toute seule

This morning Leigh and I woke up around 6am so we could get to the airport in time for her 10:00 flight. We dressed quietly and ate breakfast together for the last time for the next three months. While I was putting brioche in the toaster I started crying a little, then I stopped, then I started up again when I was putting on my shoes. It was kind of pitiful.

I did my best to not cry too much because I knew it made Leigh feel guilty for going home, which is silly because she has now stayed the extent of her tourist visa and she needs to be back in the US so she can work again. We both need her to work. She needs to work for her own peace of mind after a long time of being laid off and I need her to work so we can combine our earnings when I get back stateside and we can move out west.

So it makes perfect sense for her to go home and for me to stay here and finish my contract, but that doesn't change the fact that I am going to miss her. I will miss her especially everyday when I come home from work and she isn't here to ask about my day and every time I sit down for a meal by myself. I will also miss her when I am traveling solo and see something amazing or meet someone interesting because I would want to share that memory with her rather than keep it for only myself. I think it's important for people in a couple to maintain their autonomy, but certain major life experiences are just better when shared.

In most scenarios traveling is one of those experiences that is best when shared, though I have often enjoyed a trip on my own. I hope I can enjoy my upcoming travels even though I will be going solo most of the time. It's difficult for me to not feel guilty about all that I have coming up for myself, but as Leigh told me yesterday, "Emily, you're the traveler. I just go along for the ride sometimes. Visiting these places isn't important to me like it is to you." I'm glad she told me that so I can indulge in my greatest addiction. What's more, I hope I can absorb my experiences enough to relate my stories to others well enough to do justice to the place visited and the people encountered. I especially want to be able to share these things with Leigh because I know that many of my upcoming destinations are places she would like to see herself one day.

Then one day, in the future when we are real grownups with real grownup budgets, we can come back to Europe and see the places we didn't have time to see together the first time around. I know Leigh wants to see London and Berlin, I want to see Prague and we both want to visit Auschwitz one day. We also both want to visit Greece and I have certain endeavors on my Life List like hiking Mont Blanc or maybe completing other European Long-distance footpaths or Grande Rondanee hikes. Outside of Europe I would love to see Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, and India. Plus South America has such a plethora of great sights and cultures to discover that it is definitely in our future.

Speaking of future travels, as part of our move to the US west coast this summer we will be driving from Virginia to Washington State, then later traveling to Alaska to stay (final destination, unknown). Because we are driving we can stop off and see a few things and do some camping, so I think I might do some preliminary planning. It seems too soon and very silly, I know, but seeing as I am pretty homesick these days I think it might prove to be therapeutic.

The more time I spend discovering Europe and not working as a lawyer the more I think my true calling is to be a budget/alternative travel planner, tour guide operator, or running a hostel. I really love learning about new places and putting together trips for myself and for others and I'm pretty good at it too. Leigh and I have talked about opening a hostel somewhere with a cheap cost of living and a desirable lifestyle. But for now my goals are to pursue my legal career in public interest, which I'm very excited about and I'm sure will be very fulfilling, maybe branch off into a related business and who knows what else. Maybe something will come of this obsession someday so it is more than a mere hobby or maybe it will just be something that my family experiences when I drag them all over the world on holidays over the course of my lifetime.

So many maybes.... I can't help but be excited about each one of them : )

Journeys planned, tickets purchased, website updated

Ah, what a productive day. Late this morning, from the comfort of my bed I managed to spend a small fortune on airfare and train tickets to finalize my April holiday. Here are my plans:

After a week-long visit from my friend Jescy, who hails from the great state of Montana, here in Cote d'Azur we will fly to London on April 2 (a late flight so I can work my normal Friday schedule). I'll hang out with her in London until she leaves for the US on April 6, when I will take the train to Edinburgh to do some solo traveling for about 3 days. On the morning of April 9 I will fly to Berlin to visit a high school friend, Kate, for about 4 days. On the morning of April 14 I will fly to Barcelona to solo travel around Catalan.

