Hello!

Where to start? A few weeks ago, we had a week off for vacation, and for the first weekend, I went to my host family's home in Brittany. They have a beautiful house in the woods in Pont Aven near the coast. It was a little stressful being the only American and non-family member there; for the most part when everyone was talking, I couldn't understand much of what they were saying. That's what happens when you put 21 French family members together. But I enjoyed my time there! On Easter day, I ate so much wonderful food! Seriously, there was soooo much food. And wine. Haha. And I went fishing with my host brothers and my host dad, and when we were coming back to shore, a wave overtook our small little boat and we got soaked and the boat was filled with water. I thought it was pretty hilarious, even though I was really cold. Then I came back to Nantes for a couple of days and then set off for Antibes to visit my friend, Etienne! We went everywhere in Southern France, and it was great! We also got to go to Italy which was really exciting! Had the best gelato of my life there! And the hot chocolate in Italy is basically hot chocolate pudding. It's crazy! Monaco is beautiful and the most rich area ever; saw a super fancy boat docked that had a helicopter on it. We're talking serious money. Grasse was a lovely town too; it's famous for it's perfume, and Etienne and I visited the Fragonard perfumery there which was pretty cool. All in all, it was a great trip! Last Saturday, IES organized a trip for us to go to Clisson, a little town near Nantes and we visited a beautiful Italian style chateau and then we went to a little vineyard and did a little wine tasting of muscadet white wine. I felt a little pretentious at the wine tasting but I got a kick out of all of us pretending to be wine experts and discussing the wines.
Right now is academically a little more difficult with all of the essays and homework and finals coming up. Writing a 5 page 1.5 spaced paper for my French Romanticism literature class is not easy task. Now I need to work on my Philosophy on Language paper. That will be interesting.
With my last week and half here in Nantes, I am trying to fit in things into every free space of time. The French language has this word "profiter" that is the best way to describe what I am trying to do right now. It essentially means to benefit and to take advantage of your time, but I feel that it encompasses a lot more than just that. It's really truly amazing what living in France for 4 months does. I have changed so much, learned so much about myself, France, people, French culture, American culture, traveling, and more than I could ever try to express. To be honest, although I truly miss friends and family at home, my university and my psychology classes, I have fallen in love with France. I never knew how attached I would become to France and the city of Nantes. I have a wonderful host family, great friends, both American and French alike, and I feel so blessed and lucky to have had the opportunity to live here. When you live in a foreign country, you are obligated to make a new life being that you are totally removed from everything you've grown up with, including your native language. Now that I have lived here, I feel a part of France and of Nantes, and Nantes and my experience living in France has become a part of me. I was talking with my host mother about how it will be hard for me to leave, and she said that it's like you leave little pieces of your heart wherever you go. That is exactly how it feels. A part of my heart will forever be in Nantes. But Nantes has also become a part of me and I will never forget my time here and my life will truly be forever different for the better because of my experience here. Although it will be painful for me to leave, I know it will be worth the pain of leaving to have been able to live here for four months. I can say it a million times, but I can never express how my life will be forever changed. Knowing that I will be leaving this wonderful place soon is one of the most difficult things I have ever done and I imagine that when it comes to be time to leave, it will take every little bit of strength I have to let myself leave. In understanding that I must leave, I also know that I will come back.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me in my time here. I am going to enjoy every moment I have here until it comes time for me to part.


Jordan

Hello all!

