Citing

Tomorrow I have to turn in a big paper from a group project that my group (3 French and 2 Americans) completed. We got the assignment and split up the work into 5 parts. Each part was pretty equally distributed and we went our merry ways until two days later when we were going to put the work together. When we met again, the French students had lots of information. They are super good and going back and using information from previous classes. We had PESTEL methodology for external analysis, we had Porter's 5 Forces, we had charts and graphs galore. What we didn't have? Any citations. I have written quite a few papers in my life and never have I turned in anything without citing the information contained in the paper. Here, I guess it is just different. There is a lot of copying and pasting going on that just doesn't get attributed at all. Very strange for us of course, who have to sign honor codes before we are even accepted to graduate schools that say we will not plagarize or paraphrase in any way, shape or form, AND if we do? We get kicked out of school. I'm not sure really why it is this way, haven't had the in-depth discussion with anyone about it because I don't want to accuse someone of being dishonest or anything, I just have to assume that they have never been taught differnetly. I'm sure it can't go on everywhere though right? Or does everyone just know it and assume nothing is original. I have no idea, it, like many things, will be an evolving mystery...

Lateness

http://deadspin.com/5477230/nyu-business-school-professor-has-mastered-the-art-of-email-flaming

This link has been making the rounds, but recently it inspired a little discussion about what happens here, in France, when people are late.
As of day 1 I noticed that things are a little different here with respect to class starting. I got to class 10 minutes early, like normal, to find a seat, get settled in, etc... I was one of 2 people in the room. The other person? My roommate. An American. The class was supposed to start at 8:30. At 8:29:30 there was a flood of students into the room. Of course then it took 5 minutes for everyone to get settled and class commenced about 8:37.
The other day while in class, I noticed that about 20 minutes into class a person came late and knocked on the door. Only did she enter after the teacher acknowledged her and asked her to enter the room.
I heard last week that an Italian student came for the second half of a class (the part after the 30 minute morning break) and that the teacher was not going to let him stay in the class because he was late.(She eventually let him stay, but didn't give him attendance credit for being in the class)
In my roommates' French class, the teacher explained it this way. It is NEVER ok to be late. Ever. Ever. Ever. BUT, French students will never be ontime. So, while French students enter classes late (whether 2 minutes or 30 minutes) they are allowed to enter and participate in class. But, as International students, it is just plain unacceptable. In some cases (as with the Italian student) the teacher will not let the student in the class without an excuse or some explanation. Why you ask? (at least that's what I asked) "Its our culture". I wonder if the student in the article was French?

New Book

I have started reading Julia Child's memoir about living in France: My Life in France. It is fantastically fun to read, especially being here. I'm enjoying it so far, but the best line of the book yet is: "It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because when you order a beer they don't bring you oysters." I laughed out loud when I read the line. While my French really is getting better and I'm trying to make myself speak it more, a lot of times, a few words get me a long way, and there are not complete sentences that make sense. It really is amazing how much one can get done without saying anything. Plus, everyone speaks English, so most of the time we are approached in English. Ugh. I'm glad it is my first language though!

Just in Case

Sometimes when shopping is necessary, there are no stores open to make said shopping possible. Take Sundays for example. The stores are maybe open from 10am until noon, but let's say that the night before you went out and didn't get home until 5am. The chances of you making it to the store for food on a Sunday aren't very good. What to do? Here's the solution:


This is a gigantic vending machine. Inside? All the necessary items like bread, milk, eggs, little meals, pastas, and of course drinks, and little snacks. The thing is huge and as you can tell by the sign at the top, it is open 24 hours. Quite amazing if you ask me. I've never seen anything like it, nor have I used it yet, but it's there if I need it.

Best Place to Live?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/11/france.quality.life/index.html?hpt=T

I obviously have only been here for 2 months, and I'm no authority, but I think that 60% of people would have a difficult time living here if they are used to the way things are run in the US. Whether you think you like the States or not, it is just very very different here. Sure, most people could live here after getting used to the way things are run, but it takes quite a bit of patience. I suppose after all the bureaucratic inital stuff is gone, then most of the time you wouldn't have to deal with governmental stuff, but you'd still have to pay taxes and such.
Here is a small example of the bureaucracy. To be in France for a year, I have to get a long-stay visa. Before I came, I got a visa, but upon getting here I have to fill out a form and send it to the government. They send me a packet of stuff 10 days later. This packed includes a request for a medical appointment to get a chest x-ray to make sure I don't have TB. Even though I'm already here, and have been for 2 months. No matter. I have to get an appointment with a government doctor for this x-ray and check-up. Then I have to go to the government building for an appointment and turn all this stuff in, along with the "tax" I have to pay. Then they can send me my long-stay visa. After I get that, I need to apply for the CAF, which is the money the government pays people for living here. (I have no idea how it works, or why, I just go with it). Then I send in that form. They verify I live here and in what type of housing, with how many people, etc...They then give me money BACK for having lived here since January. Why I pay a tax, just to get money back is beyond me, but my checklist of appointments, forms and payments is made. Now just have to find a time when each of these places is open to make all this happen. Go.

VO?

The other night, we decided to go see a movie we had been wanting to see since it came out. We looked it up on the internet and found the place where it was showing. then we had to check and see if it was dubbed, or had subtitles or what. So we looked for VO next to the title, which we thought meant "version originale", so just in English like normal.
We get to the theater and pay for our tickets and sit down. The lights go down and J.Lo appears on the screen for a preview, and she is dubbed over. What the? So, one of our mates went to see if we could get our money back.
Let me explain, it isn't that we can't watch a movie in French. I mean sure we would know what is going on, and can probably follow enough for it to make sense, but we were seeing the movie "Valentine's Day". The whole purpose of seeing the movie is to see all the American actors. Having them dubbed over is just annoying because it isn't their voices, and their mouths move at different times than the words.
Getting our money back wasn't a big deal, but the lady at the theater wasn't happy with us. She kept telling us to "fait attention!" Pay attention, before we bought the tickets. By now you could have figured out that VO, means "voice over" also. How you are supposed to know the difference I have yet to determine, but we're working on it.

