September 13, 2014

A nice nap felt fantastic today and a good time to catch up on sleep. I met with Azelia at the IES Center and we hung out at my host family's apartment for a little bit, watched the film Half of a Yellow Sun, both of us being admirers of Ms. Adichie's stories. I enjoy my conversations with Azelia; they are insightful and fascinating. We both come from urban settings, so the rhythm of Nantes we able to easily adjust to. Azelia is from New York City, so we compared France to our home towns and universities. We both go to smaller universities with less multicultural diversity, hence a lot more white people. Whereas here in Nantes, there is a significant Muslim community (three mosques in Nantes) more people of African and Middle Eastern heritage. I never see this in Portland and that's one of the things I like about Nantes is the religious and ethnic diversity. I am thinking about visiting a mosque here in Nantes just to see what one would be like in France. It's as my friend, Renée advised me: "If you have a chance, go visit minority neighborhoods, or parts of the city that aren't as touristy. You never know what you may discover."

Azelia and I enjoyed a nice walk along the river L'Erdre near where I live in Nantes. We bought pastries together, pain aux raisins, pain du chocolat, along with hanging out in the Japanese style park near my home. I feel so grateful to be here and I never want to take what I am immersed in for granted. As someone in my 20s, I feel wherever I stay is temporary and comfortable; I am nomadic and on the move in some ways, yearning to see more and more of the world. But eventually after some years from now, I can see myself settling down ultimately in Portland. "We live in a fantastic state," I remember my dad saying. "You can drive to the beach, or to the mountains, or go east and find yourself in the middle of the desert." France and Eastern states in the U.S. carry architectural history, monuments. Portland, my hometown, carries geographical history. I remember M. de Beranger at the IES Center saying, "You go abroad to realize the things you miss from your home."

A walk along the river L'Erdre

I met up with a group from IES to go to a carnival in Nantes, a theme park. Carrine, a professor at the center enjoyed speaking in English and French with us. She's a kid at heart with a bubbly sense of humor, a very supportive connection to have at the center. We rode the ferris wheel as a group together and had a great view of Nantes, three cathedrals from different sides of the city. I also have noticed that my dealing with heights may be getting worse with age. I still enjoy the thrill of it though.

 The view from the ferris wheel of Nantes

We also stopped at an "All American" tent and bought ourselves cheeseburgers. The bread was better, but the fries not so much. Claudia was craving one and it reminded me of the Tony Stark quote from Iron Man: "I want an American cheeseburger and a press conference." It was pretty weird to see Confederate flags on the tent: I mean, who do they think we are? I was tickled by the whole view of the tent.

 The Americans at the "All American"

 Our IES professor, Karine