Ma première visite hors de Paris

Après presque deux mois en France, j'ai enfin fait mon premier voyage hors de Paris. Pour ce premier voyage, je suis allé en Limousin avec mon père d'accueil. Là-bas, mon père d'accueil a une maison de sa famille qui a été construite en 1674. Comme il y va à peu près tous les deux mois pour faire le ménage, s'occuper de son potager, et reprendre ses forces un peu, il m'a invité à lui accompagner pour voir une partie de la campagne française. Malgré les difficultés de transport (on avait déjà acheté des billets de SNCF bien en avance, malheureusement...), nous nous sommes bien amusés.

En arrivant à Limoges, nous avons fait un court tour de la ville, visitant surtout les structures féodales, en comprenant un vieux pont et plusieurs cathédrales. C'était vraiment fascinant, surtout pour un visiteur des États-Unis où il est rare de trouver un bâtiment datant même du 18e siècle. Après la visite à Limoges, nous sommes allés à sa vieille maison à Aixe s/Vienne. Le paysage à cette ville pittoresque était tellement joli, encore plus à cause du beau temps qu'il faisait !

Pendant mon petit séjour à Aixe s/Vienne, nous avons beaucoup travaillé à la maison, puisqu'il y avait plein de légumes à récolter, quelques fuites à réparer, une pelouse à tendre, etc. Néanmoins, mon père d'accueil et moi sommes sortis plusieurs fois pour nous promener, pour faire des cours et pour aller à la Maison de la Porcelaine. Moi, je n'avais pas la moindre idée que la porcelaine se fabriquait en France, encore moins qu'elle était aussi belle ! En plus, on offrait des visites guidées de la fabrication de la porcelaine, et ainsi j'ai eu l'occasion de apprendre comment la porcelaine se fabrique, ce qui a été plus intéressant que je ne pensais.

Bref, je me suis bien amusé au sud de la France. Bien que je n'aie forcément pas fait beaucoup de choses, je me suis bien reposé et je pense que l'aire fraîche et pure du sud m'a fait vraiment du bien. Même après le retour stressant (pour lequel il nous a fallu plus que neuf heures à cause des trains annulés, retardés, etc.), je pense bien qu'il valait la peine de faire une petite aventure en dehors de Paris.

One Last Week of Sunshine

I have had such a wonderful week here in Paris! After a week of cold, rainy weather, we have had almost an entire week of beautiful, cloud-free sunshine with temperatures in the mid-70s. The ideal weather has certainly helped me relax a little despite the stress of classes and (starting yesterday) strikes.

In order to end with the positive aspects of my week, I am taking the liberty to [briefly] vent about the current strikes. To begin, I do not even understand how the unions in France can be so upset, as the current strike has resulted from an increase of the retirement age in France from 60 to 62. That still seems rather young to me from my Anglo-Saxon perspective. From what I have heard, employees in the private sector are the individuals who will be most affected by this measure, yet these are the very people who not only cannot participate in the strike, but who are inconvenienced the most by the transportation disturbances! I suppose I cannot really judge French politics as an American, but it is still frustrating to have to get up at 4:00 in the morning so I will have a chance to get to Paris in time for an 8:00 class...

Now for the more enjoyable aspects of Parisian life. : ) Once again, I went to the Louvre this past Friday. Before entering the museum, I finally broke down and went to the Starbucks that conveniently happens to be just outside the entrance to the galleries. I am a little surprised I made it a month and a half with no Starbucks, but everything is about twice as expensive in Parisian Starbucks. Anyway, I visited the section of the Louvre with medieval/early Renaissance statues, which, surprisingly, I thoroughly enjoyed. Most of the works were religious in nature, and it was fascinating to me to see (through artistic expression) how people in different regions of Europe at different periods in time viewed their relationship with Jesus. There were many wooden statues that were larger than life-sized, which I thought were particularly moving.

To conclude with a few notes about my classes, I must say that I have really come to like French methodology (at least the Sciences Po "variety"). At the risk of sounding like a complete nerd, I think it is almost fun to figure out how to organize all my presentations à la Sciences Po (everything divided into two sections, then two sub-sections, then two sub-sub-sections, etc.). At the very least, I seem to be adjusting more and more to classes in France, which has been rather challenging coming from an American university (which is not necessarily easier, just quite different!).

I don't really know how many people actually make it to the end of my posts (which are a little longer than I would prefer...), but I hope you all have an excellent week! I hope to have some pictures from Limoges, France for my next post...

Heureusement qu'il fasse beau...

