For anyone who doesn't know, this is the lovely Lena. I'm visiting her in Bonn in early November and I'm super excited. This was during a Skype date in which we discussed my arrival plans. Woohoo!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Photo-a-Day: Oct 14
Xiao lu, my roommate from China, attacked me with a camera when we returned from ... something, and then buying bread. This picture is in the courtyard/basketball court area of my school, and the leaves are pretty like this everywhere. Kind of.
Photo-a-Day: Oct 13
On this particularly gorgeous day, I witnessed this incredible sunset from my bedroom window in the apartment. And these Irises are just outside of my apartment. Makes me think of Gramma ever time I see them.
Photo-a-Day: Oct 12
Look! I have friends! We spent an epic afternoon/evening attempting to open this bottle of crème caramel (I think) which was wax sealed. I mean, we did other things too, but oy vey.
Photo-a-Day: Oct 11
Once again, on a Sunday afternoon, I treated myself to un café and sipped it while journaling and looking at the sunflower I bought myself at the market.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Photo-a-Day: Oct 9
Look how cute (some of) my family is. Lizzie, the newest addition, likes to climb up on laps when I'm talking to my mom. So, there she is, being adorable. Also, look at what a stud my brother is!
Photo-a-Day: Oct 8
Oops, this picture was actually October 8. Anyways, these old men are always out playing Bocci ball. Or Boule? I don't really know the difference. They're really cute.
Photo-a-Day: Oct 7
You might need to click on this one to see it in better detail, but one of the churches near me (or maybe this is the cathedral, I can never remember) had TONS (tonz) of birds flying around. Donnie said, when I showed him the picture, that it looked like the church was breaking into pieces and flying away. Pretty cool, huh?
Photo-a-Day: Oct 6
The day we got internet (but we hadn't gotten it working yet), I was desperate to use my own computer with the internet so I could post some pictures. So, Fabi and I went to this really cute internet cafe called Café Cheri and I got an apple-grapefruit (I know, it was as good as it sounds) smoothie, and Fabi got us a "house cake," which turned out to be brownie, fresh from the oven. YUM!
Photo-a-Day: Oct 5
I went on a really hardcore Pilates kick. Guess that kind of stopped. But I'm going to hop back on over break, because I saw a dance show last night and the dancers had hot bods. I want a hot bod too. But anyways, here's my little set up, with my rug and a towel on it in lieu of my yoga mat which took up too much space to justify packing...
Majorly needed update
Hello dear friends,
I am sorry for the serious lack of posting recently-- I have begun teaching, the administrative process has struck again, and Orange (more in a moment) has bitten us in the butts. Oh, and I have a raving social life... jk.
So first, teaching: I feel a little bit like things are happening very fast and I don't know much about what is going on. It's not like anyone is explaining things complicated-ly; it's more like no one explains anything at all. For example, our vacations are written Oct 23-Nov 5. Apparently, this means you come back to class on Nov 5, not that your last day of vacation is on Nov 5 and you resume on the 6th. But I've only heard this through my roommates, and not through anything official, but now I've looked it up, and it's true. WTF. So now I'll be missing a day due to the fact that I wasn't told about how the schedule worked (I'll be in Germany still). But what can you do? Otherwise, though, I love teaching. I feel a little awkward in class, because I just kind of do what the teacher wants me to, at this point, but soon I will be taking some kids to work in another room, etc. I'm looking forward to developing my own lesson plans.
Cute stories that have happened so far:
-They usually ask if I have a boyfriend, and when I say yes, they all (literally, ALL) go "ooooohhhhhhhhh!"
-One girl, when I showed a picture of my senior prom group, said "Oh, elle est en bonne forme!" The teacher said, "In English, please!" And the girl goes, "Euh... she 'as .... euh, a good figure!" And I blushed a lot.
