6.18.2011 - Fête le Fleuve

Je suis désolée que c'était une semain depuis j'ai écrit!
I'm sorry that it's been so long - I've been busy!  And I've finally got a TON of free time... try 10 hours of travel time from Bordeaux to Nice on a high-speed (140 mph!) train...!
I'll write a few entries regarding the past week, so that it's not overwhelming for those of you who are following.  I know I sometimes get lost in long entries when I follow the journals of others. 

After McDonald's last week, where there was no successful internet connection (just like where I am now, at a McDonald's in the Marseille train station.... Perhaps my computer isn't compatible?), I had plans to meet Susan from Toronto at the Fête le Fleuve on samedi.  And I did - but the weather was not perfect.  I will not be missing the weather in Bordeaux!  It has been so hard to dress for!  One minute, the sun is behind clouds and you're cold.  The next minute, the sun comes out and it's hot!  Susan, myself and a young woman from Venezuela, Christina, spent our time at the Fete le Fleuve putting on sweaters and then taking sweaters off! 

The Fête le Fleuve, if you ask me, received a lot more hype than it deserved.  I expected more interaction, activities, or more interesting booths and vendors, but it mostly consisted of 18 or so trailers containing exhibits on the history of the River Garonne, 15 or so vendor tents which were quite a let-down (nothing like a boat show!), and a famous, old ship, the Belem.  I expected to potentially buy some gifts for my family at the Fête, but there were honestly only 2 vendors that were selling anything, and even those were not attractive.  Oh well - sorry mom & dad! 

The Belem and the waterfront of the Garonne

One interesting (rather new) tradition for the Fête le Fleuve is a long swim in the Garonne from the Pont Neuf, Napoleon's bridge, to a location much further north.  It was quite interesting to see, though I think the water looked a little dirty for my taste!  I hear that the sediment in Bordeaux is clay-based and so the water mixes with the sediments, causing it to appear brown.  However the river is actually supposed to be quite clean. 

Le 5ième édition de la Traversée de Bordeaux à la nage

After trying to read the exhibits about the river and walking around for many hours and taking photos, we decided to retreat further inland to grab a quick bite to eat.  Afterall, speaking French all day can be exhausting for those of us who are just learning!

We went to the Salon de Thé in the Place du Parlement.  The restaurant offers nearly 50 styles of tea and "petites goutes", little bites.  I ordered an almond-pistachio tea and the three of us shared a tartine du chocolat and citron meringuée.  It was delicious!  While we chowed, I learned that Christina knows Spanish, English, Italian and Portuguese and is learning French, and she hopes to also learn either Chinese or Arabic after she perfects her French... talk about ambition!  I'm not sure I could keep all of those languages straight in my head!  In fact, as I learn French, I've wondered if it compromises the strength of my English-language skills.  I've found it difficult to retrieve simple words when I'm looking for synonyms, and it's become difficult to recall the names of actors and movie titles.  I wonder if my mind is exhausted from learning a language at such an old age, and moves English further back in brain-use-priority.  I suppose you can let me know if my writing quality is beginning to go downhill!
 

Our table at the Salon de Thé

PrintScreen of the Salon de Thé in the Place du Parlement, compliments of Google Maps

While we were eating at the Salon de Thé, the skies broke and it poured for 30 minutes, after which the weather finally chose to be consistently cool.  I was happy for some consistency, finally! 

At that point, Susan, Christina and I decided to go to the movies the following Monday, so we went in search of a movie theater to find the times.  We went to two.  The first one, 12 Cinémas, appears to be relatively new, and is absolutely gorgeous. 

Me in front of 12 Cinémas... Proof that I was in France!

The other movie theater, where we decided to watch Paris à Minuit, a Woody Allen film.  I have found that many French people love Woody Allen films, and I honestly don't know much about him, so I decided, "why not?"  I thought it would be funny to see Owen Wilson's voice dubbed over in French anyway.  And it would be a great opportunity to attempt to understand a film, because the dialogue is really supplemental to the film, and the film itself should help me understand. 

After we found the movie theater and chose the time to meet on Monday, I had to rush to church.  I went to my favorite, L'Église Saint-Seurin.  The homily was very difficult to understand, and the echo in the cave-like Nave did not help.  I pretty much said the prayers in english, and thanked God that "Amen" is the same in all languages.  It was a very nice service, and the church is absolutely beautiful!  I wondered many times that night if it would be sacriligeous to snap photos of the Priest during the service... I decided that it would be a poor representation of Americans if I started to do that, so I refrained. 

After church, there was a book sale in the (Baptism Room?) profiting the youth Catholic education program at Saint-Seurin, so I took a look around.  I actually found a book from 1837..!  I'm pretty sure that it was a Priest's guide to celebrating the 4th and 5th sacraments, so I decided that I did not need it.  But I did find an old copy of the New Testament from 1912 in French that I bought, and maybe one day I'll be able to read it without a problem!

