Tag: alsace

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Europe France Research Grant

Colmar: Straight Out of a Fairy Tale

Bonjour, mes amis!  The above pictures are from Colmar, France.

So, it’s my last week in Strasbourg!  Since my last post in Bordeaux, I’ve been wrapping up my research, including writing myfinal report.  I’ve also taken the time to revisit my favorite places in Strasbourg.  Including, but not limited to: that ice cream place that scoops ice cream into a flower design, the Jardin de l’Orangerie, Place Kléber, the square around the cathedral, the Galaries Lafayette, and of course the lovely cobblestone streets of Petite France.  I even went in one of the fancy jewelry shops and pretended to be wealthy and tried some of it on.

Today, I figured I would try to see a little more of Alsace, and so I headed to Colmar, which I’m pretty sure I saw on a list of “fairy tale towns in Europe” once.  And I can see why!  From the train station, you walk through a beautiful park with statues and fountains to get to the centre ville.  I spent most of my day wandering, although I had a few memorable interactions with the French…

1. Since I didn’t have a map, I asked the lady in a Guess store where the “plus belles endroits” are, and she told me how to get to the area by the canals.  She also told me about her children and how she considers talking on the phone in a store to be rude.  She was probably disappointed I didn’t buy anything.

2. At a bookstore, a woman asked me to find a psychology book for her on this one shelf (at least I think that’s what she was asking?  I had a hard time understanding her) and so I picked out one on psychiatry.  Hopefully she’s satisfied with that……  I’m still confused about that exchange.

3. And at another store, I was searching for Christmas gifts (get excited, family) when two salespeople came over to ask if I needed help finding anything and if I’d been there before and if I was satisfied with their service.  Considering I still have a stress reaction when people unexpectedly speak to me in French, the encounter was a bit overwhelming, but I answered all their questions and (I think) they even complimented my speaking ability!

Colmar is charming and beautiful, and I’m glad I took the time to do a day trip there before I left.  Everyone I interacted with was incredibly nice, and I definitely recommend it if you’re in the area.  Tomorrow, I’m packing up for the summer, because Thursday I’m off to Paris!  I have three days by myself and then my friend Christine is joining me for my last couple days before I return to the US.  If you told me a few years ago that I would be spending my 21st birthday in Paris, I would never have believed it!  It feels like a dream come true.

À bientôt.

Categories
Europe France Research Grant

Strasbourg: History Museums and Bees

Hello again from Strasbourg!

First of all, I’d like to talk about how nice everyone here has been.  Out of the many emails I’ve sent out requesting interviews, it’s true that most of them never got responses.  But of the people who did respond, they’ve been amazing.  This week, I met a man who’s an expert in furniture, and he printed out all of the French expert rules for me, told me about all of his cases, and showed me his furniture workshop.  And then, at the end, he asked me if I’d been to the Musée Historique, and upon finding out I had not, he called up a friend of his there and got me free admission!

And the Musée Historique was very cool.  Their headsets were location based, so when you stood near a section of the exhibits, that piece of information would play, and it would keep moving on as you walked through the museum.  Plus, I learned a lot about the history of Alsace.  Although I knew it was culturally partially German and partially French, I hadn’t realized how much the territory had actually changed hands!  In particular, the section on World War II talked about how Alsaciens were seen as Volkdeutsch instead of French, but many Germans didn’t consider them to be German enough.  There were also some pictures of places in Strasbourg where they’d had Nazi rallies.  It was strange to see the same places I’ve taken touristy pictures in the museum as part of the exhibit.

I’ve also done a few other touristy things this week, including walking around the European Institution section of the city and going to the Alsacien Museum, which was overall a little disappointing but had a lot of artifacts from Strasbourg through the ages.  I also went to the Parc de l’Orangerie, which is currently my favorite place in Strasbourg!  It had a mini zoo that contained storks, flamingos and a lot of other birds, a small lake where you can rent boats, a garden area with beautifully arranged flowers, and a lot of cafés.  I went to a café for lunch and I got a sugary drink that attracted a lot of bees, much to the chagrin of the other customer at the restaurant, who spent half an hour laughing at me as I flailed around and attempted to swat the bees away with my napkin.  That incident aside, I will definitely be returning to that park again before I leave Strasbourg!

Anyway, I’m off to Bordeaux on Monday, so my next post will be about that trip!  À bientôt.

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Europe France Research Grant

Strasbourg: Parlez-Vous Français?

Bonjour from Strasbourg!

I’ve spent the last week exploring the city and starting my research, which involves a lot of sending emails to try to get interviews (at varying degrees of success).  I had my first interview last Thursday, which went incredibly well!  The woman walked me through their system, helped me refine my questions, and made sure to speak slowly and write down the important details for me.  Considering how nervous I was, it was nice to have such a good experience to start everything off!

I’ve been busy trying to immerse myself in the culture as well.  The weekend before last, there was some kind of festival, so it was as though the entire city had been turned into a giant garage sale, which was fun.  And on Tuesday, I went to an event that was essentially like multilingual speed dating, where people who want to work on English and people who want to work on French meet up and speak in 7-10 minutes in each language.

