What I'm trying to say is I'm not going to cover everything. You wouldn't WANT me to cover everything.
So let's start off with a basic question- How do you like France?
France is great! Most of the time. You need a qualifier for that statement. See the thing is I'm really not spending a whole lot of time in "France." I'm spending a lot of time at school. An international school. International schools just aren't as much fun as you might think they would be. For one, everyone instinctively clings to people from their country. You can't really help it. It's not like you can just "bond" with these people because most of the time they don't speak English or they don't speak enough French to really get to know them that well. It's just easier to stick with people you're comfortable with. And then, you just notice the differences between cultures more. And it's not endearing, or maybe it is at first but it soon becomes frustrating. Especially if they're Mexican or Italian. I know I'm calling people out here, but seriously. They are hard to live with. They don't even like living with each other. No one should have to live with them. That isn't to say the group of Americans do not have their own bad eggs. But seriously. Italians and Mexicans.
International schools make you racist.
Let's stay on track. So the school is where most of my time is spent. I go Monday through Friday all morning and afternoons on Tuesday and Thursday. All for a measly 12 credits. It's a lot of class and it feels like a complete rip-off, but there's nothing to be done about it. They have a cafeteria which borders on bland to bad so whenever I get the chance to leave the school I'm eager to get some really good authentic French food.
But wait. What is "authentic French food" exactly? It turns out not even the French really know. 3/4 of the time it ends up being bad Italian food and the other 1/4 of the time it's either bread or something really weird that French people half-jokingly enjoy, like tartare or snails. The best food I've had so far was in Italy and (surprisingly) England. They have damn good Indian food in London.
So there are the complaints. There they are. They are done. So what's good about France?
It's gorgeous. Everywhere I've gone so far has been just jaw-dropping beautiful. A lot of places have reminded me of Yosemite. Except on the sea. With beaches. It's really just that good looking.
The train system is great. France has is figured out. It's really easy to get anywhere in France and the trains are always on time.
French people really aren't that bad. So long as you don't need anything from them (like a waiter or a grocery store cashier) they are actually surprising nice and pleasant to be around. I mean, they don't smile or anything, but they don't go out of their way to make you feel bad.
I'm right by the beach. I can't even stress how close I am to the beach. I have this French Civilization class and I sit right by the window and I can see waves breaking. I can see the sea (not ocean, mind you!) from my dorm room. I can hear waves breaking as I go to sleep. There is a lot of beach in my life. Also, apparently every beach in France is a topless beach, which was a little shocking the first time I found that out.
The upshot to going to school so much is that I am getting a lot better at French. I'm definitely not fluent nor am I really at the ability to talk to a French person, but I can at least form sentences and communicate on a very basic level. My English, however, has not been so fortunate. As you may have noticed by reading this blog, my ability to communicate profound statements is, frankly, shitty and getting shittier. So it goes.
To compensate for this, I've been reading a lot. I've read a bunch of books that I will compile into a list here:
Ender's Game (B)
All the Pretty Horses (A)
Freakonomics (A-)
Super-Freakonomics (B)
The Old Man and the Sea (A-)
Fahrenheit 451 (C+)
The Catcher in the Rye (not what I was expecting at all B+)
Slaughterhouse-Five (A goddamn +)
A Walk in the Woods (B+)
Shit My Dad Says (B+)
Neither Here Nor There (B)
The Tao of Pooh (re-read/I'd feel guilty grading it)
and I'm currently reading The Game by Neil Strauss (so far a solid A even though it makes me feel uncomfortable).
When I'm not at school, reading, hanging out with Katie and friends, or traveling I'm either:
Animating (Birds of the Night! Now I'm doing storyboards for my senior thesis)
Grocery Shopping
Doing laundry
Trying to get new music even though the internet is TERRIBLE and it takes forever to download songs. (Michael, your CD saved me a lot of time.)
Playing on my iPod Touch.
Recently (very recently) I've been trying to work out a little bit here and there. This consists of short runs and even shorter sets of push-ups. Unfortunately it's really difficult to find a place to do these things. I don't really like working out in public but there is absolutely no privacy on campus. It's like what going to college probably should have been like in the beginning. Completely cut off from home with no sense of "this is my place." There's no bathroom in the room, which kind of sucks and is hard to get used to. It means, amongst other things, semi-naked walks down the hallway to the showers and half-flushed/not-at-all-flushed toilets. Back on track though-- I wouldn't be surprised if I've lost a bit of weight since I've been in France. I'm really sad about that. I don't like being as skinny as I am, but for the time being there's not a whole lot to be done about it.
I've been traveling around a lot since I've been in Europe. A lot more than I was expecting/probably more than is healthy for me. Pretty much every weekend involves some sort of trip, which is good and fun...but also expensive, time-consuming, and stressful. I spent about a $1000 on spring break. That is a lot of money for me. But, for that I got to see a lot of cool places:
Paris (Disney Paris!)
Brussels
Amsterdam
Venice
Perugia
Syracuse
Pompeii
Rome
and
Ventimiglia.
In fact, I got to see too much of Ventimiglia. I would have gladly preferred not to see Ventimiglia at all, but boy oh boy. I sure got to see it.
Basically the story goes like this, as said by Katie:
After a perfectly sunny morning wandering through the streets of Pompeii, it was finally time to turn ours gazes northward and return to Cannes. Sadly, our plan to arrive in time to get a good night’s sleep was rejected by Lady Fortune - our train from Naples to Rome broke down and we missed our connecting train to Ventimiglia (the view from our seats pictured here).
To clarify, the one hour train from Naples to Rome broke down for half an hour, and we missed our connection by ten minutes.
We were so close, the train was still listed on the “Departures” table when we got off the train in Rome.
(Sad.)
And so, our longest day ever, which began at 5:30 AM in Naples (or, one could argue, had never really ended the night before, since the night train was a step above miserable sleep-wise), continued long into the night, with a train arriving in Ventimiglia just after 1:00 AM the next morning.
And no train leaving Ventimiglia until 4:45 AM.
And so, we spent the most agonizing four and a half hours on the cold, tiled floor of a hallway in Ventimiglia station huddling together for warmth.
I have never been so happy to see a French train in my life as I was that morning.
The above picture was taken on our last train back circa 5:00 AM.
You may remember me saying French trains don't break down. Italian trains, of course, break down all the goddamn, motherfucking, holyshitareyouserious time. It's like their forced to break down. It's like someone wants them to not work. It's like they're...bad trains.
So, Katie and I are a little tired of traveling. We were supposed to travel this weekend for Easter break because we have two free days of travel left on our passes, but neither of us made the initiative to look for places to stay and so ultimately, and to both are delight, we have ended up doing nothing. It's great.
So things are good. Things are very good. I'm definitely having a memorable experience and I'm glad I found the balls to try living abroad for a semester. I probably won't blog again in France. I need to keep some good stories to tell you guys later anyways.
