Bonjour!
You find me now in a very very very comfy armchair in St. Malo, a lovely lovely lovely lovely beach town where every single house would be the most beautiful house back home. Me, my mother and the family we are staying with are discussing differences in healthcare and streaming entertainment. In a mix of French and English. Franglish. Franglais. Whatever. Anyway. Now windows surface. And now they're making fun of my clickety click noises on my ipad. Anyway. Ummm...this town is incredibly beautiful full of magnificent old houses. They told me that during the war it was completely bombed out by the americans (yay? Its bad but we were supposedly saving people.), and then we rebuilt it. (at least we clean up our mess) But you couldn't tell at all. The town looks like it was built in thea middle ages. The city center is surrounded by walls, and is basically in the middle of the sea. The streets are filled with little cafés, and are paved in the sort of cobblestone that would make it really difficult to be handicapped. It's very funny, the size of the bills goes up with their worth, so blind people can use cash, but...the cobblestone streets are so bumpy that it would be very difficult to walk around...not to mention that these tiny streets are filled with french cars that've never seen before that look tiny on the highway but somehow in entering the city grow and grow till they are giant, loud smelly monsters with the potential to run anyone over. The magic of france!
I was jetlagged, so I woke up today at noon thinking that it was wednesday or something, had four croissant au chocolat, and then walked around downtown. And remeber downtown is really a castle village thingy. It was fascinating. I had my first experieance speaking in french to someone I didn't know personally, in ordering two waters, a beer (for papa) and a salmon sandwich. Eeek. Much sign language was involved. For those of you in language classes please please don't labor under the impression that you will remember any of it when challenged with an actual conversation. I've been chatting away with Louis and his family in french all day, but a stranger suddenly makes it all vanish and you just feel like a stupid american tourist. It's an awful feeling.
I missed my bike though. I saw lots of cyclists and waas jelly. We are going to be here a week and plan to rent bikes. We tried today, but apparently to my suprise today was sunday, soooo everything was closed. Except the casino. Duh. We're also trying to rent windsurfing gear. Though I son't windsurf, I kite board. I can sail, and know about the wind but I don't think I'll be able to...so yeah.
There was a point, before the flight to france, when I had been awake for 25 hours. So I slept hardcore on the plane. Dad at one point had to hold my head up...I'm a rock. Then I slept ont the van. Then I ate, and danced with my poi. Then I slept more.mand now I need to sleep again. More on languages and culture tomorrow!
Signing off, Tom
You find me now in a very very very comfy armchair in St. Malo, a lovely lovely lovely lovely beach town where every single house would be the most beautiful house back home. Me, my mother and the family we are staying with are discussing differences in healthcare and streaming entertainment. In a mix of French and English. Franglish. Franglais. Whatever. Anyway. Now windows surface. And now they're making fun of my clickety click noises on my ipad. Anyway. Ummm...this town is incredibly beautiful full of magnificent old houses. They told me that during the war it was completely bombed out by the americans (yay? Its bad but we were supposedly saving people.), and then we rebuilt it. (at least we clean up our mess) But you couldn't tell at all. The town looks like it was built in thea middle ages. The city center is surrounded by walls, and is basically in the middle of the sea. The streets are filled with little cafés, and are paved in the sort of cobblestone that would make it really difficult to be handicapped. It's very funny, the size of the bills goes up with their worth, so blind people can use cash, but...the cobblestone streets are so bumpy that it would be very difficult to walk around...not to mention that these tiny streets are filled with french cars that've never seen before that look tiny on the highway but somehow in entering the city grow and grow till they are giant, loud smelly monsters with the potential to run anyone over. The magic of france!
I was jetlagged, so I woke up today at noon thinking that it was wednesday or something, had four croissant au chocolat, and then walked around downtown. And remeber downtown is really a castle village thingy. It was fascinating. I had my first experieance speaking in french to someone I didn't know personally, in ordering two waters, a beer (for papa) and a salmon sandwich. Eeek. Much sign language was involved. For those of you in language classes please please don't labor under the impression that you will remember any of it when challenged with an actual conversation. I've been chatting away with Louis and his family in french all day, but a stranger suddenly makes it all vanish and you just feel like a stupid american tourist. It's an awful feeling.
I missed my bike though. I saw lots of cyclists and waas jelly. We are going to be here a week and plan to rent bikes. We tried today, but apparently to my suprise today was sunday, soooo everything was closed. Except the casino. Duh. We're also trying to rent windsurfing gear. Though I son't windsurf, I kite board. I can sail, and know about the wind but I don't think I'll be able to...so yeah.
There was a point, before the flight to france, when I had been awake for 25 hours. So I slept hardcore on the plane. Dad at one point had to hold my head up...I'm a rock. Then I slept ont the van. Then I ate, and danced with my poi. Then I slept more.mand now I need to sleep again. More on languages and culture tomorrow!
Signing off, Tom
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