Loose Change

This weekend I went to take my wallet out of my purse and realized it was awfully heavy. Nice problem to have huh? Problem was that it was all change. Being in the American mindset I though, well I'm just going to take the change out, it won't be a big sum of money. When I started emptying the change purse though I came up with 17 euro. Holy. See the thing is here that change really does amount to a lot because they have those sneaky little pieces that are worth 1 and 2 euro respectively. In fact, they just have more pieces of money that look all the same. Ok not all of them, but when I am searching for a 10, 20 or 50 cent piece they all look the same. And the smaller coins are all the same color too. Here look for yourself.

I thought maybe after 3 months of living here that I would eventually be able to find the correct change I needed quickly without having to look at each piece, but no, I still stand like an idiot in line turning each piece over to see what it is before I can give it to the cashier.

Our recycling efforts

Saturday night my roommate and I went to a party and when we left we offered to take some of the empty glass bottles with us. To recycle glass here, one has to take the bottles to a depository that looks like this:

We had a bag full of wine and beer bottles. When I got to the depository I started taking them out one by one and putting them in the container. Only went I had dropped the first one and it made a horrible crashing sound did I remember it was 3:15am and the poor people who live around this thing were probably not thrilled with my recycling efforts at that time. Did I stop? No, because the bag was heavy and I didn't want to take it all the way home, so I deposited the rest all at one time making the worst crash ever, but it was a quick one and hopefully everyone got back to sleep easily.

Palm Sunday

Like a good Catholic I went to church on Palm Sunday. Nevermind that I haven't been since Christmas Eve, I have been wanting to go to the cathedral here because it is beautiful. Here are some thoughts from mass:

- When I went into church there was a lady outside with the "palms". I wasn't sure if she was selling them or giving them away, so I avoided her. What I did realize once I got into church was that they weren't palms at all. This is what they looked like.

Ok I know the picture is bad but I had to take it covertly so I didn't look like a weirdo.

-I kept my coat on the whole time, turns out heating a massive building isn't in the budget.

- I apparently have either forgotten the 28 years of Catholicism that has been in my head or I had too much going on in my head trying to translate the French to remember how to say the prayers in English in my head. I had a moment of, do I really not know the words to the Lord's Prayer? I think it was just the French overload.

- We didn't really sing any songs. There were responses to the different parts of mass, but no hymns like at home. Maybe because they didn't have songbooks.

- They also didn't have kneelers, or pews, just chairs set up. This made it confusing when people where supposed to kneel after communion and such.

- Speaking of communion. Only in France would it not be exactly uniform. I'm not kidding when I say that when the priest got to the bottom of the stairs to give communion people literally went from the 15th row straight to the front, around the sides of the chairs to get to him as fast as possible. I instantly thought, only in France. People didn't make nice lines that went from one aisle to the next, they just went how the felt like, not waiting for people, waiting for people, whatever. Amusing, yet confusing.

- Finally, as with most of the churches I have been to in Europe, as I walked out the door, there was a beggar standing directly in front of the door asking for money. This beggar though? while he was holding out his cup, he was also jingling the loose change in his pocket. I thought, if you have all this change in your pocket, why would I give you more??

Aren't you glad my church experience made me so compassionate and giving?

DST

For those of you that didn't know, for the past two weeks (since the states had daylight savings time), we have been an hour less behind than we were before. That is, until Sunday. France finally had daylight savings time, so we are now back to the seven hours behind the central time zone that we were for most of the year. Kind of interesting that they 1. do daylight savings time and 2. that it is at a different time. I would have thought someone would have coordinated the whole thing a while ago. Then again...what was I thinking.
Somehow I found myself out Saturday night and when you completely lose an hour it isn't fun. All of a sudden you are out WAY later than you thought you were and end up sleeping until 12:30pm on Sunday. Oops. Literally slept half the day. This morning wasn't much better because it took me forever to fall asleep last night. Sheesh.

Market!

A few weeks ago we finally found the other market in town. This is a covered market, but it has fruit and vegetable stands, fromageries (cheese), a boulangerie (bread) , boucheries (butcher), and a stand that sells nuts, wines, spices, olives and local goods. The place has vegetables I have never seen and when we walked by the butcher the main attraction was...rabbit. Not making any kind of statement because I have never had rabbit, but I think I won't be trying it unless I don't know I'm eating it. I didn't take a picture of the rabbit because I didn't want to gross some of you out, but here are some pics from the market. I hope you aren't hungry. If you are...this will make you want a nice and healthy salad.

The next few pictures will make you want nice and unhealthy cheese. I love cheese, but I have no comprehension of the different kinds, nor can I remember what kind is which or which ones I like best. Luckily I have a roommate who really gets into it, so I just let her pick and then eat whatever isn't too stinky. I like the blues, but some of the others get a little strong for me. One has to be careful eating the rinds as well. They are all technically ok to eat, but some of them have lots of fungi growing on them and taste absolutely horrible. Look how huge the wheels of cheese are though! Yum. The emmental (the one that looks like swiss in the back) is one of my favorites.

Spring!

You heard about the crazy weather, but we have actually had some really great weather and thankfully the rain is making the flowers happy. I just wanted to give you a glimpse of the park that I walk through all the time because it is right around the corner from my apartment. I posted pictures when it was really neat in the winter with crazy ice and frozen ponds. Now here are some new pics in honor of Spring.

This park is going to be absolutely amazing once everything is in full bloom. There are tulips coming up and they have these huge rose bushes that are starting to get leaves. The bushes lining the park are starting to form buds and I think I'll be spending a lot of time in the park in April. The cool thing is that sometimes I might be able to blog from there because there is free wifi in the park! Of course I won't be able to stay for too long because there are not plugs in the park, but I can't stay out in the sun too long or I'll get sunburnt anyway ;-) I think the park is going to be amazing when my parents come visit in about a month, which will be really great. We might have to have a picnic in the park!

