Thursday, September 29, 2011
HUGE UPDATE!!!!! (Ok don't get too excited it is probably just huge for me)
Barbie's arm has been displaced from is cozy position on the sidewalk to a very precarious position in the road about a meter from the sidewalk. I was very upset when I saw this change of placement because it is not likely that the arm will last much longer now that it has to put up with brutal car traffic as opposed to the feet of passer-bys. I am going out to the apartment of one of my degree classmates for a soirée tonight and on my way if I remember I am going to try to take a picture of what could likely be one of barbie's arm's last days in my trajectory to school... *tear* At least she feted her one month anniversary today.
Je fais du progrès!
Well I did it this morning: I woke up and ate or drank nothing so that I could go to a medical facility and get my lungs x-rayed and a blood sample taken. I am getting ever closer to having my student visa validated; I am really excited because that will make me feel even more French. (= Of course, my arm was quite sore so note taking was a little bit of a pain - yes I did it in my right arm because I have a better vein and I didn't want to risk them having to poke me twice. But now it is starting to feel better, though it is starting to bruise up... lovely.
The weather is great again today and it is supposed to stay this way all through the weekend so I am thinking about doing some traveling around Haute Normandie, in particular to Etretat which has some really cool cliff formations right by the ocean. I am preparing the route that my mom and I will get to take in less than a month! Woohoo!
Also barbie's arm is still there. Today is the one month anniversary for it, as it is also my one month anniversary in France. I can't believe I've already been here for a month. I don't feel like my French grammar has improved or changed, but I definitely can't deny the number of words that I have learned.
I am just in a fantastic mood (definitely because of the weather and knowing that my blood sample is behind me) so today is definitely a 100 on my emotional contentedness meter which I am too lazy to insert into today's post. Have a good day all my readers, in Colorado, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio!
The weather is great again today and it is supposed to stay this way all through the weekend so I am thinking about doing some traveling around Haute Normandie, in particular to Etretat which has some really cool cliff formations right by the ocean. I am preparing the route that my mom and I will get to take in less than a month! Woohoo!
Also barbie's arm is still there. Today is the one month anniversary for it, as it is also my one month anniversary in France. I can't believe I've already been here for a month. I don't feel like my French grammar has improved or changed, but I definitely can't deny the number of words that I have learned.
I am just in a fantastic mood (definitely because of the weather and knowing that my blood sample is behind me) so today is definitely a 100 on my emotional contentedness meter which I am too lazy to insert into today's post. Have a good day all my readers, in Colorado, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Running Behind and Slightly Overwhelmed, Clearly
Well It has been about 5 days since I gave a blog update and I have only myself to blame - I was just busy doing other things such as sleeping and homework, though I have dome some things for entertainment. Over the weekend I followed quite closely and with great interest the Rugby world cup, though I sadly must say that each of the teams I was rooting for lost. Saturday was France versus New Zealand and they were beaten quite heartily, and Sunday was Scotland versus Argentina and disappointingly Scotland was ahead the entire game and let it slip right at the last moment and so lost by one point. Tam and I were literally standing and shouting at the computer in his box during the last part of the game. Oh well, maybe my teams will win this weekend!
In terms of homework, there technically isn't very much per class (except Chinese which I will come back to later) but unfortunately it all adds up, and quite quickly at that, when you are taking a full 12 courses in a foreign language. I have to come home and rewrite/research my notes when there are concepts that I don't understand. Also, if we are given articles to read as supplemental information, that homework goes much faster when it is your native language and ends up taking me a good chunk of time if I properly read it for its meaning. I suppose it is worth it though, I just cannot cope with 12 courses. Taking 6 back in the USA is a ton, and 12 is just suicidal. Although I feel pretty suicidal with this current class load even in the French system. I figure it is good though, to follow as many courses as possible so that I have a higher probability of passing more classes (take more = pass more?) and getting more credit when I return to Miami.
By the way I am quite excited to return to the US in terms of registering for classes and just the university system in general. In France, in terms of the classes themselves, they are kind of comparable to those in the US and overall fine, but the whole system of signing up into the courses, and the exam which requires separate registration, plus scheduling in general is just ridiculous!I am exhausted and am still working out kinks in my schedule and it is officially the third week of classes! AHHHH! Though some of my classes are going quite well and I feel that I am totally in control. Those in that category are: Macro-Economie, Analyse de Donnés, Recherche Marketing, and FLE. There are however some courses that I am either not sure about wanting to take, iffy about the content, or just in shock over. They are: Techniques de Commerce, Info Communication, Management International, and Chinois (these are in the same order as their descriptors in the previous sentence).
So anyway, as I said earlier I would explain to you why Chinese is not going so smoothly. It is not at all because it is me learning Chinese in a francophone environment. Rather it is because of three things: 1) The French teach languages in a different way, 2) The teacher is mean 3) The class is without a real communicative purpose and has impossible expectations in terms of content. To elaborate on the first point, I will simply say that the French do not stress actually being able to communicate and therefore literally just get words and words and words to memorize, that are actually related to an example dialogue, but the problem with the dialogues is that they are too long, introduce way too many new words at once, and we never do anything except read through them once/twice in class which is like nothing because the pinyin is right below the characters so it is impossible to ignore, so no one is even paying attention to the characters. Especially because (onto the second point) the teacher is legitimately mean, so everyone is too afraid to make a mistake. Now, up until this point she had been rather agreeable to me, but that is because I am more or less the best in the class in terms of vocabulary (except the Chinese students that are in the class to learn French, of course), but this woman literally will say some of the meanest things when people make mistakes. For example, if someone didn't pronounce a word correctly or responded incorrectly to a questions she might laugh or give a mocking no, and one time she just went off on a guy on how horrible his method of writing was; how it was all over the place and disastrous and that no Chinese person could read that. Regardless of the verity of her statement, the front of a classroom is no place for a teacher to make such a comment in my opinion. And finally, there is the content expectation in this course. We had a dictation on Monday, which was to be expected, and I had memorized all 15 of the vocabulary words (around 25 characters at least) thinking it would be over them, but it was about 5 sentences of two different dialogues that had been in the book. I mean, that is simply too much to ask for a class of students to memorize between classes, especially since our attention was not directed to a particular passage or even dialogue. You can't just memorize a 100 Chinese characters out-of-the-blue. Or at least I can't. And then, oh-joy-and-rapture, we show up to class today (which has a different teacher who is nice) and we had another dictation that was completely unannounced in addition to our other homework over yet another dialogue that we had started the previous week. So literally in 1 week between two classes we were expected to produce Chinese character sentences over at least a 100 new vocabulary words, not to mention the 200 at least we are already supposed to know. And as I said, I am even ahead of much of the class so my vocab background is even bigger. Also, I am not the only on that thinks that this is impossible, my French friends Margot and Yubo complain too because it is simply too much, and the pace is so quick and yet the topics are disjointed that were not able to speak any more Chinese and our vocab words don't go well together. I am literally going to have to designate like 2 hours every day for the entire year to try to learn all this and for the most part I feel like the words are somewhat unnecessary. In the beginning you need to learn the basics - I'll use transportation as an example - You need to know about 4 vehicles and how to describe going in those vehicles. We were given a list of about 40 vehicles/transportation words (bus stop,train station) and I just cannot focus on that many in the beginning. It would be better to concretize the concept and then learn other forms of transportation at a later date, especially when each word is 2-3 new characters. Either way, at the end of the semester I am either going to have the world's largest second-year Chinese vocabulary or have not progressed at all because of sheer overwhelmedness.
But off that topic! I have an extremely important announcement: I had to purchase and start using a new jar of Nutella last week... meaning it took about three weeks for me to eat through an entire jar of nutella... holy crap.The only thing I put nutella on is my bread so you can begin to imagine how much bread I am eating here in France. Fortunately I eat an extremely well-rounded meal each lunch at the school restaurant because otherwise I think my body might go on strike from such a change of diet. Although I do cook myself pretty good dinners from time to time. Though as a side not I will add that that just got a little easier with the arrival of a surprise package from my mother in which she sent provisions ranging from Cream-of-Wheat to Q-tips (though obviously the Q-tips do not serve a dietary purpose) I have already made two meals of cream of what and am looking forward to some of the instant pastas and the taco seasoning. I have the best "pantry" of all the study abroad students.
