J-Term Diaries: Adam Lindberg

How can I sum up the experience of a lifetime in just one blog?

I guess the only answer is that I can't, which is a bit frustrating.  Throughout the past month, the words and descriptions of all I've seen and done have flown so freely, yet I find myself rather speechless as I consider that tomorrow morning at 10:15 AM (local time), we're leaving.

It's really been one of the best months of my life.  Paris is, in my opinion, a city that is very alive and is brimming with a culture that's tough to define.  Despite what most people say, I've found that the French are quite eager to talk to whomever they might pass in the street.  They like to eat and drink, which might explain why they spend so much time in cafes and restaurants.  They have an incredible sense of fashion, as well.

Coming to this conclusion about their culture might be what has suddenly made me so aware of mine.  I know that I am American (for more information, see the blog entitled "We are very American") in the way that I speak and act, and that's okay with me.  Perhaps one day I'll get to experience the French culture again, but for now, I'm very okay with the fact that I am an American.

Like I said, it's difficult to sum up this trip in just one blog, which is probably evidenced by my seemingly incoherent writing.  Perhaps in a few days, I'll have a better idea.  Stay tuned for updates then.

Permanent Link

It's Tuesday, and we leave Paris in just four days.  I've got mixed feelings about leaving the city - on one hand, it'll be nice to get back to the things I know and speak in a language I actually understand, but then again, why would I ever want to leave Paris?

This weekend, one of my friends from Harrisonburg (my hometown) who is studying Spanish in Valencia, Spain this semester, came to visit with his roommate.  It was actually a lot of fun playing tour guide in the city of Paris - we joked that they should write a book entitled Paris in 48 hours.  Their tour was extremely brief, with only enough time to hit the Eiffel Tower, l'Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Saint-Chappelle, and the Pantheon, but I feel like they got a good dose of the language and the culture.  They even tried to speak French to one of the waiters in a restaurant - comical, but it demonstrated their desire to broaden their horizons and learn as much as they could about another language (they both speak Spanish very well). 

In a moment of shear boredom the other day, I was trying to figure out whether my French has improved, to which I would respond  a resounding yes.  Much of the conversation has been quick banter with street vendors and store employees, however, my goal in coming here was to sit down and have an extended conversation with a native speaker.  It is a goal that I feel I have not met yet and with only four days remaining, I had better get going on that.  Otherwise, the conversation and my desperate attempts to understand the French that has been flung at me have been received much more easily than expected.

Pretty sure I just saw a dog wearing a jean jacket.  That must mean it's time to go.  Stay tuned for updates.

Permanent Link

As of today, we have only nine days left in Paris, but who's counting?  There's still a lot left to do, just not a lot of time to do it all.

Today, Will and I took the metro to eastern Paris in search of Jim Morrison's grave in le Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise.  Quite humorous, considering I found out only a few days ago that Jim Morrison was actually a member of The Doors, and not the Grateful Dead.  So much for any hopes of a major in musical history.  Darn.

Anyway, we spent the better part of an hour walking around the cemetery with the rest of the Americans, none of whom could find it, either.  It turns out that his grave is hidden in a particular section of the cemetery, behind a metal fence.  Apparently, people have tried to dig his body up for a variety of reasons.

Jim Morrison's grave was interesting I guess, but today I came to another realization about Paris (and probably Europe in general, even though I haven't traveled outside of France).  There is a lot of cultural diversity in the United States, but it is of a different kind here in Paris.  How many times do you get to meet someone whose mother is from Cyprus and whose father is from Israel?  And one who speaks Arabic, on top of that?  I sense that that particular experience is very limited in the United States.

There is simply a much different array of languages and nationalities represented here in Paris as compared to the United States.  Guess I should have expected that, though.

Permanent Link

From the comfort of classroom desks across the world, many students learn about World War II and the D-Day invasion in relatively safe environments.  Environments that make them feel so far away from the deafening roar of gunfire and the ping of bullets.

As I stood on Omaha Beach on Saturday, no one was shooting at me.  It was, however, much easier to comprehend the experience of American, French, British, and Canadian (my apologies if I've omitted any) soldiers as they stormed the beach and charged the 200 yards to German soldiers firing down on them from an much more optimal vantage point.

Let me explain that Normandy is a very small city on the coast of northern France whose only claim to fame is that its beaches were the site of a famous storming 60 some years ago to save the world from the Nazi regime.  You can't even take a train to Normandy.  The closest train station is in Bayeux, over 20 miles away.  And those 20 + miles were exactly why we decided to charter a driving tour of the beaches instead of biking what would have been probably a 50 or 60 mile ride round-trip (okay, so we underestimated that one ENORMOUSLY).

