proof!

Yea!! I finally got my diploma!! It was sad not having a graduation and the recognition of my Master's work in a public way like we're used to at home but it is very nice to have my diploma (now I just need to buy a frame..!)

Woooot!!! I think I'll go find myself a cap & gown and have my own private ceremony with a glass of champagne...

bac +5

3 long years of juggling work and school

2 summers writing mémoires

800 euros tuition


1 Master's degree = priceless

I just defended my final memoire this afternoon. It was a lot harder than I would have thought given all of the positive feedback I had had throughout the year but in the end it went well, I passed with 14/20 (yea!!!!!) on the thesis itself (am waiting on my grade for the year). I officially have my masters in ze pocket as they say and let me tell you it is both mind numbing and totally liberating at the same time.

Time to go crash on the couch!

playing catch-up

Wow it has been busy busy around here! So much to say! First of all I FINISHED MY MEMOIRE... sorry did I not say that loud enough and with enough pizzzaz and enthusiasm?!?!

I FINISHED MY MEMOIRE!

So there you go people, it is printed and turned in as of yesterday. Ahhhh doesn't that feel good?? So hopefully in 2 weeks (Nov 12 if you're interested) I'll be definding it in front of a small jury and then I will officially have a Masters (Bac +5 baby!) I'm SOOOOOO freaking excited! Here's a picture of my baby for your viewing pleasure:

Just thought I'd commemorate this moment like I did last year for my M1. If you notice, the days are just slightly apart, October 26th last year and October 29th this year, nothing like turning things in at the last minute... :-)

After I turned it in I enjoyed an afternoon in Caen, seeing lots of friends and drinking copious amounts of tea and lemon meriange tarte. My train ride home was quiet and very dark since we fell back 1 hour but I relaxed as I watched the MSNBC Nightly News video podcast on my new ipod touch and listened to the fab K&K duo. Ah... life is good.

The only bummer was when I arrived at the train station. I went to go get my bike and when I got there I saw the seat was wet, I usually brush off the rainwater with my hand but in the dark it looked like bird poo or something so I grabbed a kleenex out of my pocket. Shining my bikelight on the seat I realized that what was coming off was black and the seat was loose. Yup, some looser country kids on vacation decided to get bored and take it out on my poor bike :-( The loosened the seat (probably tried to steal it but couldn't since I lock the seat to the frame!), put their cigarettes out on it and finally spat on it.. lovely. I checked the tires and noticed the front one was a little low. Since I had realized by then that this was vandalism and not an accident I decided not to risk riding home on it so I hoofed it back.

This morning there were two surprises, the first being it SNOWED this morning! Uh, hello Mr. Weatherman? It's October 30th! I've never seen snow this early in Normandy before! Here's a picture from the appt. granted you can't see much but you get the idea...


Second, I think the front bike tire was just low. I'll pump it up and give it another go but I think they didn't do too much damage. Gah, come on kids, I know you're bored, I also grew up in a town of 8,000 but hey go cow tippin' instead of messing with my bike!

bday festivities

I had a wonderful birthday on Monday! First of all thanks to all the wonderful friends and family who sent text messages, facebook messages, blog comments, emails and phone calls! I loved them all!!

The day started out with a bang, Mystery Guest surprised me by bringing breakfast in bed! He even ran out to the bakery and brought me a croissant, pain au chocolat and baguette! Yum! I even ignored my own pride and included the bed-head photo of me eating breakfast for your viewing pleasure...

Then our landlord stopped by to fix some stuff around here but didn't stay too long so we were able to go down to the Forge, a restaurant about 5 minutes outside of V-town that is an old blacksmith's workshop. They still have the huge fireplace and billows! We ordered a steak for 2 and the chef brought it out for us to see (raw) before throwing it on the open flame in the restaurant! Too cool! In the middle picture on the top you can see the fireplace behind me, that's where they cooked out steak! Then they brought it out all sliced up and delish!

We splurged on some fantastic chocolate cake, it was like cake with chocolate mousse and then chocolate ganache on top with creme anglaise, YUM YUM! I even got a sparkler in mine :-)

The afternoon we just relaxed and enjoyed some time off, Mystery Guest looked over my conclusion one last time but otherwise my memoire was DONE and just waiting to be printed... more on that in another post...

