October 1st was the first day trip for IES outside of orientation week, and we visited Mont St. Michel and St. Malo (a beach city in the north of France). It also happened to be 85 degrees that day. We had a ton of free time at Mont St. Michel which was perfect... it was too touristy to try to go on a guided tour. I loved it though; we walked around the "mountain" (I think it's too small to be considered a mountain, but I wasn't the one to name it after all) for a few hours and got to see the chapel and everything around the island. I ate the best -- and my first -- gaufrette there and it was quite possibly the best thing I've eaten in France. There was a slight problem as we were trying to leave Mont St. Michel because one of the buses decided that working wasn't necessary, but thankfully almost everyone fit on the first bus. I was one of the lucky ones that made it onto the working bus. St. Malo was an adorable little beach town with a bunch of little shops, including a 5 Euro shop that was AWESOME. I bought a hat there that I love. :) I also went into a cute little chocolate shop and bought myself some chocolate... I gotta say, I was rather unimpressed. I'm hoping Nantes' chocolate can blow me away. We went to the beach at St. Malo, so I can officially say that I was in the English Channel/both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. They run into each other, so I'm counting the Atlantic haha. St. Malo was also the town in which I had my first croque monsieur in France. It was the cheapest thing on the menu, so of course that was what I got! And it's France.. everyone NEEDS a croque monsieur in France!
October 15th and 16th IES took us on a tour of the châteaux of the Loire Valley. It was an insanely busy trip, but I'm SO glad that I went.
The first châteaux that we visited was Montgeoffroy in Anjou. Absolutely nothing has changed since 1775, when it was finished being constructed. Insane right?! There was a small chapel on the property, which was insanely gorgeous with lots of stained glass on the inside, as well as a kitchen with servants' entrances totally apart from the living area. There was also a round room where they kept all kinds of supplies for horse back riding. The really crazy part? People actually live in this château!! It's a super old family of dukes, but because the château is in such good condition, they let tours go through while they're not there. There was also an original signed document by Napolean Bonaparte. I almost died, not gonna lie.
The next château was Azay-le-Rideau, where unfortunately I don't have a little guide book for because it was a free visit. It was great as a free visit; there wasn't really a lot in the château, but it was surrounded by water on 3 sides and had an adorable little park right next to it so we were all able to lay down on the grass. After we got sandwiches at a little brasserie (sandwich shop), of course! I think while it was one of my favorite visits in general, we had a little too much time there.
Villandry was the 3rd and final château of the day. I was sad because we didn't get nearly enough time there. Not only was the inside of the château totally decorated, but there were also some AMAZING gardens. Google it. For real. The château was finished in 1536... and is still standing. Ridiculous. In my opinion anyway. The French knew how to build things. ;) The gardens were so amazing I can't even begin to describe them.. Google them, Google Earth them, or eventually look at my Facebook... when I FINALLY upload all of my photos.
That night we had dinner at the hotel, which was completely amazing, and went out to celebrate my friends' birthdays. The only problem was, we got lost in Tours, so we didn't actually go anywhere. Oh well.
The next day was October 16th, and among it being a day where I saw 2 more châteaux and returned to Nantes, it was also the day that I found out that a kid I literally grew up with passed away. It was a very, very hard day for me, which I hope will hope to excuse what I remember from that day, which unfortunately isn't very much other than crying quite a lot. We left the hotel to go to Ambroise, where Leonardo da Vinci is buried. The tomb is in the small chapel on the property, and there is also a bust of da Vinci in the gardens. We could also see the house that da Vinci lived in from the property. It was really cool.
Then... finally... we went to the last château, Chenonceau. I was super exhausted by the time we got to this château, but something that stuck out to me about this one was that there was a gallery that they turned into a hospital for wounded soldiers during WWI. There were also several gardens, also beautiful, but not as much so as Villandry, a farm, and a maze. The bedrooms included Diane de Poitier's (King Henri II's favorite mistress... he gave the château to her. I wish), François I's (King of France from 1515-1547), Louis XIV's drawing room (King of France from 1643-1715 - he became King at 4 years old), Katherine Briçonnet's hall (the wife of the original owner of the château), Catherine de' Medici's bedroom (wife of King Henry II), and other famous people in history that I just don't want to mention. Something important though, is that the 2 gardens are named after Diane de Poitier and Catherine de' Medici. The whole château is a really cool shape too. The bottom of it is arch after arch after arch that suspends the whole building over water. Google it. :)
This, thank God, brings us to the end of this blog post. Sorry it's so long!
