French is Hard (And Other Observations)

We've reached that time, folks. The point where "abroad" meets "study" and classes inevitably have to start.

Obviously I knew that taking all of my classes in French was going to be difficult (the fact that I'm in the region of France with one of the thickest accents certainly doesn't help) but I wasn't exactly anticipating the difficulty of navigating the French system of education.

For normal students at L'Université de Lille 3, there is very little flexibility in determining which classes are taken when. After choosing a program of study, students are divided into several different groups, and each of these groups has a different schedule which is chosen for them. There is no option to take a different professor, add a different elective or take a course at a different time. You get what you get. Simple, right?

International students do not have the same experience. They are allowed to take any class, at any time, from any department as long as they score well on the language proficiency exam. They also have the luxury of trying as many classes as they want for the first three weeks and then turning in a final schedule at the end. At first this seemed awesome to me - Total freedom! Well roundedness! Sports classes for credit! (This is a thing here. I could have taken archery if I wanted to.)

The only problem is that the course schedule is not really designed for students to be choosing their own classes. Many end at 10:30 am while another you want to take is beginning at exactly 10:30 am, some have a companion class that must also be taken in order to get credit and others are just impossible to find because the building is a maze and the schedule is in a foreign language (literally).

In other words, I spent most of this week reading and re-reading schedules, attempting to create a combination of classes that didn't put me in two places at once, wandering around the most complicated building on earth and occasionally attending a class or two.

The classes themselves vary drastically in difficulty based mostly on how quickly the professor speaks (refer to post title: French is hard). This week I left some classes feeling practically bilingual, while I left others feeling like I'd learned almost no French in the seven years I've been studying the language. Luckily I've been able to find several that, while challenging, are doable. So far my list of potential courses includes: 17th Century French Theatre, French Grammar, General Linguistics, Theories of Communication, French Literature and one class of English Literature to give myself a bit of a break and gain some credit for my English major. I'll also be doing a program called Tandem in which native English speakers are paired up with native French speakers to practice speaking once a week. Basically I'll get credit for chatting with a French student, and that brings the number of courses I'm taking up to seven.

Seven classes probably seems like a lot to any American students, so I'll explain the credit system briefly as well. At my French university, each class is worth 3 ECTS credits unless it also includes a lecture component (like my English Literature course, which is worth 6). In the US one would normally take 16 credits a quarter/semester, which usually rounds out to four 4 credit classes, but here the normal courseload is between 21 and 30 ECTS credits. This is because each course only meets once per week, so you have room to take between seven and ten. Another benefit of this is that you can orchestrate multiple days off. At the moment I only have class Tuesday through Thursday  -  four day weekends!

The courses then have to be converted back to US credits for them to be transferred, and each ECTS credit is worth about 0.8 US credits, so by taking 21 UCTS credits I'll be able to transfer a nearly perfect 16.8 credits back to DU. Math. They told me I would need it someday but I never believed them.

Apart from figuring out how this whole school thing actually works, the hardest thing about starting classes is just that pesky little language barrier. Like I said, French is hard. It does get a little bit easier every day, and I'm sure once I get settled in to classes I will start to feel like I'm improving more.

And if it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be worth it. Right?

No Class! Wait... No Class?

This week we were surprised to discover that the intensive french speaking course we were planning to take had no room for the DU students. Apparently, Erasmus students get priority because their credits are more difficult to transfer, so instead of class this week we had seven extra days of complete freedom!

Things we decided to do with that time include: sleep in a lot, eat, take some naps, eat again, go to the Carrefour, eat, etc. See a trend?

Besides all of the eating and sleeping, we actually did some pretty cool stuff this week (A note to my high school English teacher: if you're reading this, I'm sorry for using the word stuff. I couldn't resist. I'll use a really sophisticated word later to make up for it.)

On Tuesday we decided to go on a day trip to Brussels since it's just a short thirty minute train ride away. One of the girls, Emily, actually lived there for a few years when she was younger so she knew all of the best places to visit.

We started out at the Grand Place, which is basically a concentrated dose of unbelievably beautiful buildings. There were also artists selling hand painted renditions of the Grand Place, and vendors selling flowers.

After exploring the Grand Place for a few minutes, we went in search of the Tourism office and some authentic Belgian waffles. We found both and were not disappointed with either.

