Joyeux Noel!

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I am zanksfullll for......

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vacances part deux

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oops.

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the darndest things

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third time's the charm.

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lapin lapin!

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installer! (presque)

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J'arrive!

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Paris, je t'ehhh......you're alright

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Old Ming, New Mission

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10 December 2012

Joyeux Noel!

Christmas season is here! 

 Things that are similar in France as in Chicago:
       - The Christmas Market: One in each little French town, little huts much akin to those at Christkindlmarket. However, the things being sold in these markets are MUCH different. Although they do have the standard churros/crepes/waffles/sugary delights, they also have various devices which can only be described as "As seen on TV!" merchandise (read: microwavable pillows, flower stamps for manicures), which I find a little strange to be in a Christmas market....
       - Christmas music: There is a store that I have to ride my bike past everyday to and from my school that, I kid you not, transformed OVERNIGHT from a normal women's clothing store to a crazy everything Santa-themed store that blasts Christmas music. A little part of me gets homesick when the classic "I'll be Home for Christmas" blares at me on my way home from dealing with demon high school students all day.
       - Advent calendar: These little suckers popped up a little too early in the Christmas season for my liking (around the first week of November), but CLEARLY I had to purchase one for myself and my two good friends, Diana and Emily. They truly are exactly the same here as they are in the states -- same weird Christmas scene on the front, same Christmas-themed chocolate shapes, and same shitty waxy chocolate....JUST as I remembered! Diana and I have both lamented about how let down we were about the awful quality of chocolate. I guess I shouldn't have expected much from something that cost 1 euro though.....

10 days into this mess and not so secretly hating every minute of it


Things that are different in France:
        - No lights: Besides the lights that the city installs, there are no Christmas lights on people's houses! I guess it's an American thing....
        - Christmas music: I know, I know, I had this under "similar", but it is also very different and here's why; they play it on speakers on the main streets, and sometimes they play raggae. I don't get it.

 Anywho, I went to the opening ceremony of the Christmas market the weekend before last, and here is what I saw:

Whatever these things were supposed to be were literally terrified of my spikey phone case
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23 November 2012

I am zanksfullll for......

Alas! Thanksgiving day has come and past and it has not been forgotten about here in France. My celebration of the holiday began last week teaching about the holiday in all my classes. Some of my kids knew a bit about the holiday, but, for the most part, it was something new for them. I began by teaching them about the historical aspect of the holiday, then moving onto modern observances, and then discussing the controversial aspect of the holiday if I felt the kids would be capable of understanding the ideas. After that, we watched a scene from "Smallville" where Clark Kent stands up to say why he's thankful, his mom cries, then dinner rolls are passed as early 2000's sappy music plays in the background. Afterwards (my FAVORITE part), I tell the kids about hand turkeys, laugh while the guess what it means, then force them to draw their own and then present to the rest of the class what they are thankful for. Some of them are really sweet and heartwarming, but also some of them were about cats, which is also nice I guess. Without fail, they all begin by saying "I am zankssssfullll..." There is no S in the word, and that's not even part of the French accent so....why? Anywho, it was fun and made me happy to be able to talk about this American holiday, and I even got a couple "HAPPIEEEE ZANKSGIVING!"'s yelled at me today in the hall, so at least a little something stuck with them, if only the date.
Um....? Also please note the white-out that covered up the "s" in thankful....WHY.
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17 November 2012

