Le 21 février 2005.
These are just meant to be little highlights from my day trips to Saarbrucken (and Forbach) and Nancy.
Saarbrucken:
Anna decided that we were going to be French tourists, hence speaking only French and especially with strangers. We forced the nice gentleman at the Saarbrucken tourist office to explain things to us only in French, even though I’m guessing his English was much better than his French.
A gruff man stopped to ask us if we needed help or directions as we consulted the map. We later saw him again chasing a kid who had just stolen something from his Sex Shop.
The RatHaus of St. Johann was amazing! We learned tons after asking if we could see the Council Room. The Director of Advertising for the City came to give us information on the beautiful room, let us stand on the balcony were famous people including General de Gaulle and Hitler have both given speeches to the city, and gave us CD-Roms on the City Hall, now a hundred years old. We also had an interesting history lesson from him- the parts of France and Germany that have passed back and forth throughout the last couple of hundreds of years were given the opportunity to vote after the Second World War on which country they were going to be in. In 1957, Saarbrucken voted to become part of Germany again (from 1945 to 1957 it was French) and in 1959, the vote was taken and won to become economically part of Germany. I hadn’t ever realized that these regions had had the opportunity to vote on their nationality after WWII.
Can anyone explain why there was a Hebrew inscription on the ceiling of the half-dome over the altar of the Basilika St. Johann? I’ve forgotten if Anna could read it or not.
Lunch was a fabulous sandwich in this little sandwich place incidentally called the Sandwich Haus.
A pain aux raisins in Germany has vanilla baked into it instead of frosting on top of it-- a very yummy variation of a favorite of mine.
I love phone booths I guess. I am always noting the differences between them in different countries, or even in different regions. For instance, there were several different types even in Saarbrucken and in Luxembourg, there are handicap phone booths. If I was homeless, I would totally live in the luxembourgeois handicap phone booths, as they have the most space.
Forbach was a lovely little ville with a big LeaderPrice in the Centreville and a cute little rue principal. The ruined castle on top of the park was lovely with a nice view. Thanks to two little French ladies we didn’t get too lost.
In Nancy, the Place Stanislaus was under construction. Dommage, as the main fountain was covered up and it was difficult to get a good sense of the grandeur of the place from the wooden walkways around the edges of the Place.
The Musée de l’école des Beaux-Arts was fabulous. It was completely dedicated to the Art Nouveau which started in Nancy. I was even the cheesy American who realized that most of the ideas for Rivendell and Lothlorian (sp?) from Lord of the Rings must have come from the School of Art Nouveau. Not overly surprising though given that the Art Nouveau was devoted to using the influences of Nature in all its works.
It’s difficult to keep up with a French conversation when I haven’t been as immersed in the language as I was last year.
I appreciate the beauty of Metz after visiting Nancy. They are both beautiful cities but I feel Metz has more charm.
The Musée de la Lorraine had a wonderful temporary exhibition on Stanislaus, former Polish king and Duke of Lorraine, father of Marie-Antoinette. What great historical information about my second adopted French region. Stanislaus also had this dwarf, I believe he was even a relative, as one of his fools, Nicolas de Ferry, nicknamed Bébé because he was quite literally no bigger than a two year old. He lived till about twenty I think. They had a mannequin on display in the museum based on his skeleton at a museum in Paris. And continuing on Marie-Antoinette, she was actually picked to be Louis XV’s bride when she was three, decided against because of her age and later because her father was denounced from the Polish throne, but several years later re-added to the list by Louis himself after seeing a picture of her. For much of the reason of Louis’ favor, Stanislaus was granted the duchy of Lorraine so as to give him an acceptable title – he might have even been regranted the title of King of Poland, but I forget exactly. Polish kings it turns out were elected from the nobility of the day.
The Excelsior Café was a beautifully preserved example of Art Nouveau. I totally felt like I’d just walked into a meeting of tome raiders in an Indiana Jones movie. Good hot chocolate too!
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Monday, February 21, 2005
Friday, February 18, 2005
Procrastination on a Friday night.
The point of being in the lab on a Friday night was to continue diligently with my grad school research; however, I have instead reverted to old Cornell practices and been procrastinating my time. All of this being done mostly by fidgeting with my blog, ie: changing up the title, playing around with the template and updating the peoples lists. Given that it is a Friday night, one might think I would have something better to do than hang out in the lab, but given the social butterfly I am not, I'm pretty content for the moment. Also, it's Metz. I also might have had a point with this particular posting, but I'm really doubting it at the moment. I suppose I could post about visiting Saarbrucken on Wednesday but I don't have the photos loaded on my computer yet, so that feels a bit pointless.
Given that I keep mentioning that this was the year I was suppose to find some direction for my immediate future, besides winning the lottery and traveling for the rest of my life, I have found the researching of grad schools to be an interesting process. And how in the world did the rest of you manage to look for grad schools, make decisions and apply all while going through senior year of university?? I suppose I am limited by having only partial access to the Internet here but honestly, it's taking me so much time and coordination to get and keep this ball rolling. I also suppose it doesn't help that I haven't much of an idea where I want to go, as I'd be happy as long as it's a good program and I can get a job afterwards to pay for all this education.
This blog was suppose to encourage me to write more and perhaps prompt me to try and improve my writing-- I think in actuality my writing is becoming more sporatic. I'm also being self-conscious as Derek has found my blog and on the off-chance that the former editor of the Cornellian might feel a need to read my blog I've had to reflect on the whole situation. Oh well, the other function of my blog is simply to be a place to post my photos so people can see them if they chose.
In other news, it's apparently been snowing all over France but here in Metz. What a bizarre little corner of the country I live in. The news though is that it's suppose to snow this weekend and get even colder next week. I guarantee you that it will be beautiful, warm and sunny again starting on February 28- just as we go back to work. And if you remember preschool rhymes, that's not going to be a good thing because it means that March will come in like a lamb and go out like a lion. As long as the spring isn't miserable and it's nice enough at the end of April, I'll be ok. It's hard to believe that I only have six more weeks of work. This year has flown by... .
And on that note, I think I'll end my rambling thoughts and go back to grad school hunting. Watch the spanish film "Talk to Her." It's really worth it.
