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
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Saturday, December 22, 2012
A Week
Apologies for not writing in a while. Last week was hectic.
On Wednesday school ended around 1:30, as usual. I made my way home and started some homework and SAT Prep, but I forgot about the errands I needed to run. So after a reminder call from Will, I hurried out the door and into centre ville. I ought my ticket for paris at the Gare and then went on a mission to find a guitar shop. Mission Accomplished. I found a guitar shop just near Place Sainte Anne and my strings were serviced in no time. I rushed home to meet Alejandra and off we went to bowling with Lycée Victor Helen Basch, a high school just outside of Rennes.
The bowling alley was classy, I must say. It wasn't dirty and sticky like a typical American bowling alley. The couches were comfortable and at 8pm the lights went out and the strobes came on. It was great to bond with French kids our own age over an activity that we don't really get to do that often. We were all pretty "nul" at bowling and after one game each team gave up. Instead, we all talked from 6:30 until 9, making plans to meet up again.
On Thursday, we didn't go to school. At all. Instead, we were dispersed to high schools in and around Rennes and met by students who took us through a typical day in the life of a French élève.
I started my day in the rain, freezing, and walked to Jean Macé, which is a public high school really near SYA. Some people go there for lunch, sometimes. I prefer St. Vincent's café myself.
Amaya and Maddie from school were assigned the same school, and we all met in the "Accueil" of Jean Macé. My student-guide was named Fanny. Amaya's was named Sophie. Fanny and Sophie had all their classes together, so Amaya and I weren't totally lost.
Our first class was "Philosophie." 2 hours. Philosophy. No breaks. It was mind-numbing.
We then made our way to the Gymnase where we watched Fanny do "Step" for two hours. Yes, another two hours. We read and wrote. A lot.
Gymnase was followed by Dejeuner, another two hours, a Geography test and an English class - in which we were told a story of a unicorn. Quite the experience.
All in all, I'm glad I went to SYA instead of a French high school. With all the people I've met and things I've done, I don't regret my decision for a moment.
On Wednesday school ended around 1:30, as usual. I made my way home and started some homework and SAT Prep, but I forgot about the errands I needed to run. So after a reminder call from Will, I hurried out the door and into centre ville. I ought my ticket for paris at the Gare and then went on a mission to find a guitar shop. Mission Accomplished. I found a guitar shop just near Place Sainte Anne and my strings were serviced in no time. I rushed home to meet Alejandra and off we went to bowling with Lycée Victor Helen Basch, a high school just outside of Rennes.
The bowling alley was classy, I must say. It wasn't dirty and sticky like a typical American bowling alley. The couches were comfortable and at 8pm the lights went out and the strobes came on. It was great to bond with French kids our own age over an activity that we don't really get to do that often. We were all pretty "nul" at bowling and after one game each team gave up. Instead, we all talked from 6:30 until 9, making plans to meet up again.
On Thursday, we didn't go to school. At all. Instead, we were dispersed to high schools in and around Rennes and met by students who took us through a typical day in the life of a French élève.
I started my day in the rain, freezing, and walked to Jean Macé, which is a public high school really near SYA. Some people go there for lunch, sometimes. I prefer St. Vincent's café myself.
Amaya and Maddie from school were assigned the same school, and we all met in the "Accueil" of Jean Macé. My student-guide was named Fanny. Amaya's was named Sophie. Fanny and Sophie had all their classes together, so Amaya and I weren't totally lost.
Our first class was "Philosophie." 2 hours. Philosophy. No breaks. It was mind-numbing.
We then made our way to the Gymnase where we watched Fanny do "Step" for two hours. Yes, another two hours. We read and wrote. A lot.
Gymnase was followed by Dejeuner, another two hours, a Geography test and an English class - in which we were told a story of a unicorn. Quite the experience.
All in all, I'm glad I went to SYA instead of a French high school. With all the people I've met and things I've done, I don't regret my decision for a moment.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Hello, December
December is finally here. Rennes is freezing, but alive with the sights, sounds and smells of Christmastime.
Yesterday was December 1st. After finishing a LOAD of SAT Prep work (sorry that I have no social life), I decided I'd adventure into town and meet my friend Elizabeth at her house. She has it good, I'll tell you that. She lives in a huge house at le Parlement, which is basically the town centre, and her window looks out over the whole city. While the rest of us live on the outskirts of town, near school or in the suburbs (the Boonie Kids), Elizabeth lives right in the heart of Rennes. Not bad.
