La Première Semaine

Bonjour!
I'd like to start out by saying that I'm very excited to be posting a new entry...my last post was a whole week ago! Oh là là! 


Unfortunately the internet at my house works very poorly on my computer. I can only stay connected for about 10 minutes if I am able to connect at all (it's strange, I'm currently at the IES building which is 15 minutes away from my house, using the same network as the the one my host family uses, and I have full connectivity).


So, as much as I've wanted to update this blog, I haven't had the time or the ability to do so :(


I switched some classes and this is the schedule I believe I am going to keep for the rest of the semester (but who really knows what I might decide next week, haha):


Monday
11:00-12:00  French Language
1:00-2:00      Gallo-Roman Archeology (at the University/à la fac)


Tuesday
11:15-12:30 France & US in the Middle East
3:15-4:30     France & US in the Middle East
(the professor doesn't live in Nantes so both sessions are held in one day)


Wednesday
10:00-11:15 French 19th and 20th Century Art History
11:30-12:30 Phonetics Theory
12:30-1:30   Phonetics Conversation
1:30-3:30     French Language
5:30-6:30     Phonetics Lab (à la fac)

Thursday
10:00-11:15 French 19th and 20th Century Art History
5:30-6:30     Phonetics Lab (à la fac)

Friday
11:00-12:00 French Language

I've only received homework in the French Language class (the professor teaches grammar and commonly used phrases, we practice speaking, we read articles, etc), but I have to purchase several books for my other classes (typically 1 book per class...there are many less required books than there are at Ithaca or other typical American university).    


Yesterday I bought a bag from a street vender! besides cheapo bags at H&M (the good ones were all sold out), all other stores sold bags for extremely high prices (EVEN though there are huge sales right now!). I got a very good deal on this little number! Plus, I look more European with it, right?

 For many more pictures, stories, and answered questions...

La Sandwiche Américaine

Ya know, I had hoped that I wouldn't encounter negative stereotypes of Americans and the United States in general when I decided to travel abroad. And America's image has improved globally solely because of Barack Obama (the French REALLY like him...many, many, many people bring him up and he's always in their news), so I had high hopes...

But does THIS look like it POSITIVELY reflects American food?!

The picture's washed out because I accidentally messed up a camera setting, but it's a cheese steak with ketchup/mayo, lettuce, and FRIES. Oh and in attempt to be healthy, I got a few clementines hahaha ;)

Kate and I both got one and enjoyed them very much! There were 4 other French customers in the store with us...all of whom ordered the American Sandwich.

Were we proud of America? To be American citizens?
pshhh, why not, lol.


The French can have their fancy, historical architecture...I'm going to enjoy the sandwich more anyway.
(JUST KIDDING!)

Today I also did a little shopping and for just about $14 US (I'm estimating) I got...

About 10 apples, a sandwich, big carrots, multigrain nut bread, couscous, une baguette, and YUMMY CAMEMBERT CHEESE!

I saw someone eating this for lunch today and they let me try a little…it’s absolutely delicious, I had to limit myself to just one piece-of-bread’s worth of cheese.

I’m very excited to eat the rest.

Even though it’s not necessary that they feed me more than 5 dinners a week (Monday through Friday usually), my host mother offered to feed me all of this weekend. I showed her everything I bought and apologized because it took up a decent amount of space (the fridge is decent sized but the freezer takes up almost half of it so the actual fridge part isn’t as big as mine back home). She asked why I didn’t put it in the fridges at IES and I explained that I had bought it for weekend meals…and she was very confused by that because she assumed I knew that in the beginning of the program, when everything is still new, the students are almost expected to eat with their host families (what else are we going to do? We haven’t even found affordable restaurants yet). I’m very fortunate to have such a considerate and generous family.

It’s Friday and I’m so excited for a true break and SLEEEEEP! Tonight I’m going out with a few friends, one of whom has a friend that lives in Nantes (he was a “native speaker” at her school…annually, her school brings in native speakers from around the world to teach classes and she kept in touch with a French young man who happens to live in Nantes). We’re going to a bar where a band is going to play live music; it should be very fun!

The bar is located in “Bouffay,” the primary restaurant/bar/shopping district in Nantes. It’s very cute! I’m excited to see what the night-life is like! I’ll get back to you!

Tchao,

Monica

 

Les Cours Que J'ai Choisi

Bonjour tout le monde!

I'm officially signed up for 6 courses, 18 credits. (Although, not gonna lie, I already want to make some changes...but I'm gonna try these out for now!)

IES Classes (all 3 credits each):

1. Advanced French Language and Composition II (I placed into level II of IV and a bunch of my friends are in the same section as me!)

2. A Panorama of French Theater (17th - 20th Century Literature Course)

3. The European Union and France

4. Phonetics (each week is 1 hour of theory, 2 hours in a language lab, and 1 hour of conversation)
(The class I'm MOST excited for!!)