Given that I keep mentioning that this was the year I was suppose to find some direction for my immediate future, besides winning the lottery and traveling for the rest of my life, I have found the researching of grad schools to be an interesting process. And how in the world did the rest of you manage to look for grad schools, make decisions and apply all while going through senior year of university?? I suppose I am limited by having only partial access to the Internet here but honestly, it's taking me so much time and coordination to get and keep this ball rolling. I also suppose it doesn't help that I haven't much of an idea where I want to go, as I'd be happy as long as it's a good program and I can get a job afterwards to pay for all this education.
This blog was suppose to encourage me to write more and perhaps prompt me to try and improve my writing-- I think in actuality my writing is becoming more sporatic. I'm also being self-conscious as Derek has found my blog and on the off-chance that the former editor of the Cornellian might feel a need to read my blog I've had to reflect on the whole situation. Oh well, the other function of my blog is simply to be a place to post my photos so people can see them if they chose.
In other news, it's apparently been snowing all over France but here in Metz. What a bizarre little corner of the country I live in. The news though is that it's suppose to snow this weekend and get even colder next week. I guarantee you that it will be beautiful, warm and sunny again starting on February 28- just as we go back to work. And if you remember preschool rhymes, that's not going to be a good thing because it means that March will come in like a lamb and go out like a lion. As long as the spring isn't miserable and it's nice enough at the end of April, I'll be ok. It's hard to believe that I only have six more weeks of work. This year has flown by... .
And on that note, I think I'll end my rambling thoughts and go back to grad school hunting. Watch the spanish film "Talk to Her." It's really worth it.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Dans mon rêve...
Le 11 février 2005.
So I haven’t blogged about the wonderful world of Château Malbrouck yet. Thus time to talk about it! We had to just get out of Metz the other day, so Victoria, Jennifer, Melissa and I went on this crazy little country drive trying to this little village up near Sierck les Bains, also near the modern and ancient-day border. I forget the name of the actual village now, though it is also near Apach. So we went driving all over these bitty country roads that kept ending in really bad gravel or dirt paths and we’d back track and try the next one. Finally we gave up and decided to come in from another direction, only lo and behold, to find that if we had originally went about a quarter mile further, we would have found a better turnoff! The point being that we eventually got there, though after a beautiful drive through the French countryside! Only the problem was that the chateau is closed for the winter season until March 14!! Dommage. We’ll have to go back, because it was absolutely gorgeous and typical French. There are also lovely little walking trails around the area and a field above the chateau that you can go walking in for a lovely view of the surrounding countryside. I think it will be totally worth the five euros to see the inside of the chateau. I can’t wait to go back! We also encounter this little village having a Carnival parade during our wanderings. And what wagon should we happen to see first of all this parade- but a Yagermeister wagon! Hehe.
It’s the holidays! I am officially on vacation as of noon on Friday! Two glorious weeks of unscheduled activity! Though as Francine pointed out today, this seven month period is basically a perpetual vacation for me! … I mean I suppose you could say that a twelve-hour work-week is almost a vacation… if you wanted to… :D. But honestly, thanks Francine for reminding me how cool it is to be living and working in France for almost a year, even if it is Metz- une ville qui bouge presque pas de tout! I do value that my thinking year is being spent in France. Lots of important questions in my mind are being settled this year, and I know it’s all thanks to my twelve hour work-week! (Shall I mention that I only work twelve hours a week again?)
On the other side, I finally did it! I finally cut my hair. I honestly think my last hair cut was in May, before graduation. Then in October when I thought to cut it again, it was the typically, oh I haven’t been paid in a month and still have rent for this and the next months to pay excuse… and I realized that I was going to chop off about five inches, so I decided to just wait it out and make it an even ten inches! I just barely made ten inches when we chopped off the braid this afternoon, and consequently, my hair is now the shortest I think I have ever had it! Wienke was kind and brave enough to chop it off and save me the “long hair supplement” fee before I went to dresser’s. Though it wasn’t in the best of shape when I arrived there, all straggly-ended and uneven (because we put it in a braid to chop it off). But the nice lady did a great job with it! I’ve grown used to it in the last few hours and have dubbed it either my “Ensign Ro” cut or else my “rather retro- Twenties mop/bob” cut. I’m not really certain if it’s even a mop or a bob, but I feel like I should be wearing a dark boxy Twenties era dress with the straight ruffled bottom starting at mid-butt and a Peter Pan-esque white collar, dark stockings, and dark, heeled Mary Janes. I only hope it still looks as straight and cute after I wash it! Anna asked after she saw it tonight if I felt lighter and I really do! I can feel a breeze on my neck now, and it just makes me look older I feel to not have all that long hair anymore. It’s exciting and I’m intrigued to see what my students think when they see it. I have a feeling that they’re just going to think I’m even more bizarre than they already find me!
Don’t forget to clink on the link for Amorous Troubador to read the best ever summaries of Alias! Laura is such a fabulous writer and I’ll love her forever for keeping me informed about Alias while I keep forgetting to find a place to download the episodes!
In closing, Kristen and Shannon report from Toulouse that my favorite empanada places are no longer where they were only a little over a year ago!!! Quelle horreur! I can only hope that it means they have been successful and moved to bigger and better locations so I can go get yummy snacks when I’m in Toulouse this May! But I hope the rest of their travels go well and that Kristen remembers to take a picture of the Viaduc du Milau for me! I’m so jealous that they are going to see it! But happy holidays (as my kids told me today) to all the language assistants who have already started their vacances and to all the assistants who started today, like me! Bonne vacances!
