Greetings from France!
I have just come to the end of my first week in France, and it seems like I have been here over a month. We have been on the go constantly! Arriving last Tuesday in Frankfurt, Germany, I noticed that all the taxis lined up on the street below the airport were Mercedes and what I would consider really nice cars. In fact, almost every car through the airport was some sort of nice car. Even the bus that arrived to t
ake us to our destination in Metz, France was a Mercedes. I mentioned this to the graduate student who was there to pick us up and he told me that the German government subsidizes the taxi service which allows them to drive what a high profile businessman would drive in America; I have not been able to confirm this.
ake us to our destination in Metz, France was a Mercedes. I mentioned this to the graduate student who was there to pick us up and he told me that the German government subsidizes the taxi service which allows them to drive what a high profile businessman would drive in America; I have not been able to confirm this.Fig. 1: German countryside.
Tuesday night we had a catered dinner of various sandwiches and and French pastries. (Should I capitalize "French" when I use it in that context, Mom?) The dinner was good, but I will eat anything. A lot of the complaints I heard about the dinner were about people biting into their sandwich only to find it was loaded down with shrimp. One girl even complained to me saying that there were no warnings around the food in case people were allergic to shrimp. One thing about the French - they are much to laid back to worry about warning us Americans in case we have allergies. They have better things to do.
This leads me to my next subject: what are the better things that the French have to do? Well, that is a good question. I am living in an apartment style dorm with about 50 GTL (Georgia Tech Lorraine) students and a couple hundred French students. All of the French students here belong to a particular university close by, and they are all in the same fraternity (including the women). The fact that the women are allowed in the fraternity is not, however, the most peculiar thing about this fraternity, but it is the fact that they all wear these grey trench coats that are all custom decorated for the individuals wearing them. I will have to take some pictures and post them. It is really cool and strange how something that would appear to be some sort of cult in America is just a normal tradition and part of life for these students.
If you are asking yourself at this point whether or not my trip actually has anything to do with school, the answer is yes. Thursday class started. We always have class four days a week. Sometimes it is Mon.-Thur. and other weeks it is Tue.-Fri. Last week we had class Thur. and Fri., so we had a three day weekend with class resuming today (Tuesday).
Fig. 2: St. Stephen's Cathedral.
Last Thursday after class we were taken on a walking tour of downtown Metz and got to check out the city's main attraction, St. Stephen's Cathedral. The place was amazing all the way from the 13th century architecture to the stained glass windows. I don't know much about cathedrals, but I imagine it would be hard to focus on a sermon when you are sitting in such an amazing place to look at. We then broke off into smaller groups and walked around Metz the rest of the night.
Fig. 3: Looking from the back of
the cathedral torwards the front.
I am pretty tired so I think I will stop here, ending at last Thursday night, and pick up the rest tomorrow. Have a good night!And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. - John 1:16
Fig. 4: Stained glass window in
the cathedral.
