This is Nantes really happening, right?

I have somehow managed to fit my entire French life in two 50lbs bags, and one extremely heavy “dear God I hope they don’t weigh this” carry-on. Our goodbyes have been long and drawn out- starting with the German assistant in March at the end of her contract, the departure of another of “les filles”, our English friend on Tuesday morning, and finally myself tomorrow. Both the Spanish assistant and the other English assistant have extended their work contracts until at least the end of May. 

It’s unreal, and it makes my heart hurt, to think that this is really coming to a close. This has been an incredible opportunity that has helped me grow professionally, develop my French language skills, and further piqued my interest in the world and all the wonderful things it has to offer us. I did all the things you do when you first move out on your own and a few more- figured out health insurance, transportation, internet, cell phone, set up a bank account,  housing assistance, immigration, doctor’s visits… and I did it all in a foreign language. A foreign language I will miss dearly… it seems so odd to know that in just a days time I won’t be hearing, or speaking, or joking in French with anyone. I had some wonderful vacations with my family, a dear friend, and my fiancé… having spent time in 9 countries in the past 8 months (if you count France and the United States). I’ve made good friends with people who, had I not studied French, I would never have been able to communicate with and know and love like I do now.

While France and America are both western countries, I’m anticipating a bit of a reverse culture shock. Living here, I understand how and why expats are drawn to life in foreign countries. There are times when being an American here has been a little embarrassing… the time Rush Limbaugh called girls who use birth control sluts, the fact that America is even debating the issue of women’s reproductive rights, Gingrich’s campaign ad criticizing Romney’s ability to speak French, the moment Congress declared the limited amount of tomato sauce in pizza a serving of vegetables for school cafeterias… 

There are a lot of things I have come to strongly identify with concerning French life and culture. I love that for at least a short amount of time I got to live in a country that believes in…

• Access to health care as a basic human right
• Affordable access to education… everyone in the country does not finish their studies with thousands of dollars of debt.
• Buying locally from markets and small bakeries, developing a relationship with the people who are growing and selling one of our greatest necessities,
•  Raising cattle and poultry without the use of hormones or antibiotics
• Proper, well balanced school lunches
• Sundays truly as a day of rest. Without the option of grocery shopping or running errands (as everything is closed), it’s hard to feel guilty about sleeping in and spending the entire day perhaps doing nothing but being with your friends and family.  
• Butter. Sometimes I cringe when I think about what the little old French ladies who buy their butter fresh from the cheese woman at the market would think about our “I can’t believe it’s not butter” substitutes.
• 4+ hour dinner parties, different wines specially chosen for each course, and an entire course devoted to Cheese. 
• Paying a teeny small fee for a plastic bag at the grocery store. After forgetting my reusable grocery bags and paying 15centiemes maybe 3x, I got used to the idea of always taking my own reusable bag. So does everyone else. Save. The. Planet. 
• Reliable public transportation and bike paths. I lived for 8 months here without a car. I can’t imagine doing that in America. It would just be too inconvenient and too difficult.
• Les bises. I have come to expect, and to love, the double kiss on the cheek.
• Teaching foreign languages starting in primary schools. Language learning is so so important…

I am of course looking forward to coming home. I can’t wait to see le boy, my new house and be a normal, not long distance and 6 hour time difference, engaged couple… planning our wedding, showing off my ring, and generally just being together. I know that my Dad will make one of his famous brunches on Sunday. I’ll spend a significant amount of time the following week with my dog and my mom, sitting on the front porch with glasses of wine. I get to see my constantly growing up too fast niece and nephews, and I get to meet my new niece Gia who was born the week after I left. I look forward to eating what is always a delicious meal at the DeLiberato’s house, and spending an evening relaxing and catching up. I hope to sit around a bonfire with my siblings and a few beers. I get to hug all my aunts and grandma who spoiled me with cards and packages while I was here. And visit with all my wonderful friends of course. There is so much to look forward to.