So I haven’t blogged about the wonderful world of Château Malbrouck yet. Thus time to talk about it! We had to just get out of Metz the other day, so Victoria, Jennifer, Melissa and I went on this crazy little country drive trying to this little village up near Sierck les Bains, also near the modern and ancient-day border. I forget the name of the actual village now, though it is also near Apach. So we went driving all over these bitty country roads that kept ending in really bad gravel or dirt paths and we’d back track and try the next one. Finally we gave up and decided to come in from another direction, only lo and behold, to find that if we had originally went about a quarter mile further, we would have found a better turnoff! The point being that we eventually got there, though after a beautiful drive through the French countryside! Only the problem was that the chateau is closed for the winter season until March 14!! Dommage. We’ll have to go back, because it was absolutely gorgeous and typical French. There are also lovely little walking trails around the area and a field above the chateau that you can go walking in for a lovely view of the surrounding countryside. I think it will be totally worth the five euros to see the inside of the chateau. I can’t wait to go back! We also encounter this little village having a Carnival parade during our wanderings. And what wagon should we happen to see first of all this parade- but a Yagermeister wagon! Hehe.
It’s the holidays! I am officially on vacation as of noon on Friday! Two glorious weeks of unscheduled activity! Though as Francine pointed out today, this seven month period is basically a perpetual vacation for me! … I mean I suppose you could say that a twelve-hour work-week is almost a vacation… if you wanted to… :D. But honestly, thanks Francine for reminding me how cool it is to be living and working in France for almost a year, even if it is Metz- une ville qui bouge presque pas de tout! I do value that my thinking year is being spent in France. Lots of important questions in my mind are being settled this year, and I know it’s all thanks to my twelve hour work-week! (Shall I mention that I only work twelve hours a week again?)
On the other side, I finally did it! I finally cut my hair. I honestly think my last hair cut was in May, before graduation. Then in October when I thought to cut it again, it was the typically, oh I haven’t been paid in a month and still have rent for this and the next months to pay excuse… and I realized that I was going to chop off about five inches, so I decided to just wait it out and make it an even ten inches! I just barely made ten inches when we chopped off the braid this afternoon, and consequently, my hair is now the shortest I think I have ever had it! Wienke was kind and brave enough to chop it off and save me the “long hair supplement” fee before I went to dresser’s. Though it wasn’t in the best of shape when I arrived there, all straggly-ended and uneven (because we put it in a braid to chop it off). But the nice lady did a great job with it! I’ve grown used to it in the last few hours and have dubbed it either my “Ensign Ro” cut or else my “rather retro- Twenties mop/bob” cut. I’m not really certain if it’s even a mop or a bob, but I feel like I should be wearing a dark boxy Twenties era dress with the straight ruffled bottom starting at mid-butt and a Peter Pan-esque white collar, dark stockings, and dark, heeled Mary Janes. I only hope it still looks as straight and cute after I wash it! Anna asked after she saw it tonight if I felt lighter and I really do! I can feel a breeze on my neck now, and it just makes me look older I feel to not have all that long hair anymore. It’s exciting and I’m intrigued to see what my students think when they see it. I have a feeling that they’re just going to think I’m even more bizarre than they already find me!
Don’t forget to clink on the link for Amorous Troubador to read the best ever summaries of Alias! Laura is such a fabulous writer and I’ll love her forever for keeping me informed about Alias while I keep forgetting to find a place to download the episodes!
In closing, Kristen and Shannon report from Toulouse that my favorite empanada places are no longer where they were only a little over a year ago!!! Quelle horreur! I can only hope that it means they have been successful and moved to bigger and better locations so I can go get yummy snacks when I’m in Toulouse this May! But I hope the rest of their travels go well and that Kristen remembers to take a picture of the Viaduc du Milau for me! I’m so jealous that they are going to see it! But happy holidays (as my kids told me today) to all the language assistants who have already started their vacances and to all the assistants who started today, like me! Bonne vacances!
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Mardi Gras and Snowfights in Metz.
So we had Mardi Gras last night and it went well. Shannon came to visit on Monday and Tuesday. We didn't much more than go grocery shopping (I totally utilised free slave labor when it was around! I hate carrying those heavy little bags up En Jurue on my own!) and Tuesday was dedicated mostly to making the jambalaya. The rice didn't cooked for as long as it really needed to have and Jennifer's toaster oven and I disagree on what symbol means "cook with heat from the bottom coil". But all in all, it was fun and everyone assured me that it tasted great and they enjoyed it. Even sans frosting on the King Cake and the cruchy top! Besides which, my Louisiana experts, Bobby and Louise, told me it tasted great! (And Sarah, I've totally had requests for the recipe- which I credit to you, regardless!)
As for snowfights, we went ice skating at the patinoire on Saturday night-- loads of fun! Black-out ice skating in a completely middle-school skating rink atmosphere! After we left to walk home, we had to go around the back of the building to where the Zambonny (SP????) dumped the ice scrapings, so we fell into an instantaneous snowfight! There might not be real snow in Metz, but we can still have a snow ball fight!!
February vacation starts this Saturday for me!!!! Only ten more hours of classes to teach before two weeks of grad school searching (and the dreaded GRE prep book) and Prague planning!
As for snowfights, we went ice skating at the patinoire on Saturday night-- loads of fun! Black-out ice skating in a completely middle-school skating rink atmosphere! After we left to walk home, we had to go around the back of the building to where the Zambonny (SP????) dumped the ice scrapings, so we fell into an instantaneous snowfight! There might not be real snow in Metz, but we can still have a snow ball fight!!
February vacation starts this Saturday for me!!!! Only ten more hours of classes to teach before two weeks of grad school searching (and the dreaded GRE prep book) and Prague planning!
Friday, February 04, 2005
Inappropriate Lab Time Use.
Technically I'm signed up to be using the lab right now to pay my bills online and research grad schools. But as once again I have become locked out of another online account, I can't pay my student loan bills... I will now have to do the dreaded phone call at night from the evil and cold phone booth in the court yard to explain that I'm in France and their website sucks! (Side note, my cute little french flip mobile phone battery just died and as it was shutting off it did something I didn't realise it did-- little animation figure of a witch on a broomstick - said broomstick emitting pollution stars into the cellular air- and saying "bye!" "bye!" with little downscale melody in the background... bizarre.) And as I've been receiving mail from various schools, I feel that enough process in the grad school hunt has been achieved to allow me time to blog.
Tidbits from the last few days or so...
