A first time for everything...

The silly French administrative finally worked to my advantage! Against all odds I got my Carte de Sejour (residency visa). My two American Colleagues received a letter a couple weeks ago notifying them that their récépisé (temporary carte de séjour) was ready for them at the Mairie (city hall). I was rather worried that I hadn't received anything. Then last Friday I got a letter notifying me that my titre de séjour (same as carte de séjour) was ready to be picked up. Now knowing that things always take longer than expected and don't work out as usually anticipated I prepared myself for the possibility that this was a mistake. That someone had highlighted the wrong document.

NO!

I got to the Mairie this morning, showed them the paper and the lady came back with the card in hand. It doesn't make ANY sense that I've received my card before the other two girls...but I'm not going to complain :-)

The days are ticking by very quickly. Work has been busy as we prep for exams. This past weekend I had a concert in Lorient. We performed the Vivaldi Gloria and the Charpentier Te Deum. Katie and I also joined a gym right across the street from work. It's a really great way to decompress everyday and I really appreciate having something else to do. This coming weekend I'm going to Paris. Katie is coming with me and we're meeting up with Kate (I studied in Paris 2 and a half years ago with her) and a friend of mine from High school who is teaching in Paris. 11 days and I'll be back on American soil! (for two weeks anyway) It really helps having all these things to look forward to.


That's my news for today. A plus!

Thanksgiving in Brest

Well we did it! Katie, Sarah, David and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 16 people! We weren't sure if we'd pull it off but it turned out quite well and had a very enjoyable time. David made Corn Chowder and mussles for a starter and Sarah made a salad. The meal included an apple glazed chicken with apple/raisin stuffing, green bean casserole, orange glazed carrots, corn, homemade applesauce and cornbread (Katie and Idid most of that)and then for dessert I made an apple pie and a pumpkin pie (pureed the pumpkin myself); Sarah made Sweet Potato Pie (we had to search for quite some time to find Sweet Potatos) and Katie made pumpkin cookies. We also had a lemon cake and ice cream.
I had a great time with everyone. Our guests represented the following countries: Austria (1), China (2) France (2), Ireland (3), Tunisia (1), Spain (3) and the US (4). We of course had to speak French the whole evening since that was the only common language.
Our guests couldn't believe how much food there was. With every dish that was put on the table another person had a look of shock.
Although it wasn't exactly like Thanksgiving at home it was similar enough that I didn't spend too much of my day missing home. It was nice to share this meal with the closest thing to family that we can find here.

Well I'm off to clean up the mess and claim all our respective dishware from David's apartment!

Catch up

Catch up - one of the MANY phrasal verbs in the English language. This part of English grammar is so difficult. I had never realized how many and how often they are used! Sitting here making up a lesson on phrasal verbs I have thought of sooo many; put on, take off, look up, go on, come in, sit up, pay up, stress out etc...!

In any case that is just a random thought for the day. I am very much behind on my blogging. I had a wonderful visit with my Mom the second two weeks in November. I will try to get some stories and pics up of that soon. However, I am going to try to write more often and shorter posts. We'll see how I do...

This week is off to a pretty good start. We had a very successful turn out at the English Pub Trivia Night yesterday. Every few weeks the English lecteurs organize a trivia game night for the French English students. Great way for them to speak more English in an informal setting.
This afternoon Katie and I are going shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. We are going to do our best to create an authentic dinner. However...we can't get turkey so we are subsituting Chicken...and we aren't sure if we will find cranberries. We have invited Sarah's Chinese roommates, her French boyfriend, the two Irish lectures, the two Spanish Lectures and the Austrian German lectrice! I should be an interesting evening, if anything!
On Saturday and Sunday there is a Christmas "fair" at Place de la Libérté. I am looking forward to wandering around the different stalls and seeing what it is all about. Christmas decorations are slowly appearing. I am very much looking forward to spending Christmas back in the states but it will be interesting to experience the Holiday Season here in Brest.

Well hope that catch up was short enough... I'll keep 'working on' it. Ah phrasal verbs everywhere I look!

A bientot mes amis!

Good bread, good travels

So I have just discovered something wonderful: Le bon pain chaud (Good warm bread). Now of course all French bakeries are amazing things, however, I have never gotten a baguette soooo warm at 3:30 in the afternoon. It made my chilly, wet walk home so much better :-)

Bread, however, is not the subject of this blog post! I figured I'd better post a bit about my Fall break! Sorcha (co-worker), Katie (co-worker), Rob (Katie's friend from the states), and I rented a car and went on a Road Trip (in true American fashion!) around Bretagne.