I walked to her house and from there we walked into Place de Parlement. Since November 23 there's been a Christmas fair called Le Marché de Noël, where you can buy little Christmas gifts, eat roasted chestnuts, churros, beignets and chocolate covered strawberries on a stick, and find christmas decorations of all sorts - from reindeer to dancing Santas. I had been there on Friday night with Grant, Omar, Alejandra, Maria and Jasmine and it was a great jolt into the holiday spirit.
Elizabeth and I made our way through it and walked through a few side streets to get to Place Hoche, where there's another Christmas fair set up. This one's inside a tent and it's not as cheery and jolly as the other, but still a great place to buy handmade bags, candles and ornaments.
Afterwards, we sauntered down the streets of Rennes. It was late afternoon, and all the Christmas lights had been turned on for the first time. They'd been up for weeks, and all of us SYAers had been waiting impatiently for them to illuminate the night sky. Twinkling lights danced from telephone pole to telephone pole and hung from gutters outside every shop and restaurant. We sat down at a café with coffee and hot chocolate and took in the sparkling sky.
Wes and Maren arrived and we all decided to go back to Le Marché de Noël once again. This time, we acquiesced to our cravings for chocolate-covered strawberries on a stick and we simply wandered from stall to stall, feeling the Christmas spirit envelope every one of us.
The three of them departed for sushi but I got back on the bus and headed home for my host mum's birthday dinner. When I arrived, my host brother, Grégoire, and his girlfriend were here with their baby boy and Clémence, Patrick (my host dad), and Maryvonne were sitting around the table, and we began our superb meal of cheese fondue, followed up by lemon tart.
It was a good night.
Yesterday was December 1st. After finishing a LOAD of SAT Prep work (sorry that I have no social life), I decided I'd adventure into town and meet my friend Elizabeth at her house. She has it good, I'll tell you that. She lives in a huge house at le Parlement, which is basically the town centre, and her window looks out over the whole city. While the rest of us live on the outskirts of town, near school or in the suburbs (the Boonie Kids), Elizabeth lives right in the heart of Rennes. Not bad.
I walked to her house and from there we walked into Place de Parlement. Since November 23 there's been a Christmas fair called Le Marché de Noël, where you can buy little Christmas gifts, eat roasted chestnuts, churros, beignets and chocolate covered strawberries on a stick, and find christmas decorations of all sorts - from reindeer to dancing Santas. I had been there on Friday night with Grant, Omar, Alejandra, Maria and Jasmine and it was a great jolt into the holiday spirit.
Elizabeth and I made our way through it and walked through a few side streets to get to Place Hoche, where there's another Christmas fair set up. This one's inside a tent and it's not as cheery and jolly as the other, but still a great place to buy handmade bags, candles and ornaments.
Afterwards, we sauntered down the streets of Rennes. It was late afternoon, and all the Christmas lights had been turned on for the first time. They'd been up for weeks, and all of us SYAers had been waiting impatiently for them to illuminate the night sky. Twinkling lights danced from telephone pole to telephone pole and hung from gutters outside every shop and restaurant. We sat down at a café with coffee and hot chocolate and took in the sparkling sky.
Wes and Maren arrived and we all decided to go back to Le Marché de Noël once again. This time, we acquiesced to our cravings for chocolate-covered strawberries on a stick and we simply wandered from stall to stall, feeling the Christmas spirit envelope every one of us.
The three of them departed for sushi but I got back on the bus and headed home for my host mum's birthday dinner. When I arrived, my host brother, Grégoire, and his girlfriend were here with their baby boy and Clémence, Patrick (my host dad), and Maryvonne were sitting around the table, and we began our superb meal of cheese fondue, followed up by lemon tart.
It was a good night.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Christmas Dreaming
Christmas Dreaming
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I'm officially in the Christmas Mood. Yesterday after English ended, Alejandra and I went to the €2 store to see if we could find any Christmas decorations... We were in luck. It was overflowing with red and green and gold, ornaments and garlands hanging from every shelf. We decided not to go overboard and bought a little fake poinsettia, a baby christmas tree and a battery-operated candle to put in my window. We headed home listening to and singing Christmas songs for the whole ride.
