Joyeux Noël

Here we are finally - Christmas vacation! Well not really there yet, I still have one full day of teaching tomorrow, but I won't have time to write before I start my crazy journey home.
The past few days have been quite solitary. With only two classes Monday and two today, I have a lot of free time on my own. This is something I wouldn't normally mind, but as Amy left last week to go back to England for the holidays, I couldn't help but feel a little alone here in Apt. However, I had much to keep myself busy with: cleaning, laundry, last minute Christmas shopping, reading and watching movies. And the thought that Friday evening I will be back with my family at home has been pushing me through these last days.

I decided to do a nice thing for all my teachers that I work with and wrote Christmas cards to them (in French) with Lindt truffles attached. I just couldn't help myself to get into the spirit of the season, and I think that they really appreciated them.

Christmas cheer!

Plus, I also received a very nice card in return from one of the teachers. It is this simple gesture that warms my heart this time of year. Not only that but they had been planning on trying to have a Christmas get-together with all the English teachers based on my schedule, but unfortunately everyone is extremely busy this time of year so they promised to have a dinner and invite me in January. I was touched knowing that they tried either way, and am excited to be able to even have the opportunity to see and speak with them outside of school.

She even drew a snowman on the envelope!

Hectic doesn't even begin to describe tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow I will teach six classes and have a two hour lunch, which I must run back to my apartment and grab my bags and make sure everything is in order before I leave.* Then, a quick bus to Avignon to stay at Liz's and after a short night's sleep, we are taking a 5am TGV to Paris. With navigation of the metro to Charles de Gaulle, I have a flight from Paris-Montreal, then Montreal-Chicago. Even with the three hour drive home from there, I know I won't care as I will be with family! I cannot even begin to describe the excitement I have to be home and to see family and friends. I am so happy and grateful for the amazing opportunity to be living in France for this year, but there is nothing like being home for the holidays. So, until January when I return to France, I am saying au revoir to this blog - I am going to profitez-bien this time with those I love most. So to you and yours, joyeux noël et bonne année!

One last holiday window mural

*I say grab my bags because I have only 20 minutes to catch the bus to Avignon after class, which doesn't leave me enough time to go back and fetch them. So instead, I am relying on the women at la loge, whom I haven't asked yet, to let me leave them there for my afternoon classes. Here's hoping that I can!

Marvelous Mardi

As the first day back from a long vacation, I dreaded getting out of bed this morning. The one thing making me feel the slightest bit better was the beautiful sun rising into the cloudless blue sky.* After seeing all the statuses from back in Michigan talking about the white-out conditions and the gross snow-rain combination that the mitten is known for, I happily jumped out of bed and got ready to face the day of assisting.

My first class today was my best class I have had yet here in France. I took 12 students for an entire hour and they were attentive, curious and gushing to participate. It was so nice that my lesson, which involved describing people, kept their attention and evoked conversations of new vocabulary. I first had them describe various celebrities, like Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, etc. They had to each say one sentence about the stars, and say something that hadn't been said before. That was not a problem though, as they had so many opinions of these people that they could've talked for hours! After, we played Who Am I, the game where you pick another person in the class and describe them as if you were them, while the whole class guesses who you are based on the description. This proved to be a good review of vocabulary and they had fun describing their friends.

After a successful lesson, I walked out into the crisp air to the loge, or the front gate, and found a package from my parents! Although life in France is amazing, care packages from home make this place even better, as they sent things that I can not find here, like my acne face wipes, Apple Cinnamon Cheerios (my favorite cereal), Buncha Crunch (my favorite candy), and Fantasy Bars made with love by my mother. AND, most importantly, they not only sent me pumpkin filling, but all the other necessary ingredients to make a pumpkin pie! Including pie pans and the recipe itself! As Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I have been a little blue that I will be missing it this year, I am so happy I can have a little piece of it here in France with me. However, we don't have an oven here at the apartment, so I am on the hunt for an oven to use and people to spend this Thanksgiving tradition with.**

EEK!

Even down to the spices pre-measured and mixed in a container, everything to make the delicious Thanksgiving dessert! I wonder where I get my organizational skills from...