After all that, I was exhausted and was happy to retreat chez moi for a relaxing 5 course meal.  That is one thing that I am definitely going to miss in Nice... but then again, perhaps I'll be too busy enjoying the beach to miss anything!

À plus tard!

Je n'oublie rien!

I just wanted to apologize for not being very timely with my posts!  I've had a very busy weekend, and tomorrow I have a test.. but hopefully I'll be able to post everything I've been doing lately over the next few days!  Hang in there!

(Below are some pictures of the Place des Quinonces which I visited on Sunday, and here's some interesting info on the landmark:  http://www.worldsiteguides.com/europe/france/bordeaux/place-des-quinconces/)

the Girondist Column at the Place des Quinonces

A bientôt!

Fast Food in France

 ((Written Friday, 6/17/2011)

Well, I bet you can't guess where I'm sitting.

McDonald's.  It's the classiest McDonalds I've ever seen by far, where they offer your choice of bun...!  Trés interessant.  I came for the wi-fi, and bought a coffee seulement.  The coffee actually comes in a ceramic mug, which was surprising.  But this establishment is by far the busiest place around.  There's a long line the moment you walk in the door, and there are but a few open tables.  But at least McDonald's does not forget where they are from:  I'm listening to Katy Perry's wonderful voice shouting all around me.  Andrew's favorite.  I hope this isn't a tease for you - but I'm sure you can hear her on almost every radio station aux États-Unis.

Cafe au lait from McDonald's

 

I walked here with a new friend, Susan, who is in level B2 (I'm in A2, so she's quite a bit more advanced) and is here from Toronto.  We took a stroll into Gallerie Lafayette which resembles Bloomingdale's and sells little things for big prices.  Come on - shorts for >150 euros?  I don't think so.  Susan found something on sale and went to buy it, only to find out that it’s only on sale IF you have a Gallerie Lafayette credit card and membership… so she said “non, merci!” 

Susan and I, plus ~12 other Alliance Francaise students, took un cours de cuisine this afternoon après classe.  We cooked a delicious feast of poisson citroen avec courges vertes and it was delicious at a French cooking school, l’Atelier des Chefs.  It was very enjoyable (and easy to make!)!

 

Tomorrow is the commencement of the Fête le Fleuve, the bi-annual festival of the River Garonne that flows through Bordeaux.  Every other year, Bordeaux hosts the VinExpo, a large wine exposition.  And on the off years, to encourage tourism, Bordeaux’s Ministre des Évenements put on this festival.  Tomorrow afternoon, Susan and I are going to meet up to go to the festival and grab some lunch.  I hope it doesn’t rain!

Until then!

A random Arc I encountered on my way chez moi

Well, it's about time I write another entry.  That last entry, believe it or not, took my nearly two hours what with the picture-upload time (...5-10 minutes per picture!) and the post-upload photo formatting efforts.. Perhaps it's my shoddy internet connection, but I can stream tv shows and movies, so I'm thinking it's something else...

Anyway, the main reason I haven't written lately is that not much has been happening (for me) in France.  Lots and lots of time in the classroom, which I'm very pleased about.  By Monday, the national holiday Pentecost Monday (meaning I had a 3-day weekend), I could tell that my understanding of the language was already beginning to dwindle for not using it like I had during the week.  But after Monday, I was right back up there.  And tonight, I understood nearly everything that we conversed about at dinner!! Je suis tres heureuse!!  It's quite an amazing feeling.  Although, I suspect that the conversation topic we fell upon had something to do with my comprehension: obesity and food... seems to be something that us Americans are very aware of, and so I had plent to say, and it was interesting explaining to my host family the purpose of corn syrup... I thought everyone knew what corn syrup was!  And it was also interesting telling them about my experiences as a serveuse (server) in a restaurant for 5 years.

I think the most surprising aspect of learning a new language is the point where you stop translating word-for-word, and begin to just understand and comprehend the words instead.  It's an incredible feeling that I've never had before, neither with French in high school nor with Chinese in college.  It's quite empowering, actually.  I feel as if I've been let into an elite club where only a few people understand... although if I were to step back, I'd probably see that I'm one of a minority of people who are monolingual in the world.  Perhaps this experience will enable me the confidence to pursue the study of other languages (though  my horse, family and Andrew might not like to hear that if it means I'll be abroad...).

Alors, ce soir Ramon me donne some Economists since he's a subscriber, so at least now I'll be able to keep up with the current events of the time.  Tomorrow, Ramon and I are going bowling with some of his Chinese friends and possibly Corentin, the 15-year-old son of my host-parents.  I think that I've been very lucky with this family, especially after hearing the stories from other students in the group... Apparently a 5-course meal is not standard.