Driving

I have driven a total of three road-trips now in France and have some observations about the experiences in general.
1. Coming to Europe? Better learn how to drive a manual. While automatics exist, they are more expensive and harder to find.
2. The street lights here are in awful places. They don't have them overhead, which is nice for the scenery, but they are on the light post, right at eye level in the car. Not a problem if you are in the front, but if you are further back you just have to wait for people in front of you to move to know it is time to go.
3. Speaking of going, for as much c'est la vie lifestyle as they live in other aspects of their lives, when it comes to driving the French have no patience. When the light turns, you better move it or you're getting honked at.
4. Interestingly though, if you kill your car they are extremely patient and even somewhat sympathetic and wait until you get it started again. Strange juxtaposition.
(I'm not sure that is the right word, but it is all I can think of for the differences in not being patient sometimes, but being extremely patient others)
5. No one pays attention to speed limits here. Almost just like the States, the difference is that I haven't seen a cop on a highway here yet and that's pretty much all I have driven.
6. Make sure you have euros to pay tolls with. They don't take foreign credit cards. oops.

My plan in the future? Get rich and hire a driver. I'm workin on it ;-)

Ferme! WHAT???

As I have recounted numerous times, one of the great things about living in France is the bread and pastries. Luckily we have a fantastic patisserie/boulangerie about 100 yards from our front door. We go there at least once a day and almost always eat the entire baguette before we even make it to dinner. It has become a routine. Until this week.
We woke up on Monday morning and, as usual, found the Patisserie closed. It is always closed on Monday, so we went to the market and got a baguette instead, like we always do. Pas de problem. BUT. Then we woke up Tuesday morning and the patisserie was still closed. Heartbreak. Confusion. Disappointment. Torment. On my way to class I walk by the Patisserie, so of course I stopped to find out what was going on. The sign said that it will be closed for the entire week. I was aghast. This just doesn't happen in America. Places don't close for a WEEK unless they've been ordered to shut down by the FDA or something. How is this possible? Then I reminded myself that I now reside temporarily in France, and that anything is possible, and likely probable. My guess? The people that own the place are on vacation. I just had a week off of school for an unknown reason, sure the Patisserie owners can take a week off as well. In the states? We find someone else to run the place while we're gone. Here? Take a week off. Whatev. In the meantime, I'm buying baguettes at the market. By no means a travesty, as they are still baked fresh every few hours, but the choices go out the window. Here's hoping next Tuesday comes quickly.

Where I Live

For those of you that haven’t busted out the map to see where exactly I live in France. I live right in the middle of the country. This is great to experience the true “French” life. I pretty much live in the “Midwest” of France. The people are nice, the weather is decent, it is big enough to have things to do, but small enough to be walkable. The best part is that every day I know I’m living in France. By that I mean, it isn’t a big city that could be anywhere in the world. The city is distinct and distinctly French. While this is great most of the time, one time when it isn’t so great is when I want to travel, which I obviously do, as much as possible. The problem is that I’m 2 hours by train from Lyon, which is the only major city relatively close. To get to Paris, to get to other major cities takes about 4 hours and isn’t exactly cheap. So the first trip of an adventure is at least to Lyon, and then to Paris to go the other major places. Sometimes I wish I were in Paris so that I could just jump on a plane to London or Rome without the 5 hours necessary to get to a Paris airport. (the train station is an hour from the airport in Paris) I guess this little place will suffice for now though. Maybe my second 6 month adventure will be in a major city that will make traveling easier.

Minor Victory

So yesterday I went to the grocery store and bought quite a bit of stuff. Ended up spending around 70 euro. Came home and put everything away and then a little later in the day was perusing the receipt when I figured out that I had been charged for 7 bags of lettuce and not 1. Great. So, I had two options, I could either deal with the fact that I overpaid by 9.30 euro or go back to the store and try to communicate the problem in French. I chose go back to the store. The whole time there I was formulating in my head what I was going to say, worried if the person would understand, whether it would be a big deal, or how I was going to argue for money if I needed to. That’s the thing about not really fully being able to speak another language. Planning is absolutely necessary, but the problem is that I plan the initial opening, but once there is a response, the quick-thinking takes a bit to kick in because I am still in translate first mode. People keep saying I’ll get out of it, but for now, it is how it works.
So I get to the store and get to the customer service counter. I start my schpeal (completely in French, no English was used the entire time) and viola! She understands!! I somewhat wish there would have been a camera on me cause I’m sure I had a huge smile on my face. Now, I will say that I did have the receipt, and used it to illustrate, but there was no second guessing, or asking what happened because she understood the first time. I know this seems like a minor thing and nothing to get all excited about, but it is these little things, in a country where nothing makes sense sometimes, that encourage me, and make me realize that I can communicate, if somewhat rudimentarily, with people in another language.

Thoughts on Marseille

- I walked for probably 3 hours total while I was in this city. I was sore from walking so much. Up and down a huge hill to the Cathedrale Notre Dame de la Garde, and traversed a good amount of the city on foot.
- I also ate the best baguette I have had in France here. It was mostly because it had literally just come out of the oven, was straight off the oven rack in fact, so it was warm and soft and amazing.
- There were so many restaurants in this city I was flabbergasted. Essentially every store front lining the port was a restaurant. I should have tried the fish soup, which is the specialty of the city, but didn’t get a chance. I guess I’ll have to go back.
- Old European cities are dominated by churches. In this city alone on a Sunday morning I visited 5. All catholic, all huge, all impressive.
- Inexpensive, but decent, hotels are hard to come by. Apparently a hole in the ground is a sufficient “toilet” for lots of people. I’m not one of those people. I have never been anywhere before that I have been instructed to look at the room before deciding whether to stay or not. It is amazing what I take for granted sometimes.
- France has some amazing countryside and boy oh boy do they make you pay for it with the tolls. Don’t even blink if you spend 30 euro driving in one section across the country. At least they have nice roads to show for it.
- We drove 4 hours, with 7 people in the car without stopping on the way home. That’s what 10 days on vacation does to people.
- I find it really strange to be “home” in the middle of France.

