two ghettos and a palace

The day has finally comeeeee!! I’m moving into fucking Versailles! Ok, not really, but almost!

Today I picked up the key to my new place (to anyone and everyone who has my address, it is staying the same so don’t worry about having the wrong one!) and it is fucking brilliant…oops haha some of that British/Irish slang is wearing off on me. But seriously. idk how to explain the splendor that I am about to live in any way except by using the word brilliant.

Here is a little history of my nomadic journey through the Résidences Universitaires of Rennes:

1. Sunday August 30th, 2009: Arrived in France, took the train to Rennes, and stayed in a hostel.

2. Monday, August 31st, 2009: My coordinator François picked me up and took me to my first dorm.  It was called Maine I, but it was quickly dubbed “the ghetto” due to the sketchy-ass parking lots where intimidating men would hang out. To make its less than ideal location seem even worse, when you opened the door to ghetto number 1, it was like entering a 1960’s time warp.  Thanks in part to an allergy to mold, I fled this building’s mauve walls and sketchy parking lots on…

3. Monday, November 2nd: The day that I moved from Maine I to Alsace.  Alsace is right next to the University and in a much less sketchy area. It’s right next to the metro as well so I didn’t have to worry about being late as often.  The complex is composed of many buildings- all of which are new or remodeled, except the one in which I was placed. This room was infinitely better, and actually rather spacious compared to my previous accommodations, however I still shared three disgusting toilets (in the US these toilets, which are a trillion times better than what I had in ghetto number 1, would not even be considered real toilets) four showers with 30+ people.  Even worse were the kitchen facilities, which consisted of two hot plates and a microwave, none of which worked regularly. The absolute worst part about ghetto number two, however, was the refrigerator. I shared this mini-fridge, sans freezer, mind you, with 8 filthy people.  There were constantly packages of raw chicken and other indistinguishable forms of meat that had been opened and left exposed to the rest of the items in the fridge, some of which were large cans (tins, to all you British/Irish) that appeared to have been opened with a pair of scissors, or teeth, judging by the jagged edges I had to navigate around while trying to put my milk away. In all honesty, I might even miss ghetto number 2.  When I recieved the notice saying that I would be have to be relocated by January 10th, I didn’t want to move because I had just begun to get settled in my new environment. But on…

By Lucia Holm

4. Thursday February 4th, 2010 (today!): I received the key to my new room so that I can begin to move out. And I can honestly say, now that I’ve seen the freshly remodeled Palace I’m about to move into, fuck that! I’m in heaven!  I’ll add video later (I wish I had some photographic evidence of ghetto number 1, but sadly I do not.) so you can see the gorgeousness of my new place, but in the meantime, here are the perks: ridiculous amounts of storage, colorful!, tables in the communal kitchens, new appliances, MY OWN TOILET, SINK, SHOWER, AND MINI-FRIDGE WITH FREEZER IN MY ROOM, and likely a better internet connection because instead of crappy wireless I’ll be plugged in via ethernet cord.  I’m still shocked and overwhelmed and excited and…!

This is the beginning of a very beautiful four months.  I can feel it!

Anyone in Rennes feel like getting a celebratory drink ce soir?! Wish me luck with the move

xxo bisous

p.s. I postponed my trip to Paris until tomorrow

The Thirsty Street. Also Known As “La Rue de la Soif”

Salut mes amis!

Last night was really fun!  Could you tell by my last post?  lol

I met some Irish girls at this mini orientation thing yesterday morning and although I really want to meet & become friends with some french people, I know I’ll have lots of time for that…I just need to meet some people in general first.

So anyways, we met downtown at the metro stop St-Anne at 9 o’clock last night. Or we were supposed to. I was there at 9, but Elizabeth and Sinead missed their bus stop because they were chatting lol so I wandered around for awhile and discovered so many cute little shops and restaurants while waiting for them to walk back.  That area is so cool!!  Anyway, we went there because we heard there was an “English Party.”

How hilarious.

Sadly, we never found the bar and so we didn’t get the free drinks we had been promised, but we did meet some English boys that are studying at Rennes II as well.   So Martin, Rob, Sinead, Elizabeth, Catherine (a Master’s student at Rennes II that we met up with) went to a few bars together.  It was really great.  I had my first legal drink too!

I have noticed though, that I’ve kinda started doing a weird hybrid accent of American, Irish and British English since I’ve started hanging around with them. But as long as it doesn’t affect my French, I think we can be friends :) haha

We had another orientation this morning- way more detailed- and I sat with some Spanish people who I met yesterday morning as well; Marta, Blanca, and Anderique (?! I know I am butchering his name, sorry!).  We were given these completely adorable cardboard briefcases full of information and documents for foreign students.  There were apératifs after the orientation (how French!!  Alcohol in the morning and in an academic setting, no less!) and then a big group of us decided to go exploring downtown.

We had lunch, got rained on a little, and looked around the shops.  That area is very quaint.  I found the nicer, frencher (i know thats not a word but oh well haha) version of a Bed Bath & Beyond, which was a relief.  When my crappy Carrefour towels wear out, I’ll know where to go!  We also went to the French Virgin Megastore (very different from the American one) and I bought Coeur De Pirate’s cd.  I posted about her fabbbb music a while back, here.

Then our massive group parted ways.  A few went to get cell phones, a few went back and Sinead, Elizabeth and I went to the most adorrrrrrrrrrrable place everrr to get a coffee.  I should have taken a picture so you could see the preciousness of it.  Anyway, its a little cafe called “Haricots Rouges.”  I think I’ll go back no matter what because it was so damn presh, but anyway, it is a cafe, but what makes it special is that whatever you order, whether it be hot chocolate (a specialty of theirs) or a latté (which you can get with almost any flavor), you get a mini brownie square and a tiny shot glass of water to go with it!  It is completely adorable and delicious.  I had a hot chocolate that was amazingly frothy.  Yum!  Anyway it was amazing, and if you visit me, I will take you there :)

From there, the girls and I parted ways and I took the metro back while they took the bus.  I stopped at the Carrefour to buy a  few things (it feels like I stop there every day) and met up with some friends to do some serious grocery shopping/ kettle & cup buying (really that is just a little jab at my English friends who say “kettle”, “cup”, “mug”, “four” and countless other words with adorable accents).

Next on the agenda was some relaxation in the dorm, which really consisted of calling home (its always nice to hear my mom’s voice), checking emails, responding to problems, making “To-Do lists”, organizing forms and papers and other things like that.

Before I knew it, Friday night was upon me and I ran out to meet my friends at the metro stop in front of the University.  When I got there, a pretty big group had assembled and we went downtown together.  Almost all of them were English except for Barbara (Irish), Sam (Belgian) and Me (American)!

We all wandered around for a bit together, trying to find a good  bar, but our group was way too big and we lost track of each other.  In the end, it ended up being Barbara, Rob, Martin and I at a cozy little Breton bar with lowwww beam ceilings.  The boys had to duck because they were so low!  These are photos of Martin, Barbara and Rob.

At the end of the night a lot of us found each other again and took the metro back together.  We didn’t stay out too late because we are going to the Marché des Lices tomorrow morning and are meeting up with everyone at 9:45am.  I understand that it is a farmer’s market, so I am rather excited :)

Anyway, I better be off to bed now.  I wish I’d had a chance to upload some pictures for you- especially since this post was so long.  I’ll do my best to update again tomorrow morning before I leave for the Marché.

xxo