Mine is the dark chocolate one. Big surprise.

We then went to visit one of Brussels' most famous landmarks, Mannekin Pis, which for those who don't know is a statue of a baby peeing. All of the tourist shops in Brussels offer miniature versions of the statue, funny t-shirts and every manner of souvenir you could want with Mannekin Pis' image on it.

He's wearing a Belgian football (soccer) uniform. Classy.

The rest of the day in Brussels was spent exploring some of the hundreds of chocolate shops there, eating Belgian frites and taking in the scenery. I didn't buy any chocolate (I know. Who knew I had self control?) but I'm sure I will be back in Belgium at some point during the next few months.

CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE

This week we also visited several museums, including Lille's Republique des Beaux Arts and a museum in a nearby suburb, Roubaix, called La Piscine. It is located in a renovated pool/bathhouse and exhibits paintings, sculptures, fashion, interior design and industrial art.

La Piscine

My favorite section was the collection of fashions, which included pieces by Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, Prada and more. It was such an interesting combination of things that it was impossible to get bored.

On Saturday, Andrea and I decided to take a short trip to a city on the English channel called Boulogne-sur-Mer. Andrea is a mermaid (yes, you read that right. She works as a mermaid at the Denver Aquarium) and has been missing being around fish so we decided to go to the aquarium there (called a musée aquatique in French).

Andrea loves fish.

We also walked on the beach for a while and ate at a seafood restaurant nearby. The weather was convivial for most of the time we were there (see, told you I'd make up for using the word stuff) and we enjoyed sitting in the sun as we ate our seafood lunch.

Boulgone-sur-Mer is only about an hour away by train so we decided to head back around mid-afternoon and have dinner back in Lille. Before catching our train we stopped for some ice cream on the beach and basked in the sun for a few minutes (something somewhat rare in Lille).

And with that our week of freedom has come to an end and classes will (finally) be starting tomorrow! I had almost forgotten that the study abroad component was actually supposed to include an aspect of study.

One Week in France

As of yesterday I have officially been in France for one week! Although, with everything I have been doing, it feels more like a month. And classes haven't even started yet.

Since arriving at my university apartment on Monday, I have mostly been attending orientation meetings, getting acquainted with the neighborhood, setting up my room and starting to get settled in. I am living in an apartment building called Triolo about 10-15 minutes away from the campus. Most of the people living here are international students, but there are a few French students as well.

My room is pretty small but it's just enough room for one person and I get my own bathroom (which is basically the size of an airplane bathroom. My toilet is practically in my shower). I share a kitchen with the other people on my floor, but I have my own little fridge in the kitchen that locks so no one will steal my food.

My room at Triolo.

The building is a bit of a maze, and my room is on the top floor, so I have to go up four flights of stairs each day to get there. So in other words when I get home I will have amazing legs and glutes.

I have tons of storage. I almost wish I had brought more stuff. (Almost.)

Other than getting settled in Triolo, I have been going to meetings at the university, exploring the city a bit more and even meeting some French friends. On Friday night my friend Andrea and I met our French marraine, Valérie. A marraine is a "buddy" that is assigned to international students by the Erasmus network. We met Valérie near her university, l'Université Catholique de Lille, and went to the centre-ville for dinner. We ate savory crêpes, also called galettes, at a small café and then went to an Australian bar called Café Oz for a drink. 

This weekend was also La Braderie, a huge flea market/festival held in Lille each year that draws in about a million visitors. It encompasses the entire centre-ville, and there are hundreds of booths with food, antiques, clothes and more. 

Moroccan pastries at La Braderie. 

A street artist at La Braderie.

We stayed at La Braderie for most of the day on Saturday, but it was much more pleasant in the morning when there were fewer people. By the afternoon the centre-ville was packed and in some places we would get stuck in a stationary mob of people for five minutes or more.

After wandering around the festival for a while we decided we wanted to try the specialty of Lille and of La Braderie, les moules-frites. Moules-frites are mussels served with french fries. During the festival they were being served at almost every restaurant, and it was almost impossible to find an open table anywhere.

People waiting for their moules-frites.

We finally found a spot at a restaurant called Chez Fred and ordered two types of moules-frites: Les moules-frites marinières, which are the traditional moules-frites, and les moules-frites mouloires, which are covered in cheese.