There were four stops on the bus tour, the first of which was to a German gun emplacement where six 152 millimeter cannons sat (if this means nothing to you, don't worry, it didn't mean anything to me either.  But these things fired 90 pound shells twelve miles!).  We spent about a half an hour climbing on and around these cannons.  Next stop was a trip to a cemetery for American soldiers who died during the D-Day invasion.  Over 9,000 gravesites marked the spots where these 20-something men were finally laid to rest.  After that, we actually were allowed to walk on Omaha Beach, which along with Utah Beach, was stormed by American troops.  Finally, we visited la Pointe du Hoc, a site where 250 Army Rangers scaled a 100 foot wall and fought off a chunk of the German front line in Normandy.  Of those 250 Rangers, only 90 survived the battle.

Overall, our trip to Normandy was the best day of the whole trip so far.  I got to see a lot of the French countryside, which was a welcome respite from the crowded city streets.  We also got to experience a piece of history that not many people ever have or will, and that in itself was exciting.

Many, many more updates to come.

Permanent Link

We've been in Paris for about 10 days now, and each day continues to be new and exciting.

The one thing about Paris that is not new and exciting is the weather.  We seem to get two extremes every day here:  if it's sunny in the morning, it rains in the afternoon and vice-versa.  It makes for tough preparation, but the Parisians deal with it, so we will have to as well.  I guess that's what we get for coming in January.

Yesterday, we went to Versailles and I must say, it's a must-see for anyone who comes to France.  Walking up, it was tough to tell that it was the residency of famous names like Louis XIV (the "Sun King") and Marie Antoinette, but waiting in line for tickets definitely made us realize how many people actually visit Versailles every day.  I can't imagine what the ticket lines are like in the spring, when it's actually nice out.

The tour we booked was actually an audio tour, that is, you wear a beeper-looking thing around your neck that is attached to some headphones.  Apparently, they come in eight different languages.  It was a basic tour that took us through four or five of the drawing rooms, each of which was lavishly furnished with mostly replicas of the furniture, although there were some actual pieces.  From the furniture that was there, it was tough to imagine what life was like in the 16 and 1700's, but once I closed my eyes, my mind ran crazy with ideas about what it must have been like for the royal court and the courtiers.  The bedrooms were very nice, to say the least, although everyone agreed that it would be just plain weird to have 8-10 people waking you up and watching you dress every morning and then putting you to bed at night.  Guess that was standard back then.

We tried to go outside to see the gardens, but two things prevented us from doing so:  the weather, and also the fact that nothing was in bloom (January strikes again).  I swear, the wind was blowing 40 mph with a driving rain, so we snapped a few pictures and then settled in for the 1/2 hour train ride back.

Saturday, my roommates and I have decided to take a 20 mile bike tour of Normandy.  Biking is the only way because everything (monuments, etc.) is closed for the month of January.  If I make it back alive, I'll write again with details and probably a sore butt.

In other news, I have procured a rotisserie chicken and will be gorging myself shortly.  Can't wait to be full, for once.

Permanent Link

Yesterday, my roommate Will and I decided to visit le Jardin du Luxembourg.  I had been perusing my map of Paris and decided that it would be the next site worth knocking off my list of things to see and plus, it had been in all of my textbooks.  Will brought his guitar and off we went.

If you have never been to le Jardin du Luxembourg, I would put it on your "to do" list in Paris.  When you enter the front gates (cast in gold, of course) you are immediately greeted by a plot of green grass upon which sit a large number of statues.  You can't walk on the grass, but if you follow it for a while via a gravel pathway, you come to a small pond that is situated in front of a large house (large enough to resemble a castle, which I think is the angle the architects were going for).  People gather all around the pond, some kicking soccer balls and others just sitting around talking.

It was on two chairs in front of the pond that Will and I decided to sit down and he ran through a few verses of "Simple Man" and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.  He's a decent guitar player but apparently the French lady in charge of security didn't think so.  Okay, so she didn't really kick us out, but she did ask us to stop with the explanation that if she let us continue, she'd have to let anyone come in and play their music.  We weren't asking for money or anything of the sort, but we understood.

It's little experiences like that that make this trip so interesting.

Permanent Link

We've been in Paris for almost a week now, and if I haven't said it before, I'm glad I'm here.  Forunately, we still have three weeks left and so much more to see and do.

Undoubtedly the best experience of the trip so far was seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up at night.  It must be a night light or something for the French.  As soon as you hit the top step leading out of the metro station, the view will stop you dead in your tracks (it did for this first timer, at least).  Every hour for ten minutes, what appear to be thousands of camera flashes go off up and down the Eiffel Tower, illuminating it on a much, much larger scale.  I never understood why people said it was such a romantic place, but as I stood underneath it, I did kind of come under its spell.  The French army walking around with sub-machine guns does kill the mood a little bit, though.

