Hello, everyone. Hope you are all having a wonderful December so far. Today is Monday, December 6^th. This week is my last week of classes before final exams next week.

Let’s jump right into it: these past couple weeks have been an absolute rollercoaster. I made the decision to study abroad during a pandemic, which I do not regret in the slightest, but to say COVID has had a major impact on my semester would be putting it lightly. Three weekends ago, I arrived back from a wonderful weekend trip to discover from my host family that someone in my host brother’s elementary school (école primaire) class had tested positive for COVID. We tried to stay positive, but I was admittedly a bit freaked out, especially as we heard new of more students in his class having tested positive as well as his teacher. The next day, he became symptomatic. Long story short, my host brother tested positive for COVID that Wednesday. After a stressful 24 hours including a somewhat unorganized response from IES, I was placed in a hotel. I was sad to leave my host family but was under the impression that this would only be for a week at most. It has now been a week and a half, and I am writing this blog post while sitting in the bed of my hotel room. This short spurt of independent living has been nice, but I feel like I am missing out on an essential part of the study abroad experience, just as my program is coming to a close. Fingers crossed I will be able to return to my host family at the end of this week, assuming my host parents test negative.

Yes, I am almost done with study abroad. I can’t quite believe it. I have mixed feelings. This semester has been jam packed with incredible experiences that have made me step out of my comfort zone and live in a way I never have before.

Just as an example, a couple weekends ago (just before the COVID crisis happened) I took a day trip to Arcachon in southern France and visited the Dune du Pilat—the tallest sand dune in Europe! I sometimes can’t digest the multitude of sights to see in this country.

Dune du Pilat in southern France

At the same time, the semester has also had its challenges. This is to be expected, but I don’t think I expected so many flukes to occur. To list a few: I missed the second leg of my flight on the way to France due to a closed gate, had an extremely difficult time receiving a medically necessary package from the US, and now have been thrown out of my host family due to COVID. But I guess that’s an essential part of study abroad—learning to be flexible, taking life’s hardships as they come, and going with the flow. (I personally am still trying to master these skills, but I’m getting a lot better.) I am content but also sad and a bit frustrated, but also curious and exuberant and continuously blown away by my life here—in both a positive and negative sense. I’d say I’ll be ready to go home when the day comes in a couple weeks, but it will be a bittersweet goodbye.

For some more concrete information about life in Nantes at the moment: the holiday season is as spirited as can be. Nantes has a magnificent Christmas market with many vendors selling items including raclette, pasta, handmade wooden toys, artisan jewelry, Mongolian wool clothing items, and vinyl record art. The Place Graslin, the city quarter right near the IES center, has a Christmas tree ride set up complete with a joyful, somewhat inaccurate version of the jingle bells song. People are truly in the Christmas spirit and even the IES center is decorated! Seeing the city transform over these past couple months from a summer activities fair to a holiday spectacle has been something to behold. I never realized how dynamic a city could be, having never lived the “city life” before this.

Place Graslin during the holidays

A few other quick tidbits from the past couple of weeks: I practiced “nature morte” (still life) drawing in my art class, went ice skating with the IES group, and went to a Nantes FC soccer game (we lost to Marseille, but it was still very fun!).

Ice skating with friends

Nature morte drawing in art class — my professor snuck in on the left!

Wish me luck on my final essays and exams. I will write another post soon to reflect on my classes with an overview of how final papers and exams work here.

À bientôt,

Ella

Hi, everyone!

It’s been a while since I last posted. This post is going to be less organized than my previous ones—more of a flow of consciousness. I don’t have a specific topic to address but will rather touch on a handful of different subjects.

My weeklong break vacation, which I referenced in my last post, was surreal. I spent four days in the Provence region in France where I visited Avignon, Orange, Arles, Nîmes, Pont du Gard (one of the best preserved ancient roman aqueducts in the world!), and Saint-Rémy de Provence. I then spent a day in Lyon, after which my friends and I traveled to Alsace to visit Colmar and Strasbourg for the last three days. I won’t go too much into the details of the trip, but I have included some images below. Nantes is great and my IES classes are chugging along, but I do have to admit this vacation week has been one of the highlights of the semester. Southern France was a dream, and if I ever return to France for a prolonged period of time, I would like to spend it there.

