Swiss Chocolate

It’s officially midterms week here in France. I’ll admit, this has been the least stressed I’ve ever been over midterms in my life considering that I only have one test (on Wednesday) for my seven classes. Albeit, I’ve had to do a few presentations in the past two weeks—business French, marketing, and organizational behavior—which has taken up the bulk of my time, now I’ve got Spain on my mind. The weather in France has taken a turn for the worse in a matter of days. I feel like we skipped fall and went straight to winter; I’ve had to turn the heater on in my studio. Luckily fall break is coming up and I leave for Spain on Friday. The forecast for Madrid, Seville, and Barcelona looks very promising. I’m very excited about everything, especially the food! First, I need to be able to get to Paris. The ongoing strikes have been way more than I expected. Gas stations have either been closed because they don’t have any gas or have been full of cars. Gare Lille Flandres is a zoo. There’s only one door that’s unlocked and the police are guarding that door heavily. Over the past few days things have gotten better. At the beginning of the week, there was one TGV for every two. Then yesterday it was two for every three, and today there are three for every four. I’ve been looking at the EasyJet website as well as the SNCF website to make sure my plane and train are on time; I’m actually rather lucky that both of my have been unaffected by the strike.

The term “life changing experience” seems to be thrown around freely these days, but since the last post, I really had a life changing experience. The last time we left off, there was a picture of the Verzasca Dam. Since then, I’ve taken the plunge down from there, only a quick 220 meters down. Needless to say, it was the greatest experience of my life. What made it better was the fact that it was in Switzerland, perhaps the most beautiful country in the world. Furthermore, what made the trip to Switzerland better was the hectic journey to get there. The Verzasca Dam is located in the southern tip of Switzerland on the Italian border. In order to get there, I needed to take the first TGV from Lille to Paris, hope on a plane to Milan, where I met Alex and Ryan, then took two trains to Switzerland. In total, I traveled nine hours that day to get where I needed to go. It was worth it. Even from the train you can see the pristine lakes splitting the Alps. The little town of Locarno definitely exceeded my expectations. I came in expecting a tourist town full of tourists. I couldn’t be anymore wrong. This was a typical Swiss town with boats, expensive cars, and really nice people. On that note, Switzerland is very expensive. I knew that Switzerland is expensive, but just like the dam I definitely underestimated the magnitude. The picture below explains it all. Oh yeah, a Swiss Franc is almost equivalent to a US dollar.

Now to the jump. There really aren’t words to describe the jump and the hours leading up to the jump. We were already so excited and full of adrenaline, but we decided to hydrate with some Red Bull and PowerAde beforehand, just in case. When we first got a glimpse of the dam, it was nothing like I expected it to be. This is a little bit of an exaggeration, but I actually underestimated its size by about 100 meters or so; it’s that big. Once we were up on the dam, it was really windy, but the views were stunning. We had an appointment, but in Europe, time doesn’t really matter, so we had to wait about an hour before we jumped. That one hour, however, seemed like an eternity. When it was our turn to jump, everything seemed to fly by. When we were getting our safety lesson, I really wasn’t listening to the man talk because I was just way too excited. Once on that platform, my mind went blank. Then the actual jump. It takes seven seconds to take the 220 meter plunge. Aside from the first second when you realize that you’re jumping from something really high AND that there’s nothing to stop you, it is actually the most peaceful and calm thing I’ve ever done. I thought I was jumping for about five minutes and I had this amazing high. I think my favorite part of the jump was just yelling randomly at the bottom of the dam and hearing this loud echo. There’s so much more that I could say about this jump, but I’ll just let you look at some pictures. 

My last trip was an Oh My Globe! sponsored trip to Reims and Champagne. I haven’t been on a lot of trips in France, which I would like to do more of because there’s so much language and culture in this country. Nonetheless, on the trip we tasted different champagne and visited the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Reims, where French kings were crowned. The church has a striking resemblance to Notre Dame in Paris. The churches are not only similar in name alone, but in their overall architecture.  

