Allemagne!

Yesterday I left my france and took a loooong train ride to Germany!

My friends came over to keep me company, help me finish all the food I had left and take stuff off my hands that I couldn't bring home. Then we played bilingual telestrations! Dani and Ed even brought Plato! I wonder if the salle commune had ever seen a dog before that.

I stuffed all of my things into one big suitcase and one bookbag.

I shipped home about 33 pounds of books and 15 pounds of other heavy stuff I couldn't bear to part with.

I took one last cafe in Caen with my best friend Whitney, at my favorite cafe.

I made it through the Paris subway with only two escalators out of order, and nice people to help me up all the stairs.

On the train in France I thought about how happy am that my French is finally good enough that I have no problem traveling, asking for help, clarification, directions, understanding all responses,etc.

On the train in Germany I am back to square one and don't understand a thing.

Sylvia was waiting for me with a Bavarian speciality!!

A pretzel cut in half and stuffed with cream cheese and chives! Perfect after 11 hours of traveling. =)

So good to see my friend, so much to catch up on, and so much to see!

Best Week Ever in photos

Wed evening: Pad thai from my two thailandaise classmates. I had NO idea how easy it is to make once you have the sauce, which is apparantly very difficult to make and takes a looong time to ferment. Challenge accepted.

Wed evening: This night we went around the room mocking our bad professors, reminiscing about our good ones, and sharing our stories about falling in love. T now has a fan club.

Friday morning: Classes are officially over! So many hours of exams. I geeked out about this big lecture room. Something I didn't get much of as a student. After the DALF, I sat with my friends for an hour or so on the grass, taking advantage of our time together.

Friday evening: Soiree jazz to celebrate the end of classes. Fun! Saying goodbye to Ian, Andrew, and Lauren, not fun. But I know their energy and spirit will ensure they are on to great things.

Saturday afternoon: On the way to meet my friend J for ice cream on the chateau, we find an orchestra in the middle of the sidewalk.

Saturday evening: Finally finished all those goodbye presents for my professors and colleagues while watching some contest for Europe's best singer. All other countries had some beautiful girl doing more dancing and acting than singing. But I would vote for Russia. 6 old ladies in traditional Russian garb singing what looked like a folk song and messing up the words from time to time. I saw too much English and too many fireworks in that show, and those Russian grannies were really refreshing.

Sunday afternoon: BBQ chez maman Veronique! Hazy in the morning but the sun came out and it was gorgeous in the afternoon. Plus, I finally got to meet the family Whit has been raving to me about since I met her. And with good reason. Lovely from the inside out, every one of them.

Sunday evening: Double birthday party with the Barbes! These girls made me a crown (because I may have demanded a crown) that took my breath away. And I met the most adorable little ginger kitten that night. I also dropped some asparagus in my wine when I lost control of the tongs, but then drank the wine anyway. Class!

And Monday: Met a beautiful new baby who has been born to an amazing mom and dad and big sister, shared my chocolate chip cookie recipe with probably the most socially adept and intelligent 14-year-old boy I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and had cafe and pizza with some people who I am really going to miss.

with 15 days left to go

These are the shoes that are so busted they are not worth taking home.

Yep, you are seeing right. Normandy tore through FIVE pair this year. That's a good thing I guess - less to take home?

Being home in 15 days is starting to feel unreal. I have so much to get done before then. And French administration is a nightmare. I feel like anything that isn't taken care of already will not likely be done at all.

As usual, I feel like I didn't get to spend as much time with most of my friends as I would have liked to. Regardless, I am so happy that I got to live here for another year, grow closer with my friends, and start to master this language. I still have a long way to go, but am leaps and bounds ahead of where I was in September.

Tomorrow, final exams, the beach, a jazz concert and dancing.

Today, a Skype interview with a program I would love to be a part of. I hope they like what I have to offer them!

Oh, photos from our unforgettable pancake day!

Semicolon pancake!

Me cooking pancakes in the tiniest kitchen ever shared by 11 people

Because birthday does rhyme with Monet

Yesterday I turned 26 years old. I think I asked my parents at some point what time I was born. I think they didn't remember. So I usually just go for a celebration that starts at midnight. Midnight on the 20th I was chatting franglais with Whit, Raph, Ian and Andrew at the Broc Cafe. Then I walked home under a sky that I would have expected to be much darker at 1am.

I woke up the next morning, put on my birthday shoes (which look exactly like my regular shoes btw) and walked over to chez Whit to meet her and Daniela, my road trip buddies to Giverny! And what road trip girls we were. Complete with us shouting "road trip," stopping for snacks, rocking out to "You're the one that I Want," and shouting "Giverny!!" in unison as we passed the first road sign for the village.

So, you know how Monet painted these?:

The inspiration for the water lillies series was his garden in Giverny. And that is where we spent the day on Sunday. You know I am a sucker for collective energy. For me, there is no better place than somewhere with a lot of other people appreciating the beauty all around you. So of course I loved Giverny. Even, or maybe especially, under the rain everything was magnificent. We walked the paths that Monet walked, laughed together in this garden that it must have taken loads of people to cultivate. We snapped shots of lillies, hulking trees, weeping willows, colorful orchids, and each other.

We took a little visit of Monet's house. Looked out his bedroom window into his garden. I especially loved his blue kitchen. Blue plaid curtains, awesome stove, and a whole wall of hanging pots, pans, spatulas. And even better than that, a kitchen all decked out in yellow!

We ate overpriced cheese dishes that none of us enjoyed (who knew my favorite of all cheeses is gross when warm?). We drank coffee and juice. We smiled with the flowers when the sun came out.

I am so glad that the rain didn't stop us from going, because raindrops on flowers can be as lovely as the flowers themselves.

May I always have birthdays that are shared with amazing friends, in inspiring places.

