How practical are French showers, really?

First of all, why is nothing open on Sundays? Secondly, why do I still have no internet?

I moved into my new apartment finally!! Big plus there. Except it’s not finished yet because they guy who’s doing it over (we don’t actually know his name, but we’ll call him Jean-Philippe) only works from 9-12. … He said our closets would be done on Monday, and our Internet would be set up in 1-2 weeks. Is he joking? Lisa and I are both glued to our Internet, thus this came as a bit of a shock to us. Luckily we still have 30 Rock on my external hard drive to keep us occupied. The salon (living room) is huge, and we have a fabulous balcony. We were pleasantly surprised with things we had no idea came with the apartment, such as a plethora of kitchenware, a washing machine, and desk lamps. Jean-Philippe certainly covered all the bases, (that’s what she said, heyo), so we definitely lucked out. I also somehow was on the same wavelength as Jean-Philippe, because the color scheme I chose for my bedding matches his color scheme for the entire apartment: black and white with red accents. PERF. All in all, it’s a wonderful apartment that will be even more amazing when finished. My only complaint is the shower. It is one where you have to hold the nozzle, and there’s nowhere to hang it up on the wall. In my first shower this morning I was awkwardly trying to do everything one-handed, and in my attempt to rest the nozzle down, I sprayed water all over the bathroom. I hate not being able to just stand in the shower for unnecessary long periods of time wasting every last drop of hot water. We also get to meet our French roommate soon! From stalking her stuff, it looks like she’s an art student!! Cooooool.

I went to my first French party!! A fellow assistant’s French boyfriend was going to a Hollywood themed party that a friend and I thought would be a great idea. Though we live in a French-speaking country, we rarely speak French. I spend all my time with English-speaking creatures, most of whom don’t feel ready/comfortable/whatevs to speak French conversationally. Myself included. We all really want to get there, and we are able to get by in stores, mild small talk, but at least for me, it still always comes with a blank stare and a few “quoi’s?” from both parties. At this party, it was the first time I truly felt “wtf am I doing here.” I could not keep up with conversation for the life of me. I could understand most of what was being said, but I just haven’t had the practice and opportunities for French conversation in all the years of studying the language. I find it so unfortunate how my education was centered on reading and writing. I know I can’t expect myself to speak French fluently after the first time trying, but this experience inspired me even more to go out there and find ways to engage myself in French conversation. I need to take advantage of the fact that this is the best possible opportunity I have to work on my French, and I want to make sure that happens!

On Saturday I ventured to Nîmes. Nîmes is a smaller city known for its Roman Arena, a coliseum look-a-like where bullfighting still takes place. There was a plan to go see an actual bullfight, but I was like helll no. I brought a book just in case, but fortunately there wasn’t one happening that day. As much as I want to immerse myself into French culture, I get no satisfaction watching a helpless animal get massacred for entertainment. Overall the city was really cute; there just wasn’t a whole lot to do. The girls ended up going shopping for a bit and we left the men to fend for themselves – they wandered into FNAC (ha, pronounced Funack) to watch a rugby game. Major plus of the day: when everyone wanted a snack/pastry break, I found a dessert I could eat! Meringue! Pure sugar and egg whites. But mostly pure sugar. It was like a giant blob of sugar.

I want a French child

Montpellier, je t'aime.

