a semester in strasbourg

Yesterday, we had our policy seminar final (yes, on a Saturday. I don’t want to talk about that fact.)  After the final, our professor promised he would perform a song he had written about the financial crisis.  Little did we know, it would be a full-on concert.

He ended up performing–as in guitar and singing–about 5 or 6 original songs he had written as a tribute to Elvis. Yes, my policy seminar is an Elvis impersonator. If only I had known this four months ago…that class might have been so much more interesting at times!

Highlights included “S’il Vous Plait, Look My Way” and “No More SMSes on My Mobile Phone.” I am working on acquiring a copy of the video taken of these songs. It is impossible to describe, but quite possibly one of the greatest things I have witnessed, certainly the best thing to happen in that class.

So it turns out I’m not just abroad, I’m on STUDY abroad. This is all becoming clear as the semester comes to an end and I have ridiculous amounts of work. I don’t like it. Within a week, I have/had 3 papers, 4 finals, and an oral. Except that after I finished one of the papers, I was told that it would now be “optional” because it was not on the syllabus. Of course, I’ve already written it. Then that same teacher assigns a new paper for her other class instead, which no one knew existed. Great.

I am leaving in a week from tomorrow and all I want to do is go out and experience Strasbourg as much as I can before I leave but I can’t because I have all this WORK. This is quite similar to how I feel at the end of every school year, I suppose…all I want to do is hang out with all my friends before we leave, but everyone’s studying. Reality of life in school I suppose. I guess it’s worth it to be in college, though. I love being a student.

In other news, I have been feeling much better health-wise, and I finally got around to going back to the gym today, and I was able to do an hour of cardio! Yay! It was nice to finally have the energy to do that again. Being sick has not been fun.

So…Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Great holiday, even when not celebrated in the United States, it turns out. Obviously, it was different…and I’m not going to lie, I definitely missed being home. I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving at home. But still, our Family Night was really nice.

Basically, SU did a huge potluck for all of the students and our host families where we each made a dish to bring to the dinner. (Lily and I made sweet potato fries.) Then they got two turkeys and it was a big buffet. The food was good. It wasn’t my mom’s and there was no carrot souffle but it was good. Apparently other people in my program (not me) can cook. And they can cook well. Nice.

Then there was student-provided entertainment, always fun to watch. Including all the students in my program doing the “Cha Cha Slide” thus causing all of our French families to look at us in confusion and no doubt think we were a bunch of crazy weirdos. Which, perhaps, is true. But that’s neither here nor there.

After Family Night, I returned home to have a skype-date with my entire extended family who had gathered at my house to talk to me. Or to have Thanksgiving dinner. One of those reasons. Anyways, it was nice to say hi to everyone, and it made me a little less homesick (until my dad showed me the turkey which looked absolutely incredible and was confirmed on the phone today when my mom said it’s the best Thanksgiving turkey we’ve ever had. Thanks a lot.)

It’s hard to believe that I’ll be home in less than two weeks. I’m excited, but I’m also a little sad that I have such a short time left in Strasbourg now. (I know, what a change from two or three days ago.) I had to return my bike today, meaning I’ll be doing a lot more walking in the freezing cold over the next couple weeks. It’s Christmastime in Strasbourg–self-proclaimed “capitale de Noel“–so the city is full of lights and markets and is incredibly beautiful, so it’s going to be a great last two weeks. Minus all the exams and papers, anyways.

In summation: holidays in Strasbourg=good, but I am also very excited to come home.

I wish I could go home for Thanksgiving. I am so sad about missing pre-Thanksgiving Rio Grande night with the girls and making the cracker platter and waking up my brothers and helping set the table and watching Pocahontas with Jen in my huge chair, and turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and carrot souffle. And I know France is great and all, and we are having a huge Thanksgiving night here with all of our host families (Lily and I just finished cutting sweet potatoes for the sweet potato fries we are making for tomorrow night) but I can’t help it–Thanksgiving is making me homesick.

I am going to go either a) work on my policy seminar paper that I’ve barely started or b) watch bad online television to cheer myself up. I know what I probably should do…

Bad television it is.

In other, unrelated news, we had our policy seminar class at the US Consulate in Strasbourg today, which was interesting; hearing about life in the foreign service is so fascinating to me, though I don’t think I could ever do it myself, I would hate never feeling truly settled in one location and having to move around all the time. But still…it would be a really cool job, besides that part.

