Long overdue....

Bonjour tout le monde!

The last week has been pretty eventful. Wednesday marked the commencement of my psychology classes at the Institut Catholique. I'm taking three courses: Developmental Psych, Clinical Psych and Psychopathology, and Social Psych. Clinical went pretty well - the professor read her notes (*gasp!* no powerpoint!?) out loud, but was always willing to speak slower or repeat the information. One complaint about the course material - France is obsessed with Freud. In America, psychologists don't really teach his material. My course here is based on the "Freudian" system of classification. Ugh. I really enjoyed my social and developmental classes - powerpoints! The students in the classes are very nice. It's perfectly normal to check each others' notes throughout class, and one girl let me download her files of the prerequisite first-year courses! The 3.5 hour classes are pretty grueling. I took roughly 8 pages of scrawled, abbreviation-ridden notes during each, which means I'll need to type them. I was SO relieved to finally start classes. Psychology is preferable to the intensive 6-hour French grammar, history, and culture orientation course.

This weekend, Dickinson took us on a trip into the countryside. Saturday morning, I was running late, so my host dad drove me to the bus (love). We drove three hours to Conques, a village which dates back to the Middle Ages (of course). Apparently, the majority of these villages were constructed when someone chose to build a church, and a community sprung up around it. We hiked up a mountain to see a chapel -

the view was incredible! - and ate a picnick lunch at the top. Afterwards, we viewed the church and it's tresor. Yes. There was treasure. Lots

of gold-plated and bejewled idols. Next, our journey continued to Cordes-Sur-Ciel. The bus dropped us off at the base of the city. We HIKED up through tiny streets into the centre-ville at the top of the mountain, and got settled in our hotel. Our chambre was incredible. Heated towel rack, flat-screen tv, trouser press, awesome shower, a sink which resembled the Parthanon, and oh yeah- a PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE.

We ate dinner at the hotel Saturday night. Apéritif of violet liqueur, entrée of escargot tarte, plat principal of roast duck, and some tasty cake thing for dessert.

Sunday morning, we woke up to the best hotel breakfast of my life. Muesli, coffee, croissants, chocolate croissants, fresh fruit, yogurt, cheese, ham, and sausage. Soon, it was time to explore the city. Our history/art/French culture professor gave us a walking tour of the city, then set us free to shop and eat lunch. There were plenty of shops to explore: souvenirs, wine, even crossbows and foi gras. We found a restaurant for lunch, and divided up into two tables hoping for better service. Thirty minutes later, the other Dickinson table had received their food, and we had yet to see our server. This rendered me almost too cranky to enjoy the 40-person chorus seated across the room, who kept harmonizing French folk music. Eventually our table gave up, left, and found a lovely little shop for some ham and quiche.

After lunch, we loaded up the bus, and drove to a winery. We received a full guided tour by the owner. He showed us his pigeonnier (really old pigeon house), and garden featuring a fleur de lis topiary. He shared the funny story of, shortly after the end of the cold war, some Russian military leaders visited to learn how to make wine. His father was giving them a tour of the gardens, and appoligized that he only had the fleur de lis to show them, not the hammer and sickle. He explained the different processes for making red and white wine, and brought us into the storage and processing areas. This was followed, of course, by a wine tasting. Thanks, Dickinson College!

Other News:

Just a quick tidbit about class today. My clinical psych class is most definitely centered around Freud and psychoanalysis. Thanks, Professor. Now I know three-hours-worth of Freudian principles. 1 hour of lecture time dedicated to Freud comparing the human psyche to crystals. 1 hour dedicated to metapsychology, the basis of psychoanalysis. Basically, pseudoscience. This meant that a friend and I spent some quality post-class time in a pastry shop.

First Day of Classes!

Today was the commencement of courses at the Institut Catholique de Toulouse. This renders it appropriate for me to recount my experience, and perhaps add an analysis of French versus American university classes. This was supposed to be that post. But it's not. For reasons which will soon become clear.

