USA, Meet France

Not much has been going on this week. School is good... and almost over. We have break starting next Thursday, which is when I leave on my grand trip to London, Barcelona, Pisa and Florence. And then after that I have 1 week before all my finals. I'll be done on the 28th of April. So instead of telling you about what I did this week and going to talk about some of the differences I've noticed that I haven't written down yet.

The stoplights here are different. They aren't over the road. They are actually just little poles on the side of the road with little lights about the size of a tennis ball. Good thing I don't drive here or I think I would miss them completely. Stop signs look exactly the same and say the same thing.

The parking spaces are so so so small. I swear most of the people in France spend hours and hours of time just trying to park and get out of parking spots. And have any of you seen those little toy cars for kids that have a lever on each side and when it hits something the lever switches over and it goes the other direction until it hits something on that side? Well, that's how I feel cars in France are. Back until you hit...forward until you hit... haha everyone has their back and front bumpers just a little dented.

Walking around you see all the cars side mirrors folded inwards. At first I wondered why until I realized that everywhere you go you hit them with your bags, or elbows (ouch), and as I can imagine...with bikes and other various things. Either you are smart and fold your mirrors in when you get out of your car or you lose them. That's just the way it is.

The train is the best form of transportation in France. It's pretty expensive if you don't have a discount card but it's really easy to get anywhere in Europe that way, and the TGV was the fastest train in the world until the Japanese made a faster one.

When you eat with a French family you always have bread. Though it doesn't go on the plate. It goes on the table. And if you can reach something at the table you grab it, no need to ask someone to pass it. That would just be bothering them while they were eating ;)

Wine and cheese is a regular thing here. Cheese is normally eaten after dinner, before dessert. Or sometimes for dessert. But there is always dessert. It's just not french not to have dessert! Which for me is just weird because my family always grew up without dessert. Maybe that why I'm so dang skinny!

The bathroom never has the toilet in it. There is a separate room for the toilet. The sinks and shower go together and the toilet can either be across the hall or the next door over. It's...I guess a good idea so someone can be in the shower and someone else can use the toilet at the same time. Just don't flush the toilet because that seriously burns.

The French thinks it's weird that we say "cheese" when we smile for our pictures. They don't say "fromage"...unless they're with me of course. Then it's funny. (see video below)

I was talking with my parent's friend Noel and his family the other day. And we were talking about how the US thinks they are the center of the world. His daughter pointed at the map and said but we are really the center of the world, in the center of the map. And she was right. However the map looked like this:

And in that case she was very right. But in the US our maps look a little more like this:

That's just an interesting fun fact.

Bars close here at 2 just like they do in the States. But that's when the dance clubs open. And they are open till 4 or 5 in the morning. Life in France is nothing but night life. Then they all sleep till 2 in the afternoon the next day.

If you are sick, you go to the doctor. Even if it's a cold. Or anything for that matter. You have a cough? Go to the doctor. You twisted your ankle? Go to the doctor. You have a headache? Go to the doctor. Ok...so the last on I was exaggerating, but seriously. I had a cold and Romain force fed me medicine, he told me I was as stubborn as a 4 year old. I had a cold. It will be gone in 3 days. My friend Alban twisted his ankle, and granted it was pretty bad, he got a cast. In the states they'd maybe wrap it for you and give you crutches. He got crutches and a cast, which he had on for 2 weeks. Oh and he didn't have to pay for it either. No wonder they go to the doctor all the time. Gotta take advantage of that free medical care.

The French love their breaks! We didn't start school till the 25th of January and then we got a break in February 15th for one week, which was only like 3 weeks into school. Then we're getting a two week break starting next week until the 18th. Then we're done on the 28th. I love this school system!

Well, the French do think they are better than us, so maybe that is where the stuck-up French stereotypes come from, but many of the young people actually want to live in the US. Apparently it's the French dream to live in America.

I've been listening to Frank Sinatra because for some reason his music reminds me of France and I love that from now every time I hear his songs they will remind me of the time I lived France.

Anyway, I did do one thing this week that is worth taking about. For Aaron's birthday Jacqueline made us Escargot. So I have officially eaten escargot, frog legs, and caviar in the last few months. Crazy! I love France.

