No one hates me more than roadtrips

While I was tending to my Pacific baseball official scoring duties, I escaped some pretty gnarly travel as the women's basketball team headed home from their double overtime win at Long Beach State. The ride in itself is over six hours, so I was pretty excited about only having to make the hour and a half drive out to Stanford instead. But on the way back, the Long Beach road gods struck again.... flat tire for the Pacific travel bus.

Despite the team's recent success - having won two out of their past four games, despite only winning six the entire season - it seems their luck on the road would go to hell for the rest of the season.

While they were to play UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday afternoon, the Pacific women's basketball team headed for Anaheim, Calif., two days earlier, this Monday. The thinking was a few extra days' rest would help the team, but I can't help but think that in the back of everyone's mind was the thought that if we lose Wednesday and would have left Tuesday, that would be a hell of a lot of travel for not even one full 24-hour period spent down there.

I digress. After I got to stand in as part of the practice squad on Tuesday afternoon, we showed up ready to roll for Wednesday's game just blocks from Disneyland. Although we had our hotel booked until Thursday morning, our loss yesterday afternoon sent us back on the road for Stockton, Calif., a lovely six-to-seven-hour trek. Passing through the usual Los Angeles traffic at 4 p.m. on a weeknight, I figured the ride would take a bit longer than usual, but nothing too strenuous. Anyways, half the girls' families were down in SoCal watching the tourney, so they ended up staying with the parents for the remainder of spring break. Meaning there were only 10 of us on the bus, including staff.

Before we even reached the sign for the Grapevine - about an hour north of Los Angeles - we hit a massive amount of wall-to-wall traffic. No one was budging, save for the assholes trying to drive through the median and merge into stopped traffic. As we pulled up to a big rig, our associate head coach begged the bus driver to open the passenger side door, so she could ask the semi's drive (who must have had a CB radio) if he knew what was going on. Apparently he had no clue, but heard on the news a few trucks had flipped due to windy conditions and ignited a fire on the freeway. Awesome.

I don't believe we were stuck in two miles of traffic for any more than two hours. You know, no big deal. Instead of reading my latest French book - which gets me carsick - or sleeping awkwardly on the bus - which hurts my TMJ-laiden neck - I decided to head to the back of the bus and mingle with the players for the first time all season really. And, now it's the last time since their season came to an abrupt end. Long story short, we exchanged musical tastes, played a ridiculous game of truth or dare on one of our student trainer's phones and all-in-all had a fun time joking and teasing. At one point, Kyle broke out his training tape and started taping McKenzie's feet together. His student trainer, Mark, let CT tape his ankle because she assumed she was a pro now that hers had been taped so many times. Anyways the tap fiasco ended when I couldn't wait any longer and did something I promised I'd never do in my life - I used the bus's restroom. Everyone knew that was my worst nightmare and I was deathly afraid of it, but still, the trainers decided to tape the door shut and I about cried/vomited. But it was a good laugh, looking back on it. Welcome to road trips.

When we finally made it back to campus it was nearly midnight on a trip that should have had us back no later than 9:30 p.m. I booked it over to my friend Zach's house, as he was watching little Woodstock and picked up my puppy. Instead of waiting until I woke up the next morning - probably would have been close to noon - I decided to just go straight home since I was already in a driving mood. Plus, the drive from Stockton to Alamo usually takes me around 45-50 minutes.

But disaster struck on the way home once more. As I hit Livermore, a semi decided to swerve out into my lane, around 12:30 a.m. I had no choice but to veer in the opposite direction, which was directly in front of a CHP - little to my knowledge. As soon as I made the switch, the blaring lights went off and I nearly went blind. This fucker was fast and in a Charger, so he had to be an ass. See the type of cop car below:

Anyways, I pulled off the off-ramp and into a safe stopping place and this younger guy came out, with his flashlight all up in my face. He asked me if everything was alright, and if I had been drinking, but I calmly explained that my swerve was self-protection instead of intoxication. Before ever asking for my ID or any proof of anything, the officer looked down into my lap, saw Woodstock and began asking me a billion questions about my puppy. He was smiling, saying how cool it was that he was so tiny. After he had been satisfied with answers, the officer told me to be careful and have a good night.

