L'Hiver en Chambery

Bonsoir tout le monde!
Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, been pretty busy and just haven't gotten around to it... till well now :). I guess I'll start with the most recent news and work my way back, that being of course our new president Barack Obama! My American friends Grace and Max came over as well as a local Chambery radio reporter to record our reactions. Grace and Max are both pretty moderate, and don't follow politics too much, but they we were definitely all excited about Obama which was awesome. My roommates even let us watch on their big screen on CNN (until they kicked out about an hour later, sigh) so that was nice to watch it without french dubbing too. Overall an amazing historic moment and I was glad I could share it with some Americans and French. I'm anxious to see how the next couple months pan out and I hope all goes smoothly for Obama.

I've also started some French business classes in the past month and that has also been interesting and much harder than my French classes. I'm taking international economy and international relations both in French. The economy class is pretty straight forward, and the teacher uses powerpoints so it's reasonably easy to follow along and take notes. My international relations class is a bit different. The teacher talks with a lisp and way too fast so by the time I can write something down he's moved onto a completely different topic. He also hates America (welcome to Europe right) and isn't afraid to say it. He also isn't a big fan of Israel, which has also angered my jewish/french friend, Elodie, who came up to me one day in a huff, complaining about him. So it's a very different experience but I find the material of interesting when I understand because I like history, and he's obviously knowledgable on the subject. Oh funny story, the other day we were doing a little geography quiz and he called us up one by one to point out a random country in the world. I was called and he asked where Venezuala was and I knew that one (I would not say i'm good at geography) and he proceeds with "well people say Americans are bad at geography and Europeans are the smart ones but it seems to be the opposite in this class". That drew some groans and well, noise from my classmates, to say the least.

I will say though that French classes are waaayy too long. Most classes are three hours, in the morning or afternoon and a lot of the time people have a full six our day. Three hours a day in one class is too much and it shows. By the end of the day most people around me are chatting online or to their neighbors paying very little attention to what's going on in the class. Which is another obstacle for me trying to understand the professor. I have encountered some very nice people though, who have been willing to offer me their notes or just answer my questions so that's really good. I think I will need that next semester with a full load of French classes.

Last thing I want to tell you about is my first ski experience in my life!! It was probably one of the most exhausting things I've ever done, but a lot of fun and I definitely want to go back. I was with another first timer, my brasilien friend Luciana so it was nice to have a beginner buddy. Also a french friend came with and he was probably mine and Luciana's savior because he is/was a ski instructor and helped us out soo much. I don't know what we would've done without him there. Skiing is a lot harder than I imagined and definitely takes a lot out of you. By the end Luciana and I were pooped! But it was definitely awesome to say I've now skiied in the Alpes, and man was it beautiful. I decided not to take a lot of pictures for fear I would destroy my camera, but I got a couple and I'll hopefully steal some off friends soon.

Well that's pretty much all for now. I start all my finance courses the second week of February and I have a feeling it's gonna be intense so I'll update about that when I have the time. My friend Emily who's in Bordeaux and I are meeting up in Montpellier this weekend so I'm excited about that, getting out of Chambé will be nice. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend, à plus!
-Steph

Bonne Annee!

Salut tout le monde,
Happy new year to all, hope everyone had a happy and healthy vacation, and I hope the snow wasn't too much of a bummer. It just started snowing again in Chambery too, but it's not too bad, just very cold.
Winter break was amazing. It was great to see Tyler and my parents and I wish it could have lasted much longer. Tyler and I started out break in Paris where we stayed 4 nights with some great couchsufers. The first guy wasn't there very much as he was packing for his vacation and working, but our 2nd hosts were very nice and cool young students so that was fun. They spent most of the time while we were there working on a homemade twister board for the boy's niece so that was pretty cute, I hope she enjoys it. Paris was great as always, the weather wasn't too bad, it was a little warmer the first couple days and then got sunnier and colder the last but Paris is always amazing for me. We visited the Pere Lachaise cemetary for my first time which was great, soo huge and pretty (sounds weird but it was!). Also went to the Musee D'Orsay again which was great as well.

From Paris we came back to Chambery for two nights, including Christmas and just chilled out and slept. We then headed off to Cannes on the 26th to meet up with my parents and drove from there to Menton, a coastal town close to Italy, and stayed in a gorgeous condo right on the beach. It was pretty cool being able to hear the waves laping up on the beach from our appartment. Menton was very pretty and we also made day trips from there to Monaco and Cannes. I have actually visited both of those cities before in high school but very briefly, and the weather was horrible, so it was nice to spend a whole day in each. That squinty picture there is Tyler and I in Menton, it was really sunny and windy, not a good picture taking combo but I think it's a funny picture.