Chambord

Friday I met my buddy, Emeline, at the train station to go to her house in Romorantin, about an hour from Tours, for the weekend. Her family was expecting us so when we got there her father was there to pick us up. On our way back to her house just before an intersection we saw an accident. The first one I've ever actually seen with my own eyes. It was horrible. A motorcycle was making a left turn and the woman in the car I think may have ran the red light and hit him broadside. He hit the passenger-side windshield and flipped off the side of the car and landed on his head on the other side of the car from us. Emeline's dad immediately pulled over and ran to call the ambulance. I didn't get out of the car. From where we were we could see only the legs of the motorcyclist. But he didn't get up the whole time we were there. The ambulance came fairly quickly and began to put him on a stretcher, and that's when we left. I really hope he was ok. It didn't look like she hit him that hard but he flew like she did.

From there we went to Emeline's house and I got to meet her mother and her little brother Vincent. He's 16 but he looks more like 18. He's huge, but a very sweet kid. Their family was so welcoming and I really enjoyed staying with them. I could understand almost everything they said to me. I must really like their accent...it was easy to understand. I had my own room, and we all ate together and of course they used all the English that they knew...which fortunately for me was very little which forced me to speak only French. But I find myself talking a lot about difference in the United States and France. The first night we ate a sort of quiche thing. It was so good and Flan for dessert. I love French cooking.

That night after picking up Vincent from football (soccer) we decided to watch New Moon since it just came out. In French with NO subtitles. I got almost everything and I learned a ton actually. It's an easy movie to understand...and honestly the actors seem better with French voices...lol. Especially that Kristin chick.

The next morning we woke up and lazed around the house. I got ready for the day and then Emeline and I spent most of the day talking on her bed. She spoke English to me and I spoke French to her. She also helped me with my homework!! Then at 1:30 we took her brother to his game and we headed to the Château nearby - Chambord. It took about 30 minutes to get there and it was pouring like crazy. When we got there it had mostly stopped but the ground was really wet and muddy. But this castle was huge, and truly beautiful. I think so far it was my favorite because I liked all the spires and turrets it had. We had to walk around to the entrance to buy the tickets. And just like in Paris students that are apart of the European Union are free...so I just hand them my French ID card and they hand me a free ticket! I love that. We saw every floor and we also got to see the famous double stairway. It's two stairways that wrap around each other but never meet. It was designed so that the wife and the mistresses of François the 1st could cross paths but never see each other. There are windows so that you can see across to the other side so if you walk at the same pace as someone else you can see each other at each window. That's what Emeline and I did. Then at the top of the castle was my favorite. It's the most beautiful part. I really enjoyed how much it looked like a castle from a fairytale. It stopped raining while we were there so we got to spend some time on the roof. Then we went back to Romorantin and spent some time in the park there, but we were both pretty tired so we went home and I ate more Nutella than one person should ever eat in 1 sitting. Mmmmmm!

(Front of Chambord)

(The double staircase)

(Up the middle of the two staircases)

Later that night we ate again with the family. Crêpes with ham and cheese! I also tried the goat cheese....yuck! Never again. And a tart for dessert. I loved eating with their family. Everyone made each other laugh and they were just really fun to watch. A beautiful family. After dinner we watched Oceans Eleven with French dubbing and French subtitles. This one was harder to understand but it was still good. That night I went to bed at like 11:00. I was tired and definitely getting sick. Then this morning I got up and got ready to go. I had a rendez-vous with family friends back in Tours so Emeline came back early with me. I thanked their family and Emeline's dad took us back to the Train station. It was a really great weekend. Especially because I spoke only French!

I walked home after saying goodbye to Emeline and went home to change quickly and unpack. Then I went to my parent's friends' house Noel and Marie Claire Denoyel. They live just 2 blocks from me! My parents stayed with Noel when they were about 25 years old. Now Noel has 3 beautiful children that are just so sweet! I think they are 14, 16 and 18. They invited me in and made a very wonderful lunch for me. It was first an aperitif - Pineau I think it was called which is a pretty strong alcoholic drink. But it tasted really good. I only had a few sips of that. I ate salad and baguette while Marie Claire made scallops for the appetizer. YUMMM! After that we ate magret de canard (duck)...which was pretty good, and some potatoes casserole which was amazing. Then for dessert we ate crumble (I think that's what it's called) and some apple pie with pudding. I was so full I thought I was going to pop! I could literally feel my belt getting tighter. But everything was great.

