So I'm currently sick in bed (just sore throat and headache, nothing serious, Ma!), and thus I have been spending a lot of time thinking... Plus, the holidays are coming up, and this is the first year I'm not in Knoxville or Chicago with my family.
Copenhagen was a nice break from my life in France. It made me realize how settled I've become here in Rennes--the apartment is set up, I have people I like, my work schedule is normal, most of my bureaucratic duties are complete. From January until June, my life is going to be a breeze! Now I have to remind myself to make the most of it.
I really need to give kudos to EBrown, who is one of those people who can just make you think. We were talking about people who make you grow as a person, and that made me start mentally listing the family members, friends, aquaintances, professors, coworkers, etc. who have inspired and/or changed me in some way.
Family can go without saying--almost--because those are the people who always have your back. My family has been so nice in sending me letters, skyping me, facebooking me, and sending me care packages (thanks again mom and dad!) while I've been away, and it keeps me from feeling forgotten or alone. Being truly apart from them for this long makes me realize how much I take for granted every crazy holiday I usually spend with them. I miss the silliness! I miss being around people who are truly interested, invested, and involved in my life.
It also makes me think of friends who are more like family because they've been in my life so long--Jean and Danielle, I miss you so much! Life is not the same without lunch/dinner dates and movie nights with lots of laughs. Also in Knoxville, Helen and Deepa, my sworn enemies, will have no movie room and interesting conversation to entertain them this holiday. How boring for us all!
And on to my college friends... I have Marguerite, who is both hilarious and intelligent--you can laugh and philosophize with her anytime. Many an afternoon at Furman was spent wandering around the lake working through my life plans with her. Why she was able to listen to me whine that much, I'll never know, but I am eternally grateful.
Then, of course, I have my Africa group of professors and students I love dearly. These people were challenging, inspiring, silly, and serious all together, and I certainly miss that constant excitement of being in a group of caring people. Dr. Ching and Dr. Maher opened my eyes to a lot of things, and the students I was with helped me talk them out and relate them to my own life. Seeing EBrown and Lily this weekend really refreshed these feelings in me.
And this post would be amiss if I didn't mention Pierre-Antoine, the best friend I've ever had. He makes me want to go out in the world and have fun, see new places, learn new things. He's my living French dictionary and we get to teach each other about our cultures everyday--from him making his favorite tartiflette dish to me making him watch Zoolander for the first time. Every day is some little adventure that keeps me from taking life too seriously. I don't know what I would do without him.
So thanks to all of you! And to all the people I couldn't mention because I really need to go to sleep now... It's just one of those "It's A Wonderful Life" moments when you see what effect one person can have on so many--and all of you have had such a powerful effect on me.
Je vous aime ! I love you!
Showing posts with label Copenhagen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Copenhagen. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Adventures in Copenhagen with Lily and EBrown
Thursday through Sunday I was in Copenhagen, Denmark, to visit two of my Africa study abroad buddies, EBrown and Lily (who lives and studies there now).
Getting there was ok--bus to Rennes airport, plane to Paris, delay in Paris because of the previous day's snow, arrive in Copenhagen around 11pm. Lily picked me up there and we metroed to her place to drop off my stuff. It was cold, windy, snowy, snowing! We metroed to meet her boyfriend Martin at a main square and found a bar. Danes have an intense drinking culture, especially at "Christmas Parties" this season--even your work party is a drinking party from lunchtime until night! Tried the Christmas beer and chatted with Lily and Martin until a drunk Dane named Reuben came to hit on me. All Danes learn English from elementary school and speak pretty fluently. It was pretty easy to talk to people in shops, cafes, drunken bar settings ;)
Between metroing at night and walking back in the freezing cold, Lily and I weren't in bed until 3:30am that night, and we had to get up at 8am so that she could go to class. I got off to explore the shopping streets and the Christmas market on a canal for a few hours.
Lily and I finally got to meet EBrown at noon! We all headed to eat Chinese takeout and met up with EBrown's sister Brittany and her friend Caitlin to roam the streets. See photos in the Copenhagen album for an illustration of those chilly hours. Actually, the sun was out pretty much all weekend, and we had decent weather in general but for a few bouts of snow/rain/sleet. It's just always below freezing and the sun sets around 3pm.
Lily headed to work at a restaurant, so EBrown and I went to Brittany's host family's home for dinner. The house was cool and the parents interesting world travelers. We helped make the delicious home-cooked meal of vegetable quiche/tart, salad, hamburgers with egg on top, potato salad, and South African wine. We also had these delicious ginger/honey cakes with chocolate on top that are a Danish Christmas treat. So good!
