"tu as minci" she tells me

to be honest, that will really make your day--and give you full justification to eat a few extra truffes and figues and bouches de noel!

tonite kareoke replaced christmas carols at a french dinner party. i busted out the song below called "the crowd" annnd the star spangled banner. ca me faisait quelque chose honestly. proud to be an american i guess.

we also danced the "macarena" if you can believe it, i couldn't. the "young'ins" showed me and us what "techno music" is and how to dance to it. a song, "who let the FROG out" was played. yuck yuck yuck...oh france. the family's middle daughter, a ballerina, put on her point shoes and, yes, performed for us.

in other news, a gal who has never liked wine suddenly finds herself able to guzzle down all the french wines she's (i've) tasted so far. pastis, not so much...cabernet d'anjou...oui so much.

apparently a popular christmas decoration here is a santa that you hang outside your window so it looks like he is barely holding on and about to fall. they are everywhere and, to be honest, it stresses me out. yes sure, it's very "jack bauer" and exciting...but i feel the urge to run from window to window, ready to catch the ol man in case he falls.

i have sung we wish you a merry christmas in all of my classes, santa claus is coming to town and i'm dreaming of a white christmas...

istres is decked out in glittery lights and jocelyne has helped me plan a christmas menu. escargot (they have them all ready to go at the grocery store, just heat for 10 minutes!), potatoes but i don't think i will do foie gras. poor ducks. ben and i have plans to make one mean meatloaf for jocelyne. i am considering egg nog...but if not, for sure hot cocoa...i hope with candy canes, if i can find them. today i realized there are no candy canes to be found here! eeek!

the other night i wandered the "chemin des creches," where everyone in the old town puts up their nativity scenes in their windows. it's a very intimate thing actually. you are literally going from apartment to aparment, looking into people's windows. no, it's not uncommon to make eye contact with the people inside. the church bell started ringing...echoing off the buildings...

marriage proposal #1 en france

today at the market, a guy called out to me:

"mademoiselle, vous voulez vous marrier avec un fromagier?"

(miss--do you want to marry a cheese maker?)

....how could i refuse??? i love brie.

i'll let you know when the date is.

thanksgiving!

so thanksgiving for my students did not even get close to touching all the issues i had worried about. i basically boiled it down to:

thanksgiving = family, food, football...and in general being thankful for what you have

not that i really care too much about football, but kids uhh literally go crazy when you show them a small "bears" football that i bought for a dollar. (i also taught them how to say "da bears" with a good chicago accent)

now one interesting tidbit is that french children apparently think pumpkin pie is disgusting. they eat duck liver, snails, frog legs...but pumpkin pie...gross.

i didn't make pumpkin pie tonight but i did make a mini thanksgiving feast. haha...i literally filled up the dishwasher with all the dishes i used. a sign of a cusiniere debutante laughs my roomate! well i made some fine fried turkey filets, mushrooms with spices whose names i had quite a time translating into french to go grocery shopping and honey carrots! yay!

note: to get to the "turkey section" of the grocery store you have to walk by the "rabbit section."

:-(

i also had to do MAJOR conversion calculations for these recipes. i'm not even joking--took me 3 hours. converting cups to grams, tablespoons to mls then to cls. trying to figure out what a 1/4 of a teaspoon would be exactly. ahhhh!

saturday i am going to a full out thanksgiving dinner, to which i said i would bring a pumpkin cake. (a la recette annie koz!) however, there is no canned pumpkin here. there is a gord-like object which my roomate says i can use instead...but it's definitely not a pumpkin. i want to make a cream cheese icing...there is no cream cheese here. any other kind of cheese you need, oui, but no cream cheese. so we'll see.

and after dinner we all watched prison break. ohhh thanksgiving.

photo club/miriam's friends/toussaint vacation

"who would you say is the most important american photographer?"

well uhhhh...ansel adams? (note: only american photographer i could think of on the spot)

tonight i went to my first istres photo club meeting. i have an interesting group of "friends" here in town. i interact with 7-10 year olds 12 hours a week that are able to describe weather, indicate if they feel thirsty or not and have a basic understanding of halloween and thanksgiving. not much chance for conversation there outside of the exhilirating "do you have any pets" discussion. (one kid has 16 fish!)

