H O W D Y from France! This is my first post, and I don’t really know where to start. It’s Feb 3, 2015 and I got to France on Jan 1, New Year’s Day. It has been exactly one month living here!
First off, I think I was the only one in our group of five ladies that experienced a big culture shock. Definitely been a month of adjustment, but I think I have finally?gotten into the swing of French life. I’m going to make a list of the new, the same,?my personal remarks on things?that I’ve noticed in Strasbourg thus far, and then the best part… all my travels in the month of January (with pics)!
The New:
– People. They’re… not as friendly as people in Texas. Both the younger and?older generations?don’t seem to be very welcoming to foreigners, however the students at EM Strasbourg aren’t too bad. They also only speak French and if they even know English, will not speak it (see below).
– Language. Biggest regret of mine is not knowing any French going into this exchange. Obviously everyone speaks it, but I thought that since English is a rather universal language that there would be a long of English spoken…. WRONG. Working on French classes as we speak and been pointing a lot to get around.
– Classes. Oh my gosh how I love studying in France! Classes aren’t difficult; they are once a week or every other week (considering I’m used to the MWF and TTh schedule at A&M) and for blocks of 2-3 hours each with breaks. This gets them out of the way and I only have one class a day, if I even have class at all. I also don’t have Monday classes so that makes for long weekends traveling 🙂
– Food. Baguettes, quiche, pizza GALORE – that’s basically French food. The region I’m in, Alsace, prides themselves on tart flamb?e, which is a super thin pizza-ish dish with sour cream as the sauce… I’m not a fan. Food is much more expensive here and not as “fast” like I’m used to in America. Plus there are a thousand more restaurants and chains in the U.S. that I really took for granted. I miss my Taco Bell! But I LOVE my Thon Mayo baguette and all the wonderful pizza!
– Weather. My oh my is it cold here. I mean, going from Texas to northern France was bound to be different, but seeing the sun is rare but seeing your breath is not. It is COLD. Average day is low 30’s. I can’t wait for spring to have sprung! I’m missing my sun and warmth.
– Walking. One thing I noticed immediately is all the walking that is done. In College Station, I just drove my car everywhere and that was how I got around. Here I obviously have no car and no bike, so I’m trekking everywhere. Everyone seems to use the public transportation and/or walk, so you can imagine that I don’t really see many very overweight people – in fact, almost none. It’s MUCH different from the U.S. in that sense. Europeans really know how to eat less, walk more, and stay slim.
The Same:
– Student life. For the most part, people still go out on Thursday-Saturdays, drink, and the party culture is relatively similar. Only difference is they start meeting up around 11 and go out around 12:30/1 am and head home around 4/5 am (I’m used to bars closing at 2 am and then the night’s pretty much over. Europeans party alllll night). Also the culture among college students is relatively similar to the U.S., which is nice.
My personal remarks:
I really have missed my friends, family, and boyfriend.?I got strep throat at one point, and getting to a doctor and communicating with him without my mom or dad there wasn’t fun OR easy (plus running a high fever all night without someone there isn’t ideal). I am really enjoying the Aggie girls that are on the trip with me! We all share classes and travel together and we’ve even added a few additional people to our little group. I’ve gotten into a habit of making dinner most nights with Victoria and Zach in the kitchen at my dorm and I enjoy that kind of stuff; reminds me of home.
Now for the really fun stuff! My travels:
– Freiburg, Germany. The very first weekend we were in Strasbourg, a group of us decided to go to Germany for the weekend. Now we wanted to go to Munich, but we didn’t really know the train system yet and decided our cheapest option would be to go about an hour and a half into Germany to a town called Freiburg. Freiburg was great because it’s not touristy at all; it’s kind of like College Station in that it’s a college town, but right in the middle of the Black Forrest of Germany so?it was so scenic! We hiked to the top of the Schlossberg, which is at the top of one of the mountains of the black forrest and it has a big metal look-out tower. The hike was… strenuous… but the views were magnificent! We had cappuccinos and lunch?in outdoor German caf?s, went to the Freiburg cathedral (beautiful), and met some students who took us to the cool night clubs. Loved Freiburg!
– Salzburg and Vienna, Austria.?Victoria and I ventured out to Austria very last minute for a long “weekend” (6 days) when we didn’t have classes. This was my favorite trip thus far. We went to Vienna and saw the Belvedere Palace,?Sch?nbrunn Palace, went to the top of the massive cathedral, shopped in the ritziest part of Vienna, and ate the BEST food I’ve had in Europe so far – schnitzel (lightly breaded veal. Think large chicken nugget). Then we took a train over to Salzburg, famous for The Sound of Music. Salzburg was wonderful! It snowed the whole time we were there and the scenery was to die for, right around the Austrian Alps. The Hohensalzburg Fortress is the main?view of the town and is?absolutely beautiful in the winter. We took a Sound of Music tour and it took us all around the town to the sights that were used in the movie. Also took us south to Mondsee, Austria… beautiful in the winter and I cannot even imagine in the summer. Smack dab in the Alps. Went to a brewery one night and an Austrian family bought us beers and we had some interesting political conversation with some students from the area (just imagine the differences between Texas laws and Austrian laws…). The people in Austria all spoke English and were very friendly! #1 trip of January.
– London, England.?As I’m writing this blog, we got back from London yesterday. London was great! Saw many sights: saw the play “Once” on London Broadway, went to a national art museum where we saw original Van Gogh and Monet artwork, made it to Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard. We did a lot in the 3 days in London. Got on a big bus for 2 days and used it as our transportation and it took us all around the city. Big Ben was gorgeous, so was the London Eye (remind me to ride that on the next trip I take to London!), and Westminster Abbey was quite a sight. I definitely would like to revisit London in the spring/summer one time and see anything and everything I missed.
And here are some photos of Strasbourg:
So thats January in a nutshell. We have Portugal and Barcelona booked for our winter break (9 days) at the end of February, so I’m really looking forward to that! My mom arrives in Paris tomorrow, so this weekend I’ll be visiting Paris with her. As for the rest of the travels, stay tuned!
Still gig-ing ’em from 5,000 miles away,
Lauren