4 and a half weeks left in France. I don't really know how to describe what I'm feeling about leaving and returning home-- it's sort of like a limbo; for some reason it seems weird to still be here... it's a little like I'm just kind of twiddling my thumbs, waiting on May 27 to roll around and to get on the plane to fly home. I know it's ridiculous; Julie, you have 4 weeks left to enjoy France; why are you just sitting here?!?
So let's catch up a little on what's been happening. It hasn't even been 2 months since I last posted anything, and yet once again, too many experiences have befallen us to share on here. We finished up our Rotary duties; I wound up giving something like 13 speeches which exceeds by far the minimum. But for one of them we were invited to stay the night in St. Benoit sur Mer with an amazing French couple in an amazing French cottage. Luce et Louis; they are incredible people. Luce is a poet and artist, so naturally we had great intellectual literary discussions over spectacular French wine every evening. Right up my alley. We were also invited to hang out with the Lucon aviator club one afternoon, and one of the pilots in Rotary took us on an awesome plane ride. We stolled along the seashore barefoot and just soaked the weekend up; we wound up spending two nights instead of one because we hit it off so well with the couple. Great fun. Aside from Rotary duties, I guess the other big news is that my classes actually started up again. And I have to admit, I was a little disappointed (!)-- I know, right? This is supposed to be a SCHOLARSHIP after all; money to study on, but still-- perfect weather, being able to just leave to any city on a whim, or just go sit in the gorgeous park and soak up the French sun-- hard to give all that up, and one week before spring break too! So I went to class again (and Mark was relieved; he could finally get some work done without me hanging over his shoulder) and then we left for Italy on April 4. Spring Break is two weeks here (they really have a terrible life here in France), so we spent 16 days in Italy. My first thought when we arrived was "oh man, did I ever learn the wrong language!" The country is bellisimo; the people are so vibrant and open; the art is magnificent and the language just fills your ears with this beautiful rhythm and tone. The atmosphere and overall feel of the Italian culture is just so different from France; I was really torn between which country I love more for awhile there. We spent 5 days in Rome (where we experienced the earthquake on our first night, but were fine), 5 in Florence, and 7 in Venice. We saw too many sites to list; but I was most impressed by the churches and the Vatican-- the Sistine Chapel is breathtaking. You can go in any cathedral and see the most astounding art-- it led to a lot of overwhelming feelings and many necessary pauses to just soak it all up. And the Caravaggios in the San Luigi des Francese church were definitely favorites-- thanks again for writing out my prized "carte de tresor," Dr. McClintock!! We would have never known about the church without your list. We loved the vibe in Florence, and the eerie uniqueness of Venice. We also visited Pisa and Padua as day trips. The Giotto chapel at Padua was another favorite; the art is in such amazing shape. It saddens me that so many of the churches in France have lost their art. So Italy, yeah, kind of hard to describe in a blog-- I think I need to write a poem or something; maybe that would have more success at explaining it. So I'll stop with that for now, except I must briefly mention our night train ride home. It was a 16 hour train ride from 7 p.m. to 11 a.m. the next day, with two snoring, smacking, making a salad at 6 a.m in the train couchette because they had great sleep incredibly rude cabin mates. We, along with the composed French lady and classy Italian lady also in our cabin, were abhorred, and exhausted the next day to say the least. Then we had to take another train to Nantes... yeah, Monday was a rough day that week. And that will have to do for Italy!! Pictures to soon follow...
