The day after I arrived in France, I met the rest of the exchange and ERASMUS (that's European for 'we get more money than you'. you won't find it in the dictionary.) students for orientation at the unversity. L'Université Catholique de l'Ouest. Don't bother translating that.
It was a fairly long day. Most of it was spent listening to important information. I spent most of it wondering what I would eat for lunch. And after lunch, dîner. But the directors seem nice. Oh, and we had to take a test. That was loads of fun. It was more or less a placement exam, consisting of a couple essays. I hope I did alright. I know I did better than the two Bulgarian students I sat next to. Normally, I would feel bad about saying that, but all they do is talk in Bulgarian about everyone. Every time they look at me they laugh. Not that I blame them.
The rest of the students are assez sympa. There's a Latvian I really like. I don't know any other Latvians to compare her to, but based on her, it seems like a nice place. There's a Finn too. And a couple of Greeks. There's this Italian guy that is so laid back. I didn't know that was possible. And of course, there are Americans. There are actually only three Americans. The rest are from Texas. I swear, anywhere I go in the world, there's always some Texan following me around. The first time I saw them, I marked them by what they wore (boots). They were speaking espagnol, too. Le sigh.
I haven't eaten any kebab yet. My mom has been cooking for me every evening, and I've been getting lunch on my own. Lunch has been a sandwich (barbecue chicken) and a panini from an on-campus café that tasted like pizza. Some things don't change. Dinner was veal with mushrooms and purée the first night, and some sort of pork and des haricots last night. Both were good. We had king cake, too. I found the fève, a little different than the baby I'm used to. My mom thought so, too. At least, she couldn't understand why I was pointing to the galette and saying, 'bébé'.
My French is getting better though. It was pretty rusty at first, and it still catches every now and then, but I think we're making progress.
There aren't Minnesotans and Massachusettsians (apparently Bay Staters is the official designation)? There were TONS in Ireland. Maybe because everyone from Boston thinks they are Irish...and the University of MN is huge. I don't know.
ReplyDeleteThe food sounds good. I bet your mom is thrilled you're not a vegetarian!
HA! I actually know enough French to have translated that before you instructing me not to :(
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, sounds fun! Have fun!
Btw: the random French word made me think back to this piece by Chomsky I was reading last semester where he blatantly just plops in whole paragraphs in French without even the slightest bother of translating them. What was astounding is that I actually understood that too... maybe I should give that whole français thing another try.
Just remember... you MARRIED a Texan! LOL... I read "Le sigh" and thought of the French cartoon skunk; Pepe Le Pew. Study hard!
ReplyDeleteWoot Texans!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I love that they're still working on that castle lol. Makes me miss my home over there.