Les muscles, trop de fromage!

"Muscles" is a funny word to say in French. It's pronounced "moose-kluh". I mention that only because I signed up for "La musculation" at the university and my first session was yesterday. I was nervous that I'd get there and there'd be all these huge, built French guys who knew what they were doing and then... me. But that was silly, because I did sign up for the beginner course! It was actually perfect, exactly what I was hoping for. 60% girls, many of whom were less familiar with weight-lifting than I am. The machines may be a bit older and more worn than those I'm used to, but hey, it's a free gym! I'm the only American there, so it's a great chance to meet French students too... if I ever get up the guts to talk. Yeah, I really didn't say a word the entire time. But next time... Maybe...

Today Nicole and I went to E. LeClerc, which is an amazing store! It's in that amazing mall I talked about last time, Atlantis - the one with the two-story carousel, did I talk about that? I want to ride it! Anyway, E. LeClerc is like Target and Safeway in one. We went in looking for those cool little tennis shoes people in France wear. They're narrow and often extremely ugly, and yet somehow so appealing. I can't explain it, but I want a pair. :) Unfortunately French people have tiny feet, so I haven't found any in my size. But while we were there, we decided to do some grocery shopping. (Like I said, they have everything. Even peanut butter! It was in the international section, next to the 'Tex-Mex' and oriental food, ha ha. French people think it's disgusting, but I realized that I really can't live without it, even if a jar does cost about $5...) The thing that still blows me away though, is a) how many choices there are for everything, and b) how little it all costs! You can get a huge slice of Brie for a dollar. The thing is, you walk into the cheese aisle and you are completely overwhelmed. It's a whole aisle, of just cheese! How do you pick? And then you finally, randomly, select a cheese, based on price, packaging, location; who knows??? And you move on to the yogurt aisle, and bam! Same thing. Organic? Dessert-style? Goat milk? Every brand, every flavor you can think of - I know we've been over this before, but it gets me every time! It's quite the adventure, really, grocery shopping in France. Just thought you'd want to know... :)

Le Mont St. Michel, la grosse stupidité

First of all, yes, Mont St. Michel was fabulous... First we visited St. Malo, which, despite being a little touristy, was a very neat walled city. You could walk around the entire perimeter on the ramparts, with an excellent view both of the scenery outside the city - the ocean and scattered islands, sailboats, etc. - and of the neat, narrow roads full of shops, gardens, etc. within the city. I ate an excellent galette and crêpe for lunch (I really am going to miss those) and then we went on to Mont St. Michel.

A town built on a rather small mountain, Mont St. Michel is also surrounded by lovely scenery: a sheep farm, a winding river, vast expanses of grass and trees, etc. Of course, right up next to it is just a vast expanse of sand, because when the tide comes in - which it did right as we were leaving - it becomes an island. I hear the tide comes in so fast ("faster than a galloping horse") that people drown in it; either that, or they are sucked under by quicksand! Yikes...

One of the things I like most about Mont St. Michel is its verticality. It really is not a very big area - the base is fairly small. So everything is built on top of each other. The road that winds around the semi-island tunnels under the buildings that are above... It's really pretty cool. It's kind of a climb to the top, but of course, that's where the abbey - the whole reason the town even exists - is located. It was started in 708 after a bishop had a vision of the archangel St. Michael telling him to build a religious site on top of this mountain. Over the centuries the site grew more and more important, and the building on it got bigger and bigger. It's really kind of a feat of engineering because first of all, it couldn't have been easy to get huge blocks of granite up to the top of this mini-mountain/island a thousand years ago, and secondly, since the abbey is built right at the point of the mountain, the actual rock base is very small - and they kept enlarging the structure around it by means of fabricating a larger and larger foundation. So these days the outermost passageways are closed because there isn't enough support at the periphery. It's really quite fascinating!

There were way too many people there, though. It was hard to walk through the narrow streets and every room of the abbey was crowded. We couldn't take our tour as a group because the tour guide already had about 50 people and with all of 60 of us added on to that, it was just too huge. But two other students and I waited for the next tour, which was well worth it (and good practice for my French listening skills, too!). It was hard to imagine the place tranquil, quiet, and full of meditating monks like it was several hundred years ago, though!

So, about this stupidity business. Somehow, and I really couldn't say how, I had a little misunderstanding about when my courses were starting at the university. The French system is pretty confusing, I'll grant myself that much. Two of my classes start next week (Philosophy and Translation). But my most important course, Politics, which counts for my major, well... Unbeknownst to me, that course started last week. I have already missed 6 hours worth of that course, which is going to be difficult for me to follow already, given that it's for regular French students... and now I'm two classes behind. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed to discover this information. Especially when I think how restless I've been waiting for courses to start! Oh, it's hard not to let it get me down. But I just remind myself that in the grand scheme of things, a lot worse could have happened. I can speak to the professor, borrow notes from a French student, etc. It's not the end of the world... but it sure is frustrating. At least, when this study abroad business is all over, I can attest to the fact that it certainly was a challenge!

