this week in photos!

i've found that posting pictures on here is not the most simple of tasks.. it takes a little formatting to make it look right. so i've decided to stick to facebook for my picture postings. i just posted a full album entitled "january in france" which has all the pictures i've taken so far! please go check it out. :)

but, as promised, here is my dorm room:

i'm serious guys, this room is like a shoebox. but it's definitley growing on me.. for one person, it's not bad at all. and even though it is a little space capsule, having my own bathroom is a blessing!!

-jill

"wait, WHAT time is it??"

hello again!

let me just begin by saying that i love french. and i know that you all know that, because i’m sure it’s pretty obnoxiously obvious. but seriously, i still get a little giddy when i walk around the city centre and see signs in french. duh, jill, you live in france, of course the signs are in french. i know it sounds ridiculous, but i just can’t get over how great it is to be here and be immersed in it. it’s awesome.

anyway, since i was out pretty late on tuesday, wednesday morning was a slow one for me. but still, i got up around 9:15 and made it to my 10am with time to spare.. living on campus is such a blessing. i don’t have to worry about taking the bus every morning to a different side of town like the tourism students or the medical students. i just have to walk about 200 yards. win! i had a translation class (version – english to french) which was pretty fun (and harder for me!). i went to the caf with djamel (decent lunch again, it’s growing on me!) and afterwards, we hit up the library for some homework time. i got a decent amount of translation done, thankfully. then i went to a class called “techniques d’expression orale” – which is essentially a speech class with a focus. this semester’s focus is “words and images” – which means we’re giving little exposés and talks on different works of art! the professor is SO nice, and really integrates the foreign students into the class. it’s going to be a fun semester in there for sure. i came back to my room for a little siesta and then we all started to make dinner... and that is where things went wrong.

so, the kitchen here consists of a stove top, a sink, a microwave, and lots of counterspace. no oven. which means that all the stuff i like to cook (manicotti, baked goods, etc) is a no-go here. and i’m the first to admit, i’m not the greatest stovetop cook. i can pretty much do pasta dishes and quesadillas. so by wednesday night, i’d gotten kind of sick of just making pasta nearly every night. but it’s so easy! and cheap! and quick! i decided i’d look up some more interesting pasta recipes to spice up my life. i found one that was this cheesy tuna noodle dish.. sounded great. i went to the super U to pick up tuna and stuff for a salad. problem. i bought my stuff (including bowtie pasta!), came back, and started cooking – which involved opening the tuna. it was DISGUSTING. i had (thoughtlessly) purchased tuna in OIL instead of in water.. and the tuna itself was this dark brown colour, all ground up and mushy. i’m not kidding, i almost gagged when i popped the lid off. it was straight-up cat food. but, i was brave (and hungry) so i tried to drain the oil and add a little mayonnaise. wrong choice. not only did the oil not drain well, the mayo just made it this pasty, slimy, smelly mess. i abandoned the tuna and decided to just do cheesy noodles. except the cheese i had was NOT adequate. it just made this runny cream solution. so i added some red sauce to get a sort of rosé cheesy tomato sauce and stirred in the pasta. it was looking pretty bland. so i added my salad to the pan – spinach, tomato, and raisins. that was the saving grace – the meal actually ended up being pretty good once it had some colour and flavour variety! dinner was alright after all.

that evening, i watched the classic animated film “an americal tail” – about the little russian mouse fievel mousekewitz – my friend shane’s favourite movie. he’d been wanting to watch it for about a week, so last night we decided to make a little party of it. it was me, shane, danielle, and (halfway through the movie) emma. we sat in shane’s room and ate vienetta ice cream cake and ferrero duplo bars – great fun. after the movie, i went to emma’s and we had girl talk until the wee hours of the morning. wonderful. :)

thursday was another earlyish morning, with two translation classes back to back and 10 and 11. they were both thème classes, french to english. the first was a level one course, slightly easier. the second was level two, in which we translated a passage with a little more literary value. there were some seriously nice french people in that class! we had a good time comparing translations and vocabulary. after class, i came back to do some homework and nap (again – love the siesta). a bunch of us had made plans to go to a film screening in town that evening. this week, the film festival “premiers plans” is going on. it’s actually a pretty big deal in france – some famous directors were discovered at it in previous years. we all met up at the bus stop around 6 and headed into town for the 7:15 movie. when we got there, rachel informed me that one of the judges of the festival was clémence poésy – the actress who played fleur delacour in the harry potter movies!!! i was overjoyed. the feature we’d picked didn’t really have a title – it was just a double showing of a short film and then a longer one. they were official entries, though, so we figured they’d be good. or at least good examples of artsy, indy french cinema. we were right, but in the second sense. both the short and long films were SO MESSED UP. like, stories about depressed suicidal german hipster teenagers and paranoid homicidal swedish medical students. if i had known what either movie was about, i would have never gone to see them. but oh well.. now i can at least cross “artsy, indy film festival” off my list. check. AND clémence walked literally within 2 feet of me after the film. so that was cool.

