Oops, guess it's been a while...

So, life has been a little nuts.  It is officially 34 days til we come home.  When I arrived, it was 226.  How did this happen?  I don't have time to write (8h30 class tomorrow and then a busy day full of more lovely French paperwork!), but I think my current state of mind is best summed up by the following gchat convo I had with Annah today:

5:20 PM me: i'm feeling so stressed

  we're leaving on sunday

  for 10 days

  when we get back, i'll be in tech week/performance week

  the next week will be our last week in the apartment so we have to pack and clean

  and then we'll be in paris for like, 3 or 4 days

  and then we're coming homeeeeee

5:18 PM Annah: holy shit!

5:20 PM me: i KNOW

  so anyways

 Annah: yeah

5:21 PM me: i reformatted my resume again

  added g.k. to my references

5:22 PM Annah: lovely

5:23 PM me: he sent me the cutest email back when i asked him

5:24 PM Annah: :)

5:25 PM me: then he updated me on his dog

  i have to say, cherubs was not this perfect, magical experience, and nor has been france.

  but the residual effects they have both had on my life have been ... a really great thing

5:26 PM for one, i think they've changed my life path -- i really do want to teach high school ish now -- and i've got some wonderful people that i still talk to and that's real good  

So, I'm currently dealing with this re-evaluative phase of my life.  Where do I go from here, what have I learned from where I've been, WHO AM I?  But all in all, and despite the current stressors, I am wildly content with life.  I have a solid group of friends in Rouen, I have an extremely solid group of friends and family waiting for me at home, I have a wonderful boyfriend who makes my everyday life a joy, and I still have more than one month in France so I can squeeze as much out of my experience as possible.  No, this year has not been what I thought it would be in many ways; for one, I don't have a ton of French friends, I don't feel impressively fluent in the language, and I'm not a perfect teacher.  But that's not what this year has been about, and that's okay by me.

Rockstar, whirlwind, insane day of the century!

So, I left the house at 7:45 this morning.  I taught classes at 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, and 4:30.  Then, I taught a private lesson from 5:30-6:30.  Then I went home, making it there shortly after 7 pm.  (There is a transportation strike today, in addition to the national strike about retirement age -- unless the metros and the buses also want to maintain the right to retire at age 60...)

Not only was my day crazy, but somehow, in my very limited freetime, I managed to almost explode the staffroom printer, catch a million viruses on my USB key, and spill some kernels of corn from my salad on the floor.

At the end of the day, I was nothing but exhausted.

But as I was leaving school, I caught up with another teacher and we walked together for a while.  We complained together about our long work days, how we have to be constant actors, putting on a show for a class of 30 or more kids, attempting to keep their attention for even five minutes.  And then, after I did a fair amount of griping, she said, "Tu regrettes?"  And I realized, no, I haven't regretted a single moment since I've been here.  True, not every minute/hour/day has been a dream, there have been hard moments (maybe the hardest moments I've experienced), and there have been times when I wish things were different.  But at the end of it all, I have been living in France, I have discovered a passion for teaching, and I have met some incredible people.

For me, there is nothing like standing up in front of a class and knowing they understood me because they just laughed at my (bad) joke.  There is nothing like making my class spit as I tell them to stick their tongues between their teeth and blow (we're still working on the "TH" sound).  There is nothing like watching them perform a mini-scene that I've FORCED them to write. 

I love my job.  (Also, I'm really tired.  Goodnight.)

UGHHHHH my brain hurts!

Well, I had my first experience with the socialized health care in France and let me say: I liked it.  Called at 2 pm and got an appointment at 4 pm at the doctor about 5 minutes away by foot.  Only waited about 20 minutes, outta there by 5.  Paid 22 euros in cash and walked out with a form signed so I can get around 60-80% of that reimbursed.  And a prescription, which I took to the Pharmacie across the street, and she handed me the medicine, I paid (36 euros for two types of medicine, for which the woman apologized on behalf of the high price), and went home.  Done and done. 

I love France.  I don't love the migraine that I've been dealing with since yesterday, but I love France.  Also, the doctor was quite jolly and I enjoyed that very much.

And THEN, on my way home, I was walking and saw two little kids (mayyyybe 5 years old) with their respective parents parting ways at the corner up ahead.  One little kid/parent pairing walked down the street, and the other pair walked away in the other direction.  And as the kids got farther and farther apart, they continued yelling their goodbyes to each other.  I couldn't hear the little girl, but the boy (whom I was closer to) kept yelling, "Au revoir, ma petite princesse!" 

Donnie-related-things

One of my favorite things these days is seeing Donnie hover over his cereal bowl before he's put milk into it, picking out the raisins with a spoon and eating them one at a time.  We found this amazing granola at Carrefour that tastes a little like the granola at Espresso and it has coconut flakes and raisins.  So good, and only 1€26 per box, which contains 750 grams!  What a great buy!  But it has a few too many raisins per spoonful for Donnie so he dutifully picks them out in advance.  What a QT∏.  (Sorry.)

Last night, we tried to go see a movie.  Turns out I read the movie times wrong, not noticing that the one night they don't play Precious is on Thursday nights.  Guess France has decided that Precious is just not a Thursday night kind of movie... But anyways, right before we left the house, I asked Donnie if he had to go potty before we left. 

Who am I??

