2nd celebration

Happy 2nd Thanksgiving! We had our "real" Thanksgiving dinner last night at some friend's house. It was excellent! Along with other yummies (cranberry sauce, stuffing and sweet potatoes)...

we had turkey.





homemade biscuits









and of course pumpkin pie!







There was the regular crowd (the boots & skirts girls!), plus some other good friends who are living in and around the area.






Even an out-of-towner! My friend Claire came in from Tours for the festivities, armed with craisins and wine :)

All in all we had a wonderful dinner, full of fantastic traditional food, great company and lively conversation. After dinner we went out for a drink at the local Irish pub were we ran into other friends while listening to an excellent live concert. But after all that turkey got sleep pretty fast so we headed home around 1:30ish.

Today its time to put up the Christmas decorations and do a bit of shopping as I got paid yesterday! Yipppee!

gobble gobble!

I stepped outside of my house to go to our Thanksgiving dinner (put on by the Franco-American Society of Caen) and noticed that they finally turned on the Christmas lights! It is so beautiful looking around town and down everystreet are bright white lights, magical.
On the left is the view if you look up from my doorstep and then here is the photo looking down the street.

Beautiful eh?








We arrived at the dinner to find a French Gospel choir singing, it was nice and very appriciated (I know I wouldn't have gotten up and sung in French!) but I had spent the whole day telling French kids how Thanksgiving is not Christmas and is not a traditionally religious holiday, but more of a historical one. That was all blown out of the water when I saw the table setting - complete with ...

Christmas napkins!!!!

For those of you who can't read the French, here is Natalie presenting the appetizer:
a flan of livarot (a local camembert-type cheese), cured ham and a apple-liquor sauce. Yum.

I forgot to take a picture of the main dish, a huge hunk of turkey with a "cranberryish" sauce, tatertots and overcooked veggies. It was very good, especially the turkey. Here is Kristin showing off the cheese dish, a Basque cheese and a black cherry jam. Yum yum!

We forgot to take pictures of the dessert, but it was very good, a French toast made with gingerbread and apricots and ice cream. Big YUM. Polish it all off with a little cafe and we were stuffed! It is so nice of these French people to put this dinner on for us. You can't expect real Thanksgiving food, but as long as you know that it is a wonderful way to spend the Thursday night of Thanksgiving (as we don't get any days off over here and don't have lots of time to cook!)

Natalie and I went out with some French students who had come. They were a crack up but I didn't stay out till 5 as I had woken up at 6:30 to go work Thursday morning and was pretty exhausted by the time dinner finished at 12:00!

So in order to keep American traditions (and food!) alive, we had planned a dinner Friday (tonight). I got up early this morning to go to the market to get the goods for stuffing. (Making Mom's Apple-Celery-Raisin stuffing yum yum.) Made that and passed it on to the person who's cooking the turkey. Going to make some biscuits this afternoon. I've got to go to work soon so I can't write much more except to say this is what I saw when I woke up this morning!




SNOW!

This is the view out my windown onto the courtyard and it was dusted with a light layer of snow! Since 8ish its been snowing on again off again for the last few hours. I've never had snow for Thanksgiving but it is a special surprise. Coming down in big fat flakes now! Yipppeeeee!!!!

I'll try to put up some pictures from our dinner tonight sometime this weekend (after I catch up on my sleep!).

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This is def a year to be thankful for.

record breaker

For you folks wanting Caen gossip here's some: I have some of the coolest friends ever!!!

My friend Emma just broke the record for pancake eating. You must see the video, it is worth watching, she is soooo cool.

Emma - you rock girl.

Otherwise there isn't much news. I've been so busy with schoolwork lately. After hearing this news I'm making some pancakes then hitting the library.

Em, the bacon's for you. :)

me myself and i

For those of you living in France have you ever noticed how the French talk to themselves?

A LOT?

I noticed that a few years back when I was on an exchange program and thought people were talking to me. Then I either got used to it or forgot. When I came back and was working with teachers I kept thinking they were asking me where they left their worksheets etc.

Today I was in the staff room at high school waiting for class to start. All of a sudden I noticed all the chatter around me were individual conversations with themselves!!!! Some people were getting mad at someone (who knows who, friend, student other teacher etc...) and really blowing off steam out loud!

I felt like I was in the looney bin. Couldn't wait for class to start.

duodi Brumaire 15

So I was doing some research for a text I need to translate from French to English (written in 1844) and I found myself getting lost in the net that is Wikipedia. Some of the words in the text are archaic (like "leagues" instead of the modern metric system).

I stumbled upon a page describing the new calander made during the French Revolution. Like the metric system they tried to make everything simple, so instead of 7 days a week there were 10 and this theory even extended into time. Each day was divided into 10 hours, each hour was 100 minutes they even showed a picture of this funny clock... Crazy French.

They named the months after the seasons for example:

Autumn:
Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, "vintage") Starting Sept 22, 23 or 24
Brumaire (from French brume, "mist") Starting Oct 22, 23 or 24
Frimaire (From French frimas, "frost") Starting Nov 21, 22 or 23

and I liked what someone added to the page:

"In England, people against the Revolution mocked the calendar by calling the months: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety."