-I spent about 30 minutes describing my life to a class, complete with pictures. I told them that we have a lot of corn, showed pictures of The Bean in Chicago; I described Meijer's sheer size to them, I showed pictures of my 96 year old great grandmother... I asked one boy, "What is one thing that you learned today, or one thing that was interesting to you?" He replied, "I learned nothing." :)
-Today, in class, I was sitting at a table with one of the students who is very good at English. The kids were giving presentations on famous quotations, and this kid (who seems very... nice and polite) was mumbling under his breath, in English, about the faults of each person. But not their faults in English, no. Their faults as a person -- like, "Oh, 'e nehver prepares, I don't uhgree wiz 'iz assessmunt." I had to work hard not to laugh (or agree!) because I think he's a little funny.
Anyways, enough of that. I need to do a lesson plan for some classes for tomorrow, so I should go, but basically my life has otherwise consisted of dealing with Orange, the phone company that we were required (by our school) to take out an internet contract from. They have screwed us over royally, charging us up the wazoo for things they said they would not charge, billing us earlier than they said they would, and (get this) giving us a different, and more expensive plan, than we signed up for. I am so upset by this, and we have been fighting it to no end. They have conceded to reimburse us 60 euros, which is something, but... not much compared to how much they're demanding of us. OUCH.
And finally, I have been trying to plan a birthday for me and my roomie Xiao Lu. Her birthday is tomorrow (!) and mine is on Friday (!) so we're having a joint b-day party on Friday night with some assistants. It should be fun, I'm thinking. I'm going to try to make a cake; we'll see how it goes, with the few cooking utensils I have here, and the modified ingredients I have to use.
OK, off to plan a lesson on American high school stereotypes (goth, nerd, jock, band geek, prep, artsy kid, etc.). And then get some other lessons ready because WHO KNOWS what I'm going to do in my other classes. On verra...
I am sorry for the serious lack of posting recently-- I have begun teaching, the administrative process has struck again, and Orange (more in a moment) has bitten us in the butts. Oh, and I have a raving social life... jk.
So first, teaching: I feel a little bit like things are happening very fast and I don't know much about what is going on. It's not like anyone is explaining things complicated-ly; it's more like no one explains anything at all. For example, our vacations are written Oct 23-Nov 5. Apparently, this means you come back to class on Nov 5, not that your last day of vacation is on Nov 5 and you resume on the 6th. But I've only heard this through my roommates, and not through anything official, but now I've looked it up, and it's true. WTF. So now I'll be missing a day due to the fact that I wasn't told about how the schedule worked (I'll be in Germany still). But what can you do? Otherwise, though, I love teaching. I feel a little awkward in class, because I just kind of do what the teacher wants me to, at this point, but soon I will be taking some kids to work in another room, etc. I'm looking forward to developing my own lesson plans.
Cute stories that have happened so far:
-They usually ask if I have a boyfriend, and when I say yes, they all (literally, ALL) go "ooooohhhhhhhhh!"
-One girl, when I showed a picture of my senior prom group, said "Oh, elle est en bonne forme!" The teacher said, "In English, please!" And the girl goes, "Euh... she 'as .... euh, a good figure!" And I blushed a lot.
-I spent about 30 minutes describing my life to a class, complete with pictures. I told them that we have a lot of corn, showed pictures of The Bean in Chicago; I described Meijer's sheer size to them, I showed pictures of my 96 year old great grandmother... I asked one boy, "What is one thing that you learned today, or one thing that was interesting to you?" He replied, "I learned nothing." :)
-Today, in class, I was sitting at a table with one of the students who is very good at English. The kids were giving presentations on famous quotations, and this kid (who seems very... nice and polite) was mumbling under his breath, in English, about the faults of each person. But not their faults in English, no. Their faults as a person -- like, "Oh, 'e nehver prepares, I don't uhgree wiz 'iz assessmunt." I had to work hard not to laugh (or agree!) because I think he's a little funny.
Anyways, enough of that. I need to do a lesson plan for some classes for tomorrow, so I should go, but basically my life has otherwise consisted of dealing with Orange, the phone company that we were required (by our school) to take out an internet contract from. They have screwed us over royally, charging us up the wazoo for things they said they would not charge, billing us earlier than they said they would, and (get this) giving us a different, and more expensive plan, than we signed up for. I am so upset by this, and we have been fighting it to no end. They have conceded to reimburse us 60 euros, which is something, but... not much compared to how much they're demanding of us. OUCH.