I had a fantastic birthday, so relaxing and filled with warmth, great presents but even greater friends and family wishing wonderful thoughts from around the world. Thanks everyone!!!

heat

Two days 2 ago we finally turned on the heat. We were trying to last as long as possible but you know its cold inside when you can see your breath in the living room...

We have gas heating here, its the first time I've rented an apt where there are radiators in every room and not electric heaters. In France they're a big fan of these cast iron radiators and let me tell you turning them on was awesome, we're trying to keep it on low to save money and energy but it just takes that chill off :-)

My masters is coming down to the home stretch, I'm finishing my conclusion today (fingers crossed!) and I've done most of the formatting and mise en page, just a few little footnote tweeks here and there. My birthday is coming up and I really want to kick back and enjoy myself instead of stressing over there! So that's why I've got to get this done asap! It should be fine and when I go to Caen for work on Wednesday I'll go to the photocopier's in the afternoon and print out the final draft to drop off late afternoon. I can't wait!

As of yesterday I'm on vacation from the high school for 10 days and this will be the best vacation yet! Nothing hanging over my head and I have this huge list of projects that I've been putting off for the last 2 or 3 years. I think I'm gonna be giddy :-)

Ok, I just wanted to say that I'm not MIA but will be back very very soon! It's back to the grindstone!

allll good!

Busy day but a good one!

I had a short meeting at the lycee where I'll be teaching. They were so friendly and nice and the school seems relaxed and there seemed to be a good atmosphere between administrative staff and even among the students (love country schools, the kids - even if they pretend to be - are not punks :-) er.. hopefully I'm not eating my words next week! lol)

I met a lot of the other teachers and it's always funny these days to be introduced as the new "assistante anglaise" because 1. even though I know they're referring to "anglaise" as my language and my status I am not English 2. the "assistant" is usually a freshfaced just out of college student. This just confuses the hell out of everyone because I'm neither "anglaise" nor "freshfaced" so they start speaking very slowly to me "WEL-COME to the SCHOOL"... er, gotcha :-)

It's not that I mind that they're speaking slowly, I would have appreciated it 5 years ago but it does crack me up. Then when I start talking they look all taken aback which makes me giggle inside. I was talking to one of the English teachers and she told me, wow you've been here a while, your French is so good no one is going to want to speak to you in English. Which is always nice to hear but I don't want to think that I'm putting off some sort of vibe that makes people think I'm going to make fun of them! Oh well.

Anyway seems like a nice school, they haven't figured out my schedule yet so I'm going to go on Thursday to a meeting to try to sort that out.

After lunch Mystery Guest dropped me off in Cherbourg for my meeting with the unemployement people. It went really well, they were nice and told me what to do. Looks like I can get benefits for the month of September and since I'll be in the system when my contract runs out in 7 months I'll automatically start getting benefits again unless I tell them I've got another job. There's just some paperwork I have to ask the university for since they'll pay my unemployment and not the government directly. Should be fine though.

After the meeting I had time to kill before my train so I went into town, Cherbourg is a really nice town, especially when the sun's out! It was such a nice stroll along the port and in the old center (not bombed out during WWII like the rest of Normandy was..) I stopped a few bookstores to browse and treated myself to a "double pain au chocolat" which I've never seen anywhere else - its a pain au chocolat with 2 bars of chocolate inside and then doused with chocolate on the top.. yum. :-)

So the good news is that besides my meeting Thurs it looks like I'll have the rest of the week fairly free to stay home and FINISH this memoire!!!

Need. To. Work.

good news!

Wow it really is true - when one door closes (or you close it I guess!) another opens!

Just as I turn down the job I had I sent off a letter to the Rectorat asking if they might need anyone, they called me today saying they have a job for me in a high school 15 minutes (by train) away!!

The only thing is that it will start later than I had expected so I gotta bust a move on my memoire but otherwise it is 100% good news! It makes all my other little odd jobs fall into place which is just perfect. Plus its an easy commute!

Who would have thought? wow..

update

I finally decided last weekend to turn down the job, it just wasn't well paid enough for me to survive with the hopes of eventually getting a CDI... It was such a relief to finally make a decision. I sent off an email explaining and said that if they needed me to teach the 2 classes I was scheduled for this week I could while they're looking for someone else.

I also signed up (for the first time) with the ANPE (unemployment agency) to help me look for a job. It was all done online and yesterday I received my convocation for an appointment next Monday. The money would be nice but its also a great job resource and although I have a few leads they're mostly just odd hours here and there - nothing more full time. It would also be nice to get a job closer to home. I sent off a letter to the Rectorat as well just in case they need an assistant at the last minute.

