I feel like with my month of absence, I owe you a proper update.
We have had nonstop school for the last six weeks. After one free week to study when we got back from Christmas break, we were subject to the tortures of Exam Week. At the end of it, we were supposed to be rewarded with a trip to Nantes with the school but, since it SNOWED, we were instead rewarded with a day off, to do as we pleased.
When there's an inch of snow on the ground, Rennes shuts down. Every store was closed and the French locked themselves inside to escape the "wintry tundra." I woke up at 7:45am to check if we had school. As soon as I settled back into bed to sleep in, I hear my phone buzzing. My friend Alejandra was calling me and squealing into the phone:
"It's snowing! It's snowing, Laura, there's SNOW outside, ACTUAL REAL SNOW!"
She's from Florida and it was her first time ever seeing real snow. Since she only lives up the road, I walked to her house and we attempted to make a snowman and snow angels with the little snow that was on the ground. After our adventures in the winter wonderland, we went back to her house for hot chocolate.
I hopped on the bus (luckily, the number 9 was working) and made my way to my friend Melanie's house. I spent the day with her, watching movies and discussing life. I was supposed to go home relatively early, but since my bus stopped working I ended up sleeping over with her and Elizabeth.
I left pretty early the next day to go home and study for the SAT, but Grant and I met up in town later for a late lunch because he had been stuck way out in the suburbs for days thanks to the "blizzard."
On the 26th of January, we woke up horrendously early to get the bus to get to suffer through the SAT. Afterwards, Melanie, Omar, Perrin and I met Elizabeth and walked to Sainte Anne where we ate Greek sandwiches, complete with Tzatziki. We needed to unwind after the stressful morning.
The weather has been picking up, lately. On Saturday, I sat on a towel in my garden (for the first time this entire year) playing the harmonica with Alejandra. It was so nice to breath in fresh air without getting rained on.
The weather was lovely today, too, and we took full advantage. Grant woke me up at 10:10am and I sprinted to make the 10:31 bus. Which never came. I waited at the stop for 21 minutes until at 10:52 the bus slowly came to my stop. Everything seems to move slowly in France on a Sunday. I hopped on and was in République in record time, as everyone seemed to be in hiding this morning. Grant and I met and quickly found Will, who had invited us to coffee with his real family. They were visiting from England and we found the one open café in Rennes. Afterwards, we walked them back to their hotel and Will said goodbye to them at the Gare.
To celebrate the good weather and the fact that we only have a week left of school until Winter Holiday, we went to the American Diner and got burgers. Maybe the best decision ever made. We made our way through the streets of Rennes in the sunshine until we got to Parc du Thabor where Wes was eating lunch with his friend who's visiting from Boston, Jamie. She is so amazing and it was great to have her with us for the day. As Wes said, showing her around made us appreciate where we're living so much more.
We spent the rest of the afternoon eating and taking in the sun and talking about life in Rennes with Jamie and we ended the day at sunset on the steps on the Opéra eating ice cream. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, I must admit. I caught the next bus to my house and finished off my homework in time to write a seemingly never-ending blog entry. If you made it this far, I salute you.
Now to read Gatsby.
"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning .." ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Yours In Dysfunctional French,
-L
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
A Day In the Life
I figure that since it has been 5 months and 2 days since my arrival in Rennes, it's high time for a Day In the Life of An SYA Student post.
I'll use today as my example. And hey, Happy Valentine's Day!
6:45am - The alarm sounds and I reluctantly wake up to shower, get dressed and put my books in my bag. I stare blankly at the post it that I put on my mirror reminding me to put a USB in my backpack. I have a Lit dissertation today. I groan at the thought.
7:30am - I ascend the staircase (my room is on the lower level) and grab a coffee for breakfast while my host family sits around the kitchen table, each of them gazing at the table in a sleepy haze. I go back downstairs, put on my coat and we are out the door by 7:45. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays my host dad drops off my host sisters, Agathe and Clémence, and me but on Wednesdays and Fridays I start an hour later so I take the bus.
8:10am - I drowsily open the heavy door to Salle 6, a large classroom in a building detached from the school house that we fondly call le Jardin. It constantly smells like wet paint. I sit through a 45 minute Language class that consists of my teacher, Monsieur Raguin, acting out scenes from his favorite book, Le Parfum, while we follow along and laugh at him when he speaks English with a very British accent. Though he very rarely speaks to us in English, unless it's to explain a French expression that makes absolutely no sense.
9:00 am - My group and I walk back to the school house in the chilly Bretagne morning and ascend the stairs to Salle 4 for CESF (Culture et Société Française). It's a small, stuffy room, dominated by one enormous table that just about fits the 15 of us plus Pascal. The walls are plastered with maps of France, Europe and Bretagne and we discuss le conseil de l'Union Européen.
9:50am - The 15 of us drag ourselves to Salle 5, the room next door, and whip out the laptops. We have a dissertation on Voltaire's "L'Ingénu." Our French Literature teacher, Marie-Anne, is a lovely woman but very serious when it comes to the format of our essays so we type furiously for 50 minutes, attempting to meet the criteria of the prompt that she provides us with - How does Voltaire mock society and religion in his novel? We struggle to finish before time is up and hand her our USBs. A sigh of relief echoes throughout the classroom as we finish the class we'd dreaded all week.
