Les Verreries de Biot

Today, Monday, is the end of my weekly three day weekend. Leigh is leaving France soon, so we are trying to do fun things on all of my days off and some evenings when I have been working that day too. Today we decided to go to Biot, a small village near Antibes and near the metropole where I work, Sophia Antipolis. Biot is home to legendary provencale glass blowers, ceramics makers, and the Fernand Leger museum. We left late this morning intending to partake in each of these sights but, of course, only succeeded in part.

Our first stop, the old village of Biot, is downright adorable. Most of the shops were closed for lunch when we arrived, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves to snap pictures and wander around. It was lovely and ideally provencale. The map told us that the Leger museum was down the hill in the newer part of Biot so we walked that direction. At the bottom of the hill were the various verreries. We found a great one and did a significant amount of shopping for beautiful glasswares that will forever be treasured in our home. We did not, however, find the museum. The woman who sold us the glass items said it was back up the hill in the village! At this point, we shrugged our shoulders and headed back to Antibes after having enjoyed a nice sunny afternoon in a quiet village and going a tiny bit overboard with our shopping.

Leigh flies back to the US next Thursday morning, January 21, and I won't see her again until the evening of May 3. It's going to be a long time without my best friend and my "favorite person to do stuff with" (it's an official title). Once she leaves I have some preliminary plans to keep myself busy and make the following months pass at a nice clip as we all be productive. My goals and plans are as follows:

1) Get really serious about strengthening my French skills. I have found some excellent online tutorials and my Canadian roommate has an exercise book she said I can use to practice my written French. Additionally, I want to practice my conversational French too, though I have yet to find a constructive resource for this. Maybe I will find something on www.meetup.com in the coming weeks.

2)Exercise more regularly to keep myself busy and focused and to prepare for the hot weather that is coming up soon. Plus I am planning to visit the Czech Republic in April and there is a 12km hike I want to do while I'm there, so I need to be in shape.

3) Take great trips during my holidays. During February I am going to Taize for one week and during April I am traveling for 2 weeks to Prague, Berlin and Barcelona.

4) Work more. Right now I am paid for 12 hours per week, though I spend over 20 hours per week at the school where I teach. I am going to look into getting some tutoring clients or maybe pick up more hours at my school during the February holiday (when I'm in town). I might also look into working in non-teaching positions like with the yachting community, etc.

5) Be more creative/partake in leisure activities. Yes, I know, I lead a very leisurely lifestyle already, however I could do more with this time. For one thing, this is a very beautiful place and I have yet to paint anything since arriving. I would like to buy some painting supplies and spend a few sunny days dabbling in water colors or oils and experimenting with brighter pallets than previously used. I would also like to be more focused about catching up on my reading. I bought a used copy of Bleak House two months ago and have only read about 200 pages of it. There are so many amazing books that I haven't been able to read because of being in law school and I should really take the time to indulge more.

That's about it for me today- just trying to strategize my way through the next three months in France so I don't get too sad after Leigh goes back home and so I can still make the most of my time here. Don't get me wrong, I really like it here, but in many ways I am already ready to go home and start my life as an adult. Mostly, I will just miss the companionship I have so greatly enjoyed these past three months and will have to shift gears back into being a self-reliant young woman with goals to work towards.

Alas, it is nearly my dinner time and I am quite peckish after an afternoon of exploring Biot and enjoying the sunshine after a long spell of rain.

The Day From Hell

Ok, not quite. Perhaps I'm being a bit dramatic, but today pretty much sucked.

I really should have expected something to go wrong this week. The stars just seem to be aligned for English assistants to have a shitty couple of days.

Let me backtrack and start at the beginning, telling at least the parts I understand and know about:

On Monday my Canadian counterpart returned to her regular teaching schedule after the holidays. I have Mondays off, so I first knew something was up when she came home in a funk and later found she had been crying. Fast-forward three days and many tears later, turns out that one of the three schools she teaches at has really been giving her a hard time. It seems there are communication gaps, teacher attitudes and generally stressful situations coming up on a regular basis. My roommate/co-worker is a gentle soul and it just got to be too much for her. She thought about throwing in the towel but luckily came to her senses when she calmed down a bit and seems to be doing better now. I hope things get better for her and, if not, I hope she'll pitch a royal fit to our superiors to get her schedule changed because, seriously, we don't get paid enough to deal with this shit.