Chili was made by me for a successfully nostaglic dinner on Tuesday night!!! YAY chili!! I even managed to make cornbread!! Not for lack of panic moments though- first I couldn't find baking soda, so I just grabbed some yeast hoping that if I only added a smidget then the desired effect would occur without issues; second problem arose when I was about to bake the first pan and realised that I wasn't sure if fleur de mais was actually corn starch instead of just super-finely grounded cornmeal. After much consultation of useless dictionaries that didn't tell us the neceassary answer, Jennifer and I just decided to try the first pan and go from there! Luckily, it must have been ok because it worked! Granted, it wasn't the crumbly, yellowy cornbread of my childhood, but was still just about as good. And Louise who's never had cornbread loved it!! Even after her mum informed her of the number of calories in it! Muahhahahahaha... my plan of converting all Scottish people I meet into pseudo-americans has sucessfully achieve its first phase!
Yesterday was an exciting day as I received a package from my mum, including my package from Amazon -thanks to the wonderful Christmas generosity of my uncle for a lovely Amazon gift certificate!- and I am now the proud owner of a new 2005 Ansel Adams Engagement Calendar, a fabou copy of Mansfield Park (so I can finally read the story behind one of my most beloved movies!), and speaking of movies, the immensely pround owner of my own DVD copy of Wet Hot American Summer!!!! My plans for Thursday afternoon had been to go do shopping at Norma, but all plans were immediately cancelled to enjoy the great brilliance of said film!
Today, I enjoy my first trip to LeaderPrice for grocery and decided to splurge on this fabulous cereal called Top Miel, which is just corn cereal balls coated exceedingly with honey! Is there something similar in the States, as I think the first time I had this yummy cereal was last year with my middle host brother in an afternoon snack conspiracy.
Vacation in ONE week!!!!!
Where am I going??? NOWHERE!!! hehehe... just hanging out in Metz, economising, and planning for PRAGUE in April and my family's visit in MAY! I already know we won't have enough time to do everything we want to do. I believe I've picqued (?) my brother's interest in Luxembourg with a postcard of an amazing bridge (probably the Pont de la Grande Duchesse Charlotte)... and now he wants to see it. As it is in the middle of most of our destinations I have no problems with this, though I had thought to delete it from our travel plans if we didn't have time, though it takes like four hours to walk the entire centreville and see the important bits of it. Tiny city... I don't think it's even the size of CR.
Well now I'm going to throw on my posts from the last week that I've already written and honestly, it's just loads of ranting so if you feel a need to ignore the rest of this post, I have no reason to blame you! I'm honestly trying to keep the ranting to a minimum on this blog, but occasional you just have to let loose I guess.
Down from the Sugar High…
Le 27 janvier 2005.
My current mood is one of pure frustration. I’ve been beating my head against a brick wall this week trying to figure out how to deal with this frustration, and not figuring that out makes me doubly as frustrated. I can only conclude that it’s from being half way through the program. The realization that I only have about three months left to do all that I wanted to do, to settle into the routine and relationships I’ve sort of formed, and to have any cohesive pattern in my life now and in the upcoming ten months.
The CAF has been taken care of, my Securité Sociale is pretty much finalized now, I’m a legal temporary resident for a few months now, thus all my bureaucratic hoopla is finished. I’m left with free time now to achieve my other goals of finding a job for next year, a grad school to attend in a year or two, start taking german at the collège and to find volunteer work a couple of hours a week. The volunteer work seems to be the hardest thing at the moment. I can’t visit the Red Cross until Tuesday or Wednesday again next week (I know, I was always contre the Red Cross from bitter vengeance reasons, but I’m working on the gracious thing in my life) and I want to visit them before I visit the Catholic Aid- which is where everyone keeps basically telling me to go. But once I have something decided on that front, I’ll start working with a friend’s uncle for a few hours a week at his recording studio. At least I’ll get to see how the music industry sort of works. The rest of my goals just take time to sort through and get done in a step-by-step method.
If nothing else, I’m learning tons about myself living and working over here. Primarily, I’m getting old. I know that’s a bit pathetic to be saying at my young age, but it’s true. Maybe it’s just that I’ve always been old, or just that I’m happiest on my own or when I can easily detach myself from a group. Either way, my biggest lesson has been that my desire for my own and completely separate residence is still extraordinarily strong! Staying at the foyer is just an easy, convenient, and long-term financially sound decision. No need to deal with the furniture issue or reselling items I can’t transport back to the States. The minor inconveniences can be overlooked- it’s nice to not have a landline in the sense that it makes it harder for me to be contacted, except when I need it to be easy so I can arrange a phone interview! But I can not wait for that apartment that is truly and completely mine! Efficency or not, it will be marvelous to have- though definitely routing for the one-bedroom place! Secondly, I’m probably destined to live in a rural area. I enjoy Metz, and I love Toulouse, and Cedar Rapids makes me happy, and I’ve yet to live in a major city of the world (as in my fairy goddaughter in Paris), but I miss the country here- I miss living less than a quarter mile from a corn field, and gravel roads, and county parks, and state parks. As long as I have a car, I know that I will probably choose the country over the city- though maybe something like 20 minutes to an hour from a large-ish commercial centre will be nice (like MV from CR and IC!).
Well I’m getting distracted in my thoughts, so I think I’ll sign off… my closing thought is that I’m turning into my parents, and while scary as it might be, I’m not too worried- it’s one of those inevitable conclusions. Destiny is such a twisted thing.
This Is Me Ranting…. Or Please do not throw coins in the baptismal font.
Le 31 janvier 2005.
Grrr!! I am super frustrated with Dell Financial! I checked my statement today to make certain my monthly payment went through alright- like a good, responsible, young, newby to the Real World- only to panic because their little initial non-statement thing said something about payment before due date and listing still the due date for which I was making the payment. In major panic, I downloaded the real statement in its lovely PDF file and found out that back in December when I had to call Dell to make my payment because THEY had locked me out of my online account for two weeks that they had charged me a fee to make my payment by phone! I DO NOT REMEMBER sweet little customer service girl telling me this! Luckily I had to do this all by conference call with my dad because something about being in EUROPE means that lovely little 800, or 888, or 877, or even 866 numbers so not work with my phone card! Lucky being that my dad can vouch or not for this little fee information availability. Thank you Carrefour for not having phone lines in our studios- because I’m not a responsible, university degree holding young adult! Argh! I hate phone booths! If I was the responsable for this place, I’d have at least put the phone booth in the inept salon de television, especially as that room is now empty due to someone STEALING the tv! Point being that it’s been a shocking and frustrating internet session tonight. But now that I’ve calmed down and emailed my parents for confirmation or at least to see if dad remembers if they said there would be a fee, I’m beginning to think that she did say something but I was so frustrated to have to had called dad to link me to the 800 number and to have been locked out for two weeks from my account… desperation, not the best situation to be in. Also, frustration is not so great, as it makes you write insane, run-on sentences that might not make sense to anyone reading my crazy blog.
