Rain & Temperature

As I write this some sunlight is coming out of the cloudy sky. It’s cloudy at least every other day here in Rennes. I read online before I arrived that the weather is similar to Seattle. I’ve never been to Seattle, but I feel like I agree with that statement. It rains here quite a bit, but it’s bearable…at least to me. Most of the time the rain doesn’t last the whole day and when it does rain, it’s more misty or the rain drops are small. They were smaller in comparison to what my friends and I experienced in London. Don’t get me wrong it can pour here sometimes.

The temperature, since I’ve arrived, has ranged from 30 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. This week it’s been more between the 40s and 50s lately. Like the weather in Pennsylvania during the transition into spring, the temperature fluctuates a little throughout the day. It can be either sunny or cloudy in the morning and then be the complete opposite by the afternoon The wind influences what the temperature feels like. It doesn’t really snow in this region, which I found a little surprising, so it doesn’t really experience all four seasons unlike Pennsylvania.

The wind here can be a little crazy sometimes. The palm tree outside one of the windows of the apartment was blowing all over the place when the wind was really bad one day. The palm tree outside the window gives the illusion that it’s warmer outside than it actually is. I’m not really sure why, but a lot of palm trees are planted around the city. I saw on one of my friend’s Instagram story a lot of large trees had been ripped out of the ground and fallen into the street. This only happened one time so far, but you can imagine how bad the wind was that day. The rain and wind is pretty common throughout Bretagne (Brittany) because the region is pretty much surrounded by the sea. Mount Saint Michel is only about an hour and a half or two away from Rennes and the wind there was really strong.

The Rennais.es don’t really mind when the weather is bad. A lot of the time I don’t even see a lot of umbrellas. They just continue what they are doing. I also don’t really see rain coats. Most of the time they wear wool/pea coats or winter coats. When it was colder in January, I saw a lot of women wearing short fur coats. I feel like the metro helps with this because we are able to get to one place to another fairly quickly and only be in the rain for a few minutes. A lot of the time the cafés or restaurants have tents outside. The weather doesn’t ruin their plans to go out. It’s pretty normalized if you are a little wet from the rain when you get somewhere. With all of this rain the Rennais.es really appreciate it when the weather is really nice and sunny. It’s honestly really nice here when it’s nicer out.

Here are some quotes from some of my friends about their (somewhat comedic) perspectives on the weather in Rennes:

Claire (Arkansas): “The weather is bad. It’s cold. It changes really quickly. The French think it’s colder than it actually is. They need to visit the northern US. (Claire goes to school in Indiana) It’s very misty. Sometimes sunny for 20-25 minutes.

Cally (Minnesota): “Cloudy and windy. The French think it’s FREEZING. My host mom always talks about how cold it is. When you look at the weather channel, Bretagne is always windy. It’s cold but not as cold as the French think. It’s more miserable than cold. It was sunnier and nicer in northern Scotland…” (My comment: I’m usually colder than my house mother sometimes, unless she’s lying about not being cold.)

Bri (New Jersey): “When I was in Dinard for the weekend, it went from being mild and sunny to windy and cold with hail and back to being nice within half an hour. I told that to a French person and they were like « yeah, typical Bretagne »”

I was originally placed into B1 for my language level but I had the midset that I was at least B2. The language levels are listed as A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2 ranging pretty much from A1 being beginner to C2 being advanced/fluent. If you get placed into a lower level than expected, don’t panic. I only had to go through a week of classes in B1 and then talk with my études de la langue professor about moving up. I felt like I was really in the middle of the two levels but I decided to move up and challenge myself more since I am only here for a semester. Also, my French professor at home didn’t think I belonged in B1 as well. The placements are decided based on a skills test and what the preliminary language teacher thinks. We took a two week preliminary language course before we started actual classes and it is worth two credits. I kinda took the test the day before it was due because I didn’t know about it until then, so I feel like that could’ve effected my placement as well.

