Fin

Bye France.

I have one night left. I get the impression that France and I are in the middle of the awkward handshake-or-hug dance.

I will miss: cheese. Belgians. kebab. pain. the French language. pastries. 70 degree weather. Bretagne. long French meals. le Welsh. my new friends.  

I look forward to: Amelia, hamburgers, my family, Lazy Magnolia. my Church. Mexican food, gardening, brewing, the library, my old friends.

I hope to return next year, but the future plans are as vague as ever. I don’t think France will ever be a place where I would try and settle down, but there are certain things I’ve learned here that I will always remember.

Today, I’m headed to Paris. I’m staying in a hostel due to the lack of available couchsurfers. I plan to climb Sacré Coeur this evening, and finish the evening in a pub somewhere. Not very French, but I’ve already said goodbye.

For those of you that have continued to read, thanks. I won’t be writing anymore in this blog, but I might start a new one someday. We’ll see.

A la prochaine.

Easter vacation

I haven’t done a very good job of keeping everyone up to date. My apologies. Good weather will do that, as will the knowledge of one’s impending doom. Finals start in a week and a half for me. Until then, its les vacances de Pâques.

These past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. I’ve been all over the place both in and around Angers and beyond. I’ve seen old friends and new, played a game of petit-foot, spent way too much time in my favorite pub, tasted great wine I’ll never afford, the list goes on. I still have postcards to send, so relax if you haven’t gotten one yet. I might hand you one in June. It’ll be good to be back home, despite the fact that I’ll be getting back to work as soon as I return.

In addition to seeing my friends and family, I’m looking forward to: Mexican food, southern food, Asian food I don’t get food-poisoning from, the (community) garden, brewing for the fall, and a new sport I’m gonna take up I’m dubbing ‘cat-punting’. Should be fun.

This weekend, I’m taking a hike near Angers. The trail is a Grande Randonnée de Pays (GRP) through the basses vallées angevines. I’ll be following rivers. It should be fun. I don’t know how many days I’ll be out, but I should be back by Monday. I hope to go to Rennes on Tuesday. Regardless, I’ll end up in Nantes on Friday. For my OFII meeting. Then another hike back to Angers, just before exams start. Then the real fun begins.

Until next time.

Nantes à Normadie.

I spent the weekend in Cherbourg. I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a CS (coushsurfing) event planned for a weekend at the end of March. Earlier this week, I saw the message again and decided to go or it, dragging behind Alexa, my newly adopted Colombian sister (and her cellphone).

I spent Friday in Nantes. We went there to catch a ride with Laurent, someone I met while couchsurfing in Brittany a month earlier. We decided to go early to pass the day in Nantes. Alexa kept talking about this elephant she wanted to see there. We left at 10:30, spent some time in the château and the cathedral and then headed towards l'éléphant. While waiting for the exhibit to open, we grabbed a baguette and some grass and ate lunch. I mention this because the weather was beautiful. I was in shorts, not even cold.

After some reading and a nap on the grass, we went to see 'les machines'.

The elephant turned out to be a bigger-than-life mechanical elephant that walked around and sprayed water while making elephant noises. There were places for passengers. Within the exhibit were various other mechanical creatures of the sea, designed to be ridden and driven by visitors. The artwork was pretty cool; it had a steampunk feel to it. There was also what they called the 'heron tree' in design. They exhibit had one branch as a prototype. It had containers throughout the spaces in the branch, all containing drip irrigation and collection basins for the water that drained from the plants, a sort of variation on green architecture, designed solely for allowing people up in the branches. I think the plan was to situate the tree on the bank of the Loire, which runs through Nantes.

As we headed back to the gare, we walked through the city center. Found a used book sale. 8+. I was glad I left some room in my backpack.

We left Nantes around 18h30, heading for Cherbourg, on the tip of the peninsula in western Normandy. The drive took about 4 hours, a bit long and not quite as nice as the train, but much cheaper. There's a website called 'covoiturage' that links drivers and passagers with the same destinations. I'll probably check that out in the future. Anyway, we arrived in Cherbourg around 22h30 and headed for the bar where the rest of the CSers were meeting up. It was a fairly large event, with 50-60 people total for the week-end. People had come from all over the place. I spoke with several from Rouen, Paris, Rennes, and Marseille. There were also a handful of anglophones, some of them with language assistant positions in Cherbourg. I headed to my host's appartement fairly early, with a another couchsurfer who decided to turn in early. I got a mattress for the night and slept like a log.

The next day we headed for a nearby château à la campagne to meet up for une ballade. We wound up getting there late, but so apparently did everyone else, save Alexa. She missed it altogether, unfortunately. We spent a few hours hiking in the Val de Saire region, just east of Cherbourg, near a village named 'La Glacerie'. A fairly nice walk. We met back up at the château for a pique-nique, and then we started a 'rallye touristique', a sort of scavenger hunt/race with Le Val de Saire as our playground. My team was composed of three people from Rouen. Unfortunately, we had no native contentin/e with us, so we didn't do very well. We actually came in last place. But we did see a lot of the region and la côte du nord. Several phares and forts, various reminders of the war, etc.

