I talked to the children's director for my church the other day. I'm essentially taking over the preschoolers for the summer. It's a pretty small program, so I'll only have between 10 and 20 kids 5 and under. My job is to take the curriculum (which is geared toward elementary) and adapt it down to preschool level and then write a program around it for about an hour-long service. I don't know how much I'll be teaching (I'd like to not miss all of church for the rest of summer) vs just doing the lesson planning and giving that out to the volunteers, but either way I'm excited. Janet, the children's director, took me around the preschool area so I got to poke around and see what my resources are. I'll be writing up the program for all of July and August. Since I'm going to be out of town this weekend and next, I'll just need to email her the program I write up for the first Sunday in July, and after that I'll be able to be more involved in the implementation of it. Naturally, I'll be in contact with her through the whole process. What will be nice is that I'll have my mom with me as well over this next week while I'm writing it up, so I can use her as a resource too (she's been teaching two-year-old Bible classes for over 20 years). This will definitely be a challenge for me, but I'm looking forward to doing it.
Tomorrow and Friday I have a final each day, and then Friday afternoon I leave for WI, so classes are wrapping up quickly here. As soon as I get back I'll start my internship. Yikes!
25 June 2008
23 June 2008
Just a little update
Yesterday some people at the church had a cookout. It was hosted by Danielle and Ergun. Danielle was the first person I met at the church, she's really friendly and fun, and it was neat to go over. I'd met Ergun a couple times at church, but I got to talk to him for a while there. Turns out he's Turkish, was born in Turkey and moved to Kenya when he was 15, then later came to the US (I don't remember at what age). He and I talked for a really long time, about Turkey, about international politics and happenings in general. It was really interesting. There's a reason my major is my major; I really enjoyed being able to hold an intelligent conversation with a random person on international issues. I also met a guy, Caleb, who is Haitian, so he and I practiced my French some, which was nice because I desperately need to work on it.
We managed to get together some 6-on-6 volleyball that we played for a few hours, which was really fun. I'm so bad at sports, so that part was really embarrassing. But it's a fun group of people, and it was just fun to hang out with people and chill and such things, do the kind of thing I do really get to do off campus. I'm really glad I found this church.
I have a meeting with our children's directer at 1 today to talk about me taking over the preschoolers for the remainder of the summer, so I'll let you know how that goes when I get back. :)
We managed to get together some 6-on-6 volleyball that we played for a few hours, which was really fun. I'm so bad at sports, so that part was really embarrassing. But it's a fun group of people, and it was just fun to hang out with people and chill and such things, do the kind of thing I do really get to do off campus. I'm really glad I found this church.
I have a meeting with our children's directer at 1 today to talk about me taking over the preschoolers for the remainder of the summer, so I'll let you know how that goes when I get back. :)
20 June 2008
I have an internship!
So, as expected, I'm bad at keeping this thing updated. I've been pretty busy with classes recently; last week was midterms, this week is papers, and next week is finals. The biggest thing that happened this week is that I had an interview for an internship, and I got it, which means I know where I'll be working for the second half of the summer. I'll be working at Consensus Building Institute, a nonprofit that works both domestically and internationally with governments, NGO's, corporations, and individuals on conflict resolution and negotiation. So, for instance, say there's an NGO in Kenya that's fighting with the government over something, CBI will come in and mediate and help resolve the issue. They work with the UN a lot too, which I think is really cool. It's a project-based organization, so I'll have some freedom as to what exactly I want to work on. It's also only a 15 minute bus ride from my apt, so it's nice not to have a huge long commute. And it's right on the edge of MIT (it was founded by an MIT professor), so it's in a pretty area too. Overall, I'm pretty excited about it. I start on the Monday after the fourth, so I'll have to let you guys know how it goes.
03 June 2008
Red Sox
So yesterday our program directer, Yolanta, sent out an email saying she'd received 19 Red Sox tickets to the game at Fenway tonight and for people to email her and let her know if we wanted one. So I did, which means I get to go see the Red Sox for free tonight! (Tickets are usually pretty expensive. At least $100, as far as we've seen.) So there's a group of us going and it should be a lot of fun. We're going to run to a sports store to get some Sox paraphernalia before the game. I have to at least have a shirt to wear. It's gonna be fun! Hopefully we'll win. :)
01 June 2008
I found a church!
My roommate and I visited Tremont Temple Baptist Church this morning, and I absolutely loved it! It's a slightly more traditional service than I have at home, with hymnals and the ministers in robes and whatnot. They have an organ that's absolutely gorgeous that they actually play, which I think is amazing. All throughout the sermon you could see the emphasis on prayer, the Bible, and missions. You could really just feel the love of God in that church, and you could sense the sincerity of the people there. They were extremely welcoming, with one or two practically running us down just to say hi to a couple unfamiliar faces. They have a gospel choir (!!) that was having a short practice after service that I was invited to, so I tagged along with that and sang with them and it was really cool. Within the church and the choir there's a whole mix of races and ages. I met a whole lot of people and felt really welcomed. I'm really excited to go back next week. :)
20 May 2008
Summer Apartment and Roommate
Well, I'm here in Boston. My flights went without any significant event. When I got here I had to wait for like an hour and a half before they'd let me in to my apartment, but my roommate had to wait like three hours, so I don't feel too bad. Just typical university inefficiency.
My apartment
The apartment is mostly just old, but it's not too bad. Kind of small and not very open. There are two bedrooms (kind of), but Rachel (my roommate) and I decided to move into one bedroom and then use the other one as a den/TV room. My desk is in there too. We have a tiny little bathroom that's only kind of gross (it is campus housing) and a fairly big kitchen, with a fairly big fridge. It's so nice to have a fridge and a stove and an oven and the means to make my own meals. We apparently don't have a microwave, so we're going to try and look for a cheap one. So overall the apartment's not spectacular, not too bad, probably about what you'd expect for a campus apartment.
