Final Countdown!

My mom's going to be here in less than a week, and I am so excited. I just have a lot of school work to finish up before she gets here. It's a lot to get done in a short time, but the fact is, it will get done (hopefully without me losing too much sleep), and then I can relax and enjoy our trip to Brussels, Strasbourg and Paris to see the Christmas markets!

I experienced my first Christmas market yesterday at Place Royale in Nantes, and I know we are going to have such a great time in the other cities. There are so many different stands set up, each selling something unique. I got some great gift ideas, but I'm going to wait until I've seen what Brussels, Strasbourg and Paris have to offer before making any purchases.

The Christmas market put me in the holiday spirit, so all weekend I've been listening to online radio stations playing Christmas music. Can't believe Christmas is less than a month away, but it will be so nice to get back to the USA and spend the holidays with my family in Chicago. Plus, I'm sure we'll watch "A Christmas Story" at least a couple times, and that always puts a huge smile on my face!

Back to homework for the rest of the day, but the countdown continues!!

Things I'm Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Needless to say, I didn't really have much of an opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving here in France. We had a full day of Human Resources Management class, and while it was interesting, I was slightly distracted throughout the day by all of my friends' status updates on Facebook telling me just how amazing all of their Thanksgiving meals were going to be. Jealous!

I am celebrating a little bit in my own way-- I had one bottle of the wine from Jerome's family's winery leftover from earlier in the semester, so I decided today would be a good day to open it. I've had a couple glasses, and it's put me in a good mood.

While my experience here has definitely had its frustrating moments, I still have so much to be thankful for:

1. The people I've gotten to know.


My classmates are all from very different backgrounds, but I have learned so much from them and all of their experiences. It has been a great opportunity to get a new perspective on business, especially since many of my classes are repeats of classes I already took at Fisher.

2. The places I've visited. Before school even started, I had a chance to meet up with Dave and Justin in Madrid, and that was definitely a nice mini-vacation to start off my time in Europe.

Oktoberfest has been the highlight of my time here, hands down. It was incredible to be with so many of my Fisher classmates and to experience that ridiculously crazy environment together. I'm so excited to get back to OSU and see them all again!


My trip to Milan to see Celina, Margaret, Joe and Sarah was also a nice break. At that point, I was getting quite frustrated with things in Nantes, and I needed the "midwesterner" time with them.

I also loved visiting Paris with the Milan kids (minus Margaret) a couple weekends ago-- we saw so much in such a little time, and they always know how to make me smile!

My trip to Chaillevette with the classmates was also a really nice time. It was great to see a new part of France and to get to know my classmates outside of the classroom.

Clisson was great too!

3. French food.

Though I haven't gone out to eat all that often, the times I have enjoyed a meal in a French restaurant have never disappointed. I am going to miss gallettes and crepes once I get back to the States. While there's a great creperie in Cincinnati, the crepes there really don't compare to the real thing. I am also going to really miss the smell of the bakeries here. I try not to indulge in too many pastries, but just smelling them is often enough to make my mouth water!! I will definitely be eating more French food when my mom comes to visit, so I'm sure this will make me even more thankful!

4. French wine.

Not only is it delicious, it's also ridiculously cheap here. My roommate has been buying bottles for less than 3 euros, and has been kind enough to share with me. Visiting Jerome's family's vineyard also gave me a much greater appreciation for the wine-making process.

5. Skype. Thanks to this amazing technology, I have been able to keep in touch with my family and friends throughout my time here. I could always use e-mail, but it has often been a really great pick-me-up to hear a familiar voice on the other end.

6. Speaking of familiar voices, this trip has made me even more thankful for my family and friends. They have been there for me when I wanted to go on and on about my amazing trips throughout other parts of Europe, as well as when I wanted to vent my frustrations about some things. They are such a wonderful support system, and I'm so excited to see them all again soon! In fact, Mom's coming in 8 days!!!!



