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!