No ticket. No DUI despite my full-fledged sobriety. And no nervousness. The first and last time I was pulled over, I cried my eyes out for the officer and the world to see. This time, I remained calm even though my heart was thrashing inside my chest.

But no harm done. And now I'm only down to one season - baseball. I was reminded a few days ago how much I miss baseball and baseball writing. So I'm going to try to make it my goal to pay a bit more attention and get back into that a bit.

I'm also not let down in the least that my next road trip isn't until the weekend of my birthday - Easter weekend - when we travel to Long Beach State for baseball. The few weeks home and away from a bus will be nice.

Timber.

Ok, obviously it wasn't this bad, but trees definitely were knocked down this week. It's been a rough storm, after a moderately quiet fall/winter season.

I started Tuesday off solidly, waking earlier than usual because I was going to carpool with a co-worker and get some early coffee. Luckily I got up that early. Just as I turned off the water in my shower, all the power shut off completely. Freaking out, I scrambled to find my towels in the dark but knocked off the entire rack from the wall. Then I hit my foot on the shower and tried not to slip all over the place in the dark.

You have to understand we live in a middle condo unit, meaning we have shared walls on both sides. That leaves only the back of our house available for windows. So yeah, it's pretty dark in there. So I searched the house looking for candles and was unable to dry/straighten my hair. Instead, I threw it up in a quick, sloppy ponytail, hated my life and applied makeup in the dark. Awesome, since we had a game that night and usually have to dress up nicely.

Then I realized I wouldn't be able to open my garage door, or security gate to the complex. What a disaster it was. Thankfully Ben was already driving, so I just grabbed my gate key and went out the pedestrian entrance, standing freezing in the rain. And I found out when I got home that the power came back on not long after I left for work!

Then yesterday, I awoke briskly to a severe crashing noise outside my bedroom window. I sprang to my feet to check what made the noise, and nervously hoped none of the evergreens beyond our backyard had crashed into the fence or house. Luckily they hadn't, but I was never really able to figure it out until I came to work.

When I arrived in the parking lot in front of the baseball stadium and my office, I sat my coffee on top of my car so I could readjust my lunch, purse and open my umbrella. Except it was so windy, the cup was knocked off my car, spilling the contents all down the side of it as well as my pants.

Best week ever.

And I learned from a co-worker who lives in the same area that yesterday's large crash was a palm tree being uprooted and falling to the ground at the Home Depot parking lot a block down the street from my house.

Is it summer yet......??????

FMD. (Where D=Door)

I had a terrible day yesterday.

Since it's the holiday break, I left a few hours early from work, excited to clean the house some more, bake, do laundry, scrapbook, etc. But instead, both doors to my house gave me the middle finger.

Let me back up a bit here. Our back door lock sticks. Instead of clicking once you put the key in, it just spins in circles and never catches to unlock. So our landlord said that was the original lock and needed to be replaced. And we've known that for several weeks now, but has anyone taken care of it.....? Well to make matters worse, as soon as I couldn't get in last night, I opted to try the front door. But apparently when it's raining the screen door sticks in the door frame and won't open. Fruitlessly trying to open either door, and then going back and forth between the two for 20 minutes, I kicked the front door and crumpled to the floor so upset and frustrated with myself that I began to cry like a small child. It was the most frustrating moment I've had in a long time.

So finally I realized to call my friend, and he came and popped the screen door open for me with the help of tools from the garage. Immediately after I got in, I ran to Home Depot and purchased a new door knob.

And so I present you a 10-step re-enactment of my horrendous evening yesterday:

Taking out all the pieces was terrible, especially because I didn't assume it'd be messy, so I got grease all over the place from inside the door knob.

TAKE THAT, DOOR!

"Easy installation," Yeah these three tiny, ambiguous drawings are so simple. I totally can master fixing a door now.

Ok, I screwed the middle latch in. Only to find out 15 hours later that it was on backwards. FML.

Fixing the inside part of the door frame.

