30 novembre 2009 (Day 91)
Our teacher went at the pace of lightning today trying to fit in everything she could possibly teach us about phonetics the very last minute. That being said, we worked on the difference between [s] and [z], [b] and [v], [ch] and [S]. It was mostly for the hispanophones and vietnamophones. We also got our grades today. I got 18/20 in phonetics! Afterwards I had lunch at the Pole Etudiant with a bunch of kids from IRFFLE while listening to some great music. Then the music got awful. I froze my butt in our rearranged [for theatre] writing class where we ended up spending 60 minutes going over the correct answers to a test and the other 60 answering questions about the oral exam we are having. We never get to grammar.
I was so cold that I came home and put on my thermals, a hoodie, and my jacket, had a snack and studied for my art history test. In art history today we spent one hour learning about neoclassicism and then had an essay test. I think it went all right.
I went to the store and bought some fruits and veggies and some awful French version of Kix. France definitely can’t do cold cereal like we do. I went for a run on the track in the dark while a class was having a workout. Frenchies are pansies. My all time favorite overdressed for running outfit (I had on a long sleeve shirt and shorts): running tights, a ladies hat (not a beanie), a marshmallow jacket with fur [that covered one’s rear], giant fleece gloves, and a scarf. Weak sauce. Afterwards I came home, showered, and have a fantastic dinner which included the tomato sauce-rice-meatball in a tomato creation that Afton gave me. It was quite delicious. I’m planning on going to bed early to ward off my cold and sleep because we have a performance tomorrow!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Day 90: The Holy Wars
29 novembre 2009 (Day 90)
Ahh, blessed Sunday. Today Relief Society and Priesthood were combined. We were talking about the question, “What can I do to strengthen the ward?” This quickly turned into an animated debate on using brother/sister versus first names. It was quite eventful although the brethren would have been embarrassed. We talked about being of the world and not in it in Sunday School, and I was falling asleep in Sacrament meeting, so I don’t have any exciting notes from that. After eating my lunch while another lively debate was going on: Is the tram safe? Why is it always men? …There was a man-hater arguing with the men about what would happen if someone was getting attacked on the tram. It was quite fun to listen, but then I had to go to my tithing settlement interview. It was…different. I said the opening prayer in English, the bishop asked me if I paid a full tithe (yes) then if I knew what he said (yes). He then proceeded to ask me how life was and tell me that I need to be a self-propelled engine when it comes to the church here and have family home evening with myself to better keep the commandments, etc. It was interesting seeing as the church is all about family and the ward family. He also told me I should ask the RS president for a visiting teaching assignment (never mind him asking). Like I said, it was different. I never thought I’d get chastised for not having a specific family home evening (he didn’t think that my reading the scriptures, listening to church talks, etc. counted).
We have started singing Christmas songs in choir. Some of them sound a lot better than others. Tonight I had some delightful pumpkin soup. I put peas and rice in it and it was really tasty. I had it with the artesian bread that I bought yesterday. Yum!
Ahh, blessed Sunday. Today Relief Society and Priesthood were combined. We were talking about the question, “What can I do to strengthen the ward?” This quickly turned into an animated debate on using brother/sister versus first names. It was quite eventful although the brethren would have been embarrassed. We talked about being of the world and not in it in Sunday School, and I was falling asleep in Sacrament meeting, so I don’t have any exciting notes from that. After eating my lunch while another lively debate was going on: Is the tram safe? Why is it always men? …There was a man-hater arguing with the men about what would happen if someone was getting attacked on the tram. It was quite fun to listen, but then I had to go to my tithing settlement interview. It was…different. I said the opening prayer in English, the bishop asked me if I paid a full tithe (yes) then if I knew what he said (yes). He then proceeded to ask me how life was and tell me that I need to be a self-propelled engine when it comes to the church here and have family home evening with myself to better keep the commandments, etc. It was interesting seeing as the church is all about family and the ward family. He also told me I should ask the RS president for a visiting teaching assignment (never mind him asking). Like I said, it was different. I never thought I’d get chastised for not having a specific family home evening (he didn’t think that my reading the scriptures, listening to church talks, etc. counted).
We have started singing Christmas songs in choir. Some of them sound a lot better than others. Tonight I had some delightful pumpkin soup. I put peas and rice in it and it was really tasty. I had it with the artesian bread that I bought yesterday. Yum!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Day 89: A Day in the Countryside at Annick's
28 novembre 2009 (Day 89)
Today, regardless of the head cold I woke up with, I took the 90 minute bus ride to Annick’s house in the country for a play practice. It was so much fun. Annick had the costumes for the play so everyone was trying on costumes and picking their outfits for the play. I have a hideous white dress straight out of the early nineties that should have been burned in one of the French strikes. Her house is so cute and her husband is adorable. He made us some amazing couscous and vegetables (carrots, zucchini, onion, chick peas) with a lot of meat (lamb, beef, who knows what else). I learned how he makes his couscous. Let it soak twice, then steam it warm and add butter and cinnamon for a delicious taste.
Afterward an extremely filling lunch, we went outside to the barn/art exposition/gallery/theater/party place to run through the play. It was really cold but we had fun with the rain bleating outside and us in a barn that is who knows how old.
We had tea, coffee, and cake afterwards to warm up and then had to catch the bus back to Nantes. I played with Addison, Melanie’s four-year-old daughter who is bilingual (and knows more French than I do). We played simon says and hide and go seek. She was really cute and played in the last scene with me and was so cute with Annick’s husband Affif. Affif was telling her about the cats and he is just a cute old man and a great grandpa. He is also a fantastic artist and his paintings were all over the house.
It was still pouring so I was completely soaked when I got to the church for the fireside on the history of the church in France (which didn’t get over until after 10pm). Before the fireside, I helped take down all the stuff from the 30-year anniversary/open house of that church building. It was a really interesting fireside, but it was a little late and I was very tired, so I was dosing off a little bit.
Day 88: Thanksgiving Dinner French Style
27 novembre 2009 (Day 88)
Today I learned about how oppressive the communist government of Vietnam is, that the lunch ladies can still an absurd amount of French fries in your kebab (which required Nana having to get a bag to put them in so I could eat the kebab), and how disturbingly cruel the reign of terror was.
We’ll skip to history class, because that is where the exciting stuff starts. First off Monsieur Touvron was being a tease today. I need a signature for back in the states and he was like, “No. Well, let me think about it.” And then he took the paper, read it and then said, ‘Okay, you weren’t lying. I tested my English and read it. I guess I can sign it.” We wrote a paper about our opinion about requiring children to learn the Marseillaise (the bloody national anthem of France). Afterwards we learned about Danton, who was actually a good (compared to his friend) guy, and Robespierre who thought that we should continue to chop off heads for the sake of perfection and virtue, who even killed his venal friend Danton who thought that they shouldn’t kill EVERY ONE. Robespierre’s terror came to a quick end a year later, after he had killed all his friends (he was a thinker, Monsieur Robespierre). The most disturbing thing that this dictator “In the service of the public” did was called a “marriage civil.” They would take two religious people of the opposite sex, strip them down, tie them face to face, stick them on a boat, and then blow up the boat and they’d drown together. Over 4,000 people were killed this way in Nantes, by Commerce and in front of the Mediatheque. This was called “noyades” but people were killed by the guillotine as well, especially with the Law of Suspects created in the spring of 1793. This law gave the citizen’s the right to tattle tell on their neighbors. If they thought you were wearing black because you were mourning the death of the king…off with your head. It was a pretty harsh time, but once Robespierre died it was the end of that (he was guillotined).
Today I had my “Thanksgiving” dinner. I went with the Seattle group by tram and then bus to a dinner at a culinary school held by their group. It was kind of weird having 15 year olds serve us, but it was really good. We actually got there an hour early (they told us the wrong time) but we had fun just talking.
So here we go for Thanksgiving French style:
Apéritif: orange juice or white wine with blackcurrants and a choice of these cute little sandwiches
Appetizer: smoked salmon on a salad with roasted pine nuts and a tangy dill cream and caviar
Plat: Stuffed turkey with chestnuts, butter sautéed potatoes with bacon and wild mushrooms
Dessert: Pumpkin (not from the can) and apple tarte (aka pie) with English Crème
After dessert dessert: café and an éclair and chocolate
I had a lot of fun talking to everyone at our table. We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving and walking back with Michael and the red with white polka dots umbrella that he borrowed. It was a decent walk to the tram stop and late as well. It made for some really interesting conversations about one girl’s neighbor and boyfriend at 1 am practically every night. I’ll leave it at that and say that she is considering having a greve (strike) so that they aren’t as noisy. There was a really cute kid, Nathan in the group who was full of surprises. Snowboarder, writer, French major, and classical music lover and critique (along with all the noisy stuff he listens to). Sadly he has a girlfriend. I also ate with Sam, Afton, Caroline, Michael, and Kelsey.
Day 87: The Opium Symphony on Thanksgiving
26 novembre 2209 (Day 87)
Happy Thanksgiving! No, they do not celebrate this American holiday in France. Therefore I made up my own thanksgiving traditions. I went for a run in rain. It actually wasn’t raining when I left, but it decided to come pouring down once I started hurdling. I told the rain, “Bring it” and kept on running.
