Oh, Que C'est Beaune!

Hello hello! This has been a jam-packed weekend, or at least it feels that way!

On Saturday we went to Beaune on our first excursion! It was fun from the very start, when we got on our tour bus and each had a row to ourselves. We drove through the French countryside, which caused me and Emily to be in awe of the fact that we were actually in France like we'd planned for so long driving through the French countryside. We saw lots of vineyards, which are pretty in the way that vineyards are pretty. It was all much flatter than where they grow grapes at home.

First we stopped at the street market, which was lovely and charming, with so many colorful fruits and flowers for sale. Then we went to some wine caves for tastings! It was really cool to be in the caves. Each bottle to taste was lit by a candle, and it made the caves really pretty (although it didn't improve the flavor of wine at all). We had fun running around and taking lots of pictures, and we even got souvenir wine tasting cups, which are special metal cups that are very shallow.

We ate lunch at a fancy restaurant which was also in a cave. It was really fun, but the food was too gourmet/fancy/rich for me. Then we went to les Hospices de Beaune, the afternoon's main attraction. It was founded in the 1400s and was used all the way into the mid-20th century! The buildings were beautiful, as was the hospice itself. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to be a patient in one of those beds, looking up at the ceiling covered in beautiful art and tended to by the nuns (although hopefully nicer than the nun mannequins they had posed everywhere, which we comically creepy). After learning a little about how medieval surgeries were performed, however, I stopped trying to put myself in the shoes of a patient!

les hospices!

The day was really fun and made me excited for future excursions. Today I slept in and then I did homework! What a novel idea. The homework actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The hardest part was understanding the instructions-- some of the exercises are really stupid-- but once I figured out what to do, I didn't have much trouble, which was reassuring! This evening, my host mom and I went to see The King's Speech (le Discours d'un Roi) with her friends Carmen and François. I had already seen it at home, but I was glad to see it again, and it was really interesting to read the French subtitles. I feel like I learned a few new words! Sometimes, though, there would be a joke that the French would miss, and then I had to not laugh because no one else was laughing. The best part was that most of our colloquial phrases such as "What on earth..." or "For goodness' sake" or anything along those lines, even ones that don't contain any religious reference, are translating using the words "God" or "devil"-- so at one point, the archbishop kept saying, "What the devil!"

The French are very attentive audience members. They are such an interesting mix between impersonal and friendly. I haven't been able to figure it out yet. They definitely fulfill their snobby, distant stereotype at times, but at other times I feel like they expect people to be so much more personable than Americans do. Before the movie started (there were no previews, by the way), a couple came back in the theater with an usher because they had dropped a cell phone. The usher made everyone in the row get up so that he and the couple could look for the phone, and it was like a show was going on. Everyone in the theater turned to watch, and they kept watching the entire time. The woman in front of me yelled out, "What do we win if we find it?" When they finally found it, the theater applauded.

I also had an interesting adventure on Friday. Before lunch, I set out to try to find some boots. I left my house undaunted by this task; we've been going to restaurants and stores for weeks and French salespeople are no longer intimidating. It was the first time I was going shopping alone, however, and I soon realized how much confidence I gain from being with other people who are making mistakes and acting foreign right along with me. I tried to go in a store and the door was locked, and then I passed up a pair of boots I really wanted at the street market because I didn't know how to ask to try them on. But that wasn't so bad compared to what happened when I went in the Galleries Lafayette. (For those who don't know, it's like a huge mall but it has lots of stalls instead of stores-- think the makeup section of Macy's except for clothes and shoes and everything else too. It's mostly designer stuff so it's pretty pricey, but I thought there might be a sale.) When I went in, I set the sensor beeping for some reason, but I didn't think anything of it since that just happens sometimes if a store has a funky sensor. I walked around for a minute, didn't find any boots, and went to leave. As I was passing the makeup, a man came up to me and said something very quickly that I didn't understand. I thought he was trying to sell me something, and he was dressed in regular clothes so he didn't even look like he worked there, so I said, "Je ne parles pas francais." (I don't speak French.) I never do stuff like that, but I didn't want to ask him what he had said and then have to deal with a sales pitch, and it just kind of popped into my brain. I walked away sort of laughing that I had done it and it had worked. I started to leave, and the beeper went off again. There were two women who had been standing there when I walked in, and one of them said, "It's you that's beeping," in French, and she told me I needed to search my bag to find out what it was. Obviously I knew there was nothing in there, but I kind of hovered for a moment because I didn't want to look like I was stealing something, since it is an expensive place and I figured security would be tight. I kept conversing with this woman for a minute, and then who walked up but the man who had spoken to me earlier. He was the security guard! He proceeded to look through my bag, but I couldn't really say much because I had said I didn't speak French! He then had a conversation with the woman, who told him that I had something that wasn't demagnetized and he should find it and fix it for me because otherwise I'd set off alarms in every store I went in. He replied to her that I was a foreigner and didn't understand what was going on. Of course, I understood every word! Finally I said, "Est-ce que je suis...?" and motioned towards the door and he told me I could go. It was a pretty funny experience!

