Well, last week was again filled with French Administration… Monday I had my medical visit in Orléans! Wednesday I went back to Chartres to file my Roundtrip VISA application. The man who “helps” me in Chartres is full of baloney. Luckily, I met a professor this week who married an Australian woman, so he and I could talk at length about French bureaucracy.
I had a wonderful weekend - I spent Saturday in Paris with an English professor and her family. It was quite an adventure, to say the least! First of all, I thought I was going to be picked up by Patricia (the prof), we would pick up her son, go to Paris for a few hours, and be back in Nogent by 10 at the latest. Oh, how wrong I was… First, I was picked up by Patricia and her husband, Dan. Not a big deal, but unexpected nonetheless. We eventually picked up their son, Théo from the university, took a driving tour of his town, and ended back at his apartment for lunch. Mind you, the French love to enjoy their meals, so we enjoyed for 2.5 hours! It was lovely – baguette sticks, mushrooms Dan collected from the countryside, salad, cheese, strawberries, grapes, chocolate cake, and wine. As soon as we were done we packed up and got in the car. Unfortunately, they had gotten a ticket. So instead of heading into Paris we went to the police station to contest the ticket – on the basis that Théo has a broken leg. True. Eventually we got to Paris, we dropped of Patricia to do some shopping and Théo and I were dropped off at Virgin Records. We spent two hours between Virgin Records and fnac (the French version of Virgin). If you know me at all, you know that I didn’t know any of the music or movies or tv series in the stores. But somehow Théo and I managed to make conversation. He was mostly teaching me about French satire. When we (read:he) exhausted all pop culture knowledge we met Dan for a beer on the Champs Elysées. He had already finished his beer so he sat next to us trying to use his new toy – it is a piece of plastic you can put on your tongue and blow through to make bird songs. Imagine a full-grown man very seriously trying to whistle for the first time… Changing the shape of his mouth, blowing, spitting, coughing… it was a riot! Théo and I just laughed for a half hour. When we left the café we found Patricia, picked up Théo’s girlfriend and drove back to his apartment. Because Saturday night was the final match of the Rugby World Cup, we were stuck in traffic for hours!!! We finally got to Théo’s place at 10:30, ate a three-course dinner, and got back to Nogent at 2am! Woah. Then I slept hard for eight hours. It was exhausting, but wonderful, to concentrate in French for 16 hours. I don’t know if I have ever done that before.
This week I have been teaching high school students about US geography and physical descriptions. Exhilarating stuff. I am getting familiar with their level of English for now – but the next lesson we will start to have some fun. I hope.
Tomorrow I will go back to Chartres to get my Roundtrip VISA and then I will go to Paris for the night. Thursday morning I will get on a plane to Madison, via Chicago!
My next post should include pictures from Travis’s wedding!
Take good care,
Molly
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
More pictures...
I need to change some of these so they are all facing in the right direction...
This is a partial side view of the massive cathedral in Orléans. We saw this on our tour of the city during the orientation.
They have dozens of walkways like this in Orléans – it is a beautiful, pedestrian-friendly town. Nogent has one of these.
You also can’t have enough pictures of the Louvre. Can’t wait to go back (I’m waiting for you, Eric!)
Later in the night this was on fire – a beautiful chandelier, if I have ever seen one!
I wish I had gotten a better picture, but you can see there are thousands of people sitting down to watch the game! Incredible. I’m quite sure we wouldn’t be sitting in the states! You can see Notre Dame in the background!
This was amazing!
This is one of the chimneys on fire – you can see the Eifle Tower in the background!
This is the greatest thing – you can use these public bikes for one Euro per day! You can get one at any of the 300 bike racks and then leave them at any other rack in the city. What a great way to help people be independent and less energy-dependent?! I am really excited about these bikes. Unfortunately, if you enlarge the photo you will see that I was obviously out all night at the lights festival!
A beautiful lake I can walk to - about an hour from my house!
The lake, take II.
The lake, take III. These two swans followed me along the path for a couple hundred feet. I love birds.
The collège (middle school) where Holly works. The uber-old building is worked right into the current buildings, isn’t it?! Holly is in the lower right of the picture.
These steps lead up to the chateau.
Another picture of the steps leading to the chateau. There is also a public garden through the gate on the left.
I finally took a picture of the chateau!
Here is a view of our town from a hill. The buildings at the bottom of the picture are considered the medieval part of town – they are the oldest buildings, dating back hundreds of years.
This is a partial side view of the massive cathedral in Orléans. We saw this on our tour of the city during the orientation.
