Excursion to Cote d'Azur

            Well, I would be lying if I said there weren’t problems along the way, including unexpected illnesses and people getting lost on a mountain, but despite these setbacks, our group had a generally very fun and relaxing trip to the Cote d’Azur (southern coast of France).

We boarded a train Friday morning (fastest.train.ever.) and by the early afternoon, we were lying on the beach under the sun and swimming in the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean.

That night, we ate a great buffet dinner together at the hotel we were staying at and were all amused by the cards reserving our tables:

Later that night, some friends and I gathered together in one of our hotel rooms and a couple girls played guitar for us late into the night.

Saturday, after breakfast at the hotel, we walked about a mile down the road and hiked up the small mountain of Agay. The deep orange color of the landmark itself was astounding, and once at the top, we had a spectacular view of the ocean and surrounding hillside. It was a nice workout for us, too!

After lunch, it was time for the much-anticipated scuba diving experience. One of our professors who joined us on the trip has a close circle of friends, all of who are scuba diving instructors, who took us diving for the afternoon. Each of us had a turn to try for a bit. We were each paired up with an instructor and went one at a time while those still waiting were able to sit on the dock and the beach, relaxing and playing music. Nearly everyone enjoyed their diving experience. There was a lot to see on the ocean floor: fish, interesting plants, starfish. The breathing process proved fairly difficult for me, so I unfortunately did not last as long as I would have liked underwater, but what I did see was very cool

That night after dinner, everyone had a lot of energy and we were singing and playing guitar again loudly in the hallway when the girl working at the bar in the lobby came in. We thought we would be in trouble, but instead, she encouraged us to come out into the lobby and play for the other hotel guests, so we did. Practically our entire group ended up coming out of their rooms and sang and played with us. Even our scuba diving instructors and our professors joined us. One of our professors had brought along his own guitar and went and got it. Later that night, we walked down the road to the beach and spent some time down there together.

Sunday morning we left the hotel for the train station, and on the way we stopped and saw some ancient Roman runes in Agay. We were back in Dijon by about 8 PM. It was a very busy weekend!

This coming Saturday, we will be traveling to Paris, so I will be sure to take many pictures and update when I get back!

La Chouette

            As I was going through the blog posts I have done thus far in my head, I was shocked and a little disappointed in myself, as I have yet to mention la chouette! La chouette is a very important symbol in Dijon, and because I feel so badly that I haven’t mentioned it until now, I will devote an entire post to it here.

            In English, “la chouette” means “the owl”. Here in Dijon, there is a Notre Dame cathedral just down the street from my house (which is BEAUTIFUL, by the way. I feel so fortunate that it is so close). Jutting out from the left-hand side of the church carved into stone is a little figure of an owl---la chouette---that is probably no more than six inches tall. Tourists and even locals flock to la chouette all day, as la chouette, if you rub it, will bring you good luck. (NOTE: la chouette will only bring you luck if you rub it with your left hand. If you rub it with your right, this will bring you bad luck). As you can see from the photo, la chouette has been rubbed for good luck so many times, it has been worn down and is much less distinguishable than it once was.

            Naturally, la chouette is a good-luck symbol that Dijon has thoroughly adopted. Almost everywhere I go in Dijon, I see pictures and post cards and figurines and all sorts of paraphernalia associated with la chouette. On the cobblestone streets of Dijon, there are brass arrows all over the place with little owls and numbers on them. If you choose to follow a certain number, the arrows will take you all around Dijon to see some of the city’s most important historical buildings/monuments. If you are very devoted and follow all the paths, eventually you will arrive at la chouette herself. 

Excursion to Saint-Romain

This past Saturday, my group took a bus with our professor to visit Saint-Romain and the surrounding area. We left in the morning and drove through some beautiful French countryside for about an hour. Our first stop was at an old chateau that we explored and toured for the morning. Apparently, this chateau in Saint-Romain belonged to a royal French family for many generations. We weren’t able to take pictures of the interior, but the exterior is the most stunning anyway! (I absolutely love the roofs on some of the buildings here! On many of the very old buildings, the roofs are  patterned with many different colored shingles, as is the roof of this chateau)

After visiting the chateau, we took the bus along the stunning cliffs of Saint-Romain and met our two other professors at one of their houses for a lovely, very French lunch that his wife had prepared for us. His house has the most stunning view of the cliffs of Saint-Romain and all the vineyards. When we weren’t eating, we spent a lot of time in the backyard overlooking the fields.

Before departing back to Dijon, we were able to stop at a winery with our three professors. The workers (one of whom was American) showed us all the machinery and inner-workings of the wine making process. I have never seen so many grapes in my life. They tasted great!

It was a good weekend. This week it has gotten a little cooler but has been overall, very pleasant. I will update again soon!

Les Differences Entre les Deux

After having lived in France for more than a week, I have noticed several differences between the French and American cultures. I thought I might share some of them with you all in this list:

1.     1. Shoes. In almost every house, you have to have shoes on your feet at all times. Every family has different rules about shoes. Some only allow slippers in the house and others allow other kinds. In my house, everyone has a pair for indoors and a pair for outdoors that we keep by the door.

2.    2. Dessert. Dessert in America, of course, would be something along the lines of some ice cream or a cookie after dinner. Here, it typically means fruit and yogurt (though today after dinner we had a delicious apple tart my host mom had just baked). Sweets are more common earlier in the day, around lunchtime.

