Day four and five

jour 4 et 5. It is unbelievable how long it takes jetlag to go away. The girls and I are still adjusting to the time change so we have been very out of it and slightly groggy since we have arrived. So day four was our day to find out what classes we will be taking through the cirefe program, as well as chosing the extra course that they include. We woke up at 7:30 am and we ended up all running very late to get to the University. I myself was in my towel and brushing my teeth when the girls knocked on my door to tell me they were all set and ready to go. Wonderful. With only about 2 minutes to grab some french-looking atire, toss my hair into a bun, and throw on some boots, we were able to make it to the University almost exactly on time. Grâce a dieu!While finding out which room our classes would be situated in we ended up being too early to even go into the classes so we sat in a little room with chairs and waited for a little bit.
Once people started filing into their classes a little later I made my way, toute seul, to the other room not accompanied by Grace, Sarah and Kayla. I was getting kind of antsy because it was the first time I had been alone and without the aid of the other girls in the case that I got insanely confused and needed some company. Well the class started and oddly enough my French professor was easy enough to understand and we went through our schedule. So far this is what my schedule looks like every week for my classes:

Each class is divided up based on French speaking, writing and culture. We also had to chose another class based on our own interest and I chose Modern French Art as my first choice, and French writing as my second. I'm really hoping to learn some more about French Art and also bring a lot of fun stuff back for my Charlotte :) So far it hasn't been very hard finding new people to talk to and the funny part about meeting new people is you always seem to find either the same qualities in people you meet as the ones from back home, or they look exactly like someone elses twin. For instance, one of our new friends is the spitting image of our own miss LaNeve, and even has the same bubbly personality to go along with it. Also we were very lucky to have met possibly the funnest Australian girls when we got out of our classes later on. As you all know I am also here to experience the cultures of many other countries not just France, and it is an amazing opportunity when you find other people who share the same interests as you, but also have a completely different background and culture.
So after the registration of our classes we had to do a bit of running around campus to get some very unneccesary paperwork done, and also get our student ID cards. Once we were able to finish the unimportant yet important paperwork we all decided that we were in serious need of food. So our new friend and us wandered over to the student center area and got some very strong café crème and un pain au chocolat. Might I say that even if it was cafeteria food to the French, it's like 5 star dining for us! The pain au chocolat was just as amazing as if I had bought it fresh from the boulangerie. Now that I think about it, nothing in Rennes seems to ever be not fresh or wonderful tasting? Hmm. So feeling a little bit peeved about the massive amounts of paperwork we had to fill out we ended up going to the grocery store they call Carrefour and baught two bottles of wine, red and blush, a fresh baguette, and some more brie cheese. Well this certainly would make anyone feel better in my opinion.
Once back in our jailcells,I mean dorm rooms, we decided to have a bit of a rest and take a nap because our jetlag was still alive and kicking. Naptime is definitely a gift from the gods when you have no energy left in you! Once we woke up feeling nice and refreshed and a lot more bubbly and happy we had our dinner of brie, saint laurent fromage, and our fresh baguette. And a bottle or two of French wine didn't hurt either.
So do you remember me telling you all about the little Irish pub we went to the other night? Well we went back for English -speaking night and had a blast talking with all these foriegners who wanted to practice their english. We got to practice our French too at some points because in exchange for them talking in english we usually tried to speak in French. In the end we ended up teaching a German how to say "wicked cool" and teaching him what Ugg shoes were. Had to represent New England at some point, right? Also I was generously made a balloon flower by a magicien who also did cardtricks, and given his phone number (which Kayla casually tossed behind her chair, whoops!) I also left my lovely flower balloon on the metro for some sad and depressed person to find and help to cheer them up. What could make someone smile more than a balloon flower on the metro?


Day Five
No. I. Don't. Want. To. Were the first words muttered out of my mouth when I was awoken suddenly by my alarm clock and the tapping of Sarah knocking on my door at 10 in the morning. "We have a meeting with Francois in half an hour. We need to leave in 15 minutes!" were the next words that I heard as I opened my eyes, only to find myself standing at my own door with my wild woman hair meshed to one side of my head, and my throat almost closed up from the lack of humidity in the room. Ugh. Again I found myself attempting to get ready in a matter of minutes and I still was not fully awake by the time we had marched ourselves out of the dorm and into the freezing, windy day that lay ahead of us. We ended up perched outside of Francois's office for about 1/2 an hour, slowly realizing we could have had an extra twenty minutes asleep. Once we arrived he then told us about the tedious,most annoying process of getting a French bank account through this bank called GNP, which also collaborates with Bank of America. Not understanding half of what he was saying we all dreaded the process that lay ahead of us and we obediently went to go finish some more paperwork and get our student ID cards.
At this point I don't believe any of us had the energy to even bother walking anywhere so we took the metro to Republique, one of the stops on the metro that takes you to the shopping and restuarant part, and we searched out a place to eat. We found a little sandwhich shop not too far off and happily munched on our baguette sandwhiches while I downed an entire can of apple juice in about a minute. I don't know if any of you have ever had one of those 'I'm so thirsty, but my thirst can't be quenched' kind of days, but this was definitely one of them. So in order to solve my thirst problem we decided to hop back on the street and go find this little shop we were told about called, Le Haricot Rouge. Little did we know that when our informant told us that the hot chocolate here was very chocolatey, she meant extremely chocolatey. The hot chocolates were literally melted down chocolate a little cream and a little milk. And on the side came a little wedge of a chocolate brownie, and a little shotglass filled with plain tap water. First sip we must have all just kind of died and gone to heaven, second sip it was still delicious, but by the 5th sip it was just too much chocolate. I don't think there has ever been anyone to say a phrase like that, but in all fairness it was just drinking melted chocolate. And lots of it for that matter.
So once we made the decision that there was no possible way of finishing such a strong drink we decided to go back to the University and try to finish some of our paperwork. Skipping over the boring and very annoying process we ended up going back to the dorm after our University excersion and passing out in our beds. And now it is time for me to go have a delectable dinner of, whats that? Brie and more wine! Imagine that. Bonsoiree tout le monde, et a bientot pour le jour prochaine!