then there is the teachers' lounge. this is a flurry photocopies and french banter and chatter and "bon bahn voila" and "allez" and lots of other words i don't usually catch. so i feel awkward making eye contact with whoever is talking because i'm actually not understanding what is being discussed. it's a very disturbing feeling to understand the words but not the message. "okay why is she talking about hamsters...what is going on with hamsters...hmmm" and i don't want to interject anything for fear of looking non-cool. "oh well i personally LOVE hamsters!" i'd say when really they were discussing Amsterdam or something like that. sigh.

i live with a preschool teacher/artist/ex-gym teacher. she has honestly made it all worthwhile. even though i would have loved to have been placed in marseille, jocelyne is what's making the year. she is very patient with me and only recently have i realized how slowly she talks to me..haha. hey she's a preschool teacher, i'm sure she's used to it. the apartment is full of her artwork and she makes her own jewelry. she is full of life and has some incredible stories. fascinating person really. she cooks dinner every night and it is delicious. perfect french roomate.

there is also the cat. lola. she is the equivalent of a cranky 100 year old woman who wears knee highs that show beneath her skirt. she's very affectionate but very demanding. i'm starting to take her meows personally. (is this healthy?) but i am working on my assertivness you know. uhh, with a cat.

NO lola, i will NOT pet you for 40 more minutes.

MEEEEOOOWWW

okay fine.

but she does sleep on my bed every night and looks at me with "les yeux doux," soft eyes, that makes it impossible to be lonely really.

there is a third roomate who lives here one week a month. she is a highschool student named maiva and she's pretty awesome. plans to be a photographer so we discuss her thoughts on all that...i just love her mannerisms. she is so french! she plans to travel to india and south africa.

there is another assistante here in town! she's from england and has a friend studying abroad at u of i! holla! she is very cool--we went to a hip hop dance concert the other night. it's absolutely bizarre to me to think that someone has been living the same life as me here with me even knowing they exist.

annnd now i have photo club friends. gilles, remi, alex and 2 others. these people are hardcore. i am not super hardcore with photo nor is my french vocabulary anywhere near up to par to have intelligent conversations with these folks. i thought one guy was asking me about what i wanted to do when i back to the u.s. so i explain the ol 5 year plan and he's like "non non, argentique ou numerique?" ohhhh he just wanted to know if i shoot digital or black/white photos. siiiigh.

well apparently i am one of the few who actually wants to develop film. everyone else is a digital photographer--these adults who are very passionate about the art and all about quick, quiet south of france accented conversations. if i was speaking english, i would hold my own! i can wax poetic about photography...i can argue about details like they do...but my french is just not there. i stumble over words still and speak at a worm's pace. a picture is worth a thousand words...so maybe that will help once i start shooting.

the other night i finally made some semi-intelligent conversation about american politics and fox television with jocelyne's friends. annnd this saturday i am having thanksgiving dinner at christophe's house with his family and friends. that couple continues to be insanely nice as well.

an english teacher (also named miriam!) invited me to the pub with her....

so i kind of have some friends. certainly i'm not alone here, but i'm also not really "with" anyone. it's interesting. you start to wonder who you are sometimes.

i think my french really needs to get up to speed though or i am going to continue being able to best relate to 7 year olds. notice there are no 20-25 year olds whatsoever in my daily life. (aside from my brief visit with the other assistante here) but hey, you know what who cares. the people i do know have so far been intelligent, interesting dynamic people...so go go gadget french!

toussaint vacation was amazing! aside from sickness in madrid, really traveling for 2 weeks was invigorating. went to dijon to visit lizzy mo and rick and another french cat, jenny. we ate figues (the most delicious of french pastries!), played with their puppy and celebrated halloween as u of i superfans! ahhhh! we ate escargot, delish! and fed some ducks. did a wine tasting in beaune. ICE BEAUNE. oh sncf... annnd liz saved a cat's life. (seriously) gimme gimme SHOES.

