Au revoir, Dijon!

Bonjour à tous,

I believe this will actually be my last entry...today is my last day in Dijon! Tonight we are taking a bus to Paris and arriving at the airport in the early morning. Our Colby group is split between 2 flights Thursday morning. The weather in Paris has been okay for the past couple days, but it’s supposed to snow again on Thursday. I really hope the snow can hold off in Paris until we’ve left. It’s such a terrible time to have flight issues, everyone just wants to get home for the holidays!! With Paris and London cancelling so many flights, transportation has been pretty paralyzed. Please cross your fingers for the Colby group – we would all really love to get home. Many students are getting quite anxious here, especially the freshmen. For the past few days, we’ve been hanging out in Dijon – walking around, shopping, eating crepes, watching movies at our director’s house…not too shabby for being “stuck” somewhere. I’m doing just fine, but I am very excited to get home.

In my copious amounts of spare time I’ve compiled lists of what I will miss and what I will not miss about Dijon! Et voilà:

Things I will NOT miss about Dijon:
•Not knowing how to express myself the way I want to, becoming frustrated
•Being judged for being foreign/American
•Navigating through the busy Rue de la Liberté (too many people!)
•Passing by beggars with dogs
•Dog poop in the streets
•Playing “sardines” on the bus ride to school
•Life expenses: meals, cell phone
•Time difference with home
•Awkward meeting people
•Lack of hugs (had to wait for “Free Hug” day in France to get a hug from a French person)
•Lack of large drinks (no mugs, just little tea cups) Also – to go mugs!

Things I will miss about Dijon:
•My host family and their beautiful house
•View of St. Michel from my bedroom window
•Jon’s apartment
•Lack of homework
•My teachers, my director
•Laid-back lifestyle: spending hours in cafés, movies on Wednesday afternoons
•Benefits of living in the city: easy shopping, being around people, accessibility
•The art and architecture, the culture surrounding me
•Owls
•Runs around Lac Kir
•FOOD: mustard sauces/dressing, duck, soufflés, mousse au chocolat, yogurt, pain au chocolat, pain d’epices, brioche, bread, macaroons, cheese, croque monsieur/madame, crepes, cassis, vin chaud
•Bars (no hard alcohol ban, no fuss)
•Christmas market
•Lights up and down the main streets
•Opera or movie tickets for 5.50 euro
•All of the excursions
•Hearing French everywhere, gaining the ability to speak with relative confidence
•Spending time with the Colby in Dijon group – what a wonderful group of people, and how nice it is that we get to see each other back on campus!

Well there you have it! Obviously there is much more that I will miss about Dijon, and I probably won’t even realize how much I’ll miss it until I leave. This has been a truly enriching experience and I will treasure these memories forever! I am so happy to have had the opportunity to study abroad, and I think it’s something that every student should do. I am more than satisfied with the time I have spent here, and although I will miss it, I am ready to return to Colby for the spring semester. I know I’ll be back to visit Dijon one day. Au revoir!

Bisous,
Caroline

An Extended Stay in Dijon

Well, this was supposed to be my "farewell" post, but I guess I will have to postpone that for a few more days. I packed everything and was ready to go when I found out tonight that my flight had been cancelled due to snow in Paris. I probably should have seen this coming, but I was still in shock. It's really hard for me to leave places and transition and it takes a lot of mental preparation. I always end up making a big deal out of goodbyes, so when "goodbye" is not actually "goodbye," I'm a little thrown off. But maybe this is just my frustration speaking. Really, I am a very lucky person, because I am still with my host family in Dijon. It's not like I'm stuck in an airport, so life could be a lot worse. Plus, of all places to be stuck, I'm in France, so I'm going to really appreciate these last few days.

So: the plan is to fly out Thursday the 23rd (this was the next available flight). Crossing my fingers and praying that I'll be home for Christmas. I am happy in Dijon, but I really miss home now.

À bientôt,
Caroline

A Semester's Work Complete

Bonjour à tous,

Well there’s not much exciting or new to report (this will be short!)

