Boy, do the French love their strikes!

It’s a Tuesday, and I’m sitting in my afternoon translation class from English to French. About 15 minutes before the end of class, scraping sounds are starting to be heard out in the hallway. They continue for the next 10 or so minutes, and more and more students in my class (there are about 50 or so in all) start to whisper more furiously and are clearly distracted, yet the professor pushes on. Suddenly, the door to the class opens, and a male college student enters through the door and yells “Il y a un blocage!”, which means “There’s a blockage!”. I’m still confused by everything that’s happening. I don’t understand what “blockage” means. Then, as the student is leaving our classroom, my teacher practically forces the door to close on him and tells him, “No! We have 5 minutes of class left!” (But in French, of course :))The whole class is obviously agitated and excited, whispers now audible conversations, jumping around the room like electric current. My persistent teacher continues to read aloud the text we’re working on translating, despite the growing sounds of heavy metal things being pushed along the hallway floor outside. After what seems like an eternity, those five minutes finish and as students rush out of the classroom, my teacher yells after them “Send the homework to my e-mail address even if there is a blockage!!!”. I don’t have to wait long to find out what’s going on. As I exit the classroom, I look to my left and voilà!!!!

Then I turn around to look in the other direction, which is the way I normally exit the building (not like I could go out the door to my left anyways!), and see this:

I’m still wondering what a “blockage” exactly is, as I’ve never heard of anything like this is the US, but with the new desks, tables, and chairs all around me, I’m starting to get the picture. I don’t know why it’s happening, but I soon run into a few of the French monitors who specifically work with the international students at CIREFE (the program for foreign students not yet fluent in French at University Rennes II). They begin to explain to me that there was an General Assembly meeting in front of one of the key buildings, “Bâtiment B” or “Building B”, and that when the students voted whether or not to block the University, the majority had been in favor of the blockage. Thus, what was happening…

The main entrance to a building blocked from the inside with desk, chairs, etc.

Now let me backtrack just a little bit to explain this whole General Assembly thing really quickly. I’m still unclear on many details myself, but it’s kind of like student government, thus comprised of only students, but it has way more power that our student governments in the US, and it seems to have strong politically “left” tendencies. The General Assemblies always happen outside of one of the buildings, “Building B”, and the speakers (or whoever wants to speak at all) get up on the stairs and speak to the crowds below through a microphone/sound system. A picture of one of these going on is below.

General Assembly meeting going on outside of Building B

Food raid(?) of the cafeteria in Building B after the blockage began

Sooo… basically the story behind the whole blockage begins last August, when the French government in Paris voted to give the public university system in all of France autonomy. Usually this sounds like a good deal, but basically that means that they’re withdrawing major financial support from the public university system, which most of the students attend. Since the French Revolution, the French have been concerned with equality among their citizens, thus the words they hold so dear: “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”. I believe it was after World War II when the French government took on full responsibility to provide health care to all of the French people, as well as provide the payment of public education. Many French students have told me that this is a French ideal that is based on the notion that it’s a basic human right to have access to health care and education, among other things, and that no one should be deprived of that because of money. That being said, going to a public French university costs little to nothing, and also the system is uniform in the sense that this is practically no order of competition among the public universities like in the US. Of course there are exceptions here and there, but it’s nothing like, “Oh, I go to UCLA”, “Yeah, I go to UC Merced” (a very new public UC school in CA that’s near Yosemite and very small!!). Those are both public California schools, but everyone knows that it’s much more difficult to get into UCLA than it is to get into UC Merced (not to mention UCLA’s reputation), and that even though they both receive money from the state of California, it’s a given that UCLA gets a lot more money in private donations, etc., especially due to its location. In France, there’s no real difference in competition among the public schools like that. You can’t say, “Oh, I go to Rennes II” and feel smarter or more accomplished than the other student who’s going to the University in Lille instead. It’s just not like that. The government gives each public university the same money, there is a fixed income for the professors nation-wide, so one school can’t pay their professors more money and thus become a more desireable school. Also, as far as I know, French students can apply to any public university and go there if they desire. There’s nothing like the SAT to stop you. Of course, there are exceptions to everything I’m saying. For instance, I’ve been told that “La Sorbonne”, which is familiar even among most Americans, is evidently a school that is an exception to all this, among others. Because of its location in a rich part of Paris, it is able to receive more funding, and not just any student can choose to go there. What this “Loi d’Autonomie (LRU)” “Law of Autonomy” does is it makes universities instead depend in part on private companies, etc. etc. because they need to get further funding from somewhere if the government is going to no longer be paying the bill. As unemployment is a huge problem facing France right now, as well as national debt (though I don’t think it’s anywhere close to that of the US’s), the government thinks it would be good for French companies to get involved with the colleges so that it’d be easier for French students to find a job upon graduating. They say that this will decrease unemployment in France and in the long run (short run?), be a benefit for French students. However, it appears to me like the majority of students are extremely opposed to this law, as it increases the tuition fee (only a little at the beginning, but many tell me it is certain to increase little by little each year- just like the tuition fees at the US schools), and makes the universities in some ways precariously dependant on private companies since they will be the ones controlling the funds. Also, I guess something similar to this has happened before at some city in south France where a big company that was located near one of the universities started having students literally get their degree in a specialized field specific to their company. I guess things went sour somehow, the company moved away (or disbanded or something), and what was left were hundreds of students with a useless degree for anything else. This is another of the fears of the students. Interestingly enough, the law is to make the French university system more like that of the US’s, but from my impressions gathered from the French students, they don’t seem to want it at all. Actually, one of the big arguments I’ve heard against the law is that the students don’t want a system like that of the US’s. I’ve talked with other American students studying abroad with me about it, and they are split on the issue. Some think it will be a good thing to help solve the unemployment issue inFrance, as well as release the government of a good share of money that has traditionally gone to funding the public universities. I have mixed feelings myself about the whole issue, but it doesn’t seem to be a very “French” decision (traditionally, at least).France is not the United States, and the United States is not France. They have different systems that work in different ways, don’t work in other ways, and there are always new things being modified and changed to make improvements, etc. etc. But of course with the new government since Sarkozy’s election, France is changing!!! And many French don’t seem to be crazy about it. Mind you, some do (which is why he was elected, I guess). Have I mentioned yet how much the majority of students strongly dislike Sarkozy? My host mom thinks he’s great, but then again, I suppose that’s going to forever be a stereotype that is often proven true about political differences/ideologies/preferences between the older and the younger.

