where to begin?

Today is Tuesday, October 27 at 6:39 p.M. , but MY story begins roughly 5 days ago, on the evening of the 22nd, the night of the worst flood Ste. Maxime has seen in over a year. .....

So there we were, hanging out at the apt, cooking dinner and finishing up our packing for our awesome two week excursion..when all of a sudden, our electricity goes out. LUCKILY, thanks to Erin's persuasion, I had packed a flashlight that Linda and I huddled around and gossiped until it was time for bed. The next morning, I got up and went to my school up the street at 8 am.. fell in love with the kids.... and came home to run some errands before I had to go catch the public bus to my OTHER middle school in the middle of no where. On my to do list: pick up our wifi box so we can finally have wifi (who hoooo). SOOOO I'm wandering around town trying to find the address that the nice internet man gave me and it leads me to a dry cleaners. Thinking SURELY I am mistaken, I go up to the lady and ask her where I should go.. . . but oh no, I was RIGHT where I needed to be.. apparently dry cleaning stores double as shipping locations in France . (Logic... i'm still looking for the logic in any of this. )

Anyways, so I head back home to get ready to hop on the bus, but when I get to the bus stop, there is sign posted saying that no public buses are working that day due to massive flooding along the coastline. I spend the next half hour on the phone letting my school know not to expect me. Later that night, Miguel ended up taking us to Frejus.. which was just a 30 min walk from the train station, so luckily we made it there in time to catch our train to Tours. While we were waiting to board the train, we made friends with a little black french boy ( 4 yrs old roughly) who only knew ONE english phrase which was ..... ready for it?..... "BLACK IS BLEAUTIFUL!!" ( yes, I typed bLeautiful).... it was PROBABLY the funniest thing I have ever seen.

So then we are on a train for 11 hours and finally get into Tours and head to the Auberge de Jeunesse (youth hostel) where we meet two nice Australian girls. We ended up hanging out with them saturday night( i stole a cute spoon from a cafe lol... im such a rebel) and all day Sunday (one of the australian girls actually cooked us an awesome dinner). Then, on Monday, one of the Australian girls, Linda, and I went on a tour of the castles in the Loire Valley. After first pissing off our tour guide ( we all went in a little 8 person van - very cool) because we were late getting back from the first castle, we ended up charming his socks off on the way back lol!!!! But anyways, we saw Chenonceau, Amboise which was my favorite because it reminded me of the chateau in Edinburgh, Chambord which was so big it almost overwhelmed me ( much like the Louvre Museum- you dont know where to begin), and finally we saw Cheverny ( where I decided I would want to live if I were Cinderella). It was a very exhausting and very productive day ( I got to talk to mom on her birthday!!!!) Also, I took about a thousand pictures that I will post when I get home!!!!!

Now we are in Rennes...One of the australian girls decided to come with us.... and I think we are going to take day trips out to Mont St Michel and St. Malo on Thurs and Friday.. and then probably head back home Sat morning. I want to go to Bayeux, but Linda doesnt want to spend the money... so we may part ways on Saturday morning. BUT, Even if I go to Bayeux, it will be just to see the tapestry. I would not even be there for more than 20 hours, so I cant decide if its worth it. I might want to wait and save my money so I dont have to worry about not being able to do something when Erin gets here... cause THATS my MAIN priority!!! lol. ( ps I listened to our song about 5 times on our way to Rennes today - yea yeah I know I'm pathetic lol)

Alright.. well I'm off to go help cook dinner tonight. We went to the grocery store and bought some stuff for dinner tonight and to make sandwiches for our lunch the next two days..... Our youth hostels havent been so bad; In fact, I had my very own private room in Tours, and in Rennes, just us three girls are sharing a room and we have our own shower. all for 18 ish euros a night. Gotta love it!!!!

i love you all and i cant wait to go home and set up our wifi and phone so that i can be better connected to everyone!!! love and kisses to all!!!!