If you're interested in reading further here is the site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar

made for walkin'!

Yeah baby.

I have boots!

So excited! I just got them this afternoon after volleyball. I've been wanting boots for ages but, well frankly, my calves are too mighty... But these boots are juuuust right. Chocolate brown, suede, slouchy and super comfy. Not too too expensive either (as boots go). And now I have lovely brown shoes to wear with my new brown skirt! Whooo!

Ok, its getting a bit rediculous though, need to stop with the shopping. But its so nice this season, for once boots that aren't made for chicken legs are in style! I had to take advantage of it!

I had to share this kodak moment with you all.

Happy Monday!

cheese please

After going to a matinee showing* of The Corpse Bride I stopped by the big shopping center to pick up some groceries. Let me mention:

I love cheddar cheese.

This store (Carrefour) is one of the few places that sells cheddar so I always make a point to buy a big chunk. But as its an imported cheese its not in the prepackaged section... you have to ask the lady behind the counter to cut you a piece. After I ordered my 300g I waited for the lady to pack it up. A woman next to me turns to me and says "Oh, I've never tried that kind of cheese, how can you eat it? Is it possible to eat it just as is?"

Surprised I answered "Yes, you can eat it just like that, or melted..." She said that she was curious but has never dared to try it because "its orange and just looks unnatural."

That totally cracked me up. But I was really impressed that she wanted to talk to me. Its not really a french thing to do, to start up a conversation with a stranger. It made me happy that this random woman had taken an interest in "me" or my culture if you will.

*I love how at home we call it a matinee showing while in French that would mean a morning showing but we show it in the afternoon... humm... wires were crossed a bit on that one.

grumpy

so after my long day yesterday all I wanted to do was go to bed and get a wonderfuly long night's sleep.

My attempt was foiled by 2 things:

1) Are you ever so tired that you can't get warm? I can't sleep unless I'm warm. I wasn't cold but I couldn't get warm. Ended jumping in the shower to get warm at 1am because I can't find the little bouchon to my hot water bottle.

2) Once back in bed and nice and comfy I noticed a strange noise... Yup, my upstairs neighbors were getting busy. Not only that but they got busy to very loud (with lots of base) music. So even the earplugs didn't help.

I'm really tired.

long day

It has been a long day. All started at 6:55am when I caught the bus (it was pitch black out mind you!) out to the town where I'll be teaching in a high school. It takes about 45 minutes to get out there and as I saw the sunrise I went into the staff room to meet the other English teachers.

My contact person for the school is a very nice lady who lived in Australia for 12 years. She's very helpful and nice but a major chatterbox, telling me all about her life, her divorce, her depression etc... Yup, nice to meet you too.

But she is very nice and invited me home for lunch after work and said that I should come out for dinner sometime and could stay at her place anytime I like. I think she's really excited to have someone to speak English with again.

The kids that I met were really nice. They aren't that strong in English but were much more polite and well behaved than the 1st school I observed, at least they weren't playing with their MP3 players/cell phones during class!

So I caught the bus back to Caen and then had to run all over town getting stuff done. I had to go to my other high school to give them my bank details so I can get paid at the end of the month! V. important!

Then I had a gyno appointment, my first in France and my first with a male doctor. Lets just say it was an interesting experience. I don't consider myself very prude or shy but when he said strip down and hop up on the table I felt a bit akward. No flimsy little gown to hide behind. But all went well, good to have a check up every so often.

I'm going to crash tonight and good thing its a holiday tomorrow! No work for me!

riots

Well since everyone has been sending me emails wondering if I'm still alive I'd post this.

I'm fine!

The Norman cows are protecting me... haha. No, but yes the riots have spread from the Paris suburbs. They are saying in the papers that Caen has been touched, 15 cars burned in the suburbs. But they are in the suburbs. Its not as though I go wandering around at night through sketchy neighborhoods. I think that the people that are causing damage in towns like Caen are not people that are organized, but rather influenced by the media and looking to cause trouble.

Its a complicated issue but obviously those who are rioting to not feel a sense of pride in their lives. They are poor, unemployed and feel as they have no future. Otherwise why would they destroy their own property and not the property of others? They are destroying stores and schools in their neighborhoods and its so sad to see on tv.

I don't want to get too much into the politics of it all but don't worry I'm fine!

knitting fever

While France is rioting (yes, apparently it hit Caen as well but not in centre ville where I live) I decided to knit.

For those of you who don't know me I got addicted to knitting when I first came to France to study abroad. I had wayyyy too much time on my hands and a friend of mine taught me. I guess she taught me and I went home and continued, somewhere in that period of a few hours I re-taught myself in my own manner... ie I don't use either traditional method of knitting, I use the Karina Method. And I don't know how to read patterns or do anything fancy but I like to create my own but just fudging things a bit.