They lived about an hour outside the city between a train and walking in the cold. Around 10pm, we headed back downtown for a taste of nightlife. Brittany went with friends, and EBrown and I went to Lily's restaurant where we got free cocktails--mango for me and lemonade mojito for EBrown. When Lily was off, it was a quick Christmas beer before EBrown had to head back with her sister and Lily and I had to metro/walk home.
Slept in a bit before meeting up for walking and a long cafe break where plenty of girltalk ensued. That afternoon we met up with Martin. Firstly, I grabbed an authentic Danish hot dog with mustard, ketchup, fried onions, We climbed up this church spire for a scary but lovely view of Copenhagen, which is actually some islands off of the Denmark peninsula. You could even see Sweden and the bridge to get there--only 30 minutes away!
The power of the wind and the cold had us down before too long, and we headed to Freetown Christiania. This place used to be a military base that fell into disuse, so hippie-squatters moved in and made it a mini-society with its own hippie laws, common property, and lots of pot. The police come to clean out the weed every once and awhile, but the people of Copenhagen cherish it and consider it an important city landmark. It has a "downtown" area with an art gallery, cafes, pot stands, etc., and then there are really neat houses built of odds and ends where people actually live around the lakes--they just have permission to do so rather than actually owning it. Martin showed us around, and then we warmed up with coffee at a cafe there.
It was nearing 6pm when we left again, Lily to work and EBrown and me to Brittany's host home for a candy making party. First of all, the 20 minute walk after the train ride took about an hour because we got lost. Imagine forty or so Danes, adults and children, plus five American girls in a marzipan and nougat sculpting/candy-making competition! I just made myself one little treat to eat, but EBrown made a bunch of grapes and there were animals and traditional candies too. Towards the end, there was a big pot of soup, bread, and cheese to eat. I headed to Lily's alone and made it back safely.
Sunday I really slept in while Lily went to church. EBrown and I met at 11 and went hunting for those honey-ginger cakes which we ate with tea at Lily's apartment while we chatted. All three of us gathered at the metro at one to take me to the airport. So fun to see them, the first old, friendly faces I've seen since September!
I got to Paris just fine, but then my flight to Rennes was cancelled. AirFrance bused us all to the train station and someone went to get our tickets. We waited as a group for half an hour--the train was going to leave in five minutes and we still didn't have tickets in our hand. A search for the AirFrance official failed, and we headed down to the platform where the train was sitting. Some people just got on and said they would get reimboursed by the company for the tickets later... but I was afraid of getting a fine! With only two minutes before departure, the AirFrance lady shows up with a stack of tickets--I grabbed one from her hand and jumped on! So instead of getting back around 9:30, I wasn't in my apartment until 12:30! Oh, well...
It was back to work today for a Taboo-esque game of describing random people, places, and things in English for the other students to guess. Seems to be going pretty well! I also finished Pierre-Antoine's Christmas gifts, so I'm on to some for his family.
Please, check out all of my Copenhagen pictures in the album too!
Getting there was ok--bus to Rennes airport, plane to Paris, delay in Paris because of the previous day's snow, arrive in Copenhagen around 11pm. Lily picked me up there and we metroed to her place to drop off my stuff. It was cold, windy, snowy, snowing! We metroed to meet her boyfriend Martin at a main square and found a bar. Danes have an intense drinking culture, especially at "Christmas Parties" this season--even your work party is a drinking party from lunchtime until night! Tried the Christmas beer and chatted with Lily and Martin until a drunk Dane named Reuben came to hit on me. All Danes learn English from elementary school and speak pretty fluently. It was pretty easy to talk to people in shops, cafes, drunken bar settings ;)
Between metroing at night and walking back in the freezing cold, Lily and I weren't in bed until 3:30am that night, and we had to get up at 8am so that she could go to class. I got off to explore the shopping streets and the Christmas market on a canal for a few hours.
Lily and I finally got to meet EBrown at noon! We all headed to eat Chinese takeout and met up with EBrown's sister Brittany and her friend Caitlin to roam the streets. See photos in the Copenhagen album for an illustration of those chilly hours. Actually, the sun was out pretty much all weekend, and we had decent weather in general but for a few bouts of snow/rain/sleet. It's just always below freezing and the sun sets around 3pm.
 |
| Me, Lily, and EBrown |
Lily headed to work at a restaurant, so EBrown and I went to Brittany's host family's home for dinner. The house was cool and the parents interesting world travelers. We helped make the delicious home-cooked meal of vegetable quiche/tart, salad, hamburgers with egg on top, potato salad, and South African wine. We also had these delicious ginger/honey cakes with chocolate on top that are a Danish Christmas treat. So good!