La Cigale, Nantes, France

But for the moment, I’m spending my last few French moments with our little family here. I so appreciate the opportunity to get to know people from all over Europe and I truly loved being the only American in our little group of friends. Of course we are all so much more than our respective countries’ stereotypes…but I still learned organization and planning skills from the German, the value of a good siesta and the importance of staying out until 6am dancing from time to time from our Spanish friend, countless new vocabulary words from my English friends who I am positive don’t really speak the same language as Americans, every gros-mot in the French language from driving with my French friends… 

Merci  à tous. J’ai des trop bons souvenirs de ma vie ici à cause de vous. Il restera toujours un grand morceau de mon cœur à Nantes. Bisous Bisous

Les temps passent si vite

How fast the time has gone since the April vacations and my last blog post! I’ve tried to profiter bien of my final two weeks in Nantes, spending a significant amount of time hanging out with friends, or alone tacking off all the things I felt I needed to do before I moved from the city. 

Having ended work about a week and a half  before my departure date, I had to say goodbye to all the teachers that have given me rides to school, the English staff, my class of teachers, and of course all my students first. I baked about 200 peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies in my small toaster oven all week. My final teachers class took me out to lunch at our normal class time, and then to one of the teachers’ houses when the expresso given at the restaurant at the end of the meal just wasn’t strong enough to get us through the rest of the working day. I spent an evening at my reference teacher’s house, the same house I spent time at before I was able to move into my foyer… things come full circle. We naturally had a 4hour dinner complete with champagne, mussels for the appetizer, beef/potatoes/veggies, and a crumble dessert made from locally grown strawberries. 

In true French high school fashion, my last class of the year just didn’t show up. I wasn’t surprised… It was odd that I worked one full week and one Monday after the April  vacations. Knowing that it was my last week with all the other classes I think they just thought I wouldn’t be there the following Monday. Except I was. And I took the bus all that way just to clean out my little cubbie and give the cookies meant for the students out to anyone on the staff who didn’t get them the week before. 

Clisson, France

I visited the chateau again to dit au revoir, and to check out the museum there. If you want to know anything about Nantes the Chateau Museum is where to go. You could spend at least half the day learning about Nantes as a port city, Nantes’ huge role in the triangular trade and slavery, Nantes during the wars… I probably should have visited at the beginning of my time here, but better late then never. 

 

Short, solo day trip to Clisson. A pretty little city about a 10 minute train ride away, Clisson is nice to visit for about 3 hours. It’s a pretty sleepy little place but the chateau ruins are neat and they have some beautiful gardens. I ventured there alone and simply walked around, ate a picnic, and read a bit outside in the grass by the chateau. Honestly my morning in Nantes visiting the new baby goats at the Jardin de Plantes near the train station was more thrilling. But it’s always nice to get out of town and see what else the area has to offer.

 Spanish soirée at the foyer, complete with delicious paella, sangria, tapas and salsa dancing. It was one of those nights that was just so good, with good food and good company, that it made me sad to think that those nights here are limited. 

 

8 Mai Market. I visited my lovely local market, the one that makes my heart so happy, for final picnic supplies shopping. I ordered my tranche de mizotte cheese and a moldy goats cheese like a pro from my standard cheese lady. I didn’t have to think too hard about how many grams of prawns I wanted for my dinner that night. I splurged and bought a giant brioche. I will truly miss the market culture that seems to thrive in France. 

My haul from my final visit to the market

 

Strasbourg with the Assistants. My little group of friends originally consisted of 2 English, 1 German, 1 Spanish and myself (which then grew to include the French and another Spanish girl). This small original group, sans the German, decided to spend our last weekend adventuring together to Strasbourg, a city on the German border that historically has been both German and French territory. Our journey began far too early with a 7am train. We stamped our tickets and sleepily climbed aboard only to find 4 people sitting in what were our assigned seats. This happens from time to time and we decided to take the group of 4 seats across the aisle from them, until someone came to claim those seats, and we had to confront the people sitting in ours. The interaction went a little like this…

“Excuse me, but you are in our seats”

“Mais non! These are our seats”

“No. Look at our tickets. You are sitting in our seats”

*they give each other some smug looks, do not take out their own tickets, and do not move from our seats

*my friend happens to see one of their tickets and exclaims

“Excuse me, but those tickets are for yesterday’s train. You are indeed sitting in our seats”

“This must be some kind of confusion. We bought tickets for this train today.” “First come first serve”

*They don’t move from our seats, people whose seats we are sitting in awkwardly hover around until they realize we're not moving and then go to sit in someone else's seats.

