Lost and Found

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It’s happened again. I’ve fallen behind. Ridiculously behind. I visited my wonderful friend, Kristina, in Serbia, my beloved old roomie, Alex, in Germany, volunteered on a farm with a fabulous family in Ireland, and traveled half way around the world back to Minnesota [Surprise! I’m home for those of you who didn’t know!], and yet, I wrote about none of it. Sorry. I’ve been home for over a week, have remained unemployed, rarely left the house, and still haven’t updated the world wide web… Whoops. Remember when I used to have exciting excuses for not writing? Like being on a midnight train to Austria? Or prancing around Eastern Europe with my friend Victoria? These days, I’ve been avoiding writing for much less thrilling and much more depressing reasons – most notably, depression. Reverse culture shock, an overwhelming excess of free time, and the realization that I currently have no excuse to flee American society have brought me down. I’m jazzed about being back with my family and friends, but readjusting is taking some time. Please bare with me and my over dramatic writing. I’m making things out to be much worse than they really are. I’ll settle back in soon enough, I’m sure.

I’ve thought about writing everyday since I’ve been home, but I’ve had a hard time wrapping my head around it. It almost feels like if I write this post, it will officially be over. No more flights. No new countries. Friends scattered. Pictures uploaded. French bank account closed. Calls being directed towards an American phone. My blog is the last bit of the year that remains. I realize how silly it sounds, but that’s where I’m at right now. Instead of letting these things continue to drag me down, though, I decided it was time to write one last post to get my shit together, stop being a whiney pants, process my thoughts, and reflect on the year. I need to stop complaining about it being over, and start smiling because it happened. I also couldn’t just leave my faithful followers (all 16 of you) hanging like that! So here are some lists of things lost, found, learned, etc. to sum things up a bit, because who doesn’t love some youthful half-baked wisdom in list form?

Things realized/learned:

• Paris is the best. Really. I know it’s lame and cliché, but: Paris, je t’aime. Even after visiting Austria, Italy, Poland, The Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Germany and Ireland, each with numerous amazing cities, Paris still remains at the top of my list. No matter how many times I’ve been there, I always find something new to see or do. It has a beauty, a vibrance, and an ambiance that has yet to be matched in my eyes.
• I’m an introvert at heart. Most of you are probably thinking, “Um… duh?” while others might be surprised. It probably depends on how long you’ve known me. My desire to be liked can bring out my sociable side making me seem outgoing and extroverted at first glance, but I’ve realized this year that I’m much more comfortable in small groups. I love interacting with people, but I’m also content spending time alone. Some long talks with Victoria helped me come around to accepting this about myself.
• Everything is bigger in America. I’ve always known this, but everything has been magnified after being away for so long. Cars. Roads. Houses. Food. Washing machines. Water glasses [pointed out by Kate]. People. The size doesn’t really bother me as much as the waste. If you want to indulge every once in awhile, great, but be aware of your consumption. I don’t want to get all preachy and tell everyone off for killing the world, but I’m pretty sick of our consumer-centric society right now.
• Meat is not for me. I broke my four and a half year streak of vegetarianism a handful of times during my travels, but I’ve decided that being meat-free wasn’t just a weird phase I went through in college. It’s something that I want to continue to live by, and I hope to encourage others to join me! It can be a little tricky in certain situations, but I feel both physically and ethically better without mammals in my body.
• Too much free time is just as bad as not having enough. I constantly used to wish for a day off when I was at Olaf, swamped with eight classes a semester, papers, exams, rehearsals, social obligations, etc., etc., but after seven months of 12 (often 7 or 8) hour work weeks and ridiculously long (and frequent) vacations, I long for the opposite. It seems to be a “grass is greener” situation. I want to be busy! Well, I want to be balanced. I work well with a lot on my plate, but not an overflowing buffet of stress. Something to work on.
• Kids are cool. Spending time with Monique’s granddaughter (5 year old Hélena), and the two little ones on the farm in Ireland (4 year old Archer and 1.5 year old Tallulah) made me realize how much I love children. The way they think and act without all of the weird social hang ups that adults have is fantastic. Not that it’s going to happen anywhere in my near future, but hanging out with these kids made me realize that maaaybe one day I’ll want to adopt my own. Maybe.
• How to ask for help. I’ve always been a very proud person, trying to do find my own way or do things without the help of others, but I realized how much easier things can be if you simply ask for directions or a helping hand. People will sometimes surprise you and offer up help even when you don’t ask for it, and it is wonderful! Like the man who saw Victoria and me looking confused in Budapest and quickly ran up to help us find our way. Or the man in Ireland who pulled over and informed me that I was trying to hitch a ride on the wrong road.
• Genuinely good people do exist. I’ve met some. American assistants, couchsurfing hosts, French friends, Irish hitchhiker hosts, just to name a few. I have some faith in humanity.

Things lost:

• Some of my obnoxious inhibitions. Like my fear of talking on the phone. I realize most people got over this when they were six, but it took me a bit longer. After making numerous calls in French this year, talking on the phone in English now seems like such a breeze. I’m even learning to enjoy it. Weird. Explaining how I want my haircut? Did it in French, no problemo. Communication skills are up!
• My yearning for approval. As much as I hate to admit it, for a large part of my life I always sought the approval of those around me, often compromising my thoughts or opinions to remain neutral and liked by everyone. I still try to be diplomatic, but I’m tired of trying to please everyone. It’s exhausting to try and make everyone like you all the time, and quite frankly, there are some people’s opinions that I could care less about. I’m happy with who I am, and my thoughts are just as good as anyone else’s. As Dr. Seuss once said,“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
• 35 pounds. How this happened, I have absolutely no idea. Ask anyone who was with me, and they will tell you that I was constantly eating my entire body weight in local cuisine and cookies. I guess walking everywhere (including to the grocery store) and not having access to an insane buffet spread everyday will have an effect on your waistline.
• Hair. Some voluntarily via trendy euro haircut, some reluctantly via male pattern baldness. With bad hair genes running rampant on both sides of my family, I’ve been fearing hair loss since I hit puberty so this is by no means a shocking upset. I’ve always cherished my hair as one of my more attractive features, so it’s been rather disheartening to see how thin my bangs have become, but I’m dealing with it and enjoying my hair while it’s still around. Anyone know of any good natural hair loss prevention techniques?
• 15+ kilos of clothing. I realized at the end of the year that I owned way too many things that I just never wore, so I donated the equivalent of an entire suitcase of clothing. My luggage was of course still super heavy, but it felt good to clear out some of the excess. I managed with one 9 kilo backpack from May 5th to June 8th, so what the heck have I been doing with all of this other stuff my whole life? Traveling light is the way to go. I’m continuing the excess purge by donating yet another giant bag of unworn clothes that I found in my bedroom this week.
• A desire to teach. Teaching isn’t really my jam. At least not with French high school kids. I had some good times with my kids, but the fun tended to be a little over shadowed by the anxiety and stress of planning lessons. I haven’t entirely dismissed education as a job option, but it’s not at the top of my career aspirations list.

