St. Malo-vely

Me: "Je cherche le voie pour St. Malo..."
Conductor: "Malo? C'est pas VOTRE l'eau, c'est MA l'eau!"
Me (thinking): Yes, haha, you're very funny, but my train is about to leave, quit making puns and tell me where to get on the freaking train!"



I no longer have classes on Thursday. I had to drop a class in order to be able to be a teaching assistant, and it was the one class that was keeping me from doing that, and so it had to go. I don't think the teacher wants me or will let me drop the class, but I'm not sure what I should do about that! After explaining this to her I had to leave the class early to go on a weekend trip, for which I felt SO awful because she was incredibly sweet, but I'm here to travel more than I am to go to class, so travel had priority!

And travel I did. I went with four girls (Myra, Miriam, Melanie, and Jenny) to St. Malo, Bretagne. It was about a three hour train ride from Caen. Part of that ride was on at TGV train, which I had never taken before-- those things are fast! We arrived in St. Malo in the evening. It is a beautiful, walled city-- soldiers used to patrol the wall and shoot down pirates with canons. The streets are small, winding, and very old. We explored them for a bit before having dinner at a charming creperie (I had a galette ratatouille). After a looong walk outside of the walls of the chateau, we found our hostel, played some Guitar Hero with one of the volunteers who worked there (Melanie kicked his butt!) and settled down to rest up for the next day.

Yesterday morning we walked from our hostel to the walled part of the city, following the shore (we were along the English Channel). The shore is lined with quaint restaurants and adorable houses, like these teeny tiny ones! We had a great view of the forts, which are on islands outside of the city. When the tide is low you can walk to them, I think. We then walked along the walls of the city, stopping every once in awhile just to gaze at the marvelous scenery. We also walked around the city to see the various historical sites that weren't bombed during WWII (truly a rarity in northern France).

Daniel and Sean came from Caen at around lunch time to spend the rest of the trip with us. We had lunch and then hit the beach! It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen! The walls were behind us, the forts and the rocks in front, and beautiful sand beneath our toes. Here's a view from the top of the walls. It was such a relaxing time, writing Valentine's Day messages in the sand, climbing on the rocks, playing guitar, and just enjoying the salty air!

Not long after that I had to leave to catch my train, but not before I enjoyed a beignet (donut) with chestnut cream from the carnival by the port. I had to leave early because today I think I'm going to Rouen with Mathilde. Rouen is where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

It was a perfect Valentine's Day weekend. There wasn't lovin' from a personal Valentine, but I was certainly feelin' the love from my new Caen friends! It's so sad to me that so many of these beautiful historical sites were destroyed during WWII, but considering how old they are, it's amazing that they have managed to survive at all. They never disappoint, especially in France.

"Pulitzer and Hearst, they think we're nothing! Are we nothing? No!"

Well, the high schoolers are in strike. Striking is the national sport of France. I don't mind it as long as it doesn't affect my travel plans... but it has all of this week and it canceled a much-anticipated trip to Paris in November, so I guess I should just get used to it.

I'm so nervous about things going wrong this weekend in the coming-home process that I feel sick! What if I get to the airport too late, what if all of the transportation workers are on strike, what if, what if, what if.

Two down, one to go

Fromage du jour: Irish Cheddar

My friend, Missy, left for Normandie on Tuesday, and Erin leaves in just a few hours for Paris. Isn't it odd that my two oldest friends will both be in France this semester?

I ordered my train ticket today from raileurope.com. It was about $80 including shipping. I guess rail travel in Europe isn't cheap (though that's certainly cheaper than traveling by train in the USA), but I've heard that you can get plane tickets for about 30 Euro. That will be nice for traveling around during my Christmas break. I hope to make it over to Berlin to visit a German friend of mine.

Awhile ago I joined the Universite de Caen Facebook group and just posted a message saying that I will be there in September. Since then about five or six of the French students have messaged me offering advice and giving me tips and encouragement. They've been so friendly and I appreciate them more than I can say! I feel like I might have a couple of built-in friends at Caen and elsewhere in France. Facebook has its vices, but I must say that it's helped me out a great deal in recent months.

Plane Ticket-- Finally

Fromage du Jour: Fresh Mozzarella served with fresh basil leaves

I'm a little worried. I know that you probably feel that "Suzanne must be a little worried" vibe from most, if not all, of my entries thus far, but I think I have legitimate reasons! Someone from the Twinning Committee of Deauville, France, sent me an e-mail stating that classes begin on September 1st, but the Caen website and my acceptance letter very clearly state that while a Fall session begins September 1st, my session (Winter/Spring) begins September 11. My adviser advised that I just buy my plane ticket for the September 11 start date, and so I did. I will be leaving September 7th and arriving in Paris at 9:30 A.M. on September 8th.

