Nashville to Nantes

April 22

2008-04-22T07:29:00.001-07:00

Well, the journey is almost over.

I just got back from taking my Grandma through Paris, Rome, and Naples. We were lucky enough to be flying over the Alps on a cloudless day, so we had a nice view. She took a ridiculous amount of pictures which I may or may not post later.

I'm almost all packed and ready to go. Tomorrow I fly to Dublin, and Thursday morning I fly home. I'll drag in around 3:30 in the afternoon.

I can't really imagine what it will be like, but I'm ready.

March 27 2008

2008-03-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

I'll be coming home April 24th.

While walking to the library today I loudly sang the Star Spangled Banner.

March 23 2008

2008-03-23T06:41:00.001-07:00

I've been on a pretty regular schedule. I've gotten in plenty of work on SchoolisHard, banjo, and my life in general. I think I have a pretty good idea about my plans for the next 4-5 years, but I can't be completely certain until I know how many credits I am going to get from France.

I went to a nightclub last night and had a pretty boring time. I met 4-5 of the people who worked there at another club a week ago. They were so busy working that I couldn't really talk, and even when I could the music was so loud I had difficulty understanding them.

My Grandma will be here in less than 3 weeks. She is in China at the moment, so I hope she is ready for some heavy walking when she gets here.

March 21 2008

2008-03-21T03:19:00.000-07:00

How about some updates?

I quit going to class about 3.5 weeks ago. I just wasn't getting anything out of the courses. The French kids talked the entire time. Also, to get credit I was going to have to produce 2 college level French research papers. I think not!
I have been going out more since Laura left and have made some new acquaintances. It is difficult to be here by myself, but I shouldn't be here too much longer.
I've started eating healthier since I am by myself and I am on a bit more of a schedule, too.
I will probably go to Mexico for a week or two before going back home.
My Grandma is coming in less than a month for us do to some Europe traveling. It should be fun.

I guess there isn't a whole lot going on, I just hadn't posted in a while. All France is for me is a United States that doesn't have a Waffle House, where nothing is open 24 hours a day, and everything is 1.5x more expensive.

It's kind of hard to get a cultural experience in a country that is 90% the same as your own.

"Study abroad" in the post-20th century world is nowhere near as beneficial as people claim. In the 70's, 80's, even the 90's I understand why people lauded it as they did, but the world is becoming too homogeneous now to justify the expense and time required to go abroad.

February 9th

2008-02-08T21:43:00.000-08:00

This semester is crazy. The French have an ape-designed registration system, so I spent the better part of 3 weeks just trying to figure out where classes are.

For International Organizations I finally just had to concede defeat! Even the department secretary didn't know where the class was. After going to the classroom where she said it would be and waiting for an hour and 45 minutes, some students started trickling in. 30 minutes later a FRENCH LAW PROFESSOR walks in and starts talking about the French Penal system. I was in Penology II! Quite miffed, I quietly crept out the back.

For my French Revolution class, I had high hopes. Finding the room was no problem and the class seemed sufficiently large until I went to my first Travaux Dirige class. This is basically the French equivalent of a "lab". I expected to get some further reinforcement from the professor, but instead he called a STUDENT up to give a 45 MINUTE presentation on the reasons for the French revolution. After this student finished he talked for maybe 5 minutes. He then proceeded to call ANOTHER student to talk about Robespierre for another 45 minutes. WHAT THE HELL? Let me remind you, these are UNDERGRADUATE students less than a month into the semester giving doctoral level presentations.

Needless to say, I dropped this class.

Speaking of how I dropped these two classes...I simply quit going. The French administration system is a crock of horse shit. All of the employees sit around urging the second hand to dance a little faster so they can go to lunch or go home.

Every time I have tried to get help, I have been referred to somebody else. Hell, even when I had a meeting with a professor the dude didn't even show up. In French they call these meetings permanences. Permanent my ass! I'm sick of waiting for these people every time they tell me they will be somewhere and show up late or not at all.

I have another meeting this Monday at 12 with my Roman History professor. By God, he better be there. I really refuse to put up with any more irresponsibility from adults.

My other class is History of Brittany, which I really like. My teacher is the only one who asked at the beginning if there were any exchange students. I can tell that he articulates more than usual sometimes to help me out.

Laura leaves March 12th for Wales.

5 months

2008-01-16T23:00:00.000-08:00

I'm nearing my fifth month in this country and I've gotta say...I don't really like France all that much.

All of these lustrous study abroad experiences people keep telling me about just don't exist here. Everything is expensive, half the people I try to talk to refuse, and I receive no help. When you go to a country you would expect to get a little bit more than an email every 2 months...

I have no help in finding where to sign up for my courses. As much of an independent spirit as I have, I'd rather have some help. I didn't sign up for a year of boot camp, I signed up for a year of study abroad.

Laura leaves in less than 2 months and then I'll be here by myself until June. It might actually be better because I'll be less concerned about keeping her company.

Tech is being sketchy about my credits, and if I didn't have a deposit on an apartment here I probably would've come home after Christmas. It just doesn't make sense to stay here if none of my classes are going to transfer, but I am afraid that is the way it is going to be.

To keep myself occupied, I have been working on a website for college students.

I speak French comfortably enough that I no longer really study. (I'm currently on Book 3 of Harry Potter in French.)

I'll figure all this out by myself, but these people just don't know how to take care of business.

Amsterdam - Nantes

2007-12-30T15:50:00.000-08:00

It's time to finally finish the trip blog. It has been a couple months, so I am mostly just summarizing for posterity.

So...Amsterdam. Does it live up to the hype? Somewhat. There are "coffee shops" every few feet and enough sex shops to make the host of Talk Sex blush, but unless you go to the more shady areas of the town you are unlikely to find naked women dancing in the windows.

We stayed in another youth hostel, this time for two days. We ate at two different places while in Amsterdam, Burger King and some Italian restaurant. An interesting note about people in the Netherlands is that they love mayonnaise on everything. When I asked for our burgers to be cheese and ketchup only, there was still a generous helping of mayo. I guess to them the white stuff is as intrinsic as the bun is.

The Italian place was cheap and tasted excellent. By the time we ate here we were heavily exhausted after nearly 5 days of constant walking so it was a much-needed slice of luxury.

The highlights of our visit in Amsterdam were our visits to the Torture museum and the Sex museum - both on Halloween, no less.

After two abhorrently long train rides from Amsterdam to Nantes, we finally made it back home.

Traveling is NOT EASY!!! As much as people like to scoff at guided tours, there is a reason we need them. It is unbelievably hard to get around on your own and it is much more expensive than sight-seeing in groups.

Right now we are in Wales enjoying Christmas and New Year's with Laura's family. She will most likely have a good post about it in the days to come.

Cheerio.

"Career"

2007-12-12T20:52:00.001-08:00

No matter what I do, it must be something which allows me to make people laugh.
Having a career which wouldn't permit me to make people laugh would kill me.

Brussels-Antwerp-Rotterdam-Den Haag

2007-12-03T12:31:00.000-08:00

Between Brussels and Amsterdam there is not much to say, but I am still going to fill in the blanks to get you up to speed.

We first stopped in Antwerp, the supposed diamond trading capital of the world. We only stayed for a few hours, but during this time we saw no less than 15 different diamond stores and showcases in one square kilometer. We had our first Belgian waffles, and left for Rotterdam.

Rotterdam was our first step into the Netherlands. The most noticeable thing was the copious amount of bicycles. I had read that Amsterdam has a ton of bikes, but when we first arrived in Rotterdam I was hard-pressed to believe any other place could have more in such a small area. Taking some leftover bread we had saved from Strasbourg, we went and fed some birds on a bridge. Rotterdam is a very pretty city and has a much more small-town feel than the other places we have visited. The only real peculiarity I noticed was the public urinals for men. They were literally TOTALLY public.

We got a small bite to eat at Mcdonald's, but essentially simply to use the restroom. While there, this 2 year old boy started talking to me in Dutch while watching All Dogs Go To Heaven. To him, what he had to tell me seemed very important, so I listened attentively. Try as I might, I couldn't understand him...because he had his pacifier in his mouth...yeah. I quickly took my leave when I noticed his grandmother glaring at me.

We went to a street market to look at the wares. I saw a tent selling some tasty looking chicken, and Laura agreed that we should have some. Unfortunately for me, I did not even know how to count to 2 in Dutch. I decided I would go with French first. "Parlez-vous Francais?" I received a no. Oh good! They must speak English! "Do you speak English?" A woman in the tent began laughing and said, "Nooooo." I was screwed. I pointed at the chicken and held up two fingers and I was served with a wink. At least I knew "Danke" from the trash cans at McDonald's.

Before setting out on the trip I wanted to see The Hague really bad, but when we arrived in Den Haag, I changed my mind. I simply wanted to go on to our last stop...

