A weekend in Burgundy

We left on a bus for Burgundy (Bourgogne) at 8 am and I was a little late, but at least they were just getting on the bus as I arrived. It was nearly a 5 hour trip, with a "pee pee break" (what the tour guide said) in the middle. This tour guide was the most annoying tour guide I've ever had. He gave a 1 hour speech on the bus about the history of the region and on other stuff that seemed quite honestly unrelated. Maybe it was because it was freezing cold, but from then on I couldn't deal with his long winded speeches. We went to the Hotel Dieu in Beaune followed by a wine tasting and the tour guide kept talking over the wine expert - he basically acted like he knew everything ever the entire time. Rather than the wine expert telling us how to analyze it our tour guide decided he knew better and told us instead. I bought a bottle of the first wine we tried for my mom and dad back home (hope you guys will like it!) and we headed to the youth hostel/summer camp for the night.

The place was pretty nice though the meals were so/so - my first time and probably last time having an endive salad (really bitter). It was the greatest thing ever to take a warm shower that morning so I took my time. Good thing I had to get up early to take medicine, because at 7am the tour guide woke everyone up with a rousing rendition of the bugle call (whatever it's called, it's always played on a trumpet/bugle to wake people up) that was not only insanely annoying - he came around twice - but also quite wrong. At least if you're going to wake people up like that play the right freakin notes!

I try to get the most out of our breakfast of bread (literally that was it), drink a few cups of coffee and hot chocolate and then get on the bus to go to the Abbey Fontanay. It was a really beautiful place, and as much as the tour guide wanted us to stay together I wandered around a bit (I'd had enough of him at this point and he was saying the same thing over and over again anyway). We then headed to the basilique Vezelay. We had a really great (and really long) 4 course lunch and then saw the Monastery and I actually listened to the tour guide this time. Even though it was adorned with reliefs and sculptures of Christian scenes there were interesting pagan things going on since it was created in the times of druids. On the spring solstice all the lights from the windows align in the middle of the floor (I've got a postcard of it), and - according to the tour guide at least - on December 25th there is a huge spot of light on the star of the nativity scene. Also since it's high up on a hill there are times when the fog is just right to make it look like it's floating on a cloud (I've got a postcard of that too). The view was amazing and it was somewhat sad to go as soon as we did but I was ready to get back.

I went to a famous falafel place last night in Paris that's apparently Lenny Kravitz's favorite - there's a picture of him with the owner and everything. My unprotected wi-fi network that I was stealing has dissapeared but my host parents just got wi-fi, so if my host dad ever finds the password I'll hopefully be able to use that instead. Home sickness is finally starting to set in, but I'm still having a good time.

27/1/06

I still haven't really figured out how to take a hot shower, or at least a shower that's warm for more than 30 seconds (literally). I think part of it is trying to take showers in the morning, but I'm really starting to dread showering. At dinner last night one the sons of my host parents came for dinner. It was nice to have someone else there to take the attention off of me, though I noticed I didn't comprehend what they said amongst themselves most of the time and I think it's because they speak faster and less precisely. Either that or I just stop actively listening because they aren't talking to me, but it's funny how easy to all of a sudden not understand French.

I went out to meet up with some friends last night which I almost gave up on since after 30 minutes of searching in the freezing cold I still couldn't find them, but eventually I did and then it was great. We went to the place called the American Bar though there was nothing in particular that was American about it; they didn't even speak any English. It was cool though, had the house drink "el diablo" which was creme de casis, vodka, and club soda. I've got a picture from there that I'll post later. I then shared a crepe with nutella and bananas and it was one of the best things I've ever eaten. Maybe it was because I was pretty tipsy, maybe it was because it was warm and I was freezing, but it seemed like a gift from God last night.

I slept in really late and have been at EDUCO ever since I woke up. We have meetings here all day, though at least they're mostly about all the fun stuff we can do here and the different trips and events they have planned for us. I have another meeting at 5 and then dinner with French students tonight, but there will be no going out afterwords since we meet at 7:45 am tomorrow for our trip to Bourgogne. If I think Paris has been cold I'm in for a rude awakening in Bourgogne...

