Everything is harder in French except the food

On an unrelated note before I begin, this is how I feel about goodbyes:










I mean, I know it doesn't really apply, but that's mostly how I feel about goodbyes, so there you go--I guess the point of this little anecdote is that goodbyes aren't really forever, and that I'm sure I'm going to see a lot of the people I have met and care about again at some point in the future.

ANYWAYS,
I have gotten to meet all of the people I will be working with, and I am actually helping out with my first class tomorrow, which is all very exciting and whatnot and everyone is really helpful and everything, but this does not get around one essential point: I have to do all this in French. As many of you know, my French is pretty good, which does make my life a little easier; I can usually figure out what to ask and what to say to get by in most situations. The problem is that this does not get around the fact that speaking for many hours in a foreign language is tiring. I'll do pretty well for the first half of the day and my french will sound pretty good and I'll be constructing full, well thought out sentences, and then all of the sudden all of that will shut down. I feel like after a certain point the language centers of my brain are tired of being abused and they basically say "fuck this, I'm outta here" and all of the sudden all of french is gone and I'm stuck gasping for air like a fish (and doing stuff like forgetting the word for "exercise" in French, which is, surprisingly, "exercise"). It's quite an experience. On top of that, the experience of constantly expressing phonemes that your mouth is not used to it is physically exhausting on your mouth. If I've done a lot of talking I feel like I've been doing tongue push-ups or something. It's as if you've just spent a lot of time making out with someone only more tiring and a whole lot less enjoyable and exciting. So really not like making out with someone at all. (I'm sure that this explanation will be wonderfully helpful.)

Anyhow, the only thing that isn't hard to do in French is the food. This is because it is pretty awesome. For lunch I have been eating at the school cafeteria because it is close and relatively cheap (for me it's about 2.50 euros). Growing up in the states, the thought of eating at the cafeteria unless forced seems like a poor choice, but I will explain. For the said 2.50 euro, I get an entrée (which in French means appetizer); usually a salad or something, but it can also be charcuterie. I then also get a main dish--the last two times it was boeuf bourginion and paella, and some desert--usually a pudding or a yoghurt. I also get several pieces of baguette. Then, when I go into the staff eating room (which makes me feel really important), I can get some fancy cheese. AND, wait for it... WINE!! You can have wine at lunch in French high schools!! How awesome is that? I just love it. All of this for two euros and it's all pretty decent, and lightyears better than anything you would find in any American public high school. It's pretty awesome. Although, if you were Jewish, Muslim or vegetarian in this section of the country you would definitely be in trouble. There is a lot of meat, and on top of that, a lot of porc. They definitely love their ham and bacon here.

Anyhow, I start officially next week--although I won't actually start teaching until the week after that, because I'm going to spend the first week introducing myself in classes and observing. I have to go to Nantes on Monday to do the official orientation, so I might get to meet some more assistants there, which would be exciting. I haven't found a family yet, but I have had 5 people offer to house me, so I definitely have options. I met one of them today, and they were a very cool young couple. I have a feeling that this is going to be a hard decision...

Yay! I'm going to have a place to live! (Well, kind of)

I have arrived in Mayenne, which is the town that I am going to call home for the next year. It seems like a cool little town. It is not as small as I had expected, and it has a lovely mix of old and new buildings--there is even a castle that has parts of it that were built in the 10th century! There is also a river that runs through the center and there are lots of boats and things. I find both of these things exciting mainly because Tucson has neither a) old buildings and b) surface water.

On top of the prettiness, there seems to be lots of outdoors things to do. There used to be a rail system that connected all the small towns in this region, but they were take off the grid because they were losing money. The cool thing is that they covered over the tracks and now you can walk, run, or bike to any of the small villages that are nearby along these smooth shady pathways. There are also all sorts of small trails that go by the river and the resevoir that will provide excellent places to run. I even discovered on an exploratory walk that their is a climbing gym (not a great one, but it's a gym, so I'm not complaining)--if only there was an ultimate team I would be perfectly content (and if only I weren't so terrified of high school students). But as far as the town itself goes, it looks like are definitely activities to do. Mind you, I still have to make friends and meet people, but having potential activities is a step.

