For the most part it seemed like only people under the age of 25 acknowledged the holiday here--my host parents didn't even know it was St. Patty's Day and my grammar professor laughed when we asked her what she was planning on doing to celebrate.

 This past weekend, I stopped quickly by Les Machines de l'Ile, a permanent cultural and artistic project (and major Nantes tourist attraction) with giant mechanical animals. I wasn't there long and didn't want to spend money, so I didn't go in the warehouse to see the whole lot of machine creatures, but I did get to see the most famous one--the enormous elephant! It can walk, shoot water out of it's trunk, and carry a group of people on its back. I'll have to return some time soon to catch a ride!

On Tuesday, we had the March birthday party at IES. This month's cake was some sort of fruit medley tart...I don't recall the exact ingredients, but it was quite tasty. I'm sure going to miss singing "Joyeux Anniversaire" and tasting a new variety of dessert every month. Maybe I can continue the tradition with my res life staff next semester.  

The past few days have been absolutely gorgeous outside. I've always found Nantes to be a beautiful city, but with clear blue skies and 65 degree weather, it's even more so. I've been enjoying the sunlight by relaxing along the river, going on picnics, and promenading through pretty gardens. I just discovered the Jardin des Plantes (Garden of Plants) today, which is great place to take a relaxing and scenic stroll, observe wildlife (and adorable French children!), or take pleasing nature photos. Plus it's only a 10 minute walk from my house!

Alyssa in the Jardin des Plantes

Tonight, my friend Katie had a dinner party at her host families house. It was a great time, and turned out to be a group with a lot people I don't often hang out with or know very well, so it was a nice change of pace. We had a simple but delicious chicken, vegetable, and rice meal with rich chocolate cake for dessert. Afterwards, we played a round of telephone pictionary, which was hilarious as usual. This group must be better at drawing than the one with which I went to Spain, because most of the final sentences retained most of the elements in the original sentence. The girl who sat to my left and received all my drawings was luckily on the same wavelength as me--she was even able to successfully interpret a drawing I did of Mrs. Pacman eating a squirrel sandwich.

Tomorrow I leave for a weekend field trip with IES to Caen and the D-Day beaches in Normandy. In preparation for the trip, a group of us watched Il Faut Sauver le Soldat Ryan (Saving Private Ryan), about the U.S. Normandy Landings during World War II. We're traveling with a French historian, so I expect it will be both an emotionally moving and informative weekend. I'll let you know in a few days!

Espagne Part 2: Seville and Madrid

Pepe's house

After a picturesque six hour train ride, we finally made it to the Seville train station on Tuesday (March 1). I thought the weather had been nice in Barcelona, but I needed to take off my jacket, roll up my sleeves, and put on my sunglasses when I stepped outside the station in Seville. Since we had all our luggage with us, we decided to head over to our couchsurfing host Pepe’s house to drop everything off.  It turned out that Pepe lives 40 minutes or so outside the city center in a small town called Mairena del Alcor, so we had to walk a bit and take a bus to get there. When we arrived in Mairena, Pepe was waiting at the bus stop to drive us to his home. Pepe has been hosting travelers for the last six months, and has only just begun learning English. Even so, he was extremely gracious and was able to communicate pretty well with us. He dropped us off at his house then headed back to work while we made ourselves at home. We lounged around in the glorious 65 degree weather next to Pepe’s pool, which was not at all clean enough to swim in, but still a nice place to bask in the sun. After unpacking and soaking in our share of Vitamin D, we headed out to explore Mairena del Alcor and do some grocery shopping for the next few days. It was cool to experience Spain away from all the touristy craziness that we had seen in Barcelona.

After Pepe got off work at 11pm, he made us traditional Spanish paella. He invited a couple friends to hang out and help around the kitchen: Chico, a full-blooded gypsy; and Nolasco, a famous Spanish rock star. The meal preparation was quite a process, as he kept adding new ingredients (onions, green peppers, garlic, a whole chicken, pork, two bottles of beer, calamari, shrimp, mussels, rice, etc.). We finally sat down for dinner around 1:30am, but the meal was pure genius and well worth the wait.