After lunch, we had our first literature class, which was not literature analysis but was literature history, which was actually art history and was taught by a professor we couldn't understand. After about a half an hour, all three of us had decided that there was no way we would be going back to this class, so we checked out and I wrote a story in my notebook. Some of the girls came over after class and it was fun to talk and eat Nutella in my kitchen for a couple hours.

That was my weekend! Next weekend my host mom and I might go to Paris! The weekend after, I am hoping Amber will be able to visit, and the weekend after that we have an excursion to les chateaux de la Loire! I am enjoying myself more and more every day I'm here. But for now, it's back to school tomorrow. Hopefully this week of classes goes by more quickly than last week!

Try To Do It In French, Eh?

I can't think of a real theme for this week, although trying is probably a good one. The last few days have been a weird mélange of different activities and moods. The main excitement this week was the start of classes (finally) and the beginning of our new schedules. As usual, I went notebook shopping in the highest spirits (although let me just say that although the French believe that their strange "lined" paper is superior to good old college ruled, they are sorely mistaken), and, as usual, I had fun organizing my schedule and entering it all into my planner. I didn't exactly feel the excited butterflies I usually do upon the eve of a new semester, but I was more than ready to start classes (and my internal clock that tells me when to be excited about school and when to hate it is obviously quite thrown off given that by this time in the semester, I would usually be buried deep in readings and essays). But after excited preparations, our experience thus far with classes has been rather anticlimactic.

Some classes are better than others, but overall, I just feel kind of ehh about everything. I think my French will improve a lot through the language classes, even though most of them are kind of boring. Oral expression was my favorite class so far (it was actually fun), and I really hope it will help me get better at speaking. Our writing classes were fine; we spent most of class doing exercises and then going over them. Not really the most scintillating teaching technique, but at least we have something to do. Monday through Wednesday we only have two or four hours of class and we can get lunch off-campus, so even if the classes aren't amazing it's not all day. Today (Thursday), however, is just ridiculous. It felt like high school all over again, except in no way as fun (but I did get starving every hour, just like in high school... too bad I don't have my dad to make me lunches). We had class from 9-11, 11-1 and 1:30-4:30. All ten of us are in the last class, so at 1 we went to the amphitheater and arranged some chairs and tables in the hallway, inhaled some lunch and put the hallway back together before class started. Our three-hour class was not uninteresting, but the length was torture. I don't understand the need for such a long class-- surely it is not the professor's goal to have sixty students staring at him with glazed eyes and slack jaws. I would so much rather have an hour or hour and a half of class more than once a week.

The professors here are mostly nice but very French-- like Michel, except not as sympathetic (haha). They tend to just start lecturing on something without really introducing it, and then they will just present all the information and move on. Grammar class was literally exhausting today. I don't think I have ever been pulled through so many grammar concepts in one day. We covered pretty much every part and mode of speech ever and then spend a solid hour copying down verb conjugations. I felt like I was running through a textbook-- or being dragged through it by a semi truck. And I love grammar. It is my favorite thing about languages. Saying I hate grammar is pretty much blasphemous-- yet I was so exhausted after our two hours with Gilles that I admit it popped into my head.

