After a very full week of orientation, I was glad to see the weekend come. All of the information sessions and tours of the city were very useful and interesting, but sometimes long and a little bit overwhelming. Friday afternoon I walked around Nantes with a few friends and ended up hanging out by the castle (Chateau des ducs de Bretagne) until the restaurants started serving dinner (not until 7:30.. getting used to the later meals here) We ate in Quartier Boufay- a neighborhood full of restaurants, cafes, and bars containing foods from a variety of countries.
Saturday, I went to the coast with my host family. Croisic is a absolutely beautiful little town where my host mom's parrent's live. We went the their home for Lunch. I got to meet some relatives and speak a lot French. Host Ma, Host Pa, and I spent the afternoon walking around the city. The battery in my camera died the first time I tried to take a picture : ( so my host dad offered to take pictures for me. What I didn't realize right off the bat was that he would take well over 100 pictures and insist that I be in all of them! haha It was quite funny- I felt like a celebrity. Host Pa, being an artist, would sometimes place Host Ma and I depending on the sunlight and the view in the background etc. It was grand. Check out the pictures on the side!
Sunday morning I went to church with 2 firends. My friend Lindsay knows someone who has connections with a missionary family here in Nantes so we went to their church. It was very small- maybe 20-30 people at the service. The service was in some ways very similar and in others very different to what I'm used to back in the states. It was much longer (about 2 hours!) The music was pretty contemporary and easy to catch on to. We sang "Shout to the Lord" and "More Love, More Power" (in French of course.) Singing these simple, familiar songs, turned into a really powerful experience. The realization of how universal God is kept swimming through my head. It was like God's funny way of saying "Hey there! Welcome to France- Don't forget I'm still here for ya." It was a really cool moment I will likely never forget. Later Sunday afternoon, I went to a wine tasting festival with several IES students. Then we walked along the Erdre River and ended up sitting, feet dangling over the water, just people watching and enjoying the beautiful weather. It jsut felt like a Sunday afternoon- the perfect way to prepare for starting my classes this week. : )
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