Gramma Iris

For those of you who know my gramma and have been following her dramatic life as of late, she is doing very very well after her surgery.  I think the hardest part of this all so far has been that she couldn't have any wine for a few days.  So, all is well.  She has a follow-up doctors appointment sometime next week, but we expect good news.  Thanks for all your support in the form of thoughts and prayers and well wishes -- I know it's helping her have a speedy recovery!

Today is a big day.

Today, my gramma is having surgery on her leg to remove a spot.  Everyone says it should be fairly easy and she should heal well, but still, my heart is consumed with her today.  If you could send positive energy and prayers her way, I would appreciate it.  I'll update once I've heard that she is doing just fine.  I wish I could be home right now, but I know she is in good hands with so many people who love her back at home.

In other news, we got another toilet seat in the women's bathroom in the teacher's wing.  That means that two out of three toilets have seats.  What a glorious day at the Lycée!

Another small update, but not much to say, really. And that's fine.

Life is starting to settle into a routine here, I suppose.  I find it difficult to call it a routine when I only work 12 hours a week though.  And so many of those hours have been canceled this week -- for example, of my 5 classes today, I only had/have two.  One at 8:30 am and one at 4:30 pm.  Silly.  So I came back home at 9:30 and I'll be leaving again in the next half hour.  During my break, I made pancakes with Donnie (complete with the maple syrup I purchased on the way home from work at Franprix -- I love me some Franprix), caught up on blogs, took a nappy nap, and did laundry.

Donnie is almost better and I seem to have, thus far, avoided catching it.  We're washing the sheets again today in a further attempt to debug our apartment.  The only full size sheet we could find at home is white, which is fine enough, except that apparently Donnie and I have very dirty feet, and also we eat in/on bed sometimes, and so it gets dirtier a lot faster than we'd like it to.  But oh well -- 2 more months ish in the apartment, we can deal with a not-perfect-looking sheet, I guess.

I don't really want to go to class, but I suppose I can't complain.  Also it's beautiful out today.  A gorgeous blue sky, upper 40s, and GUH I've gotta go to class NOW.  BYE!

Off to bed

We are back in Rouen, glad to have had such a wonderful trip.  We're now working on getting pictures up on facebook.  I was going to bloggy blog tonight at length about being back and things but my dear Donnie woke up with the beginnings of a cold.  So in an effort to ward it off, we have gargled with salt water, stuffed ourselves to the brim with tea and water, eaten lots of garlic, taken our vitamin C.  Now we're going to bed but first we'll put tons of Vicks on our throats and smell like Mom Nichols.  We're gonna fight this thing.  And now, sleep. 
xoxo

Home Sweet Home in Avignon

I actually didn't mean for the subject of this post to rhyme.  But it truly feels like I am home sweet home, at least for a bit.  Three and a half years ago, I lived with this amazing family in Avignon for 5 weeks while I took a French class at the American Institute here.  I specifically requested a family with no kids, or with kids who no longer lived at the house because I just wanted to be able to sit around and talk with my host parents.  And talk we did.  They live about 40 minutes by foot from the center of the town, so rather than going out to party each night with the rest of my classmates, I was perfectly content to stay home and talk to Aline and Momo -- we watched police movies and ate amazing food (Aline and my gramma are my two biggest inspirations in the kitchen and I still make the salad dressing that Aline taught me to make).  We drank until we couldn't drink anymore.  We talked (or debated, once Momo got involved) about the gender of nouns, abortion and the death penalty in the States, starting families, and love.  Aline told me that I needed to start doing abs if I was ever going to find my Prince Charming.  And look how right she was!  This woman knows everything. 

Donnie and I are wrapping up our trip with a two night stay with Aline and Momo.  Just yesterday in Lyon, we were saying how much we really wanted to just go back to Rouen and be home -- the trip was a little too long for what we were ready for.  But instead, we went to Avignon which has been more like home than I could have imagined or hoped for.  We were welcomed with open arms and immediately, we reconnected.  When Donnie went to the bathroom, they both looked at me with their stamp of approval.  I am so happy.

We're doing a little bit of sight seeing here and there, but nothing extravagant.  These two days are about indulging in Aline and Momo's company, eating good food, and talking to Donnie in French to see if he understands anything (which he does, sometimes!).  Probably there won't be much more to report about our visit, but I couldn't be any more content.  La vie est vachement belle.

Today we walked a million miles.

Alrighty -- Barcelona highlights and then a bit of Lyon:

We saw a bunch of different Gaudi buildings: Casa Batllo, Casa Vicens, Casa Mila (La Pedrara), and we also spent a couple of hours in Parc Guell and walked around the permanently under-construction Sagrada Familia.  Our CS host, S, told us that the Sagrada Familia is supposed to be finished in 2015 but probably in the year 2015 they'll say it will be finished in 2030.  Or something.  The castle-like building is built using only donations to the church and the money from entry fees.  So whenever they run out of money, they stop construction.  Donnie and I were disappointed at first that there were so many cranes and other construction things in the way of our view, but now we feel like we saw an ongoing part of history.  Pretty cool.  Also, it gives us a good reason to go back when it's done.  Just like the Harry Potter section of Universal Studio in Florida.  Except in both cases, we want to wait a bit for the initial crowds to die down.  Anyways.

