La Rentrée

So, another week has gone by here.  Definitely becoming harder and harder to believe.  Last week was all about finalizing courses and beginning the semester, which is called "La Rentrée" here in France.  I got into all of the classes that I wanted to register in, so if all goes well, my French degree will be completed when I finish my last exam and get on a plane to come home to the states.  That is definitely surreal.

I unfortunately had the wrong class schedule for the week, so I was going to school at the wrong times when there was really no class at all.  Obviously something I would do...I finally got the right schedule, luckily not too late in the week.  Because I am taking human science courses here, all of them were on the same day last week, Friday, and they all overlapped.  I was forced to swallow my pride and talk to each professor about the predicament.  It was fine with each of them, but now I have a concrete schedule with no overlaps.  AND, I don't have classes on Thursday or Friday (score).

This week, the UTC group for exchange students, Esperanto, held an event where we met the members of the group as well as our "godparent," a student at UTC that is willing to take you under their wing.  Let's just say that my godfather is out of his mind.  He loves to speak in English, but when he does, it's in a British accent and it is SO hard not to laugh because it just seems fake.  Anyway, he is very nice and has gone out of his way to be my friend.  After the meeting, all of the students went to the bar.  Of course, I was asked multiple times about "How I Met Your Mother," which made me ecstatic :) It is so funny how popular that show is here.

Thursday night, I went to a masquerade disco party at a nearby club that was being held by a student organization.  I think that they only happen a few seldom times throughout the semester, which relieved me, because it really wasn't my scene.  TOO many people!  All of my friends went, which made it fun, by I definitely hit a wall at some point in the night, haha.

Friday was my first day of real classes.  All went well, but it was nice to come home and relax a bit because I felt really overwhelmed.  I had some trouble following one of the professors, but the rest were fine.  I am lucky enough to know at least one person in each of my classes, so that will make it a lot easier!  Friday night, my friend, Hansen, had Anna and I over for some dinner and chit chat.  It is nice to have mellow nights like those where someone just makes some food and we all talk.  Saturday was a lazy day here in Compiègne.  By the time I actually got up and going it was 1pm, and I went to Anna's for some coffee.  Then we went food shopping and that was a 2 hour process.  I bought my first baguette here in France, only to have some guy knock into it getting off the bus, breaking it in half.  So, half of my baguette is on Rue St. Germain.  If anyone finds it, please return it, haha. Later that evening, Anna and her roommate had a little soirée at their place, so I just went up for a little.  I met some more exchange students and had nice conversations, nothing too crazy.

Sunday was mellow as well.  Anna and I went walking and running throughout a part of Compiègne that we had never been to before.  The sun was out for a while, and it was nice to get some fresh air.  Later that night, Anna and Hansen came over to plan our trip to Rome.  We booked our hostel and we have a rough itinerary of what we want to do.  We also planned to possibly go to Normandy this weekend, and Dijon the weekend after Rome.  Looks like my March is completely booked.  After Rome, we will either go to Dijon or stay here in Compiègne, then after that, KELSEY IS COMING! I am beyond excited to see her and go to Paris and London with her and Cait.  Should be amazing!  This month is going to fly!

Today is even flying.  I had some business to take care of this morning for my health insurance here, then I had some lunch with Zuzana and Anna.  I was supposed to receive my bank code today, finally, and guess what? I GOT IT! WOOHOO! I'm finally legit here.  Thank goodness, because my rent is due tomorrow. Phew.

Everything here is becoming more habitual and routine.  In a good way, of course.  Language is becoming less and less of a barrier (an almost non-existant barrier), which is making me so happy! I couldn't sleep last night because I had so many ideas for curriculum, as well as pure good energy keeping me awake, gotta love it! Well, I have to go to French class in a little bit, then I think I'm going to my godparent's house for a "traditional French meal" with Anna.  We shall see!

Hope all is going well at home.  I miss everyone more and more each day.

--Amanda

Acceptance

Hello all! So I think that this is the first time that I've sat down to write something without knowing what I wanted to say.  This past week has FLOWN.   I can't even pick apart the days, it's just sort of a clump of time.  I do have events to discuss, of course.