Cool, huh? I have purchased all necessary travel for this trip except for my train ticket from Barcelona back to Nice because those tickets are not available for purchase this far in advance. Now all I have to do is book my hostels in Edinburgh and Barcelona, as I will be staying with friends for in London and Berlin.

It feels great to have finished my planning and purchased the necessary tickets so now I can focus on what I might like to do in each city, finding great hostels, and saving money for food, drink, sights and souvenirs. In preparation for this trip I have overhauled a few pages on my website. I completely remade my Europe page and my Italy map page plus I added a United Kingdom page to accommodate my visit to London and Edinburgh.

A few observations:

While Skyscanner is a great resource to find direct airfare between major cities, it is not always correct in its charting of airfares. For example, my flight from Nice to London was reported on Skyscanner to cost 22 euros but actually cost 32 euros. I chose to pay 34 euros for my flight because the times worked best with my schedule, but nevertheless the site is not perfect, but I would still recommend it to anyone trying to compare airfare prices.

RyanAir's advertised prices on their homepage only vaguely correspond to their actual prices after applying some very strange fees. For one thing, they charge you five pounds sterling for "web checkin," which is required when you buy tickets online anyway. EasyJet only charges you if you check in at the airport but not online. Also, you have to purchase your baggage allowance at the time of purchase, while EasyJet allows you to add your baggage fees online for the same discounted rate as long as you don't do it at the airport (then it's double the cost). My chief complaint is that RyanAir, which I believe is an Irish company, will price your flight in Euros if you choose "Ireland" as your country but will only sell tickets online in pounds sterling. I found this annoying because I earn money in euros, and so I wound up using my American money to pay for the ticket, thus causing me to pay a 3% currency exchange fee on my card. Boo.

Also, great train ticket prices can be found throughout the UK if purchased well in advance. I started by finding my ticket for 16.50 pounds sterling on East Coast Trains, the company that handles passenger trains on the east coast of the UK from London to Scotland. I was very pleased with the price and options to state my preference for a window seat, facing forward and with a table at my seat. However, upon trying to purchase my tickets I was unable to do so because the website wouldn't recognize my US or French postal code corresponding to my US and French bank cards, respectively. I emailed the company and they replied that I should "enter a full stop " in the postal code field for international addresses. I don't know what a "full stop" is or how to enter one, so I asked my Canadian counterpart to ask her English boyfriend if I had other options. He directed me to The Train Line, a website that sells tickets for all UK passenger rail carriers. I successfully purchased my ticket for the same date, times and preferences as before but for a few pounds more after fees, etc. In the end I was just happy to have my transportation figured out for this crazy trip I'm taking.

So I did finish my travel plans through mid-April, but I didn't leave the apartment and I waited until nearly 4pm to get dressed. Productive? I have no idea, but I'm starting to get really excited about the next three months!

I can't go to Prague....*she whined*

Today I was doing some general brainstorming about how to spend my remaining three months in Europe, solely in terms of travel.

February: I am already committed to spending a week in Taize communing with God and the monks for one week during February, however I have a second week of holiday that is unused at the moment.

Perhaps some side trips throughout France? Perhaps I stay home and relax? ... Nah, when has THAT ever happened?

At work today I looked up the costs to travel around various cities mentioned previously. It is quite expensive to take the train to the Dordogne region and the Loire Valley from here (we're talking 100 euros round trip. I don't even spend that much on flights let alone trains). So that leaves Provence, namely Nimes, Avignon and Arles. With my Carte 12-25 I can take the train for about 40 euros roundtrip and I might be able to find a free place to sleep via couchsurfers or other assistants in the area, who knows? In all I couldn't be more pleased with this option for a long weekend away. This area is where Van Gogh chilled out for a few years before his death and its quintessentially provencale. It's exactly what I would want for a weekend trip in France.