As of right now, my class has about (environ) 10 students, 7 of whom are students from South Georgia University.  Unfortunately, they are leaving on Saturday.  That means that, for my final week in Bordeaux, there will likely be only 3 students: myself and 2 awesome Korean girls.  I'm thinking that next week will be much more intensive because it will be easier for us to progress faster with fewer students in the classroom.

Sunday morning I'm going to meet Hyunjiu and Jinjiu (girls - if you ever read this, I apologize for any spelling errors), the Korean girls in my class at the Place de la Victoire, one of the only places in Bordeaux that I haven't seen, to go shopping at an outdoor second-hand market (my dream come true: a giant tag sale!!) and grab some dejeuner.  They are both graduate students and live in France.  Jinjiu lived in Brooklyn for a while while she went to school in the city, and Hyunjiu has lived in Bordeaux for some time now.  It's fun to hear about the cultural differences between South Korea, France and the US.

Alors, I haven't taken many photos since my trek around the city, but I did take some photos of the house to show you where I'm living.  Sorry if the lighting provides for poor photos..

This is the table upon which I eat most of my dinners, unless it's too cold out.  There aren't really any nagging bugs that bother you outside here, just some flies who seldom come to the table for food.  As my professeur says, "France, c'est le meilleure!"

This is the front of the house... a pretty poor photo but I was backed up against the front gate, so the photo can't get much wider.  It's really a very pretty facade, and I haven't seen any houses or buildings that stray far from this style.  The big windows on the ground level open up into the living room, and my room is on the 4th floor, whose windows you can't see since I only have skylights on the roof.  It's like a princess's tower in France!!!!

The patio and table from the kitchen door.

This is the kitchen.  Not too large, but they really took advantage of the height of the room for cabinet space!  The little table to the left with 2 chairs is where I usually have my breakfast.

Here is the interior dining room, opposite of the kitchen and to the far left when looking at the house from the outside (i.e. from the perspective of the 3rd photo).  The color for the inside-photos is a little off; the walls are more yellow and resemble stone from the outside of the house.

This is the entrance to the stairwell, situated between the dining room and the living room, and directly opposite the main doorway.  The kitchen, from where this photo was taken, is all the way to the left (on the other side of the wooden wall you see to the left of the photo).

This is the living room of the house.  They really have a lot of books, and I've noticed that Corentin has a Zelda game for XBox...!  I don't think he realizes how similar our tastes are!  I bet they pay a fortune for video games over here.   I saw a sign for 72 euros for an XBox 360 game today... that's outrageous!  This room is to the far right of the dining room.

This is my bedroom in Bordeaux!  Very big, and plenty of storage for all of my clothes and, of course, my shoes.  And yes, I make my bed every day!!

The view out my north-facing skylight.

The boulangerie à travers la rue, from the perspective of my skylight.

The view out my south-facing window, and the road I take to school every morning.

The same, but you can better see L'Église Saint Michel from this photo in the distance!  Those photos after my adventures le dimanche prochain!

Jour Occupé

WWI Memorial in front of L'Eglise Saint Bruno

 Bon Soir!
I now know Bordeaux like the back of my hand.  Well, that's not true, but I sure did walk enough today to feel as if I do.  I definitely miss the logical road names and helpful grid system of NYC, because all the traffic circles that I encountered today had me walking around in circles before I could figure out which road was the one that I wanted.  I must have looked strange to the people eating nearby on the sidewalk nearby...

I ended up waking up too late to go to a church service.  I woke up at 9:30, in plenty of time for the 11h service, but somehow fell asleep; so my interpretation of the Our Father will have to wait until next week.  I tried translating it myself during my long walk, but had to stop pretty early on from not knowing what "hallowed" would be in French.  Alors, I won't need to look it up myself, because I found a great website that has the Lord's Prayer in every language, including an mp3 of the Beach Boys singing the prayer..! ((http://www.prayer.su/french/common/, http://www.prayer.su/other/all-languages.html)).

My day started with the idea that the churches in Bordeaux, a relatively large city (in my CT eyes), would have multiple services throughout the day to accompany all the Catholics.  After I arrived at St. Seurin, the closest Catholic church, I realized that I had left my SD memory card from my camera in my computer.  So, since I already missed morning mass, I walked the 1.1 kilometers back to the house to pick up my SD card.  At that moment, I should have changed shoes.  But I did not; and soon enough, my feet began to form blisters.  Dr. Scholl's failed me! :-/

From the house, I decided to go to every other Catholic church in the area to try to find an afternoon or evening mass.  So I first went west another kilometer to the Paroisse Notre Dame de Salut.  I should never again go west because everything that is interesting is east of my house.  I will remember that for the future, and so will my feet. The Notre Dame de Salut was such a small church that it was almost laughable compared to the monumentous St. André and the ancient and cave-like St. Seurin.  Alors, the church only had one mass on Sunday, and I had missed it.