I felt like B1 was definitely more like review for me and I understood everything and was talking much faster than some of the others in my classes. My only fear with B2 is the oral comprehension because I have trouble understanding the audio recordings sometimes, but I know I’ll only improve over time the more I practice with it. I think I just panic a little bit because I’m too focused on the questions. Switching to B2 was definitely better for my Études de la Langue (study of the language) class because I know my reading and writing skills are definitely at that level. I have the grammar down but the big thing I want to improve is my speaking competency and to gain more vocabulary. I’m just missing a couple pieces, but the past few weeks I’ve been here I’ve definitely found some of those pieces.

Here’s a list with descriptions of my classes

Études de la Langue:

This is basically the study of the French language. I have this class three times a week and the classes are two hours long. In this class we’ve been looking over sentences and correcting them but also labeling the types of mistakes like verb tense, accord, and orthography. For homework we write little journals (large paragraphs) for our professor. He marks the errors and gives them back to you to write it a second time correctly unless you have less than five errors. The French aren’t afraid to say if you did bad in front of the class or if you did really good. It’s normal for them to expose you to the class. I’m pretty sure one time when someone made a mistake he said “Am I gonna have to jump out the window?” I mean I know that’s morbid but I found it funny because it was shocking to hear it from a teacher. He did only mean it as a joke and not to completely insult the girl. In this class we also review conjugations and other grammar rules besides verb tenses like C.O.I.: Complément d’objet indirect (Indirect Object) and C.O.D.: Complément d’objet diret (Direct Object) sentences and whether there is agreement with the verbs and the subjects or not. This is at least what the class has started out as.

Expression Orale:

In this class we’ve mainly created scenes or spoke out to the class about an experience. I’ve only had this class twice since I missed a week. We each have to do a presentation. I was assigned alcohol and France. I’m not really sure when I’m going to have to present but I’ll probably just start researching. The class grades your presentation along with the teacher on little question sheets. The last scene we did was a film interview with an interview, film maker, and viewer and we had to use verbs that were given to us. We could only use the verbs in a sentence that uses the conditional verb tense. I feel like I learn new words in the class but she doesn’t go into depth about what they mean so I need to look them up when I get home.

Civilization:

This is probably my most boring class. This is only because it’s the third two hour class on Wednesday. Wednesday’s are my rough days. This class is pretty much just a history class in French. Last class we learned about the different stages of the development of the Louvre. It was interesting but I was brain dead. I feel like this professor could talk for days on the history of France.

Écriture creative (Creative Writing) & Manifestations:

I’ve only had this class once due to the level change and strikes. Strikes and manifestations occur a lot and cause the university to shut down. The professors and students at the international school are trying to stay open since we are on a different learning tract and not having classes definitely affect us having an efficient education. Especially for us with CIEE who are only here for a semester. The creative writing class itself seems to be a good choice for me. I feel like I am going to learn a lot more new vocabulary. We don’t write as much as you would think. We talk about how something could be written a different way. For example, we created acronyms for our initials. The first words that popped into my head was Nocturne Giraffe (Nocturnal/night giraffe) for N.G. I’m someone who likes to go out to soirées and giraffes are pretty majestic and cute so I decided to go with that interpretation.

Laboratoire:

In this class we sit in a room with a French speaker who listens to us speak and corrects us. We also repeat after her. This class is only an hour long. Last time the computer wasn’t working but we usually use head phones to listen to her and talk into a microphone for her to listen and send feedback on our pronunciations.

Compréhension Orale:

It’s only an hour long class but I stress a little bit. I just feel like I won’t do that great on the exams. We just listen to audio recordings and answer the questions the professor gives us. I do believe that I will improve. I think I’m going to download some podcasts to see if that will help improve my oral comprehension.

Compréhension et Expression Écrite:

I’ve only had this class once but it is pretty much just reading texts in a packet the professor gives you and there are questions for comprehension and interpretation. I consider myself a slower reader, but we get the whole class time for when we have evaluations. The first reading I did went well and there were only a couple spelling mistakes in my answers but the comprehension of the text is what is most important for this class. We are able to work on the packet at home as well.

TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language):

This class is being transferred over as a education requirement for my degree back home. I am working towards an ESL (English as a Second Language) certification and this counts as one of the courses. I will just have to make a portfolio to match the Pennsylvania State Standards. In this course I am making lessons and studying pedagogy. On Wednesday mornings I will be teaching a group of 15-16 high school students English all by myself! There are two groups that will switch out each week. They are in their second to last year before they graduate (Niveau (level): Primaire). I will have my first class this week. I will probably write about this more in depth in another blog later on. I’m really excited because this is the first time I’ll be able to actually teach a class. I’ve only done hundreds of hours (seriously at least over a hundred) of observation and a little bit of tutoring so far.

Linguistic Exchange

When I went on a tour of the university library the lady who gave me the tour asked if I wanted to do a language exchange with her. She did it with a student last semester and she said it really benefited them both. I agreed so now we meet up once or twice a week and speak either only French or only English during the hour we hang out. She’s super nice.

The Preliminary Language Course

The two week preliminary language course was held at a language institution near Parc du Tabor and not far from Saint Anne. I didn’t find it very intensive, but we went over some basics and discussed French culture. Some of the homework had us talk with our house parents about their views on Bretagne (Brittany) and then their views on American culture. We also discussed music and films. We reviewed how to form opinions, presented on some articles, and performed a debate. Our teacher also collected and corrected a couple writings.

Soirées and Bars

Bar la Place

The first night I went out was on a Wednesday. I almost didn’t make it to this soirée because I thought I missed my bus. I just ended up being late, but most of the time things don’t really get going until later in the night anyway. A “soirée” is pretty much just the word used for going out to parties, clubs, or organized events. The one organized on a Wednesday was for students at the international school to get to know and meet some people before classes start. I met up with a couple girls in my program and my assistant director.

The soirée was held at Bar la Place, which is where I’m pretty sure all of the intercultural soirées are held. They usually have three per semester. This bar has two levels, but I only saw the first floor the first time I was there. There’s a bar, high tables and stools, and a dance floor. There is another part of the first level that you can go down a couple steps to get into. They were having a little dance party in there while most of the other people were near the bar. I was able to meet a couple new friends at this soirée. I also recognized some people I saw in my classes the next week.

The second soirée was on the second floor, but I saw it before when I went there for my friend’s birthday. There are like five areas you can go to. It’s open by the bar, there’s a nook with seats, there’s an area that looks like a huge dining table and another area that looks like a small restaurant. There’s a lot of Indonesian decorations and a wooden elephant statue in the middle where a guy ended up putting his beer glass down right behind the elephant’s butt and said “If that gets refilled I’d be worried.” There was like no one there when we went for my friend’s birthday, but they said it doesn’t get pact until really late. There were so many people at the soirée though. It was open to other people and not just the international school and I feel like I heard more English then French. I made sure I talked to people I would only be able to speak French with most of the time. There were a lot French people there trying to practice their English. The international school tried to organize a game with cards that had you ask a question to someone who has the same color marker mark as you, but honestly no one knew how to play. I ended up just socializing with random people and those I knew from my classes.

Cactus

The second bar I went to was Cactus. I think this bar is pretty nice, but kinda small. When you arrive a bouncer greets you at the door, but I haven’t had a problem getting in so far. This bar also has two levels, but you go downstairs to the other area. The first floor plays more like classic hits and you can watch old American music videos on the screens behind the bar that don’t even match the songs being played. The only lights are Christmas lights and strobe lights hung around the ceiling and along the toy train tracks. When you order your shots a toy train delivers them to you! The vibe between the two floors feels completely different as if it were two different bars.

Downstairs, there’s another bar and it has a restaurant feel set up, but its very vertical and not a lot of space. People dance anyway. The lighting is a darker green-blue. There’s also a smoking area with grass if you go completely to the other side away from the stairs. I didn’t get a good look, but I think I saw people trying to sing like it was a karaoke area on the other side. The bathrooms are also mixed here.