Now, I'm a little nervous, because I bought the plane ticket before the Committee returned my e-mail about the date being wrong. I had to-- the prices were going up by the hundreds each day. I did get a phenomenal discount, though.

There are many websites out there that help traveling students get discounts on plane tickets, rail passes, and more. I went to www.statravel.com. First, you have to call them and ask for an international student ID card, which will run you about $28. My plane ticket was $615, which was about $300-1000 less than on any other non-student website. If you are between the ages of 12 and 26 and/or you are a full-time student, you're eligible for the International Student Identity Card (www.isic.org) and are therefore eligible for these discounts. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, back to Paris... I will get there in the morning and I figure it's fairly easy to get from the airport to the train station by Metro. After that, someone will meet me in Caen and take me to my dorm. The only thing I have left to do to make this happen is get my visa in Chicago, which I've heard is an adventure in and of itself.

How to Go to France

THIS BLOG ENTRY HAS BEEN EDITED so that it is more useful to incoming students!

Just like my experience thus far with going through the mess of registering for college and applying for my visa, at least, assuming it will all be worth it in the end. In this post I will tell you the steps you need to take in getting to France, and what the Universite de Caen will tell you once you have pre-registered for their school, and tell you what you do and don't need. If the links are dead by the time you read this, I'm terribly sorry! Let me know and I will see what I can do.

Firstly, you'll need to do the following in order to set foot in the country and have it show up on your transcript that you were there:

1. Passport: Apply for your passport as soon as you possibly can.

2. UK's Stuff: Turn in the study abroad form. Most of this is fairly self-explanatory. For Academic Approval forms, see the Director of Undergraduate Studies. For the Faculty Nomination form, I asked a TA. Faculty? No, but the only faculty members I had classes with were in the math and science departments, in huge lecture halls, so needless to say I did not know them very well. My TA was quite friendly and returned my form very promptly. My letter of reference also came from a TA, and no one raised a fuss.

3. Pre-register: Pre-register on Caen's foreign student website. After you do, you will receive an e-mail that will tell you what you need in order to complete registration. I will tell you what you really need:

• Copy of your passport-- Need
  
• Copy of your last and/or higher diploma translated into French or English-- Need
  
• 1 ID picture-- Need
  
• 1 birth certificate translated intoFrench or English-- Need
  
• Results of a TCF, TEF or DELF/DALF-- You take the test online.
  
• French transcripts if you were already registered in a French institution
• 60 euros of pre-registration fees-- This is paid for by the Twinning Committee if you're on the Caen Scholarship.
  

4. Campus France: Apply for Campus France. This is necessary in order to submit a Visa application. If you haven't cried yet in this whole process, this is where you'll probably start. Campus France is expensive and obnoxious, it hates you, and if it doesn't demand your first born in order to complete the application process, consider yourself a very, very lucky person. Read this before applying.

5. Ticket: Purchase your plane ticket as soon as you know when you're supposed to arrive in France. There are many student discount websites for plane tickets, like statravel.com.

6. Copies: Make. Copies. Of. Everything. Of flight itineraries, of every single application, every form you fill out (especially your academic approval form), your birth certificate, your great-grandfather's immigration forms, your passport, and have lots of copies of your passport photo--anything to prove that you are, indeed, American and not looking for a job. Keep them all in a folder to be used when you need them, and take this folder complete with copies of everything with you to France. Maybe you should also have some copies stashed in a geocache somewhere in the Alpines, just to be sure. Also, bring lots of passport pictures. I've needed about ten since I've been here.

7. Visa: Once you have your application complete from Campus France (this can take a couple of weeks), proof that you have a scholarship/way of supporting yourself in France (obtain this as early in the process as you possibly can), the address of your dormitory, and the name and address of someone on the Twinning Committee to be a "sponsor," you have everything you need to fill out the visa form. The school will take care of sending what you need in order to fill it out. Find this here. Make an appointment and obtain your visa as soon as you can. It's unfortunately necessary that you visit the French Consulate in either Washington, D.C. or Chicago to apply for the visa in person. Convenient? No, but at least once it's done it's done. I have not yet been through this process, but those who have braved this journey before me have said that it's relatively painless, especially compared to the rest of what you had to go through to get to this point.

Chicago is about a six hour drive from Lexington, and there are cheap youth hostels to stay in if you don't know anyone there. If you can get someone to drop you off in Cincinnati, the Mega Bus runs between there and Chicago every day and you can get a bus ticket for a very low price, and arrive in Chicago in about six hours, certainly no more than seven. That's about as much time you'd spend in airports if you flew there, anyway! The Mega Bus stop is less than two miles from the French consulate, right next to the Sear's Tower and Millenium Park. I'm pretty sure there is a youth hostel around that area as well. Take a friend. Make a fourth of July weekend out of it or something.