And finally, I have been trying to plan a birthday for me and my roomie Xiao Lu. Her birthday is tomorrow (!) and mine is on Friday (!) so we're having a joint b-day party on Friday night with some assistants. It should be fun, I'm thinking. I'm going to try to make a cake; we'll see how it goes, with the few cooking utensils I have here, and the modified ingredients I have to use.
OK, off to plan a lesson on American high school stereotypes (goth, nerd, jock, band geek, prep, artsy kid, etc.). And then get some other lessons ready because WHO KNOWS what I'm going to do in my other classes. On verra...
Sunday, October 18, 2009
photo-a-days
Ok, not quite there, but I'm getting caught up. Enjoy these few for now and expect another update with some more pictures in the next day or so (or maybe even tonight!).
Photo-a-Day: Oct 4
The day after the concert, Lisa concocted a feast. We ate a potato onion casserole type thing (but casserole isn't nearly a beautiful enough word to describe what Lisa made), and there was incredible salad and mushrooms (which I ate and they were GOOD!), and after the meal we had espressos from this amazing machine that Lisa has and I want one real bad so I can't wait til I get married some day so I can put it on my gift registry. And it looks like this and it's amazing:
Photo-a-Day: Oct 3
I wish I had a better picture to have captured this lovely evening, but long story short, this is my mom's friend Lisa with whom I stayed for a night after seeing her concert at a church in a town outside of Rouen. Lisa has an absolutely stunning voice and I felt so lucky and blessed to be a part of her family's life for those 24 hours. I'm definitely going to go back soon (though, less soon than I had hoped because all of a sudden I'm busy. wtf).
Photo-a-Day: Oct 2
One night, I went out with Fabi (my roommate from Costa Rica) and Lisa, another assistant who renewed to come back this year. On our way home, we stopped by this church and I took a picture. It reminded me of the castle in Beauty and the Beast.
Photo-a-Day: Oct 1
One day, I was in an internet café, talking to my dad. We said goodbye and hung up, and I called Donnie. But then, all of a sudden, on Skype, I got call waiting from my dad; I guessed he had forgotten something he wanted to tell me, etc. So I paged over and said, "Hello?" Nothing. "Hello?" Still nada. Then the screen registered. It was my dad's cat, Andi, sitting on the keyboard. She and I chatted for a mo' and said our goodbyes, and I paged back over to Donnie. But not before I got a picture of the sneaky cat. :)
Photo-a-Day: Sept 30
When we had the random woman living with us that first week, she told me about the heads along the Seine. And then, on a walk one day, I discovered what she meant. Apparently, there are heads of all of the explorers who discovered or "discovered" lands far far away. I couldn't find Christophe Colomb (good ol' Columbus) but rumor has it, he's there.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Photo-a-Day: Sept 29
Everyday, first thing in the morning and last thing at night, I have been continuing a tradition from Cherubs, which involves lighting the candle (that the kids in my cast gave me -- WOOT Scarecrow!). And each night, I use one of the matches in that pile -- a pile which contains exactly one match for each day until I go home for Christmas. It's a really nice way to symbolically look forward to returning home, while keeping myself present in Rouen. For now I'm using the red ones; there are exactly 14 black matches in the pile, which symbolize the last two weeks before going home. I'm certainly not wishing away my time here, but I'm also really looking forward to the holiday season at home!
Also in the picture: a card from my mom with two old ladies (whom she described as herself and Amy, in another life -- I think it's her and Amy in 50 years...); Wonka Nerds, which are one of Donnie's favorite candies (I only like the pink and the green ones, but I've been making sacrifices and eating the other colors, because Donnie isn't here to eat them); nose spray, which was supposed to make me get healthy faster when I was stuck with that awful cold for the first two weeks here.
Photo-a-Day: Sept 28
This was my pantry, on Sept 28. I was so incredibly proud of myself for being so neat and not getting too much food. But then... fast forward to a glimpse of my pantry on October 6...