Rue de la Soif

Rue de la Soif pretty much means “Thirst Street” because it’s characterized by all of the bars lined up on each side of the street. Supposedly it’s pretty known all around France. I’ve only been to it once so far and it’s definitely crowded with drunk people, but it’s still pretty fun. There are also Kabab places to buy fast food like Kabab items, french fries or taco sandwiches. Most of the these bars have nice tents set outside with lights. I feel like that’s also important for places to have since a lot of the population smokes and would most likely want to have a comfortable night outside.

There are discothèques (nightclubs) as well, but I haven’t tried them out yet. I know one here used to be a prison! Also, all of these places are close to station Saint-Anne and place de la République. It’s important to check your bus times if you don’t live close enough to walk. The last bus for me is usually around 1:30 a.m. But if I ever miss my bus, I can call a taxi or uber. It is possible to walk for me, but that’s not the safest idea. Most of the time I do feel pretty safe, but you still have to keep your guard up because you never know. The city honestly just feels like a giant college campus to me since there are so many students that live here.

Football Match

Today I went to a football (soccer) game with my friend and her house parents/”famille d’accueil.” It was held at Stade Rennais and we took one of the buses designated to go to the stadium from la République. It was only about a ten minute bus ride. All of the buses had the stadiums name in Breton (Galic language of Brittany) “Roazhon Park” and a pix-elated soccer player where the name of the destination usually is on the front of the bus. Rennes was playing against Nimes and there are sections on either side of the field behind the field goal where people chant for their team. Since it was a home game, Rennes’ cheer section was obviously much larger than Nimes’. One of the cheers I noticed was two quick claps and then hands out towards the stadium. There was also an echoing chant, but I couldn’t understand it. Rennes’ colors are red and black and their mascot is a white ermine.

Fun fact: There are murals of ermines in the windows of buildings being worked on, because it gives off a friendlier vibe. The animal has been a symbol of Brittany since 1316.

The stadiums major sponsor is Puma and you can find the logo on the backs of some of the stadium workers’ gear. There were also a lot of advertisements for yogurt. My friend told me while I was in the bathroom that they put a giant yogurt cup in the center of the field. I also saw advertisements for a tractor company. The stadium had flags that represented Brittany and the team towards the top of the stadium and there were signs that said Ouest-France (West-France) lining the stadium levels.

The bathroom surprised me a lot. I ended up going into a toilet room that didn’t have a normal toilet. It was a squat toilet. I honestly didn’t have trouble using it, it was just really strange because it was my first time using one.

On the field, the referees wore light blue instead of black and white stripes. Flags were seen all throughout the stadium and large flags were waved whenever they scored a goal. On the sidelines the team stayed warmed up by running up to someone and getting pushed back twice before running to the end of the field. Football games last 90 minutes with two 45 minute halves. Like a hot-dog at a baseball game, I got a galette saucisse during the break. Also, the scoreboards count up to 90 minutes, not down to zero seconds left.

The bus was so packed on the way back to la République. My friend and I felt like we were surfing through the streets because we were standing so close to the front window. The doors to enter the bus opened at one point while the bus was moving. It’s a good thing my friend wasn’t leaning against them!

Rennes ended up winning 2-1. 🙂

À bientôt

– Nicole

At Home

I mentioned this in my last blog, but my first meal in Rennes was pumpkin soup and a ham and cheese quiche. Ham, cheese, and eggs seem to be present in a lot of meals here.

I was lucky enough to have a Galette Bretonne my second night in Rennes. I actually just ate another one right before I wrote this. My house mother makes it with a buckwheat (sarrasin) crepe with ham and cheese inside and a sunny side up egg on top. The galettes pictured below give a general idea what the galettes my house mother makes look like. They are from Crêperie Sainte-Anne right by the metro stop Saint-Anne.

An omelet is another dinner with eggs I’ve had a couple times. They are also found at the Restaurant Universitaire (University Dining Hall) for lunch. My house mother made me one with spinach and mushrooms. She had one hard boiled egg and a couple small side items (salad/bread) one time. Keep in mind lunch is usually the heaviest meal of the day here.

My house mother seems to use mushrooms a lot also, which I actually really like. There are some found in the gratin she served me, along with cauliflower on the side. The gratin pictured below is a warm pastry crust filled with mashed potatoes. Also, instead of cauliflower on the side, she knows how to make a meal out of it. She made a plate of cauliflower with a sauce called béchamel, which is pretty much white sauce.

