Paris

Leigh and I arrived in Paris late on the night of Dec 24th. Christmas Day was pretty low key, but we still found the energy to see the Eiffel Tower and Arc d Triumph. We took Sunday off completely to rest after 8 days straight of traveling and touring. Today was a fun time because my roommate Sam and her boyfriend came to Paris to see Le Comedie Francaise and to do the Paris Free Tour with us. So far I think we've seen most of the central Paris area and Leigh and I saw Montmartre on our own too. Tomorrow we are planning to visit Versailles for the day and the following day we're hitting as many museums in Paris as possible. There's just so much to see!

I'm really enjoying this extended trip. Every day is like a gift where I get to see and do things that most young Americans only read about, watch shows on TV or look at photos on the Internet. I have been googling and planning these trips for so long that this is like one extended, massive gift receiving session to get to partake in so many things at once. For example, today I saw three palaces and tomorrow I will see one of the greatest palaces in all of Europe. On Wednesday I will see some of the greatest art the world has ever known, including some of my very favorite painters (the Impressionists, of course!). The combination of a small, yet diverse, land area with so many cultures and social movements in its past makes Europe a truly amazing place and it makes me just about the luckiest girl alive.

Being here also makes me appreciate my own culture more. I find myself missing certain American things, particularly social behaviors, food and cost of living. When I lived in the US I never felt particularly American or non-American or anything else, but after having lived here for a few months I have realized how very North American I really am. I love my country, but as I grow older I recognize and mourn the things we at which are failing. This time in France so far has been wonderful and I have learned a lot. The new sights, sounds, and flavors bring me so much joy to experience, but in a few months I will be more than ready to return to America, my home for better or for worse. I think it's safe to say that after this time in Europe I'll never be the same again.

Update from The Netherlands

Well, I am smack dab in the middle of my Christmas trip around Europe. Leigh and I flew to Geneva last Friday (12/18) then immediately took a train to Gryon where we slept in, threw snowballs at one another, poked around tiny villages and spent an awful lot of time drinking Swiss wine and eating smelly cheeses. It was fantastic and the perfect way for me to totally unwind before starting the more active portion of the holiday.

We spent a day in Geneva and slept at the airport the night before our flight to Amsterdam. I slept about 2 hours total and Leigh didn't sleep at all. We were pretty well prepared, though, with snacks and a sleeping bag to get us through the night.

After our flight to Amsterdam we somehow rallied enough to make it through a whole day of getting acquainted with the city. We even had enough energy to visit the Anne Frank House before dinner that evening. The next day was rainy and gross, so we visited the Van Gogh Museum and sampled the local street food (fried spongey donut, anyone? Hot dog? How about the best french fries you've ever tasted?), which was yummy. Today we took it easy and relaxed until about noon and then we went on a Free Tour, which lasted until nearly 17:00!

So far we're having a lot of fun discovering this old and interesting city. There's a nice vibe here where people are just friendly and logical without any attitude or false pretenses. It's kind of like a Euro version of Seattle. Leigh says she could live here, so could I, unfortunately I doubt either of us will have any job opportunities here.

Tomorrow we're going to Haarlem for the day, which I'm pretty excited about. We were planning to visit The Hague and Delft, but the train tickets were really starting to add up so we decided to go with a much closer community to visit for our day trip. Tomorrow we're also leaving for Paris at 19:00, so there's still more for us to do!

It doesn't feel much like Christmas right now, aside from the decorations everywhere in the cities we're visiting. I guess it feels a little more like late November when the decorations are out but your life is still so busy and ordinary that you haven't let yourself start getting excited about the holiday yet. Anyway, it's just strange being away from home this time of year so it doesn't really register. I'm still glad I decided to travel instead of going back the US. I keep reminding myself (and Leigh) that I have my whole life to do the traditional Christmas of visiting family, exchanging gifts, cooking, etc. This year I'm doing something different but starting next year most of the holidays for the rest of my life will the traditional and comfortable, so it's really not a big deal.

OK, rambling done, must go to bed or I'll never get up tomorrow.

Thank God It's Saturday

This week was kind of rough. For some reason I haven't been sleeping well and I've had a lot on my mind, plus I've managed to spend all of my days off running errands recently and never sleeping in or relaxing. Yesterday was particularly difficult because I wasn't meant to teach until 13:00 but I was asked to attend play rehearsal for the 4eme class at 8:00. It wound up being a 10 hour day of teaching and being at work and an even longer day because I had a few tasks after that.

Play rehearsal went pretty well. Not perfect, of course, because these are little kids and they can be difficult to work with and generally undisciplined, but pretty great. I remember when I was about their age our class did plays that were about 20 minutes long and usually involved more than half the class with nonspeaking roles, no lighting, no sound effects, and shitty costumes. Plus the subject matter was typically something silly and lighthearted. A lot of kids wind up playing roles like a carrot or a tooth or something at that age too.

The play we're putting together is totally different though. It's based on a book written for children about the Holocaust which my roommate adapted into a script (it's really brilliant) then figured out how to make an ensemble piece so the characters are played by multiple children, everyone speaks at some point, and even when a child isn't an actual character they make the stage look like a forest or something with various body positions. We've all worked really hard to get this thing put together and it opens on Monday morning! So exciting!

So yesterday I helped with rehearsal from 8:00 till about 11:00 and then had a break until my first class at 13:00. My last class didn't end until 18:00 and then I had a long bus ride home in traffic. When I got home I had exactly 45 minutes to eat dinner and suck down two cups of tea to gain a second wind before I had a job interview over the phone for a position in Anchorage.

To my surprise I was being interviewed by three people simultaneously on a three-way call, but of course one person did most of the talking. I think the interview went well but they were up front by saying they had a few others they were considering for the job and would let me know in a week. It would be so great to have something lined up for next fall, but I guess if it doesn't pan out I won't have lost anything. I'll still work in Washington this summer and head to Alaska in August to start looking for work while I get settled in my new home.

Today I'm hanging around the house in the morning to take care of a few things and then Leigh and I are going to check out a long hike on the Cap I keep hearing about. Supposedly it's pretty strenuous but the view is amazing. I'm pumped! I could really use the exercise and sunshine after this week and before tomorrow, which is going to be a forced lazy day because everything is closed.

The only other news is that I only have two more days of teaching before my holiday! We fly to Geneva on Friday morning. We'll be in Switzerland by 9:30 and to our chalet/hostel by about 14:00 even with delays. Europe is so cool.

Christmas in Paradise

Christmas time in clearly non-Christmasy places is a peculiar thing. I've never lived in Southern California, Florida, or Hawaii, so for me the time around Christmas has always included things like snowdrifts or, at the very least, a good deal of frost on the ground every morning (i.e. southwest Virginia). Now I live in the south of France, which is known for it's extremely mild to hot weather all year round. We're still averaging weather in the mid-60's every day and there are palm trees lining the streets.

Yes, palm trees. It still gets me.

But this is France, where Christian holidays reign and Catholic ideals are king even if nobody actually practices Catholicism anymore (and most French people I've met so far are completely uninterested in religion and faith- quelle bizarre!). So it's coming on Christmas and even the small city of Antibes is in the middle of transforming it's town square into a winter wonderland. Evergreen style trees have been brought in, a white picket fence was built and lights have been strung from the lamp posts. They have even made snow!

Did I mention it's still 60ish every day? Yeah, so the snow was made and then covered with a tarp and somehow refrigerated outdoors. This seems like an awful waste of resources to me and kind of silly. I mean, can't we just embrace the fact that we live in a warm climate and get creative about Christmas decorations? By this I mean, what's up with the fake snow??? I will admit, however, that the blue lights at night are kind of adorable against the palm trees, so that's a nice touch.

Wow, that was a long post about the weather. In other news, not much new stuff has been happening. I'm just sort of going through the motions until the Christmas holiday when I go traveling for two weeks. I've been spending my days off trying to make sense of the rest of my job-related paperwork so I can rest easy after the New Year and just enjoy the rest of my time in France. There is still so much I want to do while I'm here, but so far I have been working pretty hard on just getting settled and making sure my money will cover everything I need and want. It looks like everything is going to be fine, though working within the French system has forced me to rustle up more patience than I ever thought I could have.