After the south of France it was off to Florence for us and my dad rented a car so we didn't have to deal with long train rides. On the way we stopped in the Cinque Terre, and while the turning rodes made me a little sick, it was gorgeous and we even stopped in an adorable town called Vernazza and had delicious pizza. It was cool cause they don't allow cars in the little beach towns so it's very quite and beautiful. We finally arrived in Florence at our cute hotel in the center of town. Florence was also beautiful with ancient buildings and amazing art. We saw the Uffizi Museum with lots of Jesus and Mary paintings as well as the Birth of Venus and lots of old scuptures. We also saw David at the Academia which was pretty cool and quite large as well. We probably ate too much Tuscan food though, and by the end of the trip we where Italian fooded out. It was all delicous though, just too much. We also spent New Years there which was definitely and experiance with fireworks everywhere and these loud bomb like things people lit off in garbage cans, it sounded more like a war zone than new years eve. Florence was a great place to visit with all the culture and history it's pretty amazing to think about all the important people that have walked its streets.

Then it was back to good ol' Chambery where my parents got a chance to see a little of the Savoie region and my town. It was back to school for my on Monday, where I started my first business class in French and it doesn't seem too hard yet so we'll see how it goes. Only one more month of my French program then I'm going full force into the finance courses so that should be pretty exciting. I think I may venture out to ski this weekend, and my friend Iida and I are planning a trip for Febuary to Spain, Madrid and Barcelona, so I'm pretty excited for that! I've definitely been missing home more since Tyler and my parents left, but hopefully I get back into the swing of things soon and have a good end of the first semester. Hope everyone had a good week and good luck to all for getting back to Pullman, miss you lots, gros bisous!
-Steph

Fete des Lumieres en Lyon

Some videos I took at the festival in Lyon:

Coucou

Salut tout le monde!
Not too much exciting news to share but I thought it was about time to keep you guys informed of the goings on. Last weekend me and two American friends toured the great town of Torino Italy. We couchsurfed chez Camilla and Giacomo and they were wonderful hosts with an amazing apartment, we really lucked out. Italy is great, the people are funny and interesting and they're culture is amazing. I really want to start learning Italian now, it's such a pretty language and I can already understand a little bit when my Italian friend Erica talks. The highlight of Torino for me was the National Film Museum. It's in an amazing looking building, the Mole Antonelliana, and the inside is just as gorgeous. There was a great exhibit on Roman Polanski while we were there with great photos of him directing and it's just a really nice museum. We also got to enjoy Bicerinos which are these amazing chocolaty, coffee drinks that were delicious. Torino is famous for it's chocolate so it was great to try that.

This weekend we got to enjoy the Fete des Lumieres in Lyon or the Light Festival. It was really great, with lots of cool light sculptures and light shows all over the city. There were also tons of street vendors and yummy food to eat, which is rare for the French since they're not big fans of walking and eating. Chambery has also gotten a lot more festive with Christmas lights on every street, piped in Christmas music and the Christmas market which is pretty freaking adorable.

I guess what I really wanted to share with you guys is a little about the French and they're crazy language. The other day I was telling my roommate, Laura, that my friend Fiona is coming in from Madrid next week and staying with us a couple of nights. I told her that she doesn't speak French, only English and Spanish and her response was a frank, "why doesn't she speak French?" I didn't know how to respond to that... but I think it kind of sums up the attitude that the French have, and the reason people have a negative view towards them. My friend's host mom in Bordeaux told me a joke, if you're trilingual you speak three languages, bilingual two and one language you're French. The French are notoriously bad at speaking English because they really don't have a need for it. They're country is big enough they can travel around and see everything they could want without leaving, and without practicing another language. I don't have a problem if a French person can only speak French, because well look at the US, but the French have a very strict opinion of their language, it's the best. France has a organization called the Academie Francaise that actually regulates the French language http://www.academie-francaise.fr/ (sorry no translation for english, hehe). They're two missions are translated literally "take care of their language and carry out acts of patronage", or give out literary prizes. I'm not sure if an organization exists like this anywhere else in the world but government documents and any public documents, I believe, must adhere to strict guidelines from the Academie. Ending a letter for example, can be very complicated, almost a paragraph in itself. The French citizens also take this very seriously and apparently the French are constantly correcting each other's grammar and speech. A friend told me in bathroom stall graffiti sometimes you can see someone has crossed out a sentence and rewritten it correctly. While this obviously isn't always the case with most college aged students, I find it very foreign and somewhat annoying for me. While the French language may not change as much as English, making one little grammatical mistake can make you look stupid. At the same time this is what makes the French well so French and it's somewhat fascinating. I tried to explain to my French professor that the US had no official language and she just couldn't grasp that concept "all government documents are written in English right?" "well yes, but it's not technically the official language," "well if they're all written in English then it is." For the French there's nothing comparable to their language, and that's definitely a trait unique to the French.