I feel like I eat a lot of chicken here. I’ve had chicken and mushrooms with a side of mafalde pasta. For lunch one weekend my house mother made chicken with potatoes on the side. She actually made a whole chicken. I was full for the rest of the day. She also served duck as an appetizer. We put the duck on toast. Another appetizer we had for lunch and dinner was Rillette de Jambon which is like a minced ham that we spread on top of some bread.

A lot of the time the sides are green vegetables, potatoes, or pasta. There is always salad and bread available every dinner.

Another meal with the vegetable as the main course was zucchini (corgette) with feta cheese. She cut a zucchini in half, scraped out the inside and mixed the zucchini pieces with feta cheese, and filled it back up. It had the same shape as a long boat shell like the tartine du pain she made. The tartine du pain is a baguette cut in half and filled with ham, cheese, and mushrooms. It tasted like a mini pizza, but we actually had personal sized pizzas the next day.

Most of the time I eat fromage du chevre (goat/sheep cheese) or Camembert as an appetizer for dessert.

Something new I had to get used to is that you don’t put the milk right into the fridge until after you open it the first time. There’s milk just sitting out and in the cabinet right now. Also, the cheese left out a lot.

In the City: Marché de Lices

Every Saturday between 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. there is a huge farmer’s market around the corner from Sainte-Anne at Place des Lices. It’s the second largest market in France with over 10,000 buyers each week. Of course it’s had different purposes over the years, but I read online it’s been running for four centuries now since 1622.

I was very overwhelmed the first day I went, but luckily I was with my CIEE group and my assistant director. Some of the group bought fruits and vegetables from the stands lined up and down the Place des Lices. You can pretty much buy anything here. This market has the widest variety of fresh local fruits and vegetables, freshly caught sea food from the Northern and Southern coasts of Brittany, wine, pastries, breads, meats, and other fresh goods I’ve ever seen!

If you ever get to go one day, I highly suggest buying a galette saucisse (sausage wrapped in a buckwheat crêpe). I usually get it with cheese (galette saucisse fromage). It is a Rennes specialty. You can find them at the food trucks outside of the covered part of the Marché de Lices. Inside of the large building you can find a Brittany specialty called the Kouign-Amann (kinda pronounced like “queen uh mon”). This pastry is so sweet. I tried a piece, but I don’t think I could finish a whole one. My friend seems to be addicted though. Its name derives from the Breton language and pretty much means “butter (Amann) cake (Kouign)”.

Right by the metro station Sainte-Anne there’s a tiny mall and right before it you can find a Boulangerie/Sandwicherie/Patisserie and across from that a Brioche Durée. At most places like these you can find formulas where you can get a drink and a dessert with your meal. Brioche Durée is a chain that mainly sells sandwiches. There’s a formula for students that’s only a little over 5 euros. I highly recommend asking them to heat up your sandwich. If not, depending on your sandwich, it’s really hard to eat because the bread is a little tough to chew. I also highly suggest trying a mascotte saveur chocolat-noisettes as your dessert. My friend and I just nodded at each other while we ate because of how good it was. It’s kind of like a long donut filled with chocolate.

There’s a Subway right by these places, but I’m avoiding American food chains since I wanna try what France has to offer. Another food chain you can find in this little area is Pita Pit. Since half of the group are vegetarians and we have one vegan this is a good option for them. It’s also a pretty healthy option. I had a Pita with falafel, but they have other protein options and you can either make it a pita wrap or a salad bowl. It is a make your own style restaurant like a Chipotle or Subway. Another option for vegetarians/vegans is Le CouCou Rennais. I haven’t been to it, but the others seem to like it.

The popular drinks I’ve noticed here are the cidre (cider), wine, tea, and coffee.

I will soon be trying African and Indian cuisine restaurants. I also want to see what the Chinese restaurants are like here. I hope to find something spicy at the Indian restaurant, because I’m going to be honest a lot of the cuisine here has no kick to it and I love spicy food.