This past weekend, I went and visited the Strasbourg Modern Art Museum, as pictured above.  As I’ve mentioned before on this blog (see the Guggenheim Museum), modern art is hit or miss for me.  There was a whole exhibit on the the history of modern art, that started with my favorite style, impressionism, and then went through different phases, including everything from cubism to stained glass until it got to the extremely modern part, where I counted four canvases painted entirely black.  There was also a sculpture that looked like a twisted churro, a section with a lot of pencils that I think had something to do with the Cold War, a dress made out of dried cow organs, and some rocks arranged in a giant circle.  It’s always a bit unsettling in a modern art museum, because you never know what to expect when you round the corner.  In one exhibit, there was this room off of the main section.  When you walked in, it was very dark, with black walls and a single light bulb illuminating the room.  What made it interesting was the soundtrack of loudly crashing waves, so it felt as though you’d walked under the deck of a ship.

Now I want to talk a little about the French language, because that was the #1 question I got when I told people about this project.  It has been a challenge, as expected.  As a little background, I started taking French classes at the age of 12, because I wanted to start a foreign language and I had this crazy idea that taking ballet classes would make it easier.  I continued until my senior year of high school, when it stopped being offered.  When I got to Northwestern, I took two quarters more to obtain my required proficiency and didn’t continue.  I was over the comprehension videos about cheesemaking, the endless conjugation charts, the nitpicking grammar, the professor who seemed upset when my class was not already fluent… and then I studied abroad, and was reminded why I took French in the first place.  I sat in my Danish classes and realized I liked taking foreign language classes, and when I visited Paris I decided that if I was brave enough to speak to French speakers, I could handle taking another class at college.  And then, I upped the ante by applying for this project…

The years of French class have mostly prepared me for this.  I’ve had conversations with people.  In the airport, over lunch, with my Airbnb hosts, at the interview.  There’s still a part of me that’s scared of talking to people, and I wish I could casually respond when I’m on a train and it gets delayed and the person next to me asks me a question.  I wish I could go into a shop and not freeze when they ask me if I need help finding things.  I often understand what’s going on, but responding quickly is difficult.  I think having these conversations has been good for me, though, and I’m hoping by the end of the summer it won’t be so scary.

À bientôt!

Categories
Europe France Research Grant

Strasbourg: Celebrating Bastille Day

Hi!  So it’s been a week and a half since I last posted.  It’s been a pretty busy time for me, as you’ll see in the next couple posts.

Here are some Bastille Day fireworks for you!  I got to go watch, and then there was live music and people danced and it was pretty cool.  One thing that surprised me, though, was the lack of flags?  I think I saw one.  Which is not much compared to Independence Day in America, or literally any day in Denmark.  I guess the French aren’t as crazy about their flags?

Anyway, after that, I had a couple days in Strasbourg of sending emails to people I want to interview for my research.  I also caught a cold at this point- unsurprising due to my recent international travel, but unfortunate timing considering I managed to lose my voice for the only time this summer that I truly needed it, for a Skype interview that I was lucky to get rescheduled.  For the weekend I headed off to London for a few days, and then to Marseille.  Quite the dichotomy.  As of late last night, I’m back in Strasbourg and prepping for a couple interviews for later this week.  After a week of traveling, I think it’s time to make myself a schedule so that I can actually be productive.

Posts on London and Marseille are in the works!

Categories
Europe France Research Grant

Strasbourg: First Impressions

Bonjour from Strasbourg!

My flight landed yesterday morning, and then I had a long day at the airport waiting for my TGV train.  I ended up using my French skills to talk to a French couple, which was a huge confidence boost for me.  Also, back when I first started French classes in 7th grade, I assumed that I would never need to worry about the pronunciation of the alphabet?  I was totally wrong.  The French couple asked me about American slang that they noticed on a trip, and wanted me to spell it out.  So I guess that stupid catchy alphabet song did eventually pay off.

Thoughts on the TGV train: first of all, amazing how quickly I could get across the country.  Major props to the French on that.  However, it is slightly terrifying to pass another TGV train.  But overall, a good experience, the train was super comfortable and clean.

From there I took a bus to my Airbnb, which is a nice small apartment a bit outside of the city.  The people I’m living with, a woman and her daughter, have been very welcoming, and I’ve been able to practice a bit of my French with them as well.  They have a cat, which is a new experience for me since my family has always had dogs.  Last night the cat stood outside my door for several hours and stared at me, and this morning it pushed open my door so it could lay under my bed for about an hour.  Is this how cats always are?

This morning I headed into the city for the first time.  I went to a café for a pastry, and got the chance to speak to a few French people again, who were very understanding at my struggles to put together coherent sentences and just spoke slowly to me in French.  Then I wandered around for a bit and ended up taking a boat tour.  The information wasn’t exceptionally useful, but it was a great way to see different areas of the city, from the historic city center to the more modern section with the UN headquarters.

Tonight, my Airbnb hosts are taking me to go see the fireworks for Bastille Day!

Overall, I think it’s going well.  My French is definitely going to get significantly better.  I’m not always that confident about my ability to speak to people, but everyone has been so understanding and wonderful so far.  I can’t wait to see more of the city and start reaching out to people for my research!