Picture of a group of students protesting against the blockage the day it first happened

“Call from Rouen” (French city where a university is located) flyer posted around campus asking the students at Rennes II to join them in the blockage as an act against the government.

Poster in the infamous “Bâtiment B” listing other French Universities on strike with a blockage.

So, the blockage started 3 weeks ago, and it’s officially stopped and started since then… let’s see… at least a half dozen times. It’s complicated, you see. Basically, there’s a growing group of students that are against the blockage and want classes to resume (whoops, I seem to have forgotten to mention that the blockage is intended to prevent students, professors, etc. from entering the building, so basically it’s a strike and there are no classes). The majority of these students are against the Law of Autonomy, yet they still don’t want classes to stop. One of the big reasons why is because there was a 13 week strike (pretty much 3 months! That’s practically the entirety of the semester!!) just a year and a half ago or so. I’m unclear as to the cause of the strike (it was another law having to do with education most certainly), but basically the students were on strike for most of the semester, and then still had to take their finals and all at the very end of the semester. Can you imagine? I would most certainly fail, and I’m sure there were more students than normal that did. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there are still many students still getting their degree who were in school when the strike happened a year and a half ago, and they are [what I assume to be] at their wits end with strikes, especially if it concerns their education/getting their degree on time/doing well on their finals. I don’t blame them in the least. Also, in the strike that happened 1.5 years ago, even the classes for the foreign students at CIREFE (where I take the majority of my classes) were not allowed to continue, despite their not being French and having nothing to do with the French political problem. Consequently, hundreds of foreign students went home mid-semester, not having earned any credits, and having lost their money. It was a big flop. I am very fortunate because despite the strike happening at the actual school, the CIREFE professors and staff have found locations for us to have class off-campus. Go them!!! They’re really dedicated and quite honestly great people. So, I’m still having class minus my two translation classes I normally have at the school (luckily my CIEE program director corresponded with some of the English professors at the University, and it looks like we’re still going to be able to have our papers graded and have finals even if the strike persists for some time!). Unfortunately, the French students aren’t. Every Tuesday since Tuesday November 6, classes have been supposed to resume, so every Tuesday I’ve gone to the actual University (CIREFE has planned for them to be held on-campus those days since the President of the University has literally announced himself that classes would be resuming) to have class beginning at 8am, only to find the buildings blocked again.

“Checkpoint” in front of one of the entrances to one of the buildings to see if the “blockers” feel you have a worthy reason to enter the building (i.e. being a foreign student, etc.)