On to the next church:  L'Église de Saint Bruno.  This beautiful church has an impeccable facade and features artwork by Bernini.. but the doors were locked, and, again, I had missed mass.  The church, built in the early 1600s, is an incredible piece of Italian architecture that abuts a WWI Memorial, listing the names of all the men who gave their lives in the war.  Very interesting.  I really liked this part of Bordeaux for its humility and character.

Across the road from the church is a monumentous cemetery!  I had seen the cemetery on my map of Bordeaux, and imagined there to be old or uneven and worn headstones, but what I saw once I walked under the admonishing entryway, I could never have imagined.  This cemetery boasted houses for their inhabitants. The Cimetière de la Chartreuse was incredible.  The mini-maisons had stained glass windows and turrets on each corner.  In my time, I've seen that only very rarely aux États-Unis.  But to have a cemetery full of them seemed so strange!  Many of the sites were in disrepair and little placards had been placed on them to notify family members to visit the cemetery office for a good grave-cleaning.  How strange - I guess you never really think about the upkeep of your grave.  What a strange concept. 

By this time, I really needed some refreshment.  My feet were hurting and, as I found out this evening, I was getting some sun.   However, I soon found that everything was closed on dimanche (Sunday), and I couldn't even find a café from which to buy a coffee!  I did walk in to one place that I thought might have coffee, but they were selling only chocolate and ice cream (glace), so I had to walk away empty handed. 

La Cimetiere de la Chartreuse

Entrance to the Cemetary

L'Eglise Saint Bruno

L'Eglise Saint Bruno

 My last-chance-church was St. André, which I thought for sure would have an afternoon mass because of its tourism appeal.  Alors, quand je suis arrivée, the doors were locked and there was no afternoon mass.  It seemed that my only chance for mass today would be at 7pm at St. Seurin.  (I ended up missing that mass, too, because my host family was having guests for dinner and could not move dinner any later for me.  But no worries - there is a lundi mass at 18h that I will go to).  St. André seems so special to me and I think that's because I've never been that close to a church with flying buttresses before.  It may sound silly, but I remember learning about flying buttresses in the fifth grade and thinking that they were interesting, but not really understanding them (and giggling at the word "butt" in buttress).  And it's such a midievel part of architecture that we don't see in the US that the buttresses really let me feel the history of the building.  Alors, I took many pictures of the buttresses.  And there is a tower that tourists can climb to get a 360* view of Bordeaux, but I clearly wore the wrong shoes for climbing, and  skies weren't great, so I still have that to do next weekend!

L'Eglise Saint Andre

Flying Buttress of Saint Andre!

Rear entrance to L'Eglise Saint Andre - notice the different materials used for construction, likely representing additions to the original structure

Side view of Saint Andre

Side Entrance to Saint Andre

Side Entrance to Saint Andre

In an effort to give my feet some rest, after St. André I headed to the Mirroire d'Eau, a public park on the banks of the Garonne River.  The park is really just a large water fountain where children play.  Most of the day the water just sits 2" deep, but every so often the fountain is drained and mist rises and the kids run and scream and jump and play.  It's fun to watch, and it sure was relaxing to put my feet in the water.

La Miroire d'Eau

La Miroire d'Eau

And finally, I headed home.  Not straight home, because I got lost on one or two traffic circles, but I found my way eventually.  After getting lost in traffic circles, I found myself another small church off a very small road in what looked to be the expensive tourist-shopping district.  The L'Eglise Notre Dame du Chapelet didn't seem to be remarkable for its previous church-members or even the art, but it was a surprisingly beautiful building to come across amid boutiques and clothiers. 

L'Eglise Notre Dame du Chapelet

 I stopped a second time at St. Seurin because, as I passed, I noticed something different.  The stairs outside the church were open..  So I went to investigate, and the crypt and archaeological site below the church was open!  Unfortunately, most of the information was in French; but fortunately, I understood most of it!  It's pretty cool to be able to read about archaeological digs in French!  The grave site dates as far back as the 4th century, though I honestly do not remember much else that I learned.  It was pretty cool to see such an old site, though.
 

Ancient crypt below Saint Seurin

Dinner tonight, all 5 courses, was at 7:30, and went until a little after 11 since we had company and the city had feu d'artifices (fireworks).  The fireworks were pretty cool; sitting in the dark and watching them while people chatted in French really let it sink in that I'm in France, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience!  Needless to say, though, I'm quite tired.  I find it difficult to pay attention to the fast French conversations all the time, because my mind becomes tired of thinking so hard.  It's a true test.  But I'm not complaining- as much as I couldn't understand, I think I just need to work harder on vocabulary.  Hopefully I can put some time in this week at the library - so exciting for blog-readers to hear, I'm sure!

