Hmmm…what to say. I feel like I have simultaneously so much to say, because everything is so new to me, yet nothing to say because it just sounds repetitive if you aren’t experiencing it firsthand. Wow, that really wasn’t supposed to sound nearly that condescending at all.

Class today was good. We were working on grammar, which was nice. Here’s what I don’t get- why to teachers insist on teaching grammar in French? I’m talking about at Clark obviously, because here it makes sense because not all of the students speak English! But at Clark…wtf is that about? I’m all for immersion, but some things make better sense (so that you can USE the foreign language) when taught in one’s native tongue. Ugh. I’m just cursing Odile Ferly right now. Especially now that I’ve had some French professors IN FRANCE, I’m realizing that Odile Ferly is just actually a horrible person (obviously), and that her teaching personality has nothing to do with being French.

I learned an important fact today! That’s that one must not say “Je suis excite…”, which when translated directly to English means “I am excited...”. It’s not that the sentence is grammatically incorrect or anything, but rather that it apparently carries a highly sexual connotation, and is only used under “those” circumstances. Lol, I learned this the hard way. No pun intended.

Supposedly there’s a big festival in centre-ville tomorrow. Adi invited Jeremy and I to go with him to get drunk and see some live music at the festival. Oh god. I don’t know if I can do it. I’m pretty sure that everyone knows that I hate live music. We’ll have to see. If I feel up to it, and maybe if I’m drunk enough, it’ll be okay. Definitely getting fucking obliterated before I even attempt that though.

I also have an appointment to open up a French bank account tomorrow at 11:30. I apparently need quite a few things before hand! Jeremy had his today, and he said it wasn’t very productive. Whatever. I’m not in any rush.

Also, I found out that I might be able to come home for Christmas! This is because Veronique told me that if I were out of the house entirely for longer than 2 days, she wouldn’t charge me for those days! So if I’m gone for like, 2 weeks, then I can use those 300 euros (about 450 dollars!) to help buy a plane ticket, which would be AMAZING. Veronique also told me that nowadays, she doesn’t really care to see her children or family for Christmas lol, and that the holiday practically means nothing to her. Apparently she just enjoys going skiing during that time. She just cracks me up sometimes.

The bus was packed today, because it was also back to school for all of the high and middle schoolers. Sort of cute actually. I NEED to get a bus pass for the month. This is ridiculous. I’m wasting time and money.

Also, my professor, Agnès (pronounced almost like añes) help me to decipher cellular lingo, so that I could potentially buy a phone. I was going to just buy the phone and get a phone card for it, sort of like pay as you go, but she said that apparently that’s really expensive because you pretty much get screwed as far as the ratio of minutes to euros is concerned. She suggested a plan “forfait” where I buy the phone, but also purchase x amount of minutes per month on a contract, which are automatically renewed at the start of each new month. That sounds like the best plan to me. She said it can be as cheap as 25 euros a month (and a contract for forfaits are anywhere from 4 – 12 months, which is awesome!) and that the 25 euros give you plenty of minutes and text messages.

I’m at home now, and it sort of sucks because I only have internet at the school. Well, I HAVE internet here, but my mac won’t connect for some reason. Whatever. I can’t even really care right now.

Tomorrow I’m going to see a movie with some friends, and hopefully going out to eat and getting drunk for the festival. I’ll get back to you all very soon!

Elias

Side Note

So, all of the below entries were written on my computer on the date in the blog above them, but I didn't get around to posting them until today!

Currently at the school, just had some kebabs for lunch with some newfound friends, and hopefully going to buy a cellphone soon!