Things found:

• A voice through writing. I’m not always the best for engaging conversation topics or the most articulate in front of a crowded room, but I think I’m pretty decent with a pen and paper (or a screen and keyboard if you will). Writing gives me time to reflect and plan out my word choice just so to properly express myself. It can be a little meticulous and frustrating at times, but I’m so happy I took the time to write down my thoughts throughout the year. I hope my writing has helped my readers to gain a better understanding of me and the way I think. People seem to dig it, and I dig doing it, so maybe the writing will continue!
• Confidence. See [Lost:] “Some of my inhibitions” and “My yearning for approval” above.
• Friends. This was obviously inevitable, but I didn’t realize how meaningful some of my relationships abroad would end up being to me. The first time I met all of the other assistants at our teacher orientation, I was a total B and thought I would never get along with anyone. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I met some absolutely fabulous people in Saint-Brieuc, and looking back I can’t imagine my year without them.
• Food. I’ve learned some delicious recipes and cooking tips over the past 8 months, and I want to share them with all of you! So come get in the kitchen with me and we’ll make something together! Maybe I’ll even start a food blog. Or become a pastry chef. Thoughts?
• A beard. See: flickr account.
• Frequent flyer miles. Just kidding. If only Ryanair and SNCF had miles programs. And existed in the states. I would be all up on that.
• An immense respect for teachers. I’ve always regarded teaching as a noble profession, but after planning lessons and standing in front of a group of hormonal, self-absorbed, uninterested teenagers, I see teachers in an entirely different light. Good luck to all of my friends who are pursuing k-12 education, and thank you to everyone who put up with my (and mostly my fellow classmates’) teenage antics.
• Myself. See: all of the above. I’m constantly learning more about myself and realizing how much I am always changing, but being away helped me gain a sense of self-awareness that I never had before.

Things I miss about France/Europe:

• Sounds. Sights. Smells. Tastes. Being surrounded by Francophones. Charlie’s meow. Church bells marking the hour. The odd tritone used for emergency vehicle alarms. Market days. Galettes. Café terraces with 1€ espressos. Intricate architecture. Monuments all over the place. Striking landscapes. The sea. Bakeries. The cheese aisle at U Express. Our sunny yellow kitchen. Rainy/sunny/rainy/sunny/rainy days and the rainbows and sunsets they produce. Cheap wine that doesn’t taste like vinegar. Salted butter.
• Fresh baguettes. There is an amazing bakery on every street in France. There is approximately one amazing bakery per State. One of my life goals is to perfect the baking of une baguette de tradition. Once you’ve eaten french bread, there’s no going back.
• Public transport. The facility of navigating European cities puts metro transit to shame. Cars aren’t obligatory like they are stateside, partially because everything is much closer, but mostly because bus, train and metro systems are so much more efficient over seas! Also, I am a terrible driver highly dislike driving, so I’m all about public transport.  It makes so much more sense both economically and ecologically to share rides, but America can’t seem to get behind that. I’ll never understand why not.
• Global mentality and open minds.  In comparison with the French, Americans are incredibly self-centered and close-minded. I’m making a sweeping generalization here, obviously, but on the whole it seems to be true. We rarely focus on world news, and half of us couldn’t tell the difference between Iraq and Iran. Conservative Republicans don’t exist en masse and people are always fighting for change. I have some faith left in the progressive minds of my generation, especially in places like Minnesota, but other parts of the country worry me a bit. As long as Mitt Romney stays out of the white house, I think I’ll be okay.

Things I will be fine without:

• Restrictive hours. While I understand and respect the French ideal of giving store owners time to rest, everything closing at 7:30pm and ceasing to exist at all on Sundays did get rather annoying at times. Like 8:30pm on a Friday night and you realize you’ve run out of booze milk and can’t make macaroni and cheese. 24/7 supermarkets are a little insane, but they can be quite nice to have around every once in a while.
• Elderly roommates. Don’t get me wrong, I love René from the bottom of my heart and I am eternally grateful for everything he has done for me, but sometimes living with an obsessive compulsive 70 year old Frenchman was a little frustrating. He is an amazing person, but twenty-somethings and seventy-somethings don’t always see eye to eye. If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely still chose to live at 9 rue Chateaubriand, but I’m not planning on rooming with any other senior citizens in the near future.
• Smoke. I’ve never been one to hate on smokers, but oh my gawd do Europeans know how to suck down a pack of cigarettes. I’m all about letting people do what they want, but it’s nice to be back in a place where you have to step outside to take a puff.
• French t.v./radio. It’s awful. They tend to take all of the bad parts of American television and music and leave out all of the good parts. It’s amazing how few true French t.v. shows, movies and musicians actually exist.

I’m sure there are other things I should/could/would like to add to these lists, but my brain is feeling drained. I’ve been working on these lists on and off for nearly 12 hours now, and I can think no more. The lists may change slightly over the next few days if anything else pops into my head, but that’s all she wrote for now. Thanks for reading y’all. It’s been real. A million and one bisous to everyone who’s kept up with my European exploits over the past eight months, and a million and one bisous even to those who haven’t. I love you all to Europe and back.

xoxoxo Stephen

French Pronunciation Exercises

Could. Not. Stop. Laughing.

This Is What Dreams Are Made Of

Ladies and gentlemen of the friends and family variety,

Please accept my apologies for dropping off the face of the earth for the past couple of weeks. In my defense, I legitimately couldn’t write for a majority of the month of February since I was only home for less than a week of it thanks to four trips to Normandie, Rennes, Picardie, and Italy. Still not much of an excuse for my absence over the past relatively un-busy week. I’ve thought about writing nearly everyday since I returned from my last trip, but every day that I put it off, it unfortunately seems like more and more of a chore. With more than three weeks since my last entry, it seems like there are a million things to write about, but no logical or interesting way to go about it. Please forgive my momentary lack of creativity. Basically, I have gone to a lot of pretty places, seen a lot of really cool things, eaten a lot of delicious foods, and spent time with a lot of great people. All good things.

When I last left y’all, I was getting ready to head to Picardie in Northwestern France with my roomie, Alex, and my landlord, a.k.a. French grandpa, René. We were invited to stay with René’s girlfriend, Monique, for a week in the French countryside. It was an unbelievably relaxing week full of extravagant dinners, thoughtful conversations, interesting day trips, and music. Also, I got to cuddle with an enormous cat which made me giddy! This laid-back lifestyle made me want to be an 80 year old retired Frenchman in the middle-of-nowhere France. Then I realized that my current life is essentially that of an 80 year old retired Frenchman, with two exceptions: the handful of hours that I “work” at the high school, and the late nights spent out with friends. Strange. Anyway, here are some pictures from my time in Nord-Pas-de-Calais:

Monique's charming house

Le jardin

Alex waiting for dinner by the fire!

Funny anecdote: One of the things René had planned for us during the week was a day trip to the Baie de Somme on the northern coast. It is a beautiful, expansive bay with amazing views and exciting wildlife. René was really excited to bring us there because there was a chance we might see seals. The night before, he said to Alex and me:

“Peut-être on va voir des PHOQUES!”

While this simply translates to, “Maybe we’ll see some seals!”, it sounds a lot more like, “Maybe we’ll see some FUCKS!” to an anglophone. Being the mature 22 year old that I am, I of course burst out laughing, knowing full well what “phoques” meant. I luckily managed to avoid explaining myself. Even more luckily, I actually got to see a real seal in real life the next day!

A real-life phoque!