Thoughts on Fes

- Has the oldest Medina in Morocco, which makes it about 1200 years old I think. Really the “Medina” is just the city that is surrounded by walls. Pretty neat and much more civilized than Marrakech. By that I mean that it was nowhere near as touristy.
- I have no idea how people go hungry in Fes. There was so much food on the streets at vendors that I was absolutely amazed. Especially vegetables. They were everywhere and huge! The pea pods were the size of hot dogs and the lemons were the size of softballs. Enormous.
- Having not watched tv in about 2 months, it was an absolute joy to be able to watch the Olympics on two different days. It rains a lot in Fes, so on day two, we spent 3 hours napping and catching up on the Olympics in our hotel rather than deal with pouring rain outside.
- The Riads in Fes were amazing. They are old houses that have been converted mostly to hotels or other public buildings. Stunning and Beautiful.
- The couscous was pretty good as well. Even better was that a meal cost 10 dirham, which is about $1.20. More food than I could possibly eat as well.
- They had this breakfast pasty called a Malawi. It was an interesting cross between a crepe and a waffle. I have no idea how to explain it except that it was denser and thicker than a crepe.
- We actually got to eat at a local Fesian’s place and they were fantastic hosts. We were just there to pick someone up, but we had tea, malawis, rice/egg omelet things, bread made of couscous, little spicy nuggets, and dates(which you have to split open first to make sure there are no bugs) and laughing cow cheese (which is HUGE in Fes. They even have earrings and t-shirts with the cow on them)

Thoughts on Marrakech to Fes

- I had another Harry Potter moment on the train. Looked exactly like the one they take to Hogwarts.
- About 2 ½ hours into an 8 hour train ride we “ran out of gas”. I’m not sure exactly what that means on a train, as I’m not sure it runs on gas…and if it does, then why didn’t someone plan for an 8 hour trip…but anyhoo. We waited a half of an hour and were on our way again.
- I read an entire book “The Kite Runner” on this train. Good book. Perfect length and subject matter for the journey.
- Am really glad I bought a bottle of water and a sandwich du fromage before the journey.

Thoughts on Marrakech

- The flight to Marrakech from Madrid was 44 euro. Turns out the exchange rate was in our favor.
- Morocco is known for its orange juice and it was good. We were told not to watch it being made though. Never a good warning, but we drank it anyway.
- I had a monkey plopped on my shoulder. Yup. Here ya go. I had it removed swiftly, didn’t want to pay for the picture.
- Most exciting part of Marrakech. (and I use exciting loosely) the restaurant where we were eating caught on fire. Ok kinda. Really stuff in the restaurant caught on fire. Yup. They had cardboard pizza boxes stacked on top of the ventilation hood of the stove top. Someone added oil to the fryer and 5 minutes later we had pizza boxes on fire in the restaurant. Wish I had pictures to help illustrate the scene. But we scattered pretty quick. More interesting was that our hotel was above the restaurant. Thankfully they put out the fire and there were no issues after that. I slept pretty lightly that night though.
- During my stay in Marrakech I was asked if I was: Spanish, French, German, English, American and Japanese…they figure if they know your language they can speak to you and try to sell you something
- I have never in my life been propositioned to buy more things or eat at more restaurants. I just kept thinking “I wish people would stop trying to sell me things!!”
- I had a fantastically scrumptious ice cream sundae while in Marrakech. I figure the ice cream tastes so good cause in the states all I eat now is the lower sugar/fat stuff, this is the real deal and it was amazing. The whipped cream was even better.
- Sometimes a “shower” might not always be complete. Ask my roommate, she got stuck in the shower, mid-shampoo with no water left. She was using bottled water to rinse out her hair when the water came back on. Ah third-world countries.

Thoughts on Madrid

- Ended up in Madrid for an extra night because we missed our connection to Salamanca, where we were supposed to spend the weekend.
- Random note on traveling to Madrid. It was my brother’s birthday and while I was sitting on the airplane waiting for people to finish boarding, the song over the sound system was a song he plays on the piano all the time at home. Made me smile.
- First thing I see when I exit the subway? A Chicago the Musical marquee. Sometimes I love getting to a city and taking the subway to the middle of the city and coming out of the subway the first time to see a city. It is almost better than entering a city from above ground, such a thrill and rush of adrenaline, not knowing what to expect.
- First time I have ever stayed in a hostel with 5 random people in the same room. All guys, probably under 22. No fun stories, just one night due to the missed flight.
- The Spanish smoke A TON. Maybe more noticeable because people can still smoke inside in Spain, but boy was it smoky. Made me miss France and their no smoking inside laws!
- Had an experience trying to buy a pastry. The sign said the pastry I wanted and a café (coffee) for 2.90. I figured just the pastry would be less. It was 5.30. I have to imagine she misunderstood me, but I decided against paying 5.30 for it. And I don’t drink coffee, so I left and found another place.
- Wait staff in restaurants in Spain aren’t very nice.
- The Prado museum lets people in for free on Sunday evenings from 5-8. There’s a huge line. We got in and saw all the good stuff though.
- Happy Valentine’s Day…oh you aren’t ordering off the fixed price menu at the sushi place? You get to sit in the basement alone. Just like our own private dinner. Nice. Thanks.
- It snows in Madrid too. Yup. Good thing we had all inside stuff planned for our last day. Got into the Reina Sophia for free cause we’re students (yeah, so what I’m 28. They don’t know that)
- Never in my life have I been to a European Cathedral that is so new. The colors were amazing. It was finished in 1993. Seems like that just isn’t right. New? In Europe? Come on.
- I thought tortillas were flat round things you eat fajitas and burritos in. Apparently a tortilla Espanola is a yummy potato and cheese quichy-like thing that is all together delicious.
- We met some Brits who were snockered at dinner. Someone said something funny and instead of saying “That’s what she said” like the phrase goes…he busted out “She said that.” In the most British of accents. I can’t help you with the way he said it, I dunno, just think of the Queen of England saying “She said that” all properish. It was hi-larious.
- Sangria is yummy. Enough said.
- Women, especially old ones, wear lots of fur in Madrid. PETA would not be happy.
- We waited in the cold for a parade for 1 ½ hours with an older woman (probably wearing fur) literally breathing down my neck and I think she had her knee cap in the notch of my bent knee as well. There was lots of room. I guess she was just cold and wanted to be real close. Also 2 minutes before said parade 3 little people found their way in front of us. Their parents were all “oh, can you let them stand there”…meanwhile I’m thinking, how about you get here before 2 minutes before and get a place. (reminder…I was cold, and had been waiting for 1 ½ hours. I like kids, really I do)
- I don’t know much Spanish. Would have been helpful to have a dictionary while here, but we made it through. Made me appreciate how much French I know though!
- Last note on Madrid. Saw some graffiti that said “GO KATE”. Rock on Madrid.

