1 octobre 2007
Sitting in my window the other day, I had the pleasure of hearing some one's radio. The Grease medley came on and I almost fell out laughing. I didn't know it was such a big hit here.
Last week was friggin' cold, and now it's the first of October. Everyday last week was overcast or rainy, and never over 55°F. Fortunately I only got caught in the rain once, Friday while walking home from the tram. but a little while later I went out and bought a parapluie.
I've had a couple of requests to describe my daily life and routine, so here you go people. I get up a different time each day, depending on when my first class is, and whether or not I'm going to wash my hair. This means I wake up between 7h and 9h30, unless it's the weekend. For breakfast each morning I eat two or three pieces of toast (toasted right on the burner), and either a croissant or a pain au chocolat. I leave 45 minutes before my first class. Once or twice a week I will go with Dee and Kay. When I do we talk and laugh and such on the way. I really don't mind when I have o go alone though. It gives me thinking time, and time with my music. Although I don't walk through the streets singing, the world is a different place with a soundtrack. So then I get on the tram and stay on for about 20 minutes, then there's a quick walk to the fac de lettres. After my first class I go to lunch, almost always at Le Forum, which is a university restaurant (cafeteria). Half the time I eat with Kay and Dee, the other times I eat with some of the girls from my class. Thursday I go to the computer lab because I've yet to break my internet addiction. But I also email people and type up these posts for you wonderful people. Mondays I also go to the computer lab, so if you want to email me, know that I can respond Monday and Thursday afternoons, or mornings in the states. (After note: I've found a way to go to the computer lab practically every weekday.)
On Monday I'm also on food duty. Dee and Kay have class 1h30 - 3h30, then 3h30 - 5h, and we all have cinema from 5 - 8. But I only have class from 1h30 - 3h. Then I go to the computer lab until it closes at 4h20. Then I go down to the scrumdidliuptious Fournil d'Or (aka Le cafè) and buy us some food so we don't die of hunger during our three hours of cinema. After classes each day...I go home! Not really very exciting. I do, however, have to actually make something for dinner each night. Sometimes Kay or Dee will feed me, sometimes I feed them. But I'm trying to get into the habit of making a full meal each night. My first week I pretty much had single subject meals. For example, pasta, or rice, or a cordon bleu. I'm determined to learn how to cook while I'm here. Although it's cheaper to eat crap in the states. I'm also getting very good at washing dishes while making dinner, and right after I finish. I try to spend some time each night doing homework and cleaning a little. Having a small apartment makes that easier. If I'm not hanging out with Kay, Dee, or JP I try to listen to the French news radio station, or read a newspaper or book in French.
So that's my life. Oh yeah, I do spend quite some time sitting in my window, listening to music, singing, or doing homework or writing. And of course watching people. Weekends vary greatly so I won't describe them generally. I will describe this past weekend.
Friday night we were sick of cooking and feeling adventurous. So for dinner we went to Le Madras; a cozy little Indian restaurant. It was fun, and pretty good. I didn't really like my second dish (poulet massala), but everything else I did (samosa, pakora, and rice), which kind of surprised me. For dessert Dee got Halva, which tastes a lot like cornbread, but it's orange and comes with 'feuille d'argent', which the waitress said was good for your circulation. Feuille d'argent is silver leaf. As in...there was waht appeared to be aluminum foil on top of her halva. We questioned it for a few minutes, then when she came by Dee asked if she was supposed to eat it. She told us...like I said before, it's feuille d'argent, and it's good for your circulation. Don't worry, it's not aluminum.
So Dee made herself a grill with it, and Kay and I both ate a little bit to get our blood running. We laughed for about five minutes straight.
Friday night was an early night though...Samedi we were going on a free trip, thanks to the SRI.
09 October 2007
08 October 2007
Le Festival de La Loire
This year was the third Festival, and it happens every other year. I heard that this year it was huge. Supposedly the last one was only during the weekend, and did not have as many shows and booths and such. I also heard that it might have been so big this year because someone is up for reelection...I don't follow local politics so I have no idea if that's true or not. This year it ran from Wednesday the 19th to Sunday the 23rd.
La Loire, as you might remember, is the big river that runs through Orléans, that also happens to be the largest, and about two minutes from my apartment. I'll try to be a little historic here and explain why it's a big deal. In the olden days, meaning I believe the 18th century, the Loire was a hopping place. However the bottom is shallow and rocky in many places, and therefore hard to travel with your average boat. To get around this they made flat-bottomed boats. Me, myself, personally, I don't find the technical reasoning interesting, but they are quite proud to have all these boats here. The part that interested me was everything else. Both sides of the Quai were lined with tents. They went for about..ok I don't know distances. But speed walking probably five minutes without anyone blocking your path. When it's packed and you're looking at everything and everyone... 15 - 20 minutes to walk the length. The tents had different vendors: cheese, meat, jams, crepes, gauffres, fish, cheese, jams. They also had four or five cafes setup, and a pub. A couple of organizations and local artisans also had tents. Then they had a few different stages with performances throughout the festival. I only saw a couple. I caught the end of a drumming group, and we watched a flame thrower for a few minutes. They also had a group of people kind of like Cirque de Soleil. They were on ropes and did acrobatic-like things. People who have seen Cirque will know what I mean. The other group was a musical group. I have no idea what instruments they were playing, but there were two guys. Their instruments stood about as tall as them, and they were electric. They made some of the weirdest music I've ever heard. I was smart enough to take a video, and eventually I'll try to get that up on facebook and photobucket...hopefully.
