So Callie dared me to be a vegetarian for the two weeks before we go home. Ignoring the obvious obstacle of living with a French family (which is exactly why Callie has her own apartment), it's been three and a half days. Being a vegetarian in France is hard. Yesterday there were no sandwiches without meat left in any of the stores when I went to have lunch...let's just say I'm really looking forward to eating a nice Christmas dinner.
Also, I am now a legal (temporary) resident of France. I have a shiny laminated Residency Permit and everything. With a terrible picture. I wanted to go to the Photomaton in Gare du Nord last time I was in Paris to get my pictures taken as a little homage to "Amelie," but I would have missed my train from Gare Montparnasse. Oh well, the little grocery store down the street is just a little less poetic. I've also started giving my name as "Amelie" when I order pizza. Not that they understand me any better, since last time they wrote down "Marie," but I really hate the name "Emilie" in french. It's just not pretty...
Tomorrow the professors vote on whether we'll have first semester exams at the end of January instead of our semester break or if they'll push them back til April. In general, I'm a fan of procrastination. But April seems a little extreme. I really hope they vote for January, as I'll still have a decent break between my Science-Po exams at the beginning of January and the Bordeaux 3 exam period. But we'll see...
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Enough foie gras to last a lifetime...
This weekend, Middlebury organized a trip to Dordogne, home of the caves of Lascaux, some beautiful chateaux and, of course, foie gras. The region itself is beautiful, weirdly reminiscent of the English countryside. Well, I haven't actually been to England, but that's what it reminded me of anyway. Or possibly Vermont? Everytime I go somewhere it seems to remind me of somewhere else. I have all these vague memories of one place or another, but I want to go somewhere that's entirely new. Maybe there is no such place, maybe I'll always be looking for something vaguely familiar. Either way, Dordogne is lovely. Rolling green hills, very cozy looking cottages. Medieval cities. Ancient art. The caves of Lascaux are awe-inspiring, with such detail and immense dimensions. But then again, we only saw the replicas. Since their discovery in 1940, the actual caves have been occasionally on display to the public; however, after a scare with bacteria only scientists are allowed in the originals. Instead, they created an exact replica practically next to the actual caves. One woman spent four years painstakinly duplicating the massive paintings in a man-made cave. It sounds cheesy, and it is, kind of. It's hard to explain because before and after you're in the cave, you can't help but be aware of the actual caves that you're missing out on. They're noted as much for their age as for their beauty, and the ones that I saw were drawn in the 80s. However, when you are inside, you forget that. It is incredible to see them, to try and understand all the drawings. When (or if) they re-open the original, I would love to be able to see them.
We spent Sunday exploring the medieval town of Sarlat. It's incredibly well preserved, with dozens of houses from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The hotel we stayed in was from the 15th century, and Susan and I were at the top of the tower. It was a nice weekend, seeing a different, quieter side of France. Bordeaux itself is a step down from Paris, but a quite different from the little villages I always imagined. I think Sarlat reminded me most of Rothenburg, Germany. Charming, warm (in spirit anyway, although luckily it didn't rain most of the time).
And now I'm back to reality. After three weeks of strikes, we are returning to class. For three weeks before Christmas break. No one, not even the professors really, understands how we'll be able to cover everything, take our exams, etc. I'm divided because I sympathize with the students. Ironically, they were fighting to keep French universities from becoming more like American universities. And while I'm rather partial to our university system, I don't know that it's the best fit for France. The students are worried about the universality of their degrees if each university can decide its program. In a country where young people have a terrible time finding employment, I can understand why anything that might further hurt their chances would be terrifying. And the students were rebelling against Sarkozy in general, and his conservative agenda. My host family keeps telling me that no one should be complaining because Sarkozy is just doing exactly what he said he would do. But I don't think the students elected Sarkozy, the man who half the french refer to as the "American." And I promise it's not a term of endearment.
The stereotype of American-French relations is certainly exagerrated. I've never had any real problems, if anything I'm a curiosity in Bordeaux because few American tourists realize Bordeaux is a city and not just a wine. But there is a subtle pro-British sentiment anyway, if not overtly anti-American. When they have to choose between Anglo-Saxon powers, the French prefer the British. The kids in my second grade English class have told me that I don't actually speak english because I'm American. Also, they have a map of english-speaking countries in the classroom that doesn't include the United States. Americans don't speak real english. Americans aren't as cultured as the British. Even when people recognize my accent, I've never once been asked if I'm American. It's always British first. Sometimes a very long list of Polish, German, Swedish, etc, before I finally cave and admit to being American.
We spent Sunday exploring the medieval town of Sarlat. It's incredibly well preserved, with dozens of houses from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The hotel we stayed in was from the 15th century, and Susan and I were at the top of the tower. It was a nice weekend, seeing a different, quieter side of France. Bordeaux itself is a step down from Paris, but a quite different from the little villages I always imagined. I think Sarlat reminded me most of Rothenburg, Germany. Charming, warm (in spirit anyway, although luckily it didn't rain most of the time).
And now I'm back to reality. After three weeks of strikes, we are returning to class. For three weeks before Christmas break. No one, not even the professors really, understands how we'll be able to cover everything, take our exams, etc. I'm divided because I sympathize with the students. Ironically, they were fighting to keep French universities from becoming more like American universities. And while I'm rather partial to our university system, I don't know that it's the best fit for France. The students are worried about the universality of their degrees if each university can decide its program. In a country where young people have a terrible time finding employment, I can understand why anything that might further hurt their chances would be terrifying. And the students were rebelling against Sarkozy in general, and his conservative agenda. My host family keeps telling me that no one should be complaining because Sarkozy is just doing exactly what he said he would do. But I don't think the students elected Sarkozy, the man who half the french refer to as the "American." And I promise it's not a term of endearment.
The stereotype of American-French relations is certainly exagerrated. I've never had any real problems, if anything I'm a curiosity in Bordeaux because few American tourists realize Bordeaux is a city and not just a wine. But there is a subtle pro-British sentiment anyway, if not overtly anti-American. When they have to choose between Anglo-Saxon powers, the French prefer the British. The kids in my second grade English class have told me that I don't actually speak english because I'm American. Also, they have a map of english-speaking countries in the classroom that doesn't include the United States. Americans don't speak real english. Americans aren't as cultured as the British. Even when people recognize my accent, I've never once been asked if I'm American. It's always British first. Sometimes a very long list of Polish, German, Swedish, etc, before I finally cave and admit to being American.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Possibly a curve ball...
Last tuesday, I was in my literature class, attempting to take an exam which required me to analyze 6 pages in 2 and 1/2 hours while composing a decent 5 page essay. Handwritten essay, because french kids don't type their homework. They also don't write on lined paper, but on essentially graph paper. They all have pencil cases. Anyway, I had just about finished my introduction which meant I actually had to deal with the fact of writing a paper in french without handy wordreference.com. But then they started barricading the doors.
The french kids went on strike. There's no union. It's just that they're unhappy with Sarkozy and a new law interferring with the "autonomy" of the universities, which no one really understands. And they're french. So we're striking. About 2,000 kids stood in the courtyard and voted, while I was attempting to write my paper. Even though it was a little bit undemocratic, enough kids wanted to stop classes that everyone just went with it. The administration does what the kids want. Maybe that's what they mean by autonomy of the universities. From where I was sitting in my classroom, I could see kids starting to pile tables and chairs in front of one set of doors. Everyone could hear the people running through the hallway. Our professor tried to make us just keep writing, but finally she went into the hallway and realized what was going on. She told us just to take our stuff and go, and finish the papers at home for class next week. I had no idea what was waiting for us in the hallway, and I was picturing something very scary and intense. It was actually the most polite forced-exit and barricading of a building I've even seen, anyway, and they let anyone out who wanted to go (as long as you could find the 2 doors that were still open) before they fully sealed off the building. My friend's professor told them they could always climb out the windows...
They originally voted to suspend classes from Tuesday until Friday, and they voted yesterday to continue the strike at least through this up-coming Tuesday. Which again means no essay for me. And also no linguistics exam, but Callie saw our linguistics professor voting for the strike so I don't think he's too upset. The train workers seem to be ending their strike, hopefully just in time so that I can get to Paris to see Mary next weekend and then to Poitiers to celebrate a real American Thanksgiving with Caroline. But now it seems the students are getting more determined. We can barely believe that there's only 5 weeks left in this semester (although we've been debating it and it's possibly only 4 weeks because November only has 30 days...it made sense to me). But if the strikes continue, it will change this last month a little bit. I'm not sure how we're going to cram everything in or if they'll just change the exams.
