Back to the Basics

Yeah, yeah. I know. I haven't updated my blog in a month. But nothing different has really been happening. My life has remained constant: wake up, school, lunch, school, passing the afternoon with friends, home, sleep. Every day.

I finally have something to write about! Aren't you plum surprised?

We're on vacation now. I'm currently in a small town outside of Carcassonne, France. After the arrival of Abby's mom and her friend Karla, we headed out on a quest to find the most beautiful place in France (more or less). We spent the first night (Friday) in Angers and showed the two newbies around the city. We had some faux-Champagne at my place, then a nice dinner at Abby's. It was brain-draining trying to translate the conversations we were having for them (since Amy and Karla don't speak French). The next day, we headed out in our rented car for the city of Bordeaux, France's favorite city. I think the population is around 700,000, with 1.1 million if you include the surrounding 'burbs. It was an amazing place to stay. Unfortunately, it was only for one night. I think I could have stayed there for a week. I'll make sure to go back someday.

After the trip to Bordeaux, we headed to Carcassonne. Half-way there, we decided to leave the route and go exploring a town called "Villeneuve-sur-Lot". 'Sur-Lot' means it is on the Lot river. There, we found a tiny town with a Notre Dame. It was located on the very top of a small mountain, where we found a cave with a shrine to an angel and Jesus, along other things. It was filled with fresh flowers along with pictures and sculptures of Catholic religious figures. It was quite extraordinary. We then went to the very peak of the mountain and found some old ruins along with a larger-than-life crucifixion of Jesus. I climbed to the top of the rubble and took pictures of the surrounding landscape -- I could see for miles. It was awesome.

After leaving the little town, I took a picture with a particularly interesting road sign. Less than 10 km from Ville-sur-Lot was a small, itty bitty farming village called... Can you guess? "Saint Germain" -- my mother's maiden name. Cool, eh? I'll be posting pictures of all this once the trip is finished.

After the little excursion through the countryside, we headed back to the highway to continue on to Carcassonne. We've set up shop in a small youth hostel. There were 3 girls here, all traveling independently, and a father and daughter traveling around France. It interesting to hear what they're doing and why they've come.

We'll be staying in this hostel for a couple days (leaving tomorrow morning). We've visited twice now a preserved medieval city next to Carcassonne. It's a city completely surrounded by two stone walls, with a castle in the middle (of course). I'll be posting pictures of this, like I said, at the end of our vacation. It's really an incredible place to be. The roads completely cobblestone and very narrow, the buildings old but well preserved (but unfortunately rather commercialized with restaurants and hotels). I have plenty of pictures to help you understand what I'm rambling about.

We're now back at the hostel, relaxing. I'm ready to leave, though. This town was fun, but there's more to see yet.

Next stop: Nimes!

Je ne comprends pas...

Alors! Ma phrase favorite : "Je ne comprends pas"!

That's a pretty good description of my time here thus far. Je ne comprends pas. I don't understand.
Well, hopefully not for long. I'm learning French at a very quick rate now. I don't know how many words a day I'm learning, but it seems to me that everyday I can express myself a little better. My accent is improving a little and people are starting to understand me more easily. It's a great feeling, initiating and maintaining a conversation in a foreign language.

I don't have a lot to talk about right now. Things haven't been slow in my life, just a bit redundant. I go to class, eat lunch (usually a panini or kebab), go back to class, go home. The only difference is now I actually have some friends, haha. So, now on the nights I have something to do. Our crowd is an array of nationalities; mostly English-speaking, but none from France. There's always a couple Americans, Koreans, Chinese, Africans, Spaniards and Mexicans. It's amazing to sit down at a table and be constantly switching conversations between French and English so everyone can understand. I actually found myself translating an English question from somebody into Spanish for a Spaniard. Harder than I thought it would be, since my mind is in French mode, but it's amazing the stuff I still remember.

What else can I talk about right now?

I finally went to the bar for the first time here since I have a crowd of friends now. It was a pretty good time. Everyone is really friendly and accepting of everybody, even if we speak real choppy French still.

So, yeah, not a whole lot has changed in my life so far. I'm just putsing around, trying to learn a new song on guitar every two days (my room mate has a backpacker's guitar with a really small body and normal sized neck). I'm keeping busy with classes and homework, mixed in with late nights and jam sessions. I'm starting to have a great time here now.

