Here I am

Well, I decided it was about time to update the blog, before it gets too late to remember everything that has happened.

My first two weeks in Rennes have been overwhelming, amazing, and very exciting. I will start by including some stuff I wrote in my diary right before I arrived...

From 6 Septembre 2007

Right now we are driving in l'autobus to meet our host families in Rennes. I found out a little bit about ma mere d'acceuil. Apparently she has several children, and her daughter is a host mom for another girl, Ludmila, who is from the Ukraine. And apparently, she's the best vegetarian chef. :) Being vegetarian is weird because I feel like as much as it's part of who I am, it's not all of me, and in this type of case, it has to be the deciding factor. For example, if I wasn't vegetarian, I would have really emphasized that I would want to live with small children and also no smokers, but I didn't want to limit my options even more. I feel like I would have liked to live with a family instead of just one person, but at the same time I know this happened for a reason. Who knows...maybe I'll be more comfortable with her and we'll be friends. It's all up in the air for another hour...

Later...

OH my God I feel like my brain might explode. I have had incredibly overwhelming evening. I was so so nervous about meeting my host mom and it was as nerve racking as I'd imagined. When I first met her, I didn't know what to say and it was very strange. There was another girl in the car and she didn't introduce me until we sat down for dinner later. Talk about culture shock! This is absolutely NOTHING like it was in Paris. It's like entering a world that is completely different from your own and not being able to clearly communicate. I thought that after SEVEN years of French classes I would know something, but I feel like I know absolutely nothing. It makes me angry with the school system in the US because I feel like I should know so much more. It feels unfair because if I knew even just a little bit more, I would feel like I could communicate. But at times tonight, it was like I was speaking like a 4 year old. It was terrible. I felt powerless. Especially when we spoke about me being vegetarian, and she basically didn't understand why I am vegetarian...I had this whole thing planned out about the factory farms and treatment of animals, and I did say it, but my host mom explained that she always buys free range meat and that here in France, they treat animals differently. After that, I had a really hard time explaining why I still couldn't eat the meat. She told me eventually that she respected my decision even though she didn't understand. At that point, I was feeling awful, but afterward, things got better. As I got more comfortable, I was able to speak more, and found her to be actually quite nice. It was just so hard to warm up to this culture. I can't wait to start the pre-program and classes because hopefully my French will come back and I won't always feel like my words are stuck in my throat. I think I could always take grammar tests and get good grades, but I've never in my entire academic career spoken French in such a natural context. Even in my French CONVERSATION class, we talked about GIVEN topics. I've never had to express myself like this, and it's extremely overwhelming. I have hope that it will get easier since this is now my home for the next 3 and half months. Oh, by the way, it turns out that the girl in the car is Mai - another foreign student from Vietnam. She is staying with us through September. I really like her - she is really friendly and helps me a lot with my French.

Voila! That was my first night...since then things have vastly improved. I can't believe it's only been a little over 2 weeks..I feel like I've been here for a long time. I won't try to remember every single day, but here are some little stories and memories from these 2 weeks...

~I spent my first weekend here in Dinard, a small town on the beach, about an hour (by car) from Rennes. It was wonderful! We went to the marche, which I loved. I bought two scarves and a children's book. Here are some photos from the weekend...

This is my host mom's house...the shutters are closed because we are leaving...


The inside of the house...beautiful...


The ocean....




From the market...




This is my host mom, Yvonne, and me on the beach in Saint Malo (right next to Dinard, where her house is). This was a fun night because we went out for a walk in Saint Malo, and then afterward, we saw an outdoor movie for free!


This is me on the bridge, on the way to Dinard...


On Sunday, a bunch of Yvonne's friends came over. First, we went to pick up two girls from the train station, who stayed with Yvonne in the past. Then, Yvonne's friends and their foreign student came over and we had a massive lunch. After, we all went to the beach. Since this was my first weekend, I had a lot of trouble communicating, but overall, it was fun.

Here is a funny story about learning to speak French...

When we were at the market on Saturday, I walked around with Mai while Yvonne went grocery shopping. When I wanted to buy a couple scarves, I asked the woman how many euros they were. She responded in English, that they were 10 euros or 2 for 15. So, not really hearing that she was speaking English, I responded in French. Then, she said in English, "I don't speak French." To which, I looked at Mai and said, in English, "Ohh she doesn't speak French." Mai looked at me strangely because she hardly speaks English. My brain was completely confused. :) I told this to my host mom and she told me that it means I'm starting to think in French...who knows...

On Monday, I had my pre-program classes at a building in centreville (downtown) called Centre de Langue et Communication (can you guess what that means)? I discovered I had been placed in the level "Seuil." To give you an idea of what that means, here are the levels: Introductif Fondamental, Introductif, Intermediare, Seuil, Avance, Autonomie. I was fairly happy with this placement, though I really wished I got placed in Avance. The classes went well, but the days were extremely long. We began at 9am and usually didn't finish until about 6pm. We began with a language course, had a break for lunch, and then had a civilisation course. My favorite civilisation courses were... a course on French slang, and another on Breton food (regional). The teachers were all very patient and I generally enjoyed being in classes. I started making some closer friends...especially Kelly, who you'll find in a lot of my pictures. One of the things I enjoyed the most was our cultural adaptation courses. I am extremely impressed with CIEE (my program) and how well this pre-program was put together. Loren (my program director) has dual citizenship in the US and France, and I think as a result, he truly understands what we need to be aware of. He has already thought of, and witnessed, things that American students need to understand while living in France, and therefore, he is totally prepared.

As part of our pre-program, we went to the Institut Franco-americain and watched part of the movie, "Bowling for Columbine." He wanted us to see it and discuss it because it brings up some very important questions that French people may ask us about. Apparently the movie was very well received in France, and we had a huge discussion about the reasons why. I loved the discussion and felt that I got to know some of my group members a bit more.

One other activity I loved was "conference sur le vin", or conference on wine. A man who specializes in wine came and gave us a huge presentation on wine (2 hours!) while we enjoyed tasting 3 different wines. It was amazing. :) I loved how much passion this man had about wine! I learned a lot and had fun, too.

My second weekend here, we went off to the beach again! This time, we brought my host mom's granddaughter, Josefa (pronounced Jo-say-fuh), and Ludmila, another girl from my program. On Saturday, we went to the market for a little while, and then we went to Saint Malo so that Ludmila and I could see the medieval city, surrounded by a wall. Here are the photos...



Josefa had to pee.. :-O

Wow...





The view from the top of the wall that surrounds the city (you can walk all around it)...



Looking inside at the village...

And outside again...




This is awesome...they made a stone pool full of sea water that naturally holds sea water when the tide is low...



Voila! Beautiful Saint Malo. I think I will go back there this coming weekend, because I feel like I didn't get to experience it all. I loved spending time with little Josefa...she is adorable, and very head-strong, and quite intelligent. She corrects my French by saying, "One does not say this, one says this:...", in French of course. We played some imagination games...she loved pretending it was someone's(one of our) birthday, and we would talk on the phone, and give each other presents. I think talking to her really improves my French! By the way, she's only almost 6 years old, and she's at least 3 times better at speaking than me. Oh well, I guess I would beat her at reading. ;) Maybe...

This past week, I was finally able to really explore Rennes...and I loved it. I am so blessed to live in such a beautiful city. Here are some photos...

This is what I see when I get off the metro everyday...



Rennes cobblestone streets...

Une belle piscine (pool)...


Le Jardin de Thabour...













That's all for now... I will update soon with more photos of Rennes and of my adventure to Normandie this weekend! I hope everyone is doing well...

Much love.