Shoes

I have blogged a few times about the shoes the guys wear to class on a regular basis. This time I took a few pics though to let you in on what the shoes really look like. Here's a random (ok not random, people I know from class) sampling:

Please notice the purple shoe laces on the shoes on the bottom. Stylish huh? Now you are looking at these shoes and thinking, well they are just dress shoes? But these are shoes they wear with jeans (which are also much more designerish and nicer than normal jeans in the states) and khakis and whatever. The guys don't all wear shoes like this or wear them every day, but if they don't wear shoes like this then they wear shoes like Very rarely do guys wear athletic shoes to school. In fact, when they do it is really obvious and everyone asks why they are wearing them.

blue skies

I have the say the weather here is pretty odd. Being from the middle of the States, we have some pretty odd weather as well, but I have never lived anywhere where it rains more often while there are completely clear blue skies. The phenomenon is flabbergasting to me. Yesterday was a classic example. I woke up and looked outside and the ground was all wet but the sun was shining. I took the trash out and it was raining. I looked straight up, blue skies. I couldn't even find the rain cloud. When we went out later in the day, the same thing. Rain, no clouds directly above. At least when we were walking this time I could see the rain clouds in the distance, but literally it was completely blue skies overhead. Random. I guess it has something to do with how windy it was yesterday too. I guess this part of France is known for having really strong winds and yesterday was no exception. It is one of those days that makes me wonder why I even bothered 1. showering and 2. drying my hair. Oh well. Mother Nature is slightly confused as well as it was 75 here a few days ago and now it is back to 50s or so. That's ok I suppose. At least it isn't cold. Although our heat in our apartment doesn't work and it isn't warm. Good thing I have flannel pj pants, a hoodie and lots of blankets.

Headline

When I got to school today I picked up the newspaper and in huge letters on the front is something about Obama. As I couldn't quite figure out what it said immediately, I made my way to class, where some of my fellow French students asked me if I saw the front page of the paper this morning. I said I had but that I didn't understand completely what it says. Turns out, Obama's Twitter account was hacked by a guy that is from the region of France that we live in. I guess it is a big deal. Not sure if they are proud of him or it is just a piece of curious news for the people here, but either way, it is the story of the day. (The guy also hacked in to Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears' accounts). http://www.lamontagne.fr/editions_locales/clermont_ferrand/un_puydomois_aurait_pirate_le_compte_twitter_de_barack_obama@CARGNjFdJSsGFBkDAxQ-.html
While this piece of news in itself is mildly intersting, the real thing I find interesting is that we can't find any mention of Obama's account being hacked on the major US news websites; CNN, MSN & Fox News have nothing about his account being hacked. It is either old news in the States and we are behind the times, or it is just not being reported back home.

Culture Explained

In my latest class this week we have been studying cultural differences between countries. It is kind of interesting to look at the differing cultures in different ways. While I have studied Hofstede and his dimensions quite a bit, they never really explained much for me until I started looking at the differences between the States and France.

Some things that we have been noticing during our time here are more evidently explained by Mr. Hofstede.

For example regarding the masculinity index, we have realized that the French and especially the French guys are way more feminine than American guys. Not in a bad way, they just dress better, are more concerned about what they look like and they are much more affectionate with each other.

The French are also much less likely to take risks, as they like structure and avoid uncertainty. We did a double take on this element as we all were like: THE FRENCH LIKE STRUCTURE??? But then we thought about it a little bit and while they don't like schedules as much, they are very set in their ways and systems, so the ranking makes sense.

People here are also much more likely to accept their rank in life, in that the people who have power are recognized as having it, just as the students who have high level degrees are generally accepted as people who will make more money and hold higher positions. It isn't really a question, it just is. While this is certainly challenged in various areas of life, they generally are much more accepting of the hand they've got to work with.

Finally, with regard to individualism, as Americans we want to do things ourselves, but here we do so many team projects and group 3-page papers that is absolutely maddening. I told someone the other day, sometimes I think it breaks down to 2 people of a 5 person group determining the entire group's grades. While we have group projects in the States, here they dominate all classes and activities.

Strike!

Yesterday there was a transportation strike. I read something about it being caused by Sarkozy's loss of his support during the recent elections. Either way it didn't cause much disruption to my life because I walk everywhere and it was on a Tuesday. I mean if you're gonna strike, do as the airline people did a while back and strike on a major vacation week that really screws up everything. Isn't that the point? Anyway, the only changes that were noticable from our point of view is the enormous increase in traffic yesterday while we were walking home for lunch. Holy cow there were lots of people driving. I'm not sure if this was caused by the strike as well, but the cafeteria where students usually eat was closed as well. Wasn't a problem for me as I usually eat at home, but the lines in the patisserie and the little cafes along our walk home were slammed as well. I think the strikes are just excuses for people to drive cars and eat out.

Dairy Farm

Sure I'm from Midwest but I can't recall a time in my life that I have been to a dairy farm. I'm sure I went when I was smaller or something, but I have a horrible memory so I don't remember it. As part of the tour of the region when the KU students were here, we went to a dairy farm that makes St. Nectaire cheese. We saw the caves where they age the cheese and then went to see the cows that produce the milk. I have never seen so many pregnant cows! Ok, really I don't think I have ever seen a pregnant cow.

Whoa nelly. There were 32 cows that were pregnant of the maybe 70 cows there. And there were only 5 bulls for all those cows. Busy dudes and they were ginormous.

And this lady just wants to say hi.

Without Internet?

Lately we have been doing a lot of group projects with French students. Things go a little bit differently here with people doing research for the papers and information that correlates with these projects. In the States we would definitely use the internet to find information, but usually we would use a database site such as the one that we have through school to find reputable journals or articles to cite. Here? They have no such database. Or if they do, no one uses it. Instead we just google everything. Not sure that'd fly at home. They are virtually obsessed with "searching" for information and using it on papers and in projects. It can't have been this way for long as the internet has only existed for so long...so how did the French students find their information and write papers before the internet? They had to think things through...right?
Another thing I'm sure wouldn't fly is the rampant copying and pasting from internet sites and other people that goes on here. I'm amazed really. It is a totally foreign concept to me. But "sharing" information is not discouraged here. I was talking to a guy in my group the other day about an assignment we had to do. We were supposed to read a short case and then use supporting articles to write our thoughts on the questions. He asked me if I had done the case and what I wrote about. I said I had. He asked me if I copied and pasted from other articles. I told him I hadn't, that I thought about what I was writing and put down my own ideas, but with support from the article. His response? Obviously someone else has thought about the topic a whole lot and written an article about it, so why should I think about it some more?