It's been a while since I've posted in my blog; I've been so incredibly busy lately! First off: Paris and England!! For my Winter Break, I had a week off from classes and spent the first 4 days in Paris and the next 4 days in England visiting some family members, the Williamson's! Paris is such an incredibly hug city! Bustling with people everywhere, insane traffic (almost died crossing the street once, haha... maybe not actually funny), monuments every which way you look, etc! I got to see so many famous monuments in Paris: Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Musée d'Orsay, Musée d'Orangerie, Jardin des Tuilleries, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, and others! It was amazing to actually see everything in person; after studying French so long and seeing so many pictures and learning about Paris, it was such a great experience to see it all in real life! Got to see so many famous works of art (Mona Lisa, Starry Night, Venus de Milo, etc). And I saw a lot of paintings that I had seen in my Art History class before I dropped it. It was wonderful! I think that the Eiffel Tower was my favorite because it was such a unique structure and it really stands out from the rest of Paris because the style is so different and even the color of it makes it stand out. It looks surprisingly delicate for something metal and so massive. Walked all the way to the second level, which took quite a lot of energy. Got to see Paris all lit up at night. My second favorite was la Musée d'Orangerie. L'Orangerie has a lot of Monet's famous water lily paintings, which are my favorite. It's not often that I get lost in a painting, but I found myself mesmerized by the paintings; the colors are truly inspired and I loved it so much!
And then came England!!! Flew to Manchester, where Kath and I got lunch, and then went to Ilkeston where my family lives. The three daughters (oldest to youngest) are Claire, Beth and Ellen. Their parents are Kath and Steve. And it is official: the Williamson's are the nicest people in the world, no question. It was beyond wonderful to visit them and feel so welcomed and loved and well taken care of. A little slice of home in another country, if that makes any sense. :) Got to see a little of Manchester and Ilkeston, and went to York, Nottingham and London! York was my favorite; it's the most charming town ever and I had such a wonderful time there! Went to Betty's, a nice tea place where you can get afternoon tea with little cakes and scones and such. We had lunch there, and had tea and shared scones afterwards. Most delicious scone EVER! It was great! I would go there everyday if I lived there. Haha. Drank so much tea, which all of you know made me happy as a clam. I got to see Wollaton Hall in Nottingham, which is a fancy estate; it's also in the new Batman movie, so now I have to watch that movie to be that annoying person who says, "I've been there!!!" Ate lunch at a super cool restaurant that is part cave and had "bangers and mash" and Yorkshire pudding. Super delicious. Went to an old church-turned-bar for a cocktail later that night with Claire and her boyfriend, Tom, which was really fun! The next day (Friday) was the day we went to York; again, York was awesome and I am all ready to buy a summer home there; such a charming town! Then Saturday was London! Got to see the Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, the Olympic Clock and lots of other places! It was such a cool city and the weather was so great! We also went to Harrod's, which is the fanciest, most posh place to shop in the universe probably. It was awesome. I wish I could afford to shop there. On my way back to the Manchester airport on Sunday, we dropped by the castle that is in Pride & Prejudice (the new one with Keira Knightly) and it was beautiful! We took the scenic route and it was overwhelmingly beautiful! It was purely idyllic English countryside and I felt like I was in a movie because the beauty of it was just unreal! Leaving the Williamson's was really sad, and I won't lie, I cried when we said goodbye at the airport. But I had the greatest time there!
One of the things I realized while traveling is that you just can't really capture the beauty of things and the emotion of a moment with a camera. The combination of everything that makes an experience exciting or wonderful is something only a memory can keep.
Hmmm. What else? This past weekend I had to meet from 10 am to 5 pm Saturday and Sunday with all of the other students in my theatre practice class to practice our play. It was fun, but really tiring! I'm really glad that I decided to take that class, it's really fun and it's a great outlet. It's also great for my pronunciation. This past Friday I went to dinner with Coline and Marine, two French pharmacy students (who are sisters!) that I met at the conversation club. They are such nice and adorable girls! We went to get a drink, then decided to also have dinner, which was delicious, of course. Then the waiter gave us each a free vodka caramel shot, which was surprisingly good and was my first shot ever. This past Saturday night, my French friend Chloé invited me and two other IES students (Haley and Eric!!) to her apartment for galettes and crepes!! They were delicious! Then we all went out (it was St. Patrick's day, so the bars were packed and there were people everywhere in the streets) to this cool bar/club place where the basement is like a cave with strobe lights and a DJ and we went dancing! It was so much fun, and it was great to spend a great evening with a big group of French students! 
Anyways, still having such a wonderful time here and enjoying it all! Nantes is really feeling like home and now that I am getting closer with the French students, I'm really feeling like I am integrating more deeply.


Jordan

Les Petites Aventures

Hello!

