They make my family look normal

Best new site I've seen: AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTOS which will now add to my time-consumption hours at work in addition to catching up on this season's shows online, Texts From Last Night and F My Life.

Here are a few snippets of what you're missing:

That is all.

Thanks for making me aware of this, Dane Cook

I hate to put a damper on everyone's night, but seriously, check out who lives around your area at:

Family Watch Dog

It's a good idea, I guess, to be aware of your surroundings. However, in my parents' neighborhood, there are hardly any registered offenders. But Stockton is quite a different story, my friends. It's kind of creepy, especially since one lives right around the corner from us.

Ummm, lesson of the day is, don't hang out in Stockton after dark?

I'm kind of in love with her...

I've recently discovered a new indie (though, she'll probably become super mainstream soon since she's starting to play on the radio more often. I realize I'm pretty slow on the music bandwagon) artist who I absolutely love:

Ingrid Michaelson

Her songs are super cute and sappy and, I'm a girl, what the heck do you want from me?! haha :)

Shocking, she's actually become quite a staple on Grey's Anatomy:

Well, this is a surprise

Ok, I'm guilty. I completely ripped this off of Kari's blog post today. Hey, imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?

It's either that, or I must be desperate to avoid doing any of my grad research and homework right now!

So today's post pertains to the world profiler, depicting the largest areas of frequency in last names worldwide.

And what do you know, Moyal is a French name. I know my family is Francophone, but I wasn't aware that the largest population of people presumably related to me lives in France. Most of my dad's side has come from either France or Morocco, many of which have also immigrated to Canada.


Well, France won with a 5.97 frequency per million. Next was Canada with 5.5 FPM, followed by Switzerland's 3.83, India's 2.42 and the United States has 0.51 Moyals per million habitants.

Interesting.

Look a little farther down the site and you'll see the top regions and cities populated by Moyals.


As a region, Québec leads all areas with a 39.47 FPM. Next is Ile-de-France (the greater Paris metropolitan area) with 22.32, and many distant relatives. But this one is the most exciting, the PACA region of France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) where I've studied abroad and taught is the No. 4 most populous region for the Moyal surname, at 10.36 per million. I know for a fact I've got family down there, as I've visited quite a few times. Though you could make the case that they all have different last names than I do, but I'm sure I'm related to more people in the French Riviera than I am aware of.

As far as cities are concerned, four of the top five cities with the heaviest Moyal population are in the United States.

And No. 5 is in the Bay Area.

Shocking.

Hello. Bonjour. Hola. 你好. Hej. Hallo. Yia sas. Aloha. Shalom. Zdravstvuyte.

Today I added a new feature. It's nothing really, but for some reason I discovered that I was really excited to see the results.

If you'll look over to the right-hand side of my blog, you'll notice the newest widget in my collection. Besides the sparkly Eiffel Tower, we have a counter of all the people who visit my blog. But more importantly, where you're all coming from!

And since you now know how obsessed I have become with travel, this is really, really exciting news. I didn't even know people in Turkey read my blog!

That being said, please drop me a line if you read! (Even if I can at times be super boring, repetitive, high school-ish, or even too sporty in my entries.)

So again, Hello! Bonjour! Hola! 你好! Hej! Hallo! Yia sas! Aloha! Shalom! Zdravstvuyte!

There, that's about as international and multi-lingual as I'm gonna get. Now it's back to watching French movies and listening to French and/or Spanish music. Maybe I'll pick back up on my Spanish podcasts again...

Var-ious outings

Like how I set that one up?

This weekend -- as promised -- I met up with my dad in the Var. The only thing I can liken this to, for you non-French residents/visitors, is the regional separations are sort of like states in the U.S. But not as "autonomous." Anyways, I left the Alpes-Maritimes district to see what the next section of coast one hour to the west looked like -- in the spring.

My dad got a bit of spring fever and wanted to ditch Annecy for the weekend because supposedly a big storm was coming through, though it's supposed to snow tomorrow so I don't think he's really escaping much. And as for me, the weather here is basically the same as it is over on the western coast (minus the evil Mistral winds they get near Marseille) so I just wanted an excuse to go hang out!

Luckily, our friends over in Forcalqueiret decided to move their weekly gathering up one week because next weekend marks the municipal elections. And it turns out that Jean-Claude is running yet again for the mayor of Forcalqueiret. Now you can't really prepare and serve a six-course meal for 20-ish people on the day of the elections, can you? He's supposed to be out kissing babies or some garbage like this -- which he essentially was all Sunday morning once the meal was ready to go.

But the biggest surprise of the weekend was our trip to La Ciotat. After three different trips out to Forcalqueiret and the Var, my dad and I collectively decided we were getting a bit tired of Toulon. Obviously, we wanted to stay on the beach especially with the lovely 19 degree (Celsius) weather we had last weekend. So we made our way towards Marseille -- uncharted territory for both of us -- and went on a mission to find something neat slash go wine tasting!

And this is what we found:

Nothing says you're serious like a bowl of Moules-Frites and a glass of rosé in the South of France!

...and then my camera battery died. [[Always carry around an extra battery pack/charger.]] So I can't show you the massive drop-off cliff that lays just outside of the camera's scope and into the ocean, excuse me, (Mediterranean) sea. But trust me, it was gorgeous! So much that we're probably going to be heading back there towards the end of the month.

Ma vie n'est plus qu'en prose!!

(My life is no longer only in prose.) Nope. I hope you all don't mind, but I'm trying out different mediums to update all my favorite people -- and random passers-by, I guess! -- on my life over here in the South of France.

Elizabeth and I are fortunate enough to work in primary schools and have Wednesdays off, so she took the train from Cannes and met me at the train station in Antibes around 12:40 p.m. We then decided to grab lunch and walk allllll the way around the Cap d'Antibes in search of F. Scott Fitzgerald's residence in Juan-les-Pins. But after going the 5 km around the cape itself and still not being halfway there, we decided around 5:30 p.m. to scratch the idea and try it another day.

Here's a snippet of this lovely, albeit slightly windy, afternoon:



Oh and for clarification's sake... I said Elizabeth TOUCHED a fish today, not had fish (as in for lunch) which we thought may or may not have been poisonous. Like a jellyfish or something... that would be the reason why she'd no longer have a hand tonight. And yes, before you have time to make fun of me for it, I realize it's the Mediterranean SEA, not Ocean. My apologies, Earth.

I leave you with pictures from the adventure. Anyone who's ever lived in/visited Santa Barbara or Isla Vista might get a bit of déjà vu very shortly. Now you can see why this was such an easy transition after spending four years of my life down there!!

The view from our lunch table on the beach! How typical, sitting in the Southern French sun on the Mediterranean, eating fries, reading trashy gossip magazines! Hanging out at the stairwell of death!Tide pools down the cliffs."Naturiste beach for nudist." This tag was to be found scrawled across numerous rocks along our journey.Seriously, you're in denial if you think this DOESN'T look like SB.Waves crashing along the rocks.

...FOUR DAYS UNTIL CALIFORNIA!!

(I don't really feel like I warrant a break so quickly since the last one, but hey, I'll take it!)

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.

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!!

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!

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.