That evening we had dinner at a restaurant on the quay. A nice restaurant, unfortunately geared toward presenting the best of the region had to offer (seafood). I chose the vegetarian option, which consisted of le plat principal minus the seafood - couscous and vegetables. You would have thought we'd insulted the chef. The vegetarians were trying to explain that fish was still meat. The French wouldn't have any of it. Apparently if you can eat during Lent, it isn't meat. Still, a good meal. I had foie gras for the first and last time. We had a good time.

The following day we had brunch at a bar appropriately named 'Le Sofa'. We brought our own food and ordered coffee or tea. It was cold. I had decided to wear shorts; it proved to be a mistake in the long run. At about 15h, we walked to the quay and took a boat out to sea. It was a small boat for 50+ people but we had a good time. Someone brought a guitar, another a harmonica. Someone started playing 'Knockin on Heaven's Door'. Boy that was a laugh. It was a pretty day. I don't have any pictures, so I'll have to borrow some from Alexa.

After the boat trip, we immediately left for Nantes so we wouldn't miss the last train to Angers. A much more pleasant ride, due mainly to the time change: there was a much more sunlight at the end of the day. It finally did cloud up and decide to rain - the first of the week and not too bad for having spent time in Normandy. Apparently it's not much better than Brittany when it comes down to weather.

Back home now. Back to school.  Four weeks until school is out for Easter. Then exams.

I haven't updated in awhile. I thought I had an exam this morning, but turns out I was wrong. Good thing to be wrong about. I thought I'd type out a few words while waiting for the library to open.

My last few days in Bretagne were terrific. I attended a fest noz ('night festival') near Vannes in the southern part of the region. Loads of fun. Dancing with pinkies locked in big circles that were constantly moving. A couple of friends that I met through couchsurfing went with me. We had a lot of fun.

Since I've been back in Angers, not much has happened. I've been trying to hit the books hard. I had one exam yesterday, and I've got a couple more next week. These examens blancs normally don't carry much weight; instead, they're taken to prepare for the final. However, as an exchange student taking classes at different levels and departments, it is probable that some of my finals will be held at the same time. So they'll take my grade from the examen blanc to cover my final. So I may have taken a final yesterday. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm also trying to read a ton of material to make a decision about a thesis topic before the end of the month. Turns out there's a scholarship for summer thesis work. It's horrible timing, but I was already planning on spending the summer working up a thesis. Might as well cut to the chase.

The end of the week looks a bit more promising, Thursday being St. Patty's day. I've actually had several people invite me out for the evening, presumably to take a fixture-like position in some pub, you know, make it a little more authentic. I'm also hoping to travel to Tours on Friday. I'm not sure it'll happen, but it'd be nice. Saturday has a couple of rugby games I'd like to see. I missed all the others, since I was on vacation at the time. That reminds me, I need to see if there are any school planned trips. I wouldn't mind tagging along if it got me where I wanted.

En Bretagne.

Well, sporadic internet access has kept me from the computer. That and being in Brittany for the week. I still haven't written about Wales, but since it figures into a lot of my stories, I don't guess it matters, for the time being.

Last Saturday, I began my foray into Bretagne. I opted for it rather Belgium, which is a bit farther off. This region is the western most peninsula of northern France; Angers sits near the boundary between Bretagne and the Loire. A good place to be. My goal when I set out was to spend time with real Bretons, preferably Brezhoneg speaking Bretons. What better tool than couchsurfing to make it happen. I spent my first evening in Auray, a city on the southern coast, between Vannes and Lorient. There was a couchsurfing meeting there that night. To be more specific, it was actually an Indian cooking party, which, while being outside my immediate goals, proved a to be a good start. I rolled into the city around 11am, killed a few hours eating some lunch and trying to catch some sunshine, and then headed to Morganez' house. After a few other couchsurfers arrived, we drove a little bit closer to the coast and set out on a ballade, a short hike. Well, it was 4 hours long. But it was really nice weather. The sun came out, first time in a week for me. There, one were about eight of us; mostly French, one brésilienne. We had a pretty good time. Saw a chapel built by a Welsh monk.

We got back at about six and started cooking. More people showed up, until we had a good 12-15. We ate at about 11. The food was pretty good. Most of it vegetarian, but it WAS Indian food. However, the french are lightweights when it comes to spice. There was one prefab dish that everyone screamed was so spicy. I'd give it a three out of ten on Maharaja's scale of heat. People started trickling out around 1h30, but the last four of us didn't go to sleep until 4h30. I had already been snoozing when Morganez whipped out her Breton and Welsh books, including a Breton book for learning Welsh. Very fun.

The next day, a handful of us went into the city, guided by our host and a couple others, we saw the cathedral and a few other old buildings, as well as the old port around which the city had been built. We stopped at a candy store, and I got a kouign-amann, based on the recommendation of everyone there. It's a little pastry made with rolled layers (almost like a pecan roll) and butter. It was very good. As we left, it decided to rain. Apparently Breton weather isn't that much different from Welsh weather. One of my new friends has a comic depicting a Breton standing on top of a hill, his arms held wide to praise the 'telle variété de gris.'

