Agnes' Visit

Just before my February break Agnes came to visit me! I was so nice to have a friend from home to talk to but she could only stay for 2 days-short but sweet. I met Agnes at the train station and that night we just hung out, made fajitas and had some wine. (On the right is a picture of these scary looking trees they have here. In January they trimmed all the branches off of them so they're just left with these stumps. They look like they should be in Pan's Labyrinth.)

The next day we got up early, luckily the weather was nice, and I showed Agnes around Nantes and took her to the main sites. This also gave me an opportunity to take some pictures that I should have taken before...
That afternoon I had class and had to study for a philosophy test for a bit so I left Agnes on the computer while I studied. Later we went out for crepes. Usually when you get crepes first you have a salty (usually with cheese and some sort of meat) then you have a sweet one for desert. My first one was great with this sausage cured in muscadet (a wine in the Brittany region) but I sort of screwed up with my dessert. I got a crepe flambee grand marnier chocolat banane. It comes lit on fire but when I got it I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with it so I blew the fire out instead of waiting for it to burn off all the alcohol. So every bite of my crepe ended up tasting like I was taking a shot of grand marnier with my crepe.



Afterwards we met up with Carrie and her friend for some drinks. We bought this think called a 'Giraffe'. They don't have pitchers here in bars but I guess this would be a sort of equivalent.
This is Carrie's friend Leslie who was here for a week next to the Giraffe.

Agne's left the next afternoon, she needed to get to Southampton to prepare for back to school. We talked about traveling in April together but I'm still waiting to hear back from her. I want to do a hike in the south of France or in Corse but I don't want to go alone...

Back to life in Nantes

So it was definitely hard to come back to Nantes. Before I left for the holidays I thought I might stay until the end of June to compete in a quad at the French Championships which my coach had asked me to stay for. However, I realized that I wouldn't be happy staying that long and I also wouldn't have much to do either. I wouldn't be able to travel since I was supposed to stay in Nantes to train. School would be over and I probably would have trouble finding a job as well so it just didn't really make sense to stay just for one race. I'm glad to have made this decision and can't wait to be back at the beginning of May.

The weather here was great up until I left but I don't think it's stopped raining since January. I'm definitely not enjoying the rain because 1. I can't ride my bike (however I needed it to be fixed anyways) 2. I lost my umbrella 3. Rowing sucks in the wind/rain and 4. everyone including me is miserable in the rain.

Fortunately the rain held off for most weekends which gave my coach the perfect opportunity to make us row some of the longest distances ever. In a quad, Marie, Steph, Charlotte and I were rowing at least 35km per weekend for 4 weekends in a row; once 35 in just one day! Since I hadn't been rowing all Christmas holiday I no longer had my protective callouses and I experienced the most painful blisters I have ever had. One night I couldn't even sleep they were in so much pain that I had to call my mom to ask what I should do. I eventually had to start going to sleep with frozen washcloths on my hands. I'm glad that's over now and that my hands are back to normal.
In the picture (left, above) is Marie, Steph, Charlotte and I. There is a 20km row to Suce-sur-Erdre. At the half way point where we turn around is a cafe where we'd stop for hot chocolate.

Yes, I'm still alive!

Since I sort of abandoned my blog after Christmas, I'm not exactly sure where to start off again. Obviously I'm sort of lazy since I haven't gotten around to updating this thing since December 13th so I think I'll just skip the details of the rest of December and January but post a few pictures.

This is on Christmas eve (Jenniver, me, mom, Lisa), Lisa's birthday, at Uncle Ted and Aunt Janice's. I've been at their place every Christmas eve for as long as I can remember except I think once I was at my dad's. I always have a great time and there are always excellent munchies that I look forward to every year.

This is our "chili" Christmas morning. Gramma is showing off her chili pepper earings. Next year's theme is to be 'brown paper packages' and I think we decided that all presents have to be used or hand-crafted or a combination.

When I got back from London after Christmas I went up to Rob's place in Hockley Valley. One morning there were 6 hungry wild turkeys in front of the house eating what they could find of the fallen birdseed in the snow.

This is Rob and Megan up at Hockley and below is a picture of Rob in the middle of a tree farm. No, we weren't trespassing...


We went for a hike/trek through the forest to find a good place to toboggan. I hadn't been tobogganing in years and I really wanted to go. We eventually made it to an abandoned ski hill and had a few good runs.
I wish I had have taken more pictures while I was home. I don't have any of my Dad, sisters, family, Deana or Dijah. Also, I need to get into picture mode while I'm here in France too because I'm definitely not taking enough and I will regret the lack of photo memories when I'm older.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

So I'm on my way home Saturday! I have my last exam (French Grammar) tomorrow and then I'm taking the train to Paris and staying over night since my flight is Saturday morning. I can't believe I've made it through the first semester. I'm so glad I'm coming home for the holidays, it just wouldn't have be the same had I have stayed. I've tried listening to Christmas music but I'm just not in the mood, it doesn't feel like the holidays at all here. I need snow, my family, and a Christmas tree to get me into the holiday spirit. Going home is the best Christmas present ever!

mmmm...Shark

Yep, that's right. Last week they served shark at the university cafeteria. Where do they come up with these meals? I just thought it was some kind of regular white fish, but once I finished eating it a friend mentioned that it was shark...I'm not sure if I would have eaten it or not had I have known before hand.

The day after the soirée was the Journée de Huit. Every rowing club in France rows in an eight on the same day to get rowing noticed. Here are some of the girls who were in my boat. It was freezing cold that day and it started to rain right before we went out on the water.

A couple of weeks ago there was a rowing soirée and I had a conversation with some people about stereotypes of French people and Canadians. This guy was my description of a stereotypical French guy: