Crazy Causeys Come to Europe.

So... my family came to visit! After quite a long day of travelling and almost losing Thomas in the metro, they made it to the hotel in Paris, where I met up with them after class a few hours later. They were so jet lagged! We spent a few days in Paris, saw the Eiffel  Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and did a day trip to the beaches of Normandy again. (It was my second time of course, but I got to see some different things, including the ocean because it wasn't as foggy as the last time).

However, the highlight of Paris was probably our segway tour with Fat Tire Bike Tours. Yes, a segway tour. Haha, I was so skeptical at first, but the combination of our awesome tour guide with a mustache and an Aussie accent, the hilarity and awesomeness of riding segways, and finally getting to see Paris in a wider context made it a wonderful night! I'd been to Paris twice before, but I never felt like I really knew the city; it is hard to get a grip on its vastness, so the tour was really cool. I also learned so much more about the history, like about the German general who, disobeying Hitler, refused to burn Paris and  let the Allies take it without contest.

Then, I got to show my family Nantes! It was so wonderful. I'm so lucky to be able to have this experience, and then even luckier to be able to share with them and show them this place that's been my home this semester. We ate at a crêperie and my favorite pizzeria, saw the Chateau, my home, the university, the IES center, the Jardin des Plantes, the Machines de l'Île. The only downside was that they couldn't meet all my host family, because they were on vacation as well, but in the South of France. They did get to meet one of my host brothers though, and they were very impressed with his English :)

My family said they loved Nantes more than Paris (success!). We had absolutely beautiful weather, and  I think the fact that I  know exactly where all the good pastries, ice cream, and chocolate shops are in Nantes definitely helped :) It was just such a happy time spending the break with them; I couldn't have asked for anything more. They also got to meet two of my best friends here, Rachel la Petite, who stayed with us in Paris, and Jordan, who met us for lunch in N-Ville. We had so much fun, and I think my friends probably understand me so much better now haha :)


When they left me at the train station to return to Paris for the flight back home, they were more than a few tears. Even though I love striking out on my own a bit and having great adventures,  I will always miss my family immensely, no matter where I am. I am so, incredibly, inexplicably, indescribably blessed with them. Seriously. Annnd, I get to see them in only a little bit over a week!




Obviously this post is really late, but I wanted to wait to upload it when I could include pictures. So, yeah...

Profitez-bien. The Final Countdown to 'Merica.

Bonjour à tous and à toutes. Well, today was my last Saturday in Nantes. These last few weeks, even though time has seemed to slow down a bit thankfully, have still been passing quicker than I would like. I'm such a roller coaster of emotions as the dreaded goodbye approaches. I am totally pumped to go back home. I've got my family, my friends (from whom I'm having serious withdrawals), an awesome job (summer camp), and warm weather to return to. But at the same time, I do NOT want this semester to end. Seriously, studying and living in a foreign country is such a thrill, so fun, so amazing, and I just don't want to leave. Sometimes, I even get a bit depressed. But I'm trying to avoid wasting my time with dread, and instead trying to profitez-bien, an awesome verb that means taking advantage of everything and living every day with vigor.

Some of the recent things I've done are: seeing the Hunger Games (amazing even in French), buying the book the Hunger Games (which will be even more amazing even in French), buying the last bit of souvenirs for my lovelies back home, going to Clisson with IES, a beautiful little Italian-inspired village known for its vineyards, playing laser tag with some church friends, going to the seaside with my host family, eating good stuff of course, and unfortunately, writing papers and studying. I still have a few more finals left, but honestly, je m'en fiche.  Haha I do care and I will study and do my best, but I'm not going to spend last few days here stressing and killing myself; I'm just going to focus on spending time with my host family and friends.

Confession: I committed the ultimate sin in writing tonight. I didn't plan before writing. Hence, I don't really know what the purpose of this blog is. Maybe it's something like: I love Nantes, I'm having a great time, but Saturday, May 12th is coming up way too fast. Il faut profiter!!!

Excuse my French

Ok, so I've been having the slightest worry that I've been accidentally cursing in French. There's this one phrase that I've started using, and I think it means "I don't care", but it could mean something stronger than that. So, in order to find out, I just looked up a list of bad words to see if it was on there. It wasn't. But there were a ton of other "gros mots" and phrases, along with their translations. Most were horrible of course, but some were just hilarious. Thus, the whole point of this blog post.

For example: (Translations only because they're funnier)

    1. "You have the body of a dog and the I.Q. of a five year old!"  

     Bah. Good one. Got the physical and the     intellectual side.

     2. "You are a potato with the face of a guinea pig!"

     How does that even work?? And what's with the combinations?                                                

     3. "You smell like beef and cheese!"                
                                                                       
     Hey now, that's just a quote from Elf. I bet he sits on a throne of lies, too.

I have a feeling that this website might not be the most credible, but hey, it was worth the laugh. If you don't hear from me for a while, it will probably be because I've died laughing after hearing one of these on the tram or something.


P.S. I found another website that says the phrase I've been using isn't a big deal; it's just a little informal. "Je m'en fiche."

Flowers, mountains, sea, and sunshine.

