Theme of the Week: SNOW!

So this past week has been relatively uneventful: we had class, we watched some Modern Family, we bought groceries and cooked our dinners, we’re still adjusting to the French life, etc., etc.

However! Last Monday I commented on how it was snowing, and I figured it would just be a dusting or so, I always thought/was told that the Paris/northern France regions didn’t really get snow in the winter, it was just cloudy, gloomy, cold, and rainy. How wrong was I. We actually got about two or so inches last Monday night, then another inch or so Friday night, and then another inch or so Sunday!

Some pictures of it snowing from my room

There are a few differences in how the French handle snow and how Americans handle snow, though, that must be addressed. First off, we still had school. Which is fine! I expect to always have class, even at Washington College. The difference, however, is that NOTHING is shoveled. It’s very interesting trying to get around a campus that has iced-over snow sidewalks and footpaths and streets and whatnot. The other aspect to this too is that some of the streets in the towns aren’t plowed, or are merely plowed in the middle of the street (this is due to the fact that cars park half on the sidewalk and half on the street). The sidewalks around the towns are shoveled either, unless the people who own the house in front of the sidewalk shovel it themselves. It’s been manageable, I don’t mean to complain, but it can be very cumbersome as we walk everywhere, every day, and sometimes with heavy grocery bags. But, I will end my rant there!

This is what the street/sidewalk looks like on campus

And what it looks like on the street where I live!

Regardless of how… annoying the un-shoveled streets are, when it snows in Arras it is very gorgeous and I have greatly enjoyed cozying it up in my warm bed and watching it outside of my window while enjoying a movie or a book or the internet!

 Here are some photos of my school, for those of you who are curious!

La bibliothèque (The library)

The Lettres et Arts/Histoire et Géographie building, where I have most of my classes

In other news, I have my first bit of homework (noooooo!!!) and two of my classes were cancelled today due to the professor being absent. However, we have class tomorrow (our day off) to make up for not having two classes last Friday (absent prof… noticing a theme yet?), which is a bummer. But, ah well, c’est la vie!

French Dinners and International Friends

There's this course at l'Université d'Artois that all international/Erasmus students must take and can get credit for called French Language Exploration (FLE). As there are only six of us new international students, there are only six of us in the class! Me, Phoebe, and Grace are in it together, and also our new Romanian friends Razvan and Marianna and our Italian friend Angela! (I think I mentioned them before, but if not, now everyone knows!!) 

So Grace, Phoebe and I decided to host a little dinner at Grace's apartment after our class, which is on Monday nights from 5:15 to 7:15, and tonight was the first night and it was a success!! This morning the three of us went to LeClerc to buy the ingredients- chicken, bread, lemon, garlic, green beans, and a dessert (I already had some potatoes and Grace had some carrots so we decided to use those too!). Then between our 3:00 class and the 5:15 class we cooked the chicken and cut up the vegetables, and once class was over we went back to her apartment (in the snow!) to finish cooking and eat! I would have to say it was a major success- Razvan kept commenting on how good the potatoes were and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves, and we plan to do it again, so yeah, by those standards I would say our first French dinner (à la style peasant, we believe) was a definite success!

The preparations!

The end result!

The gang!

Angela nomming on some dessert!

Here are the six of us from the other night! In order from left to right: Marianna, Phoebe, Grace, Razvan, and me! And then in the front of us is Angela!!

Also, I want to show off some of my new friends! I don't have a picture of Susanna and Anan, my other roommates, but I do have some photos of everyone else!

Me and Steffy- she is my Spanish mother in France!! And also one of my roommates

Me, Nerea (a roomie as well!), Estrella, and Irene (who was the birthday girl in this photo!)!

Oh, and for those of you wondering, we also had some white wine with our dinner, because, you know, it's a FRENCH dinner! Then we walked home in the cold but gorgeous snow : ]

Some photos (finally!)!

Hi everyone!

So it is the end of the first academic week here in Arras, and I probably only went to about half of my classes! Apparently, though, for those of you who just gasped at the fact that we skipped classes, it is okay for international students to do so. This is due to the fact that we only received our schedules Monday morning, then we have to arrange it to fit properly, and also because we had to do a lot of administrative work finished to be registered and properly accepted here in Arras!

So, I will do a minor break-down of the past few days:

Tuesday I went to class- Intro to the History of Medieval Literature- at 9:30 am, then met with my friends, Grace and Phoebe, to go talk to our advisor, Betty, before our class at 1:00 pm (13h military time!). Our professor was super nice but explained to us that this class is not really ideal for international students, and after sitting there for two and a half hours of the 3 and a half hour class, we decided he was right! Then we had our Réunion with the other 3 new international students this semester and the International Relations department at the university. They made us watch this movie and a powerpoint, both of which were not really helpful, but then we got to mingle and talk and it was a lot of fun. There are two Romanian students - a girl and a boy- and an Italian girl named Angela. Marianna and Razvan (the Romanians) love to speak English, so we speak English, and Angela knows absolutely no English, so we speak French haha. But! Grace and I plan to teach her at least some English/American slang, which she loves, and she will hopefully teach us some Italian too! We all went out to the bar later for a casual drink, which was fun because we all got to talk for an hour or so and get to know each other better.