Unfortunately I didn't get to spend as much time there as I wanted. But I did buy a très bon crepe, and Saturday night we went and saw the 20 minute firework show.
I believe in my last post I was describing the wonderful cold that I had rattraped. That was the main reason I didn't go down to the Loire. Friday night I recuperated slightly and Kay and Dee convinced me I felt well enough to go out. Dee met a Polish guy at school and we went with him to the club. it was fun, bien sur. I realized that French girls dance like it's '92. And Poland could not dance to save his life. I also found out that drinking and staying up do not help a cold...At all...
Saturday I slept a lot, but Kay came up for dinner. Prepare yourselves people. We made an amazing dinner. Fiesta chicken, it was my idea. We made rice and corn, flavored with a little bit of texmex spices. Fried some red pepper and added some to the rice and corn. Then we put the rest with the chicken, which was also spiced. It was, as I said, amazing. It looked great too...I took pictures.
Later that night my friend JP came over for the fireworks. Both Kay and Dee had gotten in tiffs with people over the phone, so they decided we needed to cheer up. We accomplished this with rum, wine and two games of Kings. So Sunday was another recovery day...sleeping...eating...being slow and doing homework.
And that was how I ended Le Festival de la Loire
La Loire, as you might remember, is the big river that runs through Orléans, that also happens to be the largest, and about two minutes from my apartment. I'll try to be a little historic here and explain why it's a big deal. In the olden days, meaning I believe the 18th century, the Loire was a hopping place. However the bottom is shallow and rocky in many places, and therefore hard to travel with your average boat. To get around this they made flat-bottomed boats. Me, myself, personally, I don't find the technical reasoning interesting, but they are quite proud to have all these boats here. The part that interested me was everything else. Both sides of the Quai were lined with tents. They went for about..ok I don't know distances. But speed walking probably five minutes without anyone blocking your path. When it's packed and you're looking at everything and everyone... 15 - 20 minutes to walk the length. The tents had different vendors: cheese, meat, jams, crepes, gauffres, fish, cheese, jams. They also had four or five cafes setup, and a pub. A couple of organizations and local artisans also had tents. Then they had a few different stages with performances throughout the festival. I only saw a couple. I caught the end of a drumming group, and we watched a flame thrower for a few minutes. They also had a group of people kind of like Cirque de Soleil. They were on ropes and did acrobatic-like things. People who have seen Cirque will know what I mean. The other group was a musical group. I have no idea what instruments they were playing, but there were two guys. Their instruments stood about as tall as them, and they were electric. They made some of the weirdest music I've ever heard. I was smart enough to take a video, and eventually I'll try to get that up on facebook and photobucket...hopefully.
Unfortunately I didn't get to spend as much time there as I wanted. But I did buy a très bon crepe, and Saturday night we went and saw the 20 minute firework show.
I believe in my last post I was describing the wonderful cold that I had rattraped. That was the main reason I didn't go down to the Loire. Friday night I recuperated slightly and Kay and Dee convinced me I felt well enough to go out. Dee met a Polish guy at school and we went with him to the club. it was fun, bien sur. I realized that French girls dance like it's '92. And Poland could not dance to save his life. I also found out that drinking and staying up do not help a cold...At all...
Saturday I slept a lot, but Kay came up for dinner. Prepare yourselves people. We made an amazing dinner. Fiesta chicken, it was my idea. We made rice and corn, flavored with a little bit of texmex spices. Fried some red pepper and added some to the rice and corn. Then we put the rest with the chicken, which was also spiced. It was, as I said, amazing. It looked great too...I took pictures.
Later that night my friend JP came over for the fireworks. Both Kay and Dee had gotten in tiffs with people over the phone, so they decided we needed to cheer up. We accomplished this with rum, wine and two games of Kings. So Sunday was another recovery day...sleeping...eating...being slow and doing homework.
And that was how I ended Le Festival de la Loire
07 October 2007
La Deuxieme Semaine
17th - 19th septembre
Well, well, well. Already two weeks into the semester, and I'm getting my schedule down. Tuesday I finally my student ID card, which means I could then do three things : 1) get my student-discounted month tram ticket, 2) access my new school email account, and 3) use the computers (and the internet!) in my fac.
By now I've attended at least one session of each of my classes, although I had to leave one early for an appointment, and missed the last three of the week. Grammar is still my least favorite, and hardest course. I was also frustrated three times this week by teachers glazing over what I was trying to say to them...Let me explain...or bitch...whatever you want to call it.
1) Writing. We played a game about wild animals, don't ask me what this has to do with writing, I don't know. One of the animals was a moose. I tried to describe it, and the prof told us the name. When she saw the picture she realized that she had told us the wrong animal, and said it was a caribou. I asked if it was the same word in English, because in English there is an animal called a caribou, and it is not a moose. I looked up the word for moose (orignal) and she asked me to explain the difference. Well I couldn't because I didn't remember exactly what a caribou is. She replied that since they have neither in France, the French just categorize them all into caribou. Well fine then, don't accept the fact that I know more about North American wild animals than you.
2) Francophonie. We were talking about countries that speak French. The teacher didn't list Madagascar under the countries whose official languages were French and something else. I pointed this out. As I was trying to explain that French is the second language and quite a few people speak it, she said that there might be a few people who speak and moved on. Now, my facts might be wrong, I'll admit that (Adam you might able to help me with those facts) but don't just ignore me and cut me off.
