Well, capoeira is officially going to kick my butt...I'm pretty sure that going up stairs tomorrow is not going to be a very amusing task (and lucky me I have two go up two flights of stairs for two of my classes and up one to get to my apartment). Nonetheless, I love it! A lot! And I will love it even more when my muscles get used to it. The class is in a really small studio and there are probably about 30 of us, so it's crowded, especially when we are doing kicks and cartwheels and stuff, but oh well. Part of the game is to learn awareness, so I guess that will put us well on our way. It's also kind of a social dance, which makes it a good way to start to make friends. :-)
Also, I borrowed all 7 of the MC Solaar CDs that one of my friends has. YES!!!!
That's all for now!
*bisous*
Monday, September 24, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
settling in to my new schedule
Well, I made it through the first week of classes! Granted, two of my classes don't start til next week (and neither do my two dance classes) and one got cancelled this week, but still...
School here is definitely going to be a new and different experience. Classes only meet once a week for 1.5-3 hours depending on the class, and there aren't really assignments so much as the profs give us a bibliography for the class and it's up to us to read the books and whatnot. There are probably 20 books on some of the class lists. AH! I'm really going to have to make friends with the library...
Let's see...the classes I'm taking are:
Droit constitutionnel (constitutional law...that's the one that got cancelled),
Socialisme et social-democratie en Europe XXè siècle (Socialism and social-democracy in Europe in the 20th century),
Sociétés, Cultures, Politique: les clés de vivre ensemble (Societies, cultures, and politics: the keys to living together),
Institutions et vie politique comparées (Comparative institutions and political life...this one doesn't start til next week),
Introduction à l'evaluation des politiques publiques (Intro to to public policy evaluation...haven't gone to this one yet cuz I went to a different clas that was incredibly boring, so I'm taking this one instead :-P),
Portuguais: pratique de la langue (Portuguese! Yay!),
Capoeira, and hopefully Jazz if there's room...
And there you have it. My week in a nutshell.
It's kind of...I don't want to say disappointing, but I can't think of a different way to put it...there are a lot of other exchange students in my classes, particularly other American students. It's easy to pair off with them and talk to them, because I kind of know them from the stage. But we always end up speaking English. Oh well, they aren't from U of O, so at least I'm making friends :-P I'm really excited about my Portuguese class, though, because I'm the only anglophone in the class and it's a good class to meet people because we break off into pairs and whatnot. And hopefully my dance classes will be a good way to meet people too. :-)
Really this week was pretty unexciting. I feel like I've been really antisocial. I've hardly seen any of the other UO students and I pretty much hang out in the apt reading, go to class, and do other errand-y things (like stand in line for two hours to sign up for capoeira...ugh). And then in the evenings after dinner, Florence and I talk about whatever, and then I go to bed. I definitely need to be more exciting. I'm kind of jealous becuase a bunch of the other UOers didn't have classes this week, so they all went travelling. And here I was being boring and going to school. I mean really...who does that? I guess I'm lucky, though, because I finish before noon on Fridays and Mondays all I have is capoeira late in the afternoon, so if I want to travel I sort of have longer weekends all the time. Yay!
Anyhoo, that's enough for now. This afternoon, we are going to this concert-type thing...I think there are going to be readings from and/or about Paul Claudel interwoven with music. I'm not entirely sure, but everyone's on this Paul Claudel kick lately becuase I guess my host-dad's sister is friends with his grand son...something like that. So yeah, should be interesting...maybe I should do some research on Paul Claudel before we leave since I know nothing about him...
A tout a l'heure!
School here is definitely going to be a new and different experience. Classes only meet once a week for 1.5-3 hours depending on the class, and there aren't really assignments so much as the profs give us a bibliography for the class and it's up to us to read the books and whatnot. There are probably 20 books on some of the class lists. AH! I'm really going to have to make friends with the library...