Les moules-frites marinières.

Most of you probably know that I am a very picky eater, and I have never tried mussels before, but I actually found the moules-frites delicious! As long as I didn't look too closely at them of course.

After finishing our moules-frites we walked around the festival a bit more but decided it was too crowded to be comfortable and started to head for the metro station. However, on our way there we were stopped by the delicious aroma of something sweet - belgian waffles (les gauffres). Since Lille is so close to the Belgian border there are many Belgian delicacies here, including a lot of Belgian beer. None of us had tried a real Belgian waffle before so we decided to stop and buy some from a booth to eat on our walk to the metro.

Une gauffre avec nutella.

It was the perfect end to our day at La Braderie. 

A-Traveling I Go

Whew. I have officially been in France for three full days now and I am just getting the time to write a bit about my experiences so far. That traveling stuff, man. Hard work. 

I left Denver at 6:15 am on Friday morning local time after a slightly tearful but mostly kept together goodbye with my parents and headed to Atlanta, where I enjoyed a six and a half hour long layover. The first hour or so was spent wandering around Concourse A because I was apparently there too early for my flight to have been assigned a gate. Once I finally got to the correct concourse, which was thankfully much less crowded, I bought myself some lunch, settled down in an unoccupied corner and watched Sex and the City for like four hours. Because honestly, what else is there to do on a six and a half hour layover by yourself?

My flight for Belgium left Atlanta at 5:46 pm. I mostly spent the eight hour flight being uncomfortable, eating somewhat unidentifiable airplane food and watching How to Train Your Dragon 2.

I arrived at the Brussels airport, groggy but excited, around 8 am local time. After making my way through customs, I met up with another girl from my program, Ginny, and we found a spot to wait for Amber and Andrea, the other girls from DU coming to the same university.

When we had finally all met up around 9:45, we took a metro to the train station and caught a train to Lille. I should also add here that the employees at the ticket counters were very nice and patient with our bad French. This is your shoutout, guys. Thanks for being nice to us stupid Americans. 

One very slap happy train ride later (read as: sleep deprivation) we arrived in Lille and immediately dropped our bags off at the hotel and began exploring. The next two days were spent wandering the streets of Old Lille and halfheartedly fighting jet lag. 

The view from our hotel

The fountain on the Grand Place and the old newspaper building.

La Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille

The Chamber of Commerce

The Operahouse

A used book sale held in the old Stock Exchange

The city is a beautiful collision of new and old architecture (though I have mostly captured old here). In the centre ville there are modern office buildings mixed among historic buildings. We even saw this cathedral which features a modern entrance and a traditional interior.

A traditional cathedral with a modern entrance.

On Saturday we mostly walked the streets killing time before we could sleep, but on Sunday we got to explore a bit more purposefully. After eating lunch at a small cafe in the square by the church above (I ate a salad. Be proud, Mom.), we attended a Catholic mass at a cathedral nearer to our hotel. The priest even introduced us to the congregation, and everyone was very welcoming and understanding of our limited knowledge of French catholic services (though mine was admittedly more limited than the other girls).

After the mass we visited a corner store and bought some baguette, soft cheese, water and chocolate to have for a small dinner. We ate our dinner in a beautiful park nearby and then headed back to our hotel to get some rest.

Picture of me with a baguette, as promised. The others are Amber and Andrea, two of the girls from DU also attending Lille.

The next morning we woke early (something we failed miserably at on Sunday. Damn you, jet lag.) and had espresso and pan au chocolat at a nearby café before hopping on the metro to head to our new apartment building.

So, after six or seven stops on the metro and a half mile of dragging our suitcases - which in Amber's case is literal because the wheels fell off of hers - we finally arrived at Triolo, our new home for four months, and began to settle in. I will write a blog post on this later once I've gotten more acclimated.

In all, based on what I can gauge from my very minimal experience with the matter, international travel seems to be mostly about waiting. Waiting to get through security. Waiting for your plane to take off. Waiting in line at the food court for a seven dollar salad that tastes vaguely like the lettuce was rinsed in dishwater (I should have just caved and eaten fast food). Finding somewhere to sit on your butt for a seven hour layover and wait to sit on your butt for eight more hours on a plane. It's fascinating stuff, honestly. My rear end has never been so sore in my life.