A la piscine

So, had an interesting experience yesterday... I went to the pool with Michael, Bénoit and his sister, Sidonie. It was unlike any pool I've ever been to... First of all, it only cost 2€ to get in, which I thought was pretty good. Then, it was huge! There was a big swimming pool, and then an almost equally big wading pool about 3 feet deep and really warm. There was a big slide into the wading pool. And it was super crowded. Like, you could barely swim across the pool without running into somebody.

Oh. And they have this rule in France... apparently for the guys to wear shorts is some kind of health hazard (??)... so they all have to wear Speedos. (No wonder all the other American guys bailed on us!) Yeah, well, it's about time men feel self-conscious in bathing suits, given what women have to go through every time they put one on, right, ladies? Plus keep in mind there really aren't any fat people in France, so it's not like you have to do the 'aagh, fat guy in a speedo!' cringe thing. Still, it was kind of odd... something you would never see in the U.S.! (As for the whole health hazard thing, though, I'm still not sure how that works. Maybe the French fashion sense just can't handle baggy board shorts, so all the fashionistas would have heart attacks and drown at the sight of such ugly things. Either that or some health official gets a kick out of seeing guys in tight little spandex... I really couldn't say.)

Today I went to the Centre Commercial (mall) just outside of town. For 4 hours. Yeah, we got a little carried away. The good news is I only bought one skirt for 50% off. And a sweater. But hey, my spending ratio is usually 1/3 or less of whoever I go with, so I figure I'm doing okay. Plus French clothes are so cute!!! (Although how I'm going to fit it all back in my suitcase I can't imagine.) The mall was huge, but Nicole said her host mom told her it "doesn't have that many stores." Yikes, where does she shop? There was a huge fountain/waterfall in the middle and also the coolest two-story merry-go-round I've ever seen, and E. LeClerc (like Target and Safeway combined) and Ikea stores with mall entrances. Whoa. For the sake of my pocketbook, though, I better not go back there too often!

Somehow I neglected to mention that I went to a neat festival in St. Herblain, that's a town just adjacent to Nantes, Saturday night. French entertainment is so bizarre - guys dancing around on stilts to monotonous music for half an hour, for instance. Or two mimes running some sort of mechanical music machine (also very monotonous and lacking in melody), like some sort of avant garde performance art. Huh. I did eat a fabulous crêpe though... so I guess it was worth it. :) But golly am I glad I don't have to drive in France. We got so lost on the way there, and Bénoît was driving - he lives here! It's not like we were just a bunch of clueless Americans. But the intersections are all circles and each road has half a dozen signs indicating approximately what lies in that direction (churches, post offices, etc) but doesn't say the name of the road, so it's a mess to try to figure out where you are and how to get where you're going. Plus we got stuck in traffic, so all in all it took almost an hour to get there. Just to give you a point of reference, it took me twelve minutes to get home by bus. Ha ha. There's some incentive to use the public transportation system!

This weekend we're going to Mont St. Michel, which I have visited, but it was a while ago, so it should be cool to see it again. Plus traveling with all the other students in a huge group is always interesting! So tune in next time... :)