This week was orientation week at UTC.  Basically, it was a week of paperwork, therefore testing my proficiency in French.  We sat in on various presentations, had to choose medical insurance, pay for a lot of random things, and take our school picture! But, what would be an average week in France without some sort of fiasco?  I have still yet to use my bank account here, although I opened up the account a month ago.  Apparently the French don't find it necessary to give you a passcode with your bank card that would allow you to USE it. I spent about an hour and a half in the bank last week, and upon reviewing what happened during that span of time, I have decided that it was not me being a foreigner that made the situation difficult.  It truly was the French woman's fault.  My ego has taken a few hits here, so I'm not sparing myself, I'm being truthful. Haha.

Anyway, this week overall was all about accepting that I am here.  I think that I have developed the sense of semi-permanence that I have been searching for this past month.  I am now excited to acclimate and to be a student at the university.  One of my French roommates moved in for good, so that has helped me get even more of a routine.  Plus, she is super helpful and goes out of her way constantly to give me tips and cool stuff.  She rocks.

This past weekend, I met up with my friend from URI, Andrew, in Paris.  He is studying in Marseille, but he came up to Paris for the tail end of his winter break.  Let's just take a moment to recognize that he is well into his semester and I am starting mine in two days, haha. I had no orientation on Friday, so I took it upon myself to relax and plan out my train times carefully to avoid a disaster.  Of course, the more I plan, the more things go wrong, so I should have known right then and there that I was up to no good.  I got on the bus and went to the train station, no problem.  I then saw that no ticket counters were open, so I had to beg a French man to pay for my ticket on his debit card in exchange for cash.  That frustrated me, and then I reverted back to my bank fiasco just a few days prior.  I bet you're frustrated reading this.  If you aren't, have some sympathy, will ya? I then hopped on the WRONG train which was coincidentally going to Creil, the train station that I had my horrid 3 hour layover in on my very first day in France.  I don't know if you remember, but Creil and I are not friends.  I got off of the train in Creil, and karma came back around, because I was able to get on a train ten minutes later after the lady at the ticket counter told me that I spoke great French and wished me a happy semester.  KARMA! Thanks Creil, we're okay now.

In Paris, I was able to meet a few of Andrew's friends from school who had not yet been to Paris.  I tagged along on all of the tourist attractions, happily of course, because I am not yet sick of Paris.  Quite frankly, I'm not sure I ever will be.  We went to the Louvre...

Mona Lisa!

We also went to Monmartre, Sacré Coeur, la Tour Eiffel...

Still my favorite...

And, Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, the Moulin Rouge, and more.  It was a great weekend! I got back to Compiègne today a little beat, but was able to relax and talk to my family and Kelsey.  Tomorrow I find out whether or not I got into all of the classes that I signed up for.  If so, I only have class Monday-Wednesday.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!  I'm going to get going! The next time I write, I will be an official student at UTC, weird!  Hope all is well.

Bisous,

Amanda

ONE Month

Bonjour everyone! So, today marks one month that I've spent here in France.  I can't believe it has been a month, but I feel like I have been here much longer.  Christmas and New Years feel like they were years ago.  This week was good! We finished the intensive stage and had a show to celebrate everyone's countries and cultures.  It was a lot of fun.  I don't want to start real school, bleh.

This week, my friends Anna, Hansen and myself purchased tickets to go to Rome this weekend, but after much debate, we changed the flights to the second weekend in March.  We weren't aware that we have orientation starting Monday and it would have truly been a mess.  Yesterday, Anna, Zuzana, and I went shopping and walking around in Compiègne. It was nice to walk around and not really have an agenda.  After that we decided to go back to Anna's (upstairs from me) and cook a late lunch.  On the way back, we ran into some other exchange students that are from Spain and Mexico.  A few of them live in my building, so we all walked to the supermarket and then to our apartments.  Zuzana bought a 24 pack of Stella which was hysterical, so we had one of the Mexican guys escort us to my apartment with the Stella in hand.  Want to talk about horrible timing? As soon as we walk into my apartment and put the beer down, I hear a key turning in the door.  One of my roommates was arriving to move things in. Upon first sight and first meeting each other, poor Lydie (that's her name) witnessed a Mexican, a tall goth Slovakian girl, and the short American handling a case of Stella.  Good first impression I'd say.

Lydie and her friend moved in all of her things.  I feel like she is here to stay.  I thought I was bad with moving back and forth to URI; scratch that.  She filled the kitchen with her own pots, pans, spices, huge refrigerator, you name it.  She is extremely nice.  We talked in French and I had no problem understanding her, so hopefully I'll learn a lot from her and Clemence, my other roommate.  Lydie told me that they know each other, so I think it will be a good experience.  Lydie left this morning and will return on Wednesday.  I've unexpectedly become a little territorial over the apartment; I've definitely gotten used to being here on my own, so with everyone and their belongings arriving, I have had to adjust.  Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about my first month here and have decided to create a list of things that I've learned...

