the hand answered and acted

Los Reyes

2012-01-12T12:22:00.005+01:00

In my last entry I did a comparison of American and Spanish Christmas traditions, but since then I have learned a great deal more about the Reyes Magos (the "Magic Kings," aka the three wise men that visited Jesus in the manger).

January 6th is known to religious Americans as the Epiphany, but otherwise I don't believe the average American realizes this date has any special significance. It is, however, a huge celebration equivalent or more important to Christmas day.

Before going to bed on the 5th you are supposed to leave water for their camels and, if you want, milk and snacks for the kings--Melfor, Gaspar and Balthazar. After you go to bed, they go into all houses by the front door and leave you presents wherever you left your shoes or slippers. This means that in every house in your family you will receive presents--in your house, your aunt's and uncle's house, your grandparents' houses, etc. This is a reflection of the importance of extended family in Spain where often the whole extended family (from at least one side if not both) live in the same city or area and can spend all or parts of the holidays together. It is also a nice consideration for parents as they are not left to buy all the parents, but the house owners are responsible for that (that is to say that the presents the "kings bring" to your grandparents house were bought by the gparents; those in your aunt's house, but your aunt; etc).

On January 6th you can see, even in small towns, parades with the three kings appearing. Melfor is the an older, white man with white hair and a long white beard. Gaspar is a redhead. Balthazar is a black man. However, as the black population in Spain is still quite small, often Balthazar is a white man painted up black! Usually the men who volunteer as the three kings for the parade are important figures in the city and remain the kings for sometime. The kings in Gijon have been the same for at least the last 10 years.

Unlike Santa Claus in the states, you cannot go to shopping malls to visit the kings, but it is still very important (absolutely necessary, even) to write your Three Kings Letter in which you tell them what you want. What is done with this letter can depend. In some businesses they will have a three kings visit in which all the company's employees can bring their kids to visit with the three kings (employee volunteers) at work where they can deliver their letters. And heaven forbid that you are bad or--like Saint Nick--you will receive coal. Funnily enough, you can buy "candy coal" to give out.

From what I've heard from my students (ages 11-16) they end up getting a lot of money. As the holidays are spent with the entire extended family and you are expected to offer something to everyone, it is not always easy to find something appropriate (and even more difficult if that someone is a teenager). Some of my students came back saying they had received a tablet, a new computer, an ipod, a blackberry or iphone, as well as several hundreds of euros! I find it excessive and verging on depressing...but I guess that's their family's choice.

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-12T17:24:00.002+01:00

Spain is a much more religious or practicing country than France. Christmas time appears to be much more similar to how it goes in the states, but with a few essential differences.

1. Santa Claus is nothing compared to the "Three Magic Kings." For the Spanish, yes, it is a big deal that Christ was born on the 25th. The 24th (called "Noche Buena," or "the Good Night" in Spanish) and the 25th ("Noel") are both celebrated with family and food. Santa also commonly brings one present for children the night of the 24th, but the big gift giving event is on January 6th, the supposed date of the arrival of the three kings to the manger. Technically, it makes much more sense. The three kings traveled from afar to bring gifts to the baby Jesus....plus, three people can bring more gifts than just one! Walking down the street, you can thus see a few stuff Santa Claus dolls hanging out side windows, appearing to be climbing through the window; however, there are many more three little men hanging one after the other.

2. Grapes at midnight. At midnight on "The Old Night" (aka New Year's Eve), Spanish tradition says you stuff a grape into your mouth with every stroke of the clock. Meaning you end up with 12 (seeded--they don't have seedless grapes here) grapes in your mouth and everyone looks ridiculous trying to eat so much at once. You end up with grape juice all over your face as you do the usual cheek kisses to wish everyone a happy new year.

3. They party bigger. I would say a typical night out in the states ends around 2 or 3am as bars close. Here on a Sunday morning, walking to church at 11:30, it is almost sure that I will cross some young adults still out from the night before, having just left the bar or (depending on my route) still hanging around outside the bar they ended up spending their last few hours in. As such, for New Years the party can last days. And you are shaking your head in disbelief saying, "Those crazy young Spaniards," but it's not just the young ones that party it up. Grandparents likewise make it out to clubs to dance and drink; the adult generations have their own bars and clubs they frequent and keep very much in business on weekends and for holidays. I doubt I know anyone who will finish their New Year's Eve celebration before 6am on January 1st.

4. Christmas break is longer. If you've been following along then this should be a "no duh" point, but I'll spell it out for you: as the Three Magic Kings come on January 6th, obviously they're not going to recommence school on January 4th or 5th. Christmas break this year lasts until January 9th.

Sick

2011-12-02T20:22:00.002+01:00

A few months ago I wrote about my experience going to the ER in Vigo due to some cuts I had on my knee. Unfortunately, I've had another reason to head to the doctor this week as Tuesday I started feeling sick. Being stubborn (which I come by honestly, for those of you who know my parents), I suffered through classes Tuesday, started losing my voice Wednesday and yet still conducted class all day, and Thursday I kept on with fewer classes but also less voice.

I figured all I had was a sore throat and maybe a sinusitis which seems to come more and more frequently, so what was the point of going to see a doctor? All they can do is treat the symptoms and nothing really is cured by a doctor's visit. Today, however, I woke up feeling worse and decided that rest and hot tea would not be enough.

My program pays for a private health insurance program and through that program I have a rather huge list of doctors I can go see, the problem is not having a doctor, but determining the right one to go see and then getting an appointment. Upon waking up today at 10:45, I spent an hour going through the list trying to decide if I needed to go to the ER (which is much more commonplace here than in the states), the general hospital or a general doctor. A Spanish friend had told me to just call the hospital, explain my symptoms and get an appointment, going to the ER if I needed. I made several calls that varied from harassed nurses saying, "Okay, now just tell me what you really want!" to no answers to a couple clinics explaining that after 11 on Fridays they no longer assign appointments but you must go to certain clinics that are open all day and take walk-ins. Eventually I did the latter.

I went to the general health clinic associated with the hospital next to my house and waited to give my name. I felt foolish enough trying to explain what I wanted and needed, spelling my name and giving information about my healthcare program--not because I couldn't express myself in Spanish for once, but because I had/have no voice and was speaking in less than a hoarse whisper such that the nurse leaned closer to me to hear.

Then went by an hour and fifteen minutes of waiting. I knew I would have a long time to wait, but after 45 minutes and having seen two or three people go in before me who arrived after I had, I began to wonder if my name had been properly added to the list. I was finally taken in by the one family practitioner on duty at that time and she sat down and said, "Alright, tell me what's up," but almost immediately got up after I said, "Well, that's a bit difficult." She spent two seconds with a flashlight in my mouth, another two feeling my neck for swollen glands, and then maybe a couple minutes writing my prescription which is a medley of medication to be taken, some, for the next fifteen days.

Woohoo. I'm so happy. Not. So my long weekend spent to be planned doing a bit of traveling has been cancelled. Next Monday, Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday I have the opportunity to go hiking with friends and couchsurfers, but that will all depend on my health. Supposedly my voice should be back Monday, but if it's not I have to go see the doctor again. Here's hoping everything heals up this weekend and the weather turns around for a nice week in the mountains next week!

The Rain Experience

2011-10-26T14:49:00.003+02:00

Asturias is a very rainy place. It rains here even more than it does in Brittany, and when telling people I´d be in Gijón the constant response was, "Oh, it's so beautiful, you'll love it.....but bring a raincoat/umbrella/boots."

Ironically, summer arrived late and while they spent the months of June, July and August with cold and precipitation, September came (and me with it) and the sun came out and shone all the way through to mid-October. I was got more tan in the month of October than I did June or July!

Today, however, was the first true rainy day in my opinion. There have been a couple of mornings I've woken up to see it rained early in the morning or over night, but today I took my umbrella to work and have thus carried it all day (although it stopped raining and is only threatening with gray clouds now).

Seeing how people change with the rain is very nice. On one hand, I feel like everyone takes more time to get to where they are going because they are walking slower, carrying their umbrellas, avoiding other umbrellas, etc. On the other hand, there are no longer people standing on the sidewalk, having stopped to talk with someone they knew passing by. There is no dawdling or playing while walking. People are much grimmer and seem to glare if your umbrella drops come too close to their own.

With the sun I found everyone to be open and vibrant, willing to help. I am very glad to have experienced that first or I might have thought Asturians to be a very closed, mechanic people.

Next Monday and Tuesday are holidays for All Saints Day and so I will begin a 10 day break (woohoo for only working three days a week and having them off on vacation)! During this time I will be devoting a lot of attention to a recent Spanish friend's blog, http://raposu.blogspot.es/. This friend, David, has asked me to do the translations of his writing and while it is going to be a long process it is interesting and good for my Spanish. I have already translated the first three entries of his journal and if you'd like to follow along then please do.

American Chic

2011-10-16T20:25:00.003+02:00

Long story short, things are going really well here. I moved to Gijón two weeks ago and have already met lots of interesting and kind people as well as accomplished a lot of administrative obligations (ie my NIE, TIE, health care, enpadonramiento, citizen's card). The changes and new environment has given me lots of ideas to write about, but not much time. I'm making a sort of resolution for myself to try to write a decent entry once per week at least until the end of the year.

One of the first things I noticed is how America can seem chic and exotic here. In France I quickly learned that throwing in little English catchphrases (for example, "c'était très speed" to mean something happened really fast) was very à la mode. Hah. I suppose the same way French can work for English speakers. Here in Spain I was overwhelmed by the number of bars and cafes with American places as their name--cafe las vegas, cafe montana, cafe omaha.

After, speaking with my roommates (three Spanish engineering students), my colleagues, recent acquaintances, I was surprised to find out many people dream of going to the states and particularly to NYC, Miami, and Las Angeles even if they might not speak a word of English or have any idea where exactly these cities are located in a country as large as their continent.

On occasion I came across a French person who dreamed of going to the US, but in these cases it was almost always about going to San Francisco. I'm starting to realize that the French pride that is evident in so many aspects of their culture, language and upbringing may also have tied into a downplay on America and it's presence on a global level. Here in Spain I've found people much more aware of and interested in American culture, as well as more welcoming to Americans as other citizens of the world and not necessarily a representative of "Corporate America" as happened...not frequently but still more than expected in France.

For many of my students I am the first American they've ever met after years of being exposed American culture through our films, tv and music. They were much more aware of American geography, and overtly exciting about having me with them this year. This I could attribute to many things (their education in English language, a more extroverted society, younger groups of students), but whatever the reason I have been really struck by it and am excited to see where this can take us as well as to see if a greater amount of progress may occur.

Thinking of so many of my friends who have said, "Oh, how I'd love to go to Paris." I am now experiencing the opposite of Spaniards saying, with stars in their eyes, "How I dream to go to New York."

I'm legit

2011-08-27T23:37:00.004+02:00

Since my last post I have made several steps towards having less bureaucracy and being a legal immigrant.

All immigrants expecting to stay in Spain are required to obtain an NIE which basically stands for foreigner's identification number; the equivalent of the Spanish social security number, but for foreigners. Monica and I went in to the police on a Wednesday around 1 and were told that we needed to come back another day at 9am to get a ticket and wait for our number to come up. No one could tell us what exactly we needed to bring in or any details more than to come at 9am. In the end all you need is your passport complete with visa and proof of need to stay in Spain (ie work contract). We came back Friday at about 8:40am and there was already a line of about 20 people waiting. A few were Spaniards who had not made appointments and thus came early to be sure of getting a meeting, but most were foreigners and I had to wait an hour and a half, 12 people, until I got in to speak with one of the officers.

Initially he took my papers, saw I would be working in another region and said it wouldn't be possible for me to obtain my NIE here. We asked him if he were sure because I would not be starting to work until October and until then I would be here essentially as a tourist until then. The catch is that you must have requested your NIE within 30 days of your arrival in Spain and I got here July 25, over two months before I start working. The guy then gathered up all my papers and said he would go talk to his boss to see what she said. Before leaving his office he wrote my NIE on the back of my contract as a reference.....wait, what? So you have my NIE and just refuse to tell me it???

He came back after five minutes or so and said his boss said the same thing and I would have to go to Gijon before August 25 to request my NIE. Good thing Monica was there because she got us transfered to the boss. Blanca, the head of the foreigners department in the Vigo police station, insisted that I needed to go to Gijon. She explained the same thing about three times, before accepting that I am here as a tourist and will not be working until two months after my arrival. She decided to call the Gijon police department to make it their problem. THEY said there would be nothing they could do, but that I would have to go to Oviedo, the capital of the region. We called Oviedo and there they said that coming here before the official start of my contract would be completely useless, that they couldn't do anything for me until then and as I need evidence of having requested my NIE before 30 days after arriving, to go ahead and give me my NIE number but not the card.

30 minutes after walking into Blanca's office we came out with a business card sized slip of paper with my full name written about a number and stamp of the Vigo police department. Yes!

That was my ticket to the bank where I was able to open a bank account as a legal Spanish resident. We did that this past week and while all I need to open an account is that NIE and my passport, the appointment two hours....and thinking back on it I don't really know what we did during those two hours. oof!

All in all, it's been a lot of jumping through hoops, but I wouldn't have been able to do this without Monica (who has a very persuasive way of speaking with people). Being with the family has helped me a lot linguistically (already noticing a lot of improvement and greater comfort in Spanish) and also in all of this red tape that I would have otherwise had to do on my own.

Now begins the fun of finding and apartment, signing a lease and hoping my flatmates aren't horrible.

Trip to the Emergency Room

2011-08-05T13:11:00.006+02:00

Last weekend I went dancing and fell on a broken glass, cuttingmy knee. The cuts are not large, but two of them are quite deep. We cleaned it on the spot and again the next day, but the parents in the family thought it best that I go to see a nurse to have it properly cleaned and bandaged.

In Spain they have universal healthcare, and while I have already experienced this in France where their social security is quite comprehensive, I hallucinated going into the emergency room. Coming from the states, the idea of going to the ER terrified me. In my opinion, the cuts I had were not serious enough to go to the ER and I thought they were really blowing things out of proportion.

The mother actually tricked me, saying we were going to the beach to meet some friends (as had been the plan all weekend), and instead took me to the ER. She explained when we got there that the ER is the only thing open on Sundays and holidays, and so all cases go there on these days; however, on a daily basis the ER is for anything from cuts to migraines and is generally nothing very serious.

Walking into an American ER you can see some people seriously hurt and needing immediate help. Here in Vigo there was very little waiting space and not even a third of it was occupied. There were three sections according to the complaints, and in my waiting area there was only one other person waiting (as well as the family of the person already being seen and the person still waiting). No chaos, no severe cases, all calm at 1pm on a Sunday.

The receptionist asked for my name and birth date, and recognized that I was American, but needed no further information. Five minutes of waiting and I was in to see the nurse who removed the bandages, checked the cuts for glass, disinfected it again, added new bandages and told me not to bend my knee for two days. That's it. We walked out the door 10 minutes after entering and didn't pay a cent.

Between the orderly, non-chaotic waiting rooms and the open acceptance of all people without payment I was absolutely stunned. I had heard about this from other Spaniards, but I still expected it to be an exaggeration (ie the French health system). Really wow. This was a minor case (and let's hope there will be nothing more serious), but still impressive.

Vigo me encanta

2011-07-28T16:17:00.003+02:00

Vigo (and Galicia) is absolutely beautiful. I arrived yesterday and am amazed at how much it reminds me of Brittany...with a little Spanish spice. I joined the family yesterday evening, meeting the mother and two children downtown in the mom's design shop and then going by car 5km out of the city to their house.

They have an amazing view of the whole city, the ocean, and the Cies Islands which I'm told are paradise on Earth with the best beaches in the world. This was our view after lunch, but no matter the hour the view is breath-taking.

This morning I woke up late, but Spain works to my advantage--"morning" is until 2pm when you lunch. Afternoon goes until maybe 9 or so, then you eat dinner, and afterwards is night. I played all morning with Laura, the daughter--soccer, basketball, swimming--and we talked a lot. I am impressed with her level of English. A ten year old that can communicate almost everything in a foreign language. I am so jealous.

Andres was at his last day of summer math class this morning and came back with company. The whole family and I were joined by the mom's sister and her family, as well as the grandmother for lunch.

We had a nice lunch together on their balcony, enjoying the simply beautiful weather they have here. Just heavenly.

As for my Spanish....well. On the one hand I'm learning a lot of words. Am I'm retaining them? Maybe 20%. Otherwise I feel very insufficient most of the time. If I speak in small groups or one-on-one then things are fine, but unlike my friends in Madrid, these guys don't enunciate and speak slower so I'll be sure to understand. It's just the first day, so we're going to try to have a positive outlook and say at the end of 5 weeks like that I'll have improved a lot...for now it's really just kind of depressing.

The internet connection here is only so-so, cutting out sometimes, but it'll do.

First 24 hours of family time? Good.

Final Countdown

2011-07-24T19:59:00.005+02:00

As of this morning my flight to Madrid still has 20 open seats and so I'm expecting to be able to make it flying standby with American Airlines.

Yesterday I never stopped running around, doing last minute errands and seeing family. Today has been calmer and in just five minutes or so I will leave with my dad to check in my bag. Four hours early=no lines and disgruntled gate agents.

After we do that I'll be coming home for a big family lunch and then going back to the airport around 4, an hour and a half before the flight takes off, to go through security a

nd wait for a ticket to hopefully end up in my hands. Then...

--------------------------

EDIT

--------------------------

Hooked up to a LAN internet connection in the airport. My flight has been delayed by about 30minutes with boarding supposedly starting in five. In any case, I have a seat! Should be in Madrid this time tomorrow.

Surprise Visa

2011-07-21T03:04:00.005+02:00

My visa turned up on time...that is....earlier than I was told...that is...I mean...well.....

At my visa appointment I was assured by a certain Spanish civil servant that I would have my visa back within a month and be able to leave by July 15. Early July comes and I still have no news and am still missing papers for my portfolio at the consulate, so I call in and several times have a different Spanish civil servant insist that my visa would be impossible to obtain until I got that missing document in.

A week later, after cancelling my au pair opportunity in Ourense and raising hell for that family, lo and behold! My visa arrived July 13, exactly one month after my visa appointment (June 13).

Had the mail come a few hours earlier (and the family been more persistant about checking its email) I would still be planning on heading to Ourense to stay with them; that not being the case, I spent four or five days writing to new families and doing all the usual get-to-know-you small talk that you do with au pair families. In the end, the original au pair family set me up with some people they know and I am now headed for Vigo, Galicia, Spain to stay with a family there.

They've never had an au pair before, don't really need one now, and weren't at all planning on having one, but they've been interested by the idea and have interacted with lots of au pairs through friends and family. The parents will be on vacation for the first three weeks and the mother, Monica, has already started thinking over what places we could go visit, what to show me in the city, and what all we can do together. Then I'll be another two weeks without them, alone at home with their two kids (a 14 year old boy and a 10 year old girl) and their German shepherd, ah, and Rosa their cleaning lady and house help that is at home every morning of the week.

I've got a really good feeling with Monica; we talk like friends, joke around and have good discussions in our emails, videochats and msns. The kids are excited and *want* (WOAH!) to work on their English, and the boy also is learning French.

Anyways. This could be really good (dare I say it, better than the original situation...). More to come. I leave Sunday and will be joining the family on Wednesday or Thursday after a couple days of recuperation.

The Early Bird Gets Detained in the Wrong Country

2011-07-09T18:22:00.003+02:00

I was expecting for months to leave around mid-July (meaning next Thursday, ideally), and as of Wednesday I've come to accept the fact that I will not be able to leave before mid-August.

Having had my visa appointment June 13, I was given the impression that I would have no problems getting my visa by mid-July to get a flight out and au pair in Ourense with the family I've been talking to since January. I needed, however, to get an Apostille on my FBI background check and technically my background check was supposed to have been issued in the last three months (meaning from March onwards, while mine was from January). The visa officer was very kind and seemed quite informed, and told me that she would accept the expired FBI check, but that I needed to get that Apostille and fax them it when I got it so she could approve the visa and send it to me.

Wrong. Before going into the appointment I had already requested a new FBI check because I had read that mine would be "expired." I decided I'd wait for the new background check to get in, and thus order the Apostille on the new one (potentially decreasing problems upon arriving in Spain...?). Plus, when I was in France it took under ten days for me to receive the background check from the day I sent the request. Online they were saying it could take up to four weeks, but they had said that in December, too, and it was fine; maybe they'd take a little longer being busier, but it should have been fine in any case.

Come late June I check the FBI site to find that their site now said it could take 6 weeks with the summer back-up. That didn't sound good. I called in to the consulate to talk with my same visa officer and see what she thought. She said to just wait and if I didn't have it by the first week of July then to call her. She didn't really need the Apostille, but she absolutely needed the FBI check--yes, even though at the visa appointment she had said not to bother changing the FBI check and just get the Apostille, meaning she could have told me to send in the old one for the Apostille.

Four weeks after sending the new request for the check, I decided to call in to the consulate and seeing what my visa officer thought (expecting her to say, "Okay, just fax me the older background check and I'll use that," since she knew I had done everything for a new one and would have my parents request the Apostille). I called in....she's on vacation. I ended up talking to a woman that yelled at me and eventually hung up on the first call. She said that it wasn't her problem, that the problem lied with the FBI and I needed to talk to them to expedite things.

I called the FBI, being put on hold for 20mins before talking to someone. This man was extremely nice, but still had bad news--with the summer rush for visas to go to Spain and South Korea they had gotten really backed up and while they never would normally take more than four weeks to return a report, they were now expecting eight weeks for each request and not even touching a request until it had been in their hands for four weeks. He told me to expect August 12, no consideration of expediting it (which I can completely understand...).

I called back into the consulate and fell on the same woman who was calmer. The conversation was short, she essentially telling me it was hopeless then. Her voice started rising towards the end and I closed out the call as quickly as possible...which made me forget that I had wanted to ask when my original visa officer would get back. I called back hoping I could just talk with the secretary rather than getting passed to the visa department again. As soon as I said the officer's name the secretary said, "Oh! Visas! Hang on." and there I was on the phone with the same woman. She didn't take it very well that I was calling in again to purely ask for the other woman when I had already been told she was on vacation. I was undermining her authority (heh, I wonder why) and suggesting that the other officers considered themselves potentially superior as well.

This woman was hopefully the first and last taste of horrible Spanish civil servants. I've heard on several accounts that civil servants in Spain that have a long of contact with the public can not only be very slow, but very inconsiderate. That could make for a very long year.

In any case, this means I have had to cancel the au pair experience I was to do in Ourense. My Spanish will thus not be improving as much as I would have liked before I start living on my own in October. I also put them in a really bad spot, telling them with one week's notice before I was supposed to get there, and three weeks before August when they -really- need someone around to help with the kids.

I'm going to try to find something to do to get some pocket money while here. Also trying to find the pros of being here--dancing, church, seeing my nieces more--but with most of my friends gone from the area or working a lot, I have lots of free time during the days that is starting to be overbearing. Hopefully some sort of summer job will help me with that.

Going into the First Days of Summer

2011-06-26T18:33:00.002+02:00

I'll be the first one to admit that it's been a long time since my last post and long expanses of time between my posts in general. Most of this is due a few important reasons:

-I get busy!

-I journal privately (yes, on paper with pen, woah!).

-I didn't think anyone still looked at this.

After being home now for a couple weeks and having had a few people comment on how I never post anymore I decided that maybe you people are still interested in this and it perhaps is a good form of keeping people informed.

What's happened since April:

-I finished working in Lannion, France as an English teaching assistant.

-I got offered a job in Gijon, Spain as an assistant for the coming school year.

-I found a family to au pair with from mid-July to early September in Ourense, Spain.

-I spent a week travelling in southern France with an American friend.

-I spent two weeks in Spain, travelling a little bit, but mostly staying in Madrid and even spending a night in the massive demonstration that had taken over Sol.

-A friend/old acquaintance died.

-I asked for my visa (and am waiting on that now as my departure date approaches).

-I returned to the US, spending two weeks in Texas before heading to Wisconsin where I am now.

Tonight I will be headed back to Texas for my last three weeks or so on the continent...or at least I hope. That all depends on if my visa comes in in time, which depends on my FBI back ground check coming in time. To summarize the last few months I've basically been making plans for something happen to mess them up, then making new plans, potentially having those messed up, too....lather, rinse, repeat. Things all work out in the end, so I'm trying to keep any stress down to a minimum and go with the flow, accept things as they come.

Things to look forward to in the next month or so (because, let's face it, my track record in keeping this updated hasn't been too hot):

-Myra's wedding

-hanging with Kristen and her partner, Gareth

-the fourth of July? (I feel obligated to look forward to this considering I'm not always in a place that celebrates it, but as of yet I have no plans :\ )

-receiving my FBI report > receiving my visa > going back to Spain

-joining the family in Ourense and starting the au pair experience with them

-Spanish Spanish Spanish (I've started reading Don Quixote in Spanish and coupling that with several Spanish pen pals)

Till next time

Winter Gone, Hello Spring

2011-04-06T16:47:00.004+02:00

The last I wrote winter was starting and today we have 22 degrees celsius with blue skies and beaming sunshine. It is truly a beautiful day as the weather goes, and it is following two days of lovely weather. We could say spring has arrived and Brittany is soaking up the warmth and sun after a typically rainy and cold winter.

Lots has happened on my side, I suppose (thus explaining why I haven't found time to write regularly as originally planned). Here's the skinny:

-Four short days after getting back from Germany I found out that my Venezuelan roommate decided to move out...and he did immediately. The American roommate likewise took the opportunity to bail ship and move in with her boyfriend. In early February one of my best friends here moved in and three weeks later another friend joined us. I'm now living with two French guys--one from Normandy and another from the southwest of the country--and quite frankly the experience is much more enjoyable than how things were previously (as I was often in my room or alone in the house entirely).

-At the end of January I took a long week-end in Portugal, visiting Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto. It remains one of my favorite countries and only gave me desire to return and know it better.

-In February I was called to Rennes to have my medical visit done and to be given my residency card ("titre de séjour"). I, as a result of only having 7 visa stamp boxes left in my passport, sent my passport to the American embassy in Paris and got 24 new passport pages inserted for my future escapades.

-I spent a weekend in March at "Les Gras" in Douarnenez. This is the biggest Carnaval celebration in Brittany and takes place in a small port town near where I used to live in Concarneau. Mostly it is tons of drunk people wearing wigs, funny glasses and strange clothes that walk from bar to bar on the port. I luckily stayed a second night and saw that each night changes. Sunday night is "restaurant night" and while I was still up late and still surrounded by drunk people, I also had a really good time chatting and joking around with them until 12:30am when we left the restaurant.

-After the weekend in Douarnenez I went to Quimper and stayed the week there with various friends, making three times the roundtrip to Concarneau to see my old au pair family, friends from church, and just to see the coast. It was nice to be back there and it still strangely felt like home. A real pleasure to see my old friends with whom I haven't spoken in several months for the most part, but who were as warm and welcoming as ever.

-A week back at school from holiday and I left for a week in England with 50 of my students, 3 colleagues, and a bus driver. We did everything by coach and it was a loooooooong week: Lannion to Calais for the ferry, arrive in Dover, hit London, stay in Stratford-Upon-Avon (birthplace of Shakespear), stay a day in Stratford, day-trip in Oxford, half-day in Warwick, half-day in a Cadbury factory, day in Canterbury before heading back out through Dover and arriving in Lannion at 5am Saturday. Ouch! With two students getting stomach flus from their host family, we were more than happy to arrive at the school and get out of that bus. Can't say I'm a big fan of England and can't say I'm a big fan of chaperoning school trips, but hey, it's over and next year I'll probably say yes again.

-On the ferry to England I received an email from the Spanish administration offering me a post as a language assistant in Asturias for the 2011-2012 school year. Woohoo!

-I also nailed out some plans (ahem) with an au pair family. These plans change on a weekly basis, so I hesitate to say anything for sure, but at the moment I will be in Ourense, Galicia with them from mid-July to mid-September.

-MEANING I will be in Texas from mid/late May to mid-July. Already I know I'll be heading to Wisconsin for a family member's memorial and semi-family reunion, and also going to a friend's wedding in Texas.

I'm excited for each future step, except for leaving Lannion. I've started to feel really at ease here, I have a good friend group, the weather is getting better and better, and there's so much potential in having another year here. Oh well, no luck there, so we'll just have to make the most of the future.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2010-12-12T23:51:00.002+01:00

The decorations that have been up since the beginning of November have begun to be lit each night for the last week. Music has also begun pouring out from speakers placed all over the downtown area, and you have a surreal feeling walking through life with a soundtrack.

This past week I have been doing my Christmas lessons (consisting of listening to and deciphering "White Christmas" and the song that shares the title of this entry) and recently made Christmas cookies, 2/3rds of which are still waiting to be decorated.