dumbledore! (many a song got stuck in our head, i blame rick) ;-)

then we were off to switzerland, where we "couchsurfed" in lausanne. it was beautiful golden autumn weather. magnificent. bern switzerland was our next stop where we had wierd couchsurfing drama...but otherwise a charming day en ville. liz found her headpiece at an adorable bridal shop and we heard an amazing choir singing in their church. i loved the quirkiness of the city too--underground stores, crazy bear and monkey statues...the handmade caramel booth that would sell out every 20 minutes! mmmm we ate cheese fondue and our host made an amazing chai tea.

then i went off to explore gevena on my own. geneva was such an inspiring day. magical--everything clicked. so many cool organizations in one place. i was breathless and amazed. took a tour of the UN and saw the red cross museum. the unhcr...ahhh...one of my favorite moments. and handicap international had an amazing display up about landmines. i honestly can't describe it. i felt "joy." like i was sitting on the train from geneva to lyon thinking "i'm happy. i'm really really happy." okay now i sound like a freak perhaps...haha. but i mean i just love traveling. the act of discovering and struggling is so addicting. i guess it's one of those times when you are actually aware you are ALIVE. you just barely making it to trains, you're constantly questioning and getting mixed up.

i also feel like in some weird "destiny" kind of way, my life became clearer. seriously, all these organizations that i've "looked into" appeared in my journey. unhcr, handicap international...in lyon i would stumble upon another organization, and then there was doctors without borders. it really gives gevena a certain energy i think. i dunno....i just felt like i suddenly know what i want to do. although i can't really articulate it...i know. trust me.

the other amazing thing about geneva were my roomates in my hostel. wow. this seriously made my life incredible. i walked in and first met a woman from algeria, fathia. she was astounding. spoke english well enough but in french...ohh she was so elegant and wise. describing the importance of knowing many languages...describing them as the many arrows you carry with you. she recommended a book to me from an algerian author that i'm currently reading. fascinating person.

my other roomate was doing an internship at the UNHCR!!! her name is asel. she's from kyrgyzstan and currently completing her masters on cross cultural communication between refugee case workers and refugees. oh man, we had great conversations. she learned english from an american peace corps volunteer and speaks german, russian and kyrgyz. we talked about mother tongue education and angelina jolie.

i also met a very vivacious french artiste who kissed me FOUR times to "faire la bise." (when french kiss you on each cheek) her named was beatrice..."comme beatude" said fathia.

after geneva, i went off to lyon. also beautiful....and so many layers. i made it all the way up to the most beautiful cathedral ever, then all the way down the steps of croix rousse. i was exhausted by the end of it...but i couchsurfed with a really cool girl named melanee. had traveled all over, told me about getting lost in the jungle in asia and how her next trip is to take the trans-siberian express. awesome. she had a pet rat.

then it was off to madrid to visit my friend erin...also teaching english! this was unfortunately when i got horribly sick...but the tapas were delish anyhow! i love how much louder spanish people are then french... a total different engery. this is where we had one of those wonderfully fulfilling conversations about culture and living abroad...i said what i'd been wanting to say since i got here.

and now i am back "home." istres did really feel like home when i got back actually. next vacation is over break when ben will be here, yippeee! and paris is our destination. oh la vie en rose

What is Thanksgiving?

And how do you teach 7-10 year old French children about it?

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr040.shtml

http://www.halcyon.com/pub/FWDP/Americas/tchthnks.txt

what's YOUR favorite food?

i asked the next student.

"my favorite food is....pizza."

just then, the boy in the front row threw up.

"second one today" says the teacher...

abdo-fessier

This is the gym class I've been doing here...it is a tad on the hard side.

It was funny when the song "It's raining men" came on...but it was hilarious when the girl next to me, wearing a black shirt that says in English "I love dancing," started singing along.

Oh abdo-fessier....

first day of school

The kids are angels! Maybe someday I will take back that statement, but for now they are angels. ;-) I semi-taught 3 classes today...at one point I was singing the alphabet song with my best voice possible and thinking "whoah...whoah, I'm singing the alphabet song in France."