And, this is actually a lie. It's not screwed in all the way. I think I got a faulty one, because the screws won't go in. I need some power tools. Anyone???

As I write this, I believe J.D.'s fixing the door right now. Awesome. I've stopped caring, because it has caused me literally five hours of stress and ridiculous frustration.

And to make matters worse, I tore my sweater when I was putting it back on, because there were splinters in the door that my sleeve caught on. Oh yeah, and I JUST bought that sweater at GAP in Vegas last week.

And then when I came home, I was plugging in the Christmas lights and the reindeer/sleigh on the mantle toppled off the mantle and fell into the tree. So I jumped over to try and stop them from falling and breaking and hit the tree, almost knocking it and all the ornaments on the ground.

So Ben took me out to get some drinks and dinner so as to forget my horrible night. And when I walked into the restroom at the end of the night, I slipped in someone's piss.

Can I take a nap from life right now?!?!?!

(Also, thanks Ben for saving some of my sanity last night!!!)

"You must be so excited"

Nervously sitting in the waiting room at Kaiser, I desperately tried not to make eye contact with anyone else sitting in the small, stuffy room with me. The problem about living in the Central Valley is the hospitals are so overrun with poor, sick immigrant families. I feel so terrible about that entire situation, because I have always had accessible medical coverage to me, and the money to take care of whatever arises. Twice, I've been stuck in line behind a woman or young mother who doesn't have coverage and is extremely sick and needs to be seen ASAP. The red tape surrounding that entire process is thicker than anything I've ever dealt with in my entire life.

But this time, it was a young expecting mother in front of me who needed an H1N1 vaccination. I believe they're free to Kaiser members, but clearly, she wasn't one. When she sat down coughing up a storm, I was finally called up to the front window.

After handing the receptionist my card, we did the usual back-and-forth. Do you still live at this address? How old are you?....

But her last question threw me off guard.

"And the reason for your visit today is a prenatal appointment? Oh wow, congratulations! You must be so excited!" she proclaimed, excitedly looking at my stomach (which, by the way, would not mislead one to think I am pregnant!)

Embarrassed, I could feel the stares of all the other, older women, and the younger pregnant girl with two rings on a certain finger on her left hand. As my cheeks continued to flush, I heard a woman make a disapproving clicking sound with her tongue.

It only was a couple of seconds, but it felt like eternity before the receptionist said, "Ma'am...?"

Snapping out of it, I shook my head in disbelief, "No, I'm just here for my annual check up. I'm, I'm not pregnant," I stammered.

"Oh, well it doesn't say the reason for your appointment online, so we checked prenatal," she said looking back at her computer screen, unfriendly as she was before she thought I was expecting.

Knowing that I clearly checked the correct button when I made my appointment online, I still felt a little nervous at all the women in the room staring at me. I guess they're just used to pregnant women under 25 in this area...... I can't tell you how many pregnant girls I've seen walking the streets without rings on their hands.

When the nurse finally admitted me into my examination room, I once again sat on the bench, uncomfortable in my thin paper robe. Browsing the travel magazine that sat underneath the heaps of health magazines for new mothers and pregnant women, my doctor finally entered.

"Well, we have something to look forward to in a few months, don't we!" she said all bubbly and excited for me. "I didn't even know you were trying to have a baby?"

"I wasn't," I said, short of temper. They must not have notified her that this was not a prenatal exam.

"Oh," her voice trailed off. "Then do we need to discuss your options?"

"No, no," I replied in disgust. "I'm not pregnant. I'm just here for my annual check up."

And with that, she put back on her professional face and continued her job. And I no longer had people tormenting me with how excited they are/were for my new little bundle of joy.

God, I'm not ready for that. Not for a long time.

Why does this always happen to me?

As I said earlier, we had our road trip to kick off Big West Conference play this week. Our Pacific Tigers took on Long Beach State for the conference-opener, and we actually won! (Yes, I wrote that story... that's what they pay me for) We haven't beaten the 49ers since 2003, but they finally did it. And that part pretty much makes the rest of what I'm about to say almost irrelevant. So here's my 36-hour trip to Long Beach:

Wednesday afternoon: We're set to leave for noon. Or so I though. The timeline said noon, and it also said "get lunch at 12:30," so I assumed that meant leave as a team and get lunch.