vacances part deux

After my first week of vacation spent lounging in Angers, I decided to get out of town for the second week. My first destination was.....Paris (for the 6th time in my life).  After my last time in Paris, I felt more keen on the place, now that I don't feel the need to visit all the tourist-y places, and because my friend Alex would actually be there this time! Saturday afternoon I boarded the TGV in Angers sans communication with Alex (for the two days leading up to my departure), unconcerned figuring it would work itself out by the time I arrived in Paris. Well, it didn't. I arrived in Montparnasse around 6 pm still with no contact with Alex, and by that point realized that her phone was also completely off. Feeling confident in my Parisien knowledge (ha!) I waddled to her house with my bags and plopped down at a bar to have a drink and wait for word from her. Luckily, I had contacted my friend who I studied with in Grenoble who is now living in Paris a couple days before, and he came to rescue me from my lonliness and had a chance to catch up. Eventually Alex turned her phone on, informed me that she had no idea I was coming that day, and met up with me at her apartment after she got off work. The rest of my time in Paris was spent partying with Alex and her comrades (until 6AM on a SUNDAY! These Parisians are a different breed....), meeting lots of people, and a short stop at the Musee d'Orsay to see the Impressionism and Fashion exhibit (which, was kind of a let down, but I can't complain since I defied authority and got in free).


Beautiful sunny day! (The day I left...)

Mandatory lock bridge photo.
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02 November 2012

oops.

Oh gosh, here we are again.....following a three week blogging hiatus. Well, I'll say one thing: it was inevitable.  What's funny is that I have not even been that busy. Alas! My laziness got the best of me.

 As I look over the last three weeks, a couple of events stick out in my mind: dinner parties (LOTS of 'em), Halloween, and VACATION.

 After some serious reflection, I have realized I have been to six dinner soirees over the last three weeks, including two which I hosted (which were rather small and barely justified a "soiree", I think), an international one, and a raclette one!  They were all wonderful and great and keep me eating well and staying as rotund as ever.

 Halloween has oddly been a large part of the last couple of weeks in my life. If you were wondering, the French don't celebrate quite as much as we do back in the States, and, had it not been for my teaching job, I think I might have almost forgotten it was happening (as I did with fall in general...).  From my understanding, little kiddos get dressed up and go "trick-or-treating", although the fun of it is sort of lost, being that it is not their own tradition, which is understandable.  I have seen only one apartment with pumpkins smiling down at the street, and, based on my expertise, the artists must have been expats, judging by the expertly crafted grins they were sporting. After the age of maturation, not much is done to celebrate Halloween in the style francais. I enjoyed telling my students all about the "grown-up" tradition of dressing scandily State-side, and watching their reaction as I described/mimed the infamous Mean Girls scene (below). 
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11 October 2012

the darndest things

I just finished up my second week of work here at the lycée.  Whenever anyone asks me how my kids are, I always say it's a huge range, which is the most honest answer I can give. The kids are from 14 to 19 years old, and are all over the place in terms of oral skills and comprehension. Not surprising considering I teach 11 different classes during the week, meaning I interact with close to 250 kids. However in my introductory Q&A sessions, they all seem to ask the same questions, the most popular being:

      - What music you prefer?
My go-to is "Kanye West....Lady Gaga.....Drake....(Ugh I don't care) Moving on."

      - Do you have boyfriend?
"No, and I'm not looking for one here at the lycée."...except that's not completely true, some of my students are super sexy. Judge away comrades! I say age is just a number.

      - Do you know celebrities?
Like.....Does it look like I know celebrities?

      - Do you like France? What do you think of the people?
"Oh my gosh yesss cheese! Wine! Everything's so relaxed! So nice!" When I really just want to say Americans think you're kind of rude and that you/your cheese smells.

      - What is different about France?
"Everything inconviently shuts down on Sundays (and sometimes Mondays too), and dryers don't exist." Also I casually mention how they've been suckered into going to school until 6:00 pm, whereas Americans end at 3:00 which really sets them off.....sorry profs!

      - Do you smoke drugs? Do you have gun?
"Um no and no."....It is clear what they think about Americans!
Overall the teaching is going well. I have to admit, I was super concerned last week while observing when one of the teachers said to me "If they're misbehaving or talking or, you know, making fun of you, just send them back to me." 
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06 October 2012

Just a couple of photos to remember my first two weeks in Angers! Can't believe I've been here that long -- time is flying!
View of the Chateau from the other side of la Maine

Chapel within my lycée
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04 October 2012

third time's the charm.