Made it through my last week of classes and my final exams –really bizarre to think that my next class will be at Colby! I will definitely need to mentally prepare myself for the work load there; I have been spoiled this semester! Forcing myself to sit in my room and study was beyond painful. I am clearly getting sad about my fleeting moments left in France and I just want to fully appreciate everything here.

This past Sunday was quite unfortunate, probably the biggest “low” of the semester – I got the stomach flu. It caught me completely off guard and it was absolutely disgusting. I won’t go into details but my host family is saint-like for still loving me after that night. My host mom has been taking really good care of me. I am much better now thanks to lots of sleep, fluids, and gross medicine. I don’t think I’ve ever been this sick away from home, so I guess it was nice to at least have a mother-figure to look after me (as opposed to dealing with this at Colby – the horror!)

Thursday (tomorrow) night is our goodbye dinner! It’s at a really nice restaurant in Dijon, and all of the Colby students and host families will be attending. I just can’t believe the goodbye dinner has actually come! A few of the Colby students (including me) are singing some Christmas carols in English and in French, hopefully it will go well! I really miss singing and I can’t wait to sing again with my a cappella group at school (Love to all of my Colbyettes!)

That’s all for now! I miss and love all of you. The thought of seeing you all again will be my only incentive to pack! Uhg.

À bientôt,
Caroline

(Post) November Update

Bonjour à tous,

Well, November has come and gone quite quickly. I can’t believe it’s December already! Since I’ve been slacking on the updates, I’ll try to cover the highlights as best I can! Upon my return to Dijon, I had a few mid-terms which went pretty well, but I still hope to do better on my finals. Classes are good, not too much to report. I’m trying to participate as much as possible since my class has a tendency to become nearly mute some days, which is slightly frustrating (my poor professors), but at this point I’m just holding out ‘til I get back to Colby classes. My experience learning the French language here has been quite a rollercoaster. Some days I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on something, or a moderate comprehension, and other days I can get ripped apart and feel like I’m a complete failure. Unfortunately I don’t think that semi-volatile relationship with the French language will change unless I somehow gain fluency, which would really require me to live in France or another Francophone country. I’ll be interested to see if my confidence level with French gets any better when I return to Colby. All of the students here have probably learned more French than they give themselves credit for; it’s just hard to maintain a level of confidence here where you’re constantly judged. I love how the French take such pride in their language, and I want to be driven to speak better French, but for the entire semester I’ve worked on eliminating unnecessary stress caused by relentless judgment. But this is just part of the process, and I have thankfully become comfortable enough here. I can see why my professors all told me to stay for the year, because I do feel like I’ve worked so hard to find my place here, and now that I’ve comfortably settled, I’m leaving. At the same time, I can’t wait to see my family and friends back home, and I am ready to go back to Colby. I just want to make the most out of my last few weeks here. I have so little time left to enjoy my abroad experience!

