Gray

I remember on my friend Erin's blog about her trip to Sweden a post where she was talking about having some not-so-great days. She didn't go into detail, but the post stuck with me because it was so different from her other posts.

I'm experiencing that now, and I'm doing my best to recover. It's hard to find encouragement in oneself, so I'm very grateful for the fact that my family is keeping in contact with me. I really miss them.

At times like these, I read my Bible more than usual and pray a little harder. I was really touched by the passage in Esther where part of Mordecai's message to her, before she goes to the king unbidden, was "for such a time as this." My mom said maybe God is wanting me to do some growing up while I'm here. Maybe that's why I'm experiencing this and feeling this way. Maybe I'm here "for such a time as this."

All I can do is try a little harder and keep my chin up.

It rained the other day pretty much all day. It reflected my mood perfectly. But it's time for some sunshine. :)

Excursion! Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Part II

Marisa staring up at the entrance of a painter's atelier.

The dogs here have been consistently very well-mannered.

An awkwardly-taken picture of my lunch. We were standing.

It's a tomato and goat cheese sandwich. I've never had goat cheese before. Wow, it's good. I liked it so much a got a small wheel of it today.

After lunch, we went inside the church that I included a picture of in my last post. It's huge and dim inside.

Unfortunately, because of the lighting, most of my pictures didn't turn out.

Garden outside of the church. This picture doesn't capture how pretty and refreshing it was.

Pond in the garden. See the fish? The really big ones were at the bottom.

A better view of the castle ruins atop the cliff. Some people climbed up there and saw it close up.

After that, we had some free time, so another girl in the program, Julianna, and I went off exploring. We went to some cute shops (she even bought a headband), took some pictures, and chatted as we walked through the scrawny little streets. Right before we went back to the bus, we headed down into an area that had some beautiful, clear blue water.

Julianna's sweater almost matches it.

Nature is lovely, isn't it?

Julianna kept voicing the desire to jump in. Oo, girl, don't do it.

We were soon joined by others from our group. Harin's instructions for this picture: "Point epicly."

The end! Note: this isn't our entire group, it's just those of us who aren't taking pictures and who showed up to the bus on time.

Everybody was exhausted (and a lot of us had headaches) when we were finished (there were a ton of stairs involved in this trip) and most of us dozed on the bus on the way back. I was so tired I basically climbed right into bed when I got to my room, still in my clothes. Several of us want to go back, though.

Ending sidenote: It's October already! I'll already be leaving here the month after next. Whoa.

Excursion! Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Part I

Some cliffs where we were.

Today we went on an excursion to Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. First we went to a cave, le Grotte de Clamouse. It was chilly down there.

Sign outside of the cave. Cathédrale du Temps = Cathedral of Time.

Haha. Oh Lauren. I like how the shadows of everyone who was taking a picture got in the shot.

First sign toward the entrance of the cave. Discovered in August 1945.

Formations in the cave that look like they're slithering down onto you.

So we're walking through the cave, and our guide (who was sporting just a t-shirt in the 50-degree cave) led us to a random tank of fish. There was also a tank of neutral colored, very skinny salamanders under a large piece of black fabric.

This picture makes me itch in its full size.

A stalagmite tower.

At a certain point it was like "I mean, how many pictures can you take of a cave?"

After we viewed that (it involved a pretty light show where different colored lights shown on the assorted formations with very dramatic, operatic French music), we went to a little village with scrawny streets and beautiful views of the cliffs, one of which had ruins of a castle atop it.

A big ol' church in the village. Our tour guide is the person closest to the camera here; she's really sweet. But it freaks me out that the woman coming our way in the distance is an exact replica of her.

I felt like I was in Mexico.

Can you imagine living here?

Here we are, crowded into one of the little streets like the tourists that we are.

This is a better shot of what the streets are like. I wish I could remember who said this is a nice romantic shot of Jeremiah and our guide.

There were assorted fountains throughout that said "portable" or "non portable," which means you can drink it or you can't, respectively. This one is fine to drink from. Too bad I didn't have a water bottle.

I will post more pictures tomorrow. It was a lovely and extremely tiring day. :)

Food

I've been a dreadful blogger, haven't I? This past week has been quite a doozy. Having two 8:30 and one 9:00 class has hit me hard, especially since sleeping, or at least attempting to sleep, involves some oblong thing posing as a pillow that yields so much it only leaves about 2 cm of support for one's head (none for the neck; it's too narrow for that). I also keep getting randomly charged money. Amongst other things, I had to take something to the secretariat because I was being asked by them to pay almost 300 euros for I don't know what. Thankfully, she was almost as perplexed as me, looked up my file, and crumpled the paper up. My personal experiment that I mentioned two posts ago has been messing with my head a little bit also. Thankfully I'm ending it.