Le palais de justice

Well, no, we haven't visited Mont St. Michel yet - but I'll write about it next time, I promise! I just wanted to take the opportunity now to talk about the activities of the past few days. Actually, night before last I stayed in and read some of my fascinating french novel, Les Hommes, etc. (Men, etc.) It's kind of like Bridget Jones' Diary, in France. It's great! The author, Irene Frain, has such a unique and compelling voice. It's really like being inside the heroine's head. (And what a bizarre place that is...) She compares looking for a lover to shopping, saying that now that she's made the decision to actively look for someone, it's like being at a great sale and really wanting to buy something, but not being able to find anything you actually like. Ha ha. (Of course the moral is, it's when you stop looking that the perfect thing just tumbles into your lap.) I also like the way she incorporates sounds into the story (lots of onomotopaieas, however on earth you spell that word) and gives everyone nicknames in the character's thoughts (the Astronomer, the Crocodile, Dirty Guy, etc.) It's very richly written. And I can't wait to see if she ever ends up finding true love!

Okay, anyway, enough about that. I also started a knitting project, after buying disgustingly expensive yarn... and of course, I couldn't understand how the saleslady explained that I was supposed to get it from being in a twisty loop (the way they sell it) into balls like you knit with, and I managed to tangle this slender, slippery yarn into one big huge knot. So for the past week I've been spending like half an hour a day untying that crazy thing. It's kind of soothing, actually... but I sure would like to start knitting my poncho. (Didn't you know? They're all the rage again... but by the time mine's finished, I'm sure they'll have gone back out of style!)

The coolest thing I've done this week was yesterday afternoon, when Bénoît took me and a group of people to the Palais de Justice to hear some court proceedings. First of all, I have to describe this building. It's new, built just a few years ago, and it replaced a traditional marble building with classical architecture, you know, like the Supreme Court building in the U.S. This new building is the farthest from that I could possibly imagine. It looks like something out of the Matrix. It's huge, black, and very angular. The concrete expanse in front of it slopes at an angle too, so you have to walk up to get to it, making it even more intimidating. It's got a large overhang that looms over you and the front is covered with what seems like a gridwork of metal, like a grill or something... It's like walking into a futuristic jail. Inside, there are two huge black cubes, one on either side. (Each contains two courtrooms.) Their surfaces are also covered with black cubic projections, and the doors blend in with the pattern so the only way you can tell where they are is by the little sign that says, 'poussez'. Then when you do push on it, it looks like part of the wall just swings in, and you see that the doors are square - as wide as they are tall. The courtroom itself is also cubic, but is in a very red wood, like mahogany or cherry, and is illuminated with a grayish light that washes everyone out and makes them look dead. It is seriously the weirdest, scariest place! So geometrical, so dark, so intimidating! If I was on trial... let's just say I would be pretty scared.

Still, it was cool to visit. The lawyers wear black robes too, although the judges have white bibs and the lawyers just have funny furry tassel thingies. There are a ton of people in there! We went to a misdemeaner court, and there were two lawyers each for the prosecution and defense, and three judges with one presiding, and of course a stenographer, and then the representative of the state. (I couldn't really figure out his role; he represents 'the law,' Bénoît said, and testified for each case, read the applicable law, etc... but he seemed to be taking the prosecution's side in both cases, so I was pretty confused.) It was hard to understand much of what was said because everyone talked way to fast, and plus the acoustics in that oddly-shaped room weren't so good... but I managed to gather that one case was about money laundering, and the other was about fraudulent medical practice. The second one was way more interesting. They were trying to decide whether you had to be a doctor to perform acupuncture. "The law" and the prosecution said yes, and the case seemed to be closed after the testimony of the accused. "Did you perform acupuncture?" the judge asked, and the non-doctor tried to evade the question, talking about the healing energy of the needles, etc. "But what did you do with the needles?" the judge persisted. "You weren't knitting!" I found that pretty funny... especially as it was one of the few things I understood... But then the defense lawyer was amazing. He told jokes, turned around and addressed the spectators, and was very animated. But most importantly, after winning over everyone in the room, he pointed out that the law could be interpreted differently and that his client had not used acupuncture on patients for treatment purposes, but rather for preventative purposes. Hmm. He was very clever, and managed to put words in the prosecution's mouth - 'you didn't dare call my client a charlatan, but that's what you meant.' he went on to say, 'the doctors who refuse to see the benefits of homeopathic medicine, they are the charlatans!' It was fascinating to watch... Too bad the judges won't issue the decision until October! Maybe I'll go back and find out how it turns out. If I can stand to enter the building again. :) It was cool to see how different the French justice system is from the U.S., though. (For starters, the Court started an hour late! Typical French quarkochronism... That is, non-strict perception of time and schedules...) Suffice it to say, I'm glad I won't have to practice law in France!

A la piscine

So, had an interesting experience yesterday... I went to the pool with Michael, Bénoit and his sister, Sidonie. It was unlike any pool I've ever been to... First of all, it only cost 2€ to get in, which I thought was pretty good. Then, it was huge! There was a big swimming pool, and then an almost equally big wading pool about 3 feet deep and really warm. There was a big slide into the wading pool. And it was super crowded. Like, you could barely swim across the pool without running into somebody.