Mom's famous Fantasy Bars (aka Seven Layer Bars, Crack Bars, etc)

Goodies! My parents are the best

Happy girl!

After lunch and basking in the sunshine a bit, I returned to class. Except, after waiting 5 minutes in front of my classroom, with neither the teacher or the class there, I was told by another English teacher I work with that they were at the cinema this hour. In Apt this week, there is a prestigious African film festival. As the school supports the town in its ventures, during this week, there are many classes going to see the films. I had already known one of my classes tomorrow was going to see one, but was unaware of this class. So I was free to go, but instead sat in on another class for the hour, where he worked me into the lesson talking about progress. Mostly, this just required me to answer questions about freedoms in America, and got into a heated debate about the right to bear arms. Never know quite what to expect during my days as an assistant, but today was definitely a good day, or as I am dubbing it, a marvelous mardi.

*I know I am constantly talking about the sunshine here, but I honestly don't think I will ever get sick of it! Or talking about it.
**FRENCH FRIENDS - Tradesies: I will give you an amazing, delicious, homemade pumpkin pie if you give me access to your oven and will put up with me as I exercise this Thanksgiving tradition. Deal?

Home Improvement

The past four days have been a lovely long weekend here in Provence. I am sitting in my kitchen looking out onto the sun setting over the hills. Although the blue skies and sunshine never seem to fade, there are some autumn traces starting to show, with the gusting chilly wind and the colors of the foliage starting to yellow.

View from my kitchen window this evening.

On Friday, Amy and I ventured into Avignon to try and figure out our phone situation. Originally, we had planned to just keep our pay as you go phones, as it seemed the cheapest option. However, rates changed and it made more sense for us to go to a different store and sign up for a monthly plan. When we got there though, we were told that we would have to buy a new phone entirely to take full advantage of the internet that comes with the plan. Not expecting the prices of the phones to be so high, and while re budgeting my entire month's allowance in my head, the salesperson ran back in telling us he had a solution: the Telib. Now, the velibs are quite popular here in France: they are public bikes you can pick up from their various stations along the street, after it reads your credit card of course. You can ride the bike around town as much as you please, just as long as you put it back in a marked velib spot once you are done. If you don't return it, that is when you get fined and your card gets charged. Besides this, it is entirely free!

Virgin has taken this idea and applied it to phones: for 20 euro a month, I will get unlimited calls, texts, and 10 Go of internet on a smartphone with all apps provided. And the best part, I am in essence borrowing the phone, so I don't pay for it! When I am done using it at the end of this school year, all I have to do is return it to the store. Pretty awesome, right? Not so awesome: they were out of these phones when we were there, so we are returning Wednesday afternoon to officially get this plan.*

After the visit to the phone shop, Amy and I indulged a bit and went to IKEA. As I had never been to one before, it was quite overwhelming! But I was happy to get many things to make the apartment feel more like home. After sprucing this place up, I do have to say that it feels much better to spend time here.

New bedding, rug and blanket. And yes, the color theme was on purpose. Not pictured but also part of the home improvements: a new lamp, cinnamon candle and a new shower caddy!

Saturday morning was another typical day of wandering around the market. I happened to notice the amount of stares I was getting though - as since it was a beautiful day, I was wearing a t-shirt, jeans and sandals. Passing by a vendor visibly shivering while bundled in a winter coat and scarf, hiding his hands underneath his legs for extra warmth, I thought only one thing - you think this is cold?! Come to Michigan, man! That morning we also spent some time at our favorite Bar l'Aptois, where I checked off another thing from my bucket list here: I tried a cafe au lait. I wouldn't say I liked the first sip, but as I kept drinking it, I did learn to enjoy the taste quite a bit.

The rest of Saturday and Sunday was spent at home, reading, relaxing, cleaning** and watching movies. During these past few days, I have also been trying to plan many trips, which I will reveal later on. But there is one trip that I can't hold in, because I am so excited about it! I am so grateful that as my Christmas present this year, my family has helped me a buy a ticket back home for the holidays! Though I was not planning on going back to the States until next May, I cannot say how thrilled I am to be able to see family and friends, especially during the holiday season! I am enjoying my life here in France and traveling around Europe, but there is nothing like being home for the holidays.