For the first week of the strike, foreign students were allowed to resume classes- just not the French students- but after the first week, the French students in favor of the blockage decided that all the students were going to be “blocked” from their classes, including the foreign students (I guess they want this to put more pressure on the government??? That’s all I can figure at least). However, the first week of the strike when I was still going to class on campus, I had to go past this “check point” type thing. It was so weird. I had to tell a group of “blockers” (students who are enforcing the “block”) that I was a foreign student, and that I was allowed to pass. It’s evident to them who’s a foreign student and who’s not. They can easily tell by our language abilities/funny accents, but sheesh! I couldn’t believe it. It was kind of unreal. The picture above is a picture I took from a window of one of the buildings of the “check point” below (pretty laid back check point, wouldn’t you say?).

Assembly General meeting going on.

So you may be wondering (like I still am), how the students are allowed to continue like this. I mean, shouldn’t this have all been stopped within the first hour it started? Police arrive, administration enters, “blockers” get kicked out of the buildings, classes resume….??? Well, it’s not nearly as easy as that at all. I’ve been told that it’s kind of an “unspoken truth” that the only two places where the French police are forbidden are churches and French Universities. I find the latter example pretty hilarious, but it’s true! Ever since the 1960s when there were the infamous riots in Paris with the French students and the French police, it’s a rare thing to ever seen any police on campus. Now, I still don’t really understand this, and am still shocked by this, but I guess French students are known for despising the police and not being afraid to “push back” if you catch my drift. Thus, the police try and stay as far away from and as far as they can out of French student life at the universities. Mostly for safety reasons, the President of the Rennes II has closed down the University several times when classes were supposed to resume these past three weeks. The first time they were supposed to resume, “blockers” with iron rods were waiting in front of the doors of the buildings when the school security guards came to unlock the buildings in the early morning, so the President decided to play it safe and closed down the University for a few days. There have also been some votes to see what the students really want instead of doing the traditional and extremely faulty voting system of raising your two hands and having the people look out at the crowd and take the vote like that. The first one was held by the administration in one of the buildings, and students were allowed to come and vote between a period of several hours. You had to present your student ID (because many people that come to the General Assembly meetings to vote by the “raising your two hands” method aren’t actually students of the University, but friends of the “blockers”, thus giving their vote to the blockage unfairly) to be able to vote. In the end, it was something like 60% of students against the blockage, 40% for the blockage. Thus, classes were supposed to resume. However, the blockers accused the administration of manipulating the vote. That will forever be one of the problems with democracies, no? Then, just last Thursday and Friday, there was another vote online, and this time there were around 70% of students against the blockage, 25% for the blockage, and about 5% who chose to abstain. Again, classes were supposed to resume on Monday or Tuesday, and again the blockers accused the administration of manipulating the vote. At this point, I would have to say that it’s the blockers who are being extremely forceful and undemocratic, and that that is one of the reasons for the growing number of students against the blockage.

There’s still so much to say about the blockage and all the rest of the other strikes (yes, there have been many more!) going on in France right now, but I’m afraid this post is getting long to the point of warding off readers, so I’ll stop here, but I will continue with this whole topic in my next post in the next few days.

I guess something I’m learning from this is to not take advantage of going to class. I mean, this is just a minor example in being deprived of your education, but there really are so many students out there in other countries (or even in the US!) who do want to go to school- want to get an education- but can’t for some reason or another. So at least appreciate that you can go to class today! Also, it’s a pretty “hands on” lesson in French culture. Boy do they love their strikes! Pretty interesting to witness this all first hand!

I’ll update you all on the situation soon! Au revoir!

*Ma Quotidienne*

Bonsoir à tous !

It is evening here in Rennes right now… 7pm to be exact, 1pm in Richmond, VA, and 10AM( !!) back home in California. Goodness, time changes are weird. I have to admit that the drastic time change between me and “family home” (CA, as opposed to “college home”, Richmond) have most certainly caused some difficulties in keeping up regularly with all my peeps back there. Anyhow, I was thinking about what to write for this next post (not too difficult since there’s so much to write about in the first place, and so much I still haven’t told you all about), and thought I would talk about my daily life here in Rennes among other random things thrown in there. Kind of like a meal with all sorts of food that don’t necessarily go together: i.e. mashed potatoes (from the box), chicken curry (the real thing, baby), canned Veg-All (never make this for your kids like my dad did when I was young- sorry dad!), and chocolate cake (amen for chocolate cake).

