Over the river and through the woods to some 16th Century Church we go

This is the view from my window I woke up to the first morning

Our program director emailed this optional hike, which I am not one for hikes anyway, but I thought I'm in France and it would be nice to see the scenery. Ying and I began this hike, and even though we got lost and had to back track like an hour, we were able to accidentally run into beautiful private countrysides of fields and horses with mansion houses of grand road entrances. My blisters are better but now I have jabbing shin-splints. I should have brought insoles, but oh well my legs will get used to it. The nature is breath-taking here. Every corner I turn I expect Frodo Baggins to be there like I'm in Middle-Earth or Drew Barrymore hiding from Prince Henry in Ever After; it's truly a fairtale! But I definitely got to know Ying more, what an adorable person.

My roommate Ying, what a doll!

Turns out we have the same taste in food--extra flavor and not much we don't like so we worked out a deal. I make dinners (because I love to cook and she doesn't) and she pays half. So works out perfect for us! About dinners: we eat one with our host family every week, and another one with our program including the professors (making our entire group a total of like 30 people...maybe). We have coupons that give us a 13 euro meal we can use about once a week. So 3 free meals, and 4 we make on our own. We've all devised groups, usually on whim that night so it makes it easier. The farmer's market  happens every Tuesday and Saturday and is cheaper than the ones back home, so something to look forward to!

So we got lost, but saw beautiful countryside, found the cellphone tower we were supposed to for directions (yes one for all of pont aven), and finally found our destination--a 16th century old Church with the famous "Yellow Christ" made by our own Paul Gauguin (he is the artist who came and made Pont Aven famous, pretty much the foundation of our school, more of who he is here http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin). The figure wasn't all that cool, but the church itself was spectacular.

No disrespect to the church....lol whoops

After that I was pretty exhausted but we were all kind of restless and so our group ventured out on a night on the town. Maybe because it was a Sunday, but probably more that it's an incredibly small town that you can walk across in about an hour--we could not find anything. There is one bar that is open to 1 on a weeknight, stay tuned for future blogs on that, but other than that most things have random hours (like 11 am - 6 pm, closed between 2 and 3) or there are days like Wednesday where it's "Kid's day" so most places are closed in hopes families will stay home with their kids--strange but cool. 

Part of me began to be disappointed how small this town is, and the fact that teachers have told us that we are the only people our age here--everyone else is retired and old. So I'm with this group of 20 college students for the next 3 1/2 months in a town that is incredibly small and nothing's open since it isn't tourist season. I've seen my other friends who are studying abroad meeting local college age students in Spain and Sweden. But then I changed my perspective: I'll take this next 3 months to grow as an individual, engulf myself in art, focus on being independent in my entertainment like taking walks and enjoying such beautiful countryside, and take the town for what it is. Plus, we take 3 trips to Paris, Berlin, and Madrid so those will be wonderful to look forward to. I hadn't realized how much I had became an adorer of college towns with fast paces and late night happenings, but this kind of quiet, enchanting experience is one everyone should experience in life and I am privileged and extremely grateful to experience it at 22! <3 I've been thinking about where to go on Spring Break, and it came to me like inspiration--Morrocco, I've always wanted to go, and I'm so close to it now. I found some girls and we're planning on doing it. We joked about going to Ireland for St. Patty's, wouldn't that be a lifetime experience, we'll see but I think we'll be traveling. In the meantime, classes are beginning and I'm so excited, my schedule will be packed, I plan to use the track a couple streets away to run in the mornings (cross your fingers that I actually do this, hopefully the shin splints will get better for this), and I'm reading a fun book at about a girl who is 22 (yay) discovering her mythical powers when solving her sister's murder in Dublin. Also, our teachers told us there is a soccer ball, perhaps we will make our group into two teams and play at the field near my house :)

Takes me about 10 minute walk to the school from my host family house for an idea