Mardi, 19 août 2014: Orientation and First Day of Classes
It was a long first day after a long day of traveling. We had real croissants for breakfast from Paul, a French bakery chain: http://www.paul.fr/. Afterwards, I sat through lots of long, boring presentations about the program, rules, and Metz and then went on an awful tour of the GTL building by a French woman who barely spoke English. Thankfully, the building isn’t very big, so I should be able to find my way around on my own.
I had lunch at Paul (again). I feel like I am going to be eating there a lot. Metz Technopôle isn’t very big. It almost seems like a college suburb. The only things that seem to be around here are other universities and other dorms and apartments for those students. I can’t wait for the French students to start in September. This whole area seems very dead.
After an awful experience with trying to communicate to the Paul employees, I had my first French 1001 class. I am so glad to be taking this class so that I can communicate with the people here. However, it is going to be very challenging after already learning Spanish. I think I will be speaking some form of Sp-rench-lish (Spanish, French and English). I have already accidentally caught myself reverting to Spanish when talking to French people. 😮
To end the day, we had a catered dinner to the GTL building and then took buses into downtown Metz to explore the area. I had authentic French macarons!!! They are heavenly. I basically just ate Macarons for dinner… whoops!
Macarons and chocolate!
Then we went into downtown Metz. I walked around for a while just taking pictures and taking in the beauty of it all. Yes, I was an American tourist with my camera out the entire time. If you want to see the picture I took, look at my “Exploring Metz” blog post: https://littleswanbigworld.wordpress.com/2014/08/23/exploring-downtown-metz/
Mercredi, 20 août 2014:
I didn’t start class until 17:00 today. Everyone only uses military time here. I am trying to get used to it. However, I went to the GTL building pretty early so that I could check on the status of my lost bags and register for classes. They found my bags and they were delivered to me later that day! Thank goodness.
Registering for classes was another ordeal to go through. GTL kept telling me that I would just register when I got here. It turns out that their registration system is completely online and I could have signed up earlier. One of the classes that I was signed up to take became full. Thankfully I was issues an override permit to register for a full class. Then, I found out that the Engineering Economy class I planned on taking is only 1 credit even though it is equivalent to a 3 credit course at Vanderbilt. My options were signing up for another class, getting extra work from the professor to make it a 3 credit class or drop the class completely. I ended up deciding to drop the class. It was a distance learning class basically on skype to Atlanta and it seemed like way too much work for a 1 credit class. Then, I had to figure out a new class to take so that I could graduate in time. I ended up getting permission from Vanderbilt to enroll in a class that I don’t have the prerequisites for. It was a long process, but it’s all over now!
I went grocery shopping at Cora and Simply today. That was a different experience! It becomes easy to forget that we’re living in a different country when we are surrounded by other American students at an American university. It only took one trip to the store to realize that we are very far from home. Cora is similar to our version of Target with a grocery store and Simply is just a regular grocery store. It was so overwhelming! Everything is in French (obviously). I had no idea where things were, what things meant, or how to ask for help. I really need to learn basic French ASAP. Furthermore, they don’t refrigerate their milk or eggs… how weird! I suppose it’s good in terms of the eggs because it means they’re very fresh, but I am suspicious of this milk. I ended up buying super safe groceries like cereal, yogurt, bread, cheese and pasta. I have a feeling that I am going to be living off of carbs here… unless, I become bold enough to buy and cook meat.
The milk aisle…
Jeudi, 21 août 2014:
Today was just a regular day of classes. I had 3 classes: Introduction to Media Computing, Statistics and Applications and French 1001. I really hope that my classes aren’t very hard. The last thing I want to do while I study abroad is study haha. Now that I have all of my clothes, I was able to work out. I went on a run with some friends around the lake near the GTL building. There were swans in the lake!! I wanted to take pictures, but I was running… struggles. Today was a good day. I feel as though I am getting into a rhythm.
Vendredi, 22 août 2014:
I didn’t have class until 15:30 today. I just lounged around in the morning and then tried to stay awake during that class. Seeing as though it was Friday night, I decided to go dancing in downtown Metz with a group of friends in my dorm. Unfortunately, our groups got split up while trying to catch the bus (called the Mettis). The group I was with ended up going to Comedié Café, a student bar in Metz. It was fun! The bar reminded me of Nashville. 🙂 There were a lot of GTL people that I got to meet while I was there.
Samedi, 23 août 2014:
I woke up feeling sick today :(. I hope I didn’t catch the infamous “plague” that happens when you put a bunch of new people together in small living conditions. However, I decided to go into downtown Metz with a group of people to explore and shop. I didn’t do any real shopping, just window shopping for now. There were a lot of stores that I was familiar with including Sephora, H&M, Zaras, etc. On the subject of shopping, the people in France are so stylish!! They all wear blazers and leather jackets and heels and look oh-so-fabulous. I love it! We did go to “C’est deux euros”, France’s equivalent of the dollar store. I bought picture frames for my room. I love pictures and everyone at home.
C’est deux euros…
Then, we got gelato… heavenly!! How are these people not obese?
Yum!
We then walked down to the Mosselle River. It was so beautiful. I saw the famous Le Temple Protestant with all the swans outside! My long lost family obviously.
Me and my swan family!
Finally, we got dinner at this cute little French restaurant where I shared fondue with Carolyn, a friend of mine in the program. It was not at all what I was expecting but still delicious. They served us raw chicken on a plate with salad and potatoes. You put the raw chicken in the hot white wine soup and let it sit in there and cook. Everything was touching the raw chicken! I guess salmonella isn’t a thing here… I still ate everything and didn’t get sick, so I guess that’s good. I don’t know why I was expecting cheese fondue with chicken. Oh well, it was still delicious.
Fondue!
Dimanche, 24 août 2014:
Nothing is open on Sundays. That’s a lie. Only the McDonald’s is open. I wanted to go to Cora again today, but I guess that’s not happening. I can’t run my errands on Sundays anymore like I used to at home. That also means I can’t run out of food on Sundays and be forced to eat McDonalds.
7.20€ for a McDonald’s meal!!
I ended up playing pick up soccer with a bunch of GTL students. It was a lot of fun and great exercise (especially after unfortunately eating McDonald’s). We were out there for over 2 hours! I’m definitely going to be sore tomorrow.
I can’t believe it’s only been a week! I feel settled in already. I know my way to and from school and the stores. I have also navigated the Mettis aka how to get from downtown. The streets of downtown Metz are also starting to become familiar. I am so happy I decided to study abroad!
Little Swan, Big World 