La vie parisiane...

Before beginning this week's post, I thought I would add a few photos of my living quarters. That way everyone can see my humble abode. (Or at least the humble abode of Marie-Liesse and her boyfriend Michel)

Let's see, last weekend I went to Angers, this weekend I stayed in Paris. And what a beautiful weekend it has been. Lots of sun, and lots of spending time with friends and getting to know the city. First off, this past week was our first week of classes at the Centre Madeline which is the Middlebury part of the program. (I believe I explained that I won't be taking courses at the French school until the beginning of October) In the meantime, I am working on my thesis, and my applications for my doctorate.

So this post is going to cover my first week, the fabulous weekend of sun, and that's about it.

ANYWAY, I am taking two classes, one that is going to really help me improve my style in French and the other is a literature class, a comparison between the 17th century and the 20th century return to tragic.

As well as the regular course work, we have some cultural activities, where we get to learn about the history of Paris and work on pronunciation.

Little known fact about Paris, in the 1960s, there was a large fad for sky scrapers, (which we can see today in the area know as La Defense), and the plan for the city was to completely rebuild everything. DESTROY everything that we know of today as charming Paris and in place of all that build giant sky scrapers. Fortunately an oil crisis hit much of Europe by the end of the 60s and nothing become of such a terrible idea!

As for the weekend, two gals from the program and I decided to share a bottle of wine and chocolate on le pont des arts (which is very popular for picnics during the summer) on Friday evening and enjoyed the ambiance of La Seine (which is the river that runs through Paris).

Then this weekend was what is know as "les journées de patrémoine" Which is where EVERYTHING is open and EVERYHTING is free. So we can get into places like the Senate building or the President's residence. SO the same two gals and I decided to get up early on Saturday and get a head start. (The lines during the weekend can be fairly long so we packed picnics thinking, okay we may be waiting for about 4 hours)

So, we decided to try and see where M. Sarkozy is living, we arrive around 8:30am, and the line is already rather long. But not a big deal, we had kind of foreseen that. About 2 hours in, an "gendarme" passes by and we ask him about how long the wait will be, he says, "from here? About 6 hours."

SIX HOURS?! I thought maybe he is joking?! He has to be joking! So we decided to wait a little longer and ask someone else, just to be sure that he wasn't trying to get us out of the line.

Nope, we asked several minutes later we asked another person a similar question and got the same response. So we wavered for a few minutes and then decided that 8 hours of waiting would not be worth the 20 min of viewing. We did what any normal human would do, we found a cafe and drank coffee and chatted for about an hour. Then we decided to find something that would equally interesting with little wait.

Well it just so happens the Opera house was very much open and there was no line to get in. Not to be confused with the Opera house in La Bastille, this building was commissioned by Napoleon III, to replace the original theatre. The construction was inspired by an assassination attempt, and the new building had to be in a very open space. Incidentally the avenue de l'Opéra is the ONLY avenue in Paris with no trees on it. Why do you think that is? Yep, too easy to hide in.

So afterward, I enjoyed my sandwich on the steps of the theatre and then headed home to get some work done.

All in all I would say the day was a success.

As for Sunday, just a normal day, enjoying the sunshine, going for a run, and meeting up with friends for a coffee and to catch up. I hope you are all able to enjoy the same tranquility!

Miss you all!
-Bekah

les accroaches-coeurs: Angers and the plays dans la rue

Well well well, one week and so far so good? Perhaps it's all those YEARS of experience. Or maybe it's only been a week and I haven't even really started my classes yet? In any case, we DID in fact begin our "integration" into the French society and schooling.

Tomorrow begins our first day of classes with the Middelbury school and then the beginning of October brings my classes at la Sorbonne 1, where I will be FULLY integrated into a French classroom. (Well at least part time.) (For those of you who don't know what I am talking about let me explain. I am taking classes at both a French university, and a kind of "institute" run by Middlebury the American school. In this way I can have the best of both worlds.)

So what have I done with my week of bliss and vacation? Not so much a vacation as prep time. Every day that ticks by is precious time to be used on the thesis. You see, one year to do a masters is NOT much time as it turns out. And I honestly don't recommend it unless you are really motivated to do so. In fact, many of the students are changing their minds about the thesis and they are choosing to do a research project instead (which is about half the writing-25-35 pages). So little by little the group of us sticking out the thesis are becoming more and more intimidated!

So, that's what I did all week, read, acclimate myself and learn a bit about what life is going to be like in Paris. (Of course I can answer that in one word: expensive)

Of course, just because I am in Paris doesn't mean I have to stay there. I decided to take a little trip this weekend and visit many of my friends from last year in ANGERS! What was awesome about Angers this weekend was they have a festival every year called the "accroaches-coeurs" which is like a festival of plays, concerts, large plastic moblie elephants, in the street. I was only able to attend one day, BUT I will have you know that EVERYONE in Angers was there. The streets were PACKED, and I was there with the teachers I worked with and we were amazed by the varieties of spectacle in the street.

One of my favorites included a one-woman show, who was clever enough to take a skit about what provides one with "happiness" that she satirically talked about ways to improve our attitude about life while also talking about current events.