Abby's cousin told me to go into this vacation with the mindset that I'm moving to France indefinitely, and not think about the return trip; I'm living here until I leave. It's so far away, but I feel like I'm leaving tomorrow.

I always heard Abby and other people say how, when you travel, you really learn a lot about yourself. I believe it, now. I'm starting to find out who I am as a person, what I really value and the things I really care about.

None of you will ever see me again. At least, not as you know me. Each day I evolve as a person, each day I learn more about myself, and each day I grow closer to being the person I want to be. It's a tremendous feeling. Sometimes I look around and it takes my breath away. I don't see the same way I used to. I don't hear the same way I did before. As I walk along old walls, I'll reach my hand out and let my fingers drag across it, relishing the feeling of the old stone, trying desperately to remember every detail. I will never forget this place, my home in Angers.

This place has taken a part of my heart and I don't expect to get it back.

I'm fine with that.

Samuel

Isn't it mid day? Why are the stores closed?

Oh, France. How you overwhelm me. With your beauty, architecture, people and lifestyles, how could anyone ever be upset with you?

Wait a minute. What was that? Everything is closed from noon until 2 o'clock? What? Why? How could you do this to me?

That was my mindset, but not quite as poetic, for the first week I was here. Everyday, people take what is known here as 'le sieste,' which is basically 2 hours off of work and school to eat and sleep. No, seriously. Everyday at noon, my French family, Pascal and Michelle, fall asleep, Michelle watching poorly dubbed soap operas in the living room and Pascal in his bedroom. I'm not too surprised they take 'le sieste,' though, since French people drink a gallon of coffee each morning, and they're bound to crash hard when the caffeine wears off.

On a different note, I've started my schooling. I'm taking langue, comrpéhension orale, expression orale, et l'histoire de l'art Française (Language, oral comprehension, oral expression, and the History of French Art, respectively, if you couldn't figure that out). I'm really excited dive into my subjects. My teachers all seem nice and understanding. My oral comprehension teacher talks very clearly, of course, and is a funny individual. He's very energetic about his class and knows how to convey his points well to people of limited vocabulary. My art teacher looks, for lack of better words, rad. She's the only history of art teacher on campus. She's petite, wears cool dresses and has big, frizzy hair. She talks very clearly because there are a lot (lot lot lot lot) of Asians in my classes who don't comprehend as well. In fact, there's usually only about 2 or 3 people not of Oriental descent in any of my classes. It's odd being a minority for a change. My language professor is young and just had a baby girl. She is understanding and seems like an alright person. I could easily see her being a grump, though, so I'll try to stay on her good side. She seems well enough. I haven't yet taken my oral expression class, so I don't know what I'm in for there. We'll see.

It's a 15 minute walk from my flat to the university (le Catho (cah-toe), as most city-dwellers call it). It doesn't really matter where you're walking to in Angers, there's always something to look at and admire. The old city is simply fantastic. Everything is new there, even if time is starting to take root on its structure and slowly start its merciless transition into rubble. The shops are small and built together, the people jolly, carrying bags of new clothes or a fresh panini wrapped in a yellow-and-black striped paper bag (a favorite of Abby's and mine). The buildings are old, with criss-crossing wood planks crawling up white walls. The roads are of round cobblestone, ground soft and edgeless in over a century's use. Even the wind feels different here. When I visit the old city, I always make sure to breathe through my nose, as there are always plenty of petite shops bellowing out storms of tantalizing smells. There is an air of freedom for me when I come here. It's amazing the spiritual upliftment you can experience by throwing some Coldplay-filled earbuds into your ears, bundling up warm, and simply walking along the ancient cobble stone paths. All you need is sky above and ground below, a smile on your face and to throw doubts to the wind, which will be happy to replace them with confidence and an profound sense of freedom.

You'll get some pictures in my next post! They're all on Abby's computer, but if you're impatient, check out her blog, C'est La Vie, at http://abbygallagher.blogspot.com/.

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A bientôt!

My New Life

I have finally arrived in Angers! Well, we actually arrived two days ago. It was a grueling 30 hours of traveling before we finally settled down in a hotel room.

