The Everyday Life of a Young American Girl in France

La Bise à la Fac

2013-05-09T12:30:00.000+02:00

In my old French life, I had the ever so mysterious bise (the traditional French greeting, a.k.a. cheek kissing) down pat. With my boyfriends family? Yes! When meeting up with friends? Yes! When leaving friends? Yes! Source: this great video about how to faire la bise, which I already translated. I have discovered that school is a whole other ball game. There are 7 of us in my masters

Getting Around France: Trains vs. Cars

2013-04-21T13:00:00.000+02:00

For spring break I decided to head up north to my old haunting grounds, Lille. I wanted to see my friends and eat delicious French fries. Who wouldn't want to visit this? The problem with going anywhere from Troyes is two-fold. The first problem is that Troyes is not on the TGV (trains de grandes vitesses, or high speed trains). The second problem is that, by train, one must always go to

Dictionnaire Español-Français

2013-04-06T17:06:00.000+02:00

For my masters, it is required to take a language class and this semester I decided to enroll in Spanish. Having had 4 years of Spanish in middle school/high school, I figured it’d be easier and serve me better than say Portuguese or Italian. Learning a third language in one’s second language makes for some pretty interesting brain gymnastics. Nevertheless, I sometimes find that translating

A lack of permanence.

2013-03-22T11:56:00.000+01:00

While I have been off exploring, and making do with the clothes, shoes, and things I could fit into one checked bag plus carry on, all my other belongings, cherished and not so cherished, have been safely stored at my parents house, the place where I grew up, the place I have called home for the last fifteen years. My parents have moved. They no longer call that place home. They’ve moved into

Trousse

2013-03-14T14:12:00.001+01:00

When I was an English teaching assistant one thing that I found remarkable was that even the highschoolers used pencil cases. At the beginning of every lesson, out came the notebooks and a small pouch filled with pencils, pens, scissors, erasers, and tape. I hadn’t used a pencil case since elementary school. I hadn’t seen a pencil case since elementary school. I don’t know why I thought it

Genève : Premières Impressions

2013-03-08T14:12:00.000+01:00

My first impressions of Geneva: Geneva is beautiful. The gorgeous stone buildings transport one from modern day to ancient times. Stone buildings complete with a sprinkling of snow. There are swans floating on the lake, immediately making one feel like the star of a Disney princess movie. Swans on Lake Geneva. It’s Protestantism with a bit a flare. The church that houses Calvin’s chair

Il Fait Beau

2013-03-02T15:09:00.000+01:00

I used to disagree with any French person who ever told me “il fait beau” (it's a beautiful day). Especially in winter. But despite saying, “mais non, il fait froid!” (but it's cold!) occasionally to my exbellemère, I would keep my mouth shut, as they all seemed pretty convinced about the excellence of their days. It still irked me though. How could the French find so many days “beautiful?” A

A Hidden Statue

2013-02-23T12:17:00.000+01:00

Back in November, my darling little brother came to visit me. We meet up in Paris and spent the weekend. While cutting through the jardin de Luxembourg, I suddenly remembered that the statue of liberty has a second residence there. Or at least, I thought I remembered there being a copy of her statue, and was pretty sure it was in the Luxembourg gardens. So we checked out the directory.

Best Beer in the World : A Visit to Saint Sixtus

2013-02-18T16:18:00.000+01:00

50 minutes by car away from Lille, in the middle of nowhere Belgium, surrounded by flat fields as far as the eye can see, lies a hard to find monastery, the Abbey of Saint Sixtus. While there are eight beer-brewing monasteries, collectively known as Trappists, the Abbey of Saint Sixtus remains much in the shadows when compared to its monastic brethren. This is because their beer, unlike its

Registration

2013-01-30T13:03:00.000+01:00

While I have gotten somewhat used to never having a clue as to what is going on at my school, whether it be the administration or assignments, I must admit some things still throw me for a loop. Unlike most French universities, UTT does let its students choose some of their classes. As a graduate student, the choices are usually between two or three pre-selected classes, but first semester we

Normalement

2013-01-22T13:34:00.000+01:00

Despite being certifiably fluent in French (as was the requirement for my masters program), the first days of school seemed such a language blur. My every day familiar language wasn’t enough. Technical vocabulary aside, I could tell I’d lost some of my ability over the 8 months spent at home. It has come back to me over time, with hard work and lots of intense listening, leading me to the

Thankful.

2012-11-23T19:54:00.000+01:00

This year was my fourth ever Thanksgiving spent in France. Four out of twenty-five total might not seem like a lot, but missing out on one of the few truly American holidays always makes me homesick. This year I organized a Thanksgiving get together with my fellow masters program students, and I think it was my best Thanksgiving abroad yet. Everyone really appreciated the food (recipes here)

Université

2012-11-13T13:42:00.000+01:00

I don’t know why I thought French universities would be similar to my university experience in California, but I unknowingly did. I sort of felt that having already lived in France for 2.5 years straight and being part of the educational world (as my days as an English language assistant) combined with all the stories that exFBF told me about getting his masters and what school was like, that

Why France?

