Mes Boeufs

We're getting ready to head out for dinner at the University, then we'll all troop back here for "Casse Noisette" at 8. I've been really excited all week about seeing The Nutcracker, until this morning when I was informed by some students who saw the performance last night that it is a modern ballet with a completely different story line set to the Nutcracker Suites. I'm so sad! Hopefully it'll still be good.

Thus far my trip has really been wonderful. My family is nice, my classes are going well, and I'm really feeling homesick at all. To be honest, I'm doing better than I had anticipated. There are, though, a couple of things that I miss, things that are radical changes, or things that are bothering me, so I thought I'd share.

The biggest change for me is definitely the family structure in my host family. My host mother stays home, cleans, does laundry, cooks every meal for the family, etc. My host father works until around 7:30 most nights. He comes home, we sit and eat dinner, then we go watch the news. The last few days my host mom has been away visiting relatives. She left a list for my dad of who will be home on what days and for what meals, as well as a list of what he should eat for both lunch and dinners. I ended up cooking both nights (shocking, I know, but I was actually happy to). Two nights ago I just put a quiche she had left us in the oven, but last night I made omelettes. This is where the difference is. When my family at home sits finishes eating, we generally help pick up, at least somewhat. My dad always says the rule is "he who cooks does not clean". This is not the way it is in my host family. We finished eating, and my host father got up and left the room without looking back, both nights in a row. I understand this is a cultural difference, so I cleared the table and cleaned up, put the dishes in the dishwasher. My host mom is supposed to come back today, so last night I asked my dad to show me how to run the dishwasher so she wouldn't have to deal with them. He wouldn't give me the soap, which I couldn't find on my own. I explained to him why I wanted to do it (and that if my mom at home came home to something like that, she would have been very unhappy). He said no, she would be fine with it, besides he didn't actually know where the soap was kept because he never runs or puts away the dishwasher. My host mom does absolutely all of the work around the house. I have asked several times if there is anything I can help with, and she always says no. I try to help in whatever way I can, clearing the dishes after dinner (which I normally have to fight to do), keeping my room and bathroom tidy, etc, but I feel like I am not a contributing member of this family and it is so frustrating. My mom even does my laundry for me. For me its an independance thing. I'm supposed to be at the most independant part of my life, and I'm not even allowed to vaccume the floor. And no, Mom, I still can't spell the word vaccum. Or however its spelled.

Clean air. I know the French smoke, I know it is a very large part of their culture, but oh goodness I'll be glad to get back to clean air. There are kids younger than Ethan standing on the street corner smoking, and they don't really care who they blow their gross smoke onto. Women carrying babies, old men and pipes, you name it, they're smoking.

Okay, I've got to go they are closing the center for the night. I hope everything at home is going well, I miss you all!!

So Long, Norway

Well the Norway plan has been scrapped. It is at minimum a 40 hour train ride, one way, and my break is only five days. The whole point of this was to add notches in my "See 100 Countries Before I Die" belt, but that doesn't give me time to see anything at all. Bummer.

So what's the new plan, you may ask. As of right now, there isn't one. No plan.

Maybe I'll go to Spain. One things for sure, I'm going to be getting very friendly with Rick Steve's website over the next few days.

Busy Week!!!

Whew! It's only Wednesday but this week has been crazy. Yesterday was the worst, but its all downhill from here. I had four classes yesterday, plus our conversation club after classes were over. That was a lot of fun, there were probably a good...oh I don't know twenty-five French university students who came to hang out with us for an hour and a half. Alison, Kara and I got to talk to a young girl named Alice who is studying material engineering? Something that I would never want to do. She was really fun, and asked us for our phone numbers so that we can all go out sometime within the next couple of weeks. We were talking about when we've been in France before, and I told her about being near the Bastille during the post-election riots. We had a hard time figuring out the word riots, but got it done. Then the discussion moved to the US system of elections and the electoral college. Not an easy subject to understand in English, much less in fairly broken French. Whew! Alison and Kara were ready to be done talking politics at that point, so we moved on to city life. For me, personally, Nantes is too big. It takes me forty-five minutes to get from my house to school by bus, and just today the bus was almost fifteen minutes late AND took a mid-route detour. I really don't like the loss of independance that comes along with having to use public transportation. Obviously I was alone in that opinion, because the other three really love the size of the city. Alice was born near Versailles, then moved next to Fontainbleu. The girl likes her castles, and her accompanying large cities.