My roommate
My roommate's name is Rachel and she's really really sweet. She's from NY, but spent a year in Boston, so she knows her way around a little bit. So far we've been getting along really well. We're both coming from stressful semesters and want to be able to enjoy Boston with as little stress as possible. We've found we complement each other nicely. She does all the decorating for the apartment, and I do the organizing. It's working out well so far. She's really easy to get along with. It should be a fun summer. :)
My apartment
The apartment is mostly just old, but it's not too bad. Kind of small and not very open. There are two bedrooms (kind of), but Rachel (my roommate) and I decided to move into one bedroom and then use the other one as a den/TV room. My desk is in there too. We have a tiny little bathroom that's only kind of gross (it is campus housing) and a fairly big kitchen, with a fairly big fridge. It's so nice to have a fridge and a stove and an oven and the means to make my own meals. We apparently don't have a microwave, so we're going to try and look for a cheap one. So overall the apartment's not spectacular, not too bad, probably about what you'd expect for a campus apartment.
My roommate
My roommate's name is Rachel and she's really really sweet. She's from NY, but spent a year in Boston, so she knows her way around a little bit. So far we've been getting along really well. We're both coming from stressful semesters and want to be able to enjoy Boston with as little stress as possible. We've found we complement each other nicely. She does all the decorating for the apartment, and I do the organizing. It's working out well so far. She's really easy to get along with. It should be a fun summer. :)
16 May 2008
Soon to be on my way!
Well, here I am, sitting in my room a mere three days before I'll be in Boston, MA. I know nothing of the city and no one there, but I'm actually excited to go. Considering how quickly it's all been thrown together (I was admitted into the program just 7 days ago; I just found out my rooming assignment yesterday), it's still kind of amazing to me that I'm going. I'm excited to be out on my own, without anyone or anything familiar, and taking care of myself. I'll be living in an apartment-style dorm, kind of. I'm not sure whether or not I'll have a roommate. But I'll have a kitchen and everything. It should be very exciting.
My host-dad from last summer actually went to MIT, which is just across the river from BU (I live like 300 yards from BU), and he sent me some tips on churches in the area, so I've been looking at those. So far I've looked at these three:
Ruggles Baptist Church
Tremont Temple Baptist Church
Park Street Church
Ruggles is literally about a 15 second walk from my apartment. The other two are a little farther away, but not terribly far. I've been looking at and analyzing their websites for a while now. Park Street seems like an awesome church, but it's got 2000 people that come every Sunday, and since I have a church similar to that at home (Summit), I think I want to try something different for a summer. Find a good, solid church that's not just a replica of Summit in a different place. So I think I've already ruled out Park St.
Just from the websites I can't decide between Ruggles and Tremont. And I was sitting here going back and forth about it in my head, and then I was like, wait, this is silly. You can't judge a church from it's website. A church is made up of it's people. Until I go to the church and see how it works and see how the people are, I can't know what the church is like, regardless of whether or not I agree with their beliefs and their 'personality' as set forth by their website. So at the moment my plan is to visit them both, and any others that I hear of that appeal to me, though I want to find a church and settle down pretty quickly, since I've only got a summer there. But there's no use in deciding now. I'll go and see the churches for myself, then decide. I promise I'll let you guys know how it turns out!
And thanks, Alan, for the advice.
My host-dad from last summer actually went to MIT, which is just across the river from BU (I live like 300 yards from BU), and he sent me some tips on churches in the area, so I've been looking at those. So far I've looked at these three:
Ruggles Baptist Church
Tremont Temple Baptist Church
Park Street Church
Ruggles is literally about a 15 second walk from my apartment. The other two are a little farther away, but not terribly far. I've been looking at and analyzing their websites for a while now. Park Street seems like an awesome church, but it's got 2000 people that come every Sunday, and since I have a church similar to that at home (Summit), I think I want to try something different for a summer. Find a good, solid church that's not just a replica of Summit in a different place. So I think I've already ruled out Park St.
Just from the websites I can't decide between Ruggles and Tremont. And I was sitting here going back and forth about it in my head, and then I was like, wait, this is silly. You can't judge a church from it's website. A church is made up of it's people. Until I go to the church and see how it works and see how the people are, I can't know what the church is like, regardless of whether or not I agree with their beliefs and their 'personality' as set forth by their website. So at the moment my plan is to visit them both, and any others that I hear of that appeal to me, though I want to find a church and settle down pretty quickly, since I've only got a summer there. But there's no use in deciding now. I'll go and see the churches for myself, then decide. I promise I'll let you guys know how it turns out!
And thanks, Alan, for the advice.
16 November 2007
La vie en France: les grèves
Last Tuesday, November 13, the students at the Université Paul-Valery, Montpellier III voted to officially go on strike in response to some reforms Président Sarkozy is making to the French university system. They held some general assemblies and then barricaded off the entrance gates and all of the building entrances with piles of tables and chairs. They then guard the entrances to ensure that no one gets on campus or into their classrooms. In response to this, as is traditional in strike situations, the president of the university cancelled all classes for a week to ensure that no one got hurt trying to get to class and to make sure that no property was damaged (aside from all the graffiti all over the place inspiring everyone in their strike efforts).
Usually, even when the University goes on strike (which happens about once every two years. If you've never gone on strike for something, you're not actually French. My friend's hostmom said when she was a kid her middle school went on strike. That's right, a bunch of 11-year-olds.), the IEFE, the international student program, still goes on as normal, because we're not actually involved in any of the politics of the strike. But the president decided to go ahead and shut us down too, for security reasons, I believe. Which would mean no class for a week.
