Bienvenue, printemps!

Hiya folks! It be wednesday, and I be writin' again.  Now I realize it's been far too long since my last blog entry, and there are definitely things I've forgotten.  But don't worry, I'll try to tell you the most important things.

First of all, my parents came to visit!  Yay!  It was so good to see them, considering we've been on opposite sides of the world for a couple months.  But unfortunately most of the pictures of when they were here were taken with their camera, so I won't be able to post many.  But you can always check facebook, and if you can't find me on facebook, remember: look up my email address.  My name doesn't always come up.

When my parents first arrived, I waited for their train on the platform and met them there.  I skipped class to do that.  I chose to do so first of all because I just really wanted to see them, and second of all because they don't speak any French, and I figured they would need help checking into the hotel, especially since I was the one who made the reservations.  So we met on the platform and walked over to their hotel, and spent the rest of that day (Tuesday) and all the next day (Wednesday, my day off) together.

Tuesday I showed them around Clermont-Ferrand, and Wednesday we took the train to Vichy, which is only two stops away.  It's a very small, old town, known for its natural springs, and for the fact that it was the headquarters of the new French government that sided with the Germans in WWII. 

Here, by the way, is a picture of a lovely, small lighthouse overlooking the river in Vichy.  I forgot the name of the river, but it's nice, isn't it?

Anyway, it started to get warm while they were here, and sometimes we went without our jackets!  Unfortunately though, it rained probably 50% of the time they were here, and I left my umbrella in Vichy.  But in the end it was ok because my older sister Haley left her umbrella in my backpack, so now I get to use it.  Ha! :D

Then my family left again and went to Prague.  They tell me it's really nice and I should see it; maybe I will over spring break if I can convince Ashley or someone to come with me.

And lately, it's been very nice out.  Spring has sprung!  So, last Wednesday, my activity was to go out into Jardin Lecoq, where French people like to lie around on the grass on nice days eating picnics and spooning and such.  Here is a picture of the garden:

Anyway, I did neither of these things, I actually sat in the garden and played "Les Champs Elysees" on my ukulele.  I recorded it too; here is the video if you want to see it.  Please disregard the mistakes; I didn't quite have all the chord changes down, and keep in mind I"m 100% self-taught :)




I hope that works... I'm not very good at html.  Anyway, besides what I've told you, the only other events I'm pondering are school related.  First of all, I'm still wondering how watching five minutes of a movie rendition of French Protestants being violently slaughtered helps us to understand French cultural history.  Also I'm wondering if it's just a French thing that my writing professor likes to read my mistakes to the entire class and ask everyone else what I did wrong, or that my literature professor considers students who are late because they couldn't find the classroom to be negligent students whose grades will be affected and says so to the entire class, and later (in context of a reading, of course) talks about how westerners like to defy authority, argue a lot, and yell, use big gestures, and open their mouths really wide when they argue.  As you can see, there are still some aspects of French culture I'm having a hard time getting used to.  But I wish everyone (not just some people) would realize I'm trying, and try not to put so much energy into criticizing my culture, which just makes it harder.  Granted, most people have been extremely kind to me, and the stereotype that French people in general don't like Americans is just simply not true; I would like to point that out so I don't proliferate any generalizations. 

But I suppose any study abroad experience has its ups and downs, and I think overall I've had more ups than downs.  So don't think I'm not glad to be here just because I'm having a hard time with my literature professor.  So anyway, that's all folks!  And by the way, I'd love to hear from you; it can get a little lonely here in this tiny little dorm room.

A Bientôt!

Les Vacances

Where to begin? This week has been pretty much jam-packed with adventures.  First of all, my vacation in Valence was fabulous, and so were the Dawsons, the very kind family who hosted me there.  I left on the train Monday late morning, and managed to accomplish everything beforehand that I needed to, including getting my new French bank card.  The train first ride was uneventful, and I changed trains once in Lyon.  The train station where I changed trains was actually pretty big, and I had some time to walk around and ended up buying a pair of sunglasses, which I really needed.  The second train was a bit longer, but finally I got there.  The train station in Valence was small, about the same as the one in Clermont-Ferrand, but not being familiar with it, I came out in the wrong place and had a hard time finding Mrs. Dawson.  But finally we found each other, and we took the bus to their house.

Later that night, the Dawsons hosted a Bible study.  It was, of course, completely in French, which was a stretch for me, and certainly I didn't catch everything.  But it was a good experience.  Then the next day, Mrs. Dawson, one of the daughters, and I, went to the open air market.  Valence has a different open air market each day of the week, but the main ones are on Tuesday mornings and Saturday afternoons.  After lunch, Mr. Dawson took me to see his work, which is the French version of Wycliffe.  For those of you who don't know, Wycliffe is an organization that works on Bible translation around the world.  I'm connected to Wycliffe in that my dad has done some work for them, and I did an internship for SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) in Dallas, which is closely connected to Wycliffe.  Then we went to a Christian book store, where I got a French Bible, and Mr. Dawson went back to work while I set out exploring the town.

The Rhone River

Valence cathedral

Valence is a lovely town right on the edge of the Rhone river.  It has an old cathedral, a gorgeous old town hall, a kiosk (gazebo) that's very old and pretty and so much more.  Basically, I spent the whole afternoon wandering around taking pictures, and I never ran out of things to see.  I won't be able to post all my pictures here, but if you want to see more, you can look at them on my Picassa album (which there is a link to it on the right).  I highly recommend that everyone look at all my pictures a lot, because I recently had to pay a whole five bucks to increase my storage space so I could hold all of them.  So everyone should look at my pictures to make those five American dollars worth while.  After wandering around town all afternoon, I, Mr. and Mrs. Dawson, and their two lovely daughters, went out to dinner and had traditional French ravioli.

