i don't have classes at all on monday! always three day weekends; this is my first semester of my entire school career to have this. it's really strange, especially because i don't have a job- i feel like i should always be doing something, but don't have a lot of concrete obligations to do...
i was going to check out a judo class tonight, but instead visited a modern dance class. good night- for someone who loves to dance, that was just painfully boring and depressing! the only "formal" dance classe i've had was middle eastern dancing at a ywca, taught by women not from that culture and had never been there. i used to wonder what it would have been like, to have gone through dance classes as a little girl, and taken this typical style- now i know it would have been awful for me!
i ate dinner with french friend and semi-neighbor mathilde and ehr friend lula tonight. they are really great but don't talk a lot; it's weird trying to initiate a conversation over an hour with people in another language.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
that's what i love about sunday
i checked out another church today, with my english friend joanna. it's a small baptist church of around 40 people, mostly french and some english who have lived here for a while. i even recognized some old school songs from my childhood methodist church, which was pretty cool. the people were great, and the sermon was basically just reading a chapter of the Bible and everyone discussing it, community style.
after that, i ran into another american girl and we wandered this lovely park together; once i got back, i met up with 5 ukranians to "faire du picknicking" at the same parc. we lounged on the grass, swapping food and drink, for three hours. it was my first time to be around them this much, and it was fascinating. the culture for female appearance revolves around girls always being put together, looking alluring and ready to pose any time; hanging with three of the girls and seeing this was interesting.
i met up with a moroccan/french guy and helped with translate his resume (c.v. here), and as a thanks he bought me my first drink mixed by a machine! j'ai pris cacao au lait, or hot chocolate, and this little grey vending machine-robot presented me a cup of fresh(ish) warm goodness. for 40 centimes, too.
i spent the rest of the night talking with my parents and my sister leslie online and messaging about thirty people to see if i could crash their chouches in paris next weekend.
after that, i ran into another american girl and we wandered this lovely park together; once i got back, i met up with 5 ukranians to "faire du picknicking" at the same parc. we lounged on the grass, swapping food and drink, for three hours. it was my first time to be around them this much, and it was fascinating. the culture for female appearance revolves around girls always being put together, looking alluring and ready to pose any time; hanging with three of the girls and seeing this was interesting.
i met up with a moroccan/french guy and helped with translate his resume (c.v. here), and as a thanks he bought me my first drink mixed by a machine! j'ai pris cacao au lait, or hot chocolate, and this little grey vending machine-robot presented me a cup of fresh(ish) warm goodness. for 40 centimes, too.
i spent the rest of the night talking with my parents and my sister leslie online and messaging about thirty people to see if i could crash their chouches in paris next weekend.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
saturday
after sleeping in gloriously late, i spent several hours with friends outside on a blanket. favorite part: alinike, who is dutch, started playing proud mary on her guitar, while i drummed on someone's journal and some americans and germans sang the lyrics.
tonight was la forum jeunesse, a huge free event with entertainment designed for high school- thirty year old's amusement. i went to two concerts that night, both for famous bands of several men. the first played something like ska-oldies-techno country-rock, and all the members were either transvestites or just truly weird. my favorite guy wore a pink cowboy hat, no pants, sunglasses and a floor length tan fur coat. emily and i left our friends in the back and snaked our way to the front, joining a congo line and dancing with the real fans. i was surprised how quiet the crowd was and how much personal space was available- my ears weren't ringing from people shouting and no one was up in my grill, it was great. the second band is called IAM, and they;re from le mans and a hugely successful rap group. once they started, the crowd changed completely and became more like an american concert- crowd surfing, flag waving, yelling, people needing to get a room, no personal space- home sweet home? we stayed for a couple hours, and spent an hour and a half trying to get back home. nice night
tonight was la forum jeunesse, a huge free event with entertainment designed for high school- thirty year old's amusement. i went to two concerts that night, both for famous bands of several men. the first played something like ska-oldies-techno country-rock, and all the members were either transvestites or just truly weird. my favorite guy wore a pink cowboy hat, no pants, sunglasses and a floor length tan fur coat. emily and i left our friends in the back and snaked our way to the front, joining a congo line and dancing with the real fans. i was surprised how quiet the crowd was and how much personal space was available- my ears weren't ringing from people shouting and no one was up in my grill, it was great. the second band is called IAM, and they;re from le mans and a hugely successful rap group. once they started, the crowd changed completely and became more like an american concert- crowd surfing, flag waving, yelling, people needing to get a room, no personal space- home sweet home? we stayed for a couple hours, and spent an hour and a half trying to get back home. nice night
crepe parties should be every friday
after the blowout last night, i had class early friday morning. my new friend whose name i don't remember totally hooked me up with all her notes from the week before- none of it seemed familiar! it was like we were at two different classes. thankfully, nice students exist to help me not fail.
