The Way

The Way of Saint James/ Le Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle/ El Camino de Santiago (because this is a blog post that really calls for a trilingual title) is a famous European pilgrimage that crosses northern Spain to end at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in the northwestern corner of the country.  Now, there are routes all across Europe that lead to this specific path across Spain, and ultimately to the cathedral, but one of the most famous and the most well-travelled begins in Le Puy, France, a city that I got to visit this weekend.

Common routes of "The Way" in Europe


Le Puy, France (medieval cathedral and pilgrimage point on the left; statue of the Virgin Mary on a cliff on the right)

"The Way" is a very common and well-known journey to take in Europe, even among the non-religious, who often go for the historical aspect, or merely the adventure.

Interestingly enough, two of my three host families' homes have actually been on The Way, meaning they were on streets that were included in the pilgrimage, and which are marked with the recognizable shell emblem:



If you look on the map of possible routes, you'll notice the stretch of path between Le Puy and Lyon (which is a bit less straight than it appears on the map).  My city, Montbrison, is in between the two, and is considered one of the minor cities on The Way.  My host families have told me that just about every summer, they come across a handful of foreigners (often Swiss or Italian, since this is generally the easiest route for them to take to get to Spain) who are slowly but surely walking their way to Spain.

I personally would love to walk The Way someday.  It's pretty inspiring to see some of these people out there, with nothing but a large backpack and several layers of clothing, braving the weather, the exhaustion, and frustration, all of them acutely aware that the cliché is true- that their journey matters a whole lot more than their destination.  All along The Way, there are also brilliant sites to see: breathtaking cathedrals, castles, ancient cities, and picturesque landscapes.  Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against city-hopping and seeing the great European capitals, but if you ask me, journeys like The Way sound like the real way to discover Europe.

Last note: there's actually a movie about The Way, conveniently titled The Way.  Look it up if you're interested!  It's some pretty incredible stuff!

A taste of home: Basketball games :)

With my brother and sister both being avid basketball players, I naturally spent a decent amount of my life at home sitting on the bleachers, cheering on my siblings and their teammates.  When I Skype with my parents here in France, it's not uncommon for them to tell me the outcome of the latest game(s) and for me to express how much I miss being their to support the team.  Lucky for me, though, this last weekend I got the opportunity to watch not just any youth basketball game- but part of an international tournament, right here in my host city.

The very beginning of the Montbrison vs. Prague game.

 

The game was fantastic- Montbrison was in the lead 51 to 49 with two minutes left, and we ultimately ended up winning 55-51. 

 

Towards the end of the game: Montbrison in red, Prague in blue

 

It might be kind of dumb and cheesy to say this, but I still feel like it needs to be said: you really don't realize how small the world is until you experience something like this.  Maybe not a basketball game in particular, but just being in a foreign country, living a different life, and experiencing something so strangely familiar, and sort of reaching that realization of "Hey, we're all different, but not that different."  I was watching these French and Czech kids play basketball the way I might have watched Hollis and Amherst play.  It was a game, with no visible concern for the language barrier, cultural barrier, social barrier that separated these kids.  They were just a bunch of boys out on the court, doing what they were used to doing, playing the way they always played, united by the quasi-universal language of basketball.

 

It's strange to say, maybe, but it was really kind of incredible and touching for me, even if it was just a game.  It's kind of the same way I feel when I'm spending time with other exchange students.  There's really nothing political about it, and while we certainly don't avoid difficult subjects, there's sort of a mutual indifference toward politics, class issues, economics, and so on.  We're not at all blind to our differences, but we generally all find a way to just respect each other and get over that kind of stuff.  This is really one of the reasons I hope everyone who can will go abroad at some point in their life, or develop a close relationship with someone from a foreign country.  It's important to be to that disagreement, even on major issues, isn't at all a reason to dislike someone or to spend less time with them.  I feel like that's really kind of been a big, overarching message throughout this whole year.  Yeah, we're different, but still, everywhere in the world, there are teenagers who play basketball, and kids counting down the days to their favorite holiday, and friends who will give you a ride home when it's raining, and people who know just what to say to make you feel better.  Everywhere in the world, there are families, and nice people, and not-so-nice people, and funny stories, and embarrassing moments, and those days you wish you could relive forever and ever.  And it's always going to be like that.  It all just fills me with a deep desire to know the world- not just to know about things, but to be there, living them and understanding why things are different and how another way of doing things can be just as valid as the way I'm used to.  I feel like this is really the goal of the entire youth exchange program: not only to immerse us in one culture, but also to give us a deeper understanding of the cultures we are yet to know, and an open-minded interest in them.  It sounds idealist when put this way, but truly, if we ever want to work together to achieve anything in the world, we need to start thinking this way.



Rites of Passage

As some of you know, I'm spending my senior year in France in an actual class of French seniors (despite the fact that most exchange students get put in "Junior year" for various reasons... I got switched due to some overcrowding and technical issues), which means I'm here to witness and share in the coming of age of my classmates and friends here in France.  Kind of like in the US, eighteen is the big number in France.  But unlike in America, the eighteenth birthday is really the coming of age for a lot of factors: voting, driving, drinking, etc. and not just becoming a legal adult.

