In The Seat Of A Train

We're going to the Mediterranean for the weekend. 

The city is called Port Vendres and here's the weirdest part: Port Vendres has a "Sister City". This means that Port Vendres celebrates random American things in collaboration with its American sister city (such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence) and the two cities presumably have high schoolers that correspond through letters. Port Vendres's sister city is Yorktown. Yorktown, Virginia. YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA. I LIVE TEN MINUITES FROM THERE. The woman in charge of the connection? She came to speak to my French class. Her son is my delegate. He's the one who got me my passport on time for me to come here. Holy cow.

So...

SHOUTOUT TO THE YANCY FAMILY

I'll add the weird, insufficient explanation of these sister cities that I found online at the very bottom.

We are staying in a jîte in this place, which is essentially a youth hostel without the "youth". It's just a hostel...I think.

Apparently it's run by some elderly man with a passion for jîte-ing, and he'll be our tour guide when we get there. 

Here's all the information: 

http://artswan-public.sharepoint.com

Tomorrow, coincidentally, they are having Fête Américaine. This literally translates to American party. They're having an American party just coincidentally. Cause, you know- why not? 

What even is this country. And why is this happening.

So, I'll be living at the beach till Sunday night. Not bad.

And let's take a moment for the weird coincidences. Please.

On PV and Yorktown:

" The twinning of Port-Vendres dates from 1990, the work of the association "Port-Vendres Abord, heritage defense" and the municipality.

Recall that it was at Yorktown, small village of the state of Virginia was the site of the decisive battle in 1781 that saw the defeat of English will lead to their final surrender in 1783 and materialize the independence of the United States proclaimed July 4, 1777.

The British General Charles Cornwallis with 7 regular 247, 840 sailors, 106 cannons capitulated before October 19, 1781 16,000 men whose 7000 French commanded by George Washington with Lafayette and Rochambeau under him.

Participation of Port-Vendres to commemorate the 225th anniversary of the Independence of the United States of America helped to reconnect with Yorktown.

Note that the delegation of Port-Vendres has been in the spotlight in all official events and meals (even with passages for television) thanks to Mrs. Nicole Yancey, Honorary Consul of the state of Virginia and Carolina Lareuse (American , wife of a Catalan Prats de Mollo), Honorary Consul of Princeton should thank ...

For more information a US site traces the history of twinning in Port-Vendres:

www.xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/pvendres.htm

www.sistercitiesyorktown.org/ "

(- http://www.port-vendres.com/page_ic.php?CatID=48&them=4000 )

In The Kitchen

I'm currently in the kitchen with Karina. Have I mentioned that I like her? A lot of the other roomates hate each other, but conveniently we are not that way.

Yesterday we went to tour Airbus, a French plane manufacturer (it's okay, I didn't know what that was either).

(I'm the one in red hippie pants and a grey crop top)

Did you know planes take from 8-11 days to manufacture? They do, actually. The massive bigger-than -my-house kind, that is. So, I learned that.

Today we took an architectural tour. I'm not deeply interested in architecture, but I'm in love with our tour guide.

L'église des Jacobins (je pense)

Le même à l'extérieur 

A CEILLING

A glorious looking monk garden thing (there are a lot of these here and they all look the same)

A door...

At this point I've given up on trying to take pictures that can accurately show how beautiful these churches are; it's just not something I can do. I take some pictures anyways, but you're mostly just going to have to take my word for it: stuff's really pretty.

Tomorrow we're going to the Mediterranean, SO I MEAN. 

We're staying in a jîte and therE IS A REALLY WEIRD STORY THAT ILL SAVE FOR MY NEXT POST.

Today is a very sentimental day, so xoxoxo lots of hugs and kisses to you- thank you for reading.

In Someone Else's Host Home

Today, we went to eat dinner at our friends' house (Courtney and Syeda). They live with an elderly couple in a house about 30 minutes away from the school by bus.

The garden was beautiful and they keep two chickens. Their names are Mimi and Rosa.

They also has a ping pong table, so we played le ping pong. So. Much. Fun.

It's nice to be able to see other people's host situations here, because they're all so different.

It's tragic that I don't have ping pong, but it makes up for it that I live in walking distance from the school. And my family.

Also, bonus story: Today there was a man wearing a Hamden Sydney (college I live near) shirt who came to the same resteraunt I was at. I was talking to him and I told him I go to Warwick. He'd actually heard of it (and asked me about our gang problem). We then had a pretty good converstaion, and he assured me he'd think of me next time he was at Hamden Sydney. So.

In A State Of Surprise: 3.0

And more important things that need to be pointed out:

Less emphasis on exercise

-This is not a derogitory statement: I don't mean to say that there's actually a smaller quantity of exercise here. What I mean is that we've got TV ads telling us to get up and play, and Nike billboards everywhere telling us to just do it. It's less of a publicly emphasized thing here (maybe because it's already ingrained into society as an obligation, without a need for these kinds of things; have I mentioned enough times that French peoples as a whole are fit.)

Fruit soup (instead of fruit salad)

-Cafes label little containers of fruit as soup des frites, and that just put half a cup of water in there with it. I did, however, see a labeled "fruit salad" this week for the first time here- so it does exist.

Courtesy to store employees, attention to customers

-It's super awkward to go into a store to just look because the employees never let someone enter without talking to them. Also, whenever you enter, you shout BONJOUR and leaving you say AUREVOIR MERCI. If you want them to speak English with you, say bonjour in a bad accent, but if you speak French 💁🏼 say bonjour with a French accent and they'll assume you're fluent. People just really act like they owe employees something's here, as opposed to America where it's the other way around and people act like employees live to serve them.

