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 :)

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!!!

In between parties...

Bonjour, everyone!

Nothing much is going on here, but I wanted to post to let you know I'm alive. The last few days have just been gray and rainy in Rennes, so I've been sleeping in, reading, playing on the computer, cleaning, and doing a bit of yoga. New Year's Resolution: Do a little yoga every day, even if it's just downward dog for five minutes!

Pierre-Antoine and Adrien are planning a New Year's Eve Party for 25 with little toast appetizers, frozen pastry ones, rum punch, gin bucket, mousse, and cakes. Last night was a punch-making and taste-testing session, which was pretty good for having bought cheap things. It is going to be six euros per person, so I guess the boys are controlling costs just fine. And Adrien even drew a sketch of how he wants to rearrange the furniture... In the end, I think that the boys' apartment cannot be made that classy, let's be honest! Ah, well!

So you'll have pictures and stories from that after the New Year! I hope everyone has tons of fun! Skype or email me your stories ;)

<3
L

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!

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 :)

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!

Of Grey Skies and Orange Umbrellas

A rainy afternoon in Rennes—the beginning of fall, I suppose. Unfortunately, I too am feeling under the weather with a poor sore throat :(

I braved the grey skies and wind earlier today to meet another assistant who arrived in town on Tuesday--Mark from New York--at Place de la République. We got to chat as we dodged the parade of people on strike downtown protesting the raising of the retirement age from 60 to 62. According to PA’s mom Claudine, France has the lowest retirement age besides Italy at 57! I was supposed to meet the teachers at my school this afternoon, but the meeting was cancelled because the teachers themselves were out protesting! I’m sure it won’t be my last brush with a grève (strike), but at least the metro here is automated, so I never have to worry about it shutting down ;)

Mark and I wandered up through the old city through some of the main squares and shopping streets. We ended up at Place Sainte-Anne where there is a small mall, tons of restaurants, and the famous Rue de la Soif (Street of Thirst) lined with tons of little bars. We grabbed tuna salad baguette sandwiches and sat on the church steps to chat. His girlfriend, Tara of New Jersey, joined us after she did a visit to an apartment, so we visited some more. They were both International Relations majors in college, and Mark is actually applying to some of the same grad school programs for next year that I am. They are both Jewish, so when they got to Rennes, they called up the synagogue and found local families that were willing to host them until they could get on their feet. How nice is that! I'm glad I had PA to do that for me too.

I left them around 3pm to head back to Villejean, do some grocery shopping, and get back to the apartment before it started to pour. I even bought myself a bright orange umbrella to represent the Volunteer state and shine a little color into this grey city. Pierre-Antoine was back from a long day of classes soon after and we both just relaxed in the living room. I was excited to be able to make some sweet potato fries for dinner because PA’s mom had a little, old oven that she let us bring to the apartment. A little taste of home can bring so much comfort.

The other two roomies are out at a party, so PA and I just ate our dinner and watched his favorite news program. Then there was a show on called “Tellement Vrai (So True)” with the subject “Cougars: Femmes mûres cherchent jeunes hommes (Cougars: Mature Women Looking for Young Men).” Documentary style, it showed us the lives of a few Frenchwomen in their 50s who were looking for guys in their 20s! It was kind of funny but also informative, I suppose. Goes to show that people are the same everywhere… looking for companionship.

Tomorrow I have another meeting with another recently arrived assistant in the morning, and then a dinner and drinks party with the six or seven assistants now in town. I’m so excited to meet everyone! And since I know by default that these people share my love of the French language and travel abroad, we already have a nice common ground on which to build. This year keeps getting more promising as I adjust to the lifestyle and make connections with more people here. Stay tuned!

Bisous!