Oh. And they have this rule in France... apparently for the guys to wear shorts is some kind of health hazard (??)... so they all have to wear Speedos. (No wonder all the other American guys bailed on us!) Yeah, well, it's about time men feel self-conscious in bathing suits, given what women have to go through every time they put one on, right, ladies? Plus keep in mind there really aren't any fat people in France, so it's not like you have to do the 'aagh, fat guy in a speedo!' cringe thing. Still, it was kind of odd... something you would never see in the U.S.! (As for the whole health hazard thing, though, I'm still not sure how that works. Maybe the French fashion sense just can't handle baggy board shorts, so all the fashionistas would have heart attacks and drown at the sight of such ugly things. Either that or some health official gets a kick out of seeing guys in tight little spandex... I really couldn't say.)

Today I went to the Centre Commercial (mall) just outside of town. For 4 hours. Yeah, we got a little carried away. The good news is I only bought one skirt for 50% off. And a sweater. But hey, my spending ratio is usually 1/3 or less of whoever I go with, so I figure I'm doing okay. Plus French clothes are so cute!!! (Although how I'm going to fit it all back in my suitcase I can't imagine.) The mall was huge, but Nicole said her host mom told her it "doesn't have that many stores." Yikes, where does she shop? There was a huge fountain/waterfall in the middle and also the coolest two-story merry-go-round I've ever seen, and E. LeClerc (like Target and Safeway combined) and Ikea stores with mall entrances. Whoa. For the sake of my pocketbook, though, I better not go back there too often!

Somehow I neglected to mention that I went to a neat festival in St. Herblain, that's a town just adjacent to Nantes, Saturday night. French entertainment is so bizarre - guys dancing around on stilts to monotonous music for half an hour, for instance. Or two mimes running some sort of mechanical music machine (also very monotonous and lacking in melody), like some sort of avant garde performance art. Huh. I did eat a fabulous crêpe though... so I guess it was worth it. :) But golly am I glad I don't have to drive in France. We got so lost on the way there, and Bénoît was driving - he lives here! It's not like we were just a bunch of clueless Americans. But the intersections are all circles and each road has half a dozen signs indicating approximately what lies in that direction (churches, post offices, etc) but doesn't say the name of the road, so it's a mess to try to figure out where you are and how to get where you're going. Plus we got stuck in traffic, so all in all it took almost an hour to get there. Just to give you a point of reference, it took me twelve minutes to get home by bus. Ha ha. There's some incentive to use the public transportation system!

This weekend we're going to Mont St. Michel, which I have visited, but it was a while ago, so it should be cool to see it again. Plus traveling with all the other students in a huge group is always interesting! So tune in next time... :)

Weekend numéro deux... Le temps qui vole!

My goodness, have I really been in France for 3 weeks already?!? Suddenly, I feel as if time is flying by! I can't believe how easy it is to spend hours at a time doing nothing much. And then how fast they're gone, precious minutes forever lost to the endless dance of the clock's unsympathetic hands...

Okay, I'm done mourning the passage of time, I promise. It's just that I think I've finally started to appreciate being here. I don't want to be too euphoric in case something sends my spirits tumbling, as seems so often to happen on the emotional roller-coaster that is this whole cultural-integration thing. And yet, it seems like the worst of the awkwardness has abated. I haven't gotten lost in a while, my etiquette at home with my French family is improving, and - best of all - the language is starting to come naturally. They said it's about the 3-month mark that everything clicks. Maybe so, but yesterday I had sort of an epiphany at dinner. I don't know what happened but all of a sudden I was talking like a motor-mouth to my French family. My host father even said afterwards, "Tu sais, tu parles bien le français." I thought I would burst with pride. :) Quel compliment from a French person, especially since he said it not as flattery, but as if it had just occurred to him and with a tone of mild surprise. I suppose all this time I've sat mute at the dinner table they assumed I didn't know what was going on (and why wouldn't they?), and sometimes I didn't, but I also have been listening. And listening. And listening. And now, finally, I'm trying my hand at the speaking part, and I guess I'm not doing too poorly!

I was also thrilled that my French family invited me to church with them and to share in some of their activities on Sunday. I was starting to think they didn't want me around... :) Maybe it was just that their relatives were in town (an aunt and uncle) and so they were playing the hosts anyhow. But it was nice. We ate some outstanding food, too. The dessert with fresh pears and pear sorbet was mmm-mmm good!

My host sister Eléônore got all dolled up Saturday night. I was like, wow! where is she going? And it turns out she had a soirée as part of her rallye. That is a peculiar French phenomenon for teenagers where they have to apply to be part of this social group, which in her case has about 200 students. Then the parents organize dances and social events for them. It's so they know their kids are hanging out with "the right sort of people." It must be some sort of legacy from the days of balls and debutantes and all that nonsense. I'm not sure what I think of it... Controlling? Classist/elitist? or, not a bad idea for providing social alternatives to unsupervised, wild parties??? I guess I don't really know enough about it to judge, but I thought it was interesting, as I've never heard of anything like that in the U.S.! (Side note: Actually according to my friends, there is something like this called Cotillion or some such on the East Coast. Huh. Vestiges of derelict societal distinctions, if you ask me...)

In other news, I visited several museums this weekend and went on some tours around the city as part of the Journées du Patrimoinage, or Heritage Days, I guess you'd call it. The Musée des Beaux Arts was cool. They had a Monet, not a great one, but one of his paintings nonetheless... The featured exhibit was some modern thing that I certainly did not appreciate (videos of the artist's genitalia are not high on my list) but the paintings upstairs were very interesting. I especially like the ones based on stories of mythological or religious figures, because the context gives them that much more meaning...

