Farewell France

Dear Blog Reader,

This entry marks my 42nd official online journaling session. Tonight is my last night in France of my semester studying abroad. You should know that I am very excited to be seeing my family and my friends from back home, but I am also desperately sorry to be leaving my host family and the new friends I made in Dijon. Today, however, was not so bad as far as "last days" go. I woke up around 9am and went for a run down past Place Wilson, the route I usually take alone or with Peter. Then I plopped down in front of my host family's TV, hoping to catch the France3 spot on Les Discjonctes. Unfortunately it actually ran last night, so I didn't get to see it this morning. Here are two links though (you might want to check them out sooner rather than later, since I think France3 regularly culls the daily news emissions):

version longue à partir 16min15 : http://jt.france3.fr/player/regions/?jt=20091211&id=b21a_1920

version courte à partir de 4min26 : http://jt.france3.fr/player/regions/?jt=20091211&id=bourgogne_soir3

Then I went to lunch with some of the people from the team: Bruno, Laeticia, Lucie, Natalie, Christophe, Remi, and Yoann (and Manu joined us at the very end). We went to a place called Le Parvis, a hip little restaurant squeezed between two others, located behind St. Benigne. It got super chilly last night and my face nearly froze on my walk from the house to the restaurant. Le Parvis is known for its burgers, and I thought it was an appropriate transition from French to American cuisine. Of course, my "Ducky Burger" consisted of canard and foie gras de canard (duck meat and foie gras of duck) with cassis sauce, so the ressemblance to an American hamburger pretty much ended with the bun. I think both of the burgers made with ground beef both included epoisse, an extremely pungent regional cheese. So even though they were burgers, they were definitely French. It was yet another fun event with Les Discjonctes. You probably get sick of me telling you how much I will miss them, but hopefully I've given you an idea of how much fun I have had. Even if we didn't talk about anything big (I remember arguing about how people over a certain age should have to retake a driving test, which Laeticia vehemently opposed), I feel like a hallmark of friends is that you can enjoy their company, even if you're not doing anything particularly exciting.

After a long lunch I raced around to do some quick grocery shopping for dinner. Carleigh and I are spending the night in the Roissy Marriott and we wanted to have a real Dijon picnic for dinner. So I picked up a half-bottle of Burgundy red, a baguette, some chevre, some tangerines, and two raspberry tarts. I also had an apple left over from when I made the apple pie and the sausage that was part of my Discjonctes care package (which I discovered today was Bruno's contribution...). Then I did some last-minute packing. You will be proud to know that this was the first time in my life I did 90% of the packing in the week leading up to my departure, rather than leaving it all for the last minute, like I usually do. I would be lying if I said I had a single centimeter of extra room. There were some things, like mostly-empty shampoo bottles, which I absolutely had to leave behind. I literally have no more room.

Joseph left for the south-east of France yesterday morning, so Noelle didn't have a car to drive me and all of my bags to the gare. I asked at lunch if someone from the team could take me and Christophe graciously offered. I was surprised (and pleased) when Remi and Yoann showed up with him too. They helped me stuff my two big suitcases into Christophe's smallish car (one was crushing Remi in the backseat). We arrived at the gare with 45 minutes to spare - I am now in the habit of always arriving early for trains and planes. We hung out in the cafe for a little while before heading up to the platform. I can't tell you how nice it was that the 3 of them came to see me off. After we loaded my bags onto the train we stood on the platform and talked for a little while. I asked if they took bets on whether or not I was going to cry and Remi replied they all bet that I would, so it wasn't a contest. He said (in French): "you had no chance: #1 you're an American and #2 you're a girl. He turned out to be right. I didn't cry when I gave each of them a hug and bisous, but as I stepped onto the train and walked down through the car towards my seat the tears arrived. I don't usually cry at homecomings or farewells. I'm certainly not above crying at a sappy book or movie, but for some reason I don't usually cry when leaving people.

