Day 6 &7: A Stroll Around Town

8-28-13

Salut!

So for the past couple days I've gotten to walk around the city of Angers. I was very much looking forward to this because I had seen loads of photos of the city on Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, etc. when I researched the city, and finally got to see it for myself!
I'm just gonna let the pictures speak for themselves:
The cathedral and castle of Angers (sorry the photos are sideways):
I apologize for the formatting of this post...the photos don't come out how I want them to. But I will post them on Facebook, as well! They will turn out better there.

Day 2/3

It's really late and I don't feel like typing a lot so I'm going to try and condense this into a short story about my day!

Basically I woke up at 2:00, then at 6:00, and then 11:30....I really can't explain that.

I made some coffee and checked my Facebook and e-mail and relaxed for a while. At 3:00 I had one more cup of coffee before we left to go to my family's house on the countryside. The house was absolutely beautiful. It is a perfect example of what French architecture looks like; with stone walls and stone tile floors. They needed to clean it up because they were renting it to some people on vacation. I didn't mind helping at all because it meant that I got to see the house and the area. The house is meant to fit around 15 people. It was 3 stories and was on a river. There was a vineyard across the river and it was absolutely beautiful.
We got home and their cousins were there for dinner. They were SO funny and I really enjoyed the time that I spent with them.
My host family had a pool and one of the cousins was swimming in it. I also have ducks at my house, so my host sisters and brother circled one of the ducks while the other cousin picked it up. Then my dad took photos and we were all laughing at the duck, Next thing I know, the duck was being taken to the pool and started swimming with the other cousin! The other cousins proceeded to swim like the duck and follow him around in the pool. It was a really fun time with me family. :)
That night for dinner, we had some cuts of meat; one was like bruchetto and the other two I couldn't identify. I only tried two because one had too much fat on it and the other one was so fatty I could feel it on the roof of my mouth. It was strange but delicious! We also had blood sausage for dinner, which is VERY French and very delicious.

Today (Sunday), we went to a party. I asked my host sister what the purpose of the party was, and she explained that it was just a gathering of friends that they do every year. There were a lot of people and they were all really friendly and funny. There were three other exchange students there who I met on the first day of arrival and rode the bus with; three girls, one from India, one from Brasil, and one from Canada. We all spoke in English because none of us know enough French to have long conversations and explain how we've been feeling.
It was a really nice party. The guys showed us how to do archery and one boy had something that I can't remember the word for...It's like tightrope walking but with a long, flat rope-like thing. All the girls and I tried it. It was really easy for me! I also met a girl who is the host sister of my Brasilian friend. Her name is Ana and she's 13. We talked A LOT. She's very nice and it was easy to speak French with her. Spending time with her made me wish that I had a younger host sister!

That's all for now. I will probably post again tomorrow.

Bonne nuit!
~Effy

My First Day in France

Bonjour!

So as I'm writing this, it is currently my SECOND day in France, but yesterday was rather busy.
In a nutshell, I didn't even leave the airport until 3:00, had a four hour drive to Angers (with two stop before we got there), arrived at my house, ate dinner, and went to bed. Not to mention that I can only use my laptop downstairs and I didn't want to retrieve it at the time.

To elaborate, I'll start with my flight. I had two and a half hours from Portland to Minnesota, where I arrived at 6:00 and had less than an hour to get to my gate before we boarded. Normally that would have been fine ,because we were so excited to get to France, but the Minneapolis airport is really nice. More like a shopping mall, really. So we relaxed, charged our phone, and boarded a MASSIVE plane. Then, we had about 8-9 hour to Paris. The plane was the biggest I've ever seen, but the legroom I had in my seat was probably some of the smallest I've ever had. Sleeping wasn't terribly comfortable but I took a pill after I ate my dinner and knocked out, so I wasn't really too concerned with sleeping.

After that, Grace, Maisyn, Jacob and I all managed to find our way through the airport all the way through passport check and baggage with no problem. We waited for a little and a handful of Rotary kids came piling through, so we joined them and exited the airport together. There, we found Rotarians and host families waiting for the students, which was a sign of relief. My host family wasn't there, but we found who we needed to.
Then, we waited. For a very long time.
After a couple hours of waiting for the rest of the exchange students to arrive, we got on a bus and were told that we would have a four hour drive, and we would be making three stops: first in Sablé, then in Angers, and last in Nantes. I said goodbye to Maisyn on the first stop and about 20 minutes later it was time for me to say goodbye to Grace and my two other Brazilian friends that I made.

I FINALLY met my host family! My sister Lou-An, brother I-Yan, and father Luc were there to help me with my bags. We had a quick drive home to their house, which is very different compared to mine at home. 

