Suggestions, anyone?

The Classic Brochure Picture, taken at Chambourg during Orientation

Eh hem. The moral of this blog entry is that I like suggestions. Recently I was given a short list of topics that I need to cover in my blog by someone I will keep anonymous, for their protection of course. :) Therefore, the remainder of this post will delve into those topics.

1)"Your crazy Middle East Class" : So, I am taking this class called France and the U.S. and the Middle East from 1945 to Today. As I was almost a Political Science major, these kind of things are vastly interesting to me and I figured that perhaps when I done I'd actually be able to have an intelligent conversation with someone about Iraq, etc. However, aside from learning a ton of history that I have never seen before, the most interesting thing about this class is my teacher who is, in one word, a character. This woman loves this topic with her entire being and it comes out in her utter exasperation (good-natured exasperation) every time we can't remember who was leading Jordan in the 60s or Egypt in the 50s. The weirdest thing though is that this is the first time I have ever had a teacher who wasn't Pro-Israel. For some reason, I have always just assumed that since Israel was our friends they were the only country in the middle east that followed all the rules, etc. However, since taking the class I have realized a little bit why the Arabic people are so angry. We kinda just kicked thousands of Palestinians out of their homes to give a people a homeland that belonged to them 2000 years earlier. To an extreme lesser degree, it'd be like if someone gathered up all the native americans and feeling bad for the wrongs we had done to them, gave them a state just for them, telling all the other americans to leave. Even knowing that Native Americans wern't treated well, those americans would be pretty angry! So Im not saying it was right or wrong, but it makes a lot more sense. The other thing about my teacher is that she has some spunk. She claims that she went to Israel, knocked on all these leaders doors, and heard from their mouths that it was Israel who started some of the israelo-arab wars in the 50s because they wanted to restore the state to the size of Biblical Israel. Thats a pretty big claim to make! But she no problem with it. Example #2, when she was in grad school, she wrote to Henry Kissenger, asking for an interview. He wrote back asking for thousands of dollars as payment. As you can imagine, she was furious. So she decided to write him a letter back calling him "The Black Angel of American Politics." Needless to say, she didnt get the interview. Her third quality is that she is a bit obsessive compulsive, not in the medical way, but..you know what I mean. For example, we have to sit in the same seats for the first two weeks or she'll freak out like we just upset her entire structure of thinking. Next, noises. Cellphones, cars in the street, a girl hitting her earring against her pen, she'll stop the whole class, asking "Im not hearing things am I?" A girl from last semester told me that she had her shoe untied one day, and our prof just stopped class to tie her shoe! Shes probably someone you would just have to meet to understand. But I've done my best to explain.

2.) "Frenglish" : In reality, its really called "Franglais." This is what most of my conversation consists of here in France. Since all of my close friends are americans, and english is forbidden at the center, we speak in French to eachother for the whole day and even a lot of time outside of class. However, there comes a point when you just know that you are not getting your point across and you switch to english, or you try at least. Really, you switch into franglais because you have gotten so used to certain expressions.
Examples.
Hey, Do you want to dejeuner with me a la Fac?
: Translation : Hey, do you want to eat lunch with me at the university?
Maintenant, should we prendre le tram ou marcher?
: Translation: Now, should we take the tram or walk?

And I use this half french/half english language so much that Im not quite sure how I am going to deal with adding in French words and not being understood when I get back to the States. That'll just be fou (crazy).

3.)"Events you're planning as Vice Pres." : The big change we are trying to bring about for IES is to establish some community service activities that are accessible to the students, since its not really IES's strong point right now. However, the problem is that in France they only want you if its for the long haul. You can't just go in and volunteer somewhere for a day from time to time. Also, the youth don't volunteer like they do in the States. Perhaps they're busier with school or something, but it simply isn't stressed, whereas in the US, its the basis for scholarships, admittance to programs, etc. So we're working on that, slowly. The second big event is a trip to the beach in May. La Boule, which is the biggest beach in France and possibly Europe is only 1 hours away by train so we're going to go once its nice enough to swim :) And finally, we're working on setting up a talent show after a conversation club (a topic for another blog) one night to allow more interaction between the French and American students who come. The only challenge now is finding willing participants.