I feel like I should emphasize that my saddness at leaving has nothing to do with how I feel about people at home. Of course I will be overjoyed tomorrow when I see Mom and Holly at the airport. Of course I can't wait to have endless girltalk with Katie, Amy Jo, and Paley. Of course I will love hanging out with my family and all of my friends from Cincinnati, and then my friends from Wake in a few weeks. I am sad to leave because I am worried I will never experience this particular kind of happiness ever again. I certainly plan on going back to Dijon someday, and I hope some of my Dijonnais friends can come to the US. But it won't ever be quite the same, and that makes it bittersweet. But that's also life. We can never hold onto the things we cherish most, because nothing is ever really ours. It's all a gift and all-too fleeting. But I feel blessed to have experienced this particular gift.

Le semestre, c'etait une grande plaisir et je vais garder mes bons souvenirs des amitiés et des bons moments.

Who says you can't have fun in Dijon?

For those of you who grew up in Cincinnati, OH, I would be willing to bet that more than once during your adolescence you complained that "there's nothing to do around here." And if you're the parent who raised your children in Cincinnati, OH, you probably remember those complaints even more vividly. I get the sense that Dijonnais teenagers probably express the same sentiment about Dijon. And not entirely without reason. Compared to Paris, there's not a whole lot going on. But just as I have discovered there are actually lots of things to do in Cincinnati, so have I discovered there are actually lots of things to do in Dijon. Here's a quick summary of the last few days:

• Went to Beaune with Mary-Kate (a picture of Les Hospices, the hospital which was built in the early 1400s with a toit bourgignonne)
  
• Baked an apple pie for my host family - it was a complete success!
• Did lots of final Christmas-present shopping
• Went for a run with Peter
  
• Saw the film "Le Concert"
• Went to a soirée at my friend Jérôme's house (Jérôme is a member of Les Discjonctes)
• Had lunch with Dr. Barbour, Peter, Mary-Kate, Kara, and Carleigh at Café de la Comedie
  
• Went to the Musee de la Vie Bourgignonne with Peter and Mary-Kate
• Visited my apartment-mate Sarah who is currently in the hospital
• Attended a cooking class orangized by CIEF at Atelier des Chefs
• Took Hendrix for a walk around Dijon
• Worked as a volunteer at a "Restaurant du Coeur" with Kara
• Went to my final Ultimate practice with Les Discjonctes (*sniff, sniff*) and then Flunch for dinner
  

Since I am rapidly approaching the time when I will see all or most of you again, I'm not going to go into too much detail. In a very short time we'll be face-to-face again and you can ask questions about my life in Dijon. But I do want to tell you about the Restos du Coeur, because it was a pretty neat experience. I have volunteered at soup kitchens numerous times over the last 10 years or so, and regularly attended Saturday Lunch while at Wake Forest (for those of you who don't know, Saturday Lunch occurs every weekend in downtown W-S, a meal served by Wake students to anyone in need). This was Kara's 4th time volunteering there, because she did her exposé on homelessness in France and she interviewed one of the directors at the Restaurant du Coeur. When Kara gave her presentation I was under the impression that they were soup kitchens. Actually they're more like food banks. People are registered with the program and they can come twice a week and get groceries. The amount they receive is based on how many people are in their family. There were many people there who were only receiving food for themselves, but there was one young girl who had 7 brothers and sisters. Kara was working the milk station - although it's fairly straightforward because all of the cartons of milk are similar, she said it was more difficult than she expected because each person receives 1 liter of milk per week. So if they're only receiving food for themselves and they've already gotten their milk on Monday, they can't take another Liter carton on Thursday. She said some people got angry about not getting any milk, and it was hard for her to refuse them. The doors opened at 2pm and for the next two hours I and a grandmotherly woman named Michelle sliced in half and doled out bread. We had all different kinds: baguette (of course), country bread, bread with raisins, bread with bacon pieces, very thin baguettes, rounds, etc. Michelle has been volunteering there for 2 years and she told me there are an average of 350-400 people served each day. One group of people come Monday and Thursday and another group comes Tuesday and Friday. The work was certainly not difficult and I was pleased because I didn't have too much trouble communicating. I was really impressed with the efficiency of the system and the quality of the products we were handing out. All of the food was donated by companies (as opposed to individuals) and there was lots of fresh produce and well-known marks.

I am very, very pleased I decided to go with Kara. My original plan was to go to the Musee Magnin, one of the few museums here in Dijon that I have not yet seen. But I am glad I stuck with this. It was rewarding to help other people and cool to be able to do that and practice French at the same time. I'm just sorry that today was my first and last visit. I would definitely recommend volunteering there for future Wake Forest Dijon students.