Another update on a completely different topic: on Thursday I have my first two appointments for getting my long-stay student visa, and they are not going to be overly fun. One is an x-ray of my lungs, which won't be too bad, but the other is a blood sample which I am not looking forward to for two reasons: 1) because that is never a fantastic feeling and 2) because I cannot eat or drink that morning until my appointment - oh how I hate that! (My nutella jar can rest in peace though I suppose).
In terms of a few last general notes, the weather had been absolutely fantastic for the last 4 days; sunny and beautiful, so that has put me in a really good mood. Unfortunately I am still battling my cold and it has now progressed to the coughing stage, but hopefully I will soon be healed and back to my normal self.
Finally, I just wanted to let you know that Barbie's arm is indeed maintaining its presence on the sidewalk. At thins point I fully expect to have the opportunity to it to my mother as the highlight of Le Havre when she arrives on October 21st (I AM SO EXCITED!)
Ok, well it's past midnight so it's time for me to do the shut-down thing. I'll try to stay more diligent in posting though!
In terms of homework, there technically isn't very much per class (except Chinese which I will come back to later) but unfortunately it all adds up, and quite quickly at that, when you are taking a full 12 courses in a foreign language. I have to come home and rewrite/research my notes when there are concepts that I don't understand. Also, if we are given articles to read as supplemental information, that homework goes much faster when it is your native language and ends up taking me a good chunk of time if I properly read it for its meaning. I suppose it is worth it though, I just cannot cope with 12 courses. Taking 6 back in the USA is a ton, and 12 is just suicidal. Although I feel pretty suicidal with this current class load even in the French system. I figure it is good though, to follow as many courses as possible so that I have a higher probability of passing more classes (take more = pass more?) and getting more credit when I return to Miami.
By the way I am quite excited to return to the US in terms of registering for classes and just the university system in general. In France, in terms of the classes themselves, they are kind of comparable to those in the US and overall fine, but the whole system of signing up into the courses, and the exam which requires separate registration, plus scheduling in general is just ridiculous!I am exhausted and am still working out kinks in my schedule and it is officially the third week of classes! AHHHH! Though some of my classes are going quite well and I feel that I am totally in control. Those in that category are: Macro-Economie, Analyse de Donnés, Recherche Marketing, and FLE. There are however some courses that I am either not sure about wanting to take, iffy about the content, or just in shock over. They are: Techniques de Commerce, Info Communication, Management International, and Chinois (these are in the same order as their descriptors in the previous sentence).
So anyway, as I said earlier I would explain to you why Chinese is not going so smoothly. It is not at all because it is me learning Chinese in a francophone environment. Rather it is because of three things: 1) The French teach languages in a different way, 2) The teacher is mean 3) The class is without a real communicative purpose and has impossible expectations in terms of content. To elaborate on the first point, I will simply say that the French do not stress actually being able to communicate and therefore literally just get words and words and words to memorize, that are actually related to an example dialogue, but the problem with the dialogues is that they are too long, introduce way too many new words at once, and we never do anything except read through them once/twice in class which is like nothing because the pinyin is right below the characters so it is impossible to ignore, so no one is even paying attention to the characters. Especially because (onto the second point) the teacher is legitimately mean, so everyone is too afraid to make a mistake. Now, up until this point she had been rather agreeable to me, but that is because I am more or less the best in the class in terms of vocabulary (except the Chinese students that are in the class to learn French, of course), but this woman literally will say some of the meanest things when people make mistakes. For example, if someone didn't pronounce a word correctly or responded incorrectly to a questions she might laugh or give a mocking no, and one time she just went off on a guy on how horrible his method of writing was; how it was all over the place and disastrous and that no Chinese person could read that. Regardless of the verity of her statement, the front of a classroom is no place for a teacher to make such a comment in my opinion. And finally, there is the content expectation in this course. We had a dictation on Monday, which was to be expected, and I had memorized all 15 of the vocabulary words (around 25 characters at least) thinking it would be over them, but it was about 5 sentences of two different dialogues that had been in the book. I mean, that is simply too much to ask for a class of students to memorize between classes, especially since our attention was not directed to a particular passage or even dialogue. You can't just memorize a 100 Chinese characters out-of-the-blue. Or at least I can't. And then, oh-joy-and-rapture, we show up to class today (which has a different teacher who is nice) and we had another dictation that was completely unannounced in addition to our other homework over yet another dialogue that we had started the previous week. So literally in 1 week between two classes we were expected to produce Chinese character sentences over at least a 100 new vocabulary words, not to mention the 200 at least we are already supposed to know. And as I said, I am even ahead of much of the class so my vocab background is even bigger. Also, I am not the only on that thinks that this is impossible, my French friends Margot and Yubo complain too because it is simply too much, and the pace is so quick and yet the topics are disjointed that were not able to speak any more Chinese and our vocab words don't go well together. I am literally going to have to designate like 2 hours every day for the entire year to try to learn all this and for the most part I feel like the words are somewhat unnecessary. In the beginning you need to learn the basics - I'll use transportation as an example - You need to know about 4 vehicles and how to describe going in those vehicles. We were given a list of about 40 vehicles/transportation words (bus stop,train station) and I just cannot focus on that many in the beginning. It would be better to concretize the concept and then learn other forms of transportation at a later date, especially when each word is 2-3 new characters. Either way, at the end of the semester I am either going to have the world's largest second-year Chinese vocabulary or have not progressed at all because of sheer overwhelmedness.
But off that topic! I have an extremely important announcement: I had to purchase and start using a new jar of Nutella last week... meaning it took about three weeks for me to eat through an entire jar of nutella... holy crap.The only thing I put nutella on is my bread so you can begin to imagine how much bread I am eating here in France. Fortunately I eat an extremely well-rounded meal each lunch at the school restaurant because otherwise I think my body might go on strike from such a change of diet. Although I do cook myself pretty good dinners from time to time. Though as a side not I will add that that just got a little easier with the arrival of a surprise package from my mother in which she sent provisions ranging from Cream-of-Wheat to Q-tips (though obviously the Q-tips do not serve a dietary purpose) I have already made two meals of cream of what and am looking forward to some of the instant pastas and the taco seasoning. I have the best "pantry" of all the study abroad students.
Another update on a completely different topic: on Thursday I have my first two appointments for getting my long-stay student visa, and they are not going to be overly fun. One is an x-ray of my lungs, which won't be too bad, but the other is a blood sample which I am not looking forward to for two reasons: 1) because that is never a fantastic feeling and 2) because I cannot eat or drink that morning until my appointment - oh how I hate that! (My nutella jar can rest in peace though I suppose).
In terms of a few last general notes, the weather had been absolutely fantastic for the last 4 days; sunny and beautiful, so that has put me in a really good mood. Unfortunately I am still battling my cold and it has now progressed to the coughing stage, but hopefully I will soon be healed and back to my normal self.
Finally, I just wanted to let you know that Barbie's arm is indeed maintaining its presence on the sidewalk. At thins point I fully expect to have the opportunity to it to my mother as the highlight of Le Havre when she arrives on October 21st (I AM SO EXCITED!)
Ok, well it's past midnight so it's time for me to do the shut-down thing. I'll try to stay more diligent in posting though!
Ultimately I had to say that I am a 100, even with my sickness and the bits of scholastic stress, because overall I am just so happy to be in France, succeeding in school, and enjoying so many days straight with such beautiful weather. Je suis tellement contente.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Three week anniversary
Today marks my third week in France and consequently Le Havre (and of course the ever-so-pertinent existence of Barbie's arm on the sidewalk...) so in one more week that will mark one month which I feel is a very big benchmark. Today's post is going to be a bit smaller than the others of late because I am quite ill with my cold and I have, as usual, an 8am lecture to attend tomorrow morning. Unfortunately I never got around to studying what exactly my topic means in the class either so I guess that is what I will have to do during class if he gives us the class time to start working on our presentations.