Also part of the home improvement. Can you tell I am excited for Christmas??

Today, Amy and I decided to make a little hike to a nearby town called Gargas. After walking for an hour, we stopped for refreshment and a bit of discount shopping and then, having realized we didn't really know where we had to proceed to get to the town, we turned back to Apt. Either way, it was a nice way to get out of the apartment, enjoy the beautiful weather and exercise a bit. And we decided to practice our French on the way back, something we are going to try to push ourselves to do more often when we are around the apartment.

Tomorrow ends our long weekend of relaxation, with classes once again. I quite enjoy going back to teaching after the week end though - it gives me something extra to busy myself with. Until then, enjoying this lovely evening here in the South of France.

*Typical day here in France: don't ever expect for things to be done the same day you go out to take care of a certain task. You will almost always have to return.
**I see your face reading that, Mom. Yes, I know - it is hard to believe.

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye....

So here we are: last day in the U.S.A. until about June of next year.* I never thought this day would come; I have spent so long waiting for this grand adventure to begin and now that it is here, I feel like that I haven't had enough time to prepare. I always tend to get a tad nervous before traveling, especially when flying as I do have a bit of flight anxiety**, so these past few days have been stressful to say the least. But I know it will be all worth it once I am there and settled in.

I have been "packing" for weeks. My definition of packing: sorting through all my junk into piles, whittling those piles down with copious edits, doing numerous test packs with weighing my bag, writing down what items I still need, etc. After 3 test packs, countless edits, and several hours of planning and strategy, I have fit all of my necessary belongings in 1 checked bag, 1 carry on and 1 over-sized purse. Now, I am planning on paying overweight charges for my bag (as when I did the final weigh in, it clocked in at 60 lb for my checked bag) but this is a much better deal than paying for another checked bag with the airline I am taking.

9 months worth of stuff (not pictured but also packed: black pea coat, set of bed sheets)

My carry-on and suitcase pre-packing. And look at the shoes: REALLY had to consolidate here.

Mostly, I brought a lot of basics that I can layer once it starts getting colder. I am lucky that I will be living in the south, where I have heard it doesn't get too cold during the winter season. Some of the more odd items that I packed: 1 roll of toilet paper, a set of bed sheets, 2 cell phones, copies of a couple one act drama pieces and maps of MI and the U.S.*** To explain the toilet paper, I will be getting into my town later in the day so I won't really have a chance to go out and get any once I arrive (and the secretary of the school included a reminder in an email that they don't provide this for the rooms, merci beaucoup!)

So I guess this is au revoir for right now until I get overseas! I leave tomorrow from Chicago at 6pm and won't arrive in my new home of Apt until 4:30pm the following day (if you are not keeping track with the math: that means I will be traveling for about 18 HOURS). Although I will be using this as often as I can to share my experiences with all of you, I know that I don't have internet/wifi immediately when I get there. Once I have it, you will be greeted with many stories and pictures!

I hate goodbyes (not taking into account the title of this post), so to everyone reading this from the U.S., I am going to say à bientôt : see you soon! To France, I am going to say allons-y: let's go!

*I say June.. but it will probably be more like the end of May, haven't bought my return ticket home yet.

**This may be the biggest understatement in this blog. 

***I am bringing these items to use in the classroom, one of my coordinating teachers has told me that I will be able to help out with a theatre club while I am there. Putting my performing knowledge to use!

I'll miss you most of all, when autumn leaves start to fall....

Reflecting on my last few weeks here in the U.S., I have been thinking about how many things I am going to miss about this country. Again, I am so excited to spend this year abroad, but everyone always misses home, right? So here's my list of things that I am anticipating missing from my homeland:

1. Family and friends. I think this really goes without explaining but living an ocean away from all the people closest to me is going to be really difficult.

2. Color Guard. It's hard to think that an activity that I have performed and instructed in for the past 10 years does not exist in the country I am moving to. I will miss it dearly as well as all my best friends in the activity, my Interplay family, and all of the students I instruct. It's gonna be weird to not be around for the fall or winter season.

