A day of sun and wine tasting drinking.

smcfranceypants:

We both apologize for the lack of posts in the last week or so - it’s “partiels” week here at the CIEF, and we’ve been busily studying and preparing. (“Partials,” in English - kind of like a midterm, but it’s not really mid-term, just mid-topic…) Needless to say, school is school, and it is going…

Read my American friend Joy’s post about International Women’s Day and studying in our program. When I mentioned International Women’s Day to my host mother over dinner on March 8th, she scoffed. I’d been curious in the first place to see what her thoughts were on feminism, as it seemed to me from the beginning like she fulfills very traditional values in regards to a women’s role in the home. I think that this might be more of a generational gap than a cultural thing, but either way, I was surprised and happy that she even knew about the day in the first place. Most of my professors here acknowledged it as well, which I thought was really cool. I think that no matter what people’s opinions on feminism or women’s rights are, the fact that this progressive “holiday” seems to be opening the floor for discussion is an incredible achievement.

Ahoy.

It’s Sunday night and I spent a significant amount of time this afternoon sitting at my desk doing homework. Because I guess I am here to go to school or something. That’s what they’re telling me, anyway.

Classes don’t seem too bad - I still don’t have a clue about French grammar, but then, I doubt I ever will. I am part of a Canadian majority in my class, but apart from us four my other classmates are from all over. A lot of people have really different backgrounds and reasons for being in the program (it’s a specific French-as-a-foreign-language program within the larger university). It’s really different to be in a classroom environment where everybody is bringing something different to the table. I think that might be one of the best things I’ll get out of this whole experience.

On Saturday I went with a group of people mostly from my university back home to Lac Kir. We walked there and walked around the lake, then took the bus back into town. People were walking their dogs and rowing and there’s even a little beach where people swim when it’s warmer. It’s not the most beautiful spot in the world, but Dijon really doesn’t have a lot of grass or trees in the city centre so it was a nice change of environment. I’ll definitely be heading back.

In other news, I spent the rest of the weekend watching Disney classics (Hunchback and Beauty and the Beast), being nostalgic about the Harry Potter franchise, and frantically searching for summer job prospects. 

It’s snowing today! It was my first time seeing snow since leaving Canada over a month ago. I have mixed feelings about it. Also it’s really really weird to hear birds chirping outside my window while big old snowflakes are falling.