Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned

I get a lot of questions from people back home and French people here about why I’m doing this. Leaving my home, friends and family for ten months without really looking back very often. Seems pretty crazy to some people. Sometimes one of those people is me, but not very often. Most of those people are the same ones who couldn’t understand why I chose to go to a small women’s liberal arts college nearly a thousand miles from home and looked even more flummoxed when I said I was double-majoring in French and History. “What on earth are you going to do with that?” It’s a legitimate question, but not one that I lose a lot of sleep over. The easy answer to all of those questions is really quite simple: I’m doing all of this because I love it.  

A Parisian Thanksgiving

This year was the second year in a row for me to be away from home on Thanksgiving, but the first to be in a different country of course. It's a time of year that reminds us of all the good things we have in life. A time to gather with family and think about all the advantages we have. Last year I celebrated with a family friend and her family near Atlanta because I had so much school work to do over the break that I just couldn't go home. It was different then, but also very much the same. When you live in a country that doesn't observe a similar holiday and is generally unaware that such a holiday exists in the States, it is very very different. For me, the absence of Thanksgiving sort of sneaked up on me. If it weren't for Facebook I probably would have forgotten about it completely. As it turned out, I spent a very enjoyable Thanksgiving day doing nothing really out of the ordinary. I went to class, babysat for my regular Thursday evening kids, and on Friday attended the Sweetbriar Program's Thanksgiving Dinner. It was nice, but so very different.

Change

This week has been a big week both in terms of language development and, more generally, in terms of life development. I named this blog the way I did because I knew there would be change, and lots of it during this year so far away from home. In many ways, I thought that because I knew that the change was coming it wouldn't be such a big deal. Before I left, I had spoken to friends, family, and professors about the sort of experiences I would have here. Most of those conversations centered around the language development and culture, not necessarily the personal changes that have occurred since I've been here. I knew all about the stages of culture shock that I would experience after several lectures from friends and professors at Agnes Scott. If you've been reading the blog, you've seen me go through three of the five stages, from Honeymoon to Negotiation to Adjustment, which is where I'd say I am now. I probably won't experience all five stages since I'm only in France for ten months. My point is that I thought I understood what I was getting in to. But it tuns out that my mother was right, like she nearly always is. This experience has and will continue to change me in unexpected ways, and I will return to the States a year older and a million experiences later a very different person than who I was when I left.

Some Of My Favorite Things

I had planned for this post to be about my visit to the Catacombs on Friday. But I didn't get to go because it was closed due to "ventilation problems." Meaning the toxic dead people fumes might cause me to join the dead in the museum. Oh well, I guess I'll get over it and get to go some other time when there's no danger of me turning into a zombie. So instead I'm going to talk about all the things I love about living here. In recent weeks, I've dwelled a lot on the negative (which is consistent with my stage of culture shock). But in reality, the positive experiences have outstripped the negative so far. A lot of my American friends here are only semester students, and will be returning home in just over a month. I have absolutely no desire to join them. Would I like to be with my family at Christmas? Of course I would. Do I want to give up this experience just so I could spend a few short weeks with my family doing the same thing we do every year? Absolutely not. There are so many things I love about being here, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Election Night Special

I've been getting a lot of questions about politics lately, both from French people here and people at home. So I thought I'd do a little Election Day special. Before I start, I would like to clarify that this post is not an invitation to debate politics with me. This is not an attempt to change anyone's mind about who they are voting for (or, hopefully already voted for). If you feel the need to post a comment that argues against a point I make (though I plan to make very few politically-charged statements here), I urge you to think very seriously about why you are posting it. You will not change my mind. If you feel the need to post a comment, then there is pretty much no chance that I will change your mind, so what is the point in having an internet spat that will leave us both upset and angry? Ok. So now that that's out of the way, let's dig in a bit, shall we?

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week.

Remember last week when I was so happy and excited? I had a job, possibility, fun things in my future? Well the rainbows and butterflies disappeared pretty quickly to make way for a seriously crappy week. Several things all went wrong at the exact same time. It wasn't pretty. On the surface, what I'm about to tell you may not seem that bad; it was compounded by the fact that I've been irritable since about two weeks ago, when I lost feeling in the tips of my fingers and the end of my nose. It has not yet returned. So begins my miserable week.