After this first calm and meticulously planned week in Picardie, I hopped on a plane and headed to Venice for an extremely unorganized and somewhat last minute trip with my travel buddy and BFFL, Kate! We basically decided to go to Italy because I had found a Ryanair flight from Paris to Venice for 10.99€, and who could resist that?! Italy was on the top of my must-visit list, and it was during our winter break and during the world famous Carnaval of Venice. Perfect on a million levels.

Before my trip, a majority of my knowledge of Italy came from movies like Letters to Juliet, When in Rome featuring Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, and The Lizzie McGuire Movie (which Kate and I may or may not have watched on her iPod touch, and which may or my not have inspired title of this post…) leaving me with the expectations of a prepubescent American girl. Sadly, I didn’t get to mend the broken heart of an elderly British woman, I wasn’t offered a job working for a high-profile fashion designer, nor was I mistaken for an Italian pop idol, but I did manage to have an unforgettable trip nonetheless.

Which one is your fave!?

It became extremely clear from the get-go that our trip was spontaneous, a.k.a. not thought out. Kate and I had been searching for a couchsurfing host for about a week to no avail. Everyone was out of town or already busy with other visitors, since it was Carnaval after all. We held out until the very end, hoping that something would turn up, but around 11pm the night before my flight, we decided it was probably best to try and find alternative lodging. All of the good hostels were of course booked by this point, but we did somehow manage to find a hotel that was only 22€ a night! Skeptical of the price, but willing to take the risk and persuaded by the charming photographs, we booked it for two nights with little hesitation.

Knowing how small the city is, we figured it would be easy to get around, right? Wrong. That city, while beyond gorgeous, is a crazy messed up labyrinth that is impossible to navigate. I had printed out directions from the train station to our hotel, but these FORTY-TWO STEPS proved to be rather unhelpful, as you can imagine…

Don’t worry, we eventually made it there after taking a number of detours and deciding that it was probably best to just find our way to the coast and circumnavigate the island until we we closer to our destination. We were together, and we were in Venice, and we were happy. But we were also very hungry. And it was also very late. We had hoped to find a grocery store after checking in, but this was a silly an unrealistic wish at 10pm in Europe. We gave up pretty quickly on the idea of finding a grocery store, and instead went in search of a restaurant near our hotel. No dice. Everything in our area was unfortunately already closed. Well, we said, at least there are vending machines in our hotel lobby! That should be fine until tomorrow, right? Wrong. With only 2 euros in coins between the two of us, and a hotel receptionist who refused to give us change for our paper money, we weren’t going to feast tonight. To top it off, one of our two selections got stuck in the machine! Kate wiggled it out eventually, thank god. In the end, our menu consisted of a 0.5 liter bottle of fizzy water and six saltine crackers, split between the two of us. Proof that planning is helpful when traveling.

Please, laugh at this.

After a full night of sleep, the rest of our stay in Venice was much more enjoyable. We wandered everywhere, snapped a lot of photos, saw the main sights, happened upon magical allies filled with colorful laundry, took a boat trip over the island of Murano to buy teeny tiny glass figurines, ate some mediocre pizza and pretended to be in postcards. If you ever get a chance to visit this lovely city, I would HIGHLY recommend it. There are tourists galore, but it is a beautiful destination, and it is going to sink into the ocean one day, so you should get there before that happens. Also, if you like tacky chandeliers, cats greeting you in the morning, and you don’t mind crumbling walls, I would suggest staying at the Hotel Alla Salute! The location is great (once you find it) and the prices were surprisingly low for a hotel in Venice! Seriously. Not the nicest place I’ve ever stayed, but definitely worth it for the price and location.

PURE MAGIC

Postcards from Italy

SO TINY! SO CUTE!

These pictures were not featured on their website...

After Venice, we hit up Florence for one day. You might be thinking, “But there is so much to see in Florence! Why would you go for just one day!?” I was a little worried about this at first too, but after visiting, I can attest to the fact that you can get through pretty much everything in 24 hours. Maaaybe 48 if you want to do absolutely EVERYTHING, but really, one day was plenty for us since everything is so centrally located. We climbed the tour next the Il Duomo, saw [the replica of] David, walked through the Medici residence, went on a mini-hike to take in a panoramic view, ate some delicious Italian cuisine, saw Rossini’s dead body, and went to the Uffizi Gallery to see more Botticelli than you could shake a stick at. To be completely honest, the Uffizi was rather disappointing after having been to The Louvre in Paris. So much of the same thing. No variety! It would’ve been better like this…

Birth of MEOW

View of the Cathedral after 300-some steps up the tower next-door!

We were too lazy and too cheap to go to the museum where the real deal is hiding, but we figured this was good enough

After Florence, the rest of our winter break was spent in the one and only Roma! Unlike Florence, Rome can definitely not be seen in a day. There is a buttload of old things to see, and an abundance of pizza and gelato to be eaten there. Luckily for us, the weather was beyond perfect for exploring, sunny with a light breeze everyday. We did the tourist circuit, of course, in order to follow in Hilary Duff’s Lizzie McGuire’s footsteps, but we did fit in a few other things that were off the beaten track. For example, visiting a bone museum disguised as “catacombs” (with an extremely racist entrance guard who forces visitors to “donate” a euro to enter), going to the museum of ancient musical instruments, and playing with kitties at the AMAZING cat sanctuary hidden in the city center under some ruins! Should you find yourself in Rome, I would suggest skipping the bones and going straight to the CATS! The people that work there are incredibly nice and caring, and the cats are ADORABLE!

I WANT TO ADOPT THEM ALL

We also ate the world’s best pizza at Pizza Roma in the Trastevere neighborhood. If you go to Rome, you HAVE to look this place up because their pizza is fantastic, and really well priced!

THE BEST PIZZA I'VE EVER EATEN EVER

Kate and I kimchi-ing like crazy (photo collage courtesy of Kate)

The kimchi-ing continues (Courtesy of Kate)

This is real life. One of the most amazing sunsets in the history of sunsets.

Colosseum by night, where Kate and I attempted about 1230518351 times to get a nice photo of us, and never succeeded.

This bird, or one of his friends, pooped on my hood at the Vatican. That was some holy shit.

There are more pictures (which can be seen here if we’re FB friends!) and more stories to be told, but I’ve been uploading/writing/sitting in front of my computer for far too long, so this will have to suffice for now, dear readers. Chat me up if you’d like to hear or see more!

Bisous bbs! xoxo

How Stephen Got His Groove Back

Well shit. Looks like another month has come and gone without much notice, and without much commentary on my behalf. I’d like to say that I barely wrote anything during the second half of January because I was out and about, busy beyond belief without a second to spare and never on the internet, but that would be a blatant lie. The truth is quite the opposite to be perfectly honest. As I mentioned before, I had gotten myself into a bit of a mid-year slump after the holidays, and though I tried to pull myself out of it as quickly as possible, these things take some time. Cooking and baking and blogging have all been helpful tools, but being stuck in Saint-Brieuc for the the entire month of January was a bit of a road block. When I wasn’t preoccupied with the oven, I found myself in my room watching things like Downton Abbey (which, by the way, is an amazing show that I highly recommend watching if you haven’t yet) and eating more than my fair share of desserts. I was far from being clinically depressed, but was still highly unmotivated thanks to a bout cold weather, the unglamorous ‘city’ of Saint-Brieuc, and an ever impending sense of doom looming over my undecided future. Dramatic much? Oui.