I did some homework and then went to the RU for lunch. I had a little “Thanksgiving” dinner there because for lunch there was: a roll, carrots, chicken (close to turkey), and potatoes. If you could call them potatoes, ‘cause they definitely weren’t from Idaho. They were bright yellow from whatever they were cooked in and they left a scarily bright neon yellow liquid on the plate. Luckily the “pie” was delicious. It was a pear something or other that was just fantastic.
For dinner I had some bread and cheese before going off to the symphony with Afton. There were a lot of people (naturally we were the youngest there) to applaud the wonderful performances. The theme for tonight was German, so we heard the amazing Concerto for piano n1 by Brahms and Wagner’s Ouverture de Tannhauser. There was a special performance in between by a local composer. He took 5 poems from a young poet who died tragically (he was a pharmacist who was addicted to drugs like opium). We were excited to hear the “opium poem” that the man told us about. It was funny because the “opium” part of the song was the part that felt fluid. The rest of it felt very disjointed and with the baritone singing in German (or something like that), it wasn’t very fun to listen to, especially compared to Brahms. The concerto was so amazing. It was incredible to listen to the fluidity of the piece and how the piano and orchestra played off of each other and how the orchestra could change the mood of the piano part.
My favorite part (apart from the cute violinist that Afton and I have a crush on) was the conductor. He was this cute older gentleman with white hair and big jowls. It was so great to watch him when he was conducting because his jowls would shake like San Francisco in 1906. He got really into the music and would also grumble along with the parts. He was loud, because we could hear him rumbling along with the violins and it was just great. Bless his heart. He got an extraordinarily long applause (if the French style wasn’t long enough). I love classical music!
I thought I’d make a list of more “random” things that I am thankful for this year, so here goes nothing!
I am thankful for…
Spam filters
Cheese slicers
Toilet seats
Augustus Jackson for inventing ice cream
Scissors
Dental string
Solar rays
large, self-luminous, heavenly bodies
Day 86: No One Sees The Video
25 novembre 2009 (Day 86)
I went running this morning in the rain. It was kind of neat because you could hear the rain hitting the ground, but I couldn’t feel it.
Today we had a fairly interesting conversation about the movie we watched in culture class, a film titled, “Entre les Murs.” After a leisurely lunch with Karen and Nana (gotta love it: A North American in Europe having lunch with an African and a South American). Afterward Nana insulted my big butt (apparently Karen thinks Nana’s butt is big and she was like no look at Mari’s it is totally bigger or something like that) we went to the library and attempted to do homework before another day of getting Annick off subject.
Afterwards I went home and had some couscous with chickpeas, peas, and my first shot at homemade curry. Boy was it strong! Luckily, I had some delicious Clementines for Corsica to tame the flame. I went to a play by an English author, Martin Crimp, which I did not understand very well. It was called, "No One Sees the Video." It was about this lady who questions people regarding their consumption. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand what they were saying, the actors had superb articulation, it was more the story. It was pretty weird. I still haven’t quite figured it out (like what video?).
Day 85: American French Toast
24 novembre 2009 (Day 85)
Today after doing my laundry, it was a rather dull day of learning about how to write argumentative papers in writing class. Actually, all my classes were pretty boring. The highlight of today was making French toast (American style). It was so delicious with strawberry-apricot jam. Man, it was so good. I love America. I stayed up really late waiting for Jose and Van Mao (aka Clement) to mail me their parts of the group project that is due in culture class tomorrow. Needless to say I waited until midnight and still didn’t receive it. There definitely is a reason I hate group projects.
Oh, I found out about the case of the missing microwave today. Someone stole it. The Cleaning ladies (naturally) left an entertaining note telling us about it.
Day 84: Mirrors
23 novembre 2009 (Day 84)
Monday Monday Monday. Today I had my first test; it was in phonetics. I woke up early and practiced reading a couple of poems before going to read them to my teacher. I think I did okay and at least passed. It was a really boring class though because it took two hours to go through everyone.
Nothing stupendously exciting happened at fencing today (besides the fact that fencing is exciting!). I felt really bad for our art history teacher today. She could not find her powerpoint lesson for today, and seeing how it is ART history, she had to improvise. She ended up giving us a presentation that she does about mirrors in art and art history. It was fairly interesting.
After class I scampered home in the wet to eat some couscous before Mathilde arrived. We had a good lesson, both trying to figure out the grammar of English questions. It was a little frustrating, but we both made it through it.
Monday Monday Monday. Today I had my first test; it was in phonetics. I woke up early and practiced reading a couple of poems before going to read them to my teacher. I think I did okay and at least passed. It was a really boring class though because it took two hours to go through everyone.
Nothing stupendously exciting happened at fencing today (besides the fact that fencing is exciting!). I felt really bad for our art history teacher today. She could not find her powerpoint lesson for today, and seeing how it is ART history, she had to improvise. She ended up giving us a presentation that she does about mirrors in art and art history. It was fairly interesting.
After class I scampered home in the wet to eat some couscous before Mathilde arrived. We had a good lesson, both trying to figure out the grammar of English questions. It was a little frustrating, but we both made it through it.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Day 83: The Case of the Missing Microwave
22 novembre 2009 (Day 83)
Today I was up bright and early to catch the tram to church since Armelle wasn’t going today. I read in Preach My Gospel chapter 3 during the ride. There were lots of fantastically crazy people on the tram and out of it today…the conductor yelling at some old lady, drunk sleeping hobos, crazy people yelling, etc. I walked the rest of the way to church with Cody, such a gentleman. He moved me over so I wasn’t the one walking closest to the street (those buggies might splash me you know!).
Church was good. I listened to the talk that our lesson was on before going this morning and I apparently missed just about everything that we emphasized in the lesson. I went with Isabel and her investigator friend to the investigators class. We talked about the Holy Ghost. It was so great because I bore my testimony to her about the Holy Ghost, using Moroni 10:4-5, promising her that she could receive a confirmation of truth from the Holy Ghost if she was sincere and really wanted to. Yay for Preach My Gospel!
Cody and I had a nice time randomly singing the English verses to the hymns and listening to the speakers (or at least I listened, Cody doesn’t speak much French, that is to say like none). Afterwards I ate lunch with everyone and had a long [mentally] choir practice. Everyone was arguing as usual and we sounded awful. At least the choir director gives directions to Elder Baker (the new missionary) in English now. I got a ride home and have just been chilling in my room like usual.
I made the most amazing dinner: scrambled eggs with cheese and tomatoes and toast. I actually made it into a Budgemyster (put the scrambled eggs on the toast more like a sandwich). I love America. That was some yummy food. Did I mention that our microwave disappeared, which renders the kitchen practically useless. I’m not sure if it got stolen, taken away because we left it dirty, or if it is broken. I enjoy imagining that someone took it to their room or even better the evil cleaning ladies had it with tomato sauce in the microwave and they took it away. I find those explanations more exciting than the more probable it broke explanation (but you never know).
Today I was up bright and early to catch the tram to church since Armelle wasn’t going today. I read in Preach My Gospel chapter 3 during the ride. There were lots of fantastically crazy people on the tram and out of it today…the conductor yelling at some old lady, drunk sleeping hobos, crazy people yelling, etc. I walked the rest of the way to church with Cody, such a gentleman. He moved me over so I wasn’t the one walking closest to the street (those buggies might splash me you know!).
Church was good. I listened to the talk that our lesson was on before going this morning and I apparently missed just about everything that we emphasized in the lesson. I went with Isabel and her investigator friend to the investigators class. We talked about the Holy Ghost. It was so great because I bore my testimony to her about the Holy Ghost, using Moroni 10:4-5, promising her that she could receive a confirmation of truth from the Holy Ghost if she was sincere and really wanted to. Yay for Preach My Gospel!
Cody and I had a nice time randomly singing the English verses to the hymns and listening to the speakers (or at least I listened, Cody doesn’t speak much French, that is to say like none). Afterwards I ate lunch with everyone and had a long [mentally] choir practice. Everyone was arguing as usual and we sounded awful. At least the choir director gives directions to Elder Baker (the new missionary) in English now. I got a ride home and have just been chilling in my room like usual.
I made the most amazing dinner: scrambled eggs with cheese and tomatoes and toast. I actually made it into a Budgemyster (put the scrambled eggs on the toast more like a sandwich). I love America. That was some yummy food. Did I mention that our microwave disappeared, which renders the kitchen practically useless. I’m not sure if it got stolen, taken away because we left it dirty, or if it is broken. I enjoy imagining that someone took it to their room or even better the evil cleaning ladies had it with tomato sauce in the microwave and they took it away. I find those explanations more exciting than the more probable it broke explanation (but you never know).
Day 82: grasse matinee
21 novembre 2009 (Day 82)
I slept in today until 11 am. It was really nice since I got to bed so late last night. Today I’ve just been doing homework, nothing exciting. Today I created a new dish: couscous with a little bit of olive oil, chick peas, and avocado. It is very delicious. I am going to have it again! I ended up watching High School Musical 2 and Picture This while doing my homework. And my day was really that adventure-less. Although I did go get some delicious vanilla pecan caramel ice cream. Man it was good. I talked to the fam for a little bit, it was pretty funny seeing mom, dad, and Kirstin all together.