So let’s see… well, first off, waking up early or having an early class does not get any easier in a foreign country. Actually, it’s worse! It takes on average 40 min. to arrive to school from the time I either 1) walk to the metro from my house and take the metro to my school, 2) walk to the nearest bus stop from my house, wait for the bus to arrive (and you have to be at least 5 min. early cause you never know when those suckers- I mean buses- are going to arrive. I’ve even missed buses I arrived 5 min. early to! I mean, what’s up with that?!), and take the bus to school. It’s no more “Richmond-style”, “roll out of bed 10 min. before class starts and still make it, teeth brushed and all” early morning class. If I have a class at 8:15am (and unfortunately I have two of them two different days!), I am out of my house no later than 7:30am, which means I wake up no later than 7am. Maybe getting up one hour earlier doesn’t seem to be such a big deal, but I think everyone knows what it’s like to snooze those 5 extra minutes in the morning because we think it’s going to make such a big difference! (No worries, not accusing anyone… I do it every morning!) Moving on…

"Chez moi!" (My house!)

Public transportation is a huge part of my everyday life, as well as for many “Rennais” (people who live in Rennes). I find it much different than the car lifestyle I’m used to in the United States, and it has its pros and cons. Number one pro: it’s environmentally friendly. I think anyone could have guessed that! Also, it’s much cheaper and much more affordable (I pay 26€/month for unlimited public transportation inc. the bus and the metro! That’s equivalent to about… [rough estimate, please forgive me you economics people out there] $37. That’s unbelievable!), AND it goes pretty much everywhere AND buses come at least every ten minutes (of course that depends on the time of the day), while metros can come up to every 2 min. I also like taking some time to chill/relax/people watch/study on the bus on the way to school. It’s not like back at Richmond where I’m usually running like mad to class, arriving out of breath and on the verge of a heart attack (well, actually, I hope not that- I’m too young!). As for its cons, it can definitely be a *little* inconvenient at times: to get from point A to point B, you might have to change from the bus to the metro and back to a different bus; when you are walking up to your stop and see your bus come and leave before you can make it there even though you’re running faster than you ever have in your life (Yes! Even faster than when you ran the mile in junior high/high school! Crazy what wanting to catch a bus can inspire in you physically…); when the buses stop running at 12:30am… even on the weekends!... no fun. So yes, altogether though, I think public transportation is great and that here in Rennes, it’s especially effective.

Metro stop "Villejean" on campus

As for my classes, I pretty much have class all day long Monday and Tuesday, one class on Wednesday (woot!), finish by 1:30pm on Thursday, and have no class on Friday (yes yes yes yes yes!!!!). Classes are good. I’m attending “CIREFE” which is a special school for foreign students not yet fluent in French/ready to take classes full on in French. So far it’s been a really great experience, as the teachers know that they have classes full of foreigners with funny accents ;) You take a test at the beginning of the semester and place into a level and thus classes that correspond well with your level of French. My teachers are all super nice and very patient and funny. I’m also taking a translation class from English to French and vice versa at the actual university with real live (!) French students. It’s difficult, to say the least. Surprisingly, I find the class that primarily involves translating from French to English very easy, while my other class involving translating complex texts (mostly those by British authors, and you know how eloquent and detailed they can be!) from English to French is very challenging. In reality though, it makes sense that it’s so much harder to do the latter. Even if I have the basic idea of what the sentence is saying in French, I can easily put it into English and all my verb tenses and verb conjugations are correct. However, going from a text I understand very well in English to a language I still don’t know very well is extremely tricky. As a result of this class, I have grown an immense respect and admiration for translators and their ability to “escape” thinking in English/French and think in the other language (and any and every other language too!). I also thought you’d enjoy one of the “slang” (more like bizarre and overdone to me!) English conversations French students are learning in my class (and yes, this is what they’re learning is our slang and other expressions we use that don’t make too much sense when you translate them literally):

Conversation n°5

-We’ve always found it difficult to make ends meet. As a matter of fact we have to live from hand to mouth.

-I think you should cut down on clothes.

-But I love dressing up!

-You love to keep up with the Joneses, that’s what you love. Anyway, I can lend you some money to tide you over.

-No, thanks. I don’t want any handouts!

- Don’t fly off the handle like this! I was just trying to help. From now on, don’t turn to me when the chips are down! And that’s for keeps!

