Getting Cultured

Bonjour tout le monde!

Phew...so glad that midterms are over. Well, almost. I have one if a few weeks for Translation, but there is really no way you can prepare for that one other than reading books and learning new vocabulary. So anyways, last week was a busy week for me and wouldn't be too exciting to recount in detail, since it mostly consisted of late night studying for Midterms in my Middle East and European Union class with breaks for some Office Season 3 :) So I'll just give you some highlights.

Since we have 3 weeks total of break, most other students have planned amazing trips for our time off. Going back to school on Monday, it was amazing to hear everyone's stories; however, even more fun to think about what I was going to be doing in April for our 2 weeks off. I orginally was thinking Ireland and Switzerland, since firstly, Ryanair has some great prices to Dublin from Nantes, and secondly Switzerland is a frenchspeaking country so it would be easy to get around. So I started asking around, and found a friend who wanted to go to Ireland too! So Thursday night we stayed up til 12:30 booking our flights, and let me tell you, I'm syched! So sooo excited! We havn't pinned down anything except the planes yet, so all I know is Im going to Ireland for the last 5 days! Sooo cool! For the rest of break, I beleive I will stay in the South of France, but that is still to be decided...

Anyways, Friday was an IES "field-trip" to Paris. We had a few choices, but I ended up deciding to do "Le Senat" (Capital Hill of France) in the morning and a guided tour of the French Painters wing of the Louvre in the afternoon. So 5:30 am, after reserving my Ireland tickets, I woke up bright and early and got the train with the rest of my class. The Senate was interesting enough. I chose it because its not exacly a tourist hot-spot and I didn't think I would ever get the chance to see it at another time. But in reality, its just a big, nicely decorated building, where people make laws. No biggie. For lunch, I dragged a few of my friends over to the Latin Quarter where I promised them a hot, tasty, and reasonably-priced lunch and we were not dissapointed. I dont know if I could ever get tired of grabbing a hot crepe or Gyro and wandering around the streets of Paris looking at the cute shops and famous monuments. So we stopped at the famous Shakespeare & Co bookstore and then wandered over to Notre Dame since some of the people I was with had never been to Paris before. I enjoyed pulling out my Rick Steves' guide to France and reading them some history of the famous monuments :) The afternoon at the Louvre was good as well. It was my third time to the Louvre, so even though we explored a few rooms that I swear I had never seen before (its soo huge!), the whole awe and amazement has started to wear off. Therefore, we decided to go to the statue section of the museum and spent the rest of the afternoon taking pictures recreating the famous poses. The Centaur with an angel riding on his back was extremely challenging. We had a lot of fun, but after walking around in heals all day (had to dress up for the senate) I was so very happy to get on our train, come back to Nantes, and spend an evening relaxing with a book and some American Popcorn :)

The next day I woke up to a light rain. Here in March, the weather is insane. It down-pours for 10 minutes, and then you look up in the sky, its sunny, and you cant find any clouds, then 15 minutes later it rains, or hails (as it did on Sunday). But I happen to find a light rain at 50 degrees Farenheit perfect for running. So, completely energized, I just took off and for an hour I ran next to the river near my house, exploring some of the forest, finding a random field in the middle of nowhere. It was great :) I do not know where it came from, but it was one of those moments where you are just thrilled to be alive and I just took off sprinting up and down hills, loving the feel of wind and rain (or sometimes complete sunshine!) on face. Now, since I havn't been running regularly enough...waking up Sunday morning and feeling the effects of all this wasn't very nice. But it was a good afternoon.

Saturday night was movie night :) I went to a friend's house only to find they were planning on watching one of my favorite movies in the whole wide world : La Vie est Belle/Life is Beautiful/La Vita e Bella (but in French of course.) I brought some of my popcorn, which if I say so myself, was a hit..since most people havn't had it since they left the states. As for the movie, it was great...except that Bonjour, Bonjour Princesse just isn't as good as Bon Giorno Princepesa! There's something about that Italian! (If you have no idea what Im talking about....Go watch the movie)