I slept in today until 11 am. It was really nice since I got to bed so late last night. Today I’ve just been doing homework, nothing exciting. Today I created a new dish: couscous with a little bit of olive oil, chick peas, and avocado. It is very delicious. I am going to have it again! I ended up watching High School Musical 2 and Picture This while doing my homework. And my day was really that adventure-less. Although I did go get some delicious vanilla pecan caramel ice cream. Man it was good. I talked to the fam for a little bit, it was pretty funny seeing mom, dad, and Kirstin all together.
Day 81: Apres La Mort
20 novembre 2009 (Day 81)
Friday went by in a flurry. Class and talking to friends. I had scalloped potatoes with Nana for lunch and got to kill Marie Antoinette in history class. We were going to get the the Reign of Terror after the death of Louis XVI, but we got caught up in the accusation of the Queen. We did talk a little about why there was the Reign of Terror against the republicans and royalists. We also talked about the National Song of France, the Marseillaise, which is quite the bloody song.
I went to institute and understood nothing, lol. It isn’t like institute in Utah to say the least. But before I went to institute I went and got some hot chocolate (not cocoa, this stuff was thick like slush) at Amorino. I got white hot chocolate and it was very good and thick (although the best I’ve had was in New York). We had a really yummy dinner afterwards. We had rice with a bunch of vegetables (it was almost more like a soup) on top. It was so good! I then got a ride home and did the usual.
Friday went by in a flurry. Class and talking to friends. I had scalloped potatoes with Nana for lunch and got to kill Marie Antoinette in history class. We were going to get the the Reign of Terror after the death of Louis XVI, but we got caught up in the accusation of the Queen. We did talk a little about why there was the Reign of Terror against the republicans and royalists. We also talked about the National Song of France, the Marseillaise, which is quite the bloody song.
I went to institute and understood nothing, lol. It isn’t like institute in Utah to say the least. But before I went to institute I went and got some hot chocolate (not cocoa, this stuff was thick like slush) at Amorino. I got white hot chocolate and it was very good and thick (although the best I’ve had was in New York). We had a really yummy dinner afterwards. We had rice with a bunch of vegetables (it was almost more like a soup) on top. It was so good! I then got a ride home and did the usual.
Day 80: Tentation
19 novembre 2009 (Day 80)
Today was a fun Thursday. After a rather boring day of “learning” how to write arguments (I wandered off into my world of doodling during this rather long explanation...). We got on some super long helpful random grammar talents. After class I went to the Musée des Beaux-Arts to do my art history homework. I had a lot of fun talking to all the workers to find certain pieces and then walking around to look at the other works there. While leaving the museum I saw my teacher Danielle and talked to her for a minute. She was going to the museum for the opening party of a new exhibit.
Afterwards I ate dinner and went to Twilight: New Moon or “Tentation” (Temptation) in French with Afton. We went because it came out in France before in the US. We had a lot of fun watching Twilight in French. Trying to understand the French made the incredible cheesiness of the film bearable and enjoyable. Cheesy lines translated from English to French and then back again are just really entertaining. Some memorable lines include: “You have your proper sunshine” “I want to kill you, but there is one condition I want it to be for eternity, marry me.”
I now understand more about people who are obsessed with Twilight. They love romance and improbability, all in one. Multiple boys who love you, all highly attractive men. For all you Twilight fans, I’m on Team Jacob. Edward was just too emo and white for my liking. It was pretty funny that he sparkled though.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Day 79: A Hogwarts Christmas
18 novembre 2009 (Day 79)
Happy Christmas Harry! Today was my Christmas. It was a great Christmas, seeing as I didn’t even know that it was going to be Christmas today. I woke up happily before my alarm (again why) but cuddled back into my covers until my alarm signaled the start of Wednesday. I got up like usual, did yoga, read my scriptures, showered and made oatmeal for breakfast. Today while microwaving my meal was interesting. There was a boy in the building across the way that kept on sneaking glances at me through the window. He’d go to the window, look, and then leave and repeat. I was going to make a face at him, but when I finally decided to he had disappeared for good.
I went to the Talensac market this morning because I was out of food and I wanted to buy couquettes. I got salad, tomatoes, carrots, and a nice man convinced me to buy some ridiculously giant expensive (but delicious) pears and an avocado. I was telling the bakery lady how much I loved the couquettes so she gave me a discount (15 centime less…woot!). Afterwards I took the tram back to buy my house to go to the grocery store to buy cheese, yogurt, bananas, and eggs. I got 10 eggs (brown) for 1, 08E. I will have to try really hard to eat that many eggs, but it was cheaper than buying six. And technically, I have until sometime in December before they go bad. I bought my 16 pots of yogurt and headed to the post office to get my package. You see, I received a note yesterday saying that I wasn’t there to get my package, so I thought I’d pick up the books that I ordered after my grocery shopping.
I waited in line (just like in the US) and showed my id (okay, I showed 3) to get my package. After looking at every other package in the back room he picked up (with great exertion showing on his face) a giant half mangled package and put it on the table in front of me. It wasn’t really that heavy, so I went to the boulangerie next door and bought my dinner for tonight, a spinach egg and goat cheese tart.
I made my way home with all my goods and put away my groceries. I then turned on some traditional Christmas music (think Nat King Cole, the Andrews Sisters, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland) and opened my giant package. Boy was I in for a lot of surprises. I got some fantastic panda bear thermals (which I am wearing currently because they make me feel like I am six years old), vitamins, contact solution, Gatorade powder, candy, jackets, peanut butter, an awesomely soft bright green scarf from Ambs, some of my shoes, etc. I won’t go into all the details of my wonderful mother, but she even wrapped some gifts and there was a Christmas stocking with US measuring instruments (now if that wasn’t the most random thing I’ve ever gotten). I like Christmas in November, except the sun was creating a greenhouse effect so my room was quite warm for celebrating Christmas. I really felt like Harry Potter having this awesome Christmas away at school not expecting any presents. I even got an ugly sweater, except for mine is even uglier than Ron Weasley’s sweater.
We watched a really good movie, “Entre le Murs” (titled “The Class” in English) in Culture. We ended up talking about it for the entire two hours of writing class. It was a really eye opening movie seeing as how I want to be a teacher.
Besides having no homework and not doing anything in class today, there was another Christmas gift. A FRENCH PERSON HAD A CONVERSATION WITH US. Nana, a nice Brazilian lady in my class, and I were talking about the movie at lunch and how we thought it was cultural, why French people disrespect teachers, etc. There were two girls listening in and we finally touched a soft spot and she started defending the French. So I guess it is that simple, we just need to talk about controversial things and the French people will talk! Also, a boy opened the door for us. That is the first time that has happened here, it was almost weird because I am so used to a complete absence of chivalry.
I had a peaceful dinner boiling eggs and eating my quiche. My lesson with Mathilde went great, and I’m going with friends to see Twilight 2 tomorrow. I’ve seen some trailers of it in French and I am so excited because it is hilarious in French.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Day 78: Totor Hugo
17 novembre 2009 (Day 78)
Exciting news today! My writing teacher said that my writing is getting better and sounding less English-like. To be honest, I made an effort to write things how I know they are in French, and not write all the things I wanted to express. It is a reversion back to the sassy French writing Mari than the, ”I can say all my thoughts that I think in English in French” that my teachers in America tried to breed. I’m also trying to embrace the fact that I have a “cute American accent.” Apparently I said one of my lines on theatre today ridiculously American. I didn’t notice, but my teacher was laughing hard enough that she had to stop us mid-scene and apologize for laughing so much. We had a test in writing that I really enjoyed (diabolical, isn’t it?). We had 2 hours to either resume an article in 160 words or write an argument on why blogs are so darn popular (that is easy, it is because of cool blogs like mine!) or the quote by Victor Hugo “Open a school and you close a prison.” I enjoyed writing over 4 pages while frantically searching for the correct spelling of words in a French dictionary. Hopefully my paper was fluid and made sense. There isn’t much to say about oral today, other than that I was being really sassy back to my teacher. I guess I had a lot of energy today (I’ve definitely been hungry enough!).
Mathilde has already had two people email her about being interested in her being an au pair for them. She was really excited and nervous about it so she showed me their letters. We read them and responded to them. One lives in Virginia just outside of DC (2 boys) and the other in Rochester (3 girls). Mathilde is really hoping to be an au pair in New York City (it IS the dream). The mother from Rochester actually called because she hadn’t received an email reply back yet (she had written the email SIX hours early). Needless to say, Mathilde was quite flustered when she got this call in the middle of our lesson. I want to be an au pair! Or just a nanny in the US. The families seem really nice and it would be a fun experience.
I am totally craving couquettes today. Thus I am working it into my schedule to go downtown and buy some, as well as do so produce shopping, I am all out of practically all food!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Day 77: I did my homework, Ma!