This week I again had class, and we are wrapping things up here in Nantes. I am afraid to try and pack my luggage; I know there is no way everything I have acquired PLUS what I originally brought with me is going to fit in there... I will probably end up mailing a box of stuff home just to get it all back there. Sigh, I'm sad to leave this incredible country (which, after much thought and debate, I do still believe is my favorite country, even preferred over Italy), but at the same time, it will be so refreshing to see my family again... regardless of the Texas heat!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
le printemps est arrive... presque
So, it is already March 1st, and the weather is promising a beautiful spring here in Nantes. It feels rejuvenating to have the sun on my face after a long wet and windy winter. I know there will still be a few chilly days to come, but the winter for the most part is over. So much has taken place over the last few months that it is difficult to know where to begin this blog. I guess I will start by saying that although it is March, I have only had one week of class this semester. And courses started on January 19. On the 26th of January, Sarkozy passed an economic stimulus bill in response to the economic crisis, and included in this bill were many education reforms. To put it lightly, the country was not pleased with the results of the bill. On Thursday, January 29th, the entire country of France went on strike for a day. The city of Nantes was in complete chaos. I had class the next morning (Friday), but after that all of my professors went on strike.
So I will pause that story there to mention that Mark and I traveled to London on January 23rd for a Rotary conference. It was a very successful trip, and I felt like the conference was worth our time. The scholars were able to talk about the positive and negative aspects of our scholarship period in Europe, and then the London Harrow club submits the info. and the results of the conference to Rotary headquarters in Evanston. We also took a tour of London with the Rotary group. We were extremely lucky because the weather was perfectly sunny and fairly warm that day. We saw Green Park, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, the Parliament buildings, Westminster Abbey, the London Bridges, Big Ben and Saint Paul’s Cathedral, to name a few stops. Mark and I also visited Greenwich and Kensington Palace on Friday before the conference. Sunday the weather was cold and rainy, so we were glad to be inside for the conference that day. Then afterwards, we headed back to Westminster Abbey to try and visit inside, because the tour only stopped outside. Unfortunately it was closed on Sundays (worship services only, which was completely understandable), so we thought we were out of luck. However, Mark noticed a guard standing in front of a side gate so we walked around to discover that the glass doors were open. We tried to look inside, and Mark explained to the guard that we were disappointed because we would be leaving the next day and would not be able to tour the church. The guard said “Well there is a private organ concert going on right now; I can allow you to step inside and have a listen if you like, as long as you don’t take any photos” (you must read that last part with a British accent in order to get the full effect). We were ecstatic!! So we got to sit and listen to a private organ concert, inside Westminster Abbey, on my birthday, for free! Other than that, we rode the London Eye, which offered a spectacular view of the city. The rest of the London stories will have to wait.
So, back to the strikes. The professors remained on strike until February 11th. The reasons for their discontentment are complicated, but I will try to explain briefly. Basically, the reforms for education in the bill take all of the choice for professors to create their schedule and choose their classes out of their hands and places it in the hands of the university president (there is no board really). There are two methods of being a professor here. You can either be a full-time professor, or you can be something called an enseigneur-chercher, which means you teach half the time and do research the other half. The reforms would abolish this choice—anyone who had produced successful results of research would only be funded to research and no longer paid to teach, and anyone who does not produce many research results would not be funded to research and paid only to teach. There are other issues besides these, but those are the main reasons. These policies would also mean that the professors are evaluated on a much more regular basis, and there is a lot of worry that the university president will pick favorites, etc. Now, aside from that, after the professors put their strike on hold, the STUDENTS voted a blocus of the campus for completely separate reasons. This means that all classroom doors are locked and no professors can have classes whether they want to or not. This was voted in on February 9th or so. So, when the teachers voted to pause the strikes on Feb. 11, classes still did not start because they decided to respect the blocus voted by the student union. Then there was a week of vacation from Feb. 14-21. The blocus continued after that week, and there is another meeting on Monday, so we’ll see if I have class this next week. I have been put into several uncomfortable positions by professors, along with the French students, in several instances, but I will not recount them here. If anyone has any questions regarding grades, course validation, or these uncomfortable instances, etc. as far as the strikes go, you can e-mail me or post a comment and I will respond. This blog is getting ridiculously long so I won’t post anymore here. It’s pretty crazy stuff!
