Host Family and First Day

5/18/2010: Part Two
On Sunday it was an anxious bus ride from Versailles to Nantes to meet our host family at the train station. I had only heard a little about them before arriving. I was wondering about how to greet our host mom. Boujour? Hello? Shake hands? Hug? Or the American horror of the two cheek kiss? Everyone was excited to pull up and see a few French people with signs with our names on them. I soon spotted Mrs. Mcaire. She initiated the hand shake. Thank god. We hopped in her Volvo and we zipped across town as she drove the manual like an expert.
I was so relieved to discover that she spoke English very well; as some of the other parents clearly did not speak much English as they picked up other estudiantes. She told us we live very close to the downtown area as we drove past the history museum and soon we were parked on the sidewalk up against her house. Mrs. Mcaire’s (Sophie) husband works for an oil company in Paris and often times comes home on the weekends. Her one daughter is married and lives elsewhere around the world. Another son is graduating on Friday next from university in Paris. They are planning a big celebration for him there. He will be a nuclear engineer working for the state nuclear power company and traveling to various plants around the country to evaluate their efficiency and work to make improvements. Her other daughter also attends university in Paris.
While I moved into my room she made dinner for us. Salad with basalmic vinegar, potato omelets and a wide pasta with some kind of basil sauce and of course a little red wine. Dessert was natural yogurt with sugar. Not too bad actually. After dinner Jon and I took a walk around the nearby blocks passing by several large churches and stumbling upon a dark brown castle just one block from our home. We spent a little more time getting directions for the bus and tram and capped off the night watching French television upon which we finally found Two and a Half Men in French. I personally prefer to sleep in a cold room as often is the case at home and had heard that French families often keep their homes cool because water and electricity cost very much. Needless to say, it was a very cold night and I only had one blanket on my bed. Good thing I brought along the thin and small blanket from the Delta flight!
Day Five: The day got started early and breakfast consisted of Nestlecafe Instant Coffee and small toast with a honey jam. We left at a quarter ‘til eight and Sophie showed us the bus stop we could use if we wanted. We purchased our bus/tram ticket packets for two weeks worth (24€) and she walked us to the tram stop. She was so nice as to get on to show us where to put our tickets to be punched before she hopped off.
The tram was filled with dozens of other university aged students and of course nearly all of them got off at Audencia. It’s one building complex that is five stories and in modern architecture design and for all intensive purposes, the building is white. We had no clue where to go but eventually found an entrance and made our way into the main lobby and followed signs to our fourth room auditorium. We were greeted by the Audencia staff and the director of the program (an expatriate) shared his insight on the purpose of our time in Nantes. Quickly thereafter we were in the thick of things with our first professor, Paul Danague. He’s an English man and is very entertaining to listen to. Soon after we had a thirty minute break to get coffee in the café. Coffee here is very different than in the US. It comes in very small cups and is very strong. Afterwards a young French lady professor had an interactive discussion with us about management differences between French and US companies to gauge our level of knowledge for a proceeding class this coming Wednesday. We talked about the typical brand name blunders, business relationship differences and work schedule differences. I soon found out that French people only work for 35 hours and then receive overtime pay. There is no 60 hour work week in France like in the US where you don’t get paid extra if you are on a salary. In France you must be paid extra above 35 hours and there are many, many more bank holidays. Additionally we found out it is not a good thing to not go around and shake everyone’s hand in the morning and on the morning following a bank holiday it is expected that you go around talking about your weekend with your colleagues. I think I could work here. Ha!
Lunch was confusing but some French students from Audencia took us to the cafeteria to buy a full lunch for 3€ and we went with Greek pizza instead of some kind of fish. In the afternoon we took the tram back downtown to meet a tour guide to do a walking tour of the city. We saw the cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul that took over four centuries to build and was completed in the late 19th century. It is made of limestone so it literally dissolves away so there has been a massive reconstruction of the outside. Additionally much of the outside statues were destroyed during the French revolution and nearly all the stained glass windows destroyed. The church is unique because of the amount of time it required to build. The design of the church takes on both the Renaissance aspect and later the Romanesque style. The inside is more than 38 meters high making it one of the highest ceiling cathedrals in the world. Inside is a tomb built for St. Ann of Britainy’s parents. One section was completely rebuilt as it was struck by a bomb during WWII and a fire in the attic caused much damage because of the water used by the firemen.
The tour continued with a walk through and around the castle next to the cathedral. It is rather large and sits along the river. It is here that many important treaties have been signed, several Kings of France ruled from and even became a military base. It also is of white limestone with a very white cement paste placed on the stone. Our tour took us to several other important buildings in the city.
Our evening started with me flagging down the French girls in a Red Bull car and they drove around the circle and gave everyone free Red Bull just like they do back in America! It was a great photo op with these ladies. One group of us walked around to find a internet café. We did find one and had to buy a round to get the password. I began talking to a local at the bar asking for a good recommendation as to what to get. I was told to get a Affirgmele and got the 25 cl glass. To my surprise the conversation I had with this local led to my drink being free. We did some research on travel before walking back to the restaurant called Hyoppopotmus.
