La vie en résidence

Chaque fois que j'étais demandée si j'aimais la vie en résidence dans ma première année de l'école, j'ai répondu que c'était une expérience importante (et je suis heureuse que je l'ai eue), mais que je ne la referrai pas une autre fois.

Or, me voilà. Cela serait un travail énorme de trouver un appartement hors le campus de l'ENS, alors ce n'était pas une décision difficile pour moi d'habiter en résidence.

Pour deux de mes collocataires, c'est la première fois qu'ils n'habitent pas chez leurs parents. Pour Morgane, il va prendre un peu de temps pour qu'elle puisse s'habituer à habiter avec des autres étudiants (et surtout des hommes). Pour Alex, il me semble que la résidence égale la liberté ! D'une manière consciente, il invite des amis chez lui chaque jour. Il profite bien de la vie sociale. Sissoko, l'autre étudiant international, vient de Mali. Je ne le vois presque jamais alors je ne sais pas encore ce que la vie en résidence signifie pour lui.

C'est étrange de me trouver dans la même situation que ma première année où on ne se connait pas trop et nous avons besoin d'établir les systèmes pour la vie commune.

Après trois semaines, l'amie de mon colloc m'a fait remarquer que mon « lessive » de linge était par contre l'assouplissant. Voilà la raison pour laquelle mes vêtements étaient si douce mais pas vraiment propres...

Je m'habitue assez bien, mais j'ai besoin de temps en temps d'exprimer ce qui m'irrite un peu. Voilà donc ma coup de gueule contre la résidence :

1. Nous avons essayé de laver le sol à grande eau avec un balai. Je mis des chaussettes directement après être sortie de la douche, sinon mes pieds seraient toujours noirs.

2. Pour environ la première sémaine, j'ai eu des pellicules dans mes cheveux après avoir pris une douche. Il m'a pris un temps fou pour réaliser qu'il y avait un gisement de calcium sur le robinet de douche qui s'écaille sur ma tête. Dès que j'ai realisé, j'ai acheté des produits de nettoyage forts et j'ai lavé la douche ... quelle ironie !

3. Les personalités ne s'étendent pas trop bien. C'est normal et je n'ai pas attendu que tout le monde serait les meilleurs amis toute de suite, mais parfois il y a un peu de drâme que je trouve inutile. Ma philosophie personelle s'agit de ne jamais penser à des actions des autres d'une manière égoïste (don't take things personally) et j'aime croire que je suis sereine. Alors pour moi, c'est un peu décevant d'avoir besoin de servir de médiateur (dans ma deuxième langue) dans les conflits mineurs qui deviennent plus grands de ce qui est nécessaire chez nous.

4. J'ai apporté avec moi deux verres, deux assiettes, deux de chaque ustensile et deux bols. Et rien de ce dont j'ai besoin pour cuisiner. J'ai eu besoin d'acheter tout ça. J'emprunte parfois les trucs dont j'en ai besoin, mais je suis en train de collectionner les pots de compote pour que je puisse recevoir mes amis avec assez de verres. Je classifie ces pratiques comme la style de vie étudiant à l'extrême. Il me semble aussi que la plupart de mes plaintes concernent les moments où j'ai eu besoin de dépenser argent...

La plupart de mes amis internationaux ont des collocataires qui ont apporté beaucoup de trucs (ce qui est bien car les étudiants internationaux comme moi n'ont pas la capacité d'apporter n'importe quoi), mais chez nous, on a deux étudiants internationaux et Morgane est la seule qui a vraiment apporté assez. Nous avons beaucoup d'espace, mais il n'y a pas trop à mettre dedans. Et il n'y a pas beaucoup à partager.

5. Nous n'avons pas de four. Apparement le micro-onde peut servir en tant que four aussi, je n'arrive pas à piger comment ça fonctionnera.

6. Il me semble que les Français sont contres des moustiquaires pour les fenêtres et les portes. Nous avons souvent les bêtes à l'intérieur. (Regarder le bon côté, je sent plus d'air frais que chez moi. Ou peut-être c'est qu'on n'a pas d'acclimatiseur et donc les fenêtres ne doivent pas rester fermés. En tout cas, je passe plus de temps dehors et c'est un miracle.. je suis bronzée ! Sur mes propres standards. Il semble que je ne suis plus un troglodyte ! Il me va bien, je pense.)

Maintenant que je suis soulagée de mes plaintes, voilà les côtés positifs d'être en résidence :

• J'habite juste à côté de mes cours.
• J'habite juste à côté de la plupart de mes amis.
• J'ai ma propre chambre et salle de bain (!)
• Les machines à laver sont juste à côté de mon appartement.
• Je suis toujours proche des événements de l'école.
• J'ai une porte qui ouvre sur une petite arrière-cour.
• Il y beaucoup de place pour recevoir des amis.
• Ma chambre est plus grande que mes chambres des quatre années auparavant.

En somme, je crois que je vais aimer cet appartement autant que les autres que j'habitais en dépit de ces excentricités. :)

Rez Life

Every time I've ever been asked about living in residence, I responded that it was an important experience to have (and I was happy to have it), but that I wouldn't do it again.

And yet, here I am. It would have been a lot of extra work to try to find an appartment outside of ENS, so it was really not a hard decision to make.

For two of my collacataires, it is the first experience living away from home. For Morgane, this means a lot of adjustments to the comforts of home. Especially considering we live with two guys. For Alex, this appears to me to mean freedom! He has friends over every day (in a respectful way), but he is definitely benefitting from the social life. Sissoko, my other housemate is an International student from Mali. I almost never see him so I'm not sure what residence life means for him.

It is strange to be thrown into the same situation as first year where you don't know each other too well and have to establish certain systems and boundaries.

After three weeks my housemate's friend pointed out that my "laundry detergent" was in fact fabric softener. No wonder my clothes were really soft but didn't smell that clean...

