Such great heights

Peur du jour- 28 Janvier 2012: Tree climbin'

Okay, this was in no way scary and I had no need to overcome a fear to do this. But I just thought it I would share for the acrophobes among you. This is what happens after a very fun birthday picnic:

See if you can find me!

Can't wait to do it again!

Just keep swimming

Peur du jour- 27 Janvier 2012- Being Persistent

I was too excited to not share this information right away!

Today after my art history class at la fac (short for la faculté des lettres or another way to say UPV) I decided to just poke around the church until I found someone to love me. My emails were going unanswered and I just wanted an answer: can I find a home here?

The answer: Yes!

I knocked on the office door of a very kindly old priest and I explained who I was and what I was looking for (a group of Catholics to know in Montpellier, because I am an American far from home). He walked me over to a building behind the church where I met two older women to whom I then again explained my story. And huzzah! I found it. Where all of the catholic students have been hiding (not really, I'm just feeling a little silly right now).

This group does at least one event a week including student masses, dinners, and it even looks like I might be able to worm my way into a retreat in March! I was invited to go skiing in February (but it's the weekend I will be celebrating carnaval in Nice, so I had to politely decline).

I'm really hoping this works out. It would be so nice to feel like I am a part of this town and not just living here for four months. I will definitely keep you updated and I have high hopes that God is nudging me in the right direction!


The bottom line: Don't give up!

Missing Fall Fest

Peur du jour- 25 janvier 2012: Getting involved

This isn't as much of a peur du jour as it is a défi du jour (challenge of the day). American universities are a breeding ground for clubs, activities, and ways to meet other students. French universities... not so much. Because French students don't live on campus (remember those ugly pictures from awhile back?), there is a much more low key student life.

I came to Montpellier hellbent on joining the ultimate frisbee team. Then within the first few days I found out that it conflicted with my class schedule (major sadness). So I figured, "hey, why not basketball?" That also didn't work. "Soccer?" Yeah, still conflicts. I quickly ran out of sports that I felt confident enough to play in a foreign country and had to give up my dreams of becoming a superstar athlete at UPV-III.

All of the dances clubs that could have been fun are during dinner time. I've been sending emails to churches to see if they have youth groups and haven't had any response yet (most of my emails have actually gotten sent back because the email addresses were invalid..). Today I tried to go to the cinema club at Accent Francais, but it was really just me, my friend that I had invited to come with me, and a British guy. Not really much of a club, but we had fun watching Petit Nicolas (I had flashbacks to high school French). It seems like my only option would be to join one of the three student unions on campus (for real, these students are organized and they go on strike). Interestingly enough, the unions are the thing about which the French étudiants get the most jazzed. That said, I'm still not interested..

Something I am very excited to start soon is my volunteer work. I will be volunteering at a lycée professional for 3-4 hours a week (potentially 6-8 if I decide to commit to going in an extra day). In France there are two different types of high schools: lycée classique and lycée professional. The former is the traditional high school that prepares you for université while the latter is more of a vocational school. I've heard from former volunteers that the lycéens (high schoolers) are very excited when American volunteers are there because they don't understand why we would want to take the time to serve them. I'm expecting that I will learn a lot about France through it's school system and I'm hoping to really give as much to these kids as I can.

Right now I'm trying not to get discouraged. I'll keep trying to get involved and hopefully will eventually have something more exciting to recount than my failed attempts to get to know French people.

Make a wish in Arles and Saintes-Maries-de-la-mer

Peur du jour: 21 Janvier 2012- Eating lots of new French things

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Arles and Saintes-Marie-De-La-Mer (can we just talk about how I saw the Mediterranean sea for the first time in my life and I loved it and it was just as beautiful as I had ever dreamed it would be?). Arles is a town full of Roman Ruins, a beautiful market, and was an area in which Van Gough painted many of his works. Arles is also the town where I fell in love with French food.

My first encounter with the food in Arles was at the enormous market where they had everything from produce and olives,

Des courges muscads (a pumpkin like gourd)

 to exotic spices and honey,

Easily my favorite stand-- it's so nice to see and smell such beautiful spices!

 to baked confections and mounds of baguettes,

The Famous French Macarons

to sausages, cheeses, and different cuts of meat.

Unidentified animal leg-- any guesses?

 I tried many samples (olives, cheese, bread, macarons, sausage, honey) and even learned from an olive vendor that when one tries a new food, one is supposed to make a wish. I made so many wishes in Arles!

For lunch, I had my first traditional French meal since being here.  Our tour guide Jean-Paul invited those who were so inclined to join him to déjeuner at his favorite restaurant in Arles L'escaladou to experience la cuisine Provençale. I decided that the time had arrived to have a meal worth more than my normal under-one-euro-American-style-sandwhich (which remained isolated in my lunch bag all day).  Dining with a native (Jean-Paul is Occitan) really enhanced the cultural experience! A friend and I shared our meals so we got to try a lot of different things:

 Les Escargots de la Mer

La soupe du possoin: fish soup with crusty bread topped with Rouille (saffron and mayonaise) and Parmesan cheese
(Photo Credit to Maggie Grossman!)

Le Lapin aux herbes provençales: Rabbit with provencial herbs (this sauce was so good!)

