I haven't written in here in a couple of weeks...but I don't really have much to say. Here are some little tid-bits about what's been going on:
1.The other day a child asked me if I was the creator of Dora the Explorer (she teaches English in France instead of Spanish). As I'm probably the only English-speaker this kid knows, I guess it's a valid assumption in the mind of a 7 year-old. It made me laugh! I certainly would not mind having the bank account of the creator of Dora the Explorer, that's for sure.
2.Today was our program coordinator's last day as our coordinator. She's been replacing the woman who usually does it since we got here, but now the woman is back and so she's gone...which is really sad, cuz she has been FANTASTIC!. A few of us got together and got her some chocolates and two girls made a card that we signed. Three of us went to her house tonight to deliver the stuff and say goodbye and she made us tea and then we had drinks and some snacks and two hours later (!) she drove us home. I'm really going to miss her, but she's really cool and one of those people I could just call up and invite somewhere sometime, so I'll probably do that. Also, she may call me someday soon to babysit her son for her (who is SUUUUPER chatty and will be a very intense French exercise for me, haha).
3.I've been reading a French novel called La Premiere Nuit. I've scheduled myself to read at least 10 pages a day, in order to actually finish it at some point...and also because my friend, to whom the book belongs, told another friend of ours that she could borrow it after me...and finally because I want to read something else in French while I'm here! ;) Anyway, the book is goodish. It's a lot like a Dan Brown book (but French), and not really something I'm super into reading right now, but I'm trucking along anway. I'm on track and almost half-way through. I'm sure I'll get lots of reading done over break (airports, train stations, trains...stuff like that).
4.I'm giving a mini-report tomorrow on the north-western regions of France (Brittany, Normandy, and Pays-de-la-Loire...which, apparently, doesn't have an English translation) in my French class. It was neat to learn a bit more about other regions of France...I barely know anything even about the region I'm living in! It did make me wonder, however, how I ever made it through college. Life has been so easy-going here these past 5 months that I sometimes forget what work is. lol
5.Yoga is still going well and I'm still doing it daily (for the most part). Healthy eating still going pretty well. The news watching...not so much. I haven't been turning it on in the morning anymore like I used to...not really sure why. I should do that again, cuz if I don't listen to the news in the morning, I won't do it at any other time during the day. :(
6.Tomorrow is my last day of classes (today, technically, as it's currently 12:19 here) before break. My friend Noelia is coming to Paris from Madrid this weekend to visit Stevy and me! WOO HOO!!! And it's exactly a week from today that I'll be heading off to Italy. Good stuff, good stuff.
7.I've decided to buy a bike/borrow a bike....FIND A BIKE...at some point in order to take a bike trip along the Loire at the end of my stay, which I think will probably be until the middle of May now. I don't want to leave right away. I'm going to Germany for about a week at the end of April and then I'd like to do this bike trip and, if I have time, head to the south of France with Sylvette and Alain. We'll see what happens. Also, it's just SO gorgeous here these days and I'd LOVE to be able to go on bike rides. (Where I will keep this bike, I'm not yet sure...as there is absolutely NO place anywhere in my apt/apt building to keep a bicycle. Meh, I'll figure it out.)
Those were a lot of long tid-bits. Hmm. I'd better try to sleep, as I am getting up in 7 hours.
Hugs and Kisses!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
French Journal
So, my friend Tara (another assistant here) and I have decided that in order to write a bit more in French durin our time here, we will start writing French journal entries to one another every week. In talking about said journals today, we gained a new member to our mini journal club (if you want to call it that), Tom, another assistant.
The entries must be:
-written in French.
-under 500 words, but over 350.
-related to that week's topic (for example, this week's topic is...yoga!).
-emailed to the other journal participants by no later than Wednesday at midnight (so, technically, Thursday).
It's 9:41 and I have yet to start mine...or to lesson plan for tomorrow. So, of course, I decided to watch a yoga documentary and post a blog instead.
I really am excited about this though. Especially this week's topic! :)
The entries must be:
-written in French.
-under 500 words, but over 350.
-related to that week's topic (for example, this week's topic is...yoga!).
-emailed to the other journal participants by no later than Wednesday at midnight (so, technically, Thursday).