Other points of interest... This ended up being a crazy time to visit Barcelona because there was Carnival, a weekend long celebration of joy and happiness before Lent starts.  Kind of like a drawn-out Mardi Gras.  There were kids in costume everywhere we went, including an awesome 3 year old with a drawn-on moustache.  There was a parade but on our way to the parade, it started pouring, so we didn't last long there, and went back to our hostel to dry out.

We ended up staying at S's house for three of the four days planned, leaving a day early to go stay in a hostel in Barcelona.  She was a lovely host, preparing us for public transportation, loading us up with maps and advice for what to see, but we were staying in a rather drafty room on a thin pad on the floor, and her house was about an hour away from the center of Barcelona by public transportation.  We were ready to step out our door and walk into the center of the city.  The hostel we found was right along the Mediterranean Sea and it had a slew of interesting people.  We ate breakfast with two Russian girls, a German dude, a man from England, and another American (whose friend is also an assistant!), while staring at the sea.  Lovely.

The next day, we headed to our previously-reserved hostel/hotel.  There was a loud child there, but otherwise it was lovely.  That day, it was Valentine's Day, so we went to dinner at a restaurant called Dostrece (213, the area code of the guys who opened the restaurant, who were from LA) and shared a lovely meal for couples only complete with tapas style hors d'oeuvres, lasagna and blue cheese gnocchi, and dessert, and complimentary champagne and wine.  Donnie and I are hardly wasteful people, so we did our job of finishing both the bottles of alcohol.  Oops.  The next morning, the lovely city of Barcelona became my own personal Barfalona.  That's all I'll say about that.

We spent a terrible day of travel to get to Lyon the day after V-tine's day.  I had a major gueule de bois (or, and for Cameron, a katzenjammer) and Donnie wasn't feeling so hot either.  We took a train to the airport, waited in lines at the airport to check in, took an hour long flight to Lyon, took a 45 minute bus into the center of Lyon.  Oy.  But we arrived and met our Couchsurfing hosts here.  They (I and K) are great.  I and K are a German couple who have lived in France for years and years.  They both use German, English, and French in their jobs and have Russian and Spanish skills as well.  Amazing. 

I (our host; it keeps looking like I'm talking about myself but I'm not) took us on an incredible backdoor tour through Lyon today and we shared two meals with them.  Last night, Donnie and I made a recipe from a vegetarian cooking magazine that Gram (Donnie's grandma) gave us.  It was a stuffed baked eggplant dish.  Delicious -- thanks, Gram!  And we accompanied the meal with a fajita salad: basically, we took the ingredients we use to make fajitas and stuck them on top of some mâche (this kind of lettuce-ish stuff here that we like a lot) and drizzled my dressing on it.  Also a great thing.  Tonight, I (host again) made dinner for all of us -- he made this dish called quenelle, a typical lyonnais meal.  Except he made it vegetarian.  It was verrry tasty.  Success all around.

We're off to Avignon tomorrow to go visit my former host family and to show the town off to Donnie.  We're wishing we had one more day to explore Lyon, but at least we had a little bit of time to know that we definitely want to come back here someday!

Over and out.

In Lyon

Hello friends!  We made it to Lyon and had an epic day of traveling today.  Now we're staying with some amazing couch surfing hosts who are Germans but live in France and also speak fluent English, and some Russian and Spanish and they lived in India for a while. 

Details soon, but I'm exhausted.  Good night, world!  And happy belated Valentine's day!

Paris/Barcelona: Days 1 and 2

This will also be brief because I'm just waiting for Donnie to get out of the shower so we can leave (oh no! he just came out! where does the time go?!) to explore Barcelona.  But, several highlights:

1) Our hostel room in our Paris Hostel was lovely and comfy and on the 6th floor, no elevator.  I have sore quads now but it's good that we got that work out in because it prepared us for ....

2) Our massive sprint in Barcelona.  Last night, we got in to Barcelona rather late and after chasing our couchsurfing host "S" from place to place (Plaza de Catalunya, the Green line stop, the movie theatre where we ended up waiting across the street for 2 hours while S saw Precious and we ate a pizza with yummy veggies including eggplant and mushrooms which I magically eat now).  Then, after S's movie, we met up with her and some of her former couchsurfers hailing from Portland.  We talked for a little too long and then had to make a mad dash to the bus stop for the night bus that left at 1:27 am.  We got there, panting, red-faced, and sweaty, at 1:29.  Missed it.  So we had to wait 58 minutes in the cold dark night of Barcelona with S, exchanging stories.  S was a journalist and then a truck driver for four years and she then traveled throughout the world (New Zealand, Canada, New York, China, etc) for two years, mostly couchsurfing.  Way cool.

3) There are cats at S's apartment, as well as two other couchsurfers. They are nice enough, though one of them told me that "life is about having expectations and then those expectations are never met."  Not so sure about that one...

4) S has an oven!  So for lunch today, Donnie and I made toasted sandwiches with butter and cheese and red peppers and spinach.  SO GOOD.  We're trying to make the most of having an oven for these few days because then we'll go home to a serious lack of oven for another 2 1/2 months.

5) Donnie and I went grocery shopping for the rest of our time in Barcelona.  Cereal and soy milk for breakfast, cheese and bread for portable lunches, some veggies and pasta for dinners -- 14€17, which we payed for with a 5 euro bill and the rest in coins.  BOOYAH.

Now we're going to explore La Rambla which is known for being touristy and thus a tourist trap full of pick-pockets and prostitutes (thanks, Wikipedia).  But it's supposed to be lovely.  The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca once said that La Rambla was "the only street in the world which I wish would never end".  (Thanks again, Wikipedia™.)

