time to go to france

1. This is really late. I had no time to do it.
2. It was all going to be a picture post, but I stopped beacuse... (see 1.) My pictures are all here and captioned: http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r73/natalouise01/
3. If you're not Nancy Trenthem, this is going to be kind of boring so you might want to skim.

In general, this vacation was amazing. I had wanted to go with a big group of girls to Italy but it didn't work out, so it was just Andrew and me the whole time. This turned out great because we had so much fun together. We both wanted to do more or less all the same things, we both wanted to spend as little money as possible, and we were never grumpy or got sick of each other because we slept in... almost every day haha. Oh, it was grand. It was great to get out of France!

Here's what went down...






Coming soon, The Chateaux of the Loire!
Those pictures are already in my album.

Oh yeah, to keep you entertained while I write about Italy... and while I'm griping about the French, I never reported about my bike accident a few days ago! It wasn't serious it was just frustrating because of the circumstances. I basically got hit by a bus. You know how Europeans drive in the movies? That's not just in the movies. And the buses do it too. I noticed from the minute we landed in the Paris airport and the shuttle (standing room only!) was speeding around barely missing the other shuttles, swerving and knocking everyone around. I find this funny when I'm on a bus, but when I'm on my bike and it's herdling towards me, not so much. I had to throw myself off to avoid it and I cut my hand and foot. My wrist just now stopped hurting. The light broke off of my bike but I'm not paying for it because its the bus company that rents out the bikes! Hmph!!

Today I went in my room just for a second to change into my robe before going back into the hall to go take a shower. Right when I closed the door and slipped off my clothes, someone knocked loudly on my door. Before I could answer, she yelled that I had left my keys in the door and started to open the door. I quickly pushed it shut and said I knew I had left them there and to hold on. She kept pushing. I pushed back. I found this very bizarre and yelled "please stop" and hit the door really hard as you would if you were trying to scare away a dog or something. It worked. They're getting on my nerves, man.



Anyway, just posting to say I finished posting all of my pictures. There're out of order because Photobucket is stupid and that bothers me, but they're there. All the February albums are updated. Read the captions or check back here later this week beacuse I'm going to post what we saw and some little stories, etc.

http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r73/natalouise01/

I'm hooooooome. Oh how I missed my little Angers! But oh how I wish I could have stayed in Italy forever. Hmph. Everything was fabulous! Picture post in the works. Sooooo much to do though. Rarr.

Mon, Feb. 12

There are good days and bad days here. Examples:

Yesterday was a good day. Andrew and I planned to ride our bikes downtown just to search for some food since we weren't able to go to the store before it closed Saturday for the weekend. But in addition to eating at a cutesy panasian restaurant (makes you feel at like you're back home, really) we stayed on the bikes all afternoon long exploring Parc Balzac. We had been to this park before but it looked like a whole new place because it was mostly flooded. The city does this on purpose as an experiment with marsh life or something. It was strangely pretty and extremely calming. We spent some time by the river as well. We love our city. It seems like we're the only foreigners we know here that really explore it like that. Pictures next week because I have to spend all of my free internet time this week planning my February break! (Ha, I get three Spring breaks and you don't!)

Today was a bad day. It started quite nice. It is my free day so I had a whole list of things to do. I woke up, ate, and set out to the store to do a little shopping before going to the wireless area to plan our first grand voyage. However, before I could get to the store, an ATM ate my bank card. The bank card that I needed to make reservations online today for my trip on ... Saturday. Then I had to run around downtown (with Andrew because he's the nicest person ever) trying to figure out how to get it back. That wasn't so successful since the bank is closed on Monday. (Haha, I bet you think I'm kidding. Nope.) So that took a lot of time, and so did trying to find someplace I could get on the internet. Always a chore. So now here I am with only an hour of internet time to plan my trip. And this being France, who knows when and if I will ever get my ATM card back.

But let's talk about my trip! I wanted to travel with big groups but I couldn't really get in on anyone's February trips even though we know many different groups of people. But I wanted to travel while I'm here so I just planned a trip for Andrew and me. Maybe next time, you know? Anyway we're going to Brussels, Florence, and Venice. I know that's a little random, and I hate to skip Rome, but I planned this backwards. I wanted to meet some girls in Venice, the cheapest way to get to Italy was from Brussels to Florence. Oh and since we have to go to Paris to go anywhere else in Europe, we're spending two days there as well - one day coming in and one day goign out. It was all pretty cheap. Hopefully that will be a handful of good days! Oh yeah and if you would like to tell me what to do or see in these places, go for it, because I have no idea what I'm doing haha.

It's St Valentin! hinthint Hopefully I will get another crusty red riding hood crepe. MMMM.

