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