In terms of class today I literally just went to the world's WORST lecture ever for Chinese civilization. I kid you not the professor read for a straight hour-and-a-half her prepared history material, chalk full of dates and Chinese names, at a quick pace without stopping for that entire chunk of time. I mean, how does that even constitute as educating? And believe it or not she even managed to make it one step worse by constantly interrupting herself mid-sentence to comment on a particular thought, or happening, or name, or similar occurrence etc etc, and then I don't think she would ever really finish the sentence, so my notes are a complete disaster because I would start a sentence...... and it just never got completed. It was so bad that my French friend Margot who was sitting next to me even had difficulty following her speed with all the dates, Chinese and tangent interruptions. Needless to say I basically had to copy all of her notes because I simply couldn't keep up, and this is the first time that has ever happened to me. By the time I would actually figure out the date that she had just said, she had already finished telling us what had happened at that time and was on to the next one which I would also have to decode. Fin, bref. Either way, next week I am going to arrive ready for my hour-and-a-half battle.
Finally, I just thought that I would say that the weather was actually quite nice today - sunny, not windy, and decently warmish. Though I must say that I entirely blame the good weather for the excursion of the mosquitoes to which I owe five new mosquito bites.... grrr.
Anyway, off to sleep for me! I only have 7 hours left... ahhhhh!
In terms of class today I literally just went to the world's WORST lecture ever for Chinese civilization. I kid you not the professor read for a straight hour-and-a-half her prepared history material, chalk full of dates and Chinese names, at a quick pace without stopping for that entire chunk of time. I mean, how does that even constitute as educating? And believe it or not she even managed to make it one step worse by constantly interrupting herself mid-sentence to comment on a particular thought, or happening, or name, or similar occurrence etc etc, and then I don't think she would ever really finish the sentence, so my notes are a complete disaster because I would start a sentence...... and it just never got completed. It was so bad that my French friend Margot who was sitting next to me even had difficulty following her speed with all the dates, Chinese and tangent interruptions. Needless to say I basically had to copy all of her notes because I simply couldn't keep up, and this is the first time that has ever happened to me. By the time I would actually figure out the date that she had just said, she had already finished telling us what had happened at that time and was on to the next one which I would also have to decode. Fin, bref. Either way, next week I am going to arrive ready for my hour-and-a-half battle.
Finally, I just thought that I would say that the weather was actually quite nice today - sunny, not windy, and decently warmish. Though I must say that I entirely blame the good weather for the excursion of the mosquitoes to which I owe five new mosquito bites.... grrr.
Anyway, off to sleep for me! I only have 7 hours left... ahhhhh!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Getting into the Swing of Things
As I am more than halfway through my second week of courses, I am starting to feel like a pro who is ready to take on the French education system. I will admit that the homework load in France is basically non-existent, at least at this point, and if I were a native French student I would have no homework whatsoever right now! The only homework that I have is spending extra time at the library or in my box researching words or concepts from class that I didn't understand. In fact that is my homework tonight, to determine exactly what is my topic for my Techniques de Commerce class... he assigned a topic to everyone in the class and I have absolutely no clue what my means... haha. I probably won't give a very good 20 minute presentation on a subject that I don't understand.
Anyway though, it is good that I am fairly at ease about my courses because I have fallen ill with a cold. Yesterday I could barely swallow my throat was so sore and inflamed, so I went to the nurse who gave me some alkezelzer like tablets dissolved in water and 4 cough drops, and I made about 4 enormous cups of tea with hearty servings of honey and sure enough this morning I woke up with a throat that was completely normal. Unfortunately after about 2-3 hours my nose began to run and some congestion set in. Therefore I went back to the nurse (I am beginning to get the hang of the French health system) and she gave me some pills and told me to come back tomorrow if my symptoms persist/worsen. I guess we'll see. Either way I would definitely appreciate you keeping my health in your prayers because I look forward to my recovery!
Also I had a meeting today with a family for which I might become the "when-needed" anglophone babysitter. I saw an announcement at the university so I decided to call the family because I thought that that would be a fun way to earn a little bit of extra money, and as it turns out that family was super nice and the girls were really cute! They are 9 and 12 and their names are Marie and Alice. And as a side note, when I called the mother to work out a meeting time, she asked me specifically if I was anglophone because, as she told me today, she thought I was German because of my accent. This just boggles me because I cannot figure out how I, who speaks no German, can have a German accent when I speak French. This is about the 15th time that people have told me that they thought I was German, which is a lot given that I have only been here 20 days, and I don't meet new people everyday. Either way I am lucky though because never once has anyone thought that I was American. If anything besides German they think I am English, which apparently has a very different French accent than "American". I am glad to hear it because avoiding American stereotypes is one of my goals while out here. On the contrary I feel that I am making a good name for Americans because people have already decided that I am a respectable European speaking French as a 2nd language when they learn that I am actually American. I cannot stress enough to you how shocked everyone is when they learn that I am American. I guess that is a good thing.
Also, in terms of my French I am extremely satisfied because today I had an apparently very good day of language production because the mother that I met with about babysitting said she was so surprised when she learned that I had only been in France for 3 weeks because my French was so good. She said I made no mistakes! Now.... I know that that cannot possibly be the case because I am sure that my French is just ridden with little mistakes but maybe they were small enough that she didn't notice or forgot about them when she made the comment. Either way, it is always reassuring when people tell you how good you are at speaking French. On that topic my new friend Margot reaffirms that about every day that I see her, which is just something nice to say to a foreign student, something that I am going to keep in mind when I return to the USA and meet foreign students. I think I always stressed to them how good their English was, but now I am going to make sure that I say it, and not just once but whenever they are stumbling of a word or a sentence to remind them how well their doing. It makes all the difference. When you feel confident you speak better.
Fianlly I wanted to give you the update you've all been waiting for: barbie's arm is still there. Tomorrow marks the 3 week anniversary - did anyone bring the party hats? Oh, and speaking of walking (since that is what I do when I observe barbie's arm everyday) I officially bought a monthly bus pass because I wanted to try it for one month for two reasons. Firstly to encourage me to do some weekend traveling/sightseeing around Le Havre and the nearby towns, but also because If you want to go anywhere for a day the minimum you are going to spend is 3€ to buy the two tickets necessary (there and back). Whereas with the student price I only pay 24€ for the entire month so I can take the bus everyday, multiple times a day, and commute quicker, carry groceries in comfort, and see more locations without feeling guilty because I am saving myself so much money. Unfortunately the pass is not a month from when you buy it and is a set month so mine doesn't start until October 1st, but I am so excited! Also I will appreciate a bus ride when it gets cold (not that it is nice and warm now) but when it gets even colder and more miserable in Le Havre I will be grateful for my pass.
Anyway, I am going to bed now because I want to try to get to bed early enough that I can encourage my body towards recovery.
Today is a 95 I decided. Originally I was thinking 100 because I was having a good French day and I got to sleep in and I had fun, etc, but then I remembered my cold so I decided that 95 was more appropriate.
Anyway though, it is good that I am fairly at ease about my courses because I have fallen ill with a cold. Yesterday I could barely swallow my throat was so sore and inflamed, so I went to the nurse who gave me some alkezelzer like tablets dissolved in water and 4 cough drops, and I made about 4 enormous cups of tea with hearty servings of honey and sure enough this morning I woke up with a throat that was completely normal. Unfortunately after about 2-3 hours my nose began to run and some congestion set in. Therefore I went back to the nurse (I am beginning to get the hang of the French health system) and she gave me some pills and told me to come back tomorrow if my symptoms persist/worsen. I guess we'll see. Either way I would definitely appreciate you keeping my health in your prayers because I look forward to my recovery!
Also I had a meeting today with a family for which I might become the "when-needed" anglophone babysitter. I saw an announcement at the university so I decided to call the family because I thought that that would be a fun way to earn a little bit of extra money, and as it turns out that family was super nice and the girls were really cute! They are 9 and 12 and their names are Marie and Alice. And as a side note, when I called the mother to work out a meeting time, she asked me specifically if I was anglophone because, as she told me today, she thought I was German because of my accent. This just boggles me because I cannot figure out how I, who speaks no German, can have a German accent when I speak French. This is about the 15th time that people have told me that they thought I was German, which is a lot given that I have only been here 20 days, and I don't meet new people everyday. Either way I am lucky though because never once has anyone thought that I was American. If anything besides German they think I am English, which apparently has a very different French accent than "American". I am glad to hear it because avoiding American stereotypes is one of my goals while out here. On the contrary I feel that I am making a good name for Americans because people have already decided that I am a respectable European speaking French as a 2nd language when they learn that I am actually American. I cannot stress enough to you how shocked everyone is when they learn that I am American. I guess that is a good thing.
