First day in LYON!!!

I’m in Lyon!!! Oh my gosh, I’ve never felt so intimidated. It was as if I had just entered the country all over again. Here I am in another city, except, I’ve come here to fulfill my true purpose. *deep voice* To study the language that is French. Muahahahahahaha!! *karate chop lightning effects*

Well, it’s hotter than it was in Paris, and the program-provided housing has no air-conditioning. I arrived a little after my roommate, so apparently I walked in on him changing. No I didn’t see anything, because he ran into the closet behind the door. He introduced himself as Justin. He’s going to be a Junior political science major, and he’s from Florida but goes to UCLA. The room itself wasn’t so bad. Basic double with two twins, a desk, etc. you get the picture (literal picture right here).

We were on the fourth floor, or troisieme etage, which is third floor in french since the French start their floors at zero. The next hour we spent together consisted of complaining about the heat and coming up with ingenious ways to abate it. We went from opening the window, to closing the window, the blinds, and turning off all the lights. We also tried leaving the water running and opening both the windows and the doors to create a wind tunnel, but we felt guilty about the wasted water. Our ideas eventually converged into a cold shower, which lead to us asleep for three hours.

I woke up to a knock on our door. This “young lady” informed us that our first meeting was starting “now” and we needed to get down there. As we headed towards the room, I could help but wonder how many people were in the Language and Culture program. Me and Justin had discussed this before, and he mentioned there was a facebook page consisting of 65 fans, so we assumed there’d be more participants than that since not everyone has facebook right? Well, it turns out there’s only 13 students in our program. I also happen to be the first person from UCM to participate in this program, something Christine Ebnother had to point out very coyly to the rest of the group. Go figure. GO BOBCATS! =P

Lots of reminders and cautionary tales were passed around during this meeting. Thankfully nothing heavier occurred since most of us were beat. After it ended, we went down and ate dinner in the canteen. It was light and simple, small entrée, light hot dish, and dessert. I had a loaf of stiff bread, some kind of pea salad that had a slice of egg on top of it, and battered fish with fried rice. Dessert was this interesting pastry: a dry custard crème between two pastry puffs, the top puff decorated with a set crème frosting. I ate it with my hands. It was so-so for my first pastry from France. Dinner conversation was also so-so; you know the awkward first meeting kind of conversation. Christine was there too, so more tales of students gone wild and what happens to students when they start a new life abroad (from her stories it seems like we turn into a freshman again).

As we finished with dinner, people started discussing what to do their first night in the program. I set myself aside since I knew the outcomes could only involve alcohol (they went to a club). The boys and girls split up into their respective genders, and I went for a walk.

My original intention was to head towards the river, but I got turned around and ended up sitting in a small metropolitan park, the kind with more cement than trees. It was nice, and I took some of the city in from that bench as the sun set and the shadows turned the landscape into a familiar unknown. The park eventually emptied out and I found myself getting frigid. I looked around for a bus stop map to regain my bearings. Public transportation works pretty much the same everywhere.

The city itself seemed large, from what I found that night. There were many one-way streets, many tall buildings, surprisingly only a small amount of business activity going on (but of course it was late{ish}). Once in awhile you’d encounter that same familiar stench, the kind all metropolitan areas sport. The tram was still running, but it was n’importe quoi. I was in no rush. The weather was turning, and there was some sprinkling. It was a nice change, a nice cool down from the scary heat we had before. The streets seem isolated to me. Things are narrow here. They don’t mind it being like that, or maybe that’s the only direction they can move in. I found my way back eventually, it felt like it was midnight by the time I got there. With nothing left to do, I put my affairs in order and went to bed.

Day 2 à Paris

Posting from Paris encore. The weather was the same as it was the day before, pretty hot. P2, bless his stuffing, isn’t taking the heat very well. Grunty claims he was made to take the heat. I beg to differ (he's got a flammable tag on his derriere, don't tell him I looked). I woke up early this morning (not this this morning, the morning of which I'm referring to, I guess I should say "this one morning"...) planning to spend the entire day at Versailles, the infamous palace of graphic French lore.

Getting there wasn’t so bad, although Versailles was basically the last stop on that particular line. The place was packed like no other. Entrance fee was 25 euro for the grand pass. That included the interior palace, the gardens, and another section of the estate that I think I went to but am not sure which part it was since there was just so much to see. It was crazy! Naturally P2 opted another day indoors in the safety of the air-conditioned rooms.With nothing else to do, the guy’s been watching French television all day. He was telling me about this Family Feud knockoff they have going on over here. At the final part, where one family member goes off into the sound-proof room, they music on for them and they always seem to make a spectacle of themselves. Show boaters all of them.