My second favorite was a "Zen" dance, where two women worked together to teach the audience how to be "zen." Okay not really zen, but it was a humor piece where they combined dance with a play-like atmosphere.

We finished the night with a circus parade. BUT not just any circus parade, the kind where all the animals are human made and being run by people. The costumes were brilliant, and impressive for something that must be done in the street. After that it was past midnight, so I head home with my "french family."

All in all I would say it was a successful weekend, and now I must head to bed so as not to be too tired for my first day. I hope you are all doing well and hope to hear from you soon!

-Rebekah

Long time...no...

Yep, I've done it again. This blogger is just not used to...well blogging. In any case I thought I would put an update here on my new life, the life I began about 9 weeks ago when I left Bowling Green, OH for Middlebury, VT.

June 25th, I found myself in the countryside of Vermont, scared, nervous, and excited to begin something new, a masters in the French language. I had no idea what was really in store for me.

I took three classes, one in writing, the other two in Mediterranean studies. They kicked my butt to say the least. We had classes 5 days a week, three hours a day, and when we weren't in class we participated in extracurricular activities, such as theatre, choir, soccer, you name it. Let's just say the program is well established and they really create a community so that you will NOT speak ANY English.

In the middle of the trip, I and a couple other gals from the program had to go to Boston to get our visa. As excited as we were to see the big city, it was not really a time for vacation. We got to Boston, had out appointments and got back to campus as soon as possible. Even being away for 24 hours makes one feel behind by about a week!

Finally, we finish our 6-7 weeks at the Middlebury campus, all of us masters students celebrate the fact that we have survived such an intense 6 weeks and feel ready to go home. Of course then we realized that we had to do that only add 8 months. Ha, guess the joke is on us?
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Back home: To Memphis?

So, prior to my departure for France, I had some time with the family of course. Only, not in BG, they had made their big transition down to Memphis only days before I got home. So I had two wonderful weeks with them, as what can only be described as extreme home makeover, with the intention to DOWNSIZE.

I had to work on my room, and you know who came to help? Why ms. Lisa Hainen herself. She didn't even really need to do much, just be sittin' next to me and I would start cleaning. She should really take up a job in that!

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The fateful day when my bliss had to end...September 2nd: Destination, Paris

After a very tearful goodbye on the part of my whole family, I find myself again in the land of wine and cheese. The jet lag this time around is worse than I have had in a very long time. OR at least that I can remember.

I am living with a host family, the mother's name is Marie-Liesse and most of her kids are grown and off doing their own thing but her youngest daughter, Cléméntine is still here finishing her last year in engineering. They travel a lot, and are in fact on vacation this week, but I got to meet them the first day I arrived. (The 3rd that is)

So that's all the news I have for now, and I am going to try and keep weekly posts going this time around.

Miss you all!!!

-Rebekah

Read the label before apply to face

Read the label well

Hello to all my American fans! ;) I have returned safely to the land of cheese and wine, with less bumps than I had when I went home for Christmas. But before I tell of my adventures I want to tell you about a very important lesson I learned last week. Make sure you read the label.

For Christmas I received in my stocking a miniature bottle of lotion. The PERFECT size for taking on the plane, 1.8 oz to be exact. (As many of you know we are not able to take more then 3 fl oz on a plane for security measures. Now having just finished a nice cold, my nose and the skin below it was rather dry, so I applied the moisturizer the entire flight back to France and for at least three days after.

Still my skin remained dry and sore. I credited the extreme cold of Paris, and the flight for this expansion of dryness. BUT as the dryness spread to my chin, and became ichy I thought… “hmmm”. At the museum of 18^th century art, the Nissim de Camondo. I once again pulled out my lotion to apply it to my face, when my friend Allie pointed out that it was not in fact lotion but body wash with lotion in IT!

AHHHH, so I am having a reaction to the “lotion” because it’s actually body wash, which is why my face was getting worse and not better. Inflamed rather than tamed. It’s amazing that I have a college education and missed this minute detail.

As for my New Year’s in Paris.

I must admit that my friend Allie and I had a great time. We stayed in a B & B at Porte de la Villette, which I chose because I had just finished Villette by Charlotte Brontë. We were very happy with the choice, and the people were very friendly and helpful. However, being soo jet lagged we didn’t do as much as we had planned. But we did see a great museum on 18^th century art, that’s sort of off the beaten path, and visited Sacre Coeur and a few other touristy spots.

After a few days in Paris we headed for the city of Dreux (just outside of Paris) to stay with some friends we met at le Rieu (remember the trip to the south of France?-They were at the house we stayed at) we had a lovely evening bowling and then sleeping.

Now, I am back in Angers, and back to work, although I haven’t gotten over the jetlag just yet. It seems to be harder this time around for some reason!

Not much to plan for, mostly just staying in Angers and working for the month of Janurary. I may be doing some babysitting which will be really good, and the girls I am watching seem to be a lot of fun. (They remind me a lot of my lil’ sis and I)

Off to the grocery store I go! My love to everyone,

<3>

Who's up for le Sud?

