I don’t really dance…like, ever…not even at parties. I don’t really like parties for that very reason. I’m more of a runner/hiker/biker and I never really broadened my horizons! I’m talking about real dancing here, like swing dancing, hip-hop, ballet kind of stuff. My sister is the dancer of the family. And my mom loves to dance. But I often am embarrassed to dance because it doesn’t feel natural to me. Since I’m in Alsace though, I want to learn what I can about a culture that isn’t as vividly alive as it used to be. And part of the Alsatian culture includes a type of folk dancing. There’s a club called S'Narreschiff (which sounds like an Alsatian name to me!) that hosts “bal folk” events once every month or so, and Accès put an April 27th evening on the agenda for us. I almost didn’t go because it sounded like I’d feel awkward, but I went anyway because I needed to get out of my room at least once that day, and I had invited Sama to go with me. I figured it would at least just be an experience, right? Well, let me tell you, if I can dance, anyone can! What a great night. I absolutely loved it! I stayed in the place from 8pm til about midnight. There were people there who obviously knew all the dances, but there were plenty of others who didn’t, just like me. There were those willing to teach you how to dance, and it wasn’t even that hard! And all you had to do was jump in. I couldn't believe how simple it was! No one noticed if you “weren’t good” because it was 100% about fun. My favorite was when everyone danced together in a big circle. Partners rotated each time the pattern of the dance repeated, so you kind of got to know everyone in the room a little. I guess it was a bit like square dancing, but I always thought square dancing was difficult! Now I'm so willing to try it though. Below is a video you can download (hopefully) that I took at the bal folk.
And the music! I mean, I am a kind of “folksy” person I guess, but there’s just something about the accordion, fiddle, and guitar that I especially liked, and it was fun, upbeat, dancing music. There were occasionally other instruments too, like the bassoon and a fife. The band was an Alsatian group called Triozoiso. They’re on Facebook! I learned 3 dances, but I don’t know what they were called. No one wore any traditional Alsatian outfits, but I saw a few kilts. That’s because there were some Scottish jigs we danced to as well. I keep hearing bits of the music in my head, and I really love it. The club moves around, so the bal folk events aren’t in the same place every month. This one was in Illkirch, which is just outside Strasbourg. I got there by taking a tram allllllll the way from one end to the other. Please take my advice—if you get a chance to do something unique like going to a bal folk or taking accordion lessons, do it. Even if you’re a little uncomfortable. Even if you kind of don’t feel like it as you’re already on the tram in the right direction. But especially do it if you’re studying abroad. You will think back on your experiences and realize all you did. Maybe it won't be the best time of your life, but you can't hide from uncertainty. I tend to do that. Right now I feel like I wasted a lot of time being homesick and seeking comfort by staying in my room, but really, I DID do a lot. I made the most that I could of my time here in Strasbourg. I never in a million years thought I would love dancing so much, for one thing (though secretly I always wanted an opportunity to learn). Above all though, learning French in a country where it’s the first language spoken has proven to me that that’s the best way to learn a language. And a culture, for that matter. It’s uncomfortable, but doing hard things makes you grow. Testing yourself makes you confident. Sometimes I feel so angry that this entire semester was a real struggle for me. Why couldn't it have been the most fun semester? I'm in FRANCE! I should be loving it. That's not realistic though. I had a good mix of wonderful days and extremely troublesome days. I think any genuine experience that sticks with you is like that in some way. When I come home and everyone asks me how my semester was, don’t expect me to say it was the best time of my life. I learned so much—but I had a lot of bad days. I want to reflect on it and keep all the memories, but I want to sort of "set it aside" for a while after I get home. It's like any summer after a semester of college! You just need to relax and have yourself a vacation. It took me this entire 4 and a half months just to start feeling normal and familiarized here in Strasbourg, but at least now I know I can do it. I think I could stay longer if I needed to. But I’m happy to be going home! I can’t wait to discover the other ways I’ve grown once I think of my experience from a different perspective. This is most likely my last blog post, but I'm still in France for 3 more weeks. Finals are coming up fast! I'll be sad to leave, and I'll miss the Alsatian pretzels and French pastries, the forest and park right near where I'm staying, and the beautiful yet annoyingly complicated city streets. Not to mention all the people I've met. I've loved biking to class everyday too. Still, I'm super excited to go home and see my family, pets, and friends. Hope you enjoyed my petits mots! A la prochaine, Elda Hricko P.S. I tried to upload videos of the folk dancing, but I can only do that if I pay for the pro version of this website, which I am too cheap to do. Hopefully the attempt at attaching a file worked. Otherwise, next time you see me I can just show you!