2012-09-16T16:48:00.000+02:00

I wasn’t looking forward to the first day of school because I wasn’t looking forward to having to answer the question everyone would inevitably ask me; “why France?” I had my armor ready. I had a good answer to give. I like France, I mostly speak the language, and it’s a lot cheaper to go to school here than back home. But even with a prepared, readily acceptable answer to doll out, every

Being back in France.

2012-09-12T15:39:00.000+02:00

Day one was a combination of “oh yeah, this feels right” and “what the hell am I doing here?”, with the overwhelming sensation of my suitcases being much too heavy for a normal person to lug across an airport, on the RER, on the metro, on a train, and then up two flights of stairs. Me and all my things in front of John Wayne Airport. Not seen in photo: my 84357 pound backpack. Two weeks in, and

A Thank You and An Announcement

2012-08-18T00:16:00.001+02:00

First and foremost I just want to thank everyone for the lovely, heartfelt responses I’ve received after my last blog post. I originally intended for this blog to be a place to tell stories about my life in France, but it quickly became a place to find community. It gave me a sense of belonging, which was especially appreciated since I never really felt like I belonged in France. That being

2012-07-04T00:47:00.001+02:00

Dear friends and strangers, I have been avoiding my blog because I have been avoiding dealing with my French life as it currently stands. I don’t know how to tell funny anecdotal stories about France right now. I no longer have a French boyfriend. I’m an American girl who moved to France, fell in love with a boy, grew disillusioned with the country but tried ever so hard to stay there despite

FBF en Californie

2012-05-17T02:47:00.000+02:00

You will have to excuse me for radio silence as FBF is in fact, at this moment, in California with me for two whole weeks! FBF and I enjoying the sun setting over the Pacific ocean last time he was in California. We are going to be much too busy soaking up the sun's rays on the beach for me to blog anything substantial (one of us may in fact already be sunburned), but I'll commence our

Choc Culturel Inverser

2012-05-09T00:15:00.000+02:00

My first moment of reverse culture shock came rather quickly. It happened the same day I arrived in California. After the hour and a half long drive home from LAX, I really had to pee. I groggily went to my bathroom, and took care of business. It was after that the culture shock occurred. I went to flush the toilet, and something was wrong. There was nothing on the top for me to pull or

Taking the DALF (Diplôme approfondi de langue française)

2012-05-02T01:49:00.002+02:00

When it started to look 100% like I wasn’t going to get my work visa renewed, I looked into other ways of staying in, or returning to, France. Not yet being ready to make the giant commitment that is matrimony, I decided to attempt to reenter the country in a way that France really likes; for my studies. In order to do most masters programs in France (for there are a few taught in only English)

Cathédrale de Reims - Rêve de Couleurs

2012-04-22T00:52:00.000+02:00

Back in the Middle Ages when most of France’s beautiful cathedrals were built, they did not look like they do today. Instead of being a uniform beige color, the façades were painted bright, beautiful colors. Although the paint has faded away, they still remain awe-inspiring. While in Reims for my 24th birthday champagne drinking extravaganza, FBF and I explored the Cathédrale de Reims.

La Déesse

2012-03-31T14:45:00.002+02:00

In the beginning of the First French Republic, many countries challenged the authenticity of this new government and saw it as an opportunity to take over parts of France. Lille was subjected to attack from Austria in 1792. After several days of cannon fire, Lille won the battle. To commemorate Lille's victory, a statue was erected in the Grand'Place (or la place du Général-de-Gaulle) in 1845.

Comment Dit-on?

2012-03-23T03:09:00.003+01:00

One of my family's stories is about my Uncle Gene. Gene studied abroad while he was in college, spending a semester living in Vienna, Austria. When he came back from being abroad, my mother says, he used to flaunt it in everyone’s faces, continually asking, “oh wait… how do you say [insert German word] in English again?”I would always laugh at how pompous Uncle Gene had been, sure of the fact

Wine More Time

2012-03-13T05:53:00.005+01:00

While in Bordeaux, I wanted to drink lots of Bordeaux wine. So while at the office du tourisme, I asked for a list of wine bars. FBF and I decided to try one called Wine More Time because it had an awesome name and a view of the grosse cloche (fat clock).The bar au vin (wine bar).The view.We sat down, selected a wine from the list of vin au verre (wines by the glass) and also got the cheese

Après

2012-03-09T04:08:00.003+01:00

In school we’re taught that après means after. After as in subsequent to, for example “after we eat diner, we do the dishes,” and not as in to resemble, for example “he takes after his father.” While that second one is a phrasal verb, when I thesaurus-ed “after” it came up with both.The French don’t seem to have such a rigid view of the word après, and it took me quite a while to get used to