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.

Final Destination: Strasbourg

Okay, so "Final Excursion: Strasbourg" would probably have been a more appropriate title, but I thought the above would be catchier. Last weekend was our final WFU excursion of the semester: Strasbourg. We left on Friday morning, our bellies still full of the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and pumpkin pie we had the night before at our delish Thanksgiving extravaganza at Cafe Mayence. It was about a 3-4 hour drive to Strasbourg (I'm not sure exactly how long because I slept most of the way). We took another giant Keolis bus, and Patrick was our chauffeur. He's a real character, I would love to have him as a great uncle or a next-door neighbor. His voice is very dynamic and he seems perpetually enthusiastic about one thing or another.
As soon as we arrived in Strasbourg we took a boat tour along the river l'Ill (pronounced "LEEL," but spelled like "ill"). We saw the EU parliament building, a very modern structure of glass which was surprising aesthetically pleasing. After our boat tour we went to the cathedral where we met our guide. Our guide was a very pleasant Alsacian lady whose tour would have been even better if she had geared it towards people of average intelligence. Although she spoke very quickly, she insisted on explaining the most basic concepts, which got a little tiresome, especially considering how many cathedrals we have toured during the last 3 months. Her favorite phrase was "Ok, je vous explique," which means "okay, I'll explain it to you." The cathedral itself was very interesting - the sandstone exterior is a very different color from anything we've seen so far. The facade only has one spire (the cathedral's trademark), which many people in our group really liked, but I found too industrial-looking. To each his own. This picture of the clock and the angel is a close-up of one part of the giant astrological clock found inside the cathedral.

After the tour we found our hotel and then headed back to the cathedral square for dinner. Everyone ordered dishes typical of Alsacian cuisine, which is a mixture of French and German (the region has long been disputed between the two countries and has changed nationality's many times). One of the most well known is flammekueche, which can have many variations but the traditional form is a dough base covered in cream or white cheese and topped with onions and pieces of ham and then baked in an oven. It's sort of like very thin-crust pizza. It's more of an appetizer or a light lunch, but we ordered two pomme-canelle-Calvados flammenkueche to share for dessert (apples, cinnamon, and apple-flavored liquour). The server brought them to the table, poured the Calvados on top and lit them. Very cool. And very yummy. I ordered poulet avec une sauce Riesling et spaetzl. Let it me known there was no mention of butter anywhere on the menu. But, of course, as we're still in France, the morsels of chicken were served in a tureen of sauce which was probably 98% butter and 2% Riesling. Of course it was delicious and of course I probably lowered my life expectancy by several months. The spätzle was tasty too. Spätzle is a kind of pasta with a consistency similar to that of gnocchi, but lighter and less dense. The picture below is of Carleigh and I at dinner that night.
The next day we met the same tour guide again for an hour-long tour of the town. This tour was more enjoyable (probably because I knew much less about Alsacian history than about the general architectural terms for cathedrals). I find the history of the region very fascinating. Strasbourg was an independent city for many hundreds of years before Louiz XIV finally annexed it to France. But that was only the start of the trouble, because during the Franco-Prussian war France proceeded to lose it to the Germans (who tripled the size of the city and built many large civic buildings and a university to try and appease the Strasbourg residents who had lost a precious library and many other buildings under the Prussian bombs). Now, many filmmakers come to Strasbourg when they want to make movies about old Berlin, because the buildings in Strasbourg are still standing, while those in Berlin were destroyed during WWII. Alsace changed nationalities 4 times in 30 years during the 20th century, and our tour ended in a square which was once Kaisersplace and is now Place de la République. There are four enormous ginko trees and one had just dropped all of its leaves, leaving a golden carpet underneath. And of course as soon as our tour ended, the frolicking commenced. Even Dr. Barbour and Patrick got in on the action. The jubilation of those few moments of playing in the leaves was only a small part of the general high spirits of the weekend. Our group really has bonded over the semester and I am very sorry that it coming to a close.
For lunch we went to a brasserie that Patrick recommended, the only remaining microbrewery in Strasbourg. All of us tried the Christmas beer, which even I liked. I'm still not a huge fan of beer, it certainly went well with the Czech food and I liked the spices in the Christmas beer, but it's not my favorite. After lunch we walked around the city, swimming through the mobs of tourists who had arrived for the debut weekend of the Marché de Noël. My host mom informed me that originally (as in, a really long time ago) the marché was a month-long community event where women gathered together to make the decorations and gifts for Christmas. Like a giant communal craft closet, the marché allowed the women to share their materials and add a social aspect to time-intensive work. Nowadays though, it's more like the French twist on a Christmas county fair. There are stands selling ornaments, candles, jewelry, and pretty much everything you can imagine relating to Christmas, and even some things which don't relate to it at all. There are stands selling bretzels (yes, they spell them with a b), beignets (like donuts), pommes d'amour (candy apples), hot wine, hot chocolate, barbe à papa (cotton candy), etc. My host mom was pretty adamently against the commercialization surrounding the Marché de Noël in Strasbourg, and after going to a smaller marche in Kaysersberg the next day, I can sort of see why. Don't get me wrong, the Christmas decorations in Strasbourg were fantastic - giant crystal chandeliers in glass boxes hanging above the streets, flanked by Christmas lights and garland and such. But the scale and the sheer quantity of merchandise did feel a little "Wal-mart."