Sunday morning was my first Nantes Market experience. France is famous for their open-air markets. and in other cities that I have been to, I have loved to walk through and see all the fresh fruits, veggies, cheese, meat, etc. However, I hadn't ever found one in Nantes. Turns out that there are a few bigs one, but just not on any of my normal routes. So since I arrived at Church Sunday morning only to find that the service for the day had been moved to an unknown location, we opted to go check out the Talensac Market. It was very fun and I am pretty sure you could find just about anything there. From the 80 cent crepe-lady to the dried candied fruits to flowers to shoes to almost full cows hanging in the meat sections! The great thing about markets though, is that its the reason why French and Italian food is so good! Its not exactly that they know how to cook a ton better than American chefs, its that ingredients are so fresh and delicious :)

For the afternoon, we had been given tickets to see a modern dance performance at the Theatre Graslin near my school. I was very excited because I walk by this theatre with huge roman collumns and stairs leading up to its doorway every day when I walk downtown, but had never seen the inside. However, it was not what I expected. The theatre was nicely decorated, but could only hold 300-400 people. But the dance was just crazy. I know that I am not an incredibly artistic person, and that sometimes I dont really care for abstract things because I just don't understand them, but this was just nuts. For the first act, 3 people pretty much just ran around the stage while one man sang an opera-like solo. While trying to keep from falling asleep, I thought to myself...I'm pretty sure I could do that, and I havn't been in dance lessons since I was 4. The second one seemed like it was representing a dream-state (as one man started off wearing a goat mask), and although I didn't understand a thing, at least there was technique. However, as the french are much more comfortable with nakedness in general, it was a bit odd to watch a dance where the two woman were wearing dresses that only covered half of their chests. All in all though, I guess I can now say I've gone to a french theater! and at least its a funny memory...This has truley been a week of cultural events.

One last thing before I go. I recently found out that I got into a Research Experience for Undergraduates at Georgetown! So I beleive that is where I will be spending most of my summer. I know I wrote earlier about the stress of finding an internship, and its an incredible releif to know this far ahead of time that I have a job and will be getting some valuable experience to help me decide on grad school! So now, I just have to keep praying that Jim will get one in D.C. as well :)

Well, it seems that my time here isn't going to slow down much, as there is SO much on my schedule! This weekend, we are going to see the famous Normandy beaches of WWII which I have really wanted to see and I think will be very moving. Then, Monday my brother Scott is coming to visit me for a few days! Later that week, I am taking my exam for Certification in the French Language and then its Easter! So I apologize ahead of time if you don't hear from me for a while!

In the mean time, Have a great Palm Sunday and an Incredible Easter! He is Risen! :)

A Week With The Fam.

Wow, these blog titles are getting more and more creative ever time.

My family arrived in Frankfurt on Saturday morning, with the plan to rent a car and drive to Nantes. Of course, they had a bit of trouble since they hadn't slept in 48 hours, not to mention the jet-lag. So they made it as far as Reims, famous for the cathedral where every french King as crowned-King since the first French King, Clovis in 496A.D. Calling me on saturday afternoon to let me know they had arrived, I informed them that they simply couldnt leave the city without visiting the historic site. So they visited that Sunday morning, and arrived in Nantes Sunday evening.

Now, about everyone at IES was leaving friday afternoon for winter break. I beleive that most countries in Europe had at least some IES student in them, so I can't wait to talk to everyone and get advice for my 2 week break in April! However, meanwhile, I realized that I was going to be sitting at my house all weekend waiting for my parents, which as I found out last time that I tried to have a relaxing-do-nothing weekend, can become quite lonely. So I found a friend who wasn't leaving until Saturday morning and we went to see the movie P.S. I Love You in french. The story is basically about a young married couple who are completely in love, and when the husband dies, he sends letters to his wife for a year, helping her to rediscover life and move on. Wow. I have not cried that much in a looong time. Not in A Walk to Remember, not in The Notebook. It was entirely in French so I understood about 90% of it, and although it didnt get great reviews in the states, perhaps watching it in a foreign language made it even better because you had to fill in the parts you didn't understand with your imagination. I finally just stopped wiping away the tears because I figured there would just be more 5 minutes later. So that pretty much sums up my friday night..