Still don't know if I'm coming home for Christmas. I feel like that should be decided soon. I really want to go to Sweden in December, but I'm thinking I should be more concerned about having enough money to get to Paris to fly home. If I'm coming home. Which is, again, yet to be determined.
I'm also stressing about getting all the paperwork filled out for essentially my residency permit since I'm staying here longer than 6 months. People keep telling me that I won't get deported, but who knows. Can I request deportation to somewhere warmer? They have started decorating for Christmas here. That's weird. I guess since they don't have Thanksgiving to break up the fall, there's no reason not to start thinking about Christmas already. One day soon, I will take my camera out and actually show you this city. I promise.
The french kids went on strike. There's no union. It's just that they're unhappy with Sarkozy and a new law interferring with the "autonomy" of the universities, which no one really understands. And they're french. So we're striking. About 2,000 kids stood in the courtyard and voted, while I was attempting to write my paper. Even though it was a little bit undemocratic, enough kids wanted to stop classes that everyone just went with it. The administration does what the kids want. Maybe that's what they mean by autonomy of the universities. From where I was sitting in my classroom, I could see kids starting to pile tables and chairs in front of one set of doors. Everyone could hear the people running through the hallway. Our professor tried to make us just keep writing, but finally she went into the hallway and realized what was going on. She told us just to take our stuff and go, and finish the papers at home for class next week. I had no idea what was waiting for us in the hallway, and I was picturing something very scary and intense. It was actually the most polite forced-exit and barricading of a building I've even seen, anyway, and they let anyone out who wanted to go (as long as you could find the 2 doors that were still open) before they fully sealed off the building. My friend's professor told them they could always climb out the windows...
They originally voted to suspend classes from Tuesday until Friday, and they voted yesterday to continue the strike at least through this up-coming Tuesday. Which again means no essay for me. And also no linguistics exam, but Callie saw our linguistics professor voting for the strike so I don't think he's too upset. The train workers seem to be ending their strike, hopefully just in time so that I can get to Paris to see Mary next weekend and then to Poitiers to celebrate a real American Thanksgiving with Caroline. But now it seems the students are getting more determined. We can barely believe that there's only 5 weeks left in this semester (although we've been debating it and it's possibly only 4 weeks because November only has 30 days...it made sense to me). But if the strikes continue, it will change this last month a little bit. I'm not sure how we're going to cram everything in or if they'll just change the exams.
Still don't know if I'm coming home for Christmas. I feel like that should be decided soon. I really want to go to Sweden in December, but I'm thinking I should be more concerned about having enough money to get to Paris to fly home. If I'm coming home. Which is, again, yet to be determined.
I'm also stressing about getting all the paperwork filled out for essentially my residency permit since I'm staying here longer than 6 months. People keep telling me that I won't get deported, but who knows. Can I request deportation to somewhere warmer? They have started decorating for Christmas here. That's weird. I guess since they don't have Thanksgiving to break up the fall, there's no reason not to start thinking about Christmas already. One day soon, I will take my camera out and actually show you this city. I promise.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
And one more thing...
Links to my Spain pictures: http://middlebury.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025155&l=0ab3a&id=4403360
Portugal pictures: http://middlebury.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025157&l=7e0fc&id=4403360
One warning: Yes, my hair is a little different then you might remember. I promise it's not permanent. But I felt like too much of a tourist with my blonde hair. Mom, stop freaking out! I haven't gotten any tatoos or piercings.
A few other random thoughts:
The woman at the grocery store the other day asked me where I got my wallet. As sad as it made me to talk about Target, I thought it was a victory that a french woman liked something I owned.
When you fly on the cheap Spanish airline I took, they play music over the speakers during the flight.
Also, when I was waiting for the flight from Madrid, they were making announcements in only Spanish and English, making all the French passengers angry. I overheard an interesting debate behind me, about whether they should make the announcements in French too, since the flight was headed to Paris. One french man was defending the airline, saying it's a British airline with Spanish employees here and most travelers are probably English-speakers. But, really, shouldn't they have made them in French too? Even if the whole flight was full of Americans, it was landing in France. Interesting...
Portugal pictures: http://middlebury.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025157&l=7e0fc&id=4403360
One warning: Yes, my hair is a little different then you might remember. I promise it's not permanent. But I felt like too much of a tourist with my blonde hair. Mom, stop freaking out! I haven't gotten any tatoos or piercings.
A few other random thoughts:
The woman at the grocery store the other day asked me where I got my wallet. As sad as it made me to talk about Target, I thought it was a victory that a french woman liked something I owned.
When you fly on the cheap Spanish airline I took, they play music over the speakers during the flight.
Also, when I was waiting for the flight from Madrid, they were making announcements in only Spanish and English, making all the French passengers angry. I overheard an interesting debate behind me, about whether they should make the announcements in French too, since the flight was headed to Paris. One french man was defending the airline, saying it's a British airline with Spanish employees here and most travelers are probably English-speakers. But, really, shouldn't they have made them in French too? Even if the whole flight was full of Americans, it was landing in France. Interesting...
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
My name is Emily, and I'll be your tour guide...
Well, I sucessfully made it around the Iberian penninsula with only minimal problems. Really, considering the number of connections and types of transportation I was relying on, it is a miracle.
I headed into Paris a few days before leaving for Spain to meet up with Brad, our family friend who works for American Airlines. We had a great time, just exploring the city and we found a couple really cool places with live music that I want to go back to. It's amazing how quickly Paris became familiar. I just wandered Paris for nearly 2 days by myself, without a map, and loved it. However, you have to appreciate the organization of Paris- you can never really be lost because every street is labeled with it's name and arrondissement, so you even know which area of the city you are in. I went to Montmartre for the first time, and climbed the steps up to the Sacre Coeur. It is very impressive but I always laugh when I realize that some of Europe's classic monuments are not older than anything in the U.S. I have this idea that everything here is old, and I forget that Europe has changed too. I also walked around the Pere Lachaise cemetary where so many famous people are buried, but it was raining and there were no maps that I could find. So I stumbled upon Balzac's tomb, and Eugene Delacroix's too, but I did not find Jim Morrison's.
I made it to Barcelona without any problems, except for realizing that I could no longer speak Spanish once I got there. The trains to the center of the city weren't running, but I was able to tell the woman where I needed to go in Spanish, but it was all downhill from there. Ordering food, asking for directions,...I felt like I was translating from English to French to Spanish. And even then, my vocab felt so limited. That was one of the most frustrating things about the trip. I can handle being in countries where I don't speak the language at all, but I when I feel like I should be able to...I just keep thinking about how my Spanish was so much better than my French in June. I did love being around the Catalan though, and I could start to read it reasonably well but I can't pronounce a lanuage that I've really never heard. And Catalan people don't speak Catalan to non-Catalans. Although I think one guy in a coffee shop might have, either that or I just couldn't understand the Castillian spanish.
My first day in Barcelona I just wandered around the city. I didn't want to go to any of the main sights because I knew Caroline was coming later and had never seen the city, so I just walked along Las Ramblas and then through all the neighborhoods where Gaudi and the other Modernists designed apartments. It was a very nice re-introduction to the city. Caroline got in pretty late, so I went to the train station to get her. It's funny because once again on this trip, I was definitely the tour guide. I don't mind at all, especially in Barcelona, but I really had only been there for 2 days four years ago. We hung out with a bunch of the kids in our room at the hostel that night, and then did the big Gaudi stuff the next day. We went to La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell- two of my favorite places in Barcelona. We were at Parc Guell just as the sun was setting and it was beautiful, although the pictures couldn't really capture it. The next day we just walked along Las Ramblas, went to the Picasso museum and went out for tapas. We didn't realize we were going to be in Barcelona for Halloween, and we ended up going out with a group from our hostel to a flamenco show and then a salsa club. It was funny because clearly the only people dressed up were Americans.
