I’m sitting here in the sun, having just finished a huge cup of coffee, and
am currently loving the blue sky! I was worried there for a couple of weeks
when we had all the clouds and snow, but the typical Provençal weather is now
back and hopefully here to stay. A long Sunday of studying and an excursion
with my friends lies ahead of me, but all I want to do is crawl back in bed and
sleep. Being a study abroad student can get quite tiring! After a month here, it’s
still exhausting to have to constantly be cognizant of the French culture and making little adjustments. Not to mention the amount of studying I have to do while I
have friends who think I can go out past midnight every night of the week! Exhausting. As I continue to adjust and learn from
the culture and people around me, I couldn’t help but wonder…
As my experience in France continues to change me, how will I in turn affect
the society and people around me?
This past week I had my first experience at my travail bénévole, where I
hope I will be able to affect the lives of the students with whom I’ll be
working. I will be assisting a professor with her English class of 20 middle
school students. My first day was a little nerve-racking to say the least; I
know that middle school students can have an attitude, and weren’t going to be
like the elementary school kids with whom my friend is working who adore her
and think she’s amazing simply because she’s from America. I felt there was
something I needed to prove, that I needed to be interesting, fun, and exciting
so they would want to work with me throughout the semester. My introduction
went fairly well (except for the fact that I started talking way too fast at
the beginning because a. it’s me, and I always talk fast, b. I was nervous, and
c. it was in English, and I hadn’t spoken in English for so long that I lost
track of myself! But after I realized the entire class was staring at me
dumbfounded and had no comprehension of what I’d said, I started over-much
slower!), and the students were able to ask me questions about my life.
The conversation was entirely in English, and it was a very interesting
experience to have the roles reversed in the classroom. Now I was the one
patiently waiting for the students to translate their thoughts and ask
questions at a slower pace, as opposed to me being in a class at the Center and
having to take time to form my own thoughts. I have an entirely new
appreciation for my professors; I marvel at how they can wait for us to think so
slowly and take a painstakingly long time to form phrases, not to mention how
they can teach an entire class at such a slow pace of talking.
The students asked me every question from if I like fast food and video
games to if I wanted to stay in France after the semester and what I did when I
went to Paris. They were all very eager, and for the most part well behaved and
attentive. After our 45-min. Q&A, I took five students into the adjoining
classroom to practice conversation skills. We sat in a circle and talked about
our hobbies and the American culture. For next week I have to come up with some
phrases/vocab words that the students can copy down and study. I’m still in the
process of coming up with a theme that is applicable and useful, as well as
interesting and fun. If you have any ideas, please send them my way!
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| My language partner and myself at the billards bar. |
Another way I hope to affect those around me during my stay is by
helping my language partner with his English. He has to pass an English exam to
receive his diploma in Mechanical Engineering in June, and is in the process of
preparing. We met up this past week at a café to practice and speak in English
a little bit. We went over some exam questions together (which are very picky and
specific!) while I enjoyed a noisette, and we attempted to have a conversation
in English. It was an entirely different experience from our conversations in
French, which I find to be much more fluid and natural. I hope that through our
continued work together he will be able to pass the exam and continue onto his
career. In the future, we will be discussing current events in the news, and
continuing to converse in an English that is applicable to his exam. In
addition to improving his English, I will definitely benefit from the cafés
that come along with these rendez-vous!
While I may not change French society with my adoration for Country
music, I will at least introduce them to the concept! Friday night at a
friend’s apartment we played guitar and sang together after some amazing
crêpes! (Don’t even ask me how much Nutella I ate, it’s rather embarrassing!)
We sang a mixture of popular songs, with some TSwift and Dixie Chicks thrown in
for good measure! I’ve found myself listening to my Country playlist non-stop
these past couple of weeks, and I think it is a definite sign that I miss home.
I always associate Country music with hometown America, the sentiments of
family, friends, love, and belonging, not to mention a simple and nostalgic
version of the American Dream.
My playlist, along with my continued addiction to Friday Night Lights,
has signaled to me that I’m definitely homesick. “Mal du pays” is the French
translation of homesick, and I think it fits my situation much more aptly,
since I am missing my American culture and lifestyle more than anything
(mal=sick, pays=country). While I continue to love and take advantage of my
French experience every day, sometimes I just wish I could take a couple of
hours when I didn’t have to think about how my actions and natural reflexes
might be different from the French culture, or how the way I view my future, my
dreams, and want to raise my children are almost entirely different from the
society around me. I never realized how much I took for granted the fact that all
of my friends and family have the same core values and beliefs, and I miss
that. I'm not saying that I don’t value the French cultural
practices or understand why they’re different, because I do, and I value their differences, it’s just that
sometimes I wish it wasn’t so tiring to keep an open-mind and neutral state all
the time.