During our first written expression class, we were doing an activity we didn't fully understand (in keeping with the just-dive-into-things method, we seem to start activities for which we would be given a lot more information in an American class; we are expected to get everything wrong and then by halfway through the exercise we will get it) and our professor was walking around reading our sentences and telling us whether or not when we were on the right track. When he got to me, he read it and said, "Try to do it in French, eh?" He spends all of class cracking jokes, and no one else was doing it right either, so I didn't take it to heart (and I even got a "tres bien" by my third sentence), but it sure was an interesting way to start off my French studies here!

Because of dealing with classes and homework (not that I have started any of it yet since our classes only meet once a week... this is going to be interesting), this week has been pretty stressful and not left a lot of time for much else. However, I did discover a delicious pasta place with Emily, had a fun movie and dinner at the Centre Condorcet last night (we watched the movie version of L'Amant, the book we read for Michel last semester, and entertained ourselves making fun of it), and succeeded in finding peanut butter at the grocery store! And this might sound weird, but one of my favorite parts of the week has been riding the bus to school. I have always really liked transportation-- I love airplanes, I love driving, and here, I love the bus, because it is time when you can't do anything else but wait to get to where you are going, and you can just think and relax. It's fun to see the city and I familiarize myself with it more each time. Plus, I tried to blend in with the French students by listening to my iPod on the bus, and the new "Glee" songs I downloaded made my ride to school feel pretty epic. :)

Tomorrow I am going to look for new boots, because mine sadly and tragically have a hole in the heel, before meeting people for pasta and then heading to literature class, which is one of our culture classes that only meets every other week (I dropped theater in favor of literature and the time to take dance classes). On Saturday, we are taking our first excursion with Nathalie! We're doing a day trip to Beaune, where we will visit the famous hospices as well as some wine caves. I'm really looking forward to relaxing this weekend (and working on plans for friends visiting/trips/spring break!). À bientôt!

It's Only Been A Week!?

Every morning, I wake up in my feather bed and I get up and go to my window, part

the long white curtains, pull open the window panes, and breathe in the fresh morning air as I lean out my window and swing open the white-painted wooden shutters. Sometimes it takes me a second to remember I am not living in a storybook, especially when the man who lives in the mansion across the street comes outside with his dog to pick up the newspaper before going back into his picturesque house, like happened this morning.

That is the story of about half my life here-- I feel like I have been dropped into a fairytale. There are different versions of the story; sometimes I am a medieval princess walking along a cobblestone street, other times I'm a character from a book or movie moving along wide-eyed in her new life. (Of course, there are other times when I am simply on a bus or in H&M or coughing at cigarette smoke, but those aren't as fun to describe, and they certainly are not going to be the hallmark of my time here.) Even though the city isn't big like Paris or London, it is so picturesque, and I am starting to learn my way around. It is almost impossible for me to believe that we only got here a week ago yesterday. This may well be the longest week of my entire life. Not in a bad way, but it feels like so much has happened. How do I already know my way around a downtown and a bus system and it's only been seven days? And how on earth was it only two and a half weeks ago that I stood in the airport in California?!

My first topic for today is the supermarché. After doing some brioche-eating and school supply shopping this afternoon, I met up with my host mom and, after popping into Sephora, where the saleswoman tried to sell Catherine a tub of face cream that cost 272 euro (!!!!), we drove to le Carrefour, a huge grocery store. If you want to see cultural differences, go to a grocery store. Aside from the fact that "You Belong With Me" and "Teenage Dream" were playing while we were shopping, making me feel right at home, I was fascinated by some of the items on the shelves. For example, there is very little concept of healthy/organic eating, and thus much less selection-- nothing comes in low fat or fat free. Wheat bread is special "American sandwich" bread with "grains" added, and even then it's not very wheaty. White bread is called natural style! Also, brown rice seems to not exist. Another thing that weirds me out, even though I understand why, is how expensive everything is. It seems like there isn't a lot of diversity in price between items, but they are all fairly expensive. Two packs of gum, for example, costs around 5 US dollars, or a little less (I don't know how I am going to manage!). Also, it's funny to note the things that have been Americanized or Frenchified. There are a lot of products that are American brands, but the brand name is totally different and slogans cater to French people. There are also things where the American aspect is played up-- Stride gum, for instance, is called Hollywood Style gum instead. Anyway, it's just really interesting to wander around the store and see what they have and don't have. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to what is available (kidney beans but not garbanzo or black; twenty thousand kinds of cous cous but one kind of rice), although it obviously reflects the French diet. Anyway, my host mom is making "Mexican" food tonight, so I'll have to report on what exactly that consists of. :)