With any luck after our fabulous Christmas trip Leigh and I will have enough time and good weather to take a trip to Cinque Terre. I guess we should call this Cinque Terre Take Two, since we have technically been there already but the rainy weather sent us home a bit early and we had a shitty time at the hostel there. This time we're planning to stay over in a different hostel just outside of Cinque Terre but about 30 minutes by train from the trail. It's a bit cheaper and more convenient to reach from France, so it should be a good experience. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed for good weather and a little extra spending money after our crazy Christmas holiday!

I've also done some research on my plans for February. For a few months now I have been toying with the idea of spending one week of my two week February holiday attending a Christian retreat in Taize, France (kind of near Dijon). This week I finally figured out the best transportation to get there and did the budget and it's totally do-able! I'm so excited to get to do this. Also, since I'll only be away for a week, I can use the remainder of that holiday to take little trips around southern France and maybe try out the couch surfing thing. Plus this year Mardi Gras falls on my birthday, so I plan to attend the Carnivale in Nice at least that day.

Well, enough thinking too far ahead. I really should be focusing on preparing for the Christmas trip. It's going to be a blast but, aside from making reservations, I haven't done much of anything to get ready! Before I know it next Friday will come around and I'll be on a plane to Geneva!

Ah, les Alpes, sledding, wine, chocolate, old cities, and Christmas Markets galore! What more could a girl want?

5 more days at work till Christmas holiday!!!

It's Sunday again, which means everything is closed and I usually do quiet things at home like sleeping in, blogging, etc. Today Leigh and I actually got out of the house and did something though. For the first time since we moved away from that horrible studio, we went back to Cap d'Antibes to hike from the Port de la Salis up to the Chapelle La Garoupe to see a view of the city and region. Since buses don't run on Sudays here we walked about 1.5 miles just to the bottom of the trail, then uphill for about 20 minutes and then through a secret garden on the way back down. It was a really nice way to get some exercise and enjoy a sunny afternoon.

Aside from today being kind of nice, France is really starting to wear on me. I have been having some trouble with my bank account at HSBC and am finding the employees there very hard to work with. I ended up ordering a new debit card and PIN, hoping this would solve my problems. The PIN came in the mail, then the card, so I went to the ATM to activate the card and it ATE MY NEW CARD. This was strike three for HSBC, so tomorrow I'm going down to Societe Generale to open a shiny new account. I have to keep the old one open until I get paid for December, but in the mean time I can start using the new account for daily spending as soon as I get the card and stuff in the mail. I think this will be a good move because Soc Gen has free accounts for under 26ers and they give away free stuff all the time. Plus I've met the guy who is President and Founder of the NewEdge Group in the States, which is closely linked with SocGen, and he's a standup guy if that means anything for me on this side of the world.

This week has been kind of tough all the way around. I've had some trouble at work- nothing major, but enough to make me stressed and angry with a few of the teachers and so very ready for the Christmas holiday. In addition to this, the sister of a very good friend of mine died of cancer on Friday morning. Even though I didn't know the sister very well, I still cried quite a bit when I heard the news. I think it was a combination of my own stresses, being very tired, and knowing that my very dear friend has now suffered a terrible loss in addition to several other recent losses. Even though I never knew the sister particularly well, she was a very kind person and, from what I gather, a good friend to everyone who knew her.

So now I am looking forward to getting through the next week and a half of work, which includes 5 days of teaching and three shows of the play I have been helping the 4eme class put together. After that I can look forward to two whole weeks of holiday travel with my beloved, taking a real break from school, Antibes, school children, and temperamental teachers (being by far the worst stress of those listed here).

In the meantime I really need to start working on older entries on my website. I'm thinking I should definitely try to fill in the Alaska section since I've only been to four or so communities throughout the state. I started the website to give myself a project for my down time while I'm not working very many hours but so far I've just been writing about places I've visited since coming to Europe. I should really start putting some effort into the other projects I wanted to tackle this year like knitting, learning to bake French pastries and other yummy things, painting and, oh yeah, learning French (geeze, it's amazing how far I've gotten with the 12 verbs and 3 verb tenses I remember from high school).

Well, tomorrow starts another week. My goals include 1) opening a new bank account, 2) putting the final touches on my Christmas travel plans (i.e. making a Type A Personality Itinerary), 3) updating my website, 4) helping to get the school play ready to open next week.

Mmmmm... turkey!

The French do not celebrate Thanksgiving. Seeing as Thanksgiving is a more or less fake holiday in the US, I didn't think I would care. It's just a day people cook and eat a lot and then everybody else (i.e. Leigh) likes to watch football except for me, so I have to find something else to do for the rest of the day. So it's not something I consider to be a big deal.

Then this year I couldn't go to my Dad's house for a long weekend, help with the cooking, enjoy a few days in the country and sleep in. That's when I realized that I like Thanksgiving and I want to celebrate it, even if it is a fake holiday. It's a break in the work/school schedule a few weeks before Christmas madness starts, a time to eat good food and relax with family. So even if the Europeans did infect the Native Americans with Small Pox and then slaughter them in their sleep, I can appreciate that I have the opportunity to celebrate "the harvest" by being thankful for my family and my good fortune.

I was very lucky this year though because my supervisor here in France is from Tennessee and celebrates Thanksgiving. This year neither of her adult children could make it back for the holiday so she invited the four of us living in my apartment to enjoy a meal at her house. Obviously we all had to work on the actual holiday, so we celebrated last night (Saturday) instead. It was really nice to sit at a table with friends and eat familiar foods. We also talked about Christmas plans and lifestyle differences between our various countries (USA, France, Germany, and Canada).

Since Leigh was my date, this was also a sort of coming out experience for both of us to my supervisor at work. I normally don't share much at all about myself at work out of the principal of maintaining my privacy and keeping work separate from my home life. Luckily this was a good experience for both of us. My supervisor and her husband didn't bat an eye when the conversation turned toward legal issues in the States that are negatively affecting Leigh and I right now and they seemed to regard our relationship with the same respect they would of any other young, married couple. I can't say that I was surprised, because this is France and conservative Americans don't usually migrate to here, but I was a bit relieved at any rate. It's always scary letting your guard down in front of people with whom you have a professional relationship.

Anyway, today is Sunday so everything is closed plus it's raining outside. I will most likely spend today getting motivated to finish filling out my CAF forms (I need money!) and watching TV online. Soooooo laaaaazy!

trip to Cannes

Today Leigh and I took the bus to Cannes to see the beach and this uber ritzy part of Cote d'Azur. I will talk more about our actual trip in Cannes on my website sometime soon.

We took the handy #200 bus from the stop just down the road from the new apartment toward Cannes. It only takes about 20 minutes to get there and the roads are nice. We had no plan, no map, and very little money, so it was very much a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of thing. Everything turned out pretty well. We didn't get lost and we even found some fun shops we will definitely return to when we both have some spending money to get fun gifts for our family members and a few things we saw for ourselves too (aka beautiful cloth napkins made from Provecal fabrics, etc).

One thing happened on the way there that was a little bit disturbing. Southern France has a large North African population and not all white French people are happy about that. I knew this before I got here and have noticed some negative attitudes going both ways in the past 2 months, but what I saw today was beyond any of that. Leigh and I had front seats on the bus to Cannes and our driver was a Black guy, presumably of North African descent. He stopped for some new passengers about halfway to Cannes and these two guys got on the bus. I assumed they were Russian or something because they both had shaved heads and that seems to be fashionable for Russian men these days, plus they spoke French a bit strangely so I thought maybe it was their accent.

Turns out I couldn't understand their French because they were using words that are not taught in textbooks! The two men started giving the bus driver trouble and repeated a word that sounded like the French for "Canadian," which was confusing at the time. After a very, very short Google search I found that the word is used as a thinly veiled replacement for the English term "N****r." After about 2 minutes of being taunted by this word, the bus driver told them to get off the bus then hit the buzzer on his dashboard to call back to the station. The guys got off the bus, but before the door closed one of the called back in English, "White Power!"