All photos are the master photography of Whitney. My battery was being weird.

Me, Whit and Daniela on the Japanese bridge

Rainy leaves

Les Nymphéas

Jour Férié Awesomeness

Jour Férié = bank holiday. Today is the ascension. And the following awesomeness ensued:

-Woke up completely stress-free, with no exam to get to or study for.
-Told Grooveshark to play me any of the 500 most popular songs at random, and it chose "Welcome to the Jungle." You haven't lived until you have seen me alone in my room screaming "I want to watch you bleed."
-Made my secret brownie for my tea party (group of professors who like tea, not who are crazy reps) I am going to miss this group. We have so much fun together. And they are great, caring friends. I told them I liked baking, so they gave me the bible of all french pâtisserie cookbooks!

No, I will not tell you the secret ingredient.
-Planned what to do on Sunday. Spending my birthday in Monet's gardens. Life is real freaking good.
-Next Thursday I have a Skype interview for a job I really want at a place I really want to work. Crossing all my appendages. I ask you to please do the same.

La Foire de Pâques

So here's a video about the Easter Fair that has been the spot to go for the past few weeks. Famous last hangout for my friends Bing, Samuel and Rana who were looking for a fun, memorable last evening before they left la france. I've also been with friends just looking for something fun to do on a Saturday when it's nice outside. So many rides. So much dizzy. So many lights. See for yourself.



Full-disclosure: this was the first time I actually tried editing a video. And it's a video I took on my webcam and cell phone. So I am aware that it is really terribly done. But I'll keep trying.

Things I left out of the video:
-How I screamed so hard on the upside down ride that my friend asked me if I had another cold the next day because I had lost my voice.
-How I got really into the haunted house and running out looking scared that a really nice lady pulled my friend aside to ask him if I was OK.
-How I spent about 2 euros (20 centimes per try) trying to win T a little bear and failed miserably, while Whit totally won a stuffed mario on her first try.
-How a silly mom wore a skirt to the foire and a gust of wind at the funhouse showed everyone everything.
-Another thing I noticed that def would not fly in the USA:

(Yeah, just go ahead and zoom in on that beach scene)


Things I left in the video:
-Me searching for the word jam. Cause most of the time I still can't believe I learned french and love when I forget words in English.
-Me saying I'm going to the Foire tomorrow. It's definitely over now. Sorry, took my time uploading.

Taking a breather

I have been studying on lock. And interrupting each hour with en episode of Cake Boss to keep myself sane, of course. The brain can only take so much without some shallow reality television to balance it all.

But isn't his Jersey accent going to interfere with the french comprehension, you ask? Oh, don't worry. I am falling asleep to Plus Belle la Vie, France's answer to the drama-packed daytime soap.

I have NINE exams next week, three of which are tomorrow! Those are for my degree from Université de Caen, Diplôme avancé d’études française. Then the week after that the DALF: Diplôme approfondi de langue française. That's the international beast, but I am less nervous about it because it's a language assesment. I go in with what I have, can't really prepare for that anymore than I have been, speaking French as much as others will let me and watching the TV in the salle commune as much as humanly possible. For the others, I have to know about subject matter that I don't have any background in at all! Economy? Juridique? What was I thinking challenging myself? I should have stuck to literature!

Since it's gorgeous outside, I have also (finally) picked up running again and am doing national poetry month May to make up for falling off track in April.

What else is going on? I know I talk to some of them often, but in general I feel completely cut off from my friends and family in the USA. Guess that's what happens when you pick up and leave for the bulk of a year. I am beyond ready to settle myself back into New Jersey life and pick up where I left off. Food swaps, late night chats with my roomie, beach days, exercise time with my nephew, all of it.

As excited as I am to come home, I can't see myself not here. I'm going to miss the boulangeries, the barman at the What Else, the cheap cheese and apples, and 100 times all that, my friends and family Caennais. You'd think I'd be used to leaving by now. It never gets easy though. Sigh. I need a job in the USA that lets me come to Caen every year. I won't give up until I find it.

Time is getting away from me! I can count the weeks I have left on one hand!
My next weekends:
This one: studying
Next one: Giverny (Monet's town)
The one after that: Germany
The one after that: HOME IN THE ARMS OF MY BABY!!!

Damn.

Study music:

why i love my boyfriend

On gchat:

me: ok baby, me too, i better get some sleep
pancake date tomorrow morning with nath
its a national holiday!

T: France has a pancake day?

me: hahah no that came out so wrong
its the end of the war anniversary
and im celebrating with pancakes

T: Don't care it's pancake day

Yes you did!

When you are much too tired to write but want to share the amazing night you just had with your friends...VIDEO BLOG!

Mina, pack your suitcase girl

The best way to be a better writer is to write, right? So that's why I just made a French blog! If you are French/speak French follow me! Let's see where this goes.

http://belleayrer.wordpress.com/

Hey, did you get that super awesome 90s wordplay I did in the title there?

Best Week (and week-end) Ever, the assistants are leaving (but that's not why it was awesome) edition

On Monday I had a feeling this week was going to fly by. My last week of work, first week of University classes back from the Easter holidays, and worst of all, the last week for the majority of the assistants I know.

I think I had forgotten from the last time how sad it is when the contract comes to an end. And this year I had some absolutely fabulous students. It was hard to say goodbye to them, but even harder to share my last lessons and coffee breaks with my AMAZING colleagues.

There were only two times that I almost cried, first in my class de 1L, when four of my students presented me with this:

It's a beautiful picture frame and inside little notes from my students thanking me for the things that I taught them. In the left corner is a postcard another two students gave me with a Normand Hamburger on it: An apple cut in half stuffed with Camembert, tripes, teurgeule, and crème. Yum!