 

The last thing I’m going to talk about today is something that I consider a big accomplishment for me here in France: getting a haircut. Now, in France, I’ve opened a bank account, got healthcare and social security, traveled during train strikes, and done presentations in French, but for me, all these things seem so easy in comparison to getting a haircut. All these other things use everyday colloquial vocabulary; well they utilize vocabulary that’s essential to every business major in a French school. Getting a haircut is different though. How often am I going to use the word hair clippers or other haircut vocabulary? For those of you wondering the word for hair clippers in French is the same thing as lawn mower: pelouse. In the end, my hair was becoming a Chia Pet and I needed a haircut, and got one.

First French protest.

La Grippe

It has been an eternity since I have taken the time to sit down and write and there has definitely been a lot going on since my last post. I’ve been hit with a case of the stomach flu for the last few days and it’s been pretty difficult to deal with especially in a foreign country, but I’m getting better, slowly. I was supposed to head down to Paris for the weekend to meet with one of my friends from Santa Clara, but unfortunately I couldn’t leave my room because I was pretty ill (Sorry Carrillo).

What has made my recovery process a little longer than expected is the food. Usually when I’m sick I know what to drink, eat, what agrees with my stomach and what doesn’t. Here, however, it’s a lot different. I can’t find canned soup, or any processed soup for that matter. I had to settle for a box of vegetable broth and make my own soup. What was even more difficult, however, was finding some sort of sports drink to replace all the electrolytes that I lost. I know that Gatorade doesn’t exist in France because it’s a Pepsi product (Coke has a monopoly on the beverages here in France), so I had set out to search for the next best thing: PowerAde. I’ve seen PowerAde all over but I couldn’t find it in any market. My search ended somewhere I didn’t think I would to go: a gas station. While the PowerAde definitely helped out, my illness still made my weekend pretty limited. The highlight of my weekend was going to the movies, which isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but for me it was. I went out to see the new Wall Street movie, which just came out this weekend in France. I’ve actually been excited to see in for the past few months and I was lucky enough to find a theater playing both the French version and English version (with subtitles). I enjoyed the movie, it really motivated to read more business books and such, so today I picked up one of the books that I brought with me to France, “When Genius Failed.” I won’t bore you with the details but it’s a good read.

Camden Market

Since my last post I’ve been to three amazing places: London, Paris and Loire Valley. Each trip was simply amazing. In London, it was really good to just see people from Santa Clara, which was kind of overwhelming at first because there were over 60 people. In comparison to all the places I’ve been to in Europe, London was the place that I had to adjust to the most, ironically. When I first got I, the language was kind of shocking. In my head I was still thinking in French and it took me awhile to get me out of that mindset. Secondly, the sheer magnitude and pace of the city was hectic. With so many people walking with a purpose, it was like I had never been to a big city in my life. The only place where Lille can match London in people per capita is the market at Wazemmes on Sunday, and even then it’s pushing it. Although I didn’t get to see all the tourist attractions in London, I feel like I have a good grasp of life in London though, from the upscale neighborhood of South Kensington to the eccentric stores in Camden. When I was in London, however, everything was mayhem because my visit coincided with that of the pope. Unfortunately, I did not get to see him, but I was really close to where he was doing a service. All in all, it was a good trip, thanks to Alyssa for housing me for a couple of nights.

Tiësto

My next trip was to Paris, but just for a night to see Tiësto in concert at the Queen Club on the Champs Élysées. Just thinking about that sentence is crazy: the world’s most famous DJ playing on one of the most famous streets in the world. The concert was phenomenal just because it’s Tiësto, but because of everything that occurred before the concert. We had booked our train tickets to Paris, but a mere 24 hours before we were set to leave something occurred where I wouldn’t be able to go to Paris. I’ll give you a few guesses as to what happened considering that this is France. Give up? Well a one-day strike to protest Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to change the retirement age from 60 to 62. Let me repeat, 60 to 62. With this being the first strike that directly had an effect on me, I was obviously perturbed because I already paid for my train ticket and my concert ticket. When I first heard it, I thought all the trains were cancelled and the country would be utter chaos without their transportation system. Little did I know, though, that the country still runs like a well-oiled machine during a transportation strike. I went to the train station to find that my train was cancelled, however, I had two options. The first was to get my money back or to take any other train to Paris that was still running. I decided to take the latter as there were still about 15 trains to choose from. In the end, I was a winner as I got to take any train and still got to Paris for the concert. While I thought that was the only problem I would encounter, it was actually the smallest problem. The biggest problem occurred at the club when we couldn’t get in. We had the confirmation number of our tickets, but we didn’t know that we were supposed to go to a super market or electronics store to print out our tickets. After a little bit of panicking and making friends with people, we found our way into the concert.

