Crocodile Tears

While riding the bus to campus this morning, I noticed a French lady with her very small son get on and find a seat. Thoroughly enjoying the ride through the city, the little boy exclaimed at each new thing he saw… a boulangerie, the Ill river, a beautiful church. As we approached the stop called Saint-Guillaume, the lady rose to move toward the exit. As you might imagine, the little boy was having much too good a time to comply with his mother, and therefore he decided to start crying hysterically as his mother forced him off the bus. What happened next really caught my attention. Upon exiting the bus, the boy was immediately facing a boat restaurant on the river. What could this place be? Curiosity arose immediately. And as quickly as his tears had come, they vanished and a grin spread across his face.

We never truly grow up, do we? I thought about this a lot today, as I have been shedding the same crocodile tears this week. Right now I can only see the mountain of reading and studying ahead of me and the lack of a certain scenery. But what could be better than stopping for a moment and enjoying the sight before my eyes? It’s true that things come more easily and quickly for me at Purdue, that the internet just works, and I can go home to see my family at just about any time I want.  However if I were to truly examine my situation I might find that I am experiencing something totally new and I have some pretty amazing opportunities right in front of me.  

Studying abroad is a truly unique experience, and I really can’t quite categorize how it’s been for me the past few weeks. It’s truly a roller coaster of emotions and experiences. So I hope this provides a little insight into my thoughts right now. 

French scrabble!

Note to reader: I wrote this blog post Sunday night (sept. 22)

 

I spent the day yesterday in Kehl, Germany which is just across the Rhine river from Strasbourg. A lot of things are much cheaper there, so I did a bit of shopping for school supplies. I think that everyone who lives in Strasbourg had the same idea as my friends and me, because I only heard French spoken while we were there. Oh, but good news – I saw lots of Birkenstocks for sale in Germany, and I think my goal for the year is to buy a pair of Birkenstocks in Germany to bring home with me. There is a park that stretches along both sides of the Rhine called le parc des deux rives, so we all sat there for a while and played French scrabble and talked about what classes we are going to take.

This morning I played with the toddlers during church, and that was really quite fun for me… I miss all my little cousins. I also met a French lady (Isabelle, I think) who teaches English in a high school in Strasbourg, and she was really interested to hear about how my university works in the States. She seems like a really lovely person, and she’s really nice about helping me with my French. Later I met Fatme, Romy, and another German girl to go see a band, but that turned out to be nothing much. So we walked around La Petite France for a while and then sat by the river and ate pizza. It’s funny, I’ve only known them for about a week and there’s a bit of a language barrier, but they’re really my closest friends so far here. I think they’re going to teach me German this year.

I haven’t watched television in over three weeks, and honestly I don’t miss it. I’m so glad to have my music, but I really don’t care that I don’t have/watch tv anymore.       

Better

Note to reader: I wrote this Friday night (sept. 21)

Well, what can I say, life is pretty good right now. My bank account is open, I have some pots and pans to cook with, and I think I’ve pretty much figured out which classes I am going to take. I went to IKEA yesterday with Fatme and we got some cookware, drinking glasses, etc. for really good prices. So tonight I tested the kitchen on my floor and made myself some dinner… which is actually a lot better than I thought it would be.

So, I need to explain about my classes… when I first went to the fac to get a copy of the course list, I explained that I am an exchange student etc. and the girl said yes no problem and gave me a really complicated dossier to fill out which had a lot of rules concerning which classes you can and cannot take. So I was pretty stressed about the whole situation, but yesterday I went to speak with Mme Pfaff who is responsible for foreign students within the letters department. And I found out that I have a lot more freedom to choose classes, I have a different form altogether to fill out, etc. So I was really quite relieved when I learned all that. I think that I will be taking mostly literature classes, maybe latin or an introduction to another language, a linguistics class, and perhaps a history class. And I think Fatme and I are taking mostly the same classes, which is really nice.

Tomorrow I am going over to Kehl which is in Germany, but it’s only like a 20 minute bus ride… I’m pretty excited to go just because I’ve never been to Germany and I’ll be with at least two German girls, so I think it should be really fun. I’ve also heard that it is much cheaper to shop for everyday stuff, so I’ll probably check that out. Last night I went to an Erasmus party which was not bad. I met a Swedish girl who lives in Robertsau in the same building that I do – she’s really nice.

And some other lovely news: I went to the fnac today and found that they have a lot of really good literature for really good prices… I bought an Andrée Chedid book for two euros.    

The circle game

“We can’t return, we can only look behind from where we came, and go round and round and round in the circle game”

Well, it’s a rainy Monday in Strasbourg, and I am really appreciating my fleece right now. A bit of good news: I filled out all the papers to get internet in my room, now I just have to go find a special cable and wait until my paperwork is processed. (Which means I probably won’t have internet in my room until about a week from now) But, I am happy… I will have it eventually! Registration for classes is still a daunting task ahead of me, along with opening my bank account and obtaining my green card. I’m just trying to take it one step at a time at this point…

So tomorrow there is a meeting for all the international students at Marc Bloch, so I’ll definitely be going to that along with all the German girls I know. I really think I ought to try to learn German now… haha.  I think we might be planning a picnic for Wednesday, so I am looking forward to that.

