Bonjour tout le monde! J'espère que vos premiers jours de l'école étaient fantastiques et n'étaient pas stressants! C'est triste que l'été soit presque fini mais nous avons des nouvelles adventures pour cette année scolaire. Pour moi, j'ai eu un été incroyable et je veux remercier tous les gens que j'ai rencontré et vu à Disney World, à Camp Wenonah et chez moi pour toutes les mémoires. Maintenant, je commence ma aventure prochaine à Tours et je suis très excitée (et un peu nerveuse, bien sûr). Il y a une semaine depuis je suis arrivée en France et pour la plupart, j'ai une bonne expérience. Je rencontre des nouvelles personnes chaque jour et mon français est améliorant avec toute ma pratique ici. Cependant, je sais qu'on veut lire mes aventures en anglais alors ici une traduction:
Hello everyone! I hope that your first days of school were fantastic and not too stressful! It is sad that summer is almost over but we all have new adventures for this school year. For me, I had an incredible summer and I want to thank all the people that I met and saw in Disney World, at Camp and at home for all of the wonderful memories. Now, I am starting my next adventure in Tours and I am very excited (and a bit nervous, of course). It has been one week since I arrived in France and for the most part, I am having a good experience. I am meeting new people every day and my French is improving with all my practice here. However, I know that most of you want to read about my adventures in English so this was your translation! :)
Alrighty, so the last time you heard from me I was in the airport in Toronto on my way to what feels like the other side of the world (In case you were wondering, the exact opposite side of the world from Ancaster is a point in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia). My mom and I flew to Paris over night and landed at the Paris airport at the local time of 8am (so 2am EST). They served us breakfast on the plane, however they served it at Paris time 7am meaning my mom and I ate breakfast at 1am our time. Needless to say, we were a bit jet lagged for our first few days here. Once we landed, we went through customs, collected my two huge suitcases and hopped on the train to Tours. It was a 2 hour train ride here with a connecting train at the stop prior to Tours, however there were only 5 minutes between our two trains and they were on complete opposite tracks so we missed the first train. Luckily, we were able to get on the next train to Tours 45 minutes later. Once we arrived in Tours, the journey was still not over - we had to take a cab to the head office of my residence and then take the bus to my actual residence. So by the time we finally found my residence room I was ready to try out my bed.
Further complications arose at the residence office. At the start of August, I had my dad mail in my residence file with a whole bunch of signed papers and information and such. However, when I got to the residence office, the ladies there had not received it. According to my dad's tracking receipt, it had gotten here so we had no idea what to do. Luckily, they had received my confirmation deposit so they just had me resign the residence contract and pay my first two months rent. After I FINALLY got my keys, my mom and I took the bus over to my new home on rue Hélène Boucher, picked up my bed linens, bathroom kit and kitchen kit and got settled into my home for the semester.
After setting up my room with the few possessions I have (the total opposite from when I arrived to residence at Bishop's), we went over to the International Relations office so that I could check in, fill out some paperwork and be formally welcomed to the university. As a bonus, in the office, there was a collection of things that former exchange students had left for incoming students, like pillows, pots, pans, dishes, etc. and we were allowed to take some for our rooms. I was able to snag a kettle, hangers, a colander and some cups.
After checking in and bringing my new home goods back to my room, my mom and I checked into our hotel in Tours, Hôtel du Manoir and went out for dinner to a little restaurant called Le Souris Gourmand. The cheese there is so good! Once we finished eating, the chef came out to our table to talk to us and when I said that I was an exchange student here for the semester, he said that if I ever needed anything I could come visit him at the restaurant. So don't worry everyone, the chef at the mouse restaurant is watching over me in this foreign country!
Friday, I took care of some other things such as setting up a French bank account and getting a French SIM card for my cell phone. Who knew that setting up a bank account could take two hours?? As well, I think I killed a small forest with all the paperwork they had my fill out! The SIM card on the other hand was the simplest thing I have ever done in my life. There was a little machine in the store with a touchscreen and all I had to do was select the plan I wanted, select the size of SIM card I had and out the bottom came a SIM card. And phone plans here are so cheap! For 20 euros a month, I have unlimited texting and calling in France and unlimited calling to landlines at home and 2GB of data. Once that was all done, my mom and I got back on the Train and returned to Paris!
