"Not every girl gets to go to Paris"

As everything starts to come together...now's the time to get nervous, it's finally hitting me. If you know me at all, you've know I've been dreaming about going to France for quite a while now. 4 years of high school French, a year and a half of College French, about 5 years of French under my belt and I guess I'm about as ready as I'll ever be. 

It is such an amazing opportunity to be able to go and study abroad, and I don't want to be all "wahhh home wahhh western" because I know I'm going to miss everyone, it's equally as hard to give up a semester of going to an amazing university here and being surrounded by friends, and people I love! I know many don't have this opportunity and I'm extremely lucky.I'm also one that believes that life begins when you step outside your comfort zone. College and being away from home was one step, being very far away but also fulfilling my dreams and working on my French is definitely the next one. The next step in learning and becoming fluent for sure.

In the movie Sabrina, Audrey Hepburn's character is sent away to cooking school in France and emerges a whole different sophisticated person. Maybe the thing I need to do is just throw myself in.

A musical that I grew up watching American in Paris

Getting the chance to do all the tourist things I learned about in high school and more

I guess just thank you all for supporting my dreams & believing in me! It's hard to get up and leave my life, friends, family, here to pursue them but know I love you all! This still really isn't hitting me yet. Also hang out with me during break if you have the chance! If you want a postcard let me know and that donation button in the sidebar goes to my expenses/rent/etc while I'm in France.

“Paris isn’t for changing planes,” Audrey Hepburn says to Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina, “it’s for changing your outlook! For throwing open the windows and letting in…letting in la vie en rose.” 

100 Goals For France!

In celebration of my going to Chicago last week to get all that visa business taken care of, and also receiving the President's grant for study abroad this week, here are my 100 (ish) goals for France. Some of them are big, some of them are just little things, lots of cliches, sights and well....a lot of food.

1. Go on the first ever plane of my life and some how make it to the CDG airport in Paris
2. Take the TGV from Paris and finally get to Besançon with everyone
3. Bring a gift to my host family! Something Michigan/Detroit
4. Keep a travel journal (written)
5. Survive my intensive course and regular courses!
6. Work on my listening skills!
7. Work majorly on grammar
8. Confidence when speaking French/to native speakers
9. Basically get fluent
10. Speak as little English as possible, French toujours!
11. Master French slang. Master it. 
12. Participate in a cultural club/activity at the CLA
13. Make French friends!
14. Make international friends (not from America)
15. Bond with everyone else from WMU going on the trip
16. Bring a WWT French Club shirt and take a picture with it somewhere, probably my that's what she said one because everyone always asks about it....
17. Disney Land Paris!
18. LA TOUR EIFFEL COMME  ELLE EST BELLE! Because I can't not take a thousand pictures of/with the icon of France
19. Try the fromage (cheese) and wine of Besançon/Franche-Comté
20. Seriously eat all the pastries ever, All of them.
21. And desserts. All of the crème brûlée!
22. The Louvre!
23. Musée d'Orsay- Museum in Paris that was an old train station
24. The palace of Versailles!
25. Eat at French Mcdonalds "chez Macdo"
26. Explore the little boutiques of Besançon
27. Explore the cafes of Besançon
28. Eat at a creperie or crepe stand
29. L'arc de triomphe- Arch of triumph in Paris
30. Read a book in Shakespeare & Co
31. "Paris la ville lumière" Paris at night!
32. La seine elle a coule et coule et coule....the seine river in Paris. Find the spot mentioned in the movies American in Paris and again in Charade with Audrey Hepburn
33. Put a lock on pont des arts-pedestrian bridge in Paris (pour ma petit ami)
34. See a move in a cinema
35. See a musical, play or opera in France
36. Sing "Aux Champs-Élysées" while walking down the Champs-Élysées (to be annoying)
37. Mail post cards to everyone!
38. Get my little sister and best friend fabulous (belated) birthday gifts
39. Explore a French grocery store/pharmacy and see the difference
40. Sing "Les temps des Cathédrales" at Notre Dame (to be obnoxious) 
41. Shop (and window shop) in Paris 
42. Find US/international brand shops in France
43. Rent a velib/velo/bike in Paris to get around (Oui, Mme I know that's a great way to get killed but I'll be okay)
44. Got to a French subway (the sandwiches not the metro)...because yes I did work there once and they're taking over the world.
45. Visit la citadelle and its museums in Besançon
46. Musee des beaux arts- museum in Besançon
47. Visit some of the old churches and cathedrals of Besançon- Eglise de la madeline
48. Visit a cemetery in France- perhaps the infamous Cimetière Père-Lachaise
49. As I have relatives in Germany perhaps contact them? As I'll be close to the boarder
50. Cook with my host family
51. Go sight seeing with my host family
52. There are apparently Roman remains in Besançon? find them
53. Go to the highest point of Besançon, the citadel?
54. Discover more French music/artists!
55. Discover some more French musicals
56. Watch French tv/news/movies
57. Thoroughly document my adventures here and with pictures! 
58. Make videos too if possible!
59. Use skype/google hangouts/technology to hangout with people from home!
60. Harry Potter in French! (books and movies)
61. Try French brands of clothing, make up, etc.
62. Explore gardens/parks (jardins)
63. Find one of my favorite English movies in French and watch it
64. Find ALL the wifi hotspots around town  spoiler alert: not that many
65. Find something commemorating Victor Hugo in Besançon! As he was born there (he wrote les mis and notre dame)
66. Master le metro/le bus/public transportation in a foreign country!
67. Attend a sporting event at the university
68. Exclaim that "Je parle Francais comme une vache espagnol" (I speak french like a spanish hen)
69. Visit another country that's not France
70. Recite one of the poems I learned by Jacques Prévert or whatever in high school, If I can still remember them we had one in class strangely enough
71. Kilomètre Zéro -in France if you touch it, you'll come back
72. Place de la concorde- the fountains based on the one in American in Paris
73. Find un chateau- a castle kind of in luxembourg
74. See a concert in France
75. Palais Garnier- opera house that inspired Phantom of the Opera
76. There's definitely a "Dino Zoo" in Besançon, I must go.
77. Dream about going to Euro Disney- maybe go, If I have money?
78. Celebrate Pâques/Easter! The only holiday while I'm in France, really
79. Go to a Bibliothèque-library, librarie- is a book store
80. Read a French newspaper/magazine
81. Play a French game/board game
82. Eat escargots (snails) in France, I've had them once here once in Canada
83. Buy a baguette because I'm obligated to...
84. Not get anything stolen by gypsies...
85. Buy ALL the cheap Eiffel tower key chains!
86. Not have any reaction to peanuts...they usually don't use peanut anything, but the Franche-Comté region uses nut oils apparently?
87. Go out/sortir with friends!
88. Go to a French soiree
89. Dijon! (mustard) Because I'm close to that region
90. Croissants for breakfast please
91. Enjoy our winter break! Last week of January in Paris
92. and then make the best of the long spring break (2 weeks)
93. Survive the family stay! Stay there (if we like eachother) or move into the (very tiny) dorms
94. Avenue Montaigne- Like that movie and the theatre cafe!
95. Find a famous little cafe in Paris like Les Deux Magots- where Ernest Hemmingway, Picasso, Camus
96. Find a French chain like Brioche Dorée- fast food not like ours, a cafe
97. Dress like a Parisian (learn how to...dark colors)
98. Eat something crazy like frog legs just to say I did FOIE GRAS! Fatten duck liver
99. Learn Besançon/how to get around very well
100. Pack up my life in that suitcase again...that's gonna be a bit difficult on the way there and back! I'm sure time's gonna fly

