So, I'm off to London tonight! Sorry I haven't been updating... my computer had been acting weird, and yesterday it finally imploded. I took it to the apple store in downtown Toulouse, had an interesting discussion in French with the guy who works there (seriously. you try doing computer talk in a foreign language), and discovered that the hard drive needs to be replaced. Which is only interesting since I had to have it replaced four months ago. Like I've said before, like clockwork, something goes wrong every four months with the stupid thing. Luckily I have AppleCare. (My friend Daniel once told me that those things aren't supposed to be a deal, but a rip off; god knows two new hard drives later mine has definitely been a deal... thanks mom). As for now, I'm trying not to think about all the work I have to do before I leave tonight... eesh.
So anyway. London tonight and Paris on Wednesday. Next time we talk I'll be a world traveller with a computer that has been gutted and replaced from the inside out.
A la prochaine.
-b.
October 22, 2009
October 14, 2009
Our aspirations are wrapped up in books.
Bonjour, tout le monde. (I've always found it a little funny how the French say "everyone"... it's "all the world"... haha. Over exaggerate much?)
So I hope everyone is doing well. I got sick with a stomach bug a few days ago, but I am feeling much better now, and thought I'd write another blog entry. I'm going to try for at least two a week, even though I really doubt all that many people read this. For my own sake I think it's good to keep at least my parents updated, plus it's good to write things down to have for future reference.
As of right now, I am busier than you could possibly imagine. I have to write out a resumé and a cover letter in order to do this internship at a high school in town... I would be helping out teaching an English class. This seems like a really cool opportunity, and I'm really looking forward to it, I just didn't realize we'd have to have our stuff together quite so early. We were literally given the information on Friday and apparently it was expected... yesterday. Eesh. Of course, in typical French fashion I didn't find this out until today.
I have resigned myself to the general confusion that is my existence in a foreign country.
So, my plan for the evening is as follows: dinner with Marie-Claude, clean room, pack bag for tomorrow, make tea, sit down and write my resumé and cover letter, and finally put resumé and cover letter through antidote (genius French grammar-checking software... would not have survived this long without it).
...we'll see how much of it actually gets done. I have succumbed to French time... a.k.a. I take forever to do things that are of very little importance. Like eating. I don't think I'm capable of taking a meal in under and hour and a half anymore. Or sleeping. I definitely get at least 7 hours of sleep a night (at home I was lucky if it I got 5). Okay, well I guess it could be argued that eating and sleeping are of great importance, but not in proportion to how much time they take. You get my point.
Oh, classes. I promised I would talk about those, didn't I? I suppose I don't have too much to say about them. I am taking six classes here. That would be an absurd number in the states, but most of the classes here are only half credits, which is unbelievably frustrating when you're trying to make a schedule upon arrival in a foreign land. The classes I am taking are: Art History, Architecture of Toulouse, Methodology (a required Dickinson course that is less like a class and more like an enormous waste of my mortal life), French Political History of the 20th Century, Geography of France (which is less about terrain and more about people), and French/English Translation (the dark horse... it actually has turned out to be really fun so far).
Classes are good... somewhat different than I expected, given that I was told I'd be able to sit in the back of a large lecture hall and hide, never letting anyone know I was foreign (which, frankly, would be a luxury in my opinion). Unfortunately, I decided to take most of my classes at L'Institut Catholique de Toulouse, where most classes are only 30 to 40 students (larger than Dickinson, but incredibly small by France's public university standards). I have exposés (oral presentations) in all but one of my classes (the political history class, which is at L'Institut des Etudes Politiques de Toulouse, in which I can happily hide and quietly take notes). My geography class is more interactive than some classes I have had at Dickinson (all of the class talks all the time... and 85% of the time it's NOT personal conversations... haha).
Things are just generally different in classes here. First of all, syllubi don't exist. Plans? Never. Secondly, the bibliography they give you ranges from one full page to five full pages; books and articles abound. I haven't really figured out what use they are... I think they're given to us in case we are confused or we want supplementary readings, but if I'm being entirely honest, I'm pretty much constantly confused and given that I'm not really sure of the location of the library in either of the schools I am attending, I highly doubt I'm ever going to actually look at them. My mère d'accueil told me that the good students go straight from class to the library to check out the best books... I guess I'm not a good student.