They lived about an hour outside the city between a train and walking in the cold. Around 10pm, we headed back downtown for a taste of nightlife. Brittany went with friends, and EBrown and I went to Lily's restaurant where we got free cocktails--mango for me and lemonade mojito for EBrown. When Lily was off, it was a quick Christmas beer before EBrown had to head back with her sister and Lily and I had to metro/walk home.
Slept in a bit before meeting up for walking and a long cafe break where plenty of girltalk ensued. That afternoon we met up with Martin. Firstly, I grabbed an authentic Danish hot dog with mustard, ketchup, fried onions, We climbed up this church spire for a scary but lovely view of Copenhagen, which is actually some islands off of the Denmark peninsula. You could even see Sweden and the bridge to get there--only 30 minutes away!
 |
| View of the city from the spire. |
The power of the wind and the cold had us down before too long, and we headed to Freetown Christiania. This place used to be a military base that fell into disuse, so hippie-squatters moved in and made it a mini-society with its own hippie laws, common property, and lots of pot. The police come to clean out the weed every once and awhile, but the people of Copenhagen cherish it and consider it an important city landmark. It has a "downtown" area with an art gallery, cafes, pot stands, etc., and then there are really neat houses built of odds and ends where people actually live around the lakes--they just have permission to do so rather than actually owning it. Martin showed us around, and then we warmed up with coffee at a cafe there.
It was nearing 6pm when we left again, Lily to work and EBrown and me to Brittany's host home for a candy making party. First of all, the 20 minute walk after the train ride took about an hour because we got lost. Imagine forty or so Danes, adults and children, plus five American girls in a marzipan and nougat sculpting/candy-making competition! I just made myself one little treat to eat, but EBrown made a bunch of grapes and there were animals and traditional candies too. Towards the end, there was a big pot of soup, bread, and cheese to eat. I headed to Lily's alone and made it back safely.
Sunday I really slept in while Lily went to church. EBrown and I met at 11 and went hunting for those honey-ginger cakes which we ate with tea at Lily's apartment while we chatted. All three of us gathered at the metro at one to take me to the airport. So fun to see them, the first old, friendly faces I've seen since September!
I got to Paris just fine, but then my flight to Rennes was cancelled. AirFrance bused us all to the train station and someone went to get our tickets. We waited as a group for half an hour--the train was going to leave in five minutes and we still didn't have tickets in our hand. A search for the AirFrance official failed, and we headed down to the platform where the train was sitting. Some people just got on and said they would get reimboursed by the company for the tickets later... but I was afraid of getting a fine! With only two minutes before departure, the AirFrance lady shows up with a stack of tickets--I grabbed one from her hand and jumped on! So instead of getting back around 9:30, I wasn't in my apartment until 12:30! Oh, well...
It was back to work today for a Taboo-esque game of describing random people, places, and things in English for the other students to guess. Seems to be going pretty well! I also finished Pierre-Antoine's Christmas gifts, so I'm on to some for his family.
Please, check out all of my Copenhagen pictures in the album too!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Still alive :)
Hello all!
This has been a rather productive week so far. All Christmas cards mailed, lessons finished for this and next week, and the last grad school applications submitted to Columbia and Tufts! I'm just trying to get everything in order since I will be in Copenhagen from Thursday to late Sunday night.
This week I'm doing a lesson on music from Tennessee because even our state quarter celebrates it! The kids listen to blues, Elvis, Paramore, country, rap, and Justin Timberlake--all from TN. We do a fill-in-the-missing-words game with "Blue Suede Shoes" and then play a game where they listen for certain words in Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and grab the card of the word when they hear it--the winner is the one with the most cards at the end. The latter gets rather competitive/violent!
Othewise, it's life as usual here in Rennes. The snow has turned back into rain, but it is still super cold. I still have two paperwork snafus to sort out before the holidays, but life is good :)
This has been a rather productive week so far. All Christmas cards mailed, lessons finished for this and next week, and the last grad school applications submitted to Columbia and Tufts! I'm just trying to get everything in order since I will be in Copenhagen from Thursday to late Sunday night.
