First Week of School

Bonjour à tous !

I had my first week of regular classes this week, which went well! Not a lot of fun pics this time, but my next one will have tons because it’s about my weekend in Paris with Breanne!

After showing up to my 9:45 AM mathematical modeling class, a first year math class taught in French, there was no sign of the prof…or the students. Awe, man! Not the start I was looking for on my first day of school. I found out later from a bulletin board (because that’s how they do things in France…not online, but old school bulletin boards), that the first class was postponed until next week.

My next class wasn’t until 3:30, Series and Sequences, a second year math course taught in English. There are only about 12 students in it, mostly guys, mostly French besides 2 guys from China. The level of math seems higher than in Canada. Faster, more compact lessons. There is a lot of new terminology and notation, which was overwhelming to me, especially in the beginning, but I arranged a meeting with my prof to go through all of that. He was very helpful. This book has been a great help as well!

I only had 1 class each day on Mon, Tues and Wed, which left a lot of time to go through my notes at the library. Good thing I did, because in tutorial the prof would give us a problem and we’d have a few minutes to try and work it out on paper, then he’d call on one of us to put the solution up on the board in front of everyone. Terrifying! But I’m sure it’ll help me improve in math. Here’s a typical classroom, we just don’t fill it.

I had my first French class, Problèmes sociaux de la France contemporaine, on Thursday. That is going to be an AMAZING class! Thirty exchange students from literally all over the world, comparing our societies and cultures. We’re not graded on our knowledge in sociology, nor our level of French, but the majority is based our participation (no exam!!). Prof seems great too. Next weeks’ topic: tobacco and alcohol in France and our countries. Everyone smokes a LOT here compared to “Smoke Free Ontario”, I think it’ll be a cool topic!

Mountains in evening from campus

Did my placement test Thurs night for my other French course with about 200 other exchange students at Université Joseph Fourier. I went on a historical tour for exchange students one night this week too! This was the first place in France to get electricity. It was in Grenoble!

 I had a hot chocolate here a couple weeks ago (I think this pic was in that blog). Then they said this was a common place for royal people to “get their heads’ chopped off” during the French revolution…kind of tainted my image of the square. It’s still beautiful though!

We learned that this bridge was the first to be built across this river (L’Isère). I cross it on my way to school or the centreville. It’s just a pedestrian bridge…I get why now. The 20 of us jumped on it at once and it bounced for the next 2 minutes!

 Here’s a little history for you: Grenoble is one of the flattest cities in France. This is because there used to be a HUGE glacier here, and then a lake, and then after years of deposits: BAM Grenoble!

Photo of the week: the mountains peaking up over the clouds, taken from my res

Next blog: A weekend in Paris with one of my best friend’s from elementary school!

À plus,

Christina

Vacation Time

 Hello all!

This was my first week of holidays in France! Unfortunately, the original plan of  travelling throughout Europe didn’t work out, it’s too expensive to do at the last minute, so that’ll be put off to another week. I was able to visit Claire and the Souchets though (my old host family) on the other side of France for the weekend! It was so cool to see them again.

Grenoble to Rennes (Claire's University), to Vannes (Claire's Family's House)

Before I left though, during the week I got a few more errands out of the way. I signed up for a new French course. I was able to finally get a bankcard, so that meant I was able to get a cell phone. I know my address now too, for those who wanted to know that:

Christina Crowley

11 Rue Maurice Gignoux

Chambre 120 Vercors

Cité Universitaire du Rabot

38000 GRENOBLE

France

I rearranged my room and added my own little “innovative” touches, like a laundry line and a desk organizer (made from some old packaging), and my homemade night-table.  I’m only here for a few months, so I don’t really need to go out and buy a bunch of new stuff. I’m starting to feel a bit more settled in.

Innovative, eh?

I had lunch with different people this week. Lunch is the big meal of the day, not dinner. A lot of the stores and banks close during lunch. I ate with 2 German guys one day who had been here for a term and were heading back to Germany this week. Another day, I ate with 6 French students, and another day, 3 Chinese students. I find it’s easy to meet people here, but it’s not as easy to hold onto those relationships. I miss having “close friends.”

One day I had a hot chocolate at one of the squares in the “Centreville” = downtown area, Place Lafyette. I felt French.

It’s a very rich area with all the fancy shops and high fashion French people. One thing that’s very popular right now: black nylons. Everyone walks around with their long jackets and heals and black nylons. 

Place Lafyette

But there’s lot of homeless people there too. I’ve got to know quite a few of them. Many are immigrants from Romania and don’t have their “carte de séjour” or work permit, so that makes things difficult. I’m researching how to obtain one.