7. dunnhumbyUSA As I mentioned a few posts ago, I did receive a formal offer from dunnhumbyUSA to work with them after I graduate from OSU. I'm pleased to say that I have accepted the offer and will be moving to Cincinnati in late June. I love the company and the people there, and I'm so excited to see what the future holds.

8. This experience as a whole. My time in France is one that I will never forget. It really has helped me learn more about who I am and what I want out of life. I have started to recognize more and more what is actually important, and what I should let go of, and I'm not sure that would have happened in the States. My time here has been far from perfect, but I still feel fortunate to have had the experience.

Trip to Clisson

As of today, I have exactly 4 weeks left in Nantes. I will be leaving for Paris on December 20, staying the night at a hotel near the airport and flying out December 21 at 12:15. Can't believe how fast it's gone.

Since my time is winding down, my classmate Laurant was kind enought to plan one more trip for me and some of the other classmates. He suggested that those of us staying in Nantes should take the 12:05 train from Nantes to Clisson (only about 15 minutes), where we would meet him and his daughters for lunch, and then go to visit a medieval castle in the town. In total, 14 people said they would participate in the trip.

When I got on the train, my classmates were nowhere to be found. Got one text message from Pan, who said that she would meet us at the restaurant.

When I got to Clisson and met Laurant and his daughters, I found that I was the first to arrive. At least no one here can ever accuse me of being tardy. Four more of my classmates (plus one child) were set to arrive by car around 12:30, and our reservation at the restaurant was for between 12:30 and 1. We got ahold of the classmates coming by car, and found out that they would be arriving late. We tried to reach our other classmates, but none of them got back to us. Pan missed the next two trains to Clisson, so she said she would meet us after lunch at the castle. Needless to say, it was a bit of a logistical nightmare for Laurant.

When the car full of classmates arrived, there were only three classmates plus a child. Apparently the fourth had gone out the night before, had a little too much fun, and wasn't feeling so well yesterday morning. Poor guy.

We finally sat down at the restaurant at 1:30. They had prepared a table for 14, and there were only 8 of us. The host didn't even seem upset by it... but they did tell us that we would have to order off of the menu du jour because of the reservation we had made. For my appetizer, I ended up getting potage (thick soup) made up of pureed vegetables that had a distinct mushroom flavor, and was served with a side of homemade crutons and shredded emmental cheese. It was delicious. My main dish was asparagus wrapped in chicken served in a mushroom sauce with green beans. Also very good. For dessert, I ordered the house specialty which was a muscadet cake with a dark chocolate crust and a side of creme anglaise. The cake itself was very light, but also very flavorful. For 15 euros, it was a pretty good deal.

Our next stop was to the castle of Clisson. It had two parts, one of which was constructed 1,000 years ago. Much of it has either been destroyed or fallen apart since then, but what we were able to see and walk around in was quite impressive. I'm getting a bit tired of all these castles, but the fact that they're still standing after 10 centuries is still amazing to me.





Our tour guide was a cute older French man who was very excited about the castle. He showed us a well where 18 people were thrown down and drowned as punishment for crimes, and he said that he got to be there when they excavated the skeletons in the 1960s. Not the most pleasant of stories, but a part of history nonetheless.



He also showed us the "kitchen" which were two huge fireplaces. They were the original brick ovens, but could hold an entire cow to be cooked. Crazy!



The rest of the tour showed us the more modern part of the castle, which is still several centuries old. Here's a 500-year-old oak door that is still in tact today.



Overall, it was nice to get away from Nantes for a while and to see the historical castle. Unfortunately, once I got home, I had several assignments waiting for me.

So far, my individual assignments for both Human Resources Management and Organization Behavior are finished. Now I just have to start some group papers and get them done before my mom comes in less than 2 weeks!! I'm so excited for her visit, and I'm sure that all of this work will make the time fly.