3) Pratique orale. We had to listen to a clip and write down the details, then she asked us in groups of three to tell her what info we had gathered. I had one thing to say after the other two girls went; that an American engineer decided to put the arobase (@) in keyboards in 1972. I got about halfway there and she stopped me to say that no, it was invented in the 19th century. Ummm, not what I was saying at all. Then she left. I heard another girl say the same thing I had been trying to say and the prof's response? 'Tres bien' Alright, no more talking for a while.
Anyways, aside from those things the first part of my week wasn't bad. My French friend (JP), who speaks English pretty well, as well as Spanish, has been helping me with French a bit and giving me other useful info. Thanks to a lack of communication I had no idea whether or not I could apply for aid from the French government. The people at my residence said that I had to. The people at SRI said that because I'm only here for one semester that I couldn't. JP said he knew a girl that lived here last year, for only one semester and she got money. So I applied, I'm not sure I'll get anything, but I used their little calculator to estimate if I would, and it said I could get up to 150 euros a month. That would be amazing. And you have to love the fact that I'm more likely to get financial aid from a foreign country than I am from my own. Yay for socialism! JP told me that he pays about 800euro a year to go the university. That's full cost, no scholarships.
French universities are similar to American ones in at least one big way: when someone gets sick, a lot of people get sick. That's right folks, I've got a French cold. I had been sniffly since Sunday, though I couldn't tell if it was the cold or my allergies. Thursday morning I knew that even if it was my allergies as well, I had gotten whatever was going around. Apparently so did some of my other classmates who didn't show up. First I had two and a half hours of pratique orale. I felt like shit. Then I got lunch with JP at Le cafe, and who would've guessed that their jambon buerre sandwichs made on a baguette would be completely banging as well. The whole time I was contemplating whether or not I could make it through two hours of grammar. I decided to use a computer in the meantime. Little did I know that the time on said computer was half an hour behind. So ten minutes before I thought class was starting I went downstairs. I didn't know which room it was because it was a make-up class from Wednesday. Wait a few moments...no one... Go to the bathroom...no one... Finally I check the time on my ipod and see that class had started 40 minutes earlier. Well shit. I was still not feeling great, so I went home. I didn't feel too bad the rest of the day and managed to do laundry and clean. I told myself to go to bed by 11 so I could get a full eight hours of sleep. At 10:30 I was quite sniffly and passed out next to my homework. I woke up around 5am with dry lips from breathing through my mouth, and two hives forming...one above each eyebrow. My alarm went off at seven. Snooze. 7:10. Snooze. 7:20. With a nose full of snot and my left eye slightly closed from the hive, I contemplated if I should attempt class. A glass of juice told me no. At 7:40 I called Kay to ask her if she could sign me up for the trip to some castles for the next weekend, then went back to bed. Around 8:15 she came up to get my student ID card and I asked her to tell my two profs I was sick. Then I took a benadryl because having an itchy forehead is a horrible feeling, and went back to sleep. Around 11:30 I finally got up and ate some breakfast. By then I was looking decidedly like Quasimodo with a swollen forehead and my left eye forced 2/3 closed thanks to the hive. Oh and don't forget the sniffles, dry mouth, and slightly painful throat.
By 12:45 I was asleep again next to the French magazine I had been reading. Finally a little after 2 I woke up and decided to try to be human by taking a shower and eating again, and trying not to see my reflection.
Well, well, well. Already two weeks into the semester, and I'm getting my schedule down. Tuesday I finally my student ID card, which means I could then do three things : 1) get my student-discounted month tram ticket, 2) access my new school email account, and 3) use the computers (and the internet!) in my fac.
By now I've attended at least one session of each of my classes, although I had to leave one early for an appointment, and missed the last three of the week. Grammar is still my least favorite, and hardest course. I was also frustrated three times this week by teachers glazing over what I was trying to say to them...Let me explain...or bitch...whatever you want to call it.
1) Writing. We played a game about wild animals, don't ask me what this has to do with writing, I don't know. One of the animals was a moose. I tried to describe it, and the prof told us the name. When she saw the picture she realized that she had told us the wrong animal, and said it was a caribou. I asked if it was the same word in English, because in English there is an animal called a caribou, and it is not a moose. I looked up the word for moose (orignal) and she asked me to explain the difference. Well I couldn't because I didn't remember exactly what a caribou is. She replied that since they have neither in France, the French just categorize them all into caribou. Well fine then, don't accept the fact that I know more about North American wild animals than you.
2) Francophonie. We were talking about countries that speak French. The teacher didn't list Madagascar under the countries whose official languages were French and something else. I pointed this out. As I was trying to explain that French is the second language and quite a few people speak it, she said that there might be a few people who speak and moved on. Now, my facts might be wrong, I'll admit that (Adam you might able to help me with those facts) but don't just ignore me and cut me off.
3) Pratique orale. We had to listen to a clip and write down the details, then she asked us in groups of three to tell her what info we had gathered. I had one thing to say after the other two girls went; that an American engineer decided to put the arobase (@) in keyboards in 1972. I got about halfway there and she stopped me to say that no, it was invented in the 19th century. Ummm, not what I was saying at all. Then she left. I heard another girl say the same thing I had been trying to say and the prof's response? 'Tres bien' Alright, no more talking for a while.