And the second time I almost let a few teardrops fall was when some terminales (seniors) had a few last questions to ask me about my favorite memories in France, what stereotypes I have come to realize are not true, what the first thing is I want to do when I get home (that one made me super happy because I got to say I will kiss my boyfriend!!) But the thought of not having these students next year, not working with these professors, was overwhelmingly sad. That's what happens when you create a whole nother life somewhere else though. After that, wherever you are, you are going to miss someone.

In other news, I am proud to say I am rocking the face off of my classes at the University. I got all my grades back from before the break and I killed it! Some of the best grades I have ever gotten in France!

National Poetry Month came to a grinding halt before vacation in Rome. I have ideas for all my poems, even some lines worked out, but I simply don't have the time to write them. I think I'll give myself an extension, write them when I can, and still post them here.

So, OK, let's talk about food. Because I have eaten SO. MUCH OF IT. this week! The assistants leaving has sort of inspired everyone to have going away evenings, last meals and all of that.

Wednesday night Bing and I were invited one last time chez Yolande, a professor at Malherbe who went to great lengths to reunite everyone who is lodged here. So she had us over for crepes a la Bretonne and they were even better than the last time. Plus, she showed me her technique for making the perfect egg.

Friday night was oh-my-moussaka Greek wonder (seriously, look at that picture. I am so overwhelmed). The Greek professor from my lycée invited me, the Spanish assistant (who is leaving tomorrow), a Spanish teacher, two French teachers, and the Swedish teacher over to send us away, and we also turned it into a birthday celebration for her. I cannot tell you enough how much I love this cast of characters. Spanish S with his love of dogs and cats, Spanish C with her glittering eyeshadow and a super colorful personality that makes you want to have fun, O, E and S, the French and Swedish teachers, with their soft speech and super interesting insights, and our host Athan, whose personality in all of its stereotypical Greek wonder is as spiced as the dishes she made. She speaks loud and she doesn't take any shit. I love being with all of them - what a diverse group we are!

Athan prepared an amazing full-course Greek meal. We started with a huge bowl of tzatziki and some baguettes to spread it on. You could smell the garlic from a mile away. Then, these amazing little spinach and feta cheese fritters. I don't know what she did with the feta but it almost tasted like paneer somehow. Then, a big Greek salad, and for the main course an enormous moussaka for everyone else and a dish of eggplant, potato, tomatoes and cheese for me. And then to finishe we had a sublime orange cake, and the chocolate cake Sam and I brought from our favorite boulangerie. And someone else brought macarons! I couldn't even eat one, I was so stuffed! Every single dish was super yummy and as I told Athan later that night, I was surprised that she went out of her way to ensure that I could eat everything on the table. My fellow vegetarians in FR know that is something you can say very rarely, and I appreciate the friends who actually get it.

I got dropped off at home in the rain on Friday, slept very little, and woke up for a full Saturday of things to do. Uni work/laundry in the morning followed by Sam and Yann's birthday lunch. I suggested pizza (wtf when I already had pizza planned for dinner?! Ashley, come on really). So we ate pizza in the salle commune, laughed at Youtube clips and joked together. Then ate this incredible gateau aux fraises that Violeta bought as a gift for the two guys.

And then last night, dinner for all the English colleagues from Lycee Victor Hugo. We meet for drinks, walk into a bar and are faced with a dude entirely dressed in a sub leather dress with a ballgag around his neck, a skimask over his face, and a flogger in his hand. Thank god my profs are not uptight! We all had a great laugh and headed over to the pizzeria where I got the best pizza I have tasted yet in Caen, I kid you not. Artichokes, mushrooms, olives, onions and lots of cheese. Que la vie est belle!

After another round of beers we were all on our way home, me laughing out loud down the street about all the things we saw and joked about that night. Oh, how we laugh together. I hope that wherever I end up teaching, the ambiance between the profs is as amazing as it is between them at Victor Hugo.

So now it is Sunday morning. I have lots of work to do, tidying up, letters of recommendation to write, University work to prepare, and CVs to send out as I am starting the job search process in the USA. Plus, a Sunday market to visit and a coffee to be had with one of my best pals.

Oh yeah, and one of the best parts of this week, I bought my plane ticket home. New York, baby, here I come! I think on June 8th when I finally get to New Jersey and am in the arms of my baby, the state will explode from the sheer power of my happiness.

NaPoMo Day 7-10 Poems

It's day 10 of NaPoMo, and I'm writing away but this year, I'm not entirely stoked about my work.

Last year around this time I was breathing poetry. Newly in love, it felt like everything I touched in the supermarket, every conversation I heard on the street, every person I saw in the park could be a new poem. Plus, I had this really amazing project to work on, my black and wtf poems. In 30 days I pumped out some of the best, most surreal stuff I've ever written, and I loved every single line. Poems about goats on slides, elephants trying to stuff themselves into cars, comforting bears, men making Snooki giant pickles, etc. When I re-read these poems, I feel like they could really go somewhere. I'm newly inspired right now to rework and submit them. I like the commentaries they make, they way they talk about our world.

But this year, I'm pretty much just journaling. And, that's OK too. I'm happy to be writing, but the result is that I feel like these poems are just for me, and maybe my little group of friends. At the end of the day, I don't think anyone on a larger scale will want to read me pontificating about the differences between France and the USA, or how much I hated my job back home, or my personal struggles. To be short and sweet, I don't think I'm writing anything that anyone hasn't already written.

Again, this is not a complaint. I've been so busy with school and work and taking up running again and planning voyages around Europe, I didn't even think I'd get past day one of NaPoMo. And I certainly haven't made any time for journaling. So these poems will someday be a nice little thread for me to hold on to my April 2012 days.

Oh, and for the record, I am still crazy in love, but we've been doing the long distance thing, so the physical electricity that lets me tranform everything I touch into a poem is on vacay for now.