They have dozens of walkways like this in Orléans – it is a beautiful, pedestrian-friendly town. Nogent has one of these.
You also can’t have enough pictures of the Louvre. Can’t wait to go back (I’m waiting for you, Eric!)
Later in the night this was on fire – a beautiful chandelier, if I have ever seen one!
I wish I had gotten a better picture, but you can see there are thousands of people sitting down to watch the game! Incredible. I’m quite sure we wouldn’t be sitting in the states! You can see Notre Dame in the background!This was amazing!
This is one of the chimneys on fire – you can see the Eifle Tower in the background!
This is the greatest thing – you can use these public bikes for one Euro per day! You can get one at any of the 300 bike racks and then leave them at any other rack in the city. What a great way to help people be independent and less energy-dependent?! I am really excited about these bikes. Unfortunately, if you enlarge the photo you will see that I was obviously out all night at the lights festival!
A beautiful lake I can walk to - about an hour from my house!
The lake, take II.
The lake, take III. These two swans followed me along the path for a couple hundred feet. I love birds.
The collège (middle school) where Holly works. The uber-old building is worked right into the current buildings, isn’t it?! Holly is in the lower right of the picture.
These steps lead up to the chateau.
Another picture of the steps leading to the chateau. There is also a public garden through the gate on the left.
I finally took a picture of the chateau!
Here is a view of our town from a hill. The buildings at the bottom of the picture are considered the medieval part of town – they are the oldest buildings, dating back hundreds of years.
Finally, some pictures from Paris
I finally came to a different internet café where I can easily load my pictures...
These are from my trip to Paris a few weekends ago:
The three of us are bearing the rain in Paris. As soon as Sadie bought an umbrella the rain stopped.
This is the huge screen at the hotel de ville where we watched rugby.
One can never take too many pictures of this beautiful church. (It’s the Notre Dame, silly.)
I LOVE this park – Les Jardins Luxembourg.
Same park.
These are from my trip to Paris a few weekends ago:
The three of us are bearing the rain in Paris. As soon as Sadie bought an umbrella the rain stopped.
This is the huge screen at the hotel de ville where we watched rugby.
One can never take too many pictures of this beautiful church. (It’s the Notre Dame, silly.)
I LOVE this park – Les Jardins Luxembourg.
Same park.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
breaking the silence…
well, I have obviously been investing myself in France, seeing as I haven’t written for two weeks now! I’ll try to be brief, but there is a lot to relate since everything is still new…
Tuesday, October 2 and Thurday, October 4 I had orientation – “learn how to teach in just 12 hours,” it was called. the first day of orientation was in Orléans. we met all 200 assistants in our area (eure & loir) – people from Spain, England, Italy, Scotland, Canada, Chile, Jamaica, United States, Mexico, Germany, Russia, etc. what a quality group of young people! I wish I could have talked to each and every one of them because there were some people with really neat stories in that room. the second day of orientation was in Chartres. this time I was with about 12 people – all of the high school English assistants in the region. we spent the day with two English teachers from Chartres, learning possible lessons to use with our students. in the afternoon I went to the prefecture with one of the teachers and tried to get my carte de sejour (required “visa” if you are staying for a long time) paperwork done.
carte de sejour paperwork AKA your worst nightmare. the best part was when I cried in front of everyone. basically, the information I had received wasn’t valid, so I didn’t have all of the paperwork I needed to process my carte de sejour. the big deal: without this stupid sticker I can’t leave the stupid country. and I have a brother’s wedding to attend at the end of the month. in Wisconsin. nice. well, my tears happened to loosen the rules, so they let me start the process after all. BUT I had to take pictures immediately in the photo booth ten feet to my right. I don’t think you will be surprised to know that my face was blotchy and pale and tired from crying. so… my official carte de sejour photograph, which will forever be in my passport, is TERRIBLE!! the stress continued until October 11 when I got an official letter asking me to come to Orléans for a medical visit – a prerequisite for the carte de sejour. they don’t want any unhealthy lungs staying in the country for a long period of time. I will go to the doctor October 15, return to the prefecture on October 17 with the lung x-ray, and get two very important-looking stickers. see you soon, Trav!
