Settling into Rennes

Hey everyone! First off, thanks to everyone for the wonderful birthday cards and presents and messages!! It was so great to come back from my first break and have all that waiting for me! Please let me know right away if you didnt receive a thank you card or postcard because those should have gotten to you by now and i dont want them floating in the mailroom abyss somewhere...

Secondly, this blog might not be that interesting because I think I've reached the point in my semester where things are settling down into a bit of a routine. It's really nice actually to go to school, eat lunch, head back to school, go for a nice coffee or hot chocolate after school, and then finish off the day with dinner and homework. The pace has sped up recently due to the fact that I had FOUR midterms this week! The midterms themselves,I found very difficult, but the grading in all my classes has no real rubric - its 100 percent subjective - and from the results Ive gotten back, most of my professors seem very lenient. Its interesting though, its like the test will be 50 questions, the final grade will be out of 20 and each question has no real set point value...So basically the professor looks at all your errors in the end and sort of sums up where you fall on an invisible grade spectrum in their head and gives you a score out of 20. Different, but working in my benefit for the most part...

Aside from that crazy midterm week, stuff has been rather slow here. I'll be taking a day trip to Versailles next weekend, then the weekend after that to the Loire Valley with my program to see all the castles! It was gorgeous here this past week - in the 60's every day! Most afternoons we would sit in the grass and eat baguette sanwiches for lunch. It was all very French. Now its back to raining, but still warm, so I'll take it.

After I finished my midterms I went and got a library card at the public library here and got lots of French books. I feel its really boosted my reading comprehension, and its so much fun to just lounge in the park reading a good book! Also, I have a friend here who has a 10 year old host brother who heard that I loved comics and has been nice enough to share his manga collection with me. It's so funny to learn phrases like, "Where you think you're going, Bub" and "Today's your unlucky day, Mister" in French. Who knows, maybe I'll need them?

So all and all things have been great, the weeks are flying by and parents have started visiting Rennes from the states, and other friends in Europe have programs that are ending in less than a month, and its just two easy to look at the few weekends we have left here and feel a little panicked! Theres still so much to do and see and learn!! Hopefully we'll get it all in!!

Alright well thats all I have for you! Missing you all lots and can't wait to see you again.

Lots of Love

~Ashley