22/7/12

I can't believe that I've almost been here for a month already! It's going by too fast! School is going well. We had to get into groups for a project where we had to interview French people about a cultural subject of our choice. My group chose education in France. It was scary going up to random people at first, but then we got the hang of it and became more confident, and it was actually pretty fun :) 

A group of girls and I are planning a weekend trip to London next month and we're so excited! We found a reasonably priced hostel that's pretty close to where the Olympics are going to be so it should be great. 

My host family had some family over this weekend, and I met them all, which was really fun. They have a bunch of grandkids, and some of them live in the south of France, and some others live in Ireland, and have the coolest accents :)(so I was able to speak English a little bit). Today they're going to have a big party with everyone, but the other day, a few of the Irish and French grandkids who are teenagers came over while their parents and my host parents went out to dinner. They were really fun, and wanted to know about the States, and I asked them about Ireland. We found some pre-Olympic show on TV, and it was fun to watch and talk about it, having three different countries represented :) 

We went on the last two excursions, to visit some Châteaux, and the  one that I was most excited about: Normandy. They were both so interesting, and I felt like I could have spent all day at Normandy. We went to the museum first, and then to the American cemetery, which was really emotional, but so cool to see. Then we went to see some bunkers that the German army made and hid in above Omaha beach, and lastly, to the German cemetery.

For Dad :)

Christine and me at the top of a Chateaux

Fun flavors of lemonade at one of the gift shops

Normandy

The American cemetery was really emotional

I found two soldiers from Oregon

Omaha Beach

German bunkers

The German cemetery was SO different from the American one

This coming week is the last of school for the first session. On Friday night everyone is getting together at the school for a party, and each country is supposed to sing/dance/act or do something that represents their culture. The American group hasn't come up with anything yet. Suggestions?

  

16/7/12




This weekend was filled with so many fun activities and excursions! On Friday we got out of school at noon and went on an excursion to "Anjou Troglodytique"  Which used to be an old underground town. It was pretty cool to see, although it would have been even better had it not been absolutely POURING rain. It consisted of a bunch of caves that used to function as living spaces for the whole town. 

Wine room

Les filles :)

Tunnels

After exploring for a while, and getting completely soaked, we left the little town for a visit to a winery. It was really cool to see how it was all made, and especially fun to get to go tasting after the tour!

Laura and me in front of a huge barrel of wine.

Cheers!

After the winery, our last stop was to an underground (sous-terre) restaurant where we would be eating dinner. Apparently the restaurant is famous for its mushroom dishes (which are not my favorite, but I DID try them),so I instead indulged myself in the fabulous, right-out-of-the-oven pita rolls that they brought us. We also got two bottles of fantastic wine for our table. It was such a great experience!

At dinner underground!

This also happened to be the day before Bastille day, which is when Angers does their big celebration with fireworks and huge sales. The bars are also open almost all night, so we had planned to watch the fireworks when we got back, and then go out. However, due to the rain, all that we could see of the fireworks were brief flashes of light, so we decided to go straight to our favorite bar and drink 2 euro beers instead :) It turned out to be a really fun night.

9/7/12

Yesterday we took a day trip to see Mont Saint Michel and to visit St. Malo. Mont Saint Michel is an old monastery in the middle of the ocean. It is famous partly because for a long time no one was able to invade it and take it over. It was so cool to see, but we didn't have time to take an official tour, which I would have liked to do, so we had to just walk around by ourselves. 

Mont Saint Michel

Tenzin, Jen and me at the top where it was super windy!

Organ in the hall where Mass is held

Inside the church. I really wanted to stay for the Mass that was
about to start, but they made us leave.

Pretty courtyard with a garden

A little garden that I found while I was exploring

After we explored Mont Saint Michel, we met back at the buses to have a picnic lunch. My prepacked vegetarian lunch consisted  of two apples, a bowl of carrot sticks, potato chips, two little cheese rounds, and a water bottle :)Being a vegetarian is foreign to a lot of French people, so they often think that the only things we eat are fruits and vegetables. I'll have to work on them :)
 When we were done eating, we took a scenic ride to St. Malo, which is a little beach town in the region of Bretagne. When we got there it was sunny and perfect beach weather. We had several hours to walk around, and the first thing that we did was visit an old building that had been completely bombed in World War II. It was really cool. We walked all the way around, and got a beautiful view of the ocean.

They built a wall to contain some ocean water to make a little
swimming pool. It was too cold for swimming, or else I would have
been all over it

When we were done looking around the top, we decided that we should take advantage of the fact that  Bretagne is known for crepes ( I don't know how to do the accent on my computer yet, but there should be a little hat over the first e).

On the way to get our dessert, we passed this street sign which means
"Street of the cat who dances" :)

My delicious crepe du Nutella

It was a really fun, but tiring day, and on the way back to school, most of us fell asleep. The next big event is on the 14th which is Bastille Day (French Independence day) where there are festivals and fireworks and everything is open until two or three in the morning(which is a big deal in France, because there's no such thing as 24 hour restaurants or stores here).