So we had no class on Wednesday, which didn't affect me anyway, because I never have class on Wednesdays. But I got an email from one of my teachers saying that the situation had changed somewhat, and they were restarting up classes for us international students. Somewhat disappointed that we didn't get a week-long vacation like the regular French students, we went back to class on Thursday.
Friday morning (at 8.30 in the morning, no less), we got to campus to find out the police had barred it off and weren't letting anyone in. Apparently about 20 students were occupying campus and the president decided enough was enough, so he had the police come in to get them off campus, which is a big deal to everyone on strike, because it's like the police have now invaded their sacred ground. The police have evacuated the 20 students and shut down campus to try and avoid any backlash from other students. They don't want a riot. Normally I guess they just let the students have campus indefinitely (a few years ago they went on strike for most of the semester), but this time they decided they want to try and keep the students from taking over campus again. I'm not sure if this means whether they've dismantled all the barricades or not.
About 20 minutes later the directrice of my program called to make sure that we were okay and not stuck in the middle of anything on campus. She said now we're not sure what's going on with class. Some students may rebel against the police being on campus and things could get pretty serious, so the president may just decide to keep everyone off campus, or they could have us start classes back up this afternoon. We're not really sure what's going to happen. Hopefully not a riot though.
I figure I'll just stay away from campus and see what happens. Apparently these things occasionally get pretty ugly. This strike isn't supposed to last that long, and I don't think the movement is that strong, but the president of the university is taking a pretty strong stance, and Sarkozy has said he's not giving in about his reforms, so we'll just see.
The trains are also on strike, because of retirement reform, which means instead of it's thousands of daily trains, France has only hundreds. This Tuesday all of the civil servants are going to go on strike, which will affect trains, trams, buses, and any other government job, such as public pools, libraries, the post office, etc. Pretty much everything will be shut down. And a bunch of the pre-school teachers are going on strike next Tuesday, too. It's getting kind of crazy over here. Everyone is striking. Maybe I should find something to strike about. Maybe I'll go on strike over the strikes. ;)
Usually, even when the University goes on strike (which happens about once every two years. If you've never gone on strike for something, you're not actually French. My friend's hostmom said when she was a kid her middle school went on strike. That's right, a bunch of 11-year-olds.), the IEFE, the international student program, still goes on as normal, because we're not actually involved in any of the politics of the strike. But the president decided to go ahead and shut us down too, for security reasons, I believe. Which would mean no class for a week.
So we had no class on Wednesday, which didn't affect me anyway, because I never have class on Wednesdays. But I got an email from one of my teachers saying that the situation had changed somewhat, and they were restarting up classes for us international students. Somewhat disappointed that we didn't get a week-long vacation like the regular French students, we went back to class on Thursday.
Friday morning (at 8.30 in the morning, no less), we got to campus to find out the police had barred it off and weren't letting anyone in. Apparently about 20 students were occupying campus and the president decided enough was enough, so he had the police come in to get them off campus, which is a big deal to everyone on strike, because it's like the police have now invaded their sacred ground. The police have evacuated the 20 students and shut down campus to try and avoid any backlash from other students. They don't want a riot. Normally I guess they just let the students have campus indefinitely (a few years ago they went on strike for most of the semester), but this time they decided they want to try and keep the students from taking over campus again. I'm not sure if this means whether they've dismantled all the barricades or not.
About 20 minutes later the directrice of my program called to make sure that we were okay and not stuck in the middle of anything on campus. She said now we're not sure what's going on with class. Some students may rebel against the police being on campus and things could get pretty serious, so the president may just decide to keep everyone off campus, or they could have us start classes back up this afternoon. We're not really sure what's going to happen. Hopefully not a riot though.
I figure I'll just stay away from campus and see what happens. Apparently these things occasionally get pretty ugly. This strike isn't supposed to last that long, and I don't think the movement is that strong, but the president of the university is taking a pretty strong stance, and Sarkozy has said he's not giving in about his reforms, so we'll just see.
The trains are also on strike, because of retirement reform, which means instead of it's thousands of daily trains, France has only hundreds. This Tuesday all of the civil servants are going to go on strike, which will affect trains, trams, buses, and any other government job, such as public pools, libraries, the post office, etc. Pretty much everything will be shut down. And a bunch of the pre-school teachers are going on strike next Tuesday, too. It's getting kind of crazy over here. Everyone is striking. Maybe I should find something to strike about. Maybe I'll go on strike over the strikes. ;)
07 November 2007
Toussaints: Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Normandy
November 1, All Saint's Day, is a national holiday in France (but they don't celebrate Halloween), and my professor canceled class for that Friday, so my friend Heather and I left Tuesday night, Oct 30, for Berlin, then went to Hamburg, Paris, and Normandy, then got back Monday morning.
I loved Germany! Berlin is a beautiful city, and I love how full of history it is. We visited the largest section of remnants of the Berlin Wall, which they've turned into an art gallery by having a bunch of people paint things along it. Contrary to popular opinion, the Wall is actually two walls, one on the East side and one on the West, separated by a few hundred yards of empty space. Most of the Wall was destroyed, but they've marked in cobblestone where it used to be all around the city. Since the area in between the walls also started growing things and got somewhat overgrown right after Wall fell, the city is also endeavoring to turn all of that space into green space, with walking and biking paths and gardens, etc, all across the city. It's actually pretty cool.
Berlin is a gorgeous city, very clean. I liked it a lot. Heather and I did a lot of walking around, not really looking for anything specific. We went to the IMAX theater and saw the movie Trade (in English). I thought it was very well done. It's about sex trafficking in the United States. Definitely a very intense movie, and one I wouldn't take your children to see, but it brings up some of the hidden crimes in the States, the ones no one hears about but that are becoming more and more common.
