My Ten Favorite Days in France

10. Being done with work (April)

This was a day I felt really relieved. Although this job gave me the opportunity to play in France for a year, teaching English to high schoolers is not my thing. I did my job, and I am content to strike out in another direction.

9. Partying in Vitré (February)

This was the first time I went out in France since my arrival in September, if you can believe it, and it was in little Vitré! Between the people, the food, the beer, and the dancing, I had an AWESOME time. These are the people I will miss when I leave France: Caitlin, Katherine, Amanda, and David.

8. Shopping all over Rennes with Katherine (April)

I had to throw this in because it was the most fun I’ve ever had in one afternoon. Picture this: sunshine, caramel mini-muffins, lattes at Haricot Rouge, shopping, impulse shoe buying, conversation! How could it get any better than that?!

7. Christmas with the Levillains (December)

Though I missed my traditional family Christmas, I was so happy to be with Pierre-Antoine and his family. They were so sweet feeding me and even giving me lovely gifts! PA even bought me a vest so I could pretend to be super-French! Hooray! I also think I gained 10 lbs in three days!

6. Valentine’s lesson in my classes (February)

This was my favorite lesson all year, when I asked kids for the advantages and disadvantages of being single or in a relationship. Refer to the post here if you need a refresher: http://laureninrennes.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentines-week.html

5. St. Malo photo shoot (December)

This is when Katherine and I solidified our friendship by roaming around rainy St. Malo by the sea—taking pictures, shopping, enjoying the Christmas market, and just café hopping to warm up every few hours. We have very compatible tourist agendas—probably because we’re both café-loving introverts!

4. Disneyland Paris with PA (January)

I love Disney, and I love Pierre-Antoine—PERFECT COMBO! Despite losing my phone on Space Mountain, I loved eating Mickey brioches, riding my favorite rides, and breaking in to Adventureland^^

3. Winter break in Prague/Brussels/Bruges (February/March)

You’ll have to read about all the awesomeness in the original posts, but I got to spend two weeks exploring with some of my favorite people in the world! And I got to drink tons of Starbucks and the best chai tea lattes in Europe :)

2. PA and Clementine’s birthday weekend (March)

I loved getting PA silly birthday gifts and hanging out with him, of course, but the other magical moment was when Martin sat in my lap at the table for about half an hour! I felt so accepted! This was also the day that PA hit the buzzer-beating, game winning shot at his basketball game! What a gift to himself!

1. Fougeres picnic (March)

At number one is the day I felt most content to be in France this year—picnicking in the sun next to the Fougeres castle walls. Good people, good food, good music, and a good photo shoot are all I need to make me happy. Before the sunburn set in, I was so happy to just chill there.

So there you have it! Apparently if you mix humans, food, and a little adventure, I'm happy :) Ten magical moments, and I still have a little over two months of fun to go! Friends and family, get ready!

A day at the zoo!

The hunting hounds of Bourbansais.

As a belated birthday gift to PA and a way to celebrate the sunshine, PA and I went to the Zoo de la Bourbansais north of Rennes. We visited it back last July when I came to Europe for a month to see him, and suffice it to say that this visit was much less eventful... No hawk attacks or saving baby humans from a pack of hungry lemurs!

Cool things we did see this time around:
baby goats;
baby monkeys clinging to their parents' backs as they leaped around;
little nocturnal lemurs sleeping in the trees;
a tiger growling at a thorny bushed that dared to prick his nose;
lions dozing and yawning right in front of us;
meerkats competing for human attention;
the hunting hounds show in front of the château;
and lemurs trying to steal a little girl's stroller!

Looking up at PA who was wearing his meerkat shirt!

See the babies on their backs?! Click image for a larger view.

Up close and personal!

For all the photos from that day, see my zoo album.

It was a lovely warm and windy day spent outside of the city, making me miss going to stables and farms and being truly outdoors! Maybe someone can take me hiking when I get home?!

Flowers of the Parc de Thabor

A frivolous weekend

Friday was my last workday with only two classes where I taught kids the Cupid Shuffle, fed them jelly beans, and played Pictionary. Super fun, and my last students asked to be facebook friends with me^^ I was pumped, obviously, so I went on a nice evening run in the park.

[Author's Note: Europeans use A LOT of emoticons online, a habit which I seem to have picked up. I apologize to any offended parties.]

That night I celebrated the end of work by going out. Some assistant girls came over for hookah and chatting and we headed to Pym's around 12h30 for dancing! The music was great in 2/3 of the rooms, but we mostly stuck to the rap/R&B/salsa floor :) They wanted to leave by 2:20 because of tiredness, so I had to go home still bursting with dance energy! Oh well, I'll party in Paris soon!

Saturday was the greatest day! Katherine came at 9am, and we spent the day: marketing for mini-muffins, eating galette saucisse for breakfast, sitting outside at Haricot Rouge for an almond latte, shopping (black strappy heels! and cute mugs withcartoon kittens that say, "Je retombe amoureuse tous les matins [I fall in love again every morning]"!), and eating bread/cheese/fig jam/saucisse sèche/strawberries for lunch :) It was 79 F out!!! I think every human being in Rennes was outside on the streets shopping and/or eating today.

Cutest purchase EVER!

Katherine wanted cute French placemats to take home, so we checked all the kitchen stores in town and got adorable ones. Back at my apartment, we had quiet time for reading/napping. Afterwards, we rivived ourselves with an evening coffee and snacking on baguettes while listening to the guitar guy outside playing songs like "Umbrella," "Wonderwall," and "Take Me Home Coutry Roads" in a slight French accent. It's so warm here, and I have no air conditioning so the windows are constantly open to the breeze.

