Hey everyone!
First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving! Too early for anyone to be up in the states (except maybe Rodg) but I hope everyone has an amazing Turkey Day.
Aaaannnd This is the first blog coming from inside my apartment! That's right, I finally have internet! Which makes me one happy camper, let me tell you. And it also means that I never, and I mean NEVER have to go back to McDonalds. Even happier camper! As the place is a little messy right now, I won't include pics, but as my mom can attest, the skype tour takes very little time.
Well, it's my first thanksgiving away from home and I have to admit, it's quite depressing. Especially since I have to work today. There's no cutting up celery, onion, or bread with Gram the night before while watching the Red Wings, no waking up at 10 am to the smells of turkey and dressing wafting up to my room, no Thanksgiving Day Parade w/ mom going in a sing-song voice, "I love a parade." But I'm taking solace in listening to some songs about America and a little country too (sorry Mom) And if you're wondering, listening to country music when you're away from home will make you feel VERY American, so that's good. But in the words of Simon and Garfunkel, "Michigan seems like a dream to me now." I also made sure to buy some American food to celebrate. On my Thanksgiving menu: Cereal, pb&j, and Oreos. Quite a culinary feat, huh? But as my apt has no oven, I couldn't attempt to make a turkey. And really, I can't cook, so...yeah.
Lastly, I'd like to take this opportunity to say what I'm thankful for. Going on this adventure has been far from easy and there's been some stressful times. But my family particularly my mother have been so supportive and encouraging for the past two months or so. Also, I want to thank my friends for giving me endless encouragement by writing and posting on my facebook wall. Even though we're not all together at school anymore, your love and support has kept me going these past few months and given me things to laugh about when I was down and out. So, to Mom, Sarah, Gram, Dad, Rodger, Bwhite, Laura Summer (since that's your name now) Sowa, Tawney, Sarah Russell, Chels, and Millsy a deep and sincere thank you.
Yep, cheesy, I know but I can't help it. :) But Happy Thanksgiving and hopefully I can watch the Lions lose later b/c it's just not turkey day without the Lions losing.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Pics of chicken hunting and Grenoble
 |
| The chicken hunting team |
 |
| The box was not very effective |
 |
| Chickens are fast, man |
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| The trap |
 |
| And the string |
 |
| I can't believe this actually worked |
 |
| And back to Grenoble and the bastille |
 |
| The boules |
 |
| Not a bad view |
 |
| City |
 |
| Back to Mouchy, a much longer, steeper hike than I remember |
 |
| There was snow, SNOW in October |
 |
| Lot and lots of snow |
 |
| We'll be there soon! |
 |
| Charlene in the snow |
 |
| At the summit |
 |
| Perfectly clear day |
 |
| Can you see the Bastille??? It's really tiny |
 |
| Les Belladone |
 |
| Where I used to run! |
 |
| We made it! |
 |
| I'm cold! |
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Strikes, vacas, and McDonald's
Hey everyone,
I had hoped that I would have made this newest post in my new apartment, but since I don't have internet yet I'm coming to you from McDonalds. The only place that has free wifi. I hope I don't have to explain the irony of this. I moved out of Marie Agnes' house almost two weeks ago. It was a sad farewell, but oh well. Life goes on. The last day at her house however, was quite eventful. A group of the neighbor's chickens had been chilling in our back yard and their owners had come to get them. Obviously chasing after them w/ a net didn't work. So after an hour, everyone went back home and gave up. After youtubing a video on how to catch chickens w/ one of those cages propped up with a stick with food inside, we decided to try it. In case you ever wondered if that trick actually works, it does. We propped up a laundry basket w/ a stick and put some bread underneath and sure enough, those stupid fowls walked right up underneath the laundry basket. After pulling out the stick, which was attached to the string we had the thing trapped. We caught 4 chickens this way. Not bad for a days work. I have video of it and I'll try to get it up on here soon.
After moving in to my apartment and taking a few days to settle in, it was off to Grenoble with my friend from study abroad, Charlene. After arriving and seeing the breathtaking scenery, I realized just how lucky I was to fall into such a picturesque place to study abroad. Charlene and I met up with her friend, Amandine, who is a university student there. We hung out, went out for drinks, went hiking, and played this awesome french party game called "Time's Up." Overall, it was a great couple of days, and again, I'll try to get pictures up soon of the hiking.