We also went to the Berlin zoo, where I got to see lots of fun animals. It was very exciting.
Next we went to Hamburg, where we once again didn't really do much except walk around and look at it be pretty. We wanted our trip to be kind of leisurely and relaxing, not running from monument to monument or anything like that, so that's what we did.
Then we went to Paris, where we went to see a ballet at the Opéra Garnier. It was actualy two 40-minute ballets, both of them modern, and the first one was pretty good, but the second one was really cool. I love watching people dance. Ballet is easily my favorite form. It's so gorgeous, I nearly start drooling whenever I see a good ballet dancer. I was really glad I got to go see one in Paris. The Opéra Garnier is a gorgeous old opera house too. It looks like something out of a movie. We were in these little six-person boxes, all done up in red velvet and gilded everything. We had good seats too. It was awesome.
We then went to Normandy for a day and toured Pointe du Hoc, Omaha beach, the American museum, and the German and American cemeteries. It was really neat. Pointe du Hoc is still filled with craters from all the bombs and everything, and you can see the nearly-sheer cliffs the Rangers had to climb to get to the German cannons in an attempt to incapacitate them. Omaha beach is huge, five miles long, and at low tide you can still see where the Americans built an artificial port in the days right after D-day.
The cemeteries were crazy. The American one is the largest land-wise, with 9,000 graves, and it's very impressive. The German one actually affected me more though. It takes up less land, but it's got 21,000 people buried in it, two people for each cross, and being there was very sobering. At least in the American cemetery, you know that each of those people died fighting for freedom, fighting to defend all the people that were unable to defend themselves and were being brutally slaughtered. In the German cemetery, all I could think was that these thousands upon thousands of people died for nothing, fought for nothing. For some maybe it was voluntary, for some maybe they were brainwashed, but when it comes down to it, what were they fighting for? Political power for their homeland? The right to do whatever they wanted, even if it mean slaughtering millions of people they deemed "unworthy"? To prove the superiority of their own race over all others? It's all just vanity, and it took over an entire country. It's astounding, and it's so sad to think of the millions of people that were killed by it, both in the concentration camps and during the war, Allies and Germans.
Overall, the trip went really well, and we were glad we got to go. We loved Germany and northern France was gorgeous, even though it was starting to get kind of cold. It's our last big trip, so we're glad it was a good one!
I loved Germany! Berlin is a beautiful city, and I love how full of history it is. We visited the largest section of remnants of the Berlin Wall, which they've turned into an art gallery by having a bunch of people paint things along it. Contrary to popular opinion, the Wall is actually two walls, one on the East side and one on the West, separated by a few hundred yards of empty space. Most of the Wall was destroyed, but they've marked in cobblestone where it used to be all around the city. Since the area in between the walls also started growing things and got somewhat overgrown right after Wall fell, the city is also endeavoring to turn all of that space into green space, with walking and biking paths and gardens, etc, all across the city. It's actually pretty cool.
Berlin is a gorgeous city, very clean. I liked it a lot. Heather and I did a lot of walking around, not really looking for anything specific. We went to the IMAX theater and saw the movie Trade (in English). I thought it was very well done. It's about sex trafficking in the United States. Definitely a very intense movie, and one I wouldn't take your children to see, but it brings up some of the hidden crimes in the States, the ones no one hears about but that are becoming more and more common.
We also went to the Berlin zoo, where I got to see lots of fun animals. It was very exciting.
Next we went to Hamburg, where we once again didn't really do much except walk around and look at it be pretty. We wanted our trip to be kind of leisurely and relaxing, not running from monument to monument or anything like that, so that's what we did.
Then we went to Paris, where we went to see a ballet at the Opéra Garnier. It was actualy two 40-minute ballets, both of them modern, and the first one was pretty good, but the second one was really cool. I love watching people dance. Ballet is easily my favorite form. It's so gorgeous, I nearly start drooling whenever I see a good ballet dancer. I was really glad I got to go see one in Paris. The Opéra Garnier is a gorgeous old opera house too. It looks like something out of a movie. We were in these little six-person boxes, all done up in red velvet and gilded everything. We had good seats too. It was awesome.
We then went to Normandy for a day and toured Pointe du Hoc, Omaha beach, the American museum, and the German and American cemeteries. It was really neat. Pointe du Hoc is still filled with craters from all the bombs and everything, and you can see the nearly-sheer cliffs the Rangers had to climb to get to the German cannons in an attempt to incapacitate them. Omaha beach is huge, five miles long, and at low tide you can still see where the Americans built an artificial port in the days right after D-day.
The cemeteries were crazy. The American one is the largest land-wise, with 9,000 graves, and it's very impressive. The German one actually affected me more though. It takes up less land, but it's got 21,000 people buried in it, two people for each cross, and being there was very sobering. At least in the American cemetery, you know that each of those people died fighting for freedom, fighting to defend all the people that were unable to defend themselves and were being brutally slaughtered. In the German cemetery, all I could think was that these thousands upon thousands of people died for nothing, fought for nothing. For some maybe it was voluntary, for some maybe they were brainwashed, but when it comes down to it, what were they fighting for? Political power for their homeland? The right to do whatever they wanted, even if it mean slaughtering millions of people they deemed "unworthy"? To prove the superiority of their own race over all others? It's all just vanity, and it took over an entire country. It's astounding, and it's so sad to think of the millions of people that were killed by it, both in the concentration camps and during the war, Allies and Germans.
Overall, the trip went really well, and we were glad we got to go. We loved Germany and northern France was gorgeous, even though it was starting to get kind of cold. It's our last big trip, so we're glad it was a good one!