Bonjour à toutes et à tous ! Je suis sincèrement désolé d'avoir laissé passer tant de temps entre mes postes en français. J'ai passé quelques semaines assez stressantes, donc je n'avais pas le courage d'écrire quelque chose en français. Cependant, il fait très, très beau depuis plusieurs jours, ce qui me donne non seulement la force de supporter les perturbations de transports, mais aussi la force de retourner à la langue de Molière. : )

Je commence d'abord par mes études. Déjà, j'ai fait mon premier exposé il y a deux semaines, mon premier travail en groupe (un dossier cartographique pour lequel j'ai failli passé ma première nuit blanche...), et mon premier débat en groupe. Malgré mes soucis au début, je trouve que la méthodologie française, ou plutôt de Sciences Po, me va bien. C'est aussi très intéressant d'observer de tout près la méthode française de travailler, surtout en groupe. Bien qu'on prenne toujours plus de temps que prévu pour chaque travail (il me semble), on arrive toujours à bien approfondir le sujet et ainsi on est bien préparé avant le cours.

Comme d'habitude, j'ai aussi fait plusieurs trucs en dehors de mes cours. Tout d'abord, j'ai fêté la fin de la première semaine de travaux en allant à la Nuit Blanche à Paris. D'abord, j'ai retrouvé deux de mes amis américains pour aller au Musée de l'Orangerie pour voir les grands tableaux de Monet, puis nous sommes allés vers Notre Dame. Là, nous avons rejoint plusieurs jeunes italiens que mes amis américains connaissent. Pour moi c'était une opportunité formidable de pratiquer ma compréhension orale et (un peu moins) mon expression orale. Après que nous avons tous bu un café ou un petit verre dans un café, nous sommes tous revenus chez nous. C'était une soirée très agréable !

Après être allé à l'église dimanche matin, j'ai eu l'occasion de connaître un peu mieux les alentours de chez moi. Comme il faisait incroyablement beau, mon père d'accueil m'a invité d'aller avec lui au petit village de Chevreuse. C'était trop joli : Il faisait du soleil, il n'y avait aucun nuage, et il y avait une douce brise. Nous avons vu plusieurs châteaux, une église très ancienne (et très belle), et tout le petit centre-ville charmant. Ceci m'a fait beaucoup de bien, surtout en vue des grèves à venir cette semaine.

Alors, pour résumé, j'ai passé plusieurs bonnes semaines, m'habituant toujours davantage à la belle vie française. Malgré les cours difficiles et les difficultés posées par la grève, je vais très bien à Paris, et j'ai hâte de voir quelles autres aventures je vivrai avant de partir de la France!

First Exposé and Nuit Blanche

Hello, everyone! I would first like to apologize for taking so long to write a new post. This past week was my first week with any actual assignments to present, and the preparations for this week took up almost all my time. Because of that, I also did not really go anywhere until after my last class Wednesday, so I really did not have much to write about, anyway. (That is my excuse, anyway...)

To begin with school, this past Monday was my first exposé. Exposés are oral presentations that are an integral part of smaller classes at Sciences Po. Although the preparation for my first exposé was rather stressful due to the fact that the entire Sciences Po library just happened to be closed the week before my presentation (typically French, I'd say... : )), I think the presentation itself went rather well. I will not know for sure until I receive my grade in a few weeks (my first grade in France--yikes!), but it certainly feels like I have accomplished something simply by surviving my first exposé. Only three more to go this semester...

After classes this past week, I was able to take a little time to do some more sightseeing. Friday, I saw the outside of the Opéra Garnier, the opera house that appears in The Phantom of the Opera. It was gorgeous, and I cannot wait to see the inside! After that, I continued to the nearby Galeries LaFayette, a large, rather famous French department store. I did not stay there long due to the huge number of people in the store, but I may return a little later when there are no big sales going on. After that, I made a quick venture to H&M (quickly becoming my favorite store), then I finished my evening adventures at the Louvre. This week I decided to begin my thorough tour of the Louvre. I plan to see one small part of one floor for an hour each week until I have see the entire museum. This week's section was only about the history of the Louvre, so I did not see any grand masterpieces. I did get to see the remains of the medieval castle that was originally the Louvre, though. There is a contrast between the rich, elegant halls of the modern Louvre and the primitive, rough stone of the original fortress that used to be the Louvre!