Below is a picture of Gutenberg square (Johannes, the guy famous for making book publishing oh-so-much-easier, started his work in Strasbourg in 1434). You can see the statue of Mr. Gutenberg between the purple interpretation of a Christmas tree and the neon-blue-rimmed concession stand.
The next day we headed back to Dijon, by way of Kaysersberg. This Alsacian town has a 13th century "chateau" on a hill behind it (actually all that's left is a stone tower, but that's pretty cool). It is an adorable town with its own, much smaller Marché de Noël. There were elementary-school aged children playing Christmas carols on various instruments (including, gasp, a recorder!) and many of the vendors sold home-made or organic products. Certainly you could still buy bretzels and hot wine, but the whole experience felt much more personal and more human. The picture on the right is of (L-to-R) Kara, Carolyn, and Mary-Kate on the bridge as we entered Kaysersberg. The whole weekend excursion really was wonderful. It was relaxing, pleasant, and much more low-key than some of our other excursions. Maybe because we knew we weren't going to be tested on the material we heard during the tours...but I also think being around all of the Christmas decorations really put everyone in a good mood. Poor Jennifer got sick on Thursday night and was feeling poorly all weekend, but she was a trooper despite her aching tummy (she found out later she had a stomach virus, yuck). The picture below is of one of the streets in Kaysersberg. That style of architecture (maison à colombages) was used in this region in the 16th century because there is not much stone in the area. All of the quarries are far away, but the Black Forest of Germany is very close. Since wood was so much more plentiful, the people who inhabited this region originally used it to build their houses.

The picture below was taken from the top of the "chateau" (aka tower). Well, I am writing this blog update nearly a week after our excursion because I have had so much work this week. A paper, 4 tests, and lots homework, all over 4 days. Two of the four tests were today, but now I am completely finished! No more class for the whole semester! I can't believe it. Of course I am relieved to end the stress of studying for exams, but part of me wishes there was still more to come, because it means I wouldn't have to leave. I could write a whole entry on this subject, and since I will have plenty of time tomorrow, maybe I will. But as the reality of my flight home draws nearer and nearer, I am realizing exactly how fond I have grown of Dijon, the friends I have made here, my host family, and the little life I have created this semester. I am understanding the sagacity of year-long programs. I understand why the Wake Forest program is only a semester (it allows non-majors to study a language abroad, it allows sports fanatics not to miss basketball season, it expands the number of potential applicants because not everyone wants to go for a whole year, etc). But if there was one, I would certainly take it. And if I wasn't already registered for classes in the spring, I would probably be working harder to figure out a way to stay. Of course I miss my family, friends from home, friends from Wake, and everyone else. But it really has been an amazing learning and life experience. My French speaking and writing skills have drastically improved. I have learned a lot more about living quasi-on-my-own and figuring out travel plans and transportation by myself. In short, I will be eternally grateful to my parents for giving me this opportunity and I will champion studying abroad to every student I meet from here on.

Below is a picture taken on Monday night at the end of Discjonctes practice. At the time I wasn't sure if it was going to be my last one or not, because my plans to visit Claire in Geneva were still up in the air (now it's looking like I'm not going to because her program ends right before my flight home, but I'll see her in the beginning of January when I go back to Wake for RA training). Not all of the regulars were there on Monday night, but from left to right, back row: Nico, Jacqui, new guy (it was his first night, I've forgotten his name), Natalie, Jerome, Julien, Francois, Christophe, Laurent, front row: Manu, Pika, Bruno (the captain), Jonathon, and me. Missing from the picture but). I can't tell you how much I am going to miss them.