Right.

the city of....fountains?

On a tour of Clermont-Ferrand last Friday I learned an interesting fact about the city I currently live in, and that is that it has over 50 fountains, which is saying something for the size of the city it is. I thought this was neat coming from the other City of Fountains back in the States. Here are some of the fountains I saw on the tour.
















The one on the bottom is a self-contained fountain and I guess they have a lot like this in Paris. The one on the top left is in Place de Lille. Some of the water that runs through the fountains in Clermont is potable, but before you drink it you should definitely look and see if there is a little sign on the fountain with a cup of water on it. If the sign is there and there is no red line through the water cup, drink away!

Books!

A while back I told you I was reading Julie & Julia. Well I finished it and I loved it. If you like food, if you like France and if you like Julia Child then it is the book for you. The only problem with reading it is that it made me really hungry and made me want to cook all kinds of yummy foods, most of which I can't make because I don't have an oven. I also would have had to go buy all kinds of new kitchen gadgets, which just doesn't seem to be in the plan right now.
After J&J I started reading Dan Brown's book Deception Point. It is one of his older works, but my roommate had brought it over from the states, and it was the last book written in English that we had in the apartment so I dug in. Like all Dan Brown books it was a page turner that kept me up late at night, sometimes too late! Of course it was full of twists and turns and if you liked Angels and Demons and the other works written by Mr. Brown then you'll probably enjoy it as well.
Now the problem presents itself that there are no more works written in English in the apartment. Well, ok, literally there is, but my roommate hated the last book remaining so I'm not even going to bother. This means I'd either have to read homework before going to bed (no) or I have to go to the bookstore. (as you read before, the library was a no-go)
Today I ventured to the bookstore and while I considered buying new works in English, I decided that I need to up my French abilities so I bought my favorite book in English...in French. Yup, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in French is my new reading material before bed. Yikes. I also purchased Alice in Wonderland (the kids version) for a reading challenge as well. I have a feeling the reading of these books will be going much more slowly than reading Dan Brown went. Should be interesting, but gotta make myself start learning more French.

Rock Shock

Well to say I'm in shock about the KU loss is putting it mildly. I really can't believe it happened. I mean do they know how many times I got up at 2:45am to watch them?!?! Honestly, they could have helped me out a little bit.
We were really worried that we weren't going to be able to watch the games at all, but then found out that we could watch them live on CBSportsline for free. It was awesome. We could choose our game and they were all in high-quality transmission. We watched the game with two of our Brazilian friends and two of our French friends. When we were walking home from the bar beforehand we were explaning how the tournament works and what happens and that we'd have to be watching basketball in the early mornings for two more weekends since the Jayhawks were obviously going to win the game and keep playing. We then had to describe that "if" they lost, that rare possibility, that our season would be over and we'd all be really sad. I honestly didn't think it was going to happen. But we got home and made popcorn in true American style for the game. The girl from Brazil was so excited about real popcorn she couldn't even talk. It was hilarious. She was like "you have popcorn? Like the real kid? Not in the microwave? Where did you find it?...." she was talking super fast and got tripped up on all the words. Pretty funny. One of the French guys got us some Pizza Hut and we settled in to watch the games on two different laptops that were out of sync with each other so people on one side of the table had to try and contain their excitement when a good play happened as to not spoil it for the other side of the table. I just had a horrible feeling the whole game and then it happened. We lost. I was stunned. The poor friends we were watching it with didn't know what to do. They kept apologizing because we were obviously not thrilled. Poor them! Having to sit through THAT with us. Ah well. The good news is that I can 100% completely forget about college basketball if I choose to because it is nothing over here. I can't even get to college basketball through yahoo, I have to route myself through the US site. I guess let me know who wins it all in April. I don't even care now.

VI Nations Champs!

Last night we decided to go out to a bar and watch the last game of the Six Nations Rugby tournament. We decided on this really cool, wide-open bar that has lots of tvs because we were going to have a few people with us, and we had invited others so we wanted to have room. We got there and people could only watch the game if they were eating as well. So we went to another bar a friend had suggested, but it was blazing hot, so we finally decided on another bar that we knew had half-price pints during the game. The problem with these bars is that they aren't condusive to watching with a bunch of people. They are smaller and have tables and such, but no large areas for watching. We ended up in the back of the bar kind of squished into a table and bar stools. Everyone had to walk by us, and in front of our tv, to get to the bathroom and the place just wasn't ideal. But it worked out and France won the game, which means they won all their games in the Six Nations Tourney, the first team to do so. More importantly as well, France beat England. Party favors for all!

As I was sitting right next to the bar, I saw the bartender making all the drinks, which really amounted to watching him pour lots of beers. My observation? People here drink tons of guiness and the beers come in all different colors. Case and point:

These are all beers, just a variety of colors. On the left is a Monaco, which is beer, grenadine and lemonade. In the middle I think is a wheat-ish beer and on the right is an ale. Remember that also there were tons of Guiness, I just wasn't fast enough with the camera to get a shot of all of them. Fun huh?

blah blah blah

This is going to be a complaining post, so if you aren't in the mood, I suggest you just skip this one. Yesterday wasn't a good day to say the least. We had class all day, which really consisted of working in groups for a strategic management project. To say I was frustrated with the way the project was being handled and with the fact that I am learning absolutely zero from having to do it. I just don't see the point other than to work in groups with other people. We spent 8 hours putting information together on a company, all that had been outlined in the case. Not to mention that I can't really communicate with these people. I'm sure I should be immersing myself in speaking French more, but you know what? it is hard to speak French when it takes 5 minutes to have a two second conversation. It is absolutely maddening.
I think one of the biggest things I have figured out while being here is that I can't work in a culture like this for my life. I just can't adjust enough. You know why? Because I feel like to adjust to this culture is to become a utter and complete slacker and that just isn't how I was built. I'm not saying all the French are slackers, but wow they are enough of them that it makes me want to scream. Having to explain cases that we were supposed to read 3 weeks ago to people because they "have been so busy and have so many things to do" and haven't read it yet, to people making appointments and "forgetting" about them, or drinking too much the night before to come and contribute to a group project.
Don't get me wrong, I realize I'm in a college atmosphere and that people are burnt out from school and I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that the "real" French world isn't this way, but I have a sneaking suspicion it is. I'm not adjusting to these aspects of the culture very well and you know why? because it leaves me inefficient, uneducated and ultimately it leaves me behind the students I know are at home working their asses off to get through classes. I'll learn a ton of "culture" from being here and there is something to be said for uprooting one's life for a year to completely change countries and education systems, I just am hoping that those positive aspects of coming over here override the inevitable truths that business development wise, other that learning how to work with the French, I'm falling behind.