3.     3. School schedules. At its minimum when I was in elementary school, we were allowed a 20 minute lunch. Here, we receive 2 hours (that’s 6 times the minutes) for our lunch break at school. Granted, there are days when I have to be at school until 6:30 or 7, as opposed to the 2:05 release I am used to.

4.     4. Telling time. The French use what we know as “army time” and I am finding it very difficult to adapt to. Luckily everyone who knows I am American will refer to the time as I know it to be so that I’m not stuck doing the math in my head.

5.     5. Bread. It’s delicious here. Better than any bread you can find in the US. (However, it did take me an entire week to find a place that uses non-white bread.) Walking down the streets of Dijon, on several occasions, I have seen people with big long loaves of the classic “French bread” sticking out of a shopping bag or purse. It is also not uncommon to see people walking down the street just chewing on a big loaf of French bread that’s roughly half their height. I love juxtaposition, and I find this very comical.

6.     6. Birds. They are not afraid of you here. Many of us, since arriving, have had very close run-ins with pigeons that fly a little to close to our heads. It can be a little terrifying, but also very funny. The birds here also look different from the birds I am used to back home.  Their colors and patterns are generally more dramatic here.

7.     7. Electricity. I really have to applaud the French for their preservation tactics regarding water and electricity. It helps the planet and saves money. The general rules are as follows:

a.     Lights don’t need to be on until the sun sets. It’s perfectly easy to see.

b.     Lights should not be on in a room unless you are in the room in question and it is dark. This applies for staircases as well. If it’s dark and you’re going down a staircase, turn the light on, but once you reach the bottom, turn it off again.

c.      Showers should be kept very short. At my house, I try to keep my showers down to 2 minutes.

8.     8. Grades. Rather than getting an A, B, C, D, or F, let alone a percentage grade, in France, grades are given on a 0-20 scale. Our teacher keeps reminding us not to think in percentages, and that anything above a 14 is a very strong grade, despite the percentage being the equivalent of a C in the US. 16 and above, we were told, is an A+.  No teacher gives 20s and it is rare to find one who will give an 18 and above.

9.     9. Loitering. I know this is a random one but I find the rule to be very entertaining. In Dijon, you can be arrested on the spot for “loitering.” However, there is an interesting loophole. If you are loitering, BUT you have a dog with you/next to you, you cannot be arrested.

So there they are! Those are some of the little differences I have picked up on during my first week here. I’m sure as time goes on, I will be able to share even more.  I am having lots of fun exploring this new city and I look forward to learning even more about it!

Settling In

            Today is my fourth day living with my host family. I moved in on Sunday morning and we had a beautiful lunch, then walked around the area of the city where I now live. I am lucky enough to be right at the center. To get to school in the morning, I leave the house, take a few turns, and within about five minutes I can be waiting for the bus with a few other students who live in my area.

            I am taking five classes over here: two language classes daily at the university, a French history class with my professor at his apartment (also conveniently very close to my house), a French art history class at the local art museum, and a general history class at the local lycee (high school). Everything in this city, I have learned, is very accessible by bus. There are many lines that run every five to ten minutes and as long as you know where you need to go, you can easily find a bus to get you there. The day before we met our host families, some friends and I decided we would figure out the busses for ourselves and successfully took one to the large lake on the outskirts of the city where we walked the path around the area.

            I can tell already that my French is improving a lot, especially from taking to my host mom at dinner (who is very very nice). I can’t believe it’s only been a week----it feels like I’ve done so much already!

First Days

It has been an exciting first few days in Dijon! Despite some of us getting lost from our group in the airport, our trip here was fairly uneventful. Our plane ride was smooth and I was able to sleep a little bit and adjust fairly quickly to the time change.  Once landing in Paris, we boarded a bus to Dijon. Driving through the French countryside was a very interesting experience. For miles there were fields after fields after fields, many with cows grazing in them, and then a small village of as few as twenty houses all clustered together with majestic old chapels reaching up between the weathered red rooftops. I didn’t expect villages like this to still exist in modern-day France, and I found their rusticity to be very cool.

            Once we arrived in Dijon, we made our way to the hotel we will stay at until Sunday when we move in with our host families. In the evening, we were able to walk around the beautiful old city and explore. I have never seen such stunning architecture. I am very impressed with how well maintained the buildings are as well, because many of them are clearly hundreds of years old We then went to our professor’s beautiful apartment to have pizza for dinner and then went back to our hotel to sleep.

            On our second day, we had a very French breakfast (croissants, bread, jam, juice, coffee, tea…) and then went to the university to take our placement exam and have lunch on campus. Groups of us wandered around and did a little school supply shopping, and then most of us met up and outside of a local café/bar in the center of the city. We then took a bus to meet our new history professor, who is very funny, and went out to dinner and had a dinner that included escargots on our salads. We had all noticed walking through Dijon previously that there were many lights and a stage being set up at the center of town and later figured out that it was a free concert featuring a very popular French singer. After dinner we walked to the concert and were very excited to hear that several of this artist’s songs included English lyrics that we could actually understand clearly amidst the noisiness of the crowd.

            We have done a great deal of exploring the city while staying in our hotel. Today we meet and move in with our host families.

            C’est tout pour maintenant!