1. The apartment we stayed in was a glorious surprise. It was clean, large, stocked with some spices and near two metro lines.
2. The weather cooperated for the first few days we were in Paris which is good because we didn't enter any museums or monuments until Boxing Day.
3. As the week went on it became more of a hassle to pull out the camera, but there are still some photos to suggest that we were there for six days.
4. We hit... umm... 11 National Monuments or Museums in two days. It was exhausting. We went to some other places and or museums too. Next visit will see us at the Sewars and the Catacombs too.
5. Photos tell the story better than a bulletined list. So check 'em out.
6. Happy Christmas to you people that celebrate! Happy day off to those of you who do not. All our holiday love. Not our real love, just the holiday kind!
- Patrick
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
A little story
Today, Patrick and I were walking near downtown Valence. As we walked past a store I saw a mother helping her small son pee against a wall. Yeah, that is right, instead of taking her son to a bathroom she was holding his penis for him so he could pee outside.
I think this is why France should stop charging people to pee in public restrooms.
Just a thought.
Molly
I think this is why France should stop charging people to pee in public restrooms.
Just a thought.
Molly
Tidbits
Here are some of the small things that have happened lately or things that I feel like mentioning, but none is individually important enough to write about.
- On Thanksgiving (I had to teach) I made a girl cry. There were a few minutes at the end of a class and in order to fill it, I told about the tradition, that I dislike soooo much, of telling things we are thankful for around the thankgsgiving table. Well, I went around the room and asked people what they are thankful for, and decided to call on a girl because I knew her name. The trouble is that I could not see her because of another girl's enormous head. Well, it seems that she wasn't very thankful for my last-minute time-filling activity and was in tears. I tried to save the situation, but luckily for me, and E_______, the bell rang. I tried to speak with her after class, but she didn't really want to say much. Go figure.
- I decided to teach "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" to classes that didn't have Muslims or Jews or Atheists or... My reasoning, really, for teaching the story was to teach the word "grinch" and because I couldn't think of anything else to do and a friend suggested it. Well I asked a class if everyone enjoyed Christmas or if there was anyone who didn't like Christmas. In most classes I took on the role of the grinch and complained about the holiday because everyone over here loves buying crap. Well in one class I asked this question and one girl raised her hand. "Do you like Christmas or do you not like Christmas?" I asked. "I don't like Christmas." "Why do you not like Christmas?" "My parents are divorced," she all but sobbed. I clearly didn't think this one through, eh?
- After three months of living in France, the French government decided to send me to a doctor to look at my lungs. The only doctor in the entire Rhone-Alpes region who can take an X-ray of my lungs is apparently in Lyon, an hour north of Valence.
The whole situation makes me feel guilty for eating meat... for a second.
I have never been pushed through so many small doors, processed and spit out quite like this doctor's visit. First they corner you and send you through a door, then they ask you questions and shove you through to be weighed. Then they stuff you in a 3x2 "room" and tell you to take of your shirt. They don't tell you to wait, but they don't tell you to come back out either, in fact they only tell you to take off your shirt. Just about the moment that you think, "did I not hear her say something more?" a door opens on the other end of the "room" and a woman leads you to an upright board in the middle of the room. Against this board she shoves you and you begin to think that you never want to be strip searched as I'm sure they, too, are not gentle. Then, once you've been pressed against this board, you realize that the woman has disappeard! "What? Where the heck did she go?" you may think until the board starts to shudder and you think that the machines around you will explode. Before the ringing in your ears stops, the woman yells at you to put your shirt on and closes you back into the box where your shirt is hanging. Well, wait a tick. What the hell just happened? and how many people's frozen nipples have touched that board today?
This is just a taste. There is also a doctor who treats you like shit because his job involves talking to immigrants with poor language skills. Then when he tries to make chitchat and you ask him a question about his suggestions. Well he doesn't actually know what he's talking about so he turns on you and is suddenly a little less gentle with the rest of the physical exam. Cough.
- When you don't have a phone, the students you tutor cannot easily call you and tell you they are not coming. You end up standing outside in the freezing rain for the polite 20 minutes before you can declare that a French person is a no-show.
- In Switzerland you can still smoke indoors, and it doesn't matter where. You want a coffee? Well you get second-hand smoke too! When in Geneva I second-hand smoked about three packs I would imagine. Cough.