I am adapting reasonably well, but for the purpose of getting it out of my system, here are my residence rants:

1. We attempted mopping with a broom this weekend. I put socks on immediately after getting out of the shower, otherwise the bottoms of my feet would always be black.

2. For the first week or so, I would end up with dandruff in my hair right after showering. It took me forever to realize the shower was actually making calcium deposits in my hair. Many of you know all too well what an effort it is for me to bother showering and so I ask you... WHAT IS THE POINT? Since then, I bought heavy duty multi-surface cleaner and scrubbed the shower down. Clean hair for the win!

3. Not all the personalities blend. This is normal and I totally didn't expect everyone to instantly become best friends, but sometimes there is unnecessary drama. My personal philosophy is to not take things personally and I like to think that I am easy-going. So for me, sometimes it is frustrating to be a mediator (in my second language) of the minor conflicts that become a big deal in our household.

4. I have a very limited supply of cooking utensils. I had to buy a pot and a mixing bowl, measuring spoons and cloths for wiping down the table. I borrow the pans and cooking utensils of my housemates sometimes, but I am currently collecting empty jars in an effort to be able to provide glasses for anyone that I host. I would classify this as "extreme student living".

Many of my International friends have housemates that brought tons of stuff with them (which is good for them because they wouldn't have been able to bring much, like me), but since we have two International students, Morgane is the only one that really brought that much. We have lots of common room space, but not much to put into it. And not that much that we can share.

5. We don't have an oven. The microwave is supposed to double as an oven, but I can't even fathom how that would work...

6. The French seem to be opposed to the idea of screens. We often have bugs in the house. (On the bright side, I do feel like there is more fresh air in the house without screens. Or maybe it's because there is no air conditioning so we don't have to keep the windows closed. This also encourages me to spend time outside. You should all know, I have a TAN!! By my standards, of course. I look like I emerge from my cave of darkness to see the sun once in a while! I think it's a good look.)

Now that that's out of the way, here are the positives of living in residence:

• I live two minutes from all of my classes.
• I live two minutes or less from most of my friends.
• I have my own room and bathroom (!)
• All my utilities are included.
• There are laundry facilities within the building.
• I am close to all of the school-run events.
• I have a door that opens into a tiny backyard, which is kind of cool.
• There is lots of common space to host friends.
• My room is bigger than it has been for the past 4 years.

Overall, I think that despite its quirks, I will soon like this living space as much as any other I have lived in. :)

Lyon, part 2

Vieux-Lyon is by far my favourite area of Lyon so far. It is very touristy, but for good reason. Vieux-Lyon is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area was once home to the Gauls (often referred to as the ancestors of the French), and played an important role in the French Resistance during World World 2 thanks to medieval passageways called traboules. (I haven't explored these yet!)

The first time I went to Vieux-Lyon, it was for a soirée with some other International students. We went to an Irish pub and didn't really meet anyone outside of our group. It was just too crowded.

That night, I was approached by a seemingly harmless man who wanted to talk to my friends and I, just outside the pub. He asked questions about where we were from, what we were studying, etc etc. Have you ever just had that feeling that it wasn't going to be harmless? I don't know if it's a Canadian thing, or if it's just me, but I really dislike being rude to people or making assumptions about them. Unfortunately, it sometimes puts me in a tough situation where I've left a conversation go on too long because I didn't want to be rude, but then I get "creeped out".

The other girls left long before I did. I didn't realize that they were "escaping" and that they wouldn't be coming back for a while. He asked me for my phone number and I said I didn't have one (quick thinking!) and then he asked where I sleep at night. It's hard work to come up with two good lies in a row. When I said ENS, he wrote it down in a notebook where he had phone numbers and other addresses written down. The others told me I should have said "In my bed". Unfortunately, I am not that clever. Fortunately, you can't get into ENS without an ID badge. I haven't seen him since.

Another day, I went with my collacatrice Morgane to Vieux-Lyon for lunch. We ate at a restaurant called Les Pampres rouges at Place Neuve-St Jean. The area was touristy, but the restaurant had a reasonably priced menu. I ordered tandoori chicken and île flottante (a type of meringue floating in English cream). Both were delicious! Even though our table was directly next to another pair of women who were eating, our conversation still felt private and it didn't feel cramped at all. During lunch we were serenaded by a tuba player and his accompaniment. A newly married couple walked down the street to applause from all the people dining and the tuba played bonne fête. It was really lovely!

Finally, I went to Vieux-Lyon on la journée du patrimoine, which is a day where there are special attractions set up around the city and all of the museums are free.

Alexandre and I went to a bouchon (a typical Lyonnais restaurant) in Presqu'île on rue des Marronniers called Chez Mounier (04.78.37.79.26). Aside from having great company, I had a really delicious meal. It was a typically French four-course menu consisting of goat cheese salad, rabbit (my first time having it!) and gratin, St Marcellin cheese which is a regional specialty, and dessert.  It cost us only €13 each. If you're ever in Lyon, I would highly recommend this restaurant. It is described elsewhere on the Internet as a Lyonnais institution, and I can see why. However, I also have to recommend making reservations... it was packed!

Afterward, we walked back across one of the bridges into Vieux-Lyon and without any concrete plans, ended up watching a live band performing in Place du Change. In the Middle Ages, it was the square where the market was located. The Temple du Change that is located there now was built as Lyon's financial centre, but has been a Protestant place of worship since 1803.

The museum I had been hoping to see that weekend was the Musée Gadagne, which I had thought for some reason was in the 5th arrondissement, but it turns out it was right around the corner from where we were. Thanks to some well-placed signs, I got to see the museum after all.