It was actually a very social trip for us, in Barcelona we met a couple people that we went sightseeing with and Caroline looked up a breakfast one morning and saw a girl from her high school! We met people studying in Madrid, Florence, Barcelona, Paris...someone who's interning for Adidas in Germany, and then a few people who were just traveling for a few months, or even a year.
We flew from Barcelona to Lisbon on Friday morning. Lisbon has a very unique feeling to it...it's hard to describe, and I loved it, but it's very different than anywhere I had been. We kept using the phrase "old world." You could tell that it had been a powerful, important country, but the last 500 years had also started to wear away some of the glamour of the city. It almost felt like a colony of itself rather than the colonizer, as if someone had poured all this money in and then left. Regardless, it is beautiful, so picturesque and our hostel was amazing. We were right in the middle of the downtown pedestrian area, in the center of the city, with great common spaces to hang out in when we got back and the people working at the hostel could give us recommendations about everything. The first day there we just wandered in two different neighborhoods- one was the Alfama, the oldest neighboorhood because it survived an earthquake in the 1700s. Along our way up the hills, we also were looking for the famous cathedral, the Se. We found three churches that I thought were the big one before I realized it was actually the giant one up ahead with all the signs. They were all nice though...We also wandered in the Bairro Alto, which is where nearly all the restaurants, stores, bars, everything is. It also has a great view of the city though, and we walked to the same point that an Elevador would have taken us. Lisbon has these elevators throughout the city that just take you straight up to a platform so you don't have to climb all the hills, but we somehow ended up on the platform just walking. The second day we went specifically to a area called Belem, which is known for its tower, the Monastario dos Jeronimos, and, honestly, its pastry. The pastries were delicious and the monastary was beautiful too, with a very elaborate courtyard that I wouldn't mind having in the middle of my house. We also climbed up a different hill to reach el Castelo do San Jorge. There's remnants of the Moorish castle underneath the Medieval one, and it has an amazing view of Lisbon itself, as well as the coast. The last day we went to a town named Sintra, just 45 minutes outside of Lisbon and a UNESCO world heritage site. The town itself is lovely, but it's known for its castles. We first went to a palace that our hostel recommended, where the palace is only a small part of the attraction. It's surrounded by incredibly elaborate gardens, with stone towers, grottos, fountains. You feel like a character from a fairy tale walking around and it's even more unbelievable because it was all created in the 1800s. But it seems as if you're walking around on these ancient grounds and climbing ruins. It was like an amusement park. You have to see the pictures, although they don't really do it justice. Afterwards, we went to Pena Palace, which is painted about 10 different colors and is overlooking the whole coast of Portugal it feels like. Inside was frustrating because we had to just file through to look at each room for 5 seconds, but the views on the outside more than made up for it. And they also have really good pastry there.
Coming home was another ridiculous day of traveling. We left our hostel at around 8 in the morning and I was back in my room in Bordeaux at 11:30 that night. I flew from Lisbon to Madrid on the same flight as Caroline, but I had a much shorter connection to head back to Paris. So I had to fight everyone to get off the airplane, run through the airport following signs to the shuttle between terminals. I had a little less than an hour originally, to change from Terminal 4, which is not connected to the rest of the airport, to Terminal 1, make it through security and sprint to the gate. But then the flight from Lisbon was late. So I was panicking, sitting on the bus checking my watch obsessively. And then we come to a stop. But the driver isn't letting anyone out so I can't figure out why we are stopping. I look in front of us and I see a big group getting off a tour bus. Now I'm just angry, and don't understand why we're stopping for them. Then I glance at the tour bus sitting next to us and realize who this is. Real Madrid. The soccer team. The whole team, the manager, everyone walked right front of my bus with camera crews running around them. So I almost missed my flight because of Real Madrid. And it would have been worth it. But I made it, because there was no one in the security line and easyJet did not close the gate half an hour before the flight like they said they were going to. Luckily I also made it to Paris in time to pick up my suitcase with all my belongings that I expected to have back in September and then to make my train in plenty of time. It was a very long trip. But it was a very nice break from everything, and made me happier to be back here.
Now I have to start planning things for the rest of this semester, and it's terrifying that I can plan all the way til the end...it's not that far away. However, I wanted to go back to Paris next weekend and I think that there's going to be another strike. Of course there is...
I headed into Paris a few days before leaving for Spain to meet up with Brad, our family friend who works for American Airlines. We had a great time, just exploring the city and we found a couple really cool places with live music that I want to go back to. It's amazing how quickly Paris became familiar. I just wandered Paris for nearly 2 days by myself, without a map, and loved it. However, you have to appreciate the organization of Paris- you can never really be lost because every street is labeled with it's name and arrondissement, so you even know which area of the city you are in. I went to Montmartre for the first time, and climbed the steps up to the Sacre Coeur. It is very impressive but I always laugh when I realize that some of Europe's classic monuments are not older than anything in the U.S. I have this idea that everything here is old, and I forget that Europe has changed too. I also walked around the Pere Lachaise cemetary where so many famous people are buried, but it was raining and there were no maps that I could find. So I stumbled upon Balzac's tomb, and Eugene Delacroix's too, but I did not find Jim Morrison's.
I made it to Barcelona without any problems, except for realizing that I could no longer speak Spanish once I got there. The trains to the center of the city weren't running, but I was able to tell the woman where I needed to go in Spanish, but it was all downhill from there. Ordering food, asking for directions,...I felt like I was translating from English to French to Spanish. And even then, my vocab felt so limited. That was one of the most frustrating things about the trip. I can handle being in countries where I don't speak the language at all, but I when I feel like I should be able to...I just keep thinking about how my Spanish was so much better than my French in June. I did love being around the Catalan though, and I could start to read it reasonably well but I can't pronounce a lanuage that I've really never heard. And Catalan people don't speak Catalan to non-Catalans. Although I think one guy in a coffee shop might have, either that or I just couldn't understand the Castillian spanish.
My first day in Barcelona I just wandered around the city. I didn't want to go to any of the main sights because I knew Caroline was coming later and had never seen the city, so I just walked along Las Ramblas and then through all the neighborhoods where Gaudi and the other Modernists designed apartments. It was a very nice re-introduction to the city. Caroline got in pretty late, so I went to the train station to get her. It's funny because once again on this trip, I was definitely the tour guide. I don't mind at all, especially in Barcelona, but I really had only been there for 2 days four years ago. We hung out with a bunch of the kids in our room at the hostel that night, and then did the big Gaudi stuff the next day. We went to La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell- two of my favorite places in Barcelona. We were at Parc Guell just as the sun was setting and it was beautiful, although the pictures couldn't really capture it. The next day we just walked along Las Ramblas, went to the Picasso museum and went out for tapas. We didn't realize we were going to be in Barcelona for Halloween, and we ended up going out with a group from our hostel to a flamenco show and then a salsa club. It was funny because clearly the only people dressed up were Americans.
It was actually a very social trip for us, in Barcelona we met a couple people that we went sightseeing with and Caroline looked up a breakfast one morning and saw a girl from her high school! We met people studying in Madrid, Florence, Barcelona, Paris...someone who's interning for Adidas in Germany, and then a few people who were just traveling for a few months, or even a year.