Château de Chenonceau

Château de Cheverny

Château de Chambord

The last trip was one that I’ve been waiting to do for a long time, and luckily the members of Oh My Globe! planned an amazing for the international students to Loire Valley. Loire Valley is famous for two things: castles and wine. On our trip we visited arguably three of the most famous castles. We started off Château de Chambord then ventured off to Château de Cheverny and ended at Château de Chenonceau. Needless to say, these were some of the most spectacular works of architecture that I’ve ever seen. In my head I have my favorite parts of each castle and will be implementing them on my own chateau in a few years. I think Château de Cheverny was my favorite of the three. Even though Chambord has the sheer magnitude and Chenonceau has the amazing landscaping and is literally built on water, Cheverny had the combination of everything: acres and acres of land, an amazing garden that is wonderfully landscaped and the actually castle has a nice symmetry to it.

While I’ve been actually been doing a fair amount of traveling, school is actually starting to be school. I’m starting to have presentations, quizzes, and midterms. Nonetheless, life is still good in Europe.

Next adventure: This weekend in Switzerland, Bungee jumping at Verzasca Dam (007 Jump)...

...220 meters, yeah that's high.

Definition of Normal

Finally, after a month in France I feel like an actual Lillois. Perhaps it is because this has been the most “normal” week I’ve had thus far. I wouldn’t usually consider trips to Paris and London in a week to be ordinary, but when you’re studying abroad, it’s just a way of life.

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to spend the day in Paris with a friend back home from Santa Clara, the wonderful Stephanie Clements, and her family. It’s still kind of weird that I can say that I’m going to Paris for the day and it’s not a big deal. The whole summer we talked about meeting up in Paris for the day but Steph didn’t know when she was going to be in Paris. Coincidentally, Steph was in Paris during the week that I only had class on Monday. On top of that I bought a ticket to Paris one day before the trip for 15 Euros (J’aime mon carte 12-25), which is really cheap.

When I got to Paris a few things ran through my head: A. I’m going to live here for a year or two, without hesitation B. Wow, I don’t remember this much English being spoken in Paris the last time I was here C. Wow, there’s a lot of English here. After spending so much time in Lille, it felt weird to hear so much English and see so many people/tourists. Just watching made me think sympathize with the Parisians for a little bit, having to deal with so many tourists all year round. Even though I don’t necessarily know my way around the city that well I didn’t feel like a tourist; I felt French—I asked for directions in French, I ordered my food in French, etc.

Paris was pretty much the same as when I went in 2008; some of the pictures I took were exactly the same! This time, however, everything seemed a lot slower and I saw all the details of the city that I missed beforehand. Whether it’s the one stained glass window that’s different from all the rest in Notre Dame, the ‘I love you’ wall at Montmartre that not many people know about, or the vineyard behind Sacre Coeur, I didn’t notice any of these things before and it made my trip that much better.

This week I finally feel like I’ve gotten into the swing of things and feel like I’m at home.  I finally learned how to get stamps from the post office, learned how to open a bank account (en francais bien sur), found the cheapest supermarkets, and I feel like I’m a pro at filling out paperwork, which I’ve been doing about every week since I’ve been here (OFII stamp done, I’m well on my way to getting 90 Euros a month!). Heck, I’ve learned to avoid stepping on the dog poop that has been lying around everywhere. I’ve even gotten use to France’s “soft deadlines.” By this I mean that deadlines are always drawn out and it’s accepted in the culture. For example, when I opened my bank account I was told that my debit card would come in a week. I went to the bank a week later to pick it up and they told me it wasn’t ready. If this were America I would probably complain because I was told a specific date and expect the bank to stay true to their word. Here in Lille, however, it is an accepted part of the culture to be perfectly fine with soft deadlines. I know my example is rather specific but when you talk about homework deadlines or government paperwork, it really boils down to this culture of trust, where everyone trusts everyone.  