And what I am assuming is the last big assistants party took place Saturday night chez Tara of New Jersey. I went over around 9:30 and was home around midnight. There was a mix of English, French, and Spanish conversations going on with some assistants I hadn't seen in months and some I had never met at all! Unfortunately, my night was dampened by a drunk man passed out in my building's hallway... He was gone in the morning, but I was still creeped out :/

On Eater Sunday, Katherine came back over for a food marathon. We started the day with a brunch of scrambled eggs with lardons, onions and cheese, and mimosas, serenaded by Michael Buble. We had also bought festive chocolates in bunny and bell forms because in France, it is flying bells that deliver the candy to kids--delicious and purchased 2 for 1 ;)

Easter brunch :)

Easter chocolates! Miam!

After coffee, we went for a stroll in the park in sundresses and our new heels^^, and I took tons of artsy flower phots (see my Rennes Spring 2011 album!). We spent the late afternoon watching 10 Things I Hate About You (the movie) online and dozing until dinner. For the grande finale of Easter, we went to an Indian restaurant and ordered lamb dishes, miam miam! We were stuffed full and ended up in pjs to watch Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It was a lovely, relaxing day :)

Last week reflections

It's been a whirlwind last week here! Lots of people to see and goodbyes to say.

First, Amanda of Fougeres stayed over to catch an early train to Paris. We had an evening of kebab in the park and internet tv watching and she left at 6am Tuesday.

Tuesday I spent with Caitlin and Katherine, and we headed to the last big assistants dinner at Creperie St Melaine. It was a big table covered in yummy food and surrounded by chattering assistants!

Wednesday was a chill day with my homies C and K, actually the last time we'll see each other besides a meal in Vitre on May 25th, then Caitlin and Katherine will be gone for good! Wow! We just ate and sat outside and ate ice cream and chatted like normal. That night I was at Adrien's house with PA, Wajd, Cynthia, and Philouze for dinner and Lord of the Rings. It was funny to watch it in French!

So Thursday morning is when it hit me that life-in-France-as-I-know-it has changed for good! People are scattering, work is ending, and the sun is inexplicably shining! Ahhh!

I'm off to do my last two hours of class, then I will be setting up for a party at my place tonight. Then there will be a party at Tara's on Saturday. I'll be spending Easter with Katherine, eating chocolate and lamb curry :)

Wish me luck!

:*

Bittersweet gatherings

Another fun-filled weekend here! PA was in town Friday, so we got to hang out. Saturday was Katherine day! She came around 10am to go to the market, and then we ran out to the library and did some shopping throughout the day. It's nice out again, so skirts were welcome! I also had my first galette saucisse and an AMAZING falafal sandwich from Le Mont liban, right across the place from my apartment! Mmm...

Caitlin joined us, and we headed over to Kelsey's for a little asisstants' party. Chatting and dancing with a finish at Le Delicatessen for more dancing :) Katherine left for home, and Caitlin stayed with me for Sunday. We ran errands, finally checked out the interior of the church that I see from my windows, and ate another falafal sandwich. The afternoon was spent in the grass at the park with a million other people because there is a music festival going on in town with two stages set up in the park as well. It was delightful!

Now it's a quiet Monday, still sunny! I'm doing laundry and preparing my lesson on line dances for my students this afternoon... The Cupid Shuffle and the Cha Cha Slide! It's all because I had a dream about teaching them dancing! I figure, it's the last week, so why not?!

Graduation Goggles

How apt that this week's How I Met Your Mother was about "graduation goggles," describing how we become nostalgic about things when we are about to leave them forever. Now, France has not been a cakewalk for me this year, and I really want to go home, but maybe some of the tough times are already getting blurred by the beginning of final goodbyes... And lately, I have been often surrounded by assistants wanting a few last hurrahs before we all scatter, so the champagne cocktails and snacks and dance music all around us is a nice cushion from the dull realities of these seven months of an assistant's life.

So on Tuesday, Katherine and Caitlin came into Rennes for one last dinner out at Casa Pépé, just the three of us. It was DELICIOUS as usual! We also watched a movie and just chatted, as classic slumber parties require. Then today, Amanda and David came over from Fougères for lunch. Sadly, it was too chilly for picnicking, but we ate yummy burgers at Snack My Dwitch Up and hung out, with a late afternoon stop at Le Haricot Rouge for their spring chocolate flavors menu! Mmm, coconut! Hooray for other humans!

But now, again, my apartment is empty and the sky is grey (as it is 90% of the time here...), and the graduation goggles are thrown aside yet again. *sigh*

Luckily, I have a cocktail party on Saturday and an assistants' dinner next Tuesday. But by next Friday, pretty much everyone will have left. The family then shows up May 4th! Ack!

Weekend in Fougères!

Peek-a-boo from Fougères castle!

In the spirit of doing as much as I can at the end of my time here, I hopped a bus to Fougères with Katherine on Friday evening. About 90 minutes later, we were there, the home of the biggest medieval castle in Europe and of the American assistants Amanda and David. Caitlin had already arrived, so we all walked to their apartment through the hilly streets.

Basically, this weekend we did a lot of eating, dancing, and wandering. Friday night we drank wine, ate a platter of cheese and falafal, and went bowling until 3am. Saturday we spent mostly outside--buying food at the market, picnicking at the foot of the castle, napping in the grass with Pride radio on, walking around the castle, sitting at a cafe, napping in the apartment, watching youtube videos together, and eating mussels and fries and ice cream while finishing a mini-keg. Dancing was interspersed throughout the days. Sadly, I did get a touch of sunburn, so I was sore on Sunday morning. We ate a breakfast of coffee, eggs and sausage à la américain and chilled until taking an afternoon bus home. It was low-key but very satisfying--good company, gorgeous weather, and great fun! I was so content in that park on Saturday!

Caitlin, Katherine and me--my France clique

Fougères' castle!

More photos in my Rennes Spring album (link on right).

My last month of working in France!

