New Blog

This blog was getting a little cramped so I made a new one...
http://lainybird.blogspot.com/


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oxxooxox
e

The Nouveau Year!

ok...I KNOW it's been 3 holidays since I last wrote...and we are now pretty well into January...
I don't really have any excuses for not writing except I was swept up in daily living and also, m camera battery died and I felt I shouldn't write a blog without pictures...bad excuse...
I began the New Year in Montpellier with some of my closest friends here in France, dancing and drinking champagne! It was the perfect way to start out my new year...I have high hopes for this one:)
But I'll go back a little bit in time...
The Thankgiving dinner was a real success! There were about 20 people, French, Mexican, Canadian and American, who came and we had more than enough food. Virginie and Philipe seemed to be very worried about this strange turkey I was preparing, but it turned out really DE-LI-CIOUS! (as most things are when they have wine and butter in them) Philipe started the party out by making a large (and very strong) punch that he insisted everyone to drink with giant straws. This really got the festivities rolling. By the time the turkey came out everyone was feeling courageous and wanted to try it all. Most of the French guests were slightly confused what to do, and when the food came out you could see the puzzlement..no, was that worry?, on their faces. Seeing their looks of relief and contentment after the first bite was worth it and, in true French fashion, they wouldn't let me take their plates away...they continued to eat for 2 hours, while all the Americans and Canadians sat staring forlornly at the pumpkin pie which I wouldn't let them eat. During dessert one of the assistants boyfriends asked Philipe if he had anything strong to drink..."Mexican strong" and Philipe and our neighbor took this as a challenge to bring out the homemade "eau de vie" they had in storage. Let's just say...I'm not sure that the guests really remember much of what happened after that!

I spent most of December trying to find a new apartment, and managed to find one right as Christmas break started. I now live in Place Saint Aphrodise, in a small modified attic..i mean apartment. None of the walls are straight, and the ceiling isn't particularly high, but I've got two great windows, a little kitchen, a big bed and a quiet neighborhood...Life is sweet!

Christmas I spent in Haute Savoie, in the Alps, visiting Martine (my old host mom) and her family. She lives in Clermont-Ferrand now, but grew up in St. Julien next to Geneva. This is a beautiful region with glassy lakes, and lots of snow. I felt so energized being int he mountains! I almost didn't even miss Lake Tahoe....
Boris and I flew out of Bordeaux (I spent a few days there with a friend before we were set to leave). But it just so happened that the weather all over Europe that week was absolutely miserable. Snow, sleet, fog...We got to the airport and 30 minutes before our flight was set to leave it was CANCELLED!! No flights leaving until after Christmas... We were super bummed and I kept imagining us sitting alone in his apartment..cold and lonely on Christmas day...no Santa, no candy canes...The trains were all full too, but we finally managed to find a round about train route leaving the morning of Christmas Eve, and made it just in time for dinner!
The weather in Haute Savoie was gorgeous and I was set on sledding...no one had any sleds so finally Boris and I found some plastic bags, made a trail and launched ourselves down the hill outside Martine's sister's house.
Christmas was really nice. I brought the foie gras they wouldn't let me send to my family (sorry guys) and we ate it all! Then we had a fun dinner with all of Martine's family (5 brothers and sisters!) where you cook your own meet on heated stones. We had seafood, beef, pork, chicken...mmm it was wonderful. Boris and his cousin amused themselves by secretly taking funny pictures with Martine's camera so she'd think that she drank too much...The next day she discovered them, and kept looking through them completely baffled..."what is..what is this?!?! how did this picture of a miniature snowman get on my camera?!" I had to leave the room so I could die laughing...
Christmas was over, i came back to Beziers, and then began moving in my new apartment. New Years Eve I met up with my friend Jules in Montpellier and we had a little dinner party and then when out to some of our favorite bars with another Beziers assistant Becca, and Jules' roommates who were lots of fun.
It was such a fun holiday, and sort of hard to get back to school and teaching again come January 3rd. For my classes, I've been making my students write their New Years Resolutions as an English exercise. "I want to work more hard" "I will listening in class" " I will have my drivers exam" It's been pretty fun to find out what they want for the new year and I've been having fun with that.

On a final note, the week before last I went to Barcelona to meet Dad!! He made to Europe in one piece and is now reading voraciously in my living room (I think he already finished 3 books!)
Barcelona was amazing and I can't wait to go back. We took a double decker bus around the city one day and it was fun to see the different neighborhoods. The 6th is King's day when the Spanish open their Christmas presents so the streets were absolutely packed with people still on vacation. We could barely walk down the street. We ate some good tapas, drank some decent wine and explored the city a little. i got to practice my Spanish (which seems to be leaking out of my brain!) and we found some fun little pubs, because it's always nice to meet other English speakers in a sea of...non..english speakers....
We've got some fun plans for the next month so I'll try my best to keep you updated!!
ps. I still don't have pictures to post...ooops

rambling on and on

It's raining today like crazy and i've got a cold so I've spent my Sunday lounging in pajamas skyping my family and watching movies. What a great day!
This will be a busy week because I have a lot of lessons planned, as well as...drumroll please....THANKSGIVING DINNER! What started out as just a dinner of 10 has turned into a dinner of 18 plus 5 children. I will be doing the turkey, gravy and stuffing a la Martha Stewart...pictures to come.
Otherwise, it's been getting chilly here and even though it stays around 50 degrees, and icy wind picks up and makes everything seem colder. Of course, the weather here never stays the same for long, next week it could be 65 degrees and sunny, so I'm not too upset that I'm freezing!
I can't believe that November is almost over!! This is shocking! I barely saw the time pass by, and if this is any indicator of how the rest of my year will go then I better keep enjoying myself as much as possible. I feel so lucky that I'm able to be here, have the support of my family and friends, learning to teach, and doing something that I never thought I'd be able to do again. Have I said this before? I just can't stop thinking it.
Plans for the next month; looking for an apartment, going to the Alps to visit Martine for Christmas, preparing for Dad to come in January, becoming an awesome English teacher, trying to stay in shape, finishing my book for book club...
oh yeah, i'm in a book club! It's actually one of the most awesome things I've been doing..thought it's only once a month. It's a group of French and British people who come together and chat about a particular book they're all reading in either English or French. They're pretty animated and it's fun to hear their points of view and see how they react to certain things--definitely makes clear different cultural ticks and influences.
Well, that's about all for now. I'll try to add some photos since i finally found my camera!

