Like everyone else in France right now, there is a sense of shock at the events of this morning. While we are all safe in Rennes and far away from where the attacks took place, that does not mean that we are not affected by them. When you live in a country, you do not just experience the beautiful moments like Christmas or the holidays because unfortunately we live in a world where we also have to witness the country united in the face of a tragedy that has resulted in the loss of at least twelve of their fellow citizens, while practicing what is their right to freedom of speech. This is an event that has happened suddenly and brutally and I know I am not alone when I say that my thoughts are with the victims and their families tonight.
Tomorrow will be back to school after two weeks of vacation. However, I have no right to complain seeing as i will be off to Geneva next Sunday for a three day Model United Nations conference. My achomplishment of this vacation: reading a 400 page book in French and almost only speaking the language. I consider that to a good way to begin the year. This also brings me to a piece of advice for future SYA students. Get a library card at the Champs Libre. It's free and they have books, movies, newspapers and you can access the other libraries all over the city. It's nice to be able to read books that you enjoy and that are not for school in French and it is necessary to build langauge skills.
Every year Rennes puts on a free light show at Place de la Marie, on the town hall building. I went during the break to see it one night and was impressed. The story was a little bizarre- it followed the search for the missing letter "E" but the lights were really well done and it was all timed to music. Very pretty and festive for the holidays.
Happy New Year everyone! I cannot believe it is already 2015, which means it is the year in which I turn 18 and graduate high school. Not possible, but at this time last year it had not entered my thoughts that I would be celebrating the New Year in France in 2015. My resolutions: 1. Speak more French. 2. Stop procrastinating. So in order to follow my second resolution, my post on what it was like spending the holiday season in France.
In order to write this post, I have had to work my way out of the food induced coma I have been in after participating in at least five big family meals in the past two weeks. Essentially, what I am saying, is that my host mother can cook very well. It is a talent I have spent a lot of time observing in hopes of absorbing some of it. Christmas was a huge family celebration with around fourteen people for le réveillon Christmas Eve and lunch Christmas day. All my host siblings came home for Christmas, including my host sister who lives in Hong Kong and I couldn't believe just how much I felt like part of the family. I am getting to know everyone enough now that we can joke around with each other and the fact that I can follow what is being said at the table allows me to actively participate instead of just listening. With the two little grandchildren running around, the constant chatter in the house and the album of Christmas music playing, it was impossible to feel lonely. Instead, I felt like I was in a second family. Since my host family is not religious, they did not attend midnight mass, but just like practically every other family in France, we had a large réveillon. The réveillon is a large dinner, traditionally served after returning from midnight mass and in total took about five hours and four courses. Our menu included foie gras, farse, turkey, a cheese platter and two bouche de noël.
A properly set French table. They are giving me lessons on how to place the glasses and fold the napkins. There were jokes about bringing out rulers to measure where everything was placed.
The bouche de noel are log cakes, an old French tradition. We had two for dinner, one chocolate and the other mango passion fruit, and an ice cream one for lunch the next day. See pictures below. As the French take their pastries very seriously, these were ordered well in advance from one of the best pastieries in Rennes. And of course there was champagne and wine. Both were excellent as well. After the two children were put to bed and sound asleep, all the presents were placed under the tree, artfully arranged and then everyone lingered, talking and laughing before we went to bed around 1h30... only to bed waken by the same two little children jumping up and down in excitement at 7h30 in the morning. Everyone went downstairs together and we opened presents. I was touched that my host family got me a few gifts, and then we ate breakfast before getting dressed and setting the table for lunch. Lunch included canard à l'orange, one of my favorite dishes that my host mom makes. It takes six oranges to make, amongst other ingredients. The days after Christmas were similar to those back in New Jersey; eating leftovers, taking naps and just spending time with each other, while mentally preparing for New Year's.
One of my presents, a cup like container made of dark chocolate. I think my host family has caught on to my love of dark chocolate.
New Year's Eve was a lot less calm than Christmas. My youngest host brother got to take over the house and with his girlfriend, threw a party with seventeen people. We danced, ate, danced some more and toasted with champagne at midnight. It was amazing to celebrate the New Year in France and it was well celebrated, considering that when I went to bed at 3am, the party was still going strong. I will be posting other little things too about the holidays in Rennes, but figured that a posting covering Christmas and New Year's was appropriate. With that, I would like to wish everyone best wishes for a wonderful 2015.
Before I go down to open presents with my host family, I would like to wish everyone Joyeux Noel, Merry Christmas and Pretige Kerstdaagen. I hope everyone enjoys their time with family and friends and best wishes for a New Year. Briana
The city does a wonderful job decorating for Christmas and there are lights all over the place. With everyone out in town buying last minute Christmas gifts and the markets all over the center of town, it is very cheerful and Christmasy.
Back road behind a church
One of the many cobblestone lined streets
The Opera House- Place de la Marie
I believe these were outside of a jewelery store
Right around the corner from my house, the church Jeanne d'Arc
If you haven't noticed, there has been an absence of posts these past two weeks. This is the result of the pre-Christmas work/ everything we have to do for the holidays rush. However today the mood in the school was festive and relaxed, instead of stressed and at lunch time the Secret Santa gifts were handed out. Tonight is the school's Christmas party/ talent show and then it is officially vacation. I will be staying in Rennes, but don't mind at all, with all the lights and Christmas markets all over town. The atmosphere at night is very festive.
B.N. with her Secret Santa gift- a tin of chocolates.
We recently spent a day shadowing a French student at a French high school in Rennes, in order to see what a school day is really like here. I went to Lycée Descartes, in the south of Rennes and met my "host students" for the day, a boy and a girl, both in their last year of high school, called terminale and both in the section that had a focus in Economics and Social Sciences. My day started off with an hour of math. Naturally, this is payback considering I am not taking math this year, but even I had been, I doubt I could have followed this lesson. They were studying exponential functions and the language barrier did not help matters. It took me twenty minutes to figure out that one of the symbols the teacher kept writing was a six. I had a lot of respect for the students, who somehow seemed to understand the twisting web of symbols and numbers. Next, we had an hour free period, so after our host students gave us a tour of the school, we sat and talked for most of the period. I had so much fun getting to know them and learning that we actually had a lot in common. They spoke some English, it was better than they thought, but I was happy to hear that I had made enough progress that I could easily follow their conversation. After our free period was over, we had an hour of philosophy, in which we discussed the utility of art. I took two pages of notes and remarked that it would be cool to have a class like this back home. It made you think and reflect a lot. Philosophy was followed by lunch, always welcomed no matter what school or culture you are in, and then we had an hour of economic and social sciences. It didn't help that they were in the middle of a topic and we were entering halfway through, but like the math course, it would have been difficult to follow to begin with. They were discussing advanced social and economic structures. Again, I had a lot of respect for the students, even if some of them were dozing a little in the class. That doesn't change despite languages or cultures. The terminale students were lucky that day because with that, their classes were finished. However, with another SYA student, we sat in on an English class one grade below, premiere, and spoke to them a little about what we were doing in France and our lives back in the United States. I enjoyed my day in the French lycée and enjoyed meeting students my own age who were just as fascinated with American culture as I was with French culture. It also made me realize that as much as this school year is difficult and French is hard, it could always be a lot harder.
A student who is spending a lot of time overseas in the coming year and decided that she might as well write about it. She has a bright yellow raincoat.
Just a note, italicized words can be found in the glossary. Just in case they're confusing. I thought I might as well throw some Dutch and French words.
If anyone reading this blog has questions about SYA, or is interested in the program and would like to know more about life in Rennes, feel free to post a comment. I read all of them and will happily respond.