This was horrifying. Absolutely horrifying. I grew up in the south and, while I heard the "N word" dropped fairly often, I never heard a person ever say "White Power" in any way other than to discuss white supremacy in an abstract sense. As Leigh said after the incident was over, this is the last place in the world I would have expected to witness this kind of thing. I have to hand it to the bus driver: throughout the entire ordeal he kept his cool and after the guys got off the bus he just went back to his job as if nothing had ever happened. That's both gutsy and professional.

Our trip to Cannes was overall pretty fun, though I was fighting a feeling of funk all day. For some reason I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and then I got pissed off because I found out I wouldn't be able to access my bank account via debit or ATM for at least 5 days while my new PIN was ordered. I need a new PIN because I'm an idiot, but that's another story. My point is that it sucks that basic things take so long in France and that my life status here as an alien resident is such that when any little thing goes wrong it throws me for a loop big time. My whole schedule gets screwed up and little things that were finally getting easy for me (like running to the grocery store) suddenly become a hassle all over again.

Anyway, this post is starting to sound really negative and I don't mean for it to be. Today was mostly great, complete with beautiful weather and a stroll along a rather ritzy shopping area. I am sure I will be returning to Cannes more than once before I leave France. Tomorrow is Sunday so I will probably hang out at home or maybe go for a walk because everything is closed on Sundays. This week is going to be an odd one because I don't work again until Thursday morning due to my mandatory medical appointment in Nice on Tuesday. Hopefully the weather will be nice so Leigh and I can make it a fun day too.

It's Coming On Christmas

It's been a while since I last posted, probably because I have spent this time just getting back into my routine after the trip to Italy. I am loving the frequent, long holidays this job affords, but it has the bizarre affect of keeping me from ever feeling settled into a routine. That being said, I think this job is perfect for me at this particular stage of my life because I tend to get bored when I feel settled and then I start feeling resentful and get wanderlust. This job keeps me on my toes because every day is different, my weekly schedule is a little odd and I ALWAYS have a long, fun holiday just around the corner.

Speaking of holidays, Leigh and I have more or less put the finishing touches on our Christmas trip! We have bought all travel tickets and made all housing reservations except we have not yet bought our return train ticket, but that is in the works. So on December 18 we fly to Geneva, then take the train to a tiny French speaking village called Gryon to stay at a hostel/chalet for two nights. The purpose of this is to see the Alps, eat chocolate, and maybe go to a thermal spa. We'll spend one day in Geneva on Dec 20 and fly out really, really early the next morning for Amsterdam. We'll spend 3 nights in Amsterdam, allowing time for museums and a day trip to Maastricht, and sleep at a Christian hostel called Shelter City (basically a YMCA for backpackers but it actually has church services and Christian outreach if you choose to partake).

On Christmas Eve we are taking the Thalys bullet train (le Grande Vitesse) from Amsterdam to Paris. From what I have read Paris is supposed to be really fun during Christmas. Aside from the usual museums and such it also has Christmas markets, fantastic department store windows and great shopping. It looks like we will stay there until New Year's Day because our return tickets to Antibes would be about half as pricey that way, but it depends on the availability of the apartment we are borrowing from a very kind assistant in Paris. If we do get to spend New Year's in Paris it will be great. I read somewhere that tons of fireworks are set off from the big ferris wheel near Champs Elysees and there are parties all over the city. Plus we'll ring in the New Year 6 hours before anyone in the USA!

*Phew!* It's going to be a long haul but I suspect it will be an amazing journey.

In other news, I found out about a very affordable French class in Cannes that I plan to start attending sometime next week. For 40 euro + registration fees I get 1 1/2 hours of instruction per week for the whole year! I'm so excited to have the chance to learn French in a more controlled environment and then to practice what I learn in my daily life. It's exactly what I was hoping for. Living here I have already become more comfortable with my elementary conversation skills and I learn new words and phrases pretty often, but it's not enough to help with fluency in a real way. I think that this class, coupled with reading or studying a bit on my own, will be the kickstart I need to start improving my French by leaps and bounds.

My final bit of news is that the class play I have been helping with is starting to come together. The show opens in 3 weeks and will run for 3 days at school with one performance for parents and the community. I'm so excited to see how it turns out! Leigh is coming to the evening performance, which I'm just as thrilled about, so she will get to see the kids and coworkers that I tell her about all the time and also see the results of all of our work.

OK, a current rundown of living in France as an American...

Things I love:

- my new apartment

- my new friends

- chocolate

- wine

- my job (mostly, but nothing is perfect)

- having Leigh here with me

- quiche from an awesome, recently discovered patisserie

- quick/cheap day trips to places Americans usually only get to dream about and always assume they will never get to see

Things I hate:

- banking with HSBC France, but that's another story

- always feeling broke even though I'm technically not/ cost of living in Cote d'Azur

- the prices of haircuts here (30+ euro for women and impossible to get an appointment)

- limited/strange business hours

Things I miss:

- my family

- my cat

- having a car

- customer service

- American food (seriously, tonight on the way home all I could think about was a meatball sub!)

Movin' On Up

On Saturday Leigh and I went to Grasse, the perfume capital of the world, with our new roommates Sam and Duygu. It was a fun trip. We took a free tour of the perfume factory and did some (rather expensive) shopping at the factory store. Leigh and I each splurged on some eau de toilette for ourselves and got gifts for others too. I plan to post more about this on my website later this week.

When we got home from our day trip we decided to start planning our Christmas trip. After some online searching and final decisions being made, we bought all necessary plane tickets and made reservations for two cities. I then heard back from another language assistant who lives in Paris confirming that we could use her apartment for free during the holiday. What luck!

As of now we plan to fly to Geneva on December 18 and take the train to a small village about 2 hours away to stay at a chalet in the Alps. After a few nights there we will fly to Amsterdam and stay at a Christian hostel for a few nights and will take a day trip to Maasstricht, the town my family is from. Then we will take the Thalys bullet train to Paris (tickets not yet purchased) and stay there long enough to see the left bank, the right bank, Versailles, and do some shopping before taking the TGV back to Nice (tickets not yet purchased). It will be a long trip, but surprisingly less expensive than our Italy trip and will include some places Leigh and I have both wanted to visit for a long time now.

I haven't really been updating about the situation at the apartment, but it's not good. The living conditions include such charming items like leaks in the ceiling and floor, black mold growing everywhere (thanks to the leaks), a difficult and constantly dirty kitchenette, frequent visits from caretakers and poolmen (so I get no privacy or mornings to sleep in), and most recently a visit from a HUGE GARDEN RAT. Anyway, I have been really looking forward to moving into the bright, shiny, new apartment near the center of Antibes. Leigh is about at her wit's end living here, so we actually decided to move in mid-month and lose some rent on the old place. Oh well.

Today Leigh and I packed up all of our stuff in the shithole studio apartment on Cap d'Antibes. Early tomorrow morning we will take our stuff to the new apartment by bus and will NEVER EVER RETURN to this place again. Thank God, I think I'm getting spores in my respiratory system.

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quick update

So Leigh and I went to Italy last week and now my job/classes at the CIV are back in full swing for the next month and a half. I have a few new classes that I am teaching and I have picked up some volunteer type hours helping put on a play with a group of younger students. They are so cute and so ernest and I love working with them.

The weather has turned cold here in the south of France so that Leigh and I have plans to go bargain hunting for sweaters and jackets tomorrow, though the word "bargain" doesn't really translate to French shopping. We will do what we can because it's chilly and I have been re-wearing the same outfits to work for over a month now.

It looks like I will be moving to a new apartment next week because the old place is proving to be almost unliveable. It is very difficult to cook here and impossible to keep it clean for more than a day at a time. Leaves blow in the front door every time we go in and out and there simply is not enough space for two people. Plus we're noticing some leaks in the ceiling and some puddling in the bathroom near the shower. This just won't do for the next month. Plus the new place is so very nice that it's hard to stay away from it, so we're finding the extra money for this month and essentially paying double rent to get out of the studio sooner.

