Nationwide Protest

As is normal everytime the French decide that they're upset, they protest. Normally though it's just one sector of the society - teachers, public transit workers, the post office, or something like that. Today has been dubbed "black thursday" because nearly every major sector in France is protesting. They're worried about job insecurity. Personally, and maybe this is just because I'm American, but you'd think that protesting wouldn't really help because the companies would fire them and just hire different people. But that's just me. If you're at all interested, here's an article from cnn.com.

The other night my host mom and I were talking about how German is not a "beautiful language" and she was like "yeah but I'm biased because of the German occupation" and then proceeded to tell me about her experience during the Nazi occupation! I was really surprised - I knew she lived through it and must remember it but didn't think that I should ask. But it was really cool and sad. She was 7 or 8 and had to shelter Nazis in her house because it had enough room for several of them - and her house became like Nazi headquarters for her town. But then she was like "I remember when the Americans came to liberate us; my mom had old curtains that were in blue and red and we made little French flags and gave them to the American soldiers as they walked past our house." And then she was like "it was really cool because we'd see them all over town, getting their haircuts or something" lol. She said she kept in touch with a few of them and they sent her gum and cigarettes until she turned 18 - even though they were only in her little town for 2 days or so. But I thought that was really cool (and sad obviously, that she had Nazis in her house).

Other than that not a lot is happening. I'm getting back into my classes which are alright. The class selection this semester sucks but I have enough classes so whatever. I miss you all!

The French take on the Inauguration

We officially have a new president. And of course, since the French were *such* fans of Bush (haha not really) they are all very excited that America has a new president. I didn't see the whole thing, but I did notice a few things that I found very interesting. 

1) Everytime someone said "Barack Obama" in English, the French translator would say "Barack Hussein Obama"

2) They showed George Bush leaving the White House via helicopter and then promptly stopped talking about him - that was their way of saying goodbye, I guess. 

3) Miss France, who is of a mixed heritage, was in Washington to see the inauguration and started crying and really couldn't say more than three words. It was quite amusing watching the reporter handle that

4) The news showed a black and white picture of Superman standing in front of an American flag and superimposed an image of Obama's face on it - with the caption "Un nouveau Amèrique" (A new America) and then the reporter said that nothing could shake Obama. Somehow I don't think that's true

and finally

5) In true French style, after the actual inauguration and speeches and all that jazz is over, they show pictures of the parties and all the famous political people and start discussing (and criticizing) the food choice for the dinners and lunches. 

It's been quite interesting over here today. I think all of France is glad that Obama's the president. We shall see how long that lasts. 

Retour à Nantes

I got back to Nantes yesterday. My flights were long and I barely made my connection to Paris in Amsterdam but I made it. I couldn't really do anything in Paris. I got my bag - it was one of the first ones off the plane, how weird! - and then I hung out at CDG/the train station until 3:45 when my train was supposed to leave. It was a few minutes late though. So I got to Nantes and unpacked and went to bed. It was very uneventful.

Today, though, I'm really tired. I'm still jetlagged and I didn't sleep well last night which surprised me! There was really strong winds last night and since I sleep on the top floor, they kept me up which was really annoying. I was laying in bed thinking to myself - why am I awake, I just want to sleep!!

I've only had one class so far today, grammaire, which was really easy (just for today though) and then later this afternoon I have French Romanticism which I didn't really want to take but I needed another class, so....yeah. Annoying. I might still find another class to take instead though. Anyway, that's all for now!

Where did the semester go?!

I'M DONE WITH FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe I come home in 2 days! It's crazy!!! The semester flew by! I had a ton of fun though, now all that's left is finish finding Christmas presents, packing and flying home!!! WOOHOO!!!

I love France but it doesn't seem like it's almost Christmas...plus I want to play in the snow!!

Finals, Crepes, Jeff and Clementines

On Friday was my dreaded grammar final. It was __________. I'm really not sure how it went. It wasn't nearly as long as I thought it would be, and instead of it being on conjugations and all the stuff we had talked about relentlessly in class it was on prepositions which I cannot do for the life of me. But then the free writing part I think I did alright, although that was the part where my prof came by, looked at the 5 things I had crossed out (because we had to write in pen and I made a mistake, etc) and she looks at me and says "Elizabeth, tu es trop bete, qu'est-ce que c'est tous ca? C'est moche!! Qu'est-ce que tu penses?? Il faut que tu fasse attention!!!!" (Elizabeth, you're so stupid, what is all of this? It's ugly, what are you thinking??? You have to pay attention!!!) Which, as you can imagine, did NOT help my nerves and all that. But the subject for the free style was an excerpt from someone writing on being abroad and not understanding anything and then it was like "now that you've been in France for 4 months, reflect on and write your experiences similar to these" which I was able to do, so....we shall see. 