We flew from Barcelona to Lisbon on Friday morning. Lisbon has a very unique feeling to it...it's hard to describe, and I loved it, but it's very different than anywhere I had been. We kept using the phrase "old world." You could tell that it had been a powerful, important country, but the last 500 years had also started to wear away some of the glamour of the city. It almost felt like a colony of itself rather than the colonizer, as if someone had poured all this money in and then left. Regardless, it is beautiful, so picturesque and our hostel was amazing. We were right in the middle of the downtown pedestrian area, in the center of the city, with great common spaces to hang out in when we got back and the people working at the hostel could give us recommendations about everything. The first day there we just wandered in two different neighborhoods- one was the Alfama, the oldest neighboorhood because it survived an earthquake in the 1700s. Along our way up the hills, we also were looking for the famous cathedral, the Se. We found three churches that I thought were the big one before I realized it was actually the giant one up ahead with all the signs. They were all nice though...We also wandered in the Bairro Alto, which is where nearly all the restaurants, stores, bars, everything is. It also has a great view of the city though, and we walked to the same point that an Elevador would have taken us. Lisbon has these elevators throughout the city that just take you straight up to a platform so you don't have to climb all the hills, but we somehow ended up on the platform just walking. The second day we went specifically to a area called Belem, which is known for its tower, the Monastario dos Jeronimos, and, honestly, its pastry. The pastries were delicious and the monastary was beautiful too, with a very elaborate courtyard that I wouldn't mind having in the middle of my house. We also climbed up a different hill to reach el Castelo do San Jorge. There's remnants of the Moorish castle underneath the Medieval one, and it has an amazing view of Lisbon itself, as well as the coast. The last day we went to a town named Sintra, just 45 minutes outside of Lisbon and a UNESCO world heritage site. The town itself is lovely, but it's known for its castles. We first went to a palace that our hostel recommended, where the palace is only a small part of the attraction. It's surrounded by incredibly elaborate gardens, with stone towers, grottos, fountains. You feel like a character from a fairy tale walking around and it's even more unbelievable because it was all created in the 1800s. But it seems as if you're walking around on these ancient grounds and climbing ruins. It was like an amusement park. You have to see the pictures, although they don't really do it justice. Afterwards, we went to Pena Palace, which is painted about 10 different colors and is overlooking the whole coast of Portugal it feels like. Inside was frustrating because we had to just file through to look at each room for 5 seconds, but the views on the outside more than made up for it. And they also have really good pastry there.
Coming home was another ridiculous day of traveling. We left our hostel at around 8 in the morning and I was back in my room in Bordeaux at 11:30 that night. I flew from Lisbon to Madrid on the same flight as Caroline, but I had a much shorter connection to head back to Paris. So I had to fight everyone to get off the airplane, run through the airport following signs to the shuttle between terminals. I had a little less than an hour originally, to change from Terminal 4, which is not connected to the rest of the airport, to Terminal 1, make it through security and sprint to the gate. But then the flight from Lisbon was late. So I was panicking, sitting on the bus checking my watch obsessively. And then we come to a stop. But the driver isn't letting anyone out so I can't figure out why we are stopping. I look in front of us and I see a big group getting off a tour bus. Now I'm just angry, and don't understand why we're stopping for them. Then I glance at the tour bus sitting next to us and realize who this is. Real Madrid. The soccer team. The whole team, the manager, everyone walked right front of my bus with camera crews running around them. So I almost missed my flight because of Real Madrid. And it would have been worth it. But I made it, because there was no one in the security line and easyJet did not close the gate half an hour before the flight like they said they were going to. Luckily I also made it to Paris in time to pick up my suitcase with all my belongings that I expected to have back in September and then to make my train in plenty of time. It was a very long trip. But it was a very nice break from everything, and made me happier to be back here.
Now I have to start planning things for the rest of this semester, and it's terrifying that I can plan all the way til the end...it's not that far away. However, I wanted to go back to Paris next weekend and I think that there's going to be another strike. Of course there is...
Saturday, October 27, 2007
I never said I wasn't a procrastinator...
Alright, one last post for anyone who's interested. I promised my mom one email in the next week to let her know I'm alive, which is more than what she got when I went to Europe in high school, but I'm not bringing my computer with me on my trip. I leave Bordeaux at 7:57 tomorrow morning (or it might be 6:57? 8:57?- I shouldn't have chosen to travel on the day that the time changes...). I will be in Paris for a day and a half, enough time to explore a little more of the city, but unfortunately not able to go see Versailles or Monet's gardens because everything is closed on Mondays. I am going to be a history nerd and go to the cathedral of St. Denis, just a little outside of Paris, to see the first gothic cathedral. And I'm going to Montmatre, the one area of Paris that I really want to see but haven't yet (famous for being the setting of 'Amelie,' as well as the Moulin Rouge, but I'm really going to see the Sacre Coeur). Then a whirlwind of Barcelona, Lisbon, Sintra, Madrid and Paris. I'm only really going to be in Madrid's airport for about 45 minutes but I'm counting it. I actually just realized that I only have about 45 minutes to change terminals and check-in for my flight from Madrid to Paris so I can't check baggage. Funny that I'll be taking a backpack on a week-long trip when I had a duffel bag for my weekend in Paris. I'll be back in Bordeaux late Monday night November 5th, just in time for classes again on the 6th but not early enough to watch 'V for Vendetta' on the 5th of November the way I should.
This week actually went by very quickly, but it's weird because normally Fall Break feels like such a relief. This time, I'm very happy for the traveling time but I still don't feel like I'm really in classes. Oh well...I also thought I had a Linguistics exam this Thursday so I crammed late Wednesday and all morning Thursday just to find out that it won't be until the week after vacation. I blame the language barrier.
I'm looking into going to Sweden for St. Lucia's day, December 13th. I found a flight on Ryanair for .01 Euro, which is ridiculous on its own, but I might have another Linguistics quiz. However, as the last story proved, I actually have no idea. Something to look into...
I found out that I have no exams after Christmas so I have a much longer break between semesters than I thought. I just might come home for Christmas afterall, though it will make it much harder to come back here.
It's funny because I have much more complicated interactions in French all the time, but simple things like buying my train ticket all in French are what make me feel good about my language skills. There's times when I'm frustrated, such as when a waiter switches to english or when I have long conversations with my host family and they kind of assume I can't actually explain myself. But it's when I do something relatively complicated and logistical like buying a train ticket from someone who doesn't know I'm not french that I feel the greatest sense of accomplishment. It's hard because everyone keeps asking if my french is better. I'm sure it is, but not in an obvious sense. I'm more comfortable with it. My comprehension is much better just from living in the language. But it's not as if I wake up and feel, ok, today I know how to say this phrase. And tomorrow, I'll wake up knowing how to conjugate a different verb. My language skills aren't concrete, but I think that at the end of this I'll be shocked to think back to the beginning.
One other note on the differences between my college life here and at Midd: at Midd, I run out of my room 5 minutes before I have class across campus and make it before the professor. Here, for example when the trams didn't run between the center of town and campus on Friday afternoon (it's a much bigger deal than what it seems), I spent two hours walking home. It's normally a 10ish minute walk and a 25 minute tram ride. Ridiculous.
And now it's time to finish packing and go to bed. I have to wake up in 6 hours. Or is it 7?...
This week actually went by very quickly, but it's weird because normally Fall Break feels like such a relief. This time, I'm very happy for the traveling time but I still don't feel like I'm really in classes. Oh well...I also thought I had a Linguistics exam this Thursday so I crammed late Wednesday and all morning Thursday just to find out that it won't be until the week after vacation. I blame the language barrier.
I'm looking into going to Sweden for St. Lucia's day, December 13th. I found a flight on Ryanair for .01 Euro, which is ridiculous on its own, but I might have another Linguistics quiz. However, as the last story proved, I actually have no idea. Something to look into...
I found out that I have no exams after Christmas so I have a much longer break between semesters than I thought. I just might come home for Christmas afterall, though it will make it much harder to come back here.
It's funny because I have much more complicated interactions in French all the time, but simple things like buying my train ticket all in French are what make me feel good about my language skills. There's times when I'm frustrated, such as when a waiter switches to english or when I have long conversations with my host family and they kind of assume I can't actually explain myself. But it's when I do something relatively complicated and logistical like buying a train ticket from someone who doesn't know I'm not french that I feel the greatest sense of accomplishment. It's hard because everyone keeps asking if my french is better. I'm sure it is, but not in an obvious sense. I'm more comfortable with it. My comprehension is much better just from living in the language. But it's not as if I wake up and feel, ok, today I know how to say this phrase. And tomorrow, I'll wake up knowing how to conjugate a different verb. My language skills aren't concrete, but I think that at the end of this I'll be shocked to think back to the beginning.
One other note on the differences between my college life here and at Midd: at Midd, I run out of my room 5 minutes before I have class across campus and make it before the professor. Here, for example when the trams didn't run between the center of town and campus on Friday afternoon (it's a much bigger deal than what it seems), I spent two hours walking home. It's normally a 10ish minute walk and a 25 minute tram ride. Ridiculous.
And now it's time to finish packing and go to bed. I have to wake up in 6 hours. Or is it 7?...