I figure the month of October I'm gonna bust my butt to 1. finish my memoire (getting there! had 2 great meetings with my profs yesterday, I'm on the right track but lots of work left!!) and 2. passing my French driver's license, which will open up tons of doors on the job front.

All this to say that yesterday I took the train early in the morning to go teach, as long as I get to bed at a decent hour the train ride is so nice! Its dark now when I leave the house but as I was on the train there was the most beautiful sunrise... I wish I had had my camera! As we went towards Caen we passed through some semi-marshland and if you can picture it there was the minty green of the fields covered in a low fog, the cows were already out grazing and there was the pastely pinks and purples of the sunrise in the background. It was so quiet and I was glued to the window looking outside. The commute really wouldn't be a problem I think, it is such a relaxing way to start the day, the train is quiet with commuters reading newspapers, catching up on homework or sleeping. I sit there with my ipod (often listening to K&K!) and just zone out, my own little me time :-)

I also happened to catch the sunset on the way home (god the days are getting short!) it was spectacular as well! Hot and orange really lighting up the clouds with a neon light. wow.

I'm feeling good about the decision, I have 1 more class to teach tomorrow and after that its time to buckle down and get this Masters wrapped up!!!

just a wee bit of procrastination

I've been seeing these pop up all over facebook and people's blogs... had to go see for myself.
How much fun is that??

and how much do I look like my MOM! lol :-)

(Mom, break out your old yearbook and tell me if that doesn't look like you!)

gone fishin'

Photo: the harbor in Saint Vaast on Wednesday September 10th.

Mystery Guest is out and about fishing with his Dad and I'm going to virtually go fishin' myself... too much to do these days - the finish line for my memoire and job are rapidly approaching! Time to buckle down and get to it!

poetry

I know I've been on a youtube posting kick recently, but I found this short really touching. The animation was based on a poem by Billy Collins (and is part of my memoire research, so no, I'm not officially procrastinating but researching!)

summer food

Yesterday was our weekly market so I went off in search of good summer produce. My favorite stand with locally grown veggies was having the same sale on beautiful ripe roma tomatoes they had last week - 1.50e per kilo (that's about $2 for just over 2lbs). So I bought 3 kilos! With Mystery Guest being gluten free and store bought spaghetti sauce containing wheat starch as a thickener I decided to make my own spaghetti sauce.

I made it last week with the same yummy tomatoes and it turned out so well I went back for more! The tomatoes are just too good and ripe to pass up, and I'm not sure about the price in the states but most tomatoes in the stores here run for about 2e or 2.5e a kilo, unless you buy the really tasteless ones you can't really find a good deal. Plus the house smells so fantastic when you're cooking up some homemade spaghetti sauce!

Actually yesterday I was on a cooking spree, 2 weeks ago I bought a cheapo ice cream maker online because I thought it would be fun to try and again most ice creams sold in stores contain gluten... Last week I tried David Lebovitz's Vanilla Ice Cream which was to die for!! It took a long time to make because you had to make the custard first and this little mini ice cream maker gets it going pretty well but doesn't completely freeze it either..

The ice cream was really rich though, so I thought this week I'd try his Strawberry Frozen Yogurt with some of the last strawberries of the season. Delish!! Plus I think that recipe could work well with any other fruit... there are some yummy plumbs - the little mirabelles in season, or maybe some end of the season peaches? We'll see... ;-)

It's so much fun cooking and blogging about it but my memoire is still calling, I've got to get my butt in gear! So if I'm missing from the blogging world it means I'm working.. if you see me posting more often yell at me cause I'm procrastinating... just like I did with the new header (like the cow?? anyone notice??) ;-)

3 years!

Wow, tomorrow it will be my blog-birthday, three years of MilkJam!

(Photo, MilkJam 3 years old circa 2005)

What an adventure for a blog which started off as a bet (I lost), a different name (remember Karina Takes France?? yeah, you old school peeps do!) and a way to keep in touch and share pictures - pre-Facebook - with family back home (tap, tap, any family read this anymore??) it's been a long ride!

I never would have imagined all the things that could, and have, come out of writing a blog! I've made wonderful new friends and have kept a journal longer than any other time in my life. It's so funny to look back and see the old posts!