Also, in terms of my French I am extremely satisfied because today I had an apparently very good day of language production because the mother that I met with about babysitting said she was so surprised when she learned that I had only been in France for 3 weeks because my French was so good. She said I made no mistakes! Now.... I know that that cannot possibly be the case because I am sure that my French is just ridden with little mistakes but maybe they were small enough that she didn't notice or forgot about them when she made the comment. Either way, it is always reassuring when people tell you how good you are at speaking French. On that topic my new friend Margot reaffirms that about every day that I see her, which is just something nice to say to a foreign student, something that I am going to keep in mind when I return to the USA and meet foreign students. I think I always stressed to them how good their English was, but now I am going to make sure that I say it, and not just once but whenever they are stumbling of a word or a sentence to remind them how well their doing. It makes all the difference. When you feel confident you speak better.
Fianlly I wanted to give you the update you've all been waiting for: barbie's arm is still there. Tomorrow marks the 3 week anniversary - did anyone bring the party hats? Oh, and speaking of walking (since that is what I do when I observe barbie's arm everyday) I officially bought a monthly bus pass because I wanted to try it for one month for two reasons. Firstly to encourage me to do some weekend traveling/sightseeing around Le Havre and the nearby towns, but also because If you want to go anywhere for a day the minimum you are going to spend is 3€ to buy the two tickets necessary (there and back). Whereas with the student price I only pay 24€ for the entire month so I can take the bus everyday, multiple times a day, and commute quicker, carry groceries in comfort, and see more locations without feeling guilty because I am saving myself so much money. Unfortunately the pass is not a month from when you buy it and is a set month so mine doesn't start until October 1st, but I am so excited! Also I will appreciate a bus ride when it gets cold (not that it is nice and warm now) but when it gets even colder and more miserable in Le Havre I will be grateful for my pass.
Anyway, I am going to bed now because I want to try to get to bed early enough that I can encourage my body towards recovery.
Today is a 95 I decided. Originally I was thinking 100 because I was having a good French day and I got to sleep in and I had fun, etc, but then I remembered my cold so I decided that 95 was more appropriate.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Finalized Schedule
As usual, when I say "finalized" what I actually mean is "most likely finalized but technically still tentative". But anyway, here it is for your viewing pleasure. I left the names of the classes in their French form because I figured all of them were easy to figure out. Just ask if you have any questions or send your comments along!
And don't forget that you can click on the picture to make it larger! Though you still might need to zoom in on the web page to read it. The problem with this blog interface is it doesn't allow you upload documents of any kind so I have to convert everything into a picture. Thus, voila, my schedule.
Ughhh.
Well it is another day of no sun and about 6 inches of rain this hour.... I am definitely sure that my long-term living location is not going to be a country/state/city that has no sun and tons of rain. Also, it is absolutely freezing in my box because I can't control the heating and it doesn't get turned on until October. Even then though I am not sure if I am going to be in much better of a position because my thermostat doesn't read the right temperature (it is off by 5 degrees - and that is 5 degrees celcius) which means that even when the heat gets turned on, it won't come on in my apartment until is five degrees colder than it should be... I will probably see if there is someone I can talk to if I am this cold when October hits and the heat gets turned on. Right now it is approximately 59 degrees in my box. I personally think that that is ridiculous. I am in my socks, pants, shirt, sweater, and scarf and I'm in my bed and I am still chilly. Well my legs aren't but my hands are basically frozen, especially given my poor circulation.
By the way I just looked up what the average yearly rainfall is in Le Havre and it is approximately 80 inches of rain a year. Lol, nice. No wonder everything that isn't cement is so green here.
Anyway I have a lot of homework to get done today to prepare for Macro-Economics and Chinese. Luckily those are my only two classes tomorrow, though I do have both the cours magistral (lecture) and travaux dirigés (interactive class) for macro. Either way I will be able to get other homework done in between those courses because I have a 5 hour gap. Well, off to work!
By the way I just looked up what the average yearly rainfall is in Le Havre and it is approximately 80 inches of rain a year. Lol, nice. No wonder everything that isn't cement is so green here.
Anyway I have a lot of homework to get done today to prepare for Macro-Economics and Chinese. Luckily those are my only two classes tomorrow, though I do have both the cours magistral (lecture) and travaux dirigés (interactive class) for macro. Either way I will be able to get other homework done in between those courses because I have a 5 hour gap. Well, off to work!
This day's rating is mostly weather and coldness related, though there might be some other things like food, friends, and homework playing in.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Samedi Soirée
Party for the foreign students with the tutors today! It is always so fun that they invite us out because obviously we are not their best friends but they do such a good job of including us in their social activities. The cost of admission to the party was a bottle of wine which here in France could be a little as 1.5 Euros or maybe 4 Euros if you find a really really really expensive bottle. What is amazing is that the 2-3 Euro bottles are actually quite nice and pleasantly flavored table wines. I decided on a nice white wine at 2.56. Actually just a freaky France fact: I bought new bread, nutella, pasta, pre-made pesto sauce, and three bottles of wine and spent 11.90... nice. Though I will admit that one of those bottles was for cooking the mussels that I am so addicted to and only cost 1.28, lol.
Barbie arm update: still holding strong and maintaining a strong presence in the middle of the sidewalk. Haha. However, I think the doll head has disappeared so that fun was brought to a quick end.
Also, I decided to drop the statistics class because I just could not justify 3 hours of class on a Saturday. Especially last night when I was thinking about having to get up early another morning when I was so exhausted after a full week of 8am classes in a foreign language. I was especially vindicated when I looked up tentative class lists for Savoie and I and found out that they do offer a stats class while I am out there. So I will just try to work that one into my schedule instead, and if it is on a Saturday then I just know that I doomed. By removing stats from my schedule my timetable is much more palpable. I have an 8am class Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, but on Wednesday I do not have to be into uni (this is what all of the English/ Scottish/ Irish students say for "university" and it is starting to stick for me too) until 13:00 so I will get to sleep in, and on Saturday I have no obligation except the open-air market!
I love France! I hate the weather in Le Havre. As usual it was cold, windy, and rainy all day today meaning that all of our walking about was miserable. Either way I am still happy so today is still a 100.
Barbie arm update: still holding strong and maintaining a strong presence in the middle of the sidewalk. Haha. However, I think the doll head has disappeared so that fun was brought to a quick end.
Also, I decided to drop the statistics class because I just could not justify 3 hours of class on a Saturday. Especially last night when I was thinking about having to get up early another morning when I was so exhausted after a full week of 8am classes in a foreign language. I was especially vindicated when I looked up tentative class lists for Savoie and I and found out that they do offer a stats class while I am out there. So I will just try to work that one into my schedule instead, and if it is on a Saturday then I just know that I doomed. By removing stats from my schedule my timetable is much more palpable. I have an 8am class Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, but on Wednesday I do not have to be into uni (this is what all of the English/ Scottish/ Irish students say for "university" and it is starting to stick for me too) until 13:00 so I will get to sleep in, and on Saturday I have no obligation except the open-air market!
I love France! I hate the weather in Le Havre. As usual it was cold, windy, and rainy all day today meaning that all of our walking about was miserable. Either way I am still happy so today is still a 100.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
General Update from Le Havre
This whole week I have been juggling classes and time-tables to the extent that I am fairly confident I could enter a circus at this point to show off my skills, and all this so that I could obtain my 30 ECTS credits worth of classes. It is looking like I am going to be taking about 10-12 courses which is just so many I prefer not to think about it, but what is so weird is that each course only meets once, maybe maybe maybe twice a week, so I actually feel like I have a very light class load. Also, because some of them are very closely linked in terms of subject area the little bit of assigned homework plus the extra work that I have to do being a non-native French speaker doesn't actually add up to that much since it can overlap. We'll see though, I may end up near suicidal soon (=
I had my first professor today that wasn't just completely helpful towards foreign students, by the way. During the 5 minute break that they give in the middle of their classes (because they are 2 hour long lectures) I went up to him to introduce myself and ask if he would be posting his powerpoints for the class or if he would make them available to me and the other 4 foreign students, so that we didn't have to try to write everything down and try to listen to him at the same time. He literally feigned reflection and turned to me and said, "Euhh, non." I was like, ok, thank you very much! (In my head of course) His explanation was that he didn't think it would help that much, but I don't think come teachers understand that it is absolutely impossible for foreign students to write one thing down and listen to and remember the supplemental information that a professor is presenting. That is even difficult to do in your native language! Oh well, I guess not everyone can want to go out of their way to help us out!
