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.

Everybody's working for the weekend!

Nothing much happens around here except for the weekends, and this one was rather exciting! Friday I tidied up the apartment and made rum punch and jello shots with PA for a party at my place. Had a mix of Americans, French, Germans, a Brit, and an Australian. We hung out, danced, played the Apples to Apples game that PA translated into French. It was so chill and fun!

Saturday was busy again. Caitlin, Katherine, and I joined the visiting assistants from Fougères, Amanda and David, for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant. It was DELICIOUS! Tons of unidentified veggies and tofu with yummy flavors! They even gave us a free dessert :)

From there, we went directly to Le Haricot Rouge for lattes, hot chocolate, and cookies. We played War and talked American politics, which was so fun. We got to wandering the streets in the unusual sun after that, stopping in the 2euro store (I guess a bit classier than a $1 store at home). I discovered a scalp massager that looks like a whisk whose loops got cut at the ends—it feels soooo good!

Scalp massager!

We split up around four. Caitlin and Katherine hung out at my place for awhile, but Caitlin had to catch a train back to Vitré to get laundry done. Katherine stuck around to go out for Indian food, which was AMAZING! Lamb buryani with actual spiciness! And samosas! I was in heaven ;)

So I spent tons of money on food Saturday, but the flavors and conversations that accompanied it were priceless!

Last night, there was a party in the apartment above me, so I managed to sleep from 11pm-3:30am and then again 5am-noon! I've got to plan some lessons and clean from the party, *sigh*

Other recent photos that I've just uploaded:

Katherine and my rotisserie chicken lunch!

Part of Vitré's castle!

Reading and writing

Every time I finish a good book, I want to write one just like it, be it via the themes, structure, or ideas it uses.

I just finished Reading Lolita in Tehran, and there is nothing like a memoir about life in Iran to remind you how good your life really is. Being in France has been good for allowing me the time to read the news and lots of books, when I’m not being too lazy to do it.

 But now I’m pondering the “ordeal of freedom” idea from this book and all of the choices that freedom gives us. Is not my life right now just a giant ordeal of freedom? I’m in France with a minimally demanding job, sufficient money, loads of time, and a big city around me. Why am I not ecstatic to be here?

Funny thing is, I miss schedule and purpose and assignments—these obligations and deadlines kept me constantly moving forward. Here, I see that I don’t have much discipline on my own :/ I have a stack of books and a yoga mat, but I fall victim to online tv and facebook far too often. A few empty days are relaxing, but a few empty months are terrifying! I can do anything I want apart from my twelve hours of work per week, and yet I feel paralyzed by language and loneliness. I can’t go to a movie alone in the US, so how can I travel to another town here all by myself?

Pierre-Antoine tells me I need to have more fun—true!—but I’m still working on how to accomplish that. I’m used to having people around at college to entertain me in any spare moment; I don’t know how to do it myself anymore!

For now, I’ll get back to people-watching from my window, and maybe I’ll start a new book. And if anyone reading this can explain how to cast on, then I can start knitting for real!!! ;)

Keeping myself busy

I tried to keep myself busy and around other humans this weekend! Friday I met up with Katherine and Anna, a visiting assistant from Normandy. We wandered a bit, then we met Julia for some aperatifs and a crêperie dinner. Half the group went to a feminist club lecture, and Katherine and I just went up to my apartment to chill and watch How I Met Your Mother online.

Saturday, Katherine and I met up with a big group to visit the market. We wandered off into the crowd ourselves and left with a whole roasted chicken and potatos for lunch--SOOOOOO DELICIOUS! The potatos are cooked right under the roasting meat, so they have yummy grease all over them :) Again, a few hours of relaxing and people watching from my window...

Sunday afternoon was spent in Vitré at Caitlin's for an eggplant parmesan and cookie making/eating extravaganza! Unfortunately, the 6:30 train back to Rennes was horribly crowded, and I was in a bad mood from it.

PA and I spent the evening watching the Bears v. Packers game online, and it was way too sad... That was the only football game I've watched this season! How strange...

Only one class today... Now I have some time to prepare my American High Schools lesson to educate these children! And I just want to spend some time reading too... People are fun to hang out with, but I need to study and grow some more wrinkles on my brain.

Fun French fact: "To go window shopping" is "faire du lèche vitrines," which translates literally to "do window licking." HAHAHAHAHA!!! xD

Another French education FAIL

In French high schools, teachers can just cancel class with no warning. I waited with a class for fifteen minutes before someone went to ask if she was even at the school--negative. Then the kids all just left campus, half the class on the same metro as me! Coming from a very competitive US school where no class time is ever wasted or cancelled (except for snow), it blows my mind that there are no substitute teachers and that hours can be chipped away from academic time like this! No one is helped in this system!

