What I've been doing all Vacation

For the past two weeks, I've really been busy with work... NOT! As I may have mentioned before (By which I mean: yes I have gone on and on about this topic), I am on spring vacation! Not to rub in anyone's faces or anything (we have two weeks of vacation rather than one...), but I've been having a poppin' time. Now that my break is almost over (*sob*), I think it might be nice to reflect on my wonderful break, and what better way to do that than blog about it, am I right?

My Fabulous Break

Summerized in Bullet Points

• Jersey: I visited the island of Jersey!
• Babysitting: Monday and Tuesday last week I babysat for the most adorable children ever! What made the job really cool is that they lived in Texas for 4 years, so they are bilingual! The entire time we communicated in a funny mix of French and English since sometimes they remembered the French word and not the English, and vise versa! (Also, you know... I'm not exactly a professor at French!)
• Movies: I went and saw some really cool films at the cinema with my friends and family. The first film is entitled Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au bon Dieu, which translates to "What Have We Done to the Good Lord?" This film was absolutely hilarious and enlightening; featured a very conservative couple whose four daughters marry into very different cultures. 

The second film (which I saw just a few days ago) was Divergent. OH MY GOOD GILLY GRUMPKINS, THAT MOVIE WAS AMAZING. It blew me away. It knocked my socks off. I literally came out of the theater winded! For the next 20 minutes I babbled like an absolute freakball! My poor friend Clemence had to calm me down! There is no doubt that I will be returning to the theater (or *ahem* this lovely thing called the internet) for a reviewing. Of course, I was a quite heartbroken when I read that Shailene Woodley does not consider herself a feminist. But hey, I don't want to ramble on about such an unrelated topic (JK feminism is always relevent! I will no doubt go into more detail about this topic on my other blog)

• Shopping: What did you expect? I'm in France, I love fashion (though I am admittedly not very gifted with style... #whenIworeshortsandkneehighsocksallsixthgrade #thatasymetricalhaircut) and I am located dangerously close to a metropole...
• Vannes: Last weekend, my host family and I took a mini-vaycay to the city Vannes to visit some extended family! Unfortunately, I was under the impression that my camera wasn't working (Yep. I'm not even going to explain the embarassingly obvious remedy... using the memory card) so I don't have any pictures! But trust me, it was awesome!
• Biking: As I have been buddying up with my dear amigo Clemence over break (have I name dropped her enough?), and since she lives in the neighboring town, I have been partaking in some independent transportation! Taking the bus, walking and biking! Personally, my favoite mode of transport is by bicycle, and though I got lost on my first junket to Clemence's (heehee luckily she wasn't mad I was an hour late!) I've now mastered the route!

• Picnics: Do you remember the local château where I spent most of my time last vacation? Well, I still hang out there, but only with friends and food! (well, more food than usual...)
•  Swimming: Yes, I have been taking quite a few trips to my school pool and a pool in Rennes. In fact, two days ago, Odile, some family friends and I went swimming in the sea! It's still fairly nippy out, so we sported some really chic wetsuits...

So, that's what I've been doing all break! You may remember a gross difference between how I've spent my Spring Break and how I spent my Winter Break; namely, during Winter Break I was breaking down (Haha, so very punny!) and during Spring Break I have been building up (I don't know, it felt like a good analogy in the moment, but obviously I've proved my pun-skills to be in dire need of practice)! Last break, I was freaking out about my lack of friends, my slipping language skills, my dwindling time left in France (If you haven't enjoyed my angsty ramblings of study abroad woes and are so inclined, do read How to be Sick in France: A Novel, it's really quite good... NOT!) and thusly, my Winter Break kind of sucked.

But despite the stinkiness of my last break, this bad experience actually really helped me make Spring Break all that much better. Because I was nervous (okay, terrified) of repeating that inferno of dispair, I was all the more motivated to keep myself busy. And really, busy was all I needed. I have found that, by making sure I have a plan each day, I can succeed in not only driving away the angsty thoughts but also in just plain having fun! It doesn't matter what I'm doing (one day Clemence and I just vegged out with ice cream, pizza and movies), as long as I have a plan/purpose.

Now, this doesn't mean that I can't have lay-low days (yesterday was a solo-veg day in fact), it just means I have to keep them in moderation. For me, moderation meant only one day of solo-vegging in 2 weeks, but for everyone it is different. I just so happen to need human interaction (in French) to keep my spirits up, so I limited my solo-veg time to a very small number. I'm sure there are people who can easily take half of vacation just re-charging, but for me, recharging means hanging out with my host family, my friends and doing fun stuff!