Venturing into Nantua

I might want to take advantage of this one last day of so-called freedom to write an entry before the weekend starts which will in turn give birth to a manic Monday. Recent events are also more present in my mind than they would be in for example a couple of days.

Sweet readers, I’ve come back from Nantua!

And it was shortly put, awesome. Nantua as I mentioned above is situated between Lyon and Geneva (Switzerland) which makes it a perfect location to visit the before mentioned cities, although not per se in that respective order. But before I engage into what I and my Erasmus possy did there, let me first tell you about the house. I don’t really know who told me that we were going to reside in an actual chateau (castle), yet it was mentioned to me a couple of times and I just sort of assumed it were true. As it turned out it was more of a chalet, a big house. It was a huge (see pictures) with two living rooms, two kitchens, two bathrooms (with a bath), balcony, luxury bedrooms for litterly everyone and last but not least there were fire places for atmosphere. You might think that paying for these refined lodgings would compel me to put my non existing house up for a second mortgage. I won’t go into financial details, yet surprisingly I paid very little. We arrived, some by car some by train in the late afternoon last Saturday. After having started off the week with some champagne we decided on who was going to sleep in what room and just made your basic necessary agreements. That night we played some board games and cooked in the very nice cozy kitchen. The next day it was Sunday and since there wasn’t really anything to do we decided to go for a walk in beautiful unspoiled Nantua. We went to Nantua Lake which is really huge and gorgeous and just hung out there for a while, being mellow and having relaxed conversations..it was after all a very relaxed Sunday. Coming back we resorted to board games again..this time Monopoly. I had not played this game since my fourth year on Earth, so I couldn’t really remember how it was played. Yet I was surprisingly good at it as it turned out, owning everyone the first hour and half..but then it sort of went downhill as the silent guy (Primoz), owning nothing in the beginning, emerged by buying everything and finishing off the rest. Later that evening we of course did some drinking games…hey, how often is one on Erasmus? That’s right.

We didn’t make it too late, since the next day we had to get up at 6 in order to catch the bus to the train station to catch the train that would bring us to Geneva! Geneva is beautiful and surprisingly clean. There’s a huge beautiful lake; Lake Geneva. As most of you probably know it is Geneva where the United Nations convene and of course we went there to have a look. Since we didn't have enough time to do a guided tour we just walked about a bit (see pictures). I also wanted to go to the Musée des Beaux Arts et Histoire with my Italian friend Letizia, yet once arrived we saw the sign that it was closed on a Monday…typical. Next to that we visited a very beautiful church and just walked around the city. It’s quite sad how little you can do if you want to cover an entire considerably sized city in a few hours…we after all had to catch the train and bus back to the hamlet of Nantua.

Next day it was Lyon on the program! Of course we had to get up early again. The previous morning I had been an absolute wreck having to restrain throwing a tantrum when I didn’t find my instant coffee and looking vicious if someone were in my way. I was however forgiven, yet I surprised myself…I might want to lay off the black gold more.

Lyon was pretty and très très French..I believe it’s called the Paris of the South and the French are proud of their Lyon. As they should, it's very beautiful. Especially when you look at the city from the top of a big hill. Lyon has a huge shopping area, the which I didn’t mind and there was also a…Starbucks! My friend Fatima had taken a picture of me holding a soy cappuccino, yet for some reason I looked like I had just died in the picture. So just take my word for it when I say I was in there. We didn’t really do that much in Lyon which makes us sound like we’re lazy. This may be true to a certain extent, yet as I said earlier in this considerably big blog, we had to get back in time (4).

The evening of the Lyon daytrip was epic in the sense that we played yet another drinking game. Not just a drinking game, no. It is called 'Ring of Fire' and it is played with a deck of cards each of which signify an amount of alcohol to be consumed or an amount to be distributed, the sole purpose of the game being sheer intoxication.

Wednesday was what you can call a lazy Sunday, misplaced in the week. It wasn’t really about anything other than sitting on your behind and eating. Until someone had the idea to go jumping into Nantua lake. Yes, this idea is as crazy as it sounds, if not ten times as insane. The fact that I joined in even surprised me…yet I did it and it was not to mention in the evening. Me, my friends Matt, Irina and Jelle simultaneously jumped into the water. As I hit the water a huge shock came over me…it was so incredibly cold! So was the water with the 2 subsequent dives. Yet surprisingly enough this ‘dipping’ into very low temperature water is good for you and I actually felt rejuvenated afterwards!

The following evening was of course as the previous one, epic. It was a great week and we're thinking about returing. When? I really don't know..

Bisous

Owning Besac.

Not a whole lot of particularly special things has happened of late. I’ve been going to class mainly and have been busy with that a lot of things. I have mainly travaux dirigés, which means tutorials. And as with most tutorials, there is homework to be done. I find the homework for Histoire du Droit the most difficult, I have to read and analyse texts for this class. Which itself doesn’t sound that hard yet there’s more to it and when we discuss them in class I find their sidetracking very farfetched. Yet, I guess I’m managing..
The TD for Droit Civil is actually very interesting and I think I’ve made quite a good choice here since I’m doing the work with a smile and find myself intrigued by French sentences. Next to the facts that law interests me and knowing more about the French jurisdiction being handy for my sworn translation work, I also wondered whether or not I’d be cut out for studying law after I’m done in Maastricht (in 1,5 year)..and I must say I’ve not yet been put off. Yet, these seminars are so intensely long and demanding. The professor explains and tells, yet to understand and write it down at the same time (in French) is just so hard. Then again I’m doing my best and what else can you expect? The style of teaching here is so different from that what I’m used to… But let us be cheerful!