Finally, I went out Saturday evening for Nuit Blanche. Nuit Blanche is an event that occurs once a year in Paris. For this event, many places in Paris are open until the wee hours of the morning, and there are many modern art displays and presentations throughout the city. Although I am not a big fan of modern art, I nevertheless ventured into Paris to take advantage of the free admission to the Musée de l'Orangerie, where most of Monet's waterlily paintings are on display. Before returning to Bures, I was able to see Notre Dame (which was beautiful with the front rose window lit up!) then drink a café with some Italians who were in Paris visiting a friend of a friend of mine. All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening!

I guess that is about all for now. I have really started to buckle down with my studying and school work, but I am still trying to make a point of exploring a new section of Paris every week. Who knows where I will go next? : )

More Sightseeing and More Classes

As the title of this post suggests, this week was filled with more sightseeing and more classes. I made a real effort this past week to squeeze as many outings in Paris as I could between classes, knowing that I will soon have too much work to be able to do much sightseeing.

To begin the week, I tried some mini-macaroons (which were absolutely delectable!) from La Durée, a well-known pâtisserie in Paris. After that, I went to the Champs Elysée, where I walked from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe before heading over to Père Lachaise cemetery. There are many famous writers, composers, singers, and other well-known people buried at Père Lachaise, including Chopin, Rossini, Proust, and Edith Piaf. Unfortunately, I could never find a real map, so I only managed to find Proust, but it was very relaxing nonetheless to spend a few minutes away from the noise and traffic of Paris streets.

Later in the week, I went to both the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée du Louvre. The Musée d'Orsay was somewhat disappointing, as 53 of their paintings by Monet are currently on loan for an exhibit at another museum in Paris, but I nevertheless was able to see a lot of Van Goghs and several sculptures that I really liked. The Louvre, which I visited the next day, was simply breath-taking. I planned to spend an hour in one small part of the museum to really be able to appreciate the artwork, but I decided to see the Louvre "à la tourist" for the first time, making the [very long] walk through the entire building to see the most well-known works. Because visitors under 26 years of age can get in for free without having to get a ticket every Friday evening, I plan to go there for about an hour almost every week to really see and appreciate as much as I can.

This past week truly signified the end of vacation for me, as I received all my assignments for the semester. As a side-note for those not familiar with French universities, French classes are rather different from their American counterparts, at least at Sciences Po. Rather than having weekly homework assignments, reading, and quizzes, most classes may only have an exposé (oral presentation), a fiche technique (a 2- or 3-page overview of an important topic or event), and a final exam, for example. The first day of each conférence (a class of about 20 people that goes along with the 250-people lectures) is spent by selecting topics for these assignments, which can be a rather stressful process. Nonetheless, I survived my first round of classes, and now know what my work load will look like for the semester.

Although I occasionally wish I were French [so I could actually understand what my professors are saying when they become a little too animated about a particular topic! : )], I truly do enjoy being an international student. So many of my experiences have reminded me of L'Auberge Espagnole (an excellent French film that I would highly recommend). For example, last night I went into Paris to have dinner with several of my friends I met during the welcome week, and there were two American students, three Chinese students, one Hungarian student, one Swedish student, one half-Russian student, two Australian students, and two German students! It was so much fun to communicate in broken French and English, sharing our experiences from the first couple weeks of classes at Sciences Po. I hope the rest of the semester goes this well!

Exposés et Patrimoine

Bonjour à tous ! Cette semaine s'est très bien passée, mais j'étais quand même très occupé. En premier lieu, c'était le début du vrai travail à Sciences Po, puisqu'on a choisi les exposés dans les conférences. Quel processus stressant ! Tout le monde voulait faire les mêmes exposés, et chaque maît' de conf' a son style différent de choisir quels étudiants feront quels exposés. Heureusement, les sujets que j'ai reçus me plaisent assez bien. Entre autres choses, je ferai un exposé sur un livre sur Robert Schuman, un exposé sur ce qui s'est passé en 1989, et un exposé sur la démocratie et la paix. Actuellement, il ne me reste qu'une semaine avant mon premier exposé, alors je suis un peu inquiet mais j'espère que cela va aller bien...

Outre mes études, je me suis profité ce week-end des Journées Européennes du Patrimoine. En fait, je n'ai visité qu'un seul endroit important. Cependant, le bâtiment que j'ai visité était le Palais de l'Elysée ! C'était vraiment génial et (selon moi) il valait la peine de faire la queue pendant 3,5 heures. Après la visite, j'ai découvert que j'avais pris plus que 500 photos du Palais de l'Elysée ! En revenant chez moi (à Bures s/Yvette), j'ai reçu une petite surprise : dans le métro, on utilisait un train qui datait du début du 20e siècle. C'était vraiment trop chouette, malheureusement que je n'aie pu le prendre parce qu'il y avait trop de monde dedans. De toute façon, je me suis bien amusé, sans doute.