Thirdly, we don't really have homework, per se. We have some little bits of homework for translation (which, I think, is a given), and methodology, being designed to consume as much of my time with the maximum amount of worthless busywork, has some things as well, but on the whole we basically just sit in class and take notes. I'm really worried that at the end of the semester I'm going to be buried under more work than I am capable of digging myself out of, but I guess there's nothing I can do about that now. The good news is, all I have to do is pass. The grades here aren't factored into my GPA given the cruel French grading system. Basically, it's a 20 point scale, and if you get a 12 it's really really good. Grades 17 through 20 are never assigned, and 13-16 are probably reserved for the natives. Only France would create a system in which foreigners don't have a chance of succeeding.
Well that's all I have to say for now. Oh! Except that Kim and I just bought tickets to London for the weekend after this one! I'm so excited. We'll be in London that weekend, and then spend the following weekend in Paris. Just, you know, a little jaunt around the globe. I cannot wait.
À très bientôt!
bryn.
So I hope everyone is doing well. I got sick with a stomach bug a few days ago, but I am feeling much better now, and thought I'd write another blog entry. I'm going to try for at least two a week, even though I really doubt all that many people read this. For my own sake I think it's good to keep at least my parents updated, plus it's good to write things down to have for future reference.
As of right now, I am busier than you could possibly imagine. I have to write out a resumé and a cover letter in order to do this internship at a high school in town... I would be helping out teaching an English class. This seems like a really cool opportunity, and I'm really looking forward to it, I just didn't realize we'd have to have our stuff together quite so early. We were literally given the information on Friday and apparently it was expected... yesterday. Eesh. Of course, in typical French fashion I didn't find this out until today.
I have resigned myself to the general confusion that is my existence in a foreign country.
So, my plan for the evening is as follows: dinner with Marie-Claude, clean room, pack bag for tomorrow, make tea, sit down and write my resumé and cover letter, and finally put resumé and cover letter through antidote (genius French grammar-checking software... would not have survived this long without it).
...we'll see how much of it actually gets done. I have succumbed to French time... a.k.a. I take forever to do things that are of very little importance. Like eating. I don't think I'm capable of taking a meal in under and hour and a half anymore. Or sleeping. I definitely get at least 7 hours of sleep a night (at home I was lucky if it I got 5). Okay, well I guess it could be argued that eating and sleeping are of great importance, but not in proportion to how much time they take. You get my point.
Oh, classes. I promised I would talk about those, didn't I? I suppose I don't have too much to say about them. I am taking six classes here. That would be an absurd number in the states, but most of the classes here are only half credits, which is unbelievably frustrating when you're trying to make a schedule upon arrival in a foreign land. The classes I am taking are: Art History, Architecture of Toulouse, Methodology (a required Dickinson course that is less like a class and more like an enormous waste of my mortal life), French Political History of the 20th Century, Geography of France (which is less about terrain and more about people), and French/English Translation (the dark horse... it actually has turned out to be really fun so far).
Classes are good... somewhat different than I expected, given that I was told I'd be able to sit in the back of a large lecture hall and hide, never letting anyone know I was foreign (which, frankly, would be a luxury in my opinion). Unfortunately, I decided to take most of my classes at L'Institut Catholique de Toulouse, where most classes are only 30 to 40 students (larger than Dickinson, but incredibly small by France's public university standards). I have exposés (oral presentations) in all but one of my classes (the political history class, which is at L'Institut des Etudes Politiques de Toulouse, in which I can happily hide and quietly take notes). My geography class is more interactive than some classes I have had at Dickinson (all of the class talks all the time... and 85% of the time it's NOT personal conversations... haha).
Things are just generally different in classes here. First of all, syllubi don't exist. Plans? Never. Secondly, the bibliography they give you ranges from one full page to five full pages; books and articles abound. I haven't really figured out what use they are... I think they're given to us in case we are confused or we want supplementary readings, but if I'm being entirely honest, I'm pretty much constantly confused and given that I'm not really sure of the location of the library in either of the schools I am attending, I highly doubt I'm ever going to actually look at them. My mère d'accueil told me that the good students go straight from class to the library to check out the best books... I guess I'm not a good student.
