Le Ping Pong

French people love ping pong.

Preuve #1:


This is an entire gym devoted SOLEY to ping pong. Its a salle de tennis de table (Ping Pong room). No basketball hoops or anything. You come, you play ping pong.

Preuve #2:


This boy was like 9 and played with the intensity of a 25 year old. They don't mess around.

Preuve #3:

This was one of the refs. Like I said they don't mess around.

To explain, one of the moniteurs (French students who are there to help us foreigners out) named Yoann plays ping pong in his hometown. He's on a table tennis team, and they have tournaments on the weekends against other towns. I went with my friend Cody to cheer him on this past Sunday and it was QUITE the experience. I never knew ping pong could be so intense. Lots of "Allez Allez Allez!" and random French swearing. Afterward, Cody and I ate dinner at Yoann's with his parents, who were very interested in learning English words, and seeing what we thought about politics (I was asked what I though about health care...I wouldn't even know what to say in English...). We also played some Wii Sports, which I kicked butt at :)

No way to not look awkward playing Wii

Saturday I went to La Forêt Brocéliande, which is rumored to be the location of the King Arthur myths. Merlin chilled in this forest with Lancelot, and there's even a place called Merlin's tomb. It sounds awesome, right? Well, we didn't really know what we were getting in to. Got dropped off in a random city called Paimpoint only to find out that everything awesome was about 9 miles away. Cool. And instead of being able to wander through the woods like flower children, we had to trudge down busy Road 38, complete with speeding semis! Though, I'll admit, the forest was SUPER pretty and it was nice to get out of the city. The town was small and full of random Arthur references, like Road of the knights of the round table, and a big metal cut out of Merlin. I guess its more fun if you go there with a car because you can get to all the stuff easily. All in all, it was a good day, nice weather, lots of trees.

Classes are in full swing. Most classes are two hours long though, which makes for a LONGGGG day.

A bientot mes amis.

French people are crazy....

For realz.

First day of class was pretty boring, although no silly "introduce yourself...where you're from one one interesting thing..."

Not much too say about the classes themselves. One might be pretty boring, learning how to argue your point (discours et argumentation). The other one we're going to be watching clips and listening to the radio. Only two tests, each worth 50%. Woooooo! I've got one class tomorrow and after that I'm going to go watch a match du foot (Bordeaux vs Marseilles).

But what I find really, really funny is the way the people actually enrolled at the fac (the university university, not just the part for us foreign kids) get their schedules. For us, I guess it was much the same way. I showed up today not really sure where I was going or what classes I had. They hadn't 'given' schedules, so we were all pretty much clueless. When I got to the campus, I had to go look at a bulletin board with all the departments classes listed out, find my name, see what classes I had, and then find them on the schedules. No individualized schedules picked out and available online.

Leah, who wants to audit a class, had to search all through batiment B for a single bulletin board. The schedules are no where online. Just bulletin boards.

Technology is overrated though, right?

La cuisine française...

I still can't get over the food here. For some reason, I'm way more adventurous here when it comes to food. For example, over the course of one weekend, I tried mussels (yuck) and oysters (not toooo bad). Me! Before, you couldn't get me to look at poisson without gagging.

Me and my oyster buddy...I'm so proud of this photo!

My newly found culinary adventurousness I think stems from the fact that this entire year is for new experiences. I don't want to miss a thing because I'm too scared (and yes, I was scared of that oyster). So, if I don't try that weird looking seafood while I'm here, in a region that's known for its fruits de la mer, then I'm missing out. Maybe that's why I danced on a table with a gay man, a columbian chica, and a silly Frenchie the other night. And maybe that's why I danced old school Breton dances with some elderly folks at a Fest Noz (party of the night in Breton) this weekend. I may have felt like a fool, but it was fun :)

I'm writing this post before I have to get ready for class, so I'll see how much I can fit in. This past week I turned 21. In the US, this is a momentous occasion. In France, not so much. It was definitely weird to have a birthday abroad. I kept thinking of how different it would be if I was at home in Madison. It wasn't a bad birthday at all, just different, and made me a little homesick, to be honest. September 8th is also my host dad's birthday, so we had two cakes at dinner time. They were DELICIOUS! My mom said they were from the best pâtisserie in Rennes, and I believe it. My family also bought me a bunch of cookies (because they know I love them), and this really good perfume called Amour by Kenzo. They popped a bottle of champagne and it was a really nice dinner. Lucile kept asking if we would be eating slugs for dinner, so I told her in the US, slugs are typical for birthdays. We eat them whole, even the heads. She thought that was pretty cool. After dinner, I went out for a little bit with some friends. Home by one. Not exactly the most rowdy of all birthdays, but it was nice.