In other parts of my internet world today, things were surprisingly nice. Mum’s mailing me a package with the lovely things I bought off Amazon.com (not Amazon.fr- as I wanted to order my dvd for zone 1) with the lovely gift card from my uncle for Christmas. It’s great when aunts and uncles give you gifts even though they really aren’t suppose to anymore –given that I’m well beyond the age limit of ten. Yay, I will so be the proud owner of my own dvd copy of Wet Hot American Summer!!!!!! I will also have my new yearly planner so maybe I can be slightly more organized than recently! In addition to this great celebration of capitalism and consumerism, I also had a lovely little note from Katie C. asking if I was truly the person she thought I was- meaning if my blog did belong to the person she thought it did. I adore getting comments so that simply made my day! So, yes, Katie, it is me! (Check out her blog- see Links!) And I also had an email from this cute little up-and-coming Cornell freshman. She’s currently studying as a Rotary Exchange Scholar here in France, only a few hours from me. I’m quite envious of her at the moment, as she’s living with a host family (a fabulous situation- albeit a little difficult at times, I know) and has just gone skiing in the Jura and is going to Brittany over February break. I wish I could do any of the above, but little problem of a below-starting level salary or lack of hours (depending on how you choose to look at it), student loans, and saving for Prague (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Hopefully we’ll get to meet sometime before I leave though, as she sounds lovely and is apparently as Francophile as the rest of us in the French Club at Cornell. (So you guys, new member coming soon!) Anna was also a Rotary Scholar in France before she came to Cornell. Though I think February break will be a good time for me to take a little day trip to Saarbrucken – a splurge, but what’s life without the little splurges. Plus I want to shop in Germany- as I think I like german clothes better than some of the French brands. Speaking of Germany, I haven’t yet blogged about the day trip to Trier in mid-January. Victoria, Jennifer and I decided to bust out of Metz for a Sunday and drive Baby Blue (for sale, available in July if you need a good car in France!) to Trier (Trêve) for the day. It was a darling little city- maybe the same size as Metz or smaller. It also reminded me loads of Metz, as it’s on a river in a valley and the hills surrounding it sort of look the same. Also in similarity to Metz- being on the confluence of the Moselle and Seille Rivers, Trier is on the confluence of the Mosel and Saar Rivers. Mosel is, btw, the same river but Germanic spelling of Moselle. Getting there also took us through the lovely wine country of Germany. So Trier has the most Roman ruins of any city north of the Alps, though I only saw one, the Porta Nigra. Interesting place, with a fascinating history I’m sure though I don’t really know it. Trier is also on the same Roman route as Metz I believe. It is also home to St. Gangolf church (ok, so I was definitely thinking of Gandolf when I saw that) and two lovely basilicas. The funniest bit of the day was looking into the HUGE baptismal font in the newer basilica and seeing the sign “Please do not throw in coins.” Ok, lol, I know that there are loads of people who are not catholic, but it sure does make me laugh that anyone would think that a christian church would have a wishing well in it! Hehehe… still giggling. I’ll try and get some photos posted soon. The main experience of that day trip being that I still do not know German, nor did I pick it up after one day of visiting with other Anglophones, and I am still inclined to just speak French when not in an anglo speaking area, regardless of the actual country or language. In other words, time to start on my second foreign language now. Do you have time in grad school to take things like language courses, does anyone know?
Ok, so I really feel as if I had more to write, but I’ve vented and that was my main point tonight. Apologies to everyone who endured it, but thanks too! And I’ve also babbled the rest of my way through another page of typing. Hope everyone’s enjoyed it! Enjoy the photos of Trier!
Also, for Laura. Thanks so much for your lovely updates of Alias! I truly do appreciate them, whenever you have the time to get to them! I’m content that you do not allow the desperation of a temporary ex-pat to dictate your time schedule! Louise and I are on pins and needles to we read your full description, but it’s great exercise! So thanks thanks thanks! Et merci beaucoup!
I’m just such a nice person…
Le 4 fevrier 2005.