Friday was one of the sadder days of my French children teaching career--three students just cut my class! I was in my room at 11:30 and waited for twenty minutes before going to ask the teacher if I had the right hour. Apparently, she had sent three students to me and they decided to leave campus for an early lunch instead of working with me :( It was rather heart-breaking...

I had another class where the prof asked me to prepare them for presenting texts for their final oral exam. The problem is that no one explained to me how it works, so I couldn't really answer their questions! Ugh. Only eleven more workdays to go.

Friday evening I went to Vitré to hang out with the ever-cool Caitlin and Katherine. We ate spicy chili, made brownies and pumpkin bread, and danced. The next morning was when we ate the pumpkin bread... Then we had to catch the train to Rennes.

At 5, assistant Kelsey was hosting a party to exchange clothes and books and just mingle in general with other assistants. She made a delicious champagne, vodka, and pineapple juice punch, and I brought White Russian fixin's. The offical invite was from 5 to 7, but we all stayed until 11ish, dancing and eating up all the snacks available because we had all missed our dinner! The last group of me, Caitlin, Kelsey, and Kelsey's French boyfriend Steven went to my place for hookah, then us girls went to the nearby club Delicatessan to dance awhile. I think we only made it to 2:30am this time, but we also didn't spend money getting in or buying drinks at the club, so it worked out just fine.

This morning, Caitlin and I are relaxing over leftover spicy chili and fresh pico de gallo with tortilla chips. It's gonna be a lazy day because her next train home isn't until 7pm. So movies, books, chillin'... My abs and legs are soooo sore from the hours of dancing I've put my body through this weekend.

Also, I officially enrolled at George Washington University! Hooray! Come visit me in Washington, D.C. next year!

Little notes...

1. French fashion among the youth, as observed by me. Boys are really into "Official U.S. Marshal" sweatshirts and college gear from UCLA or Franklin and Marshall, the latter of which is apparently marketed by an Italian designer. Girls wear tights, heels, and scarves for all occasions. Girls hair is usually like long and faux-messy.

2. Children don't know how to be silly in English class. My lesson for this week was for students to bring up life problems and ask the class for good, bad, and ugly (the worst) advice. All of them took it so seriously! No creativity! The only smile I got was a girl's problem being "I'm too blond," but the advice was run-of-the-mill "Dye it, don't dye it, go more blonde." Boo!

3. Tiramisus are time-consuming. For his birthday, PA wanted my tiramisu but without the coffee liqueur flavoring--so basically creamy goo on lady fingers with chocolate shavings on top. It took over an hour to make, but it is super creamy due to the whole French milk I had to use ;)

My homemade tiramisu with chocolate shavings on top!

PA enjoyed his birthday gift :)

 4. My friend Allison is wise. This is an excerpt from her blog:
The right way for you to live simply might indeed be to trim down purchases and go through all that stuff lying around. Or maybe it’s deciding to buy fair trade foods and clothing. Perhaps, though, it doesn’t even have to do with money at all. Thomas Kelly is again quoted, this time about simplifying the way we use our time: “Too many of us have too many irons in the fire. We get distracted by...our interest in a thousand and one good things...simplicity needs to be expressed not merely in the dress and architecture and the height of tombstones but also in...opposition to the hurried, superficial tendencies of our age.”
(I certainly have no simplification problems in France...)

5. I am going to freak out next fall when I am in school and working! I do nothing here!!! I'm only working eight hours this week--three hours cancelled and one was written wrong on my timetable so I missed it--and there is not much filling up my spare time. My fellow assistants and I discuss this all the time here, and maybe the emptiness of time is what I will end up feeling nostalgic for...

PA's Birthday Weekend!

On Friday I had a lucky break when a prof was absent, so my eight hour workday went down to five, finishing at 3:30. That night, I went out to a pizza dinner at Trevi with PA, Adrien, Wajd, and Philouze. His 25th birthday party started right afterwards in my apartment with his usual crowd of friends. At midnight, we could all sing him happy birthday!

Shortly after midnight, Caitlin called me to meet at the train station because she was walking up from another party. I had promised her a night of clubbing, but PA's friends weren't ready to leave, so I headed out by myself. We went to Pym's and danced for an hour or so before PA called me--they wouldn't let them in without IDs (which is weird because none of us had ever been asked for an ID in France!). So his group headed to another club, Espace. Caitlin and I left ours and found some nice kids in the street to show us the way to Espace. They apparently thought we were their age, and when I said Caitlin and I are English teachers, one guy said he wished he has a hot English teacher! Haha!

Unfortunately, Espace didn't let them either--I'm guessing it was just too many guys in the group. We went back to my place to close out the party around 4am. What was super exciting is that I could wear my pretty new dress:

Saturday afternoon, PA and I took the train to Vitré for his and his niece Clémentine's birthday festivities. PA ended up with some new clothes and a little guide to Washington in honor of our GWU choice :) We had really delicious pork and potatos with blue cheese sauce for lunch and galettes for dinner. Mmmm!

Sunday morning, PA and I went to his basketball club for a 10:30 game. The last quarter was super close going back and forth by 2 or 3 points... In the last nine seconds, it was 71-72 in favor of the visitors. PA's team ran down court--PA was supposed to take the last shot, but a guy blocked him. PA passed the ball to a younger player who shot and missed. PA grabs the rebound and shoots with one second left--AND MAKES IT!!! A buzzer-beating, game winning shot! It was AWESOME! I was so excited to be there for that game!

Phew! Also, Sunday was the big family party day for 4 year old Clémentine. Both sides of the family came to Vitré for a long aperatif with hors d'oeurves, foie gras, filet mignon, potatos, asperagus wrapped in bacon, cheese, and two birthday cakes of fruit and chocolate! PA's nephew Martin (age 2) sleepily asked to sit in my lap, probably mistaking me for his mom, but then he actually stayed there to play with his truck and animals and chatted with me. I learned some new animals from his book: moufette (skunk), paon (peacock), poulpe (octopus), poussin (chick), hippocampe (seahorse), and coccinelle (ladybug). I like little kids because their vocabulary is similar to mine ;)

Now PA and I are back in Rennes readying ourselves for another week of work/classes. Only 16 workdays in 4 weeks left for me! Hooray!

