Today was an excellent day.

After my art class in the morning, Lily and I bought a pizza for lunch near my house, but decided it would be best to walk all the way back to the university before eating it.. a 20 minute walk. So that was interesting. After Bucknell's réunion hebdomadaire in the afternoon, I went to a bank to try to get them to put money on my student card, so I can buy lunch at the Polytech. I was very impressed with the conversation I had with the lady at the bank, even though she ended up telling me that it's impossible to do with my American credit card. (All French credit cards have RFID tags)

Then, this evening I went to a juggling club/course through the university. It ended up being me and five French girls. (Kind of funny - where I went Thursday, it was all guys!) Though of the five, three had never juggled before, and only one had ever juggled les masseus (clubs). So she and I juggled together, and I ended up passing clubs with her better than I ever have before. C'était super!

I think it's about time I talk about some cultural differences. A big one is la bise. To say hello to someone (sometimes even if you've never met!) it's polite to kiss them on the cheek instead of shaking hands. The only exception is that two men will often just shake hands. No hugs in France, though. Another thing I've noticed is that it's polite to say bonjour to the cashier when you enter a store and au revoir when you leave, even if you don't buy anything.

Another thing is that A TON of French people smoke, much more than in the US.

On the subject of food, though... The French are big on courses. You never have multiple dishes at the same time. Sometimes, though, we will have the salad out at the same time as another dish, and they'll ask me if I'd like salad with the main course, as if that's an exception to the norm. I never know how many courses are coming, either - it seems to vary from meal to meal. The other day, I mistook the main course for salad, and wanting to save room for the nonexistent main course, didn't eat very much... oops! When it comes to dessert, the typical French gâteau (cake) has only one layer, and no frosting, though it is often made with some kind of fruit. Les tartes (pies) are also different here in that they are open-faced (kind of like a pizza with fruit, but very good). My host father came home from hunting the other night with a HUGE boar's leg. So I'll be able to tell you how that tastes.

Bonne nuit!

Bonjour à tous!

Another week has gone by here in Tours... our first week of classes! Well some classes. My engineering classes still have yet to start. One of the French classes that I've started, though, is... drumroll... an art class! Imagine me taking an art class! Should be interesting.

As for those other classes, it's been interesting, since for some reason the people at the Polytech told me I should take the wrong classes. After poking around on my own, I think I've found some suitable ones. For one of them, though, I can't seem to find it on the course schedule, though one of the professors told me it will be offered. This is France - maybe they haven't finished the schedule yet!

I went to a juggling club on Thursday - it was fun.

This weekend we visited our second château, Amboise. The weather was pretty good, though a little cold in the morning. Amboise is on the Loire, and pretty impressive from a distance:

My favorite part about Amboise is its circular towers. Inside, instead of a spiral staircase, there's a spiral ramp so the knights could ride their horses up. For your viewing pleasure, here's a great view of the Loire from the top of one of Amboise's towers. (ignore the half-people in the background)


Amboise is also home to the remains of Leonardo da Vinci. (en français: Léonard de Vinci) We also got to visit the location where da Vinci spent his last three years, and see models of lots of his inventions.

I've started listening to French radio when I get the chance - which is pretty often, since the walk to class is about 20 minutes, as is the bus ride to the Polytech. Amusingly, as I mentioned before, about 50% of the songs on the radio are in English, but when those come on, I just change the station. (Yes, there is no escape from "Hey there Delilah" or James Blunt...)

This morning, I took the bus to the Polytech to see if they could find something for me to do before my classes start. (And I also learned that if you forget to push the magical I-want-to-get-off button before your stop, the bus will not stop) In any case, it looks like I will be working on a little project before the engineering classes start. It has to do with solar panels, and since I've never done anything like that before, I'm going to have to do some research...

I had lunch with some French students (engineers) in the cafeteria, which reminded me very much of the Caf at Bucknell... at last something familiar!

This weekend, I visited le Musée des Beaux Arts, the fine art museum of Tours. I've figured out how to make panoramas (you need quicktime to see it, click+drag to look around), so here's the cool garden outside of the museum:


The museum had, well, lots of art... Here's a painting of what Loches (the château we saw) used to look like. You can even see Agès Sorel and Jeanne d'Arc in there:



Looking out the museum window, I saw a group of jugglers in the street. They were, of course, way more interesting than the art inside... what can I say? we had been there for a little while. I'll put up more pictures at some point.