Wednesday I had no classes, so I really didn't do much besides watch TV and hang out with Grace.

Thursday came with four classes- ugh- starting at 8h30! They were interesting, though I'm thinking I'm going to switch out of the one class because it includes some creative writing, which is not my cup of tea. At all. Especially in French. Then our tutor, Louis, took us for a tour of Arras (while we also took care of some administrative business, but who's shocked about that), which was AWESOME. The town has a lot of its old buildings from the Middle Ages, including a really pretty church. It also has this big... en français it is a "Place" but it's this large area with buildings lined to form a huge open square between them, where during the week cars can park but on Wednesday and Saturday mornings apparently there is a huge open market there too. It's gorgeous, with cobblestone streets and these tall buildings and another huge church- I will have photos up about this next Wednesday or Thursday!!

Grace spent the night last night because this morning we had to meet Louis to get our French bank accounts at 9h/am, which was easy and fine and now I have a French bank account! Grace and I then came back to my apartment and napped until 2:30 when we then had lunch and went to LeClerc (the local awesome grocery store) and parted ways until tomorrow!

I definitely feel a lot better about being here, and time is going slightly faster, but I still have more adjustment to achieve before I really feel at home here. However, I love my apartment, my roommates, and the town, so it definitely it achievable.

Some interesting things that I've discovered about France so far: to get one thing done, it is necessary to do three other things beforehand. For example, Grace hasn't had internet yet. To get internet, she needs a telephone. To get a telephone, she needs a bank account. To get a bank account, she needs her passport, her apartment contract, and a social security payment thing. So, we are up to the bank account step, and now she needs a phone! Another example of this is that to get a phone you need a bank account, but you need a bank account to get a phone! So Louis let us use his phone number to get our bank accounts today.

We're definitely not in Kansas anymore, everyone. But, it is still fun here.

Now, for some photos!!

My room key! I absolutely adore the fact that it is an old-time key!

View from my window

My bed! (WAC and Maryland representing, as you can see)

Our kitchen

My detached shower head...

My food cabinet stacked with the essentials: tea, Nutella, and pasta!

Bonjour, Arras!

After an uncomfortable, delayed 5-hour plane ride from D.C. to Iceland, and then another delayed, uncomfortable 3-hour plane ride from Iceland to Paris, and then a 5-hour wait on a 35 minute train to Arras, I have made it to the town! With all 119 pounds in tow!

I am living in a three-story townhouse with two girls from Spain, a girl from Peru, and another girl from China. It's actually quite interesting, because our conversations go from Spanish to French to English (I obviously only take part in the last leg of that conversation journey) and sometimes it's a little difficult to keep up with. But, the girls are all really nice and they've helped me immensely the past day and the Spanish is kind of fun to try to figure out, so these are all definitely good things to my stay so far.

My room is actually huge, it's bigger than the one I was living in at Washington College with my roommate. I have a double bed, a lounge chair, two tables, a kitchen chair, a wardrobe and a nightstand, which is all very nice. Two windows look out onto the noisy street, and there's a little garden out back. We also have two bathrooms which is an added bonus since there are five of us, they're just situated on the third and first floors so the late-night pitch-black trips are sometimes a little dangerous.

It's funny that I'm talking like I've been here for more than just a little over 24 hours, because it feels like I've been here forever. For some reason time is kind of ticking by slowly, and it's probably because I do miss home and so it's just playing a little game with me until my classes get underway and I find my France-sea legs.

Classes did actually start today, our first real day in Arras, but I didn't go to mine because I didn't find out my classes until around 11:00 am, and my Monday class was already over. However, I do have two classes tomorrow, one from 9:30 am to 10:30 am, and then another from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm (UGH). They're only once a week though so the three and a half hour class maybe won't be that hard. At WAC the longest class I've had has been 2 hours and thirty minutes, so this is definitely a change.

Arras is a beautiful town from what I've seen so far, and it is actually rather large. I've only really explored the eastern part where my apartment and the school and the grocery store (it's actually a really cool grocery store) are located, but I think the town center is really pretty. Wednesday we don't have classes, so we plan to explore, and I'm excited to see what the rest of the town looks like.

Back to the suitcases...

So I have pretty much two more days at home, and of course I don't start packing until about an hour ago. I hate packing, and I'm terrible at it, just ask my parents, my brothers, my suite mates, and anyone who has helped me move in and out of college before. Overpacking is pretty much my super power. And so, what does a superwoman do when she's limited to two fifty pound suitcases?! She tries not to panic, that's what she does haha.

We're in the final countdown now though. Phoebe, Grace, and I have (finally) received our visas, we have our housing arrangements, and our flight takes off from D.C. Saturday at 7:40 pm! Or, 19h40, since I also have to get used to military time! And then our France adventure begins!!!