BYE!

Eep. We're leaving in 13 minutes and I'm still in PJs.

Very quick.  Donnie got here on Friday; life couldn't be better now.  Except he is way too tall (think Will Ferrell in Elf at the beginning of the movie) for the shower and the doorways.  Oops.  But otherwise, I feel like I'm living in a paradise, he's realized what a "fairytale villiage" (his words) we live in, and we're settling in together.

We're leaving today for Paris, tomorrow for Barcelona, then spending two days in Lyon and Avignon each before coming back home.  Whirlwind trip, and I'll update with pictures (I promise!) upon our return.  Not sure what our internet access will be like til we get back.

xoxo and gros bisous to all!

Tuesday was a great day.

On Tuesday, I gave each student five conversation hearts for Valentine's Day (thanks, Mom, for my V-tines day package!) and had them write a poem using those phrases.  Two of the students wrote their poems to me.  Here's what they said:

Kinzy
I'm sure
Nobody rock than you
Pleaze e-mail me and kiss me when you're home
Your too hot and we want to keep you in ar heart.
<3 [two of my students]

Kenzy, yes, you're beautiful,
likes a cup cake,
awesome you are
you rule of my heart
and you are very nice and a very good teacher
you stay in my heart
good bye Kenzy
xoxo
[another student]

Aren't they great?

Also, later in the day, I had a class in a computer lab and the main teacher was doing presentations and let the "kids" work on their own, and I discovered some of the students were reading Vie de Merde online, so I suggested that we switch over to English and read F My Life.  So I spent the class explaining phrases like "getting lucky."  Oops.

Then, to top it all off, (this is really good), I discovered that one of the three toilets in the women's restroom in the teachers' wing HAS A TOILET SEAT!  And I've been using one of the other ones this whole time, and therefore basically avoiding going to the bathroom unless absolutely necessary.  But hooray, toilet seats are in my future!

Oh what a cute old lady!

This morning on the metro, there was a really cute old lady.  She was quite sprightly in her whitehairedness, and she and I smiled at each other a few times.  I would like to be like her, when I'm older, taking the metro and smiling at and inspiring younger people.

On Thursday night, I went out and ran into a bunch of my students.  After they got over the shock of seeing one of their teachers ("Mais, Madame Cornelle!), it was fun to talk to them outside of class.  They were BTS students, so the ones who are somewhere around my age, if mostly a little bit younger.  I had a really good night talking to them about France and America and TV shows and studying language and things.

This weekend, I did laundry!  I hate that it is such an accomplishment to do my laundry that I post about it just about every time I do it, but... I love when my clothes smell nice, and I love hanging clothes up on a drying rack.  There's something so lovely about seeing all those colors spread out on a wire stand.  Simple pleasures, right Mom?

Donnie gets here on Friday.  Actually, Donnie, can you hang on and come a little later because I have SO much to do before you get here!  I'm just kidding.  Please come ASAP.  But still, I have to buy him a phone and clean the apartment and get used to using my own pillow again and fill out my CAF forms and this thing and this other thing and bah!  But, truly, I am so excited to have him here, to share my life in Rouen with someone I love so much.  So even if things don't get quite done, I think it will be okay.

I'm off to the grocery store now.  I need to get Donnie's phone and some pasta and a vegetable or two and I'm going to see if I can find frozen pumpkin at the Picard like I've heard I might.  Cross your fingers!

 

I tried on fake glasses at Claires in France.  Yes, apparently I am 13 again.  Regardless, I wish this style wasn't so popular or I would totally get some like this.  Except in red maybe, or purple.  Basically, Donnie is lucky because he got glasses like these before they were cool (or did he make them cool?).  Everyone else is just way too trend-following for my tastes -- but oh, if I didn't care about avoiding being just like everyone else, these would so be mine!

UPDATE: Back from the grocery store, two bags of groceries later.  How do I do this?  Cell phone purchased, didn't have enough space in my bags to contemplate a visit to Picard, but that will be an adventure to come!

Bon. Je fais quoi ces jours là, quoi?

Bah, ché pas moi.  J'ai rien pigé.  J'en sais rien.

That means, "Uhh, I don't know.  I didn't understand anything.  I don't know anything about that." I literally hear these words a million times a day.  A million.  Maybe more.  Today, for example, I had to go around in C's class and ask each group, "Love is blind.  What do you think about that?  Do you agree or disagree?"  Bah, j'en sais rien.  Thanks French kiddies.

It's not like I want them to give me a novel or a doctoral dissertation.  I'm not asking them to cut off their hands and write the answer in their blood.  And I get that you really don't care about English discussion hour.  But, I'm required to ask you this question.  And you are required to answer it.  So please, you are 18 years old: answer my question.  And if you really don't know, tell me that in English.

It's not that today has been very frustrating; this is quite normal (and certainly not blogworthy) and normally I would just pass it off as l'habitude, but today I just... couldn't.  There were a few students who absolutely refused to answer my questions, who wouldn't even look at me.  I have come all the way from America to talk to you.  Yes, you.  You are my job, you are the reason I am here.  Today, I just gave up.  If, in a group of 5, there were two people willing to talk to me, I just talked to them.  They are lucky; they get to practice speaking with a native speaker who is basically their age.  What I wouldn't have given to have a French 22 year old come and talk to my high school French classes. 