The Musée Gadagne has two sections: the history of Lyon, and the marionnette museum. We were interested primarily in the history of Lyon bit, but were misdirected into the wrong section. The marionnette museum features the illustrations from the early forms of shadow theatre and marionnette's from all over the world. The most notable in the Musée Gadagne is Guignol, the Lyonnais marionnette. We saw him, as well as many other kind-of-creepy-looking-marionnettes and got to try out a few in the kids' section (of course when I put mine down it made a really loud noise...) The one here is included for my Scottish friend Jamie's benefit:

Eventually we made it through and got to the history of Lyon section. It was really interesting. The museum is a choronological record of Lyon's history, starting with artefacts from the time of the Roman Empire when "Lugdunum" (as it was then known) was an important city in Gaul. There were also artefacts from the Middle Ages, Lyon's role during the French Revolution, Napolean's influence in Lyon, the rise of the silk industry and the demonstrations by the silk workers (called canuts), the role of Lyon in the two World Wars (and especially their role in the Resistance movement) and the urbanisation of Lyon. Unfortunately, we got kicked out before we'd made it through everything because the museum closed. I almost wish I had done this museum before any of my other sight-seeing because it really gives you an idea of the importance of the other museums/sights that exist in Lyon, but better late than never!

To finish off an excellent day, we rented Velo'v bicycles and rode across the Saône, along the Rhône and back to ENS. (But that's a different story...)

Lyon, partie 2

Pour le moment, Vieux-Lyon est le quartier de Lyon que je préfère. C'est très touristique, mais pour des bonnes raisons. Ce quartier fait partie de la liste du patrimoine mondiale de l'UNESCO. C'était occupé pas les Gaulois (les « ancêtres » des Français), et les traboules que je n'ai pas encore explorées ont joué un rôle important dans la Résistance de la deuxième guerre mondiale.

La première fois que j'ai visité Vieux-Lyon c'était pour une soirée avec d'autres étudiants internationaux au pub irlandais. On n'a pas vraiment rencontré des gens hors notre groupe car il y avait trop du monde dedans.

Cette nuit-là, j'étais approché par un homme inoffensif qui voulais parler avec mes amies et moi, juste dehors le pub. Il nous a demandé d'où nous somme venues, ce que nous étudions, etc etc. As-tu jamais eu un sentiment qu'une situation serait plus offensive qu'elle apparaît ? Je ne sais pas si c'est un symptôme des Canadiens, ou si c'est seulement moi, mais je n'aime pas ni faire des assomptions à propos des gens que je ne connais pas ni paraître impolite. Malheureusement, je me trouve parfois dans les situations un peu dangereuses où je n'ai pas terminé une conversation avec quelqu'un qui est vraiment « louche ».

Les autres filles ont échappé, mais j'ai cru qu'elles auraient retournées bientôt. Il m'a demandé mon numéro de portable. J'ai eu un peu de la présence d'esprit en disant que je n'ai pas encore acheté un portable, mais ensuite il m'a demandé où je dors la nuit... ce n'est pas facile de penser à deux mensonges convaincant, et même pas dans une autre langue que la tienne. Quand j'ai répondu l'ENS, il l'a écrit dans son carnet où il y avait des numéros de téléphones et les adresses des autres personnes. Mes amis m'ont dit après que j'aurais dû répondre « Dans mon lit ». C'est dommage que je ne suis pas astucieuse. Par bonheur, il est impossible d'entrer les résidences de l'ENS sans un badge. Je ne l'ai pas vu depuis cette nuit.

Un autre jour, je suis allée déjeuner à Vieux-Lyon avec Morgane, ma collocatrice. Nous avons mangé chez Les Pampres rouges à la place Neuve St-Jean. Le quartier était touristique, mais le restaurant n'était pas trop cher. J'ai eu le poulet tandoori et l'île flottante. Les deux étaitent délicieux ! Même si notre table était juste à côté d'un autre, je n'ai pas senti trop proche aux femmes qui mangeaient là, et il m'a semblé que ma conversation avec Morgane était privée. Un homme à joué du tuba dans la rue. Un couple marié de nouveau a traversé la rue et les applaudissements ont éclaté. Le chanson du tuba est vitement devenu bonne fête. C'était très jolie !

Finalement, je suis allée à Vieux-Lyon pendant la journée du patrimoine.

Alexandre et moi ont mangé à un bouchon (un restaurant typiquement Lyonnais) de Presqu'île à la rue des Marroniers. Le bouchon s'appelle Chez Mounier (04.78.37.79.26). À part la bonne compagnie, le repas était incroyable. C'était un ménu de quatre courses typiquement français y compris la salade au chèvre chaud, le lapin (c'est la première fois que je l'ai jamais mangé !), le fromage régional St-Marcellin, et un dessert. Ce ménu coûte €13 chacun le dimanche. Si vous vous trouvez à Lyon un jour, je vous conseille d'y manger. C'est décrit sur les autres site-webs comme une institution Lyonnais, et moi, je suis d'accord. Mais attention, il serait une bonne idée de faire les reservations ... il y avait beaucoup du monde !

Après, nous nous sommes promenés à côté de la Saône et à travers un pont pour entrer le Vieux-Lyon. Sans projet concrèt, nous avons regardé par hasard un spectacle de la musique à plein air dans la Place du Change. En Moyen Âge, elle était la place des foires. Le Temple du Change qui se trouve là maintenant était construit en tant que bâtiment de commerce pour Lyon, mais depuis 1803, c'était un temple des Protestants.

La musée que j'ai eu envie de voir ce week-end était la musée Gadagne, que j'ai cru se trouve dans le 5e quartier. Heureusement, la musée se trouve juste à côté de la Place du Change. Grâce à des affiches bien placés, j'ai eu l'occasion de voir la musée gratuitement !