Wednesday was the France vs Serbia World Cup qualifier, and since my family doesn't have a TV, I went out with some friends to watch the game. France's goalie got a red card within the first 10 minutes and Serbia got a penalty kick, making the game 1-0. Luckily, even down a man, France managed to score, and the game ended in a tie. SO DUMB. I'm really enjoying watching soccer here. People get so into it. Rennes has its own team, and the next home game is the 23rd. I'm most likely going. It should be really fun! I've also been playing a lot of soccer with people in the program. Its made me realized how I much I miss playing soccer on a team! The university has club sports, but I can't make it to the soccer one. So, I'm probably going to play some volleyball on Thursdays after class. Since I don't know the words for anything in volleyball in French, it should be interesting. Hopefully it'll give me the chance to meet some more French people, make some friends. I love hanging out with the people from Madison and the others in CIEE, but we don't speak French to each other. Not too good when you want to improve your speaking skills.

Thursday.........welllllllll. I feel like Thursday is a night best left not in print. Haha. It was definitely an eventful night. I tried mussels at dinner! Met some people from Palestine. And Kazakhstan (although he had a real good British accent...). We ended up getting WAY lost on the walk home, and wandered through Rennes for over an hour. I fell in a bush. You know how it goes....

Our friend from Kazakhstan was in the newspaper the next day!
Proof that Friday was a hilarious day.

The next day, I forgot to set my alarm, so I showed up an hour late for class. There were some people who didn't bother to show up. The rest of us were sitting there, exhausted, while purple pants professor Laurent kept asking ridiculous questions. Leah and I couldn't stop laughing the whole time, especially during the next class when we learned French hand gestures. While I was exhausted, Friday was just a really funny day. That night, I went to a little get together with my host mom. They called it an aperitif, but basically it was just snack food and wine and conversation. While I didn't add toooo much to the conversation (I told them about how cold Wisconsin gets pretty much), it was nice to be able to listen and realize I understood most of what was being said. All older French people seem to know about this book called "On the road to Madison" (sur la route a Madison), and everytime I say I'm from there, they ask me about it. No clue.

This weekend was definitely quiet in comparison to my week. Leah and I went to the marché. All sorts of flowers, vegetables, meat, cheese, breads...what was weird was that all the birds and rabbits and all those little animals still had heads and talons, much like my poulet friend from last weekend. Very gross. But the flowers were pretty! And we got some café afterwards and relaxed. I went to the Fest Noz with some friends on Saturday night. Its a traditional Breton dance, with celtic music and dances. Most the dances involved big circles and pinky holding. There were bagpipes, oboes, saxophones, barefoot hobbit like people, orange and green decorations (I thought I was in Ireland for a second)...at first it was bizarre. But it ended up being really fun. Even though I have no rhythm and had no clue how to do any of the dances, the other people there were really willing to teach. Sadly, I have no pictures :( But it was seriously like we went back in time (minus the crazy lights on stage).

Sunday I went to the coast with my host parents and sisters. It was really different from the beach by their grandparents house. The north coast of Brittany is colder and windier. "Sauvage" was the word my mom used. But, it had its own beauty to it. There were cliffs and dunes, and the water was really blue. It was kind of what I imagine the Irish coast to look like too. Off in the distance, I could see Mont St. Michel.


There were lots of waves, which were fun to splash around in with the girls.


I'm really starting to settle in here. Rennes is a great city, and I'm having a great time! Today is my first day of actual classes at Rennes II, so I'm kind of nervous. I'll let you guys know how it goes...

I'm still alive, just busy...

Its been hard to find time to just sit down and write a post, but its Sunday and my family is off at Futuroscope, so I've got lots of free time. Last weekend we went to their grandparents house in the south of Brittany, on the beach, which was great, and then it was time to start getting used to life in a new city.

I really don't know where to even start...I've been in Rennes a little over a week now and it seems like its been months. We've been going to classes at Langues et Communication during the week. The teachers are very....eccentric. Laurent is this 40-something Frenchman who likes to wear denim jackets and purple pants. He teaches the first grammar class of my day, and as he's a very in your face, intense kind of guy (what other type of person would wear purple pants...), it's a little too much to handle at 9am every day. He's very into hypotheticals, so he makes us "imaginez" situations and pretty much everyone stares blankly. I imagine him as a guy who lived in Montreal in the 80's and never left. I've noticed a lot of France is stuck in the 80's, actually...