It’s wonderful to speak both languages in this kind of situation. They heard our accents and thought we couldn’t understand them… uhm yes sir we can hear you, and no, these are reserved seats, so they are not first come first serve. And now we are going to talk about you as much as we want in our own language because you have no idea what we’re saying about you. Unfortunately my friend didn't get to use his prepared "Avec respect Monsieur!" phrase that he had prepared for what we thought would be an inevitable heated debate. The conductor eventually came and made them move from our seats, after some of the other clients rallied with us because they wanted us to move from their own seats.

Tired and in a silly mood, my two friends were reading in French with a dictionary between them to look up unknown vocabulary words. We had a few discussions about some of the words, and were enlightened by a French woman listening in on our conversation. Indeed the word cleavage in French does not mean the same thing as in English…

At this point my friend said “We can only ever be two things here: a novelty, or something that pisses people off. In the last ½ hour we have managed to be both.” That about sums up the train ride. 

Strasbourg is lovely. Really lovely. There are loads of half-timbered houses, cute cafés to grab an expresso (which we had to do often), a river boat cruise, the European Parliament Building, a massive cathedral with a tower you can climb, and German/French food .Some of my favorite foods being the choucroute (sauerkraut) with German sausages I had one night for dinner, loads of gingerbread, and some spaetzle. We also some WILD STORKS. Neat huh.

 

I had the great luck of being in France for the presidential election, which just so happened to pass on our final night in Strasbourg. While walking to dinner we heard the roar of a crowd and entered a large square to see people gathered around a small tower in the middle, dancing and waving flags to celebrate the election of France’s first socialist president in 30 years. We decided then and there to stay and find somewhere to eat within the square in order to enjoy this fun atmosphere… while we were waiting to order the thumping of bass and a large car/truck with balloons rolled up to the tunes of “le changement” which was happily greeted by the crowd in the square. The truck stayed there until about 11:30pm, where the crowd of people danced and sang along, waved their flags, climbed up onto the small tower (at one point we saw a man in just his underwear dancing up there). We of course joined this dance party after dinner. Hands down one of the neatest things I have experienced while living here… a spontaneous street party, complete with a conga line and air horns, to celebrate a presidential election. 

The following morning we had another early train ride home, the last time I was to be “coming home” to my home in Nantes.

Champagne Showers

Cou cou! Finally a (series of) blog post(s) of adventures from my final 2 week paid vacation of the year- which involved a visit from a wonderful lifelong friend, during which we naturally made wonderful lifelong memories.  It’s a whopper, so I’ve divided it up for easier reading.

After a lovely American style Easter brunch (during which my French friend tried to eat his English muffin, apparently in England only called a “muffin” with a knife and fork) and chocolate egg hunt chez moi, I jumped on a train for a night in Paris. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t really know what to do with myself in Paris anymore… so I hit up the café in Montmartre, one of my favorite parts of Paris nonetheless, made famous by the film Amèlie, before then wandering out for a solo beer to watch a bit of the Paris Saint-Germaine futball game at a bar. The best part was that no one spoke English to me the entire day, a very small personal victory as big cities are used to tourists and generally switch to English upon hearing an accent. I have a terribly strong accent unfortunately, but at least the Parisians deemed my French competent enough to stomach my American pronunciations of their beautiful language. 

 

 Megan arrived the following morning, and we spent the day strolling around a bit of a rainy Paris, checking out the Eiffel Tower, the lovelock bridge and eating my favorite Macarons from la Durée on les Champs-Elsyées, which we paired with a lovely white wine in a small café just off the main drag. 