Tuesday I leave on my trip to Germany and as of now I haven't even considered packing and still have only about half of my travel arrangements worked out. Yikes! Let's not even get onto the topic of presents...all the same, I'm looking forward to spending time with friends over the holidays and seeing a beautiful country with a rich Christmas tradition.

Pre-Trip Prep, or Not

2010-12-08T09:36:00.006+01:00

Things have returned back to normal concerning the weather here. It's really hardly even cold anymore (or maybe just relatively I don't mind as much).

My hours at school are dwindling each day as already I've had several classes doing their internships and yesterday one of the teachers left on break for a surgery she's having done leaving me with seven hours in the class room for this week and only five next week. Seeing as I'm supposed to be in the classroom 12hrs per week, I'm essentially getting paid for a week of work I won't be doing--but trust me, I've offered to take on hours otherwise to cover that time, but it just doesn't seem that important to the teachers. They're also in "end of semester" mode, meaning they have to give tests and take some grades before the semester closes.

I've still be attending my two hours of Spanish class per week when the class isn't cancelled because of test-taking or snowfall. I'm with a group of about 30 10th grade-level students. While they've probably had Spanish for the last three or four years and I've only been studying for the last three or four months, it's really quite pathetic the amount of progress we can (or can't make) each hour. I'm capable of doing the same work in half the time as them. I suppose it has more to do with motivation than ability, but it's a bit depressing and I'm too lazy (for this semester at least) to look for another more advanced class to follow.

The teacher I'm taking with is actually a long-term sub and in January the "regular" teacher is supposed to "come back" (she hasn't been here since the end of last school year). This is a pity because Celine, the teacher here now, is great both as a person and educator. I know that compared to the other Spanish teachers available at the school she is my best option and from what the others have said concerning the teacher who will return in January, things aren't looking up.

Yesterday I gave her my statement of purpose and a note about my recommendation that I had written in Spanish for the hard copy application I need to send to Miami. She is supposed to correct it and get it back to me sometime soon, at which point I can send in my papers and have the whole matter officially out of my hands. I finished the online portion of the application and while that is really the significant part in terms of getting the post or not (it's a first-come-first-serve system and I was applicant 331 while they take 2000), it'll still be good to know I don't have any more obligations for the program until the FBI background check comes through in three months or so.

This past weekend was quite busy. Friday I headed out in a carpool to Lamballe where I spent the day and night with the assistants there with whom I've become pretty good friends. There's a German named Steffen who I'll be visiting after Christmas, and a Spaniard named Jose who live there and Jose's girlfriend Bea was visiting for the weekend and another German (Annette) was there for the same time as me. The original intention was to go to a fest-noz Friday night that was happening in town, but it was cancelled due to the weather--which we didn't know until showing up to the room and being forced instead to go to the bar across the street.

I had a really great time with them all. It is always interesting when Anglophones are the minority in a group of foreigners. Of course, they all spoke English (of varying levels), but I ended up spending as much time speaking Spanish as French and hardly saying anything in English, except for maybe a few things between the Germans which they would translate or say in German and we'd laugh at how similar it was in English. I was again gratified by my Spanish level and ended up having a fun time with Bea, me being the only friend who could more or less fluently communicate with her.

The next day we woke up to Bea making us riz au lait or arroz con leche (rice pudding?) for breakfast. We had a long morning and then spent the last hours before another carpool back to Lannion making Weihnachtsplätchen, the traditional German Christmas cookies. It was evident walking into the kitchen upon arriving that Steffen is big on Christmas. He had an advent calendar (the kind with chocolates hidden inside) next to the tv, a net of Christmas lights hanging on the wall, and on the table were an arrangement of advent candles and a giant plate of homemade Christmas cookies in star, moon, heart and other forms decorated with powdered sugar icing, chocolate, and/or almonds. :) mmmmmmmm.....sadly, we ate almost all of the cookies that one night....but hey! What better excuse to make more the next day?

Steffen headed back to Lannion with me and after eating a lunch-dinner we walked around town and then went to a bar where we were having a couchsurfing meetup. There ended up being two Indians, a French guy, me and Steffen there, as well as several of my (French) friends who came for the concert that was proposed. While the concert was a bit of a flop, the meetup was fun and we're doing it again Sunday night to play board games and celebrate a new comer's birthday.

The coming weeks are looking equally busy. Tonight I'm going to an amateur improv comedy show. Eventually I want to have friends over to make some more Weinachtplätchen. :P Saturday the local orchestra (Tregorchestre) is having its concert in Morlaix. Sunday night is the CS meetup. Then Tuesday I leave on vacation! I'll be spending a few miscellaneous days in France seeing friends before crossing the boarder for two weeks in Germany! I'm really excited and although I still don't really have all the details laid out, it seems like everything will work itself out in the end.

I'l write more about the plans for Christmas in another entry, as well as about some other projected trips for the winter & spring or the au pair situation in spring & summer.

Buh-bye,

Alicia

Snow Day in Brittany

2010-12-01T14:09:00.003+01:00

It started snowing on and off very lightly Friday or Saturday when I was in Brest. I arrived in Plouaret Tregor, a town nearby, Sunday night to find a couple inches of snow--more than the centimeter or so that had stuck in Lannion.

Every day we have had fewer and fewer students in school as public transportation closes or parents withdraw their boarding house students from school before the weather gets worse.

Today I woke up to a few inches of snow on the roof outside my window and constant snow. It must have started snowing sometime after midnight and has continued since. I've heard both that we have red alert and orange alert for the coming day, and that "the worst" is to arrive towards 4pm today.

I spent about an hour and a half walking around the city taking pictures and running errands as the snow fell. It's really not too cold, but the slipperiness is certainly a problem. With the roads being iced & snowed over, few cars are on the road which makes for a nice change from the usual weekday traffic we have on our road (being right next two the three private schools and not far from the public high school).

There are many more people in the streets than usual. Wednesday is normally a half day in France anyways, but many students won't go to school. With all the students that can't walk to school not attending class, many teachers are forced to not advance with their courses, meaning the two or three students who do show up have wasted time.

Everyone is strolling about, enjoying their walk. Some kids are building snowmen and attempting to sled or at least slide on the ice, and snowball fights are eminent. People say hello when they pass you, and you have the impression that they're not really headed anywhere, but are just out and about (as even those who have someplace to be are forced to go more slowly. The city has already had up its Christmas decorations for weeks now, I suppose waiting for the right moment, and somehow they also snuck up a speaker system form which they are now playing music. It all adds up for a very surreal and strange environment.

2010-11-21T11:45:00.004+01:00

It's mid-November already. I can hardly believe it. I've been back in France already for two months and so much has happened, developed, and gotten lost in the bustle.

From Oct 20 to Nov 3 I was on a trip in the north of Spain. Here's the rough idea of where I was:

I started of by spending a night with some assistants in Lamballe, from where I got a train to Rennes, to get a bus to Nantes, to get on a train to Bordeaux and one last train landing me in Bayonne. Bayonne is a lovely town in the French Basque country.

(Lamballe)

(Bayonne)

Getting there was a bit of a hassle due to national strikes going on in the transportation system, but I got there only a couple hours later than expected and was glad to be able to extend my stay by a day to recuperate. On the second day my host Fred took me on his motorbike to Biarritz. While the town was beautiful I'd say that it was more fun riding the bike than walking around the city.

The next day I took the train for a stop in St Jean de Luz, another town in the Basque country and again on the coast. It was lovely for a picnic on the rocks.

I finished the day in Hondarribia with another CS host, Aitor. Hondarribia is just on the other side of the boarder, still Basque, and again lovely.

It was a pretty chill weekend with Aitor. Saturday we went to "el monte" which is apparently the general term the Basques use to refer to the Pyrenees nearby. We went to Jaizkibel and with beautiful weather it was great. In this picture you can see his dog, Elur, which means "snow" in Basque.

In the afternoon we spent a few hours in San Sebastian. San Seb, or Donostia in Basque, is a beautiful city. This whole region reminded me significantly of California in how physically active the peopele were, in tourism, and in some ways in its land and cityscapes.

Sunday I joined a group of couchsurfers to do a hike from Hundaye, the very edge of the French boarder, to St Jean de Luz. We didn't have great weather towards the end of the afternoon and ended up taking the train back, but we had lots of good conversation and laughs.

My hosts from Bilbao (Bilbo in Basque) were in this group, and so when we arrived back in Hundaye towards 9pm I rode to Bilbao with them and stayed the night, spending the next day seeing Bilbao. I loved Bilbao. I had before heard Spaniards describe it as industrial, ugly and without much interest. On the other hand, I found that while it was a more modern city it was still very interesting from an architectural and cultural standpoint. I loved walking around and would have like more time here.

Monday afternoon I took a bus from Bilbao to Burgos where you can find one of the most well-known cathedrals in Spain. It is a calm town (except for construction work...) with good ambiance.

I was just meeting a friend there and from Burgos we drove to San Vicente de la Barquera on the Cantabrian coast. Absolutely gorgeous.

Tuesday we drove to the Picos de Europa where we spent a day or so hiking. Somehow I was lucky to have great weather almost the whole time I was travelling (save for the Sunday hiking with CSers and two days I'd have in Santiago and A Coruña).

Wednesday night we spent in Cudillero, a fisherman's village in Asturias. The ambiance was again marvellous. Perhaps I've just become too used to big cities and the enormous amount of history they have in Europe, but it's these sorts of towns lost on the coast or the country that make me realize the historic difference between the USA and Europe.

From Cudillero we went to Santiago de Compostela where we parted ways. Santiago is famous as the final destination of a major pilgrimage in Europe. The Caminos de Santiago are very well frequented to this day and the city stays flooded with tourists year round. Aside from this fact, the city was charming. The cathedral was, indeed, marvellous although I was disappointed in this mass service (because of the number of tourists, circulation, lack of emotion).

The Pope was visiting Santiago one week after I was there and even in A Coruña where I attended mass that Sunday, the choir was doing extra preparation for a joint choral thing that would take place the next week in Santiago to greet the Pope. A Coruña is difficult to describe. I didn´t particularly like the town itself, feeling like it was very cold for a city not that large. However, the surfers I met there were great people and so I can´t help but keep a good memory of the place. Otherwise, the weather was impressive. Sunday the winds were so high that sometimes it stopped me in my path or even pushed me backwards. It was constantly sprinkling and chilly, but with some tapas and cañas throughout the day we managed to stay pretty warm. :)

After Coruña I took a bus back to Madrid (7hrs) where the weather was much milder. I stayed with Maria Luisa the night before heading back to France. I should have met my choir director from Texas in Paris, but poor communication caused us to miss each other and so instead I was back in Lannion in the evening having been in trains all day.

Since being back I´ve been meeting up with friends and keeping busy without meaning to--between walks in some forests nearby, fests-noz, birthdays, Thanksgiving, planning Christmas vacation in Germany and the flu it seems like I haven't had a moment to stop here and write.

I've been sick since before going to Spain, but it was really more just a cold then. In the last week that cold mounted with fever, chills, head and body aches, and so I gave in and went to the doctor who told me I had "grippe A" aka swine flu/virus H1N1. Huzzah. It's early in the season for flu, so I guess I can say I'm starting out immunized. I'm not that seriously ill anymore but I've still got a sore throat and sinus problems (which the doctor thinks is due to a sinusitis that's been sticking around for the last year).

Now that I'm feeling better it's time to get a move on in preparing my Christmas holiday.

Last few words--classes are going just fine. Several of my classes have already been starting their internships (professional school students have two two-week internships they do each year) so I've had fewer classes than expected, plus the teachers cancel semi-regularly. But the classes I have had generally go well and there are even some classes I really enjoy working with.

Heading off.

Alicia

La grève en France

2010-10-12T12:07:00.004+02:00

Today is a major strike day in France. For those who don't know, French president Nicholas Sarkozy has made reforms to the retirement system in France. In short:

-the national retirement age has changed from 60 to 62, AND

-you must have worked 40.5 years

-you cannot touch your retirement money until you are 68.

On top of this, previous benefits (like being able to retire earlier if you have three or more children) have been neglected.

French striking is seen in the states and in many other places as over-done. We often hear about violence that breaks out (fires, vandalism to cars and buildings), but what is neglected is how the French view strikes and demonstrations.

Today millions of French people have taken to the streets in demonstration and will be on strike from work. It is unlikely that any violence will occur, and if so that will happen in only a few large cities where violence is already standard (and thus vandalism and violence would normally occur in any case, but is now redirected towards the strike movement). There are many reasons the French organize in this way.

Of course, there is the obvious, "Woohoo! Free day from work!" But seeing as they are not paid for this work day, that is not always an advantage as those who go to the office actually do very little work (because there are no clients and no one else there with whom to work) so they are paid to sit around.

Largely it is the fact of speaking out. All strikes and demonstrations must be registered with the city halls and thus are well-thought and planned. The city closes streets to allow a peaceful, undisturbed way for protesters to pass which could be seen as understood in the people's right to speech and assembly.

October 2 I walked with the protesters of Lannion in their demonstration that was again concerning retirement. While I was there more for the experience and felt a bit silly just strolling along in a mass of people, I could tell to others this was their civic duty. Protesting against reforms, laws, and statements made by the government is as essential to the French citizen as voting for the president (as well as many lower level officials that are often ignored or overlooked in the states).

The fact that my colleagues in their 50s take to the streets alongside my students who are 15 amazes me, and even if the American in me still questions if protests, parades, and strikes do much good, I appreciate and admire their involvement and self-respect.

Rather than criticizing the French for their "radicalism," Americans should be looking to them as an example of political activism and involvement. The political apathy that is evident in American society is cyclic and will not end without a revolution in our mentalities. The tea party protests of 2009 and 2010 have been an unusual display of activism that should continue through all ideologies, parties, age groups, and concerning all levels of government.

Prep Time

2010-10-03T22:35:00.005+02:00

My birthday weekend went really well and about as expected. I went by carpool to Quimper Sunday night and stayed two nights with my friend Alice. Monday I walked around town and in the evening ate dinner with a couple friends before joining a bunch of people in a bar where Alice pulled a cake and candles out of her purse. It was a pretty funny (and unexpected) sight.

Tuesday I went to Concarneau and had lunch with Guillemette. Then I went to the school, spoke with the teachers I used to work with, talked with the administration, went to my old apartment to pick up things I had originally left thinking I wouldn't need them.

In the evening I went back to Guillemette's for happy hour with all of my church friends. It was really good to see all of them and it had also essentially been the first time for them to see each other since I left as choir rehearsal stopped for August vacation. One of the couples in the choir also had their first child, and the other is now pregnant with their second. Things seem to have changed a lot with all of them in the short two months I was gone.

Tuesday night I spent with the family I au paired with in July. They also made me a cake and bought me a present (a collection of French culinary books that is very nice, but whose weight makes me wonder how I'm going to get it back to the states). The girls were excited with seeing me again and the evening went really well. I left Wednesday morning for a series of three trains and four hours to get back to Lannion loaded down with several bags as I picked up all my winter stuff from the family in Ccneau.

Wednesday night the owner of the house came for us to sign the lease and to clear the last inhabitants. As it was their last night and Miguel's first in the house they invited their friends over and we had a party. It was a good initiation of sorts for us as now we have several French contacts our age in Lannion.

Thursday I went in to the school to arrange my schedule with the teachers. I'll be working with the three English teachers in the professional high school. Mostly I'm teaching secretary and engeneering students, but that doesn't much concern me as they will be 10th & 11th graders and I'm just supposed to make them talk, whatever the subject. Because of recent reforms, the seniors don't have English oral exams to graduate, but the younger students will.

I am only scheduled to work three days a week--6hrs Monday, 3 Tuesday morning and 3 Friday morning. The teachers have already said that for the weeks before vacations I am excused that Friday so that I can take advantage of not working Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday or Thursday. I've already jumped on that and moved my ticket to Spain for Halloween vacation up a few days.

Mondays will be long days, starting at 8am and going until 4:30. I also just learned that the church choir rehearses Mondays at 7, making it a longer day, but it will also be nice to know I've got half of my hours done the first day of the business week.

Friday I went in again to the school to do some administrative stuff and discuss courses with the main English teacher. In the afternoon Pierre, the last of the French inhabitants, left on vacation and so began the extensive cleaning and rearranging of the house. The place has definitely transformed since changing inhabitants, and we're all happy for that as it is a much friendlier and healthier place to be living than what we knew under the other roommates.

The heat was also turned on at the beginning of the month (rather than the middle like we expected), making the place much nicer. It really is a pretty neat house and once you get used to certain quirks about it then it's just fine.

Friday and Saturday were comprised mostly of cleaning and unpacking. Saturday morning I had a meeting at the bank to arrange for a change of address. Turned out this is actually much more complicated than it ought to be. Because I changed departments they essentially have to close my account in the other department (rendering my card useless when they do switch the address) and open a new one here. This also means changing the banking information I gave to the school in order to get paid. A bit of a hassle, but the woman that is helping me is really nice and knows her stuff.

After the appointment, Miguel and I went downtown to see and walk in the demonstration that was put on concerning the retirement reforms. It wasn't much to see, and was rained out at the end, but apparently there was a significant number of protesters throughout the country and it was interesting to see it happen here in our community.

Saturday night we went out with some French friends (that we'd met Wednesday) to one of their friend's houses to hang out and have galettes (dinner crepes). We met several other people and talked a lot aside from eating really tasty homemade galettes. However, by the end of the evening we were exhausted from the effort it takes to function in a foreign language after a certain hour. :P

Today has been more or less relaxed for me. Christine and Miguel went to a sort of festival about bio foods awareness. They were gone all day. I did lots of paperwork, arranged files, went to a local church festival where I got lots of good information about the church (youth group, choir, mass times) and then went to mass in the evening.

Tomorrow is my first day, but luckily (thanks to a training session for the teachers) I don't start at 8am. I've got class at 10am and so will be going in around 9:30 to do some more administrative stuff and print up copies for my first class. Things all seem relatively easy this year considering I've already done it all once. Everything from lessons, to expressing myself in French (I've even had several people thinking I was French), to paperwork and redtape is working out for the better this year.

Here's hoping that doesn't change with my first day at work tomorrow! Tuesday I'll teach in the morning and then head off to Saint Brieuc, the "capital" of the department where I'll have orientation with all the other assistants in the department Wednesday. Will try to update again at the weekend. Till then,

Ali

De retour

2010-09-25T17:45:00.004+02:00

I have once again returned to France. I sort of dropped out of existence while I was in the states, having been busy with visits with family and friends, visa stuff, church and so on. As you can imagine, my return date arrived much faster than I would have hoped or expected.

I left Tuesday 21 September for Paris on a direct flight from Dallas that arrived at 9:40am. I spent Wednesday through Friday in Paris seeing the sites with a friend and left Friday evening for Lannion.

The town is much bigger than Concarneau, even if there are fewer people who live here. Everything is pretty quiet, even if I live very close to downtown, and the house is very sombre, so life is tranquil (all 20hrs I've led of it here). I ended up getting a house with two other assistants (a Venezuelan named Miguel and an American named Christine). This year the school did not offer housing, and so I posed the question to the couchsurfing community from which I got several suggestions. One girl wrote me saying her and her roommates were leaving at the end of the month and so we could consider taking over her house.

We have done that. The house is very well situated--10 minute walk or less to anything (train station, downtown, church, school, pool, movie theatre, etc) unlike the apartment in Concarneau had been. However, it is a stone house and thus very cold. The heating won't be turned on until mid-October, which is rather standard in France with their commonality of radiators rather than ac/heating units like in the states. It is also a row house, so it doesn't get a whole lot of light. I hope the house won't be too depressing in the winter.

You can also hear most everything going on in the areas around you. Right now I'm staying in the attic room, which will actually be Christine's as she's already been here a while and it was the room immediately available. I'll have the second floor room which is the largest with a huge walk-in closet, but will probably also have the most noise (being stuck between the two floors and next to all the water pipes, which are VERY noisy).

Today I slept in and then went walking this afternoon. I walked down to the school, then turned back to head downtown. There seems to be lots of interesting things at Lannion. Perhaps I only think that because I am new here, but relative to Concarneau I really believe it will be easier to live here.

I fell upon the school of music, which is very close to the house. They have a trombone teacher who is going to ask around for me to see if there's a horn I could rent. Apparently there is a horn teacher at the school of music in Quimper, which frustrates me seeing as I tried to go there, but the secretary wouldn't give me any information as it was too late to register when I arrived. There is also an adult community band that apparently is pretty decent. The plan for the moment is to find a horn and if that doesn't work a trumpet, and if that doesn't work then I'll join the trombone studio at the school as he can rent me a trombone.

I walked down through the town. I feel much more comfortable living here than in Concarneau. Ccneau was great in the summer. It is really a tourist town that comes alive with the good weather, but Lannion has lots of shops, pubs, etc, that are designed for people to live in the town. There're also several theaters for live acts and exhibits.

As for church, it's so far been a no-go. I went to the office of tourism to find out about masses. There are three--one Saturday evening, one Sunday morning, and another Sunday evening farther out of town. I walked by (around) the church mass is supposed to be at, but found no door that was open (although they are supposedly open until 6pm). There is also a lot of renovation being done on the outside, so I'm worried they may have changed 10:30 mass to another church for a certain period of time. I suppose I will find out.

Also got info for dance studios & choirs in the area. The house is literally next to a Catholic school, so I may see about working with the English teachers there like I had the opportunity to do last year (but ended up not doing considering the distance between my school/house and the Catholic school in Ccneau).

The current tenants of the house are here until Thursday, and so I am staying here tonight in Christine's room (she has gone to visit cousins in Lorient) and then leave tomorrow evening for Quimper. I will go by rideshare (assuming my ride gets back to me to tell me where to meet her). I'm staying with a CS friend, Alice, Sunday and Monday nights. Hopefully we will be able to pull people together for something Monday to celebrate my birthday. Then Tuesday night I will spend in Concarneau and I leave Wednesday morning from Quimper. I'll be getting all my winter stuff from the old au pair family in Concarneau, which is good because it is already cold! (I had to borrow Cecile's coat to walk around today and tonight will be worse); however, that means I'll have baggage with me (at least my hiking backpack and a carry-on size suitcase) making rideshare less practical. So I've got my ticket Quimper>Brest>Lannion for Wednesday which will take me a total of about 3.5hrs (driving it takes less than two).

Thursday and Friday I will go to the school. I think Oct 3 I will sign the lease (the landlady will be here), meaning I can change bank info as well. Wednesday night Miguel will be getting here, and Thursday will be our first night alone as the three roommates, so I imagine the weekend will be good in getting settled and to know each other.

Keep ya posted,

Alicia

Sojourn Stateside

2010-08-20T21:46:00.005+02:00

I have now been in the states again for 17 days and things have started to seem more and more normal. Of course, "normal" could just be modified view the fact that I am travelling again.

Wednesday the 11th my dad and I left for Kansas City, Missouri. We stayed there two nights with a great uncle and great aunt of mine, having the time mostly just to see them and go to the art gallery. Friday morning we left for Wisconsin and had horrible weather driving up. Iowa was flooded from storms and the one we were stuck in for hours on end was not helping their case.

After 11.5hrs of driving with only three stops we finally made it in to Neenah. Since then things have been cool and relaxed. The time has truly flown by--I remember the beginning of our stay here, thinking that a week and a half seemed a long time for someplace you don't really have anything to do. That's just about how it always goes here, though. You find things to keep yourself busy and somehow the hours of deadspace fill up; without realizing it all your days are past you and you have to repack and head out.

Yesterday we went to visit two great aunts of mine that are in assisted living homes. Tonight we're going out for the traditional Friday night fish fry and then going to see "Carousel." Tomorrow we'll be having brunch with some cousins. Sunday is a day at home to get everything in order for our 6am departure Monday. We're allowing 11-12 hours from here to Kansas City, and since we want to be there for dinner it means an early morning.

My grandmother is heading down as she will stick around a week to visit, but we will head out on Wednesday when we'll go to our home in Texas for the night. Thursday I'll leave again with my mother to go to Houston. Friday morning I have my meeting at the consulate to get my visa and then we'll come back up to DFW afterwards. However, the same day I will turn right back around to go to Austin in order to visit friends that are down there from Friday to Tuesday.

What a week, eh?!

In the meantime I have also already started looking to my return to France. I got the contact info for my future colleagues and potential roommates. Aside from me, there will be another American assistant (from Seattle), a Venezuelan guy, an Italian woman and a German woman. I've heard from everyone but the German and had extensive exchange with both the American and Venezuelan. It looks like we could have a fun and agreeable group ahead of us.

I've been working with our contact trying to figure out the housing situation. Originally he told me that there wouldn't be housing available and we would have to look for ourselves. This was incongruous from what I'd heard from a past assistant there, so I kept digging. I later found out that our contact had tried to ask about this in June or so and never gotten a response, so instead of telling us there was a slight possibility and he wasn't sure, he told us there wasn't....when finding our own housing would cost two to three times more than if we got an apartment from the school.

In any case, I have done my research and have what I need if I have to find housing myself. The assistants are all in agreement about living together, too. I am still going to wait until the beginning of the school year to call in on skype and try to handle things myself concerning the appartement de fonction (practically free apartment the school could give us like I had last year).

It's really great already having lessons ready so that is not something else I have to consider. Instead....I get to plan my first holiday!! I've already looked into travel arrangements for going to Asturias during the Halloween vacation time we get. I've bought my return ticket from Madrid through Paris, but in terms of getting to Asturias it will be a bit more difficult. The idea is to spend about a week in Asturias (Galicia & Cantabras, too?) before heading down for a few days with friends in Madrid. The tickets for the return were just so reasonable that I jumped on it while I could. For going down there I'm hoping to find a ride share. There are several listed for Brittany>the north of Spain, but nothing as far out as late October. I guess it just means I'll have to wait.

If I try to fly it really isn't at all convenient, so I'm just waiting to see and keeping an eye out for tips.

That's that.

Being a Legal Alien: When you feel foreign in your country of origin

2010-08-07T22:27:00.005+02:00

I have noticed since being home that I don't exactly "go" here anymore. There are distinct moments where I have a faint feeling of déjà vu that render me slightly uncomfortable, and while the déjà vu feeling passes once I've realized things were always that way, the discomfort does not. Overall I have come to think of this as the "Legal Alien Syndrome"--when you've become accustomed to things being the foreign way so that what you were born and raised with seems strange. Below I have listed a few of the things off the top of my head that have already occurred several times. Stay tuned as this list will doubtlessly expand.

-the money feels fake and flimsy

-tipping waiters

-where are all the trees and parks and general verdure?

-everyone seems superficially friendly, but no one else seems to notice it's a lie

-it is HOT, infernally hot

-we drive everywhere and can't walk because of the heat

-meals can take less than an hour and don't forcibly happen with other people

-hugs or handshakes, not cheek kisses

-there are as many machines as people

-America has legitimate beer, not just budweiser

-how do I have so much clutter?

-meat at every meal

-I can talk fast. Really fast. Sometimes to the point of not really understanding what I'm saying anymore.

-I speak French when I'm tired

-....baseball?

-sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar. Everywhere. In everything.

-I can go anywhere at anytime, and not worry that they will be closed during two hours for lunch

-the morning ends at noon, afternoon at five, evening at eight, and night is limited to 2am

-they check IDs here because I really only just became legal

-women have big hair and wear makeup

-you can talk to anyone, and if you don't more than likely they will talk to you

-did they always have that accent? I've been telling people all year that people in Dallas generally DON'T have southern accents....what happened?

Behind much?

2010-08-06T06:13:00.003+02:00

What a time since I've last written! The end of June seems ages ago, and yet it is just a little over a month past.

Highlights:

-got renewed

-month with the family, taking care of two little girls--English lesson & playing in the morning, lunch, then sports in the afternoon, beach after activities, then done

-went to Nantes for a weekend

-stayed in Quimper three nights during the festival de Cournouaille, attended several fests noz (Breton dance festivals) and met lots of good people

-met a Spanish friend in Nantes, went to the Mont Saint Michel and finally ended up in Paris

-tried six days to fly standby out of Europe back to the states, both from Paris and Madrid, finally getting out on my last intended day to try and the day before air traffic controllers went on strike in Spain

Now I've just been home two days. I can't say I've done much to fight the jetlag--waking up consistently at 6:30am, going back to sleep whenever I'm tired and staying up until I don't feel like it anymore (typically 10pm, so tonight we're doing a bit better). I spent the entire day Wednesday at home and only went out after arriving tonight to have dinner and play volleyball with my sister.

Just a few days before arriving back in the states, my arrêté de nomination arrived at my parents' address in Texas. The packet is the same as the last year--the contract and a page detailing contact information. This time it also includes the cerfa form that I had to fill in and return to the academy.

The document is stamped saying it was received on July 8 and it was August 2 that my contract arrived in Texas. The envelope is postmarked July 29, so it took less than a week to arrive and means that in 20 days the academy and préfecture managed to get everything in order for m. A pretty good turn around!