Okay well I would love to type more but I am falling asleep. Here are the pictures of everything we cooked. I was told the chef would email us the recipe, but since I didn't give them my email address I'm not sure how that's going to work. I hope we figure it out, because the first course and the dessert were particularly good. Below are some pictures:

Les Discjonctés, je vous aime

I have a whole other blog entry prepared - a photo-documentation of the route I take to the university on my bike - but first I want to tell you about tonight. Tonight was my last Monday night Discjonctes practice of my semester here in Dijon. Last Monday I was struck with an overwhelming sense of sadness while we were playing, and tonight it happened again. I've really become attached to the team. Playing twice a week with them has been one of the highlights of my study abroad experience. Not only is it fun to play competitive Ultimate, they do it with a real "spirit of the game," something Ultimate players expect from each other but don't always receive.

So tonight's practice was pretty standard: throwing in pairs, footing (aka running/jogging), warm-ups, and then scrimmages. I wouldn't say it was my best night of playing, but I remember having at least one good left-handed catch for the score and one good D where I actually skyed someone (aka jumped higher than they did and knocked the disc out of their reach). But the best part was at the end, when, to my astonishment, everyone gathered around and Lucie presented me with a bag filled with many wrapped items. It was actually quite heavy and on the top I could see a French flag, which they had all signed. I seriously almost started crying. I was literally speechless... conjugating French verbs was beyond my mental capacity at that moment. I shouldn't have been so taken aback...they have been so nice to me all semester, why would this shock me? But seriously, their kindness is one of many touching moments I have had over the last few days. Dominique, Miles' host mom, who helped Carolyn and I find the perfect present for Dr. Barbour...Joseph, who upon hearing I had lost my running pants, insisted on driving me over to look for them right away...Rémi showing me how to make crêpes.

This summer when I was en route to Fez, Sabrina and Yohan came to my assistance when I desperately needed it. From then on I swore I would never poo poo the French people, because two Francais went above and beyond to help me, a complete stranger, when I really, really needed it. If that wasn't enough, the people I have met this semester have convinced me that France is not just a country of good bread and good wine. I have met some wonderful people and they are the reason this semester has been such a delight. Viva la France et viva les Discjonctes!

Here's a picture of my collective presents from the team...note gold Santa hat with trim which lights up (batteries included), the mini disc-golf disc, candy, the CDs, sausage (?), the Chat Noir magnet, the change purse, and of course, the bottle of wine.

A Photo Journey to Campus

Voila! For those of you who found my last blog entry a little too mushy or too wordy, I have a treat for you. Below is photo documentation of my daily trip from my room to the CIEF classrooms on the University of Burgundy's campus. I took these pictures on Sunday around 1pm, when I knew there wouldn't be much traffic (both pedestrian and vehicular), so I would inconvenience as few people as possible. Obviously I couldn't take a picture of every single view, so it's not quite complete, but it should give you an idea of what I saw quite frequently this semester. Just doing this blog entry was fun, because it really made me think about the sites I saw everyday and helped me firmly imprint them in my mind. Enjoy!

View looking out towards the front gate as I lock my door. Hendrix is standing on top of the roof of the garage, where I store my bike.

My view as I walk around side of the house towards the front gate.

Joseph has good taste in cars, what can I say... the bike I use is stored in the garage to the left of the car.

At the top of Rue Nicolas Berthot, ready to go!

This is usually the point at which my eyes tear up because the cold air starts to sting as I ride down the hill.

This is a little shortcut street called Rue Auguste Perdrix, off of Rue Cellerier (where Peter lives). I think it's technically one-way in the other direction, but I haven't encountered a car yet.

Heading towards Place Grangier.

Waiting at a stoplight to cross Rue Desvoges. For some reason I don't think I have ever caught this light.

Place Grangier...Dr. Barbour's apartment is just across the square on my left.

This is where there is a marché every Tuesday and Friday...and the store on the corner behind the pedestrian sign is an organic foods store.

This is my view as I look left, les halles (the covered market). The building is a rectangle and all around it are restaurants and specialty foods shops (butchers, pasta shops, produce vendors, etc).