Speaking of castles....field trips! Only two and a half weeks till we head out to tour the Chateuax de la Loire, and only three days until Mont-Saint Michel! Woo! I'm really excited about it. Its one of those places that you always see on the walls of your French class rooms, but never think about actually getting to see. Now I do! Oh, here is a very brief and very optimistic list of places I'd like to go while I'm here:
1. Mont Saint Michel
2. Normandy/Omaha Beach
3. Norway/Sweden (1/2 Big Break Trip?)
4. Strasbourg/Carly?
5. Corsica
6. Spain/Portugal?
7. Belgium and the Netherlands?
8. Scotland and Wales instead of Norway with Caitlin for Break?
7. And to be very ambitious, why not Morocco or Algeria?

Tonight my host mom isn't home, so she left my dad and I a quiche in the fridge with instructions on how to cook it. They are a very traditionally structured family, which is a little different for my. Mom stays home, cooks every single meal, cleans the house, etc. Dad works and gets home quite late at night and can't cook to save his life. I talked to him last night while I was cooking myself some pasta, and I think we're going to skip the quiche and I'm going to make an American Breakfast for dinner. Which means I need to go to the store...

Monday Morning

The stinky thing about Monday's is that class is done at 11:30, and then I've got nothing for the rest of the day. Tonight we're going to the Polytechnical School to meet some French students, but that isn't until 18:00. This week looks like its going to be interesting. Tuesday night starts both the Conversation Club (we meet up with a bunch of French students and take turns speaking French and English) and choir rehearsals. The timing is going to be tight, but I know of at least one other person that wants to do both so hopefully it'll work out. On Wednesday we're electing President and Vice President of our class, then celebrating all of the September birthdays. Thursday night a group of us are going to see the Nutcracker at one of the local theaters. We're dragging Derek along, I'm not sure he'll appreciate it, but it makes me remember all the years Mom and I went to the production up in Ames around Christmastime. As far as I know Friday is open, I think I'm either going to go out with friends or cook dinner for my family, then Saturday morning bright and early we leave for Mont-Saint Michel. I'm really really really excited about that, its one of the places I've always wanted to go see. The plan for the next couple of weeks, long term, is to figure out when I'm going where. I'd really love to go to Normandy and probably Paris, and I also need to figure out what I'm doing during my fall break.

Rugby

So last night Derek, Alison, Christine, Caitlin and I went to a pub to watch the big France-Ireland rugby match. It was the first time I've ever gone to a bar/pub, so it was definitely an experience. Derek is a bartender while he's in school, so he has thus far been our go-to guy for beverage choices (which basically means at dinners he's told us what kind of wine we've been served and laughs at us when we don't like it). So we all sat down, asked for a menu, and turned to Derek. Alison and Caitlin got peach kirs, which is peach syrup and white wine. I turned to him and asked if he'd be mad at me if I got a coke, which he said he would, but I decided to face his wrath, especially when Christine ordered a coca lite. Derek's host mom is also hosting a student from..not sure where. His name is Fi, he came out with us too. Derek said he's way into sports. He was wearing a soccer jersey, which some Irish guy stopped and told him was the wrong sport. Oh well.