Roommate

So after a blissful month and a half of having this entire apartment to myself, I just learned tonight that I will be getting a roommate on Saturday. He's an older gentleman named Darren, a doctor from the UK. I met him when he first came to look at the place, and he seems nice enough. At this point, I don't even care, as I'll be out of town for a week when my mom visits, and he will be moving out 3 days after I return. So in total, he'll really only be here for about 2 and a half weeks while I'm here. No big deal.

I guess what really surprises me about the whole thing is that Leslie was actually able to find someone willing to pay 350 euros for rent. The room has no door, just a curtain, no dresser, no internet connection (unless Leslie can figure out how to configure the wi-fi here-- I use a cable), and a lawn-chair bed. I probably have to explain what I mean by that last phrase. Picture a lawn chair that you might find on the beach-- a tube frame with fold-out legs that sits about 6 inches off the ground. Strips of plastic going from one side to the other to support a 3-inch thick "mattress." I thought I had it bad when Leslie exchanged the big queen size bed I had when I first moved in for the futon I sleep on now. Guess I should be thankful now that I know what my other option was.

60 hours left of class-- too much to do and not enough time to do it all, but trying my best to stay motivated!

Paris, je t'aime!

I just returned from an absolutely amazing trip to Paris. I wish I was still there!

Left Nantes at noon on Saturday and got into Paris Montparnasse around 2:15. Took the metro to Pigalle, and found my hotel without a problem. It was a really small room with a bed, sink, and table. Bathroom was down the hall. A little noisy as I was right next to the staircase and people were walking up and down at all hours of the day and night, but it was fine. For 40 euros a night, with breakfast included each morning, it was a decent deal.

After I put my luggage in the room, I headed out to find some pastels that my uncle wants. I mapped out two stores in Paris that carried them according to the web site, but both of them were no longer in business. Bummer.

Went to the Champs-Elysee after the pastel no-go, and felt a huge sense of relief. Nantes is a nice town, but Paris is just so busy and crowded and full of life...and I needed to be in that environment after so many months here. I'm ashamed to say that I found a McCafe and bought a frozen chocolate drink (can't remember the name exactly)... and it was fantastic. I really have tried not to go to the kinds of places I could find in the States while I'm here, but it was a nice taste of home.

I also saw the stalls where merchants are going to be set up for the Christmas market in a few weeks. Made me even more excited for my mom's visit!!



I headed back to Pigalle after that and found a salad for dinner at a nearby grocery store. I took a short nap, then read some assignments for school for a couple hours after that. Finally, Celina, Joe and Sarah showed up around 11:30.

I brought a bottle of Muscadet to share with them so that they could have a taste of Nantes, and then we headed out to see more of Pigalle. We found a crepe stand as we were walking down the street, so Joe, Sarah and I each got one. Delicious!! We saw the Moulin Rouge, and then found a bar where we had a few beers before calling it a night around 2 a.m.



Next morning we were at breakfast at 8:30 so we could get an early start to our day. We started at Champs Elysee and went to l'Arc de Triomphe. It never seems that big until you're actually standing next to it.



From there, we walked all the way down the Champs Elysee toward the Louvre. We didn't go in, as they were going to go today (after I'd left to go back to Nantes). We did go into Musee D'Orsay though, and saw some nice works of art there. My favorite by far is Toulouse-Lautrec, and they had several pieces of his on display.

We finished there around lunch time, and we found a restaruant not too far from the museum where we had lunch. It seemed touristy, but the food was actually fantastic. Celina, Sarah and I each ordered a Croque Madame, plus Sarah ordered some french onion soup, and Joe got a cheeseburger. We were all very satisfied after that meal.

Our next stop was Notre Dame, which is another beautiful French church. It always amazes me how old all of the churches are here, and yet they're still in great shape. It is a little disconcerting when you see machines where you can get tourist medallions like you would find at the Eiffel Tower, though.





