wine tasting and scary controleurs... just another day in bordeaux

So, I'm off on my next big trip outside of Bordeaux! My friend Rachelle got in from Korea on Tuesday and I went to meet her at the train station (only I couldn't find her for 1/2 hr, which is next-to-impossible because the Gare St-Jean is super small as far as gares go... Turns out Rachelle was waiting in a Centre d'Acceuil which I didn't know existed). Just to make it clear, Rachelle is my friend from Winnipeg but she's teaching English for another year in Seoul, and for her vacation she came to France to visit me!

So, we've had a few adventures over the last few days, including a run-in with the Tram Police that fortunately ended with Rachelle not getting a ticket despite a super-huge mistake on my part. (it's a long story, but if you ever want to hear it, I can tell it). Today we went to a vineyard for a free tour and a free dégustation of 4 different wines afterwards. It was pretty awesome. Tonight we're heading to bed early so we can get up at 3:30am to get to the train station to catch our 5:52am train ride to Paris. It should be pretty fun. In fact, our whole trip is going to consist of early morning traveling. We're spending 2 nights in Paris and then flying to Krakow to stay for 3 nights. After spending one more night in Paris, Rachelle is heading back to Korea and I'm going to Arles, a city in the south of France, for one night before I head home. It's going to be a pretty fun and but pretty exhausting at the same time. But we'll be in Poland! I'm pumped for that. We're going to try to brush up on our basic Polish before we get there (well, in all reality it won't be brushing up... it'll be learning from scratch), which is exciting for me, because, well, you know me and languages.

So, just a little update in regards to my last posting: things are going better for me in regards to my language use here. Rachelle and I have been speaking French to each other and we've been in lots of situations to practice it (and she even has a franco-manitobain accent, and I'm really proud of myself that I've been able to understand everything she's said so far!). I think that last week I was just in a little bit of a rut and was feeling overwhelmed and just needed to get over it. I guess I'm bound to have some moments like that. Thank you to everyone who've written me encouraging messages in regards to the post (and previous ones, too!). It's helped a lot!

I've attached a few pictures below. I tried to post a little video of me singing in the choir at church last Friday, but I couldn't get it to work, so I guess you'll have to see me singing in French when I get home. The first one is me and Rachelle in front of a random building in Bordeaux. The other two are from the Chateau: I'd like to say that we drank those huge wine bottles we're holding, but they really are just props sitting in the boutique for the purpose of taking pictures. However it is possible to purchase wine in that size... The other one is just funny. If you look closely at the picture beside Rachelle, you may recognize Gerard Depardieu with the proprietor of the vineyard. His expression is priceless. Well that's all for now!

not as easy as i thought

I don't really know what I expected this time in France to be. I knew it was going to be challenging, adapting to a new culture and trying to live my life in French. I guess I just didn't realize how much of a challenge it would be. Every day is somewhat of a struggle to speak French when all I really want to do is to take the easy way out and just speak English, especially when it comes to communicating with my fellow Winnipeggers (but we're trying our best to speak French as much as possible!).

It's pretty frustrating to me to try to formulate sentences, because to do so I'm thinking of what I want to say in English and then translating it in my head and then trying to say everything in the right order in French, while at the same time trying to have a bit of an accent so I don't sound too anglophone. As a result, I speak slowly when trying to tell a story or say several phrases at once, and in the amount of time it takes me to say 3 sentences, I probably could say 6 or even ten if I were speaking English. Also when people talk too fast, I don't understand exactly what they're saying, and that's frustrating too. I have to keep telling myself that it's not that I'm too unintelligent to comprehend, it's just that I don't catch everything, and thats why I don't get the joke. But I can say now that I truly know what it feels like to be a foreigner and will for sure never look at newly-arrived immigrants to Canada in the same way again.