Saturday and Sunday, I worked on homework that I knew wouldn't be touched during the week with my fam. I have midterms this next week, so I really have quite a bit of work to do! Sunday night, my family arrived and I made them potage (french pureed vegatable soup) and my version of Croque Monsieurs (hot ham and cheese sandwiches) and I enjoyed introducing them to my home here in France. They also came bearing gifts like Popcorn (which I missed sooo much), girlscout cookies (mmmhh), and the Office Season 3 (eeehhh...so exciting!!!!) from my boyfriend :) I think they made me realize just how much I don't know about France, since every time we went anywhere I was given hundreds of questions that I had no idea how to answer. What is that? Why do the French do that? How much does it cost to do__? Do they just do this at so and so a time or all the time? Now, occasionally I could answer with a nice satisfactory explination or just make something up :) But it was an interesting to hear their view on french customs/way of life.

Monday and Tuesday were basically spent touring Nantes. On monday, we started with the Castle, climbing the ramparts and trying to answer all those Why? What? Where? questions about the way of life of 14th century Dukes. Next we moved on to the huge St. Peter and St. Paul cathedral, walked down some cute french streets, had a street lunch of paninis, quiche, and baguette sandwiches. For the afternoon, I showed them the huge Theatre Graslin, right next to IES where I go to school, and the Fountain of Place Royal. It was kind of strange giving a tour of my every day life, for the simple reason that it is so every-day to me now. I realized how often forget that I am walking next to 14th century cathedrals and buildings built hundreds of years ago. Following French time, we had a nice pasta dinner around 8pm and I taught my family how the French eat in courses instead of simply setting everything on the table. Also, how the French put their bread on the table, not on the plate...something that my parents had a very hard time adjusting to. Tuesday, it rained. Kind of a bummer. But we made the best of it, shopping most of the morning, taking a tram ride to the Fac de Sciences where I take my Microbiology class, and then finally going to see the Machine de l'Ile, a giant mechanical elephant built for tourism that walks down the street, and gives rides to 45 people an hour. The engineers have started to do something every year like this. Last year, it was a giant, who would walk down the streets, sleeping on cars, etc. So that was fun, and I think that Dave, my little brother, really enjoyed that after being dragged about listening to boring history lessons for two days.

Wednesday, my parents decided that we needed to take a train ride somewhere, so since I had not yet been to the sea, we took an hour trip to La Baule, the largest beach in Europe, just west of Nantes. Little did we know that the weather was going to be the worst of the week. Although they enjoyed seeing what trains are really like, at La Baule, it rained all day, which was amplified by the freezing cold wind off the sea. So after about 5 minutes on the soaking wet beach, we retreated into a seaside restaurant to eat Galettes, the Brittany (the region that Nantes was in, before they redrew the borders) specialty. It is basically a crepe with meat, cheese, and vegatables inside, however, its a bit more cruchy. However, they were delicious and one of those dishes that you just cant miss if you go to Brittany.

Next, after spending an hour and a half walking up and down the main streets trying to jump inside any store that was open (Stores often close from 12-2pm for lunch....crazy French), we decided to give up and go see a movie. So, as nothing was in English we decided on a film that they had already seen in the states: "Le Dragon des Mers" or "The Waterhorse." Two funny antedotes. Dave loves french bread. Seriously, everytime we saw a Boulangerie(bakery) he wanted to go inside and buy a baguette. So right before the movie, he says to my dad " If you let me get a baguette, I won't eat popcorn!" So 20 minutes later, Dave and my mom returned right before the start of the movie with a 3 foot long baguette. I think the French people around us were extremly confused. Film and baguette are two things that the French don't even do! But Dave finished this huge baguette in the first 30 minutes of the movie and loved every bite of it :) Secondly, since it was in French my parents and Dave had to go off of what they remembered of the movie to understand it. And even though my mom didnt understand a word, she stilled bawled at the end during the "free willy moment", as I call it, when the lockness monster escapes toward the sea. (oh..oops, movie spoiler)

Thursday, we left Nantes for Rennes, where Marion, the french student that we have hosted for 3 weeks the past 3 summers, lives. On the way, we stopped at Chateaubriand and explored castle ruins. My mom insisted that we have true Chateaubriand(meat and veggies) in Chateaubriand so we ate a 4 course lunch at a local restaurant before continuing to Rennes. We toured the old city, with its pretty wooden midevil houses and I did my best to show them everything that Marion's mother had shown my some weeks before. Then, at 6pm, we arrived at Marions house where her family cooked us this 8 course meal which lasted for 3 hours and allowed us to stay at their home overnight. It was very enjoyable and I was very impressed at how well her parents could speak english. However, I still played the role of translator a bit and experienced again how tiring it is to try to think in both languages at once.