Another great moment was when I asked if anyone knew how to say "W" ALL of them were waving their hands in the air frantically to say it. Something powerful about that letter, eh?

The younger kids literally just started laughing when they heard me talk.

Uh, should be a good year?

Fireworks in Arles

We are in Arles! And it is beautiful...we came in on the train at sunset--a bridge and Rhone river greeted us. What I love about traveling is that it works better the less you try. So Winnie and I meandered through town and stumbled upon the fireworks here. We found a little italian cafe and watched the firework show from our table. I had at first felt bad to be in a way *missing* the fireworks--but then Winnie pointed out that a man sitting at a table nearby was writing a poem perhaps on very little pad of paper. Then his wife/girlfriend read it over. It seemed like it was worth more than fireworks.

After dinner, we found our hostel and met a German girl in our room. She spoke perfect English of course, so we wandered around Arles at night. Stumbled onto the "Van Gogh cafe" without trying...Then we ran into our assisstant friend, Amy, randomly as well.

We ended the night, of course, at McDonalds. :-)

For ice cream--"the best McFlurry I've ever had," says Winnie. And it was pretty good--very crowded though too! I loved the Van Gogh paintings on tiles that were decorating the walls.

Tomorrow morning we're getting up early for the market! I'm so excited--it's a beautiful town!

Oh and I got my work schedule finally--I'm hping no work on Thurs afternoon or Friday. My teachers are hilarious.

des petits details

**Lovers at train**
We saw this couple at the train station in Marseille in the midst of a very tearful goodbye. The man was standing on the train and the woman was on the platform, gripping onto him. Kisses and kisses and kisses. Soft whispers in French...she looks horribly sad as the closing door cuts them off. The man, on our train headed toward Istres, looks around with a sigh for a seat.

Wow, surely they are two lovers leaving each other forever...

And then, the next day... two lovers at the train, saying goodbye again. The same lovers, the same tearful, dramatic parting.

Do they do this every day?


**Woman who knits in downtown Istres**
She sits on a bench, under the trees, and she uses yellow yarn.


**Our Bus Driver**
Vous vous habillez comme des vielles, he says! I dress like an old woman??? Okay that's it, next week, I'm using my cane.

"Les femmes—c’est la cinema."


**Birds like leaves**
When you take the train from Istres to Marseille, there is a flock of birds that swirls in the air as you arrive.


**Bats**
There are BATS here.


**Sun/light**
Like the wind, the sun gets into everything here. It is strong and hot. Kind of burns your eyes in the morning and sunset. Shadow takes on a whole new meaning.


**Old woman talking from window down to woman on stoop**
This was in the old neighborhood in Marseille, with winding roads and potted flowers outside each window. One woman was leaning out of her window and talking ot another sitting below.



**Istres**
I think I am getting better at pronouncing this.

sigh

I LOVE MARSEILLE.

love it love it love it

gorges du verdon

-not my picture!
http://www.lasarrazine.com

bravery/stupidity

So I remember when Oprah, now you know how I feel about Oprah, defined bravery. Bravery is not being fearless. On the contrary, bravery is doing something in spite of your fear. Therefore, in order to be brave, one first must be afraid. Today was FULL of "brave" moments.

My roomate invited me to hike the Gorges du Verdon with her and her friends. This is known as the "Grand Canyon of France." All she told me about it was that you shouldn't have a fear of heights. There was no rock climbing apparently, but there were "escaliers" that one had to climb. They later started using the word "ladder" to describe this. I had horrible nightmares the night before of some ladder going down a steep cliff. Eeep!

Driving to our hostel, I saw the beautiful but VERY intimidating canyon, with the Verdon river swimming threw about 1500 meters below us. The hike was not challenging in that I am super exhausted/tired right now. Psychologically though, it was scary and very very challenging.

