School

And here I am on my first day of school. In France.

Its nice. Its kind of like high school. Everyone specializes right after high school here so they dont usually have much reason to choose different classes. They stay with the people majoring in their same degree the whole time they are in college so everyone knows everyone else in their year who is going into the same field. Its very different. The other main difference is that with their credit system, they have class once a week (per class) and its only one hour long. So to eaqual 12 of our credits I am taking 8 different classes here. Lucky for me some of my classes last 1.5 hours or I'd have to take up to 12 different classes! I am also trying to get into an aerobics class and a rock climbing class for fun.

Anyway.. Thats about all I have time for today!

CASTLE!!

Here we are at the Chateau d'Angers

                                                                                 This is where the pigeons live..

                                               Entrance

Us :) you can kind of see my new coat and my new purse! ah! I love them!

The view from here..

Castle grounds

Old meets new

The Chateau d'Angers houses the "apocalypse tapestries." I guess someone a long time ago just made a big tapestry following the story in Revelations. Its very long. and Very cool.

These ones have nice tails.

These ones are falling over.

Just a little detail. Some little french bug or something; :)

this was a little random. Some artist made this at the bottom of one of the towers of the castle. Apparently during one of the wars this castle served as a prison. At one point in this space, there were 60 men  being held. It is not a big area. So the artist made this memorial for all the men who died here.

And theres the highlights of our castle tour! Feel free to come see it anytime you'd like! :)

Random little pleasures..

 The lunch of champions. How can you choose what to have for lunch when there are so many great options?? Why choose when you can have a little of everything! :) its a good thing I walk so much every day!
This lunch consisted of nutella, strawberry jam (which is my latest addiction), Brie (my favorite cheese.. so far), Babybel cheese, Camembert cheese (Kennan's favorite.. so far) and of course, delicious fresh french bread!!

 There are flowers. In January!! I take pictures of most of the ones I see. People make fun of me but I don't care.

Armandine.

 Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!

                                           Thirsty Trees..hahaha

                                          Did I mention there were flowers in January!?

                                           See? Real Flowers!!

And of course.. I cant have a post of all the random things that make me happy without having a picture of my husband! He is so great!! and he makes me so happy! Its been a blast being here in France with him! Yay Love!

A walk to school

Study abroad orientation was January 15 at 9 am. It takes me about 40 minutes to walk from my house so I left fairly early. Since this was the earliest I'd been out of the house up till this point I decided to take the advice of a good friend and get myself a fresh croissant.(Dont worry, I'll get up earlier for a hot one someday.)
It was a nice overcast morning and the sun was just coming up.  There I was.. walking to school.. in France.. with a freshly baked croissant in my hand.  There are not many moments in my life I have dreamt of more than this. Needless to say the rest of the day I was feeling very sentimental. On my walk home I couldn't help stopping numerous times to take some pictures so I could try and share some of my joy with all of you.

My walk takes me by a park and a little reservoir of some sort. It is quite beautiful. 













This plant is cool! It still has its fall colors in January!

 There is moss and little plants growing everywhere here.. On trees, walls, the ground and old buildings. I liked these little plants. This is the barrier wall by the reservoir.

 It looks like they grow grape vines or something on the hill around this building.. Im excited to see it in the spring!

 The view from the bridge. :) I can't help but cut through the little exercise area of the park to walk by this little waterfall!

 The view of the bridge I walk across. :) I love my life.

And here's an example of the overgrown walls that are everywhere.

After orientation we picked up my friend from the train station and she stayed with us for a week. She came with me to my first day of school (awe, sweet!) and then kept us entertained playing 5 crowns and teaching me new things to cook! The day before she left, we finally went to see the castle..

some quick photos

we have decided to get the internet at our house.. we can't get it till we have a French bank account, and we cant get that till we have proof of residency from the electricity company; Hopefully it all comes together on thursday..when we have our appointment to open our bank account! 

 getting ready to leave the house for our daily walk around town

some cool places around town..... cathedral in the center of town

 outside the bus station

 view of downtown cathedral from across the river

 "our" castle. :)

 here's "our" cathedral; its about 3 blocks from our house.

 here's the front

 toast!!

it says, I love the milk from here. :)