On Tuesday, Lisa and I went to Béziers to visit our schools. We did not anticipate the long day ahead of us, not realizing we would be visiting every class in every school we will be teaching in. As I teach in 3 schools, and 9 classes, and Lisa teaches 13 classes in 4 schools, it was one of the longest days ever. Our contact lady Patricia, a genuinely kind, yet eccentric woman, picked us up at the train station where we began our 9 hour trek around Beziers. Fortunately, my schools are in walking distance of each other, so I can easily maneuver between my morning and afternoon classes. Also, French primary schools are adorable. The schools, at least in Béziers are very small, and very old (and old-fashioned). Interestingly, they felt very casual and laid-back. Teachers wore jeans and sneakers, the atmosphere just felt very relaxed to me, which is the opposite of what I was expecting. I actually felt overdressed, with my cute blue floral print H&M teacher dress that I was planning for this occasion. For some reason I thought the schools would be very strict and traditional, but we’ll see. I was introduced to each class, saying, “Hello, this is Stephanie, and she’s from the United States. (In French). The looks on the kids faces when they heard I was from the US of A were priceless. They obviously aren’t old enough to understand French hostility towards Americans, thus their excitement to learn English was beyond palpable. My favorite moment though, was when a boy raised his hand to ask me, “Mais elle connait QUOI?!” Meaning, “But what does she know?!” I loved it. I actually felt my maternal instinct kicking in, to take in my sheep under my wing, to guide them with my mother tongue, and I got a bit teary eyed. The whole prospect of teaching English, the reason for my big move to France, was beyond my mental capacity for the time when I was trying to find housing, and acclimating to a new city. It was just not on my radar. But when I saw their faces, and mind you, I have 7-10 year olds, so they get points for being cute, I thought, this is so much of why I’m here. Call it cliché, but I do believe the disposition for teaching runs in my family, thus it’s in my blood. Sometimes I feel I have a calling to be a teacher, or at least a mentor of some kind, and every time I get into these types of situations, the way I feel confirms it. Never do I feel more connected, engaged, excited, committed, and rewarded as I do in positions of teaching and guidance. Dear God I’m becoming my mother. (Just kidding Mom!!!)

Enough of that, this blog is too funny for the dramatic exposure of my feelings. Some other cool stuff going on: Lisa, Wes, and I did some Montpellier sightseeing that I had been meaning to do. We went to the jardin des plantes, a really pretty recluse in Montpellier full of exotic plants where we saw frogs mating. We then saw a few churches that were really beautiful and insanely old. As the years pass and my ties to religion are as weak as my digestive system, I do feel a sense of comfort/peace walking in these churches. I got surprisingly homesick, more so than I had been since I got here. I think I was thinking how much I can’t wait my family to come visit, knowing how much they would like to see this too. I got over it pretty quickly when we walked out and I found a cute café that was selling sorbet.

And then, after that, it was time for our daily 30 Rock and naptime. I made a delicious dinner of mashed potatoes (the real kind), hummus, lentils, and roasted red peppers. We went out for drinks with a bunch of people, which was fun, I just feel super lame for getting tired at like 12. I do love being social, but all I wanted was to watch tv with a bowl of cereal. So when I got back, that’s what I did, with my new gluten free chocolate rice ball cereal. SO GOOODDD.

Today Lisa and I got up early to meet people for breakfast, and we went to this great, hole in the wall British bookstore that I am slightly in love with. I don’t usually like spending money on books, because I refuse to buy anything I can get free (legally or illegally), but I caved and bought the second Twilight. I have plenty of time to leisurely read here, and finishing Twilight saga has been a project I’ve wanted to finish since last year. I aim high. We then went to give our deposit to the guy working on our apartment, and it’s official! We move in Saturday morning! That’s in less than 2 days!!! AHHHH SO HAPPY! In celebration, we went to Odysseum, this giant outside mall, and bought bedding/sheets/pillows at Ikea.

At Odysseum, we found the French version of Target -> Géant Casino. I cannot wait to go browse. I can’t wait to shop for that matter. Do you know the will power I have gained from living in a city full of amazing French fashion? The streets are lined with stores, none of which I have walked into yet. It’s just something to look forward to, right? I can’t buy anything until I have an actual closet. So starting Saturday, it’s all going downhill.

Time to shower, the rain and humidity is doing horrendous things to my already out of control hair. I’m getting dinner with people to plan a trip to Spain for our first vacation, which is only a week after we start teaching. Have I mentioned I love France?