I was fortunate enough to have one of the French students sit next to me. Her name is Melanee and very cute. We had great conversation during the course of the two and a half hour meal. I was surprised by the ‘salad’ that we received but she thought it was completely normal. It looked like spam with a leaf of lettuce and a tomato. The spam which turned out to be a sausage with capers wasn’t too bad and bread made it even better. Salad was followed with black currant better known as kierre in France. It’s a special kind of wine. They soon served us our entrée which was duck and potato. Wine was not good with dinner. It was very watered down and even Melanee couldn’t drink it. Dessert was a chocolate mousse and of course coffee. After a toast from Sulle and an explanation of the meal from the Audencia director, we went with Melanee to a favorite spot, John McByrne. Ironically it is an Irish pub. We watched the Boston Celtics play and had a nice glass of Guinness before heading back home.
Day Six: Today began our very first big day of classes. We learned about business in Scandanavian countries (Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway). Speaking of Norway, on my flight from Dayton to Minneapolis I sat next to a man from Norway on his way to San Fran. He kept asking me all kinds of questions about words in the magazine, but we did have a good conversation. Additionally we learned about the UK which was clarifying for me. I didn’t realize that Scotland, Ireland and Wales also made up the UK with England. However Britain is just England and never call a Scot, British. We also had a class on European Labor Law which was rather confusing. It just didn’t sound efficient.
After class we went to the actual train station hoping to book tickets to Switzerland and have some better information. It was an interesting cultural experience. So we spent atleast ten minutes explaining to the travel planner our plans and getting some prices. Unfortunately the clock struck 17:00 while we were explaining and just about to book tickets. The man literally said he was done for the day and had to quit. After frustration from our group, some minor arguing and more frustration we walked away. Ironically the guy sitting next to him works until 19:00. So we had to wait in line again behind some other Miami groups. We had to explain this all again (even as the other guy sat there tallying papers) and we got a different price that was more expensive. We didn’t buy anything. We all had to get home to our families to eat, but am going back to school to meet up and plan our trip or an alternative trip.
I’m sitting at home right now and we don’t know what to do. There is half prepped food on the kitchen table and an hour later we just discovered that our host mom is upstairs in her bedroom. We aren’t sure but we think she might be sick because she keeps coughing. We are starving! I think we will go upstairs in a few minutes, call her name and say we are going back to school and will grab a ham and cheese sub on the walk over. More tomorrow…..
5/19/2010: Le Cerce Rouge
What a night tonight turned out to be. To update you on dinner this is what happened. As we were going upstairs to tell her we were going back to school to use the internet, she was walking down as well. Tonight was our first normal night to have dinner with her so we thought she would have dinner ready between six and seven when we arrived home from university. However, she said that we do not eat until 20:30 in France. So we ended up staying and having an amazing meal. I’ve had goat cheese on slices of tomatoes once before, but this was very delicious. We also had an odd combination that I would never think to put together but turned out to be delicious. Sliced potatoes and mushed up zucchini! Hmmm! Then to top it off we had another amazing portion. Some kind of croissant rolled up to a point with a square base and filled with ham and melted cheese. Oh was it fantastic! Very glad we stayed.
We left and went back to Audencia since the school told us it is open 24/7. We walk into the main lobby and it is not lit and only one room is lit and there are a table of professors in there. One comes out yelling in French to us pointing to leave and to not be here. We had to have looked like deer in headlights the four of us did. So we left (even though we were able to badge in) and went down to the main train intersection to find an internet café and for the other half of our group to meet with us. Unfortunately they could not make it, but after many minutes of searching and asking for ‘weefee’ (a.k.a wifi) while pointing to my laptop we were directed to a place called Le Cerce Rouge. Of course we felt obliged to purchase something for using their internet so I got a Kopenbourg. Very good. We spent nearly 90 minutes looking at trains for Switzerland for some very cheap prices, but appeared that our group of seven would not sleep together in the same car. Suddenly a somewhat tipsy French man came up to our seating area and started talking to us and asking what we were looking for. It became apparent he is a frequent visitor and friend of the bar/café owners. Long story short we are pretty sure we decided to not go to Interlaken, Switzerland. However, we asked him for suggestions that were nearby. He suggested La Rochelle, France. Googled it and it is beautiful and only two hour by train. So, we are most likely going there, perhaps Normandy and maybe swing by Paris again? It is another Bank holiday Monday so we have no school so we can travel. This man turned out to be a very great guy and offered a lot of suggestions and told us all about La Rochelle and places to go and that we had to visit the islands out in the ocean/bay. We ended up exchanging e-mails and will send him our feedback on the trip! We stayed until nearly midnight and it did not seem so late at all. I am amazed at how fast time passes while I have been here. Oh and Le Cerce Rouge translates to The Red Circle and that is the internet password incase you are ever there!

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