IP love. <3

Will miss the students at Hudsonville (above) and Portage Northern (below). Enjoy every moment performing this year!

It's hard enough being an age-out, will miss performing in this activity as well as being able to easily watch it.

3. Driving in my car. With all the instructing and out of town friends I have, I am used to doing a lot of driving. I actually really love it - the freedom of driving down an open road. Going to really miss that liberating feeling.

4. Working a 40 hour work week. Yeah, you heard it - I really think I am going to miss that. I am the type of person who genuinely likes being busy. I feel like I am going to have to try to not be bored with the 12 hour work week that I will have in France.

5. Fall in Michigan. I am so happy that I am living in the South of France, with it's warm climate and beautiful sunny days by the coast. But autumn in the mitten is my favorite season of the year, and I already know that I will miss the beautiful colors of the foliage and brisk afternoons walks at home.

Pure Michigan.

Looks exactly like my drive home. Who wouldn't love to drive down this everyday?

And who can forget about my love of corn mazes!

Love the apple orchards in the mitten, a fall tradition!

6. Peanut Butter. Kind of in love this stuff, and it is definitely not the same overseas.

My american guilty pleasure.

7. Holidays at home. Especially my favorite, Thanksgiving, which doesn't exist in France. And get this, pumpkins are really hard to find! Looks like no pumpkin pie this year.

Anyone want to send this in a care package?

8. Baking. I don't have an oven in my apartment, which means that I can't practice my favorite stressed-out pastime of baking goodies.

Deserved a re-post.

9. Being able to turn on the TV or radio and easily understand every word.

10. Easily getting things whenever I want them. There are no 24 hour stores in France and most things are closed on Sunday.

A little bit of Michigan 24-hour accessibility.

11. Country Music. Summertime, beer, tractors and trucks all sung with a twang. I know it's pathetic, but it sings to my soul! 

12. Lake Michigan. Although I will be 2-3 hours away from the Mediterranean coast, I am going to miss the easy drive to South Haven, my freshwater paradise.

Just a typical evening at Lake Michigan.

And the beautiful Michigan sunsets over the lake, gonna miss that too!

I'm sure I could go on with things that I will miss, but that is not the point of this experience. I am going to France to be thrown out of my comfort zone and to learn to thrive within this new world, to grow as a person and find new things to become accustomed to. Still, I thought I would show just a few aspects of home that I will surely be missing while I'm gone.

10 jours and then I will be gone for 9 months. Time is passing very quickly...

'merica, I won't miss you

Land of the free, home of the brave, God bless the USA! 

Really though, there is a reason I decided to leave the country for a year.* I love this nation that I am a part of but sometimes, she can really got on my nerves. Reflecting on my pet peeves of the red, white, and blue makes France look better and better each day - here's a list of things I WON'T miss during my year away from the States.

1. Walmart. Besides finding things for ridiculously low prices, this place purely just screams consumerism to me. I am glad to be rid of the temptation of going here for a year.

Look at that maniacal face. Sucks the soul out of you every time.

2. McDonalds. And Burger King. And really just all fast food. Having fresh produce and bread available every day is going to be amazing!

A typical golden arches meal (especially after Interplay rehearsal)

3. Snow. Except for that one-honeymoon-period-occurance of snow that can only happen on christmas eve, I will be happy to be rid of that white, fluffy, wet stuff for a year.

Good riddance.

4. Reality TV. With the obvious exception of the Bachelor, which I will be watching on Project Free TV for sure.

Yeah, not missing much here.

I will accept my rose overseas, Juan Pablo!

5. Paying (or caring about) the ever-changing gas prices. Although I love driving, it is going to be nice to not think about gas and "How many cents did it go up?" each day. Yay for awesome public transportation!**

My thought when passing by gas stations everyday.

Ok so there aren't that many annoyances on this list. I think I forgot a lot of them, probably blocked them out of my mind as they are happening. Really, I am going to miss very many things being away from home (stay tuned for another post).

'merica and all your nuisances, goodbye for now!

*Besides the fact that I am an insufferable francophile.

**And walking. Lots of walking