Les vacanes!!! (Part 1)

So, I haven't posted for a while because I've been busy and we had vacation (during which I worked as well as had some fun). The weather has been incredible here. It is like we came out of this winter fog and it has been sunny and in the 40s or 50s almost every day. It's crazy!!! Before vacation I was busy recovering from my trip to England, working, teaching some new English classes and I've started writing my French short thesis type thing. (It's really hard!) Now that's officially the second semester of school here it is really hitting me that I'm leaving in less than 6 months!! It's crazy to think about how much I've done (and not done) in 6 months!!

Anyways, enough reflections. Since I last posted I worked a lot and continued running and stuff. Then last weekend vacation started!!! On Saturday, I "helped" a friend move. In fact, I did nothing except eat and watch confusedly as other people helped. He has a permanent position as a lecturer here now so he has become a real person and purchased a really nice apartment. I got really lost going to his house even though it is about a 5 minute walk from my house and then didn't understand directions on the phone, it was one of those depressing situations where I realize that I am still not even close to being fluent in French.

I went into the field with a doctoral student, Aurelie, on Sunday. She was so helpful and it was really fun to be in the field with her. It was so beautiful outside and with my magical pump it was just like spending a beautiful day outside with a friend!!!

The next day, I left for Anjou to collect fossils with my friends Corinne and Thomas. I thought we were going to collect samples from the actual field but it turns out we were really moving a doctor's incredible collection of fossils that was given to the University. It was still really fun, despite waking up at 4 am for the 2nd day in a row. It also turns out that I had been pretty close to Anjou (in the Loire Valley) before with Stephanie and Grady. So that was nice. So we collected fossils and then were tourists for another day. We stayed at the houses of Corinne's brothers. The first was not actually there but he lives in a very traditional regional house and it was so cute!!!! Then we stayed with her other brother and his family, and we saw her 1 month old niece. She was so cute and it made me so excited to see little phoebe.

We returned from Anjou on Wednesday evening with all of our fossils in our 2 vans (with no radio) and unloaded all of the fossils and then prepared to work for the next 2 days. For me, I'm filtering samples and it is never fun. I have less time to filter all of my samples now but it was worth it for the trip to Anjou. I spoke mostly French for 4 days straight, I spent time with people I really like and I got to see another part of France (again!!!)

Ok....must go work.

Ciao for now!!