I stayed at their house for hours telling stories of my family, school and town. They showed me pictures and I showed them pictures as well. I even played piano for them (they have a piano!). Then I think after 5 hours I finally left. But I left my cell phone there so I had to go back to get it. lol

From there I called Romain and him, Alban, and Mamie came to pick me up. We went to a restaurant to watch Alban's Bordeaux game. Everyone got a crêpe or hot chocolate but I was still so full from lunch that I couldn't even get something to drink. We only got to spend less than 2 hours together and they had to take us back to the house so we could eat with the family. There was this really grouchy lady that was there....I didn't like her at all. He was a friend of Genevieve's. So she was quite old but she was just mean. But during dinner I spoke french and told everyone about my weekend and my day and all that I ate. I was on a French roll! haha!

But now I've just spent my whole night writing my blog and I'm exhausted! I'll add pictures tomorrow so be sure to check again! Love from France!!

Melange

Tuesday after class, I hadn't eaten all day so I decided instead of buying the usual panini I would get a quiche from the boulangerie on my way home. It was a Quiche Lorraine... mmmm. When I got home I walked into the kitchen where Jacqueline was making dinner to put my quiche in the microwave. I ended up talking to her while I ate and she made her delicious meatballs. It's the first time I've really talked to Jackie just me and her since I moved in. There are a lot of people in this house. But it was nice to finally not feel the pressure of everyone staring me down while I try to speak french at the dinner table. We just had a casual conversation. Afterwards, while I was in my room, Mathias came in an started playing with me. He normally doesn't because he has many other people in this house that he can bother, so when he comes to play with me I usually give in. I had the movie Beauty and the Beast (in French) sitting on my table and he started to tell me about all the movies he had, like Ice Age, but he said it was in Spanish! So after playing for a little he ran downstairs to get it and we put it in to watch. He can understand Spanish but he doesn't speak it very well. Anyway, we watched that until the dinner bell rang and we went downstairs where I met Fabiola's friend from Peru. Then Jacqueline, Luze, Fabiola, and Fabiola's friend were all speaking Spanish for the rest of dinner. My brain was going crazy. When I hear Spanish I start to think in it, but when I open my mouth to speak, it always came out French. By the end of dinner I was switching back and forth between the 2 languages, and I loved it. Actually to tell you the truth, the Americans on the other end of the table were speaking English (like they always do now, and it gets super annoying. Even at the dinner table where we are supposed to speak only French), Jacqueline and that end of the table were speaking Spanish, and then to talk to each other we were speaking French. So I was switching from Spanish to French to English to French to Spanish, and it was AMAZING!! I really found what I love to do.

Today I had my class at 1:30 like usual so I got ready to go and walked there...unfortunately I decided to wear my new shoes that day and by the time I reached Tanneurs my heels were acutally bleeding. It hurt all class, and to top that off I did the wrong homework so I didn't have it ready and she called on me first. That test next week is going to be hard if it was anything like that! I had to walk home after that...and I was scared for my feet. They already stung like crazy so I put some tissues in the back and treked home. Not a good day for my feet. After I cleaned them up and changed shoes, Valeria and Mamie came home with baguettes, ham and cheese to make sandwiches in the park right by our house. The guys came to join us and we spent the afternoon in the park together. It was sunny, warm and beautiful. I wish everyday if France would be that gorgeous! We also saw a kid get arrested in the park. There were over 10 police officers there for a kid that was about 16...I think it was a little excessive, but something big must have happened!

(Left to right: Romain, Alban, Mamie, Valeria)

After that I had choir rehearsal, so I went to that while Val and Mamie went home. It was too long...like it is everyday, but it was needed! Bruckner is going to harder that Verdi's Requiem...even though it's only like 5 minutes long opposed t0 1.5 hours. It's definitely hard!

