Rennes Part DEUX

Hello again everyone!

I won’t start classes at the actual university here until September 20th, when the rest of the French students start classes. In the meanwhile however, I’ll be taking a week and a half of intensive French alllll day long with the other American students in my group at a language school. It’s funny because my host mom asked me when I would be starting classes “à la fac”. I was so confused? “At the what?” I’m thinking… “the fac??”. I said “à Rennes II?” (Rennes II is the French University where I’ll be studying.) “Oui oui, la fac.” I guess they call the campus/university “the fac”, which is short for “the faculty”. I found it funny because when I think of faculty, I think of the faculty as in the professors, so I was thinking that she was asking me when I would be starting classes at the professors.

Also, I went out for my first experience with real French people (real?!) the other day. One of the other Richmond students here- Christine Wehrli- has a host brother who’s around 23 or 24, so he invited her who invited me to go to a pub to watch one of the rugby matches with him and his friends. His friends were nice, and two seemed especially eager to speak in English with me and Christine. It was the first rugby game I had ever seen, and I found it fascinating. To me, rugby is a strange combination of American football and football (soccer) that I don’t understand. Oh, and it’s HUGE here- did I mention that? Interesting how I’ve hardly ever heard of it in the US (maybe it’s due to my being totally out of the sports loop in general, even with US sports) and yet it’s incredibly popular in much of the rest of the world. Every time I would try to ask one of the guys what was happening, he would try to answer me in English (even if I asked in French) even though his English wasn’t fab (not like my French is “fab” either!), and it was a bit like the typical French stereotype: “Bahhhhh… uuhhhh… iz zwhen zoo… waz zee word? Keek? zee bol…etc. etc.”. And every time France would get a lead, you’d hear a bunch of “ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ!!!!” (“GO GO GO!!! in English) from [mostly] the men in the pub. You can say I was greatly humored by the whole situation. We didn’t stay until the end of the game because Christine’s host brother and his friends had to go.

After they left, I walked downtown to one of the big city square centers- almost like a enormous quad that’s surrounded by buildings. (Picture below) Events are always taking place in this square, and there are others throughout the city that hold events/exhibits too. For the whole month of September and the beginning of October, there is a photography exhibition of about 20 or so photographs by Steve McCurry (an American, I think, but really not sure…) that are blown up really huge so you can really seen them. His photographs are INCREDIBLE- taken all over the world, and mostly deal with capturing the lives of common people/giving western cultures an astonishing view into the world of most cultures with which we are not familiar. Luckily my Richmond amiga- I mean “copine” (girlfriend, in French)- Christine took some pictures of a few of the photographs. I’ve included one below.

A few of Steve McCurry's photos from his exhibit downtown

Anyways, at this particular city square on this particular day there was a type of fair going on (I later found out it was a benefit for kids with Leukemia) with a band on a stage, clowns walking around, lots of people either watching the band or going to the different stations that were set up for the kids and what not. When I got closer, you can’t believe what kind of music I heard… the BLUES!!!! You can say I was surprised! There were a bunch of 40-60 year-old [French?] men up on stage singing all these blues/classic rock songs I recognized like “Sweet Home Alabama”. I went to sit down in a group of chairs off to the side to listen to the band and was soon approached by a clown who might have felt sorry for me because I was alone. I’m not sure, but he was really friendly! It soon became apparent that I wasn’t French when I had to ask him several times over the loud music, “Quoi?” (what?), so he asked me where I was from (I get asked that several times a week… used to it by now!). I told him from the US- CA- and he smiled. Soon two little girls came over (I found out they were his daughters- really cute!) and he set them up on his lap. He told them [in French] “This girl’s from CA!” I continued chatting with them, and then the little girl told her dad that I spoke French like that “one other girl we met who mispronounced the words too”. Hahahaha… I thought that was pretty funny- being told you don’t speak that well by a little 6 year-old! I told her French pronunciation was difficult for Anglophones. Soon they left, and I got up to leave too. As I was leaving, the band was singing the well-known song “smmookkeee on the waattterrrr, fire in the sky-I”. I had fun singing that. Here in Rennes, most people know a little bit of English, but there aren’t tons (like in Paris) that are completely fluent. Hence, I enjoy singing the words to the songs in English that play on the radio. I’ve found English to be almost exciting(!) to speak since being in Rennes… not like I ever speak in English, of course not- here to learn French! ;) Oh, and I can’t tell you how shocked I am with how much American music they play on the radio here. Just shows you how mainstream pop culture is kind of the same in a way all over the world.