Another of the most marked cultural differences is road etiquette. Pedestrians don't always have the right of way, but jay walking is not only legal but expected. People cross whenever they think they have time to (and even when they don't). Most everything is within walking distance, and if not, we can take the bus, like to our school campus. It's both nice and strange to just walk everywhere and not be dependent on a car. It kind of feels like Dijon is what I thought a college town would be like, where you don't need a car to get to school or grocery shop or anything. When people do drive, they are decidedly less adept with their vehicles, probably since they don't have to use them all the time. Cars just seem to sort of go when they want and decide they won't crash. I have seen so many near-accidents here, but I guess since everybody drives that way, it doesn't usually end in a crash. I witnessed an example of strange French driving today when we went to the supermarket. My host mom was trying to park in a tight spot in the parking garage-- there was a pole on one side of the space and she wasn't coming at a good angle-- and she didn't know how to do it! I started telling her which way to turn the wheel and she had me direct her! About ten minutes later we made it into the parking spot. I thought

it was hilarious, but I think she found it harrowing. We had fun shopping though and I helped her back out of the spot when we left, both of us laughing the whole time.

One last cultural thing (and I am kind of stealing this topic from Kayla, but I was planning on writing about it anyway ;) )-- all the women in London and Paris wear tights and boots almost all the time. They wear heavy coats and great big scarves, but they wear tights with skirts or dresses. I was horrified the first time I saw this, since I was wearing jeans and I was still completely freezing, but after buying a new pair of navy tights at H&M I decided I needed to try to accomplish this European fashion feat. Yesterday I wore a dress with tights, knee socks and boots, just like all the stylish European women, and I wasn't any colder than usual. I felt quite successful and oh so French--especially after I found a leather coat marked down to TEN EURO at a street market and added that to my ensemble. :)

In actual news of my life, we found out our class placement and schedule yesterday morning. I am in level 5 and I'm really happy (and relieved)! There are 6 levels total, but hardly anyone in the whole program places into level 6 and Michel always prepares the Dijonettes for levels 4 or 5. Being in level 5 also means that I only have 6 classes to take senior year instead of 7, leaving me with two empty spots in my schedule! What's more, I have a great schedule this semester-- no classes on Fridays and nothing until 1 on Mondays! Perfect for weekend travel! Thursday I have seven hours of class with one half an hour break, so that is going to be horrible, but the rest of the days look good, and I will hopefully be able to fit some dance classes into my schedule, too! On top of our 15 hours a week of language classes (including one three-hour long civilization class on familiar French), we have to take three culture classes, which meet once every two weeks. I am taking theater, economics and art history. We also have the class at the political science institute, which I don't actually really want to take, especially since my schedule sounds full enough already! We don't know when it will be held yet, but probably before Wednesday dinners. I have a feeling that the rest of the semester is going to hold stark contrast to the idleness of this past week!

Tomorrow is Sunday, which means that absolutely nothing is open. I will probably hang out here and catch up on email and "Glee," and hopefully I can meet up with some of the other girls to hang out. On Monday, we're all going out to dinner at the pizzeria we found last week to be each other's Valentine's dates (and to celebrate getting through what will be our first day of classes!). I will also hopefully get to start doing some planning for spring break and other travel adventures! À bientôt!

possibly my new favorite thing: brioche au sucre et chocolat

all the dijonettes after our first wednesday dinner!

Mustard, Roads and Owls

So, here we are! It still doesn't feel like real life-- I don't think it will until classes start. But Dijon has been lovely so far!