after the film, a couple people of our group broke off to go to a party in town, and the rest of us went to the casa de cuba. i got my chocolat viennois (delish) and ended up eating half of jessie’s whipped cream. but i did walk like 2 miles yesterday. so that’s not too bad, right?? right. we stopped by another bar called “les varietes” to listen to karaoke for a while and then caught the 12:50 bus back to campus. emma had a pretty tough night, so she, shane and i hung out in her room once we got back. we talked and talked and watched youtube videos and talked, until all of the sudden.. it was like 6:30 am. oops. bedtime for me.

i ended up not sleeping TOO late.. just until like 12:30. but i did make myself get up and shower, and then do a bunch of homework (and write this blog) so that i don’t feel TOTALLY lazy. later tonight, i’m going to a farewell party for one of the british students. he’s headed to spain for the semester! should be a fun night.

miss you all!

-jill

plus belle, la vie.

there is something comforting in the thought that lazy days are great all over the world. it doesn’t matter if you’re in your bedroom at home, dorm room at school, or shoebox overseas.. there is nothing like waking up late, staying in bed all day writing and doing homework, and then sitting in the kitchen talking to people – it’s just great no matter where you live.

that pretty much sums up my sunday. i was exhausted after the day trip to saumur on saturday, so once i made it to bed around 2am, i was down for the count. i think i woke up somewhere in the ballpark of noon on sunday (rare for me, but i was seriously tired). i then proceeded to grab my laptop and write the previous blog entry about friday and saturday. but not only did i blog. oh, no. i wrote TWO of my assignments for the third year writing class i’m taking online through belmont. and i did half my writing self-assessment survey! it was an extremely productive lazy day.. if that makes sense. i did a little bit of cleaning and decorating once i decided i needed to leave my bed, so my room looks a bit prettier now (i know i need to post pictures of it, i will soon!).

the highlight of my sunday was DEFINITELY tuning in to the live feed of the 11am service at rolling hills community church. i’ve always noticed the camera guy at church, mostly because he is the reason pastor jeff is rockin’ the double big screen. i knew that the services were online, but i’d never needed to watch from home, considering how close i live to rolling hills. this week was different. around 5:45, i pulled up the page, hoping that my internet connection would be fast enough to support the feed. right at 6, the familiar sounds of the worship band came ringing through the airwaves.. out of the amps and across the ocean, right to my speakers. i swear, i could have cried. and to be quite honest, i stood up and sang like i was in the sanctuary with the rest of my college ministry. the connection was a little rocky, so it did pause a few times.. but it was SO GREAT to have that small piece of home. and they played two of my favourite songs! “and if our God is with us, then who could ever stop us? and if our God is for us, then what could stand against?” love it. i even got to keep up with the “momentum” series! pastor jeff’s sermon was fantastic, and very applicable (as usual). it’s more important than ever for me to keep my momentum going – these are trying times. and there are certainly things standing in the way of my walk with God here! (not the least of which being the lack of a church..) but i can’t complain. i just praise the Lord for the internet!! the best part of the whole service, though, was a part of it that i usually dismissed as unimportant. this week though.. it was amazing. at the end of the service, as a means of dismissal, pastor jeff says “let us stand together and i’ll pray a blessing over all of us.” typically, that just means “get up, it’s time to leave” for me. but this week, when i stood up, i knew that 4,000 miles away, there was a whole congregation standing with me. and that the blessing wasn’t just prayed over the people in that room, but over me too. because i am part of a community. one that cares enough about its congregation to extend a sense of belonging and welcoming all the way around the world. words cannot express what that truly meant to me.

that evening, i cooked dinner in the kitchen on my floor as usual. this week has illuminated a pattern that i’ve come to love. the usual dinner crew is a lovely mix of irish, canadian, and american students. we all get along famously. and after dinner, we usually just sit around the countertops and talk about random stuff for a couple hours. they’ve really made this place feel like a home. i hate to say it, but i think i like the dorm life here more than i do at home.. (sorry TK). the ability to gather in a kitchen is something you just can’t beat (even with a sweet theme song).