Classes at the University of Nantes (both are Level 2 of 3 offered at the University):

1. Sociology of Art

2. Gallo-Roman Archeology (Religion, Rights, and Funeral Practices)


I'm signed up for these now but one of my friends said that her adviser told her that the professor that teaches the Theater class is very hard and strict, so I might switch to a Translation class that my friend is taking at the University, which unfortunately conflicts with the Archeology course, so I'd just drop that all together (I'd still have 16 credits). Anyways, those are the classes I've chosen! We had a large selection, too! I was satisfied with the amount of options I had.

If my schedule stands as is, my weekly schedule will be as follows:

Monday
11-12 am - Adv. Lang & Comp
1 - 2 pm - Archeology
3 - 4:15 pm - Theater

Tuesday
12:30 - 1:45 pm - Theater
5:30 - 7:30 pm - Phonetics Lab

Wednesday
11:30 - 12:30 pm - Theory of Phonetics
12:30 - 1:30 pm - Phonetics Conversation
1:30 - 3:30 pm - Adv. Lang & Comp

Thursday
8:15 - 9:45 AM (RUT ROH!)
10 am - Dinner - Sleep

Friday
11 - 12 am Adv. Lang & Comp

I just noticed a schedule conflict...I'm not going to be able to take Sociology of Art which I was very excited for. Oh well, I'll keep looking...

That's all for now!
À tout à l'heure,
Monica

Réponses aux Questions

I will use this post to answer questions people have asked me. If you have any more questions, comment on this post and ask me your question(s). I will edit this post and update it with answers.

People have been asking me about where I live so I will explain.
I live just outside the heart of the city, but definitely in the city of Nantes. The commute would be too long if I lived in the countryside...no students live more than a few miles out of the center of the city, although some do live in suburbs. I will take more pictures in the coming weeks and show you where I live.

Next, I do not drink wine with the family (they offered me some on the first day but I had to pack for my orientation trip so I did not have time, but I did have a small cup of espresso).

I'm not comfortable taking/sending pictures of the family yet. If I see a picture of them around the house, I will take a picture of it on my camera and email it to anyone who wants to see. Like-wise with their house, as I should not put pictures of it on the internet.

There are around 60 students in the program. I'd say my skill level is right in the middle. By the end of the program I will improve dramatically (I've already improved so much)!

I've met one of the professors as she is teaching one of the orientation classes. All of the professors that teach at IES also teach at the University of Nantes. I will have very good professors in all of my classes.

Also...no, I will not make the mistake of wearing pj's into a European restaurant again, and no, I haven't frozen any cats lately.

I think that sums it up for now. Please ask questions if you have them; I like answering them!

À votre service,
Monica

Miam Miam!!

Miam Miam:  How the French say, "yummy!!!"

Oh yes, I ate many more delicious things today. I ate a salad I bought at the market a few days ago (that was decent), I bought chocolate croissant for dessert, and a piece of bread to eat with my salad. (I also bought another piece of bread later to eat on our walking tour of Nantes...hey, it's hard to have self control when you pass so many boulangeries that you know sell nothing but delicious bread and pastries!!!)


Dinner was simple but incredibly delicious and surprisingly filling. We ate:

First, a bowl of vegetable soup. But my host mom doesn't just make regular veggie soup...she cooks all the veggies to soften them, then blends it all up so that it turns into a smooth, dense, brown soup. And it is DELICIOUS, especially when you mix in a little butter (which they always do, with rice too).

Next, we had blended spinach, which was also very dense. We cleaned our plates clear with bread and the combo (bread + spinach) was sooooo tasty!!!

Finally, we had yogurt and sugar (you mix brown refined sugar into sugar-free yogurt "yaourt naturel") followed by a light, fluffy, but at the same time, dense cake. The meals here are so interesting and very, very tasty.


I was talking to my host mom after I got back from my day at IES about many things, and one thing we discovered is that French people (or at least my host family) don't know the word "carbohydrate" (it's "hydrate de carbone" in French). I explained that everyone in the States is obsessed with weight loss and that there are constantly adds for diets, and diets that restrict you from eating "carbs." She said that the only remotely similar phrase used in France when discussing weight or what one eats is, "being over weight." It was very strange to me that she had never heard the word before; but honestly, I wish I had never heard of it either.

Anyways, obviously I don't care about carbohydrates because one of the reasons why I wanted to come here was for the food (a small reason, but still a reason).

On the way home, in fact just a few hundreds yards away from my house, there's a--guess what?? you're correct!!--boulangerie!

I picked up this little guy...

Even the presentation of food TO-GO is delightful en France...ugh, they try too hard (just kidding I really like and appreciate it and it just makes everything classy)

So, want to see what's inside?

Trois Petites Choses

1.  One student lives in the IES building, a floor above the school. The school owns two of the floors. Even if there are businesses, there are almost always also apartments in every building because the buildings are long and many stories high -- not sky scrapers, but 5 to 7 stories. Also, all of the buildings are the same height.