I am just such a nice person that I almost forgot to rant about this, all until she made the error in judgement to depart and return to her next door studio, but neighbor French girl is insufferable. Not only did this girl decide about two weeks ago to mount a sign on the landing outside my door reminding everyone to be quiet past 11pm (aren’t there signs in everyone’s rooms stating 10pm???? Who here is illiterate in their native language?), she also posted this lovely little piece of “art” only in English. Hmm… at whom could she be ‘directing’ this little notice? Honestly! What are we, freshmen in the monk dorm? So after my eight hour day dealing with little French monsters I was not in the mood for an exhibition d’art nouveau, thus did the only imaginable thing possible and obeyed the “rules for peaceful living” in this …um.. place. I torn down the sign and took it to the administration. I proceeded to tell them I found the sign disrespectful and inconsiderate of others, the author intolerant and childish. It would have been one thing for the sign to be in French and English- at that point no harm could be presumed, and another all together to only be on my floor and quite obviously (from the yellow highlight used to make the sign) not from the direction. In my opinion, quite obviously someone did not have the capacity to act like the adults that are suppose to live in this part of the residence to at minimum approach the presumed transgressors and remind us of the quiet hours or to talk to the direction as the stupid contract we sign states we are suppose to do (it also specifically states we are NOT suppose to approach the other residents with issues but to go directly to the direction -????). I swear we live in a freshmen dorm. I also informed the direction that I felt it was extremely aggressive to be written only in English and made me feel completely unwelcome as a foreigner. I later found out it was my neighbor, and she was supposedly going to visit me to talk about the situation. (I of course couldn’t have just spoken with her as she didn’t even have the balls to sign her stupid little hall decoration!) Then about a week and a half later, after I’ve calmed down and decided that I was tired and over-reacted a bit, she bumps into me as I am arriving at my studio and she is leaving and we talk on the stupid cold landing. I say oh, well I probably over-reacted, sometimes we’re a bit loud but not purposefully so, and we understand the need for quiet, and she proceeds to tell me she understands English if I need to speak that instead (the nerve! And duh, the stupid sign was in English… do you think I’m blind, didn’t I see the sign which caused the problems) and goes on and on to tell me that she’s always woken up by loud footsteps and loud English in the middle of the nights and that there are people she knows in the building who have to be up at 5 am to go to work, etc etc etc… and at this point I start to get angry again. I mean I’ve just tried to be compromising and considerate, and she starts a rant about how rude we all are. What is it with people just putting every member of the same culture (in a small area) into the same group! Hello, stereotyping much! Haven’t you ever heard of being non-discriminate and thinking independently! In reply I calmly state, while this is quite true, we all (I must now defend the entire assistant colony in Carrefour, though we are NOT all Americans (of the United States variety) nor even Anglophones!) get up at about 6am on mornings we have to work. Hence, it’s irrational for her to think we couldn’t understand early morning rising! And that in addition to hearing English late at night, I have been kept awake by enough French at midnight or 1am on nights before I must rise at aforementioned 6am! Her reply to this is predictably, “oo, j’ai jamais entendre le français qui me reveiller.” Right, possibly for several reasons, ie : you don’t ‘want’ to hear it or you don’t notice it because it’s your native language ! O, for heaven’s sake! Right. All of this leading to me now paying attention to her comings and goings and I’ve yet to notice the girl wake before 9am (because there’s so much sound proofing in these walls!)… and finally to my need to rant tonight being that if I had needed to be asleep before midnight tonight, it definitely would not have happened because of loud FRENCH voices! And from where did they eminate???? Not the other next door neighbor, who is occasionally loud, but never after 12:15am—but NO, from evil, complaining, all-knowing, jerky next-door neighbor French girl. Not only which it was definitely past 12:30 when these LOUD French visitors did finally live making enough noise on the landing that I would have woken (regardless that I can sleep through tornado sirens). So in the sake of graciousness, thank heavens tomorrow is not a Friday I work and thank heavens for two-faced little 27-year-old French cretin girls who still live in a residence and not a proper apartment like a true adult. Grr.
Final note from the other week: I realized how quickly things become familiar. As I was walking through Place St. Louis and up rue d’Enfer and En Jurue, I noticed how comfortable I’ve become walking on the cobblestone streets, how easily it is for my feet to adjust automatically to the uneven rhythm of the road surface. Mostly I was noticing how familiar the buildings and walls and windows and rooflines of my neighborhood have become to me. I simply adore living in the oldest part of this 4000-year-old city.
Tidbits from the last few days or so...
Chili was made by me for a successfully nostaglic dinner on Tuesday night!!! YAY chili!! I even managed to make cornbread!! Not for lack of panic moments though- first I couldn't find baking soda, so I just grabbed some yeast hoping that if I only added a smidget then the desired effect would occur without issues; second problem arose when I was about to bake the first pan and realised that I wasn't sure if fleur de mais was actually corn starch instead of just super-finely grounded cornmeal. After much consultation of useless dictionaries that didn't tell us the neceassary answer, Jennifer and I just decided to try the first pan and go from there! Luckily, it must have been ok because it worked! Granted, it wasn't the crumbly, yellowy cornbread of my childhood, but was still just about as good. And Louise who's never had cornbread loved it!! Even after her mum informed her of the number of calories in it! Muahhahahahaha... my plan of converting all Scottish people I meet into pseudo-americans has sucessfully achieve its first phase!
Yesterday was an exciting day as I received a package from my mum, including my package from Amazon -thanks to the wonderful Christmas generosity of my uncle for a lovely Amazon gift certificate!- and I am now the proud owner of a new 2005 Ansel Adams Engagement Calendar, a fabou copy of Mansfield Park (so I can finally read the story behind one of my most beloved movies!), and speaking of movies, the immensely pround owner of my own DVD copy of Wet Hot American Summer!!!! My plans for Thursday afternoon had been to go do shopping at Norma, but all plans were immediately cancelled to enjoy the great brilliance of said film!
Today, I enjoy my first trip to LeaderPrice for grocery and decided to splurge on this fabulous cereal called Top Miel, which is just corn cereal balls coated exceedingly with honey! Is there something similar in the States, as I think the first time I had this yummy cereal was last year with my middle host brother in an afternoon snack conspiracy.
Vacation in ONE week!!!!!
Where am I going??? NOWHERE!!! hehehe... just hanging out in Metz, economising, and planning for PRAGUE in April and my family's visit in MAY! I already know we won't have enough time to do everything we want to do. I believe I've picqued (?) my brother's interest in Luxembourg with a postcard of an amazing bridge (probably the Pont de la Grande Duchesse Charlotte)... and now he wants to see it. As it is in the middle of most of our destinations I have no problems with this, though I had thought to delete it from our travel plans if we didn't have time, though it takes like four hours to walk the entire centreville and see the important bits of it. Tiny city... I don't think it's even the size of CR.
Well now I'm going to throw on my posts from the last week that I've already written and honestly, it's just loads of ranting so if you feel a need to ignore the rest of this post, I have no reason to blame you! I'm honestly trying to keep the ranting to a minimum on this blog, but occasional you just have to let loose I guess.
Down from the Sugar High…
Le 27 janvier 2005.
My current mood is one of pure frustration. I’ve been beating my head against a brick wall this week trying to figure out how to deal with this frustration, and not figuring that out makes me doubly as frustrated. I can only conclude that it’s from being half way through the program. The realization that I only have about three months left to do all that I wanted to do, to settle into the routine and relationships I’ve sort of formed, and to have any cohesive pattern in my life now and in the upcoming ten months.