Soldes

-Twice a year (winter and summer (the 4 weeks I'm here conveniently)) there are massive sales called soldes where everything is around 80% off. I keep getting things for 3€ and that makes me happy.

Effeminate men (They're gosh dang attractive, too)

-Man purses. Pink. Styled hair. Dress shoes. It's everyone here. And back home we'd call these men "effeminate". Why? Why is this not just common in the U.S. too?

Cleanliness 

-I don't know how to put this one into words. Just trust me. Cleanliness is real. Street cleaners, sponges, vacumes, oh my!

Superior porta potties 

-On the same note, what is wrong with America and porta potties. Here they are extremely high tech and clean and omg. On the ther hand, public (indoor) restrooms are not really a thing here. On that note- when there are public restrooms (McDonald's, l'institut catholique, ect.), the two genders are always together. There might be one stall for women and one stall for men, but the sinks and hand dryers are always shared. This is nice because, for instance, I can roll up and talk to my homeboy while I fix my hair in the mirror; the intense privacy of gender-bounded bathroom sinks is vanquished, most amusingly.

THE TOILET PAPER

-Sorry this post took a weird turn but just- pink scented toilet paper ok

 

Smoking 

-The smoking problem? Not a joke. Running in the park? Inhaling smoke. Open my window when there's a party downstairs? Room fills with smoke. So many people, so much smoking. But today I heard a classmate tell someone something along the lines of that "the commonality of smoking here has taught me that I can respect a person who smokes, despite the fact that the person is a smoker. Before, I would see someone smokes and immediately loose respect for him or her as a person. Now I see that the person that someone is, is not inherently less valuable because they smoke. This being said, I will never smoke and hope that no one close to me ever will either. I don't condone smoking of course. I just have realized that it's not what I'd always made it out to be." (okay, I might have altered the quote enormously, but I'm going to leave it in quotations anyways.) I agree with this, man. 

Coins

-America does one dollar bills predominately, while Europe does 1 and 2 dollar coins. Lots of change in my life. ;)

English/foreign languages as a whole

-A bit sickened with the American school systems' addressing of languages. Everyone here speaks English, my host family speaks better English than me (joking... but only sort of), and there are even Mexicans here in another French program that I'm friends with who speak to me in ENGLISH instead of French because they're fluent in English anyway. WHY WAS I NOT TAUGHT A BUNCH OF LANGUAGES FROM BIRTH TOO? I'm angsty about this.

Sundays

- All the stores (excluding reateraunts) are closed. Just because it's Sunday. It's like a country of chickfila.

Formality in general

- if I could describe my experience this far in one word, I would use "formality". From the culture to the structure of the language, it's just a lot more formal than I'm used to. We eat at set tables and avoid sweatpants. If someone asks "whose cat?" can't say the equivalent of "her's" because I have to say "it's the cat of her" or "she has the cat" or something other thing that feels wildly convoluted. So much formality. All the time. It amazes me.

Photos On The Boat Tour

I think I need to calm the heck down, because this one of my third posts today but I JUST NEED TO SAY STUFF ok. :)

Here are photos from the boat tour we took today, courtesy of THE Courtney (pro photographer):

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0I53qWtHSvXA2

But, I actually took these two myself: 

The River Garronne

In Regard To The Language Barrier

Below are some amusing elements I find particularly interesting that are a result of "the language barrier". I hope you find them interesting too.

Speaking in France:

A lot of different phrases are said very, very similarly. Yes, I am aware that this is not a feature solely belonging to French. 

An example: To know and to try are the same phrase when used in the Je (I) form. I realized this one at dinner tonight when I kept trying to say "I'm trying" but was thought to be saying "I know". In case you didn't know, the French language never really pronounces all the letters in words, so the likelihood of two different phrases sounding similar is much much greater. See: "j'essaye" and "je sait". These are pronounced the same way (with my accent), but the first means "I try" and the second means "I know". It's rough, guys. Sometimes context just is not enough.

The French people generally translate the things that I would have understood anyway if it was said in French (as opposed to things that might truly aid me). Usually, I speak mediocre French and they speak mediocre English; so the words that they know I'm English are the same word that I know in French (this is a generalization for people in public as a whole, and NOT a truth about everyone I'm around FOR CERTAIN. My host family's English is killer, for example.). This means that someone will use English for you when they have the ability, but it's only for simplistic things that I would have understood anyway if they had said them in French. Example: Demain, je vais aller au piscine, parce que ma sour va être là. Et je vais manger les œufs pour le... breakfast. 

I knew the word for breakfast. You inserting the word "breakfast" in place of the French word for breakfast helped me not at all. You see what I'm getting at? They're trying to help me out, which is sweet and I know that I really do, but it's not actually doing anything beneficial for me.

I just consistently have translators for only things that I wouldn't have required them, and it's comedic.

It's a lot of work to say things in French, so the things that I do end up saying are generally what I deem very exciting and worth the effort. This means that I'll tell people about things like chickens in the park or the possible financial benefits living in sororities. 

Every time that I tell someone something unexpected in French, instead of being in awe of the thing I just told them or something, they immediately ask me if I know what I've just said. They repeat the meaning in English or simply look at me like I am very confused. This is frustrating because, for instance: I know what chickens look like and I SAW THEM IN THE GOSH DANG PARK (Yes, this particular instance occurred in my life...). This lingual disconnect is a habitual occourance and vaguely humorous if nothing else. I just miss the consistency of having my word taken seriously as a native speaker, sometimes.

In Family Portrait Mode

ITSMYPEOPLE. Love em.