I also had the opportunity to hang out with some French students, one of my American pals' cousins. The girls are so reserved but once they finally open up, they are so sweet! We went on a big ferris wheel, part of the fair in town (the Fête Forraine), and they were clutching their boyfriends the whole time. It was cute. It was a good chance to practice my French, too! I told Bénoît a joke in English, and he didn't think it was very funny - I'm not very good at telling jokes - but he told me one in French that I thought was quite good! I was proud of myself because one of my French teachers said it takes a long time to get good enough at French to appreciate their jokes. Anyway, here it is (in English of course, and changed somewhat in translation since I don't remember exactly how the French went...):

A man and a woman were getting married in a church. The man didn't really know a lot about how these things were supposed to work, but he did know that he had to pay the priest when it was over. So after the wedding, he went over to the priest and asked how much he owed. "Well, I don't put a fixed price on my services," the priest explained. Being a rather wise old priest, he counted on the pride of the newlywed husbands to make a living: "The cost of the ceremony is a function of the beauty of the bride. The prettier she is, the more expensive the fee." The husband nodded, and went over to look at his new wife. After a moment, he returned, and gave the priest 1€. The priest gave him a hard look, and asked, "Is that really what you think of your new wife?" "Well," the husband said, "I figured I was talking to a priest, I had to be honest." The priest in turn went to have a good look at the bride. Upon returning, he replied, "Well, son, I am a priest, so I can't possibly have it on my conscience that I accepted 1€ for your wedding. I'm sorry... but I have to return the money!"

Ha ha, get it? Okay, I thought it was funny... On the same subject, F.X. played some audio clips of French comedians for me last night. And it definitely was hard to understand. But he translated for me, and I did appreciate the humor. He also mentioned he was having some trouble in his English class and I was like, "Hello, what am I here for? You can ask me if you have any questions!" But it's that weird French distance thing they call politesse. It's so annoying. I think I'm just now starting to break through that with him and my French family.

Oh, I just know I'm not going to want to leave... Although, that said, there will be many exciting things about returning home. Peanut butter. Shops that are open during lunch and on Sundays. People smiling at you in the street. Professors that actually tell you what you're supposed to get out of a reading instead of just assigning the whole book and leaving it up to you! And, duh - seeing my friends and family again! Well, that's all for now. So, à bientôt!

L'opéra, l'ennui

Last night I had a marveilleux experience at the Théatre Graslin with the Opéra de Nantes. It was really amazing. The singing, the orchestra, the staging - everything was quite excellent. I have to say, Puccini's Madama Butterfly impacted me a lot more this time around than the first time I saw it in Seattle. (Of course, Seattle has just built a new opera house so maybe it is better these days...) At any rate, I thought it was a little ironic that the opera playing here now is the only one I've previously seen, but it was nonetheless a powerful experience. Quelle tristesse! Maybe I'm just a sappy sort of chick, but I have to admit, I cried a little when Butterfly said her final goodbyes to her son. (Don't mean to spoil the ending for anyone, but she kills herself right after that...) Opera can be really moving if you get into the right frame of mind.

The audience certainly loved it. They clapped for about ten minutes after it was over. (I thought my arms were going to fall off.) The singers just kept coming back onstage... again and again... for more bows. It was kind of funny. I noticed a similar phenomenon at the movie theater - everyone in the French audience remains throughout the credits, something that is rare indeed in American theaters (where everyone jets out ASAP after the final fade-out). Maybe they appreciate the effort that goes into entertainment more than we do. Or maybe it's just a cultural politesse thing. J'sais pas.

One of my friends suggested maybe they like it so much because it embodies a popular theme in France right now - the despicable American. Ha ha. (Pinkerton sure is a jerk, after all. Or, even more true to the American stereotype perhaps, he is not purposely evil - just someone who is naively careless about the disastrous consequences of his selfishly-motivated actions...) It's true that everyone you encounter in a bar here wants to know who you're voting for and will keep talking endlessly about the stupide and terrible George W. Bush. They like Kerry because supposedly he speaks French and has Irish heritage... are either of those things true?? Oh, well. Politics is definitely a hot topic right now, so I can only imagine the fervor in the United States that must be growing as the election approaches. If only I knew who to vote for. The more I think about it, the stronger the divisions in my mind become. Well, I'm sure I'll figure it out by November. (Don't really have a choice!) It's hard being out of the country at such a monumentous time, given my interest in politics. Dommage.

As for l'ennui I mentioned in the title, I think I'm partly going nuts over here with nothing to do for hours at a time. God knows I should do something. I suppose reading French books, listening to the radio, watching the news, all of these things are adding to the cultural experience and to my language abilities. But nonetheless I feel like I'm doing nothing. I think of the newspaper, prelaw society, orchestra, community service, senate, piano lessons, everything I do back home and I just feel like there's this great big void in my life! I don't know what it is in my genes or whatever that has cursed me to desire constant activity, but it is a habit that is très difficile to break. I think it would have been a good idea for me to travel this weekend but I didn't get organized soon enough... Besides, it's Le Weekend de Patrimoinage, that is to say, Heritage Weekend, so all the museums are open for free, etc. It should be neat. I hope!

