Ça va mieux…

Le 28 novembre 2004.
After a glorious weekend, I’m truly tempted to write in French tonight- but will not for two reasons, it wouldn’t be that good and it would be hard for non-francophiles to read. My last entry was from the afternoon of Thanksgiving, before things really got moving. But my entire day was superb- had fun making handprint turkeys with my kids (even though they’re 10-15 years old), bought my tickets to visit Kristen, took a nap, had a good afternoon in the computer lab, talked with Kristen, had a marvelous conversation with Kim, and geared up for Thanksgiving with 15 other assistants or friends. As much as we were leary of a possible disaster, even with a few false starts towards that, things came off wonderfully! Really, with 16 people, it’s remarkable that people were only about 45 minutes late and there was the usual amount of confusion, but chickens were picked up, potatoes arrived, bread was bought, and decorations were provided by the unsuspecting hands of little potential English-speakers. The feast was quite marvelous, conversation was good and varied, and entertainment was provided by a re-enactment by Bobby of his self-impersonation of in-class discipline, “J’attends le silence.” (Please see Amelia’s blog and reference photo on this blog.) Cat, Victoria’s sister, arrived on Thursday to spend the day cooking for dinner and to spend four days with Victoria before returning to classes on the east coast. Thanksgiving abroad has proven itself yet again as a fascinating opportunity to enjoy the company of some unique people.

The train system in France is quite an amazing thing. Living in Europe for me means the happy opportunity to travel by train. However, it becomes quite annoying when one is trying to visit a friend for the weekend, who lives about an hour and forty minutes away, and actual time spent on a train is about one hour and forty minutes, but it still takes a duration of three and a half hours to get there and five and a half hours to get back. It’s simply great to be able to get on and off the train as needed, it’s simply those hours of time between the three trains it takes to get to and from a little town. The main issue arises from the fact that Metz and St. Dizier aren’t on major lines anyway, let along on major lines corresponding to each other. Other than the trip to and from, the past weekend was quite brilliant. Visiting Kristen was a wonderful way to spend the extended part of the Thanksgiving holiday, and it was good to see Shannon again. Our dinner reminded me of how much I miss French family dinners on Friday nights in Toulouse. Such good food, wonderful people to meet, and great and varied conversation arose from the mix of people. Kristen’s stuffing recipe from her great-aunt went over extremely well, with the majority of people asking for the recipe and one French lady promising to make it for Christmas with her family. Shannon couldn’t get enough, and Antoine took what remained of the stuffing to get him through the week. ‘Le Stuff’ succeeded greatly at a French Thanksgiving. In addition, Preciosa made the pumpkin pies, but in a style French, meaning that they tasted more in a sense like pumpkin flan than the traditional American pumpkin pie- yet it was really quite tasty. Kristen truly has the luck to have met the people she has and befriended during her time already in St. Dizier.

It’s also reassuring to have Thanh Ly and her sister, Kim, who are both a few years older than Kristen and I, and are still just starting to ‘settle’ a bit into their lives. They both have traveled and studied abroad in Canada and the US. They do not fear receiving the yellow and green hat of St. Catherine, even though they should have already. For French legend says that if a woman is not married by a certain age, than she is to receive a paper hat make with yellow for the sadness of being unmarried, but also of green to give hope that she won’t be long an ‘old maid’. Kristen, Shannon, and I are quite relieved that they have no worries about receiving the hat, hence we have hope still. Plus Thanh Ly and Kim are just so sweet. On their return to Reims, they dropped me off at the train station in Vitry Le François, so I didn’t have to leave St. Dizier so early and then wait two hours and twenty minutes there. The best part being that I got to chat with them a bit more and also they like country music, especially bluegrass!

Happiness comes from having the opportunity to realize appreciation for the things you have or the comforts of home, because you go away for a bit of time.

Accomplishments of the weekend: didn’t shower or wash my hair today and have yet to feel gross; learned how to cut veggies en style à la française, and have begun to speak a fabulous version of franglais because of amount of French spoken this weekend, ie: Even if it’s not a vrai apartment, I love my petit studio.