I have to say that as of now I am quite enjoying my classes, though they are just so different that those in America, in just a million ways: the rapport between student and teacher, the way the material is presented, the in-class and out-of-class expectations, the way of grading... everything. However, I am almost thoroughly convinced I am not going to pass any of my courses here expect the FLE classes and Chinese, because regular French students barely pass and often fail (because the entire class is based off of one test at the end of the semester and that is all) therefore I am not sure at all that I am going to be able to apply myself enough to actually pass any of my content-heavy subjects, but I guess we'll see. The good news is that I can fail as many as I want without hurting my GPA. The bad news is that every class that I don't pass cannot be eligible for transfer credit so it will be as though I never took the course at all (all that effort for nothing!)
Also I thought of a little culture note I wanted to add: there really actually is more B.O. in France than I would have expected. I knew that that was a stereotype of French people, but I wasn't sure if it would actually be true. Now, the stereotype is still not quite accurate because that makes it seem like 75% of French people smell bad, where as I would put it at 3-5%, but it is definitely something that I notice more that I would back in America. However, I am trying to figure out why some people don't wear deodorant because I can't actually figure out when it is "ok" not to wear it... all the students at school (except those coming from African countries) wear it, and all my professors too. It's just weird, I'll keep you updated if I notice anything more about it.
Finally, every morning during my walk to the university and while returning I would remember something I had meaning to add here but kept forgetting. Ever since my first day in Le Havre, there has been a Barbie arm lying on part of the sidewalk that I have to walk right by a round-about on my way to and from school. In the beginning we noticed it and thought it was creepy, but now it is just funny because it has been two weeks and no one has ever stopped to remove it, and neither the never ending wind nor the ever constant rain has been able to displace it from its conspicuous position. So I was just going to update you until the Barbie arm left its position because it has kind of become a little insider between all the foreign students who live at A Docks. And actually, by the way, a doll's head showed up there today (with all hair removed) just across the street, so I'll let you know if it hangs out for a long time too. Basically what I see here is one of two options: 1) These are two weird and rather amusing coincidences or 2) There is some sick-minded doll destroyer who lives right by the round-about and who is depositing amputated doll parts around. Anyway, it is funny to us students because ever since day one we had been joking about how sinister it was to have a Barbie arm just lying there in the middle of the sidewalk, but it just became so much funnier (and creepier for sure) when the doll head showed up. When Tam texted me about finding the doll head I literally was rolling with laughter because of the irony.
Ok now you're up to date I think. I have my 8am Techniques de Commerce class first tomorrow, and I actually can't remember if I have anything else, but I will look it up later. As for now I am trying to get an early start to bed because I have not been getting enough sleep, and that is really important when you are trying to pay attention to two hours lectures in a foreign language at 8am!
Also, I am happy and content because I made my first official French friends in a classroom today and ate lunch with them and spoke French so I am taking some very important first steps towards improving my colloquial French. Today I am 100% happy (though a little tired, I couldn't justify lowering my emotional contentedness).
I had my first professor today that wasn't just completely helpful towards foreign students, by the way. During the 5 minute break that they give in the middle of their classes (because they are 2 hour long lectures) I went up to him to introduce myself and ask if he would be posting his powerpoints for the class or if he would make them available to me and the other 4 foreign students, so that we didn't have to try to write everything down and try to listen to him at the same time. He literally feigned reflection and turned to me and said, "Euhh, non." I was like, ok, thank you very much! (In my head of course) His explanation was that he didn't think it would help that much, but I don't think come teachers understand that it is absolutely impossible for foreign students to write one thing down and listen to and remember the supplemental information that a professor is presenting. That is even difficult to do in your native language! Oh well, I guess not everyone can want to go out of their way to help us out!
I have to say that as of now I am quite enjoying my classes, though they are just so different that those in America, in just a million ways: the rapport between student and teacher, the way the material is presented, the in-class and out-of-class expectations, the way of grading... everything. However, I am almost thoroughly convinced I am not going to pass any of my courses here expect the FLE classes and Chinese, because regular French students barely pass and often fail (because the entire class is based off of one test at the end of the semester and that is all) therefore I am not sure at all that I am going to be able to apply myself enough to actually pass any of my content-heavy subjects, but I guess we'll see. The good news is that I can fail as many as I want without hurting my GPA. The bad news is that every class that I don't pass cannot be eligible for transfer credit so it will be as though I never took the course at all (all that effort for nothing!)
Also I thought of a little culture note I wanted to add: there really actually is more B.O. in France than I would have expected. I knew that that was a stereotype of French people, but I wasn't sure if it would actually be true. Now, the stereotype is still not quite accurate because that makes it seem like 75% of French people smell bad, where as I would put it at 3-5%, but it is definitely something that I notice more that I would back in America. However, I am trying to figure out why some people don't wear deodorant because I can't actually figure out when it is "ok" not to wear it... all the students at school (except those coming from African countries) wear it, and all my professors too. It's just weird, I'll keep you updated if I notice anything more about it.
Finally, every morning during my walk to the university and while returning I would remember something I had meaning to add here but kept forgetting. Ever since my first day in Le Havre, there has been a Barbie arm lying on part of the sidewalk that I have to walk right by a round-about on my way to and from school. In the beginning we noticed it and thought it was creepy, but now it is just funny because it has been two weeks and no one has ever stopped to remove it, and neither the never ending wind nor the ever constant rain has been able to displace it from its conspicuous position. So I was just going to update you until the Barbie arm left its position because it has kind of become a little insider between all the foreign students who live at A Docks. And actually, by the way, a doll's head showed up there today (with all hair removed) just across the street, so I'll let you know if it hangs out for a long time too. Basically what I see here is one of two options: 1) These are two weird and rather amusing coincidences or 2) There is some sick-minded doll destroyer who lives right by the round-about and who is depositing amputated doll parts around. Anyway, it is funny to us students because ever since day one we had been joking about how sinister it was to have a Barbie arm just lying there in the middle of the sidewalk, but it just became so much funnier (and creepier for sure) when the doll head showed up. When Tam texted me about finding the doll head I literally was rolling with laughter because of the irony.
Ok now you're up to date I think. I have my 8am Techniques de Commerce class first tomorrow, and I actually can't remember if I have anything else, but I will look it up later. As for now I am trying to get an early start to bed because I have not been getting enough sleep, and that is really important when you are trying to pay attention to two hours lectures in a foreign language at 8am!
Also, I am happy and content because I made my first official French friends in a classroom today and ate lunch with them and spoke French so I am taking some very important first steps towards improving my colloquial French. Today I am 100% happy (though a little tired, I couldn't justify lowering my emotional contentedness).
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Courses Day 2
This morning I got off to a strong start with 4 straight hours of lecture from 8-10 and 10-12... yippie! Actually though, the classes have been going really well because I am not having any trouble with my comprehension and I think the classes should be somewhat interesting. I am definitely still working out the kinks in my schedule though (and when I say "kinks" I am actually referencing enormous chasms) because the French system and mentality is just so different that that of America. Give me another week or two though and I should know definitely which courses I am going to be in, at what times, and in what classrooms. Currently I am changing my inscriptions about daily, which involves quite the process of looking up the course (there is no single class list so this is much more difficult than it sound as it requires a search of each individual license offered by the university, in each domain, until you find it) and figuring out whether it works with my current time obligations, and then finally where I need to be in order to attend this class.
I did nothing fun today, so no entertainment updates. I was literally in class from 8am until 7pm, with some breaks in the middle. Inevitably there was a large break around 12 to 2 when all of France shuts down to eat lunch. I actually quite like that mentality, though it can be a pain when you go and walk all the way to the bank, or electric company.... nope! Il faut retourner!
I am actually quite exhausted because I have only gotten 11 hours of sleep between the last two nights and I've had rather pressing days of class, so I am taking my opportunity to go to bed a little earlier and sleep in a little later (class at 9:30 tomorrow). Though I guess I can't go to bed until I have verified my schedule for tomorrow... haha.