It's been a while since I've written anything. I am getting busier and busier lately now that classes have really started to get going. I'm starting to realize that I need to remember that I'm also here to take classes. Haha. The title, "Les Petites Aventures" which means little adventures, is kind of how I feel like things happen here. I go to class everyday and I'm starting to settle in with a routine, but there is always something special or different about each day. Whether it's learning a new phrase in French, discovering another cultural difference, eating something delicious, trying something new, seeing new places, etc, everyday here is truly studded with little things that make the day exciting. Like, this past Sunday, IES provided all of the students tickets to La Folle Journee, which is essentially a series of classical music concerts held in Nantes. I got to see two Tchaikovsky concerts, which were AMAZING. And today after the conversation club that IES hosts, a group of us IES students and some French students went out to dinner. During dinner, I thought to myself how exciting it was that I was able to converse with a group of other people in a different language. Not only that, but I was able to make everyone laugh with my jokes. Both American and French alike laughed! Haha. It really was a good night for me because I've found that it's actually quite difficult to be funny in another language. The girl next to me at dinner (Coline) told me that my French is really good! Also, I have been told that my French "r's" sound Germanic, or that my accent sounds German. Which I find hilarious. A random French man started talking to me on Sunday while I was watching a group play music at La Folle Journee and he said my accent was Germanic; he looked surprised when I told him I was American.
Another good thing about today was that in my theatre practice class, we started practicing the play. I ended up being given 3 different characters to play (haven't figured out if that's a good or bad thing yet), so that should be interesting. I think it's really going to be a great class because it will really help teach me the language.
Right now, I'm in the process of planning my trip to Paris, and I am very excited! And this Saturday, I'm going to the IES organized field trip to Mont St. Michel and St. Malo, which should be great! One bigger  thing I've learned, or become more aware of rather, is that it's important to savor every moment while I'm here, and to really take appreciate both the big and small things of each day; the small triumphs in the French language, a delicious cookie, a good friend, learning something about yourself and what you can do, and other priceless moments. I, along with others, have decided to really commit to the French language and to avoid speaking English as much as possible, and I can already see that in doing so, my French language abilities will progress much more rapidly. Everyone knows that practice makes perfect. I'm learning that that phrase has more and more truth to it everyday.

Jordan

First Week of Classes!

Oh hey!

So, this week marked the commencement of the "study" part of the study abroad experience. As IES students, we are offered classes to take at the IES center, which are taught by French professors. We are required to take a French language course, and the rest of the classes can either be IES courses or courses offered at the University of Nantes. Most people take one or two university courses. It's cool because we get to go to any random class at the university that we find interesting and then choose later which classes we want to officially sign up for! Right now, I am for sure taking: (in addition to the required IES French language course) art history, religion and the state in modern France, French Romanticism in literature, and then the last class is still sort of up in the air. I am torn between taking a course called Philosophy of Language at the university and taking a theatre class (it's basically theatre practice that leads to a theatre performance at the end of the semester). I want to take a class at the university to meet some French university students, but I usually regret not taking opportunities to act. Sooo, that's the situation. Please email me or something with you opinions or suggestions! You all know how indecisive I am. Haha.
Anyways, things have been going really well! I am becoming much more acclimated here and am pretty good at getting around the city of Nantes! There is always something going on here and I love the IES group of students; everyone is so great! And my host family is still wonderful and I think we are starting to get more comfortable around each other. Which is great!
Oh, and there is this bakery that I pass everyday on my walk to the IES center, soooo I sort of feel obligated to buy a ficelle (like a small baguette) for my lunch everyday. It's still warm when I buy it! The bread here is soooo good! And I think I have eaten my own weight in madeleines coquilles, which are basically in between cookies and cake (I'm sure you've seen madeleines before). And you can buy them in bags and they are awesome and I could sit there and eat them all day and be very content. I walk sooo much here that I think I am allowed to have as many cookies as I want. :)
Alright, well, that's all that I can think of to say for now. Au revoir!

Jordan

First Weekend in Nantes!

Hello!

So this is the first weekend that we have had in Nantes since last weekend we toured the castles. Last night I went out to dinner at a crepe place and I had a galette with warm goat cheese (normally I really don't like goat cheese, but it's really good here!) and a crepe with Nutella. So good! I also felt like a little kid because I ordered hot chocolate with my dinner and most everyone else who got a drink got something alcoholic... Haha. After that, we went to a bar and some of us got drinks (I had some white wine) and it was really fun!  All of the IES students were feeling the frustration of speaking French all of the time so we kind of gave in and spoke English. I won't lie, we all learned more about each other last night from talking in our native language than we have in the past one and a half weeks. It's crazy, you don't realize how little you can say in a different language until you can only speak that language. If that makes any sense at all. But again, it was so much fun and it was nice to be more relaxed with our free time and speak English. Anyways... good start to the weekend, and today's plans are going shopping while the "soldes" are still going on!
Miss you all, and I hope that everyone's semesters are off to a good start! My classes start this week...

Jordan

Address!

Hello!

A lot of you asked for my address, and I can't receive mail at my host family's home, but I can receive mail/packages at the IES center!
So here is the address for you:

IES
Jordan Byers
7, rue des Cadeniers
44000 Nantes
France

Make sure you put down IES! :)

Jordan

Weekend in Tours, France/Touring the Chateaux

Bonjour tout le monde - Hello everyone!