In other news, we have some plans to see some nearby villages in the coming weeks. We are planning to visit Eze-sur-mer, which is a short train or bus ride away from Antibes. I really want to visit Arles and Grasse soon but am still awaiting my first paycheck, so that might have to wait. I would like to see other parts of the Cote d'Azur and the Var, but it might be best to wait until closer to spring when it gets warmer and sunnier. Since soccer is played pretty much year round in Europe we are also hoping to see a game or two played either in Nice or Monaco, but that is just speculative at the moment.

We have started making some serious plans for our major Christmas trip, so that is also very exciting. It looks like we will visit a small village in Switzerland for a few days, then see Amsterdam (with a side trip to Maastricht) and Paris, with a stopover in Brussels if our train schedule permits. So much to do! Now I just need to start getting paid so I can afford to do more than hang out at home eating baguettes!

I'm officially starting to miss having a car and certain American conveniences like stores being open late, businesses being open all day on Sunday, and delivery. When we move closer to downtown we can start getting delivery sometimes, but it's still crazy expensive here for most things- like a pizza that will feed two people for 12 euro or more! Leigh has implemented a new rule that we are allowed to think about things we miss and cravings but we cannot SAY them outloud because it makes it worse and there's nothing we can do about it usually.

That being said, I think I need a rule that we keep chocolate in the house at all times and that we make a more serious effort to cook American foods to keep our cravings at bay. I think first on the list will be cheeseburgers using "cheddar" cheese I found at Carrefour that more closely resembles a harder American cheese. Whatever, it'll do.

Back from Italy

Leigh and I made it back from Italy more or less unscathed. For details check out my website, just click on the various cities to read about our travels there and see pictures.

In all we had a good time, though we could have done without quite a bit of Italian attitude moments and some bad weather toward the end. Also, Vatican City was kind of a necessary annoyance. You know how there are some things you simply MUST see or do when you travel somewhere? That's kind of how it was at Vatican City. Before we even got in the front door I didn't really care enough about the Sistine Chapel to put up with the indignant attitudes, but I decided to swallow my pride and sense of self-worth to see it and then hauled ass out of their "separate state" in time to get over my irritation and enjoy Rome for the afternoon and evening. Our visit to Pompeii was fantastic and I found Rome to be enchanting overall. We are hoping to visit Cinque Terre for a long weekend since we were rained out of our hiking plans on Monday.

Anyway, it was pretty fun and I'm glad we spent some time there. We're already starting to brainstorm about our Christmas trip and some fun weekends- maybe the Swizz Alps, Barcelona, and/or Provence depending on time/money/etc.

Leigh and I went to a local restaurant in Vieille Ville last night and enjoyed typical local food. I tried soupe de poisson, a traditional Cote d'Azur starter, which was yummy and we also had steak and fries with a ratatouille-type vegetable dish on the side. We finished off with a French dessert each. It was a little spendy compared to what we usually spend on food, but we were celebrating my passing the Alaska Bar Exam. Plus I had been wanting to have an evening out in Antibes since I arrived at the end of September and now I finally have a date for that sort of thing! : )

Back to work tomorrow morning. I have all my regular classes plus a few new ones AND I've volunteered to spend about two hours per week helping put together the 4eme class play with my Canadian counterpart and an English teacher at the school. I'm pretty excited about the play and curious about my new classes, though I'm really looking forward to getting completely settled into my schedule so it's more second nature.

New, new, new and some old reminders, too

I came to France to experience something new. Well, not new since Europe is really old compared to the "New World" I grew up in, but something different for me. Something that everyone who has an interest to should see and some point in his or her life. I have wanted to see Europe for long. I don't even remember when I realized that there was so much great art, architecture, languages, food, culture and new friends to be had on this continent, but ever since I have wanted to find the right time in my life to explore it and revel in its combination of unique experiences.

This is the last week of class before our first holiday. It seems silly to work for 2 1/2 weeks and then have a break, but with so much difficult paperwork, daily language barrier stresses and so much NEW, I really need the time to do fun things in Europe. I need to be reminded why I am here in the first place and I need some time to just be here without having to be anywhere at any particular time.

Today I faced yet another cultural challenge at work and I'm still not sure where to go with it in my head or in my work. In several social occasions I have learned that Europeans do not give the same reverence to certain racial words as North Americans do. I've met people who think it's OK to say words like "colored" and "nigga" and several other things. Clearly it's not. None of these words are really, really terrible, but they're inappropriate and make me do a double-take when I hear them. I don't like it and I always try to gently explain to foreigners why American history and culture all but requires people to avoid using those words (or at least only use them to illustrate a point) as a way to show respect for a group of people often not respected in the past.

Today I faced another such situation. My favorite teacher at the lycee is doing a section on the Holocaust with her 13 year olds, which is great and they are really into it and learning a lot. However, the French word for jew is the same as the English, but in French it's not a harsh word. Then add the language difficulties and you have young kids saying things like, "the Nazis took their Jews..." etc. Sentences like that sound dehumanizing to an anglophone. As a member of a social minority myself I feel something of a connection to certain persecuted groups. Also, I have been called unkind things and comments directed toward me because I supposedly look Jewish. Silly, I know, but the words hurt even when they don't accurately describe you.

I mentioned my concern to the teacher who said it doesn't matter because in French it's not mean to say "Jews" like that, it's just what they are. I replied that when you speak English it is unkind to say it, so if we're teaching them English we should be careful to explain when words mean something different. The bell sounded then and we had to part ways, but I hope the topic is revisited later so I can explain this to the kids. The text the kids are learning from uses some harsh language in conjunction with the word "Jew," such as "yid" and "Jewboy," so I still think it's worth mentioning. They shouldn't go out into the world with good hearts and good intentions and wind up hurting someone because they don't understand the sub-context of an English word.

Aside from work things are a bit in flux. I found a new apartment with other assistants, which is great, but can't move in until December, which sucks big time because my current place is not as comfortable as I would like. My work schedule is changing too and I am meeting new people and learning new things every day. None of this is bad, just challenging. Plus Leigh lands in the morning, so everything will change soon. I'm so happy she's coming, but it's also more new and more adjusting so it will add to the challenge. All worth it in the end, I'm sure...

The past few days I've been really emotional. I kept thinking it was hormonal, no big deal, it'll pass. Everyone gets blue days every few weeks. Maybe it's the weather since God has decided it's time to remind us that we may live in paradise but he can still keep us indoors and wearing sweaters anytime he likes. It might be that I've been here a month and I'm not really enjoying it like I thought I would- everything is new, everything is difficult, everything requires so much effort and preparation. Then my Canadian counterpart said to me yesterday, "I won't let this country defeat me!" She's completely right, and she's even less emotionally equipped to handle this situation than I am. She's younger and hasn't had to deal with the same stuff I have, so if she can muster the fortitude to get through the day and enjoy it here then I know I can, or at least I know I should quit whining and deal with things.

Then reality hits me from a far away land called Florida. My youngest brother (but he's still my big brother) and his family live in Florida and their youngest child is a 4 year old girl with autism. Recently my brother started blogging about daily challenges and successes his family faces. They're a young, working-class family in a tough situation, but they amaze me on a regular basis. Reading about my brother's daily life caring for his kids and running a household brings me to tears and reminds me how lucky I am and how little my worries matter.

Honestly, I'm always going to stress and worry about things because I can't help myself, but when I remember that my big brother grew up to become a hero and a role model to so many people I shut my lucky, privileged, able-bodied, over-educated mouth really fast. I love my brother and his family so much and I'm so proud of all of them. My brother was a gift to me as a child, as my protector and my closest friend and now he's a gift to me always reminding me how to be strong when things get tough and how to remain thankful for everything that has gone right in my life.

I Love These Things

Snagged from bstellad on livejournal:

1. What is the biggest risk you have taken in the past year?

Moving to France instead of staying in the US and temping/paying my dues until I find a lawyer gig. Moving here was scary, expensive, and completely outside of my career training but I think I will be so glad to have done it in the end. Though at the moment, it's still scary.