This is not to say that all of my students are like this.  No.  In fact, I have some pretty darn incredible students.  Students who go out of their way to speak in English or ask me very curiously how this expression or other translates into English.  People who might be a little terrible at the language (we all were once, right?) who still try to put words together and most often succeed.  That's nice. 

Actually, today, I had a wonderful experience.  I have this stupid 4 hour break in between my first two hours of class and my last two hours of class.  Enough to go home if I want (I'd be home for about 2 3/4 hours) but not long enough to really en profiter.  So today, I decided to make the most of my time and go to the bank and the grocery store (all non-perishables, bien sûr) and then come back to the school and eat my lunch that I brought.  And on my way back to school, I ran into just about every single one of my students.  "'ello!" said every single one of them.  They were pretty cute, and I felt like quite the popular teacher.

Oh, one petite story: in one class, the students had to write a love poem that began with the line "If I were in love, I would..." And one poem had a line that said, "If I were in love, I would love you like a fly loves poo."  BRILLIANT.  You'd never know I hadn't written it myself...!

Happy Birthday Aunt Christy and Mr. Rayb!

Today, my bus driver (even though I hit the button and the Arreté Demandé button lit up) forgot to stop at my bus stop near my apartment.  And he continued on and took me way up hill.  But then I told the bus driver off in French (I was nice, don't worry, but he said he just forgot to stop there and I said, "But, monsieur, it is your job to stop at my bus stop.  Now we are very far from where I life."  And then I got off the bus with a very grumpy, "Bonne journée.") and then walked back to my stop, enjoying the view.  Wasn't in my plans but I got an extra walk in and I treated myself to a croissant on the way back and it was quite lovely. 

Then, I took a nap and in my dream, I was moving into an old Urbana house with beautiful dark wood floors with Donnie.  And people had a moving party for us, and there was amazing food that my grandma made, and my Uncle Dick was there, and Grandma Langenfelt (sp?) and Mom Nichols and Gramma and Stephanie (Donnie's mom) and I hugged my mom real good and she was singing.  It was absolutely lovely.

In other news, Happy Birthday to my aunt Christy, one of my most faithful readers of the blog.  She has inspired me to become a better picture taker as a way to document my time here in France, as well as to capture my daily life.  There are some things I just don't want to forget, and now I don't have to.  And, maybe he reads this or maybe he doesn't, but Happy Birthday also to Mr. Rayb, one of my favorite teachers in high school.  Along with tons of the Uni teachers, he taught me to love and appreciate words to tell stories and share adventures, and to learn about other people.  I don't think I would realize, in fact, how important keeping a blog/journal is without him.  So thanks! [I should note, it is also the birthday (on facebook) of five other people whom I actually know and mostly care about, so happy birthday to them too!]

Part 1b: London to HOME!

When last we met, I had successfully made it to London.  One night at Ben's and a few hours at my hostel the next night (I arrived shortly after midnight and had to leave the hostel at 5:15 am to take the Underground to the airport) and I was one step closer to being home.  At the hostel, I met this guy named Richard who also had to go to the airport.  So we spent the hour long subway ride together, and got separated by security lines in the airport.  See, everyone on my flight got tucked away in a line that went all through the security area.  I waited for three hours.  It was nuts.  Then, the airline effectively held us hostage (aka wouldn't let us board our flight to Detroit) until 20 people (the number of people they had overbooked the flight by) voluntarily gave up their seats on the flight with a guarantee of a flight "before Christmas, probably" and 500 pounds and all expenses paid in London during your wait.  Not a bad deal if you're a family of four and don't mind an extra few days in London.  But I wanted to get HOME.  So we were held two hours until enough people gave up their seats.  Oy.

We made up an hour of that delay in the air, so when we got off the flight, there was still hope to make my connection in Detroit to get to Chicago (Midway) where my family+Donnie was already waiting for me.  I had 55 minutes to collect my bags from luggage claim, go through security again (why they can't just transfer my bags for me is beyond me), and then make it to the gate.  DOABLE.  Except that my bags were the last two (literally) to drop out of the airplane and while I was waiting, I watched the minutes on my watch tick by.  There goes my boarding time.  And there goes my departure time. 

They rebooked me on the ONE remaining seat in the ONE remaining flight that was going to O'Hare instead of Midway.  Whatever, my family can drive, fine, book the ticket, I need to get HOME.  "Oh... I'm sorry ma'am..."  "WHAT?!"  "It appears that that last seat is in First Class.  You wouldn't have to pay any extra, but it is in First Class.  Is that a problem?"  "Free wine the entire flight?  Extra leg space?  A flight attendant who hangs up my coat the moment I get on the plane?  No.  I demand a flight on another day in second class.  I refuse to be treated like I have extra money."

So, I got onto that flight and we boarded on time and I got my wine and all was good.  Then, 15 minutes later we were still sitting there and we get an announcement from the pilot.  "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are getting word from O'Hare that the landing conditions are not good at the moment so we're going to be delayed 15 more minutes.  At this point, I'm about to fall asleep from my one glass of wine and the flight attendant convinces me (well, I wasn't in need of much persuasion) to have another glass of wine.  But I just started drinking it and the pilot announces, "Ladies and gentlemen, looks like they're delaying us another hour and a half.  I'm going to have you get off the plane so you can be more comfortable.  We'll reboard in an hour."  Well, what was I supposed to do with the wine?  The attendant said, "Well, if you want you can give it to me and I'll dispose of it for you... or you can do the right thing and not waste wine and drink it quickly now."  We were fast friends.