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| Having some fun with our baguettes and rosé! |
Along the lines of our crêpe dinner, I was also able to have a few
friends over for dinner Saturday night to cook. It was so much fun! We made some
delicious food, had some rosé (duh!), and laughed a lot. It was so nice to just
relax and hang out with some friends, and I love that we spoke in French the
entire time. I’m never going to get sick of speaking in French all the time,
and I hope we can stay in touch over the summer with our "French friendships"!
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| Our gourmet dinner: brie crostinis with smoked salmon, sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions; sautéed zucchini and red pepper; extra baguette; and rosé. |
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| Provence students with Frédéric Mistral. |
Yesterday, the French experience wowed me again as I was able to walk in
the footsteps of Van Gogh! Our excursion with the Center was to Arles and St. Rémy
where we were able to visit a few spots and landscapes that inspired Van Gogh’s
work. (Below you can see the places we visited and the corresponding paintings of Van Gogh!) It was a gorgeous blue-sky day, and we had an amazing time walking around
the two towns! I am absolutely in love with the charm of small French villages
and getting lost among the winding side streets with colorful shutters and old
stone houses. I also found quite a few fun places/signs that relate to the
Provençal Literature and Film class that I’m taking this semester. I took a
photo with some of my friends in the class of the Frédéric Mistral statue in
Arles (he was an extremely famous Provençal poet who wrote only in the local
language, Provençale, and won the Nobel Prize), and found a post card of
Alphonse Daudet’s moulin (we recently read excerpts from his novel Lettres de mon Moulin). I love making
educational connections outside of the classroom; how Denison of me, I know!
Les Alyscamps
Terrasse du café le soir, Place du forum, Arles
Oliviers avec les Alpilles dans le fond
Jardin de l'hôpital en Arles
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| Enjoying the day in Arles |
After a fabulous day enjoying Provence, I went out with some friends
last night to play billards. Beforehand, I enjoyed a dinner in one of the town
squares with two friends, where we each brought food and literally ate
it on a fountain! Sometimes not having a house to host guests in can get a
little odd, but it was still enjoyable. Yes, we may have gotten some odd looks
from the people walking past with our plates of sautéed red peppers, brie, and
smoked salmon, but it was a hilarious experience. While I didn’t play billards
last night (making a fool of myself two times is enough!), I enjoyed chatting
and laughing with my friends. Enjoy our photos of the night below!
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| My friend's face in the background: priceless. |
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| So cute! |
I look forward to the week ahead, and continuing my relationship with
the French culture!
Ciao et Bisous,
SA
Here's an excerpt from one of the stories we read in Daudet's novel Lettres de mon moulin. I would attempt to translate it, but it's just too beautiful in it's original poetic form, and I'm afraid I'd ruin it. It is a beautiful passage that describes spending a night out in the fields underneath the stars, enjoying the nature of Provence around you, and having the person you love at your side. It ends with a gorgeous metaphor where the narrator compares his love to "one of the stars, the most fine, the most brilliant that had lost it's route and come to lean on my shoulder to sleep."
« Si vous avez jamais passé la nuit à la belle étoile, vous savez qu’à l’heure où nous dormons, un monde mystérieux s’éveille dans la solitude et le silence. Alors les sources chantent bien plus clair, les étangs allument des petites flammes. Tous les esprits de la montagne vont et viennent librement, et il y a dans l’ai des frôlements, des bruits imperceptibles, comme si l’on entendait les branches grandir, l’herbe pousser. Le jour, c’est la vie des êtres ; mais la nuit, c’est la vie des choses…Autour de nous, les étoiles continuaient leur marche silencieuse, dociles comme un grand troupeau ; et par moments je me figurais qu’une de ces étoiles, la plus fine, la plus brillante ayant perdu sa route, était venue se poser sur mon épaule pour dormir… » (Daudet, « Les Etoiles », Lettres de mon moulin)
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| Nothing like a little cat saying "bisous bisous" to make you think of Arles! |
