LOVE it here

Orientation is finally over!! This week has been so incredibly busy. All week we've had part deux of our orientation, which was on-site in Nantes. It was probably one of my craziest weeks. Everyday we had super long boring, yet informative, meetings with the staff about different things like safety, activities, academics, etc. Then we'd also have some sort of tour around Nantes and "intensive grammar training." The grammar training was basically just three classes that we had all week: conversation, French language, and grammar exercises. It was a good week other than being super busy. The weather was great, and in between classes and meetings we had breaks so we got to go explore the area around IES more and found all the cool restaurants and I found a favorite gelato stand already (it's soooo amazing).

The bad thing about having such a busy week was that I was too tired to go out after those long days. Friday night was my first night out here and it was so much fun! Probably the best first night out in Nantes I could have asked for. It began with eating incredible galettes and crepes at this awesome creperie. Galettes are basically crepes but have different things inside like ham and cheese, and crepes are a dessert. I wish I had a personal crepe maker who would make me crepes for no charge whenever I asked. That'd be pretty sweet. After dinner we went to the Place Royal which has this gorgeous fountain and it's become a meeting place for pretty much all IES students. Whenever we meet up to go out, it's always at the fountain since we live scattered all over Nantes. Technically it's illegal in Nantes to drink in the streets, but we got paper cups and drank wine and beer out of them at the fountain, pretending it was "Coca". Then after our form of pregaming, we went to the bars, which I must say are very numerous in Nantes. They're also very fun. For some reason, there are a lot of Irish pubs here too. I also have a favorite beer now! It's surprising since I never really liked beer, but there is this beer called Leffe that I am kind of obsessed with. Also, I really like this cider called Strongbow. I could drink that all the time. At the bars we ran into tons of people from IES and all hung out outside at one of the bars, where one of my friends was actually offered a job under the table. We hung out with a Canadian guy too because he was super excited to find people who spoke English and he didn't know anyone in Nantes yet. His name was Harley. lol

I'm going to completely change the topic here and talk about the French people. There is definitely a stereotype in America that the French are really rude and hate Americans. I've only been here for a couple weeks, but so far I have seen this to be completely false. Every person I have talked to has been nice and polite, even when they figure out I'm American. It might be different in Paris or other cities, but I've found the people here to be quite the opposite of that stereotype. I think one reason Americans think this is because the French have certain customs that are very different from those in America. For example, a French person will only say "bonjour" the first time he sees someone. If he sees that person again that day, he will not say anything. It's so weird for us who say "hi" whenever we see someone we know, even if we've already seen that person four times that day. Another thing is it's custom when going into a store or meeting someone to say "Bonjour Monsieur" or "Bonjour Madame." In France it's rude if you don't, so I could see how a French person might be rude to you if they thought you were being rude. I also think the French appreciate when we speak the language. It's not like Paris where everyone speaks English, so even if your French is not very good, they will be happy that you tried. Another thing that makes me think French people are misunderstood is that whenever someone finds out I am American, they think it's interesting and don't laugh or give me a weird look and are very patient. One thing I find interesting is they are all super interested in the upcoming American presidential election. They know just as much about it as most Americans I know and they really enjoy discussing it with us.

I feel like my French is starting to improve!! It's getting a lot easier to understand everyone and I can hold myself in a conversation better now. Sometimes it's still difficult though. They tend to speak very quickly and use a lot of slang. Usually if I'm talking to someone they'll realize I'm foreign and slow it down a bit to make it easier for me to understand, but there are the occasional people who I don't understand at all. Last night I was at a bar and this guy started talking to me. The conversation began alright, but he started speaking very quickly and talking about basketball (I think) and using all these French terms I didn't know. I don't think he really understood me either so it was a very interesting conversation. I'm pretty sure he was talking about his job and how he plays basketball or does something involving basketball and was asking me if I like it or something along those lines and I responded "yes, I am going to teach French in the U.S." I really had no idea what he was saying pretty much the entire time. He did tell me a couple times that my French was really good! But that might just have been because he was drunk...