Thirdly, we don't really have homework, per se. We have some little bits of homework for translation (which, I think, is a given), and methodology, being designed to consume as much of my time with the maximum amount of worthless busywork, has some things as well, but on the whole we basically just sit in class and take notes. I'm really worried that at the end of the semester I'm going to be buried under more work than I am capable of digging myself out of, but I guess there's nothing I can do about that now. The good news is, all I have to do is pass. The grades here aren't factored into my GPA given the cruel French grading system. Basically, it's a 20 point scale, and if you get a 12 it's really really good. Grades 17 through 20 are never assigned, and 13-16 are probably reserved for the natives. Only France would create a system in which foreigners don't have a chance of succeeding.
Well that's all I have to say for now. Oh! Except that Kim and I just bought tickets to London for the weekend after this one! I'm so excited. We'll be in London that weekend, and then spend the following weekend in Paris. Just, you know, a little jaunt around the globe. I cannot wait.
À très bientôt!
bryn.
October 10, 2009
What a reckless choice of words.
Hello all. So remember that nice dinner with a couple friends I was planning? The one that was supposed to make me feel better, to help me relax? Never in my life have my best laid plans gone quite so awry. I think my blog posts must have some special jinxing power. Noted.
We weren't able to have dinner at my house, because my mère d'accueil didn't really want people around after she had spent a long day at work. So, instead, we decided to do it at Andrea's house. I wanted to take a shot at the recipe for chili that my mom sent me... Andrea and I set about doing the shopping and then met up with Ramsay back at the house. It was all looking good, we found all the ingredients we needed, despite the language barrier difficulties that come along with shopping off of an American recipe in a French grocery store.
So. We're about ten minutes into cooking when a bunch of Andrea's host brother's friends come filtering in... rounds of bises (the emblematic French cheek kisses) and Franglais (French/English) conversations were quick to follow (it always shocks me how fantastically almost all of the French speak English, despite their inevitably fervent insistence that it isn't true... I suspect the vast majority of the French population speak far better English than I do French). We were having a little bit of difficulty with the recipe, given that the measurements were all American, and the small but significant detail that there were no measuring cups or spoons in any conceivable location. I guesstimated away, figuring it wouldn't matter all that much if I really screwed things up, we could always trash it and go out somewhere to find something better to eat.
Teaches me to assume. It right around the time that I made that brilliant executive decision when the French guys started asking about what I was cooking... when we replied "chili" they clarified: "chili con carne" (sidebar: has anyone ever heard of a chili that wasn't con carne??). I started to get anxious... being guys they were going to want some, which was fine given that we had enough to feed a small army, I just had no idea how it was going to turn out... I mean I had just poured three coffee mugs of water in, going with Andrea when she said it had to be about equal to the three cups the recipe called for. (For the record, it was a good call on her part. Ten points.)
Well, the evening basically devolved from there, in the best of senses. The chili, if I do say so myself, turned out fantastic... there was enough to feed us and probably about six or seven of her host brother's friends... we had good laughs and conversations with wonderfully ridiculous people we had never met before... and we got to practice our French (kind of... given my recent state of culture shock I had basically been boycotting the language all week... why are Andrea and Ramsay so good at it?!??!). I ended up spending the night at Andrea's since I missed the last metro home... three quarters of the way through the night sharing her twin bed, I discovered a trundle bed underneath (genius, I know). In the morning, we got up and thoroughly cleaned the kitchen, ate a nice breakfast, shared some music and good conversation. It was a wonderful Saturday morning.
Don't you love when things like that happen? Everything went exactly opposite than I would have wanted, though now I wouldn't have it any other way.
Well, I have to go, don't want to be late for dinner (though it would be very French of me). I promise I will write soon about life and classes... but for now let me enjoy my weekend. À la prochaine.
bryn.
