À la prochaine, mes chers étudiants étrangers!

To all the international students: 

Many of you are leaving this week and the next to go back home after your semester of study here in Rennes, and I just wanted to take a few minutes to write a post to say how thankful I am to have had you all in my life — even for such a brief while. Since day one, living in Rennes has been an incredible adventure; but what has made it even more special was that I had the opportunity to discover each and every one of you during my time here.

It’s crazy to me to think that, even with all of our different backgrounds, stories, families, studies, and languages, we have had this one thing in common: we all came together to study abroad in Rennes, France the fall semester of 2014. From Chile, Sweden, China, Somalia, the United States, England, Spain, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Canada, Argentina, and many other countries, you all were here, in my life, and it is with you that my first semester experience abroad will be remembered. 

I often wonder in what ways life abroad could have been different — what if I had chosen to go somewhere else to study? What if I had decided to study abroad next year instead of now? What if I had never taken the opportunity to live in France in the first place? I can't begin to answer these questions, but all I do know is that my decision to come here to Rennes now, this time, this year, has changed the person I am and will become, and that has everything to do with the experiences we shared, the memories we created, and the relationships we built together as international students. 

I want you to know that you have a special place in my heart. It may sound stupid because we were only in each others’ lives so briefly in the grand scheme of things, but you all have left some kind of imprint on me in some way. I’ll always remember, among innumerable things, our many Zéphyr picnics at the park at the beginning of the semester; I’ll remember singing in the back of the bus with Javi, Hussein, Benjamin, and Lydia on the way to and from Finistère; I’ll remember the night we all got yelled at for celebrating Katarina’s birthday a bit too loudly in her and Roselle’s apartment complex; and I’ll remember playing Flunkyball for the first time in Square de la Motte with all of the Germans, who are some of the kindest individuals I have ever met in my life.

It’s more than likely that I will not see many of you again after this week, and I will miss seeing your smiling faces in the Sciences Po library, at the Saturday market at Place des Lices, and at the Carrefour just down the street. I wanted to take this opportunity now to thank you all for this time we shared together, and to wish you all the absolute best with your individual futures. Wherever you may be in the world, I hope that you achieve your goals, find passion, love deeply, and live to your greatest capacity.  

Bisous to you all, and be safe on your way home. 

Dani. 

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Mes chers étudiants étrangers:

Beaucoup d'entre vous rentrent chez vous cette semaine ou la prochaine semaine après avoir fini votre semestre ici à Rennes, et je voulais passer quelques minutes pour vous dire que je suis tellement reconnaissante de vous avoir dans ma vie — même si pas pour longtemps. Depuis le début, vivre en France, c’est une grande aventure; mais ce qui a fait plus special mon séjour ici, c’était que j’ai eu l’opportunité de découvrir chacun de vous.

C’est fou que, même avec tous nos différents environnements, histoires, familles, études, et langues, nous avons une chose en commune: nous avons rencontrés l’un à l’autre pour étudier à Rennes, France pendant le premier semestre de 2014. De la Chile, de la Suède, de la Chine, de la Somalie, des États-Unis, de l’Angleterre, de l’Espagne, de l’Allemagne, de la Turquie, de l’Italie, du Canada, de l’Argentine, et plusieurs d’autres pays, vous êtes tous ici dans ma vie, et c’est à côté de vous que mon premier semestre à l’étranger sera souvenu.

Je réfléchis souvent la manière dans laquelle ma vie à l’étranger aurait pu être différente — si j’avais choisi une autre université, si j’avais décidé d’étudier à l’étranger l’année prochaine, si je n’avais jamais pris l’opportunité pour vivre en France. Je ne peut pas du tout arriver à répondre à ces questions, mais je sais que ma décision de venir ici à Rennes maintenant, ce semestre de cette année, a changé la personne que je suis et la personne que je deviendrai — et c’est grâce à des expériences que nous avons partagées, des souvenirs que nous avons crées, et des relations que nous avons construites ensemble comme étudiants internationaux. 