My new project is felting. When my mom sent me some lovely 100% wool I decided to give it a go and try and make a little handbag. Threw it in the wash today when doing my laundry (I forgot and now all my whites are actually a really nice silvery color... opps) but the bag turned out very cute! I'm happy with the results. The only additions needed are a button to close it and handles to find. I'd like to go with black ribbon handles but I'm not sure if they will be strong enough. I need to do a bit of shopping for that. But in the meantime I thought I'd share the before and after pictures with you.

I put my mesuring tape next to them so you could see how much its changed (and for me to remember for next time). I think it turned out really cute and I can't wait to finish it off!

Let me know what you think! I want your comments! :)

english is hard

English is Write Difficult

The King's English Language
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough
and cough and dough?


Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, through,
slough and thorough.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: It s said like bed, not bead -
For goodness sake don't call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat...
They rhyme with suite
and straight and debt.

A moth is not the moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, nor broth in brother.

And there is not a match for there,
nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose,
Just look them up - and goose and choose.
And cork, and work and card and ward,
and font and front and word and sword,

And do and go, then thwart and cart
Come, come, I ve hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Why sakes alive!
I'd learned to talk it when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn't learned it at fifty-five.

I had seen this poem before but when I was brainstorming with a friend for lesson plan ideas and came up with that and some great tongue twisters:

*A Tudor who tooted a flute
tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to their tutor,
"Is it harder to toot
or to tutor two tooters to toot?"

*Rubber baby buggy bummers

*Betty Botter had some butter,
"But," she said, "this butter's bitter.
If I bake this bitter butter,
it would make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter--
that would make my batter better."

So she bought a bit of butter,
better than her bitter butter,
and she baked it in her batter,
and the batter was not bitter.
So 'twas better Betty Botter
bought a bit of better butter.

*The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick.

Or in French (although its funny cause there isn't a word for "tongue twister" in French):

*Un chasseur sachant chasser chassait sans son chien de chasse.


Anyone laughing yet? Cause I am!

ball o cheese

A friend of mine who lives in Paris is in town for the weekend so of course we had to go shopping and out to eat... such a hard life! I got some good deals though, hit the American-style mall outside of town where I got new tennis shoes (my old ones are going to die anyday now!) that were originally 50E but on sale for 30E! Not bad! Then I've been wanting a microwave but in France they are all really expensive (70E is just a little too much for my budget) but one of the stores had a promotion, the basic model for only 30E! I spent way too much money but i think it was money well spent. (right Mom?)

I don't think my little apartment can take anymore! There just isn't anymore room!

Anyway, for dinner we all went out to the fondue restaurant and had cheese, cheese and more cheese! Practically rolled out the door and to my house... But oh was it delicious! We had the fondue "pays d'auge" which is basically just all the famous Norman cheeses (camembert, livarot, pont l'eveque) along with cider and apples. Of course some red wine to top it all off. Delish!!!

Of course we had to have the chocolate fondue for dessert, the chocolate even had little tiny pieces of almonds in it, gave it a very satisfying crunch. I forgot to bring my camera but the picture is what you would have seen if you would have been there!

A delightful evening.

blue lightning

I've decided that all language teachers are just odd... This theory started when I was in high school and our French teacher was just the funniest lady I've ever met. She used to wear this blue knit dress that had a bright white lightning strike across the front. Us kids used to call it "blue lightning" and unfortunetly that became her nickname and even other graduating classes knew this was her.

Now I feel bad because I realize that kids are just not nice to their teachers, and thats hard to deal with when you're in front of 30 kids. Now that I've been in that position I have a lot more respect for teachers and the hard work they do.

That said language teachers are weird.

I went to the lycee where I'll be teaching to be introduced to all the teachers I'll be working with and try to figure out my schedule. (I start my 1st class tomorrow at 1pm! Wish me luck!) They are the kookiest lot I've ever met. Their personal bubble is just a wee bit smaller than mine so I kept backing up while they were talking to me and the things they wore! Yikes! It would do blue lightning proud!

This is why I've never wanted to go home and become a French teacher. I've always been afraid I'll turn into a kooky teacher.... I'm too good for that.

Aren't I?

happy halloween!

The French kids started trick-or-treating... on Saturday! The notion of having to wait until the night of the 31st dosn't really seem to take hold here but the kids are very cute all dolled up!

A friend of mine from high school came to visit during his trek around Europe. It was a fun but busy weekend showing him around and of course going out to see the town at night! I think he got a good impression of France, even said he'd like to start learning French now! Its fun to see where I live and the French culture through someone else's eyes. The little things that struck me as strange when I first arrived but now think nothing of. The bises instead of shaking hands, the dog crap all over the sidewalk, the shops closed on Sunday etc... All in all it was a very fun weekend.

The only problem is that having so much fun has left me with a lot of homework unfinished. Good thing tomorrow is a holiday (All Saints Day) so I'll have some time to catch up. But that will have to wait until tomorrow as it would be unforgivable not to celebrate Halloween!

Humm... what should I dress up as? An American? Baggy jeans and a baseball cap? A Frenchie? Stripy shirt and a baguette? Decisions, decisions!

