Rennes

the better part of this week i spent in a town called Rennes, west of Paris in the region of Bretagne; Rennes is, in fact, Bretagne's capital. this Bretagne is the smaller version of Grande Bretagne, that is, Great Britain. the Bretons came from Britain in the 4th or 5th century a.d. from a cultural perspective, it's a rather interesting region, one of the last to cling tightly to its regional language, breton, a celtic language that appears altogether indiscernible to my eye.

for me, Rennes was the sight of the French Fulbright grantees midyear meeting, a small break from projects throughout the country for the 30 some odd grantees. people came from Grenoble, Strasbourg, Perpignan, Aix-en-Provence, and even a tiny little research center in the middle of nowhere in the western regions of France. we toured the city, learned about the devastating fires that have ravaged Rennes with unsettling frequency, listened to presentations from various grantees, visited the facilities of the largest daily French newspaper, and spent a good deal of time hanging out. we ate crepes, as crepes originate in Bretagne. we visited several of the popular student bars--Rennes is home to 60,000 students!! i have to say that the best part of the trip was certainly the people, laughing and joking as well as learning from their experiences.

the Rennes trip also got me out of 2 days of teaching this week, leaving me only thursday and 5 of my 12 classes. yesterday i went to discussion group as usual with Vintage, and today i walked along the canals in the northeastern corner of the city, in addition to translating letters for an hour.

coming up this week, i have a church-wide brunch sunday morning, with the idea being that each person brings a dish specific to his family and/or country. then sunday night is the super bowl, which i will watch with a group of Americans. and next weekend i'll be heading to Berlin, to visit the city as well as to see a Vandy friend, Jenn McCaleb. and not long after that i'll be on vacation for 2 weeks, heading to basque country, barcelona, and lisbon.

i haven't taken many pictures lately, but here are some great shots from the muddiest/most fun football i've ever played:

Invalides Invasion