It's 9:41 and I have yet to start mine...or to lesson plan for tomorrow. So, of course, I decided to watch a yoga documentary and post a blog instead.
I really am excited about this though. Especially this week's topic! :)
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Language
I've been reading Frankenstein lately. Yes, in English...but it's the last of the English books I brought with me and once I'm done (which I almost am) I'm finishing Le Petit Prince and then moving on to La Premiere Nuit. So I will be reading in French soon!
Anywho, as I was saying, I've been reading Frankenstein, and it turns out Frankenstein's monster learned French in less than a year simply by observing a poor family of three and reading a few books. Absolutely impossible, BUT pretty cool all the same. In the story there is a lovely section of the monster's monologue to Frankenstein, during which he's telling the Dr. about his life up to that point and talks about how he felt about his discovery of language. I'd like to share it with you guys, because I think it's really beautiful and really captures at least how I, personally, feel about the beauty of language.
"By degrees I made a discovery of still greater moment. I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one another by articulate sounds. I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and the countenances of the hearers. This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it[...]. Their pronunciation was quick; and the words they uttered, not having any apparent connection with visible objects[...]. By great application, however, and after having remained during the space of several revolutions of the moon in my hovel, I discovered the names that were give to some of the most familiar objects of discourse[...]. I cannot describe the delight I felt when I learned the ideas appropriated to each of these sounds, and was able to pronounce them."
Good Stuff :)
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Two silly anecdotes from the day...
1. In arriving at one of my schools today a teacher said "Bonjour, Meg!" and I immediately responded with "Hola." Oops. Had a good laugh over that one. (I've been doing that a lot lately...speaking Spanish instead of French by accident...the other day our apt. maintenance guy was in the hall and asked me "Ca va?" and I replied with, "Oui, como esta?" Hmm)
2. This report was on the BBC this morning. How French.
Have a day! :)
2. This report was on the BBC this morning. How French.
Have a day! :)
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Take the good with the bad
As per the title's promise, this entry brings both good news and bad news. I'll begin with the bad, as it happened before the good.
My neighbor's apartment was broken into Friday morning and her new $1200 Mac Book as well as her most valued jewlery were stolen. There was no forced entry, so the intruder obviously had a key to her apartment, as the door was locked when she left for work in the morning. We don't know how this person got ahold of a copy of the key, being that the only supposed people with the key are she and the landlord, who also confessed that he does not change the locks on the doors whenever someone moves out. Yes, it'd be work to change the locks everytime someone left, but I do feel it the necessary duty of the landlord to make sure his studios are secure before renting them out to young foreign girls. Luckily she has renter's insurance here in France which will hopefully cover some, if not all, of the loss. I certainly hope no one has a copy of the key to my apartment. (Her lock is now changed, btw, so this will not happen again *knock on wood*...although they'd have to have some nerve to come back and try it again.)
And the good news...I got a tutoring job! Sylvette works with a man whose son is 10 years old and has two penpals in the U.S. The family will be going to Washington D.C. in October to meet one of them and they want their son to be ready to understand and speak American English. Sylvette told them about me and they contacted me earlier this week. So, today I went to meet the family and it turns out they want to pay me double what I asked just to chit chat and play games in English with this kid once a week! Thanks, Sylvette! :-D
My neighbor's apartment was broken into Friday morning and her new $1200 Mac Book as well as her most valued jewlery were stolen. There was no forced entry, so the intruder obviously had a key to her apartment, as the door was locked when she left for work in the morning. We don't know how this person got ahold of a copy of the key, being that the only supposed people with the key are she and the landlord, who also confessed that he does not change the locks on the doors whenever someone moves out. Yes, it'd be work to change the locks everytime someone left, but I do feel it the necessary duty of the landlord to make sure his studios are secure before renting them out to young foreign girls. Luckily she has renter's insurance here in France which will hopefully cover some, if not all, of the loss. I certainly hope no one has a copy of the key to my apartment. (Her lock is now changed, btw, so this will not happen again *knock on wood*...although they'd have to have some nerve to come back and try it again.)