Here's some of what I wrote this week:

Day 7 I rehash an old prompt from poetry workshop years ago.
I Sold my Virginity on Ebay

Today, a search for virgin turns
up 58,653 results. I stand
out among the virgin neem
oil, the barely legal videos,
the virgin mother statues,
the CDs from Virgin Records.
For 10,000 bidders, I assure
the eBay buyer protection
and the certificate of authenticity.
Yeah, Ebay has a rule about nudity,
but this bidder wants more than a bare
ass or tits anyway. My photo gallery shows
my parts separately: sharp elbow, jawline,
above upper lip, upper thigh. The winning bidder
is a polite businessmen. We agree, my virginity
will arrive in 5-7 business days. But how can I
package it?

Day 8 I visit the Easter market in Caen
Au marche de Pacques a Caen

I walk through the market to find
some Normand apples. But it's late
Easter afternoon and probably
everyone wants to go hunt
for eggs and play
with whatever the French
play with on Easter. The marche
is wrapping up. I get the apples.
On the way, I pass a bald man
being followed by an enormous
bubble. It pops and I am surprised
the little rainbow inside doesn't slick
his skin. Ah, Caen, qu'est-ce que tu me
satisfait, et bien je ne suis jamais satisfaite.

Day 9 I put together a Facebook found poem. I am only posting a few lines of this one.

Today it's market
research. I check my feed, see that a friend wants
to know why boys these days want the cake
but not the whole thing. I learn he doesn't give
pieces. 40 hours a week for three years, where
did you go? Every one of you was raw, unbridled
evil and greed and ignorance smothered in balloons
and ribbons. Let's hope we don't get blown away
by the wind.

Today, my poem is "At 25 years old I feel my breasts for the first time." And it probably won't go public yet, just so you know in advance.

NaPoMo Day 6 Poem

One touched up, the other catch-ups coming soon.

Some girls made brownies 
in their toy ovens. I baked 
little women. Every day 
in the back room, Full 
House, Step by Step, 
Family Matters, me 
and my army 
of dolls. My trays
could make six women 
at a time.  [To make a plastic 
  woman: 1. drip eye and lip 
  dye into grooves of the metal 
  tray. 2. Fill body with flesh 
  color (peach available now;
  more colors coming soon). 3. 
  Choose brown, yellow, or red,
  cipher hair dye into the depressions
  of her squared bob. 4. Insert silicon
  handled tray into oven. Bake women 
  until mom shouts about burnt plastic 
  smell. 5. Using other trays, cook separately
  the sarongs, sneakers, skirts and shirts to wrap
  around your women.]
How I loved 
the peel of them 
from metal, their cling
to those round grooves. 
If you want to bake
a woman, be careful. 
Pull her out too quick 
and an eye could tear.  Too 
slow and she may mangle.
Just remember, no matter
how many plastic women you have
made, they never stand unless propped. 

easter weekend in caen, quiet

i made it over the last hump! last holiday in france before i come home. holidays away from home are generally bad, but easter is the worst for me. all the other holidays, i make sure i am crazy distracted so i won't think about how much i miss my family. halloween with american pals, three thanksgivings (two with americans) christmas in england, new year's in ouistreham. all of them wonderful and distracting. i was afraid easter would be different, that since i wasn't making a fuss about it, i would be mopey all day missing my family.

luckily i had a lovely day/evening with some of my closest friends here. E came to visit me from Lille and I was reminded how valuable that group flight was from DC to France because not only did i meet other assistants but also made friendships that i know are lifelong. we took a tour at the hotel de ville with a friend of mine, who even opened the salle des gardes for us outside of the tour. then coffee with the lovely Whit and Raph followed by an amazing evening of galettes and crêpes chez moi. everyone had to flip their own crêpe, and we had no fails!

loose thoughts:
-three days from now i will be in ROME!
-normandy is too windy to actually take advantage of the umbrella you always have with you. no matter what, you will get soaked.
-the woman at the saint pierre tram stop was blowing really huge bubbles over the sunday market. it was pretty.
-NaPoMo is going steadily but I need to clean up before I post.

NaPoMo Day 4 & 5 Poems

Today I have two incomplete ones, but like I said in the beginning, I'm happier with some strong lines than trying to force out mediocre or bad poems.

100% American

and watching Obèses on TV. Back
home it's called Heavy, that passive
adjective, not like this obnoxious plural,
finger pointed at me. Me because
I have been heavy in all of its terminality
Yes, I've been every sort of heavy: heavy as old
books heavy as a swift rain heavy
like a bird flying or flying
into a window heavy like a goodbye.


The day I taught some poems

it rains on lycee victor hugo and there are plenty
of vocabulary questions. Each student reads a poem, plucks
word after word from the copy in his hands. They take Kinnell
and Clifton and Williams and Kenyon, swish their lines around
for the hour.

NaPoMo Day 2 & 3 Poems

Today I made my students poetry editors. I made them choose 4 out of 6 poems (from Lucille Clifton, William Carlos Williams, Jane Kenyon, Langston Hughes, and Galway Kinnell) to include in their literary journals. And they rocked it. They never stop impressing me, these kids.

As for my poems, here are two. One that I've been wanting to write since it snowed in February, and one that I wrote in Litt class today.


Caen sous la neige
On the castle in Caen: to your right a pigeon
lands on, flits off the roof. Straight ahead a man
and a young girl sled down the lawn. Left
of you a boy slips, then tries to play
it off like he was bending down to collect
a snowball, lets it fall through his fingers
when he realizes none of his friends were watching.

At the market: a few vendors knit
themselves into a close circle: a Normand
verger, a boulanger, the fish man, the man
with the beads. The only ones who brave
the sludge for us loyal shoppers, who will carry
our apples and our clementines home
carefully, pointing our feet first
and landing on saltless concrete.