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About 5 years ago, when I first starting learning French, I found a website called Shared Talk for practicing language skills. You selected the language you wanted to practice, and then you were matched up with someone who was a native speaker. It was all about conversation through an email type platform. I was paired with someone named Romain. He is from Nancy, France, and he was a student like me. We used both English and French while writing to each other, but mostly I wrote in French and he wrote in English. We used to correct each other’s messages too! This was my first time ever talking to a native speaker, even though it was only written and just through the internet. It’s kind of funny to think about my first experience(s) with native speakers because now, while I’m living in Strasbourg for a few months, I talk to native speakers everyday! Anyway, the website shut down about 3 years after I was using it because they didn’t have enough funding or something. Romain and I exchanged emails, and the conversation continued! We just talked about school, where we’re from, our interests, our friends, and sometimes we talked about religion or other philosophical things. It required the use of a dictionary (for both of us!) but it helped me learn a lot. So guess what! After 5 years, I met him in person! He graduated college and now works in Nancy. In the beginning of the semester, Accès took a weekend day trip there. We saw Place Stanislas and the Museum des Beaux Arts. I texted Romain that I would be there, and he ate lunch with us at a very nice restaurant called Excelsior. It wasn’t weird at all meeting him in person even though we’re both rather shy people. We already knew what each other looks like because for a short while we used Snapchat. He greeted me in the traditional French way—la bise. French people don’t hug very often, so la bise (a little kiss on each cheek) is normal. Lunch was absolutely delicious! Just this month I met Romain a second time, this time in Strasbourg! Though he lives about 2 hours away by train, he had never been here. So I got to be a tour guide. I met him at the Gare Centrale (the train station) and we walked first to the cathedral. It was a rather chilly day. Next stop was the Musée Historique de la Ville Strasbourg, where we spent about 2 hours. On the way there we found a bunch of outdoor markets, selling everything from clothes to books to pastries to veggies. Even though I’ve been here for a few months I’d never been to these markets! What a lovely surprise. We both love soft pretzels, so we bought some for the walk. Lunch was at a “döner kebab” place, a very common fast food type of restaurant in Europe. I’m not sure how to describe it….but it’s really good and pretty cheap. It's like a bread pocket with meat, sauce, salad, and fries. Romain and I both love cats, so after lunch we stopped at Chatperlipopette, a cat café! It was pretty busy, and the cats were shy, but it was still fun. Romain told me that the name of the café, Chatperlipopette, actually comes from an old word used as a familiar interjection, “saperlipopette”, which basically translates to, “goodness me!” After that, we found Petite France, the classic “Strasbourg” location with Alsatian houses and the river. We took pictures and found some more markets to look around. There was a little archway that led to a garden that we decided to explore. Inside, there was a little book market! I found some titles on Alsace. I didn’t buy any, but I think I’ll try to find my way back later. After a while it started to rain, so we took the bus back to where I’m staying. I knew Ida would be interested to meet Romain! We ended up missing his train and were left with 2 extra hours though because the bus back was slow…so, the plan was to go bakery shopping! Romain wanted to buy a Kugelhopf. I’m not sure when I’ll see him again, but I’m glad we could meet.
