Kate's French (Mis)adventures

Blizzard '12

2012-02-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

One of my co-workers told me we were due for snow two Mondays ago, and even though it was cold, the sun was out, and I didn't believe her. Sure enough that evening, when I finished my classes, I looked out the window and saw that it was coming down.

Alright, I told myself, let's prepare ourselves for a cold snap. I pulled out my woolens, turned up the heating, and bought a new book for my kindle so I could wait out the few days of cold weather.

A few days later, the white stuff was still everywhere, and temperatures were dipping into single digits (farenheit!). Some of my co-workers couldn't come to work because the roads were covered in snow and ice. People started talking some sort of Siberian cold front, and then I realized it was serious

My mom saw something about blizzards in Europe and called to see if I was alright. "Are you sure you want to live in a country where it is that cold?" she asked me. I reminded her that it also snows in the United States, although hardly ever in the south where we are from.

My own perspective of the cold weather has notably changed over the weeks. At first, the frigid temperatures kept me indoors, but eventually I got stir crazy and got used to the cold. Now, whenever I hear that the temps have climbed to freezing I got outside to profiter du beau temps.

The biggest problem has been the sidewalks. I have been learning a lot about the stages of snow sur les trottoirs. When it first falls, it is pretty and fluffy. Walking in it makes crunchy noises and gets your feet wet. Eventually it gets kind of trampled down, which at first I thought was good, but later realized that this flat snow is treacherously slippery. After a few days without fresh snowfall, it mixes with the dirt and becomes a bizarrely gelatinous yet still dangerously slippery mixture. Then, one afternoon the sun comes out, and the temp warms up to 33 or 34 degrees, and it starts to melt, and you think- that's it! This nightmare is almost over! But then night falls, and the temperature drops below freezing, and it becomes the most dangerous substance yet--a slick, uneven layer of pure ice covering the sidewalks.

In other words, snow is mud from hell. I've already had a nasty spill, just in front of the university, no less, and I have bruises all over the right side of my body to show for it.

I am realizing that a large part of the problem is not the snow itself, but the city of Limoges, which is not really equipped to deal with heavy snowfall. I've seen the deneigeuse pass by a few times to clear all the snow off the streets, but they need a similar device to clean the sidewalks for all of us pedestrians.

This weekend has been "warm." Today it climbed to 26 degrees farenheit. I thought that meant that our "Siberian blizzard" would be over, but more snow is predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday, and cold weather is predicted for a few more weeks. Looks like I'll be cuddled up next to the radiator for the foreseeable future...

La française

2012-02-01T05:30:00.000-08:00

I've changed the name of my blog back to Kate's French (Mis)Adventures. It doesn't look like I will be leaving this country any time soon. I miss Spain so much--it is actually a physical ache when I think about it, but I love France too, and here I am trying to make a life for myself.

In French, I really feel like I've arrived. In the past, I found myself getting frustrated and just being quiet when I couldn't figure out how to say something or when I couldn't get it out fast enough. My French is good enough that I can say anything I want, even though my grammar is not always flawless. I can make jokes. No one slows down for me.

I'm getting there culturally too. I catch it when people quote French films, know enough about French music. I owe a lot of this to my French roommates who have taken it upon themselves to show me cult French film classics such as"Le Pere Noel est une Ordure" (coming soon: "Les Bronzés Font du Ski").

I also know random little cultural tidbits such as that both Jacques Chirac and François Holland (candidate for president in the 2012 elections) come from the département of Corrèze; I can sing along with Téléphone´s "Ça, c´est vraiment toi," which I know will be played at some point during every night out.

As assimilated as I feel, there are moments where my I simply can't deny my foreignness. Take last weekend for example; I was dining at Chez Alphonse, a restaurant known for its regional specialties. Everyone around town had been recommending this place, and I had looked forward to our trip there for weeks. When I finally got there and looked at the menu, my mouth dropped open...words that should simply not appear on menu --head, tongue, liver, kidney, foot decorated the chalk board. My French companions calmly debated the merits of these dishes and interrogated the waitress. "Is the veal head too big if I am not very hungry?" "What does it mean that the tongue is "crunchy" (croustillant)?"

I have always prided myself on being adventurous, even foodwise. I like frog, snails, octopus and squid, but I do have certain limits. That evening I played it safe with magret de canard or duck breast, and I left the restaurant feeling particularly un-French.

"You are SO American....happy and optimistic," one of my roommates told me the other day. It wasn't necessarily a compliment, just a fact. And I think that's the image they have of Americans--happy, optimistic, and well...naive. As much as I love France and would like to stay here, I appreciate my origins and my American-ness. And no amount of cultural and linguistic knowledge or weird animal parts consumed (if I ever manage it) will take that away.

birthdays

2011-12-30T04:19:00.001-08:00

The countdown is beginning--my birthday is just about a week and a half away. Once you have hit all of the major milestones (in the States that would be 21, when you can finally drink alcohol), birthdays lose their charm. The only thing to take the sting out of another step towards mortality and old age is the prospect of a party and maybe a present or two.My best friends and I are meeting up in Paris next weekend to celebrate, and this is helping mitigate any reservations about getting a year older.

I am turning 27 this year, and it sounds really old. I guess I probably feel the same way every year about turning a year old. But 27 is the transition from mid to late twenties, and I think that for most people it implies some sort of stability or direction in life--things that my life is really missing.

But this year I am trying a different approach--when I think about my impending birthday, instead of being sad about changing that 6 into a 7, I am going to be thankful for all of the wonderful life experiences that I have had during these 27 years.

My life has been incredibly full--I have had so many wonderful, rich experiences. As much as I would love to be 22 again, at that point in my life I had never seen the Marc Chagall windows of Metz cathdral. I spoke French but didn´t have the fluency or everyday vocabulary that only living in a country can provide. And well, as for my Spanish, it didn´t go any further than a Mexican restaurant menu.

I can feel myself getting older. I have become much neater. I have taken a real interest in cooking. But most of all, I have developed a real set of priorities. I know what I want out of life, and I know what kind of people I want to surround myself with. So in a sense, I feel less "lost" even though I still have no idea what country or city I will be in in the future!

So here's to 27 and conquering my fear of aging for my following birthdays. My life is richer every day, and I am making a conscious effort to realize and appreciate that.

My passport

2011-12-22T09:42:00.000-08:00

How much value can an old, beat up, navy blue booklet have? For some people, a lot. For me, my passport is my most valued possession. Without it, I couldn´t have the lifestyle I do. I´ve been thinking about it a lot since yesterday.

Yesterday I had my annual (traumatic) medical exam (including the lung x-ray to make sure I don´t have tuberculosis) followed by a meeting at the immigration office. The surprisingly friendly civil servant took my passport and looked vexé as he thumbed through trying to find an empty page. Sighing with relief, he found the last remaining page and affixed the vignette signifying the last step of the demarche to get my residency papers. Then he told me, "You need to order more pages for your passport."

I can't chalk up this lack of space just to my travels. Seven full pages of the pages reserved for visas and border stamps are taken up by the visas and other documents I have gotten to work or study abroad. I have more visas than most people, even people who have been abroad as long as I have because I have changed countries twice and had to re-start the process.

Still, I can't help but think that this is some sort of milestone.

Tomorrow morning I am getting on a train to Germany to spend Christmas with my great aunt and uncle and their family who live there. I'm excited about the prospect of snow, Christmas markets, and of course a reunion with my family members I haven't seen in a few years. Luckily, it's within the EU so I don't have to worry about any more border stamps.

Happy holidays to you and yours!

Limoged

2011-12-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

Être limogé (to be limoged) in French means to be fired, or disgraced. Needless to say the city of Limoges doesn't have the best reputation in France. In fact, you could say that all of the center of the country is not well-regarded, as most of the important cities are close to the coasts and borders. The center of the country is known for being rural and maybe a bit backwards.

People are often apologetic about the city. "There's not a lot to do...." they say. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I haven't had a lot of free time, but I haven't gotten bored. I have never lived in a city which would qualify as "big" or "interesting" by most people's standards so maybe I am just used to life in a mid-sized city. And even though it's not one of the most appealing regions in France, I'm just fine here.

Limoges is located in the region of Limousin. In fact, the word limousine comes from this region. The cars were named after a breed of horse from here. Limousin is known for good beef, chestnuts, and produits du terroir. Clafoutis, French cherry tart comes from here. And, as you probably know, Limoges is famous for porcelain production (this has to do with a certain clay which is found in the soil near here).

I finished classes at work the other day, and took the DALF last week so I am looking forward to finally really getting to know my city. I'm going to go to a porcelain factory, take a walk along the Vienne river, and well just explore the streets of beautiful half-timbered houses. And most importantly, I am going to finally have time to spend with the friends I have made but haven't been able to spend much time with. So far being limoged isn't so bad after all.

Coffee break

2011-12-01T08:02:00.000-08:00

I took up smoking briefly. Senior year of college I had decided to double-major at the last minute, and was busy overloading on classes and writing papers. Smoking offered me 15 minutes of quiet, of calm, of deep breaths.

Carlos made me quit. It wasn´t hard, really. I was already down to about one cigarette a week by the time I made it to France.

At my most stressful moments since then, I´ve been tempted to begin again, particularly after our traumatic breakup, which caused me to completely call into question what I was doing and where I was living and then again last year when I was juggling my work and master´s degree, I just needed 15 minutes to clear my head.

But I found perfect replacement--tea (and sometimes coffee). There is nothing like a warm mug between your hands. Long sips of a hot drink are much more delicious than the drag of a cigarette.

On Tuesdays, I am not a teacher, just a student. I have my French classes at the fac de lettres. After our morning classes, my girlfriends and I have lunch and then have a coffee then do our homework together before going to our afternoon classes.

The other day, while we were having coffee, I was talking about how much I enjoy our coffee ritual. "Don´t you have coffee after lunch in the States?" my German friend asked. At that moment I had trouble articulating exactly why our coffee break seemed so novel to me.

But then I realized that it wasn't about a lack of coffee, but a lack of time. No one in the US takes the time after lunch to have coffee. We don't have time. There are coffee shops everywhere, but people take their coffee to go or sit and work in front of a computer. We have kept the coffee but ditched the break.

In Almeria when I was doing my master's degree, my classmates and I usually had 5 minutes between classes, and we always opted for a coffee. Much to the chagrin of the teachers, the 5 minute break usually turned into 30 minutes. But those are the moments I really remember and value from my classes. One Saturday morning our assignment was to make a promotional video for the school. "Let's just record the cafe," one of my classmates said, "That's where the real Master's takes place."

This post is not political. We're not talking about the 35 hour work week or anyone's work ethic here, but simply the need to take a 15 minute breather. It´s so important for your mental state to take a break, and the end result is that I am actually more productive.

I have one week of classes before the end of the semester. It is a difficult one; I have mountains of grading to do and very little time to do it. But somehow this task is much less daunting with a cup of Earl Grey in my hands.

Kiss me.

2011-11-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

I'd like to talk about kissing....French kissing, but well not the kind of French kissing you are probably thinking about. I am talking about the traditional greeting exchanged in France in informal circles--kisses on the cheek or bises.

The problem with bises is that each region has rather different ways of doing them. This map by techbee shows the different number of bises according to the region of the country.

My real problem with bises is that in different parts of the country, people start their bises on different cheeks. In Lorraine, I never had any problems. We always started on the left cheek (the right for me). In Limoges, people don't seem to know which side to start on. I have had a few really awkward moments where we almost met in the middle.

I didn't like it at first, but I have gotten used to faire la bise. But with people I am really close to, nothing replaces a good hug.

À + ?

2011-10-31T05:17:00.001-07:00

My sincerest apologies to anyone who still follows my blog. I have been so busy teaching at the law school here and preparing the DALF exam, which I have in a month. It may sound exaggerated, but I got to the point where with my little bit of free time, I've had to choose between actually doing something or sitting down and writing a blog entry...

I am currently on holiday for Toussaint. The word "holiday" can be so misleading as a teacher--I've been dealing with a mountain of papers to grade and class preparation so it hasn't been particularly relaxing.

Last weekend was really spectacular, though. There was the Festival des Petits Ventres ("small stomachs" is an extremely inappropriate name for this holiday!). It consisted in going down to the old part of town and eating all sorts of regional specialties. I won't tell you exactly what I ate so as not to gross out any sensitive readers, but I will say that I ate things that make frog legs and snails seem as normal as apple pie.

The next evening was our housewarming party--we had people come from all over France to celebrate. Seeing everyone's reactions to our huge house made me realize how lucky I am to live where I do and to have such fun housemates.

Since this year, I have a serious job and am working towards the concrete goal of getting into grad school, I think my life (and therefore blog) may be a bit less interesting than before. Rather than bore y'all with how many papers I grade or motivation letters I write, I am going to re-orient my blog towards some of the cultural quirks that I find amusing.

Since it is my third year in France, I have gotten past the initial shock that most Americans face. I am used to buying unrefrigerated milk, seeing "tiny" cars, dodging dog poo on the streets, etc. However, there are some things which still plague/amuse me.

One of my least favorite things about France is how you say goodbye. In Spain it was so easy. Everyone says "hasta luego" (see you later) whenever you say goodbye, so you never have to think about it.

However, in France one of the most frequent ways of saying goodbye is "until+ the next time you will see the person." (à+____). It could be
à demain=see you tomorrow
a tout à l´heure= which means that you have some determined meeting time in the future
à la semaine prochaine- see you next week
à lundi- see you Monday
à plus (or "à +" in emails and texts) - is a nice catch-all way of saying "see you later", but it is too informal for most situations
etc.

Really the possibilities are endless. but saying goodbye always leaves me tongue-tied because I am trying to figure out the next time I am going to see the person.

That´s all for today.

À bientôt (?)

Retour en France

2011-09-26T13:50:00.001-07:00

Before I left for France, tropical storm Lee was jeopardizing my voyage. First it was headed directly to Jackson for Monday, my day of departure. When it became clear that it wasn't going to be that big of a threat to us, it headed towards North Carolina, where I was supposed to get a connecting flight from Charlotte to Charles de Gaulle. In the end, none of this actually impacted my trip.

Monday morning we headed to the airport in a light drizzle. Lee's tracks were clear, though after the entire weekend of heavy rain. Lots of roads around the reservoir were closed and we saw lots of flooding, saw several parking lots just completely flooded with some real damage.

The only real problem of my trip was the result of my own miscalculation. I took the metro in Paris from CDG to Gare d'Austerlitz where I was catching a train to Limoges. I did this on the false assumption that the subway would be handicap accessible, meaning that there would be elevators. Nope...that was an awful journey. I had to kick my suitcases through the turnstiles and drag them up and down stairs. Amazingly, my suitcases and I got to the train station intact.

It was smooth sailing once I actually arrived in Limoges. One of my roommates was waiting for me at the station, and she drove me to our house. I ended up finding roommates on a French roommate-finding website. I had never met them or seen the house, but everything has worked out great. One is working on a project to get organic food in school lunches. That means that she not only knows where to get cool, organic stuff, but comes home with samples. So far, we are cooking at eating together whenever possible, and I am enjoying eating à la française...eating well, eating slowly and having cheese at the end.

The house is enormous. The building is four stories tall, but there is a pharmacy on the ground floor, leaving us three. I have the top floor to myself. My ceiling is slanted since it is right under the roof, and there are cool wooden eaves which go across the room.

Our house is in a main square of the city, meaning there is a park right next door with a market on Saturday mornings. It is close to my job and close to a bus stop to get to my French classes at the fac de lettres. It even has a washing machine! I heard a rumor that we might be getting a dishwasher too—this is too good to be true.

The hitch was that it was unfurnished, as apartments usually are here (in contrast with my experience with apartments in Spain). After a few weeks with no furniture, except a futon mattress which one of my colocs had lent me until I found something else, I hit the jackpot. I had seen an advertisement for a futon on leboncoin.fr, a site for finding second hand stuff. I went to see it and stumbled upon a girl who was moving out the next day and had an apartment full of furnture to get rid of. And since she had rented a moving truck, she offered to deliver it the next day. Now my sweet attic room is seriously awesome.

Limoges, the city is....uninspiring so far. With the exception of city hall, , the train station, the cathedral and some other churches, the architecture is ugly. Granted, I haven't spent much time walking around the city---maybe I'll be more enthousiastic about it in the future.

Despite this, I am really enjoying being back in France. Even though this is my first time in this city, so many things feel familiar. The smell at the fac de lettres is the same smell of the lycée where I worked in Metz. The weather has been bad since I arrived—chilly and rainy. But that drizzle that just sort of hangs in the air and doesn't fall--you just walk into it, is something I experienced often in Lorraine and makes me feel strangely at home.

Getting around has been easy—partially because the city is so small. I have gotten over my fear of asking strangers things. Before when I was in France, I was scared to talk to people—I guess I thought that I could fit in as long as I didn't open my mouth. I have realized that people are more than happy to tell you how much the bus costs, where the post office is, etc especially if you are foreign. In fact, several people have already asked me for directions. Needless to say, I was no help at all.

Work started here last Friday, and so far I am surprised at how polite and shy the students are. In Almeria, the relationship between the students and the teacher was incredibly informal, and I never had problems getting the students to talk. In fact, more often than not I had to remind them to keep the noise level down because the students were so involved in the conversation activities. My French students just sit there. Tumbleweeds drift through the room. Crickets chirp. “You are the teacher,” they think, “It's your job to talk.”

Worst of all are all of the administrative aspects of the job. All the students want to change groups or have some sort schedule conflict. There are a bunch of forms to fill out. . This year I am 100% teacher (as opposed to some of my classes in Nancy for example where I just intervened to practice conversation skills) so I have to take care of all of these little details.

The other day I found a metro ticket at the bottom of my purse, and it took me a few minutes to figure out if it was from Paris, Madrid or Brussels—I have been to all three cities over the past few weeks! I made a trip to Madrid to get my visa since I am still technically a Spanish resident. The process of obtaining the visa took longer than I expected, and I ended up stuck in Madrid for a few days without a hotel reserved or without any idea of how or when I was going to get to Limoges once I did get the visa.

And then last weekend I went to Brussels to see my friend Annika who was a lectrice with me in Nancy. We had a blast, but I am wishing that I had more time in Limoges to get settled. Life has been so busy lately—with the getting established, getting to my FLE (français langue etrangère) classes at the humanities campus, and teaching at the law campus. All of this traveling and moving around sounds like fun, but I am praying that I will be able to stay put, and develop a routine soon.

Hogar dulce hogar

2011-08-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

In July, about two weeks before leaving Almeria, I managed to sprain my wrist while playing volleyball with some friends. I didn´t fall or anything, just managed to hit the ball at a strange angle. I really messed something up though. This injury caused my move to be a lot more stressful than it should have been--it really slowed things down. And it is also why I haven't posted in my blog lately...I can just now comfortably type.

Saying goodbye to Almeria was tough. Before I left we had lots of night picnics on the beach, including a nice going away party the night before I left. I visited some beautiful beaches around Almeria and ate at all of my favorite tapas bars.

At the train station, several amazing friends met me just to see me off. They even ran after the train. Leaving by train is so much more emotional than leaving by plane because you watch as you are slowly pulled away from somewhere you love, whereas in a plane you are preoccupied with tray tables and turning off all electrical devices. You take off into the air and that's that. My departure from Almeria was slower and more difficult than that. I cried all the way to Guadix.

My trip home was smooth and since then I have been enjoying time with friends and family. I have also been busy studying French for the DALF (Diplome Aprofondi de Langue Francaise), which I will take in December.

I've also been cleaning out my room. Since I live abroad and don't have plans to come back, my mom has expressed her frustration and all of the belongings and I have around my room, wanting to turn it into a guest bedroom. So I have been trying to give away, sell or box up and put in the attic all of my stuff.

I have also been trying to work on my grandmother's estate, organizing and getting rid of things so that we can sell the house. This summer I have had to organize and get rid of the stuff in my apartment in Almeria, my room here and my grandmother's house. I am not good at organizing, nor do I enjoy it--I am ready for this summer to be over!

Stuff is the enemy, I am realizing. I really only need/want the bare necessities to live. The irony is that once I get to Limoges I am going to have an big empty unfurnished house and I'm going to have to buy stuff after so many months of getting rid of things!

I have had some awesome reunions since I've been home. One weekend several high school friends reunited here, and the week after my closest college friends got together for a bachelorette party in New Orleans. I just got back from a weekend in Kansas City with my friend Jordan to meet her newborn baby girl--and what do you know, she coordinated a surprise visit from several other Lebanese friends who I hadn't seen in many years. I'm feeling really good about how many friends I've been able to see in such a short time.

I leave for Limoges on Labor Day. And I have a strange piece of good news. My roommate and best friend in Almeria, Charline, is going to be there as well getting a master's degree. It is going to make a big difference already having a close friend in the city. Enough packing and organizing already--I am definitely ready for my next adventure.

Choices

2011-07-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

I'd like to issue an apology to all of those who have followed me this spring through my job/studies hunt. I applied to job and studies programs in many different countries, and my plan changed a million times. Every morning, I woke up with a different idea.
"But I thought you were going to...move to Washington DC/ stay in Almeria/ go back to France!" said my dear friends who tried to follow my plans who were surprised that I'd changed my mind since the last time we'd talked.

It was largely an identity crisis for me deciding between the countries I have lived in or even trying to make my way in a new country.

Here's a taste of the thought process I went through as I considered my options...

America
Should I finally go back home? My family was hoping, particularly after Carlos and I split up, that my "extended European holiday" would finally end, and that I would go back to the US. I applied to a lot of jobs as a study abroad advisor, a job I feel fairly qualified for but received no responses. And I still love life in Europe too much to go home just yet. I have limited my search to English/French/ or Spanish speaking countries. I don't have any plans to learn any other languages right now--my hands are full with three. I toyed with the idea of Belgium, but it seems that getting work there legally is almost impossible so I spent a long time oscillating between France and Spain.

Spain
Coming to Spain was unexpected and I'm starting to realize that it's really the unexpected, unplanned things that I enjoy most in life. I have enjoyed discovering the language and culture so much and have been pleasantly surprised with my time here. In Almeria, especially, I love friendliness of the people; it really makes me feel at home. However, my contract at the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas expired, and while I do have the option of staying to do a doctorate, there are not a lot of job opportunities here. Almeria is like a comfortable nest with lots friendly people and the beach and delicious tapas, and it's easy to get too comfortable here and forget how wide the world is and how much more there is to discover. Elsewhere in Spain, I didn't have many opportunities with the unemployment rate as high as it is--y por eso yo también estoy indignada.

France
When I left two years ago, I didn't think I'd ever go back to France. I was frustrated with the language and the culture, particularly with the strikes that were going on. However, as much as I love Spain, living here made me begin to value certain aspects of French culture. Having to start from scratch with Spanish also made me appreciate how well I speak French. I was frustrated sometimes, but I realize now that (especially at the end of my year in Nancy), my French was great, and I shouldn´t have felt as insecure as I did. I would LOVE to be able to speak Spanish as well as I speak French.

Some of the research that I have stumbled upon in my quest for a masters final project topic have also made me reconsider France. Particularly works about the processes of adapation that immigrants face. Several theorists have postulated that the experience of many immigrants makes a U curve--which is to say that they arrive, and are happy and excited with the culture and have a honeymoon stage; later they find things more difficult, struggle with the language etc, but eventually they adapt and develop better language skills and are happy again. I think this is a pretty good description of my time abroad. I was so happy at first then had a bit of a rough time adapting, but now I feel happy and comfortable living abroad. Now, I want a fresh start in France now that I am so well adapted abroad. I think I can really do it well a second time when I am prepared for the kinds of difficulties I will face.

Well, after much agonizing I finally have an answer--I have finally chosen a country (albeit temporarily) and just like in everything in my life, it happened at the least expected moment.

I had been planning to go back to France and study French at Perpignan in order to prepare a masters later on in English teaching. Last Thursday was San Juan, the only day of the year that people can have bon fires and barbecues on the beach so the tradition is to have an all night barbecue/party. I got home at 6 and woke up at 10 to my phone ringing. I didn't recognize the number and managed a hoarse, "¿Si?"

Despite my half-asleep stupor, I realized that it was the University of Limoges offering me a job I'd applied for several weeks earlier. I had, however, given up on it and all of the other jobs I'd applied for to be a lectrice. So now I'm switching gears and looking at a region I had never really considered before.

When I asked some friends what the city was known for, I got the same answer over and over--porcelain and cows.

Since I moved to Europe, I have never had the luxury of choosing where I lived--it was work (and in Spain, love), which dictated where I lived. And everywhere I've gone, I've been happy. Perhaps it's because they are all mid-sized cities, which I find much more accessible and much less intimidating than big cities like Paris. Or perhaps because I really value the unexpected so when I have no preconceptions about a place, I am inevitably pleasantly surprised.

I think I jinxed myself too. Because when I was talking to my French roommate, Charline I told her, "Je veux vivre dans une ville intéressante comme Paris, pas une ville ennuyeuse comme Limoges." or "I want to live in an interesting city like Paris, not a boring city like Limoges." And well...guess which city is the only one which offered me a job...

After Limoges, I'm going to look at getting a masters in teaching English and making this teaching English abroad thing permanent. It's really not such a far cry from what I was anticipating. In college, I spent most of the time anticipating that I would be a high school English teacher--I was assuming that it would be in the United States, but looks like it may be in another country. My France-Spain dilemma is not completely resolved, but for the moment, I have more opportunities in France.

Pero me da tanta pena de irme de España... I am genuinely sad and broken-hearted about leaving Spain. Places really break your heart, and that is one really painful consequence of my lifestyle. I have trouble thinking about all of the places I've left because I miss them so much. Here in Almeria, I often lie and tell people that I am French, just to see how long I can pull it off--and because after two years there, I have nothing to show for it except my French level. But I've realized that once I go back to France, I'll be telling everyone I'm Spanish, more specificially, "Soy andaluza...almeriense."

Spain in the News

2011-06-07T01:31:00.000-07:00

For various reasons lately, Spain has made it in the national news, and I wanted to address these issues for anyone who might be concerned or curious about what's going on around me.

Earthquake in Lorca

About a month ago, several earthquakes hit the town of Lorca in the province of Murcia. There were a few deaths, and an estimated 20,0000 of the 90,000 buildings in the city were damaged. This video of a journalist who narrowly missed being hit by the bell tower of a church during the second tremor while he was reporting about the first one gives a really frightening view of the quakes.

I got several concerned calls and emails from family and friends asking me--Is Lorca close to Almeria? Are you okay? The answers are yes and yes. Almeria is about an hour's drive away from here, but we didn't have any damage. Some of my friends here felt some shaking, but I was at work giving a presentation on the music of Mississippi, and I didn't notice anything.

Apparently there is a fault line in the Mediterranean which gives this area some problems, but hopefully we won't be having any more any time soon.

Nationwide Protests
About week after the Lorca earthquake, people around the nation began protesting. These protests came a week before the local elections. The protesters, called indignados, are concerned about high levels of unemployment (it is about 45% for young people), government corruption, and the fact that the two main political parties do not seem to represent their interests. This movement has been labelled 15 M because it began on May 15th. The protests took place all over the country, and were peaceful. The elections came and went, and here in Andalucia the conservative party (Partido Popular) won many seats, showing the discontent with the other party (PSOE), which traditionally is in power in this region.

The elections are over, but the protests haven't stopped. Even in Almeria, the square in front of the main post office is still occupied by protesters.

In Barcelona, things took a violent turn when police officers began violently attacking protesters.

I think that the movement is a bit disorganized and that their goals are not specific enough, but I am glad that people have become so politically engaged. The current generation of young people has been deemed the "Ni Ni generation" which comes from the phrase ni estudiar ni trabajar, which is to say they neither want to work nor study, but we have to admit that the lack of opportunities is an important reason for this trend. I am really curious to see how much longer these protests last and if/how they are going to change politics around here.

Here's an interesting New York Times slide show and article about it.

Killer cucumbers
E. coli bacteria in fruit or vegetables have killed 19 and counting in Germany and other northern European countries. The government there have blamed Spain. Take a look at this newpaper article title published last week:"Killer Cucumber" Bug from Spain Hits Britain

This article and many others created a Europewide panic about vegetables, particularly those from Spain. However, even within this article, they express doubt about whether the bacteria came from Spain. Doesn't that title seem a bit unfair when no one was sure about the origins of the bacteria?

The province of Almeria is one of the most productive agricultural areas in Europe, and these allegations of lethal vegetables from this area have really damaged the industry. Journalists around the area have been working on damage control.

This advertisement is an example of a media campaign to convince people to continue eating produce from Almeria.

I went to a tapas bar on Sunday, and they offered us free cucumbers to demonstrate that eating them is safe (I ate them and survived). A few days ago they thought they had located the source of the problem in some bean sprouts that had been grown in Germany, but the tests have been inconclusive. There's no reason to suspect that the killer produce comes from Spain so people around here are pretty upset that the blame has been cast here.

2011-06-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a rundown of my past few months:

My trip to Portugal was fabulous. Faro and the Algarve region was a bit of a disappointment; since we live at the beach already, that wasn't novel, and well I'd have to say that a lot of the part of this region has lost its soul to tourism. We still had fun there, of course, largely because we met lots of friendly locals. The beaches are on islands along the coast so we took a water taxi to a nice secluded island. We had gone to the central market so we enjoyed lots of local goodies for our beach picnic.

Lisbon was fantastic. We took a requisite trolley ride, and let me warn you, it is not for the faint-hearted. There is a certain number, which takes you through the historic parts of the city, but it seems that it is written in all of the guidebooks as a sort of an "off the beaten track" kind of activity--but when we got on it was packed with tourists and difficult to see. And I'd have to compare it to a roller coaster, rather than any public transportation I have ever been on.

There were lots of beautiful monuments and things to see--the ruins of a cathedral in the center of the city, the monastery of Saint Jeremy, fado (a special Portuguese kind of music--personally I would describe it as "tame flamenco") concerts, etc.

view of Lisbon

The highlight of the trip was our trip to Sintra, which is amazing. First of all, the landscape was so beautiful and so green. Then it was covered with fantastic monuments. It's really like stepping into a fairy tale.

Palacio de la Pena, Sintra

Since my trip to Portugal, I have finished most of my homework so I have been taking advantage of the beaches in and around Almeria, and unfortunately saying good-bye to a lot of my friends. Since so many of my friends are fellow foreigners, the school year is up, and many people are returning home.

Last week I finished up work at the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas. It has been really sad for me after two wonderful years working there. Here is a newspaper clipping from the international food festival that we had as a sort of end of the year party:

It has been hard leaving work and watching my friends leave, but I am in a strange place because I will be here presumably in the summer, so I haven't really had to say goodbye. We have had lots of end of the year last parties, and lots of my students have become friends, and I will be seeing them over the summer.

having tapas with fourth-year students

I plan on staying here in June and July, and then...well I have a series of different options.

Plan #1: I could stay here and work on a doctorate.

Plan #2: I could return to France. I applied to a lot of teaching jobs there, but no one has hired me! I came up with an alternate plan the other day of doing an intensive French course then trying to get my masters degree in foreign language teaching in a French university. For a while I couldn´t decide what I wanted to do with my life, but I have realized that I am going to stick with language teaching--it is what I really love doing.

Spain or France? Spain or France? This dilemma has been plaguing me for months. In Almería I have so many wonderful friends and am so comfortable here, but the city's a bit small, and France/French was my original love.

