I'm trying to upload some more photos onto my blog, but it takes a long time, and I can only do so many. I've put all of my pictures on facebook, so if you'd like to look at some more, I've added the links. Let me know if you are able to see them or not!!
Thanks :)
(Just highlight to whole url, and copy and paste it into your browser!)
Je suis en France!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14494&id=1642740063&l=58146a71c2
Journees des Patrimoine
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15599&id=1642740063&l=3c88ca1cbf
Exploring Lyon
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15717&id=1642740063&l=d7d0125c77
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Two weeks and on :)
I’ve been here for two weeks now. I’m now at the point where I can no longer think of this as a vacation. I’m starting school and learning just how much work is going to be ahead of me.
School is a lot different here. At Mac, we take 5 courses per semester. Thats normal. Here you take as many courses as add up to 60 credits for the whole year! So I have two full year courses, plus six courses per semester. It’s a little overwhelming. Also at mac, you may go to one course three or four times per week, where here you go once a week. I have about the same amount of hours of class as at home, but a whole lot more work to do on my own time. I have to keep up with 8 different subjects!
Already though things have been made a little bit easier for us as international students. We aren’t expected (in most classes) to do the exact same work as the French students are, we are allowed to tweak our assignments, and in some cases even skip the final exam!
I haven’t attended all of my class yet, as they started on Wednesday, but hopefully more profs will feel pity towards us students struggling to not only learn French, but trying to keep up in completely French classes integrated with mostly all French students.
My most exciting class is English Translation J It’s still taught in French, but I get to translate from French to English, which will give me a little bit of an advantage I hope. Here are my classes for the year:
French Grammar (full year)
French Culture (full year)
Literature of the middle ages
Literature of the 17th century
Literature of the 18th Century
Literature of the 18th Century (again :s)
Literature of the 20th Century
English Translation
French Grammar (cont’d)
French Culture (cont’d)
Literature of the 16th Century
Literature of the 19th Century
Literature of the 20th Century (again)
Literature of the 19th Century (again)
Litterature of the 17th Century (again)
Geography of France
It’s difficult to choose the right courses here, because not only must I make the courses work for me here, but I also have to keep into consideration how they will transfer back to McMaster. Sometimes I have to take two similar courses (both 18th cent lit courses) to add up to one course for McMaster. But i think i’ve finally figured it out to the best of my abilities for the year. Now hopefully the second term schedule will work out in my favour as well, but I have awhile before I have to worry about that.
Also at the two week mark, I’ve noticed some VERY very French behaivoir:
1) Everyone smokes, everywhere all the time. It’s forbidden inside now like home, but it still happens
2) The French are really really good a parallel parking.
3) In the metro stations they play 80’s English pop music all day long
4) The fashion really isn’t that good here :s Some people are impeccably well dressed, while others...... are not. The latest fashion is a skirt like thing that just all of a sudden has foot holes at the bottom. It’s odd and something i don’t think i’ll be conforming to.
5) People in general are very friendly here, and the people who work in the stores we go to don’t mind helping us, and putting up with our awful French. They’re usually excited to learn that We’re Canadians coming here to improve our French
We had a very exciting touristy weekend this past weekend! Lyon had something called les journees des Patrimoine. Where almost all of the touristy things in Lyon were free!!! Virginia and I put on our not so good walking shoes, and Headed to the Musee des Beaux Arts, where we found hundreds of paintings, sculptures, pottery, coins and much more from all over the world through all periods of time. It was pretty beautiful, and very interesting.
We also knew that there were a few Roman Amphitheatres in Lyon, but what we didn't know what where to find them. We wandered around where we THOUGHT they were, but finally had to ask someone
We found the "best" one, at the top of the hill, along with la musee de la civilisation. The museum itself was interesting, but the amphitheatre was absolutely breathtaking :) I'll post some pictures when I can.
Our First full week of school starts tomorrow, so wish me luck!
School is a lot different here. At Mac, we take 5 courses per semester. Thats normal. Here you take as many courses as add up to 60 credits for the whole year! So I have two full year courses, plus six courses per semester. It’s a little overwhelming. Also at mac, you may go to one course three or four times per week, where here you go once a week. I have about the same amount of hours of class as at home, but a whole lot more work to do on my own time. I have to keep up with 8 different subjects!
Already though things have been made a little bit easier for us as international students. We aren’t expected (in most classes) to do the exact same work as the French students are, we are allowed to tweak our assignments, and in some cases even skip the final exam!