Ok, so I don’t know about you, but I find that pretttyyyy hilarious! The words/expressions in bold are the news ones they’re learning. I think it’s seems so ridiculous/hilarious to me because you have to fit as many slang sayings/expressions as you can in a tiny conversation like that, and in the end, it’s a pretty unrealistic conversation. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that! I’ll add another one in my next post ;)

The side of a building on campus with it's "Rennes 2" sign

An 'on campus' shot of Rennes 2

And to continue with my regular day… I eat every day at one of the many “Resto-U” (Restaurant Universitaire) options offering baguette sandwiches (yum!), paninis (yum yum!), more “D-Hall” (the dining hall at the University of Richmond) –like full meals with small cheese plates, plates of shredded carrots (I guess they consider that a salad?), the main course, plenty of dessert options- mostly puddings or chocolate mousse-, and water. Oh yeah, that’s another thing. You can choose a main course, a roll, and two articles, AND, a soda counts as one article. No unlimited food and soda like in D-Hall, which really isn’t such a bad thing. I’ve hardly had any soda since coming here (especially since a coke here costs around $2.25 at a restaurant!), as I prefer my cheese and dessert :D

A picture of me and my French friend Florence walking through Parc du Thabor

I usually get home around 7:30pm. I really don’t know what I do all day, but I have classes, sometimes work on homework, walk around the city, or go use the computers in the school’s library (since I have no wi-fi or even internet [the home computer broke a few weeks ago and they won’t be buying a new one until Christmas after I’m gone!] at home :(…). Dinner is usually around 8pm these days, and after dinner, it’s pretty much the usual- homework, shower, other random things. Also, my friend recently loaned me a tv series on DVD that I’ve been watching lately. "Bedtime" is always before midnight, which is very unlike “the normal” me. However, if you don’t have a computer/internet to distract you from going to bed, the house tv is downstairs near your host mom's room, and your host mom and host sister go to bed between 9:30pm and 10:00pm (I know, crazy!) every night, it’s starts to influence you to do the same. Not such a bad thing at all though. I’ve been getting more consistent nights of a good 8-hours of sleep this semester that I’ve been lacking since practically the beginning of high school! All in all, I’d definitely say it’s a positive change. Living more simply. Of course I can always spice it up and have a crazy-busy schedule like I usually do at Richmond if I want to, but I enjoy this. I’m learning something from the French after all! Like my host mom said when I first came to Rennes: “Rennes is a city where you can actually live.” , and I think I like that :)

Picture of one of the most interesting/creative merry-go-rounds I've ever seen at one of the squares in Rennes. One of my native Rennes friends told me that this particular company travels throughout France during the year, and that their arrival to Rennes each year is always highly welcomed :)

And just to mention one last thing… I’m teaching English once a week for 1.5 hours (without a break) to 25 little 7-year old French kids- AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, pretty crazy, but it’s turned out to be a really great experience. Mind you, at the beginning, most of these kid’s vocabulary only consisted of “Huulloooo!!” and “Gudbbbbyyeee!!!”, but now they can say things like “What’s your name?”, “My name is…”, “I’m from France.”, “ninety-nine”, and “I am 7 years old.”. It’s altogether really exciting- no, seriously! Honestly, teaching kids so young was actually my last choice of all the options! I wanted to first teach students right out of high school, then students in high school, then junior highers, and elementary schoolers were my last choice. All the same, they are so cute I can’t even describe it. Actually! I can. Well, here’s a story… after my first lesson (boy was I nervous! I literally teach all by myself up in front of the lil’ kiddies for 1.5 hours straight. Mind you, their teacher in sitting in the class with me, but he pretty much just tells them to be quiet if they’re talking, and that’s it, so I’m mostly on my own!), three little girls approached me. One handed me this little tiny bracelet made out of twigs where each twig was a circle, then was then looped through by another circle which was also a twig. They presented it to me as a gift, explaining to me in French that it was for me and that it was a bracelet or a necklace- I could choose. How cute!!! Well, what makes it even more cute is that this bracelet/necklace thing was honestly so small you couldn’t even fit it around your wrist! So them telling me that I could even wear it as a necklace made it all the more special :) Another time, I was walking around the classroom after having passed out a handout for them to work on. As I was passing one of the boys named “Michel”, he looked up at me with these big, wide eyes and said “T’es belle!”, which means “You’re beautiful/pretty!” in English. Hahahaha…. I thanked him and went on. Little kids really do “the darndest things” and you can’t help but love them and admire them. But yes, teaching is going well. It’s a great experience to be able to have here in Rennes, and I definitely know I will take back this experience as one of my most special in Rennes.

A view of the playground and building of the French elementary school where I teach English! (Sorry the picture's a bit dark- it's not normally like that!)

So I’ve said a lot and you’ve read a lot if you’ve made it to here! Let’s give our eyes a rest now, no?