It’s really really cold here. I suppose I should be used to this–it gets relatively cold in DC and I go to Utah every winter, but everytime I hear about how it’s 80 degrees and sunny in Claremont I wonder why I left California for a whole semester to go abroad. The beautiful autumn that enthralled me so much and made me miss the seasons just a month ago now seems like so long ago, and I again appreciate the year-long summer that is southern California. But then I remember that I’m in France for the semester which is pretty sweet, so I guess it’s okay.

Anways, we had our first snow on Friday. Shelly had just arrived in Strasbourg to visit (she and Yu-Yu were here for the weekend) and pretty much freaked out.  Typical L.A. girl, never experienced a “first snow” before, and she was literally dancing and prancing around the tram stop (we got some strange looks from the tramriders…) It was actually really pretty; I think I would have appreciated it more had it not been SO FREAKIN COLD. (Clearly, going to school in California has made me a huge wimp.) The whole weekend remained cold and somewhat snowy.

Other than that, it was a fun if not super-eventful weekend. Friday night I took Shelly to a cooking class sponsored by my program at a culinary school in Strasbourg, then we went to a movie and met up with her summer roommate who is living in nearby Colmar teaching English for a year. Saturday Yu-Yu arrived and we went out to Petite France and a night out in Strasbourg. Sunday we explored downtown (in the FREEZING COLD) then Shelly left, and Yu-Yu left at the crack of dawn Monday morning. I miss them.

The Christmas markets start this coming weekend; according to advertisements around town, Strasbourg is the “capital of Christmas” so I’m pretty excited to see the city starting Saturday. Hopefully it will be pretty and wonderful enough to distract me from the sad fact that I’m not home for Thanksgiving…

So, a lot has happened since fall break. For one thing, I’ve barely been in Strasbourg. I’ve also been having some colitis issues, unfortunately.

So I arrived home from the Paris part of fall break on November 2, a Sunday, and flew to London the night of November 6, a Thursday, to stay with Yu-Yu, along with Shelly.  Needless to say, a long weekend (I was in London until Tuesday) with two of my favorite people from CMC provided for an amazing time. It may have been my favorite trip of the semester. It was also kind of nice to be somewhere where English was the default language, especially since I’ve been feeling a little homesick lately. So the English and being with CMC friends was really nice.

We did a lot of the touristy stuff: changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, Tower of London, traditional fish and chips at a pub (though I didn’t actually get fish and chips), a show (we saw Dirty Dancing), and of course we saw LSE’s campus, where Yu-Yu is studying. We also went out to the Ministry of Sound club to celebrate Yu-Yu’s 21st birthday, a night to remember. I will leave it at that…

On Saturday, Shelly and I took the train to Oxford for the day, and I got to see Jesse, who was there for a debate tournament. Even though it was only for one night, it was a lot of fun and great to see him, though it made me a little more homesick…I will be excited to go back to CMC next semester for sure.

The only mar on the weekend, besides Shelly hogging the covers in our shared air mattress (just kidding…mostly), was that I was feeling sick with colitis stuff, which has only worsened since, and also marred my trip to Paris, the following weekend.

Which brings me to November 14-16, when I was in Paris for my art class field trip. We went to the Musee d’Orsay, which I had already been to with my parents, but I got to see a different part of the museum, so I still enjoyed it. We also went to the Musee de la vie romantique and the Musee Jacquemart-Andre, which was incredible–a converted 19th century mansion in the 8th Arrondissement from a couple voracious art collectors who later turned their home into a public museum. It was gorgeous; I’d have loved to live there. Unfortunately, due to being sick, I missed going to the Louvre which I’m really upset about…I really wanted to see the Mona Lisa (along with everything else). In free time, I got to see the Sacre-Coeur and Montmartre (where Moulin Rouge is!) which I loved. It is my favorite area that I have seen of Paris, as well as going back to the Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe, ending at Lauderee, the “best cafe in Paris” where we sampled the best macaroons in all of France (or so our art prof told us).

Before I had left for Paris, I had a doctor’s appointment to figure out colitis stuff, but it was actually somewhat horrible because the doctor barely spoke English and my French does not cover medical symptoms. I got some prescriptions, though, and had a blood test today, so hopefully things will get sorted out–though I had to cancel my post-semester trip to Italy, which I’m pretty bummed out about. Anyways, I will now be getting home December 11, only 3.5 weeks from now. Crazy!