16 novembre 2009 (Day 77)
My internal alarm clock woke me up this morning before my battery powered alarm clock this morning, it was quite annoying. Regardless, I got myself out of bed to start the week half asleep! Luckily I slowly started to wake up in phonetics. Today we finished up going over nasal sounds, working on the nasal o. At fencing today it was Cami and me for a while and then two other girls came. I got whapped really hard in the arm and am excited to see the bruise. It is unseasonably warm here, not that I don’t mind. It has been around the 50s-60s lately, although it has gotten windier and it often drizzles. I tried to go buy those yummy chouquettes at the bakery by Talensac, but it was closed. While walking there I said ‘Bonjour’ to this woman who was pushing her baby in a stroller. She stopped, turned around and then asked me if she knew me, why I was saying hello, and that it was very nice that I said hello. Hopefully that gives you a cultural picture of how different it is here, you don’t say hello to everyone you meet. They might look at you funny and then interrogate you as to why you were being friendly.
We had a fun time in art history. Practically all of the class was about 15 minutes late (except the Americans). We talked to our professor a little bit. She has been teaching foreign exchange students for twenty years and thought that I was Scandinavian…yes! Success for the first time in France! The rest of the class we talked about probably one of her favorite painters, Chardin. He did oil paintings, mostly of nature mortes, but did some stellar pastel self portraits when he began to lose his sight when he got older. I ate some dry turkey and “cereal” (cereal being multiple grains I think) at the Rubis along with their delicious donut. They kick donut trash (except Tasty’s).
I got two very nice letters in the mail today, one from Grandma and one from Kirstin. I also did my homework (well some of it, it is never ending, let’s be honest), and emailed about 5 or 6 different people about next semester and other questions. And I’m going to get to bed on time…yes!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Day 76: Eglise
15 novembre 2009 (Day 76)
My cute self and my bright tights hopped in the car with Armella and Stephane this morning to enjoy a lovely 3 hour and 16 minute (I won the bet) church block. We had a nice lesson about Joseph Smith in Relief Society, an animated conversation about why women don’t have the priesthood in Sunday School, and a funny comparison to life and a boat. Sacrament meeting went over so Cody and I were making bets on when it would end (20 minutes after and 15 minutes after respectively). We decided we might go out to eat this week and that we might go with Hannah to Twilight.
I brought a lunch today and had it along with some organic apple juice that Stephane had made just yesterday. He also gave me some pork pate stuff to try. It was pretty yummy. They ended up feeding the missionaries (those moochers). Choir today was quite the adventurous disaster. After banning all the people who couldn’t be to the next choir performance from singing, the choir director stuck poor Elder Baker on the piano and was spitting directions in his directions, 90% of which he didn’t understand. I was trying to translate for him while getting in trouble for talking to the piano player. Finally we got the chef to realize that he was new and to talk slower. I also scolded his companion for not being nicer and helping the poor kiddo. He had the biggest dear in the headlights look and did not want to really play the piano.
After all this fun I came home, listened to President Uchtdorf’s talk again and have been talking to my family and going through all my photos from yesterday….and finding out that old roommates are getting engaged!
My cute self and my bright tights hopped in the car with Armella and Stephane this morning to enjoy a lovely 3 hour and 16 minute (I won the bet) church block. We had a nice lesson about Joseph Smith in Relief Society, an animated conversation about why women don’t have the priesthood in Sunday School, and a funny comparison to life and a boat. Sacrament meeting went over so Cody and I were making bets on when it would end (20 minutes after and 15 minutes after respectively). We decided we might go out to eat this week and that we might go with Hannah to Twilight.
I brought a lunch today and had it along with some organic apple juice that Stephane had made just yesterday. He also gave me some pork pate stuff to try. It was pretty yummy. They ended up feeding the missionaries (those moochers). Choir today was quite the adventurous disaster. After banning all the people who couldn’t be to the next choir performance from singing, the choir director stuck poor Elder Baker on the piano and was spitting directions in his directions, 90% of which he didn’t understand. I was trying to translate for him while getting in trouble for talking to the piano player. Finally we got the chef to realize that he was new and to talk slower. I also scolded his companion for not being nicer and helping the poor kiddo. He had the biggest dear in the headlights look and did not want to really play the piano.
After all this fun I came home, listened to President Uchtdorf’s talk again and have been talking to my family and going through all my photos from yesterday….and finding out that old roommates are getting engaged!
Day 75: Mont St Michel
14 novembre 2009 (Day 75)
I woke up bright and early to go on a field trip! It was quite the stormy night, for there was a lot of wind and rain. I hopped on a double decker bus at 7:30 am and headed off to Mont St. Michel and St. Malo with a bunch of Chinese kids. There were other nationalities there, but those Asians dominated the roll call. We all mostly slept on the two and a half hour ride to Mont Saint Michel. I enjoyed the radio in the bus because they played French songs and American songs that made me laugh. I went over my lines for the play until I fell asleep. Luckily I am a better sleeper than the girl next to me, for she was head bobbing for at least a half of an hour. I felt bad for her.
Mont St. Michel was gorgeous! We almost hit a sheep that decided to go bounding across the road in front of our double decker bus. Mont St. Michel is a tiny tidal island (around 50 people live there) with an amazing history. In the sixth and seventh centuries it was used as a stronghold. It used to be called “ monte tombe.” In the 700s (more was built on in later years) a monastery was built on this rocky inlet. They have a funny story about how St. Michael the archangel told this bishop to build the church and he ignored St. Michael so much that St. Michael burned a hole in the bishop’s skull with his finger! Mont Saint Michel is represented in the Bayou Tapestry. The abbey was a prison for some time, holding Victor Hugo hostage! There is also quick sand!
I took oodles of photos and enjoyed walking in the abbey and the surrounding area. It was really windy and intermittently sprinkling. I had lunch in a cute creperie with some friends where I got a gallette paysan…a crepe with tomatoes, cheese, and bacon. It was really delicious.
After Mont St Michel we went back to the bus and drove to a popular port Saint Malo. It was a nice area although we didn’t have a lot of time to explore. Deisy and I went with some of the teachers into the town. It was nice to talk to fluent French speakers who knew about Saint Malo. A storm came in so we took shelter in a restaurant and had butter and sugar crepes with hot chocolate. The crepes were delicious (I’ve tasted better hot cocoa)! We stayed there until it was time to meet at the buses. We were actually the last ones there and the teacher we were with got a little scolding!
On the way home I talked with Andrei, a boy who was in our group walking around St Malo. He is Romanian but speaks French and English fluently, so he is quite the trilingual lurp. He is studying to be a doctor and has a flawless American English accent. It was pretty entertaining talking to him in a mix of French and English about movies, television, medical stuff, etc.
It was a really delicious day to say the least! Delicious for the eyes (the scenery), the brain (the French), the mouth (my first galette and crepe from a creperie), and the body (sleeping on the bus).
Day 74: Friday the 13th
VENDREDI 13 novembre 2009 (Day 74)
I didn’t even realize that it was Friday the 13th until I was listening to the French news. The news anchor was explaining how Friday the 13th started, but I wasn’t paying much attention. I was too busy enjoying my new creation called, “oatmeal with banana and nutella.” It was pretty good. After breakfast I went to my first Friday class, oral. We had two exposées today. The most interesting was one from the boy from China about things made in China. He had a lot of sad facts about how horrific the working conditions are and how the government keeps all the money. On my! I saw random winking kid again. I first saw him at the IRFFLE party and then the other week he winked at me in the hall. I was walking to the TU and I saw him again so I said, “Bonjour.” In response he WINKED and then WHISPERED, “Salut.” (hey). Who whispers? Outside? To a stranger? If he was trying to come off mysterious it was more just creepy. We went over the play as usual in theatre. It went really well today. I ate some meat at the resto-u, lol. It actually kind of tasted like meatloaf. I had carrots and a chocolate éclair with it.
We killed Louis XVI today in history after talking about the declaration of the rights of man and citizens (1789) (which is very similar to the US Constitution 1776). The bourgeois made this declaration to benefit them as you can tell by the fact that they only talk about having judicial equality. Slaves and women weren’t included in the equality. As our teacher said, “It’s very simple, women didn’t exist.” I learned about the first feminist in France called Olympe de Gouge. She wrote about this inegality. She met the guillotine. Louis XIV also met the guillotine after the deputies voted and it passed by one vote that he would die because some fake letters invented to frame him for talking with the enemy countries who had recently invaded France. The men who didn’t like him said that he told them to come and attack the people of France.
I had a rendez-vous with the washing machine. Afterwards I went to FNAC to try to find some grammar books. I didn’t see them so I continued to E.Leclerc and IKEA. I bought another plug adapter, some chocolate, and cards. At IKEA I got another dish scrubber since I broke mine. I came home to the joyous discovery that I can now watch movies, Skype, and video chat in the comfort of my apartment. I had a great chit chat with Nate on Skype and messaged Matt the perfect while watching Hitch on youtube. Gotta love technology!
