Le commencement de la fin

It is now the beginning of the end of my sojourn in France. Yesterday I had my first "last": my cross country class. My coach gave me a nice little farewell - it's a small group and my departure reduces its size by about 20%... For some reason it was really sad to leave, even though I didn't form any close friendships with them. It was just something that had become part of my routine, and with the realization that that routine is drawing to a close, I felt a sudden twinge of regret. And that's just the first of many goodbyes...

But other than the underlying sadness, the next week and a half should be fun - lots of parties to celebrate the end of the year! It will feel really good to get my finals out of the way. And of course I have Christmas to look forward to! I'm so torn. I want to make the most out of the next 10 days and hang on to every remaining moment as if I could somehow catch the sand falling through the hourglass and keep it from slipping by - but there's a part of me that gets frustrated (because obviously that doesn't work) and is just impatient to leave. It's like, "Why get any closer to these people, why spend any more time developing a deeper appreciation for the culture, when I am just about to leave?" Instead of a slow and painful separation over the next fortnight I want to do the band-aid approach: just rip it off all at once! But that urge doesn't last for long when I realize that it's well worth it to have one more pastry, one more party, one more tram ride, one more French conversation...

It will be so bizarre when I get back, because suddenly I'll see how much I've changed. I don't think I've realized it yet but I really have metamorphosed significantly. (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction: Just as I had to adjust to the culture shock when I got here, of course I will have to readapt to my old ways and customs.) It should be interesting...

So yesterday I was invited to dinner chez the Hills, who, despite their rather Anglo-Saxon last name, are a very French older couple from my conversation class. We spoke in French, however. They are very kind! The dinner lasted - get this! - almost five hours! We started at 7:30 and left after midnight! I couldn't believe it. It was very good though, and they are so easy and interesting to talk to. We started with a traditional apératif, which lasted a good hour, then had a four-course meal - salad, some kind of big flat fish that they cooked whole, head and all, and a round of fabulous cheeses, then a dessert that resembled ice cream but was made with eggs. Then coffee, which lasted another hour. It was quite the affair!

We spoke of many things, including Christmas traditions - a great French one that has become less practiced but which used to be popular is called the "reveillant" (meaning, the wake-up). French families used to have a humongous Christmas dinner directly following the midnight mass on Christmas Eve - so, from about 1 to 4 in the morning! Then they get up at noon the next day and eat a big Christmas lunch as well. Isn't that wild? There's also the grisly tale/Christmas carol of St. Nicolas, where three little children are chopped into little pieces and preserved by a butcher, only to be raised from the dead (and presumably reassembled?) by St. Nick seven years later. Hmmm. Okay... Christmas nightmares... It's kind of funny though, isn't it? Mme Hill also gave me a German recipe for gingerbread that I will have to try out when I get home! It's really good.

So it's nice that the dinner didn't go much later (in fact, it ended at the perfect hour), because the boîtes de nuit open at 12:30. So I was able to go to the TONUS of our kind of partner school, l'Ecole Polytechnique. Have I already described those? I went to one before so maybe I did... School fundraiser in a night club and so on. (Probably wouldn't get away with that in America!) Needless to say, staying out until 5 am was NOT what my cold needed. Don't worry, my host mom already took me to task. :) I plan to spend the weekend recovering from my folly. But it was well worth it. I ran into at least a dozen people that I know and it was a good opportunity to have a last hoorah with them.

Plus French guys just have this way of making you feel beautiful. Don't get any ideas now, this is a PG-rated weblog - I don't lead that interesting of a life, ha ha, and I'm glad of it - but anyway, I'm just saying that there is something in their charm and the way they look at you and talk to you that makes you feel appreciated. I'm not even talking about night clubs here, I think it's a generally acknowledged cultural thing. They are definitely different than American guys. Not necessarily better because I think they are equally immature (if not more) in certain (emotional) ways. But here it is not cool - as it is in the U.S. - to not care. Indifference, aloofness, etc. are not valued. For the French, their actions are normal, but in comparison with American guys, they are decidedly gallant! Taking your coat or your bag, opening or holding doors, offering you something to drink when you come over, complimenting you, etc. Maybe I am idealizing them a little bit, but I know I will miss that slightly higher level of special treatment when I get back home!

Okay, so like I said, I have a potentially boring weekend ahead: Sleep, study, sleep, study. Woo hoo. At least I won't have too much time to be sad. :) And yet - things always seem to get more interesting than I expect here, so stay tuned for next time...

Après Freiburg: le mur inévitable

There is a general truth that I've decided to call Meagan's Law. Basically it states that if you push yourself to the limit for a sustained amount of time - living the VGV, la Vie de Grand Vitesse, which for me has lately been approaching light speed - your body will eventually catch up with you and you will hit a wall (le mur inévitable). Naturally this does not feel very good. So when I woke up this morning with a sinus infection - I'll spare you the gory details, but daybreak nosebleeds are among the worst kinds of wake-up calls - and an overwhelming fatigue, I decided that I may have been overdoing it. (Ha ha, as you will see, it shouldn't have taken an Einstein IQ to figure that out!) At any rate, I promptly went straight back to bed, slept in until 10, ate a leisurely and humongous breakfast including two glasses of OJ to restore my strength, and found (thankfully) that I was feeling much better. Almost human, in fact.