What I have learned after a month in France:

1) They really eat baguettes, constantly.
2) Showering without a shower curtain or suspended shower head is difficult.
3) Postal workers ride bicycles.
4) Be careful that no one steals your bike seat.
5) DO NOT fill a diesel tank with gasoline.
6) Everybody loves New York.
7) There is no iced coffee here.
8) There is nothing cuter than a child speaking French. Seriously.
9) Stamps are not in sticker form, you have to lick them. What?
10) It's necessary to appreciate the differences.

Hope everyone has/had a great weekend! Talk soon!
Bisous,
Amanda

Roadtrip

Hello all! So, I have been living in the Mare Gaudry, my apartment complex, for officially one week.  The whole concept of time here is still unknown to me, because I really cannot decide if it is going fast or slow.  I really like my apartment.  My first night in here was interesting because the pipes are very loud which wasn't very comforting.  I also live right above a daycare, so all of the little kids laughing, crying, running around, and screaming definitely caught me off guard as well.  Now, I kind of like it because I know where the noise is coming from, so I don't feel as crazy.

After my move, culture shock definitely manifested itself in another way.  I was blinded by my frustration my first few days here.  I woke up after my first, not so sleep-filled night here to the sound of men talking and hammering in my apartment.  I woke up in a jolt and used my groggy French to see what they were doing.  They laughed at me and then told me that they were repairing the walls in one of the bedrooms.  I wasn't too happy about it, but I really couldn't do anything.  They were really nice, aside from the fact that one of them left the toilet seat up. Not cool. Oh well, they're gone now.  My showering experience was definitely another interesting endeavor as well.  I don't have a shower head that is attached to the wall, so I basically need to hold it over my head to wash myself.  It was something out of a comedy the first time I showered here. I had no shower curtain either so I basically flooded the entire room.  It was definitely funny, but I didn't think so at the time.

Moving on; this past weekend was great.  On Friday, one of the Chilean guys had a party in my building and everyone went.  Super convenient and super fun.  I really have a lot of fun with everyone here.  Sidenote: Single ladies is playing in the daycare as we speak. Anyway, I left the party pretty early, because we had planned to roadtrip it to Luxembourg at like 5 am.  I came back and was able to get a good amount of sleep.  I woke up and waited for the Brazilians for like 2 hours, but I totally expected that.  They came and got me, eventually, and we hit the road.  Twelve of us went on the trip, so we had two cars: a van and a little hatchback.  We left for Reims, which is a town in the champagne district of France...without a map.  So European and so not my style.  It took us about 3 hours to get there.  We walked around, went to a church, and explored.  It was exactly like Amiens which was really interesting as well.  After walking around, we decided to call and go on a tour of a champagne cave.  We went to the Pommery factory, which was extremely cool!

The champagne was absolutely amazing!  After that, we headed out and onward towards Luxembourg.  We got lost, and then Pedro, who was driving, went to the side of the road to look at the map that we had purchased.  Little did we know, he pulled into the mud and we got stuck.  That was a 25 minute detour which seemed horrible at the time, but it was fun compared to what would happen to us the next night.  We got out of that situation and headed back on the road.  We finally got to Luxembourg and my first reaction was: HOGWARTS.  I don't know, it just was SO Harry Potter.  We went to the hostel, which was extremely awesome and we ate dinner.  We got to our rooms, had a few drinks and walked to the bars.  We had an awesome night out, it was beautiful, clean, and people were nice.  The next day, we had to be out of the hostel by 10:30, so that basically killed us all.  Hungover, but excited to see the city, we ventured out on the town.  It was so beautiful, although many things were closed.