So now back to my day. I started back at work on Tuesday and things were fine. Thursday rolls around and it's not so fine. I felt pretty crummy this morning because I haven't been sleeping well, so I'm in a mood anyway. A supervising teacher/friend of mine asked me to substitute for one of her classes today and I agreed gladly because she's so easy to work with and has been very good to me this year. However, another teacher who is NOT my friend (or friendly even) leaves me a voicemail saying "I have to miss class today for a funeral, since you called in sick before Christmas could you cover my class for two hours today? You can cover for me, for once!"

Nice. Real classy.

THEN a group of teachers cornered me about a stupid requirement the Canadian and I have to do complete as part of our contract. We were both ready and willing to do this project before Christmas but were told there was plenty of time and not to worry. Then today, not even a week into the new term, everyone is acting like the world will end if we don't do the project RIGHT THIS MINUTE.

I would like to take a moment to make a brief announcement to the people of France: If you prepare for your assignments and even complete them ahead of time you won't have to panic to finish them at the last minute. Just a thought.

All of this doesn't seem so bad, but for me it was just a day of little annoyances and feeling taken advantage of. My day ended better than it was looking, however, and it's all thanks to nice kids. I taught the 2 hour class by myself and kept the kids in line the whole time by starting out being really mean, threatening them with failing marks for the day but ending with encouragement and a smile. Fear will do amazing things to teenagers. Then the class I substituted for my friend went well because they're the nicest, most responsible 17 year olds on the planet (or at least in southern France).

Now I'm home, in my PJs and happy that tomorrow is Friday, though I'm sure I will be annoyed most of tomorrow too. Oh well, at least I have Saturday to look forward to. Leigh and I are planning to visit St Paul de Vence and see the Matisse Museum and hopefully find the motivation to go for a rigorous hike so we don't get fat AFTER the holidays (our eating v. exercise ratio has changed for the worse this week!).

In other news, I have booked my train fare to Taize for early February. I'm so excited. This is a pilgrimage I have been hoping to do since I was about 17 years old. It's actually on my Life List (yes, I have a Life List, mock me if you must). Aside from the obvious draw to attend this retreat, Taize is located in the Burgundy region of France which is supposed to be beautiful and covered in vineyards. I expect my week at Taize will be relaxing, enlightening and very memorable. Perhaps I will even take the regional bus to visit Beaune or the Abbey in Cluny during my stay.

My trip to Taize will only take up about half of my February holiday, so I'm brainstorming some other places to visit and things to do. I return from Taize on Valentine's Day and will spend the 15th and 16th attending Carnivale in Nice (basically all of the Cote d'Azur will be celebrating my birthday with me on the 16ht!). After that maybe I'll take short trips around France.

Using Rick Steves as a guideline, I've compiled a list of potential short trips around France:

Dordogne (Sarlat and Oradour-sur-Glane/Villages des Martyrs)

Loire Valley (Amboise and Loire chateaux)

Languedoc area- Carcassone

A bit farther north in Provence like Arles, Avignon, Nimes and Pont du Garde

All of these ideas will be sorted out at a later date. For now I am happy to know I have made my plans for Taize and will have a wonderful and simple experience. The rest is secondary.

Baby it's cold outside

Cross-posted to my website blog.

So, it's not exactly horribly cold here at 45 degrees F, but wasn't I promised a sunny and mild winter here in Cote d'Azur?

Yeah, I thought so.

This weird global freeze we're all experiencing the past few weeks has even made it's way to one of the most beautiful and coveted destinations on the planet. My dad and step-mom have had to cancel a road trip from Virginia to West Virginia due to well below freezing temps (dangerous to drive on mountain roads). In Florida my brother's family is sleeping in their living room huddled around their gas fireplace to stay warm (their heat pump broke, go figure).

It's not so bad here. I don't ever have to deal with snow or icy sidewalks. Sometimes there's a bit of frost on the ground. The wind picks up to a real gust sometimes and some days the sun never comes out, which is all a vast improvement over three years in cloudy crappy Buffalo.

Nevertheless, where's my endless summer?!