Dans la musée, il y a deux sections: l'histoire de Lyon et la musée des marionnettes. Nous nous étions intéressés surtout dans l'histoire de Lyon, mais par accident a commencé dans l'autre section. La musée des marionnettes comprend les objets des formes de théâtre différents ; il y avait, par exemple, les objets qui viennent du théâtre des ombres et les marionnettes qui viennent de partout dans le monde. La marionnette la plus connue dans la musée Gadagne est Guignol, le Lyonnais. Nous l'avons vu parmi beaucoup d'autres marionnettes presque-effrayantes et nous avons essayé un peu les marionnettes pour les enfants (bien sûr que la mienne a fait un bruit énorme quand je l'ai remplacé ...). J'ai inclu la marionnette ci-dessous pour mon ami écossais, Jamie :

Finalement, nous avons terminé cette section et avons commencé le parti qui concerne l'histoire de Lyon. Je l'ai trouvé très intéressant. La musée raconte l'histoire de Lyon dans l'ordre chronologique. L'histoire commence avec les objets du moment où « Lugdunum » (Lyon) était une ville importante dans le pays Gaul de l'Empire romain. Il y avait aussi des objets du Moyen Âge, à propos du rôle de Lyon dans la Révolution Française, l'influence de Napoléan dans la ville, l'augmentation de l'importance de l'industrie de soie et les démonstrations des canuts, le rôle de Lyon dans les deux guerres mondiales (et surtout le rôle dans la résistance) et enfin l'urbanisation de Lyon. Malheureusement, la musée a fermé avant qu'on a terminé de voir tous les salles. Rétrospectivement, j'aurais aimé commencer avec cette musée avant de voir les autres attractions touristiques, car cette musée ma donnée un point de départ pour mieux comprendre la ville. En tout cas, mieux vaut tard que jamais !

Pour terminer une journée excellent, nous avons loué des Velo'v pour retourner à l'ENS. (Mais peut-être que ça serait une autre histoire ...)

The Student Life: École Normale Supérieure de Lyon

I feel like this post has been in the works the longest of any post so far. I want to share my experience of my school and how it compares to Brock (my home university), what my courses are like and how the teaching style compares to back home, and any other random things that I find interesting about ENS de Lyon. (I just wanted to warn you that this might be a long-ish post.

First, you might be wondering what an École Normale Supérieure is.. and why there are several of them in France. An École Normale Supérieure is similar to having Ivy League universities in France (in Canada, that would be University of Toronto which is ranked in the top 20 universities worldwide). Students don't casually apply to be at an ENS. They often do an entire degree (equivalent to a Bachelor of Arts/Science) and then apply OR they do several years of préparatoire (special school designed to help them pass the exams to get in) before being accepted.. and only if they are the top in their field. Some of them get paid to study here and then they have a ten-year contract to complete with the government. All I did was apply for an exchange and list it as one of my choices. As you can imagine, student life won't quite be a repeat of first year.


Parvis Descartes Entrance

There are around 2200 students at ENS de Lyon which means there will be small classes and the teachers will be more accessible (similar to what I experience at home since the Brock French department is relatively small). There are two campuses: Descartes and Monod. Descartes, where I study, covers the "humanities", and Monod focusses on science & math. There are residences at both campuses. ENS de Lyon also has a library that services all of the other universities in Lyon (the Université de Lyon is composed of three separate universities which are much larger than ENS).

My first impression of my campus was the "Parvis Descartes" entrance. All I saw was cement. The next bit of the outdoors I saw was the route I will now be taking every day to my classes, which meant a few bushes and more cement. I was slightly concerned. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that all of my classes will take place in one building (which is also where the majority of offices are that I need access to), and it is a two minute walk from my residence room.

 On my way for lunch, I realized that the exterior of the campus is extremely deceiving. The majority of the campus is actually a garden. I like to think of it as the Secret Garden because of all the terraces and winding pathways. There is a bee-keeping hut and a fire pit hidden throughout the garden. Most of the garden is a giant space where students like to lay outside in the sunshine or have picnics. It's very French. One day, while exploring, I happened on some animals. There is a club on campus called "Mouflons" who take care of the "mouflons" (which means mountain sheep).

 



The school is within walking distance of a bank, a post office, two metro stations, a Velo'v station (for short-term bike rentals) and two grocery stores. I wouldn't ever have to leave the 7e quartier if I didn't want to!

 

I've been slowly getting to know Monod campus because most of the Orientation Week events took place there. However, it is really an Orientation Week to try and orient you. They have sessions every day where you get to meet all the members of your department and learn about all the different courses you could take. They give you information that you will need to help you choose your courses and encourage you to make decisions about what type of degree you'd like to do (and how to do it). And on and on! I feel now that Canadian Orientation weeks actually work to dis-orient you. There's nothing wrong with that! Being disoriented just means getting pulled outside of your comfort zone, so there's no harm in that, but the approach here was totally different. There was a rafting weekend excursion that I didn't attend, but it sounded like a small-scale version of Canadian O-Week (except for the naked people!?).

 

I started classes this week. I was warned that the style of teaching is extremely different... and it is. For six hours today, I listened to lectures. After a summer of either travelling or having 16 browser screens open and never having to concentrate for longer than twenty minutes, two hour lectures where the students are engaged sparingly is an effort. A lot of the professors are extremely good speakers which is good, but it will still be quite an adjustment. The approach taken by profs at home is to get you to give your own ideas and to learn as a group. Here it is really wrote learning. So far, they seem to be accommodating to International students, which will be helpful. I am so grateful to have had practice writing essays and reflections in French before now.

 

I got my French placement test results back and managed to get a level C1, meaning that I am at the highest level before "bilingualism". I was actually terrified. I constantly wonder if my French is even improving because I have such awkward conversations with francophones and mispronounce words that I definitely know how to pronounce. I've gotten out of the habit of talking to myself in French in my head. I mean...

 

... anyway, I'm looking forward to starting the rest of my classes this week and to getting involved in the ClubRock dance club (it's like ballroom, only it's just the up-tempo dance styles). Until next time..