Cat calls

The other day walking to school something happened to me for the first time in my life. Not just in France, but in life. As my roommate and I were walking by a construction site that is directly next to our school, we suddenly heard meowing. I really did think it was a cat at first, but I haven't seen a cat since I have been here, so I figured it wasn't that. Then I realized that a construction worker was making cat noises and us. Yes, like literally meowing. I just busted out laughing. I mean seriously, who meows at someone? As we got further away the meowing got louder and I just looked back at him and laughed. Ah the French charm.

Name

When I first received my email with my French school e-mail address on it I was confused. My new middle name? Elisabeth. Only strange because my middle name is spelled with a "z" not an "s". So, whatever they changed the way my name is spelled.
Also, for some reason, both my first and middle names are used on everything here. In my e-mail address and on every roster, so when teachers call my name it is listed middle name first and then first name. Well then a few weeks ago I was in a class where my name wasn't on the roster. When the teacher finally found my name, he started calling me Elizabeth. Except it wasn't Elisabeth like at home, it was Aye-Liz-A-Bet. The French don't pronounce "H" so that was another little name change. He continued to call me Elizabet for the week. I was going to correct him the first time but it wasn't a convenient time, and then I just never got the chance without it being in the middle of class. I had the same teacher for another class, and he realized I was Kate when other students were calling me by my nickname. Whew.

Lent

As most of you know, I'm pretty hardcore about giving up stuff for Lent. Not necessarily because I am ultra-religious (let's be honest here, I haven't been to church since Christmas and might go on Easter), but mostly just to see if I can have the willpower to give up something for 40 days. I'm pretty convinced there is nothing I couldn't live without for 40 days if I had to, some things would be ultimately unpleasant, but I could probably do it. (no necessities, like water or going to the bathroom, but you know what I mean). So this year? Beer. You're laughing I know and scoffing at what I gave up because, yes, I live in France and no one thinks the French drink beer very much. See that would be where you are mistaken. Quite a bit of beer is consumed here actually. Just as at home, people generally drink beer when out at the bars for multiple reasons. Cocktails are expensive and not very strong. Wine is hard to order at a bar because while they have it, they don't have to worry about it complementing the food or anything so they just get the decent stuff. Also, drinking a lot of wine leads to a wicked bad hangover for most. Beer is pretty much the go-to. Pints are around 5 euro, and have sufficient alcohol content to make one slightly inebriated with relatively little effort. My dad gives up beer every year, so he is used to this little hiatus. I gave it up my sophomore year in college (horrible idea then as well), but this year it has been pretty easy I'll admit. It helps that I haven't gone out as much since Lent started. And definitely helped that Lent started for me in a country that doesn't have much alcohol prevalent (Morocco). I haven't really had the desire for a good cold beer...until today. As I was walking back from the health center (I know, ironic) the weather is absolutely beautiful outside and I saw two people sitting at a cafe and thought, wow, this would be a great day for a cold beer (nevermind that I had this thought at 10:45am, that's irrelevant). Thankfully I don't have much further to go and I'm sure the craving will pass. I don't think they sell Boulevard Wheats over here anyway.

Visa Completion

Went to the student health center this morning to finish up my paperwork for my long-stay visa. Some interesting observations while I was there:
- I had no idea we had to have a tetanus shot within the last 10 years, along with vaccinations for dyphtheria (sp?) and polio. Huh, who knew. They only seemed really concerned about my tetanus shot though and I was pretty sure I have had one of those in the last 10 years. I mean I had to have stepped on a nail or got stabbed by something unhealthy at some point. Essentially the woman took my word for it and told me to call home and confirm it had been within the last 10 years. Essentially she said, we aren't the police, and we aren't going to check up on you, but if you have to go to the hospital and you don't know when it was it might be a problem.
- Another interesting point. While I was at the office I saw a total of one person working there who was not female. This man? He was the secretary. Now I'm not anti-feminist by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought it was strange that no one other than the secretary was male. Nurses, doctors, administrators, all women. I don't know if it is because it is a univeristy health center or what. No idea. Just a strange thought that occured to me.

Also today, I had to purchase a STAMP for 55 euro today. I don't know how it is possible that a stamp can cost 55 euro, but it is absolutely necessary for turning in my visa paperwork. I guess it is just the way of collecting the tax, otherwise, what could they possibly be sending to have it cost 55 euro? Strange.
The good news is that I'm turning in my paperwork this afternoon so I will be completely done with all the bureaucratic bogusness of getting a French visa...but, now comes applying for the CAF which is how I get money back from the French government for living here. Nice huh? Should be another adventure in bureaucracy I'm sure.

