Author Archives: pricemv

Snowboards, hold the snow.

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The last 14 days haven’t really brought out anything special.

My preparation for the snow season has finished. I bought some second-hand boots and got the well-used board Anja has given me waked and repaired. I think for my first attempts at snowboarding the black and red board will prove it’s worth.
With no sign of snow in sight, I have been sticking to the streets with my first ride along the vineyards and corn fields around Müllheim.

A quick change towards my thoughts on politics; that is, my comments on how the Germans feel about the Presidential election. It is no unknown fact that Germany, as well as most of Europe, is a social state. That simply means instead of the citizens keeping their earnings and paying for insurance, school, toll roads, etc, they each pay extremely high (from America’s point of view) taxes. In turn, the state shares the tax monies with all the German citizens in the form of  child-support, tuition, welfare, and so on. Of course the system is much more complicated than that and one couldn’t just show up and ask for welfare. Anyways, this just shows that some US conservative ideals don’t make sense to Germans and therefore, the German public was overwhelmingly pro Obama.

Now that I so cleverly hid my political statement within my post, I shall continue.

Germany’s the name, and football is the game. Along with countless other soccer fans, Anja and I went to a nice pub and watch an exciting rematch of the Germany/ Netherlands derby. Unfortunately, it was one of most boring games I’ve ever watched. Oh well. The following picture pretty much sums-up how my week ended. The perfect meal prepared by the perfect cook (although I peeled and cut most the ingredients.)

Oh ya, and Anja’s cat took a celebrated Oregon State’s win over Cal.

Delicious ale and beef stew with extra ale.

Hungry in Hungary

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Greetings all,

I apologize for the lack of posts recently! I have had some things come up in my personal life and have been working towards peace with that.

In my last post, I talked about going to the Hungarian hospital. I was asked by Michele to elaborate on this experience seeing as it was such a culturally different experience than in America. I was recommended this hospital by both my program and my Hungarian insurance company. It was about 8pm when I  arrived. Upon arrival, I was not asked any medical questions. They asked me for my passport and my insurance card. After handing over the required documents, the nurse continued to ask me why I was in Hungary and how long I have and will be here. From there, she directed me down a long hallway and into a dorm style room. There were six beds, three on each side and there were people occupying four of them. The nurse asked me to choose a bed and informed me the doctor would come see me after 9am the next morning. It was then that I realized this was not a normal American hospital. I quickly tracked her down in the hallway and asked her for my documents back. I was entirely uncomfortable with the situation and decided to go home. When I got home, I found an English speaking “Americanized” clinic. It was so nice being able to go and tell the doctor exactly what was wrong. I felt so comfortable there. Although I wish I could have had the full Hungarian hospital experience, I am glad that I was helped quickly and efficiently.

Since my last post, I have traveled to Munich and Paris. Although I love traveling, it has become quite normal for me to miss Budapest. BP has truly become my home. My friends here have become my family and my routine has become comforting.

As the title for this post suggests, I have become “Hungry for Hungary” I have been attempting to absorb everything about this city and it’s culture. I have traded out my tourist spots for quaint, local restaurants, cafes, and bars.

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At the Orchestra!

Also I have been attending local art performances. I was able to go watch the Hungarian Orchestra perform with friends. Our “cheap seats” tickets were even upgraded because it wasn’t a full performance.

With my Hungarian Art and Culture class we went to the Palinka festival at the castle and then to a Hungarian acting company’s performance. The musical was called “A Peasant’s Opera”. It was written and directed by a Budapest native. They provided “subtitles” for English speakers, so we could follow along! It was a hilarious and beautiful performance. For those who don’t know, Palinka is Hungary’s favorite liquor. It is a fruit based brandy, and quite honestly… it is awful! We had to be cultural though!

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Palinka Festival

My culture class in front of Parliament before the Opera!

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I have 38 days left here in BP and I am trying to make every last minute count. Currently I am in the coffee shop that is a favorite of Hungarian college students. I make a new friend each time I come to study.

I hope all is well with everyone who has made it to the end of this post!

Molly

When in Rome…

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Eating some delicious chocolate and banana gelato!
The distinguished pyramid that let us know we were close to our hotel.

The Famous Colosseum
Part of the ruins in the Roman Forum and the city around it.
The Pantheon.
Trevi Fountain
The river that passes through Rome at night.
Night life along the river.