In my defense, only that top shelf is mine... But still, look how it multiplied!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Quick post to say:
1) There are two people who are incredibly brilliant. One of them is Gram, Donnie's grandma. The other is my mom. They are just generally brilliant, wonderful, lovable people but today they score extra points because I got two packages in the mail today, one complete with three varieties of homemade cookies from Gram (!) as well as some little birthday presents that were wrapped separately. I have decided to leave those wrapped so I can open them on my actual birthday, which is in ten days. What? And, I got a lovely package from my mom containing little bits from home which was LOVELY. There was a People magazine and some milky ways and sweedish fish and nerd candies and a really funny card and it was the best ever. What a wonderful way to start my day that otherwise felt a little stressed and grumpy. THANK YOU GRAM AND MOM!
2) I bought my tickets to go see Lena in Bonn, Germany over my first fall break. I'm going to visit her from Nov. 3 to Nov. 6. There's quite a bit of long train rides and changing trains to get there but I think it will all be worth it to see someone I know and love, and to explore Germany a little. So, woohoo!
And probably the biggest news of all...
3) Mom, Gramma (my grandma, Iris, this time), and Cameron are coming to France from November 20-November 30. They'll be here for Thanksgiving and I am so excited to share this town and the people here and that family holiday with them. They are the best in the world and I am so excited. The only thing better would be going to Centralia to visit my extended family there because I love them so much and I love Thanksgiving there. But this will be really really good. Also, Iris's 75th birthday is on November 14 so it will be a fun belated birthday celebration filled with amazing French wine.
OK. That's all for now. I am going to go have a Skype date with that one boy. :)
Oh. I lied. Not quite all. I'll write more about this soon, but basically I started teaching today and it was exhausting but wonderful. In the interest of being quick and a bit lazy, I'm copying over my facebook status about it:
2) I bought my tickets to go see Lena in Bonn, Germany over my first fall break. I'm going to visit her from Nov. 3 to Nov. 6. There's quite a bit of long train rides and changing trains to get there but I think it will all be worth it to see someone I know and love, and to explore Germany a little. So, woohoo!
And probably the biggest news of all...
3) Mom, Gramma (my grandma, Iris, this time), and Cameron are coming to France from November 20-November 30. They'll be here for Thanksgiving and I am so excited to share this town and the people here and that family holiday with them. They are the best in the world and I am so excited. The only thing better would be going to Centralia to visit my extended family there because I love them so much and I love Thanksgiving there. But this will be really really good. Also, Iris's 75th birthday is on November 14 so it will be a fun belated birthday celebration filled with amazing French wine.
OK. That's all for now. I am going to go have a Skype date with that one boy. :)
Oh. I lied. Not quite all. I'll write more about this soon, but basically I started teaching today and it was exhausting but wonderful. In the interest of being quick and a bit lazy, I'm copying over my facebook status about it:
i told one of my classes that i had a boyfriend and they all went OOOOOOHHHHHHH. also, i showed them a picture from my prom back in the day, and a girl told me i have a nice figure. also, after i talked for half an hour about myself, urbana, my family, my country, etc, i asked this one boy to repeat one (just 1!) thing he had learned today. he said he learned nothing. at all. oh dear. i like these kids already. :)
Monday, October 12, 2009
More Orientation, and It All Begins.
Huge long day of orientation which was actually super helpful. We covered some administrative things, and then got tons of helpful tips for dealing with discipline, ideas for warm-ups/ice breakers based activities. Those were nice.
And after (this is maybe the biggest news), I HUNG OUT WITH SOME PEOPLE and even though we were all Americans, we all spoke French the entire time and I think I had the worst French in the group which I really like because I learn stuff and ... guys, I think I might have some friends or something. At least I hope so, because I like them.
Anyways, this is very short and sweet because I'm beginning teaching tomorrow (what?!) and I have some lesson plans to prepare just in case a teacher goes "Hey, Kinzie, how about you take half the class in the other room and teach them for 55 minutes?" I'm not too worried, but I certainly want to be ready for anything I'm given so my first day is not a stressful one. I've learned that every little bit of time I give towards preparation, the easier I breathe while teaching, and I like breathing, so.
To infinity and beyond (vers l'infini et au dela!) -- there was a sign posted outside of the teacher training institute with Buzz Lightyear on it and it was in French. Anyways. Bye.
