Oh hey blog heyyyyy

So much to update on before I have to "actually, really, no, seriously" start studying for finals. Because, you know, finals here are all that my grade will be based on.

Dear wonderful friend that sent me the card (you know who you are), I miss you and love you and the card is now on my wall making me very, very, very happy.

So... November. It feels as though yesterday was Halloween, but that is very much not the case. A lot happened. Good golly did a lot happen. I will pare it down for you though to: Revisiting Brittany! and THANKSGIVING for 20!!!

I'm kind of tired, though, seeing as it is 2h14 here so I'll present this in pictures:

Yay Breton coast! Mmm sea air. 

Hello Atlantic, I've missed you. Pokoù. 

Fantastically good home-cooked French meal. Nomnomnom. The family with whom I stayed knows I love duck, so they made me a classic French dish with the pork switched out for confit de canard. Holy shit, best meal ever?

Fest-Noz Quéven 2012! It was great to be back and to see everyone and to dance like a Breton. 

My dear Canadian friend and I had a photo shoot in the streets of Lorient. Guess what, it was a Sunday. That is why there was NO ONE else around. 

When I got back, I started cooking and baking. This is the apple pie I made (entirely from scratch), please note the apple shaped bit in the middle. It looks burned here, but it wasn't. It was fantastic. 

There were 20 of us total, I was the only American. I made 4 roast chickens, stuffing, cornbread, a sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce (soooo goooood), sautéed green beans with pink onions and 4 pies (1 apple, 1 pumpkin and, of course, 2 derby pies). The French adored the sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce and derby pies. Proud to say that two of those things had bourbon in them. Just doing my part for the Kentucky economy by making new populations love Bourbon. 

My room (where the eating happened), during a brief moment after a few of the guests had arrived but had been moved into the kitchen. I would post pictures from when everyone was in the room, but I try not to post pictures of other people so... sorry. 

So many bags. 

Aftermath, after the guests had left. 

So much food to figure out what to do with. 

My wonderful flatmate N and I put everything away and cleaned all the dishes. This may be my favorite picture as it represents a night well finished. 

Food for WEEKS. 

I was pretty pleased with myself for defleshing the chicken the next day and using the carcasses to make stock. I had no idea how gelatinous home-made chicken stock is. Fascinating. 

I hope that you all had wonderful Thanksgivings (even if you're not American/Canadian). 

I am so thankful to be back in France, to have a wonderfully supportive family who is encouraging me to have this adventure and to have amazing friends who put up with my inability to keep in contact. 

Much love, 

MCJ

Having a Bâle (a Sunday in Basel)

Welcome to Switzerland!

Made by the same guy (Jeff Koons) that made Puppy outside of the Bilbao Guggenheim, this here is his dragon head outside of the Fondation Beyeler. Split-Rocker is the name. At the time it wasn't so clear, but now I see that the head is actually split and he has a bit of a rocker vibe. Aha!

The foundation. 

To the left was France. 

To the right was Germany. 

Basel is a German-speaking city in Switzerland. Being clever-like I decided to buy my ticket in German. Sadly, it turns out I'm not that clever. 

Me: A ticket for a student, please. [Awww yeah, lookit that, I can communicate things in German!]

Cashier: 12 Swiss Francs. [Whoohoo! I understood her reply! She replied in German! Things are going well.] 

Me [puts down cash and student card]

Cashier: ?!??!????! 

Me: [Fuck.]

Cashier: [Gestures something to do with the cash.]

Me: [Attempts turning the cycle the money/card has been placed on.]

Cashier: [Hella frustrated.] WHAT LANGUAGE DO YOU SPEAK? FRENCH? ENGLISH? 

Me: [Turns to German friend.]

German friend (in French): You have to take the student card off. 

Me: [Embarrassed, removes card, receives change, runs away.]

There's something very confusing about being in a German speaking place minutes away from France with Francophone companions. As part of my "studying" German this semester, I've been watching copious amounts of German tv. Sadly, none of this passive comprehensive knowledge I've received helped me there. Some people I understood, others I didn't. 

Basel likes its fountains. 

Even though I don't frequent Starbucks in the US, I was still really excited to see all the Starbucks in Basel. They're the closest ones to where I live now. Honestly, I would only really want to go in there if they had the Horizon organic chocolate milk they have in the US ones and I'm pretty sure they do not. Tant pis. 

Lots of roads like this. 

And the cathedral, of course. 

Fall is coming! Autumn is here! Pétanque!

It was a Sunday and people were few and far between on most streets. 