Cette semaine, j'ai fait un vrai effort d'aller voir autant de choses que possible, sachant que je serais bientôt débordé de travail. Tout d'abord, je suis allé à La Durée lundi, là où j'ai acheté 4 mini-macarons. Les macarons ont été vraiment supers ! J'en ai acheté de 4 parfums différents : pétales de rose (mon préféré), pistache, framboise, et fruits rouge. Après, j'ai pris le métro jusqu'à la Place de la Concorde, puis j'ai marche jusqu'à l'Arc de Triomphe, et enfin je suis allé au Cimetière du Père Lachaise. Jeudi, j'ai passé un peu plus qu'une heure au Mussée d'Orsay, puis j'ai passé encore un peu plus qu'une heure au Mussée du Louvre le lendemain soir. Bien sûr, je ne pouvais pas voir grande chose au Louvre dans seulement une heure, mais j'ai quand même fait le tour du musée pour voir tout vite les plus grands chefs-d'œuvre. Je compte y aller presque chaque semaine pour passer une heure dans une petite partie différente.

Bref, je pense que je m'habitue très bien à la vie française (j'ai même commencé à ajouter "quoi" à la fin de presque toutes les phrases que je dis... :)). C'est une mode de vie tellement différente de la vie que je menais aux Etats-Unis, et je crois qu'il me fera beaucoup de bien de vivre à la française tout au long de mon séjour. A la prochaine !

Welcome Program and First Week of Classes

To begin this post, I would like to clarify my blogging "system" for all the English-speakers following my blog. Starting next week, I plan to write two posts at the end of each week, one in English and one in French. I am certainly not trying to leave anyone out of my posts by posting in French, but I thought it would be good practice for me and more convenient for the French-speakers following my blog. Thank you for your patience and understanding!

Now, for the real news for the week. This week was my first week of real classes. Because we only had large lecture classes this week, I only had to go to two classes. The first class, Espace Mondial, seems like it will be a fascinating course, as it is (more or less) a multidisciplinary approach to globalization. The professor is very dynamic and interesting, and I think I am really going to enjoy this course. My brain felt like it was about to explode after two hours of lecturing and furious note-taking (en français), but I think I will survive! My second class was a course about political systems and political life in the EU. Although I was particularly looking forward to this course, the professor seemed to be rather unorganized and, quite frankly, a little boring. I realize this was the very first class, so it is likely that the course will improve over the course of the semester. This week I will take the same classes along with the smaller, 15- or 20-person classes.

I have been quite amused by some of the different warning labels I have seen in France that do not exist in the United States. For example, I have noticed that there is usually an advisory of sorts on all junk food in France that reminds people of the need to exercise and to follow a balanced diet. While I think this is an excellent idea, I could not help but smile when I passed a Häagen-Dazs store and noticed a warning on their sign (formatted very much like the Surgeon General's warnings on cigarettes in the U.S.) that encouraged patrons to make sure they eat well and exercise! I appreciate the warning, but personally I am willing to take a chance every now and then for a scoop of Häagen-Dazs ice-cream. : )

Another aspect of my life in France that I have found to be quite interesting has been church in France. Although most of France is "Catholic," my French family goes to a protestant/evangelical church that is very similar to my church back home. Although the church is small, I have been quite touched by the faith of the members there. The high school and college students have welcomed me very warming, and I was excited to find out that there is a strong youth ministry there that I can get involved in. The atmosphere in France seems to be so different than in the U.S.; here, I feel like there is a much stronger feeling of being set apart because of one's faith, which I think will be a good challenge spiritually. I can't wait to see what God has planned for this year!

As a final note, I will mention a few details from the Sciences Po Welcome Program. Before the beginning of each semester, Sciences Po organizes a small program for new/exchange students to familiarize themselves with the university and with the teaching methods at Sciences Po. Although I learned a lot of useful things at during the week-long program, including how to write dissertations, give presentations, and complete other Sciences Po specific assignments in French, I must admit that I was exhausted by the end of the week! We had about 8 hours of classes each day, in addition to other activities, a couple tours, a pique-nique next to the Seine, a trip to see a play by Ionesco, and a ride on the Bateaux-Mouches. I really enjoyed the boat ride, which took us down a large portion of the Seine River through Paris, and I have posted a couple photos I took during the boat ride.

Overall, my first two weeks in France have been very busy. Classes have begun, I have almost finished the infinite number of administrative tasks I have had to complete (what fun!), and I have finally put away all my things in my room. Now is when the real work begins with classes in full swing!