Chapels, Churches, and Cathedrals
22/05/2009
Last night/this morning, around 2:30AM, I was awakened by a knock on my door. I had been working on my presentation for class all night and had just laid down, maybe 10 minutes earlier. It was Britney, probably the most American girl in France(and proud of it! she would add). Britney had a bad dream and believe our dormitory was haunted. Ofcourse, where we are staying IS Napolean’s miliary hospital. We had a nice little slumber party, though we couldnt get to sleep until 4Am and we had class at 8:30!
My assignment for my Conversation in French class was to research a church in Cherbourg and make a 10 minute presentation about it in French. Honestly, this may be one of my favorite “projects” I’ve ever worked on in French. The research aspect was interesting because we had to use 100% french websites(no wikipedia) and translate as we went along. I got so used to it, I was able to write my notes in French and form them into presentation form. Then, we had to locate the parish and on the day of the presentation, get our class from point A(the institute where we reside) to point B(the church). That meant we had to use our skills with the map and reading bus schedules. That was the focus of our first week of class: learning to navigate; giving and receiving directions, etc. My church was L’eglise de Saint Martin, located in the butte of Cherbourg-Octeville. My teacher helped me a little with deciphering the bus route, and from there, I was on my own. At one point, Madame Hayes said, “now you understand the pressure of “la responsable”. I was soo nervous about misleading my group and getting lost in the city, BUT I survived and we arrived without any trouble. My church was the most simple of all we visited. Built in 1160, the architecture is romanesque with its low ceilings and dim lighting. On the exterior, there are zodiac symbols, carved in stone on one of the sides. I did not find much information regarding those symbols, but I would like to know more. After we finished presentations, we took the bus to our school cafeteria. The food is delicious, especially the staple BREAD AND CHEESE(la pain et le fromage). Oh and I must not forget, the chocolate mousse. Ofcourse, there were some things that looked and smelled “unique”, but I wasnt going to be tied down to fries and steak hache(burger). I tried something new each day, and ended up liking alot of it. Several of the other students had the same idea and started getting out of their comfort zone. After all, why would you travel thousands of miles to feel like you were right at home?