The French Don't Doodle

FYI: that image was snagged off Google Images, but it's really close to my doodles. :-)

So, let's say you're in a 50-minute lecture. The professor is in front of the class blah-ing and blah-ing about something you could really care less about. You're there for the credits, right? As your mind begins to wander, so does your pen. It sneaks over to the margins of the paper you're taking your "notes" on and begins aimlessly drawing. Before you know it, you've got aliens, spaceships, holiday-themed drawings, your name in bubble letters 50 times over, flowers, hearts, faces, stick figures, drawings of people drawing people, the list goes on. I know I tend to gravitate toward aliens (no pun intended...oh, who am I kidding? pun intended!). Usually ones that look like your typical upside-down teardrop-shaped heads with those freaky giant black eyes that slant down. Then, I take it so far as to draw a spaceship, also your typical UFO, with a beam of light coming out of the bottom to bring the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" to life. I remember during class one time last year, I drew this very elaborate drawing with aliens and spaceships that almost took me the whole class period to complete (I did have 75 minutes, though). It was all kinds of awesome. I had written phrases and drawn aliens abducting humans and all sorts of stuff. I was really proud of that doodle. I even showed it to my friends after class.

Needless to say, I'm a doodler. A HUGE DOODLER. And that's just in classes that last 50 minutes. Think of the possibilities you would have in 90-minute lecture, a two-hour lecture, even a three-hour lecture! I'm telling you, those possibilities are endless. And here in France, I'm lucky enough to have classes that last that long. And usually, here's how it goes: I pay attention for 30 minutes, doodle for 30 minutes, nod off for 15, take notes for 30, doodle for 30, etc. Now, don't worry, I'm kind of exaggerating here, but you get the point. I'm a doodler.

And in my classes I've noticed one very strange thing: The French don't doodle. None of them. Not even a single one. I make it a point to sit by different people in my classes to peek at the way they write their notes. The French people are serious, oh, are they serious about note-taking. You'd think they were receiving grades based on their note-taking. They ALL carry little pencil cases, boys and girls alike. Those pencil cases are filled to the brim with pens in 15 different colors, styles, and shapes; they also carry around white-out like their lives depended on it and almost all of them have a ruler. Now, I found this quite strange during my first few classes here. At home, you're lucky to have one nub of a pencil or a leaky pen floating around in your backpack for note-taking. Hardly anyone is organized to a T like the French are when it comes to note-taking. At IU, I've seen a ton of kids just sit there, staring at the professor without writing a single word down. I've also seen the kids who are always fumbling for a writing utensil and then someone hands one over. Us Americans are just not that serious about note-taking. Don't get me wrong, I like to have good notes. I usually do the typical headings with bullet points. Not the French. They write down the title of the course, then they use a different color pen and get their ruler and perfectly underline it. Then, once the actual note-taking process begins, they write certain things down in one color and other things in another color. Among these notes a few perfect underlinings are thrown in just for good measure. If they accidentally cross an L instead of a T, you better believe they whip that white-out out before the teacher has even had time to move on to the next word.

With the seriousness of these French note-takers, it makes me question my own note-taking abilities. During the course of the class, I'll momentarily look down at my notes and look at the notes of the girl or boy next to me. Mine look like a heap of letters that may contain a few words somewhere in the middle while the Frenchie's notes are so pristine and precise I could glean a thesis for the whole class by glancing in the middle of the page. I'm serious, the French take note-taking as seriously as the class itself. Therefore, they don't doodle. Me, I'd rather have a jumbled page of notes I'll have to decipher at a later date along with cute little doodles around the corners. I think it gives it character. I'm not a cyborg that has been manufactured for note-taking, I'm a simple American girl with a wandering mind.

I Finally Started School!

So, long time no blog. Sorry, guys. I started school last week! REAL SCHOOL. Like real college at a real French University. And let me tell you l'Universite de Provence is NOT like the beautiful Bloomington IU campus. When my fellow Hoosiers walk to class, they're seeing changing leaves on the trees, beautiful limestone buildings, and well-kept corridors and classrooms. When I walk to class, I see Che Guevara spray painted everywhere along the buildings spattered with various English curse words. Then, you actually walk into the building and the building is DIRTY. Incredibly dirty, there is graffiti everywhere on the inside, and there are wires, YES wires, hanging out of the ceiling . The Fac de Lettres also is very unorganized in setup. It's confusing to get from class to class. And unlike IU, I have ALL of my classes in the same building. Each different school within the university has its own building here. And the building I'm in is a huge piece of crap. But, you get what you pay for I suppose. French students only pay 300 Euros PER YEAR. That's right, per year, to go to college. When I tell French people how much I pay, they freak out. They think I'm joking. Alas, I am not. We Americans pay TOO much for college.