I arrived at the ICT early this morning, and asked the receptionist (part of her job description is literally to give people directions) where my class was located. I found it, along with another Dickinson student. The door was locked (oh, France), but the arrival of other students confirmed that we were in the right place. The course selection functions differently here than at Dickinson. Students arrive at school with a set major, and within that major they are told which courses to take, with little room for electives. Unlike Dickinson, there is no battle to get "accepted" into certain courses. If you're a second-year psychology student, you receive your schedule, and that's it. This of course means that you take EVERY class with the same people, 3 years in a row. The group immediately recognized us as outsiders, and a couple girls started up conversations with us. 20 minutes later, there was still no professor to be found. The students decided en mass to leave. So we did, and returned an area where all the schedules and notices are posted. Our class had been cancelled! I spent the rest of the day attending a "welcome" persentation courtesy of the Director ("big boss" - a bishop!), then eating lunch in the cafeteria (scrumptious) with some new French friends - they even took us out for baklava after! Tomorrow I only have a Dickinson class scheduled, so hopefully Wednesday night I'll have some academic stories for this audience.

Highlights from this weekend:

Friday we received a tour of the ICT campus from another 3rd year student. It's a tiny place, but pretty nice. My only complaint is that not all the buildings have identifying marks that they belong to the college, and not all the classrooms have numbers? That should be interesting.

Saturday we explored some of Toulouse's "Journées de Patrimoine" - meaning that there were all kinds of events throughout the city. Most museums are open to the public and free, as well as churches and private homes that are otherwise closed to the public. Same goes for Sunday. I'll have the pictures up soon - we saw le Palais Niel, l'Hôtel du Barry, as well as several incredible churches.

Gagnant!

Tonight, some Dickinson people and I participated in a "France-Etats Unis" happy hour. This is basically an organisation which brings together people from both countries interested in making friends from another country, as well as practicing their French and English speaking skills.

Beforehand, a few of us met up for dinner at a tapas bar. Not only was dinner delicious, but at some point during dinner a woman came over and offered us free alcohol as part of a "51 Brand" promotion. Then she gave us free hats. We proceeded to wear the hats for the remainder of the night. Throughout all this, the bar kept playing songs from the movie "Blues Brothers." Good times all around.

The happy hour was excellent. I met adults from the area, mostly working Toulousains who wanted to speak English with us. This was fine, as we responded in French. I look forward to attending more of these events in the future.

http://www.franceusa.org/

Mecredi Soir

Tonight, I watched a bio of President Ronald Reagan with my host parents. Quote of the evening, courtesy of my host dad (translated from French):

"Ah! Ronald Reagan! If I was American, I would vote for him!"

Flight of the Français

The past week has featured quite a few points of interest...

Last Tuesday (sorry for not posting sooner!), Dickinson brought us on a

trip to a castle in the Pyrénées. We hiked for 30 minutes STRAIGHT UP the mountain, through fog, which was pretty cool. The picture below shows the mountain. Where the road enters on the far left is where we began, and hiked pretty much straight up to the top.

That tiny thing on the mountaintop is actually an enormous medieval castle. Below, you can see the village where we ate lunch! Lunch (no surprises here) was fantastic! They served us a quinoa salad, trout, and pasta, as well as an amazing apple tart dessert, coffee, and pitchers

of wine. The trout was served WHOLE, which was an adventure by itself. All courtesy of Dickinson!

After lunch, we went on a kayaking journey through the mountains! This featured beautiful scenery, ducks, and a couple mishaps. A friend accidently hit me in the face with an oar, my kayak partner and I got stuck in a tree, and a few other girls fell in. Our kayaking leaders were pretty amused by all this. Good times all around. Plus, I arrived home that night with a sweet black eye/battle wound to show the family. That day also happened to be a grève day, meaning everyone was on strike. The buses and metro weren't working, and people were protesting in the streets. Too bad we weren't around to fully experience it - though they're common enough, I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities. We arrived back in Toulouse that night, soaking wet and starving (a miracle after the amount of food we consumed at lunch!), and headed straight out for kabobs! SO AMAZING. For those of you who aren't familiar with the wonder of kabobs, it's basically an enormous hunk of meat, lamb?, usually displayed in shop windows spinning next to a heater. The cafe workers literally SHAVE off hunks of greasy meat and put them in a naan sandwich. Clearly, this is my new favorite food.