À plus!
Sam
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Is this real life?
Wow.. I haven't updated in almost 2 months. Jesus. A LOT has happened. Lots of traveling, class things, midterms, crazy amounts of homework, and lots of hanging out with friends :)
So September 17th and 18th was Journée du Patrimoine, which is a weekend where all museums are open to the public completely free. They do this all over France, which is pretty cool. My friends and I went to the Musée de Beaux Arts de Nantes which is a pretty cool art gallery in Nantes. this was the first time in almost a year it had been opened, and closed again after the weekend. There was mostly modern art, which isn't really my thing, but it was okay. Some of the paintings looked like paintings my nephew made when he was like 6 years old, but if some people want to call it art, so be it. We also went to the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle de Nantes which was pretty freaking cool. They had so much stuff in that museum, including a giant sequoia and a bunch of cross sections of tree trunks. They also had a giant whale skeleton, tons of shells and stuffed animals (pretty creepy, not gonna lie) and rocks and gems and that kind of thing. It was huge. We were there for a really long time because there was just so much to see. The same weekend we visited the Château des ducs de Bretagne, which is also in Nantes. It's from the 15th century and HUGE. There's a museum inside and there are artifacts with plaques all over the place, so you know what's what. Nantes was a big slave trade city because of how close it is to the ocean, so they had a lot of history about slavery. It was pretty interesting. A lot of the museum was dedicated to Nantes' history as well, so they had a ton of statues of Anne de Bretagne (the saint of Nantes) and information about her, as well as old advertisements and other cultural history. It was really interesting.
My birthday weekend was pretty laid-back. My friends made dinner for me on the Saturday before my birthday (it was super cute) and then we went to a bar and to the largest discothèque in Nantes. Girls get in free, so that was pretty awesome. It was super fun and really a great way to spend a birthday weekend. The day of my birthday we went back to the fair that was in town and rode the ferris wheel (again) so that we could get pictures of Nantes from above the city. The photos turned out great. I also had a delicious ice cream cone that was my present from my friends. It was very chill. I appreciate chill so much now... everything here is so hectic all the time.
My birthday weekend was pretty laid-back. My friends made dinner for me on the Saturday before my birthday (it was super cute) and then we went to a bar and to the largest discothèque in Nantes. Girls get in free, so that was pretty awesome. It was super fun and really a great way to spend a birthday weekend. The day of my birthday we went back to the fair that was in town and rode the ferris wheel (again) so that we could get pictures of Nantes from above the city. The photos turned out great. I also had a delicious ice cream cone that was my present from my friends. It was very chill. I appreciate chill so much now... everything here is so hectic all the time.
Between then and the next major chunk of the blog post, there were a lot of crepes, a lot of ham sandwiches (what I eat for lunch literally every day) and a lot of Nutella and Speculoos. Speculoos is this amazing spread that tastes like crushed up Cinnamon Teddy Grahams. It's so phenomenal. Like ridiculously good. I'm bringing a jar back with me and will probably cry when it's gone.
The next blog post will start the 15th of October. I'm breaking my blogs up so it's not a 10 page blog entry :)
Til next time!
Sam
Til next time!
Sam
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
So it's been a while
It's been a loooong time since I updated... sorry. :-/ As of late, I have been epically failing at doing anything other than reading, getting lost/wandering around, spending money and watching True Blood. But a lot of crazy things have happened, so I'm going to get started. :)
I got here on September 7th after a VERY tight squeeze in my seat on the airplane (when I crossed my legs, my knee was literally touching the seat in front of me. Ew.) Because of how tight it was and the ridiculous amount of turbulence, no sleep for this girl. However, I managed to make it through Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris without getting too lost, which was amazing in and of itself. It's pretty big. But also very, very ugly. O'Hare looks like Heaven compared to Charles de Gaulle. We were there for about 3 hours before we caught the TGV (really fast train) to get to Nantes. We definitely rode right past Disneyland in Paris. It kind of made my day haha. As soon as we got into Nantes, we were railroaded into taxis to get to the IES Center where our families were waiting for us. My host mom drove me to the house where I found an AMAZING room waiting for me. Pictures are on facebook :) I was super exhausted, so I went to bed pretty early only to have to be up by 8 to leave for our off-site orientation.