Amsterdam.

Luxembourg - Brussels

2007-11-18T03:12:00.000-08:00

We paid 2 Euro each, and the Luxembourg hostel's shuttle service zipped us to the train station. On the way in I thought that a guy was about to tee-off on the building. Unfortunately, he was only using a 9 iron. After a brief wait, we hopped on a train.

The main thing which caught my eye on the train was the Belgian countryside. I had always imagined Europe as this tree-less mass of overly inhabited land. In the case of Belgium and many others, this is far from the truth. The sheer density of farms and woodlands which I saw blew my mind.

As soon as we arrived in Brussels, it began raining. Rain has never really discouraged me, so I just smiled at Laura as we went outside. We decided to put finding a place to sleep on hold, and instead sample some of the local fare. This was not hard to do because compared to France, Belgium is the king of sweets. (Or Queen, if you speak French - La Belgique.)

The first place we went to was small and inexpensive. While window shopping, an old man and his wife walked out of the same shop. He smiled at me and said, "Jeune homme!" He began talking to me in French while I tried my best to follow. I was simply amazed he had even approached me and with a smile, at that. He told me some Belgian phrase about what to say when something tastes good, which I very regrettably cannot recall. He patted me on the shoulder before leaving while his wife smiled. (Why can't the French be like this?)

Laura and I entered the shop, and noticed a child was running around. His mother, the shop-owner, castigated him for continuing after customers had entered, and sent him to the back before talking to us.

I need to trail off on another educational lesson. Belgian French is a little bit different from the French used in France. French accent difference are not yet easily recognizable for me, as I still have trouble understanding sometimes. Nonetheless, the Belgians sound a bit different. They also speak slower than the people in France. The Belgians also use slightly different numbers than the French:

For 70 - Septante (Soixante Dix)
For 90 - Nonante (Quatre-Vingts Dix)
For 80 - The same, though in certain parts of Switzerland 80 is said Huitante. (Quatre-Vingts)

This makes much more sense. Imagine if British people said Sixty-Ten for 70 or "Eighty-Ten" for 90! It sounds weird, but that is how the French do it. I still cannot understand why 80 is said, quite literally, "Four-Twenties". The Swiss have it right. Anyway, back to our confectioneries...

I asked the lady for her recommendations for something chocolaty. Proud of her creations, she recommended all of them. I finally settled on a particularly sinful-looking éclair with enough cream inside to make a Twinkie look malnourished. Unfortunately, Laura got something with apple in it. ((I, Laura, happen to think my pomme de la pastrie was delicious.)) I decided we could not just stop there.

We went to another little place down the road. My eyes perked- up when I saw the signature color of caramel on top of one of the little tasties. I hopefully inquired, but was let down when I found out it was coffee, instead. I ordered another go-to-hell-for-eating-it éclair, and asked the lady where I could find a place to get on the internet. She was incredibly helpful, and began speaking English. In my haste to devour more Belgian goodies I had overlooked the free internet building next door. (Yes, it is a building with an attendant that lets people get on the internet. It isn't a library just...an internet building. Weird, n'est-ce pas?)

I called the Brussels hostel, and found out I already had a reservation for a single room. This really surprised me because I thought I had just been testing the form while at the Luxembourg hostel. I told them I'd be there by 8, and I thanked both the...free-internet-building lady (I have no idea what her job description is.) and the lady running the dessert shop before heading back out.

Laura and I made our way to the hostel. After many wrong turns and many instances of "Oh that is neat! Let's take a picture even though we are exhausted!", we finally made it into our room. After changing into some dry clothes, we laid around for several hours.

Using the free map given by the hostel, we set out to find something for dinner. The map recommended a little Vietnamese restaurant for many reasons. I would have preferred to have something a bit more traditionally Belgian, but most Belgians don't often eat traditional food. We made it to the restaurant and enjoyed some great food at an inexpensive price. I was tempted to try the frog legs, but I chose something more familiar to be certain I would eat it. We paid, and began walking around again.

We chanced upon a movie theater, and decided to watch Rush Hour 3. It was getting late, so I knew there would not be much else to do. I was hoping there would be French voices dubbed onto the film, but I was met with an even better surprise. Though Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan spoke English, both French AND Dutch subtitles were shown at the bottom for the entire duration of the film. The film took place in Paris, France, so I felt it was fitting. When the movie was finished, we went outside and happened to see a building perform a light show.

While wandering around, we decided to look inside a supermarket. After we had picked out some good Belgian chocolate and marveled at the store's price tag system, it was time to call it a night.

On the way back to the hostel, we stopped at a convenience store. I wanted to grab a Belgian white beer and get Laura something, too. Even in French, the store clerk did not understand my question when I asked if he had the original flavor of Hoola Hoops chips (Laura's favorite). Even after asking him 3 times, he still thought I was just trying to find where the chips were. I finally gave up and left. Belgians have some strange beer. On the ingredients, "spices" are listed, but I have no idea what these spices may be.

After a great night's rest in a bed slightly larger than God's interest in the outcome of professional sports, Laura and I set out once more.

Next stop: The Adamantine Acme of Antwerp

The End is Near

2007-11-16T13:31:00.000-08:00

I showed up early today to study a bit and work in the library. The chairs and tables still barred each door, but this time I was bemused, for the large metal doors were also closed. A small sign read, "For the safety of students and teachers alike, classes are canceled and all university buildings are unaccessible until Wednesday." It made me chuckle. I was surprised it had not happened sooner. I struck up a conversation with a French student reading the sign at the same time as me. A rather pleasant philosophy student, we had a good chat about French and American culture. He is the first French student who has been receptive to me, so I hope that I have many more chances to speak with him. Right now, I love nothing more than being able to speak French to a somebody who cannot speak English.

The buildings looked awful because students perpetuating the blocus had been living in the buildings. Having brought beds, televisions, and enough spray paint to cover the Eiffel tower, the interiors were laden with graffiti and general filth. The inside and outside of each building was being cleaned when I arrived. Students with mops and rags worked like bees to excoriate any trace of the vandalism. In turn, the grevists put up signs of dissension on the outside of every door: "Le gouvernement a peur!" Essentially, this is a derisive remark saying the president of the university and others are afraid.

The majority of students are not en greve, strange as it may seem. It is obvious that most of them do not mind missing class, (myself included), but the level of active participation is only sufficient. I really want to join for the hell of it, but I abstain for fear that French president Nicholas Sarkozy might ninja-kick me across the Atlantic.

The Brussels post is coming soon, I promise. Now that I have this unexpected vacation I will have more time.

P.S. I apologize if the Google ads are in the way, but I put them up a few months ago because ads like this, which pay the blog owner after each valid click, are a decent way to make money.

Strasbourg-Luxembourg

2007-11-10T05:49:00.000-08:00

The view from the train was somewhat sentimental because the tree-covered mountains reminded me of Kentucky. Laura was kept company by an energetic seeing eye dog.

Our train pulled into the Luxembourg City train station at around 4 PM. Luxembourg is a small country (Only about as big as most counties in the U.S.), so we decided to spend our time just in the capital. Again, I had no idea where we were going to sleep. I hoped for the best.

Since it was Sunday evening, I decided it would be best if we grabbed a quick bite before everything closed. We stopped at a Subway because they had a decent deal for students. Also, to my surprise, this particular Subway offered free refills. This may not seem like a big deal, but this was the first time Laura and I had encountered this in Europe. (In France you buy a coffee for 2 Euros. If you want another coffee, you pay 2 more Euros.) I soused myself with carbonated drinks to my heart's content. I knew I would be treading the dangerous waters of incontinence later, but it was worth it.

My discourse on drinks leads me to digress: finding a free place to use the restroom is nearly impossible, from what I have seen so far, in Europe. Some places are "generous" and offer free restroom facilities to paying customers. Normally, one would expect this, but in many establishments this is simply not the case. If you go to certain Mcdonald's restaurants and spend 10 euro on food and drink, there will still be a restroom ATTENDANT expecting you to pay anywhere from .30 to .60 centimes (cents) to use the potty. Frankly, the places I have seen which do this the least are Nantes and Luxembourg. At any rate, if you can't hold it, bring a change purse with you on your travels.

I had little more planned than just walking around, so I decided it would be best to take a circular path around the center of the city. Even in it's center, Luxembourg was incredibly quiet on this particular Sunday night. The city was also clean and well-nigh devoid of graffiti.

We finally threw away our well-worn Subway cups due to the cold, and started taking pictures. The most conspicuous building in Luxembourg City is its iconic castle where the Grand Duke and his family live. I will not discuss Luxembourg's government at the present moment; it is unique, so I suggest you reconnoitre the structure at your leisure.