Anyways, aside from those things the first part of my week wasn't bad. My French friend (JP), who speaks English pretty well, as well as Spanish, has been helping me with French a bit and giving me other useful info. Thanks to a lack of communication I had no idea whether or not I could apply for aid from the French government. The people at my residence said that I had to. The people at SRI said that because I'm only here for one semester that I couldn't. JP said he knew a girl that lived here last year, for only one semester and she got money. So I applied, I'm not sure I'll get anything, but I used their little calculator to estimate if I would, and it said I could get up to 150 euros a month. That would be amazing. And you have to love the fact that I'm more likely to get financial aid from a foreign country than I am from my own. Yay for socialism! JP told me that he pays about 800euro a year to go the university. That's full cost, no scholarships.
French universities are similar to American ones in at least one big way: when someone gets sick, a lot of people get sick. That's right folks, I've got a French cold. I had been sniffly since Sunday, though I couldn't tell if it was the cold or my allergies. Thursday morning I knew that even if it was my allergies as well, I had gotten whatever was going around. Apparently so did some of my other classmates who didn't show up. First I had two and a half hours of pratique orale. I felt like shit. Then I got lunch with JP at Le cafe, and who would've guessed that their jambon buerre sandwichs made on a baguette would be completely banging as well. The whole time I was contemplating whether or not I could make it through two hours of grammar. I decided to use a computer in the meantime. Little did I know that the time on said computer was half an hour behind. So ten minutes before I thought class was starting I went downstairs. I didn't know which room it was because it was a make-up class from Wednesday. Wait a few moments...no one... Go to the bathroom...no one... Finally I check the time on my ipod and see that class had started 40 minutes earlier. Well shit. I was still not feeling great, so I went home. I didn't feel too bad the rest of the day and managed to do laundry and clean. I told myself to go to bed by 11 so I could get a full eight hours of sleep. At 10:30 I was quite sniffly and passed out next to my homework. I woke up around 5am with dry lips from breathing through my mouth, and two hives forming...one above each eyebrow. My alarm went off at seven. Snooze. 7:10. Snooze. 7:20. With a nose full of snot and my left eye slightly closed from the hive, I contemplated if I should attempt class. A glass of juice told me no. At 7:40 I called Kay to ask her if she could sign me up for the trip to some castles for the next weekend, then went back to bed. Around 8:15 she came up to get my student ID card and I asked her to tell my two profs I was sick. Then I took a benadryl because having an itchy forehead is a horrible feeling, and went back to sleep. Around 11:30 I finally got up and ate some breakfast. By then I was looking decidedly like Quasimodo with a swollen forehead and my left eye forced 2/3 closed thanks to the hive. Oh and don't forget the sniffles, dry mouth, and slightly painful throat.
By 12:45 I was asleep again next to the French magazine I had been reading. Finally a little after 2 I woke up and decided to try to be human by taking a shower and eating again, and trying not to see my reflection.
04 October 2007
Tours
The next train to Tours was in about two hours. We decided to get the tickets then just lunch somewhere for a while. Kay was the first to get her ticket, but I couldn't hear what the woman told her. Then Dee, and I heard then man say 'seize'. I thought 16€ roundtrip, that's not bad at all. Finally I go up. I had the same woman as Kay, so I used the cop out of 'le meme billet pour moi, s'il voud plait'. She replies with a smile and a little laugh, 'Oui bien sur. Quatre euro.' I fumble. 'Quatre euro?' 'Oui.' 'Uhh...d'accord.' I give her the money, she gives me the change and my ticket. I go over to Kay and Dee thinking, 'I fucked that up'. But no. The 'seize' I had heard was francs. We allpaid 4€ for a roundtrip to Tours. Let's think about this...Amazing! We were psyched. It turns out that during the Journée de Patrimoine you can go anywhere in the same region for only 2€. While practically jumping with joy we thought we'd hit up Quick. It's a fast food place, whose symbol is the same Q as Quizno's. Kay got a 'long chicken', me: chicken dips, and Dee: yoaurt and fries. Apparently even French fast food restaurants are better. I paid; and the woman put my soda on my tray. So I stood there, waiting for my food. After a few moments she must have realized I was not French, so she told le that I could go, and she would be the one to bring me my food when it was ready. Shit, they serve you in fast food restaurants? Sure enough after a few minutes she came over with my chicken dips and fries. The French have it made.
Finally it was time to board our train. And it had compartments like on the Hogwarts Express! That made me quite excited, even though we had to share with a guy who would try to look like he wasn't watching us while listening to something with headphones and occasionally laughing out loud. We taught Dee how to play Go Fish (or 'aller à la peche' as she likes to say). About an hour later we heard 'Tours' and got off. We looked around the station but didn't see a map, so we headed out to find Le Musée Des Beaux Arts. The town was dead. We followed signs for Centre Ville and ended up walking in a huge square. After stopping at a little patisserie, we decided to go back to the train station to see if we might've left on the wrong side. We asked a woman where the Musée was. 'A Tours?' 'Oui.' 'Vous n'etes pas à Tours.' Alrighty then. Dee and I went back to Kay. (We can't find the Musée or any of the streets we're on because we're not in Tours.' Where the hell are we?
As it turns out we had to take a navette (connecting train) from the main (1st) train to the real Tours. We managed to realize this approximately one minute before the next one left, and we ran up to the platform about five seconds before it started moving. So we got to wait another twenty minutes in non-Tours. This is why some of my photos have captions like 'fake Tours' and 'real Tours'.