We also helped a Rotary Club in Ancenis sell brioche to raise money in order to buy 2 heart machines—the word in French is defibrillateurs. Try saying that to customers from 8:30 in the morning until 7:30 at night!! Whew; even the French natives had trouble saying it. It was a blast, but exhausting. Mark and I were in charge of our own table; he was pretty funny trying to convince people to stop and buy with his French—his knowledge of the language has progressed impressively, but it’s still pretty funny to hear him use his limited vocabulary and his thick American accent! The other Rotarians loved him; he was by far a favorite with the Ancenis club.
Aside from that, we had the opportunity to visit Epernay in the Champagne region for 3 days. We toured the champagne caves, saw the Moet & Chandon, Dom Perignon, etc. maisons, and drank our fill of grand cru champagne. We started drinking champagne at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and didn’t stop until 1 a.m., and I have to admit, I was sick of it by the end of that day. I never thought I would see the day when good champagne didn’t sound appealing. We also went to Reims and toured the cathedral—amazing church. And on the way back to Nantes our train stopped off in Mezidon, so we wandered around the village for about an hour. Such a tranquil and beautiful little town!
Mark finally got his carte de sejour—that’s another one of those stories where if you are interested, message me and I’ll go into detail. Gotta love the Prefecture and French bureaucracy!! We also got to visit my French family from 2006 in Caen and tour the D-Day beaches (Mark hadn’t seen them, and we saw some other ones from the tour I took). We had amazing food; Martine is still the gourmet French cuisinere I remember all too well. We spent two long evenings at their house; the meals still last 4 hours minimum, with 4 courses minimum. Oh yeah, and we ate snails and frog legs the second night. Not too bad!! Caen is a much prettier city than Nantes; Nantes is really too industrialized to be as pretty as most French cities are. But, it has its picturesque places as well.
Okay, I have to stop here—most of you probably stopped reading 3 paragraphs ago!! We did visit Saumur yesterday with Autour du Monde—we toured the city (it was the first Protestant settlement in France), picnic-ed on the terrace of the castle grounds overlooking the river (perfect spring day for it, too!) and toured the wine caves and saw the troglydyte houses. Also toured a mushroom and escargot cave. Had a tasting of wine and mushrooms afterwards. Glad I had eaten the snails the week before, otherwise I probably couldn’t have done it. Such weird little creatures! I will try and post as many pics. as I can, and we’ll see if I have class next week. Just so you all know, I am still reading ahead and trying to do research for papers because I have chosen topics for 2 of my classes. Of course, it is hard to concentrate when the weather is so nice and I know I’m going to be leaving too soon!!
Monday, January 19, 2009
New Year Euro Trip 08-09
Well, a lot has happened since Christmas in Lavardin. I think I will save most of the stories from our big Eurail trip to share in person, mostly because there are way too many to recount here. We left out for Geneva, Switzerland, on December 29. We had a blast there; it was interesting hearing French with a Swiss accent. It was a little difficult for me to understand them sometimes, but all the people we met were really nice. We also stumbled upon a real gem-- Dr. Pepper!! It doesn't exist at all in France, but apparently they drink it in Switzerland. So, of course, I had to stock up. However, what I didn't think about was the fact that I was going to have to carry it along with me on the rest of the trip. There were several instances along the 2 week journey that I wanted to just drink it and not have to deal with it, but I managed to get it safely back to Nantes. So now I have a rationed supply to last me until I get home in May! We saw the UN headquarters, Rousseau's birthplace, John Calvin's original church, etc. That briefly describes our first stop. Then we headed off for Berlin. We arrived on New Year's Eve Day, just as it was getting dark, and I cannot even describe the state the city was in. Apparently people are allowed to shoot off fireworks from their homes, and it was so smoky you couldn't see 2 feet in front of you. Add trying to find your hostel in a strange and foreign city on top of that, and yeah, I have to admit it was pretty scary. Fireworks were going off everywhere; Mark had one thrown on him out of a window and he had to shake it out of his hood and run to escape the explosion. Long story short, we wound up bringing in the New Year with the German guys running the hostel-- it was insane!! We stayed up on the roof of the hostel drinking German champagne and watching the fireworks. All other details will have to be filled in in person... in Berlin, we visited too many places to list-- the last bit of the wall still standing, churches, memorials and museums galore, the sight of Hitler's bunker, the SS Headquarters, Checkpoint Charlie, and we also took a day trip to Potsdam to see the palace. We stayed in Berlin 5 days, then took a night train to Amsterdam. The night train was pretty interesting. We didn't board until midnight, and there were already people sleeping in our cabin and they had the door chain-locked from the inside. We had to knock for over 30 mins. before they finally got up and opened it. Amsterdam was, well, Amsterdam. I love the Dutch architecture... and that's about all