Of course, not everything is hard. I've become an expert at talking about myself, my studies, my country, the weather in Winnipeg, my family, etc., etc. These are the topics I get asked about most often when I meet new people. But it's when I start to try to talk about something else where I stumble. I guess I'm mostly frustrated with the fact that I've already learned a lot of the vocabulary that I seem not to know, and I feel like I should have retained it somewhere in my head in order to use it later. The thing is, I'm also a perfectionist so I can sometimes have unreasonably high expectations for myself and subsequentially am way too hard on myself when it comes to situations like this.

So where does this leave me? Well, alone, for one. I've been spending a lot of time alone lately, doing homework, reading, writing emails and blog posts. Maybe this isn't the healthiest thing for me, but sometimes I just can't help it. I make efforts to hang out with people, but I have a really limited social network here, and we all have different schedules. Maybe something I'm supposed to learn from this time abroad is peace in solitude (well, one of the things at least).

I don't want to scare anyone: I do have friends here, and I do have stuff to do and classes to go to and church to attend (after which I always stay for lunch to talk to people) and potlucks to bring food to, but I just seem to be spending a little more time by myself than I do back home, and maybe that's not an extremely bad thing. Oh well, I guess time will tell. All I know is that I'm not getting a lot of practice speaking the language I came here to learn when I'm by myself. So let's hope that changes soon!

a hard week

So, this week has been a little more difficult than the rest of my time here in France so far. On Wednesday afternoon, I found out via email that one of my good friends, Lisa Klassen, had been in a really serious car accident on Tuesday morning. I read with disbelief the Winnipeg Free Press article about how her car was propelled up a snowbank and over the railing of a bridge, landing upside down on the Red River and cracking the ice with the force of the fall. An off-duty firefighter had been driving behind her at the time and ran down to help, kicking in the window and cutting her free from her seatbelt, then administering CPR until she began to breathe on her own. She is currently in hospital in stable condition. Miraculously, she has no brain damage (despite being under water for almost 5 minutes) and through it all has suffered a broken vertebra and tailbone. She is not in the clear yet, as there is still a chance of infection in her lungs due to the river water remaining, but she has come a long way since Tuesday.

This obviously came as a shock to everyone who knows Lisa and what an amazing person she is. The first day I found out was especially hard since it’s at times like these that you just want to be around people whom you love. That day I experienced homesickness as well as a feeling of helplessness, since there was nothing I could really do. Well, nothing except pray. So that’s what I did. Reflecting on it now, I know that if I were in Winnipeg right now, that’s all I’d be able to do anyway. So I’ve been praying more than I ever have before, and God has answered a lot of my prayers already (and I know there are tons of people back home praying for the exact same things. Oh yeah and if anyone reading this could keep Lisa in their prayers, that would be awesome!). That’s really encouraging. In all, this week has been long and emotionally draining, but through it all my feeling of isolation has disappeared and to take its place is a sense that I’m part of a bigger community of people who love Lisa and who can be spiritually united in purpose and prayer. So that was this week.

Other smaller, normal things continued to happen this week too. I had a few more classes and I started my DEFLE course. I actually found out that I won’t get as much oral practice as I originally thought I’d get from this class, but I think I’ll still stay in it, if only to learn some more vocabulary. In Phonologie, we had a petit contrôle on Thursday, which was basically a quiz on naming phonemes. It was difficult! The prof gave us a little piece of paper with 10 descriptions of phonemes, like consonne occlusive bilabiale sourde, or in English, “voiceless bilabial stop consonant”, and we’d have to write the IPA symbol for it, or [p]. Not only are there upwards of 100 phonemes to describe all the languages of the world, and not only did I spend all week trying to memorize their descriptions en français, but we only had 5 minutes to do the entire test! I think I did OK, but talk about racking my brain for the right symbols!