Freud, Freud, Freud

I finally had a psychology class last night, and it's exactly as I've been told and completely centered around Freud. Even though it was supposed to be a small discussion group it was a lecture, probably because we hadn't had the main lecture class yet so there was nothing to discuss. I had the main lecture today, and it was 2 hours chalk full of Freud. It's funny how they basically revere him as if he was God's gift to psychology. I told my host mom that we don't really focus on Freud too much in the US - sure we study him and learn about his theories but most of his more sexual stuff is not taken too seriously. She then said that she thinks that's because we're based on a puritan society, lol, so she basically said that we don't believe in his theories about sex because we're prudes. I held my tongue a lot on that one, not only because I don't want to have a big arguement but also because trying to really express myself in an argument in French is far too hard for me at this point so I just let it slide. Nevertheless, the classes were interesting. The one yesterday wasn't too great and in the one this morning the microphone quit about 10 minutes into the lecture so it became nearly impossible to hear her, but the second class today was good. It will certainly be a different perspective on psychology...

After I had a quick lunch back home and my host parents were eating at the same time so I got to add some bread, cheese, and pound cake to my meal of left over pasta, which rocks. I then headed off to meet a friend at the Louvre and get our free student passes - since we're registered as "art history" students we get free entrance into the Louvre whenever we want to go. We walked around for awhile though I didn't take too much of it in since I was more absorbed in conversation really (and I've already seen 75% of it) but it was still nice to be there. I've got nothing for the rest of the night but once again it's too cold to want to explore so I'll probably not do much of anything.

25/1/06

Since I had nothing to do yesterday and didn't feel like going outside since it was incredibly cold I decided to go to a cinema class on the works of David Lynch. David Lynch films are bizarre if you've never seen them before (Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mullholland Drive), and trying to discuss them and understand them in English would be hard enough, but in French added an extra challenge. It was still interesting but very weird, although it was funny when one of the short films we watched (The Amputee) was only in English and the French subtitles never showed up, because then we got to listen to them analyzing what she said without really understanding very well since it was in English. There were 5 EDUCO students there (me included) and it was hard not to speak out and tell them they didn't know what they were talking about, but for the first day of a class that's probably not the best move. I can't take it anyway because it's full and I'm going to have (hopefully) a theater class with EDUCO that overlaps with it. At least I finally had a class, though 3 hour classes are definitely hard to sit through.

I had dinner with my family last night and it's getting more and more awkward between my host dad and me. If they are both there my host mom will talk to fill in the silence (not that we never talk, but talking consistently for 2 hours about my day is pretty difficult). However, every time she gets up to clear the table and bring out the next course there's about 5 minutes of silence between my host dad and me and it's always the awkward silence. I keep trying to think of things to talk about (weather has come up numerous times that's how desperate I am) but I always eventually run out. He's just not that talkative and I'm not sure what to talk about. He doesn't work, and when I asked him what he did that day all he said was that he did grocery shopping, so his day isn't exactly complex enough to take up more than 30 seconds of conversation time. I'm hoping it gets better soon, since I'm going to be having dinner with them tonight and tomorrow night too, and 3 nights every week for the next 5 months....

Not having class until 3:30 is making me anxious that I've forgotten about something; I've never had classes start that late. Psychology classes here have 3 parts - 2 1.5 hour lectures and then a smaller discussion group section. The weird thing is that I have the discussion group thing tonight but neither of the lectures occur until tomorrow, so I have no idea what we're going to discuss. Maybe it'll be like almost all my other classes so far and won't actually happen tonight. In the mean time it's too cold to do any walking around, so I'll probably spend another day at the EDUCO center.

French Universities suck

Seriously, they really suck. Most courses in the course catalog don't have the location written down so you have to go to the University itself to find out where the class is. I was lucky that all of mine had at least the days and times listed. According to the schedule in the course catalog I didn't have any classes this week until Wednesday, so I got up around 9, had breakfast and headed over to the EDUCO center to check out other classes and try to double check the locations for my upcoming courses. I find out from another girl around noon that one of the classes I wanted to take had changed to Monday at 9 am so I missed it. The only way she even knew that was because she went to the secretary's office (which is a 40 minute metro ride away) the day before and they showed her a list of all the courses that had changed days, times, and locations. She also told me (incorrectly as I found out later) that another course I wanted to take had been encorporated into a different course and it changed to Monday at 4:30 so after lunch I went to that class with her and another EDUCO girl. Well, I should say that I went to the room where that class was supposed to be, because no one other than the 3 of us ever showed up. We decided to go back and talk to the secretary again but when we got to the office they were already gone (an hour early too). I at least could look at the list of courses there though, so I wrote down everything and left disgruntled.