 

Bisous,

 

Tessa

La vie étudiante: École Normale Supérieure de Lyon

Je crois que j'avais commencé ce message avant la plupart des autres que j'ai affiché depuis le commence de ce blog. J'ai envie de partager mes expériences de l'université elle-même et de faire la comparaison entre ENS de Lyon et Université de Brock (mon université d'appartenance) ; de décrire mes cours et de comparer le style d'enseignement ici de ce qu'on trouve au Canada ; et d'ajouter n'importe quoi d'autre qui me vient à l'esprit à propos d'ENS de Lyon. Je vous prévois que ce message est peut-être un peu long.

D'abord, il se peut que vous vous demandez ce qui est une École Normale Supérieure.. et pourquoi il y en a plusieurs en France. Ou peut-être non, mais peu importe. Une École Normale Supérieure est à peu près l'équivalent d'une université élite, comme l'Université de Toronto qui est classée parmi les 20 universités les plus élites au monde, en France. Les étudiant-e-s ne s'incrivent pas légèrement à l'ENS comme on fait avec les universités en Ontario. La plupart des étudiant-e-s passent un examen, et seulement les étudiants hauts niveaux sont permis à devenir étudiants. Il y aussi les étudiants, qui s'appellent les normaliens qui sont payés pour y fréquenter. Autrement, les étudiant-e-s font un séjour à un autre université avant d'essayer d'y inscrire. Moi, tous que j'ai fait était de remplir une formulaire demandant de faire une échange en Rhône-Alpes, un entretien et une très petite rédaction pour constater les raisons pour lesquelles j'ai eu envie d'y aller. Comme vous pouvez imaginer, la vie étudiante ne serait pas de tout une repétition de la fête qui était ma première année de l'école.



Parvis Descartes Entrance

Il y a environ 2200 étudiant-e-s à l'ENS de Lyon ce qui veut dire qu'il y aura les classes plus petits et que les profs vont être plus disponibles à aider les étudiant-e-s (ce qui est comparable avec mes cours à Brock car mon département de français était relativement petit). Il y a deux campus : Descartes et Monod. Descartes, où j'étudie, se concentre sur les humanités, et Monod se concentre sur les sciences et les mathématiques.

La première impression du campus Descartes était le parvis Descartes. Tous ce que j'ai vu était le béton. La prochaine coup d'œil que j'ai eu était le chemin que je prendrai pour trouver mes cours chaque jour, ce qui m'a présenté avec quelques buissons et plus de béton. Je m'inquiètais un peu. Cependant, j'étais agréablement surprise par le fait que tous mes cours vont se passer dans le même bâtiment, et que ce bâtiment se trouve à une distance de 2 minutes de ma chambre de résidence.

En route vers le cafe, j'ai découvert que l'extérieur du campus est extrêmement trompeur. La plupart du campus se compose d'un jardin. J'aime bien imaginer que je me trouve à l'intérieur du Jardin secret (The Secret Garden) à cause des terraces et chemins sineux. Au centre du jardin, il y a d'espace pour les étudiant-e-s de se détendre dans les rayons du soleils où d'avoir les piques-niques. Je trouve tout cela très Français. Un jour, j'ai exploré un peu avec mes collocs, nous sommes tombé par hasard sur un paddock où se trouve les mouflons ! Il y un club à l'ENS qui s'occupe d'eux !



L'université est très près d'une banque, la poste, deux arrêts de métro, une station Velo'v et deux supermarchés. Je n'aurais jamais besoin de partir le 7e si je n'avais pas envie !

Lentement, je commence à connaître le campus Monod car le plupart des événéments de la rentrée sont passés là-bas. En comparaison avec les rentrées du Canada, il me semble que la différence est qu'ici, ils essaient vraiment de nous adapter à la vie étudiante. Il y avait des sessions pour présenter tous les membres des départements et tous les cours qui vont être offerts. Ils nous donnent de l'information pour vous aider à faire les décisions autour de votre avenir à l'ENS. Etc ! Etc ! J'ai maintenant l'impression que les sémaines d'orientation canadiennes essaient de vous dès-orienter. Il y aucun souci avec la dèsorientation ! Être dèsorienter veut dire seulement qu'on est dégagé de sa zone de confort. Enfin, les approches me semblent complètement différentes. Il y avait quand même une excursion de rafting à laquelle je n'ai pas assistée, mais j'ai entendu que c'était une version mini d'une sémaine d'orientation au Canada (sauf qu'on n'a pas typiquement autant d'hommes nus !?).

J'ai commencé mes cours cette sémaine. J'étais prévu que le style d'enseignement est complètement différent du style employé au Canada ... est c'est vrai. Pendant six heures aujourd'hui, j'ai écouté. Après avoir passé presque cinq mois en voyageant ou en jonglant 16 écrans de navigateur ouverts, et n'avant jamais eu besoin de me concentrer pendant plus de vingt minutes, les cours de deux heures où l'étudiant-e n'est pas vraiment engagé-e étaient beaucoup d'effort pour moi. Mes profs s'expriment très bien, ce qui est bien, mais je prendrai du temps à m'adapter à cette approche. Je suis habituée au cours où il faut contribuer et où l'apprentissage est un processus partagé. Ici, c'est plutôt l'apprentissage par mémoire. Il me semble que les profs sont accommodants pour les étrangers ! Je suis très reconnaissante que j'ai eu l'occasion de pratiquer l'écriture des dissertations et des comptes rendus en français avant ce semestre.

 

J'ai reçu mes résultats du teste de niveau de Français et j'ai eu le niveau C1 (le plus haut à part d'être bilingue). J'étais très inquiète ! Je me demande constamment si mon niveau de Français est en train de s'améliorer car il me semble que tous mes échanges avec les francophones sont gênés. Je prononce mal les mots que je sais bien comment prononcer ! Il y longtemps que je ne me parlais pas en français dans ma tête. Enfin, je veux dire ...

