I arrived in Paris
on Sunday evening at about 6:00pm. Because I only had reservations for one
night at the Best Western – France, Europe, I spent most of the evening
wandering Le Marais looking for a hotel room for the rest of my 8 day visit in
Paris. All of the hotels where I wanted to stay were completely booked, but I
finally found one that was clean, cheap and the staff was nice (Hotel Acacias).
But during this search, the most amazing thing happened. I ran into my friend
Dean from Vancouver, BC! He was in Paris for a week visiting friends and we ran
into each other completely by chance! We chatted for a bit and made plans to
get together the next day at the Louvre. Talk about hitting the ground
running! The next morning I had to change hotels and although I could have
taken a taxi, I thought I would save a few bucks and walk the 10-12 blocks. It
must have been quite a site. There I was pushing my smaller suitcase (on
wheels) in front of me and pulling my larger suitcase in back of me doing the
“dog shit dodge” on cobblestone sidewalks barely wide enough for my suitcase. I
arrived at my new hotel 30 minutes later ready to go back to bed, but alas, I
had made plans to meet Dean at the Musée du Louvre. Deciding to “do the Louvre”
on a Monday in January is actually a very smart decision. We pretty much had
the museum to ourselves, weren’t outside and didn’t have to wait in line for
anything. We “oohd” and “aahd” at the more famous paintings (Mona Lisa, St.
Sebastian, Marriage at Cana and The Coronation of Napoleon) and marveled at the
sculptures in the Greek statue section (Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of
Samothrace). The Louvre is really an amazing place and, as Rick Steves has said
before, “it’s a part time job.” Do yourself a favor and go during the
off-season and plan what you want to see before you go. Rick has a great book,
Mona Winks, that will help you decide how to best spend your time. (www.ricksteves.com)
That evening I decided to
venture into the city by myself and try out the famous French cuisine. I
thought maybe 9:00pm might be a little early for the dinner crowd, so I waited
until 9:30 before heading to Au Tibourg (29 rue du Bourg-Tibourg), a little
restaurant in the heart of Le Marais. Evidently, 9:30 was still a little early,
because I had the place to myself until about 10:15 when patrons started
trickling in. By 11:00, it was packed with locals (and this is a Tuesday
night!) I’m not entirely sure of anything I ate that evening, except for the
bread and wine – of which there was plenty. For an entrée, I thought I was
having a duck “something or other” pâté, but it looked more like Spam™. (I’ve
since acquired a test for this delicacy). The main plat that I had was very
good – that’s all I know! For dessert, I choose Imbibe -
which I thought was a “rum cake with cream”. After my first bite, I realized
that the rum was not cooked in the cake, but a very generous amount was
poured on top of the cake just before being served. WOW! It was good,
but WOW! During dinner, two guys at the table next to mine were trying to
figure me out. I’m sure I stood out like a sore thumb – eating alone, not
smoking, wearing jeans, not smoking, blond hair, did I mention that I wasn’t
smoking? While drinking my dessert café, they introduced themselves as Francois
and Jacques and asked me if I’d like to join them for a drink. They refused to
take no for an answer, so I joined them for conversation as they finished their
dessert. Neither one of them had the Imbibe by the way, and complimented me on
my bravery. Once I told them I was an American student, they decided it was
there duty to give me my first real French lesson. Many people know that
“Merci beaucoup” means “thank you very much” in French. Something you might say
to the little old lady at the Patisserie who gives you your daily croissant.
What I didn’t know is that there is a barely audible difference in saying
“Thank you very much” – Merci Beaucoup and “Thank you, nice ass” – Merci beau
cul. A valuable lesson that had me wondering how many
times I had complimented my Patisserie lady’s behind. Needless to say, I was
fine with just saying “Merci” for the rest of that first week.
On
vendredi, le 31 de janvier, I joined Dean and his
friend Karen and took a short train ride to Chateau Versailles (www.chateauversailles.fr). Again, I think we got lucky, because it was off
season and it was very cold, so there weren’t very many people there at all. It
had actually snowed the night before and there was a dusting of snow on the
grounds. We opted to take the guided tour of the palace and were able to visit
all areas of the chateau that were open to the public. My favorite areas were
the Hall of Mirrors, the Royal Chapel and the Opera Hall. Versailles is a day
trip well worth the visit when you’re in Paris.
That evening, I met up with
Sabine, my French teacher from the UW, and her friend. We ducked into Notre
Dame for just a few minutes, but I felt quite uncomfortable being a gawky
tourist when parishioners were having mass. We crossed Pont St. Michel and
explored the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank, passing the Pantheon, the Sorbonne
and many other very cool churches, which, if not famous, I’ve declared, with no
disrespect intended, “JAC” – “just another church”.