Je veux vous dire que vous avez des places spéciales dans mon cœur. C’est peut-être un peu bête à dire ça parce que nous étions dans les vies l’une de l’autre très brièvement, mais vous avez tous laissé vos propres empreintes sur ma vie. Je rappellerai toujours, parmi les autres choses innombrables, nos très nombreuses pique-niques de Zéphyr dans le parc au début du semestre; Je rappellerai quand j’ai chanté dans le bus avec Javi, Hussein, Benjamin, et Lydia sur la route à Finistère; je rappellerai la nuit où nous avons fêté un peu trop fortement l’anniversaire de Katarina chez elle et Roselle; et je rappellerai quand j’ai joué Flunkyball pour la première fois à Square de la Motte avec tous les Allemands, qui sont des individus les plus sympas que j’avais rencontrés dans ma vie.

Il est probable que je ne voie plus beaucoup de vous après cette semaine. À la bibliothèque de Sciences Po, au marché à Place des Lices chaque samedi, et au Carrefour à la fin de la rue, vos visages souriants me manqueront. Je voulais prendre cet opportunité maintenant pour vous remercier pour tous les temps que nous avons passés ensemble, et pour vous souhaiter le meilleur à vos avenirs. N’importe où vous trouvez vous-mêmes dans le monde, j’espère que vous réalisez vos buts, que vous trouvez ce que vous passionne, que vous aimez trop, et que vous vivez à votre meilleure capacité.

Bisous à vous tous, et bon retour chez vous.

Dani.  

"...You're getting a BROWNIE in a FRENCH BAKERY??" i.e. another blog post dedicated to tom-foolery with Jessica Higgins

It's taken me about fifteen minutes to try and decide how to start this post... mainly because the love I have for my BFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF JESSICA HIGGINS is so incredibly profound that words cannot begin to describe it, but also because I may have a minor concussion from falling off my newly purchased bike earlier today and thinking is hard.

Either way, the struggle bus chugs on. 

You see, Ron is my kin. We are both incredibly awkward individuals who lack talent as well as souls... Although the object smacking me in the face was the sidewalk instead of a broom.

Those people who have followed my blog up to this point may be asking: "Whhaaaa'? Isn't Jessica in Italy right now eating pasta at this very second because that is, of course, all you ever do in Italy??" 

This is, in fact, the actual Italy. And it's not called a "bow tie" noodle, you impostors, it's FARFALLE.

And to that I say YES! Right at this moment, she is!

But... she wasn't in Italy this weekend. Because she was in France. With me. Eating cheese. Because that's all anyone does in France. 

Cheez for realz yo.

Jessica had the brief opportunity before her final exams to come and spend three days with me in Rennes -- and I am so happy she did, because the next time I will be seeing her is at least seven months from now, in the States. :( This fact makes me incredibly, incredibly sad. 

But, while she was here, we had a smashing good time together... as always! 

I gave her a brief tour of Rennes, making sure to stop for some vin chaud canadien in the local Christmas market. 

Do Christmas markets exist in the States? And, if they do, can they be more like European Christmas markets? 'Cause... they're pretty rad here.

On Friday, we rode a merry-go-round in Place Hoche, only too happy to fulfill the stupid American stereotype and to make our sole fellow carousel rider of five-years laugh hysterically. Besides our five-year old friend, we also caught many smiles from the much older merry-go-round employee, who clearly thought we were freakin' adorable. 

Whheeeeeeeeeeee!!!

It took a few tries to find an automobile/animal/other random plastic object that had seats capable of fitting our adult-sized butts on the merry-go-round, but after much searching, we finally succeeded in squeezing one butt cheek each into the hot air balloon. 

On Saturday, we spent the abnormally sunny day exploring Mont St. Michel, the UNESCO World Heritage Site that, according to Jessica, is actually the castle from the Disney film Tangled. 

Essentially, Mont St. Michel was the most random outcrop of rock the monks and nuns could find in Normandy. Once they found it, they turned to each other and said, "Yep! This looks like a good enough place to worship God and remain celibate for the rest of our lives!" And voilà! Mont St. Michel was born!!

