vive les vacances!!!

The whole world is happy because we're on vacation now.

 

One of the first days of vacation, we went on the cost to go fishing.



Which I found pretty darn cool 'cause I'd never been fishing before.

 



 

We were fishing for shell fish, so it wasn't exactly your typical fishing.



 

 

We walked in between the rocks and searched on them for a fish of which the name escapes me.

 



Said fish looks like that.

It was all around enjoyable and we had a great time.

 





 

I especially loved the scenery.

 

 

During the week, I went shopping with a friend.  As a little game, we went through each store in search of an outfit.



Here, we have outfit number one, which doesn't exactly have a theme.

 



 

For outfit number two, our theme was ugly.  I think I more than succeeded.

 



Outfit number three was proclaimed to be normal, but mine turned into hippie, as you can see.

 

The last, and quite posibly my favorite, was a soirée outfit (complete with gloves!).

 

The next day, I went shopping (again) with another friend.

 

Let's just say Imay have gotten a little bored when she was trying something on and I had found nothing (since I had visited the shop the day previous...).

I also figured you guys might miss some of my funny faces.



 

So, I snapped some quick photos of me.

 

Yes, upside down, just to make it fun.  :)

 

Enjoy!  :P

 

And then, the entire family went off to Brittany!

 

It was gorgeous, and the countryside reminded me a little of the Haymarket area at home.

 

There were also awesome old houses.

 

We visited a lovely canal that stretches for miles and miles.

I especially loved the reflection of the countryside on the water.

 

We also visited the town church, which was quite quaint.

 

 

An old castle crossed my path too.

 

Along the canal, the path was incredibly scenic.

 

Next stop was a church which we found completely empty.  Apparently, one reason Europeans are so opposed to church and religion in general is that, in their history, it's been the cause of so many wars.

The general consensus is that something that has sparked so much bloodshed must not be worth it.  It's very sad to see the church represented as such, but also sad to note the lack of consideration that just possibly the real gospel was abused in those wars and that there might still be merit in it.

 

As far as I understand, to them, church is merely a way to do good and it doesn't do much good because it starts wars, so they prefer to do good on their own.  It sounds like there's no recognition of a need for them too to recieve good, it's something that they can give because they are good enough to give it.

 

 

My tour didn't stop there, but we kept on going to discover an old castle.

 

Unfortunately, it was closed, so I didn't get to go in it, but I did get to take pictures of the awesome walkway next to it.

 

In Brittany, we also visited the cemetry of my family's deceased relatives because it was Allsaints' Day.  In France, everyone "celebrates" Allsaints' Day by putting flowers on deceased relatives' tombs and taking the entire day off to do so.  Yup, that's right, nothing was open.  I love how the culture here is so different from at home!

 

And our trip continued by visiting a rather scenic dam.

 

Apparently, where you see all that water, ther used to be a town and when they empty the dam, they'll find fossilized trees, houses, or other miscellaneous stuff.

 

Our last stop was the ruins of an abbey.  I learned that no one was ever allowed in abbeys (I think in general, if I understood correctly).  That, I did not know.

The sunset between the hills was also gorgeous that evening.  Unfortunately, the colors aren't quite so magnificent in the picture.

Now this picture is for a certain friend (LS), who happes to love clouds.  The clouds here are totally awesome and very varied.

And here we have me and a friend from church.  I love my church here, everyone's so welcoming!  I'm so sad that I will not to see them for at least some time.

 

And now, for my sculptures.  Here we have a lion that didn't turn out so great.  The mane was incredibly impossible.

 

Next up, an incredibly ugly girl.  I feel so sorry that I actually made her, because her complexion is rather deplorable.

 

Last, and possibly best, we have my friend the rabbit.  His whiskers gave me an awful time, but I still rather like him.

 

 

And in the completely random picture category, we have the awesomest car ever.  I don't know the person who drives it, but I can tell they're awesome.  Their style is incredible.

 

 

And that's all, folks.  Tune in next time to hear about my adventures in Paris!

Meet my good friend Hannah

So my American friend Hannah is here with me.  We went on a walk for her birthday, and here are the resulting pictures.

 

She has unique shoes too.

 

We may have different styles, but we're still good friends.

 

 

I just have to say I love this girl.

 

We have good times together.



 

We get to take artsy pictures much to the wonderment of the passing Frenchmen.  (There were many.  We stuck out like sore thumbs.  It was awesome.)

She makes me have my picture taken from timle to time, but I still love her.

I assure you that every person we passed stared us down.  I think it was a mixture of our English and our weirdness that made them turn their heads.

 She's succesfully teaching me how to be a good tourist who takes pictures of everything.  Not an easy task considering her student, but she's a good teacher.



 

The quote that goes along with this picture: "It's a good picture!  We can't see your face."

 

I showed her this very awesome sculpture on our walk.   If it's windy, the sculpture will actually move and re-balance itself.  It's pretty cool.

As we were taking this picture some passing runners called out and asked to be in the picture too.  It was rather funny.

Here's another sculpture that I showed Hannah.  The sunset made it even more beautiful.

 



 

Here are two of the pretty old hosues near by.

 

And look!  An American flag!

A closer picture of the sculpture.

And the magnificent sunset.  In reality, it was much more beautiful than this.

 

Over the weekend, we went to a soccer game together.

We passed a castle on the way and took the opportunity to do some sightseeing.

 



Here is my fellow tourist.

 



 

It was situated on a gorgeous lake.

 

Apperently, it used to be a Protestant fortress, but now it belongs to the government.

 



There aren't many trees in St. Nazaire, but I found one here.  It made me happy because it reminds me a little of home.

 



I also saw a door that I really liked.  Am I the only one who finds European doors cool?  Because people here think it's weird that I like taking pictures of doors.

 

 

 

Hannah and I have been paried up for a school project, but because we're not staying the whole year, it's basically two hours where we get to have fun.

 



We decided to make little people on our fingers this week.  We started out with Toad from Mario.

 



 

Here is the finished product, my hand on the right, Hannah's on the left.

 

 

And now we're going to go through head shots of our fingers.

This is Hannah's hand.

 



 

She had very interesting characters on her hand.

 



 

I can't provide much commentary on them, though, because I didn't make them.

 



 

But I think this one was Elvis.

 



This is my hand, and here we have a dinosaur-esque man with a mohawk.

Next up, Princess Leah.

 



 

And a very spunky Pipi Longstockings.

 



 

A cute little granny.

 



 

And a random man with a mustache.

 



 

And then we took off all their wigs and had a bunch of bald fingers.

 



Two hours of nothing to do is quite long, so after that, Hannah made a snowman.

 



 

And I made a teddy bear.

We then squashed them together and called it modern art.  Yes, we really are that weird!

And those are some things I do with my friend Hannah.  The end.