Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Merci, au revoir!

And the semester abroad is over, I'm back in Novi typing this 61st and final blog post. I could tell you the details about the trip back but at the end of the day, I made it! Briefly, there was a 2 hour delay due to the snow at CDG and I had to wait nearly 3 hours just to check my luggage in, imagine this airport the Sunday before Christmas....pretty packed! But it was a normal flight and now I'm back to business and some winter break fun with family and friends...It will be a great break!

I leave you with my final thoughts on the experience, or at least what is on my mind now. Before the trip and really when you tell someone you're studying in France, stereotypes come to mind. Right out of the gate in Paris, it was good to get educated on these. Certainly it can be argued whether some of the typical stereotypes have any truth to them, but I have my ideas after 4 months. Did I see people with berets? Sure, but not everyday, it wasn't crazy, the scarf was way more common. Do people walk around with baguettes? Yes, you buy it and take it back to the house. If you were in France, I'm pretty sure you'd start to love baguettes as much as the French. Now that I'm on the topic, how about French food? It's true that I lunch I ate kebab sandwiches and that is obviously not French, but I had a good share of French meals. They really love food, it can be important in a conversation. Here's my example: after dinner one night Jacqueline's sister called, the first thing that Jacqueline told her after hello and how are you was "The sauce I made tonight was really good!" Try fitting that into our daily conversation! The love for food continues with a passion for pastries and chocolate. As you've seen in some of my pictures, they make little desserts that can look like tiny pieces of art, it is incredible. The only way to find out is to go and see these for yourself. The chocolate places were also great to me here. Each shop has certain traits which make it unique and put places like Godiva and other stores around here to shame.
Another big part of French life is politeness. If study the language you know that there is a formal and informal "you", and this is very important in conversation. But more than that, this carries over to stores and restaurants. This really hit me when I was shopping at a few stores back home here and being helped, the service is totally different! Obviously it helps shopping in your native language, but I could be way more informal when shopping here and talking to the workers.
The national identity is important too. I'm proud to be an American, and the French are proud to be French. I was treated very well over there, and sure at times there were rough moments or times when some people might not've been as nice to me...but overall I met some very nice people who I hope to see in the future.
Speaking of the future, this goes to everyone if you didn't know this, but Paris isn't the only city in France! In fact, I'm not really dying to go back to Paris now, but I will be back in the future to see relatives in Marseille, my favorite city in France. There is more to France than the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Paris shopping..Exploring the rest of the country was incredible, and that has left me with a countless number of memories thoughts as I look forward to a new year with a fresh view on life.

It has been great, I thank all of you for reading, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Voila!

And there you go, a semester in France....115 nights have past, and I'm here in my room at the Novotel CDG after taking 2 trains and a shuttle to this place. In the morning I will get ready and head over to Terminal 2 to board my plane back to DTW in the early afternoon. It has been an incredible semester and I'll need some time to take it all in and really think about it. It seems like so long ago when I was waking up every Saturday in September and going on excursions. Then Keith and I spent 3 nights with my relatives in Marseille. November came and I got to see my favorite French artist Gerald De Palmas in concert in Lyon, truly an unforgettable night. Then an all-nighter in Nantes seeing Benabar in concert, a trip to Normandy, and now with December my 21st birthday and spending the last night in Angers at a Renan Luce concert....After all of that, here I am at the Novotel the night before leaving and returning to the USA. All I can say right now is that France has been great to me and I am looking forward to using the French language in my future. I look forward to making a final post about the experience on the flip side once I've returned to the US and adjusted to the time change. Until then, here's hoping for a fun 9 hour flight.

Last night in Angers, last day here!



Originally uploaded by supermarioguy
Wow! I'm leaving Angers within the hour to head to the train station..3 hours from now I'll be at my airport hotel near CDG getting ready to spend the last night in France. I still can't believe it! Last night Keith and I saw a great French artist in concert. He's a young guy, Renan Luce. Ironically, this was the smallest venue but we were farther away from the stage than the other 2 concerts. We still had a good spot though, I only posted a few pictures.

Anyways, it has been great and I hope to post sometime soon to wrap things up, but the time has come to get out of here and get ready to come home tomorrow!!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

And the "lasts" begin...

I'm not a huge fan of "oh this is the last time I'm going to wear a blue shirt with light blue jeans" or "this is the last Tuesday of the year" kind of thing, but really it is incredible to think that these are the last few days in Angers, FR. I can't believe that in 4 days I will be back home. Obviously I'm very excited and ready to come back, but I still can't believe it's over. I've gotten pretty used to this. Speaking of getting used to things, there is the piano I was able to play on all semester. I hope to be able to share some of the songs with you guys in the future, it's been great keeping up the songwriting. Sure enough, tonight was probably the last time I'll play here, but at least I know my digital piano is waiting for back home this weekend.

Also, the tests are finished! To celebrate, I went to my favorite chocolatier and got some good chocolate. What happened after was unexpected. The couple had me scratch off a little ticket and sure enough I won! Not knowing what to expect, Madame Louvigny ran into the back and gave me 2 jars of jam and a bottle of local wine! I was satisfied with the chocolate, but it was pretty cool to experience that. Again I can't tell you how nice these people are, they continue to be very friendly and helpful, an amazing store. The owner told me that within a few years they should have delivery, now that is what I'm talking about.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Finals week


The dogs in action
Originally uploaded by supermarioguy
This picture of Trotinette and Chaussette was taken over the weekend, the nice calm weekend of going around the city, starting to pack, studying, and playing piano. That all changed this morning. First was the business final, it was not easy, but I think I did pretty well. Since I'm one of the several students (but not nearly all) leaving before Christmas, we had an extra exam to do, and it was quite lengthy. After a good hour's work, I had a headache but only until I had a nice kebab sandwich and fries at our favorite spot. That would have to last me the afternoon because I went to written expression class, followed by a translation test, then after a little break I took a 2 hr language test.

An hour later, I'm back home and pretty tired, but the hardest day of exam week is behind us!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Songwriting, Last weekend in Angers

There it is, one of the most important items I brought over with me. Some of you know that over the past year or so I've really gotten into songwriting and my friend and I enjoy writing and playing together back home. When my host mom told me she had a piano, I was really excited. And sure enough I've had the opportunity to play at least 3 times a week and it has been great. I've kept up my songwriting and I've been able to record songs and send them off to people to get some opinions. I really can't wait to get back and share the new material, I'm trying to put together a little CD this weekend to share my recording experiences over here.

With that being said, here we are in the middle of my last weekend in this city. It's going great so far and I need to start getting things organized soon enough. Tonight I'll be recording and then Andrew and I are going to do our best with a flourless peanut butter cookie recipe, we'll let you know how that turns out!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

10 Days

Here it is, the last 10 days in France. Pretty crazy to think it's here already, I have 9 nights left in Angers, then one at an airport hotel in Paris, and that will be the end. Having said that, it is now getting down to crunch time in classes and finals will be in full swing next week. This weekend, along with going to the market for the last time, I will be packing things away, donating things, trying my best to make sure that everything will be ready or at least close before next week comes. The last night in Angers will be spent at a popular French artist's concert in our town and then I'll be at the train station the next day! Here's to 10 days of great baguettes, final exams, and fun!