However, Arles is also where Van Gogh painted his sunflower panels, which tells me maybe I should save this trip for a long weekend in early or mid-March. I just don't know. Either way it leaves me with almost an entire week without plans or anywhere to be during February, which is not a great time to be in Antibes as there's very little to do here in the winter. While I'm very pleased with my plan to go to the Nimes-Avignon-Arles vicinity at some point in the next two months I am still uncertain as to what to do with myself during the second week of my holiday. Clearly I will be spending the 15th and 16th in Nice enjoying Carnivale with my Canadian counterpart, but I am still brainstorming about the rest. Maybe somewhere nearby and mountainous like Sospel? Maybe a Friday in Ventimiglia to see the market day? I just don't know, so I am opening the floor to new ideas.... Anybody???

March: I have to work for all of March but I always have three day weekends, so there are some possibilities. I think the most likely are 1) the above-mentioned trip to the land of Impressionism and/or 2) a weekend in Corsica. I looked at ferry crossings today between classes and I could theoretically take the ferry from Nice to Corsica roundtrip for about 85 euros. Not too terrible, but I have no clue how much the rest of the weekend would cost. I would most likely camp, as hostels appear to be non-existent. The only problem with this idea (aside from the cost, it's just a bit high for a weekend) is that there is a fabulous hike in Corsica I want to do but it takes several days and, as such, is simply not an option. This means I would likely spend my entire time at the beach or just poking around the larger cities, which is probably an awful lot of fun too. Also, my good friend Jescy is coming to visit for the last 10 days of March, so we are planning to go camping in Italy and just enjoy the Nice-Antibes-Cannes area and relax before she flies to London to hang out before her flight back to the US.

April: I have a two week spring break in April, my last month in Europe. Originally I had planned to fly to Prague (stay 4 days), take the train to Berlin to visit a high school friend (stay 4 days) then fly to Barcelona (stay 4 days) before flying back to Nice for my last two weeks of work. However, today I checked airfare from Nice to Prague and it had increased from about 50 euros one way to closer to 88 euros one way. This means I would spend most of my Prague budget just on the flight to get there. I just don't have that kind of money during the time when I have to buy my tickets for the trip. So I gave it some thought and decided to scratch Prague altogether.

Now I am thinking I will fly to London with Jescy on April 2 or 3 and hang out with her there until she flies back Stateside on April 6. It will be too soon to intrude on my high school friend in Berlin at that time, so perhaps I will put the UK rail system to good use for 2 or 3 days. I priced roundtrip rail fare from London to Edinburgh for 33 pounds sterling (if purchased in advance online) and found a hostel in Edinburgh for 10 euros per night on weeknights (which is perfect). So perhaps I'll be in London April 2/3 until the 6th, then go to Edinburgh for 2 nights. I'll take the train back to London in time to catch a flight to Berlin, stay 4 or 5 days with my friend, then fly to Barcelona for 4 days on my own. Just to round out this crazy adventure, I've discovered that I can take the train from Barcelona to Antibes for the same price as flying and I will get 10 hours of amazing Mediterranean views along the way.

Oh, did I mention that two weeks later I'll finish my job, pack up my apartment and take the TGV to Paris for a 2 day stopover before flying home? I'm starting to wonder what I ever did in my life to be so fortunate as to have 1) the opportunity to do these sorts of this and 2) the slight mental instability that allows me to be comfortable doing them.

Wednesday

Today is my mid-week day off. Basically I have three day weekends (Sat-Mon), I work Tuesdays then have Wednesdays off again. Tuesday usually feels like a fake day at work when I'm happy to be there and willing to do more than the bare minimum required of me. I think this feeling is because, at that point in the week, I haven't worked in three days and I know I get to sleep in the next morning. Kind of like when you're a teenager and you get your first job. It's still a novelty so you work really hard and are happy to be there all the time and keep thinking to yourself, "I get to hang out with new people, stay out late and I get PAID for it?" Little do you know that within a month or two you'll be pissed off that you have to give up your Saturday mornings/nights to serve rude customers for minimum wage and you'll always smell like french fries, ice cream, cleaning solutions, or whatever else you frequently come into contact with at your job.

