Warning: this post is really boring if you don't ski/ride

Bonjour!

It seems like right after I arrived in France, (ok, 3 weeks), I got hit with a vacation! Not that I’m complaining of course. Work and school schedules are much more regulated and socialized by the state, and from what I understand, France is divided into 5 different sections to rotate winter vacation, so that the entire country doesn’t go on vacation at once and shut down (like it does in August). It’s not like in the states where parents tend to try to take their vacation time around their children’s school breaks which tend to be pretty uniform within a state/region. Everyone in my “area” was on vacation last week. Winter vacation in France is pretty synonymous with skiing, so of course I tagged along with my host family when they headed to the Alps!
France is pretty ski crazy. The first weekend of vacation when we were packing up to leave, I briefly turned on the news and saw a clip of the Paris airport – which was filled with families in snowsuits headed to the Alps. All the commercials right now center on skiing, and of course, the Ski World Championships are being held in France at the moment. Despite this ethos, my host mom told me that “only” 10% of the French population actually goes on ski vacations every winter. While that seems like a small percentage, I think its actually much higher than it is in the States. I’m pretty biased towards (and spoiled in my access to) winter sports, due to growing up in Maine, but I don’t skiing is as prevalent throughout the states. And even amongst the ski bums I do know, I don’t know that many who take week long vacations every year. In that regard, I think 10% of the population spending a week at the mountain every winter pretty impressive.
So lets talk skiing! We spent the week at Karellis, which is this really sweet little resort run not-for-profit. The mountain stays open till 5 everyday, which is a very good thing, because perfect snow and epic conditions do not stop the French from taking ridiculously long lunch breaks. I averaged about an hour for lunch, and that was significantly less time than my host
family. This is crazy to me, as my friends at home get annoyed if I take 20 minutes for lunch! I was reminded however, that unlike my American friends who drive two hours to the mountain every weekend and therefore want to make sure they rage hard to get their day’s worth, the French are here for the week, and this is their vacation. My host mom even remarked to me that she thought I was skiing too much!
The mountain itself is definitely a skier’s mountain. It has lots of narrow flat windy trails that help you get around the different peaks, which are not fun on a snowboard. At first I was really surprised by how few snowboarders there are here, until my French ski instructor reminded me that snowboarding is an American invention, and the novelty of it has yet to really take hold here (at least, its certainly not as prevalent here as it is in the states).
So, if you can’t beat them, join them! I ended up spending the majority of the week on skis, which I hadn’t been on in over 14 years. It was pretty epic, and by the end of my first lesson, I was skiing red trails (the equivalent of a hard blue/easy black at home), and by midweek I was skiing off trail and doing moguls! I don’t remember learning to ski as a kid, because I quit by the time I was 7, but I can compare relearning to ski with learning to snowboard, and it seems like lessons here have a much stronger emphasis on learning to play around on the mountain and be adventurous. Skiing through trees for the first time in my life was exhilarating!
Ok, biggest differences between the French Alps and New England Mountains: At home, trails are rated green circle, blue square, black diamond, double black diamond. Here, trails are green, blue, red, black. There’s also WAY more off trail terrain here, probably due to the fact that there is so much above tree line skiing here, and there is practically none on the East coast. My only real issue with skiing in France? The lift lines. Or, the lack there of. Granted, there is much less of a crowd here, and perhaps the lack of the order can be attributed to a lack of a need for one, but still. At home, there are roped off lines for the lift, and usually an attendant directing everyone when they can go. Here there is a mass of people, and the only way to get to the front of it is to purposely cut off other people who look (to me anyway) like they are in line. I was really shocked the first morning when I saw my host dad squeeze right into the middle of the “line”, but I quickly realized that I would never get anywhere if I didn’t do the same. None the less, I don’t like being aggressive in lift lines, and it’s not something that I ever got used to.
Oh and you have to wear sunscreen on the mountain here. I’m not sure if it’s the altitude or just that its warmer, but without sunscreen you will get burned! Even with it, I ended up with a pretty hilarious goggle tan. The ski instructor’s tans are crazy; they almost look a different ethnicity when they take off their goggles!
All in all it was a pretty great week, and with no other American's around to cheat and speak English with, it was pretty good for my French as well. Let's hope that lasts!

This is the view from the top of my favorite chairlift:



And this is Domatille sitting on the Thule rack to help close it. We had a lot of stuff.

Les aventures

Hey Everyone!

