May 2012
3 posts
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Last Day
This is my last day in Paris. So far, I’ve done a pretty decent job at trying to see what I have neglected during my past visits to Paris : Versailles, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée Pompidou, fondue in Montmatre, bar in Belleville, drinking in front of the Sacre Coeur, and hours and hours of walking. Tonight, I’m getting soufflés and drinking on the Seine before coming back to...
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Last Explorations
My friend left on the night train to Paris last night. We’ll meet up again on Saturday—assuming that I’ve packed, closed accounts and make it on the train safely on the train with all my baggage Friday night. Right now, this seems like it will be tight, but it’s probably doable. I only have to do a last load of laundry, write thank you notes, return keys to each school,...
April 2012
3 posts
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My Stress is Like Woah
I’ve been riding the roller coaster for a little while, steadily realizing how excited I am to be back in the USA, but then hitting a curve and falling into shock over how soon I am actually going to leave Rodez. Let me relate to you the real correlation between my life and this roller coaster metaphor. The past week, I’ve been meeting up with friends for meals at restaurants I...
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See You In a Month...Or Less
This year, I have been blessed with two Easters. The first one was last week in Berlin. The best time for me to visit my college dorm roommate was during Easter weekend—she had an extra day off from school for the holiday and I was on vacation. She has been in Berlin for about a month studying German and finding a bunch of other things to do in that brilliantly artsy city. Fortunately, I had...
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Reboot and Coast
The past week has been delightful. My birthday was spent with friends, champagne and regional cakes. My weekend had a lot of one-on-one time with my Californian friend, Cristella. In fact, over the weekend, we drank wine, watched Elf, went to a punk concert followed by a private sing-a-long at her apartment, and finally a nice three-hour long café frappe chat session sitting outside in front of...
March 2012
10 posts
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Glass Case of Emotion
My life right now feels like a jumble of emotions, events and uncertainties that have become a melange of the weirdest moods I’ve had in a good long time. I have tried to diagnose what I am feeling to no avail. Maybe I should talk about my weekend and what I have been up to.
This weekend I visited Sarah in Toulouse for the last time; although, I will probably return to Toulouse one last...
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Past, Present and Future
It’s easy to guess that my weekend was incredible but perhaps in more ways than are obvious at first thought.
First of all, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, where I was able to mingle with Caldecott winners, publishing house executives and my former coworkers from Albert Whitman & Company. Good thing I am living in France this year,...
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Winding Down
You all are so excited for this list, I can just tell. Now is the time where I have to begin planning on how to pack away all of the stuff I brought to France, but also all of the things family and friends have sent to me. But before I do that, check out my crazy travel schedule!
March 16-20 Bologna, Italy
March 23-25 Toulouse
March 30-April 1 Nice
April 13-16 Athens, Greece
April 27-29...
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While in the Milan Airport
Sometimes I wonder what my thought process could possibly be, that is if it is anything more than a series of little agreements to follow the shiny objects in front of me.
Last night, I took two autocars and a train to get from Rodez to Lyon. This morning, I woke up at 5h20 to walk to the tram to take the airport tram to my flight to Milan. I am now attar Milan airport, waiting for my flight...
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adventuretime: Quelle Adventure!! →
Check out another take on my weekend! This is Emily’s blog. It may be lazy of me to just reuse her post…tant pis.
emengland:
I’ve just returned from Rodez, France, where I spent my birthday weekend with my friend from home who’s teaching English there. Rodez reminded me of all the things I dislike about London. The crowds, the traffic, the people who aren’t all that polite. Rodez...
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Life and Times of a Teaching Assistant
I’ve written about my job before, but just to remind “everyone,” this year I am working as a teaching assistant for English classes in southern France. The benefit to being an assistant is that you really have no responsibility. The downside to being an assistant is that you have no power. As soon as students realize you do not give grades and have no way to discipline them,...
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Le Printemps, Deja?
Every time I return from vacation it is hard to get back to how I left life in Rodez. After Italy, it was difficult because I left five really good friends, but retained the memory of what it was like to roll in a crew and to use the English language the only way we know how—absolutely wreck it. There was so much slang tossed around that I’m sure other English-speaking tourists...