We weren't able to have dinner at my house, because my mère d'accueil didn't really want people around after she had spent a long day at work. So, instead, we decided to do it at Andrea's house. I wanted to take a shot at the recipe for chili that my mom sent me... Andrea and I set about doing the shopping and then met up with Ramsay back at the house. It was all looking good, we found all the ingredients we needed, despite the language barrier difficulties that come along with shopping off of an American recipe in a French grocery store.
So. We're about ten minutes into cooking when a bunch of Andrea's host brother's friends come filtering in... rounds of bises (the emblematic French cheek kisses) and Franglais (French/English) conversations were quick to follow (it always shocks me how fantastically almost all of the French speak English, despite their inevitably fervent insistence that it isn't true... I suspect the vast majority of the French population speak far better English than I do French). We were having a little bit of difficulty with the recipe, given that the measurements were all American, and the small but significant detail that there were no measuring cups or spoons in any conceivable location. I guesstimated away, figuring it wouldn't matter all that much if I really screwed things up, we could always trash it and go out somewhere to find something better to eat.
Teaches me to assume. It right around the time that I made that brilliant executive decision when the French guys started asking about what I was cooking... when we replied "chili" they clarified: "chili con carne" (sidebar: has anyone ever heard of a chili that wasn't con carne??). I started to get anxious... being guys they were going to want some, which was fine given that we had enough to feed a small army, I just had no idea how it was going to turn out... I mean I had just poured three coffee mugs of water in, going with Andrea when she said it had to be about equal to the three cups the recipe called for. (For the record, it was a good call on her part. Ten points.)
Well, the evening basically devolved from there, in the best of senses. The chili, if I do say so myself, turned out fantastic... there was enough to feed us and probably about six or seven of her host brother's friends... we had good laughs and conversations with wonderfully ridiculous people we had never met before... and we got to practice our French (kind of... given my recent state of culture shock I had basically been boycotting the language all week... why are Andrea and Ramsay so good at it?!??!). I ended up spending the night at Andrea's since I missed the last metro home... three quarters of the way through the night sharing her twin bed, I discovered a trundle bed underneath (genius, I know). In the morning, we got up and thoroughly cleaned the kitchen, ate a nice breakfast, shared some music and good conversation. It was a wonderful Saturday morning.
Don't you love when things like that happen? Everything went exactly opposite than I would have wanted, though now I wouldn't have it any other way.
Well, I have to go, don't want to be late for dinner (though it would be very French of me). I promise I will write soon about life and classes... but for now let me enjoy my weekend. À la prochaine.
bryn.
October 8, 2009
Culture Shock's a Pain.
In the words of a friend:
"I hate the shutters here. Shutters are supposed to be purely decorative."
I've got a bad case of the culture shock bug... hit a real low today and basically spent all day in bed. Everything's fine, it's all emotional, I'm just a giant sack of stress right now. Kind of got hit with the fact that it's going to be a long time before I'm stateside, and the idea of being this uncomfortable for that long is overwhelming, to say the least.
Leave some well wishes, I miss you all. Am currently planning a little family dinner tomorrow with some close friends to cheer me up. Comfort food and conversation, a time-honored remedy.
For now, music is a great help, it's my connection to home. Speaking of, how beautiful is this woman's voice?
Will write more soon, I know I promised to talk about classes, etc. I will do that. Maybe tomorrow. But goodnight, for now.
bryn.
"I hate the shutters here. Shutters are supposed to be purely decorative."
I've got a bad case of the culture shock bug... hit a real low today and basically spent all day in bed. Everything's fine, it's all emotional, I'm just a giant sack of stress right now. Kind of got hit with the fact that it's going to be a long time before I'm stateside, and the idea of being this uncomfortable for that long is overwhelming, to say the least.
Leave some well wishes, I miss you all. Am currently planning a little family dinner tomorrow with some close friends to cheer me up. Comfort food and conversation, a time-honored remedy.
For now, music is a great help, it's my connection to home. Speaking of, how beautiful is this woman's voice?
Will write more soon, I know I promised to talk about classes, etc. I will do that. Maybe tomorrow. But goodnight, for now.
bryn.
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