The Pont du Gard. Fun fact: this monument is pictured on the 5 Euro bill!

A beautiful city square in the heart of Lyon, near Place Bellecour

My friends and I outside the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg.

Next, I have a fascinating story to tell about my last dessin (drawing) class session here at the Beaux-Arts University. For context, this class is one of the classes I am not taking through IES, and is located at the fine arts university on the Ile de Nantes, an island in the middle of the city on the Loire River. This past week, the class was in a different room than normal, with stand-up easels for portrait drawing placed around the edge. Upon entering, we realized there was a live model in the class for us, and she was standing in the middle of the room wrapped in a sarong. You can probably guess what happened next. Without any prior warning, our class was going to spend two hours doing live portrait drawing of a nude model. This was a shock to all three of us, and I won’t lie and say I wasn’t uncomfortable. However, after setting up my easel and picking up my charcoal, I realized I was going to go for it. I’m in France, and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. France is known as a haven for art and portraiture, and frankly, what could be more fitting than this? Yes, it was uncomfortable. Yes, my portraits didn’t look amazing and I am still developing my art skills. Yes, it was odd when the model walked around the room after each round to look at our renditions of her. But, isn’t that what study abroad is all about? I was pushed far out of my comfort zone and took it in stride, and now I have a great story to tell in the future.

Finally, I want to tell you about SUAPS, the sports activity program at the University of Nantes. Students can purchase a semester pass for 50 euros, which gives them access to three different sports. I personally have been doing yoga on Monday evenings. I have a class at the university until 15h (3pm) on Mondays, then spend a few hours in the library before going to the yoga class at 17h30. I have been doing yoga off and on since middle school and was thus excited to try it out in France. There is something incredible about doing yoga abroad; the instructor teaches the class in French, the yoga positions are often new and unfamiliar to me, and sometimes I become lost…but, as I hold a downward dog and glance around me, I realize how similar it is to the classes I have taken in the US. I am across the globe, in a new and still unfamiliar culture, but here I am connecting with others through movement and breath. It’s grounding, calming, and beautiful. I will admit, my back is a bit sore after today’s practice and I know my thighs will be on fire tomorrow, but that’s a small price to pay for something so wonderful.

Walking into the main SUAPS building to go to my yoga class

I will be updating my blog soon with a post before the end of November. Until then, stay safe and healthy.

À bientôt,

Ella

Hello again! I am composing this post on Sunday, October 31^st—so happy Halloween! Celebrating Halloween has been weird in France as the holiday is only just starting to gain traction in the country. However, I did see a handful of families with kids dressed up for Halloween, and last night there was a large group of students at a bar for a Halloween gathering. This week is my one week off from classes this semester, and I am in the Provence region of France with friends. Nantes is incredible, but southern France is really something special. I have only been here for a day but have already fallen in love.

An ancient roman theater in Orange, France. One of the best preserved in the world. I visited it today during my break.

For this post, I am going to do a quick recap of a “day in my life” as an American study abroad student in Nantes. Every day of the school week is different for me, but for this post I am going to go through a typical Thursday as this is the day I have the most classes. Here goes nothing:

8h30 – Wake up. Eat breakfast, then I often try to do to some quick yoga or meditation in the morning before taking a shower. (My host mom is a professional dancer, so we have lots of dance/yoga equipment available!)

9h30 – Catch the bus from my house to Nantes. About a 2-minute walk from my house to the bus stop, a 10-minute bus ride into the city, then a 7-minute walk to the IES center. I will often go by a grocery store or boulangerie to grab something for breakfast on my way to IES. (My go-to is a croissant aux amandes.)

10h30-12h – Art History class. We are studying the artistic movements and prominent artists from 17^th century French art.

12h-13h – Lunch. There are a couple boulangeries in town that have vegetarian sandwich options, or I’ll go to “cocci market” which has pre-made grab-and-go lunch options, like goat cheese salad or tabbouleh. If the weather is nice out, I will eat lunch on the steps of the opera in Place Graslin, or in the beautiful park near the IES center. If it’s raining, I’ll eat in the IES center kitchen (it’s small, and can get very crowded during lunch, but it has all the necessities.)