At this point, I was in the airport and I was a little drunk and I ran off in pursuit of a direct flight to Champaign that was listed on the departures board and it was not delayed but it was on the other end of the airport, so I ran there, hoping to get on to that flight instead.  There, I met a fascinating and inspirational woman who blessed me at the end of our conversation, was told very rudely by some Delta lady that she could not help me and gave me an 800 number to call, and ran all the way back, only to board the plane again, get some water from the attendant (I was purple from running, still kind of drunk, and I had taken DayQuill about an hour before all this started - oops!), and passed out.  Then we landed and I walked out of the airport and ...

THERE WAS MY FAMILY AND THERE WAS DONNIE.  Donnie said that, since my fam had seen me for Thanksgiving, he got dibs on hugging me first.  It was one of those barfy romantic reunions where we ran to each other and I flung my stuff everywhere and he spun me around and it felt so normal right away, to be together.  Also, I think I got some snot on him but oh well.

Then we went on to collect my luggage.  But, that's funny.  Because actually, my luggage wasn't there.  Nope, still in Detroit, maybe. 

But I DIDN'T CARE (except actually I did because it had all my Christmas presents in it) BECAUSE I WAS WITH MY FAMILY AND MY DONNIE.  Also, Delta/Northwestern, for once in all this madness and chaos, had their acts together and the suitcase was delivered to my grandma's house in Urbana not even 24 hours after I got home.  That's what I call service.

All in all, with these silly extensive travel delays and mix-ups and lost bags and canceled trains, I got home a total of 8 hours later than anticipated.  Not too shabby.  And at that point, I was just ready to get home and do whatever it took to get there, so I didn't mind the extra few hours.  My wonderful family members were troopers, waiting for hours at the Hilton Lounge eating pretzels and reading airport magazines, and driving me safely back home to my puppies.

Next entry -- Part 2: Home Sweet Home

... sometime soon.  :)

Part 1a: And we're off (eventually)!

OK friends.  Here it is.  Part 1a of my trip home.  This is the part that takes me from Rouen to Paris to London.  Part 1b is following shortly, and that will get me from London to Detroit to Chicago to Urbana.  Are you ready?

So, once upon a time, I was in Rouen on the Saturday before Christmas, all packed up and ready to go to London for my three day vacation, before I was to fly home on the following Tuesday (the 22nd).  That was, of course, the day that the Eurostar trains were canceled.  Luckily, my British friend Ben was also schedule to take the Eurostar that day and he was able to inform me that the train I was hoping to take was canceled with no possibility of getting on another one.  They were all canceled, except the one that Ben squeezed his way on to.  (Side note: he was stuck on the train for 10+ hours with no electricity, food, or water, but at least he got to London!)  Anyways, he advised me not to even bother going into Paris so I stayed the extra night in Rouen.  Except I had already moved out of my apartment and put most of my things in my new apartment, and so I just slept on the mattress and used my comforter.  But it was fine enough!

I should mention that during all of this, I was getting snifflier and snifflier, and sneezing more and more.  But that Saturday night I spent a lot of time frustrated, crying, feeling very down that I wasn't going to make it home for Christmas.  Trains got canceled for the next day and it wasn't looking good for the Monday.  Time for Plan #2.

I was on facebook and I saw my friend Philippa's status.  Here's her status and the following comments (yes I tracked it down):

Philippa is finally getting out of Paris tomorrow night via plane...cross your fingers that we can get off the ground with all the snow in Paris and London!!

December 19, 2009 at 10:50pm

Kinzie

are you able to do the paris-london flight? i'm stuck in paris (i was going to take the eurostar) and i'm flying home from london on tuesday morning. so there are flights going?

December 19, 2009 at 10:57pm

Philippa

im booked onto an air france flight tomorrow at 7p.m to london so i hope flights are going because i really want to get out of here!!

December 19, 2009 at 10:59pm

Kinzie

yeah, i saw those for 80 euros. i might be on one of those flights too. i NEED to get to london!

December 19, 2009 at 11:01pm

Philippa

lol come at 7 tomorrow! the weather is bad in london too so i'd get there sooner rather than later! damn this weather!

December 19, 2009 at 11:03pm

So, that facebook exchange happened, and with a bit more advising from Donnie and some reassurance I found on AirFrance's website (their mission statement stating that there may be delays, but they have a responsibility to their paying customers to get them where they need to go -- which is much more than we can say of EuroStar!), I bought a ticket for the 7 pm plane.  Along with that, I now had a travel buddy!  And I can only speak for myself, but I know she kept me sane on the rest of my journey to London...

The next morning, I took the train into Paris, met up with Philippa, and we made our way out the Charles de Gaulle.  We were there seven hours before the flight (we meant business) and entertained ourselves by watching a movie on my laptop.  Then we went through security and waited for hours again, sitting and watching the delays on our flight increase.  Luckily, our flight ended up going only about an hour late -- most of the other Paris-London flights were either hours and hours delayed or canceled altogether!  So thank goodness Philippa decided to get on the 7 pm and told me to join her -- if she hadn't said anything, I would have booked the 6 pm and that flight was canceled!