The Colby group had our last 2 excursions this past month. Our first one was a day trip to Beaune, where we saw the Hospices de Beaune or Hôtel-Dieu, which formerly served as a hospital for the poor and the sick back in the 15th century. We also had a wine tasting at Patriarche, with the largest wine cellars in Bourgogne! We tried several types of white wine and red wine (definitely prefer white wine over red). It was quite the eye-opening experience for me, because I had no idea wine could have such different tastes, I’ve never compared different bottles of wine before! We also got to try some champagne – I especially liked the Crémant de Bourgogne Brut Rose. Our final excursion was a day trip to Lyon. We first visited the Basilique de Fourvière, where the Archbishop resides, and it might be the most beautiful church I have ever seen. I am not exaggerating – I was absolutely in love. The outside was pure white, and when you walk inside you’re inundated with color and gilded mosaics. Not only were the walls decorated with most gorgeous mosaics, but also the pillars were covered with statues of birds and angels. You walk down the church in awe and find yourself below beautiful stained glass windows and a gold statue of Virgin Mary (to whom this church is dedicated). If that’s not enough imagery for you, the Basilique is located on the top of a hill and looks over Lyon and other towns in the distance. Next on our list was the Théâtre Romain, the oldest Gallo-Roman theatre in France which dates back to the 2nd century AD. Unfortunately we didn’t get to walk in the theatre but we got a good look. Afterwards we explored the old quarter of Lyon (Quartier Saint-Jean). We saw an old-fashioned silk store (La Soierie Saint-Georges) as well as lots of other adorable stores and restaurants. Walking through the old quarter, Jacques led us through a “traboule” which is basically like a secret passageway. The traboules in Lyon were originally used by merchants to quickly transport their products from one place to another in Lyon, also useful for avoiding inclement weather. Lastly, we saw the Cathédrale de Saint-Jean, originally built in the 12th century, displaying a mix of roman and gothic architecture. The cathedral was definitely beautiful, but just couldn’t compare (in my eyes) to the Basilique, despite its really cool ruins site and its astronomic horologe (made in the 14th century), some sort of clock-like machine that shows the date, the positions of the moon, sun, and earth. Our day in Lyon was over before we knew it, and too soon we were riding on a bus back to Dijon. Lyon seems like a great French city to visit and I would definitely go back to explore more.


Beaune.


Patriarche wine barrels.


Basilique de Fourviere (outside)


Basilique de Fourviere (inside)


The view from the Forviere hill.


Traditional Soierie (silk store).


Astronomical Horologe in Cathedrale de Saint-Jean.

My weekends in Dijon have been entertaining and relaxed. I’ve seen a couple really great movies recently (we love going to the cinema in Dijon)! As I mentioned previously, I went to Harry Potter the day it came out in France (a week after it came out in the US! Horrendous). The first installment of HP7 completely blew me away – I didn’t want the movie to end! I did see it in French, which was pretty funny actually. During a very serious scene, Voldemort said “Lucius, donne-moi ta baguette” (Lucius, give me your wand) and Hannah whispered to me “What if he gave him a piece of bread??!” We nearly died of laughter in the theatre, and probably got several looks from the perplexed French moviegoers. Sadly the characters just weren’t the same without their British accents and I think I’ll have to see the movie again in English. I understood everything that happened, but I think I missed some of the small, hilarious quips that make the movie so great. Another fantastic movie that I saw in French recently was “Raiponce” (Rapunzel), also known as “Tangled.” Yes, it’s a PG Disney movie, but I would recommend it to anyone, in the same way that I would recommend Shrek to anyone! Also, since it was a kid’s movie, it was more on my level language-wise, so I didn’t feel like I was going through an oral comprehension exercise while trying to enjoy a movie. By far, most intellectually stimulating form of entertainment here has been the Opera. My friends and I saw “Orlando” by Handel. The opera was in Italian with French subtitles. I was not only listening to the Italian words (some which clearly resembled French) but also trying to understand the French subtitles while watching what was happening onstage. It was a mental workout! Not to mention that it lasted for three and a half hours! Thank goodness for the intermissions. I was happy to find that I understood everything that was going on (with some help from reading the synopsis in French) and it was an enjoyable cultural evening.

The first snow of the winter in Dijon arrived Thanksgiving night. I couldn’t have been happier. The Colby group had dinner at our director’s apartment, which is an absolutely gorgeous place. Jon and Dace warmly welcomed us into their home. Many students came with side dishes for our American feast. My friend Maggie and I tried to make green bean casserole (my favorite), but that didn’t really work because fried onion rings supposedly don’t exist here, and as they are so crucial to the dish, we decided to make a different green bean dish, with feta cheese, red onions, and walnuts. We bought a huge bag of fresh green beans from the market, which impressed my host family, since many French people just buy frozen vegetables. Our Thanksgiving dinner had every dish to be hoped for: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, four types of stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, broccoli, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and apple pie. I think everyone was entering a blissful food coma by the end of the evening.