2. The French do not laugh like "ah hohn hohn hohn." (I was a little disappointed because I always laughed like this in an accent but it's probably better they laugh normally...)

3. Everyone carries baguettes. Everyone eats bread...ALL THE TIME.

UNLIMITED SUPPLY!!!!!!!!!!

Boulangerie after Boulangerie...it's incredible!

Hope this was interesting!

Be jealous that I have an excuse to eat so much delicious bread,
Monica

Vous Me Manquez

I miss you. I really do miss all of you.

But it's ok because I have PJ with me to cheer me up!

But honestly, it's sometimes really hard to wrap my brain around the fact that I'm going to be here for another 3.5 months...it's such a long time. But I know it will pass quickly and that I can't afford to waste time being sad when I've been given such a unique opportunity as this.

 Just know that thoughts of you all help me get through the harder times...

I look at pictures!! (Remember this one?! From Christmas!)

I wear Jim's pajamas he gave to me!! :)

OH! ANECDOTE:

If you can't see the pattern on the pj's, here's a close up...

Jim loves penguins and so do I! (And so does this girl Caroline that I met at IES)

(and yes that's my butt...it's going to be a very nice shape after all the walking and stair climbing I do)

One morning when we were on our orientation trips to Tours, my roommate and I woke up later than we planned (something happened with the alarm...) and we thought that breakfast was going to stop being served just a few minutes later. I quickly brushed my teeth and threw on a shirt and shoes and figured it would be better to eat than get completely dressed and miss breakfast.

Well, not only did it turn out that breakfast didn't close for a long time (at least an hour after I went down), but no one else in the restaurant was wearing pj's (like what is very common in US hotels). People looked at me and I stuck out like a sore thumb, but hey, who doesn't like penguins?! I hope people weren't offended, but rather that their days were made more cheery by my cute little pants!

Ok so back to other things....

La Bible de Mme. Rouchet

Well, orientation week has started and I've officially and successfully commuted to and from the IES building multiple times now! It's so easy; I honestly wasn't nervous doing it alone for the first time. However, this morning when I arrived at my tram stop, I realized that the ticket machine only accepts coins (currency here is similar to Canada in that there are €1 and €2 coins) and alas, I was coinless. The walk is far too long (6 tram stops) and I had given myself just enough time to get there with the tram. So...I exchanged money at a bar along the way to the next tram stop (easy enough). I was 10 minutes late but other students were up to 30 or 40 minutes late, which I honestly did not understand.

Next month I will be able to purchase a monthly pass at a discounted price (for people under the age of 26) and the price of my commute will be much more reasonable. A few hours ago I purchased "un carnet de tickets," which is a packet of 10 tickets sold at a discounted price. It's amazing how many "Tabac"s there are around the city (tobacco/cigarette stores that also sell magazines, candy, tram tickets, phone cards, and lottery tickets).



A lot has happened over the last two days...

Le Début

Arriving in Nantes was very easy but only thanks to the help of 15 other IES students (we all took the same train). Finding my host family at the train station, however, was a little more difficult.

We agreed to meet at the North Exit of the train station, and so I wandered away from the rest of the students who were taking taxis. However, when I searched the main level of the train station (you had to go up stairs or elevators to get there from the train) I could not find the Doucet family for nearly a half hour. In fact, I asked a few women if they were "Madame Doucet" and explained I was a student looking for my host family.

When I finally met up with some students and IES staff at a taxi station, they gasped "MONICA?! Oh no! Your family JUST left within the past minute! They've been looking for you for 30 minutes downstairs with the rest of the students!"

Turns out, we had both been looking for each other in different places. Also, they had taken the stairs, and because of my heavy suitcase, I had taken the elevators.

But one staff member called the family and they came back for me within 10 minutes (all is well that ends well, but sheesh it frazzled me).

That night (the first night) was fairly rough for me as I felt like an extreme outsider in my host family's house and especially at meals when I understood about 5% of the conversation. I'd say that now I can understand at least 25% of their dinner conversation (they do directly talk to me and then I can understand it). They've learned to speak more clearly to me and use phrases that I can more easily understand. My family is incredibly nice -- I could not wish for nicer or more comfortable accommodations.

The first night, my host mother showed me the way to the school (we had to sign in and pick up some packets of information) and she even bought me my first few tram tickets (I have a 20 minute commute: 5 minute walk to the tram, 10 minute tram ride, 5 minute walk to the school). Instead of taking the tram back home, we walked around the two "centres villes" (main parts/centers in the city) and asked several questions of each others' homes, climates, cultures, and lives. It was really a nice conversation.

The program started the next day--orientation. We traveled 3 hours east of Nantes to visit famous castles near the city of Tours for the first of our nearly 2 week long orientation. We stayed in Tours Thursday through Sunday.