à la prochaine, Elda I had pig’s stomach for dinner last night! It’s called pänzier. It looked like a large sausage with little pieces of potato and seasonings inside. Normally you would cook it in the oven while soaking it in beer, but pan-frying with oil also works. Pänzier is a traditional food from the region of Moselle, between Alsace and Lorraine. So here’s the story. While interviewing people for my research questions about Alsace, I met Louis, who’s from Moselle. He’s a student teacher in one of my classes at the university. I didn’t even know what Moselle was until I talked to him! He drew me a map and everything—he’s very knowledgeable about France and he’s a polyglot. Anyway, I asked about traditional foods in and around Alsace, and he mentioned pänzier to me. You can’t find it in restaurants, and not many butchers sell it. His grandparents had a butcher shop in the past, so they knew where to get good pänzier. He picked some up from his grandparents’ and asked me to come over for some pänzier for dinner! Knowing I would never get such an opportunity to eat pig’s stomach again, I accepted the invitation. Sama and Louis’s boyfriend came too. We met near the university and took the tram to Louis’s dorm. On the way we stopped at Auchan, one of my favorite cheap grocery stores in Europe. We picked up drinks and dessert. Sama picked coke, and I picked apricot juice! Just because I can’t find such fun fruit juices in the United States. Am I just not looking in the right places though??? And for dessert, we bought vanilla yogurt, a typical food French people eat as dessert. I kept the jars from the yogurt because aside from being the creamiest, most delicious yogurt I’ve ever had, the jars were like clay or something, so of course they couldn’t be thrown away 😊 Dinner was fun, typical “college-style” dining! We ate at Louis’s desk, because dorms are small, and we used mismatched chairs and recyclable plastic ice cream cartons for chip bowls. He did have nice plates though, which is more than I can say for my dorm back at Susquehanna! Before the pänzier was served, we had the French “apéritif”—chips and pistachios (any little snack foods) with our drinks. Some of you reading this know what scrapple is, and I figured pig’s stomach couldn’t be any worse than that (and I like scrapple). I was right—even though pänzier is nothing like scrapple, it was good. Not weird at all. Pretty much just like sausage. I’d eat it again for sure, though I don’t think it’s very healthy… Everyone knows that when you go to a new place you should try something new, or at least whatever the traditional food is. And that’s totally true—even if thinking of “pig’s stomach” makes your stomach churn, give it a try if you’re in the region of Moselle! You’ll probably meet some interesting people and learn a thing or two along the way. P.S. You know something other than people that I miss from home? Screens in the windows. I don’t think they even exist here! Which is fine except when I want my window open at night and I don’t want bugs to come in. Or bats for that matter! :p Bye for now, Elda In French, the first of April is called “Poisson d’Avril” instead of “April Fool’s Day.” That literally means “April Fish.” I’m really not sure where the fish part came from, even after searching the internet, but I think it might have to do with the Lenten season and fasting from most meat except fish…however, the day is “celebrated” in almost the same way as it is in the United States. It’s a day to make jokes! Children try to stick a paper fish to their friends’ backs and others attempt to trick their family members. But my favorite part about the day is that the media and other public services like to play along too! And even better, they don’t tell you it’s a joke! I mean, it’s pretty obvious if you are aware of what day it is, but the advertisements are SO BELIEVABLE! Just watch some of the ones I found: Single Fries (even though it's in French you can get what it is!) Chocolate Whopper Google Tulip Google Self-Driving Bike (at the very end they stick in a little hint in case you believed it) Google Gnome (I watched this 3 times!!) There wasn’t much of a big deal in my class that day, but a student did put a paper fish on the little administrative bulletin board. And my professor changed a test date, so for a second none of us were sure if he was serious! Oh here’s one Poisson d’Avril joke I really love…so, Harry Potter is a big deal here, like it is pretty much everywhere. The bookstore in Place Kleber here in Strasbourg even had a "Harry Potter Night" back in January. In the French version of the story, the school is called “Poudlard” instead of “Hogwarts.” For those of you who know Harry