Friday we got up bright and early and headed for Paris. Since this was kind of a spur of the moment trip for my parents, and planning had never become a priority, we had to move a lot around just so that we could visit Paris. However, I think it was worth it. You just can't go to France without seeing Paris. However, not wanting to experience the crazy parisien drivers, we left the rental car at Versailles(the Palance in the country that was stormed during the French revolution) and took the 40 minute train into the city. We started by climbing the first two floors of the Eiffel Tower, getting a beautiful view of Paris. Although there was no snowshoeing, like the last time I was there, it was much warmer and therefore easier to enjoy our time outside in the city. Next, we took the classic boat ride down the Seine river that runs right through Paris and gives you a cute little British audioguide introduction of all the famous buildings that line the river. Following our mini-cruise, we headed over to the Arc de Triomphe right in time for the lighting of the French Tomb of the Unknown soldier and then walked down the Champs Elysee as the sun was setting, enjoying the "New York City" feel and hearing people in so many different languages walking by us. Paris truely is an exciting place. There are so many things to see, and so many interesting people to meet. But I am so happy that I chose Nantes over Paris, not only because I have heard that the IES program in Paris doesn't enfore an only-speak-French rule, but also because I just feel safe and secure here in Nantes, where as in Paris I am always looking over my shoulder making sure Im not getting pick-pocketed. It also is simply HUGE and even with its incredible metro system, takes quite a while to get from one end to the other. However, as this was my Dad and Dave's first time in France, I think they both extremly enjoyed seeing monuments that they had actually heard of :) We finished the day by grabbing some crepes in the Latin Quarter and stopping by the St. Michel Fountain. Its one of my favorite parts of Paris, just because of the nightlife, the people, and the smell in the air (90% of the buildings are restaurants.) The atmosphere is just so lively and fun and I wish we could have spend more time there.

For the evening, we took the train back to Versailles and stayed with an English couple a few miles away from Versailles. My mom and I had stayed with them on our last trip to France and their cute cinderella-ish french neighborhood, their forest full of huge holes from World War II bombings, and even them themselves were exactly as my mother and I had seen them 4 years ago. So we had a relaxing night there, and woke up early again to head back to Versailles to leave the car again. However, we found out that we could tour the gardens of Versailles in our car for only 5 euros, so we visited Marie Anoinettes little Austrian village that she had built so that she could dress up like a peasant when she was feeling homesick, the Temple of Love and other places the King would take his mistresses. Therefore, we got a later start to Paris than we wanted but we spent the day walking around the Tuileries Gardens (the Louvre Palace gardens), the exterieur/courtyards of the Louvre, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur (my favorite church) and Montmartre(the hill that Sacre Coeur is built on). It is always fun to walk around and look at all the Painters in the famous square next to Sacre Coeur, however, after asking the prices (2500 euros for a 3ft by 2 ft painting) we headed out to find something to eat. Tired and hungry, we finally sat down around 4pm and ordered some "Must-try" food : Escargot (not bad...i think you just eat it for the sauce), Creme Brulee, and some other classic french dishes.


We still hadn't finished our shopping so we tried to quickly head over to Paris's famous shopping district of the "Grands Magasins." Not having much success, we looked at our watches and realized that I still had a train to catch that evening. So, rushing over to the train station, we found out there was a train leaving in 15 minutes for Nantes, and I didnt have a ticket yet! Standing in line, trying to rush the people in front of us, we finally got up the ticket office only to find out that the train, leaving in 3 minutes was full, and the next and last train wasn't leaving for 2 hours and 15 minutes. On any week day, there would have been trains every 45 minutes but it was just our luck that I was trying to get home on a Saturday! But there was nothing we could do, and long story short, (because this blog is getting tooo long), I took my family to their train back to Versailles, said a quick goodbye (for their train was coming in 2 minutes) and went back to the train station to sit, wait, study, and read. I got back to Nantes at about 11:30pm and realized that my parents had been trying to call, but I hadn't heard my phone. So there they were, at their hotel outside of Paris, not being able to sleep because they thought I had been kidnapped or worse. Luckily they decided to call around midnight as I was walking into my room and they were able to sleep peacefully.