FYI, we did our time change, so I'm back to six hours of difference from EST.

Sunshine!

This week has been gorgeous! Weather in the 60's!!! I picnicked with Katherine on Tuesday--baguette, cheese, dried sausage, rosé wine, strawberries--and enjoyed laying on the grass in the sun all afternoon. Yesterday, I went for a long walk downtown and took my time running errands outside. Today I had my apartment windows open all morning and then held one of my afternoon classes outside! I hope that's not against the rules or anything... ;)

The warm weather has lifted my spirits immensely! If the entire year had been this nice, I probably would have whined a lot less--and I'm VERY scared about wintering in DC next year :/ Snow is cold!

That's all I wanted to say: I'm warm and happy at the moment.

Saturday is PA's 25th birthday! Send him good wishes :)

My 100th Post! Quel drame !

Quel drame ! What drama!

Saturday was chilly again, but Caitlin, Katherine and I braved the wind to go to the Place de Lices market around 9am. I mostly just wanted mini-muffins, and I got 16 to have two of each flavor! I also had to go to the central bank branch and get a bank check to pay for the Paris apartment in June. Oh, the joys of explaining myself in French to strangers...

We also ended up buying food for lunch, and I tried paella, rice with mussels, shrimp, calamari, chicken, steak, chorizo, and yummy spices. We sat in the Tchai House for awhile too, a tea house/café place with the only chai tea lattes in town. Caitlin and I napped in the afternoon while our third went on a rendez-vous with a male assistant ;) Apart from a quick stop at H&M for returns, we were in for the evening and made tacos with an El Paso kit that Ma sent me in the most recent package (eating the leftovers now, yum!).

After that, I decided that I wanted to go clubbing. Caitlin was easily swayed, so I prettied myself up and we went to Le Delicatessan, a club set in the old Prison Saint-Michel with stone vaulted rooms, around 12:45am. Tangent here: French clubs don't open until midnight, but they stay open until 5, 6 or 7am! In the US, it's more like 10pm opening and 2am closing! Ack! We went "early" because girls were free before 1:30, and we got waved through the line by the bouncer who spoke English with us and thought we were cool. He even knew where Tennessee was!

So at this point, the club was still rather empty inside, so we got (incredibly expensive) drinks and settled at a table to wait out the slow times. Two French guys from Normandy came up to talk to us--one was a baker whom I complemented on the deliciousness of French bread, and the other had actually worked in East Tennessee for awhile and had been to Knoxville! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! Lol!

When the dance floor was fuller, we joined in and met some other people who wanted to speak Franglais with us! I suppose they heard us speaking American ;) I talked to another French guy who had worked in Chicago, so we reminiced a bit about the Windy City. It was a super fun night, and tons of people wanted to talk to us! I'm so happy we did it! We got home around 4am, and Katherine was sound asleep on the air mattress.

The next morning, Katherine got up early to go to the ice skating rink, and Caitlin and I joined her after a few more hours of sleep. Katherine is a skating pro, so she showed adept Caitlin some tricks while I wobbled around a few times near the wall. I think my last ice skate was Freshman year of college! People held my hand the whole time then... Sigh...

It was intense but a good excuse to get out of the apartment on a boring Sunday. The big crisis occured when we returned to my apartment and the electricity was out! I, of course, freaked out and called the electric company and my landlord, but then Caitlin found the breaker box downstairs and pushed a button that fixed everything! Hooray! Thanks to her for pulling me through all the troubled times in France! :D

Katherine left us for home and a skype date with her sister, and Caitlin is bumming here with me until her 7:15pm train. Phew! What a wonderful, exciting weekend for the occasion of my 100th post! Thanks for hanging in there, friends!

Only 20 Workdays left!

Golly gee whiz! As the title says, only 20 workdays left! I will be quite relieved because right now my schedule is a wreck... and it changes every other day :/ It's an odd mix of old and new groups, plus some teachers are (just now after five months) giving me assignments to work on with their classes... It's rather frustrating to have everything change so much in the home stretch--but it will all be done soon!

At least today I had my favorite group EVER!!! The prof gave me these girls for two hours straight to prepare for their final oral exam. They will have to present themselves, talk about their internships (since it's a professional school, they have work placement periods), and then present a document, all in about 15 minutes. Without warning, I had to help them write out blurbs about themselves and their work to turn in to their prof, and then I had to dash to a computer to print articles for practice document work!

Since all of that was boring--and we had two hours to kill--we also played some games :) The girls were pretty good at English and all very sweet. They're actually all going to be preschool teachers! And they actually asked me questions and tried to get to know me! I hope I keep working with them!

What else have I done this week...? Caitlin and Katherine were around on Wednesday, our day off, for H&M shopping, walking in the blooming park, and chillin' in a café with GIANT chocolate cookies. It was almost like being at Panera or ABC.

Thursday, of course, was St. Patty's Day, so I was at PA's apartment party that then bar-hopped for the evening... I was home around 1am so I could sleep for work the next day. It's still so awkward to be at French people parties. I always feel a bit paralyzed--though I understand what is going on around me, I can't move or speak fast enough to take part.

I'm also VERY angry with the New York Times for charging for online access. Jerks! I guess they need to make money somehow, but I'll just be a poor student who doesn't know what is going on in the world now!

PA just left for KFC-ing with friends and going home for the weekend. I'll be joined by Caitlin and Katherine tomorrow morning to go to the market and hang about. Fingers crossed for a nice day!