It's actually been kind of funny when I've talked to people in France about "coming of age" in the US- a lot of them think that legal majority comes at twenty-one (they confuse it with the drinking age... which they can't believe comes a full five years after the driving age... I actually find this kind of ridiculous too after spending so long), and people generally find it strange that Americans have so many different points in their adolescence that could be considered rights of passage.  In France, it all gets wrapped up in one package called "eighteen."

Another big thing that happens at eighteen: the bac.  Essentially a massive final exam that determines whether or not a student will graduate high school.  It involves a ton of studying, a challenging senior year, and a huge sigh of relief at the end of it all, when students know that they can finally close that chapter of their life.

...Then comes the next big step: moving out.  Yes, at eighteen.  Not exactly the way we think of it in America, but a big step nonetheless.  Since few French universities have housing for students, college kids rent apartments in the city where their university is located, sometimes in groups, other times alone.  During the week, they are responsible for themselves: taking care of themselves, keeping the place clean, making food, and so on.  Now, the vast majority do come home to Mom and Dad on the weekend (for laundry, "groceries," and family time).  Still, the prospect of being out on their own for the first time is intimidating for a lot of high school seniors. 

I remember one day, during cold and flu season, we wound up with eight people coming to history class, and since it was pointless to move onto new material with a quarter of the class, we sort of just chatted with our extremely motherly history teacher.  A lot of my classmates surprised me by talking about how worried they were about managing on their own and how lonely they would feel- they really were anxious about it!  Oddly enough, before I set out to leave the country all on my own for a year, I hardly felt like that at all; this was my big adventure!  Naturally, I did get homesick and hit rough points, but it was all part of the experience and all totally worth it.

The funny thing about the presence of rites of passage in so many cultures is that they try to pick a moment in time and say "BOOM! You're an adult!" where in actuality, we all know it doesn't work anything like this.  Still, I guess they are important because they force young people to take that leap and start to assume their place in the adult world, whether they like it or not.  My history teacher spent that day comforting the class that their family would always be their family even when they were gone (I mean... about an hour down the road, but still), and that their would be someone around to help with laundry, with cooking, with moral support... until one day when we wouldn't need it anymore.  One day, very soon for some of us, we'll be the ones helping the newcomers.  I think that that's really the significance of these rites of passage: not to claim that something's going to change overnight, but to sort of force us to shed our old skin and grow a new one; to leave behind what we used to be and take the opportunity to become who we want to be.

Fun Post: 50 Funny Things I've Been Asked/Told in France

Enjoy :)

1. You're from the United States?  Which one?  Texas, California, or New York?

2. My cousin's neighbor's nephew's girlfriend's piano teacher used to live in Iowa!  Maybe you know her!  She's in her mid-forties, blonde, drives a red car...

3. Do you know any movie stars?

4. Do you know Miley Cyrus?

5. How many times a week do you eat at McDonalds?

6. You're too skinny to be American.

7. Do you have a boyfriend?  Is he a cowboy?

8.  Are you sure you're not Canadian?  Like, really sure?

9.  If you're American, how did you learn French?

10. Have you ever met Obama?

11. Do you like Obama?

12.  Would you have voted for Obama?

13. Why don't all Americans love Obama?

14. Has Obama fixed American healthcare yet?

15. Obama's a handsome president, isn't he?

16. Obama.

17. Do you have orange juice in America?

18. Do people babysit in America?

19. Do you know how to stick your tongue out? Do Americans do that?

20. Have you ever eaten apple pie?  ...No, you definitely haven't, it's French.

21. Do you have lockers in American high schools?

22. Do the football players really date cheerleaders?

23. Are you a cheerleader?  *Kindly pats shoulder* You're pretty enough to be a cheerleader if you
wanted to be.

24. Do you have music classes in America?  Is it like on Glee?

25. Do you carry a gun to school?

26. Do you ride a horse to school?

27. Do the big yellow school buses really exist?

28. Does school really end at 3:00? What do you do after school? (As opposed to the 10-hour French school day)

29. Why do Americans eat so much?

30. Are there vegetarians in America?

31. Are there vegans in America?

32. Are you sure about that?

33. Has your state legalized marijuana?

34. Why not?

35. Aren't a lot of Americans Puritans?

36. Aren't a lot of Americans involved in the Westboro Baptist Church?

37. Well, that's comforting.

38.  What exactly is Thanksgiving?

39. ...And then you killed the Indians???

40. What is college like in America?

41. So, wait, let me get this straight.  The government doesn't pay for your education?

42.  But you can get scholarships?

43.  Like on Glee?

44.  And High School Musical?

45. ...You don't really break into song and dance in the hallways do you?

46. That's disappointing, frankly.

47. So where exactly are you from in America?

48. ... What's New Hampshire?

49. Where's New Hampshire?

50. Oh, so you are Canadian.