Wednesday morning for breakfast, we made Nutella crêpes and ate the most delicious oranges which we hand-picked from the orange tree in Pepe’s backyard. We then headed to the bus stop to spend the day sight-seeing in Seville. Luckily we took a wrong turn on the way to the cathedral, because we stumbled upon the beautiful Plaza de España, a majestic and intricately decorated building with a surrounding moat. The best part of our visit here is that for only about 1€ each, we got to rent boats to row around the moat! It took us awhile to figure out how to maneuver in the water, but we figured it out eventually (mostly thanks to Alyssa, who was a coxswain on her high school crew team).

Fun fact about the Plaza de España: a scene from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones was filmed there!

Sorry, it's in Spanish...

That night, Pepe took us out to his friend’s bar, where we were treated to free rum and coke and a taste of the Spanish night life. The bartender taught us a couple Spanish dances, then let us show everyone the “traditional American” Cotton-Eyed Joe and Electric Slide. It was hard to tell if the other patrons were laughing at us or with us, but it was a good time nonetheless.

On Thursday morning, most of the group headed to Madrid to see [our paella buddy] Nolasco in concert, but four of us stayed in Seville for another day. Those of us who remained were able to visit the Seville Cathedral, which is the largest Gothic cathedral, the third-largest church in the world, and the burial site of Christopher Columbus. It was absolutely enormous and breathtaking inside—especially the altar, which was unbelievably detailed and pure gold.

I was also able to meet up with Kylene, one of my residents from last year who is studying abroad in Seville for the semester.

Me and Ky outside the cathedral

Plaza Mayor in the rain

Early the next morning, the four of us boarded a train to Madrid to meet up with the others. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy when we got there, but that didn’t stop us from walking around the city a bit and visiting the famous Plaza Mayor and Plaza del Sol. It was nice to see the city without the typical swarms of people around, but soon enough, we reached the point of being miserably wet and cold so we looked into indoor sightseeing. We ended up checking out some impressive paintings and sculptures at The Museo Nacional del Prado before heading to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Dinner got quite interesting halfway through when we started getting serenaded by a live singer in a giant sombrero.

The next day (Saturday), was our last full day in Spain. Luckily, the weather had improved considerably and we were able to more comfortably explore the wonders of Madrid. The streets were so full; it was barely recognizable as the same city we had seen the day before. We ventured off the beaten path a bit to a park with black swans swimming in a stream, colorful statues scattered about, and trees that look like giant broccoli. While taking a series of goofy group pictures next to the stream, Sam spotted an Illinois Wesleyan alum he knew walk by us—what a small world! Naturally, Sam, Kathryn, and I called him over to pose for an IWU picture to document the magical moment.

IWU bonding

We then walked over to our second museum of the trip, the Reina Sofia. I was able to take a picture of Picasso’s renowned Guernica before being yelled at by a museum worker for breaking the rules of the no photo zone.

She's just about to kick me out

I had such a great time in Spain, but by the time Sunday rolled around, I was more than ready to return to France. When I got back to Nantes Sunday night, it felt like home for the first time. There's nothing like spending a week surrounded by incomprehensible Spanish to make me appreciate every aspect of the French language and culture I know and love.

Espagne Part 1: Barcelona

Telephone Pictionary

¡Hola everyone! I’ve been back from Spain for over a week and I still have the urge to say por favor and gracias for please and thank you—probably not the best habit to be in while I’m in France, oh well. My eight days in Barcelona, Seville, and Madrid were exciting, adventure-filled, and exhausting. I was a bit concerned that traveling by train would be really time-consuming and boring, but the hours flew by between playing games with my friends, studying for classes, watching the countryside whip by, and napping. We all had a good laugh playing telephone Pictionary, where one person writes a sentence then passes the paper to another person who must draw an illustration for that sentence, fold over the original sentence and pass it to the next person who writes a caption for that picture, folds over the previous picture, and passes it to another person to draw a picture, etc. By the time the paper makes it all the way around the group, the final illustration is hilariously different from the original sentence.