Other than that, I’ve had the opportunity to experience my first “administrative headache,” as the girls who came last year like to say. I’m supposed to access the texts for my translation class online on this thing called the bureau virtuel, but I just can’t get it to work for me. Why do things have to be so confusing and so hard to navigate here? I’ve tried several times to join the group for my class, just like my prof said (“Ah oui, c’est en ligne, au bureau virtuel.”) Yes, it is just so simple! No, it really isn’t actually. I can’t find my class because half the groups don’t have names or information about them, and once I join a group there’s no option to click on to join in any group activities (one of them theoretically being printing out the necessary documents). So what should have been simple turned out to be difficult, and that just made me frustrated, and then I just gave up. I’m going to try to email or visit the prof in her office on Monday, but I don’t want to look stupid. People here have a tendency to look at you as if you’re stupid if you can’t do something they think should be easy. Oh well, the foreign card may need to be played once again here. This really isn’t as big a deal as it seems to me at this moment, but that’s school for me right now. So other than all this, school is A-OK!

Lent started on Wednesday, and I decided this year to give up speaking English, but I had to attach a whole bunch of clauses, like 1) except when I’m talking to my family or friends back home; 2) except when I don’t know the French word for something; and 3) except when I’m really emotional and just can’t speak French anymore. So, this week was pretty much shot for speaking French around my fellow Winnipeggers and my American friend Danielle who goes to church with me. But amazingly I went out for supper Friday night with the other girls from Winnipeg and we spoke French almost the entire evening. And on Saturday I went to a potluck for my DEFLE class where I got by with speaking French the entire afternoon (it’s especially fun trying to explain the winter weather in Winnipeg to Europeans in French!). I’ve actually met quite a few people here already, which I’m happy about. It’s pretty cool learning about other cultures too. I got to try some different types of food at the potluck, and I in turn made pancakes from scratch for everyone to enjoy (along with some authentic Canadian maple syrup!). I was also really excited when the American girl whose place it was brought out a spinach dip in a bread bowl, a staple at any Canadian/American party. It reminded me of home.

Well, that’s it for this Sunday. I hope to do another post sometime this week, and maybe I’ll post some more pictures. I haven’t taken any in awhile, but I’ll see what I can do. Don’t worry though, there will be tons from my trip coming up in a couple of weeks. Take care and remember to pray for Lisa! Till next time.

choir is fun!

I found out yesterday that I am in Groupe C for the DEFLE evening courses, which means that I can't go back to the jazz workshop :( However, Carly and I went to check out the other choir last night, and this is the one I'm going to join. It was actually really fun-- the instructor is really funny and also really talented, and although she's not super-strict, she does expect us to listen and pay attention. It was especially funny and also a little awkward when I got there, because as I was waiting for Carly to show up, the instructor told everyone to pair up to start the "massages." So a girl came up to me and asked if I wanted to pair up with her, then proceeded to tell me to bend over and let my arms hang loose so she could do some slapping and tapping on my back. Now, I'm getting used to kissing people that I don't know (only on the cheeks: that's the French custom instead of shaking hands), but this was getting just a little too personal. Thankfully, it turned out OK and another girl joined us so that we could do the "massage" on the other girl. And Carly came soon thereafter, and the singing started.

It was cool to be somewhat of a celebrity in the class just because we spoke English. We started this English song called "Peace I Leave with You," which is a verse of the Bible put to music and repeated over and over in harmony. It actually sounds really good once it's all put together, but the only problem is that in the song, every second word has a "th" sound, either voiced or unvoiced, and as you may know, it's very difficult for a French speaker to pronounce this sound. It took me a few minutes to clue in to why when we were supposed to be singing "not as the world giveth," I was hearing "not as the world givess." And later, "neither let it be afraid" became "neizer let it be afred". I couldn't help laughing... and everyone else laughed too when the instructor pointed it out. She asked us English speakers how to properly pronounce it and we all practised sticking out our tongues to make this difficult sound. It was a pretty fun time and I'm excited to go back next Monday.

Whoa, this post is really short compared to my other ones, but I think I needed to give you all a break from the novels I've been writing evey week. So, I'll try to do this more often.