Let's see...the classes I'm taking are:
Droit constitutionnel (constitutional law...that's the one that got cancelled),
Socialisme et social-democratie en Europe XXè siècle (Socialism and social-democracy in Europe in the 20th century),
Sociétés, Cultures, Politique: les clés de vivre ensemble (Societies, cultures, and politics: the keys to living together),
Institutions et vie politique comparées (Comparative institutions and political life...this one doesn't start til next week),
Introduction à l'evaluation des politiques publiques (Intro to to public policy evaluation...haven't gone to this one yet cuz I went to a different clas that was incredibly boring, so I'm taking this one instead :-P),
Portuguais: pratique de la langue (Portuguese! Yay!),
Capoeira, and hopefully Jazz if there's room...
And there you have it. My week in a nutshell.
It's kind of...I don't want to say disappointing, but I can't think of a different way to put it...there are a lot of other exchange students in my classes, particularly other American students. It's easy to pair off with them and talk to them, because I kind of know them from the stage. But we always end up speaking English. Oh well, they aren't from U of O, so at least I'm making friends :-P I'm really excited about my Portuguese class, though, because I'm the only anglophone in the class and it's a good class to meet people because we break off into pairs and whatnot. And hopefully my dance classes will be a good way to meet people too. :-)
Really this week was pretty unexciting. I feel like I've been really antisocial. I've hardly seen any of the other UO students and I pretty much hang out in the apt reading, go to class, and do other errand-y things (like stand in line for two hours to sign up for capoeira...ugh). And then in the evenings after dinner, Florence and I talk about whatever, and then I go to bed. I definitely need to be more exciting. I'm kind of jealous becuase a bunch of the other UOers didn't have classes this week, so they all went travelling. And here I was being boring and going to school. I mean really...who does that? I guess I'm lucky, though, because I finish before noon on Fridays and Mondays all I have is capoeira late in the afternoon, so if I want to travel I sort of have longer weekends all the time. Yay!
Anyhoo, that's enough for now. This afternoon, we are going to this concert-type thing...I think there are going to be readings from and/or about Paul Claudel interwoven with music. I'm not entirely sure, but everyone's on this Paul Claudel kick lately becuase I guess my host-dad's sister is friends with his grand son...something like that. So yeah, should be interesting...maybe I should do some research on Paul Claudel before we leave since I know nothing about him...
A tout a l'heure!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Rain!!
Nothing beats thunderstorms and tea...except maybe thunderstorms and tea in France! :-) Florence said it's really abnormal to have rain this early, but we just got a nice heap of it! And it's still coming down a little bit. And there was thunder and lightning, which I LOVE.
Basically, it was a perfect ending to a really good (and long!) weekend. I didn't have any stage classes on Friday and none of my university classes start until tomorrow, so I had a nice four day weekend. And I kept pretty darn busy, too. On Saturday, I went out with Florence and Matthias. We went to MacDonalds (which killed me a little bit inside, but we wanted to do something fun for Matthias so that he would go to a museum with us...you know how kids are...). Then we went to the Musée des Beaux Arts and wandered around among the 20th century paintings. Also while we were there, we were in the courtyard and there was this couple having their wedding photos taken and the woman's dress was AMAZING. It looked like they were posing for Vogue or something. Pretty snazzy. Anyhoo, after the museum we took Matthias to ride the manège (carousel) before coming home for some siesta time, cuz we were all pretty exhausted. Oh! Except before siesta-ing, I went and bought a plant for my room, becuase it gets lonely and I needed company. Or something like that. :-)
Moving on...on Sunday I got to meet all of Florence's many relatives and see the region that she grew up in (about 45 minutes northeast of Lyon). We went to Mass and then there was a big picnic. It was ridiculous how quickly 10 cars' worth of people produced tables and chairs and food and wine and coffee and set to picnicking. And the food was deelish! It even happened in the proper French style, with appertifs, the main course, cheese and wine, and desert/coffee. And, of course, after it all, all the guys played pétanque while the kids took naps (or at least pretended to). It was hard to keep track of all the brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, friends, etc, that I met, but everyone was super nice and made me feel so welcome. It was great. After the whole affair got cleaned up (which also happened surprisingly quickly), we went to Florence's parents house to "do some shopping". Her parents own a big plot of land with all sorts of fruits and veggies growing. I didn't really get to tour around much, but there are orchards and then there were 15 or so big greenhouse type things. Her parents and her brothers maintain the gardens and sell the goods out of a little shop her brother built and at the marché in Lyon on Saturdays. We brought home apples, peaches, potatos, strawberries, lettuce, carrots, and watermelon. Yummy!! It is so cool that the whole process is still in the family and it's all organic and they use traditional methods and such. It's so different than going to the supermarket and buying fruits and veggies from who knows where, who knows how. Plus it all tastes SO good!