Monday, October 22, 2007
Shakira and McDonalds
The internet in my house has completely disappeared so I'm sitting at McDonalds using the free wireless and they're playing "La Tortura" by Shakira. I'm not really complaining but it's weird because I've been really missing Spanish lately. It's hard because you have to choose one or the other, I know if I had gone to Spain I would have regretted losing my French and doing half and half isn't much better. We have a week-long vacation next week so I'm going to Barcelona and Lisbon, Portugal with a friend from Midd. I've been building up Barcelona for so long that I'm curious to see how I feel about it this time, over 4 years later. Barcelona was the first city in Europe that I ever saw and I've been desperate to go back ever since. And Portugal has been on my list for a long time, and I'm excited that I'm actually going. However, my camera is not really working...so mom and dad, I know you're reading this, maybe you could send a camera next weekend? Otherwise I'll be forced to buy a disposable camera and shoot film. Lame. Although appropriate for my return to Barcelona since that's all I had last time I was there. It's so pretty it doesn't actually matter what kind of camera you use. (I'm really excited if you couldn't tell...)
Classes are boring and exhausting. I complain about the lack of discussion but I'd be terrified if I had to actually participate. Hmm...
I found Chai Tea in this city!!! I didn't think it was possible but we found it and it was actually good. The ironic thing is that it's from a little place called "The French Coffee Shop," clearly trying to introduce the French to the Americans' love of Starbucks without the American brand. But I'll take it...
We also found pretty amazing Thai food. And last week we found samosas. I was craving asian food so this kind of makes everything better. If only we could find decent Mexican...
Now McDonalds is playing French techno and it's just too much for me. Luckily I've run out of things to say anyway.
Classes are boring and exhausting. I complain about the lack of discussion but I'd be terrified if I had to actually participate. Hmm...
I found Chai Tea in this city!!! I didn't think it was possible but we found it and it was actually good. The ironic thing is that it's from a little place called "The French Coffee Shop," clearly trying to introduce the French to the Americans' love of Starbucks without the American brand. But I'll take it...
We also found pretty amazing Thai food. And last week we found samosas. I was craving asian food so this kind of makes everything better. If only we could find decent Mexican...
Now McDonalds is playing French techno and it's just too much for me. Luckily I've run out of things to say anyway.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Babysitting, Teaching Class and Strikes...
This last week has been stressful and exhausting. First, I somehow ended up agreeing to babysit the kids three times. Then I came down with some serious allergies (maybe to babysitting?). I like the kids and the family, but it's a little stressful feeling like a guest/au pair all the time. I know that I don't feel comfortable in my room because I keep it far too neat. If I felt like I really lived here, my room would be a disaster- the way I like it.
Last Monday I had a meeting at the school, assuming I was going to be helping the teacher at least in the english class, maybe during the rest of the day too. However, she asked if it would bother me if she gave me half the class and shared some of her lesson plans with me? Because I obviously know how to teach 3rd grade english since I'm a native speaker. It's not like I can teach the class in english since the kids have only a grasp of colors/animals. It's going to be interesting, stressful and probably pretty amazing to be in that situation. I only wish I felt a little more qualified...and that I had my mom's preschool lesson plans to borrow.
Tomorrow there are going to be huge strikes all around France because the new president, Sarkozy, wants to extend the work-week from 37 hours to 40. That sounds kind of silly to most Americans, but it's a huge deal here. Almost nothing is open on Sundays, although Sarkozy just pushed through a law to change that too, and the French really value their free time. They work just the minimum to have the lives that they want and after that it seems unnecessary. Kind of an interesting way to look at things, but frustrating when you need milk on a Sunday.
My friend Caroline from Midd visited me this past weekend for the first time...it was weird because it almost didn't feel weird that we were in France together. I enjoyed feeling like I could show someone around Bordeaux as if I knew what I was doing. I think we're going to go to Barcelona and Lisbon during our Fall Break in a few weeks which I am very excited about because I have been dreaming of returning to Barcelona since sophomore year of high school.
The time difference is starting to make me really insane. It's always too late or too early everywhere else. It would be much more convenient if everyone was on the same time schedule.
Last Monday I had a meeting at the school, assuming I was going to be helping the teacher at least in the english class, maybe during the rest of the day too. However, she asked if it would bother me if she gave me half the class and shared some of her lesson plans with me? Because I obviously know how to teach 3rd grade english since I'm a native speaker. It's not like I can teach the class in english since the kids have only a grasp of colors/animals. It's going to be interesting, stressful and probably pretty amazing to be in that situation. I only wish I felt a little more qualified...and that I had my mom's preschool lesson plans to borrow.
Tomorrow there are going to be huge strikes all around France because the new president, Sarkozy, wants to extend the work-week from 37 hours to 40. That sounds kind of silly to most Americans, but it's a huge deal here. Almost nothing is open on Sundays, although Sarkozy just pushed through a law to change that too, and the French really value their free time. They work just the minimum to have the lives that they want and after that it seems unnecessary. Kind of an interesting way to look at things, but frustrating when you need milk on a Sunday.
My friend Caroline from Midd visited me this past weekend for the first time...it was weird because it almost didn't feel weird that we were in France together. I enjoyed feeling like I could show someone around Bordeaux as if I knew what I was doing. I think we're going to go to Barcelona and Lisbon during our Fall Break in a few weeks which I am very excited about because I have been dreaming of returning to Barcelona since sophomore year of high school.
The time difference is starting to make me really insane. It's always too late or too early everywhere else. It would be much more convenient if everyone was on the same time schedule.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Where's fall?
It's now been over 3 weeks since I've been here. I've "survived" 2 weeks of french classes. And all of my worrying about credits and hours in-between. Classes here are very different- there's no discussion or interaction really, except in my translation course when the professor calls on people and usually responds to their translation as "No. why would you put that?" As much as we complain about having to do the reading in our small Midd classes, I'm missing that bubble right now. The french students write down every word the professor says for 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours, whatever...there's no reflection, no engagement. However, there's also almost no work. Until the giant final anyway, and I'm not actually sure when that is.
As much as I like to pretend that I'm adjusted to french life, I'm realizing how much I still stick out and how much I miss from home. I miss turkey like crazy- everything here is ham. I'm starting to forget what real Diet Coke tastes like. I also miss just being able to communicate the simplest things without stressing. There's so many ideas and phrases that I just can't get across easily in French so I don't say anything.
It turned out the photo contest was already full, so we decided to go to Paris for the weekend. We had all been feeling sad that when we were in Paris for Orientation we didn't get a chance to see many of the big touristy sights. This weekend we packed in as much as we could: the Latin Quarter, Notre Dame, Monparnasse (Callie had to find the cafe where F. Scott Fitzgerald used to drink), le Musee d'Orsay (my favorite museum ever- it has all the most amazing impressionist art, even though Chicago's collection isn't bad), Centre Pompidou (all the modern art- this was for Callie too), Luxembourg Gardens... Being in Paris makes us really reflect on Bordeaux itself, but it's hard to compare the two. In Paris, we were literally stumbling along famous monuments and history. The whole city just has this feel of art and culture constantly. That part made Bordeaux feel a little more like just a sleepy little town. However, everywhere I went in Paris I heard tons of Americans. That's not normally a problem, and in some ways it was comforting, but I'm here to learn french. It would be hard in Paris to know that most people on the street don't speak the language of the country. In Bordeaux, we're the weird ones who don't understand everything, but we're some of the few non-native French.
I have a meeting at a school today to discuss when I'm going to go help out in the English classes...since I don't have class on Mondays I figure I can spend a few hours there and it will remind me that I do actually speak one language relatively well.
Next weekend, Caroline is coming to visit from Poitiers so that should be fun. It's weird because we haven't seen each since May dpesite the fact that we've both been in France for almost a month now. And I have a long break at the end of October so I need to decide where I going to visit...I want to go to Morocco at some point this year, despite the fact that parents offered to pay me not to go there. It' safe, I promise. But I'll probably go somewhere on Continental Europe for this break.
I still not sure where Fall is. I thought I saw some leaves on the ground the other day, but I don't think it counts. However, I heard it was 90 degrees in Chicago the other day so maybe it's not just missing in France.
As much as I like to pretend that I'm adjusted to french life, I'm realizing how much I still stick out and how much I miss from home. I miss turkey like crazy- everything here is ham. I'm starting to forget what real Diet Coke tastes like. I also miss just being able to communicate the simplest things without stressing. There's so many ideas and phrases that I just can't get across easily in French so I don't say anything.