OH YEAH and I saw from my window the most disturbing thing I have ever seen in France today. There was a little girl walking with a cat on a leash. Cats shouldn't go on leashes, I thought, but what a cute kitty! Then I realized she was dragging it. Booo. It sat down and refused to move as she strangled it with the leash. A few minutes later I saw her chasing the cat that had somehow gotten free of the leash. Go kitty! It hid under a car and she bent over and dragged it out by its neck. !!!!! Then she rolled it over, reached her hand back and started smacking it. I opened the window and yelled at her but she didn't hear me. Yah, that's how upset I was. She just picked it up by its paws and dragged it away. She is freaking lucky her mom had cruelly declawed it. Yeah, they love dogs here. Not so much cats.

Ok so we have this friend Olivier who actually enjoys having Andrew and hopefully me around even though our french is slow. He has some slow english himself! Anyway we met him in some our classes (the big scary lit class where the professor speaks as fast as humanly possible and I sleep on my hand) and started eating lunch with him and his friends. He's pretty much a cutie. Yesterday at lunch we were talking about the differences in our cultures as usual (Andrew: "You eat fries with your hands, stupid!") when I asked him to confirm the horrible rumor I heard that all papers in France must be handwritten. He said yes of course and Andrew and I went on and on about how helpful a word processor can be with speed and reorganizing paragraphs etc etc etc - you all know this. Then he tore us apart telling us that with typing you don't have to think about spelling and grammar or the order of your thoughts, and that's lazy, and with writing you can think about your paper all at once. We argued that writing just took way too long and he told us that writing your work is "very french" and "romantic" because handwriting is very personal. I just thought that was kind of cool. But I'm afraid once you begin writing your papers in Word, it's very hard to go back. Anyway he's a cool little french guy. He actually invited us to a party he was throwing last night. Except when we got there it turned out to be a small, intimate get together with about 7 people. Plus he made dinner himself - gratin (which is basically buttery potatoes drowning in melting french cheese haha). So um, that was a nice gesture, no? We're long-lifers, I can feel it already.

We rented bikes today. This system is amazing. European cities don't sprawl and the government hates cars, so they basically just give out bikes for free. I can have it for as long as I like as long as I bring it by once every 3 months. I love you, Angers! Turns out the bike ride downtown is faster than the bus ride.

The private school teachers of Angers are totally on strike or something. There was a huge protest taking up the main road in the city and the policemen were clearing the streets for them. Oh, France! You place no policemen in the tourist areas of Paris to keep people from getting ripped off AHEM but you help the rowdy teachers org (who probably get paid 5 times more than those in the States) hold up all the buses. OH WELL, I have a bike!!

So let me just say real quickly that we went to Paris on Sunday on a bus with a bunch of French English students (including Olivier) for Andrew's birthday and it was awesome, duh. We only had a few hours to run around because we were actually there to see a play (en anglais) which was not very good anyway, but entertaining. We took a stroll down Champs Elysee then I took him to Montmartre because he had never been. I HATE STREET ARTISTS WHO TIE STRINGS AROUND YOUR FINGER AND DON'T LET GO. Oh, sorry, what? Anyway, we ate cheesy hotdogs in the park and then climbed up the dome of Sacre Coeur even though we had absolutely no time to do that. So really, we ran, and my legs still hurt. Worth it! Yeah, so Paris is huge. The metro takes 30 minutes to cross half the city. Needless to say, we were a little late to the play! One thing I noticed about Paris after spending so much time in Angers - everything is HUGE there. The beauty of Angers is in the little streets and timber houses. The only big thing is the chateau, and the cathedral is pretty tall. But in Paris everywhere you walk there is something HUGE and GORGEOUS and usually gold. It's ridiculous! I had no idea I would be so overwhelmed my second time in Paris after already having lived in France for a few weeks.

So Andrew and I are worried that our eyes have adjusted to all the pretty here. (See above paragraph: "the cathedral is pretty tall") It's like... Oh look, it's another big church. Yeah, that house looks old. Probably only from the 12th century though. How tall do you think that fountain is? Eh, I've seen bigger. I like home alright, but it might be a little boring walking around and not seeing my cathedral every day! I'll worry about that later though!
I am still loving it here. It doesn't matter where you travel, I'm sure the sentiment is the same. I've gotten to the point where I have a set schedule. I go to the store to get my bread, I walk to class, I do my laundry. These things are boring in your own culture, but everything is constantly interesting here. It's interesting because I'm learning something new everyday. Or maybe every minute haha. Not just new french words, but new things about the culture and all of that. Eavesdropping on conversations at the market, watching people, etc is never boring (especially when they dress so funny). You just look at the whole world and how you fit in it differently and I'm really appreciating that experience. Yup yup yup.