The CAF has been taken care of, my Securité Sociale is pretty much finalized now, I’m a legal temporary resident for a few months now, thus all my bureaucratic hoopla is finished. I’m left with free time now to achieve my other goals of finding a job for next year, a grad school to attend in a year or two, start taking german at the collège and to find volunteer work a couple of hours a week. The volunteer work seems to be the hardest thing at the moment. I can’t visit the Red Cross until Tuesday or Wednesday again next week (I know, I was always contre the Red Cross from bitter vengeance reasons, but I’m working on the gracious thing in my life) and I want to visit them before I visit the Catholic Aid- which is where everyone keeps basically telling me to go. But once I have something decided on that front, I’ll start working with a friend’s uncle for a few hours a week at his recording studio. At least I’ll get to see how the music industry sort of works. The rest of my goals just take time to sort through and get done in a step-by-step method.
If nothing else, I’m learning tons about myself living and working over here. Primarily, I’m getting old. I know that’s a bit pathetic to be saying at my young age, but it’s true. Maybe it’s just that I’ve always been old, or just that I’m happiest on my own or when I can easily detach myself from a group. Either way, my biggest lesson has been that my desire for my own and completely separate residence is still extraordinarily strong! Staying at the foyer is just an easy, convenient, and long-term financially sound decision. No need to deal with the furniture issue or reselling items I can’t transport back to the States. The minor inconveniences can be overlooked- it’s nice to not have a landline in the sense that it makes it harder for me to be contacted, except when I need it to be easy so I can arrange a phone interview! But I can not wait for that apartment that is truly and completely mine! Efficency or not, it will be marvelous to have- though definitely routing for the one-bedroom place! Secondly, I’m probably destined to live in a rural area. I enjoy Metz, and I love Toulouse, and Cedar Rapids makes me happy, and I’ve yet to live in a major city of the world (as in my fairy goddaughter in Paris), but I miss the country here- I miss living less than a quarter mile from a corn field, and gravel roads, and county parks, and state parks. As long as I have a car, I know that I will probably choose the country over the city- though maybe something like 20 minutes to an hour from a large-ish commercial centre will be nice (like MV from CR and IC!).
Well I’m getting distracted in my thoughts, so I think I’ll sign off… my closing thought is that I’m turning into my parents, and while scary as it might be, I’m not too worried- it’s one of those inevitable conclusions. Destiny is such a twisted thing.
This Is Me Ranting…. Or Please do not throw coins in the baptismal font.
Le 31 janvier 2005.
Grrr!! I am super frustrated with Dell Financial! I checked my statement today to make certain my monthly payment went through alright- like a good, responsible, young, newby to the Real World- only to panic because their little initial non-statement thing said something about payment before due date and listing still the due date for which I was making the payment. In major panic, I downloaded the real statement in its lovely PDF file and found out that back in December when I had to call Dell to make my payment because THEY had locked me out of my online account for two weeks that they had charged me a fee to make my payment by phone! I DO NOT REMEMBER sweet little customer service girl telling me this! Luckily I had to do this all by conference call with my dad because something about being in EUROPE means that lovely little 800, or 888, or 877, or even 866 numbers so not work with my phone card! Lucky being that my dad can vouch or not for this little fee information availability. Thank you Carrefour for not having phone lines in our studios- because I’m not a responsible, university degree holding young adult! Argh! I hate phone booths! If I was the responsable for this place, I’d have at least put the phone booth in the inept salon de television, especially as that room is now empty due to someone STEALING the tv! Point being that it’s been a shocking and frustrating internet session tonight. But now that I’ve calmed down and emailed my parents for confirmation or at least to see if dad remembers if they said there would be a fee, I’m beginning to think that she did say something but I was so frustrated to have to had called dad to link me to the 800 number and to have been locked out for two weeks from my account… desperation, not the best situation to be in. Also, frustration is not so great, as it makes you write insane, run-on sentences that might not make sense to anyone reading my crazy blog.
In other parts of my internet world today, things were surprisingly nice. Mum’s mailing me a package with the lovely things I bought off Amazon.com (not Amazon.fr- as I wanted to order my dvd for zone 1) with the lovely gift card from my uncle for Christmas. It’s great when aunts and uncles give you gifts even though they really aren’t suppose to anymore –given that I’m well beyond the age limit of ten. Yay, I will so be the proud owner of my own dvd copy of Wet Hot American Summer!!!!!! I will also have my new yearly planner so maybe I can be slightly more organized than recently! In addition to this great celebration of capitalism and consumerism, I also had a lovely little note from Katie C. asking if I was truly the person she thought I was- meaning if my blog did belong to the person she thought it did. I adore getting comments so that simply made my day! So, yes, Katie, it is me! (Check out her blog- see Links!) And I also had an email from this cute little up-and-coming Cornell freshman. She’s currently studying as a Rotary Exchange Scholar here in France, only a few hours from me. I’m quite envious of her at the moment, as she’s living with a host family (a fabulous situation- albeit a little difficult at times, I know) and has just gone skiing in the Jura and is going to Brittany over February break. I wish I could do any of the above, but little problem of a below-starting level salary or lack of hours (depending on how you choose to look at it), student loans, and saving for Prague (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Hopefully we’ll get to meet sometime before I leave though, as she sounds lovely and is apparently as Francophile as the rest of us in the French Club at Cornell. (So you guys, new member coming soon!) Anna was also a Rotary Scholar in France before she came to Cornell. Though I think February break will be a good time for me to take a little day trip to Saarbrucken – a splurge, but what’s life without the little splurges. Plus I want to shop in Germany- as I think I like german clothes better than some of the French brands. Speaking of Germany, I haven’t yet blogged about the day trip to Trier in mid-January. Victoria, Jennifer and I decided to bust out of Metz for a Sunday and drive Baby Blue (for sale, available in July if you need a good car in France!) to Trier (Trêve) for the day. It was a darling little city- maybe the same size as Metz or smaller. It also reminded me loads of Metz, as it’s on a river in a valley and the hills surrounding it sort of look the same. Also in similarity to Metz- being on the confluence of the Moselle and Seille Rivers, Trier is on the confluence of the Mosel and Saar Rivers. Mosel is, btw, the same river but Germanic spelling of Moselle. Getting there also took us through the lovely wine country of Germany. So Trier has the most Roman ruins of any city north of the Alps, though I only saw one, the Porta Nigra. Interesting place, with a fascinating history I’m sure though I don’t really know it. Trier is also on the same Roman route as Metz I believe. It is also home to St. Gangolf church (ok, so I was definitely thinking of Gandolf when I saw that) and two lovely basilicas. The funniest bit of the day was looking into the HUGE baptismal font in the newer basilica and seeing the sign “Please do not throw in coins.” Ok, lol, I know that there are loads of people who are not catholic, but it sure does make me laugh that anyone would think that a christian church would have a wishing well in it! Hehehe… still giggling. I’ll try and get some photos posted soon. The main experience of that day trip being that I still do not know German, nor did I pick it up after one day of visiting with other Anglophones, and I am still inclined to just speak French when not in an anglo speaking area, regardless of the actual country or language. In other words, time to start on my second foreign language now. Do you have time in grad school to take things like language courses, does anyone know?