I haven’t attended all of my class yet, as they started on Wednesday, but hopefully more profs will feel pity towards us students struggling to not only learn French, but trying to keep up in completely French classes integrated with mostly all French students.
My most exciting class is English Translation J It’s still taught in French, but I get to translate from French to English, which will give me a little bit of an advantage I hope. Here are my classes for the year:
French Grammar (full year)
French Culture (full year)
Literature of the middle ages
Literature of the 17th century
Literature of the 18th Century
Literature of the 18th Century (again :s)
Literature of the 20th Century
English Translation
French Grammar (cont’d)
French Culture (cont’d)
Literature of the 16th Century
Literature of the 19th Century
Literature of the 20th Century (again)
Literature of the 19th Century (again)
Litterature of the 17th Century (again)
Geography of France
It’s difficult to choose the right courses here, because not only must I make the courses work for me here, but I also have to keep into consideration how they will transfer back to McMaster. Sometimes I have to take two similar courses (both 18th cent lit courses) to add up to one course for McMaster. But i think i’ve finally figured it out to the best of my abilities for the year. Now hopefully the second term schedule will work out in my favour as well, but I have awhile before I have to worry about that.
Also at the two week mark, I’ve noticed some VERY very French behaivoir:
1) Everyone smokes, everywhere all the time. It’s forbidden inside now like home, but it still happens
2) The French are really really good a parallel parking.
3) In the metro stations they play 80’s English pop music all day long
4) The fashion really isn’t that good here :s Some people are impeccably well dressed, while others...... are not. The latest fashion is a skirt like thing that just all of a sudden has foot holes at the bottom. It’s odd and something i don’t think i’ll be conforming to.
5) People in general are very friendly here, and the people who work in the stores we go to don’t mind helping us, and putting up with our awful French. They’re usually excited to learn that We’re Canadians coming here to improve our French
We had a very exciting touristy weekend this past weekend! Lyon had something called les journees des Patrimoine. Where almost all of the touristy things in Lyon were free!!! Virginia and I put on our not so good walking shoes, and Headed to the Musee des Beaux Arts, where we found hundreds of paintings, sculptures, pottery, coins and much more from all over the world through all periods of time. It was pretty beautiful, and very interesting.
We also knew that there were a few Roman Amphitheatres in Lyon, but what we didn't know what where to find them. We wandered around where we THOUGHT they were, but finally had to ask someone
We found the "best" one, at the top of the hill, along with la musee de la civilisation. The museum itself was interesting, but the amphitheatre was absolutely breathtaking :) I'll post some pictures when I can.
Our First full week of school starts tomorrow, so wish me luck!
Friday, September 11, 2009
I will try my best to post at least once a week, so check back once or twice!
So it seems like we are finally getting settled in. We’ve had a very busy past couple of days (except for Sunday, where everything in France is closed, even most of the restaurants). We opened a bank account, got our student card, got a cell phone, got insurance, got our carte de sejour, and finally found that on campus, the internet is fantastic...... when my computer feels like cooperating with me.
The local (well more local than us) France students are slowly moving into our residence as well. For the first few days it was just international students. There is a French girl living beside me, and one living beside Virginia. They both don’t speak very good English, but really want to learn! Virginia’s neighbour is extremely nice and helpful, and we ask her a ton of questions all the time, from learning the local slang words, to where the best place to grocery shop is. We’re helping her a little with their English, but they’re helping us so much more
My neighbour is pretty nice, but not as friendly, she also wakes up at 6 in the morning, and the walls here are pretty thin, with squeaky floors so I hear her until she leaves :s – hopefully that won’t wake me up soon.
Our res is also starting to feel a little bit more like home. It’s decorated, and I can call it MY room now. We’re getting more used to the atmosphere here as well, and less scared to go to the bathroom alone at night (there’s no bathroom on our floor, and the lights shut off automatically after about 2 minutes). It might take me a little bit longer to get used to the showers which are a little odd. They have the detachable head, but the only problem is that it attaches down by your belly button, so to wash my hair, I have to hold it above my head....
We’ve made a lot of international friends so far as well as French ones J I think we’ll make even more when school and classes actually start as well. I’ve met many international girls from our residence (which is an all girls residence if I haven’t mentioned before), Scotland, England, Turkey, Australia – all over! There is an international students association on campus called ERASMUS that organizes get togethers with all of the international students as well, so I signed up to maybe go skiing in January!