Nantes Castle Picnic

Back at home I got to see Nantes through the eyes of a tourist, and knock off a lot from my “to-do before I leave” list. The city did not disappoint. Really Nantes is such a neat place with pretty architecture, delicious regional specialties and odd quirky things to discover. We ate pastries every day, visited a small art gallery, bought fresh food and moldy delicious cheese from the market, rode bikes, spent some tranquil moments in the various gardens, enjoyed crepes, RODE THE ELEPHANT, and naturally spent some time walking around the castle, lounging by the moat enjoying a bottle of wine and a picnic lunch. 

We rode the elephant, and then took a million pictures with it

Three beautiful days later we found ourselves on part 2 of our adventures: the Champagne region of France, to the city of Reims (pronounced like “Prince” without the “P”, and with that throaty “R” French is famous for). It’s hard not to feel fancy when visiting Champagne caves, learning about the different types of grapes used to create each type and how the drink is made (1 vine of grapes to make 1 bottle of champagne!) and finally tasting the delicious bubbly beverage ourselves. Champagne can only be considered Champagne if produced from this region; there’s a special chalk in the soil here that makes the grapes extra fancy and magical.

 Reims is also home to the cathedral where the majority of the kings of France were crowned The cathedral is immense, equally impressive as Notre Dame de Paris, and has a stained glass window celebrating the region’s most famous beverage, and others created by one of my absolute favorite artists Marc Chagall. I had started a “Travel Wants” list around New Years with Champagne-Ardenne region as a definite doable at some point this year (unfortunately other cities like Prague and Budapest etc were not so lucky), and I was quite pleased when Megan agreed to the idea to check it out. 

Champagne Stained Glass

As difficult as it was to say au revoir to our fancypants hotel-living Champagne-drinking lifestyle, we continued via train back to Paris to find… the bus stop. The following week was taking us to Croatia and Slovenia, and the culture shock was a slap in the face the minute we stepped onto our eighteen hour bus ride… and no one spoke English, or French. It hit me then just how comfortable I have grown with France in general. It’s always good to be a bit cautious as a traveler, to recognize when you are out of your comfort zone and how it makes you feel, how you can grow from respecting whatever differences you may encounter. But the thing is, travel within France doesn’t give me that nervous anxiety “Oh boy what kind of idea was this?” kind of feeling anymore. It was an odd realization, and it made me feel good about how I’ve integrated into French life. I am truly confident in myself and my explorations within the country. But maybe my general level of comfort in France should have been apparent when I explained to le boy that I was going to Paris for a night alone, and my constantly lovingly worrying about my general well-being fiancé said “Oh I’m not worried about you in Paris (one of the world’s largest cities…) You’re great in Paris”. 

 

But oh my, we weren’t in France anymore. Thankfully, the gesture of tapping someone on the shoulder and holding out a box of cookies is universal, and perhaps one of our greatest ideas… feed these bus drivers treats so they will always make sure we are on the bus before it leaves the rest stop, since we have no idea how many minutes are announced in Croatian at every stop. Overall the bus ride wasn’t terrible, but it was an 18 hour bus ride all the same. We were happy when we finally arrived in Zagreb, Croatia the following morning. Perhaps we celebrated a bit too soon though…

Bonjour December!

It's December, which means Christmas, shopping, mulled wine, beautiful decorations, and a countdown to Joseph's visit. <3

A quick American moment: Did anyone else see Glee this week? I know that it’s been a little on the downer side, and definitely not as good as what it once was, but I am trying to keep up nonetheless. The Glee version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun has got to be one of my favorite Glee moments ever.  Mmmmmm. 

Onto the French world:

This week I stepped in dog poop on the sidewalk. This is a monumental move in becoming a vraie Française, because unlike in America, people let their dogs poo all over the place here without cleaning it up. Dealing with dog shit everywhere is truly a part of living in France. So, after two months, and after being declared legally an immigrant here with an official looking stamp in my passport, I feel like I’m really a French citizen because of dog poop on my boots.

I miss Mabel the Dog. 