Having seen all of the sights, Laura and I went into a small bar because it had wireless internet access. I ordered myself "The most Luxembourgian beer available" and got Laura the most non-winy wine available. What I perceived to be a couple arrived shortly after us and took a seat in the neighboring booth. At first I thought they were speaking Luxembourgish, but upon further inspection, it turned out to be Russian. I did not perturb them, but a haggard-looking individual in the bar decided it would be a good idea to perturb me.

Apparently he spoke French and a little English, but the only language I understood was Oaf. (Having been one myself in the past I still understand this tongue even if I cannot speak it anymore.) He would continually approach me, force me to shake is hand, then walk away. During each "visit" he would also make comments to Laura which assuredly riled me up. After several return trips, he decided to also bother the Russian couple. The woman bluntly told him that he was not being polite and that it would be in his best interest to leave them undisturbed. He complied for the moment, and went back to the bar.

During this brief respite, I began speaking to the Russians. It turned out they were not a couple but simply friends. Ilyas, as his name is written in English, began speaking to me about Luxembourg and Russia. Unfortunately, we were yet again interrupted by the inebriated man. Having had enough, I raised a fist, ready to level my first European. I somehow restrained myself and forcibly marched myself to the bar where I tattled on him. He was given the door, and I returned to my table.

As it was getting late, the Russian woman bade us farewell. Ilyas remained where we talked in-depth. His French was about the same level as mine, so we would switch between English and French depending on the difficulty of our explanations. During our discussion, I learned something very interesting about Russia. Living a few hundred miles or so out of Moscow, Ilyas told me that his mother tongue was actually closer to Turkish. He said everybody has to know Russian, too, but only because it is the official language of the state. He did not know the word in English or French for the name of the particular dialect.

As we were leaving, I asked where we could find a youth hostel. Unexpectedly, he offered to walk us to it even though it was nearly midnight. At this point I thought that either all Russians were saints, or that we were about to get murdered. I decided on the former, but only because of vague intuition. On the way he gave us a short history lesson.

We passed by the following:

a British Embassy
a rather nice church with an equally nice fountain
an ancient wall
the former gate of the city when the Romans occupied the area. (Sorry; no picture. He was in a hurry to catch his train after seeing us off.)

We arrived at the hostel and said our goodbyes. As we walked our separate ways he turned and shouted with a wave, "I respect the Americans!" I never imagined I'd be a United States ambassador in Luxembourg.

(Forgive the angle; our suitcase took this one.)

Next stop: The bristly, bustling, wonderfully bedraggled Belgian city of Brussels.

Nantes Students = Pissed Off

2007-11-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

Today I had the pleasure of witnessing a real-life French strike in an unexpected place: my university.

I was expecting to have a written exam, but instead I was met by an old man meticulously locking all of the classroom doors. He informed me that I would not be having class today. I was confused until my professor finally approached the confused huddle of my classmates and explained that every time somebody tried to unlock a room, the French students would forcibly enter, steal all of the desks and chairs, and force the professor out of the class.

I waited for over an hour. I tried to keep my mind focused on the forthcoming exam, but with hundreds of French students carrying pilfered articles to be used as barricades, I had a hard enough time restraining my bewildered laughter.

After intense negotiations, the students finally agreed to temporarily cease hostilities for one classroom so that we could have class. The only stipulation was that we vacate immediately at 5. Class proceeded as usual, except we made certain not to finish late this time. As I made my way past the hundreds of chairs barring the doors I could not stop grinning. I wish we did this kind of stuff to make people listen to us back home.

If I can find some pictures I will post them. Today was definitely one of the more humorous representations of French culture at its best.

(More blogs about our trip are in the works. Keep checking back; comments are appreciated and an account is not required to post.)

Paris-Strasbourg

2007-11-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Strasbourg in late afternoon. I had planned to make Strasbourg a simple stop-gap before Luxembourg, but that changed due to train schedules. We bought two 24 hour tram tickets and zipped our way to the center of the city. On the way I asked a fellow passenger where to find a grocery store. She quickly rattled off several different places, but good advice comes with a price. It turned out she was homeless and I immediately felt tactless about my question. She said something along the lines of, "I know where to find all the grocery stores, but now that I lost my job and don't have a place to sleep I can't buy food there anymore." Good job, tourist...

To make the most of our money, we bought a loaf of bread, some ham, and a cheap coke. We sat in the middle of a small park adjacent to an enormous fake keg. Hoping for a bite, somebody's black dog [Laura apologizes for the distortion of this photo] walked directly up to our bench and sat patiently; it even gently pawed Laura's leg in an attempt to win her over. Despite my most earnest efforts in French and English, I could not get the dog to leave. (While reflecting later I decided that the dog must have been German.)

I booked a room at an inexpensive hotel. I had no idea where to find it, but since I am a frugal person I reserved a room anyway. (I found it humorous that the hotel's name was "Best Hotel". That leaves a lot of room for subjective opinions if the person is not familiar with the actual 'Best Hotel'.) Before leaving the park area I saved a small map of the hotel's location. I knew it would not do us much good, but I hoped it would be better than mine and Laura's usual "look at maps whenever we see them at a bus stop" method.

We finally made it to the right location. I would have felt I had made a grievous error due to the copious wait we endured were a family not waiting for the same bus. The bus eventually arrived and we got on board. About half an hour later we happily got off at the incorrect stop.

I realized my error, spat out a few gros mots, and proceeded to walk towards a pizza place in our vicinity. A shady looking man was smoking a cigarette on the porch, so we went inside to look for somebody else to disturb. The man running the place had a phone in one hand, money in the other, and a full line up to the counter. Realizing the futility of my desire to solicit him, I motioned to Laura and we stepped out onto the porch. Upon stating, "Bonsoir, excusez-moi monsieur," he immediately extinguished his cigarette and listened attentively. He hailed one of his friends who was about to deliver a pizza, whereupon the two began a Schlieffen-style exchange about how to find the hotel. The directions were perfect, though disheartening due to the number of kilometers we needed to traverse to recuperate from our choice of the incorrect bus stop.

Though we were completely lost, Strasbourg was a breath of fresh air compared to Paris. The German architecture was interesting and the typical French graffiti was nearly nonexistent. The neighborhoods reminded me of subdivisions in the U.S. Laura insists that I say we saw a cute little hedgehog walking across the street as we walked to the hotel. It turned out that the bus we had taken passed by our hotel.

I have learned that when traveling one must appreciate the best and accept the worst. Unless you are a rich individual with a good guide, tourism is a tough gig.

We fell asleep to a French quiz show in a room much larger than the one we were compelled to use at the airport several months ago. The next morning, we took the bus back to the center of the city, and admired the Palais Rohan as well as the amazing Strasbourg Cathedral, which was finished in 1439. We walked around for about another hour, encountering interesting street signs, shops, and entertainers before ultimately making our way to the train station. I gobbled a pretzel and a beer while Laura downed an espresso, and off we went once more.

Next stop: The diminutive domain of the Grand Duchy - Luxembourg.

Nantes-Paris

2007-10-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the train station well in advance in order to validate our passes and purchase a reservation. Unfortunately, the only train to Paris which was still available left at 9 PM. We took it anyway as well as a reservation for Strasbourg the following day. I walked around to get a feel of the place, and continuously glanced at the departure panels to see on which track our speedy TGV train would arrive.

The time finally came and we boarded with no difficulty. It was a shame that we had to ride at night because TGV trains are incredibly fast. (We passed the full length of other trains in a matter of seconds.) We arrived about 30 minutes after midnight, and began our quasi-aimless romp around Paris.

The first goal of ours was to see the Eiffel Tower. At 1 AM the entire tower began flashing with bright silver lights for some reason. Laura got a little video of this which I shall post if I find a way to insert it. It was a much-needed beacon, since we had very little idea where to find anything. There were a few things which I had not expected about it. Contrary to my childlike expectations, the area under the tower was open to the public. It was also guarded by security personnel carrying automatic weapons. It was much bigger than I expected, as well.

Two men bedecked in souvenirs approached us as well at different times. I decided to haggle with him a bit before shutting him down. He didn't take this very well and stormed off after yelling "Laisses-moi tranquile!"

There are many problems with Paris. The exorbitant prices are as unavoidable as the urine which flows from every dark corner. (Imagine paying 150 dollars for a hotel room as big as your bathroom.) The public-transport system is tailored to take advantage of tourists and other outsiders. If you want to ride a bus and are not a part of some specific Parisian transportation society you must pay 1.50 Euro. The Parisians have also acquired a public bicycle exchange program. Laura and I trekked endless kilometers to save money, and citizens used bicycles which must be obtained by using another secret-clubhouse card.

I'll not even mention the public restrooms for now.

We sprinted across the largest and busiest roundabout I have ever seen to get incredibly close to the Arch de Triomphe. After a short time we were accosted by some more armed guards who insisted that it was illegal to be as close as we were. At least I got some great photos...