The next day, I traveled to a small town in east central Bretagne by way of the larger city, Vannes, which is also on the coast. I spent the day wandering through the old city and around the port. I went into a couple of museums, but nothing really worth telling. The areas around the old town walls were pretty neat. Under the choir in the cathedral was a tomb containing the remains of some Stuart royalty, daughter of James Something of Scotland and wife of François I, duc de Bretagne.For lunch, I stopped in this really posh looking bistro. Ornate silverware, fuchsia napkins and pink lights everywhere. The look on their faces when I walked in, with my pack on my back and all. The food was good. Avocado and chicken salad, followed by curried pork lo mein, or something like that. I honestly didn't know what I was ordering.

At the end of the day, I took a bus to Locminé, which really is about as country as it gets. Lots of farms, food processing plants, etc. I went to stay with a friend I had met at India night. Yann's a really cool guy. His plan is to finish renovating his Breton country lodge (lodge it is, being longer than three times it's width and being made entirely of stone), begin renting the rooms, and go to California and start wwoofing. I told him I wanted to do the same, just traveling in the opposite direction. We got along well. He fed and gave me a place to sleep, and the next day, he drove me all around la forêt de Brocéliande, the heart of Bretagne's mythology. Legend, and I use that word very loosely, has it that Merlin and Vivian have their respective tombs here. The Bretons of course claim the legend of Arthur and all associated with him as their own, much like Wales. I visited both tombs, but the what was most visually impressive was a ballade in le val sans retour. Pictures on facebook. All in all, I had a good time, and Yann seemed to as well.

The next day, today, I came to Rennes, the capital and one of the largest cities. I spent today in out of museums and book shops. Rennes is a pretty city. It has a canal running up the center, and it doesn't appear to have had major changed to the pre-'modern' architecture. I saw an exhibit that told the history of Bretagne, including a couple of videos on the two regional regional languages, Breton and Gallo. There was also a history of the city as scene in the songs from the different periods. That was pretty cool. I saw a couple Picasso's at la Musée de Beaux-Arts.

Tomorrow I'm headed back to Auray to join a couple couchsurfers and make are way up the coast, towards Lorient. I'm also planning on attending a fest noz Saturday night, just outside of Vannes. Should be pretty good.

A bientôt.

Oxford (the other one).

Well, it's been awhile, at the very least a week. What can I say, I've been busy. I also haven't had internet access on mon ordinateur for the past few days, so that didn't help.

I am currently sitting in a pub/hostel, drinking the best pint of Guinness I've ever had. It's like we were made for each other. I could really go on about this beer, which is kind of surprising given my usual disdain for Guinness. But I'm gonna stop and talk about the pizza (which just arrived). It's huge. It's so big. I'm hungry, but I don't know how I'm gonna finish it. brb.

Nom. Vive le stéréotype. This pizza is giving Mello Mushroom a run for it's money. I chose this hostel almost at random, too. It's a good deal (internet, breakfast, locker). I got here in London via bus from Oxford. That's where I spent the majority of my day. Woke up before dawn was even in the works to take a 5am train to Oxford. Got there, stowed my bag at a hostel, and hit the streets. It was a pretty dreary day. Rain, clouds, wind. Still, it was a lot of fun.

I took a walking tour at around 10:45. I am certain that I was the youngest one in the group. It's was really touristy, and I wasn't crazy about everything we visited, but it was still good. I learned a lot I wouldn't have known otherwise. I'll make sure to post some pics to facebook (with labels) to show you firsthand. NB: for all you stalkers (I'm talking to you North Korea), you'll have to friend me see the photos (is ther FB in NK?). Oh well.

Going to Oxford was a bit like a pilgrimage for me. And I'm not just talking about Tolkien (or Lewis). Oxford represents the foundation of education in the English-speaking world. It's kind of a big deal. Lots of writers, scientists, politicians, and actors attended colleges in Oxford. That part was a bit weird: Oxford University is comprised of 30 odd independent colleges who are often in competition with each others for the best students. Not really something you would intentionally plan, given the option.

Just to list a few of the places I visited (you can wiki them if you want a lot of info):

Jesus college (on the tour): dining hall was pretty neat (see pictures)
Exeter college: where Tolkien went to school
Merton college: where he taught
Christ College: big literary history and it's the biggest or oldest or something
Wolvercote Cemetery: Tolkien and Edith's graves
The Eagle and Child: local watering hole frequented by the Inklings (I got some terrific beef and ale pie)
The Bodleian library: old books. reaaally old. I think I'd give five years of my life to be let alone in there. interesting pre-reformation architecture and motifs, too.

That's all I got for now. I might post again after I turn some homework in next week. I haven't forgotten Wales. On the contrary: le français est bien ma langue de metiers, mais le gallois est celle de l'amour.