It turned out the photo contest was already full, so we decided to go to Paris for the weekend. We had all been feeling sad that when we were in Paris for Orientation we didn't get a chance to see many of the big touristy sights. This weekend we packed in as much as we could: the Latin Quarter, Notre Dame, Monparnasse (Callie had to find the cafe where F. Scott Fitzgerald used to drink), le Musee d'Orsay (my favorite museum ever- it has all the most amazing impressionist art, even though Chicago's collection isn't bad), Centre Pompidou (all the modern art- this was for Callie too), Luxembourg Gardens... Being in Paris makes us really reflect on Bordeaux itself, but it's hard to compare the two. In Paris, we were literally stumbling along famous monuments and history. The whole city just has this feel of art and culture constantly. That part made Bordeaux feel a little more like just a sleepy little town. However, everywhere I went in Paris I heard tons of Americans. That's not normally a problem, and in some ways it was comforting, but I'm here to learn french. It would be hard in Paris to know that most people on the street don't speak the language of the country. In Bordeaux, we're the weird ones who don't understand everything, but we're some of the few non-native French.
I have a meeting at a school today to discuss when I'm going to go help out in the English classes...since I don't have class on Mondays I figure I can spend a few hours there and it will remind me that I do actually speak one language relatively well.
Next weekend, Caroline is coming to visit from Poitiers so that should be fun. It's weird because we haven't seen each since May dpesite the fact that we've both been in France for almost a month now. And I have a long break at the end of October so I need to decide where I going to visit...I want to go to Morocco at some point this year, despite the fact that parents offered to pay me not to go there. It' safe, I promise. But I'll probably go somewhere on Continental Europe for this break.
I still not sure where Fall is. I thought I saw some leaves on the ground the other day, but I don't think it counts. However, I heard it was 90 degrees in Chicago the other day so maybe it's not just missing in France.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Studying? Abroad
This is the official beginning of classes...however, I have no classes to go to today. This basicallly seems to summarize my french experience, I just want to get started. I think I know what I'm going to take finally: Translation, Linguistics, Classic Lit in Translation- Virginia Woolf, European Institutions and Failed States. The hard thing about choosing classes here is that most french students know from day 1 the exact list of classes they will take the next 4 years. There's no equivalent for liberal arts so they don't understand why me, as a political science major, would take anything other than political science and maybe a language. The problem is that the schedules for all the classes in different disciplines and years conflict so it's tricky finding a combination across 4 disciplines and 4 years that works- but I think I did it! We'll see once I've actually been to a class, I still have to ask the professors to let me in their classes...
Something I forgot to mention before- close friends of my french "family" here traveled, oddly enough, to Wisconsin last summer and went to the Dells, Green Bay, a Brewers game...Their kids also each studied for 2 weeks in...Janesville! So if any Slatter relative hosted French kids the past few summers and didn't tell me, let me know. I asked them what they thought about Wisconsin food and they said that the products themselves were good, but they were cooked so "simply." Oh the french...
Sundays here are interesting because almost the entire town shuts down. And this is a pretty good sized town, 600,000 people who can't do anything on Sundays. No grocery stores are open, and maybe 3 cafes besides McDonalds are open...I need to remember to do my shopping earlier in the week.
We went to a free open rehearsal of the Bordeaux Orchestra this weekend which was very interesting, and held in the Grand Theater which is a beautiful building. I think we're going to try to go to a few other concerts there, and La Boheme is coming next week!
We also saw a flier for the "Bordeaux Photo Marathon." Teams of two travel through the city with their cameras taking as many pictures as they can during the day, according to the theme given out that morning. Each team chooses its favorite 8 photos to submit for judging over two days. The judges choose the 3 best teams and the 50 best photos overall. The top 50 photos are going to be displayed around Bordeaux at the end of October. I think 4 of us from Midd are going to enter, I think it's going to be really interesting!
I created a photo album with my pictures from Italy, I still need to take more pictures of Bordeaux.
http://middlebury.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023349&l=fe354&id=4403360
Something I forgot to mention before- close friends of my french "family" here traveled, oddly enough, to Wisconsin last summer and went to the Dells, Green Bay, a Brewers game...Their kids also each studied for 2 weeks in...Janesville! So if any Slatter relative hosted French kids the past few summers and didn't tell me, let me know. I asked them what they thought about Wisconsin food and they said that the products themselves were good, but they were cooked so "simply." Oh the french...
Sundays here are interesting because almost the entire town shuts down. And this is a pretty good sized town, 600,000 people who can't do anything on Sundays. No grocery stores are open, and maybe 3 cafes besides McDonalds are open...I need to remember to do my shopping earlier in the week.
We went to a free open rehearsal of the Bordeaux Orchestra this weekend which was very interesting, and held in the Grand Theater which is a beautiful building. I think we're going to try to go to a few other concerts there, and La Boheme is coming next week!
We also saw a flier for the "Bordeaux Photo Marathon." Teams of two travel through the city with their cameras taking as many pictures as they can during the day, according to the theme given out that morning. Each team chooses its favorite 8 photos to submit for judging over two days. The judges choose the 3 best teams and the 50 best photos overall. The top 50 photos are going to be displayed around Bordeaux at the end of October. I think 4 of us from Midd are going to enter, I think it's going to be really interesting!
I created a photo album with my pictures from Italy, I still need to take more pictures of Bordeaux.
http://middlebury.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023349&l=fe354&id=4403360
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
French "Cooking"
We've officially been in Bordeaux for a week, and while I still get lost rather often, it feels like we've been here for a least a month. Despite the fact that none of us actually knows what classes we're taking or even when any of the classes are held, we've started to get into a good routine. Everyone now has a cell phone (ok, so I was the last one) so it's much easier to get in touch with each other, although most of the time I'm hanging out with the 5 people who have my number. I think we're all looking forward to classes starting, as crazy as that sounds, because everything will start to feel more real. Right now, I still feel like a tourist a lot of the time. It's also frustrating because we know there's tons of stuff for us to do, but we can't do any of it til we know our classes.
This weekend went by very quickly, but it was fun. Babysitting saturday was pretty easy since the girls go to bed so early but it was fun to watch Dr. Doolittle in French. They just got Ratatouille and Shrek so I'm looking forward to watching those too. Sunday I went with the family to a lake an hour outside of Bordeaux. They had said ahead of time that it probably wouldn't impress me because of all the huge lakes in the U.S. but this lake was definitely bigger than Lake Geneva- and there were tons of boats, so that made me think of my dad and the sailboat.
This week has gone by so quickly with running errands and going to meetings for school. They just released the schedules for some of the classes, but the art history and translation times are still missing. The director of the school in France wants us all to go to as many classes as possible next week before we decide what to take- I think it's going to be a little overwhelming to go to 10 classes in a week when I'm used to 4, but we'll see.
I still haven't made up my mind about how I feel about my housing. I have a lot of freedom, much more than any one else living with a family, so it's been fun to have the Midd kids over and "cook" dinner- more on that later- but I miss having a clearly defined space in a dorm. The family's been so nice, but it's going to be a long year with three very noisy girls running around every morning way before I want to be awake. The road that I live on is supposed to be pretty quiet, but my room is literally a foot from the street so every time a car goes by I think my room shakes.
I've started to avoid going into stores unecessarily because for some reason I ALWAYS set off the alarm. This past week I think it's happened at least 8 times, and I have to explain in French that I haven't stolen anything but I wish I could figure out what's happening...
We took a trip to IKEA yesterday so we could buy a lot of the stuff we need for cooking and just for our rooms. I loved being in IKEA because aside from the french signs, everything felt familiar. And the other kids had never been in an IKEA before- I couldn't believe it. Besides a spatula and a bowl, I bought frozen swedish meatballs and ligonberries to make for dinner sometime. The other kids thought I was a little crazy...
The past few nights we've decided to cook dinner instead of going out to eat. This is interesting with 4 college kids who don't know how to cook. The first night we ate frozen pasta, bread and cheese. The last two nights we've eaten real pasta, bread and cheese. I'm pretty sure we're making pasta tonight...