But, enough about the building, let's get to the classes. My fellow Hoosiers will also be incredibly familiar with our good friend OneStart. That helps us pick and choose our classes and register online in minutes. Here in France, they don't even have class schedules up and ready until a few days before class starts. Therefore, the foreigners FREAK OUT about it. It's incredibly disorganized and a bit hard to deal with. I had a lot of time where I was really confused and worried about the classes I had chosen. But, I got some picked out and I'm quite happy with them right now. I'm taking a French poetry class, a Creole history and language class, and an Italian literature class at the University of Provence. Then, through my program I'm taking an oral expression class and a written expression class. I'm taking 14 credit hours this semester, so that's almost normal course load.

But, classes are going great and I'm very happy here. Although, I AM a bit homesick. I'd love to come to Bloomington for a weekend. I miss my college life. But hey, how often do you get to live in France for a year? So, I'm taking it as it comes and making the most of it. Please know I miss you guys like crazy and packages are always accepted on my end. Sour Patch Kids and Twizzlers, especially.

Till next time!

The Big, Scary, French Health Care System!

Well, today was quite eventful! I had my first experience with the medical system in a country with universal health care. It was quite a bizarre experience. So, here's how it went. Me and my friend Samantha both needed to go to the doctor so we decided to go together to make it easier on ourselves and essentially, we took one for the team. So, we found out where the doctor's office was but getting into the building it's in was rather tricky. Everywhere you go here you have to push a million buttons just to get to where you need to go in the building; it's quite frustrating.

We finally entered the building and the office we needed to go to was on the 1st floor (that's essentially the 2nd because there's a main floor that doesn't count). So we walked up these spindly, windy, narrow steps and made it to the 1st floor. But it wasn't really anything. The stairs just stopped and there was like, a 3'x3' landing (and that's being generous) and a door with more buttons to push. So we get into the actual doctor's office and there's a waiting room, a doctor's office, and a dentist's office. The waiting room houses both the doctor's patients and those of the dentist. I found that bizarre.

So, we sit there in the waiting room. There's no receptionist, no list to sign, nothing. You just sit and wait your turn. But we didn't know that. Also, there are no nurses. Just the doctor. The doctor actually comes to get you from the waiting room. How personal, right? But since Sam and I didn't know that you just stand up when it's your turn we just sat there. And sat there. And sat. For an hour. Probably 45 minutes longer than we should have. It was quite horrible. So I called our program director and she saved our lives by coming and helping us. As soon as she walked in, the doctor came to see us. And from then on it was cake! But here, they don't really have the same privacy laws as at home I don't think. It was very different. The doctor was incredibly nice though and fixed us right up with our prescriptions and sent us on our way. The visit was 22 Euros with the doctor, but 70% will be refunded because of the health insurance that is mandatory here (200 Euros for the year). Then my prescription was 14 Euros. So not a bad trip at all!

Even though the whole experience was kind of overwhelming, I'm glad I went and did it so I know how it works if I ever need to go again. Next time I won't sit in the waiting room for an hour just people watching!

Au revoir!

Solo Trip to the Market

Today, I went to the market for the first time. Also, I went alone. I wandered around for a little while because I was incredibly confused as to how it worked. I just meandered and looked for food that I wanted. Then, I decided to take the big leap and just try it out. I walked up to a vendor (a very cute old woman) and told her I was foreign and asked how it worked. She was very eager to help. She showed me what to do and helped me choose things. I bought tomatoes and onions from her. After that experience, I understood what to do. So I chose another vendor and checked out their goods. These women had all kinds of fruits and vegetables that were grown in their garden (or so the posted sign said). So, for those of you who don't know how the market works, here's how it goes: you check out the selection, make choices, put them in a little basket (or whatever they have) and then hand the whole basket to the vendor. Then, they weigh everything and tell you the price. How easy, right? I was terrified, but finally got the hang of it. So I went to a couple more vendors and at the end of my trip, I had spent 10 Euros. I purchased onions, tomatoes, a green pepper, a cantaloupe, a cucumber, a head of lettuce, two grapefruits, and some strawberries. I thought I did pretty well. I learned how the market worked and got some delicious produce. I even tapped into the strawberries on the walk home. They're delicious!

So, this was my first trip to the open-air market. I'll surely have more wonderful experiences in the future, especially since they sell specialty olives there. I need to try some of those!

Au revoir mes amis!