It's crazy how the internet has changed our lives. Looking back over these past few years I've gone from no internet except in the schools where I worked, to dial up internet with Wanadoo (now Orange), to the Freebox when it offered free calls worldwide! and now to Neuf. I've moved apartments more times than I'd like to count but the blog address has always been the same, mistake and all!

How things have changed. My parents must have had a totally different experience living abroad in Switzerland in the late 70's/early 80's when letters were sent back and forth across the pond taking two weeks at time and only two phone calls were made in four years (once to announce my birth!). Do we, this internet generation, have the same experience as our parents did? Could we have dealt with these culture differences had we not had the internet? The ability to easily communicate with other expats who can understand us, to call home whenever we like, to find all those ingredients we long for from home?

Is there any "abroad" anymore or is globalization something that we now take for granted? When expats can now get a slingbox and watch American TV on a French TV or order English books from Amazon that arrive the next day in your mailbox?

Just something that's been shifting around in my head as I hear of new assistants coming... things oddly seem so different than 5 years ago when I first arrived, there seems to be this expectation that you can control your new environment even before arriving and that leaves me feeling uneasy as if the unknown is too known...

Or maybe I'm just a big fat procrastinator who is not working when she should be! :-)

frappachino

I didn't sleep well last night so this afternoon to beat the heat and to try to get a little caffeine into my sleepy brain I made myself a little Karinachino :-)

I had frozen some leftover coffee in little ice cube trays a few days ago so I popped those badboys out, threw them in the blender with some extra coffee from this morning, a wee bit of cream (de normandie bien sur!) and some sugar and gave that thing a whirl!

It was frothy, cold, sweet and chock full of caffeine, just what I needed!

Now if I could only concentrate...

summer in normandy

It has been a busy week over here, the weather was hot hot HOT and so there was some time spent at the beach, then a full day in the sun chez Natalie working on a translation project (she's housesitting and god bless beautiful garden patios!) Then the weekend afternoons were spent chez les beaux-parents where the weather is cooler, the beach rocky and the water nippy but refreshing! Otherwise I've been cooped up at home trying desparetly to get going on my memoire... the hardest part is just getting started! I've gotten a good few ideas sorted out and I'm hoping to be able to close all these Firefox windows and really concentrate. It's a good time, the weather changed with a huge thunderstorm last night and it is a little grey and that is a refreshing change!

I did get a haircut when I was in Caen last week though, pamper myself a little around here! My hairdresser is just adorable, she's so nice and loves to practice her English with me when I go in. This time they didn't have many customers, I think everyone was at the beach, so she decided to take a little extra time and at the end used a hair straightener. I like it but felt a little like an 80's rock star... :-)

Ok, enough procrastination, I'm back to work!

movin' and shakin'!

There has been a lot going on around here but since I try not to post too much personal stuff on here I've been holding back.

But never fear dear readers things are happening around here! Mystery Guest and I went to the agence immobliere today to get the list of documents needed for our apartment rental. We'll be moving out of Caen to V-town at the end of June into a great duplex apartment! (hint, come visit! there's plenty of room!). If you take a look on the map V-town is on the Cotentin peninsula on the way to Cherbourg. Yes, it is tiny town but on the main train line and has everything you really need downtown. Plus Mystery Guest starts his full time job July 1st and can walk the 500m to work every day and I'll start my job probably in October. I found a job teaching English at a private school in Caen and am able to arrange my schedule to only work 4 days a week. I'll be taking the 45 minute train ride those days to go teach. The best thing is that my job will give me a CDD for the first year and then if all goes well I'll get my grubby little paws on a CDI! Yippee!

For you Caen peeps no worries, I'll be in town a lot, promise! This summer will consist of finishing my memoire, passing my drivers license and preparing lessons for next year, I won't be bored but I'm sure to get sick of sitting in front of a computer all day!

I am however preparing myself for the internet withdrawal I'm sure to have when we move until we can get a line set up. I said to a friend the other day that I think that blogs are the Soap Operas of our generation and I really feel it when I miss a post! But they are such a wonderful way of exchanging information - for example Mystery Guest might have an allergy to gluten and having already read GlutenFreeGirl I hopped over there to take a look at things to eat and different symptoms to understand more. He's giving a gluten-free diet a go this week to see if it helps. I made a yummy veggie dish last night, totally just my own creation but it wasn't half bad!

