Comme le temps se passe vite!

So, I'm already getting ready for another weeklong adventure, this time in England and Ireland! I can hardly believe the time has already passed so quickly! When I get back from spring break I will have essentially two more weeks of classes (and the second week I have a four day weekend! So many breaks in France, not that I'm complaining) and then three weeks where I'll have about 4 or 5 exams. Lots of time to relax, do some more low-key sightseeing (I'm going to finally visit Paris the first weekend of May! And then later on that month I'm going to Normandie with my host-mother and a friend of hers...who rented my room ten years ago ^_^) It's so funny how quickly I have adapted to my life here in Angers; I'm really very happy and confortable here. What is the weirdest part of this experience is that after this semester, it really is over. I may see some of my wonderful friends again, visit them, etc, but we will probably never be able to assemble as a large group again (with so many different countries between us it's virtually impossible!) What's really nice, though, is that it forces me to think and live more fully in the present; I'm such a planner and I sometimes get so swept up in what the future holds that I let the present slip by. I have to treasure every moment, be it a weekday where I have mostly courses or a leisurely weekend spent with friends. What's going to be equally hard is leaving the linguistic immersion. It has been so awesome using French all the time, even if a bit of English now and again can be a breath of fresh air. It's just been so wonderful, and now I have to go back to the US and keep it up myself (if all my credits from this semester transfer without problem, I won't be taking any more French classes at UD). I'm a bit scared that I'll lose all that I've gained, but I simply can't let that happen, even if it's hard.

Anyhoo, here's my itinerary for the week (April 11th to the 21st)
Friday: leave from Nantes (town about 30 minutes form Angers by train) at 17h45 and get to London at 18h05
Saturday and Sunday: London!
Monday: Leave London for Belfast at noon. Get there around 13h15.
Tuesday: Belfast!
Wednesday: leave Belfast for Dublin in the morning...get to Dublin early afternoon.
Thursday: Dublin!
Friday: Samantha (another American who's coming with me) leaves for Scotland and I'm staying in Ireland. I leave for Galway (city in the west of Ireland) midmorning and get there early afternoon.
Saturday: Galway...more specifically a bus tour of the surrounding country side (with a two hour stop at the Cliffs of Moher! After Kelly and Christin had pictures of the cliffs, I knew I had to see them for myself.)
Sunday: Return to Galway from Dublin and chillax.
Monday: Back to Angers (I would have gone back Sunday, but it was cheaper to buy the plane ticket sunday, stay an extra night in a hostel, etc. than to pay for the Sunday plane! So I might as well miss a class or so and save some money! What a strange idea, but I don't mind too much!)

Again, I will be a bit unreachable during the week (not that anyone would call my cellphone, but don't. I'm out of country so the roaming is terrible. And my phone will be off) Unlike in Germany, however, I think I'm going to have free access to the internet at most of my hostels, so I'll try to pop in and let people know I'm alive. Or atleast make sure my mom doesn't worry too much. :)

Until after break! (When I'll be sure to post loads of photos and a small novel describing everything that happened ^_^)

Captions: l'Abbaye Fontevraud (very pretty, simplistic architecture...this is taken in the cloister); from the terrace of le Château de Montsereau; a troglodytic cave (or as I like to call it, a hobbit hole. People still live in these!); pretty picture from le jardin des plantes (we had two days of GORGEOUS weather that I basically spent entirely outside in various gardens around town...it was heavenly.); and le Château de Montgeoffrey