I am rather outraged for the children's sake, yes, but I'm also annoyed for myself... I have nothing to do outside of work, but it really is annoying to just be waiting around for people who don't give you any notice that they will be gone. It's just inconsiderate. I have other professors that do notify me!

Life update: Sickness healed. Went to a bar last night to see fellow assistant and Knoxvillian Christopher play blues/folk music on guitar and banjo. It was comforting to hear the music of Tennessee, even if I usually only listen to it at Dollywood. Tried to sleep, but Thursday is the party night of the students and Place Sainte Anne was soooooo loud until 2 or 3am... Then the garbage trucks woke me at 5:30... Ugh.

So far this weekend is pretty empty. Since I lost my phone at Disney, I have very few numbers. There is an assistant from Normandy I'm going to meet up with after work to show her the town. Hopefully, something will pop up. The problem is that I'm poor, with only 11,87euros to my name... My housing aid hasn't come through yet, and the website says my file is being studied at the moment :( Guess I'll be mooching until payday next Friday--or just living off the oatmeal and goldfish crackers Ma sent me.

Sick again... ugh!

Bonjour tout le monde ! Hello everyone!

I ended up with a sore throat and earache again this weekend, so I had to trek back to the doctor on Monday morning, missing three hours of class. Apparently, the antibiotic I got in December doesn't treat ear infections, so it has been lingering!!! Ugh! I don't trust French docs!!!

Another weird thing about French medicine is that they sell all the drugs in their original boxes with the pills in foil. So if I need 24 pills, I could end up with three boxes of ten and just have extra pills lying around... It seems like a waste to me.

Anyway, I spent Monday and Tuesday resting in my apartment, sleeping a ton. I felt much better by this morning, so I went to Vitré with Katherine to make funfetti cupcakes at Caitlin's apartment. First, we had a fishsticks and french fries meal as though we were toddlers again. We also took a walk to the castle because the weather has been rather springlike and clear lately! The cupcakes were made and eaten while listening to Glee music and chatting. It was a pleasant afternoon with friends :)

After a five-day hiatus, I have two long workdays ahead of me! Tennessee music, here we come!

Weekend of friends!!!

Well, I just had one of the most fun girls weekends in France! Friday night, Katherine, Caitlin, Kelsey, and I went out to dinner. We tried Adonis, a Lebanese place that PA recommended to me. You order a menu, so we got the mid-price one with seven cold dishes and seven warm dishes for 14 euros a person--so good! There was hummus, stuffed grape leaves, chicken wings, beef and chicken skewers, falafel, shrimp, and so much else to try. We also had a nice aperatif kir and chatted for a long time.

Afterwards, Katherine, Caitlin and I hung out at my place until K's bus at 11. It was like a slumber party with gossip and music and silliness. Very fun! Then, Caitlin and I watched Les femmes de l'ombre (Women of the Shadow) about women spies during World War II. It was kind of intense so we had to watch some funny stuff before going to bed.

We three had planned to meet up for the Satuday market at 11, but poor sleepy Caitlin was a little slow getting out of bed. Instead, in my apartment we had coffee, chatted and people watched from my window. We eventually decided to grab sandwiches and go to a movie, Sofia Coppola's Somewhere that was playing in English with French subtitles. A bit too slow and artsy for me, but it was nice to get out and just see a movie to do something different!

More exciting was the shop we stopped in on the walk back... We bought gorgeous little cakes! We had a bit more time of pretending my apartment was a cafe, perhaps Café Laurène on Place Sainte Anne ;)

Little cakes... YUM!

Hanging out at Cafe Laurène! ;)

But after the friends and fun are gone for the night... things get really quiet in my apartment. I get back to reflection on how my time is being spent here.


Sometimes it feels like my life has gone stagnant here--in a foreign country where daily life is not at all the same as being at home or at school, it is hard to see the big picture. How exactly does a year teaching English to kids in France help me in any of my long-term plans? I just try to remember that not everything in life has to be relevant to ultimate goals and that you have to put in time to get general life and language skills (though it may be slow and frustrating).

Though the professors at the school often say the kids like my lessons, I just don't feel very fulfilled by or interested in the work I do here. Many of the assistants I know have discovered a love for teaching in this program, while I have learned that I do not want to work with anyone under the age of 18 ever again. I guess that is something worth finding out before I tried to get a Masters of teaching or something...


I think I'm just not used to so much alone time now--home, school, dorms, roommates, lots of people have always just been around. Here, if I don't really make an effort, I can spend a whole day not talking to anyone else. I may be going insane in my isolation chamber! Or at least over-analyzing too much...

I can't wait to see my family and my home again!

