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
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
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
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
Thursday, January 19, 2012
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
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
Sunday, January 15, 2012
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
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
Thursday, January 12, 2012
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!
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!
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