Oops, I was wrong. As soon as I packed my stuff on the bus, I realized that everyone else was scrambling to get food at 12. So no worries, I'll just go to my car, drive to Subway and grab a sandwich. It wasn't until I went back past my office that I forgot I didn't drive that morning. J.D. drove me to work so my car didn't have to sit in the lot for two days. With only 15 minutes left until departure, I told my boss about the mistake and luckily he had peanut butter and bread, so I made myself a nice little sandwich.

Which was not long enough to hold me over until dinner. We were set to check-in the hotel at 8 p.m., so I was thinking we wouldn't eat until after that. But luckily we stopped at the Macaroni Grill after passing through the Grapevine and I was able to eat at 5:30 p.m. But I was feeling very uneasy from 12:30-5:30, since I only had a banana for breakfast.

Wednesday night: Upon arrival to the Holiday Inn in Long Beach, the night staff has no idea where our room keys are. We had about 15 rooms and 25 people waiting in the lobby at 9 p.m. for their room assignments. So they swipe and re-key 25 new keys and hand them out to us. Once we checked in at 9:30 p.m., I realized I had a room all to myself! This was going to be awesome, since I didn't think I'd ever get a room to myself with a soccer trip. I always did with baseball since I'm the only female they travel with, but there are several roommate options on the soccer team. But I got lucky!

Or I thought I did....

When I opened my door, I put all my stuff on the floor and went to go wash my face in the powder room area. Then I realized I heard water running in the bathroom, so I went to check it out. And my toilet was overflowing from the top part where the flusher mechanism is. The water was seeping out quickly, flooding the entire bathroom floor and into the powder room area/hallway. So I try to call the front desk desperately hoping for someone to pick up. They never did, so I frantically grabbed all my belongings and went downstairs to the first floor. They gave me a new room without any problems. I went to get ready to meet a friend from the area for my "second dinner" since I only had pasta, chicken, a small PB sandwich and banana to eat all day. As I make my way down into the lobby about 30 minutes after switching rooms, I noticed that there was a large flooded area down on the first floor, with caution cones.

The problem wasn't actually a leak, but that FLOODED TOILET dripping down from the third floor and into the lobby. I looked up and noticed that the lobby ceiling tiles had crumbled onto the floor and water was leaking from them. So that means that room had leaked down into the second floor - someone else's room - and into the lobby. Only in Long Beach....

Thursday afternoon: Our women's soccer team beat Long Beach 1-0. In high 80º weather, despite reports claiming it was going to be mid- to low-70s. I had originally packed pants, but realized after we grabbed lunch it was going to be too hot for pants. So I took out my khaki shorts that I thought I had washed a few days before. But I was wrong, they were still dirty from my last home soccer game, when I somehow got rust all over the bottom of them by rigging up the electricity lines to our extension cable for internet and power. So I hand washed the shorts in the bathroom sink. And had to sit in damp shorts during the bus ride, since the hairdryer wasn't powerful enough to dry them completely. But luckily it was hot enough that they dried out in the first 10 minutes I got to the field. And then with 30 minutes left on the pre-game countdown, I was sweating profusely. And continued to do so throughout the remainder of the game.

Thursday night: After the huge victory, the team decided to celebrate by dining in Long Beach near the campus so all the girls' parents could stay and catch up. We also got a little bit of extra spending money for dessert too! About halfway through our dessert (and the three-hour dinner) my friend Lisa called me to say that she heard there was a massive oil spill on the Grapevine that closed most of I-5 down. Once they had started cleaning up the mess, the closure had blocked traffic from two hours south down the road. One of our players' parents drove back up immediately after the game and said he'd been sitting in traffic for nearly three hours - the same amount of time we'd been eating dinner.

