Nearly Friday

It's strange how time passes very differently in Tours than in Lewisburg. All the time in the United States you see people rushing around, never stopping until they collapse at night for maybe 5 hours of sleep and then they start again. I never realized just how mad this is until now. The pace of life here is really beautiful. Everything I have an hour buffer to, at least wherein you just sit around and talk with a cup of tea or coffee, or get ahead on homework. There isn't the necessity to go go go go go. Of course this might change once I start at the FAC instead of the Institut.




Here is a map of Tours that just covers the central part of town! Above is the Loire and below is the Cher.
I live at the bottom right corner, right next to the Gare (train station). The French are strange with their stores - the Gare is surrounded by cell phone stores, clothing, travel agencies, everything imaginable...and the on the corner I walk past everyday to get home is a sex shop. Bizarre.
On the large Boulevard (big one, on the bottom - the gray is sidewalk) there are outdoor markets all the time. Every Wednesday and Saturday it's 6 blocks of flowers. It was so incredible walking down. Other days there are clothing markets (or purses, belts, you could even by foam, you know...large, cushy foam) and of course, food! Way less expensive than anything else and you get to buy it outside. Very fun.

School at the Institut has been...is being...truly experiencial. I don't think I've ever been this frustrated in my life. Period. Including the 3rd grade. Every day we have 9-10am listening to radio programs (writing down the themes, the people they talk about, and what newspapers they quote), 10am-noon is grammer, presenting articles, translating, discussion...typical early level French class format at a high level of French.

Then we have an hour and a half for lunch (très French). The first day Caroline and I went to a café off of the Place de Plume (upper left hand corner that has lots and lots of streets - that's the oldest part of the town and there are ruins everywhere, it's all restaruants, cafés, and little boutiques) and got fancy sandwiches. The next day we started dining at l'épicerie (grocery store) because we could get lots of cheese, a half a baguette, some ham, and a piece of fruit for 3 euro. We rock. (Note: the croque-monsieur at the café was 5 euro, we all feel very economical and clever)

After our lovely long break we have the class that might kill me, phonics. It would be a great class if he would give us papers with the words, but what we do is sit in booths and he says a phrase or subject/conjugated verb (between 2 and 10 words) and we repeat it. Now, when it's between 2 and 5 words, and I know them all, it works out just fine. But when it's 10 and I only know half...yeah, you try and repeat syllables when you have no idea what the word is, or what it means. Asked him if he could write them down because I'm a visual learner and he looked at me like I was crazy and told me that that would defeat the purpose (which I understand after today, wherein he would say a phrase...all the phrases turned into a 9 minute speech that after repeating after him, then repeating after our own recording, we had to write down what was being said) *sigh*
Never in my life have I sat a desk wishing for my learning style to take an abrubt change, hehe.

Then we have a 2 hour break, except for Thursdays when we have a half an hour break and then theater class. Theater class is not a real theater class, but is taught by a local actress who is teaching us to speak "like" the French - with all our bodies and all our hearts. She's brilliantly funny, but not on purpose...as were we all today in that class. Good fun and laughing. Totally made up for Jean Jaque's (phonics) class.

After break we have a réunion (meeting) with all the BEF girls (this happens 2-3 times a week) to get program information, vent about our lives, and just generally bond.

I usually get home between 5-6pm. Do homework or watch silly reality TV shows with Flore (they finally have a purpose in my life! they're great for learning a language because there are discernable situations that progress in a mostly normal [not normal like real people but goes from a to b to c] fashion - also good for colloquial vocabulary) until dinner (usually around 8pm) and then I do a little more homework and go to bed.

I meants to take photos of the Institut and around town, but it's been raining for the past 2 days so I didn't bother. But, don't dispair! I took pictures of my bedroom so enjoy, and good night. I'll post again soon :)

My bed! It's adorably colourful (windows closed because it is COLD outside!)

My desk, lots of photos from home, and of course, my computer. You can totally see my peanut butter on the right hand open draw


My reading/relaxing chair and new purse! (it's very French, apparently). Most of the books on the bookshelf are english science fiction books translated into French. It's my goal to finish The Fellowship of the Ring before the semester is over! Those huge doors are my closet. heheheh.

Estoy aqui! uhhhhh I mean, je suis ici!

Arrived! Excited! Massive head spinning! I feel like I'm in the exorcist through the massive speeds that my host siblings talk at. Then they look at my (probably) bewildered face and just laugh and laugh then say it again in simpler and slower terms.

The plane ride was uneventful, excepting the unattended bag that the bomb squad blew up in the middle of the airport of Charles de Gaulle when we landed which backed everything up like crazy and a flight attendant who was a Texas-Barbie wanna-be with her blond hair and pink-pink nails.

Nine of us girls who were on the flight then met up with Professor Jordan and our "chauffeur" Richard and squeezed into the bus with all our bags (the bus was half the size it was supposed to be seating 15 with only a little room in the back for luggage). If you could see behind the photo - the back row of seats was packed full to the ceiling and the floor half way up was full of luggage. We all fell asleep, having only slept maybe an hour on the plane, during the three hour ride to Tours. We took a quick stop at a rest station for Richard to have a smoke and get some drinks. French rest stops are way better than American ones. It was a small park where people had picnics and were walking their dogs.

When driving into Tours via the "Auto route A10" we passed over the Loire (river that runs through the north part of Tours, the Cher is through the south) and saw some absolutely stunning bridges. Apparently the groups of trees are parks (the one pictured is the "Parc de Sainte Radegonde"and the bridge is called the Mirabeau). I'll have to take a walk sometime and see them!

