Bonjour!
I may have my classes figured out now. There were some interesting developments on the way. For example, I was confused in my first year French>English translation course because all of the other students already had the documents that we were going over. I was pretty frustrated after the second class, because we weren't moving on to new material and I still didn't have what we were working on, and I almost just left and didn't come back. But instead, I approached the professor and asked him what was going on. He explained it all to me (in English), and I learned that the class is actually for students who are preparing to take a test to become professors. So there are no grades and there is no final exam or anything. But I can understand when the prof when he talks and the material is appropriately challenging, so I'll stick with that one. There's a first year English>French course that I went to on Tuesday, which of course was harder, but I liked that. It might be the same thing, though; no grades, no credit. I don't actually know.
Probably the funniest experience I had was another class on Tuesday. This was supposed to be a literature and film course. Evidently, a large part of the class was only there because a general lit. course had been too full, and they had heard that the lit. and film class might become an extra general lit class. The professor talked back and forth with the students for a while, and he really wasn't sure of what was going on. After a few minutes, he had us vote on what the class should be! The vote was pretty much split, so he didn't make a decision then and there. I'm not sure he could have if he wanted to. Well, actually, I don't know if there's any sort of administrative office at all. Anyway, he just talked about a poem for an hour. It was interesting, though, and that's definitely a class I'm going back to!
Wednesday I had a second year French>English course. Before, I had to prepare a translation of a newspaper article that we had talked about the class before--my first French homework. There's another course I want to go to on Wednesdays, but it was canceled last week. So it's five classes, plus my exchange student French classes.
I went to a discothèque. It was Wednesday night, and I'd had a pretty boring week so far, so I agreed to go out. Ah, I would have gone anyway. We met up with Loren's (the Brazilian-American) friend beforehand and headed off to the club at about midnight. I ended up going with Loren and about eight people I'd never met before. I had a blast. I was there until 4:00. The next night, I went out to a different club. This time, more than 20 of the exchange students went. Not all together, but we ended up at the same place. I was there for a long time, and I danced, but it wasn't as much fun, mostly because it was almost entirely pop music. There was a little bit of rock (I got excited when the DJ played a RATM song), but for the most part, it was French and American pop. At the first place, it was mostly techno, with some American 70's and 80's music thrown in, and I can deal with that a lot better. Also, I was a more tired the second night. Anyway, both nights were great experiences, and I'm glad I finally got to do it.
I tried to go to church this morning, but the place I went to didn't have a service because they're downtown right in the middle of where the citywide market was today. I waited outside for a while, for someone to come to the door (because it's in an apartment), alongside someone who goes there regularly, and he guessed what had happened for me. Waiting for the bus to get back, a girl asked me if the bus was coming that day and if I'd already taken the bus today and we talked for a minute or two, and I understood it all. She was going to campus too, so we talked a little bit more when we got off and I found out that she's actually Moroccan and that she knows a little English but her French is better. That makes just the second exchange student I've met who speaks French better than English--and the first one actually is French; she's just lived in Portugal for the past twelve years. Anyway, the coolest part was I didn't speak a word of English for the first time when I met someone new.
I can't believe I've been here for a month. Only three more to go. I still don't know if I'll be leaving in December or January. Right now, I can't stop smiling because the Colts just scored three touchdowns in 10 minutes. Life is good.
Stephen
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Starting classes
Bonjour,
Well, classes started. I've had a real tough time figuring out what I could do or even what I could do, but I went to five or six different classes. The only way you can figure out where classes are offered here is on bulletin boards in each separate building. (In the college of humanities, there are no course descriptions posted anywhere. And most professors don't give students syllabuses.) I realized that almost all classes are offered as one session a week, which makes it simpler. Next week I'll go to three or four of those again, plus some new ones. At the end of next week, I'll decide what I'm going to take. In high school, French students spend about as much time at school as we do in America, but college is totally different. It's really hard to get concrete answers from people around here, but I believe people typically take 5-10 hours a semester. My French as a foreign language class already will be eight hours, I believe, so I'm actually planning on taking on a heavy load here. Well, a lot of classes anyway; I don't want to do harder classes that require a lot of outside work, but I really think it'd be good for me to spend a lot of time in the classroom.
In a couple classes, I was really lost, but I was able to understand most of the professors. In the three translation classes I went to, I was of course the only anglophone so I got a little more attention than I would have liked, but it's better than being ignored and getting lost! I'm taking a French-to-English class with a lady who's already been very helpful to me, and I think I'll be able to learn a lot there. There are two classes that I really wanted to go to on Wednesday, but the entire department was shut down--they cancel classes all the time over here.