17 October 2007
London
This past weekend a group of us went to London for Saturday and Sunday. It was a lot of fun! We flew there Saturday morning, then checked in and ate lunch at our hostel/pub. I had to register for classes for next semester at 3.15 London time, so I found an internet cafe and got that out of the way. Then we just kind of wandered a while, figured out the Tube, went by Buckingham Palace, etc, then Caitlin and I had to head back to the hostel to get ready to go see LES MISERABLES that night. I was so excited!
Les Mis was awesome! I've read the book (multiple times) and know the music inside out, so it was great to finally see the play as it was meant to be seen. I tried not to cry too much. It was soooo good. Unfortunately, because of Les Mis, I had to miss the France-England rugby game (semi-finals of the World Cup, which is being hosted in France, and even partly in Montpellier). At intermission people were checking the score and France was winning, but when we got out of Les Mis we learned that we'd ended up losing, which was sad. Oh well.
Sunday we just wandered around and were tourists. Saw all the exciting things in London. We actually had good weather: partly cloudy, no rain, didn't even really need a jacket except late at night. Walking around and sightseeing is fun.
Monday morning we got up at 2am, caught a cab at 2.45, caught a bus at 3.30, got to the airport at 5, caught our plane at 6, and got back to France at 9. I had been planning on going to my classes that day, but by the time my hostdad picked us up at the airport at 9.30, we were all exhuasted and I just went home and slept til 6 that night. Also, my hostdad taught me the French phrase for cutting class. We had crepes for dinner. It was yummy.
Yay England!
Les Mis was awesome! I've read the book (multiple times) and know the music inside out, so it was great to finally see the play as it was meant to be seen. I tried not to cry too much. It was soooo good. Unfortunately, because of Les Mis, I had to miss the France-England rugby game (semi-finals of the World Cup, which is being hosted in France, and even partly in Montpellier). At intermission people were checking the score and France was winning, but when we got out of Les Mis we learned that we'd ended up losing, which was sad. Oh well.
Sunday we just wandered around and were tourists. Saw all the exciting things in London. We actually had good weather: partly cloudy, no rain, didn't even really need a jacket except late at night. Walking around and sightseeing is fun.
Monday morning we got up at 2am, caught a cab at 2.45, caught a bus at 3.30, got to the airport at 5, caught our plane at 6, and got back to France at 9. I had been planning on going to my classes that day, but by the time my hostdad picked us up at the airport at 9.30, we were all exhuasted and I just went home and slept til 6 that night. Also, my hostdad taught me the French phrase for cutting class. We had crepes for dinner. It was yummy.
Yay England!
Life
Well, apparently I'm really bad at this.
My life since Italy:
Been taking classes at UPV. Mondays I have class from 8.30 to 4.30, Tuesday from 8.30 to 3.30, no class on Wednesdays, Thursdays, 1.00 to 4.00, and Fridays from 9 to 10.30. Overall not too bad, though the 11.5 hours of class on Mondays and Tuesdays wipes me out. But fortunately I have Wednesdays to recover.
Classes are fine. They vary between grammar, oral comprehension, oral expression, written comprehension, and written expression. And I also have a lit class and a civ class. Overall pretty easy. I have virtually no reading and not much homework besides that, so I have a lot less work than I usually do at UNC. Kind of nice to have a semester off from that stress.
Yes, everything is in French.
The French really do say "Oh la la" all the time. And the number of "la"'s is variable. The most I've heard at once was like 14, from my hostmom. I don't remember what she was oh la la -ing at, but it must have been pretty intense.
My life mostly consists of going to class every day, eating dinner at night with my hostparents, and either going out with friends at night (to a movie, dancing, etc) or going to the internet cafe to see if anyone's online. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I can tell my French is improving, even though I know I won't be fluent when I leave. It's still nice to be able to speak much more easily and to understand a lot more easily. I do like speaking in French, and it's fun to know that I can live in a different language if I ever need/want to.
My friend Taylar and I found a church we like! It's a "Evangelist Protest Reformed" Church. I'm not really sure what that means over here, but we like the church. It's about 30-40 people, and Sunday we actually sang "He's got the whole world in His hands" in French during the service. It was awesome. We're going to go back this Sunday. :) I was happy to have finally found a church we can stick with.
My life since Italy:
Been taking classes at UPV. Mondays I have class from 8.30 to 4.30, Tuesday from 8.30 to 3.30, no class on Wednesdays, Thursdays, 1.00 to 4.00, and Fridays from 9 to 10.30. Overall not too bad, though the 11.5 hours of class on Mondays and Tuesdays wipes me out. But fortunately I have Wednesdays to recover.
Classes are fine. They vary between grammar, oral comprehension, oral expression, written comprehension, and written expression. And I also have a lit class and a civ class. Overall pretty easy. I have virtually no reading and not much homework besides that, so I have a lot less work than I usually do at UNC. Kind of nice to have a semester off from that stress.
Yes, everything is in French.
The French really do say "Oh la la" all the time. And the number of "la"'s is variable. The most I've heard at once was like 14, from my hostmom. I don't remember what she was oh la la -ing at, but it must have been pretty intense.
My life mostly consists of going to class every day, eating dinner at night with my hostparents, and either going out with friends at night (to a movie, dancing, etc) or going to the internet cafe to see if anyone's online. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I can tell my French is improving, even though I know I won't be fluent when I leave. It's still nice to be able to speak much more easily and to understand a lot more easily. I do like speaking in French, and it's fun to know that I can live in a different language if I ever need/want to.
My friend Taylar and I found a church we like! It's a "Evangelist Protest Reformed" Church. I'm not really sure what that means over here, but we like the church. It's about 30-40 people, and Sunday we actually sang "He's got the whole world in His hands" in French during the service. It was awesome. We're going to go back this Sunday. :) I was happy to have finally found a church we can stick with.