Goofing around on the train

Garden House Hostel Barcelona, continental breakfast

By the time we got to Barcelona, it was after 11pm. We were so excited to have made it to Spain, but it was too late to explore a new city in the dark of night, so we took the metro to our ‘hood, found our hostel, and hit the sack. I had heard some unfavorable things about the cleanliness and safety of hostels, but the one we were in was beautiful. It well decorated, had a full kitchen, and gave our group a nice big room (with a locking door) all to ourselves, so we didn’t have to worry about our stuff being stolen. We also had a private balcony from our room—it was a shame we only got to stay there two nights!

Kathryn with a street performer on Las Ramblas

On Saturday, our first full day in Spain, we took the metro downtown to hit the major tourist attractions, armed with digital cameras and a map of Barcelona. We walked along Las Ramblas, the most famous street in the city, and encountered an overwhelming number of street performers and vendors. I had my money, passport, and train tickets in my [very attractive] money belt, but I still held my purse in front of my body because of all the warnings I had heard about Barcelona being the pickpocket capital of the world. Luckily none of us encountered any thieves, but I can definitely see how distracted tourists would make easy targets there.

Eventually we made our way to The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (AKA the Sagrada Família), Antoni Gaudí’s architectural masterpiece. It was started in 1882, and is expected to be completed in 2026. Even though it’s not finished, it was still absolutely breathtaking to visit. I was thoroughly impressed by the façade of the building and the way Gaudí made the church look like it’s a giant sand castle. However, the front is nothing compared to the beauty of the interior, which looks like a holy jungle with the many intricate tree-like columns leading the eye up toward the heavens. The more I saw of Sagrada Família, the more I was taken aback by the level of detail and perfection Gaudí achieved without even having any formal artistic training. I’m already planning on returning when I’m 36 so I can see the finished product.

A few people in our group (including the only two Spanish speakers) had been to Barcelona before, so they left on Sunday morning to explore Córdoba, leaving six of us to fend for ourselves a couple days. It was a bit difficult not knowing the language, but we made do pretty well with hola (hello), gracias (thank you), lo siento (sorry), dónde está (where is), cuánto cuesto (how much), and adiós (goodbye). On Sunday, the six of us remaining in Barça had a relaxing time visiting Port Vell and walking along the Mediterranean Sea. We sat down on the edge of the boardwalk to enjoy the beautiful view, but almost got attacked by a flock of seagulls! During our walk, we watched a salsa dancing competition in the streets, stumbled upon an open-air antique market, and found 20€ on the ground.

IWU trio with the mosaic dragon

On Monday, we got up early to catch an organized tour of Barcelona’s Old City, which was 3 hours long, but very interesting (and luckily in English!). We were able to see and learn about parts of the city we never would have known about otherwise. Later, we headed to Park Güell, an architectural marvel and beautiful garden designed by none other than Antoni Gaudí of Sagrada Família fame. We made our way up the precipitous climb we later dubbed “Rocky Balboa Hill” and towered above Barcelona—a truly magnificent sight. Even the enormous Sagrada Família looked tiny from the summit of the hill. As we made our way down, we saw countless souvenir vendors selling everything from earrings and scarves to painted rocks and fake designer sunglasses. Before heading out, we all waited in line to take pictures with the famous mosaic dragon at the front of the park. My friends were getting anxious to leave because they kept hearing an annoying high-pitched tone that hurt their ears. Apparently this high frequency pitch can only be heard by those under the age of 25 or so, and is used to solve loitering problems. I thought they were making the whole thing up because I couldn’t hear a thing… I guess I’m just an old lady.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out on Las Ramblas before heading back to the hostel reasonably early to get sleep before our 8 am train ride to Seville the next morning. Stay tuned for the details of my adventures in Seville and Madrid!