And after (this is maybe the biggest news), I HUNG OUT WITH SOME PEOPLE and even though we were all Americans, we all spoke French the entire time and I think I had the worst French in the group which I really like because I learn stuff and ... guys, I think I might have some friends or something. At least I hope so, because I like them.
Anyways, this is very short and sweet because I'm beginning teaching tomorrow (what?!) and I have some lesson plans to prepare just in case a teacher goes "Hey, Kinzie, how about you take half the class in the other room and teach them for 55 minutes?" I'm not too worried, but I certainly want to be ready for anything I'm given so my first day is not a stressful one. I've learned that every little bit of time I give towards preparation, the easier I breathe while teaching, and I like breathing, so.
To infinity and beyond (vers l'infini et au dela!) -- there was a sign posted outside of the teacher training institute with Buzz Lightyear on it and it was in French. Anyways. Bye.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Gotta get my sh*t togetha!
So, here's the deal. I have had wireless internet since that one glorious, glorious night at the internet café. And, as a result, I have since wasted my life away on the computer. This ends today. (Like, now.) I'm going to continue blog posting and researching grad schools (because I've recently made the decision that I want to go to grad school -- in French, at this point, though much research will be required before making decisions, and all that...) and emailing and Skyp(e)™ing and all. But less time on Facebook and I'm going to get other things done first. Among those things:
1) clean up some things. I have kept my room fairly neat, and I make my bed every day, but I have piles of paperwork stacked in various places around my room. So I need to organize those. To help me with that, I purchased a file folder and some tab dividers. That will also help me with my grad school research.
2) do Pilates. I am literally working 12 hours a week here. There is absolutely no excuse for me to not move my bod' at least for 10 minutes a day. I'm walking everywhere (literally, everywhere). I think it's been at least an hour a day, thus far, if not more. So I'm not worried about that part -- but if I have all the time in the world to get me some arms like Michelle Obama, well, why not?
3) watch movies in French. Because of internet, I have been doing a lot more in English. I need to continue the amount of French that I had been subscribing to. So, movies in French it is. Doesn't sound too bad to me.
4) hang out in the salle des profs (teachers' lounge) more, and talk to people there. They are all very nice. Though recently, I've been keeping my distance because EVERYONE there is sick with achy flu, sore throats, coughs, sniffles... The list goes on. I refuse to subject myself to sick situations if I don't have to be around them. Also there is coffee there all day, which I like going to drink, because it's espresso style coffee (not Espresso like Espresso Royale, but ... you know, like the little tiny cup of concentrated coffee) and it's good. But there are cups for everyone to use, and after these (sick) teachers finish their cup, they rinse it out with cold water and no soap, and put it on the drying rack. As a result, I've been using the soapy sponge to wash my mug before and after I use it. No way, no how, Germs. You're not gettin' in to ME.
Anyways. I'm hoping to get more pictures up soon. For some reason, my computer is not being happy and it won't recognize my USB chord when I plug in my camera, so I can't get my most recent pictures off of it. I'm going to keep trying though, and once I do, I'll put up more pictures. For now, I guess, I'll put up the pictures that I took a while ago of the town. For a bigger view of them, just click on the picture and it will expand it to full view. So, here they are:
1) clean up some things. I have kept my room fairly neat, and I make my bed every day, but I have piles of paperwork stacked in various places around my room. So I need to organize those. To help me with that, I purchased a file folder and some tab dividers. That will also help me with my grad school research.
2) do Pilates. I am literally working 12 hours a week here. There is absolutely no excuse for me to not move my bod' at least for 10 minutes a day. I'm walking everywhere (literally, everywhere). I think it's been at least an hour a day, thus far, if not more. So I'm not worried about that part -- but if I have all the time in the world to get me some arms like Michelle Obama, well, why not?
3) watch movies in French. Because of internet, I have been doing a lot more in English. I need to continue the amount of French that I had been subscribing to. So, movies in French it is. Doesn't sound too bad to me.