19 September 2007
Italy, part one
We took the 15h11 train from Montpellier to Nice, from whence we were supposed to take the night train, which left at 21h07, to Florence. About 45 minutes after we left Montpellier, our train broke down in this little middle-of-nowhere train station in Arles. For two hours. We took turns leaving someone with our stuff and taking walks outside, all the while trying to think where we were going to sleep that night since we were going to miss the train to Florence. Once the train finally got going again around 18h10, the conductor came over the loudspeaker and said the night trains to Rome and Venice were going to wait for us. That was fantastic for us, since we were going to Florence, but we were confused since according to the train schedule there was no train to Rome. We wallowed in our confusion for the remaining hours of the train ride, got to Nice around 22h00, and lo and behold, there was the train to Rome and Venice, but alas no train to Florence. We started dejectedly wandering off, now trying to think of where we were going to sleep and how we were going to get to Florence the next day. As one last resort we checked our train number and realized that, though it didn't say Florence anywhere in the terminal or on the train, the train to Rome and Venice was indeed the our train. By this time the conductor was blowing his whistle to signal the departure of the train; everyone had already boarded. We frantically ran up to him, blabbering in French about how this was our train and we needed to get on it. We ran to the nearest door (which was fortunately the car next to ours) and jumped on board as the train started pulling away. Some nice man who was laready on held the door (which was trying to close) open for us so we could climb on as fast as possible. I wsa pretty sure at least one of us was going to get left behind. We made it to our room. At this point it's like 22h30, none of us have eaten since lunch, and there's no food car on the train, so we split a bottle of wine for dinner, then went to bed.
But we made it to Florence! Florence is gorgeous and I could have spent our entire week there. We saw some amazing churches and cathedrals, including the one that had the preserved body of one of the archbishops of Florence from the 1400s on display. The priest in there was the cutest little old man ever and spoke to us for a few minutes in simple Italian (most of which we were able to get the gist of from French) and some broken English. If I lived in Florence, that's the church I would attend: I loved it.
While we were there we also saw Michelangelo's David, which was magnificent, and the graves of Michelangelo, Galileo, machiavelli, and Danti, who are all inhumed in the same churched. We walked around Florence a lot and just marveled at how gorgeous it is. We alos found a Mexican restaurant! We were nearly beside ourselves with excitement. France doesn't have any Mexican, and we all sorely missed it. So probably the most exciting thing in Florence was eating Mexican. Go figure.
Updates coming soon on Rome and Venice!
But we made it to Florence! Florence is gorgeous and I could have spent our entire week there. We saw some amazing churches and cathedrals, including the one that had the preserved body of one of the archbishops of Florence from the 1400s on display. The priest in there was the cutest little old man ever and spoke to us for a few minutes in simple Italian (most of which we were able to get the gist of from French) and some broken English. If I lived in Florence, that's the church I would attend: I loved it.
While we were there we also saw Michelangelo's David, which was magnificent, and the graves of Michelangelo, Galileo, machiavelli, and Danti, who are all inhumed in the same churched. We walked around Florence a lot and just marveled at how gorgeous it is. We alos found a Mexican restaurant! We were nearly beside ourselves with excitement. France doesn't have any Mexican, and we all sorely missed it. So probably the most exciting thing in Florence was eating Mexican. Go figure.
Updates coming soon on Rome and Venice!
08 September 2007
I have bruises to prove it
Today we went on our last planned excursion, this one to St-Guilhem-le-Désert. It's this little tiny town all by its lonesome in a mountain valley about an hour from here. It was really really pretty. And what was even more exciting was that we got to go swimming in the Hérault river, which was utterly gorgeous. It was really really clear, and the perfect temperature. Cold when you first got in, but just right after that. Also, the river, since it is in a mountain valley, it's surrounded by cliffs, which makes it perfect for cliff-jumping! So I jumped off a few cliffs. The highest was about 15-20 feet in the air I think. It was a ton of fun, though I did bruise my leg hitting the water. But it was a small price to pay! It felt so good to be in the water, and just to be active. Some friends and I are thinking about getting a membership to the pool and going there once or twice a week, since that will give us something active to do all semester. And my mom just sent me my dance shoes to I can do that as well, so hopefully I'll be able to be pretty active while I'm here. I'm looking forward to that. Yay France!
Also, tomorrow I leave for Italy!
Also, tomorrow I leave for Italy!
07 September 2007
Patriotism
Today on the tram a few of us were talking about patriotism, and we ended up talking about some stuff I hadn't really thought about before. I had mentioned that despite the common perception that American is extremely nationalistic, most Americans really aren't that patriotic. They are, but when I went to Turkey I saw so much more nationalism there than I ever would in the US, so it made me think about how patriotic the average American is, which doesn't seem to be all that much. But then today I was talking to my program director over here and she was talking about how when she went back to visit the States this summer (she's been living in France 15 years), she was surprised at how patriotic they were. She explained that in France you don't see people flying the French flag or playing patriotic songs (such as Proud to be an American in America) all the time or anything like that, that it would be really weird to see that.
So I've come up with a theory on part of why that is, because I like to think about such things. I don't think France is any less patriotic than America is, and perhaps even America isn't any less patriotic than Turkey. I think they just show it different ways. In Europe, you're in very close quarters with a bunch of different countries, so flagrant shows of patriotism or national pride can be viewed as offensive or even aggressive by neighboring countries, whereas in America there's not really anyone close by to challenge us. Thus the French show their patriotism through preserving their culture: they have tons of laws about language and music and all parts of culture, in order to try and keep it as unaffected by foreign cultures as possible.