Both last Saturday and today I went downtown. Last week it was with some Portuguese and German girls to go on the canal tour. Amiens is the "Petit Venice" of France, supposedly. It was a 45 minute boat ride through absolutely beautiful gardens, a lot of which were private property--our tour guide kept talking to people who were sitting in front of the river in their back yards. The guide was funny, and he knew a ton of stuff about those canals. I just wish I could have understood half of what he said! When I come back to Amiens after I can really speak French, I'll have to take that tour again. It was nice just to look at flowers for a while, though. Also, I barely spoke in English at all that day, which was nice for a change.
Today, I went au centre ville with the Americans, and Lami, one of my British friends. I bought a SIM card for my cell phone finally (the country code is 33, then you dial 6.80.70.88.91) and got my own mic for Skype. Skype has been down for a few days now, and it's pretty frustrating. I spent two or three hours the first night changing proxy settings and looking up information before I gave up. But everyone else is having the same problems, and the Université is working on it. So maybe in a week or two... Anyway, after I bought my electronics I needed a snack so I stopped at a patisserie, and picked up a nice little pastry. It was actually bigger than I thought it was, but once I opened it, I had to eat it all because I couldn't keep carrying it around. So, I sat on a bench in a tiny park (there are probably a dozen of them downtown) and ate three servings worth of dessert. It was pretty good. Afterwards, I went to the theater and watched Shoot 'Em Up. a new American movie for those of you who haven't heard of it. It was dubbed, which bothered me a little bit, but I wanted to listen to French, so I wasn't too upset about it. There were three or four really good action scenes, but it's not a movie I'd recommend to most people. Ask me if you want details...
I still don't have a church here. I haven't seen a single one in Amiens. I've e-mailed people all over the world, asking for leads on a church near here, but I haven't gotten anything besides more references. I'd appreciate your prayers as I keep looking.
It's been a good week. The scariest part was going to that first class, which fortunately was a lecture class, so I didn't have to do anything (I'm not going back to that one.). I feel a lot more comfortable now, and I'm excited about seeing what other classes will be like.
Good night,
Stephen
Well, classes started. I've had a real tough time figuring out what I could do or even what I could do, but I went to five or six different classes. The only way you can figure out where classes are offered here is on bulletin boards in each separate building. (In the college of humanities, there are no course descriptions posted anywhere. And most professors don't give students syllabuses.) I realized that almost all classes are offered as one session a week, which makes it simpler. Next week I'll go to three or four of those again, plus some new ones. At the end of next week, I'll decide what I'm going to take. In high school, French students spend about as much time at school as we do in America, but college is totally different. It's really hard to get concrete answers from people around here, but I believe people typically take 5-10 hours a semester. My French as a foreign language class already will be eight hours, I believe, so I'm actually planning on taking on a heavy load here. Well, a lot of classes anyway; I don't want to do harder classes that require a lot of outside work, but I really think it'd be good for me to spend a lot of time in the classroom.
In a couple classes, I was really lost, but I was able to understand most of the professors. In the three translation classes I went to, I was of course the only anglophone so I got a little more attention than I would have liked, but it's better than being ignored and getting lost! I'm taking a French-to-English class with a lady who's already been very helpful to me, and I think I'll be able to learn a lot there. There are two classes that I really wanted to go to on Wednesday, but the entire department was shut down--they cancel classes all the time over here.
Both last Saturday and today I went downtown. Last week it was with some Portuguese and German girls to go on the canal tour. Amiens is the "Petit Venice" of France, supposedly. It was a 45 minute boat ride through absolutely beautiful gardens, a lot of which were private property--our tour guide kept talking to people who were sitting in front of the river in their back yards. The guide was funny, and he knew a ton of stuff about those canals. I just wish I could have understood half of what he said! When I come back to Amiens after I can really speak French, I'll have to take that tour again. It was nice just to look at flowers for a while, though. Also, I barely spoke in English at all that day, which was nice for a change.
Today, I went au centre ville with the Americans, and Lami, one of my British friends. I bought a SIM card for my cell phone finally (the country code is 33, then you dial 6.80.70.88.91) and got my own mic for Skype. Skype has been down for a few days now, and it's pretty frustrating. I spent two or three hours the first night changing proxy settings and looking up information before I gave up. But everyone else is having the same problems, and the Université is working on it. So maybe in a week or two... Anyway, after I bought my electronics I needed a snack so I stopped at a patisserie, and picked up a nice little pastry. It was actually bigger than I thought it was, but once I opened it, I had to eat it all because I couldn't keep carrying it around. So, I sat on a bench in a tiny park (there are probably a dozen of them downtown) and ate three servings worth of dessert. It was pretty good. Afterwards, I went to the theater and watched Shoot 'Em Up. a new American movie for those of you who haven't heard of it. It was dubbed, which bothered me a little bit, but I wanted to listen to French, so I wasn't too upset about it. There were three or four really good action scenes, but it's not a movie I'd recommend to most people. Ask me if you want details...
