Blogs from Franche-Comté, France, Europe - page 4

In the shoddy hall kitchen this morning, I heated up some milk to make hot cocoa with the mix I bought last night at the Intermarche. I ate dry cereal and drank the cocoa as I did online French grammar exercises. Though I've attained a strong level in French, I make mistakes all day and so I've instituted a regimen called "PRACTICE FRENCH GRAMMAR EVERYDAY OR ELSE!" It's going well so far. Today, my school orientation revealed to me that the French university system is quite complicated and bureaucratic (surprise? not really :) ). I'm going to start looking at courses and registering soon because courses start Monday, though nothing is settled until the end of January. The fac (campus) is composed of really old buildings, and the halls are a maze-like weave of honeycomb. ... read more

I let myself sleep as long as I wanted today, the first time since I arrived. I took my time getting ready; my socks and boots were warm from drying on the radiator and felt cheery against my tired feet. Last night, Regine and I watched FRIENDS in French and then met up with her boyfriend Hocine. He's a really funny guy, and is good at making people feel at ease. We wandered around, trying to decide what to eat, and settled on a North African burger/sandwich joint. The fries had curry seasoning and were so good! And they came with various sauced, like curry, Marocain (dill, and some curry), and other neat ones like that. It was a small place that seemed to be popular for congregating. Someone would walk in, and everyone would know ... read more

With a sigh I packed my things this morning at Oops!. My roommates were still sleeping, and it was difficult to gather all of my things in the dark and try not to make too much noise in a room that is only 8X11. I said goodbye to Tom and lugged my things to the metro, where I made three transfers to get to Gare de Lyon, the place where my TGV train would depart. On the train, I watched as we left Paris and entered a rolling landscape covered in snow. As we neared Besancon (which is only about 2.5 hours away), the terraine became more extreme. I'm not sure when a hill stops being a hill and becomes a mountain, but there were lots of hilly-mountainy things that rose up into the white sky. ... read more

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you are all enjoying and relaxing this weekend!! My spirits are much better as this week came to an end. I am realizing though that being here has just made me more of an emotional person. But not in a sad way...more of an "I can't believe i'm here experiencing another culture first hand" kind of way. Everything makes me tear up...beautiful gardens, french hymns in church, listening to little kids talk...everything! I think it's me just proving to myself how appreciative I am of this amazing opportunity given to me. So you may be wondering what the title of this blog signifies. Well yesterday was our last day of classes. I was sad to leave our two professors...Francine was great..she was bubbly, fun, energetic, and so nice. Agnes was great too...very ... read more

Bonsoir a tous!! I just wrote a long blog about my weekend....then my internet lost connection. I lost it all. UGH!!!!! Well, I'm going to bed and will update in two days! I will write again about my weekend and also about the schools I'm visiting Monday and Tuesday! I'm going to Germany!!! :) I'm sorry about the deleted blog and that i'm not writing it again! I'm exhausted and frustrated!! But I do miss you all very much! Take care and I'll update soon! Bisous!!!... read more