After leaving the Arch a few Parisians asked us where THEY could find a McDonald's or a Quick. (A Quick is kind of like a slightly better McDonald's.) I decided that if a Parisian didn't know where something is then Laura and I did not have a chance. They did think that my French was good, though; this pleased me immensely.

Having finished our main goals, we began making our way to the train station. On our way we saw several statues, a memorial for Princess Diana, a huge ferris wheel, and many, many other buildings.

Having walked what felt like 10 miles around Paris, Laura and I were completely exhausted. We were not willing to pay for lodging so we went and slept on the cold floor of the Paris North train station. We got about 3-4 hours of sleep between each other and finally had to get up because it was simply too cold.

Our train to Strasbourg was to leave at Paris East, so we went there quite early to wait. I unplugged a copier and plugged my laptop in. While typing this a lady approached me and said, "Do you speak English?" I was not used to having my native tongue appreciated so I said, "Sure!" thinking she needed directions. To my dismay she handed me a tiny laminated card saying how her father had leukemia and she couldn't afford food. Thinking quickly, I offered her one fig newton and smiled. I had her now! She took it and walked away, but I am pretty sure she winked at me.

We grabbed a quick bite at...Quick and then got on the train to Strasbourg. The lady sitting in the seat next to me was sneaky. Her Strasbourg was for the train an hour later, but she got on anyway. The rightful owner of the seat caught her, though, and she was forced to relocate. The owner's name was Gil, and he was visiting his son who was studying in Strasbourg. He hailed from Quebec, and he had the distinctive maahTAYNE (Matin is French for morning. In France..French one is supposed to pronounce it MahTAN.) It was an excellent opportunity to practice my French because he could speak English, as well as several other languages. We parted ways at the train station, and Laura and I began our voyage through Strasbourg: a city that defies an old adage.

It looks like its German. It acts like its German...

but it speaks French.

Next update: Strasbourg-Luxembourg.

EUROPE Travel Question

2007-10-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

If you could go anywhere, where would it be?
Perhaps you can visit vicariously.

I'll check for comments. Thanks.

L'Histoire et Les Autres

2007-10-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

"Le roi de France a tous les pouvoirs..."

It's neat to learn about French history in French. Having been here for two months I often get to the point where I am listening to French and I forget that I am listening to it. (This is only in class, though; the language becomes too casual and rapid outside of the university.) I posed the following today: "Can we actually say that Louis XIV considered himself the Sun King because the Sun is the center of the universe? At this time people thought the Earth was the center of the Universe, correct?"

This was in opposition to a reason another student gave as to why Louis XIV designated himself the Sun King. I thought this was a great question, but I secretly felt pretty stupid after proudly stating "Copernicus" and "Galileo" were the most prominent individuals who thought the contrary. (In France, they say Coper-NEEK and GalEELAY...)

At this point, the class is becoming a little family. We have class together 18 hours a week, so it was bound to happen eventually. Surprisingly, I have actually excoriated my fear of appearing intelligent. The English speakers ask me for help and the people who speak English as a second language always ask me how I do on tests. I am finally learning that it is OK to sit up front and be an active participant in class. Those who do not care about class or hold me in low-esteem as a result of my success are not worth my time.

I am afraid that my credits will not be transferred the way I had hoped. My adviser in the French department did not seem very pleased that I did not talk to her before I left the States. I did not realize you had to talk to more than one adviser so I only talked to Dr. Roberts. It would make more sense to me if a committee decided which credits to award, mais bon...

Laura and I leave for 9-10 days tomorrow and I do not know if we shall have internet. Also, if you read this blog, please leave a comment if you don't mind. It'd be nice to hear from you.

Latter Day Saints

2007-10-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

During the weekend I involve myself with certain aspects of North American culture. I devoted this evening to the Mormon church. All of the red text comes from either lds.org or utlm.org if you are interested in checking the validity of my sources. UTLM is slanted against Mormonism, but if you compare with LDS you will see there are no discrepancies. (Only a few low-blows :) )

Such things as this perplex me:

The official name of the Mormon Church today is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith founded it at the age of 24, in the state of New York on April 6, 1830. It was originally named the Church of Christ, and then in 1834 the name was changed to the Church of the Latter Day Saints. In 1838 it received its current name (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec.115:4).

I would be concerned that a man of the age of 24 founded a church were this not the early 19th century.

To check the validity of this I went to josephsmith.net. Regrettably, I was proved wrong. He was actually 14 when this occurred.

On a spring day in 1820 14-year-old Joseph Smith sought solitude in a grove of trees and prayed to know which church was true. God the Father and Jesus Christ, "two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description," appeared and spoke with him.

.....

Joseph Smith proclaimed that God Himself had designated the LDS Church as "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" (Doc. & Cov. Sec. 1:30).

How many other churches claim this? *sigh*

The LDS Church claims to have the only true priesthood that is required to act in the name of God. A Prophet/President and his two counselors govern the church. Under them are twelve apostles and a group of men called the Seventies. These are the highest offices in their church.

They have four books of scriptures: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price

...was Steinbeck Mormon?

The LDS Church claims to be the "only true church" and the only church with the authority to act in God's name. They do not accept any other church's baptisms. According to their teachings, their baptism is the only one recognized by the Lord. This belief, coupled with their belief in the need for a Mormon temple marriage to gain eternal life, compels them to take their message to the world.

Attempted drowning in any building should have the same effect, right? Is the "Lord" so blind that he cannot understand that the intent is all that matters and not the venue/denomination?

What if a Mormon couple wants to get married outside in a pretty garden or if the temple is being fumigated?

This is a pretty interesting tidbit concerning Mormonism in France:

After World War II, as reconstruction had begun and Church humanitarian relief efforts had been mobilized, missionaries were once more sent into France and membership began to increase. In 1955, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir made its historic tour of Europe, performing in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. At the time, Church membership in the nation was only about 1,500. France's first meetinghouse was completed in Nantes in 1962. By 1974, 29 French members were serving as missionaries for the Church.

Nobody has come to my door, regrettably. Trying to be converted to Mormonism by a French person would be an excellent opportunity to work on my communication skills.

Another problem is I have been told that Mormons are essentially just a different kind of Christian. Correct me if I am wrong, but this seems a little off:

No, the Mormon Church does not claim to be Protestant. It claims to be a divine restoration of Christ's true church. It therefore rejects the validity of any other church. Its basic beliefs place it outside the standard doctrines of Christianity. Mormonism teaches that the God to whom they pray is but one of a whole series of gods who at one time were mortal then progressed to godhood. The LDS Church teaches that their Heavenly Father was once born as a spirit child of a god and wife who ruled a different world. After maturing as a spirit being he was sent to another world where he was born as a human. There he grew to maturity, married, died, was resurrected, went to heaven, progressed and eventually became the God of our world. He and his resurrected wife continue to have spirit children born to them in their heavenly realm. The Mormon man, accompanied by his wife, who is faithful to his religion, pays his tithe, attends the LDS temple rituals, etc. is hoping to eventually progress to become a god of another world, just like his Heavenly Father did.

This means a few things:

There is life on other planets. Mormon men who were good boys have their own little planet to take care of (or neglect).
God's mortal life must have been pretty boring. He hit puberty, got married, and died.
God gets it on in heaven.
Women apparently don't get to be Gods.

The Doctrine and Covenants contains 138 sections and two Official Declarations. The first 135 sections contain Joseph Smith's revelations from 1823 to 1844, section 136 is a revelation by President Brigham Young in 1847, section 138 is one by President Joseph F. Smith in 1918. Declaration No. 1 is dated 1890 and is referred to as "The Manifesto" which declared an end to the practice of polygamy. Declaration No. 2 is dated 1978 and declared that "all worthy male members" could now hold the priesthood and participate in the temple ceremonies. This ended the LDS Church priesthood ban on Negroes.

Joseph Smith was not a very fast thinker. I am pretty sure that most human beings who wanted to concoct a religion and write its corresponding scripture could do so within a matter of months.
It took the Mormons until 1978 to feel that blacks could hold the priesthood and participate in temple ceremonies? LBJ missed a spot.

The eighth LDS Article of Faith states: "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly." The Mormons believe the Bible has gone through repeated editing that has changed the meaning of the text. Thus they are skeptical of any translation of the Bible. However, they view the King James Version as the least corrupt of the versions available today. They print their own Bible (King James Version) with additional LDS footnotes, dictionary and topical guide. These cross reference to their other books of scripture and provide LDS explanations.

If Mormons can believe that Mr. Smith is capable of translating ANYTHING, how can they scoff at reasonable modern-day translations?

I don't know. I have to stop here. I unfortunately don't have the time to devote to understand this religion. It is most likely that I am incapable of comprehending this faith.

If you are a Mormon individual, please enlighten me...if you can.