Anyway, we got our drinks and a table right underneath the tv (my neck is still sore!). It turned out to be an awesome match. There were several Irish men in the pub, which was nice because for once we weren't the loud obnoxious ones. The trick is, rugby has now ruined me for American football. We are such wusses compared to these guys! They seriously run the medic out, have him take a towel to mop the blood off the guy, all in the middle of the field where they keep on going. It was awesome. Right before half-time the girls and I went over to the gelateria next door and bought some gelato. I got strawberry and peach, and the girl made it look like a flower, it was so pretty! I was afraid to eat it, but don't worry, I did. It was really good too! Alison and Christine both got Nutella, which was amazing, and Caitlin got mint. Anyway we headed back to the boys to watch the second half. France scored their first actual goal (instead of just kicking) and everybody went crazy. About that time two very drunk French men came in and started singing the refrain from White Stripes over and over and over and over and over again. It was really funny, as was the wife of the man standing next to us. She was sitting outside smoking her cigarettes, shaking her head at her husband. She and I had a moment after an especially loud refrain, one of those, oh boys kind of things.

The funny thing was, we just picked a place at random (I think, it was actually Derek's choice) but we ran into over a dozen other IES student there! A bunch of them were upstairs watching the match the whole time. Alison went with some of them at the end of the night to go to a discotheque, but I decided to call it an evening. We (Derek, Fi, Christine and I) walked Caitlin home, then caught one of the night buses. Christine lives right next to Derek and Fi, I'm about a fifteen minute walk away. Derek walked me home, then stayed for a little bit to talk. Its been really great finding a group of people here who I feel so comfortable with, and who have been really supportive. This isn't an easy thing, leaving home, your family and your friends, but I've got a really wonderful support system here between my awesome host family and my friends.

Tonight we had dinner with another family, Kara and her host parents. It was really fun. Crazy thing is, she knows Matt Langston, one of my friends at Wartburg. The two of them went to high school together. We were good and didn't speak English until we broke off into the salon. Here were the courses for dinner:
1. Bread and some sort of regional pate
2. Pasta with mushrooms, and a fish plate (and the first glass of red wine I've actually liked)
3. Cheese and bread
4. Vanilla ice cream with melted chocolate
5. Tea
So basically, we sat down to start eating at 9:00, and only just now finished. Before dinner, my dad and I took a bike ride around the river, which took us past TWO castles. They (the French) are very nonchalant about them, but holy cow!! Two castles, just like that!

I know I'm terrible!

I am sorry that once again I haven't written in awhile. They're keeping me busy! This was my first week of class, but it still doesn't feel real. I had a problem with one of them, but I think that got sorted out. For my phonetics class we have one hour of theory a week, then two one hour labs at the university. The trick is, the lab we wear headphones and listen to and repeat different words and phrases. You even record yourself speaking and can listen to how badly you mutilate the French language. The problem comes in with the headphones; they're over the ear, big huge ones that absolutely do not work with my headphones, and there isn't any other kind that works with the program. I tried going in, and spent two pretty miserable hours having my hearing aids shoved into my ears and listening to really high pitched feedback whistles. I talked with the professor, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. I went in today and talked to Madame Rochert, and she is going to help me set up a meeting every week with one of the teaching aides to do basically the same thing, minus the recording. Madame Rochert was really great about it. She's been sick all week (we all gave it to her!) and it looks like she's feeling better!

Tonight my "group" is going to a pub/bar-ish sort of thing to watch the rugby match. France versus Ireland, it aught to be big. I've never been to a bar before...that's kind of lame, isn't it. I'll try to write about how that goes. We're doing a picnic tomorrow, maybe by the castle again. That aught to be fun. Anyway I'm going to work on my homework, see how much of it I can get done now...I don't know why thought, because I have nothing to do all weekend!!

Schedule

We signed up for classes today. Here's my schedule, though it is subject to change:

Lundi:
10:30-11:45 Advanced Language and Composition (a IES)

Mardi:
8:00-9:15 European Union from 1945-Present (a IES)
10:45-12:00 Palestinian Question from 1945-Present (a IES)
15:45-17:00 Palestinian Question from 1945-Present (a IES)
17:15-18:15 Phonetics (a IES)
20:30-22:00 Tennis (a l'Universite de Nantes)

Mercredi:
9:00-10:15 European Union from 1945-Present (a IES)
13:00-14:00 Advanced Language and Composition (a IES)
20:30-22:00 Volley-Ball (a l'Universite de Nantes)

Jeudi:
9:00-10:15 France and the Atlantic World: 16th-18th Centuries (a IES)
17:30-19:30 Phonetics Lab (a l'Universite de Nantes)

Vendredi:
10:00-12:00 Advanced Language and Composition
12:00-13:00 Conversation

I'm also really thinking about singing in the University choir, and also changing the phonetics class to the Theatre Production class that they have at IES. The theatre production class is on thursdays at 11:30, and I'm not sure yet when the choir meets!

