Tuesday, June 30, 2009

It’s hot. I’m lying on my bed at 10:30 at night with the window wide open, and just sweating. Ever since Sunday, there’s been humidity in the air that has not gone away. But to recap the past few days…
Friday night we ended up buying some wine and drinking it in the park (because apparently that’s not illegal here?). We mainly did that first because we didn’t want to shell out a ton of money at the bar. A good amount of people came (around 12 maybe), and at about 11:30 we went to Le Couche Tard (which means go to bed late). There was no one at the bar though, so we haven’t quite figured out what’s popular to do/go at night. I left around 12:30. It was fun to hang out with the group, but nothing spectacular.
Saturday morning woke up early to catch our group trip to Chambéry, the ‘historic capitol of the Savoie”. So the Savoy is the region of southern France that at one point was its own sovereign territory, owned neither by France nor Italy. We had a guided tour of the city. It was built around the 13th century I believe? And is constructed like Venice, using pilons as support because there used to be a lot of water (not anymore). We also saw some buildings where Jean Jacques Rousseau frequented during his 10-year stint there. The tour ended at a fountain with the front half of an elephant on each side, commemorating the Duc de Boigne? Yeah, me neither. People call it the ‘quatre sans culs’ which is a play on words of ‘quatre cent coups”. The second being the four hundred blows (as in strikes or hits) as in the war, and the former meaning the four without asses (aka, the elephants’ front halves).
After the tour we had a group lunch at a restaurant called ‘Le Sporting’. Salad, chicken, duck, potatoes, green beens, and chocolate cake…miam! As the French say. It was a two hour lunch, but that’s how they do it here. We then were set free to explore on our own. Some of us tried to shop because this is the time of ‘soldes’ which is a three week period of sales in nearly every store, but we didn’t find anything so wonderful that is was worth paying what was still a high price for being on sale. So three of us found a park and just talked for the last half hour or so before our train left.
When I got back, it was dinner time chez Isabelle, and she asked me, “You’ve been speaking English all day haven’t you?” Uh-oh…. It’s amazing that she can tell, and that my French declines that much by speaking more English just for one day. Our group is pretty good with balancing though. Obviously it would be the most beneficial for us to always speak French 24/7 with each other, but it is really taxing on your brain, and we already have very intense classes in French, along with talking with our families at mealtime, and navigating the French world that sometimes it helps (and is definitely much faster) to speak English. So it’s funny, because sometimes someone will ask a question, and without warning, another will answer in French, and then everyone starts speaking French. It shifts back and forth a lot.
After dinner 7 or so of us met at the movies for a relaxing night. We saw ‘Les Beaux Gosses’, which I would compare to a ‘Superbad’ in that it’s a comedy about awkward nerdy teenagers trying to pick up girls and (awkward) hilarity ensues. I was surprised at how much I understood because teenagers here use a lot of slang and in the past, movies in French have always been difficult for how fast they talk and the sometimes unfamiliarity of the subject matter. Anyway, it was very good, and because it’s Fete du Cinema this week, we got a pass that will get us into any movie this week for only 3E as opposed to 7.
Sunday I ‘slept in’, but not very late because I’ve gotten used to getting up early. I wrote my paper right away, in my pajamas, then showered and met a group of girls for lunch and ‘doing homework’. I was disgusted by the pigeons eating the leftover food from the people who had left the table next to us (outdoor café). I had pasta with pesto, which was strange. Usually I think of pesto as a kind of green sauce, but this was more like crushed green herbs, which I guess is what pesto is supposed to be, but it was still not what I expected. After that I went to the internet café and skyped Tanner until my computer screen went black. PANIC!!! I turned it off and restarted it but it happened again. A primal fear stirring in me, I rushed upstairs to see if plugging it in would help because it was on a special power saver mode, so I thought maybe it did that on low battery. It’s worked fine ever since, so hopefully it was a one-time thing.
We eat tomatoes a lot. Probably because it’s ‘what’s in season’. I like tomatoes, and Isabelle prepares them differently every night, so I don’t mind. But it’s interesting. It’s also very different that she gets all of her ingredients for dinner every day. As in, she really only keeps a few basic ingredients in the kitchen and every day has to go buy what she’ll make for dinner.
Monday for part of class we went to some strange exhibit about the history of the construction of the hospital? Bizarre, but it killed time. These first two weeks we have one class that lasts from 9-1. Monday is four hours of placement tests, and then we’ll have three days a week of four hours of classes, and the other two are 5.5 hours.
After class Monday we saw Transformers 2, in French bien sûr. It was surprisingly much harder to understand than the real French movie. But I realized it was probably because 1-their lips don’t match what they’re saying, and 2- French robot voices? No thanks. All the same, after a while, you got used to it and you don’t even realize that it’s in French anymore, and I followed the plot just fine.
After class today I went to the park for internet purposes, then went grocery shopping to buy lunch things. It’s too expensive, and not worth it (as in it’s not that good) to buy lunch every day. So, I bought sandwich accoutrements, yogurt, granola bars, and cookies/a different kind of cookie . The last two were an effect from me being so ravenously hungry when I went to the store- it being 3:30 and I had not yet eaten lunch.
I would say one of the most difficult things of being in a foreign country is giving up the fear of being really awkward and/or appearing really stupid. The latter is especially difficult for me. I bring this up now because at the grocery store, I had no idea where the ziplock bags were to put my sandwiches in. I first looked everywhere. Then I resorted to approaching a nice looking woman with not many people around and saying, “Excusez-moi, est-ce que vous savez ou on peut trouver les sacs en plastique ou on peut mettre les sandwichs?” And with a few pauses added in, which basically means, “Excuse me, do you know where I can find plastic bags where I can put sandwiches?” I didn’t know if they say “ziplock” here, or if sacs was even the right word to use for a baggie, or if mettre was the right verb to use (the meaning is correct in English, but there could be a different verb for this purpose), she told me they’re on the 1ere etage, which actually means second floor. In France, what we call the first floor is the rez-du-chausee, and then the second floor is the 1st, etc. So, I ended up finding the bags. I also had no idea what the (teenage) cashier said to me when checking out and telling me that there was no barcode on the cheese I was trying to buy, and to go back and pick out one with a barcode. I was only confused for a few seconds, and by the 3rd time she told me I understood, but it’s embarrassing with a line of people behind you!!! Oh well, barcode wasn’t in my medieval literature class ;)

Tomorrow class is another field trip, but all-day! We’re going to Vizille, an important town during the Revolution. This weekend it’s been decided that we’re travelling to Geneva! Will update autant que possible! Salut!