putting my stress at the back of my mind, I traveled to Paris October 6 and 7 with a group of new friends from orientation. if you don’t know (because I didn’t) the World Cup of Rugby is on, and is getting very heated. in the afternoon, we watched England v. Australia on the huge screen at the hotel de ville. for some reason, my roommates sat with different groups of friends during the game (one is from Australia, and the other is from England). England won. great?! in the interim a group of us ate a picnic lunch in a garden, saw Naomi Campbell walking out of a fashion show, visited the Champs Elysées, and caught a metro back to the hotel de ville for the second game – France v. New Zealand. if you know anything about rugby, you know that France was the big underdog in this match. before the game we marveled at thousands of French youth singing their national anthem (see below) and forcefully boo-ing at Sarkozy (he was in the stadium). we left after the first half because France was behind 3-13 and we knew what was going to happen. but alas, a few hours later, we were surprised to hear fans honking car horns, running through the streets singing and playing guitars, flying French flags, and generally being CRAZY! there was trash everywhere, people were drunk as ever, and no one questioned what had just happened. a true upset.
we spent the next few hours walking the streets, visiting different sites of the all-night festival called “la nuit blanche.” it was a series of expositions throughout the city – all with the common theme of light. for example, we saw a slideshow of human faces on the scaffolding of an old church, thousands and thousands of flower pots with fire coming out of them, a movie of digital a dancer which kept changing shape, and neon screens of changing light.
at the end of the weekend comes… the week. well, I finally got a schedule on monday morning. which changed twice before the end of the day. I had two classes cancelled and one class which just didn’t show up. then I had a class with 15 hearing students and 3 deaf students. no big deal, of course, but I would have prepared a more inclusive lesson if I would have known in advance. I finally met the last English teacher. I’ve only been here for three weeks, so… I guess…. all in all, it went well, but I have a better appreciation for both teachers in general and the organization of schools in the states now. I’m better prepared for my second week now. I’m ready to teach some well English to these kiddies.
this weekend was wonderful. it was exceptionally relaxing and rejuvenating. saturday I went to the local fruit/vegetable market, had a drink at a café, met my neighbors at the café since I was eavesdropping anyway, read a French newspaper, went for a swim, went to the cinema (saw ratatouille – so appropriate in French, right?!), ate a quick dinner with the family, and went to a bar to watch the semi-final rugby game – England v. France. in summary, the bar tender asked us to buy everyone a drink after England won. eeesh. sunday I went to church, took a 2.5 hour walk through the next town and around a lake, sat in the garden and wrote lesson plans for a few hours, and enjoyed another great dinner with the family.
highlights:
-our family has 200+ porcelain cicadas in the house. imagine.
-the lake I visited this weekend has wooden workout machines located around half of it – monkey bars, parallel bars, pull-up bars, ab crunch incline platform, balance beam, etc. a little bit funny.
-everyone here is sick. and I’m not. it is the first time in my life. I wanted to celebrate that fact!
-I haven’t written much poetry since high school, but I’m getting back into it. the garden behind the house is a very inspiring place (unless the roosters are cock-a-doodle-doo-ing). the mom offered the four-season porch at the back of the house when it gets too cold/rainy to sit outside.
-guillaume (the 4-year-old, not the dad) likes to play peek-a-boo with me using the laundry as a prop. too cute! the other day I told him I didn’t want to play on his slide and he asked me if I was shy. he’s bold!
-our neighbor was assassinated. in Africa. the details are ugly.
-the spanish assistant at the high school can speak in English with a French accent. and without. woah. I asked her if she would marry me. (just kidding, eric!)
-we had a very classic French meal last week – fondue!!
-I bought a membership at the pool and I am teaching myself to swim. quite a feat since I am afraid of water. I’m getting over it and I’m starting to make progress in my swimming skills! I consider myself “in training” for a triathlon. I am also running. which I also don’t like. but I am trying to enjoy new things while I am missing my bike.
-I am still trying to make friends. I can’t even meet people, so I don’t know how ‘no one’ is going to turn into a friend. any suggestions?
well, i can't seem to get the pictures to load, so there will be a lot (along with a video of the french national anthem) next time.
peace and bike grease,
molly
Tuesday, October 2 and Thurday, October 4 I had orientation – “learn how to teach in just 12 hours,” it was called. the first day of orientation was in Orléans. we met all 200 assistants in our area (eure & loir) – people from Spain, England, Italy, Scotland, Canada, Chile, Jamaica, United States, Mexico, Germany, Russia, etc. what a quality group of young people! I wish I could have talked to each and every one of them because there were some people with really neat stories in that room. the second day of orientation was in Chartres. this time I was with about 12 people – all of the high school English assistants in the region. we spent the day with two English teachers from Chartres, learning possible lessons to use with our students. in the afternoon I went to the prefecture with one of the teachers and tried to get my carte de sejour (required “visa” if you are staying for a long time) paperwork done.