I'll say about that. Again, stories to tell in person. I will mention that the houses are known for their steep, tiny, narrow, endless staircases, and we experiened this firsthand because our hostel was in an old house. We were on the 6th floor-- no elevator, bien sur. Then we left for Brussels. Okay, another train story here: our train was heading to Paris, but stopping in Brussels. We were in line with a big group of people waiting to get off after they announced the stop in Brussels, but no one was allowed to get off for a few minutes because the train was joining another. Well, we waited and waited, and the doors never opened, and then the train starts moving again. Finally a comptroller comes back and informs us we are now going to Paris! The doors never opened and there were about 15 of us that were stuck going to France-- so, we got off in Paris, and then had to take the next train BACK to Belgium to finish our trip. Yeah, I know. Once we got back to Brussels, we had a blast. My favorite part of the city was the Grand Place with the Hotel de Ville, etc. Then we came BACK to Paris on Jan. 9, this time for real, and headed back to Nantes. It was a great adventure, and I will post pics soon. Since we have been back, the city looks different. The Christmas decor is all put away and the market has been torn down. It seems gray and forlorn, and much quieter. Although there were more student protests already this week. After freezing in Germany and Amsterdam though, the weather here is great. It is about 40 F, and we were in 10-20 F weather in Berlin. It is business as usual at the university-- my schedule of classes had not been created as of Thursday, and classes are supposed to start Monday. This was the point last semester where I was completely freaking out and thinking about abandoning the whole trip and flying home. I realize now it is just a different way of life here; no one really stresses out about anything and things just get done VERY slowly. I checked to day on the schedule, and yay! it was finally posted-- but not finalized. Oh well, one thing at a time! I look forward to another semester here, and I am feeling a little sad-- I know this semester will go by way too fast. Mais, la vie continue; I know it won't be the last I see of la Belle France!
A French Style Christmas
Mark and I just got back from spending Christmas in Lavardin with the Decazes family, and I thought I better catch up on the blog before we embark on our first big European adventure. After Thanksgiving, nothing super exciting happened other than the Christmas market. We volunteered with Rotary at a market in a small village called Carquefou-- we sold items from Africa with all proceeds going to help a hospital in Mali. We also attended two different Christmas parties with Rotary. The first was with Rotary Club Nantes Jules Verne, and their party consisted of a diner rotatif (progressive dinner en anglais). We had an aperitif at one house, the plat principal at another and finally everyone ended up at the same place for dessert. It was quite interesting because this was not my host club so Mark and I knew no one other than the Monsieur who invited me, and we were not at his house for any part of the meal. It was a lot of fun, and we met a lot of really interesting people, one of which is a retired Congressman. We ate a salad with scallops and champagne for the entree, then we had couscous, salad, and cheese and bread, and finally all sorts of desserts. The final destination was a sort of community center, and there was a DJ who dressed as Santa and told cheesy French jokes, and a dance. One Rotary member at my table drank a liiiittle too much wine, and then forced me to dance to some terrible French rock song-- it was quite entertaining. The 2nd party we attended was put on by my host club, and was mild in comparison to the other. They played a word game (it was too complicated for me to understand; even most of the native French speakers couldn't figure it out) and exchanged gifts. Other than these two parties, my finals and the French students going on strike for a little over a week are the only other adventures we have had. My one final sur table was pretty difficult-- I had to read and analyze a translation of an excerpt from Breakfast at Tiffany's, and then I had to make my own translation of it (it is not easy to translate from ENGLISH to FRENCH for a non-native speaker!!). About 10 minutes before the time was up to finish the exam, the fire alarm goes off in the building. We were all ushered outside by a very annoyed professor, and we had to stand out in the freezing cold, worrying about not finishing our exam because another was scheduled in the same room right after ours until the alarm went off. We had about 3 minutes to finish our final thoughts and turn in our exams. The last two weeks of class/exams/presentations for me were impossible because the trams were shut down due to student protests. The education system is about to undergo some reforms, and the students are protesting the changes. I heard from one group that the teachers are really manipulating the students to protest because they do not want to change the structure of the education system, but I am not sure if that is true or not. (these are junior high and high school students, by the way, not the university students this time). We had to walk to the university at least halfway every day due to the students completely blockading the roads and tramways (one day they even started a big fire in the middle of the tram tracks and gathered around it; they also overturned a lot of trashcans).