I have been pretty stressed trying to figure out where to go next, and this has been compounded by the fact that everyone I know is always asking me. A few people have said, "Isn't it exciting, not knowing where you'll be next!" And it's true. I need to work on de-stressing and appreciating the fact that what lies ahead is unknown. After all, I wouldn't be happy any other way.

Voiceless

2011-04-03T03:11:00.000-07:00

It would be an exaggeration to say that the reason that I have worked so hard to become tri-lingual was so that I would never have to stop talking--but it is definitely an advantage. I am pretty talkative and being able to communicate in 3 languages means I usually don't have to stop. That's why when about 2 weeks ago as I was out for tapas with some French friends, sipping on a caña, when my voice disappeared, I was so upset. I had been sick with a cold, so it wasn't exactly surprising...the surprising thing was that days later it still wasn't back.

I tried going in to work, but couldn't manage my classes with just a whisper. All in all, I missed 2 weeks of class due to my hoarseness. It was a really rough time for me because I was feeling bad, dealing with a mountain of homework, and Carlos and I split up for good. And I couldn't even talk to anyone about it because I couldn't speak!

There is one silver lining to the whole situation, being that being at home for so long allowed me to get a lot of my homework done...I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel! All of my deadlines are for the end of April and beginning of May (with the exception of my thesis, which I will do this summer). I am counting down until the end of May when I will have free time again!

I was planning on staying at home and doing homework for Semana Santa, but getting stir crazy after so much time at home, I've decided to go to Portugal with two of my friends--I can't wait. We'll be heading to Faro and Lisbon (and presumably Sintra too). It is less than two weeks away, but in order to be able to go, I have to work hard on my homework.

I have to brag about myself. A few weeks ago, I had to give a speech in class for my Oratory class. I am usually fine with public speaking, but the fact that it was in Spanish made me nervous---I was afraid of going off the books and making grammatical mistakes. In the end, it turned out to be one of the best ones in the class, and I am still getting compliments on it. The speech was about all of the different countries I have lived in, and at the end, I said I don't know where I am going next, but I won't be able to stay here due to residency issues. Since then, every time I go to class someone says to me, "No queremos que te vayas!" or "We don't want you to leave!"

The social aspect of the masters has been as much rewarding as the coursework. My classmates are wonderful, and I have made some great friends. The other day I was working on a group project, and we were trying to find a time to meet up at my place to compile our research, and at the end someone said, "I'll bring the cake!" "I'll bring the wine!" Looks like our meeting has turned into a party...

No news on the job front...I've been applying to jobs, particularly in Paris and DC. I'm nervous and excited about where I'm going to end up.

Kate's French (Mis)Adventures Part Deux

2011-03-22T14:22:00.001-07:00

Why is it that when you make effort to have a perfect accent, it doesn't come out right, but when you don't want it to come out right, it comes out perfectly?

One night after having some drinks with friends in Nancy, a man tried to chat me up. I tried to say, "Je ne parle pas français," and I tried to do it with an English accent, but it came out perfectly...the most perfect accent I have ever had. So perfect, that the man didn't believe that I wasn't French.

On the other hand, I was with a bunch of French friends one night in Almería, and our waiter happened to be French. I tried to pass as French and tried to say with my best accent "Je suis lorraine!" (I am from the Lorraine region), but it came out "Je suis Lorayun!" just like it would from a real American southerner, and my friends haven't let me live that one down yet.

In related news, I am thinking of returning to France. Inevitably, I am going to have to leave Spain once my residence papers run out. I was thinking of moving to DC, but then I thought about moving to Paris, and ever since that moment, I can't shake the idea of strolling down the Seine and visiting a new museum every weekend. I've applied for some jobs, so we will see if it works out.

I have loved Spain, but being here has also made me realize all of the things I miss about France--the language, the culture, the cheese. I won't give any details because I don't want to jinx it, but on verra. My 2 years in Spain might have just been a lovely detour.

Madrid Excursions: La Biblioteca Nacional

2011-02-23T12:05:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, I took a plane to Madrid to spend a long weekend there and see Carlos. The three days I spent there went by unbelievably quickly, and we managed to accomplish a lot

We went to a Real Madrid match on Saturday. Maybe the funniest part was watching Cristiano Renaldo dispute all of the calls the ref made, even when he was clearly in the wrong. I was pretty excited to see a lot of the players from the World Cup. They played a team which is not very good (Levante, which is from Valencia), but it was still a really neat experience...one of those things that I am happy to do just once--like the bullfight I went to last year.

We also went out to some nice restaurants, had an interesting evening in something that was half museum and half night club, and went to the cinema and saw a film in ENGLISH!

But what I really wanted to talk about was my excursion to the Biblioteca Nacional (the National Library), which was quite an interesting experience. I went in with the intention of finding some articles from the European press about the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 for a research project. Someone had told me that it was pretty easy to go in and get the info that you needed so I was convinced that I could just waltz in, find digital copies of the articles and traipse out. I only allotted myself 2 hours to get my articles before I had to run across the street and meet Carlos when he was getting out of class since his school is right across the street.

How naive I was. As it turns out, going to the Biblioteca is serious business and involves talking to about a million people at a million desks and suffering verbal abuse when you don´t quite understand how the confusing process works. As soon as I walked in, they stuck a flourescent sticker on me advertising that I was in the process of getting a library card. After talking to lots of other people at lots of other desks (which were confusingly not in order), locking up all of my belongings, except what fit in a small transparent bag, I was handed my bright and shiny new library card and stuck with another flourescent sticker, this time one that read ¨LECTOR¨ or reader.

A good 45 minutes after I arrived, I made it to the fourth floor, land of old newspapers. Figuring out how to actually access them was another Herculean task as the librarian was not very helpful, but I eventually ascertained that I needed to fill out a form to accomplish just about anything. And I had overestimated the digitalization of old newspapers too...very few were available on the computers. Many of them were only available on microfilm, a medium which I thought had died out long ago or only existed in movies from the 80s and 90s when people are trying to investigate suspicious events which happened in their town to get clues to finding out who the killer is.

Before I knew it it was 8 o´clock and I had to go find Carlos because he´d lent me his house keys. I left with only 2 articles and had to hop a plane back to Almería early the next morning. Looks like I will have to make a trip back sometime soon. On the way out of the building, I naively assumed that I wouldn´t need to stop and talk to all of the random people sitting at desks and go through all of the security checks again, and the librarian yelled at me--oops!

If you are ever in Madrid, and you get tired of seeing museums and walking around, check out the Biblioteca Nacional, although I wouldn´t try to go into the actual library without a decent level of Spanish. They give you the library card right there and then with a photo and everything, which makes for a pretty cool souvenir. For non-Spanish speakers, the building is gorgeous and makes for a nice photo op, and there is also a neat little museum. Check it out! Sorry for the pun...I couldn´t resist...

Christmas and Birthday celebrations

2011-01-23T03:38:00.000-08:00

My trip to England for Christmas was fantastic. Despite all of the drama with flights entering and leaving London, I arrived on the 23rd no problem, hopped on a bus going north, and my friend Kat met me at the station in Leeds to drive me to her hometown of Ilkley in the north of England in a region called Yorkshire.

On Christmas Eve, we took a little trip to York, which is a gorgeous medieval city, with lots of fun shops. When we arrived the gorgeous minster (sort of like a cathedral) was closed, and I was upset that I wouldn't get to see it, but on the way back to the train station, we stumbled upon the most beautiful carols service happening there--what luck!

Christmas in Ilkley was lots of fun. Kat's family was extremely welcoming, and I felt very much at home during the holidays. They are a very musical family, and they even had a spare flute lying around, which I got to play for the first time in years That was probably less fun for the unfortunate souls who had to hear my attempts to relearn the instrument than it was for me...

My next stop was Leeds for a bit of shopping, then I hopped over to Manchester, which was the first industrialized city to see a friend of mine I'd made while living in Metz.

Next was Sheffield, to see Annika and spend New Year's with my 3 best friends from my year in Nancy, which was a low key but really wonderful celebration.

Annika's family drove me past Chatsworth, the house from the A&E version of "Pride and Prejudice" where Colin Firth famously comes out of the lake (unfortunately I didn't get any pictures), and to the village of Bakewell to have the famous Bakewell tarts.

One thing I wanted to accomplish during my trip was just learn about British culture. Since so many of my friends have been British since I moved to Europe I just wanted to be in on their conversations about cities, tv shows, their favorite foods. So my goal was to eat lots of British food (which is not nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be!), watch lots of British tv, and just absorb the culture in general. And I think it was a success; the trip was highly educational. I know so many things now like what a crumpet is and how to eat Yorkshire pudding. So after my 2 weeks in England, I think I can say that I got a more profound look at the country than most tourists get.

Even though the beginning of my trip was more about absorbing culture (although I did get to a reasonable amount of sightseeing, I decided to go to to London a day and a half before I had to leave so I had time to to do a bit of "real" sightseeing (National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery...awesome) and shopping (Oxford Street during the after Christmas sales....yes!).

My flight was at 6am so I had quite a time figuring out how to get to Gatwick at that hour! I caught a taxi at 3:30 am only to discover that the driver didn't know how to get to the train station I was going to, nor did he speak good English. I ended up finding the place myself, and getting to the airport with time to spare...which was lucky because when I was going through the metal detector I forgot to take the lock out of my pocket that I had been using to secure my things in the hostel, and it beeped so I said, "I forgot I have a lock in my pocket." The security officer thought I said "glock" (a kind of gun) instead of "lock," and my belongings and I ended up getting searched very thoroughly....oops! Good thing I arrived early.

Carlos was waiting for me in Almería, and we spent a lovely week together, enjoying all of the festivities of the wise men coming and whatnot.

By the way, I would like to take this moment to share with you a Christmas traditions that one of my students explained to me recently. This tradition is from Catalunia, in the north, pretty far from where I live, but I just have to share. One of my students explained it to me the other day while we were talking about Christmas traditions.

It's called the caga tió, which translates as "poop log." It is a log with a face and a hat, and every Christmas little Catalan boys and girls, beat it with a stick and sing a song until it poops out presents. I kid you not. Check it out on youtube. Considering that the cagoner is also from Catalunia, I'm starting to wonder what is up with the Catalans and poop. This country never ceases to surprise me.

Anyway, the holidays ended much sooner than I wanted them too, as usual, and then it was back to the real world with the realization that I had done almost no homework during the holidays, and now I'm working really hard both at work and at school, or at school and school I should say rather since I am both a teacher and a student!

I took a break last night to celebrate my birthday, which is on Monday but we celebrated a bit early. About 15 of us went out to eat the best jamon in Almería, and then we went out until 6:30 in the morning...I'll be 26 tomorrow, but I've still got a bit of kick in me.
¡My birthday party!

Anyway, I am feeling like a really lucky girl after the past month I've had even though I've been a bit stressed since school started back. My friends in England were so hospitable...I got to see so much of the north of the country. I feel like they gave me a pretty privileged view of the north of the country. And then last night, my birthday celebrations were so great, thanks to many wonderful people. I am going to try to remember all of these happy things as I buckle down and try to study...¡Ahora a estudiar!

Feliz Navidad

2010-12-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

I have lots to do....which means it's an ideal moment for some blog procrastination.

Tomorrow I am heading to England. I'm spending Christmas touring the north and visiting friends that I made in France. Christmas I'll be in a proper English village, presumably with lots of snow. Next I'm heading to Manchester then Sheffield for New Year's where all 3 of my best friends from Nancy will be meeting up! I'm excited.

The weather woes have me slightly concerned about getting around. Luckily I am flying into Gatwick and not Heathrow because the latter's had most of the problems.

I'll be back in Spain in time to go to the Epiphany cabalgata or parade and to receive some presents from the wise men.

Carlos and I are back together, although we have taken some steps backwards in terms of seriousness because we're both so young and we're not sure where our respective careers are going to take us. So we're back together and not sure where things are headed which is both stressful and ideal because it means we have a bit more liberty than before but also means that the future is completely unknown.

That last part can pretty much be said about every aspect of my life. The hard truth is that I am not really going to be able to choose where I go next year....it's pretty much going to be wherever I can find a job (or more schooling??). Britain, Belgium, and Berlin-my three B's--are still at the top of the list of my next destination. I wouldn't mind staying in Spain, but with the end of my job and the impossibility of renewing again along with a rate of paro or unemployment around 20%, sticking around is probably not an option. And well if all else fails (Mom, you're going to love hearing this) I'll return stateside and look for jobs in DC.

Well that's all for now. My list of things to do is incredibly long--I am starting to realize that it has less to do with packing than it does with leaving my apartment unattended for two weeks. I've got to clean and throw out any spoilable food etc etc etc!

I've had a few bumps in the road the past few weeks being a bit down and the dumps about being a foreigner--I had a few people try to take advantage of my foreignness and all that's put me a bit down in the dumps on top of being stressed and having a cold. But I am excited about the prospect of a new start and a new year, and especially about ringing it in with old friends. Merry Christmas

Second year in Spain

2010-11-27T07:07:00.000-08:00

Hi, blogosphere!

Sorry it's been so long. I had a few emails from concerned friend/readers about the life changes I discussed in my last post along with the absence of any new posts.

I am doing fine! My second year in Spain is turning out rather similar to my second year in France, which is to say that I am feeling a lot more comfortable here; my language skills have vastly improved, and in true Kate fashion, I have bitten off more than I can chew, which is to say that I'm getting a master's degree this year.

It is a Masters in Social Communication, which I am doing at the university here in Almeria. My Spanish has already improved a lot, and luckily I am finding that "academic" Spanish is a lot easier to understand than regular slang Spanish because it's clearer and more similar to English. The subjects of the classes are really diverse--from history, to discourse, to technology and social networks. It's interesting stuff.

I have almost no free time now. I find myself physically tired at the end of the day from running all over town giving classes and running errands. I am enjoying being busy, though.

It's a bit ironic...in order to study communication, my own communication skills have suffered a bit. Looks like my blog may suffer as I spend most of my energy on my work and studies, but I'll try to keep this thing updated. Happy holidays, y'all!

Walkaways

2010-10-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

I've been back in Spain for about 3 weeks now.

I got back and spent about a week in Almeria getting settled then went with Carlos to Madrid for a week to help him get settled to do his Master's in Banking and Finance.

It was a nice week...since I'd already done most of the tourist stuff, we just bummed around and got to know the city. We hit up a nice Argentinian Festival one evening in Plaza Mayor, and took a day to see El Escorial--the royal monastery about an hour outside the city.

Unfortunately, while we were in Madrid, Carlos and I began to realize that our relationship was not sustainable--with him so far away in Madrid with very little time for me--and with what we'll be doing next year unknown for both of us--and with my very complicated immigration status.

It is incredibly difficult to walk away from such a solid 3-year relationship (or slightly under as we made the decision on our 2 year 11 month anniversary), but I think that each of us knows that it's not fair to each other to keep up the relationship when there are so many question marks in the air.

My life has been so full of changes lately--it started with my grandmother's death and continued with Carlos and my breakup and the death of my dear sweet dog, Windy, who had to be put down after 14 years on this earth.

I swear, if I didn't live in the same city, have the same job, and live in the same apartment, I'd swear that I was someone else. Since most of my friends here in Almeria were teaching English or studying abroad, they have all returned home, and I've had to find new ones.

I've had to start afresh in so many ways, whether I liked it or not. And somewhere underneath a solid layer of sadness, mourning and frustration there is a tiny bit of relief--fresh starts are not always bad things, and I'll finish this year not tied down, and I'll just throw another dart at the map, and see where I end up.

I've already made some great friends since I got back from Madrid. My roommates are great, and my apartment is trilingual; I speak English with the Irish girl, French with the French girl, and Spanish when we are all together. So far it's really keeping me on my toes, and I'm really feeling my Spanish improve.

I started work again, and a lot of the students were happy to see me again, and that's going smoothly. And even though I've only worked 3 days so far, I've already got a 5 day weekend because Monday and Tuesday are holidays (I keep forgetting why....), but it looks like I'll either be hitting the beach (yes, it's still beach weather here) or going to Granada with friends.

With so many stressful transitions in my life, I am tempted to take up smoking (which I took up briefly my senior year of college and continued a bit when I first moved to France until Carlos officially barred the practice), but my strategy has been replacing cigarettes with tea, and it's been working so far. Taking a long hot sip of delicious tea might even be more satisfying than a the drag of a cigarette. After writing this blog, I think it's time for another cup...

Home for the summer

2010-09-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

I am a planner. As much as I move around, I am not a person who lives by the seat of her pants. Still, as much as I prepare, as much as I research or as much as I envision how things are supposed to turn out, they never turn out how I expected. Never.

Case in point—this summer. I had imagined working at the Jackson Free Press for a few months, traveling a bit to visit some friends, spending time relaxing with my friends and family, and taking care of some loose ends around the house---giving away some old stuff to Goodwill, etc.

However, the second week that I was in town, my family was having dinner together when my grandmother had a stroke.

Thus, the course of my summer changed dramatically. I kept working part-time at the newspaper, but I spent lots and lots of time at the hospital. I cried a lot.

My grandmother pulled through the stroke but was paralyzed on her right side and was unable to speak. We were also unsure exactly what she could understand of what we said.

It was an extremely frustrating couple of months—for my grandmother and for my family, particularly my uncle from Florida who basically had to put his job and family on hold to come help out. Gran cried and cried, especially when she was obviously trying to communicate, and we couldn't understand what she wanted to stay.

She died about two months after her original stroke. Even though I'd had a while to prepare for it, it was a really difficult loss for me, particularly because I considered her a member of my nuclear family, especially after my father's death.

She died the day I left Mississippi to go to Kansas City to visit one of my best friends from home who is pregnant. It was really the perfect place to be during such a hard time. I got to see the sonogram of her baby, and it was quite a poignant reminder of how the life cycle works. At the end of the weekend, I headed back home for the funeral, which turned out to be a huge family reunion. I'm really glad I was able to go.

One silver lining of the whole complicated summer was getting to spend lot of time with my uncle and his family who I haven't spent much time with throughout my life since they've lived so far away.

And few other pleasant unexpected things happened this summer as well. I'd intended on focusing on my old friendships—which I did, but I also picked up some new ones along the way, especially while working at the paper.

I went Birmingham (Alabama), where I was able to reconnect with some old college friends, and where I discovered that I love roller derby. Seriously, you should all check it out sometime!

I also took a trip to Washington DC to visit some old friend from high school and my first year in France. I even got to surprise my college friend Martin by showing up at his wedding.

I am currently in the Atlanta airport en route back to Almeria. The journey is going to last about 30 hours, mostly because I am taking the train back to Almeria since my luggage is too heavy to take a Ryanair flight. (I am at 50 pounds with all of my Thanksgiving supplies and favorite American things—the Delta limit exactly)

I am ready to get back. I think that spending 3 months at home was probably ambitious, although it was not all by choice...the length of my stay was largely determined by my immigration status. I had a good time at home, enjoyed my internship, and I can't tell you how refreshing it was to get back to somewhere where people are so kind and polite and where strangers so easily strike up conversations. But it's time to get back—it's time to get back to my own life—and to be perfectly honest, to get back to the challenge of being somewhere that is not so comfortable and familiar as the place I grew up.

I'm about 6 hours into my trip, but I know that in about 24 hours I'll be stepping off a train, and Carlos will be there waiting for me!

(I am publishing this blog a few days after I wrote it because I just now have internet--now I'm safe and sound in my apartment in Almeria!)

2010-06-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

I met a Spanish guy the other night who said he had lived in Nancy too, and I was ecstatic to start speaking in French and ask him about his favorite parts of the city and what he thought about this and that. But then I realized that he didn't speak or understand French or know much about the city. He'd only lived there a month and spent his time around Place Stan but didn't get to know the rest of the city. That's when I lied; I told him I was half French because saying that I lived in France doesn't really do my experience justice.

I feel that in two years I really got to know the culture and the language and that it has become a major part of my identity. So from now on I am part French (I think there's probably some on my dad's side somewhere anyway...)

Carlos alleges that I am hardly Lebanese at all since I don't speak Arabic, have never been to Lebanon, and don't know how to cook Lebanese food. Technically I am half-Lebanese, but I am starting to wonder what that means other than having dark eyes and hair. I used to disagree with Carlos, but now I am starting to agree.

It all boils down to the very subjective question of what an identity consists of...blood or culture or both? I am starting to err on the side of culture. I feel American and French and Spanish. And well, I am hoping to collect a few more identities before this is all said and done...

2010-05-30T10:01:00.001-07:00

I am all mixed up. So forgive me if this post is comes out in a few different languages...

It all started with my friend Nicolas who came to visit a few weeks ago. Nico is from Toulouse, and we met last year when he was studying in Nancy. When we met, he had just come back from a year of working as an engineer in Arkansas, of all places. And he has recently taken up learning Spanish so for the 5 days he was here, we drifted in and out of three different languages. I was really sad to see how French had sort of just been pushed to the back of my brain and just didn't come out. One day we went to have churros, and I was trying to order in Spanish after having spoken to Nico in French, and what came out was a mix of French and Spanish. The weird thing is that I didn't even realize what was going on; the waiter was angry that he couldn't understand me, and I was upset because I thought I was speaking clearly. Oops.

A few days after he left, my friends Annika and JB came. This is when things got even more complicated since she is British and he is French, and our only common language is French. After a few days, my French really came back, although sometimes I spoke to them in Spanish and didn't realize it. I have heard that once you develop a real mastery of these languages, you can switch from one to another easily. But well for me now, switching back and forth makes me feel bouleversée!

While my friends were here I had the opportunity to eat tapas, go out and have fun and explore some beaches nearby that I hadn't seen before in Cabo de Gata Natural Park, just next to the city of Almeria. It is said to have some of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. Annika, JB and I ventured to the beach where the scene in the third Indiana Jones was filmed where Sean Connery scares the birds to make a Nazi plane crash. It was really gorgeous and even warm enough to swim, though a bit windy--my shorts blew away when I was swimming!

I finished up at work on Wednesday. Currently both the students and teachers are really stressed with exams so I didn't really have the chance to say a real good-bye to a lot of people--or else I did and they were preoccupied with reviewing the present perfect, knowing when to use for and since, etc. But that's ok since I will be back next year...

Carlos' graduation ceremony was on Thursday, and afterwards there was a fancy dinner with his classmates, and Friday night was the end-of-the-year party at work.

On Saturday Carlos, my Italian friend Annarita and I ventured to a bull fight, which was truly a unique experience. We were able to go to this one because it was less expensive than some of the other ones we'd seen in Almeria (this one was in a neighboring village), but later I realized that this means that the toreros are less skilled.

The spectators came to the show dragging coolers and huge cakes...we realized later that, well here at least, half of the fun is just eating, drinking and general merrymaking--which I have noticed Spanish people tend to do almost wherever they go. When the show starts, the bull charges out, and 6 toreros or so come out with pink capes to wave in front of the bull. Sometimes when he charges, they duck behind a metal wall, and other times, they simply step away from behind the cape.

Next a man comes out on a horse. The poor horse is blindfolded because if it could see what was going on, it would probably be jumping and freaking out. It also has a sort of thin layer of leather armor draped around it. The bull goes for the horse as soon as it sees it, and the man on the horse jabs it with a spear. The horse remains amazingly calm as the bull charges it. Once the bull even knocked the horse over, and I thought that it was surely going to die, but it got up and walked away perfectly normally.

Then the toreros throw a colorful metal hooks into the bull. You know it's the end of the fight when the main torero steps out with a red cape and a thin sword. They dance around for a bit and then the torero jabs him with the sword. And well, it is not just a stereotype--Spanish people--especially the old ladies yell, "Olé!" whenever the torero makes a particularly graceful move.

Carlos told me that a good torero will kill the bull instantly, but these guys were obviously not very talented because it took them a few tries to get the sword all of the way in. If the bull lies down but does not die (this happened for all of the 6 bulls I saw), the other toreros come and kill it in a way that I won't mention to spare my squeamish readers.

If the torero has done a good job, then the audience cries "Oreja!" which means "ear," and he receives one of the bull's ears. If he has done a really good job, he gets both of them. The ears usually later got thrown into the audience. People got excited to catch one...but then, I noticed, they lost interest in it as soon as they had a hairy, bloody ear in their hands.

The strange thing for me about watching the fight was how my sympathy changed throughout. First it is for the toreros, who are battling an enormous, muscular animal, then it is for the blind-folded horse--the innocent bystander who gets involved in the brawl, and lastly it is for the bull, tired and bleeding, fighting for its life.

Annarita compared it to the days of the Coliseum in Rome when people watched people mauled by animals for sport. But I'm not sure that I have any major moral qualms about bullfighting, especially since the time that the bull takes to die--starting with the first jab with a spear, only lasts 10 or 15 minutes. And since the bull is taken directly to the butcher, and all its meat used, its death is not in vain. But still, well it was pretty violent; I had to close my eyes through a lot of it and I saw some images that I can't erase from my mind. I think that that was my first and last bullfight.

2010-05-03T04:16:00.000-07:00

When you live by the beach, spring means visitors, and I have been pretty swamped lately. The cool thing is that I don't have to travel to see my friends, and it's a trip down memory lane every time someone comes.

First my sorority sister Joanna came for a week, and it made me really nostalgic for college. We had a nice week here in Almeria, although it wasn't quite beach weather yet, and that weekend we went to Granada. Granada makes for a nice cultural and historical balance to Almeria, which is really a beach holiday city. Advance Alhambra tickets were sold out so Joanna had to run up the big hill to the Alhambra at 5 o'clock in the morning to get in--difficult but it was definitely worth it, she said!

A few days after Joanna left, my friend Kat came. Kat was one of my fellow English university teachers in Nancy last year, and we had a blast. Unfortunately, Kat's return home coincided with the volcano eruption in Iceland, and her trip home was nightmarish. This year has been really horrible for European travel with the all of the winter weather problems and now this. I had heard that plane ticket prices were going to go down because people were going to be nervous about traveling in Europe, and what do you know, I found a pretty good deal for my summer trip home.

I am staying home longer than I have in a long time--3 months. I won't just be sitting around, though; I have an internship at Jackson's independent newspaper the Jackson Free Press (www.jacksonfreepress.com), and as usual attending a bunch of summer weddings will keep me pretty busy too. I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends and--air conditioning! The weather got hot here really suddenly, which is nice since it's now beach weather, but without much air conditioning (and no central A/C), it is hot!

I've been spending a lot of time reading the New York Times website lately. They have a lot of really valuable travel resources. My friend Parks sent me this article the other day about Metz and the Centre Pompidou, which is opening there (belately! I heard it was supposed to be opening two years ago while I was still living there). The article was interesting, but I really think that it didn't do the city justice; it is a really beautiful historic city and not an industrial, ugly city as the article implies.

Today I was looking at the travel section of the NYTimes website, and to my surprise Nancy, my home last year, was one of the featured cities. The articles about Nancy were much more positive...read this glittering account of past home.

Although I think that each of these articles is exaggerated in its own way, I am really glad that they're getting some international attention (and bummed that I am missing the opening of the Pompidou!) I miss all of my past homes! Luckily three more of my friends from Nancy will be visiting in the next couple of days...and before you know it, I will be back home in Mississippi.

Semana Santa

2010-04-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

"Hope you're having a wonderful Easter (I'm sure it's full of shocking "deep Spain" moments :P)"

This was included at the end of a message I got from one of my co-workers this week, and I guess I was just surprised at how right she was. Going to the religious processions has been really interesting experience, and when I see them, I can't help but think that I am getting a privileged view of "Deep Spain" that most people don't get to experience.

Seville is the city most known for its elaborate Holy Week processions...and maybe sometime it might be worth fighting the crowds to go, but for now Almeria has a lot of processions too, and being here has been a nice introduction to Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Spain.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Carlos' family had told me that it was a lot of people marching in silence, wearing traditional robes, and sometimes holding candles or other religious items such as banners or books. So what I wasn't anticipating were the marching bands which play the most somber music I had ever heard, giving the entire march a much more doleful atmosphere than I had anticipated. There are different kinds of people marching:

There are women, dressed all in black, with enormous (i.e. one foot tall) combs with veils draped over them holding rosaries. (I would love to get one of those enormous combs, although I have no idea where I could wear one, unless I were in flamenco garb or marching in a religious procession).

There are also people in the traditional robes with pointed hats. Sometimes they hold candles or bear small wooden crosses.

Various other people march along. Small children, such as Carlos' little sister march in traditional robes, minus the pointed hood. Older children hold books or swing incense. Some men march in what looks like military garb. Sometimes, people follow the processions in bare feet or blindfolded as penitence. I have heard that in Seville, people who are seeking forgiveness will march on their knees.

There are also these huge table-like things with life-sized images of scenes from Christ's life or statues with the virgin Mary and lots of candles. What you have to realize about these things is that there are a bunch of people underneath them carrying them, which you might not realize until you saw their feet poking out at the bottom. They have tiny tiny caged windows so that they have a tiny bit of light. It must be really dark and hot under there carrying those enormous things.

So all of this comes together to create a really sad, somber experience. There are 3 or 4 processions a day, and they last at least 4 hours, and sometimes they last until or 1 or 2 in the morning. You can imagine how much having all of these processions around town screws up traffic, but it is nice and festive when so many people are congregated in the center, although you need good luck to find a place in a cafe or tapas bar.

Unfortunately in Spain, there is no Easter bunny (not even a bell like in France--no one/nothing brings candy!), no hidden eggs, no Peeps or Cadbury eggs, no lambs, bunnies, or other animals emblematic of Easter as in the States. So for me it hasn't really felt like Easter week at all, with none of my own traditions included in the celebrations--without my mom's traditional lamb-shaped cake covered in coconut, waking up to a basket of yummy candy or a several hour drive to see my family in Greenville, trying to make sure that the lamb-cake stayed in one piece during the drive.

But well, in new places, you can adopt new traditions, here during Semana Santa, one tradition is making doughnuts which are covered in cinnamon and sugar and yesterday I had a Semana Santa dish--a sort of saffron flavored stew with cod meatballs--delicious!

Mom comes to Spain

2010-03-25T07:08:00.001-07:00

The last I heard last Thursday evening (the 11th) was that my mom was in the Jackson airport waiting out her delay and would only have a few minutes to run across the airport and catch her flight to Madrid. Making her flight to Madrid and thus her next flight to Granada seemed improbable, but since I had not heard otherwise, Carlos and I caught our train to Granada and a bus to the airport, hoping that my mom would be landing there at any moment. After spending our few spare minute in the gift shop (result: new lovely pashmina scarf), they announced the arrival of the flight and we went to the gate. The people trickled out and then stopped with no sign of my mom. That was it. I racked my brain for how to contact her--probably wandering around the airport in either Atlanta or Madrid.

But then more people came out, and I realized that it was the people who'd had to wait for checked luggage, and there she was. My mom is not the most travel-savvy person in the world so her arriving in Granada was a bit of a triumph, I think. In Granada, we saw the major sites--the Cathedral, the Capilla Real (where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried), and of course, the Alhambra. Unfortunately I stumbled in a hole in an ancient sidewalk near the cathedral, and re-re-re-injured the poor ankle that I sprained for the first time several years ago. Our visit was still nice, though, and although the weather was pretty cold, it did not rain, and that is pretty fortunate when you consider the weather patterns in this region lately.

In Almeria, my mom successfully met Carlos' family, and I showed her my city. She liked it more than she thought she would. I think that when you live in a city that Americans have never heard of, a city that is not Paris, Madrid, London, Berlin, and you are describing it, you have the tendency of not giving it enough credit. How have I described Almeria to my friends and family? Small-ish, poor-ish, but by the beach? It is small in comparison to Madrid, and the region of Andalucia is a bit poor, but most parts of Almeria read middle-class. So, maybe I need to be a bit more confident when I describe the places I have lived. Metz, Nancy, and Almeria are not capital cities, and are not particularly well-known, but I have really loved my time in each of them. But then again, being from Jackson, Mississippi, I am a bit of a country mouse. Maybe if I came from New York or San Fransisco, I would not feel the same.