Presentation

2007-10-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

Today, a man from El Salvador played my banjo like an electric guitar and a Japanese girl told me that she worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken for two years.

It's amazing what reactions an exposition on Tennessee can elicit.

Each Wednesday, different students from different parts of the world must do a presentation about their daily lives. (This was started because we have a four hour class on Wednesday and we are all completely dead by the last hour.) Since I volunteered to go first, all the other U.S. students were scheduled for today as well. There are only 3 of us, and Stephen decided to stay home.

I talked about laws for driving, smoking, and drinking and also outlined the education system. (They all knew what Harvard was.) I explained our "weird" units of measurement and that, regrettably, most of the American stereotypes are true.

For some reason, many found it bizarre that each city did not have a flag of its own when I drew the Tennessee flag. It also seemed incomprehensible that the Mississippi River was not included somehow in the flag. I tried to explain that it is simply a border or boundary and that it is more important to the gulf states than Tennessee.

To finish, I decided to say how Nashville is "la ville de musique aux Etats-Unis". To display this, I used a banjo. I played a few tunes and began answering some questions.

* Did Kentucky Fried Chicken start in Kentucky?
* At what age do you start learning your other languages? (Yes, plural...We Suck.)
* What is the speed limit?
* What is the traditional dish of Tennessee? (I really had no response for this. I could have tried to describe grits or some other nonsense, but I refrained. I simply stated [translated] "A big breakfast - eggs, bacon, etc.")
* Does everybody play banjo in Tennessee? (I smiled.)
* How does everybody get where they want to go? (My explanation that only the lower-middle class and poor use public transportation was astonishing.)
* Are there many Islamic mosques? (I refrained from going into religion or politics...except for one Bush remark. ;) I simply said I did not know because I am not religious.)

I believe that next week is China's turn. It should be interesting.

9 Ways to Speak French Better

2007-10-17T02:48:00.000-07:00

1. Be absolutely certain that you keep your lips and facial muscles pursed like you are about to play a French horn.

2. All "r" sounds must be thoroughly choked on for English speakers. If your native language is Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, or Russian then rolling your r's is cool.

3. If you know a big word in English, say the same word in French but put an EEK or AY sound in places a French person probably would. (Take conviviality for instance. In French it is, phonetically, convivialit[AY])

4. Incorporate the "Passe simple" into your oral vocabulary whenever possible so people think you are quoting literature.

5. Use the indicative where the subjunctive is usually needed. It will make you seem infallible and self-assured.

6. Say ALORS and DONC a lot. It makes people think you are about to be prophetic. Also, say "TIENS!" to the homeless. It is the only time they will look up. (The etiquette for the homeless in France is different than the U.S. Instead of openly accosting you, the homeless sit with a small 100ml cup with their heads hung in shame.)

7. Say "J'oublie" a lot. It means you used to know something but forgot it. If somebody offers to teach you say "J'etais un chat.", which means "I used to be a cat." (I promise it'll help, especially in crowded areas.)

8. If you are a Monty Python fan, be sure to replace every "ne pas" with "ni pas". The neither/nor construction may make you giddy, but you may as well take advantage of how often ne...pas is used.

9. And finally...you can't do double quote marks with your fingers. Most French novels use <<>> to show dialogue and some don't even do that. (In French, they are called les guillemets.) Next time, just pretend Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man are fighting.

Good Luck!

How to do a Handstand

2007-10-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Capoeira, I can now do a handstand.

Step 1. Try to stand on your hands.
Step 2. Fall.
Step 3. Repeat.

Tip: Don't look at your feet.

Vacation #1

2007-10-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

Mid-October

2007-10-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

We've been here a little over 6 weeks. Things are becoming easier, but it still bothers me when I cannot quickly think of something to say. Surprisingly, I have actually become better at understanding French than speaking it.

Laura and I are either going to Belgium/Luxembourg/The Netherlands or Spain/Portugal in a few weeks. I only have a 10-11 day vacation so we have not yet decided. The Eurail passes are not that expensive and they permit us unlimited travel depending on how many days we purchase.

The fact that a 12.5/20 can be considered a good grade is beyond me. The kooky 20 point French grading system is still bizarre to me. (A 10/20 transfers essentially as a B-.)

My birthday is coming up on the 23rd. If anybody is reading this all I can say is that even if you just send a card it would mean the world to me. 21 does not mean much in a country where kids drink wine in the womb.

Here is a wish list:

Any form of food that can be cooked in a microwave or on the stove. The French have so few things Laura and I can cook because we do not have an oven. The convenience lifestyle most Americans are used to is generally shunned for quality here.
Gatorade Mix/Any kind of anything we can mix with water to drink...lol.
Cards, anything at all

:) Sorry, lol.

That really is about it. I have a lot of class and capoeira is really getting me into shape. (I can even walk around on my hands a little.)

Hopefully we will have more to write about once I have my first much-needed break.

Friends, food, and flowers.

2007-09-27T15:44:00.000-07:00

Bonsoir! Finally, it is I, Laura, after a very long break. From this blogger, anyway.

I think I'm going to take some more time to gather my thoughts and experiences from my two weeks in England, and after I have succeeded I'll proceed to place them here. For now, though, here is my recollection of what has happened after my return to Nantes.

I came back to a somewhat altered apartment. A very cozy place to come back to, with loving arms wide open to welcome me back. I missed Patrick immensely, despite my enjoyment with my grandparents. As posted below, Patrick has begun the journey of intense work with French, and even lessons in the art of capoeira. So far, he is doing just fine. A little tired, though.

He also mentioned meeting and making new friends: Theo, James, Jen (fellow English folk like me!), Nichola (Irish), as well as others who share classes with him. I've had the pleasure of meeting the Brits the night I had returned, the same night England won their rugby match, so needless to say the night was filled with the English language. They're incredibly nice people, with great senses of humor to match; all are attending the University de Nantes. We shared a few drinks at a local pub where many Englishman celebrated their victory in a humorous, drunken stupor.

Since Patrick is going to be busy with school, I'm needing to constantly keep myself busy with the area and its many sites. So far, I've walked around, viewing numerous buildings of great architecture, taking in the wonderful smells of many pâtisseries, and hearing a ton of French. Sometimes, it can be a bit overwhelming, but it is a good way to truly immerse myself within the culture. My interaction with the locals can be embarrassing, but I'm slowly learning. I've done my bit of shopping, and even picked up a parcel today from la poste.

One adventure took me to the local garden, the pride of Nantes, deemed the Jardin des Plantes. It was astonishing! Luckily, I brought the camera along:

The rest can be viewed in my photobucket album. The guest password is lolcat25

Today was the longest day for Patrick. Luckily, I bumped into James on the way down to Commerce. We had some coffee and tea, and then headed up to the university to chat with Theo. On the way James introduced me to a French-speaking German girl named Evelyn. All three of us went to the Uni's café to go online (the internet here has been down for several days). Theo and Jen came down, and we all huddled around chatting away like old comrades. It is very good for me to get out on my own and converse with people, especially when Patrick is away in school for long periods of time.

Well, it is very late, and I'd hate to wake Patrick up with constant clicking. I promise I shall post again soon about my vacation in Cardiff, Wales. Bonne nuit!

-Laura J. MARTIN

Wednesday - Four hours of class.

2007-09-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday may be my longest day, but I think Wednesday is the most taxing. With only a 5 minute break to split it up, I have a solid block of French language instruction from 1 PM to 5 PM. Before and after I ride my bike about 3 miles to get to and from campus. It goes without saying that I am pretty pooped when the evening finally rolls around.

Laura will be back in 2 days, and things get easier each day. I got a phone yesterday. As far as I know it is free for me to receive texts and calls in France regardless of where the call originated. It may cost the caller a bundle though I would not know because I have not yet received any international calls.

My number is 06 42 02 87 48 if you fancy calling me.

I met several people from Northern Ireland and England yesterday, too. They were at my bank, luckily, and we have become fast friends. Theo and I climbed on top of a tram stop while waiting for one of the night trams. Several pictures were taken, but I do not have one yet.

My collegiate path to 2010

2007-09-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I am studying abroad in France is that it is easy to get credit. All of the classes I take here transfer as simply Pass or Fail, so I do not have to worry about making a C (8 or 9 on the French scale of 1-20) as long as I am learning something. That translates (no pun intended) to 30 or 31 college credit hours.

CLEP, or "College Level Examination Program" is simply a collection of tests you can take to get equivalence credit on a Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory basis.

