L'automne

I thought it had only been one week since I'd posted last. I guess time flies!

Yesterday was the beginning of daylight savings. Not to mention it was Halloween. Angers has finally conceded to autumn. A couple weeks ago, I was sad to note that there were very few colourful leaves, despite Angers' mild climate and plentiful greenery. I take it all back now. The colours are magnificent! Deep royal reds, bright oranges and yellows, and even some leaves that look kind of pinkish. There are so many plane trees here (those trees with bark that looks like camouflage), and their foliage is much like that of maple trees - a nice little reminder of home. And the quality of light in the evenings is so wonderful. The city looks golden! Unfortunately while Mother Nature is changing her outfit, she's also turning on the air conditioning. It is chilly chilly here in the morning and at night, especially when you're biking! But no matter, it just makes me appreciate coming home and climbing under my two duvets all the more. I'll have to look into buying hot chocolate, I think.

Classes are going fairly well. I'm loving my langue class. I just have so much respect for our professor, because you can tell she has respect for us. And she's always mixing up what we work on. We're currently reading a book called Une Pièce Montée, which is an account of a bourgeois French wedding. Each chapter is from the point of view of a different character. It's an insightful look into not only upper-middle class French life, but French culture in general. The chapter narrated by the priest explains how, while there are still many vestiges of Catholicism firmly ingrained into French life, the majority of French people never go to church. I suppose that's true of many Christians, but in a country where every other thing is named after a Saint Someone-or-other, and most stores are legally forbidden to be open on a Sunday, it seems peculiar.

My other classes are going well too. I'm really liking History of France, because my professor is so excited about what he teaches. He ends almost every class with a great big build up, and then, "Nous finirons l'histoire la prochaine classe." We don't get the outcome until the next class, just to keep us on our toes. I dropped out of compétances écrites, because I really had no interest in writing a French résumé, and instead picked up grammaire. It was silly to have waited so long to change my courses because I had a test after only one class, but I think it will be incredibly useful. I wonder sometimes if it wouldn't almost be easier to learn French if one's first language was something completely different. I find my base of English often leads me to make a lot of assumptions when I'm translating. The French term for these assumed similar words is 'faux ami', or false friend. Example: actuellement ≠ actually. It means currently.

The past couple of weekends, I've been trying to fit in several tourist activities. I've lived in this beautiful city for two months now, and still don't know very much of what it has to offer. Last Saturday, my friend Katie and I went to the Château d'Angers. It cuts an impressive figure on the Angers skyline. It was built in the middle ages on a rocky promontory overlooking the Maine River. It was a dark and stormy day when we went, but the sky made a great backdrop for photos. We could walk all around the battlements for a great view of the city. Inside the walls were several gardens. We couldn't see much of the interior of the castle as the king's quarters were destroyed by a fire last year and are still under restoration. The castle also houses a medieval tapestry of the Apocalypse. This isn't just a little tapestry that would be hung on a door, but one that goes on for several hundred metres. It was displayed in a great black hall, completely dark save for a long row of tiny lights below and above the tapestries. I wish I had known more of the bible story, but at least Katie was able to recount some of it from her religion classes at Notre Dame University, where she goes.

At the beginning of this week I had an awful shock - Laura announced that she wasn't sure she would be staying the whole year anymore. Due to a compilation of factors, she just felt that she wasn't having the time of her life she had expected to have, and was feeling a strong pull to go home at Christmas. Many of our classmates are leaving at Christmas because they can only spend one semester here. Our semester actually ends in January, but the school has organised for these students to write their exams in December. While Laura told me her thoughts, I smiled blandly, nodded in understanding, and made some sympathetic noises. All I wanted to do was cry and shout "Don't leave me!", but I didn't want to guilt her into staying if she wasn't going to enjoy herself. She spent a few anguished days weighing the pros and cons of staying, and finally decided to email her cousin for some advice. And then, "ANNE. GUESS WHAT." The verdict came. "I'M STAYINGGGGGG!" Her cousin had given her a kick in the right direction. She had left her doubts behind her and was ready to have a seriously good time. I left out a hefty sigh of relief and did a little happy dance in my kitchen.

For those of you who haven't heard me wax poetic about them, I will tell you now that Laura and Matt are my family away from home here. We only became friends when we found out that we were all applying to study abroad. I didn't even know that I would be going to France, but it was they who convinced me to apply to Angers too. Now that we're all here together, I thank my lucky stars for them on a regular basis. I couldn't have asked for a better, kinder, more caring support network over here. We've had some really wonderful times ensemble, and we've gone through some seriously pain-in-the-ass experiences. If we haven't gotten sick of each other yet, I don't think it's going to happen. There's just something so heartwarming about being with people who appreciate the good in life.

