of cheese and x-rays

I almost found myself in a rhythm this week which was quite extraordinary as every other week has almost been a testing of the waters. This week however was about as normal as a week in Dijon could get. My classes went very well and I'm feeling very comfortable in them while still learning new words, ways to form sentences and other tidbits about the French language. It feels very good to be in a position where I'm learning but not stressing and I'm very glad I made the jump down to Niveau 4.

This week I also visited a fromagerie with my host father and Kayla and Nick two other UNH students that have been here they whole week. The fromagerie was about 20 minutes outside of Dijon and in a huge factory building. We didn't really see much cheese making but there was a corridor with windows on one side where we could stop and look at different stages in cheese making. It was a bit weird because you could actually see the workers and they could see us which made me feel as if I was at a zoo except instead of other animals there were humans making cheese.

We came into the fromagerie while they were doing a tour so we had to wait in the corridor for a few minutes to ask one of the women in store-front to let us taste some cheeses. I imagine it's a pretty common occurrence because all my host father had to say was that he had a few Americans with him who would like to try some cheese and then there we were trying cheese. The way this cheese tasting went, and I'm assuming others, is that one starts with the softer, less potent cheeses and then works his or her way up. For me this was good because after the third cheese they became too strong for me.

The cheese I liked best was called a "Plaisir au Chablis" which is a soft cheese that is washed every week in Chablis, a Chardonnay that comes from the North East of Burgundy. Speaking of the naming of wines, I've come to learn that wine naming is done differently in Burgundy (and perhaps France) than it is in other parts of the world. Some would identify a wine by the type of grape it was made with such as a Pinot Noir or a Chardonnay but in Burgundy the wine is identified first and foremost by the place that it was grown (par le terre - by the earth).

We talked about this during my wine class this week but also at the wine tasting I went to after going to the fromagerie. Over all the subject surrounding appellations is an extremely important one when talking about French wine. As for the wine tasting, we tried several whites and several reds with our guide telling us about the making of the wines and a bit about appellations. Interestingly enough, this week I learned that there is a greater percentage of white wine in Burgundy than there is red wine. I always thought it was the other way around though I couldn't say why. One theory (proposed by a professor) is that in English we have the word "burgundy" a shade of red but in French they do not have this such word. Bourgogne only stands for the reason. Bordeaux; however, is a shade of red!

My favorite part of the wine tasting was seeing an actual cave of wine. They use caves for wine to protect them from the sun but also to keep them cool. Because of this there was no flash photography allowed in the caves (which wasn't a problem for my very fast lens).

The French Communist Party gathers in the Place de la Liberation. I would
have taken one closer up but I was already feeling a bit creepy about it!

This Thursday I also had my medical visit and obtained my "titre du sejour". With it I am now allowed to leave the country and also come back. Without one, if I were to leave the country I would not be able to return. The medical exam was a pretty strange one and rather uncomfortable. They did normal things like take our height, weight, check our eye-sight and measure our blood pressure but we also had to have an x-ray done to test for tuberculosis. This was the worst part of the whole visit because we were brought in the radiology room (separately) and then told to strip from the waist up. This was understandable but instead of being given a gown I was forced (and the other girls were too) to stand in a room, with a door that wasn't completely shut with just our arms in front of our chest. The X-ray itself went smoothly except for the fact that we all had to press up against a metal plate that was probably not washed in between x-rays.

I'm in perfect health (and can now stay in France) but the visit itself was pretty weird and some parts I'm attempting to block from my mind. I'm not sure how well this will work because we were given our x-rays to keep. I've never had one in the US so I'm not sure if this is normal but I always thought that the doctors kept them for medical records...

The medical visit aside this weekend we're off to Nice for the very end of Carnivale. We're taking an over-night train and I can't see myself getting an incredible amount of sleep but it's still very exciting!