A la Campagne

Seeing as the rest of last week didn't feature anything particularly exciting (piano concert, Place au Jacobins, churches - check out the pictures I posted online!), I'll skip directly to this weekend! My family invited me to their country cottage for the weekend. Two hours of winding roads outside Toulouse, near Bergerac (as in Cyrano, for my fellow Francophiles), we made it. Their home is pretty sweet, located on its own hill, with an ENORMOUS pool and beautiful view. I spent the weekend swimming, dining, and immersing myself into their family culture. I learned that they love whiskey-coca, and that they can spend hours debating politics over food, and that everyone in their family is a fantastic cook. Saturday, I accompanied them into town to check out the weekly markey, which was very typique and fun. That night, a friend of theirs invited us to dinner in their BEAUTIFUL home. Legit, it was furnished somewhat like a hybrid of these two pictures. Dinner lasted three and a half hours, which was pretty cool.

Sunday, I went tomass with Madame (en francais!) which was thoroughly enjoyable. Afterwards, we had an interesting discussion about catholicism and religion in general. For lunch, we had crab, still in its shell. The family was asking me if I knew how to eat crab. I answered that I was more familiar with lobster. They were VERY impressed. Thanks, Cape Cod roots!

WAIT. I forgot to mention the hilight of my weekend! I flew in my host dad's plane!

That's all for now~~~ Please send your responses/questions/witticisms via email or facebook, and I'll be sure to respond or post them!

Choses Intéressants...

Today was important for several reasons:

1. I began choosing courses. For serious. Looks like i'll be taking the required "how to take a class in France" required by Dickinson, possibly a photography course, and a bunch of psych classes at the Institut Catholique de Toulouse (my family informed me that people call it the "le Catho" or something... weird). I'll be choosing either 2nd or 3rd year classes (scary!), plus it would appear that there's the opportunity to do some reseearch within the department.

2. Bonded with my host family today. Spent some time discussing current events and politics over a bottle of wine. C'est la vie.

3. My host family owns a PLANE. I now have a new goal going forward...

WE! (week-end)

Right now I’m feeling a bit flustered. I was just walking home from a café, and managed to get caught in a flash thunderstorm. This took me totally by surprise, because every day in Toulouse thus far has been gorgeous. So let’s see… I guess I need to catch up on everything since last week. Hmmm…

So let’s see… Friday was interesting. We had our first written assignment due, which I then had to read en class. During our lunch break (which is always two hours, by the way), Dickinson folks and I checked out a fantastic open-air market of second-hand stuff. I was pretty excited about this, because the quality of the items for sale was ridiculous. I saw countless stands featuring ornate antique furniture, china tea sets, and jewelry. I’ll definitely be returning to shop when it occurs next month.

After lunch, Professor Crema, who teaches us Toulouse history, brought us all to the Basilique Saint Sernin, which dates back to the middle ages. Getting there was my first time using the Toulouse metro system (so much walking…), which is GORGEOUS. Everything is clean and shiny, and there is a barrier between you and the train – glass doors open when the train arrives. Even the trains themselves are shiny. So strange. There’s a museum next door to the basilica, where Monsieur Crema explained why and how it was built. What I found pretty interesting was how the architecture of the basilica changed from the front to the back, because it took so long to build. Apparently, there were no sculptors when it began, only masons. But as the Middle Ages progressed, they began to learn, and their work became more and more intricate. But hey, for people who didn’t have decent systems of waste disposal, and mostly couldn’t read, they did an amazing job. Seriously – check out the pictures. I had some fun taking pictures with some statues in the museum. The inside of the basilica was epic – so enormous and beautiful. After we left, a couple friends and I made our way home, stopping in some cool shops along the way. There are lots of hippie-style boutiques featuring all kinds of clothing and accessories made in Nepal. And of course, we stopped in a bakery to buy some chocolate bon bons.

That night, the Dickinson crew and I met up in the Place St. Pierre, which we had been informed is the center of student nightlife. We made friends with the owner of a small pizza store, and enjoyed some delicious pizza and wine. A couple hours later, we progressed next door to the bar. We managed to meet a very international crowd that evening. Plenty of French, Italian and German folks. It was interesting to observe how an evening in Toulouse progresses. There were quite a few people who were clearly underage, but all the establishments we visited were perfectly enjoyable and fun. There are no laws against open containers, as far as I can tell, so we ended up down by the river, along with half the student population of Toulouse. Overall, it was a great night. I made it home around 2 or 2:30, and finally had a chance to skype with Mom and Jenny!

