French BBQ

These past two days have been so long and so exhausting which is why I was, unfortunately, not able to post last night!

Yesterday, we had class in a medieval abbey and then right after, we got lunch in a local cafe where I got a delicious cheese and ham omelette. Then Ben and I were off to our stage where we were in the negotiations class again! This time we were put on two different teams and each team had to negotiate with the other. My team ended up losing the negotiation, but it was the final culmination of the class! The students in the class (all three of them) invited Ben and I to a BBQ at one of the students' house later that evening. So later, Ben and I were picked up from the University and driven to Nicolas' house!

French barbecues are similar to American barbecues in some ways but also so different in some other ways. For example, it was outside and Nicolas cooked kabobs of chicken and beef on a little Weber Grill. He also cooked hot dogs, but they were longer and thinner and probably of higher quality than American hot dogs. And the French don't eat hot dogs with buns, they eat them with baguette. They split the part of the baguette in half on the side and put in their ketchup and hot dog. I couldn't believe that they ate baguette with the hot dogs - they literally eat baguette with everything. For dessert, Nicolas put a round of Camembert on the grill in it's little paper box, until the box caught fire. Then it was wrapped in tinfoil and placed back over the coals on the grill. The cheese became gooey and warm, it was excellent served on baguette. We left campus at 7:30 and returned at about 12:30, so we spent a while at his house, but it was so much fun. It was great to meet some new French people and experience a French BBQ! Time flew by so quickly.

And then today, in class this morning we prepared for our trip to Angers tomorrow, where we will visit the castle and town there. And since today is Wednesday, we had the afternoon free so I took a 2-hour nap and eventually cleaned my room and ran to the grocery store for food! While I was trying to find people for dinner, there was a guy in the hallway knocking on doors and talking about a party later that night for all the students in the dorms. A group of us from the floor ended up going, and it was so much fun! I spent most of the evening talking with three Chinese girls who have been in Le Mans for the past 5 months. All three of them were studying French, but at first we talked in English because they were also able to practice it. After they learned that I could speak some French, we talked in more of a mix of French and English. One of the girls could do magic tricks, which she showed me, and they also like to sing songs like "We Will Rock You" or "Call Me Maybe". They also liked Avril Lavigne and the Backstreet Boys. They were so nice and so much fun to talk to and spend the night with!

One of the absolute coolest parts about studying abroad is all the new people one has the opportunities to meet. If it wasn't for this program, I probably would never have had the opportunity to meet as many French people as I have or get the opportunity to speak French with some girls from China. This experience has been an absolute blast.