Um...today was pretty much getting little things done...I emailed the professors for my classes to make sure there were spaces in my classes and translated the course descriptions to send off to U of O in hopes of getting some sort of credit for my major. I also went and bought notebooks and stuff...all those little things that need to get done before school starts. I tried to meet with our grad teaching assistant about the Portuguese class I want to take, but he wasn't there, so I'm not sure how that is going to work out. I also meant to check out the nearest dance studio to find a dance class, but I didn't make it. It was way too hot and humid today to really be out doing anything useful, so after doing my little bit of shopping, I came home and lazed around reading this book Florence let me borrow and doing other little things.
And here I am...enjoying a cup of tea and listening to the rain, which has mostly died down. I can't say I'm realy looking forward to tomorrow and having to go to class, especially because one of my classes is a three hour long lecture. Can anyone REALLY talk that long??? I mean, really...
I think that's pretty much it.
OH!!! Except that I bought my tickets for MC Solaar and Grand Corps Malade this weekend. I am SOO excited about those concerts, you have no idea. I got some of the last tickets to GCM, so the seats aren't great but I am really thrilled to be going (now I just have to wait a month for GCM and another month for MC Solaar, but at least there's no chance of missing either show *knock on wood*). In all of the excitement of the weekend, I think that I might be most excited about those tickets :-P
And I'm done...gotta get my stuff together for tomorrow and get my beauty rest so that I can stay awake through that three hour long lecture.
*bisous*
ps...there are a couple of new pictures up on my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/belleaubois/
Basically, it was a perfect ending to a really good (and long!) weekend. I didn't have any stage classes on Friday and none of my university classes start until tomorrow, so I had a nice four day weekend. And I kept pretty darn busy, too. On Saturday, I went out with Florence and Matthias. We went to MacDonalds (which killed me a little bit inside, but we wanted to do something fun for Matthias so that he would go to a museum with us...you know how kids are...). Then we went to the Musée des Beaux Arts and wandered around among the 20th century paintings. Also while we were there, we were in the courtyard and there was this couple having their wedding photos taken and the woman's dress was AMAZING. It looked like they were posing for Vogue or something. Pretty snazzy. Anyhoo, after the museum we took Matthias to ride the manège (carousel) before coming home for some siesta time, cuz we were all pretty exhausted. Oh! Except before siesta-ing, I went and bought a plant for my room, becuase it gets lonely and I needed company. Or something like that. :-)
Moving on...on Sunday I got to meet all of Florence's many relatives and see the region that she grew up in (about 45 minutes northeast of Lyon). We went to Mass and then there was a big picnic. It was ridiculous how quickly 10 cars' worth of people produced tables and chairs and food and wine and coffee and set to picnicking. And the food was deelish! It even happened in the proper French style, with appertifs, the main course, cheese and wine, and desert/coffee. And, of course, after it all, all the guys played pétanque while the kids took naps (or at least pretended to). It was hard to keep track of all the brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, friends, etc, that I met, but everyone was super nice and made me feel so welcome. It was great. After the whole affair got cleaned up (which also happened surprisingly quickly), we went to Florence's parents house to "do some shopping". Her parents own a big plot of land with all sorts of fruits and veggies growing. I didn't really get to tour around much, but there are orchards and then there were 15 or so big greenhouse type things. Her parents and her brothers maintain the gardens and sell the goods out of a little shop her brother built and at the marché in Lyon on Saturdays. We brought home apples, peaches, potatos, strawberries, lettuce, carrots, and watermelon. Yummy!! It is so cool that the whole process is still in the family and it's all organic and they use traditional methods and such. It's so different than going to the supermarket and buying fruits and veggies from who knows where, who knows how. Plus it all tastes SO good!