Things I MUST CLEP:

American Government*
American History I (November 2008)
American History II*
British Literature (September 2008)
Educational Psychology (April 2010)
European Civilization I (February 2009)
European Civilization II (March/April 2009)
Macroeconomics (September 2009)
Sociology (November 2009)

*Already completed

Year 1 (Music Education/Sociology Experimentation Year)
Fall
3 Harmony
1 Aural Techniques
1 Class Piano I
1 Jazz Band
1 Marching Band
1 Tuba Ensemble
1 Private Lessons
1 Honors 1010
3 American Literature
3 Music Appreciation
16

Spring
3 Speech Communication
2 Personal Development/Relationships
1 Social Intelligence
1 Jazz Band
3 Math 1010
3 Honors: The Latin language
13

Year 2
Fall
4 Astronomy 1010
3 French 1010
3 Psychology 2010
3 French 3510
3 History 1120
16

Spring
4 Astronomy 1020
3 French 1020
3 GEOG 1120 Human Geography
3 History 3360 American Military History
2 FOED 2011 Introduction to Teaching and Technology
1 FOED 1820 or 1822 Field Experience
16

Year 3 (Study Abroad: France)
Fall
3 FREN 2010 Intermediate French
3 FREN 2020 Intermediate French
3 FREN 3020 Communication in French
3 FREN 3100 French Phonetics
3 FREN 3112 Culture and Civilization of France
3 FREN 3040 Conversational French
18

Spring
3 FREN 3010 Composition
3 FREN 3110 Survey of French Literature I
3 FREN 3120 Survey of French Literature II
3 FREN 3200 or 4100 (Business French/Advanced Listening)
1 FREN 4910 (Directed study) or Minicourses
12

Summer
3 Political Science
3 Political Science
3 Tennessee Topics
9

Year 4

Fall
3 CUED 4150 Middle Level Curriculum
3 POLS 3610. International Politics
1 FOED 3820 Field experiences in education
3 FREN Senior Capstone
3 SOC 1100 Intro to Anthropology
3 FOED 3010 Integrating instructional technology into the classroom
3 SEED 4125 Materials and Methods of Teaching Foreign Language
19

Spring
1 FOED 3830 Field Experiences in Education
3 HIST 2410 Introduction of Historical Method
3 POLS 4960. Seminar in World Politics (Or 3310,3320,3610,3800,4360)
3 POLS 4510. Comparative Government: Europe (Or 3310,3320,3610,3800,4360)
3 READ 3350 Teaching Reading in the Content Areas
3 SEED 4124 Materials and Methods of Teaching Social Studies
3 Upper Division History (4730,40,50 or 60 if not completed OR 4550, 4530/4540/4560/4570 if not done)
19

Summer
3 Intro to Computing OR Computer Applications in Business
3 Political Science
3 History Upper Division (4730/40/50/60 if not completed in OR 4550, 4530/4540/4560/4570 if not done)
3 Political Science
Year 5

Fall
3 Senior Seminar (HISTORY)
3 POLS 3330 State and Local Government
5 SEED 4880 Student Teaching
2 SEED 4890 Seminar: Education and Society
3 History (Upper Division 4730/40/50/60 if not completed OR 4550, 4530/4540/4560/4570 if not done)
3 EDPY 3300. Evaluation and Guidance
19

Spring
5 Student Teaching
3 History (Upper Division 4730/40/50/60 if not completed in Fall OR 4550, 4530/4540/4560/4570 if not done)
3 ENGL (Upper Division)
3 SPED 3000 Teaching persons with disabilities in the regular classroom
2 CPR Safety Class
16

Only 18 hours of credit
may have a B for a 3.5 to be maintained.

13/09/07

2007-09-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

I made it through my longest day just fine. I am so focused on understanding what is going on that I never even look at my watch. It was FASCINATING to be in a history class where a secular discussion about Christianity could occur. (Compare being in a class with at least 10 students from China to being in a class with no fewer than 50 bible-belt Tennesseeans.)

Laura returns on the 22nd. Until then I am just constantly cramming French into my head. Now that class has started I feel my communicative and comprehension abilities are increasing exponentially.

I helped this one Chinese girl find her class today. I felt bad because she was 15 minutes late because she didn't know some vocabulary on her schedule and the French teacher was a bitch to her as she walked in. (What's new? I kid. My teachers are actually quite bright and agreeable. She just happens to have a bad egg.)

I also helped another girl find the sport facility. She spoke Spanish, which I am MUCH more used to than French. (Even though my French is 100x better) I surprised myself because as she was talking to me in Spanish I somehow understood what she was asking. (She wanted to know how much it was to sign up.) Based on the vague bits of Spanish I know from childhood and living with a guy taking it in college I told her "Es treinta (or however you spell thirty) cinco". I even did the trill right. Languages are tough, but they grow on you...

12/09/07

2007-09-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

I've begun getting my first pieces of mail from my bank. Setting up a bank account in France requires a private meeting! I felt like I was enlisting for the CIA instead of trying to get a Carte Bancaire.

By the way, my address is:

M. Patrick SIZEMORE (Or Mme. Laura MARTIN)
12 Rue Yves Bodiguel
44000 Nantes, France

Exactly like that, mind you. The French are particular.

Speaking of particular...I unintentionally broke my first French law yesterday. The tram police are generally incredibly lax, but for some reason they decided to hit me hard. My ticket, valid for only one hour, was more than a day old...and I had to pay 40 Euros or be detained. Seriously!!! No "your court date is in 6 weeks buddy, take care now". Simply a< <- NON QUARANTE EurOS. -> >.

---------------
I use the "<< >>" because that is how French novels display speech. That's right, no quotation marks! It's crazy!
---------------

I'm not upset about the fee because I didn't have my passport on me so I am not on the books. I hadn't been paying for tickets anyway because I had assumed that nobody really did...but upon further inspection of the ticket I bought today I realized that the reason that only a few people, at least to my eyes, had been validating their tickets was because you are only supposed to do it ONCE so the police can see when you first used it. I had been punching it every single time I got on a tram like an idiot. Live and learn.

Today was my first day of class. I am in "niveau 3" or level 3. I seem to be a bit further along than many of the other students when it comes to reading and writing, but English is so firmly ingrained into my ears that I have a hard time with aural skills such as dictation or exercises requiring me to deduce meaning from stories spoken rapidly by natives. A Chinese guy approached me after class and said "Tres difficle, n'est pas?" as he offered me a cigarette. I couldn't deny it after 4 straight hours of instruction. I asked him for his name (Comment vous appelez vous?) but when he told me I couldn't figure out how to say it. I guess Mandarin is next on the menu...

...anyway, here is my schedule:

M-Lundi 1PM-5PM FRENCH
T-Mardi 1PM-5PM FRENCH
W-Mercredi 1PM-5PM FRENCH
T-Jeudi 10AM-12PM FRENCH 1:30PM-3:30PM FRENCH HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY 3:30PM-4:30PM FRENCH
F-Vendredi 1 PM-4PM FRENCH

At least it's more diverse than my diet.

Settling In...

2007-09-08T03:15:00.000-07:00

At last, it is Saturday and I have some room to breathe. I could go into lavish detail about everything which has occurred, but there is simply too much which has happened. Here goes!

We arrived at the Nashville airport bright and early. I exchanged some dollars for Euros, and then returned to wait with Laura and her parents. After a heartfelt goodbye we passed through security. The drug dog wasn’t around, but Laura was taken out of the regular security line and corded off. She was patted down and they used the handheld metal detector as well. It was like she was going to be sent to prison. Apparently E.U. citizens leaving the States are subject to more scrutiny.
The first leg of our trip took us to New York. Luckily Laura’s mother had given us some money in Nashville so we had some chicken and bread at JFK. While waiting to get on the plane to Dublin we encountered this French woman on the way to Tampa, Florida. It was adorable listening to her as she talked to her baby. She continuously repeated “Manger? Non?”. That was about the only word I could understand. Her thick native accent gave me a taste of the rude awakening we were in for upon arrival in France.
The flight to Dublin was only approximately 6 hours, but because of the time change it was 13! Ireland was quite different, but at least everybody spoke English. (The pilot also gave a greeting and farewell in Irish.)
This time Laura was given special treatment because all E.U. citizens get rapidly processed in Dublin whereas Americans suffer the cattle prod. (At least I got a passport stamp out of it..) We had our first taste of Coke with real sugar here. It is amazing what real sugar can do for a soft drink...
For the flight from Dublin to France we utilized a discount airline. We carefully weighed and measured each bag specifically for this leg of the trip but they did not even care! We finally arrived in Nantes and said goodbye to English for good.
For the first time in my life I felt completely lost. I never realized how much any of my intelligence comes from my ability to communicate in ENGLISH. When it comes to French I am about as communicative as a 4 year old. The receptionist pitied me and spoke in broken English. She booked a nearby hotel for us. I had to swallow my pride and pay the 40 Euros for it because I was so tired. The worst part about the room was that it was unbelievably small. It was no bigger than half of a typical discount room in the United States.
After a vending machine breakfast we hurried to catch the 6:55 bus to the center of the city. I muddled through asking how much a ticket was and eventually we were on our way. It was fascinating how different things were (roundabouts, tiny cars, NO ENGLISH) but also very intriguing how much of it was the same. (KFC 2 KM ahead, anybody?)
We spent a lot of time walking and the rest riding on the tram system. Eventually we came across some English speaking students who had a kind Moroccan interpreting for them. We were DESPERATELY searching for an apartment and he was able to talk to a person who had placed an ad at the student center. (She's a Norwegian woman, but she happens to speak decent English.)
Because I want to get started on my studies and there is no way to make up for lost time I am going to have to summarize a few things:

We stayed at the Youth Hostel of Nantes for a few days before moving into our apartment. We had a room to ourselves instead of the usual 4 strangers with 2 bunk beds arrangement.