... peu importe, j'ai hâte de commencer mes autres cours cette sémaine et de m'engager dans le ClubRock (un club de danse). Merci de m'avoir lu jusqu'ici (et d'avoir ignoré les fautes de français). À la prochaine !

 

 

Bisous,

 

 

Tessa

Bingo: Eat an Éclair

Bought this beauty at the Brioche Dorée (a chain pâtisserie and boulangerie).

According to Wikipedia: "An éclair is an oblong pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with icing.
The dough [...] is typically piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. Once cool, the pastry then is filled with a coffee- or chocolate-flavoured custard (crème pâtissière), whipped cream, or chiboust cream; and iced with fondant icing."

Wikipedia also mentions that the word éclair also means flash of lightning. Maybe the bakers had a flash of inspiration when they invented these things?

My éclair had chocolate-flavoured custard and chocolate fondant. Mmmm :)

****

 

À la suggestion d'un ami, je vais commencer à écrire les messages du blog en français ainsi qu'en anglais. Excusez-moi si j'ai fait des erreurs d'orthographe ou de grammaire. J'espère que mon écriture va améliorer pendant mon séjour ici.



J'ai acheté cette belle éclaire à la Brioche Dorée (une pâtisserie et boulangerie franchisée en France).

 

Selon Wikipédia: « Un éclair (anciennement « pain à la duchesse » (avant 1850) ou « petite duchesse ») est une pâtisserie d'origine française, lyonnaise cuite, fourrée de crème au chocolat ou au café ; on en trouve aussi à la pistache et parfois à la vanille. Le dessus est glacé au fondant [...]
Aujourd'hui, le plus commun est composé de pâte à choux, enveloppant la crème pâtissière ; cependant, il existe aussi des versions faites à base de petit four, et l'intérieur peut être de la crème chiboust, de la crème chantilly, purée de marrons, ou un salpicon de fruits ».

Wikipédia mentionne aussi que le mot éclair indique aussi des éclairs des orages. Peut-être que les boulangers étaient frappé par la foudre d'inspiration quand ils ont pensé à faire les éclairs pour la première fois ?

L'éclair que j'ai choisi avait la crème pâtissière chocolat et du fondant chocolate. Miam miam !

In Da Club: A Night on the Town

For Milica's 22nd birthday we decided to go out and explore an interesting bar. Beforehand we had dinner together (tapas potluck) and I met Milana and Alexandria for the first time. I made an excellent impression: Milana, who has lived in Germany, very kindly (a little too tolerantly, if you ask me) explained that scheissenhausen does not mean bathroom and is in fact a word that I invented. It apparently sounds very close to something else that is offensive in German.

 

Readers, allow me to defend myself:

When I was 16, I participated in a trip to Italy with my high school friends. We had a layover in Germany and our airline was called Lufthansa. My friends thought it would be entertaining to rename ourselves with German last names. Mine was Luftenhausen. We thought that hausen surely meant house (apparently haus means house). And scheissen, we had right (in French, it translates to merde). These assumptions combined with my understanding of the German language (courtesy of Georgia Nicolson) led me to believe that I had just deduced the word for bathroom! What a useful thing to know when you are in Germany! Apparently, I would have been given strange looks if I had ever tried to use it. Sincere thanks to Milana for ensuring that I will never have an opportunity to do so.

We didn't leave for the bar until after midnight (very French of us) so we had to walk. It was a beautiful night and we got to walk along the Rhône, lit up by the Hôtel Dieu. The bar Milica chose was called Ayer's Rock and is a moored boat on the river.



The bar was in a moored boat on the Rhône River

Ayer's Rock - The Authentic Australian Bar 





Once inside, we started dancing. For some reason, every experience of a DJ I have had while I have been here has included the songs In Da Club, Let's Get it Started and D.A.N.C.E. by Justice. I totally appreciate it. We threw down to The Real Slim Shady and Guess Who's Back, Jump, Shout, and a bunch of other familiar songs. There was the standard house music and some stuff that's been pretty popular in the mainstream lately. The biggest differences with the bars in France (and pretty much everywhere other than North America) is that men dance. Really dance. They dance well. And they ask to dance with you. I don't think I need to tell you that I am thrilled.

Hattie and I started creating a line-dance for the house music that got too repetitive. I think it could be the next Thriller or, you know, Soulja Boy. I'm not picky. It was great fun because everyone started pulling out their favourite go-to classic cheesy moves: the lawn mower, the shopping cart, the cheese grater, the chop, the Q-tip, the sprinkler, the dribble & the slam dunk, the front stroke & the snorkle. We may have made some of those up, but we were probably some of the most interesting dancers there. We even made friends with some French people who could apparently sense that we were English and told us one of the girls they were with that night was from Manchester on holidays. They may have just outdone us in the dancing department.

We stayed until 4am (also very French of us). There was still a huge line-up to get in. We could have rounded the night out with a bike ride on the Velo'v co-op bicycles to get home and we would have had an extremely French night, but we opted to walk instead.

Ordering a Bagel

Morgane, my collocatrice, and I went to Part-Dieu shopping centre for the morning and for lunch we decided to eat at Bagelstein. There are stores here centred around bagels because they are so North American, I guess. (Tim Horton's, take note). They serve bagels like specialty sandwiches.

I wanted to order an "Isadore" bagel which had marinated bell peppers, cream cheese, lettuce and dried tomatoes on it. I don't like tomatoes (I know, it's strange) and so I made it as far as to say sans tomates without the guy taking my order misunderstanding. Unfortunately, I had to identify the type of bagel I would like this taste sensation to be served on. Who would have thought that "plain" would be just as difficult as "whole wheat" or "sesame seed"? There was no posted list of options for me to use as a starting point and I attempted with "for the bread part...." and the proceeded to point at the choice I wanted. He pointed at the one beside it to verify.

No. I want the plain!! I asked Morgane for help with the word but she didn't know what plain meant initially. Then he pointed to the muffins and the cookies in turn asking if that's what I meant.