I know, I know, I'm sorry!!

I apologize for my lack of blogging, I have been so insanely busy these last few days I literally haven't had a chance between orientation, my family, and sleeping.

Monday I started my orientation here in Nantes. For the last three days I've sat through meetings and classes about classes, verb tenses, conversation, proper French etiquette, all sorts of things that leave me completely drained by the end of the day. I get home, and my host mom is cooking dinner. Typically I get about fifteen, twenty minutes to check my email, then at about 8:00 every night we eat dinner. Sometimes my dad is there, sometimes he comes late, and last night and tonight Charlotte, my host sister, was home from school. We sit, sometimes for almost two hours and eat in courses. Its really nice and definitely stretches my French skills, especially because Charlotte talks as fast in French as I talk in English.....which is really really fast if you don't speak the language fluently.

Most nights when we're finished picking up from dinner I go back to my room, get on my computer, do my homework. It's a pretty exciting life I lead. The big stresses this week have been bus passes (which now are almost taken care of) and getting classes arranged. I think right now I'm looking at taking classes at the IES Center (my program) as well as at the University of Nantes. Right now, we don't have a class list for the University, but I'm hoping I can take at least one history class at the University, as killer as that would be. How awesome would it be to take an American history class while I'm here?

Here are the classes I'm looking at for IES:
1. Advanced French Language and Composition
2. Construction of the European Union from 1945 to the present
3. The Palestinian Question from 1945 to Today
4. France and the Atlantic World (16th-18th Centuries)

Anyway, if I could take those four and then just one history class at IES, then I'd have a free class sometime when I get home, if I want. We'll see!

Oh, and if anybody wants to send me letters or postcards, here's my address!
Jenna Peterson
c/o IES Nantes
7, rue des cadeniers
44000 Nantes, France

Orientation Weekend

This is going to be a VERY brief story of how awesome my weekend orientation went!

Day One - Oh Ice Breakers
arrived in the city of We started in the morning by loading up the buses outside of the IES Center. I sat with a girl named Alison, she goes to Kenyoan College and is also there by herself (there are quite a few groups from different schools). We chatted about where we've been, what we're doing in Nantes, etc. After a decently long bus ride we arrived at the "house" of our programs director. By house, of course, I mean estate, mansion, miniature chateau. It was HUGE, and you literally walked 300 feet from the back steps into the ocean. That's right, the Atlantic Ocean...well the Bay of Morbihan, but still. We played Ice-Breaker Bingo, ate a snack, then loaded back up. We then Vannes, near the coast in Brittany. Brittany, along with Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Scotland, are considered to be the Celtic Nations. It is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful parts of the world.

Day Two - The Day of Robert Frost
In the morning we visited the Chateau Suscinio, a castle that was built for the Dukes of Bretange. There were wonderful towers, and even a moat. The tour guide was wonderful (and spoke in turn...counterclockwise). After the c French!), and after the visit I stopped and talked with her for a minute about historical interpretation in France (and also asked which direction staircases in the towers normallyastle we went to the Isle aux Moines...the Island of Monks. Yes, Des Moines means The Monks. Bet'cha didn't know that!

We were given bicycles and a picnic lunch, and Alison, Derek and I took off for the other side of the island. We'd met Derek on the bus when he and I started singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody. he took us on literally every little tiny not really even a path there was on the island, which ended up being absolutely wonderful. We ate our lunch on the south end, rode past a nude beach full of naked old men (blech), went shelling on another beach, rode back around to the south and found a dolmen, a Celtic rock formation. The air around it almost vibrated. I know that sounds lame, and Derek and Alison thought I was crazy, but it really did.