I didn’t even realize that it was Friday the 13th until I was listening to the French news. The news anchor was explaining how Friday the 13th started, but I wasn’t paying much attention. I was too busy enjoying my new creation called, “oatmeal with banana and nutella.” It was pretty good. After breakfast I went to my first Friday class, oral. We had two exposées today. The most interesting was one from the boy from China about things made in China. He had a lot of sad facts about how horrific the working conditions are and how the government keeps all the money. On my! I saw random winking kid again. I first saw him at the IRFFLE party and then the other week he winked at me in the hall. I was walking to the TU and I saw him again so I said, “Bonjour.” In response he WINKED and then WHISPERED, “Salut.” (hey). Who whispers? Outside? To a stranger? If he was trying to come off mysterious it was more just creepy. We went over the play as usual in theatre. It went really well today. I ate some meat at the resto-u, lol. It actually kind of tasted like meatloaf. I had carrots and a chocolate éclair with it.
We killed Louis XVI today in history after talking about the declaration of the rights of man and citizens (1789) (which is very similar to the US Constitution 1776). The bourgeois made this declaration to benefit them as you can tell by the fact that they only talk about having judicial equality. Slaves and women weren’t included in the equality. As our teacher said, “It’s very simple, women didn’t exist.” I learned about the first feminist in France called Olympe de Gouge. She wrote about this inegality. She met the guillotine. Louis XIV also met the guillotine after the deputies voted and it passed by one vote that he would die because some fake letters invented to frame him for talking with the enemy countries who had recently invaded France. The men who didn’t like him said that he told them to come and attack the people of France.
I had a rendez-vous with the washing machine. Afterwards I went to FNAC to try to find some grammar books. I didn’t see them so I continued to E.Leclerc and IKEA. I bought another plug adapter, some chocolate, and cards. At IKEA I got another dish scrubber since I broke mine. I came home to the joyous discovery that I can now watch movies, Skype, and video chat in the comfort of my apartment. I had a great chit chat with Nate on Skype and messaged Matt the perfect while watching Hitch on youtube. Gotta love technology!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Day 73: Junior High in France
12 novembre 2009 (Day 73)
Today I woke up early to go spend a half day at a junior high called, “College Petite Lande.” I met up with Clemintine and Jose at Pirmil to take the bus to the junior high. You see, we have a group project in our French culture class. This is why I went and had a fun time with those itty bitty French kids. I forgot how tiny junior high students are! We took the bus to the school and got there early.
First we went to a French class. We asked the students questions and they could ask questions as well. They were completely shocked at some things that were normal at our schools. For them, it is necessary to wait outside the door for the professor and then they stay standing until they are told to sit down. It is against the rules to chew gum, eat candy, or have a cell phone. They also get literally LOCKED in the school yard and they are not allowed in the hallways AT ALL during classes. They also have these crazy disciplinary notebooks.
We talked to the vice principle afterwards about discipline at school and other things. We talked about the school system and how it is changing that they go to school on Wednesday and have Saturday off since for a long time they’ve had to go to school on Saturday but not on Wednesday. We went to an English class (equivalent to 7th graders) for about 10 minutes. It is so cute how they are learning British English! They have British-French accents when they talk.
I had my first Spanish lesson today! We went to a Spanish class. Boy was that fun! The kids were really active and talkative. I learned some weather words and how to make comparisons in Spanish. En Madrid hace tanto calor como en Barcelona!
The boys were taking pictures while the kids were having their lunch break and we had a whole group of kids get in the picture and take pictures of us! It was pretty fun. They were so interested in us (even if they said I have an American accent). We hurried back to get to our writing class with Annick. I was really tired and we were talking about argumentation (AGAIN) so I was sleeping with my eyes open. Well, they were actually probably closed for some of it, but I was exhausted.
I came home and prepared for my lesson with Mathilde and have been checking email and listening to my new favorite song, Eet by Regina Spektor. Oh, and my heat is working!
Today I woke up early to go spend a half day at a junior high called, “College Petite Lande.” I met up with Clemintine and Jose at Pirmil to take the bus to the junior high. You see, we have a group project in our French culture class. This is why I went and had a fun time with those itty bitty French kids. I forgot how tiny junior high students are! We took the bus to the school and got there early.
First we went to a French class. We asked the students questions and they could ask questions as well. They were completely shocked at some things that were normal at our schools. For them, it is necessary to wait outside the door for the professor and then they stay standing until they are told to sit down. It is against the rules to chew gum, eat candy, or have a cell phone. They also get literally LOCKED in the school yard and they are not allowed in the hallways AT ALL during classes. They also have these crazy disciplinary notebooks.
We talked to the vice principle afterwards about discipline at school and other things. We talked about the school system and how it is changing that they go to school on Wednesday and have Saturday off since for a long time they’ve had to go to school on Saturday but not on Wednesday. We went to an English class (equivalent to 7th graders) for about 10 minutes. It is so cute how they are learning British English! They have British-French accents when they talk.
I had my first Spanish lesson today! We went to a Spanish class. Boy was that fun! The kids were really active and talkative. I learned some weather words and how to make comparisons in Spanish. En Madrid hace tanto calor como en Barcelona!
The boys were taking pictures while the kids were having their lunch break and we had a whole group of kids get in the picture and take pictures of us! It was pretty fun. They were so interested in us (even if they said I have an American accent). We hurried back to get to our writing class with Annick. I was really tired and we were talking about argumentation (AGAIN) so I was sleeping with my eyes open. Well, they were actually probably closed for some of it, but I was exhausted.
I came home and prepared for my lesson with Mathilde and have been checking email and listening to my new favorite song, Eet by Regina Spektor. Oh, and my heat is working!
Day 72: Armistice Day
11 novembre 2009 (Day 72)
Today was Armistice Day, so there was no school. Armistice Day (Also known as Remembrance Day) is to commemorate when there was the signing of an Armistice (between Germany and the Allies) on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” in 1918 during World War I.
To commemorate the holiday I stayed up way to late last night and still woke up early [8 am]. I headed off on a run to the woods. I got lost for about 20 minutes trying to find the woods, and don’t ask how because I don’t know. What can I say, it is a gift. It was definitely worth the 20 minute detour. I found some gorgeous areas that literally took my breath away. I stopped dead in my tracks and stared. I brought my camera to take photos, but my batteries died before I could snap one shot of heaven. Next time… I have come to the conclusion that older skinny men and older ladies run in France. There is no one my age running, and there are very few people in shorts like me. And I am sure I am the only girl in shorts, so it causes quite the scandal when I go running in shorts and a t-shirt and not running tights, a long sleeve shirt, and a jacket (It was in the 40s- totally warm those crazy folks!). Everyone needs to come to France, if only to go running in the forests with the muddy trails covered with leaves, the hundreds of trees, and the random ancient buildings you run into.
Since then I’ve been doing homework, other random chores such as telling the secretary that my heater doesn’t work, sipping tea to stay warm, and making pasta that tastes like pizza (it’s magical!). Tomorrow I’m going to a French high school, it should be exciting.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Day 71: Burrito Fest x 6!
The Girls in Theatre trying to be men with facial hair.
Elder Baker's war wound
The lovely anglophones: Cheryl, Isabel, and Mari10 novembre 2009 (Day 71)
Well, today was quite the entertaining and eventful day. I woke up at 7am after going to bed after 1am and was pleasantly surprised to not be grumpy when I woke up. I took a piping hot shower seeing as my heater doesn’t work but the shower does. I got new sheets, met a random man at the store who thought he knew me so therefore had to ask me many questions about my life to be sure that I wasn’t who he thought I was, and went to class.
Today we spent the whole entire time in writing learning about the subjunctive (hurray!). It is a tense that foreign students find difficult. I am practicing using it more. I got my first 15/20 on a paper I wrote (okay, rewrote since she said I could do it over again)! And even then she said it wasn’t the greatest….French perfectionists. No, not really, it is just me. Il faut que je fasse des efforts. SUBJUNCTIF! The heater wasn’t working again so it was cold, but luckily we were in a very small room for theatre today so the room warmed up. We went over the second half of “Au Theatre comme au Theatre,” the piece that we will be performing the first week in December. In oral we had a comprehension test and had an exposee about the economy in the United States.
After class I scurried off to the Burrito Fest at the church. I met up with Isabel at Commerce where we waiting to cram ourselves into a tram car like sardines. When we got to the church 25 minutes late they still hadn’t started yet so we helped get ready. There were lots of missionaries there, six to be precise. Some came visiting from a different area. I talked a little bit to the greenie I talked to on Sunday (although they called him “blue”). I mostly talked to Elder Smiley in a conversation that started out in French and ended in English with me trying to turn it (unsuccessfully) back to French. Smiley chastised me about using a fork to eat my burrito, among other things that he critiqued/teased me about. He also asked me a plethora of questions as if he was interrogating me for a date. Or to write my life story. He also covered topics such as siblings, parents, their work, colleges, girls, girls on missions, how I am wasting my money studying abroad, etc.
Washing dishes was quite the hullaballo. I was rinsing and the boys (it took 4 of them) were drying dishes. Smiley kept on sticking things in the cupboard over my head since he is rather tall. He then decided to flick my poor Elder Baker with the wet dishrag. He hit him so hard he has a cloth burn from it! Minutes afterwards you could still see scratches and some of it was bleeding a little. Cody pulled a smooth one and “whacked me right on the tush” (or his words were something like that). Then there were jokes about how we should get together and oh, it was crazy!