10:40am - We go back to Salle 4 for Histoire. Monsieur Nicolas waits impatiently for us to sit down and we discuss Robespierre, les Jacobins, les Girondins and the Reign of Terror. He snaps at those who answer incorrectly but we laugh off his criticisms. He's a good egg underneath it all.
11:30am - Today is Thursday, which means we have a Période Disponible after lunch which we are supposed to use to meet with our Advisors but today the advisors have a meeting, so I have an extra free period in addition to lunch and my two frees afterward. Since it's Valentine's Day, a big group of us decide to treat ourselves to Indian. Juliana, Darby, Grant, Omar, Elizabeth and I hop on the Number 1 and walk from Sainte Anne to Hôtel Dieu. We order Chicken Tikka Masalas and Mango Lassis and enjoy the free time. Afterwards, we decide that the day is too beautiful to waste and we walk back to school in the sunshine. The sun is so rarely part of Bretagne weather that we take advantage as much as we can.
1:50pm - Some of our friends have a class, so Darby and I sit in the garden behind the school house, reading The Great Gatsby aloud and enjoying the nice weather. I use the rest of my time answering a college questionnaire for a meeting I have with the college counselor next period
2:40pm - I head to the college counselor's office and I face the dreaded talk about my future. We discuss what kind of colleges I'm interested in and before I know it it's time for math.
3:30pm - My first class of the afternoon starts. We sit through Trigonometry review in Precalc, try practice problems and take down homework.
4:20pm - We're reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in English and I'm absolutely mesmerized. We have a free discussion period in which we argue about Gatsby's persona and how it is interpreted by Nick. Is it all just an act? What is Jordan's role in their relationship? The period passes quickly and we finish up at 5:05pm.
5:25pm - Thursday is Peer Support day. My group decides to have our chat in the Jardin du Thabor and we laugh and discuss until 6pm. I go home on the bus, encounter a singing old man (see last entry, "Apologies") and head back to my host family's house, where I decided to describe my life to the internet. If anybody's even listening. You out there, world?
While I would love to write a million more entries, I have an essay on Hamlet to write. Until next time.
Yours in Dysfunctional French,
-L
I'll use today as my example. And hey, Happy Valentine's Day!
6:45am - The alarm sounds and I reluctantly wake up to shower, get dressed and put my books in my bag. I stare blankly at the post it that I put on my mirror reminding me to put a USB in my backpack. I have a Lit dissertation today. I groan at the thought.
7:30am - I ascend the staircase (my room is on the lower level) and grab a coffee for breakfast while my host family sits around the kitchen table, each of them gazing at the table in a sleepy haze. I go back downstairs, put on my coat and we are out the door by 7:45. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays my host dad drops off my host sisters, Agathe and Clémence, and me but on Wednesdays and Fridays I start an hour later so I take the bus.
8:10am - I drowsily open the heavy door to Salle 6, a large classroom in a building detached from the school house that we fondly call le Jardin. It constantly smells like wet paint. I sit through a 45 minute Language class that consists of my teacher, Monsieur Raguin, acting out scenes from his favorite book, Le Parfum, while we follow along and laugh at him when he speaks English with a very British accent. Though he very rarely speaks to us in English, unless it's to explain a French expression that makes absolutely no sense.
9:00 am - My group and I walk back to the school house in the chilly Bretagne morning and ascend the stairs to Salle 4 for CESF (Culture et Société Française). It's a small, stuffy room, dominated by one enormous table that just about fits the 15 of us plus Pascal. The walls are plastered with maps of France, Europe and Bretagne and we discuss le conseil de l'Union Européen.
9:50am - The 15 of us drag ourselves to Salle 5, the room next door, and whip out the laptops. We have a dissertation on Voltaire's "L'Ingénu." Our French Literature teacher, Marie-Anne, is a lovely woman but very serious when it comes to the format of our essays so we type furiously for 50 minutes, attempting to meet the criteria of the prompt that she provides us with - How does Voltaire mock society and religion in his novel? We struggle to finish before time is up and hand her our USBs. A sigh of relief echoes throughout the classroom as we finish the class we'd dreaded all week.
10:40am - We go back to Salle 4 for Histoire. Monsieur Nicolas waits impatiently for us to sit down and we discuss Robespierre, les Jacobins, les Girondins and the Reign of Terror. He snaps at those who answer incorrectly but we laugh off his criticisms. He's a good egg underneath it all.
11:30am - Today is Thursday, which means we have a Période Disponible after lunch which we are supposed to use to meet with our Advisors but today the advisors have a meeting, so I have an extra free period in addition to lunch and my two frees afterward. Since it's Valentine's Day, a big group of us decide to treat ourselves to Indian. Juliana, Darby, Grant, Omar, Elizabeth and I hop on the Number 1 and walk from Sainte Anne to Hôtel Dieu. We order Chicken Tikka Masalas and Mango Lassis and enjoy the free time. Afterwards, we decide that the day is too beautiful to waste and we walk back to school in the sunshine. The sun is so rarely part of Bretagne weather that we take advantage as much as we can.