monday morning rolled around much, much too early. and by that i mean, i had a class at 10:30. i woke up around 9:30 (painful, considering how late i was up) and got ready for an epic battle of a class. on paper, it doesn’t seem so bad. “histoire de l’art” – art history. except it’s a level two course. and, oh yeah, it’s taught in french. i think the only thing that saved me was that i had studied art history in high school, so i had a little bit of a boost. the professor is so awesome! he’s this little, middle-aged french man with a moustache and large round glasses. he wears a long coat and scarf while he lectures. and he totally calls people out in class. it’s great, because it makes the 30 person “amphi” class seem very engaged. we talked about the renaissance artist rafael and some of his works. it seems like that class will mostly be memorization. which might be all i can handle, considering i have to catch every bit of the lecture, take notes, make sure what i’m writing is actually what the professor said, and THEN memorize it. yeesh. there are a few other foreign students in there, though, so we have a small support group.

the rest of monday was spent running errands, eating at the RU (“restaurant universitaire” – cafeteria), and – yet again – making dinner with the usual group. we were going to watching a movie, but ended up talking –again! – until it was way past our bedtimes. definitely sensing a trend here. it’s just so hard to tear myself away from great conversations though! and since we’re all new to each other, there’s always so much to talk about and learn from each other. maybe by the end of the semester, we’ll have normal bedtimes. :)

today was also pretty relaxing. my schedule is working out so that i don’t have classes on tuesdays or fridays, which is great! i got up this morning and showered before heading to the RU for lunch with djamel and his friend wecim. i ate the french version of a pig in a blanket, which is pretty much a regulation-sized hot dog inside a croissant. not bad at all. the rest of the afternoon was more errands – it takes a lot to get settled in a new country!! i picked up my debit card from the bank, got my foreign insurance situation figured out, and ate a tarte aux framboise (essential to the errands, i promise). i was going to go get my library card at the english speaking library, but i’d left the always necessary ID photos in my room.. merde. back to campus i went, without a single book. ah well. same story with dinner, except today i had BRINNER! cereal, banana with peanut butter/nutella, yogurt.. the works. it was delicious. around 9:30, we went to a bar called “l’abbeye” for a friend’s birthday. we ended up staying until midnight, just talking and having a good time. i’d say about 85% of the conversation i had was in french – win! and even more of a win, they were playing a rerun of the blackpool/man united match! and the tv they had was AWESOME. it was a giant projected screen, inside this super ornate and pretty gilded frame. it was wonderful. midnight rolled around, and we took the bus back to campus. nights like tonight make me so happy to be abroad – good people, good conversation, good atmosphere.. “ici, la vie est belle.” life is beautiful here.

the french walmart and a ten-mile day.

have you ever walked into walmart and thought to yourself, “we are probably the only culture on the planet with a store like this – you can find anything you need under one roof, it’s cheap, the parking lot is perpetually packed...” no? well i have. but on friday, i learned otherwise.

rachel (a fellow exchange student from belmont) had organized a little shopping excursion for us with her friend mathilde, a french girl from angers who had studied at belmont two years ago. mathilde came and picked us up in her grandfather’s car (another tiny citroyen, comparable to a small civic, i’d say) and took us to the french walmart – carrefour. it was in a shopping centre that included clothing stores, electronics stores, jewelers, bakers.. it was pretty all-encompassing. i went into carrefour with several specific goals. 3m hooks, a curtain rod, pencils, NORMAL paper... sadly, i only found 2. they indeed have curtain rods, and way better ones for dorm rooms! and of course, pencils. but unfortunately, 3m hasn’t made its way to france yet. and let me tell you about the paper. i know it sounds silly, paper is paper, right? wrong. here, they do not use regular lined paper. instead, they have 2 options – regulation graph paper (even though they’re not doing math!) or this weird lined paper / graph paper hybrid. it has the regular blue lines, but then four thinner, lighter, purple lines in between them. and a vertical line every centimeter! rachel and i are extraordinarily frustrated. but mathilde explained that when french children learn to write, they learn to form their letters very carefully and specifically. that explains why every french person i know has ridiculously well-spaced and even handwriting.. but yeah, no luck on the paper. i decided to give the weird hybrid type a try. after that discussion, we picked up a few more things (grocery shopping in a different country is always an adventure) and then headed back to the dorm to drop our things off. once it was all put away, rachel and i went downtown to run several errands before the businesses closed for the weekend. we got back around 6:30pm. we had intended to go out, but i ended up eating dinner and just chilling out, i was so tired from this week! i hung out in the kitchen (the usual community hang-out spot) on my floor with jessie (from maine), emma and shane (both irish) for a long time. jessie invited me to join her group for a daytrip excursion to saumur the following day, which i was excited to do! a bit later, three NEW irish people showed up!! there are nine here this semester now! emma and shane couldn’t believe it. but the new students were very sweet (and overwhelmed!), and we all talked for a long time. sleep would have come easy for me, if it hadn’t been for the alarm going off in the room directly below mine. literally all night. thank goodness i had earplugs in my backpack still!!