Brussels, Bruges, and Back to Work

Ah! Here is a quick catch-up on the last few days!!

Wednesday, I took the train into Brussels, Belgium, where Katherine and Caitlin were awaiting me at the station. We visited a brewery of sour gueuze (sp?) beer, ate fries and waffles, and saw Autoworld, a museum of old cars! We found an awesome cafe with the best chai tea lattes in Europe. Dinner was at an Irish pub that I've been to many times, including this past summer where I watched a World Cup game there, standing in the crowd for two hours!

Chocolate Mickey sculpture for Ma!

Note the grey skies of Wednesday...

 

The next day was a leisurely outing to Bruges under grey, drizzling skies. It was an hour train ride, then a long, slow stroll up to the center of town with lots of photo ops. We had tea/coffee, cupcakes, and chocolates at a tea shop. I made them stop to see the Michelangelo, the Jesus Blood, the canals, and my favorite chocolate shops. We also had a yummy pasta lunch and an afternoon Bruges Zot beer. Oh, and I managed to buy a necklace in a funky little shop. Back in Brussels, we ate more fries for dinner, then Caitlin and I got hookah and drinks before hitting the hostel.

Latte, chocolates, and a red velvet cupcake! Mmmm!

For Friday we just met at the chai tea cafe to hang out before our trains left. We all had different itineraries, so I ended up on one train with C and the next with K! And I was back in Rennes by 5:15pm to hang out with PA a bit.

Why I like travelling with C and K: We eat/drink/chill a lot. We can speak franglais. We can just be happy strolling.

Saturday to Sunday, I was in Vitré to hang out with Caitlin--make baked brie with fig jam and veggie soup and watch movies. It was a nice chill weekend :)

Started work up today, and my schedule was very messed up! Two of my classes were not even there... including my 8:30am one :/ For a class I did have, I did Two Truths and A Lie, and this girl wrote "I like scream" instead of "I like ice cream," lol!

Back to the grindstone... 23 days of work to go! Then family and friends visit! Hooray! And spring is arriving, so life is getting much happier around here :)

Grad schools

I just want to inform you all that I've been accepted to University of Denver (with a scholarship!) and George Washington University in DC! PA is also definitely in at GWU but still waiting on Denver's descision. We also need to hear from American University!

This is super exciting! And I'm just sitting alone in my apartment trying to celebrate with others via facebook and skype!!! AHHHHH!

Another one... SORRY!

I'm sorry, but I'm bored. And blogging makes me feel like I'm doing something useful.

First thought: I have become one of those metro people who can fiddle with their iPod or read or stare off into space and then magically know when to get off. It's like my body has memorized the distances/times between stops, and I don't have to watch for them anymore. Funny, eh?

Second: I'm anxiously checking my mail every 5 minutes for grad school letters!!! Being in Brussels without internet may kill me these next few days...

Third: KFC in Europe sucks. They focus more on sandwiches, so it's just like going to McDonalds. The one I got tonight was chicken, a hashbrown patty, cheese, lettuce, ketchup and mayo--so weird! They have buckets, but there are more options with strips and crispy wings than with bone-in pieces. And the sides are only French fries or corn on the cob (they had coleslaw in Prague), and there are NO BISCUITS!!! The travesty! Only Subway still tastes the same as home here.

Ok, fo shizzle I'm off to Brussels tomorrow. SLEEP! Trying to ignore the Mardi Gras partiers...

:*

Life stagnant

Ahhhh! I hate having nothing to do! The contrast with active vacation time in Prague--nonstop activites--and being back in my apartment is driving me crazy! Yesterday was nice: I got half of my chores done and got to watch some quality ER and the classic French comedic films Les Bronzés and Les Bronzés font du ski. But today I got up early to get laundry done and ended up with everything finished before lunch!

It's a lovely day outside, and there is some sort of Mardi Gras carvinal going on on Place de la Mairie with people all in costume. A marching band parade (like thirty people, not that big) has passed under my window twice! Ahh, wait--whistle blowing right now makes that three times!

Luckily, spring is arriving. It's just a bit chilly at 16 degrees C here, the nicest day of 2011 so far. Looks like Brussels will be a bit colder, but at least I'll be with friends :)

I would go out to celebrate Mardi Gras tonight, but I have a 6:10am train tomorrow morning! Oh, the joys of travel that make me wish to be home... and a home that makes me wish I was traveling!

More ER this evening? Most likely...

Winter in Prague

I have a lot to say this time!

Pierre-Antoine and I were in Prague from Tuesday to Friday! It was cold (and even snowed on us once), but if the sun was out and the wind stopped, it felt great!

We had a long travel day starting with a train at 6:10am to the airport; then we had to wait around for an afternoon flight to Prague which takes only an hour and a half by air (it really makes you think about how small Europe is). Once there, we had to take a bus to the metro--a bus we didn't pay for because we only had big 1000 CK bills from the ATM and the driver spoke no English!

The hostel was right off of the main Old Town Square, and the five minute walk from the metro to the hostel just took my breath away. All of the buildings in Prague are GORGEOUS! A mix of old and new, all decorated, many painted bright colors! Check out the photos to get a better idea.

Me on Old Town Square with a Starbucks in hand.

So that first evening, I got a Starbucks latte under the name of "Lopen" :) and we wandered around the main square and over to the famous Charles Bridge to get a view of Prague Castle. PA convinced me to eat KFC for dinner :/ It's really different in Europe: the only sides are fries and coleslaw, no biscuits, and the only chicken varieties are original and spicy. Ah, well... We capped off the night by finding a huge mall that had bars on the top floor and enjoyed a Pilsner.

The famous astronomical clock!

View to Charles Bridge and Prague Castle on the hill.

