So, you could say I had an amazing week...
Wednesday my dear Finnish friend Alisa came over to my house and we partook in some delicious candy gorging! We also visited a nearby second hand store Emaüs, an inspirational organisation that takes in homeless youth and gives them the opportunity to refurbish old furniture and resell donated goods as a job! Their store has everything from vintage sewing machines to clothing to tea cups to vintage books and vinyl records. I fell in love immediately with the book and record collection, as did Alisa. We spent nearly an hour browsing through the goods, and though I haven't yet located the perfect french vinyl, I guarantee that sometime soon I will find myself posting about "the record of my dreams!" What made the day even more magical was this: while at the cash register, the woman in front of us heard our accented French and asked us what nationality we were. We responded with American and Finnish, and she was immediately interested. Turns out she's bilingual (in English, which Alisa also speaks fluently) and we had a great conversation about the best books to read in a foreign language! When we were about to pay however, she refused to let us pay, taking our book-bill and paying it herself! We strongly objected, but the goodwill of others sometimes is overpowering and we ended up with a few beautiful books - curtosy of our fellow bilingual! Needless to say, we raved about our dear bilingual friend for the rest of the day.
Friday kept my good-week-streak going as my dearest chum Morgane and I partook in an awesome sleepover! With horror movies ("The Others" to be exact), homemade caramel popcorn and typical sleepover conversations ("Who do you liiiiiiike?" "What do you want to do when you grow up?" "Oh my goodness, I can't believe they're still going out...") the snooze-party was a blast! What really had me on cloud nine was the fact that we had a regular sleepover! Yes, I know. "A regular sleepover? Why is that special?" Because it was in French! I was talking like a (nearly normal) French sleepover guest! I was easily particiapating in normal, gossipy, teenage conversation! With a real friend! Yes, I know that sounded sad, "real friend", but although I have friends at school (don't want to brag, but, *ahem* I have like, 4 good friends, and like 5 other awesome acquaintances... NBD *brushes off shoulders*) sometimes as an exchange student I question whether my friends are actual, close friends or just nice people who engage the exchange sudent! This solidified my feeling of real connection with my friends!
Saturday Morgane and I hit the town! After a morning filled with peanut butter (Morgane's mom heard that I have been pining for the underappreciated treat and purchased some for breakfast! The sweetie-pie!), we went to an gargantuan rummage sale where we spent nearly two hours rifling through beautiful clothing! I personally found a ravishing blue kimono (Which is heaven sent because right before I left for France I ripped my yellow kimono. No joke.), a high class pink button up, a tan leather skirt, khakis, white jeans, and metallic grey pants. All for just 5 euros. Ahhhh yeah!
Then, we took off for Rennes! The last two times there, I have visited the center of Rennes, but yesterday we stopped by some different locations. First, we loitered (well, shopped) in the Alma mall which, I must admit, has basically all the stores that the center does! It was beyond class, especially with the free perfume samples... They smelled so good we wanted to keep the paper under our noses all day!
For lunch, I got a little taste of home! I have been painfully missing Madison Bagels, so when we stumbled upon a Bruegger's Bagels in the mall, well, it was destiny.
One store was filled with so many sweets that we were compelled to purchase a chocolate rabbit and devour it in 10 minutes!
The stores were beyond chic, but two boutiques really caught my attention: Pinkie and Eram. Pinkie has always been a favorite of mine, ever since my first French purchase there (a black high-waisted skirt) I have found that it carries beautiful clothing for reasonable prices. Erom was a new store for me. Specialising in classy shoes, it was bound to be a hit, and not surprisingly, I fell head over heels after only two minutes in the store.
I AM IN LOVE WITH THESE SHOES. I have been searching for exactly this shoe for over two months now: black chelcea booties with square heel. Unfortunately for me, they have real wooden heels and are therefore 100 euros. Yep. That's not happening.
*tears of first-world-upper-middle-class-white-girl-study-abroad-problems cascade down face*
I love my problems...
For our last foray of the day, we took the metro down into yet another part of Rennes - the hip section! We ogled for nearly an hour in the high fashion (yet somehow reasonably priced) mall called "Les Trois Soleils" which is known for its ridiculously cheap handbags and shoes. With it's fabulous stores and delicious smelling Chinese Restaurant, this mall is already calling my name... I shall make a huge effort to return soon!
Finally, it was time to go home. To get back to Hédé, the transport savvy Morgane found us a bus that took us right to my town and, if you don't know me, I was exceptionally impressed by her ability to locate and catch a bus that took us to our desired location by our desired time. If I had been put in charge of transport (even in my home town) I guarantee you that we would be lost, late and hungry in no time! Well, maybe not hungry... I'm pretty strong in the locating-food-fast category.
Those are really cute boots. Do you still think about them like I do?
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