- Food here is wonderful! For the Christmas holidays, the French eat fois gras. That means that the rest of the duck is really cheap! Duck is actually cheaper than chicken in December. The other evening Molly and I ate a delicious meal of duck breast with figs and garlic. It was like heaven!
- Molly made gingerbread cookies. Once we figured out that molasses is only available in healthfood stores and that baking soda is not kept anywhere near other baking ingrediants.
- Advent is a big thing in Germany. The third day of advent people celebrate with candles and cookies and vin chaud. Marie let us celebrate Dritter Advent with her and this made the holidays feel like they are approaching. The whole event was relaxing and really fit my need to lounge around in a home-y environment.
There are some of the little things that make up my life here. Some of the key moments that make me smile or feel like an asshole (sorry E_____!).
I hope your December is going well!
- Patrick
- On Thanksgiving (I had to teach) I made a girl cry. There were a few minutes at the end of a class and in order to fill it, I told about the tradition, that I dislike soooo much, of telling things we are thankful for around the thankgsgiving table. Well, I went around the room and asked people what they are thankful for, and decided to call on a girl because I knew her name. The trouble is that I could not see her because of another girl's enormous head. Well, it seems that she wasn't very thankful for my last-minute time-filling activity and was in tears. I tried to save the situation, but luckily for me, and E_______, the bell rang. I tried to speak with her after class, but she didn't really want to say much. Go figure.
- I decided to teach "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" to classes that didn't have Muslims or Jews or Atheists or... My reasoning, really, for teaching the story was to teach the word "grinch" and because I couldn't think of anything else to do and a friend suggested it. Well I asked a class if everyone enjoyed Christmas or if there was anyone who didn't like Christmas. In most classes I took on the role of the grinch and complained about the holiday because everyone over here loves buying crap. Well in one class I asked this question and one girl raised her hand. "Do you like Christmas or do you not like Christmas?" I asked. "I don't like Christmas." "Why do you not like Christmas?" "My parents are divorced," she all but sobbed. I clearly didn't think this one through, eh?
- After three months of living in France, the French government decided to send me to a doctor to look at my lungs. The only doctor in the entire Rhone-Alpes region who can take an X-ray of my lungs is apparently in Lyon, an hour north of Valence.
The whole situation makes me feel guilty for eating meat... for a second.
I have never been pushed through so many small doors, processed and spit out quite like this doctor's visit. First they corner you and send you through a door, then they ask you questions and shove you through to be weighed. Then they stuff you in a 3x2 "room" and tell you to take of your shirt. They don't tell you to wait, but they don't tell you to come back out either, in fact they only tell you to take off your shirt. Just about the moment that you think, "did I not hear her say something more?" a door opens on the other end of the "room" and a woman leads you to an upright board in the middle of the room. Against this board she shoves you and you begin to think that you never want to be strip searched as I'm sure they, too, are not gentle. Then, once you've been pressed against this board, you realize that the woman has disappeard! "What? Where the heck did she go?" you may think until the board starts to shudder and you think that the machines around you will explode. Before the ringing in your ears stops, the woman yells at you to put your shirt on and closes you back into the box where your shirt is hanging. Well, wait a tick. What the hell just happened? and how many people's frozen nipples have touched that board today?
This is just a taste. There is also a doctor who treats you like shit because his job involves talking to immigrants with poor language skills. Then when he tries to make chitchat and you ask him a question about his suggestions. Well he doesn't actually know what he's talking about so he turns on you and is suddenly a little less gentle with the rest of the physical exam. Cough.
- When you don't have a phone, the students you tutor cannot easily call you and tell you they are not coming. You end up standing outside in the freezing rain for the polite 20 minutes before you can declare that a French person is a no-show.
- In Switzerland you can still smoke indoors, and it doesn't matter where. You want a coffee? Well you get second-hand smoke too! When in Geneva I second-hand smoked about three packs I would imagine. Cough.
- Food here is wonderful! For the Christmas holidays, the French eat fois gras. That means that the rest of the duck is really cheap! Duck is actually cheaper than chicken in December. The other evening Molly and I ate a delicious meal of duck breast with figs and garlic. It was like heaven!
- Molly made gingerbread cookies. Once we figured out that molasses is only available in healthfood stores and that baking soda is not kept anywhere near other baking ingrediants.