4.) "Your uneventful weekend" : So since I seem to have been going non-stop since I arrived, I decided this weekend was a good time to stay at home and do nothing. Well, other than homework all the time. It was really strange though. It seemed that after 2 months of my time flying by, it came to a screaming hault as I had the time to sit back and think about it. Although I had piles of homework, my mind kept straying to things I missed about home. I do know that my schedule, although busy now, will pick up even more after break and that I will be done in no time. However, this weekend, as I thought about the 3 months ahead of me, I realized that it was still a long long time. And thinking about that made me realize how much I miss everything really. My house and my family, Alma, my friends, internet access, a car or the ability to walk across campus in 5 minutes, snacking throughout the day :), hugs (french ppl don't hug), not having to ask before I use most anything in my house, SNOW!, my boyfriend, etc. So I made some calls home and tried to stay focused, but I think I was releived when classes started monday as I would have something to take my mind off of it. My Desk, where I spent most of my weekend.. :)

5.) "Your feelings" : I pretty much summed up a lot in the previous paragraph. I do feel that I am learning a lot here, although its not always easy to see. I think thats the most frustrating part. You don't really know how much you have gotten better because it happens slowly and everyone gets better at the same time. Sometimes, after a complicated conversation, I am so happy because I realize that I could not have understood that 2 months ago but in the same day, I'll become equally as frustrated because I get all jumbled up trying to say something simple. Its then that I just feel worthless and completly discouraged. I have truly realized just how hard it is to become fluent like a native speaker. and I think the jump from No knowledge to Proficient is easier sometimes that going from Proficient to Fluent. I do worry from time to time that I am not doing enough to get better considering I have this limited time frame, but worrying has kept me motivated to stay involved in activities that will improve my french.So perhaps worrying isn't such a bad thing now. As for my french, its a work in progress.

The other big stress on my mind right now is my summer. I have applied to a ton of internships and am in the process of applying to a few last ones before I just leave it all in God's hands. The problem is that I need a heavy research experience in order to decide finally whether I want to go to Grad school in medicinal chemistry, or to pharmacy school, or just enter the work force and pay off my loans.So this summer is my last chance for most of the big ones. The other big issue for me is where the internship takes place. After being away from my boyfriend for almost a year, I want to avoid not seeing him for another whole summer. So, despite the fact that I am powerless to do anything about it, I constantly worrying about not only getting a research position in an area that I enjoy, but also in a city that would allow us to visit eachother! I should hear back from these programs begining in a few weeks, so until then, I'll just have to hope.

6.)"Your parents coming to visit" : kinda self-explanitory. except that my little brother Dave is coming too. So they are flying into Frankfurt, and driving across France to come stay in my host family's home while my host family goes on vacation in the Alps(it was soo nice of my host family to offer their home!)! I am extremely excited to see them :) What we'll do is a complete mystery to me since nothing is planned yet, so I'll have to fill you in in my next blog. Im thinking, the sea, Paris or the Loire Valley maybe.

Well, thats about it I think. I hope all of my Alma friends have a super great spring break and that everyone else has a wonderful week :)

Bordeaux and Saint Emilion

Sitting down to write this right now has just made me realize that it has been quite a while since I last wrote! Wow..time actually has begun to pass pretty quickly. While my everyday going ons have not changed much in the last 2 weeks (still school, homework, etc.), there have been a few new developments, so I will try to cover the highlights. I apologize ahead of time for a very long blog.

Friday, I left for Bordeaux with my friends Allison, Duong, and Julie. I had some days left on my Eurorail pass so we all decided to plan something. Such a fun weekend! We left after lunch, and took a 4hr train ride arriving right after sunset. The cool thing about it is that Bordeaux is known for its nightlife and the beautiful lit buildings. However, we decided that we wanted a nice dinner and to try some real Bordeaux in Bordeaux. So we found our restaurant and we're enjoying our meal. (and I never know how to lead into this story..) So our waitress came over to take our dinner plates. After grabbing them, she just froze for a minute. "Do you want us to keep our forks for dessert?" I said in French. No response. Just a blank stare. Theres more gorey details which I will spare you of unless you want to know, but turns out she was having a seizure! She didnt fall down or move at all, just froze, and since we were all really worried and made a commotion about it, we finally got the attention of another server to come over and help us. They led her away, but after that the restaurant got really busy. We were sitting there thinking "How can we go on with our dinner..is she going to be ok?" Now, in the U.S., someone would have immediatly come over to the table to reassure you that everything was going to be alright. Not France. We were waving down servers, who kept ignoring us, trying to ask for some info on whether everything was fine. Someone finally told us they had called the ambulance and they thought it was a "crise d'epilepsie" (seizure) , but the manager or owner never stopped by and the whole situation was just insane. Ok, so we had a rough start to our weekend. For the record, the Bordeaux in Bordeaux was very good, but not necessarily better than anywhere else, in my humble opinion.