Needless to say, our fellow bus-riders didn't all appreciate our beautiful voices.
Alejandra's stop is just a few away from mine, so we ride the bus together most afternoons and on Wednesday and Friday mornings. She lost her iPhone earlier this month so she's adopted my iPod and she's putting up with my odd music choices. That said, Christmas music was loaded up on Sunday night, so bus rides have been filled with "Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer"s, "Here Comes Santa Claus"s and "White Christmas"s.
Alejandra's host mum is going away the week before we get out of school for Christmas holiday, so she needed a place to stay - I've acquired a roommate. We plan to decorate my room for the occasion and on the 22nd we both leave. Where to? That's a story for another post...
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I'm officially in the Christmas Mood. Yesterday after English ended, Alejandra and I went to the €2 store to see if we could find any Christmas decorations... We were in luck. It was overflowing with red and green and gold, ornaments and garlands hanging from every shelf. We decided not to go overboard and bought a little fake poinsettia, a baby christmas tree and a battery-operated candle to put in my window. We headed home listening to and singing Christmas songs for the whole ride.
Needless to say, our fellow bus-riders didn't all appreciate our beautiful voices.
Alejandra's stop is just a few away from mine, so we ride the bus together most afternoons and on Wednesday and Friday mornings. She lost her iPhone earlier this month so she's adopted my iPod and she's putting up with my odd music choices. That said, Christmas music was loaded up on Sunday night, so bus rides have been filled with "Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer"s, "Here Comes Santa Claus"s and "White Christmas"s.
Alejandra's host mum is going away the week before we get out of school for Christmas holiday, so she needed a place to stay - I've acquired a roommate. We plan to decorate my room for the occasion and on the 22nd we both leave. Where to? That's a story for another post...
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Quick Note
Just a quick note:
It turns out I have reached my quota of gigabytes on my blog, meaning I don't have the space to upload more pictures (woops).
OF COURSE, I don't want my readers (if you exist) to go without visuals, so I have uploaded the photos to my Flickr account.
Apologies for any inconvenience.
Yours in Dysfunctional Technology,
-L
It turns out I have reached my quota of gigabytes on my blog, meaning I don't have the space to upload more pictures (woops).
OF COURSE, I don't want my readers (if you exist) to go without visuals, so I have uploaded the photos to my Flickr account.
Apologies for any inconvenience.
Yours in Dysfunctional Technology,
-L
T-Day
Thursday was Thanksgiving. Obviously. But what really is an SYA Thanksgiving, you ask? Well...
We started off the day with the usual schedule: I had Langue, Culture et Société Françaises, Littérature and Histoire. But to be honest we were all so giddy with excitement and a little sadness to not be home on such a family holiday. One of the girls had suggested we all dress up nicely for the occasion (as we would at home) so the boys broke out the button-down shirts and ties and the girls wore skirts or dresses.
After a LONG waiting period, we began to walk to lunch at St. Vincent, the local high school we go to for lunch. Usually, we start lunch at 11:30 and get back to school for 1:00, but on Thursday we started our lunch at 1:15. Needless to say, we were more than ready to go into the room that the chef at St. Vincent had prepared for us to begin our feast.
We started with a butternut squash soup, followed by some turkey, odd orange potatoes (not sweet potatoes, mind you), and green beans. It wasn't exactly a gourmet meal, but we were all happy to be in the holiday spirit. We got back to school in time for afternoon classes but no work really got done - Who has the motivation to do work on a holiday? Of course, SYA students are hard workers and we were back to the homework and studying on Friday.
On Friday afternoon, as soon as school ended, Wes, Grant and I walked a half a mile up the road to the SuperU to buy ingredients for Saturday's festivities. We filled up the shopping cart with spinach, apples, green beans, chicken (it's really tough to find turkey before the Christmas season in France, I'll tell you that much) and all sorts of goodies and walked back to Wes's house, weighed down with grocery bags
Grant left for tennis, so Wes and I began the preparations. I chopped up innumerable onions, he ripped up a baguette into millions of breadcrumbs, we figured out how to use French bouillon cubes (it oddly resembles jello..?) and Wes attempted to make an apple pie. We put the preparation away until tomorrow, I wished Wes and his host parents a bonne soirée, and I headed home.
