Dec 2007

It has been while. Ugh. I apologize. That whole not having school thing has apparently made me rather lazy in terms of updating. Let's start there: school. Or the lack there of. That’s right, I still have no classes. Well, I have had 3 classes in secret with about 6 students instead of the normal 40 something. And my extensive French course has continues throughout the blockade, as does my fencing course. So a quick rundown on my Mondays goes like this: Wake up early to meet with my tandem partner, go to class at 10, get out, eat and goof around till fencing at 1:30. After, there would be an assembly where a vote would happen and we wouldn't find out until that evening what the results were. Then suddenly, to interrupt this neat pattern we had, came the week where the administration organized a vote without the approval of the student assembly. So two votes took place that Monday, a vote for and a vote against. Each, obviously, claimed that the other vote was invalid. So the confusion began. The president of the university declared the university open, but the strikers did not appreciate this at all. So they declared the university reblockaded. Now it has been a battle between the president, students and the CRS (those policeman with the people shields.) Things have gotten a bit out of hand at times, as things tend to do at protests where tear gas is used. The most recent proclamation by our university's president reads as follows:

Nous condamnons la poursuite du blocage, qui conduit notre université à sa destruction. Il est urgent que la raison revienne. Nous appelons chacun à prendre conscience de sa responsabilité et à se mobiliser pour sauver l'université Lille 3.
Jean-Claude Dupas et l'équipe de direction de l'université

In other words: they are saying the blocage is essentially going to destroy the university and then call on everyone to realize their responsibility and mobilize in order to save Lille 3.

If you are confused, you are not the only one. We are continually going to campus because there might be class. Maybe. That's when things became more annoying than anything, because you would go in for a nine o'clock class and then come back because only two students showed up. I once went prepared to give my presentation, but as it was just me and the professor he told me to go home and write it out for him. I think things are working out credit wise. It seems that most of my grades are to be based on things such as a piece of homework or one paper. I am still waiting on two of my professors to respond and let me know what I should be doing for credit, but other than that I am getting credit for a semester in which I went to the majority of my classes only 6 times.

This does not mean, however, that I have stopped learning. Oh no. Besides being able to use the past subjunctive with ease and defend myself with a sabre, I have been absorbing French like crazy. Or at least trying to. I still live everyday en français so even without classes I tend to always be gaining new vocabulary. Plus, I do have several classes that have assigned a paper or something of the like, including one where I was to give a presentation of 30 minutes on 3 pages of a novel. So, I had to read the entire novel, and it was not a very good one either. And when you read a book in a foreign language, you need quite a bit of dedication. As well as other resources. When I read that novel my desk looked like this:

I also translated everything in my translation packet. I just want to let every French teacher who ever told me that I would never need to know anything about the passé simple except how to recognize it that they LIED. The end.

As much as I would love to have been traveling, it is slightly difficult when your university is in a state of limbo. But that's just fine with me because we have kept ourselves pretty busy. I saw a beautiful Chagall exhibit in Roubaix, for example. The museum used to be a swimming pool and is absolutely gorgeous. Except for those moments when they would play a 30 second soundtrack of people swimming and then I just felt like I was in a horror movie. Creeeeepy. But still very pretty. Have a look:

For all of you wondering we did have a tiny Thanksgiving. It included two Americans, three Germans and good food. Renee really helped out in that area with Macaroni and cheese. With real cheddar that was apparently ridiculously hard to find.

The holiday was nothing special, more of a formality that we had to get out of the way before we could really start with Christmas.

Christmas has exploded in Lille! Really. Erin, if you were here, you would go nuts. I think that it is because of the lack of holiday build up that they get to crazy for Christmas. Without a Halloween or a Thanksgiving, what else are you supposed to do? Just before the first of December, every shop had one of their workers outside hanging garland, or lights, or some other Christmas-y fixture. The infamous ferris wheel has returned and is now installed in Place Charles de Gaulle offering great, but blurry, views of the city.

That clump of lights would be the Christmas market, the one that fills Rihour and is lovely to just walk around in every now and then. I have surprised some of the vendors by speaking French to them as there are English tourists EVERYWHERE. It is like an invasion. I had one nice old man tell me, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were English, I didn't realize you were French" which gave me the warm fuzzies (that or the waffle with nutella on it that I was eating at the time.) I couldn't lie to the nice man, however, so I explained that actually, I wasn't French. We started talking and he asked me to ask the English next to me what they wanted. I did and then relayed the message. He told me, "See this sign here? (points to sign that describes the prices in English. I nod) And you see this piece of paper and pen here? (another nod) These are my tools for dealing with the English. (thoughtful pause) Could you stick around for the rest of the evening and talk to the English?" "Can my present be free?" The conversation went along the lines of faked disappointment on both ends and a cheery farewell. He was a nice guy. Anyway, back for the story, Christmas Market! Christmas music is blasting from everywhere, mulled wine is sold at at least 3 different booths, and I am pretty sure that there is a Santa somewhere.

yes, the N is backwards.