We hopped back on the bikes and rode around for awhile until we found a sandy beach. Derek went swimming while Alison and I waded around. I'd expected the water to be cold but it was actually quite warm! We dried off, then went wandering for awhile longer, past a bunch of beautiful little old houses. There was a little old man in a hat in one, who had put out a bucket of water "pour les chiens" - for the dogs. We found another beach that was absolutely beautiful, so we sat down and fantasized what it would be like to live in a place like that. Before we got back on the boat to the mainland we all bought some yummy ice cream. All in all it was a good day. Back in the hotel room, Alison and I watched Star Wars in French, it was really funny. Darth Vader didn't sound anything like James Earl Jones.

Day Three - Magic
We started the day at a manor house that was used during les Moyen Ages, run today by a little old adorable couple. The woman took us around the house, which they have set up to show different periods in which it was used. We all kind of wandered around the courtyard for awhile, looked at some swans, took some pictures, then reboarded the bus.

We then drove to a little creperie, where we were served galettes, a traditional Breton crepe. We got ham and cheese ones, then ones with toffee in the middle. They were so sweet! It was all served with some cider....which wasn't cider like we know it. It was really not good. Really really not good. On the way out we ran into an older couple who asked us where we were all from. Turns out they have daughter in Waterloo, so the wife is learning English on a pink gameboy! It was so cute!

After lunch we went to L'Isle Gavrinis. There was a megalith there, and it was AMAZING. Absolutely amazing. The Celts, for no reason we know, built a tunnel of tables, then a little cave on the inside supported by other rocks. The stones on the inside have all been carved and engraved, and it was another one of those places where the air just sizzled.

Our last stop for the day was a town called Aurey, where Ben Franklin stayed on his way out of France. We stopped at a chocolaterie and bought some chocolates, and I got my first coke of the trip. It was really fun to just sit and hang out by the river eating AMAZING chocolate!

We went back to the hotel for dinner, then Derek, Alison, Cailtin and I went on a walk around Vannes. It was SO much fun. We wandered down to the castle in the town, where the girls were girls and Derek just laughed at us. But it was SO pretty! Then we walked down to the cathedral, and there were about four different times where we cut off mid-sentance because the view was so astonishing. It took EIGHT centuries to build this cathedral. We then walked around to this gorgeous park...it had a little playground that we took pictures on, beautiful arbors that were actually trees, a river, and a parquet...I'm guessing its used for plays, but we used it for waltzing. It was so much fun!! We walked back, then went to Derek's room to look at Caitlin's pictures.

Day Four - TESTS!?!?
This morning we had our language placement tests. It was like the ACT on Nutella. It was very, very difficult, and we were all really stressing about it. Hopefully it turned out alright. This afternoon we went to Rochefort-en-terre....its like the Hogsmeade of France. The streets were cobbled, there were flowerboxes in every window, and there was even the most amazing candy shop you've ever been in. Seriously it was amazing. I bought Christmas gifts for a couple of people, and some more postcards. If you want me to send you one, let me know!

I came home, Ben's mom dropped me off, and came upstairs to unpack. At 20:00 my mom and I ate dinner and talked about the weekend, house sizes in France, traditional versus non-traditional families, the income gap in the US, running in Nantes, all sorts of things. Tomorrow I'm going to get up early to run, then I start my week long intensive French/learn your way around Nantes orientation. Should be fun!

En France!

I have arrived! After weeks of passport losing, money getting, suitcase packing and goodbye saying, I am finally in France! I left from Des Moines airport at about 2:00 on Tuesday, flew to Chicago in a little three across plane. I was right up front, which was neat because they left the door to the cockpit open for awhile before take-off so I could see the neat gadgets. I was the first one off the plane, and had to push open several doors to get into the terminal. I was pushing one open when some pilots on the other side grabbed it, laughed, and said "welcome to Chicago!"

