Day 3- 1/11

Woke up early enough for breakfast this morning, which consisted of French bread slices with jam and butter, applesauce, and hot chocolate in a bowl, because that’s how they drink it here. Went to the bus stop at around 9, but the bus didn’t get there until about 9:15 since it was late. When I got to the centre ville where I was supposed to meet Sylvie and the others to go to the fac (university), I saw no one. Although my bus was late I still got there in enough time for the 9:37 bus that Sylvie said would take us to the fac. I called Sylvie twice and texted her, but it was no good. So when the bus came I asked if it was actually going to the fac just to be sure, and it was. I got on and was a little freaked out that I couldn’t find the group. Then along the way the ticket “controlleurs” got on the bus to check for tickets, which freaked me out because 1. I was never ever expecting to actually see anyone check for tickets and 2. I wasn’t sure if I did the whole stamping the ticket thing right. I heard some girls on the bus speaking French with an accent that obviously wasn’t French so I thought they were American. When we passed part of the university I got off at the “faculté des letters” which is where I knew my test would be. After getting off the bus I asked the girls if they were American. They were actually English, but were going to the same placement test thing I was. I followed them and eventually found the test and my group. I asked where were they and they said they were on the bus, but what actually happened was that there was a leader girl helping Sylvie who saw a group and decided to leave on the bus that left right before mine, and when they got to the fac, that’s when they realized there was someone missing… me. Forgotten again. Whatever. The test was actually pretty easy. Before it started, I thought I didn’t have a pen and I asked the prof if they had one and she looked at me like I was an idiot, but fortunately I found one in my purse. Apparently the French never use pencil on tests, either, because someone said they only had a pencil and the prof was practically astounded. The test was just a picture of two women, Madame so and so and Madame such and such, and we had to describe each of their backgrounds, how they met each other and are friends, and because they were old, we had to explain why old people are important in society (all in so x-amount of sentences). Then we had a little oral exam interview where I went in and a lady asked me things like how long I’ve been studying French and what I study at the university in the US and what I did the last time I was in France, etc. It was easy. So I think I’ll score pretty high. Then I waited for the other American girls in my group to finish doing the same thing and we went looking for lunch. We eventually did find the “Restaurant Universitaire” and had an amazing meal for under 3 euros. Then we went back to around where Sylvie’s office was and hung out until about 1:30 when she talked to us about home stays, finances, classes etc. and two women from Le Credit Lyonnais (the French bank where we’ll have our accounts) to help us sign papers and open our accounts. It was confusing and had hardly any idea what I was signing. After that was finished, the girls and I found the bus back to the centre ville (downtown) where we got more bus tickets and passes. Here's some pictures of L’hôtel de ville (city all) and the surroundings. Unfortunately I have to upload them all to here because my Internet isn't accessing the Picasa website correctly.









Then we decided we’ll meet tomorrow in front of the hotel de ville (city hall) where we’ll do some shopping, because in France there are sales in the stores only twice a year, and now is one sale. I caught the bus back to L’espace Kennnedy and went to Carrefour (a supermarket) and got some things for dinner. Around 7:00 my friend Caroline who’s studying here for a year and whom I’ve known since high school and go to the UO with, came to visit me and fill me in on what’s going on from the perspective of someone who’s been here a while.

more pictures here

Day 2- 1/10

Slept in today which felt amazing, after a pretty good night’s sleep after taking some sleeping pills to really help my sleeping schedule adjust. I ended up missing breakfast. Yesterday I got so much information thrown at me, all I could remember about breakfast was that it had something to do with 10:00. I couldn’t remember if that meant it started or ended at 10:00. I figured that since it was the weekend that it would begin at 10:00, but it turns out it ended at 10:00. So I bought breakfast from the vending machine, which wasn’t too bad. I called my parents after I received a message saying they wanted me to call them then I fell back asleep for about an hour. I took a shower and right after one of the other American girls here knocked on my door saying that she and her sister were having lunch soon and that I could join them if I wanted, and I did. After that we took the bus downtown to a café with free internet access. This really helped me to see where I have to be tomorrow when I meet Sylvie to go to the university to take my test. I didn’t take my computer to the café because I learned that on Tuesday some manager or someone will be here to provide me with the username and password for wifi. I don’t really understand why the people at the front desk don’t have it, but I don’t want to ask. At the café I just used my phone to check facebook and send emails. It was dark on our way back to the bus stop and all the lights from Christmas were lit. That was really cool to see, and I’m sad that they will probably be taken down in a few days.