French movies

Last night I went to see a French film with my french friend and it was absolutely French...
I could barely last through the end, and maybe that was partly because some of the dialogue was hard to follow, but mostly because the movie had all the elements of French culture that I don't really understand! The long idealistic lectures on life, the superfluous show of emotion, the depressing fin...there were some funny parts, but it was "French funny" which is never really that funny to English speakers. Then, in the end...there's a death, and for 20 minutes there is crying, and commenting, and crying again and hugging...quelle horreur...
My buddy, on the other hand, absolutely loved the film. All the parts I thought were horrible and cliche were exactly the parts he loved....In fact, everyone in the theater absolutely loved this film. As they left I heard them saying things like, "oh the end, that was so hard to watch. I was crying all over the place" and "That was one of the funniest films of the year, but wow that ending really got me"
..le sigh
I guess I still have a lot to learn.

Strike

Apologies for not writing earlier, but I wasn't really doing anything particularly interesting this past month...
If you've been following international news, you might have heard that the French are upset again...It seems that when the government rolled back the retirement age a few years ago to 60, they hadn't quite bet on running out of money and having to increase it back again. Well, with a 35 hour work week, and at least 3 days a month of holidays, having to work past 60 was more than any organized worker could handle, and so the French have been doing what the French do best-STRIKE!
Of course, I'm not much affected either way, and wasn't really paying much attention to the hoopla, until I got to school 3 weeks ago and none of my students showed up. No big deal...I walked the 20 minutes home, came back a few hours later to find my classroom once again...empty...The next day, the entrance to the school was blocked off with gates and trash cans, a few revolutionary-esque students with bandannas were manning the gates stopping any student trying to get in, and the rest of the students were grouped on the street, chatting and trying to figure out if they really wanted to go to class that bad. In the Teacher's Lounge it was explained to me that the students had decided to strike for retirement and refused to let anyone but teachers in, naturally. French students have a long history of striking, and actually successfully contributing to the campaigns they take part in...though, truthfully, I'd say about 1% of the students were actually on strike and the other 99% were home sleeping in. Either way, this is something you would never see in the US because an American kid would get his behind kicked if he tried to stop students from going to school. The strike lasted about 2 weeks, until last Friday when our 1 week vacation began...which is why I've worked a total of 4 hours in the past 3 weeks!
While in Tours I got to watch an official manifestation on the streets. I've never seen anything like it...Hundreds of strikers had organized into groups and were parading slowly up the busiest street in Tours, each singing or playing their favorite fighting song. Some stuck to the traditional "we will fight for freedddoooom" while others were more festive with sambistas and drums...This lasted most of the day, and I have to comment (because I always comment) that the French can be amazingly organized when they're against something.

Vins Primeurs

A few weeks ago we celebrated a special night in Languidoc-Roussillon because it was the first release of the regions Vins Primeurs, the "1st wines" from this years grape harvest. You might have heard of Beaujolais Nouveau which is a more well-known vin primeur in California, but a lot of the wine making regions release their own vins primeurs, and since Languidoc-Roussillon is a huge wine region there were a lot of street parties and tastings all over. In the big Place they set out tents and tasting tables, and everyone comes out to try this years newest wines. This is also an opportunity to experience some of the traditional music and dancing from this region which until a hundred years ago spoke Occitane instead of French. Now, the old traditions are dying out, but at festivals like this you get to hear some traditional music and folk dance.

Did you need that NOW? Bof!

I've been in France about 1 month now, and I've only just begun paying attention to the smaller details that amount to "la vie réelle" in France. You know, the things that you see everyday that seem normal until you actually stop and say..."wait a second...Do the French really iron their t-shirts and jeans?" bah oui.
Much of the culture here in France revolves around a love of ritual...The French really like to do things right, and the process is just as important...if not more, than the actual end result.
For example, "reunions" (meetings); The French LOVE meetings. They have them all the time, and usually they are very formal, with invitations, advanced scheduling, podiums, the whole shebang...and of course the goals of the meeting are very clear. Example: "This meeting is to facilitate the exchange of ideas within the company/school/ whiskey club/ ice skating party/etc." Then, they sit for 3 hours drinking coffee and exchanging ideas...which never actually get realized, but non-the-less have been discussed.
The love of ritual also means a strict adherence to all rules to a point of being ridiculous...and because every knows it's ridiculous, they also know that every rule can be bent, secretly, and usually just at the point when you're face gets red and steam starts coming out of your ears.
But yes, this is ze life of ze French. They are used to it, and besides, they know that to change the system would mean even more reunions, rules, and ridiculousness that no one has time for anyway.
This love of ritual is probably most evident in the way the French eat. Invite a friend over for a casual meal, and they think nothing of preparing a meal that most Americans would only find in a restaurant...because that's just what they do! Good food is a wonderful accompaniment to wonderful company, and that, in itself, is just another rule that the French live by. It's interesting stand in a roomful of French people and listen to how many times someone will break into a poetic description of a wonderful meal he'd had.
This is part of living in France...love of the ritual means that you rarely get to your destination on time, but it's the journey that counts.