The next morning (Starbucks in hand!) we caught a free city tour from German/British Michael. He was pretty funny and took us to all the main sights in Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Quarter. Look through the photo album to get all the stories with each picture. Lunch with the tour was at Bohemian Bagel where I actually got a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel! It must have been owned by Americans because the food was just like home! Here are some building pictures to give you an idea:

Near Prague Castle.

Jewish Quarter building detail.

On a main square in New Town.

Cubist architecture. We ate at the cafe here!

The tour lasted until after 2, so our plan to go to the zoo was too late... Instead, we walked up to the Castle, which is more a palace complex than a traditional castle. We didn't pay to go in but just admired the views from up top. We then went to the hostel to take a nap and prepare for the night's fun ;)

We had a delicious Indian meal before meeting the Bar Crawl group. The first bar was actually inside an old church and only half-finished. There we had a Power Hour of free drinks and hookah... and a lot of British teenagers on a trip together that become a nuisance as the night goes on. The second bar was M1 Lounge, which was AWESOME! The interior was stellar--like from a movie--and the music was awesome. I got this Tiramisu martini that was delicious and got to dance to American music! The annoying part was that there was only one toilet and three British girls locked themselves in it for half an hour. Two French Canadian girls and I were waiting, so we got the bouncer to open the bathroom door and kick them out! You would think that British teens could hold their alcohol...

The third bar was DEJAVU, which PA thought was funny. It was ok... we sat at the bar sipping White Russians for the most part. The last stop on a bar crawl is always a club, which was also cool. Happily, the Brits didn't make it this far, so the atmosphere was a lot nicer. We danced a bit, then headed out around 2:30. It was a fun night :)

The next day we did a tour out to Kutna Hora, again with Michael! About an hour's train ride took us to this town that used to be super rich from the silver mines there--producing one third of Europe's coins in Medieval/Renaissance times. The site to see is the bone ossuary--a blind monk was given the job of organizing old bones in a chapel, making pyramids, garlands, a crest, and a chandelier of them! Again, see the pics!

Inside the bone chapel!

And since it was a tour, we also got stories on Hussite War battles, the mines, the politics. The other site was St Barbra's Cathedral, which looked positively gloomy--Kutna Hora was the coldest day with grey skies and a bit of snow. Lunch was at a Czech pub at 3pm, so we were starving! Here we tried beef in a cream/cranberry/lemon sauce with bread dumplings (slices of bread coated in flour and egg and boiled). It was pretty good, but we sat at a table of Norweigians, a Dane, a Russian, and the German/English guide, so the conversation was odd...

I guess I haven't mentioned that I had developed a cold on this trip... After Kutna Hora, I was rather miserable. I just had to be lame go to sleep that night...

Our last morning, we did a communism tour, which showed us quite a few new sites and took us to a nuclear bunker where we could dress in authentic uniforms and drink a beer! That is where these amazing photos come from:

Afterwards, we just had time to eat lunch, walk around the Jewish Quarter once more for a few extra photos, and have dessert inside a Cubist cafe before we headed to the airport. It was altogether a satisfying trip, though I wish we had one more day to see the zoo! My sole recommendation: go to Prague when it's warmer...

We got to Rennes at midnight Friday and slept at my place. Saturday and Sunday were spent in Vitré because all of PA's family was in town. Had a delicious meal at Au Vieux Vitré and lots of laughs as a 'magician' kept stealing the kids' suckers ;)

Here in Rennes, I have two days to do laundry and get rested for Brussels! I'm meeting Caitlin and Katherine for Wed-Fri just for kicks--I can't wait to get some Bruges chocolates!

Another update after Brussels, I suppose. Until then, my friends!

Mont-Saint-Michel on a Sunday in February

Sunday morning, I was picked up by Katherine and her landlords. She is at a school on the outskirts of town, so she rents a room from a family near the school. They offered to take her and a friend on a daytrip to Mont-Saint-Michel, the abbey built on an ocean rock off the coast of Normandy.

View of Mont-Saint-Michel from the parking lot.

By highway, it took us an hour to reach the site, and we parked right at the foot of it. The wind was wild, but the sun was out, and once you made it inside the walls, you could take your coat off and feel the sun warm your back. We trekked up the hill on the only street on the rock, surrounded by tourists admiring the hotels, restaurants, and gift shops that lined the way. At the very top is the abbey, but you have to pay 9 euros to get in, so we decided to just tour the ramparts and eat lunch in a garden overlook. I'm pretty sure we walked every free inch of the rock, since we even found a little cemetary. A lovely way to spend a few hours on a sunny day.

The abbey at the top.

Shrine and French flag.

Cemetary cross and the abbey church.

We left around 3, and they drove us along the coastline. We saw a lot of little Breton towns and beaches and stopped at Cancale, the Point of Grouin, and Dinard. Grey skies took over and a rainstorm followed us home. I was dropped off around 5:45. To see all the photos, click here!

At the Point of Grouin.

Grouin.

Coastline of Brittany.

I packed a bag and took the train to Vitre and Pierre-Antoine for the night. The poor baby has a stuffy nose right before our trip to Prague!

This afternoon's stressor was a letter I had to send to my landlord in Andorra saying that I'm moving out at the end of May. You have to give three months notice (which means by today!) and send the letter with an "accusé de réception" so you can track it and get a receipt back because it's a legal document! So I had to pay over 4 euros to mail a piece of paper to Andorra... Boo!

By the way, this week and the next are school holidays!!! Yes, more holidays--as the couple who took me to Mont-Saint-Michel said yesterday, "The French teach their children to do nothing from an early age. And when they have to do something, they strike to get more holidays!" LOL!

So Pierre-Antoine and I are going to Prague Tuesday-Friday! You'll get a ton of photos and updates this weekend! :)

Rainy days

Rain returned to Rennes this week, but the spring-like temperatures between drizzles made it bearable!