Last weekend a small group of us went to la Musée des Beaux Arts (art museum in Rennes), since it was free for everyone because it was the first weekend of the month. When we went to find someplace to eat for lunch we made the wrong decision. First, we found Le Marché à Manger where you can find all different kinds of food and food trucks, but because of how crowded it was we decided to go somewhere else. Bad idea… we ended up paying 20 euros for a Senegalese brunch that included a hot drink, cold drink, the meal, and dessert. Mine had two eggs, chicken, a fried tuna thing, rice and some type of vegetable but again it was a meal with no spice at all. The dessert was really weird with oddly textured pancakes, macaroons, and whipped cream. We’re not sure why we didn’t just leave. I guess we thought we were too into it because the waitress was taking a really long time to get to us. It’s normal for French service to be slower because they want you to enjoy your meal, but she seemed like the only waitress working at the time and we just got weird vibes from the place. Claire calls our time there Purgatory haha. The restaurant is called Barexpo and it looks like the restaurant has better options and deals throughout the week so I’m not going to have a bad opinion on it. It was just a weird experience we’re not going to forget.

I haven’t tried it yet, but there’s a Lebanese restaurant called Mezzelicious and it looks amazing.

The RU (Restaurante Universitaire)

I will mostly be spending the majority of my lunches at the RU (“Roo”). You get an entrée and depending on the entrée, one to two extra articles (salad or dessert) for only a little over 3 euros! You can also pick out a bread roll when you pick up your tray. There’s water set out on the tables in the dining area, but you can pay extra for another kind of drink. The RU was a nerve racking place the first time we went as a group, because the place is very pact and it felt like I was in middle school again trying to find a seat. I’m completely used to it now though. If your meal seems a little cold, there are microwaves available by the water stations.

There are other little food areas found in other campus buildings. There’s also a boulangerie down the street. I had a gaufre-nutella which is a waffle with nuttella on it. One day the international school bought galette des rois for everyone to try from the same boulangerie. There was an original, a chocolate with I think apple, and an apple galette des rois. Emily found a little toy inside of her piece, so I think that means she was one of the queens of the party.

Quelques Desserts (Some desserts)

It’s pretty normal to have dessert after both lunch and dinner. Fruit and yogurt are common desserts. There are crêperies, boulangeries, and patisseries everywhere, so there are many options. Apples seem to be in a lot of desserts as well.

My house mother makes crêpes with either butter and sugar or jam. The only crêpe I have had in the city so far is from the crêperie right by Place de la Mairie. I still have yet to try it, but one of girls’ host family said the best crêperie is the Crêperie Sainte-Anne.

I hope this didn’t make you too hungry. 🙂

À bientôt.

– Nicole

First time meeting my house mother

The bus dropped us off in one of the parking lots of the university I will be studying at. I’ll go into it more in a future blog, but I am studying at the international school within the university. I was so nervous to meet my house mother. I didn’t begin to feel nervous until we arrived in Rennes. I had only communicated with her through email before my arrival about what I like for breakfast and if I should buy a winter coat in France. She told me that there’s a huge winter sale going on until February 1st, so I waited to by my coat here.

When I first got off the bus, I stood next to a couple girls in my group. A woman came over to us asking who Nicole was and I raised my hand shyly and said moi (me). I was pretty quiet because I didn’t really know what to say, but Bri (my friend from my school) helped take over the conversation. We found out from the assistant director that our host families (familles d’accueil) were friends. Most likely going to have a dinner all together at some point during the semester. We ended up standing together and talking for a couple minutes until we got the rest of the paperwork from the assistant director. I didn’t say much, but I made sure to open up more on the car ride home.

I noticed her car was a European brand. One of the first differences I noticed in France in contrast to the U.S. were the different car brands. There are also a lot of mopeds/scooters. (High key really want one. Hopefully one day!) I talked to her about my family, what colleges my cousins go to, and what my cousin’s majors are on the way home. It wasn’t until dinner that I found out about her family. She has three children, two boys and one girl. They each have two children and her daughter has twins! Her daughter lives closest to her, but she’s two hours away.