So what precipitated this head-on collision with the limits of my health and energy? It was one of my best weekends here yet... and one of the craziest. The Model EU in Freiburg was, in a word, überwältigend. (That means awesome!) Frieburg is a beautiful little town, right on the edge of Germany, about 45 minutes from France and Switzerland. It's approximately half the size of Nantes (therefore a sixth of Seattle) and is so charmingly Bavarian! The Münster is this cathedral that is extraordinarily airy and latticed and ornate, and unlike the limestone in France, it is made of this deep red stone that makes it look more somber and heavy. The hill dominating the eastern side of the city marks the edge of the famous Black Forest and is sprinkled with pine trees that reminded me of home.

Another cute, unique thing about the town are the little gutters that run along the main streets. Well, they are like little streams or canals about a foot wide and a good 6 inches deep, and they've been there for hundreds of years to "bring fresh air into the city." There is a legend that if you step in one by accident, you will marry a Freiburger. (Isn't that sweet?) I wish I could remember what they're called, it's something like betzlë or bëctzle... or something. It was humbling to be somewhere where I couldn't speak a word of the language! I learned to say, Ich spreche kein Deutsche, I don't speak German, and Entschuldigung, sorry - and that's about it. But it was neat to hear it spoken, and to hear how well the IES Germany students could speak it - I wonder if I sound like that in French to people who can't understand it?

Anyway, despite Freiburg's reputation as the sunniest town in Germany - it's the solar power capitol of Europe! - it was cloudy and sprinkled the whole time. (That's December for you, I guess.) It is the 'Greenest City' in Germany as well - they have a Green party mayor. You should see the bikes! It's amazing. There is a bike lane on every sidewalk and these bikers do not slow down! They ring their klingel (bells) and pedestrians literally jump out of the way. It's kind of funny to see, but I nearly got run over - and got scolded in angry German - several times. Still, it is great that they use such eco-friendly transport... and healthy too!

We spent most of our time inside the Katholische Akademie having a conference - hello, that's why the school paid for me to go there! - but we did get to see some of the town. The Christmas market was so beautiful. I bought gingerbread, Glühwein, a super yummy spiced/mulled hot wine drink, and - as odd as it might sound - a chocolate-covered banana on a stick that was sooo good. They have little stands selling candles, knit hats, nutcrackers, all sorts of craftsy and cretaive things. Wiehnachten (Christmas) is clearly a German tradition, so I suppose it's natural that they do it the best.

The Christmas decorations are incredible all over Europe, in fact, with lights everywhere in any major town. But so far, Freiburg takes the cake. One store had Jewish stars, which a Freiburg IES student explained to me was by accident - they don't know what a Star of David is, to them it's just a different kind of star, because there are no Jewish people there. Hmm. Wonder why... :( Kaiser Joseph Strasse, the main street, was once called Adolph Hitler Strasse, as with many big roads in Germany. The town was mostly destroyed in the war and has since been rebuilt to look as much like it did as possible, with all memory of the Nazi days erased, of course... Or as much as can be expected...

Anyway, wow, I'm writing a book here and I haven't even gotten to the point. The Conference was pretty cool. It wasn't always super well organized and there were times that people didn't stick to their country's actual position, so it got a bit frustrating at times. But the Freiburg kids are here with a program that does nothing but study the E.U. so they knew their stuff. We had about 8 hours of conference each day Friday and Saturday. The Finance Council had to decide how much to increase member states' contributions to the EU budget, which was a heated debate. We went with a 10% increase - from 1 to 1.1% of GDP - after essentially bribing England with a promised reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The CAP reform didn't much appeal to France but we were able to reach consensus after substantially watering down the reduction in farm subsidies. The EU decides unanimously so it wasn't easy! But it illustrated the difficulties of such international negotiations. It was a stimulating simulation.

Afterwards we went out on the town with our Freiburg hosts, and at a bar called Schlappen (gotta love the German names) I learned what a 'meter' is - other than a measurement, that is. It's a long plank with about 15 beers on it. I guess you can't go to Germany and not drink beer, but I still don't appreciate it very much. :) They also have student bars literally in their dorms. (Like in London. How crazy is that?) The one in the former morgue was intriguing... if slightly creepy! But it reminded me of my last dorm at Whitman, the former hospital, where I lived in a 'Delivery Room.' Still, I can't imagine if we had had a bar in the basement... Although, for Europeans it's more of an opportunity for conversation than a place to get drunk. (A healthier attitude toward alcohol = one of the most persuasive reasons I can think of for changing the drinking age in the U.S.) So it was a great chance to socialize with my fellow conference participants from all over Europe. Talking to the students in other IES programs (Rome, Spain, Germany, etc.) made me realize how lucky I am to have the experiences I've gotten in Nantes. I am one of the most integrated into the life and culture of my host country. In the end, I'm really happy with the program I chose!!!