By the way, to satisfy my even increasing and very serious craving for meat (since I swear the French don't even eat it because there is so much bread, cheese, and wine available at such a cheap cost) I bought some sliced sandwich ham and will be frying it for every breakfast until it runs out. Ahh sweet meat!!! I ate it this morning with breakfast and it was simply phenomenal. Well, I'm off to bed!
I did nothing fun today, so no entertainment updates. I was literally in class from 8am until 7pm, with some breaks in the middle. Inevitably there was a large break around 12 to 2 when all of France shuts down to eat lunch. I actually quite like that mentality, though it can be a pain when you go and walk all the way to the bank, or electric company.... nope! Il faut retourner!
I am actually quite exhausted because I have only gotten 11 hours of sleep between the last two nights and I've had rather pressing days of class, so I am taking my opportunity to go to bed a little earlier and sleep in a little later (class at 9:30 tomorrow). Though I guess I can't go to bed until I have verified my schedule for tomorrow... haha.
By the way, to satisfy my even increasing and very serious craving for meat (since I swear the French don't even eat it because there is so much bread, cheese, and wine available at such a cheap cost) I bought some sliced sandwich ham and will be frying it for every breakfast until it runs out. Ahh sweet meat!!! I ate it this morning with breakfast and it was simply phenomenal. Well, I'm off to bed!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Premier Jour des Cours!
Well, today was my first day of class in a French university, and it consisted of two classes: a lecture on Macro-Economics, and and in-depth class on French syntax geared toward French students. Although I will be unable to continue taking the syntax course (conflicts with Chinese) I will certainly be in the Macro-Econ course all semester. Woot. The good news is I had no trouble at all understanding him because he spoke with an incredible amount of enunciation for a native French person. Therefore I still have a hope of passing this class.
Tomorrow I have my course of Recherche Marketing, La France, and my FLE (French as as foreign language) classes. Wish me luck! By the way, in terms of my schedule, I have an 8am class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! And oh wait, it gets better... I have a 9am class on Saturday: a 3-hour lecture on statistics.... oh joy and rapture.
Anyway I had a quite contented day because I felt successful in my courses. And though I ate well today, just as a side note I was STARVING yesterday because meat is so expensive here that I literally have not eaten anything because bread, cheese, fruit, and yogurt since I arrived. Maybe the occasional bit of cured sausage, which just does not count! I got a good lunch today and the first thing I did after class was hurry off to the supermarket to stock up on any kind of meat I could because I am never being that hungry for meat again! I decided on ham because it is easy to cook in a frying pan and goes well with a great number of meals.
Tomorrow I have my course of Recherche Marketing, La France, and my FLE (French as as foreign language) classes. Wish me luck! By the way, in terms of my schedule, I have an 8am class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! And oh wait, it gets better... I have a 9am class on Saturday: a 3-hour lecture on statistics.... oh joy and rapture.
Anyway I had a quite contented day because I felt successful in my courses. And though I ate well today, just as a side note I was STARVING yesterday because meat is so expensive here that I literally have not eaten anything because bread, cheese, fruit, and yogurt since I arrived. Maybe the occasional bit of cured sausage, which just does not count! I got a good lunch today and the first thing I did after class was hurry off to the supermarket to stock up on any kind of meat I could because I am never being that hungry for meat again! I decided on ham because it is easy to cook in a frying pan and goes well with a great number of meals.
The only thing holding this meter back to a 95 today is the fact that I am still waiting for my spoken French to improve... I'll keep you updated, but I still haven't reached my desired level of spoken fluency.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Exhaustion sets in...
Today I spent much of my day frustrated for two completely different reasons. Firstly, because the whole registering for classes thing in a French university is just a complete nightmare, requires way too much energy, and is just ultimately quite unproductive. The good news is that at least I kind of sort of know in which classes I should make a presence during the first week. The bad news is that some of the classes have time options but some slots work with my schedule and others don't, and rather just being able to see the state of these classes on my own, I have to go all around the school to meet up with individual "secrétariats" who will then tell me which slots are available. Grrrrr, so much unnecessary busy-work! However, I am sure that after the first week or two I will get everything worked out and I will be much more calm and happy.
The second thing that is frustrating me right now is just how insufficient my French is. Especially when communicating all day long on the topic of every subject imaginable my brain has grown more and more tired to the point where I feel I can barely speak French! Of course I am aware that that is not the case, but I definitely am looking forward to this weekend of recuperation so I will be ready to face my first week of classes.
An interesting linguistic note: Days 1, 2, and 3 I didn't start suffering from what I am calling "foreign language exhaustion". I might have been a little slower in the mornings, but throughout the day my French did nothing but improve until I went to bed. By Day 4 I would start out, warm-up, improve, then peak and start falling apart near the end of the day, which is extremely frustrating. That syndrome has happened for about the last three days so I am hoping that this weekend will be a sort of respite for my brain so it can recover and prepare for next week.
As a happy side-note, I would also like to add that I went to an open-air market yesterday and bought a litre of mussels for just 2€ and cooked them up in butter, garlic, chives, and white wine and they were absolutely to die for. I ate around 25 mussels in one sitting! Even though Le Havre is a very industrial not-so-pretty city, there is no denying the benefits of living right on the ocean -- Fresh seafood and a beach!
Needless to say I am off to an early night of sleep because I do not think I can convince myself to stay up much longer.
Climate Update: I haven't seen the sun in 4 days, and it hasn't stopped "bruming" all of those days. I made up this word from the French work "brume" for fog/mist because the air basically condensates into a sort of extremely light yet clearly present rain.
The second thing that is frustrating me right now is just how insufficient my French is. Especially when communicating all day long on the topic of every subject imaginable my brain has grown more and more tired to the point where I feel I can barely speak French! Of course I am aware that that is not the case, but I definitely am looking forward to this weekend of recuperation so I will be ready to face my first week of classes.
An interesting linguistic note: Days 1, 2, and 3 I didn't start suffering from what I am calling "foreign language exhaustion". I might have been a little slower in the mornings, but throughout the day my French did nothing but improve until I went to bed. By Day 4 I would start out, warm-up, improve, then peak and start falling apart near the end of the day, which is extremely frustrating. That syndrome has happened for about the last three days so I am hoping that this weekend will be a sort of respite for my brain so it can recover and prepare for next week.
As a happy side-note, I would also like to add that I went to an open-air market yesterday and bought a litre of mussels for just 2€ and cooked them up in butter, garlic, chives, and white wine and they were absolutely to die for. I ate around 25 mussels in one sitting! Even though Le Havre is a very industrial not-so-pretty city, there is no denying the benefits of living right on the ocean -- Fresh seafood and a beach!
Needless to say I am off to an early night of sleep because I do not think I can convince myself to stay up much longer.
Climate Update: I haven't seen the sun in 4 days, and it hasn't stopped "bruming" all of those days. I made up this word from the French work "brume" for fog/mist because the air basically condensates into a sort of extremely light yet clearly present rain.
Though my discontentedness really has nothing to do with France itself (except a bit about my linguistic shortcomings) I had to mark today pretty low in terms of emotional contentedness. I just can't believe how unorganized and inefficient the course-finding progress is at this university. Also, I haven't adjusted to the cold and sunless weather because I am still in Summer mode.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Days 3-6
By now I have purchased a good working alarm clock which, of course, I normally don't actually need to wake up, but I love it anyway because I have never had to use an analog alarm clock that I had to set myself, so the process will always remind me of France I think. Also, I have become completely accustomed to my 4-5 minute showers because that is how much "hot" water I have. I guess the French are just super ergonomical in the shower because I can barely wash my hair in that time! When I went to shave I most literally had to turn the shower off for the whole process and had it on just to rinse when necessary.
Also just a weather update: It is never over about 75 degrees, but it spends most of its time in about the 50-60s, completely rainy and very very windy thanks to the bordering ocean. In fact, when I arrived we had three straight days of sunshine and everyone was commenting on how weird it was to see the sun so much and now I know why! Since it disappeared I haven't seen the sun, and the wind absolutely never stops blowing here. In fact my container (yes I am referencing my home) is not very sound proof to the wind so I hear it constantly all night long, though I kind of like it when it isn't too ridiculous. What I do not like is how cold I am all the time - first of all no one in our apartment complex will have access to heating until October, but mainly just because I left the extremely warm United States and arrived in a more-than-temperate maritime France, so my body and mind aren't adjusted quite yet. I actually was wearing my lighter coat around today.
