My new home...

Bonsoir Mesdames et Messieurs, (Good Evening Ladies & Gentlemen or Madams & Sirs)

I have been trying to exercise my limited French and the expected common courtesies here in Ambialet; so you will begin to see more of those in my blog as time goes on. Most often I will be sure to add the translation next to the French word/phrase so you can understand me and learn a little French yourself!

Here is a short run down of some of the "must-knows"

The town I live in is called Ambialet and is pronounced ahm-bee-a-lay (my own personal phonetic spelling).
To put it into perspective, Ambialet is like the Loretto of France (there are approximately 32 residents), Albi (where I will be doing some of my studying) is like Altoona, Toulouse is like Pittsburgh, and Paris is like New York.

Every time you enter a store or a building providing a service you are to say, "Bonjour Madame/Monsieur." (Hello or Good day Mrs./Madam or Mr./Sir)
Every time you leave a store or a building providing a service you are to say, "Merci, Au revoir." (Thank you, Goodbye)

I have been trying to learn the basic French mannerisms out of respect for the people and their culture. I have quickly learned that the French are a very polite and courteous people, while simultaneously seeming very stoic (maybe why they get a bad rep sometimes). They are also poignantly passionate about their culture, history, food, and fashion. It is very apparent that the French take great pride in who they are and how they live. There seems to be a common mentality here in France, "Work to live, not live to work" and "Everybody dies, but not everybody lives."Although these are huge generalizations, I can say that I have already noticed these qualities in the people I have met and the stories I have been told.


Anyway, let me stop typing for a bit and post some pictures of where I am living!

This is Le Prieuré (The Priory) or The Monastery, where I am living. As soon as I get a better (and complete) picture I will post it. I was just figuring out my panoramic setting on my camera and was a bit rushed.

The main building of le Prieuré was rebuilt in the 1800s by Franciscans, but the church (you can see the steeple in the background) and a few other areas that are still standing were built in 1057!

Here is the church..

 

Here is a view off of the veranda that I was just standing on while taking the picture of the monastery..

It is so green here!

This is the view from my bedroom window..
The bell you see in the first picture is used daily as our alert for lunch & dinner (I thought you'd like that, Mom ;-)

This is "The Stone Room," it is one of the oldest parts of the building

This is the staircase up the tower. So far, only the ground floor and first floor are remodeled, the other floors look like they are straight from a horror film!

This is the newest addition to the monastery, his name is Bobo. He is only 7months old and when he gets older he will be Bo. :-)

This is Shaq & Jay-Z, they go nuts when they hear the bell ringing for dinner (I have it on video tape)!

And these are the gardens that we will get to try our hand at developing!

This afternoon we hiked (yes, hiked!) down the mountain into the village of Ambialet. Here are a few pictures of the town...

 

This is a game of Bocce going on, or in France they call it pétanque (bowing).

That is the monastery on the hill V

 

Opposite Views of the bridge on The Tarn River

Shows the monastery on the hill v

 

 

We were broken into four groups and given one or more places/objects to find in Ambialet. Ours was, the Castle Trencavel / Ruines du Château. We were made privy to the fact that you could see it from the monastery and that it was going to be quite a hike wherever we were going, but that was the extent of our knowledge. 


 From the monastery I thought I could see castle ruins, but thought it could be broken rocks on the mountain playing tricks on me.

  
But, I was right! We were able to locate a trail head and made our way up the steep, muddy climb..

 Both the river on the left and the river on the right are one single body of water, the Tarn River. The river actually loops around the hill that the monastery is located on and creates a presqu'isle, or peninsula (and nearly an island!). This abnormal circulation of water makes Ambialet easy to pick out on a map of France.

 Here is our group in town. The tall guy who, in this picture, looks a lot like Dan Stearns is our Director, Tim Perkins. Tim worked with International Studies all over the U.S. and parts of Europe and was approached by SFU to take on the renovation/study abroad program here in Ambialet just over 5 years ago. He had just moved back to The States from France and turned right around and moved to Ambialet. He is an amazing person and perfect for the job!

There is a kitty cat on the right side of this roof!

Here, we are arriving at Café de la Presqu'île (Cafe of the Peninsula), which is owned and operated by Nadine, the mayor's wife, who was introduced to us by Tim as, la reine du village, or “the queen of the village.”

 The spiky branch starting on my right is the same one that is wrapping all the way around the patio, ending on the far left!

 

Well, this should be enough to keep you all entertained for the time being! It is already 1:30am my time, which means I am awake entirely too late, because I start school tomorrow! On Mondays we travel about 30 minutes to the neighboring town of Albi, that I have mentioned several times. Albi is where we will be taking the majority of our French classes and tomorrow we have a placement exam! Good thing our entire group severely lacks any substantial knowledge of the French language. But even better news is that I am extremely excited and enthusiastic about learning the language.

Until next time, Bonne nuit!