Now for a bit more cheery post. Éowyn and I travelled to Marseille and Aix-en-Provence the weekend after Normandie. We had been thinking Strasbourg for about three days, but then in about an hour's time we changed our minds completely, decided to head South, bought our tickets, and emailed her friend Hannah to see if we could crash her place for a few nights. It was such a whirlwind, but it was so much better than the usual stress that comes with planning travel. And it was an even better weekend.

We flew RyanAir and landed at MP2 airport, which is in between Aix and Marseille, so we decided to go to Marseille for the day before heading to Hannah's for the night. Marseille was awesome, a huge city completely different from the west of France, mountains in the background, Mediterranean in the foreground, and a whole bunch of diversity in the middleground (this sentence makes sense in my head, I hope in yours too). It was wonderful to shed our sweaters and admire the view from the top of Notre Dame de la Garde, a church set on top of a hill right in the middle of the city. We even got a bit of coup de soleil--sunburn. Uh oh. It's true that Marseille doesn't really feel like France, but it is France no matter what people say--a France that has lots of immigrants, lots of cultural diversity, and it can be cool to observe, despite all the controversy and problems that surround it.

Then we took a 45 minute shuttle ride to Aix-en-Provence, an absolutely charming little village that makes a grand contrast its metropolitan neighbor. The cute little buildings seemed to glow with their warm southern colors, and the tiny little streets make your head spin with all the unique shops and restaurants. Other than getting to know Éowyn's lovely friend Hannah, who was a fantastic hostess, the highlight was the big open-air market on Saturday. It was huge! The flower section was beautiful to see, and I found some super cute gifts for my peeps back home :) Oh, and there was also a woman singing Edith Piaf in the street. Semester made.


I absolutely loved the south of France; it was beautiful. But every time I travel, I become more and more thankful for Nantes. I am convinced that it's the best. More on that later, I could talk all day on that subject.

                                                                                                                           À tout à l'heure!

Normandie and Tough Questions.

Ok, so I have a ton of little posts to make. It's been a while since I last posted, and I want to write it all hehehe. IES sponsored a weekend trip to Normandy a few weeks ago; we went to the WWII Memorial museum in the city of Caen (pronounced kinda like con), the Bayeux Tapestry exhibit in Bayeux, Omaha Beach and the American military cemetery, Point du Hoc, and finished up with the German cemetery. Of course we had a lot of fun, as usual, but I think all of us also did a lot of thinking and discussing. No one could go to any of these places (except maybe Bayeux--tapestries are great, but not the most philosophical of subjects) without taking a hard look at the world.

Like most people, the Holocaust draws my attention like no other historical event, and it weighs heavy on my heart. Many ask themselves what they would have done in that situation--if they would have leaned out the window and cheered on the German soldiers carting away their neighbors, or if they would have stood up and fought, hid them in their cellars or attics. I think that's a good question. But I think an even better question is to ask myself what am I doing now? Our world has not changed, and until it is redeemed, there will always be evil, always be injustice. The 27 million human beings imprisoned in the horrors of human trafficking are evidence enough. I say this because when I think of the Jewish people--persecuted, hated, treated like animals, massacred mercilessly--I feel anger and deep sadness. But I do not want it to go to waste. Compassion is great, but if it does not result in action, it counts for nothing. We say we study history to learn from it. So let's do it for a change. These are just my thoughts.

La vie normale, je pensait.

Alors, this update will be slightly different than the last. Back to "normal" life. Whatever that is. I have seriously fallen in love with this city. I always liked it before, but lately I've just been enjoying everything about it. Like I said earlier, it feels like home now.

Earlier this week I went for the second (oh la la) run of the semester thus far. I ran down to the river Erdre and finished my run along the bank, which was of course very nice and wonderful in itself (as well as embarrassingly difficult). But then I doubled back to a spot I had seen earlier, a little stone wall overlooking the water, and just sat. It was so nice. After a weekend full of doing-- a museum, the opera, a cafe, a garden, church, and a picnic, I really enjoyed just being in Nantes for a bit. The slow moving water reminded me of the bayou (awwww), and I could barely hear any cars or trams; I got to think and just feel the cool air on my face. Little things like this are important, I think. Just thought I'd share.

I should really elaborate on the garden I went to, because I feel I have a duty to its awesomeness. The Jardin des plantes, however unoriginal in name, is highly spectacular in reality. Everything is really neat and groomed, and while I usually like the rough, natural kind of nature, I guess there is tea-party-kind-of-girl in me that adores this park! There were flowers and trees from all over the world, or so I hear, and walking through the furs and spruces smelled si wonderfully. We also saw the very spot where my friend Éowyn got engaged! He picked a good place, I'm telling you. There's also a petting zoo with goats.

A little blip about my teaching internship-- I taught the song "Louisiana Saturday Night" to my CM2 class (5th grade), and they loved it. It's really cute to hear them sing it, and even the boys were dancing and really getting into it. Brought some Louisiana to France, I did. Ooh, another fun fact: the French eat boudin. Maybe I'll finally be a really Louisianian and try some, ironically not in Louisiana.