Luckily, February has thus far been a breath of fresh air and the rest of the month is full of promise. Out of nowhere, there seems to be so much to do and see! Being too busy to write has become a legitimate excuse over the past week, and the fun of February isn’t even half over! With a road trip to Normandy and a pseudo-weekend in Rennes already under my belt, I still have a week long trip to Picardie followed by an Italian tour to look forward to! My mind has been a little all over the place lately trying to keep the travel plans straight for all four of these trips, but it’s kept me busy and anxious in an excited way. Places to go! People to see! Much better than brooding in my bed. Who ever would’ve thought February could be so grand?

As I headed out to Normandy this past weekend in a nine person “mini-bus” with my Franco-American crew, I couldn’t help but recall another voyage made not so long ago. Last January during interim break, I headed South with my friends Sarah, Clara, Ann, and Laurel for an Arkansan adventure that I’ll never forget. The week we spent in Conway was by far one of the most hilarious and enjoyable times of my conscious life, both extremely exciting and incredibly relaxing. Being in warm weather, going on mountainous walks, singing show tunes at the dinner table, drinking $1.99 margarita’s at JJ’s, giving into/falling in love with country music, cave diving, curling up on couches, learning about places like Pickle’s Gap and Toad Suck, baking buttloads of cookies and decorating a staggering number of Valentine’s Day cards made for a welcome recess from freezing/studying our asses off at Olaf. Breaking routine, visiting somewhere new, and being surrounded by wonderful people gave everything a new light. There was a sense of comfort and openness with my friends after being together day and night for the entirety of break. It’s so easy to get caught up in the stresses of life, but weeks like that help you notice how happy things can be when you let go and have some uninhibited fun. #clichécentralbutwhateveritstrue #ewijustusedahashtag

The beginning of something beautiful

happy beings behind falsely angry façades

hot potatoes make the world go round and cause awkward photographic reactions

The MOST Valentine's Arkansas has ever seen

The weekend at my friend Leslie’s in Normandy essentially served the same revitalizing purpose as the week in Arkansas but in a much more urgently-needed and heightened sense. Getting the heck out of St-B. and letting things loose in the country shook things up and made me giddy. Making homemade pizza in a giant brick oven, sipping on cidre and wine, cuddling with an adorable dog, seeing the tragically beautiful beaches of Normandy, visiting the epic tapestry of Bayeux, gathering around a raclette, wandering around the countryside, playing charades and trivial pursuit, watching the Superbowl (for the sake of Madonna), getting snowed-in and missing a full day of work (snow days do still exist!), and marveling at Le Mont Saint-Michel made for a memorable weekend that has given me a firm shove out of my previous slump status. My life is nuts, in a good way. I’m sending out a MILLION thanks to Leslie and Allie for making this weekend happen! You two are the bomb.

Kate presenting Leslie's cozy little home

HOMEMADE PIZZA

Raclette Dinner chez Leslie

Le Mont St-Michel

Even though the characters and settings of my life continue to change, there are certain things that remain true:

• traveling with someone is one of the best ways to really get to know them
• cold weather is relative
• snow days are always the best days
• road trips are always the best trips
• food brings people together, namely potatoes
• charades requires more skill than you think
• sleeping between two people is starts out as a wonderful idea until you become a fiery hot mess
• 90s jams alway make the perfect car ride soundtrack

My upgraded emotional status stuck with me throughout this week as more classes were canceled (making this a four-day-work-MONTH) and as I headed to Rennes on Tuesday afternoon for a mid-week weekend. Our last-minute-guest-conductor-turned-new-found-friend from last year’s orchestra tour, Tito Munoz, was in town directing Bejamin Britten’s opera,  The Turn of the Screw. I got to see the show with my resident Rennes friends (Mary Claire, Berit, and most recently relocated Steph!), and got a chance to hang out/catch up with Tito after the show which was great! Talking about last year’s tour made me freshly miss orchestra, but there was a welcomed sense of nostalgia and plenty of other things to talk about to keep us from focusing too heavily on the past. My days off gave me plenty of time to get in some good one-on-one time with Steph and Berit as well, nicely rounding off my time in Rennes.

So that’s more or less where my life is at. There’s still plenty to worry about (and a mouthful of canker sores to prove it), with my sister out of commission thanks to her gallbladder, open-ended travel plans, unplanned lessons to teach, and my future continuing to be 100% uncertain, but present life is pretty good with trips on either side of me. My chin is up, and I’m ready for more fun. Come and join my party! Catch ya on the other side of Italy!

Bisous bisous xoxo

How to Fake French

I happened upon this video a few days ago and died of laughter because it is so ridiculously true. My French capabilities have risen exponentially in the past four months, but I fully admit that I’ve relied on some of these tactics in the past. Enjoy:

Mid-Winter Slump

For the past week or so, I’ve been wanting to add a new post to keep up with a resolution to write more. The problem is, nothing blog worthy has really happened as of late, leaving me with a lack of words, and a longing for something to happen. I’ve been hesitant to write, worrying that anything would be dull in comparison to my Austrian adventures. Seems likely that this may well be the case. But in recent days, I’ve come to terms with this humdrum reality and thought I would take this chance to be honest with myself about my state of being by being honest will all of you. I’m constantly inspired by the unabashed sincerity in my dear friend Clara’s blog, and I feel like it’s time to open up and take a little break from my sugar coated tales of European life.

You see, I’ve hit a bit of a mid-winter slump. The term “mid-winter” seems somewhat inappropriate since the temperature hasn’t been below 45° F all week, but it is mid-January after all. I guess it’s more of a mid-year slump, really. So I present you with a series of whiney unreasonable complaints causes for said slumpiness:

The holidays are over, and the lights have been taken down leaving the streets of Saint-Brieuc drab and lifeless. The infamous French “soldes” (January sales) have begun, which would normally be cause for celebration, but I’m broke from my extravagant Christmas which makes the sales depressing instead of joyous. I work less in a month than most people work in a week, but the few hours that I’m actually teaching tend to be supplemented by many more hours of stress outside of school spent worrying over lesson plans and how my kids will be behave. I want to bake, but I stop myself out of fear of gaining more butter weight. Lord knows I already consume more than a reasonable number of calories in wine and beer since the other assistants and I lack originality in our methods of entertainment. I have intentions of being productive with my excessive free time, but the rainy weather blurs the days together and tires me out so that the only “productive” things I end up doing are finishing seasons of T.V. shows, eating, and putting my dirty clothes in the hamper (but not actually washing them). And while I’ve met wonderful people here, it still doesn’t make up for the fact that I miss everyone stateside. It also doesn’t excuse the fact that I’ve been pretty damn awful at keeping in touch with many of you, another resolution that  needs resolving.

I do indeed love France, but its charm has faded a bit, and the novelty of being here has begun to dissipate. I by no means want to idly wish away the rest of my time here, but rather I want to find ways to profit from the quickly disappearing months that still rest. I want to find a presence in this present, thanks again to Clara. When my visa runs out in six months, I want to look back at my time here knowing that I didn’t waste it. I’ve already had some life changing experiences, and I want them to keep on coming. This slump needs to end, and I need to get back to living and experiencing things with fresh and excited eyes.