Crussol

The next morning, which was my last day in Valence, Mrs. Dawson took me to Crussol, the ruins of a 15th century castle just outside of Valence.  It was a bit of a climb, but well worth it!  It was so beautiful!  We explored the castle for most of the morning, and then we went back for lunch.  After lunch, Mrs. Dawson took me to the nearby village of Chabeuil, which is a cute tiny old village.  We walked around a bit, took some pictures, and found the main cathedral, which was very lovely.

Then my train left around three.  My trip back home was uneventful, and I arrived quite tired.  Thursday I slept in, and then set out to find Notre Dame du Port, the oldest cathedral in Clermont-Ferrand.  And find it I did!  But you'll have to wait for pictures, because for some reason Picassa's not letting me upload any more right now.  Yesterday very little happened besides sleep and homework, and today I slept in, wrote a paper (in French of course), went shopping and came home with a new book (Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée, it's for school), a baguette, more nutella, and wasabi peas.  And that brings us to now.

This week, my family will come visit me!  This means my parents and both sisters, Haley and Lauriana, will be coming.  They'll stay in Clermont-Ferrand for three days before going on to Prague where my dad has a conference.  I may end up skipping my class on Tuesday because it's the same time they'll be coming in on the train, not speaking any French and not knowing their way around.  So I'll have to get them checked into their hotel, and then we can have fun for three days!  Well, kind of two and a half, since I have classes on Thursday, but Wednesday is my day off, so that works out perfectly.  More later!

Open air market in Valence

The old kiosk

looking down from Crussol

a street in Chabeuil

Je suis ce que je suis et si je suis ce que je suis, qu'est-ce que je suis?

So now that everyone's enrolled, classes have gotten into full swing.  We have regular assignments, and most of my classes actually meet in the same room every time; not officially though, I'm beginning to wonder if very much here is official.  Anyway, I'm beginning to like my narration class quite a lot, even though we have at least one writing assignment every week.  For some reason, I've found I have a much easier time writing, and make far fewer mistakes, on the creative writing assignments than on the ones that are more like essays.  I'm not really sure why that would be.  And my oral expression class is still one of my least favorite classes, but we've had some interesting moments.  For example, this past week, we began the discussion part of the class talking about whether wealthy nations are obliged to give money to developing countries, and ended with a heated debate between a guy from the UK and a girl from Vietnam on whether it's okay for a country to go into another country and force them to have a democracy.  At first I was a little bit afraid someone's feelings would get hurt since there were people in the classroom from all over the world, but I suppose a debate is a good way to practice the structure of one's spoken French, which is half the point of the class anyway.

at the head of the trail!

Last weekend Ashley and I didn't end up doing anything much.  Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances, Ashley's ability to travel has been limited, at least for now (and there was much sadness and weepage throughout the land, and a whole bunch of frowning emoticons) :( :( :( :(  .  So, unfortunately, since my parents don't want me to travel alone, this limits my ability to travel as well.  Fortunately, though, we were able to have a fabulous local adventure on Wednesday.  We decided Tuesday night that we were going to make it up Puy de Dome (the local inactive volcano) no matter what it took.  So Wednesday morning we started asking around, trying to figure out how to get to Puy de Dome, because the base of the mountain is about 10 kilometers outside of town.  We thought it very strange that no one knew.  We eventually figured out that there are no buses or trams that run to the mountain, and once you get there, it's closed to vehicle traffic due to construction (they're building a tram up the mountain that won't open till 2012).  So finally, around 4 pm, we got the number of a taxi company and just told the driver to take us to the base of Puy de Dome.  It was an expensive ride, but honestly, I don't know how else we would have gotten there.  In the end, it was fabulous!  The entire trail was covered in snow, and it was so beautiful.  It wasn't too treacherous until we got farther up, to where there weren't as many trees and there was just a narrow trail with lots of switchbacks and every edge was a drop off.  Then, the packed-down, slippery snow was a little scarey, and as it started to get more and more foggy, and then dark, we decided we'd better head down rather than trying to make it all the way to the top.  But we got some fabulous pictures first!

 

looking at Puy de Dome from the base

And now, as my friends back at OU gear up for midterms, this coming week for me is my vacance d'hiver, or winter break, or in other words my first spring break!  At first, I had a bit of a problem figuring out what to do since Ashley will not be able to come with me, and my parents won't let me travel by myself.  But in the end we figured out that I can go stay with some friends of friends in Valence, which is just a bit south of here.  I'll be there until Wednesday, and after that I don't have plans yet.  It's possible I may travel somewhere else, but right now I'm not sure.  I got my 12-25 card the other day, which is a card for young people who travel in France by train, and it gives them up to 60% discounts on many train tickets.  So hopefully now that I have it I'll get to travel plenty!

So I'll get on a train for Valence tomorrow at 11 something, and before then I have to print out my ticket confirmation at the print shop which doesn't open until 10, pick up my French bank card at the bank which I don't know when that opens, and pick up a sandwich at the grocery store to eat on the train.  So I'd better stop writing now, so I can get as much done as possible tonight!
Ciao!