The wi-fi at my host family's place sucks too, it works when it feels like it. I shouldn't really complain - most people don't even have internet access at home, but it's annoying to be in the middle of writing an email or a blog and then lose my connection for the next 20 minutes. I bought gnocchi (a type of pasta) to cook for myself and it was definitely my first time to see a guy carrying his cat with him throughout the supermarket. James, you would've been jealous; the cat did exactly what you always want kitty to do and laid/sat on the guy's shoulder. I wish you could do that sort of thing in America; we could bring kitty with us everywhere!

I got up at 7 am this morning to go to my 9am class. It's hella cold today and will be for the next week. Temperatures feel colder here, probably because there's always wind. I got to the University 20 minutes early, which was good because I had no idea where I was going. I found the room with 10 minutes until class started and no one was there yet. Eventually people showed up, but the professor never did. Apparently sometime between 4pm yesterday and 9am today they wrote on the class list sheet that this class wouldn't start until next week. So I got up early and went there for absolutely nothing, or so it would have been if I hadn't met another American girl there. She was one of the first to arrive but she was speaking very fluent French with another girl. She was talking about an American who would be moving in with her and she wasn't happy about it, so at first I thought she was an American hating French girl. Then she looked at me and asked, "est-tu americaine?". I thought for awhile that I would tell her I was Canadian so she wouldn't hate me as much, but I said yes and then she said she was too - a full year student from California.

Since there was no professor everyone stood around talking and Heather (American girl) introduced me to the other girls since she had had classes with them last semester - everyone in the sociology major knows each other basically. Everyone was very nice and actually got very excited to talk to me when she told them I was from America. It was a good first interaction with French students, though Heather told me that it's difficult to find good French friends - they tend to remain acquaintences that you talk to before and after class. After all this I went to Paris 1 to find the time for my philosophy class and looked at the sports they offer. I'm tempted to take Judo but I think I'll just take lessons from James instead. There was still a lot of cool stuff like break dancing and modern jazz dance, so I'll probably take something like that too. If none of my other classes have changed last minute (like they tend to do) I'm done for the day, so now I just do whatever till tomorrow.

The first weekend

Thursday night I ate at a little greek fast food-ish restaurant with friends because my family told me they would be at an art show that night. When I came back I found food already cooked for me with a note telling me to reheat it and where I could find other things I would need. I felt awful but I had no way of knowing they were going to do that. I went to bed really early that night (10pm) so I left a note apologizing and saying that I would eat it later if they saved it, though I haven't done so yet.

Friday and Saturday were both crazy. Friday I went with an EDUCO group to the Musee D'Orsay though we only had 2 hours there which wasn't nearly enough to see the pieces of art I really wanted to see. I had only one hour after that to eat and then get back to the EDUCO center for a tour of the universities. Other than La Sorbonne (which we didn't visit since most of us won't get to take classes there) Parisien universities are ghetto, seriously ghetto. Paris 7 and Paris 1 were both created in the 70s after the big student revolt of '68, so they're rather retro looking on the outside. Why did I call them ghetto? Because the inside is nicely decorated in grafetti and perfumed in urine or something else that smells absolutely foul. Of course not the whole building is like that, but compared to Emory it was certainly a shock. I'm going around to find my classes tomorrow, so I'll take some pictures then. After the final class of the week I had dinner with my family and went to bed early again.

9 am Saturday morning we took our placement exam. Not exactly my idea of a good start to a Saturday, but after it was over we had a nice lunch paid for by EDUCO and then another museum tour, this time the Musee Carnavolet, which mostly concerns the French Revolution. It was alright but not as cool as I thought it could have been. Right now Paris is having their huge sales, so we did some window shopping (since even with the sales there's no way I can afford this crap). Paris has two city wide sales a year - now and in June - when basically everything except for grocery stores and pharmacies have huge discounts. But the thing is, it's Paris, so unless they reduce the prices by about 85% I'm not going to be buying anything anytime soon. While browsing for shoes at the Galeries Lafayette the "sale" prices ranged from 100-300 euros. But of course this is all designer stuff, so what else can you really expect?

One of the girls that I've become pretty good friends with here, Jessica, is in Cornell's chapter of APO, so that rocks. We ate together last night and walked around together today. Meeting up in Paris is pretty difficult though because there's several exits for each metro stop and every monument is rather large. Last night we decided to meet at the Eiffle Tower and that wasn't exactly the best idea. After 15 minutes of searching around we found each other (thank God for cell phones) and then had a quick dinner before going our separate ways. I fell asleep last night at the earliest time so far, 9:30pm, and slept for about 12 hours.