My classes this week got to watch How I Met Your Mother episodes, so it was time for me to start reading War and Peace—impressive, no?And Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal, which my father will disown me for... :/ Ah well...

Tuesday I convinced Caitlin to come into Rennes for dinner and a bar outing. PA was working a party for CIREFE at Le Zing, so we had some drinks and mostly talked to his friend Noemie (who just returned from being an assistant in Ireland) and her friend Laura, mostly in French. Afterwards, PA, Caitlin and I went to a hookah bar :)

Wednesday I hung out and shopped with Caitlin, and Katherine joined us in the afternoon for chillin'...

Thursday night was Geek Night in a university gym. I went with Ewan and PA at 10, but had to take the last bus back to town at midnight. They played video games, and we all enjoyed mini golfing and the other little games that were set up. There was even Rock Band on stage, but the line was too long! Boo...

Friday was Wajd's birthday party... And it was all guys except me and Wajd's girlfriend Cynthia... Silly, drunk, 20-something French boys... *sigh* I went to bed at 3, but I heard a door slam! The neighbors downstairs had come to yell at the party and slammed the door... Then when people tried to leave the party a bit later, they found that the door was jammed shut. Yes, we were trapped in the apartment until around 11am the next morning when Ewan's friend came over and helped take off the doorknob from the outside! Phew!

Saturday I had Katherine over most of the day. We chatted in my apartment while it rained and hailed for a bit. We then ventured to Haricot Rouge for hot chocolate. I showed her this awesome store called Somewhere where I proceeded to spend over 100 euros (and earn a free duffel bag!). A bit more shopping filled the afternoon. We had a glass of wine and got pizza at Casa Pepe.

Sunday update soon!!!

Weekend

I made it through my long class day by doing the Valentine's lesson and asking the ice breaker questions--both activities the kids enjoy while they end up saying really funny things!

Caitlin and her friend Angela came to Rennes last night, and we had a delicious dinner at the Crêperie Ste Mélaine, which is the best in town, or so I hear. I believe it after tasting organic cider, a vegetarian galette, and a crepe with chocolate, coconut flakes, and coconut ice cream... Yum! We lingered there for over two hours--a perfect French evening. To cap off the night, we watched the Johnny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but the other two fell asleep within the first hour, so I'll have to finish it today.

Why did we go to bed before midnight on a Friday? Because we got up at 8am to visit the market! Well, it actually took us about an hour and a half to get up and drink coffee before we left... So at 9:30ish, we braved the drizzle to go shopping. Other times that I've visited the market, I've waited until 11ish, so the streets are packed with people. At nine and under a grey sky, there wasn't a crowd and I really enjoyed it! Angela was looking for Breton caramel, so we found some at a bakery stall. I spotted mini-muffins and had to have some--pistachio, caramel, chocolate, chocolate chip, and nut!

After that, I gave my usual walking tour of the old city, and we ended up at my place around 11. They just left to catch a bus to Mont St Michel for the afternoon, and I cooked myself lunch and got back into bed to finish the movie. I'm still sleepy from three mornings of getting up in the 8 o'clock hour--how am I going to readjust to having real classes or a real job?! France time is ruining me! Lol.

Valentine's Week!

The week was pretty chill... Lots of hanging out with PA, and Caitlin even came over Wednesday night for dinner out! :)

All week I've been doing a Valentine's lesson with my classes. For the first part, I hand out conversation hearts (courtesy of Ma) for them to try--then they have to come up with five new heart messages in order to get a second candy! I have thus learned that treats are a great motivator ;)

The next part is the question, "What are the advantages of being single or in a relationship?" I write their answers on the board, and boy, are they interesting! Here is one class's answers (they were all boys, and I was the one who suggested "love," fyi):

 

Another class of all boys suggested these:

SINGLE
-more calm
-play video games
-freedom
-can go out

IN A RELATIONSHIP
-love (which I again wrote)
-change facebook status
-spend money (I assume on gifts/dates)
-celebrate Valentine's Day

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Today I also tried to make peanut M&M cookies, but I didn't realize that I used salted butter, so they were a bit salty :/ Baking fail... My skillz are wasting away here!

Recent photos

My haircut.

Some of my 2VCO students--troublemakers!

Some of the blank comic strips that my students filled out.

Rainy Rennes...

Friday and Saturday were lovely, spring-like and carefree days... I shopped a bit (scarf, light jacket, sweater), saw two movies (Le nom des gens and The King's Speech, both good), and had a group dinner with assistants Saturday night at the vegetarian restaurant again. Afterwards, we went to Café St Georges for drinks, and I talked mostly to Kelsey, an American assistant from California who also has a French boyfriend, and Steven, her boyfriend.

A ton of sleep and I feel so much better! But time passes sooooo slowly in France on a Sunday where nothing is open. On the agenda for the rest of the day is to finish a fellowship application and find some more icebreaker questions for my students this week!

Sadly, today is very rainy and soggy, so my plans to go running have been foiled... :( I miss working out in a gym where inclement weather can't hurt you. It's sad I can't even go on a walkabout.

Later, mes amis!

Spring?

I don't think that there are any groundhogs in France, but the magic of springtime has definitely come here! It was 60 degrees today! I went out without a jacket!!!

Just had to tell you ;)

The Strike Strikes Back!

Let me summarize the last few days for you...

Monday (night): Finally ordered Speed Rabbit Pizza, the place under my apartment! It was really good--tried a barbecue/onion/ground beef/pickles and a chicken/curry/potato/bacon bits. Both yummy!

