My Third Weekend at Angers

Last night an Algerian student and I watched the movie, Madame Bovary, on DVD in one of the two television rooms we have at Lakanal Residence Hall. The film stayed pretty close to the events in Gustave Flaubert's novel, Madame Bovary, although scenes were much shorter in the film. In addition, Madame Bovary's death was not drawn out in the film like it was in the novel. I also noticed where the film did not have Charles (Dr. Bovary) draw blood directly from Rodolphe, but from a woman whom Rodolphe brought in to Charles' office. In addition, at Emma's death scene, the daughter did not show up in the film, nor was she with her father, Charles Bovary, as he was dying from a broken heart. Anyway, it was interesting to view the film all in French and to make comparisons between the novel and film. My Algerian friend helped me speak French as I was critiquing the film, since she speaks excellent French.

It is the weekend here at the University of Angers and I am spending time in the library where I can access the computers. Since the library is closed on Sundays, I have no computer access on that day. I also walked to the small grocery store down the street and purchased all that I was able to carry back to my room. I spent about 11 euros on food today (equivelent to about 15 dollars in the U.S.) which will get me through a good part of the upcoming week. I seem to have to visit the grocery store twice a week to have enough food for all of my meals and snacks during each week. Plus, I can carry only so much at a time back to the Residence Hall. I prefer to make my own meals at the residence hall because it's cheaper that way on a student budget. I've noticed that I'm not the only student at the residence hall who is utilizing the community kitchens on each floor. It's amazing how many of us are preparing meals at any one time in these kitchens. Because the U.S. dollar is not very strong here right now, I'm trying to "cut corners" where ever possible, so that I can make my euros stretch. Traveling here is also costly, so that I am making the most of my classes and community relations here at Angers to help strengthen my French language. At this point in time, 230 euros is equivelent to 297.80 U.S. dollars; 195 euros is equivelent to 256.89 U.S. dollars. The exchange rate is even worse for the Australian students who are here.

I've been able to keep connected to my four bunnies in Maine while I am here. When I call home, Bob holds the portable phone up to the ears of each bunny so that I can talk to them. Bob says that each rabbit moves her snout under the telephone to get closer to my voice. I will continue doing this during my stay in France so that the bunnies don't forget me and don't feel abandoned by me. In the last three years I've never been away from my rabbits for a full day, since adopting them.

France seems to be very much into recycling and energy conservation. On the corner of my street here, there are four very large bins for sudents to drop off empty cans, cartons, jars, journals, newspapers, etc. In addition, the corridors are not heated in the building where I attend classes; the library is kept cool, as is the market where I shop for food. I therefore have to dress warmly where ever I go. It is also kept cool in the large recreation room of Lakanal residence hall where I live, although my own room is comfortable enough.

I want to write another bilingual article (in French and in English) for the Franco American journal, Le FORUM, while I am here this semester, so I'm trying to come up with a topic to address while living in France. I guess there is a lot I could write about. The Franco American Center at the University of Maine in Orono publishes Le FORUM about twice a year.

Well, I need to sign off for now so I can go do my laundry at Lakanal residence hall. I reserved one of the washer machines there for four o'clock today, which translates to 1600 hours here. In the meantime, keep coming back to my blog spot for updates.