I know I'm overdue for a blog post, so here it is. I have quite a bit to update you on, so I've tried to organize my writing into subheadings...
1) I'm a full-time university student again.
You might be asking...
How did this happen?? It honestly was by accident. The only French courses I could find in a small French-speaking town (i.e., a town where no one needs to learn French) were offered by the university, and they didn't start until the winter semester. So I signed up, and waited. Turns out I have 18 hours of class per week, and 7 different classes, including things like art history in French. I have assignments, group projects and exams. Yes, that's right, I have to write exams again. More of them than I did in undergrad. At least it's only one semester. I need to keep reminding myself that. I even have a student card again (which I made sure to load up with € to buy meals at the cafeteria). Yes, I eat lunch in a cafeteria, with trays and all! I didn't even do that in high school... Speaking of which, the French love their long, sit-down lunches. No one has class over the lunch hour, so we all eat together at the huge cafeteria. It's very social. And packed. For about 3-4 € ($5-6 Canadian), you get a main course (typically some sort of meat or fish) plus a starch like rice or potatoes, plus vegetables, sides or appetizers, a bread roll with butter and dessert/fruit/yogurt. They even have stone oven pizza. It's very affordable, and semi-palatable. The desserts are good though, so you can always count on ending your meal on a high note. I'm slowly getting used to the French way of eating a gigantic meal for lunch and then not even needing to snack until we have dinner at 8-9pm. It's weird.
How is it going? The first week of class was overwhelming, to say the least. When I realized I was taking courses such as art history and analyzing literary texts (all in French, with no English instruction whatsoever) and taking notes from powerpoint presentations, I kind of wanted to drop out. Except that I knew that the tuition was non-refundable. And that I needed to learn French, so I could answer the phone or buy something at a store without repeating myself three times. And that I really couldn't get away with sitting at home planning our wedding and watching Netflix for any more months (or could I??). So I sucked it up...and talked to the administration about switching my classes. Naturally, I heard "Mais, ce n'est pas possible!" several times. However, once I had spoken to three different people and explained in French that I just wanted to learn French for fun (and so that I could communicate in this country), and stressed that I really didn't need the Diploma in French Studies that you receive after finishing the semester, they allowed me to switch two of my courses. (It's France, so obviously we had no say in picking our courses, and if I make any changes at all to my schedule, I can't receive the diploma, even though I'm still doing the same number of hours of class per week.) Anyways, at the beginning of this week, I decided that I wasn't in it for the diploma, got rid of two courses on analyzing French literature, and added a phonetics class twice a week, and now I'm feeling a lot better. Phonetics is pretty cool. We get to wear headphones and take dictations and repeat after the teacher in unison like a group of kindergarten students. Naturally, it's my favourite class. Arts is my least favourite - but only because the course is really more about history than art (I think they called it "Arts" to disguise the fact that we're really learning about the French revolution) and I'm sick of learning about Napoleon. (Did you know there were like five Napoleons? At least I think there were, because the professor mentioned at least three of them in the first lecture. No wonder "he" was so prolific.) I've also met some nice people in my classes - there's quite a few nice Australian and American girls in my class, and although I'm almost a full decade older than all of my new friends, I'm trying to blend in. Plus, I'm enjoying having a routine again. Except for the early morning wake-ups.
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| A well-needed drink after the first day of school |
As for my job, they were waiting to get me started until after I had my French class schedule, so I'm not starting until next Friday. I'll be leading two 3-hour English conversation classes per week, with a beginner and an intermediate group of adults. It should be fun (and somewhat challenging, until I get the hang of speaking slowly and meeting the students' level of English). I'm anxious to get started!
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2) Travel
We're finally starting to make some travel plans. Last weekend we took a day trip to Rouen (which, as it turns out, is not pronounced "Roo-en", as I thought, but more like "Rhon". Since I'm learning phonetics, the phonetic pronunciation is: [ʁwɑ̃]. Yeah, you try to decipher that). We got there via BlaBlaCar, an international ride-sharing service that one of my classmates told me about. Basically you just hitch a ride with someone who's already planning to go where you're going, and you pay them ahead of time online to cover your share of gas money and tolls (French highways have so many tolls!). To go to Rouen, which was about 1.5 hours away from Caen, it cost us each 16 € for a round-trip, versus the 55 € each we would've paid to take the train. Plus, we got to go directly in a car instead of stopping in a bunch of cities like you would on the train or bus. (For another city we want to visit, it's only 1 € each way on BlaBlaCar.) We carpooled with different drivers to and from Rouen in the same day, and had a great experience. I'm not sure I'd do it alone in a foreign country, but it was totally fine since it was two of us and I think we'll definitely use it again!
