Another week of Rennes

This week was really awesome - once again I've broken it down for your convenience...

St.Malo:

On Sunday I went to St. Malo with my host family, which is this old port town located on the ocean. It's like a fortress, all walled in and the streets all wind together through these medieval buildings! It's absolutely magnificent, the monuments in the pictures that AREN'T the Eiffel Tower are from St. Malo. It was very cold and windy but very beautiful too! I can't wait to go back there in February on a field trip with my program! I definitely would love to get more pictures on a Sunnier day.

Gallette:

My new favorite food here is Gallette. It like a crepe, but made with a different, darker kind of flour and filled with savory (as opposed to sweet) fillings. My favorites are the "Gallette complete" - filled with ham, cheese, and a fried egg, or the "Gallette saucisson" - rolled up hot dog style around a huge sausage. We have them every Sunday night for dinner at the house or Saturday mornings at the market you can get them whipped up right in front of you for 2 euro. DELICIOUS!!

Fashion:

No one can come to France and not notice the fashion - so here are the do's and don'ts that I've learned thus far....

DO - Wear a scarf 24/7. Everyone wears a scarf to decorate any kind of outfit. What a sad day it was when I forgot my scarf and had to walk around with a bare neck! Quel Horror!

DONT - Wear sweatpants EVER! They don't even have a word for sweatpants here!! I was trying to describe them to the French student monitor and the closest we could get was "jogging pants". I miss them so much.

DO - Wear shoes with a wide heel. Thin stilettos are basically non-existent because the cobblestone streets would snap them off before you could say "OH LA LA". But you'll see many girls sporting the thick, sturdy, wooden heel look.

DONT - Wear a backpack. Everyone in our group can spot a fellow American by the gigantic backpacks we lug about. French people sport satchels, tote bags, shoulder bags, breifcases, pretty much anything but a backpack.

DO - Where a beret...or any kind of hat. Hats are pretty popular here and worn more for style than to keep warm. But props to you if your hat does both!

DONT - Show skin!!!! Modest is so a la mode! Cleavage, tank tops, shorts, sandals, bare backs, bare bellies, they're all distasteful...so covering up with cardigans, turtle necks, long sleeves, tights and panty-hose is a must.

DO - Wear black. They just love it here.

This is not to say that I follow any of these rules. In fact, I love my backpack and tote it to school each day, I love my men's winter hat that I got on sale at Kohl's and I don't wear any heels - wide or not. But these are the trends I've noticed here and they're definitely interesting.

Pre-program and School:

School is hard here. Teachers and parents are very keen on the "I'm right, you're wrong" or "I'm the master, you're the apprentice" method. The idea is to eliminate error by focusing on the negative of whatever you present. It is almost impossible to get a perfect score here, because that is reserved for God. It is nearly impossible to get a good score, because that would mean you are as good as the teacher. It is hard to get a decent score, but at this point, it's what I'm shooting for. What I don't understand, out of all the culturally different teaching methods they have, is why they even have a score just for God. I find it quite doubtful that God will attend a school in France at some point, but who knows? There's no disagreeing with the teacher and all your grades are said out loud in front of everybody. Which actually makes for less competition in the classroom than in America - which is a plus I guess.

Funny Story - My Resident Director, who was explaining the teaching differences here, is a Frenchman who went to teach in America. He knew of the classroom differences and was very excited to start teaching American students in the way they were used to - an encouraging, supportive atmosphere where creativity is encouraged. He thought everything was going great in his first couple of weeks and when it got time to hand back the tests, he went to each person and called out their grade - OUT LOUD, like in France. People were red with embarrassment and a couple people started crying and the teacher couldn't figure out what he had done. Can you imagine!!? The privatization of grades is such a culture difference!


In any rate, my classes at the pre-program are much like this. For the first half of the morning I have a HORRIBLE teacher who is VERY French in her teaching style and always interrupts us when we're trying to talk because we're wrong or not using the words she would have used. She also loves giving pop quizzes on stuff we haven't reviewed yet. We had one pop quiz where I got a 7 out of 20 and I said it out loud when she asked, like I knew I'd have to, but then she looked all shocked and asked me three times "like 7"?!?! And I was like...yeah, 7. But besides her, all my other teachers are WONDERFUL! We get to watch movies and they are very good at teaching international students. Tomorrow we register for our real classes and I hope all my teachers are like the nice ones in the pre-program.

Well that's about all I have at the moment....I think I'll take a nap now, because I don't have any homework for tomorrow. I'm having a super great time, and even though its hard - it's a good kind of hard and I'll be all the better for it!! I miss and love you all and hope to get more pictures up soon. I have this thing about hating to take pictures when it's grey out, so once we hit a sunny day here, I'll have tons more pictures for you!! All my love!

~Ashley