Crazier still was the ride home. Cody rented a van to go up with his friend's to Normandy for the vacation. It is this fantastic 9-seater van. All six missionaries piled in to have a sleepover (about 10 minutes before their curfew). Cody was driving like a maniac, got the Elders to sing their mission song which was a really cute song they made up in French. Cody was driving all swirvy and saying random things to people out the window. During this Smiley was trying to ask me more questions and not involving the rest of the children in the conversation. All the missionaries gave their goofy goodbyes and handshakes through the window of the van. There were some quite missionaries, a missionary with a really annoying voice, creepy Smiley, and Tanner who said something funny but I don’t recall what it was.
Tomorrow there is no school, hurray!
Day 70: Scottish Lessons
9 novembre 2009 (Day 70)
Monday began with phonetics. We worked on our nasal vowels. We recited a fun tongue twister in French. I had a yummy pesto-tomato-cheese sandwich today before heading off to fencing. We got to suit up and get connected to the electricity today! It was quite fun and adds an entirely different element to the game. After a fairly interesting lecture in art history I hustled back to my apartment to scarf down some leftovers to finish them just as Mathilde arrived for lessons. Today Mathilde and I went over a song, had a quiz, and starting working a lot of question forming and answering.
Afterwards I went over to ask John about my homework on the subjunctive tense. I have never really understood it well and when I read the paper explaining it went from my eyes out through the back of my head. John helped me understand the subjunctive and Scottish. We got talking about the music and the language. I now know how to say potatoes (ta’tties) tomatoes (to’matties) garpin’ (= gawking). It is definitely a different language!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Day 69: Angers Conference
8 novembre 2009 (Day 69)
I had an early start to get to stake conference in Angers, France. My Sunday School teacher, Soeur LaPorte (Sister “Door”) and her husband gave Hannah and I a ride since it is at least an hour away by car. The seats were really comfy, it all looked quite mod, and the speakers put me to sleep. It was partially because I couldn’t understand everything, partially because it was boring, and partially because there were 8 speakers in a row when on the program they only listed four. Life went a lot better after the intermediate hymn 30 minutes before the ending. The general authorities (who I can understand when they speak) spoke about why they love the church. The same guy from yesterday told a really neat story about prayer when his family was stuck at a border the authorities weren’t letting them cross. He told us that everyone has his place, that we need the Holy Spirit and that we need to really pray and pray for things that are specific to each day, God willing.
After conference I talked with Cody Allen about his latest adventures outside of France. For a boy who goes to school in France, I dare say that he is out of the country more than in it. He has his plans for December: boarding in the Alps, Christmas in Jerusalem, New Years in NYC, skiing in Utah and then driving back to San Diego. Oh to be young and have money! I also talked to the cutest little greenie. The missionaries switched in Nantes, so Elder Tanner Staples is the only one I know. The greenie, bless his heart, has been out for 2 weeks now, but seems to be doing alright. He is from Spanish Fork Utah and is really excited to be in France and loves it so far. He studied French in junior high and high school for the same reasons as me. It will be fun to have new missionaries and it was good talking to him about French and life and adjusting to France.
We drove home and Hannah slept again while I talked to the LaPortes. They are really nice people and they said they’d like to come and see me in the play which we will be performing in December. Now I am just catching up on journal entries and editing pictures from Sweden.
I was taking a break from journal writing and fell asleep reading Harry Potter. I made some yummy pesto pasta and talked to John the Scot again. I invited him to a church activity but he has class. I discovered the joy of Teen Girl Squad, so I am still behind on journal entries and the internet isn’t letting me get on my blog. I apologize for my tardiness, I’ll catch up one day!
I had an early start to get to stake conference in Angers, France. My Sunday School teacher, Soeur LaPorte (Sister “Door”) and her husband gave Hannah and I a ride since it is at least an hour away by car. The seats were really comfy, it all looked quite mod, and the speakers put me to sleep. It was partially because I couldn’t understand everything, partially because it was boring, and partially because there were 8 speakers in a row when on the program they only listed four. Life went a lot better after the intermediate hymn 30 minutes before the ending. The general authorities (who I can understand when they speak) spoke about why they love the church. The same guy from yesterday told a really neat story about prayer when his family was stuck at a border the authorities weren’t letting them cross. He told us that everyone has his place, that we need the Holy Spirit and that we need to really pray and pray for things that are specific to each day, God willing.
After conference I talked with Cody Allen about his latest adventures outside of France. For a boy who goes to school in France, I dare say that he is out of the country more than in it. He has his plans for December: boarding in the Alps, Christmas in Jerusalem, New Years in NYC, skiing in Utah and then driving back to San Diego. Oh to be young and have money! I also talked to the cutest little greenie. The missionaries switched in Nantes, so Elder Tanner Staples is the only one I know. The greenie, bless his heart, has been out for 2 weeks now, but seems to be doing alright. He is from Spanish Fork Utah and is really excited to be in France and loves it so far. He studied French in junior high and high school for the same reasons as me. It will be fun to have new missionaries and it was good talking to him about French and life and adjusting to France.
We drove home and Hannah slept again while I talked to the LaPortes. They are really nice people and they said they’d like to come and see me in the play which we will be performing in December. Now I am just catching up on journal entries and editing pictures from Sweden.
I was taking a break from journal writing and fell asleep reading Harry Potter. I made some yummy pesto pasta and talked to John the Scot again. I invited him to a church activity but he has class. I discovered the joy of Teen Girl Squad, so I am still behind on journal entries and the internet isn’t letting me get on my blog. I apologize for my tardiness, I’ll catch up one day!
Day 68: A Perfect Day in Nantes
7 novembre 2009 (Day 68)
Today was an eventful day. I slept in until 8 am. I changed and then I snuck into the kitchen to do yoga. It was a little awkward, doing yoga in the kitchen, but it was nice to have lots of space. I hopped on the tram and headed for commerce. I bought more elstar apples, several bananas, and some brioche (sweet bread) for a cute Boulanger man. Sadly my vendor friend wasn’t there today. I went to a used bookstore afterwards and bought (all of these being written/translated into French): Harry Potter 3 & 4, a C.S. Lewis book, and a work by Guy Maupassant called “Contes de la Becasse” which my teacher recommended. I spent about 10 euros for the three books. I took the tram out to Carrefour to buy more oatmeal (it is the least expensive there). They also have really expensive canned foods, so I bought some beans and veggies, along with pesto sauce. I am excited for the pesto sauce, and it is cheaper than in the states! I also bought some cereal (museli and a chocolate one that ended up tasting more like salt than chocolate). I lugged all my loot to the Talensac Market at 50 Otages and went on a manhunt. It was actually a bakery hunt. There are these delightful treats called coquiettes or something thereabouts. I tried one once and hated it, but Melanie gave me a coquiette one day that I loved. She has a little girl who is quite the connoisseur of these delightful fluffy treats and she prefers them from the Maison Bossard. I found the maison and bought 6 for around 1,75E. They were scrumptious!
I actually shared one with John. He is my Scottish neighbor. I went over to ask him if his internet was working. We ended up talking to each other in the hallways for at least an hour in French. We talked about lots of random things: school, vacation, mean Frenchies, the Maison Bossard, drinking, smoking, etc. Our conversation ended once someone started smoking in the kitchen and we could smell it.
I quickly ate leftover pasta, changed and headed to the church for part one of stake conference. It was really good! The theme of the conference was, “Called to Serve.” The conference was broadcast to several other churches as well. My favorite speaker was from the Quorum of the Seventy who hadn’t spoken French for 5 years! He speaks French quite well (or at least I could understand EVERYTHING that he said because he’s an Anglophone). He told us lots of fun little stories.
The following are some thoughts that I enjoyed from the session: don’t doubt your capacity, the Lord chooses you. The Lord prepares us. Be happy to serve where you are. Don’t ever say, “Oh, they’ll never become a member of the church. It is likely that they may in the next life if not this one.”, Faith will open the door, it is possible to change the direction of the Church in France, but we must do less to do more. Gordon B. Hinckley talked about getting out of debt and saving several years before the economy crashed. Service is like a boomerang, it will always come back to you! Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, omega the last; God is alpha and omega and we make up the middle! I got a ride home (or at least most of the way) from stake conference and had some lovely hot chocolate. It was a nice ending to a nice day.
Today was an eventful day. I slept in until 8 am. I changed and then I snuck into the kitchen to do yoga. It was a little awkward, doing yoga in the kitchen, but it was nice to have lots of space. I hopped on the tram and headed for commerce. I bought more elstar apples, several bananas, and some brioche (sweet bread) for a cute Boulanger man. Sadly my vendor friend wasn’t there today. I went to a used bookstore afterwards and bought (all of these being written/translated into French): Harry Potter 3 & 4, a C.S. Lewis book, and a work by Guy Maupassant called “Contes de la Becasse” which my teacher recommended. I spent about 10 euros for the three books. I took the tram out to Carrefour to buy more oatmeal (it is the least expensive there). They also have really expensive canned foods, so I bought some beans and veggies, along with pesto sauce. I am excited for the pesto sauce, and it is cheaper than in the states! I also bought some cereal (museli and a chocolate one that ended up tasting more like salt than chocolate). I lugged all my loot to the Talensac Market at 50 Otages and went on a manhunt. It was actually a bakery hunt. There are these delightful treats called coquiettes or something thereabouts. I tried one once and hated it, but Melanie gave me a coquiette one day that I loved. She has a little girl who is quite the connoisseur of these delightful fluffy treats and she prefers them from the Maison Bossard. I found the maison and bought 6 for around 1,75E. They were scrumptious!