Um...today was pretty much getting little things done...I emailed the professors for my classes to make sure there were spaces in my classes and translated the course descriptions to send off to U of O in hopes of getting some sort of credit for my major. I also went and bought notebooks and stuff...all those little things that need to get done before school starts. I tried to meet with our grad teaching assistant about the Portuguese class I want to take, but he wasn't there, so I'm not sure how that is going to work out. I also meant to check out the nearest dance studio to find a dance class, but I didn't make it. It was way too hot and humid today to really be out doing anything useful, so after doing my little bit of shopping, I came home and lazed around reading this book Florence let me borrow and doing other little things.
And here I am...enjoying a cup of tea and listening to the rain, which has mostly died down. I can't say I'm realy looking forward to tomorrow and having to go to class, especially because one of my classes is a three hour long lecture. Can anyone REALLY talk that long??? I mean, really...
I think that's pretty much it.
OH!!! Except that I bought my tickets for MC Solaar and Grand Corps Malade this weekend. I am SOO excited about those concerts, you have no idea. I got some of the last tickets to GCM, so the seats aren't great but I am really thrilled to be going (now I just have to wait a month for GCM and another month for MC Solaar, but at least there's no chance of missing either show *knock on wood*). In all of the excitement of the weekend, I think that I might be most excited about those tickets :-P
And I'm done...gotta get my stuff together for tomorrow and get my beauty rest so that I can stay awake through that three hour long lecture.
*bisous*
ps...there are a couple of new pictures up on my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/belleaubois/
Thursday, September 13, 2007
YAY (no more stage)
Well, today was the last day of my stage classes. You cannot understand how happy that makes me. I was really quite bored in my classes, and now, a book, two essays, and an oral presentation later, I don't feel that much better prepared for school than I did when I arrived. Really, I think that my nightly conversations with Florence have done a lot more for me than the time I spent in class.
Oh well though, it's over! Moving on...
For the most part, this week has been pretty unexciting, but busy. I had to write those two essays and prepare an oral presentation, along with some other little homework things and I also met with Andrew, the graduate teaching assistand from Oregon who is here to help us out. He is helping us pick classes and work through the hell that is French bureaucracy. French university students start out in a very specific field of study and, unlike american students, do not explore other subjects. They are basically required to take certain classes every semester, so they don't go through the process of registering and working out schedules that we do. For this reason, the university doesn't release class descriptions or course schedules until a few days before classes start. This is hell for foreign students, who often take classes in different fields and have to work out schedules. It's frustrating. VERY frustrating. Luckily, we have Andrew to help us out. I have also been fortunate because I am taking classes through the Institut des Etudes Politiques (the Political Science Institut), and they released a course schedule relatively early. For the most part, I think I figured out what I want to do, but I have to email all the professors and make sure I can take the classes because they are mostly discussion-sized classes that may not have room (cross your fingers for me!!) There is also a capoeira class offered which is pretty much the most exciting thing in the world because I have been wanting to take capoeira FOREVER. Even better, I think it will be my only class on Fridays. YAY!!!!!! SO EXCITING!!!!!!
Lets see...oh! Today we toured Vieux Lyon with this guy who has a TV program and it seems like he knows everything there is to know and has access to pretty much everything in the city. We went into the Cathédral St. Jean and he pointed out things like this little devil carving and the fact that the carvings on the wall are from different eras because it took so long to build the cathedral. We also went "troubouling". In Vieux Lyon there are all these little passageways through the buildings because, for some reason when it was built there were only north-south roads and people needed ways to move east and west. So they built these passageways called traboules that people still use today. They are really cool and also provide a central space for people living in the buildings. Um...oh and we also got to see the headquarters of a local "cult" that supposedly practice devil worship and all sorts of dark things. Pretty cool.
Of course, being the brilliant person that I am, I forgot my camera. I think I've taken about 10 pictures since I got here. DUMB!!! I promise that there WILL be pictures soon.
Anyway, that's enough for now...I think I might take a nap before I go to the movies with Florence so that I don't fall asleep like last time :-P
bisous!
Oh well though, it's over! Moving on...