I expect consistently chilly and somewhat rainy weather the rest of this month and most likely well into February. I think mid-March is a safe estimate of when the temperatures will rise again and that crazy blue color will return to the water.

So I'm looking forward to spring rolling around again when I can experience this Cote d'Azur thing I was briefly introduced to back in October. I'm ready for spending my days off at the beach, wearing sunglasses just to run errands, and working on a tan that will make all my relatives jealous upon my return to the US in May.

website update

Just an FYI to anyone who cares, I have updated my travel website with pictures and stories from my Christmas holiday.

http://www.notaimless.com/index/Europe.html

Click on Geneva or Gryon to read about our time in Switzerland.

Click on Benelux to see Amsterdam and Haarlem.

Click on Paris to read about our week in the Ile de France area.

Welcome to 2010!

A friend of mine always does year end blogs and I think I'll follow in his footsteps this year. 2009 was one hell of a year for me (and also for Leigh, I think) so it's worth a recap.

Career:

Well, 2009 started out the same as 2008 working at PSS in Buffalo. Then I moved to NYC and worked as a personal assistant to a very, very upper east side child psychologist for about 2 months. While studying for the Bar Exam with BarBri I worked as the BarBri Course Administrator. As Leigh says, I got paid to babysit my classmates and press "Play" on the DVD player. I also had to run really annoying errands and work via telephone for a royal bitch of a woman who was based out of Seattle. I also worked for my grandparents' organic farm in Washington State and sold their products at farmer's markets in Seattle, which was awesome. Now I'm working as an English assistant at a lycee in the south of France, which is also awesome and allows me to postpone growing up completely for another few months.

In more substantial career-related news, I finished law school in May (woohoo!) then ran off to Anchorage to study for the Bar Exam, which I passed (double woohoo!) in July. Now my application is pending my being sworn in once I return to the US. In 2010 I'll return to Alaska (with Leigh in tow) to [hopefully] find meaningful work as an attorney and start my life as an adult.

Health:

Overall I was in good health this year, though I caught more colds and coughs that turned into laryngitis than one person should in a given year. While I lived in NYC I spent between 3 and 6 weeks suffering from various airborne illnesses ranging from the sniffles to a flu to laryngitis that paralyzed my vocal chords. I lost my voice completely again for 3 days last week while Leigh and I were traveling between Switzerland and the Netherlands. Luckily this hasn't done any long term damage yet, but I think I might see a specialist when I get health insurance.

Since moving to France I've dropped some weight, mostly from eating less and exercising more. Plus what I am eating is more substantial and richer, so I get fuller and that satisfied feeling sooner than with American foods (wine, chocolate and stinky cheese, anyone?). It's been a great way to get healthy because the foods I'm eating don't taste like health food, but when they're a regular part of my diet they cause me to slowly lose weight without noticing any big changes.

Housing:

During 2009 I lived in my own small apartment in Buffalo for a few months, then rented a room in Spanish Harlem in NYC, then lived with Leigh in her apartment in Buffalo for a few months, all of which were perfectly acceptable. I learned to live with only the items and clothes I really need for a given period of time because I was moving a lot and often could only pack whatever fit in a suitcase. Then I moved to Anchorage for a few months and rented a room from a retired couple. It was not the best situation for many reasons, mostly that I was lonely and stressed out, but it served its purpose and I was able to accomplish my goal of passing the bar exam! In October I moved to Antibes, France. First I lived in a pool house at a villa, which really sucked, then I moved in with two colleagues to a beautiful apartment very close to the town center and have been there ever since.

Friends:

During 2009 I made a lot of new friends, mostly "little while friends" when I was living in various cities, and said goodbye to school friends when I graduated from law school. I also was very lucky to quickly make friends in Anchorage, which will make moving there much easier if I end up finding work in that area. 2009 was a good year for me to branch out socially though, mostly because I was not in a couple for the first part of the year (see below) so I had the time and motivation to get to know my classmates and workmates more. It was nice to meet people on my own as an adult, since the last time I had been single I was in high school. Happily, even now that I'm in a couple again, I'm still making the time and effort to make friends on my own and cultivate those relationships because I know how important they are.