The bus then drove into town and we passed the Château de Tours, the public library, and town square. It had beautiful fountains with sculputures of famous contributors to the arts like Francois Rabelais and Descartes. This is where the FAC, aka Université Francois-Rabelais, is situated. The bus then turned around and let us off infront of the Château de Tours where all of our host families were waiting for us. We spent a little while doing meet and greet and then Sophie and Phillipe brought me back to their (and my new!) home on 32 Rue de Rempart. Next post I'll take photos of the garden and front of the house.

My room is on the third floor and faces the front of the house. This picture is the view on the left of my window. On the roof you can see a little bird - he stayed there for nearly an hour and yelled at me everytime I sat in my window. Augustin, 15 year old boy, helped me get my bags to my room. Unpacked, napped a little, met Sidonnie and Flore when they got home (Flore is constantly playing badmitton competitively and Sido was with friends). I'm glad I brought lots of picture frames, the room really feels mine with them. We had dinner outside in the garden, which is what they do every night that it's nice enough and drank champagne - seriously delicious - called Jean Paul Couamais. All my siblings teased me about being only 20 and drinking. There is a lot of joking all the time, which helps a lot with my nerves.

Slept with my window wide open and was woken up at 4 am by a massive thunderstorm, it was wonderful! Sat in my window enjoying it for a little while then fell back asleep listening to the rain. Woke up at noon, jet lag is a serious killer, then tore off some bread, and took a walk around town while munching by myself. Walked up and saw the Cathedral. It is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen architecturally. Next time I walk I'll bring my camera and get some photos of the parts google doesn't have photos of (which I think are even better). Then walked through two parks - the Place Francois Sicard and the Musée des Beaux-Arts. The Musée has this MASSIVE tree in the front with the outer branches supported by logs cut and placed as exterior trunks. The gardens are beautiful too, and there are fountains everywhere.

I impressed myself, apparently my look is "euro" enough that a French woman stopped me and asked for the time, which startled me only slightly and I managed to give it to her, though once I started talking she gave me the "oh...you're not French" look. Oh well, hopefully by December I won't get that look anymore. On my walk back to the house I past a hat shop (do those even exist in the United States anymore?) and some other neat shops. Sadly I couldn't go into any of them because it's Sunday and nearly everything shuts down! Not really a large switch from Pennsylvannia. Got home, played with Twistie who is a large black dog (slightly shaggier than a lab) whom I adore utterly. I call him "pauvre-bête" which means "poor baby" everytime because he's always getting petted or is relaxing. Then Phillipe, Sophie, Augustin, and I had lunch - Sophie is an amazing chef - some sort of chicken with vegetables and potatoes, followed by lots of different cheeses (and wine) wherein Augustin taught me the proper French way to eat cheese, and then chocolate cake called "Opéra" for dessert.

I start classes at the Insitut de Touraine tomorrow at 8:45 in the morning. Very exciting!!

It's the final countdown

One week left at home and it seems utterly surreal. Flying out of Philadelphia International Airport next Friday! There are eleven girls from Bucknell going this semester, (9 for the group flight over) a pretty small group for the program, which I'm sure will be a wonderful thing, especially during our special weekend trips. Every few weeks, we will travel as a group to places like Paris, Normandy, as well as some day trips to local châteaux.

Not much to say yet. Haven't started packing yet, but everything (I think) has been bought, including the gift for my host family.

Tomorrow I'm heading out to Bucknell to say goodbye (and hello first!) to friends and wish them a good semester. It'll be strange not being there for an entire semester, but I imagine I will return happy and refreshed. Did some more research on the university I will be attending and apparently of the 22,500 students, more than 2,000 of them are international students with over 119 nationalities represented! So even if the French people don't like me, maybe I can befriend a Russian and get in good with Putin. You never know!

Less than two weeks

I officially leave for Tours, France a week from Friday - the 29th of August -and I'm still in the stage of massive nerves and trying to complete never ending lists of "to-dos." It's strange knowing that in four months I will be a different person, older, wiser, probably less tan.

Before you go abroad everyone gives you massive amounts of helpful advice, mostly saying "you will change while in Europe." The only problem is, I like who I am. The only useful bits that I've received thus far are 1. Weigh your suitcase before you get to the airport and 2. Realize that culture shock will not hit you until you come back home to the United States.

For the fall semester of 2008, my junior year at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, I will be attending the Université François-Rabelais, a public (state run) university of France - official website: http://www.univ-tours.fr

There are, according to wikipedia, 25,000 students in this school which was established in 1969, though the town has been in existence since the 1st century. Indeed, it was not "Tours"at the time - it's first name was Caesarodunum, meaning the hill of Caesar. Gotta love those Romans. The name evolved to Turones in the 4th century, then Civitas Turonorum, then finally Tours. Where they got Turones from Caesardounum...the world may never know, or all ready do, and have yet to post it on wikipedia.

Located between two rivers, the Loire and the Cher, the town, which is sometimes known as "le Jardin de la France" (the garden of France) has 142,000 residents and is thus, more of a small city than town. It is only an hour outside of Paris via the TGV, the high speed trains of Europe, in the south west direction. One of the most famous landmarks of Tours is the cathedral, which was built in the 12th century. Through minor research, I've come to believe that the version depicted here was not completed until the 15th century with final embellishments. It is also famous for it's unadulterated (also known as "pure") unaccented French, outshining the Parisians.


It is with fear and apprehension that this blog begins, but I am quite sure and hopeful that it will be filled with excitement and joy as the days continue. As well as many photos and memories of one of my most incredible experiences of college, not to raise the bar or anything.