Bringing the South to France, y'all

First of all, I never say y'all (it's always you all), but I deemed it appropriate for this post. Last night I decided to finally make cornbread for my French family! I figured even if they didn't enjoy it, I could eat all of it myself and feel kind of like I was home. Before leaving home for Versailles I bought a packaged cornbread mix from Completely Kentucky so I could easily bring the south to France. Unfortunately easy is definitely not always better; my mom's homemade (gluten-free) cornbread is soooo much better than the packaged kind (shout out to Pam!). However, my French family seemed to enjoy it considering they ate all of it! Unfortunately I ended up leaving the oven on (a thing I do even when I'm home in Kentucky) so my French dad was not too pleased with that. At least I tried! The next item on my list of delicious things to make is my mom's chocolate pie. You could say I'm pretty nervous about 1. ruining the pie and 2. burning the house down in the process, but fingers crossed everything runs smoothly.

apple cider from Normandy-DELISH

The past two weeks have been crazy! We've been super busy and time is seriously flying by. Within the past two weeks we have visited the château and gardens of Versailles, gone to the Louvre, visited many WWII monuments and special places in Normandy, visited Mont Saint Michel, we saw the Bayeux Tapestry, visited Claude Monet's house and gardens in Giverny, visited l'Hôtel des Invalides, and had classes and homework to fit in there as well. Plus, we have to do all of this while speaking French.

Honestly it can become quite frustrating and it's definitely tiring, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's still hard to me to believe that I'm in France, let alone that I have been here for a month. Since coming to France in high school, I couldn't wait to come back. The places we visit are amazing and they are places that many people won't have to opportunity to see. It's incredible how many sites we'll see in the course of three months.

This past weekend was full of beautiful sites. First thing Saturday morning we visited Pointe du Hoc-the area where the Germans prepared an "Atlantic Wall" of defenses against Allied invasion. The cliffs and beaches were beautiful. We visited Omaha Beach-one of the beaches of the landings of the Allied invasion-after Pointe du Hoc and before the American Cemetery of WWII soldiers. The cemetery was one of the most breathtaking places I've ever been. If anyone reading this ever comes to France, they must visit the American Cemetery. It was a pretty heavy morning, considering American soldiers had fought and lost their lives exactly where we had stood. Fortunately, Sunday we visited Claude Monet's house and gardens which made for a much lighter mood!

the view from Pointe du Hoc

Omaha Beach

American Cemetery

Monet's house and gardens come in a close second to the various WWII sites in Normandy in terms of beauty. The flowers were absolutely beautiful, and we even saw the bridge and water lilies that were the centerpieces for many of Monet's paintings. His house was actually pretty normal, but the kitchen was amazing. It was a blue and yellow theme, which sounds kind of overwhelming, but it was awesome. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside of his house, so you'll just have to trust me how cool his kitchen was.

THE BRIDGE

ooooh ahhhhh

I've had my fill of really embarrassing and awkward moments since I arrived a month ago, but after encountering a woman at l'Hôtel des Invalides, I feel a little more comfortable about my awkward moments. We were following our tour guide around Napoleon's tomb and a woman walks up to our guide and asks him where Napoleon is. The tour guide stops for a moment and in broken English tells her that it's the red tomb to her right. The woman then continues to ask how she can see Napoleon and the guide responds (again in broken English) that he is inside of the red rock. Then the woman asks where the stairs are to go see Napoleon and finally another student and I explain that Napoleon is inside of the tomb and there is no way to get inside with him. It was quite an amusing situation.

This weekend we're heading off to Loire for a grand tour on bikes! We go from hotel to hotel on our bikes all day. We get to have another wine tasting as well as a cookie/biscuit tasting (good thing we'll be forced to do physical activity all weekend). The countryside should be really beautiful and the weather looks like it's going to cooperate as well! Until next week, y'all.

"People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's necessary simply to love." -Claude Monet

flowers from Monet's garden

Just Call Me Heidi

Heather. It seems like an easy enough name in English. It rhymes with many things: weather, feather, leather. But unfortunately for me, it is incredibly difficult for the French to pronounce. One reason is because they don't pronounce H's at the beginning of words and the second reason is that they don't have words with the "th" sound in them. So far I've gotten Ezzer, Heda, Edder, Eezer, and finally Heidi. My French family finally decided within the past few days that they were just going to call me Heidi since it's 1) easier for them to pronounce and 2) it's a Polish name and they're apparently part Polish. So from now on in my house, my name is Heidi (but without pronouncing the H).