A quick recap of our day:
- We had a delicious Normandy-style lunch at a restaurant that uses all local ingredients, called Le Mouton Noir (The Black Sheep). For about 35 € for the two of us, we each had their lunch menu which included a delicious galette (what they call savoury crêpes in Normandy), which was oeuf, fromage et jambon, naturally, plus a salad, a glass of cider (a regional drink here), and a dessert crêpe made with homemade honey-butter-caramel. Yum! I felt like a true Norman. [Side note: I learned in class this week that in France, "French food" is not a concept. There are regional cuisines, so you might speak of typical dishes from Normandy, Brittany or Provence, but you wouldn't speak of "French food". Apparently in North America we just smash them all together and call it "French". Just a little tid-bit of knowledge for you.]
- We visited the huge Cathedral de Notre-Dame de Rouen, which was constructed starting in like the 1100s, a concept that's hard to conceive of in Canada.
- We spent a few hours in the Musée des Beaux-Arts (what they call almost every art gallery in France), and saw some beautiful paintings, including a few works by famous artists such as Monet that we hadn't seen before in other galleries in Europe.
- We walked around the downtown, and admired the half-timbered houses as well as the Vieille Marché (old marketplace).
- Fun fact: Rouen is the capital of Haute-Normandie (Upper Normandy), and Caen is the capital of Basse-Normandie (Lower Normandy). However, the two halves of Normandy merged in the past few weeks, which means that it will all be called "Normandie" with no upper and lower halves, and Caen will no longer be a capital city. It also means a bunch of administrative and economic changes - most of which I will probably not be privy to - but interesting nonetheless.
- Some photos from the day:
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| Us in one of the old downtown streets |
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| Famous horloge (clock) downtown |
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| Cathédral de Notre Dame de Rouen in the fog |
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| Beautiful stained-glass in the cathedral |
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| Sculptures of saints in the cathedral |
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| Half-timbered buildings downtown Rouen |
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| The Vielle Marché downtown |
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| More half-timbered buildings, turned into shops & restaurants |
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As for travel, we've also booked trips to:
- Paris in February - to visit with Patrick & Angela who are visiting from China - woo! I'm also meeting up with Jessie, who is coming in from London to go wedding dress shopping with me, and to meet with clients (because she's a fashion photographer and does fancy things like meet models in Paris). I have a school break that week in Feb, so it worked out really well that I'll be able to spend the week in Paris with friends!
- London in March - to visit Jessie & Kevin at their new apartment - yay!
- Copenhagen in April - I recently finished reading The Danish Girl [Side note: it's a really great book, and we're planning to see the movie tomorrow night because it's playing in ENGLISH at the big movie theatre in Caen - the one with sweet and salty self-serve popcorn that I posted pictures of a while back. Remember? Yay!] Sorry, I got distracted. Anyways, the book is set in Copenhagen, Denmark, which really made me want to go there. I told Alex that we should go somewhere we've never thought of, like Copenhagen, and we did some research and found cheap tickets during one of my school breaks in April. [Another side note: I get three weeks of vacation during my one semester of school: one in February, and two consecutive weeks in April. Only the French...] So anyways, we're taking a long-weekend in April and flying there for only 142 € (round-trip for two people - gotta love Europe). I'm pretty excited! And no, I don't know Danish. But I think they speak English pretty much everywhere... except Caen.
3) Igor
Our foster kitty is being adopted in just over a week! We're going to miss him. He's always cuddling and being cute. One of the funniest things about him is that he loves to sleep on you, so if you're sitting on the couch or at the table working at your laptop, even if your arms are in the air typing, he'll get on your lap and reach his head up and put it on your arm and sleep like that, even though you're typing and he can't possibly be comfortable with his neck extended like that. He also likes to climb onto your neck if you turn onto your back in the night, so that you get woken up with him nuzzling across your neck like a heavy scarf. The only thing is, he was sick the first week we had him, so he slept and cuddled pretty much all day, everyday, and we got used to that. Now that he's no longer sick, he's a bit of a little devil. If I'm not playing with him, he's always biting at my ankles trying to get my attention, and running around chasing his own tail. If you're home alone and leave the bathroom door open, he runs and jumps on your lap immediately...and his claws are really sharp even though I cut them like a week and a half ago. It's kind of ridiculous how much attention he needs. Alex got me flowers on Friday night and Igor woke us up early yesterday morning by knocking the vase on the floor and getting water everywhere. So, at least that's going to make it a little easier to give him up next week. However, I think after all our travels in Feb/March, we'll likely get another foster kitty. I do love having a kitty around, even if it means a few scratches here and there.
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| Igor cuddling Alex while he works on his laptop |
Believe it or not, I have lots more to say, but I'll save that for next week's post. Bon dimanche à tous!