A couple of fun anecdotes

It's been a while since I posted anything, so I thought I'd just do a general update. There haven't been any major events lately, but a few fun little anecdotes that I think you'll like. I've really been getting a rhythm down now that I've been in Paris for nearly 2 months. I do very few touristy things these days because they're generally pretty expensive and I find I'd rather hang out in areas where actual French culture is all around me instead of places where everyone is trying to sell me a souvenir. It's been really nice. When I'm not in class or doing homework I've been exploring the area where I live which is sort of removed from all the tourists. The Moulin Rouge is sorta close, but not close enough for the tourists to overflow into my area. Sacre Cœur is relatively close as well, but it's far enough away that there are very few tourist traps around. On good days I've been walking around and exploring the area and all the little secrets it has to offer.

TDs and Job Interviews!

It hasn't been that interesting, so just one post this week. Mostly just info on a couple of job interviews I had this week and how horrifyingly hard my classes here are. Seriously, sometimes I think these professors look out at a class full of students and are thinking, hmmm... How can I scare the bejeezus out of them today? ooooh! I know, I'll talk nonstop for two hours in a completely disorganized way jumping from topic to topic making it impossible for them to take coherent notes! Won't that be fun! There's just a little taster for you guys. There's more to come!

I see dead people! And some really pretty art.

So just a little warning before I get started: This post will be pretty long with lots of history and stuff. I'm the history geek so that's what I like to talk about. However, I do understand that many of you do not care quite as much about all this, so feel free to just skim here and there. But most of these stories are pretty interesting, so I would encourage you to try to get into it if you aren't a geek like me.

Weekend Catastrophe

So this is one of those stories that is going to sound really bad and scary when I tell it; I'm warning you so no one reads this, freaks out, and jumps on the next plane to Paris. It all worked out in the end, so there's no need to panic. It is also one of those stories that really sucked while it was actually happening, but at the same time I knew it would be a good story to tell after it was all over. So no panicking. Just read through to the end and try not to be scandalized, ok?

Arrival in Paris

 I have been in Paris now for 3 full days, and they've been fabulous! I guess I'll start with the host family and work from there. I'm living in a 2-parent home with 5 kids; 4 boys and 1 girl. They are between the ages of 14-22. The two oldest, the girl and boy #1 don't live in the house full time, but they come for dinner or something sometimes. But the family is also playing host to another young boy, about 12 or 13 who's living with them for the year so he can go to the private middle school (collège) that he wants to. This isn't that uncommon, as I understand it. So the apartment is HUGE for

"Americain"

So several times in the last couple of weeks, I've run into this idea that Americans speak "Americain" and English people (as in from the UK) speak "Anglais". More than one French person has said things like "oh, you speak American? I only speak a little English." This struck me as completely bizarre. So a few nights ago when my host Mom asked me how to say something in American, My American roomie and I decided to start a conversation about this perplexing phenomenon. We asked why she said American, and not English; and she said it was because they were two different languages, right? I'm not talking like different dialects or accents, she was under the impression that they were two separate languages, like Spanish and

Classes at l'Institute de Touraine and a truly French encounter...

So today marks the half-way point of my time in Tours, France. Tours is a small city about 3 hours outside Paris, on the Loire River. During these first two weeks, I have been attending classes about 3 hours a day at l'Institute de Touraine with the other 78 students in the program. They've divided us up into four classes with 15-20 people in each of them for our grammar classes. The grammar class lasts two hours every day, from 9:45-11:45am. It is taught by a French professor who speaks minimal to no English. Apart from the fact that there is no English spoken in the class, it's your normal French grammar class with written work and some discussion of the proper usage of certain tenses, modes, etc. For example, yesterday we each wrote an exciting

Settling in

So I've been here a week and now have figured a few things out. Not everything, but the super duper important things, like where and how to send a postcard to the States, how to order something at a restaurant/understand what the menu says about the items, and find the nearest bus stop. It's a start, definitely. And I generally understand everything that is said to me, but formulating a response can take me a bit sometimes. So here's a general run-down of what I've been doing this week.

In the program, there are 79 other students from universities all over the country; the biggest groups (I think) are from Northwestern (20), Whittier (about 10), and Amherst (around 7); I am the only one from Agnes Scott.

Utterly exhausted after a really exciting day. Just going to put up some pics for you all to see :D Bonne nuit!

I have arrived! We flew in this morning, arriving in Paris at about 11 am local time. While this was one of the most exhausting trips I have ever taken, it was fabulous nearly every step of the way, if you can get over the whole not sleeping thing. Yep. I haven't slept since Tuesday night, but honestly my adrenaline and all-consuming excitement about everything going on has been helping me function somehow. So here are some highlights: