Whatever happened to my "Transylvania Twist?"

Apparently last night was a big growing up night for me. It's suddenly very clear that I am no longer in college or working for a company with a college-aged mindset!

That's right, bars here (and in most of the real world I suspect) are NOT open on random Tuesday nights! Maybe during the summer, but now that it's considered winter season, no longer. I never thought I'd miss that about Santa Barbara!

After wandering around Juan-les-Pins and Antibes for about 40 minutes last night, Natalie, Kathy and I stumbled across the only illuminated sign advertising Café Cozy down some dark alleyway in Vieux Antibes. And what a surprise it turned out to be!

At first I doubted it'd be open, since everything else happened to be closed, but looking through the wooden door, I noticed that the place was jumping! Granted, there were only about five tables and the room was sort of this hollowed-out cavern in the side of a building with interior cobblestone walls. Nevertheless, the bar was serving and we were freezing with a light drizzle beginning to tumble from the heavens.

It was certainly one of the most laid-back, mellow bars I've ever came across, playing ambient Jack Johnson music. Despite its European atmosphere, I felt like this is something that could definitely do well in Santa Barbara. I ordered an Irish coffee first, while the other girls tried flavored light beers and then we capped off the evening with a round of mulled wine! Best drink, EVER! Next time I go back to Williams Sonoma in the United States, I'm loading up on mulling spices.

As we were finishing our drinks, I cozied up in my big, fluffy arm chair gripping my cup of warm, heavenly goodness and could easily imagine chilly snowdrift making its way into the room whenever patrons entered and exited the building. Nestling up just below the heater also helped give the impression that we were in some winter resort for the evening.

But alas, we stepped out into the mildly-tempered and rainy night barely covered in our jackets and headed back home to close out a wonderful evening.

And now it's Halloween and I think we're going to celebrate by watching dubbed Halloween movies on the French family channel! I've looked up dessert recipes for Halloween cookies and bubbly beverages so that we can hit up the grocery store and make festive treats for the evening.

Then tomorrow I'm off to the Loire Valley!

Weight/exercise tracker, 31/10/07:
Weighing in at 59 kilos today, ran 2.1 miles and did 80 sit-ups.

And thanks to my discovery of MapMyRun.com's "My Training" feature, I've learned that I have either ran or walked a total of 17.66 miles, burning 1,392 calories since Sunday. And my clothes still don't fit. Sorry if I seem totally obsessed by all of this right now, but for some reason EVERY single time I come to France I balloon up and pack on the pounds. It's really getting me down, to the point where I don't want to even eat all this delicious food anymore. Even if I am working out regularly/compulsively every day...

Currently Playing: "Monster Mash," by Bobby Pickett.

Happy Halloween!

Boob-Toobin' in France

I have recently discovered the ARTE+7 channel and am now hooked! Just imagine whatever equivalent of a high-fashion channel in the U.S. is, combined with either TLC/HGTV, sprinkled with a bit of the Food Network, and the neat cultural parts of PBS (like the art, biography and opera segments) and you've got the French Arte Canal!

My favorite is a show called "Chic," which obviously is targeted at women -- and/or gay men. But they interview really interesting people like underground artists, show neat recipes and then how to cook the meals, and there's also a section called before and after, in which views send in their ready-made or wearable art.

...I really should get out more. And OH YES, last night Brice de Nice was completely ridiculous, just as I imagined. Supposedly the character is based off a French You-Tube Internet star (see below) and the movie's script is sort of based off Keanu Reeves' Point Break. Even though I was alone in my living room, I definitely laughed out loud and said "WHAT THE F?!" to myself (in haute voix) over six times. Super strange, but pretty funny.




And yessss to discovering that 700€ magically appeared in my checking account! Now my month here has been financially validated -- thank you French government! -- and I can STOP taking money out of my U.S. account and live solely on the Euro. That means, NO MORE DOLLAR-EURO CONVERSIONS!!! And the best part is that I get the other 25% of my paycheck, in addition to 100% of next month's at the end of November. Things are certainly looking up.

Now if only I could get my carte de séjour... (and start losing weight, fast!)

Weight/exercise tracker, 30/10/07:
Weighing in at 59 kilos today, ran 1.5 miles and did 50 sit-ups.

Say "CHEESE"

Since I've been taking billions of pictures here, I've decided to go with a better online storage site to keep all of my photos.

You can view them all here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mmoyal85

Today I took about a 10-mile trek from my house all the way around the Cap d'Antibes. Well, it wasn't all the way around, I got turned around on one of the side roads, so in reality it was probably closer to eight miles... and I took the bus back home ;)

Next time I'm going to do the whole trail because today I was unsuccessful in finding F. Scott Fitzgerald's house and the famous Eden Roc Hotel where Ernest Hemingway and Madonna have stayed in their lifetimes.

Oh yeah, Brice de Nice is on M6 tonight at 8:50! I've never seen it, but supposedly it's the French version of a cheezy 90s surfer film, so I really can't wait to see how great it's going to be.

Either way, here's some of what I saw:

Love hurts, yeah yeah.

I guess the difference between you and me is that when I said, "I love you," I actually meant it.

I drove a car!!!

...for the first time in over a month!

...in France!

...and it was a stick!

Ok, enough of that. But basically, my roommate and I've been having some bonding moments which I've been lacking to say the least since I've been here. Yeah she's like 35 or something and she can be kind of a psycho, but she's really starting to warm up to me! I'm even making jokes in French :) That's a step in the right direction.

But basically she had the be at the train station at 9:45 this morning to catch her train to Lyon. So last night she asked if I had a permis de conduire, and somehow I found myself offering to drop her off at the station this morning. However, I realized I wasn't sure how to get there -- which was totally inaccurate! Taking the bus every day has its perks, because I knew exactly the roads to take to get to the train station.

The next hurdle was parking. Oh yeah, and driving the stick-shift. See, the gears are all different here than what I was used to on my Explorer, so we left a little early so I could give it a test-drive before dropping her off. I'm a little rusty, but the car's still in perfect shape haha. The only slight problem was driving up the hill to get into our apartment's parking lot. I accidentally shifted into a higher gear and stalled the car on the hill, oops. So I let it roll back to a flat area, and tried a second, successful time.

Oh the other "bonding" moment we had was yesterday when she came home for lunch. She just had her hair cut and apparently it was a new girl this time, because she had two clearly different lengths on the right and left sides. It wasn't even a diagonal in the back, it was like two distinct levels. So she had me cut it down to the same, even length. Then she offered to give me the address so I could get a cheap haircut, too! I actually passed on the offer, because I kind of like having my hair straight...

And one thought crossed my mind last night as I was watching t.v. (which, I'm understanding more and more every day!)

Other than the news, these are the shows I watch most often:

-That 70s Show
-Friends
-The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
-The Simpsons
-Sex and the City

All dubbed over in French... hmmm, do we see a trend here? The other two I find myself watching are French-studio filmed episodes of 1 Contre 100 and La Roue de la Fortune (1 vs. 100 and Wheel of Fortune). However, the French versions involve much more talking and noticeably smaller prizes.

And now it's already 11 a.m. and I really, really want to make lunch. But I just ate. I'm trying to restrain myself, but the day seems so long since today was our Daylight Savings time. Karina woke me up at 8 a.m. (which was really 7 a.m.) and freaked out, asking if it was really 7 a.m. or 9 a.m. When I reassured her it was the former, she calmed down. So now my day seems much longer. But if you ever want to Skype me, I'm only 8 hours ahead of you now... until the U.S. catches up in November.

P.S. (UPDATE): During my run today, I happened to notice that 99% of the snow up in the mountains has already melted. Since it's another beautiful day, I'm going to assume that yesterday MORNING was the only time is was cold enough to actually allow for snow. This must be nature's way of saying, "Chill the F out, it's still autumn!"

Snow in the mountains!

That's right, it's 65 degrees in Antibes and snowing in the mountains of Nice!

Now that I'm off the hook from teaching for about two weeks, I can start to do things I haven't had time for here in Antibes! Or things I haven't been adventurous enough to experience over the past month.

So after my usual day-off trip to the médiathèque, I noticed that the mountains in Nice were covered in snow and really wanted to take some pictures. Not long after I realized it was a beautiful day! And the rest is history :) I headed out to Fort Carré and Port Vaubin to read my newest book from the library -- For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, in French of course. Hanging out at the port made me realize that I need to start making some friends down there! Entire groups of French, English and New Zelanders were sitting in their yachts, basking in the sun and eating their lunch. Actually, it was more like they were beginning their apéro just before lunch. I could smell the pastis a mile away! (Or should I put that in metric??)

Speaking of food, I really need to calm down. I've definitely gained some weight again, UGH. But it's so SO hard to restrain oneself with all the brioche, pain au chocolat, bon-bons, Pims, biscuits, tartes aux fruits, etc. I guess I've put the expression, "Like a kid in a candy shop," to shame. My clothes still fit the same, but I noticed that I'm not looking the same as before I left...

However, the one thing I'm really bummed about during this vacation time is that I can't eat in the cantines at my schools anymore, well until I go back to teaching next month. Three-course 2 Euro meals were AWESOME! But maybe taking a break from those will do me some good as well.

So I've made the decision to stop buying cookies and nutella! My new snack of choice is first a large bottle of water, and then some fruit. I've been running a lot lately and doing a bunch of sit-ups, so hopefully I'll get back to what I was before. Pace yourself, Monique.

Wish me luck!!

What part of LOCKBOX don't you understand?

After yesterday's Grenelle de l'environment (French envoironmental summit) where headlining invitee was Al Gore -- go figure -- the French media is going public with more designs to combat global warming.

Let me get this off my chest before I go any further. Al Gore, Nobel prize winner, should NOT BE INVOLVED WITH ALL OF THIS. Other than putting his name and voice over a movie, what has he done to help us counter the effects of global warming? What are his new designs and inventions? All he's doing is giving us really vague over-used sayings, such as "If you want to go quickly, go alone, if you want to go far, go together. Our challenge is to go far quickly." And how would he suggest we do that?

"We need a 'Grenelle mondial' so that we can all go far quickly." You mean like the one at which you're already the guest speaker?!?

Really Al Gore? You just happened to be in the right place at the right time. All the attention he's getting is ridiculous. Kind of like back when he claimed to have invented the Internet.

Ok, sorry for the little rant. But supposedly he was only at the grenelle because they wanted to send a message to George Bush. As in, "We're inviting your presidential opponent because we support him more than you and your cabinet." And oh yeah, after Gore spoke, many French reporters made fun of his one minor attempt to speak French. I think they just wanted a humorous guest to keep the entertained.

Anways, supposedly lots of major French cities are either doing so already, or planning on building light-rail trams in the center of every town to block car traffic. The thinking behind that is people NEED to go downtown, so they'll have to use public transit and cut down the gaseous emissions that cars produce.

That's all nice and well -- BUT FRANCE, YOU'RE ALWAYS STRIKING!!!

And it continues today. Air France is starting to strike now for hundreds of domestic flights. The SNCF national train society still is not back to running 100 percent of its trains, and the buses in my city alone are still striking every Thursday and in the middle of the day. Apparently hotels are going to start doing the same now that a two-week national holiday begins for all of the schools.

Whatever. At least I get two weeks off. Hopefully the trains and hotels I reserved to go to Tours next week will still be valid. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

I leave you now with one of my FAVORITE SNL skits mocking Al Gore during the 2000 presidential bash:

There are some of you would like to spend our money on some made-up war. To you I say, "What part of lockbox don't you understand?" What if there's a hurricane or a tornado? Unlikely I know, because of the anti-hurricane and tornado machine I was instrumental in helping to develop…but what if? What if the scientists are right and one of those giant glaciers hits Boston? That's why we have the lockbox.

Time for Halloween, time for Halloween!

Halloween chez la classe CM1 de M. Cuevlier

I’m beginning to think that my posts are losing their cohesiveness….

Oh well, welcome to my jumbled brain :)

Today I got to experience the first rain here in France. Technically it’s already rained, but I was safely tucked away in the warmth of my large bed. It actually wasn’t much to write home about. This morning the sky was gray and ugly like it’s been the past few days, but the wind chill effect was missing -- which is a good thing in my opinion. Then when I went back to school for lunch, there was a slight drizzle. But I was already wearing a baseball hat and hoodie (I’ll explain later) so nary a drop landed on me. When we had that midnight thunderstorm two weeks ago, there was lightning and fat, heavy drops of water pelting the roof. I want to experience something like that during the day here!

Someone in my building recently got a new pet, because this little gray and white kitten is at the stoop from time to time. Today I saw him again and he’s really playful and loving. I suspect this was the first time he’s ever experienced a “rain storm,” though I’d hardly call it that, because he was crying on the stoop until I came to his rescue. I cuddled and played with him for about five minutes before making my way towards La Tournière for my lunch. But the poor little thing scurried after me, trying to either fit under the protection from my umbrella, or running after me under the shelter of nearby parked cars.

When I finally arrived at the cantine, we had a really delicious and slightly eclectic lunch. It consisted of a fusili pasta salad for the first course -- cold pasta, olive oil, cheese and tomatoes, followed by ratatouille and an omelet for the main course -- not sure why, but EVERYONE here always serves eggs with their ratatouille -- and then fruit-flavored fromage blanc for dessert. I had two ;) framboise and then abricot, raspberry and apricot. As always, I’m immensely enjoying the 2,70 € lunches with which the schools provide me! (And no, it’s not an error, they write 2,70 € instead of our $2.70)

Now here I sit in the salle des maîtres waiting for the bell to ring so I can go to my last classes of the day. In the first two, I’ve already had the kids act out trick-or-treating with much success. Then we played songs like Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, Phantom of the Opera, and the Adam’s Family while creating a haunted house-like ambiance in the rooms. This was achieved by turning off all the lights and closing the curtains as well as chanting “OOOOOHHHHH,” from time to time. I can’t believe how simple the activities have been and how amused the children are by them! The boys absolutely adore acting out trick or treating, because their objective is to scream it so loud that it makes the kid opening the door tremble with fear, or jump out in surprise.

After all, that IS the goal of Halloween, right? Bien joué, les gamins. (Well-played, kids).

This afternoon and tomorrow I have my older classes, so I’ve actually assigned them homework which was to make Halloween masks. I’m very interested to see what they come up with. And if there’s time, we’re going to read selections from a book of Monster Poems I found at the médiathèque. :) So that is why I am wearing a baseball hat today. I’m decked out in my David Wright Met’s jersey and my San Francisco All-Star Game baseball cap with braided pigtails underneath. My costume for the kids is a baseball player! Yeah, I figure the bat girl concept would have been lost on them anyhow…

Figures, when I left the apartment this morning, my roommate was shocked with my choice of costume.

“But you’re not a witch or something else scary,” she declared, perplexed.

I see that I still have a lot of explaining to do here regarding American traditions and institutions! I only wish it was appropriate to show pictures of Halloween in Isla Vista to clear things up. Then again, no. I don’t. Tomorrow you’ll get another update on how the older classes and my second school take to the Halloween festivities…

You don't know cold...

And apparently, neither do I. But in two months' time, I will. That's right, because Aimée and I will be making our way to Geneva, Switzerland. Or for those in need of visual assistance, here:

The hotels in Geneva, Lyon and Paris are all booked from December 26th through January 3, 2008! And even though this looks extremely ridiculous, I'm very, very excited!! Understatement. Especially after finding this little number on a Geneva festivals/events website:

Christmas is a special time when Geneva goes all out to bring some good old fashioned Christmas cheer to the city to help chase away the winter blahs. The International Christmas Market at Fusterie Square features hand made folk arts and crafts from throughout Switzerland as well as numerous food stalls, all housed in quaint miniature wooden chalets along the main shopping street. Free Open Air Skating is available at Place du Rhone with skate rentals for SFr. 6 for adults and SFr. 3 for children. The annual Christmas Tree Festival is a unique event presenting an array of trees and sculptures designed by renowned international artists on display throughout the city (see www.festivalarbresetlumieres.ch for more details). Finally, for the very adventurous, there is the annual Christmas Swimming Cup. The mid-December event draws over 600 swimmers who brave the icy waters to race from the Jardin Anglais to the Quai General Guisan.

This is promising because at the onset of my trip out here, I was super bummed I'd be away from everyone for Christmas. And since it's such a huge family event chez nous, it would be super strange not to start decorating trees or wrapping presents, listening to (insanely played-out) Christmas tunes and all the other fun things that go along with that. But we'll get to experience the 12 desserts of Christmas at Jean-Claude's and see all the left-over decorations in Geneva, Lyon and Paris -- where we'll also be celebrating the New Year festivities! But I will have someone from my family alongside!

Our hotel in Switzerland is blocks away from the train station, Lake Geneva, as well as the center of town, where one can find all sorts of neat castles and of course, the UN and (Swiss) Red Cross buildings. If the weather ends up being like the picture above, we could always sprint back to the hotel for an hour or two and sip some scalding beverages at the cafe and prep ourselves to run back out into the wild again. If nothing else, I would absolutely love to freeze my ass off in order just to get a look at the beautiful countryside! Or I could just sack up and register for the SWIMMING CUP. And then immediately die of hypothermia.... I'll pass, thanks.

And even though my parents have generously agreed (with some coaxing on mine and Aimée's parts) to fund our hotel stays, I plan on paying for nearly everything else on my own.

Which leads me into my next big piece of news: I've come in contact with a woman with multi-country citizenship who's currently writing her second novel. She's moving to Nice in less than a week and is in need of someone to babysit her daughter for 30 hours a week while she goes into hermitage to write. And she's sought me out for the job!

This is a very exciting opportunity (I need to get more creative with my adjectives, seeing as how "exciting" is bleeding through this entire post) for multiple reasons. A.) I'm coming into contact with a published, American author. Maybe this could strike up some sort of connection for the future...? I could always be a second pair of eyes to look over things if she wants and who knows, maybe my name will be in the acknowledgments section? And B.) Extra cash!! Thirty hours of cash-only work will come in very handy when I want to make these kinds of trips. Especially since she's not arriving until I come back from the Loire Valley in November, and she's going back to the U.S. mid-December for all the winter holidays -- when I will be traveling with my sister!

All in all, things are starting to look very, very good for me here. Now if only I could start making some local, French-speaking friends...

Oh yeah, and did I mention that I finally got my bank card and a free booklet of checks today?! No more taking money out of my American account and paying conversion fees for the exchange rate with my Bank of America ATM card!!!

Choke Artists!!

With the World Series coming up very, very soon, I'm starting to regain some interest in the teams left.

But that's because -- with the exception of Boston -- the teams still in contention were absolute shockers, the Colorado Rockies in the NL and the Cleveland Indians in the AL.

I was really pulling for this to be a Cleveland-Colorado series, because they would be such a testament to the thriving nature of the game. If the Rockies end up winning the Fall Classic, that will be the eighth different franchsize to claim the MLB title since 2000, when the Yankees last won it for the third-consecutive year.

But alas, the Boston Red Sox came in and did what they did best as of late, refused to succumb to a 1-3 ALCS deficit. After a 11-2 dismantling of the Tribe, I'm beginning to think the BoSox are hiding all of their offensive power to sneak up on teams late in the series to keep things interesting. Whatever, as long as it's not the Yankees!

Curse of the Bambino my ass...

There's no baseball in France!

This post (second of the day) has absolutely NOTHING to do with France. Though I will say that since I've been here, I feel extremely disconnected from the American sports scene. Except one French channel does air its own version of the NFL Sunday Ticket. Other than that, all my current U.S. sports knowledge comes from my iGoogle homepage.

In the wake of major MLB transactions like the Giants buying out Barry Zito's seven-year $126 million contract, I'm amazed that things are still skyrocketing like they are.

As a loyal A's fan, I can be the first to tell you that Zito was never in his career worth that tab. Not even 2002, during his reign as the AL Cy Young recipient. He is not that kind of a workhorse and he should not be the No. 1 starter on any roster, because he is too inconsistent and erratic. I think he's a nice compliment to any other hard-throwing ace and would fill out a rotation nicely as a No. 3 Sunday-type starter.

After finishing the 2007 campaign 11-13 with a 4.53 ERA, it seems the Giants have a long six years ahead of them if Zito is going to continue to be their opening day starter.

I also think it's funny (and totally predictable) how Zito's own money-hungry agent, Scott Boras, hasn't stopped there. His next big-name deal -- and trust me, this one's going to be even bigger if he can land it -- lies in Alex Rodriguez. Now that the Yankees don't seem to have the same magical spark they squandered 10 years ago, the New York organization might be in for a very big change.

A-Rod's contract with the Yankees was hands-down the largest any player has signed in the history of baseball. And he now has a very short window to decide if he wants to move on elsewhere and either a.) join a winning team, b.) go back to winning some gold glove hardware, or c.) all of the above.

The Yankees are one of the only organizations that truly disgusts me and I'm going to be very, very interested to see just who stays and who's let go (manager Joe Torre included in the names of people being re-evaluated this off-season) in the upcoming weeks and months.

Which reminds me, BEST QUOTE FROM AN ARTICLE EVER:

Hank Steinbrenner believed the Yankees' offer was fair and that Torre needed to accept some of the blame for the team's zero championships since 2000.

There are actually a few rumors that since the Giants have parted ways with Barry Bonds, A-Rod could be the next player with a comparable salary and offensive ability to fill the void. I just hope that Bonds gets passed up on by every organization. Personally, I think it would be a complete shame to have as selfish a player as Barry Bonds land in the American League and only play a few games a week to exploit the hell out of the all-time HR record with no regards or concern for his current team -- whoever that may be during the 2008 season.

But then again, this IS the MLB. With salaries being what they are, the team-mindset is quickly turning into more of a myth than an actual clubhouse philosophy.

I think I'm getting sick

A couple of things.

First, the next time I go to the grocery store, I AM NOT ALLOWED TO BUY ANYMORE SUGAR. Such as Nutella (and crackers/cookies to go along with it), no more Kinder chocolate bars, no more Pims cookies, no more ice cream!!

My stomach is aching so bad because I just went on this little binge and cleared out my bottle of Nutella. It was very delicious, but totally unnecessary.

Plus, I realized I'm going to the grocery store and spending over 30 Euros once or twice a week. If I cut down my dessert/snack consumption, I think I'll be spending less and buying more grains/produce. Although, the desserts really are each under 2 Euros apiece. Whatever, my stomach and heart will thank me for it -- if I can summon up that kind of self-control.

And I'm sure you've all been waiting to hear about my club experiences in Europe. So here goes:

Friday night I was invited by two other girls teaching in Antibes to come make some drinks in Juan-Les-Pins before going out to a club. Kathy, the girl whose apartment we were crashing for the night, thought she'd save some money and only buy the 15 Euro bottle of white rum (as opposed to the 20+) to make some mojitos. I brought along my left over lychee liqueur and pineapple juice to make exotic cocktails in addition to the mojitos.

Long story short, cheap alcohol here is a NEVER AGAIN. It tasted like rubbing alcohol and I had about one and a half lychee drinks before going out.

Once we got there, I paid the cover fee, which included a free drink! There was a large dance floor, mainly with squished females, playing stereotypical "Euro Trash Techno." (See below)

Then we noticed a private room, playing much better songs, such as American hits and salsa music! Kathy asked the bouncer in front of the velvet ropes what you needed to do to get in, when he responded, "You have to buy a bottle." No thanks. So we hit the dance floor in the large, teenager-filled room.

And then I got gutsy and asked the second, younger bouncer of the night and he let me and my friends right in! Once we got there, we noticed the disco ball and the group of 30-somethings (all six of them) started at us when we started dancing to American 70s dance hits! Think, Jackson 5, Gloria Gaynor, THE GREASE SOUNDTRACK. Overall, it was a really exciting night, but only because we made our way into "forbidden" territory. However, I don't see myself going back a second time for the same price.

When we left, it was FREEZING. Which was an ominous sign for Saturday morning. All yesterday the skies were tainted with thick, gray clouds, but no rain ever fell from them. The mistral (strong and cold Southern French winds) howled all afternoon and shut off our tv/radio signals every few minutes.

Today the weather is much more mild and the sun is out, but there's still that early-winter chill to be found in the air. I believe my beach days have now come to an end :(

And for my last topic of monologue "discussion," nearly all of my end-0f-the-year trips are 100% certain! For the Loire Valley at the beginning of November, I already have hotel and train reservations! Mid-November, I purchased a train ticket to visit my family near Toulon for the weekend, and when Aimee arrives in December, we're going to Toulon for Christmas, Geneva, Lyon, and then Paris on New Year's! The hotel in Paris is already booked and I hope to finish the other reservations no later than Wednesday!

I don't think I've ever looked forward to winter this much!

"What a Wonderful World"

Preface: I wrote this post much, much earlier in the day. Not at 6 p.m. as the time stamp indicates.

Here I sit in a street-side café, having my pot of tea, watching the world pass me by to the raspy sounds of Louis Armstrong, serenely passing away the time until my first class of the day begins. Très typique if you ask me!

When I flagged down the first bus to stop at my corner to make its way downtown earlier this morning, on the line that stops by all the old folks' homes, two older men jovially wedged themselves around me and engaged in what seemed to be their routine and extremely profound morning conversation. It continued in a manner which I imagine most of my elders' conversations begin, "Oh how's your health," "How's the family," and other generic formalities like that.

What took me aback was the other's response, "Oh, I had a stroke a few years back and it paralyzed my entire right side." But his good spirits continued, "I've always thought of myself as a left-sided man anyways, so who needs the other side?"

"What mobility! What courage!" his neighbor commended.

To which he responded, "You must! Though I think of myself like a bird with the help of our faithful chauffeur here, free to land wherever I wish.

"Plus, that's a good title for a film, 'Men Like Birds.' The whole world should be like that really."

And then the man with full function of both his sides responded, "Ah, la philosophie française!"

Was I hearing this correctly? At the onset of my morning, I wasn't in the best of spirits and here these two men shoehorn themselves right in my life and have the most optimistic dialogue I've ever heard in my entire life. One part of the conversation actually reminded me of Voltaire's Candide, when he kept repeating the expression, "Tout va bien." Although that doesn't surprise me, because I assume Voltaire is heavily taught in French curriculum.

Then they continued to discuss life's other complexities with such ease, even as they descended from the bus. (Wow, that's a direct translation from French, "to descend the bus.")

And on the way home, I found myself knee-deep in two other similar conversations with, I'm guessing 60-70 year old women. Hearing the older generation's views on the world is kind of a neat pair of rose-colored glasses to try on for a few minutes. So in conclusion, on the Bus Line 3, I guess my life is kind of like Tuesdays With Morrie.

Except in French. And it's three times a week.

Comme la vie est belle!

Oh yeah, I forgot this in today's other entry...

I'm starting to keep another blog now, mainly for my own reference, of allll the sports articles I've ever written/had published. It's going to obviously go from total garbage, to tolerable -- or decent, I don't know what people think of my writing. So bear with the first few articles I'm beginning to put up.

Here is the link:
http://misssportsscribe.blogspot.com/

I remember there's an entire website for freelance writers for when I come back from France. If I have no idea what to do financially upon my return, I can always go back there until I find something a bit more permanent.

And in other news, Ty Loomis added me on a social network. I guess the pro volleyball players do remember me/like me!

Play first, Work later

That's exactly how I'm going to treat this post, and my current lunch break.

Like I did last night. I came into today's classes without much preparation because all night I was up excitedly researching my trip to the Loire Valley in two weeks, as well as mine and Aimée's vacation to Genève, Switzerland and Paris during the Christmas break. Since I winged this morning's classes with hardly any prep, I imagine doing so this afternoon shouldn't prove to be any more difficult.

So without any further ado: Play time!

From November 1st until the 5th, Oana and I will be making the eight-hour train ride north to the city of Tours, in the Loire Valley:

And I'm really excited because the hotel we chose is going to be about 25€ a night per person, although it's a two-star, but we agreed we'd rather save our money to spend on châteaux and wine-tasting tours! If nothing else, the room has two beds, a lock, cable T.V., a hair dryer and its own private bathroom and shower!! The private bathroom AND shower is quite a rare find here in France.

The hotel itself is situated in Centre Ville, near the old part of town and is within walking distance of the Loire River, the Office de Tourisme, and the train station. All very big perks! In doing research, I've discovered that Place Plumereau (or Place Plume as it's more commonly known) has all kinds of night life every weekend. Again, we are only blocks away. Supposedly there's some place called L'Académie de la Bière which has over 200 beers on tap and is teeming with college students. Sounds like something that shouldn't be missed!

But I think that's enough excitement for now.

As for my schedule pédagogique, things are still fairly complicated at the administrative level, because it seems like the director and teachers are on different wavelengths here at La Tournière. I'm supposed to be giving the students fun activities and worksheets, but in order to do so, I need access to a printer/photocopier. However, each teacher must provide his or her own paper to put in the machines. The director tells me the teachers will provide me with paper here, while the teachers tell me they have no money to do so and it's the director's responsibility.

So until then, I'm just having the students do a lot of drawing, which is nice for me because it keeps them calm and busy. At least I never finish too early this way! Despite that, Day 3 has been my best yet.

As for France as a nation, the entire country is under a transportation strike today, meaning every single train line is out of order. Because of that, people in Antibes need some form of transportation, so all the regional buses have lifted their otherwise normal Thursday strikes. I will never understand these people. What's the point of even striking when you're eventually going to cater to your clients anyways? Why even strike in the first place if it's not producing any visible results? Just change jobs already :-) Ok, maybe it's not that simple, but still...

Thanks to the strikes, I guess a lot of kids couldn't go home for lunch, so the school provided a picque-nique for everyone who stayed today. That meant me! I was the only maîtresse to stay, so I got a cute little bag lunch, something akin to most American sack lunches -- kind of. It included taboulé (a Moroccan-type rice and veggie salad), apple sauce, chips, chocolate-granola bars and like always, bread and cheese! Mmm. Because I'm the only teacher eating here today, I got three sack lunches, so I can save two for snacks for another day -- or more likely, hour.

I still have another hour to go until my next class, so I guess I should start researching more activities for future lessons.

Forrest Gump was right

In a foreign land every day follows an up-and-down trajectory. "You never know what you're gonna get."

Some days, I can almost express myself in a satisfactory manner. Like the other night, when my roommate's "friend," who is a guy, but spent the night -- interesting story for another day, ask and I'll tell -- was basically hitting on me, saying I speak really good French. When I told him it's a constant struggle because I don't know a lot of really simple colloquial words and I choke them down with a truly American accent, he replied that it's part of my charm.

So I'm a cute foreigner?? I'll take that one.

Or yesterday, I was in the salle des maîtres (teachers' room) when one CE1 teacher asked me how my first few days have been going. I didn't want to complain too much, but I told her classes are very fun, yet simultaneously challenging because none of the younger kids understand my accent. Again, she said that's a good thing, because I'm a real Anglophone teaching them English and it's something they're going to have to appreciate. And then she told me I need to bring a French man home with me when I return back to the States, but again, that's a whole different story.

Or last week at the bank. I understood nearly every single word about the transaction. He only had to translate "transfer funds" to English for me, but other than that I ordered my FREE debit card and checks. He asked me if my family's French -- everyone over here recognizes my French last name and obvious first name -- and if that's the reason why my French is so good.

But then there are other times that make all those prior moments seem worthless and trivial.

Like when my phone was stolen. For two days I had no idea how to describe the incident other than making insane amounts of hand gestures. I guess it was a traumatic moment because I got too worked up to even slightly express myself.

Or when I'm in a class full of 25 French students and I tell them something in French only to have them all have to look at their teacher for clarification.

Or when my roommate makes me repeat words three times before she understands what I'm saying.

Or when the people at the phone store don't understand me, so they speak to me in English -- which I have a hard time understanding in their thick English accents. But I'm the one who's in their country and should be speaking their language clearly.

But then again, I do have exciting moments where I remember to correctly use the subjunctive tense. Like when I let slip a word that seems even shocking and advanced to me. And times when I can speak fairly quickly and not worry too much about minor grammatical errors.

All of this in time will come more naturally, but until then, I'm extremely self-conscious about my up and down intonation, horridly thick American accent, and child-like vocabulary.

As for the being in France part, a really big, exciting holiday vacation is coming up in nine days. And I'm only two decisions away (I still have to pick the train station and times of arrival) from booking both a hotel and a train ticket to Tours in the Loire Valley. My friend Oana and I really want to go and do some châteaux and wine-tasting tours the first weekend of November! I can't wait, it's going to be sooo much fun.

They'll eat you alive!

...is what one of the school directors told me before I began English lessons.

And actually, such was not the case. Here I sit in the salle informatique (computer room) at Ecole La Tournière two days into and complete with my first lesson for both schools.

"What is the date today?" "Where do you come from?" "My name is..." and U.S. geography.

At first it was slightly stressful because none of the teachers here have any clue how English should be taught. Nor did they have anything that resembled a comprehensive schedule for me. So I kind of went from room to room and tried to figure it out. Day 2 went much better. Some teachers are more helpful than others, but I think I've devised a system that will work pretty well.

I'm in charge of teaching the same thing to three different levels, CE2 (third grade), CM1 (fourth) and CM2 (fifth grade).

Of course, the CE2 students have never taken English lessons before, so that's a bit of a struggle. They don't understand my "thick French accent," and when I speak English, the majority of the class is hearing it for the first time. So there's going to be a lot of pictures and songs I feel.

As for the CM classes, they knew everything already! My 45-minute games and plans dissolved after only 20-25. So they had a lot of repetition, but I don't think anyone really seemed to mind. For the second half of the week, I have to plan a lesson with many more, challenging activities for the older students.

As for my schedule it's finally been sorted out and looks something like this:

Monday: 8:30 - 10:00, 1:30 - 4:00

Tuesday: 8:30 - 11:30

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: 8:30 - 10:00, 1:30 - 4:00

Friday: 1:30 - 4:00

Not bad, not bad at all :-)

After lunch at the cantine (cafeteria) in five minutes, I'm making my way back home for some more lesson planning and then some fun! Not sure what that entails exactly, but fun will be had.

POST-LUNCH UPDATE: The food is a completely new experience to me every time. And I thoroughly enjoy it! Today it was fish again, with a tomato-basil salad and chocolate ice cream. Plus tons and tons of bread to clean up the plate with. As for the meal itself, I think I've made a few little friends :-) I think it should be obvious why, but all the little boys in my CM1 class followed me around throughout the lunch period!! So cute. One told me his dad is an English professor and that's why his accent is so good. Another told me he and his dad bought a Mustang in the U.S. and drove from Texas to New York one summer. So all day long he brags about how their car's mileage is just that -- not in metric like everyone else in Europe.

The girls all wanted to grab my hand and show me what games they were playing and then hug me after. My first hugs in France! Adorable :-) Those little moments right there, the ability to be a student's friend and make them excited about learning even if it's just for a minute, make this entire thing worth while.

Stupid Foreign Girl

...is what the two guys who robbed me must still be thinking right now.

As well as all the teachers whose classes I come into. And my roommate. And the people who work at SFR and sold me a second phone in two weeks.

Either way, yesterday was quite possibly my worst day here. While using the wireless Internet at McDonald's and talking to my mom on Skype, two men kept trying to sell me newspapers and shoved them in my face and kept saying things to me in an accent I couldn't understand. I tried to ignore them because if I grabbed the paper, they'd start asking for money. So I put my arm over my backpack -- luckily, I just put my wallet AND PASSPORT in it two seconds earlier -- and tried to make it really obvious I was having a conversation in English with someone else. The first continued to throw the paper in my face and reached for me, so I took it and violently shoved it back at him. That was probably my mistake right there. If I hadn't been so rude, perhaps I'd still have a phone.

After he left, another man came and did the same thing with the other guy standing near the door. It wasn't until I went to look for my phone to see what time Sarah was coming that I realized they'd swiped it and were no longer in the building. And then I realized my phone was at the end of the table and not in my bag before they approached me, so it very quickly and discreetly could have been stolen. Of course they used the exterior stairwell, so no one ever saw them. Except for two boys, who described them as speaking like this, "ba ba la ba ba," and wearing a turban. That they were not, but you get the idea.

Then my stomach started churning and I was freaking out. When Sarah finally arrived I was totally frazzled and couldn't pay attention to anything. And I feel so bad, because as we were leaving, another man of North African descent was standing near our table and I was worried he'd do something to us. Actually he was just waiting for the outlet, but of course now I'm going to be a little wary of everyone. Later when I went home, I couldn't eat, had the worst stomach ache I've had in a long time, and tossed and turned for a few minutes in bed. Then I took some Tylenol PM and passed the F out.

It was a good thing and a bad thing at once. Yeah I probably lost about 90 Euros during the theft, but I've learned a VERY important lesson. No more keeping anything out of my bag or in reachable distance to anyone else. I'm always going to have all my belongings very close to me.

Second lesson, never use public wi-fi ports again! Luckily I finally got my computer to work on our internet network here, so that should NEVER again be a problem.

It's not the end of the world. I have a cooler new phone. I wasn't hurt at all. I'm so lucky that I just put my wallet away and my credit cards, money, PASSPORT, etc. are still intact and with me.

Worse things could have befallen me that day. And I'm still alive to tell the story. Tomorrow I'll talk about my first and second days of teaching, because this is about all I have the energy to share for now.

Dommage, Les Bleus!

...and this is the face of defeat, at 16 years old.

Tonight, I convinced myself to jump on the dinner train into Cannes which was about a 10-minute ride that cost me 2,40 € roundtrip. And complimentary ocean views all along the way.

I think I owed it to myself, because it's been too long since I actually went out and did something fun here. Yeah, being in France is fun and challenging at the same time, but I stay in and go to bed around 9 or 10 p.m., if I'm not crying about whatever emotional baggage I've left back in California.

A group of girls who I met in Nice invited me to their apartment and then out to watch the Rugby World Cup semi-finals in Downtown Cannes. When I arrived, we made quiche lorraine, lychee kir, and the usual suspect, baguette and brie for dinner. It cost a mere 4 € per person. When that was sufficiently in our bellies, we took our left over champagne into the street to meet up with the boys -- WHO ARE ALSO TEACHING IN ANTIBES!! So the friends prospect is looking so much better from my end here.

Luckily, one who was Canadian was nice enough to explain the general rules of rugby to me. After crashing an English pub, we put on blue, white, and red face paint -- make that red, white, and blue for me because I did it in a mirror, oops -- bought half-litres of Stella Artois and watched the French suffer their second defeat in the semis to the English in four years. Apparently this time was more painful, because with five minutes remaining France was up 9-8 in quite a low scoring game that resulted in an English 11-9 victory. Maybe they'll get their second-second chance in 2011. And for exta fun, check out this video I took of the French singing their national anthem, La Marseillaise, blissfully ignorant to what would come 80 minutes later.

After the match, a few high schoolers from Grasse were harassing us because Americans and Canadians are too close to the English for their liking. To which I rigoled, "Les français connaissent trop bien la perte... même dans les guerres." Low blow, I know, but it was well-received.

At 11 p.m., the bar cleared out with inconsolable French drunks and we found ourselves sans abri. So off to the next bar. I could only stay 30 more minutes in order to catch the midnight train (supposedly the last before tomorrow's strikes) back to Antibes.

On one last exciting side-note, I finally found the Antibes public library and got my FREE library card today. So after 12 hours, I'm already one-fourth of the way through Écrire by Marguerite Duras -- quite an easy read. Access to the library is easily the highlight of my young weekend.

Je suis extremement fatiguée!!

Me back in Nice again! And it's been renovated since two years ago.

As much fun as it's been in Nice, I'm glad to be back in Antibes.

For the past two days I've been waking up before 6 a.m. and hopping one of the first TER trains into Nice. Like I said last time, the exciting part is being able to see the sun rise over the deep blue ocean. Absolutely gorgeous.

And while the orientations have been extremely helpful, they're also painstakingly long. We had three-hour morning séances, a one-hour lunch break, and then three more hours of the grind. At the end of the day, if this makes any sense, we were all too tired to go home knowing that we'd eat and promptly fall asleep at 7 p.m. Plus, it's quite hard to be in Nice and not exploit the heck out of the cafés and shopping districts.

Since the trains leave earlier than the first busses of the day, I've been walking to the stations, walking from the station in Nice to the IUFM building in the hills of Cimiez where we had our meetings, walking back down the hills to Vieux Nice, walking back to the train station, and then from the station in Antibes, walking back up more hills to my apartment. I've made some necessary purchases (i.e., a sponge for the shower and nail clippers!) in addition to some really exciting ones -- lychee and green apple sorbet in Old Nice. Pretty much what I lived off the entire 2005 summer that I spent in Nice.

Oh yeah, I've yet to figure this out, but each morning as I headed towards the train station at around 7 a.m., the local pub is JAM-PACKED with people! At first I figured maybe in the morning it doubles as a café, but this morning they were definitely tapping a keg. What the F?? I think I might go one morning just to say I have.

But back to the meetings in Nice -- we've been learning all kinds of websites, games, and strategies to use in the classrooms and I'm quite excited because I've semi-prepared a bunch of lessons already. The only problem is that during four three-hour sessions, most of what our presenters had to say was a ridiculous amount of overlap. C'est la vie, I suppose. But this was the first time I understood 100 percent of what was being said in French! And it was 16-hours' worth!! If only I can replicate that in my own speaking skills...

It's a little strange though because I am finally understanding just how good I have it at every stage of my life. In high school, the 8 to 3 daily schedule was absolutely tiring and after-school sports practices and homework drained all of my remaining energy. Then in college I learned the beauty of scheduling classes (only two or three hours a day!) around my sleeping/eating/working preferences. However, finals week was always hell. And now that I've experienced two different aspects of the working world, journalism and education, it's so insanely nice to go home at the end of the day and not have anything to worry about like homework and studying. Yes, some preparation is necessary, but it's totally convenient and very low-stress.

Sitting in classes all day really drained all my energy. Thank God those days are behind me :-)

However, I am very heavily entertaining the idea of going back for a Master's or even a Ph.D. when I return state-side. So far, I'm really enjoying education and I might want to do it at the research/university level.

Surprise Mom and Dad!

Can we say "Jumping the Gun?"

Christmas in October... This is what happens when your country doesn't celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving.

As I was walking downtown at 6:30 this morning (had to get to the train station to be in Nice at 8 a.m. despite the routine Thursday bus strikes), a new thought occurred to me.

Downtown Antibes has transformed over night!

I couldn't quite figure it out, until I realized that every major street has strings of Christmas lights! "But Monique, how can you be so sure those are in fact Christmas lights?" you may find yourself asking.

And I would reply something to the effect of, "I guess this is totally coincidental, but the lights are arranged in strange shapes of pine trees and ornament-like globes."

Really, Antibes? It's barely October!

The really exciting thing about this is that I'm going to be ready for Christmas for the next three months now! Even Nice was picking up on the trend as street vendors stood on the corner selling bags of roasted nuts. Supposedly come closer to winter, they'll start selling chestnuts (roasting on an open fire? I sure hope so).

Another exciting prospect for the month of December are all the festivals going on in Antibes that month. Beginning the second week of December, there's going to be a Bûche de Noël and Chocolat Chaud festival, sooo excited for that!

However, it's still pretty hard to get in the Christmas spirit on the beach -- when the temperatures are sunny and in the high 70s.

So until then, I've tentatively set plans with one of the girls from Cannes to join up this weekend. We may go shopping in downtown Cannes Saturday afternoon, grab dinner, and then find a bar to watch France in the Rugby World Cup semi-finals!

If I could have a superpower, it'd be teleportation

Enjoying my fabulous day at the beach downtown!

But that's besides the point.

It's finally a huge relief to be able to use MY OWN computer over here. Although I'm still not using it at home, it's the weirdly-placed keys that I remember and the programs I've installed, along with the ability to download whatever my little heart desires. Strangely enough, I keep wanting to hit the Q button in place of the A because -- among many others -- those two are switched on the French keyboards.

And as weird as it feels to sit in a McDo (that's McDonald's to you in the States) on my laptop, I have no objections. There's a specific breed of people walking around town you can pinpoint. Basically we're all walking around the city with backpacks and unloading our hardware in McDonald's. I'm not the only one eating fast food, with headphones, using Skype or what have you on my laptop here. It's kind of a different feeling. At first, I had to muster every single ounce of energy NOT to order a glass of wine here. I feel like that's the most typical thing you could purchas at a French McDo. Instead, I opted for the "McFlurry Crunch," and lesson learned, I'm never ordering food here again.

After being in the bathroom for quite a while (sorry, too much info, I know) I can now enjoy the Internet as long as I want! Well, not entirely, since it closes at 11 p.m.

But my day off was quite productive. I might make a habit of doing this every Wednesday! I started off the morning making a trek-and-a-half out of a trip to find the next grocery store on my list, Carrefour. It's within walking distance of my house, but I swear all my maps are out-of-date. What should have only been a 25/30-minute walk ended up taking me nearly two hours. And I take back my last comment, Monoprix is NOT the Target of France. Carrefour most definitely is. And it's cheap! Now that I've signed up for a carte de fidelité, I'm probably going to do all of my shopping there. AND THEY HAVE SKIPPY -- very, very expensive peanut butter, but a treat nonetheless.

So after making my way home, I got back just in time to throw together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cookies, pear, and a bottle of water to make the noon bus downtown. For the third time in my 10 days here I had a nice and quiet little afternoon at the beach.

And now here I am at 5 p.m. sitting in a McDonald's. The whole evening looms in front of me, as I plan to at least take another exploratory run and then make dinner.