Luckily for me, my mom is a country mouse too so she was impressed with Almeria. The weather was gorgeous so the people were out and about, and the city felt very lively. The best part of all for her I think was just seeing what my life is like--seeing my apartment, going to work, meeting some of my friends. When I live so far away, I think that it is really hard for my family members and friends to picture what my life is like.

Before we knew it, it was time to head to Madrid. My ankle issues reduced my mobility, but we got a bus tour, which meant that we were able to see more of Madrid than we might have otherwise been able to in a day and a half. We spent most of our time at the main art museums--the Thyssen-Bornemizca (I probably spelled that wrong), the Reina Sofia and the Prado. Highlights included seeing Picasso's Guernica, some of Velasquez's works like Las Meninas, some crazy Bosch stuff, and other works that we had seen many times in textbooks.

So that was it, a very good trip...I am already on Easter holiday, and since I don't have any plans, I am just taking it easy, resting my ankle, and studying languages!

Almeria will be a nice place to be during Holy Week because the weather will be nice--maybe even nice enough to go to the beach, and religious processions will be taking place all week. During these processions, people dress up as Nazareans, wearing robes with pointed hats and walking silently down the street. I am going to try my hardest to forget my association with pointed hoods and the Ku Klux Klan and remember that this has nothing to do with that! It should be a really interesting week.

Hello, Immaculate Conception, nice to meet you.

2010-02-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

I always thought that I had a very "Catholic" name since my full name is Mary Katherine...that is, until I moved to Spain and met people named Immaculada Concepcion (Immaculate Conception), Angeles (Angels), and Belen (Nativity/Bethlehem) . Although I think Catholicism is dying in Spain, its influence remains in somewhat strange ways--such as in names and other traditions. Other Catholic names although not so common include Annuciacion (Anunciation) Ascension (Ascension) and Encarnacion(Incarnation). There is also Maria de....everything. Maria Jesus (Mary Jesus), Maria del Pilar (Mary of the Pillar??? I'm not actually sure what this means), Maria José (Mary Joseph), Mariangeles (Mary Angels), and many many many more. One very common name here is Maria del Mar (Maria of the Sea), and I thought it was just because we are on the sea, but someone told me that it is because there was a sighting of the Virgin in the sea, and now somewhere near here, every year they take a virgin statue and have a procession in boats on the Mediterranean.

Often, these names are abbreviated...Concepcion for example can become Conchi or Concha, and Maria Teresa can become Maite. So even though people have really long religious names, often they get shortened.

Now that I know about all of these Spanish names, it is not a big deal, but before I realized how Catholic they could be, I had to work to hide my astonishment at meeting people with names like "Immaculada" and "Concepcion."

Spanish rednecks, however, choose a different naming method. They often choose English names--harmless enough, it seems--to meet a Kevin or a Jonathan in Spain until you realize that people got these names from American soap operas that they watch on tv.

And well, as for my name, I have the tendency of thinking that people are saying "Kate" when they are actually saying "que" (which means "what" or "that"). It is one of the most common words in Spanish so at first I was always turning my head, thinking people were talking to me, but now I've started ignoring it, meaning that sometimes I don't realize when they actually are saying my name.

In other news, the rain has finally stopped, temporarily at least. We had a few weeks of non-stop rain, which was so so strange here in the middle of the desert. Before you know it, we're going to have some non-palm tree plant life around here! The thing about Almeria is that it is not equipped for rain. Drainage pipes spray their water directly onto the sidewalks creating hazardous rivers streaming across them. Huge puddles quickly turn into mini-lakes. Even the beach flooded, which is to say that the water covered up all of the huge stretch of sand and even made it to the Paseo Maritimo, the paved pedestrian street along the beach.

No sand in sight!

I have this week off since there are exams at work, so I have been taking advantage of the "rebajas" (sales). Working on languages and going shopping have kept me pretty busy. Plus, Carlos finally finished his exams so we can finally spend some time together. Thank goodness.

Thinking about the future...

2010-02-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

I was wrong; I can't go to a British university for the "home" price after three years of working in Europe. I would need European citizenship for that. So tuition for overseas students is around 10- 13 thousand pounds, and (while it's still probably less expensive than in the US) I really can't afford it. And well, the truth is that I couldn't really figure out what I wanted to study anyway.

So, well, I had a bit of a freak-out. I was feeling a bit lost, career-wise, not knowing which direction I am headed, except that I want to stay in Europe (in a place where English, French, or Spanish is spoken--I definitely have my hands full with these three languages). And well, I spent a lot of time looking at jobs and internships, and I came to a few conclusions:

A. It is still very difficult for Americans to find English-teaching jobs in Europe, with the exception of a few exchange programs, like the one I'm doing now.

B. Many organizations will help you (even Americans) get internships in Europe. Oh, but wait a second; there is a catch. You must pay for this privilege of being placed there, and often the internships are unpaid and located in expensive cities. (You want ME to pay you so that I can go work in Paris? No thanks.)

C. Many jobs already open to Americans are for people with extremely specific qualifications--I have seen some positions for engineers, IT folks, and doctors, etc, but nothing for dilettantes.

D. Because of the crisis, there is a shortage of jobs, especially entry-level positions and internships, and competition for them is intense.

Because of all this and because, I have realized that trying to figure out what I want to do with my life is like trying to answer a question without an answer...I just don't have enough information yet to make a decision; I have decided to stay put for another year. I think that I will be able to renew my position in Almeria. And I am realizing, that (especially in this economic climate) I am lucky to have a job (and health insurance!), and of course, it will be nice to be with Carlos. And well it will be nice to spend two consecutive years in the same place...as much as I love experiencing new places, a bit of stability would be nice.

In the meantime, I am going to spend my free time really thinking about what career I plan to pursue--taking some online classes, reading some books about different subjects. I am currently considering translation, a career where I could really use both of my university degrees (English lit and French)--if I have the patience to pore over every word and agonize about it's meaning, that is! I am currently reading some scholarly articles about it and trying my hand at translating some texts.

Teaching is still an option. I do really enjoy it, and the more I do it, the more I get the hang of it. I love the interaction with people, and it's something more personal than interacting with people in a business environment, I think. My concern is getting bored, and well most of the (especially high school) teachers I know seem a bit jaded, frustrated. So I think that I'll be able to keep teaching as long as I have motivated students, and I'm in a stimulating environment.

And well, sometimes I wonder if people (especially Americans) put too much emphasis on the career issue. In Europe, I find that people are happy to have any kind of employment, and don't feel pressure to find their fulfillment in the workplace. And since they don't work as much as Americans, they have time to cultivate other interests--travel, spend time with family, lots of other things!

So that's it for now. I feel (at least momentary) peace...I was so stressed out there wondering what to do with myself for a while. So I am really working on polishing my language skills and well, enjoying my time in Almeria. I am also working on planning a trip since my mom is going to come visit during her Spring Break in March. I'm looking forward to it!

2010-01-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

At Christmastime, most Spanish families set up a huge nativity set--not just of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, but of shepherds and angels animals, and of course, the three kings. I was enjoying Carlos' family's sprawling, elaborate nativity--which gets bigger every year--taking up the entire corner of the living room, when I noticed this figurine in the corner...
You are not mistaken, this is a man pooping ,el cagon in Spanish or "the pooper." In the middle of (well not in the middle of technically) because usually he's doing his business off to the side, behind a bush perhaps... of the holy, solemn scene of the birth of Jesus Christ, the cagon does his business. The tradition of the cagon is from Catalunia (the northeast,, where Barcelona is), and I read somewhere some kind of poetic description of it as representing the cycle of life, of how man comes from the earth, and fertilizes the earth, but I don't buy that! I chalk it up to the Spanish sense of humor, even in the most solemn moments, there is a touch of immaturity!

The day before the epiphany was the cabalgata--the huge parade, where people from elaborate floats threw candy, and of course, all three of the kings made an appearance. In Spain, they are very strict about the appearance of the kings--there is one with white hair, one with red hair, and one who is black. The Bible was written quite a long time ago--I am not sure why they are so certain about how these men looked. But what really irks me is that since they cannot find an actual black man to play the black king (most of the Africans here are Muslim), they insist on painting him and all of his servants black. I can't decide if I am overly sensitive about these racial issues (especially coming from Mississippi) or if people here are just politically incorrect. But well, can't you just imagine that he is black?

On the Epiphany the three kings leave presents beside the nativity set, and this year I made out with some nice loot. My voice was back so I was able to talk to Carlos' family members and partake in the festivities, which included a huge nice meal and family time. And then before I knew it, well Christmas vacation was over, and I was back to work.

Work was a bit stressful because I was doing presentations at school--one in my classes about Martin Luther King, Jr. Making Powerpoint takes quite a while I have discovered...both turned out well, though. My students did not seem to know much about the American Civil Rights Movement, and they were very interested (and horrified), and I have to say that it was a bit emotional for me to do the presentations. It's pretty upsetting to me coming from a place with such a violent history, and although I have learned a lot of black history throughout my education, somehow it seems the Civil Rights Movement got swept under the rug--probably because it is so recent and painful.

During my Mississippi presentation, I tried to dispel misconceptions about my home state--emphasizing that Tom Sawyer did not live there and that the Mississippi River is not covered with huge paddle/steam boats. It was a bit difficult to talk about my home state, having to talk about racial tension and being at the bottom of the statistics, but it was a bit redeeming to be able to talk about all of the literature and music that have come out of the state. At the end of the talk, Carlos gave his perceptions of the state so that they could hear the perspective of a Spanish person who had visited.

My birthday was the 24th so we kicked off Branuary with a party at my apartment. We chose a Mexican theme so that we could eat tacos and have festive decorations. My friends came over, some of them with Mexican costumes, one dressed as a Mexican wrestler...

We ate a lot of food, played some games, and then for some reason at some point of the night we all ended up covered in flour...
Afterwards we hit the town and stayed out until morning, finishing the morning/evening with churros dipped in hot chocolate, as is the tradition around here.

All in all, a pretty awesome birthday.

Now I am trying to figure out what to do next year. I have pretty much decided that I am ready to go back to school. Never thought that day would come when I left university so burned out, but I am ready...the only problem is that I don't know what to study. So far I have a applied to some international relations programs in the UK. The thing is that I am not exactly sure what job I would like to pursue. Maybe in public relations, maybe for a multinational company. I am trying to find jobs I'm interested in to no avail. I googled "cool international jobs" and didn't find anything!

It seems that after 3 years of living in Europe, I'll be able to go to university for the EU resident rate, which is a LOT cheaper than the overseas rate so I could do a Masters without taking out a loan. Plus, I am very curious about British culture, and I refuse to return to the US until a good health care plan passes! Looks like I'll be here a while.

Freaking out about my future has been keeping me busy, hence the lack of blog updates. Sorry about that.

I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas.

2009-12-27T09:40:00.001-08:00

The first week of December I ended up with a week off since they were giving exams at work, and I take no part in that...so combined with the fact that I only work 3 or 4 days a week, I ended up with 11 days off. I was a bit worried about what I was going to do with myself, but there was a long weekend for everyone in Spain in there (Constitution day and some religious holiday), and so Carlos kept me company for a lot of it, and then it also coincided with Almeria's short film festival. I went to a lot of different showings and saw lots of different films. An Australian film producer came to present her film, and afterwards we spoke to her about it. After the showings, she looked a bit lost, and we realized that she didn't speak a word of Spanish, and no one attending the festival seemed to speak English. The poor thing didn't realize how provincial Almeria was and thought she'd be rubbing shoulders with other anglophone filmmakers. We took her out to dinner (she was very grateful for help with the Spanish menu) and showed her around town and took her out a few more times while she was here, and she invited us to come to London where she is currently living.

So...we booked tickets to London with less than two weeks notice! It was snowy when we got there, but it was powdery snow, so the weather was cold but alright. I saw Westminster Abbey (which was awesome), the Tower of London, which was so neat to see where so many people I'd learned about in history classes had been imprisoned and/or excecuted. We did the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone and cool Egyptian and Greek artifacts. We walked around the along the river and saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and all the monuments and took a cruise down the Thames.

I was a bit disappointed by the Tate Modern (I think I would have preferred the more classical art of the National Gallery, but there was one really cool sculpture in there. it was an enormous steel black box on stilts with a ramp leading into it. We walked into it, not knowing what to expect, and the further we walked in, the darker it got. At the back of the box, we could barely see, but I was convinced that it was a film of people standing there, but it was actually real people standing there. So the sculpture was pretty simple in the end, but it was so interactive-- I felt so many emotions walking into the dark box--fear, excitement, curiosity--that it really made an impression on me.

We saw a nice Christmas market, and well after two years in Lorraine, it really doesn't feel like Christmas without strolling through a festive Christmas market.

We also took the opportunity to see some movies in English. In France, it was possible to see original version movies at certain movie theaters. In Almeria, it is impossible. All the movies are dubbed (the horror!), and I really miss seeing American movies in English--so we saw "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Avatar" in English.

I got to see my friend Kat who was in Nancy with me last year who was passing through on her way home for the holidays, and it really meant a lot to me to see a friend from last year. I move around so much, that it's getting a bit frustrating have to move around every year and make new friends--it was nice to see an old friend! I also met up with my cousin Teresa who I hadn't seen for many years so that was good too. That's the thing about going to such a big city--there are people you know there--at least passing through.

So I was pretty smug about having decent weather, even though it was really cold and a bit snowy, but we got that stereotypically bad London weather on our last day of the trip. It started as rain, turned into sleet, and eventually turned into snow--but not dry powdery snow--wet fluffy snow. We made the mistake of going to Oxford Street (which is London's main shopping area). So close to Christmas, everyone in London was there, and we had to fight through hoards of people armed with shopping bags and dangerous, pointed umbrellas. It was quite an experience.

The next day was our flight home at 7 o'clock so of course we had to wake up around 3:30. We got to Luton airport, and there was chaos. We looked at the departure board, and more than half of the flights had been cancelled, and people were camped out all over the place-sleeping, crying, freaking out. Luckily our flight company was the only one who hadn't cancelled its flights. There was a substantial delay, and we were a bit worried about catching our bus from Malaga to Almeria, but we made it home albeit 6 or 7 hours later than expected.

We knew we were lucky because I know people who were stuck for days trying to get home. One of my friends here had her flight cancelled and consequently had to spend two days getting to France on a train. We picked up a newspaper, which had an article about why England was so unprepared for bad weather. The Eurostar (between England and France/Belgium) cancelled lots of its trains stranding a huge amount of people because the snow was too "fluffy". ???? It is really hard to believe that somewhere that is naturally pretty cold could be unprepared for this kind of weather, but I have learned my lesson about catching airplanes when it's snowing (and travelling around Christmastime!).

In England, the moment I encountered unpleasant weather (Almeria has spoiled me apparently), I got a cold. It got worse and worse, and by the time we got back home, I had no voice at all, barely even a whisper. It was pretty frustrating since I don't see Carlos' family members very often, and had been looking forward to this year to show off my new Spanish skills. In the end, a lot of the family members I don't see very often didn't come, so the pressure was off for me. Christmas was pretty low-key, which was nice. My present was my trip to London and some DVDS of British TV shows I picked up along the way.

It has been strangely rainy in Almeria for the past week. It doesn't even feel like Almeria with so much rain. It rained here on Christmas, which is about the equivalent of having a white Christmas elsewhere, it's so rare.

So, that's that. Hello and Merry Christmas to my friends and family members. I've been meaning to call, but simply do not have enough voice for phone calls!

When sweet potatoes attack...

2009-12-01T04:32:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving went really well. My mom sent me a package with cranberry sauce, stuffing, an instant pumpkin pie, and a plastic bag to cook the turkey in.

On Saturday I went over to Carlos' house to make the sweet potato casserole. I was excited about making them for the first time with a fully equipped kitchen. I boiled the sweet potatoes in a well now, I don't know the word in English or Spanish, just in French cocotte minute. Basically, it is a bit pot with a nozzle for steam so it cooks things faster. We checked on the potatoes a few times, and they were taking a while so we left them on a bit longer. When Carlos took off the top, it was so full of steam that sweet potatoes, steam, and boiling water flew everywhere! Poor Carlos has a few burns on his hands, and I had to scrub sweet potatoes off the kitchen walls and counters!

That night we brought the sweet potatoes to a dinner with my co-workers, and they liked them. We stayed out pretty late, and on Sunday morning we had to get up early to take care of the turkey. When we had bought it from the butcher, he had warned us that he wasn't able to get all the feathers off so we would have to remove them ourselves. There weren't too many so I didn't think it could be that bad, but Carlos and I spent an hour plucking those stubborn little boogers. Finally we got Snuggles, as Carlos dubbed him, safely in the oven. Everything for the dinner turned out well, though, as I expected, some of the things (namely the sweet potato casserole and the pumpkin pie) were a bit too sweet for some of the guests. They inhaled the cranberry sauce, though, and Snuggles was delicious and moist. And it seems that now that I have proven myself in the kitchen I will probably be helping out with dinners on Christmas and New Years.

It was fun and novel for Carlos' family to celebrate the holiday for the fist time. I showed them a powerpoint that I had made for my classes, in which I explained the holiday and how we celebrate. Carlos remarked at dinner how much my Spanish had improved and how much more conversational I was, but I feel like it was a bit of a cheat--since after explaining Thanksgiving all week in my classes, I had picked up all the Spanish words I needed such as "pilgrim," "give thanks," "cranberry sauce," etc.

Classes are fine. Since in my classes, the students do so many pair speaking activities, it is a bit like the dating game sometimes. I don't put people together with people with common interests--just try to make sure that everyone has someone to talk to, but I have seen some people really hit it off, and once a teenage guy kept smiling at me, and I realized that it was because I'd paired him with a cute girl.

This weekend is a puente, or a long weekend, but I don't think I work next week either so it will turn out to be a 10 day weekend or something...I may or may not go somewhere with my friends. It is a lot more difficult to travel here than it was in the north of France, when we were close to so many different places, and things were better connected. But we'll see!

I made too much food for Thanksgiving and tried to explain to everyone that eating leftovers afterwards is a tradition it itself--off to heat some up!

Fall and Impending Thanksgiving

2009-11-15T03:28:00.001-08:00

A lot of my classes are divided pretty neatly into demographic groups. Some of them are mostly high school students, and a lot of my classes are composed of only teachers. Many schools in Spain are starting bilingual programs so the teachers come to the city's language school to learn English. What I am having trouble understanding, though, is why the teachers are so badly behaved. The high school students are much more disciplined, and since they have probably been learning English at school for a while, they speak much better than the other students. It seems that the teachers themselves have either forgotten what it really means to be a student, or maybe now that they are finally on the other side of the desk, want to have some fun.

The differences in the learning capabilities of different ages is really apparent too. The younger students learn a lot quicker than the older ones...it just seems that after a while, your brain gets brittle and just won't absorb information as easily as it did when you were younger. So...if you have any interest in learning a language, don't put it off!

Teaching has been getting better. My first year students are learning quickly, and I am able to do real activities with them now. I have started to get to know all of the students better, especially my second and third year classes since I see them every week so it is easier to work with them. And well my one third year class is a gem; they basically just teach themselves.

Working in the evenings is a bummer. I have the mornings free (I don't have much to do then since Carlos is usually in class...), but then in the evenings I get off work around 9 or 10. I need something to do in the mornings, but it is hard to give private classes in the mornings since most people work. I have been thinking about proposing my teaching services to businesses in the area, but I am going to wait a bit on that since a large part of my mornings lately has been devoted to going to physical therapy.

Yes, the ankle I sprained 2 years ago is still giving me grief, and I have a sweet insurance plan here so I decided to go back to the doc. The doctor was about a million years old, smoked during the entire consultation and looked at my ankle for all of 3 seconds before writing me a prescription for 15 sessions of physical therapy. The physical therapist never seems to take off his sunglasses in the clinic, gave me a homework assignment to find the meaning of some English words in Spanish that he needed for some medical paper or something, and was very proud to show me a model of a paddle boat--"como los barcos de tu pueblo" just like the boats from my part of the US, Mississippi. I didn't have the heart or energy to explain that I don't live anywhere close to the Mississippi River, that those boats don't really exist anymore except in museums (or maybe there are some casinos shaped like them?). Foreigners have this image of Mississippi of Tom Sawyer and paddle boats, and I swear, it is no use explaining to them that this stuff doesn't exist. You just have to admire their model paddle boat or congratulate them on remembering that Tom Sawyer was on the Mississippi River (even if he was never actually in Mississippi).

Halloween was nice. We had a shindig at my apartment, and hopefully we didn't anger the neighbors too much with the noise! I met some new auxiliares, and we have since hit the town a few times. I can't manage to make it out here because people don't start going to the clubs until really late (2am or so), and I am usually fast asleep by then, especially if I have had beer and tapas for dinner.

Carlos' birthday was last weekend, and I decided to make a huge dark chocolate cake. I was a bit nervous since the last time I tried to bake here, my brownies turned out oddly gelatinous. It turned out well, but my error, I realize now, was using an American recipe. My mom gave me a set of super-cool collapsable measuring cups exactly for the purpose, and I was eager to cook with them (instead of weighing everything like they do here--what a pain!), but in the end I couldn't find all the right ingredients so the cake didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. A At Carlos' birthday barbecue, his friends devoured it, but it should have been taller and fluffier. Guess I'll have to break down next time and find a European recipe with ingredients I can find and measure them with a scale--damn!

Thanksgiving is next week, and it seems that I will be having no fewer than 3 celebrations. One with my roommates, one with my coworkers, and one with Carlos' family. About a month ago, we were all sitting at family dinner, and Carlos' dad said, "Thanksgiving is coming up soon, isn't it Kate? You can cook us a nice Thanksgiving dinner then!" So I have an entire meal on my hands to prepare, although I will do what I can to prepare. I am not sure how authentic it will be as the Thanksgiving ingredients here are scarce (cranberries? whole turkeys? canned pumpkin?), but also because I really think that American food is a lot richer and sweeter than what Europeans are used to so I am doubtful that they would like green beans smothered in cream of mushroom soup and covered in fried onions. Carlos' father couldn't get over the fact that we eat marshmallows as part of the main course (on the sweet potatoes, obviously) so it seems that I am going to need to adapt my Thanksgiving to the European palette.

2009-10-26T02:15:00.000-07:00

On Friday afternoon Carlos and I hopped in the car and headed north to the tiny village of Bedar, where the owner of the house we rented met us in the city. The pueblecito was so small that the man didn't even have to give us a meeting place...and was still able to find us right away. When we stopped to talk to him, a bee flew in the car. We swatted until we didn't see it anymore, and then got back in the car, and followed the man who was leading us through winding and steep unpaved roads. About halfway through the 15 minute drive, the bee reappeared...it had been hiding in Carlos' hair! And then there we were driving up a mountain, battling a bee, and the man who was leading us was going really fast. This time we were able to swat it out of the car for good, and before we knew it, we had arrived at the Casa Rural.

The house was gorgeous, isolated. We had our own pool from which we had a fantastic view of the mountains and the sea. There was also a Wii and a pool table so no danger of getting bored.

Our first move was to go back in to town to get some tapas for lunch and some groceries for the weekend. Bedar is one of those beautiful, quaint towns, of all white buildings embedded in a mountainside with a view of the sea.

But Bedar harbors a dirty secret, and it only took us a few minutes to realize that something was not right. The people were either red as beets or had skin that resembled an old leather purse, and too many people had fair hair. Asking natives for the best tapas bar in town only lead to confused stuttering. Signs, radio stations, and tv programs were in English. That's right--about 9/10ths of Bedar's population is British. Carlos had warned me of British enclaves in the south of Spain, but I had always imagined that his accounts were exaggerated and that it would be mostly retirees. But the place was crawling with Brits of all ages, little blond children getting of the school bus and fair adults running stores. I guess what bothered me the most was that no one seemed to be speaking Spanish...not well enough to be living there. I haven't been studying too long, and I was able to speak circles around all of them. I asked Carlos how the natives reacted to all the foreigners, and he told me that it was a combination of feelings--happiness that they are coming there and spending their money, but annoyance at the British invasion.

The next day we ventured to Mojacar, which is another beautiful white city perched right on top of a mountain next to the sea. Someone told me that the city has been described as a "melting wedding cake."

Mojacar is also infested with Brits, but it is bigger than Bedar so there are more natives too. After a nice lunch there, I dragged Carlos into the little touristy shops, since I can only smugly pretend like I am a native for so long before I am enchanted by hand-painted olive oil pitchers and flamenco dancer magnets.

So that was my lovely weekend. I had a bit of post vacation blues, even though it was a short vacation, and I don't work today (Monday). It is just so nice to get away!

I forgot to go on my usual bureaucracy tirade after my trip to the Foreigner's office a few weeks ago. And what is this blog if not a place for me to complain about bureaucracy? The crazy thing is that I am starting to have a new respect for the French system. The first time you go to the Prefecture in France, you have to wait a couple hours, and then they give you a list of what you need. In Spain, I never did know what I needed to get my papers. At orientation, a man came to talk about what we needed for our papers, but he did speak at the speed of light and managed to leave out a few important details too. So when I had my appointment, I just took all of my documents, and copies of all of my documents, and figured I would be fine. But when they finally called my number, it seemed that every time I got to talk to the man behind the desk, something wasn't right with my application, and I had to go run an errand to fix it.

The first time it was that there was a fee that I needed to pay at a bank in order to pay to get my papers, so I headed off to a bank, and luckily had a bit of cash with me. The second time the problem was that with the passport pictures I had, the background of the picture was grey and not white so I had to go have my pictures re-done. I barely had enough money to get new pictures--had to dump out my wallet and barely had enough thanks to all of those 5 and 2 cent pieces that have been accumulating in my wallet. And worst of all, the picture package I had to get has a large portrait picture of me looking pissed off after getting the run-around by the Oficina de Extranjeros! What am I supposed to do with that?

So I finally got back to the office, and I realized that I had seen everyone in the waiting room leaving and coming back several times, and my roommate who was also there informed me that they call your number 5 to 6 times throughout the day because usually it takes people that many times to run all these errands to get all of their paperwork right! I left my appointment demoralized and withan empty wallet. Why don't you just give everyone a list of what they need, Spain? Now I have to wait 40 days and go back to the office to see if my paperwork is ready. Why can't you just call me when it is ready?

Anyway, work is fine. I am starting to get the hang of things and enjoy it. In the evenings, I watch a lot of silly Spanish television with my roommates, which is a nice way to end the day. Wednesday is Carlos and my real anniversary so we are going to see the play Don Juan Tenorio, which is kind of a special play for us because once on a train to New Orleans, Carlos read and translated it for me.

Now I am planning Halloween lesson plans and a Halloween costume for this weekend (I am going to be a Frenchman, and Carlos is going to be my bottle of wine). Halloween is not really celebrated here, but my anglo friends and I are determined not to miss out on the holiday.

2009-10-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

I finally have roommates so the apartment is not so lonely--3 American girls...not so exotic, but this is the luxury that I am granting myself here in this foreign country--being able to communicate freely at home. Everyone is really nice and gets along well, and the atmosphere in the apartment is relaxed.

Work started on October 1st, and this being the second time that I am an English conversation assistant, I was not nervous...the French and Spanish programs are virtually identical...12 hours of work a week, no real grading, mostly just promoting oral communication and comprehension in classes. The only difference this time was that my job at least, did not grant me 2 weeks of observation as is mandatory at least in the French system...perhaps it was just at my job where I didn´t get it--and perhaps that was owing to all of my previous experience teaching English, but I had only one day to chat with the teachers about what I needed to do and observe a few classes before diving in.

I was pretty nervous because I have mostly first and second year students, which is a lot more difficult than the older students who the other American assistant gets to teach (out of seniority...she was here last year). So going into a class full of students who were just beginning English I knew I was going to have to conquer my own fear--I was going to have to speak in Spanish to them. Some people say that the role of an English assistant is only to speak English, but with students who have only had a few hours of English lessons, speaking in English only frustrates them and makes them afraid of you! Luckily when I got to class on Monday ready to teach the first year students, and after having asked Carlos a lot of words that I would need in class in Spanish ( spell, count etc), I was pleased to discover that most of my students are ¨false beginners,¨ which is to say that they have actually had several years of English class. However, there are still plenty of students who are real beginners so it is pretty necessary for me to speak in Spanish....and I think the students are pretty relieved that I was speaking my albeit imperfect Spanish. Speaking so much to them is making me find some holes in my knowledge of Spanish, such as the vosotros form (plural you), which I never paid much attention to and suddenly need, and the subjunctive form which comes up pretty often when you are a teacher i.e. ¨I want you to...¨

The work with the second year students is a lot easier, and I use Spanish a lot less often, more often when they ask me the definition of a word or something. I am really enjoying the work...the students are there voluntarily so it makes such an enormous difference. It's such a departure from my job at the university last year. Here I don't do any grading, and if I wanted to, I could just go into class unprepared and improvise...as long as I got them to talk and/or listen for an hour. Of course, I am too conscientious for this.

I had a bit of a scary thing happen the other day...when I got off work, and I was heading to a friend's house on the other side of town, and managed to get on the right bus in the wrong direction. Normally this wouldn't have been such an enormous problem, since the bus would have to turn around and go back to the center of town eventually, but since it was late--around 10:30pm, I realized that this might be the last bus left, and I could be stranded at the terminus. I explained my problem to the bus driver, and he told me that there was one last bus to the center, and but I would have to buy a new ticket at the end of the line--a hospital outside of town. When we got to the there, the bus driver walked up to me and said, "You're not from here, are you?" (DUH!) and he didn't make me buy another ticket, and I made it to my friends although very late. I shouldn't exaggerate the gravity of this incident--I mean, worse come to worst, I could have called Carlos (I only had a few cents of phone credit, but luckily we have a special phone plan for each other), and he would have picked me up. Still, it was scary, and I will be more careful in the future. But well, if I ever need to get to the hospital in the future, I will know how to get there.

Carlos and my 2 year anniversary is at the end of the month, and we are going to spend the weekend in a mountain home about an hour from here. We will be close to some beautiful villages that I haven't seen yet (and also Vera where we spent a weekend during the summer). I am very excited!

2009-09-29T03:07:00.001-07:00

With one week left in the states, I would have wanted it to be relaxed and calm so I could finish packing and say goodbye to my family and friends and not be to stressed when I got on the airplane. As it was, it was mostly consumed with all of the wedding festivities for Cori and Mark's wedding, showers, being a bridesmaid, etc. And it was good to see a lot of old friends, and make some new ones, but it also meant that my exit was more hurried and less calm. I had four houseguests the night of the wedding, friends from college, and we had lots of fun, but then I had one more night in the US and that was it.

I got on the airplane Monday morning with way too much stuff. Had re-arrange my suitcases and check my carryon because my main suitcase weighed in at a whopping 60 pounds, and I was only allowed 50. So I got on the plane with my knitting, book, iPod and purse and prepared for the 3 flights it would take to get to Madrid. As soon as I got to Dallas, the flight was running an hour late, which would only give me an hour to get through the JFK airport for my international flight. Don't worry, the man behind the desk assured me, I am 100% positive that your flight from JFK will be late too, and you will make it no problem. Plus, you won't have to go through security again so it won't take long to get to your flight.