View of the facade of Notre-Dame. You can see the long strands of Christmas lights - the whole city is decked out and when I was riding back from Parc de la Colombiere on Sunday evening I got to see them all illuminated for the first time...quite festive!

Bookstore on my left.

This handy little pedestrian loop butts up right against the Palais des Ducs. There's a cute little park to the left.

This is the view as I look to my right...this street leads to Place de la Liberation and the entrance to the Palais des Ducs.

Place St. Michel / Place de la Théâtre (both the church St. Michel and the Theatre are located nearby). The opera is also behind me, located in the same square. One of Dr. Barbour's favorite spots to take us for lunch, Café de la Comédie, is also located on this square.

You can see why I had trouble figuring out the system at first...this little green logo is tiny and quite difficult to distinguish. But when in doubt, I ride in the bus lane, since I often find the bike logo there.

In this picture I am approaching Place Wilson. You can see the Christmas decorations overhead.

Rounding the corner and entering Place Wilson. You can see the Christmas tree which is currently in the center of the fountain. There's also a gazebo on the left.

Far side of Place Wilson, heading towards the fac (university campus) now. From this point on I pretty much follow the route of Bus #5. Sometimes I see Wake students riding the bus as I go by. I usually arrive before they do because the bus has to stop so frequently and I only have to stop at the traffic lights.

My view down towards les Allées du parc and Parc de la Colombiere (looking to my right).

No, I have not [yet] been to this patisserie/chocolaterie. I do think it is important to note that a boulangerie, a patisserie, a viennoserie, a chocolaterie, and a sandwicherie are not necessarily the same location, although you can often find bread, pastries (which in the French sense means tarts and little cakes case), viennoserie (what we would call breakfast pastries, croissants), chocolate, and sandwiches all in the same store. Let's face it, they use a lot of the same ingredients and it's highly practical to purchase your sandwich and dessert at the same time as you buy the bread to go with dinner that night. Or Nutella the next morning.

Eldorado Cinema...if this was America we would call it the "indi-flick" theater, but since it's France that means they show lots of non-Hollywood international films or smaller budget French films. I'm a big fan of their 2.50 euro showing everyday at 14h00 (2pm).

This is the point where the separate bike path starts - and I breathe a sigh of relief because the likelihood of me being struck by a car just decreased tenfold.

Approaching the fac...the buildings on the left are part of the campus.

You can see the Maison de l'Université on the far left, that's where CIEF's office is and where the Wake people sometimes met to do work together.

This view means I have officially made it to campus, less than 5 minutes from here to the inside of my CIEF classroom (but first I have to lock up my bike).

So in this picture you can see: on the left, the bike rack where I store my bike while at the fac (university campus) and on the right, the cluster of CIEF buildings, which are sort of glorified trailers, but which are very clean on the inside and outfitted with the necessary accoutrements for learning the French language (aka dry erase boards and TV moniters for showing news clips)

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Wow, yesterday was an absolutely great day. Ever since Ultimate practice on Thursday night I had been missing my Under Armor leggings and Joseph drove me over to the field where we practice so I could look for them. Sure enough they were in the parking lot, thoroughly soaked from the rain but other than that just fine. I am really glad I found them! Then we drove up to the Mont Afrique, the highest point in the area. Unfortunately it was pretty gray and foggy outside, so we couldn't really see Dijon. But the elevation itself was pretty impressive. When we were ascending the hill we past a number of hunters in their bright orange reflective jackets. I asked Joseph what they were hunting and he told me boar. There was a boar dish on the menu at Bistrot les Halles on Friday night, maybe I should have gone for that instead of the lamb...

Anyway, after we got back home I read "Oscar et La Dame Rose," the French-language version of the American book which was recently turned into a movie. At our diner des adieux Dr. Barbour gave each of us a book in French as a going away present. Mine is by Tahar Ben Jelloun, a franco-moroccan writer and it's about growing up in Fez. The one I read yesterday is actually Kara's, but she let me borrow it while she's gone in Germany for a few days. I am ambitiously planning on reading both hers, mine, and another book before I come home in a week. I absolutely loved the book - although the subject was anything but light it was hopeful and joyful and I was in a cheerful mood all throughout the rest of the day. The book takes place during the last 12 days of December, so it was the perfect time of year to read it too. I highly recommend it, it took me an hour and a half to read it in French, so I'm sure it would have taken less than an hour in English. Time well spent.