I actually shared one with John. He is my Scottish neighbor. I went over to ask him if his internet was working. We ended up talking to each other in the hallways for at least an hour in French. We talked about lots of random things: school, vacation, mean Frenchies, the Maison Bossard, drinking, smoking, etc. Our conversation ended once someone started smoking in the kitchen and we could smell it.
I quickly ate leftover pasta, changed and headed to the church for part one of stake conference. It was really good! The theme of the conference was, “Called to Serve.” The conference was broadcast to several other churches as well. My favorite speaker was from the Quorum of the Seventy who hadn’t spoken French for 5 years! He speaks French quite well (or at least I could understand EVERYTHING that he said because he’s an Anglophone). He told us lots of fun little stories.
The following are some thoughts that I enjoyed from the session: don’t doubt your capacity, the Lord chooses you. The Lord prepares us. Be happy to serve where you are. Don’t ever say, “Oh, they’ll never become a member of the church. It is likely that they may in the next life if not this one.”, Faith will open the door, it is possible to change the direction of the Church in France, but we must do less to do more. Gordon B. Hinckley talked about getting out of debt and saving several years before the economy crashed. Service is like a boomerang, it will always come back to you! Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, omega the last; God is alpha and omega and we make up the middle! I got a ride home (or at least most of the way) from stake conference and had some lovely hot chocolate. It was a nice ending to a nice day.
Day 67: Exposing the United States
6 novembre 2009 (Day 67)
I presented my exposee this morning in my oral French class. I gave a 15 minute presentation concerning the views that the United States is a leader in environmentalism and super polluters. I think it went really well; everyone told me that they enjoyed it and that they could understand what I was saying (yay!). Marion said that I’ll get a 15 or 16 out of 20 on my argumentative presentation. I am so glad that I took debate because all we do in class (at least oral and writing…10/21 hours of class) is work on arguments. Thank you Miss Hyer for teaching me everything I know, and all my English teachers as well. I actually found out that we have to give a presentation during finals week, but you only have 20 minutes to prepare a 15 or 20 minute presentation. I find this rather unjust, you get more time to prepare in debate (and speak less)! Oh well, it is France and I have come to terms with the fact that my grades are going to be below Mari average (insert Chris Mitchell laughing here). The heat wasn’t on in the building today, so I began to freeze in theatre and continued to freeze. I had some pizza at the RU Terte (the first time I’ve eaten there all week) and talked to some other IRFLEE kids until our next class, history! History was interesting as usual, but I was really tired and cold so I was starting to doze in the middle (but not quite). We finished talking about the possible causes of the revolution: the philosophy of the Lumiers, the bourgeoisie, the financial situation of France, the taxes, the expense of the court, and the war in America. An interesting side note: France helped us only because they hate England and they wanted to shove it in their face. We learned about the National Assembly and the French Revolution. We talked about poor Louis XVII (he was actually a really nice guy) and a little bit about Marie A. My favorite thing I learned was that when Louis XVI was fleeing to Varennes, he did so being disguised as a Boulanger, or bread maker. Sadly, his fleeing led to a divorce between him and the nation so the vengeful lover (France) killed him.
I cleaned my room today. I wiped everything down (for a little room it gets terribly dusty). I also did my monthly floor washing. I’m not motivated to wash it more than once a month, although I do sweep the floor quite often because I create a lot of crumbs…which is pretty crumby. Har har, I’m so funny. And sleep deprived. I actually took a little “break” I guess you could call it before I cleaned and listened to a relaxation tape. I finally got some drinkable yogurt to try (and it came with a Scooby Doo sticker!) and it is pretty good. I really do love the yogurt here (although I miss the yogurt in the boxes in Sweden).
I had some pasta for dinner and then headed into town to watch a fencing match. I got there late, but it was there soon enough to see the champion of the world, an Italian fence. It was pretty fun because there were a lot of people there and they were all cheering. It was kind of like a football or basketball game. It was really neat to see how GOOD they were at fencing; I’ve got a long way to go!
The internet isn’t working, so I’ve done some homework, but I think I have resolved to go to bed now and see if I can sleep in tomorrow before going to the market! I almost forgot the highlight of my day. I’ve been trying to make an effort to smile at people and say, “Bonjour!” I was walking down the hallway to theatre and I saw a boy who is in the IRFLEE program, but not in my level & I don’t know his name. I recognized his face from the IRFLEE soiree so I said, “Bonjour.” In response he said, “Salut” (an informal hello for people you know well, aka your friends) and then he winked at me! What is that?!?! Winking at random people in the hallway, that is not allowed, Eric Ripplinger told me so. I actually saw Eric’s France twin the other day. His twin is a brunette, but otherwise looks the same.
I presented my exposee this morning in my oral French class. I gave a 15 minute presentation concerning the views that the United States is a leader in environmentalism and super polluters. I think it went really well; everyone told me that they enjoyed it and that they could understand what I was saying (yay!). Marion said that I’ll get a 15 or 16 out of 20 on my argumentative presentation. I am so glad that I took debate because all we do in class (at least oral and writing…10/21 hours of class) is work on arguments. Thank you Miss Hyer for teaching me everything I know, and all my English teachers as well. I actually found out that we have to give a presentation during finals week, but you only have 20 minutes to prepare a 15 or 20 minute presentation. I find this rather unjust, you get more time to prepare in debate (and speak less)! Oh well, it is France and I have come to terms with the fact that my grades are going to be below Mari average (insert Chris Mitchell laughing here). The heat wasn’t on in the building today, so I began to freeze in theatre and continued to freeze. I had some pizza at the RU Terte (the first time I’ve eaten there all week) and talked to some other IRFLEE kids until our next class, history! History was interesting as usual, but I was really tired and cold so I was starting to doze in the middle (but not quite). We finished talking about the possible causes of the revolution: the philosophy of the Lumiers, the bourgeoisie, the financial situation of France, the taxes, the expense of the court, and the war in America. An interesting side note: France helped us only because they hate England and they wanted to shove it in their face. We learned about the National Assembly and the French Revolution. We talked about poor Louis XVII (he was actually a really nice guy) and a little bit about Marie A. My favorite thing I learned was that when Louis XVI was fleeing to Varennes, he did so being disguised as a Boulanger, or bread maker. Sadly, his fleeing led to a divorce between him and the nation so the vengeful lover (France) killed him.
I cleaned my room today. I wiped everything down (for a little room it gets terribly dusty). I also did my monthly floor washing. I’m not motivated to wash it more than once a month, although I do sweep the floor quite often because I create a lot of crumbs…which is pretty crumby. Har har, I’m so funny. And sleep deprived. I actually took a little “break” I guess you could call it before I cleaned and listened to a relaxation tape. I finally got some drinkable yogurt to try (and it came with a Scooby Doo sticker!) and it is pretty good. I really do love the yogurt here (although I miss the yogurt in the boxes in Sweden).
I had some pasta for dinner and then headed into town to watch a fencing match. I got there late, but it was there soon enough to see the champion of the world, an Italian fence. It was pretty fun because there were a lot of people there and they were all cheering. It was kind of like a football or basketball game. It was really neat to see how GOOD they were at fencing; I’ve got a long way to go!
The internet isn’t working, so I’ve done some homework, but I think I have resolved to go to bed now and see if I can sleep in tomorrow before going to the market! I almost forgot the highlight of my day. I’ve been trying to make an effort to smile at people and say, “Bonjour!” I was walking down the hallway to theatre and I saw a boy who is in the IRFLEE program, but not in my level & I don’t know his name. I recognized his face from the IRFLEE soiree so I said, “Bonjour.” In response he said, “Salut” (an informal hello for people you know well, aka your friends) and then he winked at me! What is that?!?! Winking at random people in the hallway, that is not allowed, Eric Ripplinger told me so. I actually saw Eric’s France twin the other day. His twin is a brunette, but otherwise looks the same.
Day 66: Thursday
5 novembre 2009 (Day 66)
Thursday, oh my how does time fly. In the morning I talked to Kyle on the internet, did my homework, and went running, all before class. In writing class we talked about the death penalty which led to the subject of how they kill people in different countries. Needless to say (I won’t write the details) to was interesting and amusing. But if I had to be murdered, I’d prefer the guillotine to the electric chair or an injection. The guillotine is just more romantic. We were supposed to learn grammar, but as usual, we didn’t get that far in class.
Tonight Mathilde came over for an English lesson. She told me about her interview to be an au pair. She did really well and her interview lasted 2 ½ hours! Today we worked on vocabulary a lot: body parts and clothing. I have an exposé in orale class tomorrow so I’ve been working on it.