Edit: Here is the look I went for, its funny because at home the more creative your costume is the better but here its very much traditional scary costumes so everyone got a big kick out of mine!

pumpkin carving

So while waiting for a friend from high school to arrive by ferry I met up with Benette and we carved pumpkins. Its always fun to introduce someone to the art of pumpkin carving, the difficulty of trying to carve a nice line combined with the elbow grease needed to do it.

The moment when you lift the top and see what the inside is all about, and then the instant when you reach inside and realize just how gooey and icky it is inside trying pull the seeds out.

Its great fun. And here is the result, my beautiful pumpkin in all its glory.

I named him Jack and Jack is currently garding my apartement door scaring away all the non-existant trick-or-treaters.

Welcome to France Jack.

recap of last night's events...

Well lets just say I had a wonderful birthday! It started out very well, a bright sunny autumn day 24C (75F for you at home) which can always lift the spirits. I went out to the other high school where I'll be working to meet the priniciple. It is pretty far out of town so it was good to try out the bus system so that I know which stop to get off at etc.
I came back into town and there were wonderful birthday messages on my answering machine, cell phone and email! So nice to hear from people around the world who remembered my birthday! I said I would wait to open the presents from my mom that had arrived 6 days ago and wait I did! Opened up my goodies in the afternoon and can't wait to get started on some new knitting projects with the beautiful yarn I got :)
Then I basically passed the afternoon pampering myself, got my hair cut and spent several hours on the phone, it was fantastic!
In the evening a few friends stopped by for an apero at my house and we all trooped off to a very cute creperie for dinner. There were 10 of us in the upstairs of the restaurant surrounded by loony toons characters painted on the walls. I love that place.
After "blowing out" my birthday crepe filled with cinnamon apples and flambéed with calvados we went off in search of a good time :) haha. Ended up at one of my favorite bars, luckily enough just across from my apartement, and got the bartender to give me free drinks for my birthday. Always know how to work the cute foreigner charm!
So after a fun filled night it was time to head back. But I do have to say it was one of my best birthdays in the last few years, thanks to wonderful friends and family.

I'm off to carve some jack-o-lanterns, pictures to come!

xmas?

Its hard to believe that Christmas is around the corner... well around the corner for the French. Its the next major holiday and the flood of Christmas decorations has arrived.

It started on Saturday when I licked a few windows* downtown and saw that one of my favorite shops has already set up a huge Christmas display.

Then today I was walking to the University to play volleyball and the main road in town was blocked to traffic to set up the lights that are strung across the road. For those who were in town in the last 2 years they are different lights! I'll try go to take a picture of them to post so you can see what I'm talking about.

Its kind of exciting to think about possible Christmas plans but then at the same time its soooooo early!!! Its not even Thanksgiving, or even Halloween yet!!!! But at the same time it makes me appriciate the fact that we have those holidays to slow down the Christmas-ness drama to just a few weeks instead of the two months here!

But there is a wonderful, cozy, comfy feeling in the air.

(*literal translation of the French expression to window shop)


If you come up to my street and look left you see my street and if you look right you see the main street in town. I like my street lights better, with the little 1/2 snowflake-type design instead of random leafy thing...

spider-woman?

So I don't really feel like studying, so I'm watching spiderman instead.

Whats funny is that while I'm watching this (dubbed in french bien sur!) I noticed that when they are talking about Spiderman they keep referring to him as "she"... Got really confused then I realized that spider in french is feminine... but still thats just, well, odd.

(I came across this problem a few years ago when I studied in Paris and went to go see the Vagina Monologues and they kept referring to the vagina as "he"... now that is not just odd but simply wrong.)

dog waxing?

I was walking by a pet grooming store and there was a list of things possible to do to your pet: shampoo, hair cut, toenail clipping and waxing.

Wait, did I see that right?

Waxing????

Since when do you wax dogs?

Its funny I've been here so long now that some things don't shock me anymore but then I see signs for dog waxing and that def throws me for a loop!

Happy Sunday.

star ac

Its offical, I'm a Star Academy addict.

Its like the French American Idol and they have their big show on Friday nights (where 1 person gets kicked off). We traditionally have a pizza-Star Ac night where we gripe and gossip about song choices, costumes and pronuciation of English lyrics. All in good fun, almost never serious.

Tonight it hit an all time low, my friend almost cried during one of the duets.

Thats low. Very low.


In other news I went to one of the high schools where I'll be working and met almost everyone. It was so strange... they were so... nice. They were smiling, wishing me welcome, making an effort to personally introduce me to all the staff, giving me a guided tour of the school.

Toto - I am in Kansas!

What is the world coming to? The French... nice?

quit your gripin'

Was just reading an article on the USAToday (yes, I know, not the most newsy of newspapers) and found this article:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2005-10-17-eurogas-usat_x.htm

Finally people are realizing that America pays soooo little for gas. Of course when I was home I was complaining. I mean a jump from $1.17 a gallon (when I got my licence 7 years ago) to topping $3! But can people at home imagine paying $6 a gallon?

I mean life might just come to a standstill!

Would people, the horror, carpool? public transport???

In other news, nothing too exciting (other than the fact I GOT A JOB! should I say it again? I GOT A JOB!) A friend of mine from last year is stopping by for a few days tomorrow so that will be fun to catch up.

jump for joy!