Then I met Carolyn and Mary-Kate who wanted to have kebabs for lunch (I think I'm the only one in our group who just really isn't into kebabs). Afterwards we went to a movie. A little background:

When I look up movie times online, I use Google's "horaires des séances" (movie times) function, which lists the theater's name, the movies which are showing along with their respective times, and gives a general category for the film (film d'amination, aventure, comedie, fantastique, drame, comedie dramatique, thriller, etc). So we went to see "La folle histoire d'amour de Simon Eskenazy," which I thought was a romantic comedy. It was, but just geared towards romance of a different sexual orientation than my own. In it's defense, it was tastefully done (no real nudity or sex), but I was expecting a heterosexual love story and got a homosexual-transvestite one. Ooops. Carolyn, Mary-Kate and I laughed a lot (we were supposed to be laughing, it was a comedy after all), but next time they'll probably make me verify the plot before we go to see a movie. The picture on the right is one from the film. One cool moment was when Simon, the main character and Naim go to the hotel Le Meurice in Paris and have breakfast in the grand ballroom, where we ate with Mimi M. As they walked along the Rue de Rivoli Carolyn pointed out, "hey, that's right down the street from Angelina!"

I got home around 5pm and helped Noelle prepare for the big dinner to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. In case you were wondering, here's Wikipedia to help you out with an explanation of Mr. Nicolas (as they spell it here in France) and his day:

"The tradition of Saint Nicholas Day, usually on 6 December, is a festival for children in many countries in Europe related to surviving legends of the saint, and particularly his reputation as a bringer of gifts. The American Santa Claus, as well as the Anglo-Canadian and British Father Christmas, derive from these legends. "Santa Claus" is itself derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas."

The tradition isn't really French at all, but apparently they celebrate it a lot in Alsace, which is the region where Noelle was born. So she and her family have always celebrated it with a big dinner and treats. And a husband and wife, family friends, came over as well. They arrived around 8pm and we didn't finish celebrating until midnight. We started with champagne and little hors d'oeuvres (French and Spanish sausage slices, little hors d'oeuvres I helped Noelle prepare). Then for dinner we roasted andouillettes and ate them with white beans and a white tubular vegetable I could not identify. Throughout the whole evening we munched on a petit bonhomme brioche, a giant version of the treat Dr. Barbour bought for us in Kaysersberg. Noelle prepared the dough and Gaspard shaped the bonhomme (think a giant gingerbread man, but made of a sweet, milky-flavored dough). There were also lichi fruits, walnuts, gingerbread stars, and mandarin oranges as part of the center piece.

The first red wine was a Chateauneuf-du-Pape (really cool, since now I have seen Chateauneuf) and the second was a St. Jacques, a Burgundy Pinot Noir which I was pleased to recognize by its aromas. Of course we had a cheese course and then a kind of deconstructed struedel for dessert, along with a sweet white wine from Jurascon, which is a city near the Pyrenees in the extreme south-west corner of France (and not, as I guessed, in the Jura mountains in the north-east corner).
Anyway, the dinner guests were very pleasant and interesting to talk to. She works in Strasbourg and brought us some Alsacian cookies to have with dessert (yum!) They showed us pictures of the recent renovations they have made to a 16th-century chateau (he is a neurologist and a history buff). Arcene, my host family's oldest son, is home from Paris for the weekend so he was telling me about his art history classes at the Ecole de Paris - he is specializing in engravings and film. His three year program of general courses covers all of art history in three sections: the first year is dedicated to everything before the Renaissance, the second year from the Renaissance through the early 20th century, and the third year from the 20th century onward.

Well I'm still not sure exactly what I'm going to do today. Everyone was so busy getting ready yesterday that I didn't get to ask if I could throw my running pants in with someone's laundry (I don't have any other darks to wash myself), so I can't really go for a run or a bike ride. Hopefully we'll go for a walk in the country together as a group. Maybe now that it's almost noon I'll give one of the Ultimate people a call and see if they want to throw. It's pretty cold and rainy out, so it might be another day of reading.

Lots of love to you all!