Other than these events, we did get to visit Strasbourg to see the gigantic Christmas tree (much like the one at Rockefeller Center in New York) and the biggest Christmas market in all of France. The tree is beautiful and the markets were endless. The city looks magnificent with all the Christmas decorations; one street even had chandeliers hanging on ropes from shop to shop outside-- I will post pictures soon. We also visited the cathedral with the amazing astronomical clock and the picturesque part of the city called La Petite France. We went to Selestat and the chateau of Haut-Koenigsbourg also; both excellent places to visit at Christmas.
Then we went to Tours and then to Lavardin with the Decazes family for Christmas! It was really generous of them to offer to let us spend the holidays with them because French families are very close-knit and private. Each meal is even a private moment for them; it is so different from in the states. We shared our gigantic magnum-sized bottle of champagne that Mark won in Paris, and we had a really wonderful time. I am sure it is a Christmas I will never forget. We ate oysters followed by coq au vin and potatoes for Christmas dinner, followed by une bouch de marron (chestnut log), and chestnut cake. For Christmas Eve dinner we had some sort of casserole with scallops (delicious!) follwed by fresh blueberry pie. I think Catherine cooked the entire time; the food was amazing, and I know you all love hearing about it. We played card games with Alice and took the dogs (Lili and Lola) on walks in the country between meals (which again lasted about 3 hours each). We stayed one night in Tours after that, and revisited all our old hang-outs from August. The city has been transformed for the winter-- no more guinguette bars au bord de la Loire, no more etudiants at the Institut, etc.
Now we are repacking to go to Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. We will visit Geneva, Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels over a two-week period before returning to Nantes. Thank goodness for Eurail passes and hostels; otherwise a trip this long would be way too expensive! I will write more after we get back, and hopefully I'll get more pics posted soon.
Other than these events, we did get to visit Strasbourg to see the gigantic Christmas tree (much like the one at Rockefeller Center in New York) and the biggest Christmas market in all of France. The tree is beautiful and the markets were endless. The city looks magnificent with all the Christmas decorations; one street even had chandeliers hanging on ropes from shop to shop outside-- I will post pictures soon. We also visited the cathedral with the amazing astronomical clock and the picturesque part of the city called La Petite France. We went to Selestat and the chateau of Haut-Koenigsbourg also; both excellent places to visit at Christmas.
Then we went to Tours and then to Lavardin with the Decazes family for Christmas! It was really generous of them to offer to let us spend the holidays with them because French families are very close-knit and private. Each meal is even a private moment for them; it is so different from in the states. We shared our gigantic magnum-sized bottle of champagne that Mark won in Paris, and we had a really wonderful time. I am sure it is a Christmas I will never forget. We ate oysters followed by coq au vin and potatoes for Christmas dinner, followed by une bouch de marron (chestnut log), and chestnut cake. For Christmas Eve dinner we had some sort of casserole with scallops (delicious!) follwed by fresh blueberry pie. I think Catherine cooked the entire time; the food was amazing, and I know you all love hearing about it. We played card games with Alice and took the dogs (Lili and Lola) on walks in the country between meals (which again lasted about 3 hours each). We stayed one night in Tours after that, and revisited all our old hang-outs from August. The city has been transformed for the winter-- no more guinguette bars au bord de la Loire, no more etudiants at the Institut, etc.