My mother booked my appointment with the consulate the day they received my contract as I was having difficulty doing so from Europe. For some reason the calendar system didn't work from my computer and the consulate did not respond to a message I sent them requesting assistance. The appointment is currently set for August 23 (in about a week and a half), but we may move that date up in the interest of taking a trip to Wisconsin to see my grandmother.

I intend on returning in the late teens or early 20s of September as my passport complete with visa should be returned to me no later than September 13. Getting there early will give me a leg up on all the paperwork (getting the attestation de domicile, transferring my bank account, turning in the OFII form, etc), and also time to get to know the town and my colleagues before I begin at school. I will also need to make a trip to Concarneau before things get hectic as I left a significant amount of clothing and school supplies in the house of my last au pair family for safe keeping.

I spoke with the assistant of two years ago and got a little bit of information on the situation. Having already done this a year, I'm much more laidback about everything--I've realized that no matter how much others tell you, your own perspective will vary immensely from their own. All the same, I should have three roommates--another anglophone, an hispanophone, and a germanophone. We'll share an apartment near downtown towards the middle school, and work at the high school about 30mins by foot away. There is a train station, but no (or few) buses. Having a university as well as several large French enterprises, there are lots of young adults in the town, contrary to Concarneau, but has about the same population as the last town. No sea, but not far from the Pink Granite Coast for which the Côte d'Armor is famous.

I only just sent an email to my professor contact at the new school, and while he is on vacation I doubt I will receive much of a response. We shall see, and maybe at least the next couple of months I'll be able to keep this up-to-date.

Renewal News

2010-07-13T14:00:00.004+02:00

Two days after being back in Concarneau I went to the high school I used to work in and, with the secretary in the office, called into the regional education department office. As soon as the phone was handed over to me, the woman told me that she had two assistant positions immediately available for the 2010-2011 school year. She offered either 1/2 middle school, 1/2 professional high school in Jocelin (a small town in Morbihan), or full time in a professional high school in Lannion.

I spoke with my colleagues in the office and upon their advice called back to take the position in Lannion. I'm told by many that Lannion is the same size as Concarneau, but because there is a university and offices of several large French companies, there are lots of young adults, so the town is more active. It is not on the coast, but it has a large river that runs through it and the coast of pink granite, famous in all of Brittany, is not far away. Most excitingly, there is a train station in Lannion, so it'll be much easier all around to occupy my free time next year.

Upon getting back I wrote to the assistants that were there this past year, and was redirected to Adrienne, the assistant from two years ago who is apparently the authority (she repeated another year in St. Brieuc, where the prefecture is in the Cote d'Armor). Apparently, I'll be in an apartment similar to what I had this year, but closer to the downtown area (and about 30mins from my school :\) with three other assistants--an hispanophone, a germanophone, and another anglophone that will be in the general studies part of the high school.

I had to complete and return four copies of a new form called the CERFA, and send four passport photos with it. That went to Mme Vignais in Rennes (the person responsible for all assistants in Brittany), and she then forwards it to the prefecture in the Cote d'Armor who, I'm told, take about 3-4 weeks to get back to me about my contract. So I am, of course, a little worried about my visa. I sent my forms to Vignais around July 5, meaning it won't be until the end of the month at the earliest that they're done with processing. Then with a two week turn around in the mail to get the contract to the states, that puts me at mid-August. Then there's another two to three weeks necessary after having had my visa appointment to actually get my visa. That means mid-September is the absolute earliest I could head back to settle in. That's bureaucracy for you.

I have tried booking a visa appointment online (as is required) through the French consulate in Houston, but their system isn't loading properly. It's frustrating as the appointments for only a month from now will surely be mostly full. ah well...I was expecting to spend around six weeks back in the states, but with less hurry about it all. For now, I'm waiting for my school to contact me or to get my contract (arrêté de nomination) after that everything will fall together easily enough.

Exactly two weeks left in France until I hopefully fly out to Dallas on Tuesday July 27. Wow! Till then--with another French family (which I'll write about next entry), festival de Cornouaille (and lots of fests noz!), maybe a friend visiting this weekend, possibly a day trip to the islands this weekend, a friend visiting next weekend and some traveling with him, not to mention all the packing--yikes!

A Long Month Short

2010-06-29T12:40:00.005+02:00

I've looked over my last entry and I feel like there is an abyss to fill to explain between then and now. So here's the short explanation of a very long month.

After my first program with PI in Coto del Valle I spent the week staying in Madrid with my friends Raquel and Juanma. Saturday I slept in and did all around nothing. Sunday we three took a trip to Toledo, which is a beautiful town and definitely worth a daytrip from Madrid. Monday was spent in Madrid walking around, and Tuesday I headed off to Segovia for another daytrip. It was another nice little town, but pales in comparison with Toledo. It didn't help that the weather was pretty rotten. I ran into two Canadians straight off the train, though, and spent the day walking around with them. That night I met up with people in a pub from my the second PI program. Wednesday I met up with a friend who is travelling Europe and happened to pass through Madrid that day. We hit El Ratiro and sat in a bar with beers and tapas. That night I had dinner with two guys that had been at Coto del Valle with me--one Spaniard and the other English/Brazilian who was staying with the Spaniard. Thursday I stayed again in Madrid as the welcome lunch for my second PI program was that afternoon.

Friday I headed off for another week of Pueblo Ingles. I think doing two programs so close to each other was a bad idea for me. I still enjoyed myself at the second, but I had difficulty getting as close to most of the people as I would have. I also had much more trouble remember names than normally. It didn't help either that I didn't get along with either the Program Director or the Master of Ceremonies (the two PI representatives that run the week). It was a bit of a disappointment, but I still made some really good contacts from that and will probably meet up with people all the same.

For that week I was in La Alberca, which was the same venue I went to in February, except that this time it was beautiful with summer weather and roses. I couldn't get over the change in the air that summer brought to that little town. It was really nice.

I went back and that Friday evening met up with Spaniards from my second program to watch the Spain-Chile game (which Spain won, moving on in the World Cup). Then we went out for tostas and retired an early night. I wouldn't have been able to go on anyways.

Saturday was an interesting day. I was supposed to fly out to France that day...supposed to. When I had been looking at flights I had been considering two different ones....and when it came down to the day of, I remembered the wrong flight, thinking it was at 1pm while it was actually at 9:35am. I thought to check when I woke up that morning, but it was too late by then. We rushed to the airport all the same to change my ticket. It cost me an extra 52€, but I was glad to not have to buy a new flight which would have cost around 250€ while the original flight was 100€. With changing the flight you have to be put on the next available plane, so they changed me to a flight Madrid>Paris for 7:20am Monday. Oof!

In the end, I didn't mind all this because it gave me two more days in Spain, for which I was grateful. Saturday I stayed mostly at the apartment and then took a walk in the evening to see Vicalvaro (the suburb of Madrid they live in, although it's recently been added to Madrid and is no longer a suburb). We got dinner at a cafe and then walked around a carnival that was going on in the neighborhood.

Sunday I met with a girl from the third PI group to walk through El Rastro--the flea market. It was a nice day, and I accompanied her while she took pictures of people and stalls, running away before people could hit her. :P We headed from there straight to join some people in Sol (the center of Madrid). We ended up being a group of ten people going from bar to bar. Turned out one of our friends' birthday was the next day, so it was a partial birthday celebration, partial parting of ways considering the few anglos there were all leaving the next day. It was a really nice time and I appreciated being in non-giri areas (giri is the friendly word the Spanish use to say tourists). It was also funny, me trying to use what little Spanish I have in the bars while speaking English with my Spanish friends.

While we met in Sol at 1:30pm, I didn't get home until 10:15. Luckily I was still pretty much packed from Saturday and so things didn't take too long to straighten up for the next morning. Leaving for the airport at 5:15am was rough all the same and I was very sad all morning to be leaving Spain. Even upon arriving in France I was still bitter, and it wasn't until I got int Quimper that I started being somewhat happy to be back home.

There's lots more news to add on top of this, but to create a sort of mental break I'll stop here and continue my stories later in another entry.

For now, join me in rooting on the Spanish national team in the world cup! All of my other picks (France, US, Portugal) are out, leaving my last fav still pushing through. Till next time,

First days in Spain

2010-06-12T20:02:00.004+02:00

I have been in Spain since June 2. I flew into Madrid from Geneva and joined my friends Raquel and Juanma at their home in the southeast of Madrid (near Puerta de Arganda). Their apartment is lovely and I am really lucky that they are welcoming me for as long as I'm here. I do have other friends who have invited me to stay with them and I will consider that as time goes on both to change a bit and to see them as well.

I spent Wendesday and Thursday with them and left for my second Pueblo Ingles program (#490) Friday morning, having Juanma drop me off at the bus stop on his way to work. I then took the 6hr bus ride to Cazorla National Park sitting next to Fernando H., one of the Spaniards in the program.

A six hour bus ride is horrible, but it could happen in less beautiful places than Spain. The countryside is astounding here and I the more time I spend in this country the more I ask myself why anyone would ever leave it, it's so wonderful. The landscapes, the cities, the people, the food, the culture(s) are all great and I am slowly falling in love with the idea of living here and speaking this language.

I spent the first few days at PI unconvinced as to whether it would be a good program. The group had several cliques, one being the masters students who had already done the program once and were bored/cranky, making it less enjoyable for everyone. However, the official party was Sunday night and that really united everyone. You could feel the camaraderie and the rest of the week followed much more smoothly and enjoyably.

I've again made some great friends and hope to continue getting to know some people as time goes on--especially some of the Anglos with whom I wasn't able to speak as much. Maite, the program director for both of the programs I've now participated in, became good friends with me, which is slightly surprising reflecting back on the first week we knew each other and hardly ever spoke. She is a great woman and I'll be crossing my fingers again hoping she will be on my future programs so that we can hang out again.

All around the group was much younger than the first week back in February. Saying that, there was a 90 year old American woman there from Arizona who was astounding in her youthfulness. Most of the participants, however, were younger than 40. I'll be meeting a few of them downtown tonight.

I approached the week with a much more pedagogic perspective. I wrote down different techniques they used and will try to convert some things to spice up any future courses I have.

The changes that have occurred in the last two weeks have caused a lot of reflection and I can see a prolonged stay in Spain producing a lot of changes in my life and mindset. I look forward to some change, but am approaching it all cautiously.

Changes

2010-05-30T21:23:00.004+02:00

Making a long story short, my two month stay in Chamonix is being cut to one month and I am headed for Spain instead!

We got back from Disneyland and Paris after six long days and nights as well as a 12hr round trip car ride during which I was glued in place between two car seats, one belonging to an eight year old and the other to a four year old. Needless to say, this was a very trying trip for me and I was relieved to be back at the house.

Since the trip, we've had a great time. It seems to me that the children are nicer and more fun than ever and it's a shame that my stay will be cut short for that reason, but I can easily recall the times things don't go so well. At the very least, the Spanish sun will be a nice change from the rain and thunderstorms (aside from our only sunny period we had in Paris).

There is a lot I will not be able to do here--Remy's birthday, Flora's sax recital, going to the top of the Aiguille du Midi and Mont Vert--but there's a lot of potential stored up in my stay in Spain as well. I am happy for this opportunity because I had really been hoping to get my visa renewed so that I could spend August in Spain.

I'll be leaving from Geneva and arriving in Madrid on Wednesday, June 2, and I've already reserved my spot in a Pueblo Ingles program to start that Friday (orientation lunch on Thursday). I'm hoping to get invited to another PI program from the 18th to 25th and as such I have not bought my return ticket yet--thank goodness for low cost airlines!

I'll spend around a total of three weeks in Spain as I hope to return to Concarneau to join the other family by June 28th as we had already arranged (that gives me a week to practice driving, get settled in, etc). In the week (or two if I do only the one week of PI) I have free, I may travel (considering the north of Spain towards Asturias and Galicia or heading back to Portugal as I could be get to Lisbon for the city's Saint Day--a huge celebration). I could also take an intensive Spanish course with a duration of either one or two weeks, the option of 20-35 hours per week. I can't begin to imagine how this would influence my comprehension ability, but at the same time the allure of travelling (and especially of being back in Portugal) is very strong and I don't know if I'll do as I ought to and enroll in school over wandering the countryside.

While I'm in Madrid I will stay mostly with a friend I made back in February. At least the first two nights I will be there until I start PI. I am invited to stay as long as I'll be around, but I will probably contact other friends in order to spend time with them as well as to not impose too much on Raquel and her husband's lives.

For now all is well and I'm making chili tomorrow night, so that'll be good!

L'apéro géant

2010-05-14T13:31:00.009+02:00

With the recent popularity of Facebook in France, the "apéro géant" was born. "Apéro" is short for "apéritif," which is like a happy hour get together. In November 2009, the first Giant Happy Hour occurred in Nantes. People organize an event and allow an open invite, setting a time & place in a city for all the young people interested to gather and drink from dusk to dawn (at least this is my understanding).

This could be, in theory, a very neat event. It brings people together in a warm environment just to relax and meet new people. The problem comes when the idea of the aperitif is transformed into an excuse to drink.

Early on Thursday morning, following the all-night apéro held in Nantes's Place Royale, a 21 year old man died when he fell from a bridge walking home from the event with an alcohol level of 2.4g (three times the legal limit). Aside from him, there are 93 people taken in to care for various injuries, 57 of those being relocated to a hospital. Around thirty people were arrested for reasons varying from public intoxication to drug trafficking.

The mayor of Nantes has stated that he believes the apéros géants to be a national problem, a claim that could easily be defended when you search for the apéros on facebook and find certain events with over 5,000 attendees (Nantes's saw 9,000 and that of Montpellier the same night, 10,000).

This style of event largely reminds me of the now-illegal practice of the botellón in Spain. Both of these ideas--drinking in the evening in public places--are great in theory, but the extremities people take them to render the event dangerous and disruptive. Seeing the effects of legalized public consummation of alcohol increases my appreciation for the restrictions in the US.

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Most of my information as well as the photo was taken from: http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/un-mort-apres-l-apero-geant-de-nantes_891945.html

Life in a Small Town

2010-05-10T09:58:00.004+02:00

When I moved from Texas to Concarneau, I had an adjustment to make. I went from being in the suburb of two large cities, population 60,000, to a town of 20,000 where the closest "city" had the same population of my suburb town. I went from being five mins from the airport to an hour from a train station and 4-7hrs from various airports. I went from instant transportation with a vehicle to walking or relying on coaches between cities. I went from hot and dry to cold & rainy. Big, active church, to a struggling one. Student to teacher. Dancing to nothing. I could really go on, but the main thing that hurt in making these adjustments was that I was going into what I viewed as a small town for the slowest and coldest season without means to connect me to things to do.

With time I obviously adapted. I made friends, we were able to go out, we mastered the public transport system and the cold and rain just became a norm rather than a hindrance.

Switch then to Chamonix Mont-Blanc. A "city" of 10,000 inhabitants with its active season being winter and its main activities being rock climbing, skiing, biking, and golf. Everyone you meet will speak a significant amount of English. You must have a car to get anywhere, and usually that "anywhere" will need to be sport-oriented because there's not much else to do in this valley. Throw in there that the ice skating rink is closed May & June and the pool for May, so the two sports I would be more inclined to participate in are out of the question. Oh and wait, I don't even live in Chamonix--I'm 15mins east by car in Argentière.

It's another adjustment; I won't say it's bad, but it is different and I'm a bit apathetic to make an effort considering I will be going back in Brittany in six weeks (officially booked my train tickets for Monday June 28, arriving in Rosporden at 9:15!). Weather is a still a bit rotten, meaning Breton and I could handle that if the family didn't see that as a reason to stay inside and do nothing but watch tv all day.

Being couped up does have its advantages, though; that being that I've already finished a book--Ernesto "Che" Guevara's The Motorcycle Diaries (which is wonderful read). Did I mention that the library is also closed Sunday, Monday and all mornings?

So there's a snapshot of things going on (or not going on) in Chamonix. For all my complaining, I -am- enjoying myself and making progress.

Mal Traiter vs Mal Surveiller

2010-05-06T10:29:00.004+02:00

In today's 24hr info section of the local newspaper, aside from clips about Bin Laden potentially being in Washington and the proposed education reforms, there was a snippet about a mother who left her 18 month old and 4 month old children alone at home for a period of several hours.

It is unlikely that this would have ever been discovered, except for that the 18 month old was murdered and half-eaten by the family's dog.

When Thierry & Emmanuelle (the parents of the family I'm an au pair in) told me this, I first asked if in France they typically kill the animal when it's done something like this. They replied yes. I then asked, just to verify, if the four month old (which went unharmed) would be taken from the mother and relocated. Their incredulity ensued. "Why would they do that? Of course not!"

I can imagine that my question would be shocking for them, had they never considered the possibility of children being taken away when poorly taken care of. I expect that is especially so because that would add a whole new dimension of government intervention into their lives that they're not accustomed to. However, a mother who leaves two very young children alone for several hours on end, regardless of whether one was eaten by the dog, is an act of neglect.

When I suggested this idea, that the mother would be deprived of her second child, the two explained that children are only taken away for cases of "maltraitement" or mistreatment, but this was clearly a case of being "mal surveiller"--poorly supervised--but that leaving children is also part of their education. Poor supervision (to such an extent as this) can be neglect, and neglect can be mistreatment; yet, in France mistreatment is clearly defined as physical abuse.

The dog, which was probably acting on instinct (assuming there was some sort of provocation by the child or extreme neglect to feed it), will be put down. The mother, whose common sense must have been overridden by things with more priority than her children, will be left to raise the younger child. I find this unusual and frightening.

A Month in a Nutshell

2010-05-01T22:01:00.006+02:00

What a month! My last post was April 2nd and thinking of all that I've done since this, it's striking.

My last day of teaching was Thursday, April 8. That night I went with Julia and another young English teacher to a Math teacher's house for a dinner. Friday the 9th I played in the student-teacher volleyball match which ended quite abysmally despite having practiced a couple times.

That same night was Julia (the German's) going away party, but really more of everyone's going away party as the majority of assistants left on vacation in April and didn't go back or not for long after. There was a party at her house along with a concert of sorts for which we all had prepared different things to perform. Videos have been posted on facebook. I sang vocal harmony on two songs Julia wrote--I sang in German! Apparently I did a good job, but there were only two Germans there to account for that. I also sang one song--"Henry Lee"--with Miguel.

Saturday Miguel left for Belgium to do volunteer work as an interpreter with EMMAUS. Sunday Julia R. and I prepared dinner for Julia S.'s parents who arrived that afternoon. We had a big dinner together, the two Julias, me, Julia's parents, Sandrine & Jeanne (a work colleague/friend of Julia's and her daughter).

I left Monday around noon to be at Quimper for a rideshare to Paris. I had my large hiking backpack, although it was not full. Using covoiturage.fr I got a 30€ ride to Paris (whereas even the cheapest ticket to Paris would have been around 50€ probably). In Paris I surfed with Hélène for the night, just taking it easy so I'd be up for meeting Kristen at the airport (Roissy) the next day.

Met Kristen without any problems and then headed into Paris where we had a bit of trouble getting out because trains were all messed up with strikes. We did finally get out to Lyon, though, where we took a drink while waiting for our friend, Tanguy, to get off of work. We stayed a few days there, spending our time mostly at the Parc de la Tête d'Or, walking the riversides and climbing the Fourvière to the basilica.

We left Friday in a rideshare to go to Nîmes where we stayed with two friends, Kathleen and Seb, who had just had a litter of kittens! Bit noisy, especially as he first night one of the kittens died. Unnerving, but I guess that's life.

Nîmes was cool because there were reenactments of the Roman games going on in the ancient Roman arenas that weekend. Thus we saw people dressed up walking all around town the entire weekend. Otherwise it was a rather disappointing town and we should have probably passed by Marseille instead, but it was a still good experience especially because of the Chilean restaurant we came upon.

We took a rideshare from Nîmes to Carcassonne in the southwest. It was a lot like a landlocked Concarneau with an old closed-in downtown, gorgeous but touristy. The guy we stayed with is a culinary arts teacher in a professional school there. He lived for five years in Japan and thus our first dinner with them was a very impressive (but standard) Japonese dish (miso daki) that was really quite good--eel & shrimp boiled in broth or water with vegetables (carrots, cabbage, spinach, onions) and eaten with a mixture of pureed black raddish, ginger annnnnd something I don't remember.

Getting out of Carcassonne is almost more memorable than the town. We were supposed to get a train out at 2:34, but it was cancelled because of the strike that was still going on in the southeast (and thus the train did not exist in the SE to pass to the SW). We changed tickets for 3:30, but upon taking them it was already an hour or so late. Turned out that there was a forest fire in Beziers, a town just to the east of Carcassonne, so no trains were passing through it until it was tamed. Our train that should have been at 3:30 left at 9. We got into Bordeaux at midnight, got the last tram half the way there and then walked (sometimes in the wrong direction...cough) the rest of the way to our host's place. We were so glad that he had waited up for us and his friend was there to let us in because he had actually gone to the train station to try to meet us.

Bordeaux was a gorgeous town by night and thus our first impression was great. By day it was just a bit of a standard town. We made dinner (fajitas & grilled cheese) both nights we were there for dinner. Our first day was spent in Bordeaux proper, our second day we took a day trip out to Arcachon where we visited the Great Dunes of Pyla, the largest sand dunes in Europe. It was really something to see and time well-spent.

Friday we headed out on our five hour train to Nantes. I was so glad to be back in Brittany, you cannot imagine. Being back in MY town, back in MY region, back in MY culture; it was all so comforting. It felt like the sky could fall down and I would still be able to handle it just because I was back in Brittany.

Nantes we visited quite efficiently as I know it so well, and we were lucky to be able to leave our bags at IES, my old school, until my friend got off work to welcome us at his place for the night. Unfortunately Saturday night was Carnaval in Nantes, but we had a great night of good food at Fabrice's place and enjoyed the good weather the next day, too, in the Japanese gardens on the island in the Erdre and then in the Marché Talensac near Cinquante Otages.

Saturday at 1 we got a rideshare with two Quimperois from Nantes. Good music and a short drive (2.5hrs). Finally, we arrived at Concarneau!! From then on it was quite chill, relaxing a bit.

Sunday we went to mass at my home church (St. Guenolé) and went to a little happy hour my church friends put on for us. Monday we spent a few hours in Pont Aven, known for Gaughan's influence; then had raclette for dinner. Tuesday we went to Quimper for crepes and walking. Wednesday we left again to Quimper, but this time only to take the train out to Rennes. We spent Wednesday and Thursday nights in Rennes with two guys I know at uni there. Our second day we took a day trip to St. Malo, which was nice even though it was quite rainy and gray until an hour before we left.

Friday we took an 8:05 train to Paris, getting in at 10:20. We had the entire day to get around Paris; technically, that's not at all enough time, but for us it was fine as we were really just up for seeing what we saw and if that wasn't everything then there's always the next time. We walked a bit, sat around a bit, took part in the free hugs project that happened in front of the Eiffel Tower, did last-minute souvenir shopping for Kay, etc. It was a good day! And it was quite gorgeous, too.

Saturday morning Kristen left on the 7:30am shuttle to Roissy CDG and I left on a train to Annecy at 10:50. I got in at about 2:30 and then an hour later was at my new place of habitation. I now live in Argentière, a commune of Chamonix Mont-Blanc in the Savoie region of France. It is amazingly beautiful here and the family is also nice. The weather is a bit rotten, been raining nonstop since I got in, but it's beautiful in its own way.

Tomorrow I will be learning to drive a manual as the family is going to loan me one of their cars so I can get around to do things as well as help them with the kids activities and what not. So far it seems like my responsibilities are pretty light, just helping a bit when needed and doing a bit of English with the kids. I've already had tons of cultural realizations since living with them (all 30hrs or so) and I'll hopefully get around to writing about lots of different aspects of French family life by the end of June when I head off to a different family back in Brittany (huzzah!).

For now, things are good and I'll keep updating more regularly.

To Come:

2010-04-02T23:17:00.004+02:00

It's starting to hit home how close to "the end" I am.

This coming week I only teach one hour on Wednesday and then five Thursday. Most of them will probably be going away parties and games. I've already said farewell to some of my favorite students (who have begun friending me on facebook), and won't have the opportunity to do so with others during a class because the seniors are doing mock exams this week and thus don't have regular classes. I suppose I will be seeing them in the coming days anyways, but there's something different about "the last class" and just saying goodbye in crossing.

Otherwise, tomorrow I am going to be at church from 8pm to 11pm for the Easter-eve service which is when we do adult baptisms in the church, so it's a big to-do and hopefully will go down well. I've invited Julia and so she and maybe another friend will attend.

Sunday is Easter and I am going to Le Mont-Saint-Michel with Cecile, Julia, Julia R., & Josh. It's a day trip, but with around 6hours in the car. Oof. All the same, for now the forecast predicts nice weather and it will be a good way to celebrate being alive, don't you think?

Monday we have off from school as Easter Monday, but I don't have plans yet and imagine I will just chill around after being out all day Sunday.

Tuesday I have arranged a volleyball practice with some of the other teachers because Friday is the student-teacher volleyball match from 11-noon. I've recruited enough women now that we have a full team, woo! And the men have five I believe, so that works. We practiced Monday and Tuesday of this past week, too, and it was quite fun spending time with the other teachers outside of work. I also have my second-to-last rehearsal with my church choir Tuesday evening.

Tuesday both Julia R. and Josh will be spending the night, I imagine, to sing and play guitar with us.

Thursday is officially my last day of teaching and then in the evening Miguel, Julia, Pauline and I are joining another teacher in Pont Aven for dinner. It should be fun. He's got lots of plans for having us try various champagnes and wines and he's making a boeuf bourguignon I believe (it was something bourguignon, so we'll just go with it).

Friday morning is the volleyball match and then in the evening we are having a going away party for Julia R. She has asked that everyone who is willing prepare some songs to put on a mini-concert. It's true that we have a lot of talented musicians and singers in our group of assistants.

Saturday night there is a fest-noz I might go to with another teacher.

On Monday I will head to Paris so that I can meet Kristen on Tuesday morning. She is flying into CDG and I will be meeting her at the airport train station to go directly from there to Lyon. We will be travelling all over France from April 13 to 25 when we will end up finally in Concarneau. We'll stay in the finistere/Concarneau for three days and then head out for a couple days in Paris. These will be my last days in Concarneau as Kristen flies out on May 1st and I will be going directly from Paris to Annecy where my new host family will be picking me up to take them to their place in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc.

I'm sad thinking about only having those three days to pack and say good bye as well as show Kristen the are. I suppose I will try to pack in advance, but considering I will be travelling the two weeks prior, it's not going to exactly be easy. Oh well. I'll make it work.

That Tuesday will be my last choir rehearsal and afterwards there will be a going away party for me as well as two others who are students at the sailing school and finish their program at the end of May. It's going to be very difficult saying goodbye to my friends in the choir as they have been like a family here in many ways.

But on the other hand, I am changing locations and moving from the sea resort town of Concarneau to the mountain resort town of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. This is a very well-known town in France and Europe as it is home to the largest mountain (Mont Blanc) in Europe west of Russia. It was also the home of the first winter Olympics. Granted, it's more well-known for it's winter activities, but I am going to bet it is just as beautiful in summer.

I'll be staying as an au pair with a family in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. They have a 11 year old son, 8 year old daughter, and a 4 year old son. They will all three be in school for the two months I will be with them, so I'll still have lots of free time during the day. The family is also planning a trip to Eurodisney in June, so I'll have the chance to go to Disneyland Paris, which I've always thought was something that has to be done once (and at least this way I get to go with little kids, so it will probably be a lot more fun).

In July I'll be coming back to Concarneau as an au pair in another family that has two little girls, one of whom was a student of Julia's. I've met with them and I'm excited about joining them and coming back to Concarneau for my last month in France. For now I feel like it's terrible to be leaving Concarneau, but if everything goes well, hopefully I will feel the same way about Chamonix when it gets around to late June.

So that's the recap for the future. Life is good and has the promise to continue being so. Happy Easter and have a good weekend,

Alicia

Summer Plans

2010-03-29T00:07:00.006+02:00

In the last month there have been lots of potential projects for summer. Originally I was hoping to find a job here in Concarneau that I could work at potentially May & June, go home to renew my visa in July, then come back to work August & September.

Then I realized that my visa is good until July 29th and by going later I would also be sure of having received my contract back in Texas (and thus being capable of getting the new visa), so the plan changed to going home in August. That is THE summer month in France and I knew I'd have trouble finding a job in a shop or restaurant where they'd hire me for early summer, but not have me for the one month they'd really need me.

So the plan shifted, and this is when my roommate told me that a mother of one of her old students was looking for an Anglophone au pair for the month of July. Initially the idea of being an au pair didn't strike so well. I didn't fancy the idea of being a nanny in some posh family with bratty kids.