saturday was a very long but marvelous day. i woke up at 7am (much to my chagrin) and made myself get ready for the daytrip outing. i met the group outside my building at 8, at the bus stop in the freeeezing cold. the sun doesn’t rise here in the winter until around 8:30 or 9 right now, so it was pretty frigid (not as bad as home though! haha.). we took the bus to the train station, bought our tickets (8 euro for the round-trip! not bad), and sat in the café waiting for the 9:30 train. after drinking tiny coffees and snacking, we headed to the platform. once we were on the train, we got this SWEET compartment that fit all 8 of us!! it was two half-circle benches with tables in the middle, one on either side of the aisle. we felt like celebrities. our little group was comprised of three irish (emma, keith, and john), two canadians (natalie and andrea), a german girl maggie, and two americans (myself and jessie). the twenty-five minute trainride to saumur was too short – that train was so warm and cozy! but alas, all good things must come to an end.. haha. we hopped off the train and got to walking across the bridge to the city proper. saumur is a sweet little village, around 30,000 people. it is full of history and beautiful architecture. we walked around the saturday morning market for a while, and then walked up the hill to the chateau. unfortunately, like most public sights, the chateau was closed for winter. but we still got to walk around the grounds and get some good pictures of the castle and surrounding scenery! afterwords, we walked around the town some more before settling on a café for lunch. there is nothing quite like quiche lorraine in france.. yum. our return ticket was for 5pm, and we finished eating lunch around noon. saumur is a small place, so we had lots of time to kill.. it turned into a day of aimless wandering through the little back streets  of the village, which was lovely. we found the horseback riding academy and sat at the base of a big monument for about an hour, just talking and laughing. the sun had come out, so we warmed up enough to be comfortable. after a while, we decided to keep walking. around 4, we headed back across the river for the train station, where we caught our return train at 4:55. once we were on the train, i realized how much we had walked that day – i’m not exaggerating when i say it could be ten miles. phew! but it was a wonderful bonding experience. another short train ride found us back at the station in angers. we got onto the bus and headed back to campus. since the markets are closed on sundays, everyone needed to go to the market (the superU) to pick up groceries for the weekend. i came back and made pasta with greenbeans and bread/cheese as sides – so easy, so good. a bunch of the group went out again after dinner, to a big party that some of the spanish students were having. but it was way on the other side of town, and they were going to be out super late, so i declined. which ended up being a great choice, because i had a fantastic time talking with emma and shane. (emma, i know you’ll probably read this, so don’t make fun of me. :P) they are just so awesome, and have made my first week in angers (and in this dorm) so much better. plus, i’m learning a lot about hiberno-english, the dialect of english spoken in ireland. it is so beautiful, and i love how much it makes me think about linguistic differences. hooray for more bonding! we talked for quite a long time, and around 1am, we decided it was bedtime.

as i got back to my room and was getting ready for bed, i couldn’t help but think about how quickly the last seven days has passed. i’ve already accomplished so much! opening a french bank account, visiting a chateau, going to classes, using public transit.. my tiny little shoebox room is even growing on me, with its space capsule of a bathroom. it’s wonderful. i feel so blessed to have met such great people here too, and i know it only gets better from here. it’s strange to think that in four months, i’ll be done with school. and then in a little less than six months, i’ll be back in the united states! ah! i am going to try my absolute hardest to make this six months count for as much as i can, because who knows when i’ll get an opportunity like this again? probably never. that’s a deep thought. i can already feel myself growing and maturing – and it’s only been a week. i can’t wait to see who i am at the end of this semester abroad.

-jill