So it actually turned out to be even better that we won and took our time with dinner, otherwise we'd be stuck! When dinner finally finished around 8 p.m., we took an alternate route... 405N to figure out which would be the best way - go three hours out of the way and take 101 N through Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo and then try to reconnect with 5, or just take 405N to 5N and pray that it'll be open?

Our bus driver kept radioing people and heard that the Grapevine was back up and running, so we decided to take 405N to 5N. It was fine on the 405, but once we got to the Grapevine we encountered a bit of traffic. And at that point I think I realized I had drank too much water.

Early Friday Morning: So I tried to fall asleep on the bus, but couldn't beacuase it was too uncomfortable and I didn't have a pillow. I kept tossing and turning and by 2:30 a.m., woke up to realize we were getting off at the school's exit. So I called J.D., waited for him to come pick me up, went home, brushed my teeth and passed out after 3 a.m.

My boss told me not to worry, get some sleep, and come in at noon on Friday for work in the office.

Friday afternoon: Instead, I slept through my alarm and woke up at 11:45 a.m. on Friday. I showered faster than I ever have before, got ready and make it to work by 12:15 p.m. And now I'm exhausted. Can't wait to go home and pass out.

Anticipated Friday Night Plans: Make pizza with J.D. and then maybe go out! Because....

THIS IS MY FIRST FREE WEEKEND!!!!! Hopefully we'll go wine-tasting tomorrow and do some house-cleaning on Sunday.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Can you hear me now?

I'm pretty pissed off right now. Why?

Well, because I don't want to look like a crazy, space-aged alien from now on out. Maybe that, or I'm just a little bitter (I'll get back to this). Although, David Beckham doesn't look so sci-fi and futuristic, so maybe I won't in 2035 when I, too, jump on the bluetooth bandwagon.


I'm not really sure why he showed up when I Googled "bluetooth headsets," but here Mr. Beckham is in all his facial glory. Maybe because he's too old to play soccer (decently) he reverts to smothering his face over all things American. Whatever, I'm not going to stop looking.

Anyways, after taking my GRE today -- I kind of feel bad for not ever caring/studying, but I still hit my 1100 range and am already accepted into a grad program, so who am I to have a conscience? -- I answered a phone call in the car and almost had a heart attack.

You know that feeling I'm talking about, when your chest literally caves in on itself and you have to take an extremely deep breath because you've been scared enough to almost wet yourself.

Oh, you don't know that feeling? Maybe it's just me then.

But anyways, beginning TOMORROW, July 1st, all motorists in California must refrain from answering their phones while driving on the road. This really pissed me off. It seemed so far away in 2006 when Arnold signed this into effect.

Well, I'm a little jealous about looking like a space-age freak, because my P.O.S. cell phone is broken and does not detect hands-free bluetooth devices. And I can't seem to find the headphones that originally came with it, and they can't be just any set of headphones because it's a USB charging cable.

So instead of shelling out money I don't have for a new phone -- which is silly since I think my contract is up for renewal in two to four months -- Monique's going ghetto style.

That's right, if anyone tries to call me while I'm behind the wheel, you're getting put on speaker.

Let the ridicule begin....

(I am also super excited about re-joining the workforce tomorrow! Wish me luck!!)

What the F?

I have no idea what's going on right now.

(Well, this blanket statement applies to pretty much most of my life, but I'll zone in here and be specific with y'all.)

For some reason I cannot hold down anything. Whenever I eat I just feel disgustingly sick. And I don't think I've ever had this sensation before. My mouth is watering and I'm insanely hungry, but my stomach isn't having any of it. Not even Squirt, citrus soda! :(

Well, at least since it's now June 1st and I've been approved for Kaiser's health insurance, I can try to make an appointment to see a doctor. Though, since being denied from my PPO, I am not sure who my doctor will be, but, hopefully I'll be able to see one....

This is all TMJ's fault! If I never had that, I wouldn't be considered a "high risk" patient and I'd be back on the same Blue Shield plan I had before I left France. However, come August I'm going to return to full-time student status, thus will most likely be able to mooch off UOP's student coverage.

And no, I take it back. It's my dad's fault for being a contractor. Haha, if he was employed through a company, I could still leech off the family's health coverage.