This weekend we got a jour férié, or a day off. Today is la Toussaint, or All Saints Day, when the French celebrate their relatives who've died. They go to their graves and place chrysanthemums on them. Due to the sombreness of the holiday, they never really got into the whole Halloween thing. Some of the bars put up some decorations, and the grocery stores had small sections with bulk chocolate, but at the same time they've also been selling Advent Calendars. The daughters of my host family are 9 years old, and they got invited by a friend to 'do' Halloween for the first time. I must say I was really missing the tradition. Last weekend, my Michiganders (Jamie, Melissa, and Becky) and I went to a bar that was holding a pumpkin carving afternoon. I dressed up as a Christmas present, that being the only thing I could think to make from my wardrobe - green pants, a red plaid shirt, and a big white bow. Pumpkins here are kind of expensive, so I just watched instead of buying my own. I do miss being back in Toronto though and handing out candy to the little ones in my neighbourhood. Other than that afternoon, I didn't end up celebrating. But I've got a whole lifetime of Halloweens ahead of me!

I had a really lovely long weekend. On Friday night, a group of us went to a bar called James Joyce, an Irish pub with a great atmosphere. It was raining, but we went out anyway. Melissa and I left before everyone else, and we double-biked all the way home! That's got to be the most amusing form of transportation - it makes everyone who sees you laugh. Last week I saw two guys biking side by side with another standing between them, one foot on each bike. "Bravo!" I shouted. "Ah c'est facile! Nous le faisons tout le temps!" It's easy, we do this all the time. Anyway, Laura and I were supposed to go to the market on Saturday morning, but when I got up, I found out that someone had stolen her bike. The poor thing was devastated. Let me tell you, once you get used to having one, walking seems like an unnecessary chore. But, she said she had a feeling she would see it again. We postponed our planned bike trip to another weekend, and attempted to celebrate the weekend as usual. Saturday night, Matt took us to a hockey game: Angers versus Chamonix. This game was the French equivalent of an NHL game, but the playing was more of a university level. Some of the players were Canadian though, and there were a couple Canadian flags in the stadium. It, too, was a nice reminder of home. After the game (which Angers won), we went to a pub called Matt Murphy's, because we figured that's where the hockey players would go. Sure enough, the Chamonix team piled in and sat at the tables around ours. We made Matt strike up a conversation for us, and ended up having a great night talking to these guys. But you know, it's funny. It seems hockey boys will be hockey boys world-wide. A little smooth talking, and fully aware of their good looks and charm. But they were great fun. They were supposed to get on a bus back to Chamonix at 11, but managed to stretch out their visit until 12:30 am. They extended an open invitation for us to visit Chamonix for a little skiing in the winter, and I don't think we'll turn them down.

On Sunday morning, Laura and I went to church at the Cathedral. I'd never been inside, but it was a lovely experience. I didn't understand much of what was going on because the acoustics were too echo-y to be able to make out the words, but it was just comforting to go to church again. Afterwards, Laura and I double-biked her to the police station so she could write up a report for her stolen bike. We weren't feeling terribly optimistic, considering it looks the same as a few hundred other Angers City bikes, but it was worth a try. And you know what? Within a few hours, the police called her back. An elderly man had looked out his window and spotted a bike lying on the ground. As it looked rather left behind, the man called the police, who came by to pick it up. Laura's bike was found. I don't know if it was sheer luck or a little divine intervention, but the news could not have been better.

Sunday afternoon I spent at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the fine art museum in town. I've passed by it countless times, but I've never been in. I started at the temporary exhibit, which was really interesting. Very contemporary. A husband and wife couple had used their extensive creativity to put together seemingly random objects to create projected images by reflecting lights off them. Then I went into the permanent exhibit, which was incredible. There's a large section on the history of Angers, that included artwork and archeological artifacts. The city has quite the rich history. The rest of the museum takes you through centuries of European artwork, including some by artists I admire such as Fragonard and Watteau. I spent 4 hours at the gallery. It was so peaceful and such a feast for the eyes.

Last night a bunch of us went to see the movie The Social Network, which is about the creator of Facebook. I realise I've created another novel of a blog update, so I'll just leave it at it was an amazing movie and you should all go see it. It makes you stop and reflect afterward.

Ok this is appallingly long, so I'll sign off and wish you all a happy start to your november!