My weekend with my mom in Paris was absolutely fabulous! However, figuring out the metro to get there was a bit confusing. Our hotel, Hôtel Cécilia was right by the Arc de Triomphe and also just two streets over from the Champ Élysées, a big shopping street in Paris. After checking in, we went out to a French café for dinner, where we had crêpes, red wine and crème brulée. Saturday, we went straight to where every tourist in Paris goes, the Eiffel Tower. We climbed the stairs of the first two floors and then took the elevator to the third floor. However, on the second floor we had to wait for an hour to get a ticket to go in the elevator to the third floor. We almost gave up hope on getting to the top but we persevered and I am so glad we waited it out because the view from the top was incredible! Definitely a sight to see!
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| Bottom of the Tower! |
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| Top of the Tower! |
After the Eiffel Tower, I was having some problems with my phone so went to the phone store in Paris and then we walked through a ritzy shopping district in search of a tea salon. The first place we went looking for actually did not exist so we went to our second choice, Angelina's which is apparently world famous for their hot chocolate and desserts. So, of course, we had to order their specialties and OH MY GOD I think their hot chocolate is just melted down pieces of chocolate. It was so rich and the desserts were so good!! No wonder it has been visited by celebrities such as Coco Chanel. After stuffing ourselves with chocolate and sugar, we walked all the way along la Seine back to the Champs Élysées and our hotel, got dinner at an Italian restaurant and then called it a night.
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| Angelina - le salon du thé |
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| Du chocolat chaud et des mont-blancs! |
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| Quick stop at the Louvre! |
Sunday. we climbed the Arc de Triomphe which was also really neat. The Arc sits in the middle of a roundabout with 12 points of entry, all of which you can see from the top. All the roads coming in resemble a giant star. We also noticed that lots of buildings in Paris have gardens on their roofs. After descending the Arc, we took the metro over to the Sorbonne, a giant university in Paris that is considered to be the "Harvard of Europe." Unfortunately, the main iconic building was under construction due to water damage so we were unable to appreciate its full beauty but it was still a sight to see. However, we did encounter some interesting art work (see photo below). Following that, we walked through the Luxembourg Gardens. Since it was a Sunday, there were a lot of families lounging in the park but something interesting was no one had any type of snack! No coffee, tea, chips, etc. I guess that, and all the walking they do here is what keeps the French so skinny!
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| Top of the Arc de Triomphe |
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| Les Jardins de Luxembourg! |
Another fun fact about France is that almost everything is closed on Sundays. Unfortunately, that meant that the shopping district we wanted to visit was closed. Instead, we went to another well known area, Le Marais, and did some window shopping since everything in the boutiques was way above our budget! Le Marais is in the middle of a Jewish neighbourhood and for some reason, everyone there was lined up at several different places for falafel sandwiches. The mob mentality got the best of us and we ended up having falafels before heading back to the Champs Élysées to shop and grab our last dinner in Paris.
Monday morning, I said a tearful goodbye to my mom at the Paris train station before heading back to Tours. I accidentally got on the first class car so when the attendant came around to check tickets, he made me transfer cars. Oops. In my defence, I did not see a sign, in English or French so I just thought I was on the luxury train. Upon my return, it was the start of Orientation Week or, La semaine d'orientation at UFR. Monday afternoon, there was a welcome presentation for all the new students. Of course, it was all in French so I did not understand too much of it but I was lucky enough to meet a group of exchange students from Wilfred Laurier University (and one from SFU) so I made some friends who spoke English to spend the afternoon with. I then returned to my residence to go to the "pot du bienvenue" where I met my "résident-référents" (residence assistants) and a few other students in my building. However, the room was very noisy and there were a lot of francophones so it was quite difficult for me to have any sort of conversation with the people there so I did not stay for too long. I felt awful because I really wanted to meet other people from my building but I was just not able to communicate.