The weekend was kind of strange because it was completely free. I think it's bad planning on the part of the program that we get here on Friday afternoon and then have all weekend alone in this new city, new house, new everything. But I met up with friends a couple of times and we went to a cafe on Saturday night, and I settled into my room. (It's weird to not have very much stuff! It didn't take me very long to unpack at all.) Monday morning we had the placement test (the professors told us, it's a test, not an exam-- this was supposed to be comforting) to see which level of classes we will be in. We were all a little nervous, but it was MUCH less scary than we thought (thanks for exaggerating, Michel) and didn't take too long. I actually kind of liked taking it-- it was nice to be back in a classroom and to have a task to do and something to think about. I REALLY want classes to start, can you tell? :P

After that, we went back to the Centre Condorcet and met up with Nathalie. We went to a pizzeria for lunch, which was a miracle in like ten different ways. We got pizzas, and they were the size of regular smallish pizzas in the US but they were individual! I was so hungry, I ate almost the entire thing. It was the best "French" food I've had yet. ;) Then we all wandered in and out of shops for a while and ended up at a cafe, which said it was a glacier-- ice cream place. We really wanted ice cream, but when we ordered it, they said they don't serve it in the winter! So I got a crepe au chocolat instead, which was good, but I am not the biggest fan of crepes. I would rather just eat the chocolat that's on top :)

I was feeling kind of down so I went home after that. Yesterday was my worst day so far in terms of homesickness, but I think it's a combination of adjustment and not having classes/anything to do and being tired. I know I just have to wait for it to pass when it happens, and it's part of the experience, but it still isn't fun. I even was missing the SUB yesterday... and that's scary! However, my mood improved and we all went out to a bar for Emily's birthday. This was my first real bar experience (since obviously I can't go to them yet in the US) and I have to say I don't think bar-ing is really for me (big surprise, I know). It was very crowded and smelly. We had fun talking though, and we met some real live French people who were actually our age! They kept asking us over and over if we wanted to go smoke cigarettes outside and we were like NON, but it was cool to talk to some locals. By the end of the night, everyone was very ready to leave, so we went home and I was very glad to get in my bed. But now I have been to a bar!

Today was much better than yesterday. I slept until 11:20 and met Kathryn for lunch (we tried to meet the others, but they didn't have cell service in the restaurant, so Kathryn and I found a little place and I had a delicious cold pizza). We took a tour of Dijon from a very funny guide who thought we didn't understand French so she kept trying to repeat things in English. We got to see all the old areas of Dijon, including streets and buildings that date back to the 12th century! We went inside Notre Dame and saw the Palais de Duc, and it was a really pretty tour. We learned some fun facts, like that Dijon famously makes gingerbread, and they make it in huge slabs that you can eat over a period of years (I think I understood that part correctly) because a woman made some gingerbread at the beginning of World War II and said she would open the tin when the liberation occurred, and it didn't happen for four more years. We also got to have a mustard tasting! There was everything from chocolate to citrus to herbed mustard, as well as good old spicy mustard-- which was a little too spicy for me! Some of it was good and some strange, but the flavors that were good were REALLY good. Also, Dijon has a major thing for owls, which is because there is a magic owl on the side of a building (I think it's the back of the Notre Dame), and you touch it three times with your left hand and make three wishes, and they will come true within the year. We all touched it and wished hard, so we shall see!

me touching la chouette!

Afterwards, we went back to Condorcet for tea and cookies and relaxing, and once we had all warmed up enough to fathom the thought of going back outside, Courtney, Emily and I walked back downtown and ended up spending way too long in H&M, but it was super fun and I made a few good purchases. We went to the FNAC after that (literally pronounced funack, do not ask me where it got its name but you have to go there to buy cell phone minutes and it's kind of like borders but with more technological stuff) and then finally we returned home. It was a very fun day, and my host mom and I had a good dinner. She loves to talk and luckily we can find things to talk about. She also was excited that I had gone shopping and wanted to see my purchases, which was really cute, so I showed them to her and she was very enthusiastic.

We have activities for the rest of the week and find out our classes on Friday. Free weekend again, and then (finally) classes start! I don't know what or how many of the non-language (like not about grammar or writing) classes I am going to take, but I am thinking about theatre, economie and l'histoire d'art! We'll see!

a lovely medieval street... to think all this history is right downtown!

American in Paris- and finally Dijon!

Paris- where to begin? We arrived on Tuesday (I have a lot of trouble keeping track of what day it is right now) around 4:45 after an uneventful train ride (even though we went under the Channel, which is weird when you think about it but not when you actually do it). My first view of Paris was of two huge plaques commemorating the casualties from WWI and WWII, and upon this backdrop was one angry man trapped in a headlock by another equally angry man, and two others trying to pull them apart. Welcome to the most romantic city in the world!