One of the biggest obstacles that’s been keeping me from being alive in the present is my lack of foresight. One of my most important New Year’s resolutions was to figure out what I’ll be doing when teaching is up, but I’ve yet to bring this goal to fruition. I don’t intend to figure out a life plan or anything, but it would put my mind at ease if I at least figured out the next step. When I started work, the end of my contract seemed so far ahead that I didn’t dare think about my next move. Truth is, April 30th is approaching faster than I’d care to admit to myself. Renewing my teaching contract is a tempting option, but I’ve been trying to weigh out the pros and cons of this theoretical situation. On the plus side, I’d love to stay here, I could keep working on my French, the hours are great, the pay is decent considering the workload, I wouldn’t have to look for work elsewhere, and I could keep traveling. On the other hand, I would have to wait until May or later to find out if there’s a position for me, I would probably have to find some crap job to fill the three or four month gap between teaching contracts, I could be placed in a shitty school in a tiny town, I hate how stressed out I get about teaching, I miss my friends and family, and I would more or less just be putting off finding an actual job and/or continuing my education… Hmm. Decisions. I’m not the best at them. I guess I need to figure out what some other possible options before I decide anything, though. Let me know if you’ve got any thoughts, dear readers!

Well it’s getting late here in Franceland, and I have to get up before the sun tomorrow… Bed time for me!

Bisous

Winter Wonderland

Family! Friends! Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe, but here we are, already on to the third day of 2012! I just got back from an amazing whirlwind adventure to a place that can most succinctly be described as a winter wonderland. I had high expectations for my Austrian Christmas, and Salzburg delivered. I had to wait a little bit to start writing because it was just too depressing to realize my trip was over. It was by far one of the most magical and charming places I have ever seen, more than I could have ever hoped for. Seeing as it is the home of Mozart and The Sound of Music, I knew it had to be great, but it is so much more than those two shining tourist attractions. Tucked in the mountains, with a river running through it, Salzburg is chockfull of breathtaking panoramic views, phenomenal cultural events, amazing museums, delicious food, and friendly people. Summer is supposedly the high tourist season, but the winter months have their fair share of unique things to see, namely the snow covered mountain peaks and Christmas markets. So many wonderful things! But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s take a step back, and start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start, after all.

My trip started out with a bang, but not in a good way. I left Saint-Brieuc around 3:30 on Sunday the 19th, ready for snowflakes, cream colored ponies, and crisp apple strudel. The world seemed bright and cheery and everything was going smoothly. Then I got to Paris, and shit got shitty real fast. Since I was coming into Paris from the West and departing from the East, I had to get across the entire city from Montparnasse to Gare de l’Est in a 30 minute time frame. Normally, this should be no big thang thanks to the metro, but I ran into a few hiccups.

First of all, the signage at Montparnasse is hella confusing. There were signs pointing in both directions for the metro, and as it turns out, I followed the wrong ones. After walking for about 10 minutes underground, I finally found myself at the metro stop, only to wait in a ridiculously long line to buy a metro ticket. Time was not on my side. After finally getting my ticket, I had about 15 minutes til my other train left, and a 20 minute metro ride ahead of me. Even if you’re terrible at math, you can see the fault in this equation. After making a mad dash with my suitcase in a heavy wool coat, I made it to the other train station 10 minutes after my train left. I was sweating like a pig and on the verge of tears when I looked up to see that my train was in fact running 15 minutes late! Thank you, baby Jesus! I made my way to my car, stripped off all outer layers, and collapsed into my seat. Then the train sat there for 40 minutes. It was like a sick joke after all of that stress, but the anticipation of seeing my friends and getting to Salzburg soothed my frustration. Side note: If you ever take an over night train, pay the extra 5 euro and get a bed… Sleeping upright all night is not sleeping. I learned the hard way. Learn from my mistakes. 

We made it to Munich for a second transfer about 20 minutes late, but luckily they had held the train to Salzburg, so no worries. I was wandering around on the train looking for my seat, and was standing with my back to Kate for about 30 seconds before either of us realized it – one of many movie moments to be had during our adventures. Anna ran up from behind and the three of us did a little dance to celebrate! We made it through a crazy long night, and were finally together. All was good.

The minute we stepped off our final train ride, a most magical snow was slowly drifting down on our heads. Unbelievably perfect welcome. Even if everything else hadn’t worked out, I was happy knowing we would at least be having a white Christmas! After our 18 hour journey, we were pretty pooped, but we still had some fun after checking into our hostel. We wandered about the Mirabel Gardens (location of the infamous Do-Re-Mi scene), made our way through our first Christmas market, sipped on Glühweine, ate giant brezels, and turned our hostel room into a hair salon. Yes, I cut Anna’s hair, and yes, it was hilarious. Not planning on becoming a hairstylist, but please note in the pictures that I did not fuck up! It was a little sketchy at first, but it turned out alright in the end.

That night, we slept FOREVER in preparation for the long list of things we wanted to do throughout the week. We finally got out of bed and got our act together by the early afternoon and made a worthwhile investment by going to the tourist office and buying 72 hour Salzburg cards. For 35€ we were able to get into every museum, get discounts on theater tickets, and had free public transportation! After adding up all of our entrance fees and discounts, it would have cost us around  90€ for all of things we did had it not been for these small plastic lifesavers! I would hiiiiiighly recommend taking advantage of this if you ever find yourself in Salzburg!

Things we did with the Salzburg card:

1. Salzburg Museum – winner of the 2009 European museum award! Beautiful, fun, and educational!
2. SOUND OF MUSIC MUSEM – We went twice. Enough said.
3. Mozart’s Birth House – I SAW HIS BB VIOLIN!
4. Mozart’s Residence – I SAW HIS HARPSICHORD!
5. Toy Museum– We had a BLAST here with lots of fun interactive things, namely a very dangerous slide. Meant for 5 year olds, enjoyed by 20 somethings. Luckily, we were literally the only people in the museum, so we didn’t feel like total asses getting in the way of children. Also, they make you wear Crocs in the museum which is something I definitely swore I would never do. Surprisingly comfortable. Almost as comfortable as they are ugly.
   

   So embarrassing, so hilarious.