So, a new topic. (I just apologize that this is just such a conglomeration of thoughts, but I wanted to get my "catch-up" out of the way so I can get on to telling you about my days as they happen). What I have had to do since I arrived in France:
Also just a weather update: It is never over about 75 degrees, but it spends most of its time in about the 50-60s, completely rainy and very very windy thanks to the bordering ocean. In fact, when I arrived we had three straight days of sunshine and everyone was commenting on how weird it was to see the sun so much and now I know why! Since it disappeared I haven't seen the sun, and the wind absolutely never stops blowing here. In fact my container (yes I am referencing my home) is not very sound proof to the wind so I hear it constantly all night long, though I kind of like it when it isn't too ridiculous. What I do not like is how cold I am all the time - first of all no one in our apartment complex will have access to heating until October, but mainly just because I left the extremely warm United States and arrived in a more-than-temperate maritime France, so my body and mind aren't adjusted quite yet. I actually was wearing my lighter coat around today.
So, a new topic. (I just apologize that this is just such a conglomeration of thoughts, but I wanted to get my "catch-up" out of the way so I can get on to telling you about my days as they happen). What I have had to do since I arrived in France:
- Go to the bank and open an account. In France, by the way, it is impossible to deposit any money when you open your account, so my account has all these monthly payments agreed to on it, but no money in it yet... the system is so stupid.
- Buy "Assurance Habitation" this is my insurance for where I live, my box.
- Get my "R.I.B." from the bank (this is my Bank Identity in France). This is the piece of paper that you have to present everywhere if you want to do anything, I am not kidding. Even though I have no money in the bank, this sheet shows that I have an account, therefore I have an official location where charges can be sent, so I can proceed through the French bureaucracy.
- Sign a contract for my housing. This is needed in order to get internet, but in order to sign the contract you need to have your RIB, and in order to get that you have to open the bank account....
- Buy tokens in order to use the washing machine. One token does one load in the washer only and costs you 1.80 Euros.... AHH!
- Set up payment for my electricity. In order to do this I must go in person to the centre ville and present myself to the company with my RIB (no I am not kidding, the stupid RIB again) and my housing contract. Then I was told that since the person who lived here before me somehow never set up her account I had to go all the back, collect some information from my circuit board, and return. In fact, I have to go back tomorrow.
- Register with the university. They make each student do this every year, even if you are a returning student, and all the information is entered by hand from a document that we have to fill out. In order to register you have to provide your own identity photo, though they take another one for your student card, and pay your social security fees if you come from a country outside the European Union.
- Get a "Carte CROUS". CROUS is the social service department in France for university students. Therefore it is required that I get a carte CROUS in order to buy any of my food from a university restaurant. Then I found out that for students who had just opened their first accounts with LCL (the bank that I used) you could get the credit for 20 free meals on your card. I therefore had to go back to the bank, ask for an attestation that I could get the 20 free meals, and then return with yet another filled out document in order to get my carte CROUS.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Day 2
This was my first full day in France and that which I would like to note most:
1) I had my FLE course (Français Langue Etrangère) which equates to French as a foreign language class. It was fun but WAY WAY WAY easy review stuff. Oh well, they said the real class starts when normal classes start and this is just to prepare us.
2) When it comes to my French usage I have moments where I am so happy - all the French people that I meet say I speak French extremely well - and sometimes I meet someone who asks me if I am French (pretty much the best feeling ever!) but then other times I open my mouth to say the simplest thing and people immediately respond with an "oh! where do you come from?"
3) I hate the bureaucratic lifestyle. There is a reason it took me a week to get internet, and it is not because there was something wrong with my housing or the apartment (box) complex. In fact, just as my tutor has notes, it is just super disorganized because nothing can be done without the exact paper showing this, or that, or this and that, from this certain location, etc etc etc. But we're only on Day 2 right now... I think I'll just write a summary later.
4) I love the French people and French food. I have seriously eaten already like 8 baguettes... in 6 days... and I drink wine and eat cheese absolutely all the time - it is so so so cheap in France! On the other hand, I rarely get to eat any meat because it is super expensive in France. Though I have cooked some chicken and I went to a fresh marché and bought some homemade sausage (I guess you call it sausage) but you do not refrigerate it, it is completely cured, and therefore is kept at room temperature for 6-8 weeks the vendor said! That is perfect for me because my box comes fully equipped with... (drum roll please)... 2 stove top burners. I do not have any access to an oven or a microwave, so I can only cook something that goes on the stove, and let's not forget that whatever I need to cook with I also need to buy. So basically I do almost no cooking and all baguette/cheese/nutella eating when I am chez moi. Also, I would say that I need to watch my weight, but just go on to point 5...
5) I officially live about a mile and half away from the university, a good 25 minute walk, which I have to do everyday, both there and back. In fact, I (and the only 4 other foreign students who got placed here) are 12 minutes away from the nearest shopping center (I am referencing food here, though it is a centre commercial with fun shops as well) meaning we have to carry whatever we buy super far! This is particularly poignant when we buy drinks or laundry detergent like I did today. And then let's not forget my 6 flights of stairs! I think I deserve a good baguette everyday just for that!
Ok, I think that is enough for Day 2, I will now proceed to do the summary of the rest of the days...
1) I had my FLE course (Français Langue Etrangère) which equates to French as a foreign language class. It was fun but WAY WAY WAY easy review stuff. Oh well, they said the real class starts when normal classes start and this is just to prepare us.
2) When it comes to my French usage I have moments where I am so happy - all the French people that I meet say I speak French extremely well - and sometimes I meet someone who asks me if I am French (pretty much the best feeling ever!) but then other times I open my mouth to say the simplest thing and people immediately respond with an "oh! where do you come from?"
3) I hate the bureaucratic lifestyle. There is a reason it took me a week to get internet, and it is not because there was something wrong with my housing or the apartment (box) complex. In fact, just as my tutor has notes, it is just super disorganized because nothing can be done without the exact paper showing this, or that, or this and that, from this certain location, etc etc etc. But we're only on Day 2 right now... I think I'll just write a summary later.
4) I love the French people and French food. I have seriously eaten already like 8 baguettes... in 6 days... and I drink wine and eat cheese absolutely all the time - it is so so so cheap in France! On the other hand, I rarely get to eat any meat because it is super expensive in France. Though I have cooked some chicken and I went to a fresh marché and bought some homemade sausage (I guess you call it sausage) but you do not refrigerate it, it is completely cured, and therefore is kept at room temperature for 6-8 weeks the vendor said! That is perfect for me because my box comes fully equipped with... (drum roll please)... 2 stove top burners. I do not have any access to an oven or a microwave, so I can only cook something that goes on the stove, and let's not forget that whatever I need to cook with I also need to buy. So basically I do almost no cooking and all baguette/cheese/nutella eating when I am chez moi. Also, I would say that I need to watch my weight, but just go on to point 5...
5) I officially live about a mile and half away from the university, a good 25 minute walk, which I have to do everyday, both there and back. In fact, I (and the only 4 other foreign students who got placed here) are 12 minutes away from the nearest shopping center (I am referencing food here, though it is a centre commercial with fun shops as well) meaning we have to carry whatever we buy super far! This is particularly poignant when we buy drinks or laundry detergent like I did today. And then let's not forget my 6 flights of stairs! I think I deserve a good baguette everyday just for that!
Ok, I think that is enough for Day 2, I will now proceed to do the summary of the rest of the days...
Boxes in which to live?
I mentioned that I would hereon refer to my apartment as a "box" because that's the affectionate term that I and the other foreign students have come up with for our lodgings as that is most literally what they are. They are shipping containers transformed into apartments. The great news is that I have my whole box to myself, the weird news is that I am living in France, in a renovated shipping container, haha. Here you can see a picture of the complex (the other half across from me). Though perhaps I have to get another from the side so you can actually see how I am living in a box.