Thursday, oh my how does time fly. In the morning I talked to Kyle on the internet, did my homework, and went running, all before class. In writing class we talked about the death penalty which led to the subject of how they kill people in different countries. Needless to say (I won’t write the details) to was interesting and amusing. But if I had to be murdered, I’d prefer the guillotine to the electric chair or an injection. The guillotine is just more romantic. We were supposed to learn grammar, but as usual, we didn’t get that far in class.
Tonight Mathilde came over for an English lesson. She told me about her interview to be an au pair. She did really well and her interview lasted 2 ½ hours! Today we worked on vocabulary a lot: body parts and clothing. I have an exposé in orale class tomorrow so I’ve been working on it.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Day 65: Making Honey Dijon
4 novembre 2009 (Day 65)
Goodness me! I am not on task today. Mathilde cancelled lessons again today and I have somehow whittled away all that spare time I had to study. It all started with a message that I got from Brooke. We have found a family who is willing to have us during our Christmas break down by Nice. They are beekeepers with 3 children and goats! I therefore began to check flight prices from England to Nice, which led to checking other flights, which led to starting to plan next semester’s vacations as well as summer plans. I suppose I will continue to talk about my day in reverse, maybe it will make in more interesting. I asserted my dominance! I bought some new mustard that was supposed to be mild, but doesn’t taste very mild to me. I was sad that I’d have to throw it out and then I thought HONEY DIJON MUSTARD! And so I made myself some. There is nothing like honey to sweeten up life. After dinner I foraged on several cookies. I had a salad and I made some mashed potatoes from the box (they’ve got nothing on fake Idaho potatoes) and green beans for dinner. The article we discussed today in class was about a publicity of some famous sweater company that had all the models handicapped one time. It lead to some really interesting discussions about “politically correct” labeling and the coldness of France. The Ghanans are awed at how rude and individualistic we all are. I would like to go to Ghana because it sounds like everyone is really nice and respectful there. They were shocked that a restaurant manager would ask someone who is handicapped in a wheelchair to leave because it was disturbing other customers. I did my homework in the TU Café after my home lunch on the main floor of the RU Terte. There were lots of board games at the café that I wanted someone to teach me how to play. In culture we talked about a French author and really really analyzed his text. What I mean to say is that we had to do the analyzing that I hate, not the kind with Annick where we get off subject and it is entertaining but the “I think I am the author and so what was I meaning when I used this word instead of this word and since I think I’m the author and know what he was thinking I also want you to tell me why you think he wrote like this and the 5 sections this text is divided into although I really don’t want your opinion but what I think is to be fact when analyzing a work really is just opinion.” I was starting to fall asleep. I did some homework before class. I also went on a run. It was great to be out running again. It seems like I’ll have to go in the mornings because it likes to rain once I am done with classes in the afternoon and it seems to be a pretty normal thing. I also decided to try to wake up earlier since my bladder always wakes me up at 6am and then the rest of my sleeping time is very fitful and feels more like 10 minutes instead of an hour, so I might as well go to bed an hour earlier and wake up at 6am with my bladder. I am just hoping that I can keep myself awake and roll myself out of bed into my shoes. That is always the hardest part, because once I am out there I am ever so glad I went.
Goodness me! I am not on task today. Mathilde cancelled lessons again today and I have somehow whittled away all that spare time I had to study. It all started with a message that I got from Brooke. We have found a family who is willing to have us during our Christmas break down by Nice. They are beekeepers with 3 children and goats! I therefore began to check flight prices from England to Nice, which led to checking other flights, which led to starting to plan next semester’s vacations as well as summer plans. I suppose I will continue to talk about my day in reverse, maybe it will make in more interesting. I asserted my dominance! I bought some new mustard that was supposed to be mild, but doesn’t taste very mild to me. I was sad that I’d have to throw it out and then I thought HONEY DIJON MUSTARD! And so I made myself some. There is nothing like honey to sweeten up life. After dinner I foraged on several cookies. I had a salad and I made some mashed potatoes from the box (they’ve got nothing on fake Idaho potatoes) and green beans for dinner. The article we discussed today in class was about a publicity of some famous sweater company that had all the models handicapped one time. It lead to some really interesting discussions about “politically correct” labeling and the coldness of France. The Ghanans are awed at how rude and individualistic we all are. I would like to go to Ghana because it sounds like everyone is really nice and respectful there. They were shocked that a restaurant manager would ask someone who is handicapped in a wheelchair to leave because it was disturbing other customers. I did my homework in the TU Café after my home lunch on the main floor of the RU Terte. There were lots of board games at the café that I wanted someone to teach me how to play. In culture we talked about a French author and really really analyzed his text. What I mean to say is that we had to do the analyzing that I hate, not the kind with Annick where we get off subject and it is entertaining but the “I think I am the author and so what was I meaning when I used this word instead of this word and since I think I’m the author and know what he was thinking I also want you to tell me why you think he wrote like this and the 5 sections this text is divided into although I really don’t want your opinion but what I think is to be fact when analyzing a work really is just opinion.” I was starting to fall asleep. I did some homework before class. I also went on a run. It was great to be out running again. It seems like I’ll have to go in the mornings because it likes to rain once I am done with classes in the afternoon and it seems to be a pretty normal thing. I also decided to try to wake up earlier since my bladder always wakes me up at 6am and then the rest of my sleeping time is very fitful and feels more like 10 minutes instead of an hour, so I might as well go to bed an hour earlier and wake up at 6am with my bladder. I am just hoping that I can keep myself awake and roll myself out of bed into my shoes. That is always the hardest part, because once I am out there I am ever so glad I went.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Day 64: Demi-Crème is Demi-Bad
3 novembre 2009 (Day 64)
I woke up to another day with the “crachin Breton” or the rain that frequents this area. I tried my demi-crème milk with cereal, but I still don’t think that it tastes very good, even with cereal. It just has a really weird taste and texture. I think it might be okay in hot chocolate. I am positive that it will be okay in mashed potatoes. I am going to try some other brands though so that I can have more calcium. I also decided that I need to eat better, so I made my lunch today with some delicious multi-grain bread from the boulangerie and some cheese that was on sale (though I have no idea what kind of cheese it is). We spent a really long time discussing our summaries of a text (aka about 2 hours out of 2.5 hours of class) because we all did pretty badly. It never ceases to amaze me how I can read a text 10 times, on the 11th read think I have finally understood, only to find out that I didn’t understand it at all. It is frustrating, but I am sure that it is good for my character. I am also learning that I am a baby, but am getting better at not wanting to cry in class when the teacher is not understanding what I am not understanding (which is oh so difficult to explain!). In theatre we practiced the play more. The Fou (joker) is getting a lot better, so the play is slowly getting funnier and more amusing. Oral was uneventful, we did a listening comprehension test. I got 18/40..woot! Mathilde cancelled class again so I worked on my homework seeing as I have a paper in culture due tomorrow and a writing assignment to redo since I didn’t understand the text (there is a difference between the words immoral, amoral, and morality that are very important in French, if you were wondering). I knocked on Mischa, my French buddy’s (whom I never see) door. She was there (albeit sick). She was kind enough to go over my assignment for French culture. It sounds a lot better than it did before! I got a lot of letters yesterday, which made my day. Today it got really windy. Ohhh! The most magical thing just happened, Dumbledore must be around, for in a blink of an eye, all the lights outside that I can see out my window went out (not all the lights, but the ones on the block).
I woke up to another day with the “crachin Breton” or the rain that frequents this area. I tried my demi-crème milk with cereal, but I still don’t think that it tastes very good, even with cereal. It just has a really weird taste and texture. I think it might be okay in hot chocolate. I am positive that it will be okay in mashed potatoes. I am going to try some other brands though so that I can have more calcium. I also decided that I need to eat better, so I made my lunch today with some delicious multi-grain bread from the boulangerie and some cheese that was on sale (though I have no idea what kind of cheese it is). We spent a really long time discussing our summaries of a text (aka about 2 hours out of 2.5 hours of class) because we all did pretty badly. It never ceases to amaze me how I can read a text 10 times, on the 11th read think I have finally understood, only to find out that I didn’t understand it at all. It is frustrating, but I am sure that it is good for my character. I am also learning that I am a baby, but am getting better at not wanting to cry in class when the teacher is not understanding what I am not understanding (which is oh so difficult to explain!). In theatre we practiced the play more. The Fou (joker) is getting a lot better, so the play is slowly getting funnier and more amusing. Oral was uneventful, we did a listening comprehension test. I got 18/40..woot! Mathilde cancelled class again so I worked on my homework seeing as I have a paper in culture due tomorrow and a writing assignment to redo since I didn’t understand the text (there is a difference between the words immoral, amoral, and morality that are very important in French, if you were wondering). I knocked on Mischa, my French buddy’s (whom I never see) door. She was there (albeit sick). She was kind enough to go over my assignment for French culture. It sounds a lot better than it did before! I got a lot of letters yesterday, which made my day. Today it got really windy. Ohhh! The most magical thing just happened, Dumbledore must be around, for in a blink of an eye, all the lights outside that I can see out my window went out (not all the lights, but the ones on the block).
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