beginnings

Le 8 février 2009

I left Notre Dame (Indiana) a week ago, to the hour, for France and reality is only starting to sink in. As a quick play-by-play of the last week, after a few days at Notre Dame saying hello and goodbye to whole mess of fabulous people, I took a bus to O’Hare where I met up with the majority of SUNDEF 2009 (the name of our ND group in Angers). We took an 8.5 hour plane ride to Paris and then a two hour train to Angers where I was whisked away by my host mom (the lovely Madame Laporte) to settle into life in France. After several days of various orientations and small adventures, I am sitting at my computer tired, but not jet lagged, congested, but not too sick, ever so slightly homesick, but mostly very happy.

In the way of small adventures, I feel the need to begin with perhaps my greatest accomplishment on French soil thus far. I totally made myself crepes for dinner. And they were almost sort of from scratch! That is to say, I bought crepe sheets (are they called sheets? I don’t even know), sliced ham, shredded emmental cheese, and Nutella. Upon reflection, this is very much not from scratch, but I’m proud of myself nevertheless. I had a ham and cheese crepe for dinner and a Nutella crepe for dessert. It was tasty.

And now to my second greatest accomplishment, I’ve managed to figure out most of the rules of the house! I live with Monsieur and Madame Laporte in a traditional “angevine” style house. I’m not sure what this means other than it looks and feels pretty European, it has a garden in the backyard, and it shares a wall with an identical house. So far I’ve only seen Monsieur Laporte for dinner my first night here, but I see Madame for a little while every day. She is a fantastic cook, so it is with a heavy heart that I accept that I will only eat one meal a week from her kitchen. She is also a fun person to talk to, or rather, to listen to because I’m fairly certain most of my contributions to the conversation simply don’t make sense. But I’m pretty sure I’ve gleaned the gist of what the rules are, which is to say, I can come and go as I please so long as take my trash downstairs, keep my room in order, and let her know when I’m leaving town. I have my own room with a very comfy bed and plenty of space for everything I need. Not to say it’s large, but I packed modestly and I’ve managed to keep the room clean so it’s comfortable. Along with my own bedroom, I have what Isabel has named my “salle de bain-cuisine.” That is, I have my own bathroom with a microwave and refrigerator inside. Isabel also noted, if I ever got stuck inside, I’d have everything I needed to live for quite some time, which is good because the door is a little tricky to open and close.

Classes start tomorrow at the CIDEF (Centre international des études français) at the Catho (Université catholique de l’ouest). I won’t know which classes I’m taking until I get to campus tomorrow, but I do know that I did well enough on the placement exam to get into the classes I wanted, so fingers crossed. In the meantime, I’ve been washing dishes between meals and gathering my thoughts.

Today was the first day I had a chance to really sit down and take a breather. I went to mass at Sainte Bernadette with Isabel, Thomas, and John this morning. It’s a fairly modern Catholic church not far from my house. Naturally the service was in French, so I only got the gist of most of the readings and prayers, but I could understand the songs because the lyrics were printed on song sheets. After mass I went home and I’ve been lounging around ever since. I don’t have a French cell phone number yet, nor do I have television or internet access, so it’s been a quiet day, but that was exactly what I needed.

I arrived Monday and mostly ate and slept. Tuesday was mostly orientations, to the university and the city. Angers is primarily a walking city, although there are plenty of cars. I love being able to walk everywhere, but it has increased my appetite, which is good because there is a lot of delicious food, but bad because the exchange rate, while dropping, is still not in my favor. Wednesday I took the French placement exam in the morning and visited the Château d’Angers in the afternoon with SUNDEF (the Notre Dame group). Thursday there were more orientations and then a visit to Espace Anjou, the local shopping mall, with the AHA students. I still have no clue what AHA stands for, but it’s an American study abroad program that organizes American students from all different universities into CIDEF home-stay situations. Basically it’s a just another group of American students that we’ve been pal-ing around with most of the week for tours and whatnot. Friday there were more orientation meetings, but then later in the day SUNDEF went out with AHA to Grenier au Pain (I don’t know if I actually needed to italicize that, but it was italicized in my orientation packet…). And oh what an amazing experience. We went inside a hot tub/kitchen/shower store (I don’t know what to call it, but that’s what they sold, hot tubs, kitchens, and showers) where a baker (whom Isabel may or may not have been quite fond of) gave us a demonstration of how to make macaroons, complete with samples. For the first 21 years of my life, it was safe to say I was not a macaroon kind of girl; I just didn’t like them for whatever reason. But with the combination of raspberry puree, quality training, and a touch of French charm, this guy single-handedly changed my mind about macaroons; it seems they’re not all bad.