That night you find out that in the right (moon)light
the snow can look like sand shaved with diamonds. Hear
their sprakling crunch beneath your feet.


Après « Education des jeunes filles aux États-Unis »

de Tocqueville, what don't you know
about us young American
women ? In a corner room
in New York, in Philly, in Chicago,
[doesn't matter where really ;
on est tous pareilles quand même]
you lift plume from ink
well. Go ahead, you grand
harmoniste. Harness
those words like you say
we hold our own reigns.
So you need some more
research time ? Spend
years in our pounding
chest, talk to as many jeunes
femmes as you can. And when
you're done, go ahead, give our dossier
to your Europe. I can't wait to feel
its corners, sharp and n'importe ou,
ready to slice any hands
that try to straighten these pages.

NaPoMo 2012 Day 1 Poem

Mourning Doves

I thought they were called morning
doves until I heard one day how their light
caw carries
carried
had carried
and I could hear
chest puffed and eyes clouding
how they mourn.
It wasn't until someone
was lost that I started to hear them
at dusk, or on a sunny after
noon above a family eating on the grass,
sometimes even in the gray night,
as I let a sharp wrap of February wind
carry me.

Bienvenue Avril!

Wow! Is it April already? Happy National Poetry Month =)
Despite my crazy schedule and barely having any time to myself at all, I am still going to try to complete the poem-a-day challenge. I will warn you in advance: these poems will be rough and uncrafted. I will be happy if I get five could-have-been-broken-better lines down a day. Honestly, the goal for me this year is going to be to write a little every day and make sure I don't spend so long writing poems that I don't get my school work done.

No translations this year, folks. I may be better equipped to execute them, but that takes hella time, so no.

Wish me luck! And if you are playing along, Writer's Digest has some challenges up for the month.

missing words and the zoo

FAIL
I discovered today that my dictionary is missing pages 467-546, that is everything between "légende" and "nirvana." To clarify, I can not verify spelling or gender of any words in between. I found this out in the middle of a written exam when I desperately needed to confirm the gender of the word "logique." FML. *See Update!!

WIN
Heard during my "Stuck in New Jersey" activity with the high schoolers (the idea is that their car breaks down in NJ and they have to think of fun ways to pass 4 days in Atlantic City except they can't agree with each other):

A: We are not going to see Britney Spears. We have to go to the zoo and we can see the tiger.
E: But Britney is a tiger. We must go see her show.
P: No, E. Britney is a cougar.

My students = on their games.

*Update: I got the gender right! Take that, dictionary with missing pages!

worth a thousand words

i took this photo of my pretty spring flowers to send to T, but then i really looked at it, and it turns out you can tell a lot about a person's life from what is in their room! i've been here six months today, let's talk about what i have accumulated.

i. flowers: every flower has a story behind it. i got them as a gift when i left the spring roller skating event last night. it was so much fun! kids and their parents and the generally unbalanced falling down everywhere. one dude almost fell and then caught himself on his hands and did five push-ups. one dad tumbled over his kid and did a somersault. i also had the pleasure of going skating with my roommate B who had never done it before. so fun to help her get out there and watch her take off!

ii. empty wine bottle flower vase: the tulips were a special gift that only i got, i think because i offered to buy one of the pots of flowers before i realized there were crates of them at the exit as gifts. guess they thought i was nice. and as for the vase, i'm broke and in france. what do you want?

iii. an anais poster. EEEEPPP!! my favorite french singer, been listening to her for the past four years and i can't believe i actually get to see her in concert. and on WEDNESDAY!!!

iv. my new jersey sticker on the wall. miss it.

v. the buneke's valentine from last year! one of the best i ever got. they always pull out all the stops those ladies.

vi. my immense university binder full of work that i should be doing right now. five exams this week and a presentation to prepare. eeffffff.

vii. if the flowers weren't enough to show you, and you look really really closely, you can see my heavy blanket rolled up on the chair, meaning not on my bed, meaning SPRING IS HERE!!!

10 things i learned/ remembered/ otherwise thought about this week

1. eating pizza hut to celebrate pi day is a good idea. eating FIVE slices because you are excited and nostalgia ridden is not.

2. my european friends aren't into pi day like i am. it's normal, since they don't write the date the way we do in the USA and there's no 31st of april. thank god whit is american and i had someone to celebrate with.

3. i got a 20/20 on my contrôle in compréhension orale! this means i will probably fail miserably on the compte rendu tomorrow. life is all about balance.

4. i have 10 to-do lists piled on my desk, just from this week. i keep gettng things done and realizing they are not even on my list, so i don't even get the satisfaction of ticking off a line item. please tell me other people do this.

5. people who live in a wet normand town really, really appreciate beautiful weather (i did too and ate lunch on the castle lawn today)

6. i am coming home in 13 weeks. i am happy and sad about this fact.

7. my students make me want to teach more and more every day.

8. i have not had a day without anything to do in a very long time. this is equal parts amazing and stressful.

9. OMG KINDER BUENO IS AMAZING and i really should never eat another one of those.

10. i should not have written this blog post because i have so so so much homework and sleep would be nice tonight.

Student win, an anniversary, and an addiction

Student Win
This week I had my students work on the Proust Questionnaire - a 35 question exercise to get them talking in class. I told them to give me super-long Proust-like answers. This is speaking class! One word responses will not do!!

Me (to student): Who is your hero?
Student: Tyler Durden.
Me: (annoyed face because clearly this is not a long Proust-y answer)
Student: I would like to give you more information about this, but the first rule about fight club is I can't talk about fight club.

Instant chouchou status.

An Anniversary
Yesterday T and I celebrated one year together with a date in front of the Skypes wherein we ate dinner together by candlelight and then talked about grammar for an hour, especially the differences between "who," "that," and "which," and whether or not animals can be "who" too. He is so perfect for me.