Thoughts on Lyon

So as most of you know, I just returned from a 10-day vacation. It would be absolutely impossible for me to write an interesting blog detailing everything I did on said vacation, so I’m going to spend the week blogging about each city I visited and my random observations from the respective city. We begin with Lyon.
- Mother Nature gave us 8 inches of snow to trudge through to reach the train station in Clermont on our first day. She also gave us frigid temperatures and piercing winds in Lyon. She’s so sweet.
- Our hostel was at the top of an enormous hill with a great view. Not so great was the advertised price of 18 euro only being true if you had an “International Hostel” card, which cost 15 euro to obtain. Grr.
- Random musing from our night in Lyon. Why do churches/cathedrals/places of worship have such huge doors that no one uses? Quite a quandary.
- I ate salmon at a restaurant for the first time in forever. My other choices were basically flank steak, mussles, or oysters. Slam dunk. Not all that bad either. It was grilled on a skewer. The chocolate fondue for dessert was even better.
- EasyJet sucks. I will avoid them at all costs if possible. Ok, maybe not all costs, but they’re gonna have to be darn convincing. Our flight out of Lyon to Madrid got cancelled. No fault of their own. The fault came when the agent changed our flight and rendered it impossible for us to obtain our rightful full refund, which ended up costing us about 50 euro more, making a car rental and drive to Paris at 8pm necessary and causing me to get about 4 hours of sleep on the first night of vacation. Not happy. EasyJet will hear about it. And they better give me my money back.
- It would be great if Lyon could do a better job of informing people that the “airport shuttle” doesn’t really pick up everywhere the map says it does. I’m just saying, if it says it five different places and you get there and there’s no bus, people might be a little perturbed.

*You’ll note that there seems to be a lot of complaining in Lyon. I wouldn’t say it was the greatest day on the vacation. Not a horrible time, just lots of cold, frustration and lack of sleep. It gets better.

Ms

While there are obviously some really huge differences between France and the States, there are some really subtle differences as well, that don't cause any kind of difficulty or confusion, they are just differences I notice. One of these things is the way students (who then grow up to be professors, writers, etc..) are taught to write their capital M. I'm not positive if it is the same for the small m as it is harder to notice, but I definitely notice it on the big M.
In the states, to write a big M, we start at the top left and make a downstroke, followed by making the two humps. You following?
In France (apparently, because really, I have never been in a primary class where students are learning how to write) the students are taught to start at the bottom left and use one full stroke to make the upstroke and the humps at the same time. But, sometimes the people writing the Ms get a little lazy and don't bother with the downturn in the middle that is supposed to be there to make the M look, well, like an M. Instead the letter turns out looking like an upside down big U. I am going to try and take a picture if I see one on a sign so you have so idea what I'm talking about. Not a huge, earth-shattering difference, just an observation from abroad.

Snow!

I have been reading quite a bit, and seeing the clips on the French news, about the blizzards hitting my friends on the East Coast. Well, I think your winter weather finally made it across the Atlantic because last night, as I was sitting in a warm bar that is two blocks from my house, drinking a pint of demi-peche (Kronnenburg with peach sirop), I watched a blizzard outside. The snow was coming down in buckets, and the flacons (flakes) were enormous! We go to the bar at 9:30 and it hadn't started nowing yet, we left at 1:30am and it had snowed probably 5 inches. By the time I got up this morning it had snowed a few more. When I was walking over to use the internet this morning, the snow came up to my mid calf. I think that means we're talking a good 8 inches or so. Nice. Thanks for sending the loveliness our way. Would be great fun if I could sit inside by the fire, drink hot chocolate and read a book, but today we head out for 10 days of vacation. We have to get to the train station with luggage to kick off the party, so I'm sure the snow will make that our first adventure.

Glasses...or so we thought

When we moved into our apartment, we thankfully had quite a few plates, sets of silverware, pots and pans, and glasses. The majority of the glasses are small like this:

I just figured they came in a big set or something, as we have about 10 of them. That is, until I was cleaning out some jars for recycling. We had gotten a small nutella container just to have some a few weeks ago. Well we ate it all (with pretzels and peanut butter sandwiches) and I was washing out the jar to put it in recycling when I noticed that our glasses are old nutella jars! After peeling off the label and getting all the yummy goodness out of it, we have another glass. Too bad I already bought a larger Nutella container or I would have gotten a small one again to grow our collection of glasses.

First Package!

After Skyping with my parents on Sunday, I was super excited because I knew I had a package coming. Woot woot! So, as you know, Sunday night was the Super Bowl. I decided to go to bed around 10 and see if I could get about 2 hours of sleep before getting up for it. As I'm in a semi-concious state, and my roommate is watching downloads in her bed across the room, we suddenly hear footsteps in the courtyard and our door downstairs open. Then we hear, "Bon soir? Allo?" It is our landlord Bridgette. At 11:00 on Sunday night. I guess she saw our light on and knew we were still awake. She was bringing me a Valentine's day card from home and my package pick up slip. Woot!
So Monday, around 11 am I go to the post office to pick up the package. It is still on the truck to re-try delivery today. Come back after 4 the lady says. At 4:30 I return. Still no package. Grr...
Tuesday I finally make it to the post office around 2:30, after waiting about 10 minutes while the lady searched the back room (me thinking the whole time that she was going to come out and say she didn't have it) she came back with my package!!
Now here is the thing about getting packages internationally. I could have looked immediately at the package slip on the outside to see what is in the box. There is a list of all contents for customs, but no, I like surprises. So I took the box home and opened it up to find, Spanish Garden's taco spice, a bag of peanut m&ms, a bag of Hershey's chocolate hearts, a package of the candy conversation hearts I like (not the Brach's chalky ones), a gift bag from Helzberg with a little charm in it that says "I love you" and some "I am Loved" buttons with Jayhawks, in French and the Valentine ones, and the funniest part was a bag of dark chocolate m&m's in a ziploc. The bag had been opened and there was a note from dad that said "Some had to be removed to keep the package under 4 lbs. Love Dad". I laughed. While I have no doubt that this is true, it still made me laugh. I have the best parents ever.