The streets are decked out, too.

And there are people actually selling roasted chestnuts.

Christmas music is even in the metros. And the crane that I can see from my window got in on the act, too. It has blinky lights! The buses say Happy Holidays. And the big mall like place has a GIGANTIC tree.

They really like that holiday here. As do the Germans apparently. Matthias invited me upstairs upon his receipt of a Christmas package and it looked like Christmas just leaked out everywhere in his room. I have been treated to some very fine "très allemand" traditions. Such as this little man:

And cookies and desserts and Stollen. This whole German dessert thing is becoming a favorite of mine.

I have received a few packages of my own and have opened everyone of them in front of Matthias, as it has become a bit of a tradition. The only one that really confused him was the box with two MRE's and a bunch of rubber animals that now decorate my Christmas tree. And by Christmas tree I mean plant. LOOK!

It even has presents under it. If that is not cool and Christmasy then I don't know what is. Except maybe a secret santa with a bunch of exchange students all in one tiny room! That's right, last Tuesday we squished some 16 people into a room for dinner and gift exchanges. The food was spread out over a few rooms and everyone brought their own silverware, but with beds as couches, who can complain?

I received a lovely bouquet of red daisies and two very nice CDs from Renee, though the only reason I know it was her was because I had passed her in the market earlier that evening. I gave my secret santa some pain d'épices and a bottle of wine with Mons-en-barouel written on it. Now this wine bottle is something special. Let's pretend Lille is Lafayette. Mons-en-Baroeul would be the equivalent of living in Duson. Making Lille into Conway, AR, our little ole town would be like Villonia. We are the Raney Building of the Hendrix campus. There, I think I have covered enough bases to where everyone can relate. Anyway, the humour was priceless as you open a bottle of wine whose label showcases the ever-so-lovely city hall. I could have gone all fancy and gotten the Lille bottle, but there's no fun in that. David was our père noël, having dressed up in his 4 euro costume and handing out gifts. Fabien, the Frenchman, decided to wrap himself up to give to Lena. Classy, no? After a while, père noël pulled out the guitar and started to serenade us. Absolutely wonderful. Especially the part where he would go off into his own world and start kind of singing to himself and someone asking if he was actually singing Marvin Gaye's "Let's get it on" while in a Santa suit. The answer was yes. Ah, Christmas.

I got everyone to watch a Christmas story (thanks for sending that one this way, family) and it was enjoyed by the majority. As was the gravy and mashed potatoes I brought for the meal. You see, I am not selfish in my want of packages, I just like to make other people happy…

Along with Christmas decorations is the Christmas weather! Frost is everywhere and sticking as if it were snow. I really do enjoy it even if I complain. But it does make us think a bit before really committing to going into town for a while. So much clothing! And so much ice! Just have a quick look out of my window:

Who wants to go outside when it looks like that? Plus, the sun doesn't rise until nearly nine and sets at 4:30. Now I know that my Scandinavian friends have it worse, but honestly… so much darkness, I don't know how they do it. There was a day or two when the radiators in Building A were not functioning. Matthias and I boiled water to keep the room a decent temperature and then decided to express our discontent next to the signs that say, "Don't turn on the hot plates to heat the room."

But everything is working now. And I just knocked on wood, so we should be good. This weekend I took a trip to London, which I will save for the next post so I have time to load photos and all, also so that y'all don't keel over from the exhaustion of reading a monstrous post. Upon my return, I helped friends pack up, because they were ending their semester early and going on home. Toni and Katja left Tuesday morning… it was hard but made better by the gifts of extra stuff that didn't fit in the car—fake nutella, flour, sugar, garbage bags. Same with Ben. I inherited my converter back, his adaptor, and a bowl. That was a tough one, mainly because I arrived with him and he has been there the entire time as that kid down the hall whenever I needed (well, three floors down, two up, and then down the hall). I went with Fabien and David to drop him off at the train station. Except I bought his ticket as he had been robbed in Paris and the credit card he had didn't work anymore. So I figured I could pay his way to Paris and remember that he owes me 40 Euro when we get back to Hendrix.

People are now starting to leave for Christmas, too. Robespierre is getting lonely. I will be spending Christmas with the Pary family thanks to the cousin connections provided by Randy. It will be nice to have a place for Christmas… so expect lots of pictures of this unknown family!

That is all for now... London coming soon.