I've had my dose of culture for the day, so I'm going to go catch up on Gilmore Girls on youtube then check out some region 2 DVDs rented free from the library. I think some American girls are going to make us dinner. So that's life tonight.

Yeah so I decided I didn't like blogging because I feel like I'm always having to play catchup. So forget catching up. Just go look at my pictures from the last few weeks! That is something I will be able to keep up to date better. There's different folders for January and February.


http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r73/natalouise01/

I'll start over with this week tomorrow.

So today it FINALLY stopped raining...
because it started snowing. A lot. Yes, it snows in "the garden of France" - I had no idea. Basically, I'm studying abroad in Narnia right now, which is interesting since it was just 3 days ago that I was frolicking around in a park petting guinea pigs (more on that later). So it's just like I never left home!

I went to a million courses today. I have yet to find a single course I want to take here at this sucky school. Sucky school, awesome city - what can you do? I think the only credits I can get are 2 french electives and that is bad, bad news for my perfectly sculpted 4 year plan. But you know what? The French way of life has already made me more laid back. What can you do? C'est la vie. Whatever, man. I still wake up everyday and think it's amazing I'm in a different country. So I think I have the correct attitude about everything, and that was one of the main things I worried about from the start. Yay.

I didn't have much to say... I just thought I'd stop by the computer lab and brag about the pretty snow. ONE DAY I will upload all my pictures. I really do not wish to email them to myself as that would take forever. I'm waiting for the wireless hotspot to be repaired so I can actually use the internet from Max, my precious laptop. The signal stopped working about when I arrived here. Processes don't go very quickly here in France, which is the number one thing you must understand to live here. Oh yeah, and that deodorant comes in liquid rolly-ball form.

- I found a common trend: black and brown together. At first I thought it just stood out to me because it's ugly, but then I realized they all do it. Navy sweater, black pants, brown knee boots. This is the style, man. I stand out in my hot pink, bright greens and yellows (not to mention Tennessee orange), let me tell you.
- We went to a party for the international club in the basement of a bar. French people dance like the straightest white boy at a middle school dance. Met some friends. Most are Americans though. When the room was practically line dancing to Beyonce's Crazy In Love, we showed them how to dance with zee booty. We have great contributions for the French culture, haha.
- Hamburgers come in pitas. Not bad though. The combination of ingredients is hard to mess up.
- Ketchup is delicious.

The classes here only meet one time per week here, so some are only 1 hour courses. I guess I can say bye bye to UT credit since I would have to combine 3 extremely similar classes in order to get credit. That's hard! So yah have fun with your homework for 5 classes while I'm working on my 10-12!! And they don't really have political science except for this one: Political and Social History of Contemporary France. C'est parfait pour moi!

Here's how we have to choose classes:
We received schedules but the schedules only say, for example, "comparative literature" in several places at different levels. There is no course catalog, so we have no way of knowing what the subject of the class is. We were told for the first 2 weeks we need to actually attend as many classes as possible to find out the subject and difficulty of the class. Does that not sound insane? Why can't they just tell me hahaha... or I don't know, put it on the internet? Fat chance! So I have a busy week ahead of me. No more fun castles or cathedrals or internetz for a while.
Later!

- I found a vegetable I don't like: endives. All the cheese melted on top does not hide the green slime. I can clearly see it. You cannot fool me, lunch lady!
- French men: please wear deodorant. You make me frown on the bus.
- Goth is back with a vengeance in Angers. This amuses Frances and me.
- But really, individual style is so much more individual here than in America. These young kids are all over the place. I can't pick up on any trends because no one is dressed anything like anyone else. It's quite refreshing to see guys wearing more than 2 varieties of shirts as accepted on college campuses at home. No wonder they like people watching!
- I know it must never get colder than it is now (45 and rainy) because everyone is bundled up like I would be if I were going to sit outside in 10 degree weather for 3 hours. This is good. All this rain sucks though.


JESSICA I did receive your voicemail and yes you are obviously the best friend ever since only my mom and sister have used this service thusfar. Even if you spent 3/4 of the message talking about how you were the best friend ever, hahaha. <3

Will add more pictures later.