Lies, all of them. I got to JFK with 50 minutes before takeoff; my flight to Madrid was NOT running late, and JFK goes down in my books as the most poorly marked and confusing airports that I have encountered, and of course, I DID have to go through security again. I made it just as the the gates were closing. All of this wouldn't have mattered so much...getting to Madrid late wouldn't have been too horrible, if Carlos wouldn't have been waiting for me at the airport, and if I'd be late, I would have had no way to contact him or find him. But I made it, and when I got to Madrid, he was waiting for me, even though my bags weren't--they hadn't made that quick connection in JFK. .

Carlos and I had a day and a half in Madrid, which was only slightly spoiled by the fact that I had no makeup, clothes, or brush. We did still manage to have a lovely time though. As soon as we went to the hotel and got cleaned up, Carlos took me for a surprise, which was going on rowboat ride in the middle of Retiro park, which was so lovely. The park's lake is surrounded by beautiful monuments and parts of a palace, and it was so surreal there with my boyfriend after so many hours of travel, and I had skipped a night's sleep as I'd gotten on the plane in the afternoon and arrived in Madrid the next morning. Then we walked through a used book district and bummed around the city. Carlos took me through a lot of the city's monuments and explained who all the people were. Strolling down the Gran Via, we passed a bunch of theaters, where we saw that Monty Python's "Spamalot" was playing. We went on a whim, and the production was great. It was in Spanish, but luckily having seen "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" helped me understand, especially when discussing the rates of speed of unladen Afrian swallows.

The next day we took a train home, but midway through we discovered that some train tracks had flooded, making the rest of our journey in train impossible. The rest of the trip was in bus, and we ended up getting home pretty late. I could have done the trip to Almeria alone, but I am so glad that Carlos was there to keep me company since it took us about 8 hours to get there. Plus, I am not sure I would have understood when they told me in Spanish that the tracks had flooded.

So, me voici, here I am in my sweet apartment in the middle of the city. The first week was a bit tough as I didn't have much to do, and didn't know many people in the city yet. Plus, Carlos and I were acclimating to how our relationship works when we live on two sides of the same city--how often we see each other, etc. But I finally made some friends, and I have a few roommates arriving in the next couple of days, not to mention that work starts on Thursday so I have my own life starting to shape up, so everything is looking up.

I made Carlos accompany me to work to go meet my boss and see where the place is right when I arrived. He had told me that he had gone to the Escuela de Idiomas for 4 years, but wasn't sure if the people would recognize him. I introduced my Almeriense (from Almeria) boyfriend, and everyone was so surprised to see him! They all knew him, and his parents who had previously worked in the same building as the school. So everyone was really amused to say the least to see their alumnus dating an American who would be working at the school. Everyone was really friendly, and I am looking forward to starting work in Thursday. My communication with the teachers is primarily in Spanish. All of the teachers are English teachers so if I really needed to, I could speak in English, but the assumption is that we will speak in Spanish, so here we go...

Carlos is a bit of a food snob so throughout all of my time in Almeria, he has made it his purpose to take me to all of the best restaurants in the city (and even in cities around it), so last week he said he was in the mood for jamon--which is amazing Spanish ham, which was not been cooked, but salted. It is not light pink like American ham, but dark pink or dark red, and I might even say that jamon is to Spain what cheese is to France. So last Thursday we went to La Bodega de Jamones or the Jamon Cave, and when I saw newspaper clippings about the man there being the second best jamon cutter in Spain (that was in 2005, I bet by now he is the best), I knew I was in for some serious jamon. The guy was gorgeous...dressed all in black and with a ponytail...the kind of Don Juan spaniard that you imagine. And when he presented the beautiful plate of jamon, and informed us that there was a certain order to eat the jamon according to the arrangement on the plate, I realized that eating it is an art form too. Along with the delicious red wine, it was an experience that I won't soon forget. Mmmm... An experience only to be repeated on special occasions...but with our 2 year anniversary and Carlos' birthday coming up, I am sure we will find a reason to go back.

2009-09-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

I thought that somewhere in the 5 weeks of being in Mississippi--no car, no job--so literally stuck in the house all day, I would be bored and update my blog way too often with uninteresting quotidian details, such as what I ate for every meal, how many minutes I spent in the shower, etc. But on the contrary, I have been really busy. One reason is that I have rediscovered my love for reading. Majoring in English (and French too at the last minute!) really killed my love for reading. Every weekend in college, I had several novels to read, papers to write about them, things to analyze. And after that I needed a break, but now I'm over that, and luckily we have a house full of books so that has kept me pretty busy. I also have been focusing on my real (non-blog) writing skills. I took a class at the local independent newspaper in Jackson on creative non-fiction, which was fun and has also rekindled my desire to work on my writing.

I have done my annual room clean out--somehow I don't add to the contents of my room, but every summer I can find several trash bags of stuff to give to GoodWill (one of my priorities has become not accumulating so much stuff). If anyone ever gives me a trinket or doodad or whatchamacallit again I will send it back to you. I have enough crap in my room to decorate and fill an entire house. So I am working on minimalism.

I have been catching up with friends and family a lot who are around town. Susan's wedding festivities started the day I got back, and since so many of my friends came to town for the wedding, I just pretended like it was all a big welcome home party for me! It was, of course, awesome to see Susan and Hedge who have since settled in Shanghai. Talking to them made me remember that no matter how "foreign" things seem in Europe, it is still western civilization. Even for me, it is hard to imagine going somewhere so different. If I knew how to write good luck in Chinese here, I would. Good luck, Sue and Hedge.

My trip here was long though smooth-enough. I went to Madrid a day early because I wouldn't have time to catch a train there and get my flight in the same day. Since I had an afternoon to kill in the city, I went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, which is not the Prado or the one where you can see Guernica, but the other one. I had seen it 4 summers ago when I backpacked through Europe, and I remember loving it, but at that time, we were near the end of the journey and suffering from severe museum fatigue after seeing so much great stuff so it was hard to appreciate. This time, I got to really take my time and enjoy it.

The next morning I had to get to the airport with all of my things, which was no small task, considering that I am so cheap that I refuse to take taxis. That is right, I insisted upon taking the subway which involved no fewer than two transfers and an uncountable number of stairs. What really struck me while I was travelling was how much more friendly and helpful the Spanish people were than the French. I have gone through Paris with lots of luggage many times, struggled through subways and all of that, but NO ONE has ever helped me. In Spain, several people helped me get my suitcase down the stairs or onto the subway cars. They always asked in Spanish if they could help me, and if I hesitated to respond, started speaking in English. The difference between the countries is almost tangible--there is definitely an element of friendliness that was not (as) present in France.

Now it is my last week here, and I have not accomplished much on my to do list--such as eating lots of good sushi and doing some of my other local favorite things. And I am also pretty busy being a bridesmaid for Cori. Last weekend I attended no fewer than 3 parties for her and Mark, and this weekend will be full of festivities. It will be great (and so convenient!) to see all of my college buddies who will be coming for the wedding. I guess I can sort of pretend like all this is a farewell party for me.

Anyway I have to run. It is so strange how these 5 weeks which I thought would be relaxing have felt more like a marathon!

2009-07-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

And now, one final thought on France. Before I left, I had to talk to a lot of new people for various reasons--finding people to accept some stuff I was getting rid of, etc. And upon meeting me everyone made the same assumptions. Now, I am highly opposed to tattoos, but towards the end of my stay I was ready to have the following things tattooed on my forehead instead of having to answer them 6-7 times daily.

1. No, I am not British.

2. No, I am not a student.

3. No, I am not leaving Nancy to go home.

I know that a lot of these are sort of logical conclusions for a young person with an English language accent when speaking French, but they are not the case. And if I had known that there were a lot of British students lurking around Nancy, it might have been understandable, but this was not the case. I was wondering if I was going to have the same reception in Spain, but I finally realized that the main response I will be giving is--"No, I'm not a tourist" as the primary reason anglophones come to Almeria is for vacations. That is all. And this is the official changing of my blog from my French life to my Spanish one: Note the layout changes.

My trip to Spain (via Germany) went really smoothly. I spent two lovely days in Mainz with my great aunt and uncle. It was nice to see them. I'm away from my family members for so long that I manage to forget how nice it is to see them sometimes. We made homemade jelly (raspberry and gooseberry--I had never heard of gooseberries before that!) Nik was nice enough to drive me to the Frankfurt airport at 5 o'clock in the morning, and the trip went without a hitch. After all of my agonizing about my luggage, the friendly workers of Air Berlin didn't even weigh my bags, and Carlos was waiting for me when I arrived.

And then when I arrived, Carlos had news for me: a private school had called him and asked me to come in for an interview the next day! The fact is that I already have work; I will be a language assistant (like I was my first year in France) in a language school in the center of Almeria. It is good because I will be teaching adults and people who are really interested in learning English (and possibly French...) and because it will only be about 12 hours of teaching a week. The only drawback is that it is a step down (or maybe a few) professionally from my job at the university. I justify this by saying that I will have plenty of time to teach private classes and earn extra $$ and that I will have time to take classes or do whatever else I fancy.

But before I got this job at the language school Carlos and his family members and family friends and me when I was here gave my CV to every school that would take it. And well, finally one called the day before I arrived. I was pretty nervous because the interview was completely in Spanish. And well I do have faith in my Spanish skills, I thought I needed some time to really get used to the language and switch from French to Spanish. The interview went fine. I mean I didn't come off as Shakespeare or anything, but I did manage to get my point across and answer all the questions in a not too nonsensical way. And well, they offered me the job, but this was before they knew how complicated it was to hire Americans and get me a visa and before they realized how hard it was going to be for me to get the Spanish teaching qualification that I would need before starting the job. But still, well they know me, and maybe it will be a possibility for next year if I decide to stay in Almeria.

Other than my job interview and working on getting my visa application stuff together, not much has been going on. Extreme laziness. We have been going to the beach, which is just across the street, and sometimes when it is extra hot I build the courage to jump into the freezing cold Mediterranean. Yesterday we went over to Aguadulce (translation: "Sweetwater") the neighboring town to enjoy their lovely beaches and bum around. Today there was a mini-fair along the boardwalk which is just next to Carlos' house, and my heart was melted by a troop of 7 year old flamenco dancers. During the "feria" I also experienced my first religious procession, and Carlos was not able to explain to me why it was taking place. It involved a bunch of people in carrying crosses and candles, followed by a huge sort of table thing with an enormous statue of the Virgin Mary and a bunch of candles, followed by a brass band playing solemn music. It seemed like sort of a paradox--solemn religious parade processing through the festive fair, but well everyone treated it like business as usual.

The sales are on, and Carlos has been pretty patient going with me since I don't have any girlfriends to go shopping with yet. I must say that he has also been really patient taking me to run errands to get my visa stuff taken care of and making sure that all of my job stuff is in order.

My Spanish is going ok I suppose. I need to study more. I know the verbs, just not how to conjugate them. And well after a few weeks, I am accustomed to the sound of the language, and I can understand almost everything, as long as people speak a little slowly. The regional accent is difficult, and my French, although it helps me sometimes causes problems too. Well, I guess my own mistake is assuming that Spanish is more similar to French than it actually is. The other day I asked for "frutos del mar" which was a direct translation of the French "fruits de mer" which means seafood. And well, turns out it is not a direct translation (Spanish for seafood is "marisco"), and when I asked for "more fruit of the sea please" it just sounded confusing and poetic as it would in English. And then in French the word for (contact) lenses and lentils is the same ("lentilles"), and I assumed that this would be the same in Spanish so the other day I announced that I was going to put my lentils in my eyes. Oops. Well I have to say that my Spanish is coming along, though slowly.

There are some big bullfights in town this weekend, and I was planning on going, as a part of my official assimilation into Spanish culture, but it turns out that the price is high, and I'm not willing to shell out 60 euros for a ticket. I'll have to settle for a bullfight on tv.

Hasta luego, dragging Carlos back to the feria to hear some live music...

2009-07-01T13:19:00.001-07:00

I am starting this entry on the train because it is 7 in the morning, and even after a sleepless night, I am not sleepy, and after over a month without too much time to reflect, I have a lot on my mind.

I am truly sad about leaving Nancy. Whenever I mention this to anyone, they remind me that I am going to live at the beach and that I will be with my boyfriend, and of course I am ecstatic about all of this, but it doesn't mean that I am not upset about leaving a city that finally feels like home and the wonderful friends I have here (or there? I am pulling away from the city as we speak).

My intention for my last month in Nancy was to do everything cool in the city I hadn't done yet, like go to the aquarium and to do everything I really loved and knew one last time like the art museum and the Musé de l'Ecole de Nancy. To spend as much time at all of the cool outdoor cafes as possible. To picnic in the Parc de la Pepinière, to wander around Place Stan and the Vieille Ville. As it was, I was working over full time and did not have time to do all of these things.

After work, my primary stress came from getting my healthcare stuff taken care of. Last year I didn't fool with healthcare much, since I didn't really understand how it worked, but health care stuff accumulates, and this year I was determined to take advantage of the health care system which I have read is ranked the first in the world. I needed physical therapy for my ankle, new glasses/contacts, a trip to the dentist, etc. So I got a mutuelle and tried make sure I was signed up for government
healthcare that (in theory!) every worker in France has. So between work and all the doctor visits, I spent my time harassing the CPAM—the general healthcare office to make sure that I was signed up for healthcare. After the first two months they lost my dossier, then I talked to someone who seemed like he knew what he was talking about, and then after another month with no result, I went back last week only to discover that it wasn't the CPAM that was supposed to take care of my dossier, but in fact, the MGEN—healthcare for people who work in public education. So I spent months and months going back to this office, while no one informed me that I wasn't even in the right place. When they told me that, I had the bizarrest sense of both anger and relief. Anger that no one had told me, and relief maybe another office would be more efficient, would finally help me get this taken care of. So I ventured out to the city where the office was located, and the woman was helpful, and I think that I am finally going to get this worked out, although it still may take a while.

Anyway, all that is not to say that I haven't had any time for fun...after forcing my friends to celebrate my birthday for a month in January/February, it was only fair to give Kat a month of celebrations—so this included many picnics and some fun nights on the town. And as a grand finale Annika, Kat, and I went to Paris, where we stayed with Sarah. It was only 24 hours in the City of Lights, but we made the most of it—went out on the town (karaoke...I don't think those Parisians will forget our rendition of several Whitney Houston songs any time soon), shopped along the Champs Elysee, and saw the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Grand Palais, which was awesome.

Leaving France has been strange, rather anticlimactic—especially compared to last year when I had to say goodbye to all of my friends at once and leave Carlos there in Metz. I mean, I wasn't expecting fireworks, or the entire nation to go into a state of mourning, but I didn't have the opportunity to say a real goodbye to a lot of my friends and coworkers, and the goodbyes I did goodbyes were staggered. My internet and phone were cut off a little earlier than expected (this might have been a blessing—would I have accomplished everything those last days if I had had the internet to distract me?), but it also left me without contact with anyone (with the exception of Kat who was still in town and dropped by a few times) so my last days were just me alone in my apartment scrubbing and packing. So my departure was quiet (with the exception of the sound of me dragging my enormous suitcase down three flights of stairs at six this morning—sorry neighbors!)

In a few hours I will arrive in Mainz for a couple days with Zee and Nik, where I have to figure out how to reduce some of this weight in my suitcase before I get on my flight to Almeria on Wednesday. I can't wait to get to Spain so I can finally relax!

Je suis où???

2009-06-20T07:35:00.001-07:00

I don't think I will have time for a real update before I go to Spain in July.

The other day I found out that people with long-stay visas in France next year (like me this year and last year) will no longer have to apply for their a carte de séjour. This law is being passed just as I am leaving, of course.

And then on top of that, I got my French police background check for my Spanish visa, and it was a cinch. Emailed the form to the guy, and a few days later it was in my mailbox. All that's to say is that my last days in France have been rather un-French.

Hasta pronto!

Loose ends

2009-06-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

The thing about my friends is that whenever we make plans, they fall through, but whenever we plan last minute, it works out beautifully. Tonight we had plans to go to the neighborhood board game cafe, but as we had planned it out, everyone cancelled. This is opposed to yesterday where we ran into each other in town and had a lovely evening, which included a fantastic Lebanese feast (although I was glad to find out that MY tabouli is better). Anyway, since we made plans for tonight, I have ended up at home with time to finish a blog entry.

I have about a zillion things to do before I leave. Seriously... banking stuff, work stuff, changing my address at every office, and figuring out what to do with all of the stuff I have accumulated over the past year. It is so hard to jump around so much every year because I have to start from scratch each year. I am trying to think of ways to save my curtains and blankets because while it might not be the most economically efficient thing to do, I have a strong desire for (at least an illusion of) stability, even if it is just the simple thing of waking up under the same blanket and seeing the same curtains for two consecutive years.

My biggest loose end has to do with public health care, mostly because I missed a demarche. I can't find a good translation of this word because we don't have so many of them in angolophone countries. A demarche is an administrative process/formality--something that involves sending in forms and copies of important documents, a lot of waiting, and a lot of dealing with ill-humored bureaucrats. So I missed one (there was no way to know that I was supposed to do it), and now my whole health care thing is screwed up. Last year, my arch nemesis was the Prefecture, but this year it is definitely the CPAM office. It is to the point that I walk into the building, and the bureaucrats shoot each other, "Oh, it's her again" looks. It seems that I can only get the situation halfway dealt with (if the CPAM doesn't lose my dossier again!), but even then I will be dealing with this stuff from wherever I go. It's funny, I thought that by leaving France I would leave this stuff behind, but it seems that it is going to follow me wherever I go.

On top of this stuff, classes finally started back at the university on Tuesday, and it was really surreal. Picking up where we left off over two months ago was really bizarre, surreal. I didn't have many students in class...ironically enough the day that classes restarted the French trains went on strike so some students were not able to come. I felt sort of like a jilted lover in class--my students broke it off for a couple of months, but then suddenly called it back on and now are acting like nothing has changed. We will not be able to recover all of the missed classes, and it seems like the strike has worsened the apathy that the students had before the blocage. Luckily I only have 4 exams left, and my paper grading burden shouldn't be too terribly bad.

Last weekend I headed to Luxembourg because I heard there was going to be a New Orleans festival there. Kat and I went and stayed with Liz, my friend who lived in Metz last year and now works there. It was really great to see her after a year. There is something very stabalizing about seeing old friends when my life is so--well scattered. The festival was just a stage with a food tent and a few beer tents, but there was some decent music and creole cuisine. Liz took us out on the town and we experienced some Luxembourgish nightlife, which was surprisingly festive. I was informed that 50% of the population is from other countries, so the atmosphere is very international. The people I met were raving about the quality of life, the cleanliness of the city, and having well-paid jobs. So maybe I'll add Luxembourg to my list of cities that I could possibly consider living--although I get the impression that it is not too appealing to those who are not interested in the banking sector.

On Sunday after a delicious lunch of jambalaya I met up with another friend from last year Helen who also works in Luxembourg, and she showed me and Kat around the city some more, and we caught up. It is really shameful how seldom I see my friends who live not so far from here!

I am getting rather emotional about my last month in France. It is such a strange thing to be in a place you are settled when you know you will be leaving. And I am so bad at goodbyes/endings; I always just draw it out and make it as sad as possible. I remember the end of college, the "This is the last time we will ever..." thing got out of control. The last time we ever ate macaroni and cheese in the Caf, the last time we ever watched 'Scrubs' together" It was all emotional.

And though in my travel-filled life, I may sound cavalier about moving to another country, but this is not the case. I am definitely nervous about the enormous changes that I have in store. But I am so busy these days, that I don't have a lot of time to dwell on these thoughts.

2009-05-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

I spoke too soon. As I mentioned in my last post, the president of the Fac de lettres came up with a plan to re-start classes and take exams, and the students were to vote on it on Wednesday. Most of the teachers were just certain that the students would support the proposal. I only heard one who mentioned the possibility that it might not pass, and all she said was, "The students are being suspiciously quiet about the proposal."

Well the students voted against the proposition, and classes didn't start.

Then the next week the president had a new plan to re-start classes, and there was not an entire public vote, but the voting body of the university assembled and they voted against it.

This time the president ignored the vote and encouraged teachers to come to the university at 8 in the morning to remove the chains on the doors and to start classes. They knew that some students wouldn't be happy, and I was even warned that "there might be violence." I arrived at 9 for my 10 o'clock class, and all the buildings were locked up. Apparently there had been a scuffle with the police at 8, and the president had given up his attempt to re-open the school. And well, as a response to the whole situation, he has locked everything up (as in you can't even get on campus.)

I just don't know what to think of all of this. At this point, the students are angry that the school schedule wasn't good enough--that they wouldn't have enough time to study for exams. But well that is what happens when you go on strike for two months and try to cram 3 months of school into one month. And well every week that a decision is pushed back, we have less and less time to get what we need done done. And they are also trying to change all of the exams to "dossiers" or well portfolios of work. This would supposedly alleviate some of the time strain, but I am starting to get the impression that this proposal is just because students hate exams.

Sigh.

For the past few months I have been jealous of my friends who have been able to plan their futures as mine just sort of hung delicately in the balance. But now with the news that I got the assistant position in Spain (and a little bird told me that there is a really good chance I will end up in Almeria). So finally I am able to start imagining my future (well as far as next year anyway), and it's a good feeling.

I have my plane tickets! I was hoping to squeeze in a trip to see my Aunt Zee and Uncle Nik in Mainz before I went to Spain for the summer, and it really worked out since Almeria is a hot spot for German (and British) tourists so I found a cheap direct flight from the Frankfurt airport near them. So I'll go spend a few days with my relatives and then fly directly to Almeria. That's right, you heard me. Directly. This is the first direct flight I have had in years and years. No shuffling onto public transportation with all of my luggage, no dragging my suitcases up and down staircases to make train connections--someone will drop me off at the airport; I will take a single flight and someone will pick me up at the other end. Amazing.

My trip to the United States will not be so simple--on the contrary. I will have to take a train to Madrid, get a hotel there and then take a bunch of planes. Why is it so difficult to get to Jackson, Mississippi I wonder? It is not particularly cosmopolitan, but it is a capital city. That is something I will be pondering as I jet to one American airline hub after another in wrong directions direction just trying to get back home on August 6th.

So there it is the date I am coming home. I was trying to come home later in the month since flights in late August are half the price as in early August and because I wanted to go to the huge weeklong party in Almeria called the "feria." But you know I am getting eager to go home (I can hear my mom and grandmother giving sighs of relief at this) though temporarily. And well in the end the determining factor for my trip turned out to be--weddings. I have already missed the weddings of three of my closest friends and I need to make it to the ones that I can. And anyway when seeing my friends from home is so rare, I can't refuse an opportunity to see them all gathered in one place.

Now I have more bureaucracy to think about. The very sound of the word "visa" sends chills up my spine, but it is unavoidable.

Let's see how getting a Spanish visa compares to getting a French one...

1.) The consulate is in New Orleans, which is a zillion times better than the one in Atlanta, which I had to visit twice last year. (1 Point for Spain)

2.) Bunch of paperwork yada yada yada, same old stuff (a tie)

3.) Criminal background checks from everywhere I have lived in the past 5 years all with an official apostille---WHAT?!! Spanish visa regulations, why are you ruining my life? Going through the French police stations in both Nancy and Metz is going to be horrific, and I have the feeling that getting them from the United States when I am not present is going to be quite a hassle. (-100 points for Spain)

Final Score: Spain -99, France 0

All that work and all the Spanish are going to see on my record is a couple of speeding tickets.

Well at any rate, I can't do anything about it today because it is yet another public holiday (Oh, May, and all of your public holidays!). Today is the Ascension, and I was thinking that it is pretty funny that 80% of the population probably doesn't even know why it's a holiday, and only a tiny percent of people go to church. But then I heard singing this afternoon, and I realized that it was coming from a church that is not too terribly far. That's the funny thing about these small echo-y streets is that well sound really carries so it sounded really close by. It seemed to me that the people were sort of trying to remind everyone the reason that we are not working today, and it was pleasant.

It is a little hard to believe that it is almost time to leave France. Sometimes it feels like I just got here, and Nancy is big enough so that I haven't had enough time to get bored yet! As much as I complain about France, I think that I am really going to miss a lot of things about it, although I am not exactly sure what yet. When I think about the strikes and the bureaucracy and the strikes, I am glad I am leaving...

Je suis lorraine; je serai espagnole; je suis impresionée

2009-05-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

First thing's first-- I got the email today confirming that I got the assistantship in Spain!! Yay! What a relief. Knowing that I have employment next year (especially in Spain where unemployment has hit 18%) in this economy is a big source of relief. And at this point I will take the position even if I don't get placed in Almeria. Like with the French assistantship, when they tell you that you have been accepted to the program, they don' tell you the city you are in, just the region. So I know that I will be in Andalucia, which is good because that is the region that Almeria is in, but it is also the biggest region in Spain so I could end up anywhere. Now to try and pull some strings to get placed in Carlos' city. I wrote in my essay and basically every white space of my application, "Please place me in Almeria."

Second news of the day...the blocage at the university is getting resolved. And the president decided that we will make up the missed classes--this came as a big surprise. I'd gotten so spoiled that I'd scheduled other lessons and doctors appointments and sundry other things at the times I used to have class and now I have to reschedule all of that stuff. I am glad that my students will be getting their educations, but selfishly frustrated that the job I thought was over will continue. The second round of exams is going to take place in September, and this means that I don't have to stay in France any longer than I thought I would.

Now on to my latest adventure. Life has been so monotonous lately. It was about time. My British friend who is dating a French guy named JB invited me to a "bison-themed party" with a bunch of his friends. I didn't know any more details...but that is ok since the best adventures always start out like that. Turned out to be in a tiny town--population 86...does that even constitute a town?, which was having a bison-festival since some farmers in the area raise bison. They brag about how such a small place can get together and put the festival together to attract (they claim) 10,000 "fools" to come hang out and spend their money there. The atmosphere was quite festive. There was a nice flea market and well plenty of bison to eat. My friend's boyfriend's friends were really fun people, and we had a good day. At one point, I met someone, who I know believe to be the son of the mayor of said village, who after a five-minute conversation (unbeknownst to me) fell in love with me. After this, I ventured out with my new friends to see the bison grazing, and upon our return to Tiny Village, I realized the son of the mayor had already told the other 85 residents of the town about me and immediately started introducing me to them as his wife. The news that I have a boyfriend came as an unpleasant surprise, and I spent the rest of the night ignoring his cries of the one sentence he was able to muster in English, "I love you."

In the meantime, the residents of Tiny Village were astonished to meet an American. This sort of thing doesn't happen in Nancy, but in rural villages, which barely get any visitors from neighboring towns, seeing foreigners is pretty rare. Now I have to take a moment to point out that the beverage tent, which was charging visitors for beer was giving free beer to locals, and they were taking full advantage of this privilege. So the drunken villagers took to all calling my name loudly, then yelling their opinions at me, and then telling me what a surprise and a pleasure it was to meet me (which seemed strange because I was never able to get a word in edgewise with all their ramblings). At this point I was ready to go home, but we had to stick around for a barbecue at a guy's house. And I was glad I did because I am pretty sure that he made himself the sausages that we ate, and wow...just amazing stuff. Drunk villagers also attending the barbecue continued haranguing me. One man in particular followed me around all night telling me how great it was to meet me. The last thing he said to me was...

"Je suis....

Je suis...

Je suis vraiment impressioné de faire votre connaissance."

It took him five minutes of bumbling "je suis"s before I was actually able to understand what he was saying.

My day at the Bison Festival was long, not always pleasant, but I really liked JB's friends, and well it was just the sort of spontaneous adventure I needed to pick me up from all of my stressful work lately. And also it was a chance to explore the rural parts of the region was nice

since I haven't done too much of that. I jokingly referred to myself as "une lorraine" the other day, but realized that even though I will be moving to Spain, after two years here in Lorraine, I can call myself "lorraine" at least a little bit. Not too much though since I still can't stand choucroute (sauerkraut)...

Ideas I've been toying with

2009-04-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

I got to thinking the other day about my future--a subject I spend most of my time trying not to think about. I wonder if I will always be a teacher. I enjoy it, but two years in the public French school system has been frustrating. The classes I've been giving lately to adults have somewhat renewed my interest in teaching. The students are just so interesting and motivated. It is absolutely a different world. And even though classes are over at the university (probably, but who knows; the strike is so complicated!) the theme of my teaching this year has remained the same--teaching people English oriented to specific subjects has meant that I have learned a lot about stuff I didn't know about! From the pneumologists I tutor, I have become conversant in medical concepts, and from the business people and my finance students I teach I have learned a lot about economics and have subsequently developed a keen interest in economic matters. It's strange sometimes; after studying English lit and French in college, I never imagined that I would be interested in such practical matters!

So back to (thinking about) the future, I do really enjoy teaching; I just would like to have some other things on the side or something else I can delve into. So I was thinking that translation would be a great field to get into. I can do it in a lot of different places and it could be really interesting. But then again, I think of every time someone asks me for a French word in English, and I always hesitate a lot, "Um, well it depends on the context and this and that." And then I give them a word and five minutes later I say, "No, well I don't think that word really has same meaning really expresses your idea." And then I bumble back and forth and usually don't find a good translation that I am satisfied with.

Once upon a time before I had ever studied a language, I imagined that translating was easy and that everything was just word for word. I didn't understand why different people would translate the same text--what was the controversy with the first guy who did it? Now, I realize how delicate and difficult translation is. (And that is why you should never EVER trust an online translator.) I'm not sure if I have the patience for this job. Still, it's a consideration.

The other alternative I was thinking about was studying international relations. The other day when I was spending my usual hour on www.cnn.com looking at world news when I realized just how interested I am in all of this! A lot! I'm not really sure what kind of job possibilities that could lead to, but it's still something to think about.

And, well, in light of this I started my own little project...which may sound strange--but I am faced with free time for the first time in a very long time. I am wikipedia-ing every country in the world. My interest in international relations is one reason. But also I am sick of meeting people and having no idea where their home country is on a map and knowing nothing about it. And I'm sick of reading news and not really knowing anything about the countries where the stuff is taking place. And knowing some history helps put things into context. My goal is to be able to identify every country on the map.

The last idea I've been toying with is vegetarian, partially influenced by having seen Supersize Me the other day. It would be hard to imagine that I would say this if you had witnessed the lengths I would take to avoid eating a vegetable when I was a child. But then again, there are some delicious meats that Carlos brought me from Spain, and it would be a pity to waste them. I think I'll just reduce my meat intake and find some new fun things to do with vegetables. I am open to any suggestions!

2009-04-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

The day before Carlos arrived, I decided I'd surprise him in Metz since he was going to arrive there in a bus from Frankfurt and then take the train to Nancy. His bus was late, so I called several times with not-so-subtle "Hey...Are you in Metz yet? I mean, I am still in Nancy and all of course ...but I was just wondering where you are" calls. He was pleasantly surprised to see me at the there when his bus finally fought through all of the Friday-before-Easter vacation traffic. And I'm glad I met him since he had a pretty long wait for the next train to Nancy and I was glad to help with his suitcase since it was full of clothes I'd left in Spain over Christmas and yummy Spanish tuna and lomo for me.

It is really bizarre how quickly 2 weeks can pass, especially when you want them to go slowly. I know it's a cliche, and everyone always says "Time flies..." but it's really true. I did have a lot of private lessons and doc appointments and stuff too which kept me busy so it wasn't a particularly relaxing holiday...but that's ok because laziness can sort of get out of control when you have too much time without anything scheduled.