Now we are repacking to go to Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. We will visit Geneva, Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels over a two-week period before returning to Nantes. Thank goodness for Eurail passes and hostels; otherwise a trip this long would be way too expensive! I will write more after we get back, and hopefully I'll get more pics posted soon.
Thanksgiving...kinda
So, I just typed this whole blog out and then got disconnected. Argh!! I was basically saying that several people have requested to hear about our French Thanksgiving, so I will give all the details here. Basically, our host parents decided last week, spur of the moment, that we needed to prepare a traditional American Thanksgiving for them and some Rotarians. So Mark and I had less than a week to figure something out. Luckily I was able to explain what ingredients we needed and how we would prepare each dish, thanks to the French cooking class at MSU!! So after I got out of class on Thanksgiving Day (how many American students can say they were in class on Thanksgiving?!?), we worked all afternoon to prepare dinner at Christian and Carole's apartment. Christian is pretty good in the kitchen so he had prepared a few things the day before (like cooking and sweetening fresh pumpkin so we could make a pumpkin pie), and he had managed to find a whole turkey. There were 14 guests total; Mark and I were allowed to invite two friends so I invited a couple of my classmates. Christian literally spent about an hour deciding on the plan du table (who would sit where). It's weird how that is so important in cultural settings here. The menu was as follows: pumpkin soup (which is the French way to eat pumpkin) for a starter, turkey, pollenta, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry jam, and French bread for the main course; pumpkin pie made from fresh pumpkin and not that canned stuff and apple pie for dessert. It actually turned out quite well, considering how difficult I originally thought it would be to find certain ingredients. No stuffing or turkey gravy, but better than no turkey at all, right?
Other than that, we have been pretty busy with homework, Autour du Monde activities (like bowling, golfing, movies, etc.), Rotary speeches and other excursions. We were able to go to a Soriee Beaujolais a few weeks back, which was a party to taste the new year's Beaujolais wine before its release to the public. It was held on the ground floor of one of the castles along the Erdre River near Nantes, and it was pretty cool. There were tables set up all over the floor, and you just walked and mingled while tasting weird brightly colored foods and drinking wine. We also went to the opera at Theatre Graslin here in Nantes. It is a beautiful hall and the show was great. We volunteered at a food bank (banque alimentaire) this weekend, and I am still sore from carting tons (literally tons, they collected several tons of food) back and forth and sorting all the goods out into categories. I am almost done with my papers, and the semester ends in 3 weeks. Wow, already.
It is officially winter here, and cold. It is mostly rainy and windy; snow is not likely. A Christmas market opened up over the weekend that will continue through the holidays. They set up these small wooden cabins all along the main squares and vendors sell all the gifts, food, and drinks you can imagine. One specialty is hot spiced wine. It is quite good; a little like hot cider but with more of a kick. I will post pictures of all our French adventures after my classes end.
Other than that, we have been pretty busy with homework, Autour du Monde activities (like bowling, golfing, movies, etc.), Rotary speeches and other excursions. We were able to go to a Soriee Beaujolais a few weeks back, which was a party to taste the new year's Beaujolais wine before its release to the public. It was held on the ground floor of one of the castles along the Erdre River near Nantes, and it was pretty cool. There were tables set up all over the floor, and you just walked and mingled while tasting weird brightly colored foods and drinking wine. We also went to the opera at Theatre Graslin here in Nantes. It is a beautiful hall and the show was great. We volunteered at a food bank (banque alimentaire) this weekend, and I am still sore from carting tons (literally tons, they collected several tons of food) back and forth and sorting all the goods out into categories. I am almost done with my papers, and the semester ends in 3 weeks. Wow, already.