I decided to do the tourist thing today and walked through Jardin de Luxembourg, by the Hotel des Invalides, down the Champs Elysees, and into La Magdelaine, after which I met Jessica to do some shopping. I should've bet her money about everything being closed on Sunday, because sure enough after walking for over an hour to meet her it turns out everything was closed. No big deal though, we walked around and visited L'Opera and le Palais Royal, warmed up with a ridiculously expensive cup of coffee (that's what we get for chosing a cafe right next to the Louvre - it was 5 euros) and then walked through the Tuilleries a bit before going in separate directions. As much as I love walking around this city, it was definitely more fun in summer when I wasn't freezing my ass off the entire time. At least walking kept me relatively warm, but it seems unfair that it is so much colder here but nevertheless there's just as little snow as there is in Atlanta or Huntsville. It hasn't snowed yet and my host dad said that it probably won't, or at least if it does it will only be an inch or so and will melt by the afternoon.

I'll be adding to these lists later, but I might as well start them off:

Stereotypes that are true:
The Parisians wear a lot of black
They carry baguettes with them quite frequently
They all have dogs and bring them with them everywhere (into restaurants, onto the metro, etc).
They all dress stylishly and never wear tennis shoes (though a slight exaggeration, mostly true)
They take the metro everywhere

Stereotypes that are false:
They wear burrets and stripped shirts
They hate Americans - it's about as true as saying all Americans hate the French, but they certainly do love our music, television shows, and movies.
They say "Sacre Bleu!"

New things I've learned:
They are much more willing to kiss and make out in public than Americans.
They are more accepting of homosexual couples. Either that, or homosexual couples are more willing to make it obvious that they are a couple. I think the main thing for both this and the statement above is that PDA isn't a big deal here.
They love wearing boots over their blue jeans (even though my parents though it looked stupid when I tried it)

Like I said, I'll continue to add to this later. Also, if you have any stereotypes or things you want me to address send me a quick email and I'll add it to the list. Now that I've found this wi-fi connection that is unprotected I'll probably be online at home quite a bit. I finally remembered my camera and took some pictures today, so once I get my usb cord sent to me I'll post them.

Day 5

I ate at one of the university restaurants (called "Resto U" here) with other EDUCO students and two french students. It only costs 2.50 euros for the meal, and there's a reason why. You could get bread, an appetizer (no idea what mine was but not very good that's for sure) a main dish and dessert. For a main dish you can chose either some type of pizza or the daily special. Since the meat for the daily special was either a hot dog or some sketchy looking ground beef I decided to go with the pizza, which had (in addition to the usual marinara sauce and cheese) tuna, black olives and corn on it. It wasn't that bad actually, but it was definitely cafeteria food. After that we all went to a bar and after a drink we all left and I crashed as soon as I got back.

I finally had a good night of sleep though I'm still exhausted cause I definitely haven't caught up yet. My host parents bought some cereal just for me which I thought was really sweet. I'm starting to feel much more comfortable with them though I think it helps to only be there for a few hours a day. I'm going to have to ask how the shower is supposed to work there because I just can't believe that they always take freezing cold showers. Out of all the people that have talked to me, somehow my host mom is the most difficult to understand, which is unfortunate since I live with her and have to try to understand her quite frequently. I think it's because she uses phrases that I haven't heard before; maybe it's because both she and my host dad are "d'un certain age" as they say here (old in other words).

We had a lesson on the history and geography of Paris today which was actually pretty interesting. Now I have nearly 4 hours to do some homework, decide on my classes and chill, so I'll probably try to go explore some more of Paris today. I actually remembered my camera today, so if I get some pictures I'll post them tomorrow.

I feel like the French are very easy to offend. Not only were they really upset about people being late, but when I told my French family I wouldn't be eating with them (granted it was an hour before dinner, but I had tried calling earlier and no one answered) my host dad got upset and said that next time I would need to tell them much more in advance. I just now let my host mom know that I'm eating with a group of EDUCO students and French students and I think it was early enough, though she still didn't seem too happy about it. I'm starting to become more comfortable with them, though my host mom is definitely more easy to talk to than my host dad.

I went with a group of girls from the EDUCO program to a mexican style bar last night. We had some sangria and it was pretty cool, bad American 90s music and all. There was a sign about how the bar was for something "armee" which I'm starting to think was a term for homosexuals. Either that, or the French are very comfortable with expressing homosexuality in public because there seemed to be a larger number of gay couples there. I wonder what they thought when 7 girls walked in together...