Celina decided to go home and take a nap after Notre Dame, but Sarah, Joe and I made our way to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. I think Sacre Coeur is one of the most interesting churches in Paris, and I personally like the inside of Sacre Coeur better than Notre Dame.



We wandered around and saw all of the artists in Montmartre, and while I saw some pieces of art that I liked, the prices were quite high. oh well.


We took a break at a cafe not too far from Montmartre and had some beer and wine. Then we made our way to the biggest flea market in Paris... Marches au Puce. It's huge, and very crowded, but I found a great present for my brother there!! I also tried on some boots, but none of them fit me very well. C'est la vie I suppose.

We took the metro back to our hotel, and after a brief break, we headed back out to the Champs Elysee. I thought the lights would be turned on for the holidays, but not yet. We did get to see the Eiffel Tower lit up and sparkling though-- that was great!!



Headed to the Latin Quarter to try and find a good restaurant for dinner, but all of them were ridiculously touristy. We had been walking around for about 30-45 minutes looking for a restaurant, and finally I just found a group of police officers and used my limited French skills to ask them for a "good restaurant close to here that's not too expensive." They replied (in French), that there aren't any good restaurants in the area that aren't expensive, but they pointed us away from Latin quarter and told us we'd have better luck with good food in another area. We found the place they were talking about, and we struck gold with a restaurant called "Les Cinoches." It was pricey, but we all had absolutely amazing meals.

Celina had an appetizer of fried eggs covered in cheese and mushrooms and an entree of macaroni, cheese and ham. Joe had an interesting appetizer of mussels in a cream sauce with pureed broccoli and then scallops with a side of polenta as an entree. Sarah had some type of artichoke wrapped in pastry dough as her appetizer, and duck with ginger dressing for her entree. I chose a pumpkin soup served over creme fraiche as my appetizer, and had chicken in a pot of warm broth with peas, green beans and capers. Delicious!!! We all split a dessert called Pur Chocolat, and that's all it was. A circle of melty chocolate. Amazing.

After a very satisfying dinner, we walked down the street to a piano bar and sang along as the pianist played "Au Champs Elysee," "Imagine" and "What a Wonderful World." We ordered a bottle of wine, and our waitier brought us an extra half pitcher for free. It was a perfect end to the day.



I left Paris around 11 this morning, and got back to Nantes at 1.

I have a lot of work to do in the next three weeks, but I'll have it all done before my mom gets here and then I can just relax and enjoy a much needed vacation!

Respecting Cultural Differences vs. Universal Disrespect

Very early on during my time here in France, I mentioned that one of the things that annoyed me most was that we rarely get out of class on time. For the last seven school days, we've been having two classes per day, scheduled from 9-12 and 2-5, with a two-hour lunch break in between. Of those seven days, I don't think there has been one in which at least one class did not run over by 15 minutes or more. In fact, out of those 14 class sessions, I would venture to guess that 10 lasted longer than they were supposed to. Sometimes class runs over because the professor has just one or two more slides that he or she needs to cover, or because four different classmates have "one last point" to make. One day, we ran over by 30 minutes due to "short" group presentations lasting for between 45 minutes and an hour.

A similar issue arises when it comes to starting things on time. Typically, professors are pretty good at starting promptly at 9 or 2, depending on the class. But there are a couple students who always come in 20-30 minutes late each day, and it doesn't seem to bother the professors one bit. They just greet them and continue with the lecture. Group work can also be a challenge in terms of timing, as I discovered last week. I had planned to work with my group for one of our class assignments last Sunday. I was to meet one of my teammates at 11 a.m. near one of the tram stops, and we would walk to our other teammate's apartment from there. I showed up at 11:00, and no one else did. I waited 5 minutes, and then sent text messages to both of my team members, and while one didn't respond at all (later discovered that her phone had been having problems with text messages) I didn't receive a response from my other teammate for another 10 minutes. The message said that she was getting ready to leave and would be there in 10 minutes. She arrived about 30 minutes later. By the time we got to our other teammate's apartment, it was close to noon, and that was a full hour wasted.