The mayor of Rennes in his welcome address to the

all of the international students

Rennes II students siting down to eat after getting their trays of food from the cafeteria. I don't know about you, but I find this hilarious!

Another funny experience I had recently was at a Pizzeria I went to with some friends. I ordered a personal-sized pizza (picture below) that was delicious (yes, it was so delicious that I took a picture), but the fact remained that it was just too big, so I only ate half and was going to eat the other half for dinner since I was going to be out walking around all day. With the other half of the pizza on my plate, the waiter came by and almost took it away. I told him to please leave it and not take it away, and instead asked him for a box that I could take it home in. He gave me this really weird look that I didn’t understand at all. Wasn’t taking home leftovers normal? I was confused. He came back a few minutes later with this odd plastic container that I think had been [up to that point] used for holding ingredients back in the kitchen. I guess no one ever asked to take home their leftovers!!! After that, he tried to speak some English with us. “Zank zou… Goodzbyee.” I found that pretty hilarious that it was after I asked for the to-go box that he started trying to speak some English with us. I guess it was obvious (I don’t know) that we were foreigners, and more specifically Americans, because maybe it’s an American thing to do? I don’t know, but the whole thing surprised me because normally the French are super energy-environment-conscious, as in they don’t unnecessarily waste things! And yet the waiter was going to toss out the leftovers of my perfectly good pizza that I hadn’t finished! Later when I got home, I recounted the story to my host mom, who thought it was funny.

Back to cheese… yes, I must mention cheese again in this post, even though I mentioned it in the last post! I’m learning that cheese is nothing without baguette (they eat it all the time!), and vice versa, though I suppose baguette and butter are pretty tight too… hm, well anyways, I recently tried one of the most famous French cheeses “Camembert”. I didn’t like it at all the first time I tried it… the smell turned me off so much (and this isn’t even really a “smelly” cheese compared to many others!). However, I’ve been learning that when it comes to the “smellier” cheeses, you really have to resist smelling them (if you’re weak like me ;)), and just eat them. Trust me, they’re actually really good! So yeah, me and Camembert… we’re on good terms now, we’re buds. Now, I must say that this does not in any way mean that I will be turning this now good experience into becoming super adventurous and really going out there with the different types of cheese I try. I stick to what we eat “chez moi” (at my house), and am willing to try everything there. But I will not try any cheese that, upon smelling it, makes me want to vomit. Ok. Good. Now that we have that understood, let’s move on, no? ;) Actually, this has been a pretty long post, and I don’t want to overtire those of you that have stuck through the whole thing, so I’ll end here. Until next time!! Grosses bises! (Lots of love!)

Me and Christine with our wine teacher after he had given us and the rest of the CIEE group a two-hour presentation on the art of wine tasting! (Several different samples of wine included.)

1st Post

*Official* hello from Rennes ! I just arrived a few days ago, and have so much to tell already. Well, let’s see… where to begin? Rennes is an incredibly cute, charming, and yet modern city. I feel like it’s not too big, not too small. It has roughly 150,000 or so citizens. It’s a city that is built all around the downtown, so it kind of has that huge circular shape, you know? There is one metro line (I heard it’s the smallest city in France to even have a metro line, so I guess we’re pretty lucky here!) that cuts through the whole city. Then the bus lines branch out from the center of the city to the outskirts of Rennes and the suburban neighborhoods beyond. Every Saturday morning, there’s a market downtown and people from all over the region come to sell their products. Today I went on a walk around the city with some students from my group, led by one of our French student monitors. Here are some pictures below that I took while walking around.

Saturday morning, downtown

Two guys playing marimba and bells to one of the songs from the Amelie soundtrack!!! SO COOL!

Oh, and it’s probably good to mention where Rennes is exactly. Here’s a map of France below, and more specifically the Brittany region. Rennes is the capital of the province of Brittany (Rennes is off to the right). It’s only a two hour train ride from Paris, so you could easily go there for the weekend, or travel to another part of Europe from there, but it’s also far enough away so that you have a good distance from the abundance of English speakers there ;) (In my experience in Paris, I found that when I tried to speak in French anywhere I went, the people would automatically begin to speak to me in English! They were just probably trying to make life easier on me, but each time I thought “no!! not again!!!” Still, if you really want to only speak French there, I’m sure you could make it happen.)