1:50pm - Some of our friends have a class, so Darby and I sit in the garden behind the school house, reading The Great Gatsby aloud and enjoying the nice weather. I use the rest of my time answering a college questionnaire for a meeting I have with the college counselor next period
2:40pm - I head to the college counselor's office and I face the dreaded talk about my future. We discuss what kind of colleges I'm interested in and before I know it it's time for math.
3:30pm - My first class of the afternoon starts. We sit through Trigonometry review in Precalc, try practice problems and take down homework.
4:20pm - We're reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in English and I'm absolutely mesmerized. We have a free discussion period in which we argue about Gatsby's persona and how it is interpreted by Nick. Is it all just an act? What is Jordan's role in their relationship? The period passes quickly and we finish up at 5:05pm.
5:25pm - Thursday is Peer Support day. My group decides to have our chat in the Jardin du Thabor and we laugh and discuss until 6pm. I go home on the bus, encounter a singing old man (see last entry, "Apologies") and head back to my host family's house, where I decided to describe my life to the internet. If anybody's even listening. You out there, world?
While I would love to write a million more entries, I have an essay on Hamlet to write. Until next time.
Yours in Dysfunctional French,
-L
Apologies
I know. I've betrayed you. I beg forgiveness but life has been amazingly busy. I will write a full update this weekend but I am in the middle of a hell week (there have been quite a few of these recently).
Lately, my classmates and I have been reflecting on our experience here a lot. It's just registered in our minds that we have 3 months and 15 days left. Which is absolutely absurd. I am dreading, with every fibre of my being, leaving this place. I'm in the middle of such an amazing adventure. It feels like a dream that I certainly don't want to wake up from. Ever.
A week or two ago my friend Melanie and I went to a tea shop after school. It was a Wednesday, I believe, so we finished school around 2ish and sauntered through the streets of Rennes until we entered the cozy place. There are two couches at the back and, when you're lucky, you can snag one. We ordered a juice and a coffee and sat down to talk. And oh did we talk. We didn't leave the tea shop until 6pm. Switching between french and english and laughing until our sides hurt, we talked about EVERYTHING. Friends, family, host families, life in America, the words tumbled out. The most memorable topic we talked about is how much we (and everyone else at school) have changed since arriving in France. We're completely different people than the immature bumbling Americans who stumbled off a plane at Charles de Gaulle in September. We've completely transformed into mature young adults (as much as I hate that phrase) who can easily navigate the city, speak presque fluently with the locals and chat with our host families after a long day. We're intelligent young ladies who can write 3 page dissertations on the work of Voltaire for French Literature Class in under 45 minutes. We feel more knowledgeable and interesting and well-rounded. We've never been more proud of ourselves.
Incidentally, what inspired me to write a post today was how at home I feel here. After a coffee in the Jardin du Thabor with my peer support group (with a special guest appearance from the sun), I walked to the bus stop to head home. At the bus stop, there was an old man with a guitar sitting on the bench, surrounded by people. He had his guitar and he was BEAMING, an eternal smile plastered on his face. He sang U2's "One" and I hummed along until the bus arrived. His unending happiness on the bench inspired me to share the experience. Why does everything seem so perfect here?
Yours In Dysfunctional French,
-L
Lately, my classmates and I have been reflecting on our experience here a lot. It's just registered in our minds that we have 3 months and 15 days left. Which is absolutely absurd. I am dreading, with every fibre of my being, leaving this place. I'm in the middle of such an amazing adventure. It feels like a dream that I certainly don't want to wake up from. Ever.
A week or two ago my friend Melanie and I went to a tea shop after school. It was a Wednesday, I believe, so we finished school around 2ish and sauntered through the streets of Rennes until we entered the cozy place. There are two couches at the back and, when you're lucky, you can snag one. We ordered a juice and a coffee and sat down to talk. And oh did we talk. We didn't leave the tea shop until 6pm. Switching between french and english and laughing until our sides hurt, we talked about EVERYTHING. Friends, family, host families, life in America, the words tumbled out. The most memorable topic we talked about is how much we (and everyone else at school) have changed since arriving in France. We're completely different people than the immature bumbling Americans who stumbled off a plane at Charles de Gaulle in September. We've completely transformed into mature young adults (as much as I hate that phrase) who can easily navigate the city, speak presque fluently with the locals and chat with our host families after a long day. We're intelligent young ladies who can write 3 page dissertations on the work of Voltaire for French Literature Class in under 45 minutes. We feel more knowledgeable and interesting and well-rounded. We've never been more proud of ourselves.
Incidentally, what inspired me to write a post today was how at home I feel here. After a coffee in the Jardin du Thabor with my peer support group (with a special guest appearance from the sun), I walked to the bus stop to head home. At the bus stop, there was an old man with a guitar sitting on the bench, surrounded by people. He had his guitar and he was BEAMING, an eternal smile plastered on his face. He sang U2's "One" and I hummed along until the bus arrived. His unending happiness on the bench inspired me to share the experience. Why does everything seem so perfect here?
Yours In Dysfunctional French,
-L
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
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