Place Graslin in the centre ville of Nantes

13h-14h – Take a breather, then do some homework/studying in the IES center library or one of the other rooms.

14h-15h30 – Sociology class. This class is a broad review of French society and sociological issues, with a good amount of history lessons mixed in to give us context. So far we have studied French youth since the 1960s, the French education system since the middle ages, and the role of women in French society.

15h30-17h – Hang out at the IES center, do some more homework, or go walk around town.

17h – Get ready to head over to the Beaux-Arts university. I need to make sure I have all my art supplies—pencils, charcoal, eraser, pens. Then, start walking to the university around 17h15. My class is at 18h, but I will often swing by a boulangerie on the way for a snack, so I like to leave early. There are two other IES students in my art class who walk over with me. On the way to the class, we cross the bridge over the Loire River.

View of the Loire River on my way back home after my art class

18h-20h – Dessin (drawing) class at the École des Beaux-Arts de Nantes. This class is open to the entire community, so many of the other students are adults who are taking the class for their own personal growth. This makes the class very unique and a wonderful breather from regular college courses.

20h-21h30 – Dinner. Sometimes after our drawing class, my friends and I will go out for dinner to celebrate the end of the week. There’s a delicious galette/crêpe shop that we went to one time.

21h30-22h00 – Head home. My regular bus only runs until 21h every day, so I have to take the tram which drops me off a bit further from my host family’s house. I walk about 10 minutes from the stop until I arrive home.

22h-23h – Get home, take a shower, say goodnight to my host family. Get prepped for the next school day and go over my to-do list.

23h or later – Time for bed! Bonne Nuit.

I hope that gives you a good idea of what student life is like on the IES Nantes program.

Stay safe and healthy,

Ella

Hello, all! It has been about two weeks since my last blog post and much has happened during that time. In the best of ways, it feels like it has been an eternity since I visited my great-grandmother’s friend (which was when I wrote my most recent blog post). The weather in Nantes has slowly started to change from summer to fall—we are currently in that odd middle area where one day can include both pouring rain and sunny blue skies. The unpredictable weather does catch me off guard sometimes, but also reminds me of home as the Seattle area has similarly inconsistent weather this time of year.

In this post I am going to discuss the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on my experience in Nantes and the transportation system.

The pandemic:

Studying abroad during the pandemic is unusual as the world has changed so much in these past two years. Most larger venues in France, such as museums, require patrons to present a “pass sanitaire” (health pass) on your phone upon arrival. This COVID pass verifies that you have either been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or that you have received a recent negative COVID test. The idea is that it improves safety in places with many people and helps prevent the spread of the virus. In places that require the pass sanitaire, you often do not have to wear a mask. However, on the public transportation system, a mask is obligatory. Masks are also required at the University of Nantes and in the IES center. This can make language learning hard as you cannot see the movement of a person’s mouth when they speak. It’s an incredibly important—and often overlooked—part of language comprehension!

As we all do, I often wish the pandemic would just disappear. However, it has been very interesting to see the public health measures being implemented here and how they compare with those in the US.

Public transportation:

The public transportation system in France is impressive and often blows me away. In the US, most people drive cars to get from place to place, but in France it is comparably rare to own a car and/or drive a car every day. There is an elaborate web of trains in Nantes that extend throughout the city and can easily transport you wherever you need to go. Every day, I take train 23 from my host family’s house to the IES center. The walk from my house to the bus stop is only a few minutes, the bus ride is about 10 minutes, and it takes me another seven minutes to walk from the end bus stop to IES, resulting in a commute of about 20 minutes. However, this can vary from day-to-day depending on traffic and the timeliness of the bus routes. Sometimes buses will show up late, not show up at all, or be stalled by protests or traffic, which has forced me to become more flexible and proactive in planning my daily schedule.

View from the Place du Cirque bus stop in the centre ville of Nantes.