Markets and Mashed Potato Imposters

WE HAVE AN APARTMENT! YESSSS!

Lisa and I met with a guy who is renovating an apartment, and we decided it was too good to pass up. It’s a 3-bedroom place (so we’re going to have a French roommate!), complete with kitchen, bathroom, living room, only for 350 Euros a month. That also includes Internet, water, electricity, and cable. And we haven’t even applied up for the CAF yet, which will most likely give us at least half of our rent back each month. It’s a 15-20 minute walk from the center of the city, which isn’t our ideal location (and it doesn't even look French, but you can faintly see the ocean from our giant window and balcony), but it is a beautiful apartment and it will be newly furnished within a week, so we took it! We can’t move in for another week though, so we’re now couch surfing at our life saving friend Erbin’s amazing apartment in la centre ville! Yay

Funny story. As a thank you gesture for Erbin, I wanted to cook him dinner. I bought gluten-free pasta, sauce, a green leaf spinach lookalike, excited to finally eat a homemade meal. I know most of you are skeptical of my gluten-free cooking, as 90% of the time something goes wrong, but pasta is something that always comes out right. As soon as I put the pasta in the boiling water, it instantaneously began to mush into a cheese-sauce consistency that eventually molded into mashed potato consistency. The questionable spinach was also not spinach, and tasted pretty grody. Fortunately my friends are very gracious and desperately tried to salvage the pasta/potato clump, throwing in olive oil, basil, garlic, cheese…. We toasted and ate the mush in unison – it was a unanimous decision that the mashed potato lookalike was disgusting. We are still unsure as to how pasta transformed into another food so quickly.

So now that I’m settling in to Montpellier, my usual European behaviors are starting to kick in. I’ve begun my sorbet/gelato tasting endeavors, which in itself is a dangerous. So far my favorite is strawberry, only because I got it from a beautiful French man at a vendor who made mild small talk with me, clearly interested in my exotic American appeal.

European favorite #2: Markets. Yesterday, a Sunday, the day of the week when all of France shuts down, a bunch of us decided to bike down to the beach. (That’s right Americans, still beach weather). Mind you, because all of France shuts down, where do they decide to go? The beach. And by what means of vehicle? Bike. Right. All the bikes in the city were rented out, thus we tried for the bus. The bus was full. My friend Wesley told us of a great junk market all the way at the end of Tram 1, so we thought that was a cool alternative. We have plenty more days to go the beach. We got to Mosson in the afternoon only to find that the market was closed. Apparently it’s just a morning market. Feeling slightly downtrodden, we headed back on the tram for a while hoping to find something exciting, only to see a market at Port Marianne! This market was a moment I had been waiting for since I arrived…all secondhand, junky kind of stuff. You could buy pretty much anything, which is how I ended up buying a cute dress that Lisa and I are going to share (2 Euros), a hair straightener that I badly needed (10 Euros), and a cute bag (.50 Euros). Then we had a lovely dinner, and came back to the Noria (for our last night!!) and watched a bunch of 30 Rock. This is the life.

We had orientation part 2 today where we learned how to be teaching assistants, which was thankfully very beneficial. I feel much more prepared on how to plan lessons, methods of teaching, and now have a great amount of resources. I really like that we approach this with the children learning English through complete immersion – we aren’t allowed to speak French to them at all, and even rarely write anything. Apparently there are issues with words like “Wednesday,” and children will pronounce it like it’s written, but if they never know how it’s spelled, they’ll learn it how we actually say it. The day went on far too long, and I was definitely drifting off towards the end (luckily a game of MASH with Wes kept me awake for some of it – it’s no wonder they put me in primary school with the little ones).

Someone thought I was from Italy today. I was a bit miffed as I find Italian fashion to be more than questionable, but I suppose that means I look Mediterranean, and by default attractive. Or it could have been my oily skin.