Just as a side note, please take notice of the serious lack of privacy! You can see completely into other's boxes, and it is so easy to forget and go walking about after your shower... lol. It was about 4 days ago that there was a completely naked guy just walking around his box, thinking he was minding his own business, haha. It is especially funny because from my floor I literally have a perfect view into every box. Quite amusing really. Well, now you know what I'm living in in France. Quite suitable in fact since Le Havre is entirely industry based.
The Flight / Day 1
My day of travel was more or less horrendously difficult, outrageously tiring, and extremely long, but entirely worth it because it ended with me in France, at Le Havre. Thank goodness. Most of my pictures will be up on Facebook, but here is my pre-departure photo:
You can tell that it is pre-departure because of my smile... I was too exhausted by the end of my travels to give a big smile like that!! Anyway, you must know that that duffel, in combination with my suitcase weighed in at around 85-90 pounds, meaning they were like 5/6ths of my weight, which definitely added to my exhaustion when I was reaching the end of my 32 hour day (all of which was travel).
In terms of planes, everything went quite smoothly. I caught my train from Dayton to Chicago, and then got on the enormous Boeing 747 from Chicago to Paris. Unfortunately the girl that I was sitting beside was not French, so I didn't have the opportunity to warm-up and practice speaking on the plane, but she was really nice so that was great. Also unfortunately I had an extreme bout of motion sickness which persisted for about 5 hours of this 8 hour flight, meaning I not only was unable to sleep, but that I was also extremely uncomfortable, had difficulty eating, and spent most of my time standing in the back talking with a very kindly stewardess. As soon as might feet were on the ground though I started feeling better and the extreme feeling of excitement overtook me.
After the planes though, that is where I began to run into problems. Nicole and I met up just fine, but we couldn't figure out which train ticket exactly we needed to buy in order to take the RER ligne B into Paris. In fact, we each bought two tickets because we bought the wrong ones in the beginning - but all was well because we actually needed them later at our next switch over - and so off we went toward the trains. I also now know why people in France are not obese, because if they were they wouldn't fit through the train turn styles if they were! Well that is all great because obviously I am not fat but unfortunately for me, my suitcase, especially in combination with my large duffel and purse, were making me rather obese and I had such a time trying to get through ever ticket station it was ridiculous! At one point I even had to insert my ticket twice (they are all reusable for certain types of the same trains for 24 hours) because I and half of my luggage got through but my suitcase got stuck on the other end... quel horreur! After we had taken the train into Paris and the bus to Gare St Lazare, which was under construction that we didn't know about so we exited one stop early and had to walk an extra 15 minutes including a flight of stairs (I encourage you to remember that I was carrying near my weight in baggage), we finally found the train that we needed to take to get to Le Havre. We didn't have time to buy our tickets before the train left because it was going to leave in three minutes or else we had to wait 4 more hours for the next train. Therefore we hurried on knowing that we could buy our tickets while on the train. Of course though we didn't know the procedure so when they came by to ask for tickets I simply asked if I could still buy them and the guy was completely understanding, in fact he was simply elated that I spoke French and I was an American, so he explained that next time I have to ask that of this other man who had walked by earlier. Also, he didn't charge us for first class because we had accidentally entered into a first class cabin, and he gave us a student discount. Anyway, he was just great!
We arrived at Le Havre at about 15:00 local time, which at that point was already 26 hours straight of not only being awake but also of traveling for me, whereupon we were greeted by our tutor, Corentin. Speaking now from a week of knowing him, he is just fantastic and I feel so lucky to have such a fantastic "tutor" to help me during the time of integration into French culture. After arrival we went to meet the university staff in the International Office, then we went and dropped off our stuff at our apartments, then we went and did some shopping (for bed sheets, towels, and food, for example), then we were dropped off back at our apartments knowing that our cours intensif de français started at 9:30 the next morning. I got home, unpacked and organized my stuff into my apartment - from here on referred to as "box" as you will soon know why - and went to bed after literally being awake for 32 hours straight. And oh by the way I live on the troisième étage, which in English corresponds to the fourth floor meaning I get a full 6 flights of stairs to get to my box, and after all that lugging around of suitcases I literally thought I was going to die. As a side note the mattresses are so super hard that I don't even make an indentation and when I woke up in the middle of the night I actually got out of my bed to do some stretches because my muscles were so sore, but also because I was so bent out of shape by the bed. Ok, end of Day 1!
You can tell that it is pre-departure because of my smile... I was too exhausted by the end of my travels to give a big smile like that!! Anyway, you must know that that duffel, in combination with my suitcase weighed in at around 85-90 pounds, meaning they were like 5/6ths of my weight, which definitely added to my exhaustion when I was reaching the end of my 32 hour day (all of which was travel).
In terms of planes, everything went quite smoothly. I caught my train from Dayton to Chicago, and then got on the enormous Boeing 747 from Chicago to Paris. Unfortunately the girl that I was sitting beside was not French, so I didn't have the opportunity to warm-up and practice speaking on the plane, but she was really nice so that was great. Also unfortunately I had an extreme bout of motion sickness which persisted for about 5 hours of this 8 hour flight, meaning I not only was unable to sleep, but that I was also extremely uncomfortable, had difficulty eating, and spent most of my time standing in the back talking with a very kindly stewardess. As soon as might feet were on the ground though I started feeling better and the extreme feeling of excitement overtook me.
After the planes though, that is where I began to run into problems. Nicole and I met up just fine, but we couldn't figure out which train ticket exactly we needed to buy in order to take the RER ligne B into Paris. In fact, we each bought two tickets because we bought the wrong ones in the beginning - but all was well because we actually needed them later at our next switch over - and so off we went toward the trains. I also now know why people in France are not obese, because if they were they wouldn't fit through the train turn styles if they were! Well that is all great because obviously I am not fat but unfortunately for me, my suitcase, especially in combination with my large duffel and purse, were making me rather obese and I had such a time trying to get through ever ticket station it was ridiculous! At one point I even had to insert my ticket twice (they are all reusable for certain types of the same trains for 24 hours) because I and half of my luggage got through but my suitcase got stuck on the other end... quel horreur! After we had taken the train into Paris and the bus to Gare St Lazare, which was under construction that we didn't know about so we exited one stop early and had to walk an extra 15 minutes including a flight of stairs (I encourage you to remember that I was carrying near my weight in baggage), we finally found the train that we needed to take to get to Le Havre. We didn't have time to buy our tickets before the train left because it was going to leave in three minutes or else we had to wait 4 more hours for the next train. Therefore we hurried on knowing that we could buy our tickets while on the train. Of course though we didn't know the procedure so when they came by to ask for tickets I simply asked if I could still buy them and the guy was completely understanding, in fact he was simply elated that I spoke French and I was an American, so he explained that next time I have to ask that of this other man who had walked by earlier. Also, he didn't charge us for first class because we had accidentally entered into a first class cabin, and he gave us a student discount. Anyway, he was just great!
We arrived at Le Havre at about 15:00 local time, which at that point was already 26 hours straight of not only being awake but also of traveling for me, whereupon we were greeted by our tutor, Corentin. Speaking now from a week of knowing him, he is just fantastic and I feel so lucky to have such a fantastic "tutor" to help me during the time of integration into French culture. After arrival we went to meet the university staff in the International Office, then we went and dropped off our stuff at our apartments, then we went and did some shopping (for bed sheets, towels, and food, for example), then we were dropped off back at our apartments knowing that our cours intensif de français started at 9:30 the next morning. I got home, unpacked and organized my stuff into my apartment - from here on referred to as "box" as you will soon know why - and went to bed after literally being awake for 32 hours straight. And oh by the way I live on the troisième étage, which in English corresponds to the fourth floor meaning I get a full 6 flights of stairs to get to my box, and after all that lugging around of suitcases I literally thought I was going to die. As a side note the mattresses are so super hard that I don't even make an indentation and when I woke up in the middle of the night I actually got out of my bed to do some stretches because my muscles were so sore, but also because I was so bent out of shape by the bed. Ok, end of Day 1!
Internet finally up and running!
Well, this is my mini-introduction to say that I have officially been in France for a week, and have gone without internet for the entire time (due to serious issues in the French bureaucracy) until about 30 minutes ago... Oh my gosh!!!!!! And I have so much to say! Therefore I decided that the most efficacious way for me to do this would be to post by day, my monumental feelings, etc according to what I remember. So this is the introduction post, and after that you are going to have several by day. Enjoy!
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