I played a whole lot of celebrity in my classes this week. Celebrity is a game well known and loved to my 2240 friends, but for the rest of you real quick- The game involved the students writing down two places/people/things that everyone in the classroom knows. The class was divided into teams, and students took turns coming up to draw from a pile of papers and using ENGLISH and gestures, had to get the other kids to guess what was written. They had 40 seconds to get as many as possible before the other team took its turn. There are other rounds that involve only using gestures (still ok for language development because kids are guessing in English) and one round where the student could only speak one word to describe what is on the paper.

We did final projects and I have a lot of grading to do now… so I gave myself a break by letting the kids play this wonderful game after we had finished recording their presentations. It actually turned out to be a really good exercise that the kids loved, and they were screaming guesses, IN ENGLISH, because I told them if they spoke in French the point wouldn’t count. Fun in an English class? C’est possible! 

I saw my very first movie in France. Despite this being my 4^th time here, my 2^nd time truly making a home for myself here, I had never been to the movies in France. My friends and I went to see “Intouchables” which I heard about in many of the “Hollywood” themed class presentations. We laughed. We cried. We understood what was going on without subtitles. I can’t help but be a little proud that I saw a French movie, in France, in French, with no subtitles, and I not only understood (most of) it, but loved it. If you get the chance at all to see it… please do. It treats the very serious subjects of racial and handicapped discrimination with an incredible sense of humor. And it demonstrates the utter beauty in the simple act of friendship. There is love and friendship and bad luck all over the world… no matter where you come from. If you need more convincing… the movie had been out for a month when we went to see it, and we had a hard time finding 5 seats together. 

On Friday I went to the market with my English friend, and, feeling courageous bought something from one of the seafood stands. As my friend said “well… Let’s go make a fool of ourselves, shall we?”  It’s easier to buy vegetables from the market, because you can say I want one aubergine, or 4 tomatoes, or 2 potatoes quite easily. When it comes to cheese, to olives (both of which I have conquered), or to meat/seafood it’s all so fresh you must specify by the gram. Thankfully I was with an English guy because I am nul with the metric system (thanks America).  I purchased all my vegetables for the week and then braved it and bought 500grams of Mussels. Let me remind you now that I live 30 minutes from the ocean… the seafood part of the market often features living creatures, fish with heads still attached on a bed of ice… I had to “profiter” from this closeness to the ocean. So fresh.  So awesome. So nothing I get to have in Ohio. Mussels are step one. Someday I hope to buy actual fish. Friday night I cleaned and “de-bearded” all my own mussels, steamed them in a concoction of garlic, shallots, white wine, and crème fraiche, and enjoyed with some baguette from the market’s local bread man. Mmmmmmm 

While my mussels were cooking, I took the time to decorate my Christmas Tree. If you didn’t know, I am here for Christmas… I don’t know yet when I am coming home, but I know it has to be before July 20^th (because that is when that tiny paper in my passport tells me I have to leave). I feel really good about dedicating this year to myself, about truly figuring out what it’s like to do just about everything, even the holidays, on my own. It was really nice decorating my small Christmas Tree alone. I smile every time I look at it. I bought a beautifully ugly sparkly bird to go on the top, some French red toadstool ornaments, some feather baubles, and a lovebird ornament to celebrate Joseph and I’s first Christmas together, just us. It’s lovely. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster, this adventure here. And while Thanksgiving was hard, and I know Christmas may be harder when it comes to homesickness, I am proud of my commitment to spend the year in France.

Chocolate Christmas Art

We have some really great activities at the foyer planned for the month- paired with Christmas shopping for family and new friends here, and the promise of the gift of Joseph’s presence in my favorite place in the world, I am anticipating un Joyeux Noel. 

Bises,

Steph

Merci

I am a lucky lucky girl, with a lot to be thankful for. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, which left me just a tad homesick here in lovely France, I thought I’d dedicate this post to all the things I have to be thankful for at the moment.