Journey to Wales via St Malo

I didn't get to update before I left. My apologies. It was kind of crazy trying to get everything together.

This past Sunday I finally visited le château here in Angers. I went with Robert, Jaime, and Theodra, another américaine studying here. Those of you on facebook will have already had the opportunity to see a few. For those of you who haven't, here's a few:

I won't go into great detail about the castle. For those of you who are actually interested, you can probably find a lot of info online. I will, however, share a little about the tentures de l'apocalyspe, since I wasn't able to get any good photos of them. This series of tapestries was commissioned in the 13th century (I think). The relate the story of the book of Revelations, in keeping with all of the symbology. The tapestries start out with Saint John, sitting and writing. St John appears in almost every scene, book in hand, sometimes eating it, recording everything he sees. The seven churches, the horsemen, the seals, vials, bowls, beasts, whore, all of it. There are some scenes missing, due to what I suppose to be the deterioration of the fabric. All in all, it's quite a site to see. They're huge, and at the same time, a lot of the work is very detailed.

Monday through Wednesday was spent trying to get my schoolwork out of the way. I also submitted my class schedule. It's do or die now. I opted to leave la littérature comparée by the wayside. I'm replacing it with a class on the Renaissance and another ancien français class. Hopefully it'll work out. Time will tell.

I got my first chapter analysis back from my Montaigne class. Lots of red. All the same, the prof said I had understood fairly well. But I made a lot of grammaire mistakes. He was kind enough to point them out. I submitted another one this week. And I've got a commentaire composé due the week I get back from the UK. Speaking  off...

I left yesterday at around 4pm. I had wanted to leave earlier, but I had been running late. Upon arriving at the gare, I discovered that I would have to wait another hour and a half. Tant pis. I got a new pair of headphones (lost the others), so I caught up on a few podcasts. I took a train from Angers to Le Mans to Rennes to St Malo. St Malo is a seaside city in northeastern Bretagne. Nice place.

It was already dark when I arrived (a little after 7pm). I got a map and proceeded to make my way to the house where I'd be spending the night. I had sent a message via couchsurfing to a number of people in St Malo asking to stay the night with them. One guy replied the day before I left. It was his house I was making for. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to call him ahead of time, so I didn't really know if he would be there or not. I called him from a payphone when I thought I was near his place. Since he hadn't heard from me, he assumed that I hadn't come. All the same, he came with several of his friends to give me a lift to where he'd be staying. Turns out he wasn't in St Malo that night, but in another city nearby.

We arrived at the house in Dinard (the other city) around 9:30. My host, Laurent, is a scientist who does work in the marais (salt water marsh, I think; Christine, if you're reading this, I thought of you). Laurent and his colleagues from work were actually having a party when I arrived. I don't know what the occasion was, but we had a good time. Fromage, saucisse, pizza, bière; there was also some spiced liquor that someone had made and aged for a couple of year. Very good. I was starving, and they were very welcoming. We only stayed up until around 2am, since everyone had to work the next day. Good times. A good first experience couchsurfing.

Laurent drove me to the gare maritime the next morning. It was very nice of him. Really, I couldn't think of a better host (his first time too). I  grabbed a ferry at 10am to Portsmouth. I'm actually on it right now, as I write. I think we're passing Jersey. It's been a beautiful day. You couldn't ask for a better. Light clouds, pretty sunny, not much wind. It's been a pleasant trip so far.

I'll probably post this when I get to Carmarthen (Wales) on Saturday. I'm planning on visiting Carmarthen, Bangor, Oxford, and maybe Cambridge and London. We'll see how it goes.

Friends.

Another week has passed. This next one ought to be interesting.

I'm loth to start with another post about going out to a bar. It's not the only thing I do. However, it makes for a better story. Breakfast, library, class, lunch, library, home, study, dinner, sleep - that's pretty dull. So I'll skip it and go straight to Tuesday night.

Oh, wait, other things happened Tuesday. Like the arrival of Robert and Jaime. I didn't have classes on Tuesday, so I ran a few errands that morning (post office, CAF) and then hung around on campus to see when Robert would turn up. We'd been communicating online. I eventually met up with him, his parents, and his host dad. I showed them around campus a bit (not that big) and then, since Robert wanted to try a kebab, we went to rue Bressigny for déjeuner. That was hoot. Those shops are mainly student hangouts around midday. We were pretty out of place. After lunch, they took to take a look at the château.

Jaime's train came in around 3h45. I met her there, waited a bit for her host family, and when no one showed up, we headed for the school. After a short meeting with the logement office, she got a taxi to her home. Turns out, in addition to a good bit of miscommunication, her host mother had fallen ill. Jaime mentioned three pages of rules. I lucked out there.

I think everyone's slowly settling in now. We'll see.

Tuesday night was Mardi Café. It's a chance for foreign students and frenchies to meet up, hang out, talk, exchange culture, etc. It's was a fun night, but it started slooooow. I had forgotten one important fact: I'm in France, i.e., there are French people, i.e., nothing starts on time. I showed up at the appointed hour, on the dot, only to wait 45 minutes for the person I recognized to walk through the door. Meh.