4) hang out in the salle des profs (teachers' lounge) more, and talk to people there. They are all very nice. Though recently, I've been keeping my distance because EVERYONE there is sick with achy flu, sore throats, coughs, sniffles... The list goes on. I refuse to subject myself to sick situations if I don't have to be around them. Also there is coffee there all day, which I like going to drink, because it's espresso style coffee (not Espresso like Espresso Royale, but ... you know, like the little tiny cup of concentrated coffee) and it's good. But there are cups for everyone to use, and after these (sick) teachers finish their cup, they rinse it out with cold water and no soap, and put it on the drying rack. As a result, I've been using the soapy sponge to wash my mug before and after I use it. No way, no how, Germs. You're not gettin' in to ME.
Anyways. I'm hoping to get more pictures up soon. For some reason, my computer is not being happy and it won't recognize my USB chord when I plug in my camera, so I can't get my most recent pictures off of it. I'm going to keep trying though, and once I do, I'll put up more pictures. For now, I guess, I'll put up the pictures that I took a while ago of the town. For a bigger view of them, just click on the picture and it will expand it to full view. So, here they are:
This is the view right outside of my window. All of the houses look like this, because they're way old. But these have been repainted fairly recently.
This is the view of the school grounds from the front door. To get to my apartment, I just follow the path between those two buildings.
This is taken from the same place as the previous picture, but it shows the theatre building to the right. Yes, theatre building. No such thing as an attic on the 4th floor with some choir risers to create seating. No way, no how.
Here's the front door to my apartment building. My bedroom windows are the ones right behind the tree there.
This is the conservatory down the street from where I live. I walk by it at least a few times a day. I have yet to explore if there are performances here or anything like that, but someday I'll work up the courage.
This is the metro station right near my apartment. There is one line that splits into two different directions in Rouen. It's quite useful, and since I'm under 26 years old, the tickets are only 65 cents each time I ride.
This is the major cathedral in Rouen. It's in the very touristy part of central, historic Rouen. It's pretty incredible to be walking around, shopping, and look up and voila, cathedral.
This is inside the cathedral. Need I say more?
This is part of the downtown area. It's about a 20-30 minute walk from where I live.
I love this town. As soon as I can negotiate the USB business on my computer, I'll put up some more pictures, including pictures of my roommates and the rest of my apartment.
xoxo.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Pictures of my bedroom! (also see following post with a picture a day)
As you can see, this is my bedroom. There's my desk with some of the pictures (I have even more up now, as I took these about a week ago), my sink that is in my room, which is the most brilliant thing EVER because you can brush your teeth in your room and then just crawl into bed, and my armoire type thing, and my bed which is less comfortable than I would like it to be, but it has my bedspread from home so that's nice. As soon as I have more internet on my own computer (maybe tonight? though, we'll see...) I'll put up more pictures of my neighborhood, and the rest of my apartment. Etc.
Love love.
Photo a day, with explanations!
Oh dear. This picture was actually taken on Sept 22, around 3 in the morning. Poor Donnie stayed up almost all night with me, getting my bags packed. They were each around 45 pounds -- the backpack one kept trying to pull me backwards.
In the Detroit airport, during my several hour layover, I had one last "American" meal, whereby that, I mean I had avocado sushi and a beer. I toasted myself and this huge adventure that I was about to embark upon, and wrote in my journal as I ate.
London Heathrow -- This was just one small part of the line to get through customs. The line took 2 hours, I was so tired, and was so stressed about how I was going to get in to Paris. Not one of my better moments. So I pulled out my headphones and listened to Harry Potter 3 on my iPod.
There were some cows out the window on my train trip between Paris and Rouen. "I like this place already," I thought.
This picture was taken from the metro, as the sun was setting over the Seine. What an amazing place it is that I live in. At this point, I was on my way home after purchasing a cell phone and getting groceries.
SEPTEMBER 26
This one gets a double picture. I went on a guided tour of Rouen, and as we were leaving the Cathedral (look it up, it's real famous), we saw all these little tissue paper hearts on the ground. I thought it was so pretty, and figured it was from an earlier wedding, but then I looked up and there were the bride and groom, having LITERALLY just gotten married. It was so lovely. And somehow, I grabbed pictures of both things. Good work, Kinzie.
Unfortunately, this is all I have time to post for now, but I think we will get our wireless set up very soon, so I'll be posting more pictures at that point. Hope you like this little glimpse into my daily life here!
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