JANUARY 13

Travel day (Friday-Saturday) was tough. Andrew and I couldn't sleep on the plane and that ruined Saturday for us. When we landed at Charles de Gaulle we couldn't even talk to each other we were so grumpy. We had about 3 hours before catching our train to Angers so we dragged everything we brought to live for 5 months all over the airport. We found a café with seats (very important) and bought baguette sandwiches and un petit verre de vin. Yay! Unfortunately we were too grumpy to remember to toast to the fact we were in France.
The scenery wasn't too impressive on the train ride... until we began getting closer to the Loire valley. Shabby, modern Paris suburbs turned into gorgeous little towns over rivers with beautiful bridges and cathedrals. That's when I woke up and got excited about catching the first glimpse of our city! The professor of English here came to meet us at the train station. I looked like a kid on Christmas morning when we stepped out of the train station - I didn't expect the city to be this big. This was my first glimpse of Angers:
( Read more... )
He drove us in the sceneic route - or perhaps every route would have been scenic - right by the medieval fortress by the river. He showed us around our dorm along with the woman who works at the front desk. I understood their French very well, which made me feel better because there was a guy at customs who upset me because I didn't understand him... he laughed at me. :( We went to the university market for some bread and cheese (two 2-foot long baguettes with 2 packages of the most delicious cheese was 1.20 euro together and it lasted for 2 breakfasts, a snack, and a dinner for andrew haha) and I got a frozen dinner (much healthier than American frozen dinners...). The bottles of wine at our grocery are 2-4 euros haha. We were so exhausted that we weren't exactly happy to be here. Everything bothered us and I knew that if we just got some sleep we would feel better about everything in the morning, but somehow we kept getting caught up with others in the building. We wanted to call home but we couldn't work the public phone so the desk lady and random people kept trying to help us with it even after we had given up to sleep. When you haven't slept for that long, realizing that there is no phone or no internet and you can't even talk to your mommy and daddy is really the last straw, haha. I lost the ability to understand everyone's french and to sit down without drifting off to sleep.
Needless to say, we felt great the next morning at 10:30!



JANUARY 14

The morning was much better. We knew everything was closed Sunday so I took my Michelin guide and set out for downtown for a self-guided tour. We walked 40 minutes because we weren't sure of the bus sitation on Sundays. There is a bike trail from campus to downtown that goes through residential areas and ends in a park by the river. It was sunny (the only sunny day so far) and everyone was out taking family walks with their dogs (sooooooo many dogs). We explored le chateaux d'angers, which is the medieval fortress, and the famous apocalypse tapestries inside (oldest remaining tapestries of its size, its size being the perimeter of an entire building). Inside the walls there's a small chapel which Andrew loved, the royals' residence, and crazy gardens. It was all so ancient and eerie. We stood over the grating where they would pour boiling water on intruders, ducked through short-people doorways, climbed up the winding (and crumbling!) towers, and watched kids pretend to shoot arrows out from the cracks in the walls. They seemed to be growing some wine in one of the gardens.. Not sure how well it would grow there but Good King René had it made let me tell you. We meandered through the fortified Old City to Angers' grandest cathedral - Cathédrale St. Maurice. It's so tall you can see it from almost anywhere in town. This church was just as fabulous as Notre Dame de Paris inside. Loved it. It's huge - the ceiling is in the sky. The organ pipes are ridiculously huge and appear to be held up by four giant angels carved in wood. The rose windows were my favorite part. Guide Michelin says the reds and blues are some of the most vivid in such a cathedral. I took the most perfect picture! Sick of typing, see for yourself:
Oh yeah, on the way downtown we had found a cafeteria-style restaurant in a tiny neighborhood that was actually OPEN! We ate lunch there and came back for dinner too in fear that we would not be able to find food ever again. It was cute because everyone seemed to know each other. Frenchmen can be so jolly. "bonJOUR monsieur tarnaud et les enfants! voulez-vous des moules?! ah bon? ho ho oui oui au revoir merci!"
I love European cities. Each neighborhood has its own pharmacy, dentist, doctor, vet, chapel, soccer field, movie theatre or billiard hall... Cute cute cute. I've got French social security ($250, ya'll!! *end britney impersonation*) so I'm a French citizen now, basically. Temporarily. I already know I'll hate to leave.




JANUARY 17

Monday through Wednesday was all business. Dorm forms, opening a bank account, getting bus passes, and running all around town exchanging proofs of everything. They love paperwork here and you've gotta do everything in person. I'm going to get sooo much exercise! The cafeteria is usually overcrowded but not bad! I know the French are famous for their cuisine, but their equivalent of our "home cooked meal" style is not what I expected. They eat some pretty weird food and combinations of food, I must say. Different, not bad. Though we have learned an important lesson as foreigners accustomed to an American diet: don't choose a dish if you can't tell what it is from looking or if you can't translate the name--the risk is not worth it when you only get one plate! But everything I've tried has been really quite good.