Des points négatifs et positifs de ma nouvelle vie française

I must admit, not much has happened since my last blog. I don't want this web journal to turn into the inane details of what I ate for dinner last night or who text messaged me yesterday. (Although I should note that "textos" are all the rage in France because cell phone minutes are so much more expensive.) But, I did compile a silly little list about my life in France in an email to a friend, so I thought I might as well post it... and add to it...

As I wrote, "i am in france, as you know! there are so many things i love about being here... and so many i hate. let's start with the downside, so i can finish with the good things and be in a better mood when i'm done. :)

Cons
1. feeling like an idiot every time i...
- open my mouth ;) My gosh, i always took for granted my ability to communicate effectively! Imagine trying to explain that you have to return a power adapter because the plug on your computer cord has three prongs and the adapter only has two sockets, without knowing the words for 'plug,' 'prong,' 'socket,' 'outlet,' 'cord,' 'voltage,' etc.!!! let's just say my vocabulary needs a little work! i find that i talk a lot less here... but it's good, i'm learning. every day's a little bit easier
- try to figure out how to flush the toilet (they're all different, it seems, and none of them have a normal handle! some you push, some you pull, some have a chain, some have a lever...)
- take a shower without soaking the bathroom (the shower head doesn't attach to the wall, it's on a cord and just dangles... so what do you do with it when you want to wash your hair?)
- go for a run (french people don't run; they smoke. plus the sidewalks are always super-crowded and spotted with "landmines" - that is, dog poop! the french are too dignified to clean up after their pets)
- eat dinner w/my french family. they put their forks in their left hands and their knives in their right ("continental style"), which i'm not coordinated enough to do, although i'm getting better. they eat extremely fast and talk with their mouths full, and i can neither understand a word of it nor possibly keep up, so i'm always the last one eating when they're ready for the next course. moreover, they don't make a mess at all. how do you eat the crumbly bread without making crumbs?? i don't know, but they do it. and no matter what we eat, by the time they've mopped it up with their bread, their plates are as clean as when we started! i feel like such a sloppy american!

2. everything's so expensive. dental floss costs $5! on the plus side, though, a bottle of champagne's only about $3, and it's not bad... but to call the U.S. costs a lot so I've only talked to my family twice in two weeks. :( also, i have to buy lunch every day and dinner twice a week. an average fast food meal costs about $8! i'm just not used to spending money like that...

3. how long everything takes! i waited for an hour and a half at the Conservatoire de Musique to fill out one little form and be told, "We don't really know if you can be in the orchestra yet. Call back closer to the first rehearsal." Well, thanks. Good thing I took the tram there for half an hour and waited around to hear that, huh? let's just say I'm a bit too impatient for the laid-back attitude of the français, sometimes. (that said, though, the french are in general far more helpful and polite than characterizations in the united states would have you believe.) but long lines, long waits, etc. are just part of the routine here. oh, also, the store hours are so odd. they're closed for 2 hours at lunch time, and then they all close at 7:30. so if you decided you wanted to go shopping at lunch or just before dinner - too bad! (it's because they only work 35 hours per week, you know...)

4. i miss everybody so much! my family, my friends, just hanging out... all the inside jokes... but oh well, i guess it really won't be THAT long before I get home. i bet in a few months i'll be whining incessantly about how much i miss france!!!

Okay...

Pros
1. Good food, good wine, beautiful old buildings! Um, I could wax poetic about crêpes, cheese, baguettes, etc. but I'm just going to make myself hungry... While we're on the subject, though, I must add that yogurt is a national sensation. It's a little different then in the U.S. - runnier, sometimes unsweetened. But they have every flavor you can imagine. Pineapple, peach-pear, prune (?? don't think that flavor would fly back home), cherry, the list goes on and on. Yogurt takes up an entire aisle at the supermarket! It's amazing.
As far as beverages go, I have to say, it's nice to be able to drink legally and freely, but the bars cost waaaay too much. Still, how often can you say, "Last night I drank champagne by the chateau"? That's right, there's a huge castle, complete with moat, in the middle of town. Pretty cool. and the cathedral is amazing. well, there are several. but the biggest one is where i went to mass, and with the thundering organ music and everything... wow. it was an awesome experience. plus i get to live in a house from 1850, which is kinda neat. lots of stairs, pretty creaky, but overall i like it.

2. fun people. the other kids on the same study abroad program are cool so I am having fun getting to know them. it's hard because our schedules overlap in weird ways and we live all over the city so sometimes it's tricky to get together, but we all have cell phones and plus there's always the...

3. free transportation! well, actually it's like $30 a month, but then you can take the tram or the bus ANYWHERE. anytime. it's a great system. too bad if you miss the bus you may be facing a long walk... but i'm getting the hang of it.

4. proximity to just about anywhere in europe! i haven't really traveled anywhere else yet, but i'm hoping to go to Rome, London, maybe Prague, Spain, the Alps... we'll see!"

Well, that's all for now, folks. Hopefully I'll have more to write about later...

Mon premier weekend à Nantes

Wow, I had a busy weekend. Friday and Saturday night we spent... bar-hopping. Of course. Nous sommes américains, so we have to that weird little emancipation from the 21 and older laws back home. Personally, I don't understand the obsession, but I did appreciate sipping champagne by the chateau. Also it's nice that many of the clubs are free here, because I adore dancing... even if French people don't. It's also a great way to meet young French people and start conversations. Granted, you aren't going to form a lasting friendship in a bar, at least, not often, but it's a nice chance to practice the language. And of course we go in groups and walk each other home and all of that... we've had plenty of seminars to teach us how to be safe. It's a big city, but as long as you avoid certain areas at night, you'll be fine.

