With my head in the air...

I had a rather insanely busy weekend, which was unfortunately my last full weekend in belle Nancy :( But it was a lot of fun, and interestingly enough, I spent the majority of it upside down...

My responsable invited me out for dinner with her and her family Friday night, since she (and 2 other teachers) were leaving for England on the school trip that Sunday and it would be the last time I'd see her. It was a really pleasant evening, we went to a nice little crêpe restaurant with her husband and daughter. It was so nice to be taken out (and fed!)

Saturday I had the (mis)pleasure of working from 8-10 in the morning (joy for mock oral exams) and had to bid farewell to the teachers that were leaving for England the next day. It was sad saying goodbye, I was so lucky to have a great responsable and wonderful teachers, and Françoise made me promise to keep in touch and let them know how everything goes in Edinburgh. I then had to rush to the university to give my very last tutoring session...yay for a few extra euros!

By mid-afternoon I was exhausted, not that it mattered, because I had to head off to the MJC for my second aerial silks/cord workshop with Diane, the same person that ran it last month. I was thrilled when she had offered to do a second one in April and signed up right away since I had had so much fun the first time. My fatigue quickly wore away as Diane lead us through the warmup and then showed several moves/figures for each level and various things to work on. I had definitely progressed since the first workshop and it was great to be able to advance even further! I learned quite a few new moves, including my first "vrille" (a sort of fall with a twist to the side) and conquered my fear of doing moves higher up the tissu. (The pics aren't from the workshop but actually from one of my regular classes, but at least it gives you an idea of a couple things I've been working on):

a "grenouille" (frog position)

just hangin' around...

A very fun day turned into a very fun evening, as Julia came over from Sarrebourg to stay the night, and along with Kerstin the 3 of us went to the Foire de Nancy! It's a travelling fair that's currently making it's pit stop here for the next month - rides and games and all sorts of unhealthy things to stuff your face with. Everything was lit up and Place Carnot was packed with people. Our first ride was the rollercoaster - a rather dinky thing that reminded me of the one at the Western Fair (never goes upside down, just a few dips, drops and turns.) However, as soon as we got into the cart, we realized there was nothing to strap you in! No seatbelt, no bars, NOTHING. You just sat one behind the other straddling a bench and held on for dear life to the handlebars beside you. Julia and I both had the fleeting thought that this wouldn't pass safety inspections back in our own countries...So we screamed for our lives and prayed we wouldn't be ejected from our seats as we went up and down and side to side. A bit scary and sketchy, but definitely fun! Julia and Kerstin then went on the ferris wheel, which I had already been on with mum so I decided to save some coin and stay on the ground to take pics.

We decided to pick one final ride before eating (and not the other way around), and after checking out the various "manèges" we settled on "X-flight", a terrifying thing that swung you side to side like a pendulum while you sat at the end and got spun around at the same time. It had been awhile since any of us had gone on such an extreme thrill ride...I screamed bloody murder and had my eyes shut and legs kicking for the first few minutes while my stomach was in my throat. Super fun!

Fair food in France is quite different from back home, and everyone sells the exact same thing: you can pick between kebabs, burgers, fries, crepes, waffles, ice cream, and a TON of candy. We settled for fries and a particularly delicious chocolate Belgian waffle cone with crème de patissière. Healthy!

It was a great evening, and even though we were exhausted Julia and I stayed up chatting until quite late, and dragged ourselves out of bed early to grab a nice coffee and croissant at Cafe Foy before she had to catch her train. Then it was back to the MJC for me to spend another 3 hours with my head in air!

It was a weekend jam-packed with activities, but I really enjoyed it and was glad I could spend my last full weekend in my beloved city with such great people!

And here's a little montage I put together of some of the things I learned at my tissu workshop: (the last skill was an epic fail, but hey, I'm improving!)