However, Paris soon redeemed itself-- between the impossibly ornate buildings, the famous works of art and the beautiful scenery, it's hard not to be enchanted, no matter how tired, overwhelmed, or in-shock you are. It’s impossible to describe it in a few words. The whole trip, I was wishing I had a magical thought recorder so I could remember everything I wanted to write down about. So I’m going to make a list of the things I loved and hated about Paris.

1. The food. I loved it because, um, duh. I hated it because it was often trop. Trop is a French word that is beautifully versatile (pronounced troh for all you non-French speakers), and it basically means “too much” or “too.” Like you can just say it on its own, “C’est trop,” but you can also use it with an adjective—“C’est trop délicieux.” Anyway, Parisian food was just trop. The desserts were amazing (although a dessert for every meal was kind of overwhelming… not that I ever refused). Things we never even think of serving in the U.S., even though we probably should because they are delicious. I had a raspberry macaroon, a baked apple with caramel and ice cream, chocolate mousse, berry and ice cream plate, mango and chocolate sorbet…. It was amazing. And a couple of the meals were pretty good. We went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch on Thursday and it was so refreshing. I had the best polenta and vegetables. But a lot of them were too fancy/gourmet, or there weren’t enough choices on the menu and there just wasn’t really anything that jumped out at me. It was also very hard to eat nothing but a baguette and a croissant for breakfast. I mean, I know it’s France, but who does that? No fruit, no protein…. After the first day I abandoned the croissant even though they taste about fifty times better here than at home. The upshot is, Parisian (French? I don’t know because I have yet to experience very much food in Dijon or anywhere else) food, especially at fancy restaurants like we got to go to, is probably best in small doses. But being able to order whatever we wanted, including dessert all the time, was really fun.

wednesday afternoon's dessert

2. The city. By this I mean the specific city aspects, like the metro, the sidewalks, etc. I hated this. London was so much better. I thought Paris wasn’t well organized at all, and the metro was more confusing and took longer than the tube. It was also a LOT dirtier and always smelly, unlike in London. And speaking of smelly, it felt like I couldn’t go anywhere without inhaling cigarette smoke or exhaust, and I was not okay with that. This category was probably the most annoying thing about Paris (which is good because it is fairly easy to ignore, although I wouldn’t want to live there for an extended period of time).

3. The art. Paris is, in my opinion, much cooler for what it contains than what it is. The Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and l’Orangerie were all great. Seeing Monet’s water lilies was probably my favorite thing, but all the museums were lovely. It was unreal seeing the Louvre, and although we couldn't, of course, see everything (fun fact: you would have to go every day for six weeks to see the entire contents of the Louvre), it was a great tour, made even better by the fact that we were able to understand our French guide.The buildings themselves are works of art, too, and it’s impossible to take two steps without wanting to take a picture. L’Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower were also fun to visit, obviously, and the Opera house was probably my favorite thing we did. The Seine is also beautiful, of course. So it was really fun to explore all that with the Dijonettes.

le louvre!

4. The people. It was so much fun to be with the Dijonettes! We had a great time at dinners and exploring and on the train and in the hotel (it was like living in a dorm again, except better). And Nathalie, the woman who is in charge of us and the program, is simply amazing. She doesn’t speak any English, which is cool because it forces us to speak in French, and she is so nice and capable and helpful (and chic!). We all love her already. And it was just great to be able to explore on our own during the bit of free time we had-- it was so weird just being like, okay, we're going to walk to the Eiffel Tower now, see you in a couple hours! On the hate side of this are the actual people of Paris—we encountered quite a few not-exactly-friendly people. When we ventured to the cell phone store, it took us an hour and a half to buy prepaid phones, and the men working there were so frustrating. The lesson of that day was that a mocking salesman or a wrong turn can completely knock down our self-confidence, but that it will seem like a funny story later.

toutes les dijonettes a la notre dame!