At the beginning of our break we took little day trips. Friday we weren't in the best of spirits - as a result of the rain I believe - but we made the most of it anyway. Bretagne is made up of a lot of small towns. Each town, more or less, has a small parish church (Enclos).
We went to Lampaul-guimilau first and saw the church there. It was so ornate that it looked more like a Greek Orthodox church than a simple country catholic parish. There was a big pipe organ in the back. And an ornate Baptistry to the left. Stations of the cross were carved and painted into a beam across the nave of the church. At each end of the beam were dragon mouths. On top of the beam was a crucifix and two women on either side of the cross. On the underside of the beam angels were carved - catching the blood of Jesus. The front alters had very detailed carvings as well - of course more bibical stories. We took our time to look carefully at all of this.
Then we went to Guimilau to see the Parish church there. We went through this one much more quickly - even though it was the larger of the two. Although some of the decorations were different this church was almost a carbon copy of the other one. Apparently if you see one you've seen them all.
We visited an old farm where I believe they harvested apples and made Cidre (famous in Brittany) back in the day. It was a neat place but since they are only open in the summer we didn't know exactly what we were looking at.
We also went to a bare 'mountain' (about 1800 feet altitude I think...they call it a mountain but it's just a big hill...) that had a single small church at the top. You can see a bit of an old stone foundation left over from other buildings. Again I don't know what these things were...I need to look it up. From the top of the 'mountain' was great views of 'one of the wildest parts of Brittany.' The landscape here was much different from the green wooden areas that we had been to earlier. The shift in landscape was very sudden and I'm not sure what causes it.

Saturday we went to a small town the west of Brest, Le Conquet. We had a picnic on the beach and watched the surfers! La Conquet is a cute little town and if I had a car I would live there and commute to Brest. In the off-season there is a farm house that you can rent. We are thinking about celebrating Christmas together there before we all head our separate ways for the holidays.

Sunday we headed off for the rest of the week. On our way to the western most point in France (Pointe du Raz) we passed through two charming towns. Chateaulin had a river running through it lined with trees dropping their gorgeous fall leaves. It was so nice to see the effects of Fall! Living in grey, cement covered Brest I have really been missing my favorite season! We also went to Locronan where I found some great beers and cidres made in Brest as well as an amazing bookstore. There was a book filled with Breton Folksongs (unfortunately I didn't buy it...). Pointe du Van and Pointe du Raz where very impressive. It was very windy and misting which was quite only added to the strength of the waves crashing against the rocks. At Pointe du Raz it started raining and by the time we got back to the car we were drenched. The whole time out there I was thinking that this was the closest I can get to the US for a while...




The rest of our trip included a visit to Quimper, Rennes (where we had the most delicious dinner of my life), Le Mont St Michel and St. Malo.

I'm really glad that we chose to travel within Brittany for this vacation. It was very interesting to see the Breton culture and learn more about the area where I am living. In Brest I feel pretty oblivious to the Breton spirit and cultural history. However, I am hoping to explore Brest more in the coming months and hopefully learn to appreciate this city more.

I'm already working on that... The day before we left for our trip I went for a morning run and stumbled into, what I'm going to call, "my magical world." To be a little nerdy, it was like I was in the Chronicles of Narnia and walked into a whole different world. Brest is all gray buildings, few trees, a few pretty gardens in the houses fortunate enough to have gardens. Brest is more industrial, commericialized and far from being quaint. I had found a road that was a little bit quieter to run down. Lots of trees with the leaves changing etc... In any case...while I was on the return route I noticed a little stone wall with a walk way around it. I thought "good place to stop and stretch quickly." While stretching I notice that this walkway turns into a path behind some apartment buildings.
Naturally, I abandon my planned route and follow this path. Perhaps it is just a sidewalk going down to the apartments. Looks a bit like a bike or walking trail and a potentially good place to run. Then a few meters later I'm in this old park! The paths diverge and wind around and go to little hidden staircases and ramps. There are a few playgrounds and of course benches all over the place. There are old fountains that I imagine haven't had water in them for a while. There is some graffiti but it only adds a bit of character :-) It's certainly a run down place but it is exactly what I've been looking for. I wonder if more people frequent this park on Sundays or in the afternoons.
The paths were covered in leaves and it is a bit slippery but I managed to stay on my feet... There were so many different paths that I'm not sure how I found my way out. I do know that I had come out at a different street i would have been completely lost. It was a bit creepy how deserted it was. I saw one lady walking her dog and she seemed to look at me a bit suspiciously. I thought for a moment that maybe it's a private park...but there were no signs indicating Private.