An Addiction
I should never have asked the post if it is true that I can send books home for a reduced price. It is true. 5 kilos for 13 euros. I now have 10 kilos of books and will probably be visiting the Memoranda religiously. Already three times in less than a week! This is the mother of all used book stores. I am telling you, it's like DR's apartment. Stacks of books so big and vast you could make furniture out of them. Grammar books, dictionaries, classics, poetry, I even saw Stephen King's "ça" in a pile on the floor!

saturday i'm in love

best week(end) ever is back, and it's only saturday. on the quick, a recap.

-yesterday, since my douchenozzle grammar professor established early in the semester that she's not going to teach us said subject, the nerd grammarian in me took herself to the used bookstore (caen is known for having lots of them) and bought exercise booklets in grammar, conjugation, and spelling!!

(i promise, the rest of the weekend is more exciting for those of you who don't find the self-teaching of grammar titilating)

-this morning i fell down my own stairs and didn't break my ankle. win.

-today included lots and lots of walking around caen, no earbuds, appreciating the beauty of doing errands in such a nice city.
*the most exciting of those errands was buying my ticket to munich!!! june 1st will be very very sad, as it is the day i am leaving caen, but at least i can look forward to an awesome last week in europe.

-this evening sylvia showed me how to make some bavarian recipes including knoedel (bread dumplings), mushroom sauce, and a very yummy salad.

-i finally saw the artist. go see it. so, so, so good.

-and finally, i am now ending my day by chatting T about all the movies we are going to watch when i am home. i'm so high on this beautiful little thing called life.

hello, march!

march came a little late this year, cause yesterday we had a little gift from the gods called leap year. among other ambitions, i want to start a lobby to make leap year a national holiday. actually, that probably already exists. when the fates give you an extra day once every four years, the last thing we should be doing is working!

speaking of ambitions, let's do a five-month check in on my goal progress!

1. Get healthy physically, mentally, spiritually: Getting there! I did a cleanse a while back that really balanced me out. I'm working yoga back into my schedule and now that it's nice out I can start running again! I've also been ab-ripping like a champ.

2. Run 5k nonstop by March (the 3k track is literally right outside my door): Officially failed. Because there's no way I'm going to be able to do this in 31 days. I'm going to revise this to the end of May.

3. Find yoga and do it at least weekly - I was on the wagon for a bit, but I fell off again =( But all is not lost! See number one.

4. Eat seasonally: Success! So much easier here.

5. See Germany: Going to Volksfest in May!

6. See south of France: Not sure this is going to happen. I think Giverny may be as far south as I can get. I had to budget and prioritize. The south has always been my dream to see, but I just couldn't make it work.

7. Perfect my french: On my way! Classes have been helping incredibly.

8. Cut down dairy/sugar consumption: Yes and yes. Dairy has been easiest to reduce, and sugar has been slow and steady.

9. Write poems weekly: Still unsuccessful. Lots of inspiration, but now I need to set aside time to actually write!

10. Try other forms of writing/arts: Got crafty on V-Day and am getting back into the book-making scene.

11. Create lessons that I can use later as a teacher: Coming along handsomely!

12. Save money: See south of france. I've made a budget and am sticking to it.

13. Make awesome friends (already cracking away at this one!): Done and done.

14. Talk to family as often as possible: No trouble there.

15. Translate some French poems: Been really focused on reading them, will translate when I'm inspired.

16. Complete National Poetry Month in April (write a poem a day): I don't know how this is going to be possible, but I'ma give it my best go!

17. Volunteer: Unfortunately, this one is gonna have to be let go. Well, unless you count the free English lessons I give to some of my friends!

18. Complete advanced degree of french studies: Immersed in classes right now, and when I finish I will have not one but two degrees!

19. Handmake Christmas presents: Executed and well-received!

So, getting there, though I've had some steep hills along the way. Is that even an expression?

who has time to think of titles?

So remember when I said i was going to disappear when classes started? I thought I was exaggerating. Turns out I really am too busy to breathe. Focused and spiritually breathe anyway. What I'm saying is meditation has been put on hold. Yoga has been put on hold Volunteering has been eliminated. I've resigned from the choir (sad face). Skyping many of my friends has been reserved for weekends. And blogging time has virtually packed its bags too!

Between 12 hours of assisting, 19.5 hours of studies, and 1 hour of tutoring per week, in addition to the time it takes me to get from chez moi to the university, to my high school, or to my client's house, I'm pretty much up and running from dawn till way after dusk. And I feel awesome! Energized, vivante, and best of all, not bored! Sure, sometimes it's really frustrating that I have to eat en route to school from Uni because I don't have ten minutes to sit down between classes, but hey! I'm busy as a bee and things in motion stay in motion.

I've been wanting to blog about so much. I can't really get into details, but here's a list of key phrases:
-Life in France
-Weekend trip to Lille and Belgium (keywords: chocolate, beer, fries, waffles, canal, oldest bar in Brugge)
-My first quiche (broccoli and spinach success)
-Meeting T's family(sorta) in Beaville-Beuville
-A badass barbeque in Bayeux
-My marathon When a Stranger Calls weekend (before classes, back when I had time)
-All sorts of hilarious moments that happen in the streets of Caen or in front of my students
-The poetry I have been reading (the good, the bad, and the incomprehensible)
-Various political and pop cultural musings

And most of all, I want to tell you about my university classes, how happy I am to be a student again, how I can feel, after what? four weeks now? that my French is already leaps and bounds better than it ever has been.

But all that for another time. For now, I've got homework to do!

some things i love, and how i celebrated/honored them on V-Day

1. My friends and family at home, so I sent 15 trans-atlantic Valentines to some of my cherished, and if I'd had moneybags there would have been many more.