I went to volleyball today (which by the way was excellent! there were a ton of new people that showed up so we could actually play some real games! and... for the 1st time ever I got placed with the 'good' people!!!! yeah baby!)

When I got out there was a missed call on my cell, the dude from the Rectorat. I called him back and he said that there is a job avalible, split between 2 schools. One of the schools is a bit out of town but there is the regional bus system and a friend of mine did that commute last year and it was ok. He said that he will pass on my CV to his boss to get the green light but he says he dosn't see why his boss would say no. So basically as of today it sounds 95% sure and tomorrow he'll call and I'll hear the final verdict.

Can you hear me jumping up and down to Sir Mix-a-lot?

Happy. Happy. Happy.

EDIT: Just got the phone call!! Got the job!! Still jumping up and down!!!! WHOOOO

downpour

Yesterday was amazingly beautiful, sat outside at a cafe in a t-shirt contemplating the stunning un-October weather...

That changed fast! Woke up this morning to a downpour, something we don't get all that often in Normandy. I'm not saying it dosn't rain a lot, it sure does, but usually its that grey, drippy, icky Seattle weather, not a mad downpour!

Not much to report for this weekend. Yesterday I tried to do a lot of work as last night was a housewarming party at a friends house so I knew I wouldn't feel like studying today. I was right. I really only feel like vegging in front of the tv... watching some movies and drinking tea. Maybe I'll go visit some friends across town to veg on their couch, drink their tea and watch their movies... we'll see.

In other news, check out this site a friend sent me, funny stuff but a little too chirpy this early in the morning (errr afternoon).

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/badgerphone.php

Have a good weekend.

lost

This does not seem to be my week...

The good(ish) news is that it seems that my "1-Click" order from Amazon.fr has been removed from my items waiting to be shipped. No emails from either mystery-seller or Amazon have been received as of yet though....

In not-so-good news I went to the Prefecture to ask why on earth they still havn't given me my letter saying its time to come and pick up your beautiful-new-shiny-student-carte-de-sejour? So get up early on my day off and trot down there only to hear from the lady that when did all the construction work on the office they re-arranged all the files and have 'misplaced' mine... My temperary carte de sejour expires on Monday so she told me that I need to skip class Tuesday morning to come and see if they've 'found' it yet... Maybe I can look for them! Ha!

What is it with France and misplacing important items*? I really don't get it, you should be able to keep track of someone's file! Grrrr...

I hope someone is keeping their fingers crossed for me cause I think I need it.

*this is in reference to the amazing bag-loss drama of Sep 2001 by Air France which totalled a 6-week waiting period for my entire life packed in to 2 suitcases. moral: always take a change of underwear in your carry-on!

going to die

So the prof for one of my classes changed one of the books on us. I had ordered it on Amazon.fr so since it hadn't been shipped yet I went and canceled it. Then looked for the new book.
I found it but not with normal Amazon but with a private seller, found the 'cheapest' price and then clicked 'order' but accidently clicked "1-Click" (the French Amazon, unline American Amazon does not require you to sign-up for the 1-click option so you are automatically signed in). Not only that but . and , are opposite in French...

...therefore somehow I now have a TWO THOUSAND EURO book on order and am going to die.

Been going through the website trying to stop it but the site sends me in circles. It says call if you can't find what your needing but do not provide a phone number.

Called American Amazon to get French Amazon's phone number, lady was really nice. Called but that number dosn't exist.

Emailed the seller several times (within minutes after the disaster) explaining my situation and how there isn't 2,000E in my account. Pray to God, or Jesus, Buddah, whoever is looking out for me that he will not try to make me pay. Honestly I don't know what to do, its not my fault and not well explained.

So scared... so so scared....

stench

I just got home with my laundry. I hung it up to dry and opened the window to make sure its not too humid in here. Then sat down in my big comfy chair next to my window to study some texts for class on Tuesday.

The problem is that it smells like a sewer line broke or that there is a porta-potty sitting directly outside my one and only window! I lit my little scented oils and tried to make it smell better. If I close my window then it will take ages for my clothes to dry, but sitting next to the window it just is rank!


I almost never complain about my neighbors (except my ugly-naked-guy who lives across the courtyard but thats another story...) but this is exceptional! I wonder what is going on! Did a sewer line break? Did someone just take a big ol' crap outside? Hope my clothes don't end up reaking... blech.

beach bums

The weather cleared up a lot today so we decided to take a trip to the coast, it was soooo nice and sunny out there and had a great time walking across the beach from town to town. I couldn't believe how warm it was compared to the past few days, I could walk around in just a t-shirt and not feel cold. Great to get out of town too.

After eating some crepes and ice cream we thought it was time to head back into town for a night of movies.

On the way back home I walked by Saint Pierre and since I had my camera thought I'd show you the amazing progress on the cathedral. They are cleaning and restauring the outside, and it is stunning the work they've done. Here are the before and after side by side:

dear lord

I'm in the middle of lesson planning for my 1st day of teaching the littl'uns and so I decided to go through all my kids music. Some of the CDs I have were not a big hit with the 10 year olds last year as they found them too babyish but will be perfect for 5 and 6 year olds.