Things I miss:
Diet Coke
Free refills of Diet Coke
Good hamburgers not from McDonalds
My real bed
English
Saturday, September 15, 2007
And I'm here...
After how many months of planning, I’m finally in Bordeaux. It’s bizarre but pretty good so far. My French is driving me crazy…I’ve spoken more in French in the last 3-4 days than I think I did in 2 years of French classes. I keep forgetting, though, that everyone isn’t speaking in French to be mean to me but because it’s the only way we can communicate. It’s overwhelming because everyone has different accents- I was just getting used to the Parisien accent of Viviana, the program coordinator, and now I have to learn the Northern French accents of my host parents and then the Bordelais accent of everyone else. And then there’s my accent. My room is very nice- my bed is basically a futon but it’s nice to have somewhere to sit during the day. I have a little closet and some shelves, a desk…I guess all the normal stuff. I also have a hot plate and a fridge, and Nathalie, my host mom, bought pots and pans for me- if only I knew how to cook. She asked me today if I had a recipe for American cookies. The bathroom is also really nice- the shower is a normal size as opposed to the claustrophobic one in Paris. There are a few difficulties with my room though. I’m a little too tall for the futon/bed so my toes kind of hang off the edge. Also, the door situation is complicated. I have 3 doors in my room- one leading directly to the outside street, one leading to the entryway of the house and one leading to the garage. The problem is that the door to the rest of the house locks from the outside and Nathalie keeps locking it-to keep the little girls out of my room-but that basically locks me in my room. And I don’t quite have the vocabulary to explain that we should probably leave that one unlocked. For the door that leads straight outside, there are about 5 locks on the inside that make it difficult to open from the outside if I leave through the other door and forget to unlock them all. Like I did yesterday. And then had to wake up my host parents when I got back from all my orientation activities. Oops.
Back to the beginning- when we got into the train station at Bordeaux, our new families were there waiting for us. In my case, that was just Eric, my host dad. The drive back wasn’t terribly awkward, I think he realized how overwhelmed I was by the language and everything. When we got to the house, Nathalie and the three girls were there waiting. There’s a 7ish year old named Emma (however, there is a big difference over how we pronounce Emma and how they pronounce it- I thought I had been told the wrong name for her), a 4 year old named Marie and an almost 2 year old named Jeanne. They are very cute, but exhausting. It’s hard because I can’t always understand what they are saying and they can’t always understand what I’m saying and I’m not sure if they understand that I don’t actually speak French. But it’s helpful because they enjoy feeling like they can explain things to me. It’s hard because I want to spend time with them and the family but the communication isn’t great between all of us. They invited me to a picnic tonight but I had no idea what time it was at. And the oldest girl said something this afternoon about how we’re all going to the ocean if it’s nice on Sunday. It’s not that I don’t want to do that, but there’s other activities and plans to make so it would be helpful to have more concrete information from them. I think they assume that I’m going to be here and eat with them, which is nice because I’m only paying for 2 meals, but in my mind if I don’t say I’m definitely eating here, it means I’m going out. Je ne sais pas…
The French university system is very different that ours- the schedules for most of the classes haven’t been announced yet so I still have no idea what I’m taking. There are some orientation activities through the University next week so that should be helpful to at least meet some other students. There’s a program that assigns a French student with an International student so I have a “marraine” named Marion that I’m meeting on Monday.
I miss American food, but nothing concrete. I just a little tired of either baguettes or really complicated food. I was talking to a French couple at the picnic who had visited Wisconsin last summer and they were saying how simple American food is. I don’t know if that’s always true, but here I haven’t had anything but elaborate sauces and things like that. It’s amazing because maybe the French eat smaller portions, but they still eat quite a bit. Every meal requires salad, a main course, desert, wine, coffee/tea…even at restaurants you can get all that for just a few euros more than the plain entrée.
I’m also getting used to living somewhere where I have no idea how to get around. Bordeaux is actually a city, unlike Woodstock or Middlebury, so I’ve gotten lost a few times so far. Maybe more than a few times. But I’m learning. And I have lots of maps. I bought my tram/bus pass the other day so now I can take the public transportation whenever I need to, but it doesn’t go very close to where I live. It’s weird because I live so close to the center of town that there’s no bus line or anything so I actually have to walk the most but I live the closest. I’ve also noticed that I say “bizarre” all the time because it’s the French equivalent of “weird” and applies to nearly everything in my life here.
Yesterday was hard because my life has been so all over the place I nearly forgot about my dad and my sister's birthday. And then they didn't answer when I called from skype...I'm going to try again tonight I hope, as I babysit the three little girls.
Back to the beginning- when we got into the train station at Bordeaux, our new families were there waiting for us. In my case, that was just Eric, my host dad. The drive back wasn’t terribly awkward, I think he realized how overwhelmed I was by the language and everything. When we got to the house, Nathalie and the three girls were there waiting. There’s a 7ish year old named Emma (however, there is a big difference over how we pronounce Emma and how they pronounce it- I thought I had been told the wrong name for her), a 4 year old named Marie and an almost 2 year old named Jeanne. They are very cute, but exhausting. It’s hard because I can’t always understand what they are saying and they can’t always understand what I’m saying and I’m not sure if they understand that I don’t actually speak French. But it’s helpful because they enjoy feeling like they can explain things to me. It’s hard because I want to spend time with them and the family but the communication isn’t great between all of us. They invited me to a picnic tonight but I had no idea what time it was at. And the oldest girl said something this afternoon about how we’re all going to the ocean if it’s nice on Sunday. It’s not that I don’t want to do that, but there’s other activities and plans to make so it would be helpful to have more concrete information from them. I think they assume that I’m going to be here and eat with them, which is nice because I’m only paying for 2 meals, but in my mind if I don’t say I’m definitely eating here, it means I’m going out. Je ne sais pas…
The French university system is very different that ours- the schedules for most of the classes haven’t been announced yet so I still have no idea what I’m taking. There are some orientation activities through the University next week so that should be helpful to at least meet some other students. There’s a program that assigns a French student with an International student so I have a “marraine” named Marion that I’m meeting on Monday.
I miss American food, but nothing concrete. I just a little tired of either baguettes or really complicated food. I was talking to a French couple at the picnic who had visited Wisconsin last summer and they were saying how simple American food is. I don’t know if that’s always true, but here I haven’t had anything but elaborate sauces and things like that. It’s amazing because maybe the French eat smaller portions, but they still eat quite a bit. Every meal requires salad, a main course, desert, wine, coffee/tea…even at restaurants you can get all that for just a few euros more than the plain entrée.
I’m also getting used to living somewhere where I have no idea how to get around. Bordeaux is actually a city, unlike Woodstock or Middlebury, so I’ve gotten lost a few times so far. Maybe more than a few times. But I’m learning. And I have lots of maps. I bought my tram/bus pass the other day so now I can take the public transportation whenever I need to, but it doesn’t go very close to where I live. It’s weird because I live so close to the center of town that there’s no bus line or anything so I actually have to walk the most but I live the closest. I’ve also noticed that I say “bizarre” all the time because it’s the French equivalent of “weird” and applies to nearly everything in my life here.
Yesterday was hard because my life has been so all over the place I nearly forgot about my dad and my sister's birthday. And then they didn't answer when I called from skype...I'm going to try again tonight I hope, as I babysit the three little girls.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Is it real?...It's a real purse!
I am now officially in Paris, getting ready to start Orientation. I can't believe that it's been almost one week since I was here, just waiting to take the train to Italy. I will try to update you on my travels and adventures since then...
One recommendation: do not take an overnight train across Europe. My experience actually ended up not being terrible but I could tell it could have been so much worse. 13 hours on a train is just too much, especially when everyone's luggage is scattered everywhere. They put you in compartments with 5 other people- luckily mine only had 3 Australian women and 1 French woman with her son. The tricky thing was that the French women spoke no English and the Australian women spoke no French. I had fun trying to translate bits and pieces of the conversation, but for the most part I just talked with the other women. When it was time to go to bed, the seats fold out into bunks. I ended up sleeping on the very top bunk, which swayed every time the train moved and had one leather strap to keep me from falling out. It was just a little terrifying. We finally arrived in Florence at a little after 8 in the morning on Wednesday, and all I wanted to do was make it to the hotel and take a shower. However, first I had to take a different train to the central train station and then I just caught a taxi instead of trying to use the public transportation on no sleep. When I got to the hotel, I felt like I was in a movie- I'm sure I looked like I had never been in any hotel other than a Holiday Inn. The hotel was so beautiful, and I'm sure they were all looking at me thinking I had gotten lost.