The houses on this street are set up like apartments, but when you go inside of them, the bedrooms and living rooms are set up almost like a maze. They also have a really nice backyard with tropical-like plants and a pool. For pets, they have four ducks, three chickens, and a very friendly cat.
Upon my arrival to the house, I gave them the gifts I had brought from Portland; some homemade jam from my mum, a gift box of my favourite local soaps, a postcard with Multnomah Falls on it, and an Oregon sticker. Then I showed them my photo book that I put together of my home and life.
For dinner, we had some grilled sausages (which were delicious), steamed potatoes (which apparently were a treat), salad with my favourite vinaigrette, and, of course, baguette. The bread here is very different from even the most "authentic" French bread at home. The texture is just a little better and there's a very slightly different taste that I cannot describe. The cheese was brought out last. I can't remember what kind there was, except for the Laughing Cow cheese which I recognised. If the cheese you eat is not strong, they eat it with butter. There was one mild one and one very strong one (I liked this one the best). Then I had a delicious and exceptionally sweet pear for dessert. We then sat and talked for a very long time. I explained things like organic food and why I eat my pears like I eat my apples. It was very fun to sit and talk French with my family. My mother and brother don't know very much English at all, which is good in my opinion! My host dad reminds me of my real dad. He is very fun to talk to. And if I can't explain or understand things in French, we do it in English very briefly, then right back to French. My mum corrects me on my grammar in a very helpful way. She explained a couple of my mistakes and I told her than I understood.

I checked my e-mail and sent a few text messages and then went to bed. I managed to adjust to the time zone really well because I was very tiered at around 8:00.
It is now 12:18 and I am sipping coffee and lounging in the living room. We're going to the countryside at around 3:00 today, so I will write about that later.

That's all for now.

À bientôt!

~Effy

6 Year Vegetarian in Europe

Hello, friends!

For those of you know have known me personally for a long time, you probably know about my dietary restrictions. For those of you who don't know, I was previously a strict vegetarian for 6 years.

Frequently asked questions:
"Oh, did you give up?" "Did you want meat so bad that you stopped?" "Did you give in?"


To answer all of these rather annoying questions, no. I didn't "give up". Here's my philosophy:
As a person who is obsessed with food, cooking, and travel as a personality trait, I would be a fool not to experience French and European cuisine to the fullest extend. In other words, a foodie isn't going to give up the oppertuinty to eat real French food.

From my vegetarian moral point of view, I choose not to eat meat because of animal treatment and abuse that goes on upon slaughter. That may be a major issue in America, but in Europe there isn't as much animal cruelty. In fact, France is working on a law in which restaurants must let customers know where the meat, poultry, fish, etc. is coming from by printing it on the menu. Luckily, the French are just as obsessed with food as I am so laws like this make me feel better about eating their meat.
Yes, I am still a little bothered by what I'm eating, but at the very least, it's much more humane and people care a lot more about what they're eating.

My other reason is that I thought it would be inconvenient for my host families to accommodate for me. I don't believe vegetarians are as popular in Europe as they are in America and I didn't want to ask them to go out of their way. Not to mention going to restaurants would be a major bother. Being used to Portland's many vegetarian friendly places, I can't expect the French to be the same. It's the easiest solution. 

In my opinion, it's best case scenario for someone who's making the decision to quit vegetarianism for exchange or any short period of time. I will be continuing my diet when I return to the states.

The purpose of this post is to feed the curiosity of my friends/family and to maybe help people who are going through the same thing. I hope the people reading this found it helpful or interesting.

That's all for now.
~Effy

P.S. 6 days until departure.

8 More Days.

Salut!

Just thought I'd do an update on my exchange as I count down my last few days in the states.

As far as saying my goodbyes, I went on a camping trip with Zac and the rest of the Sims family to Oregon Star Party, which was super rad. I love astronomy and it was really nice to spend some time with his family.

I've been trying to spend a lot of time with my friends lately. I think I took for granted how little time I had left and realised that I had a lot of people to say goodbye to and a lot of things I still needed to take care of!

For instance, With my exchange preparations, this week has been very productive. I took care of getting a cell phone, a debit card, and prescriptions. Luckily, I'll be able to get an iPhone 5 to use over there AND I'll be able to do mobile banking with it. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone!
I also saw my doctor and got all of my shots and immunizations sorted. You know, the boring (but importnat) stuff.

For now, all I have left to do is finish my scrapbook and get some electric outlet adapters! My ticket and visa and flight are all booked and taken care of. I'm SO close to being able to start my exchange, I can practically taste it.

I have a massive feeling of accomplishment with all of this going on. I really feel like all of my hard work is finally about to pay off. With all of the weird dreams, thoughts, and rumors about France going around in my head, I will not have peace until I arrive. Hopefully I'll stay somewhat sane before I leave.

That's all for now.
A bientot!

~Effy