in poitiers at last!!

Salut à tous!! I am in Poitiers, France at last! I have been here about 7 days so far, actually. However, as I didn’t have a stable internet connection until today, I couldn’t get in touch with you as quickly as I would have liked.

I am quite happy here; I love the school. Everyone here–students & administrators alike–is very friendly and helpful. I really like the school’s program: two years are here in Poitiers, one year is spent abroad, and an additional two years are spent studying in Paris. Et voila, after that, you have your master’s. I’ve never heard of a program like that in the States, and I think it’s quite ingenious. Everyone here also is to graduate having a complete proficiency in French, Spanish, English, and Portuguese. As I will only be studying here for a year and am only competent in Spanish and French, I’m not obligated to learn Portuguese. However, if I could, I absolutely would.

I’m almost a little jealous of the students who are doing the full 5-year plan because 1) my major is International Politics, and this school is very strong in political science area and 2) I love languages. If I could go to a university where I could just study languages, I would have. Unfortunately, you need to be well-rounded if you want to get a job in the “real world” (a place that I am not looking forward to going after graduation), so learning languages and languages only would not have been a prudent decision. 😛

Anyways! Enough about my life story. I have a couple of pictures of my dorm and of la ville de Poitiers, which I hope will interest you.

Voici ma chambre:

My dorm room is pretty small, and my bathroom is about the size of a Polly Pocket playset. However, as it is no smaller than your average Georgetown dorm room and small means less space to clean, I have no problems with it. And I love my French windows and my view. So that makes up for a lot 🙂

Also, here’s a little peek at the shared kitchen in the dorm, which is exponentially cleaner than its Georgetown counterparts:

Definitely, for anyone considering studying abroad for a year, let me tell you, the first month will be the most expensive. You have to buy so many random things that you can’t do without–like nail polish remover. And sponges. And forks.

But anyway, I am rambling, and here is another picture which I hope you will like:

Notre-Dame-la-Grande, which was erected in the 12th century, (that is, if I have translated the roman numerals correctly). Pretty beau, eh?

As for the speaking-in-French-and-French-only thing, it was very difficult on the first day, but I have been getting a little better and better at it every day. I hate it when I open my mouth to say something and horribly English-accented French words tumble out in slow motion. However, whenever I get discouraged, I just remember the words of my French host mother back in Tours, France, during a summer study-abroad program back in 2007. I was at the dinner table with the rest of my French family, and I was talking about how in school sometimes I didn’t want to raise my hand because it would take me like 10 minutes to ask a simple question. At this point, she put down her fork and said quite loudly, “Il faut oser!” Being that I only had about 3 years of French schooling in high school, I nodded vigorously to this exclamation and smiled having no idea whatsoever what she was saying. But she was very passionate about the subject and kept throwing around words like “courage” and “très fort” and so forth, so I just nodded, oui-ed, and non-ed at all the appropriate parts. Later that night, I ran up to my room and looked the word up. Oser: to dare. Il faut oser.