Bonjour!
Classes started last week. Before, I'd just been taking language - now, I've got Literature, Art and Architecture, French Society, as well as the last third of the French language course. (So, there's just a tad bit more work). I wrote two papers last week, I have two 10 minute presentations this week, and I read a 30 page story this weekend - which wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't, like, in French. The art one is a lot less interesting than it should be. It's way too long. We saw 2 Roman ruins, a Gallo-Roman museum and amphitheatre, Roman streets, statues, an obelisk; a cathedral, a convent, and I lost track of how many churches after we climbed up a hill to see a building that "used to be a church - look, you can tell because there's an outline of a stained glass window on the wall!" And that was just the first day of class. The next meeting, we didn't see as much because we spent 6 hours in the Gallo-Roman history museum, looking at every... single... vase... in the whole stupid museum. I think I now hate Roman civilization. The literature class is a lot more interesting.
Also last week, my parents and sister visited. We saw a bunch of different tourist sites, in Lyon and Paris. And more importantly, we made chocolate cake. They also brought me a bunch of sweets for my birthday. In Paris, we went on a river cruise - we saw the Eiffel tower, and the statue of liberty mock-up. They had good desserts too. Oh, and my French family gave me a chocolate cake too. Yum.
We spent Saturday taking my sister to the airport, after doing whirlwind tours of the Notre Dame and a dungeon. Rebecca was really excited about the dungeon, but when we got there it turned out that we couldn't see any of the places where people were tortured, because there was a comics convention there that day. I thought that was actually pretty interesting - some of the French comics look a lot different from the American ones I've seen. We did see a dungeon on Sunday, after Rebecca left, in the basement of the Louvre. The Louvre took most of the day. I think it's larger than several European countries.
My family brought me a radio too, so now I can hear all the French stations. About 50% of the stuff on the radio here is incredibly varied, songs in half a dozen languages in every imaginable style, like indy stations in the U.S. only dream of. The other 50% is the same 5 songs repeated continously (Anastasia, "Sick and Tired, Alicia Keys, "If I Ain't Got You," Black Eyed Peas, "Let's Get it Started," Maroon 5, "This Love," and something with the lyrics "come and get me if you can, up in my room, covered in............. flaaaaaaames.") I now feel the same warmth and admiration towards these artists that I do for Roman vase-makers.
Gosh, this e-mail is turning out to be kind of dark. In happier news, our house now has a Russian au pair, or, as the French say, 'une babysitter.' My family had talked about how Roxanna had lived here last year, and mentioned that she was coming again, but I'd thought they'd meant 'coming for dinner,' or 'coming for the weekend.' It turns out she's going to be here for the year. She's studying at another university here, and she gets free room and board with my family, in return for watching the kids, cooking, cleaning, etc. I keep on feeling bad, because I'll be watching 'Alias' or "Shrek" in French, or playing with the kids, while she's hard at work mopping the floor behind us. I feel like I should offer to help, or something, even though she's doing that instead of paying for housing. Annick paid her inscription fees at the university, too, because Roxanna had her pocket picked of over a thousand dollars when she was on her way to buy a train ticket.
Yesterday, a journalist came to interview us about the election. He was most interested in the two students who are republican (out of 18 - we're not very representative of the overall electorate). I've heard that in the U.S., trick-or-treaters are coming to bring out the vote, parents are dressing up their kids as party mascots or billboards, and stores are selling pumpkin stencils of Bush and Kerry (and Nader, of course). Every day, there's articles or television programs here offering to help the French figure out the American political system, culture etc. (i.e. why do they like Bush?) Is the tension as bad in the U.S. as it is here? I can't stand the suspense. I think I'm going to hide in my room, flipping radio stations, until the election's over.
Ciao...
Classes started last week. Before, I'd just been taking language - now, I've got Literature, Art and Architecture, French Society, as well as the last third of the French language course. (So, there's just a tad bit more work). I wrote two papers last week, I have two 10 minute presentations this week, and I read a 30 page story this weekend - which wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't, like, in French. The art one is a lot less interesting than it should be. It's way too long. We saw 2 Roman ruins, a Gallo-Roman museum and amphitheatre, Roman streets, statues, an obelisk; a cathedral, a convent, and I lost track of how many churches after we climbed up a hill to see a building that "used to be a church - look, you can tell because there's an outline of a stained glass window on the wall!" And that was just the first day of class. The next meeting, we didn't see as much because we spent 6 hours in the Gallo-Roman history museum, looking at every... single... vase... in the whole stupid museum. I think I now hate Roman civilization. The literature class is a lot more interesting.
Also last week, my parents and sister visited. We saw a bunch of different tourist sites, in Lyon and Paris. And more importantly, we made chocolate cake. They also brought me a bunch of sweets for my birthday. In Paris, we went on a river cruise - we saw the Eiffel tower, and the statue of liberty mock-up. They had good desserts too. Oh, and my French family gave me a chocolate cake too. Yum.
We spent Saturday taking my sister to the airport, after doing whirlwind tours of the Notre Dame and a dungeon. Rebecca was really excited about the dungeon, but when we got there it turned out that we couldn't see any of the places where people were tortured, because there was a comics convention there that day. I thought that was actually pretty interesting - some of the French comics look a lot different from the American ones I've seen. We did see a dungeon on Sunday, after Rebecca left, in the basement of the Louvre. The Louvre took most of the day. I think it's larger than several European countries.
My family brought me a radio too, so now I can hear all the French stations. About 50% of the stuff on the radio here is incredibly varied, songs in half a dozen languages in every imaginable style, like indy stations in the U.S. only dream of. The other 50% is the same 5 songs repeated continously (Anastasia, "Sick and Tired, Alicia Keys, "If I Ain't Got You," Black Eyed Peas, "Let's Get it Started," Maroon 5, "This Love," and something with the lyrics "come and get me if you can, up in my room, covered in............. flaaaaaaames.") I now feel the same warmth and admiration towards these artists that I do for Roman vase-makers.
Gosh, this e-mail is turning out to be kind of dark. In happier news, our house now has a Russian au pair, or, as the French say, 'une babysitter.' My family had talked about how Roxanna had lived here last year, and mentioned that she was coming again, but I'd thought they'd meant 'coming for dinner,' or 'coming for the weekend.' It turns out she's going to be here for the year. She's studying at another university here, and she gets free room and board with my family, in return for watching the kids, cooking, cleaning, etc. I keep on feeling bad, because I'll be watching 'Alias' or "Shrek" in French, or playing with the kids, while she's hard at work mopping the floor behind us. I feel like I should offer to help, or something, even though she's doing that instead of paying for housing. Annick paid her inscription fees at the university, too, because Roxanna had her pocket picked of over a thousand dollars when she was on her way to buy a train ticket.Yesterday, a journalist came to interview us about the election. He was most interested in the two students who are republican (out of 18 - we're not very representative of the overall electorate). I've heard that in the U.S., trick-or-treaters are coming to bring out the vote, parents are dressing up their kids as party mascots or billboards, and stores are selling pumpkin stencils of Bush and Kerry (and Nader, of course). Every day, there's articles or television programs here offering to help the French figure out the American political system, culture etc. (i.e. why do they like Bush?) Is the tension as bad in the U.S. as it is here? I can't stand the suspense. I think I'm going to hide in my room, flipping radio stations, until the election's over.
Ciao...
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