Le Français et moi. (A little background)

I always really like languages or the idea of them, when I was little I used to pretend to read my mom's old college Spanish textbooks. So when it came to Freshman year of high school I chose French, I'd always wanted to take it but I hadn't had room in middle school because of band. And right away I just loved it, everything about French. The music, movies, culture the games the songs, it just came so easily to me. I loved French club and went to basically every meeting. My love of French is much due to my very enthusiastic teacher, Suzie Martin, whose joie de vivre definitely rubbed off on me.

(my sophomore year of high school, Suzie liked to have embarrassing slide shows at the senior dinner, yep she also made us take the eiffel tower to the bathroom when we didn't have our agendas)

 French became my favorite subject in school and a class I always looked forward to. I didn't know how long I planned on taking it....but I ended up taking it all 4 years of high school. 

My senior year I was French club Secretary and assisted in French club and planning all kinds of things meetings, lunches, a picnic, a concert. Suzie even took all of us officers on a retreat to Stratford, Canada where I first tried escargots! 

It then came time to apply to colleges, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to go into...I though about it and French seemed like the answer it was what I was good at. Following in the footsteps of officers/fellow classmates that had gone on before me and graduated and decided to major in French. When I was looking at colleges I was looking at general things but also study abroad options. I unfortunately didn't get to go to France in high school but it was a priority for my future, after all only 2% of college students get to study abroad anywhere. I applied to a few schools but I did get into my first choice, Western Michigan University. 
I took the language placement exam and to my surprise, ended up in 3000 level classes, Suzie had prepared me well and I dove into classes where I was often the only underclassmen that were a challenge most of the time. I ended up talking to an advisor who said because I was so ahead I could study abroad as early as my sophomore year. So that spring I applied to study in Besançon had my interview and got my acceptance letter this summer! So that takes me to today as my study abroad grows nearer and nearer....I'll be posting more things here before and as I prepare to go!
Sometimes I still do miss WWT French Club and the advanced class and I'll definitely take all the things I've learned with me as I finally go to France.

Bisous, 
Liz