2. If you could change one aspect of your physical appearance, what would be it be?

My height. I have an idea that if I were average height it would solve most of my problems. I would be thinner, my clothes would fit, and people would take me more seriously as an adult. Plus I think I'm kind of odd looking being so short with such broad shoulders and I've been told that my being so small and having a "tall person's personality" puts people off sometimes.

3. Least favorite Christmas gift this year.

My family isn't big on gifts, so I usually like mine a lot since they are few and well thought out. I think my worst gift ever was a pair of jeans my mom got me. They were really big, like huge. When I tried them on and they fell down around my ankles with the button still fastened I knew for a fact what my mother thought of me. For some reason I wouldn't let her exchange them, probably because I didn't want her to feel bad about getting me a gift I couldn't use.

4. If you were stuck eating only one food every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Wow, well right now the only food I really get to eat is pasta because it's cheap in France and easy to make in my ghetto kitchen. That's turning out OK, but I really miss protein filled meals. I would probably say a steak dinner because it has a nice flavor and a great variety of nutrients... but bstellad's answer of ice cream is a pretty great option too.

5. What is one stereotype or bias that you are ashamed to admit you still hold?

I have still hold so many stereotypes and biases that I would never admit. I'm a very judgmental person, mostly because I find that a lot of stereotypes prove themselves to be rooted in truth. The important thing is that I do not treat people differently based on my gut reactions when I see them do something stereotypical or to confirm my bias.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

This week was a big mess. I ran around the CIV campus looking for my classrooms frantically because none of the many, many documents I had been given had all the correct room numbers on them. Plus the CIV is set up in a very strange fashion so the halls are numbered based on how high up a hill you have climbed or whether the room is nearish to the library. It really doesn't make a lot of sense.

THEN my Canadian counterpart and I found out our schedules were going to be completely changed because she had been assigned to 3 schools and I was only assigned to the CIV. Now I'm dropping several classes from my original schedule to pick up her priority classes so she can travel to the other schools. I don't know how it came about that there are 4 lycees in the area needing assistants and 2 English assistants available, but I'm only at the CIV and she is at 3 schools. I will never fail to marvel at how little sense this program makes... So anyway, everyone's stress has been mounting and we won't have any definite answers on anything school related until after the le Toussaint break.

Saturday was spent apartment hunting with my Canadian counterpart and the German assistant at the CIV. The Canadian and German have been sharing a studio apartment this month and I have been sequestered to Cap d'Antibes all by lonesome, none of which are great situations and certainly not long-term solutions. We started with a 9am appointment at a great location, but it turned out the couple renting the place wanted two months' rent security, renter's insurance, tons of documents we don't have yet because we haven't gotten our residency permits, and we would have had to buy a bed for the third person. All told we would have had to magically come up with over 3,000 euros within the next two weeks and we were pretty sure these people had no intention of returning our deposit money in April.

After grabbing a 1 meter-long sandwich from a "Snack" in Vieille Antibes, the three of us sat on the wall to the ramparts eating and talking about our situation. By the time we had our 1:30 appointment we had decided to not take the first place but to definitely all live together. The 1:30 appointment included 2 apartments. The first one was near the bars in Vieille Antibes, which is awesome, but was small and didn't have a good layout for 3 people. We were also competing with some party boys who wanted the place so we let them have it. Luckily the second place we were showed was the same price and oh so nice with a modern kitchen, big bathroom, and plenty of space for 3 people to have all the privacy and personal space she needs. It's a bit farther from town, but still much closer than any of us are right now and a comfortable 10-15 minute walk to the bus station.

We were thrilled to find a place and are all so excited to move in. Unfortunately I cannot move in until end of November because I'm paid up at the studio until then, but I think I can handle a few more weeks here knowing that I have something fabulous waiting for me in December. We celebrated by window shopping at a mall near Nice and grabbing some dinner at the asian fast food place in Antibes. It was a pretty expensive day from buying food to bus fares, in all about 20 euro, but it was necessary and included a successful apartment hunt.

Aside from work and apartments, I was invited to attend a "teachers party" on Saturday night, which turned into an awkward and bizarre situation. Basically, a teacher at my school wanted to make the most out of the week her kids were away and throw a wild party. The only problem is that nobody she invited was really wild. The guests included a handful of French teachers from the area, all around the age of 40 and somewhat calmed down, and the English assistants from the schools in and around Antibes. The age difference between the two groups was very noticeable and the fact that the hostess was trying to set everyone up with dates was even more noticeable. After a group of French college students came up to crash the party and all of the French people had the chance to represent their 'hood by proclaiming the area code where they grew up, I was ready to leave. Myself and another assistant dropped heavy hints to our designated driver that we were exhausted from the long day and really wanted to go home. We were luckily on our way home by about midnight.

Sunday was spent cleaning my apartment, cooking a little bit and generally being lazy. Tomorrow is my day off but I have errands at my new French bank and I have to go to Nice to get my birth certificate translated into French- so annoying/expensive! I might make it fun by walking the Promenade d'Anglais and taking pictures if it's sunny. The beaches in Antibes are great, but the water in Nice turns the most fantastic shade of blue.

In other happy news, Leigh lands in Nice on Friday morning!!! Then we travel Italy the following week!!!!

Quick trip to Italy

As posted yesterday, I made a quick trip to Ventimiglia, Italy today for my day off. It was a long day and I successfully got my train tickets for my big trip later this month, so that's a good thing. Sam and I had hoped to see some Roman ruins and other sights, but there was a train strike today so we got to Ventimiglia kind of late in the day and basically had 2 hours to wander around, eat dinner and a gelato, snap a few photos and get right back on the train. I felt terrible that Sam spent her day off running around with me and we missed most of the sights we had hoped to see, but she promised she had a good time and that it was better than staying home and reading all day.

I plan to write a whole bit about the trip, complete with photos, on my website.

Now I'm back in Antibes and pretty much exhausted even though it's only 8:30pm. Tomorrow I have a long morning class, then a 4 hour break, then two evening classes. Starting next week I will be helping Sam and one of our professors put on a play with a younger group. I'm so excited to help because it's based on a great story and the kids are so enthusiastic. I am hoping that positive experience will balance out my other luke warm classes.

Leigh lands in Nice in 8 days!!! I'm so excited to see her and start our European adventure together. We have so many plans of things to do and see. I hope we can afford it all and do not grow weary of living so frugally for a few months. Our first major stop, of course, is a tour through western Italy. At Christmas we plan to visit the Netherlands, Belgium and Paris and maybe even attend a Taize worship in Taize (near Tours). We are also planning to take many day trips to see as much of southern France as possible on our budget. That's a lot of travel and a lot of experience.... here goes nothin'!

First Day Teaching and Italy Tomorrow

Today I taught 3 classes at the CIV and it went pretty well for my first day and almost no preparation. My first class was a prepa class, otherwise described as very motivated students who have just finished lycee and are looking to go on to top professional training after prepa (engineering, chemistry, etc). The class took some time to warm up to me, but eventually a few of the young men had some great questions and asked to discuss some really complicated topics further. My only complaint was that the girls did not seem interested in practicing their English, which will certainly be a problem for them later on in life if they hope to work beyond a small provincial role in their fields. I think I will do a bit of research for next time I have that group to discuss some cultural issues and the US stock exchange (by request, of course!).

My second class were 2e (pronounced "sek-uundz"), or 14 year olds. I had 11 of them to myself for an hour and they gave short presentations describing famous people. They were enthusiastic and dutifully did their work. A few had attitudes and did not listen when I quieted them down so I had to be mean and separate a few in the room or point them out individually. Oh well, I hope they don't hate me but will learn to listen respectfully when their peers speak.

My final class was more of a tutoring session with two voluntary students. One had traveled the US quite a bit and knew enough English to have a simple conversation but the other was either refusing to participate or was far too shy to try to speak. This was frustrating. I think from now on I will bring an article for them to read and then discuss. Maybe having printed words in front of them will be a security blanket and entice them to speak more.