Our apartment is 325 Euros a month. The deposit was 650 Euros, which is HORRIBLE...but unlike in the States the deposit is actually returned at the end of your lease, lol.

We are adjusting reasonably well, even though Laura got food poisoning from some goat cheese a week ago which resulted in her going to England for a bit. (She should be back within a week.)

I or Laura will post some pictures at some point, it is just very slow on the 1-bar free Wifi connection we get only because we are on the top floor of our apartment.

I'm going to try to update regularly henceforth. There is simply too much to talk about when I let days pile up.

A demain!

Quatre jours...

2007-08-24T03:29:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

The title above, "four days", is the amount of time left for my beloved and I to get our stuff together in preparation for our big adventure. Here's a checklist of things already obtained, and things that are still in the works:

Patrick's visa.

My driver's license. About time, I know.

Financial aid, including the teacher discount. Cha-ching!

Laptop, courtesy of Patrick's gracious mother.

Plane tickets. We leave at 10:57am on Tuesday for NY. Hopefully we can pop out, click some pictures, and get back in with no hassle.

Phone numbers and e-mail addresses. All of our friends who wish to keep contact can do so through the internet; one of my father's old co-workers is French, currently living near Paris, and will hopefully be able to aid us in our travels; my grandparents' number and location, if something were to happen; people in the ISEP program who can help us with a residence, etc.

Luggage. After a painfully feminine process, I selected all I needed for the trip to fit in a tiny carry-on and one big luggage. Patrick easily selected his outfits. We are scrutinizing every detail, such as measurements and weight, to fit the specifications of Ryanair's policies.

Money. Old banks being closed, new banks being opened and filled with greens to convert to euros.

I trust I haven't neglected anything. Besides a possible gathering on Saturday, arranged by Patrick's mother, the remainder of our time here will be strictly business, taking care of everything else. Everything must be close to perfect to ensure a smooth ride and an eventual settlement in our new home.

Perhaps a permanent home? Haha. We shall see. Take care.

Laura J. MARTIN

2 Weeks Left

2007-08-13T02:01:00.000-07:00

I should be receiving my visa in the mail shortly. If I do not then I shall be unable to leave on the 28Th.

If all goes well then Laura and I shall be en route from Nashville to New York to Dublin on the 28Th. The final leg from Dublin to Nantes will not be until the 29Th due to the flight's duration. I am expecting the worst in Ireland because I booked our flight to France with Ryanair. It is basically a flying subway. You have to pay to have anything other than carry-on baggage! It makes sense though; the tickets were completely free. They make money solely through sneaky little fees.

I still need to get the following taken care of:

Birth Certificate translated
ISEP Insurance paid in full
Teacher Discount form sent to Tech
Obtain European adaptor for American electronics

There may be more, but nothing comes to mind at the moment.

Laura's last day at Kohl's is Wednesday. She is taking the test for her driver's license on Thursday. I am certain she will do just fine.

Hopefully if you are reading this and do not know Laura and I you bear in mind that we still are in the planning stages of this trip. I can assure you that in the weeks and months to come there will be some great stories.

Patrick A. SIZEMORE

Atlanta Part Deux

2007-08-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

Bonjour! This is Laura posting. Atlanta has turned out to become a business vacation, rather than just pure business. I've managed to capture our little journey around the city today.

We decided, as a quick pick-up to settle our rumbling stomaches, to stop by a Chik-a-Fila. The one we went to, however, was not like any ordinary Chik-a-Fila you'd find in Nashville, or even Tennessee. It was basically like a Waffle House version, called "The Dwarf House".

We sat down, ordered, and ate our food off of white plates. Interesting, no?

They had barstools and everything!

After being fully surprised and satisfied, Patrick and I took a ride on the interstate to locate the French Consulate he must visit in order to obtain his visa. Needless to say, we eventually found the place. Afterwards, while on the way back to the MLV, we saw a sign telling us to take a certain exit to visit the World of Coca-Cola factory. This intrigued us, remembering that our French companions Amandine and Steve had visited this place, so we ventured to take a look.

This place was pretty interesting, too.

Some countries had delicious flavors... and others didn't.

It was neat, and it came with a complimentary bottle of Coke, but was a little pricey. Nevertheless, we liked it. Right across the walkway was the Georgia Aquarium. Well, I'm a sucker for all types of animals, and at a half-price deal we decided to check it out.

Admiring the fish, bien sûr!

Interesting colors and movement.

Cutie little penguins.

I wish the whale sharks had been in this picture. Very graceful creatures.

I have several lovely videos of the sea lions, playing around and gliding about in their aquatic home, but sadly will need to be uploaded later. They require Quicktime to view, and this computer's local internet access doesn't accommodate the file size needed to upload the program. I couldn't help but be giddy to see these guys during their playtime, though.

Indeed, we've also enjoyed the company of our host and her dog Muffin, albeit not as much as we would've liked since we slept in late. She didn't seem to mind, though, and I plan to offer my assistance in her little restaurant while Patrick goes to his appointment. Either way, Patrick and I plan to leave as soon as his meeting is over with, and hope to return by late Friday night.

France itself is only 18 days away. It is mind-boggling, frightening, and exhilarating, all at the same time. There will be bumps along the way, whether they pertain to financial or cultural matters, but it will be one of the most exciting adventures that either of us have had the opportunity on which to embark. As such, I've decided that this will be the official blog of our travels, including stories and pictures/videos. Until then, à bientôt!

Laura J. MARTIN

Atlanta

2007-08-09T00:12:00.000-07:00

Laura et moi sommes à Atlanta jusqu'à ce vendredi. Atlanta a eu le consulat français le plus proche ainsi j'ai dû venir ici afin d'accomplir mon application de visa. Les bonnes nouvelles sont que nous restons dans ce petite lit et petite déjeuner avons couru par un chef parisien appelé Eileen. Elle nous a aidés beaucoup.

Eileen dirige également une boulangerie le matin. Laura et moi vont aller l'aident demain en échange de viande sur nos os.

Nous avons peu d'argent, mais nous devrions aller bien. J'ai d'argent venir de Citibank et Tech. Laura a on venir de l'IRS pour son retour 2005. Matt aura 250 dollars de prêt pour moi sur le 15ème.

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Laura and I are in Atlanta until this Friday. Atlanta had the nearest French consulate so I had to come here in order to complete my visa application. The good news is that we are staying in this swanky little bed and breakfast ran by a Parisian chef named Eileen. She gave me a great deal on the room after I called her this morning and explained the purpose of my sojourn.

Eileen also runs a bakery in the morning. Laura and I are going to go help her tomorrow in exchange for some meat on our bones.

Money is tight, but it should all work out. I have a check coming from Citibank and Tech. Laura has one coming from the IRS for her 2005 return. Hopefully an amount still owed to me by a friend I helped last year will be repaid. Matt will have 250 dollars ready for me on the 15th.

Introduction

2007-08-08T23:12:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

Je m'appelle Patrick Sizemore et j'étudierai à l'étranger a l'Université de Nantes pendant cette année scolaire. Accompagnement de moi sera ma petite amie Laura MARTIN. Nous avons été ensemble pendant neuf mois, jusqu'ici.

J'étudie à Tennessee Tech University dans Cookeville, Tennessee où je poursuis un programme de degré trois avec des emphases dans l'histoire, le Français, les sciences politiques, et l'enseignement secondaire et les mineurs dans les sciences humaines et les sciences sociales.

Je dépense mes projets de planification de temps disponible pour approfondir et augmenter mon arrangement du monde autour de moi. En pratiquant de divers instruments musicaux, lisant autant que possible, et n'ayant pas peur pour prendre des risques, mon esprit reste vivant et ne cesse jamais l'interrogation.