Yesterday, Jeff and Laura came to see me and it was fun!! I wanted to take them to go see les machines de l'ile which is a mechanical elephant....but it rained so much yesterday and the night before that they were closed. So we ended up going to the chateau, the cool old bookstore, le jardin des plantes, the Christmas markets, we saw the  Theater, and IES. We went to the boulangerie and all of that fun stuff. I think they had a good time....It was kind of sad though cause there wasn't a ton to do because a lot was closed because of the rain. 

Last night after Jeff and Laura left, I came back and studied for a little bit before I met my friends for our last out to dinner for crepes. It was really fun. We took some pictures and then went out for drinks afterwards, instead of coming back home and studying more since I hadn't studied basically all day....

On Monday (tomorrow) I have 2 finals (Art History and Translation); Tuesday I have French Lit; Wednesday I have nothing!!!; Thursday I have sociology and then Friday I'm going to finish packing and then I'll be home for Christmas!! 

This week is surprisingly full of things (other than finals) to do! Monday evening my grammar teacher (the one who yelled at me in the final) is inviting us over for drinks which I just find amusing....and then Tuesday I'm having dinner at Erica's house, Wednesday I don't have anything and then Thursday it's the end of IES shindig thing....I'm going to go but I also told my host mom that I would eat dinner with her since it's my last night in Nantes for a month. 

Oooh and my host mom put up some of her Christmas decorations and they're so cool! I really like her Nativity Scene!! And we're hoping her wreath doesn't get stolen (apparently that's a problem here...I'm really not sure why....). 

The other thing: I really don't ever want to eat a clementine again. My host mom seems to think that since I eat fruit at school that I don't eat fruit (this is also following a misunderstanding about what fruit I can and cannot eat because she was going to use some of it for a meal...whatever) so she decided that since she knew that I like citrus fruit that she should go get some clementines. A logical assumption, I must say. However, she bought the clementines on Thursday afternoon and wants me to eat all of them by the time I leave on Friday. Normally - not a problem. So how many clementines did she buy??? She bought 5 kilos of clementines. Now I really only have to eat like 3.5 kilos because her family's coming over today and they apparently really like them and she'll eat them too, but she's expecting me to eat almost all of them. Of course, now that I saw I never want to eat a clementine again, I'm going to get back to the States and want a freaking clementine. lol. Anyway I miss you all a lot! I get back to Portland on Dec. 20th in the evening! :-)  But I'll be in the States around noon Portland time (assuming my flight is not delayed) so feel free to call me while I'm chilling in the airport!! 

So little time left!

There's only 10 days until I come home for Christmas! How crazy!!! Things here are going well. My host mom has been gone the past couple of days but is coming home today so that's good. On Saturday night I accidently left the back door open all night because I thought I had shut and locked it earlier in the day but as it turns out the door wasn't all the way closed so the wind blew it open and then it was open all night. Normally, not a huge deal because it hasn't been super cold until the past couple days -- but the high on Saturday was 30 and on Sunday was like 32 so it was FREEZING in my house. But it's gradually warming up again.

Last night I asked Sophie for help with grammar and she was able to answer most of my questions, although she had difficulty explaining some of it. Oh well, it was good anyway. So since I only have 10 days left, it means that I have finals!! This Friday I have grammar (which I'm totally afraid of). Monday I have art history and translation, Tuesday I have French lit (which I just found out should be pretty easy!) and then Wednesday I have off, and Thursday morning I have sociology and then I'm done! 

This semester has flown by! I can't believe it's almost over! I'm so glad I'm coming back! I love my host mom, and France - although I am ready for a break. :-) Only 10 days until I come home and 40-ish days until I come back! <3 

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...

The Christmas decorations in Nantes are all up and lit and it's so pretty! Earlier today I went Christmas shopping - at first with friends but then they all had to go catch trains and planes, so I went by myself for the last little bit. I love it here - it's so beautiful!! I can't believe the semester's almost over!! I think tonight or tomorrow night I'm going to take my camera and take pictures of all the pretty lights - they're truly gorgeous! And I love the Christmas markets! There are two of them really close to my house and IES. Today I went and had lunch with Laura at the markets - I had Tarteflette which was really good. It's like sliced potatoes, cheese, meat and spices. Yummy! We ate on the steps outside of the FNAC - very French-young adult like. hahahaha. I'm starting to get ideas for people for Christmas which is good. The only weird thing about the Christmas markets - they don't play Christmas music. They play American music like Katy Perry, Jason Mraz and on occassion French rap....it kind of makes it seem fake. Maybe next time I'll bring my iPod and listen to Christmas music on that, lol. 

My host mom is going to be gone this weekend but she said when she gets back she'll probably decorate a little bit. She also offered to take me to her neighbor's house because they have an amazing nativity scene that she wants me to see! I know this is going to sound silly, but being in France around Christmas time sometimes feels like how you see Christmas portrayed in Love Actually or Harry Potter. Weird huh? It's obviously not exactly the same - I'm not in a massive city nor am I in England, but it has the same sort of feel, which I think is so cool!!! 

Next Friday is my grammar final - I'm so nervous for that! Lately I've been making silly mistakes - conjugating things wrong, forgetting accents, etc and I really really want to do well!!! We shall see how it goes....