HEAR YE HEAR YE cross number 2 off my goal list because......I GOT A BIKE.  Angers has this wonderful program for all their residents that if you give them a copy of your ID, proof of lodging in Angers, and show that you actually work, you can rent a bike for up to 4 months fo' FREE (given that you agree to pay 200 euro if someone jacks it which seemed kinda pricey butttttt I'm not planning on having it stolen). 

I was so stoked about this that I showed up 45 minutes before the place opened to wait in line the day after I had proof of lodging from my new apartment. It wasn't until 30 minutes later that I realized there was a sign on the door that read "CLOSED MONDAYS".....Good one, France.  

So the next afternoon I returned with high hopes annnnnnnnd got shot down in the face by the guy at the front desk saying there were no more left that day. 

So THIS morning I arrived super early and, despite being the only person in line, continued to wait, determined to get my vélo! As I waited, I read the morning paper and checked out my horoscope....

I see what you did there, fate.
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01 October 2012

lapin lapin!

It is the first of October, and it officially feels like fall now that I have started school.  Today was my first day at Lycée Joachim du Bellay, the largest public school in Angers. I met most of the english professors last week when I dropped by, but this time I was actually interacting with the kids for the first time.  I was a little nervous at first, but the first class ("The Gifted", as my professor calls them....) were very talkative and friendly and spent the entire class period asking me questions and telling me about themselves.  They really liked hearing about my days playing the violin, learning about rap and hip hops artists, and hearing about where I had traveled in France. Apparently half of these students were focusing on musical instruments, and the other half on dance which is why they are labeled as "bright/The Gifted" (her words, not mine.)

 My second class also went well, although they were much more timid, and I had to leave about 10 minutes into class so they could take an exam.  My third class also went well, and I was doing a little more "work" (if you could call it that) going from group to group correcting business proposals that they were writing in english. I think the professor thinks I'm not strict enough when correcting their grammar.  But as a person struggling to master another language, I feel for them SO much.  I know from experience how incredibly awful it feels when someone has no idea what you're saying and when you really just cannot formulate a thought or feeling that, in your native language, would not be an issue.  I know it's my job to correct them and help them learn, but I feel so bad!

 Two things have stuck out to me thus far:
              1. Professors' accents.  Most of the english professors have such strong English accents and are so fluent in French that it is almost impossible to tell whether they learned english as a second language from a British instructor, or just have been an expat living in France for 40 years!  One of the professors noted my accent and warned me that I might have to repeat things a couple times before the students understand since they're used to hearing British accents. Honestly I was just happy that they didn't ask me to fake a British accent so that the kids would learn  the"Queen's English" properly, as they did with my sister when she was in Spain (still LOL-ing at that story).
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29 September 2012

installer! (presque)

PRAISE EVERYTHING HOLY After 6 days and 8 apartment visits, I have FINALLY found myself a place to live!!! 



No more are the days of staring lustingly at espresso cups and home decor waiting until I had a reason to purchase them!

FREE are my sweaters, pants, and t-shirts adorned with profanities from the confines of their vacuum-sealed prisions (FUCK SWAG, that means you!)!

No longer am I threatened by the potential of leading the  bleak life of a gypsy!

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25 September 2012

J'arrive!

I have finally arrived in Angers and am LOVING it thus far!

 Sunday night I took the TGV from Paris to Angers, which was WONDERFUL primarily because I knew it was the last time I would have to carry 100+ pounds of luggage toute seule. My couchsurfing hosts met me at the gare which I was SO grateful for, and they really have been such incredible hosts this whole time. 