Je suis un personne complex. (Stupéfiant comment une phrase de cinq mots peut même donner la signification de ce rapport..quoi qu'il en soit…) J'ai passé la grande majorité de ma vie apprenant comment s'entendre avec d'autres personnes, développant un sens de l'humour, acquérant de nouvelles qualifications physiques et mentales, et plus de toutes avec l'intention de changer certains aspects de me en ceux qui plus aisément seraient acceptés dans la culture américaine. (J'essaye d'enlever un changement que j'ai apposé à la présentation de mon intellect depuis beaucoup d'années. Plus d'information plus tard.) Ceci semblerait être suicide interne à certains, mais personnellement il a simplement intensifié ma conscience de qui les gens sont et de pourquoi ils restent de cette façon. Être vous-même est difficile.

Presque tout à fait, mon individu vrai est ceci:

Je suis très ambitieux et concurrentiel. J'ai toujours estimé que s'il y avait une tâche d'être accomplie je devrais travailler assez dur que je pourrais être assez habile pour éclipser quiconque. Je ne fais pas toujours ceci, mais je me sens que je peux faire n'importe quoi si je travaille dur.

Je suis un personne intelligent. J'ai eu peur de ceci pendant ma vie entière. En mes années de la préadolescence j'étais très arrogant au sujet de mon intellect, mais avant de celui et puisque j'ai eu honte presque. (Ce qui définit l'intelligence?) Grandir dans le système d'éducation publique vous aliène si vous pensez différemment, apprenez plus rapidement, et exécutez mieux que d'autres étudiants sans beaucoup de travail.

Je serai tout à fait honnête. Je suis malade de devoir cacher le fait que pour quelque raison ma capacité d'apprendre est plus avancée que d'autres personnes. À ce jour on n'est pas quelque chose que je ne peux pas comprendre, bien que je suis finalement à l'âge où j'empathize avec les personnes qui m'ont toujours placé sur un piédestal ou sur une liste d'ennemis. Mes génétiques sont bénie dans les sujets mentaux. Très probablement, vous ne comprenez pas exactement ce que je dis. Je n'implique pas que je suis un sage ou quelque chose à cet effet. Tout ce que je dis est comment dur il a été d'être doué mentalement. J'ai la difficulté dans la compréhension pourquoi les gens apprécient certaines choses qui semblent tout à fait ineptes à moi. Les gens ont la difficulté dans la compréhension quand je finalement parle franchement. Si tout va bien mon temps en France me permettra de m'épanouir. Quand je reviens j'espoir pour être heureux avec un grand Q.I. (Une des parties les plus dures au sujet d'être une personne véritablement douée écoute ceux qui ne sont pas mais le souhait qu'ils pourraient être. Il te fait inconfortable, mais en même temps vous souhaitez ils pourraient réaliser qu'il n'est pas cela bon…)

Je ne peux pas traiter environ 95% de personnes. Je passe une bonne partie de mon temps en association avec d'autres en douleur atroce due aux matières étant discutées ou l'endroit un de ces personnes a décidé de la discuter. Tous les humains ont des problèmes, mais vous devez stopper être vous-même parfois si vous rendez quelqu'un inconfortable. (Si je joue un jeu de société avec un enfant de neuf ans qui a la lecture d'ennui je ne vais pas lire chaque phrase juste parce que je peux.)

Ma tête est dans les nuages, mais mon esprit est dans le bureau. Je choisis de rêver grand parce que si je ne vais jamais à la lune skydiving au moins est meilleur que se reposant dans un compartiment toute la journée. Toutes mes décisions sérieuses correspondent à une quantité impitoyable de planification et à une attention au détail. Aller en France pendant toute une année et voyager l'Europe? Ce sera amusement, allons-y… après que nous travaillions à avoir chaque dernier détail pris en compte.

Je suis un perfectionniste, mais je stoppe. Si je peux maintenir mon statu quo de la perfection alors que je suis un imparable force. Si les personnes avec qui je suis fonctionnement ne me permettent pas de réaliser mon travail parfaitement et en temps utile, je fais le moins possible. Avec l'âge ce trait devrait devenir plus positif parce que je peux déjà estimer qu'il part. Je le remplace par un désir de compenser en travaillant plus dur.

Je suis un introverti indépendant dans un monde indigent bavard. J'ai besoin RAREMENT de l'aide pour n'importe quoi. Si je fais on est parce que je suis dans l'université et n'ai pas le temps pour une carrière. Je ne demande pas l'argent à mes parents. Je ne passe pas des heures par nuit se plaignant au sujet des personnes ou de ma vie. Je pense que les gens qui ne peuvent pas manipuler des problèmes sont faibles. Je déteste le téléphone, mais j'aime des messages de téléphone portable. L'étude pour faire face à parler à d'autres pendant une période prolongée était probablement le défi le plus difficile à conquérir tout en grandissant.

Plus de poteaux à venir. Maintenant que vous avez une idée de qui je suis moi vous espérer de retour souvent pour des mises à jour.

Patrick A. SIZEMORE

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Here is an English version for non-French speakers.

My name is Patrick Sizemore and I shall be studying abroad at the Université de Nantes for the 2007-2008 academic year. Accompanying me will be my girlfriend Laura Martin. We have been together for nine months, so far.

Stateside I attend Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee where I am pursuing a three degree program with majors in history, French, political science, and secondary education and minors in humanities and social sciences.

I spend my spare time planning projects to deepen and enhance my understanding of the world around me. Through practicing various musical instruments, reading as much as possible, and not being afraid to take risks, my mind stays alive and never stops questioning.

I am a complex person. (Amazing how a five word sentence can even convey the meaning of that statement..anyway...) I have spent the vast majority of my life learning how to get along with other people, developing a sense of humor, acquiring new physical and mental skills, and more all with the intent of changing certain aspects of myself to those which would be more readily accepted in American culture. (N.B. I am attempting to remove an alteration I have affixed to my intellect's presentation for many years. More further down the page.) This would seem to be internal suicide to some, but personally it has simply heightened my awareness of who people are and why they stay that way. Self-actualization is a very difficult thing to achieve, but it is something to which I strive.

The closest I can get to determining what my true self may be is this:

I am very ambitious and competitive. From a young age I have always felt that if there was a task to be completed I should work hard enough that I could be skilled enough to eclipse anybody. Not that I always do this, but I feel there is nothing I cannot do if I set my mind to it.

I am an intelligent person. I have been afraid of this for my entire life. In my pre-teen years I was very arrogant about my intellect, but before that and since I have been almost ashamed. (What is intelligence anyway?) Growing up in the public education system alienates you if you think differently, learn more quickly, and perform better than other students with very little effort.

I shall be quite honest. I am sick of having to hide the fact that for some reason my ability to learn is more advanced than other people. To this day it is not something I cannot comprehend, though I am finally at the age where I empathize with the people who have always placed me on a pedestal or on a list of enemies. I cannot dunk a basketball, but my genetics are blessed in mental matters. If you are reading this you may not understand exactly what I am saying. I am not implying that I am a savant or anything to that effect. All that I am relating is how hard it has been to be so far from average mentally. I have such a hard time understanding why people enjoy certain things which seem utterly inane to me. People have a hard time understanding where I am coming from when I finally open up to them and let them get inside my head. Hopefully my time in France will allow me to flourish. When I come back I hope to be proud of having a hefty intelligence quotient and not ashamed and easily influenced into dumbing myself down. (One of the hardest parts about being a truly gifted person is listening to those who are not but wish they could be. It makes you sick, but at the same time you wish they could realize it is not all it's cracked up to be...)

I cannot stand about 95% of people. I spend a good portion of my time in association with others in excruciating pain due to the topics being discussed or the place one of these people has decided to discuss it. All humans have flaws, but you have to quit being yourself sometimes if you are making somebody uncomfortable. (If I am playing a board game with a nine year old kid who has trouble reading I am not going to read every sentence just because I can. I will let him do it and wait for him to finish because he needs it more than I do.)

My head is in the clouds, but my mind is in the office. I choose to dream big because if I never go to the moon at least skydiving is better than sitting in a cubicle all day. All of my serious decisions correspond with a ruthless amount of planning and an incisive attention to detail. Go to France for a whole year and travel Europe? Sounds fun, let's go...after we work on getting every last detail taken care of.

I'm a perfectionist, but I am a quitter. If I can maintain my status quo of perfection then I am an unstoppable force. If the people with whom I am working do not allow me to do my job perfectly and in a timely fashion, I do as little as possible. With age this trait should become more positive because I can already feel that I am growing out of the quitting stage. I am replacing it with a desire to work even harder to compensate.

I am an independent introvert in a codependent extroverted world. I RARELY need help for anything. If I do it is because I am still in college and do not have time for a career. I do not ask my parents for money. I don't spend hours a night whining about people or my life. I think people who cannot handle problems are weak. I hate the phone, but text messages are a godsend. Learning to cope with talking to others for an extended period of time was probably the most difficult challenge to conquer while growing up.

More posts to come. Now that you have an idea of who I am I hope you check back often to see what new and exciting things have occurred.

Patrick A. Sizemore