We got home just in time for dinner, which we ate quickly and then got ready to go out. It was St. Patrick's day and we promised each other we would go out even if the French didn't celebrate St. Patty's day. But they do. Everyone and their brother was out. Romain was trying to surprise me and show up after telling me he wasn't coming, but we ended up running into them before he could make his big entrance. We went to one place, but it was to crowded, and then Aaron came to find us and said they had room at their table...which they didn't. So we found another place that was relatively empty. In other words, everyone was out on the patio so we had the inside to ourselves. I got a glass of Vouvray wine. It's my favorite wine that I've found so far. And the girls got special drinks...that were way overpriced! It was a very calm St. Patty's, but bigger for me because I've never celebrated it in my life. Afterwards we spoke Spanish to Luze and her friends in Place Plumereau, and Romain showed off his Spanish skills...he didn't do too bad! Then they took us home and I'm exhausted so I'm off to bed. Goodnight!

Planning and More Planning

Spring break is coming up and Valeria, Mamie and I have been planning like crazy. We knew that if we didn't buy our tickets now everything would be over $100 euro, so we started....I guess kinda early.

Val and I bought our tickets from Spain to Italy first where we will meet Mamie in Pisa. We're planning on spending most of our time in Florence but we fly in and out of Pisa. Then we bought our flight back to Paris and then our train ticket from Paris to Tours. So we had the second part of our trip all planned out. We already knew we were going to Spain, but then today since we had 8 days before we had to meet Mamie we decided it would be fun to go to London for a few of those days. We finalized our tickets just an hour ago! Tours to London via train-->London to Barcelona via plane-->Barcelona to Pisa via Plane-->Pisa/Florence to Paris via plane--> and then from Paris to Tours via train all in two weeks! It's going to be a crazy trip but so much fun!

So the past few days have been pretty normal, with a few exceptions. On Saturday Romain and I had to take Alban to the hospital because he twisted his ankle during soccer practice. We waited there for 2.5 hours, but Romain and I played some games on our iPhones and then he helped me with my homework. Alban ended up getting a cast and crutches, but his ankle isn't broken...they're only leaving it on for a week and I think he stays on the crutches for a month. He's crazy on those things. lol. After he got out we went outside and we saw a car crash. It was screeching on it's two right wheels and I was sure it was going to tip over but it just went into the ditch on the other side of the road facing the other direction. We ran over to them but they were all ok so we left. Not as exciting as I wanted it to be but I thank God that they are ok. On Sunday Romain picked me up after his game and we went to McDonalds with his teammates. I made Romain try a fry with his McFlurry...apparently everyone thinks that is disgusting here! Weird French people ;) Then we went to a soccer game and met Mamie and Alban to watch one of our friends, Davy, play. It wasn't that good of a game, but it's an experience that I've never had before. I wasn't dressed appropriately for the weather though...it was cold. Romain's dad bought me a vin chaud and Romain gave me his sweater and socks since I only had flats on lol. That day I spoke only French for most of the day. It was so hard and I got stuck a lot but Romain helped me...even though I made a fool of myself sometimes. I swear, French words all sounds the same. If you don't get one vowel right the whole word is ruined. I got really frustrated at one point but I made it through it...and I just have to keep going, no matter how frustrating it is!

Monday was normal but I went over to Romain's house to eat with his family. I get a lot more attention there than I do eating with my "family" at our house so I have to speak French a lot more. We talked about the French health care system and how different it is from ours. But they didn't know that we don't pay as much taxes as we do. Somehow I think it equals out but free health care seems pretty nice to me. For dinner I had scallops, rice, and a croissant with ham and cheese. SOOOO good. Last time I was there I ate frog legs! FROG LEGS!!! I only had one...but they tasted just like chicken. I just didn't like the idea of it. Freaks me out. Anyway, after dinner I asked Romain's mom if he had any pictures of him when he was a baby. She was so excited to show them to me and went and pulled 4 albums out of the closet. I got to make fun of him for a good half hour after that. He was a pretty cute blond baby, definitely not the same as now with his dark hair.

Today I'm getting ready to go to class after stressful waiting of C-port to work on the Concordia website so I can sign up for my classes next semester. It's still not working and I have to go so hopefully it won't be working until 5:30 cuz that's the soonest I can come home! But I have to leave now or I won't make it to my class! Miss you all!!

