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

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

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.

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.

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.

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...