On
samedi, le 1 de février, I planned to meet Dean,
his friend Karen and her family at Paris’ largest outdoor market – over 2,500
booths. Just as I was leaving, Dean phoned me to tell me that the
Métro was on strike. This meant that the
Métro would be free, but have limited service. I decided to take the
Métro anyway and had no problems. They on the other hand, were a bit late due
to being squashed into the subways like sardines. The market was OK, but I
think due to the weather (it was cold, wet and snowing) many of the merchants
with goods that I’d be interested in weren’t there. I suspect that summertime
would be a great time to pick up some local goods for a good price, if you’re
willing and good at bargaining. After the market, Dean and I decided to head
into town and visit St. Chapelle. The Métro ride into town was quite an
experience. Because of the limited service, people were literally cramming
themselves into each car, until the doors could barely close. It reminded me of
a game we used to play – how many drunk frat boys can we fit into a Volkswagen
beetle? I think the record was 23. What amazed me about the Métro situation
was that everyone was in really good spirits. I think if something like this
had happened in an American city, people would be as grumpy as all hell.
Perhaps they are just used to things like this in Paris.
We
made it downtown unscathed and proceeded to St. Chapelle (www.monum.fr).
If you’ve been to Paris and never visited St. Chapelle, you’ve missed probably
the most beautiful display of stained glass windows in all of Europe. Built in
the 13th century by the order of Louis IX, it was designed to house
the crown of thorns that was placed on Christ’s head when he was crucified.
Incidentally, Louis IX paid three times more for the crown of thorns than he did
for the building of St. Chapelle. Regardless, it’s been touted as one of the
greatest architectural masterpieces in the western world. During the
revolution, it was plundered and ransacked and used to store flour. Can you
believe it!? Visit on a sunny day, and you’ll be mesmerized by the amazing
colors of all the windows. The next time I’m in Paris I’m going to try and
catch a concert there. Apparently the acoustics are amazing.
Dimanche, le 2 de février was a
day of preparation for my trip to Angers. I did laundry in a self-service lavo
and packed so I wouldn’t have to do it on Monday morning. At night, Dean and I
went to the top of the Tour Eiffel. The first “leg” of the trip is taken via a
tram to about 2/3 of the way to the top and then you have to change elevators.
OK, anyone who has complained about the tram at our house, needs to ride this
one. The view from the top (900 feet) is amazing! Silly me, I thought it was
about the same height as the Space Needle!
On
lundi, le 3 de février, I left for
Angers on the TGV (Trains à Grande Vitesse), one of the fastest
trains in the world, reaching speeds up to 185 mph. I made it to Angers in an
hour and a half and was met by the AHA site director, Sue Crust and the visiting
professor from the states, Vicki Hamblin. Soon thereafter, I was whisked away
to my home away from home for the next 5 months by my host mother, Madam
Rouault.
Although
I spent a week in Paris, there is so much to do and see, you can’t possible do
it all in that short of time. I plan on going back several times during the
next few months, and I’ll be sure and let you know of the cool places that I
visit. Contrary to what I was told, I found Paris to be a really great city.
The people were extremely friendly, accommodating and helpful. I’m looking
forward to going back! Stay tuned for my next episode: Episode 2: My first
week in Angers.
BACK TO THE TOP
My first few weeks in Angers were a little more
difficult than I thought they would be. Prior to leaving Paris, I contacted my
host family to let them know I would be arriving by train on Monday. What I
didn’t know was that there was a change in host families, and another student
and I had been switched. It all worked out and was no big deal, but when I
arrived at the train station and was told that I had a different host family, it
threw me for a loop. No big deal. My host family is very nice, and I believe
that everything happens for a reason. They’ve hosted many foreign students in
the past and, as I found out later, the last student they had living with them
was a classmate of mine at UW.
The school that I’m attending is called Centre
International d’Etudes Françaises (CIDEF), which is on
the campus of the Catholique Université de l’ouest.
Although there are over 600 foreign students that attend CIDEF, I am among about
20 people that are here through AHA. It’s nice to be part of smaller group of
people, because it’s been easier to make friends and get acquainted with the
area. I found out later that AHA is the only group with an on-site director.
The first week of school was spent in orientation and
placement exams. The orientation was a bit long at times, but it was useful
information. I was worried about the placement exam, but I finally just decided
that I’d be placed wherever I needed to be placed. I was actually worried about
being placed too low. You see, I have this habit of learning things, doing well
on tests, and then letting the information seep out of my brain. Unfortunately,
this is no different with French! I was actually frustrated while taking the
test, because there were things on there that I just couldn’t remember, but I
should have known. It turns out, that if you don’t answer a question, it doesn’t
count against you, but if you answer a question wrong, it counts as a minus 3
points. I thought I would be smart and only answer the questions that I
absolutely knew. Well, that came back and bit me in the butt! I ended up
placing at level 321. I’ve only had 1st level French! Yikes!!
