A Weekend of Pause

This weekend I'm staying in Tours, but Monday is when I'm going out to Carnac, for the second part of my vacation.

On Saturday, I got up and showered, and then hung out until brunch, enjoying the quiet house. I found out at brunch that Anika had planned to take Mathias to the swimming pool that day just as a fun outing, and he asked if maybe someone would want to go with him. I figured it might be fun, and although Tess didn't seem at all interested (I get the feeling she doesn't interact with the family much, although a lot of that is because she doesn't really speak French) I volunteered to go. I had to find my swimming suit, which I had fortunately brought, and set off with the other two.

We ended up taking the bus, which was a first for me. When we finally got there they hadn't yet opened for the afternoon. We only waited for about five minutes before they opened; unfortunately we then had to wait in line for a really long time before we finally got through into the swimming center. One thing I thought was interesting was that they have no kind of gender-based different changing rooms. Instead they just have a big hallway with dressing-room style "cabanes" that you go into to change, and then you go out the other side to where they have machine-controlled storage lockers. We left our stuff, rinsed briefly, and went into the pool area. It was actually fairly large and complex; I was impressed. There's a large pool outside, plus another regular 4-10-foot-style pool, a children's pool that wasn't more than three or so feet deep, a bi-level waterslide (the top level goes outside, then dumps into the pool that feeds into the lower level), and a big warm pool that had a fun sort of strong current path you could follow as well as several different areas with different massaging jets. Mathias and Anika and I played around for an hour or two, and then went to change and leave.

We took the bus back, stopping at one point when Anika bought us pastries to eat on our way. Mathias and I both got these sort of sandwich-shaped ones made of pastry with a layer of melted chocolate chips in the center. When we got back, I rinsed out my suit and hung it up, then collapsed on my bed and took a nap for about an hour. I actually overslept; I had made plans to meet up with Giovanni to go to some concert he had mentioned, and had to rush to get myself ready. When I met him at his house, we still had time to talk a little and have something to drink (I've discovered I actually really like water with mint syrup; it's very fresh) before heading over to the bar where they were playing. The group was put together by a friend of his who is also from Réunion, and they apparently play typical music from the island (there's a word for the musical style, but I can never remember what it is). After a little bit, though, I decided that I would just go back; the music was good, but the whole bar thing wasn't too appealing.

That night, we had rice with shrimp (heads and all, on some of them :P) for dinner, which was really good. Grant came back later in the evening, and he and I had a fun time just talking about our trips and what we'd done and seen. I also got to call Gramma and talk a bit, and tried to call Aunt Roxy, but she was apparently out clearing brush or something, and not available.

This morning I didn't have anything planned, so I slept in a bit, and then we had brunch. Grant and I looked over our stuff for Italian a little, and I now have a sheet of most of the grammar and notes that I need to have down. There's another girl here for a couple weeks, as well. Her name is Ladina, and she's from the German-speaking part of Switzerland. We had a fun time at dinner, joking around and talking. It was fun to have Grant back. Tonight I need to pack, since I'm leaving for Carnac tomorrow! I also need to try again to get a hold of Aunt Roxy, and hopefully I'll have more luck.