Communication

I took a class last week in Leadership and one of the lectures was about how people communicate with one another. I never really thought about it but the teacher at one point showed a slide with arrows that explained the different ways people in cultures communicate. I tried to copy and paste the slide into this, but it was too difficult so I'll just explain if I can. The first picture on the slide was an arrow that just pointed straight down. This was labeled the "English" way of speaking. Meaning, people who speak English get to the point relatively quickly without maneuvering through the conversation. For semitic languages, an arrow pointed to the right, then down at a diagonal to the left, then again to the right, then diagonal to the lower left, then back to the right. Like a zig zag. She said they speak in parallels, providing a lot of information but essentially moving around the same point. Then there was a circle arrow that represented the way people who speak oriental languages communicate. Essentially saying that the speak in circles and sometimes you get lost and don't know whether people are saying yes or no. Then we get to the romance languages. The diagram for this is like a curvy arrow that starts at the top and veers off right. Then another arrow starts midway through the first and veers left, then another right. By this representation she meant that the people who speak Romantic languages often give lots of back story to what they are trying to tell you.
I have noticed this in some common phrases that the French use often. One of the most prevalent is "In fact." They say it all the time. They also use "For example", "Therefore", "That is to say..." and "So". I realized they say these because when the French speak English they translate these phrases into English. Kind of strange for us to hear "In fact" all the time because we don't say it at home that much. But it is true, the French back up what they are saying with lots of information, which also goes along with a point someone made early in our visit here. If you ask the French a question, if they don't know the answer, they very rarely will say they don't know. Instead they'll try to talk their way into an answer. Most of the time it is just all BS, but they use lots of introductory words to make it sound like they know what they are talking about.

Camera

I finally figured out how much capacity my camera has. On a bus trip the other day I was snapping along when all of a sudden it wouldn't take another photo. 635 photos on one memory card. Whew. Of course then I had to make room so I had to delete some ones at the beginning. I have all the photos downloaded onto my computer, but need to go and get an external hard drive just in case something happens. Or, I can wait until my parents come in May so that they can bring it to me and I don't have to pay 30% more than what I would in the States. I think that is a better plan...

Travel Issues

This past weekend a group of students from KU arrived in Clermont for a week-long study trip. There were 22 students coming, so of course travel issues were inevitable. We went to meet the first 3 people arriving and only found two of them in the train station. One of the guys was missing. We determined he must have gotten off the train early. One of the other guys didn’t have any luggage. Amusingly enough, it was the guy I had asked to bring some stuff over to me. So while it is horrible that he has no clothes for four days while he is here, the stuff I had sent from home is also not here yet. Obviously it isn’t a problem for me because I have lived for 3 months without this stuff, but just funny. So then the next train arrived with the majority of the students. We saw them get off the train, but they never entered the train station. We went on a search for them and found them in the parking lot. They had followed the Exit signs, just to the wrong exit. We also found the guy that got off the train early. He had passed out and woke up with a start when he realized everyone was getting off the train (ended up just his entire car was getting off at that stop.) He asked someone, but in true French fashion the guy just nodded his head and said yes, it was the correct stop. We were missing two other guys because their plane had taken off from Chicago, then a computer failed so they had to go back. They arrived early the next morning. One student got delayed getting to Newark and missed his connection, and then two other students are still not here and we aren’t sure what happened to them because they won’t be here til Wednesday. That is a 5 DAY delay. I have no idea how that is possible, unless they decided to fly somewhere else first or something. Sucks to be them. Another student (who is about 7’3’’) had his luggage lost as well and I’m concerned for him because they don’t make clothes that big here. The other student that had lost luggage got his a few hours after arriving, so he is good to go. Quite the adventures in traveling for friends from home.

Knives

We don’t exactly have the sharpest knives in the drawer (literally, that is no comment on peoples’ intelligence). Since we arrived we have been muddling through without any finger cuts or anything drastic, we just use a lot more sawing action to get the job done. Then I was on the internet one day and saw a way to sharpen knives in a pinch (you know, when you don’t have one of those stones that cost 5 euro that I’ll use once). This article said to take an unpainted ceramic mug and turn it over and use the bottom as the sharpening stone. Last night I was making homemade meatballs & spaghetti and the knife was just not cutting it (ha ha ha). After I was finished with everything I decided to try this sharpening tactic. I haven’t used the knives more than once since, and the first cut seemed to go through the onion more smoothly, but that maybe just my mind wanting the knife to be sharper. I’m not for certain if it worked, but it was worth a try.

Showers

One of my fellow Americans was telling me the other day that he overheard his landlord talking to a friend about the landlord’s new tenants. The other man asked the landlord about the four new tenants and if they were nice and where they were from. “They’re all Americans,” replied the landlord. The other man’s response? “Oh you’re water bill is going to go up, those Americans, you know they shower every day.” I’m still not sure if the French don’t shower every day, or they just don’t wash their clothes as often as we do, but the emphasis on personal hygiene that exists at home isn’t as prevalent here. Most people are clean and well done up and smell sometimes quite nice, but I wonder how the other man in the story would feel if he found out that sometimes I shower TWICE a day when I work out at night. Don’t worry all you people concerned with high water usage. I still take very fast showers.

comma or decimal point?

A confusing piece of French life to be aware of while doing number calculations or reading about numbers in the newspaper or in articles. In the States, if we were going to put something like it is 12.5 to indicate twelve and a half we would use a decimal point between the 2 and the 5. In France they would use a comma: 12,5. If we were going to say 12,000 people live in the town, we'd just use a comma. Here? 12.000 people. Random huh? Even more confusing when you get into things that we usually think of that have commas. Like: I had a budget of $45,000. Here? 45 000 $ yep, no comma or decimal point. I'm not sure how the rules apply across the board, I just know that it is confusing most of the time.

Showing School Spirit

I have approximately 8 hooded sweatshirts in my closet (the one at one, here I only have one). This collection consists of 4 Illini sweatshirts and 2 KU sweatshirts, the others are plain or something else I can't think of right now because I haven't seen them in 3 months. On normal days when I'm back at home, I get to pick from these options and wear my school spirit anyway I choose. I just brought my Kansas hoodie over here with me and I wear it when I want to be warm, or when I'm bumming at home. I very rarely wear it out anywhere.

At my school there is a excess number of people wearing hoodies, but they are all the same one: There simply are no other options for hooded sweatshirts. There is one. Girls wear it, boys wear it. People wear it to school for days in a row and people wear them about town so that you can spot them. Some say (possibly those who don't go to the school) that people wear them to show that they go to the "prestigious" school. (or that they're rich) I'm not sure how the school system politics go here, but I do know that I go to a "Grand Ecole" which means it is hard to get in to and that you must have some kind of financial means to attend. (I'm in a different boat because I am an exchange from a unversity in the states, so don't think I'm getting all high and mighty on you) Really I'm not sure why people wear the hoodie that much, aside from knowing the reason I wear hoodies, which is because I'm lazy and don't want to think about what to wear or I'm cold. I haven't purchased one of these hoodies yet, and contemplating if I will. But one thing is for certain, I have a lot of reminders that they exist, but sadly only one style option.

