Here we are playing catch-up again; it looks like I have about a week or two’s worth of news to share with you.
Monday, January 23, was another normal day at school. Tuesday I had my weekly Rotary dinner and my counselor passed off the ski clothes which his daughter-in-law gave him to lend to me. This is the same daughter-in-law who I stayed with in Paris and her thinking of giving him the ski clothes I will need for an upcoming school trip to the Alps was beyond sweet.
On Wednesday nothing much interesting happened except that I finally managed to play a decent game of volleyball. Five months in and the effort appears to be paying off- I was quite proud of my not-appalling performance.
Thursday was where my week started getting interesting. I missed school for the day to shadow my host sister at her high school. Her high school if far larger than my own, with several thousand students and an immense Gothic Chapel dominating the main quad. It used to be an abbey before it became a girl’s boarding school and then a modern high school, and when we arrived the sun was rising behind the chapel. It was an impressive image to start the school day off with. I sat through her philosophy class, gave a presentation and spoke in English during the English class, had lunch with my host sister and her friends and then followed them to one of the school’s lab rooms. My host sister is specializing in biochemistry (all French high school students choose a specialization in junior year), and so we had two hours in the lab after lunch. It reminded me strongly of the university labs which my dad worked in for so long, especially since all students were required to wear lab coats, including myself. I had trouble following the technical talk, but found the multi-colored strains of E. coli which they had produced to be very impressive. After a break, we had another two hours of biochemistry theory in which I mostly spent literally trying not to nod off.
On Friday I was excited for the weekend to start because that night we picked up a friend of my from the train station. An American friend from back home who is studying in Scotland, she spent part of her January vacation in Paris with another friend of hers and then came down to Bourges for the weekend. When we picked her up from the train station we had about an hour of panic since she had missed the train she was planning to take. With a cell phone that turned out not to work in France, she had no way to tell us that she would be coming on the next train from Paris. Luckily, we were there, hoping that we would turn up so when she can through the doors the hug I gave her was probably as much relief as it was just being excited to see her.
After dinner it was late enough that we went right to bed- though not right to sleep, considering that it had been a goof five months since we’d seen each other, we ended up talking for a little bit longer than we meant to before turning the lights out.
Saturday morning we were up fairly early for school. I made my friend a classic French breakfast, we juggled my host family’s single bathroom with shower times (as usual), and then were out the door. I treated her to my favorite new way to get to school- walking. It’s a long walk, but a nice one and you even get to see some horses in pastures right in the middle of town. It’s really cool the way that Bourges has preserved green space in the way that they have.
After getting to meet my friends (at least those who also have class Saturday morning), some of whom attempted to speak English, though not all, we sat through the first hour of class. It think that it was interesting for my friend to experience a French high school class, but the second hour of lecture in a language that she doesn’t understand seemed a little bit unnecessary. So during break after the first half of class, we walked out to where my host mom was waiting to take my friend to the Saturday open-air market. I love this market, even though I’m usually in school while it takes place, and so they got to do the grocery shopping from all the stand selling everything from fresh fruit to more varieties of cheese than an American can comprehend.
We came home for lunch, in which the two Americans were introduced to the specialty of horse sausage, which is actually very good. After lunch, as my host family was all busy for the afternoon, we went into town with my Icelandic friend was also free for the day (and speaks English). Our plan for the afternoon was to accomplish two main goals: explore the sights or Bourges and taste all the pastries possible. We managed to do a good job of this and by the time we caught the bus home, the three of us had seen the Cathedral, the medieval houses with modern shops inside, the Palace belonging to a prominent medieval citizen, and several Renaissance-era mansions. We had tasted: a gallete à frangipane, a pain au chocolat, a gauffre à la confiture, some chouquettes and finished with tea and coffee inside a café when it started to drizzle at the end of our tour. It was also a lot of fun to finally introduce two friends who I knew would also get along great.
That evening we were hardly hungry for dinner, but we still managed to eat it, including the normal cheese course at the end, which is a French specialty not to be missed. I noticed during this time, that it has actually become more natural for me to speak in French than to respond in English. There were multiple instances when I was playing translator between my host family and my friend that when she regarded me in bewilderment I realized that I had spoken to her in French without even realizing it. That evening, my host parents were at a concert, so the two of us watched the movie ‘Billy Elliot’ with my host sister. It is an excellent movie. I was glad that my host family and my friend got along so well. I’m so lucky to have fallen into the hands of people who are so open and kind enough to open their doors like that. Luckily they enjoyed hosting my friend just as much as I enjoyed seeing her and gamely attempted to speak in English whenever possible!
Sunday we went to a winemaking region not too far away from Bourges called Sancerre. Though it was cold and a lot of the tourist-season shops were closed it was still a beautiful town and area. On the way home we stopped in a village which specializes in artisanal pottery and saw some beautiful works of porcelain art.
Once home, we enjoyed another French meal, delicious as usual, and a subtitled episodes of the TV show Vampire Diaries, which my host sister is a fan of. I just found out that my friend, now back home in Scotland is equally hooked on the show.
Monday morning we were up early to take her to the train station. It was great to see someone from back home- I was worried that her visit would make me homesick, but if anything it made me realized that my life here and my life back in the US are not mutually exclusive. I also realized in playing the tour guide just how much I’ve learned and grown since I’ve gotten here.
This past Monday was bitingly cold the entire day- and that night when my host mom came through the door with her hat tight over her ears and her cheeks bright and rosy she announced that it was snowing! Fat flakes were falling outside the window through the light of the streetlamp, and some of them were even sticking. I’ve been waiting for it to snow since before Christmas, and the dusting was got on Monday was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in Bourges since I’ve been here.
Tuesday morning when I walked (briskly!) to school, the neighborhood was glittering with the sunlight on the snow. Though it had melted by the end of the day, it was -5°C (23°F) today with snow possibly predicted in the next couple of days.
My schedule this week has been extremely nice as the rest of my class is taking the bac blanc this week- a practice test for their exams at the end of the year. Since I didn’t have to take only of the tests, I’ve had hours off of school, and on Wednesday I didn’t have to go to school at all. Instead I stayed home and churned out a project which I probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to finish otherwise. I have a lot of cool things planned in the months to come! It’s been a while since I spent a decent amount of time doing schoolwork; a really strange feeling for me, but I can’t say that I haven’t been enjoying it.
Today I didn’t have to go to school until 2:00, making a nice end to a relaxing week perfect for drinking large mugs of tea and coffee!
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