I've also been thinking, that despite the NUMBER of people that initially have mistaken me for a local -- living in the hills has its perks -- I feel SO out of place here. For example, the only thing everyone wears here is black! And if you know me at all, you know that I have a thing for very bright colors. So today here I am in my bright blue beach cover walking around the beach, city and hills, passing blacks and browns all along the way... tant pis.

Tomorrow we're back in Nice and I can't wait! Until then...

Paris is a SUBURB of Berlin...

I'm going to have to be very careful with my pronunciation here!

Last night I was trying to explain to Karina that next week's transport strikes are the result of Sarkosy's decision to either raise or lower the retirement age in the train industry -- I couldn't remember which.

She was initially shocked because apparently I said he wanted to fuck the age of retirement... same thing I guess.

My task while I'm here is to take command of the pronunication differences between "baiser" and "baisser" -- the former being the vulgar of the two and the latter being "to lower."

Luckily I get a break from everything for the "middle of the week off" Wednesday ritual. And no more observations, YAY! The next time I'm in a classroom, I'll be doing the (very repetitive and excruciatingly slow) teaching. We get two more days to play in Nice -- or attend more orientations, whichever wording you prefer -- bon week-end and then hello teaching on Monday!

Also, I've made a list of where I'd like to travel during my time in Europe... If anyone would like to join at anytime, please email me!!

My vacations are as follows:
Saturday, October 27 - Thursday, November 8
Saturday, December 22 - Monday, January 7
Saturday, February 9 - Monday, February 25
Saturday, April 5 - Monday, April 21
End of the school year: Thursday, July 3

Now where I'd like to go:
Belgium, Czech Republic (Prague), Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Greece (Islands!!), Ireland, Italy (Cinque Terra, Rome, Venice), England, Luxembourg, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam), Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Spain (Barcelona, Madrid), Switzerland (Genève, Zurich)

Places in France:
Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux, Brest, Bretagne, Cannes, Champagne, Grasse, Grenoble, Lyon, Normandie, Paris, Toulon, Vence

It's now time to EXHALE

The rising of the sun over the ocean on the train from Antibes to Nice

Let's have a little reality check here, shall we?

Even though I had to be out of my house at 6 this morning, forgot the passcode to my gate to get out, missed two trains to Nice and was extremely late to my medical appointment...

-I have a bank account and my R.I.B. is in before Oct. 10, meaning I'll be paid on time this month!
-I have a place to live, with a French person no less
-All my other paperwork is at the Réctorat de Nice, so NEXT THURSDAY I will have official paperwork declaring me a resident and employee of the state of France
-I got to see the sun rise over the ocean on the train
-I skipped a day of classroom observations to get everything done in Nice, i.e. shopping and MONOPRIX

Monoprix is France's version of a Target so that was probably the highlight of my day. I'm not going so far as to say it's equally good as Target, that it is not, it's just one place where I can pick up most of what I need.

Tomorrow is my final observation and then Monday it's off to work! Which, I also resolved a problem in that arena, because both schools had me penciled to work nearly 20 hours. When I told the woman at the Réctorat, she said that's illegal, so now I'm only back to working 12 hours a week. Magnifique! Should be interesting though, because next week is semaine bleue, meaning all transportation is on some sort of strike. I'm not sure if this is national or just local, but it's going to give me one heck of a time. At least I know in advance to plan extra time for walking.

...Not like I haven't been doing enough of that! I'm lucky though, because after last night's run, I recognized the backroads near my house on the bus today. So after I turned in my R.I.B. to the inspection académique, I walked -- groceries and all -- back home and still made it back on time before the bus would have even returned to pick me up to go back downtown.

And another plus for the day, at the medical visit, I met two other assistants who'll be working in Cannes! Since we're all a short bus/train ride away, we exchanged numbers and hopefully something will pan out there.

Every day I'm getting closer to being very at ease in this environment. Thank you all for the well-wishings I've been receiving along the way, it's helped me out quite a lot!

Making some more progress...

Unlike last night's tsunami would have indicated, it was nearly 80 degrees and sunny most of the day today! I think the Côte d'Azur had the hottest temperatures in all of France, but I don't remember if it was 23 or 24 Celsius... Either way.

I missed out on a gorgeous morning because I've been going to sleep and waking up really early in the seven days that I've been here. So I decided NOT to set an alarm and to wake up on my own accounts. Actually, I sat in bed staring at the ceiling until 8:30 when I realized I just can't sleep in yet. Again, TOTALLY UN-MONIQUE!

But I've been seening posters near all the schools that say "Lisons la Bible," so I went to the website and found that there's a Christian church very near the center of town. It's been about two years since I've been to a church, so I was a little hesitant. But this morning I got ready for the day and waited for the special Sunday bus to take me downtown. However, it never made it to my direction (busses were coming back from town) so I started walking at 10:45. It only took me 20 minutes with a little stop-over to find the train station for my insurance and Social Security visits in Nice tomorrow morning.... which, by the way, I have to get up and go to at 6:30 a.m.!! It's ok though, because I'm skipping my Monday classroom observations in order to get all my administrative stuff done. ...And then maybe treat myself to a little clothes shopping à la niçois.

The church itself was really neat, it's kind of modern and like many of the American services I've been to -- just in French, of course. I figure it'll also be good for me because a.) it gives me something to do on the weekend, b.) I can practice my French some more, and c.) there was a wide variety of ages in attendance and right after I sat down, a group of 20-somethings sat near me.

Towards the end of the service, the pastor kind of tied his religious message into the Rugby World Cup. It was something to the effect of, "They won because they overcame pressure," and then he tied that into a spiritual message. I couldn't help but laugh -- even though everyone else was dead serious -- because Les Bleus are SO important here! They actually got to wear blue last night in their victory over New Zeland and will play again next Saturday. I ended up missing the match last night, so next week I HAVE to find a bar to watch the semi-finals against England!

Things started to wrap up around the one o'clock hour and when the entire service was over, people started saying their goodbyes and "bon apétits." I actually met an attractive blond man -- it's weird to say man because he's about my age, so does that make me a woman now?!? -- who talked with me for a few minutes before wishing me bon apétit as well.

All the well wishings for the meal inspired me to cook my very first multi-course lunch here in Antibes. I'll post a picture when I get a chance, but I grilled some chicken, tomatoes and olives, then placed them on a bed of lettuce and carrots, had a side of a tomato-mozzerella salad, then continued on to the "fruit and cheese" course with formage blanc and dried figs, and then capped everything off with nutella on the French equivalent of graham crackers (whole wheat, too!), orange Pims and a cup of mint tea.

After my second 30-minute exploratory run in two days, I think dinner's going to be pretty light tonight. Then I'm off to bed and early to rise to catch the morning's first train into Nice!

Bonne soirée!

I'm freaking out!!!

View from my bedroom at night, if you're curious...

Ok, this afternoon it was 18 degrees (which, I remember from HS physics, thanks Ms. Lewis! can be converted to Farenheit by multiplying the number, 18, by 9/5, let's just say 2 = 36 so far... and then adding 32, but because I already rounded up earlier, let's say 30 = 66 degrees Farenheit). And it was fairly muggy and humid, as I noticed the first day I stepped off the airplane.

Because of the nice weather, Sarah and I were finally able to find a beach and since it's now October, it's mainly only locals.

Getting to my point -- THE WEATHER HERE IS NUTS!

It's still equally humid close to midnight, but the sky is now pouring down torrential rain. An hour ago, I heard my upstairs neighbors making a whole bunch of noise and I wasn't sure what furniture they were moving or throwing out...