We had an early breakfast (I had to leave the apartment at 7:45 am) which included a lesson on how french bread (and I don't just mean baguettes) is made. Apparently there's a law about what true French bread can be made of. If you use other ingredients than what is stated in the law then you cannot call it "french bread". After that I went to Notre Dame and the memorial for the 2 million french people killed in concentration camps. I'll post pictures from others later(I forgot my camera again), but it was very moving. There were poems etched into the rock and a display with two walls covered in 2 million small pebbles to represent all those who died. We walked around Ile-de-la-cité and then had some lunch, then it was time for my meeting to decide which classes I'm going to take. I'm still exhausted but I'm hoping to get a lot of sleep tonight since I no longer have time for a nap (class in 15 minutes).

Day 3

I met my family last night. They are nice, but nevertheless it's awkward. I should've asked for a family with children just so I wouldn't have to always be the center of attention. I feel like I need to talk to them all the time if I'm in the same room, and I really just don't have all that much to say. They don't really speak English, so if I get stuck I have to find some way to talk my way out of it in French. They've also used some words in French that I didn't understand and they had to resort to pulling out a French/English dictionary to show me the translation. It will definitely be the hardest thing to get used to here, but it really is the best way to ensure that I speak French.
Dinner last night was good and several courses long. Soup, followed by the main dish, followed by salad, cheese and bread and finally dessert. They thought it was odd that Americans eat salad and bread first - apparently it's always second to last here. Dessert is also much healthier - fruit, nuts and yogurt - so I guess I'll have to get over my love affair with chocolate. I was orginally hoping that I could eat with my family most nights, but I think until it's slightly more comfortable I'll keep the dinners to a 3 times a week schedule. I've once again barely gotten any sleep for the 4th night in a row, but I think my body's giving up on it now. I don't think I'm even completely over my jet lag.
My bedroom is rather large though they didn't provide any fun things like a computer, tv, or internet connection even though they do have the internet. I think I might be able to borrow it on occasion, plus they said that occassionally you can pick up a wi-fi connection though it's not great. The kitchen and the dining room are on opposite ends of the house (more of an apartment though really) because it used to be servants who would live where I live and cook the food and then bring it to the rich residents. They actually have a douche and it looks like they use it (there were products around it and such) - I plan on staying far away from it. The shower is also more of a tub with a loose shower head that you use while sitting in the tub. I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet because I woke up too late and thought that my class began at 9:30 when it actually began at 9 am. I was 20 minutes late but at least I wasn't the last person to arrive. Even still, everyone that was late got a serious talking to about how rude it is, which is slightly ridiculous since today was the first day we had to try to get to the EDUCO center from our new living arrangements and it's hard to know how long the commute will be. Despite everything I'm still having a good time and I'm just hoping that everything will become more natural soon.

first days

Bonjour!

I am in a internet cafe, and using a French keyboard is going to take some getting used to, everything is rearranged. My flight went well, though I wasn't able to sleep on the plane at all really and the night before I only had 2 hours of sleep. I got heavily overcharged for the taxi, I guess it was obvious that I was a tourist - it was 70 euros from the airport to my hotel. I crashed when I got in and slept/sat around until the meet and greet. I was really hungry and there were hors d'oeuvres, so I grabbed a few. The first one was great, but the second one was disgusting and I had put the whole thing in my mouth, so my only option was to eat it and it was hard not to gag. At least everything else that I've had to eat so far has been good. We had to sign a promise that we would speak only French for the rest of our time here, which I haven't really upheld but I'm trying. We went out to eat at Le Bistro des sans cullottes (of the pantless basically) and then to a bar called The Titty Twister. It was fun, but I didn't go to sleep when I should have and I'm still exhausted.

Today we had orientation at 9:30 am, and after that was over I went out with a few others to get lunch and buy a cell phone. I called my family ( last name of Camus, how cool is that) this morning and it didn't go so well, though I was at least able to tell them that I would move in tonight after my 3 hour class from 4-7. All I know about them is that they are an older couple whose children have left the house and they own a cat. Even though the call was pretty rough my host mom seems nice, so I think it will go well. I'll find out at dinner tonight I guess. We only have a week of orientation before classes at the University of Paris begin. I feel nervous a lot, but it's going alright. Trying to understand people is somewhat difficult because they think I'm French at first and speak entirely too fast. At least I haven't made a complete fool of myself yet. I keep forgetting to bring my camera with me, but I'll try to get some pictures taken today and post them as soon as I can. The EDUCO center has a wi-fi connection, so I'll probably be in there a lot once it's open to us. I don't have too much time left, so that's it for now and I'll try to post again tomorrow.

A demain!