Séduisant Samedi

I've almost been here for one week and I think I've learned as much as I did within an entire year of French instruction.  I think my progress is the product of a number of things: previous French instruction; complete immersion; longer hours in the classroom; stronger desire to learn. 

I set a late alarm today (10:30am) and actually woke up before the alarm, so I have definitely caught up on all my sleep and I am very grateful that I never really suffered from jet-lag.  I think a lot of that is due to the fact that French coffee is awesomeeee.  Let me set the record straight - I'm not a fan of coffee.  I never really liked the bitter taste, and I'm too embarrassed to put enough milk into the coffee to make it finally taste good (in public).  So if you ever see me drinking coffee aux États-Unis, I'm not likely enjoying it.  That being said, the coffee that I make for myself every morning is amazing.  Even when I put too much coffee in, it never tastes bitter.  C'est encroyable!!  I'm not sure if the impeccable flavor is the result of the French grounds or of the fact that the coffee is made with a French coffee press, but I can't get enough of it.  And it's so potent - I had coffee 3 mornings this week and never felt tired throughout the day.  The other days I didn't have coffee because Ramon, who I walk to school with, was waiting for me.  And I definitely felt more tired and had to take a nap those days.  I think I'll have to stock up on those magic beans before I return stateside.

So, as I was saying, I woke up a little late this morning, had some coffee, and decided to make my way to the Jardin Public of Bordeaux.  I left the house with a map, and ended up going in the wrong direction because I had improperly marked, on the map, the location of my house.  Oops.  So 40 minutes later, after much backtracking, I finally found the garden and went for a 25 minute run.  The garden is really beautiful complete with waterfall, ducks, some species of goose that I had never seen before, and so much more.    I will try to upload the pictures that I took, but no promises.  By the time I had finished running, it started to sprinkle so I took my leave from the garden and headed back to the house.  It's really quite easy to find, once I looked at where the house actually is on the map.  And it's an incredible place to be able to run... I'm so lucky to be in France!

Waterfall (une cascade) in the Jardin Public, Bordeaux

Jardin Public, Bordeaux

After my run, I returned to the house to take a shower, and then left again to return to the Basilique Saint-Seurin.  The outside, as I had mentioned before, is beautiful.  And the doors are huge.  Something about old buildings and huge doors.. and you know, people were smaller back then too... Strange. 
Anyway, I get to the giant door and all I hear is organ music and singing.  As I open the door, a damp, cool air settles over my skin and I enter the church that seemed to be lit solely from sky light in the stained glass windows and candles that were lit for prayers.  The construction of the wall seemed to vary in different parts of the church, likely the scars from many additions onto the church.  There are about 6 "chappelles" off of the main nave where sarcophagi of saints lie, such as Saint Étienne, Saint Martial of the XIV Century, and, of course, Saint Seurin (apparently I need to read up on my French Saints...).  It's incredible to think of how much history this one church has seen, especially compared to little old St. Joseph's in Chester! 

I spent about an hour in the church, which also has a crypt that was closed today.  I think it was closed for a wedding though, because as I left the church a large crowd of well-dressed French family members were gathering outside the church. 

Stained glass window in the Chappelle St. Joseph in the Basilique St. Seurin

Chappelle de la Sacre-Coeur in the Basilique St. Seurin

You can see how old the Basilica is just by looking at the walls!

Le Sarcophage de Saint Étienne

From there I went to Auchan, a supermarché that rivals Wal-Mart in size and diversity of goods, and rivals Target for quality.  The supermarket has 3 levels, and you can take your big shopping cart up the escalators because they are just moving-walkways on an angle.  It's something I've never seen before! Come to think of it, there was a part of the annoying Parisian train/metro system where I had to stand on a moving walkway that dropped and climbed as we went further underground and then resurfaced.. Quite cool. I went to Auchan because I needed pens and pencils... It seems I only brought one pen with me, and I'm pretty sure it's about to die.  That would have been horrible if it happened in class!  So I needed to stock up.  I spent quite some time in Auchan because I was sure I needed something else, but everything seemed so expensive that I couldn't really justify buying anything. 

After that I returned home for a skype date with Andrew.  Whenever we talk during his lunch break at work during the week, he only has time to talk to me for 12 minutes... You date someone for four years, then study abroad and they only have time to talk to you for 12 minutes...?  Not what I want!  But, I guess it's good that he's busy and he's working hard.  Though I would much rather him be here in France with me!

Alors, yesterday my host family made dinner for me but had plans to go out for the evening, and the other gentleman who is being hosted was out for the night, so I ended up eating with an older child of the host family who goes to Bordeaux University and studies medicine.  He doesn't speak any english, so it was very interesting having a conversation with him!  It truly was a test!  And, after telling him about Jill, I learned that the word for surgery in French is very difficult: chirurgie, I believe!  Try saying that twice fast... or even once fast!