Well, I talked with the mother and we've arranged a meeting for Wednesday evening. I'm actually getting really excited. The mother seems extremely nice and Julia says that the girl is great. She would teach me how to drive a stick shift so I could drive the girls to their activities each afternoon. We would do a small English lesson each morning and then have lunch, go to the beach, have fun. The girls would be 6 and 9 come July. Well anywho, that got me going on the idea of au pair.

I then started talking with a family in Quimperle where I currently have an Italian friend who is an au pair with them. They ended up not taking me up because they wanted someone who could start when she leaves in mid-April and thus signed someone else. I have now signed up on an au pair search engine sort of thing that is really popular in France (http://www.aupair-world.net/index.php/?).

I have only been searching & talking for about three days, but already I have three families that are totally down for making my stay with them for May & June official. I'm still waiting on responses from five families I messaged otherwise. Two of the eight families are in Brittany and otherwise they are spread out all over the place. The three families I'm talking to now are in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, Chambery, and Bourges. It'll be pretty cool to have the host family experience again someplace new in France!

This certainly eliminates the possibility of extensive travel in the summer, but it will facilitate (financially) travelling if I am able to stay a second year. Plus, I thinking living in and truly knowing someplace for two months is better than not being someplace long enough to be familiar with it.

Will keep you posted on developments--families I'll be considering, the meeting with the Concarneau family.

Choir, Plans & SSN

2010-03-25T17:21:00.004+01:00

This entire semester has just been slam packed with activity.

I have been going to my regular choir rehearsals with church as Saturday, April 3 we will be animating the mass that happens at Sainte Anne du Passage (the church closer to where I live). This is the biggest Easter-time mass in the area because it is when the church welcomes all the new people to be baptized. What's more, this is the only mass for all of five churches. Kind of a big deal and we've got some good music lined up to go along with it.

On top of church choir, I also took part in a small ensemble to participate in a Breton Music Competition. Living in Brittany, I have the advantage of lots of unique culture as Brittany is one of the most proud regions in France. Many natives consider themselves Breton before French, the Breton language is not dying as more and more students each year enroll in Skol Diwan (bilingual elementary schools in which both French and Breton are spoken), and fest-noz (night parties) or fest-deiz (day parties) are easily found every weekend if you've got a means to get there.

This past weekend there was the annual Kan Ar Bobl festival in Tregunc, an neighboring city to Concarneau. This, I believe, was the 38th year to celebrate Kan Ar Bobl and there are approximately 300 children (twice the number of last year) to participate as well as several groups of adults among which we were me, another American, a Spaniard, a German and two Frenchies who got together to sing the Breton version of "The Water is Wide."

The day was long and exhausting, but worth it. We didn't win and actually found out that we were technically disqualified, but appreciated nevertheless ("The Water is Wide is an Irish song in origin, not Breton).

Following the competition was a fest-noz, so me, Cecile (the other alto who is French) and Genevieve (a friend of Cecile who lives near Tregunc and was running the competition) got some pizzas, ate at Genevieve's house and hit the fest-noz. It was a great time. This was my second fest-noz and I hope to still be able to do several more before I leave! The music was great. Traditional Breton music generally involves a question-answer format between an accordion and a bombarde which is like a funky Breton clarinet, or perhaps two voices; nowadays they throw in a guitar and drums and the best group that night had a soprano sax player that doubled the bombarde part and really added a nice style.

There are lots of things coming up on the schedule in the future.

Tomorrow night we are inviting people over to play the game Risk. I have never played before, and neither has Cecile (who I invited from the choir and who will hopefully be hanging around a lot more). But there are lots of Miguel's friends who are masters of the game, so we'll see how that goes. We've gotten lots of snacks, will be making dinner followed by crepes and drinking regional beer, cider and mead (called Chouchenn in Brittany). I would be really excited for this if it didn't happen to be on a Friday which is the day of fasting during lent.....sigh. Oh well. It will still be fun.

Saturday night we are going to Quimperle for the going away party of Giuditta (an Italian au pair who entered our group) and Sarah (a German assistant). I haven't yet been to Quimperle and it has been months since I've seen Sarah, so I imagine it will be very much appreciated.

Sunday is Palm Sunday, so hopefully I can arrange to go to mass in Quimperle. And that night we're making burritos!! Tuesday after my rehearsal at church I will be going to the Breton choir rehearsal for the going away party of Julia (the German). Thursday I may be going to a yoga class with Pauline, a long-term sub for an English teacher that is pregnant at the high school.

Saturday April 3 is the Easter mass I sing in and then Sunday is Easter. I may be going to Mont Saint Michel on Easter day with Cecile and some of the assistants. Friday April 9 is the going away party of Julia amongst the assistants, so I'll be at Quimper for the night. She wants to have a sort of mini-concert as most of the assistants are guitarrists or singers and our parties generally turn into jams anyways.

That Friday will also be the celebration of the end of my contract. Perhaps 'celebration' isn't the appropriate word, but you get the idea. I stop working April 9 as the two following weeks will be Spring or Easter break. I would generally work the last week before my contract would be officially terminated, but I've arranged to do my hours ahead of time in order to have free time to spend with Kristen who is arriving April 13.

So right now I'm in the middle of planning our trip. We've decided to do a sort of tour of France. We'll be couchsurfing in each location we go to (if everything goes to plan) as well as traveling between each town by covoiturage which I spoke about back in October. Covoiturage is like couchsurfing but with cars--essentially rideshare. More details will come on this once we've got a clearer idea on what we'll be doing, or even once we've already done it!

In other news, I did get my social security number! It took a while, but I got it sometime in early March. As you may remember, I went back in November or so and was told I had to have three months of pay stubs from France to apply for social security. I get each pay stub the first or second week of the following month and I didn't get a pay stub for October, so taking that of Nov, Dec and Jan I was around mid-February. Having been on break in the middle of February, I did it immediately upon returning at the beginning of March. Sooooo. Yes. If I were only staying for my contract then I would only have my SSN for two months before leaving. On the other hand, everything I would have paid in the 5 months prior would be reimbursed.

My classes have been going better and better, which makes it difficult to imagine that in just two weeks I will be finished. I have also recently changed my schedule. I have stopped working with my professional school class and my junior lit students to work with some sophomores I've never been with before. I'm also making up the hours of that last week in April by working with some junior economics students I don't usually see, but knew from the London trip. It's kind of fun because I get these new classes for the whole period and can consolidate all my best lessons for them at the end of the year. Lucky them, eh?

So there's your bi-monthly update. :P Sorry these get so long, but typically I don't have the time to write and everything builds up. Hopefully news will be on its way again soon.

-Alicia

Pueblo Ingles

2010-03-16T16:38:00.002+01:00

Friday started out quite busy and that was the rhythm we maintained for the whole week.

Every day at Pueblo Ingles essentially amounts to 14 hours of talking. You learn to drink lots of water (and resultantly go to the bathroom a lot), get creative about conversation topics, and to manage your free time very well.

The typical day was this:

9-10 Breakfast
10-10:50 One-to-one (a conversation with a Spaniard during fifty minutes--you could go for a walk, stay in the lounge, go to one of your villas, whatever)

11-11:50 repeat

12-12:50 repeat

1-1:50 repeat

2-3:30ish Lunch--all meals were taken together and were obligatory unless you were sick. At each table you sit Anglo-Spaniard-Anglo-Spaniard and usually you try to sit with different people, but that's really your choice

3:30ish-5 Free time

5-5:50 Group Activity (aka wake up time)

6-6:50 One-to-One

7-7:50 Repeat

8-8:50 Entertainment hour in which the Anglos put on a play with some Spaniards as well as do short presentations on different topics of their choice

9-whenever Dinner, followed by time at the bar if desired

Long days, but they start getting varied up where you an play board games with other one-to-one-ers in the last couple days. You sometimes have two-to-twos. In the evenings if you are goin' to be in the play then your 1-1 time is rehearsal. One of the days you spend in town, taking a tour of La Alberca. One night you do the famous Quiemada (a Galician witch tradition from the 1950s involved making a liquor and setting it on fire to burn off the alcohol). Another night is the official party and then the last night is the unofficial party since everyone leaves the next day.

The first day for me was the roughest and then I started loving it more and more. I got to be very tired as the Spaniards are used to partying quite late (or early) and as the youngest Anglo I was often one of the last up. So considering to move the party from the bar to a villa you needed both roommates awake, it was always me and my Spaniard (Begona) who invited people over. It was a fun role, but I was glad it was just for a week. :P

I picked up some ideas for my classes here in France and I also just got motivated in general. It was so nice having adult students who were self-motivated to learn English because they saw the worth in it. My students here in France, as teenagers, don't have any idea of what it means when people say that English is the international language. But these Spaniards were CEOs for international companies or engineers or nurses and all of them -needed- English and wanted it, too.

I made some really great friends from it with whom I'm still talking, so that's a good sign. I plan on going back sometime this summer, partly cuz I want to do PI again, but also because I want to travel through the Basque Country and Galicia (essentially all across the north of Spain). We'll see what ends up happening there.

Winter Break: Part 1

2010-03-12T19:12:00.006+01:00

It's been a long time since I've updated, but it's easy to understand why. My last entry was February 1. Sunday, February 7 I left on a trip with my 50 of my students (junior-level) to London, England. I was there with them until Thursday, Feb 11 when they got on a bus to head back to Concarneau and I got on a bus to go to Bristol to meet my Texan friend, Anna Merrick.

London was alright. I ended up seeing some things I hadn't seen before. Mostly it was just a little stressful with the students & other teachers, but you know, it was only 5 days. No harm done.

I spent a long weekend in Bristol with Anna, who is an RA in a dorm at Bristol University. On Friday I went with her boyfriend, David, to Bath for the day. Then Saturday we all went to Wells. Sunday was Stonehenge and Salisbury. Monday was Cardiff, Wales, and then on Tuesday I took a bus back to London where I surfed for the night with Myanah, a 69 year old with lots of travel under her belt.

I got up at 5:40 Wednesday morning with the intention of going to a 7:30 mass near King's Cross before getting a train to Luton airport, but no luck. Turned out that the website was not up-to-date and I ended up very disappointed and tired the morning of Ash Wednesday. However, I was able to move up my train time. Actually, they never sent me the tickets and refused to help me in any other way than letting me buy a new one, so....meh. It ended up being the same price as when I ordered a month in advance, and it wasn't too expensive at that. I was just happy to be getting out of London (big cities make me ill).

I flew on easyjet to Madrid where I hopped on the metro (oh, if all city's had such easy airport-tranport!) and headed down to my host's place near Puerta de Toledo. I stayed with my host, Mary (a New York whose been living in Madrid for 13 years now and has residency), Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Shortly after arriving, Mary hooked me up with some other CSers while she was at work, so I went out to a Sidreria where Javier, along with Jorge, Angelina and Paulina, showed me how the Spanish drink cider--by holding the glass in one hand near thigh-level and the bottle of cider above your head in the other hand, pouring a very little amount from on high, then downing the cider. It kind of wakes up the taste and definitely gives the cider a better taste.

After, I met up with Mary at an underground tango scene. It was pretty fantastic. The group uses abandoned buildings as its HQ and had recently moved to a "new," four-story apartment. I took a (free!) beginner tango class (all in Spanish!) and then stuck around for the milonga where I danced a couple goes before ambling back with Mary.

Thursday I slept in (one of the few times during the three weeks I was travelling thanks to being with my students, having a set schedule for sightseeing with Anna, or the Pueblo Ingles schedule that you'll hear more about later). I went to lunch at 2pm at Casas Patas with Pueblo Ingles. The main course was paella, which I still am not too great a fan of, but at least this one wasn't with seafood as the meat. The meal was followed by a flamenco music performance by two men--a guitarist and a singer. It was amazing. Crazy to think how different cultures discover the different innate, but untapped abilities of the human body. At least that's my impression of flamenco.

After lunch I did some shopping--bought a new skirt, pair of earrings, and purse. I love Spain. Their prices are cheaper than French prices during soldes. Yesssss.

Then I met up with some old professors. Jodi & Jose, for the sake of not giving last names. Jose is from Madrid and they met when Jodi studied abroad. Now they're both history teachers at my old university, and some of my favorite teachers at that, so I didn't hesitate to email them about a meetup when I ended up headed their way (they're on sabbatical and doing research in Madrid until August).

We walked all around the downtown and even though I'd seen it all before, I saw it all again with the historical background and opinion of two people very close to the city. We ended by passing into Bravas, a little tapas place that looks like a horrible chain restaurant, but is apparently crazy popular with the Spaniards and known for it's top-secret patatas bravas sauce. Needless to say, dinner was great. :)

Thursday night I stayed in as I was up around 6:30 to get into town. Our bus left at 9:30. I sat next to Raquel and we hit it off instantly. The bus ride was pretty great thanks to that, even if I started feeling really motion sick by the end of the trip (I didn't take the medication early enough).

The next part of the story concerns my time with Pueblo Ingles, so I'll stop here as it makes a clean break and continue later.

Vive les soldes!

2010-02-01T14:19:00.005+01:00

Long time without update, but that is because I have been keeping busy this first month of 2010.

The Chateau in Brest

Two weekends ago I was in Brest. I couchsurfed with a student named Anaelle and had a great time celebrating the birthday of her friend (and another couchsurfer). Brest wasn't too great of a town, having been destroyed in WWII, but the people I met there left a great impression.

Brest's port

This past weekend I spent Friday & Saturday in Vannes, also couchsurfing, but this time with some assistants from Quimper! The trip was planned specifically to introduce them to couchsurfing as I had such a great time in Brest, coming back raving about CS, and they decided they should give it a go. Our hosts were, as always, great! Or rather, our three hosts as well as the five other surfers they welcomed! It ended up being me, Josh (American) & Rachel (English) along with Joachim (German), Cornelius (German), Peter (American), Thomas (French), Anne-Laure (French) with our hosts Aurelien, Stephanie and Claire.

The cathedral in Vannes

The three of us arrive and walked around the town a bit, then headed back towards dinner time when we ended up all eating a bunch of snacks and pizzas together, as well as chouchen (a fermented-honey wine type thing made in Brittany). We went out to a bar that had a live group playing that was phenomenal (Extra systole--they supposedly have a myspace but I'm having trouble tracking them down; here's a little blurb about them from the Vannes rotary club, hah: http://www.rotaryd1650.org/clubs/vannes_pdg/actualites.php). We stayed there until the band stopped and the bar closed, which was relatively early. Then we headed back and continued the concert as Joachim and Thomas both brought along their guitars and Josh also plays guitar and I sing, so we had a right little gathering of talent to tide us over for the night.

The garden outside the town's ramparts

Saturday we woke up late and all had a tasty breakfast of pastries, eggs, tea, and coffee, leaving around noon. Rachel and I headed back into town figuring we hadn't seen much of Vannes the day before while Josh got an early train home. We realized that there just wasn't much to see in Vannes, so we took a train out earlier than we expected, still putting us in Quimper around 5pm.

The traditional wood houses of Brittany

I had been planning on staying in Vannes a second night, but it would have been an empty house relative to the night before and I was tired, with nothing to do in the town.

This morning I went to Quimper and did some shopping. I bought Miguel some white tights for his Mardi Gras superhero outfit--Kouign Aman. I also got some heel-less, brown boots that cover my calves which I was wanting to have for when I travel (waterproof, yet good for walking) and light coat that is grayish-brown that is more like a raincoat and will be good for the spring. A lot of the stores in Quimper were closed because it is Monday (they stay open the weekend and close Mondays or Tuesdays), but I was still able to find some good deals on what I needed.

Right now the Soldes are happening. Les Soldes are nationwide sales with fixed dates set by the government that occur twice a year for about three weeks each time (once mid-Jan to early Feb, and again in July). They are a bit like end of season clearance sales, except that they are mid-season to help the economy when sales are usually low (relative to the last quarter of the year with Christmas). This is even better because you can buy something in January during les Soldes and it will still be good to use for the next three months as January and February are the heaviest winter months and the cold, rainy weather continues into March as well. Then in July, summer goes to about the end of September.

Les Soldes also get more intense as they go on. The first week there will be a first slash of prices, usually around 20-30%. Then the second week there is another cut of around 40-50% and then third week almost all stores will have a bounty of items cut down by 50-70%, sometimes with entire racks of items offered at 5€ (about $7.50). This is partly related to the fact that the longer you wait, the less likely it is you will find exactly what you want, but for shopping spree purposes it's great just waiting until the beginning of the third markdown.

Well anyways, I imagine you'll be seeing those purchases in the pictures to come from my break in England & Spain!

In other news, I have been continuing discussions about technology with my students and am having a great time except for that we never quite have enough time to get a good discussion in. Typically I take half of a class for half the class time (25mins) and to introduce a topic & discuss it can be really beyond my time allotment, but I want to do interesting things with them, so I will have to figure out a way to make it work.

I will be having a class do reports on PostSecret and am excited to see what they come up with. This will be the first time I've given homework. You may laugh at me and say that it's ridiculous and I'm too nice of a teacher, but homework is less of a tradition in France than it is in the states. Typically, high school students are in school from 8am to 6pm, sometimes with a 45min lunch break (they usually have two hours). At the end of the day they go home, arriving around 7pm for a twelve hour turn around before being back at school. Homework is rarely given out because it is just not practical.

Projects are a bit more common, but they are given around a month to complete it, with class time devoted to it as well.

I imagine that they will be quite opposed to the idea of work, but in the end, what I'm asking of them has a lot of freedom to it and they can make it as enjoyable or cumbersome as they please.

Less than a week before I leave for London. So much to do...

Classes & Future Breaks

2010-01-18T20:35:00.004+01:00

It has been some time since I've actually written about teaching and I thought I'd throw out an update on how things have been going with my students.

Some days are better than others and, in all honesty, this is often due to which classes I see those days. I have several students that are a joy to work with and I do my best to make my classes interesting for them. I have other students that have a talent for ruining the class for me, themselves, and their classmates. More and more when it concerns these students, I am not motivated to prepare something interesting or stimulating because no matter my efforts they spoil all the fun.

Recently I have started a new theme of technology with one of the classes. With them I have discussed postsecret, facebook, and how the internet has affected the younger generations' interests in the private lives of strangers. To all of them postsecret was new and sharing with them the latest video and a few pre-selected postcards, it was great to see their reactions and the development of their opinions concerning the project.

In another class wrote letters to pen pals. My friend Abby (whose blog you can now see in my subscriptions) is a French teacher in Maryland and we have arranged to exchange letters between some of my students and hers. All in all it comes up to 34 seconds (sophomores) and 17 terminales (seniors) that will be divided across all four levels of French at her school. Seeing as English is mandatory here and French is an elective there, there are many more of us than there are of them. It definitely sparked interest in the students and I hope the project will be a success.

What else? We are also in the midst of planning our trip to London. February 7-12 I will be in London with premiere (juniors) ES & L. I work with the 1ere L, but not the ES so it will be interesting in getting to know better my students as well as meeting new students at the school and seeing their varied levels of English according to the tracks they chose (L is for literature and they are generally expected to be better in English because it is a human sciences--therefore language & literature--emphasis). I am not doing any of the planning, but I am starting to present lessons about London to prepare the students for what all there is to see and do. We will be staying the week with host families who will be responsible for getting us to and from the tour group. All day every day will be spent touring the city, with a bit of free time here and there. I will be staying with a student I do not know in a host family while the other three teachers will be together in a family and the students all divided into groups of 2, 3, or 4 per family according to their preference. I am understandably intrigued by this in two ways: one, living as a peer with a student (although thankfully she is not a student of mine); and two, living in an English family as the only native Anglophone in the group.

This trip has an increased interest for me as the two weeks following are winter break and being located in London is much more favorable to travel than being in Concarneau. I still have to check it over with the principal, but the teachers have agreed that I should take advantage of being in London to travel directly from there on break. As such, I have made two plans. Plan A is dependent on Pueblo Ingles (http://www.morethanenglish.com/anglos/index.asp). This is a program in Spain that looks for volunteers who speak English as a native language to work with Spaniards on English conversation. It is not paid, but your room and board are taken care of so you essentially live in a Spanish villa for a week for free, talking daily with Spanish natives. Sounds good to me. If I get invited to do this during one of the weeks I am on break (I sent in a request for this in December), then I will stay with them for one week and travel to the north of Spain and perhaps to Coimbra in central Portugal during the other free time I have. I would be in La Alberca, Spain if I get a placement.

If I am not offered a post with Pueblo Ingles then I will stay in the British Isles. My friend Anna is currently doing a one year masters program in art history at the University of Bristol in southwestern England. I would hope to visit her directly after London, then go to Cardiff, Holyhead to take the ferry to Dublin, then to Galway in western Ireland, south to the Ring of Kerry & Kilkenny, then to Rosslare to catch the ferry back to France where I would spend eight hours on various trains to get to Quimper. After having taken my Irish lit & history course a year and a half ago, I am extremely intrigued by this mini-tour of a beautiful and dynamic country. There is also an advantage in that the ferry, bus and train prices are fixed, so I could book today or the day of and (assuming there is a spot open) the price would be the same.

For now, I'm not too sure which plan I'll end up doing. In some ways I'm still crossing my fingers for Spain, in others I feel like I could do Pueblo Ingles any time in my life, but a tour of Ireland may never again be so attainable. I suppose where there's a will, there's a way. I'm just going to wait and see what life throws at me.

Time to go call home as my dad just underwent two surgeries. Will keep you up-to-date with all to come!

Reality Check

2010-01-16T22:00:00.003+01:00

This weekend I have been magnificently sick. Yes, my friends, even living in France you can get sick, you can have a boring life, and you can go out not at all.

I had plans to go to a big party last night. It was to be another fest noz, this time in Quimperle, and around 20 other assistants were there from all over the finistere. I was looking forward all weekend to going to this, and I woke up Saturday morning feeling absolutely terrible.

I've been sick for about a month now with a mild cold. Thursday evening I half lost my voice with a frog in my throat and about the same thing happened Friday night. Saturday it came out of no where, hardly being able to function with a cloudy head, terrible sinuses, and a scratchy throat. Seemed a bit as if my cold had transformed into a flu.

I did an elaborate morning routine to try and make myself feel better, including some oatmeal with our cherished brown sugar (fyi can't be found here) all to no end. I took a nap from around 12:30 to 3:30, feeling slightly better afterwards, but that lasted only 40 minutes or so before I was run down again.

Even at my highest point yesterday I was in no shape to stay up until three in the morning and pass an almost sleepless night on the floor of someone's apartment with a blanket or two.

From what Miguel and Julia tell me, it was truly an unforgettable night with many wonderful people, dancing, music, old friends, etc. I was home alone, sick and depressed.

Unfortunately, no matter how tired my body was, my brain had done nothing all day thanks to a great incapacity to focus on anything for too long, and having not wanted to go out in the cold I hadn't left the apartment at all. From Friday around one to today (Sunday) at five I did not leave the apartment and I was beginning to get cabin fever.

Today I am significantly better, as I ought to be. Tomorrow I hope to be fully up to arms seeing as I have three classes to teach and even the nicest 17 and 18 year olds are demanding.

Just a reality check to say that real life goes on in foreign countries. I have a hard time when I go home and people ask me how France is. It's not like I'm living a fairy tale. I'm living my life, but in France. There are some things that are going to be better and some things that will be the same and, sure, some things that will be worse; it's still life and you still just live it the best you can.

For now I am looking forward to ENJOYING the good weather we've been having because I will no longer be sick or under house arrest.

A Guide: taking a train from Roissy Charles de Gaulle

2010-01-09T17:14:00.007+01:00

In returning to France from the states I took an American Airlines flight from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, one of two international airports in Paris (along with Orly which I have never been to).

There are multiple terminals in CDG (the airport code abbreviation), but when flying AA to CDG you will always come into 2A. Upon leaving the taxi you must get your passport stamped, collect your bags and then go through customs. On the flight from Dallas, and possibly the majority or all of their flights, you will get your baggage from baggage claim number 6 to the left when you come into the baggage area. For customs you will have two options. There are signs attached to the ceiling before hitting customs that say either EU citizen or All Passports. American citizens would obviously take the latter which will be the left line. This line did not take me very long to get through and there were French citizens in the line with me.

You go through the line, I didn't have any questions asked me, but you may (where are you staying? what are you doing in France? how long will you be there?) and it's nothing to worry about. Just normal border control procedures. To my knowledge they must be capable of speaking English, so you should haven't any problem if you don't speak French (granted, sometimes they are not quick to switch).

Now, from getting out of all that you come into the public part of the airport where you'll find a welcome desk immediately on your right across from an elevator. Go down one floor on the elevator and there is a huge bathroom hub there in case you're in need because otherwise the bathrooms at the airport are not large enough to get your bags into the room, much less the stall with you. From there you can take taxis (there will often be several men to ask you "Taxi?" upon entering the public area). You can take busses. For this, go see my post from the beginning of October 2009 which detailed how to arrive at Les Cars Air France that have several routes taking you to different locations in downtown Paris.

You can also take the cheaper (and often faster) route of the train station. With excessive baggage I'd advise you to pay the 16 or so euro to take the bus if you're just going downtown. If you have a further destination then the train station in Roissy-CDG is very well-equipped with tons of trains to all over everyday.

To get to the train station you need to go from terminal 2A to 2E or so. If you turn right upon entering the public part of the airport (thus passing the "accueil" or welcome desk on your right and the elevator on your left), you will start the trek to 2E. You will see signs like that above and you will follow that towards "Paris par train/Paris by train" for the RER B that you can take to downtown Paris. The RER leaves from the train station which is your ticket if you are going out of Paris, in which case "Gare SNCF/Railway Station" is more you r calling.

You'll pass 2A/B with lots of airlines desks, including that of American Airlines, then you will come to a cafe, followed by McDonalds (free wifi), a bathroom, some more restaurants & cafe places. If you plan on eating, get something here as there won't be another opportunity without coming back. Then you are in 2C where there are more airlines desks. Once through 2C there will be several of those walkways that are like flat escalators or conveyor belts that are just the purpose of allowing you not to walk if you are tired, or to walk more quickly down a long and empty hallway. You ride on two of those and at the end of the second you will go to the left to take a series of escalators down to the train station.

When you get to the train station you can use one of the yellow boxes pictured below to buy, exchange or refund train tickets. There is the option to do so in French, English, Spanish and German, so no worries if you don't speak French and this is probably actually a better idea than trying to go through the (often very long) line to talk to someone who may or may not speak English at all or well.

If you are staying inside of or around Paris you can use the green machines that you see in the pic above on the left. This can give you train tickets, RER tix, or even metro stubs I believe.

Once you have your ticket, regard the overhead marquee that has the list of departing trains, their locations, schedule & (when the time approaches) the platform the train will be on. (pictured below)

It isn't a bad idea to head to the platform as soon as it is posted because in some locations certain trains will only stop for as long as is needed for the boarding passengers to get on. This can be very little time and I have had it more than once where you basically throw you and your luggage inside before the doors close, not minding which car/seat.

So head to your platform when you know it. There are signed on all of the doors saying which platforms you'll find there. At CDG the platforms look like this and they all have clocks as well as benches to sit on while waiting.

When your train is very long and you have assigned seating, it is a good idea to look at this "Composition des trains" marquee that is pictured below. Your ticket will say what car and seat you have, and you can look at this sign to find out where on the platform your car will stop. The train will have an electronic pannel next to each door stating the train number and the car number.

Sometimes one train will split at a certain destination, and when this happens it is very important to be at least on the proper half of the train, if not the proper car & seat (sometimes the seat is not assigned and you just must make sure that you are in the front or back with all the people going the same direction as you). For example, my train leaving from Roissy-CDG got me to Rennes; however, the train at Roissy split in Le Mans and one half headed to Nantes, the other half to Rennes. This often happens and can be confusing if you are not prepared.

There will always be platform attendants, often dressed in gray, black & purple. Don't be afraid to ask them. Generally they speak English, but if not someone else will and you can get help. Better safe than sorry.

Once on the train, know that there are always bathrooms and usually a bar car. The conductor or an automated voice will announce the stop around 2 minutes before arriving, and the general rule is silence in the cars.

Christmas Vacation

2010-01-03T23:05:00.004+01:00

Thursday we spent packing and cooling down to get well-rested and leave Friday morning for Nantes. We took the bus with my school as the art history teachers had a field trip to Nantes that Friday. The bus left at 7:30 and it was snowing the whole drive, an interesting experience as it rarely snows along the coast.

We arrived at the Place St Pierre in Nantes and walked to the train station to store our bags in the lockers there so that we could more freely see the city. We saw the chateau & cathedral, as well as St. Nicholas, Notre Dame and the hangar where the mechanical elephant is.

In the afternoon we went to La Maison, a very well-known bar in Nantes that is a house renovated to be a bar. It is interesting and a Nantaise staple.

After La Maison we took bus line 22 out to my old host family's house where we had tea and cookies with Roselyne, my ex-host mother. Unfortunately, she doesn't speak English and so Kim pretty much ended up falling asleep while we caught up on everything.