Eating dinner on the riverside.

St. Paul’s Cathedral
Fruit candy.
Famous Italian Pizza!
The Spanish Steps.
View from the top of the Spanish Steps.
In one of Rome’s beautiful parks.

I’m not sure what this thing was but it looked cool and it was in Vatican city.
The famous paintings by Michelangelo
The Creation of Man

A perfect example of Europe’s small vehicles.

Home Sweet Home

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A picture of Mt. Hood from my flight, I’m home!

Post for August 12, 2012

I have now been back home for about two days. I still feel like I have lived an amazing dream. Things still seem surreal. Upon arriving home I felt a sense of relief. I think that may be because I felt safe and happy that everything during my entire trip went well. It was a huge difference as to when I arrived to my homestay in Barcelona because there everything was unfamiliar and new. I approached things with caution. Here I know and am comfortable with most things already that I felt a bit more at ease. That’s not to say that I didn’t like being in Barcelona though. There’s a few things I miss about it. I miss going out with the friends I made there and just exploring different parts of Barcelona or trying new foods. I miss interacting with my host family. I miss the beach and how exotic/interesting everything seemed in my eyes. I also really miss the random kindness I got to enjoy from strangers I would just talk to sometimes on the streets.

I am happy to be home though. Especially now that my brother and my mom have returned from their trip to Mexico. I feel more at home and like I truly belong. I love being able to use the kitchen and make whatever I feel like eating. I also appreciate all the commodities we have here like a fully functional washer and dryer, and consistent warm water with good pressure in the shower. I love finding it easier to relate to my family here.

The following photos are what I hope will convey how I feel being home again.

Happy to be with my family celebrating my brother’s 15th birthday.

I chose to include this picture because we don’t often take pictures together and it makes me happy to see this and know that I have a family of my own to love and be a part of.

Beautiful Oregon

I chose this photo that I took on the road from Monmouth to Salem because it shows a little bit of Oregon’s beauty with the sunset lighting and the tall trees. I think this picture carries meaning not just because it’s of the road I commonly drive on to get from home to school but because there’s a road that lies ahead and much of Oregon I have yet to see. I am happy to be back and while I was in Spain I realized that I don’t have to go far away to see new things. There’s so much of Oregon that I have never seen or even made the effort to explore and that is why one of my new goals is to set out to explore more of Oregon when I have free time.

Sincerely,

Jose

All Good Things Come to an End

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An overview of Barcelona

Post for Aug. 1, 2012

I know I’m blessed. I know I’m privileged. I’m thankful for what I have and the life I’ve lived. This whole trip has been like heaven on earth to me. I am at awe with the world and the small bits of it that I have seen. I only spent four days in Rome and I loved every minute of it, and having this one last day to be back in Barcelona puts a nice end to my trip. I plan to make a short post separate from this one to display some of my pictures from Rome. I spent most of the day today resting and getting my stuff ready and packed to return back to Oregon. Earlier though (in the evening) I went to go see the top of Mt. Tibidabo because I had heard so much about it and had not had the opportunity to see it until today. Once I got to the top I took a minute to soak in the beauty of the view it had. You could see all of Barcelona from the top of Tibidabo.

For some reason listening to all the children’s cheers and laughter made me kind of sad.

At the top of Tibidabo is a small amusement park that is over 100 years old! It was fun to walk around it and see all the kids and their families having a good time together. It kind of made me miss home and my childhood a little bit though. For such an old amusement park it still felt quite alive and functional, though kind of expensive in my opinion.

I’m glad my final memory of Barcelona is going to be of Mt. Tibidabo.

I walked around taking pictures by myself and I liked just having some time alone even though I was surrounded by so many strangers. While I was walking it started getting very windy and the wind brought a cloud onto the mountain. It was a cool thing to see because it was just a thick fog you could see moving up and through the mountain.

I almost got to go to the very top and touch Jesus’ feet but they were closing. Maybe some day I’ll get to come back and walk to the top.

One of my goals for the night was to “touch Jesus’ feet” at the top of the church which as at the ultimately highest point of all of Barcelona. Unfortunately they had just closed off the gate a half hour before I got there and they didn’t let me walk up to the top. I was a little disappointed, but not entirely because I thought of it as something I had left to do in hopes of returning some day.

I hope this doesn’t turn out to be just a dream. Because it definitely feels like one.
See you later! (Hopefully soon.)

