Assimilating into a new society

I haven't been up to a ton, so I don't have anything really new and interesting to write about. It's kind of hard keeping a blog like this going for a year because the fact is I have more of a routine now and my day-to-day life isn't necessarily very interesting. Although it may be very different to most of the people reading this blog, I don't find it interesting to write about. So I figured I would write a story about assimilating into French culture. It didn't happen to me, but Mianke (a friend of my host family who has been staying with us for the last few days).

Mianke (I hope I'm spelling his name right) is from Zaire, which is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. He came to France about 30 years ago as a political refugee. When he came to France with other refugees they went to a French restaurant in Paris and decided to eat a traditionally French dish. So they all got artichokes, and when he told me that I knew exactly how the story was going to end... They ate everything, instead of just eating the tender part of the leaves. They ate everything, and thought the French were weird for eating such a terrible thing but still reassured the waiter that it was excellent when he returned to pick up their dishes. So there's a little story about trying to assimilate into another culture... you have to educate yourself about it a little bit first.

So I'm exhausted after a long day and I need to "hit the hay," even though there's absolutely no hay involved. Good night, and I hope everybody is doing amazing. Thank you if you're still reading!

More old Roman stuff

I've talked about the Romans a decent amount as I've been learning new things about where I'm living this year, but that's because they had such an amazing effect on it. I'm writing about more Roman stuff because Saturday I visited the local "Oppidum," and today I went and took a tour of Les Arènes, the amphitheater of Nîmes. So I'll try to throw in a little history about what I saw...

Rome was a Republic under Julius Caesar, which meant that it would only expand territory for reasons of defense. This all changed after Julius Caesar was killed, Caesar Augustus took his place, and Rome was invaded by Hannibal's Carthaginian armies with their terrifying elephants! As Hannibal had crossed the Pyrenées and the Alps to get into Rome, Augustus decided it would be a good idea to conquer the Gaul territory, thereby closing the dangerous route into the Empire (which Rome became under Augustus). He also decided to conquer Egypt, which he did with two of his royal legions. These legions were to inhabit Nîmes after their military service was over, and were given land in the surrounding area to cultivate. The legions' experience in conquering the Nile region is the reason for Nîmes's symbol of a crocodile chained to a palm tree.

Anyways now I'll finally get to the infrastructure of Nîmes. As Augustus didn't want a bunch of violent old soldiers hanging out in Rome all the time, he gave each of his legions a city in the Empire. However, these legions would note really like to live in their new cities without the infrastructure (baths, theaters, arena, etc.) that a life in Rome offered. So Augustus made sure all of his cities were equipped with things that could keep the soldiers entertained. An interesting fact I recently learned is that Nîmes had a sufficient amount of drinking water before Augustus constructed the Pont du Gard. (I know what you're probably thinking, as well - how could Augustus have conquered France, the Nile, and build the Pont du Gard in the same lifetime? I don't know, but he was a busy guy!) He build the Pont du Gard to supply Nîmes with enough water for the Roman baths that were in the ancient Jardin de la Fontaine and surrounding the Maison Carrée.

Finally for a little something about the amphitheater. The word amphitheater comes from Latin, and means a theater that is built up on both sides instead of the traditional Greek theater, which was only built on one side, usually sitting on a hill. People also call amphitheaters "arenas," which apparently comes from Egyptian or something and referred to the sand that coated the bottom of the ring and soaked up the blood of animals and gladiators. So the amphitheater in Nîmes was built in the somewhere around the year 0. (I believe, and I also believe I'm beginning to use too many parentheses) and of course wasn't initially used for the modern-day ferias. Instead there were many more wild spectacles, including fights between two gladiators, two beasts, one man and a beast such as a lion, a bear, or a bull, and even mock sea battles where the ring would be filled with water and men in small versions of Egyptian boats would fight each other. Oh, and I forgot the public executions, which usually involved a lion or some sort of wild beast and served as intermissions. After the gladiator fights went down in popularity as a result of the Catholic church's opposition, the amphitheater fell into a cultural slump. However, during the Visigoth invasion of France and much other of the violent Middle Ages, it was turned into a fortified castle and was under siege a number of times, with thousands of people taking shelter within. Now it serves as the bull-fighting center of France, and lets musicians like Radiohead (June 14,15 2008) play cool concerts within.