One day we went to Metz with some of my Nancy friends, and of course it was nice with Carlos because we were able to reminisce last year together, and because it was the first time my friends from Nancy had seen Metz, and they liked it. That meant a lot to me because in the Nancy vs. Metz wars, I think Metz doesn't get enough credit (especially when the night life in Nancy is so much better). But Metz is a really beautiful city, and it was a lovely day to go back and stroll along the Moselle. We also saw our friends who run a sandwich shop there, and Carlos has convinced them to vacation in Almeria.

The fair is in town so we spent a lot of time there. I was surprised at how similar the Foire Lorraine is to the Mississippi State Fair. That is to say that the rides and games and junk foods are the same, the carnies are all kind of scary and have weird rural accents, and there are rednecks everywhere (mullets galore). We had fun just walking around, watching people ride the rides, figuring why every game was nearly impossible to win and eating fair food. (Strange fair vocabulary for you-- Cotton Candy is called "barbe à papa" or papa's beard (ew!) and candy apples are "pommes d'amour" or love apples).

We did a lot of cooking too--homemade pizza, lasagna, teriyaki salmon etc...but that meant that we spent lots of time doing dishes too. I dream of the day that I will once again have a dishwasher. And I will not even complain about unloading it!

Easter is strange when you are not with your family...or at least someone's family! We didn't really know how to celebrate...so it was a pretty uneventful day except for the yummy barbecue pizza followed by chocolate crepes we made for lunch.

Carlos left at 6 o'clock yesterday morning, and I've had such busy days, and I've been so tired that I haven't had time for it to really sink in and be sad. Over the two weeks that he was here a lot of things I need to do accumulated so I have plenty to do to keep my distracted.

And now for your latest news on the student strike. There will be another vote on Tuesday to determine whether the blocage will continue, and there has been some discussion of pushing back exams, which could mean I'd have to stay in France longer than expected. Last year however, they had a similar situation, and what they ended up doing was just having exams at the normal time despite only having had a few weeks of class. Despite the fact that this means the students will have had a lot less class, this is what I am hoping for--there is still a chance they will make me recover all the lost hours of class and then do exams later.

2009-04-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

I have to say, I'm starting to develop a big head. I mean, being an anglophone around these parts is sort of like being a celebrity. People hear me and my friends speaking English and chase us down the street to talk to us, "You speeeek Eeeenglish?" Then they ask us for English lessons or propose English exchanges or try to get our numbers. Sometimes in restaurants I am pretty sure that people are listening to our conversations. On Saturday a woman accosted us because her friend was telling her that we don't have plays on words in English (umm, aren't there plays on words in every language?), and well I tried to explain puns, but the only one I could think of was that a friend of Parks has some slippers in the shape of Sigmund Freud's head, and they're called Freudian slippers, and well that one took a good 10 minutes to even try to explain. All of the attention is pretty annoying sometimes, but I do love the novelty.

And every once and a while you find someone who doesn't just love English but who loves America. For example, I wasn't aware of the 6 month wait to go to the eye doctor here, and I just realized that I have a few contacts left! I called EVERY eye doctor in town, and the earliest I could get an appointment was going to be July...that is until I started calling the suburbs and I stumbled upon an America-lover, and managed to get an appointment next week. Apparently his love of America stems from his travels on both the east and west coast. Everyone I've met who has been to the United States has really liked it. This guy seemed just absolutely astonished that someone from the US would call him and try to get an appointment. "Jackson, Mississippi--isn't that crazy!" he kept saying.

The students have voted to continue the strike, and it's still not the party I imagined it would be. I had heard rumors that we'd have to recuperate the hours, but the last I heard was that we will put the info for the class online and hope that the students will do it at home. I'm wondering if they will continue the strike through exams and well just wishing that this weren't happening. As it is the French universities are ill-organized--for example I have absolutely no idea when any of my exams are, and this is normal for the universities--but with the strikes, things are even more confusing and unorganized. Still, the real victims are the students who do not oppose the reforms and still want to learn. In the university where my friend Andromeda works, they voted to strike by a single vote, so now the 49% of students who want to continue going to class, can't.

Anyway, my second spring break has started, and Carlos arrives tomorrow!

Congé de printemps, printemps des chaises

2009-03-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Two Thursdays ago the students woke up early, raided the chairs from the main building at the campus of letters and placed them all in park, which is situated in the middle of a roundabout beside the school (an act designated Printemps des chaises, and the students who did go to class were forced to get along without chairs. The following Tuesday there was a blocage, which means that the students prevented anyone from entering the university, and there was another one on Thursday. And well today I'd heard quiet rumors of blocage but not much so I thought there would probably be class until a teacher explained that sometimes the students don't announce the blocage so that the students who come to class and realize that there is no school go to the protest marches. When they broadcast the blocages, many students just don't go to class at all.

Luckily for me, I have a teacher who starts an hour before I do and calls and gives me a heads up when the campus is blocked.

I'm not exactly sure what's causing the strikes--one thing is that teachers who are doing research are going to be monitored more closely to make sure they're publishing , which I think is fair because I get the feeling that people were taking advantage of all of their paid research time and not producing. But the teachers are upset on this one, and as a result a lot of departments withheld grades from the students, and some of the students are just upset and striking because they want their grades! They're also changing the way you become a teacher, and some people are mad about this too.

Semesters at my universities are already short at 10 weeks (a few are 12, though...), and assuming that they strike next week too, my Tuesday class will have only met 6 times before the exam. What really makes me mad is that I discovered that I can only test them on the information that we covered in class. This means that the incentive of striking is both that you don't have to go to class and then you get an easier exam...and then in the end you get the same diploma as people who actually went to class and learned stuff.

I've heard said that now because of the strike culture, the government makes the laws too strict originally and then when the people strike, which they inevitably will, the government can give them back something.

Ok well last Wednesday I headed to Paris to catch up with Parks, Angela, and Mattie who were there on spring break. It was great reuniting with them, and we had a great time. Some highlights of the trip include a boat trip down the Seine, a trip the palace of Versailles, and a trip to the Musée Marmottan, which houses the biggest collection of Monet paintings in a single location, and yet another trip to the wonderful Musée D'Orsay.

And now I am waiting for my deuxième congé de printemps, that is to say my second spring break, which might be coming sooner than expected as I just heard that a continued blocage might be planned starting Thursday, and that will likely last until the end of the semester!

Write up of me in the school paper

2009-03-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

So we have an English newspaper at school called the "Anglomane", and one monthly feature is an interview with one of the lecteurs. My friend Meghan Harris wrote this biography of me...

Kate Brantley comes from Madison, Mississippi in the Old South of the United States. Her accent doesn’t give this away because she consciously strove to minimize it when her French students had trouble understanding her.

“I had to carefully pronounce words. Instead of drawing out vowels, I just say them quickly and stop,” she explained. Americans might not agree on where they think she is from based on her current accent, but it’s a mute point for French students who don’t seem to recognize the differences among American accents at all.

Kate spent her first year in France as a teaching assistant at a lycee in Metz during the 2007-8 school year. Going to France seemed a logical next step after completing a double major in English literature and French at Birmingham Southern College in Alabama. She added the French major toward the end of her studies because she thought she'd lose her language skills if she didn't continue. She was eager to go abroad because, she jokes, there’s not much to do in Mississippi. To illustrate the point, the summer before she came to France, she was working at the Barnes and Noble bookstore chain and had gained notoriety as the top loyalty card seller at the store.

A year in France would also help her improve her practical use of the language because her French classes were mostly literary in nature.

"I could talk about Zola and other authors when I first came to France, but not about everyday things."

Her literary interest came in part from having an intellectual family (her mother and grandmother were teachers) and perhaps from having a famous Mississippi writer living down the street from where she grew up. She noted that a lot of writers come from this state: “It’s a complicated place, so there’s a lot to say.”

She liked France and wanted to stay another year, so she applied for a teaching assistant position at the Université Nancy 2. Between teaching in Metz and Nancy, she was an au pair in Provence for "the worst family in France," in her words. That may be an exaggeration as it sounds like her creativity simply clashed with the mother's parenting style.

As for teaching, she notes that French students expect teachers to do everything. And her desire for creative discussions and participation again clashes with the students' desire for structure. She finds the students' perfectionism amusing. A great example is when they use correction fluid to cover a written mistake on their papers instead of just scratching it out.

In her teaching role in Nancy, she expected students to be stronger than those she taught previously, but said it has been mixed. Her students this year are studying in diverse fields—psychology and law, among others. It's more challenging than last year and she's learning a lot, but the hardest thing are bureaucratic hurdles that cause her to spend a lot of time to take care of simple things, such as making copies.

There’s nothing she particularly misses from home, but she said she watches the comedy program, ‘The Daily Show’, everyday via the internet. She has come to appreciate Mississippi more lately, however, because the usually dreadfully hot, humid weather seems like a welcome change to the clouds and frequent rain showers in Lorraine.

As for her future plans, they’ve been influenced by the Spanish boyfriend—an Erasmus student—she picked up while ditching her accent in Metz. She’s visited him in Spain this year, but will see him more often when she takes a post this Fall as a teaching assistant in Almeria on the coast. Professionally, it’s a step down, but because her Spanish isn’t quite up to par, it’ll make the situation less stressful.

2009-03-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

I went to Paris, and I saw Jordan. My Jordan! As in, known each other since we were small, spent a million Lebanese conventions and bored summers together, lied and told people we were cousins or sisters... I think this was the first time in two years that we have seen each other for more than a few hours, and it was great. It was nice to see Jodain too, of course.

Seeing people I know from the States is sort of surreal, two separate worlds colliding. Even after someone from across the Atlantic visits, I keep thinking I see other people from home. The faces of passers-by transform into those of the people from home--people I played soccer with when I was a child, people I went to high school with, even family members. It's also times like this that I wake up and can't remember where I am. After a few minutes of crossing off possibilities--I realize I am on my mattress directly on the floor (RIP shitty Ikea bed) and that the sun is seeping in through the slightly uneven curtains I made myself, which means I am in Nancy.

Friday I took the earliest train (almost missing it and forgetting to bring their wedding present), and I got to their swanky hotel by 8:30. Jodain came downstairs and brought me up to the hotel room where Jordan was getting ready, which was good because if I had first seen Jordan in the lobby, I would have screamed and cried and hugged her in front of a lot of snobby hotel workers, and as it was, I got to do it in the privacy of their hotel room. After a big omlette-y English breakfast, we hit the Champs Elysees where we went into shops like Luis Vuitton and admired thousand euro keychains before hitting Sacre Coeur and enjoying lunch in Monmartre. We made it to the Musee D'Orsay about 30 minutes before it closed--why do they even let you in at that point? It's not enough time to see anything at all. This is where we said goodbye as Jordan and Jodain had a boat tour of the Seine to catch.

Boo hoo.

At this point, I called Sarah, who was just getting off work at her new internship, and we hung out for a few hours before I had to return to Nancy. Sarah's boyfriend is in charge of some refugee camps in the Sudan, and he has been evacuated to the capital of Khartoum due to political unrest in the country. And less serious though still frustrating is her hunt for an apartment in Paris--there is serious competition for housing in that city, and until she gets it resolved she's couchsurfing with friends. So...we had plenty to catch up on even after just a week of not seeing each other, and she walked me to my train.

Carlos measures the quality of my blog entries by the number of times his name appears so I have to mention him at least once in this one to cheer him up because he is sick with the flu.

2009-03-02T09:35:00.000-08:00

I'm learning a lot about productivity lately. Like how on the days that I have a bunch of classes, I get home and am super-productive--clean, cook dinner, exercise, but on my days off, I MIGHT get a single thing done, like getting down the street to do a load of laundry. Maybe I should think about waking up before noon on days I don't work.

I'm counting down the number of classes I have left. In one class I only have one class left to conduct--the maximum number of classes I have left in a single subject is 5. And I'm managing to recycle activities from other classes and how to well make it relevant for whatever subject matter it is.

I'm dealing with coffee addiction-and with headaches and sluggishness when I don't drink it.

I'm thinking about how nice it would be to have just a weekend at home--a chance to spend a few hours with family and friends, make a Walmart run, and raid my closet for my spring clothes.

I'm freaking out--mostly about the future. Thinking about plans and contingency plans--what ifs and what if nots. Most of my frustration is based on restrictive EU labor laws, which I won't get into because of their simultaneous boringness and frustratingness. I'll just take this opportunity to--once more--wish I were British.

And now I'm going to bed. And then tomorrow I will try to figure out how to plan without worrying.

2009-02-25T00:35:00.001-08:00

After roughing it for a little while on vacation, it is just so nice to come back home, especially after staying in a youth hostel. You have all of your stuff at your fingertips; you are not sharing a room with 15 other people, etc etc. I've been home for a few days, but I am still enjoying my privacy, having access to more than two pairs of shoes, etc, etc.

Another week of classes down, and I'm still having trouble getting them to talk. Several people have told me that students don't like to talk because often French teachers will ridicule students who make mistakes, but I am never ever mean to someone who makes a mistake, and at this point in the semester the students know that.

Another problem I've been told is that in French schools, the teacher is the master, and the students are just supposed to sit back, take notes, and just absorb his plentiful knowledge. This strategy doesn't work for language learning seeing as how you actually have to participate and make efforts to speak. So when I ask them to speak, they are somewhat bewildered at the concept of participation. And since so many of my classes are focussed on oral comprehension, a lot of the classes are like pulling teeth.

The result is that I've been giving more horrible "teacher speeches," the "I work so hard and you don't appreciate it; I only ask that you participate," but this is slowly but surely destroying every ounce of dignity I have so I am no longer begging them to talk. My new strategy is that if they don't talk, I will just wait for someone to answer. I will wait 5, 10 minutes, whatever. But I can't learn English for them, and well if they don't do well on their exams, it is not my problem.

I'm about 3/4ths of the way done with classes--the end is in sight! I will officially finish with one of the classes tomorrow, and for some of the others the last classes will just be oral presentations so they will finish up soon. Exams start in May and last through June, but that shouldn't be too much work for me so I can focus on learning Spanish, generally being lazy and whatever else suits my fancy. Not knowing when my exams are (due to the horrifyingly unorganized university) means that I don't know when I finish and therefore don't know what I am doing this summer. Hopefully I'll make it to Almeria so I can have some beach and Carlos time. I'd also like to be there for the feria, which from what I gather is basically just a week-long citywide party.

Speaking of Carlos, he has bought his ticket to come visit me in April! He'll be here about 2 weeks, which will be so wonderful after 3 months of not seeing each other. My friends in Nancy are also excited about meeting him after hearing me talk about him for a whole year.

My friend Sarah is leaving Nancy because she has an internship in Paris. Our little group is getting smaller and smaller, but well now we will have a floor to crash on in Paris and another excuse to go. I talked to Jordan the other day, who is getting married on Saturday (!), and I am going to meet up with her and Jodain in Paris next week for a day of their honeymoon and hopefully I'll be able to crash with Sarah and spend a little more time in the city. I'm getting spoiled with all of this travelling--my half week in Paris with Mattie, Angela and Parks is in about 3 weeks.

Voyage to Berlin

2009-02-22T03:45:00.000-08:00

My week in Berlin was marvelous. It is just a great city with lots of museums and cool things to do. After 5 days we didn't get to see that much of it; I can't imagine trying to visit just for a weekend. It is a big city, but it has a different vibe than Paris--people on the metro are still in a hurry but if they bump into you they stop to apologize. And, well the city is not that expensive so we ate well and cheaply (I am remembering many bad yet expensive meals in Paris). It has lots of things to do like most capital cities but lacks the stressed and pretentious atmosphere of other big cities.

We came by bus (a part of our super-low budget plan), and it was my first international coach experience. As soon as we got on the dirty and crowded bus, I realized that you get what you pay for. All of the bus drivers spoke only Polish and didn't seem to know what was going on. In Berlin on the way home no one could tell us what bus we were getting on and just kept referring us to other people who didn't know either--causing us to wonder, "Are we in France, or what?" The good news is that (with the exception of a single transfer, which involved zero waiting time) we got there directly which is quite a change from my trips to Almeria which involve at least 5 different modes of transportation. In total, the trip took about 12 hours, but each way it was overnight, and though I didn't sleep too well on the buses, it was nice not to waste entire days en route.

So we arrived on Monday at 6a.m. and it was snowing fairly heavily (this didn't stop all week until Friday when it turned into rain). It was a lot colder in Berlin, which made me develop a little appreciation for the weather in Lorraine. The good news about snow is that it makes for nice pictures! Our hostel was really well located, not far from Unter den Linten, which is a street with lots and lots of historic places like the cathedral, university, museums, the operahouse and, Opernplatz, the square that was the site of the Nazi book burning (see the third Indiana Jones film...). The monument for this event is really cool...it is a window in the ground down to a room full of empty bookshelves, enough bookshelves to house all of the books that were burned.

On Tuesday we did a free walking tour, and it was really cool. It was nice to get a sort of "insider" view of the city and to see thing that we wouldn't have known how to find otherwise, such as the site of Hitler's underground bunker (which is now completely unmarked). We also got to see building which housed the Nazi airplane strategists, which is now a tax office, and a cool socialist propaganda mural, which is left up as a reminder of the past, and finally we saw a lot of the wall and learned exactly how it worked. There is so much history to the city that it is almost overwhelming.

For the rest of the trip, we did a lot of shopping, saw a cool film museum in Potsdamerplatz, went to the national gallery, and found a really fun pub quiz in both German and English where we met some nice Berliners.

I also had the opportunity to meet up with some German friends who have moved to Berlin. Luisa worked in Metz's tourism office last year and was my next-door neighbor in the foyer de jeunes travailleuses before I moved out. She met with us and took us to a cool restaurant. She is now working for the German Ministry of Foreign affairs, which is a really awesome job, and I am glad to have a connection there--who knows when I might need it?

We also got to meet up with my friend Janne--we'd become last year in Metz because she was the roommate of my friend who was an assistant. Janne took us around her neighborhood, which was really cool since it was a little off the beaten path and felt like "real Berlin."

So Germany earns a place on my list of coolest places and places where I could imagine myself living--if I only spoke German! Well maybe I'll start thinking about that once I conquer Spanish.

"Je ne suis pas dictionnaire"

2009-02-08T04:47:00.000-08:00

This sign hung on a string in the classroom of all of my high school French classes, and if we were really annoying my teacher, she would wear it around her neck and point to it every time we asked her for a word in French. I'm having the same problem in my classes. I give an assignment, and then they just ask me a zillion times, "How do you say this and how do you say that?" and the lazy ones don't even say it in English, it's just "Comment dit-on...?" over and over. And well I'll admit that often it is good to ask a native to get the bon mot for the context because sometimes if you just use the dictionary word it can come out awkward or just flat out wrong.

This is how in my first year of French I ended up saying "Je suis votre plus grand ventilateur" (I am your biggest ventilator") when I was trying to get out, "I am your biggest fan."

But I don't like knowing either that the website www.wordreference.com could replace me in my classes.

Branuary celebrations are continuing, still lots of fun, although the older I get the earlier I have to turn in...

I am getting my application together to be an assistant in Spain...let's see if I can use my connections to get placed in Almeria.

2009-02-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

It was stealth snow; it fell Sunday night when I sleeping. So I didn't see it until I stepped outside my apartment so early on Monday morning (but still running late) because I had to get all of my copies done before the first class. 3 inches covering everything without a single footprint. It's then that I could have used snow shoes to get to work since it ended up taking me twice as long to walk to school. Normally I don't pay too much attention to the weather. I always dress warmly; I always carry an umbrella. But this time I felt sort of deceived; I don't mind the snow, but it was cruel to fall when I wasn't paying attention and surprise me when I was running late.

It is Tuesday night which means that I am finished with class for the week, but whew, let me tell you that Mondays and Tuesdays run me completely ragged.

On top of that we are having our "English Night" on Monday nights. I am not sure I have mentioned "English Night" before but at our first lecteur meeting our boss encouraged us to set up a night to go to a bar and invite our students so that they would have the opportunity to speak English in a more relaxed atmosphere. It really caught on last semester, partially because French students don't really have clubs or sororities or fraternities so they don't have too many contexts to meet other students. But last semester among the 7 lecteurs we got into all sorts of confusion about what bar to have it in and what night of the week so this semester we have the date and time all sorted out, and we will only have it every two weeks because while it's really fun sometimes, it does feel like work other times. Sometimes it's fun to hang out with the students and show them, "Hey, I am a person too!" but sometimes hanging out with them gets tedious and or/awkward.

A few weeks ago I started tutoring some doctors, pneomologists to be specific. Luckily I don't have to do much preparation, and they are nice and receptive. This tutoring is solidifying my suspicion that after teaching English for so many subjects this year , I will be prepared teach English to any group of people in the future.

I started taking a Spanish class last Thursday. I was actually looking for a class of one of my Mexican lectrice friends who said I could come, and I stumbled into the class of a different teacher and well just asked her if I could stay. It was a strike day so there were only 2 students, and I think she was just glad to have someone else present. Class ended early, and I stayed to chat, and she told me that my Spanish was better than anyone else's in the class (this is NOT a beginner class), and I'm still feeling pretty darn smug about that.

It is strike season again! People in the universities are all up in arms because the gov't wants to change the way teacher/researcher positions work. A lot of teachers are withholding the grades from last semester in rebellion--to the dismay of the students, some of whom are not sure they will graduate now. All of my classes were cancelled last Tuesday, and I was still paid (oh joy of joys!)--because the day was "banalisée" which means that classes were cancelled so that everyone could discuss the reforms. Now it seems like there will be massive professor strikes, although I will not be affected--if I strike, I don't get paid! Plus, I don't care about teacher/researcher reforms. It's going to mean a lower turn out in my classes from the students because they won't bother coming when most of their other classes are cancelled. I'm not sure if I am happy or sad about this.

The strikes are not limited to the universities--trams, trains, you name it, just about everyone is striking. Someone told me that they are striking to tell Sarkozy to do something about the economic crisis, but I just can't understand how someone could think that not working would help alleviate the suffering from the crisis?

Branuary '09

2009-01-26T13:15:00.000-08:00

Classes started back in full on the 19th of January, and on the same day I received an email from one of my American lectrice friends stating that she would not be returning to Nancy. Her reasons for staying in the United States are rather ambiguous, and for me it came as quite a shock. It is hard to describe how fine-tuned the dynamic was in our group of close friends, but it was something rare, and now that she's gone, it's just not quite the same. The other problem with this is that the rest of us have to cover her hours. I took her two hours of law class, which I thought would be a breeze since I figured I could just recycle the stuff I have been doing with my master's law students, but it turns out the subjects are already planned, and the first five weeks of the class are devoted to--law suits related to water ownership. Now I work hard (often too hard) to make sure that all of my classes are interesting and fun, and well with the selection of this topic has made that just about impossible.

And then, well, you know today was one of those days where everything just falls apart. After spending all Sunday brushing up on my water-related court cases and lingo as I was instructed (and cooking a lasagna 15 because it was my turn to cook for Lunch Bunch!), I got to class at 8 in the morning (dragging the lasagna) to find that the students had not been assigned what I was told they had been assigned and couldn't even discuss it. But I still got through both classes alright. Immediately following was a class of my own for which both the worksheets and the video cassette I needed were missing-but I somehow got through 2 hours of productive class anyway. Recovering the classes was really exhilerating, and I don't think the fact that I was improvising every second came through. I can't attribute this to any sort of ability of mine but to the fact that after you gain a certain amount of teaching experience, you just develop all of these tricks to pull out of your hat until you are (almost at least) never stumped by these situations.

Well on to happier things....Saturday was my birthday. My friends first came over on Friday for a quiet evening in, and then on Saturday we went out to a Cuban restaurant then to a bar and then a dance club. It was such a great night. My friends were really sweet about making sure that I had a good time. And as you probably know, I always enforce a month of birthday celebrations ("Branuary"). It all started at BSC during the January term when every one travelled and came back at random times at the end of January...so every time someone got back we had to re-celebrate, and well my birthday ended up lasting for weeks. So the tradition lives on, and since most of my friends have summer birthdays, everyone's down for it. It's kind of a slow time--post-Xmas vacation, wintery weather, and classes are getting started so it's nice to have a reason to celebrate. The height of Branuary celebrations will be our trip to Berlin, which we have all reserved and book for the middle of February, can't wait.

Ashtrays on their heads

2009-01-17T03:04:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it. On Monday I had to beg my students to stop talking. My 5 minute debate topic turned into a 45 minute debate. They were interested and excited, and well that is just going to be great because planning this class is going to be pretty easy I think, and I really enjoyed it. How refreshing!

I got a compliment on my French the other day, and I am feeling a lot more confident with my accent. It's strange because as I am studying Spanish, I am getting mixed up on a few words...but I think that after a year and a half, I am understanding how the language sounds, even if I don't know every single vocabulary word and am not sure if I will ever master the subjunctive. People have stopped asking me where I am from every time I open my mouth.

I am still prone to the occasional absurd mistake, though. I was trying to explain Ash Wednesday to someone the other day, and well I got to the word ash and mixed it up with ashtray (cendre vs. cendrier), and no one quite understood why on a religious holiday everyone would put ashtrays on their heads...but seriously, other than that my French is good, I swear!

Looks like I will be heading to Berlin with my four closest friends for the week of vacations in February (as part of my extended birthday celebrations....). The rest of my classes start tomorrow, and the vacation starts in less than a month. It is going to be hard to leave this country of such plentiful vacations next year.

Me voy!

2009-01-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

Well it is time for another update I suppose. The rest of the vacation in Spain was pretty uneventful. We didn't do much, went bowling, hung out with his family, watched some movies, hung out with his family, and then hung out with his family some more. The family relationship is very different there. You are not a single entity. You are in a family. And a lot of the family conflicts I know of there arose when a child left the home too early (i.e. age 20). That is quite the opposite from what I witnessed at home--teenagers literally kicked out of the house (well most of them went willingly) at 18, welcomed back at holidays and a few random weekends, but that's about it. But in Spain, it is an insult--"Why would you leave us?????" they think.

The best part about Christmas in Spain was all of the different celebrations. First we celebrated Christmas Eve (lots of food and family), then New Year's (lots of food and family and at midnight you have to eat 12 grapes really fast, one to give you good luck in each month of the year, and afterwards Carlos and I got all dolled up and went to a party), and then the Epiphany (lots of food, family and presents brought from the wisemen). I have to admit that despite my reservations, Carlos' family was very open and welcoming, and I didn't feel out of place, although having Carlos glued to my side didn't hurt anything either.

There's one more thing that I started to do while I was in Spain...I started looking for jobs. That is right, I am trying to move to Spain. I've had enough of France. I've actually got it all worked out because Carlos' parents still own the flat that they lived in before they bought their house, and they are going to let me live there, and we are going to rent out the rest of the rooms. Last year they had Erasmus students living there, and they totally trashed the place so like this I can supervise a little and make sure that they keep the apartment in good condition. The apartment is on the main street in the city right in the middle of things. Not as close as Carlos' house to the beach but it's ok, still not too far.

There, the cat is out of the bag, although I wasn't doing a good job of keeping it a secret. It's weird because I told myself that I would never ever move anywhere for a boy. But it just so happens that the conditions are right--Carlos and my relationship is strong enough for me to consider it; I am sick of France, but don't want to return to the United States; I like the food, lifestyle and culture there, and I feel safer here in Europe with the economic climate the way it is in the US. Obviously the crisis is affecting things here, but less so I think, and anyway my skills are more marketable here where I can teach English.

Sometimes when I think about it, I wonder if can handle starting from scratch again--new country, new language, new culture--but I have to remember that this time I will have Carlos by my side and it will be easier. I am also remembering how exciting my first year in France was and what a discovery everything was...

Often I find myself wishing I were British because of their facility of finding jobs all over the European Union. It is so strange sometimes--I look at my British friends and with the exception of their accent and a few cultural differences, we are not THAT different--but being a member of the EU comes with so many advantages. I am pretty sure that if I were British, I could find a job in Almeria in no time. And even if I didn't have a job, I wouldn't have to worry about getting kicked out of the country. As it is, I know it will be a struggle to get a job that will get me a visa to stay. But then I have to remember how lucky I was to be born an anglophone. If I'd been born in some tiny country with a specific language, I would not have all of these opportunities to travel, this sort of freedom of movement.

I came back to France on Thursday, and the trip was horrific with so many different forms of transportation. I was planning on going back in February, but I just don't think I can handle all of those planes and trains and buses and shuttles for a week during which Carlos will have class all day. I might end up taking a trip with my friends because they are wonderful, and I know that at the end of the year we are going to separate and who knows when and if we will ever see each other again.

My boss called me as soon as I set foot back in France. I've been hard at work...I didn't realize it before, but I have a class that starts tomorrow, and another one that may or may not start on Tuesday--the French administrators will not email me back and tell me! Ugh, here we go again. It is so hard to think about another semester in this unorganized system. The administrators pose bigger problems than the students.

On the bright side, I have a lot of things to look forward to this semester...my birthday is in less than two weeks meaning that Branuary, my yearly month of birthday celebrations is coming soon. And as the only one who has a birthday until summer, my friends are totally down for this. A possible trip with friends in February. Meeting my college friends Ang, Parks, and Mattie in Paris in March. Seeing Carlos again in April, and well, I think that in April, classes will end. Semesters here are only 10 weeks long, which is just well, crazily short. I am starting to understand why my undergraduate degree has more value than a French undergraduate degree. Anyway, it looks like I am not going to have classes on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and most Fridays though I will be tutoring med students on Fridays. My Mondays and Tuesdays will be pretty rough obviously but I should have time to work on my Spanish...

Feliz Navidad

2008-12-29T02:38:00.000-08:00

Originally in Spain, there was no Santa Claus on Christmas. Presents were delivered on the Epiphany (January 6th) by the 3 wise men, and if you ask me that makes a lot more sense. But with globalization, you can´t suppress all of the Santa movies and the marketing, and now there is an awkward combination of both legends. When Carlos was a child he was able to choose which one he wanted presents from, and well now his sister receives presents from both. I guess what I have the most trouble understanding is how you keep two stories straight for the children. It´s hard enough maintaining one lie.

Here, Christmas is celebrated on the night of Christmas Eve so a lot of his family came over and we had an enormous wonderful meal. Luckily my comprehension skills are getting a lot better so I was less bored, but my speaking skills are still pretty weak, so I was pretty silent. On Christmas day we really didn´t do anything at all. So that I didn´t lose my traditions entirely, Carlos and I exchanged presents--I gave him some new games, and he gave me a new suitcase, and we spent most of the day playing the game.

Other than that, there is really not much to report. Mostly just extreme laziness as we have both had trouble waking up before noon....yes in that sense it is a pretty normal holiday.

¡Porfin, Vacaciones!

2008-12-18T10:15:00.001-08:00

Two weekends ago my friend Nico invited me out with him and his friends because his roommate is a clown and was going to perform as a part of the celebrations for the weekend of St. Nicolas. St. Nicolas here in Lorraine and (also in parts of Germany and Belgium) also sort of eclipsed Santa Claus here at one point, and for a while people exchanged gifts not on Christmas but on the feast of St. Nicolas on December 6th. The legend of St. Nicolas has something to do with a butcher stumbling across several children, chopping them up and storing them to prepare some day with some sour kraut, and then St. Nicolas coming and bringing the kids back to life. Lovely?

Anyway I was just too curious to see Nico´s clown roommate (by the way, just imagine walking into your own kitchen and seeing a clown sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal...). It was really entertaining and surprisingly science-y since this guy got his master´s in chemistry before deciding to devote all of his time to clown-ing.