La France Profonde

After the break-neck pace which was Dublin and Prague, it has been quite nice to spend a weekend here in Dijon. Of course, I've also been working quite a bit on my exposé (the presentation on organic agriculture) and my other homework. I can't believe that my program here in Dijon officially ends in less than 2 weeks! Before then I have another paper to write for M. Tomachio (the art history professor), another exam in "Comprehenion Orale," this presentation organic agriculture for France Contemporain, and a final exam for the same class. But after the diner des adieux on Friday, December 4th, I won't have any more class. My flight home isn't until Sunday, December 13th, so I'll have some time to hang out here in Dijon (and maybe even do a little Christmas shopping). I'm also planning on going to see Claire in Geneva for her birthday on the 8th.

So last Sunday night when we returned to Dijon after Prague, it was raining and cold. The yucky weather continued until Friday, when it suddenly warmed up and the sun came out. I had originally planned on going to see a movie at the 2pm cheap showing, but it was so nice outside that I decided not too. And I'm glad I did, because when I got back to my room I had a text from my host father Joseph telling me he was going to take the family dog Hendrix for a walk along the canal and asking me if I wanted to accompany him. My host family really enjoys going for walks "in the country," which basically means anywhere outside the Dijon city limits (it could be 20 minutes away or an hour away). In this case we drove to a little town along the l'Ouche (the river which flows through Dijon) and walked along the canal. Here in this picture you can see the ecluse (lock), one of many along the l'Ouche. Hendrix was super content, apparently they didn't take him for a long walk last weekend while I was in Prague and so he was even more antsy than usual. On our left was Chateauneuf, one of the many chateaux in the region. After the walk Joseph and I drove up the village which surrounds it and walked around a little. It's amazing how picturesque it is. People still live in this medieval village and Joseph said that it's not yet overrun with tourists, which pleases me to hear. I really enjoy talking with my host father Joseph. He is very patient with my French and interested in discussing current events. He is very curious about other countries and cultures and likes to compare how we do things differently or the same. He has many friends who are from Russia and he has been there and to the Ukraine many times, so when I add Morocco and he adds Russia, we have four very different societies to compare. Below is a view from top of the hill behind the chateau.
Then yesterday (Saturday) it was encore beau (beautiful outside again) and so I took a bike ride to Lac Kir. I went for a run on Friday morning but I was still super sore from Discjonctes practice on Thursday night. There were only 6 of us there and we played non-stop. But I think it was the best I have ever played. There will probably be lots of people there for practice tomorrow night because France 3 is coming to do a TV spot on us. I will try to find out when it's going to air/see if I can access it online to show you all. Anyway, Saturday I went for a bike ride. There's no really easy way to get to the bike trail/walking path along the l'Ouche (which passes by Lac Kir), but now that I know how to navigate Dijon on my bike it's not so bad. There were fewer people out than I expected, considering it was such a nice day. Lac Chanoine Kir is named after the mayor of Dijon who invented the famous aperatif involving white wine and creme de cassis. This guy had so many good ideas!
Yesterday afternoon was homework and a little bit of shopping. I picked up some flowers for Orane, who currently has the flu. Noelle doesn't think it's H1N1, but I am washing my hands a lot all the same. I haven't really been keeping up with the news in the U.S. (except when I take planes and they offer American newspapers, when I devour the entire thing), so I'm not sure if H1N1 is still spreading there, but it definitely is here in France. They released the vaccine a few weeks ago, but apparently the French people aren't keen on vaccinations, because the government has been using scare tactics to try and motiviate people to get vaccinated. Noelle got one a few days ago because she works at a hospital with the employees and with elderly people who are particularly vulnerable. She felt pretty bad for 48 hours after getting it, no fun.

Last night I hung out with some people from Les Discjonctes and their friends. Rémi (the one in the picture) and Yoann have an apartment not far from my house and they invited me and Lucie (another Discjoncte) and some of Yoann's friends over for a little soiree. I am really pleased that I got a chance to hang out with them. One of my big goals for the next 3 weeks is to spend as much time as possible with my new Dijonnais friends. I will have the chance to hang out with Wake people for the next year and a half, but I will only be here for another few weeks. And although it's exhausting, it's so useful to spend an evening speaking nothing but French, particularly the familiar kind of French that's used in conversation. It's interesting, everytime I hang out with Dijonnais like this, someone always asks me, without fail, what Americans think of France/the French people. I guess it's not really a surprising question, but the regularity with which it is asked is interesting to me.