9.2.09

Today was a good day. I am definitely adjusting to life here. Not that I don’t miss home, but the shock isn’t so overwhelming, and I can definitely appreciate life here a little more now. Tonight at dinner, Veronique was telling jokes and stories, and I could UNDERSTAND them. Not to mention, I was actually ADDING to conversation! It was probably very poor grammatically, but it furthered conversation none-the-less, and I even made Vero and her friend LAUGH. God, it felt so good to participate in real conversation and not just bullshit “comment ça va?” stuff.
Also, I think I’ve lost weight here. I’m eating much more healthy foods, and I’m also eating less and moving more. As well, I don’t want to be the fat American all year long, so it’s sort of nice to know that I’m losing weight as of NOW.
We had a scavenger hunt in centre ville in Dijon today. God, I wanted to shoot myself. My partner was this Korean kid who really likes me. He’s very nice, but due to his heavy Korean accent, I can’t understand a fucking French word he says. Needless to say, it made the scavenger hunt a little difficult.
I accidentally stood Jeremy up for a rendez-vous tonight. I feel so shitty about it. We were supposed to meet at the Place de la Republique at 9:30, and I didn’t get there til 10 because dinner ran late. FUCK. He wasn’t there when I arrived ☹
We also went to the lake today. Lac Kir. Everyone here loves it, and it was very pretty, but not much to gawk at for too long. I got bored pretty fast lol.
Sometimes I forget I’m in France. The majority of the music on the radio is English. Lots of products here are from America. After you start speaking English, it’s almost like you’re back home. A rainier, prettier home, but still like you’re home.
I don’t think I’m sick anymore. Thank god. At least my voice doesn’t hurt now.
It was really good to talk to Charlie today. Thankfully the phone didn’t cut out until about 40 minutes into the conversation! That was definitely nice. It feels good to connect with people back home. I realized that what made this place so miserable at first wasn’t being in France, or even being far from home, but just KNOWING that this was the beginning of my life for the next year, and that it didn’t really include anyone that I love back home, as they were thousands of miles away. And that’s a really shitty realization. And then to have all the other shit on top of that?....it’s too much.
I think today onward marks the beginning of an upward curve. In comprehension, happiness, etc. Not that there won’t be relapses, but I don’t think they’ll be as severe as before.

I have so much more to say, but I’m so tired. I hope to talk to all of you so soon. I miss you to death. Wish me luck!

Salut!

Elias

8.31.09-9.01.09

I’m having trouble sleeping again. I keep going back and forth between being so amazed at the things I’m seeing here, and also being incredibly stressed and overwhelmed. Part of me wishes I were back in America, where life was already good and easy. It’s hard to imagine that I’ll be here for 10 months. I know that after a slight adjustment period, things will be better. I just wish I had some way to contact people back home. I feel very stranded sometimes. It’s weird being the foreigner. Sort of like looking in from the outside. I can see, hear, smell, feel and to a degree, even understand what is going on around me, but I’m not a part of it. I think the language barrier is playing a huge role in this.
On the upside, I can tell that even after only 3 days, my French comprehension is improving. There’s still a lot of “oui, oui, d’accord,” when I understand absolutely nothing of what was said, but I’m also learning to make mistakes. Conversation can of course be slow sometimes, but I’m making connections much faster than I was before. We took exams at the CIEF today to determine our French placement. Not too difficult, but I definitely didn’t do amazingly. No problem, I’d rather be in a level of class where I review a few things as opposed to a class too advanced for me.
Also, I found Jeremy at the CIEF, right after my housemate, Genichi (not really his name, but I call him that because I can’t remember his name and it doesn’t seem to bother him) and I received our cartes d’etudiantes. It was honestly such a relief to see a face I knew. There are a lot of kids here for just a semester from Colby. Sort of standoffish freshmen actually. Just some random information for you!
After the test, Jeremy and I wandered the campus for a bit, and we ended meeting this German boy, Matthias. He was very excited that we were American, as he apparently studied a year or semester at UW Madison. He said it was the time of his life, and that he loves Americans and America…certainly a new sentiment out here! He showed us where the student cafeteria was (called a RESTO-U) and spoke to us in a PERFECT Midwestern-American accent. He also told Jeremy and I that he could take us via his car to Frankfurt, where he lives, in October and let us stay with him during Oktoberfest. I might take him up on that.
Afterward, Genichi, Jeremy, and I ate lunch, and then walked back to centre-ville where I was able to show Jeremy my house. Vero was so sweet, I really think we will be fine living togetherj. We also found a cinema that shows American movies in English! Fuck yes. And it only costs 3.50 euros! Something cheap finally.
Eventually, I took a nap and went out later to meet Jeremy ad his host mother, Agnes, at the H and M in Dijon. I got an international calling card, went to a park with Jeremy, and eventually made my way back to Rue Montee de Guise, where I live. Dinner was great, as Vero is a wonderful cook. And now, I find myself awake at 2 am, reflecting on the day, which was actually pretty uneventful lol. I’ve got to be at the Uni by 8:30 am tomorrow…ugh. Not fun. C’est la vie. Alright, updates and hopefully pictures soon!