We then walked the Erdre down to the closest tram stop and took it downtown to head to Guillaume & Florence's place where we stayed.

Friday was more touristy stuff, but I already listed all of what we did. In the evening we took the train out to Paris and stayed the night at a cheap hotel near the airport--Hotel Premiere Classe Paris Nord 2. This is one of several cheap hotel chains in France (along with Etap and Formule 1/F1). There are two near the airport and when we gave up on finding a couch to surf we looked up this chain. The one closer to the airport was booked, so we got Paris Nord 2, which is still only 20mins away for around 45€. They provide a shuttle to and from the airport, 3€ round-way cost that you pay at the hotel desk. Breakfast is good and costs something around 4€. There are also two restaurants right across the street. We only ate at one, the Hippopotamus, which had good food and a good "early bird" special (30% off your ticket when you come in before 7:30 on weekdays). We didn't end up eating until around 11pm that Saturday night what with the train and then getting the RER B to the airport (which is a bad idea when with lots of luggage--it's much better to take the shuttle and definitely worth the extra 8€).

We crashed and woke up early Sunday to catch our flight. Unfortunately, a flight to DC had been cancelled Saturday as well as the two flights to NYC for Sunday because of a bad storm that swept the east coast, so our flight was full and as we were standby passengers we didn't make it. We spent the night in the airport, thinking we'd get the flight out in the morning with no luck. With our spirits down and completely exhausted we headed back to Premiere Classe where we stayed Monday and Tuesday nights before we finally got a flight at noon to Chicago on Wednesday the 23rd. We stayed in the Chicago airport several hours, having missed two flights to Northwest Arkansas. All the flights to Dallas were overbooked with standby lists of around 150 people. We got the last flight to NW Arkansas, which left an hour or more late. We didn't arrive at the airport until around 1:30 and were in the car with my dad at 2am headed back to DFW. We got home at 8am after driving straight with one pit stop for gas. I was okay since the jetlag made me feel like it was the middle of the day, but it was rough.

I showered and then tried to sleep for an hour before heading out to Dallas with my dad to Tuba Christmas, an annual tradition. We got lunch and then went home with the bad weather sweeping in.

Christmas and New Years went well at home and I was glad to be with family and friends rather than in Europe, wherever that might have been.

Update on the travel back to France to come later.

Closing Out 2009

2010-01-03T22:28:00.008+01:00

Happy new year to all. Sorry to have left the end of 2009 so vacant on news, but life got drastically busier with the advent season. What was going on?

my sister, Kim

Saturday December 12 (?) my sister arrived in Paris. I left Friday to spend the night and be ready to greet her at the Montparnasse station in southwest Paris around noon Saturday. I spent the night with a couchsurfer from Quimper. My sister's flight was delayed three hours thanks to the plane arriving late from LA to Dallas. She arrived late in Paris and we met around 2 or so in the Galerie Gaite near the Montparnasse station where I was stationed to play around on my ipod until she got there. As you can imagine, I was quite worried. Somehow her being a couple hours later made it seem much more likely that she would get forever lost in Paris.

She rendered me a surprise greeting in the galerie and after storing our luggage in the lockers at Montparnasse we started our tour of the city. We did a typical tourist track, having only around 24 hours in the city. We started off with the Eiffel Tower, grabbed some sandwiches, walked the river and then cut into the Champs Elysees where she saw the Arch de Triomphe as well as the Christmas market there. It was packed and crazy all along the Champs right up to the place de concorde where there was a ferris wheel.

We walked into the gardens between the Place de Concorde and the Louvre. A little cafe was still open in the park, so we stopped there for some (ridiculously over-priced) hot chocolates and then headed onto the Louvre. We didn't see the museum, but we saw the exterior and went into the lobby within.

I had never seen the palace at night and I definitely like it more. Something enchanting about it.

We then walked the river again to the ile where we saw Notre Dame complete with Christmas tree. Walked through the church just before it closed and then headed across the other side of the river to the Latin Quarter and Place St Michel (a favorite). We ate at a restaurant in the heart of the neighborhood and bought a couple gifts for people.

We headed to a Paris suburb, Montreuil, to stay the night with Marie-Louise, another couchsurfer. Unfortunately for our situation, she didn't speak much English. I had a great time talking to her in French and would love to have many more such experiences, but seeing as Kim couldn't participate in the conversation it took a lot of fun out of it.

Sunday morning it snowed. It was only a very little, but cool nonetheless. We headed out around 10:30 to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, one of my favorite experiences in Paris.

Sacre Coeur

We took an afternoon train out of Paris--TGV to Rennes, TER to Quimper. My friend from church, Eric, picked us up at the train station as it was around 7:30 and the buses stop at 7ish.

Monday I had several classes, so not much was done. Tuesday, however, I had no classes thanks to the Bac Blanc. The Bac (short for baccalaureate) is a series of major exams the French senior HS students have to take to graduate and receive their equivalent of a high school diploma. In the fall semester the students take the Bac Blanc, a mock test to evaluate their weaknesses and prepare a more directed curriculum for the spring semester just before the actual tests in June.

Tuesday we went to Pont Aven, a small town to the east of Concarneau on the bus line from Quimper-Concarneau-Pont Aven-Quimperle that I use so often. It was miserably cold and so the few hours we spent there were much too long. Ate galettes and crepes with cider followed by some tea and hot chocolate after having walked the town more.

Wednesday was spent in Quimper where we went ice skating, saw the cathedral (St Corentin), did a bit of shopping, etc. We came back to downtown Concarneau and tried to do some shopping, but most of the stores were closing as it was after 5pm. Took the ferry across the port and walked home.

On the outdoor ice rink they set up in the Place Corentin in Quimper for advent.

Thursday was another day at school, as well as packing.

Friday onward to come in the next entry (do to pic uploading complications).

Nantes, Ronan, Rennes, Oh my!: Part 2

2009-12-10T19:14:00.007+01:00

Sunday morning I sang at church with the choir and then left just a bit before 3pm for a bus to Quimperle where I caught a train to Rennes. The train was a bit exasperating because there were two trains in fact attached. The first half was headed for Rennes, the second for Nantes, but as the have the same trajectory until Redon, they used only one engine and separated the trains at the split. As you can imagine, I got on the wrong half of the train and changed cars not only once, but twice as the first change I did not have enough time to make it all the way to the other half. I guess it made it more of an adventure.

Upon arriving in Rennes I was immediately struck. Well, after I took the metro from the train station to the Place de la Republique, near to where I was staying, and then climbed up from the metro....THEN I was immediately struck. Above you get an idea of the first view I had.

I started walking the streets, trying to follow the directions I had copied to my hosts' apartment, all while trying to soak in the beautiful old buildings all around me.

I wasn't incredibly successful as I missed whatever turn I was supposed to make, and ended up walking right on to the next metro stop at the Place de Sainte Anne:

Once I got my fill of Pl. Ste. Anne I backtracked to finally arrive at the right street. I found the apartment, only a little ways down the street, and rang number of my couchsurfing hosts Pierre-Marie and Simon. I knew that Piem wouldn't be home (he was in Paris with his brother), so Simon welcomed me. We talked, then were joined by his friend, then the friend left, we talked more.

(their awesome stairwell)

Finally we left to walk around. Saw the prefecture and the opera house, which are located in the same plaza and are constructed like puzzle pieces to fit each other if they were capable of being moved closer. :)

Mostly we were trying to work up an appetite and make a decision. Settled down on a kebab place and took them back to the place to eat, and later be joined by another friend as well as Zach, an assistant from Quimper who had the same doctor appointment as me--coincidence!

The French guys taught us to play tarot, which is not, contrary to what you Americans might think, a card game to predict the future. It is a game like hearts that has a special deck with a fifth suit that serves as the trump suit. It is a really cool game, requires a lot of strategy and reflection, and I tell you, the guys we played with were experts.

I suppose I learned from the best because Sunday night we played again with another group of friends and Simon dominated. It was crazy, that game....and addicting; I am thinking of buying a deck!

Pierre-Marie got home Sunday night around midnight, so we talked a little and went to bed.

Monday I had breakfast with Simon before the boys went off to school at the political science school in Rennes. They are both second year masters students and spend loooooooots of time in the library when not in class.

Anywho. I walked around on my own some Monday morning and then headed to the part of town where my medical appointment was. It was almost not even in Rennes....and so you can imagine that it was a bad idea to walk (in the rain) :\ but oh well. I learned my lesson and I had the time.

I got there thirty minutes early, so I grabbed a quick bite across the street at a brasserie.

The appointment was at 1:30 and there were several other assistants with the same time and times after at intervals of thirty minutes.

They took an x-ray of my lungs and then did a normal check-up sort of visit--weight, height, vision, heart, blood pressure. The main point was obviously to check for tuberculosis, which seems ridiculous to us now, but hey, I got a free x-ray of my lungs out of it!

The system for the titre (or carte) de sejour has changed. As you read previously, Julia and I went to the mayor's office to request cartes de sejour. Apparently that was unnecessary. News travels slow in France. We received our cartes de sejour 2.0 immediately upon finishing our medical visits. It used to be a card you carried separate of your passport. Now it is a yellow card taped inside of your passport across from/next to your visa. It is much less exciting than the old cartes de sejour and in all honesty I am glad I am still going to get one of the cool cartes because I did the unnecessary business at the mayor's office. haha.

Afterwards a few of us had finished the medical visit, we went out to a cafe on the place de la republique. The cafe was actually joined with the opera, which you can see a picture of above. We got drinks and waited for the other assistants to show up, finished with their visits. We then all joined and walked the Christmas market before going to Rue St Michel, or la rue de soif (Thirsty Street) for a mug of vin chaud (think of spiced cider, but wine).

I headed back to the apartment around 6 and then left to get some groceries to make dinner. I made the tomato basil chicken plate that is so good that Piem & Simon and two of their friends ate right up. Good food makes good times. Then we played lots more tarot and talked and went to bed late with me waking up early for my train. I slept the whole way home, so it wasn't a worry, but still--I had to teach immediately upon getting into Concarneau.

It was a great weekend. Nantes and Rennes are two beautiful cities and my hosts in both cities reminded me not only of how wonderful couchsurfing is, but that good, open, genuine people are out there at your fingertips. It was great to be with them all, but I got back sick from having been away and traveling too much. I had so much on my mind and schedule that I've been a bit of a wreck for three weeks now.

Tomorrow now I leave for Paris to meet my sister who arrives at Roissy Saturday morning. Should be a quick week showing her around and having fun before we head back to Texas for the holidays.

Will try to keep you informed.

-Alicia

Nantes, Ronan, Rennes, Oh my!

2009-12-07T17:00:00.000+01:00

It has been quite the two weeks and there is yet more to come in the following two weeks.

Thursday November 26th I went to Nantes. I spent Thanksgiving there. It was....honestly, a disappointment. As there were 200 people attending the IES Thanksgiving dinner, it was held in a restaurant called the Lazarius outside of downtown.

I was told to mix with other students and thus had the misfortune of being mistaken for a Frenchwoman as I only spoke French to the students I were with (who were really nice but only spoke English) and I didn't listen too much or respond when they spoke English. At first it was a fun game, but by the time the main course was finished I was wondering how they hadn't figured it out.

I told them before dessert was served, and that put a damper on the table as they all felt a little deceived and I was put out. In my defense I never said anything about not being American or pretended not to understand them, etc. It was their assumption. And on top of that....really. I still make mistakes and have an American accent.

I stayed with two couchsurfers, Guillaume and Florence. They were great hosts. They met through couchsurfing when they lived in Lyon, where Florence is from. Guillaume is from Angers, near Nantes.

I spent Friday morning with Guillaume. He is a surveillant at a middle school in Nantes and has Friday's off, but usually uses it to write his book :P cool, huh? So we went to the marche Talensac and then I headed to the IES center to eat lunch. I went to the ile to see the elephant as well. And then Notre Dame, my favorite church (ever) where there was a funeral that I sat in on.

The same day I bought some boots at Mim. They are black suede and perfect for the weather here (although you may say that suede is not rain weather, but they are doing fine despite the maltreatment).

The Passage Pomeraye was all decorated up, along with the whole city.

I also went to the Nantes Christmas market towards dusk where I bought a few Christmas presents. It was in Place Royale and really quite cool.

Friday night I spent with Guillaume and Florence. We played a game of Chinese Checkers (I almost won, but Guillaume got it in the end) and then went to a work party of Guillaume's. It was pretty difficult. They talked and took apero until we finally ate (raclettes!) at midnight, finishing up dessert around 1:30. Oof! Never again. But it worked out alright.

Guillaume & Flo were very kind to drive me to the train station in the morning so I could catch my 9:10 train back to Quimper where I met Christine, a friend of Florence's (from church). I had lunch at Christine's place with her and we made a picnic dinner together to take with us to St Ronan in the north of the Finistere.

I did the bus ride with Clementine. We talked a lot about language. She spent six months in New Zealand and another six in Australia where she worked on farms, picking fruits and things with machines. She has a very good vocabulary, but is slowly losing things (which is natural). It's nice, though, to find a French person as engaged in language as all the assistants are (as it is necessary).

We arrived in St Ronan. There was a big Catholic festival going on there. It had kids from all over the Finistere, we from Quimper/Rosporden/Concarneau coming the farthest. There were several workshops for the kids and then the few teens, me & Florence went to a cafe for hot chocolate and talked about a lot of stuff.

Religion is very different in France. Little by little France is becoming a secular country. Sure enough, in some ways this is good, but a society should never be so secular as to completely erase religion altogether, which is more what you see.

There was a young couple there (they are both 19). The boy is Catholic and baptized (although I am not sure he did his confirmation), while his girlfriend has not be baptized. We all went around the table introducing ourselves, saying where we were from, what we "do" (most studies) and why we were there. When it got to the girl, which was the first of the couple to speak, she stated that the reason she was there was to learn how to get married in the church, and along with that the baptism process and all the rest so that she could get married.

At this point, another girl pointed out the fact that to be married within the church only one member of the couple must be baptized. Upon hearing this news, the girl in the couple jumped up and down in her seat, clapping her hands in ecstasy and proceeded to say how great news this was and how much better/easier that makes things.

It was disappointing to see her react this way. Religion aside, she is surely not mature enough to be considering a lifelong commitment like marriage. Throwing in her approach to the church, it's just a mess. We then went on the say that, no, that's not the point. She shouldn't be looking to get baptized solely to be married; she could get married by the state without the church and take her time to figure out her faith. She admitted that she much preferred having a religious marriage......it was just an eye-opening discussion.

Later, the other girl (who had chimed in about only needing one baptized person) began argue her side that she didn't even want to date boys that weren't Catholic (meaning baptized) because she wanted a religious marriage where both members were faithful, etc etc.....at which point me and the three other 40+ year old women tried to convince her she was crazy.......it all just made me feel very old and out of odds with the people I was supposed to be bonding with. Oh well. No great loss in my opinion.

The evening we spent in mass, then eating a picnic dinner, and finally in a big show. Several choirs from the finistere performed.....it was interesting, but not my thing and finally I was glad that we left early to get back before midnight.

News from Sunday onward will come in Nantes, Ronan, Rennes, Oh my! part two. I wonder if you can't guess what lies ahead. :)

Social Security Fiasco

2009-11-24T16:18:00.004+01:00

Tuesday mornings I would normally teach one course in the professional school, but as the students have internships until January, I am off Tuesday mornings. I took the opportunity to get some things done.

I caught a bus downtown at 9:30 and went to the Social Security office which is on Avenue de la Gare, just past the Espace de Jeunesse, or in the Kerandon area of Concarneau. I got there and walked into a waiting room that was poorly lit and had a few people standing around with apparently as little idea of what to do as me. Eventually I saw the signs asking you to sign in and wait until the next assistant was available. I only waited around 7 minutes or so until I was called--it was really quite efficient, as I waited seven minutes and during that time three other people were called before me.

It was around this time, upon being called, that I realized I didn't really know what I was there for. I had been given several times a list of things I needed to take to the social security office once I had it all.....but no one had ever told me what I should ask for when I render these items. So I sat down in her office and she said, "Je vous ecoute." (I am listening to you.) .....which led to me saying that I didn't know why I was here, but I had papers to give her. Haha. She asked me what my situation was and I told her. She pulled out a form for me to fill out, but left the office (form & papers in hand) before giving it to me. Well....to make a long story short, you have to live in France for three months before receiving social security. I have everything that is necessary for it except for three salary statements from my employer. Super. So, I was told to come back with the form filled out and all my necessary documents in mid-January. Once I go back it will be around 9 days to get my card.

If I get sick before then it will be up to me to pay, but I will be reimbursed upon receiving my SS card. Bit of a hassle (and, plainly put, stupid), but it's what I've come to expect in France whenever bureaucracy is involved.

I was more put out, if anything, that Julia had not told me this was the situation. The woman remembered Julia's case (or perhaps Lorena's or Rachel's) from last year, so I was in luck there because she knew how to streamline all the confusion.

I left, went into town, bought my train tickets for Rennes, bought some bus passes, some bread and stopped at the Tourism Office to ask about the Christmas markets. Marches de Noel in France are famous. These are little markets, arts & crafts fairs so-to-speak, that pop up all over the country during late November & early December. There are two in Concarneau. One is this weekend (Nov 28 & 29) at the Chateau Keriolet. Another is next weekend (Dec 4 & 5) in Kerandon. Guillemette told me that the one at Kerandon is better because at Keriolet is very commercial. So much the better because I don't think I will have time this weekend to go to the one at Keriolet what with my schedule. It's a little bit of a shame, though, because I still haven't seen the chateau up close and I bet a Christmas market would be great ambience there.

It's also a shame because I was hoping the market would be open while Kim (my sister) would be here, but no luck. We will have to look for one in Paris and/or Nantes.

I came back and headed to the school office to put more money on my lunch account and then to talk with the Secretary, a bit of the head-honcho of the administration. I cleared missing Monday to go to Rennes for the medical visit, talked about the SS issue, ask about getting the pay stubs, and just touch base as it had been a few weeks since I'd bothered him. I then went to the Vie Scolaire to inform them of my absence Monday--all good. Now it rests to tell the teachers--Diana, Nathalie & Marine, but that should be fine as well since there really is no choice. It is a bit of a shame, though, because I only work in one of Marine's classes and I seem them every other week. I also missed out on her classes at the beginning of the semester, so I've seen her students probably twice the entire time I've been here...now I'm missing again. :\ Life goes on & they'll get over it, but it's still a bummer.

Today I had fun with my classes. I played icebreaker games and made Thanksgiving Turkey-hands with them. You laugh, but there was lots of basic vocabulary that these seniors in high school had forgotten since sixth grade and lots they still didn't know concerning food & holidays. It was also a fun way to discuss Thanksgiving--the event, the history, the traditions. It's fun, but at the same time makes me a little sad. I just have to tell myself that Thanksgiving with IES will be great. Not the same, but great nonetheless.

Busy times ahead

2009-11-23T21:54:00.005+01:00

Two Sundays ago I caught a ride with Pierre, an organist at St. Guenole, to mass where I sang with the choir for the second time. The mass is really not prepared for a choir on the level of equipment, habituation, congregation, but it does seem to lively things up a bit and so we'll push on. I went with Clementine to Guillemette's house for lunch (boeuf bourguignon) with her family; always a pleasure (and how it makes the time go faster!). She loaded us up with tons of craft supplies to make Christmas cards with, something Clementine had proposed.

The week passed rather quickly and before I knew it, it was Friday and we were headed yet again to Quimper. Thursday was Zach's (30th) birthday and we all arranged to meet up in Quimper. Julia and I took a coach up there in which we ran into Sarah, Kymberley and Paige from Quimperle headed to the same place. We stopped at Florence's house to pick up a key in case we spent the night. Then Julia and I walked around to try to find an open grocery store, failed and settled for a kebaberie, making it my first kebab experience this stay in France. In case you didn't know, kebabs are (pretty much) the official sandwich of France, and with good reason. Kebabs are everywhere, easy to eat, available almost any time you'd ever want, tasty, bad for your health, addictive, and cheap (relatively). Of course they'd be more popular than there yummy sandwiches you buy in boulangeries.

Oh yea, did I mention that Florence lives in an apartment in an old manor? It is really striking, like, crazy beautiful, and I only saw it at night. They took this old manor and cut it up into tons of really great apartments. I am envious.

We ate our kebabs on the side of the road until we got a call from Miguel who had just arrived in Quimper by car with his friend Ronand. We met up by Les Halles, backtracking a bit to find them. Finally rolled into Esme's cute apartment smack downtown around 8:30. She had made a gorgeous quiche with zuchini & tomotoes, homemade quacamole & homemade hummus, and we regretted (somewhat) eating our kebabs beforehand, but were glad to have had a full dinner all the same. The evening passed first at Esme's, with the company of some Eddie Izzard skits. Then we relocated to The No Name Pub where we found lots of old French men and two young reggae-ish djs that played reggae/electronica music all night. It was strange, but the longer we got there, the larger our group got, and the more entertaining it all was. By the end of it all we were numerous: me, Julia, Miguel, Ronand, Kymberly, Sarah, Paige, Esme, Jean-Marie (Esme's bf), Cesar, Julia, Zach, & Domin. We four from Concarneau left around 12:30 as Ronand had to work 6:30 Saturday morning & sleeping in our own beds sounded better than sleeping on Florence's pullout sofa.

Saturday afternoon I joined Clementine in her apartment downtown to make cards. I got there around 2:30pm and left at 6:15. I made 8 cards and she made 6, so you can imagine the effort (or maybe more the time) put into them. haha. It turned out to be very useful, though, as the next day we used one of my cards as a birthday card for Marie who turned 24 on Sunday.

Sunday morning Julia went to the pool across the street to help Jeanne (and old student and the daughter of one of her work friends) with her swimming requirements. Afterwords they both came home, we had hot chocolate and started making a pumpkin pie. Premade pumpkin puree in a can does not exist in France. In fact, pumpkin isn't too popular at all, so much so that the only reason we had pumpkin was because a colleague of Julia brought some from her garden because she knew Julia had looked for pumpkin last year. :P So we made the puree ourselves, which turned out to be a cool experience. It is a little disappointing, though, when you eat the pie and you have the following (inevitable) conversation:

"YES! This tastes EXACTLY like how it does at home!"

"You mean....it tastes like the same thing you buy in a can and takes 5mins to throw together?"

So we made the pumpkin pie and then also made Coca Valenciana, a lemony, cinnamony cake, the recipe of which Julia got from her old Spanish roommate, Lorena. They were both very good and were half gone by the end of the soiree at Marie's house.

After finishing the baked goods, we wrote up the card for Marie and headed out to Trevignon with Florence who picked us up on her way from Quimper. In the car we tried to listen to and prepare The Beatles' "Birthday" to round out the "gift" we would present Marie.

We got to Trevignon around 5:20, late (very late) and took a walk along the oceanside--gorgeous. The weather was hesitating between being gorgeous and a giant storm all day, wavering back and forth between the two, and while we were walking the coast it was right inbetween with dark light skies, at the same time heavy clouds and angry waters.

At 6 we headed back to the house as Marie was expecting others for a "gouter dinatoire" (snack-type dinner). A pre-teen named Leila and her mother, as well as the bartender, Philo, joined us later. We drank hot chocolate, tea, coffee, whisky, port and ate lemon cake, pie, brioche and chocolate cake. Then Miguel, Julia and I sang "I Will," "Amazing Grace," and "Birthday" for them, which led to Julia playing "Hoffman's Horrah" on her clarinet (with guitar accompaniment). She then taught us the dance and Florence, Marie and I dance to it while they played. That led to Marie putting on a Breton music CD and teaching me how to do some Breton dances with Florence & Julia. Finally we started wrapping things up and headed out around 9pm.

Today was the first day in a long time that I did not check the mail. I decided that I check every day and almost always there is nothing, so I would not check; afterall, if there was something then one of the others would have checked. Well, this evening Julia comes in with two envelopes for me. hah. I got one very happy card from Kristen with a pin, card & note (woo! Thanks, Kay!), and I also got one very bothersome letter from OFII. France finally got around to processing my immigration papers and assigning me a medical date. I am to be in Rennes next Monday for a medical visit at 1:35pm. Thiiiiis....well okay. It seemed overwhelming at first because my weekend is already rather packed, but I think I figured it out and here's what I'm looking at:

-teach for the rest of the week

-Thursday afternoon: bus Concarneau to Quimper, train Quimper to Nantes, bus or ride with Beatrice to the IES Thanksgiving dinner, couchsurf (host already down!)

-Friday in Nantes just for fun, couchsurf (host already down!)

-Saturday: train Nantes to Quimper, lunch in Quimper, bus Quimper to Concarneau, chill the afternoon, then get picked up by Florence (the one from church) to go to a church event; bus up to the north of the Finistere with Florence (and maybe Clementine) for a big choral event that will last until 11, putting us back in Concarneau around 2am

-Sunday: sing at mass, bus to Quimperle, train to Rennes, couchsurf (host yet to be found)

-Monday: see Rennes in the morning, medical visit at 13h35, couchsurf (host yet to be found)

-Tuesday: train to Quimper, bus to Concarneau, teach

I won't complain because this has the potential to be a very cool weekend, but at the same time all these plans rolled into one weekend makes me feel too hectic.

After that, Friday we will be celebrating Kymberly's 21st birthday in Quimper or Quimperle, then Saturday we are going with Marie & Florence to a Fest Noz (rock & roll themed :P). After that it will just be one week until Kim comes to visit and another week until going home.

So much up in the air!

Eventful Week

2009-11-14T21:41:00.004+01:00

Last Thursday, me, Marie, Julia & Miguel went to a concert by Dominique A in Fouesnant. Miguel's old colleague from Quimperle joined us, too. It was interesting. Several hours of always the same alternative sound was a bit much, but amusing nonetheless.

Saturday we welcomed Sarah (German) & Kymberley (English) from Quimperle. We walked the footpath along the sea, showed them around the Ville Close and then hit up a creperie for some galettes and crepes as a late lunch. After eating I stayed with them in the center until their bus arrived as Julia had a skype date & Miguel wasn't feeling well. We went to a used book store where I bought some Asterix & Obelisk books for my friend Brad who is serving with the Peace Corps in Namibia now.

Once the girls left I headed home and stopped at St. Anne du Passage for the 6pm mass time. I was glad to have been able to catch it. Josh (American) arrived from Quimper almost the same time I got home from mass. We chatted a lot, ate dinner, played some music & eventually all went to bed. It was a great day in all with good company.

Not much happened then until Tuesday. I went to choir rehearsal and then joined the choir plus a priest, an Algerian muslim couple & Guillemette's family at her house to have a soiree with raclette. Raclette is a Swiss/French dish. You have to have this special apparatus, but it is very useful for parties or large dinners.

You buy a raclette thing, this is like a very large hot plate with two layers. You put some cheese on a sort of little shovel that you put on on the bottom plate, the two plates heat up the cheese, causing it to "fondre"--the basis of the word "fondue," "to melt" and "melted" respectively. Once the cheese has started to bubble and become golden you dump the fondue out onto your plate where hopefully you have cut up potatoes and put meat. You put the cheese on the potatoes and eat cold deli meats alongside it, plus things like tomatoes, onions, whatever. You can also grill the meats on the top hot plate.

It is a cool little festivity. We had a very good time, with wines from Amboise which Eric brought (he is from Amboise, a town on the Loire known for it's gorgeous chateau) then the raclettes which were followed by four different desserts--two types of fruit salad, gateau breton, and then brownies I had made (because I didn't know what else to bring).

These brownies were actually a gateau au chocolat recipe I got from Roselyne, but when I got down to putting the batter in a pan I realized that the pan for gateaux was still occupied by the apple cake I told you about in the last entry. I didn't want to take the time to displace the remaining piece and clean the platter, so I put it in a brownie-ish platter. It worked out great; I cut the gateau into brownies and that way there was plenty for everyone to try.

Friday I ran plenty of errands. I ran to the store to get some stuff for around the apartment to buy some recipe books for Brad as I hope to send off his care package soon. Then I went to the bank where I withdrew rent money, went home and paid rent, finally arriving home to realize that there would be a soiree that night in Quimper.

Julia and I decided to go, taking the last bus from Concarneau. We got into Quimper around 7:30, bought some beer & bananas (for the morning) and headed to Zach's place. It ended up being a good group--me, Julia, Josh, Ashton, Zach (American), Rachel (English), Esperanza, Bea (Spanish), Cesar (Chilean), Julia & Dominique (German). We hung out from 8-4 when we finally headed off to Josh's place to sleep. It was definitely much to late to be out, but as long as we had been warm, dry, and amused we didn't want to ask Josh to leave early so we could go to sleep. It worked out alright anyways.