I just got back from a weekend in Tours, France. We toured 4 castles (chateaux) this weekend! The names of the castles (in chronological order of visiting them) are: Blois, Chambord, Loches, and Chenonceau. Chambord was definitely my favorite, it is also the largest castle. I may or may not have pretended that I was a princess in the castle.... Haha. It was like I was in a movie. It's amazing to be there and realize how old it is and how much history it has, that people actually lived there and things happened there. Really; truly incredible. My friend Hailey and I both agreed that Chambord was the most beautiful and was our favorite, but we would prefer to live in Chenonceau (if you look at my photos on facebook, Chenonceau is the one on the river with the beautiful gardens). This weekend was soooo fun and the chateaux were beautiful, but it was so freaking cold there; seriously, it kind of sucked. It wasn't bad enough to ruin the weekend or anything, because it was really sunny out and so beautiful, but freezing cold. There was a lit fire in one of the fire places in Chambord, and a lot of people decided that was there favorite place to be because they could warm themselves by the fire!! Haha. :) Anyways, you all can look at the facebook photos of the castles; truly incredible.
I am meeting wonderful people here in the IES program and making lots of new friends!! But I miss everyone back home/all my UP friends sooo much! I wish you all could experience this with me! It's still hard to believe that I am in France. My host family is really wonderful, they are extremely nice and welcoming. My host dad (Renaud) is hilarious and such a goofball. Aude (my host mom) and Renaud are going shopping tomorrow (they shop together every Monday morning he said) and they are going to buy me a alarm clock because I forgot one (so nice of them!!!!). Renaud said (in French of course, but I will translate ;)  ), "It's not a big deal, they are not expensive, we can buy one for you!" Haha.
Another random thing: He suggested that I take shorter showers........ In France, they take really short showers, so the IES staff said to us that all the host families always say that their students take long showers. You're supposed to turn off the water when you're not rinsing yourself off. Haha. This will be hard to do because I like my showers... Haha. Anyways, this weekend in Tours (which is an awesome city in France) I went out with friends Friday and Saturday night. The bars are also cafes at night, so you can buy tea, coffee and hot chocolate at night. The first night, we went to a bar as a group, and some of us (including me) didn't want to drink alcohol and at that bar, everything was expensive, and they said if we didn't buy a drink we could not stay, so the people who wanted to drink alcohol stayed and the rest of us went in search of a cafe. We went to the place pretty much right next to it, which said "Salon du The" (tea salon) and so we guessed it was both a restaurant (Iranian restaurant, I think) and a tea salon. We went in and sat down and realized it might be bad to just order tea. I asked the group if it would be impolite of us to order just tea and we decided to ask the owner. When we asked him this, his face was like stone he looked kind of unhappy.... We said we could leave if it was a problem, and he said no, buuuuut his face said otherwise.... We stayed but it was suuuuuper awkward, and I felt so terrible. But we had some excellent and super sweet mint tea (with real, fresh mint leaves) and it was ok. The next night was much better and we chose a good bar/cafe and had tea or hot chocolate and sat outside (even though it was cold) at the tables and "people watched" and talked. It was really fun! It was easy to walk around Tours. Also: I had a hot chocolate at a cafe after walking around the chateau de Chambord and it was really good! Less sweet and way better than the hot chocolate I usually have in the US. And the bread and cheese here are awesome! I have hardly had any, and not at particularly fancy places, but it's still pretty darn good!! The only wine I have had was with dinner Friday and Saturday with the IES staff and students at the hotel in Tours, and it was not all that good (but I imagine they wouldn't give a group of around 50 American students a super fantastic wine....). I can't wait to taste even better hot chocolate, cheese, bread, and wine!!
It's really interesting because now my brain works in French! When I am typing in English, I keep on thinking in French or wanting to type the French word. My host dad Renaud told me that my French is really good, and that it's better than some of the other American IES students they have had at their home who have been to France before. So that is very encouraging! He also offered something for me to eat at dinner saying that it was "For my new daughter." So cute! :) When I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning, I often am thinking in French. It's cool! No dreams in French yet, but maybe soon?
Other random story: Rachel Fong (some of you UP students know Rachel) and I met up at 8:30 in the morning to walk to the IES center on Friday morning and we waited for our other friend Lawrence (who didn't show, I think he made other plans with getting to IES with his host mother and neglected to tell us). We eventually just left, and the proceeded to get lost. Haha. So I asked a woman for directions, and she suggested that I go into the tabac (drugstore) that we were standing in font of and ask the woman in there for directions. So I did that and she was very nice and we found our way to IES! We were like, 5 minutes late, but we were not the last people to arrive. Haha. I basically speak French all. the. time. It's one of the rules with IES and not everyone follows it, but most people do. I only speak English when I just can't figure out how to explain something in French or when I say, "How do you say _____ in French?" It's hard, but it's good for learning the language better!
Anyways, I hope all of you are doing well! I miss you all very much!!