Saturday night there were fireworks and a re-enactment of the legend of St. Nicolas, and we had plans to go, but when I heard that Place Stan was jam-packed, we decided to stay in my friend´s apartment and watch the fireworks from there. Place Stan is the place in the picture banner on my blog, and since I am on vacation and have time to explain it, I will give you a little history lesson. Stanislas was this guy who was elected king of a combination of Poland and Lithuania. His daughter married Louis XV of France. Then he lost his kingship , caused a war of succession, became king again, and well in the end, ended up with nothing. As a consolation prize, Louis XV gave him the region of Lorraine. So Place Stanislas is the main square in Nancy, and let me tell you it is gorgeous, with lots of gold embossed things and beautiful statues and buildings...and of course, an enormous statue of Stanislas himself in the center. So anyway, the idea of squeezing into Place Stan with tens of thousands of other people in the drizzle wasn´t appealing enough to get us there, but we did enjoy the fireworks from afar.

So I had a kind of slow week when classes were over with nothing to plan, but then the exams all tumbled in. And, well at first, the power of grading exams was kind of exhilerating...but it didn´t take too long for this feeling to wear off! Luckily a lot of my exams were oral, and well it is just such a breeze to let the students do all of the work to just sit there and grade them. My basic conversation class was probably the funniest since I told the students to use as much vocabulary we learned in class as possible..we´d read the story ¨Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel´s Coat¨by Roald Dahl, in the story he uses the phrase ¨dirty dog,¨so in half of ten minute conversations between students, I ended up with one student calling another a ¨dirty dog.¨

Last Saturday one of my friends and I went on a day trip to Paris, and we started out with the flea market and then my favorite second-hand store and finally went to the Orangerie, which is an oft-neglected museum just next to the Louvre full of Monet paintings that take up entire walls. It was absolutely amazing to stand in the middle of a room and to be completely surrounded by these paintings. The rooms were designed for the paintings, and the walls were kind of rounded, so it was like actually being there. Amazing. There were two problems with the trip to Paris, though. First of all, we took a bus there because it was a special (cheap!) school trip. Paris and Nancy are an hour and a half away from each other on the TGV trains, and this is misleading since the trains are going at about a zillion miles an hour. By bus it took us around 4.5 hours to get there. The second problem was the weather--freezing and cold, and the bus ride home was especially soaking wet and freezing. Still, it was really great to see Paris...this was the first time I have been since Paris and I were there...3 years ago I guess? Or more?

So yesterday I left for Spain, and the trip was super complicated as usual. I made some British friends on the way there, and we figured out how to get to the middle-of-nowhere Ryanair airport. When I flew into Granada, Carlos was waiting for me. He and his dad drove from Almeria to get me, and we still had a long-ish drive home (longer since the road between Almeria and Granada was frozen). Granada is freezing, but here in Almeria it is over 50 degrees Farenheit...maybe even up to 60, and sunny...this temperature difference is due to the high altitude in Granada. Today I left the house only with a light sweater...and was warm. We went to his little sister´s Christmas program today, which was hilariously ill-organized...I mean how DO you organize a group of 5 year olds on a stage singing and dancing? Anyway it was adorable and nice to get me in the Christmas mood. Carlos´ family has a nice Christmas tree, and things around here are pretty festive, especially with a kid around.

Eso es todo. Hasta Luego.

2008-12-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

"Dans le SCELV, on se tutoye." was the first sentence that my boss ever said to me in person. This was a rather confusing sentence to start off with, and it took me a minute to realize that she was telling me that in our department we use the informal form of "you" with everyone. This, I think, illustrates how opening and welcoming the people in my department are.

On Monday we have a lunch bunch. I got the invitation immediately upon my arrival in Nancy. The members of my department all get together every week, and someone brings the main dish, and someone brings the dessert, and it's nice because we have one of the more diverse departments of the university, yet we are one of the more close knit groups. My department includes teachers in several languages, and we are the ones that teach languages to the language non-specialists. All of the teachers are spread pretty thin in teaching English oriented to so many different subjects and on campuses so spread out all over the city so everyone's nice about helping everyone else out.

The first time I went to lunch, the other teachers told me it was in a kitchen behind a "secret door" in an academic records building and down some dark stairs. It is truly strange that there is somewhere on campus so removed because every other inch of the fac de lettres (the humanities campus) is packed, and there are not enough classrooms or anything. (The other campuses are better equipped, especially the law campus--I think you can see the government's general attitude towards humanities students in the terrible state of the fac de lettres...) I slipped away to go to the bathroom on Monday while they were heating up lunch, and as I tried to leave the stall, I made a horrible realization. The door wouldn't open. It wasn't locked.

Don't panic, I told myself. Just bang on the door and scream at the top of your lungs, and someone will hear you, and it will be ok. After ten minutes of screaming and banging I started to lose hope, and the movie that Carlos and I watched this summer about a boy who is accidentally locked in a closet and never escapes came rushing back to my memory. These were evidentally bathrooms that no one cleaned on a regular basis, and I knew that my colleagues were down the hall, but they apparently couldn't hear me, even though I was saying their names. Voice nearly gone and hands red, it was tempting to stop, but I knew that if I didn't get someone's attention during lunch, then they'd all leave, and then no one would be on this floor of the building. After about twenty minutes I was discovered by a German teacher (the same German teacher I went with to Trier), and one of the lunch bunch members went and got a screwdriver and got me out. Apparently this is not the first time that this has happened. The rest of the day was kind of hard. I was shaky and nervous. But well I have learned my lesson. I will never go anywhere without my cellphone again.

In my pre-moving to France reading rampage of memoirs of American and British expats in France, I stumbled upon Almost French by Sarah Turnbull in which she warns about how letters written in French are full of formal and fluffy expressions, and I didn't pay too much attention to this until I started having to correspond with many French administrators in the universities, and I started encountering emails addressed to "My dear distinguished colleague" and signed "with all of my appreciation for your help and attention. I am at your disposition for any other information that you may require." I've even seen fluffier--it is like an art form. This is contrary to my own person email template:

Dear (person),

(Stating what I need or what I need to know)

Thanks!

Kate

I am working on the fluff, but it's hard, and I'm not sure how thick to lay it on? Anyway, I've started just making sure that there is a grammatical error or two in the email just so that the people realize that I am not French, and I probably don't know any better. (Actually I rely on this excuse in many different situtations...)

The thing is that I have had to send a lot of emails like that lately. Working at three campuses is tough because I am dealing with three sets of administrators, and simply finding out when my exams are/what classrooms they are in is unbelievably complicated. And then there is the emails I keep getting from the students. I have a new sympathy for teachers. Every student has some sort of situation that requires special attention. I am not unsympathetic to actual problems, but you just wouldn't believe the triviality of a lot of this stuff. So I've been spending a lot of time emailing students and trying to figure out how to accommodate whatever situation.

Yesterday I had a meeting at the hospital. I had received an email asking if anyone wanted to tutor doctors in English over the telephone. Tutoring without having to leave the house sounded too good to be true so I had an interview with some official head of medicine doctor yesterday, and I'll be starting next week. My courseload for next semester so I should have time for this tutoring and hopefully some more.

In thanking you my esteemed readers for your gracious attention. I rest at your disposal for any input or questions that you ma require.

Trier

2008-12-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

Did I mention that we saw the house Karl Marx was born in?

S has clarified, and it wasn't the king of Ghana that we saw but a king of one of the major tribes of Ghana. Still cool though...

Vin chaud!

Last look at the Trier Christmas market

Thanksgiving!

2008-12-04T11:06:00.001-08:00

2008-11-30T01:32:00.000-08:00

Wednesday I ran into one of the teachers I worked with in Metz in centre ville in Nancy, and upon seeing me she almost had a heart attack from surprise. I guess when I didn't come back to Metz, everyone assumed I went back to the US. I was under the impression that language exchange Carlos with whom I am still in touch, would have informed everyone, but apparently not. She was most excited to hear that Carlos and I are still together (jumping and down and clapping), and she encouraged me to come back to Metz to hang out with the teachers from Cormontaigne since I was pretty close to a lot of them. Running into someone I have known for a while definitely makes me feel less like I am a foreign culture. That is not to say that I feel out of place here, but that seeing someone I know makes me feel a little less transitional.

Thursday was my friend JP's birthday so we all got together and had a big birthday dinner for him, which was lovely, but I was out a little late despite my early class. Had class all day Friday and then had to run home and get ready for Thanksgiving. It was a potluck so I didn't have TOO much work to prepare for it. I prepared the sweet potato casserole and the turkey. I am probably going to Thanksgiving hell. It was bad enough when I bought pre-seasoned frozen turkey breasts, but then when the guest list got out of control last minute I ran to the store and had to get frozen turkey nuggets. My profoundest apologies to the pilgrims and Indians currently rolling in their graves. We had a turn out of about 16 people, representatives of 5 countries, I think. It was a lot of fun, although parties are always a little bit less fun when you are playing hostess. I bought construction paper and made everyone make Indian headdresses, because in my opinion, you can't dive right into the holiday without understanding all of the arts and crafts and pilgrim and Indian pageants we had wearing decorated brown paper bags that we underwent as children. The party was very festive with lots of good food, and of course we all said what we were thankful for. The only casualty of the evening was my bed which broke (well it was already sort of broken) under the weight of a lot of people sitting on it. At the end of the party, my friend S (half French half Ghanan but grew up in London) told me how much they enjoyed it and really appreciated the premise of the holiday and intends to continue to celebrate it in the future.

My alarm went off early on Saturday, and at first I thought I'd set it on accident, but then remembered that it was for my trip to Trier. My three closest friends were slated to go as well, but I felt sure that after we all stayed out late Thursday and Friday that someone wasn't going to make it to the train station. Surprisingly we all made it and had a lovely day abroad. Trier is the oldest city in Germany so there are some interesting Roman ruins and a lot of things that date from emperor Constantine. In the gorgeous cathedral there is what is supposedly Jesus' seamless cloak is kept, which I was not able to really see since they only take it out every 50 years or so. I did however, see the thingy that it is kept in, which was pretty neat.

We spent most of the day at the Christmas markets, which were really impressive and hold their place as my favorites thus far (better than Strasbourg, Colmar, Metz, and Nancy). We even ran into the king of Ghana who made an appearance at the markets. The funniest thing about being in Germany was for the first time in a long time I was almost completely linguistically unequipped. I had made the faulty assumption that among the four of us cultured people we would have enough German to get by, but all we were able to muster was "hello" "goodbye" "excuse me" "I have a little table" "my name is..." "applesauce with prunes" numbers through ten and a few other useless expressions. I know that a lot of Germans speak English, but we didn't seem to find any of them, which left us (rather comically) struggling to communicate. It's funny because even in Spain I am able to communicate although maybe not smoothly, though usually in public I don't need to since I have Carlos. It was just kind of shocking after dedicating so much of my time to language learning (and teaching!) to suddenly be somewhere without a single word.

I will try to publish some pictures from Tgiving and Germany soon!

ça tombe...

2008-11-23T08:59:00.000-08:00

Et voilà...the snow is falling and has been since yesterday morning. It has just started to stick a little. I dislike the cold and the snow, but there is something intriguing about watching it fall from the chaleur of my apartment, since I have only seen it a few times in my life. I can only remember it snowing a few times in Metz, and that was really in the heart of winter. Several people have told me that this winter will be a doozie, but I don't know if they were being serious or just teasing me.

I have really been missing Metz lately, and at first I thought I was just missing all of my wonderful friends there, but I have good friends and plenty of fun here, and I've finally figured out what it is. You cannot recreate your first year living abroad. Everything is a mystery and a surprise, and it's all frustrating and exciting to unravel. Learning about French traditions and holidays and discovering the culture for the first time was wonderful. This year knowing the ropes has its own advantages of course. I have felt less lost and more in control. But I am missing the discovery of my first year-first taste of brie, first fête du nouveau beaujolais, etc. Maybe next year I will move to a new country so I can have that again...

Yesterday I cooked Mexican food for all of my friends. The last three weekends have resulted in me cooking for my friends, and after my lasagne of last week, and my tabouli and spinach pies of last year, no one believes that I am not a good cook. I might not be a lost cause after all.

'Tis the season...

2008-11-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

of strikes. I was reading one American writing about living in France who noted that every year the French strike about the same things. Usually the most annoying ones are the transportation ones, but I have yet to witness a garbage strikes. This year the plane strikes have been worse than the train ones. I am hoping that this is all resolved before my holiday travels . My poor roommate Bérèngere's teachers and the people who give her internships are all on strike. This is her last year of speech therapy school, and she doesn't know if she will be able to graduate.

Tis also the beginning of holiday season. The Christmas markets open this week, and like Metz, Nancy is covered in lights and decorations. It seems strange to me that the energy-conscious French would waste so much electricity, but then I remember that cities close to Germany like Nancy, Metz, and Strasbourg do a good tourism business this time of year with the Xmas markets and festive atmosphere.

Friday I am having a Thanksgiving meal for my friends like last year. Making sweet potato casserole. Last year Carlos mashed all of the potatoes. This year I will have to do it myself. Pooh.

The good news is that things are winding down at work, although I am having to make up some exams which isn't easy. Still, I should have more time to relax which is pretty needed.

Snow is predicted this weekend. Ugh.

"Mister O"--Peut-il changer le monde?

2008-11-07T06:55:00.000-08:00

I feel the need to say something profound about the elections. It does not need to be said that I am ecstatic about the result. On Tuesday I didn't plan to stay awake to watch the results--but at 6 a.m. on Wednesday I was woken up by people honking through the streets in excitement. The reaction here isn't what expected, though. I thought that people would be simply happy that the Bush's terms were over--that the war in Iraq will end sooner rather than later and that the United States will be more cooperative on the international front.

But the election means a lot more than that over here. A LOT of my non-American friends cried when Barack Obama was declared the winner. Last night I watched a television show with a bunch of pundits discussing whether or not "Mister O" can change the world. It sounds strange, but people think that the election in the US will somehow have direct impacts upon their own lives.

There is also the racial significance. My own reaction is to be pessimistic about the "racial revolution" of his election. Bush made it really easy for a Democrat to get elected, and Obama's strength in economics helped a lot too. But just because a majority of Americans voted for a candidate of African origins doesn't mean that the politics of race have changed a lot in the US. But people here of all origins have interpreted this as hope for better relations between people of all nationalities. My own hope (after hearing friends and family telling me about people in Mississippi saying that Obama is the antichrist and threatening to move to South America or wherever...) is that people in the US who do not believe in racial equality will change their attitudes once Obama's policies and changes start positively affecting them. Maybe as people here hope--this will somehow ameliorate race relations worldwide too.

In light of the elections peoples' reactions to me have changed too. I was at a Middle Eastern grocery store the other day, and (as always, no matter how good my French is...) my accent attracted attention, and he asked where I was from. "Oh!! We are all SO HAPPY about the election! Even the children!" It strikes me as strange that people are so quick to forget the hostilities they had towards Americans during the Bush administration, and their reaction has changed into something closer to praise---as if I personally have done something to better their lives. I can't tell you how many times since the election I have heard people say the word "revolution" and have talked about how the world is now moving in a positive direction.

My initial reaction to all of this is that Barack Obama cannot live up to the hype. BUT I have been reading a lot about how he is trying to immediately reverse a lot of Bush's policies that were moving the country backwards so I am hopeful that he will be able to change a lot. As for how much he can change on the world stage--I am not sure. I think that at least there will be a different world atmosphere. The US domination of international foreign policy caused a lot of uneasiness over here, and I think at the very least a great international spirit of cooperation will be at least one positive affect for people here.

Anyway that's all I will say about politics for now. It is not my intention to put up a politicized blog, but to give you the reactions of people in France about what's going on...

There is really not a whole lot to tell about the rest of my trip to Almeria. Carlos and I didn't even end up celebrating our anniversary at all because it was too rainy to go anywhere. We ate more tapas, watched a bunch of movies and bummed around town--normal stuff.

I did make it back to Nancy without having to spend the night in Paris, but it took a whole day of planning to succeed at this. I knew I wouldn't have time to check my bag so I had to be very sneaky about how to get my too big backpack on the plane. This involved making sure not to go to the desk of the woman who made everyone check their bag for size, walking sideways or backwards so the airline workers couldn't see how enormous my backpack was, etc. It also included running through Paris (again!) from one station to another--but I did it!

I told my friends that when I got back from Spain that we would need to hang out a lot so that I could surmount my inevitable post-vacation depression--and they have followed through. We have gone out almost every night for the past week. Friday night we went to a symphony concert which featured a famous violinist. I met some American girls in the bathroom who joined us, and later Ruth came with a friend who was visiting her who--turns out I went to high school with (proving once again that it is a small world--a tiny world in fact). Saturday one friend decided we should all get together for a big Lebanese meal so I cooked tabouli and spinch pies and collaboratively with my friend Kat--falafel. I must say I am proud of of the way everything turned out--especially after my many many recent cooking failures. Maybe there's hope for my cooking future after all.

Friday was my meeting at the Prefecture in order to deliver all of my paperwork to get my carte de sejour. The woman I talked to was unbelievably friendly, nice, and efficient. This almost makes up for the fact that they asked me for a paper which was not on the list of needed papers, and now I have to back and spend all day in the waiting room just to give it to them. In any case, the demarche to get my carte de sejour is started, and once I deliver the last paper, all that will be left for me to do is wait.

Today is a public holiday--Armistice Day, and, and I don't work tomorrow. Off to "profiter" from my free time. Hasta luego

¨¿Puedes hablar mas despacio, por favor?¨

2008-10-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Resuming where I left off last time...I was feeling pretty frustrated with my teaching. Thursday night I was at work until 8 p.m. trying to figure out what to do for my business finance class early on Friday morning. I am supposed to prepare them to talk about the financial state of businesses and prepare them to give a presentation about a business. I decided that the best thing to do was to teach them how to read a 10k report...probably the least interesting thing to do possible. And I got to class, and most of them were pretty disrespectful, and the one I yelled at last time for texting was still texting, and I left class as frustrated as ever.

That afternoon I had a class that I was meeting for the first time. The first two hours consisted of them giving me presentations with the differing financial policies of John McCain and Barack Obama as I graded them. The presentations were wonderful. The kids had obviously put lots of work into it, and some of them had memorized their speeches, and most of their English levels weren´t that high, but their motivation level was. One group had a mock debate between the two candidates, complete with an angry audience member whose house had been foreclosed. During the last hour I was supposed to talk to the students about the election (now see all of this time I´ve spent on cnn.com, www.fivethirtyeight.com and watching the Daily Show has not been in vain...) and then to start some debates between the kids. I told them about the elections with all of my ¨insider¨ info. Then we debated some issues like gun control and finally we had a debate of McCain vs. Obama for president. My goal of doing this was to actually create some political dialogue about the election because over here in Europe, there is no dialog--everyone supports Barack Obama and no one understands why anyone would vote for John McCain. (This is not to say that in America, there is a fruitful political dialog--what with all of the personal attacks that have been going on...) But in an ideal world, this election would produce such political exchanges. At the end of the class, I told the students they could leave, and they didn´t want to--even though it was 5pm on a Friday before a vacation. They all stuck around to ask me a few more questions. This was a breath of fresh air I needed in my teaching. The students were motivated, engaged and best of all (for my ego) interested in what I had to say. I know that what I need to do is spend less time working on the classes where the students don´t care. English is a very low priority for them--a requirement to graduate, but something they dont care about.

So Friday night I headed to Metz to spend the night with Helen so I could catch my shuttle. It was sort of weird to be back, but it was great to see Helen, and we went out with Claire. I need to make more of an effort to see my friends in Metz...it is only a 30 minute train ride, and it´s so nice to see old friends. It is bittersweet to go back to Metz though because even though I was only there 7 months, it really became home, and it is weird to go back when I don´t live there, and when most of my amazing friends don´t live there anymore.

My trip to Almeria was long, but I had no problems. The trip has been a little low key but nice. I have been enjoying lots of Spanish food--especially tapas. Carlos and I have just been bumming around town eating tapas, walking on the beach etc etc.

My Spanish skills are pretty bad. I mean, they are not bad considering that I have never had a formal Spanish class in my life, and that I only started learning a year ago. But considering how much time I will spend in Spain with all of my vacations this year/how little I like feeling like an idiot when talking to people here, they are awful. "Are you deaf?¨ Elena asked me in all seriousness when I didn´t understand something she said. The other day the maid was here and said, ¨You will only speak Spanish while I am here,¨ a command I ignored because why would I want the maid to eavesdrop on my breakfast conversation with Carlos? Anyway, just after that we went to get my hair cut because I figured that it would be better to take a native with me than to risk any ambiguities in France (last time I got a haircut in France, I left the parlor with an enormous, horrible afro....). Well, the hair dresser was the daughter of the maid, and the maid ended up there, and there everyone stood around and started talking about how bad my Spanish is. i.e. "If she wants to learn Spanish, she´d better start talking." ¨How long has she been studying? And she still isn´t talking?¨ The hair dresser was a little more optimistic, ¨I think she understands more than she lets on...¨ Anyway, it was pretty awkward for me that everyone was standing around criticizing/speculating about my language level. I didn´t quite understand enough to interject and was also a little shy/intimidated by the situation. I have been studying a lot since then and things are improving. I am discovering however, that the accent here in Andalusia is much harder to understand than other accents, with lots of abbreviated/mumbled words and dropped letters. I am getting really good at saying, ¨Can you speak more slowly please?¨

Elena has not left me alone for more than five minutes since I arrived. She is a good language teacher for me. We have a game where we go through all of the actions of the day. First, we get up; then we go to school; then we shower, etc etc. Or else she will say, ¨Draw a sun. Now a house. Now some grass.¨ It is working, and my vocabulary is growing thanks to her and thanks to the illustrated children´s dictionary that Carlos found with his old toys. "Kiiii-eeeeeeet! ¿Dondé estas?¨ she says every time she gets home and can´t find me. She does not seem to understand why Carlos gets to spend more time with me than she does, and gets jealous if he sits next to me. ¨She belongs to me!¨ Carlos finally told her. I am taking to playing with her every day while Carlos is in class. I do enjoy it, of course, especially the thousands of hugs and her telling me how much she loves me.

This weekend Carlos and I are going to celebrate our anniversary (it was yesterday) either by going to Cabo de Gata, which has some of the prettiest beaches in Spain or by going to Mini-Hollywood, which is a theme park in some of the preserved movie sets of American Westerns that were filmed here.

Little known fact--John Lennon wrote ¨Strawberry Fields Forever¨ while he was here in Almeria.

That´s all. Hasta Luego

2008-10-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

I did what I promised myself I would never do. I gave the teacher speech--the "I work so hard on fun lessons, but you don't appreciate them." / "You disrespect me when you talk and don't pay attention to me"/ "I don't get paid enough for this," and I almost made it to, "I'm not doing this for my health," before I stopped myself. Then and there I transformed into every teacher I have disliked (and a few of them I did). But the kids were really out of hand. Maybe it's because everyone's antsy for the vacation next week or because the first fun introductory lessons are over and now we are having to get to the actual boring meaty business finance (or whatever subject it is) English. One of my French friends told me that it is normal for French students to be disrespectful and to send text messages during class or sleep or talk or whatever, but I have been spending too much time and energy on my lessons for that. Anyway, all that's to say that I am VERY ready for the vacation next week, and even though I've only been working 6 weeks, I feel that I have earned it.

"I will teach Kate Spanish, and you can teach her English," Elena, Carlos' little sister, told me the other day. She's pretty excited that I am coming, especially because she knows I will be bearing gifts. I can't wait for the vacation--I have plenty of class stuff to do the next few days and plenty of things to do before I leave so hopefully the next few days will fly by.

My flight is on Saturday morning, but I will be leaving on Friday night to go stay with Helen in Metz because my shuttle leaves from there at 5 a.m. It will be nice to get to see her and to spend a little time in Metz--we will probably also get to hang out with some other friends who are still there. My route to get to see Carlos is pretty complicated--shuttle from Metz to Frankfurthahn, flight to Sevilla, 5 hour train to Almeria. My way home is a little simpler. Sort of. I fly from Almeria to Madrid and then fly from Madrid to Paris. What I didn't realize, though, is that the airport Ryanair flys into in "Paris" is actually 60 kilometers outside of Paris, and there is a chance that I will miss the last train to Nancy on Monday night. I was pretty stressed when I learned this, but I will just spend a night in a hotel in Paris if I have to and enjoy an evening in the City of Lights. My co-workers are prepared to cover for me if I am late to work on Tuesday morning. Right now, I am officially stopping worrying about the stress of getting there and back and simply imagining myself on the beach.

Ruth and I went to Sarrebourg last weekend, a small town near Germany to go see a Marc Chagall exhibit. It seems kind of random that this tiny city should get a show by such a famous artist. At the tourist office, I asked the woman if there was anything else to see or do in the city, and she said that there were Marc Chagall windows, but that the chapel they were in was closed for construction. I was pretty upset to hear this because, come on, when would I ever go back to Sarrebourg? The exhibit itself was good--it was mostly his paintings for a book called Daphnis and Chloé, and they were not as impressive as the huge oil Biblical paintings of his that I saw in Nice, but they were good. Ruth and I were left the exhibit and were conspiring on a way to disguise ourselves as construction workers to get inside the chapel when we saw someone just walk in. We snuck in backs-against-the-wall Mission Impossible-style when we realized that there was a tour group who had gotten special permission to enter and that we crept in behind them. And wow. It is just one window, but it takes up one entire wall in the chapel. Et voilà!

The consequence of sneaking into the chapel was that the we almost got locked inside--but we did successfully escape and live to tell the tale.

2008-10-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

The weather here last weekend was gorgeous--just gorgeous--you definitely wouldn't have even known you were in Lorraine. Ruth and I went to a flea market, but I spent most of the weekend working on my classes. Things are finally settling down at work a little bit as I get into the swing of things. The finance class that I had to take wasn't that bad--the kids were actually receptive, and since another lecteur Arron and I switch groups every week, I only have to have two lesson plans a month. I've seen my schedule for next semester, and it looks less varied than this semester, and I will have fewer hours so it should be calmer.

Anyway, I was realizing recently that even though I get overwhelmed and stressed out easily, it is how I function best because if I am not busy, I am bored! Remembering this has made me a happier to be where I am. Living here is challenging, but when I am not challenged, I go nuts. I'm remembering all of the menial jobs I've been through in the past couple of years--hostess, daycare teacher, bookstore worker--and I am remembering how I was just pulling my hair out from boredom. I am definitely learning a lot being a lectrice, and there's never a slow moment.

On Monday I got into a pretty profound discussion which one of the teachers in my department which translated into me getting invited over to dinner to his house along with another teacher in my department and her daughter. We got there, and the house was kind of messy and there were kids everywhere running around and having fun, and everyone kept apologizing for how unorganized everything was, but was such a relief to see French parents who were not at all like the draconian family I spent the summer with. It was also just nice to be a part of normal family life and hopefully I'll be going back sometime soon or will at least do a little babysitting.

Today I had the medical appointment I need before I can get my carte de sejour. A week ago, I received a letter at school with an appointment that they had chosen --and of course it was at a terribly inconvenient time--during a class I have that only meets 3 times. The teacher pushed back the class an hour, but I got stuck at the medical appointment all afternoon so I had to cancel it. I will have to reschedule it later, but I don't care because all of the medical stuff went smoothly which is a huge relief. I was late to my appointment last year, and this caused problems with everything else, as a sort of domino effect. This year the appointments were out in the Middle of Nowhere, End of the Tramline suburbs, but my roommate gave me exact instructions on how to get there. They did the x-ray of my lungs, which was awkward but fine and I had a little medical examination, and now I am ready for my appointment in a few weeks to apply for my CDS.

It's an interesting time to be an American. Sometimes when I meet strangers (as with the doctor at the medical examination), people are interested in the elections and want to hear my opinion about it--which is good because I have a lot to say (and after checking www.fivethirtyeight.com I am always prepared with the latest poll results!) In my Spanish class, my teacher asked me to give a presentation on the elections. Carlos helped me beforehand, and I went up there and mangled the language in trying to explain the American system. I wasn't prepared for the students to be really interested in the subject, and they just kept asking questions--questions that I had a lot of trouble with with my Spanish vocabulary of simple words like "man/woman" "good/bad" and a few verbs conjugated only in the present tense, haha. I ended up switching to French, and I am not sure that they understand that a whole lot better, but the point is that everyone was very excited and interested to talk to me.

Other times, on the other hand, as with the man Ruth was buying something from at the flea market last weekend, the reaction is hostile, "This whole crisis is your fault! because of the war in Iraq!" I didn't know what to tell him other than that I didn't vote for Bush nor did I default on a loan. But there are definite hostilities towards Americans based on the financial situation, even though most people will admit that it was the fault of European banks for investing their money in the American loan system.

In my classes, since I have a lot of business and finance classes, we are discussing the crisis a lot, and it's interesting to discuss how the un-regulated capitalism (of which the United States was so fiercely proud) failed and how systems like France's, which seem so complicated to me, are doing better. We also got to some interesting discussions about how different countries' cultural values affect their economies. Although, before I sound to keen on France's political/economic system, I must note, that after the comparative economics I have been looking at, I think it's really crazy how France is unable to make progress because people go on strike every time one is proposed. I've read that a lot of businesses have been driven out of this country as a result of how expensive it is to do business here. This is all stuff that I have had a lot of trouble understanding, and hopefully being able to get the perspective of the students will help shine a little light on it.

Everything in my apartment is good. My building is between 100-150 years old, and sometimes when I am going up the narrow wooden staircase, I can imagine some pensionnaires straight out of a Zola novel living here. The problem with living somewhere so old is the bad acoustics. On my street all of the buildings are the same size and height, and so the result is just two (sound-trapping) walls with a street in the middle--so basically I can hear every single tiny thing that happens in the street. It's funny because people walking down the street think they have more privacy than they do--I (and everyone else on the street) can hear every word they say. It's the same with the people in the building--I can always tell what room my neighbors are in, whether they are watching television, when they flush the toilet. It's weird--all of this stuff should be private!

Tomorrow Ruth and I are going to a Marc Chagall exhibit in a tiny village near here. I am very excited!

Pink Floyds in a pond

2008-10-08T02:37:00.001-07:00

Et voilà, I have been saddled with yet another class--two actually, but I took one of them voluntarily. The first one is a business class, and it just really makes me mad because that just adds another discipline to my courseload (and a different campus in the city I have to run back and forth to), making me feel even more schizophrenic and unorganized. The other one is another Phonetics 101 class--and since I already prepare for that class, having another hour of teaching won't make to much of a difference--and I figured that I might as well make the overtime pay if I was already planning the lessons. The business class won't add any overtime pay because I am pretty sure that one of my sections of the English conversation class (the class with the speed dating lesson plan) is getting cancelled. Last week there was a single student, which was just terribly awkward for the both of us, especially since the class is based on the students talking to one another and playing little games. So I had to sit down with him and pretend that I was a hotel receptionist, and he had to pretend like he wanted to rent a room and blah blah blah it was two very long hours.

"I didn't WANT to choose you for this course," my boss said about the new class, "You are just the only one I could find who was free on Monday afternoon." I think this was an attempt to make me feel better about having to take the class? But Carlos played Pollyanna and reminded me of some good news about the whole situation--that if I want to teach English in future, then business English experience is a really great thing to have.