There were masses of people. I mean masses upon masses, people from everywhere. I'm sure I heard every major language spoken that day. The chateau itself was really nice, bright colors were really popular back then (notice the color palette between rooms). They had a lot of articles from the original castle out on display, and artwork that decorated the castle was gathered into a hallway for display.

After I went through the entire chateau (avec une audioguide), I headed out to the garden for a packed lunch. Sitting out there, watching the masses wander and take pictures I couldn’t help but feel as if I were in Disneyland. The sheer size of the place and the meticulous care given to the shrubbery made the whole thing very surreal. Nature a la France as a guide colloquially put it. Grunty loved the gardens, the castle not so much. Oh my gosh, and of course, the fountains were the main attraction. They were only turned on for a few hours each day as to not overtax the stone sculptures which are surprisingly in good condition (probably not so surprising, considering the amount of income they’re raking in). Here’s a picture of the Encelade.

The whole thing’s on a kind of grid system, symmetrical if you look at it from the back of the castle. Each fountain has a name and a theme. My favorite one would be the Colonnade grove, probably because it resembles an amphitheatre.

Second to that would be The Encelade Grove which uses volcanic rock or something that looks similar, to depict the fall of Enceladus (head honcho of the Titans). There were some other groves without fountains that I liked. The Queen’s grove is the one that comes into mind the most, because it felt a lot more like a forest than a garden. There were even paths one could take through the trees to bench ways under lots of foliage, it felt a lot like camping. I wasn’t able to see all the gardens before time ran out, but I think I got to most of them. There was some kind of super fountain show at the end, but I couldn’t’ see it really well since it was too crowded. Oh well.

They closed the gardens after that. I would’ve stayed for the night show, (which I regret not doing right now) but was too tired to do so. I headed home after that. This is definitely something you should not miss when you’re in Paris.

First Day :D

So here I am in France. The weather is as hot as it was in SoCal, if not warmer. Paris may not be near an ocean, but the bounty of greenery that the city likes to sport keeps is cooler than it could be. Leaving my house was a terrible chore. I was losing things left and right, leaving a giant mess in my wake. I finally just gave up and stopped packing and repacking. I’m just going to get the rest of my stuff en France.

Security at the airport was brief. Here’s a picture of Grunty and P2 at our station. We had come early, so P2 insisted we have hotdogs for lunch. I didn’t take it well on the flight, which was thankfully without any connections. P2 didn’t take the hotdogs well either so he opted to stay in his bag. Since it was a flight straight to Paris, the attendants assumed everyone spoke French. It was a nice segue into the country. I got to practice, even if it was just asking for shrimp instead of beef for dinner. I was more than a little shy about speaking up though, since I constantly felt like an imposter dealing in a foreign language. My banana juice turned into pineapples because of it. When I wasn’t sleeping, I spent my time playing “in-Flight Tetris” on the little screen on front of me. It was cramped but my first view of the Atlantic was wonderful. Hello new body of water.

Getting into the country was easy as pie. Just a five minute wait, a customs agent asking me if I spoke French (un peu), and then baggage claim. One thing I noticed about this French airport was the lack of noise D: It was eerily quiet, not much audible conversation. Is this the first piece of evidence for the American stereotype of being loud and obnoxious?? :o Grunty with my luggage. P2 stepped out to the restroom again.

I left the airport and arrived to my temporary Paris residence to find things cramped and smaller than America. It feels like everyone drives stick here, and their notions of personal space (or lack thereof) seemed to extend to their driving practices. I figured it more prudent to close my eyes than scream at the driver about how close he was to an accident. I don’t think he would’ve minded though, he seemed to enjoy doing it to everyone else on the road. I unpacked my stuff, and tried my very very hardest to stay awake. I left Pacific time around noon. The flight was ten hours. I arrived to a nine o’clock Paris. You do that math. If I can do it, so can you :D Turns out my brain can’t function without at least a little sleep, so I conked out for three hours.

I awoke and decided to see a sight before conking out for good. I took the metro to the Basilica of Saint Dennis, the saint that walked with his head in his hands (after it was detached). Grunty and P2 opted to stay home for this one so I went alone. There was a small entrance fee, but it came with an audio guide, an awesome invention if I do say so myself. I asked for a French one, but after going through the first audio selection twice to no avail, I opted for one in anglais. The tourist sites here are very English friendly. The audio guide was interesting to say the least, filled with lots of historical facts and things I can't remember anymore. The whole thing felt like an amusement park of sorts which makes me wonder how much money they are making off of us tourists. The nice thing about this place was that it was not crowded at all, but it had all the amenities a tourist would need: nearby public transportation, gothic architecture and artwork, stained-glass windows, creepy crypts. All in all I'd say this Basilica was a good first place to visit.