tonight was french friend chloe's birthday dinner. she invited a couple friends to her home and taught us how to make crepes; it should have been an episode on the food network. after demonstrating how to make the batter (while we see her mom has already cooked a gargantuan stack of crepes for us), she asks everyone to try and make a crepe. we sat down and chowed down on just crepes, with sugar, nutella, plum marmalade, plum jam,cream honey (miel) and whip cream for toppings. mmmmmmm.
throughout the meal, she busted out several french drinks for us to try. the first two were alcoholic apple cider- not spiked, it was something else- with 2.5 % and a 5%, both good. this type of cider and crepes are native to the bretagne region, so we had a legit breton meal. then she brought out some sort of local beer- best beer i've ever tried. next was a cherry liqour with whole fruit in it, homeade. there were two- one that was older and way more fermented, i tried both. then there was a prune after dinner drink, served with a big ole honkin shriveled, black, nasty prune in the glass. both the fuirt drinks she said were about 20% alcoholic content. to top everything off, she passed around the french equivalent to moonshine, i forgot what it was called. she said to put a couple drops on a sugar cube, stick it in coffee and eat it. you know it has to be strong if the french only put a drop or two- i found out later it's like absinthye, and illegal, at 60%.
tonight was french friend chloe's birthday dinner. she invited a couple friends to her home and taught us how to make crepes; it should have been an episode on the food network. after demonstrating how to make the batter (while we see her mom has already cooked a gargantuan stack of crepes for us), she asks everyone to try and make a crepe. we sat down and chowed down on just crepes, with sugar, nutella, plum marmalade, plum jam,cream honey (miel) and whip cream for toppings. mmmmmmm.
throughout the meal, she busted out several french drinks for us to try. the first two were alcoholic apple cider- not spiked, it was something else- with 2.5 % and a 5%, both good. this type of cider and crepes are native to the bretagne region, so we had a legit breton meal. then she brought out some sort of local beer- best beer i've ever tried. next was a cherry liqour with whole fruit in it, homeade. there were two- one that was older and way more fermented, i tried both. then there was a prune after dinner drink, served with a big ole honkin shriveled, black, nasty prune in the glass. both the fuirt drinks she said were about 20% alcoholic content. to top everything off, she passed around the french equivalent to moonshine, i forgot what it was called. she said to put a couple drops on a sugar cube, stick it in coffee and eat it. you know it has to be strong if the french only put a drop or two- i found out later it's like absinthye, and illegal, at 60%.
thursday- oh man...
so thursday was semi-epic in a lot of ways. first, i woke up super early to make it to my history class, but then somehow i forgot where it was. i asked students, faculty, department heads and custodians, and with all that i just became more confused and never found the class. what a lame reason to miss class- not even skipping or sleeping in!
then emily and i headed to town to take care of some this and thats. i found out i had a package waiting for me at the main post office in town, and set out to find it. it's only two streets away from a familiar tram stop, quite close; 3 hours after we got off the tram, we finally found it. we kept getting all sorts of bad directions, and then confusing the good directions, from nice strangers. thankfully, neither of us had concrete plans and were able to spend them time searching.
about an hour into our quest, we were speaking english when a woman crossing the street looked behind at us oddly. when we reached the curb, she asked in english if either one of us was interested in being an english-speaking babysitter! this was completely divine- two days before this, i head learned getting a job with my length of time here and adminstrative nonsense was basically impossible; my only shot was being a babysitter. however, i don't know any families, and to be a babysitter through the city means i have to buy a special kind of insurance, translate my resume, have letters of recommendation, and then if a parent wants a babysitter to pick me when i am available through a huge binder of students. so basically, this woman was a direct answer to prayer. we had time on our hands, so we followed her to her flat and she gaves us cokes (i was craving one and about to buy one). awesome. anywho, hours after that, i get my package from my parents and it is perfect!!!!!!