So I suppose that’s Paris in a nutshell! We ate a lot of food, walked even more than we ate, and got acclimated to French and being together and everything. Yesterday we took the train to Dijon (our baggage was ridiculous—the train station was Struggle City, population Dijonettes. I am never traveling with this much stuff again) and the train ride was really fun, and then we got to the Centre Condorcet, which is where Nathalie’s office (which is like an apartment) is, and which is our home base. We (finally) got some information about what’s going to happen in the next couple of weeks and then we sat in nervous anticipation for our families to come pick us up one by one. When the bell rang the first time, everybody screamed. Nathalie said, “Bonjour, Catherine,” and I clapped my hands to my cheeks and everyone screamed again and started wishing me good luck. It would have been comical if it wasn’t so strangely nerve-wracking. But Catherine picked me up and we walked home (my wrist almost broke with my luggage) and her house is very pretty. I love my room, and that made me feel better right away—it is light blue with a big bed and fluffy white sheets and covers and a big window. I unpacked while she made dinner and then we ate, and it wasn’t hard to converse, so I felt pretty at ease. She went to bed soon after dinner and I finished unpacking before showering and then writing a few emails, which I saved on my computer to send later because I don’t have internet here yet because she doesn’t know the password for me to get on her network and she doesn’t actually have a computer. I’m really frustrated because I pretty much want nothing more than to get on facebook and check my email and post a blog and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to before we’re back at the Condorcet on Monday.

This morning we went to the supermarché, which was inside a mall. There weren’t even doors, you just walked through the mall past the cash registers and into the market. I think it might be like the French Wal-Mart, but maybe not as evil, because there were some clothes and stuff sold too. Anyway, we walked around for quite a while and picked out a lot of things that I said I liked to eat, including a lot of produce. Catherine seems to like eating healthily, and she even has sliced wheat bread and she said she liked salads. She was also very emphatic about me eating what I want to eat and telling her what I like and stuff, so this is kind of a relief for me. We talked all morning so that was good and then we got home. She went to meet a friend and Kathryn and I decided to meet up to go to the market. I successfully took the bus to our meeting point and discovered that it was only a block away. While I waited for Kathryn, I found the Square Darcy, which was this beautiful little park with a huge fountain and a lot of benches. I took a bunch of pictures and then Kathryn arrived and we walked around until we found the downtown area with stores and street vendors, because Saturday is market day, I guess. We went in a store and bought some snacks (pretzels, which are called bretzels, Nutella and gummy bears—sugar and chip/pretzel type things are the only things Catherine doesn’t seem to buy) and walked around some more before parting. I successfully got back home, but then I couldn’t find the door I had come out of (there are two doors to Catherine’s house, so I have keys to one and she has keys to the other, but I hadn’t yet come in the door to which I have the keys) and so I walked around the house for like ten minutes and then when I did find it I couldn’t get it unlocked. It turned out the key went in upside-down. Anyway, I made a lunch of salad with turkey meat and cheese and carrots and an apple (and bretzels with Nutella for dessert) and Clementine juice and it was really good and such a relief from all the rich food in Paris.

Now I just really want internet and want to email my parents and post my pictures and let my friends know that I am here. Catherine is at the hairdresser, and she told me I could invite a friend over but everyone is kind of doing their own thing so I am just writing and hanging out. She said that we could go for a walk when she got back. I think I am having roasted chicken for dinner tonight and I want it to be dinnertime because after dinner the Dijonettes are going to go out somewhere and I really want to see everyone and hang out with people. I don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow but hopefully I can meet up with some people/somehow obtain internet. I don’t want to wait until Monday!

Now that I finally have internet I'm going to post this! This morning I got to sleep in until 11 which was wonderful and then Catherine and I walked through old Dijon to a florist and then we stopped at a museum on the way back. It was very cool seeing all the old buildings, some of them dating back to before the 18th century! Tomorrow we have our placement test and we have other activities throughout the week. We start classes next Monday, thankfully. I am excited to have a schedule and occupation again! In all, things are going really well so far! Wish you were here!

my room a dijon!

London Whirlwind

Well, it is our very last morning in London, and we are about to bid it goodbye and catch the Eurostar to Paris! My life feels very, very surreal right about now. The last few days have been a whirlwind of exploring and we've had such a great time. Day before yesterday, we explored Brick Lane market with Kayla and Morgana (and I ate an amazing Spanish empanada and salad AND shared a delicious gluten-free whoopie pie with Morgana). Afterwards, Helen and I went to the British Museum. I was pretty tired and achy, but I appreciated the Rosetta Stone. :) Then we embarked on a mission to find Platform 9 3/4. We had two issues with our tube cards and ended up paying extra only to find out that the platforms were all under construction. After wandering around for like half an hour, Helen said she would pretend she didn't know me if I went up to someone and said, "Excuse me, where is platform 9 3/4?" so we left. According to friends later, it is actually there somewhere still, so I guess I'll just have to find it when I go back with my parents. After that, I tried to withdraw money and my card wouldn't work (all fixed now), so that was a pretty frustrating afternoon, and we were really tired so all we did for the rest of the day was get dinner.