So, fall break. My parents came to visit. For the most part, it was a lot of fun. I got to do a ton of really cool things, spend time with my parents (which was really enjoyable except for when I was forced to go to bed at 11:00 every night, something my biological clock strongly resisted), and, of course, I didn’t have to spend money and I got better hotels and food than I would otherwise. Which may sound unimportant…but it was really nice to not have to worry about that. Really nice.

Anyways, my parents arrived in Strasbourg on a Thursday (October 23rd) and departed on a Sunday morning from Paris (November 2nd). In between, we went to Colmar, Geneva, all over Provence, and Paris.

Strasbourg: Well, embarrassingly enough, on Thursday night, just after I met up with my parents, I wanted to take them to dinner in Petite France. But I got lost. I was confused coming from their hotel, as I have my established routes…directions have never really been my forte. But we made it there eventually and had a nice, authentic Alsatian meal. Delicious escargot, too. Anyways, the next day, Friday, I gave my parents the comprehensive tour of Strasbourg: we went to the cathedral, saw a film about the astronomical clock there, walked around downtown, to Place Kleber and Place Gutenberg, wandered through the market in Place Broglie, had coffee with my host mom at the Opera House cafe, went to Place Republique, rode the tram to the European Institutions, walked along the river, dropped by the SU Center, got a picnic lunch at the Coop, and went to my favorite place in the city, Parc de l’Orangerie, for a picnic and a tour. Then we had dinner downtown, and the next morning we dropped by my apartment before driving to Geneva.

Colmar: On the way to Geneva, we stopped to spend the afternoon in Colmar, a town in Alsace. Downtown Colmar is very cute, with very Alsatian architecture (wikipedia it) and small streets filled with shops, cafes, and historical landmarks. Example: we saw Voltaire’s house. It was exciting.

Geneva: Geneva was absolutely beautiful. I know I say that a lot (and I will say that a lot more), but it’s true. We were there on a Sunday, so a lot of stuff was closed, but we still had a really nice self-guided tour, courtesy of mon pere. We saw the Jet d’Eau, basically a giant jet that looks like a geyser coming out of Lake Geneva, and the Flower Clock, which is exactly what it sounds like, and the gardens around the lake. Then we walked through the old town, climbed the cathedral (which was fun until I took after both parents and freaked out about the heights and the enclosed spaces…), saw the old armory (even though Switzerland has been neutral for 500+ years), and wandered. And that night we had fondue. Delicious. Very Swiss.

French Alps: On Monday, we drove from Geneva to Aix-en-Provence via the scenic route through the Alps. I knew they were going to be beautiful, but wow. They are even more incredible than the Rockies. We stopped for lunch and to fill up gas in this random town, Sisteron, that we passed through, and it was the cutest town I’ve ever seen. It was a citadel built in the mountains with incredible views, and very French, like you would imagine the stereotypical French small town to be like. It’s so cool to discover places like that, totally by accident…one of my favorite things about being abroad.

Aix-en-Provence: Our home base for traveling in the Provence region of France was Aix. I think that if I had to do it over again, I would definitely consider Aix as a study abroad destination (though I love Strasbourg and am happy I chose it).  It has history, charm, plus there seems to be a lot going on–I don’t think I’d ever get bored there. Unfortunately, it rained the entire time we were in Provence, but we still had a good time. In Aix, we kind of did a self-guided Cezanne tour, seeing the impressionist painter’s home he grew up in, his workshop, the country path he used to walk on and paint, as well as going to the Musee Granet, which featured some Cezanne as well as a lot of other artists.

Avignon & Les Baux-en-Provence: Our second day in Provence, we drove in the morning to Avignon. There we walked around, saw the Palais des Papes, where the Popes of Avignon lived after the split with the Catholic Church in Rome. The history was really interesting (I suggest wikipedia-ing that too) and the actual palace was really amazing. We also went to the famous Pont d’Avignon (the ruins of the bridge) where my dad did a little dance (the famous song talks about dancing along the Pont d’Avignon; when I returned to Strasbourg, my host mom asked me if I had danced on it). Our last stop in Avignon was a privately owned museum donated by a family that had inherited a collection, and it was fabulous. They had some van Gogh (my favorite artist) and we saw one small drawing by Picasso called The Couple, and for some reason, I absolutely LOVED it. I’m not sure what it was, but I could have stared at it for hours, which is unusual for me, because though I like art, I’ve never really loved it THAT much. After Avignon, we went to Les Baux, which is really a tiny little town on a mountain that you can only get to by car-not bus or train-and used to be a medieval fortress, and the ruins remain. This was incredible too; unfortunately by the time we got there it was pouring and ridiculously windy so we didn’t spend much time there (my mom was worried we’d get blown off a cliff), and we headed back to Aix for a quick late dinner and sleep.

