First Week of School!

Previously on this blog…

Guess who's going to free a free ballet show tomorrow at 4? Me. Bam!

Sunday:

When I got to the Opéra, I saw that Meg was already seated a few rows behind Penny, Charlene, and me. I sat in row D, i.e. the fourth row. Yeah, I got to sit in the fourth row of a real ballet.

We saw Limb’s Theorem choreographed by William Forsythe and music by Thom Willems. It was, well, interesting. This was not a classical ballet at all. Yes there were leotards and music but no tutus or orchestra. The music was very industrial sounding that echoed and sounded all plink-y. I guess jarring is a good word for it. I jumped a few times from the sudden bursts of loudness. The dancing was unexpected as well. Don’t get me wrong, they were amazing dancers, like, there’s no way in hell I could even imagine my body doing what they did. And although there were classical ballet elements, a lot of it was strange.

The ballet opened with a dark stage and music playing. Keep in mind that this music sounds like the sound booth is malfunctioning. I started to giggle because I thought they messed up, but then I heard the sound of dancing feet.  Light slowly filtered onto the stage and eventually, the whole stage was lit up. There was not a set except a giant metal rectangle that was suspended from the ceiling and rotated on the ground from one of its corners. It was weird, but cool because every time it rotated, it would change how the light was reflected and brighten different parts of the stage.

So the dance ended, the performers took their bows, and the curtain closed. Thirty minutes passed. Charlene, Penny, and I looked at each other super confused and thought that the show was over. I said, “Well, I guess that’s why it was free.” We left to go to the bathroom before we left when Penny saw a sign that said there were three dances, each with a twenty minute break in between. Fail.

The second dance was pretty cool. I thought I got the story line, or at least the one I made up made sense. I seemed like at the end of the first dance, one of the characters was in danger of dying. In the second dance, the same character was dressed in white (previously all the dancers were in black) and was struggling to move. She was holding on to a rope that was being moved up and down like a wave. I thought it was supposed to represent her heart beat, like a heart monitor at a hospital. The other dancers were dressed in varying forms of white and black (Mom, there were cha cha pants). It seemed like the other dancers were trying to fight each other to see who would take her soul, the light or dark, life or death. It was pretty cool. Meg bought a program for three euros and said that the ballet was supposed to be about the struggle between light and dark. That’s all. So I guess I was wrong. But one could argue that art is supposed to be interpreted by the viewer and how the piece applies to them. Either way, it was a weird ballet.

Monday

So my host mom left for Morocco so it’s just me and my host brother Ianis for the week, which has been super chill. No the house hasn’t burned down and no we haven’t been living on ramen. Geez people, have a little faith.

So classes started and thus my “class shopping.” That is a term at Penn which terrifies me and is perfectly applicable here. It means we did not pre-select our classes but choose a bunch that you want to try out and see if you like it. There’s also the problem of being able to take the tests early because you leave before the semester finishes in January.  Going into something without know exactly what’s going to happen is not really my thing. But everyone that has done this program has gone through this same process. So I just have to suck it up and deal. 

I went to an ancient history class about the Roman Empire. Btw, it should be mentioned that all classes are two hours long and only meet once a week. Also, two hours is a really long time to be sitting through class. I was sitting by myself, looking around watching the small “lecture hall” fill up (it was the size of two classrooms put together and slanted). The girl next to me looked over and said “Are you new here?” Guess what guys! I made a friend! Her name is Maud and she helped me during lecture. I looked over on her computer screen while she was taking notes to help fill in the gaps in mine. After lecture, we had lunch together and talked.

I had a two hour break in between classes, during which I had a nice chat with a friend of a friend who is British (and a Crystal Palace fan). It was nice to have a little break of French by speaking in English. I then when to my contemporary historiography class. I sat next to a guy that I recognized from lecture and he sat at the same table and Maude and me during lunch. His name is Valentin and is super nice. Guess what guys! I made another friend! This class is small and seminar/recitation sized, but it’s basically a lecture. I hope this class will count for something at Penn because it’s really neat.

Tuesday

Oh. My. God. Sometimes I just can’t. I already freaked out about this a lot to people on this side of the Atlantic, but I will have to do it for all the folks back home. For Lyon 2, the university which I am attending here, has a second campus in a suburb called Bron, where all of the liberal arts classes are. It’s a forty minute commute without traffic. Yeah, not fun. So having a class at 10 o’clock with all of the rest of the college-aged students is not necessarily the best situation. Especially since there is literally only one form of transportation to the Portes Des Alpes campus. Just one.