Adieux, Adieux

Sigh. It's all over. Thursday afternoon the Wake Forest group celebrated the end of exam week with a lunch at Cafe des Grands Ducs. Below is a picture of two of our three sections with two of our professors: Giles (left) and Stephane (right). When I say sections, all of the Wake kids were in level 5, but we were divided into the three sections of level 5 at CIEF. Peter, Carolyn, Miles and I were 5A, and Mary-Kate, Wright, and Carleigh were 5B, I think. Jennifer and Kara's section got our early on Thursday, so they had already left. This photo was taken in one of the CIEF rooms. Overall, I was really impressed with the CIEF program. I felt that the curriculum was extremely relevant - more relevant than any other language course I have ever taken. Understandably it's easier to talk in a foreign language about more complicated subjects like current events and political ideas once you've attained a certain level (for instance, I couldn't have done that in Arabic this past summer). But most of our reading comprehension, oral comprehension, and writing exercises were focused on analyzing articles about current events, which made the courses simultaneously language and civilization classes. Pascale, our other professor, came to lunch with us at Cafes des Grands Ducs but unfortunately she wasn't there earlier when we took this picture.

Last night we all met at Bistrot des Halles, a restaurant located behind the giant covered market, for dinner one last time with everyone. Miles leaves for Paris today at 3pm and Jennifer leaves for the airport at 5pm. I think the whole group is still pretty much in denial about going home. I know some people feel very ready to get back to what is American and familiar, but I think everyone is at least a little sad about leaving our group. Of course, last night was a rolicking good time as usual. 9/10 of us ordered escargot as an entrée (remember, that's the appetizer). It was my first time trying them and they were delicious!! Actually, everything I tasted last night was excellent. I'm sort of disappointed that last night was my first time trying that restaurant. Of course, it was a little pricey for me to make it a regular dinner spot. But I would definitely recommend it if any of you ever make your way to Dijon. For my plat principal, pavé d'agneau avec petits legumes (lamb with thinly-sliced vegetables). The word pavee designates a certain cut of meat, but I find it particularly amusing. It makes me think of large expanses of pavement and therefore a particularly large slab of meat. The edges of the lamb were crispy and delicious. For dessert the vast majority of us ordered crème brulée au pain d'épices. It tasted like Christmas! (Pain d'épices is gingerbread, so this was gingerbread flavored crème brulée).

Afterwards we took a few group pictures and then parted ways with Madame. The rest of us ended up just hanging out at Mary-Kate's, recapping our favorite moments of the trip. A lot of people had early trains this morning - Kara and Carleigh are going to Germany to visit Kara's mom's host sister which Kara's mom stayed with when she studied abroad 40 years ago, Peter and Mary-Kate are going to Paris for the day. The picture below is one of the group pictures we took. There are far better ones on Carolyn's camera, but this is the only half-way decent one I got on mine. Just in case you haven't been paying attention all semester...L to R: back: Jennifer, Mary-Kate, Wright, Peter, Miles, front: Kara, me, Dr. Barbour, Carleigh, Carolyn.

You might be wondering what I'm planning on doing for the next week, since I will be here in Dijon until Saturday night. Well, here's a tentative list of activities:

• Tonight: dinner to celebrate Père Noël with my host family
• Monday: Discjonctes practice as usual
  
• Tuesday: Lyon for the day to see the city and the Fete des Lumieres (festival of lights)
• Wednesday: Cooking class through CIEF (we're making a three-course dinner!)
• Thursday: Discjonctes practice as usual

Since those leave me lots of free time inbetween, I'm also planning on:

• Going on lots of runs (if I can find my UnderArmour leggings, which are currently lost), if not, lots of bike rides
• Visiting Beaune, a town nearby which the group visited in September the weekend I had to come home
• Going inside St. Bénigne and St. Michel, two of the three major churches in Dijon
• Going to the Musée Magnin, Musée de la vie bourguignonne, and the Musée du vin
• Going to the Jardin Arquebuse
  
• Reading "Loin de Medine," "Harry Potter 6: Le Prince du Sang Mêlé," and the new book by Ben Jelloun which Madame gave me last night
• Seeing at least a few more French films

So that should keep me sufficiently busy. I plan on taking lots of pictures of my favorite spots Dijon over the next week, so I can share them with you.