Les nouvelles

Salut tout le monde,
The past couple of weeks have been a lot of fun, last weekend I went to Paris with 10 friends, we took the overnight train on Friday night and arrived in Paris at 7am Saturday morning. It was actually a pretty nice way to go, the seats reclined and I slept pretty well, and when we woke up, Paris! It was a totally different experience from when I was there in high school, we spoke French the whole time and found the Persians to be quite nice. I also got to visit Montmatre this time, which is a really cool neighborhood, also ran into my friend Alex at the Moulin Rouge which was crazy random. She's in France studying but not in Paris and we just happened to be at the same place same time, small world this is. Paris is really an amazing place, but soo many tourists and it's not even tourist season. I don't know if I could stand it if I lived there (or afford to). We headed back Monday evening on the TGV, so much quicker than the other train.

This weekend was also fun and relaxing. Last night we (me and my italian friend Erica and my slovakian friend Martina) ate dinner at a French friend's apartment and they made raclette for us, yummy! It's definitely nice to hang out with French people too, I think my French skills improve tenfold that way. I'm starting to understand more and more when they talk but it's still difficult sometimes cause it's soo fast and I have to concentrate really hard to keep up, but it's good just to hear, it even if I can't understand everything. Today some friends and I took a hike in the mountains and it was tiring but really pretty. I have to remind myself sometimes what a gorgeous place Chambery is and how lucky I am to be here, and the hike today definitely proved that.

No big plans for this week or next weekend, but I want to venture into Italy soon so maybe end of November that will happen. Until next time, au revoir!
-Steph

OBAMA!!

Salut tout le monde,
Yay I'm soo proud of our country and I'm proud to be an American at this point in time. It's weird though that I'm not in the US to experience the real excitement of the election. The French are happy about it, but in my little town of Chambery it's hard to tell. The international day was yesterday and people kept asking me if I was happy with the results and of course I replied positively, but it's hard to express to them how extatic I really was. I'm not sure it's really gonna hit me the changes of our country until I get home, but hopefully I'll be able to see some changes all the way over here in Chambery.

So besides the amazing president everything here is going along nicely and I'm really starting to get settled down. Chambery is feeling more like home everyday, and not just some cute town where all my stuff is. I'm also interacting more with the french students and not being the shy little American wandering the halls. I think it'll take time, but hopefully I can come away with not only some great international friends but also some French ones. My roommates and I are also starting to get along better and while I think they think I'm kinda strange at times, they are nice and fun to be around. The other night I watched Holy Grail with them because Laura has to do an english presentation on it, but she doesn't think it's funny (now who's strange?!), but it was fun none the less.

So I'm off to Paris for this long weekend, we get monday and tuesay off so it should be a grand old time. Going Friday night with a couple friends and then meeting up with more people who are driving from Chambery Saturday morning. We found a cheap hotel and we're heading back Monday night. No real specific plans but it should be a good time and we'll be in Paris so that's what matters :). Until next time, bonne weekend et a tout!

the first week of school and other such stuff

Salut tout le monde!
Sorry I haven't written in awhile but things have been pretty busy. Spent a weekend in Geneve with my high school homestay family the Micallef's. Met up with Laure after she was done with work then we headed to her apartment and ate dinner and talked about politics, and other things with her and her friend Lauralee. Most young people don't seem to like Sarkozy, my roommate was angry because her housing aid for this year is very low, she's only getting like 85 euro a month. But I think the housing aid is great, no matter how much money I end up getting. The next day (sunday) we took the tram to the border of Switzerland and France and met up with Laure's dad, Serge and he took us to their country home in Nangy France. They have a very nice home there and we ate a delicious lunch of raclette with Laure's grandmother and uncle. French sunday lunches are quite the experience, first you have an apperitive, champagne was ours, then you move to the table for the entree which for us was the raclette. Raclette is a little like fondue but you have this grill thing that you put little plates with a piece of cheese on. The cheese then melts and you eat it with potatoes and deli meats. It's delish! After that was a little break than a pinapple snack, then coffee and then finally a cake desert. The whole lunch was around 3 hours. Laure's mother, Cathy, is a great cook though and it was a great day! They're a really nice family and were impressed with my language skills (luckily they have improved in four years). I hope to visit again soon!

Monday I started classes and so far it's been alright. I'm alone in a class with 10 other chinese students so it's kinda weird. They all speak chinese to each other and their french is not that great. Many of them have only been learning it for a year. I think it will get better soon though and my teachers have told me they can give me harder work. The chinese students are nice for the most part but it's hard to communicate with them because they're french is not that great and neither is their english. Hopefully they're fast learners and we'll be chatting more casually soon.

Yesterday my finnish friend, Iida, and my italien friend Erica, along with her parents, drove over to Voiron to check out the Chartreuse liquer cellers. They're the longest liquer cellers in the world and the Chartreuse was first made by a monks and are still doing it. Our couchsurfing friend told us about the cellars and it was a really cool tour. I even bought some of the digestive elixer, which you eat with a sugar cube :). This week should be pretty good, there's an international student party on Wednesday, so that should be fun, get to meet some more friends! And next weekend no plans yet but maybe a trip to Grenoble or somewhere else close by. I'll keep you all updated, but until then bonne journee et a tout a l'heure!