Week 1 in France has almost come and gone. Can you even
believe it? Dijon is absolutely breathtaking. One of the most beautiful places
I have ever been in my life, it is unreal. As we have been walking around the
city, our group continues to talk about how we feel like we are on the set of a
movie and that all it would take was just a gust of wind to blow over all the
building sets. I was able to travel over here with a friend who is from outside
Atlanta and we landed in Paris around 6:00 am last Friday morning (23rd),
12:00 am Atlanta time, and I maybe got 2 hours of sleep. Maybe. But we pushed
through and were able to find a train from the airport to Gare de Lyon, the
main train station in Paris. Then from there we hopped on a train from Paris to
Dijon, got in a taxi, and drove to our hotel, the Hotel Jacquemart.
My most proud moment of the day was when I walked up to the information
desk in the airport and asked the man in French if he spoke English and his
response in French was “yes, a little bit, why do you ask? Do you speak
English?”. I started laughing and then said in French that I was American and
needed help with train tickets and we proceeded to speak a mixture of French
and English. But he thought my first language was French! Success! We can only
speak French here in Dijon as part of the program I’m with, so since it was so
early and I was enjoying my last few moments of English, I used that to my
advantage. Something I didn’t have to my
advantage was the size of my suitcases. I’m pretty sure I under packed, but at
the end of the day I ended up with bruises on the back of my legs from my
suitcases banging against me. But hey, I’m here for 2 months so I think it’s
fair to have 2 suitcases!
Saturday the 24th:
We were waiting for the rest of our group to arrive, so those of us who were
already here explored the “centre ville”, (down town), bought some French go
phones, found wi-fi where we could, and did a lot of window shopping. The rest
of our group finally arrived that afternoon and we went out to dinner with our
Professor that night. The great thing about this program is that anytime we eat
with our professor, Wake Forest pays. Wake also paid for all of our expenses
getting here, and we get a pretty great weekly allowance, so I may end up
getting to save a lot of the money I earned over the summer that was going to
be used as my travel money! The little things J Our professor has also
already set up private museum tours and visits around the country for us,
things I would want to do if I were traveling on my own anyway, so I’m thankful
we get to use her resources to our advantage. That night a group of us went to
a little café to use their wifi and drink tea. I was able to order the tea I
fell in love with when I was living in Cape Town last year, so that was a huge
success. I was able to make a few phone calls via Viber and I was so impressed
with how clear it came through and how great the connection was. Praise the
Lord for technology that works and for loved ones that pick up the phone when I
call!
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| Centre Ville- Rue de la Liberté |
Sunday the 25th:
Breakfast is complimentary at our hotel every morning, so I started the day off
with that and then walked around the city some more. We had a tour of Dijon
with the cutest French woman named Jacqueline.
I wish I had
understood more than I did because she spoke in French the entire time, but I
picked up some of what she said and apparently this city has a lot of history
surrounding it. One very interesting thing we learned about was the “Trail of
the Owls” around the city, known as “La Chouette”. The owl is the symbol for
Dijon and is admired for its great wisdom. So, if you follow the trails of owls
around the city, it will take you to different famous places, one of which is
La Place des Ducs, where the dukes of Dijon used to live. Their palace now
serves as the home of what is known as the second best art collection in
France, behind the Louvre. Safe to say we will be making a visit there soon! We finished off the night with
a 2 ½ hour dinner at our professor’s apartment. We had orientation for this
coming semester and we all left feeling a little overwhelmed about everything-
the amount of French we have already consumed, the length of the meal, and the
apparent coming difficulty of this course.
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| Owl Trail |
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| La Place des Ducs |
Monday the 26th:
We went to the Musée d’Archéologique and got a tour from a student at the
university we will be attending in October. (We are currently taking a 6 week
history class of France, and then when class starts up in October for France, we will take
courses at the actual university). Anyways, he was a little easier to
understand than our tour guide, but it is amazing how tiring it is to pay
attention to someone speaking another language just for an hour. It was a great
tour and I learned a lot, but I still didn’t understand everything he said.
After our tour we all got on the tram to practice going to school and all I can
say about the school is I now understand why we never saw pictures of it when
got any of the brochures about our program. It is a huge campus, but not nearly
as beautiful as Wake. The international “wing”, where all international
students study, is made up entirely of “immeubles”, or mods. We are extremely
hopeful it will have heating as the weather here is already in the 50’s, but we
honestly aren’t sure. Still, we are in France and so happy to get to study here for 4 months. After our visit there we rode back into town on the bus
and did a little bit of shopping before dinner. I am on the search for a good
pair of warm, comfortable walking shoes that are water resistant and aren’t
athletic shoes. Specific? Yes. But it’s amazing how quickly you realize what
you actually need. And of the 5 pairs of shoes I brought over here, (2 were
sandals so don’t judge), none fit that description. This is France though so
I’m sure I will be able to find some J
Tuesday the 27th:
Woke up and went out to eat at a little café for breakfast with a friend of
mine. We both had “pain au chocolate”, (bread and chocolate- so nutritious),
and then went and found another tea café with wifi. We worked on homework there
and were able to connect with people from home, despite the fact it was only 4:00 am east coast time. The owner of the café told us he wanted to
practice his English with us so we spoke French to him and he spoke English to
us. He also let us try some of the chocolate they were making for their cookies
fresh off the stove and he gave us some extras for free. I think he had a
little crush on my friend J Afterwards I met with our professor for lunch since
I have to do a presentation for the class on Wednesday about Provence, the city
we are traveling to on Thursday. Then we met up with the group and went to our
temporary classroom and had class for 2 hours. It is very interesting material,
but it is still class...
I’m thankful I don’t have the superhero power of reading
minds because there is no telling what everyone thinks of us. We aren’t the
only non-Frenchies here since all of Europe is on vacation for the month of
August, but I’m sure we stick out. I am extremely grateful for this incredible opportunity and truly wish each of you were here with me! Lots of love, all the way from France!
**Weird things I have learned this week: 1-Public restrooms
cost money. 2- French people don’t go jogging but they are still all teeny. 3- Always
order the “Café Plaisir” for dessert because you get a little taste of
everything *(fun fact: I have yet to do this yet because I am still enjoying
having real crêpes again, but my friends get it and love it). 4- They play American
music everywhere we go- I heard a homeless man the other day playing the guitar
and singing “Hotel California” in English. 5- You can't say "Bonjour" to everyone you walk by. This isn't the South anymore :(
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