I still don't have a church here. I haven't seen a single one in Amiens. I've e-mailed people all over the world, asking for leads on a church near here, but I haven't gotten anything besides more references. I'd appreciate your prayers as I keep looking.
It's been a good week. The scariest part was going to that first class, which fortunately was a lecture class, so I didn't have to do anything (I'm not going back to that one.). I feel a lot more comfortable now, and I'm excited about seeing what other classes will be like.
Good night,
Stephen
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Deuxième semaine
Bonjour,
A lot has happened in the first weekend and second week! I finally have my webcam for skype (stephen.carnagua), and I'll probably buy a microphone tomorrow. I thought I was getting a mic with the camera, but I didn't. So after I get that, the last major step I'll have to take to finish getting settled is to be able to access the money I put in the bank a week ago! You see, French banks are quite different from American banks, I'm learning. And after you open an account, you have to wait a week to get your debit card, which is the only way to withdraw money. And after you get your debit card, you have to wait to get your PIN number, not to be confused with the "secret code" they give you that is only good for getting your information online and will cause the ATM machine to eat your card if you enter that instead of the right PIN three times. So, nine days after getting here, I have 10 (borrowed) Euro left and my Mastercard. I still can't get the money from my stipend I got a week ago. My advice to anyone staying in France is to bring a good credit card and take cash overseas. If you want to eat the first week you're there, don't put money in the bank.
I've been talking to too many Americans. Hopefully I'll do something fun (and cheap!) this weekend with a mix of people. Now that all the Germans know each other pretty well, they're speaking in German a lot. And then they talk in English. Occasionally, they'll speak in French, but I really need to make some more French friends and hang out with the people who are willing to commit. If I'm only speaking French 1/3 or 1/4 of the time I'm talking, I'm wasting my time. Don't get me wrong; I'm not worried yet. There's still plenty of time. I'm just a little concerned because people are speaking more English instead of less now that we've been here for a week.
Last weekend was Amiens' medieval festival. There was a big market (which I had no money for :( ), and a big fireworks show Saturday night set to techno music. That might be the best show I've ever seen, although I don't remember the fireworks I saw in Disney World six or seven years ago too well. It was a lot for a town this size. I keep thinking in terms of "what if Fort Wayne was like this?" because that's about what it's relative size is (there are about 100,000 people in Amiens). Also Saturday night was the lighting of the cathedral. It was amazing! I've never seen anything like it. I'll describe the cathedral later, when I spend a day there, but for now it's enough to know that there is incredible detail on the outside. Hundreds of human figures and other shapes are carved into the three arches at the front, and everything was lit up in individual colors from a projector about 40 yards away. Imagine a sculpture in color--it looked like every single shape on this cathedral had been painted in vibrant colors.
What else have I done? I bought French groceries. It was really fun to choose new things to try. I registered for insurance and had a lot of confusion about mutuelle until I realized that they were trying to get me to buy extra insurance so there was no co-pay, and it wasn't something I needed to do. I think I know how to register for classes now. I'm going to go to every single class I might be interested in next week, when courses start, and then I register. That's just what the exchange students are doing here. Oh, I'm getting money that Ball State owes me, instead of paying them $2700. That was an exciting discovery. I learned in class today that about 3/4 of students in Europe starts learning English when they're six or seven or eight years old (and often another language soon after). We Americans are at such a disadvantage! Oh well. I'm trying.
A bientot,
Stephen
P.S. Send me something!
M. Stephen Carnagua
Res. Du Bailly Ouest
Ch. 454, Bat. D
Av. Paul Claudel
Amiens, 80025
France
A lot has happened in the first weekend and second week! I finally have my webcam for skype (stephen.carnagua), and I'll probably buy a microphone tomorrow. I thought I was getting a mic with the camera, but I didn't. So after I get that, the last major step I'll have to take to finish getting settled is to be able to access the money I put in the bank a week ago! You see, French banks are quite different from American banks, I'm learning. And after you open an account, you have to wait a week to get your debit card, which is the only way to withdraw money. And after you get your debit card, you have to wait to get your PIN number, not to be confused with the "secret code" they give you that is only good for getting your information online and will cause the ATM machine to eat your card if you enter that instead of the right PIN three times. So, nine days after getting here, I have 10 (borrowed) Euro left and my Mastercard. I still can't get the money from my stipend I got a week ago. My advice to anyone staying in France is to bring a good credit card and take cash overseas. If you want to eat the first week you're there, don't put money in the bank.