Soon after getting on the navette three other people came into the car. We looked at eachother, then them, eachother, and said 'Americans!' Well, two of them were, and they were talking to a Brazilian guy. But the Americans were an older couple, grandparents actually, who were doing a bike trip around France. They were from Michigan, just like the guy Lichigan in our residence.
The navette was only twenty minutes or so and this time when we walked out of the gare, it looked like a city, and we could find the streets on Kay's map. Like Orléans, and let's admit it, most of France, Tours is a beautiful city. It was slightly better than Orléans in that you didn't smell piss or shit every ten minutes, and there was less dog shit in the streets. Le Musée de Beaux Arts is inside a lovely building next to a cathedrale. The paintings ranged from long ago, at least 17th century possibly earlier, to the the 20th century. I loved it. I also took over 60 photos, including some nice shots of the cathedrale from inside the musée. Because of the Jounrée de Patrimoine it was only 2€ a person, and it wasn't packed inside either.
After exhausting ourselves we took a little repose in a park and finished off the loaf of chocolate chip bread-type thing we had bought in non-Tours. But not for too long a rest, ever the youthful and adventurous three we said 'on y va!' A quick stop in the cathedrale then on towards the downtown section. We got to walk along Rue Colbert, so of course I took pics of the street sign as well as the 'Grill Colbert' and two other Colbert places. Those of you who know The Colbert Report might be able to guess my intentions.
We walked ourselves into quite a hungry state, but didn't find the stained glass museum we were half looking for. Instead we decided to have a nice dinner in a very busy place (in French a place is like a square, not like...place in English). Unfortunately we experienced one of the most disheartening things for a language student in a foreign country: we spoke to the waiter in French, and he responded in English. We decided we would just continue with French though. Dinner was good and I took my first sip of beer, Stella I believe it was. Although I didn't really like it in the way I like rum and coke I'd drink it over wine. After dinner the reasoning of our tongues overcame the reasoning of our wallets (but it did only cost 4euro to get there!) and we got dessert. Pour moi: a nice big glass of chocolate mousse with real whipped cream on top. Mmm! It's also nice not being rushed out of a restaurant.
Another funny quote came from this day. We heard a baby crying in a very strange way, and a few moments later Kay came out with, "What do they do to their kids here to make it sound like Jurassic Park?" I happened to be chewing at that moment and burst out laughing which prompted the second quote: "You're lucky I have teeth 'cause that peice of chicken almost flew right at you."
After dinner we leisurely amde our way back to the gare. Once there we found out we had about one and a half hours to kill, so we browsed a little in the bookstore, and I actually found a book I needed for one of my classes. Then we spotted them: a group of guys (about 15) break dancing. We found an empty bench right behind them and enjoyed the free entertainment until our navette train arrived. I know some people might not like break dancing, but you have to admit, it takes some strength, if not skill as well. It made for a great end to our visit of Tours.
Finally it was time to board our train. And it had compartments like on the Hogwarts Express! That made me quite excited, even though we had to share with a guy who would try to look like he wasn't watching us while listening to something with headphones and occasionally laughing out loud. We taught Dee how to play Go Fish (or 'aller à la peche' as she likes to say). About an hour later we heard 'Tours' and got off. We looked around the station but didn't see a map, so we headed out to find Le Musée Des Beaux Arts. The town was dead. We followed signs for Centre Ville and ended up walking in a huge square. After stopping at a little patisserie, we decided to go back to the train station to see if we might've left on the wrong side. We asked a woman where the Musée was. 'A Tours?' 'Oui.' 'Vous n'etes pas à Tours.' Alrighty then. Dee and I went back to Kay. (We can't find the Musée or any of the streets we're on because we're not in Tours.' Where the hell are we?
As it turns out we had to take a navette (connecting train) from the main (1st) train to the real Tours. We managed to realize this approximately one minute before the next one left, and we ran up to the platform about five seconds before it started moving. So we got to wait another twenty minutes in non-Tours. This is why some of my photos have captions like 'fake Tours' and 'real Tours'.
Soon after getting on the navette three other people came into the car. We looked at eachother, then them, eachother, and said 'Americans!' Well, two of them were, and they were talking to a Brazilian guy. But the Americans were an older couple, grandparents actually, who were doing a bike trip around France. They were from Michigan, just like the guy Lichigan in our residence.
The navette was only twenty minutes or so and this time when we walked out of the gare, it looked like a city, and we could find the streets on Kay's map. Like Orléans, and let's admit it, most of France, Tours is a beautiful city. It was slightly better than Orléans in that you didn't smell piss or shit every ten minutes, and there was less dog shit in the streets. Le Musée de Beaux Arts is inside a lovely building next to a cathedrale. The paintings ranged from long ago, at least 17th century possibly earlier, to the the 20th century. I loved it. I also took over 60 photos, including some nice shots of the cathedrale from inside the musée. Because of the Jounrée de Patrimoine it was only 2€ a person, and it wasn't packed inside either.
After exhausting ourselves we took a little repose in a park and finished off the loaf of chocolate chip bread-type thing we had bought in non-Tours. But not for too long a rest, ever the youthful and adventurous three we said 'on y va!' A quick stop in the cathedrale then on towards the downtown section. We got to walk along Rue Colbert, so of course I took pics of the street sign as well as the 'Grill Colbert' and two other Colbert places. Those of you who know The Colbert Report might be able to guess my intentions.