I ordered a beer and sat a table. It was a Kilkenny, a reddish ale brewed in Ireland. I was, after all, in the James Joyce. Angers has tons of Irish pubs. I don't really understand why. Anyway, after 20 minutes passed, a girl plopped down in the seat in front of me. She introduced herself as Roxanne. I thought of Cyrano de Bergerac. She must have figured out that I was a foreigner (I have no idea how; I look like anybody else in the street). We started talking, and when she learned I was an American (and not Irish), she got really excited. She was even more excited when I told her I was from Mississippi. "No," I tried to explain in French, "you don't understand. I'm from Mississippi." "Mais c'est super," she responded. Poor thing. I hope she doesn't first set out for MS if she ever makes it to the US. She's gonna be pretty surprised. She invited her collocotaire over, and we talked in English for a bit. Overall a nice gesture. I haven't really found the French very chaleureux. It's nice to break that trend.

My fellow erasmus students finally made it, followed by a few more I hadn't met yet, from the UK and Ireland. One mistook me for a Scotsman. We were joined by a handful of French people, a couple of guys that I spoke to a for a good while. I had one more beer: a Chimay Bleu, my first trappist ale. I'm sure I'll post more about those later, after my visit to Belgium. Needless to say, it was very good. Overall, a nice evening. Although it was much to long. I didn't make it back home until one-ish, with the majority of my classes the next day. Ergh.

Not much to say of Wednesday and Thursday. Early Thursday evening I went out with Robert and Jaime. We had a drink, chatted about our doings and going-to-dos. A nice catch-up. That evening I had dinner with mom. Beet/walnut salad, pasta with a bit of olive oil, and rabbit. Very good. Dessert was compôte de pomme with some sort of liquid cheese mixed together. It was good.

Friday was fun. I had lunch with a friend of mine from school, Alexandra. We have a lit class together. She's been here since the fall, so she knows Angers pretty good. I mentioned that I was missing my Indian food joint back home, and she agreed enthusiastically. We decided to try out a restaurant off one of the boulevards in town. It was pretty good. I had some sort of fried potato thing as entrée, pork curry (!) for plat principal, a little pâtisserie for dessert. Overall, very good. It was a good time to get to know Alexandra a little bit better, too. Afterward, we went to la bibliothèque anglophone, a used book sell (don't worry, I didn't buy anything), and ended up back at the library on campus.

I forgot to mention that between bibliothèques, we stumbled upon a cathedral in town, Notre Dame (not the Notre Dame). It was really cool. I haven't been in any of the cathedrals yet. I had kind of been saving them. But we found this one by accident and decided to go in. The church had been around for quite some time, but had been rebuilt in the 17th century. My host-parents scoffed a bit when I told them. They said it was hardly worth mentioning, since it was so young. Perspective. I didn't have my camera, otherwise I would have take a few pictures.

That evening I went out with Robert to get a bite to eat. We opted on a Mexican restaurant across from a café I had been to. We were seated, but Robert noticed some other CIDEF students at a nearby table. From KU, I think. We joined them, much to the consternation of the waiter. We were served some dorito-like chips and a very sweet salsa. No bueno, even by my standards (which can be pretty low). The meal was much better. It actually had some spice. While it wouldn't have fooled anyone from Texas (like one guy that whined a lot at the table), it would've been fine for anyone else. Afterward, we went to sit between the cathedral and the Maine to share a couple bottles of wine. We later headed for rue Bressigny (Soft); at this point, I bade everyone a good night and headed home. Classes have already started for me, and I'd had enough as it was. See? Limits.

Speaking of classes, I don't have any week after next. That means, starting this Thursday afternoon, I'm free for about ten days. I'm going to the UK via a ferry from St. Malo to Portsmouth. I hope to take a train to Carmarthen to visit fy ffrind Aron, maybe see the renowned JR (if I can catch him), and just perhaps make it to Cambridge to certain rajun cajun. I don't like her that much, but we'll see.

That was a test to see if she reads this blog.

I'd love to visit Oxford, too. If I can afford it and there's time. There's a certain writer I'm rather fond of that spent several years teaching there.

Just finished a night of galettes and crêpes. Very good via the eldest daughter of my family.

Bonne nuit tout le monde. I'll update again before I leave for le Royaume Uni.

Books and Beer

Yesterday afternoon, after visiting the supermarché and picking up some foods, I decided to go looking for books. I didn't really need any for class, but it never hurts to look. This foray turned out to successful. My first and only stop was a bouquiniste on rue Bressigny, not far from UCO.



The shop isn't big. I'd put it in dimensions approximating 20x12. Pretty tiny, by American standards. The room was stacked from floor to ceiling with books, most of them three or four deep. Merveilleux. I had originally gone seeking dictionaries. There's a couple people back home who I know would appreciate one. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything that popped out at me. That might be because I saw this first.