The thing that really makes me feel like I’m truly at home is that I’m a regular at a bar. There’s this bar, La Traviata (or La Trav as we call it) right near my school that I go to pretty much everyday and it’s relaxing. First of all, pints are € 2, whenever I go there’s always someone else that I know that, MOMO, but last but not least, the bartender/owner, Sébastian. He’s a big menacing man but with a kind heart. Every time that I go to the bar he’s always there to say hello to me, have a conversation, and teach me French. I feel like going to the bar and talking to the locals and Sébastian has been the soul reason why I have improved my French. Conversely, we, the English-speaking people, are always on hand to teach people English. When there’s a word we can’t put into French/English we resort to charades and drawing pictures. In fact, some of our drawings have ended up on Sébastian’s special board behind the bar. For anybody wondering the word for keg in French is “fût.” There are even times when Sébastian is feeling extremely generous and feels the need to give out free beer to his favorite customers. He’ll tell me that he has some extra beer on hand that he needs to get rid of or that I need to try a certain French beer while I’m in Europe. To simply put it, the atmosphere at La Trav is the epitome of life in Lille. Not the drinking beer part, which is also very prevalent, but the diversity. Whether you’re from France or even South Korea you will never feel left out. The camaraderie amongst those young and old is what separates this bar from others.

The last thing I want to talk about is the education system in France, which is radically different than anything I have ever encountered in the United States. Maybe because I’m an exchange student there really isn’t structure, but in general, there really isn’t structure. What it comes down is the school giving teacher the dates for the semester and the teacher can choose what days they want to have class, for how long, and how many times we meet during the semester. For example, my organizational behavior class meets on Wednesdays for 3 hours every other week. We only meet 6 times over the course of the semester and are finished with the class by November.

Another thing is just the culture of the students in class. I’ve actually never had a large lecture before I got to France but I never expected lectures to be like my intro to marketing class. There’s about a 160 students mostly French, but the class is taught in English. On a quick note, when I signed up for intro to marketing (which I will be credit for at Santa Clara), I didn’t know that the class was literally intro to marketing for people that don’t know anything about marketing or business for that matter. It should be called marketing for toddlers. Anyways, back to the lecture. It is literally a zoo during the lecture. The teacher is kind of soft spoken and doesn’t have the courage to tell everyone to be quiet. People are yelling across the lecture hall, I can barely conduct a conversation with the person next to me because it’s so loud. I was even in the front row!

Lastly, one of the things that really intrigue me is the different points of view offered in my classes. In most of my classes I’m usually one of the few Americans mostly filled with French students and other countries filling in here and there. Because most of my classes are in English I have a clear advantage and as it turns out, I’m usually the outspoken American in class. In one of my classes we did a case study on Patagonia, an American company based in California, and an analysis of why Apple is so successful in certain aspects. Personally, I can go on about these two companies and their organizational styles. The difficult thing, however, is trying to make my responses clear enough so that everyone understands. Thus far it has been quite interesting because we do a lot of group work and Hofstede's Power Distance definition comes into play a lot (special thanks to Professor Toppel for teaching me about this). Working with the Asians, I know that they aren’t aggressive in assuming leadership in the group, whereas Europeans (not all though) don’t mind taking leadership but they like to build the relationship before they get down to business. For myself, the American, my main focus is the task at hand and getting that done as soon as possible.

In any case, however, living and going to school in this culture will be quite interesting over the next few months. The main goal is to just gain a greater understanding of different points of view, which can prove to be very beneficial when I go back home.

I apologize for the length of this post, I just had a lot to say, but I’ll end it here. I’m on the train to London and I’m about to enter the Chunnel! How exciting.

One last thing…

“Shi Shi, wǒ xǐhuān nems!”

The Trappists: Drinking for Charity

I mentioned the Braderie in my previous post when I was talking about the weekly Sunday market at Wazemmes, but it really doesn’t compare. To illustrate, just imagine going shopping at dawn on Black Friday but multiplied by a lot. The whole city is filled with vendors trying to sell anything and everything. I walked down one of the main streets today and it took me about 20 minutes just to go one block! It was a lot worse at night because everyone is just so excited about the festival.

a lot of candy

Along with the Braderie comes the tradition of eating the famous dish of the northern region: moules frites (mussels and fries). Needless to say they were tasty, like everything else I have eaten here in France. Restaurants throughout the city compete to see who can make the biggest pile of mussel shells, and there were some pretty large piles throughout the city.