All kidding aside, Mont St. Michel is basically located in the middle of an oceanic desert. 

Yes, the construction of the monastery was strategic -- from the top of the rocks you can see for miles, and no army in the past would have had much ease seizing it. Now, Mont St. Michel is the second most popular tourist attraction in all of France; you can spend the afternoon exploring the town's tight, winding roads and the shadowed underground hallways of the abbey like we did. 

The main road of the town.

"What is this?! An alleyway made for ANTS?!?!" 

We ate sausages and said many sacrilegious things while posing with random objects. 

Our picnic lunch on the peaceful steps up to the abbey! 

That hair tho. 

HELP ME I'M POOR. 

...I have no explanation for that face. 

Besides visiting Mont St. Michel, we ate many galettes, crêpes, kebabs, and cookies back in Rennes; Jessica cut carrots for the first time in her life ever; and I officially became a food snob when Jessica asked me to order her a brownie in the Fournil Vasselot bakery and I quickly retorted, disbelievingly, "YOU'RE GETTING A BROWNIE IN A FRENCH BAKERY???"

....Which, now that I think about it, is incredibly ironic, considering the reason we went to the bakery  in the first place was to get chocolate chip cookies. Soooo French those are. 

Christmas lights are up in Rennes!!!!

Sunday evening and a million laughs later, Jessica got on the bus to head back to her temporary home in Italy. Once again, with tears in my eyes, I said good bye to my bestest buddy in the whole wide world without knowing exactly when I would be seeing her again. 

Jessica: I had a thought the other day. The French word for soulmate is âme-sœur, which actually translates quite literally into "soul sister."

If anyone was my âme-sœur.... then, girly, it's you. 

Love to you no matter how many oceans there are between us. 

D

An Old Friend Comes to Visit

Look who popped over for a casual week in France last Thursday!!!

DERRRIIICCCKKKKK!!

I was very happy to spend the week with this guy, showing him the best of Brittany and making him very fat. Derrick is actually my best friend's older brother and is one of my best friends as well. He attends DU (like me!) and is currently pursuing a Master's in Finance, as well as a black belt in sheer awesomeness. While Derrick was here in France, he received his first real salaried job offer EVER, and so we had lots to celebrate on top of the fact that we were reunited once more!!

We began his trip as any trip in Birttany should begin: with galettes, crêpes, and kir breton.

Derrick's AH-mazing caramel au beurre salé crêpe at one of my favorite restaurants in Rennes, La Maison de Josephine.

Friday morning, I decided to surprise Derrick with a trip to the Pink Granite Coast, one of the hidden tourist gems of France. At 9:00 we jumped on the train to Lannion, and from Lannion took a bus to Perros-Guirec.

The first thing we did in Perros-Guirec was...eat. We started off with a crab cake, lots of bread and butter (demi-sel, bien sûr!!), and white wine. We steadily moved on to an absolutely incredible sausage, potato, bacon and sauerkraut main dish, and then we finished with a dessert of homemade choux pastry puffs filled with fresh fruit cream, pictured below. 

NO OTHAH BUTTAH BUT DAH DEMI-SEL. 

Chouxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. 

After our wonderfully filling meal, we decided to burn some calories hiking the Sentier de Douaniers along the Coast while admiring the gorgeous rock formations surrounding us. 

We made it to the west side of the coast, in Ploumanac'h, just in time to see the sunset. 

The next day, we headed back on a bus to Lannion and explored the city a bit more extensively than the day before. 

Beautiful view of the city outside of the Église de Brelevenez.

After a quick stopover in St. Brieuc for the night, we decided to head back to Rennes the next afternoon. In Rennes, we....

Drank Guiness at O'Connells Irish Pub.

Ate galette-saucisse at my favorite galette pit-stop in the center of town (where I, right after excitedly buying my galette-saucisse with onions and goat cheese, promptly stepped in a huge pile of dog crap).

Attended an organic wine tasting event hosted by the local bar Mille Potes and Science Po's international student association, Zéphyr.