The Basilica was right in front of an Arab and African district, so I visited the open air marketplace that lined the street. There was a lot of bootlegged material everywhere, so it wasn’t what I expected it to be. There was some cool fruit though. I got some peaches and grapes for 2.50 euro a pound.
Yes. I know.

The rest of the day was unmentionable, and by unmentionable, I mean I can’t mention it or else no one would continue reading. That’ll be all for my first eventful post. Bon soir.

Health clearance eh? (and other stuff)

So after some confusion with what exactly I was supposed to do with the health clearance, I managed to make a doctor's appointment. If I had done this during the school year, this would've been a whole lot easier, but since it's summer and I'm not an enrolled student, I couldn't get the health check done at the health center on campus. D: The grief I put myself through.

So I had to go to the health center anyway to pick up an additional form I have to have filled out by the physician, and I have to have it arrive before this coming Monday. My appointment is on Thursday.... :D Thank god for 1-day shipping.

As for the visa process, my appointment got pushed back cause I couldn't get the day off for work. *sadness* So now I've got an appointment on the morning of July 6th, a Tuesday. It's cutting it really close to work on Wednesday :( but I will survive! *crosses fingers* The site says the average processing time is 10 days, but the EAP guide says it can take up to a month. Cutting it pretty close I'd say, especially when my plane ticket is set to leave on Friday, August 19th (AirTahiti???). I'm going there a week early so I can acclimate to the country. I know the flight will go by so quickly. My sleep cycle is in for a loop.

EAP Pre-departure Orientation Essay (and other things to complain about)

lol, yay for leaving things last minute. We had to write an essay summarizing dialogue between yourself and others who have participated in the program before you. I just finished it and yes it's due today. The May 12 batch of paperwork barely squeaked in as well. Preparation of the documents was mind-numbing. @.@ I just have to remember to keep repeating to myself "it'll all be worth it, it'll all be worth it...." and think about the copious amounts of food I will ingest over there. Mmmm, French butter....

Here's a copy of the essay:

After interviewing one L&C Lyon Returnee and reading another's blog, I can't help but feel a large sense of anticipation. Studying abroad is obviously a life-changing experience, but after speaking with them I feel that that may be an understatement. The picture I have now of my time participating in study abroad is one of ups and downs, one of unexpected happiness and rewarding hardships. I think that I’ve learned that when going abroad, one should go with an open mind and a desire for good interactions.

Before speaking with Allison and Brad (the returnees) I definitely held notions and fears in my mind about the experience. First of all, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, and second I was afraid of the difficulty of the adjustment. Allison helped a lot by answering my silly questions regarding differences in academic culture. Through her I’ve learned that scantrons have yet to take over France. Textbooks don’t cost quite an arm and a leg. There is little emphasis on group work, and professors are just as easy to talk to as they are here.

Brad’s journal provided a good resource of things you should and shouldn’t do. Through his recollections, I’ve learned that you definitely should keep your passport in a safe place. You should talk to as many people as you can. You shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help. If you’re willing to learn, they are more than willing to show you.

When discussing some more logistical aspects, the main thing they told me was to pack lightly. They also mentioned that the casual dress-code in France is a little less casual, public transportation is very easy to get to, and there are plenty of internet cafés so a laptop is not extremely necessary. Communication with family and friends was also relatively easy to do every few days, postcards were cheap and easy to send, and getting your own cellphone wasn’t hard to do.

Neither of them had anything bad to say about their experience. Both of them had gotten what they wanted out of their experience. Neither of them had decided to extend past the four months though, so they both professed that their level of French proficiency was not yet fluent. Brad in particular expressed his regret in not staying longer, a major factor in his decision to take up a position in France the following year.

With their thoughts, experience, and advice in mind, I feel a little more at ease with what France has in store for me. I understand that this is a great opportunity for personal growth, as well as an intimate look into a beautiful culture outside of our own.

End essay.

Meh.... yeah. I started writing that at 4 in the morning. I took a nap (until 10), and then finished it.... :D

*promises to be more responsible in France*

Side note: Brad Nguyen was the guy who's LiveJournal I read. He inspired me to start one of my own.