Colby in Dijon Thanksgiving! Pictured: My director Jon and his wife Dace.

It has continued to snow here (on and off) for the past week. One of the happiest feelings I’ve had here is waking up to see the snow softly falling on the St. Michel Church outside my window. They’ve set up the Christmas market in the Place de la Liberation, selling jewelry, scarves, toys, hot wine, and more. In addition, they’ve strung lights up and down the main streets, which make Dijon look like a winter wonderland at night. And with the winter season comes winter activities! My friends and I went ice skating the other weekend, which was a lot of fun. It’s safe to say I’m getting into the Christmas spirit :).


A snowy day of shopping in the Christmas market of Dijon.

Last weekend, we celebrated my host mother’s birthday. All of my host siblings (Louis, Claire, and Benigne, all in their early 20’s) came home, and it was really nice to see the whole family together. The dinner table is much livelier and it’s interesting to watch all of their interactions. I wish they were here all the time!


My host siblings!

Looking ahead:
To my dismay, I have to get through my final exams in the next two weeks…c’est la vie! This week is my LAST WEEK of actual class! How did that happen? Hopefully I’ll also be learning some Christmas carols with fellow Colby students to perform at our goodbye party. I will inevitably be doing more Christmas shopping – it’s too easy when you live right in the city. Those are all of the major plans I can think of (let’s avoid even mentioning packing). Otherwise, my main goal = soak up every last moment in Dijon.

Gros Bisous,
Caroline

The Massive Fall Break Entry (Read at your discretion...)

The first week of November was my fall break. Planning all of my traveling for the break was stressful, and I half-expected something to go awry while traveling, but I was relieved to find how smoothly everything went! Hannah and I embarked for our fall break journey Friday, October 29th. We got to London via the Chunnel, which is probably the weirdest mode of transportation I’ve ever used. I still don’t really understand how I got to London. Hannah and I met our friends Ali, Kristin, and Fiona that night. Ali and Kristin are both juniors at Colby. Ali is a Colby junior studying abroad in London and heavily involved in a fantastic theatre program there. Kristin is also a Colby junior who’s currently studying abroad in Cork, Ireland. Fiona (who I saw in Paris earlier this semester) is a recent Colby grad now working in London. It was fantastic exploring London with so many Colby friends. In short, we crammed most of the major London tourist sites in 2 days: Big Ben, London Eye, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace (and the Changing of the Guard!), St. James Park, Notting Hill (Portabello Road Market), St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Bridge, London Tower, Harrods, Chinatown, Trafalgar Square, Globe Theatre, Piccadilly Circus, and of course Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station. I’d say my favorite parts were walking through St. James Park (absolutely beautiful) as well as the Portabello Road market (super crowded but enjoyable all the same), experiencing Harrods for the first time (the most enormous department store), and catching up with friends over several delicious meals. Least favorite part of London: the expense! The dollar-pound ratio is terrible. Also the tube was frustratingly complex at first, but I think I was just used to the Paris metro. Needless to say we quickly learned how to use it effectively since we had so many sightseeing plans! Despite being slightly overwhelmed by the splendor of London, I felt very comfortable. I felt like my wardrobe was actually acceptable and I have to admit it was nice being in an English-speaking country once again…more importantly, one with a great accent! Halloween night was (unfortunately) spent in the airport, but at least we didn’t have any more children coming into bars to ask us for money (not candy), nor did we have to face the grotesque, bloody costumes that the English are so fond of.

Houses of Parliament.

Westminster Abbey.

Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.

The cheap Ryan air flight to Cork at 6:00 am Monday morning was, thankfully, a success; however the 3 drowsy Colby juniors (Hannah, Kristin, and I) got very little sleep spending the night in the airport, and consequently had a very long nap after arriving at Kristin’s dorm. Later that afternoon, Kristin showed us around the lovely city of Cork as well as around her campus at University College Cork. One of the best places in Cork: the English market, where we got food for dinner. It was fun being in a dorm-room setting again. Of course I love living with my host family, and I would not want it any other way, but it’s kind of weird living in a home-setting again after getting used to dorm life when you’re surrounded by friends literally 24/7.