Anyway, Tuesdays are usually pretty good days for me and I'm usually in a pretty good mood. Yesterday was no exception, even to the point where I started telling my supervising teachers to keep me in mind for private tutoring. With Leigh back in the US next week I figure why not make some extra money? I won't have "my favorite person to do stuff with" anymore to distract/entertain me and during March I don't have any travel plans aside from a weekend in Italy when my friend Jescy is visiting. Plus my students are on holiday the same time I am and their families will likely have plans for them to travel, so I don't have to worry about conflicts with my own plans for February or April.

Tomorrow is Thursday, which I usually hate. I work from 10-6, which is no big deal, but I have this weird 4 hour gap between lessons from 12-4. It's too much time to just chill out in the teacher's room and not enough time to come back to Antibes for lunch or a nap. Plus there's NOTHING to do in Sophia Antipolis unless I want to get a 5 euro beer at the cafe or hang out at the bus station (no thanks to both). Last week was particularly awful because it was our first full week back from Christmas and nobody (teachers, students, me) wanted to be working again. Plus the weather was shitty, so our moods corresponded. I think I already blogged about the details of last Thursday so I won't get into it again, but anyway, I hate Thursdays. They're long and dull and I feel pretty useless for 4 hours of my 8 hour workday. Tomorrow should be better though because my Canadian counterpart has lessons on the same campus so we can be useless for 4 hours together AND we have a really annoying extra task to work on together during that time, so at least we'll accomplish something.

Fridays are usually OK. The good news is that I get to sleep in, as my first lesson is at 1pm, the bad news is that I have another annoyingly long gap between lessons with nothing to do. However, all things considered my job is pretty sweet. I get paid a liveable salary (though it could be more "liveable," hence the desire to pick up private tutoring students), tons of time off and a very part-time schedule. I can't wait for spring when my days off can be spent outside more rather than indoors wondering when the rain will stop. I also can't wait to find a book I want to read. I've been pretending to read "Bleak House" for over a month now and am only on page 140-something. I just can't do it. Call it lack of intelligence or lack of depth, but I need a classically written, interesting book that moves at a good pace and captures my interest right away. I like books that I can dive into and don't want to put down, not books that feel like eating my vegetables.

I digress....today was my mid-week day off and Leigh and I went hiking on Cap d'Antibes. We hiked most of the Tour du Cap and only turned back when we realized we needed to catch our bus home before our return tickets expired. It was supposed to rain today but luckily it was not only not raining but also a bit sunny. The post-rain views were spectacular. The water was deep blue and turbulent crashing against the rocky shores and cliff faces. We barely saw another soul while we hiked. It wasn't too strenuous, but it was nice to get a little exercise and appreciate the rare fair weather this time of year. We also sat for a bit and watched an old man fishing from land. He caught a large sardine right in front of us.

Another, unrelated note:

Leigh and I treated ourselves to a movie last night. We saw "2012" in English (with French subtitles) at the little movie theater we have here in Antibes. After about 20 local commercials the movie finally started. I have to say it was one of the more ridiculous movies I've ever seen. You could tell the creators were trying to make an "Armageddon" or "Deep Impact" type movie that brings a tear to the eye and makes you think. Instead it was typical, predictable story line about the end of the world. The end result was a nearly campy movie with sub-par to bad acting but decent special effects. Neither Leigh nor I had seen a movie in a theater in months, so it was still quite a treat. If we were in the US and paid money to see the movie we would have left feeling cheated out of our ticket money. Instead we bought candy, laughed at inappropriate moments (because the movie was so bad we sometimes cracked up while a character died a horrible death), and left feeling completely spoiled by the whole experience. It's funny, but I think we were missing the move-going experience more than the movies themselves.

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.