How'd you do that?

To obtain a long-stay visa in this wonderful country there are about 56 steps to go through. While there are multiple steps that happened previosly (visa paperwork, trip to Chicago to get said visa, visa sent back to me, filling out paperwork again in France, copying info from passport to send in again and then having a letter sent back to me) now I am at the stage where I get to walk all over the city taking care of miniscule pieces of paperwork. Yesterday a friend who had already started the process gave me the phone number for the x-ray office where I need to get a chest x-ray (I don't know why). So I called and scheduled an appointment, which was not without utter confusion (side note: the French are hard to understand in person, almost impossible over the phone). Anyway, got the appointment for this morning at 11. Went at 10:56 and was done by 11:02. Fantastic. X-ray in hand I walked to the office to schedule the appointment to get a physical. It took me 25 minutes walking to get from one building to the next. No where in the city usually takes more than 15. The places aren't close is the point. I get to the building and go into the office to schedule the appointment. When I arrive I ask to schedule an appointment. The guy immediately becomes confused because I have my x-ray in my hand. (in an envelope, but he recognizes the envelope). He immediately thinks I have already scheduled an appointment and am there for the actual visit. I tell him no, that I need to make the appointment and he's essentially dumbfounded and asking me how I got an appointment for the x-ray and not the doctor, because usually people have to schedule appointments through him, to schedule both appointments, and then proceed. I skipped a step because I had a friend that had already been give me the phone number. It literally took this guy about 2 minutes to get a grasp that I had skipped a step. So American of me. Didn't I realize that it was his JOB to schedule appointments? (don't worry he didn't say any of this, he was really really nice, just confused how I could possibly have not seen him first to get an appointment) Anyhow, after I semi-explained what happened, he just kept saying "Ce n'est pas grave" and "C'est bon". ("It is not serious" and "It is good"). Got my appointment for next week. I'm progressing through the checklist quite nicely.

Global Village Recap

The Global Village last night was a really fun time, despite it being crowded and hot. The Americans represented with home-made apple pie (not by my mom sadly, but the reviews were outstanding), chocolate chip cookies (not mine), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white bread (which as discussed previously is absolutely foreign to the outside world), and our pancakes, which after some hesitation about what to do with the syrup, were gone in an hour.
Other countries had yummy goodness as well. The Finnish made homemade donuts, the Brazilians had spectacular homemade candies and a variation on hot dogs which was kind of like a bean and frankfurter chili then topped with potato chips, corn and peas. Interesting huh? I had taziki (sp?) from Greece, a bean and cheese bruchetta thing with guac and salsa from Mexico, a yummy fried meat thing from an African country (sorry, can't remember which one) and an interesting salad from Russia. There were way more countries than that represented, but food goes fast when it is free, so I didn't get to taste everything. Thankfully I have friends from all these places, so if I really want more I can just have them come over for dinner!

Global Village Activity

Along with showcasing the American cuisine, the Global Village organizers also asked us to come up with Ameican past-times that we could show other students. Of course a dance is the most obvious and easy way to pass along cultural activities, so one of the Americans yesterday during break was teaching people the cupid shuffle. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I'm told it is the new version of the Electric Slide. I'm sure it was amusing, but the French love to dance, (everyone, guys just as much as girls) so I'm sure there were willing participators. For tonight's Global Village, someone is going to teach some country line dancing. Once again, I'm not a country line dancer, and not sure if I'll be participating, but it should be an interesting proposition.
One of the parts of tonights festivities that I'm not so keen on is that some of the American students thought that teaching students from other countries how to play beer pong (with water of course) would be a good representation of an American pasttime. Now let me give you some back story on why I don't think this is such a great idea. Last Thursday night I was out at a party hosted by one of the school groups. We started talking to a student that attended school in the US and he started asking us how we liked France and the parties. As he was visibly intoxicated and holding a drink in each hand, he then started telling us that in his opinion Americans only drink to get drunk and don't know how to have just a social drink. Four points to be made here.
1. I drank a glass of wine with dinner that night, but other than that hadn't had anything else and didn't have a drink in my hand. My roommate didn't have a beer in her hand either. Yet we were surrounded by pretty intoxicated and wild French students.
2. As I told him, his only experience in America was at a large university where yes, lots of times people drink to get drunk, but that isn't exactly an accurate representation of every drinker in the country.
3. I have seen multiple French students get absolutely ridiculous on Thrusday nights and stay out til 4 am and not make it to class until 10, if at all.
4. Sadly, his opinion on the perception of Americans is one I have heard quite a few times while over here.
So, when beer pong came up as an idea for the cultural activity at the Global Village I didn't exactly think it was a smart idea, or a good representation of our culture. We have so much else to offer, and so much other interesting stuff, but I'm not in charge of the whole thing, so I'll voice my opinion and probably leave the gathering, and remember that the stereotype wouldn't change anyway.
UPDATE: No flip cup...there wasn't room.

Global Village Cuisine

Tonight one of the groups at school is hosting a Global Village. Basically it is a chance for international students to showcase their country's foods and culture for the people who might not have had a chance to visit the country. When the topic of cuisine came up, us Americans were having a somewhat difficult time deciding what we'd serve because most of our food is at least derived from a foriegn food. We went through our truly American options and came up with barbeque, fried chicken and apple pie. Pretty American we'd say. Problem? We don't have a smoker, a fryer or an oven. Thus, all of the above are essentially out of the question. Yes, we could do fried chicken, but for a large group of people it would be expensive and time consuming. So, instead we decided to do pancakes. Now sure the French and other countries have their own versions of pancakes, and the Dutch countries even make pancakes very similar to ours, but no one really eats pancakes with syrup like we do. So I spent the morning making silver-dollar sized pancakes. Thankfully the recipe is easy, the ingredients are cheap and the time needed to complete the task was about one hour from ingredient mixing to little pancakes on the platter. Now we'll just have to see how they go over at the gathering. Somehow I doubt they will not get eaten. Just a hunch though.