But needless to say, the free coffee at the conference was very, very welcome... I think I got 12 hours of sleep over the three nights I stayed there. Ugh. But you can't say I didn't profit from my time in Germany! I didn't go all the way there to sit in my hostel room. :) It was a good mix of fun and learning. We had a speaker on Saturday that was the runner-up for the post of German Foreign Minister, and he talked about the situation in Ukraine, which was fascinating.

Then Sunday for some post-conference relaxation, we went to a spa in the heart of the Black Forest. This forest is what I picture when I think of Hansel and Gretel. And somewhere in it is located these natural hot spring bathing pools. What a great way to unwind. We soaked and floated and got bubble massaged for a good two hours before hopping on the plane to go home. What a wonderful idea!!!

But getting back to work has not been easy. I have finals next week and two papers to write and I am just now grinding back into gear. But I'm really glad I got to go to that conference. I am going to miss Europe sooo much! Last night two American friends and I were invited over by a group of French students. They made us dinner and played Tarot - not the fortune-telling thing, it's a French game played with a five-suited deck of cards - and we sang French songs (or tried!) with a guitar and djembe (African drum) until the neighbors (from three floors up!) came and pounded on the door because they were trying to sleep. Oops! But it was one of the funnest times I've had here, and I can't help but be really disappointed to leave behind all of these friends I'm making. :(

Yet I am grateful for the memories, and ever so thankful that I've had this amazing - merveilleux - überwältigend - whatever! - time here!!! I'll never forget what an incredible experience this has been.

Mes aventures dans les Alpes

Where do I start? I suppose you'd like to know about Thanksgiving in France. I have to say, it was a unique experience. The restaurant was nice and there were about 120 people there - students, their host families, members of my English conversation group (retired folks, they're very sweet), teachers, etc. I had to give a speech in French and I was pretty nervous. I talked about the origins of the holiday. It went okay, but if I could do it over again, I would just relax! Ha ha. Anyway, the food was good but not at all traditionally prepared. It's the French, they have to fancy everything up with sauces and things. And a tarte au poisson - seafood pastry - is not a usual Thanksgiving appetizer, the last time I checked! :) But you have to give them points for effort on the pumpkin pie... even if they did put the cranberry sauce on it instead of the turkey... Yeah, it was nothing compared to Grandma's!!!

I didn't have a lot of time to critique the meal since I was jumping up and down every two seconds to keep the program running... Madame la Présidente has certain responsibilities, you know... But the students here have a lot of musical talent! One guy has even put out a CD with a record label. Maybe I should have been up there on the piano, but I've scarcely practiced a lick since I've been here. I'll have some work to do getting my fingers back in shape when I get home. This is the first time I've really let music fall by the wayside, and I miss it!

Anyway, the good news is I didn't have time to be homesick. Now that it's December (aaaah!) I am suddenly dreading my looming departure more and more. Not that I don't want to be home, because I do! But I've done so much work to integrate myself into life here, and now I'm just leaving all that behind. It's hard...

Before I go, I'm getting in my last little bit of traveling. Last weekend I went to Grenoble. It was SO fun! I didn't see a ton of the town, because both days, Benoît and I woke up early and went straight up into the mountains to ski. Grenoble is near the mid-southeastern border of France, that is, close to Switzerland and Italy, nestled in a valley between mountains in the Belledonne chain. We went to the 2 Alpes resort, which is huge!!! But apparently not by French standards. It's certainly the biggest mountain I've ever skied on. Unfortunately it's still really early in the season so there wasn't much snow. Only the uppermost runs were open, not even a third of the mountain, but that was still about the size of the resorts I'm used to. There was a good variety of lifts, some steep walls... Plus there were jumps, which I went so far as to experiment with. But after falling on my face a few times and losing a ski halfway up a jump so that I thought someone flying over the top of it would land on my head when I went to retrieve it... I decided maybe that's not for me. Or maybe I just need some practice. :)

Saturday the weather was beautiful. Sunny, warm (well, as warm as you can be 10,000 feet up on top of a glacier), not a cloud in the sky. We stayed out all day, ate our sandwiches at the very top of the mountain looking at Mont Blanc, and went back to his cute little studio apartment (with a beautiful view of the mountains, I might add) absolutely exhausted! Repeat on Sunday, although the weather was worse so we didn't stay up as long. It was so windy and bitingly cold. I've never been so frozen in my life, the kind of cold where when your blood goes back into your fingers it hurts like the dickens and where your toes are like little stiff blocks of ice dissociated from your body and no longer under your mind's control and your nose feels like it is going to fall off. (Yeah, I'm kind of wimpy when it comes to cold...) Still, I adore skiing. I will have to do some more when I get home. I even have my own skis there...

I came back Sunday on the night train, got to Nantes Monday at 6 am. Ran home, got ready for class, started the week still half-asleep. I made it through that day okay but Tuesday was a mess. Didn't wake up to my alarm, was late to class, missed a meeting, you know, a usual helter-skelter, I-wore-myself-out-and-didn't-give-myself-time-to-recover day. But I survived, and now I had better get some work done, because I have a ton due this week and I'm leaving tomorrow (does it never end???) for Germany!

I'll tell you all about the Model EU conference when I get back!