February 2012
3 posts
10 tags
On Vacation (Again)
Yup. That’s right. I’m on vacation for the third time since I’ve been in France. If you’ve been following my experience in France, you would agree with me when I say that I have been traveling a lot. It’s easy to do since the transportation is relatively inexpensive and there are so many great places to go. However, it’s very easy to forget how absolutely...
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A "Gut Goût"
A week ago, I spent the day at another teacher’s house for a midi meal and a visit to another small town, which I hadn’t been to before. I had been looking forward to this outing because Nadine has been one of my favorite English teachers since the beginning of this year. I was finally going to meet her lover and indulge in the delicious food I just knew she eats. Eva, comme toujours,...
January 2012
10 posts
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Until Next Time
Since Friday, life in general has been pretty fantastic. Friday I taught a double class in the afternoon since I won’t have to teach Friday afternoons until after break. After that, I (actually) cleaned and organized my apartment, and then took the night train to Paris. This was quickly followed with a Breakfast in America misadventure to reunite with a high school best friend who came to...
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Should I Stay or Should I Go?
So I apologize for my inconsistent blogging as of late. I have been up to other things, like planning travel and my future. No big, right? All assistants have the chance to extend their contract to work until June, and lately teachers have been bringing it up quite often. They have even began talking to me as if this is what I have decided to do. I never signed anything, and honestly, I was really...
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“Sophisticated:
Like Avril Lavigne or 50 Cent, you like to shine! You’re...”
– From the text book for 6ème kids. How are French children ever going to learn English if they associate “sophisticated” with Avril and 50 Cent, or think that Johnny Depp and Scarlet Johanson don’t think clothes are important?
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Accidental Long Weekend
Early last week, my Toulouse friends invited me to join them in Montpellier for the weekend. I was supposed to visit them the weekend before, but I was too sick and travel-weary à cause de the Christmas vacation. Because of this, I felt guilty and really wanted to see them. So after my afternoon class on Friday, I hopped on a train to Toulouse and transferred to a train à destination de...
6 tags
Strong Words
One thing that continues to strike me about the French language is how strong verbs sound to me—at least strong in comparison to their English equivalents. The first time I noticed this was second year at UChicago when I decided to drop French 204. My professor wrote back using the word “abandonner” to describe what I was doing. Even though this is the appropriate word, the...
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Bonne Année!
After two weeks of traveling, I’m BACK! Although I had hopes of writing something during the vacation, those clearly did not become anything other than thoughts in the back of my mind. I was too busy traveling around London, Paris, Lyon, Carcassonne and Toulouse. I got back to Rodez yesterday with my family and they are here until Wednesday. Today, weather permitting, we are going to walk...
December 2011
7 posts
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Salsifis Success
Sunday was Jean-Paul’s birthday celebration, and I realize that I may have gotten his name incorrectly last post, Curse those hyphenated first names! This was the midi feast for which I was asked to prepare salsifis, the vegetable I hadn’t heard of before. Salsifies is like a turnip or other root vegetables, but it’s white, longer and thinner than the others. Apparently, its...
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Nooks and Crannies
My recent posts have been a little hard on Rodez and have been a tad self-deprecating. Or at least the emphasis has been less on my own experiences here, and instead, gazing off in the distance, hypothesizing about the future, reminiscing about home or bemoaning the fact I don’t live in a city. I admit, I have been missing the mark. But the truth is, despite its flaws, I love Rodez.
My...
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Rain, Rain Go Away.
I feel like the string of rainy days I’ve been experiencing in Rodez is a current phenomenon shared with many people I know in their respective locations in the world. Why, world, why? Rain is probably my least favorite (unavoidable) thing—I also dislike the idea of weather in general, but that probably hits on some deeper issues. On dark, cloudy days, all productivity ceases. I feel...
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The Mystery Vegetable Conundrum
Nearly a month ago, I spent a Sunday at an English teacher’s house with a few other assistants and her neighbors. During the meal, Christine’s neighbor invited everyone over to another Sunday midi at their house to celebrate her husband’s birthday. She also mentioned that we would have to RSVP so that she could assign dishes for everyone to contribute. I had brought soup to...