I take the metro and then the tram to get to Bron. Bad idea even though it’s the fastest way to get there (in theory). The stop at which I get off the metro and get on for the tram, is the stop that EVERYBODY gets on. Like, ridiculous. Three jam packed trams went by me before I could get on. Mom, if you were me, you would have not made it to class. That, or you could have been an hour late. Little by little, I smushed through people to get to the front of the mass (there’s not a line) of people to get on the next tram. As the tram arrived, my face was literally (and I am actually not exaggerating) two inches away from the large moving vehicle. Even though I was at the front of the mass, I was not the first person on the tram. I had to shove my way on the tram. That was probably one of the most ridiculous experiences of my life. It reminded me when I was in middle school and had to shove to get on the early bus to catch the early train. I find it disgusting that I have to resort to the same measures I took when I was 12 when I am 20 years old.

Also, that’s just not safe. Like, fire hazard. I left an hour before class and got there barely in time. AND WHAT MAKES IT EVEN WORSE, is that the “recitation” that I went to for my ancient history class was ALL FOR NOTHING because I can’t take the test early or at Penn so I can’t take the class. I wasted more than 4 hours of my life, which isn’t that big of a deal (hello, I’m in France. Be grateful) but it’s still annoying.

Wednesday

The only history class I can take now is 8 o’clock in the morning and a thirty minute walk (hello tram! Not the one to Bron, of course). I was really feeling bummed out from the whole class situation (I had a perfect schedule until I found I couldn’t take two history classes that I wanted), but that class was exactly what I needed. It’s the contemporary history of the Arab World. I don’t know anything about the Arab world or its history so this should be interesting. The professor was pretty chill and really smart. I made another friend named Jérémie (I think that’s how you spell it). He’s nice. Yay friends!

Me, Ianis, and I

So Ianis, my host brother, and I have been chillin’. I made pasta, red sauce, and sausage, which ended up tasting like hot dogs and ketchup. I think it was the type of sausage (not Italian) and the tomato paste. Did you know they do not have cans of tomatoes here? I tried to explain that concept to Ianis, but he was so confused. It doesn’t help that the word for “can” is the same as the word for “box.” Good thing there is a word for it in Italian and he also speaks Italian. When in doubt, just use a word in whatever foreign language you know! He made carbonara and thicken it with crème fraîche. Oh my goodness gracious, that was delightfully lovely. I also introduced him to scrambled eggs. That was the dinner in between the two pasta dishes. It was very yummy!

We have also been watching lots of movies and TV together during dinner. On Monday night, we watched the new “The Great Gatsby.” I think because I didn’t like the book, I liked the movie. I thought it was a very good interpretation (notice how I didn’t say adaptation). I was surprised by how much I liked Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby. When I first found out that he was going to be Gatsby a year ago, I was disappointed (even though I didn’t like the book). I always pictured Gatsby to look like Tom Hiddleston as F. Scott Fitzgerald from “Midnight in Paris.”

I think my favorite part was how much the movie encompassed the sense of being overwhelmed. I know when I read the book, there were parts that I was so confused as to what was happening and no matter how many times I reread it, I couldn’t figure out what was happening. I always thought that Fitzgerald was being purposefully vague to have the reader caught up in the same confusion as the narrator, Nick. In the movie, the large ensemble scenes and the bright colors were disorienting (but not in a bad way) and you, as the audience, got caught up and swept away in the wave that was the American Dream in the Jazz Age. I liked it and I would totally watch it again. I have been meaning to read it again since I saw John Green’s videos (Part 1 and Part 2) in which he critically analyzes the book.

We also watched the French version of Cops. That was funny. Also, news shows. Most of French TV is really hard to understand. Those aren’t as fun.

We also watched “Olympus Has Fallen.” It was okay. It was basically “Die Hard” but not as good and WAY more bloody and gory. There was a point when I wanted to stop because it was too gory. Normally gore doesn’t bother me that much, but this was kind of bad and in such large quantities that I felt uncomfortable.

I have been reading a lot since there really isn’t much homework that comes along with class. I am reading the fifth Games of Thrones book A Dance With Dragons.

So. Good.

I’m reading it on my Kindle and it is fantastic and I can’t wait to see what happens. Like, oh my god. I wish I could talk about this with someone, but anyone with whom I could geek out about it is thousands of miles and a six hour time difference away. Blergghhhh. I’ll just have to keep reading. I’m and refraining from putting anything on social media because you know, spoilers. Gah!

Until next time!