Iternational Fair

Today my roommates and I went to school to represent KU at the International Fair. Essentially the fair gives some of the younger students the opportunity to talk to students that have either studied in other countries, or international students that are visiting from those countries. The US was paired with Canada. We all showed up in our Jayhawk shirts, and I brought a little KU flag I brought with me. A roommate started a slideshow of the campus and on we went. There were also students from BYU, Kalamazoo Michigan and students who had studied at Wyoming and a university in Montreal. We quickly realized that the major thing we needed to have was a map because the first question everyone asks is "where is Kansas?" Funny, one of the Michigan students even asked that. She was kidding though. I think.
We talked to a few students who had interest in studying in the US, and tried to convince them to come to Kansas. We talked about the campus, the sports, the flat accent so that they could understand the language better, the four seasons, etc... We should be state of Kansas ambassadors really. I guess we should see how many people come to Lawrence next year, but we did our best. Our main selling point was that the people are nice. and that we have the best college basketball team in the nation. Both inticing arguments I'd say.

Crepes!

Last night, in honor of a friend's birthday, we attempted making crepes at our apartment for the first time. I found an easy recipe online, after first finding one in metric quantities, I then found one in standard measurements. While I have no measuring cups, I am a heck of a lot better at guessing quantities in standard measurements than I am in metric. So on we went. Thankfully we had everything we needed. I had heard from a Frenchman who was making crepes at a party we went to previously to make the batter a few hours early and let it refridgerate. I did that and when we were finished with dinner, we busted out the crepe pan we have and oiled it up.
With care, my roommate ladeled on the first spoonful of batter into the pan and spread it around. When she tried to loosen it up to flip the crepe...it didn't budge. We concluded that either the pan's sticky factor was too high or the heat wasn't high enough. We tried again with no success. So I busted out the skillet we bought a few weeks ago that still had ample teflon on it and tried that. Worked like a charm. We got 5 good crepes out of the batch (it was only supposed to make 8) so I think it was quite a success. We set them on the table with all the options of toppings: nutella, peanut butter, strawberry jam, butter, cinnamon and sugar and vanilla ice cream. I'd say dessert was quite a success.

Super Late Bowl

As stated previously, one of the things I really miss about living here is the ability to watch sporting events at normal times and not in the middle of the night. This is only heightened by the fact that the Super Bowl was last night. We did watch it, 14 people in a little apartment, which actually made it pretty fun. The game started at 12:30am and I went to bed at the beginning of the fourth quarter because I just couldn't keep my eyes open any more. The whole time I knew I was going to miss something good. I searched for the highlights this morning when I woke up, but it just wasn't the same. Kudos to the Saints though. I was pretty surprised when I read that they won. I thought it would be Mr. Manning all the way.
On another note, we did have Pizza for the party at 12:30 am. We bought the pizza at 8pm though, because we knew it wouldn't be open at midnight. I did miss the nachos, dips, cookies and chocolate truffle balls though. We also contemplated doing a numbers square, but no one had any money and no one thought they were going to make it long enough into the game. Took some of the fun out of it, but at least we got to watch for a bit. Boy oh boy is my sleeping schedule screwed up though. The things I do for sports.

Beer

As you know, France is the land of wine, but I have to say it amazes me how much beer I have drank here. I think it is because it is just a natural thing to drink beer when we are out at bars or watching sports. I did notice this past weekend that it is probably a better idea for me to drink wine while I'm out. Firstly because I drink wine much slower than I drink beer. Secondly because a glass of wine is 2.80 and a pint of beer is 5.80 and thirdly because I rarely can drink wine long enough to have a hangover the next day from it. Seems like three pretty good reasons to stop drinking so much beer here. Plus, I'm in France, where there is more wine than one can possibly imagine.

I have been asked about the beer selections here though, and while there is Budweiser, it is the only American beer I have seen. They do have Amstel and Guiness and Carslberg and such, just like bars at home do, the difference is that most of the time Guiness and Carslberg are on tap. I did take a picture of the bottled beer selection at a local bar so you could have so idea of the span of offerings available. Not the greatest picture evr, but I took it because the Budweiser is called Bud here. Is it at home? I can't remember.

Sun

I have noticed since being here that the buildings are equipped differently to cope with the sun coming into the rooms through the windows. Some windows have shutters that close on the outside. Some have the actual blinds on the outside and this building just has really huge panels that close at necessary times. If you look closely you can see that some of the panels are closed, and others are open, but essentially they span the entire building.

Quite an interesting way to guard against the sun. I have seen sun shades that roll out from the top of the window and doors that roll down to make the room dark as well. What I have not seen though, is blinds inside the windows to take care of the sun problem. Just another random difference.

Soldes

Shopping in France is slightly different two times of the year. January and July. Why you ask? Because these are the two time periods where the government lets the stores have sales. From what I understand, otherwise the stores are not able to mark products down. This means that obviously during this time there are a lot of people looking for good deals.

The soldes ended yesterday, and as we got closer to the end, the percentages marked off just kept going up. I went shopping a few times and never bought anything, mostly because I didn't need anything and a little because I couldn't find what I was looking for (black boots). I don't know why people would buy stuff at other times of year unless they are in desperate need, but I have to imagine the stores make a pretty penny in these months. I did think it was interesting though that January seems to be the month that people take off. So, I was surprised the stores have sales when sometimes they aren't open. But maybe that is why the sales went into the first week of Feb. At any rate, now if I need to buy something, at least I know it won't be on sale.