Julia & I got up at 8:30 to go into town and catch a bus. We stopped downtown Concarneau where I got my train tickets for Thanksgiving in Nantes and we applied for our Cartes de Sejour. We took in plenty of papers and all they ended up using was three passport size photos & our passports. I believe they also made copies of the other documents you supposedly need to bring in (ie birth certificate, arrete de nomination, etc), but I'm not sure if they will do anything with it and if it's entirely necessary. Luckily (since she didn't use it), I didn't need a translation into French of my birth certificate which I had read may be necessary in some cities.

We both also asked for an "attestation" which is a bit like a receipt saying you have applied for your titre/carte de sejour and it will let you continue forward with all the other bureacracy you have to do (like getting social security). All-in-all it will take AT LEAST eight weeks to get the carte...oh well. I will try this coming week to apply for my social security and this way I may have coverage before I leave the country. Huzzah.

We caught a bus back to Porzou, took showers, slept & recuperated a bit before meeting Aston, Rachel & Esperanza at the little boat that traverses the port. They had come to Concarneau for the day, but as Julia had a skype dat at 2:30 and we were otherwise exhausted we asked them to amuse themselves downtown until 4pm when we'd go meet them. We took them by the seaside footpath, but the wind was so strong and cold that it was difficult to enjoy the beauty of the sea, turbulent and dark.

By 4:45 we were at home sitting down in the salon with some teas, hot chocolates & cookies. Another gateau au chocolat was in the oven cooking, and the conversation was good. This gateau didn't come out as well as I rushed so I wouldn't be neglecting our guests. I didn't sift the flour and I added the four eggs all at once rather than one at a time. Well, mostly the flour I think was a problem as some of it stuck and created a sort of chunky effect in the cake. It is still tasty, but the texture was great with the brownie-gateau and I while I used the real gateau platter this time, I preferred how it came out before. That being said, half the cake is gone already, so still a success.

Now things are quiet. The girls caught the last bus out at 6:34. Miguel is playing guitar, I am writing this & Julia is preparing for bed.

Tomorrow I will be getting a ride to mass downtown with a couple who live not too far from here as the choir sings at mass tomorrow. Otherwise I'm not too savy as to my plans. Hope to listen to the Packers-Cowboys game. We'll see.

Best to all,
Alicia

Apple Experiments

2009-11-06T17:12:00.003+01:00

You may have noticed a trend in my baking habits....lots of apple. This is because within my first two weeks of being in Concarneau we had not only bought green apples, but were given a crate of Spanish apples from Lorena's parents as well as a bag of apples from Guillemette's orchard.
It was very nice of them, but a month later we still had apples laying around after snacking on them and making countless fruit salads.

Thus, I was motivated over break to finish the apple supply with baked items. This began with the Tarte Tartin that you can see in the last post or two.

Then came the Clafoutis aux pommes, or apple clafoutis. I made this without knowing what it was, but it sounded and looked good. I would say it's sort of like apples baked into custard, a bread pudding-like custard.

Tasty, but now it is done and I used the last two apples in our arsenal to make a very simple apple cake, but as always happens when trying things so easy to make in the states, I found we had some impediments in France. Mostly I didn't have a brownie sheet, which is what the recipe asked for. I first tried in a bread pan on a lower temperature, which resulted in the top being perfectly cooked....and then about 3mm beneath that it was completely batter. So I scraped off the top (and ate it, yum) and then poured the batter from the bread pan into this tarte pan.

We have yet to try it, but it seems to have worked much better (and smells so tasty!), so let's cross our fingers.

Either way there are no more apples, huzzah!

La Toussaint, continued

2009-11-03T12:07:00.011+01:00

Wednesday after lunch (3pm) I left for Pornichet with Aurelien. We hit some traffic, which was the first time I'd ever experienced car traffic in France, much less in Nantes.

We got in and chilled a little bit, talking to Clementine, Aurelien's neighbor who also is studying engineering. We played some Guitar Hero and then around 7 we went out to a bar called Le Bidule, which is apparently a Pornichet staple.

Le Bidule (not my own image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P3ovg2yu-6s/SKalee1F4TI/AAAAAAAAAKI/duUQ2dw3sss/s400/DSC02149.JPG)

This is a bar that closes at 9pm and is thus packed before the sun is down. They serve a sweet white wine that is, really, much too sweet but still very good (and cheap for how strong it is). There are wine barrels set up all around the bar, which is mostly an outdoor terrasse....a backyard half covered with an overhang, and half not. You call over one of the two barmaids (who are always being called out to) who slap down some glasses if you don't already have them and grab the bottle from their hip where there is a sort of a holster and they pour out the drinks and you pay on the spot. In some ways it is not efficient at all, but much more amusing.

After that we headed back to eat dinner and watched "Back to the Future." Hah.

Thursday I walked around Pornichet from 10-12 was Aurelien did work. I spent a lot of time on the beach and especially a line of rocks that run from the sand pretty far out into the ocean that serves as a dividing wall fo the marina.

Lunch, then we did some errands. He took me to St. Nazaire where he goes to school. He showed me around campus and then we walked around the bay just beside the school. I did not have my camera, but it was quite astounding how different the beach at Pornichet could be from that at the neighboring town of St. Nazaire. The bay at St Nazaire was essentially cliffs that dropped down to the water. There was a footpath all along the cliff that was reminiscent of Concarneau, but with many more hills.

The day ended with a walk in Pornichet again, and then Aurelien's school friend Sonya came over to play Guitar Hero. We also went out to a bar called La Terrasse that was giving beginning salsa lessons when we were there at 8. We did not participate, although I wish we had since that was the first time I've seen any salsa (or dance at all) this stay in France. We took some monacos and sat on the terrasse to talk while we waited for the creperie we wanted to eat at emptied out. We then ate some galettes, I made the mistake of getting mine with "poireaux" (scallions/leek) which I mistook for "poires" (pears). Uhmmm, yea I didn't even finish it. We had cidre with the meal and closed down the creperie, having arrived late. We then headed back to his apartment and Sonya left shortly after, which was good because we both went to bed early.

Friday I left on a train around at 11:42 for Nantes, where I stayed for two hours on a layover. I had lunch at a little boulangerie near the gelato shop in the quartier bouffet which always makes me think of Molly (and her obsession with this shop ^_^). I then sat under the bridge at the chateau (same as I used to) soaking in the sun (not as I used to) and headed back to the train station to get a coffee and wait a few more minutes before getting on the train. I got into Quimperle four minutes to five and waited 40ish mins for the last coach to Concarneau that put me at home around 6:40. I was alone for the night with Julia still in Scotland and Miguel in Paris.

Saturday I made a tarte tartin, an upside down apple tart which is pretty easy to make, but very good. However, it becomes much more difficult to make when you realize you don't know how to start the oven. I had only ever used the oven when cooking with Miguel and Julia, so they had always started the oven. I thought I knew how to start the oven, but when it came down to it, the tarte waiting to cook, I could not get it to work. I had to knock on almost every door in the building before I found someone home. Julien, a neighbor in the other part of the building, came over and showed me how, although the way he did it was more complicated than that of Miguel because he lifted the bottom of the oven, which Miguel has never done. In fact, I still don't know how to start the oven, but I will learn one of these days.

Miguel got home in the afternoon and we decided to make fajitas that night, for which I had bought all the necessities. I made the guacamole from scratch and found creme fraiche that tasted similar enough to sour cream. I bought shredded emmentale cheese and Old El Paso tortillas from the supermarket. We threw together onions, red peppers and chicken with a packet of Old El Paso fajita seasoning (not so great, imo) and attempted some "Spanish" rice with diced tomatoes and onions. As you can't easily find black beans in France we ate red beans on the side, and that worked alright.

We were expecting Julia to be home by dinner, and we also invited Julien and his girlfriend, Cindy. Julia ended up being stuck in London another night thanks to RyanAir and Cindy had back pain, so it ended up just me, Miguel and Julien eating the fajitas along with a local white beer. We'll call it French-Mex; a valiant effort, but not entirely true to form. (Still tasty.)

Sunday Julia finally got home after a very painful travelling experience. Because she is not a citizen of the EU RyanAir apparently requires you to have a stamp verifying your passport in order to reenter France....I don't know. So she had to stay the night Saturday in London to buy a much more expensive ticket with another agency (she was not reimbursed for the RyanAir ticket) that flew her into Dinon, where she then had to hitchhike to get to a train station to get a connection to Brest and then finally arrive by train and coach in Concarneau. Lesson: RyanAir is not worth it.

That day I had tried to make galettes. I made the batter just as Roselyne had shown me several times....and it still did not work out. It came down to a combination of not having a large enough skillet that wouldn't stick, not having the apparatus to smooth out the batter, not using the correct hotness on the stove, and something in the batter that made the galettes crack as they cooked. All-in-all, it came down to around 11pm and we were eating the disaster that was these galettes.

Monday none of us did much. Julia and I left in the evening for Fouesnant, a neighboring town, for choir rehearsal. Which lasted three hours at the end of which I was ready to collapse. Instead we got home at 10pm and I started making tomato basil chicken with rice for dinner, which worked out MUCH better than the galettes of the previous night.

Julia went into the mayor's office today to ask about the carte de sejour....annnnd they know nothing. We compared our current visas to that which Julia had last year. Her visa from last year was for three months and demanded a carte de sejour to follow the months after it expired. Our current visas last the entire length of our contracts, plus a month or two. We'd like to say that we don't need the carte de sejour (which, it is true that supposedly France was going to phase this out), but at the orientation Oct 7 they told us we would still need it. Thank you, Brittany, for being so up-to-date. We have to call into the prefecture in Quimper to ask further questions. For now let's cross our fingers.

Later today I will attempt a clafoutis aux pommes--Apple Clafoutis, which to my understanding is a bit like apples baked in a custard. Not sure. It sounds and looks tasty, so we'll give it a go. News on the clafoutis later.

Best,

Alicia

Vacances de la Toussaint

2009-11-01T12:02:00.012+01:00

As you all already know, I have been on vacation the last week or so. I finished with classes Thursday 22 Oct at noon and do not start again until Wednesday morning (4 Nov).

Friday we had a nice dinner together, the three roomies and Miguel's cousin, Jesus. Saturday Julia left early in the morning to get the bus to Quimper, to get the train to Brest, to get a flight to London, to get a train to Glasgow, to wait for a ride to Ivernesse. Yikes! Better her than me.

That Saturday was the day I got all the bank & carte 12-25 business worked out. I got home around noon from those errands and then we three left for Quimper around 2:30, meeting two other assistantes from Quimperle on the coach. We got to Quimper around 3pm and proceeded to show Jesus the town a little bit (including the St Corentin Cathedral) before meeting up with the other assistants who live at Quimper.

We then headed back to the apartment of Zach, an American assistant, before heading towards downtown for the Festival Insolent which was in the Pavillon de Penvillers. We intended on first taking the bus, but then thought it would take less time on foot than waiting 10mins for the bus, plus the time to arrive there....well we were wrong. Mostly because we got turned around several times, separated, and needlessly confused.

We did, however, finally arrive at the venue (around 1.5hrs late), having missed only Yodelice. It was fun, a cool experience with good people.

Me, Kymberley and Sarah (the two girls from Quimperle) stayed in a lycee internat with an assistant who lives in Quimper (Josh). I got up alone the next morning to catch the coach back to Concarneau, unfortunately, I didn't account for the time change so I was an hour early. I grabbed a coffee while waiting and then headed home. I crashed for a couple of hours before getting my bag together and taking the coach back to Quimper for a 7pm rendez-vous in front of the train station for my rideshare, but the woman never showed. I learned later that she had expected me to confirm the r-v time and as I didn't, she didn't not come.

Instead of heading to Nantes I stayed another night with Josh and had breakfast with him in the morning. At the time the whole thing seemed pretty terrible, but by the time I was in bed in the internat I felt fine. It was a smart thing I had gotten my carte 12-25 the day before because I ended up buying a ticket to Nantes for Monday morning. It only cost 16€, 5€ more than the ride share and an hour shorter trip. Sure, it would have been cool to do the rideshare, but the security of the train was worth the loss.

St. Nicholas, Nantes

I got into Nantes around 1:50pm and walked with my things to IES, where I had studied in Spring of 2008. There I talked for around 30 minutes with various administration before my old host mom, Roselyne, showed up. It was a good feeling being back in some place so familiar. The articles posted on the billboard were the same, with a few additions. The messages Mme Rouchet posted on the mirror in the main hall were on the same paper, in the same ink, with the same handwriting as they'd always been.

Statue of General Cambronne, Cour Cambronne, Nantes

The Institute has 90 students this semester. They did have 91, but one went home due to homesickness (crazy). The institute is definitely not suited out for this many students; the administration knows it, the students know it, the parents of the students know it. The only people not recognizing this are in the administration in Chicago who just so happen to have the power to decide. With this responsibility, Mme Rouchet is busier than ever and asked me to come back not before Wednesday to talk as she wouldn't have the time.

Roselyne then took me back to my old house in Nantes, making a stop at her father-in-law's old apartment which she was in the process of having emptied and the stuff auctioned off. He really had some interesting stuff. He owned a huge apartment right in downtown Nantes full of paintings and trinkets. In the middle of his salon was sitting a tabernacle that had been given to him by a church. I wish I had seen it while the apartment was still occupied; most of the stuff was in boxes or pushed into piles so that you couldn't appreciate everything.

La Place Royale

Monday night I ate dinner with Roselyne & Jean Noel (my old host parents), Charlotte (their daughter), and Caroline (the new American student). It was a great time being together with them all again and it made me realize how lucky I was to get along so well with them and still have contact.

The house was relatively the same with only a few things here and there added. The main differences was that Jypsey died the fall after I left and in her place there is now a new golden retriever, Dubai, which they got as a 2 month old puppy two days after I left. An almost two year old dog is quite a change from the 13 year old dog I was so used to. He was a bit much to deal with, but the family couldn't be happier with him, so good for them.

Tuesday I copied some recipes from Roselyne before having lunch and then heading into town to do some shopping (new jeans & a black fleece jacket for under 20€--yay for sales!). The afternoon Roselyne took me by car to Suce-sur-Erdre and the Chantrerie, two towns on the Erdre north of Nantes. They were gorgeous...

Wednesday I went back to the Institute to chat with Mme Rouchet which lasted around an hour, after which I headed straight back to the house because Aurelien was arriving at noon for lunch. In fact, when I got there he was already there. We took port as an apero and ate crackers before setting into lunch--a sort of pot roast with vegetables topped off with gateau au chocolat.

Then I headed off to Pornichet with Aurelien, but that will have to come in another post.

Trains, Banks and School

2009-10-23T14:53:00.007+02:00

All still goes well. My students still seem to be nice and interested. It helps, perhaps, that they had two weeks of me and then get a two week break then will only have 6 more weeks of school before the holiday break. Then there's the fact that many students I only see every other week. At least for the calendar year I think things will go okay with them.

I have decided to go to Nantes for some of the break next week. The plan is to do rideshare to Nantes Sunday afternoon/evening and then stay with Roselyne and Jean Noel until Wednesday morning. Then Wednesday I would head towards St. Nazaire with Aurelien for a couple days. Not sure on plans for heading back to Concarneau, but I've got the time to be indecisive.

Right now Miguel's cousin, Jesus, is in town. He is taking a few weeks to travel around. This is his first trip in France and he started in Strasbourg, then took a train straight to Quimper and is here with us. Tomorrow we three plus some other assistants will be in Quimper for a music festival tomorrow night. We will probably stay the night with some assistants there as it will be too late to get home. Sunday I'll come back to Concarneau to shower and get my bag(s) and then go back into Quimper to catch a ride through covoiturage.fr. If I can't find a rideshare then I will just take the train, although the rideshare will be way less expensive and more interesting.

Rideshare, or covoiturage, is relatively common in France. It goes along with the French hatred of "gaspillage," or waste. This same idea of gaspillage is why many people rent out extra rooms in their houses or take in foreign students. People post their future trips on http://www.covoiturage.fr/ and list how many seats they would have available, where they're going, when, if they're open to having baggage and pets, etc. Then if you are headed someplace, instead of paying for a train ticket that might be 30€ you can arrange a ride with someone for around 10€. The prices depend on the distance, gas efficiency of the car (the price is to split gas), and how many other people will be riding along. Also, the rideshare usually starts and stops at the train stations of the towns, so you end up exactly where you would have been anyways. The system is similar to couchsurfing in that you create a profile and accrue references so a future traveller can base his/her choice on the information provided on the site and still feel relatively safe.

I don't know if I will be able to take this route, however, as I only started looking for rideshares recently. The one woman I got in touch with was out of places. I have hence sent three other requests and we'll see if they don't have space. However, as I may or may not have luck, I am heading into town tomorrow to pick up my French debit card and drop by the SNCF boutique (the office for the national rail line) to buy a carte 12-25.

The carte 12-25 is the youth card for travellers and guarantees 25% off the ticket fare, but can get you up to 60% off depending on certain things. It costs 49€ and lasts for a full year, meaning even if I just used it on a roundtrip ticket for Paris it would pay for itself. It's a much better option than the eurorail pass, which you pay a ton for and then still have to reserve your tickets in advance, which often entails paying a fee. With the youth card, you buy your ticket online or in a boutique just like normal, but at a discounted price and then when you are on the train you present your ticket with your youth card. It's a good deal.

To buy it you need one passport sized photo which you can get easily in France. Photo booths are in all supermarkets and have the option to take pictures for official documents (this usually costs 4€ for four pics). Then you'd need a passport (if you're foreign) and the money.

As for the debit card, they said it would take 8-10 days as the information had to go through Paris and then Paris would send them the card. Well, that was October 6. My account was successfully set up and money deposited, but it doesn't really do me any good until I get the card. Miguel got his letter with his pin number last Friday. This means his card was received. So Wednesday we went in, hoping they would have mine, too. They sent us downtown as apparently all cards are sent from Paris to Quimper and then Quimper to the main bank downtown and in order to get it at *our* bank we have to ask them to ask the downtown bank to send it which takes two days.

I got my letter finally yesterday and went in. The card was still in Quimper. They said come back today. I went in today. They said the card was in the downtown bank. She asked me if I wanted it sent in to my bank and I asked when it'd get in; she said Tuesday. Thus the reason for me going downtown tomorrow, aside from the youth card. sigh.

On a lighter note, they finally started our heat! Apparently they normally start the heat Nov 1 (after Halloween), but the boarders at the school requested it be turned on early because it's been so cold recently. Well, thank you, boarding students! It's much easier in the evenings and mornings to do things without being wrapped in blankets.

Things are good. Not too many events to report on, but maybe that will change when I am back from holiday.

Best wishes to all...

Fernando Pessoa on Happiness

2009-10-21T11:55:00.001+02:00

I translated this poem back when I was studying Portuguese. Fernando Pessoa is a national icon in Portugal and maybe you can see why below. It's time Americans started acknowledging the aesthetic achievements of other countries, regardless of language.

Ser feliz é reconhecer que vale a pena viver, apesar de todos os
desafios, incompreensões e períodos de crise.
Ser feliz é deixar se ser vítima dos problemas e se tornar um autor da própria história.
É atravessar desertos fora de si, mas ser capaz de econtrar um oásis
no recôndito da sua alma.
É agradecer a Deus a cada manhã pelo milagre da vida.
Ser feliz é não ter medo dos próprios sentimentos.
É saber falar de si mesmo. É ter coragem para ouvir um "não".
É ter segurança para receber uma crítica, mesmo que injusta.
Pedras no caminho?
Guardo todas, um dia vou contruir um castelo...

To be happy is to recognize that it is worth the pain to live despite all of the challenges, misunderstandings, and periods of crisis. To be happy is to leave behind being the victim of the problems and become an author of your history. It is travelling through deserts outside of yourself, but be able to encounter an oasis in the seclusion of its soul. It is thanking God each morning for the miracle of life. To be happy is not having fear of your own feelings. It is even to speak of them. It is having the courage to hear "no." It is having the security to receive criticism, even if unjust. Stones in the road? I keep them all; one day I will build a castle...

Slow Week, maybe

2009-10-17T12:51:00.004+02:00

The last I wrote was about Saturday in Quimper and Sunday on the beach.

Since then lots has happened, but nothing major and so I have not been motivated to write.

Monday I started teaching. I teach 13 hours in week one and 10 hours in week two. This past week was a week one, so coming up I have only 10 hours. For some it will be the third time I see them, for others it will be the first. I've had a really great time teaching this week. Except for maybe one class in which I was really disappointed with student involvement my students have been engaged or cooperative at the least. Bit by bit I am learning student names and it makes it more interesting for me.

Each teacher interacts with me very differently. In some cases I just take a handful of students and chat with them the whole class. Some levels I do oral practice using political cartoons and advertisements (in the same format as their oral tests in their last year of HS). Others I do supplementary classes to complement what the teacher is talking about. This last is my preferred method. I find it is the easiest way to both interact (have fun) with the students and still maintain the status of teacher rather than "peer from another country."

I have been eating in the self (the school cafeteria) with Miguel and other teachers every day. It really can't be beat--appetizer, salad, main course, cheese & dessert for 2€40. The people who work in the self are very nice, too, and it is good to sit with the teachers to form connections and be pushed into fluent conversations with native speakers.

Tuesday evening I was picked up by Marie-Christine and her daughter Jessica to go to choir practice at church. That was from 7-8 and then I walked 10mins to the CAC (center for arts and culture I think) to sing in the Bretonne choir that practices 8:30-10:30. Julia was in the choir last year and continues still. She invited me and also advertized it at our orientation, so now two assistants from Quimper drive in to do it with us--Stephanie a German who brought her car, and Josh from Boston. It was quite fun. It is almost all older people and from everyone we heard how nice it was to have young adults around and they really seemed happy to have us. So Julia and I are in the alto section, Stephanie in the sopranos and Josh in the tenors--with us all spread around like this it feels more like I know the choir rather than just knowing Julia and the few peole whose names I could remember. After rehearsal goodbyes and talking lasted until 11:10, so we got home around 11:30 when I ate dinner (I was about to pass out) and crashed.

I don't know if it's bad or normal that I look back on days and can't for the life of me remember what I did. Wednesday I taught only one class in the morning and was free the rest of the day (Wednesdays are half days in French public school with the idea that the afternoon is used for sports or church). Thursday was another busy day of teaching--Mon & Thurs are my fullest. Friday I taught one class in the morning, went to the store, ate lunch in the self and then headed out to Quimper with the art history students in 2nde. It was me & Miguel, three professors and then around 45 students, 2/3rds of which were my students.

English is a required subject in France, so I see a majority of the general school population. Of course, I still walk in the halls and don't recognize plenty of people and that is because I have only one class of professional students.

Anyways, the art history students in 2nde had a field trip to the Musee des Beaux Arts Friday afternoon, so we tagged along in the coach they reserved. It was a pretty good museum, but my favorite part was definitely the rooms devoted to Breton art--art just made in Brittany dating from the mid-19th onward. There were some really beautiful pieces and it was insightful as to the celtic and native culture of Brittany.

It was also interesting to see how the students interacted, how the teachers managed the event and the sort of work that was assigned. It still astounds me, the amount of liberty French students get from their teachers and administration. With all the students spread out in the museum we did have any apparent problems of students getting into trouble or walking off. At 5 in the bus, all the students were accounted for and we even left a few minutes early. Crazy.

The night was spent talking with Julia & Miguel. Julia made her mom's baked macaroni and cheese, which was too good, considering I have been missing distinctly American food such as mac & cheese (tex-mex, peanut butter, soda, crackers, baked meats, potatoes, spaghetti bolognese, really anything made with ground beef...I could keep going).

This morning has been lazy. Got up, had breakfast, started the laundry, took a shower, hung the sheets out on the lines, and now I'm here.

Tonight I will be going to see a film about the history of the Finistere (this part, the tip of Brittany) with Miguel, Julia, Marie, and friends of Avele. Tomorrow I will be at church from 10a-3 for rehearsal, mass & a parish lunch. Then I'll be getting ready for classes.

Another Busy Weekend

2009-10-12T18:05:00.001+02:00

[There is another 'new' post just before this if you want to read chronologically.]

Considering that I usually have lots to say here about my weekends, that is also the time I get the most bored and homesick. Whether I am busy or not it seems there is just too much time in a weekend, a problem I have never had, much less considered, in my life.

I write you now on Monday afternoon after what felt like a very long day even though I only had three classes and all after lunch. With tea in hand and my computer in my lap I am trying to think of all the weekend, and what highlights I ought to share. My laundry is all around me as I did the washing this morning and laid out the clothes to dry around 10, hanging on chairs and desk with the window open. I am hoping they will be done by tomorrow morning so that I don't have to wear the same pants for three days in a row. :)

This is one of the first days, perhaps the only, since I've been here that it has been sunny all day long. With the clear skies I may take advantage of the weather tonight to go sit by the sea and check out the night sky; what with it being cloudy all the time I haven't had the chance to compare the stars here to what I'm used to.

Saturday was the first time I noticed the stars, driving back to Concarneau with some new acquaintances Marine & Renault. They offered to take me home from Quimper where I had been all afternoon and night with Guillemette. She picked me up at 1:15 and we went to Quimper. I stayed with her while she rehearsed for a while, but then I split and walked around town. I ran into 5 other assistants I had met at orientation on Wednesday; a couple lived there and some others came from Pont l'Abbe. We talked a bit and split again.

I headed into the center of town to see the touristy sites (like the Cathedral of St Corentin shown above) and maybe get some food as I had not eaten lunch. Just as I was passing a boulangerie that I w as considering stopping at for a sandwich, Andrea passes me, an assistant from Switzerland who teaches German in Chateaulin. She was one of the people I go on best with at the orientation and I had never expected to see her again. Funny that she and I would both end up at Quimper for Saturday, by ourselves, bored and hungry and passing the same boulangerie at the same time, but that's how it happened. We walked around the rest of the afternoon together. She had been in the town seeing the sites since 10:30, so she had already see all the easy things I wanted to hit, but that made it simple as she also knew the best ways to get around and what else to see in the area.

The Old Theater

She is extremely nice and I took her email address so that hopefully we can arrange weekend trips or something.

After seeing her off at the train station I walked back to the other end of town where Locmaria, a Catholic church, is and where Guillemette would wait for me for mass. We went to 6:30pm mass and then joined the masses for the picnic lunch afterward. The church provided crepes, so I had my first crepe of the sojourn on Saturday night, although I'm pretty sure it just had butter on it even if they said it was with sugar.

Locmaria Catholic Church

Dinner was followed by a show put on by Avel Spi, a theater/dance/choir group thing that performs around stories from the Bible to make it more appealing to youths. This weekend began the catechism classes for kids, so all the masses and events were focused on adolescents.

Snacks & drinks followed the show and that went on for a while, so it wasn't until 11:10 or so that Guillemette suggested I go home with Marine & Renault as she had to stay even later to help with the break down.

Sunday the same couple picked me up and took me to St. Marc, a church in the neighboring town of Tregunc. All masses in Concarneau were cancelled to bring more people to celebration of catechism-ness in Tregunc. There were some five or so priests at the one service. The mass was followed by more drinks and snacks where I met dozens of people whose names I don't remember at all.

I left Tregunc with Guillemette who had invited me to her house for lunch. We ate some kind of fish that is like cod with mashed potatoes (which I have missed) and then played Beatles rockband which was more entertaining this time as they had gotten a mic to play with as well as the guitar.

Guillemette & Frederic at Les Sables Blancs

We then went for a walk down to a beach near their house called Les Sables Blancs, which is well-known in Concarneau. The name means "White Sands" because the sand is very fine and thus appears white rather than tan.

On the walk we also stopped by the house of some of their friends where stayed for some time, so it was not until 5:30 that I got back to their house, Guillemette apologized for keeping me so long, and rushed me home.

I had dinner with Miguel and we played around with learning some new songs before hitting the hay for our first days of teaching, details about which will have to come later.

Nothing Like Tapas to Say Goodbye

2009-10-12T17:49:00.004+02:00

Lorena left Concarneau on Sunday with her parents and sister, Anna. They drove up from Alicante to help her move all her stuff back home. She ended up leaving a lot of stuff (food, blankets, etc) with us, but still apparently had enough stuff to need help.

Friday she had a gathering at her apartment in the Ville Close. Her mom and sister made several tapas plates. They were amazingly tasty; really, everything. It varied from mussels, to nuts, to spiced ground beef on toast, to delicate cheeses, to two breads with spinach and potatoes baked into them, to a ratatouille like salsa to.....to...to....

Dinner lasted hours. We started drinking and eating the moment we got there around 7pm and did not stop until we left towards midnight. We had Spanish wines and Ciders and beers and kirs and ports.

All around it was a good time. I am starting to think that a good time in understood in France when there is good food involved. That is not to say that fun must be accompanied by food, but more that good food brings happiness, and I don't see why not.

The evening ended for us in walking to Lorena's parents car, carrying a crate of Spanish apples that Lorena's parents had brought and had not intended on taking home with them (seriously, these apples are as big as softballs).