There's nothing spectacular about the contents in and of themselves. It's more the presentation. It covers the high points of medieval French literature. The pictures, most of them reproductions of illustrations from manuscripts, are fantastic. Inspired by this find, I started poking around for more books à propos to this'un. I found many more, some of which (the one below especially) will prove indispensible for my ancien français class. Being the only customer, the vendeuse noticed my interest and began retrieving several other books that she thought might interest me. They did. A short while later, someone came in selling books. I grabbed this from their stack. 5 euros.

Nothing flashy. It's basically taking a couple different excerpts (here from Le charroi de Nîmes and from Le Conte du Graal) and breaking them down into each individual word, its context, etymology, derivations, declination, and variations in spelling. Wow. So this book basically does what all of my professors have done when I've studied ancien français. Or words, really. I'm currently looking for similar works. Here's another fun one:

I've wanted this for awhile. I've been tired of reading it online. Only the modern translation though. Sad.

The following evening was spent out on the town with friends. French ones, mind you. We went to a pub in the northern part of the city center. Le Welsh. I kid you not. The sign out front displayed a red dragon, sitting in a drunken stupor. I'll have to get a picture of it. Fun place. Small, warm. It was actually my second time there, it being one of my first stops after figuring out how to get around Angers' center. The beer list there is incredible. They have a menu full of them. Most of them are in bottles, but that's pretty normal for lots of beer styles that are bottle aged. It's not cheap, so there's not much chance of me getting plastered regularly. You know, like I do at home.

We had a good evening, me, my South African friend, and a couple of Frenchies. Apparently there's a large supply of board games. We wound up spending a good deal of time playing some sort of dominoes game. It was fun. The pub (because it's not really a bar) is very conducive to such interaction. No TVs. No slot machines. Lots of French, people from the neighborhood. Authentic in the sense that it's not for tourists or students. Not authentic in terms to living up to its name. Not one word of gallois. Pity. I'll have to teach them one or two. Cwrw!

The beer: Etienne ordered me the beer of the month (i.e., whatever wasn't popular last month). It was a Carolus Ambrio, and it was good. Sadly, I didn't take a picture of it. It was served in a 33cl goblet (a little less than 12 oz.) that had the brewery's name and logo. Presentation seems to be everything here in France. As far as drinks are concerned, each has it's own glass. The color, as you might have guessed from the name, was a nice dark amber. It was very light, not heavy at all. But the flavor was pretty powerful, although not hoppy. I miss my IPAs. There were other herbs in there too. Dunno what. The brewery, Het Anker, is just north of Brussels. From what I gathered online in perusing their site, the base recipe for this beer dates from the 15th century. History in a glass.

The picture below is me and a Murphy's Stout. A little bit better than Guinness.



See the twinkle in my eye? There you have it. I plan on spending my winter vacances in Belgium. For the, uh, museums.

Cheers.

Phone call.

Quick. You're getting a veritable barrage this weekend. However, I'm not posting this one on facebook, so only the devoted will find this one. Maybe.

I have a funny I want to share that took place just a few minutes ago. I just walked in the house, having gone of into the cité to buy a gâteau and browse a bouquinistes or deux. My mom stopped me and declared that she had one good thing to share with me and one bad thing. The first referred to a phone call that I made to my family in Amory. Calls to landlines in the US are free on my French family's line. Momma V started by saying that my call to the US had been free. "However," she added (in French, so not really), "this other number that you called was not free."

It was at this moment that I remembered the events that transpired leading up to my phone call back home. My first attempt lacked the first two zeroes that initiate a call outside of the country. Instead, the call was routed to a line inside the country. I immediately realized my mistake in two different ways: 1) the woman on the other end of line was speaking French; 2) there was wasn't much speaking, due to the fact that she was very excité to talk to me (those of you using Google Translator will want to refer to the second meaning of that word).

So that call lasted about thirty seconds, which was just enough time for the call to be put through and for me to realize my mistake, laugh about it, and hang up. However, I had forgotten about any charges that may have been applied, which brings me back to the beginning of the story. "I can pay for the charges," I told her, reaching into my pocket for my wallet. "No, no," she responded, "it wasn't that much." I hope not, I thought. Otherwise I didn't get my money's worth.

I then decided to try and explain what happened in order to assert that I was a moron instead of a pervert. However, my vocabulaire was somewhat lacking in nuance to explain my situation delicately. I explained that I had punched in the numbers wrong and that I had been directed to a woman. She didn't seem to understand the emphasis I was putting on woman, accompanied by that insider's look of mutual understanding. She just stared at me. So I followed up with what I thought at the time meant, "a woman you call when one is feeling lonely." Of course, in a tribute to Seinfeld (shoutout to Neil) that apparently even the French understand, I said "when one is alone."

At this my host mom burst out into hysterical laughter.

Once again, I find the we are all not that different.

Food. Cheese.

The week has gone by and I've still got two class I haven't attended yet. Hopefully I can sort it all out on Monday. I think I'm almost ready to officially register for classes (that's due in a couple of weeks). The system is so weird. My poetry class meets every other week. My ancien français class doesn't meet again until March. It's hard to say what's going to be the hardest. I'll let you know by the end of the semester.