And the good news...I got a tutoring job! Sylvette works with a man whose son is 10 years old and has two penpals in the U.S. The family will be going to Washington D.C. in October to meet one of them and they want their son to be ready to understand and speak American English. Sylvette told them about me and they contacted me earlier this week. So, today I went to meet the family and it turns out they want to pay me double what I asked just to chit chat and play games in English with this kid once a week! Thanks, Sylvette! :-D
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The World of French Pastries
France is filled to the brim with amazing pastry delights such as: le croissant, pain au chocolat, croissant aux amandes, pain au chocolat aux amandes, le torsade au chocolat, les suisses, etc... My amazing friend and neighbor, Pat, recently posted a video that he found, which I would like to share with you. This video will probably make you wish you lived here and, indeed, it makes me want to take a trip to the patissier around the corner! I never knew just how much work went into these things...but I also didn't know that the same dough was used for just about all of the bakery goods. Awesome! Anywho, enjoy your little trip to France with: Crossants...how to.
Friday, January 14, 2011
New Year's Resolutions
A few quick sidenotes before I actually begin talking about my resolutions of 2011:
1.'Tis the season of the "SOLDES" (Sales) and all of us assistants are broke. (Minus those who have been lucky enough to receive their CAF assistance already. Mine is yet to come and, though I've been hopeful that I will soon see those 1,000 euros soon, my program coordinator does not have the same confidence in the French government, and she's French...which depresses me a bit). These sales do nothing for that learn-how-to-save-money thing I've been trying to do. Crap.
2.For those of you who have been worrying about my homesickness, I think I can safely say that it's gone. I'm getting into a groove I wish I had been able to get into months ago, but better late than too late! It is so beautiful here! I was walking back from a friend's house the other night quite late when all was quiet and dark and the general ambiance was absolutely magical. The beauty around me on a daily basis is a lot to take in and sometimes I get overwhelmed by the fact that so much history and, well, europe is around me. I think that is what will be the hardest when I'm back in the U.S. U.S. architecture is so modern and, though beautiful in its own way, not so awe-inspiring. (I will also miss having a bakery on every corner, but I'll think about all of these things in April, not now. For now I'm just trying to appreciate what I have here on a daily basis and soak it in while it's around me.)
ATTENTION READER: You may feel some nausea due to the incessant optimism and cheerfulness exuded in the following entry. Please enter with an open and positive mind and understand that we all deserve to be the best that we can be!
Now, to the New Year! Usually I make New Year's Resolutions that I don't actually intend to keep and I've decided that this is the year to end that (particularly since it's the last year of the world ;) no, seriously, I'm kinda scared bout 2012, but I digress). I've made 4 resolutions this year, and they are as follow:
1.Read/Watch the news everyday.
2.Do yoga. (Starting with a Mon, Wed, Friday, Sunday routine.)
3."Jump into the French pool"
4.Maintain a healthy diet.
1.News. For years now I've felt far behind when it comes to knowing what's going on in the world, and it's 100% my fault. I never used to watch or read the news, but always wished I would just finally get into the habit. It seemed like so many of my friends were able to fit it into their schedule somehow; listening to the news on the radio on the way to work, watching the news while eating breakfast or dinner, reading a newspaper over lunch or a coffee break. I am literate, have access to any kind of news I wish to read/watch, and have absolutely no excuse not to know what's going on in the world and it was getting ridiculous. Therefore, I've "bookmarked" BBC live on my computer, set the BBC world news page as my homepage, and equipped my cellphone with a New York Times application, which I update on a daily basis. It's been a couple of weeks now that I've been watching BBC everyday (I turn it on as soon as I wake up in the morning and listen to the reports as I do my morning routine and eat my breakfast) and then sometimes I read the New York Times to get some back-home news on the tram to/from work. There's a LOT of news in the world, but I feel so much better knowing that I at least know the basics of the main reports, and it hasn't been difficult at all to follow this resolution, as I made a point to fit it into my daily routine. Happily, it's becoming a morning habit!