Last Saturday there was a Halloween party on campus…for which everyone at the last minute decided to dress up. The theme colours were orange and black and of course you were expected to wear some kind of costume. I happened to have clothes in those colours, so no harm...yet felt kind of lame in the end for not having a proper outfit. Halloween is after all THE excuse for dressing up and having nobody else say anything bad about it. The night was really funny and they served this really cheap punch, which of course was 80% alcohol and got you in a party kind of mood. The nice thing about campus life is that a lot of people know each other and it sort of becomes an intimate trusted party when you’re all together. Thus was the case with the soirée d’Halloween. See pictures!

Last Monday I had two presentations for my Dutch teachings. I have to admit, I’m not the most fond of presentations and public speaking in general. I don’t really know why, I remember vividly loving the attention in elementary school when doing small innocent “show and tells”…Yet the bullying in the first years of high school must have assailed my confidence or something. I don’t have any problems with my confidence these last years, but presentations still invoke death scenarios in my mind. So naturally I was nervous the first one. With the second one however something inside of me changed. I just didn’t care at that point and went on with the presentation. A moment of clarity?

The first weeks of studying have come to an end for the time being because the holidays (Toussaint) have begun! Since I’m not going home nor going to Paris to visit my friends (the original plan) I found myself without a plan..but not for long. “Hey Daniel, fancy coming with us to live in a chalet near Lyon?!,” asked a friend of mine. And hey, why not grace them with my presence? Yes! We’re going to Nantua (between Lyon and Geneva) for a week! :D As said it’s a chalet which is supposed to look like a small castle and we’re renting it with 9 people! These are all very nice people and it’s going to be good fun. Today we went for food shopping..I think I got a hernia from it. We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon with the train. Stories and photos will follow…

Bisou,
Daniel

J'ai la peau douce, dans mon bain de mousse

It’s official, I’ve been here for a month now! It’s sounds strange, but I don’t miss anything of home very much. Of course I’d like to see my friends and family and cats, yet I will see them in a few months again and that idea reassures. And in all fairness, my two great friends Sophie and Alexander have been here for 2 days last week! Here’s the story: Sophie's father, Frank, happens to have two houses and a lot of ground surrounding it in the nearby town of Champlitte, which is 70 km northwards of Besançon. I actually hadn’t known this till a few months back when I saw Frank again at a party. I had already chosen Besançon for my period abroad and we were happily surprised that Champlitte was thus reachable from here (for French standards)! So Frank had invited his sister Els, Sophie, Alexander and myself for 2 days at his beautiful medieval renovated remains.

Friday two weeks ago Els came to pick me up after class in Besançon. We took the road through the country, which is breath taking in the Auvergne :) And after arrival and having pleasantly installed myself in the very pretty house on the very pretty premises, we had dinner and started reminiscing about the past trip I had with Sophie and Frank. Later that evening Sophie and Alexander arrived, having been unpleasantly introduced to French traffic jams.

Next day we helped Frank out with his grape vine and garden, which are both of considerable size. We picked them and after having sorted them neatly, we stood and stamped on them to make grape juice which would in turn become wine. Making wine the traditional way is good fun, see pictures! Of course there were also moments of respiration (like scrumptious dinner and going out to the only open bar of Champlitte) :D

On Sunday we went back to Besançon and we had some dinner in my room. Which is quite difficult if you lack kitchen utensils and space..but we managed quite well. The following Monday it was the first day of my student assistant position. Next to my own classes I had 2 classes in which I just sort of sat there and agreed on stuff the teacher said. I had to read some paragraphs and tell about the Netherlands. Apparently there’s a considerably widespread notion that Dutch is a German accent. This sort of astounded me, since I thought that the fact that the Dutch language is the most difficult to learn in the world, was in fact widespread. Must have been a newsflash for the first years as well.. Then there was explanation of conjugation and just getting to know the French students a little. Not too demanding, yet if you’re doing the entire day it can be quite exerting. Plus, I had just come down with a little bug called the common cold, nothing to worry about since it passed in a week.

On Tuesday, after class, my guests and I went to see which I believe is the prettiest sight of Besançon: the Citadelle. It’s a huge stone settlement (stronghold) on top of a big hill, which I think was last used in the French Revolution for the aristocracy to hide in. There was a zoo within the walls of this impressive settlement and they had…monkeys! If anything, I think monkeys are totally awesome and there were monkeys galore of what not species! There were also flamingos, lions, tigers and other species of animals. See pictures. It was killer.

Then, unfortunately, Alexander and Sophie had to leave me again. It was sad, but not super sad because of the above mentioned argument. :) It was nice to have them over and perhaps we’ll crash Champlitte again in the Christmas holidays.

Since then I’ve been going to classes, have going out and just basically live here. The classes I’m taking have altered, I’ve swopped one (constitutionnel) with Français Langue Etrangère, which is a language class for foreigners adapted to your level. They’re all sort of demanding and at various times my head is still spinning an hour after having had class. Then again, these seminars take 2 hours and often they don’t even give you a break. Plus, hello, they’re in French. Yet this is how you learn the language; having no choice but comply. And if I want to be cut some slack, I say “Je suis étudiant Erasmus” with a thick accent and they tend to lay off a little…Sheer pity I think. For example, today I had my first tutorial for History of Law and I had explained to la prof that I was on an exchange and she afterwards said that she’d take that into account and that my exams would be different and that I were at liberty to change the day of my presentation. (PRESENTATION?????) So, I’m not getting out of anything, yet if I come across as thick, it’s not going to be held against me (nor hopefully my grade)...

Salut, chalut.

P.S. You may have noticed I don't sort my pictures in correspondance to my story, this is because I cannot be bothered.