Potter, can you find the joke in the picture of SNCF train station departures below??? This exact information was in the train station here! (I didn't take the picture though) Hope you enjoyed the videos and jokes as much as I did! -Elda As I’m sitting on the couch on a rainy day sipping a lovely rich espresso… Every first Sunday of the month, museums here in Strasbourg are free! Most of them open at 10:00 hours and close at 18:00 hours (that’s how schedules work in France—military time). This past Sunday I visited three museums. I met Sama and another friend at Le Musée Zoologique first. We biked there, because now that the weather is warmer, I forbid myself to use the bus or tram. I mean, biking is really great exercise, it's very "Strasbourgeois", and aside from the fact that I’m still terrified of an accident happening while biking in the city, it’s kind of fun and I feel good about it. Plus it saves me the 26€ monthly bus pass. Anyway, this museum is very close to where I take my classes, and it’s on the same street where I rented my bike. The front of the building is a very simple, old structure, and I’d been past it many times. Inside, there are 2 floors filled with “natural history”—animals in panoramas of the Arctic, lizards, insects, sea creatures, and a whole room filled with hundreds of birds. What I really liked was the particular attention to Alsatian wildlife, the animals and insects found in the Vosges mountains and the forests near the Rhine river. Luckily, nothing too terrifying. As you can imagine, there were lots of children at the Zoological Museum! None of them seemed to be scared of the huge horned beetles or spiders inside the cases. Or the enormous Japanese spider crab…I love hearing young children speaking French and learning animal names! The next museum was the museum of Tomi Ungerer, an Alsatian artist and writer of mostly children’s books who was born here in Strasbourg. He passed away this February at age 87. He was a cartoonist, often satirical, who also designed political posters. The museum was a small building, but it was filled with his art on plain white walls. There were some books to look at, and some news articles that were saved. Some drawings were in pen, some in pencil, and some with color. There was another exhibit on the upper floor that featured work by a contemporary comic book artist also from Strasbourg known as Blutch. Two other museums in Strasbourg are featuring his art as well for the “Rencontres de l’Illustration” art festival in Strasbourg happening now. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of comics, but it’s interesting to try and learn why people draw what they do. The last museum of the day I was most excited for! Le Musée Alsacien (The Alsatian Musuem)! It’s made of typical old Alsatian houses connected by wooden staircases. It was almost like a maze for me, but the whole house together was beautiful. The floorboards creaked, the passageways were narrow, and almost of the furniture was intricately painted. Some of the rooms were set up like they would have been in the 18th and 19th centuries (for example, the “common room” or “Stùb”, which I think is like the living/family room today). I collected lots of data for my research on Alsace, mostly by taking pictures of plaques with information on them and collecting pamphlets. Now I have to go read, take notes, and analyze them…there was information about how they heated houses, about making ceramics (there are still two places today that make pottery traditionally!), why the furniture was always painted at least in another shade of brown (to make it look like expensive wood), and about the presence of different religions in the region. There were large groups of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews through the history of Alsace. There were exhibits of costumes that were worn for special occasions like weddings and funerals, cake and biscuit molds (they were particular about them), bedrooms, toys, and wine barrels in the cellar. There was also a tiny chapel. I bought a book at the little gift shop that will help me with both my project and my French (it’s written in French). Here’s a French word that you hear ALL THE TIME in Alsace: “Choucroute”, which is in English and German “sauerkraut” If you don’t know what that is, it’s fermented cabbage in a brine, often served with beans, potatoes, pork, or sausages. It’s a very Germanic-Alsatian dish. You either like it or hate it in my opinion! Enjoy the pictures, and see you soon! -Elda |
AuthorHello! I'm Elda, a French/Anthropology major and Applied Language Studies minor studying in Strasbourg for a semester. Archives
May 2019
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