I have also made contact with the head English teacher at the high school, who has been immensely helpful with logistical stuff. He has even found me not one, but two families who would like me to rent a room in their house for the year, and now I must make a decision between the two. I am thinking of devising some sort of gameshow-like series of tasks that the two families must complete in order to determine who I will live with. I might base it off the episode of the Office where Michael tries to make everyone compete for his job. I am sure this will make me lots of friends very quickly.

Contrary to what is to be expected of French people, most of the people I have met here have been wonderfully helpful. We were lost in Carnac last week and a man literally walked from the hotel to the bike rental shop we were trying to find. When we checked into the hotel in Mayenne yesterday afternoon, the owner of the hotel told asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Mayenne and when I told him that I would be here all year long he told me that I had to meet his American friends. When we went down to the restaurant for dinner the friends were in the bar and we all ended up having dinner together with the owners of the hotel. It was actually quite entertaining and it was nice to know that I will have some people to call who are nearby if I am in a panic. It was also very kind of the owner of the hotel to arrange the whole thing.

Anyhow, right now things are looking up, but seeing as I haven't started actually working yet, I shouldn't get too optimistic. At the very least I know that even if I am a horrible teacher that there will be things to distract me...

La route ne tue pas toujours

So, probably one of the most awesome things I have seen on this trip so far has been this road sign, which says "la route ne tue pas toujours" and has a handicap symbol below it. It is so delightfully morbid that I have decided to name this blog after it. I'm also a little bit confused about what the purpose of the sign is really, besides to remind people that they can be forever condemned to a wheelchair after and auto accident, and also to imply (it seems to me) that this might be worse than death? The signs don't say anything else about drinking or speeding, they just seem to be there to remind you of all the spinal damage/loss of limbs/brain function that you might suffer every time you enter a car. Lovely. This is why I love France.

I've spent the last week getting over jetlag and traveling around Brittany with my mom, who came with me for the first two weeks because she is on vacation. As a result, I haven't actually gotten to Mayenne yet or seen the high school and middle school I will be teaching at (this happens tomorrow), but I have seen lots of other cool things...

Starting with the Techo Parade! The day we arrived in Paris we were wandering around the city and heard this booming bass line coming from somewhere around a corner. Naturally, we followed said bass line to the source and found a gigantic line of truck booming techno followed by thousand of drugged out teenagers. It was excellent. People even climbed up on to bus stops and public toilets to dance and rock out.

Besides that the only real highlight to Paris was me leaving my brand new cell phone in the hotel, which, although not surprising, was supremely irritating.

Other than that we have been all over Brittany, which is some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. I have been in castles and churches and wandered around villages that still have buildings standing from the 1500s. We visited Carnac, which is known for having a lot of megatlithic sites--like Stonehenge--except there it was fields and fields of big-ass rocks (technical term: menhirs) standing in rows. There were also dolmens, which is where the "menhirs" are stacked on top of each other to make a hut-like things, and a tumulus (which sounds like a vaguely naughty word to me), which was a giant human constructed hill often used as a tomb and that was also made out of menhirs. It makes me wonder about early humans and their obsession with large rocks (there are so many examples: stonehenge, carnac, pyramids, there are probably more examples...)

Anyhow, things have been generally nice, but it will be a relief to get to Mayenne and finally settle in a little. Although I'm terrified at the thought of teaching...

Look! I made a blog!!

Yes I did. And here it is...

This is really so that people who want to can keep up with what I am doing in France. Seeing as I haven't actually left yet, this is just a test message to make myself feel comfortable with being one of those people who has a blog. Hopefully nobody actually reads this particular post.