Ils me manquent!

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8.30.2009

Hello to all! I finally made it to Dijon last night after over 30 hours of travel due to my own last minute planning. Let’s re-cap:

I bought a greyhound ticket from Worcester to Boston, forgot my ipod (sweet Greg brought it to me) and while boarding the greyhound and CRYING, the driver then announced that the bus had indeed run out of seats. Great. So my very nice goodbye became very anti-climactic when I got off, walked back over to my friends, and asked Greg to drive me to the airport so I wouldn’t miss my flight. Bon. D’accord. So, I got my refund, and off we (Charlie, Lily, Carolyn, Greg and I) went.

Upon arrival, I said goodbye to everyone and made my way to the Virgin Atlantic Terninal—very nice. I even got a list of movies that I could watch for free (recent ones too! I chose Benjamin Button.) on my own airline sponsored DVD player. They also gave me beef stew, two rounds of tea, bread, salad, and of course lots of wine. Holler.

Heathrow=Shit Pit. The woman next to me, Andrea, was very nice and a good conversationalist, but she did bitch about us flying into Terminal 3. She said it was the “poor person’s terminal”. She was right. Not that I really cared, but hey, she said the truth. It looked like the terminal had once stored prisoners, and the customs line was fucking long as hell. It almost took me 45 minutes to get through, and I was in the front!

Note: UK Border patollers are mean, but French border patrollers are even meaner, if possible. That said, I finally got my luggage and got on the underground to St. Pancras Station---a 4£ bus ride, because I had to go through 6 zones…oh well. The underground was very easy to navigate. Very clean, also. Finally, at St. Pancras station, where the Eurostar is, I sat alone on the ground and slept, only to be woken up a ½ hour later by a cup of coffee. That’s right. Apparently, the man working in the café right by where I was sleeping felt “bloody sorry” for me, and made me some “roast” so that I wouldn’t be too fucked up by the time I got to Paris. A pleasant surprise!

In the station, after security, which was no easy feat getting through with all of my luggage, I went through the “way out” (it just kills me the British use this term instead of “exit”. I feel like this exemplifies British culture in a nutshell.) and into the waiting area. I met a girl from Smith college who talked with me for a few hours who is going to study in Scotland. She was very nice, and it was good to talk to another sleep-deprived American, to be honest (from MA no less!). Not gonna lie, it was sort of sad leaving London. Not only was it very pretty, but it was basically my last time for a while in the land of English speaking people! Not to mention the inhuman amount of helpful people and cute boys.