We started off this morning on the path, which immediately plummets into the canyon. Not plummet, perhaps, but it is a very steep descent. And it's SO rocky! Like these evil slippery flat rocks as well as loose ones. Ahh, too many tibia memories to describe. So I was really really nervous...what the heck am I getting myself into! About 1/2 an hour later we had finished with that passage. But then whenever you descend, you will have to monte (go up) encore! So then we started climbing up the path...again, it's all rocks, very steep. HOOF I was dripping with sweat. Then we get to this ALL rock, slanted, steep drop off to a cliff part. Everyone else calmly walked across the slipery flat rock, while I was completely freaked out. But still managed my way across. At some points, we had to just hold on the cable attached to the rocks and make our way around the cliffs, going down totally loose rocks (what killed my tibia) or all flat slanted rock. Eeep!

Then there was the "ladder." In fact it was a stair case, but basically ya, it's straight down. After having survived everything else, this ladder I had been dreading turned out to be okay. We ate lunch on by the river and then started going back up again. We went through some caves to come out through the other side to a beautiful view! The canyon is breathtaking...but so are the cliffs that are about 6 inches from where you're walking. :-(

We finally got to the top where I thought the car was parked, only to see that we still had to hike another 30 STEEP minutes to get to it. At this point I asked my American friends how difficult the hike is. "Oh it's very difficult," said the woman. (They are from Oregon and have done a lot of hiking.) Normally, on a U.S. trail you wouldn't have all that exposed area without rails..etc. She said she had been thinking about me all day, wondering how the midwesterner had made out.

I kept telling my hiking buddies, "Illinois is FLAT" haha. I made out okay....but really I think by luck. On the one hand, I am thrilled to have completed this 6 hour hike...on the other hand, I would NEVER for any amount of money do it again. I just don't understand how more people don't die from hiking? All I could think was, if you fell right now, you would just fall off the cliff and die. End of story. Or if you really hurt yourself, no one would be able to get to you for hours.

Soooo I don't know how far my hiking career will go. At best, the hike is "medium difficulty" at worst it is classified under "very difficult" hikes in this region. I think I will stick to the easy ones from now on.

But I can honestly say I was brave today. Though had anything happened, I would have been labeled differently no doubt.

The drive back home (2 hours) was amazing. A sunset, very cute towns, classical music playing. Again you wonder, "How did I get here?"

le 29 sept

I don't know about tomorrow. I thought we were going to monte "stairs," now they are using the word "echelle." (ladder) Ahh! I am in the middle of mountains, well a canyon actually, and Mr. Tibbz is a tad nervous...Certainly I won't break my other leg? Tonite at dinner we met some Americans, now I can't speak English OR French? Completely threw me off! Jocelyen, Roland, Babette, Joel and I are all bunking in one room. Tomorrow will be a very challenging hike/day for me. I have faith but I also have fear. :-) This is one of those moments when you wonder, "How on earth did I get here?"

"you'll need a flashlight"

This was how my roomate described the possible hike we might go on this weekend.

"You're not afraid of heights are you?"

"Well, what do you mean, how high?"

"Like, if you are on top of the Eiffel Tower, are you afraid of (literally) the *emptiness*?"

Wow--to fear emptiness on top of the Eiffel Tower, how French. I don't think that would happen to me, though I never have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower. At the same time, for this hike, we will need flashlights because you have to go through dark tunnels apparently?

The organe bikini situation turned out okay, so I have confidence in my roomate. And it is a beautiful area to go hiking in, so I think I shall confront the emptiness.

Today I showed my roomate my pictures of friends/family from home, when she saw Ben's picture she just said: "blue. eyes." Yes, in English! Haha...

The other day I woke up to the Mistral wind humming through the entire apartment. It was like I was on a pirate ship or something, but my roomate said, "Oh but it wasn't very strong."

TOMORROW then is the day of 60mph winds, weee! I love watching la meteo on TV--rainclouds all over France..EXCEPT...haha the one sun going strong in the south.

I DID eat a croque monsieur today....burned. Man, I will never be a French chef. All you have to do is let it cook in the poele for a few minutes and I completely burned it...sigh. This has been part of my frustration here--not knowing how to do anything exactly right. I am constantly fumbling to open doors, turn on the oven, set the dishwasher correctly..etc. Today my roomate and I cleaned.

She said, "Well I didn't show you how to use the vacuum, but I'm sure it's pretty much the same as in the U.S."