So now its Sunday, I am back in Nantes, safe and sound, and am going to spend the rest of my day studying for my midterms! I have European Union, Middle East, and Translation coming up, and these tests are 25% of my grade. So its been a fun and exhausting week, now its back to work! I hope everyone had a great break! Email/Comment/Message me and tell me what you did :)

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.

Mont St. Michel/St. Malo

What a weekend!

Friday evening was my first class in "Escalade," or Rock Climbing. A friend and I signed up since its something that I have always wanted to do and as a student of the University of Nantes, I can choose from number of sports/dance/conditioning classes for about 7 Euros. Not bad. However, the biggest challenge of the evening was simply finding the gym. After taking the bus to the outskirts of Nantes, we got off at our stop and looked around, only to be surrounded by a few small buildings, fields, and some grazing horses. We were already late for our class but after setting of in the wrong direction, asking for directions, backtracking, and wandering around some more, we almost gave up. We both were also carring around huge backpacks stuffed with a change of clothes from school, lunch supplies to pack a lunch for the following day, computer, digital camera, and our walet..so we decided that (even though we wern't actually lost), we pretty much were carring our most important possesions and everything we needed to survive and could easily become hitchhikers or hobos. Thankfully, we were spared from that fate by finally coming across a sign that pointed us in the right direction and we arrived 45 minutes late. Nevertheless, the teacher was very kind to us, and within 15 minutes we had both been taught how to tie the knots, use the equiptment, belay another person and now we can come whenever we want with eachother or another student who knows how and just climb the wall until we are tired of it. So thats really exciting :) I don't really have armstrength, coordination, or experience tieing complex knots, but if I stick with this every week (which I plan on) hopefully Ill be a lot better by the end of the semester!

Saturday was an all day excursion with IES. I think these trips are SOO cool because we get transportation and ticket included in our tuition and all we need to pay for it lunch. The morning's destination was Mont St. Michel which is the most visited monument in France(...supposedly, I find that hard to believe next to the Eiffel Tour). But anyways, Mont St. Michel is an island monestary that has been built up continually for centuries so it is very fun to explore because there are lots of layers and each is built in a different style. We received a guided tour, but unlike our other tours, no one informed this guide that 90% of the group was in the process of learning the language and he spoke fast even for native speakers. Still, it was interesting and he even demonstrated the acoustics of some of the rooms by belting out a low monk-like note. Outside the abbey, as the streets wind down toward the base, it gets extremly touristy with famous restaurants where an omelette is 40 Euros. We were pre-warned though so we enjoyed our picnic lunch in the beautiful sun that came out that day! It was also incredible looking out of the water. A causeway was actually build some years ago to connect tourists to the island but because of that, water hasn't been able to circulate well and sand is starting to build up. So I hear that "they" are going to tear down the causeway so they can return the island to the way it is supposed to look. Bravo for "them" :) Still, the swirls of sand were unique to see as well.

For the afternoon, we drove over to St. Malo, a city fortified with ramparts famous for its beaches which overlook the English Channel. It also is the home of Chateaubriand. So a few girls and I set out to explore and hopefully in the end go and explore the castle. It wasn't until an hour later as we were relaxing looking out over the water that we were told that Chateaubriand is not in fact a castle, but the name of a famous French writer who was buried about 20 meters (ahh! Im going metric!)from where we were sitting. Oops :/ It was beautiful and relaxing to see the sea but as it started to get colder we headed back early. On the way back to the bus, I decided to pay .30 cents to use the bathroom in the wall of the old rampart since we had a 3 hour trip ahead of us. Probably one of my weirdest experiences yet. When I entered, everthing in the bathroom was drenched. Completely soaking wet. As I closed the door, a toilet seat came down from the wall. It was then that I realized that this was a self-cleaning bathroom. After closing the door to leave, I stood and listened to the gush of water as something in the ceiling sprayed the entire bathroom down! Whoa. I know that I just spent more time talking about the bathroom, than the city, but whoa.It just showered itself! Is that really neccessary after every use? It was crazy. and totally worth 30 cents :)

It had been a long tiring day, so instead of going to a restaurant, a few girls who live near me came to my house and we enjoyed a night watching Sense and Sensability (yes..in English because we're horrible students :P ) accompanied by some store-bought pizzas and some deliciously-American Chips and Salsa (and it was American...Doritos brand). It was fun just to relax and to make some use of my huge room!