To me, this comes across as a complete lack of respect for others' time. If you are scheduled to meet at a certain time for 2 hours or 3 hours, I expect that that time commitment will be honored, or to at least let me know that you're running late. However, that is almost never the case here. I also realize, though, that this could be a self-reference bias. That is, I expect that things should be the same for me here (or anywhere) as they are in the States, whereas, the culture in France (and the home countries of many of my classmates, apparently) is simply not as concerned with being on time. I really am trying my best to adjust, but I also wonder if, because Audencia is an International MBA program that is trying to prepare its students for international jobs (and a push seems to be on helping students find work in the US), then shouldn't punctuality be addressed and taught as being important? Maybe not-- It's just a question that I'm really not sure of.

As long as we're on the subject, how appropriate is it to carry on side conversations in the middle of someone else's presentation? This has also been happening since I got here, but has gotten worse lately as we've been doing more and more presentations in our classes. No matter who is presenting (it can even be the professor), there is almost always another conversation taking place between two or more students somewhere in the room. Now, I have no problem with students who are asking someone else what a particular English word means if they are unclear, but what I'm referring to are the 5-minute, normal-volume-voice conversations that my classmates often have with each other, and seem to think nothing of it. Again, OSU (and probably any American) professors would have a fit if students were talking to each other instead of paying attention, but again, professors here just go on as if nothing is happening. Is this another cultural difference that I'm simply unaware of, or is it a disrespectful act? I'm just not sure.

I'm leaving France in less than 6 weeks, and I'm obviously never going to tell everyone to show up on time and keep quiet when others are talking, but I do wonder if it's something worth mentioning casually, especially to those students who want to work in the USA someday.

Any insights?

Update!

It's been more than a week since my last update, and quite a lot has happened!

Last week was the first time we had class from 9-5 every day. There have been long weeks before, but typically we had at least one day during which we had at least half of the day to ourselves. We covered a lot of ground last week. Started our international marketing class, which I think I'm really going to enjoy. Our professor is fantastic... very into interaction in the classroom, so that makes things much better for all of us. We also had two full days of U.S. law. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the days went very quickly. Our professor is a lawyer from the States, so it was nice to hear my own accent!! He was also very engaging and explained things clearly. Ended the week with Economics and HR, which were both fine.

Now that I've had at least one session of each of my classes (the scheduling of classes here still baffles me-- each week is different and it's all based on teacher availability), I've made a to-do list of all the assignments I have to complete in the next 4 weeks before my mom gets here.

1. Human Resources Paper (Outlined and half has been written)
2. OB Paper (Outlined, not started)
3. International Business paper (Not started)
4. Group Case Presentation for Law (Not started)
5. Marketing individual paper (Not started)
6. Marketing group paper (Group has been formed, but that's as far as we've made it)

So as you can see, that's a lot of work left to do, and not a lot of time to do it. I think it's about 40 pages of writing in total, so if I can write 2 pages per night, I should be able to get it done in time. I'm so excited for my mom to come visit... so that's a great motivation to get these projects finished so I don't have to think about any school work while she and I travel.

Saturday night the classmates went to Tahir's house for a potluck dinner. Each person brought a dish to share, and we had a very nice evening. It's always nice to spend time with the classmates outside of school.

Finally, (and most exciting), I found out on Saturday that I will indeed be getting a job offer to join dunnhumby as a full-time employee after I graduate from OSU in June! I am sooo excited for the opportunity, as I really believe that company is the perfect fit. I don't know the details of the offer yet, but I will learn more later this week. I must admit that I've been a little stressed about the uncertainty, so this news took a huge weight off of my shoulders. Pays to be patient I guess (thanks to the French for teaching me that!)