Now I realize those terrible sounds were not moving noises, but thunder ripping throughout the atmosphere. And the entire apartment keeps lighting up as lightning bolts through the sky every 20-or so minutes. I guess I'm not going to sleep tonight. Now ambulence sirens are piercing the momentarily-silent night and the baby next door is beginning to wail.

This just goes to show that the hills of Antibes can be equally as exciting as the downtown area.

And since I'm not getting any sleep, I've posted some of my 100+ photos from the past seven days:
http://community.webshots.com/user/mmoyal85

I'm not going to die!!!

(National French rugby team -- hot I know -- see below for more)

...Today at least.

It seems I can keep up with my "diet" in France as well. I'm worried because with my blood sugar and cholesterol levels so high, they'll spike here in France, but apparently food companies are starting to cater more towards us frail of heart.

In Champion the other day, I found glucose-low jams and snack bars. Sarah told me Silhouette makes milk with 0 percent matière grasse (skim) although I've yet to find any, my roommate has light butter, and I even bought no sugar added yogurt -- French yogurt is better than anything I've ever tasted before -- and bread with flax seeds and Omega-3s!

Someone needs to get on me to stick with these types of products. But the food here is SO GOOD. For example, the bananas come from Martinique and they're much more flavorful than the American bananas. I feel much more relieved about everything now, because I was able to figure a little more out. Like this morning I went downtown to the marché (like a big, huge, daily farmer's market) and FINALLY found some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, along with a big sack of herbes de provence... mmm now I can finally enjoy my salads properly.

But the best thing of all?

I HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT!!! Crédit Agricole was so so SO much easier to deal with than BNP, I got four copies of the R.I.B -- necessary paperwork for my salary and carte de séjour -- and an account with 200€! However, it's still limited because I forgot the one last paper from my roommate. She told me she'd get it to me by next Tuesday, but the appointment's not until Saturday. Until then, I just have to wait in line on the inside to make all of my transactions, but hopefully in two weeks, I'll have my carte bleue (ATM card)!!!

I feel very accomplished already for it only being 11 a.m. The rest of the day's going to be pretty calm, but I'm trying to convinve my friend to come to a bar near the Port of Antibes tonight to watch the France vs. New Zeland match in the Rugby World Cup, which is held in France this year. All the news stations have been abuzz because the French are called "Les Bleus," meaning they ONLY wear blue jerseys. On the other hand, the Kiwis are the all Blacks. So the media's huge worry is that since the two colors are very similar, someone's going to have to wear white. Heaven forbid it would be the French; in their homeland. This is seriously a huge concern to a lot of people, I can't even make this junk up!!

Well, I guess I'll see tonight who's going to be in their color and who's in white...

The circle is my least favorite shape

Today was brutal because I've already been rejected by one French bank for not having the right paperwork... and what they're asking of me is impossible to get from the U.S. The other thing they want, my carte de séjour, is ALSO impossible. The Catch 22 is that I can't get my account without a carte de séjour, but I can't even apply for the carte until I have a bank account number. So this afternoon after I finished my observations, I went to Crédit Agricole to hopefully sign up for a compte. Supposedly this one is way less anal than Banc National de Paris (BNP). I have an appointment tomorrow morning at 9:30. WISH ME LUCK, because this is the THIRD really bad day I've had in a row. Homesick is totally an understatement for what I'm feeling.

And since I'm on the subject of school, today's observations were at my headquarters. This one's very close to my house so I can walk. And I suppose the busses are back up running today, because people are waiting at the stops. Funny story, my stop was DEMOLISHED yesterday. It's still gone today but now there are people huddled near the construction posts.

I'm a bit reassured about teaching, because now I have some sort of direction. Still not 100% reassured. Although, I met a teacher today who gave me an English book to use, but it's ridiculous. I'm not sure what she wants me to do with it or how to divide the lessons, but supposedly we're supposed to be on the same course. This will probably come with time. The food at La Tournière is not as good as Juan Gare, but still a lot better than I remember in elementary school. I think we had the equivalent of "mystery meat" today, as it was steak -- or pork -- in a brown broth with mushrooms, accomapnied with the French version of cheesy rice, really puffy grains with camembert. And then we washed it all down with the famous French cheese platter, fruit, and bread.

And again, the differences between our educational systems is astounding. I can't really speak too profoundly on the matter, because I only attended three or four different schools in the U.S. But from what I recall, we weren't THIS excited about education in elementary school. And I've noticed the teachers have much more restraint over their students than all mine did. I think that's partially due to the strict nature of the French in general. Everyone here is so guarded and closed off at first, but they warm up rather quickly if you give them a chance.

But back on topic, every time I enter a new class (third through fifth grade), the maître(sse) introduces me as the English assistant to his or her class, the children light up! Today my first class was so excited, half of the children jumped out of their seats. Then when he announced I was from California, the other half jumped up.

When I arrived at Ecole Juan Gare yesterday, all eyes were on me. A group of girls approached me and asked if I was there to teach English or Italian. When I responded, "anglais," the girls jumped up and down together shouting, "Ouais! Engleesh!!" Very cute.

So soon I'll be Maîtresse Moyal. That's Mistress to you. I better watch out before some sort of power-trip arises.

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Today, I am not.

...Well, in French at least.

An update on the strikes, apparently this happens EVERY Thursday. Luckily, I called the elementary school I was supposed to observe today and someone went completely out of his way to pick me up and drive me to Juan-les-Pins. Totally nice of him. And then, he drove all of the assistants to our respective schools for the day.

Today I learned... Geography, spelling, fractions, etc. And it was kind of difficult to understand the children, but that's going to be part of my learning experience I suppose. Actually I learned how far behind the U.S. is in education! At seven years, the French are already learning geometry and the Pythagoran Theorem... we didn't get that until seventh GRADE (Age 13ish).

For now, I think I have to wait for the directrice to finish her class and then find someone who can drive me back home. Then I'm going to try to open up a bank account -- without the proper documents.

Doing everything so last minute like this is completely un-me!!! And it's totally freaking me out. Oh and, one last thing, I'll be working nearly 22 hours and can pay to eat at the schools' cafeterias. Today we had a really good salad, followed by this breaded white fish with lemon zest and then instead of mashed potatoes, mashed broccoli. It was actually quite good, along with the ice cream ;-) I'm still trying to figure out these French keyboards!

YOU WOULD!!!

Figures the ONE day I actually need to take the bus, THERE IS A STRIKE.

I have to be at this school in Juan-les-Pins at 9:30 to begin the first observation and sign all my papers so that I can start my journey to becoming a French resident. Without the conseiller pédagogique's signature, I am nothing! And today is probably my only window to get that done.

So I've called the school and they're trying to figure it out. But it looks like I might be walking soon... (Although where to, I have no idea)

Merde!

I'm here, alive, and housed (New posts below)

I love this city! (Pictures to come of my appartement)

After a few rather stressful days, I quickly accepted the apartment because I needed a place to live badly. Although it is a little on the expensive side, I believe I can get government assistance and probably pay half of what I am now. Typing is a constant struggle, because my roommate can't figure out her wi-fi password, so I'm actually using Karina's computer... c'est la vie. Hopefully I'll have mine up soon.

Tomorrow I have my first observations at a second school along with no idea how to find it. Figuring out the bus will be my second priority after grocery shopping very soon.

Other than that, my only complaint about this region is the number of Anglophone tourists! They're ruining my attempts at speaking French, because everyone in the hospitality and food service industries speaks English.

I'll give you an example:

At the hotel, I told the receptionist, "J'ai passé la nuit ici hier soir, et je voudrais acheter la chambre pour une deuxième nuit," not a terrible sentence and I thought my accent was o.k.

But then she responded, "I know you speak English. But that's very good you tried to speak French."

I wasn't trying lady, I was speaking French. This happens more than you would think, but I just keep speaking French to everyone who tries to stop me. Take that!