And, finally, gorged ourselves on wayyyy too much kebab and fries and white sauce. 

It's... ALL GONE. :-O NOOOOOO.

So... in summary, we basically just ate everything. The entire time. 

In his spare minutes (i.e. when I was in class), Derrick was able to take two quick day trips to Dinan and Mont St. Michel. After his time here, he now (correctly) believes that Brittany is the bestest region of all of France.

Derrick caught his train to Paris this morning, where he will fly to Italy to see Jessica and his parents for Thanksgiving. It's always hard to say good bye... we won't see each other again for at least seven months. But now we can laugh, look back, and remember all of our time spent together in France. :-)

Bisous, Derrick, and safe travels in Italy and back to the States. 

Dani

Fun Times in Finistère: Travelling with Zéphyr

This past weekend, before the sun had risen on Saturday morning, a rowdy group of international and French students piled into a bus together and drove off into the wild, savage landscape known as...

LA FINISTÈRE!!

Finistère is the westernmost region of France, as you can see on the maps I so graciously provided below. The left map illustrates all of France, whereas the left is a close-up of the Finistère region. 

For 40 euro each, our 50-ish person group got to spend the entire weekend exploring this gorgeous departement. More ressemblant of Ireland than the rest of France, Finistère is the region most heavily influenced by the tradition Breton language (an ancient Celtic derivative) and contains almost an entire quarter of Brittany's coastline. 

Needless to say, it was incredibly green, incredibly wet, incredibly rugged, and incredibly cold. 

I loved every second of it. 

The trip started as it should: with lots of singing. Imagine a Spaniard, two American girls, a French, a Somalian, and numerous Germans and Italians singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Barbie Girl" together in the very rear of the bus (what can I say? Business up front... party in the back!).

Partner in crime: Lydia!!!  

Their glorious singing voices had to rest after creating such heavenly harmonies together.

General bus chaos. Photo credit to Tim Bieler <3

After singing about a hundred renditions of songs from around the world, we exited the bus at our first stop, not far from the Pointe du Raz, to snap some photos of the stunning coast.

Ain't she cute?!?!

We then continued on our journey to our next destination: sand yachting!!!

Sand yachting is basically hooking up sails to dinky go-karts and using the wind to roll along the beach. AKA... It's awesome. Photo credit to Tim!

Wind+sand+ocean = happy Roselle! Photo credit to Tim!

After sand yachting, we popped along multiple locations along the coast, including this one:

Magic.  

International love!

After admiring the waves crashing along the coastline of the Pointe du Raz, we slowly made our way back to the bus, which we took all the way to our hostel in Poullan-sur-Mer. Much pasta was eaten, much wine was drunk, much traditional (although poorly conceived) Breton dancing was done, and much laughter was had.

The next day, we placed our things once more in the bus and headed to Penmarc'h and Concarneau!

Who needs sand when you have seashells??

In Penmarc'h, we climbed the lighthouse of Eckmühl to get a beautiful view of the seaside. 

Lydia climbing the 200 steps to the top. Who needs squats when you have a lighthouse?

And finally... we made it!

Yes, that is an apple in my hand.

Concarneau is a small city not too far from Penmarc'h comprised of a modern city surrounding a tiny, walled village on an island in the center of the harbor.

We spent our time in Concarneau's walled island eating delicious crêpes (note: pistachio ice cream for Dani) and drinking much-needed lattes. We may not have seen much of the city there, but we can certainly attest to the stellar local Breton cuisine!!

Even considering the fact that I was soaking wet all of Saturday and spent the majority of the weekend shivering, I still believe our weekend in Finistère was one of the most fun weekends I have had since arriving in Rennes in September. It was not only a great way to see more of France's diverse landscape, but it was also an amazing opportunity to bond with the wonderful people that surround me in my everyday life here in Rennes. 

My experience here in France would not be the same without you, and I am so happy that I have met you all. Here's to our weekend in Finistère, and to many more weekends spent together laughing and discovering!

Zéphyr :)

Bisous. 

D