Hope everyone is well.
I had hoped that I would have made this newest post in my new apartment, but since I don't have internet yet I'm coming to you from McDonalds. The only place that has free wifi. I hope I don't have to explain the irony of this. I moved out of Marie Agnes' house almost two weeks ago. It was a sad farewell, but oh well. Life goes on. The last day at her house however, was quite eventful. A group of the neighbor's chickens had been chilling in our back yard and their owners had come to get them. Obviously chasing after them w/ a net didn't work. So after an hour, everyone went back home and gave up. After youtubing a video on how to catch chickens w/ one of those cages propped up with a stick with food inside, we decided to try it. In case you ever wondered if that trick actually works, it does. We propped up a laundry basket w/ a stick and put some bread underneath and sure enough, those stupid fowls walked right up underneath the laundry basket. After pulling out the stick, which was attached to the string we had the thing trapped. We caught 4 chickens this way. Not bad for a days work. I have video of it and I'll try to get it up on here soon.
After moving in to my apartment and taking a few days to settle in, it was off to Grenoble with my friend from study abroad, Charlene. After arriving and seeing the breathtaking scenery, I realized just how lucky I was to fall into such a picturesque place to study abroad. Charlene and I met up with her friend, Amandine, who is a university student there. We hung out, went out for drinks, went hiking, and played this awesome french party game called "Time's Up." Overall, it was a great couple of days, and again, I'll try to get pictures up soon of the hiking.
Hope everyone is well.
Friday, October 22, 2010
La prochaine fois, tu prends un parachute...
Hey guys,
Well, I promised to post more, so here we go! The last few days have been bizarre, to say the least. I experienced my first taste of socialized medicine and attended french parent teacher conferences all within a span of about 4 hrs. I'll start first with the translation of the title: Next time you should have a parachute. This was said to be by Marie Agnes' (the teacher I'm staying w/) father. By the way, this is probably the sassiest family I have ever encountered (apart from my own of course.) Anyways, "père-père" said this to me today in reference to the little incident I had Thursday morning round about 3 a.m. I woke up w/ the worst stomach ache I have ever had in my life. When I proceeded downstairs to the bathroom, I turned on the light, and then passed out. When I came to, I was lying face down on the bathroom floor and my face was white as a sheet. Also, I seemed to have banged my face pretty hard when I fell. So, the next day, when I told Marie Agnes about this little mishap, she goes, yeah we should take you to see the doctor. So, we go to the doctor's office and wait for about 2 hrs (because we didn't have an appointment.) My doctor was super cute, in a geeky doctor way, and he's now my primary physician (you have to have one of these in France.) When he signed off on my form, he said ever so cutely, "You're my first ever American patient." I could definitely be sick again.
After leaving the doctor's office and getting the prescribed medicine, we, or rather Marie Agnes was late for parent teacher conferences for her middle son, Simon. What was really weird about this was the fact that the kids come to the parent teacher conferences WITH the parents! Now, how are you supposed to talk crap about your kid when they're sitting right there?! Anyways, turns out, Simon is a great student and he only has a problem with conjugating verbs in French. Join the club Simon.
So, needless to say, I got some good cultural education yesterday. I also got some sass from a grandpa.
Well, I promised to post more, so here we go! The last few days have been bizarre, to say the least. I experienced my first taste of socialized medicine and attended french parent teacher conferences all within a span of about 4 hrs. I'll start first with the translation of the title: Next time you should have a parachute. This was said to be by Marie Agnes' (the teacher I'm staying w/) father. By the way, this is probably the sassiest family I have ever encountered (apart from my own of course.) Anyways, "père-père" said this to me today in reference to the little incident I had Thursday morning round about 3 a.m. I woke up w/ the worst stomach ache I have ever had in my life. When I proceeded downstairs to the bathroom, I turned on the light, and then passed out. When I came to, I was lying face down on the bathroom floor and my face was white as a sheet. Also, I seemed to have banged my face pretty hard when I fell. So, the next day, when I told Marie Agnes about this little mishap, she goes, yeah we should take you to see the doctor. So, we go to the doctor's office and wait for about 2 hrs (because we didn't have an appointment.) My doctor was super cute, in a geeky doctor way, and he's now my primary physician (you have to have one of these in France.) When he signed off on my form, he said ever so cutely, "You're my first ever American patient." I could definitely be sick again.