There was even a manif'!

(Speaking of which, I participated in my first a couple weeks ago and it was excellent. Post to come.)

Where a Nobel Prize winner worked. We went into this courtyard because we were promised a talk on the importance of the arts and kids' crafts. We did not actually find said talk (I suspect it was through the doors...) but we were not terribly upset by this. 

The queen says hello on an utterly empty street. 

The Rhine follows me everywhere. 

The Griffin seems to be a symbol for Basel. Haven't looked this up to confirm, but he's EVERYWHERE. 

Along with the symbol on that flag. This is a little ferry that goes across the Rhein, it's operated by a motor that stretches across the river and the poles to which were put into place during the 19th century. 

A friend and I had the same reaction: HARRY POTTER. 

Life is going well. I have a week and a half before the Toussaint holiday and lots to get done in that time (including what is essentially my final in one class). I should get on that.... Last Saturday, we had a debate in class (we were assigned sides randomly) and I saved my team in a heroic fashion. So much so, that when we had another debate in class today my team tried to make me be one of the speakers, despite my not having contributed anything to the prep discussion. I declined today, which I still feel bad about. The fact is, living in another language, some days you have good speaking days and other days you have bad ones. Today happened to be a bad one. It was just hard to focus on things in French today. Given that today's format would be addressing things brought up by the other team it just didn't seem like a great idea for me. And sitting/listening through it, I know I made the right call. My team did great without me speaking. 

For Toussaint, I'm planning on going to the UK to visit some friends and to travel with my dear friend D from last year who is back in Brittany assistant-ing! I just need to buy tickets to get there. 

Big bisous, 

MCJ

Heading to Spain tonight

And now for a ramble:

As it is now the Tuesday after Easter (and a day when people are no longer 0ff-work, the exception being us with les vacances already), I am on the receiving end of a lot of rejection. I knew that a lot of replies would come from universities that only accept lectrices from other universities with whom they have an agreement, but it's still le suck to get them. Ah well, I will keep on keeping on (and my info will still be on file at those places if one of their agreed upon candidates dropped off). Okay, so, there have only been two rejections so far, but they were rejections from schools I was really hoping to work for.

Project for the Spain trip: writing a Masters application.

I feel positive still, however. Where there's a will, there's a way. Talking with EU friends can be a little maddening though. Their only concern is finding a job, they don't have to find a job that will sponsor a visa. I was speaking with one who was telling me to go to the pole emploi to look for a job "and then you can also apply for unemployment benefits!"

Me: "Uhhhh I'm pretty sure that's not possible, given I'm an American and once my visa is over I'm officially a tourist."

"Oh, right."

Life has been exceptionally great, however. Lots of celebrations, lots of meeting new people, lots of saying goodbye. Saying goodbye is not great, but discovering that these people you just met a half year ago care about you and want you to stay a part of their lives is great.

MCJ

Teasers from les vacances

During vacances I:
visited Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, Mechelen (Belgium) and Quimper
had lunch with a friend in Paris
saw plain clothes police officers pull out guns on a car thief
ate delicious Pho
ate delicious Indian food
ate fries and waffles
drank beer
saw many a musée
saw many a closed sign at many a musée
slept
made hostel friends
learned card games
did not get frostbite (because I)
bought gloves
celebrated a dear friend's birthday
discovered where France hides all its Disney princess birthday magic
wrote poetry
won.

Explanations and pictures to (eventually) follow.

During winter break, I'm gonna go to Belgium.

And you?

Why yes, the winter break is in February and, yes, it is this soon after Christmas break and, yes, it will also be two weeks long and, yes, I will have another two week break in April.

France is full of win.

So tomorrow morning, in the wee hours, I'll be heading off to Brussels where I hope to drink beer and eat waffles and fries. In the meantime, I'm going to teach another 4eme class about gonna, gotta and wanna. I wanna go home and pack, but I gotta teach this class. JK, I love hanging with the kids. Especially now that I've decided to teach them awkward turtle as a way to signal to me that they don't understand.

Random assistanting tip, if ever you are faced with a class that just won't stop talking, start doing something like the awkward turtle that they don't understand. They will fall dead silent trying to figure out what you're doing. It works like a charm. Also, if it actually has cultural significance, they really enjoy learning about what it is.

Last weekend, the roadtrip that wasn't, was a lot of fun, even though I finally caught the cold that my friends had been passing around. Much ligretto was played, cafés were frequented, Port Louis was visited (again) and a lovely dinner with a visiting Moroccan family was had. I didn't make it to the Super Bowl due to the aforementioned sickness, but my diligence in resting means that I won't be sick in Belgium. YAY MCJ! A sickness that lasted less than a week! I literally can't remember the last time that happened. Thanks mono, you bastard.

