A Little Eccentric

Madame V!!!

Bonjooooo,
How you all be? Things have been going well over here (well, for me anyways)! The lovely Madame Vialpando and her tour group passed through Tours, and I was able to meet up with them for dinner. It was hectic trying to get ahold of them because my phone wasn’t working (as usual) and I missed their call when they arrived, but they left a note for me at the hotel, and the brasserie they were at was right nearby. (Its crazy learning how people lived before the fast-paced technology I was accustomed to in the US.)
It was very nice to go in and see a big group of American teenagers sticking out like a bunch of loud, happy, brightly colored, sweatshirt-wearing sore thumbs. And even better was to see Madame V. She was nice enough to include me in their dinner, but I was happily blabbing so much about France, the CPE , the semester, etc. that I could hardly fit in a bite of food. After dinner, all the students and went out in search of dance clubs. Fortunately, the tour guide also went with them. Their tour guide seemed to be a very nice, intelligent, capable woman, but was no Philippe.
We went back to the Hotel with a couple students and the wonderful chaperone/French teacher from East who went with my tour group to France when I was a Senior. We talked about everything from my experiences here to my tour in my Senior year, to their plans for the rest of their vacation. It was extremely good for my soul to see Madame and remember all the wonderful things I came here for and realize all that I have learned here. When I had to drag myself away to catch the bus, I was sad to leave, but I also felt a renewed enthusiasm. Thanks so much, Madame; it was beyond wonderful to see you!!! You have been such a good influence and inspiration for me; the world needs more teachers like you.
Despite the late night, I had to force myself up early to meet Tchykita the next morning. We made travel plans to go to an aquarium in the nearby town of Amboise (For anyone who knows me, I LOVE fish and aquariums and have a big tank at home). We could take an out-of-town bus there for only 2.40 Euros!

We got there early before it opened and occupied ourselves by trying to climb on the giant fish out front.
The aquarium was incredible! I was beyond amazed considering it was near such a small town. It was about twice as big (if not more so) than the Aquarium by the Bay in San Francisco. It also had "helpful" signs in English, like the one below.It had huge tanks of fish from all over the world (every type of
American trout-even brookies) and nocturnal and shark tanks, caimans and turtles from the Amazon as well as the fish that live in the Loire river that runs right through Tours (look up the European wel fish, they are local here and grow to be 2 metres long or more!). The place was huge, and we spent two whole hours there and never saw the same thing twice. We got back to Tours around one, got sugar crepes and came back to the dorms for a nap. What a nice way to spend a Saturday morning, n’est pas?
Also, Tchykita realized we have each been here for 74 days in France. Is that not insane?
Oh, and yes, I dyed my hair again. Its kind of..um..blackish brown. Not sure yet if it was a good idea.

posted by Molly Jo @ 3:56 AM