Rows and rows of olives

One large pile of mussel shells after the Braderie

My trip to BELGIUM

It would be unfair of me to post something without mentioning my trip to Belgium. I guess my favorite part of the trip was the fact that Molly, Ryan, and myself went on a whim. It wasn’t methodically planned out but the trip was more than a success. We first went to Bruges, which I had never heard about until I got to the train station. When we first arrived, however, I immediately fell in love with this place. It was a mix of the medieval architecture, the small size, the extraordinary beer, and just the overall culture. I didn’t care that it’s a huge tourist attraction because there was obviously more to see than just all the touristy things. I think it all starts with the awesome hostel where we stayed. We got great tips from the people that worked there as well as the people that we met at the hostel. To me this was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We met so many people from different countries—the middle aged Australian couple enjoying Europe for a couple of months, our roommates Nick (from London) and Tom (from Brazil) who are traveling on their own, our amazing tour guide/beer connoisseur who moved to Bruges spontaneously because he fell in love with the country—and they just made the overall experience that much better. 

The "rarest" beer in Belgium

Before I got to Belgium I knew that the Belgians were big on a few things: fries, waffles, and beer. Until you go to Belgium you really can’t fathom how important each of these things are. You eat waffles and fries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You drink beer with every meal and when you have nothing better to do. After the amount of beer I drank in Belgium (of course in moderation), I feel like a connoisseur. I tried a lot of rare beers as well as four of the six Belgian made Trappist beers (there are seven Trappist monasteries that produce beer, the last of which can be found in Holland). For those who aren’t familiar with Trappist beers, I’m here to educate you with my newfound knowledge. Trappist beers are produced by Trappist monastery monks (yes, religious ones). They do not receive profit for the beer, rather, they use the money to make more beer and the rest goes to charity! That’s right, charity. One of my goals for the rest of my time in Europe is to try the other Trappist beers, except Westvleteren may be the hardest one to try because it’s pretty rare and it takes five years for a bottle to ferment to the ideal level that the monks recommend.

There’s so many other amazing things about Bruges that I wish I could post, but I feel like it’s time to shower Brussels with a little bit of love, well… Here are a few quotes from our little map made my the locals:

“Brussels is ugly, and we love it. And if we don’t love it, we live with it. So don’t be surprised that we built a terrible apartment block next to an Art Nouveau jewel, or a pseudo-classical monster in front of the Central Station.”

THE postcard shot of Bruges (Brugge)

“The ‘eurocrats’ who work for the EU in Brussels are a community on their own, with their own habits, bars, restaurants,…They all hate Brussels when they first arrive, then slowly fall in love with the place, and in the end they never want to leave.”

In a sense, Brussels is an acquired taste, but still a great city.

Labyrinth in the park

Brussels was quite the change from Bruges. It was a lot larger than Bruges and there were so many people. One of the most intriguing things that I found is immense diversity. It seems like Brussels is a city that’s confused about its roots. For example, street signs in Brussels are in two languages: Dutch and French. There are so many languages and cultures that people change languages mid sentence. I guess that’s what makes Brussels so unique, though. Perhaps the memorable (worst) part of Brussels was our hostel. To be honest, it would be a nice room had it not been broken in every possible way. It was spacious (AND THERE WAS A TV) but the shower didn’t train, light fixtures were coming apart, paint peeling off the wall, and, of course, stains on the bed.

Secret garden?

I know that I may not be talking as positively about Brussels as I am about Bruges, but I really loved it and wish I had more time to spend there. I could honestly see myself working there in the future.

Final thoughts:

-French education system is confusing the hell out of me, but I’m not complaining about only having one class this week.

-This post is already really long and I should end it here.

Home is never far away...

Food: For your eyes only.

Today you're going to get a double dose of me. C'est dommage, right? First, is the long awaited look at some of the food from France and Belgium. Bon appetit!