Then yesterday, Saturday, Isabel and I met up with some AHA friends for Critical Mass at the Place du Ralliment, a big square in the center of town where people gather for protests, demonstrations, etc. Critical Mass, or the Vélorution, is an event (once a month?) where a bunch of people get together and ride bicycles en masse around town to promote awareness of alternative transportation (because, to repeat myself, you can walk everywhere in Angers, but there are still a lot of cars). Having not ridden a bicycle in years and being sans vélo in Angers, I didn’t ride, but Isabel and I went to support two friends who did ride, and to take pictures because it’s an awesome event. Unfortunately our support was limited because after they left Ralliment we had no idea where they went. However, a few minutes later the two of us ran into some other friends who were retuning from an open air market and we all went to a café to warm up and relax. I’m a big fan of the cafés here; I’ve only been to a few, but they all seem simultaneously laid-back and classically charming, not at all like the hustle-and-bustle, see-and-be-seen cafés of Los Angeles. I don’t pretend to understand it, I just enjoy it.

Le 9 février 2009

I’m still typing on my computer sans internet so this is all going to feel rather strange to post retroactively, but oh well. Today I accomplished a feat that rivals crepe preparation; I carried on a conversation in French for over two hours! With my host mom!! I didn’t get home from school today until about 6:20pm, but it was Monday night so you can bet I wasn’t dragging my feet. I eat with the Laporte’s Monday nights around 7:30pm, but it felt a little strange to just show up for dinner so I stopped by the kitchen to say hello after I put my bag and coat away. I try to make a habit of saying hello when I return, but often they’re sleeping or Madame is out shopping. But today she was in the kitchen cooking dinner, so I stopped in and ended up staying and chatting. We had an Italian aperitif and discussed our lives; she told me about how she had hurt her shoulder recently and I stumbled through the list of classes I had been to and those I was planning on taking. We discussed breakfast and she told me about how most French people only eat modest breakfasts, if they eat them at all, and I told her my surprise that none of the three markets I had been to sold oatmeal. It took me a while to explain the concept of oatmeal as a hot cereal because I probably didn’t have the right vocabulary, but also because I’m pretty sure it really isn’t very popular in France. Neither is St. Valentine’s Day, or so she told me. It carries the same connotations as it does in America, but in France it’s not as big of a deal, generally a husband simply brings home flowers for his wife. A holiday which is far more popular, or at least used to be, is St. _____’s Day, a day on which single girls make extravagant hats and wear them to a dance to indicate to boys that they are available. I told her I might have to popularize this holiday in the States because it sounds like a lot of fun, but she said it was waning in popularity in France because it’s not as big of a deal to go out on a date anymore; one can go out to the movies or out to dinner easily enough, and young men and women go out much more frequently than they used to. Nevertheless, really big hats with lots of flowers and a good dance party, sounds like my kind of holiday.

Dinner was delicious again. This time I was much less shy about taking healthy portions. As a result, I had my fill and then some. We started off with bread (a fresh baguette, you don’t know how happy this country makes me) and a salad with egg, shrimp, and trout (it sounds a little strange, and it looked it, but man, it was delicious). After that we had salmon with a little lemon juice on top, along with what I believe was zucchini prepared with olive oil and/or a little butter and a touch of some spice, and ebly (I think that’s how you spell it). I’m not really sure how to explain it in English other than it’s a grain, like rice, but not. For dessert we had frozen caramel ice cream cake from the market down the street and cookies. I definitely ate too much, but I don’t care, it was delicious. Also, I told Madame that I successfully made crepes. She was proud of me.

