A visit with the past...

This past weekend, I went to the lovely Tours and had a visit with Kevin Kane, the onsite director of BGSU’s study abroad program. We went to two lovely jardins (gardens) at the Chateau de Villandry and Chatonièrre. We had an marvelous time and day for this. Fall is setting in here, which means a mixture of nebulous clouds, and sunshine and a fresh fall breeze to brustle the leaves about. Wonderfully charming.

Each garden was a bit different. Villandry is well known, and large with a heavy influence from the Italien Rennisance, it was built around 15th century. Now, the Chateau’s garden has not been kept the same for centuries, in fact a couple discovered the chateau, and had plans to use it for lab experiments. However, they fell in love with the chateau and decided to revamp it and it’s gardens, and eliminate all the extra junk that had been added over time.

As for the second, we were fortunate enough to have a guide, the Duke of the chateau (actually Spanish) with a tweed coat, and longish black locks, gave of us the low-down on who had lived at the chateau and why the gardens were redone. These gardens are nowhere near as old as the others maybe only a couple of decades, but its charm is not hindered by its youth.

The close of the day brought me back to Angers. Seeing the new undergraduates was an interesting experience, because that had been me not two years ago. Rather curious, but still fairly unaware of what awaited me. Many of them are struggling with their first bouts of culture shock, and watching them struggled I remembered how awful the first month had been. But as they complained, I promised they would feel differently in a month, and that as long as they keep on learning French, they will survive.

Now we are to the present, and I am getting ready for Allie Molnar, the friend from Toulouse, to come and visit me. If my sentences have become longwinded, it’s because I am reading Bronte’s Jane Eyre, I can’t help it!

Life in France Means Bureaucracy

Alors, salut à tous et toutes. (That means hello to everyone!)

I am in my second week in Angers, and let me tell you life is a pretty crazy thing. What have I done thus far? Spoken a lot of English.

"But of course" I can hear you say, "You are there to TEACH English."

Ah, yes but I am also here to improve my French, if people would let me speak it. You see, I have had about 4 people request that I teach them English, just in the Foyer. Okay okay okay...back up. What is a Foyer.

Let me tell a bit about life in Angers!

I moved here about two weeks ago (as previously stated) and it is a lovely town. I live in a Foyer which is kind of like a dorm, for young workers. Basically for people who can't afford an apartment and need some place impermanent to live. There are many types of people here. All interesting, and so far everyone seems nice. (Except for this guy who keeps pestering my friend Sarah, apparently he has a bit of a history)

Who is Sarah? Well, she's English and she too is an assistant, and she live on the first floor of the my building. We met the first day. And although we are both anglophones, we are eager to be immersed in the French culture. (We are quite the Francophiles if you will)

So, when I’m not off gallivanting about the French countryside, what am I doing? Well, not much…yet! I work at a high school as a language assistant to four different English teachers. FOUR. That means, FOUR different styles, and that means FOUR different mindsets about what is the best way for a French student to learn a foreign language.

I am finding that two of the teachers are really receptive to having a language assistant, whereas the other two see it more as a necessary evil. The students of the latter two teachers are also less receptive to me.

All in all, it’s going okay, and I am slowly finding my French legs again. Some days are better than others. C’est la vie!

I want to leave you with the ONLY tip you need to enjoy France.

THE FRENCH LOVE ADMINISTRATION! As long as you understand that, you will have a great time. How do I know this?

Well, okay. In order to come and live and work in France, you must have a long stay visa. In the past this visa could not be obtained in the states, you had to first get a short (3 month) visa, and upon entering the country got the Prefecture and apply for the long stay, and have a medical visit.

That has changed. Now, you get your long stay visa in the States, when you arrive in France you send a form to the office of immigration and they send you the time and date for a medical visit. Usually that's sufficient.

Zo, "what's complicated about that?" you might be wondering. What's complicated is that because it's a new system, most people don't actually know that it has changed. That includes the CAF office, also known as the office that provided rent assistance if you are not making above the poverty line (which I am not). So the CAF still wants the old title.

Fine, I'll do both. WRONG again. I am not allowed to apply for the old one, because I already have the new one. Bon. The is nothing to do here, just sit and wait.

Mind you, this is only one tale of the French bureaucracy. Ask me about the bank sometime, and I can tell you much much more.

Bisesxxx

Bekah