Of course, the first, most important and probably gushiest I’ll get right now, I am thankful for my family. I think it was my greatest stroke of luck to be born a Wiezbenski, as I have wonderful parents, interesting and smart and unique siblings (and their significant others and children), extended family who send me texts and emails and cards and even have visited me over here… it was not easy to be away from everyone this past week. But I really need to give a shout out to my mother, who is a gem among gems, who mailed me Thanksgiving plates and napkins and surprise! the new Harry Potter DVD, who instinctively knew I would need a pick me up this past week, and who put up with a lot of complaining and a dramatic story & tears about my frustrations in finding a cookie sheet to fit my mini-oven here in France. Of course she realized that some of this frustration was certainly from France’s inability to provide me with this oven “truc”, but of course stemmed from other things, mainly homesickness. Thank you.

I am thankful for many many enthusiastic Americans who wanted to gather together and share this holiday with each other and with our many foreign friends. We had a turkey! I made green bean casserole, but couldn’t find canned Cream of Mushroom Soup or a bag of Fried Onions, so I did it all from scratch. God bless you Crème fraîche. I am really enjoying exploring cooking more, and getting creative when I don't have access to what I'm used to in America.  We had at least eight nationalities at our festivities… and that’s when I am just struck by how lucky I am to be here. To be living this experience. To be learning every day, from new people, from our world. It's hard for me to capture those kinds of feelings at home, isolated in our giant country.

I mentioned at the feast… I am so thankful to have great great people to share this with in France, but I am also thankful that I have so many really wonderful people at home to miss right now. You know who you are.

I am thankful that the process of legalizing my stay here is complete. I’m an immigrant! For the year. And to get away from all these emotional sentiments, I’ll share a bit of awkward with you. The process involved a lot of paperwork, some passport sized photos, and a medical appointment. The awkward parts were when they took a topless XRAY to test for Tuberculosis (I think it’s because they don’t want to deal with people coming back to their offices to get a skin test read), and they let you keep the XRAY to take with you on your tram ride home. This was only after the doctor analyzed it (no worries on the TB thing) and informed me that I need to eat a bigger breakfast because my stomach was looking a little empty. Medical Technology you are so weird. Language barriers can be interesting at the doctor’s office, and the one that made me blush the most was when the nurse said the standard “Condoms are the only protection against STDs” line except I did not understand her rapid-fire French, looked quite confused at this statement, and asked her to please repeat, like I had never heard this information before… once I got it, I awkwardly stated “Oh yea.. they teach us that in America too”.

I am thankful for The Hunger Games, which is the series of books I have been reading recently, and which is the cause of the delay in my normal Sunday blog posting. I am first to admit I am a giant book nerd and love reading in general… but these I cannot put down.

I am thankful for the interest of other teachers at school in who I am, and what I am doing here. I have rides organized for 2 of the 4 days of the week, when teachers go out of their way to bring me to and from school. This turns my hour long multiple public transport commute into a quick 15 minute car ride.  I have also been asked into and taught 2 geography classes, mainly just answering kids’ questions on the USA and showing pictures from my Roadtrip Vegas-Ohio last summer. The students had good and interesting questions and I took up their entire hour of class speaking with them. It was nice to have an entire class in French as well, as most of my classes are obviously in English. I am quite enjoying the majority of my students and teaching in general.

Because this is getting long, like normal, I am quickly but just as importantly thankful for:

the markets here (that constantly remind me of my sister in law, oh Hilary how you would enjoy shopping for food like this, actually making a relationship with your food and the people it comes from)

With the market comes Pastry Saturdays, my futile attempt to control my consumption of delicious French treats. This week,with nothing in my apartment for breakfast, I went for an apricot croissant from a baker at the market near médiathèque. I originally tried to photograph it for you, but it was so perfectly flaky and gooey at the same time that holding a camera and enjoying my weekly indulgence was just impossible.

that I live in Nantes, a big city with many social options each week. Like this past weekend, the national Festival de Bars Bars providing free local live music in almost every bar in the city and many other cities across the country. One of my English teachers at school is in a band that played and it was fun to go out and see her.

The Christmas market. And all that comes with it. Mulled wine, chis chis, carousels, beautiful Christmas trucs, and lights lights lights. Bliss. I’ll leave you with those beautiful images.