Kristin and Hannah at the English Market in Cork.

On Tuesday, while Kristin was in class, Hannah and I went to Cobh, which is a famous harbor town right near Cork. As soon as we got off the train we saw the Annie Moore statue (Annie Moore was the first immigrant processed at Ellis Island in NY, 1892). Cobh is an adorable town with lots of brightly colored houses, notably the “pack of cards” houses built in an ascending stack leading up from the harbor. Cobh also has a lot of history, famous for being Titanic’s “last port of call on her maiden and final voyage, April 11, 1912.” Cobh, which has also been referred to as “Queenstown” in the past, was a heavily used port during the time of mass emigration in Ireland. Apparently from 1815-1970, over three million people emigrated from Cobh! I found the Cobh museum to be really fascinating, and I learned a lot about the failure of the potato crop, its impact on the Irish people, the mass emigration that followed, and they even had an exhibit on the Titanic. I also learned about several of the largest liners that served as the mode of transatlantic transportation until air travel became popular in the 1960s. After an enjoyable morning in Cobh, on our way back to Cork, Hannah and I stopped at the Fota Wildlife Park, which is probably the closest I’ll ever get to seeing real wildlife. We saw so many animals – monkeys, penguins, wallabies, cheetahs, emus, ostriches, zebras, giraffes, kangaroos, lemurs, and more! The lemurs were especially friendly, I literally could have pet one if I wanted to. After getting back to Cork, Hannah and I had dinner with Kristin, and later that night, Chelsea (another Colby junior studying abroad in Cork) joined us for a drink at a really cool bar in town. Kristin and I tried two different types of Cork-brewed beer, which were pretty good despite the fact that neither of us are big beer fans.

Annie Moore Statue in Cobh.

Pack of Cards.

Lemurs at the Fota Wildlife Park!

The next day, Kristin, Hannah, and I took a day trip to Dublin! We saw lots of sheep and green fields on our long bus ride there. When we got there we witnessed a student strike due to the rising college tuition. Granted, it is doubling, but only from 1500 euro to 3000 euro. What would they think about college (or even high school) tuition in the United States? I understood their reasons for striking but couldn’t help but feel that it was a little absurd to refuse to pay 3000 euro for their college tuition. Notable sightseeing in Dublin: Molly Malone statue, Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral and its ruins, the Temple Bar area, Dublin Castle, Abbey Theatre, and the Millennium Bridge. I must add that some of these places I didn’t get to explore in full, but at least saw from the outside. We went through Dublin at a fast pace since we didn’t have much time there, but we did get to sit in the Oliver St. John Gogarty Bar and enjoy a drink while listening to live music. After one of the best lunches of my life, I concluded that my favorite place in Dublin is the Queen of Tarts restaurant, which is utterly adorable, and of course has tarts that are to die for.

Students striking in Dublin.

St. Patrick's Cathedral.


Temple Bar.

For our last day in Cork, Hannah and I went to the famous Blarney Castle, which was built in the 15th century and holds the famous Blarney stone, which apparently gives the lips that kiss it the gift of eloquence. Before it became a tourist attraction, kissing the Blarney Stone was a great feat which required one to get into the castle and literally bend over backwards to reach the stone. As we climbed up the tiny stairs of the old castle we had beautiful views of the town below in the midst of fall foliage. We learned the important distinction between baloney and blarney: “baloney is flattery laid on with a trowel. Blarney is flattery laid on with the lips; that is why you have to kiss a stone to get it.” Hannah and I both kissed the Blarney stone (I have a ridiculously touristy picture to prove it) and I am still waiting to see if I have indeed become more eloquent – it definitely hasn’t happened in French. The castle also featured a really interesting Poison Garden, full of poisonous plants, such as the European Mandrake (Harry Potter reference). The castle also had really beautiful grounds that Hannah and I didn’t have that much time to explore. Too soon, it was time to say goodbye to Kristin and Cork, and Hannah and I flew to the last destination of our fall break– Amsterdam!