So I first pop in a CD that I got last year that is made for teaching with both traditional and made for teaching English songs, has some songs like the "Hello" song etc... The first song that came on was Jingle Bells... ohhhh how I cringed, they used someone with the THICKEST French accent ever! Then the next one....

"If you're appy and you know it clap your ands"

Notice anything missing? No, those are not typos, there was clearly a lack of H people! Def NOT going to use those songs... ekkkk.

Will let you know how classes went later, wish me luck.

Update:

Well it went really well, its always hard on the 1st day because you don't know what they kids have learned (in English and in life in general, I mean can they write? do they know geography?) So I was mostly just getting a feel for it. But its great because all the other teachers are really supportive and help me out even just by staying in the classroom.

But jeeze, the 5 year olds are SO tiiiiiiny! They've got the smallest desk and chairs and just come up and hug me all the time. Way cute. So all is well for the time being. Need to do some lesson plans for next week based on what I know they know/don't know.

Pizza/Star Ac night tonight! Yiiipeee!

2nd day of school

Well I've been to almost all my classes (I have 2 different translation classes, alternating from French to English, English to French every other week, so will see the English to French next week). They seem to all be going well, already have tons of homework and the pressure of choosing a thesis topic.

The one thing that really shocks me is that in all my classes the majority of the class time was in French to explain how the class would work etc. This is a Masters level English Lit class people! Even in my non-advanced level French courses of my BA were completely conducted in French. At one point one prof finally started talking in English but when it came to talking about certain authers that were an influence he spelled their names in French, which really threw me off! I have a really hard time switching from one language to another (which is why I'm nervous about the translation classes...)

Still looking for the books needed, I've gotten my sticky little fingers on 3 of the 7 books which is good but some of them are really hard to find. Wish me luck.

No plans tomorrow so lets hope the weathers nice so I can take advantage of the last few rays of sunshine.

school days

I'm officially back at school. Things went fairly well today, I showed up to my 10am class, a theatre class, the prof was late and then we all thought he was a bit snobby... turns out he can't talk! He's got laringitus (sp??) and so did the lecture by typing out what he wanted to say with power point. Interesting. Looks like an interesting class.

Then we were off (by the way, in France you don't choose your classes, they choose you! So I'm on the same schedule as the other 8 students doing Masters 1 in Lit) to our second class, an American Lit class. She could talk, and man did she talk! No, it went well, she asked everyone what they thought their memoire would be on, why we want to do lit and what was the latest American book we had read. Uhhhh ... I read a lot and I'm not sure that some of the mystery and/or Sex and the City type novels should be mentioned, dosn't sound too smart. I was trying to rack my brain to think of something a bit more clever!

I went up to meet a friend straight after for a yoga class but there were wayyyyy too many people so we skipped out. I've spent the last few hours of the afternoon running millions of errands. I need to go grocery shopping badly but there is a strike today and it wasn't worth waiting forever for the tram/bus! Do that tomorrow morning before class. I also need to find the books we need for class. Of course this is not America and there is no university bookstore so you just have to run around town trying to find very random books in English... grrr sounds fun.

volleyball

Well this week is starting out well, lets hope it keeps going this way!

First of all I went to the school where I'll be working 3 hours a week to organize my schedule with the other teachers. I'll be going in to teach English to 3 classes, to kids that range from 5 to 7 years old! Never taught kids that young but I think it will be fun, lots of songs and games.

Then I did 1 hour of conversation lessons with a woman here in town. She is so nice and we just talk about anything and everything, I feel bad taking money for that! Plus she fixed my TV! I can now record off the tv. (I had some cables that weren't connected the right way...)

Then I ran up to Uni for my first volleyball class. That was great fun but it was hard not to speak English, to change my brain from shouting "OUT!" to "dehors"... just dosn't have the same ring... Hope I can keep going to that class, the other people are nice too which is a change.

Things are looking up, starting off a good week.

Tomorrow - class!

crisp

When I woke up this morning and saw the rain and thought to myself, oh no another beautiful Norman day...

But as the day went on the rain moved on and we were greeted with a beautiful blue sky and big puffy clouds, an ideal fall day. I rode my bike to a friend's house (up a massive hill by the way) and on my way home I was just so happy riding back down the hill with the whole city spread out before me. Even after 2 years I still pinch myself sometimes at moments like this.

newbies

Its officially the weekend! Whooo!

Today started off great, was pulled from bed by my friend calling from Down Under! Good chat on the phone, great to be back in touch with the world, literally.

Had a good day but didn't do all that much aside from an interview for a nanny-ing position with a family here. They seem really nice, live very close to me and have a beautiful 2 year old girl. It might work out to 6ish hours a week which would be nice. Pick up the petite from the creche and give her dinner and a bath until the parents come home. We will see...

Met some new assistants here, from all over, Canada, Ireland, New Orleans... we are a mixed bunch! Going over to Miss Ireland's flat for a game nite, meet some more people. Some of them work at the uni here and it would be really nice to recognize people around campus, maybe have lunch sometime!

