Post-Honeymoon

The first week of November just passed which means I have been in France for over two months now. I cannot decide if it has felt like a long time or not, but it has been two months that have offered me more adventures and insight and lessons and people than I ever imagined. Needless to say, I absolutely love living in Nantes and I am excited for the two more months to come.

Before I left for France, I was in the stage before the wedding where I was really excited, anticipating all the fun I was going to have and dreaming up how perfect everything would be. Then I arrived in France, the wedding day, which overloaded me with new people and challenges, and each day I discovered something new that I loved about the city and its people. Most of September and October acted as the honeymoon phase and was amazing. It felt like one long, incredible vacation with new friends and new sights to explore down every street. I spent each day focusing on absorbing as much French life as I could because everything was dripping with novelty. November marked the end of my French honeymoon and the beginning of real life. I have actually started studying for tests and researching for papers (My motivation to stay inside and do work is struggling greatly with all the opportunities to go out or just snuggle in my warm bed).  My work for school is starting to pile up, and since we only receive a few grades (notes) for each class, I actually need to put effort into my assignments. Within the last few weeks, I have successfully taken my midterms and I am pretty proud of myself because they were all in french (I am used to taking grammar tests written in french, but expressing pages worth of my ideas in french on a topic like sociology or art history is new to me!).

I went to take my Geography midterm at l'Universite last Friday but the doors to many buildings on campus were baracaded by thick walls of trashcans and chairs and wooden crates. Once I actually made it to my class through another entrance, only half the class was there and the test was rescheduled for another day. The professor was angry because our classroom was still accessable so the absent students had no reason to miss class, but he still changed the test date and let us leave class early. The entire university campus is decorated with new graffiti which proudly announces ideas like "It's not necessary to change the retraite, it's necessary to change our system of capitalism!" Apparently there was a vote last week where 250 radical students out of the 6000 total decided that the university would be on strike all week. It is completely different than what you would ever see at a university in the States. All students attend the university for free, but as a result, many seem to respect it much less and have less motivation to attend classes (in the States, each class you miss is like throwing away a handful of cash that you already paid to the university). The encircled A symbol of anarchy, which is tagged and stickered across campus, is completely accurate for the ways things function at l'Universite. Just like les Francais in general, the students appear to do what they want as if there was no higher authority. It is becoming an ever-increasing theme for la vie en France.

The downside to my growing plate of homework is that I have less time to profiter de (take advantage of) different events throughout the week. I have been working out less, going to SUAPS (the university sports program) less often, and feel less obligated to attend different social events because I could potentially be studying. However, when it comes down to it, I am still continuing to put my french "experience" ahead of my studies (After I leave Nantes, I know I will remember my studies much less than all the other exciting opportunites that I profiter from). I will gladly take a break from studying to play a game with my host family, and I can sacrifice study and sleep time to go out with my brother and his friends for a genuine French night.

I went out this weekend to a place called La Maison (the house) which had different rooms you could sit in while having drinks (the bathroom, the living room, the bedroom). While we were there, we heard english (which is always a pleasant surprise) and discovered that a large group of ERASMUS students (an exchange program for European students) were sitting close by. We talked to people from Scotland and England and Ireland (the Irish accent is still very charming and still my favorite) who were all very friendly. Later in the night we ran across some of my host brother's friends who joined us as we walked around a lively quartier in le centre-ville area called Bouffay. And finally on our way home, we ran across some french girls who were excited to talk with us about different perceptions of France versus the States. Overall, it was a night filled with fun interactions with new people. I think these little interactions are exciting even if they are with people who I might never see again. After being in France for two months, I have learned that the world is pretty small, but there are so many people out there to connect with who are really compatible with me. That makes me even more motivated to continue exploring and seeing new faces!

So yes, the honeymoon is over, but the adventures keep flying my way. My love for France is as stong as ever, and we have many more exciting bonding times planned for the next two months.