Up the next day:
My alarm didn't ring, but somehow I managed to make it to school by 8am, to leave for Mont. Saint Michel for the second time. We toured the Abbey, took tons of pictures, had crêpes and were back home for 5pm. I hopped on the number 9, rushed home, showered, whipped up a pumpkin pie mix and hopped back on the bus.
Quick Tip: Don't talk to a pumpkin pie in English on a French bus. For that matter, don't talk to it in French, either. In fact, don't talk to your pumpkin pie at all, if you can help it. People look at you as if you have three heads.
I got to Wes's house and helped Wes, Grant and Will who were attempting to throw together the finishing touches on the meal. I sautéed green beans, put together a gravy, whipped up some cream and together, the four of us had a perfect meal on the table by 8pm. We gave thanks, ate too much, cleaned up, ate my stellar pumpkin pie, cleaned up the desserts, and relaxed in front of the TV, all ready to explode. It was a good night, to say the least.
Alors,
I've decided not to make Thanksgiving dinner for my host family today, because some of them are going to a concert and I don't have any of the ingredients I need. The LeGac Thanksgiving: Postponed. For now, at least.
Now off to do homework. Work hard, play hard.
Yours in Dysfunctional French,
-L
p.s. I'm getting overwhelmingly excited for Christmas. USA, here I come
We started off the day with the usual schedule: I had Langue, Culture et Société Françaises, Littérature and Histoire. But to be honest we were all so giddy with excitement and a little sadness to not be home on such a family holiday. One of the girls had suggested we all dress up nicely for the occasion (as we would at home) so the boys broke out the button-down shirts and ties and the girls wore skirts or dresses.
After a LONG waiting period, we began to walk to lunch at St. Vincent, the local high school we go to for lunch. Usually, we start lunch at 11:30 and get back to school for 1:00, but on Thursday we started our lunch at 1:15. Needless to say, we were more than ready to go into the room that the chef at St. Vincent had prepared for us to begin our feast.
We started with a butternut squash soup, followed by some turkey, odd orange potatoes (not sweet potatoes, mind you), and green beans. It wasn't exactly a gourmet meal, but we were all happy to be in the holiday spirit. We got back to school in time for afternoon classes but no work really got done - Who has the motivation to do work on a holiday? Of course, SYA students are hard workers and we were back to the homework and studying on Friday.
On Friday afternoon, as soon as school ended, Wes, Grant and I walked a half a mile up the road to the SuperU to buy ingredients for Saturday's festivities. We filled up the shopping cart with spinach, apples, green beans, chicken (it's really tough to find turkey before the Christmas season in France, I'll tell you that much) and all sorts of goodies and walked back to Wes's house, weighed down with grocery bags
Grant left for tennis, so Wes and I began the preparations. I chopped up innumerable onions, he ripped up a baguette into millions of breadcrumbs, we figured out how to use French bouillon cubes (it oddly resembles jello..?) and Wes attempted to make an apple pie. We put the preparation away until tomorrow, I wished Wes and his host parents a bonne soirée, and I headed home.
Up the next day:
My alarm didn't ring, but somehow I managed to make it to school by 8am, to leave for Mont. Saint Michel for the second time. We toured the Abbey, took tons of pictures, had crêpes and were back home for 5pm. I hopped on the number 9, rushed home, showered, whipped up a pumpkin pie mix and hopped back on the bus.
Quick Tip: Don't talk to a pumpkin pie in English on a French bus. For that matter, don't talk to it in French, either. In fact, don't talk to your pumpkin pie at all, if you can help it. People look at you as if you have three heads.
I got to Wes's house and helped Wes, Grant and Will who were attempting to throw together the finishing touches on the meal. I sautéed green beans, put together a gravy, whipped up some cream and together, the four of us had a perfect meal on the table by 8pm. We gave thanks, ate too much, cleaned up, ate my stellar pumpkin pie, cleaned up the desserts, and relaxed in front of the TV, all ready to explode. It was a good night, to say the least.
Alors,
I've decided not to make Thanksgiving dinner for my host family today, because some of them are going to a concert and I don't have any of the ingredients I need. The LeGac Thanksgiving: Postponed. For now, at least.
Now off to do homework. Work hard, play hard.
Yours in Dysfunctional French,
-L
p.s. I'm getting overwhelmingly excited for Christmas. USA, here I come
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