The flight from Chicago to Paris was very interesting...and very bumpy. We had the "Fasten Seat Belt" sign turned on almost the entire duration of the flight. On the upside, they showed "Roman Holiday" which is one of my favorite movies, and I got to sit next to a really neat girl who is studying in Dijon for the semester. She doesn't speak any French and hasn't ever been here before, so I was giving her tips on how to handle obnoxious flirting Frenchmen. She took my contact info down, so hopefully I'll hear from her again. We even watched an episode of Grey's together on my ipod. We parted when we landed, and my luggage came very quickly (yay!). I walked for awhile to find the exit where the bus to Montparnasse picks you up, and found it just before they left (yay again!). It was about an hour, but through Paris so I got to see lots of neat things.

I arrived at the train station and ran into my first glitch. My credit card...the Visa card we'd gotten specifically because the train stations machines only take Visa or Euromastercard....wasn't working in the machines. It wouldn't read it no matter what way I put it in. So I walked over to the desks and was going to stand in line behind bunches of people when I saw the window marked "special needs customers". It had a picture of an eye and an ear....so I hopped over there. There was only one other person, and its a good thing I was in that line because I could hardly hear the guy the way it was, and it was a special speaker system. He gave me my ticket, so I walked back into the main station and waited for my train....and waited, and waited, and waited. It said on the big ticker signs that they would post the platform the train would depart from 20 minutes before it was supposed to leave.

Twenty till passed, nothing. Ten till, still nothing. I was a little confused about how the trains were set up, so asked the couple next to me for help. Turns out they spoke Spanish, not French, but still tried very hard to help. The good thing is that I know my numbers...haha. That's about all the Spanish I remember from last semester! Finally with five minutes before we were supposed to leave, they announced the platform. The crowd took off for the trains with me in hot pursuit. I pulled my bags into the train, pushed them into a luggage rack, and sat down in my seat. A little old lady (and yes Mom, she was old, she was born in 1920) sat down next to me. We had a lovely conversation about her pets and how her dog wandered the house for three months after her husband died looking for him, before it died itself. Lovely. She was very nice, and before I knew it we were pulling into Nantes.

I grabbed my bags, got off the train, and started looking around. Nobody in the immediate vicinity looked very host-mom-ish, and I saw nobody with any signs or anything. Madame Vincent had told me, in her last email, to meet her in the north end of the station so that's where I headed. I got to the waiting room and still didn't see anybody standing stationary looking for someone. I did find two other IES students though, so they came over to say hello and to ask if I wanted to catch a taxi with them. I told them about my mom meeting me at the station, and the girl said that she'd seen her on the platform with a sign...err. I must have walked right past her! I walked back up to the platform, and sure enough there came a woman walking down holding a sign in her hand. Her name is Roselyne Vincent and she is very very nice. Very short, but very nice. We walked to her car and drove home, and she gave me an hour to unpack..which I did completely. I'm really glad I did, and Mom? I didn't lose ANYTHING this trip. Woo! I unpacked everything, put it away neatly...I have a desk (with wireless internet!!!), four little cupboards, and a sink with shelves in my room. All of my stuff fits here! Outside the room there is a shower, and a bathroom. I was unpacking when Madame Vincent knocked on the door. She introduced me to William, the French (when is the age when you stop calling someone a boy and they become a man?) student? staying at the house. He helped me plug in my computer, and now I'm not sure where he is. Roselyne and I went to the IES center to pick up my paperwork and a neighbor student whose family was tied up. Came back home and I got to meet Charlotte, their youngest daughter. She reminds me of my godsister Lauren SO MUCH its almost eerie. She's really nice, I'm very excited to spend time with her. She leaves for school on Monday, but she'll be back on weekends to ride her horse. Roselyne started dinner, then we sate down to eat. Mr. Vincent came home, he's very nice too. We all sat and ate, and they keep telling me that my French is good and fairly accent free! I'm not sure what to make of that, but it must be good. Now I am completely exhausted and I'm going to bed. Tomorrow afternoon I leave for Vannes, a city nearby where we are having our orientation for 3 1/2 days. Should be fun!