It is officially winter here, and cold. It is mostly rainy and windy; snow is not likely. A Christmas market opened up over the weekend that will continue through the holidays. They set up these small wooden cabins all along the main squares and vendors sell all the gifts, food, and drinks you can imagine. One specialty is hot spiced wine. It is quite good; a little like hot cider but with more of a kick. I will post pictures of all our French adventures after my classes end.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Halloween in France
Julie writes the following about Halloween and October in France:
So apparently the French have recently begun to celebrate Halloween, but it is a touchy subject. The older generations do not like it at all because they consider it an "American" holiday, and they are not happy that it has started to seep into their society. But shops do decorate and the younger people love to celebrate it. The other weird thing is that since there is no Thanksgiving here, shops begin to decorate and promote Christmas by like the first week in October- that's even earlier than I am used to in the states! It will be interesting to see if the commercial side of the holiday is played up as much here as it is at home.
In other news, we had a great time in Paris with Rotary. I WILL post pictures soon; sorry for the delay. Mark won a magnun-sized bottle of champagne, we met a lot of other cool scholars, we got to visit the great "passages" de Paris, which we probably wouldn't have ever done on our own; the passages just aren't exactly big tourist attractions (the passages are basically different covered, sometimes indoor sometimes outdoor shops, famous streets, bookstores, etc.). This trip also allowed Mark and I to have our first experience staying in a hostel, as we opted to stay with the rest of the scholars rather than pay for our own hotel room. It wasn't as bad as some would imagine, but I will say that those places just seem to have a special smell...
Aside from Paris, my classes are still going well. I need to get started on more of my papers; they are not due until the week after Christmas break, but I hate to spend the holidays doing homework! I don't really like the idea of exams after the holidays; that is yet another difference in American and French education. My note de synthese course will end in 4 weeks; I received a 13 out of 20 for the first half (which I am VERY happy with; that course was grueling for me). The grading system is as follows: 10-12=assez bien, 13-15=bien, and 16-20= tres bien, and almost NO ONE receives the mention tres bien. My friend Soline, who is from Nantes, received a 12- for the first half of the class and she is really smart, so I'm sure the professor was grading me leniently.
This past weekend we went with a group called Autour du Monde to the beautiful Italian city in France called Clisson. It is called an "Italian" city because an Italian architect living in France rebuilt the city to look like Trivoli, Italy. We took a guided tour of the city, had a picnic on the castle grounds, and visited the park. Funny story- as we were learning about the aquaducts, 3 little French boys were sitting under the water way eating sandwiches. When they saw all of the students looking and taking pictures, they all 3 stood up, turned around, and mooned us!! Haha, it was classic. Then they jumped down and ran off. After our tour of the city, we visited the Musee vignoble nantais to learn about the process of making Muscadet wine, the specialty of this region. Then we headed out to a vineyard, and we were invited to take a tour of the vineyard, caves and home of a private winemaker. We had a wine tasting (six different types!), and he even let us taste wine in the process of fermenting, but not done, straight out of the vats in his cave. That night we stayed and had a pizza dinner in his cave, complete with more wine, crazy French entertainment, and lots of singing and games. The pizza was made in a wood-burning oven, by a friend of the winemaker. He kept making more and more pizza, at anyone's request; I bet he cooked over 50 pizzas throughout the course of the night. This experience is really indescribable. I still can't believe we actually got to visit this vineyard and spend the evening having dinner in a French winemaker's cave. We purchased some of the wine we tasted, and we got back to Nantes at about 11:30 Saturday evening. This evening was by far the most incredible experience we have had yet. Oh yes, and I must mention, Mark's team lost the wine quiz game (mine came in second), so they were forced to sing the first song. No one wanted to do it, so finally Mark stood up and sang the chorus to this old French folk song that I learned in Caen; he knew every word because I used to sing it all the time at home. It was quite entertaining!!
That's about all of our news so far! I will give about 3 speeches in the coming weeks, and it is almost time to submit my first report to Rotary- I can't believe how quickly time is going by here!