Here in Europe, your culture is mostly challenged with being swallowed up by the surrounding ones, so it's a fight to keep it alive. In America, we don't have that challenge, so we're free to be flagrant with our flags and our songs, etc. American culture is based on a mix of cultures, essentially built on the flexibility and constant change that comes from having a mélange of people-groups. So change is considered normal, and it's not necessarily your specific accent or mannerism that's as important as showing to others that regardless of your background, you are American. Here you don't need to show anyone you're French; it's through the preservation of the culture through the correctness of your speech, your French mannerisms, etc, that shows your loyalty to your country. It's an interesting discrepancy. Any thoughts?
So I've come up with a theory on part of why that is, because I like to think about such things. I don't think France is any less patriotic than America is, and perhaps even America isn't any less patriotic than Turkey. I think they just show it different ways. In Europe, you're in very close quarters with a bunch of different countries, so flagrant shows of patriotism or national pride can be viewed as offensive or even aggressive by neighboring countries, whereas in America there's not really anyone close by to challenge us. Thus the French show their patriotism through preserving their culture: they have tons of laws about language and music and all parts of culture, in order to try and keep it as unaffected by foreign cultures as possible.
Here in Europe, your culture is mostly challenged with being swallowed up by the surrounding ones, so it's a fight to keep it alive. In America, we don't have that challenge, so we're free to be flagrant with our flags and our songs, etc. American culture is based on a mix of cultures, essentially built on the flexibility and constant change that comes from having a mélange of people-groups. So change is considered normal, and it's not necessarily your specific accent or mannerism that's as important as showing to others that regardless of your background, you are American. Here you don't need to show anyone you're French; it's through the preservation of the culture through the correctness of your speech, your French mannerisms, etc, that shows your loyalty to your country. It's an interesting discrepancy. Any thoughts?
04 September 2007
One week til Italy!
Well, I have one more week of grammar and civ classes, then I have a week off before I start university classes. My friends Sarah and Caitlin and I are going to to leave Sunday morning for Nice, spend the day there, then take the night train to Florence. From there we'll go to Rome, then Venice, then back to Nice, then back home to Montpellier. We'll get back next Sunday afternoon, so it will have been almost exactly a week. We're pretty excited about it.
Aside from that, classes are going well. We have an official wine tasting during our civ class on Wednesday, then our finals for our grammar classes on Saturday before our last excursion. After that we are free from Pré-stage, something we're all pretty excited about. When I get my classes for this semester, I really want to see if I can keep my Fridays free for traveling purposes. This is my list of places I want to visit, in no particular order:
Normandie
London/England
Paris
Barcelona
Dublin
Germany
Austria
I know there are some I'm missing. Any good ideas? I know I probably won't get to go everywhere I want to, but I need to have a full list before I can figure out which ones to prioritize.
Life is going pretty well; I love France, but I wish I could share it with all my friends back home! Email is my main mode of communication, since I have limited internet, so I'd love it if you shoot me an email and I'm trying to get back to people within two to three days.
I miss you guys!
Aside from that, classes are going well. We have an official wine tasting during our civ class on Wednesday, then our finals for our grammar classes on Saturday before our last excursion. After that we are free from Pré-stage, something we're all pretty excited about. When I get my classes for this semester, I really want to see if I can keep my Fridays free for traveling purposes. This is my list of places I want to visit, in no particular order:
Normandie
London/England
Paris
Barcelona
Dublin
Germany
Austria
I know there are some I'm missing. Any good ideas? I know I probably won't get to go everywhere I want to, but I need to have a full list before I can figure out which ones to prioritize.
Life is going pretty well; I love France, but I wish I could share it with all my friends back home! Email is my main mode of communication, since I have limited internet, so I'd love it if you shoot me an email and I'm trying to get back to people within two to three days.
I miss you guys!
01 September 2007
Some recent adventures
Things are going well here! Two weeks of classes are over. This weekend we're going to Avignon. After this next week, I have a week break, so some friends and I are going to travel Italy a little bit. It's gonna be fun times!
Some recent adventures we’ve had:
Dimanche, le 26 août, 2007
After about an hour, the bus pulled over, and the bus driver got off. We in the back had no idea what was going on, and since the bus had been turned off and now there was no air moving, it started getting hotter and hotter in the back. After about ten minutes, it was no exaggeration at least 100 degrees and we decided that whether or not we were allowed to, we were getting off. As it turns out, the bus had an oil leak, so from then on we would have to stop every 6 kilometers to refill the oil tank. The bus driver was able to call another bus to come meet us, but it was going to be about 50 minutes before he could get there, and we would have to drive a little ways to meet him. When you got back on the bus, you could feel yourself walk into a wall of heat. We sat on the 100 degree bus for about 15 minutes as we drove to meet the other bus, and even in that short a period of time, there were several people on the bus about to get sick. We finally reached the spot, which fortunately had a gas station so that we could get ice cream, and then we stood outside in the sun, which was still cooler than in the bus, and waited for another bus for like 45 minutes. After that bus arrived, we still had about a 45 minute ride back to town, from where I would need to walk about 10 minutes and then take a tram for another 30 minutes to get home. I was so exhausted by the time got home that I went to bed at like 9.30.
24 August 2007
Voila!
Voila! Here I am, in France! When I first arrived my groupe traveled to Sommieres for a short orientationm then a week ago we retourned to Montpellier and moved in with our host families. I love my hostparents! They're so sweet. It's an older couple, orthodox Christian, and they have been so nice to me, helping me with my French, etc. We have these in-depth conversations about religion and life at the dinner table every night; it's pretty cool.
This has been our first week of classes in what's called the préstage, which is like three weeks of language and civ classes before we start at the university in September. Those are pretty straigh-forward and not overly difficult , which is nice, but it means I don't have much free time right now.