2.Yoga. Keeping myself physically healthy is not something I can say I've done a good job of since my freshman year of college, when I worked out 6 days a week. After a summer of not working out after that first year, I never got back into it and fell back into the same lazy guilt I've kept myself stuck in ever since. True, when i was living in La Crosse I used to walk/bike all around town, but that was out of necessity, and I didn't push myself to go much farther than where I needed to be. I had tried yoga a few times, but always gave up...I've never been much good about going to exercise classes and don't much like doing physical activity in public when I'm completely out of shape :-P I'd always shy back and say "I can't do it," embarrassed about how heavy my breathing may be or what my butt looked like in my workout pants. Well, my body has had enough of this lazy crap! I've got a makeshift yoga mat that a friend of mine picked up for me in a town near by, I've downloaded "yoga for weight loss for beginners" from yogadownload.com, as well as a yoga breathing exercise from yoga-vidya.org, and I've been following my routine since Monday. Yes, that means it's only been two days of yoga so far, but just try and tell my abs that that hasn't done anything...ouch! (but in the best possible way!) I've also been doing some Chakra meditation on the side, which has been really good for balancing my energy and making me feel a lot calmer with my CM1 and CM2 classes, lol.
3."Jump into the French pool." On the train on the way back to Orleans from Paris after Christmas break my friend Tara and I ended up sitting next to a Frenchman (a bodyguard who was Tina Turner's bodyguard for a few years!) who chatted us up during the hour-long ride home. We talked about lots of things (well, mostly he talked...he was chatty, but really nice, and we had a good time talking with him!), but what ressonated most with Tara and myself was an analogy he made about being in another country/culture with a different language. He said it's like a swimming pool and you have to jump in the pool when it's full of water and not wait to jump in until after they've already drained out the water. What he meant, if it isn't obvious, was that we need to throw ourselves into the incredible opporunity we have here to learn the French language and about the French culture, and not to hesitate, because in a few months our opportunity will be gone. My resolution I guess is to take any opportunity I can get to speak French and to put myself into it whole-heartedly. I've been reading a lot lately, but not in French, so today I went to the library and checked out a copy of "Le Petit Prince," which I'm going to start when I finish this entry.
4.Food. This is the easiest for me of all of the resolutions. I began this resolution almost a year ago when I picked up a copy of Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Diet" at Barnes and Noble and gave vegetarianism a second try. Since reading her book I've become more aware of what I put into my body and why it is or isn't good for me. I'm since become really interested in what it means and what it feels like to have a "balanced diet." Since living in France I've definitely gained weight and had changed my diet a bit and been buying foods that left me feeling fatigued and depressed. No. Good. That's over now and I'm trying my best to eat what my body asks for and what I know my body needs instead of what my boredom tells me it wants.
Basically, I LOVE these resolutions and I'm 100% dedicated to making sure they get the attention that they need because I've felt great for these first couple of weeks and each day has felt like the "first day of the rest of my life" instead of just another day. I hope your resolutions (if you made any) have been going well!
Lots of love <3 Meg
1.'Tis the season of the "SOLDES" (Sales) and all of us assistants are broke. (Minus those who have been lucky enough to receive their CAF assistance already. Mine is yet to come and, though I've been hopeful that I will soon see those 1,000 euros soon, my program coordinator does not have the same confidence in the French government, and she's French...which depresses me a bit). These sales do nothing for that learn-how-to-save-money thing I've been trying to do. Crap.
2.For those of you who have been worrying about my homesickness, I think I can safely say that it's gone. I'm getting into a groove I wish I had been able to get into months ago, but better late than too late! It is so beautiful here! I was walking back from a friend's house the other night quite late when all was quiet and dark and the general ambiance was absolutely magical. The beauty around me on a daily basis is a lot to take in and sometimes I get overwhelmed by the fact that so much history and, well, europe is around me. I think that is what will be the hardest when I'm back in the U.S. U.S. architecture is so modern and, though beautiful in its own way, not so awe-inspiring. (I will also miss having a bakery on every corner, but I'll think about all of these things in April, not now. For now I'm just trying to appreciate what I have here on a daily basis and soak it in while it's around me.)
ATTENTION READER: You may feel some nausea due to the incessant optimism and cheerfulness exuded in the following entry. Please enter with an open and positive mind and understand that we all deserve to be the best that we can be!
Now, to the New Year! Usually I make New Year's Resolutions that I don't actually intend to keep and I've decided that this is the year to end that (particularly since it's the last year of the world ;) no, seriously, I'm kinda scared bout 2012, but I digress). I've made 4 resolutions this year, and they are as follow:
1.Read/Watch the news everyday.
2.Do yoga. (Starting with a Mon, Wed, Friday, Sunday routine.)