So I have officially been in classes for a week now. Well, kind of. The program from my university is a bit bizarre, because we are enrolled in the Department ofFrench as a Foreign Language(DeFLE) in the "Nancy 2 University", but we are not REALLY a part of that program, and we have a lot of other classes we are required to take as well. DeFLE has 9 levels, and I placed into group 8, which is the second highest. yes! That basically means that by the end of the semester, assuming I pass a big exam, I'll theoretically be qualified to enroll in "real" French university classes. In the meantime, however, I am also supposed to be auditing classes at "the fac" (aka real university classes).
This is where the "kind of going to school" part comes in; because the classes that we're auditing started a good 3 weeks ago, so we're kind of starting in the middle of everything. And oh yeah, everyone's still striking.
I mentioned in my last email how I was so taken aback by the big strike that happened all across France two weeks ago. From what I understand, most of France has gone back to normal", except the universities (well, to be fair, apparently striking is pretty normal here). A lot of teachers are still striking. But, this being France, not everyone is required to strike. Professors basically can just say that they are on strike when they want. And they do not have to warn anyone ahead of time, so often you will go to a class and wait around for 15 or so minutes before finally deciding that a teacher isn't going to show up. This is not fun at 8 in the morning.

Ok, enough with school. On to more interesting things! Last Sunday, I rode a bike for the first time in nearly 2 years! This was completely NOT by choice, but was a nice little contingency that my host dad threw at me, as he insisted upon riding bikes to the pool go to swimming. Technically, I'm not even supposed to be riding a bike in France. True story! Our school "strongly discourages" it because its so dangerous to ride on the same roads as French drivers (who are crazy by the way). There's even a waiver we're supposed to sign to ride bikes, but of course I hadn't signed it as I had no intention of going near one, that is until Jean-Marie (host dad) threw Nicole's (host-mom's) bike at me on Sunday morning. Except for the part where no-one in France wears helmets (what!?), it was actually pretty fun. The bike was nothing like the one's I've grown up on (ie my mother's super hardcore bikes), but is totally a city bike; it even had a little basket in front for my swim bag! I felt like Amelie riding around, and I couldn't stop grinning from the novelty of it.
And then we finally got to the pool! I figured out the secret of where the French go on Sundays! They go to the pool! (EVERYTHING in France is closed on Sundays). That was quite an experience in itself, because the whole thing was much more organized than any American pool I've ever been to. First of all, the entrance to the locker room has turnstiles (like a subway), that one must use a pass to get through. Then inside the (COED) locker room, there is one place to take off your shoes, and another to go change your clothes. There are specific little hangers you have to use for your clothes, and they go in ockers, WHICH ACTUALLY HAVE LOCKS. And the keys for the locks are on waterproof key chains which everyone wears around their wrists in the water. And EVERYONE is required to wear a swim cap, including balding old men. Not to mention all the men wear speedos, something that not even the guys on my swim team in high school did.

Il commence

As some of you may have heard, last Thursday the entire country went on strike. My host dad had briefly warned me about this the night before, but I just assumed it would be like strikes were in Italy; that is to say, disorganized, short, no protests, and no one ever knew exactly why (or when) they were striking. But of course, France is not Italy. I was wandering back towards town when I noticed a huge crowd gathering around Place Stanislas, which is the big square in the middle of town. I later heard that there were over 30,000 people protesting in Nancy, and over 300,000 in Paris. Everyone was decked out in matching colors for their unions, and holding picket signs, and milling around everywhere. And it was PEACEFUL, it almost seemed like I was at a festival or something. I was completely enthralled. I can't imagine something like this ever happening on a national level in the States, and the ethos of a country who organizes like this is totally impressive to me.
Of course, there are two sides to every story. Neither of my host parents protested, and they both rolled their eyes about it, saying that the French protest too much. One of the main points of contention was Sarkozy, and his handling of the economic crisis, which isn't really his fault (Thanks Wallstreet). In reference to this, my host dad asked why the French didn't protest the huge storm that ravaged the South last week, it would have been about as effective. ha.



Friday and Saturday all of the LC students in France converged on Strasbourg. Strasbourg is a really interesting city because it is the home of the European Parliment. It's also cool because it is the "capital" of the Alsace region (Nancy is in Lorraine... like quiche Lorraine). Alsace has been a highly contested region over the years, changing nationality several times in the wars between French and Germany. It just became French again in 1945 after WWII, so it still has a lot of German influence, and the people tend to speak their own alsacian slang language which is a mix of German and French. No one has been able to tell me properly about how the logistics of land changing territory like that works, are people issued new passports and automatically told to speak a new language? But I suppose that's because no one else is interested in such geeky subjects. I did find out that as part of an effort to reduce "culture shock" when Alsace became french again, they got a bunch of tax breaks, and that there is no official separation of Church and State in Alsace (!). The popular highlight of the trip was definitely our visit to the museum of "the water of life" aka a liquor museum. Many were pleased to find out that real Absinthe has been legalized again, Hemingway would be so proud. The best part about the trip however was probably getting to see the students in Strasbourg, as several of my good friends are studying here, and it was definitely a refreshing bit of home to see them.
This picture is of Strasbourg, and you can see its famous cathedral peaking out above the buildings.