I loved being back in Florence- it's still one of my favorite cities. The bizarre part was that I was the tour guide since no one else had been there before. Before Uncle Kurt got there, I wandered around on my own- without a map- and a woman asked me about parking in French. I don't know what her odds were of asking someone in Florence in French and them understanding her, but it made me happy that I could answer her and she understood me. I met up with my uncle, who was flying his boss on vacation, Art- the other pilot and Ali- the flight attendant. We had so much fun, although we may have been close to getting kicked out of the country. We went to the Academia to see Michaelangelo's David- it's always impressive, even if you've seen it before. I swear that next time I am in Florence I am going to the Uffizi- I can't believe that I still haven't been there. Uncle Kurt and I climbed the to the top of the Duomo, 463 stairs, which gave us a beautiful view of Florence. Later that night, we all climbed to a church on the hills outside of Florence to look down at the city while the sun set. The view was perfect, but the food that night was a little dissappointing. 2 Notes on Italian food- be wary of ordering lasagna (it might come with stinky cheese) and they will look at you funny if you ask for chicken parmesan or eggplant parmesan. That's apparently just an American version. Also, I forgot about how many purses there are in Florence- and according to the Gucci knock-off vendors, they are all real purses.
I had planned on taking the train back to Paris from Florence, but my Uncle's boss offered to take me to Venice with them- in his private jet. So, I got to see my uncle fly the plane and went to Venice for the first time. I also got to touch the boss' girlfriend's python Gucci purse- I have to admit it, it was beautiful...and about $6,000. Venice is very pretty and romantic, but there's a million other places in Europe that I would go back to again first. The Piazza San Marco was impressive, but the swarms of pigeons kind of took away from the elegance of the buildings around it. Pigeons are gross- don't lay down and let them crawl on top of you! However, Venice is a very interesting place and I was lucky I got to see it in such style.
I then took the train Sunday afternoon from Venice to Milan and from Milan to Paris- the last ride was a painful 7 hours because the air conditioning didn't work. I finally got to my hotel at around 1 in the morning. The hotel is cute- the room is super small but the lobby is nice and last night they were so friendly. They made me a cup of tea while I was sitting down here checking my email. I'm not sure what parts of Paris I'm going to explore today- I'm waiting for Susan to get to the hotel from the airport- but I can't believe that Orientation starts tomorrow. That's going to make everything sink in, especially when I move into my house on Wednesday! I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance- my camera wasn't always working in Florence so we'll see what I end up with.
One recommendation: do not take an overnight train across Europe. My experience actually ended up not being terrible but I could tell it could have been so much worse. 13 hours on a train is just too much, especially when everyone's luggage is scattered everywhere. They put you in compartments with 5 other people- luckily mine only had 3 Australian women and 1 French woman with her son. The tricky thing was that the French women spoke no English and the Australian women spoke no French. I had fun trying to translate bits and pieces of the conversation, but for the most part I just talked with the other women. When it was time to go to bed, the seats fold out into bunks. I ended up sleeping on the very top bunk, which swayed every time the train moved and had one leather strap to keep me from falling out. It was just a little terrifying. We finally arrived in Florence at a little after 8 in the morning on Wednesday, and all I wanted to do was make it to the hotel and take a shower. However, first I had to take a different train to the central train station and then I just caught a taxi instead of trying to use the public transportation on no sleep. When I got to the hotel, I felt like I was in a movie- I'm sure I looked like I had never been in any hotel other than a Holiday Inn. The hotel was so beautiful, and I'm sure they were all looking at me thinking I had gotten lost.
I loved being back in Florence- it's still one of my favorite cities. The bizarre part was that I was the tour guide since no one else had been there before. Before Uncle Kurt got there, I wandered around on my own- without a map- and a woman asked me about parking in French. I don't know what her odds were of asking someone in Florence in French and them understanding her, but it made me happy that I could answer her and she understood me. I met up with my uncle, who was flying his boss on vacation, Art- the other pilot and Ali- the flight attendant. We had so much fun, although we may have been close to getting kicked out of the country. We went to the Academia to see Michaelangelo's David- it's always impressive, even if you've seen it before. I swear that next time I am in Florence I am going to the Uffizi- I can't believe that I still haven't been there. Uncle Kurt and I climbed the to the top of the Duomo, 463 stairs, which gave us a beautiful view of Florence. Later that night, we all climbed to a church on the hills outside of Florence to look down at the city while the sun set. The view was perfect, but the food that night was a little dissappointing. 2 Notes on Italian food- be wary of ordering lasagna (it might come with stinky cheese) and they will look at you funny if you ask for chicken parmesan or eggplant parmesan. That's apparently just an American version. Also, I forgot about how many purses there are in Florence- and according to the Gucci knock-off vendors, they are all real purses.
I had planned on taking the train back to Paris from Florence, but my Uncle's boss offered to take me to Venice with them- in his private jet. So, I got to see my uncle fly the plane and went to Venice for the first time. I also got to touch the boss' girlfriend's python Gucci purse- I have to admit it, it was beautiful...and about $6,000. Venice is very pretty and romantic, but there's a million other places in Europe that I would go back to again first. The Piazza San Marco was impressive, but the swarms of pigeons kind of took away from the elegance of the buildings around it. Pigeons are gross- don't lay down and let them crawl on top of you! However, Venice is a very interesting place and I was lucky I got to see it in such style.
I then took the train Sunday afternoon from Venice to Milan and from Milan to Paris- the last ride was a painful 7 hours because the air conditioning didn't work. I finally got to my hotel at around 1 in the morning. The hotel is cute- the room is super small but the lobby is nice and last night they were so friendly. They made me a cup of tea while I was sitting down here checking my email. I'm not sure what parts of Paris I'm going to explore today- I'm waiting for Susan to get to the hotel from the airport- but I can't believe that Orientation starts tomorrow. That's going to make everything sink in, especially when I move into my house on Wednesday! I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance- my camera wasn't always working in Florence so we'll see what I end up with.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Around the world in 24 hours...
I decided this post could double as letting you guys know I'm alive as well as helping me stall before my train tonight. I feel like this has been the longest day ever, and I really should wait before I write because I'm sure the last leg of the trip will be just as interesting. I made it on a flight to Brussels, Belgium- and got bumped to first class- but when I tried to find the hotel that the flight attendents were at to drop my luggage so I could explore the city, I kept walking in circles and decided it would just be easier to move on to Paris. So I had to take a train from the Brussels airport station to a different Brussels station and then to Paris. And there is no room for luggage on those trains. And Flemish is really hard to understand. I had no idea if I was on the right platform/train until I heard a stop I recognized. Then I navigated the Gare du Nord in Paris, and the Metro, to get to the Jardin au Luxembourg, which is right in front of me as I type this. Along the way, my duffel fell off my other suitcase a million times. And I felt like an idiot a million times. But I was shocked at the number of people who asked me if I needed help or directions- one man helped me carry my bags up the stairs at the Metro exit and then told me that's what guys are for and I should always tell them to help me. Anyway, I would have to say that the whole Parisien snob stereotype doesn't seem very true. I know this is a rambling post, but it feels like 7:30 in the morning without having slept the night before and reading way to many maps. One last thought- as I was sitting in the garden, I looked up and realized I could see the Eifel Tower.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Packing?
Hi everyone! I can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by, especially these last few weeks. I found out yesterday that I'm leaving Monday, instead of Tuesday, and I may be flying into Frankfurt or Brussels instead of Rome...hopefully I won't get terribly lost during my first week in Europe, but you never know. Once I land somewhere, I'm taking a train to Florence to meet up with my uncle for three days and then I'm off to Paris for Orientation. Right now packing is my biggest challenge since I haven't started yet and can't figure out how I can check a bag if I don't know for sure which flight I'm going to be on. hmm. I'm going to have to learn how to pack lightly very quickly. 48 hours from now I should be in the air, and a week from now I'll be in Paris! I can't wait...
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