The CLA and Fort Chaudanne

I got up early that morning, ate breakfast—where I repeated my phrase of the night before over and over, wishing that I understood more of what Astrid was saying to me. Then, Pearl and I took the bus into town. The bus from our house to the school takes about twenty minutes. It was a nice ride—Pearl and I spent the whole ride wonering which level French we'd be placed into. We got off the bus at a stop across the river from the CLA and took a short walk through a park and across a bridge to get to the school, and then headed to the top floor to take the placement test.

The city of Besancon, as seen from the top of the hill by Fort Chaudanne.

I don't think there's much of a need to describe the placement test—there was a lot of writing and a lot of grammar, and it took about three hours. It wasn't the most fun I'd ever had during the first day at school. But once the writing part of the test was done, I had a two hour break before I had to be back at the CLA for my oral exam. Several other people had a similar amount of time to spend on their break, so we headed out to lunch. I ended up with Katie and Miranda again, along with several other people, including some from Arkansas—the other main group of American students at the CLA. We walked into town for lunch, walked around town for a little while, and made our way back to the CLA in ones and twos, depending on the time of our oral exam.

I headed back alone for my oral exam, since no one was taking their exam at the same time as me. There was another girl, named Brittany, who was from the Penn State group in the hallway, waiting to take her exam—she was in the same room as me, but she had to wait until I was done before she could take her exam. When the teacher called me into the room, I headed in, nervous, but aware that I couldn't really pass or fail—either I knew the material or I didn't, and I would be placed accordingly.

And I'm glad I felt that way, because that oral exam was not exactly the best moment in my French studies. I did quite well with the basic introductory stuff—name, age, nationality, etc. But when she asked me more in depth questions, I simply said “Desole? Je ne te comprends pas.” which means “Sorry? I don't understand you.” And when she asked me to describe my sister, I simply forgot all the descriptive words I could use. The whole thing lasted for about five minutes, but it felt like so much longer!

The view of Besancon from about halfway up the hill.

After the oral exam, I wished Brittany luck, and then decided to head out for a walk. There wasn't anyone else hanging around the CLA, so I headed down the road toward the woods on the edge of town. About ten minutes down the road, I came across a set of stairs that led up into the woods. It was
exactly what I'd been looking for—a good hike in the woods in Besancon. So I headed up the stairs and set out down the trail through the woods. The trail zig-zaged up the hill for a little less than a mile, before it opened to reveal Fort Chaudanne. I wandered around the top of the hill, around the fort, enjoying the view. From the top of the hill, I could see almost all of Besancon spread before me, the river snaking around centre ville.

The entrance to Fort Chaudanne...unfortunately it was closed.

Before I left the hill, I wandered around a bit more and found two things. The first was a plaque that explained that Fort Chaudanne was the site of the 3rd Division of the American Infantry during World War II. The second was a memorial commemorating the French and American troops who had fought at that site for French independence towards the end of the second World War. It was a very cool and a kind of sobering experience—completely by accident, I'd stumbled across something
straight out of history. I was standing where American soldiers had fought and died in World War II, and I hadn't even realized it.

I returned to the CLA to take a tour of the mediatheque (library) and to wait for the class placements to be posted. The tour of the library was a long affair, drawn out much longer than it really needed to be. Which is why I skipped out on the mediatheque tour (I'd arrived after the first tour had started, and my friends told me that it wasn't worth it to join the second tour, so I never actually did it). And, just to clarify, I've had absolutely no problem finding a book or using any other aspect of the mediatheque.

The plaque and monument for the soldiers.

After the tours of the mediatheque, I headed upstairs to the CLA's cafe to hang out with a bunch of other students until the class posting were up. There was a group of about ten of us sitting on the balcony outside the cafe, comparing what we knew of French, and talking about what classes we thought we'd be in and what we hoped to be able to do at the end of our time in France.

Finally, it was time to go see what classes everyone was in. We all made our way downstairs, where we were greeted by a mass of people crammed into a tiny hallway, all trying to get a look at the class listings to find their name. I finally found mine—class A2.1, starting at 10:30 the next morning. For intensive classes, it wasn't the worst schedule—I'd be taking class every morning from 10:30 to 12:30, getting lunch from then until 2:30, and then returning to class until 5:30. I was in class with Katie and Brittany, but I didn't know anyone else in our class at that point. It was such a relief to have friends in the same class!

By the time the classes were posted, it was nearly 7:00 PM, so I found Pearl and we took the bus back to the house for dinner. Pearl's classes started at 8:30, so our schedules don't often line up. She's always out of the house before me, and I'll see her at lunch sometimes, when our classes overlap for an hour, and then we both end up at our house sometime around 7:00 every night for dinner. I didn't realize it then, but Pearl and I would eventually come to rely on each other for a bit of sanity in an interesting host-family situation.

 So far, everything seemed to be off to a good start. I was settled into my host family's house, and I was ready to start classes.

(I'll add pictures to this soon...I have to go for another hike up to Fort Chaudanne to get some pictures!)