"Oh sure--certainly I'll have no problem with a vacuum! Ha! Pfft!"

...2 minutes later...

"So wait, HOW do you turn on the vacuum???"

She just started laughing and showed me the button that I HAD already pressed. Mais non, you must press it this way and wait for a second, THEN it works. Argh! Photocopiers ONLY take dimes, so you can't put in any other kind of change. The cold faucet turns one way to turn on, but you have to do the reverse for the hot faucet. Nearly burned myself figuring that one out in the shower. ;-)

Buuuut it's okay--it has been quite an experience having EVERYTHING explained to me. A. because I need it and B. because my roomate is a pre-school teacher. She really very thoroughly explains everything--which is adorable. :-) We went grocery shopping today and she explained how microwavable meals work, how they put promotions at the end of an aisle, how the generic brands are cheaper than other brands. Part of me thinks, "Well duhh, bien surr." But then again, I couldn't even work the vacuum cleaner so I don't necessarily want to reject any advice she gives me.

And in fact, she is incredibly nice. She arranged so I could stay at her daughter's appartment in Marseille next week for a night. She treated me to the movie "Sicko" last night at the movie theater too. Apparently everything they say about France IS true in it. Although every country has their own problems too...long story I guess.

I am reading Daudet's "Lettres de mon moulin," children's literature apparently. But it's about this region so that should be good. I started reading a book about a guy from a fictional place in Africa who goes to Paris and writes letters back to his girlfriend in "Africa." At first I liked it because it was kind of a cute story, but then there were just too many references to stereotypes for my liking. "Oh if I was at home we could show these Parisiens how we do animal sacrifices in the forest..." Uhhh...yyyah. Anyway, so I had to put that one down pour le moment.

I'm feeling more and more comfortable, but then I really haven't had to do that much yet.

Favorite french of the day: "coucou" (i gather it means "hiya") and "ciao ciao" (catch ya later, alligator)

perfume of istres

either everyone wears the same perfurme here--or what i am smelling is just a mixture, the average if you will, of all the perfumes, perhaps mixed with soleil and a bit of pine tree. there is definitely a fragrance of istres though.

i am waiting with impatience as they say for the mistral wind! on thursday it is supposed to be 110 km! quick conversion--like 60mph! whoooooah, can't wait for that. and i didn't even bring a kite.

todays goals=eat a croque monsieur, sign up for hiking

not accomplished.

tomorrow's goals=ride a bike (gasp!) to explore the parks of istres, write letters to grandparents

favorite french o'the day=julie est aux anges! (used on this apartment hunting show on tv, when these 2 women found this really sweet apartment in paris. the one woman's room you seriously had to climb up a ladder and through a crawl space to get to. then you crawl through a little window thing, and voila, a giant room with a huge skylight/ceiling with a view of paris...she was pretty happy)

other favorite french=pas de soucis ("no worries" or "akunamatata" if you will) a phrase used CONSTANTLY here

ma chambre

Oh, and the beach update is

my roomate is lending me her daughter's bathing suit.

....an orange bikini....

an interesting day ahead of me

starting to smell the morbier

I can't even describe the emotional rollercoaster this day has been. From mental agony to pure joy and it's all because I have moved into my new home for the year!

My roomate was supposed to come pick me up around noon I thought, from my hotel. So I woke up at 9am, was ready by 11am and then it was noon. Then it was 1, then 2, then 3. I felt awful. I thought, "okay maybe she's just going to pick me up sometime in the afternoon" and continued to wait....alone...in my hotel room...with a beautiful lake outside taunting me. I started looking at photos and movies on my computer, which really only made me more sad. Then at 4 I decided, "okay maybe she forgot about me, I'll give her a call."

And then......my visa card didn't work in the phones. Grrr.

So I left for the internet cafe downtown, trying not to cry in public and en route, my roomate found me!

I guess she had been waiting for Monsieur Benech to call her to tell her when to pick me up. Oh la la. So then she whisked me away to her apartment where I've gotten all settled.

