Les Premiers Jours

Aside from the food there is quite a bit to tell about my time with my famille d'accueil. I arrived the 30th, and slept until about 11:30am on the 31st. Oops. That day la mère took me to Beaune, another town about 20 minutes away from Gevrey-Chambertin. By the way, these towns and Dijon are in Bourgogne, or Burgundy, and are quite famous for their wine. I saw a ton of vineyards. Anyways, in Beaune there is the Hospice de Beaune, or Hopital de Dieu. Basically from the 14th century to about 1985, religious women lived there, and it housed sick people that they cared for and fed. They owned/own vineyards and the wine they produce is famous and they use the proceeds to run the place. It is now a museum, but they still make wine, and if I heard correctly, it pays the salaries of the people who work there. It is a very old place with some beautiful artwork inside. I took about 25 photos, but they are on a different memory card and I'm not sure how I can get them on a computer.

Afterwards la mère had to go go grocery shopping, so we stopped at a Super U. To everyone at Stop & Shop, sorry but if they opened a Super U next door, I'd be there. They have us beat. It's kind of like Walmart, in that they sell clothes and electronics and stuff, but it's not all shitty, and the food section is as big as Stop & Shop. At the front of the store they have little stores like an optician, flower store, laundry place, and a tabac (like a convenience store). Obviously the cheese shop is huge, and in produce they have scales in the produce section where you weigh your stuff and put a price tag on it. Everything else is pretty much the same...except the names. I find the French versions hilarious. he kicker is the front end. No plastic bags; you can buy a reusable one, bring your own, or put it all back in the cart. And the cashiers get to sit on nice little swivel chairs with cushions. Ce n'est pas juste.

That night Tina, Pierre and I went to Dijon and walked around a bit. I took some nice photos which are on facebook, je pense, maybe not though. Throughout the centre ville, there are little metal triangles with cartoon-like chouettes (owls) on them in the street. These lead to a big metal square with a larger chouette on it that's numbered. The highest I saw was 15, but I only saw three of them. I think each one is next to a chouette on a building, like on the corner in the stone. I guess in Dijon you are supposed to pet or rub the chouette and make a wish. I took pics of the owls too.

The next day, the 1st, I went back to Dijon with la mere et le père. We walked around some more, I took more photos. I know these ones are on facebook. It was a nice day in town. At dinner that night le père informed me that since tomorrow was Sunday we were going to church. So just when I had pretty much gotten over being nervous, I got to start again. I'm atheist, I don't go to church. They pray before meals and that's fine, but church? Let's go over why I began to internally freak out: 1) I'm atheist, 2) I have no good memories of church: service was boring and the kids in Sunday school excluded me, and I went to a Catholic mass once that scared the shit out of me, 3) lots of people I don't know (let's remember my slight social issues), 4) it's in French, 5) lots of people doing ritual type things; my only rituals are sleeping, eating, and telling myself I look good before I leave the house, and 6) they sing. I don't sing in public, and I don't know the songs even if I wanted to. At least they're not Catholic like 80% of France (no offense to any Catholics), but I might've cried that night if they were. As it was I woke up with a hive on my left cheek bone, right next to my eye. Lovely. But of course I went. It actually wasn't that bad. We stood for a while, they sang and I didn't. It wasn't in an actual church, more of a community center room, so that helped the nervousness. It was pretty laid back: some women dressed up, many people wore jeans and a nice shirt (which is casual dress here), kids played in the back and people whispered occasionally throughout. I had hoped after the singing it would be over. Nope. Some church news, prayers, then a pastor came up and gave a sermon. I thought it was long. I tried to pay attention at first, to see if I could understand, but I was sleepy. So instead I forced myself to think about things in order to stay awake. I thought after that it would be over. Not quite. Then it was like social time. More nervousness. Thankfully Tina warned me that people might 'faire de bisous' to me. They did, quite a bit. I did actually talk to a few people. La mere found two guys who also English, so for a little while I spoke French and English with a Frenchman who spoke English pretty well, and a Brazilian who didn't. He said asked like 'ask ed', it was amusing. At first they thought I was Polish. Haha. Finally we left. When we got back we had lunch, then Tina and I left for Orleans. We stopped in Dijon so she could say goodbye to Pierre. We parked illegally, so she said if the police came to yell for her. I could've gone with her, but she said once that they plan on getting engaged, so I figured I'd let them alone for a goodbye. Besides, I have a music quiz and solitaire on my ipod. So after about 15 minutes the police drive by and pull up behind me. I considered yelling but she was inside. I decided I would pretend that I didn't know French. However they didn't come over to me, and after 4 or 5 minutes Tina and Pierre came out. I guess they nabbed someone else on the street. But for a few minutes I was pretty scared.

Then onto Orleans. It was over 3 hours on the road.

Mais pour ca, un autre post!