For now, I guess it's time to stop playing the role of tourist and come to the realization that I'm actually a "resident" of the country of France.  For the past couple of days, we've done nothing but speak English and gawk at the sights, but at some point, we'll have to immerse ourselves in the culture and live as the Parisians do.  Not sure if this will be an easy realization or not, so we'll see.

Okay, I've had enough of this cafe and the French couple making out in front of me.  Stay tuned for updates.

Permanent Link

Hello from the Maison Internationale des Jeunes Etudiantes in Paris, France.  We've been here for only a day, but I've got so much to write about I feel as if I could write forever.  For your sake (and mine), I'll be as concise as possible.

Our first adventure was the bus ride from Charles de Gaulle airport to our hostel.  Ever flew through busy Paris traffic in a stick-shift van filled with people and luggage while your driver talks loudly on a cell phone and listens to French talk radio?  Neither had I, but I was sure we were going to be the victims of a fiery crash.  Fortunately, we survived and made it to the hostel.

What can I say about the hostel?  It's a hostel.  The beds and the rooms are too small and the showers don't have a curtain.  I guess we'll have to deal with it since we're going to be spending the next four weeks here.  I'm sure we'll make the best of it, and at least we have a bed to sleep in.

One of the other things I've learned in my short time here is that it is very easy to tell who is American and who is not.  For example:  Yesterday, we were out and about in Paris looking for a place to change our American dollars into Euros.  We had to take the metro to get there, and got off at a stop called called Opera.  As we reached the top of the stairs coming from the underground metro, before us was a beautiful building with tall pillars, many windows, and architecture that was plated in gold.  We clogged up the entrance and exit to that particular metro station for a good ten minutes as we gawked and took pictures.  Example #2:  This morning, Will Carroll (one of my roommates) and I decided to get breakfast at one of those French cafes and try to find internet access so I could write this blog.  It turned out we couldn't get the internet and as we were leaving, we couldn't figure out whether to leave the dishes on the table or take them up to the counter (not one of our brighter moments because of course we were supposed to leave them on the table, it was a restaurant).  We tried to ask the man working behind the counter in French, but he just laughed and responded in English.  I asked him if it was really that east to tell that we were American, to which his reply was a simple "yes" before leaving us to clean up our table.

As the title of this blog states, we are apparently very American.

Thanks for reading.  I promise I'll continue to share my experiences as they come.  If the past 24 hours has been any indicator, I should have plenty to share.

Permanent Link

   My grandfather once told my mother that the only reason he didn't fly was because they wouldn't let him fly the plane and I must say, I share his feelings.  Unfortunately, I can't run or swim across the Atlantic, so the first six hours of my J-term '08 trip to Paris will be claustrophobia-ridden in the cabin of an Air-France 747 jumbo jet.

   As the holiday season draws to a close and January 7 (our date of departure) rapidly approaches, I find myself excited, yet nervous.  I wasn't totally sold on leaving the R-MC campus for an entire month to experience the City of Lights, but as more and more people remind me that it will be "the experience of a lifetime," I am forced to agree.  Who knows when I'll ever have the opportunity to go back to Europe?

   I have taken French classes since I was in the 8th grade and since day one, Paris has been the center of discussion.  As the first established city of France, my classmates and I have discussed the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and Notre Dame thousands of times in the eight years that I have been a student of the language.  But this trip promises to be radically different than just sitting at a wooden desk and copying words off of a whiteboard.

   For the first time, I'll finally be able to see the things I've learned about and experience the culture that has only been imparted by an American instructor of French.  Maybe I'll stand at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower then climb to the top and spit off of it (well, maybe not).  I'll be able to complain about how terrible the dollar is doing as compared to the Euro, see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, or take in a croque-monsieur (just your basic ham and cheese sandwich) in one of those little bistros everyone raves about.  I'll live like a Parisian, comforted all along by the fact that in a couple of weeks, I can return to the safety of my friends and my family back in the states.

   Well, I suppose the packing must begin somewhere, so I must go take the tags off of the luggage my parents got me for Christmas.  Seriously, who gets luggage for Christmas?   After that, I'll dig out my passport, which didn't really take as long as the government said it would to obtain (shh).  All of those things seem so trivial as I finally begin to come to terms with the fact that I'm dropping everything to live abroad for a month.  Stay tuned for further updates as I experience (and comment) on life in Paris, France.

Permanent Link