When we got back to the hostel I went across the street to see if I could get pizza for dinner but they only sold whole pizzas and the place next door only had desserts and no sandwiches at that time. Everything else was closed. On Sunday either stores aren’t open or those that are are only open until 6 or so in France. But the two American girls had leftover stuff from lunch and we ate dinner together in one of their rooms. I didn’t mind. I was just hungry. Then we started to watch a movie, but I realized it was getting late so I left and tried to get on a computer in the computer lab but as I said before, I have to wait until Tuesday to get the codes to use the internet. I bought dessert from the vending machine and went back to my room. Now I think I’ll go to bed soon because I need to get up rather early tomorrow for my test. I hope I do well.

more pictures here

Day 1- 1/9

1/9
The flight to Paris was ok. About 7 hours, and like the first I feel asleep off and on. Can’t stay asleep too long before the position you’re in starts to hurt when you’re scrunched up in coach or a baby starts to scream. I was impressed by the in-flight entertainment. Now they have a pretty good selection of movies, tv shows, and music you can choose to watch or listen to when you want to. They had about 4 movies I hadn’t seen but wanted to. And I could have, but my earbuds were buried somewhere in the depths of my huge “personal item” and nowadays they charge you $5 or 4 euros for a headset. I only had $4 and I thought 4 euros was a rip off. So I just slept a majority of the time.

When we landed in Paris, I discovered it’s snowy here and so cold. For the first time in my life I got to see those tiny kinds of snowflakes that have designs in them when they landed on my window, which was cool since I could see them up close. We got off the plane and did the usual go through passport control sheep-heard style and picked up luggage.
I’m so glad mine got there ok. I would have been so screwed if I didn’t have it. Then I kinda sat there for a few minutes wondering how to get to Aerogare 2, which is where the train station is. So I asked, and it all came back to me pretty quickly about how the airport is set up. It’s actually quite a ways away, but that’s why there’s a shuttle train. I get to the train station and immediately remember the joys of hauling 100+ lbs. of luggage onto escalators and up and down stairs. When I got to up where tickets were being sold, they were being sold either by machines or at counters, but I didn’t know which to do so I called Sylvie, and stood for I don’t remember how long in the line for the people at the counters, because I needed to buy a student discount train pass too. Speaking of which, I had to use the other 1 of my 2 passport photos I used for my visa, which has to be the absolute WORST picture taken of my of all time. Wouldn’t have used it, but I had misplaced the 6 sets of actually good passport pictures somewhere in my suitcases and wasn’t about to go digging through them when I had that ugly picture handy. When you get documents made in France that have your picture on them, you generally need to provide them with the picture unlike the US where we take it on the spot usually. Had that been the case, or if I had had the good pictures where I could get to them, I would have had no problems. But it’s impossible to me to be that organized of course. I get my ticket and there’s no platform printed on it, so I didn’t know where to go. That’s when it’s so fun to get in line for the information desk for one simple question. Basically you don’t know where your train’s going to be until about 15 minutes before it arrives. OK…. So in the meantime I got my first sandwich on baguette at a café place in the train station. Ham and Gruyere was the cheese I think, and it tasted like long-forgotten heaven. I also forgot how even though you’re hardly wearing make-up, are dirty, and stink, French guys will still manage to call you “belle fille”. That’s one good thing about today... the one and only time I’m glad the French as a culture don’t care that much about BO after I’ve been travelling for nearly 24 hours and neeeeddd a shower. I didn’t feel so bad about it.
I’m going to the train and this French guy comes up to me and asks me something like if the train that was coming to the platform I was going to was going to a certain city or whatnot. I felt bad that I really couldn’t help him. Speaking French for now makes me feel like a child that can’t express much. That will get better with time though. Waiting outside for the train to come while my toes froze. I couldn’t believe how cold it is. When I think of France I wrongfully always think of warm since every time I’ve been here in the past it was summer. The train ride was really relaxing. The TGV is so smooth and quiet with comfy seats and a much better allowance of legroom than a plane by far. This is a picture from the train. I got off at Poitiers, and when I got off the train, a man offered to help me with my luggage, and I also thought at the time he might have tried to find out where I was going, and I said non merci (because I’ve seen “Taken”) and I think he looked at me a little funny and walked away. Then I realized why. There was 2 flights of stairs ahead of me before I could actually get from the platform to the train station, one down under the tracks, and one up into the station. Ugh. That was fun. But I found Sylvie and her husband and at almost the exact same time I ran into this brat kid from OSU who’s here to study abroad too who I met at the orientation in November and the whole time did nothing but complain about how he was going to miss the football game in Corvallis that day because he was at the orientation. I don’t like him and hopefully after we take our language evaluation tests, I’ll whip his butt at it, we won’t have the same classes, and I’ll never have to see him again. I doubt that last part though. They took the two of us in their car and pointed stuff out about the town to us as they took me to the Espace Kennedy, where I’ll be living for the next week. Here's pictures of my room. Sylvie brought me in, made sure I understood, and left. There’s a lot of information to digest (in French too), but fortunately she gave me an envelope with all the info. So now I’m here in my room and feeling a little lonely, although Sylvie introduced me to some American girls who are a couple floors down from me. I might go say hi again to them tomorrow, especially since one of them has been here for a while and could really give me some good information. I didn’t go out once I got here because it got dark so fast and I’m super tired. I’m just trying to stay awake until sort-of bedtime so I can maybe get my sleeping schedule adjusted. Luckily tomorrow I have nothing going on. Everything starts on Monday, so tomorrow I can relax, do a little shopping for things like toilet paper (there’s none in the room) and such. And take pictures of course.