Wow. That was all one day. Moving on…

Saturday was slightly less eventful. I wandered around the city for a while, which just never gets old. Then, the Dickinson crowd met up to hang out in our favorite gardin, the Jardin des Plantes. Yes. We have a favorite garden. That night, we went out again, but mostly just hung out along the river like so many other people. It’s truly fantastic how many people are out at night here. Heading home, I decided not to make anyone walk me home, and managed to hail a taxi AND direct him to my house! 10 euros later, I was still proud of this accomplishment.

Sunday, I woke up relatively early, and watched mass on TV with my family. This was quite enjoyable, because the priest speaks so slowly. Then, I set out to find a market that I’d only heard about briefly. Somehow, this worked. And, it’s definitely my new favorite place. Every Sunday, Toulouse hosts markets throughout the city. There were stands of fromage, meat, pastries, fruits and veggies – basically anything a hungry person could desire. There were stands of books, music, videos, jewelry, clothing, and home goods. There were plenty of street performers; one woman in particular played roughly ten instruments and sang beautifully. My friends and I bought all kinds of delicious food (moi: brie, une baguette, sausage), and spent the remainder of the afternoon by the river eating and relaxing. When I arrived home, sweaty and exhausted, my host momma invited me to go swimming in her brother’s pool. Bien sur! Henri lives in a beautiful home just outside of Toulouse. He has a piscine naturel, a pool that uses no chemicals, just plants and nature to filter the pool. There are even little minnows and a koi that live in it! Yes, I swam with a koi. Apparently it’s pretty new and rare, so he’s been featured in magazines. That night, I watched “Catch me if you Can” en français with the family, which was pretty cool.

FINALEMENT!

This is a post born out of the truly awesome fact that I finally bonded today with my host sister and brother! YESSS! That's really all I have to say. They're totally nice, but I've been having trouble communicating with them during their fast-paced family conversations. Today though, I had a chance to talk to them individually. This allowed me to *ever so slowly* come up with the correct words for a legitimate conversation. I learned that My host sister will be attending the same university as me, and my host brother is equally disturbed by the number of underage children present in the bars of Toulouse. Oh, and tonight we had quiche. Which is delicious.

Not sure I've mentioned this before, but my host family eats dessert with every meal. Thomas James Vaccaro would fit in well.

That is all.

"Bonjour Madame"

Time for another update!

Yesterday was pretty eventful - at the Dickinson center, the morning featured a THREE HOUR LONG exam (written, oral, and listening) to see what the class needs to improve. Death. But, after that, we were released for two hours to explore the area and locate some nourriture. Some of the Dickinson peeps introduced me to Casino, which is the local supermarket chain. Pretty much like a French Stop and Shop or Giant, but less generic. Then, I joined up with three other friends and found a crêperie for lunch! Délicieux! After that, we met up with another professor for a guided tour of Toulouse center.

The professor started by showing us around the Jardin des Plantes, which is beautiful (of course). I went to find my camera and - au mon deiu! - I had left it at the crêperie! So that was terrible. Au revoir, camera. But the tour was pretty cool. The professor told us all about the history of the city, and how it is built in a circle filled with labyrinthine roads for better fortification. Also, he showed us most of the major squares and roads, so that we would never be totally lost! The man even quoted Bob Marley ("My feet is my only carriage..."), to explain that he hates cars and usually just walks everywhere. There's a seven story parking garage in the middle of the city. He brought us up to the top. From there, you can look down onto most of the city, and see church steeples as well as Les Pyrénées in the distance.

After the tour, I decided to walk to the other side of the city to relocate the camera. One forty-five minute walk later, and the place was closed. Good times. So, instead of meeting up with Dickinson people as planned, it was time to go home and shower. I had a lovely conversation with the host momma, who told me to let her know if I needed anything, because here "je suis comme ton mère secondaire." Love. As I was leaving, the host poppa said that I looked "tres élégante!" Double love.

That night, I met up with a bunch of Dickinson folks to check out the city some more. We ate some fantastic Italian food, drank some wine, and talked about how it still hasn't sunk in that WE LIVE HERE. One of the girls texted a friend from home to find a decent bar, which we located with the help of google maps. Basically, a fantastic night.

Today went pretty well. First day of class with another professor. She is determined to prepare us for taking classes in France. A pretty intense undertaking. Then, back to the crêperie to retrieve my camera. THEY HAD IT! For lunch, I picked up some samosas and picknicked with the Dickinson peeps. After that, more orientation to discuss the cultural differences between France and America. Hint: there are a lot. But that's a post for a later time.