Special shout out to Melissa Moreau, who sent me my first real snail mail item from home! I was so pumped to get your card, even if it was a "Félicitations" card for my "new bundle of joy." Hey, it was in French! That's all that matters. Thanks!

no trips this week

Seeing as this week was a little less eventful than previous weeks have been, this blog post may end up being a little shorter and a little less exciting. But fret not! I promise many more exciting trips to describe in the coming weeks. My trip to Paris and Poland is coming in 2 weeks (I can’t believe how time is flying!), and we Winnipeggers have decided not to take classes on Fridays so we can do longer weekend trips this term. I guess going on trips all the time isn’t technically what my time in France is supposed to consist of, nor is going on trips the only exciting thing that can happen here. There’s school, extracurriculars, and in this blog post I’m planning on talking a bit about the food here. So stay tuned, these exciting topics (and more!) are to follow!

Let’s start with the most thrilling subject: school. Well, for me school has always been something I’ve loved. I don’t think it’s going to be all that different for me in France. I’m not really sure what I expected school to be like here. I was told on good authority that I needed to be prepared for some bureaucratic headaches and disorganized classes. I guess I can’t really judge my overall experience based on 3 days of classes, but so far it’s been OK. The profs seem normal (not sure if I was expecting them to be scary or what), and the classes are just like classes back home, except the students talk a lot more during class (this would not be tolerated at the UofW), but still manage to take crazy amounts of notes, which I don’t entirely get. It’s great that I can try out courses before “registering” (I use quotation marks because you don’t have to pay or fill out any paperwork to join a class), and so far I’ve tried out 6 courses but I’m only going to stay in 2. Next week I’ll be trying out 7 more, and I’m fairly certain I won’t be staying in all of them. Now to anyone who’s ever taken university classes, this may seem like a lot of courses, but keep in mind that each course is only 1, 2, or 3 hours per week, and many courses have 2 or more components, which I count as separate courses because you do different things in each component. This may all seem vague/confusing, and it is. I’m beginning to understand it and if you’d like I can fill you in on an individual basis. For now though, I’m taking a phonology and a translation class. On Monday and Tuesday I’ll be taking linguistic, morphology and syntax classes as well as another translation class. I’m looking forward to these classes but we’ll see how many I actually stay in. It’s ideal for me because my evening course at DEFLE will count for 3 credit hours, and beyond that, I only need 3 more credit hours to graduate, so I’m not worried about taking too many courses while I’m here.

On top of a few courses, I’d like to focus on doing extracurriculars while I’m here, because that’s something I don’t have time to do at home since I work a lot when I’m not in class. I attended a jazz workshop on Thursday night, to see if they needed singers, and I ended up singing along (in English) to a few songs while a group of people played their instruments. It was pretty awesome and I was pushed out of my choral mentality when the guy running it made me and the other new girl from Belgium (who was in the same boat as me, looking for a choir to join) sing bee bop (is that the term?), free style. There’s also a traditional choir on Mondays, and I’d also like to check this out, but on Monday morning I’ll find out what evenings my FSL class will be held, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to go to it. Beyond choir, there’s a pool on campus that has free swim times every day, so I’d like to try to swim at least once or twice a week this term (I even bought a bonnet de bain –swim cap- so I’m ready!). I don’t think it should be too hard to fit that in, because I won’t have any classes Wednesdays or Fridays. There are lots of sports I could join, but the ones that interest me the most is danse contemporaire (hopefully not too interpretive!) and danse “rock n’ roll”, which I’m just curious about. Also if I’m free Tuesday evenings there’s a Canoe-Kayak group that meets at the pool and apparently they go on regular excursions to the ocean and other lakes (and Tarin, maybe I’ll actually learn how to paddle faster in a kayak!). There are also a lot of cultural events around campus and Bordeaux that I’ll be able to attend, which will always be either free or pretty cheap because I’m a student.