For the most part, this week has been pretty unexciting, but busy. I had to write those two essays and prepare an oral presentation, along with some other little homework things and I also met with Andrew, the graduate teaching assistand from Oregon who is here to help us out. He is helping us pick classes and work through the hell that is French bureaucracy. French university students start out in a very specific field of study and, unlike american students, do not explore other subjects. They are basically required to take certain classes every semester, so they don't go through the process of registering and working out schedules that we do. For this reason, the university doesn't release class descriptions or course schedules until a few days before classes start. This is hell for foreign students, who often take classes in different fields and have to work out schedules. It's frustrating. VERY frustrating. Luckily, we have Andrew to help us out. I have also been fortunate because I am taking classes through the Institut des Etudes Politiques (the Political Science Institut), and they released a course schedule relatively early. For the most part, I think I figured out what I want to do, but I have to email all the professors and make sure I can take the classes because they are mostly discussion-sized classes that may not have room (cross your fingers for me!!) There is also a capoeira class offered which is pretty much the most exciting thing in the world because I have been wanting to take capoeira FOREVER. Even better, I think it will be my only class on Fridays. YAY!!!!!! SO EXCITING!!!!!!
Lets see...oh! Today we toured Vieux Lyon with this guy who has a TV program and it seems like he knows everything there is to know and has access to pretty much everything in the city. We went into the Cathédral St. Jean and he pointed out things like this little devil carving and the fact that the carvings on the wall are from different eras because it took so long to build the cathedral. We also went "troubouling". In Vieux Lyon there are all these little passageways through the buildings because, for some reason when it was built there were only north-south roads and people needed ways to move east and west. So they built these passageways called traboules that people still use today. They are really cool and also provide a central space for people living in the buildings. Um...oh and we also got to see the headquarters of a local "cult" that supposedly practice devil worship and all sorts of dark things. Pretty cool.
Of course, being the brilliant person that I am, I forgot my camera. I think I've taken about 10 pictures since I got here. DUMB!!! I promise that there WILL be pictures soon.
Anyway, that's enough for now...I think I might take a nap before I go to the movies with Florence so that I don't fall asleep like last time :-P
bisous!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Procrastinating already (this it not a good sign)
I already have too much homework and too little motivation to do it. Ugh.
So, on the school front, I'm halfway through the stage that we have to do and next week I have two papers due along with a 10 minute exposé on a subject of my choice (I have no idea what I'm going to talk about...). I'm having trouble taking the whole thing seriously even though we will get 4 UO credit for the two weeks. Oh well, whatever. School is boring...moving on...
This weekend has been way fun. The World Cup of rugby is being held in/around Lyon and the opening game was Friday night. France v Argentina. We couldn't buy tickets to any of the games cuz they were pretty much all sold out, so we went to a bar to watch it. The goal was to meet up with the rest of our group at this Irish pub that they found, but, long story short, we went to the wrong one (who would have thought that there would be TWO Irish pubs with James in the title within a few blocks of eachother in Lyon?) and it was way crowded so we found a different bar that was showing the game but had to sit outside and freeze to death, only to watch France (the favorites) lose to Argentina. After the game, we found our way to the right bar where we continued to have a couple drinks and hang out and have a grand old time until they kicked us out and we went in search of a discothèque because that was all anyone could talk about. We ended up at this place called Koubalibre. It was pretty cool and we had a grand old time and danced and whatnot. And that was Friday night.
Yesterday, I spent a bunch of time with my host mom, which was awesome because she is really amazing. We (Florence, my host-mom, Matthias, the youngest of the two boys, and I) went to a marché in the morning to buy fruits and veggies from her brother who has an organic farm about 45 minutes outside of Lyon and he comes into town every Saturday to sell stuff. It was kind of amazing. He had strawberries, pears, peaches, bell peppers, potatoes, leeks, melons, jam, and apple juice. Normally he also has raspberries, tomatos, lettuce, and eggs, too, but they were all sold out. Next weekend, we are going to visit the family and I will get to see the farm. I'm really excited (ok, I'm a total dork...).
After the market, we came home and had lunch and then I went with Florence to explore and do some shopping. We went to vieux Lyon, where we wandered around this pottery market that was going on this weekend. We wandered some more and got ice cream (which wasn't very good, which was a TOTAL disappointment because the ice cream here is always better than anything else) and then went to the presqu'île, where there are all sorts of stores. There were SO many people out shopping, though, that really we just got some books for Claudia and got out as quickly as possible. The only other shopping we did was buying some shoes because Claudia's are falling apart, and I got some really cute flats that are green with polka dots...yay! Then we came home and took a siesta before dinner and then I watched Amores Perros with French subtitles. That was fun.