In brief this post is about: Tarot (the game not the fortune teller), Bergers, 4 hour hikes, 56 year olds dancing to M. Jackson, and making it...just in time to eat.

So, l'Angévine has made it back safely to the northern part of France. What's that you say? You didn't realize I had left the north? Ah yes, the trip to le Villaret, which is a small village in the south of France, lasted for one week. (The last one in October) I drove down with Tiphaine, and Ella (Who is a gal from the French house, and is studying in Strasbourg). We arrived in Montpellier on Sunday evening to pick up Allie, and then made it to le Rieu just in time for dinner. Le Rieu is the name of the house where we stayed. This house is deep in the Cévennes mountains, and uses Solar energy for light and gas for cooking. (For heat it's a good old fashioned fire place or blanket) Just us four girls in the mountains? I think not. We stayed with Tiphaines parents and her parents' friends. We were 20 in all, and man did we have a good time. Getting to know each other, having long meals, dancing, singing, hiking, visiting a shepard...you name it, we did it.
Zo, Day 1:

We wake up, bright and eary, but without any real concept of time. Tiphaine decides to take a bath in the waterfall just below the house. (Yes, it was cold) After having breakfast and getting cleaned up, we headed out for a one and a half hour hike to the Shepard's house. Why? Why not. He's a real Shepard and it might be kind of neat. So we met, Alfred. Great guy, offered us a glass of wine at 11:00am. (Homemade wine...not as great as you might think...we're not talking homemade chocolate cake here: now that sounds delicious)

We had back to the house for a lovely lunch. An apérotif to start and then lovely fooood. Don't remember what, just that it was good.

By evening time we all gather in the dinning room for some games. Tarot and Scrabble to be exact. Not just any Scrabble but FRENCH Scrabble. (I am not as good at French Scrabble as I would like, but I DO like to make up words..."But it LOOKS like French!"

What's Tarot? The closest thing I can think of is Uker. But it is not Uker, only similar to Uker. Kind of like how the French and the Americans are not the same but they are still part of Western culture. ;)

Day 2: 4,000 marches

Wake up time = 5:30am to be at the bottom of the hike by 6:30am. Woot! Who's ready for some walking? Climbing? Tiphaine, Ella, Allie, and I all head for the monumental 4,000 marches, which is a hike that ends at a meteorological lab on top of a mountain. So we drive to the starting point (approximately 30 min from le Rieu) we get out of the car and start to follow Tiphaine. There's the sign "4,000 Marches" we keep walking straight. At one point Tiphaine says, "I think we should have turned in front of the church"

She says it so casually, and with clear intention to continue going straight, that I wasn't sure if she was joking. So I say, "Really?"

"Yep, pretty sure" She keeps walking straight.

"Are we gonna turn around then?"

"Yep" She keeps walking straight.

"Um...when?"

"Now"

So we turn around, and away we go. We did the hike in 4h15min, which isn't bad. (Although we were surpassed by at least three hikers all much older then we, and when asked how long it had taken them they would reply with numbers like "hour and a half" Us flat Bowling Greeners aren't used to these here mountains." )

We get back home for another lovely lunch, which included Jean-Luc dancing like Michel Jackson (Jean-Luc is a 56 year-old dad...one of his daughters was present, the poor dear), and the three Americans singing the Beetles for everyone. Ahhhh...l'amour. After that?! Bathing in a celestial waterfall.

Day 3: A day of rest after a taxing hike

BUT we did make dinner. And we made a potato salad using sweet potatos. Most of our French friends there had NEVER EATEN A SWEET POTATO!!!!! How crazy is that?

Day 4: Into a town, into a town, and out of a town, and home BEFORE dark?

We decided to get up kind of late (8am), pack a picnic lunch, and then head to the gorge to eat it. We drove down, down, down, and then waded through a river to eat onTOP of a waterfall. THEN we head up, up, up to meet our French family in a tiny medieval village. We walked around the village, taking our time, soaking in that authentic FRENCH air. about 4:30 we decided, you know... we want to get back before dark, so we should probably go now. (It's not very fun to drive down our driveway at night...the driveways in Appalachia are very similar)

No problem though, we are no more then 30 min. from home, and sunset is about 6pm. We're only 30 min. from IF the road we want to take isn't closed. We had to drive back through the gorge, down, down, down, then up, up, up...it took us almost two hours to get back. HA. And the darker it grew, the more difficult it was to drive any faster, so we ended up just taking our time, and getting home...eventually. This was not without ridicule from the family of course. What road had they taken? Why were they home before us? They went another way, through another town. They had known the way we had taken would be blocked...and assumed we also knew. Bof. We made it home, again just in time to eat a fabulous dinner, and share a game of Tarot with the girlies.

Day 5: LAST DAY?!!!

We ended our trip by going to the most amazing Marché and hanging out with our new French family.

Present DAY: Now, I am back in Angers, it has been over a week. I'm studying for the GRE, and trying to do lesson plans. Not much else to report. Thinking of going to the Opera next weekend, which would be a nice treat. I suppose I did go to Tours last Saturday (the 7th of Nov), and hang out with the BG kids in Chinon, and Samur. Perhaps that should be another blog. Ta ta for now, Bekah

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