I just finished a truly wonderful book. I know I've already used that word too many times in this post, but it's really true here. This book, Kisses from Katie, is about an American teenager who let herself be driven by the love of Jesus to truly and radically live out her faith in Uganda, as a mother to 14 adopted young girls. It sounds crazy hearing it from me, but reading the book, I have no doubt she is doing what we should all do: hearing God, believing Him, and following Him. She also has a blog kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com .

This book makes me want to do big things for God. It makes me want to help people. It makes me want to share some of my comfortable, clean life with those who live in dirt, in disease, in captivity, in pain, in slavery, in hunger. I know these people are everywhere. They're in Nantes, they're in northeast Louisiana for goodness sake. I'm praying this book doesn't add to my list of conviction without action, emotions and halfway broken hearts that don't help anyone unless change results.

I put "normal" in quotation marks earlier for two reasons. One is that my life is anything but normal here, speaking a language different than the one I've known for almost 20 years, running for trams, eating sandwiches made with freshly-baked croissants, it's completely different and exciting and great. But two is that life should never be normal, even in Funroe, and I don't desire it to be. It should be a struggle, a pursuit, a roller coaster, a heartache, a joy. I want my life to be as not-normal as possible if that means Jesus is pleased, if his people know his love.

These are my desires when I'm sitting at home, reading good books and thinking about God, but when I go out into the real world, I know those desires get skewed. May each day make my way a little bit straighter.

Paris et Bar-ce-LO-na

Ok, so I'm back in Nantes after a week of Winter Vacation. With three wonderful girls from IES, I traveled to Paris and Barcelona, and then back to Paris. It was crazy, tiring, amazing, challenging, and wonderful all at the same time. I got to know my friends better, got to see amazing things, meet some really cool people, and experience travelling in a foreign country where I don't know the language, at all. 

Paris first. After arriving via the TGV, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower, not realizing that we would arrive just in time for the hourly twinkling lights. AND it was midnight. Call me sappy and cliché if you want, but in my opinion, it was pretty darn magical.

The next day, after visiting the Sacré Coeur and the open-air market, we took off for Barcelona. Well, "took off" is probably a bit romanticized, considering we used RyanAir and had to take a hour-long bus ride to a city outside of Paris for the Paris-Beauvais airport. I'm not complaining though; it's insanely cheap. Favorite quote from that experience: "Please turn off your cellphones and other electronic devices, and for those who smoke ... please quit."

Some highlights from Barcelona include happening upon a late-night party in the street, seeing a demonstration complete with cardboard guillotine, and hearing a man rap about Jesus. Well I guess those are more like oddities than highlights...

We walked everywhere, and took tons of pictures. Gaudi, a famous architect, lived in B-Town and designed a ton of amazing stuff, including the Sangrada Familia. I loved the uniqueness of this cathedral; it's so different from the Gothic architecture all over France. The front wall recounts the events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion with abstract sculptures, and I found it really interesting to experience the story in that way. Hopefully my pictures can do it justice.

Paris will always have my heart, but if you took away the history, the language, the food, and the Eiffel Tower, I think Barcelona would definitely win. I loved the weather, the architecture, and the ambiance of this port city. The people of Barcelona were also strikingly warm and friendly. Half the time we had no idea what they were saying, but they were super kind and patient. Me gusta Barcelona!


If you ever need a pick-me-up while learning a language in a foreign country, just go away to another foreign country where you know zero percent of the language, and then come back. Seriously, after being almost completely deaf and mute to the Spanish for 3 days, speaking and understanding French was cake in comparison. It made me appreciate how much I actually do know--even if I do still get weird looks and "huh?" expressions. I love this language.

So returning to Paris was great, because words actually sounded like words and not like a mixture of rolled r's and I-don't-know-what-else. But it was also weird, because some words sounded like English. Because they were English. I heard so much English there it was crazy. Tourists--everywhere. And the storekeepers in the tourists section, too; they know English so they're going to speak it to you if they know you're American. The few people who didn't--who actually respected our attempts--have no idea how wonderful they are. I wish I could send them flowers or chocolates or a new car or something. On the reals. They're the best.

My four favorite things in Paris ...

- Nutella crepes. Obsessed. In love. A little scary.

- le Musée d'Orsay. My favorite part of the entire trip. I always had a hunch, but I've now decided Monet is my favorite impressionist.  His paintings are beautiful. And seeing real Edgar Degas ballet paintings was like a dream come true.


- buying an amazing water-color painting in the artist square at Montmartre. The woman who painted it was so sweet, and I'm so excited to hang it on my wall at home. A little piece of Paris.

- getting told I "don't have a heart" because I didn't want to give money to help feed insanely fat, stray cats in a Parisian cemetery. Definitely a first in my life.

I think this week taught all four of us how stressful travelling can be, but I'd say we managed pretty well, and even came out on top. Just navigating the Paris metro system in itself will give you about 10 years of life experience. Needless to say, I'm extremely happy to be back--it feels like home now compared to the big city. I had a wonderful time, but I'm ready to get back to exploring my Nantes!!

                                                               (Nantes -->)