It seems that Sunday is my day to spend with the Roys (my host-family from the last time I was here). We went to lunch at this American-style grill place. Not really my first choice, but whatever. It was decent. After eating, we went to this village not far from Lyon and found a marché aux puces/vide grenier aka flea market/giant yard sale. People were selling all sorts of things...it was kinda crazy. Then we went to their house and they tried to teach me how to play belote, but like all the other times that someone has tried to teach it to me, I really didn't get it. I have to learn, cuz it's pretty much the only card game anyone plays in France (with the exception of war, which I play with Matthias every once in a while), but for some reason I just don't get it. Apparantly it's like bridge, but I've never played that either. Oh well...
Anyhoo, now I am home and avoiding my homework becuase I am of the opinion that it's kind of dumb. I promise I wont be this much of a procrastinator once I start actual university classes, but I'm really just not that interested in writing essays about the book we are reading or preparing for an oral presentation on god knows what. Not my thing.
Ok, I need to accomplish something so that when I go to dinner and Florence asks me what I accomplished, I will have some inkling of an answer.
*MUAH*
So, on the school front, I'm halfway through the stage that we have to do and next week I have two papers due along with a 10 minute exposé on a subject of my choice (I have no idea what I'm going to talk about...). I'm having trouble taking the whole thing seriously even though we will get 4 UO credit for the two weeks. Oh well, whatever. School is boring...moving on...
This weekend has been way fun. The World Cup of rugby is being held in/around Lyon and the opening game was Friday night. France v Argentina. We couldn't buy tickets to any of the games cuz they were pretty much all sold out, so we went to a bar to watch it. The goal was to meet up with the rest of our group at this Irish pub that they found, but, long story short, we went to the wrong one (who would have thought that there would be TWO Irish pubs with James in the title within a few blocks of eachother in Lyon?) and it was way crowded so we found a different bar that was showing the game but had to sit outside and freeze to death, only to watch France (the favorites) lose to Argentina. After the game, we found our way to the right bar where we continued to have a couple drinks and hang out and have a grand old time until they kicked us out and we went in search of a discothèque because that was all anyone could talk about. We ended up at this place called Koubalibre. It was pretty cool and we had a grand old time and danced and whatnot. And that was Friday night.
Yesterday, I spent a bunch of time with my host mom, which was awesome because she is really amazing. We (Florence, my host-mom, Matthias, the youngest of the two boys, and I) went to a marché in the morning to buy fruits and veggies from her brother who has an organic farm about 45 minutes outside of Lyon and he comes into town every Saturday to sell stuff. It was kind of amazing. He had strawberries, pears, peaches, bell peppers, potatoes, leeks, melons, jam, and apple juice. Normally he also has raspberries, tomatos, lettuce, and eggs, too, but they were all sold out. Next weekend, we are going to visit the family and I will get to see the farm. I'm really excited (ok, I'm a total dork...).
After the market, we came home and had lunch and then I went with Florence to explore and do some shopping. We went to vieux Lyon, where we wandered around this pottery market that was going on this weekend. We wandered some more and got ice cream (which wasn't very good, which was a TOTAL disappointment because the ice cream here is always better than anything else) and then went to the presqu'île, where there are all sorts of stores. There were SO many people out shopping, though, that really we just got some books for Claudia and got out as quickly as possible. The only other shopping we did was buying some shoes because Claudia's are falling apart, and I got some really cute flats that are green with polka dots...yay! Then we came home and took a siesta before dinner and then I watched Amores Perros with French subtitles. That was fun.
It seems that Sunday is my day to spend with the Roys (my host-family from the last time I was here). We went to lunch at this American-style grill place. Not really my first choice, but whatever. It was decent. After eating, we went to this village not far from Lyon and found a marché aux puces/vide grenier aka flea market/giant yard sale. People were selling all sorts of things...it was kinda crazy. Then we went to their house and they tried to teach me how to play belote, but like all the other times that someone has tried to teach it to me, I really didn't get it. I have to learn, cuz it's pretty much the only card game anyone plays in France (with the exception of war, which I play with Matthias every once in a while), but for some reason I just don't get it. Apparantly it's like bridge, but I've never played that either. Oh well...