Jordan

Chateau de Chambord

Bonjour!

Hello!
This is my first blog post, very exciting!! :) I hope everyone is doing well!
So, the flights here (Portland to Seattle, Seattle to Paris, Paris to Nantes) was soooo exhausting! When my parents and I went to the Portland airport and I checked in to get my boarding passes and check my luggage, there was a problem with my flight at first, but luckily, it was only because of a flight time delay/change, so it all got sorted out. The flight from Seattle to Paris was soooo long, which is even less fun when you can't fall asleep, there is not much space to move, and there are two babies on the flight who basically cried the entire time. So that was great. But, on a positive note, the older man I sat next to was French and I asked him a question in English at first because I wasn't positive if he was French or not, and he looked sort of panicked when I was speaking English. So, then I asked the same question in French and then we started talking and we had a very long conversation, all in French of course, and he was very nice and it was great practice for me. I then navigated the Charles de Gaulle airport, which is HUGE!! So I am proud of myself for figuring it all out by myself. Anyways, then I arrived in Nantes and I got my suitcase (I was so happy it didn't get lost, that would have sucked) and I had to ask a woman (who was one of the flight attendants on my flight) how to get a taxi (in French). My taxi driver didn't talk to me once I was in the taxi until I arrived at IES and he needed to be paid. Haha. But it was ok because I was exhausted. Carrying around a heavy carry-on and running around airports in a wool coat on no sleep and not very excellent nutrition. Haha. I got up 4:30 am in Bend, OR and went to sleep at 9:15 pm in Nantes, FR. There is a 9 hour time difference, so I was awake for almost 32 hours. So that was awesome.
I got a quick tour of the IES center and then I sent an email to my parents and my sister to let them know I was alive and got there safely, and then updated facebook so all of my friends would know I arrived safely! I then went to the IES library and talked with the other IES students (we spoke in English, which is a big no-no, but we were all so tired, and it was so comforting to speak English). Then my host mom and host sister came to pick me up and they brought me to their adorable French home and had some tea and later my host dad arrived and we had dinner. And luckily, my host family has WiFi so I have internet access here. I went to sleep at 9:15 and fell asleep really quickly because I was so tired. Did I mention I was tired? Haha. I got up at 4:15 am, and was able to fall asleep after that until, oh you know, like 11:00 am. Haha. The reason I knew the time was because I had to turn on my laptop and look at the time and add 9 hours. I forgot to bring an alarm clock with me.... and I didn't have an adapter, just a converter for plug ins and my batteries, so that was lame, but my host dad figured one out for me just a little bit ago, which was so nice of him!
Today, I had two meetings at IES, which started at 1:30 pm (or 13:30 because they use military time here) so we could have plenty of time to sleep. That's why waking up at 11 was ok. Haha. Anyways, my host dad (Renaud) drove me to IES after Hermine (my host sister) and I had lunch together (which was delicious). My host mom's name is Aude. Then Renaud drove me to IES. The meetings were about information on getting along with our host families and the activities we'll go on throughout the semester, how to get a cell phone, etc. My host mom met me at IES and walked with me to their home (it's about a 10 minute walk). Then she did some paperwork and made some phone calls (she said she is like a secretary for her family, haha) and I looked up words in my dictionary and read over some papers from IES meetings. Then we had dinner, which was wonderful! And today is the Fete des Rois, which is the Epiphanie and celebrates the three kings and such. Anways, there is a pastry that is traditional to eat and there is a little figurine of some sort in the pastry and the person who has the slice with the figurine is "king" for the day. Renaud insisted that Aude give me a specific slice, so I got the figurine (which is a little glass figure that is painted and it's of Le theatre de Nantes, and I got to wear a sweet crown! Haha. Then my host dad solved my adapter problems so now I am charging my laptop in my room, which is quite spatious! So, I feel like there are so many details to share, but I am getting carried away here. This weekend I will go with the IES staff and students to Tours to visit the castles! We leave Friday afternoon and come back Sunday! I am so excited! Also, random thing, there are a lot of UP students from my French class last semester here in Nantes, so that has been really nice. Speaking French all of the time is so crazy, at time frustrating because I don't know a certain word or I can't explain something, or I get tripped up on saying something. But I didn't realize that I am actually not that bad at speaking! Aude and Hermine told me that I speak French pretty well! And dress like a French person! Double score!
So, to sum up, I could go on and on and on with the details, but I have learned a lot so far and have TONS more to learn (like public transportation, getting a cell phone, a bus pass, etc) but it's been good so far and can't wait to go to Tours this weekend!!! I miss you all! I will update again, sometime soon after this weekend I hope. :)
Au revoir!