I’ve met Alina, a mother of 2 cute little girls (6 years old and 1 year). Her husband has a carte de sejour, but can’t find any work. I hope to help him put together a résumé.

While I was praying at a church, 10-year old Stephanie from Romania came up to me with an envelope collecting for the mute and deaf children of Grenoble. I’m not sure if that’s really where the money was going, but I do believe she needed it more than I did. Sometimes people say, ‘she’s not your responsibility,’ but I think that really she is, she’s everyone’s. She was born into a different 'lifestyle', I’m sure she doesn’t choose to beg. I watched her go from person to person on the streets asking for money, and get turned down over and over again. No fun for a little girl :(

I hope to find a longer-term solution than just giving them pocketchange. If anyone has ideas, I’d love to hear them! christinacrowley3@gmail.com 

Oh here’s something cool. This week, Elizabeth (U of Western Ontario) and Nicole (U of Guelph) and I took the “gondolas” up the mountain.

Gondolas going up the mountain (in the distance)

Me and Elizabeth

Quite a view!

Weekend with the Souchets

Friday morning, I hopped on a train to see Claire and the Souchets, my host family for the month of July in 2007. Such a nice visit! The train-ride was 6 hours through the French countryside, from one corner of the country to the other. Beautiful! The trains go 250km/hr. I had a good visit with an adorable 2-year-old French girl, colouring and discovering all the little treasures in my pencil case, haha

Claire met me at the train station. It was as if I hadn’t left, kind of neat. We headed back to her flat for a bit and then toured a bit of Rennes.

Parliament building in Rennes

Claire and her housemate, Jean Leuci

We stopped at her university in Rennes. Claire made it into med-school! She’s in her third year out of 9-12. The application process is different. Here, there’s a general first year of science with 1200 other students, then you write an exam. There are only 200 spots for doctors in le concours = the competition. If you don’t make top 200 on your first try, you can try once more next year, but if you don’t make the cut again, you’re not allowed to re-write, ever. Crazy! It also cuts out being a dentist, midwife and pharmacist. Claire passed on her first write! First year was extremely hard, she lived with 25 students and some nuns and all she did was study. She was one of only 2 of those 25 students to get accepted. Congrats, Claire!

Claire in her third year of med-school

We drove back to her family’s house in Vannes that night. It was almost surreal to me, being back. Her family was very welcoming and kind.

Souchet House in Vannes

That night, we ate at “Mac-Doe” (as the French say it) with some friends.

The next morning was the typical French breakfast! I missed this. A bowl of hot chocolate with toasted bagette. Mmmm

French Breakfast: Bowl of Hot Chocolate!

Then we did some shopping at the centreville with Claire’s mom and sister Delphine. Delphine shops like Cara!

Centreville Shops

Daniel, Claire’s dad, took her and I to “la mer”=the ocean that afternoon. I felt like I was back at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia. Just lovely!

Claire and her dad, Daniel

Later, we met up with Claire’s friends for tea at the port. I had met a few of them last time I was in France, so it was great to see them again.

The Port in Vannes

Tea with Claire friends, Fanny, Jean-Leuci, Clement and Pricille 

Claire and I went to Mass at the Cathedral in Vannes that night, which had an amazing children’s choir. Incredible voices. Then Marie-Claude made us crepes for dinner! Yum!

Marie-Claude and her AMAZING crepes! 

Claire’s youngest sister, Benedicte, showed me her awesome skills on the classical guitar. Beautiful!

Sunday morning, they showed me maps with all the sites to see in Paris next weekend with Breanne. All-in-all, a great visit with the Souchet’s. I hope to see them again soon! As a parting gift, they sent me off with a pair of “French” black nylons, very sweet.

Tomorrow’s my first day of real school! I’m excited and nervous of course. I think I’m ready though. It’s amazing what you can learn in 3 weeks.

À plus !

I passed!

Hi again!

 Like the title says, I passed my 2-week French course for exchange students! So that's my exciting news!

Proof!

Mon-Thurs consisted of class, admin stuff and homework... kind of boring. So Ill try and skip through them pretty quick. I received my timetable:

At Mac, my math courses usually consist of 3 hours lecture + 1 hour tutorial. Here, there's much more "in-class" time in math. These are my courses: 

       1. Modelling. Well, mathematical modelling, in French, 1st year course, Université Joseph Fourier (6hrs/wk)

       2. Real Analysis / Fourier Series, in English, 2nd year, at University Joseph Fourier (7.5 hrs/wk!!!)

       3. Societé française contemporaine, with exchange students, in French, Université Pierre Mendès France (3 hrs/wk)

       4. French Language for science exchange students, at Stendhal University (2hrs/wk)..not for credit

So Im taking 3 and a half courses, at 3 different universities. But we're getting a bit technical, so I'll just sum up the week with this:

• Tues: helped American guy with little French get insurance
• Thurs: Elizabeth (from Western University, living at my res, Rabot) showed up, I showed her the transit system and took her to school Fri morning
• did homework til fairly late each night, lots of essays and presentations
• noticed improvement in oral comprehension through language lab
• ate lots of "pain du chocolat", which are like very flakey croissants with chocolate in the middle! Mmmm...