I've bitten my nails down to the stubs while hoping that some silly anglophone doesn't turn up here and I can get their job... Don't post much cause thats all thats really going on here!

Oh little funny story for you folks; while walking back from a friend's house after dinner last night some boys walked by us saying "oh the lovely girls, just like swallows with 2 wings" .... uhhh duh! All swallows have 2 wings... Come up with something better next time! (although it is the first time I've been called a swallow, I rather like that...)

ray of hope

Well I decided to overcome my fear and go find someone at the Rectorat to see about a position here. If people cancel or don't show up then they need people to cover those positions. According to past assistants a lot of people cancel at the last minute and they need someone.
At this point in time they need someone but in a town an hour away... But the guy was actually really nice and sounded hopefull for me, that he thinks there will be something next week (when everyone is officially supposed to have arrived by).

Here's to hoping.

pooped

I'm finally sitting down after a day of tutoring, wading through annoying lines at the uni trying to registrar (I'm officially a student though!) and trying to drop off my CV at different places.

Still have a load of things to do and it turns out that uni starts next week, I thought it was in a few weeks but oh well not like I really had plans next week.

On the upside I had my favorite chevre/spinich lasagne tonight. Yum.

tah dah!

Ok I made it back to Normandy, my 2 months of traveling around the globe have come to an end.

But I do have to say its nice to be home.

I got back to my little flat and have started on my amazingly long list of things to do...

1) grocery shopping (done!)
2) registrar at the university
3) GET A JOB
4) get a residency permit
5) boring stuff (bank, CAF, laundry...)

But to get my head cleared and my place feeling like mine I've just rearranged all my furniture (again) as I have a new couch its been a bit of a puzzle trying to fit things. Got my curtains up!But everything is all hooked up and I like the results. I think the best thing about going home was the HUGE pile of mail that was waiting for me! It seems like I never get mail (hint hint) so it was really fun to sort through all that (even though some were bills...).

So except for the job thing (hire me! please!) all is well over here. I'm back in the swing of things, meeting up with friends and enjoying being home.

Someone across the courtyard is making some sort of bread or cookies, it smells amazing, I might have to go make dinner now...!

Good to be back :)

Around the world in 3 hours

Went on a little day trip yesterday to the rainforest, yup here in Denmark! In a nearby town (Randers) there is a rainforest, actually 3 rainforests. There are 3 different greenhouse-type domes housing 3 different groups of rainforests, Africa, South America and Asia.

More the half of the animals there are not in cages but just leaping through the air, monkeys swinging from branch to branch, birds and butterflies zipping about it was all pretty amazing! We saw the tiniest primate on earth, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand! Course we couldn't touch them, wouldn't want to risk an Outbreak-type senario! But watched the guides feed gibbons, river otters, strange looking little dogs from south america, monster guinea pigs (yummy)... impressive! Who knew all that good fun existed in the northern part of Denmark?? haha

One of the best parts was the temperature, 25+ C and really humid, I really did feel like I had landed in the Amazon. When I get the pictures downloaded I'll post some, I think I got some great shots of animals I hadn't even heard of until yesterday.

Today we're off to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, then I've got tomorrow and then my flight/train ride home on Sunday! My 2 months of non-Normandy fun have sure flown by but I am excited to go back to my house (uhh, apartment), hang my new Ikea curtains, check my mail and catch up with friends.

smoke signals

So I thought I'd be a good houseguest by making breakfast. Frozen bagels that you pop into the microwave oven and presto-chango breakfast! So I asked how long the bagels go in there for, 10 minutes. So I stick those little suckers in there and put it on for 10 min...

Then it happened... I thought I smelled a bit of smoke but waved it off thinking they were just cooking... then the smoke alarm went off...

Running towards the kitchen I open the door and was hit with a wall of yellow-bagel-scented smoke. Spent the next 30 minutes or so airing out the smoke, watching billows of it drift down the street, and checking the oven for damage. Fortunetly there were no flames, just massive amounts of that yellow smoke, and 2 black-hockey-puck bagels sitting there.

My hair still reaks of the stuff, oh well, the house didn't burn down and we are off to the grocery store to buy some oven cleaner. Opps my bad.

away but here

Well I'm still around here in Denmark but havn't been posting as there is nothing too exciting or revolutionary going on. I've just been hanging out, cooking, going on walks, knitting etc... But all is well and enjoying myself, its good to be on vacation!
Will be back laters ;)

ps the picture is of a typical danish dinner (hamburger, potatoes, onions and sauce - yummy!)

valhalla and banana skum

Greetings from Denmark!!

Been having great fun lounging around, watching Danish cartoons depicting the Norse gods and eating chocolate-covered banana-flavored marshmallows(that would be the skum I'm refering to in the title)! Can it get any better than that? I don't think so!

The wind was blowing today but we managed to make it out of the house for a few hours to explore downtown. Got some new tea (vanilla and bailey's flavored yum!) Its been great to just veg and watch tv, all the tv here is subtitled and not dubbed and its mostly American. So... I've been catching up on a couple years of American tv: Oprah, Gilmore Girls, ER, CSI and even managed an episode of Desperate Housewives which I've heard tons about but had never seen.