So apparently the French have recently begun to celebrate Halloween, but it is a touchy subject. The older generations do not like it at all because they consider it an "American" holiday, and they are not happy that it has started to seep into their society. But shops do decorate and the younger people love to celebrate it. The other weird thing is that since there is no Thanksgiving here, shops begin to decorate and promote Christmas by like the first week in October- that's even earlier than I am used to in the states! It will be interesting to see if the commercial side of the holiday is played up as much here as it is at home.
In other news, we had a great time in Paris with Rotary. I WILL post pictures soon; sorry for the delay. Mark won a magnun-sized bottle of champagne, we met a lot of other cool scholars, we got to visit the great "passages" de Paris, which we probably wouldn't have ever done on our own; the passages just aren't exactly big tourist attractions (the passages are basically different covered, sometimes indoor sometimes outdoor shops, famous streets, bookstores, etc.). This trip also allowed Mark and I to have our first experience staying in a hostel, as we opted to stay with the rest of the scholars rather than pay for our own hotel room. It wasn't as bad as some would imagine, but I will say that those places just seem to have a special smell...
Aside from Paris, my classes are still going well. I need to get started on more of my papers; they are not due until the week after Christmas break, but I hate to spend the holidays doing homework! I don't really like the idea of exams after the holidays; that is yet another difference in American and French education. My note de synthese course will end in 4 weeks; I received a 13 out of 20 for the first half (which I am VERY happy with; that course was grueling for me). The grading system is as follows: 10-12=assez bien, 13-15=bien, and 16-20= tres bien, and almost NO ONE receives the mention tres bien. My friend Soline, who is from Nantes, received a 12- for the first half of the class and she is really smart, so I'm sure the professor was grading me leniently.
This past weekend we went with a group called Autour du Monde to the beautiful Italian city in France called Clisson. It is called an "Italian" city because an Italian architect living in France rebuilt the city to look like Trivoli, Italy. We took a guided tour of the city, had a picnic on the castle grounds, and visited the park. Funny story- as we were learning about the aquaducts, 3 little French boys were sitting under the water way eating sandwiches. When they saw all of the students looking and taking pictures, they all 3 stood up, turned around, and mooned us!! Haha, it was classic. Then they jumped down and ran off. After our tour of the city, we visited the Musee vignoble nantais to learn about the process of making Muscadet wine, the specialty of this region. Then we headed out to a vineyard, and we were invited to take a tour of the vineyard, caves and home of a private winemaker. We had a wine tasting (six different types!), and he even let us taste wine in the process of fermenting, but not done, straight out of the vats in his cave. That night we stayed and had a pizza dinner in his cave, complete with more wine, crazy French entertainment, and lots of singing and games. The pizza was made in a wood-burning oven, by a friend of the winemaker. He kept making more and more pizza, at anyone's request; I bet he cooked over 50 pizzas throughout the course of the night. This experience is really indescribable. I still can't believe we actually got to visit this vineyard and spend the evening having dinner in a French winemaker's cave. We purchased some of the wine we tasted, and we got back to Nantes at about 11:30 Saturday evening. This evening was by far the most incredible experience we have had yet. Oh yes, and I must mention, Mark's team lost the wine quiz game (mine came in second), so they were forced to sing the first song. No one wanted to do it, so finally Mark stood up and sang the chorus to this old French folk song that I learned in Caen; he knew every word because I used to sing it all the time at home. It was quite entertaining!!
That's about all of our news so far! I will give about 3 speeches in the coming weeks, and it is almost time to submit my first report to Rotary- I can't believe how quickly time is going by here!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
No bloggers yet
Okay, so nobody has posted any blogs on here, but the link works from the website...this must mean that I am not cool anymore (assuming that I was at a certain point in time). Maybe I'll give money away to bribe some people to post here, but until then I am only conversing with myself...what a nerd! Okay, so I'll say goodbye to myself and tell myself that I will see me later.
Mark
Mark
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)