Our group of UNC students is fun. We what 14 girls and 1 lone guy, and a few of us get together to do something most evenings. In August, Montpellier has wine tastings every Friday, so a group of us went to that last week. I've discovered that I don't like wine; I want to acquire the taste before I leave but at the moment I can't drink more than a few sips of it. Even here in France where it's legal for me to drink and people don't drink to get drunk like they do in the US, I still have zero desire to drink, and I haven't yet decided if I'm going to go out with some of the other girls and try a drink or not sometime. Any thoughts?
So far I love it here, but I do miss people, and I miss being on campus. I think the hardest part of that is feeling somewhat left behind by your friends because you're not with them doing the things they're doing, something that's exacerbated by the 6-hour time difference that makes it hard to talk to people at all. But this is a beautiful city that I'm quickly falling in love with, and I can tell already that I'm going to be really sad when I have to leave.
This has been our first week of classes in what's called the préstage, which is like three weeks of language and civ classes before we start at the university in September. Those are pretty straigh-forward and not overly difficult , which is nice, but it means I don't have much free time right now.
Our group of UNC students is fun. We what 14 girls and 1 lone guy, and a few of us get together to do something most evenings. In August, Montpellier has wine tastings every Friday, so a group of us went to that last week. I've discovered that I don't like wine; I want to acquire the taste before I leave but at the moment I can't drink more than a few sips of it. Even here in France where it's legal for me to drink and people don't drink to get drunk like they do in the US, I still have zero desire to drink, and I haven't yet decided if I'm going to go out with some of the other girls and try a drink or not sometime. Any thoughts?
So far I love it here, but I do miss people, and I miss being on campus. I think the hardest part of that is feeling somewhat left behind by your friends because you're not with them doing the things they're doing, something that's exacerbated by the 6-hour time difference that makes it hard to talk to people at all. But this is a beautiful city that I'm quickly falling in love with, and I can tell already that I'm going to be really sad when I have to leave.
13 August 2007
En France
I am in France! I'm currently in the Paris airport with about two hours to go before my flight leaves for Montpellier. I'll arrive in Montpellier and then head over the program office, from where we'll leave for Sommieres for a few days for orientation. While I'm excited to be doing this this semester, right now I'm mostly just kind of intimidated and a little overwhelmed. I haven't yet been forced into a situation where I need to make conversation in French, and I think once I do that I'll feel a little better. I can read all the signs and such, but I have to listen hard to understand bits of the conversations going on around me. I think it's just going to take a little while to get used to everything being in a different language. So far there haven't been any problems though, which is good. I'll have to take a taxi once I get into Montpellier; that makes me nervous. Hopefully there will be other people there from this program that I can split it with, but I don't want to count on it.
Once we get to Sommieres, I'll be internet-less for a couple days, and after that, I'm not sure how soon or how often I'll be able to get to an internet cafe, so I'm not sure when my next update will come, but hopefully it won't be too long. We move into our host homes I think on the 16th, which is also really nerve-wracking, but should be okay. My host family is an older couple whose children no longer live with them, but I think some of their children are students in Montpellier and they have a grandchild that's around some too. I'm more nervous about the language than anything else. I don't want to misunderstand something and cause problems.
I really want this semester to make me fluent. It's kind of overwhelming to be so surrounded by French, but at the same time it's exactly what I want, because it's the only way I'll become fluent, which has been my goal since I first started taking French. Hopefully it will work!
Once we get to Sommieres, I'll be internet-less for a couple days, and after that, I'm not sure how soon or how often I'll be able to get to an internet cafe, so I'm not sure when my next update will come, but hopefully it won't be too long. We move into our host homes I think on the 16th, which is also really nerve-wracking, but should be okay. My host family is an older couple whose children no longer live with them, but I think some of their children are students in Montpellier and they have a grandchild that's around some too. I'm more nervous about the language than anything else. I don't want to misunderstand something and cause problems.
I really want this semester to make me fluent. It's kind of overwhelming to be so surrounded by French, but at the same time it's exactly what I want, because it's the only way I'll become fluent, which has been my goal since I first started taking French. Hopefully it will work!
04 August 2007
Summer is ending
Tonight is my last night in my host home. I'm sad; I'm going to miss them while I'm in France. I love having kids around to play with and snuggle with and hang out with. The four kids here are so fun and so cute, and my hostparents have been so awesome this summer, and I can't believe it's already time to leave. It's kind of hit me all at once that summer is ending and I'm about to leave everyone and everything for a semester, and I know I'm going to have a great time in France, but at the same time, I'm kind of like, What was I thinking? I think it's just going to be hard, especially after this summer, after I've built all these really close relationships with the other people in the Institute and with my hostfamily and with people in the church, to just up and leave all that. I kind of feel like I'm abandoning it. But I will be back in four months, so maybe I'm just being melodramatic. But I do love my hostfamily, and so appreciate everything they've done for me this summer and how sweet they've been to me, and I'm going to miss them all a lot. I'm going to miss my room here, with my roommate, and hearing the children at 6.45 in the morning, discussing life with my hostparents, just being a part of the family here. I love that, and I'm sad I have to leave so soon.
03 August 2007
Here we go . . .
I'm back from Central Asia! It was an amazing trip! I'll admit it, I almost didn't want to come home. While I was there, I journaled every day (quite the feat for me), so now that I'm back, I'm going to type up those journals and backlog them here so they look like they were posted on the day they happened. It may take me a couple days to get them all up, so I'll leave this post up til they get done. The posts should be relatively in depth, but if you have any other questions about the trip, feel free to ask!
*For safety reasons, I've changed the names of our guides and of a few people who went on the trip with us who are going to be moving there next year. I also won't mention the name of the city we were in, but will just call it "our city."
*For safety reasons, I've changed the names of our guides and of a few people who went on the trip with us who are going to be moving there next year. I also won't mention the name of the city we were in, but will just call it "our city."
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