Maintenant, je pense que c'est le temps dormir.  I have to get up with an alarm tomorrow to go to church and learn what the "Our Father" is in French.  À bientôt!!

(Oh, and excuse the appearance.  This website does not make it easy to format your entry with photos!!)

L'histoire est encroyable!

I found myself eating lunch outside of a basilica from the 6th century this afternoon.

I had an hour between my morning classes and my afternoon class, and though I brought my lunch, I decided to get out and stretch my legs.  Just a 10 minute walk - if that - from the Alliance Francaise, I found un petit parc with some benches that I could sit on while I munched my lunch.  After I finished lunch, I walked to the front of the interesting Gothic building that seemed to be the subject of the park, and found it to be the Basilique Saint-Suerin, a basilica that has seen more history than most places in the US.  By the time I went to the basilica, I did not have time to go in and look around, though admission is free.  But I plan to go back this weekend, when I'll have lots of free time.  Come to find out later, once I returned to my host family home, Lonely Planet ranks the basilica as #3 in the list of things to do in Bordeaux... who knew?!  I wish I my iPhone had 3G over here, so that I could have known that earlier today!  Alors, my list of things to do while in Bordeaux is growing exponentially, and my time here seems to be dwindling fast!  I only have 2 weekends to explore all that Bordeaux - and southwestern France - has to offer!

My French classes are going well.  I can't believe how quickly I am learning.  I think the other students get restless in class, but after having had 4 hours of class in a row since September, I don't even notice the time going by.  Sometimes I do find it hard that the teachers don't give explanations in english, but I think that is something that I'm just going to have to get used to. 

One thing I don't think I'll get used to is that the French don't tend to use napkins.  Since I have a 5 course dinner every night, I always leave the table with sticky hands and never know where I should wipe them.  So I just... don't.  And when I went out for lunch Tuesday, I had to ask for a napkin, because they are not automatically given out.  If I had known, I think I would have packed many more mini-packets of tissues, because I'm finding myself to be a messy eater!

Alas, it is nearly 8 and it's time for dinner.

A bientot!

Les Défis de L'étude

 After only three days in France, my understanding is already improving.  My host family, God bless them, only speaks to me in French, and has been known to keep others from helping me understand.  They are the sort of host parents who withhold in an attempt to make their children stronger.  That may be an awful or misunderstood explanation, but I understand it, and it is my blog so...

For instance, at dinner on Sunday, I did not understand the word "pays" when a guest was asking me "De quel pays venez-vous?" (or something like that), meaning, which country are you from.  And my "host brother", Ramon from Spain, knows english and started to help me when Francois, my "host father", hushed him and forced me to figure it out as the interrogator re-worded the question and, in essence, defined "pays" in terms simple enough for me to understand.

That is the sort of experience that a host family provides; it is one that is immeasurably important when somebody truly wants to learn a foreign language.  I am very lucky that my family is so helpful and continues to speak in French around me despite my lack of involvement.  At dinner, a conversation will get heated (usually about Federer and Nadal, between the French host father and the Spanish host brother), and after a few minutes (MEE-NOOOT, as Francois emphasizes when Ramon's Spanish accent ignores the French language requisites) Francois will slow down and explain to me in slower and easier French.

My confidence, though weak, is already gaining strength.  Ramon and I walk to school together in the morning, a 10 minute walk, and we talk in French the whole time.  He usually dominates the conversation, but I appreciate his commitment to the language, and to helping me.  It's quite refreshing. My class consists of 10 students, only 3 of which are not American, and only one person speaks no english.  Needless to say, most students revert to english even despite the professeur's dedication to keeping the classroom in French.  I feel bad.  There are two girls in the class who have very little understand comprehension of anything that is going on in the class, and sitting next to one of the girls, I tried to help her as much as I could.  But when we would be assigned to group work (small groups of 2-3 students), she would write in her journal.  It seems clear to me that not everyone in my classroom has a desire to become fluent quite like I do.  I just hope that the english-speakers in my classroom don't prevent me from progressing like I may have if nobody else spoke english in the class.

Alors, I am still learning.  I had 5 hours of instruction today, which was long, but necessary.  I had a second class today focused on writing and oral skills.  Well, this class seemed to be a little bit basic for my skill level.  I think a number of the students in the writing class have only started learning French this week.  I think that the professor noticed and perhaps she will give me some more difficult tasks on Thursday.  Otherwise, I may ask her what else I could do to further my learning.

My only other problem is my failure to push Chinese out of my mind.  All day long, I want to start my French sentences with "you shi hou" ("sometimes" in Chinese), or "tamen" ("they" in Chinese), or even use the verb "kan" ("to see" in Chinese), which becomes old very fast.  It only means that my brain must sift through more information before I figure out that (a) That's Chinese, not French, and (b) the real world for sometimes is "parfois".  Because honestly, for a few hours the other day, I thought "suo yi" (pronounced swa-ee, meaning "so" in Chinese) meant "so" in French.  Oh well, only time, and practice, will take care of that!!