- Advent is a big thing in Germany. The third day of advent people celebrate with candles and cookies and vin chaud. Marie let us celebrate Dritter Advent with her and this made the holidays feel like they are approaching. The whole event was relaxing and really fit my need to lounge around in a home-y environment.
There are some of the little things that make up my life here. Some of the key moments that make me smile or feel like an asshole (sorry E_____!).
I hope your December is going well!
- Patrick
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Fête des Lumières à Lyon
That is to say, Lights Festival in Lyon.
Every year around the 8th of December Lyon gets a tourism boom. People come from all over France and Europe to come see this weekend event where the entire city of Lyon kicks off the holiday season (by that, I mean Christmas season). You can read about the history... some priest suggested something and all the good Catholic citizens of Lyon followed his suggestion. But the current state of the event is pretty cool.
Below is some video of where we started our night with the fête, but you could say that we began it about an hour earlier when we arrived in Lyon (an hour by train north of Valence) and bought our first, of many, many, vins chauds.
As I cannot describe the situation like the video may, I will just add that what the video lacks is the feeling of awe that flowed through the crowd as the lights came on and the production began. This is only part of what we saw, but it is a pretty cool thing to imagine seeing with 3,000 of your closest, smelliest, coldest Europeans.
Mind you, we didn't shoot this video. Our video is better, but shorter. But I tell you, the idea of settnig up a youtube account just to post one video when someone else has already done the work just seems silly. Oh well. Check out our photos from that night. You will see the wonderment and awe in our eyes!
- Patrick
p.s. There is really only one photo of me during the spectacle, and I look pretty unimpressed, but it was still very nice.
Every year around the 8th of December Lyon gets a tourism boom. People come from all over France and Europe to come see this weekend event where the entire city of Lyon kicks off the holiday season (by that, I mean Christmas season). You can read about the history... some priest suggested something and all the good Catholic citizens of Lyon followed his suggestion. But the current state of the event is pretty cool.
Below is some video of where we started our night with the fête, but you could say that we began it about an hour earlier when we arrived in Lyon (an hour by train north of Valence) and bought our first, of many, many, vins chauds.
As I cannot describe the situation like the video may, I will just add that what the video lacks is the feeling of awe that flowed through the crowd as the lights came on and the production began. This is only part of what we saw, but it is a pretty cool thing to imagine seeing with 3,000 of your closest, smelliest, coldest Europeans.
Mind you, we didn't shoot this video. Our video is better, but shorter. But I tell you, the idea of settnig up a youtube account just to post one video when someone else has already done the work just seems silly. Oh well. Check out our photos from that night. You will see the wonderment and awe in our eyes!
- Patrick
p.s. There is really only one photo of me during the spectacle, and I look pretty unimpressed, but it was still very nice.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
So, what do you do everyday?
This is a question I get a lot from people back home as well as people here in France. Most people can gather what Patrick does in a day since we moved here so he can teach in France. As for myself, it is a little different everyday. I will try to break down into how I spend my time day-to-day.
Typically, I get up around 9 or 10 in the morning, which is amazing for a variety of reasons. First, anyone who knows me knows that I love sleep so it has been great to average 9 to 10 hours of sleep each night. This pretty much happens most nights except when it is too hot in our room or when my bed becomes unbearable to sleep. Second, I am very rested so the rest of the day I have a lot of energy. When we first got here I tried to get up every morning with Patrick but that lead to 2 to 3 hour naps in the afternoon, which messed up my sleep schedule.
After I get up I either: a) eat breakfast with Patrick; or b) shower then eat breakfast with Patrick. About the time either of these tasks are finished in addition to any picking up of the room/kitchen it is noon. Now in the United States I would go run errands for 2 hours and then eat a late lunch but France shuts down in the middle of the day so I generally check my email, read, or plan out the rest of my day. At around 2 to 3 I run errands around town or get ready to go to my French tutor. After I come home, I get on the Internet for about 4 hours in the afternoon. This is usually when I get to talk to all of you online. After internet, Patrick and I make diner, get ready for bed, read, and then go to sleep around midnight. This is my day in a nut shell.
