France!

Just got back from a weekend in Caen, France. I was visiting my friend Megan, who graduated from the same highschool as me, a few years ahead of me though. She's staying with a host woman and her son, and going to a university in Caen with a bunch of other Wisconsin students, in a series of French classes designed for international students.

I took the ferry there and back, which was very exciting. It was basically a cruise ship -- restaurants, shops, movie theaters (got to see all of Iron Man, finally (it's actually really good)), etc. On Friday morning, I had to catch a train to Portsmouth at 5 am in order to get the 8:45 am ferry. So that meant I had to leave the house at 3:30 a.m. and walk about an hour to the train station at Waterloo. So I basically stayed up from Thursday morning until Friday night, that was a little taxing. But walking through London at 4 in the morning was actually pretty cool.

When I got to Caen, I met Megan, and we went to the apartment where she's staying. Her host is extremely nice, and she has the cutest little 7 year-old, they were a lot of fun. A couple of Megan's friends joined us and we went out to eat at this pasta/pizza place, then we went out for drinks at a couple different places.

The next day Megan took me on a walk around Caen, just seeing what there was to see. The main sight is a castle built by William the Conqueror, that was neato. Then we went shopping and got all we needed for a classic French meal, and made it that night. It consisted of: these little bready things that we ate with this pink fish eggs spread (not caviar). Then we had chicken parmesan, followed by goat cheese/another cheese on bread, then finished with chocolate ice cream. It was extremely filling (can't say I've had a filling meal in a long time) and delicious.

Yesterday we went to this big outdoors market, it was pretty interesting, lots of people yelling at you to buy things. Then we came back and watched this old French movie with Marlon Brando. After that we went out to eat, but since everything in France seems to be closed on Sundays we ate at Subway. Then I had to catch the last bus of the day at 6 p.m. to the ferry station, where I had to wait until midnight for the ferry home. I actually slept a little on the ferry this morning, then took the train back to London and here I am, tired, but drinking this delicious coffee I got in Caen.

Stray observations: While the general perception (mostly from Paris) is that the French are not exactly polite towards foreigners, the few people I encountered here were actually incredible nice. Megan's host was top-notch, and another guy at the coffee shop took a few minutes to explain all the different coffees, in English to us. So far, so good, France.

I realized how easy I have it studying in an English-speaking country. I was so lucky Megan knew French so well, otherwise I surely would have been lost.

I didn't take too many pictures, but I'll try to get them up soon.