6. Giant lift elevator – Amaaazing view of the city! Also conveniently brings you up to number 7…
7. The Modern Art Museum – Normally, I’m not a huge fan of modern art, but I was pleasantly surprised with some of the work they had on display. Particularly intrigued by the work of Evan Penny, frighteningly realistic and detailed sculptures exploring the distortion of self-image.
8. Dom Cathedral Museum – Full of crazy curiosities and a strange exhibit on the history of St. Nicolas.
9. Funicular up to Hohensalzburg Fortress – Fun and efficient way to make it up to another amazing view! I have a feeling that Maria wouldn’t have been late all the time had this been around in her day. 
10. Fortress Museum – Wicked cool displays, thousand year old rooms in relatively good condition, and more wonderful views.
11. “World” of Marionettes Museum – One of the dumpiest things I have ever seen. It was literally two dingy cave-like rooms with some poorly taken care of puppets. Considering Salzburg is home of the world renowned marionette theater, I was expecting a little more from this.
12. St. Peter’s cemetery and catacombs – Graveyard is gorgeous, catacombs are not. I was expecting rows and rows of bones and skulls like the catacombs found under the streets of Paris, but this was a weird underground chapel and two cave like rooms. Not surprising that it is only 1.50€.
13. Residenz State Rooms – Stunning palace of the Prince Archbishops of Salzburg back in the day, gaudy but gorgeous along the lines of Versailles.
14. Residenz Galleries – Paintings from the 16th to 19th centuries. Beautiful things, but I have sadly become numb to art thanks to Europe’s excess of famous paintings and sculptures.
15. Baroque Art Museum – More painting and sculptures from the 16th and 17th centuries, located in the Mirabel Palace.
16. Stiegl Adventure Brewery – Hilarious adventure, and a fantastic deal! An adult ticket gets you admission to the hands on brewery displays, a brewery museum, free beer chips (surprisingly delicious), a beer tasting, and your choice of a Steigl glass or a bottle of beer to take home with you! The beer tasting was serious business too. We had been expecting little tiny samples, but were instead served 3 full glasses each in the brewery bar! We got drunk at 2pm before returning to the gift shop. Brilliant marketing ploy.
17. Top of Mount Untersberg – One of the coolest things I have ever done ever. Being on top of an Austrian mountain, completely covered in windswept drifts of snow is mindblowingly beautiful! I took about 235086235 pictures, and none of them do this view justice.
    

    Wonky Panorama attempt #1

    

    Happy Mountain Trekkers!

    

    Slightly less wonky panorama attempt #2

    

    Misty Fog Magic!

18. 20% discount at the Salzburg Marionette Theatre – On our last night in Salzy, we made our way to the Marionette Theatre for an amazing performance of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by the one and only W.A. Mozart. The costumes and sets were gorgeous, and the puppets were shockingly lifelike. Definitely another highlight of the trip!

When we weren’t doing Salzburg Card related activities, we spent a lot of time wandering around the enormous Christmas Markets, saw La Cenerentola by Rossini for only 6€ (YES SIX! AUSTRIA HAS AMAZING STUDENT DISCOUNTS FOR OPERAS! LESS THAN GOING TO A MOVIE!), watched The Sound of Music (of course I would), went on a Salt Mine tour (that included a special Christmas surprise from baby Jesus since it was Christmas Eve!), cooked many delicious meals in the less than ideal hostel kitchen, and made sure to get lots of sleep during our time off.

If all of these things weren’t already enough, we also had the most magical Christmas ever to exist ever thanks to a CHRISTMAS DAY SLEIGH RIDE! The whole idea of us going on the sleigh ride started out kind of as a joke because it was pretty spendy, but in the end we decided that this was a once in a lifetime situation and went for it. I have always longed to dash through the snow in a one (well there were two…) horse open sleigh, and on December 25th, 2011, my dreams finally came true. The drive into the mountains was gorgeous thanks to a particularly sunny morning and a fresh covering of hoarfrost, and the sleigh ride exceeded my extremely high expectations. Snow was falling, bells were jingling, there were mountains abound, we stopped at a tiny café halfway through the trip for mulled wine… It was literally like a picture print by Currier & Ives.

We finished our Christmas day with an extravagant meal at the St. Peter Stiftskeller. It was one of the most delicious meals of my life in spite of the 6.10€ we had to pay for ONE bottle of sparkling water. Ridiculous, I know, but they literally refuse to serve tap water. Needless to say, we laughed for awhile out of pure shock.

After exhausting Salzburg of nearly every possible tourist attraction we could possibly imagine, we headed back to France and the city of Grenoble on the 27th. After helping Anna move from her previously tiny town of Pontcharra to the bustling city of Grenobs, we spent the last few days of 2011 decorating, watching movies, cutting out paper snowflakes, and gorging ourselves on ridiculous amounts of vin chaud and fromage. Lounging is the perfect way to end any vacation in my opinion. It was sad to leave Anna and Kate after all of our adventures. We made a pretty slamma jamma travel team if you ask me. Thanks for a baller Christmas, mes amies!

My adventure didn’t end there, however. I still had to make my way back home, and I decided to do so via Paris! Since my travel expenses piled up quickly, I used a less traditional travel method to cross the country called covoiturage. It’s basically a very organized and secure way of hitchhiking. People post their travel plans on the website saying how many places they have, what kind of car it is, when they’re leaving, etc., and you sign up to share a ride! Much cheaper than planes and trains AND a fantastic way to meet more Francophones! My family was a little skeptical, but I assure you, it is perfectly safe and a wonderful way to travel!

I made it into Paris around 5pm on the 31st and met up with a handful of assistants at a hostel in near Montmartre to get ready for an all-night New Year’s celebration! Having spent nearly New Year’s Eve in the suburbs of St. Paul, I was pumped to be spending the last night of 2011 in the City of Light. It turned out to be a bit of a crazy mess since we failed to make any set plans, but it was fun to just let things be and see where the night took us. After a series of bars, many glasses of champagne, losing half of our party of six, turning down an overpriced taxi, and following a belligerent Frenchman halfway across the city, Sarah, Christine and I danced the night away in a giant club near République. Making it home was a bit of a struggle, smashing ourselves into the first metro of the morning with a million other people. We were barely able to keep our eyes open, but we made it back to our hostel in one piece, praise be!

The 1st was a bit of a struggle. Getting into a car knowing that I’d be going back to little ol’ Saint-Brieuc after all of this excitement was rather depressing to be perfectly honest. Luckily for me, I was welcomed home with a large stack of Christmas cards and two packages to lift my spirits! And I suppose vacations wouldn’t be nearly as thrilling if we were constantly on them, though, so cheers to le train-train quotidien for helping highlight the joy of time off. Back to work! Not to worry, more vacay time to come in February!

Küsse küsse!

Baby It’s Cold Outside

Well, hello there! It appears I have fallen a little behind on keeping up with my international relationships. Please accept my apologies for my absence, because I quite honestly have no good excuse for not writing sooner. My free time continues to be abundant, but it seems to slip away from me so quickly somehow! Time really has been rushing by lately thanks to insane amounts of cooking and baking, lesson planning, snowflake making, Christmas parties, and a trip to Rennes for a medical visit. Sidenote: I don’t have tuberculosis! In two days, I will have been in Europe for a total of three months already. How this happened, I have NO idea.

No T.B. here!

Even stranger to think about the fact that it’s been over six months since I graduated. Seriously…What happened?! I feel like I was cramming for exams, dancing in basements, being obnoxious in the music library, making caf creations, and hanging out on the French House porch just the other day. Wasn’t I just getting ready for Christmas Fest a couple weeks ago? Oh wait, that was a year ago. As fresh in my mind as these things may be, it somehow seems like forever ago that they all happened. Being at St. Olaf was such a defining part of my life for the past four years. Since it’s such a unique little community tucked away up on a hill in a tiny town, it’s easy to bundle it up in a package of memories that I’ll never forget. At the same time, tying things up with a string has also given me an odd and unexpected distance from my time there. Confusing.

I’ve been thinking a lot about time lately thanks to this recent post by my dear friend Clara. Basically, it blows my mind. I know that I’m not the only one boggled, but it’s really been wigging me out recently. I could ramble on about this for awhile, but since I’m actually running short on time today (haha!), I’ll leave that for another day.