I don't have any huge plans this weekend. It's a bit cold here, and I haven't been to keen on ranging very far. That being said, I did do a bit of shopping yesterday, again at the french mall. I bought some carrots and some weird looking french apples. And I got some postcards and biscuits (cookies). And tea (it's cold). I've gotten some sausage and chicken from the reduced rack. Oh, and wine. Good wine is one thing that can be pretty cheap here.

The cheese isn't very expensive either. I can now say I've tried Roquefort, which I'm sure Amelia's going to love. Basically, it's bleu cheese, but it's made from sheep's milk and it's aged in caves in the region from which it gets its name. Legend has it that a shepherd left a bit of his cheese by accident in such a cave and returned a few months later to pleasantly rediscover his molded morsel was delicious. What fun. Like many gastronomic products in France, the label is directly tied to the location, for example, bubbly is only called champagne if it's come from Champagne. I think that's kind of neat.

Speaking of cheese, I forgot to mention that last Friday I had raclette with my host family. It's the same idea as fondue (melted cheese). It's kind of like a mini-oven with trays in which to place your cheese or meat and slots in the oven to melt it. Once it reaches the desired consistency, you pour it over a boiled potato. It was very good. Served with bacon, ham, chorizo. Good.

I'm heading out with a friend tonight, so I'll share some of my escapades from yesterday afternoon (books) and this evening (beer) tomorrow.

Oh, and I got my memory card. Hopefully I'll have some pictures up soon.

I've got nothing.

Well, quelle semaine. I've almost made it an entire week since last posting.

My rendez-vous with the director of my department was unabashedly rude and unapologetically confusing. There was talk of mutiny, but after that first guy was verbally disemboweled, our courage was decimated, our hopes shattered. I'm making the best of it though. I've managed to wriggle into a class of Old French. I don't know if I'm going to appreciate that come the end of the semester, but doubtless I'll learn something useful.

Classes are going well. The grand majority of my time is spent in the library, studying before, in between, and after classes. Imagine my horror when I heard I could only check out five livres at a time. She very nearly throttled me when I told her I checked out nigh on forty last semester. However, with the help of one Ally Watkins, I made it to one of the city libraries on Saturday, where I proceeded to check out several more books.

I then went to le Muséum des Sciences Naturelles. Very fun. It was split into two different sections, one on nature(?)(the living kind), the other on prehistory. The first was pretty neat. It put a lot of emphasis on the surrounding Anjou region, with specific references to the flora and fauna around the rivers. The 'county' I live in, Maine-et-Loire, is situated around two major rivers that lend their names to the region. Very neat. Good vocabulary builder. The prehistoric exhibit was also interesting, though it was easy to get lost in the details. Lots of fossils of stuff that swam in the ocean. A few interesting notes about the mining history of the regions. A few skeletons, a few skulls, and fairly large nugget of gold.

The evening proved entertaining. My host family was again celebrating the birthday of their youngest daughter, this time with extended family. Luckily, I got invited. There were about ten or so people who showed up, making it a rather large crowd. It was a bit intimidating at first, but after a couple of glasses of champagne and speaking with a septuagenarian about her theatre days, it turned out to be a rather fun evening. Pâté, lasagna, cheese, salad, galette, and fruit. Quite a meal. The best part? I was seated next to Lancelot. His brother, Tristan, was a few seats away. Very cool names.

Nothing much to report now but school.

Everybody's working for le week-end.

If I don't start writing soon, things are gonna start backing up. So far, I have Sunday, Monday, and today to cover. Let's hope for the best.

Sunday morning, I visited a small church about 20 minutes away. It was a protestant church, specifically, baptist. They are one of the few that have a site-Web. Otherwise, I would have never known about it. Despite having the address, I arrived almost too late. Almost. The service was a tad different, with emphasis on what they called louange. There were two baptême, which included testimonies from the two baptisés. This was followed by a message. And then cake, celebrating the new believers. Afterall, they're still baptists.

After the service, I left to find a baguette. Baguette, among students in France, is synonymous with 'meal'.  While at the boulangerie, I encountered a young Taiwanese woman who recognized me from the église. She did what, to date, no other person in France has done with/to me. She faire'd la bise. Elle m'a embrassé. I think the beard keeps most people at bay.

Anyway, she introduced me to a new friend Etienne, who I mistook for being French (he spoke English with a French accent). He turns out to be South African (Afrikaans); he has a job in researching the effects of climate change on viticulture. Very cool. We chatted a bit as we walked home, and agreed to meet at a café later, with a few other people. French people. At last.

I forgot to mention that the weather was spectacular. Blue skies.

The soirée turned out to be pretty fun. We went to a café, ambiguosly named Chez Toi, where I was informed that chocolat viennois is a girly drink. Not that it stopped me. We passed a pretty decent night chatting it up. The usual subjects cropped up: la musique, le cinéma, la language, etc.

The chocolat viennois didn't agree with me. Too much cream.

