Spring has Sprung

Working for IES, there's a social coordinator (Elise) who plans and/or finds activities and events for us to go to throughout the semester. Typically, there are two or three events per week that she lets us know about. The last couple days I attended the suggested events hosted by the university, which were a lot more fun than I was expecting.

Last night was the Soirée d'accueil (Welcome party) for foreign students studying in Nantes. I was expecting this to be a pretty laid back meet-and-greet type event, but it turned out to be quite the party. When I got there, I filled out a name tag and wrote "USA" to indicate my home country. I was then given a yellow bracelet to let everyone know I speak French and am willing to mingle and speak in that language (native French speakers willing and able to converse in English wore blue bracelets). Next to the name tag/bracelet table, there was a large map on which to place a sticker denoting your country of origin. It was really neat to see that there were students at this event from all over the world.

Band performance and dancing outside the welcome party

 The whole student center was jam-packed with students speaking dozens of different languages, I could barely move, let alone hear my conversations over the music and everyone else's voices. I met an interesting girl from Germany who is working as a research assistant at the University of Nantes and I chatted with her for a while before we parted ways to continue mingling. After that, I started talking with a group of girls from Nantes who were very friendly--one of them even complimented me on my French accent! We took our conversation outside so we could actually hear each other and chatted for an hour or two. It was interesting discussing our perceptions & stereotypes of the other culture, exchanging slang phrases & idioms, and telling stories about our respective high school and college experiences. We exchanged Facebook information, so perhaps we'll meet up again while I'm here.

Tonight there was another event at the fac: a glow-stick ice skating shindig. Again, there were so many people there plus they didn't zambo the ice after the hockey practice that proceeded the event, but it was still an excellent time. I haven't been on the ice in quite some time, so it felt great to get out and skate (and in France, too!). We headed home fairly early so we could get some sleep before our 7:45 am field trip tomorrow. We're heading to the beautiful Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo for the day!

Having fun at the patinoire

Oh, and I just want to take a moment to gush about how gorgeous is was here today. It's usually pretty cloudy and/or rainy here, but today the sun was abundant and the sky was blue! Sorry to those of you back home with below-zero windchill, but I spent the afternoon walking along the river (in short sleeves!) and enjoying a chocolate picnic with some friends. I can definitely get used to living like this.

Hooray for Spring!

Part of my picturesque walk home from IES