Here's the picture of a gate right after the 6 pm Paris-London flight got annulé - tons of people were out of luck for the night, trying flight-by-flight to get on standby.  It was miserable:

I couldn't help feeling simultaneously awful for the people stuck there and amazed by my good fortune.  I might actually get home after all!

I'm going to fast-forward a bit through my time in London but because I had canceled my hostel, thinking I wouldn't be getting there in time for any extras in London, I called up my aforementioned friend Ben and he and his family were lovely enough to put me up for one night.  I shared some great times with them, Ben gave me a very rainy tour of London from inside of a city bus, and we got drenched walking through the snowy rain. 

At one point, we hopped off the bus and walked around a bit, but we promptly stepped in a puddle and were soaked up to our ankles.  I felt like I was walking around with buckets on my feet and I was freezing cold!  So we cut our tour short and went back to Bens.  Problem is, the jeans and shoes I was wearing were the only ones I had with me -- everything else I left in Rouen.  So, I walked around in my leggings and socks and Ben's shoes at Ben's family's and set my shoes and pants by the radiator.  They dried in the next couple of hours, and then I headed to my hostel so I could catch an early morning Underground to London Heathrow the next day.  While my shoes and pants were drying, I was quite a sight!

OK, the rest of my epic journey home is going to come in a very near future post.  As in I'm writing it right now but... I think any hope of having a reader make it this far is minimal and if I continue anymore, well, I think all hope would be lost.  So, with this, I bid you all goodnight.  PEACE.

Good news, bad news.

Good news first: The vaguely sketchy grapefruit juice that I bought from the vaguely sketchy corner store is good.  Good tasting, and beyond that, I drank some a day or two ago and haven't barfed from it, so I think I'm good to go.

Bad news?  I'm still working (figuratively) on that (those?) post(s).  They're gonna happen.  I need them to.  I think I'm processing.  And healing.  It's been a rough time, since I've been back, but I think we're in the clear now.  More soon.

Love and hugs to all of you.  Also, Donnie gets here in three weeks.  We can throw that one into the good news pile, if you want.  :)

UGHHHHH

I don't want to post.  I really don't.  I don't know why, I can't explain it, I have about a million posts pre-written in my brain, but I just don't feel like putting them down.  I will, someday, not for you, but for me.  I need to remember how my brain is dealing with things right now.

Long story short, I'm getting more settled into my new apartment everyday.  I almost didn't leave the apartment yesterday (I had a case of the saddies and couldn't bear the thought) but then I remembered the rule I made that I will leave my apartment everyday, even if it's just to take a walk.  I'm in FRANCE, gosh darnit!  So I went on a 20 minute walk and on my way, found a bread vending machine (France, pour qui tu te prends?) outside of a Boulingerie, and I bought some vaguely sketchy grapefruit juice from a vaguely sketchy convenience store near my apt.  There is no expiration date on it, and the box was covered with dust but ... we'll see.  I did have a face-to-face human interaction in it's purchase which yesterday, was worth 1€50. 

Today was a better day.  Better energy, more interactions, plans for tonight.  Now I'm going to make some dinner which will involve rice, eggplant, and curry sauce I treated myself to at the grocery store when I was looking for a big trashcan for my kitchen (the one I have currently is bathroom sized -- NOT big enough) but the cheapest one was 14€.  What?!  But I did buy two (2) drying racks for clothes.  Success!

OK, rice!

If tragic movie choices were the worst thing about my flight, I'll take it...

Oops.  I know I never updated on my travels to get home but I never realized that I left the blog on such a whiny, tragic note for the last two weeks.  Sorry 'bout it, folks.  Long story short, millions of trains were canceled, I got on to a flight which is lucky and that got me to London for one glorious, very rainy sightseeing day.  There, I stepped in a puddle, hung out with my friend Ben, and slept for 4 hours in a hostel.  Millions of delays and lost bags later, I made it home.  PHEW!  I'll write up the novel on that experience soon, but I wanted to give the most recent update:

I arrived safe and sound back in Rouen.  I got a bit of sleep on the plane but I'm still fairly tired, so I'm going to try to stay awake until a decent hour and then go to sleep.  Some of my things (including my comforter) are still at my old apartment so I'm going to see if I can get ahold of those.  They are currently locked into my roommates room (I knew there was a flaw in the plan!) and she is not home, but otherwise things are fine and dandy.  I'm going to stop by the school and see if I can figure out what my teaching schedule will be like for the semester, and figure out how to get my things out of my apartment.  Ah, nope, change in plans.  I just talked to my roommated and I am going to hang out here until a little before 6 when I will go to the apartment and my roommate will be home.  Then I will get my things.  Anyways.

The only other thing is, it is very very cold in my apartment.  So I'm huddled next to the one heater that works -- hopefully my landlady will turn on the other one very very soon.

Otherwise, though, things are good.  The flight was smooth, I sat next to this almost deaf French woman with crazy socks -- we didn't really talk except for one time when I yelled to her "JE SUIS VEGETARIENNE" to explain why I got my special meal before she got her general meal.  She was nice enough.  The second metro line that I needed in Paris to get to my train station to take the train to Rouen was out of service today, so I had to be creative to change train stations but I ended up getting there so that's what counts.