we arrive back on campus just in the nick of time for the second annual "trott and dance." this, my friends, is the most ridiculous and fun spectacle i've been a part of since arriving in le mans. the athletics department hosts this 2k walk/4k run early evening, and those who participate can go to a party in the tennis gym that night. the party is basically a school sponsored, booze infested techno dance party with too much strobe lights and no AC that lasted until 4am. anything that is coming to your mind probably happened there. it's so strange; it seems like because this is the one big party the school throws all year, the french save up their wild streaks for one night. i had a blast, and was definitely one of the only sober people there. i was supposed to start a class that night; but the campus postponed every class in honor of la fete!
then emily and i headed to town to take care of some this and thats. i found out i had a package waiting for me at the main post office in town, and set out to find it. it's only two streets away from a familiar tram stop, quite close; 3 hours after we got off the tram, we finally found it. we kept getting all sorts of bad directions, and then confusing the good directions, from nice strangers. thankfully, neither of us had concrete plans and were able to spend them time searching.
about an hour into our quest, we were speaking english when a woman crossing the street looked behind at us oddly. when we reached the curb, she asked in english if either one of us was interested in being an english-speaking babysitter! this was completely divine- two days before this, i head learned getting a job with my length of time here and adminstrative nonsense was basically impossible; my only shot was being a babysitter. however, i don't know any families, and to be a babysitter through the city means i have to buy a special kind of insurance, translate my resume, have letters of recommendation, and then if a parent wants a babysitter to pick me when i am available through a huge binder of students. so basically, this woman was a direct answer to prayer. we had time on our hands, so we followed her to her flat and she gaves us cokes (i was craving one and about to buy one). awesome. anywho, hours after that, i get my package from my parents and it is perfect!!!!!!
we arrive back on campus just in the nick of time for the second annual "trott and dance." this, my friends, is the most ridiculous and fun spectacle i've been a part of since arriving in le mans. the athletics department hosts this 2k walk/4k run early evening, and those who participate can go to a party in the tennis gym that night. the party is basically a school sponsored, booze infested techno dance party with too much strobe lights and no AC that lasted until 4am. anything that is coming to your mind probably happened there. it's so strange; it seems like because this is the one big party the school throws all year, the french save up their wild streaks for one night. i had a blast, and was definitely one of the only sober people there. i was supposed to start a class that night; but the campus postponed every class in honor of la fete!
wellllll: monday - wednesday
so, in procrastinating blogging, i forgot a lot. so last monday, tuesday and wednesday i definitely did things but obviously nothing important enough to remember and therefore worth sharing. i did have my first dance class wednesday night- it's all the famous partner dances, and we did swing (they call it rock and roll here) then cha-cha. after class i talked to the teacher about country dancing, and she asked me to show ehr some next week!
Monday, September 21, 2009
sunday, first sabbath
i went to a church this morning for service. michel goes to this protestant church downtown that is comprised of mostly french and africans. i went with a friend, and the first hour and half was singing, followed by half an hour of communion and a sermon, then another hour of singing. the music was in french, but similar to african gospel. i loved that the three women singing wore bright traditional north african dresses (with glittery spike heels, too) and that about every song some man in the congregation would yell out an ay-ay-ay. i realy enjoyed taking communion with the believers, and i liked that the entire sermon was about Jesus and scriptures with miracles. it was way long and loud though; glad i went, but it was exhausting.
for dinner, i made a cheeseburger! i found a beef patty with onions at the store, added my new "texmex" seasoning, sprinkled swiss cheese on top, drowned it in ketchup, served in on a dry wheat loaf of bread and enjoyed baby dill pickles soaked in vinegar on the side. not the same as back home, but really yummy. i spent the rest of the day outside alternating between doing homework and being happily distracted by friends joining me. i got to talk to my parents on skype for the first time, and that was long and joyful.
for dinner, i made a cheeseburger! i found a beef patty with onions at the store, added my new "texmex" seasoning, sprinkled swiss cheese on top, drowned it in ketchup, served in on a dry wheat loaf of bread and enjoyed baby dill pickles soaked in vinegar on the side. not the same as back home, but really yummy. i spent the rest of the day outside alternating between doing homework and being happily distracted by friends joining me. i got to talk to my parents on skype for the first time, and that was long and joyful.
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