2. My friends and family here, so I had a V-Day American-themed party on Friday, complete with all kinds of DIY Valentine's craft nonsense.

3. True Romance, so I fell asleep watching it last night.

4. Baking, so I made my famous yuppie brownie and put candy hearts on top.

5. My body, which I happened to upset with a street-crepe yesterday afternoon, so I cancelled my red-themed meal plan for the night and made seaweed soup instead. And then I woke up early for a run today. Feeling much, much better now.

6. The beauty of this city, so I walked to school instead of taking the bus. Past hotel de ville, two beautiful churches, and over William's castle.

7. Being a student, so I took very, very good notes yesterday!

8. T, so I spent all night yesterday Skyping him while we cooked and while we watched a cheesy 1980s Weird Al movie on YouTube. Even so far apart, we can spend my favorite holiday together. Life is good. <3

liste des classes reçu!

I finally got my schedule for classes starting Monday. We students could choose between two disciplines: literature and human sciences or economy and politics. For a break from my normal life, I chose the latter! I would like to remind the council that I have no background in economy and have taken exactly two politics classes in my life. Let's hope I don't flunk out!

Classes I'm taking:
Histoire économique
Presse spécialisée
Etudes européennes
Littérature et société française
Français juridique II
Grammaire
Initiation à la synthèse et à la contraction de texte
Compréhension et expression orales
Géographie économique et sociale
Langue de l'économie et du commerce II

Get all that? So many cognates!

I'm going from 12 hours of work a week to 31. Not including prep time/homework time. I'm just saying, I might not be around for a while, cause I'll be all up in this building.

Wish me luck!

1am gripe

The absolute worst thing about my stay in france this year? The toilet is downstairs in the coldest scariest hallway. not even on my floor.

grrrholdingitinbrrrrr

it's the most wonderful time of the year

Less than a month to Valentine's Day!!

You heard me right.

This feminist, liberal, anti-corporate girl loves the hell out of Valentine's Day. And this should not come as a shock to anyone who knows me. I love love. And if V-Day gives lots of people the inspiration to celebrate that, I'm in. Point final.

Bref.

Today was a pretty awesome day:
-Finished packaging V-Day cards for my friends.
-Joked around and chit-chatted a bit with the owners of one of my favorite restaurants here. Time to ask for a job?
-Filled out 3 customs forms.
-Drank too much cafe. Today's special guest was W from Lisieux, who was, as always, a ball of sunshine.
-Planned a V-Day party. Bringing my red velvet brownies to France. If you know the secret ingredient, keep it to yourself. I got some people I need to surprise.
-Looked at some poems and started working on a new poetic series. Gotta warm up those poetry muscles. NaPoMo is coming.
-Reminisced with an old friend about playing steamroller in the grass in Lisieux.
-Got back into making homemade pizza crust. Topped it with tzatziki, tomatoes, fromge de brebis, and white onions. No photographic evidence remains.

Currently listening to this gem of a cover by Sara Bareilles

Detox Day 8: The day I realize my cereal has vegetables in it

Officially a healthy-eating grown-up. three principal ingredients in my cereal: anise, ginger, and...wait for it, cilantro. Or coriander for you brits. Whatever way you cut it, that's a veggie. And no sugar added. Oh, how I miss Cookie Crisp sometimes.

I smelled up my hallway in the best way possible this evening, with curried roast parsnip, carrot, leek and potato.

I think I have officially regulated my sleep - clocking in sleepy at 10pm and waking up early enough to go for a run before classes.

I am having the most wicked sugar cravings though. Want. cake.

I think this week I will re-incorporate peanuts and wheat into my diet. The goal of the detox is to eliminate common allergens completely. But let's face it: I am not allergic to these two foods, and even if I am, there's no way I'm giving up either of them.

Holding strong against sugar though. Go ahead sugar, keep luring me with your siren song. I got this.

Detox Day 7: Feeling when I done wrong

Woke up again today before my alarm. It feels nice not to be so tired all the time. The cleanse is going well and I think I have successfully hit all three goals: clean, rest, and balance. And as an extra bonus, in the last few days I've been feeling really in tune with my body. I know how hippie that sounds, but hear me out.

First thing I did wrong: got dehydrated. One of the keys to this detox is drinking tons of water. At least two liters a day, to facilitate digestion and flush the bladder. Friday, being the first day I wasn't at school/in town with my water bottle attached to my hip, I barely drank anything. How I felt it: I had no energy at all yesterday! Was ready to take a rest after the four sets of stairs up to my apartment.

Second thing I did wrong: skimped on whole grains. How I felt it: see exhausted! Friday was the only day I didn't eat very much (bad planning and I was in town without a meal).

Third thing I did wrong: ate at 10pm. How I felt it: Trouble sleeping. Before I started this I was tossing and turning more than usual, and not liking the new pattern. As part of the detox, I don't eat after 7pm, so that my body can focus on resting during the night and not digestion. But last night I was waiting on a friend and didn't get to eat until 10pm, then went to sleep at midnight. Hello weird dreams and waking up at each noise, something that hadn't happened all week.

Fourth thing I did wrong: ate past my hungry limit. My chili was just so damn good I wanted some more. Can you blame me? kidney beans, tomatoes, squash, carrot, onion, pepper, and whole grain brown rice. Yum! I had a second spoon even though I wasn't hungry anymore. How I felt it: maman, j'ai mal au ventre!! (Felt like a kid who ate five bowls of ice cream for dinner)

Yesterday I had my cranky hat on, and said maybe this detox isn't for me because why am I so tired. Today let me be honest with myself: I feel great when I do it right, and I feel loafy when I do something wrong. So I think I'll give it some more time and see what happens when I go all in.

Happy Sunday! Go check out PostSecret!