Blarney Castle.

We met my Baltimore friend, Megan (who went to Garrison, now at Occidental) at Centraal Station and she warmly welcomed us to the city of Amsterdam. Having known nothing about Amsterdam beforehand, Hannah and I found that the city had a lot to offer and we had a wonderful couple days there. While I could never navigate it myself, I love the set-up of the city and found all the channels to be very picturesque. Also, everyone bikes there, which is so eco-friendly and awesome, but as I soon learned, semi-dangerous for the pedestrians! If you’re not paying attention while you’re walking, you will be nearly run over by an agitated Dutch biker. The first night we were there, we went to a great Thai restaurant right by Megan’s dorm. Apparently in Amsterdam (as well as in other European countries) it is looked down upon if you just ask for tap water – you always have to buy a separate drink. So I order a jonge jenever (a drink special to Amsterdam) with tonic. I really have no idea what I’m ordering and even though our waiter told us it’s not the same as gin and tonic, I order it anyway, and he proceeds to call me “Thrill Seeker” for the rest of the night! The drink was actually really good; I just couldn’t get over my new nickname. Thrill Seeker’s adventures in Amsterdam! It has a nice ring, doesn’t it? (Just kidding. Please do not worry, parents and grandparents, I was well-behaved). Highlights of Amsterdam include: walking along Prinsengracht (one of the major streets), the Pancake Bakery (most delicious pancakes of my life), the Tulip market, STROOPWAFELS, the Van Gogh museum, and the Anne Frank House. There are so many wonderful museums to visit in Amsterdam, and I wish I could have seen more of them, but I was really happy seeing the Van Gogh museum. I really loved looking at his artwork particularly his impressionist and pointillist paintings. Two of my favorite paintings were Seascape near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and Courting couples in the Voyer d’Argenson Park. The Anne Frank House, where Anne Frank lived in hiding until she was discovered, had a really moving exhibit and I couldn’t believe I was walking the same steps that Anne Frank did 70 years ago. Our time in Amsterdam concluded with Museum Nacht, an annual celebration when many of Amsterdam’s museums are open late at night, with food, drinks, music, and dancing. What a fantastic way to spend an evening! Hannah and I joined Megan and her Amsterdam friends and we ended up making it to 4 museums: the FOAM photography museum, the Hermitage (Alexander the Great) museum, the Botanical gardens, and lastly NEMO (the science museum). After a long night in Amsterdam, Hannah and I got some much-needed sleep in preparation for our day of traveling back to Dijon. I was so happy I had the opportunity to see Megan and see Amsterdam through her eyes. I might have never dared to explore Amsterdam if it wasn’t for her great enthusiasm for the city.


Megan and me in Amsterdam!

Whew…if you have read all of this, I’m impressed! Overall, as you might have guessed from my very positive recount of my travels, I had a truly enjoyable fall break. I can’t tell you my absolute favorite part of the trip, because I had so many wonderful experiences, but I will say that I definitely want to visit Ireland again. I’m glad I got to see Kristin’s life in Cork, but I would still like to experience the real Irish countryside – perhaps a trip to Galway is in order, sometime in the future. It was really nice going to countries where they speak English (though people automatically spoke to me in Dutch in Amsterdam before seeing my hopelessly confused look). However, a week of English was terrible for my French! I came back into classes a little rusty, which was unfortunate. At the same time, going away made me appreciate my study abroad experience in Dijon even more. I was surprised at how content I felt to be re-immersed in the French language. I really felt like I came back to my home here in Dijon, and I was once again in a familiar place where I understood the lay of the land. Je t’aime, Dijon!

You can check out my fall break pictures on Facebook or here: http://picasaweb.google.com/cariina27/FallBreakLondonIrelandAmsterdam. Enjoy!

Love,
Caroline