I saved the best picture for the last ;) This is the current "temporary" sculpture that is located in front of the Parliament building. It's not trash. Actually, those are all books (except at the bottom), and when you get up close, it's pretty cool! Go the French and their artistic ways!

Prenez soin de vous! (Take care!) Bonne soirée ! (Have a good night !) Au revoir! (I don’t think I need to translate that one ;))

-Shannon

Bonjour à tous !

Disclaimer: I’ve added few pictures that really have nothing to do with this post, but I didn’t really have any pictures that went along with this post. Just some more great shots of one of the many beautiful parks in Rennes to give you yet another picture of this charming city

I feel the need to begin by recounting a few interesting, broadening, and quite honestly, hilarious, dance experiences I’ve had so far. I suppose I can begin when Christine (Richmond friend) and I saw flyers for salsa lessons. The flyer said the first week of lessons would be free, so if you really wanted to get your “money’s worth” (not like you would be paying anything anyways!), you could go to three- four- however many salsa lessons they offered a day for 7 days- what a deal, eh? So yeah, both being interested in salsa and all, we decided to try one of the lessons out. Well, what I really should have started with was how surprised I was to see that salsa was offered at all, nonetheless being publicized in so many places! It’s definitely « hot » right now, if you know what I mean. Anyways, Christine and I met 10 or so minutes before the lesson at the metro stop on campus (yeah, isn’t that great? Incredibly convenient, let me tell you), and proceeded to try and find one of the gyms on campus where the lesson was being held. After getting lost and asking several French people we passed by for directions, we finally located [what we thought] was the correct building. We entered a double door, and voilà(!), we saw people dancing. In the middle of an empty gym was a hugeeee circle of people, mostly young, and mostly female (typical when it has anything to do with dance. I tell you, guys/men want to know the secret to woo women… it’s through dance! Or I mean, even if you’re not good at dancing, there are tons of women at dance lessons/dance clubs, and there are bound to be at least a few who think it’s cute if the man doesn’t dance wel Anyways…). In the middle of this huge circle of salsa-ing folk was a tall, skinny, fair man with dark hair. He looked up when we walked in and pointed at his watch, as if he was offended by our late arrival (we were just a few minutes late, and plus, we had gotten lost!). He started to shout to us over the loud music, saying something in French and pointing in a certain direction. Not wanting to utterly stand out, we unknowingly made things worse by not saying “OK” or “Oui” or “D’accord” (OK in French), and instead kept walking to one of the walls of the gym where we could drop our things off. “Vous êtes françaises?”… “¿HABLAN ESPAÑOL?” I guess instead of trying to blend in and be groovy, we had instead stuck out like glaring foreigners- or Spanish, as he had asked us if we spoke Spanish. Bravo! He stopped everything and finally we understood that we were supposed to go over to the woman at the desk and register for our “One Week Free!” trial period of the salsa lessons. The lesson ended up being great fun- great fun in the sense that this teacher was a hilarious salsa teacher, and by hilarious, I mean hilarious-looking. He moved his body in such a weird way and didn’t seem to have the correct body movements that make salsa salsa. At one point, he even bent over and, putting his arms upside down and together, shook his arms and chest with the motion that people sometimes use for “give me more” when they’re dancing. Maybe that wasn’t the best explanation of the movement he made, but let’s just say it was bizarre and not very salsa-like. Soon he split us into two groups: “men” and “women”, and partnered us up. As there were too many girls, I became “the man”, and learned the steps of the male. Again in the big circle, but this time with a “male” and “female” partner, our instructor taught us a little 15 or so second dance. He began to play music, and then had us go through this little routine with our partners. Then the “men” were to stay put, and the women (not in quotes because they really were all women) switched partners. Let’s just say I ended up dancing with about 20 different French woman/young woman again and again and again because of the rotation. It was pretty awkward most of the time. Most of them wouldn’t introduce themselves when I became their new partner, so I would try to introduce myself. Also, being the male, I had to lead the steps. I knew what I was doing because it was very basic, but some of them didn’t, and let’s just say me trying to correct them in French while trying to concentrate myself and not come off like a buffoon made those 20 minutes pretty interesting. I won’t deny that I welcomed the end of that lesson. I wasn’t so sure I would willingly be “the man” again in the future. However, my friend Christine, who had been a “woman”, told me that dancing with a lot of the French men was really awkward. Some of them stared at her not saying anything, while others supposedly smelled pretty bad and couldn’t keep step/time to the music at all. At the end of the lesson, we saw the price of lessons for the semester, and let’s just say we made that lesson with them our last. Oh well…