A short bit about Monday: it sucked. The first class I attended was, more or less, Comparative Literature. It was on Cervantes (Don Quixote) and Homer(The Illiad). You may have noticed an absence of any French writers. We did too. I've wanted to study the classics more, but I think that this is neither time nor place for it. The next class began with a presentation of the texts we'd be studying, all of which were French. The professeur than began to lecture on the first book, entitled 'Les Faux-Monayeurs'. Two hours later, I may have caught about 1/4 of what he was trying to get across. My fellow ERASMUS (they call all foreigners ERASMUS) students were just as lost. At the end of the course, the majority of us (including myself) told him that we'd be coming next time. I highly doubt that (especially on my part).

Today is proving better, albeit I've only attended one class. The exact subject of the class escapes me  (I think it might be grammar driven), but we spent the class analyzing two poems. However, the professor seems well versed in linguistics, so I was pleased. I could also understand her well, which helped.

I have one meeting left today, with the head of the institut where I'm taking the majority of my class. I should have had this meeting last week, but they don't exactly seem to have it together. I've literally been going to classes without knowing the fundamental information about the subject matter. After tonight, I should be able to attend classes with a definitive idea of what's in them. Hopefully.

A small note: there is both an Ancien Français course and a Phililogie Latine course. One way or another, I'm going to wriggle into at least one of them.

Window Licking

And it tasted terrible. Worst yet in France. Except for the Bag(uette) Mac. More about that below.

If you want to lecher les vitrines in France, now's the time to do it. My mom informed me that the soldes is going on right now. Basically, it's their Black Friday. Which means everybody's out and about. Not wanting to miss the action, I went to the mall.

To clarify further (for those of you who know well my shopping habits), I need a backpack. So I first went to a small supermarché. No dice. All I managed to do was scare a couple of kids, since my walk to the store took me past a school. I'm starting to think that no one in France grows a beard.

Eventually, my mom got me a backpack. It looks like something a 4 year old might wear, and that's no exaggeration. Everything's small here, except for the stupid paper, which is 2 inches longer than our sort. Again, le sigh.

I went out again this morning (Saturday) to see what I could. The weather is rather pleasant, if a little cooler than it has been. I've noticed that I'm the only one on the street who's not wearing a coat. I've also noticed (when it's wet) that I'm the only one who wears a brightly colored rain jacket. It's light blue. It goes well with my cheveux. The French prefer black, grey, and off-white. It's like the fifties here.

Anyway, today I did a bit of flânerie. No, I did not eat dessert at a Mexican restau. I did, however, wander around for a bit in the city center. There's plenty to see. Angers is a pretty big city. There's tons of shops, restaurants, and cathedrals. Lots of cathedrals. There's also a fair few museums and, of course, the château.

I found a bar called Le Welsh. Sounds like my kind of place. Alas, it was closed. I also found a large market en plein air, selling everything from pastries to knickknacks, with some flowers as well. Pretty fun. My best find was the rue with all the bouqinistes. That will be revisited. My lunch wasn't so great. I thought I was getting what would amount to be a philly steak and cheese. It amounted to the contents of a bigmac in a baguette. Oh, and fries. In the baguette. Yrch.

My return home was timed well. My host family, who are now all here for the weekend, was celebrating the birthday of the youngest daughter, with several friends from her dance school. I got galette and café, and got to tune in to a little français ado(lescente), which, contrary to what I thought I had heard (français à dos), is not someone speaking behind you.

The party is now ended, and while I sit and write this blog post, the girls are downstairs playing the WiiFit. I have to draw the line somewhere.

Chunky paragraphs now.

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.

First. Also, first in France. This isn't a coincidence. I don't believe in those.

This past Monday marked my entry into France. This is my story.

But this isn't artsy, so don't go jumping to conclusions. I'm just scatterbrained right now. I'm still adjusting to the time zone. They call that décalage in French.

Warning. There will be other french words in this post. They are in bold for your viewing pleasure. Dictionaries are fun. Voilà.

I don't really like going into details about travel. I hate flying.  It's fairly monotonous. When reflecting, I always remember the waiting, the lines, the confusion.

There was a beautiful sunrise though, viewed over the shoulder of my seatmate.

And for once, I wasn't seated next to a baby. High school girls with an insatiable need to journal at 3AM were a welcome relief.

I like trains. The train ride from Paris to Angers was my favorite part. There's so much more to see. Farms. Vineyards. French rednecks. The countryside was pretty wet. Several rivers were flooded.

There was a bum at the railway station in Angers. I was waiting on my ride, and I made an easy target. He followed me around the gare. Yelling irlandais, irlandais. I wanted to tell him he was right, but I figured he'd want a euro for it. 

My room here on rue Edgar Degas is pretty comfy. I have a bed, a chifferobe (again, dictionary, but this one has made into English), and a desk. I have since eaten two meals (exclusing breakfast. let's be honest, that's not really a meal. toast is toast. but it was better.) with my host-mom.

I call her mom for short. I'm sure there's more than one person who will find that disturbing, and at least one person who'll be a tad put off.

More about my university and doings there later.