Les Dernières Semaines

It has been a long time because I have been so busy the past few weeks! And I have a lot to write so this may be long but I'll try to keep it as short as I can!

This was the week of my choir concerts at the Grand Théâtre. We had rehearsal on Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning though, which all lasted 3.5 hours. I can't imagine ever doing that in the States. It was so long and by the end of the week I was just glad to be done even though it was such a neat experience. I took my camera the first night because the Grand Théâtre is a French Opera house so I knew it was going to be gorgeous! The room we warmed up in was beautiful and when we walked onto the stage it was even better. There was a huge chandelier on the painted ceiling, 3 levels with gold balconies that wrapped around the room and a large black box stage. Beautiful. And singing Verdi's Requiem in there was really incredible. At the end of each concert the audience did this weird rhythmic clapping thing and they wouldn't stop, so each night we would have 4 or 5 curtain calls! I thought the first night was just a fluke but it happened every night. It must be a French thing. The only person I knew that came to my concert was Aaron, and that was because the girl he likes was going...but he said it was good which is a real compliment coming from Aaron, especially about an Opera.

(Le Grand Théâtre from outside)

(photo from the stage out towards the audience)

On Saturday night after the concert I walked home where Alban and Romain came to pick up Mamie and I. About a month ago they invited us to their soccer "Ball" that the soccer committee was putting on to raise money, and because of my concert we would be late but they wanted us to come so they came to get us later. It was really fun. It reminded me a lot of a wedding rehearsal dinner. It was 80s themed so when we walked in we were greeted with lots of crazy wigs and shiny pants. We were served punch that was slightly too strong, then everyone sat down to dinner, but I think by the time we got there most everyone was wasted. People were standing on their chairs singing a classic French song at the top of their lungs and it just made my night. The open bottles of wine on every table might have been to blame for that. I took my camera and got some great shots of all my friends doing crazy things. Mamie and I were the only Americans, but I was surprised at how many people I knew there. Romain's parents were there and all his friends and their girlfriends so I knew about 10 people in all. We spent most of the night dancing together and singing classic American songs like Hotel California and YMCA as well as classic French songs that everyone knew, except Mamie and I of course. It was a really fun night and we didn't even leave to go home until 4:30 in the morning. The French are CRAZY :)

Sunday after the concert we had a fête (party). Like any cast party or choir party except there was enough champagne to serve all 4 choirs...twice. And lots of cookies and sweets partial to France. We didn't stay very long because we were all very tired but everyone was so excited and I talked to more people in my choir that night than I ever have before. And I took a lot of pictures with people too. They are all so sweet. But this choir is very very different from Concordia's choirs. At Concordia if you even scratch your nose, Gordon Moe will murder you, but during this concert I could hear people talking to each other, fixing their hair, touching their faces, turning around(!), and some many other crazy things. I swear they have an attention span of 4 year olds. But it was quite funny for me because it was so different from Concordia and I didn't care at all. It was actually a nice change of pace. And we got to used our music...which was also different for me. I really enjoyed this weekend but I'm still exhausted from it!

Tuesday was our last concert. It didn't go as smoothly as the others but it was still fun. The rest of the week was just classes and tests. However I did buy my ticket to Ireland in May! I never thought I would go there but I've always wanted to. It will be Valeria, Mamie, Aaron and moi! It should be fun! But that's still a long way away. I got some of my tests back already and I guess for the French grading system I'm not doing so bad...but I feel like I'm doing terrible. I finally finished the TV show How I Met Your Mother, and today I went out to meet my buddy Emeline and she gave me the 3rd book of the Twilight series in French so finally I can focus on working completely on my French. I'm going to try to stop speaking English as much as I can...but it's really hard when I live with 7 other Americans. Who thought of that idea....

It's my weekend now and I met with my buddy today. Normally we speak French but she's a English major so she wanted to try to speak English today. She's good at it. I hope I sound as good in French as she does in English. But I got so lucky with her! She won't let me pay for anything...so sweet. And she lets me borrow her things. And I swear she remembers everything I tell her. I think I'm the only one that still meets with my buddy, everyone else stopped as far as I know, so I feel really fortunate.

So that was my short version of the last two weeks. Sorry it's been so long and I'll try to keep up on it this week. I miss you all! Love from France~!