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!