Public Park

We went around, ate, took pictures, and then after moving at a glacial pace for approximately 4 hours, we finally got on the road.  We stopped for gas quickly, and continued.  About five minutes later, the engine in the car was going crazy and a light came up on the dash.  A lot of things went through my mind, but my friend Liz and I looked at each other happily because we were definitely thinking the same thing: practical French use.  That giddy feeling definitely didn't last long because we were waiting in the cold for about an hour for help.  Liz and I figured out that the person that filled the car up, cough Bruno cough, filled it up with gasoline and not diesel.  Incase you were wondering, this causes a chemical reaction in the gas tank and also causes engine damage if you continue to drive.  NOT GOOD.  After help came, we were towed and we rode in the car that was attached to the truck. Let's just say going on an amusement park ride was not on the weekend's to-do list, but it was certainly an adventure.  The guy had to go on back roads, so it was dark and we were all convinced that we were in a horror movie.  We then got brought to a deserted town where we had to wait for about 2 hours for someone to drain the tank and reconfigure some sensors in the car.  After all of that mess, we got back on the road and didn't get back to Compiègne until 3:15 am.  I can honestly say I have never been so tired in my life, but it was totally something I will always remember.

Back here on the "homefront," one of my roommates moved some things into her room while I was away and she left me a note.  Looks like I probably won't have roommates for another 10 days or so.  The note was extremely nice.  I think everything is going to work out great here in the apartment! I played hooky today because I didn't wake up until 1pm, and it just so happens that I have class at 1:30pm.  Totally was NOT in the cards.  I'm okay with it.  This is the last week of the stage intensif, so I need to study up and kick things into gear for the start of the semester. This blog entry was extremely long, as I am just realizing that now.  If you made it this far, congrats, and thank you for being a true friend. HA.  Miss everyone! Lots of love!

-Amanda

The Move

Hi everyone. It's been a while, I know.  I have been extremely busy since the last time I checked in.  Last week I had school, a field trip to a château in a cute little French town, went to Paris again, and I moved on Monday.  Phew...

Last week flew by and it is truly a shame that I didn't write here, even if it was something short, because the days all blend together.  Last week started off good, just went to school and did the regular routine to recover from my tiring trip to Paris.  On Wednesday, we went to the Château Pierrefonds.  It was a beautiful castle located on the top of a hill in a small town not too far from Compiègne.  I had an ear infection and definitely had a fever, but was still able to enjoy the day!

The château

The view

On Friday, we didn't have class, so we decided to plan a day trip to Amiens, which is an hour north of Compiègne by train.  It was so unbearably cold, but beautiful.  It is a lot bigger than Compiègne, and it doesn't have the same quaint feeling. But, Amiens is home to the biggest church in France, so I was able to see that while I was there too.  

After we walked around the church, we got a bite to eat and then headed back.  It was WAY too cold to do anything else.  When we got back from Amiens, I checked my email, only to find out that our class for Saturday (to make up for no Friday class) was cancelled.  Could have done a cool weekend trip!! Oh well.  In celebration, Luiza, Duda and I decided to go to Paris to shop for the day. I'd say that makes up for it.  There, we shopped and walked around the Quartier Latin.  Although we left Compiègne at 1pm, we got in at around 2 and were able to do a lot before coming back at about 8pm.  Exactly like going into NYC from home, love it.

After the glorious weekend, which included a lazy Sunday (success), I needed to move out of good 'ol Cap'Affaires. It was truly horrifying.  Experts on studying abroad say that students will go through a "honeymoon phase," where everything is new and exciting, and they are sort of numb to the fact that they are in a foreign country.  I don't think I fully had that, but anyway, after that they say it is possible for students to go through a "resentment phase," where they become angry easily, or certain things that are different from home annoy them.  On Monday, I was definitely experiencing the resentment.  We had to be out of where we were living by 10:30am, so I needed to make two trips to my apartment, find somewhere to leave my bike, and get to class by 1:30.  The lady from Cap'Affaires inspected our room.  She counted the glasses, forks, knives, and then to top it all, she made my roommates and I clean the bathroom until it was "acceptable."  Truly something.

The move wasn't too bad, looking back on it, but I certainly wasn't a happy camper.  I like my apartment so far.  I don't really like living alone in a large space, especially when there are people coming in and out to fix things before my two French roommates get here, but what can you do?  Compared to the other apartments and dorms, this is definitely the top notch, so I'm happy with what I have.  I just think that it was hard to uproot again, only 2.5 weeks into the experience, but I don't have to do it again, so that's good.

Yesterday (Wednesday), I went on a field trip with my school to Paris.  They took us all around the city by bus and then we went on a boat ride up and down the river.  The sun came out just in time for the cruise and it was unbelievable.  Gotta love that that was a school day.

The next two days should be pretty heavy with class and errands, but I think I am going on a roadtrip this weekend to an unknown location! I'll let you know when I know.  Hope everyone at home is doing well, really miss you all.

Love,

Amanda