UPDATE: They ate all the pancakes

I need a snack

The French eat when it is time to eat. They don't eat snacks a whole lot and they don't eat just in the middle of the day. They also don't eat in class because it is forbidden. The students are not allowed to bring in any kind of snack to have while the class is going on. Now of course there are breaks every hour and a half, so I guess they can munch then if they need to, but not in the class room. I, on the other hand, do eat at the breaks and often in the classroom. I think they just let me get away with it because I am American. Sometimes it is a mini-box of cereal, and sometimes it is a half of a peanut butter and honey sandwich. The French get so confused by the peanut butter. It is loads of fun to tell them that sometimes we eat peanut butter and nutella. I get the same reaction as if I were telling someone we eat fried worms. Hilarious.

Resumes

Lately I have been working on translating my resume from English to French. Of course I can't just translate the words and have the resume coming out all peachy, there is different phrasing that has to be accomplished as well. There are also many little pieces of information that must be added to a resume that would NEVER be present in the US.
First, French resumes (called CVs here) include a color headshot picture in the upper right corner. Additional information added to the personal data includes my age, my marital status and my nationality. Not so worried about discrimination here I guess.
Then, in the body of the resume, the French put company and school logos next to their, well obviously, companies and schools. While this seems like nothing big, fitting those little buggers in next to the text is proving to be quite annoying. Dumb formatting.
Also, something that is much more common here is listing of languages. Probably because most people in the States speak English and then maybe kinda, sorta speak another language this section isn't big at home. Here? People have to make sure their knowledge of English is present and most of the time, they have minor knowledge of other languages as well, so they get to highlight this in this section.
Resumes here are also much shorter. Instead of really powerful two-line statements, their job description statements are about 6 words. That's a lot to convey in a short time. I'm almost finished with my initial translation. Next step, get one of my nice French friends to tell me all the things I did wrong. Yikes.

Highlighters

The other day in class I saw something a little new from a student from Portugal. We were all reading and article and some people were using highlighters to mark on their articles. When I looked back to see how she was going to answer a question the teacher had asked her, I noticed that she had used a highlighter to mark up her paper. But she had done it a little differently.
I have seen many people use highligters, and usually they use the thick side of the highlighter to mark over the text completely. This girl? She used the highlighter to underline the text. This is made more interesting by the fact that "highlight" in French is traslated to "under-line". How do you tell the difference between saying you want something under-lined and highlighted? I have no idea. I'll work on it.

who's watching me eat...

Yesterday one of my roommates and I went out for lunch at a cafe near the cathedral. Nothing all that interesting about the place we were eating except it was someplace and happened to be open on a Sunday. We sit and order and are waiting for our food, when in walks a family with their dog. They sit down at the table next to us and promptely all put in their headphones and start playing with their respective digitial devices. The dad, mom and son didn't talk to each other pretty much the entire time we were at the cafe. Strange, but even more strange was that once I got my food and started eating I kept having the feeling someone was staring at me. It was the dog. He was sitting nicely and not being disruptive at all, but boy was he eyeing my croque madame.
I guess I don't pay attention that much in the states, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that bringing one's dog into a restaurant isn't a normal circumstance. People here love their dogs though, so I guess they are just accepted as another part of the clientele.

New Language

Tonight I have a test. In what subject you ask? Management, Ethics, HR, French? Nope....Finnish. Last weekend when our friends from Finland came over for dinner they taught us some Finnish phrases, so we have been trying to practice using them all week. It was decided that tonight, we'd have a test. I haven't studied too much, but I do know that Moi (Moyee) means Hi, and I have learned how to say "How are you" and "Thank you" and "Good Morning" and "Cheers". The last one is easy "Kippis!". Did you know there are only 5 million people in the world that speak Finnish? It is a fun language to listen to, but whoa it sounds complicated. Pretty cool though to be France, when the Finnish students know they can bust out the Finnish anytime and virtually no one except themselves will know what is being said. Those sneaky Finnish.

Library Anyone?

I only brought 3 books with me to France, and I am finished with 2 of them and pretty far into the 3rd. I have one more book my roommate brought to read and then I won't have anything else to read in English, or French for that matter. I also did not bring a French textbook with me, which would have been a good idea so I can look things up. So I decided to try and find the library. At school they have a library but it is more of a reference library, with scholarly stuff, but nothing as far as just novels and such. I searched online and found the closest library to our house, so yesterday I went there to see what it was like. I walk up four flights of stairs and into a room with probably 250 chairs at tables, and I bet 200 of the chairs were full. Lining the outside of the room were shelves with books, but once again, more like reference books than entertaining pieces of literature and such. It looked more like a normal library, but there were so many people there that I didn't want to just wander around and see what was going on, so I'm going to have to go back on a different day and see what the deal is. Doesn't exactly seem like the library idea is the same over here.

Continental Divide

While watching the rugby game the other day I learned an interesting little bit about the French educational system. This being that, in France, there are only 5 continents. They are all adamant about this, but when asked what those 5 continents are, there is a little controversy. Some people said: Africa, America (North and South together), Europe, Asia and Oceania (Antartica & Australia, NZ). Others said: Africa, America (still together), EurAsia, Antartica and Australia. As there were more Americans than French watching the game, there were quite the debates that broke out. I wish we would have had some South American students in attendance to see what they thought about being lumped into the same continent as North Americans. An Italian brought up a valid point that there are 5 Olympic rings because there are 5 major inhabited parts of the world, but then we found out the Olympic rings were proposed by a Frenchman.

Grocery Store Adventures

This week we had three different grocery store issues:

1. For some reason, I have been wanting pancakes lately, so I found a recipe online and made the list to go to the store. One item on the list was going to be difficult and I knew it: Baking Powder. I looked up what baking powder was in the dictionary before I left, so I was hopeful of finding exactly what I needed. Got to the store and went on the hunt for the baking aisle, a logical place to put baking powder, or so I thought. After wandering around for a bit, I finally found the flour. Next to the pasta. No sugar in sight. No baking powder either. So, I went looking for the sugar, thinking it must be in the "baking" aisle. I mean the French bake, it isn't like they don't use sugar. After a good 5 minutes of walking up and down every aisle, we finally asked someone and he told us the sugar was in the front right corner of the store. We found it. Next to the orange juice. No baking powder in sight. Ok, fine, now I went in search of the spices. Found the spice aisle, where the cake mixes are and there was....two shelves of stuff with similar names to baking powder. See baking powder in French is levure chimique. Levure itself is yeast. Problem was I couldn't figure out by the packaging which was really baking powder. So, I took an educated guess and bought one of them. In the states the baking powder comes in a can, here? 6 packets (like yeast is packaged in the States) Thankfully I made pancakes this morning and they worked out very well.