As far as more cultural activities go, we went to see a French film, 5x2. The 2 is a French couple, the 5, five events in their life. Which, just to be interesting, go backwards, so the movie starts with their divorce and ends with the first time they met. Hmm. Like many French movies, it did not leave much to the imagination, and the plot didn't make any sense to me. But I was proud that I understood most of the dialogue. :)

On Sunday, I went to mass at St. Pierre, the biggest cathedral in town (yes, there are several fantastic old churches here!). It was amazing. I can't even describe the feeling I had when I walked in. The towering vaulted ceilings, the stained glass windows, the thundering organ music, the scent of the incense - I was honestly almost dizzy with awe. The Church certainly knew how to make an impression 500 years ago... It was like going to mass in the Notre Dame cathedral, if that gives you any idea. At any rate, the mass was what I'm used to, although keeping up with the French reponses and hymns was a bit tricky. It was a very cool experience, though. I'd love to explore a different church (or Gothic cathedral, as the case may be) next week!

Funny story: That afternoon I was in a great mood, thinking, "You know, this France thing isn't so bad. I know my way around now. I understand the basic customs. That didn't take so long..." Famous last words. I was meeting a friend at the train station, which I'd never been to (other than arriving there 2 weeks ago). I missed my bus, and so had to walk. It didn't look so far on the map, but it took 45 minutes. Then I finally navigate my way there with the aid of a map, and it's the wrong station. Ha ha. I thought there was only one. So I take the bus back, and finally rendez-vous with my friend an hour and a half late. Whoops. That's what overconfidence will do for ya. :) Oh, well.

La vie de la nuit

I'm not sure if that's how you really say "nightlife" in French, but we had a little taste of it hier soir... and it was pretty fun. A group of us étudiants accompanied Delphine, our "Social Coordinator," to a private party at 'Feeling Tropical,' a discothèque on the outskirts of town. (Yeah, the name is actually in English, young French people love our language... it's trendy or something.) The evening was a celebration for a group of DJs or mixmasters or... not really sure what to call them... their name was C2C, and they just won the DMX award in London for a 6 minute mix they put together. They played it three times... but it was pretty good... Sadly, French people don't dance much. I heard they do so pretty poorly so maybe they've just decided, as a culture, not to do that. :)

I know I couldn't listen to music like that and not move, but that's me. Drinks are expensive at bars in France because they're so heavily taxed. Well, good, I won't be tempted to waste my budget on them! Anyway, it was a fun evening. I think my host mom was worried about my social life, or lack thereof, because when I told her I'd be out late she said, "Oh, that's wonderful" (or the French equivalent). I thought that was kind of funny.

Before that, IES went as a group to the regional capitol building, the equivalent I guess of a state capitol back home. We got to sit where the élu, or elected, sit in this big chamber and hear about regional politics. Plus the président of the region (sort of like a governor, I guess) gave a speech about September 11 and Franco-American relations, which was interesting, and then we got asperatifs and petitfours, that is, drinks and hors d'oeuvres. They were REALLY good, champagne and wine to drink and scrumptious finger food - tiny chicken legs, little blue cheese sandwiches, shrimp and brie in little pie crusts, bite-size sausage in crêpes, and more. Then desserts - minute pies with kiwi and banana or cherry filling, chocolate eclaires, peanut butter cream puffs (surprisingly good)... okay, I could go on and on. Let's just say the French government knows how to throw a welcome party for foreign students!

The best part is, M. de Berrenger, director of IES, is trying to get me an internship there. I know, I know, French politics are not exactly compatible with my conservative viewpoint, but there's something to the idea of learning how the other side thinks. Plus France is in the middle of a trend of privatization, de-bureaucratization, etc. The French people are fed up with many aspects of their system. So it would be interesting to watch those changes in action... But I'm not getting my hopes up too high because M. de B. said it will be difficult to find me a post there. On the other hand, he said he can practically guarantee that he can find me a law internship if this doesn't work out. So I'm really excited about all that.

Who knows how I'm going to entertain myself this weekend. Classes haven't started, so no homework. The whole of Europe stretches before me like a blank canvas... A little intimidating, but so many possibilities!

Je m'inscris

So I signed up for my courses... I'm taking four courses at the Institute, that is, with American students but in the French language, and two courses at l'Université de Nantes, also known as "the Fac." I'm taking French Grammar and Composition (of course), Traduction Anglais-Français et Français-Anglais (that's a combined translation course at the local university with French students - very exciting!), Politics - the Construction of the European Union, Economics - International Trade and Globalization, and Sciences Politiques - a poli-sci course with a little of everything offered at the Fac. I'm a little nervous about the poli-sci class because it's the only one I'm taking where the professor doesn't know/care about the native English-speakers in the class, that is, it's just a regular class for French students. But it will be good for me, I suppose, to be challenged. Classes at the Institute start next Monday; at the Fac, not until October 4!