Sigh, I LOVE it here. My own little room with a giant snake stuffed animal. Wifi internet--so I can talk to the U.S. for free! A pretty kitty named Lola! Awww... And Mme Guichenduc--a once gym teacher, now principal and artiste! Someone to talk to---yay!

Her son married Cinderella. Literally. He lives in the U.S. now near Disney World....

everything so far--wifi finally yes!

le 20 sept

First off, how lovely to type with a good ol American keyboard. I hope by the end of the year I am an expert at the French keyboard, but for now, I remain stuck in my USA ways.

Yesterday I arrived sur Istres. It is beautiful here. In between two lakes, full of sunlight and tile-roofed houses. Monsieur Benech picked me up from the airport. I had been worried about having enough to talk about with him—how silly of me. These istreens love to talk—and with their hands surtout! So what was hilarious is as he was driving me back, he would be talking, gesturing with his hands so the car would slowly glide into the next lane as he finished his story before grabbing the wheel again. His wife later complained, “Il parle comme un pi.” I guess that means he’s constantly squawking like a bird—he even forgot to pick up his son from guitar practice because I had kept asking him questions!

In any case, basically this would be the moment when you really start believing in fairy godmothers, guardian angels, and any other mythological creature you know off whose job it is to take care of random clueless people like myself. This is what I love about traveling and what constantly astounds me while traveling. People around the world are pretty freakin’ nice. Now, having traveled to what you might call “non-western” countries like Senegal, Ecuador, Guatemala—I always assumed this overwhelming hospitality that I felt from strangers abroad must be a characteristic specific to those countries. But here I am in la France, heart of Western Civiliation, and am being taken care of by incredibly sweet and thoughtful hosts.

Who is Monsieur Benech? A nice guy who offered to help me out for no other reason other than the fact that he had taught French in Louisiana and knows how hard it is to move to a new country and get settled. He’s been helping me with my housing situation since I was back in the U.S. and then offered to pick me up from the airport. But get this—he doesn’t actually work for the program I’m doing. He’s not getting paid to do any of this. He just offered to help out when one of his colleagues told him about how there was an American assistant coming to Istres.

He took me to my hotel, then took me to the 2 apartments to see, then we ate dinner at his place with his family! His family, by the way, is just as idyllic as this town. His wife, Sylvie, is so sweet and kindhearted—she went to the tourist office to get me tons of pamphlets and maps about Istres. I guess they met while doing their teaching program in Louisiana. Their children are eloquent and adorable. Their son had helped her make the apple tart we had—their daughter commented on how delicious the vinegrette was that he father had made. He explained that was because he used a mushroom oil, which gives it a nutty flavor. I thought, “who has conversations like this?” Oh yah, French people I guess.

His daughter also spent a month in London, Canada! Whoooah—totally where my parents met!

Monsieur Benech used to have 2 pet rabbits that ate at his table WITH him. :-D (His children immediately started giggling at this story…)

Speaking of rabbits, I saw my first “rabbit food” product. In the grocery store, they had a microwavable “lapin” and veggie dish. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh, I made my first joke too! It was at one of the apartments I saw. It has a big window in it, that looks like a door. A sort of balcony. So I said “Oh perfect if someone wants to serenade me…” Yuck yuck yuck…and the women said, “Oh oui, Romeo et Juilette…” So true so true


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le 21 sept

Monsieur Benech is the best. Today he took me to sign up for everything that I could ever want to do.


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le 22 sept
Remi under Paris. It’s beautiful here, but what’s the point of seeing a beautiful lake without being able to comment to someone, “My, what a beautiful lake.”