2. For a dinner we are having tonight, we thought it would be fun to try to make chocolate mousse for dessert. The recipe called for bittersweet chocolate. Easy. We're in France, they have tons of chocolate in every flavor imaginable. I found the chocolate aisle in the store (ok, ok, I already knew where it was, I have been there a few times) and began the search for bittersweet chocolate. Right. No dice. I looked next to the cocoa and nothing there either. What the!?! So we nixed the chocolate mousse idea because we didn't want to have normal chocolate and a cup of sugar, and then the whipping of the eggs was going to be quite a task as well, so I picked up the chocolate cocoa box and flipped it over and viola! a recipe for chocolate truffles that looked easy enough. Except.

3. The recipe called for creme fraiche semi-liquide. Ok, off to the milk/creme section we go. There are so many different types of creme, but none that say semi-liquide. Ugh. We asked a nice lady for help and she pointed out to us which one was the right one. Hallelujah. We haven't made the truffles yet, so I'll keep you posted.

The Dance

About the second week I was in Clermont, we were at a bar and it happened to be a French student's birthday. This student was male, and at midnight, everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. After the end of the song, another song started. I of course, have no idea what they are saying, but as I'm watching the people sing, the birthday boy starts removing his clothing. The bar patron came over and was yelling something at him in French but his friends were egging him on. His friends ended up taking the friend out of the bar and I didn't know what happened after that.
We started asking questions as to what all the hoopla and extra song was about. Somehow we came to find out that there is a "tradition" of this song being sung on birthdays and the person (I have only ever seen it sung to a male, so I'm assuming it is just a guy thing) has to remove all of his clothing. It is called the "Danse du Limousin".
Last night we went to a birthday party of a fellow French student at his apartment. After Happy Birthday, on came this song and the guy strategically removed all of his clothing without it being a complete strip show, as he covered himself and backed out the door way at the same time, but boy were people happy. And taking pictures. Really it is quite funny and completely bizarre. As my fellow American and I were commenting at the party, for us, the whole thing is more awkward than amusing. But as has been the theme, just another bewilderment of French life.

UPDATE: I asked around a little more about this dance. Apparently it is just a thing that students at this school created. It doesn't happen in all of France.

Facebook Names

While I know people in the States who use variations on their name for their facebook accounts, here, some people flat out change their names for their facebook accounts. Like to completely different names, or they just change first names or last names or something. There are of course many reasons for this, here are some I have heard:

- "I don't want people here to be able to find me"
- "This name sounds more American"
- "It is what people call me"
- "My real name is too difficult"

I only comment on this because it seems to happen way more than it does at home. I know of 4 people that have completely different facebook names than their real name. The most interesting comment was the one about wanting to sound more American. While there are names that are truly "American" i.e. Smith, Brown, etc... lots of Americans have very European sounding names....

WE NEED A BAGUETTE!

As you know our boulangerie (bakery) has been closed all week. Last night, for dinner, we went to Spar (the market) to get a baguette. They usually bake them multiple times daily and have them in supply. We got there, my roommate when in to get one. They had none, but the next ones were coming out of the oven in 8 minutes. We took the groceries home and then my roommate ran back to the market to get one of the fresh baguettes. She came back empty-handed. When she got to the market, everyone in line had a baguette in hand, and there were none left. She said the next ones would be done in 18 minutes.
So, we ate our dinner of chicken and vegetables, and then I went back to the market (because she said she was going to look like a stalker if she went back again). Thankfully I got there right after they came out of the oven, so I grabbed one and took it home. We had a baguette and cheese after dinner, instead of before. It was more French that way anyhow. The boulangerie opened again today. Whew.

Paper #1

I miss my printer. Random thing to miss right? But, yesterday my roommate and I went to print off a 21-page paper that we had to turn in for one of our classes. The French students that were in our group made a great cover page and included lots of graphs, all in color, which makes the document look really snazzy. It also makes the document a pain in the patooty to print.
When we got here, school gave us 100 free prints on our student cards, which is necessary to print (printing here is like a 8-step process, in and of itself an annoying enough endeavor), but the school doesn't have a color printer, so we had to go to the copy shop on the corner of our street. Thankfully the shop is a 2-minute walk. So I emailed the document to myself and we went during lunch. The guy pulled up the doc and did some fancy magic on the computer and printed our document. We went to the cashier to pay and the total was 7.10. around $10, to print our paper. Right.

Computers

One thing I don't get at all, and it happens in the States just as much as it happens here, is people constantly being on their computers during class. While I realize that some classes are infinitely boring and take quite the concentration to follow, I don't really get the point in totally not paying attention. I mean, you're paying thousands of dollars to be in class and "learn" what the teacher is trying to say, so why waste it? I'm not sure if I can say this because I'm over that facet of beging a student that is just getting the grade to get the degree, but it is also annoying to be in class with a bunch of people who aren't paying attention. If people are on their computer the whole time, then those of us that aren't, are relegated to answering questions and generally being more participative. Not that I mind answering, because these students who aren't "mentally" in class are really doing me a favor and making the class smaller for me, but sometimes I get tired of having to answer the questions.
At least this is only the problem in a few of my classes, as most French classes consist of the teacher standing at the front of the room lecturing for the entire length of the class. Talk about a drain on the intellectual ability. I much prefer interactive classes to "sitting and listening" classes, even when I have no idea what is being said. I will say though, that for those classes I have that are all in French, sometimes I am glad that the teachers rarely ask the students to participate because I'm not sure I'd be much help if a teacher called on me and expected me to understand what is going on when she's been speaking French the whole time.