Mulled Wine. The only reason to like colder weather

 

Bises Bises Bises

Steph

Fall Funk

I’ve been in quite a little mood recently, and I am going to go ahead and blame it on the changing weather. There are few things I hate more than winter and being cold- unfortunately since my surgery in ‘09 I am ALWAYS cold, and in the winter I think the only time I am warm is in the shower.  It’s been a dreary, rainy couple days in Nantes and I’m sure Winter weather will be here in no time. In the whiny voices of my campers last summer… “Mais NON!” 

I’m sure that my fussiness also stemmed from the departure of my parents and aunt… good thing I at least have a wonderful Christmas visitor to look forward to now. 6 Weeks! 

It took me about an hour and a half to get home from the airport on public transport, the whole time during which I was very confused why everything was closed. Ahh All Saints Day- a holiday. Thankfully I had some cashews in my cupboard, some wine in the fridge, and some candy buckeyes that my Grandma had made and sent over with my parents. No meal is complete without the dessert course, so things felt pretty well balanced.

I was meant to return to work on Thursday… I caught my 6:50am bus #1 to hop on the tram, got to my final bus stop and someone I assumed was crazy informed me that my bus was on strike. Normally, even in a strike there is minimal service, and there is always an announcement on the screen near the bus stop. The Spanish Assistant and I chatted it up with some bus drivers who confirmed the greve, freaked out a little because there is literally no other mode of transportation to school (someone mentioned the train, but really, the train? To get to school?)  I emailed my teachers as soon as I got home and received a response along the lines of “Don’t worry, this is France!” 

Are strikes common in France? In the month since moving here there has been a teacher strike, a general transportation strike, an AirFrance strike, and then this particular bus company’s strike. 

Some good news, I received a confusing letter from CAF, the French housing welfare program that assistants qualify for. When I showed this letter to the directrice of the foyer she told me that I have been assigned a number and that this a good sign.  I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I don’t think I should uncork the champagne in welfare-reception celebrations quite yet. But perhaps those celebrations will happen sooner rather than later. I am also fairly certain I have medical insurance now, but those papers could be misleading as well.

After about 2 days (or was it 3?) spent lying in bed and watching more How I Met Your Mother than any normal human being should watch in one sitting, I emerged from my cave and into the social world again. Don’t feel too sorry for me, I live in a building of 100 people, 5 of which I consider quite good friends at this point, and I have two feet that could walk to their doors and one hand to knock. I just wasn’t up to it. 

I visited my bread man at the market, was disappointed that my normal cheese truck wasn’t there, and purchased a bouquet of flowers. At the flower shop I was asked if they were a gift or simply for my enjoyment, I sheepishly responded for myself… the cashier said “With Reason!”  and smiled when she wrapped them up.  Finally, someone who thinks like me (or wants to help me justify my purchase so I will return to the shop in the future).

At the bar last night I was asked how old I was, which is apparently very old in the opinion of these Frenchies. When I studied abroad the younger drinking age was fantastic… now that I have run into my students at a bar and have also been harassed by 19 year old carpenters for my age, I am reconsidering the benefits of bar access at 18. The night ended with shamelessly eating a Kebab on the tram on the way home (which I’m pretty sure is interdit, eating on the tram), after ordering “an Americain” that we thought was just a HUGE fry… but instead turned out to be a sandwich. Bon. 

Tonight we celebrate the birthday of the German Assistant, who is actually older than I am (whew). It's a good thing I live in the foyer and have people I like a lot who I can go out with, because this tiny little room (as much as I love it) is sucking all of my positive energy lately. 

Step One, create pizza

I’m quite excited to start work again on Monday… I could use a little more structure in my life these days.

The week will also bring the challenge of booking train reservations for my December trip, and also finding a cheap toaster oven. Hopefully today was the last time I fry a pizza on my hotplate… 

Step Two, Place Pot over Pizza to capture heat and melt cheese. 

Bises,

Steph

Trop Contente

Bonjour Blog Readers are you out there? If you are, and you’ve been reading… send some comments my way. It brightens up my inbox! (Are my posts too long? I know I know. I write a lot…)

It’s been almost a month since the big Au Revoir and my dramatic entrance into France via 5 planes and at least 10 airport mental breakdowns. 