The train ride to Paris was nice. Only two hours! I sat by a 26 year old British male, James Howard, who was very cute and also gay. I’m pretty sure he was hitting on me. We talked about France, England, the States etc. It turns out that although he’s English, he lives in Paris for work! He started getting rather close to me while he was telling me how incredible the Luxembourg Gardens are. Eventually, I said something along the lines of “wow, that sounds great! I’ll have to go sometime!”, and his response to this was “well…how much time do you have between trains, because I think it may be nice to go with such a pleasant conversationalist!”. WOW. Talk about being flattered. Invite to Luxembourg Gardens with a cute guy who may or may not be interested? Oh, but wait…my next train to Dijon was leaving only 2 hours after we arrived at Gare du Nord. Fuck. So no luck there, but still. We ended up talking for most of the ride to Paris, and upon arrival he asked me where I was headed next- I told him that I was taking the RER (the RER is a part of the Paris Metro that connect the suburbs to downtown, and this was fastest way for me to get from place to place) to Gare de Lyon. Not only did he walk me to the RER and help me with my bags, but he proceeded to purchase my RER ticket for me (an 8 euro ticket!), saying that it was “no big deal, they’re just euros”. Well, thanks! Anyway, we “shared a hug” as he said, and then he told me that he’d soon see the rest of France and that if I find myself in Paris or he in Dijon then perhaps we could meet for a drink.

Anyway. My journey continued on the RER which was horrible. I got off at the Gare de Lyon, but needed directions. Some Parisians were nice. Some, not so nice. But all of them, regardless of how they treated me, made no sense. I could not for the life of me decipher what they were saying to me. Nor was Paris actually very pretty, at least from the train stations. I felt about Paris how I felt about New York at first- it seemed dirty, cramped, and overwhelming. Perhaps I was just tired. Either way, it was not what I wanted.

Finally, I got my ticket to Dijon, and remembered to use the “composter” which are essentially these yellow machines that validate your ticket. You know, everyone talks about how beautiful the French countryside is, and maybe it’s just because I’m color blind, but it all seemed rather drab to me. Regardless, a very nice Frenchman allowed me to use his cell phone after we arrived so that I could call Veronique, as Dijon has almost NO coin pay phones (they are all telecarte france phones that require a phone card or a French bank account). Véro answered the phone, and before you knew it, she was at the Gare picking me up. She is, thus far, a very friendly woman. She helped me load some of my things into her little euromobile, and then explained to me the rules of the house. Essentially, no wearing shoes on the carpet, put dishes in the dishwasher, do your own laundry, always lock the door, etc. Simple things, and she was very nice about it, saying “vous comprenez? Ou voulez-vous me repeter?” which means “do you understand, or should I repeat myself?”. Her house is very lovely, very typically French. Lots of cream colors, couches that nobody sits on, floral prints etc. Not MY choice of décor, but elegant none-the-less. The bathroom is super small, and trying to figure out how to flush the toilet was hell….it took me like 15 minutes to figure it out, as I didn’t want to ask Veronique and face any untold embarrassment. I unpacked, checked my emails on her computer, as I didn’t have a European adaptor for my own, and went to bed. I was exhausted. I’d been up since 10 am EST and didn’t get to bed until 3 or 4 pm EST the next day! Almost 30 hours of being in transit, which, although it sucked, was better than possibly missing one of my connections. Today proved uneventful. Woke up around 2 pm, got dressed, and went out on the town. A little scary. Everyone is so good looking and thin! People were very helpful and nice though, which was good. I also found a “tabac” (Sort of like a 7-11) where they sell international calling cards. I think 1 euro give me one hour of talk time? Not too bad, but Skype will be better and probably cheaper once I have the internet.

Tomorrow might mark the beginning of the stage intensif de Septembre….we’ll see. As of now, I like to pretend that school will not ever start and I’ll just stay in the bed that Veronique made up for me very nicely. One “student” arrives today. He’s a 51 year old Japanese male. One thing though: he’s a professor of English. YES. Thank god. And he’s only here until the end of September when a Canadian male and a Japanese female (both my age) arrive. One can only hope for the best. I’ll keep this updated as best as I can! I miss you ALL and America so much. This is definitely going to be a life changing year, for better or worse!

AU REVOIR MES AMIS,

Elias Mohr

PS- French is coming a lot harder than I thought. It seems the only person I can understand is Veronique, and forming sentences is proving to be extremely difficult around native speakers.