Also, I’ll be living with a French family while I’m here in Rennes for the semester. I met them and moved into their house the night I arrived. You can say I was definitely nervous to meet them(!), but they are super nice, so there’s not much to be worried about. I’m living with a woman named Françoise who’s in her upper 50s I suspect. She has 4 kids, Tiphaine, Betrand, Elenor, and Charlotte. Tiphaine is about 28 and lives in Paris with her husband of 2 years. Betrand is about 25 and also lives in Paris, though his long-term girlfriend is finishing up her studies at pharmacy school here in Rennes (thus I see him from time to time). Elenor is 21 and goes to college in a city called Nantes which is just one hour south of Rennes by car. She comes home every weekend (which is typical for French college students- they go to whatever college is closest to their home that offers their major- different than American students!), so I see her on the weekends. Lastly, there’s Charlotte. She’s 17, is in her last year of high school, and is preparing to take the infamous “Bac” at the end of this year, which is kind of our SAT in a way, though I’m still a little unclear on all the details. All I know is that it’s extremely important, so her mom makes sure she doesn’t spend too much time on the computer/internet/chat (sounds like us American college students, no?!) and goes to bed at a decent hour (they usually go to bed by 10pm-10:30pm- early!!! Well… at least for me…). I have my own huge room on the second floor. There’s only one other room up there besides mine- Elenor’s- but she’s gone most of the time, so I have a lot of privacy. Unfortunately (but maybe fortunately) I have no wi-fi here like at Richmond. I think it’s going to be a really weird adjustment, because I’m so used to having internet/being able to check my e-mail and correspond with people (not to mention facebook!) everywhere I go. Still, I think that will probably make it easier for me not to get stuck in my room, always on the internet. (I’m trying to be optimistic here about the whole no-wifi thing- give me a break!! ;))

Also, another huge difference here is the food- wow! I will be eating dinner and breakfast with my host family during the week days, and then breakfast, lunch, and dinner with them on the weekends. My meals so far have been great, just really different than what I’m used to. For instance, the other night I sat down to dinner and was served this thing that looked like a wheat tortilla but folded so that it looked like a rectangle with one slice of cheese, ham, and one egg in the middle (that was not fully cooked). I was soon to learn that it’s a very popular regional meal here and similar to a crêpe, but called a “Galette” as it’s made out of buckwheat and not flour like crêpes. Here’s a picture of what it looks like below. I also found out by walking around the city that Galettes are HUGE- they are “Galetteries” (along with “Crêperies”) all over Rennes. One galette is a full meal (which to me doesn’t seem like enough food in the least!). But you know, it’s definitely true (in my experience at least) that the French eat less, but then again, I live with a woman and a teenager, so maybe they eat less just because they’re females?? I really don’t know. However, in general, we start with the main meal (a tiny something or other in my opinion), and then have a little bit a salad (when I say a “little bit”, I mean it! We’re talking like… 4 leaves of lettuce!). This is ALWAYS (without fail) followed by a small slice of baguette with a choice of cheeses. I reallyyyy love this part J Yum, what a great excuse to eat cheese everyday- can’t offend the family by refusing! ;) I find it quite fantastic. And after the cheese is always always (also without fail) dessert. I also find this fabulous, however, I must admit that I’ve been disappointed that they consider a banana/apple/”compote” (tiny lil’ apple sauce) “dessert” (what can I say?! Dhall spoiled me with a selection of cookies, cakes, pies, and other unimaginable little delectables after every meal!). Still, another good example of why the French are known for keeping shape, no? Because they’re not eating a huge slice of chocolate cake every night for dessert, though I really have nothing against the chocolate cake at all… that actually sounds really good right now… ;)
I will finish this first looonnggg e-mail mentioning one of my new favorite expressions: “C’est pas grave”, meaning in English “not a problem, nothing serious, don’t worry about it”. The French use it ALL the time!- I love it! I think I get such a kick out of it because I translate it from English as “it’s not grave”, so it always seems super over-dramatic and thus hilarious to me. For instance, the first or second night I was in France, I was using the family computer downstairs. I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden the internet disconnected!! It was late at night, and I didn’t want to pull the typical “foreign student breaking things already?!” thing and have my host family have to fix it the next day, so I tried to reconnect the cables, restart the computer, etc. I was getting more and more worried, thinking I had seriously done some damage. In the middle of all this, my host brother came back from hanging out with some friends. I explained the situation to him [a bit frantically] and he immediately replied “C’est pas grave! C’est pas grave!” I was thankful for his response. Turned out the modem of the computer is extremely sensitive, and even the slightest tap can make it disconnect from the internet (good to know for the future!). My host brother was able to do who-knows-what to get it back running, so that was a big sigh of relief.

I’ll end there! Hope you all are doing well! Please please, let me know how you are!!

Much love,

Shannon “Renée” Birk (yup, that’s right… my mom is a big winner in my book- she chose a French middle name for me! I guess she knew I’d be here one day… ;))