After leaving the doctor's office and getting the prescribed medicine, we, or rather Marie Agnes was late for parent teacher conferences for her middle son, Simon. What was really weird about this was the fact that the kids come to the parent teacher conferences WITH the parents! Now, how are you supposed to talk crap about your kid when they're sitting right there?! Anyways, turns out, Simon is a great student and he only has a problem with conjugating verbs in French. Join the club Simon.
So, needless to say, I got some good cultural education yesterday. I also got some sass from a grandpa.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Strikes, Divorces, and Studios
Hey all,
Sorry it's been so long since I've posted but I can now deliver the good news that I've found an apartment! It's a pretty small studio but it has its own bathroom complete with toilet and shower. I don't have to share! I'm really looking forward to moving in on Saturday and starting to make it my new home. After sharing a room for four years, I am so happy to have a place of my own that I can do whatever I want to it. Also, after three weeks of looking and getting pretty hopeless, I and finally start to settle down and start a life here.
So, the past two weeks have had a common theme: strikes. Long story short, Sarkosy raised the age of retirement from 62 to 67. So naturally people are pissed. Last tuesday there was a national transportation strike and so I had my first grève day at school. Most of the classes I went to had at most 5 or 6 people in them, so obviously it was not a productive day. The strike was continued into the next day and since I had to be in Lille thursday for a training day for assistants, I was a little worried about making it there. So, one of my colleagues, Hélène offered to put me up for the night in Lille. When I got to the school, there were 4 assistants there. For the better part of 2 hrs, more assistants arrived each with their own harrowing story of how they got there. But b/c of the delay, I was able to chit chat with fellow assistants and I met one who had studied abroad in Grenoble a semester before me. So that was obviously awesome. When I got back to Avion, I found out that it was another nulle day at school w/ very few students there because of the continuing demonstrations. Friday was the same. Yesterday, Tuesday, was declared another national strike day so again, not many students. However, those teachers who choose not to go on strike still have to show up and teach. So I was at school all day yesterday yet not doing much. Today, I don't have class, but there are ongoing barricades and demonstrations in Lens and throughout the country. Most of my colleagues don't think their is going to be a normal day of school until after fall vacation. Basically, not much has changed since I was here a year and a half ago.
The next odd thing that has happened to me was that I was invited to the divorce party for one of my colleagues, Gaetane. Yes, that's right, a divorce party. She signed her divorce friday morning, so naturally we had to have a party that night. There were 4-5 english teachers there from my school and some other friends and colleagues. It was fantastically awkward and fun at the same time. I also got to finally meet Laura, the assistant at my school the past two years and her boyfriend, Alban who's a really weird guitar teacher. It should be noted that Gaetane's nickname among the teachers at school is Lady Gaga b/c she's so crazy. En fait, most of the teachers at my school are crazy and going to school is pretty fun. Marie Agnes is extremely sassy so we have a lot of laughs poking fun at each other. My other colleagues are similar. Normally it's a good mix of French and English b/c let's face it, I'm really not that funny in French. Anyways, back to the divorce party. We had cake and champagne to toast Gaetane's new single life. The cake had the traditional bride and groom on top, with a few alterations. The bride was holding up a knife and the groom was face down next to her. Perfect. The night was accompanied by good french food and of course, wine. We also played a few games, one of which included trying to eat 4 french biscuits in 1min. No one was able to do it b/c apparently they're really dry and chalk up in your mouth. However. It is my personal opinion that an American, with their fierce competitive nature and considerable capacity to eat large quantities of things very fast could do it. I have to test this theory. All in all it was a fun night and I can now check off divorce party from my list of things to do (even though it really wasn't originally on it.)
Lastly, it should be noted that I am an absolutely shameful daughter for having forgotten my mother's birthday on Sunday. So, officially Happy Belated Birthday Mom! I'm sorry I suck. I promise to make it up to you when you come to visit in a couple months.
Well, sorry this was such a long post and I promise to be more regular in posting in the future when I settle down in my new place and get internet. Take care, Emily.
