Mon voyage vers la belle France: A Day at the Beach: St Malo

Bonjour!
It was another good week here in Rennes, the time seems to be flying by! I cannot believe it is already April 10 and that it is roughly only a month and a half before I am home again. School is at the toughest, lots of work and crazy make up sessions for the classes that our professors missed. I have a big oral presentation on Sartre come Thursday so that is occupying me for the most part. The weather has stayed amazing here, 60 and 70s all week and lots of time spent hanging out in the courtyard between classes and trying to find people to picnic with. Wednesday I was able to sit in on bible study back in Burlington via skype which was really great. Although hearing about how it had randomly started snowing in the middle of a pretty nice sunny day made me happy I was here! Some of the international students got together to make fajitas on Friday and we also had a really good ice cream role sort of thing which was very good, similar to the Friendly's ice cream logs we get at home. It has been so hot all I can think of is Ben and Jerry's which is really lacking in my life. Saturday was the exciting day of my week because I headed to St Malo on the train. Just an hour or so from Rennes St Malo is a beautiful city with long beaches. A section of the city is very old and is completely walled in. There is also a small off shoot that sits just outside the city walls and is reachable when the tide is out, when the tide is becomes an island. There were lots of flowers and ice cream stands and by 3 in the afternoon it seemed the entire city had come out to walk around and enjoy the sun. On the beach itself was a little chilly from the wind but it was still lovely. I found some seaglass, a giant piece actually so even in France the Jersey shore tradition continues. The sand was slightly odd in that in certain sections the sand sunk beneath you as you walked giving you the impression that you might sink away in quick sand but it never went farther than your ankles so it was alright. The water was frigid but I suppose it was the "english" channel so I was expecting that. There was an incredible number of sailboats out on the water and a guy para wheeling? on the beach in his little cart with a giant kite. Very cool to watch. It was a long day in the sun and of course I came away with the mandatory irish sun burn which made everyone at home laugh but it was well worth it for a day at the beach in April! Saturday night was a friend's birthday so we had a party and some really great cake. As I had gotten out of bed at 5:30am to get my train I was ready to head to bed pretty early. Now its Sunday and the sun is less hot but its still nice. Have to sign off because I have a long day of work ahead of me. Love from France!