"Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way!": The rundown on the first 2 weeks

Sam. 15 October 2011

I had the alarming thought this morning when I was getting ready that this was already my third weekend with my host family. While that might not sound like an alarming thought I feel like I’ve done nothing during that time! Of course this is not completely true and so I make myself feel better I will run the highlights of the last 2 weeks by you.

Sam. 1 October 2011

I arrived in Dijon and met my host dad (Jean-Luc) and younger host brother (Jean) at the train station. We continued home where I met my host mom (Marie-Genevieve) and I got a tour of the house, unpacked and had dinner while watching a movie (L’adventures de Rabbi Jacob) with Jean because the parents had gone out to dinner with friends.

Dim. 2 October 2011

My view of the gardens at the country house

I met my older host brother (Pierre-Andre) for the first time as I went down to breakfast and I got my first of many French cheek kisses (later today I also go the run down on how many to do where. For example you do 2 in Dijon, 3 in Paris, 3 or 4 in the south etc). After going to my first French mass with my host dad (and understanding very little), Jean-Luc, Marie-Genevieve, Calliou (the dog), and I loaded ourselves into the van to head to the country and their “petit chateau.” It was about a 45-minute drive north through several adorable little villages to get the country house, where my host mom grew up, that dated back to the Middle Ages. It was a beautiful old house with the courtyard in the front and the traditional, structured, French gardens in the back. (As well as their fruit and veggie gardens and a full sized tennis court). We had a very nice day with them picking their produce and me lounging on the patio reading a book. We had lunch (with smiley fries exactly like what you would get at the Pub) and went for a beautiful walk through the woods before heading home.

Week 1:

Monday: took the placement test

Eating my french sandwich at Place de la Liberation

Tuesday: Went to Beaune, the wine capital of the region. Visited a vineyard on the way, ate lunch at a café, visited L’Hotel de Dieu which was a hospital that was revolutionary because they cared for the poor and the rich is lavish conditions (and possibly invented floor drains…)

Wed: Brief tour of Dijon, saw the highlights , did some window shopping

Thurs: Don’t really remember. I think just walked around Dijon, sat in Jardin Darcy and tried to wait out the rain that came from nowhere.

Friday: Got the results of our placement test (Niveau 3)

Sat October 8: Hung out around Dijon. Went out for drinks with Carolina. Discovered that Tequila Sunrise is not the drink for me. Something about the combination of tequila and orange juice grosses me out a little.

Sunday: Went to my 2^nd mass in French. The homily still goes way over my head…

Week 2:

In general I just went to classes, made friends with the other students in the program, ate lunch at the French cafeteria, had dinner with my family, met another one of their kids (Mathilde whose room I’m living in) went out for drinks again. Discovered that my favorite drink is a “chocolada” aka a chocolate pina colada. And decided to move up to Niveau 4 which means I will get a humanities credit because I need to go to at least one lecture (I went to Panorama Politique Friday and it was actually very interesting) I also bought my French phone this week (well I bought the SIM card to go in my American phone).

Okay now that I’ve written out a full page of stuff I’ve done I feel like I’ve accomplished something while I’ve been here…

Foods I’ve eaten so far that I would never have eaten if my mother had served them to me:

Zucchini soup
Spinach mush, I don’t know what was in it but it was gross… (and we ate it with hard boiled eggs so it was an even weirder combination)
Several strange cheeses that I have no hope of knowing which one is which
A quiche that was full of cucumbers (which I hate even more cooked than I do raw)
A pâté with little yellow tomatoes on top, it wasn’t bad, but didn’t look very appetizing
Salad. Never have I been a great lover of salad, but yesterday Matilde asked her mom if we were having salad and she said (in French) “not for me but Catherine likes salad a lot” and that’s when I realized that I do happily eat salad every time we have it, I think it might have something to do with the freshness and the non-iceberg-ness
Fish in non fish stick form. I ate it, but it was somewhat easier when I mixed it with the rice and tried to pretend it wasn’t there.

-Side note- You have to realize that the French don’t leave anything on their plates except the fat cut from the ham or the crust of the cheese, they even use bread to soak up juices or wipe up leftovers. It’s a strange habit to get used to but I like the idea (especially in the cafeteria b/c that would never happen in an American Caf.) They don’t force you to eat it or anything, for example my host mom had me try something today, but made sure I knew I didn’t have to eat it, and when I said it okay but not my favorite

Most interesting Meal so far:

One day for lunch they pulled out this contraption that has little trays on which you put a slice of cheese, you insert the tray into the middle of thing (that kind of looks like a closed waffle maker) and it melts the cheese. Once melted you eat the cheese with different slices of cold meats. (or if you are my picky little brother you at it on bread to make a semi-grilled cheese.

Best meal so far:

Hands down this Cherry cobbler like dinner. I was beyond delicious. It beats every dessert I have even eaten. And it wasn’t even dessert! It was dinner! I don’t know how else to describe it other than fresh cherries, a doughy biscuit-y crust, and like a cream sauce all baked to perfection.

Best Dessert:

Except for the above : ) My host mom made Raspberry ice cream from the raspberries she picked in the country. If not a little too sweet, It was amazing.

Best Wine so far:

Ironically enough I enjoy the red wine that we have at dinner daily much more than any wine I’ve had while eating out.