Croque Monsieur

Ribs

Potatoes roasted in chicken drippings

Rotisserie Chicken

Salad with grilled chicken 

Flemish beef Stew

Chicken Stew

mussels

Lasagne Bolognese

Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream

Good cheap pasta in a takeout container. pure genius

steak frites

Belgian waffle with bananas and nutella

flammekueche

Hello from Belgium!

It has been quite the week here in Lille, full of boring information sessions as well as exciting events thrown by IESEG’s international club. We had a barathon where we visited several bars in the city, a 4-hour scavenger hunt throughout the city (my feet still hurt from all the walking!), and a surprise trip to the city of Béthune and the beach at le Touquet. Besides that I got French healthcare, which I thought I would need this week. One morning I woke up with a sore throat, no energy, slight fever, and no appetite—I felt awful and words can’t describe how I felt. I struggled throughout the day, but 10 hours of sleep seemed to do the trick. Hopefully I don’t get sick during these next few months!

 

Perhaps one of the things I was worried about the most, both before and after I got to Lille, was the classes I would take. The Lille program is relatively new to Santa Clara, and so there isn’t a set list of pre-approved classes and the credits at IESEG don’t really translate to SCU. Because I will be taking classes at both the bachelors and masters level, credits for classes are different. One thing I really like at IESEG is that some classes are extensive and others are intensive. Classes that are extensive meet once a week for a semester (well it seems like a lot of mine only meet for half a semester) and classes that are intensive meet a few hours everyday for one week with a final on Friday. It seems pretty crazy, but I’m actually doing a few of those. Thus far I signed up for 9 classes (20 units), which doesn’t quite equate to a full course load at SCU. With this said, I’m still trying to add classes at the other schools at la Catho aka my French classes because most of my classes are in English besides business French and Euro-Mediterranean relations.

Now that my week of orientation is over, it’s time to actually start school. Well actually, it isn’t. Thanks to the wonder French education system I don’t have any classes the first week and for my second week I only have one class, and it’s on Monday. This means one thing: a lot of traveling through Europe. Currently, I am writing while cruising on a train along the beautiful countryside of Belgium. I feel like Xavier from one of my favorite French movies “L’auberge Espagnole.”  For the next few days Molly, Ryan, and myself will be exploring the medieval city of Bruges and the wonderful city of Brussels. It was kind of a spur of the moment trip because none of us have class the first week. Even better, we got really cheap train tickets (only 13 Euros to Bruges) as well as some cheap hostels.

Looking forward to when we get back to Lille, we have a few things for which to get excited. We plan to take the 45 minute TGV ride down to Paris to do a little bit of exploring. The other reason to be excited is the famous “Braderie.” From what we heard, it’s Europe’s biggest flea market with people coming from all over the continent to both buy and sell stuff. As you walk around the city, you can see people already sleeping in tents trying to get the best possible areas in Lille. 

 

To put things into perspective, today experienced the weekly (flea market) at Wazemme. Ryan went last week and said it was quite the experience. Literally everything was sold, from things like clothes, socks, and towels to exquisite cooked food like rotisserie chickens, slabs of ribs, and both Moroccan and Asian delicacies. The smell throughout the market was contagious and I couldn’t resist buying some food. I decided to get a slab of ribs (5 Euros) a quarter chicken smothered in its drippings (2 Euros) a container full of roasted potatoes in chicken drippings (2 Euros) and a baguette (50 cents). Needless to say, it was one of the best meals thus far. This market is amazing, but I honestly can’t imagine what the Braderie is going to be like.

A few parting thoughts…

Even though I have been here for more than a week, I still can’t get over how nice people are here. It really seems like a family here in Lille, as people are willing to talking to everyone, even the homeless people.

I’m not sure how I’m going to get used to all the rain. It’s not like it rains all day here. It will rain for a few minutes then stop, and then get harder again. It’s kind of unpredictable.

I wish I paid more attention to the metric system in school

Professor Toppel’s lecture on culture in MGMT 80 mirrored exactly what a culture specialist talked about during her information session. “Culture is like an iceberg: 10% of a person’s culture is above the surface, and the other 90% is below the surface.

Update:

Belgium is awesome.