I'm hungry.

Big bisous,

MCJ

Bonne année!

Happy new year, dear friends!

Despite my being sick for roughly a quarter of it, 2011 has been a wonderful year. I feel so lucky to be in France right now in my little town. At face value, it might seem that being placed in my town would, well, suck. In fact, one of my French professors told her (French) friend about my being placed in a small Breton town and the friend's reaction was "oh... well that's too bad."

It might seem like this would be an unfortunate placement for someone my age, however, the reality is that being here has exposed me to some wonderful opportunities that would have been harder to come by. Namely, I mean being welcomed so warmly into the Breton culture of my little town. I feel so lucky and I am so lucky. I've made great friends within that association and with other assistants. I will be sad to leave these people in May, but I know that it won't be the last time I see any of them.

This time last year, I was sitting in front of my computer going "shit... I actually REALLY really need to start writing this French essay for TAPIF." and "FUCK! What regions SHOULD I list??? And in what order?" and also "Really, MCJ? Really? You left this to the last minute. Really?" Luckily, it worked out and I got my second choice for academies (the Rennes academy, aka BRITTANY where the best students are).

Since I last wrote, the parents and I have visited: Bayeux, the Normandy beaches, the American cemetary, Mont Saint-Michel, Cancale (where we didn't eat oysters. oops), St Malo, Carnac (holy beeswax! them's a lot of megaliths), Guidel Plage/Larmor-Plage/everything in between, Lorient and, of course, Quéven. We've been putting some good miles on our rental car.

I hope the next year brings you as much joy as 2011 has brought me.

Bloavezh mad!

Much love,

MCJ

Les Vacances so far

As we prepare to leave Strasbourg in the morning, I thought I'd check in and say how wonderful it has been. Strasbourg is truly lovely and the apartment we're staying in is absolutely delightful. I would post pictures except it is in fact someone's home and that seems a bit too much into their privacy. We had tea with the owners and I have to say they are people I'd love to know better.

Strasbourg is situated on the Rhine, across the river from Germany, in the Alsace region. It's a great location to explore Alsace and the Lorraine. My parents and I had the chance to day trip to Nancy, Colmar, Kehl (Germany, the city across the river) and Basel (Switzerland). Strasbourg itself is host to several Christmas market and many, many, many tourists during the holiday season.

Apparently I got only one picture of these markets and the market is wayyy in the background. Here it is:

My favorite part of the Strasbourg leg (even with all the fantasticness of Strasbourg) has been being in an apartment with my parents and an oven.

We made candy cane cookies:

soup:

a tarte aux pommes:

and a fantastic Christmas chicken (not pictured, though the soup was made with its leftovers).

As someone who really likes cooking, it's been a joy. And it's been a joy to be with my parents and to share with them some of what I've seen and some of what little I know. It's been even more of a joy to discover new things with them, like Nancy, Colmar and Basel. All three of us speak some French and a little German so our forays into Deutsch-speaking zones have been funny misadventures. Sometimes those forays were just to the restaurant downstairs as Strasbourg still has quite a lot of German influence (and visitors).

Being in Strasbourg has made me think some more about the future. I'm still working out what I want to do, so stay tuned. :)

In the meantime, here is a picture from each of the places we visited.

Nancy: Croq n Jazz. If you go to Nancy, go there. It is apparently at 4 Rue Lafayette.

Colmar

Basel/Bâle, Switzerland: Outside the Art Museum

Kehl, Germany

Big bisous and huge hugs,

MCJ

Paris with the Parents

The parents arrived safely in Paris.

Forgetting how hard jetlag can be, I ran them around Paris to go to the Musée Branly. I've been wanting to go there for the past four years. The museum was really cool, as hoped (and freee for me), but rather dark inside. Darkness + places to sit + jetlag = sleeping dad. We rushed through Oceania and the Americas and to lunch at Les Cigales. Parents fading fast, we headed back to the hotel for a nap.

Post-nap, we headed to Théâtre de la Huchette to see Ionesco's first two plays. The nap got them through the first play admirably, but the second play proved a little more taxing, until the characters started yelling. It's the 55th year of these plays' runs in this particular theater and my third time seeing it. Mary the maid and the fireman have been the same actors all three times, I'm fairly certain.

Today, we head to Strasbourg.

Much love,

MCJ