I realize that this is not a lot, but it takes up a lot of time. I am sure many of you right now are rolling your eyes at the fact that I just explained a typical Saturday or Sunday for most of you minus a few activities. However, everything in France takes longer. To get to the store, shop, and home from the store takes a couple of hours. Try to visit two stores or markets in one day and it takes the whole damn day. For example, I made pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (this was a lot of fun and I will write about it another day) which was a three day or more process. You see the French don't have canned pumpkin so we had to make it from scratch. Saturday, we bought the 5 lbs or so of pumpkin at market and then walked home with it. Monday we spent 4 hours, yeah 4 hours, steaming and processing the pumpkin in a food mill since we don't have a blender or electric hand mixer. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I baked pie. Why did it take so long to bake four pies? Well the oven we have access to can only really bake a pie at a time. Since I am still a novice at French, I thought I bought pie dough that had two sheets a package but it was two recipes in the package. I didn't have my dictionary with me so it was a guess. I could do a lot more in a day if it didn't take me 5 whole days to do a task that should take no more than 3 hours.
Just add a few trips around France and to other countries, dinner with other assistants and hikes and that is a complete summary of life in France for me. I would like a job but only if it was for a few hours a week around 2 to 4 hours a week. However, right now I am just focused on learning French especially since the applications for graduate school are finished. I am enjoying not having stress and each day as it comes. I realize that I am 100 percent lucky to live this life. I have my moments of missing home a lot and miss having a job; however, this time of reflection and rest has been great(more on that topic later).
Much love,
Molly
Typically, I get up around 9 or 10 in the morning, which is amazing for a variety of reasons. First, anyone who knows me knows that I love sleep so it has been great to average 9 to 10 hours of sleep each night. This pretty much happens most nights except when it is too hot in our room or when my bed becomes unbearable to sleep. Second, I am very rested so the rest of the day I have a lot of energy. When we first got here I tried to get up every morning with Patrick but that lead to 2 to 3 hour naps in the afternoon, which messed up my sleep schedule.
After I get up I either: a) eat breakfast with Patrick; or b) shower then eat breakfast with Patrick. About the time either of these tasks are finished in addition to any picking up of the room/kitchen it is noon. Now in the United States I would go run errands for 2 hours and then eat a late lunch but France shuts down in the middle of the day so I generally check my email, read, or plan out the rest of my day. At around 2 to 3 I run errands around town or get ready to go to my French tutor. After I come home, I get on the Internet for about 4 hours in the afternoon. This is usually when I get to talk to all of you online. After internet, Patrick and I make diner, get ready for bed, read, and then go to sleep around midnight. This is my day in a nut shell.
I realize that this is not a lot, but it takes up a lot of time. I am sure many of you right now are rolling your eyes at the fact that I just explained a typical Saturday or Sunday for most of you minus a few activities. However, everything in France takes longer. To get to the store, shop, and home from the store takes a couple of hours. Try to visit two stores or markets in one day and it takes the whole damn day. For example, I made pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (this was a lot of fun and I will write about it another day) which was a three day or more process. You see the French don't have canned pumpkin so we had to make it from scratch. Saturday, we bought the 5 lbs or so of pumpkin at market and then walked home with it. Monday we spent 4 hours, yeah 4 hours, steaming and processing the pumpkin in a food mill since we don't have a blender or electric hand mixer. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I baked pie. Why did it take so long to bake four pies? Well the oven we have access to can only really bake a pie at a time. Since I am still a novice at French, I thought I bought pie dough that had two sheets a package but it was two recipes in the package. I didn't have my dictionary with me so it was a guess. I could do a lot more in a day if it didn't take me 5 whole days to do a task that should take no more than 3 hours.
Just add a few trips around France and to other countries, dinner with other assistants and hikes and that is a complete summary of life in France for me. I would like a job but only if it was for a few hours a week around 2 to 4 hours a week. However, right now I am just focused on learning French especially since the applications for graduate school are finished. I am enjoying not having stress and each day as it comes. I realize that I am 100 percent lucky to live this life. I have my moments of missing home a lot and miss having a job; however, this time of reflection and rest has been great(more on that topic later).
Much love,
Molly
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
I read a book by Charles Dickens
I have started three books by Charles Dickens; A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times and Great Expectations. None of these books did I ever finish reading, though I have picked each of them up more than once. I always had something better to do than continue reading e.g. slamming my hand in a car door for fun. Last night, though, I finished reading Great Expectations, and to tell you the truth, I'm not that pleased with the fact that I did. You see, the story really ends up being a disappointment on a grand scale... 500+ pages of grand dissappointment.