5 tags
Listing
My mother relentlessly makes fun of my obsessive list-making. I’m sure she still finds to-do lists stashed in crevices of the house in Park Ridge, even after 11 weeks being away. I figured it was about time to publish some lists on this blog. And since I’m about 1/3 through my scheduled stint in France, it’s also a time to reflect just a little. So here I go. Please bear with...
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Home is Where the Heart...Was Raised
It is no secret that I believe European living is healthier, more natural and perhaps more content than the lifestyle followed in the States. Money does not hold the same sway here as it does in America, and what you do in your free time is much more important than how you make your living. The French find extreme value in leisure, taking care of themselves, their appearance and also the pleasure...
November 2011
10 posts
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Noël Vient Près
As I descended the train at 8h30 this morning, back into Rodez, a distinct thought crossed my mind. It was something like, “Well, I really wished I had stopped into an H&M in Toulouse to get warm things. It is COLD.”
Friends, l’hiver froid is upon us, and I don’t like it. I still have my Edinburgh (Edinburr?) mittens, but I left my Cork beanie in Stockholm and my...
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Disconnecting to Reconnect
This is a public declaration of the promise to myself that I am going to begin making life changes, starting today. This is also an apology for not being myself the past several weeks. I felt myself slowly descending into a routine of self-pity, complaining, inactivity and living my life through the internet without doing much to stop it. I pretty much fell into the life those who fear social...
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Time to Waste
I’ve mentioned before that I only work 12 hours each week in addition to tutoring or conversation sessions, which comes to 15 (soon to be 16) hours a week of working. This, as my dear friend Keith informed me, is less time working than he works in an entire day. Okay, well, good for me, right? I am living in France, only having 12-16 hours of my week occupied and living just fine off the...
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Un Week-end Bien Passé
As this was my first weekend back in Rodez for several weeks, I had some reservations on how it would compare to those in Stockholm and Paris. However, this concern quickly faded as I came to realize that it was a three day weekend, and one in which a friend from Toulouse wanted to come visit me. Even if all we did was make soup, it would have been a weekend well-spent. It turned out to be an even...
Ça Marche Bien
Please forgive the lapse in blogging. The truth is that I have been having major writer’s block—I couldn’t find a topic about which to write. However, I have been asked about teaching with some frequency, so here it goes. This inquiry unexpectedly takes me aback each time it is asked. Probably because teaching is not, and probably will never be, something I aspire to do despite...
“Comme disait mon grandpère, ‘Je bois du lait quand les vaches mangent du...”
– From the chalkboard of a bar on Rue Oberkomph in Paris.
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Confessions
Well, this is it. I made a vow in my first post that this blog is to be an honest portrayal of my life abroad. Up to this point, it has; but this has been easy. Sure, not everything has been on top of the world, but overall, things have been more or less smooth-going. Now it’s time to admit something no one, no matter how old you are, wants to admit: homesickness.
Tuesday marked seven weeks...
October 2011
13 posts
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Ben and Liz's Misadventures: What a Steal
Although Ben and I loved Stockholm, despite it’s adverse effects on our minds and bodies, we were glad to be leaving the land of the Krona and entering into the Euro. While it’s a great place to be, Scandinavia is EXPENSIVE. We actually used the hostel kitchen the majority of the time—but by that I mean to keep the milk and yogurt cold for our muesli. Our quality of life...
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Liz and Ben's Misadventures: More than a Syndrome
One of the perks of being a foreign language assistant in France is that you begin teaching after the school year has begun, you get all of the scheduled vacation time the kids and real teachers get, and your contract ends before the school year is over—you also don’t get a wage that reflects how many hours you actually work. Fortunately, this week I was paid and am on vacation....
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Finally a Foodie in France
I feel like it has been a long time coming. Thanks to good friends like Benedict, who challenged my bland food preferences through humiliation, friends like Phil and Daniel who would always go with me to the classy and expensive wine/cheese or vegan restaurants I wanted to try, and for being on a volleyball team where you really just had to eat what you were given, my palate began to expand to...