Now I’m about to get a bit of sleep because I will be waking up at 2:30am to leave for the airport. I will definitely miss Barcelona. It now has a special place in my heart and I look forward to returning again some day. I am sure I will be reminiscing about this trip for years to come.

Hasta la vista!

Jose

My Final Day (sort of)

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The entrance to the building where I took my classes.

Post for July 26, 2012

I can’t believe tomorrow will be my last day with everyone whom I’ve met at BIC. I say tomorrow is “sort of” my last day here because I won’t actually be returning home yet since I’m going to Rome for four days then coming back to Barcelona for a day and finally returning home. Tonight was probably the last time I will see most of the people in my program because most of their flights are quite early in the morning but at least I’ll see a couple and we just had an amazing end to our trip together, but I’ll get to that soon. It’s been such a looong day! I finished my final exams without dying though. I think I did well on both of them too, so that’s a huge relief. After school I made plans to to go visit Barcelona’s 1992 Olympic park since today was the 20th anniversary of it’s inauguration. I am so glad I got the opportunity to finally visit it on such a special and relevant day, especially since the Summer Olympics in London begin tomorrow.

One last look towards Plaza España

On my way to the Olympic park I took the opportunity to take some last pictures of several of the places I had already visited. I felt comfortable doing this since I was by myself and taking the time wasn’t going to annoy anyone else.

My last visit to Palau de Montjuic
Barcelona’s 1992 Olympic Stadium from the side
The 1992 Olympic Track and Field

Being so close to this track and field was kind of special to me because I used to compete in track and field in middle school and high school and I had quite a competitive spirit. Seeing this track made me miss our competitions and my races but it also made me think of how this place must have been such a large contributor to sports history made during my lifetime 20 years ago. Even just six months ago I would have never guessed that I would find myself standing there soaking in the feeling of inspiration and realization at the same time.

The Stadium Entrance

As I walked around the park I had some quiet time to myself in which I could reflect on my experience here so far and I felt quite happy deep inside. I have this feeling of fulfillment and I think it’s because I finally realized one of my dreams since I was very young. I had always said that some day I would travel far far away and see new and exciting things and I finally have. And I think I’ve become addicted to it. I want to see more of the world. I want to go to Asia, Africa, Northern Europe, Latin America, Australia, India, I want to go everywhere!! I’m getting carried away but it’s true. I love this trip and now I’m going to visit ROME! It’s still hard for me to believe that this is actually happening. I feel like I’m going to wake up at home a week from now and think this was all just a wonderful dream.

Our group pictures

In the evening everyone from our program had one last dinner together at a restaurant in which we ate, talked, danced, laughed and took pictures together. We also got the chance to say our last goodbyes to our program directors who were great at what they did.

My program directors and I

I really enjoyed learning from our program directors because they were fun and kind guides during excursions or whenever we had questions at school.

Finally we get inside the W Hotel and get to see it’s luxuries at no cost!

After our last dinner together several of us went to visit the W hotel because we didn’t want to leave Barcelona without ever seeing the bar on it’s 26th floor. I  was told it had an excellent night view of the city and they were right. This place was very fancy, but the best part of it all was that we never had to spend a dime in it because we just walked in and around it. We had to be dressed nicely of course but it was worth the visit.

Night view of Barcelona’s docks.

Even the bathrooms had nice views of the city.

My last night in Barcelona

As our last bonding moment, several of us walked along the beach just goofing around and taking pictures. It made me wish we had a few more days here together without the worry of having to go to school because these last hours were among my favorite during my entire trip so far.

I will miss you!

Tomorrow I will be leaving to Rome, but I will return on August 1st and I will be staying at my homestay for one more night since my host mom has very generously offered to let me stay here instead of renting a room in a hostel. I’m so glad she’s letting do that too because I much rather come back to a familiar place for my last night here.

Jose

My days here are counted…

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Feeding the pigeons.