It seems like the time is flying by here, which is good because it means we're busy and that I'm very much enjoying the experience, but it is also unfortunate because I don't want this semester to be over. Of course I miss my family and my friends at Furman, but I'd be perfectly fine if they could all just move over here with me.

Within the past week we have been to Paris twice, Chartres once, had a wine tasting, and learned about French geography, theatre, and grammar. Last week on our free Friday afternoon a group of the students went into Paris to visit Cimitière Père-Lachaise where Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, and Oscar Wilde are buried. It was a very beautiful and peaceful cemetery. After that we did a little shopping in the biggest and most crowded department store ever and took the train back to Versailles. Saturday was our day trip to Chartres, an exquisite cathedral with amazing stained glass windows. We had a tour in French of the cathedral, and although I had already seen it in high school, it was wonderful getting to see it again. After lunch we had another tour that was only focused on the stained glass, which was fortunately in English. It was fascinating hearing about the stories the windows tell, plus the tour guide was amazing. He had even been to Furman! Plus he had a British accent. Precious.

Sunday was the first sunny day we had in a while. It was in the mid 60s and really nice outside so I decided to go on a run that was off my normal path. I decided to run around the château and ended up getting super turned around and lost. My 30 minute run turned into an hour trek around Versailles trying to find the right street because every avenue and boulevard looks the same. I was exhausted and starving (but when am I not hungry?). Luckily we had a lunch planned and it was buffet style. Oh yes. We had salad, tomatoes and mozzarella, roast beef, sausage, ceviche, cheese, fish, pork, mystery meat, and plenty of desserts. Good thing I had to run for like an hour that morning. Anyway, the mystery meat turned out to be tête de veau...I had no idea what this was so I ate it. It ended up not being favorite and no one could really tell me what it was. So yesterday during our conversation group I asked Madame Chauchat what it was. It turns out it was the intestines/head of a baby calf. Yikes. Thankfully after that we had a wine tasting where we tasted nine different wines: four white, four red, and one that was aged since 1998 and was super sweet. I liked most of them and was able to learn a lot about wine. We had to spit out the wine between bottles or else we probably wouldn't have been able to walk afterward. Such a waste of good wine.

Our second week of classes started on Monday at 8:30am and it was rough, but knowing that I'm in France made waking up early a little better. This coming weekend we stay in Versailles again and tour the château and the gardens. We had the opportunity to this when I came with Mr. Johnson in high school and I'm really looking forward to seeing everything again (especially the gardens because they make me think of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire during their final task). 

"Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages."

-Louis Pasteur

Excuse My French but I'm in France

Well I have been in France now for a week and it has become significantly less frightening, although I still get super nervous speaking French to my family (even though I shouldn't because they're very helpful).

I can't believe all that we've done in one short week. Last Thursday we went to Paris for 4 nights and did more walking than I've done in my whole life combined and saw some incredible places and monuments, did some shopping (unfortunate for Joseph since he's the only guy on the trip), and ate some amazing food (who knew foie gras sauce could be so amazing??). However, I am very happy to be back in Versailles with my French family. I am not so happy about having to start classes, but our professors seem really interesting and are kind enough to speak slowly!

Today was a really busy and exciting day because after our civilization class we had lunch at the house of one of our professor's, Madame Chauchat. She is actually from America but married a French man and has lived here ever since (my dream...). We then went to la maison de parfums and got to smell a TON of French perfume, which  kind of gave me a headache but also made me want to buy some perfume called "La petite robe noire" or little black dress in English. Honestly, what girl doesn't want perfume called little black dress? After that we went to a restaurant called Monument Cafe and tried almost all of the desserts France is known for including les macarons, les choquettes, les petites madeleines, les beignets, and a lot of French candy. This was seriously any girl's perfect afternoon and I loved it.