No!! I just want the plain!!!

Finally, he pointed to the plain bagels.

If you are ever attempting to order anything plain in French, here is my bit of wisdom to pass on as a result of this experience: natur(e) is the word you are looking for.

The bagel was delicious and I had to laugh at myself a lot, but it was one of those moments where you go "this is what it's like when you don't have a good grasp on English; the day-to-day activities in your life are really stressful because you can't communicate simple things".

The worst is when the people you're attempting to communicate with don't have any patience for you. Thankfully, the gentleman behind the counter was very patient and laughed with me, and not at me. I hope.

Lyon, partie 1

Lyon is a city located in east-central France and is part of the Rhône-Alpes region.

The residents of the city are called Lyonnais. Lyon has approximately 483 thousand inhabitants, but it is the largest conurbation (like the GTA) outside of Paris with an overall estimated population of about 2.9 million people.

"Economically, Lyon is a major centre for banking as well as for chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotech industries. Lyon also hosts the international headquarters of Interpol, Euronews and International Agency for Research on Cancer. Lyon is ranked 2nd in France as an economic centre and convention centre on some measures.  Lyon was ranked 9th globally and 2nd in France for innovation in 2010. It ranked 38th globally in Mercer's 2010 liveability rankings."

My first tourist experiences in Lyon were conducted by my friend, Fanny, starting at the Place Bellecour where the tourist offices are located.

              
              

Bellecour is often used as the site of gatherings for festivals and features a statue of Louis XIV. Place Bellecour is the largest square in Europe without any obstacles (as well as the largest pedestrian square in Europe) and it serves as the focal point for Lyon.

Lyon Confluence — Aerial view © Herzog & de Meuron - Michel Desvigne Paysagiste/SPLA Lyon Confluence. Originally appeared on Lyon Confluence

From here, we set out to explore Presqu'île (2e arrondissement), the area between the Rhône and the Saône Rivers, via the rue de la République. We saw the Théâtre des Célestins (which used to be a convent) and continued until we came across the Saône:

                  

 

Our adventures led us to rue Mercière, a touristy restaurant street where we stopped for some glace (ice cream):

 

We saw the Place des Terraux with its beautiful fountain with fire-breathing horses (there is actual steam that comes from their snouts). The fountain is an allegory of the Saône River, sculpted by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, of the Statue of Liberty fame.

                  

The square is also home to the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Hôtel de Ville, the back of which can be found in Place de la Comédie where there are more spectacular fountains and l'Opéra Nouvel. It was great catching up with Fanny, and our day ended with an early dinner at a restaurant on the rue de la République.

 

A few days later, I went out exploring with my housemate, Morgane. Our main goal was to see the Musée des Beaux-Arts, but we couldn't help taking a quick detour to this bookshop:

I love books. When I go bookshopping anywhere other than Amazon, however, my favourite books to look at are children's books. I could go broke in my search to find suitable books to use in the classroom and this store had wonderful children's books, including a favourite of mine: Le Petit Prince. I soon realized why: Lyon is the home of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry... the author of The Little Prince. Saint-Exupéry is also the person for whom the Lyon airport is named because he was a celebrated pilot. Promising to come back once I've developed a budget, Morgane and I continued to the Musée.

Deciding we were not feeling extremely ambitious, we decided only to do one étage of the museum this time (it is free for students under 26!), we opted to start with the paintings.

When I was a kid, I thought that museums were these severely boring places where people just stood around looking at things. As I have developed some appreciation of art, I now realize that you make connections to the artwork while you are in a museum. My favourite style is impressionisme and my favourite artist to date is Camille Pisarro. There was only one room featuring impressionism, and only two of Pisarro's works at this particular museum, which was a bit disappointing, so I contented myself with making the most of the hilariously cheesy works from other time periods. Here are some examples:

Check out the « angels » on the bottom right.

The men in the bottom right-hand corner are wearing the latest 16th century fashions (including the fleur-de-lis) at the resurrection of Jésus.

I was just jealous of his curls.

Sorry for the poor quality photo, but get a load of the sea monster that coughed up Jonah.

It turned out to be quite the entertaining afternoon. I'll have to see if there are any more impressionist works hiding elsewhere in the city.

In conclusion, I'm thrilled with my choice of Lyon, and can't wait to see more of it during the next few months!

Sources:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fr.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_Bellecour
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_des_Terreaux

International Bingo

I mentioned that on the flight to Poland, my friends had written me some funny letters to read. One of these letters also included instructions for my trip in the form of a Bingo card. The idea was inspired by How I Met Your Mother (but if you watched this episode of the show, you know that Barney's version is a little racier):

She provided me with about half of the squares filled and left me to fill in the rest with my own travel-related aspirations. If I complete five of the tasks found in a row, I get Bingo! And although my card is pretty clean cut, there are some interesting suggestions that I won't repeat here for the sake of the children. I told some of my friends in Lyon about one (rated PG), "Make Out with an Scotsman", and they thought it would be funny if I got this one out of the way with the real-life Scotsman that we spend time with on a regular basis. And then they shared this with him. How awkward! So you can see why it is important that I don't share those.

Aside from these 7 "Unmentionables", the tasks include:

• Go dancing!
• Watch a French film without subtitles
• Take a pastry class so that I can make my Canadian friend delicious pastries
• Go wine tasting
• See some less popular sights
• Make friends with a Lyonnais (local)
• Make International friends
• Romantic Moment at a National Monument
• Eat Escargot
• Get Good Grades
• Have a Wild and Crazy Night
• Find a handsome guy for my Canadian friend
• Write my Canadian friend a lengthy letter and send it via Snail Mail
• Eat an Éclair

My goal is to address each of these with a post as I accomplish them. There are some however, that will receive more attention than others, or that will be more difficult.