I have to admit that I’ve been a bit lonely so far. I mean, everyone I met is extremely friendly and welcoming, but still I feel a bit anxious about everything. Not that it is a rare thing for Miriam to feel anxious, but really, there is no reason to feel this way. I keep telling myself, “nothing is wrong!!! You are here in this beautiful French town, with amazing people helping you, you have housing, you’re health is good—there is nothing wrong!” But still I feel uneasy. I go back and forth between wanting to hide under my covers and wanting so desperately to just be in company with someone, anyone, else. So perhaps it’s a good thing that I’ll be living with a very nice French woman, Mme Guichenduc. She’s the principal of a preschool, so she should be relatively nice, eh? In fact, she’s already offered to take me to the beach tomorrow. But see, that just stresses me out because she’s this elegant French woman while I have a crazy looking leg that I don’t usually like showing off in a bathing suit. Not that I brought bathing suit to begin with…sigh, so I don’t know what to tell her. So now I am looking up words like “scarred leg,” “feeling self-conscious,” “weird-looking.” But all that is such a small thing! Such a tiny detail of life, and in a day it will be resolved, so why freak out about it?

My French has been surprisingly just fine. I’m able to communicate relatively well—certainly I am making grammar mistakes left and right: “Oh tu etais nee aux Etats Unis?” *doh, stupide Miriam* ;-) But je me debrouille quand meme. Why, just this morning I had a whole conversation with the woman at the hotel about whether they accept traveler’s checks. (She’s pretty sure, but she will contact me if there is any problem.) It was right out of a text book I tell ya.

What I’m thinking is I need a routine. Right now I am just wandering aimlessly (literally) around Istres. It’s sort of good to be here early, but it also means I have the whole next week ahead of me to just kind of hang out. Which for some reason makes me anxious. Gah. And I’m sure once I start teaching that will make me anxious too and I’ll wish I could just hang out.

I am chronicling all these feelings down in the hopes that 9 months from now I will reread it and think “Oh Silly Miriam.” But I’ll be thinking that in French.

I guess it’s my first trip anywhere really by myself. Every time I’ve studied abroad or volunteered abroad, it was always with a group. In Senegal, I arrived early with Angela—we explored Dakar together. I don’t understand why people like traveling by themselves. Maybe you have to be extremely outgoing, but to me, it’s just not as fun. It feels a bit empty.

On the up side, I have plans to take yoga this year, join the photo club (I hope), and possibly the hiking club. But I think you need a license? You also need to have a doctor’s note to join any kind of fitness club or activity here. Again, I just need something to do, some way to meet people.

I feel like I am living the Buddhist criticism of how people sit in front of a table (metaphoric of course) of delicious food, but don’t know they are sitting in front of a table of delicious food. So they feel hungry…forever. Dun dun dunnnn.

A good excuse to eat more nutella and morbier, I’d say. (Not together though, ick) Hopefully I’ll see the food soon.

the lunar eclipse

ben says that they used to think it was a dragon eating the moon and so they shot cannonballs at the sky to scare it away.

i will hopefully be up to watch this "meal" myself in a few hours, dodging for cannonballs of course. calling france...dun dun dunnn...to try to get housing....dun dunn DUNNNNNN.

couch

“Champaign is like a couch. It’s really comfortable…but so hard to get out of,” she said.

I laughed, talking to the woman sitting next to me on the train. She was heading to an apartment she had never been to in Andersonville, was considering moving to Europe so her daughter could start going to schools in other countries and was about to leave for Costa Rica to get some dental work done.

“Do you do your own writing as well?” I asked. I knew she taught writing; she had also just finished a novel and had a published book of poetry. She knew Jane Kuntz (coolest French teacher ever) and Carol Spindel (coolest creative writing teacher ever).

“Oh yah, I’ve done a few poetry workshops at Allen.”

Suddenly it hit me. I knew this woman. I had absolutely once set up a poetry workshop with her while in INK. She had critiqued my poem about the time my mother told me the moon was “Earth” after I pointed to it once (though now she denies this ever happened).

A wave of regret came over me—should I have been talking to her during the entire trip up to Chicago? I could have asked her what she thought of Billy Collins…what her favorite word was.

We talked about going to France. Is it a good sign to be headed to a town whose name you can only amateurly pronounce?

Istres

My mother said: "E-strais"

For the English pronounciation, I instructed, "it's like the word 'Easter' except it's 'east-tra.'"

Then I rethought it. The Louvre is the "louv" not the "louv-vra."

Okay okay, so then, let's all try to say "east." That should simplify it. My mother, however, refused this pronounciation as well.

Now she says "I-stress."

A truly American interpretation.