Friends.

Another week has passed. This next one ought to be interesting.

I'm loth to start with another post about going out to a bar. It's not the only thing I do. However, it makes for a better story. Breakfast, library, class, lunch, library, home, study, dinner, sleep - that's pretty dull. So I'll skip it and go straight to Tuesday night.

Oh, wait, other things happened Tuesday. Like the arrival of Robert and Jaime. I didn't have classes on Tuesday, so I ran a few errands that morning (post office, CAF) and then hung around on campus to see when Robert would turn up. We'd been communicating online. I eventually met up with him, his parents, and his host dad. I showed them around campus a bit (not that big) and then, since Robert wanted to try a kebab, we went to rue Bressigny for déjeuner. That was hoot. Those shops are mainly student hangouts around midday. We were pretty out of place. After lunch, they took to take a look at the château.

Jaime's train came in around 3h45. I met her there, waited a bit for her host family, and when no one showed up, we headed for the school. After a short meeting with the logement office, she got a taxi to her home. Turns out, in addition to a good bit of miscommunication, her host mother had fallen ill. Jaime mentioned three pages of rules. I lucked out there.

I think everyone's slowly settling in now. We'll see.

Tuesday night was Mardi Café. It's a chance for foreign students and frenchies to meet up, hang out, talk, exchange culture, etc. It's was a fun night, but it started slooooow. I had forgotten one important fact: I'm in France, i.e., there are French people, i.e., nothing starts on time. I showed up at the appointed hour, on the dot, only to wait 45 minutes for the person I recognized to walk through the door. Meh.

I ordered a beer and sat a table. It was a Kilkenny, a reddish ale brewed in Ireland. I was, after all, in the James Joyce. Angers has tons of Irish pubs. I don't really understand why. Anyway, after 20 minutes passed, a girl plopped down in the seat in front of me. She introduced herself as Roxanne. I thought of Cyrano de Bergerac. She must have figured out that I was a foreigner (I have no idea how; I look like anybody else in the street). We started talking, and when she learned I was an American (and not Irish), she got really excited. She was even more excited when I told her I was from Mississippi. "No," I tried to explain in French, "you don't understand. I'm from Mississippi." "Mais c'est super," she responded. Poor thing. I hope she doesn't first set out for MS if she ever makes it to the US. She's gonna be pretty surprised. She invited her collocotaire over, and we talked in English for a bit. Overall a nice gesture. I haven't really found the French very chaleureux. It's nice to break that trend.

My fellow erasmus students finally made it, followed by a few more I hadn't met yet, from the UK and Ireland. One mistook me for a Scotsman. We were joined by a handful of French people, a couple of guys that I spoke to a for a good while. I had one more beer: a Chimay Bleu, my first trappist ale. I'm sure I'll post more about those later, after my visit to Belgium. Needless to say, it was very good. Overall, a nice evening. Although it was much to long. I didn't make it back home until one-ish, with the majority of my classes the next day. Ergh.

Not much to say of Wednesday and Thursday. Early Thursday evening I went out with Robert and Jaime. We had a drink, chatted about our doings and going-to-dos. A nice catch-up. That evening I had dinner with mom. Beet/walnut salad, pasta with a bit of olive oil, and rabbit. Very good. Dessert was compôte de pomme with some sort of liquid cheese mixed together. It was good.

Friday was fun. I had lunch with a friend of mine from school, Alexandra. We have a lit class together. She's been here since the fall, so she knows Angers pretty good. I mentioned that I was missing my Indian food joint back home, and she agreed enthusiastically. We decided to try out a restaurant off one of the boulevards in town. It was pretty good. I had some sort of fried potato thing as entrée, pork curry (!) for plat principal, a little pâtisserie for dessert. Overall, very good. It was a good time to get to know Alexandra a little bit better, too. Afterward, we went to la bibliothèque anglophone, a used book sell (don't worry, I didn't buy anything), and ended up back at the library on campus.

I forgot to mention that between bibliothèques, we stumbled upon a cathedral in town, Notre Dame (not the Notre Dame). It was really cool. I haven't been in any of the cathedrals yet. I had kind of been saving them. But we found this one by accident and decided to go in. The church had been around for quite some time, but had been rebuilt in the 17th century. My host-parents scoffed a bit when I told them. They said it was hardly worth mentioning, since it was so young. Perspective. I didn't have my camera, otherwise I would have take a few pictures.

That evening I went out with Robert to get a bite to eat. We opted on a Mexican restaurant across from a café I had been to. We were seated, but Robert noticed some other CIDEF students at a nearby table. From KU, I think. We joined them, much to the consternation of the waiter. We were served some dorito-like chips and a very sweet salsa. No bueno, even by my standards (which can be pretty low). The meal was much better. It actually had some spice. While it wouldn't have fooled anyone from Texas (like one guy that whined a lot at the table), it would've been fine for anyone else. Afterward, we went to sit between the cathedral and the Maine to share a couple bottles of wine. We later headed for rue Bressigny (Soft); at this point, I bade everyone a good night and headed home. Classes have already started for me, and I'd had enough as it was. See? Limits.

Speaking of classes, I don't have any week after next. That means, starting this Thursday afternoon, I'm free for about ten days. I'm going to the UK via a ferry from St. Malo to Portsmouth. I hope to take a train to Carmarthen to visit fy ffrind Aron, maybe see the renowned JR (if I can catch him), and just perhaps make it to Cambridge to certain rajun cajun. I don't like her that much, but we'll see.

That was a test to see if she reads this blog.

I'd love to visit Oxford, too. If I can afford it and there's time. There's a certain writer I'm rather fond of that spent several years teaching there.

Just finished a night of galettes and crêpes. Very good via the eldest daughter of my family.

Bonne nuit tout le monde. I'll update again before I leave for le Royaume Uni.