 I keep thinking back t0 my vacation in Nice last spring, when two other American girls from my program (Bailey and Michelle) and I decided (and by that, I mean it was circumstantially forced upon us because we were all broke as a JOKE by that point in the semester...) to couchsurf instead of stay in a hostel. We were all a little weary about the idea but decided that between the three of us we could pretty much handle anything.  My favorite part about the whole ordeal was that along the way we had somehow come up with the motto "This is either going to be the greatest experience of our lives....or we're going to die" and just went with it. That kind of 'all-or-nothing' attitude made it by far one of the best vacations I have ever been on.  
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23 September 2012

Paris, je t'ehhh......you're alright

          I have officially arrived in Paris and am closing up what has been the longest 72 hours of my life thus far. I cannot believe that a mere 3 days ago I was throwing my bags in my car and running off to O'Hare, not sure if I would make it to France!  Luckily, after a flight to Detroit and 5 hour layover in one of the greatest airports I have ever been in (ACTUALLY...not kidding. It was impressive.), then a minor heart attck after misplacing my Grandma's ring and then a subsequent full-on heart attack after being the only person left on the standby list, I not only made it onto the flight, but got into first class, which, needless to say, was SWAG.  Ollie the Otter enjoyed the life of luxury as well, although his presence during my naptime made me painfully aware how out of place I was.  Although.....my plane buddy ordered the cheese plate for dessert and ONLY ate the cheddar so I pretty much just called it even on the 'embarassing things to do in first class' front right there.

          So after like 18 hours of traveling (which was actually 25 if you count the time change, which I do because it sounds more impressive......) I landed safely in the Charles de Gaulle airport and, after pacing back and forth a couple of times, finally resorted to asking for directions (in French) with a clear and follow-able response (in French).  I was so happy that the woman didn't have to ask me to repeat anything or answer in English, and it gave me just enough confidence to be able to make the whole trek into Paris by myself sans iPhone or phone in general. After getting into Paris, I dodged all the haters on the metro who apparently did not enjoy my oversized hot pink duffel bag (courtesy of the one and only Eileen O'Connor) and eventually made it to Alex's friend Adib's apartment. Adib was wonderful and got a café with me to help keep me awake, which I did!! (until about 8 pm at which point I passed out for 14 hours).
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Location: 14e Arrondissement, Paris, France

19 September 2012

Old Ming, New Mission


 Well here I am again. I have tried to re-start this blog multiple times but I don't really know how to introduce what I'm doing or even know what I want to say, but I feel the need to write something now to get myself motivated to keep this blog for the next seven months.  I don't really feel like discussing what coincidence/act of God led me to this place in my life, nor do I feel like anyone wants to hear me retell the last year and half of my life post-Grenoble/pre-Angers, so I will just proceed with my goal list segue that I thought was pertinent and relatively amusing.

As I was packing yesterday, I ran across my school supplies from when I studied in Grenoble, and therefore also found.....MY GOAL LIST.  My goal list for Grenoble is kind of funny to me because I'm not usually one to lay out specific goals for myself.  I'm not entirely sure why I felt so inspired to start one when I was leaving for France but.... ANYWHO, as you can imagine, not many of these got accomplished, but here they are:
              
                1. Ride on the back of a Moped
.....REALLY? This was my NUMBER ONE goal?!  I think in my fantastical little mind I was picturing myself as a brunette version of Lizzie riding around Rome clutching to my wonderfully semi incognito Paolo (if you don't get this reference, you don't deserve to be my friend). Needless to say, it didn't happen, and therefore will remain on my list.

                2. Have a dream in French
I've heard before that if you have a dream in a foreign language, that means you'll never lose your ability to speak it. Well, about halfway through my semester in Grenoble, I DID have a dream in French.  Unfortunately, the dream entailed my host mother calling me stupid but ERRONEOUS.....I understood it. ACCOMPLISHED.

               3. Kiss a French man
Although I'm a little hesitant to call anyone around my age a "man".......ACCOMPLISHED.

               4. Be classicly "French" somewhere (wear a beret, hold a baguette, smoke a cigarette)
What was I even going for with this? Not accomplished.

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