School is also slowly getting started. We had an information session on Wednesday to learn how to choose our courses, so we’ll be doing that on Saturday. We also took a placement test on Friday morning for mandatory grammar courses. We (as international students) have to take two mandatory classes, this one (FLE course) and a French culture course, both which start late in September. Normal classes start on Wednesday the 16th, which is pretty soon. I’m looking forward to starting school so we can get a kind of routine down. My days are pretty all over the place right now, still just trying to make sure I have everything prepared for starting school and living here.
That’s all for now, but I’ll keep everyone updated on how my classes are next week!
So it seems like we are finally getting settled in. We’ve had a very busy past couple of days (except for Sunday, where everything in France is closed, even most of the restaurants). We opened a bank account, got our student card, got a cell phone, got insurance, got our carte de sejour, and finally found that on campus, the internet is fantastic...... when my computer feels like cooperating with me.
The local (well more local than us) France students are slowly moving into our residence as well. For the first few days it was just international students. There is a French girl living beside me, and one living beside Virginia. They both don’t speak very good English, but really want to learn! Virginia’s neighbour is extremely nice and helpful, and we ask her a ton of questions all the time, from learning the local slang words, to where the best place to grocery shop is. We’re helping her a little with their English, but they’re helping us so much more
My neighbour is pretty nice, but not as friendly, she also wakes up at 6 in the morning, and the walls here are pretty thin, with squeaky floors so I hear her until she leaves :s – hopefully that won’t wake me up soon.
Our res is also starting to feel a little bit more like home. It’s decorated, and I can call it MY room now. We’re getting more used to the atmosphere here as well, and less scared to go to the bathroom alone at night (there’s no bathroom on our floor, and the lights shut off automatically after about 2 minutes). It might take me a little bit longer to get used to the showers which are a little odd. They have the detachable head, but the only problem is that it attaches down by your belly button, so to wash my hair, I have to hold it above my head....
We’ve made a lot of international friends so far as well as French ones J I think we’ll make even more when school and classes actually start as well. I’ve met many international girls from our residence (which is an all girls residence if I haven’t mentioned before), Scotland, England, Turkey, Australia – all over! There is an international students association on campus called ERASMUS that organizes get togethers with all of the international students as well, so I signed up to maybe go skiing in January!
School is also slowly getting started. We had an information session on Wednesday to learn how to choose our courses, so we’ll be doing that on Saturday. We also took a placement test on Friday morning for mandatory grammar courses. We (as international students) have to take two mandatory classes, this one (FLE course) and a French culture course, both which start late in September. Normal classes start on Wednesday the 16th, which is pretty soon. I’m looking forward to starting school so we can get a kind of routine down. My days are pretty all over the place right now, still just trying to make sure I have everything prepared for starting school and living here.
That’s all for now, but I’ll keep everyone updated on how my classes are next week!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Je suis en France!
I made it here alive!
It was a long first day, which was really more like 2 days for us. Virginia and I left our families at the airport at 4:40 pm on Thursday, and landed in Paris at 6am France time. So even though we had been awake almost all night, we still had the entire day ahead of us :s.
Travelling lightly for a 10 month adventure is impossible, so we didn't try. There were 5 of us on the same flight, and we all had two HUGE suitcases, a backpack and some form of other carry on. i'm sure you can picture me and 4 other Canadian girls wandering through the Paris airport with all of our luggage, it must have been quite the sight.
Maneuvering through the airport was ok, because we had gigantic trolleys, but once we hit the train station we had to carry, lug and roll our things. Little did we know, that was the easy part! Getting our things ON the train was what was difficult. After many giggles, lots of grunts, and a few helping hands from strangers, the three of us finally got our baggage on the racks in the train (the other two girls had left on the earlier train) .
We took the TGV from Paris to Lyon (the high speed train) it was really cool, and super fast. Our only issue, is that we didn't notice that on our tickets we were given assigned train cars, and seats. and somehow we ended up sitting in first class!! Luckily no one came to kick us out, or claim we were in their seats, and even the people that checked our tickets didn't say anything, so we got to stay.
We arrived in Lyon about 1030am, and by this time the three of us are absolutely exhausted and have no idea how to get where we need to go. We end up taking a taxi, (who rips us off claiming we have soooo much baggage hahah) but got to the school to check in. Luckily as we're gettingout of the taxi, a guy (mark) walks by and notices the Canada flag on my backpack, and correctly assumes we're international students and that we really don't know where we're going or what we're dong. He was an american exchange student who had just gone through this same experience last week, so he was happy to help us carry our bags and lead us to the right place.