But I want to discuss something more light-hearted: FOOD! Because eating is my favorite.

Some typical French foods. Also, I was recently informed of the existence of beignets filled with Nutella?! Il faut qu'on cherche!

While French cuisine is considered some of the most delicious in the world, I have not been indulging. I'm the kind of person who blots pizza with a napkin before I eat it and forces myself to eat the vegetables on my plate before anything else, even though I hate vegetables. The very first thing I ate here was a salad. Also, I don't want to go through my funds too quickly, so I've been being very careful about what I buy to eat.

However, I have allowed myself this. Who can resist Nutella crepes? Who can resist Nutella, period (aside from those with nut allergies, bless your hearts)?

With this mindset, I've explored my grocery options and pared down my choices accordingly. It's really interesting to see what foods you really love when you have to be picky and do without a lot of things. I've found that I can't live without chocolate, tea, and cheese.

An extremely greasy grilled Gouda cheese sandwich that I had the nerve to make. I got a second-degree burn making one of these (from flying hot butter). Never again. Tasted great, though. 

When I first got here, I got bread a few times. Everyone was talking about how fantastic France's bread is before I got here. Also, other international students around me have been gushing about it. First, I got a baguette, which are fresh for maybe half a day. Later, I was looking for some plain bread to make sandwiches with and, when I couldn't find wheat bread, I compromised and grabbed what I thought was white bread. It was actually some sweet, dessert-y sliced bread. Tasty, but not great with cheese and chicken sandwiches. Great with off-brand Nutella, though. I did track down wheat bread, but the sandwich fixings I had tasted terrible on it. My verdict on the bread here? My exact quote to my mom: "It tastes like bread to me."


Tea is a staple in my diet. I honestly start to get cravings for it if I don't have it for a few days.

So I've stopped getting bread. It makes me bloated anyway. Exploring the vegetables here has been fun. I grabbed a cucumber, which is way smaller than an American one. I figured that was the only difference. Then I tried eating it. First of all, the texture is completely different. Not in a good way. Secondly, it tastes... you know what? I'm not going back to that place. I'm trying to erase that particular memory. I'll just say this: I miss American cucumbers.

Sugar for my tea. Look how pretty the container is! My favorite color. ♥

There are lot of things you don't consider when you go abroad, and the differences in basic grocery store items is certainly one of the things I didn't think of. I tried some grapes and just couldn't get past the massive seeds. Also, mayonnaise here tastes like Miracle Whip, which is not mayonnaise, but salad dressing. I made myself swear off getting jars of Nutella because I don't want to get sick of it.


Grapes and bananas at Shopi. I love going to Shopi.

After all of these fun discoveries and lots of trial and error with what I can and can't cook or keep for long without it spoiling, I've ended up with a diet that consists of yogurt, cheese, salad, tea, cocoa, a little bit of chocolate flavored coffee every now and then, carrot and tomato juices, and fruit. Also, my wonderful, self-sacrificing mother sent me three entire not-so-easy-to-ship boxes which I received the other day, and along with a bunch of other things I'm super relieved to finally have again, she sent me some delicious instant miso soup packets which I had in my room at home. The seaweed and soy will do me good.

Off-brand cocoa. My first taste of this had me cringing, but by my second cup I was hooked. Now I have to keep a backup in my room, ha ha ha.

This may sound like no way to live for some people (no meat, potatoes, or flour-based products, oh my!), but it's a surprisingly tasty way to eat. For instance, I've discovered that if I take some of my cocoa powder, add just enough water to make it about syrup texture, and drizzle it over banana slices, it's way better than ice cream. The only cheese that I will eat is down right addictive as well.

This is the cheese. You can get it in America, but I never would have noticed it.

It has a nice, soft texture. I have to have some everyday.

I could talk about food forever, but I'll stop here. I guess my main thoughts about eating here haven't so much been about discovering France's cuisine as they have been about discovering what exactly my personal relationship with food is and what sort of foods I actually like and which ones can I do without. I wasn't expecting that. You really do learn a lot about yourself when you go abroad!

Salad that I make. I have some everyday; it's so good. I was delighted to track down grilled chicken strips and actual salad dressing that isn't viniaigrette. Sadly, it's pricey!