Learning French is Easy when the City is Beautiful!

Well it's safe to say that I'm over whatever jet lag may have affected me. It only took 10 hours of sleep last night and a little nap this afternoon to cure it!

My classes at Alliance Francais began today.  After a professeur initially placed me in the wrong classroom, I finally found the correct classroom avec mademoiselle Delphine.  Tres francois!  There are mostly Americans in my classroom, a group of 7 or 8 from the Georgia Southern University, a girl from Seoul, and a girl from Italy.  The girl from Italy is the only one who doesn't speak english, but our professeur keeps everything in French anyway.   So far the class is a refresher course, but at an accelerated speed.  I'm sure in a week or two I'll be learning things I never fully learned before, which is nice.

After class I walked to a beautiful bookstore, Mollat, in downtown Bordeaux to buy the textbooks for the class.  And from there I wandered for 2 hours, just taking in the atmosphere.  Bordeaux truly is a beautiful, old city.  The architecture is incredible; there's nothing quite like it in America.  As you walk along the streets, there may be modern stores on the first floor, but there is a strong sense of antiquity from the city and its old, weathered stone buildings, its monumentous churches you can see from immense distances, or even the cobblestone roads all around the city.   I sat in front of the Saint-André Cathedral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_Cathedral) this afternoon as I ate my lunch.  Tres jolie!  Tomorrow I have a class in the afternoon, so will not have much time for dejeuner (lunch).  But perhaps that is where I will go for church this Sunday!

After all that walking, I needed a nap.  So I came back to the house of my host family.  The house is four stories tall and has a small front yard with a wall about 12' tall protecting it.  My room is on the top floor, and I can see so much of Bordeaux from my windows!  So far, we have eaten all of our dinners outside.  And dinner consists of 5 courses, regularly.  Soup, salad, main course, bread and cheese, and dessert.  Je serai tres gros (I'm going to get fat)!! 

Nothing else new to report today.  My host family does not have internet, so I piggyback on some other internet which causes my skype to be quite poor.  But it does work, so if anyone is ever on, feel free to skype me @kjfortier.

I hope all is well stateside.

Je n'aime pas les trains de Paris!!

    Mon Dieu!  Paris est un pain!  I don't know if that sentence is correct, but let me tell you - navigating from the Charles de Gualle Airport is awful!  I allowed myself 3 1/2 hours from landing time to get through (i.e. stroll by) customs and take a train ride that was supposed to amount to 1 hour.  Well.... everything went wrong the moment I picked up my luggage.  First, the ATM at the airport did not work.  Then, I walk to the shuttle-train that was to take departing planers from CDG to Paris, and an announcer informs everyone that, due to a downed wire, the train will not go past the Gare du Nord station.  I check my map and see that this does not present a problem for me, since I can switch at Gare du Nord to the 4 train line which would take me to Montparnasse Station, where I was to connect for my train to Bordeaux.

    After waiting 40 minutes and asking an American couple if I was doing the right thing, the train finally came to take us to Gare du Nord.  Alas, we never even got close.  I'll tell you one thing - French trains allow a lengthy ~4 minutes at each station waiting for passengers who may be on their way.  So this seemed to cause my commute to Montparnasse to proceed at a crawl.  After that, our train stopped at Aulnay Sous Bois station, still far north of Paris, where the conducteur announced something faintly in French over the loudspeaker.  A mass exodus of French speakers occurred, and I was left standing with a couple from Boston and my 60-something retirees who were on their way to Aix en Provence.  We sat for what seemed like too long of a time considering nobody else was getting on the train, and it sure wasn't going anywhere.  FInally, I ask a few people if they speak English, and once I find somebody who does, I ask them about our train.

    I find out that it's not going any further.  So, back to the drawing board.  The translated message told us to change over to platform 2... down 2 big flights of stairs, and then back up.  Did that.  Then we waited some more.  And once another mass exodus was about to begin, we decide to 'act like lemmings' and follow the crowd to a hidden train, behind construction and sadness, which was going to Bondy.  Well, finally.  A train that was going somewhere.  I ran to this train just in time for the door to close on a teenaged French smoker who exhaled his last puff into our now shared train space.  This train left at 10, and my train to Bordeaux leaves at 11:30.  

    Luckily enough, a girl walks on after me named Sarah, who attends Princeton and is going to Montparnasse to catch a later train to Bordeaux for an anthropology class.  She speaks French, which is enviable considering I could have wasted a lot less time had I known what the conductors were saying all morning.  We decide to travel together to Bondy and beyond.  At Bondy, we rush off the train with hundreds of others to catch our train which - thanks to the French train way - still had its doors open... but not for long.