Tonight I attended a small dinner party near the CIV campus at the home of one of the professors I assist. My Canadian counterpart at the CIV and I were both invited, as per the French professor and her Canadian husband's tradition for the English assistants. We were fed a full fledged, home cooked European dinner and it was lovely. Tonight was my first night of not eating either pasta or a sandwich in over a week! By the time we had our tea and apple cake I felt completely spoiled and overwhelmed by the openness and kindness I had experienced this evening.

I have reserved Leigh's and my overnight train itinerary from Ventimiglia to Naples with couchettes. Now I just have to go to Ventimiglia tomorrow to pay for the tickets and pick them up! It seems ridiculous because it IS ridiculous. In short, the website for the Italian railway cannot process US or UK credit cards about 98% of the time. I don't know why and am quite amazed, but the only way around this would be to spend most of my euros in cash on the tickets (which still might not work) or to take the one and a half hour train ride tomorrow and speak with someone at the ticket counter and get the real scoop. I have managed to convince my Canadian counterpart to come with me so we can make a trip of it. Apparently there are Roman ruins in Ventimiglia and some Midivil castle structures as well as a cro-magnum era remains. We shall see.

I will not be seeing Tegan & Sara play in Europe : (

I finally got my work schedule for the school year and it's not too shabby. I work Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and I teach 12 lessons per week.

However, this schedule makes it impossible for me to see Tegan & Sara play ANY of their shows ANYWHERE in Europe. I guess technically I could spend an arm and a leg flying to the city of venue, getting a hotel, etc and get back in time for my next work day but let's be honest- I don't make much money. My original plan was to see them in Berlin and stay with a friend from high school. That was all very doable.

Now the only shows I could afford to travel to/stay overnight occur mid-week, so that cuts into my work schedule and the weekend shows are in cities that are rather expensive to fly to or would take 20+ hours to travel to by train.

It's just my bad luck that they're all over Europe for a whole month and during that month I have NO SCHOOL BREAKS and most of their gigs are mid-week. WTF? It's as though I was not meant to see Tegan & Sara play a show this year, even though I've been wanting to see them live for over a year now! Not to mention the fact that T&S are extensively touring Canada this time around. Where did I live up until a week ago? That's right, a whole 1 hour from Toronto and only a couple hours from Ottawa and a day's drive from Montreal.

Ladies, you have failed me in your world tour planning process. Why isn't Nice on your tour list? Or Marseille? Or Venice even, that's only 6-8 hours away. I could do Venice.... Did the -pink-shorts-wearing-sunbathing-in-the-middle-of-autumn-excessive-fun-in-the-sun aspect of the French Riviera scare the Canadian indie rockers away?

Perhaps.

I still love your music though. You can make it up to me by playing a show in Alaska next year : )

week one: fin

Today is day 10 for me in France and also ends my first full week of having to be places and do things concerning my job as a teacher at the lycee. I can't believe how much I have done/has happened in only 10 days. Just getting settled and learning my way around is such a task that I feel like I have been here 2 or 3 weeks already.

Anyway, I think things are going pretty well though some things that have happened just should not have been issues I had to deal with.

Example:

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week I was required to report to teacher training in Nice from 9am to 5 pm (with a 2 hour lunch break, bien sur). My first day in France I had been given the address, name of the professor teaching the training session, and a map of Nice with the place of the training session circled. At orientation the assistants d'anglais were told that the address in our orientation packets was wrong and we would be emailed with updated information soon.

Tuesday night came around and no email from our academie organizer. I called my lycee supervisor, who had heard nothing about the issue at all but instructed me to just go to the address I had and hope for the best. If it was wrong at least I would have an excuse for my lateness.

Wednesday morning I wake up really early and start walking into town around 6:30am. After a 25 minute power walk to the bus station I had a 1 hour bus ride (bad move on my part) I arrive in Nice and start wandering around. About 30+ minutes later I had walked from downtown Nice UPHILL for over a mile and FINALLY found the teacher's training institution where I was supposed to have my class. It was roughly 9:05am. There I am told (in French, because the people at the college only knew the words "hello," "goodbye" and "strike"- I'm not making this up) that the correct location is ALL THE WAY BACK DOWNTOWN, but luckily (I was told, in French) it's downhill so it's not so bad.

*ugh* I walked all the way back down and found the new location. Luckily I ran into my Canadian counterpart who was equally lost and fed up and we decided to take our time and sort of say "fuck it" to the whole affair. We arrived at the training session at 10:30am, an hour and a half late and 4 hours after I had left the house that morning. All of which could have been avoided if the academie coordinator could have been bothered to send around an email with the correct address.

Luckily most people were late for the same reason, but I was still royally pissed off by the whole thing. At a certain point I remembered that some members of my law school class were currently having their services billed out to clients at $150/hour, so my time is worth at least a little something at this point in my life.

Things have been going much better at my actual lycee, which is what counts the most. I have most of my paperwork done for the time being (no small matter if you consider the French system) and I really like all of the English teachers I'm assigned to work with. The lycee itself is one of the best schools in France, so it's really quite an honor to be entrusted with certain aspects of my students' educations. I start teaching actual lessons next week and I also get to help out with a stage production that is being done by an English class I'm not teaching (my Canadian counterpart is teaching that group of students, but I am helping a bit here and there with the play they're doing just for fun).

This afternoon three of my classes were cancelled because the teachers were on an overnight fieldtrip so I headed back toward Antibes, stopping off a few times to search out a bathing suit. I wound up in Juan les Pins, a resort community about a mile or so west of Antibes, and found a designer bathing suit shop having a great sale. It was a tiny shop with a little French lady running it. I picked up a few things and she took them from me gently saying, "no, these are too small. They're Italian sizes, let me help you." Good thing she did too, because I can barely figure out my American size, let alone my French, Italian, etc. The suits were all around 30 euros, which is a lot for me, but they were marked down from 120+ euros so I started calling it an "investment" to rationalize the purchase in my head.

I wound up buying a light green 2 piece suit that covers my prudish self but will still allow me to get tan. Tomorrow I will hit the beach for the first time, lay on the sand with a book, and allow the Mediterranean sun to reflect off my frighteningly pale Alaska/Buffalo skin for a few hours. Hopefully I will brown up soon so the locals will stop asking me if I'm English.

J’ai arrive´e en France

My last post was from my 7 hour layover in Newark three days ago. It’s amazing what can happen in three days. This is a recap of Day 1 in France:

By the time I landed in Paris I was on hour 19 of my never-ending day. My flight from Paris to Nice was not a connecting flight but a flight I had to book separately, so I went through immigration with what seemed like the entire population of North America. When it was finally my turn to have my visa inspected I made sure the officer stamped my passport because I required an immigration stamp for my work papers. After fighting in line for my bags, taking a shuttle to the next terminal and finding my gate, I realized that the stamp the officer used had no ink! This is a problem because the most loved invention in France is the Xerox machine and I knew my stamp would never show up on a copy.

At this point I was tired, dirty, hungry, and a little confused by my new surroundings. I went to the information desk to ask about the stamp, where the kind women there suggested I ask the airport police. I went to the security checkpoint to ask the police where an equally kind woman suggested I go backward through immigration at that terminal and ask the officers there if anything can be done. It seemed like a long shot and I was nervous to un-immigrate and then attempt to re-immigrate in time for my flight that afternoon, but there was no way around needing that stamp. So I started down the stairs, around the corners, through the barriers, etc asking everyone I saw where I should go. Finally I reach immigrate and wave at one of the officers, then explain my situation. He seemed a little unwilling, but after seeing that I was near tears and that I had a valid, recent boarding pass he gave me my much treasured stamp.

I went back upstairs to wait for my flight and decided to lie down on the floor just to rest my eyes. Next thing I know I had been fast asleep for about an hour and my 12:45 flight was being called! The flight to Nice was uneventful and I had no trouble getting from the airport to the dorms to leave my bags at the lyce´e where I’ll be teaching. While riding the bus my very tired eyes strained to comprehend the amount of sunlight all around me, the green of the grass, the blueness of the water, the extreme white of the buildings and the towering palm trees. In spite of all my research and all the pictures I’d seen, this was all a bit surprising.