La Boeuf Guardian: a traditional dish made with beef from the bulls which are raised in the Camargue (the delta region of the Rhone River) , olives, and rice which is grown in the Camargue

Photo Credit: Michelle Lewis

Ile Flottant: Crème Anglaise topped with meringue (whipped egg whites)- really very good

 Nougat Glace: a sort of ice cream dish with honey and whipped cream

 As you can see, I am going quite hungry in France. We all left the restaurant with stupid grins on our faces. Trying new foods that you immensely enjoy is just such a metaphor for life (it's about to get cheesy).  In a broader sense, I realize that there is so much out there in the world that I haven't even discovered and which will bring me immense joy (people, places, cultures, vocations, ministries). It's a really liberating experience and I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to experience so many new things.



One of my wishes came true (I'll keep you posted on the others):

Hodgepodge

Short post (because I said I would).

I haven't been particularly daring lately because I'm starting to get into a routine... I love my routine like my dog loves to bark (a lot). But here a few French gems:


1) A Canadian student moved in here on Sunday and has been way more stereotypically American than me. She requested bacon and eggs for breakfast, talks and laughs pretty really loudly, takes long showers, asked if she could keep alcohol in the refrigerator, and puts ketchup on EVERYTHING. Potatoes (not that weird), chicken cordon blue (getting weird), and fettucini alfredo (does not in any way need ketchup). To each her own, I guess. :)

2) The French should learn how to insulate their homes. I have two huge windows/balconies in my room and because there's no centralized heating, my room is always like an igloo. I've resorted to placing all of my clothes on the radiator (which never gets very warm) before I change into them to give me some added warmth. Right now I'm wearing three pairs of socks, two sweaters, leggings under my jeans, AND headphones as earmuffs and I can't stop shaking. It makes me miss the stifling hot hallways of Joyner hall.

3) I ran a new path by the river today! It was pretty awesome because there's this big grassy path along the river bank with a dirt trail. I need green spaces and this is definitely one of them. Exercise has earned an even dearer spot in my heart because it's the only time of day (other than when I'm snug under my covers or the moments of my shower when the water is on) when I actually feel warm.

4) I have been spending more time figuring out travel plans for our February break that I have spent studying/doing homework. This needs to stop now. Off to work on a paper!

Love from France,
Kathleen

Tastes like chicken

Peur du jour: 15 Janvier 2012- Eating squid what I thought was squid

I don't consider myself to be a picky eater. My mom insists this is because when my sister and I were babies, she would only feed us the most unpopular flavors of the gerber babies collection: les betteraves, les epinards, etc. If we didn't like something, that's all she would give us until we finally caved and did eat it. I had an insane adoration of les choux de Bruxelles when I was little. At the dinner table, my sister and I would fight over who was served more brocoli (you don't need a link for that, do you?). The only thing I really can't eat is le cantaloup (we had a falling out...it's a long and harrowing story if you'd like to ask me about it sometime).

While I have no problem eating anything that uses photosynthesis to grow, I am a little weary of certain meats and sea foods. Ever since that one Christmas at my dad's where we cooked an extravagant seven fish Christmas dinner that was sabotaged by a family member who spread the stomach flu to most of the family (and we had a good twelve people in the house), I have just not been able to eat shell fish or other creepy-crawly sea creatures. My dad tried to trick me into eating calamari once, but I saw right through the deep fried outer shell to the suckered- tentacles and wormy arms (nice try, Dad).

So tonight at dinner when no one could figure out the English translation for what we were eating, I started to get worried. "No, it's not a fish, but it does live in the sea." "It has a beak." "It's not an octopus, but it's like an octopus." I offered the English word "squid?" and received blank stares.

Screwing up my courage, I just served myself. I don't want to be "that girl." That one American that won't eat squid. That one American that thinks she's too good to eat squid. She thinks it's beneath her and that France is beneath her and now we hate America and BAHHH.

Okay, so maybe I tend to imagine worst case scenarios... but I did not want to be in any way rude, and I know that squid isn't THAT weird of a food, it's just something I've scared myself away from. And man, was it good. Or at least the sauce that it was served in was really good. I'd still take the texture of chicken over the texture of squid... but because this plat principal had no arms waving hello to me, I didn't run away screaming.

Lesson of the day: Everything is worth trying once. If you don't like it, you don't like it. Wash it down with some maronsui's and call it a night. But if you do like it, that's one more dish you can think about adding to your recipe book.



PS) Upon searching for the French translation of squid, I'm no longer certain that squid is what I ate tonight. Maybe it's better if I don't know...

PPS) It is squid, here is a picture!

Hit the ground running

Peur du jour: 13 Janvier 2011- Goin' for a run in the "big city"

So during the aforementioned talk on security that we had during our orientation period, I had asked if it was okay to go jogging. Our program director said she didn't really feel comfortable with me going alone (especially because I said I was going to run with my ipod). So I've been avoiding exercise and wavering about whether to join a sports club or a gym or something and today I decide to just do it. I just went for a jog. It was perfect.


I had one of those is-this-my-life? moments here:

Château d'eau

And here:

Les arceaux  

And here:

L'arc de triomphe (predates that of Paris)

What's more, somehow my "Welcome to France" playlist (I made it for my train ride from Paris to Montpellier) got into one of my running playlists so as I got my very first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea, this song started playing. No, I'm not kidding. It's almost as cool as the time I was running in DC and this song came on as I passed the Ford Theatre.

So, I'll make sure to run in public and visible places during hours of the day where the sun is still smiling. But after a week and a half of not exercising, a run through MPL was just what the doctor ordered.

PS) Greetings from the future, Amber!