Random Picture of the French Garden in the Parc du Thabor, one of Rennes' many lovely lovely parks :)


After giving up on salsa lessons, I found a dance class being offered by the sports and recreation program on my campus that included “rock, lindy hop, etc.”. I was interested, never having before taken dance classes as such (never having seen them even offered in the first place), and the price for the semester was much more reasonable, so I decided to try out the first lesson with two friends. Arriving to a different gym on the other side of town, we found ourselves in a huge gym with about 75 other students. I was shocked! There were so many. The instructor was a Frenchman who looked to be about the age of 35 or so. After registering and all, we began our first lesson. The class again got split in half, “men” on one side, “women” on the other, facing each other. This time I made sure I was a “woman”, but actually there were a pretty equal number of males/females, surprisingly, so it wasn’t a hard fight. Then the professor began to play that song that goes “Freedom… Freedom… Freedom… FREEDOM… think (THINK!), think about what you’re tryin’ to do to me, ohhhh yeah think (THINK!), think about yourself be free.” Anyways, the next 5 min. were definitely some of the best of my life. I was laughing so hard. The instructor was teaching us all these “groovy, cool” dance moves, and all the students were following him. I swear, I feel like I was back in the early 60s or something. Honestly, it was such a great time. I just wonder if the French think Americans really dance like that. I mean, maybe they did at the time, but goodness, not now! Anyways, I just thought you would find those two stories humoring. They are definitely memories that will make me laugh every time I think about them. A good thing to keep in mind wherever you live or study abroad is to try new things and get out of the normal routine from time to time. It can be pretty interesting/fun, and you can meet all sorts of interesting people.

Beautiful path in the Parc du Thabor

Until next time! Au revoir!!

Random Cottage(?- but still cute!) and Ducks

A Weekend in Normandy

This weekend was really marvelous and equally eye-opening. My CIEE group (study abroad exchange program) took a weekend trip to the region of Normandy, (map below) which is especially well-known by Americans because of its WWII associations. We met early Saturday morning at 8:30am and soon were on our way to the small town of “Villedieu-les-Poêles”. It's especially well known for the bells that are made there (we’re talking HUGE bells, like church bells, that weigh more than several tons!), as well as its copperware. This city was a great look at a more traditional French town. We were able to go on a tour at the bell-making place (where these bells are made by just 4 or 5 people!) or "une fonderie" en français, and see how they make the bells. I’ve added a picture below of me standing next to some of the bells that have already been made (notice how they’re taller than me!), as well as a picture of the ingredients they use to make part of the bells (manure, goat hair, clay, if I remember correctly- bet you never imagined that, eh? Neither did I!). All in all, I was amazed at how much work goes into making one bell, and the skill that it requires.

Region of Normandy highlighted in green

After leaving the tour, we had some time to wander around the downtown area and have some lunch. My girlfriends and I decided to eat at a Galleterie, as we have definitely been on a gallette-kick. We found one that looked particularly attractive (from the outside, of course- very cute and charming) and showed our dedication to it by waiting around outside until it opened at noon. Unlike other restaurants in other places, this one only opens for two hours at lunch time and again for a few hours at dinner time- no “open 7 am to midnight” like we were used to! It turned out being worth the wait. We enjoyed a fantastic lunch (picture of me and my gallette below), and got to experience a home-owned, run-by-two people little restaurant. It was a nice change and very cute setting. I’ve also included a picture of some of my girlfriends admiring the delicious array of pastries set in one of the windows of a store. Afterwards, I bought one, and let me just sum up the experience in one word: heaven :)

Me and my fabulous galette :)

3 of my girlfriends drooling over delcious-looking pastries in the window

We said farewell to the cute little city of Villedieu-les-Poêles and made our way towards Caen, where the famous WWII memorial is located. This place looked absolutely humongous from the outside, and it proved to be rich with information on WWII, artifacts, and a very enlightening, yet emotional experience. We sat through a WWII documentary that brought many close to tears by its finish, walked through different areas of the museum dedicated to different parts and aspects of WWII, listened to accounts (translated into a whole array of different languages to meet the needs of the different visiting nationalities) of different people’s experiences from different countries and how the war affected them (I found the most horrifying/saddening one to be about the story of a Japanese man who was in his house going about life as normal at one moment, and then whose world got completely turned upside down in confusion the next moment after the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.), and ended the whole visit with an expansive exhibit on peace in the world and what we can do to bring it about. Truly one of the best museums I’ve been to, and if any of you are ever in the area, make sure to spend a day there!