Sorry it's been so long since I've posted but I can now deliver the good news that I've found an apartment! It's a pretty small studio but it has its own bathroom complete with toilet and shower. I don't have to share! I'm really looking forward to moving in on Saturday and starting to make it my new home. After sharing a room for four years, I am so happy to have a place of my own that I can do whatever I want to it. Also, after three weeks of looking and getting pretty hopeless, I and finally start to settle down and start a life here.
So, the past two weeks have had a common theme: strikes. Long story short, Sarkosy raised the age of retirement from 62 to 67. So naturally people are pissed. Last tuesday there was a national transportation strike and so I had my first grève day at school. Most of the classes I went to had at most 5 or 6 people in them, so obviously it was not a productive day. The strike was continued into the next day and since I had to be in Lille thursday for a training day for assistants, I was a little worried about making it there. So, one of my colleagues, Hélène offered to put me up for the night in Lille. When I got to the school, there were 4 assistants there. For the better part of 2 hrs, more assistants arrived each with their own harrowing story of how they got there. But b/c of the delay, I was able to chit chat with fellow assistants and I met one who had studied abroad in Grenoble a semester before me. So that was obviously awesome. When I got back to Avion, I found out that it was another nulle day at school w/ very few students there because of the continuing demonstrations. Friday was the same. Yesterday, Tuesday, was declared another national strike day so again, not many students. However, those teachers who choose not to go on strike still have to show up and teach. So I was at school all day yesterday yet not doing much. Today, I don't have class, but there are ongoing barricades and demonstrations in Lens and throughout the country. Most of my colleagues don't think their is going to be a normal day of school until after fall vacation. Basically, not much has changed since I was here a year and a half ago.
The next odd thing that has happened to me was that I was invited to the divorce party for one of my colleagues, Gaetane. Yes, that's right, a divorce party. She signed her divorce friday morning, so naturally we had to have a party that night. There were 4-5 english teachers there from my school and some other friends and colleagues. It was fantastically awkward and fun at the same time. I also got to finally meet Laura, the assistant at my school the past two years and her boyfriend, Alban who's a really weird guitar teacher. It should be noted that Gaetane's nickname among the teachers at school is Lady Gaga b/c she's so crazy. En fait, most of the teachers at my school are crazy and going to school is pretty fun. Marie Agnes is extremely sassy so we have a lot of laughs poking fun at each other. My other colleagues are similar. Normally it's a good mix of French and English b/c let's face it, I'm really not that funny in French. Anyways, back to the divorce party. We had cake and champagne to toast Gaetane's new single life. The cake had the traditional bride and groom on top, with a few alterations. The bride was holding up a knife and the groom was face down next to her. Perfect. The night was accompanied by good french food and of course, wine. We also played a few games, one of which included trying to eat 4 french biscuits in 1min. No one was able to do it b/c apparently they're really dry and chalk up in your mouth. However. It is my personal opinion that an American, with their fierce competitive nature and considerable capacity to eat large quantities of things very fast could do it. I have to test this theory. All in all it was a fun night and I can now check off divorce party from my list of things to do (even though it really wasn't originally on it.)
Lastly, it should be noted that I am an absolutely shameful daughter for having forgotten my mother's birthday on Sunday. So, officially Happy Belated Birthday Mom! I'm sorry I suck. I promise to make it up to you when you come to visit in a couple months.
Well, sorry this was such a long post and I promise to be more regular in posting in the future when I settle down in my new place and get internet. Take care, Emily.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Pictures of Lens and a little family hike
 |
| Downtown Lens, where I'll be living (hopefully) |
 |
| A park I found to have lunch |
 |
| Université d'Artois à Lens |
 |
| Pure happiness |
 |
 |
| The "main drag" |
 |
| And now for a little hike w/ the fam |
 |
| This child has more energy than anyone I've ever met |
 |
| Elvira, my only friend |
 |
| This whole area was made from excess coal that couldn't be mined. It was piled up and up into a huge "mountain" |
 |
| Now, they've made it into nature paths |
 |
| Mère et fille |
 |
| Avion from half way up |
 |
| Giant cool looking mushrooms |
 |
| This is only half the stairs |
 |
| At the top |
 |
| Our house is on the right |
 |
 |
| The whole thing was black carbon soil |
 |
| Went running up here monday evening and got a little lost. I had to run down this trail in the dark. Woops! |
 |
| Didn't see that helpful sign either |
 |
| Probly should have looked at this too |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)