Wake Me Up When September Ends… Oh Wait

A panoramic view from Mont St. Michel

It’s really hard to believe that September is over and that I’ve been gone for a month. And at the same time, it seems like I’ve been here for longer than that. At this point, I’m glad I’m staying all year, because I don’t feel too rushed for traveling or anything else (like, for example, improving my French).

One month without a microwave. I noticed that a couple days ago: although there is one in the kitchen, I haven’t used or seen a microwave being used since I’ve been here-- which is a remarkable enough change from my life at home or at school. So many things are different: for example, the existence of free time. One of my challenges here has been learning how to fill my days, because out of 6 classes, 4 are once a week, and another is twice in one day. Sundays are tricky because the buses don’t run as often, everything is closed, and yesterday it sprinkled on and off which brought an end to my walking, sitting, and reading in a park plan (and relocated the last two to my room). Next Sunday I’ll look at the bus schedule and plan on meeting people for lunch.

A general theme of my life here thus far has been learning from my mistakes—everything from ordering 3 crepes (the "student deal") is way too many, to don’t miss the night bus at 11:30 because it won’t come back for an hour (and once you get on it at 12:30, stand right at the door before your stop in case the bus driver doesn’t let you off… oh yes. that happened), to take your keys every single time you leave the house…

Speaking of which, I got to do a little bit of traveling around the area the past couple weekends: last weekend, my host mother took me to their vacation home on the coast, in Croisic. We also went to La Baule, a famous beach around here, and Guérande, a walled city from medieval times. I had a good time but I felt bad because I was really quiet and, I’m sure, a little bit boring for most of the weekend. After I got there I learned that my host mom (aka: my ride) wasn’t going to be going back until Monday afternoon, so we started asking if anyone knew anyone who was headed back into town Sunday night, and I ended up catching a ride with a family friend’s son and his friends… let’s just say my French has never been worse. It was fun though, we plugged in my ipod (“eepud”) to listen to some “American music,” and I told them that yes, it is a myth that everyone in California surfs. Also, I didn’t have my keys, so we had to make sure someone was home waiting for me. When I got there, my host dad opened the door, and asked where I was coming from, and then how I got there, and I …didn’t know! “um… with 3 boys?” Good times. (Names: not important here. At least, not as important when you’re first meeting someone, which is probably part of the reason why starting conversations is so difficult)

My family's 3-story "maison secondaire"

The beach nearby

Yesterday I went to Mont St. Michel and Saint Malo with IES, and it was great even though I’ve been to both of those places before. It was strangely familiar (“I have a picture of myself sitting right there!”) and weird to process that it was now a day trip for me to go there. Some pictures:

Mont St. Michel... oh la la

Saint Malo

Other than that, all my classes have officially started: the university courses will be an adventure, but at least I understand the professors for the most part. My knowledge of history is not really where it needs to be to fully understand what’s happening in the history class, but I’m keeping a running list of things I need to wikipedia;)

Meeting French people is very difficult, and I’ve had a few related adventures (other than the awkward car ride), including, but not limited to: the most painful lunch of my entire life, a very middle-school-dance-esque soirée to meet the students of a nearby engineering school, and a soirée for international students at the university, where it was still next to impossible to start a conversation:

Me: “bonsoir!”
French girls: “bonsoir!”
smiles, silence
French girls: exit, stage left

I was probably there for a couple hours, and I spent the whole evening with 2 people: a German girl I forced myself to go up and talk to, who didn’t seem comfortable with it at first but then stayed with me the whole evening, and a French student who approached me, after seeing me fill out a basic information form, with the opener: “So I see that you speak more than one language!”

Um, hi, I’m a foreign student (complete with yellow bracelet labeling me as such) and I speak French and my native language; the absolute minimum of anyone in the room. But hey, it was something, and we started talking. I'll take what I can get right now:)

Time to start another week-- more updates soon. Hope everyone is doing well:)