This morning I took a reading/writing comprehension exam because I had placed “supériere” on the first exam. Basically that means I did well enough to take two language classes instead of three. It was difficult and I won’t get my results until tomorrow, but I was able to start classes in the afternoon. We have a week to shop around, so I went to three classes, even though I think I’ll only end up taking two of them, Art History and Philosophy. They are both university requirements at Notre Dame and both professors are dynamic and approachable, plus I can understand them, which is probably the most important part. Once I get the results from today’s placement exam, I will know which language classes to take and I will get a chance to try a few more classes, so after tomorrow I should have a pretty good idea of my schedule.

As for tonight, I did a little bit of laundry, but it’s going to be a quiet night because I have to get up early for class. My host parents asked me if I was going to go out with my friends, and while normally I would, tonight I am quite content to sit at home and revel in the knowledge that French people can sometimes understand what I say when I speak their language.

Le 10 février 2009

Happy birthday Madison! I’ve gotten used to using a French keyboard; now that I’m back on my own computer, I have to double check that I’ve typed everything correctly. The keyboards here aren’t terribly different, but it’s enough to make typing a lot slower. The biggest change is probably that the Q and the A reversed. That, and it took me almost a week to find the apostrophe.

Today I tried to unlock my phone and get a new SIM card so that I have a cell phone number in France because at the moment I am sans portable. Well, technically I’ve been trying to do this for several days, but today I actually called AT&T. They gave me directions for how to use my code to unlock my phone, so I rushed off to the nearest Phone House, excited and ready to communicate! Unfortunately, for whatever reason the unlock code didn’t work, so I’ll have to double check it tomorrow and try it again. Until then, I’ll spend another quiet evening at home, blissfully unaware of the goings on around town. Actually, that’s not true; I had wanted to go to Mardi Café tonight. From what I’ve heard, a bunch of students get together at a local place called Snooker to converse in French. I guess it’s a fairly popular thing to do because the students who’ve returned from Angers continue the tradition in South Bend. Maybe next week. Instead I made myself curry chicken and rice from a box. That is, it was frozen and I heated it in my microwave. I love technology. It was basically a glorified Lean Cuisine, but it was tasty, and I had Nutella crepes for dessert, so I’m happy enough.

Still, today didn’t turn out quite as well as I had planned. Among disappointments, I wasn’t a fan of Theology class. I get the impression it’s a dry history of the Church. I had wanted to take it to fulfill my second theology requirement, but I had a really hard time sitting through it; plus I hear Translation is the class to take in Angers, the professor is supposed to be fantastic. If I don’t take theology here, my schedule will be less flexible next year, but I don’t think it would be hard to find a more interesting theology class at Notre Dame. Plus, if I take Translation, I’ll basically have a French minor when I get back; and I figure learning French is why I’m here, so why not?

Today did have it’s small miracles, for example I finally learned how to get to and from Isabel’s house (mind you, I’ve already been there at least 4 times), and I got the chance to walk around town by myself and practice my French with the Phone House man. So it wasn’t entirely a loss. Plus, I took another Philosophy class today and I think I’m going to be pretty happy with it. Oh! And somehow I did really well on yesterday’s exam so I tested into a high level language class. Basically, it’s the most difficult class I can take without being required to a 15 page thesis. I was completely shocked, I’m not entirely convinced that someone didn’t make a mistake, but I’m happy. It’ll be a lot of hard work, but I love the professor and I already know some of the people in the class. What I don’t love is that on Tuesdays, class starts at 8am… but Translation starts at 8am too, on Wednesdays. Oy. I don’t think classes should start that early because the sun is barely up, it rises sometime between 7 and 8; I haven’t figured out quite when, but I’ve noticed it tends to drag its feet most days. I can’t really complain, the weather’s nice and mild; most days are a mix of sun and rain. Basically, winter here is a wimp compared to a winter in South Bend.