La Belle Promenade

A friend asked me the other day what my favorite thing about living in France was. Without really thinking, an image popped into my head of my walk to school in the morning, and I smile. Of course I enjoy the beautiful chateaus and the delicious cuisine; but what I enjoy the most is my daily stroll through town on my way to school. For the first few weeks, I would start my walk by thinking: “Wow, I am really going to school in France.”


When I step outside, the cool, fresh air blows across my face and I am more awake than ever. As I walk down rue d'Epluchard, I see all the French townhouses with their old style of architecture. People start to open their windows above me, as the sun is now up. It feels as though everyone does this at once and if they were talking they would be saying “a new day is here.” I quickly run past at least one window where someone is beating a rug, the dust and dirt falling slowly behind me. My daily stroll feels almost like a musical sometimes, with the signing on mute.

It is only dark while I am walking to school one day of the week, because I have a class at 8 a.m. On the other days, I see a few people out on the street and I listen to them speaking. I hear moms saying “allons-y!” to their children. I hear friends saying “bonjour” as they pass on the sidewalk. I see young children walking to the elementary school around the corner. To me, the French language sounds somewhat formal, so I find it very cute when I hear young children speaking it. One morning I walked past a townhouse when a little boy, who was maybe three or four years old, came hopping down the steps and runs into me. I smile and don't look back until I hear “excusez-moi”from his tiny little voice. I was shocked because in the U.S., you would not hear these words from a small child.

As I get closer to the University, my favorite structure appears on the right side of rue de Jean Fontaine. It is an extremely old church that is not in use anymore. The huge, rusted red doors are locked shut, preventing me from sprinting toward them to walk inside. The stained glass windows are so colorful and inviting to the eye, I wonder what it would be like to sit inside. Every morning I stop, for just a few seconds, and look up to absorb. I will never get over the fact that I am walking by an ancient church with so much history.

The Université Catholique de l'Ouest is just ahead and I snap back to reality and keep walking. I reach the school after my twenty minute walk. I seem to experience a huge difference in my readiness to learn by simply walking past my favorite sights in France, rather than being dropped off by a bus.

Welcome to London, Nothing Works Here

A couples weeks ago, I traveled to London for a four-night vacation with a few friends. It is a fabulous city that I hope to visit again someday. Although it was hard to pick just a few, I will share with you some experiences from my trip.


It was so nice to be surrounded by English speakers for a few days. When I went through customs at the train station I didn’t expect the officer to be speaking English to me. I never thought I would be so happy to hear “Can I see your passport please?” I anticipated that it would also feel a little strange not speaking French to people in restaurants and stores, and that was very true. At every single meal I ended up telling the waitress “merci” or “sil’vous plait” at least once. It was the weirdest feeling to catch myself speaking the wrong language and having to quickly grasp onto another word or phrase in my head. For those few seconds, I felt like I was a foreigner to my native language.

There are mostly exotic restaurants to be found around town, including Chinese, Lebanese and Indian. We decided to eat at these types of places most of the time, as the English cuisine didn’t look too fabulous. Although, I did go to London planning to try the famous “fish and chips,” so that had to be done. One day, we stopped at a small English café alongside a harbor and of course they had fish and chips on the menu. When it first arrived the aroma was appetizing. However, when I took the first bite I expected something more, something with a crunch. My eyes also popped wide open as I realized the fish was battered and cooked with the skin still on. Oh yes, shiny scales and everything. I am still glad I gave that experience a whirl and can say that once I got over the presence of the skin, the poisson wasn’t half bad.

Being in London for 4 days gave me the chance to see all of the tourist sites, such as the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. These historic sites were very fun to explore. Visiting St. Pauls's cathedral was the most eye-opening experience, with a large dome and stairs climbing to the very top of the vividly painted ceilings. Shakespeare's globe theater was really neat to see. Even though it isn't the original globe theater, which burned down in 1613, it resembles the the original theater quite well- it doesn't even have a roof! I was inspired by the museum and the theater so much that I decided to take a Shakespeare class when I return to U of O next term.

I was also fortunate enough to make it out to Wimbledon: the oldest tennis tournament in the world. I browsed through the museum and saw some pretty amazing things. There was a display wheel of all the different types of racquets that have been used in the past century and a case with the different types of tennis balls made over the years. I loved seeing everything about the evolution and the history of tennis, a sport I have played for years, laid out in front of me. I was then allowed to walk into the stadium seating at Center Court. Since it is now off season, I obviously wasn’t able to watch a match, but my imagination brought me to a summer day watching Andy Roddick or Maria Sharapova on the baseline. It was an incredible feeling to be standing in the middle of history, victory and prestige. I hope to find myself back to see a match someday soon.