The days and weeks since my last vacation have been melting together. When classes started up again at the beginning of November, my fellow assistants and I were less than pleased to know it would be a full six weeks before another break. I know, we’re pathetic excuses for working adults. It’s amazing how fast those weeks passed. Some weeks were harder than others thanks to some less than cooperative students, but I made it through without any [physical] scars. I kid, I kid, it really has been going well. I’m becoming more and more aware, however, that high school education is really not my strong suit and I will probably avoid making it a long term career goal. Little children? Maybe. College level teaching? Definitely possible. High school though, not my jam. Major stress when I plan lessons. Super awkward when I’m waiting for anyone to respond to questions they don’t understand. I guess I can’t really fairly judge this since I’ve only been an assistant in a French lycée, but I don’t think it’s a good sign that I get sick to my stomach when I wake up to teach 8am classes. Some of my students did redeem themselves, however, on Friday. One of my groups asked me to take a Christmas picture with them! And two of my students gave me a Christmas note! They win.

In other news, I have found some important items since my last post!

Number one: a cookie sheet at the marché for 5€! Baking has become infinitely easier since then.

Number two: a beautiful new winter coat! It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but it has already proved itself to be worth the price. It’s super warm, and more importantly, I look super good in it. Bring it on winter.

Number three: cozy mittens to go along with my new coat! I bought them at our little Christmas market in town and they have been keeping my fingers nice and toasty.

Number four: a cello to rent from Rennes! It’s not the best, but it’s better than anything that I found around Saint-Brieuc. Now I just need to find some other people to play music with… Will work on that after the holidays.

Number five: new French friends! A wide variety of people in fact. I met some people my age at one of the bars in town late one night last week. SO fun. Hopefully I’ll be seeing more of them after the break. I also made friends with a retired doctor who wants to work on his English conversation skills. He invited my friend Sarah and I over for a glass of wine last week which was a pretty hilarious experience. He’s a bit kooky, but really nice. I also met my cat’s family on Friday! They invited all of the neighbors over for drinks to show off their newly finished living room and kitchen. I felt like such a creep since I already knew their cat so well, but they are very much aware of the fact that Charlie likes to visit the neighbors, so no biggie.

As much as I would love to fill you all in with more details of the ups and downs of my life at the moment, I must stop myself here because my train for Salzburg is leaving in an hour! Yes, I’m going to be running around the Mirabell gardens à la family Von Trapp and basking in the glory of Mozart for the next week! Leaving the cold rain, and heading towards cold, beautiful, fluffy white SNOW! (and maybe more rain…) A magical sleigh ride has been planned for Christmas day, and there will be an overwhelming number of charming Christmas markets. These are a few of my favorite things. It won’t be the same celebrating Christmas without my family, but hopefully being in the Austrian mountains will distract me enough from thinking about being away. Anyway, I’m leaving my computer chez moi during my trip to Salzburg/Geneva/Grenoble/Paris, but I’ll have lots of updates when I return from my trip! So Happy Holidays and see you in 2012!

Grosses bises! xoxoxoxoxo

Step into Christmas

Welcome to my [pre]Christmas post! I’d like to thank you for the year. So I’m sending you this [pre]Christmas post to say it’s nice to have you here, dear readers. For those of you who don’t understand this reference…

My apologies for this strange opening, but I absolutely LOVE Christmas and am pretty obsessed on the holiday at the moment. After celebrating Thanksgiving and stepping into December, I have definitely switched into full blown Noël mood. There is just something so magical and charming about this time of year! I’ve been wearing cozy sweaters, sitting by warm fireplaces, sipping cinnamon spice tea, watching movies like Love Actually and A Charlie Brown Christmas, frosting sugar cookies, and I have of COURSE been listening to all sorts of Christmas jamz. When it comes to Mariah Carey and Vince Guaraldi, I just can’t help myself!

On Tuesday, something wonderful happened that pushed me even further into the spirit. All throughout centre-ville, thousands of twinkly lights were brightly shining, adding a warmth and charm to a town that has felt somewhat cold and vacant lately. For some reason the Saint-Brieuc maintenance crew hung up the lights over a month ago, but waited to turn them on until this Tuesday. They were wrapped around trees and floating over head in rows of faux icicles, unfairly taunting me and the other assistants since Halloween! Why would they make me wait like that?!? I don’t know. The anticipation was building until this week when I was finally relieved from the agony on Nov. 29th (weird date to start Christmas lights, but whateves). When I walked into town for a glass of wine with some friends, I couldn’t help but smile the whole time thanks to the new atmosphere! It’s pretty amazing what some lights can do.

The cheer continued on Wednesday when Alex and I decided to make a ridiculous number of Christmas cookies while jammin out to our favorite Chrismtas jams. This combines three of the best things in the world: Christmas, cookies, and music! We started with classic sugar cookies, moved on to little chocolate covered cereal clusters that Alex calls Schoko Krispies, continued with almond crescents (which are my FAVE! I’m going to translate the recipe and share it with everyone later) and coconut macaroons, and finished the bake-a-thon with delicious cinnamon stars. Yes, we made five different kinds of cookies and it was GLORIOUS! There were literally cookies on every surface of our kitchen and dining room! We brought a few platefuls to the staff lounges at our schools had no trouble getting our friends to eat them with us.

Since we had a million and one sugar cookies to decorate, we tricked our friends into decorating them with us. We invited them over for dinner and drinks, but didn’t mention the fact that they would be decorating their own dessert. After stuffing ourselves with butternut squash soup, green bean casserole, au gratin potatoes, and making our way through 4 bottles of wine, we ushered out plates filled with cookies and bowls of melted chocolate and brightly colored frosting. Tipsy cookie decorating was a new and hilarious experience. Some of the designs were a little messy, but also unique and inspired:

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I think in a way, I’ve been using Christmas to keep my spirits up. I love it here, but things have been seeming a bit mundane for the past couple of weeks. It’s one thing to live in a small town when you’re in college and surrounded by thousands of other people your own age, but it’s quite a different experience to be in such a calm and quiet place without all of your friends and family. The other assistants and I have no doubt found ways to enjoy ourselves, but it would be nice to be in a bigger place sometimes.

Also, the weather has been less than ideal lately. It has been raining like CRAZY with no real signs of letting up. Better get used to it soon, though, since I’ve been told to expect this for the rest of my “Breton” winter. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain doesn’t seem to have quite the same ring to it. Call me crazy, but I miss the snow! One of my teachers told me that there has indeed been snow here the past two years, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that weather repeats itself again for me. Until then, it looks like a lot of water coming my way.

I also ran into an interesting linguistic road block during some of my classes this Friday – trying to explain the difference between the words “house” and “home” to high school French students is no easy task. I did my best to demonstrate the difference by listening to and comparing the songs “Homeward Bound” by Simon & Garfunkel and “Little Boxes” by Malvina Reynolds. It seemed to work for about half of them, but I think it was a lost cause for the rest.