Post for July 25th, 2012

This has been such a fun and stressful week! Tomorrow will be my last day of classes. It’s kind of a bitter sweet feeling because, although I’ve enjoyed them, I am exhausted (mostly from this week) because of my final essay in Spanish Culture and Civilization and the stress for tomorrow’s final exams. I turned in my essay today and I’m glad that’s done because I had trouble focusing on it. I wrote about the Spanish Conquistadors’ influence on what is now Mexico and how it contributed to it’s current culture. I thought it would an easy and interesting topic to cover but most of my better resources were so complex, in-depth, and boring I did not have the time to read through everything and then summarize what I learned. But alas that it is over, and I can focus on tomorrow’s exams. Even though I have been extremely tired from staying up late finishing my paper last night, I decided to make some adventurous stops on my way home after school today. I went to Plaza Catalunya with Shelby looking for the highest view from inside the “El Corte Ingles” mall. We went all the way to the top floor and took some pictures from there, but we didn’t buy anything from the fancy deli up there because everything was almost twice as expensive as anything I have seen so far. Before we almost decided to go back home, we stopped to feed the pigeons for the first time since we arrived to Barcelona. It was really fun because we learned how to get the pigeons to feed from our hands and the pigeons weren’t scared to stay on our arms as long as there was food there. No one showed us how to do it either. We just tried it without really knowing if it would work and it did! A few people even took pictures of us holding the pigeons as they passed by. It was quite amusing I guess.

Drinking from the Fountains in Plaza Catalunya

On our way to the metro station Shelby and I managed to get a picture taken with the Catalan police whom I’ve heard tend to be quite merciless law enforcers. I was also told they weren’t allowed to have pictures taken of them while they were working or in uniform but I guess these guys didn’t know or follow that rule because they were not at all reluctant to take a picture with us. Shelby also dared me to drink water from the Fountains in the Plaza. It is said that who ever drinks from those fountains will be destined to return to Barcelona, that’s the only reason why I really drank some of its water because it didn’t seem all that clean.

The mysterious building that lights up at night (sometimes)

Just before sunset Shelby, Chrystal, and I met up to finally go see the building that lights up at night. It was nothing too special it was just something we had been wanting to see in person because we always heard people joking about it because of it’s phallic shape. People referred to it as the penis or tampon building because of how it looks. Since we missed dinner at our homestays to go see that building we stopped by a little buffet with Italian-like food. It was a calm way to end the night, even though we should have been home studying.

Now I’m about to go to sleep because I plan to wake up at 7:30 to do some last minute studying for my International Marketing class.

Sincerely,

Jose

« Pas de Bus »

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Saturday afternoon I surprised myself by actually enjoying some alone time with French music in the local Musee de Beaux-Arts. Check.

The views out the window were as beautiful as the art work

Sunday was another “check” because I got up and went to mass with my host mom. I expected the Cathedral with the big organ, but turned out we were just going to the local church, which was fine, though I’d still like to hear the Organ. This was a step out of my comfort zone. I don’t fully understand a Catholic Mass even in English so change it to French and I’m totally lost. However, despite my confusion  I left like I was experiencing an important part of culture and history and I spend a good deal of time spacing out reflecting on that because translating is exhausting.

Monday was not as expected either. I woke up with two red eyes and in a lot of pain. Ended up missing two hours of class to go to the eye doctor where they tested my pronunciation of the French alphabet as well as my eye sight. Turned out I had scratched my corneas and was to use these burning eye drops for three days. Tuesday I was practically blind and after suffering through 3 hours of class with 1 eye half open. I apologized “pour les cascades de mes yeux” and my waterfalls and I went home to sleep, via the pharmacy.

Wednesday I was feeling a bit better, which was essential because after school Carina and I left for Nantes, where we went to bed at 9 pm.

Our little hotel room that we only saw in the dark!

4am came quickly but our journey to Corsica was smooth, aside from hungrily waiting in the airport for two hours for the 9 euro bus to town.

Carina on our bench, thinking more about her empty tummy than her homework!

Life stayed interesting when we arrived in Bastia.
And because of the following events, I couldn’t decided which title to use.
« Pas de Bus » (No Bus)
« Toussaint » (All Saints)
« C’est Fermée » (It’s Closed)
P.S. Those funny marks are French quotation marks

Its Toussaint (a holiday). Of course! Why didn’t we realize…everything is closed today. That means no buses nor grocery stores. Ok, so 7.50 euro for a slice of pizza, a coke and a chocolate waffle thing.

I had already eaten the pizza.

That’ll tie me over. But we can’t walk over a mountain with our stuff for 25 kilometers without a map. That leaves a taxi. Alright, locate taxi. “Bonjour Monsieur, combien coute…” More than 67 euro. Oh. That’s a pair of shoes. Or two. Just kidding sir, have a nice day. Now we more than seriously considered the inconsiderable. We didn’t tell any loved ones what we’d decided, just stuck out our thumbs and smiled.