Business as usual

Quick life update for my faithful followers:

Wednesday was a Vitré outing to hang out with Caitlin--I saw her open her Christmas presents in her newly returned suitcase that AirFrance lost over the holidays! I got to eat chili, rice crispie treats, and chicken nuggets with fries while watching Teen Mom. It was like being a kid in America for an afternoon :)

Two early 8:30 workdays were draining for Thursday and today... One of the teachers has the flu, so I got out two hours early today (good for me, horrible for her!). I did, however, spend another extra hour at school being interviewed by the Graphic Industries class for the school paper! It should be exciting to see what the article ends up being like... They asked questions in English, so hopefully it won't be translated back to French awkwardly. They're even going to take my photo for it next week! I'll be sure to share it all with you when it is printed :)

I've also been talking with Ma about when the family is going to visit. Remember, folks, I'm on vacation here February 26 to March 14 and then April 23 to June 7! (Though, PA and I were just talking about visiting Prague for a few (cold!) days at the end-of-Feb/beginning-of-March part!) Will let you know how things work out, of course. All are welcome!

Tonight, I'm meeting up with a few assistants for dinner and movies. Caitlin is staying over so we can go to the market and/or Irish brunch at Apple Pie. As long as I can sleep a lot this weekend, I'll be happy.

Bisous to you all! :*

Disneyland and work

I last left you nearly a week ago. Since then, I've been far too busy to sleep until last night! Thursday and Friday were early work days with four hours each. In one, I had a deaf student with a translator which was interesting but made me feel bad for talking so much... I often had to translate my English to French for the woman to turn into sign langage for the student. Luckily, I also got off an hour early on Friday so I could pack for Disneyland!

PA and I took the TGV to Marne-la-Vallée, the train station right between the Disney parks and the Disney Village with the hotels just beyond. Disneyland Paris is really like a small-scale Disney World--it was a great break from life-as-usual here in Rennes.

Friday night we just checked in to the hotel and enjoyed some CNN, sine we arrived around 10pm. On Saturday, Disneyland Park, the Magic Kingdom-esque one, opened some attractions at 8am for Disney resort guests and then everything at 10am for all visitors. We got to go on Space Mountain twice (I lost my phone the first time :/), Buzz Lightyear, and some Fantasyland rides.

Don't fall off Space Mountain!!!

We stopped in a restaurant for a drink and left via a side door that went into Adventureland. No one was around, presumably because the rides weren't opening for another ten minutes, and we decided to head to the Indiana Jones roller coaster to wait. A woman came up to us demanding to know how we got in because that section of the park wasn't open yet--we explained that we just walked out of a restaurant, but she made it seem like we scaled the walls to break in to Adventureland! She escourted us half-way out and told us to keep walking, but then the announcement for the park openeing came on over the loudspeakers and a crowd of people appeared, running towards us! We joined them and went about enjoying our Disney day on all the classic rides :)

It's a Small World and the grey sky that stayed dry until we left the park!

 Another great part of Disney was the American foods--foot-long hot dogs for lunch and a big Rainforest Cafe salad for dinner!!! A super cute French touch was the Brioche Mickey, a Mickey-shaped pastry with Nutella inside, YUM!

Brioche Mickey and and a café au lait :)

After the long park day and an early dinner, we took an evening nap. We had planned to go to the nightclub in the Disney Village, but it was apparently closed for the season. We had dressed up and walked through the rain at 11pm for nothing :( Instead, we peeked in the still-open shops and then returned to the hotel room to enjoy more CNN.

A bit of a sleep-in for Sunday because the Walt Disney Studios Park didn't open until 10. We managed to go on the Tower of Terror and the Rock'n'Roller Coaster multiple times, see the Moteurs Action! stunt show, and go to a few of the other attractions. Sadly, the wait for Crush's Coaster was always above an hour, so we never tried that. But the big rides we did were satisfying!

After that was one of the best meals I've had since I moved to France: steak and veggie kebab, potatos gratin, and a warm chocolate cake at Ludwig's Castle. Delicious!!! We killed some time around the shops and took our 9:30 train back to Rennes, arriving after midnight! I slept pretty soundly that night...

I worked three hours yesterday, got a new phone, ate lunch, and napped for three hours! I even went to bed before 11pm and woke up at 9 this morning feeling so much better! I love sleeping :)

After-holidays slump...

After the holidays, things just seem quiet and empty without the lights, the decorations, the food, and the people all around you... *sigh*

I was back to work on Monday to see the first of my all new classes. My new schedule is only Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, but I start at 8:30, which is miserable in the winter when it is still super dark out when I have to wake up. The kids are all nice but very shy so far--I miss my classes of chattering secretaries! And since these are all new groups, I can redo a lot of my lessons (or at least the good ones). I've been doing my Tennessee powerpoint to introduce myself, then Two Truths and a Lie and Would You Rather? as icebreaker games. I'll let you know how my other nine classes turn out this week.

