An Actual Update

I suppose if I keep putting this off it will only get worse, huh?
Let me start from Thursday, when we left at 9 in the morning via bus to head for the Loire Valley. We drove to Chartres and took a small stop there where we got to go inside the Chartres Cathedral. It's one of the Notre Dames so it's substantial in its importance and it was absolutely beautiful to see looming over the town as we arrived. We were disappointed to discover that there was some restoration work being done that drastically reduced the appeal of the exterior but I guess I really don't have much right to complain. We received a formal tour of the building in English and then were received another, slightly more rare tour (albeit in French) where we got to go into the towers and then into the space between the vaults and the roof of the cathedral. It was breathtaking and I'm only too grateful to have gotten to experience it.
Afterwards we made a stop at the Chateau Chenonceau which is renowned for its beauty and its gardens. The chateau itself was rather beautiful but the vegetable garden and the Caryatids were by far my favorite parts of this palace.
We ran out of time for the remainder of the day but even the "chateau" in which we slept was beautiful. We parked it at La Heresie, which is technically a bed and breakfast and had a pretty awesome dinner courtesy of the coordinators that ended in too much wine for everybody. What followed was a pretty incredible night of laughing in the yard and a very long game of spades (which I learned and of which we won that night!)
The following day we started with the Chateau Villandry and did not get to go inside the palace but instead wandered the gardens which are the most famous part of the chateau anyway. These gardens are the gardens of love (ohhhhhhh), and there are four specific parts meant to represent the different stages of love. I took pictures of them but the more appropriate explaination shall be in my scrapbook. I was very interested to see these things because I've never really seen gardens that have a very specific design. This place also grew grapes, of which I tried a few and the green grapes were some of the best I've ever had despite their being seeded.
We followed this with a tour of Chambord, a very very important Chateau. Here we also received a special tour and got to go into towers that are not typically toured. We even got to see 16th century graffiti from the masons that worked there (as seen in the facebook photos). It was beautiful but I can't even begin to describe everything, although I must admit the double helix spiraling staircase was absolutely magnificent, especially when on leaned out the various windows and got to greet everybody on different levels!
We returned late Friday evening and I do believe I crashed pretty hard.
Saturday we woke up late and meandered over to L'Opera to see inside and promptly discovered that we absolutely HAVE to see a show there. It was so beautiful!! Then we returned to discover that most of the gang was going to one of the cite's fields to play kickball and who am I to turned down a good game of kickball, and WINE KICKBALL at that? We played from about 5.30 until dark but by then we were all too drunk too see much despite the darkness anyway so we called it game and came inside. Stephanie and I made plans to go get something real to eat down in Luxembourg and ended up meeting Tom, a new friend who's here from Oxord, while we were getting ready to go. We also met his two friends Peter (a Czech) and Alex (a Greek whose true name I don't think I'll ever know) while they were preparing dinner and Tom and Peter decided to join us to show us a real French bar rather than Wide Open Spaces, the Australian bar we were going to hit. We met with them about an hour later and Tom introduced us to Jaoa, a guy who has lived in Portugal the past 8 years. The bar was really cool and actually cheap, had we not snuck out without paying (completely on accident!) and I look forward to going back for a happy hour when it's even cheaper. And Tom and Peter and Jaoa were all really cool, I just hope they don't think little of us for being a bit tipsy the entire time. I just get a little more talkative, right?
Regardless, Sunday we went to try the Church of Saint Michael over near the Champs Elysees and were very satisfied with the community and the services there, so I think we'll be going back. It's a bit episcopalian (Anglican by all technicalities but I don't really know the difference) but I don't think it's going to be much of a hindrance to my worship because the songs and beautiful and moving and the pastors were extremely friendly people. Afterwards I ended up taking a two hour nap before meeting with Laura and Sarah's Algerian/Italian friend and his buddy that turned out to be a pretty big asshole. But I suppose again I cannot complain because they prepared us dinner (a four cheese ravioli that was pretty good) and brought wine for the four of us (four of us being Dessa, Sarah, Laura, and myself) and we didn't do much of anything for them. I suspect he has the hots for Laura (poor girl!) but I think she's made it pretty clear she wasn't interested.
Afterwards we ended up playing spades again (this time Craig and I lost) until pretty late.
Today we had our last all together French class and were divided before splitting up for the day. We went to the grocery store and then I went out to purchase some postcards (which I need to get to writing). Afterwards Stephanie made this really awesome chicken with sauteed garlic and mushrooms and it was really good as well. Looking forward to some really decently cooked meals rather than just ramen ALL THE TIME.
But this is now updated and it's bedtime because I have to be up at 7.15 in the morning to get to Tristan's first class on time.