    Again, we with suitcases and luggage were forced to thunder down 2 flights of stairs, across the under-platform and struggle our ways up the stairway to heaven.  Halfway up, a gentleman helps carry my bag as I'm considering leaving it halfway there.  On the platform, I  see a frenzy of 6 or so men holding the doors open for us stragglers.  They take my (overweight) luggage and help me in.  Whoever said not to "take the Frenchman's shit" never had their trains cancelled with the French.  I loved these guys. 

    As the doors shut, Sarah and I look at each other and both ponder the same thing:  are we even going the right way? 

    By now my face is wet, my lungs hurt, I have a rope burn on my arm from my oversized swinging Vera Bradley death machine, and my panting sounds inappropriate.  Alas, I think the French are used to those sounds.  At the first stop, Noisy de Sec, we realize that we are, in fact, going the right way.  But at 10:23, we still have to catch the 4 train at the Gare du Nord Station to Montparnasse, followed by another marathon to the expensive TGV express trains to Bordeaux and beyond.  A few stops later, at 10:37, we hop off the E train to find the 4 train.  Yes, another search.  Up more stairs.  Then down stairs.  We determined that the handicapped must not be tolerated in France since we didn't see any escalators or elevators.  We got on the 4 train without any issues, and actually got to sit down until we were at Montparnasse station. 

    At 11:06, we get off the 4 train at Montparnasse and start the seemingly neverending trek to the TGV trains.  Oh, and on the plane earlier that morning, I realized that I forgot to print out my $120 train ticket to Bordeaux.... so at 11:17, I get to the information desk and they tell me they cannot print out my ticket.  Super.  So they tell me to go upstairs and talk to someone else.  And those people told me to go somewhere else.  Finally, I am sent to billing, where a nice man printed out my ticket and told me to run.  I barely got to shout goodbye and thank you to Sarah for her help before booking it to Voie 1 (platform 1).  Again, I hopped on the train with the help of those nearby just as the doors sounded that they were about to close.

     I did not get to sleep on the train since all the seats were taken and my suitcase kept falling down.  All in all, in the last 30 hours, I have had only 3 hours of sleep.  Jill - I don't know how you do it.  I started writing all that on the train and then started to get sick from going 180 mph.  So I'm finishing it here, at the beautiful house of my host family.  I will write more about Bordeaux later, but until then, au revoir!!

Le Commencement

                Apprehension and anticipation abound, my voyage to France began two months ago when it was announced that I won the LISA.  My graduate school program, International Political Economy and Development at Fordham University in the Bronx, awards four students every year the incredible opportunity to go anywhere in the world to learn a language.  In this ever globalizing world, being at least bilingual is incredibly important, especially for someone who wants to work in economic development.  This award is, ultimately, the reason why I chose Fordham as my school of choice instead of Vanderbilt or  BU.  And after laboring over my essay for months, I finally applied for the scholarship on December 1st, 2010.  And after many (perhaps too many) months of anticipation, on February 26, I was given the final word that I was one of four students being granted the Language Immersion Scholarship Award (LISA).  

                I chose France as my country of choice for a number of reasons.  Fordham has close relations with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), an international relief organization that works in many French speaking countries, who I sometimes envision as my future employer.  Additionally, I had taken four years of French language instruction throughout high school, which I thought would give me a leg up in understanding the language.  And finally, I wanted to visit Europe!! 

                So, my journey to France really started many months ago, when I first heard of the LISA.  But here I am, sitting on a plane over the Atlantic, finally on my way to Paris.  I said goodbye to my parents and my wonderful boyfriend of four years this morning and hopped on a plane in Boston.  My boyfriend has been incredible in helping me to prepare for this journey, especially when it came to buying the plane tickets and navigating the various French language instruction schools around the world.  Alliance Francaise came highly recommended by a previous LISA awardee who went to France, however it was difficult to find the locations of the schools.  I ended up choosing my destination cities on, basically, my limited tourism-hype-based knowledge of French cities.  Only three weeks ago, I purchased my airfare and enrolled in the Alliance Francaise school in Bordeaux for three weeks of June (6/5/2011-6/24/2011), and the Actilangue school in Nice for four weeks of July (6/27/2011-7/22/2011).  I then plan to travel around France for two weeks, perhaps alone or with new friends, and then meet my parents in Rome around August 7, then back to Paris to meet my boyfriend from the 10-16th of August.  I could not have done this without Andrew, since I apparently have a commitment problem when it comes to solo international travel.

                So it's finally getting dark on the plane, at 8:22pm ET (2:22am France time), and so I will try to get some sleep.  I meet my host family, Monsieur et Mademoiselle Martinot and their son Francois Xavier, at the Bordeaux train station.  Wish me luck in getting from the airport to the train station with my overstuffed luggage!

A bientot!