The French Riviera: Our last full day in Provence, we decided to drive along the coastline and see the Riviera. This was some of the most breathtaking scenery I’ve ever seen. I can’t describe it, you’ll have to see for yourself (or at least look at photos). On the way, we stopped in St. Tropez and Cannes, both cute towns, though we spent more time in St. Tropez and it was a little more charming, not as big-city-like as Cannes.

Paris: Finally, we spent our final weekend in Paris! My first time in Paris! We took the TGV from Aix and arrived in time to check in and go out for dinner. My dad had some fun with his map, and we ended up walking to the Latin Quartier (student area) then taking the Metro back. The next day, it poured all morning,and  we did a lot of the tourist stuff; we started at Place d’Etoile and saw the Arc de Triomphe, then walked down the Champs Elysees, seeing the Concorde, the Jardin de Tuileries and the Louvre. We then visited the Notre Dame, and Mass was going on while we were visiting-it was kind of a bizarre feeling, but also that much more powerful. Notre Dame is massive. We had a long lunch (every meal is long in France) then went to the Musee d’Orsay and spent the afternoon looking at the impressionists. Absolutely loved this museum. I love the impressionists. I love looking at their paintings. Apparently I do love art. That evening, our last night, we had dinner with Yu-Yu (who was visiting Paris for the weekend), Shelly (who is studying in Paris), and Shelly’s parents (who were visiting for the week). I went out for a bit with Shelly and Yu-Yu before returning to the hotel (Yu-Yu was also staying there, so Shelly spent the night). The next day, my parents left at the crack of dawn, and I slept a few more hours before meeting up with Yu-Yu to do some sightseeing. We went to the Eiffel Tower, taking about 8000 pictures from every angle and distance we could, then had lunch and wandered down the Champs d’Elysees before returning to the hotel to get my stuff. We had a quick dinner near the hotel (early dinner) then I left to catch my train back to Strasbourg.

As fun as fall break was, it was actually really nice coming back to Strasbourg-I guess it feels like coming “home” now, I am really enjoying living here.

So it has turned out that one of my most interesting classes here is actually European policy seminar.  This, of course, is the one course for which I receive no credit towards my major or any GE’s, so I am essentially taking it just for fun–unusual, given that I am a psych/film studies major, so normally a policy seminar class would not be my top choice for an elective. Since I am in Strasbourg, however, the capital of Europe, I figured I might as well give it a try. That, and the fact that the class had a field trip to Luxembourg and Brussels (okay, okay, that might have been the deciding factor. But the ends justify the means.)

In any event, our field trip to Luxembourg and Brussels took place last weekend, from Wednesday evening to Saturday evening.  We arrived in Luxembourg in time for dinner Wednesday night, which we ate as a group (21 students plus our professor, Torbiorn, and the SU assistant director, Marxer), and then had free time to do whatever we wanted. We made a somewhat failed attempt to go out, but didn’t really know where to go in Luxembourg, so we mostly ended up wandering up and down hills for awhile before going back to the hostel to sleep (and an impromptu 90s-music marathon).

The next day, we indeed woke up at the crack of dawn, also known as 7:30 am, to go to the European Court of Justice. Our main event there was sitting in on a hearing. This could have been interesting, except that the subject of the hearing was TAXES. And a whole lot about Article 602 of the something. It was a little bit boring. Half my class fell asleep. My professor fell asleep. Even one of the JUDGES fell asleep. I, too, accidentally rested my eyes for a few moments, only to be woken up by the court bailiff tapping me and giving me an evil glare. Very embarrassing.

The afternoon was for free time in Luxembourg. To be honest, there’s not a whole lot to do there, and since it was pouring rain, I spent about half of our three hours in a cafe with some friends. Despite the rain, however, Luxembourg is gorgeous. It’s tiny, but it’s full of castles and huge bridges overlooking beautiful gorges…absolutely gorgeous.