We’ll see what happens.
On
Wednesday evening, the AHA group went to the visiting prof’s house to partake in
a Soirée Fromage. Wine and cheese? Count me in! Sue,
the AHA director, had one of the French prof’s come in to give us a lesson in
how to eat cheese, how to cut cheese and what wine to drink with it. All in
all, it was a great night! It gave everyone a chance to get to know each other
a little better and it threw us right into the French culture. All of my fellow
students are between the ages of 19 and 22 and I was definitely feeling like the
old guy when I looked around the room and saw all the rosy red cheeks from the
red wine. It was really cute and I wondered if for some of my fellow
classmates, this might have been their first “fancy” wine and cheese party. The
entire evening was conducted in French, which was good and bad. I certainly
felt like I had “arrived”, but I could only understand a small percent of what
was being said. It would have been nice to have a handout in the end so that I
could at least remember what cheese should be eaten with what bread and
with which wine. Perhaps I’ll have more opportunity to try the different
combinations?
I found the internet café that I had contacted prior to
leaving the states and Kevin, the owner, has got me all set up. I can bring my
laptop in and do all that I need to do. I’ve already uploaded some pictures to
MSN, but I quickly ran out of room, so I’m glad that we’ve got this other
website up and running. I also went with the rest of the AHA kids to the
Château d’Angers on a guided tour. It’s a great place and very beautiful. If
it didn’t cost to get in, it would be a great place to do homework and just hang
out most afternoons. It will certainly be worth a picnic later on this spring.
I didn’t take pictures that particular day, but I’ll be sure and get some posted
soon. I figure I’ve got 5 months to take pictures around Angers. Saturday
night the AHA group went to a medieval chapel/converted restaurant in Angers and
took part in a true medieval dinner. Complete with fire breathing, juggling,
singing and several roasted pigs. They brought the pig to our table and
proceeded to carve him up and dish him out. This made some people in our group
a little queasy, not to mention the people in our group who are vegetarian. If
that wasn’t bad enough, when our chef took the dead carcass away, the head fell
off and rolled on the floor. Oops!
The next week, the week of the 10th, school
started. It was a bit up and down and sometimes downright miserable. I know
that I was placed too high, but my Langue teacher doesn’t want to move me
because I’ve been doing well on the homework that I’ve passed in. I suppose it
will be good to be challenged, but if I raised my hand every time that I had a
question, we’d still be on page 1! For some reason, I just thought taking
classes here would be the same as they are in Seattle…they are just taught in
France. Oh boy…was I wrong! My classes are Langue, Comprehension orale,
Expression orale, Histoire de l’art and, for the first two months – my only
English class, Playing the Middle Ages. I’m a little unsure of myself now, but
I’m anxious to see what I’ll think in a months time. We're planning on
going to St. Malo and Mont St. Michel the weekend of my birthday, so stay tuned!
BACK TO THE TOP
Well, school is chugging along and certainly keeping me
busy. The workload isn’t as much as I thought that it would be, but it seems as
though just day to day living is homework in itself. Ordering food at
restaurants has become quite easy – ordering beer at the Falstaff even easier;
but trying to explain to the guy at the cell phone store that I want to purchase
another cell phone, but keep the SIM chip in the phone that I have so I don’t
have to change my phone number took a few tries!
My classes are going well and I probably understand more
than I think I do. I can’t say that I’m fluent in French yet, but I’m holding
my own. My comprehension is getting better and I think I’ve finally learned
direct and indirect object pronoun placement – whew!
Our excursions to St. Malo, Mont St. Michel and several
chateaux in the area (of which you probably have already seen my posted
pictures) were quite fun! In addition to the school excursions, I’ve done a
little bit of traveling with some of my classmates. My friends Sarah (Jose) and
Sarah (little Sarah) and I went to Amsterdam the second weekend in March. We
went to a few discotheques, the Van Gogh Museum and hung out with some locals
that we met. I was expecting a very large, out of control city, but I was
pleasantly surprised! It is a beautiful little city with many canals, bridges,
cobblestones and bicycles! A little hint – don’t walk in the bike lane next to
the sidewalk. You WILL get run over – or at the very least hollered at in
Dutch! We didn’t venture into the red light district and really had no desire
to do so. Many of our other friends who have visited “the Dam” have reported
bad experiences there and I think it’s because they visited the red light
district first. Amsterdam has many things to offer, but personally, I
appreciated the great club music and smiling people! (Of course we all know why
they were smiling!)