Unfortunately and fortunately (but mostly fortunately) all of the food here is amazing and I eat all of it all of the time, which means I have to do some sort of physical activity. Today's physical activity including going for my first run in Versailles and it just happened to be next to a field of sheep and goats. I almost felt like I was back in Kentucky. Then I got home and my little French brother, Stan, gave me a cookie so that kind of canceled out my run, but at least I tried.

So far my time in France has been so amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better trip. I'm sure it will continue to get better!

"Voice mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le couer. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yuex."
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

I often think about freshman year orientation and how nervous I was about leaving Frankfort. Before moving to Furman I received an email with the schedule for orientation and the theme of it was "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" and I immediately felt so excited for college. At the time I knew Furman had an impressive study away program, but I had no idea that it would be able to take me to Africa. I'm finally home from 7 inspiring weeks in Tanzania. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to see and experience a different culture, meet wonderful people, and learn a little bit about myself as well.

After the three week May Experience came to a close, Grant, John Michael, Kylie, and I headed back to Zanzibar to start our research. We all spent a few days in Stone Town, Zanzibar before venturing out to our home stays in a village. Kylie and I spent our two weeks in a village by the name of Bweleo that is at the southern tip of a peninsula on the eastern side of Zanzibar. After spending those two weeks living in a village I can't begin to describe to you the effect it had on me. I realized how many simple things I take for granted at home. It was an incredible experience that, while being very difficult, was not one I would take back for anything. It was so important for me to see how other people live and how incredibly happy they are. In my last post I talked a lot about culture shock after visiting a Maasai village, but that was nothing compared to what I experienced while living in Bweleo.

My home stay mama was named Safia Hashim Makame. She is easily one of the most welcoming and warm-hearted people I have ever met. Although she spoke very little English and Kylie and I spoke even less Swahili, she made every effort to make us feel comfortable in her home. Safia has six children-four daughters and two sons-and then she took Kylie and me in without hesitation. Living in Bweleo with Safia and her children was a huge growing experience for me. I learned to always be appreciative for what you have. I also learned that I could probably live with WAY less stuff than what I have. It was unbelievable to see how creative Safia and her friends were. There were no stoves or ovens so they would make a little fire and cook all of their food overtop of it while sitting the pots and pans on rocks they have found. It worked perfectly. They made do without any ovens by baking their homemade break outside with the hot coals and somehow the bread came out perfect every time.

          This is a picture from our last day with Safia. Safia is the woman to my left in the green kanga.

                                       

During our down time Kylie and I would read books, watch Sofia cook, play around with henna with some other women from the village, teach some of the children card games, or just sit around with the family while they watched tv. Everyday at Sofia's was a chance for me to learn something new about another culture and also something new about myself. Before coming to the village I was quite nervous. At home I adapt to change pretty well, but this time the unknown really frightened me. Luckily, I had an awesome host family who taught me very much and hopefully I was able to teach them a few things as well.

Safia's youngest daughter, Ghania (pronounced Rania).

I have been home for almost a week now and honestly I'm so thrilled to be home. My first night back I slept like a rock (which probably had to do with the 43 hours of travelling before getting home) and anything I ate tasted like heaven (especially the club sandwich from Chili's in the Detroit airport). It's so nice being able to have consistently warm showers, air conditioning, and being able to eat any raw vegetable I want to, but I have to admit that part of me does already miss Tanzania. The people there were so entertaining and there was never a boring day. From people harassing me trying to persuade me to buy a souvenir to the babies crying right when they saw me because they had probably never seen an mzungu (Swahili word for white person; pronounced m-zoon-goo) before to getting lost in all of the tiny, identical alleyways, I never had a dull moment in Zanzibar.

So if you're reading this and you are either in high school, preparing to start your freshman year of college, or already in college, I strongly recommend that you take advantage of every opportunity in college you have to study abroad in another country or to study away in the United States. You never really have another opportunity to drop everything you're doing and go away to Africa, France, Washington, D.C. or anywhere else you might want to go once you graduate from college. There is so much more to the world than just Frankfort, KY, Greenville, SC or wherever your hometown might be and the more you travel the more you will come to appreciate where you started out. I know that travelling to Africa for seven weeks has really made me appreciate Frankfort so much more than before.

Safia on the left with her oldest daughter, mother, sister-in-law, and her sister-in-law's son.

Now only about 2 months separate me from my next study abroad adventure: Versailles, France!

À bientôt!