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.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, March 5, 2010
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.
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....
- "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....
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
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