We next left for Brussels, where we arrived in early evening and were given the night free to do whatever we wanted. A big group of us went out, and we discovered this great little bar that’s been around something like 150 years, and a lot of artists used to go to apparently. It was a really cool place to hang out and absorb the Belgian culture (read: Belgian beer).

On Friday, we went to NATO. It was amazing. We had three different speakers talking to our group, and I was captivated for the entire 3 or 4 hours we were there, never bored, never distracted…which is very unusual, at least for me. It inspired me. Despite being a psych/film studies major with no experience in gov or IR, I want to work at NATO. It was awesome. I loved it. Best part of the trip.

Friday afternoon, our professor, the Torb, suggested to a small group of us wandering the city that we should go get a beer. His exact words were, “It’s not that I am dying for a beer, but I really would quite like one.” So we ended up at a bar/marionette theater with our 60-year-old Swedish professor. I’m pretty sure he got a little tipsy and went on an at least 10-minute spiel about the social problems of Father Christmas and his mistreatment of the elves and reindeer. He spoke exactly as he would in class, too, making it even more hilarious. That night, we had a group dinner at a restaurant in the grand-place, or the main plaza, which was one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. Brussels is definitely one of my favorite cities I have visited while here, or ever for that matter. Maybe just because I had so much fun there. I managed to at least sample all that Belgium is famous for: chocolate, beer, waffles, frites, and of course, Smurfs. Yes, I bought a stuffed Smurf. Yes, I named him Smurfy.

Possibly because I had somewhat low expectations and expected a slightly more boring trip, that weekend was one of the best times I’ve had since I came to Europe. Today, my parents arrive and I will be traveling with them for my fall break until November 2, so I am very excited for that too. I absolutely love Europe, and I strongly recommend Strasbourg to anyone studying abroad.

The most bizarre thing happened today.

First, some background: Strasbourg is a city. It’s certainly not a huge city in terms of size; it is actually relatively small and easy to navigate. But it is very, very urban. I suppose the most comparable American city would be Boston, or at least that’s what people say. It sounds right to me, but I have only been to Boston a couple times and am certainly not an expert on it. But the point is, Strasbourg is a city.

So I was on a walk today because the weather was absolutely gorgeous; 70 degrees and sunny with a nice breeze. It felt almost like being back in California…almost. I was on my way to the post office to (finally) buy stamps for the letters and postcards that have been accumulating over the past two months that I haven’t gotten around to sending. (Side note: I didn’t buy enough stamps for all my postcards though, so I will have to go back. Oops.)

So I was right by Place Arnold, a large intersection with a beautiful cathedral, when I look up and see a man walking what looks like a very large dog. Abnormally large. They do not have big dogs in France, just little tiny foo-foo ones. So this in itself is unusual. However, as the man passes us, I look up and realize that at the end of this leash is not a dog…it is a donkey.

Yes. That’s right. A DONKEY. The man stops and asks us for directions to centre-ville as if this is the most ordinary thing in the world, to be walking down a busy road with a donkey on a leash. I told my friend Dani this story and she asked me if Strasbourg is rural, and mentioned how strange this would be in the U.S. But it is also very strange here. This is NOT, I repeat, NOT, a normal occurrence in Strasbourg. My host mom has verified this fact.

So, today I saw a donkey walking down the street. Cool.

Some observations based on my experiences in Strasbourg:

• The French do not pick up after their dogs. It’s kind of gross, there is always dog poop all over the sidewalks that you need to sidestep. I had a really close call today, but I dodged it at the last moment.
• Everyone bikes everywhere. There are bike racks everywhere you go and bikers on every path. I rented a bike that I now use as my primary source of transportation, and I love it. Last week, however, I was biking along a bike path next to the sidewalk where a woman was walking the same direction. All of a sudden she turned suddenly and walked directly into me on my bike, knocking me over. It was frightening.
• The French do not get fat. They eat ridiculous amounts of bread and cheese and pastries and they are still skinny. When I turned down seconds on the dessert at dinner the other night, my host mom commented that I do not like food very much, because I eat so little. This is completely untrue. I love food, and I had already eaten a very full dinner. It’s an incredible phenomenon how the French are able to do this all their lives.
• They don’t have Tylenol here. I’m pretty sure I bought it’s French equivalent, but it is hard to say for certain. I hope it works…