Where were you on September 11?

On Friday (June 6th, also the Anniversary of D-Day) the Mémorial of Caen opened an exhibition on September 11. (also described here and here)

I haven't written much on my blog about my Master's work here but this year I have to write another thesis and I've chosen to write about poetry written in response to September 11: focusing on the ideas of memory, remembering and bearing witness.

This exhibition is perfect timing for me, I'm wrapping up my research and am going to be writing this summer so that I can turn it in this fall.

I've always loved the work that the Memorial has done, people come here expecting to see a museum about World War II and the D-Day invasion, but it is not a museum about war but about peace. They do amazing presentations of events, people and places on a world wide scale and this one went above and beyond my expectations.

Instead of dwelling on the event itself, like the museum this exhibition is divided into three parts: before Sept 11, Sept 11 and afterwards. Politics aside it was extremely touching to see these people's experiences, especially the "remembrance fence" and all of the "missing people" posters. I felt myself moved to tears on more than one occasion.

I overheard a lady speaking about the day, with a strong Queens accent. As I moved closer to hear better she described her experiences during that long day, how she couldn't reach her husband because of the cell phones jamming, how she struggled to collect her kids from the neighborhood school etc. I decided to talk to her and I explained who I was and what I was working on. I asked her what she thinks the world should do to try and remember. She was very friendly and it was the first time I've talked to someone who was there, and her trauma is still very present.

She asked if I was there too. No, I was in France. I had just arrived a week earlier for my study abroad year and was coping with trying to understand what was going on on French TV. She asked how the French reacted and I assured her that it was an amazing thing; people came up to me on the street and on the tram telling me how sorry they were. It's always easy to remember the negative hard to forget Freedom Fries and the war which all happened later, and hard to remember the positive.

I like the quote from Le Monde the next day: Nous sommes tous américains.

The humanity I saw today was so moving and that is what should be remembered.




Here is a video by the Wall Street Journal, a bit too dramatic for my taste but it shows a good part of the exhibit.

MIA

I've been a bit out of the bloggosphere with all sorts of things happening, but all is looking good. The job hunt is going well, have an interview tomorrow and the appartment hunt is also looking good :-)

This week I'm stuck at work (my last week! yippee!) doing oral exams for 250 students. It's going ok so far but its tiring, I'm here from 9 to 5 at the earliest with only a half an hour lunch break. Its hard to keep your concentration and make sure with something as subjective as an oral exam you keep things fair and not let your fatigue get reflected in their grade.. Plus there has been a huge wind and rainstorm all week and since the heat is cut for the summer and there is no direct light it is frickin freezing in here! I even have an extra sweater! So I'm making tea all the time trying to stay warm.

So I've got a few more hours today and then the rest of the week but come Friday I'll be free!!!



...free... yeah... right, lets try I'll be busy moving, practicing the code so I can get a French license and of course my memoire... gahh!

concentration... or lack thereof...

Sorry for that little April Fool's joke back there... tee hee, I thought I might get some of the bloggers but I never thought my family would believe me! You'd think they'd know me better than that and that I would call first instead of putting it up on my blog ;-) But anyway I was proud, it was my first very successful April Fool's prank as I can never get through them straight faced, I always crack at some point!

Other than that I'm just trying to make some headway on my second memoire... Yup that's right, each year of this masters program (2) I have to write a thesis. The first year you research and write in English and the second year you still research in English but write in French, talk about a muddle of vocab in your brain! Last year I barely made it through at the nick of time, this year I started off stronger and more motivated but its one of those times right now where I am seriously losing motivation. Talking with my advisor helped a lot yesterday so I'm hoping that feeling will stay with me! It just really takes the spirit out of you knowing that your written French isn't up to par and having that mental block between ideas and paper is so frusterating!

Anyway vent over, time to go read some more books...

colloque

Today I went to a conference organized by the English Research Department on campus. There was an honored guest this morning, Geoffrey Hill, considered by the majority of critics, to be among the most distinguished English poets of his generation.

After a wonderful introduction by one of my profs (a Geoffrey Hill scholor and translator of some of his poems!), Hill read some of his work.

It was amazing, the poetry is so complex and detailed but hearing it read outloud by this big Santa Claus man with a beautiful deep voice was unbelieveable.

It was one of those times where something that would seem to have been written by "old white men" comes alive and shake off the dust. Great experience.