So trying to forget our little restaurant experience, we went for a walk by the Garonne, the river, and took pictures of the famous bridge, plaza, buildings, etc. Bordeaux really is quite a beautiful city, and immense as well. However, as it was getting late, we returned to our hotel for a late night of girl-talk, etc. The following day, we enjoyed a breakfast of Pain au Chocolat and tea at a local Boulangerie, and visited a few medevil cathedrals. Saint Andre in particular was beautiful, with flying buttresses and an immense pipeorgan. Next we climbed the clocktower for a birdseye view of the whole city. It was incredible and as the weather was perfect. We proceded to search for all the cool looking buildings we had seen from high above and ended up across the river where we found this gigantic blue lion (in the picture) just randomlly placed next to the tram. So we had fun climbing all over it like little kids and getting some strange looks from the passing pedestrians.

Later that afternoon, we took a train to St. Emilion, a village of 300 people which is absurdly cute, and known for being surrounded by vineyards which produce some of the best wine in France. The reason we headed this way was that Duong's host father had a friend who owned a Chateau and vineyard nearby and he was going to let us stay with them for free on Saturday night. After everything was arranged, upon further research we discovered that this man is actually a Vicomte! Wow. It was unbeleivable. We were picked up from St. Emilion by his wife and after arriving at the Chateau were offered to be shown the "Chai," where the wine is made. As it was 8:00 and we had not yet eaten dinner, I think we all thought it would be a quick 5 minute walk-through of the building. Boy was I wrong! An hour and a half later, we had just been given a detailed account of how wine is made, the types of grapes used, processes of fermentation, storage, and the history of the Vicomtes family along with tasting red and white wine that was being stored from this last years harvest. It was incredible! The entire time I was thinking, How many people come to France and pay all this money to try to get an authentic experience? and there we were, for free, being given a personal tour of a business that has been in this family for centuries. Simply amazing! A quick antedote from their family history. So the Vicomtes great-great-great......grandfather from the 11th century was a monk. He happened to be the last of his family name, so the Pope (thats right...the Pope) said, "Go, Marry someone, have children, and carry on your family's name" So he went off, got maried and had 9 children! So now the family symbol is 9 monk cords to represent the story. How crazy is that? The fact that one could know the history of their family that far back is equally incoceivable to me as well.

So finally at about 10:00 we started dinner in the Chateau. As no one had lived in the Chateau for about 30 years between the time the Vicomte's grandfather died and the time they moved in, they have been doing a lot of construction inside and outside for the last 15 years to make it more liveable. So when we arrived, the family was in the process of redoing the dining room into a library and therefore we moved the dinner table right out into the living room, a first for them, and had our meal.They have an 18 year old son and 12 year old daughter and It was simply surreal to be sitting there with a french family, to whom wine and vineyards are their life, and to whom we had no connection whatsoever other than that they were a friend of a host parent, and to sit and talk (in French!) for 2 hours about cultural differences, history, language, etc. So many people dream of having that experience. On top of that, they brought out their 1989 wine which they won a medal for in the region, and we drank that with our dinner, which finished around 12:30. We all were So exhausted but we managed to fit in a family pic to document our time there :)

Sunday morning, I got up bright and early to see the sunrise. Amazing again! I walked out to see frost covered vineyards with a light fog covering the lower parts of the fields, but as the sun rose, everything warmed and the vineyards were so serene and peaceful, with every classic countryside noise..birds chirping, the occasional dog barking, somewhere a distant rooster crowing. Just another moment to thank God for this incredible experience. After breakfast, we were driven back to St. Emilion (while fitting in a quick stop at a neighboring chateau owned by some friends) and said Goodbye so that the Vicomte could be off to mass where he sings in the choir. Such a cute old french man. There for the day, we bought samples of everything that is famous from the town/region..foie-gras, Macaroons, and a bottle of wine. Since St. Emilion is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we also explored the Catacombs and underground church that the monks who founded the city carved out of limestone in the 11th Century. Supposedly, there are 200 miles of catacombs stretching underneath all the vineyards in the surrounding areas, and our guide told us that from time to time, if you are eating at a Chateau close to St. Emilion, they may bring out a bottle of wine from the 11-14th century, because the monks stored their wine in those catacombs that are now under some many different vineyards. (The Vicomtes Chateau was a little to far away to be included) The whole tour and city was very interesting, although a bummer that we couldn't take any pictures.

So Sunday afternoon, we returned to Bordeaux for a few hours, where we had a bit of craziness concerning lost tickets, etc. I beleive 4 minutes before departure, only 2 of the 4 of us were on the train, and the others got on at the very last minute. Phew! I was a bit worried. I think that though we had an incredible time, we were all so releived to come back to Nantes. Its amazing how nice it is to see familiar things, and it was comforting to realize that Nantes is now a place that is something familiar to come back to. Like I said in my last blog, it really has become a second home. I am happy to be back, but I just realized all the work that I have been putting off has really started to build up. So I'll be staying here this weekend, writing papers, filling out internship applications, and reading some more crazy french Microbiology.