It started out pretty awkward but turned out kind of fun…

People waved or sympathetically smiled but no one stopped. Ok, change location. Here in our new spot, we made a sign with the name of our destination. A nice man with a bike on his car pulled over to tell us we were in the wrong area to go that direction and helped us know where to go. We chatted with a couple from Quebec who were traveling around and gave us hitchhiking advice. So we changed location again. Impatiently, I announced that I was giving up hope and taking the taxi in 10 minutes. Just then, a (non-sketchy) woman pulled over. RIDE! “We’re actually doing this!” shouted my internal dialogue. Our driver was wonderful; she told us Corsican info and wouldn’t accept money.

She even pulled over at this memorial with a great view for us to read some history and take pictures!

We found our hotel easily…

Hotel, resort thing.

and only worried for a moment because the only one there to greet us for check in was a large green praying mantis.

Once 3pm struck we got in and then returned to the mostly closed town seeking dinner.

There were more boats than tourists!

We got to wander a bit and sort of found bread, cheese and wine, which would do for dinner. So we turned in early for the evening.

Corsica is known for good rose and red wine according to our driver.

While it is known for a lot of things, public transportation is not one of those things. Our questions of “what is there to do around here” were always greeted with “do you have a car?”, “No”. “……..uh-oh”.

So, the following day involved a lot of walking, a lot of beautiful views and a lot of going the wrong direction. We were never really lost, we had a map. A simple map. That we were confidently following. But we managed to follow it wrong multiple times. The consequences were not particularly upsetting and we were not the only ones confused. Perks included finding a kitty,

That really appreciated our attention

finding a place to kayak the next day and finding a building in ruins.

View from the wrong road. Not too much of a loss.

Finally, we found the correct trail but having taken longer than planned to get there, we stopped at a beautiful view and put our feet in the water.

View on the way down the correct trail!

We had to take shoes off to get out to those rocks but the water wasn’t cold and it was fun to climb around!

The evening held homemade soup followed by showers and a ton of the best chocolate ice-cream I can remember consuming.

Our only plans for the next day were Kayaking. (There was nothing else we could do within walking distance in November). We got up and went into town to explore a bit and wait for it to warm up. On our way into town we heard gunfire that went past Carina. Then a man in uniform (with a gun) asked us if we’d seen his dog. Nope. Walking on, we came across fresh footprints in mud, then fresh poop, then barking. Found the dog! Stellar detectives we are (the day before we had found a back pack and spent some time pondering that mystery too). Continuing, we accidentally found the church and fort we were planning on looking for. Unfortunately we couldn’t get inside so we decided to head to the boat place.

I got to hug a palm tree. One of my goals of the vacation!

Once afloat in our double, salt water kayak, it was just us, the view and some interesting birds. We made it a decent distance in a hour and a half. All the way to the previous day’s original destination, a half an old tower.

Voila!

The hike was supposed to take 3.5 hours but on a boat, short cuts (when the waves cooperate) were quick. The way back started out fierce paddling and loud singing to keep us going. Once we got closer and the wind wasn’t in our faces we got to just drift a bit and chat.
Back on shore we had a chance to thaw out in the shower and went to watch some locals play bocce ball. Dinner was filling pasta and pesto!

or “Boule” in French

The day of our return trip started out grim. While checking out we were informed the only way to get back was by taxi. “Duh, it’s a bank holiday, there are no buses on Sundays!” (is what it seemed like we were being told). A taxi would cost 85 euro. EURO. That’s $109.02! Depressed we headed toward town. Knowing our luck had run out, we made a sign for “Bastia S.V.P.” and walked with our thumbs out. Less than an hour later a car pulled over. A nice woman, her husband and granddaughter accepted us into their car. Enthused that it worked a second time we thanked them profusely and were on our way! The ride was fun. The woman used to teach French but now the two live in Paris and have visited the states several times. We even got to help Alex – their granddaughter- speak English. To kill time in Bastia before the airport shuttle, we wandered around a huge yard sale-market-bizarre thing and had a snack. I resisted buying Pirates of the Caribbean in French while on an island known for pirate history.

A view we came across while wandering around town before kayaking on day 2.