carte de sejour paperwork AKA your worst nightmare. the best part was when I cried in front of everyone. basically, the information I had received wasn’t valid, so I didn’t have all of the paperwork I needed to process my carte de sejour. the big deal: without this stupid sticker I can’t leave the stupid country. and I have a brother’s wedding to attend at the end of the month. in Wisconsin. nice. well, my tears happened to loosen the rules, so they let me start the process after all. BUT I had to take pictures immediately in the photo booth ten feet to my right. I don’t think you will be surprised to know that my face was blotchy and pale and tired from crying. so… my official carte de sejour photograph, which will forever be in my passport, is TERRIBLE!! the stress continued until October 11 when I got an official letter asking me to come to Orléans for a medical visit – a prerequisite for the carte de sejour. they don’t want any unhealthy lungs staying in the country for a long period of time. I will go to the doctor October 15, return to the prefecture on October 17 with the lung x-ray, and get two very important-looking stickers. see you soon, Trav!
putting my stress at the back of my mind, I traveled to Paris October 6 and 7 with a group of new friends from orientation. if you don’t know (because I didn’t) the World Cup of Rugby is on, and is getting very heated. in the afternoon, we watched England v. Australia on the huge screen at the hotel de ville. for some reason, my roommates sat with different groups of friends during the game (one is from Australia, and the other is from England). England won. great?! in the interim a group of us ate a picnic lunch in a garden, saw Naomi Campbell walking out of a fashion show, visited the Champs Elysées, and caught a metro back to the hotel de ville for the second game – France v. New Zealand. if you know anything about rugby, you know that France was the big underdog in this match. before the game we marveled at thousands of French youth singing their national anthem (see below) and forcefully boo-ing at Sarkozy (he was in the stadium). we left after the first half because France was behind 3-13 and we knew what was going to happen. but alas, a few hours later, we were surprised to hear fans honking car horns, running through the streets singing and playing guitars, flying French flags, and generally being CRAZY! there was trash everywhere, people were drunk as ever, and no one questioned what had just happened. a true upset.
we spent the next few hours walking the streets, visiting different sites of the all-night festival called “la nuit blanche.” it was a series of expositions throughout the city – all with the common theme of light. for example, we saw a slideshow of human faces on the scaffolding of an old church, thousands and thousands of flower pots with fire coming out of them, a movie of digital a dancer which kept changing shape, and neon screens of changing light.
at the end of the weekend comes… the week. well, I finally got a schedule on monday morning. which changed twice before the end of the day. I had two classes cancelled and one class which just didn’t show up. then I had a class with 15 hearing students and 3 deaf students. no big deal, of course, but I would have prepared a more inclusive lesson if I would have known in advance. I finally met the last English teacher. I’ve only been here for three weeks, so… I guess…. all in all, it went well, but I have a better appreciation for both teachers in general and the organization of schools in the states now. I’m better prepared for my second week now. I’m ready to teach some well English to these kiddies.
this weekend was wonderful. it was exceptionally relaxing and rejuvenating. saturday I went to the local fruit/vegetable market, had a drink at a café, met my neighbors at the café since I was eavesdropping anyway, read a French newspaper, went for a swim, went to the cinema (saw ratatouille – so appropriate in French, right?!), ate a quick dinner with the family, and went to a bar to watch the semi-final rugby game – England v. France. in summary, the bar tender asked us to buy everyone a drink after England won. eeesh. sunday I went to church, took a 2.5 hour walk through the next town and around a lake, sat in the garden and wrote lesson plans for a few hours, and enjoyed another great dinner with the family.
highlights:
-our family has 200+ porcelain cicadas in the house. imagine.
-the lake I visited this weekend has wooden workout machines located around half of it – monkey bars, parallel bars, pull-up bars, ab crunch incline platform, balance beam, etc. a little bit funny.
-everyone here is sick. and I’m not. it is the first time in my life. I wanted to celebrate that fact!
-I haven’t written much poetry since high school, but I’m getting back into it. the garden behind the house is a very inspiring place (unless the roosters are cock-a-doodle-doo-ing). the mom offered the four-season porch at the back of the house when it gets too cold/rainy to sit outside.
-guillaume (the 4-year-old, not the dad) likes to play peek-a-boo with me using the laundry as a prop. too cute! the other day I told him I didn’t want to play on his slide and he asked me if I was shy. he’s bold!
-our neighbor was assassinated. in Africa. the details are ugly.
-the spanish assistant at the high school can speak in English with a French accent. and without. woah. I asked her if she would marry me. (just kidding, eric!)
-we had a very classic French meal last week – fondue!!