We got all registered and signed up, and then moved on to finding our res. It's luckily only about a 10 minute walk, and being cheap, we decided that we could do it with all of our bags. We did. Miraculously! although it did take us about 3 times as long as it would have without any luggage.
Our residence was actually pretty nice! It's hard to explain, so i'll just post some pictures of the res, and of my bedroom. Virginia and I got rooms beside each other on the 3 1/2 floor , and our other friend Jess is a couple floors down. We dumped our stuff, and then set of getting some necessities. Like toilet paper. Which is apparently not supplied in our common bathrooms.
Lyon is a beautiful city with many modes of transportation, buses, trams, streetcars, the metro (which is a subway). it's pretty fantastic, and we have a metro station about 30 seconds from our res :) Luckily we ran into mark again, and he told us how to get to a wal-mart ish store. I bought some pink toilet paper :) as well as a pink pillow case to cover my digusting tube pillow that came with my room.
We got all settled that evening, unpacking and decorating our rooms, so they look less like a cell, although we do have a huge window that lets in lots of light. We also made our first french friend. Liliane, is Virginia's other neighbour, and she wants to learn english, so we decided that we would help each other. She was really nice :)
After attempting to use the oh so crappy internet (in the internet room in our res, it's not available in our bedrooms) we turned in for our first sleep in FRANCE!! finally the end of a long day.....
P.S. Pictures to come when I find some better internet
It was a long first day, which was really more like 2 days for us. Virginia and I left our families at the airport at 4:40 pm on Thursday, and landed in Paris at 6am France time. So even though we had been awake almost all night, we still had the entire day ahead of us :s.
Travelling lightly for a 10 month adventure is impossible, so we didn't try. There were 5 of us on the same flight, and we all had two HUGE suitcases, a backpack and some form of other carry on. i'm sure you can picture me and 4 other Canadian girls wandering through the Paris airport with all of our luggage, it must have been quite the sight.
Maneuvering through the airport was ok, because we had gigantic trolleys, but once we hit the train station we had to carry, lug and roll our things. Little did we know, that was the easy part! Getting our things ON the train was what was difficult. After many giggles, lots of grunts, and a few helping hands from strangers, the three of us finally got our baggage on the racks in the train (the other two girls had left on the earlier train) .
We took the TGV from Paris to Lyon (the high speed train) it was really cool, and super fast. Our only issue, is that we didn't notice that on our tickets we were given assigned train cars, and seats. and somehow we ended up sitting in first class!! Luckily no one came to kick us out, or claim we were in their seats, and even the people that checked our tickets didn't say anything, so we got to stay.
We arrived in Lyon about 1030am, and by this time the three of us are absolutely exhausted and have no idea how to get where we need to go. We end up taking a taxi, (who rips us off claiming we have soooo much baggage hahah) but got to the school to check in. Luckily as we're gettingout of the taxi, a guy (mark) walks by and notices the Canada flag on my backpack, and correctly assumes we're international students and that we really don't know where we're going or what we're dong. He was an american exchange student who had just gone through this same experience last week, so he was happy to help us carry our bags and lead us to the right place.
We got all registered and signed up, and then moved on to finding our res. It's luckily only about a 10 minute walk, and being cheap, we decided that we could do it with all of our bags. We did. Miraculously! although it did take us about 3 times as long as it would have without any luggage.
Our residence was actually pretty nice! It's hard to explain, so i'll just post some pictures of the res, and of my bedroom. Virginia and I got rooms beside each other on the 3 1/2 floor , and our other friend Jess is a couple floors down. We dumped our stuff, and then set of getting some necessities. Like toilet paper. Which is apparently not supplied in our common bathrooms.
Lyon is a beautiful city with many modes of transportation, buses, trams, streetcars, the metro (which is a subway). it's pretty fantastic, and we have a metro station about 30 seconds from our res :) Luckily we ran into mark again, and he told us how to get to a wal-mart ish store. I bought some pink toilet paper :) as well as a pink pillow case to cover my digusting tube pillow that came with my room.
We got all settled that evening, unpacking and decorating our rooms, so they look less like a cell, although we do have a huge window that lets in lots of light. We also made our first french friend. Liliane, is Virginia's other neighbour, and she wants to learn english, so we decided that we would help each other. She was really nice :)
After attempting to use the oh so crappy internet (in the internet room in our res, it's not available in our bedrooms) we turned in for our first sleep in FRANCE!! finally the end of a long day.....
P.S. Pictures to come when I find some better internet
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