Tuesday: Went to Vitré in the afternoon to get my haircut with Caitlin! It was 19euros at a walk-in place... I have some funky layers at the moment, but it looks and feels soooooo much better short again! We spluged and bought 16euros worth of fancy chocolates at a shop we passed and spent the evening eating chocolates and these gratin potatos:

Serves 6

Baking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

• 3 pounds (1.5 kg) Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1/2 pound (225 g) Gruyère cheese (either Emmental or Comté –Comté being stronger, or Beaufort if you can find some –it's very expensive in the US)
• 8 oz. (225 g) crème fraîche (french cultured cream), or heavy cream if you can't find crème fraîche
• 1 egg
• 1 cup (20 cL) milk
• salt and black pepper
• butter (just enough to butter the dish –no oil please!)
• 2 garlic cloves

1. Peel the potatoes. Slice them thinly (about 1/8") and place in water to remove excess starch.
2. Butter a deep oven-safe dish. Peel and press the garlic cloves or chop them very finely. Spread at the bottom of the dish.
3. Preheat your oven at 390F (200C).
4. Dry the potato slices in a clean cotton cloth. Place a first layer of potato slices in the dish. Season with salt and pepper. Spread 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.
5. Add a new layer of potato and proceed as described above. Repeat until all the potatoes are layered. Make sure to keep 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche for later. Finish with cheese.
6. Pour the milk on the potatoes.
7. Bake for 1 hour at 390F.
8. Beat the egg with the remaining crème fraîche and pour this mix on the gratin. Bake for 15 more minutes. 

Wednesday: After some stovetop oatmeal, I took the train back to Rennes to drop off my stuff then headed back to the station at 12:30 to meet Pierre-Antoine for a trip to Paris. His interview was right next to the Eiffel Tower, so we wandered around the park there for a few hours beforehand. The interview itself took only 15 minutes and seemed to go well, but he will not know anything until April!!! After that, we metroed to Opera and my favorite steet in Paris--Rue Sainte-Anne in the Japanese quarter! Had a delicious Oyokodon dinner and metroed back to the Montparnasse Station where there is a STARBUCKS!!! Needless to say, I was content with the day ;)

Thursday: Another STRIKE day! It's about the same things as back in October, but recently, the government said that all retiring professors will not be replaced in order to cut jobs... One prof was saying that next year was going to be all messed up since they won't have enough profs for their current student grouping system. So out of my three classes, I had three students, two, and zero... I bought groceries and then went to the CAF office to sort out why I am not yet getting my housing aid money. I was there almost an hour, and the lady just made yet another photocopy of my salary bulletin (I had already mailed them two). Hopefully, nothing else will be messed up.

I was so happy to have a busy day! I really am not a person who is content doing nothing :/

So now I am enjoying some tea with my new favorite snack of baguette with fig jam and brie cheese. SOOOO DELICIOUS! All of my high-class blog readers should jump on this bandwagon!

Pictures to come when my camera is recharged, lol!

Parties and sleepiness

The weekend was rather whirlwind here for me!

Went from six hours of work on Friday direct to the train station to go to Vitre! Caitlin, Katherine, Amanda, David and I had a fun filled evening of coffee, Indian food, bar, microbrewery, club, and a McDonald's visit at 5am! Damn! We were also stalked the entire night by a Brazilian guy who came to speak English with us... Funny how "Americans," North and South, seem to band together to survive Europe.

Our brunch when we were up again around noon consisted of a delicious breakfast casserole that we all helped cook :) It was like being in college again! Haha!

Back in Rennes around 5pm, I napped, ate dinner, and headed to PA's for another party with his friends. I don't really know most of them, and I was exhausted, so I retired to sleep in his room for most of it--and let me tell you that the party lasted past 6am! French students can just keep going and going and going and going...

Sunday was another day of recovery! Luckily, my lessons were already planned for the week, so I could concentrate on sleeping and watching tv. Phew!

It was so good to get out! As Caitlin pointed out, there are only nine weeks of teaching left with two weeks of break the first week in March! That's only about 90-100 hours of work (what we normally did in the span of a week in college)... Oh, how life will change when I'm back in the States, hopefully in grad school!

PA's Fulbright interview is Wednesday! Wish him luck to get some grad school money! xD

:*

Updates in this, the second month of 2011!

Another class cancelled without warning this morning, so I shall blog!

The week was pretty typical... Wajd and Philouse (PA's roommates) had a party Wednesday night of other dental school students. I just DJ'ed most of the night, but one girl actually had a convo with me! Hooray for friendliness!

For classes, I've been having the kids fill in the stories to blank comic strips. They're doing a great job--if a really funny one pops up, I'll take a picture for y'all!

I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately... I think that since the weather is warming up (it's spring-like here, so haha to you Chicagoans in the snow right now xD), people are going crazy! They're out partying on my square and singing "Who Let the Dogs Out?" under my window at 1am... :/ Boo... And I ALWAYS get woken up by the trash collecters at 6am! Ahhh!

So what else is up? I'm taking up running again, especially since the weather is nice enough to run in SHORTS in FEBRUARY! I'm so bad though! I used to run 4/5 days a week for 30 to 45min, and now I'm doing 2 days with just barely 30mins! Yoga is still going strong though! I'm trying to put my free time to healthy use.

I'm headed to Vitré this afternoon for Indian food, assistants, and partying :) Then, back to Rennes on Saturday for another party at PA's place for his friend that is finally coming back from her assistantship in Ireland. Pictures and stories to follow, I'm sure ;)

Half the Sky

Everyone needs to go out and get the book Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl DuWunn. Here's the jist of it:

"Women aren’t the problem, they’re the solution — along with men. The best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women and girls.

"Half the Sky lays out an agenda for the world's women and three major abuses: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence including honor killings and mass rape; maternal mortality, which needlessly claims one woman a minute. We know there are many worthy causes competing for attention in the world. We focus on this one because this kind of oppression feels transcendent – and so does the opportunity. Outsiders can truly make a difference."

Read it, educate yourself, do something!!! In fact, also get Greg Mortensen's Three Cups of Tea about his mission to build schools and educate girls in rural Afganistan and Pakistan.

Website for more info: halftheskymovement.org.