I’m so happy to be in an actual apartment right now, even if it isn’t mine. I still have to live out of a suitcase, but at least I have unlimited internet, clean facilities, and a KITCHEN! I went food shopping, cooked an actual meal tonight (that didn’t magically turn into mashed potato consistency), and found sabra hummus!!!!! (That’s for you, Liz and Sasha). I’m somewhat struggling with finding a good selection of Steph-friendly food in the supermarkets, even in the organic store I found. They have like one option for cereal. And it’s corn flakes that get mushy really quickly. Does France know exactly the relationship I have with cereal? That we’ve woken up together for the past decade, and how I get overly and pathetically excited to try new cereals each week? The US of A certainly has a leg up on France for gluten free food. I’m still hunting though; Google has provided me some more store options to try, a project for this week.

Well I’m off, I really need to get to bed early tonight. Lisa and I are finally going to Béziers tomorrow to see our schools (yes, schools. Lisa has 4 schools and I have 3. Absurd). We’re not used to having obligations early 2 days in a row, so this is kind of stressful for us. I am excited to see Béziers though and meet my children!

Bisous, ciao :)

Go socialism?

Allo mes americains.

Lisa and I caved. We decided to go to an agency (Espace Location) to aid us in our appartement pursuit, costing us 90 euros each. The price is for unlimited help until we find a home; however, who knows how long that could be. Despite that, the woman helping us is going far beyond her duties to help us limited French-speaking Americans, so we are very appreciative of that. I have faith that we will have an address by the weekend. Dear France, I'm going broke going out to eat all the time, and my futzy stomach does not appreciate it. Thanks, Steph.

We had orientation yesterday with our dear JOUVE Fabien, where we filled out paperwork, learned a bit about our duties as teaching assistants, and filled out more paperwork. The French really like paperwork. We need social security, a carte de sejour (another visa), a medical visit, and the CAF (la caisse d'allocations families) to subsidize our rent because with our assistant's salary, we're considered to be somewhat on welfare. Point for you France and your socialism!

We continue to meet more and more people, which has been one of my favorite parts of the program thus far. I am learning so much already about other people, where they come from, what they're doing here....I know I have said this before, but I find it so important to get out there and learn about others and their cultures to get a more wide perspective of the world. It's just fascinating to me. We met a great Canadian couple last night in the Noria, and seriously, after learning more and more about Canada's economy, health care, welfare, education, living there certainly seems appealing. Besides the cold weather, of course.

For some good news, Lisa and I finally got blankets from our dorm, so now we don't have to use our coats anymore to sleep. That was a major bonus. We christened them yesterday after getting take-out and watching a bit of 30 Rock, then proceeding to nap for a few hours before we realized we should go out into civilization. There was a guitar hero event in La Comédie where they set up a stage and screen; Wesley and I signed up to go but we left before our turn came. Yes, the French like guitar hero. We went to an Irish pub after, but couldn't stay long, because the tram closes really early on week nights.

We just got kicked out of McDonalds. Apparently buying drinks and "le fruit croquer" isn't enough during the lunch hours, as loads of children and adults come to McDo during this time. Yes, I mean hours. Not a typo. I don't think people in Montpellier actually work; I never see anyone in a suit, and la Comédie is always packed with people.

Oh! And we figured out the protests. In actuality, they aren't protests. It's like initiation for med students at the university.

Lisa and I are off to the agency to see what they have for us today! Wish us luck!

A home, s'il vous plaît

D'abord, to rub it in, it’s still 80 degrees.

I’m sitting at McDonalds right now in the Place de la Comédie, la centre ville (basically the Mecca of Montpellier), watching a protest go down. There are some veracious young French people wearing clown outfits protesting something I don’t understand. They are doing trash bag races. Quoi? This seems to be a trend, as yesterday a giant group of young French people marched around la Comédie dressed in doctor’s costumes, along with devil and angel paraphernalia. Again, we were not sure what the protest was for. If it was health care, what more do you want French? It’s universal. Come to the USA, and then you’ll have something to protest about.