Saying goodbye to Corsica and le vacances, we journeyed home to finish homework. Home, to where our reliable tram was waiting to take us across town for free. 🙂

Emily

Rediscovering Socialisation

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I haven’t done anything dreadfully exciting recently, or at least I haven’t done anything that seems as exciting as it might have been the first couple weeks I was here. I’ve settled in and this is starting to feel normal. It baffles me that being in England no longer baffles me. I did take a trip to Scotland last week, which was nice. I don’t think I enjoyed myself as much as I did in Ireland, for whatever reason. I felt like I didn’t stay long enough, or that I didn’t have enough exciting experiences there, or maybe I just got used to traveling. Yeah, I’m a world traveler. Scotland. *sniff* Whatever. I will say, though, there are a surprisingly large number of Australians in Scotland, and no one has been able to give me a definite reason besides, ‘They both hate the English.’

Picture with Nessie next to Loch Ness

This weekend has been wonderful, though. I spent most of last week sitting in my room watching TV. All of my classes were canceled for Reading Week, or'”Catch-Up Week’ but I didn’t really do much catching up. I’m not friends with many people in my building, KF; rather, most of my friends here are two buildings down, in ER. I caught wind of a Disney movie marathon happening on Friday, for all the other people who had nothing to do, and I ended up in the ER common room watching Disney movies all day. It was great, because there were a bunch of other people doing the same thing.

Saturday night I decided to be productive and go to the library to work on a 1500-word paper due on Monday. I got some good work done and afterward ran into a couple girls on their way to ER to play a game. I went along and we ended up playing cards and movie trivia for the rest of the night. And of course, tonight, I came back to the ER common room to finish my paper, and I’ve got a couple people convinced that I actually live here.

Trip to Lake Windermere

Basically, I’ve been missing out on socialization for a couple weeks. I never thought I wouldn’t enjoy having my own room, but after a couple weeks in a single room in a different country, I got a bit lonely. And I just found an environment where I can get work done and also talk to people. It’s great. And it probably all sounds really cheesy, but I feel like I’m getting to a comfortable spot in my social life. It’s kind of awkward because I don’t actually live here but I know people here. So I think it’s okay.

I still have classes, by the way. I haven’t had much homework for the last six weeks, but I think this next week at least is going to feel like school. Lots of assessments coming up.

I probably won’t do a lot more traveling, at least outside of England. I’ve still got a bit of England to see, including London (but I’m not the only one who hasn’t been yet so that should work out) and Blackpool, where I’ve heard tell there is a Doctor Who museum. I also haven’t actually been out of the UK yet, I realized, but I’m  not sure where outside of the UK I’d like to go. Honestly, I wouldn’t be too upset if I didn’t make it out. But if I got the chance Rome would be cool. Maybe Greece. Maybe Spain. But again, my priorities were Ireland and Scotland. If you think I may be forgetting a place, let me know.

Words with Friends

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I don’t think I’ve ever actually played that game. I’m no good at scrabble. But I thought it was a fitting title!

Part 1: Learning French or Learning English?

The bridge we cross everyday on the tram.

On Friday I went into town excited for a more advanced ballet class than normal and…surprise! There was a pointe class as well! I was glad I had brought my shoes and that painful half hour was a good reminder not to go more than a month without doing releves en pointe.
Immediately after, I went to the ice-rink and had a great night of basically prom on ice. There were disco lights, loud music and dance circles included! This was a wonderful exposure to French culture and also led to a reflection on my own culture and language…

English is weird. Lost in Translation: We tried explaining “So” and its several different uses to a French man who doesn’t speak English. What a bizarre word.
If you know French, this is what we came up with: so = alors/donc and so = trés and so = comme ça.
Once returning home, I promptly looked up the “actual” definition of “so”.

Speaking of English…and in English…I find it interesting how no matter what the background noise, I can pick out my native language from even long distances away. Sort of like the way you can hear your name in a crowded room or you notice when someone isn’t speaking English walking down the street. It doesn’t matter what accent, dialect or anything of English it is, my ears will still perk up and I have to find the source. It is a comforting and familiar feeling to hear my mother tongue in a sea of Française.

I tend to not filter before I begin speaking in French, which, since I’m trying to learn the language can be good because I don’t avoid telling stories and things I don’t know how to say, but at the same time gets me into awkward situations in which I am just floundering for words and the moment gets lost. I usually just begin talking or telling a story before I realize that I have no idea how to explain nor the vocabulary to support my point.