For dinner, she made pumpkin soup and a quiche with ham and cheese. Also, she made an apple tart for dessert. There’s usually always a side salad, bread, and cheese. It was all so good. I’ve now eaten cheese from a sheep. Sadly because we ate the pumpkin soup almost every meal I started to become sick of it. I’m taking a pumpkin soup hiatus for right now. I was kinda surprised she put the T.V. on during dinner the first night. It’s become more normalized, since it gives us something to talk about sometimes. It definitely gave us something to talk about the first night, since it brought up American politics and the president of the U.S. It’s perfectly normal for the French to talk about politics at the dinner. I’m just happy we share the same opinions.

I noticed right away my house mother has a very strong French accent, but I’ve gotten used to it now. The way I would describe it to my friends is that “Elle est très française” (She is very French), but I don’t say that with a bad connotation. It only means it’s going to be a challenge in the beginning to communicate. It’s sometimes difficult to catch everything she says because she’s speaking very quickly and because I have a small american accent it’s difficult for her to understand me sometimes as well. Every now and then there are a few words I don’t completely understand. Hopefully by the end of the semester I’ll be able to catch all of the little things she mumbles to herself while watching T.V. Most of the time they’re pretty funny.

The Apartment: Details and Style

The apartment is on the second floor of a four story apartment complex. The apartment is a nice size for two people. My room and her room are on either sides of the apartment. Because the floors are made of wood and they creak I can hear the upstairs neighbor, but I’m used to that because I lived in apartments for most of my life and rarely notice it. There are a lot of large windows, so it’s really nice and bright when the sun is out. Also, there are shutters to help block out the street lamp lights at night. There’s a palm tree outside one of the windows by the dining area, so it gives the illusion that it’s warm outside. It’s been in the low 40s and 50s (Fahrenheit), but there seems to be a lot of palm trees planted throughout the city.

The kitchen is practically it’s own room with a door you can shut. The living room and dining room are the main space with an open floor plan. The furniture is very sleek and stylish to me with a leather love seat and a red and grey single person chair. I mainly sit in the single person chair while she sits on the love seat. There’s also a glass coffee table, but most of the other furniture is made of wood. There’s a lot of blues (teal/turquoise) and reds throughout the apartment. I really like the teal color of the toilet seat haha.

The toilet has it’s own little room like at the hostel, but this time it’s within the actual bathroom. The shower has a glass door and there’s no tub. The first night, she showed me where I can keep all of my shower supplies under the sink. She also had some left over shampoo and conditioner, shaving cream and a hair mask for me. I bought my own shampoo and conditioner later on.

She also has a few paintings on the walls in the main area. Two of the biggest ones are pretty abstract with one being a town in the distance but the paint strokes make it blurry with a dark red background. The other is of two girls in white dresses but the painting style is similar to the other and the girls are facing away from you with a light blue background.

The Rules

She doesn’t have a lot. She’s pretty lenient.

1. After I shower, I have to use a water scraper to get off the excess water, so it’s easier to clean.
2. Leave the towels in the bathroom and hang them on the back of the door.
3. If I shower in the morning I can’t close the bathroom door all the way or the sound of closing the door could wake her up (Her room is right next to the bathroom and the door is pretty loud) I just can’t shower super late.
4. I can only use the trashcan in my room for paper (I have a little plastic bag I use for trash)

My Room

Every famille d’accueil needs to provide a bed, a dresser/closet, and a desk for their student. I have a full size bed, a wooden desk with a glass cover, a cute little bureau with three drawers and a mirror on top, and a rack for clothes I want to hang. I have French doors, but the glass is textured and there’s an extra set of blinds so you can’t see into my room. This is actually funny to me because at home, I sometimes stay in the office where the room has French doors too.

The color scheme is white and purple with one purple accent wall. I have a spotted design on my bed sheets. Even though the comforter is really thick I needed an extra blanket because it can get pretty cold sometimes. I’ve heard from the others in my program that their homes are always really cold. I’d rather it be cold than hot anyway. There’s a little bed side lamp and a white paper mache sphere around the ceiling light. There’s another small lamp on my bureau. She also gave me a woven container (pictured below) where I keep some head bands.