Montpellier continues to amaze me. It is such an international, young, vibrant city with so much to offer. The centre ville is the place to be, where Lisa and I have spent most of our time and are currently searching for an apartment. Very few cars drive in the centre ville, so basically there are endless stone streets to walk through, filled with market stalls, palm trees, restaurants and cafés, shopping, and always a plethora of people. I haven’t had much of a chance to explore and go inside places, as Lisa and I have basically been selling our souls to apartment hunting, but I know there’s so much of Montpellier ahead of me!

I can’t imagine a city in the USA having so much accessible, especially for young people, in such a space. There are countless “espaces de jeunesse” which offer aid, advice, pamphlets, internet, and more on everything from housing, jobs, health, ways to get involved, you name it. I have already collected an excessive amount of pamphlets for dance classes I want to take, singing groups I want to join, yoga classes, volunteering, book clubs… I can’t function as a human being without extracurricular activities. Montpellier also has a bike sharing system for like 25 Euros a year! So cool. Everything is so central as well that it is feasible to walk anywhere to where you need to go. If you can’t though, there is a recently built tram system with 2 lines (a 3^rd in the making) that take you through the city.

With that said, I’m surprised with the amount of homeless people here. And they are not afraid to come right up to you, especially at McDonalds, to put their hand in your face and ask for money. Also, a lot of them have dogs, because apparently in France, homeless people get a bigger stipend from the government if they have a dog. There are also quite a few children begging, which is really sad. Though today one small boy told me I was pretty at McDonalds. Sweet.

On the apartment front, the search is not going so well. Lisa and I have been camping out at McDonalds all day using their free wifi to research, and we’ve had a few leads but nothing amounting to anything. Of course an hour ago I received a call from a potential seller, and although I proceeded to speak with him in French, I couldn’t understand the address he gave, and after asking 4 times to repeat it, we asked him to email us. He hasn’t. He also hasn’t returned any more of my calls. We’re so ready to go to an agency at this point even though we will have to pay an extra fee. I just want a home or I’m seriously going to lose a few screws. We’re now staying at a dorm that our program offers for us, which although is only 5 Euros a night, it’s pretty grody. The sheets weren’t clean, there’s no toilet paper, and no Internet. I’m getting fed up with living out of suitcases and backpacks. There’s just no way to keep things organized and clean, definite stressing. I will feel so much better once we have a home and can settle in, so I can finally start thoroughly exploring Montpellier and getting everything else taken care of that I need to. I also can’t wait to start cooking my own food because let’s face it, France is not very Steph-friendly. I’m doing ok with salads and eggs and chicken, and it really has been delicious, but thankfully Lisa is being very kind to me searching through restaurants to see what I can eat. I just want pasta, really. Montpellier, make me some gluten free pasta please.

On a happy note, we made friends!! We met up with some assistants in the centre ville yesterday to go to a juice bar, this adorable hole in the wall that serves freshly made fruit and veggie smoothies. It was so great to meet some other people, and they are all incredibly nice, so that has certainly alleviated my anxieties about not finding a home. A lot of people are in the same boat as us, aka homeless. Last night we all went to a bar that was serving 1 Euro beer. It was a cool first night life experience; it felt very American to me. Especially when they played “Grease: Megamix” and “YMCA.” It’s just great to meet such interesting people who have the same kind of passions I do about traveling, France, and just overall eagerness for new experiences. I’ve already met people from Malta, Mexico, Scotland, England, all over the States.. I love meeting people I would never have normally met in any other kind of situation as this; we all have such different backgrounds, experiences, but we’re all here, sharing Montpellier.

Montpellier has already been exciting, challenging, wonderful, and I can’t wait for more! I’ll find myself just grinning walking down the street in the beautiful sunlight, not realizing I probably look like an ass. However, I would just really like a home. So if anyone has an F3 apartment meublé in the centre ville, please let me know.