Me, Kayla and Morgana after exploring the market

Yesterday, Helen and I went back to the National Portrait Gallery and saw the rest of the floors, including the Victorian floor, which was really interesting. There was one picture from a Parliament discussion in 1888, the year Puget Sound was founded, and it made our school seem much older than it feels to have that there after seeing portraits of so many pieces of history. Then we had lunch and went to Kensington Gardens. We probably spent half of our day traveling yesterday. The tube was hung up because someone had been under a train! One line was closed and others were delayed, and even after it was supposedly "fixed," the trains were going really slowly. Kensington Gardens was absolutely beautiful. It is a huge park, with lots and lots of tree-lined paths (the best so far), with lovely large sycamore-esque trees and smaller birch trees interspersed along the intersecting walks. There was a huge pond in the middle and SO many birds (almost too many, but it was fun to watch the swans). The Palace is under construction, like so much else here (blame the 2012 Olympics), but the area was still open. There was a special Enchanted Castle exhibit in the Palace, but we didn't go in, we just wandered around the grounds, through a shrub-lined path (not as good as trees, but still pretty), the Orangery and the most beautiful little garden (which, once again, we couldn't actually go inside of). It was a nice walk, if a little chilly, and made me want to come back someday and just sit on a bench and write a book.

Me at the gorgeous garden right in front of Kensington Palace!

We returned to our hotel to pack up our things in preparation for leaving, and then we got ready for the evening! We went to dinner at the same Italian restaurant as before and got their fixed menu two-course meal-- salad, pasta and dessert! The gelato was amazing. It was very fun to be dressed up and out for a night at the theatre. :) We walked to the theatre and hyperventilated for a second when we saw the movie poster and thought about how Keira Knightly and Elisabeth Moss were INSIDE THAT BUILDING, and then we hyperventilated even more when we got to our seats and found out that here, "royal circle" means balcony and balcony means... really, really high. We were in the last row of the balcony and the rows were almost vertical. We were basically level with the ceiling, and it was this huge, old, beautiful building with very high ceilings, so it was somewhat disconcerting at first, both because it felt like the stage was about a thousand feet away and because we were afraid we might not have a good view. It was actually totally fine, though, and the play ("The Children's Hour" by Lillian Hellman) was absolutely AMAZING. It was so good. Ellen Burstyn was also in it, and she was great, and Keira and Elisabeth were extremely good. I know some people (not me) are skeptical of Keira's acting ability, but anyone who is should go see her live. It was pretty much a perfect show-- they didn't miss a beat. And the play/story itself was great. It ended and we hyperventilated more because it was quite an emotional ending, and then we ran outside and to the stage door, which was luckily not hard to find. Helen and I got the last spots at the railing, which was lucky because we were right up front. We waited for a while as the actors trailed out. We got Ellen Burstyn's autograph and Elisabeth Moss's and talked to her, and then Keira came out and she was so nice! We complimented her (I don't actually remember what we said, haha) and she signed our tickets. I asked her for a photo, but she said, "Oh, I'm so sorry but I really have to run!" But she was very nice and smiled at me twice, and I probably wouldn't have stopped if I was her either. So basically I had a conversation with Keira Knightley. One life dream, fulfilled. :P Then she got in her car and they drove away and Helen and I very very giddily made our way back to the tube. It was great. My first time meeting a celebrity. :)

Keira after the show! She was talking the whole time so I didn't get a picture of her smiling, but she was really nice

And now we are sitting in St. Pancras Station one twenty-pound cab ride later, hoping we didn't leave anything in the hotel room and waiting for our train, which won't come for an hour and a half. We'll be getting to Paris a little later than the rest of the Dijonettes because our train was already scheduled when we found out what time we were supposed to be there, and that's kind of a bummer, but I can't wait until we actually arrive at Hotel Jean-Bart!