A picture of one of the quotes from the museum that I found grusome, yet true and very profound. From there, we made a last quick stop to view the panorama of Arromanches, which was designated as “Gold Beach” during the D-Day landings and used by the British troops in the Allied invasion (pictured above).

That night all the girls stayed in an absolutely enormous room in a youth hostel whose walls were completely decorated with Peter Pan characters. At first it was almost scary, but then you soon fell back in childhood reminiscing. If I remember correctly, I even “talked about boys”(!!!!) and “cooties” with some girlfriends that night. With Peter Pan, you never grow old, right?! So it’s altogether appropriate. What can I say? Everyone’s really a kid at heart :)

Oh, and I should probably just go ahead and add this part, even though it’s pretty embarrassing… anyways, when abroad in a foreign country with a foreign language that one does not speak fluently, one is bound to run into some… shall we say “linguistic difficulties”? Well, let’s just say I ran into quite an embarrassing one on this trip. So this is what happened… All of the students were sitting on the tour bus being informed by our program director about plans for the evening before leaving Arromanches to go to the hostel. Of course being in France and all, this was all being conducted in French. Soon it came to “Any questions?” time, and I was wondering if the hostel would be providing towels for us or not, as I hadn’t brought one with me. When formulating my question in my head before asking, my thought process went like: ‘towels’ hm… I learned it as ’serviette’, but ‘napkin’ also means ’serviette’…. well, I know ‘papier/feuille’ means ‘paper’, and that ‘papier hygenique’ means ‘toilet paper’, so maybe ’serviette hygenique’ means ‘a towel one uses to clean himself/herself’, not just ‘napkin’… hmmm…” Here I go: “Excusez-me Staci (our program director), mais est-ce que vous savez si l’auberge va nous donner des serviettes hygeniques pour utiliser?” (In English: Excuse me Staci, but do you know if the hostel is going to give us maxi-pads to use?) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -Awkward expression on her face- Staci: “Oui, oui…” She had understood my mistake, and soon came back to me to ask me if I understand what I had just said. That was when I realized my mistake… the whole bus burst out laughing, including our French monitors seated in the front. I was so embarrassed, but at the same time laughing so hard I was crying. Then one of the American girls seated nearby said to me, “Thanks for taking one for the team, Shannon. We all really needed that!” Sooo, there you have it! Don’t ever think too hard about the words you learn- just repeat them as you learn them!!!!

The next day we arrived early at the Reine Mathilde Museum (Queen Mathilde Museum) where the incredibly famous 20 in by 230 foot-long Bayeux Tapestry that has survived from the Middle Ages is located. I don’t know how long it took to sew it (I don’t think anyone does as a matter of fact- it’s a matter of controversy), but this thing is long, and it literally tells the history of the Norman conquest of England through pictures- it’s incredible. The picture below is one I took while leaving Bayeux. It seemed like a really cute city, and I wish we could have stayed there longer to better explore it, but alas, other places to go, other things to see!

We next made our way to the well-known Omaha beach where history was made, and the American cemetery which is located on the cliffs just above it. It was pretty crazy to be standing in what is now a lovely and beautiful area while knowing that this was the place where the Americans had invaded and where there had been so much death and destruction. It was so peaceful and gorgeous… such a bizarre contrast, it was really difficult to imagine. We also had time to walk around the American cemetery that overlooks those beaches. It was so huge… it just made you cry. And then you consider that the US lost such a considerable amount of men less than the French, the Germans, the English- the Soviet Union(!)… I couldn’t imagine what their cemetery would look like- how much space it would take up if they had one. Walking around, I came upon three tombstones- two with the Star of David and one with a cross. (Picture below) I was really touched by this, especially in light of the fact that a major component of Hitler’s war was to eradicate the Jews, and yet here were three American soldiers, 2 Jewish and 1 Catholic/Protestant, who fought together, side-by-side, to put an end to Hitler and his plans.

Omaha Beach

The American Cemetery

Lastly, we stopped through “La point du Hoc”, a very key stronghold for the Germans during the war, and especially during the Normandy invasions. Again, it was kind of one of those mind-blowing things to be walking around where, just over 60 years ago, one couldn’t hear anything over the sounds of the artillery machines and bombs going back and forth between the Allied and Axis sides. The picture below is one I took where I would assume a huge artillery machine-base-mound used to be located.

And I’ll finish up this post by giving you a snap-shot view (literally) of the Norman countryside that I took from the bus- beautiful!!!

Until next time! Au revoir!