Sidebar: For the second time since I’ve been here, I was mistaken for being Spanish. I think it’s my hair.

La Bonne Vie

Bonjour à tous! I'm here to continue lovely Mary Martin's blog from her year in France, so as a tribute to my favorite singing redhead, I welcome you to the blog of my adventures in the south of France!

Well, it's finally here. After months and months of anticipation, I have made it to Montpellier, France! I'm alive and doing well, except for a slight mishap of a jar of almond butter breaking in my backpack. Gro-dy.

My journey started Thursday night with Johnny T taking me to Terminal E where I met J Ro to send me off. I flew my bff Icelandair, consistently providing me the cheapest airfaire to Europe, complete with with a riveting layover in Iceland! Did you know that 60% of the population lives in the city of Reykjavic? Thank you, Icelandair.

I arrived in Paris very sleep deprived, where I met a fellow assistant whom I'll be living with in Montpellier. We rushed to the trains to pick up our tickets so we could wait for 4 hours until our train arrived. We met 2 other assistants in the waiting area coincidentally, and they soon got taken away from me by lurking French workers handing out surveys on their new ice cream product. Clearly I couldn't participate because of my lactose allergy, so I volunteered to sit and watch the luggage while everyone else downed spoonfuls of ice cream and got 10 euros. In the words of Barney Stinson, awesome.

Later on our train arrived, and Lisa and I were able to further French disdain for Americans by dragging on our massive quantities of luggage through the narrow train cars. I certainly managed to knock out at least a few French people with my giant LL Bean backpack. Fortunately some strong men were very willing to help me and took care of my luggage. Being a young, cute, small girl continues to serve me well. I spent the train ride watching the beautiful countryside of France pass me by, watching The office and 30 Rock on my iPod, juxtaposed with the hustle and bustle of French conversation that I creepily tried to listen to in order to see what I could pick up. For the second half of the ride, the cutest French baby and her mother sat across me and I think I crossed a line in staring.

We arrived in Montpellier finally at 22h (10:00 for you Americans out there) and took a taxi to hostel #1, L'Hôtel Stars Montpellier Sud. It was adorable,

yet in the morning Lisa and I were off to hostel #2, Hôtel Majestic, in the center of the city. This hostel was full Friday night, and as it in such a prime location and extremely cheap, we decided we would stay here Saturday and Sunday. It's even more adorable, situated in a remote side street.

Montpellier is an absolute dream living situation. The weather is perfect. There are palm trees, open air markets, cafés, shopping, wire balconies, everything I have been fantasizing about since my last ventures in Europe. I cannot believe this is my home for the next 7 months! We spent the day wandering the city, eating, buying phones (where I had my first epic fail French conversation and felt like an ignorant American), searching for apartments, and of course lounging. What a life, non?

My French is already improving rapidly which I am super pumped about. I'm picking up phrases and words and practicing speaking whenever possible. Occasionally people respond in English, knowing full well my dire attempts to pretend I'm French, others look confused, clearly not understanding a word I say, others give me the benefit of the doubt and respond in French and then we actually converse! One of the guys in the hostel said he was impressed with my French as an American! Point for me!

One thing I really have to work is French words for food. I was at dinner tonight and was frantically looking up things in my pocket dictionary, finding such delicacies as rabbit stew and lamb skewers. Not knowing about gluten/dairy infiltration, I decided on Spanich paella which I know to be a Spanish rice dish. As it came closer I saw giant shrimp on my plate, complete with eyes, antennae, claws, wings, whatever. I don't like to consider myself a picky eater but anything that looks like it does as when it is living, I freak the crap out. Plus I hate shrimp. And scallops. And mussels. And other chewy sea creatures. All of which were in Spanish paella. The rice was quite delicious, but sadly les fruits de mer (seafood) took over. Now I know for the future!

Anyways, I've been rambling for a while, I just want to keep everyone updated! I certainly will not keep up with this often or make these as long once things start picking up, but I figure I'll give it a go.