French Food

Just got back from a great long weekend with some of my classmates in Chaillevette, where Xavier-Freddy's family has a home. Saw some interesting places, and more importantly, I learned what it meant to be a French foodie :)

Quick recap of the sights: First stop was La Rochelle, which is a nice harbor town about 1.5 hours from Nantes. It has two towers at the entrance, and these towers are on every postcard we saw there (so I obviously had to take a picture).



Next we stopped at Rochefort to see the Corderie Royale, which is an incredibly long building where rope was made. It's now a museum.



Xavier-Freddy's house in Chaillevette was fantastic. Plenty of space for all of us, and it was a weekend free of tv, internet and phones (for some of us anyway).




Royan is a town not too far from Chaillevette where Elise and I were able to go flying with Xavier-Freddy. It was very interesting to see the view that a pilot has in a plane, instead of just looking out the side windows like you do on a commercial flight.






Now, onto the food!! I really don't think I need to eat anything for about a week after all the deliciousness I consumed this weekend.

When we stopped in La Rochelle on the first day, we ate at a nice little restaurant by the harbor. I had salmon pate with bread for my appetizer, then a salmon steak with cream sauce and spinach for an entree, and an amazing L'ile flottant for dessert. L'ile flottant literally means "floating island" and it is an "island" made up of egg whites whipped with sugar, baked and then it "floats" in a sea of sweet English cream. It's absolutely delicious.



For dinner that night, we had Raclette, which is a small grill in the middle of the table where each person cooks his or her own meats, cheeses and vegetables. We had plenty of chicken, beef, duck, cheese and mushrooms. So tasty!




For dessert, Jerome's wife Elise made a great gateau au chocolat.



The next morning, I had cereal and a croissant. That was actually the first croissant I've had since I arrived in France, and it was perfectly flaky and buttery. Yum!

For lunch, we had a real seafood feast with raw oysters, shrimp and little fried fish. I'd never had oysters before, and to be honest, I'm not a big fan, but at least I can say I tried them. The shrimp and fish were good though! We followed that meal with various cheeses and breads, and then had some pastries for dessert.





Dinner on Friday night was a real treat, with "Eclade de Moule." It's a very famous dish in the region made of mussels cooked under burning pine needles. We went to the forest earlier in the day to collect dry pine needles from the trees.



When we got back, Xavier-Freddy, Jerome and Elise went to work setting up the mussels in a very specific pattern so that they were all standing upright in a circle.



Once the mussels are set, you put the pine needles on top, and then light them on fire. The fire burns for several minutes, and then you put it out and fan away as much of the ash as you can. For the most part, the mussels are still closed, but a little tap on the table opens them up and then you can eat them. It takes a little practice to avoid getting the ashes in the mussels when you crack them open, but they are perfectly cooked and taste great!







We had more raclette after the mussels, as well as tomatoes and endive. For dessert, we had a fruit tart from a local bakery.



On our final day, breakfast was once again cereal and a croissant. Lunch was beef and lamb cooked on the grill. Took a while for Jerome and Gairik to get the grill fired up, but once they did, they did a great job cooking the beef and lamb.



Xavier-Freddy also cooked up some fresh green beans and mushrooms that really complemented the meat well. We had another fruit tart for dessert.

I should also mention that throughout the weekend we tried several types of wine. A new favorite is Pinau, which is actually more of an appertif or sipping wine. Very sweet, but rather strong. We also tried some wine from 1971, which had also become very sweet over the years. Though not a wine, Xavier-Freddy also had two jars full of fruit and some type of alcohol- one with cherries and one with prunes. I tried one bite of the cherry and it was far too much. Others seemed to enjoy it though!





After all of that fancy French food, we decided to make things easy on ourselves last night and ordered pizza at Jerome and Elise's house. We had a few different varieties, but my favorite was ham, cheese and honey. It sounds really strange, but the mix of salty and sweet was just right!

I really hadn't known what it meant to eat like a French person until this weekend, but I'm so glad that Xavier-Freddy, Jerome and Elise were there to show me the way.