A couple birthdays, a reception at city hall, a fashion show, and a little dancing

Hello, everyone!

This past week was full of events, so I'll just go ahead and get started right away.

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Birthdays

The first thing I would like to mention about last week was the fact that we had two birthdays that just happened to fall on the same day (July 3rd!). Aside from the gifts received by their fellow stagiaires, Kevin and Jessie also received a card (drawn by me!) and a bag of delicious salted butter caramels from the profs!

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Reception at City Hall

Every year, we are all invited to city hall for a night of speeches, thanks, and fancy clothes. Not only does this reception give us a chance to thank our on-site coordinator and all of the host families, but it also gives us a chance to enjoy a nice evening together.

The night opened with a speech by our on-site coordinator, Brigitte Blévin, who, as the Mayor's assistant, welcomed us in his stead, followed by one by me, and then one by our stagiaire, Dane Fetterer, in which he briefly discussed the history of the program, its importance, the need to take advantage of the time we have left, and finally thanked the families for all that they've done. After this, we sang La Marseillaise (the French national anthem), Bro Gozh ma Zadoù (the anthem of Brittany), and, as it was the fourth of July (and much to the surprise of the stagiaires!), The Star-Spangled Banner.

Getting ready to give our speeches

I would include a photo/video of the group singing, but, unfortunately, the woman I gave my camera to misunderstood me and just took very unflattering photos of me during the songs... Here's a photo of the group practicing though:

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Fashion show

As part of Amber's culture course, we hold a fashion show every summer, during which the stagiaires must adopt an (often curious) outfit and explain what they're wearing. It never fails to be amusing. We even set up a mini-catwalk for the occasion.

Although I did take pictures of the event, I will include those in the "extra photos", the link to which I will provide at the end. For your amusement, I did also take a video of each group (we divided up by support group) as they did their final pass on the catwalk.

Amber's support group

Jamie's support group

Larry's support group

Ryan's support group

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Soirée danse Bretonne

On Friday night (the night of the fashion show), everyone returned to the Igloo for a night full of dancing and culture. Upon entering the gym, the stagiaires were surprised to see a group of dancers dressed in traditional Breton garb.

After a brief introduction, the dancers demonstrated several of the traditional dances, before taking a moment to describe their outfits. It was then the stagiaires turn to learn a couple of the dances themselves.

Overall, the night was really fun. What better way to experience a culture than to get up and dance?

(A couple videos of the night will hopefully be coming soon. The files are large and are taking forever to upload to YouTube.)

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Well, that's it for now. On Wednesday, we'll be visiting Dinan, Dinard, and Saint-Malo, so stay tuned! :)

A bientôt,
Jamie

p.s. Check out the extra pics!