With this scehdule comes a two day weekday break on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday night I stayed up late to skype my friend Marguerite in DC when she got home from work (a six hour time difference). Tuesday I slept late and surrendered to my books for the afternoon. PA and I had some grad school crises last night, when we saw that schools hadn't received part of our applications according to our online checklists. But after emailing and calling a few places, we learned that they just haven't processed everything, so the stuff is probably just in a pile of unopened mail still. Phew! Or "pfiou" as the French spell it!

Today I got up early to meet Caitlin at the train station at 9:30 to run errands with her around town. Unfortunately, all of the errands were unsucessful :( We finished off the morning by eating at a cafe called Apple Pie. Owned by an Irish woman, the cafe is supplied by all local and organic products, mostly from her own farm! We chatted with her (in English!) as we ate and she told us about being an English teacher, a translator, and a businesswoman (in European lobbying) and then finally opening her dream cafe in Rennes after having a farm that just sold her bread for five years.

Most importantly, the food: we had a tartine, or sliced toasted bread with toppings of cheddar cheese and onion, with a side of shredded cabbage, carrot, and beet salad. For dessert we shared carrot cake and their namesake Apple Pie which were both amazing! Anytime I need a dessert break and some English conversation, I now know where to go!

So after Caitlin left, I took a much needed nap. Now my back is killing me, so I'm going to do some gentle yoga to relax. Work tomorrow and Friday, then I go to Disneyland Paris for the weekend with Pierre-Antoine, hooray!!!

Perspective on the strikes last fall

I just read this New York Times article: Europe’s Young Grow Agitated Over Future Prospects.

Though the article focuses on Southern Europe and features stories on young Italians and Spaniards, it does make me think about the problem of raising the retirement age in France. As I wrote before, I was given strike literature all last fall by teachers at my school, and most of it used the justification of our students struggling to find jobs in a market full of 65 year olds hanging on for a few more years to get their retirement benefits!

Another interesting bit in this article is that the featured youth are all highly educated and underutilized: one is a PhD who could only make $750 a month teaching kids drama, and another has a masters and a law degree in addition to speaking five languages and worked for the government unpaid! I couldn't help but think about my friends that have graduated in the last two years in the US recession mess and couldn't find decent jobs. Many of them are going to grad schools or doing Americorps to buy some time and experience. Especially coming from the hyper-competitive Furman, I feel like we were all told that we were going to be business executives, doctors, lawyers, and general movers-and-shakers in the world, but I'm afraid we'll all just be working as bank tellers or at McDonalds in the end!

Then poor PA was heckled by his family at Christmas about all of his Master's degrees... Let us hope that we get into a good US program and find internships that lead to interesting careers! All of this youth anger at the systems in Europe is scaring me!

Anyway, read it, and remind yourself that the US is a land of opportunity :)

2011 it is!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Not gonna lie--2010 was a bit rough... Graduating from Furman was more sad and scary than exciting. Deciding what to do afterwards was hard, and then spending most of the summer on the other side of an ocean from Pierre-Antoine was not pleasant either :/ And, of course, you all know about the trials and tribulations of my time in France so far and about letting go of Copper at the very end of the year...

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because I'm really not--I was so lucky to be able to finish school with honors, to find a job that let me live near PA, and to move to a foriegn country for a year. I guess I just mean to say that 2010 was an emotional roller coaster of these intense situations one after another: having to say goodbye to college friends and the college lifestyle, living at home again, starting over in a new place with new people in another language! I'm pretty sure these experiences were necessary for me to grow up some more, but I'm glad they're over.

The time between Christmas and New Years was so relaxing--nothing to do but hang out with PA and read and chill. I started to get that feeling of "everything is too perfect, so what's gonna happen now?" right before I got the news about Coppie :( I'm just glad he went peacefully with my parents there to comfort him.

New Year's Eve day was a bit rough after the news, but the party at PA's apartment was pretty fun. I knew a few of the people (we were about fifteen guys and four girls total), so it wasn't too awkward for me. The food included lots of little toasts with pate, cheese, salmon spread, pesto, etc. made by Adrien plus hummus, my artichoke dip, and little pastries from the oven. To drink, we had rum punch, gin bucket, and champagne for midnight. There was drinking, dancing, hookah, laughing--at midnight we had a champagne toast to "La Marseillaise" sung by the guys... and I had to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" all alone! It was fun when people spoke some English with me too. I was up until almost four am, but the party kept on until six or so! It was a good night to take my mind off of things for awhile. Here are a few silly pictures for you:

Singing "La Marseillaise" at midnight. A toast to France!

Don't I look good in this hat? ;)

Philouze taking a silly picture--PA is doing "The Crab," a dance they invented at the party, lol!

So now that it is 2011, I'm resolving to doing a bit of yoga everyday. Other than that (or perhaps linked to that), I just hope this year is more peaceful. Once Chinese New Year swings around, it will be the year of the Rabbit, which is usually a calm and lucky time. If I can just get into grad school with PA, things will be right on track. Fingers crossed!