This week I'm doing a lesson on music from Tennessee because even our state quarter celebrates it! The kids listen to blues, Elvis, Paramore, country, rap, and Justin Timberlake--all from TN. We do a fill-in-the-missing-words game with "Blue Suede Shoes" and then play a game where they listen for certain words in Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and grab the card of the word when they hear it--the winner is the one with the most cards at the end. The latter gets rather competitive/violent!
 |
| TN state quarter |
Othewise, it's life as usual here in Rennes. The snow has turned back into rain, but it is still super cold. I still have two paperwork snafus to sort out before the holidays, but life is good :)
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Rain and reflections
Nonstop rain today, so I had no motivation to go out. Plus, the party last night lasted until 5 or 6am, so I didn't sleep all that much. I did a little work, a lot of reading Guns, Germs, and Steel (only a chapter left!) and Moins que zéro, a novel that Pierre-Antoine gave me.
The most fun of the day was when my door buzzed this morning. I wasn't expecting anyone on a Saturday morning, so I ignored it. Then, I looked out my window to see a yellow postal delivery van driving away. Ma had sent me some packages, so I realized what was going on immediately. Still in my pjs, I ran out into the rain in my bathrobe and chased the truck down. The guy seemed rather surprised, but he got the package out for me quickly so I could get in out of the rain. Nor many people were out on the Place at the time, but I saw smiles and laughs and heard a woman yell 'pyjamas' at me! Ah well, all for the sake of adventure.
The package had little Christmas decorations/home goods, which I've already hung up and set out, and some GOLDFISH CRACKERS!!! Eating some today made me feel like a little kid in preschool--very theraputic.
My internet died for a few hours, so I took the time to reflect on my life here. I've been very negative lately about the students misbehaving, miscommunication with French people all the time, the bad weather, the strange food... A skype conversation with Ma ended with, "No one is going to want to hang out with you if you're so negative." Very true. I'm resolving to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" in the words of Spamalot! Here I have a minimally demanding job that allows me to live comfortably in a foreign country in a nice town. I should remember my blessings; perhaps celebrating Thanksgiving soon will help.
Also helping me cheer up is the prospect of holiday travel. I am going to Copenhagen to see my Africa study abroad buddies EBrown and Lily for the weekend of December 9-12. For the Christmas holidays, I'll hang out with PA and maybe (tentative plan here) go to Eurodisney and/or Strasbourg for the Christmas markets--or if anyone has a Christmas in Germany suggestion, that'd be nice too ;) For the February/March break, my dream is to do Spain, Portugal, and Morocco for a week or two. We'll see how the cards fall, but a change of scenery and something to look forward to may be just what I need.
As always, thanks for reading my confessions from France. Hope to hear back from you sometime!
The most fun of the day was when my door buzzed this morning. I wasn't expecting anyone on a Saturday morning, so I ignored it. Then, I looked out my window to see a yellow postal delivery van driving away. Ma had sent me some packages, so I realized what was going on immediately. Still in my pjs, I ran out into the rain in my bathrobe and chased the truck down. The guy seemed rather surprised, but he got the package out for me quickly so I could get in out of the rain. Nor many people were out on the Place at the time, but I saw smiles and laughs and heard a woman yell 'pyjamas' at me! Ah well, all for the sake of adventure.
The package had little Christmas decorations/home goods, which I've already hung up and set out, and some GOLDFISH CRACKERS!!! Eating some today made me feel like a little kid in preschool--very theraputic.
My internet died for a few hours, so I took the time to reflect on my life here. I've been very negative lately about the students misbehaving, miscommunication with French people all the time, the bad weather, the strange food... A skype conversation with Ma ended with, "No one is going to want to hang out with you if you're so negative." Very true. I'm resolving to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" in the words of Spamalot! Here I have a minimally demanding job that allows me to live comfortably in a foreign country in a nice town. I should remember my blessings; perhaps celebrating Thanksgiving soon will help.
Also helping me cheer up is the prospect of holiday travel. I am going to Copenhagen to see my Africa study abroad buddies EBrown and Lily for the weekend of December 9-12. For the Christmas holidays, I'll hang out with PA and maybe (tentative plan here) go to Eurodisney and/or Strasbourg for the Christmas markets--or if anyone has a Christmas in Germany suggestion, that'd be nice too ;) For the February/March break, my dream is to do Spain, Portugal, and Morocco for a week or two. We'll see how the cards fall, but a change of scenery and something to look forward to may be just what I need.
As always, thanks for reading my confessions from France. Hope to hear back from you sometime!
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