We've met some American students, but I want to hang out with foreigners. They have an international club that I'm going to join, haha. It will be bizarre to be on the other end of that spectrum...
Squishy comment: Apart from the grumpy travel day, Andrew and I have loved loved loved doing absolutely everything together. In love in France, oh là là! :)

We love our bus passes. Totally worth the price. Hop on, hop off, random adventure, go! Our friend from UT arrived and we wanted to go out for coffee but every store and café closes at 8 (even our grocery, my god, I will never adjust to that. I will surely go hungry one night.)! So we took the bus downtown near the train station because we're smart like that. My café crème at the café was exactly to my (extremely picky) espresso tastes. Perfect. After strolling around some more we found crème brûlée on an outdoor menu and we just had to try a legit crème brûlée, ooooof course. It was also perfect. Oh so perfect. Long live "the honeymoon stage," as they call it.


I uploaded like 15 pictures randomly until I can do more. Go look !
http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r73/natalouise01/

I wanted to explore more today, but THIS is no fun... so I now have time to post entries!
Until I can find a way to get online on my laptop, I can't easily upload pictures but I'll try for a few now and add more later.

Oh, sorry, I forgot to say something important:

EVERYTHING ELSE IS AWESOME. I'm loving it. The city is a lot bigger than I thought. It's like Paris without the major international city buzz (nooooo one speaks English) and the millions of tourists. Perfect. In fact I have not seen one tourist, but it is January. Maybe you should come be one!!

I've written down some entries in a journal and I've taken hundreds of pictures, but I don't have time to post them today because the internet shuts down in 20 minutes. I'll try to get it all in tomorrow... we'll see.

I am alive, sorry. Let me explain.

The internet situation: BAD.
It has been 5 days and I'm still not on it. I will post this when I can, along with all my other posts and emails saved to notepad.

Day 1:
- Upon arrival I am told I can't access the internet from my dorm. Sad, but I had expected it. I am extremely tired and can't get my phone card to work. I'm emotional and upset that I can't tell my parents I'm here ok.
Day 2:
- It is Sunday. Tout est fermé - everything is closed.
Day 3:
- I find out that I can pick up wireless at the library after I receive my student ID number. I find that I will not get my ID number until after I run around the city with papers for 2 days.
- I find a small computer lab next door. Connection is very slow, but I actually check my email for 20 minutes!!!
Day 4:
- I return to the lab next door but the internet is too slow to load any webpages. I try all 6 in the lab. Nada.
- I receive my student ID number and joyfully run off to the wireless hot spot. I find out that I need to get online to sign up before I can get online. Ha!
- I return again to the lab next door to my dorm to sign up but alas, it has closed. I see that it is open at night from 8-10 but Tuesday is unfortunately the only day these night hours do not apply.
- I find yet another computer lab in a library that will not let me use internet explorer without the login that I need to get online to get.
- I find a computer in this lab that someone has left logged in. I joyfully enter my student ID number and click the button to receive my magical login and... oh... it says the number is not recognized. I suppose it will take a few days for them to "get me into their system" which is how everything works in France.
Day 5:
- I get my login! Hooray!
- I go to the wireless hotspot (3 tables in a hallway - this is the ONLY hotspot)
- THE INTERNET ISN'T WORKING. It was working here yesterday before I had my login. I decide this is all a sick joke.

Thanks for letting me share my frustration! C'est la vie!

I don't care to spend hours on livejournal and facebook since I have plenty to do here, I just want to contact my mommy and talk to my friends and, I don't know, check my email once or twice a week. Phone cards are expensive.




Edit: I'm finally on, clearly. Not on my laptop though... I never have been. Wireless is down today - lucky me. I can only use it in the library 10 minutes from my room and wireless shuts off at 7 pm. Of course I have been busy exploring and with errands - soon with classes - so after 7 is the only time I have free to use the internet. OH WELL. So I guess I can't use this journal but once a week if even. Too much hassle as you can see. I will try to check email daily but waahhhh I dont want to. What time I've wasted. No wonder they dislike technology here.

Just FYI because I have this free service with my intl phone card --

To leave me a message for free while I'm away:
Dial this access number:
1-888-579-0208
Press 2
Enter my account number:
7211222303919
Press #
And leave me a message.

My email address is still nata@ utk.edu and I will check that as often as possible.

I think this will be my blog for when I'm in France. I'll post adventures and a few pictures - you know the drill.
This might not work out though because I don't know how easy it will be for me to get on the internet, how much free time I'll have, or how much I'll actually want to keep up with this while I'm there. But go ahead and bookmark it!

Oh yeah, and I realize this layout makes it look like I'm going to Nice (or Florida..), but what can you do. I wanted a travel theme!