I can't stress how fabulous the food was. Imagine ordering 20 very diverse appetizers and not only wanting, but having to eat some of everything. Well. You can perhaps imagine then how full I was at the end of it all, but it was a content full as it was all so good.

Much of the night was also spent amusing Rafael, the 2.5yr old son of a Spanish teacher here at Pierre Gueguin. Lorena must have been particularly close to her as she and her family were invited to the party with Lorena's friends and family. Rafael had the distinct air of Dennis the Menace, so much so that Miguel brought it up and it didn't get out of my head the rest of the night.

As for the rest of the weekend, you can check the next post...

Dinner Parties: Why don't they exist in America?

2009-10-09T17:41:00.003+02:00

Wednesday Lorena's parents came. They stay until Sunday when they will help her move all her things back to Spain. As this is the case, she took the opportunity to celebrate with friends Tuesday night and so we three roommates + Lorena + Marie (a friend of L/J who came to pick us up) were in a car, zooming around traffic circles and laughing every time Miguel made a squeak, afraid the hot soup he was holding in his lap might spill.

We arrived at the house of a woman named Avele. She is, I believe, widowed and enjoys the company of young people. How do I know this? Well, there were pictures of her children on the wall, yet she was the only one living in a rather large house for one person and she invited a dozen young adults to a dinner soiree.

Marie, Miguel, Julia, Lorena and I met there Rhemy and Julian, two young men apparently newish to Concarneau and in need of friends. Florence also met us there, but she is already a friend of the crew.

It was a potluck of sorts and started with the apero. All night was composed of red wine and homemade rum with orange infusions that Rhemy's father (who lives in Martinique I believe) makes. That was followed up by roasted chestnuts by Avele and then a pork pate that Florence's grandmother made from scratch.

Then we started in on the plates, but as we had brought soup and Avele had also made soup, we all ate soup twice and guessed what was in each. They were both very good.

Then we had a sort of tomato quiche that Julian had made--it was excellent (onions, herbs & tomato on pizza crust kind of, but much tastier than pizza).

At this point it was probably around 10:30pm and we still had not gotten to Marie's gratin of potato, cucumber and tomato. Some ate that while others headed on to the cheese, all with wine.

The point of the night, in a way, was the food. It was truly a dinner party, but we also had some really great conversation and got to know everyone, all nine, well. Thus it was a very successful small group party, the likes of which I'd never experienced before.

After eating, Julian took his guitar and between him and Miguel we had plenty to listen to, as well as to sing to (at least for me & Julia).

Florence was leaving early (around 12:15) as she works as the librarian in the media library of Quimper (30mins away), and Julia and I took a ride back with her because we were both expecting to be up at 6am for our orientation the next day. Miguel stuck around and ended up back at home around 3am. Oof!

Tonight Lorena is hosting a soiree at her apartment downtown. All I know is that we are getting there around 7, Marie will be there as well as Lorena and her parents, and we are eating Tapas after taking an aperitive. It promises to be an equally entertaining evening.

A bientot, tous,
Alicia

Update on the Paperwork

2009-10-08T18:12:00.004+02:00

As to the last entry, I am finding myself now in the thick of French bureaucracy.

Getting the attestation de domicile (statement of housing) was relatively simple and immediate. I got that from M. LePen, the secretary at my school who has been my main administrative liaison and very useful in getting stuff done.

The RIB is a form from the bank that you get and can continue to get copies of when you have an account. It states all of your banking information, essentially what is required to do direct deposit. Thus it was necessary to get an account and the RIB as a result asap in order to get paid as if you did not have this in to the office by Oct 10 then you would not get paid for Oct until the end of November. This is partly because the paperwork all has to be sent in to Paris and worked out there and then communicated to the department (Rennes) from which you are paid. This is also partly due to the fact that it is the government and for some reason things are just like this. Oof.

The bank set up was pretty simple. Miguel and I went together, which helped in one or two cases that I did not know the lingo necessary to make a decision. Signed about 6 papers and decided on a bank card type, bingo bango, here's your RIB. I will get the card about 8 days after I made the account--it should come Tuesday or Wednesday--and I will get a code in the mail, which is my notification that the card is waiting for me at the bank I made the account with.

I also exchanged the dollars I had on me which also has to be sent to Paris and thus is not put in my account for 8-10 days! That seemed ridiculous, but okay, France, do things your way.

Wednesday I had orientation all day in Brest. Brest is only about 1h34mins away by car, but as we don't have that option Miguel and I got up around 6am to catch the coach bus from the hospital stop near here to go to Quimper (around 1€50), leaving at 6:55 and arriving at 7:36. At Quimper we took the train at 7:41 and arrived at 8:56. We ended up not having to pay for it, so that was cool! We were rather late and weren't sure if we'd have time to stop at the office to get tickets, so we asked the train lady what we can do (already being on the train) and she said there weren't any "controleurs" (people who checked for tickets) that train, so as far as she was concerned, we could go without a problem. :)

Once in Brest we took bus line 6 to the school, which ended up being not the best way to go as it took us through and around the whole city while there was the bus line 11 that was a straight shop. We got there at about 10:10 (the orientation was supposed to start at 9), but it was all good because they hadn't gotten going till 9:30 and then they had taken a small breakfast and chatted, so when we got there they had just begun to do individual introductions. :P

Orientation consisted of meeting all the assistants (of German, English, Spanish, Chinese and Italian), hearing from M. James Brossard, the coordinator of international education initiative-ness. He was awesome and cool, although he didn't provide any information that wasn't given in all the pamphlets and such we'd all received.

Most people there have been around in France for around 3 weeks I found, so many were ahead of me, already having submitted their OFII form and thus gotten their recipisee from the mayor's office for the Carte/Titre de sejour, which is the next step towards social security. I only just gave my OFII stuff to M. LePen who will probably send it tomorrow (maybe today....), meaning maybe middle of next week I can go to the Mairie to begin getting my titre de sejour.

OFII required the form they gave me at the embassy in Houston as well as copies of my visa and passport. It is sent in to Rennes in my case, and once they receive and process then they will send me a form about the medical visit, which is necessary to get the titre de sejour, too.

So the list currently stands....

-visa, check
-statement of residence, check
-bank account & card, check
-got the RIB, check
-portfolio to get paid, check
-orientation in Brest, check
-titre de sejour, nope
-social security, nope
-medical visit to Rennes, nope

The Red Tape

2009-10-06T17:19:00.004+02:00

-visa, check
-statement of residence, check
-bank account & card, check
-got the RIB, check
-portfolio to get paid, check
-orientation in Brest, nope
-titre de sejour from Quimper, nope
-social security, nope
-medical visit to Rennes, nope

The bureaucracy never ends.
And I still haven't gone grocery shopping.

Weekend Recap

2009-10-05T19:02:00.003+02:00

It has been a whole weekend of events and I am having trouble remembering everything.

Friday Julia arrived. She had done the same trip as me, but longer if possible as she had a layover in Philadelphia that was three hours late because there was no pilot; however, she caught the earlier bus and was home around 5pm nonetheless. She is very nice and speaks French well, and together as three we get along very well.

I am actually at an advantage that also seems a disadvantage--for the first time in my life I am the worst person in my surroundings that speaks French. Miguel and Julia both easily speak French better than me (Miguel's is practically perfect). While this can be frustrating at times, I am accomodating and learning to laugh at my mistakes and learn from their good usage. I will doubtless learn a lot more from cohabitating with them than I might have in other situations.

Friday was also the first time I went to the store. I walked the twenty minutes to hit Intermarche, which is a relatively large store. It is about the size of a super target, but is almost as large as they come in France. I ended up not buying any food, but just things I needed for the room (i.e. towels, hamper, trash can, soap & shampoo, etc) as I had just one bag and had the walk back home as well. Apparently there is a shorter path to go than what I took, so it may be easier on the re-going, and I will soon try to repair the bike downstairs (the school has three bikes for the assistants, however, the tires are flat on two and the third is Julia's).

Saturday I visited the post office and thus saw the are of Le Rouz, not far from here and where is also located the closest small grocery store, the butcher, the post and the tabac. The church St. Anne-du-Passage is a block away from there. It is a beautiful church, although modern by France's standards. Sadly, only around forty people attended mass and of those 40 maybe ten were under the age of 50. Perhaps that tells you enough of religion in France...

The priest, Pere Henri, I liked very much. He is a younger priest, came of very friendly, and gave a very good homily. I liked the priest, but did not much like the congregation, which in a way the latter is weightier than the former because it more immensely affects your experience.

After mass I walked home, stopping for some bread, and happened to encounter Lorena getting off the bus, who was coming to our place for dinner. We ate melon for the entree, ratatouille and rice for the main plate, then salad, cheese and yogurt for dessert. We drank a wine called Coteaux de Layon for the apero and it was so very good. It is very sweet and thus not good with a meal, but may perhaps become my favorite wine if we continue to get it. Dinner was followed by a muscat, the variety of which was rather more like a brandy than dessert wine to me (and I didn't take to it, although the others managed to finish it--leave it to the Spaniards :P).

I woke up around 9 Sunday to head to mass again, this time at St. Guenole in the center of town. Mass was at 10:45 and I much mistook the time it would take to get there as I left around 10:20, expecting 20mins to be enough. I got to mass at 11:05. Oh well. I was there for the second reading onward, so not too bad. I had wanted to go to both masses thinking the same priest did both and was going to judge which church I preferred. There was, however, a different priest who I did not like near as much (I forget his name--Pere Jean Pierre, maybe?), but the congregation was easily two or three times larger (same proportions in age) and much more involved.

Guillemette was there and (I imagine as I came in the side door rather late) saw me. We headed for each other at the end of mass and she ended up inviting me to her house for lunch with her family. I thus spent from about noon to 4pm at her home. There were her two sons, Camille (16) and Timothee (14), and her husband Frederic who all came to greet me with bisous (the French double kiss on the cheek) and started up a fire in the fireplace as it had begun raining. We sat in the living room by the fire while we took an apero. I tried Suze, which Frederic said is a very French apero (it is an extract from a flower); however, it was really strong and after the sip he gave me to try he switched me to a muscat which I liked much more than the one of the previous evening.

We had a lunch of moutin (sheep), beans, cheese & dessert (bananas for the ladies and ice cream for the guys :P). Then we moved back to the living room and played, you'd never guess, Beatles Rockband!!! Haha. They only had a guitar for the game, so we all took turns playing (except for Frederic who doesn't like playing the wii) and they ended up ordering a set of two microphones for rockband while I was there. Hahaha. It was pretty fun.

Timothee and Frederic left a quarter to three to take Tim to his boy scout meeting which meets every 15 days because there are too few troop leaders in Brittany, so the meet every other week so that everyone doesn't have to drive out to the meetings so often as every week. I thought that was an interesting quirk.

Camille and I played wii tennis and bowling and then tried out Mario Tennis (he won 6-0 .... >_< haha) while Guillemette cleaned and inspected the apples she had gathered from their tree in their backyard.

The rest of the evening I spent at home, going through papers and reading guidelines and such. I ate dinner and then invited Miguel to play cards. I taught him speed, which he ended up liking a lot and was very good at. He has already declared that he will take his revenge soon for me having beaten him. We talked a lot as well, and looked up hours for the busses and trains it would be necessary to use Wednesday to get to and from the orientation in Brest.

Today was my first day of observation in my mind, but I did not hear all weekend from Jacqueline, so I showed up at 9:45 in the teacher's lounge as I knew she had a class at 10. I ended doing the following today:
10-10:30 with Nathalie in a 2nde of about 15 students
10:30-11 with Jacqueline in a 1er of about 24 students
11-11:30 with Nathalie in 2nde of about 10 students
11:30-12 with Diana in a Terminale class of around 18 students
Then Diana went with me to the adminstration building to get money put on my lunch card, and we hit the Self (short for "Self-service," aka, cafeteria) for lunch and ate in the teacher section.

The French lycee cafeteria is remarkably different than the American equivalent. To start, there are no monitors. The students get around 2 hours for lunch & a break (lunch is the primary meal for the French), and have no monitoring whatsoever. Sure enough, there are teachers and surveillants (sort of like hall monitors, but these are paid youths recently out of HS whose job it is to manage the students discipline sort of), but they don't do anything and are hardly visible because there is no need for it. When the students finish lunch they are free to walk wherever they want, on or off campus (I think many even go home for lunch) and can sit around in the student lounge or on the campus lawn.

Further, the cafeteria is set up with entree (which we call "hors d'oevre" in American English), salad, main plate (the "entree" in American English), cheese, and dessert. Bit different, eh?

After lunch I went home only a short while before...
1:45-2:35 with Jacqueline in a Terminale
2:45 for just a few minutes with Nathalie in the English lit class for Terminale students

Then I met Marine, the fourth English teacher in the general school, who wanted me to make a recording for her middle school students using her ipod. She was very nice and it was a good opportunity to get to know better her and her impression of the school. You see, she is a substitute. In France, teachers are civil servants and get placed in their preferences according to how many "points" they have. Marine used to be a teacher in the north, but wanted to be in Brittany, where she is from, so agreed to be a substitute that can float between schools in order to gain more points and get her location preference. Thus, she works at both the lycee and the college (HS and MS respectively) and has no attachments to Concarneau and the schools since she has been at Pierre Gueguin little over a month.

4-4:20 I was in a 2nde class with Nathalie of around 24 students

All the classes had very different personalities, although I'd say the Terminale students were the most enjoyable to work with. They are older and thus more comfortable in general, not to mention in English. The Terminale classes are also smaller and I will be working with them in small groups. I enjoyed most of the day, though, and am anxious for the teachers to be done arguing about who gets me and when because it is greatly delaying the finalization of my schedule (although it is really not important until next week when the schedule would be implemented).

Having things to do today definitely helped with the homesickness and made this whole experience feel quite more worthwhile. I was questioning, from time to time over the weekend, if it would be worth it, but I think having this task could be very rewarding.

Tomorrow I hit the bank to set up a French account, so more on that later and maybe explanation of the French eductation system (so you know what Terminale, 2nde and 1er equate to).

Church Connections

2009-10-02T15:15:00.001+02:00

For those of you who made it through that last post, you get the gold star. Sorry for the length, but it will probably be like that for as much time as it takes me to get settled in (a couple weeks?).

As for the rest of the day...

I went to a church that I supposed to be Catholic as it was the largest seemingly functional one in town. There were two older women in the office and I knocked on the door and went in. I told them I had just arrived at Concarneau and was looking for the Catholic churches in the town to see if there was one closer to where I lived at the lycee. They gave me a list of mass times at the five different churches in town--St. Anne-du-Passage is Saturdays at 6pm and St Guenole (a Bretton saint) at 10:45 Sunday mornings while the other three trade dates and times due to a limited amount of priests.
These ladies called up some woman, apparently in charge of the youth program, and she came a few minutes later to ask me my name and see if I wanted to get a drink. I said sure because you don't say no to an extended (safe) hand when you're in a new country without any friends and it seemed like a very promising connection.
Florence (the woman) took me next door to the Aumonerie which is a building attached to the old church that had been destroyed in the 2nd World War. This building has offices for all the people who work for the church and I there also met Guillemette who is in charge of getting a choir going (rehearsals 2nd & 4th Tuesdays of the month from 7-8 in the Aumonerie).
I went to Florence's office where we sat the afternoon with coffees, her smoking next to the open window, and talked about religion in France, religion and the state, religion and schools, the French youth in Catholicism (vs USA), etc. It was all very interesting and due to her extensive experience working with youths and children, she was very patient, understanding, and comprehensive in our discussions. She was also very interested and appreciative for my arrival as at this time many people such as her and Guillemette are trying to revive the church, especially by including more youths and as I could be something of an intrigue and a great aid, I came at a good time for them.

Eventually we finished our coffees and as she had to go pick up her daughter at St. Therese (a private Catholic elementary school) which is only a minute or two drive from Pierre Gueguin, she offered to drive me home.

I thus got to experience, for the first time, a French elementary school. We got there at about 4:29, just before the release of school. The parents parked their cars and waited in the relative courtyards for either the little children (I suppose grades 2nd and younger in US terms) or the older ones (3rd-6th I think). Mathilde, Florence's daughter, is seven and is in the 6th level of French primary school. As Florence has to talk with the principal, Mathilde showed me around her school from the outdoor courtyards where they have recess, to the "cantine" or cafeteria, and the "gare de rire" --laugh station (gare=station, like for a train; rire=to laugh. I like it), which was painted all orange and red with puzzles, games and things galore for rainy day recess. The school was very small--only 130 students ages 3-11 I believe. Only two small buildings of three stories, two or three class rooms each level, with the cantine and gare de rire connecting them.

It was an experience, for sure.

Florence left me at my doorstep, and I said goodbye to her, Mathilde and Stitch, Mathilde's teddy bear named after the monster in the animated movie.

The rest of the evening went well and simply--dinner of grilled chicken in yellow peppers & onions, tortellini with pesto, salad and tea. Talked some with Miguel and then got on for some late night (to me) skype chats.

Time for (yet again) a late lunch--3:30 here and saying goodbye.
-Alicia

Hello from the Future

2009-10-01T21:17:00.004+02:00

For most of you reading this, I am seven hours ahead of you--it is in the nine o'clock hour here while it is two o'clock for you. Funny, huh? Yes, and my body thinks so, too, as it looks out the window at the black night and wonders why it feels like the afternoon.

But that makes perfect conditions to write in a blog, no?!

Now, from the top.

I left Dallas at 5:10pm Tuesday and got into Paris at 9:30am Wednesday on an American Airlines flight. It was fine--food, fine; conditions, fine; service, fine. Unlike previous international flights, I did not strike up a conversation with the person next to me who proved to be extremely interesting as there was no person next to me what with the plane only being half full. Even so I hardly slept and what sleep I had was poor as I was (and am still) sick with a cold that moved from my throat to my sinuses.

Upon arriving in Paris....welll...I wrote a little something then that you can read instead as it may prove more stimulating....

---------------------------------------------------

Day 1, and what a day

I left DFW on an American Airlines plane at 5:10pm, Tuesday September 29. Now, at 4:13pm Wednesday I find myself on a train to Lorient where I will have a 45min layover before transferring to a train headed to Rosporden.

We arrived 10mins early in Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and yet somehow I still did not make an earlier bus in order to make the train I was hoping for at 12:05 that would have landed me in Rosporden at 4:30 instead of 7:56. Élas.

Despite what I hear and read everywhere, going through customs at CDG has been, for me, very easy both times I flew in there, as well as for another friend I met there. Certainly this was the best experience as the only questions the customs guard asked me were how I was doing, if I speak French, and where I learned French, following it up by saying that I must have had a very good professor and telling me to have a nice day.

I headed two minutes away from baggage claim at 2A, my bag having been among the first to come out, to arrive at gate 2C where the Air France busses wait to take passengers into Paris. Ligne 4 runs from CDG to Gare de Lyon and Montparnasse and while I could have taken a train into town I decided this was nicer as it put me right at the steps of Montparnasse, instead of landing me in Gare du Nord where I would then have to take the metro to Montparnasse.

Unfortunately, I had thought this would take thirty minutes. After waiting 30mins at the stop, the bus finally arrived and there were plenty of people around pushing to get their bags loaded first to get a good seat. It then took over an hour for the bus to arrive at Montparnasse, and this is with having only made one stop at another location in the airport and then going to Gare de Lyon before Montparnasse. This means I walked up to the ticket counter at 12:02 when my desired train was leaving at 12:05. I asked the ticket guy if he thought I could make it---I maintain that I could have if he had just moved his butt a little faster, but he said no.

I then got a ticket for the 3:05 train instead and trudged around the station at a loss for what to do. I called Jacki using a pay phone to tell her my arrival time had changed (she’s picking me up at the train station in Rosporden), but she didn’t answer and left a voicemail, although I still don’t know if she got it. Then I asked a help desk where I could find wifi and the luggage lockers, stored my bags, and headed up first to a garden directly above the station that the ticket guy had told me had wifi. It did not. Then I headed over to Gallerie Gaité which the help people had told me about and sucked their wifi for 30 mins before getting a sandwich and doing it some more. This way I was able to email my parents, Jacki, and get on facebook to address the masses.

I grabbed a sandwich, ate, and headed to the station’s waiting room until 2:30 when I got my bags back and waited a few minutes before it was posted which platform my train would be at.

That brings me here where I slept until a moment ago when somehow miraculously I woke up when two men next to me started discussing wifi as the man in front of them pulled out his laptop. The train, in fact, does not have wifi, which is quite inconvenient because I believe I told Jacki the wrong arrival time (19h56 translated to 7:56 and then got lost and turned into 6:56….so she may still be quite early). Hopefully she check the schedule before heading out.

All in all it has been a long day. The flight was especially miserable considering I am sick. At this point my nose seems like just a giant sore on my face. And then there’s the fact that I’m exhausted as I got only the very minimum amount of sleep.

Things will work out and by the time I am able to post this, I will doubtlessly have plenty more to share.

@+
Alicia

Word of the Day:
@+ = à plus = see you later/talk to you later

--------------------------------------------------

As you may imagine, things worked out just fine and now I am settled into my apartment in Concarneau. I transferred successfully at Lorient even though my train was 20mins behind (actually made for a shorter wait) and then arrived at Rosporden where I immediately saw Jacqueline as there were only four people on the platform waiting (two men, another woman and then Jacki). She proposed that I join her and her husband at her house, not 10 kilometers from Concarneau, in order to send an email to my parents and have dinner with them.

I was thus with Jacki from 8-10pm France time during which I did in fact get online using her computer and had a good dinner of cantalope, grilled chicken, white rice and ratatouille (sorry, no translation on that one, but I'll bet most of you Americans have an idea of what this is nonetheless), followed by cheese & yogurt; truly a French meal.

She took me to the apartment directly after dinner and we climbed the two flights of stairs with all my bags to arrive at the topmost floor (third American floor) and I finally got "home." It is a normal apartment--foyer, kitchen, living room, three bedrooms & a bathroom. Well, I suppose it has it's French peculiarities (i.e. the bathroom is actually two rooms--the toilet and the shower being separated, smaller rooms, the shower does not hang off the wall, etc.), but all-in-all it would not be too peculiar to find in the states.

I unpacked a bit that night and crashed after trying and failing to connect to the internet.

I woke up at 10, cleaned up to say a bonjour to my new roommate, Miguel who is a 30 year old guy from Seville. He did the same assistantship in Quimperle, a neighboring town, the year before last and was invited back this year when Sarah split. He is very nice and I knew it'd be okay when he put on Creedence Clearwater, The Beatles and The Smashing Pumpkins for music (otherwise he's listened to some fun alternative French music and, now, some blues--almost all his music is in English). Also, Miguel plays guitar and as we have nothing to do at the moment plays often and I can hear him singing (in English with his funny, but still very good accent) and playing.

Unpacking continued this morning and then I moved on to getting Miguel's help with the wifi, which I am now (obviously) connected to after much vexation.

Around noon we headed for town, walking the footpath along the harbor to a ferry that took us into the Ville Close (old part of town enclosed by ramparts). We walked through there, running into Lorena (the Spanish assistant from last year who works in a shop in the Ville Close now---guess she really likes Concarneau!). We talked to her some and then headed on our way. Miguel was on a mission to get a card to help his phone work cheaper in France. We stopped in at the tourism office (for me) and the pharmacy (for him) and then split with him headed to Orange, the mobile phone service in France and me to the church.

News from the church onward will have to come tomorrow.

Reconnect

2009-09-24T03:07:00.002+02:00

Hi Alicia,
First let me wish you a very happy birthday: I don't remember precisely the date but I know it must be this week !
I started the school year in a cool way: I went back to work on Sept. 1st and my elder daughter got married on the 5th, so I was not really in a working mood!
On top of that the weather was dreadful in July and August and it's been nice and sunny since the beginning of this month.
We are all looking forward to meeting you. One of us will come and pick you up at Rosporden station ( I don't know who yet ). I will ask the others if they want you to prepare something in the meantime and will let you know.
I'll keep in touch.
Jackie

Hi Alicia,
You may have already received the document attached to this mail, but I am not sure if you have. So I am sending it as you may have time to read it.
I must have told you accomodation was completely free of charge and actually, this year, bad luck, there's a change: you will have to pay about 80€ monthly . It's a new regulation coming from Rennes (Brittany's education authorities) to cover electricity, water and heating expenses. Well I am sorry we did not know before the summer, but it will not exceed 10% of your monthly earnings... Sorry, sorry, sorry ! The Spanish assistant sharing the flat with you and Julia is a young man; I have no more information for the moment. Enjoy your last days of vacation and take care.
Jackie

Additional Info Thanks to Rachel

2009-09-15T22:32:00.005+02:00

My desk every day fills up with more papers. Soon I will be done with the medical portion of my Peace Corps application and will be able to ship all of that off to DC and store away what is left.

Sunday Sept 6 I had a phone conversation with Rachel, the woman who was in my position this past school year. She gave me a lot of great information and tips. Here's a summary of the convo...

School:
-I'll be teaching in both the academic and technical parts of the school, probably alongside teachers of literature, management echnology and language.
-The students of the technical school can be more agressive and thus it is important to find your way of working with them.
-I'll be assigned a cubby in the teacher's lounge (similar to what I experienced in Nantes with my internship--French teachers change classrooms and thus can't have a desk that they camp out in; instead they get a cubby/locker in the teacher's lounge).
-She worked with the dance teacher in the spring, helping choreograph and such.
-She was on first name basis with the students and switched between English and French outside of class when talking with them.
-There are five main English teachers I will work with.

Living:
-It's 3€ roundtrip to Quimper which is where shopping will most likely have to be done.
-We'll share the costs of some things--basic foods and necessities.
-The apartment is in a building on campus. The first floor has administrative offices while the second floor is split into two parts--one side housing the principal, vice principal, and their families; the other side housing the language assistants and head cook+family.
-We have the three bedroom apartment, one bath, one toilet, coat closet in the public space, sofa, chairs, table, tv. The rooms typically have a desk, single bed, bedside table and wardrobe which has some shelf space as well as hanging space.
-The school is a partial bording school, housing many students during the week and thus has a full cafeteria that serves breakfast (6-7:30am), lunch, and dinner (6-7:30pm). I can buy a pass here and eat with the students and faculty so as to not have to worry about making meals. Just buying a single meal is 5-6€.
-The dorms have activities and as assistants we can set up other activities, like language or volunteer clubs. There is also a student talent show (called the Cabaret) in April which I could coordinate something through.
-She set up her bank account through the Credit Mutuelle de Bretagne, took Nathalie (one of the teachers) with her and was helped by Sebastien, a teller who proved to be extremely helpful.
-There is a butcher, post office, grocery store, and pharmacy all on one street near the school.
-The Fusac is a huge store east of the Ville Close (downtown) at which I can buy most anything.
-A large Catholic church is in the center of town, but she wasn't sure if there is one closer to the school.

I have also been emailing with Rachel since the phone call and she has informed me of a couple contacts I may be able to meet when I arrive, including a swim instructor at a gym with whom I might be able to work. That'd be an interesting culture exchange/observation opportunity at the least considering I've done the same thing stateside for so long.
There is also, apparently, another Texan in Concarneau who happens to also be the only other American Rachel knows of (other than Julia). Irony much?

Seems more and more real lately. I will start packing/gathering things soon. Exactly two weeks from today I will be leaving. Oof!

Anticipation

2009-09-01T17:29:00.001+02:00

One month to go. Unreal seems the best word to describe it. After waiting all summer, is it possible that I'll actually be leaving?

Frommer's on Concarneau

2009-08-25T03:08:00.003+02:00

After searching the internet for information on my town and finding only the same blurb repeated over and over, I resorted to the travel section of the library and found the following bit about Concarneau from Frommer's France 2009. It's not much, but it's more than I've been finding.

-------------------------------------------------

335mi W of Paris, 58mi SE of Brest

This port is a favorite of painters, who never tire of capturing the subtleties of the fishing fleet. t's also our favorite of the coast communities--primarily because it doesn't depend on tourists. Its canneries produce most of the tuna in France. Walk along the quays, especially in the evening, and watch the Breton fishers unload their catch; later, join them for a pint of cider in the taverns.

ESSENTIALS
Getting There There's no rail service to Concarneau. If you're driving, the town is 21km (13mi) southeast of Quimper along D783. A bus (02.98.56.96.72) runs from Quimper to Concarneau (trip time: 30min); the one-way fare is 2 ($2.90). The bus from Rosporden, site of another SNCF railway station, runs 8 to 10 times per day (trip time: 20min) for a fare of 2€ ($2.90).
Visitor Information The Office de Tourisme is on quai 'Aiguillon (02.98.97.01.44; www.tourismeconcarneau.fr).