While I’m on this topic, I may as well mention that this trip isn’t quite what I expected in terms of the amount of English I still speak on a daily basis. At first I was really worried that I was going to have a roommate and I’d be tempted to speak English too often. Then when I arrived, I was beyond relieved to have someone else who could help me learn and communicate or understand around the house. We’ve become a good team. It was (and still is) also wonderful to have a site director that speaks both languages and can answer all my questions and solve my problems. It’s especially nice after a long day of class, such as in September when it was a lot more draining, to have a place to go to be surrounded by a familiar lingo. However, as I’ve progressed and can more or less fend for myself, I wish I didn’t speak so much English. I still have to put in a serious effort to speak French even while living in France and it is a little frustrating. It takes extra time and effort to avoid English and fully immerse in French while living in France so I’m worried that I’ll lose it when I go home.

However, I’ve realized an appreciation for my mother tongue like never before. It’s actually pretty cool to master a language, and make jokes and puns and rhymes. Or use big words and slang.

Part 2: Quotidian
Quotidian is a fun French word that roughly translates to something along the lines of “Daily”. So this section is my daily culture lesson.

Saturday didn’t go as planned because the two hours I’d set aside for touring our local museum were the two hours it was closed for lunch break. So instead, I bought socks (honestly to put off doing laundry a bit longer) and watched the weekly excitement in the square. I believe it had something to do with rights this week…

The band was good! I got bisoued as we like to say by a band member. Its a franglish word for the french greeting of two kisses.

Lazy Sundayz
My roommates and I didn’t even leave the house this Sunday. We had a lazy homework day. We felt a little guilty but those days are good sometimes. Plus, since I had finished my homework I ended up being able to skype home! This week was the first time I’d used skype since coming to Europe and in one evening, I spontaneously talked to 3 friends, my whole family and my cat!

This is what Sunday evening often looks like. Homework, Skype, some facebook and youtube, And mostly just not studying till late at night because we get distracted by roommie bonding!

Look Both Ways
One of the weird things around here is cross walks. There are crossing lights that change regularly, but no one seems to pay much attention. Contrary to Austria (where there is a huge fine for crossing on red) the French just cross when clear and cars just go. Usually it’s safer to go on red. Monday, I began to walk on a green light in the cross walk and was almost taken out by a large truck.

Crosswalk sign from Google images. I’m not sure where my picture is.

Joyeuse Anniversaire
Tuesday was my (real) mom’s birthday. Tuesday was also my host dad’s birthday! For my mom, my friends and I made a video that included “Happy Birthday” in about 8 languages. For my host dad, we brought him wine and had a slightly fancier than normal dinner!

Parlez-vous française?
Homework is picking up and we got to meet our conversation partners on Wednesday evening!  These are French students that want to practice English and help us with French. We are assigned to people but the first meeting was all of us together to avoid awkward silence. My partners are two 18 year old girls and they don’t speak a ton of English. So far we don’t know each other very well but I hope to hang out son. In the mean time, Carina and I met a young woman wanting to practice English that we’ve met with twice in a café. She offered to help us with homework when possible. It’s really hard to not use English. It’s hard to meet people when you only have basic conversation skills and a whole group of Americans around all the time.

Four Day Weekend
After many dead ends, we finally made plans for Toussaint! With the help of site director Sue or rather our travel agent Sue, we planned our trip to Corsica! One day in high school French class we watched a presentation about a mysterious beautiful Island off the coast of France. Corsica is a popular vacation spot and I assumed I’d never get to go there. So I tried my best to ignore the trip packages and forget about this surreal place. Thursday the 25th of October, I bought plane tickets to go there. Real life.

Flannel
Friday morning as I got dressed I was stressing slightly that my Oregonian-ness was showing too much because I was wearing a flannel button-up shirt.  When I got downstairs I got more worried because my host mom (who wears wedges to leave the house) asked me if I was going to wear “that” to school. I guess I was right. I was her if it wasn’t European enough and she hurriedly explained “Non, non! C’est jolie! Pas trop Americaine!”. Turns out she was just worried I’d be too cold.

Finally,I bought Harry Potter a l’ecole des sorciers and have been attempting to read it. I figured reading a book I know and love in French would help make it easier to get through, but as it turns out, I’m finding that I get board because I know too well what is going to happen and so I don’t actually need to translate the French.

The cover!

C’est tout!
Bisous