I've been talking to too many Americans. Hopefully I'll do something fun (and cheap!) this weekend with a mix of people. Now that all the Germans know each other pretty well, they're speaking in German a lot. And then they talk in English. Occasionally, they'll speak in French, but I really need to make some more French friends and hang out with the people who are willing to commit. If I'm only speaking French 1/3 or 1/4 of the time I'm talking, I'm wasting my time. Don't get me wrong; I'm not worried yet. There's still plenty of time. I'm just a little concerned because people are speaking more English instead of less now that we've been here for a week.
Last weekend was Amiens' medieval festival. There was a big market (which I had no money for :( ), and a big fireworks show Saturday night set to techno music. That might be the best show I've ever seen, although I don't remember the fireworks I saw in Disney World six or seven years ago too well. It was a lot for a town this size. I keep thinking in terms of "what if Fort Wayne was like this?" because that's about what it's relative size is (there are about 100,000 people in Amiens). Also Saturday night was the lighting of the cathedral. It was amazing! I've never seen anything like it. I'll describe the cathedral later, when I spend a day there, but for now it's enough to know that there is incredible detail on the outside. Hundreds of human figures and other shapes are carved into the three arches at the front, and everything was lit up in individual colors from a projector about 40 yards away. Imagine a sculpture in color--it looked like every single shape on this cathedral had been painted in vibrant colors.
What else have I done? I bought French groceries. It was really fun to choose new things to try. I registered for insurance and had a lot of confusion about mutuelle until I realized that they were trying to get me to buy extra insurance so there was no co-pay, and it wasn't something I needed to do. I think I know how to register for classes now. I'm going to go to every single class I might be interested in next week, when courses start, and then I register. That's just what the exchange students are doing here. Oh, I'm getting money that Ball State owes me, instead of paying them $2700. That was an exciting discovery. I learned in class today that about 3/4 of students in Europe starts learning English when they're six or seven or eight years old (and often another language soon after). We Americans are at such a disadvantage! Oh well. I'm trying.
A bientot,
Stephen
P.S. Send me something!
M. Stephen Carnagua
Res. Du Bailly Ouest
Ch. 454, Bat. D
Av. Paul Claudel
Amiens, 80025
France
The beginning
I'm going to post the first couple e-mails I sent out to family and friends here. I'm actually starting this blog a couple weeks into my trip, but it will be current from this point forward!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bon nuit,
Stephen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonjour tout le monde!
Well. A lot has happened. I finally have the Internet in my room so I can talk to people. That is a relief.
My flight from Chicago was pretty easy. I sat next to a CPA who works for the U.S. Treasury and he has a daughter who's studying in Italy and he was going to go see her. He was nice. When I got to Paris, I had some trouble buying my TGV (Big Speed Train) ticket, but I made it. At my next stop, the train/bus station, I met a girl from Illinois who's also studying here. After we got off the bus (in Amiens), we met a girl from Mississippi. Now we all have rooms right next to each other. They've been a HUGE help in this transition. It's really nice to be lost with people instead of lost alone. Anyway, we somehow got a couple taxis to the campus and told the drivers the name of the school and nothing else. Well, I talked to my driver a bit (which was my first real interaction with un français) but I didn't know the address. So we had to take hundreds of pounds of luggage halfway across campus. It was not fun.
The foreign programs director here is so helpful. She speaks good English, and she saved us right when we got to campus. It just so happened that she was walking out of her building when we arrived. Seeing our rooms was awesome. The rooms are small here, but they're set up well. I'm in a room to myself, and I have my own shower! And there's a fridge, too. These are the newest dorms at Picardie Jules Verne. I'm taking a language class now, but not for credit (real classes start in a week and a half). The class is all exchange students, and there's quite a mix. Almost half are German, but there's a girl from Brazil, two Polish guys, a Mexican, two Portugese, two Brits, a Spaniard, a Finnish girl, and six Americans. I got to talk with a lot of people after class yesterday and met most of the rest today. All the Germans were relieved to speak English, because they know that much better than French.
Amiens is beautiful. I feel so bad that we don't have cities like this back home. I went to the center of town today, and there's a lot to see. There's always something new to see or do. Talking with the other students has been a blast. I've never done anything that compares with this experience. Everyone is so nice, and we're all trying so hard to learn the language. It's surreal to be in the middle of this country where it seems like everything is different. And I really prefer this sink-or-swim environment, because it's so hard to learn a language in the classroom.
I'm actually having trouble writing in English already. When I talk to my American and German friends I switch back in forth between sentences, or even in the middle of sentences. I've been forced to think through almost everything en français. It's very stressful, but I can tell I'm going to make a ton of progress over here.
And now, I sleep. (it's about 4:30)
Bon nuit,
Stephen
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)