EXPLORING THE AREA
The town is built on three sides of anatural harbor whose inermost sheltered section is the Nouveau port. In the center of the harbor is the heavily fortified Ville-Close, an ancient hamlet surrounded by ramparts, some from the 14th century. From the quay, cross the bridge and descend into the town. Souvenir shops have taken over, but don't let that spoil it for you. You can spend an hour wandering the alleys, gazing up at the towers, peering at the stone houses, and stopping in secluded squares.
For a splendid view of the port, walk the ramparts. They're open to pedestrians mid-April to mid-September daily 10am to 9:30 pm. Access to the ramparts is closed the rest of the year whenever icy rain makes them slippery. The cost is 1€ ($1.45) per adult and .50€ ($.75) for children 12 and under.
Also in the old town is a fishing museum, Musee de la Peche, 3 rue Vauban (01.98.97.10.20) The 17th-century building has ship models and exhibits tracing the development of the fishing industry; you can also view the ship Hemerica. Admission is 6 €($8.70) for adults and 4€ ($5.80) for students and children 14 and under. It's open April through October daily 10am to 6pm (July-Aug until 8pm).
Beaches Concarneau's largest, most beautiful beach, popular with families is Plage des Sables Blancs, near the historic core. Within a 10-minute walk are Plage de Cornouaille and two small beaches, Plage des Dames and Plage de Rodel, where you'll find fewer families with children. The wide-open Plage du Cabellou, 5km (3mi) west of town is less crowded than the others.
Sea Excurssions Boat rides are usually fine between June and September, but they're threacherous the rest of the year. During midsummer, you can arrange deep-sea fishing with the captain of the Santa Maria (06.62.88.00.87). For excursions along the coastline of southern Brittany, contact Vedettes Glenn (02.98.97.10.31) or Vedettes de l'Odet (02.98.57.00.58).

WHERE TO STAY
Hotel des Halles The tourist board gives only two stars to this cement-sided 1960s-era hotel, which is short on historical charm. Yet it's affordable and warm, with guest rooms that are cozier than you may expect. The frequently upgraded roms have white ceiling beams and wood paneling, plus small shower-only bathrooms. The location, a short distance from the fortifications encircling the town's historic core, is convenient. The city's covered food market, Les Halles (daily 8am-1pm), is a short walk away. Breakfast is the only meal served.
Place de l'Hotel de Ville, Concarneau 29900. 02.98.97.11.41. Fax 01.98.50.58.54. www.hoteldeshalles.com. 25 units. 52€-77 €($75-112) double. AE, MC, V. Amenities: Nonsmoking rooms. In room: TV, hair dryer.

WHERE TO DINE
La Coquille Seafood/Traditional French. This 4-decade-old restaurant occupies one end of a stone-sided harborfront building; guests dine ina trio of rooms with stone walls, ceiling-beams, and century-old oil paintings from the school of Pont-Aven. Seafood is the focus as La Coquille, and much of what is on the menu is offered simply because the fish is sofresh and succulent. A particularly excellent dish is a scallop tart with shellfish and cream sauce. The service is bistro style, with a cheerful, old-fashioned panache enhanced by the harbor view.
1 rue du Moros, at Nouveau Port. 02.98.97.08.52. Reservations required Sat-Sun and in summer. Main courses 15€-45 €($22-65); fixed-price menu 29€-60€ ($42-87). AE, DC, MC, V. Tues-Sun noon-1:30pm; Tues-Sat 7:30-9:30pm.
L'Ancre French/Seafood/International. A cost-conscious choice that's a magnet for local residents, this cozy restaurant lies just outside the fortified central core of historic Concarneau, a few steps from the exterior fortifications of the centre ville. About half of the interior is outfitted in the Breton style, the other half reflects the owners' frequent travels to the French Antilles or French-speaking Africa, outfitted with trival and carnival masks. Two specialties which alway sseem appreciated include a platter with four kinds of barbecued fish (swordfish, tuna, sardines, and shrimp) and another with four skewers of barbecued meat (ostrich, kangaroo, turkey, and a half quail). Accompaniments in both cases include a baked potato and salad.
22 rue Dumont d'Urvilles. 02.98.50.56.58. Reservations recommended. Main courses 9€-26€ ($13-38); set-price menus 16€-20 €($23-29). MC, V. Wed-Sun noon-2pm and 7-9:30pm. Closed mid-Jan to mid-Feb.

Final Information, pt 2

2009-08-19T03:24:00.008+02:00

So the second half of the email attachment mentioned in the previous post included the following info:
-Health insurance: It gives an explanation of the social security we will be covered by and stresses the suggestion that we get additional health insurance during the two-three months before we receive our social security cards (aka "Sécu") and "cartes vitales" (health insurance cards). For those of you wondering what national coverage looks like, Secu covers 70% of medical costs, 35-65% of prescriptions, and 80% of hospitalization fees all incurred in France (read: if I get hurt in the states or any other country I am S.O.L.). When you have social security you can go to the doctor of your choice and have two options: 1 Give them your carte vitale and have it placed on there, paying only a few euro in co-pay; 2 Pay in full out of pocket (20-30€) and file for reimbursement. It also covers dentist and optometrist visits. Further, you most go through an "intendant" in your school to file for the social security and then pay a visit to your MGEN (Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale) to activity your SS#. The MGEN can also serve as a mutuelle for you, if you so chose, meaning they would serve like an American insurance agency, taking a monthly fee and covering more extensive procedures or prescriptions.
-The Stage: aka Orientation. Every assistant, no matter what language s/he will be teaching and not matter where s/he is located, will be attending an orientation for his/her area. My orientation, I know through my contact, is Oct 7. This is the orientation date for la Finistere and we meet in Quimper on that day. At this stage we learn about the French education system; meet the other assistants; get paperwork to file for Sécu, payroll, etc; and ask any and all questions we shall have for the rest of the school year. Huzzah!
-Salary: We get paid 952€45/month; after taxes this comes up to about 780€ (approx. $1,100 after taxes). It gives the same info about getting the "advance" (see previous entry for details).
-Second Jobs: Says you can have a second job if you get the permission of your principal, the hours don't interfere with teaching, and you don't earn more the 30% of your assistant salary (not more than 285€/mo.).
-American Taxes: You may have to pay your taxes while in France. You probably won't make enough from the assistantship to need to file, but this depends on the person and so you should check. Further, you don't get a 1099, just paystubs that you'll have to keep track of yourself.
-School Loans: You could probably defer your school loans.
-Discounts: Tells about the 12-25 card for the SNCF (the national rail line) that will always get at least 25% off train tix within France and up to 60% depending on when you book (the card itself comes up to around 50€, so not a bad deal). Also, you can often get discounts as a teacher/student.
-Vacation: Five weeks paid vacation! YAY! The schedule: www.education.gouv.fr/pid184/le-calendrier-scolaire.html
-Renewing the Contract: In Jan or Feb of your contract year you school will be handing out "demandes de renouvellement" (renewal request forms) that will allow you to request to extend your contract to a second year. Any one assistant is eligible to work for two years. I could take my second year immediately following the '09-'10 academic year to stay in my same school/situation, or reapply in years down the line and thus get a different assignment.
-Predeparture List: passport, visa, birth certificate, arrêté, anything sent to you by your school, photocopies of EVERYthing, credit/debit card, plane tix, money & traveler's checks. It also warns to get health insurance for that lame duck period & a place to stay when you first get to your town (unless you're as lucky as me :D).
-Things to do once in France: find housing, set up a bank acct (requires an address), go to your school to introduce yourself and arrange a schedule, request an advance (requires and RIB--essentially your French bank card), go to orientation, lesson planning, send back the OFII form, medical visit, carte de séjour (if necessary), activate your SS# at the MGEN, register your passport with the State Dept (optional), & apply to CAF (optional).

And that's all.....the French bureaucracy really has a way of streamlining things, doesn't it?

"Big Information E-Mail"

2009-08-18T05:20:00.007+02:00

Today I received yet another email from DC. Here is the message that had the subject line "Big Information E-Mail"...

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Dear Assistants,

First of all, I hope you all are getting excited to go to France! October 1st is coming up soon and I'm sure you have a million things to do before then... I do too!

For those of you who have e-mailed me with questions about your visa or arrêté, please be patient! I have hundreds of e-mails to get through in my inbox and am doing my best, so even if I haven't responded to you just yet, know that I am working on the situation and will get in touch with you once I have more concrete information. Trust me when I say that patience is one of the biggest assets you can have when dealing with the French system.

You will find attached the document I have been promising you with more information about the things you will need to think about once you arrive in France (housing, health insurance, setting up a bank account, etc.). I have also attached the OFII form (see the Medical Visit section for more information). I apologize for not sending this out sooner, but as I started to make revisions, I realized there were lots of things to add and edit! This is a lot of information to process all at once, so I recommend taking your time to go through everything carefully... you will hopefully be able to use this document as a reference once you are in France. Most questions and concerns should be addressed here, so please take the time to read through the document before e-mailing me with questions.

A few quick notes:
- You must be at your school or circonscription on October 1, 2009. You will hopefully be able to arrange beforehand a time and place to meet with your contact person. If you can’t get in touch with him or her (or your school for that matter), don’t stress out! You definitely have a job, things just tend to move a little slower during this time of year. If you don’t hear anything before you leave, just be ready to go to the address listed on your arrêté on October 1st to introduce yourself. If for some reason you are unable to be at your school on the 1st, you MUST contact your school and académie to ask if that will be a problem. I cannot give you permission to arrive late. Most schools are understanding as long as you inform them of any delays.
- Some of you might have your orientation before October 1st. If you have not been contacted about orientation, you can assume that it will be after the 1st... your school or contact person will have more details for you once you arrive. If orientation is not until after October 1st, you are still required to go to your school or circonscription on the 1st.
- Please remember to e-mail me at assistant.washington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr if you change your e-mail address this year. We would like to be able to contact you if necessary during the year, so please make sure the e-mail address you provided will remain valid through the length of your contract.

I want to emphasize that the weeks prior to your departure and your first few weeks in France will be challenging, but wonderful. Many of you will essentially be entering the “real world” this year, and this world will be French. You will be faced with new experiences and challenges that you may not have had to deal with yet on your own and you will have to do this all in French! For example, finding a place to live in a language which is not native to you can be really stressful, but it is incredibly rewarding once you succeed! Remember, every single past assistant did it and I have confidence that you will make it through too with flying colors. I was a primary school assistant in Nîmes and I must say that those 9 months gave me some of the most exciting, challenging, rewarding and character-building experiences of my life... I envy all of you !

It is alright and normal if you feel a little scared and overwhelmed. If you are really stressed out or worried, you are more than welcome to call me at (202) 944-6011 (or from France at 001 202 944 6011).

Please enjoy your trip and good luck! I will still be popping in once in a while with information (and checking in with you throughout the year), but in case I do not bother you until after you leave for France, have a safe trip.

Bon voyage et bon courage….

Carolyn COLLINS
Educational Affairs Program Officer
Teaching Assistant Program in France
Embassy of France
4101 Reservoir Road
Washington, D.C. 20007

www.FrenchCulture.org/spip.php?rubrique424&tout=ok

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I am not going to include the attachment as it comes up to 14 pages in Microsoft Word; however, I have summarized the essentials below and if you are particularly interested in the details, drop me a line and I can pass on the document to you.

Main points of the "Big Information" Attachment:
-the carte de séjour: also known as the "titre de séjour," this has been phased out for this year, but Carolyn stresses the reality that this fact has not yet reached some local governments and thus our préfecture may demand that we obtain a carte de sejour in addition to the long stay, work visa (which now is the only necessary document for legitimate stay in France). -the medical visit: at our visa appointments we receive a letter intended for the OFII (Office Français de l'Immigration et de l'Intégration, or the French Office of Immigration and Integration). Within three months of being in France we are expected to have returned the letter to our respective OFII HQs (which vary across France). Upon receiving our letters, the OFII will send us a response with the date and location of our mandatory medical inspection. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. You just do it and so does everyone else.
-Housing: lucky me, I don't need to worry about this section, but it's still interesting. This part elaborates on, if you aren't lucky enough to be working in a high school with built-in housing for you, how you will find housing--lots of links and a vocab list. It also tells all about the CAF (Caisse d'Allocations Familiales) which is a subsidized housing plan for people earning under a certain income (for which assistants qualify).
-Setting up a bank account: In France (at least for the assistantship), it is required to have a French bank account in order to get paid (I imagine due to a system like direct deposit). Further, aside from having to set up a bank account, you have to set it up by October 10 or you will not be paid until the end of November. In fact, setting it up by 10/10 will get you what they (the silly French) call an "advance" (aka getting paid 75% of what you earned for October when you should get paid 100%....don't ask me why it's called that). You see how this is very important, then, when it comes to settling it as you could end up broke and frustrated.

At this point I am only half way through the document and tired of reading, so the rest of the summary will come tomorrow.

Touching Base

2009-08-13T21:36:00.003+02:00

An update from the embassy (see below). Should be hearing again shortly.

In other news, my passport complete with new visa came in last Friday but we missed the mailman, so my mom picked it up on Saturday from the post office while I was headed down to Austin. So I applied Monday and received it (essentially) Friday. Four day turn around is not bad. All good to go now...

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Hello Assistants!

We are approaching that time in the summer when things start to get a little crazy here at the Embassy with lots of questions and concerns about arrêtés de nominations and visas. I'm writing this message for several reasons:

REMINDER: For those of you who still haven't made a visa appointment at your regional French Consulate, DO IT RIGHT NOW! As you are aware, the visa processing rules have changed this year and it now takes between 5 and 15 days for the Consulate to issue visas (average turnaround time at the moment = 2 weeks). You therefore need to leave a few weeks to get your visa before departing for France. The visa appointment spaces are really starting to fill up and it is becoming progressively more difficult to get an appointment close to the time of booking. This means that if you go online today, there probably won't be any appointments available before early September. In short, if you don't have a visa appointment yet, but were planning on going to France in late September, you need to book your appointment online NOW. Here is the site where you can find out which Consulate applies to you (the online appointment scheduling page is located in the Visa section of each Consulate's website): http://ambafrance-us.org/spip.php?article330

UPDATE: I will be sending you more information at the end of this week about how to find housing (if you are not one of those lucky few whose schools offer housing) as well as a more detailed description of the health insurance you will receive as a Teaching Assistant. If you have questions regarding either of these two issues, please try to wait a few more days before e-mailing me - I'm hoping that the information I send out later this week will address most concerns.

Finally, for those of you who have e-mailed me recently with questions: As I mentioned, things are starting to heat up around here and there are lots of people who have questions about arrêtés de nomination, visas, etc. Please know that I am doing my best to find answers to questions and solutions to problems, but this takes up a lot of my time which means that I can't always respond to e-mails right away... If I don't get back to you immediately, don't panic! Just be patient and trust that thousands of people have made it through this process before and I have faith that you will do the same.

I hope you are all having a great summer!

Best regards,

Carolyn COLLINS
Educational Affairs Program Officer
Teaching Assistant Program in France
Embassy of France
4101 Reservoir Road
Washington, D.C. 20007

www.FrenchCulture.org/spip.php?rubrique424&tout=ok

Obtaining the Visa

2009-08-04T18:56:00.006+02:00

I got back from Houston yesterday afternoon. Mom & I had left at about 2:40pm following mass. She drove the first leg until Buffalo where we stopped for ice cream and changed seats. I drove to Spring where we met Erin, her parents, and Sebastian for dinner at 7pm at her parents' house (some spaghetti with sausage, followed by cheesecake). Chilled there until....9:30 or so when we headed out to our hotel, the Hyatt by the galleria on Sage Rd.

Checked in there and then used the computers and called Sean. Went to bed around 11:30 to wake up at 8, had breakfast and then began the task of finding a post office so I could realize I don't know how to send important things in the mail.

You see, you either have the option of returning to your consulate to pick up your passport once the visa has been received from France or you can give them an Express mail envelope (pre-stamped and self-addressed) and they will mail it to you when they get it. It took a little while to figure that out, and smart me, I had forgotten my cell phone at the hotel. So I was at the post office and got the $17.50 stamp for the express mail, hoping that would suffice as it seemed the safest option that USPS offered (and I didn't think the consulate would go to the trouble of shipping it special through FedEx or UPS).

Got back to the hotel and called the consulate to discover I did something right, huzzah!
Left for my appointment at 10:15ish and got there right at 10:30, my appt time. For future reference, parking is behind the consulate and you have to turn south onto Hollyburst Ln to get to the free parking garage; visitor parking on the basement level, building entrance on the first, and the consulate is on the 6th floor.

The consulate has two window desks with clerks at each and on the other side of the window, my side where there is waiting, sits the person applying for the visa. Both windows were occupied when I got there and there was one other group waiting (three people, but I suspect only one of them, there with her mom and boyfriend, was actually submitting an application). We waited about ten minutes until the left window opened and the clerk went through three names (none of whom were there) before arriving at my name. The other people waiting were not too pleased about this and I suspect that they were one or two names down the list for a 10:30 appt time. Note to self: do not be late for a visa appt. The names of people who were not there were scratched through, I'm guessing meant that they lost their chance.

I gave her my express mail envelope, stamped and addressed with all of my papers inside--an application form filled out with a passport picture glued on, an extra picture (which was given back to me), my contract (also returned to me) + a copy, my passport + a copy of the front two pages, and that was it! So simple!!

She looked through the stuff, mostly to find where I was working, then handed me the office of immigration form so that I could fill out the top portion (about ten questions--name, family, nationality, etc) and highlighted the address for the Office with control of Concarneau, telling me that when I arrive in France I fill out the bottom portion and mail it to that address.

She also added with a smile, when I handed back the form to her, "Concarneau has the best crepes. How do you call it? Black wheat?" She was talking about galettes and I told her that made me very happy because that is why I requested to be in Brittany. :P Best crepes in the world is a-okay by me.

We were done by 10:48, as in back in the car. Drove outta Houston, got gas, and headed straight on up. We switched driving sometime around Fairfield, so I got all the DFW early-rush hour traffic, oh well. Home at about 4 o'clock.

And that concludes the visa adventure. I am to be receiving it at the beginning of next week, probably while I am in Austin. It will be a very welcome present, I am sure.

Below is an email I wrote to the group of assistants assigned to Brittany. A more concise summary of the important things.

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Hi all,

Not sure where all of you are in the process, but I thought I'd pass on some details from my visa application trip that happened yesterday in the Houston Consulat-General. Keep in mind that some of this might be typic only of my consulate and perhaps you should verify this with your own regional consulates.

-The appointment does not take long (if you have everything and don't ask 500 questions); I got there at 10:30 (my appt time), waited ten minutes and was out at 10:48.
-The visa will take about a week to obtain as the consulate must ask for it from France.
-Anytime after the consulate receives your visa (about 1 week from your appt date) you will need to come back into the office to pick up your passport and the office of immigration form UNLESS you bring in a USPS self-addressed, pre-stamped Express Mail envelope. This costs $17.50 and has a particular envelope and address label (as well as stamp) which you must get from the teller at a post office.
-The visa people will stamp your original arrete de nomination and give it back to you, keeping only the copy, so you needn't worry about making a copy in case you don't get it back.

Hopefully this was all useful information and didn't take up too much of your time. If you have any questions (or just want to freak out about the approaching journey), feel free to reply (not reply all!) and I'll help you as I can.

@+
Alicia

Phone & Internet in Concarneau

2009-08-04T18:34:00.001+02:00

An email from my future roommate, Julia.

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Salut les filles,

Je quitte Concarneau dans une heure (!!) donc je vous écris vite pour vous dire ce qui se passera avec l'internet/téléphone pour l'année prochaine. J'ai tout reglé avant de partir. On a un livebox à la maison, donc on aura toutes WiFi, et on aura aussi une ligne fixe pour le téléphone pour 47 euro/moi en tout (ça fait environ 16 par personne par mois, téléphone et internet) AVEC 1 heure d"appels vers les portables en France par mois et des appels illimités vers les Etats-Unis et les postes fixes (malheureusement pas portables) en Espagne et plein d'autres pays aussi. N'achetez pas de téléphone fixe, j'en ai un que je laisse dans l'appart. J'espère que ça vous arrange, j'ai essayé de choisir le forfait que soit le meilleur pour tout le monde. Cette année on a eu beaucoup de mal à installer l'internet à la maison (Orange est NUL) mais comme on l'a déjà commandé en ouvert le compe et tout et tout ce serai beaucoup plus simple pour l'année à venir.

Je reviens à Concarneau le 2 octobre--après vous, j'imagine--donc ne vous inquietez pas si je ne suis pas là. Sarah, j'ai toujours pas eu de réponse de toi, est-ce que je me suis trompée d'adresse?

Gros bisous et à bientôt.

Julia

Hey girls,

I am leaving Concarneau in an hour ( !!) so I’m writing you quickly to tell you what’s happening with the internet/phone for the next year. I took care of everything before leaving. We will have a livebox in the house, so there will be wifi everywhere and we will have a landline telephone for 47€/month total (that makes about 16/person/month, telephone and internet) WITH one hour of calls to French cell phones per month and unlimited calls to the states, as well as unlimited calls to landlines (sadly not cells) in Spain and several other countries also. Don’t buy a landline phone, I have one that I’m leaving in the apartment. I hope that this works for you, I tried to choose the price that is the best for everyone. This year we had a lot of trouble installing the internate at the house (Orange is worthless) but as we had already ordered it and opened an account and everything this will be a lot more simple for the year to come.

I return to Concarneau the second of October—after you, I imagine—thus don’t worry is I am not there. Sarah, I have still not gotten a response from you, am I wrong about the address?

Big kisses and see you soon.

Julia

News from Mme Rouchet

2009-07-22T20:44:00.003+02:00

Madame Rouchet is the directrice of IES Nantes, kind of like a godmother to all the kiddoes who run through Nantes each semester. She recently sent me this email upon receiving news. She's always very busy and usually sends me an email every 3rd or 4th correspondence, with Julie and/or Beatrice doing the same, so I am kept in the loop by one of them if not all, which is completely understandable and actually kind of cool.

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Chère Alicia,
Toutes nos félicitations pour avoir été sélectionnée à Concarneau. C’est un port de pêche situé au bout de la Bretagne sud et il y a une très jolie « ville close » que nous avons visitée plusieurs fois avec les étudiants lorsque nous avons fait notre orientation de septembre à Quimper ou Brest. Vous allez sûrement aimer cette magnifique région. C’est à 250 kms de Nantes, donc ce n’est pas trop loin et je suis sûre que nous aurons le plaisir de vous revoir à Nantes cet automne.
Grâce à ce séjour d’un an vous allez devenir totalement bilingue ce qui orientera sûrement vos projets d’avenir.
Je vous souhaite un très bon été.
Affectueusement,
P.S. Nous attendons 93 étudiants le 2 septembre ! Vous pouvez imaginer l’atmosphère de travail qui règne à IES Nantes en ce moment.
M. Joyau a eu de très gros problèmes de santé cette année et j’espère qu’il pourra bientôt enseigner de nouveau à IES.
Chantal Rouchet
Associate Director
IES Abroad (Institute for the International Education of Students)

Dear Alicia,

Congratulations for having been placed in Concarneau. This is a fishing port situated at the tip of South Brittany and there is a very pretty "closed town" that we have visited many times with the students when we have done our September orientation in Quimper or Brest.

You will surely like this great region. It is 250km from Nantes, thus it's not too far and I am sure that we will have the pleasure of seeing you again in Nantes this autumn.

Thanks to this stay you will become completely bilingual, which will undoubtedly help your plans for the future.

I wish you a very good summer.

Sincerely,

P.S. We are expecting 93 students September 2! You can imagine the amount of work we have here at IES Nantes at the moment.

M. Joyau had very big health problems this year and I hope that he will be able to teach again soon at IES.

Chantal Rouchet

Associate Director

IES Abroad

Familiarisation

2009-07-14T04:33:00.002+02:00

I replied quickly to Julia's email and this was her response. I have not received anything from any of my French contacts since this email although I have replied to all.

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Salut Alicia,

Je suis très contente de voir que tu parles bien français! Ca facilitera la vie domestique. L'assistante américaine de l'année dernière, Rachel, connaissait environ dix mots en français quand elle est arrivée (dont sept étaient les jours de la semaine). On parlait toujours français entre nous mais c'était vachement difficile! Je te passe son courriel, elle s'appelle Rachel, c'est une fille très gentille qui sera contente de te renseigner. Mais écris-lui plutôt en anglais, sinon tu auras du mal à comprendre sa réponse.

Quelques réponses:

-Est-ce que c’était difficile à voyager de Concarneau ? (Elle me semble assez petite et sans liens aux moyens de voyager.)
Il n'y a pas de gare fonctionnelle à Concarneau, alors tu prends le car jusqu'à Quimper ou Rosporden où tu peux prendre le train. Les deux sont à 50 minutes d'ici. C'est un peu embêtant mais ça ne t'empêche pas du tout de voyager. Il faut juste faire attention aux horaires et être rentré avant 19h, quand les cars s'arrêtent.

-Est-ce qu’il y avait une anglophone au lycée l’année passée ? (P-ê une de tes colocs ?) Et si oui, peux-tu me donner son addresse électronique pour que je peux la contacter pour plus d’info à propos des étudiants et son expérience ?
Vois ci-haut.

-En générale, mangiez-vous (toi et tes colocs) ensemble ou seules ?
Ca dépendait. Au début on dînaient toujours ensemble mais au bout de quelques mois chacune mangeait dans sa chambre--on avait des horaires assez différents et c'était plus simple. Mais on faisait de temps en temps des soirées, soit parmi nous trois, soit avec des invités, pour prendre l'apero ensemble, faire un repas spécial, faire des jeux de société, regarder un film, etc. Ca dépend complètement des personnes et du dynamique entre les colocataires.

-Qu’est-ce que tu as fait pendant ton temps libre ?
Plein de choses. Je donne des cours particuliers en anglais, et j'en suis en allemand. Je fais des balades à vélo et à pied. Je chante avec une chorale bretonne et je joue de la musique (c'était mon "major" à la fac), de la clarinette chez moi et parfois du piano chez une copine. Je brode, je lis, j'écris des lettres, je fais des gateaux ou du pain. Je découvre la région. Je sors avec des amis, au concert ou bar ou fest-noz. Je vis simplement ici, et ça me plaît bien. Et toi, qu'est-ce que tu aimes faire? Qu'est-ce que tu espères trouver ici?

-As-tu resté à Concarneau pendant le congé de Noel ? Comment tu l’as trouvé ?
Je suis rentrée à Noël. C'était génial de voir tout le monde mais très dur de faire la transition, dans les deux sens.

-Si j’accueillais des amis ou ma famille à Concarneau, quel congé penses-tu est le meilleur pour leurs montrer la ville et la Bretagne ?
Avril. Mes parents sont venus me voir cette année en avril et c'était beau comme tout. En hiver il risque de pleuvoir tout le temps, et tout est un peu gris.

Voilà. Il fait super beau ici donc je sors en profiter! A plus.

Julia

Hey Alicia,

I am very happy to see that you speak French well! That will make living together easy. The American assistant from last year, Rachel, knew about ten works in French when she arrived (of which seven were the days of the week). We always spoke in French, but that was very difficult! I am passing her email address to you, she is named Rachel; she is very nice and will be happy to pass on info to you. But write her in English, if not you will have difficulty understanding her response.

Some responses:

-Is it difficult to travel from Concarneau? (It seems rather small and without links to the means to travel.)

There isn't a working train station at Concarneau, so you take the bus to Quimper or Rosporden where you can take the train. The two are around 50 minutes from here. That is a little annoying, but that doesn't hinder you at all from travelling. It is just important to pay attention to the hours and return before 7pm when the busses stop.

-Was there an anglophone at the high school last year? (Maybe one of your roommates?) And if yes can you give me her email address so that I can contact her for more info about the students and her experience?

See above.

-In general, did you eat (you and your roommates) together or alone?

That depended. In the beginning we always ate together, but after a few months we each ate in our rooms--we had different hours and it was more simple. But we had soirees togehter from time to time, either amongst ourselves or with friends, or we got drinks together, or made a special meal, played some games, watch a movie, etc. That depend completely on the people and the dynamic of the roommates.

-What do you do with your free time?

Plenty of things. I give special courses in Englsh, and I am taking German. I took walks and went biking. I sing with a Breton choir and I play music (that was my major in school), on clarinet at home and sometimes on piano at a friend's house. I knit, I read, I write letters, I make cakes or bread. I explore the region. I go out with friends to a concert or bar or fest-noz (regional dance). I live simply here and that suits me. And you, what do you like to do? What do you hope to find here?

-Did you stay at Concarneau during the Christmas break? What did you think of it?

I returned home during Christmas. It was nice to see everyone, but very hard to make the transition in the same way.

-If I had friends or family come to Concarneau, which break do you think is the best to show them the town and Brittany?
April. My parents came to see me this year in April and it was as beautiful as ever. In winter you risk it raining all the time and everything is gray.

Voila. It's beautiful here so I'm going to go profit from it. Talk to you later,

Julia