We walked ourselves into quite a hungry state, but didn't find the stained glass museum we were half looking for. Instead we decided to have a nice dinner in a very busy place (in French a place is like a square, not like...place in English). Unfortunately we experienced one of the most disheartening things for a language student in a foreign country: we spoke to the waiter in French, and he responded in English. We decided we would just continue with French though. Dinner was good and I took my first sip of beer, Stella I believe it was. Although I didn't really like it in the way I like rum and coke I'd drink it over wine. After dinner the reasoning of our tongues overcame the reasoning of our wallets (but it did only cost 4euro to get there!) and we got dessert. Pour moi: a nice big glass of chocolate mousse with real whipped cream on top. Mmm! It's also nice not being rushed out of a restaurant.
Another funny quote came from this day. We heard a baby crying in a very strange way, and a few moments later Kay came out with, "What do they do to their kids here to make it sound like Jurassic Park?" I happened to be chewing at that moment and burst out laughing which prompted the second quote: "You're lucky I have teeth 'cause that peice of chicken almost flew right at you."
After dinner we leisurely amde our way back to the gare. Once there we found out we had about one and a half hours to kill, so we browsed a little in the bookstore, and I actually found a book I needed for one of my classes. Then we spotted them: a group of guys (about 15) break dancing. We found an empty bench right behind them and enjoyed the free entertainment until our navette train arrived. I know some people might not like break dancing, but you have to admit, it takes some strength, if not skill as well. It made for a great end to our visit of Tours.
Unfortunately, after the navette we had to wait quite a bit because the train was delayed for over half an hour. Once back in Orleans we saved a tram trip and walked home, despite it being around 11pm. The city is gorgeous at night as well. I got a great shot of the Pont George V, the bridge the tram goes over when we go to school. Later I showed it to my French friend who said that after four years of being in Orleans he hadn't realized how beautiful that bridge was. I'll take that as a compliment to my photography skills, thank you.
We made it to our rooms around 11:30pm, just in time to end the great weekend by finishing some homework and not going to bed as early as I wanted to. But who cares? I'm in France!
02 October 2007
Journée de Patrimoine
12 - 16 septembre
This has been a strange, but overall awesome weekend. But let's start with Wednesday night. The three of us went out to meet Dee's host-sister. We went to a bar with her friend who wanted to practice his English. After a round of drinks it got cold, so we went to another bar to be inside. Two more guys joined us for another round of drinks. After a few minutes one left to meet one of his friends. So a little while later the six of us went to a rhumerie to meet up with him and three or four other people. Finally around 1am we convinced everyone that we had to leave (just the three of us) because we had class at 9am.
The next night, Thursday, Dee and I met up with two of the guys from the night before, and we were going to go to a club for a soirée d'integration for our university. Before we got them we played Kings and managed to kill a bottle of champagne between the two of us. We brought them over for another game of kings...and then another...until we decided that it was too late to go to the club.
Friday night the three of us went out with those two guys and Dee's host-sister. They love bar-hopping here. After 2 (our group had grown to about 10) everyone wanted to go to the discothèque. But alas, my loser-self came back and I went home to sleep instead.
Ok. The weekend finally. This weekend was the journée de patrimoine, not just in France, but I guess all over Europe. This means that museums and parks and the mikes are either free or very cheap. you'd think we'd go to Paris, but since every thing's free we knew there would be horrible lines everywhere. So we decided to stay closer.
Saturday we started out around noon, and walked up towards the centre commercial. First we went to the Maison de Jean d'Arc. Not really her house, but where she stayed while she was in Orléans. In one room they had models of key events and an audio track to tell the story, plus corny fanfare music. It was nice.
Our next adventure was to find the Musée des Sciences Naturals. We went were we thought if should be, and didn't see it or any signs. Then, in a moment of pure intellectualism, I saw a building with letters on top that read 'Museum'. Halfway there Kay made the realization the 'Museum' is English...in French it's 'musée'. But we found it.
So we walk in, which is kind of awkward because there's a desk with people there where you would normally go to pay, but it was free. At the desk I saw 'spiky hair', a guy that lives on my floor.
The museum has three floors. Well as you walk into the room on the bottom level, you are faced with an ass, standing in a box, staring at you. It's not alive, but it definitely was at some point. Next to it is a once-alive sheep, peeing. I believe the first thought for all three of us was, 'what the fuck is this'. Next to each animal is a post, and at the top is a ? on a piece of rubber. You lift it up and it gives a French idiom involving the animal and whatever the animal is doing. Then it explains it. For example, there's a baby elephant walking on porcelein plates and dishes. The idiom is 'comme un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelein.' I believe we have something similar in English to mean clumsy. I have pictures of my favorite ones.
The first floor had insects, amphibians, snakes and fish. There were a lot of alive things on this floor, and some once-alives. There was a huge lobster that was almost as tall as me. Above that on the wall was a really big crab-like thing that scared the crap out of me, and then I in turn scared Kay and Dee. They also had the grossest looking frogs I have ever seen. They're white and look bloated and we thought they were dead at first but then one moved a little. They just floated like they were suspended in gel. The fish were fun. I kinda felt like a little kid, and I took a lot of pics.
The second floor was mammals. Taxidermied mammals to be exact. We didn't get to spend too much time there because they were closing.
