My New Place

I've been bad, and busy and haven't been keeping up with this.
I suck at communication.
Get used to it.

But seriously, I'm in Rennes now and have been since last friday. This go around, the transit was much less scary, mush less time-consuming and, sorry to say, there are no pigeon analyses. I took the tram from the University of Caen to the train station, bought a sandwich (a vegetarian sandwich!) and felt actually full and happy with what I was full on for the first time in two weeks. It was glorious. Then I took the train to Le Mans, which, just for the record, is just as far away from Caen as Rennes is, only it's to the south, not the west. There I had to get off of my train and hop onto a TGV (the super-highspeed train) to Rennes. I was kinda upset that I would have to take a three hour train ride to get to a city that was only an hour and half away, but what can you do? Such is the curse of public transport.
The TGV was much more comfortable than than the normal train and it was a great way to get a look at the countryside....

Actually, it was a terrible way.
Everything was going by so fast that my head hurt trying to process it, which is, I suppose, the reason that people on trains are always reading or napping or doing something that doesn't involve looking out the window. But I've never been willing to miss anything, so I suffered the headache and watched the fields and trees and villages fly by.
Just as a heads up, I may have to live in France,
like forever.
It's beautiful, and there's something so wonderfully different about it's agricultural areas. The cows are huge, and fat and the color of cream and the fields are always surrounded by trees, and nothing looks over grazed or scruffy or commercial. I want an old stone farmhouse near an old village with cobblestone streets. I will have a small garden, a well, and an ivy growing up the walls.
That is my heaven.
Well, my heaven would involve the town also having an artistic community, a bookstore, living statues and a circus that would never leave town, but that is besides the point.

Ok, back on track:
When I got to the train station in Rennes, I was met by Marie, a student who studied last year in the US. She got me onto campus and helped me check into the room, made sure that all of the paperwork was done (which means she had to get after some people in french, because the administration in this country is less than organized nor is it motivated) and made sure I didn't have any questions. It was so great. So much different from Caen, where they gave me directions on how to take the tram from the station to the university and then looked at me like I was stupid when I came to check in.
I think that were I not with ISEP, Rennes would be much the same, but because my program is under different organization, I am being very well taken care of. My coordinator is a really sweet, really concerned man named François, who it seems, will bend over backwards to make sure that we are comfortable, informed and cared for.

It's very nice.

I got moved in, settled and met some of the other exchange students. There are four other girls here with ISEP from the US and we all live in the same building, so I've got a bit of a safety network. I've also met just about every italian on the campus, since one of the girls, Laura, grew up in Italy and speaks italian fluently. They are quite a fun bunch, even though I don't understand most of what they are saying. It's strange, I'm sure, to see us all together is bizarre, since there are three greek girls who are in the same group as well. At any given moment, italian, greek, english and french are being spoken, all at the same time, switching back and forth and translating for one another.
On saturday, we al took the train to St. Malo, a corsair town, north of Rennes and on the beach. A corsair, I guess, was a licensed pirate, and the centre ville is surrounded by a high stone wall with a path traversing the top, so we walked around the city along this wall and then followed a steep flight of stone stairs down to the beach.
The beaches in Britanny are so much more impressive than those of Normandy, with their rock cliffs and rugged islands. A number of the islands spotting the bay had old fortresses built on them and every viable surface was covered with tall grass and flowers.
Truly incredible.

As for Rennes:
I Love It!
In the study abroad guides, they warn about the honeymoon effect, in which one is completey floored and excited and in love with their surroundings for the first couple of days/weeks/months, a feeling which then gives way to irritation at all of the differences. I think I did it backwards. I was very nonplussed for the most part while in Paris and Caen, pretty cranky and very irritated, but boy oh boy, I am Honeymooning now.
Sometimes Rennes reminds me of Seattle, but I think that's the university, which is full of many artsy-fartsy, punk-ish, scene kids among the other students. Mostly, it is just incredible.
It is a "cultural center" which means that there are so many different kinds of people and activities, and art at every turn. There are about four Indian restaurants in one district, kebab shops all over, a huge mahgreban population and so much art. Seriosly, ART
I was wandering about yesterday, near the parliment and in this amazing square, in front of this beautifully, enormous, ornate building, called Palce de la Marie, there is a showing of 40 of Steve McCurry's photographs blown up to about 4x5 feet and standing in a circle. (Steve McCurry is the photograher who took the picture of the green-eyed afghan girl for National Geographic) They were incredeble and perfect and heartbreaking, the square was as silent as a graveyard and into the square echoed the voice of a performer down the street who was singing operatic melodies while playing along on his classical guitar. There, in the middle of this amazing city, I cried for the people in the photographs and for the music and for the sheer force of all of this beauty, all in one moment.

I eventually pulled myself away, gave the singer a few coins and continued with my day.
But wow

Now I'm on my way to a party that's being held for the foreign students.
Ciao all, Much Love.

















www.magnumphotos.com/stevemccurry