After checking in at the dorms in Sophia Antipolis, I had to make my way to Nice to stay overnight at the Relais de la Jeunesse Clairvallon with the rest of the assistants for orientation. My stay at the Relais was covered by the school district, so I wasn’t as bothered that I had to pay 10 euro to leave my bags in a room I wouldn’t be using that night. To get to Nice I had to catch a bus from the lycee to the Gare Routiere in Nice and then a local bus to a northern suburb of Nice.

By this time it was 6pm in France and getting a little dusky outside and I was on hour 31 of traveling. Getting to Gare Routiere in Nice was no problem, but after that I had to find bus ligne 22, which turned out to stop two blocks over from the Gare Routiere and only 1 of 5 people I asked had any clue what I was talking about. By the time I got on ligne 22 I was fighting back tears of weariness and frustrating and wondering why I had decided to come here in the first place. Luckily when I arrived at the Relais dinner was about to be served, English was being spoken all around me, and I could finally relax and look forward to a good night’s rest.

Newark

Yesterday afternoon Leigh and I drove to Toronto to stay overnight before my flight out of Pearson Int'l Airport. The hotel/motel was kind of crappy but we've stayed in worse (Knight's Inn of Pittsburgh still takes the cake of seedy places we've had to sleep). We watched TV, enjoyed having furniture to sit on for the first time in two weeks, and sulked a little bit about being apart and so far from one another for 3 weeks.

This morning we got up at 6am and fought traffic all the way to the airport and now I'm in Newark for my first of two layovers.

Now I get to relax and enjoy my 7 HOUR LAYOVER.

*ugh*

See, if I had this layover at JFK I could take my carryon bag and hop the AirTrain into Manhattan, or at least Queens, and do something fun. I could walk around, grab lunch (Halal, anyone?), maybe even visit a museum. That's how much time I have!

But no, I'm in Newark, NJ where all I can do is chill at the airport. I've decided to splurge and buy a 24 hour internet pass, of which I will probably use 5-7 hours, but it'll be well worth it since I no longer have a cell phone. I guess I could always window shop because this place is kind of huge and mall-like, or I could get a massage but that might be kind of weird in an airport with people walking by not to mention ridiculously overpriced. Unfortunately the book I started reading (Guns, Germs, and Steel) weighs about 2.5 lbs and had to be moved to my checked bags due to really weird and strict AirFrance baggage regulations so I'm bookless for the day.

Anyway, in 7 hours I'll be on my way to Paris and then I'll have one more short flight to Nice. I can't wait for Friday- orientation will be over and I can start to recover from jet lag in peace before starting the montage of paperwork that awaits me at my new job. On Friday I'm also planning to meet with the caretaker at the property where I will most likely be renting a studio for the next 7 months. If all goes as expected I will pay my first and last month's rent, receive keys and move my stuff in that very day!

OK, enough thinking of the next few days. For now my goal is to achieve a zen-like state of mind where I see this long ass layover as a blessing and not a huge inconvenience.

France in 3-2-1

Wow, I leave for France on Tuesday morning. Crazy!

Leigh and I have been spending this final weekend trying desperately to get her apartment packed up so she doesn't have to do too much after I'm gone. We've sold 90% of our stuff and have given away 4 plastic tubs of clothes and books. It's looking pretty good. With any luck Leigh will sell the last 10% of our stuff next week and will only have to do some minimal packing and cleaning on her own before vacating the apartment and driving our stuff to Virginia for storage.

Aside from all this mundane work, we've been trying to enjoy these last few days together before being apart for a month. On Friday we went to Niagara Falls and went on Maid of the Mist. It was my first time and Leigh's third time (she went once when her grandmother visited and again when her mother and grandmother visited last month). Even though I usually avoid touristy stuff, Maid of the Mist was seriously fun. It was $14.50 CAD for 30 minutes of boating fun. The boat tells you a little bit about the Falls, a few stories about people surviving going down the Falls, and then it takes you so close to the falls that you get seriously drenched. The volume of water and the sounds coming off the Falls are really something else. I was so happy I was able to do that before moving away from the Buffalo area.

We also saw Taking Woodstock at the $3.50 theater, which was a really fun movie. The 60's flashback aspect is fantastic, the characters are interesting, good acting, funny one-liners and the main character is a young gay Jewish man, which is cool. I really liked that the movie has a gay main character but it's not a gay movie. He just is, which is more true to life than all the movies out there about coming out and activism and stuff. For most gay people being gay is just one aspect of life. I don't lead a gay life, it's just one more thing about me that I am. I'm in a lesbian relationship but I'm also a lot of other things. Anyway, I digress....

We've also been catching up with friends before leaving town. A few days ago Leigh and I had dinner with my law school friend Bianca. It was the first time Leigh and Bianca had met, which was fun, and I always enjoy seeing her. Last night our friend Damian came over to chill out on the floor with us and visit for a while before I leave town. He's been a good friend to have and we're going to miss him. We've invited him to visit us in France and I hope he is able to do that. Then this afternoon Leigh and I had brunch with another law school friend, Jennifer, and her new boyfriend. That was fun too because I hadn't seen Jennifer probably since January.

The rest of the day is dedicated to packing and such, of course, but tonight we're doing an at home date. Leigh bought some yummy stuff to cook for dinner (surf and turf with her famous mac'n'cheese and steamed asparagus...yum!) and we're going to watch "L'auberge Espanole," a French movie that takes place in Barcelona. I saw it once in college and really liked it. It'll be good for us to hear colloquial French and the movie depicts a few very French characteristics like bureaucracy in institutions and the French attitude about things like fidelity, work, family, etc. It'll be a good cultural crash course for us...and the movie is funny too!

Well, I should probably stop laying around and do my part. Next time I blog I'll likely be in France. Woohoo!

New Website

My website is up and running but there's not much on it yet. I plan to add a lot to it once I get settled in France and have more time to write and be creative.

Anyway the site is called Wish You Were Here and it's all about traveling and having fun experiences. I hope you'll check it out on occasion and enjoy it.

Tough Day

Today was one of those days a person can really do without. I woke up in a shitty mood and so di Leigh and Juneau the cat. We bickered a little bit this morning and mostly ignored each other while we got to work around the apartment. After a few quick errands this morning we mostly stayed home to pack and sort through clothes and to allow people to come into the apartment to consider buying our furniture and stuff. All day we only sold little things like bookcases and small tables, but it's a start. We still need to unload this living room set and some other big items or else we'll be in a real pickle when it comes time for Leigh to head south to put our stuff into storage.

Last night we were brainstorming about how to get people interested in our stuff, including smaller items like cookbooks and kitchen gadgets. I had the idea to put snazzy signs in the mailroom and the elevator. The plan worked pretty well....well, sort of. 4 or 5 people have stopped us in the hallway to ask to see our stuff, but all we sold was one cookbook for $2. I think the signs are just letting people know that we have stuff and they think it's totally OK to come into our apartment with no intention of buying anything. Harmless, but kind of annoying.

This afternoon one such person asked to see our "sales floor" and we obliged. She came, she saw, she left. About two hours later Leigh asked me if I had seen Juneau the cat. Neither of us had seen her for two hours! It's a small apartment, so we looked and looked and didn't find her. We were starting to get nervous so I looked up and down the halls on our floor, but no Juneau. Leigh kept looking in the apartment and no Juneau. At this very inopportune moment a buyer called us to come pick up some stuff, so Leigh dealt with that while I started knocking on doors all over our floor. Only one person answered and nobody had seen her.

I was frantic. Leigh came back to the apartment and we started tearing open boxes, digging into closets and making a huge mess. I thought Juneau had snuck out when our last "customer" had left and then maybe someone snatched her. Leigh was afraid she had been trapped or crushed while we were moving and packing.

At this point Leigh was hardly breathing while she searched and I was crying. Then I heard Leigh say, "Jesus Christ!" from the other room. I ran in to find Leigh crouched down looking into our old printer cabinet.