The next day we had planned to take a bike ride around the paths on the island in the middle of the Loire. So we got up early, packed a picnic bag, and headed towards the nearest bike station. I think there are about 20 in Orléans, and each station has 10-15 bikes that you can rent for a little while, a week, or a month, or possibly longer. When we got there we found out that you have to subscribe to it and pay a 150€ deposit. It was Sunday though, so even if we had wanted to subscribe we couldn't. Back to the residence. We all changed out of our scrub clothes, ate something quick and decided to go to the train station. How about Tours? Sound good? Pourquoi pas. Off to the train station, and this is how it went:
This has been a strange, but overall awesome weekend. But let's start with Wednesday night. The three of us went out to meet Dee's host-sister. We went to a bar with her friend who wanted to practice his English. After a round of drinks it got cold, so we went to another bar to be inside. Two more guys joined us for another round of drinks. After a few minutes one left to meet one of his friends. So a little while later the six of us went to a rhumerie to meet up with him and three or four other people. Finally around 1am we convinced everyone that we had to leave (just the three of us) because we had class at 9am.
The next night, Thursday, Dee and I met up with two of the guys from the night before, and we were going to go to a club for a soirée d'integration for our university. Before we got them we played Kings and managed to kill a bottle of champagne between the two of us. We brought them over for another game of kings...and then another...until we decided that it was too late to go to the club.
Friday night the three of us went out with those two guys and Dee's host-sister. They love bar-hopping here. After 2 (our group had grown to about 10) everyone wanted to go to the discothèque. But alas, my loser-self came back and I went home to sleep instead.
Ok. The weekend finally. This weekend was the journée de patrimoine, not just in France, but I guess all over Europe. This means that museums and parks and the mikes are either free or very cheap. you'd think we'd go to Paris, but since every thing's free we knew there would be horrible lines everywhere. So we decided to stay closer.
Saturday we started out around noon, and walked up towards the centre commercial. First we went to the Maison de Jean d'Arc. Not really her house, but where she stayed while she was in Orléans. In one room they had models of key events and an audio track to tell the story, plus corny fanfare music. It was nice.
Our next adventure was to find the Musée des Sciences Naturals. We went were we thought if should be, and didn't see it or any signs. Then, in a moment of pure intellectualism, I saw a building with letters on top that read 'Museum'. Halfway there Kay made the realization the 'Museum' is English...in French it's 'musée'. But we found it.
So we walk in, which is kind of awkward because there's a desk with people there where you would normally go to pay, but it was free. At the desk I saw 'spiky hair', a guy that lives on my floor.
The museum has three floors. Well as you walk into the room on the bottom level, you are faced with an ass, standing in a box, staring at you. It's not alive, but it definitely was at some point. Next to it is a once-alive sheep, peeing. I believe the first thought for all three of us was, 'what the fuck is this'. Next to each animal is a post, and at the top is a ? on a piece of rubber. You lift it up and it gives a French idiom involving the animal and whatever the animal is doing. Then it explains it. For example, there's a baby elephant walking on porcelein plates and dishes. The idiom is 'comme un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelein.' I believe we have something similar in English to mean clumsy. I have pictures of my favorite ones.
The first floor had insects, amphibians, snakes and fish. There were a lot of alive things on this floor, and some once-alives. There was a huge lobster that was almost as tall as me. Above that on the wall was a really big crab-like thing that scared the crap out of me, and then I in turn scared Kay and Dee. They also had the grossest looking frogs I have ever seen. They're white and look bloated and we thought they were dead at first but then one moved a little. They just floated like they were suspended in gel. The fish were fun. I kinda felt like a little kid, and I took a lot of pics.
The second floor was mammals. Taxidermied mammals to be exact. We didn't get to spend too much time there because they were closing.
The next day we had planned to take a bike ride around the paths on the island in the middle of the Loire. So we got up early, packed a picnic bag, and headed towards the nearest bike station. I think there are about 20 in Orléans, and each station has 10-15 bikes that you can rent for a little while, a week, or a month, or possibly longer. When we got there we found out that you have to subscribe to it and pay a 150€ deposit. It was Sunday though, so even if we had wanted to subscribe we couldn't. Back to the residence. We all changed out of our scrub clothes, ate something quick and decided to go to the train station. How about Tours? Sound good? Pourquoi pas. Off to the train station, and this is how it went:
01 October 2007
Les Cours
Guess who decided to skip class the second day? Moi! But not without reason. But let's start on the first day shall we? Ok. My first class here was la grammaire. First subject: punctuation. First lesson: punctuation in poems. I like poetry, some of it, I do. I hate it in class. I was also late, but it didn't matter because le professeur had pushed back class by half an hour. She also informed us that our classes with her the first two weeks would be changed. Not really a big deal je suppose. So grammaire wasn't that bad. Then I had a lunch break, where I was reminded why I tell people I don't seafood. Then writing. There is actually a facebook group called "I survived class with Mme Puech". That's my first writing teacher. It wasn't too bad I guess. Then français écrit and cinema, with the same prof. She shows clips of movies without sound, and then we write about it. She said DSF students don't necessarily have to take that class, so I'm thinking I won't. After that was supposed to be the optional cinema class, but it was let out early because they couldn't get the projector to work. Tuesday I had more writing, with a different prof. I'm not sure I'll like it or not because I had to leave halfway through for un rendez-vous at the bank. This took much longer than they expected, and I didn't get back to the fac until 11h20. My next class was 10h30 - 12h... Well, less than hour left? I decided not to go and instead sat outside writing out this post. It's nice when the sun comes out, and not too bad when it doesn't. I have no idea if people just sit outside here like they do at my university, but I have gotten a few strange looks.