Off-site orientation was in Vannes, which is right on the ocean. And more beautiful than anything I've ever seen before. Even though it rained everyday. Apparently rain is pretty common in France. Anyway, IES kept us super crazy busy with activities and trips and for talking, it was all-French-all-the-time. It made getting to know the 67 other people here pretty difficult, so everyone cheated to English when none of the directors were around. Oh well. I had my first breakdown in Vannes the 3rd day I was in France. I roomed with a good friend of mine (thank God), but it was still completely overwhelming. I called my mom sobbing telling her I wanted to go home. I missed everyone a lot. And still do, but most of the time I'm ok now. Obviously, she told me I couldn't come home, as I am still here. I think that was basically all that happened in Vannes. Pictures are on my Facebook from our excursions :)
We got back to Nantes in the late afternoon on September 11th. It was definitely weird to be here when 9/11 is always so special to the US, and for good reason. IES did send us a nice little email to warn us not to speak English in public or go to McDonalds or KFC while abroad. I assume the Pizza Huts and Dominos that are here were also included ;) There really is a surprising amount of American food and brands here. As one of our grad students said, "Although the French don't like Americans, they do like American things."
On-site orientation started Monday, Sept 12th and was a lot of safety information and things like that. Essentially, don't be stupid or broadcast that you're American. They gave us some lovely information on all the money we would have to spend right away.. 32 Euro for a bus pass, 30-50 Euro for a cell phone, 55 Euro for our Visa confirmation doctor's appointment, food, better shoes, school bags, school supplies, books, etc. We finally got our registration materials on Thursday for registration Friday and thank God mine went pretty well. My schedule it really nice this year. It is as follows:
Monday -
10:45-11:45 French 373 - Advanced Language & Composition II
5:30-6:30 French 377 - Phonetics
Tuesday -
10:45-12 Art History 313 - French Classicism: Art and Architecture
5:30-6:30 Sociology 360 - Contemporary French Society
Wednesday -
1:45-3:45 FR 373 - Advanced Lang & Comp II
3:45-4:45 FR 377 - Conversation (the other part to Phonetics)
6:30-7:30 FR 377 - Phonetics (University of Nantes)
Thursday -
9:15-10:30 AH 313 - French Classicism
10:30-12 SO 360 - Contemporary French Society
12:30-3:30 TH - Theatre Production
6:30-7:30 FR 377 - Phonetics (University of Nantes)
Friday -
10:45-11:45 FR 373 Advanced Lang & Comp II
I feel like having only 1 class on Friday is going to be really nice after Thursdays. I'm really excited for my theatre class, though! We take a French script, practice it, memorize the lines and blocking, and then perform the play in a real French theatre with a real audience! It's a little scary though... my professor is a professional director, so we'll see what he thinks of me! All of my classes seem pretty interesting, though. I'm hoping they go well :)
My host mom has been being pretty passive aggressive lately... she is required to feed me breakfast every day and dinner 5 days a week. We have talked many times about the fact that I do not like fish, and yet last night, she served fish and was upset that I wouldn't eat it! Then, she stained some of my shirts and was put-off that I accepted her offer to re-wash them. She is required to do 1 load of laundry for me per week, and most of the other students' host moms iron their laundry, so it makes sense that their laundry takes 3-4 days. Mine, however, took 3 days and she literally balled up my laundry in a basket and then dumped it on my bed. ALL of my shirts and even my jeans were wrinkled. I didn't even know jeans could wrinkle! So if she keeps it up, I'm going to talk to her and then to the Center about getting reimbursed for going to the laundromat. I don't want all of my clothes to be constantly wrinkled. Not my thing haha. Especially when everyone here is always so fashion-forward!
But this has been a long enough post.. I'll probably update again after my birthday weekend!
À plus!
I got here on September 7th after a VERY tight squeeze in my seat on the airplane (when I crossed my legs, my knee was literally touching the seat in front of me. Ew.) Because of how tight it was and the ridiculous amount of turbulence, no sleep for this girl. However, I managed to make it through Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris without getting too lost, which was amazing in and of itself. It's pretty big. But also very, very ugly. O'Hare looks like Heaven compared to Charles de Gaulle. We were there for about 3 hours before we caught the TGV (really fast train) to get to Nantes. We definitely rode right past Disneyland in Paris. It kind of made my day haha. As soon as we got into Nantes, we were railroaded into taxis to get to the IES Center where our families were waiting for us. My host mom drove me to the house where I found an AMAZING room waiting for me. Pictures are on facebook :) I was super exhausted, so I went to bed pretty early only to have to be up by 8 to leave for our off-site orientation.