Oh well. Until then, I'll just keep dreaming of sandwiches and mint-chocolate ice cream (among other dairy products). Bread and crackers are getting old....

Black is the new green

Ah, finally the ramifications of over-population and under-production begin to rear their ugly heads.

For the first time in over 20 years, East (San Francisco) Bay residents are now on an imposed-mandatory water rationing -- which has been in effect since yesterday.

The East Bay MUD (Municipal Utility District, aka the best tasting water in arguably all the United States) is asking that single families cut back water usage 19 percent.

See the news broadcast here.

So, now that I'm back from France, I'm finally going to adopt not showering. Just kidding, but I think I'm going to have to revert back to turning off water in the middle of my shower. I really detest that idea because I get so cold mid-shower. It sucked in France because water is so f-ing expensive there, but it was also the thick of winter.

With the temperature expected to hit 102º tomorrow, I shouldn't think this will be a problem.

But wow, really, water rationing? Can't we just ask God to make it rain a little bit up there? Or what about all the ice melt, can't that come back some how?!

And now ladies and gentlemen...

We present the amazing, the fantastic, the freakish and exotic, Miss Monique!

And let me tell you dear patrons, you're in for a special treat tonight, because she's traveled far and wide to be here with us. From the warm and sunny beaches of California all the way to the rain-soaked South of France, here she is!

...I've had to jump through yet another hoop this morning. And for my next act, I'll be juggling knives while eating fire. Scratch that, I'll be applying for the position of 1,000 lb. lady.

Just kidding. But this morning was a bit of a waste of my time, since I tried in vain to get my social security card and medical insurance over here. Two days ago, the woman just above me sent an email explaining that I should have all the necessary documents to get my social security. Documents that were sent back to me in October, without any instruction whatsoever. So I took a look at the documents, which supposedly listed what other papers I needed to bring along with me. Basically, I had everything including "official documentation," which I think said, be it a birth certificate or passport. So I opted for the passport instead, because I put my certificate somewhere -- which I'll be needing to find later.

Anyways, Sarah and I braved the rain to find the insurance building at 8 a.m. in order to avoid all the messy lines usually associated with French bureaucracy. We get there and it turns out I'm missing a doctor and eight hundred photocopies of everything. I guess that means I'll be photocopying like a madwoman at school tomorrow and I'll have to find a doctor willing to sign off my medical references. Essentially I can only see one approved doctor.

Now, where to find such a person....

But the best part is how disgusting I must have looked throughout it all.

Seeing as how I got home from the teachers' dinner this morning at 1 a.m. then woke up at 7 a.m. to get to the insurance office on time. Times like that, I really wish France had some sort of portable coffee available, i.e. STARBUCKS. Man am I tired.

The dinner itself was fantastic. I tried to keep conversation in French, but it was hard seeing as how we had about a million people and Moroccan music was blaring all night long. My stomach was also not helping my cause, as it was grumbling so much I could hardly focus. That's what happens when you don't eat dinner until 10 p.m., after having lunch at noon.

On the way home, two of the male teachers -- probably in their mid-30s -- started talking to some drunk on the streets. They're not very serious people normally -- or ever for that matter -- and so when said drunk begins asking them if "so-and-so" should be coming soon, they joke with him saying yeah, he's going to be late, blah blah blah. Turns out they have no idea who or what this man's talking about and I guess he started to get really upset because his friend wasn't there. So one punch gets thrown and that's all I really noticed. Next thing I see was a flash of bodies all throwing this man into the nearest store window, sending off the police alarms after midnight in Downtown Cannes.

When they finally settled things down and started to walk away, the drunk threw himself on them again and subsequently wound up on the floor in a crumpled heap. I guess one of the teachers does kick boxing and judo, so the others joked that he missed his training/practice yesterday so did that instead. Oh yeah, and after 15 minutes of fuss and the break-in alarms going off, not one police officer EVER showed up.

And when the directrice -- principal of the school -- asked the other teacher what had just happened or how he was doing, he replied:

"I don't think I should have eaten that pizza before coming earlier tonight."

