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
I understand that French is spoken on the island of St. Martin in the Carribean --perhaps you could get some more practice in French there --and by the way, I would be happy to chaperone you!
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