I'm having some trouble getting Whitman to accept credits toward my major, which is really frustrating. If they don't, well, I may not be able to finish in 4 years. But I don't even want to think about that... I won't know for sure until I hear back from my advisor, whom I emailed this morning. And considering he probably hasn't woken up yet (it's only 6 am in Walla Walla) I probably won't know until tomorrow.

I got my cell phone in the mail! That was cool. I bought it from a former IES student and she mailed it to me - $60, not bad for a cute little red Nokia with a French SIM card, huh? I'll probably sell it to someone else when I leave. I bought some minutes for it, but it's pretty expensive to call the U.S.; I mean, it uses up the minutes really fast. So I'll probably stick with email for the most part. Of course, I can receive calls for free - so hopefully my American friends will call me! We'll see...

I've been having adventures trying to buy various cards and things all over town. I got my monthly bus pass (I use it to take the tram to the Fac, it's about a 10 minute walk to the tram and then a 10 minute ride to campus), my Carte Campus (and the tiniest little ID photos you ever saw to put on it), groceries to make lunch with, and a new purse with a matching wallet - très chic; my old one broke, by the way, I'm not just buying things for fun (Key word: "just")! I do have to save some money for textbooks, etc.!

So overall life's going well... I think it's going to take a while to settle in, though. I feel like an outsider still in my French family. M. Macaire is never there, I've only met him that one time... Every night they set the table for 4 but it's just Mme. Macaire, Eléônore, and me. He always gets back very late. Mme. and Eléô talk to each other, very quickly, and then pause and turn to me and slowly ask me something like, "And you, Meagan, how was your day?" Then I answer, they say, "Oh," and they talk to each other some more. It's just awkward, and sometimes we don't talk at all. They eat very, very fast. I'm always struggling to keep up, and I'm not even talking (most of the time)! And as soon as the last morsel of food is off my plate, poof! It's whisked away and everyone disperses to different parts of the house. Definitely not the long meals I was warned about with lots of talking and hanging around afterword. Instead, it's almost utilitarian, like, 'well, since we have to eat to stay alive...' Hmm. FX, the only ami I think I've really made here, doesn't eat with us because he just rents a room. I don't know where he eats... probably at the RU, the restaurant universitaire... Oh, well! Ce n'est pas grave. At least the food is good - fabulous French cheeses, wine sometimes, etc.

This week we don't have much work, just a little grammar and reading. We read La Parure , a short novelette by Guy de Maupassant. I really liked it. It's about a dissatisfied young woman who aspires to move beyond her social class for one night by borrowing a fabulous diamond necklace for a ball... But she loses the necklace, and in fact, loses everything, as she has to work like a peasant for the next ten years to pay it off. There's a nice twist at the end, though. I thought it was very good. Tragic, but good!

I'm sure next week when our classes start we'll have more work... Ugh. But at the same time, I am looking forward to having regular assignments and a fixed schedule and all that. And before that, there's always the weekend! Maybe I'll go to the beach if this heatwave keeps up, or to the carnival that's in town, or to a French movie... or to the mall... The possibilities are endless! And, just to make you all jealous, I could just hop a train to Paris if I wanted to... :)

La semaine d'orientation

I have so much to say and so little time!!! We did a three and a half day tour of Bretagne that was amazing. We saw sooo much but it was absolutely exhausting! The farthest west region of France, Bretagne has a Celtic heritage and lots of fishing villages, beaches, etc. So we went to Irish pubs (not as an official part of the trip but...), went to a Fest Noz - cool dancing and music, kind of hard to pick up on, but I learned a Breton waltz, saw the farthest west point in France, la Pointe du Raz - awesome lighthouse and waves crashing against cliffs, ate delicious crèpes, and spent waaaay too much time in a hot, hot bus. France is having a strange heat wave right now, at least, in Normandy and Bretagne. It's so hot and humid and I really didn't bring that many summer clothes, but oh well!

Classes don't start at IES until next week and at the university, the week after that. This week we have intensive language sessions and a bunch of administrative junk. I always hate this part of these things. I can't wait until I have a routine, a regular schedule, activities... At the moment I don't quite know what to do with myself and it gives me time to be a little lonely and homesick. But I'm sure it will get better very soon.

Good news - we took our placement tests on Sunday and I thought it was really hard, but nonetheless, I got into the highest group! That was kind of exciting. My host mom was like, "ça ne me choque pas" - or, "I'm not surprised" - but I feel like such an idiot with my French most of the time that it did sort of surprise me. Talking to FX after I got back from Bretagne I had a really hard time, because all the IES students spoke English all weekend and I felt like I'd totally regressed. Then I knocked over a glass in his room, broke it, and spilled water on his English homework... I haven't been that embarrassed in a long time! I explained the word "klutz" and tried to have a sense of humor about it, but it just reminded me how awkward I feel all the time here - like a fish out of water! The French people are SO polite though. My host family thanked me so profusely for my silly gifts of chocolate and a picture book from Washington that I felt like I'd given them gold or something!

By the way, silly little fact: listening to French people try to say "turtle" has to be one of the funniest things ever. It comes out kind of like "Urr-rrghl". Great source of entertainment. Also reading the things FX has to translate into French was amusing... "Penelope was muffled up in a duffel coat." I was like, is that what you think we talk like??? (It's from some ancient British novel...) It made me laugh, though!