3."Jump into the French pool"
4.Maintain a healthy diet.
1.News. For years now I've felt far behind when it comes to knowing what's going on in the world, and it's 100% my fault. I never used to watch or read the news, but always wished I would just finally get into the habit. It seemed like so many of my friends were able to fit it into their schedule somehow; listening to the news on the radio on the way to work, watching the news while eating breakfast or dinner, reading a newspaper over lunch or a coffee break. I am literate, have access to any kind of news I wish to read/watch, and have absolutely no excuse not to know what's going on in the world and it was getting ridiculous. Therefore, I've "bookmarked" BBC live on my computer, set the BBC world news page as my homepage, and equipped my cellphone with a New York Times application, which I update on a daily basis. It's been a couple of weeks now that I've been watching BBC everyday (I turn it on as soon as I wake up in the morning and listen to the reports as I do my morning routine and eat my breakfast) and then sometimes I read the New York Times to get some back-home news on the tram to/from work. There's a LOT of news in the world, but I feel so much better knowing that I at least know the basics of the main reports, and it hasn't been difficult at all to follow this resolution, as I made a point to fit it into my daily routine. Happily, it's becoming a morning habit!
2.Yoga. Keeping myself physically healthy is not something I can say I've done a good job of since my freshman year of college, when I worked out 6 days a week. After a summer of not working out after that first year, I never got back into it and fell back into the same lazy guilt I've kept myself stuck in ever since. True, when i was living in La Crosse I used to walk/bike all around town, but that was out of necessity, and I didn't push myself to go much farther than where I needed to be. I had tried yoga a few times, but always gave up...I've never been much good about going to exercise classes and don't much like doing physical activity in public when I'm completely out of shape :-P I'd always shy back and say "I can't do it," embarrassed about how heavy my breathing may be or what my butt looked like in my workout pants. Well, my body has had enough of this lazy crap! I've got a makeshift yoga mat that a friend of mine picked up for me in a town near by, I've downloaded "yoga for weight loss for beginners" from yogadownload.com, as well as a yoga breathing exercise from yoga-vidya.org, and I've been following my routine since Monday. Yes, that means it's only been two days of yoga so far, but just try and tell my abs that that hasn't done anything...ouch! (but in the best possible way!) I've also been doing some Chakra meditation on the side, which has been really good for balancing my energy and making me feel a lot calmer with my CM1 and CM2 classes, lol.
3."Jump into the French pool." On the train on the way back to Orleans from Paris after Christmas break my friend Tara and I ended up sitting next to a Frenchman (a bodyguard who was Tina Turner's bodyguard for a few years!) who chatted us up during the hour-long ride home. We talked about lots of things (well, mostly he talked...he was chatty, but really nice, and we had a good time talking with him!), but what ressonated most with Tara and myself was an analogy he made about being in another country/culture with a different language. He said it's like a swimming pool and you have to jump in the pool when it's full of water and not wait to jump in until after they've already drained out the water. What he meant, if it isn't obvious, was that we need to throw ourselves into the incredible opporunity we have here to learn the French language and about the French culture, and not to hesitate, because in a few months our opportunity will be gone. My resolution I guess is to take any opportunity I can get to speak French and to put myself into it whole-heartedly. I've been reading a lot lately, but not in French, so today I went to the library and checked out a copy of "Le Petit Prince," which I'm going to start when I finish this entry.
4.Food. This is the easiest for me of all of the resolutions. I began this resolution almost a year ago when I picked up a copy of Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Diet" at Barnes and Noble and gave vegetarianism a second try. Since reading her book I've become more aware of what I put into my body and why it is or isn't good for me. I'm since become really interested in what it means and what it feels like to have a "balanced diet." Since living in France I've definitely gained weight and had changed my diet a bit and been buying foods that left me feeling fatigued and depressed. No. Good. That's over now and I'm trying my best to eat what my body asks for and what I know my body needs instead of what my boredom tells me it wants.
Basically, I LOVE these resolutions and I'm 100% dedicated to making sure they get the attention that they need because I've felt great for these first couple of weeks and each day has felt like the "first day of the rest of my life" instead of just another day. I hope your resolutions (if you made any) have been going well!
Lots of love <3 Meg
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