Anyhoo, now I am home and avoiding my homework becuase I am of the opinion that it's kind of dumb. I promise I wont be this much of a procrastinator once I start actual university classes, but I'm really just not that interested in writing essays about the book we are reading or preparing for an oral presentation on god knows what. Not my thing.
Ok, I need to accomplish something so that when I go to dinner and Florence asks me what I accomplished, I will have some inkling of an answer.
*MUAH*
Thursday, September 6, 2007
l'arrivee
Jeudi le 30 août, 2007
12h 08
Well, I made it!!
Because everything has been so crazy the last day or so, I’m just gonna start from the beginning…
Leaving was really hard for me. I am not very good at goodbyes at all (as my friend assured me, though, it’s really just a seeya later…that helps a little). I started the day off crying pretty much--saying goodbye to a friend. Then I had to deal with technicalities and phones and make sure everything was in order before saying goodbye to my best friend, another tearful one. Finally, my mom took me to the airport where I cried a little more. It’s not that I wasn’t extremely excited for this trip, but 10 months is a long time and I feel like there are a lot of things that I will miss out on by not being home…or at least in the states. The experiences I am about to have are totally worth it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is hard to say goodbye.
Moving on from the sad stuff to the boring hours spent in airports and on planes. I slept through my first flight to Denver, but on the flight to Frankfurt there were a bunch of people my age coming to Europe for various exchanges, and one girl who was going to be an au pair in Austria, which seems pretty cool. The guy in the seat next to me would not stop talking. It was crazy. He was nice enough, but it made sleeping kind of difficult. At the Frankfurt airport, I ran into a bunch of the other UO people going to Lyon, which was pretty cool. The flight from Frankfurt was short and relatively uneventful, except that there was a lot of turbulence, which was really quite icky.
My host-mom and sister from the last time I was in Lyon were at the airport waiting to pick me up. It was really comforting to see familiar faces and not have to brave the airport and figure out how to get places while being exhausted and jet-lagged. They brought me to the apartment where I will be staying and dropped me off. I wish we had spent more time together, but they left me to settle in and we made plans to have lunch over the weekend.
Now, the fun part: my new place. I love it! It’s a quasi-homestay situation, which is a little confusing but I’m really happy with it. Basically, for the first month I will eat breakfast and dinner with the family, and they will help me out with the things that I need. After the first month, though, I am more or less on my own. It will be really nice to not have to worry too much about groceries and other things while I get settled
The apartment is downtown and just a few blocks from the university. It is basically two apartments that are attached. The family lives in one part and then I share the other part (including a bathroom, small kitchen, and small living room) with another student. Her name is Wei and she is from Taiwan, studying linguistics. She has already been living here a year, which is really nice because she knows her way around and is already quite settled in the apartment and with the family. My room is really cute can has a big window overlooking a little courtyard. It’s pretty sparse, but I have all the necessities, and I’ve pretty much unpacked everything I brought (which isn’t a whole lot now that it’s all put away).
I’ve met most of the family, except Lionel, the husband. There are three kids: Claudia, Paul, and Matthias. They are all really nice. I had dinner with them and Florence, their mother, last night and we chatted about music and books and movies. They are so welcoming! Even Chagall, their kitten, seems to have taken a liking to me and likes to hang out in my room. I will be the third student from U of O that they have hosted, so they seem to know the ropes pretty well, which is helpful. Florence is also probably one of the nicest people I have ever met. She assured me that if I ever need anything at all, I shouldn’t hesitate to ask, and that I should consider the apartment home. She was going to take me on a little tour of the neighborhood, but it was raining, so she showed me what direction to go in to find everything. This morning, Wei took me on a little tour, so I got to see most of the neighborhood. There is a lot of stuff around here, and there is a metro station right nearby so I can get places easily. It is also right near the river, which is apparently a nice place to take walks.