Detox Day 5

Feeling damn good, even though my brain is trying to convince me I need sugar. No more headaches, but I did have a dream about cake. American cake, frosting and all.

Currently eating quinoa and feeling like OMG WHY DID I NOT KNOW HOW FREAKING DELICIOUS THIS FOOD WAS sooner.

Detox Day 2: Good morning banana oatmeal!

Felt headachey and sleepy last night, though couldn't tell if those were from lack of sugar or cause I'm still recovering from état grippaux this weekend.

This morning I don't feel hungry at all and woke up really energized!

Today is my longest day at school so I will have to bring plenty of detox-OK snacks and remember to drink lots of water.

What I ate on Day 1
Banana
Clementine
Hazelnuts
Rice/Veggies (onion, garlic, broccoli, carrot, red kidney beans)
Apple
Corn cakes with hummus

In case you were wondering, I'm only drinking lemon water and limited tea/coffee this week.

OK, on to day two. Wish me no headaches or other sugar withdrawal symptoms!

my favorite Kate Nash song ever

Right, birds can fly so high or they can shit on your head, yeah they can almost fly into your eye and make you feel well scared, but when you look at them, and you see that they're beautiful - that's how I feel about you.

french cough syrup...good to the last drop

So I'm sick for the 6th time since I've come to France. It's pretty wonderful. You know, I get to be laid up in bed on a beautiful Saturday night in a hopping university town, chugging cough syrup and spraying solution up my nose (note to self: do the spray first - it's disgusting!) while I tear through my 24 pack of lotus tissues.

I have to say, I'm not surprised I'm sick. I gave my immune system a beating over Christmas holidays being lazy and eating too much sugar. My body wants me to know I screwed up. It's interesting for me to think that my habits brought this on. Throughout my life, I was always unhealthy, but rarely sick. Eating shit food and not exercising was normal for me. Now, it's the other way around. I can feel it when I haven't been healthy, and it hurts. I gotta say, as uncomfortable as I am this week, it's pretty awesome to know that the healthy space is now my norm.

Anyway, to apologize to my aching, no-energy having body, I'm starting a detox on Monday. Apparantly this works really well for a friend of mine whenever she's feeling off or out of balance. It's basically a diet of whole grains (except wheat), veggies, fruits, and healthy oils. Vegan and gluten-free. And tons of water.

I went to the French version of Pamela's health food store today and got myself loaded up on brown rice, quinoa, millet, oats and rice cakes. Tomorrow it's the open air market for all my seasonal fruit and veg. If I can get out of bed, that is. I wish these vendors would deliver.

What I did yesterday

Booooks!!!!

SCORED:
-hard-bound complitation of photos of Caen taken thirty years ago
-anthology of poems from the Rochefort school (of which Rene Guy Cadou is a member - some of you may recall a very bad tattoo idea that had to do with a poem of his)
-anthology of popular French poems (which probably means they're not the best out there but good to know what the french are reading)
-anthology of prose poems
-compilation of hope poems. i should clarify here that while this may be a book of the "soup for the soul" variety, the poems are actually good, so i don't feel bad about it.

The good news is that the marche aux livres comes the first week of every month. The question is: how am I possibly going to get these books back with me?!

Among other things, I also had two coffees yesterday. I hate coffee in a big way, but I have been spending way too much money on hot chocolates and teas in these french cafes. So coffee it will be. Goodbye sugar crashes/hello caffeinated twitching and too much energy!!

Resolutions shmesolutions

It's a New Year! Which means everyone is busy at the gym or registering for Mint.com, or doing whatever else they gotta do to get those resolutions moving. I set myself some goals when I came to France three months ago, so I'll be working on those throughout the year. Let's see how I'm doing.

1. Get healthy physically, mentally, spiritually: Working on it. Physically is coming easiest to me, though I did meditate last night, and I'm still thinking of doing a cleanse in the spring.

2. Run 5k nonstop by March (the 3k track is literally right outside my door): This one is on hold because it has been feezing and I haven't been running! I started again today with Whit. God knows how long it will take me to get to 5k!

3. Find yoga and do it at least weekly - Oh man. This is a story for the ages. Found yoga & went to a class and realized it was partner yoga. Awk! I just want it to be mr and my flow. Looks like I'll be doing it in my room.

4. Eat seasonally: Succeeding. I even got a chart with the fruits listed by season to help me.

5. See Germany: Going to Volksfest in May!

6. See south of France: Planning to go in February when my friend E comes to visit!

7. Perfect my french: Working on it. England hurt me a little bit, but I've been getting back into the swing of things. And I found a group of friends who really don't mind correcting me.

8. Cut down dairy/sugar consumption: Again, England hurt me on this one. But, I've cut wayy back and I can definitely feel the difference.

9. Write poems weekly: Still unsuccessful. Lots of inspiration, but now I need to set aside time to actually write!

10. Try other forms of writing/arts: Freewrote some stuff and been journaling. Got crafty with my Christmas presents. Must find another métier...

11. Create lessons that I can use later as a teacher: Coming along handsomely! Best lesson ever = how to express yourself when a fight about politics breaks out at Christmas dinner.

12. Save money: Harder than you would think. Marking this unsuccessful for now, and hoping I can get it together soon.

13. Make awesome friends (already cracking away at this one!): Done and done.

14. Talk to family as often as possible: No trouble there.

15. Translate some French poems: Translated some passages from a really poetic book. Gonna start a class about Jacques Prévert after the break.

16. Complete National Poetry Month in April (write a poem a day): Still far away.

17. Volunteer: No movement. Gotta get on that.

18. Complete advanced degree of french studies: Classes start at the end of the month!

19. Handmake Christmas presents: Executed and well-received!

I'd give myself a solid C so far. I've still got a long way to go. Also, this year I would like to get my Christmas cards out on time and be more independent. Wish me luck!