-I bought a membership at the pool and I am teaching myself to swim. quite a feat since I am afraid of water. I’m getting over it and I’m starting to make progress in my swimming skills! I consider myself “in training” for a triathlon. I am also running. which I also don’t like. but I am trying to enjoy new things while I am missing my bike.
-I am still trying to make friends. I can’t even meet people, so I don’t know how ‘no one’ is going to turn into a friend. any suggestions?
well, i can't seem to get the pictures to load, so there will be a lot (along with a video of the french national anthem) next time.
peace and bike grease,
molly
Monday, October 1, 2007
though we were able to stay busy last week, what with opening a new bank account, scheduling obligatory medical appointments, buying new phones, and visiting our new schools… we ran out of things to do by the end of the week. so we headed to paris. a cheap train ticket and an hour and a half later we were in one of my favorite cities! naturally, as paris goes in the fall, it was pouring. so we shopped and ate and finally decided to walk around despite the rain. we went for a long walk with our new Canadian friend through several different neighborhoods until we made our way to one of my favorite restaurants: le paradis du fruit. after our meal we went to the hotel de ville where the city had set up a HUGE screen on which they were broadcasting rugby, le coupe du monde! I didn’t even know usa had a rugby team, no less in the world cup! that night England v. Tonga was underway at the stadium in Paris, so we stayed to watch the game. until we got too cold and decided to make our way to a bar. I was excited to go out for the first time since I arrived, but had to keep my wallet in my pocket after my first $10 guinness. regardless, we walked to another bar after the game. on our way we were stopped by a bachelor party – in France the bride/groom-to-be is traditionally subjected to a night of public humiliation from their closest friends a few weeks before the wedding. the bachelor was wearing a large backpack and his every move was being videotaped by his friends. the idea was that he would wear a backpack of goodies on his back and each time he pulled out something new he had a new embarrassing task. quite a good game, I think. then saturday we walked and walked and walked. when the sun finally peeked out in the afternoon we sat in a park for an hour before we caught our train home.
it was nice to come back to nogent. although we haven’t met anyone here yet and we met at least eight people in one night in paris. it will take longer to run into 8 people in a small town, I suppose.
yesterday I had my first terrifying moment. I knocked down a shelf in the basement and broke three (out of a set of four) spice pots, a bottle of wine, and a porcelain serving tray. my heart was racing while I swept the floor, twice. when I regained my composure I went upstairs to tell them what had happened. as soon as I opened my mouth I was a goner. I started crying and I couldn’t pronounce the word for mop. she said I didn’t need to cry and that she would come down after she dressed her kids. a real mom. she wouldn’t even let me clean it myself. so I swept again. I am still embarrassed as I write about it.
I am glad that we have an orientation this week on tuesday and thursday because we will meet a lot of young people living in our region. but I am ready to start teaching already. I have a lot of ideas about what I might do in my classes, but it might all change when I meet my students. I just want to start so I know who I will be working with.
but perhaps I will be preparing my lesson plans for the first few days of class on an 8-hour train. I really want to go to Oktoberfest, but I just realized that October 7 is the last day!! oh, no! if everything works out, holly and I will take a night train on thursday and coming back sunday. that is, if we can find a place to lay our heads. mmmm, I will dream of beer tents until then.
hope life is good where you are!
molly
ps. more pictures to come...
it was nice to come back to nogent. although we haven’t met anyone here yet and we met at least eight people in one night in paris. it will take longer to run into 8 people in a small town, I suppose.
yesterday I had my first terrifying moment. I knocked down a shelf in the basement and broke three (out of a set of four) spice pots, a bottle of wine, and a porcelain serving tray. my heart was racing while I swept the floor, twice. when I regained my composure I went upstairs to tell them what had happened. as soon as I opened my mouth I was a goner. I started crying and I couldn’t pronounce the word for mop. she said I didn’t need to cry and that she would come down after she dressed her kids. a real mom. she wouldn’t even let me clean it myself. so I swept again. I am still embarrassed as I write about it.
I am glad that we have an orientation this week on tuesday and thursday because we will meet a lot of young people living in our region. but I am ready to start teaching already. I have a lot of ideas about what I might do in my classes, but it might all change when I meet my students. I just want to start so I know who I will be working with.
but perhaps I will be preparing my lesson plans for the first few days of class on an 8-hour train. I really want to go to Oktoberfest, but I just realized that October 7 is the last day!! oh, no! if everything works out, holly and I will take a night train on thursday and coming back sunday. that is, if we can find a place to lay our heads. mmmm, I will dream of beer tents until then.
hope life is good where you are!
molly
ps. more pictures to come...
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