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.

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.