Off-site orientation was in Vannes, which is right on the ocean. And more beautiful than anything I've ever seen before. Even though it rained everyday. Apparently rain is pretty common in France. Anyway, IES kept us super crazy busy with activities and trips and for talking, it was all-French-all-the-time. It made getting to know the 67 other people here pretty difficult, so everyone cheated to English when none of the directors were around. Oh well. I had my first breakdown in Vannes the 3rd day I was in France. I roomed with a good friend of mine (thank God), but it was still completely overwhelming. I called my mom sobbing telling her I wanted to go home. I missed everyone a lot. And still do, but most of the time I'm ok now. Obviously, she told me I couldn't come home, as I am still here. I think that was basically all that happened in Vannes. Pictures are on my Facebook from our excursions :)
We got back to Nantes in the late afternoon on September 11th. It was definitely weird to be here when 9/11 is always so special to the US, and for good reason. IES did send us a nice little email to warn us not to speak English in public or go to McDonalds or KFC while abroad. I assume the Pizza Huts and Dominos that are here were also included ;) There really is a surprising amount of American food and brands here. As one of our grad students said, "Although the French don't like Americans, they do like American things."
On-site orientation started Monday, Sept 12th and was a lot of safety information and things like that. Essentially, don't be stupid or broadcast that you're American. They gave us some lovely information on all the money we would have to spend right away.. 32 Euro for a bus pass, 30-50 Euro for a cell phone, 55 Euro for our Visa confirmation doctor's appointment, food, better shoes, school bags, school supplies, books, etc. We finally got our registration materials on Thursday for registration Friday and thank God mine went pretty well. My schedule it really nice this year. It is as follows:
Monday -
10:45-11:45 French 373 - Advanced Language & Composition II
5:30-6:30 French 377 - Phonetics
Tuesday -
10:45-12 Art History 313 - French Classicism: Art and Architecture
5:30-6:30 Sociology 360 - Contemporary French Society
Wednesday -
1:45-3:45 FR 373 - Advanced Lang & Comp II
3:45-4:45 FR 377 - Conversation (the other part to Phonetics)
6:30-7:30 FR 377 - Phonetics (University of Nantes)
Thursday -
9:15-10:30 AH 313 - French Classicism
10:30-12 SO 360 - Contemporary French Society
12:30-3:30 TH - Theatre Production
6:30-7:30 FR 377 - Phonetics (University of Nantes)
Friday -
10:45-11:45 FR 373 Advanced Lang & Comp II
I feel like having only 1 class on Friday is going to be really nice after Thursdays. I'm really excited for my theatre class, though! We take a French script, practice it, memorize the lines and blocking, and then perform the play in a real French theatre with a real audience! It's a little scary though... my professor is a professional director, so we'll see what he thinks of me! All of my classes seem pretty interesting, though. I'm hoping they go well :)
My host mom has been being pretty passive aggressive lately... she is required to feed me breakfast every day and dinner 5 days a week. We have talked many times about the fact that I do not like fish, and yet last night, she served fish and was upset that I wouldn't eat it! Then, she stained some of my shirts and was put-off that I accepted her offer to re-wash them. She is required to do 1 load of laundry for me per week, and most of the other students' host moms iron their laundry, so it makes sense that their laundry takes 3-4 days. Mine, however, took 3 days and she literally balled up my laundry in a basket and then dumped it on my bed. ALL of my shirts and even my jeans were wrinkled. I didn't even know jeans could wrinkle! So if she keeps it up, I'm going to talk to her and then to the Center about getting reimbursed for going to the laundromat. I don't want all of my clothes to be constantly wrinkled. Not my thing haha. Especially when everyone here is always so fashion-forward!
But this has been a long enough post.. I'll probably update again after my birthday weekend!
À plus!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Preparations...
I leave in 6 days and have yet to pack a thing.. or clean my room. I did, however, get a super cute duffel bag for traveling. I was looking for one so that on trains, I don't need to worry about lugging around a suitcase. Mr. Fetterer (the high school Spanish teacher) also informed me that the nightlife in Nantes is great, so I don't need to worry about going out on my 21st birthday :) The debate is still ongoing about traveling into Paris, though. It's crazy that departure is coming so soon.. I'm keeping a regular correspondence with my host mom, though, and today found out that there will possibly be 1 or 2 Indian students also staying with us. Not gonna lie, I'll be pissed if I don't have my own room. I'll be skyping at all kinds of crazy hours haha. She also asked me to bring macadamia nuts "if I could possibly maybe remember" because she likes to make "American cookies" and you can't buy macadamia nuts in France. She sounds really adorable and I'm super excited to meet her! I'll probably update again once I start (or finish) packing, since not much else is happening.
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