Tuesday, I went to the Centre Universitaire d'Enseignement du Français aux Étudiants Étrangers (CUEFEE) to take a language placement test for my level of French. It was more difficult than I was expecting, with an oral comprehension component and a written expression component and I am quite nervous to get my results tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed that I achieved the level I need to take course at the centre! After the test, there was a place to buy our student bus passes and in the line, I met another student from SFU and one from Australia and ended up going for lunch with them. Later that afternoon, I took part in the "Fac à Vélo" which I originally thought was just a bike tour around Tours but was wrong. It was a bike race around Tours! We were divided into teams of 4 or 5 people within our faculties and given a map and a route to follow. Along the route, there were places we had to go to get stamps on our team's "passport." I was on a team with one of the girls I met from Laurier, Megan, a German exchange student and a first year French student. The race was a lot of fun though unfortunately I was not much help at the stations with quizzes and crossword puzzles. However, I did volunteer myself to ride through a pylon course wearing googles that simulated riding a bike after drinking alcohol. I think I hit every pylon along the way... The race also showed me how big Tours and how big UFR are. The city itself is divided by two rivers into North Tours, Central Tours and South Tours and UFR has 10 faculties each with their own campus somewhere in the city. I am a part of the Lettres et Langues faculty and I think that just my faculty is twice the size of the entire Bishop's population!
Wednesday, I ran some errands in the morning, including picking up my student card and finally finding the grocery store!! My mini fridge is now stocked! In the afternoon, there was a little club fair and in classic exchange student fashion, I have joined the Exchange/International Student club. After the club fair, we all thought that there was some party down on the river bank of the Loire river however, it turns out it was just a suggestion to go to the little bars down there and there was no actual organized activity. However, there was a little "Battle of the Bands" type competition between the faculty of medicine and the faculty of pharmacy which was fun to watch! However, can we please pause for a minute and appreciate that the two faculties are both so large that they each have their own band??
Today has been pretty relaxed. I went for a run this morning and in typical Erica fashion, got lost trying to find my way back. Luckily for me, all of the bus stops have maps at them so I was able to find my way back. I went to a presentation for a course being offered at the university called Le Programme Service Learning. For this course, exchange/international students are paired up with a French student to meet weekly and converse in the two different languages. For example, I would be paired with a French student and we would meet for an hour and talk for half an hour in French and half an hour in English. We can get credit for this course and I have already been given approval from my prof at Bishop's to take the course! After that, I went with my friend Anna, an exchange student from Germany to get her student card and then I went with her and a friend from her university to one of the UFR cafeterias for lunch. Check out this deal - for just 3 euros and 20 cents, we got an little appetizer (salad, coleslaw, lentils, etc.), a hot meal, a cheese or yogurt and a dessert. I think I had more vegetables today at lunch than I have had since arriving in France!
Ok I know what you are thinking and yes so far I am the typical exchange student who only hangs out with other exchange students. BUT since some of them are not from an English speaking country I still do have to speak French when I talk to them! I am hoping that once classes start I will meet some French students and in one week, my friend Marie who I worked with in Disney will return to the city so I will have a local friend. However, having some Canadian friends has been very helpful for settling in and adjusting to life so far away from home. And I am slowly starting to compile a list of places I want to travel and people I want to visit. I just learned today that a friend I used to skate with in Ancaster with is currently living in Lyon so I cannot wait to visit her! I also have some friends in various parts of the UK so I am excited to go over there. Tonight, there is a welcome speech from the mayor at the town hall and tomorrow I pick my courses, meet with my academic advisor and get my language placement test results. I am also going to sign up for a host family program, in which I am paired with a family in Tours to visit once a week to "experience the Tours lifestyle."
All in all, things are going pretty well here. The communication barrier is sometimes hard and I go to bed every night with an extremely exhausted brain but I know that this is going to be the experience of a lifetime so I am doing my best to try new things every day. Yes I do get homesick sometimes but I think once classes start and my life feels a bit more organized I will feel more settled. And my grandparents are coming to visit me in a month so I cannot wait for that! Now, I must get back to doing exchange student things so I wish you all a wonderful upcoming weekend and I will talk to you soon!
À bientôt!
Avec amour,
Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
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