Excursions: 

I want to touch quickly on my most recent excursions around France. Last weekend, the IES group went on a day trip to visit Saint-Malo and Mont-Saint-Michel. I was especially enamored by Saint-Malo, which is a walled port city in northwestern France with beautiful beaches and architecture. (Interesting historical side note: Saint-Malo was bombed by the Americans in 1944 during the liberation of the city from German occupation. About 80% of the old city was destroyed, but much has been rebuilt since.) Mont-Saint-Michel was also stunning, of course!

Mont-Saint-Michel!

Saint-Malo

The following day, I visited the city of Indre with my host family and we went to a marché (an open-air farmer’s market) then hiked around the city. It was absolutely beautiful and was nice to have a short break from the bustling city life of Nantes. My host mom taught me how to open chestnuts on the ground that have fallen of trees, and I helped her in collecting them.

The city of Indre which I visited with my host family.

If you are considering the IES Nantes program, you are probably hoping for more information about the “daily life” of study abroad students, so I will touch on this in my next post. My daily schedule varies significantly from day to day, but I will give you an example of a day in the life of an American student in Nantes.

À bientôt,

Ella

Hello, everyone! I realize it has been a long time since I last made a blog post. I have been very busy with my activities in France and haven’t had the chance until now to sit down and collect my thoughts. I am currently on a train to La Rochelle, France to visit my great grandmother’s friend. Nantes was an ideal study abroad location for me as it is located only about an hour and a half away from my grandmother’s hometown where family friends still live.

In this post I will touch a bit on academics and my experience living with a host family. For those of you who are interested in studying abroad, I can imagine that these two aspects are important in choosing a program.

I am now a month into my classes. IES abroad gave us the option to “faire du shopping” for courses, which essentially means we had the first two weeks of the semester to try out courses before finalizing our academic schedule. I did a lot of “shopping,” trying out a handful of university courses as well as classes at the IES center, finally narrowing it down to five courses. At the IES center, I am taking a sociology course, an art history course, and a French language course; at the local university, I am taking a translation course with other IES students; finally, at the local fine arts university, I am taking a drawing course.

As a biology major, I will admit that this sudden onslaught of humanities courses has required an adjustment. I feel somewhat lost without the usual structured schedule of my chemistry and biology courses. However, I know that this experience will allow me to become more flexible in my learning style and improve my ability to adapt to new environments—valuable life skills. There is a noticeable difference between the teaching styles of French university courses and those at Whitman. The IES courses are certainly more liberal-arts oriented, but they often do not feel as intellectually engaging as those I have taken at Whitman. The homework load is light and sometimes the work feels like busy work. However, I think there is something to be said for having a lighter workload while studying abroad as it allows me more time to experience the culture. The translation course at the local university is interesting, and the professor puts in a lot of effort to engage with students, but it does feel more like a lecture course compared to the discussion-based humanities courses I have become accustomed to at Whitman. Lastly, the drawing course…this class is a large step out of my comfort zone! But it has been incredibly enjoyable while also nerve-wracking. I can’t say I am the best artist, but it has been fun to mess around with cross-hatching and charcoal portraiture.

Me next to the Loire river in the heart of Nantes, on my way to my drawing class at the Beaux-Arts university

Just a bit of food for thought for prospective study abroad students: if you are used to taking only four or five courses per semester at Whitman, you may find it a shock to have to take five to seven courses here. The IES courses are worth less credits, so you have to take more classes at a time. Of course, the workload is less per course, but it can be overwhelming to have to keep track of many subjects in different academic areas that are all fully taught in a foreign language. I wouldn’t label this as a positive or negative, but it is an aspect of the program to be aware of.

Aside from academics, I am lucky to be living with a host family this semester. Of all the IES Abroad programs, mine is the only one that is allowing host families this semester amid COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. I cannot imagine studying abroad without a host family and would encourage anyone to take advantage of the opportunity if given the option. I am living with a family of three—a host mom and dad, as well as a ten-year-old host brother. There is something incredibly comforting in being able to go “home” after a busy day of school, sit down at a dinner table, have a home-cooked meal served to me, and practice my French skills with natives. (Sidenote: I am vegetarian, and was placed with a vegetarian host family, which is so cool! Vegetarianism isn’t nearly as common in France as it is in the Pacific Northwest.) We usually eat simple but delicious meals such as a tomato and mozzarella salad as a starter with pasta and roasted vegetables for the main course.

