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
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