Anyways, I now have a French bank account. I only had to sign about 20 things. I don't actually have the bank card yet, I get to wait some more for that. I also have to figure out how to transfer the money from my account at home to this one. Unfortunately one euro is about $1.45, so although I think I have a lot of money right now, it won't be that much after the transfer.
The rest of mes cours... I think I will like all of my teachers. One is a bit crazy and likes to go off on etymological tangents for ten minutes, but I think I can stand it. My history and geography teacher I think will be hilarious, if I can stay awake in his class. Since I'm in the highest level we're pretty much choosing what we want to learn about in his class. Side note: it is so funny to hear French people try to pronounce Connecticut. I think it's because we don't pronounce the c in the middle, and they do. Overall my classes are pretty much like my classes in the states, except it's all in French and about French. Homework doesn't seem to be too bad either, and so far I only have to buy two books, one for 4,50€ and the other for 15€. I just have to not go out at night during the week. Fridays are more fun anyways.
Completely unrelated: I finally opened up my bag of ogre-sized peanut butter m&ms that I brought, and they are just as good in France. I wish I had brought more instead of leaving the rest at home.
This week I got to take the tram by myself a few times. It makes me feel more French. I also found at that 7h45 is rush hour on the tram. There were so many people that for about five stops I couldn't even hold onto a bar. I was so afraid of falling into the guy behind me. Luckily my public transportation balancing skills are quite good from having to stand on the shuttle at my university (people who have done this know how challenging it can be, especially with the crazy drivers). I managed to lose my tram ticket Friday morning, it still had six trips left on it. Merde. So Friday afternoon I used my back-up. It's a 10-trip ticket that says I have three trips left, but no longer works. I just dodged the controllers too. At the station they were on the other side checking people as they got off, then they got on a tram going the other direction. Then the tram got really full so I wasn't worried they'd get on. Controllers are who work for the tram and bus system. They randomly get on trams to check people's tickets, or they wait at a station and check you before you can get off. When you first get on the tram you have to put your ticket through a little machine that stamps it with the date and time.
When I have to go to school alone I put on my ipod, speed walk to the station (good exercise), and then try not to stare at people on the tram. It's not bad though. I'm glad my classes don't run really late though. On Mondays I have cinema until 20h (8pm), but Kay and Dee are taking it too, so we're not going back online in the dark.
Et ça c'est tout pour maintenant.
Anyways, I now have a French bank account. I only had to sign about 20 things. I don't actually have the bank card yet, I get to wait some more for that. I also have to figure out how to transfer the money from my account at home to this one. Unfortunately one euro is about $1.45, so although I think I have a lot of money right now, it won't be that much after the transfer.
The rest of mes cours... I think I will like all of my teachers. One is a bit crazy and likes to go off on etymological tangents for ten minutes, but I think I can stand it. My history and geography teacher I think will be hilarious, if I can stay awake in his class. Since I'm in the highest level we're pretty much choosing what we want to learn about in his class. Side note: it is so funny to hear French people try to pronounce Connecticut. I think it's because we don't pronounce the c in the middle, and they do. Overall my classes are pretty much like my classes in the states, except it's all in French and about French. Homework doesn't seem to be too bad either, and so far I only have to buy two books, one for 4,50€ and the other for 15€. I just have to not go out at night during the week. Fridays are more fun anyways.
Completely unrelated: I finally opened up my bag of ogre-sized peanut butter m&ms that I brought, and they are just as good in France. I wish I had brought more instead of leaving the rest at home.
This week I got to take the tram by myself a few times. It makes me feel more French. I also found at that 7h45 is rush hour on the tram. There were so many people that for about five stops I couldn't even hold onto a bar. I was so afraid of falling into the guy behind me. Luckily my public transportation balancing skills are quite good from having to stand on the shuttle at my university (people who have done this know how challenging it can be, especially with the crazy drivers). I managed to lose my tram ticket Friday morning, it still had six trips left on it. Merde. So Friday afternoon I used my back-up. It's a 10-trip ticket that says I have three trips left, but no longer works. I just dodged the controllers too. At the station they were on the other side checking people as they got off, then they got on a tram going the other direction. Then the tram got really full so I wasn't worried they'd get on. Controllers are who work for the tram and bus system. They randomly get on trams to check people's tickets, or they wait at a station and check you before you can get off. When you first get on the tram you have to put your ticket through a little machine that stamps it with the date and time.
When I have to go to school alone I put on my ipod, speed walk to the station (good exercise), and then try not to stare at people on the tram. It's not bad though. I'm glad my classes don't run really late though. On Mondays I have cinema until 20h (8pm), but Kay and Dee are taking it too, so we're not going back online in the dark.
Et ça c'est tout pour maintenant.
27 September 2007
Sauf cars
This is an actual road sign. Their stop signs also say 'stop', and they are in love with round-abouts. I've become quite fond of the phrases "cedez le passage" and "vouz n'avez pas la prioritie". The French are funny about english. They use "sauf cars", but had to change email to 'Mèl' so it was more French. They also say cool, or c'est super cool! On my shampoo bottle, you can read 'nouveau look!'.
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