Fondue

For a fellow student's birthday, we tried out a recommendation we received from a French student for dinner. It was the first restaurant we have been to that we all ha a pretty difficult time figuring out what was on the menu. Generally speaking with three of us at the minimum at dinner, we can do a substantial job of deciphering everything on the menu. Every once in a while there is a random word that we don't know, but we know all the major ingredients. The problem at this place was that we didn't know the categories of food. Pretty big problem when we can't even figure out what is going on with the way the ingredients are cooked.

The way things work in general at restaurants in France is that they give you the menus when you sit down and then come back 5 minutes later to take your order on food and drink at the same time. Not very often do they stop by to get the drink order and ask if you have any questions before wanting you to order. So, if you have a question (as we did), you ask it and then decide real fast what you want to eat. Thus, our back up plan was fondue. We hadn't had it yet since we have been in France. So, we ask what the random ingredient is in one of the fondues and after getting the answer of mushrooms (it was a specific kind of mushrooms, thus leading to our confusion) we ordered the fondue. Now when I have had fondue in the States, it is all different kinds of vegetables, maybe some different meats, but not usually slices of sausage and ham. Here's what my fondue plate looked like:

Pretty yummy, but a little difficult I thought to dunk the slices in the cheesy goodness. I managed.

The dessert fondue (chocolate obviously) came with bananas, pears or apples (depending on the plate), and oranges or grapefruit (depending on the plate once again). No strawberries or pound cake or marshmallows. Ok, I wasn't really expecting the marshmallows, but no cake? I mean think is the country of "Let them eat cake!" ok ok bad joke, but we decided we didn't get strawberries because they weren't in season. The chocolate sure was good though. As was the entire meal.

Music

I thought when I came over to France that I would leave all the "pop" music that plays on the radio 800 times a day, at home. But, I was sorely mistaken. The same music that plays in bars and on the radio at home plays in bars and on the radio here. Last night I went into a bar to watch a soccer game and guess what was on the radio? Matchbox 20. How perfect is that? Of course it was followed by Mariah Carey from about 10 years ago, but whatever. I'm amazed at how popular all the "party" songs over here, and I'm quickly getting tired of hearing them. There are also the more covert bands though too like that Fireflies song that was playing in the US before I left. Also, I have gone to 3 spin classes at the gym and I have three points about the music.

1. All of it is in English, and I'm pretty sure all American.

2. Life is a Highway must be the most popular spin song on the face of the planet

3. The music has been exactly the same every time I have done spin. This is going to get annoying real quick, but I will know all the words to Life is a Highway. there are advantages I guess.

I did finally figure out (with the help of a roommate) that I can listen to French talk radio on my phone. So I'm going to start doing that before I go to sleep. I tried it last night and there were some French songs thrown in as well. Maybe it'll help with my French comprehension and keep me from going crazy from hearing the same songs (Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas, I'm looking at you) all the time.

Short Films

This town I am living in isn't famous for much, but what it is known for is its short film festival. Today we went to a session of the festival because we didn't have class. The line to get in was incredibly long, but everyone got in and got seats. We bought tickets there for 3 euro which entitled us to see 6 films. The films are from all over the world, so we saw one from Brazil, Iran, Canada, Scotland, Russia and Hong Kong. Very interesting really. They ranged in time from 9 min to 26 minutes and from depressing stuff such as suicide to funny stuff such as an animated train running awry on a mountain. I have a problem with movies though, in that they make me want to fall asleep. I was completely fine going into the session, but about half way through I could have taken a nap. And no, it had nothing to do with the movies, although I have noticed that short films are much more about thought-provoking subjects than full-out movies are. We are thinking about trying to go to another session of the festival because two of the locations are literally a 4 minute walk from where we live. There are definitely more people out and about walking around too. It is such an interesting event for a little town in the middle of France to put on, but there are prizes and everything for the best pieces. Good thing I didn't miss taking part in the only real signifacant tourist attraction my city has!

American Sayings

We had a highly entertaining night at the bar last night while watching a big French soccer game (Marseilles vs. Toulouse) and playing trivia (all questions were about Disney movies!). During the time while we were doing these multiple activities, plus, of course, drinking beer and trying to speak our non-native languages (we have an agreement that the Americans speak French and the French speak English) there were quite the fun phrases being exchanged.
It all began when the translation of "I don't care" was asked for. This ended up being possible in a few French phrases, but after I said one I got seriously laughed at because apparently, as a female, I'm not allowed to say the phrase because I lack phsyical attributes referred to in the phrase. It led to possibly the funniest bar conversation and teaching of American phrases to the French that we've had yet, and there are some pretty funny lost in translation moments. One included "dans le derriere" which isn't "in the back" it is "in the toosh" (although a little more literally). I have a whole list of good stuff from last night including the translation for "That's what she said". Somehow we got on the topic of teaching the French how to say "Grow a pair". I almost died laughing. We're really passing along the best of the best to the French, and laughing hysterically along the way.

Drowning in r's

I have serious issues being able to speak French. It is amazing really, that I can have taken so many classes in it and have no ability to speak coherently in the language. I can understand it, I can decently read it, just can't speak it. Thankfully we have met some very nice French who are willing to listen to me take 5 minutes to say a single sentence, but it is the most frustrating thing about being here by far. I also am lucky that I have roommates that speak the language well. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be if I had to do everything with the apartment.
Another frustrating part is that I take a long time to formulate the correct way to say something, then I say it and the person responds in a few seconds and usually asks a question or tries to continue the conversation, but it takes me another long amount of time to find the correct words. Ugh.
The accent used is definitely the worst. I have problems saying the r's. I tried to avoid words with letter r, but that didn't seem to work. ha. So, now, I just corrected every time I try to say the letter. It is ok, and good to know when I should be saying it differently, but I'm probably going to talk significantly less here than I do at home, which I know most of you are thinking is a very good thing. :-)
French language classes start tonight though, so let's hope they help.

Sirens!