"I found her," she said cautiously.

All I could do was squeak out, "is she OK?"

"She's fine," Leigh said, to which I replied by absolutely sobbing with relief.

If there was ever any question as to how much we love our cat, the answer might be a bit too much. I cannot imagine what frantic messes we'll be like when we have children.

We figured out that Juneau had been hiding out for a few hours because she was pretty upset with the changes we had been making to the apartment. Last week we sold off "her" bed and her favorite sleeping places have slowly been disappearing from closets, etc while we pack and sell things we own. Once strangers started coming into her home it just got to be too much for Juneau the cat, so she found a good hiding spot and refused to come out no matter how much we called for her. I told Leigh that if she had an IQ above 15 she'd be in big trouble, but for now I'm just so relieved to know she's safe at home with us.

My Life For Sale & Travel Writing

Since Leigh and I are both leaving Buffalo permanently and will be moving around quite a bit, we're attempting to sell off everything we own save for our absolute favorite items. This includes pictures and pieces of art, favorite clothing items, memorabilia and a few books and DVDs. Plus we're keeping things that were pretty pricey or gifts like our pots and pans. Otherwise, everything must go.

We have essentially taken over Craigslist with our ads. So far the response has been pretty good, but a few items are really stressing us out. For one thing, we have a leather living room set that is worth a pretty penny but, even after asking a blasphemously low price, nobody is biting. Also, I'm trying to sell my golf clubs (a rather unique set) and it's been hard to drum up interest in spite of a really low price and the free Sunday bag that comes with them. Leigh says she thinks it's because it's the end of the month and nobody has any money, so we're hoping that if we hold out we'll get an OK price for it after Oct 1. Anyway, it's been a little frustrating.

Yesterday we took the afternoon off and left the house, which was so nice after days of cleaning, packing, and picture taking. We walked to Elmwood for breakfast, stopped by the library and the bank. Then we hopped in the car and went to EMS to get some backpacking supplies. $80 later and we had all the carabiners, stuff sacks, fancy socks, and other travel odds and ends that will make our time abroad that much more organized and enjoyable. After that little splurge we hit the mall to do some window shopping and ran into some friends of ours while we were there. That was kind of fun. Before heading home I talked Leigh into going to Borders to check out a Rick Steves book written specifically for Provence and the French Riviera. After flipping through it and finding that it didn't have that much more information that my Rick Steves France and Let's Go Western Europe books, for the first time in my life I chose to not purchase a travel book.... really, you should see the collection I've started!

Last night I started designing a website using iWeb but then realized I couldn't publish it until I bought a domain name or found a free website that would allow me to publish it using an ftp. I know very little about website publishing, so after some fruitless searching I gave up. Maybe I'll have the time to sit down and figure this stuff out in a few weeks. I wouldn't mind paying a little bit for it, but I honestly don't know which company to go with that won't scam me! At any rate, I'm really excited about the website I've started designing. It's my first attempt at travel writing. So far I just have the introductory pages made with maps and links so you can click on a spot on the map and it will link to a journal entry or recollection about going to that place. I'm going to use pictures from my own past travels and the trips I have coming up.

The idea came when I realized that the area of France where I'll be living has this amazing private bus system where you can go pretty much anywhere in the department for 1 euro each way. This gives me the opportunity to take tons of day trips to little villages and just walk around, meet people, take pictures, etc. Since my job only has me working about 3 days per week I could do a trip or two every week if I felt like seeing something new. I also thought it would be a nice contribution to the world of free travel websites. Since I started the application process for this job I have relied heavily on a free site developed by a young woman from Michigan who was a teaching assistant in 2006. Her information has proven to be reliable and priceless in terms of reducing my stress levels and helping me get ideas for my own time abroad. Hopefully I will be able to get my site published and can provide good information for other people trying to get out in the world and have great experiences too.

So if you know anything about website publishing or good companies to go through please let me know!

Also, since this is my first time to Europe I posted a poll asking where I should make sure to visit while I'm in Europe, so please vote too!

President Obama and Kanye West: A Pop Culture Moment

Not sure if this is obvious or not, but I do not give a shit about pop culture. I'm not above it or too cool for it and yes, I do enjoy some pop music, TV shows, etc. However, I put exactly ZERO effort into keeping up with celebrity comings and goings. If I know about something going on in Hollywood it's usually because somebody else told me. Otherwise I'm oblivious.

That being said, I first heard about the Kanye West at the VMAs thing because apparently President Obama made an offhand comment about it off the record. It seems like an amateur mistake, but we have to remember that the man has two young daughters who probably keep up with this stuff like it's their job, so he's going to be exposed to some of it and probably have thoughts about people's behavior. Besides, everyone should have a few minutes at work to goof off and lighten things up a bit, even the leader of the free world.

Getting back to the topic, I heard that the President was getting a lot of flack for even weighing in on the topic, then I saw the clip of Kanye's impromptu, self-invited declaration. I later came across clips of both Taylor Swift's video (which she won an award for) and Beyonce's video (which she did not win for) and developed my own opinion:

Beyonce's Video:

Clean, classic, interesting dancing, and a fun song. I especially liked how Beyonce didn't stand out that much from the other two dancers in the video. I think that was an interesting artistic choice on the part of the choreographer and director. The video was nice, but not overly impressive and definitely not the best video of all time as proclaimed by Kanye West.

What's more, music videos are rarely pieces of art anymore. I remember up to the early '90s videos were sometimes extremely poignant and often absolute masterpieces. The cliche examples of this are Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" (for poignant) and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (masterpiece). Today not only is it hard to even find a music video on MTV, but when they are played most of them are annoying or just cheap garbage productions.

Taylor Swift's Video:

I do not like Taylor Swift's music. I find her lyrics to be decidedly anti-feminist and degrading to teenage girls. Her lyrics suggest that girls' happiness and self-worth should be based on whether their crush notices them. "Teardrops on My Guitar" is just disgusting all around and the "He Belongs with Me" song isn't much better because it suggests that the typical Alpha female type in high school is the only girl who will get noticed. I don't know about the rest of you, but many girls I knew in high school, including myself, wore t-shirts and sneakers and did just fine in terms of dating. However, Taylor Swift is just a teenager and seems like a nice girl so I try to not judge her too harshly. Plus it's very likely that she has little to no control on her songs or image because she's an American Idol with a contract akin to indentured servitude.

As for the video, I don't know why it won. It was pretty cliche and nothing interesting happened. In fact, Beyonce's very vanilla video kept my attention more than Taylor Swift's video could ever hope to. In all they were both really unimpressive so who knows what all the fuss is about.

Kanye West:

Unlike Taylor Swift, I really like Kanye West's music. He's is extremely talented without question and he is being rewarded handsomely for his artistic efforts.

However, my above comments regarding these music videos and their artists' abilities have absolutely no bearing on my opinion of Kanye West's behavior. Taylor Swift could have won in spite of having the worst video ever made and I would still agree with President Obama that Kanya West behaved badly and is a "jackass." In fact, there's an entire website devoted to expressing how big of a douchebag Kanye West is.

Besides what Kanye said in public, on stage, on TV, in front of Taylor Swift and Beyonce (who looked horrified), he also had a total meltdown backstage claiming that MTV never let's him win awards that he seems to think he is entitled to and they never pick the right winner. He even claimed that MTV won't let a "black man" win, which is just plain stupid.

Kanye West, you fail realize that 1) awards ceremonies are supposed to be fun and should not be taken so seriously, 2) it is an honor to be nominated at all, winning is just an extra bonus, 3) you picked on and embarrassed a girl who is half your age in front of millions of people, 4) your mother must be humiliated, and 5) you are not entitled to win every award just because you think you are better than your peers.

You are a sore loser and a big baby. I haven't seen temper tantrums like yours since grade school and those kids didn't have any friends because they always ruined it for the rest of us. You are setting a bad example for young people in constructively dealing with adversity.

Grow the fuck up, seriously.

Lazy Girl

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I have not worked or had to be anywhere in over two weeks. It's starting to feel a little odd.