more pictures here

Limited Internet Access

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blog. But I had to wait until tuesday to talk to the multimedia guy here to get my computer configured for the internet, and then when i finally did last night, I messed something up and then I couldn't get back online. I've been going out and doing stuff every day since I've been here (as you will read) but I plan to update the blog tonight/tomorrow with entries and pictures. I would now but I need to be somewhere at 8. My friends and I are having a cake and wine party :)

Kinda sorta half way there

Now I'm in Philadelphia and have about an hour and a half before my plane begins to board. The last flight from Seattle seemed longer than I was expecting. Fortunately I was so I tired that I slept off and on a majority of the flight. We didn't leave Salem until about 10:45 last night and arrived in Seattle at around 2:30. I work up at 5:15, and as usual it was a fiasco getting out of the hotel room and to the shuttle. I also forgot to lock my checked suitcase. It's not like there's anything in there really worth stealing, but with my luck... It was harder than anticipated saying goodbye to my parents, but I'm glad for my little stuffed Ty beanie baby that resembles my cat that they gave me. My seating arrangement was nice because there was no one in the seat between me aisle seat and the guy sitting next to the window seat. Along the way the flight attendant asked of there was a medical professional on the plane. I didn't know what was going on but I assumed if someone needed medical attention it was going to be someone old having a stroke or something. But it was weird because when we landed some medical guys boarded the plane and escorted off a girl who looked about my age. So I don't know.

Random thought but: I'm in Philadelphia and you'd think there'd be a bunch of cheesecake places in the airport, but I haven't seen any and I'm bummed. I'd be all over that, despite my refusal to eat a cheesesteak for dinner because of too many calories before sitting of my butt for 7 hours. Yeah I know it makes a lot of sense.

Not looking too forward to the next flight. Hopefully everyone, including all the little kids running free in the aisles, will pretty much fall alseep after a few hours. And then there's getting there and hauling 100 pounds of luggage (not even kidding) though CDG to the trainstation, onto, in, and off of the train and to wherever I'm living in Poitiers. I guess it just have to take it as a workout.

I couldn't resist... this is my cat. He is French.

Freak-out mode is nearly reached

For almost two years I've loathed this moment. This is the last night I get to sleep in my own bed. My cat seems to know I'm going away for how love-y he's been since I've been home from seeing Luke in Eugene. Saying goodbye to him wasn't the easiest either. I still have about a million things to do before leaving for Seattle, where I'm taking off from. As of now both my suitcases are empty. I don't feel prepared at all. I guess one thing that has eased a little bit of my stress is that I actually know where I'll be going to sleep at night (a whole four days before leaving) and it's actually the place I wanted to live. Right now I wouldn't recommend this experience to anyone. I know I won't be saying this in 5 months, but up until now, actually up until I finally unpack my stuff in the place I will be "permanently" residing, this whole thing as been the biggest pain. But I just need to keep reminding myself that I'm going to FRANCE and I'm sure I'll be a lot happier about this whole thing once I'm there, or I'd better be at least. One shall see. I'll be trying to put up posts as I travel, but if I don't, there'll be one whopping post by the time I get there and settled down. Travel can give you a lot to talk about.