So I’m thinking I’ll probably by a coffee maker for my room. Quite honestly good coffee is too expensive to buy by the cup. And I just can’t handle instant coffee, haha… They also sell nutella in rather attractive glass jars that you can use as drinking glasses when you’ve eaten all the nutella. I’m pretty sure I’ll have a nice collection by the end of this year. So far I’ve been eating mostly bread and cheese and fruit. I’ve met more vegetarians in the past couple of weeks than probably in the entirety of my life up to now.  I met a really lovely Swiss girl named Nesina who is a vegetarian, doesn’t drink alcohol, and tries not to eat white flour or chocolate. Haha… she’s very disciplined. She is also incredibly tall with incredibly red curly hair.

So tonight I went with Mareike to see No Reservations (with Catherine Zeta-Jones), except it was called Le Gout de la Vie (Taste of Life) and it was dubbed. It was a really interesting experience… my first time in a French movie theater. It only costs about 4 euros to see a movie since I am a student, which is a pretty good deal. 

Voila, the end of a really random compilation of things happening in my life… I promise my blog entries will get better eventually.       

Frustration

Well, you must know that things are not always sunshine and roses when you study abroad. At this moment, I’m a bit frustrated with many things… like the fact that I can’t seem to get internet in my dorm, and when I ask about it everyone tells me something different. Then they look at me like I’m an idiot, especially if I have to ask them to repeat things. I don’t really understand how registration for my classes is going to go, because the French students in my program have to take certain classes all together. But I am wanting to take classes in different disciplines, which  just doesn’t really happen in the French university. And when I try to e-mail my advisor at Purdue about it, she says that it’s fine and I can take any combination of classes that I wish… I just don’t know how it is all going to work out. It’s just frustrating that there are so many unknowns in my life right now… I just have to trust that it will all be okay in the end.

Okay, that’s all the complaining I’ll do for today.

“Macdo”

Well, I am sitting in McDonald’s (Macdo) in France, and at the moment a Michael Buble song is playing… haha, not the epitome of French culture. But I need to access the internet, so voila, I am here. Well, just  to explain a bit – I am currently pretty well occupied with my intensive French class. I am working on a sort of mini research paper right now which I have to present to my class on Friday. Here is a typical day for me right now: I wake up around 6 or 6:30 so that I can get ready and walk about 45-50 minutes to campus (I am going to get a bus pass soon), I have language class all morning and then 2 hours for lunch, a lecture about either French literature, French history, or European institutions, and then my research paper class until 5:00. Then I usually try to take care of some sort of business that I need to get done – for example, I went to IKEA last week to buy sheets and towels. Then I take the bus or walk back to my dorm, do homework for quite a while and go to bed. I know… you can hardly handle all the glamour. But this class is quite a bit more work than I had expected and concentrating so hard on speaking French all the time leaves me pretty exhausted.

I have met some pretty cool people so far, and I have been exploring the city a bit with them. I have gone to an international church here in Strasbourg for the past two weeks. Strasbourg is actually a  pretty interesting place for those who wish to go to church, because there is much more of a choice here. When the law separating church and  state was established in 1910, Alsace belonged to Germany. Therefore, there is a much greater presence of religion here in Alsace.  It’s a pretty interesting region to read about.

Friday night, I went out with my German friend Mareike to have some “tartes flambees” – which is a specialty of Strasbourg. Then we found a French bar, which was quite packed, and I tried a Belgian beer which was pretty interesting and fruity… I can’t handle really strong beer. Anyway, it was pretty cool to experience a bit of Strasbourg culture, and it’s really good to speak French with someone… since most of the Americans I’ve met speak English most of the time.

Well, I suppose that’s all for now…

A bientot!  

Je suis ici!

Well, I am here and all is well – I dont really have internet access in my dorm right now, so I am writing to you from an internet cafe. I suppose there is to much to say at this moment, but I will just give a couple of highlights.

I found my dorm, payed for my room, and then collapsed the first night. I explored Strasbourg a bit on Saturday – I went to the Cathedral, which is just amazing, and bought a couple of postcards. I went to church Sunday and met a really nice British girl, French-British girl, and another American and we went to lunch and explored the city a bit.  Then we met last night to see the lighting of the Cathedral, which was really cool and hard to describe. Today I started my prep class and am getting more and more familiar with how to get around the city. I met a very nice German girl today in class, and we are going to meet later this evening to explore some more. I honestly cannot pronounce her name, and I feel awful about it. 

 Okay, I think that is all for now. 

Tu me manques.

Jenna