While walking home for lunch today at noon, a siren went off. For those in Kansas, it sounds a lot like a tornado siren. Then I remembered that a French student had told me that sirens go off on the first Wednesday of every month at noon. The same sirens that were used to warn of air raids during World War II. She said they are still tested just in case. My first thought was in case of what?!?!
I read up on it on wikipedia (I know, I know, not exactly the Harvard review, but it was easy) and it says that the sirens are used now for multiple reasons in different countries. Sometimes in the event of nuclear emergencies as well.
Anyway, I'm not sure I would like having warning sirens that were the same ones that were used to warn you of air raids in a World War being used "just to be tested". Seems like the memories triggered for some people by these sirens wouldn't be so pleasant. I don't think I'll ever hear tornado sirens again without thinking of the same sirens here.

Pilates

Went to Pilates the other day and found it much more difficult than spin. Mostly because I didn't understand a word she said other than the French words for inhale and exhale. I have those down pat. There was one time when she came over and was talking to me personally and I was nodding like I knew what was going on, and I guess fixed whatever she thought was wrong, because she acted like I made the correct response. So much harder than Spinning though! In spin, all I have to do is follow what the person in front of me is doing, and while I have no idea where my little ride is going, sometimes it makes it better not knowing because I don't know what I'm in for. The other problem with Pilates over Spin is that in Pilates I am laying on the floor with my head down in normal circumstances so it is way harder to discreetly look around and see what is going on. Even harder when the teacher is up walking around for the majority of class. It's ok though, I'm pretty over trying to look like I belong because I work out in vastly different clothes than everyone else. I wear a t-shirt and shorts like I would in the states, and people here all really dress like they are going to the gym with the spandex and tank tops. Not a whole lot different than the way people dress at the gym at home, but trust me, it is just different.

a European perspective

In class yesterday, our teacher, who is French, said a saying regarding the powers in the European community that I thought you might find insightful. Here it is:

"The French are the chefs,
the Italians are the lovers,
the Germans are the organizers,
and the British are the diplomats

You know all has gone to hell when:

The British are the chefs,
the Germans are the lovers,
the Italians try to organize,
and the French are the diplomats"

that about sums it up...

Margaritas

This was actually a post that was supposed to happen a few days ago when we were making Mexican food (tacos and guac) for some friends that were coming over. My roommate had the great idea to make some margaritas for dinner, as wine doesn't go spectacularly with tacos (don't worry, we can drink wine with everything). Thus, we went on a search for the components of Margaritas. We quickly found out that they don't really sell sour mix here, so we tried to think of how to make the margaritas from scratch. Being thoroughly stereotypical (is that a word?) we asked one of our Mexican friends how to make margaritas. He gave us the...I don't know I don't drink them. Ooops, called out on stereotyping, but anyway. I remember how to make the family margaritas, but there were a few other problems. The first was we couldn't find triple sec and the contreau was 18 euro for a small bottle. We had the tequila taken care of, and decided to use this lemon sirop they have here for the yummy drinks like Kool-Aid I referred to earlier in blogging land. But, to top off the margaritas, we went on a search for limes. No dice. We went to 3 markets by our apartment and couldn't find limes or lime juice. We ended up making a concoction of tequila and limon sirop and water, with lemons that ended up being really good. A few days later we asked some of the French students about limes. They didn't really know much about them, but we did find out that there isn't a specific word for limes. They are called green lemons. (citron vert). Huh, good to know.

Corn

Another food post...don't act like you're shocked.

In our constant mission to make dinners at home, we are trying to change things up a bit with the vegetables we eat. We have also had take-out Vietnamese a few times, which has left us with quite a bit of leftover rice on both occasions. To make sure we use all the food, we have taken to making fried rice with the leftovers. We have all kinds of good vegetables, from carrots to zucchini, to peppers and onion and mushrooms. We even have frozen pea pods that we throw into the pan to give it some more green. One vegetable we do not have though, is corn. We are to the point that we might buy canned corn because we can't find fresh or frozen anywhere. I'm dumbfounded. I guess I didn't think real hard about it until the other night when we were discussing the lack of corn, but America produces tons of corn, France, I guess not so much. I'm sad though because I love corn. I haven't really tried looking for it in restaurants yet, but I'm going to pay attention now and see if it really is going to be a wild goose chase to find corn or if I'm going to have to buy it canned. Once it gets warm I'm really going to start craving corn on the cob. Ah such a lovely vegetable.

Beef

Last night we had the Mexican students over for tacos and guacamole. We had chicken fajitas a few weeks ago and had found Mexican spice at the grocery store. This time we decided to try beef tacos with the Mexican spice that had been shipped from home. We made all the food and put the spice on, but when we were tasting the meat, we just couldn't get it to taste like home. That is when we decided that the problem was the meat. It wasn't bad or old or anything like that, there is just a different quailty of meat here. Yes, being from the part of the country we are from, we are used to some really good beef, but it is interesting to me that the beef would be so different here. Apparently it is what the cows are fed that completely changes the taste of the meat, but on a more general level, the French cook their beef very differently than in the States. If I would go out to a restaurant here and order a steak I would expect for it to be brown on the outside and mooing in the middle. The French firmly believe that if you cook the steak any longer than that it is a total waste of the meat. I know some people back home that eat their steaks with no pink in the middle, and I would consider that ruining the meat, but I'd rather not having it still mooing at me. A little pink would be nice, but here that would be a travesty and an insult to the cook. This is possibly the reason that I haven't eaten beef in a restaurant since I got here.

Pharmacy

I hate taking medicine. I really really do. Especially for colds because I know that they will pass eventually. Last week I picked up a wicked cough from somewhere and until Friday night was doing fine. I was sleeping ok, but still didn't feel great. Friday night though, I slept 3 hours due to coughing fits that wouldn't stop.

As a side note, never before in my life had I realized what people meant by lumpy pillows. I have never experienced them before coming here, but now I have. No complaints because I didn't buy them, but whew, lumpy pillows get rocky when coughing a lot and not being able to sleep.

On with the story...As you know, I was in class all day Saturday and was coughing to no end. So, I caved and went to the Pharmacy to get something for it. The pharmacist was really nice and asked me a thousand questions about what was wrong and how long I had the cough, etc... I was impressed by how elaborate she was before giving me the medicine. I ended up buying tablets to help loosen the junk in my chest. They are working quite nicely and I will be cough-free soon enough.