Things I am missing (besides your face)

Internet : This has been more frustrating than all the paperwork required to live in France. I’ve finally figured out my wifi in the lobby, but that’s only because I spent about 2 nights camped out in the lobby waiting for a computer guru to walk by. The problem was I knew what he looked like but did not know his name…

I have since purchased internet for my room. But I have to wait for at least 10 days to get my router/box technology thing. Unfortunately this box will probably come when I am on vacation with my family and I am afraid that if I don’t pick it up they will send it back.

I am also missing…

A kitchen that has more than 2 hot plates, 1 pot, 1 pan, 2 plates, 1 mug, and 2 bowls. I have mastered the art of making a pizza in a frying pan. And I’m eating like a college freshman again. Pasta Pasta Pasta. Lazy nights it’s just honey and baguette. I was planning on toughing it out and only using the hotplates for my time here, but I think I may make the big splurge on a toaster oven once the Department of Education fills up my French bank account a bit. I would really like to experiment a little with duck and also snails while I am here… maybe even rabbit if I can find something at the grocery that doesn’t actually look like a rabbit… 

Clothes Dryer. We have one at the foyer, but one of my friends used it and it worked for 2 hours and he thought his clothes were less dry afterwards. All of my clothes are currently spread on every possible surface of my room to “dry”. This makes things a bit uncomfortable when friends stop by- hey welcome to my room, there is no space to sit because my clothes are hanging off all the chairs and my desk and my kitchen table and every door handle… and yea, that’s a display of my underwear over there.

Things I am loving

The fact that my pants are feeling a little looser. Cheers to optimism and ignoring the fact that I haven’t put my jeans in a dryer for 3 weeks now. But the amount of walking I do over here is fantastic.

Kebabs and frites (gyros and fries) are the Cousin Vinny’s of France. There is a “restaurant” conveniently located at our tram stop and its open late night.

I have a lovely view of the field next to my building…. I tend to do a lot of watching out these windows. There’s a cat with no tail that frequents it quite often. There are a lot of bunnies that chase each other around. I see dogs and their owners and am jealous of them. We also had a homeless man for a brief spell of time and I could see his red tent in the woods next to the field (He has since packed up and moved away).

Canadian Thanksgiving. I celebrated the holiday for the first time here, and it was really one of my favorite nights thus far. We met up at another foyer and the Canadians prepared chicken (a turkey is hard to find and involves a lot of planning), taboulé (it’s kind of like stuffing right?), vegetables, mashed potatoes, salad, wine wine wine. I love Thanksgiving because its celebrations involve food and people you love… and this year I felt so grateful to be able to share this meal with people from all over the world (I think we had 6 different countries represented).  Community. I love it. The best part about Canadian Thanksgiving? We get to do the same thing all over again in 6 weeks for American Thanksgiving. The Americans are determined to have a turkey.

Free Fridays: I finally got my work schedule, and this girl has 3 day weekends every weekend. I am also finished teaching by 12 on Wednesdays.  But I have classes at 8am Mon/Wed/Thurs… and I have an hour commute. But I’m not complaining. I will teach for a week next week and then start our two week All Saints/Fall Vacation. 

And finally, I found this postcard to decorate my room: It’s a bulldog, with a glass of champagne tipped over, and the dog is wearing a sparkly red babyhat. I am warming up to the idea of a bulldog because Joseph is slightly obsessed, but I really do love this particular bulldog  because we both understand that every good party clearly needs a dog, some champagne, sparkles, and an amusingly small hat.

I shall leave you with that image. A Bientôt!

Bisous,

Stephanie

I wrote this post before leaving for the market this morning… I got home and almost deleted all of my “things I am missing” section. I forgot my camera this morning, so more on the market in a later post…

But this morning while shopping for fresh fruit and cheese and bread I said to my friend “Really, is there ANYTHING wrong with our lives right now? Because this is perfection”. Somehow no matter how many times I visit, France seems to recapture my heart in a new way. I’m quite Happy.