Jesus.

I've stayed drier in a POOL

One day in the future if/when I have kids, I'll finally be able to tell them, "When I was your age I had to walk x miles in the snow."

Scratch that. In the rain.

As usual, it's a Monday so the 2008 bus strikes are continuing. However, figures the only day of the week there's a strike WOULD BE the wettest day of the week. And bear in mind you're reading the blog of someone who was hardcore enough to ride her bike in the rain to and from classes at UCSB! A little water doesn't scare me.

But, when I have to work in two different cities it does. You see, normally when it's pouring this hard, I just suck it up and rely on my umbrella to protect me to and from the bus stops. But, no bus, no dry. Instead, I was forced to walk 50 minutes BOTH WAYS to school.

And leave it to French drivers to make my day even more miserable than it already was. On the way back home, my entire route is uphill. That means streams of water are pouring down towards me in sizes and speeds that could probably rival the Loire itself. (That's probably NOT an exaggeration).

So while there are already pools of water raging down towards me, all the drives still refuse to adhere to right of ways. And I was almost hit twice. Luckily one bastard stalled his car stopping for me at the final second. Serves him right. Everyone else though sped up when they neared me, rolling their wheels through immense pools of water, spraying it all over my body.

I'm not joking with you right now: I have street water all over my face and clothes. Imagine oily and dirty cars rolling around in that mixture, plus whatever billions of dogs have already done their business on the road/sidewalks today. Actually, I don't want to think about that anymore.

So instead, I'm going to continue shivering as I futilely attempt to dry off my clothes and backpack, then I plan on taking a very long, hot shower.

Consider this a big F-YOU to the French government! You should not be allowed to strike when it's either a.) snowing or b.) raining HARD. If only I had a car....

God Himself could not sink this ship

Remember that scene in Titanic when word gets out that the ship is sinking, and thousands of passengers try in vain to squeeze into a handful of tiny little rowboats? Then all the chaos and panic that ensues when some people are thrown off the deck once humans stop behaving like human beings and revert to some pre-evolved animal-like state?

Yeah, that happened to me tonight.

I had a good time being touristy in Milan this weekend, but the six-hour train ride ended on an equally chaotic note. My train was supposed to go 30 minutes from the border of Italy into Nice where I would have a transfer to another train to Antibes. However, upon arrival at the last city before the French-Italian border, the train agents told us all that the inter-country rails were closed down and those of us continuing along would have to take buses into Nice with the French rail agency. Ok, in theory this sounds plausible.

However, as soon as we got off -- we being 10 cars with about 160 seats in each car -- there was this mad dash out to the front of the train station where ONE single bus awaited for about 75 people.

I don't know how, but I was one of the last dozen people to get on the bus, even though I was sitting in the 10th and final car at the end of the train. Maybe it was because the hundreds of people shoving through the crowd kind of crowd-surfed me towards the front of the line.

Either way, I got lucky and made it back to Nice in time for my transfer.

Oh mon Dieu! I'm not ready to ever go through that again...

French banking is the best in the world!!!

Case in point:

-It took nearly three weeks for a bank to approve of me putting my money in an account

-After opening my account in October, I couldn't officially access it until I received an ATM card in the mail

-I wasn't allowed to have the card until I could prove that I actually lived at the address to which it came

-I wanted to deposit money in my account in my dad's city, but they wouldn't let me because I can only withdraw cash (and perform no other transactions) outside of my region.... regardless of the fact that I was still in the country

-In order to deposit a check (in my region) I needed to wait in line at the welcome window, get a slip, fill it out, go back outside of the bank and deposit the envelope in a box

-For every transaction I want to make (in my region) there is a different ATM

-If you go to the wrong ATM, you have to remove your card and then wait in line (again) at the next station.


...Oh my God I miss Bank of America. I can't wait to go back home and do everything I want to anywhere in the country from one machine.

But point of the story, I was able to deposit my check today... even though it's written out to Mr. Moyal. The lack of a first name means I can probably get away with it, but we'll see.

Oh and it takes over a week and a half to register transactions online. Super.

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.

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.