Nott What You'd Expected...

We're Nantes in Kansas anymore...

This blog title brought to you in part by the letter Z.

This break has, so far, been an amazing experience. Culturally, emotionally, physically.... I've been tested, I've been drained, and now, sitting in a bus station in Dijon mid day as the sun beats outside, I'm doing my best to remain calm and composed whilst I crack off an entry to satisfy readers while - apologetically announcing that no USB port exists on this crappy computer, rendering all hopes for photos useless *see Megseggsbegs blog for photos...

I left the flat early and unprepared on Thursday, no itinerary, no directions to hostels for flatmates, and no clue if Zach or Megs were going to meet me at the airport.... Thankfully, a long Ryanair flight later (crazy how Ryanair is so close to a palindrome....so close Ryanayr) I met up with them quasi- The Graduate/Love Actually style, face pressed against the glass, giddy as a kid could be- considering I hadn't seen Zach for 10 months or Megs for 7...

I've noticed it with John's visit, seeing Eda and Katie, and now Megs and Zach, how no matter how long it's been, things just come back ... friendship is like....riding a bicycle. A bicycle you get drunk with and make fun of and plan house names with, a bicyle you eat kebabs with and ride through parades on a bicycle with.... It was indescribible how nice it was to get a touch of Luther after being gone so long.

Nantes is a beautiful town. Megs is studying there for the semester, and Zach made a long spring break of it to visit her... Studying in a country with another language would blow my mind... slang in the UK is hard enough, but Megs is a French Genius. Don't let her tell you different. That's an editorial comment, but not up for debate. Even in my few experiences in which i wasn't with a French speaking buddy, it's been crazy.... body language and pointing, grunting even, can only go so far..

We made our way back to the hotel, taking pictures of cars with MEGANEs name on them, before taking a quick walking tour of the city and Megs' school. I'm in awe at, no matter how many of us study abroad or experience life overseas, each one is so dramatically different.... buying own food, living in a 3rd world country, waking up and seeing a lake outside your window.... crazy...

Our first night was a bit of a dud, but still fun- we met her friends Amanda and Katie, ate the best Pizza Hut i've ever had, drank some cider (2% alc...wtf) and Sangria before getting absorbed in talks about Sororities and passing out from tiredness... Going out never really happened...

Megs did a great job of planning our time in Nantes- the next day we shopped for food at Monoprix while Meg was at school- foreign supermarkets are why I get up in the morning. Shopping was too much for us to handle, so after Facebooking at IES and eating another lunch of bread, cheese, yogurt, carrot, and oj, we napped until Fondue. Zach's mom provided the monetary supplement necessary to get us nice and full on cheese and bread, and aside from creepy looks from a passing elderly French woman (epitome of pure evil), we had a thoroughly cultural experience.

At Monoprix, we picked up some boxed red wine (so not French) and met up with Paul, buddy o Megs from school, who gave us LOST and a place to hang out for the night, high above the city of Nantes in a kickass appartment.

I'll save the gory details, but I made it as far as Z and Megs hotel that night, and will never again eat fondue and drink boxed red wine. Maybe the sad, crying face that Paul drew on the box should have served as an omen for the terrible 36 hours of pain ahead.

The next day was spent recovering.... walk to the castle, nice lunch, hit Zach in the head with a frisbee, felt like an asshole, visited some parks while Zach recharged, and I stopped in to buy a patch - the first of many embarassing and stupid moments to come... I was enthralled at so many choices of patches... it's become a tradition to buy a patch from each city, and Nantes was no exception. I labored for minutes trying to fumble through hand motions to get the shopowner to understand me, and finally chose one with a weasel wearing a cape. I was proud of the wierd patch and Megs was interested to see it... thankfully she asked, because otherwise I would have bought a shitty patchy with the name Vennes on it....... these places have patches of so many other towns, that he had (knowingly?) fooled me into buying a patch that had nothing to do with Nantes. Megs thought it was funny. whatever.

Later we walked through one of the most disgusting, Chav-like pile of crap markets that I've ever seen. It was like a flea market meets trailer park. Plus Eurotrash. Again, an awesome cultural experience...

Yet another nap later, we got up at 10 for kebabs (the daylight savings thing here is so wild... it gets dark at 9, so i'm not hungry until closer to 10)... The kebabs changed my life for the better, and afterwards picked up American Psycho (starring Chrisitan Bale) and took it back to the hotel- The movie? Could have been better. My night? Spent again with creepy French Mexican in the hostel.

On sunday, I awoke to the best weather I've seen in a long time- Sunny, brilliant, warm, crisp- unfortunately, I woke a little earlier than my Luther friends, and ended up on a journey to buy bread while they got ready. Another bad ordering expeirence at the patisserie, and we had sandwiches.

Carnival. France. Bikes. Sillystring. Charlie Chaplain. Austin Powers. Confused? Sunday also provided the most culturally rediculous experience of my life. We started biking as part of a rental service to parks around the town, having a pretty great time, meeting Meg's family, some of her friends, when after riding along the river for a while, this snotty French girl starts throwing confetti on us- soon we saw more and more kids with costumes- spiderman, princesses, cowboys- and the streets were packed with people. In the distance, we heard drums, and finally saw floats upon floats upon floats....still on bikes, we made our way to the circle where Paul lived, and actually ran into him taking pictures with his megacamera. We wanted a better view, and locked our bikes in the stairwell before heading upstairs and leaning out of the windows on the roof.

The view was incredible, like a giant snake moving through the streets at a snail's pace, the parade seemed to last forever. Austin Powers floats, bagpipers, drumlines, a pack of Charlie Chaplins, confetti and streamers filling the air, so much glitter that afterwards, you could scoop it up from the gutter by the handfull- the music was loud, the air was smoky and filled with colored paper- Perhaps what made it so good was its unexpected arrival- It was a once in a lifetime thing that I'm lucky to have seen-

We had Thai food for dinner, a delicious 4 course meal- talked about life as usual, the future, etc. Later, I got a chance to see Zach's Zanzibar pics (coincidentally, the next day in Dijon we almost stopped at a place called Le Zanzi Bar, a trashy club)... It was another wakeup call to how different each person's experiences abroad have been-

I realized how lucky I was to have amazing friends back home, and how lucky we were that the timing worked out the way it did- I still miss the crap out of friends back home, but thanks to periodical visits and amazing videos of their sexy selves saying nice things, it feels like nothing has changed. Except now Lucas is an AllAmerican or something....

More pics to come, more on Dijon as soon as I end up in Avignon tomorrow...

posted by Kevin @ 11:10 AM