I don’t have an actual laundry basket, so I use my suitcase as one. There’s a washer and dryer in the kitchen. They’re kinda tiny, so I can’t wash all of my laundry at once, so I choose what clothes I specifically would like for the next week. I accidentally put too much into the dryer once and it took all afternoon to dry. It was fine for the wash, but some of my clothes’ material was too thick.

A normal evening with my house mother

I feel like my house mother (ma mère d’accueil) and I found a system that works for us really quickly.

Whenever I would get home at the beginning of the evening, I would work on homework until dinner. I had a two week language intensive course in the morning (I don’t know if I found it totally intensive, but it kept us learning more about French culture) and then after lunch we sometimes had something to do at the university with CIEE. This will probably be the same way once actual classes start.

While she prepares dinner, I set up the table with two table cloths. She has two trays she can choose between to bring out the dining materials. She uses it to bring out the plates, utensils, bread basket, and cheese. She doesn’t drink a lot of water, so she fills up a big dark blue bottle that looks like a wine bottle that I can use to fill up my glass throughout dinner. I set up the rest of the table with the plates and utensils while she finishes up cooking.

Once we’re done dinner she asks whether I want cheese or not. At the moment we have Camembert and fromage du Chevre (goat cheese). I love the fromage du Chevre. I just eat a small sliver before dessert. I was so happy to learn that yogurt is considered a dessert here. I mainly eat yogurt for dessert at school in the states, so I was being French without even knowing it! Other options are fruit or things she decided to buy or cook in advance.

When we are completely done eating, I take the tray with all of our dishes back into the kitchen. I volunteered the first night to always do the dishes. She has a dish washer, but that’s mainly just for the plates and sometimes the utensils. Most of the time I hand wash the utensils and the platters she used to cook.

We end the night usually just sitting together watching the T.V. I sometimes ask things if I’m fully watching, but most of the time I’m working on homework, the blog, or texting on my phone. I hope to watch more with her in the future, so we can have discussions on what we’re watching. As I write this, she’s been watching some crime movies.

There’s a French singing show called “N’oubliez pas les paroles” (Don’t forget the lyrics) and we’ve been watching it before dinner almost every night. We want to see if this one girl, who has more than 400,000 euros, makes it through to another round.

A Walk in the Park

Last Sunday my house mother asked me if I wanted to go to a park not far from the apartment. The park has a pool and a sports complex. While walking to the trail you can see animals like sheep and deer in an enclosed habitat. While on the trail you can see some horses. The trail is a little wooded and because it rains here quite a bit, the trail was a tiny bit muddy. My house mother had the good idea to bring an extra pair of shoes to change into after the walk.

I chose to write about this, because I wanted to express how I knew it would be a good way to get to know my house mother more and how it’s a good supplementary activity to get more French input. We talked about cultural differences between Rennes and where I live and go to school in the states. We talked about the cabins and the camp within the park. Also, we talked about dogs because we saw a cute French Bulldog puppy. I found out her little poodle was stolen a few years ago! C’est terrible! (It’s terrible!) She doesn’t have any pets. Some other familles d’accueils do.

If your host family invites you to do something, I highly suggest doing it. Every host family is going to be different. Sometimes there is only one mother like in my case or you could have two parents or sometimes a family with kids. There’s also a chance another student from a different program is in the same house as you. You are placed into these homes based on CIEE’s survey. The survey helps CIEE focus on whether you have dietary restrictions and what your medical history is. For example, this helps them make sure that they don’t place someone with asthma into a family that smokes. There are also parts of the survey you can fill out about your personality and describe what you would like to get out of the experience living with a host family.

So far things have been pretty good with my house mother. I’m definitely not as nervous to talk to her as the first night. I know I still have a lot to learn from her and her from me, but our relationship seems to be pretty gratifying.

For my next blog I will be sharing the different kinds of food I’ve tried so far in Rennes and what food Bretagne (Brittany) is well known for. 🙂

À bientôt.

– Nicole