3 Weeks and It Still Hasn't Sunk In? And Fun Random Recollections.

3 weeks have slipped by so quickly. I know I keep saying time is going by fast here, but it really seems to speed up everyday. It feels like I've been here 3 days. There is still no sense of awe or excitement within me. I think it's because I've been so focused on getting fully registered here, making sure I have enough food to eat, and applying for grad school. Also, finding a proper church close enough has been a bit of a struggle. I miss church so badly! My prayer life seems to have been all the more enhanced for it, though. :)

*insert wistful sigh here*

And now, a series of unorganized blurbs of things that have happened.

I picked two optional courses, which are literature and French sociological and economic life. In the latter class, I sat with a bunch of friendly Chinese students. The professor gave us a blank map of France and told us to help each other label the different regions. One of the girls I was sitting with whipped out a book that we have that had a map in it of the regions, and we all proceeded to kind-of-sort-of cheat. We hid it when the professor passed and looked at what we were doing, then looked at each other and just burst out laughing after she had left. She caught two of the girls with it open later, though, and simply told them to not look at it. It wasn't a test, so I doubt she much cared. It was still fun to sit and laugh with them about it, though.

Everybody is put into classes according to a level that they've tested into out of six levels. Within that level, you are then put into a group and you're given a predetermined schedule of courses. Because of this, you wind up going to all the same classes with the exact same people everyday. As a result, our group (B1, group three) has become quite friendly and we've all gotten to know each other. I wasn't expecting this, since these are people who aren't in the ISEP program with me. These are students from Sweden, Malaysia, Spain, China, Great Britain, and some other Americans. It's amazing how nicely people from different cultures can come together!

We've all been really interested in each other's countries and cultures. I've learned a lot of fun stuff!

Being bilingual is tons of fun, and listening to the people who are trilingual is amazing. The people from Spain can speak French, Spanish, and English, so we'll often have Frenglish conversations, which probably sound a little crazy. The other day, our (very French) professor came back into the room after we'd had a break, and we were all speaking either Spanish, English, or Chinese to each other, so she said in perfect English, "Oh, everybody's speaking French! How wonderful!"

Je parle français comme un enfant.

For the record, all courses are conducted completely in fluent French by French natives. I've had people ask me about that.

French keyboards are different. We have a lab class on Mondays where we work on computers, and I had to adjust my brain to operate the keyboard.

I found myself hitting "q" a lot, and it took me a bit to recognize that all my periods were in fact semi-colons.

I saw a green lizard today! Usually they're brown. I'm trying to take a picture of the birds here, since they're gorgeous, but they move too fast. Also, the sirens on police cars sound different here. They're deeper and less shrill.

I'll be posting about food next time! Om nom nom.

A Quick Update and a Taste of Things to Come

My days are blurring together. I've never had the sensation of feeling like it's still yesterday, but I felt like that last night. Time keeps going by more quickly every single day.

I worked with a guy in my oral expression class today for what I thought was about 5 minutes. A glance at my watch begged to differ. Try 45 minutes.

I don't have a lot to share since I've been so focused on picking classes and doing homework, but I will share this: I'm conducting a little personal experiment. I've done this experiment twice before in the States, and the outcome is always interesting and eye-opening. I thought it might be fun to try in another culture, and also particularly since I'm around mainly international students from countries outside of France. It's nothing serious, just something I like to test people with. I won't say more than that, but hopefully I'll have results to report in early October. It should be fun.

What is this experiment? We shall see. I'd be very amused if nothing came of it, ha ha ha.

Also, there are some excursions in my future through the ISEP program, so I'll be sure to bring my camera.

One of the places we're going to visit is Nîmes, an arena of which is pictured above.

On a side-note, one of the guys in our program seems to have gotten himself a French girlfriend. How adorable is that?

I hope everyone is enjoying my posts. :)

A List of Firsts and Culture Shock

Some culture shock:
-Despite still seeing overweight people regularly here, I've noticed that the people who are thin are REALLY thin.
-Nobody is on time.
-Salad dressing is vinaigrette, no exceptions.
-Living life trumps work. Therefore, show up late, take a serious lunch break, and leave early. When even that isn't enough to make you happy, you go on strike. Vive la revolution!
-The women here are feminine and super confident.
-Everybody smokes everywhere.
-Coffee is a nasal-clearingly strong concoction in a mug so small it seems like a joke.

A few things I've experienced for the first time by coming here:
*leaving the United States
*leaving North America in general
*being in Europe
*seeing lizards in person
*acting like a tourist
*walking with a group of friends through a city at night
*seeing mountains in person
*getting immersed in a foreign culture
*riding a train
*seeing palm trees in person
*forgetting a word in my mother tongue but remembering it in my second language (unfortunately during a conversation in my mother tongue, ha ha ha)
*doing something huge and terrifying on my own

 This week is almost to an end already. I can't believe it.