Basically, I am SO happy with the whole situation, and I really look forward to getting to know the family better and exploring the neighborhood more. Today, I am going to meet the other Centre Oregon people for a tour of the Vieux Lyon area, which should be nice provided it doesn’t rain too much (although the last time I visited Vieux Lyon I think it was raining, so I suppose it would be fitting).
I guess that’s a pretty good introduction to my life in France as of now. I think I am going to be very happy here over the next ten months.
12h 08
Well, I made it!!
Because everything has been so crazy the last day or so, I’m just gonna start from the beginning…
Leaving was really hard for me. I am not very good at goodbyes at all (as my friend assured me, though, it’s really just a seeya later…that helps a little). I started the day off crying pretty much--saying goodbye to a friend. Then I had to deal with technicalities and phones and make sure everything was in order before saying goodbye to my best friend, another tearful one. Finally, my mom took me to the airport where I cried a little more. It’s not that I wasn’t extremely excited for this trip, but 10 months is a long time and I feel like there are a lot of things that I will miss out on by not being home…or at least in the states. The experiences I am about to have are totally worth it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is hard to say goodbye.
Moving on from the sad stuff to the boring hours spent in airports and on planes. I slept through my first flight to Denver, but on the flight to Frankfurt there were a bunch of people my age coming to Europe for various exchanges, and one girl who was going to be an au pair in Austria, which seems pretty cool. The guy in the seat next to me would not stop talking. It was crazy. He was nice enough, but it made sleeping kind of difficult. At the Frankfurt airport, I ran into a bunch of the other UO people going to Lyon, which was pretty cool. The flight from Frankfurt was short and relatively uneventful, except that there was a lot of turbulence, which was really quite icky.
My host-mom and sister from the last time I was in Lyon were at the airport waiting to pick me up. It was really comforting to see familiar faces and not have to brave the airport and figure out how to get places while being exhausted and jet-lagged. They brought me to the apartment where I will be staying and dropped me off. I wish we had spent more time together, but they left me to settle in and we made plans to have lunch over the weekend.
Now, the fun part: my new place. I love it! It’s a quasi-homestay situation, which is a little confusing but I’m really happy with it. Basically, for the first month I will eat breakfast and dinner with the family, and they will help me out with the things that I need. After the first month, though, I am more or less on my own. It will be really nice to not have to worry too much about groceries and other things while I get settled
The apartment is downtown and just a few blocks from the university. It is basically two apartments that are attached. The family lives in one part and then I share the other part (including a bathroom, small kitchen, and small living room) with another student. Her name is Wei and she is from Taiwan, studying linguistics. She has already been living here a year, which is really nice because she knows her way around and is already quite settled in the apartment and with the family. My room is really cute can has a big window overlooking a little courtyard. It’s pretty sparse, but I have all the necessities, and I’ve pretty much unpacked everything I brought (which isn’t a whole lot now that it’s all put away).
I’ve met most of the family, except Lionel, the husband. There are three kids: Claudia, Paul, and Matthias. They are all really nice. I had dinner with them and Florence, their mother, last night and we chatted about music and books and movies. They are so welcoming! Even Chagall, their kitten, seems to have taken a liking to me and likes to hang out in my room. I will be the third student from U of O that they have hosted, so they seem to know the ropes pretty well, which is helpful. Florence is also probably one of the nicest people I have ever met. She assured me that if I ever need anything at all, I shouldn’t hesitate to ask, and that I should consider the apartment home. She was going to take me on a little tour of the neighborhood, but it was raining, so she showed me what direction to go in to find everything. This morning, Wei took me on a little tour, so I got to see most of the neighborhood. There is a lot of stuff around here, and there is a metro station right nearby so I can get places easily. It is also right near the river, which is apparently a nice place to take walks.
Basically, I am SO happy with the whole situation, and I really look forward to getting to know the family better and exploring the neighborhood more. Today, I am going to meet the other Centre Oregon people for a tour of the Vieux Lyon area, which should be nice provided it doesn’t rain too much (although the last time I visited Vieux Lyon I think it was raining, so I suppose it would be fitting).
I guess that’s a pretty good introduction to my life in France as of now. I think I am going to be very happy here over the next ten months.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