That just leaves today, Sunday! This morning I attended a protestant church which has a very international crowd, contemporary music (a rarity in France), and an American pastor who speaks just a little slower french than natives. So it was very fun to sing songs like "How Great Thou Art" in French, and I will definitly be going back and hopefully can start to get involved in the Thursday night Agape group for students as well. Then, this afternoon was beautiful weather and a friend and I went for a long jog exploring a creek and trail that runs for miles right next to my house so its a great place to run :) I even found a track by my house in case I want to start doing speed work in a bit. But we'll see about that. So tonight I just plan to relax, read, and get some homework done.

So now that you know what I've been doing, what are you up to? no, seriously. I want to know! So whether its commenting or emailing, keep in touch!

University

Today, I am finishing out my first week of classes. It has been a long, and somewhat frustrating at times, week! The way my program works is that IES gives students the choice of about 15 classes to choose between, but at the same time allows students to enroll in courses at the University of Nantes (aka. La Fac) if they wish. Their advice was to simply attend all classes that you think you might be interested in, and choose which ones to stick with at the end of the week-a bit different from what I am used to (choosing my courses months ahead of time.) So, trying to fit in as much as possible and obtain the idea schedule, I quickly became frustrated realizing there were schedule conflicts between a lot of the courses I was interested in at the "Fac" and my IES courses. However, it is thankfully almost all worked out now, and I can start concentrating on book buying, homework, etc. My final class list is:
1.) Advanced Topics in Grammer
2.) US and France in the Middle east since 1948
3.) The European Union
4.) Religion, Society, and State in Modern France (maybe)
5.) Translation-at the Fac
6.) Microbiology-at the Fac

Although I am excited for having courses at a real french University with real french students, after attending courses at the University, I am SO much more thankful for my small, private college education. Firstly, in France, the students only pay a 200-300 enrollment fee each year for school, tuition is paid for by the government. You also don't have to apply or get accepted, but are automatically assigned a University that fits your future goals. So therefore, it seems to me so far that many (not all) don't take it seriously. For example, in both of my classes, (60ppl in 1st and 150 in 2nd) the students talked through the entire lecture, to such a point that I couldn't hear the proffesor! I was waiting for the proffesor in either class to get angry, but they seemed used to it! To me, it seemed so disrespectful, not to mention that it was interupting my notetaking... I think at Alma, the professor would have started kicking people out. The other thing about French University professors is that they often don't have Office Hours because they don't feel it is their job to help struggling students. They are paid to lecture for so many a week, and thats it. Someone explained that they aren't being mean, its just the way it is. So perhaps if I attended a larger college back home I wouldn't be so shocked! But I am constantly going to professors at Alma with questions and have taken it for granted that they know me by name and are always willing to help.

That all sounded very negative toward the University, but the classes I am taking are really all very interesting so far and I am very excited about this semester because 5 of my 6 courses aren't offered at Alma. The IES courses are refreshing because, as its only Americans, the proffesor speaks a bit slower to accomodate us. But I think in general, the experience of the two types of classroom enviroments is going to be great to have in the long-run.

3 Other bits of news: Firstly, as I'm sure you are all dying to know... I finally went out and bought some boots :) Only 17.50 Euros, so that justified it for me. I feel so much more European now. I am including a picture of me modeling them , which I feel kind of ridiculous posting, but whatev. Secondly, I enrolled in a climbing class at the University with some friends so that should be fun to try :) and Thirdly,this weekend, I am visiting Mont-St.-Michel with the other students from IES! I am so excited!!! I have wanted to see this for almost as long as I've been studying french, so when I get back, I will be sure to post some pics! Until then, Bon Weekend!