Alright, time to get back to work. Love to you all! I hope everyone is getting all geared up for Thanksgiving. Here we're having dinner at a restaurant called "au café Mayence" which closes down for the evening and serves a Thanksgiving buffet for the Americans living in Dijon. Dr. Barbour is going to make sweet potato casserole according to my mom's recipie and I am going to make chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Carolyn's family, who is coming to visit her this week, is bringing all of the ingredients to make pumpkin pie. I'm excited! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, by far, and if I can't be home to celebrate it with my family I at least want to celebrate it here.

Prague: Just a Taste

Well after our wonderful weekend in Dublin, many of our group expressed regrets that we had chosen to go there for our long weekend instead of Prague. And although Dublin was great, I think we made the right choice. 7 of us: Jenn, Carleigh, Carolyn, Peter, Wright, Miles, and I set off for Roissy (Charles de Gaulle airport) at 6:32am on Wednesday morning. After a a few minor difficulties finding our terminal (read: sprinting through the airport with our numerous carry-on bags) and making a connection in Frankfurt (I can now say I have been inside the country of Germany), we arrived in the Czech Republic. I have to say I had a pretty romantic picture of Prague in my head: I was hoping it would snow so we could have snow-capped buildings, preferably with classical music playing following our party around the city. Wright, on the other hand, pictured a post-communist waste-land. Reality was, unsurprisingly, somewhere in between. The sky was grey when we landed and the bus ride from the airport to the city center gave us a taste of the landscape: oddly grey despite the abundance of verdure.

Our hostel was located right off of Wenceslas Square (yes, like "Good King Wenceslas" from the Christmas Carol). We opted for this hostel right inbetween the "Old Town" and the "New Town" (which is still over 500 years old). We were there from Wednesday until Sunday afternoon, and I feel like we really made good use of our time. Here's a rough outline of what we did:

Wednesday evening: dinner at U Neklana, a restaurant which was recommended in Jenn's Lonely Planet "Prague" guide for its good, cheap Czech food. We absolutely loved it! It was the best food we had all weekend, and we had plenty of good food. Of course, I took plenty of pictures:

I have never heard people rave about Czech food, but I really enjoyed it. It was definitely quite different than anything I've tried before. But as much as I enjoyed it, it's probably a good thing I didn't decide to study abroad in Prague: if you think the French use a lot of saturated fat in their food, just try plate upon plate of sausage, potatoes, and cheese. But it tastes so good! And, there is a little more to it than that. First in the food pictures is Carleigh with her dumplings: they were stuffed with onions and grilled sausage. We had a lot of dumplings over the weekend and discovered many different varieties: the kind that were served with goulash were light, sort of spongy pieces of sweet bread, with a flavor akin to pain viennois here in France. The dumplings on Carleigh's plate were denser, probably made with potatoes and very filling (we all passed around the plates and tried a little bit of everything). Carolyn ordered weiner schnitzel and the preparation was similar to what I had in Vienna. Peter, Wright, and Miles all ordered the goulash, an excellent choice. The French equivalent of goulash is called boeuf bourguignone and it happens to be a specialty of the region which includes Dijon. But here in France they make the sauce with wine and in the Czech Republic they make it with beer. This goulash was by far the best we had all weekend: the sauce was simultaneously sweet and surprisingly spicy: we found hints of maple syrup, brown sugar, pepper, and many other flavors (after all of our degustations I think everyone is better at analyzing flavors). The goulash was served with potato latkas. Jenn ordered half of a duck, which I did not sample but she raved about it. I had the potato soup, which may seem boring, but it was exactly what I wanted. It was more of a vegetable soup than just potato soup and it contained brussel sprouts, asparagus, potatoes, and was served in a rye bread bowl. The rye bread went very well with the flavors of our dishes. All of us tried the Pilsner Urquell, the most well-known brand of beer from Prague. Peter ordered a Kozel next and after tasting this darker, richer beer I found that I prefered it, especially with the flavors of the food. It's amazing how the Pilsner tasted just fine before we started to eat, but with the food it tasted a little sour. The Kozel complimented the flavors much better. Anyway, for dessert we ordered fruit dumplings, which the guidebook mentioned. They were enourmous, stuffed with prunes, topped with whipped cream and clotted cream, and then dusted with chocolate powder. It was way too much, but very tasty. After all of that good food we walked back to the Old Town and wandered around that district for a little while. It wasn't too cold outside, actually it was quite pleasant. But it probably helped that our bellies were so full of all of the dense Czech cuisine, it really is true that that kind of food keeps you warm.