Okay, this has been a little long so I'll try to make it a little shorter now. Or I will just make it shorter naturally because I don't really know anything about the Oppidum, except that it is an old Roman settlement set on the hillside of the neighboring town of Nages. You can go there and see many foundations of houses and small walls that are still standing, which is pretty cool. Check out my pictures link for the Oppidum and Les Arènes! I hope you're more enlightened now, and have a good rest of your week!

Little town, big day

Sunday was the date of municipal elections in France. That means every town, village, and city elected a mayor and a counsel. I got to experience it a little because my host father Philippe was on one of the "lists," or the election cards. Every town in France has these election lists to determine the new counsel, and the length (number of running members) on the lists depend on the size of the list. Boissières, as it is so small with less than 400 eligible voters, has only 11 counsel members including the mayor.

So I went to check out the reading of the election results on Sunday night, which was kind of interesting. It was kind of amusing to me, even though I've never voted in the enormous area that I come from, to see the two curtained voting booths and the small glass box of enveloped ballots. Voters would come in, take both the lists and circle who they wanted, or write another name or two if they wanted someone else in office. So I stuck around for about an hour listening to votes being read off and watching how they marked them down, and how the two people marking who were candidates from the opposite parties would say out loud every time another candidate got to a multiple of 10 votes. But after seeing how it worked for a while I got bored, and didn't really feel like sticking around to see my host father lose, so I left. He jokes now about how demoralizing it is, but it was still good that he got 123 votes out of 319 for being a relatively unknown man in the village (if you can believe being unknown in such a small place). But anyways my dad and I told him to make him feel better that he was like Al Gore in the fact that the better candidate doesn't always win!


Other than that I haven't been up to a ton. I've had some work to do with a group research project being done this week. So unfortunately I didn't get to ride my bike today, but I am going to try to ride this weekend and take some pictures of some pretty things around me - the old Roman settlement on a hillside in the nearby town of Nages and the Pont de St. Nicolas, a Romanesque bridge. I can't promise but I'll try! Goodnight

Becoming a Franco-American

So the weather has been really nice here, which has actually made we lazier. Not like I've been sitting around doing absolutely nothing, but I haven't been going out on bike rides nearly enough. Instead I've been enjoying sitting in the sun reading, playing badminton, and other things to enjoy my 70-degree February and March days. Philippe joked that it was the south of France affecting me, and a family friend said now I was really becoming French!

To go along with the becoming French thing, I've realized lately that I've progressed a ton in the language. I've noticed this because every once in a while as I'm talking to a family member or friend on Skype I start saying something in French, and I've been able to quickly respond whenever another student asks me a for a translation into English. I also realized a month or so ago that, although I never remember my dreams very well, I was dreaming a little in French, which is kind of an interesting feeling. Finally, what's proved it to me more than anything is that I forget words in English occasionally... which isn't good, but when I had to think five minutes to remember the word "rainbow" I realized how much more French I speak than English at the moment and hoped my vocab wouldn't suffer too much for college.

Sitting in the sun reading has also gotten me more motivated to read. Last year I was really busy with school and work and hanging out with friends and all, and I didn't have a ton of reading time. This year is completely different in the fact that I don't have a ton of stuff I have to do, so I've been reading a lot more. In the past month I've read two French plays, a French novel, and I just read Roland Smith's climbing novel Peak in three days. It's made me realize how much I've missed reading. I'm sure I'll have plenty of it to do in school next year though...

I went back to school Monday after our nice long vacation. The weather was gorgeous Monday and alright yesterday, but today isn't quite as nice. It is sunny and beautiful out, but the wind has been blowing about 60 miles per hour since last night! I guess it's getting into Mistral season?

Oh yeah, check out the Spanish ham someone gave us! Intimidating kind of.... That's all I got for now, check in again soon!