Retroactive Blogging

Hello family, friends, professors, etc.!

So, I have been receiving a lot of requests for emails and updates and I have decided that instead of writing dozens of emails it would be far easier for me to cave and start a blog. It won't be nearly as exciting as anything  on Perez Hilton's, but I will do my best to entertain you all with my limited blogging experience. That said, this first post is going to be a bit long as I have been here nearly a month and a half now, so I hope you will all bear with me and power through to the end.

Chapter 1: Bureaucracy and Sleeping

I arrived in Rennes late at night on the 3rd of January after a 16 hour trip (2 flights and a train, which was late, of course). The student organisation here was supposed to meet me at the train station when I arrived, but without informing me, did not come because it was during their exam time and so they were too busy. This was the beginning of a very stressful two week period. Upon my arrival, I went to the first hotel I could find and was subsequently overcharged 300 euros because of a typo by the hotel clerk (He accidentally pressed the 3 while pressing the 4). To make matters worse, he also did not know how to fix this problem despite calling his boss. Lucky for me, his boss showed up in the morning and immediately fixed everything. So, I arrived at school hoping for a moment to relax.

We had an orientation in the morning and a small French exam in the afternoon to determine which level we would be in for the semester. After this, we basically spent the next two weeks bouncing from office to office trying to complete the mountains of paperwork necessary to study here. To give you an idea, imagine all the forms you have to fill out when going to the hospital. Then, imagine doing that everyday, then having to give copies to six different people all working in the same building. As you may imagine, I quickly became very frustrated. In addition to the sheer amount of paperwork, we could really only go to one or two offices a day because everything closes from 12-2 for lunch and then at 5 at the latest. Aside from that, I spent much of my time sleeping off my jetlag and exhaustion from walking all over Rennes and attending our one French class in the mornings. After finally finishing the paperwork, however, I was extremely relieved and life in Rennes quickly became much more enjoyable.

Chapter 2: Settling In

Throughout this entire process, I began socializing and hanging out with the other international students who weren't taking exams. The new group of international students this semester came from a variety of countries including Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Switzerland and Scotland. Interestingly enough, people here are often referred to by their nationalities since it can be quite difficult to remember the names of every person you've met when they are all in various languages you do not speak. For example, the four of us coming from the good old US of A were simply "the Americans" and our neighbors to the south "the Mexicans". As uncomfortable as this was at first, we got used to it pretty quickly. One American in particular who has been here in the fall saved our lives during this time by telling us everything we needed to do and how to get it done. This gave us a lot more time to visit the city and learn our way around.

We walked into town most days and either wandered around aimlessly or saw some of the sites such as the Musée de Beaux-Arts and the Marché des Lices, the local farmer's market that takes place every Saturday morning. This quickly became my favorite place, since I could buy 8 kiwis and 5 apples all for under 5 euros and we could purchase dinner for the group that cost us each about 4 euros. We very quickly took to cooking nearly every night and thanks to Ikea managed to get some affordable communal pots and pans.

After the first couple of weeks, French students started coming out of hiding after exams and we got to start socializing with fewer English speakers. We went to some student organized events, local nightclubs and the famed Rue St. Michel which is affectionately known here as "Rue de la Soif" because of the many bars there. As our assimilation really began, we finally had some opportunities to work on our French in both formal and informal settings, which brings us to the next chapter of my journey.

Chapter 3: The French Connection

While the first week of French classes was relatively low key (doing basic review, getting to know you activities, clothing and law terminology, and of course watching L'Auberge Espagnol, France's favorite movie), things began to pick up after that. I was placed in the C group, which is right in the middle: A is the lowest and E is the highest. We began reviewing more complex subjects like the subjunctive, passive tense and affective tense and doing listening and reading comprehension activities that are more challenging but definitely helping. In addition, we spent a lot of time talking about the "Français familier", which has proved extremely useful when speaking to other students who tend to use a lot of slang.

The third week here, we started visiting the actual courses and deciding what we might want to take. Each course meets once a week for a two hour lecture and some of them split into conferences that require more research on a specific aspect of the course. Aside from our History and Civilization course, we do not need to attend any of the conferences for the lectures we chose. Coming from a place like Beloit where my largest class did not exceed 40 and some even got as small as 5, being in a 2-hour, 200 person lecture where the professor basically reads off of a sheet was at first a little shocking. Nevertheless, I've begun to get used to managing to listen and take decent notes and some of the native students have offered us their old notes as help. So, for those of you who may be interested, the courses I've chosen are the following:

French
History and Civilization (1 lecture and 1 conference)
Constitutional Law of the 5th Republic
Comparative Politics
Sociology of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Introduction to Political Economy 2 (much like Macroeconomics)

The grading system is a little nerve-wracking given that a 10/20 is about a B- on our system but the lowest possible grade to pass, but I think I'll manage. Most of my exams will include an oral presentation, written exam and 4-5 page paper on topics that we should be choosing soon. I'm still a little nervous about the amount of work that I have, but the students here have offered to help us if we have any worries or questions on how things are supposed to be done.

My marraine and parrain (student mentors) have been very helpful already and have both had me over for wonderful dinners. Being able to spend time with them and speak almost entirely French has done wonders for my speaking and comprehension and I anticipate I will continue making good progress as courses progress.

Epilogue

This concludes the longest blog post ever. I hope you made it all the through and didn't just skip to the end, and that my story-telling was not too haphazard to follow. Coming soon will be a much more brief update of this past week (including pictures!), followed by weekly updates hopefully for the rest of my time here. I've included my mailing address below in case any of you feel compelled to send me things and if you need to reach me you can post a comment on the blog or send me an email at slushert@beloit.edu. A bientôt!

Cité Universitaire Patton
Apt 129 A
12 Rue du Houx
35700 Rennes, France

-Tom