Hmm...In other news...I was elected Vice President of my class last week, so since this is my first time doing anything like this it will be interesting. We are right now trying to plan some community service activities, a talent show/pizza night, and a trip to the sea which is only an hour away. Anyways, it is kind of fun to have the experience when your class is only made up of 49 people instead of 350. Oh, and in two weekends from now my parents and little brother are coming to see me, so that's exciting! Assuming that they figure out what they are doing when they are here (Cough Cough Mom and Dad..).

Apart from that, I wish you all a Joyeux Jour de Saint Valentin! (I enjoy saying it the french way because its got my name in the middle :) ) and as always, let me know how you are doing! Or even better(and here's my shameless plug) write me a letter!!! :) Come on...it's gonna be fun..

At Home

After living here for a month, I think I am now qualified to officially say, I like it here :) This last week has been a bit strange for me in the way that I realized I have really started to feel at home here. Its strange for me because the only two places in my life that have ever come close are my house where I grew up and Alma. But I like the feeling. Its so nice to walk down the streets, knowing where you are going, not being a tourist, but still enjoying the history around you, the beautiful weather, and the joys of everyday life. I enjoy taking my bus into school, "dejeuner-ing" (franglais for eating lunch) at IES or grabbing a baguette on my way to the university, have had some wonderful meals with my host family, and(as this was my first weekend staying here) have gotten to go out with friends on Friday and Saturday nights and experience life in the city.

Also, this week was my first week where my schedule was completely set, my largest errands were complete and I could just concentrate on school and friends. Classes here are going well, with less assigned homework than American Universities so I have to motivate myself to get things done.However, its nice to be able to plan out my days instead of having a sporatic schedule. Friday, I returned to Rock Climbing, and, since we arrived on time, got to climb for about 2 hours. It really is fun to learn about and even though I don't have much physical ability, rock climbing is interesting too because its a physical puzzle. Thats really dorky of me to say but I never really thought that i would have the time/opportunity to take classes, so its fun :) Also, this week, I started attending the Reformed Free Baptist Church, which offers a contemporary service on Sundays and a student group on Thursday nights called Agape. At both services, everyone I met was extremly kind and its great to have found a church that fits my style and I hope to keep going back and am looking forward to getting to know people.

While everyone in the states was worrying about whether spring would be 6 more weeks away (Happy Belated Groudhogs day, by the way!), the big event in Nantes this weekend was "Les Folles Journees de Nantes" which means "The Crazy Days of Nantes." Its a world famous musical event where reknowned musicians come from all over the world and play music from a famous composer and his contemporaries. This year was Schubert and IES let us choose from 5 concerts and they would buy our ticket. I know that I havn't been here on other weekends, so I dont have much to compare it too, but on Saturday the streets were packed! But it was an exciting atmosphere and there was so much energy in the air! So on Sunday night I went to see an Austrian Pianist, which was incredible. Playing for over an hour, completely from memory, this guy acted out the emotions of the piece it seemed by the way he played. He actually reminded me a bit of the boy who plays the piano in Charlie Brown, the way he would hunch over the piano during some parts. It was very dramatic and I was so lucky to be in the 5th row. Also, they had some free concerts in the halls and I watched a quartet perform. If you look closely at the picture you can see that they are all wearing Chuck Taylors with their suites, trying to add a modern touch to classical music.
After the concert, I was invited to dinner at a friend's house to celebrate what I have always called the "Chinese New Year." From Vietnam herself, she prepared us (5 IES students and her host family)authentic Vietnamese and Thai food which was absolutly delicious and we had a wonderful night of laughter and conversation. It was a bit spicy but I love trying new food and had a great time :) I have to record this because it was just crazy. For dessert, we had fried bannanas. We took a spoon full of rum, lit it on fire, and flambeed our bannanas before pouring chocolate fondue all over them. Dee-liciuos. From there, we all went over to another students house to watch the Superbowl which started at midnight and went til 4am. Needless to say, I am a bit sleepy as I write this from only getting a few hours of sleep last night :/ Still, we felt like we couldn't miss it, even though there were no wonderful American commercials, barely 30 seconds of the half-time show, and French football commentators (a contradiction in itself) surrounded by American flags trying to come up with useful things to say, it was a good game and a fun memory!

The other big news of my week is ironically what I'll be doing next weekend! I have planned to go with 3 other girls to visit Bordeaux and a neighboring city Saint Emillion. After our plans were made, the host dad of one of the girls informed us that he has friends in Saint Emillion who have a Chateau and Vineyard and would be willing to give us two rooms in there house for free!!! So exciting! However, you'll get more news on that in my next post. Other than that, I think Ive covered most important events. If you guys want to know anything specific about my life here, let me know, as the point of this blog is to satify the curiosity of all friends and family of my going-ons here in France.