Christmas at home

I didn't even realize what I loved about the holidays and my family before I came here:

How my dad offers to bring us slices of pie.
How my mom gives us news updates on the most random things.
Everyone in their pjs in the parents room to watch tv.
Nick's jokes.
Copper shaking so that his collar jingles and his toenails scratch the floor.
Or going to Chicago and actually having to wear boots and gloves to go outside.
Seeing snow.
Eating delicious meals at Cathy's or out.
Kids running up and down the basement stairs.
Apples to Apples and other games played around the kitchen table after dinner.
Catching up with the aunts.
Home videos being pulled out.
Family gift exchanges as people drop by.
Going downtown to a play or for shopping or for eating somewhere wonderful.
Aunt Chris's delicious food as the Oschman brothers are reunited for an afternoon-long comedy sketch.
Gretchen chatting and laughing.
Old stories told again and again and again, especially if a newcomer is present.

Christmas is almost the worst part because then the anticipation is gone, then people leave again...
Until next year!

Hanging out

Bonjour, y’all!

My parents have passed on your compliments, so thank you very much for reading and enjoying my blog :)

I last posted yesterday afternoon. That evening, PA and I rounded up some assistants downtown to go to a bar and play some pool. French pool has smaller balls and uses only red and yellow balls plus the black 8. It’s a random difference, I know… PA and I got to hang out with Seth, Berit, Nicholas, Georgia, and Julien (who actually French and works as a moniter in a school while studying to be a geography teacher). I prefer these smaller, intimate groups for getting to know people rather than the 20+ person mess of Saturday night. It was a good group and a good mix of French and English. Julien told us about his trips to Senegal every summer; he was in the Scouts (Europeans have a ton of different Scouting organizations), and his group works in a village there. Pretty cool! PA and I got back to the apartment early and just hung out with Wajd and Philouze, our roomies, and a girl that was over. A relatively quiet but fun evening overall.

Today, I went to the school for two hours. Actually, today was another strike about the raising of the retirement age, so most professors, staff, and students were out on strike. Catherine wanted me to come in anyway to discuss my schedule and get some administrative things done. By the end of the week, I will have my timetable until Christmas holidays! I will start doing my small group classes tomorrow afternoon, and I even have a key to my classroom. Things are progressing.

I also got the keys to my apartment! My plan is to clean it up tomorrow and start moving things over bit by bit. Mostly, I need my bed, so I’ll arrange things with Julie on its transport tomorrow.

Since then, I’ve been in the apartment reading and getting emails and such done. I’m excited about fajitas for dinner, since Ma sent me a care package of flavors from home. I’m also supposed to hang out with Caely at some point, and watch How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men with Pierre-Antoine.

Oh, the exotic life of France!

The French lifestyle myth

The view from PA's apartment balcony--
the building in the center is part of the University of Rennes 2 where PA studies

For those of you who imagine me sitting at a cafe every afternoon with an espresso and a croissant, I will have to disappoint you. If I go out, it is for Subway, McDonalds, Chinese food, or maybe crepes if I’m hankering for some traditional French food. You can also have pizza delivered, just like at home. Otherwise, Pierre-Antoine and I just cook simple meals of pasta or rice, meat, veggies. He does insist on putting cream sauce and/or cheese on most things, which takes some getting used to. It can be delicious, yes, but also very heavy on an American stomach accustomed to sandwiches and salads for meals. And for breakfast, everyone here eats bread! Brioche (loaf of sweet bread, often with Nutella spread), croissants (not from the boulangerie bakery but bought in bulk bags from the supermarket), pain au chocolat (same as the croissants). Lots of carbs and fat, but I guess the walking (and the 80 stairs to the fifth floor where PA’s apartment is) help keep one in shape.

I miss the varieties of foods in the US—Mexican the most, cheap Asian cuisine, even American-style café foods would be nice. The spices are just not the same and are usually more bland. Hopefully, I will be able to piece together and French-ify my recipes to work here. I think cooking is my best way of de-stressing and feeling comfortable here; I can have total control of the kitchen for a few minutes, and I can do something productive, as opposed to sitting around the apartment all day.

For example, yesterday I tried to make my famous oreo cupcake recipe, but I had to convert the measurements and reduce the quantities from 24 cakes to only 6… I forgot baking powder and they came out as short, super-dense cakes of an almost flan-like consistency. PA reassured me that they tasted just fine, but they could not in all honesty be called cupcakes :/ Trial and error with ingredients and figuring out the little table-top oven I have. At least my buttercream icing tasted the same, even though I had to stir it by hand for 10 minutes for lack of an electric mixer!

The Oreo Cupcake attempt

I’m still waiting for work to pick up… So I’m still trying to listen to French tv and the conversations of my hosts to learn more French. Last night was spent comparing childhood cartoon theme songs in English and French (Pokemon, Digimon, Denver, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), listening to music (French and American), laughing over youtube videos, assembling shelves for PA’s room, seeing Alexandre and Wajd have a boxing/slapfight, and watching Wajd burn himself, the table and the carpet by dropping a hookah coal. No baguettes or berets in sight! ;)

Cultural note: Have you seen those Windows 7 commercials where the person tries to convince you that Windows 7 was their idea? They have them here too, and the premise is that a French exchange student is at a barbecue in Texas and created Windows 7 to show them what good food was… snails! Haha!

I'm only updating because I'm bored and pensive at the moment. Enjoy all my attention while you can ;)

Bisous!
L