In February I visited Strasbourg, a city at the eastern border where France meets Germany, with my mom and her boyfriend, Tom. Strasbourg is in the Alsace region where the mix of French and German culture is just perfect. Food from both cultures… signs in both languages… and I could see mountains. German mountains. Ah.
We took a train early Friday from Gare de l’Est that left us at Gare de Strasbourg just two hours later. Mom and Tom checked into the hotel just across from the station while I hid in McDonald’s (the reservation was just for Mom, Tom, and two German friends- I’d be staying there in secret). I had a jolly time sipping café, reading, and people-watching and then we all set out to explore the city.
We got to spend two days roaming all around the city… We saw grand churches and cute buildings and weird musicians. We examined the Strasbourg Cathedral’s museum with lots of cool ancient sculptures and weird paintings.
Écoutez-moi, bitches.
We ate sooo much food. We even broke down and did the boat tour around the city through the lochs and everything.
It was a fun two days and I’m so glad mom and Tom sponsored the experience for me to tag along. It was wonderful hearing German again and getting out of Paris for a few days. Some guys chilling on a bridge told me that Strasbourg is the big apple of europe because of the great mixing of culture and ideas and the high student population. They said it’s an amazing place to live and I know there’s some television/media action there… who knows what the future will bring? I sure as hell don’t.
Anyway, if you ever go to Strasbourg or Alsace, be sure to try the tarte flambée (French) or flammkuche (German). Same thing. C’est délicieuse.
Thanks Mom and Tom!
The MICEFA intensif course was way back in September for me but it’s important for me to write about it for those of you who are soon to experience it. It’s not scary, don’t worry.
The first thing to be noted is expectation vs reality. I expected it to last 3 weeks. It was only a 2 week course. I did not expect special events, of which there were actually plenty. More details in a bit. I did not expect to make friends. I kind of didn’t. Until later.
The lot of us were split into 3 different levels/groups. I was in the first level- no surprise there. Not insulted or offended. They determined our level with a brief oral evaluation shortly after arriving. I was rather nervous at the time- I think most of us were- but it was really no big deal. I had to talk about myself a bit in French and I did a mediocre job but I did it. If you aren’t happy with your result you can request a second evaluation, but I only heard of a few people doing that.
Classes were held at Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle on an upper floor. I can’t speak for all 3 levels- I think the top level actually had to do a lot of heavy reading- but we had a really fun class. We did group icebreakers and exercises at first and a few writing assignments. We had to do powerpoint presentations on our new residences and we watched L’Auberge Espagnole and parts of Paris, je t’aime. Our group had Katia Nossenko Hercberg, and though I remember feeling vraiment misérable during her speech at orientation as I couldn’t understand a single word, I really liked her by the end of the intensif. If you meet her during your MICEFA experience you should consider yourself lucky.
My favorite part of the intensif was the excursions. We did a tour of Paris along the Seine one of the big tourist boats (I did a separate post about this one). It included snacks for each student and the weather was perfect. Another fun event was the scavenger hunt. This one was actually a little grueling- it was a hot day and Victoria had a duffel bag with her to bring things to our new apartment after class. She had to drag it around for the entire activity but our group won. The rest of our team was actually a guy and a girl from the top class- quite smart and quite good at French. The scavenger hunt ended when we ran into the middle of an old gladiator arena type thing in a park and we received polite applause from the teachers. A cinematic moment, truly.
We had all read Cyrano de Bergerac (or we were supposed to, at least) for the class because one of our planned excursions was to a showing of the play. I liked the book so I was excited to see the play but SOME PEOPLE decided to skip for fatigue and clear lack of interest. Lame. I had some wine with a new friend at the beginning of the show and I’d say it was a successful bonding experience. We tight now. The theater was tiny and the actors weren’t 5-star but it was a great experience and I’m glad it was a part of the program. The last event was an amazing dinner in Belleville to which I dedicated a separate post long ago.
It is possible to get college credit for the MICEFA intensif but I don’t know if anyone I know has done it. You’d need to find a comparable course at your home university, I think, and that would likely be a beginner-intermediate basic course (like French III for example).
If you have any questions or if you’d like to correct something I’ve misremembered don’t hesitate to comment or leave me a message.
Post offices here are weird. Everything here is weird. This is the magical world of experiencing cultural 
differences.
Firstly, look for that yellow and blue symbol thing.
Secondly, the post office is a private business.
Thirdly, they speak French. C’est dommage.
Fourthly, packages and envelopes are mailed with a machine. You select your language and then what type of mail it is and where you’re mailing it. The machine takes your money and then prints a long sticker for you to put on the envelope/package (instead of a traditional stamp).
Whenever I mail postcards, however, I always go to the desk guy. I don’t know if that’s what I’m supposed to do but it’s a habit and… well why bother change it now? I mumble “États-Unis” and show the number of postcards with my fingers and he takes my money and gives me a row of little purple stamps. After I get out of the way and put on the stamps (old-school licking) I kiss each postcard and throw them in the grey bin. C’est vraiment stupide but old habits die hard. I’ve been here 9 months, people. Really.
It costs a euro to mail a postcard and a little more for letters/envelopes. I haven’t mailed any packages because it’s probably too expensive to be worth it. When my boyfriend left after his holiday visit I snuck all my family’s presents into his luggage. I recommend this method. C’était gratuit pour moi! (It was free for me!)
The holiday season is a tricky maneuver for the study abroad student. Do they go home to be with friends and family? Do they travel through Europe to make the most of their time off? Do they just wing it with friends? For me the first two were outside my financial boundaries, so winging was the way to go!
It was a simple Christmas Eve affair- most of the invitations were extended the day of- but it was a lot of fun. Many of our friends were away on trips- one had even gone back to America already- but the rest of us banded together to celebrate in style. There was lots of food, drinking, and merriment and I somehow won a twerk-off so… It was a pretty awesome Christmas.
Sincere apologies again for too many weeks without a post.
This time it’s for real though, folks. This is spring break. I have lots of babysitting but no classes. What does this mean? It means I’m stuck in Paris with hours and hours of free time. Let the back-blogging commence!
The next series of posts will be tagged with the month in which they should’ve gone public. Bear with me, followers. I’ve got a lot of ground to cover over the next few days. Wish me luck.