Thursday

• Free 3-hour walking tour with Sandeman's : when we first heard it was free we were a little skeptical, but it turned out to be a great choice. Our guide Ruth was very enthusiastic and she showed us around the Old Town, New Town, Jewish Quarter, and pointed out a few of the other sites. Honestly before I went to Prague I knew very little to nothing about the history of the Czech Republic or really any Eastern European history at all. After reading the guidebook on the plane, taking this tour, going to the Museum of Communism, and taking a tour of Terezin, I feel very well informed. The history of Bohemia/Czechloslovakia/the Czech Republic is very much a long list of outsiders who came in and ruled: first the Germans, then the House of Luxembourg, then the Hapsburgs, then 20 brief years of independence, then the Nazis, then the Soviets, and then, in 1989, independence. Our timing was actually quite apt because the 20th anniversery of the fall of the Berlin Wall was November 9 (we arrived on the 11th) and so many of these important dates were being celebrated/noted during our visit. The picture is of the astrological clock in Old Town Square. Prague has many buildings done in the Art Nouveau style, which I have probably seen before, but never in this quantity. Carleigh informed me that Art Nouveau was a movement in reaction to the sterility of the Industrial Revolution. It's very different from the architecture I have seen in France (the only major example of Art Nouveau in France is on the metro stations in Paris). I could list everything we saw on the tour, but it would probably start to sound like Frommer's instead of a blog. So suffice it to say that the tour was both informative and interesting and that I highly recommend that you go to Prague if you ever have to opportunity.
  
• Museum of Communism: or, why I love America. No joke, America has some serious problems, but compared to the kinds of suffering people have felt under other systems, I think we're doing okay. The most interesting part for me was seeing all of the propoganda posters and the photos and videos of the demostrations and riots throughout the communist regime (roughly 1946 to 1989). The police brutality against the demonstrators was really impressionable. I bought a postcard for my friend Hope which shows three women standing proudly and reads "They would have burned their bras like their sisters in the West, if only there has been any in the stores."
  
• Classical music concert at the Church of St. Nicholas on Old Town Square: this wasn't quite as good as the Vivaldi concert we heard in Paris, but it was significantly less expensive and the price/quality was probably equivalent. We heard pieces by Handel, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, and one or two others, performed by an organist and a pianist.
  

Friday

• Terezin: small fortress and the town. This took up a good portion of the day. Terezin is the name of the town which was used by the Nazis as a ghetto for Jews during the occupation of Czechloslovaki. Upwards of 150,000 Jews passed through there, and most of them were sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps where they were murdered. The small fortress was a prison which held political prisoners. We purchased tickets through a tour venue and left on a bus at 9:15am, returning around 2:15am. Terezin is 60 km north of Prague. Before 1940 there were 110,000+ Jews living in Czechloslovakia and after the Germans started enforcing the Nuremburg Laws and persectuting them, there were around 80,000 still living there. Less than 10% of those 80,000 survived the next 5 years. The small fortress at Terezin didn't have any gas chambers or anything like that, but the conditions were still inhumane and shocking. Some of the cells which were originally intended to be a stall for one horse housed 18+ people. A room which might have comfortable held 50 people was inhabited by 600. It was heartbreaking. The Nazi guards lived right next to the compoud in relative luxury (they had a cinema, a swimming pool, and beautiful gardens, all of which remain today). And they lived there with their wives and children! How unbelievable, that they were able to treat other human being so cruelly and do it in such close proximity to the normalcy of a privileged family life. When I think about Holocaust deniers like the shah of Iran it makes me so angry - denying that the Holocause ever happened seems almost as bad as being someone who perpetrated it.
  
• Giant park with the metronome
• Dinner, overpriced and not as good as Thursday
• "Ghost Tour" of the Old Town, quite disappointing

Saturday

• Petrin Hill
  
• Prague Castle (St. Vitus' Cathedral and the museum) This picture is overlooking the Vltava River (which divides Prague), with Prague castle behind it
  
• Dinner with Miles' friend Whitney and her boyfriend Amund

Sunday

• Jewish Museum: Pinkhaus Synagogue, Old Jewish Cemetery, Cemetery museum

Unfortunately I don't have time to go into greater detail about some of the other things we saw. As much as I would love to write all night, I need to study for a test I have tomorrow, and I need to get to work on my presentation on organic agriculture in France (I present it next Tuesday, yikes!). I hope all of you are doing well!