It’s strange, but the French language contains no true equivalent to the word or concept of “home.” Maison is the word for “house,” but the closest thing to “home” is chez moi which more or less translates to “the place where I live.” Students looked at me like I was crazy when I tried to tell them that a house could be a home, and a home could be a house, but that the two words were not mutually exclusive. They also gave me some “wtf” faces when I told them I have more than one home. Many of them couldn’t understand that I have my home where I grew up, a school and community at Olaf that I consider a home, and now a house in St-Brieuc that is slowly becoming less of a house and more of a home. It seems like it was both an issue of language, and also an issue of age. Since few of them have ever left home for more than two weeks at a time, it’s just something that they take as a given in their lives. To be honest, I probably would have reacted the same way when I was fifteen, without the experiences of life at St. Olaf and life in another country. It’s pretty insane to think about all of the things I’ve seen and done since then, and also wonderful to know that I can call more than one place home. The most lucky.

Happy December and grosses bises! xoxo

[Fr]anksgiving

Over the past few days, there have been a number of things that I’ve wanted to write about, but just haven’t seemed to have enough focus or alone time to do so until today. So my apologies in advance if this post ends up being a little disjointed!

First major point: Thanksgiving! Since none of us will be in the States for this most American of American holidays, the other English assistants and I organized a giant Thanksgiving dinner for this past Saturday afternoon/evening chez moi. What started out as a simple guest list of only assistants soon morphed into a monstrous list of 21 in order to accommodate our surprisingly large make-shift French “family.” Seeing the finalized list made me both extremely happy and rather stressed out all at once. It was amazing to realize how many wonderful people I’ve already met in such a short amount of time, but the thought of playing host for such a large group also caused me to panic a bit. I was by no means putting this dinner on by myself, but since it was happening at my house I felt greatly responsible for how things went. I’m a generally anxious person, and my anxiety definitely took over for good chunk of the afternoon.

As a child of Polish decent, my main concern was that there wasn’t going to be enough to feed everyone. I come from a family where food is of utmost importance, always delicious and above all else, abundant. If there isn’t enough for at least 3 servings per person, there is a problem. Everyone was bringing a dish to share, but would it be enough with the extended guest list?! Would all 21 stomachs be filled?! How was everything going to be cooked in our tiny little toaster oven?!? Did we remember to cover all of the classic Thanksgiving dishes?!?!?

Turns out, my fears were completely unwarranted. With a 15lb turkey, three pots of mashed potatoes, two giant casserole dishes of stuffing, plenty of butternut squash, green beans, German potato salad, French onion soup, baguettes, cranberry jello, green salad, twelve bottles of wine, and three pies (apple crumble, pecan, and pumpkin), there was more than enough to go around. So much, in fact, that we had enough leftovers for everyone to come over for a SECOND ROUND on Sunday afternoon! We just left the tables as they were, set out new plates, and let everyone dig in. Preeeeetty ridiculous.

The other point of stress was due to a miscommunication of timing and an abundance of tardiness, à la française. I missed the original planning session amongst assistants last week, so my main source of information about the plans was a mostly-legible picture posted on facebook. The only time mentioned in the picture of the planning sheet was 16h (aka 4pm), and I unfortunately made the assumption that was meal time. I then spread the word to some others not involved in the planning that we would be eating around 4, when in reality, the plan was to merely get together at 4 and eat much later around 7 or so. This led to everyone arriving at all sorts of different times, food being cooked and served little by little, and a minor sense of chaos between the first arrival at 3:45 and the last around 6:30. A little hectic, but mostly hilarious in the end.

After we managed to round everyone up and get everything on the table, things finally settled down. Looking up and down the ridiculously long table at a room full of happy faces washed away all of my stress and anxiety, and made the whole crazy day worthwhile. The joy and warmth in the room was overwhelming, and I felt incredibly thankful for everyone in my life and this new home away from home.

After stuffing myself to the brim, I sat at the table listening to Christmas music and feeling a little dazed. As my thoughts turned to family, friends, and Thanksgiving at home, my happiness started to lose it’s glow. I’ve been missing people and things about home since the day I left, but it really seemed to hit me hardest on Saturday. Two months away is barely a challenge, but the thought of not being able to spend the holidays at home is a tougher pill to swallow. In my 22 years, I have yet to spend a single Thanksgiving or Christmas without my family, and it’s strange to think that this will be the first. I know that I’ll be home before I know it, missing all people and things French, but I still can’t help but feel sad about the upcoming holiday season. Love and miss you all much!

That’s one of the awful, yet beautiful things about living internationally – no matter where you are, there is always someone you miss. I’m thankful for that. Even if it’s hard sometimes, it’s comforting to know that there are so many great people in my life, even if we aren’t always in the same place.

My next point on a somewhat related note: My failed attempt to teach French high school students about Thanksgiving. First of all, my kids this week were suuuuuuuuuuuuper unmotivated to learn about one of the best holidays! I was like, listen, it is a holiday where all you do is eat and hang out with your fam – what’s not to love?!? I guess it would be pretty hard to understand if you’ve never experienced it, but they could at least show a little more interest!

When I asked what they already knew about Thanksgiving, their knowledge and understanding of Thanksgiving was limited to, “You eat turkey!” and, “I see Thanksgiving on Gossip Girl,” so they should’ve been ready to learn, right? Guess not. My first class was a particularly frustrating group of 15 girls. They wouldn’t stop talking to each other, and I had my first ever case of teacher outrage. I stopped talking about mashed potatoes, raised my voice, and told the girls “If you’re not talking to ME, don’t talk AT ALL!” It was like a strange out of body experience. I was like, uh, whoa, did I really just do that? Yeah. I did. Sooooooooo weird, but I really didn’t know what else to do that the time. It’s incredibly difficult to be in this weird middle ground between student and teacher, riding on a fine line between wanting both friendship and respect from the students. Some of the groups are SO wonderful and I feel at ease talking with them, but I’m still working on finding the balance with some of the others.

After going over all of the Thanksgiving basics of history, food, and traditions, I tried to get everyone to tell me something they were thankful for. This proved to be an unexpected challenge. They all looked at me with terrified eyes like I was asking them to recite the U.S. constitution or give me their left kidney. Apparently some of them are ungrateful little brats, because the most common response was, “Nossing?” [aka Nothing]. Either that or I failed at explaining what thankful meant. My favorite response from all of my classes by far was, “I thankful weed.” Real winner. That kid is going places.

Final point to be made in this post: Even though the world population has exceeded 7 billion people, the world is still small. Seriously. Yesterday, after my second class, a girl came up to talk to me with some crazy news…

Student: “You come from St. Paul, right?”
Me: “Yeah! My family lives in a suburb of St. Paul!”
Student: “Do you know North St. Paul?”
Me: “YES! That’s where I went to high school!”
Student: “You mean like, with the North High Polars, and the big snowman?”
Me: “Uh… Yes?!? How do you know that?!?”
Student: “My friend is spending a year in the United States, and she is going to school there!”

I was FREAAAAAAKING out after she told me this! Of all the places in the vastness of the U.S., this girl from little ol’ Saint-Brieuc, France ended up not only in Minnesota, but in MY HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!!! Like, what are the odds?!?? It is still blowing my mind. This is not like someone from Paris and someone from New York switching places. SAINT-BRIEUC AND NORTH SAINT PAUL. What the HEEEEEECK?!

I’ll leave you with that mind-boggling story to linger until next time. Bisous mes amis! xoxoxo