Anyway so that's school, and I haven't had a lot of time for other stuff since class preparations are keeping me busy. I am going out twice this week with the other lecteurs and students to bars due to a mix up between the lecteurs! Well, once was last night, and it was nice. My friend Kat, a lectrice in a different university in Nancy was telling me how at her university, the teacher taught all of the students that flamingo in English was "Pink Floyd." So when the students had to label drawings of animals, the pond of flamingos was instead a pond full of "Pink Floyds."

That's about it for now--class preparation is taking me a really long time and is keeping me busy. Plus, well, I have a pretty bad election addiction which is preventing my class planning from going as efficiently as it should be(checking www.fivethirtyeight.com five times a day) And...tomorrow in Spanish class I need to figure out how to explain the electoral college in Spanish. That's one that's not easy to explain in English...

2008-10-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

When I told my friend Nathan to meet me by the statue of human hearts, I didn't imagine that we could have any confusion. Outside one of the exits of the Nancy train station is a monument towards organ donation--a (grotesque) statue of human hearts in a sort of twisting shape. Well, apparently most of the people in Nancy don't even notice the statue, even though it's next to the most central bus station--I guess it's just one of those things that people walk by and don't think about. Because when he got off the train, he asked several people where it was, and no one knew. Even the guy at the information desk didn't know and tried to Google it. Well, we sat on opposite sides of the train station for over an hour before we found each other.

Nathan is one of my friends from Lebanese Convention who I've known for years, and in his backpacking trip through Europe he made a stop in Nancy to see me. The night he arrived the other lecteurs and I had already committed to going to a pub with our students to give them a chance to speak English in a more relaxed setting. I was a little apologetic for having to drag Nathan along, but it really worked out for him because on his trip he'd been wanting to have more contact with natives--and there they were a bar full of them, excited to talk to anglophones, especially one who lives in New York. It was really a huge success, the night out. I was pretty surprised based on how lethargic and apathetic my students are in class, but then I remembered that French students don't have clubs and organizations, and the students were excited for a chance to socialize, especially the ones who have just moved to Nancy. It looks like this is going to be a regular event throughout the year. The boss of all of the lecteurs warned us that the attendance to such evenings will wane, but it doesn't matter to me because I won't be bothered at all if there are no students there and just lecteurs!

Wednesday is my day off so I took Nathan around Nancy. We had a lovely day and visited some museums, all of which I had seen before, but I still enjoyed them.

This week was pretty busy, mostly so that I could make sure to have plenty of free time to show Nathan around. And after not having had much time to prepare for my classes this week, I was kind of running around and floundering in a few of them (especially sociology!). Hmmm...my plan is to work on it this weekend, but now that I have a little free time and internet, I am not exactly where to start, and I often end up getting distracted reading up on news from the presidential elections.

Today I met up with Ruth, who is basically a friend of a bunch of my good friends friends and just arrived as an assistant here. She is from Alabama and went to Ole Miss so it's cool because not only can we talk about being from the South, but we can reminisce about our specific friends. Plus, I like being able to impart my wisdom seeing as I am a former assistant.

You will be proud to know that I sewed myself some curtains, and they didn't turn out half bad--the problem now is that my window is so tall that I can't hang them!

My Spanish class is too advanced, but I guess that's good because I am learning a LOT in my classes...I will study in my free time if I can ever catch up on my classes. I'd like to be able to pull off at least a few sentences the next time I see Carlos' family. Only 3 weeks away!

2008-09-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

When I thought that being in France this year would be easier than last year, I made a miscalculation....I am in a new city, albeit one only slightly south of the one I was in last year. I made sure I had all of the documents that I could possibly need--including the x-ray of my lungs that I had to get last year before getting my carte de sejour--and went to the Prefecture. I went to the secretary, explained my situation, took a number and then went to the waiting room. When my number was called, the lady behind the desk said that I shouldn't have come to see her, that I needed to return to the first woman and make an appointment. Went back to the first lady who said that I needed to go back to the woman behind the desk and ask her what kind of carte de sejour I need. I went back to her, and she said, "Do you have number?" And well, no I didn't because the woman who'd told me to talk to her (this is the woman who distributes the numbers) hadn't given me one. "No, I don't have a number, but I just have a quick question...." "You have to take a number. I already buzzed someone else to come to the desk" I waited several minutes, and no one came--apparently there was no one waiting. I had a stare-down with her, but she refused to talk to me with out a number, so I went back to the first one woman and got a number to ask my 10 second questionI . Then the number lady gave me an appointment to come back and depose all of my documents--in November! In Metz, the prefecture took my documents on my first visit. So the process to get my carte de sejour won't start till November, and there go my hopes for getting CAF (housing subsidy) money before the spring. \

My friend Andromeda (also assistant last year, lectrice this year) had an interesting reaction to stress of French bureaucracy--she said that she has become very relaxed because she realizes that all of this stuff is completely out of her control, and you can never count on anything to be correct or on time, but c'est la vie. I (obviously you know if you have been reading my blog at all) have had quite the opposite reaction, and I am in a state of constant stress about whether the recalcitrant French functionaries will help me or whether someone will lose my dossier or someone will do something else that will make my life more complicated. I am trying to adopt her point of view. It's a good thing she's developed some patience because she's in love with a French guy and it sounds like she'll be in France dealing with all of this stuff much longer than I will.

This statement might give you the false impression that I know what I want to do with my life or where I want to go, and this is not true. I am just crossing France off the list. It's not that I don't love this country. I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't love it (well at least the camembert), but my list of complaints is getting long, and I know that I could not stay here for the long haul. I was reading a really interesting link to a CNN article about peoplle's attitudes towards France (link!). There are so many Americans who love France (especially Paris) so much), but to really understand the country,, you have to leave here an experience all of the frustrations related with that. One woman described the situation here very welll, and I will sum it up.
1. The French dont' like rules. This fact is reinforced by the fact that there is barely any physical presence of the law enforcement so no one obeys laws. No one picks up after their dogs; people park everywhere, and on the less serious but equally annoying level, people cut in line in stores a lot.
2. French people think they have the "right and privelege" to everything. They always want the government to give them more than they already have, and this explains why they have gov't subsidies for housing, free time, and vacations. Everyone has the right to enjoyable free time and fabulous vacations,r ight? And when they feel like one of the rights or priiveleges may be taken away , they strike.

One thing I've learned about why French functionaries are so horrible is because they have such tremendous job security. It takes an act of God to get them fired so they don't care how many months (centuriies) it takes me to get my carte de sejour.

Another thing it takes an act of God to do around here is for me to make a single copy. Some of the other lecteurs have it easier because they work within specific departments , and they get copy cards for the printers. I, on the other hand, work with a department which works with almost all of the departments. This means that on a regular day I am running around the city trying to get to different campuses for my different classes. It also means that if I need copies, I have to find the copy-maker for that department, and make a formal request, which might be refused simply because the copy maker does not feel like making copies that day, as I learned the hard way.

Yeah, so the university is a little bit ghetto. Professors have to share (tiny) offices along with their computers, and there have been some classes cancelled simply because there were not enough classrooms available. I know this is because the universities get their money from the government and don't have the tuition and donor resources that American universities do, but even the high school I was in last year in Metz was better equipped.

Anyway, it was not my intention for this entry to complain about the French so much--I just wanted to do a little cultural comparison .

I started classes today. First I had my sociology students, but then I wasn't teaching alone--I was giving them diagnostic English test (it's not looking promising!) with the real teacher. Second was the class that is already planned out-(this class is called S5)-and the topic this time was speeddating, which I thought was kind of dumb, and I consequently rushed through the lesson, and ended up finishing early. Lastly was my phonetics class, and I had some kind of basic activities planned for the class, but I got there, and a problem. The problem was staring at me from the front row--a 60 year old woman. Myactivities were kind of fun, silly things--just like the teacher of the class told me to do, but I almost couldn't do it with her there so serious, pen ready and poised to learn from me. But I got through albeit 15 minutes early.

One thing to know about to understand my classes is that one of four things happens:
1. I take half of the class while the normal teacher takes the other half, and this allows for me to focus on oral expression and allows the students more individual attention. (sociology, business finance, law)
2. As in the S5, I am the primary teacher of the class, but the materials are already pllanned out.
3. For one law class, I am the primary teacher, and I have to plan the lessons and all, but my boss is keeping a sharp eye on my lesson plans. I am hoping to milk the American elections in this class as much as possible.
4. For phonetics, the teacher gives a lecture for two hours weekly to about a zillion students, and then these students have one hour a week with a lecteur(or lectrice-this word varies based on gender) of practical work in which they practice the skills learned in the big lecture class.

Anyway, it doesn't sound too bad, but for the classes that I split with the teachers, some of them are giving me ABSOLUTELY no idea of what to do with the students (especially my class focused on business finance--where I need the most help!) so it's still a little stressful. Plus with the S5, when I don't like the activities (i.e. speeddating), it's pretty obvious to the sttudents . But well, it's sort of a relief to have started classes. Being a lectrice is like being an assistant in that I am younger and "hipper" and more able to relate with the students, and they like that.

Carlos is glad to know that I talked to one of my colleagues about auditing a Spanish class (she's really sweet about it) so hopefully I will be more prepared to talk to his friends and family than I was during my last trip to Spain. He told his little sister that I would be coming, and asked her if she was excited, and she wasn't! She said, "She's coming in a month? That's a long time away! She should be coming sooner than that!" �

The Hibernating Bear Returns

2008-09-22T02:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, well I have had more meetings with many more little trombones, and I am getting a better feel for my job. I ended up with another class because one of the lecteurs quit. This one is in the English department, and it is a phonetics class. I don't mind taking on another class because that means overtime pay, but it is funny because...

1. I am supposed to teach the English phonetics alphabet, which I don't know.
2. I am supposed to teach it with British accent/intonation.

One of the other American lecteurs teaching the same class thought about faking a British accent,which I think is hilarious. Not exactly how I am going to manage that class...II am trying to channel all of the nights I spent last year with my British friends while they talked about bahsil oreGAHno instead of baysil and orEgeno. I am trying to learn the English phonetic alphabet, which is pretty weird, although I am familiar with the French one.

I am also concerned about my sociology students, because the first thing the main teacher told me when we sat down to talk about the class is that many of the students will resist learning English because they think it is the language of the cultural and political imperialists. Apparently the sociology students are the real hippies--and the organizers of most of the university strikes. This will be fun...?

Otherwise, I have master's students, a lot in law and business. I am supposed to lead classes related to their subjects. "You don't have to be an expert in the subjet," people keep telling me, but then the descriptions of the classes I am teaching seem to prove the contrary. I am leading one class related to the financial state of companies, and the role of lawyers in companies. Is it possible to know negative amounts about something? I think I know negative amounts about business finance and business lawyers. Classes start next week, and I am a little nervous, but I am excited to start getting a feel for the classes so that I have a better understanding of what I should for them. Until then I will be reading scholarly sociology papers and trying to understand finance stuff...

I guess part of my problem is that I don't have internet. Normally, when faced with such situations where I felt at a loss for information, I would just sit down with the internet and research research research. But there's no internet at home...it only works sometimes at the university, and well honestly I find myself at McDo more often than I would like just to connect. And when I do connect, I have emails to catch up on and have been preoccupied with the search for a plane ticket to Spain for my first vacation (end of October-beginning of November--Carlos and I will be together for our first anniversary :-) ). I am not afraid to admit it--I am a slave to technology. I feel very lost without the internet. It's worse in another country when it's my sole method of communication with almost everyone I know. I'll be getting it soon, though. Bérengère went to the place yesterday, and soon we will have internet, phone and television (well more than the two unclear channels we have now). The telephone will actually give me unlimited calls to landlines in the United States (I think).
On Friday I went out for drinks with the lecteurs. I actually like the girl that stole my apartment alot, haha. We are supposed to host one night a week or so where our students can come join us for drinks and practice their English. That'll be interesting.

Carlos gave me a nickname last year in Metz--the Hibernating Bear--because well, the colder got, the earlier I wanted to go sleep every night. Basically, I was ready to go to bed just about when the sun was setting--I guess this is just one way my body deals with the cold. Well, it's already chilly here so the Hibernating Bear is back--hitting the hay by 9 o'clock most nights. The problem is remembering to set my alarm before falling asleep--cause if not, I might not wake up until springtime....�

Little trombones

2008-09-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

"Could you pass me some little trombones?" said one of the teachers in a meeting on Monday. It took me a minute to realize that "trombone" also means paperclip in French (I guess it makes sense if you think about it....). Well, I have needed a lot of "little trombones" for all of the papers I have been receiving for my classes. At this meeting on Monday, I was with 6 other teachers, and we are all teaching the same class. It's weird because the class is already designed, and all of the materials for the classes are already determined. It's strange for me to teach a class with so little freedom, but kind of nice not to have to do much planning. I am planning to go to the class of another teacher who teaches it the day before mine every week so I can see how to manage the class. I've definitely got a lot more responsibility this year than last year...it seems a little bit strange that people who don't even know me are just handing me these big responsibilities.

I met all of the other lecteurs at a meeting yesterday. They all seem nice, and our boss has sort of given us the responsibility of organizing some English activities for the students, which is tough because French students care so little about extra-curricular activities. I also learned some interesting things about the university--for example, the students went on strike last year for an entire month. Yes, of course French students strike a lot, but I know that there was no strike this bad in Metz, which makes me think that French students must be particularly...hmmm I don't know what to say here...particularly grieved? particularly pollitically active? particularly concerned about the proposed reforms to the university system? My boss was telling me that even if he had wanted to teach classes to the students who were still interested in going, it was forbidden by law because strikers must be allowed to make their points.

Ha, and more roommate drama...sort of. You have to understand howestressful finding an apartment was, and how much time I devoted to the search. At one point about a month ago, I talked to a girl who had an apartment who I sounded really interested, but then a few weeks passed, and she didn't email me back...I found out that what happened was one of the other lectrices got the address of the apartment from her, and without getting a real invitation from the girl to take the extra room, just showed up on the doorstep with all of her luggage and said, "I'm here to move in!" So it's her fault I didn't have housing when I arrived (you can see how cutthroat this apartment hunting business can be), but I am pretty sure that I am a lot happier with my apartment than the other lectrice is so it's kind of funny. My room is getting organized. At the flea market I bought a bunch of antique postcards to put in my little nook (surprise, I know...), and everything is startign to shape up. Now I've got to start working on planning my classes...my first one is Friday~'�

2008-09-17T04:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Camembert,

You smell like stinky feet...but I have missed you so much.

Love,
Kate

2008-09-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well here I am in my new apartment in my new bed and I am having trouble sleeping. Excitement, I guess. The girl I had been in contact with before arriving and who wanted to meet me in person before deciding we should live together finally got back from Paris today, and I met her at the train station. I was sort of relieved to know I'd meet her before living with her after the whole debacle of being an au pair this summer, but this desire was starting to be surpassed by my desire to find a permanent place to lie my head as soon as possible. But, we hit it off an d I moved in an hour after we met.

Her name is Beéengère, and she is in her last year of speech therapy school. Just got back from teaching orphans in India, has a boyfriend who is studying acting and leads a reggae band in Paris. Best of all, she's a big music fan (and my constant listening to music is one of the biggest possible points of contention for roommates, but luckily we both like to listen to it all of the time so we take turns choosing). I am going to discover a lot of French music and well, music from a lot of other places since she seems to have eclectic music taste.

The apartment is fabulous. It is in an old building, which is just what I wanted. I saw pictures of it before arriving, and from the angle of the picture, it looked a lot like my apartment from last year, and I started to worry that it was in the same residence, but it was just the same new wood floors. This apartment is in a very cool old building, and is equipped with everything since she lived here the year before too --furniture, pots and pans, television, you name it. Even my room is furnished, which let me tell you after all of my apartment research, is a rarity. It wasn't buying the furniture that would have been the problem really--it would have been finding some way to get it back to my apartment and up the four flights of stairs.

I'm feeling the need to get really organized and decorated and to have exactly everything I need in the apartment, really for the first time in my life. I guess I could best describe the feeling as "nesting." Seems to be something biological...I guess my body knows that it's the time for my life to be a little more established and less transitional.

My room has an alcove-y sort of thing in the middle of it--where a heater used to be . It's a really weird thing in the middle of the room--it seems like somewhere where there should be a shrine. Now I just have to figure out who or what to make my shrine to

Let's rewind a little bit to Thursday night because that's when I ended up sitting on the floor of the apartment of a bunch of guys from Chad partaking in a Ramadan feast. The roommate of the person I was staying with, invited us to the meal with her friends, and it sounded interesting. I got there and realized that I know shamefully little about Islam. During Ramadan, they don't eat all day and then at night they have a big feast. One of the guys asked me, "Do you even know where Darfur is?" This question sounds kind of patronizing, but you had to be there to hear the tone and to know that he was just wondering if Americans cared at all about what was going on in Africa. I did know where Darfur is (thanks to Shivers) but it was weird answering because I know that a lot of Americans don't know or care at all. He then went on to explain a lot of the crazy stuff going on in Chad and the Sudan.

Friday I had a second meeting with Marie-Paule in preparation for the only class that I will be teaching alone. This is a group of master's law students, and I am excited about the class for several reasons. 1. Attendance is voluntary. Students will only show up if they want to come and talk. 2. I get to talk about law-related things--which includes politics and a lot of the stuff that I am interested in and enjoy discussing. 3. While I was introducing myself to the law secretary at the university, I discovered that another class of law students who didn't have to option to take English are trying to get into the class. People are just dying to get into my class...can you blame them? Maybe the weirdest thing about the class is that I have to grade them...that's going to be interesting.

The weather here is already awful. I was thinking that I would catch some good weather by getting here earlier than last year, but there I was today in the same old situation dragging home lots of groceries in the freezing rain. Guess I should be used to it by now--anyway,, other than that, everything in Nancy is going pretty well thus far. Oh, and I was mad about being here so early but I had two meetings last week, and I have at least one every day next on top of the need to get to Metz to get the things that language exchange Carlos is keeping for me. There's also the flea market tomorrow (maybe I"ll find something for the shrine?) and plenty or other things to do. Now, if I could only get to sleep...�

Encore Lorraine

2008-09-11T02:55:00.001-07:00

At three o'clock on Wednesday I was supposed to be in Nancy but for some reason I ended up in Disneyland instead.

On Tuesday I got to the Jackson airport only to discover that my flight was delayed, and my connection to my Paris flight was impossible. Freaked out but discovered in Dallas that my flight to Paris was delayed so I made it. We all got on the plane only to discover a technical problem that took 3 hours to fix. Everyone was kind of mad, but I was just so happy to have made the flight (the next one would have been the next day) that I didnt care. Got on a train in Paris that took me to the station right by Disneyland where I watched kids with Mickey balloons and ears until I caught my connection to the Lorraine station.

My trip here has been really similar to my one to Metz. Almost missed my connection that time too, took the same exact route to get there except that I took the shuttle from the Lorraine station to Nancy instead of Metz. And just like my trip to Metz, I was an hour late to work because of forces beyond my control (sort of). Google has a new walking directions, and when I looked up the address, it gave me directions to a house in a suburb of Nancy--which is where I ended up this morning. So like last year I had to get directions from the office of tourism.

I got to work (not late but later than I had intended) and met my boss. She is very nice, but I discovered some somewhat disturbing news. My classes don't start until the 21st. Why did I leave my friends and family and Carlos to hurry back to France when I didnt have work for another twelve days? I am disturbed by this fact. The other lecteur of English has already started because his departments start earlier. Granted, it will be nice to get established before starting classes...but I won't actually have an apartment until Saturday (hopefully I will get this one!<) . Until then I am staying with a sort of potential roommate. It is nice to have someone to show me around (we went to a really cool light show last night), but I wish I had my own place because I still feel so unsettled. I also just want to sleep all of the time, but that's not possible when staying with someone else.

Anyway that is all. I will post more (especially about my classes as soon as I know anything). And now I have to go for a stroll in the rain--how silly of me to leave the house anywhere in Lorraine without an umbrella. I guess I was away long enough to forget about that!

Whoa

2008-09-06T07:20:00.001-07:00

The people at the French consulate very rarely answer the phone. I can sort of understand this because the visa process is so confusing that if they did answer the phone, they would never actually get anything done. I tried calling them all day on Tuesday and didn't succeed in getting them until Tuesday evening. I asked if they had received my information faxed from the ANAEM office in France (which I knew the office had sent), and they said no. I immediately starting crying again, then waited until two in the morning here when I could call France and called my boss who called the office. The office had even received confirmation from the Atlanta office that they had received the papers, but I guess someone lost them or something. She asked them to fax the information again on Wednesday morning. All day Wednesday I tried to call the consulate again to see if they had received it, but no one answered. On Wednesday afternoon I drove to Birmingham because I had a visa appointment on Thursday. Without knowing whether they had my contract or whether I would be able to get my visa, I had to drive to Atlanta because the office wouldn't answer the phone. In my head, I started having to plan alternatives--what to do if I didn't get my visa--buy yet another plane ticket--or even get stuck in the United States this year.

I stayed with Brittani on Wednesday in Birmingham and Thursday morning drove to Atlanta. Carlos was a good navigator, and I made it to the office with no problem. By some miraculous...miracle they had my contract this time, and within 30 minutes I had my visa. After a little jump and a scream for joy, I decided to take Carlos around Atlanta as a sort of reward for being so patient and helpful through my crisis. We went to CNN headquarters and got the tour and bummed around Centennial park before heading back to Birmingham.

I hadn't made any plans with anyone in Birmingham on Friday because part of me was expecting to have to spend the night in Atlanta to take care of all of the visa stuff. But as it turned out, I had time to take Carlos around--to the botanical gardens, to BSC, and to the Summit. It was kind of surreal to be back at my old alma mater, but it was cool to see it again and to run into some of the people there. We also met up with Dr. Norrell and my cousin Jackie, and later that night Parks, Mattie, Deanna, Brittani, and Adrienne all met us for dinner. It was kind of strange because there's nothing like seeing your friends for a really short period of time that makes you remember why you like them so much and really miss them. Seeing everyone this weekend is making it even harder to go back to France. It is really hard to believe that I am leaving in a few short days. It feels like I just got back!

Home

2008-08-31T17:54:00.000-07:00

So I got to the consulate right after I wrote my first entry, and the French people hadn't received my contract yet...they weren't too mean about it, but knowing that I had to go back to Atlanta after I'd spent so much time and money to get there the first time was really upsetting. So I did what any other rational person would do...I cried like a baby on shoulder of a random Parisian woman in the waiting room's shoulder.

I got home, and of course it was great to see my family and friends. I spent a lot of time getting ready for the wedding shower I threw for Brittani, which went off without a hitch. Carlos got here a day late because of plane problems, and a few days later we headed to New Orleans. We had lots of fun wandering around the French Quarter and listening to lots of good music, even though it was so so hot.

Since we've gotten back I've dragged him around to see lots of relatives. We went to Greenville to see my mom's side of the family. We've also been watching lots of movies and going to my favorite restaurants, which has been pretty idyllic. The idea of going back to France and back to work soon is not too exciting. I'm scheduled to leave in 9 days, but I still don't have a visa or even a visa appointment. I have spent a lot of time on the phone with horrible French bureaucrats right lately, and the consulate supposedly has my contract, and I am waiting to hear from them. But I am calling as soon as the office opens next week, and I will be making a trip to Atlanta to the consulate and and Birmingham and Tuscaloosa on the way back to visit everyone who's there.

I feel like I should have more to say about coming home after 10 months abroad, but being at home simply feels good--it has been like every muscle in my body relaxing. Not that I would want to stay in Madison. Carlos has already figured out how little to do there is around here. Going back to France will be great...I am kind of lacking the momentum of leaving such a comfortable life here and having to get set up again. Well, now to focus on getting my visa--because if I don't get that taken care of, I won't be going anywhere.

Roger Incident, Again

2008-04-13T00:25:00.000-07:00

SCENE: In my apartment, Saturday night around 8:00. Carlos and I are cooking dinner for my friend Sarah.

The phone rings. The caller ID says it’s Roger (crazy math teacher at my school at whose house Carlos and I met).

(In French)
Roger: This is the pharmacy?
Moi: No, this is not the pharmacy.
R: This is the pharmacy, isn’t it? I’ve been having a stomach problem and need some medicine.
Moi: This is definitely not the pharmacy.
R: You know who you sound like? The American assistant at the school where I work, Kate.
Moi: This is Kate.
R: Kate!? It’s me--Roger from school.
Moi What a surprise. Hello, Roger.
R: Thanks for the goodbye note you left in my locker.
Moi: No problem. Sorry I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye in person.
R: Not a big deal. Are you free tomorrow?
Moi: Yes, and Carlos is too.
R. Great. Because I was going to go the ckluwerij and then to have a picnic.
Moi: To where and then a picnic?
R. To the cmewrkjd at the zcxdlwier.
Moi: Huh?
R. You know! The vnlkereoiu.
Moi: Oh, um. Okay. We can go.
R: Great, I will pick you up at 10:45 at the train station.
Moi: Okay, see you tomorrow.

The end.

So, I volunteered myself and Carlos to go with Roger somewhere, I had no idea where, but I figured that with Roger everything is adventure, and that like the time before, it would be a walk in the woods or something else Nature-related. Even when you do have an idea of what will happen with Roger, nothing every happens as planned, so I figured initial knowledge of the plan wasn’t vital. Roger is a strange guy, but I feel beholden to him in sort of a strange way because Carlos and I met at his dinner party. So...Sunday morning we met him at the train station. After a while we ended up at the location of the flea market, and for a moment I thought that’s where we were headed, but as a real antiquophile, I knew that the flea market had been there Saturday and wasn’t there today. We went inside and discovered that we were at a “Salon de la Vin Degustation et de la Gastronomie.” I’d prepared for a hike in the woods and ended up at an exposition of wine and food tasting.

Roger took us by all of the booths, and introduced us to everyone. He told everyone that I was American and that Carlos was Spanish and that he was trying to give me some culture. I think he liked to introduce us because we are “exotic” and contributed to his celebritydom. He stopped and talked to anyone who would listen. We tasted lots of types of wines and ate a lot of foie gras (I discovered that I only like the really expensive foie gras). It was really fun. Then we went back out to the car and enjoyed a picnic. Then Roger pulled out a mirabelle tart, and we took it inside and he started giving people selling wine. This was pretty embarrassing. Mirabelles are a type of plum that grows only in this region, and people are very proud of them. You can buy any type of food with mirabelles in it, and in the summer there is a Mirabelle Festival. They’re a big deal here. Roger made the tart because the people selling the wine were from all different parts of France, and he wanted them to experience Lorraine. But he also made the tart so that he could get EVEN MORE attention. We didn’t leave the exposition center until 5:30. We had been there over 5 hours. “Sorry that took so long!” Roger said, “I ran into some old friends that I had to talk to.” Carlos and I were exhausted, but all in all it was an interesting day.

I have more journal entries up because the internet is down at home (which is kind of a good thing...this has helped me be much more productive and get ready to leave Metz much more efficiently). So, here I am at the train station in the lobby full of pigeons. Today I must go by all of the offices that I hate and cancel all of my services. Moving is stressful!

Adieu

2008-04-12T00:24:00.000-07:00

I did put together an Easter dinner for my friends. It was very nice, but VERY cramped with so many people in my tiny apartment.

One of the teachers who lives in Thionville (French city 30 minutes north of here) invited me chez elle last Saturday for lunch, and Carlos and I spent the rest of the day in Thionville exploring, even though there wasn’t much to see. That evening a bunch of our friends met us there because there is a restaurant called Mississippi Restaurant (and strangely it is next to a store called Madison Nuggets). I was very excited to try Mississippi cuisine, but the name of the restaurant was misleading...it was mostly French and Italian food with a few cajun dishes. I guess the name refers to the river and not the state. I tried BBQ, which wasn’t really BBQ at all. The waitress said that the taste of barbecue is not really appealing to French people so they had to change the recipe. It was good, but it wasn’t real barbecue at all. Guess I’ll have to wait until I get home for that.

Another taste of America in the past few weeks was my friend Jen’s birthday, which we spent at the bowling alley. What is more delightfully American than beer and bowling? For about two hours I felt like I was back a home...except that I was with people from a handful of different countries.

This past week has been full of good-byes parties. I am usually pretty bad with goodbyes, but I think I will see most of these people again so it’s not too bad. Plus, I’m pretty sure we’ll be keeping in touch (I’m pretty good at that, or so I like to think). I am curious to hear how everyone transitions back into life in their native countries after a year in France.

Yesterday was my last day of class!! Finally. The last week was pretty nice because I just had fun with the students, and it was so sweet when they were sad that I was leaving. Tuesday a few of the teachers invited me and Carlos to dinner, and we showed up, and there were 7 teachers there, and they treated us to a fancy meal and gave me a bunch of presents (books and DVDs). It was really a surprise. I think I became better friends with my co-workers than I had realized.

I am leaving Metz in 4 days. A lot of my friends have already gone home or have left because the two week Easter vacation has begun. Right now I am focusing on my enormous to-do list and spending time with Carlos before we separate. Leaving is a weird feeling, especially not knowing whether I will be coming back here next year. The wet cold weather is making it easier to leave, while leaving everyone make it harder of course.

Okay, Metz. Au revoir?

The Mess in Metz

2008-03-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

Once and for all, Metz is pronounced “mess,” which is a little counterintuitive, I know.

I got back from Spain and immediately fell into a funk. This was prompted by the difference between the beautiful sunny weather in Spain and the usual frigid rain of Metz and the painful transition of two idyllic weeks in paradise back to work with my stubborn teenagers. Someone told me that the weather in March is described as “giboulée” which means that one minute it’s clear, the next it’s raining, and the next it’s sleeting then snowing. You just never know. There is one thing to rely on, though--monsoon-like winds, which have demolished all of my umbrellas.

While I was in Spain, my landlord withdrew 500E more than he was supposed to from my bank account, which has caused a series of resulting problems. Domino effect. In Spain my debit card stopped working, and I was broke. When I got home I didn’t know if my electricity bill got drafted from my account because I had negative funds. Three weeks and four trips to the bank later, I got the money from my unsympathetic landlord, who just handed it back with a shrug. Lately, I’ve gotten the run around by a lot of different organizations--city hall, housing subsidy, health insurance, electric company. And have had people take advantage of me (case in point, landlord), because I am a foreigner and I am starting to get really frustrated in general. I suppose that one good thing about all of this is that my vocabulary related to banking, insurance and all of that has grown a lot. And I have conquered my “French fright” and any amount of fear I had about going to the Office of Whatever and demanding to talk to someone. Still, my level of frustration and anxiety has increased, and I am finding it hard to relax when I am at home. I am looking forward to this summer where I won’t have to worry about bills and things like this. I leave Metz on the 16th of April and arrive in Salon de Provence the morning of the 17th.

But leaving Metz is bittersweet, of course. After the past few weeks, I am feeling a pretty urgent need to get out of here, but it has been a wonderful wonderful year here, and I am sad that all of my friends will be scattering to the wind. What I am looking forward to, though, is having friends to visit all over the world. I do want to return to Metz next year. I want to work on my French more, and I would love to come back as an assistant-- this time really having a handle on things. Understanding all of the intricacies of banking, green card, teaching etc etc.

I finally have my new schedule at work after lots of grief getting it, which was an enormous relief at work.

The first weekend we got back, Carlos and I took another day trip to Nancy, which is a really lovely city. Now I am enjoying the four day weekend for Easter. Staying in Metz, but enjoying sleeping in and hanging out with my friends. I am trying to put together an Easter dinner.And now to wait for the Easter Bells to deliver chocolates from Rome (according to the French tradition--their equivalent of the Easter Bunny). As David Sedaris points out, a bunny might be kind of silly, but at least it’s an animate object.