Ok, so I really feel as if I had more to write, but I’ve vented and that was my main point tonight. Apologies to everyone who endured it, but thanks too! And I’ve also babbled the rest of my way through another page of typing. Hope everyone’s enjoyed it! Enjoy the photos of Trier!
Also, for Laura. Thanks so much for your lovely updates of Alias! I truly do appreciate them, whenever you have the time to get to them! I’m content that you do not allow the desperation of a temporary ex-pat to dictate your time schedule! Louise and I are on pins and needles to we read your full description, but it’s great exercise! So thanks thanks thanks! Et merci beaucoup!
I’m just such a nice person…
Le 4 fevrier 2005.
I am just such a nice person that I almost forgot to rant about this, all until she made the error in judgement to depart and return to her next door studio, but neighbor French girl is insufferable. Not only did this girl decide about two weeks ago to mount a sign on the landing outside my door reminding everyone to be quiet past 11pm (aren’t there signs in everyone’s rooms stating 10pm???? Who here is illiterate in their native language?), she also posted this lovely little piece of “art” only in English. Hmm… at whom could she be ‘directing’ this little notice? Honestly! What are we, freshmen in the monk dorm? So after my eight hour day dealing with little French monsters I was not in the mood for an exhibition d’art nouveau, thus did the only imaginable thing possible and obeyed the “rules for peaceful living” in this …um.. place. I torn down the sign and took it to the administration. I proceeded to tell them I found the sign disrespectful and inconsiderate of others, the author intolerant and childish. It would have been one thing for the sign to be in French and English- at that point no harm could be presumed, and another all together to only be on my floor and quite obviously (from the yellow highlight used to make the sign) not from the direction. In my opinion, quite obviously someone did not have the capacity to act like the adults that are suppose to live in this part of the residence to at minimum approach the presumed transgressors and remind us of the quiet hours or to talk to the direction as the stupid contract we sign states we are suppose to do (it also specifically states we are NOT suppose to approach the other residents with issues but to go directly to the direction -????). I swear we live in a freshmen dorm. I also informed the direction that I felt it was extremely aggressive to be written only in English and made me feel completely unwelcome as a foreigner. I later found out it was my neighbor, and she was supposedly going to visit me to talk about the situation. (I of course couldn’t have just spoken with her as she didn’t even have the balls to sign her stupid little hall decoration!) Then about a week and a half later, after I’ve calmed down and decided that I was tired and over-reacted a bit, she bumps into me as I am arriving at my studio and she is leaving and we talk on the stupid cold landing. I say oh, well I probably over-reacted, sometimes we’re a bit loud but not purposefully so, and we understand the need for quiet, and she proceeds to tell me she understands English if I need to speak that instead (the nerve! And duh, the stupid sign was in English… do you think I’m blind, didn’t I see the sign which caused the problems) and goes on and on to tell me that she’s always woken up by loud footsteps and loud English in the middle of the nights and that there are people she knows in the building who have to be up at 5 am to go to work, etc etc etc… and at this point I start to get angry again. I mean I’ve just tried to be compromising and considerate, and she starts a rant about how rude we all are. What is it with people just putting every member of the same culture (in a small area) into the same group! Hello, stereotyping much! Haven’t you ever heard of being non-discriminate and thinking independently! In reply I calmly state, while this is quite true, we all (I must now defend the entire assistant colony in Carrefour, though we are NOT all Americans (of the United States variety) nor even Anglophones!) get up at about 6am on mornings we have to work. Hence, it’s irrational for her to think we couldn’t understand early morning rising! And that in addition to hearing English late at night, I have been kept awake by enough French at midnight or 1am on nights before I must rise at aforementioned 6am! Her reply to this is predictably, “oo, j’ai jamais entendre le français qui me reveiller.” Right, possibly for several reasons, ie : you don’t ‘want’ to hear it or you don’t notice it because it’s your native language ! O, for heaven’s sake! Right. All of this leading to me now paying attention to her comings and goings and I’ve yet to notice the girl wake before 9am (because there’s so much sound proofing in these walls!)… and finally to my need to rant tonight being that if I had needed to be asleep before midnight tonight, it definitely would not have happened because of loud FRENCH voices! And from where did they eminate???? Not the other next door neighbor, who is occasionally loud, but never after 12:15am—but NO, from evil, complaining, all-knowing, jerky next-door neighbor French girl. Not only which it was definitely past 12:30 when these LOUD French visitors did finally live making enough noise on the landing that I would have woken (regardless that I can sleep through tornado sirens). So in the sake of graciousness, thank heavens tomorrow is not a Friday I work and thank heavens for two-faced little 27-year-old French cretin girls who still live in a residence and not a proper apartment like a true adult. Grr.
Final note from the other week: I realized how quickly things become familiar. As I was walking through Place St. Louis and up rue d’Enfer and En Jurue, I noticed how comfortable I’ve become walking on the cobblestone streets, how easily it is for my feet to adjust automatically to the uneven rhythm of the road surface. Mostly I was noticing how familiar the buildings and walls and windows and rooflines of my neighborhood have become to me. I simply adore living in the oldest part of this 4000-year-old city.
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