On the subject of extracurriculars, there’s my church. Well, this isn’t technically an extracurricular, but it’s something outside of school. I really like the little church I’ve been attending for 4 Sundays now. I’ve met a lot of people there, mostly international students, just by staying for lunch after the service every time. On Friday I went to a soirée for university students where we ate dinner and ended up playing Taboo in French (and I thought it was challenging in English!). On the 15^th there is another soirée but this one is a little more formal and there’s going to be a speaker coming in from Bordeaux. I’m pretty excited for it. I think I can get used to being part of a small church family, even if only temporarily (don’t worry anyone from Soul reading this, I haven’t and won’t forget you!).

If you’ve scrolled ahead to check out the pictures I’ve posted in this post, you may have noticed that they are all of food or food-related subjects. Seeing as I haven’t done too many photo-taking-worthy things this week, I thought I’d talk a little bit about the food here. I really like a lot of the food I’ve eaten in restaurants, but I obviously can’t afford to eat out all of the time. I have bought quite a bit of food though, although I have been limited to buying items that haven’t needed to be refrigerated. That was, until Friday, cuz I bought a frigo, baby! I got it for 45€ from a girl in another village (our residence buildings are grouped into villages), and I don’t need to get into how I actually got it home here, but suffice it to say it was no easy task. So I went to Auchan on Saturday and bought en extension cord and some dairy products and meat and now my frigo is humming happily in the corner of my room, right by the window (little side note: I was telling Laura that my frigo wouldn’t fit in the corner by my sink, and I said, “Donc je l’ai mis par la fenêtre,” which of course made her laugh, because although I intended to say “So I put it by the window,” I actually said “So I threw it out the window,” which was hilarious to picture. Yaay for my first Anglicism blunder!). Oh and Lauren Partridge, did you notice the magnetic poetry on the fridge in the photo?

So to explain the pictures of all the food, I think it’s cool that a lot of things are tiny here. The picture with the little pitcher standing by my water bottle (that maybe holds less than a litre) was taken at the Sirtaki, a restaurant-cafeteria which in fact is the only place on campus where I can get internet reception. The pitchers are available for students to use, and they are the perfect size to fill several tiny glasses with water. People use the short, small glasses at meals rather than tall ones, which either forces one to drink less or refill one’s glass several times during the meal. The milkshake picture was taken chez McDo, and you can guess what that means. It cost 95 centimes and only came in one size: smaller than a small at a Canadian McDonald’s (and don’t get on my case about going to McDonald’s while I’m in France: I was curious to see if the food tastes the same. It does—weird). The third picture is my little kitchen corner that I’m so proud of. The fourth was a product I stumbled upon yesterday at Auchan, and it was so funny I had to buy it. “Langues de chat” translates to “Cat Tongues” which doesn’t sound as elegant as it does in French, but they are pretty good. The last picture again illustrates the size of the products I’ve bought, as well as some interesting finds (Bolognaise isn’t really a flavour I thought I’d find on chips). In France, manufacturers don’t punish you for being single like they do in Canada (I know well how at home it’s cheaper to buy everything in bigger sizes), and I’ve found the produce to be a lot fresher here, too. I still can’t believe how cheap things are here. To give you an idea of the prices, here’s a sample of what I bought yesterday (just multiply these prices by 1.5 to get the Cdn price): 1L milk (0,63€), 15 eggs (1,55€), Munster cheese (1,69€), a 16-pk, yes 16-pk, of yoghurt (2,32€), 1Kg of clementines (1,35€), a 6-pk of Lay’s chips (1,62€). Crazy, huh? The biggest milk I saw was 1,5L and milk and eggs also don’t come refrigerated when you buy them. I gave in yesterday and bought Nutella, so now I guess I’m really European (seriously, the French love their Nutella: it’s one of the only products I’ve seen that comes in a jumbo size!), but after I finish it, I’ll have another little glass to use. Living as a minimalist is challenging but I’m getting used to it.

Well, I guess I still wrote a lot despite my mostly “uneventful” week, but thanks for reading. Till next time!