Hello Again!!

Sorry its been so long folks, but there's been a whirlwind of activity going on here in Rennes - so lets get to it!!

Computer -

First of all, me and my computer got these really horrible viruses at the same time right after my last post. Mine was in the form of this crazy cough and fever mixture and the computer had this virus called "System Tool", which is this fake anti-virus that totally blocks you from accessing everything from internet to solitaire to your own antivirus on you computer. My cough went away after awhile but, unfortunately, my computer is still not functional - due to the fact that I called this computer technician to come fix it, waited a week for him to be available, and then he never showed up or answered his phone. So the next day I went out and bought a netbook (which was only a little more than I would've paid the technician), and I absolutely love it!!! It is really small and light and it can go with me pretty much everywhere. I can do everything on it - like Skype and watch movies! The only drawback is that there is no Microsoft Word and the keyboard is European - which is sooo weird!! The "A" is where the "Q" should be, the W and Z are mixed up and dont even start me on the characters - they're all over the place!!
But all and all God really provided and helped me learn lots of new French terminology along the way (I bought everything I needed at the store in French and even asked questions like - Should I get extra memory to run my programs?) I also learned a lot about computers and viruses along the way too, since I did pretty much nothing but research it for a week, so if you have any basic questions about different netbook programs and downloads and stuff, you can test my knowledge! Ok well thats enough about technology...on to the French stuff.

Smelly Stuff

As one might have heard, the French do seem to shower less than Americans, or at the very least, use much much less water, seeing as most showers are set up to use in military fashion and most toilets can flush half-way or all the way depending what button you use. But I don't know if it's the lack of showering or the weird spray-can deodorant here or the cheese, but there is this certain repetitive odor in the air that can range from mild to overwhelming that is decidedly different than the odors in America. As for the overwhelming bit, I'm going to blame this on the lack of ventilation - windows don't have screens, so they often stay shut at businesses, and I've noticed that there are no vents in any room - not even the bathroom...therefore it is my smell-theory that this is why the odor can hover in a classroom for two or three days and on the bus indefinitely. I will have to do more research before I make any more gross assumptions, but these are my up to date odor findings. (Question!! Isn't France like famous for making perfume? Isn't this contradictory?)

Upcoming Vacation -

So I received my awesome rail pass thanks to Grandma Nan and Grandpa J (thanks guys!!!) and I've made all my rail reservations for the first vacation - which is next week!!! I cant believe its here already!! I will be going with three of my friends (Margaret, Carter, and Cate)to Prague, Vienna, and Munich!! We booked hostels in all the cities for really cheap and I can't wait to see what the overnight train experience is like!! I'm sure it will be amazing!! If anyone has any suggestions what to visit, please let us know right away because we still are sort of flying by the seat of our pants! I'll be leaving for the first day of vacation on my birthday (March 1) and going to spend the day in Paris before my overnight train for Vienna that night...so hopefully it'll be a fabulous whirlwind birthday at the Louvre!! I actually get in free because I'm a student in Europe now, and I can easily spend the whole day there - I'm so excited!!

Rennes -

Every day I'm getting to love Rennes more and more! There is so much to do here, and yet its small enough that I pass an American I know on the street at least once a day. There is this AMAZING hot cocoa shop called Les Haricots Rouge that has beome almost an obsession. I went there three times this week to do homework and have some Macadamia nut hot chocolate with three layers of whipped cream on top and a huge slice of melted, gooey brownie-cake. Anyone jealous??? It's so incredible! They have every type of hot chocolate you can imagine - from strawberry to coconut to almond and praline. Its sooo amazing!
We also found a cool club in Rennes a couple weeks ago thats for dancing, called l'Espace, but as fun as it was, it was way overpriced (15 € to get in the door!!), and they turned some people away because they had the wrong shoes (? whats that about, they just lost 15€ ?) and NO ONE was there when we arrived, which was none too early by American standards. But the music was really great and they had lots of cool lights and it was fun to just "profiter de la jeunesse" as our host mothers keep reminding us! But then when we left for the night, there were at least 100 people at the door clamoring to get it...it was way late, and everyone was just arriving! These French youth sure have more party stamina than us it seems...one French girl at my school looked surprised when I asked her how she got home if she went out so late because the buses stop running at 1am. And she said "Well that's why we stay out until the buses start again" - Only the busses don't start again until 7 am!!! Thats wild!! I might be a party pooper, but I'm surely happy to catch the last bus home at night and get some sleep. So now we've been sticking to less expensive outings, like last night, we went to this café where this jazz band was playing and they were amazing!! The lead singer sung in French, German, Spanish, and English!! Then we found out afterwards that she's studying history at our university!! How cool is that?! There's always some neat group playing at the local cafés and last night there was even a poetry slam. We never get bored here, thats for sure!

I'm missing you all so much and I'm sure I left some things out, but hopefully I'll be updating this again sooner! I hope everyone is well! Please drop me a line because I love to know what you're all up to!! All my love!!

~Ashley