I will admit that living with a host family can be exhausting sometimes. I must constantly adapt to their routine, way of life, and respect their desires and boundaries. I do sometimes feel like a permanent guest in someone else’s house, walking on eggshells. But this is not their fault in any way and is simply a necessary part of the adjustment period. My host parents are incredibly kind and have been very patient in welcoming me into their home. I get to practice my French language skills every night at the dinner table, and they are patient in correcting my mistakes and helping me form sentences.

Adjusting to a new culture is hard, but also exhilarating, and I feel fortunate to have many resources to help me along the way.

My friends and I at Chenonceau, a castle in the Loire Valley. We visited it on a recent weekend excursion trip organized by IES.

À bientôt,

Ella

It’s currently 21:45 (AKA 9:45pm) on a Wednesday night, and the realization that I have been in France for almost a month just hit me like a train. My program directors and French student assistants have been telling me that these three and a half months will fly by, but I didn’t quite believe them until now.

Despite having been in France for 22 days, I still don’t think it has quite sunk in that I am living in a foreign country. That I am abroad. That I am studying abroad…for an entire semester. My middle school self, who dreamed of this since her first French class in seventh grade, would be pinching herself right now. If I look at my life from a distance, it’s hard to believe how fortunate I am to have an opportunity like this. At the same time, however, in the day-to-day hustle and bustle I often lose sight of where I am and what I am doing. I am ameliorating my French language skills (shoutout to the French verb “améliorer”) while also discovering a new culture and learning to trust myself in unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable situations.

I arrived in France on September 1^st, and it has been a whirlwind of adventures since then. My study abroad program, IES Abroad in Nantes, kept us very busy the first two weeks with day trips and orientation activities. Although exhausting, they were also exhilarating, and I am grateful to have chosen a study abroad program that cares to take the students on trips around the region and to spend time giving us useful information.

During our first weekend here, we jumped right into regional excursions in Bretagne (Brittany). On Saturday, IES took us to a beautiful island on the Atlantic called “Île-aux-Moines.” We biked around the town, swam at the beach, ate ice cream by the port, and took a boat tour around the islands. This was not only a fun and enriching experience, but also gave me the opportunity to bond with other members of my study abroad group, who are all incredibly nice. We are a group of about thirty-five students hailing from all corners of the United States as well as a few other countries. I feel lucky to be with such a wonderful group of people.

At Île-aux-Moines

Biking at Île-aux-Moines

On Sunday, we started the day by visiting the marais salants of Guérande—salt marshes that have been in use since the seventh century. There are two main types of salt harvested here, “gros sel” and “fleur de sel,” both of which can be found all over the world. (One of my friends told me her mom found biscuits made with Guérande salt at Costco!). There are only a handful of salt flats in France, including one in the nearby city from which my grandmother comes, La Rochelle. With all of the advanced technology and industrialization present in today’s world, seeing a man harvest salt by hand with a long-handled rake was an incredibly humbling and grounding experience. I felt like I was being pulled back in time. After visiting the marais salants, the group had lunch at a delicious crêperie and then spent a short time in the medieval walled town of Guérande, which I’m hoping to visit again in the coming months.

Marais Salants de Guérande

The following week—my first full week in France—was spent doing lots of administrative tasks and attending orientation meetings. Class registration, safety tips, transportation information, city sights, and more. In between meetings I ate baguette sandwiches and almond croissants. (Pro tip: try a “pain au chocolat aux amandes” if you are ever in France. It’s a cross between a chocolate croissant and an almond croissant…and is simply out of this world.)

After a surreal weekend in the port town of Pornic with friends, classes started on Monday, September 13^th. At this point, I have almost two weeks of classes under my belt, with final course registration happening in a couple days.

In my next post, I will dive deeper into the nitty-gritty of my study abroad experience so far, with a particular focus on host family living and academics.

À bientôt,

– Ella