         










 

7/7/12


Our first (half) week of school is over and it was great. We took a placement test on Tuesday and I was placed in level 3. The first day of class was fun, and I really like (most) of my classmates, but I also thought it was too easy. I talked to my program director about moving up to level 4, and she said to wait a couple days and see how it goes, because sometimes the classes just start with reviewing and then move on.

I'm getting pretty good at taking the bus everywhere, and I found a little boulangerie during lunch time that I've been going to to get the most delicious, warm, crusty baguettes for lunch. There's a little grocery store next to it and I bought some little mini Babybel cheese to go with it. We get an hour and a half for lunch, so I've either been going to the boulangerie with friends and then walking around and exploring the city while we eat, or bringing a book and sitting on  a bench and reading. It's been a lovely little break during the school day :)

My pretty school

Waiting for the bus

Every day the schedule at school is different, so Tenzin and I don't always start or get done at the same time. Some days I start at 9 and go until 5, and others (like yesterday) I didn't start until 10, and was done around 3:30. Tenzin wasn't out until 5, so I said I'd wait for her, and my friend Laura and I went shopping until Tenzin was done.
Our school day is broken into three sections: language/grammar classes, speaking classes, and listening classes. It's pretty much the same group together all day. In our speaking classes, we have a Monitrice(teacher's helper/student teacher) who is our age, and comes up with games and activities for us. She's really cute, but it's kind of weird to see her at a bar one night, and then have her teaching us the next day :)
The listening classes are in a computer lab, and we wear little casques (headphones) and listen to recordings and answer questions about them. Sometimes they're pretty hard because the people talk super fast, and use slang that I haven't heard before. It's probably my least favorite class.
The first night of school there was a party at a popular bar in town for all of the exchange students. The bar is  nicknamed "the stock market bar" because it has a big screen that shows all of the drinks that are on sale and    the prices are constantly changing. It was really fun to go and meet everyone in the program, and also to meet some new French people and practice speaking to them.


My little host family is so sweet, and very nice about helping me with my French. It's an older couple who are retired, and their 12 year old golden lab :) They make us breakfast and dinner everyday. I've been having cereal, yogurt, fruit, toast with Nutella for breakfast, and delicious five course dinners every night!

My host family's cute little house

Yesterday was our first school excursion. We met at school and took an hour and a half bus ride to see an outdoor show called "Puy du Fou". It was kind of a play mixed with a light show, but much bigger, and for the finale they set off a ton of pretty fireworks. It was about French nationalism and kind of the history of their revolution and of Bastille day(their independence day). It was pretty cool to watch, but it went kind of long, and then we didn't  even get back to Angers until about three in the morning. Tomorrow we have to meet at school at 6:45am to take a bus to see Mont. Saint Michel. I've seen pictures and it's so pretty, so I'm excited!

Tenzin and I at Puy du Fou

2/7/2012




What a crazy couple of days! After flying for 10 and a half hours, having a four hour layover in the Paris train station, and then two more hours, I finally made it to Angers! It is such a beautiful city, I love it already.
My host parents came to pick me up with my housemate, Tenzin at the train station, and took me home to their cute little house about fifteen minutes away. As usual, I was worried about what kind of host family and potential housemate I would get, but everything turned out so well. They are the sweetest and most generous people. 
The next day, Tenzin and I went to our orientation at school. All of the students in our program (about twenty people) were there and we did introductions. I knew a couple of the people from OSU already from having classes with them, so that was exciting. After the orientation we had a very....interesting lunch in the school cafeteria, and then our site director took us on a tour of the main city.

We visited this pretty church on our tour

The church is called, Cathedral Saint-Maurice d'Angers. It's a hike to get up to, but you get a great view of 
the city from the top.






3/7/2012


Today we got up early and went to our school to take a placement test for the term. After listening to our director speak for about an hour about information that we pretty much already knew, we finally started the test.There were different parts, like listening, reading comprehension and grammar. The listening section was the worst. There was about a minute long recording of a person talking, and several multiple choice questions to answer. The hard part was that there were a lot of background noises on the recording to make it more "realistic" but it actually just made it so muffled that we could barely understand what was being said. It was crazy.
After the test, Tenzin, our friend Laura and I went out to lunch. We found this cute little cafe in town and had baguette sandwiches and wine. It was a beautiful day, and it was really nice to just sit outside, sip wine and people watch.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring downtown. When we came around a corner, I saw what has become the highlight of my trip (so far). I'm not really sure how to describe it without first giving a visual:

This little marching band group marched through the town, and Tenzin, Laura and I followed them, fully amused, for a while. I hope that you all can see their little pantaloons and helmet-like hats. The lady blowing the whistle in the middle picture would yell something and they would all respond (I was laughing too hard to try to understand what they were saying). Sometimes they would play their instruments, and other times they would randomly march into one of the stores and harass the shoppers. They were all so into it, and seemed to be having so much fun, and it was probably one of the funniest things that I've ever seen. Some of our group went to a chateau today, but we decided to see it another time, and I'm pretty sure that this made our decision completely worth it :)
Tonight a bunch of us are going out, and I'm excited to see what the night life is like here!