Saturday??

This weekend we did something I thought was very un-French. We had class all day Saturday. And to make matters worse they told us we will do this two other times this semester. We didn't have class at all on Thursday, but somehow we did on Saturday. What? I mean seriously. I was shocked when I first looked at the schedule. I just thought that there was no way that people who value their time off so much would make Saturday class necessary. Our schedule is so random that I think we could have fit it in sometime during the week. But as with everything else, we went with it. Thankfully the teacher was really good and kept the class interactive, but sheesh.

Saved by Skype

Alright people, next time you are at home and watching the Jayhawks, help me out a little bit and get online. I don't care what form of online media you use, either facebook, or skype, or aim, whatever, but please help me. Here's what happened. As we know, the Jayhawks played K-State this past weekend. The game was on at 1 am our time, so we went out to dinner, then to the bar for a bit and then headed over to a friend's house that was letting us come over to use his internet and watch the game. So we sign into get the live stream and have no problems for the first 35 minutes of the game. Then the game got real tight and the international community following the game flooded the interwebs. This caused mass hysteria in the apartment where we were watching because our feed kept disconnecting every 10 seconds. As you should know, the game was touch-and-go for our beloved Jayhawks and we kept having to reconnect which really loses its excitement by the 4th or 5th time. So, I was frantically trying to find people online to update me on the scores more efficiently than espn.com was doing. Hmmm...who'd I find? no one! Finally I got ahold of my parents on Skype and had the last few minutes for play by play including yelling and hollering and general relief. So, all I request is , like I said before, for the love of Pete, if you are at home watching the game, please get online in the event I'm having a heart attack at 3 in the morning in a foreign country.

Movies

Due to an extremely long night out the night before, we decided to take it easy one night and head to the movies. We wanted to see In the Air with George Clooney, so like normal, we looked in the paper, found where it was playing and headed off to the theater. There are multiple theaters in Clermont, the biggest being the one in Place de Jaude, which is also where the mall is. We went to a smaller one though, and really had no idea what to expect. We used our student ids and paid 4 euro for tickets. 4 euro! Sweet! We then went in search of the concession stand just to see what it was like. We followed the signs and ended up at....a vending machine. Luckily, as a true American I had brough gummy bears and worms with me to the show. So we enter the theater and it is pretty nice, kind of like one of the smaller theaters where they show movies that have been out for a while in the States. We take our seats and the movie beings, in English, with French subtitles. As the movie progresses we realize that either American humor doesn't translate well, or the subtitles aren't clueing the audience in on the humor, or the French just don't laugh during movies. The Americans are laughing, while everyone else is dead silent. Kind of strange really. To boot, we have said gummy bears and worms and of course the packages aren't silent as we are passing them back and forth. I can only imagine the French in the theater were seriously having their American stereotypes reinforced while watching this movie with us.

fitness

For the first few weeks we were here I didn't think people in France worked out at all. I thought maybe just the fact that everyone here walks all the time must have been sufficient to keep everyone super skinny. I'm not sure they are so healthy, being as most of them smoke all day, but being a little more interested in getting cardio activity, I tried running on the streets. Mutliple problems with this proposition. The first being that it is super cold outside. I didn't so much bring clothes for running outside every day and we've already discussed how expensive laundry is. Secondly, I live in the middle of the city so there is not really a good area to run where I don't have to wait for street lights, etc... There is a park, but I ran around it once in 3 minutes. Running a few miles in it would make me dizzy.
Then, I heard from the other American students that they found a gym! Woot woot. Promptly signed up for it, it is decently priced and has classes and a pool. Sounded like a pretty good deal to me. I went to spin class for the first time on Friday. Whew. Class wasn't hard, I mean it was as hard as a normal spin class, but I definitely didn't learn the vocabulary necessary to participate in a spin class in a different country. You wouldn't think it would be hard right? You would, in theory, just follow what the teacher is doing. Problem was the room was so packed I couldn't really see the teacher, so I had to follow the people in front of me, but I had no idea what was going on next, etc...He was saying it, I just wasn't getting it. Oh well, it was a good work out none-the-less. The weekend hours are of course screwy, being that we are in France and all. The place is open from 10-12 on Sunday. Uh huh. So I'm headed back this week for all kinds of fun-filled activities. I'll keep you posted.

Hours of Operation

As our schedule of classes here is completely random, on Thursday we didn't have class so we decided to take a short train ride (40 min and 9 euro) to Vichy, a place that the French talk very little about historically due to this town being the place where the Nazis occupied France. Now the French in this area talk about Vichy for its shopping and its "spas", which are really just thermal areas. Interestingly enough, the big hubub is that Vichy has shopping open on Sunday, which is really strange because almost nothing (including the grocery store) is open on Sunday.

We got on an early train and headed out. We arrived and there were huge flakes of snow falling from the sky. As we proceeded throughout the town we promptly noticed that nothing was open. Granted it was only 9:30 am, we should have known that the French are very good at opening at 10, working til noon. Closing for an hour and a half for lunch and then opening from 1-4 and going home for the day. Quite interesting really, how people have time to purchase things while they are supposedly working. The French do have a 35 hour work week, and are very good at making sure they get their time off. Apparently we weren't in Vichy during the right season because we walked quite a bit and, finding not much open, decided to have some hot chocolate. After walking back to the "Boutique Mall" after that, we found it completely empty. Nothing even in the place. I guess it wasn't a hub of activity after all.

When all else fails? Time to eat! After going to two different places that were "closed", yes restaurants closed during lunch time, it must have been since it was January, but anyway, we finally found an Italian place where had a true European lunch of eating, drinking wine and taking our sweet time. As shopping seemed to be the only option after lunch, we headed back to the train station to get our tickets before looking for a place for dessert. As you can probably decipher by now, of course we didn't get dessert because all the places that serve lunch close at 2:30 to get ready for dinner. One big thing to get used to between the States and France, if I want to eat out, I have to be on someone elses schedule, not my stomach's.