Normally, once I have finished a book, I close it and begin to reflect on the journey of the story and simply reflect on what I have read. After 518 pages, I put this book down and immediately grabbed another one to keep from throwing something against a wall or out the window. What. a God. Damn. Waste. Of Time! If I ever again want to read a book by Dickens, I will first ask someone to read it before me and underline the passages that are beautifully written. This way I can just skip to them and then ask said person what happens in the story.
Dickens is a wonderful writer, I'm not gonna argue that, but the racket he dreamed up is even more genius than his turning of phrases. He builds such a world that you trudge through to see what the hell might happen at the end. The writing between his pretty phrases is mostly basic and he is constantly introducing different characters to distract you from the fact that he has a goal for his wordcount and little else, and! and! he purposely writes dialogue in accents and dialects that are difficult to deceipher just, it would seem, to slow you down. People hold Dickens in high esteem because of the number of characters he created, but these are the same suckers, some of 'em, who don't believe in religion. Those that wrote the Bible created a bunch of different characters too, you know! Big effing deal.
So as I read a more modern book with no dialects to figure out and about half the pages and twice the story, I am glad that I can now give away this book that weighed me down (mentally and physically) through my travels over the last month. Next time someone askes me about Dickens or suggests I read even a short story of his, I will come back with my, now well rehearsed, response that does not suggest anything about his ability to write the English language, just stories in the English language...
Dickens sucks!
- Patrick
Normally, once I have finished a book, I close it and begin to reflect on the journey of the story and simply reflect on what I have read. After 518 pages, I put this book down and immediately grabbed another one to keep from throwing something against a wall or out the window. What. a God. Damn. Waste. Of Time! If I ever again want to read a book by Dickens, I will first ask someone to read it before me and underline the passages that are beautifully written. This way I can just skip to them and then ask said person what happens in the story.
Dickens is a wonderful writer, I'm not gonna argue that, but the racket he dreamed up is even more genius than his turning of phrases. He builds such a world that you trudge through to see what the hell might happen at the end. The writing between his pretty phrases is mostly basic and he is constantly introducing different characters to distract you from the fact that he has a goal for his wordcount and little else, and! and! he purposely writes dialogue in accents and dialects that are difficult to deceipher just, it would seem, to slow you down. People hold Dickens in high esteem because of the number of characters he created, but these are the same suckers, some of 'em, who don't believe in religion. Those that wrote the Bible created a bunch of different characters too, you know! Big effing deal.
So as I read a more modern book with no dialects to figure out and about half the pages and twice the story, I am glad that I can now give away this book that weighed me down (mentally and physically) through my travels over the last month. Next time someone askes me about Dickens or suggests I read even a short story of his, I will come back with my, now well rehearsed, response that does not suggest anything about his ability to write the English language, just stories in the English language...
Dickens sucks!
- Patrick
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Proud to be an American
I am truly proud to be an American. Not simply because Obama won but because of the progress our country has made to elect a President who is not white; our country had one of the highest turn out rates for an election in years; our country watched the election in this highest numbers since 1980; and our country was celebrated by most of the world instead of mocked. These are all things and so much more that make me proud to be an American today. Regardless of your political views it was a great day for our nation.
As President-Elect Obama asked all of us in his speech what are you going to do to help the nation. I also ask what are you all going to do to help our nation get back on track? If I get into graduate school I will not only help the community I move to but I also have two things I want to focus on when I return. I want to advocate for education because it is a nonpartisan issue. Everyone has the right to an education and having an education helps solve/ease social issues. Second I want to be an advocate for better education and awareness about sexual violence. I have heard too many stories in my life from other people. There is no excuse for sexual violence to be as rampant as it is in our nation and the world.
So that is what I am going to do. Now that I have told all of you, hold me to it.
What are you going to do? Let me know.
Molly
As President-Elect Obama asked all of us in his speech what are you going to do to help the nation. I also ask what are you all going to do to help our nation get back on track? If I get into graduate school I will not only help the community I move to but I also have two things I want to focus on when I return. I want to advocate for education because it is a nonpartisan issue. Everyone has the right to an education and having an education helps solve/ease social issues. Second I want to be an advocate for better education and awareness about sexual violence. I have heard too many stories in my life from other people. There is no excuse for sexual violence to be as rampant as it is in our nation and the world.
So that is what I am going to do. Now that I have told all of you, hold me to it.
What are you going to do? Let me know.
Molly
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