So, with painful jet lag and empty stomachs, we met up with my French father, Pascal Poupard at the train station. He took Abby and I back to his flat on Avenue Pasteur where he and his mother fed us a great bowl of carrot, potato, pea soup and pumped us full of awesome French coffee. They refer to American coffee as jus du chaussette, or sock juice, because of how big but weak the coffee is in America. Here, we drink tiny, extremely strong cups of coffee.

Some background on ma famille français (my French family):
Pascal Poupard is a 42 year old man who's diabeties has rendered him legally blind. He lives in a very nice flat with his mom, Michelle, and a tiny, 6 month old puppy named Ratatoullie. He has hosted other international students before me. His last student was also from Michigan, and he has another student coming to live with us on the third whom is, you guessed it, from Michigan. Strange coincidence has brought him 3 Michigan students in a row. Weird, huh?

The food here is not very expensive if you know where to eat. Pascal told us it is much cheaper to buy food from le boulangerie (the bakery) and eat it on the street than to sit down at a café. Abby and I can split a foot long panini, can of pop, and pain du chocolate for under £4 (about $5). It's an interesting, fun game trying to find cheap food.

So, we were exploring the city yesterday, trying to find our way back home after visiting the university where we'll be studying and getting some food. We rounded a corner, pointing out a particularly fantastic statue right in the middle of some crossroads, while looking for a map of the city so we can get our bearings. We saw a bus stop and found a map inside, where we saw that le Chateau (the Angers castle) is directly north of us. We turned around and there it was! How could we have missed it?! It was DIRECTLY behind the statue that we had pointed out not 5 minutes earlier. How do you not notice a giant castle in the middle of a city?! It was very bizarre and funny for us.

Something that is really fun for me while I'm here is speaking in English as people walk by. I always wonder who can understand me and who can not. We were walking behind a couple of teens last night who were listening to American rap on their cells, and I was wondering if they actually understood it or not, and what they thought we thought of them because we did understand it... if that makes sense. I guess that's the psychologist in me. American music and film is very popular here, apparently. Half of the commericals on TV have American music, the other half American actors. I was suprised to see nudity in their commercials, though. Europeans have a much lighter view on nudity than we Americans do. It is interesting how similar but different they are. Pascal told me that many French do not like Americans, not for their government, but because they are jealous of the power America holds. French was once the bright star of Europe and they miss the power they once held. Or, thats what was told to me, at least.

Another thing I've found out: People are in LOVE with Obama. They can't get enough of him, haha. Very interesting.

I'll keep you posted as everything develops, but I'm sick of writing right now and my battery is almost dead. Au revoir!

Final Preparations

I bought my ticket last night. It's a scary experience committing to 5 months on a different continent. It's unreal.

Here's some background on me: I can count on one hand the number of times I've been outside the United States; all of which were to Canada. I speak Spanish well enough to live in any Spanish-speaking country, but have never been to Mexico. I've lived in small towns with small town people my entire life. I've never heard of any of my friends dreaming of traveling the world. I feel as if everyone is content to live for the rest of their lives where they grew up; that's not me. I want to learn, see, and explore everything this world has to offer. The American way is not the only way. I want to learn every language I can so I can go anywhere and do anything, see and understand every culture, and hopefully, find a place I can one day call home. To tell the truth, I don't like the States as much as would be expected of a born-and-raised American. I love the Oriental idea of collectivism, the importance of family to Hispanics, and the food- and fashion-driven culture of the French. The States are none for all and all for themselves, a slew of fast food and retirement homes. We look out for numero uno. That's not who I am. I guess I'll find out if my dreams are real or simply fantasy in the next half year.

So, my college quoted me a $1,200 round-trip ticket, which is double what I actually paid, so that leaves me with $600 extra in my pocket. Ka-ching! That's a free trip to, basically, anywhere in Europe and back. Good things are happening already.

About my French life:
I'll be living in a homestay with a French family who will become my French family. I'm just over a mile from the university where I'll be studying, so it's not a far walk to class everyday. My girlfriend, Abby, will be around .9 miles from me, in the direction of the university, so we can walk to class together. Besides that, I don't know anything yet.

I consider this trip the beginning of the rest of my life.