Travels in Spain

2008-03-04T00:23:00.000-08:00

I meant to get the last entry I wrote online before I left for Spain, but the last few days, I was really stressed out and somehow ended up with twice as many classes as usual due to the sickness of a teacher. My pre-trip jitters were pretty unfounded. His parents were nice and welcoming, and his little sister Elena ended up adoring me. She was actually a good Spanish teacher for me, although afterwards I ended up speaking like a child with phrases like, “I need to pee pee.” I bought a Spanish book that I studied during the trip, and my comprehension was a lot better by the end of the trip. Enough to understand when Elena whispered in my ear, “I have a secret. You love my brother.”

I met a lot of other family members none of whom spoke English, but they all seemed nice. I felt like an idiot, though, when I couldn’t say anything other than, “Nice to meet you” and “My boyfriend is the most desirable man on earth.” Even when I did learn more, I was too shy to talk. I have a new sympathy for my students.

We spent most of the trip in Carlos’ hometown of Almeria, which is a pretty nice city. His house is a one-minute walk from the beach. The day after I arrived, Carlos took me to see a doctor friend of his to look at my ankle, which I am still having problems with (although much less serious problems than before). I was worried I might need surgery, but the doctor said that for someone as young as I am, surgery is not recommended. How to heal my ankle then? According to him, walking on the beach every day for 4-5 months would do the trick. What a prescription...like having to eat chocolate or watch television or something else even more desirable. Unfortunately, there is no beach in Metz, so I am not sure if I can follow this advice.

In Almeria we bummed around a lot. We went to Carlos’ favorite restaurants, shopped, hung out with his friends, watched movies, went to the cinema (where I saw a movie about an Argentinian child serial killer which has made me scared of the dark), played with his sister, etc. It was really nice to relax. I also learned a lot about the art of eating tapas, which I love, although I am not sure how I feel about the late Spanish eating schedule.

There were also some really cool things to see in Almeria, an awesome cathedral, and a huge Arab fortress called the Alcazaba. Another day we toured tunnels built under the city that the citizens hid in to escape the bombings of the Germans and the Right during the Spanish Civil War, which were really interesting, and really depressing.

We spent four days in Granada and Sevilla. In Granada, we stayed with his cousin and met up with his best friend, who I got into an argument with over the quality of New York hot dogs (During a trip to NYC, this guy stopped on every corner and ate a hot dog one day. Ew). After the argument, we saw the cathedral and the Royal Chapel where Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Rulers were buried, and spent an entire afternoon climbing to the top of the city so that we could get a view of the Alhambra (Arab palace/fortress/city). What a hike...but it was beautiful, ,and we sat up there for a long time enjoying the view and listening to gypsies play music. Afterwards we explored some cool (though kind of touristy) Arab markets. The next day we got up really early and spent the entire day at the Alhambra. The palaces there were absolutely incredible. the walls and ceilings and columns were entirely made of really elaborately carved marble. Amazing. It was a different kind of aesthetic than I am used to...Arabic--I really really like it.

We got severely lost trying to find our hotel in Sevilla (despite the number of very friendly people who tried to help us), and when we got there, we discovered that this is because our hotel was in a (picturesque) area with lots of winding streets, and our street was only about 5 buildings long. Whew, we saw a lot of the city, though, in our quest, though unfortunately my backpack was too heavy to for me to really enjoy it. The cathedral in Sevilla was, I think, the most magnificent one I have ever seen, absolutely enormous. In it, I saw Christopher Columbus’ tomb, as well as his son’s. Attached to the cathedral is a minaret called the Giralda, which we walked to the top of to get a good view of the city. The next day we took a boat tour of the city, saw the bull ring, and sat in the beautiful gardens of Maria Luisa park. Sevilla is a really pretty city. There are palm trees and greenery everywhere with really pretty and unique architecture.

When we got home from the trip, we were really tired even though we were only gone for four days. I have no idea how my friends and I managed to do that for five weeks straight when we backpacked through Europe. The rest of the trip we just took it easy.

So, now I am back in Metz. We got back at one o’clock this morning. As I waited for the bus for fifteen minutes in disgusting sleet and later as I fought through heavy snow, I thought about how just yesterday, I was standing on the beach with no shoes on wearing tank top. I am depressed now.

Oh, and one more thing, a little piece of good news. I have a job this summer, and I got my visa all worked out. I will be an au pair for a family right outside of Salon de Provence (in the south of France). It sounds like a sweet setup. I get my own room with internet, relatively good pay, will be in a big house with a swimming pool; I don’t have to work that much, and the family wants to take me traveling to explore the region. I will be coming home at the end of August, just for a month if all works out according to plan. Carlos is planning to come visit me for a few weeks while I am home, and I want to take him around as much as I can to give him a good feel of the South. We may be heading your way...

Deep Thoughts

2008-02-12T00:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas was good. My mom came, and we spent a few days in Metz before we headed to Mainz. Mainz was fun because I got to spend time with my great aunt and uncle as well as my cousin who is an undercover cop who told me lots of funny stories about arresting Germans. I also met my cousin Christine and her family, who I had never met before. I had fun playing with her kids, even though they don’t speak English. I tickled them and chased them around the house and made noises at them, etc. When it was time to leave, my two year old cousin Eli said, “Now you stay!”

After Mainz we went to see Strasbourg, which was nice, had lots of Christmas lights. We also saw some pretty good museums, especially a poster exhibit at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Next we went to Colmar, which was like a mini-Strasbourg, and we saw the famous Issenheim altarpiece. Then we returned to Metz where we recovered from our first trip and walked along the Moselle and shopped. Finally, we headed to Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a pretty city, but there is not a whole lot to do there. On our last day we took a bus to a medieval town called Echternach and bummed around. At the basilica in Echternach, we ran into a legion of Russian (?) pilgrims kneeling and rubbing prayers on the tomb of a saint. It was really bizarre. On Friday my mom left from Luxembourg, and I hopped a train back to Metz. The holidays were great but much too short of course. The wonderful thing about France is that my next ten day holiday is in about a month so I already have something to look forward to.

Now I am back in Metz and getting settled back into my old routine. My friend Nabila and I were discussing how teaching should be getting easier since we are getting used to it, but in reality it is getting harder because we have run out of good ideas.

The soldes (huge 6 week government mandated sales) started last week,and I have exercised will power and have not bought anything thus far but, we’ll see if I have enough will power to last five and a half more weeks. Hopefullly I will be receiving my housing subsidy in the not terribly distant future since I have completed all of my paperwork for my carte de sejour (after many many more hours of waiting at the prefecture). Getting that subsidy will be a huge relief as I will not be living month to month on my salary.

I started this entry in Mainz. It was nice to be in an actual house which is not my miniscule apartment. It also was a good chance for me to catch up on my reading, my cross-stitching, and my writing.

I am also taking the first slow period I have had since I arrived in Europe to update my blog on some of the the deep thoughts I’ve been having lately.

Thoughts on Language:
“My head is too full of languages to do mental math,” I told Aunt Zee a few weeks ago after I made several errors in my cross-stitching, and I realized that it is true. I am starting to have a little bit of trouble with English. After being around kids who make errors in English and trying to deal with a different language in public, my native tongue has started to escape me. I use a lot of cognates in class because I know that it is easier for my students to understand me when I use words in English that are the same in French, and because of this my speech has become awkward. So even after school, I find that I am speaking really slowly, with a lot of hand motions, with sort of strange cognates. Carlos has corrected my spelling and grammar a few times lately. It is frustrating. Sometimes I just can’t think of a word in English. Luckily, a lot of my friends understand my franglish.

I have learned a lot of French, especially just useful stuff that’s not in the textbooks. I never knew how to say “for here” or “to go” before I got here, but as soon as I was here, I picked it up and use it frequently. (If you’re wondering it’s “sur place/a emporter”.) However, I clearly have a lot further to go before I’m fluent. I have been trying to explain a problem I have been having with my sink to the building handyman, but despite my ever-growing vocabulary on plumbing-related words, I have not successfully been able to explain to him what is going on.

And on top of this, I sometimes get frustrated that I know really useless words and don’t know the ones that I need. I accidentally learned the French word “to gobble,” and this fact makes me mad because that word is taking up space in my brain when I still don’t the word for “door knob.” But it’s the randomness of this word along with several others such as “midwife” which makes them stick in my mind while the long list of useful words “light switch,” “windshield,” “crosswalk” never seem to stick.

Thoughts on food:
The other day language exchange Carlos and I were talking about food, and he described an American buffet he’d seen in Las Vegas as if it were the apocalypse. “Meat and fish together!?” “Pasta and rice!?” He even got emotional as he described the neglect with which Americans at buffets used in constructing their meals and then of course, the amount of food that they consumed. Several other French people have also mentioned horrified at the American gastronomic gaff of drinking coke with a meal. “How can you drink something so sweet with a real meal? Doesn’t it spoil the taste of the rest of the meal?” they say. So what I’ve noticed around here is more of an understanding of what goes with what and in general a respect for the food, whereas the American relationship towards food seems to be similar to the relationship between a lion and an antelope, and this is probably the reason that when I ask my students about their stereotypes of Americans, the first words they always say are “fat”, “hamburger,” and “McDonalds.”

Thoughts on clothes:
All French teenagers dress really emo.

Metz is full of stores of hideous wedding dresses. Isn’t France supposed to known for haute couture?

Thoughts on deep thoughts:
There is profound graffiti written all over Metz, and I have seen it written in other French cities as well. People seem to feel justified in vandalizing if they have something meaningful to say. Things like “And yes, you, I love you.” Or as in the picture I have at the top “The present is now.” There are more that are more philosophical which deal with the roles of humans on earth, etc, but I cannot remember any specific ones off hand. According to the graffiti around Metz, all of the gangsters here are also poets and philosophers. One of these days, I am just going to take my camera around town and take pictures of it.

Voyage to Brussels

2008-02-06T00:22:00.000-08:00

My trip to Brussels was really great. We stayed with the boyfriend of Beth’s roommate and fellow IUFM assistant Cate. Cate is dating a French guy who lives there, and Cate and her boyfriend went to the boyfriend’s mom’s house in France so we got the apartment to ourself, which was amazing because it was centrally-located, and it was free.

The first thing we did on Saturday was go to the Musee des Beaux Arts, which was nice, saw some good Chagall and Magritte (also discovered Bosch?!! I am not sure what to say about that...) Next we saw the Mannequin Pis, which is a fountain statue of a little boy peeing. There was a huge crowd of people crowded around it. It was a little bit novel, but I think it is overrated. It is a tiny statue. We walked around and saw lots of neat Art Nouveau things and some nice cathedrals as well. Ate mussels and drank beer, the Belgian tradition. I really liked Brussels in general even though it was a little touristy. It seemed more laid-back than France.

Oh, I forgot to mention in my last entry that I tried frog legs. Claire’s birthday was the day before mine so we took her to a restaurant to eat frog legs, because she’s French and had never tried them. They were pretty tasty. It was funny, though because Samira ordered frog legs and let me have one and I offered her a mussel in exchange. She was too disgusted by mussels to eat one, but evidently not by frog legs, ha. Anyway, the frog legs were pretty tasty. I’d definitely eat them again. Next I will have to try escargot.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I have another language exchange partner, another teacher from my school. I wasn’t that excited when Patrice, a computer teacher asked me if we could do one, but I have been enjoying it. He, like my other exchange partner and all of my other French friends, has been really nice about explaining to me what’s going on with the culture around me (such as the fact that we get more holidays in Metz, and more of our healthcare is covered by the government because these were laws made by the German government, and when Metz was taken back by the French, the people here kept the best of the German laws).

I reapplied to come back to France next year, which means that if I receive the position, I will have to stay in the Nancy-Metz region, and hopefully I will get placed back in Metz. It is not definite that I will get accepted, and I might not find out until the summer or possibly even the fall, but I really like Metz, and I think I need another year to work on my French. Plus, I am having so much fun, and I prefer living in Europe and relating to people from all different countries. Anyway, I haven’t taken the GRE, and I am totally turned off to the idea of more school, especially when I don’t know what I am doing with my life. I am convinced that I am learning more living and working here than I would be in grad school, and I am definitely having more adventures. I am also trying to get a job here this summer, but I am not sure if I can do that without returning to the US to get another visa. I’m praying that I don’t end up back at home working at Barnes and Noble!!

I leave for Spain on Friday. Carlos’ little sister, who is 4, is jealous of me and not excited that I am coming. She said last week, “Kase (as she calls me) does not need to come. I already speak English.” (This is not true). I am a little nervous about meeting Carlos’ family...especially those (everyone but his parents) who don’t speak English.

Joyeux Anniversaire

2008-01-27T00:20:00.000-08:00

So sorry that I have not updated more often. I keep adding more and more to my entries but never make it down the street to publish them. I am putting up two entries this time to compensate. Sorry, readers.

Thursday was my birthday, and there was another teacher strike which was a strange birthday present. That meant that I got to work early for no reason because the teacher was on strike (frustrating!) but that I finished early because some of my other teachers were gone. I think that the teachers went on strike so that they could fully celebrate my birthday.

To celebrate later on that night, I went to another comedy improv competition then went out and had a beer with friends. Then Friday I had a big joint birthday party at Nabila’s apartment, then we went on the town which was a lot of fun.

I got some pretty sweet presents too. Carlos gave me a diamond and silver necklace to match the earrings that he gave me for Christmas plus a rose and a wonderful dark chocolate and raspberry cake. My friends from the Carrefour got me a big bottle of one of my favorite Belgian beers, and I got some German chocolate from a German friend. Everyone was also really sweet about celebrating my birthday, some even came from fairly far away (well at least Jemma came from Freja;lrek merlehbrardcchh or whatever the city is she lives in that is really close to Germany and also some friends from Thionville and Katy from Hagandange) so that meant a lot to me.

As far as every day life goes, there’s not a whole lot to tell. I have my routine, which is good. Students are sometimes great, sometimes terrible. My schedule is going to be changing soon, which is good because I can re-use all of the ideas I have already used but bad because I really liked some of the students I was getting to know, especially my Terminales (the equivalent of seniors). I will continue teaching my class prep, which is sad because I’m still not exactly sure what I am supposed to be doing with them.

Saw a taxi strike yesterday, which was kind of funny. There was a sign on the taxi office near my house complaining about having a life of labor and having to wake up early (?). Personally I didn’t mind the strike because the standstill traffic they caused made crossing the street easier.

I am finally updating this because i went to the train station to buy my ticket because I am going to Brussels with my friend Beth this weekend.

Joyeux Noel

2007-12-22T00:18:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have not been really eventful. The colder it gets here, the more I stay in the apartment. Wish I had a television, but lately, I’ve been watching the show “MASH” because Carlos owns a bunch of the seasons on DVD. It is surprisingly enjoyable. Classes are sometimes really fun and sometimes super-frustrating, but the job i still pretty fun over all.

Roger the math teacher invited me to go to school and make Christmas cookies with a bunch of the teachers a few weeks ago, which was a lot of fun.

Oh, and I have also discovered the world of French cheese. Wow. The selection here is incredible. The cheese aisle at the grocery store inspires dreams. I just go to the store, pick out a cheese that does not smell horrifyingly offensive and try it, and it is usually amazing. I even have a selection from 10 or 15 types of cheese as part of the cafeteria lunch at school. What I am having trouble understanding is why the French eat cheese after the main course. As much as I like cheese, it is not what I want to eat after eating a big meal. Anyway, my favorites thus far include brie, camembert, the cheeses from the Basque region. I’ve had a bunch of others I love whose names I do not remember. It is going to be hard to go back to the U.S. with its selection of four or five cheeses.

I am still looking for au pair jobs for the summer. I have found a family that is interested in me in the south, but I am not sure that I can get the job without flying home to the US to renew my visa first. Staying here might involve some trickery.

Carlos invited me to visit his hometown over the vacation that we have in February, so we are planning a trip to Almeria and also hopefully Granada and Seville as well. I am excited about seeing some less touristy parts of Spain with a native tour guide. Plus, it will be so nice to escape the freezing cold in Metz and enjoy the warm sun of the southern coast of Spain.

Hmm, what else? I was a little late for school the other day because there was a swan in the middle of the sidewalk of the bridge that I needed to cross. Everyone in front of and behind the swan stopped and looked really nervous. I waited a few minutes and then got impatient and kind of squeezed around the swan. I found out later that swans are pretty mean animals, and that I really dodged a bullet there. I am lucky to still be in one piece.

My mom arrived here on Wednesday. The first few days we didn’t do much because I had to work until Friday, and I have been under the weather with a cold. Today we arrived in Mainz Germany to stay with my Aunt Zee and Uncle Nik for the holiday. It’s really nice that I get to spend Christmas with family without having to go home (even though it is FREEZING here). A lot of the assistants are going home, but I don’t feel the need to go home. I don’t really miss the United States that much, though I do miss my friends and family a lot. Seven months isn’t that long to be in Europe. On the 27th my mom and I head to Strasbourg and then to Colmar then back to Metz for a few days and then to Luxembourg City before she takes off on the fourth. Should be a fun trip.

Happy holidays, everyone. Now leave me some love (comments).

More dinner parties, more wine, more strikes

2007-11-30T01:18:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention in my last entry the celebration of the Nouveau Beaujolais. Each year people celebrate when the new Beaujolais wine becomes available. Someone told me that Beaujolais isn’t very good (and indeed Bethany compared it to the taste of fake banana), but that they just decided to have a festival on the day when the new wine came out every year to sell more, and the French were on board for another celebration so people celebrate all throughout France. I walked into the teacher’s lunchroom to have lunch, and there were wine bottles of Beaujolais on every table. I love this country. That evening there was another Beaujolais tasting at school, and I dragged Carlos along. It was fun, though slightly embarrassing because somehow the entire group that was lost in the woods together (me, Carlos, the school nurse, her daughter, and the math teacher Roger) were reunited. They were all astonished that Carlos and I are dating, and Roger made quite a display about it. “They met at my house! The wedding will have to be at my house...and then another one in Mississippi and another one in Spain!”....Hmm... Anyway, the Beaujolais tradition was fun, and all of the teachers at school were really sweet about sharing the tradition with me.

Tuesday was the teacher strike, and it was less stressful than I thought it would be. I had two out of three of my classes. One of the groups was a little mad because their original teacher was on strike, but their portion of the class still had to come to class because they were with me. Later that afternoon I accidentally ran into the protest in the streets and stopped to watch for a little while. I ran into one of my teachers, who ironically, stopped to talk to make sure that class had gone well that day. I wished her a “bonne manifestation” (“have a good protest”), which I meant somewhat sarcastically, but she happily thanked me and continued to march. Thursday I was told just to have a discussion with one of my classes so I picked the topic of attitudes towards work, just so that I could satisfy my own curiosity about how my students feel about the strikes. Several of them admitted that the French are a lazy people. From what I gather,they thought that the teacher strikes were justified but the transportation ones were not. I did not really understand why they made this distinction. I realize that I sound pretty critical of the French strikes, but I am. I think that there must be more constructive ways of making the government listen.

Saturday I had a potluck Thanksgiving dinner for a bunch of my friends. I really wanted to share the holiday with my non-American friends. Plus, being in France where people don’t really celebrate it made me suddenly miss this holiday which I usually don’t care much about. I cooked all day. I made some sweet potato casserole (do not ask me how long it took me to find marshmallows in the French supermarket! I was seriously worried since I obviously couldn’t have Thanksgiving without sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top), which turned out pretty well and some turkey pasta. I had about 15 people show up, representing 10 different countries. It was a lot of fun, though I didn’t know what else to say about what we do in America other than that we eat too much and watch football then eat turkey leftovers for weeks afterwards.

The following day I enjoyed another elaborate meal, though the circumstances were much much stranger. There is a program which links up international students and French families so that the students get a home cooked meal, and the families get to make friends with people from another culture. Carlos had arranged to meet with a French family and asked them if I could come along (and boy is he lucky that I did! otherwise he would have had to face these bizarre people alone!). The woman, who seemed nice enough, came and picked us up and drove us out to the small town that they live in. When we got there, she left us alone with her husband while she cooked. Within a few minutes I was on the phone with his cousin because I had mentioned that I would like to find a job in the United States. The cousin works for the U.S. embassy or something, but thankfully he did not answer, though the man did force me to leave a message with my cell phone number in it. Later on in the meal, the wife was telling me about where she is from in Provence, and I mentioned that I would like to visit Provence one of these days (just to be polite!), and the husband ran to get the phone to call his mother-in-law to ask her if we could come and stay with her. “She lives alone; she won’t mind,” he insisted. Normally, I get a little nervous on the phone with real French people, but this situation was so outlandish that it did not even seem real. So I talked to this man’s mother-in-law and told her that I wanted to visit Provence sometime, I didn’t know when and that I might call her and ask to stay with her. She seemed confused, but I didn’t really care because I figured I would never talk to her again. “Aren’t you lucky that you have a met a French person with so many contacts?” the husband said smugly after the conversation. The meal lasted many many hours through many many courses like all French meals, and the man got crazier and crazier. I would have to say that he is an actual French redneck. He went on a long rant about how much he loved his guns and many other rants about the things he had learned from informational television programs. Interestingly, because of these television programs, he was under the impression that the two biggest religious groups in the US are Mormons and Quakers. I responded by saying, “Oh, Quakers still exist?” Eventually, the couple sent us home....with several pounds of walnuts, the phone number of everyone in their family (after making us promise that we would call them for different sorts of favors), and a promise that they would invite us over again soon. Now we have to figure out if we would rather go through this again or risk offending them. I sort of enjoyed myself, but the whole affair was pretty high on the bizarre scale.

The Christmas Market opened this weekend, and I would have to compare it to the state fair (minus the carnies). They have a few carnival rides and booths with unhealthy food and horrible looking home decorations (the sort of things that you see in peoples’ houses and say “where on earth do you buy something like that?”) They also have some nice things, though, and the festive atmosphere is nice.

Saturday one of my teachers had me and Carlos over for dinner. He was nervous after all of the strange dinners we have had with French people, but this one turned out to be normal, and it was cool to get a picture of normal family life. Sunday we went to the flea market, which was marvelous, of course.

It is usually rainy here...I am starting to forget what the sun looks like

"Je ne veux plus travailler." Some French grafiti I saw..."I don't want to work anymore."

2007-11-17T00:39:00.000-08:00

I am very sorry that I have not updated my blog in so long. It has been a weird, complicated few weeks. I am finally in my apartment with internet, but for some reason I can’t update my blog from my room, which means I have to drag my computer to the train station in order to update. Anyway, here’s the run-down of the past few weeks...

The move to my new apartment was, well stressful. I scrubbed every inch of my room in the Foyer Carrefour(partially because when Shamiran moved out they threatened to fine her for a speck of dust left in the room) and then when they checked my room, the guy hardly looked at it and didn’t care. The original friendly luggage helper from Carrefour helped me get a load of luggage across town, which was very very wonderful of her. Then when we got here, the horrible landlord said he didn’t realize I was moving in that day, even though I had made an appointment with him, and I had made sure that I should come “avec mes valises, pour demanager.” With my suitcases, to move in. There was only one room available, and since Helen had paid her deposit, and I hadn’t, she got a room, and I didn’t. And I was very mad...even though the man said he’d put me up in a hotel for a week until my room is ready. But then, I saw my hotel, and it’s very nice. Comfy bed, television, kitchen, bathtub...so even though I am sad that I couldn’t spend the vacation getting settled or traveling like I’d planned, I spent it watching television and luxuriating in my room.

Saturday I went to a nearby city called Nancy with some of my foyer friends. Nancy is Metz’s rival, and it is very pretty and very “French” while Metz is very staunch and German. Place Stanislaus is the historic center of the city with beautiful statued buildings and nice gardens (even the bushes in this area twirl...I think it’s because they feel pretty...or maybe because they are on rotating wheels, who knows). I went some museums and saw lots of pretty Art Nouveau stained glass windows and furniture. Random funny thing in the city--As we were walking along a street full of stores, we saw a bunch of random stuff on the street--fresh shrimp scattered all over the sidewalk power tools, and some items of mens clothing--the result of a domestic dispute above.

Carlos spent most of the week in Paris with his family, but he sent me an email every night he was gone, and I met him at the train station when he got home, and we spent a lot of the vacation together after that. We are dating exclusively now. I am not saying anything else about this because he found the link to my blog...

Last week I finally got moved into my apartment. I like it, even though the location is not the best, and the apartment is small. The street I am on is loud, and I can hear the trains come, but the apartment itself is nice, and I finally have internet! I am not fully unpacked, but it feels really nice to have a place of my own. I will put up pictures as soon as I clean up...

Last weekend I went to a party that some assistants had in Verdun, and I have to say it felt really weird to go to a city known for an enormous number of WWI casualties in order to go to a party. The party was fun, and I got to know some more assistants, especially some who are stationed a little bit further away from Metz.

Last Wednesday we had our second day of orientation, which was good because I got a few lesson ideas from everyone else and because I was reunited with some of my assistant friends I hadn’t seen in a while (though the turnout was smaller than at the last orientation, presumably because of the transportation strikes). We convinced our Welsh friend Jemma who teaches in the middle of nowhere to come back this weekend, so last night Jemma, Nabila, and Bethany, and I hung out and laughed so hard that we all lost our voices and felt ill , and hopefully tonight is going to be similar.

There have been about a bazillion strikes lately...maybe you have been hearing about them in the states? The most annoying ones are the transportation strikes, though these haven’t really affected me much because I don’t take trains for buses very often--I just walk everywhere. But I have had to watch my friends, especially ones who live in tiny towns outside of Metz really struggle getting where they need to go. In case you aren’t aware, the reason that the public sector is striking is because the government has proposed changing the retirement system. Right now, people with certain “high stress” jobs are allowed to retire early (as early as 50), but the government wants to change this, and I really think it’s because it can’t sustain such a heavy system. On Tuesday, the teachers are striking, which will be interesting. It has been so strange to sit in the teacher’s lounge and hear them so casually discuss if they are going to strike or not. I am required to show up to work, or else they will think I’m striking too. I’m just hoping that I don’t have to teach for any of the teachers who are striking.

Currently the university students are also on strike because the universities might be privatized(every division except for Carlos’ so he still has to go to class, ha). I am having trouble understanding how the student strikes actually really affect anyone other than themselves, though I do understand that striking does bring attention to their cause. I was at the university a few days ago, and I saw how the students had piled up furniture in behind the doors so no one can get in. When I asked language exchange Carlos about the strikes, he told me that he thought that the number of French strikes is blown out of proportion by the media, but I definitely disagree. There are strikes all of the time. There has got to be a better way for

Land of Handguns and Hamburgers, America

2007-10-29T00:38:00.000-07:00

I finally have a real, living and breathing French friend who is not a teacher. Claire is about my age and from Bordeaux and has come to Metz with her job. We met because she stayed in my foyer briefly before she found an apartment. Since she is not a juvenile delinquent, she immediately became friends with us “normals” in the foyer. So the assistants and the German students in the Carrefour are all very glad to know a French our age who doesn’t have dance parties in the hallways with Gwen Stefani on full volume late at night or shove cigarette butts under our doors. On Thursday Claire took us to an comedy improvisation competition, which was really interesting, even though I did not understand the parts that made the audience laugh really loud. I met a guy working at the theater who found out I was American, and he was very excited to meet me. So when the actors played an accent game, the guy told the host to make someone do a Mississippi accent, but the guy misunderstood and ordered the actor to do a Minnesota accent, though I doubt a French person understands the difference. I still really appreciate the effort...I love being a novelty.

I am still really enjoying the kids for the most part. I finally got my class preparatoire to talk a little bit after I worked really hard on a lesson about censorship and rap music. In my other classes, we have still been talking about stereotypes, and, I have heard some very interesting ones about Americans, such as that we all carry guns, sit on the couch all day eating fast food, and all wear helmets with beer cans attached to them. I knew that other countries don’t have positive images of America, but I didn’t realize it was “America=handguns and hamburgers.” “Hamburger” is usually the first word I hear when I ask about what they think about when they think of America, which is followed immediately by “fat” of course. At just about every restaurant you can order an “American,” which is really just a hamburger. Despite the prevalence of fast food in the US, I think that the American love affair with the hamburger is exaggerated in Europe. I also didn’t realize that a lack of gun control is one reason that many Europeans look down on the United States. Americans school shootings receive a lot of press here, and this increases the European confusion to why we don’t have stricter gun control, why we have guns at all.

It has also been interesting telling the French what the stereotypes that we have of them. They are always very shocked and appalled when I tell them that Americans think that they are mean and that they smell bad so I must assure them that these stereotypes are not true...

Speaking of stereotypes, I have had some serious trouble with the stereotypes that people have about the Deep South, and this includes the attitudes of other Americans. One American said that the South is what is wrong with America. If you ask me, the problem is really the small-mindedness of small town America, and you can find this throughout the entire country, though it is a little more prevalent in the South because it is more rural. It’s really frustrating meeting so many American haters. I always try to argue with them, but they seem to already have their minds made up. French people also have a lot of really negative ideas about the South, but when all they know about the South is slavery and the Civil Rights struggle, this is slightly more understandable. During a language exchange, Carlos asked me, “Do you even have any black friends?” Clearly, he was just anticipating me to say no. I yelled at him and was almost on the verge of tears by the end of my tirade. It is weird feeling to have to struggle so much with where I am from. I’m thinking that I’ll just let them get to know me, and I hope that this will change their opinions of Southerners. Still, one problem underneath this whole situation is my self-consciousness that I am a privileged white female so I am always wondering if the problems are a lot worse, and I am just never in an environment where I would witness them.

On a lighter note, yesterday I had a date with someone who I referenced a few entries earlier (scroll back to “le raccourci” if you want the whole story...) He is the school nurse’s daughter’s Spanish salsa partner. He is studying law at the university, and his name is Carlos (not to be confused with the Carlos who is a teacher at my school with whom I do a twice weekly language exchange). We hit it off when we were lost in the woods together. I have a lot of trouble understanding his French through his accent, but thankfully he speaks really good English since his dad is an English teacher. We hadn’t hung out since the original raccourci because I don’t have a cell phone, but we were finally able to coordinate things through email. And since the night before we had had a time change, he got there an hour early just in case I didn’t know about it. Aw.

(FYI, now I am just 6 hours later than those of you in the Central time zone).

I have not used a cell phone or watched television (other than rugby) in a month, and it has been pretty liberating. But...I think I am going to break down and buy a cell phone this week since Wednesday I am moving across town, and I won’t be living in the same building as my best friends (except for Helen) anymore. A bunch of my foyer friends are moving as well. A lot of us just stayed there for a month before moving to better apartments. Our close-knit group is scattering, and I am definitely going to miss living and eating meals with all of them.

Sarah took me out to a store that is basically a French Wal-Mart last week. I knew they had to have one somewhere...I have learned that these stores are usually pretty far out of town because they take up so much space. So now I have a new hair dryer (my American one blew up despite having bought a voltage adapter!) and a straightener plus various other necessities so I am feeling much more like myself now.

Right now I am in the middle of my first vacation, which is not that exciting since I am stuck in Metz since I have to move and haven’t been paid yet. It also stinks because a lot of my friends are taking trips and aren’t here. I think Helen and I might take a trip to Luxembourg once we’re settled (since it’s only 45 minutes away by train). Or we just discussed going wherever in the country we could find a cheap ticket or throwing a dart at a map or something. All of these plans will, of course, depend on whether the transportation workers go into work that day...