Family:

Family stuff stayed pretty much the same this year, if not got better due to more frequent visits. I stayed close with my dad and step-mom, which is great, and became closer to my cousins and uncle on my dad's side of the family while I lived in NYC. I also spent a lot of time with my maternal grandparents in Washington over the summer while I was working with them.

Relationships:

This is the tricky part. During the latter months of 2008 Leigh and I broke up after more than 6 years together and we stayed broken up for about 7 or 8 months. During this time we both branched out socially and made new friends individually, which was good for both of us, and we both contemplated/attempted dating other people, which I think we both agree really sucks no matter how you cut it. When you've been with one person so long and you know them really well and really care about them it's a near impossible task to imagine going on a crappy date with someone you're not that into just for the sake of dating.

While we were broken up we still saw each other sometimes and we talked on the phone a lot. In the end we worked out all the problems we had been ignoring for a few years, dealt with some issues, and realized that we are truly best friends and want to together after all. That happened around the time I graduated from law school in May. Things have been really good ever since. We even figured out a way for Leigh to stay with me in France for 3 months so we could travel together and share these important experiences, which has been really good for us.

Travel:

I have traveled A LOT this year. I traveled in the US quite a bit- all over New York (Buffalo, NYC, Long Island, Putnam County), to Boston, to Virginia to visit my family, Leigh and I drove through the southern states to see the sights and wound up in Florida to visit my brother. I flew to Anchorage and stayed for about 2 months for the bar exam, then was in Seattle for just over one month to work with my family. Of course, while in Buffalo, I went to Ontario a few times (Niagara Falls and Toronto) on day trips. Since coming to Europe I have visited several communities around Antibes. Leigh and I have been to Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and we were just in Paris over Christmas.

Misc:

2009 was a big year for me and for Leigh. Our lives have changed so much and we have had so many experiences. It seems like every month or so we were looking ahead toward yet another big change and something to be excited about and plan for. 2009 has also been a transitional sort of year for me (and both of us). I closed a very big chapter of my life (school) and chose to take a gap year before opening the next big chapter (career). I don't know what I'm going to do long term for work, but hopefully with enough diligence and faith something meaningful will come along. In the coming years we are planning to make provisions for a decent home, a savings account, a dog and maybe a baby pretty soon!

Well, that's all for 2009. I hope 2010 is similarly exciting but also more stable, as I'd like to have a single address for a while and a job that lasts more than a few months. A few of my New Year's resolutions include finding a second job here in France, visiting a few more countries, getting serious about finding a job in the US when I get home, and being more diligent about getting exercise aside from walking to and from the bus. I suppose I should also get serious about learning to speak French!

Home Sweet Home

First of all: Happy New Year!

Last night Leigh and I were in Paris ringing in the New Year with a couple thousand other people at Champs Elysees. We had been promised fireworks and light shows. We took a bottle of cider and a bottle of champagne with us to Paris. First we went to the Marais neighborhood to get falafel from L'As du Fallafel (Lenny Kravitz says it's the best in the world), which was very yummy. Then we took the FREE metro to Concorde and drank our cider. We walked up and down the Champs Elysees for a couple of hours to stay warm and then drank our bottle of champagne around midnight. By 15 minutes after midnight we were headed back to the apartment with about 1/4 of Paris to catch the last trains to the Ile de France area. In the end the fireworks were very underwhelming, as were the light shows, but the mood was festive and it was better than sitting at the apartment in the suburbs waiting for our early morning flight.

Last night and this morning were like the never ending day. At 2am Leigh and I were hauling our luggage from the apartment to the train station to catch the night bus toward Charles de Gaulle Airport. We took a night bus to Gare de Lyon (sketchy), then the RER D train to Gare du Nord (extra sketchy including drunks and a guy peeing on a staircase as we walked up it) then RER B to CDG (super, duper sketchy complete with a girl screaming bloody murder at one stop and the train having technical problems and sitting in the middle of nowhere at another stop). We FINALLY made it to CDG and onto our plane, which landed in Nice 20 minutes early, then took the bus to Antibes, which also went very quickly. Then we walked up the hill to the apartment with our luggage and collapsed into bed. Neither of us budged for about 7 hours! In all it was a great trip and I plan to write more on my website in the coming days.

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.