We also have a civilization class in the afternoons, which is pretty hit or miss. Friday, the class spent the hour talking about the year 1968, I spent the hour napping. But, when we learned about Brittany, it actually was pretty interesting. I've got a week left of classes there, and then its off to the big show: l'Université de Haute Bretagne. I placed into Avancé so I've got a pretty good selection of classes I can take, and I'm looking forward to actually taking classes that matter (not that Laurent and his purple pants aren't great...).

Rennes is a really fun town. Its doesn't feel like a big city, much in the way Madison doesn't either. The métro is efficient and clean, and the buses are too. Renne's centre ville is adorable, with all sorts of wooden buildings that have been around since the 1500's. Some look ready to fall over, but they are really cool all the same. There are so many cafés and cute shops and an H&M (!), and the Marché des Lices that happens every Saturday is awesome. It's the 3rd largest in France (I think), and you can find everything! Its super busy and most Rennais do their shopping here. My host mom bought a GIANT fish and an entire chicken before...you can also buy flowers, vegetables, fruit, etc etc etc. Its really cool.

Life with a family has been interesting...I think that most of the families think the students are dumb, or a lot worse in French then they really are, because all I hear about is how peoples host families never think they understand. My family will repeat things three times even when I understood it the first time. Its really awkward still to be living here in a strangers house, plus the fact that I'm responding in French, so I am kind of tongue tied. I understand what my family says to me, but beyond saying "d'accord" or "oui," I don't ever know what to respond with. So, my family thinks I'm lost half the time when I'm not. Its really, really, REALLY frustrating and makes me kind of uncomfortable. I'm sure it will get better with time though. Hopefully. Hanging out with the moniteurs (French students who are there to pretty much hang out with us and help out) is awesome, and they're a lot easier to talk to. I don't feel so ridiculous.

I've been playing soccer with a few of the moniteurs and people from CIEE, which has been really fun. I definitely missed playing. Yoann, one of the moniteurs, has actually become a good friend of ours (the people from Madison), and he's shown us around and taken us out. He's really funny, and loves learning English phrases, like 'badass' and all the silly things Cody's taught him. Nightlife in Rennes is pretty crazy. There's a road here called "Rue Saint Michel" thats been nicknamed "Rue de la soif." That means road of thirst, and it definitely has earned the nickname. Its a tiny street packed with bars that gets so crowded on the weekend that you can barely walk down it. Its like if you took all the bars on State Street and condensed them down to a block. It was definitely ridiculous to see. Thursday is actually the biggest night to go out here, because most students go home Friday and Saturday to see their families.

Madtown on Rue de la Soif

Yesterday a few of us went to Rue de la soif to watch the France vs. Romania World Cup Qualifier game. We met some Frenchies and they asked us where we were from and upon hearing Wisconsin they all got big smiles. "That 70's Show!" Yup. Thats the only thing people know about Wisco. People here also LOVE How I Met Your Mother. Yoann loves it, the people we met last night did too. Everyone wants to be Barney. One of the guys last night was wearing a Homer Simpson shirt too. Classy. Leah, Larissa, and I had a little sleepover at Leah's house as all our families were out of town, and it was a really fun night.

One cultural difference I've noticed so far is definitely meal time. The French eat late (not before 7:30pm) and its a requirement pretty much. You have to be home for dinner. It usually involves multiple courses, like a salad, some main dish, some cheese and bread, and then dessert. Peoples schedules definitely revolve around eating. I think it reflects the structured nature of the French mindset in general. In class, Laurent was always stressing the structure of your thoughts/arguments. I feel like Americans are much more about free flowing ideas and effort, while the French like order and no errors. Daniel, the program director, likened it to a kids coloring book. In France, if a kid is asked to copy a picture of a man in a blue shirt and red pants, the kid better copy it and be inside the lines. In the US, if a kid decides purple polka dots on the shirt and green pants work better, and puts a sun and some clouds in the background, then that's perfect. Put it on the fridge. With Lucille, my little sister who's 5 and a half, if she wears something funky, like rainbow socks and flowered sandals, Sophie, my host mom, makes her change. It just makes me think of when my mom used to let me wear capes and zorro hats to the store and my brother got to go around in tiger face paint. I'm not saying one is necessarily right, but I'm kind of glad I got the upbringing I did.

I've gotta start looking at classes, it's going to be a little tough to make sure I'm taking classes to cover both majors, but I think a lot of classes offered here will work. Trying to get in the school mindset is so hard, as this trip still feels a little like vacation...

A bientôt!