Taking off this weekend to visit my friend's parents in a nearby city, lots more eating good food and hanging out. This is what vacation is all about!

travels travels

Been a while since I posted because I've basically been go go go non-stop since my last post. I went to Paris and then did a mad dash through the airport to catch a train to St Etienne for my ex-roomie's wedding. Managed to make it there on time after changing clothes on the train and heading straight there WITH all my luggage. Dined on tajine and danced "fest-noz meets Marrakesh" until the wee hours of the morning. I managed not to fall asleep in my soup so that was a big accomplishment! The next day was brunch with the wedding party then I decided that the town was really not that interesting on a Sunday so I went a bit earlier to Lyon.

I stayed in Lyon with another friend from university for 2 nights, she did an excellent job showing me the city and I totally feel in love, it is sooooo beautiful there. I need to explore other regions of France more often!! So after caramel ice cream, butter-colored houses and two beautiful rivers I was back on the train to Paris. Stayed the night and then this morning caught a flight to Denmark to visit a friend. I'll be here for 10 days but apparently missed the good weather as it is WINDY and blowing rain.... oh well there is always vegging in front of the tv!

So I hope whoever is reading this is doing well. I'll try to update more often but between the øø's and ææ's it takes a bit of time! Might try to get some pictures up too but that will probably end up being when I get back home to Normandy! But leave me some comments and I'll check in often!

Gyoza and Karma

Well I'm back from a fabulous trip down to Oregon to visit old friends at my former university. I had a fantastic time exploring old grounds and seeing new construction at the campus. I meet up with wonderful friends (some I hadn't seen in 4 years!), had lots of coffee at the Bistro, sunshine and long talks.

I stayed with a friend at her house and talked, watched movies and made 49 gyoza (Japanese potstickers) by hand!

Then on my way back home I stopped in Portland to see another friend who was flying in, we had lunch and I had my karma for the day. I couldn't find my sunglasses when I left that morning but when I was sitting on a bench in the mall waiting to meet for lunch someone had left a pair of sunglasses! Very nice ones, so I sat and watched them for about 25 minutes but no one came to claim them, finders keepers, loosers weepers I guess. The moral of the story is that I have new sunglasses! Cha-ching!

Anyway to keep things short I'm in the middle of packing, flying back to Paris tomorrow morning and have a million little things to do before leaving the house at 6:30am tomorrow! I'd better get crackin'!

I'll be in and around the next few weeks before getting settled again back in my appt around the 25th, so stop by if you get a chance :) Post some comments! They are fun to read.
Wish me bon voyage... :)

sweetness

So we are celebrating my little sister's 21st birthday today (one of the last nights before she heads back to school and I go back to France).

I got to make the cake!

Go Duncan Hines! Made a light and fluffy chocolate cake and then put razzzberry jam and cream cheese frosting between the 2 layers before adding dark chocolate frosting alllll over. This is the pre-candle shot though, ended up putting all those candles plus doing some decoration on the top. Good fun, I'm actually really happy about making the cake because I've been wanting to do some overly-sugary-american-baking since I've been back but Mom dosn't like sweet things around the house. Great excuse :)

So we had a wonderful sushi dinner out at the local sushi bar then back home for presents and cake. I'm stuffed! A little sugar high too ;) guess thats why I'm up late but its all good. Fun night with the family.

Basically I'm trying to get ready, I've only really got 2 more full days at home because I'm off on a little road trip to Oregon for 3 days next week. Got my little list of things to do but mainly I want to really learn how to drive a stick. I'd be nice to be able to rent cars in France. So anyway then I'll come home from OR, madly pack and then I'll jet off again! The adventure begins again...

my soapbox

(*edit: for those of you that have been asking me, I'm no where near the flooding, I'm in the Northwest near Seattle...)

I'm sitting here watching BBC World on Canadian TV (thank god we get real news!) and they are daring to say what us Americans won't... that what is going on in New Orleans SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING! We have the capabilities to prevent what is going on but instead we took our budget surplus and are chasing phantoms emptying the bank. The rich got out of the danger in pleanty of time but what about the rest? The ones who barely had anything to begin with, spending days in horrible third-world conditions only to be sent to Texas where they will have even less with no chance to rebuild their lives. Bodies floating, disease spreading, people stealing guns and starting riots because they are deprived of basic human needs.

A historic city has been lost when the technology exists to have prevented not only the loss of the city but loss of thousands of lives it makes me sick. It makes me sick that we are now complaning of gas prices when we pay at least 1/3 less than most Western countries pay in normal conditions. Maybe in a horrible way this will teach people a lesson, help out, take public transportation... somehow I doubt it.

Ask me why I'm not living here, this is why, I just can't handle the way things are done in my home. Yes there are good things, sure the US news plays wonderful heartwarming stories of volunteer actions and sacrifices but overall I'm at a loss for words. Play the reality in its entirety.

My heart goes out for those in New Orleans that lost their homes, their loved ones and those still stuck there.