Fewf, now that that's over, here's a nice picture! 

First Week!

Well, I've survived! haha, it's been really good. Lots of "ups and downs" as expected, but overall, a great first week.

I was told that this experience would make me more independent and would help me grow as a person even more than academically in French. I actually understand that now. It's been the seemingly "little" accomplishments that have made me feel proud. I'll explain as I go.















Firstly though, the city is beautiful.

The mountains surround the entire city. They’re especially beautiful at sunrise and sunset.  (p.s., you can click on the pictures to make them bigger..)

This was taken from my res this morning.

Secondly, the campus is beautiful! The architecture is cool.

When I study in the library, here's my view:

And thirdly, the people are great! I’ve been more outgoing here, meeting more people. I haven’t been given much literature on where to find things, or how things work, so I know now that the only way to find out is to ask people. I’ve met most of the students on my floor. Almost all of them are French. I hung out with some of them last weekend at the "soirée" at our res, and played "little football" (which is what they call foosball). A girl arrived last week from Montréal named Chloe, so we've hung out a bit too. 

The people in my French class have been great too. There are only 7 of us, so we’ve got to know each other pretty well. Each day, I eat lunch with Tien from China and Verena from Germany.

I was even able to meet up with Katia from McMaster, who I met at my exchange program’s orientation. It was my first time in a little French café! She’s been here for a few months, so she was also able to show me some stores, so I could buy cooking utensils and a pillow and blanket. SUCH a nice sleep that night.

Class has been pretty good. I'm in my second week of that 2 week "prep for France university" course with exchange students. Most of them have been here for months, so they've got quite a head start. I've had years of grammar drilled into my brain, so if I'm asked to conjugate something, Im usually good. But as for the oral part, that's been my greatest challenge. Even in a week though, I think I've become more comfortable with it. 

I got my first assignment back. My prof's comment's were: "c'est un passage confu et je ne le comprends pas" or English translation: It was confusing and I didn't understand it.

:S

But, I still got an okay mark on it. It was just the first thing, so hopefully the comments improve from now on. 

On the plus side: I've ridden the tram to school with a couple nuns this week! They're taking a class around the corner from my classroom. Kinda neat!

Speaking of which, I've been able to make it down to a church almost every day and pray for a while, definitely awesome. There are at least 4 in the down town area alone, and they're all open during the day. There's almost always someone there too, young and old, and there's usually a line for Reconciliation. This was a neat surprise.

During my first weekend, it was weird having nothing to do. I’m used to visiting Frank or going home or seeing friends, but I had 2 days of free time to myself. Friday night, like I said, I hung out with some students from my res for a soirée, which I guess is like a party. Sat, I walked down the mountain to the bakery and market (the bus doesn't run on weekends). 

The path on the way down the mountain...

My first baguette!

 Le marché

Sunday, I ran up the mountain to the fort. I don't have a great picture because it was foggy, but it was one of those little "accomplishments". As was cooking chicken that night that hadn't been prepared...skin, bone and all...ick. But I did it! 

Mon and Tues, I've had my French class and attempted to sign up for my math classes that start on the 23rd. This is way different than Canada. I'd almost prefer MUGSI...I know, that says a lot. It's all by hand, and you do it a week or sometimes days before the course starts. I had been told that admin would be a "complete joke" here, so I came prepared, but again, it was the helpful people that have made it do-able. During my meeting with my academic advisor here, Yves, he introduced me to the secretaries and everyone I'll need to figure out the academic admin things. To be honest, I'm not sure if anyone knows what's going on, or what I'm supposed to do, but most of them were very nice and did their best to help. Hopefully I get some more figured out tomorrow.

I have next week off (I know, holidays after I just got here?), so I'm hoping to tour some of Europe with Laura, a friend I met at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia, who goes to Mac and is currently studying in Lyon (an hour from Grenoble). On the weekend, Im planning on meeting up in PARIS with one of my best friends, Breanne, whose studying in Amsterdam. That seems crazy to me! So excited :)

So I guess I should head to bed now, but I'll leave you with a picture of a some friends who came to greet me at my res window a few times this week:

haha, I guess Im not too far from home.

Bonsoir!