So now, some unpacking and some huddling by the heater, and then a nap.  And then fetching my comforter and then BED.  Woohoo.  :)

Update to come on my journey home, as well as a recount of the two glorious weeks that I spent there.  I could not ask for a better family, a better boyfriend, better best friends.  Lovely lovely people, all of 'em.

C'mon, France.

So, unfortunately, today has been pretty much rotten.  One of the best things that happened was I found out I'll be getting back all of my 100€ security deposit on my apartment.  Also, I had a lovely chat with Amy and she sang me a song - that girl has a goooood voice. And I talked to my mom which was quite lovely.

But, I shouldn't have had time for those conversations, really I shouldn't have.  Because I should have been on my way to London today, arriving right around now, actually, in my hostel.

Alas, it is not so.  I am still in Rouen.  All of the Eurostar trains (the train that runs between Paris and London) have been canceled.  Annulé.  Luckily, my friend Ben was also scheduled to take the train in today and he got to Paris early.  And he called me to let me know that I shouldn't bother coming into Paris today, all the trains were canceled.  Good to know but WHAT?!?  Seriously, France, you can't handle 1/8" of snow?  I get it, this is rare.  But snow happens, let's make some progress.

OK, fine, trains canceled all day today, tomorrow too, now, and maybe Monday?!????!!!!  I am flying out of London Heathrow on Tuesday morning at 9:40 am.  I sure better arrive there by Monday night or there's no way I'll make my flight.

So we'll see what happens.  I have decided, with Donnie's help, to go into Paris tomorrow anyways.  I'll have my bags with me, I'll go to the train station and I'll try my darndest to make my way onto these non-existent trains.  If they announce that they'll be back running on Monday, I'll get a hostel and go to London the next day.  If not, I'll make my way out to Charles de Gaulle and try to get on a flight to London.  And if that doesn't exist, well... I'll get home to my family somehow.

Wish me luck guys, send positive thoughts, prayers, anything that you can to guide me home.  I need it real bad.

I am apparently doing anything in my power to NOT pack but that is a bad idea...

 OK, so, tomorrow, I have to move out of my current apartment (triste) and get all my stuff to my new apartment.  I'm going to end my lease here, at this apartment, tomorrow, and begin my new lease on January 5th, when I return from America.  My stuff is going to be hanging out in M-S's house until then.

Here's my problem: I am depending heavily on public transportation to make this happen, right?  My new apartment is two metro stops away, easy enough (maybe a bit complicated still but much easier, at least) to get there.  That said, there is a Rouen-wide transportation strike tomorrow.  GREAT, France.  I need the metro to get to and from the new apartment, and also to get to the train station to go to London tomorrow afternoon/evening.

Additionally, with the 1/8" of snow in Northern France, the SNCF website has prévued delays for all trains of 10 minutes to 1 1/2 hours.  I have exactly 1 1/2 hours between trains in Paris in which I have to change train stations AND get there at least half an hour early because if I don't check in 1/2 hour early, they won't let me on the train.  Wish me luck, folks!

And with that, I need to go bake a banana bread with my 2 mushy bananas and an egg, throw in a load of laundry, and clean clean CLEAN!

It's SO PRETTY outside!

You guys.  It snowed.  Life is so good.

I had two classes this morning, one at 8:30 and one at 9:30.  When I woke up, I was grumpy and exhausted on only almost-5 hours of sleep.  Then, I remembered that it was supposed to snow overnight.  However, at 2:30 am, it had not snowed, so I didn't have my hopes up.  Then, I opened the shutters: SNOW EVERYWHERE!  It was a winter wonderland and I could not be more happy.

As a result, most people are WIMPS and aren't going to class today.  However, I require about 7 seconds to walk to my school so I didn't have the excuse.  That meant, though, that I spent the entire day grinning about the snow and yelling a little about how happy I was to the students.  I think they think I'm a little crazy, but they like it, so I'm totally fine being "Zat crazy American assistant 'oo yells all ze time and somtimees dansees."  Totally fine.

I made my students sing today and I recorded it: they had to sing Jingle Bells Batman Smells, etc.  It was a hit!  And then, some people were selling chocolate in the teachers' lounge.  And Rouen has been beautiful lately, snow or otherwise.  Christmas carols on the radio, girls' night planned for tonight: life is Good.

These are the sunsets we've been having lately.  I can't wait to see what it will look like tonight, with the snow covering everything.  I <3 Snow.










And now, some pictures of Lille!

Right when I got off the train, I saw this collège (middle school).  I am pretty sure that it was covered in solar panels, right?  So anyways, that's COOL.

There were some animated animals.  I liked them.

Christmas tree and ferris wheel in the center of Lille!

I loved this family's music.  They were quite lovely.  Also, the little kid in the front wasn't really playing but just kind of danced around with his accordion.  Then he gave me a thumbs up.

I almost bought this sweatshirt for Donnie because I knew he would love it, since he loves everything from H&M, and their clothes are the best.  But I figured he would never forgive me.  :)

Il y avait DU MONDE.  Seriously, most of the time to walk around, it was a complete stand-still.  I think I would have hated it usually (or if I lived in Lille), but I was perfectly content to be surrounded by festive people for a day.

My delicious dinner: Vodka pasta at a "fast food" pasta place.  Yum!

Another EPIC band.  I guess French bands like to dress up in costumes.  I don't mind. :)

Just as it started getting dark, the rest of the world showed up.  It was lovely and crowded and lit up and beautiful.

FIN.