The fourth weekend in March my friends Leigh (Leroy) and
Mo (Moses) and I went to stay at the Chateau where Paul, Momma Gott and I will
be staying this June. I wanted to check it out and make sure that it was nice
enough to stay there. Wow! It passed the test! I’ve posted pictures of
Chateau des Ormeaux as well, so you can check out the bed and breakfast. We
really had a great time in the city of Amboise and spent a good deal of the day
at the Chateau d’Amboise. We ate good food, had great
wine and spent many hours solving the world’s problems.
I also took a day trip to Nantes with my friends Adam (DaDam)
and Krista. We spent the day walking around the city, taking photos and
enjoying each others company. We had a great lunch and spent about 3 hours
enjoying our food, wine and talking about “once forbidden” topics!
So, school is going well. I’m a little disappointed
that I’m not speaking more French outside of the classroom than I am, but it
takes discipline when I’m surrounded by English speakers all the time. We all
struggle with the same challenge and every once in a while we decide to have
“French only days.” Some days have worked better than others. Spring break is
in just a few weeks and I’ll finally be able to see Paul! Needless to say, I’m
very excited about that! We’ll meet in Barcelona, spend 5 days there and then
spend 5 days in Madrid. Paul has to go home on the 22nd, but I’ll
finish my break somewhere in Switzerland and fulfill a childhood dream.
BACK TO THE TOP
I just returned to Angers from one of the very best
vacations of my life! I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to fly to Barcelona
or take the overnight train. In the end, I decided to take the train for the
experience and to save a few euros. I’m glad I did! It was a great experience
and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
I arrived in Barcelona the morning of April 12th
and since Paul wasn’t arriving until that afternoon, I went to Sitges to drop
off my suitcase. Sitges is a little beach town just south of Barcelona where
Paul and I thought it would be a nice quiet place to start our vacation. Up
until this point, waiting for Paul to arrive wasn’t took difficult, but the last
hour was excruciating! Finally, I saw his wonderful, beautiful face come
through customs and my vacation was already made perfect.
Our second night in Barcelona was a night that we’ll
both remember for the rest of our lives. Unbeknownst to either of us, we were
both planning on proposing to the other during this vacation. This night was
the appointed night and we ended up presenting each other rings and “asking the
question.” We both said “Yes” – duh and are planning a wedding for sometime
soon. We’ve known for quite sometime that we wanted to spend the rest of our
lives together, but now it’s time to share our happiness with all of our family
and friends!
While in Barcelona we didn’t do many touristy things,
but we did meet my friend Leigh and her friend Serena in Barcelona for dinner.
We also visited Tarragona, which is a little city about 40 minutes south of
Sitges. We wanted to see the ruins of a roman amphitheater, but we discovered
that the city had many other roman ruins that we explored that afternoon.
On Thursday, we flew to Madrid and spent the next five
days visiting the cathedral, the Prado, watching the Good Friday procession and
trying to adjust to the “Madrid lifestyle.” People in Madrid know how to
party. The siesta in the afternoon isn’t just a 1 or 2 hour deal. Everything
is closed from about 1pm – 5 or 6pm; but everyone is out eating dinner around 10
or 11pm and parting until at least 3 or 4am. You’d certainly need a vacation
from your vacation if you kept that up for 7 days straight!
Sadly, Paul had to return to the US on Tuesday the 22nd,
and I headed off to Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich is such a beautiful city, that
I decided to stay one day longer than the one day that I planned. I went from
Zurich to Lauterbrunnen (www.lauterbrunnen.ch) via Lucerne on the train and enjoyed the most beautiful
train ride that I’ve ever taken in my life. The lakes, mountains and valleys
were truly inspiring. It’s hard to describe the scenery with words. I stayed
in a little alpine village, Lauterbrunnen for the next 3 days and visited Jungfraujoch (the highest rail station in Europe at 11,000 ft) as well as
Schilthorn (the famous revolving restaurant in the James Bond movie – 10,000
ft). I spent a lot of time writing postcards, writing in my journal, hiking,
taking pictures, watching ibex in the mountains and watching avalanches across
the valley. Lauterbrunnen is the epitome of Switzerland and I could have easily
stayed there for the rest of my life. But, alas, I had to return to Angers on
Sunday the 27th and prepare myself for classes on the 28th.
Now, we only have 5 more weeks of classes and then we’ll
be done. It’s hard to imagine that my time here is coming to an end. I
certainly have mixed feelings about it. I miss home, but I feel that I’ve
finally settled into life here and am beginning to understand how things work.
I’m truly looking forward to spending time with Paul and his mom in June,
however. In the meantime, I’ve got French to learn!
BACK TO THE TOP