Today I learned that French nasal sounds are hard. It can be really hard for us English-speakers to distinguish between sounds that don't exist in our own language. This week I'm going to a course on phonétique (think microphones and headphones). I think it's pretty good, since it's really hard to think about pronunciation in every day situations when you're just trying to get your message across.

I did go on a hunt this past Sunday - la chasse à courre, which is a hunt with lots of dogs - no guns. We were hunting fox. Hunting seems like mostly a "man thing", though there were some women in there as well. It was on foot, so I had the pleasure of running/walking the whole day in boots.



To communicate, you play fanfares on "un trompe," (cellphones = interdit!) a French instrument similar to a trumpet without valves, which my host brother and father both play. My host brother invited me to one of his practices tonight (he's on the back right):

It's been almost a week here, and I must say I have only one disappointment: French media, or lack thereof. The other day, I asked my host brother to show me some French music, and to be sure, there are French artists, but the thing that really surprised me was the amount of American or English music that the French listen to. It's everywhere... when you go shopping in un magasin or eat in un restaurant, there's very, very often music with English lyrics playing in the background. This goes for TV too - lots of popular series are American ones that are dubbed. I went to a bookstore the other day to buy a French novel to (attempt to) read, and came across many, many translations of books by American authors. (Tom Clancy and the like) So all that's been a little surprising.

On a completely different subject, I realize that I've forgotten to mention a very important member of the family. Ascote is a very friendly dog, though unfortunately she likes to make a lot of noise if I come home late at night.


The food here is really good. My host mother is an excellent cook. It seems as though the ability to effortlessly prepare fine cuisine is something the runs in the veins of the French. Eating customs are, of course, slightly different here. I always forget not to put my hands under the table! I'm also beginning to enjoy the cheese course we always have at dinner.

Today was our first excursion - we went to Loches (pronounced lowsh), a château that is pretty close by, after eating at a crêperie. It was really nice to finally have some nice weather. It was pretty cool to see the room in which Joan of Arc made her proposition to Charles VII. Lots of pictures here.

I'm pretty sure I'm going hunting with the family tomorrow.

I've been in France for four days now, and there is already much to tell. Friday/Saturday was a blur, especially since I don't sleep very well on planes or buses. We arrived in Tours a couple hours later than expected because the airline lost a number of bags. (none of mine though...) Once we arrived, I was met by my host mother, who drove me to their house to meet the rest of the family.

The family is very nice, and understanding if I don't always understand. I have two host brothers- Augustin (19) and Paul (13). I also met their older sister Camille who is my age, but she spends most of her time in Paris, where she goes to university. Augustin's twin sister Alix is in the US right now - I'll get to meet her when she returns in February.

This is my room (actually Alix's) on the third floor:

Tours is a great place to live, since you can pretty much walk anywhere, and it's loaded with little shops and restaurants. It is pretty much a city, despite lots of little one-way streets. I can already see my French improving, since I speak it all the time now (even with the other students!) though it has a ways to go. I've spent the last couple days constantly asking my host family for words (qu'est qui est le mot pour.... que veut dire...) and consulting my handy French-English dictionary. I watched a dubbed episode of Without a Trace (en français: "FBI: portés disparus") yesterday and understood rather well. I only have one class at the moment - it's to prepare me for the Delf (a French language exam), and reminds me very much of my high school French classes (grammar, vocabulary...)

The Bucknell office (and my French class) is right next to the Loire river. The bridge in the background is le Pont Wilson:

Today was an interesting adventure in itself. This afternoon, I took the bus by myself to meet with a director at the Polytech (school for engineers). It was... interesting... since I had hardly any directions, only the name of the stop to get off at and his name and department. After asking many, many students, I finally found the right building and somehow found him in it. He referred me to a very nice lady who teaches english there. (since everyone knows english in engineering) She gave me a tour of the classrooms and labs, and introduced me to some professors. She even interrupted a couple classes to introduce me to the French students majoring in EE! Apparently though, my courses at the Polytech start February 4. (Slightly frustrating since the course schedule is still not definite, and there's no way of knowing if they'll conflict with my French classes, as they probably will) In France, nothing is planned in advance at the university! Now, hopefully it will be possible to get course descriptions and get these courses approved by Bucknell (which STILL hasn't happened yet).

These first couple days have been a lot, but I am thoroughly enjoying it so far...

If you'd like to send me mail, here's the address:

[REMOVED]

À bientôt!