For example, one of my tasks is to keep a travel blog. Although I've started, if I don't "keep" it until the end of my trip, I won't count it as accomplished!

Another is to Explore Lyon. Obviously this is something that I'd like to share with anyone reading the blog, so there will be a few posts about this one if I'm not too overwhelmed by my studies throughout the year.

Indulge Repeatedly in Amazing Food needs to happen ... repeatedly. I'll be posting about some of the restaurants I visit and some of the amazing food I indulge in. Lyon is generally known as the French capitol of gastronomy, so I couldn't possibly talk about my experiences here without some insight into the foodie culture here.

The only square remaining is the "FREE" square. I'd love to hear ideas about other possibilities I could have used for my Bingo card or suggestions for future International Bingo cards in the comments section!

French Students' Unions and the Home of Ravioli

Today, I had the pleasure of joining some fellow participants in the Ontario/Rhône-Alpes (ORA) exchange program in Grenoble. The two other participants attending ENS de Lyon and I met at the crack of dawn in our best pseudo-French outfits and caught the metro, then the tram, then ran through the Lyon-St Exupery airport just in time to catch the bus. As we drove, the mountains emerged from the fog that had been surrounding us since the morning. After an hour and a half drive, we pulled up at the Grenoble train station. This beautiful city is tucked into the folds of the Alpes mountain range.



We had a quick breakfast at a local restaurant and set off to meet the rest of our group, including our gracious hosts from one of the Grenoble universities: Jérôme, Antoine and Julia.

 

The University hosted a quick presentation about the schools in this part of the province and welcomed us. I particularly appreciated being reminded that I had made the right decision in coming on exchange and that the youth are the future because we are still willing to learn about each other. Rock on! We were treated to a lovely lunch and got to know some of the other ORA participants that we had not previously met.

We were given a scavenger hunt with extremely interesting clues... mainly because they were written in English and seemed to make use of French common sense. It always amuses me when students that profess themselves competent in French are spoken/given written materials in English. This English translation was clearly DIY and didn't make any sense. Our faithful tour guides, who were French, opted to ignore the clues and to show us the perks of the campus. This involved some beautiful scenery, a trip to the library where we were told off by the librarian, and a personalized welcome to the BDE (the French version of the Students' Union). Based on my involvement with the students' union at my home university, this was what I found most interesting about the first part of our day.

 

My experience of Canadian Students' Unions, in brief, has been the focus on events and business, an air of professionalism at all times (if possible) and a bit of exclusivity. This students union was one large room divided into « offices » with a half wall, one computer from (what appeared to be) the early 90's covered in post-it notes with positive messages and a large lounge area. One wall was covered in windows which were enormous and wide-open to the students sitting on the lawn just outside of it. There was a constant influx of people and an air of teamwork above everything else. They had an entire wall covered in posters of events that they put on throughout the year as a team.

The office

Yearly Events



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The « government » portion of the French students' union is the Syndicat des Étudiants (a syndicat is essentially a union; this term is also used to refer to a labour union) which defends student rights to the Universities and to the government (which also happens in Ontario).

 

The size and scope of this student government is much smaller than I am used to, but it seems much more connected with the students (they literally open the window to say hi to each other) and they welcomed us all with open arms enthusiastically telling us about the events coming up. It felt a little more « high school », but not so « real world serious » than my home university; it was just an entirely different atmosphere than the business-based model that I know.

 

Our next activity was a trip up the Bastille Mountain, not to be confused with French Independance Day on July 14 (Bastille Day), even though Grenoble was one of the original locations of the French Revolution.

When the temperature heated up, I was hoping the mountain might be cooler with the higher altitude... I forgot we were getting closer to the sun!

 

 

I also learned while on the mountain that Grenoble, a very wealthy area which helps contribute to the Rhône-Alpes stellar economy, was host to the 1968 Winter Olympics, is a huge skiing destination, and was a key contributor to the French Resistance during World War 2. I will be sure to discuss Lyon's contributions in a future post, but Grenoble resisted the German advance until the Armistice in 1943. While occupied by Italy, the University of Grenoble provided false documentation for young people and there were active demonstrations during the German occupation. Citizens of Grenoble had demonstrations and blew up Nazi artillery in the area, as well. Their efforts during the war earned them the title of « Compagnon de la Libération in order to recognise a heroic city at the peak of the French resistance and combat for the liberation. »

 

 

Back down the mountain again, we explored the « downtown ». A European downtown consists of pedestrian-only walkways, small streets with boutique stores and restaurants and random squares and excellent buildings seemingly coming out of nowhere. We had tea and coffee at the oldest bar in the Rhône-Alpes region, Café de la Table Ronde (Coffee of the Round Table) in Tribunal Square. Get it? Well, I thought it was funny.

 

We were joined by a few more familiar ORA faces who had just finished their Orientation Day, and after our very detailed and interesting private tour, we were all hungry. However, since it was only 6:30pm, no real restaurants were open to serve. It is impossible to find a real restaurant open before 7pm at the earliest because the French are accustomed to starting dinner around 7:30pm. We settled instead for French « fast-food » and I tried the raviole à la crème. Délicieux. I finished off by sharing pick-up lines with the hosts who thought that the used old lines in English were very funny when roughly translated into French.

 

Ravioli, Chartreuse cordial (whose secret is guarded by monks in the Alpes of this region since the 1740's; even locals don't drink this straight.... it's 70% alcohol and more commonly added to things or used for medecal purposes!), nanotechnology, noix de grenobles (walnuts) and Stendhal are all the products of this beautiful city.. and Grenoble was also famously home to Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

 

Overall, it was totally worth the medley of transportation methods used to get there, and putting up with this awful rhume (cold) I have going on. I would love to go back and visit my Ontarian friends and to get to know this gem a little better.

 

Please excuse my use of Knowledge's Home on the Interweb Wikipedia for expanding on what I learned during the day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenoble#20th_century

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Grenoble

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_Mountains