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.