Je rencontre ma famille française

I don't have long to write this, but I have to say, I am sooooo lucky! I think I have the best possible host family! Mme Macaire is extremely nice, polite and formal but completely understanding also. She is thin with dark brown hair, as is her daughter, Eléônore, or Eléô for short, who is 17 but seems MUCH older than that, seems almost older than me... The French are VERY serious about school.

Now, I thought I the familly had just one daughter, but really there are two older kids - Charles and Tiffany - away at school, but they return for the weekends. Also there is a French student renting a room - the one directly across from mine up on the third floor! - who goes back to his home on the weekends. So it's like a rotating ménagerie! The French student, François-Xavier or F.X. (pronounced eff-eeks) is in his first year of école préparatoire, which means he did very well on his Bac (French SATs but much harder and more important) and may get into a prestigious graduate school, and I probably won't see much of him because he goes to school 35 hours a week (!) and has an hour of homework for each class and some days has class beginning at 8 am and ending at 8 pm, although not straight through.

Dinner was interesting - I understood almost nothing because Eléô talks SO fast. Also, they eat even informal meals in courses - we had scrambled eggs, rice and bread, then after finishing that, salad, and following that, ended with yogurt (which is really different in France, not usually sweetened and kind of runny compared to American yogurt).

My room is really cute, small but charming, mostly blue and teal - my favorite colors... with a little desk, a window facing the street (but 3 floors up, remember) and my own shower next door. (Although the toilet's downstairs... and all the stairs squeak and all the doors close really loudly so it's hard to go down there quietly in the night, you know?) It was almost impossible to get my bags all the way up that long spiral staircase, but I did it! Now I see why they say pack light, but seriously, I will use every last thing I brought. I'm already thinking of things I should have brought but didn't. Tant pis!

So I stayed up 'til after 11 talking to F.X., which was fun but difficult because he doesn't know all that much English and I couldn't always think of the French word I wanted or understand the ones he was using. Sometimes we had to resort to using pictures! But it was interesting. It's almost easier for me to think in French than English now that I'm here, at least, it's really hard to switch back and forth!

J'arrive à Nantes

Phew, I made it! You would not believe how exhausted I was by the time we got to the hotel last night. I got one hour of sleep the night before I left... Then caught just a few hours on the plane... And a catnap on the train... By the time we got to the hotel, I'd been up some 52 hours with only one hour of real rest! Let's just say that compared to the crampy seats in the plane and on the train where you doze off and wake up ten minutes later with a crick in your neck, the bed in the hotel room looked like heaven!

I haven't met my host family yet. We just arrived at the IES Center, where I'll have most of my classes, and met Mme Rochet, the assistant director who is the person we go to with any problems, etc. She speaks very slowly - or maybe I've just gotten used to hearing very fast French since we arrived! I understand more than I expected to, I suppose.

Traveling was... interesting, especially with two humongous bags that together weighed as much as I do. One of our taxi drivers looked at me and Katie when she picked us up and said, "All those bags?!?" Then, with a laugh, "At least you two aren't as fat as your bags are!" Wrestling the darn things on and off the train was a nightmare, but an extremely nice gentleman lifted all four of our bags onto the overhead rack - and back off again three hours later when we got to Nantes! Who says French people are rude? They did laugh at us when they figured out we were in the wrong train car, but that's our own fault. :)

We were so clueless, it must have been funny. The first thing when we got off the plane in Paris we had to show our passports to an official. It took me three times to understand what he was insistently repeating (in French, of course) - "Today is the 31st of August, no?" "Yes," I replied, baffled as to why this should be so important. "Your visa does not start until the 1st of September," he explained. Horrified, I realized that I'd read the date 1/9 as January 9th, instead of the European "backwards" way, and assumed it simply covered one whole year! "What do I do now?" I asked him nervously. "Oh, I'll let you pass," he said, "But by law I should not, you understand?" I thanked him the best I could and breathed a huge sigh of relief. But then, what else were they going to do, send me back??? Quel horreur! I'm glad he was willing to overlook that little detail...!

We wandered endlessly around the Charles De Gaulle airport looking for the train station, consulting various maps and getting directions and then walking in circles until we finally stumbled upon the correct bus to take us. We felt like the epitome of lost, silly Americans! Then we waited in line 45 minutes for the TGV tickets, and another hour and a half until the train left. The train itself, after the initial stress of getting on, was absolutely silent. You could hear a pin drop. Katie and I were afraid to even move for fear of drawing even more attention to ourselves! And this went on for 3 hours!

We ate dinner at 6 at a cute little restaurant near our hotel, which, at that hour, was completely empty save the two of us! (The French dine late.) We had a hard time reading the menu and ended up sort of blindly ordering. We ate the bread while we waited for our food to arrive, unaware that we'd ordered things that you put ON the bread to eat, kind of like bruschetta... It must have been funny watching us try to figure out how to eat our meals. (I finally asked for more bread.) If only we were as amusing to ourselves as we must be to everyone else, I'd be having the time of my life.

Actually, it is pretty fun discovering and learning these new things. Nantes is much bigger than I thought and a little overwhelming. The river is wide and calm and spanned by beautiful old bridges. There's a huge chateau that I can't wait to visit, and an old section of town accessible only by foot with cobblestone streets and little shops that I'm just longing to explore.

Well, now that I've written a whole novel about my first day, I think I'd better stop! Hopefully I haven't been too boring. But c'est la vie...