Hopefully the rain will stop long enough for me to go back there soon... ;-)

And after a month....

The past few weeks have been more of the same for the most part. Everything that I check something off my list (because I LOVE lists) I have to add another Form to the list that needs signing. I finally got my lease signed so that I could apply for my Carte de Séjour (aka Residence Permit). Mostly I'm just trying to stay on top of the forms and preparing for my classes.

The classes are going pretty well. I teach one 3rd year applied English lab/conversation class (or TP = travaux pratique) on Monday and 1st year English and Master 1 & 2 applied English students on Tuesday. Wednesday mornings I teach a first English class (TD = travaux dirigés). This isn't a lab class and has 3 times as many students. Usually this class is taught by the regular English faculty but they didn't have enough Professors to do it. Then Wednesday evenings I teach 2nd year applied english labs from 4pm-7pm. Every other Thursday I have a conversation class with the students in the License de Tourisme et hebergement.

We are in our 3rd week and it is getting easier and easier to fill the time. The trouble is that we are teaching conversation classes. French students don't talk in class. So the main focus has been motivating them, encouraging them, and helping them to feel relaxed in my classes. Their comprehension varies within each class, depending on the level and also and between the LCE (English focus only) students and LEA (applied english - they also study another language) students.

Besides class I am not doing a whole lot yet. There is an English phonetics class on Thursdays that I went to. I think it will be useful (and I find it interesting) to know the IPA (Internation Phonetic Alphabet) symbols for English prononciation. I've studied French, Italian and German phonetics so it's about time I study English phonetics! I'm also thinking about taking an Italian class. That will be interesting since I'll learn Italian through French... What's great is that i can just sit in on these classes for free. I figure I should probably take advantage of that.

I really want/need to check out the Music Conservatory in Brest. I'm hoping there's a way to get involved with a singing group there. If anything it would be nice to have a place to practice. I've also started singing with an amateur choir here. I am by far the youngest singer in the group. Musically/artistically/aesthetically, it's not the most satisfying experience but it is a great chance to learn the vocabulary as well as some musical works I haven't sung before. Right now they are working on Vivaldi's Gloria, the Fauré Requiem, and a Bach Oratorio.


This past weekend I stayed in Brest and just relaxed. It was also one of my co-worker's birthdays so we cooked dinner and went out Saturday night.
Sunday the weather was amazing and Katie and I went for a walk down by the ports. There is a beautiful path along the Rade de Brest (see picture above).

Last weekend, however, my Dad came to visit! He had business in England the preceding week so was able to visit me for a few days. We went down to Quimper (where the popular faience dishware can be found) Saturday morning and walked around the old center of town (see picture below). For lunch we went and had a lovely lunch with the parents of one of my French professors from Luther! Then we drove down to Nantes. We got quite lost on the way (my fault...I didn't bring adequate maps) but eventually found the way to our hotel. Sunday we went to the Chateau Museum there. It was very interesting and we learned a lot about the history of not only Nantes but Bretagne as well. Even though Nantes is technically in the administrative department of the Loire it's cultural heritage is Breton.

In any case, I'm definately feeling much more settled here. I'm into month 2 now. We have some fun things coming up. Katie and I are determined to get everyone together for pumpkin carving, pumpkin seed baking, cider drinking and pie baking! We also have our October break coming up soon. I'm planning to go somewhere with Katie and her sailing friend Rob. We were thinking about going to Bordeaux but without a car it might not be our best option. I'll keep you posted :-) Until then I'll try not to get soaked and or blown away in the Breton weather!

My Vacation Life

Life has been a whirlwind of paperwork, frustration, and confusion for the last two weeks that I have been getting settled here in Brest. Fortunately this past weekend I went out sailing along the Western Brittany Coast and remembered that I have things pretty great right now. I've labeled my year here "My Vacation Life." I am working 12 hours (not including prep time and grading) a week and have 5 day weekends. Yes, that's right I'm only teaching on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this semester... I had one conversation class last week with the Tourism students. I had a lot of fun with them and actually have seem many of them walking around Brest. Katie (one of my co-workers from Philadephia) and I ran into 3 of them this afternoon and we made plans to hang out Thursday night.

Speaking of Thursday nights.... So before I arrived in Brest and in the first few days I had heard warnings about the drinking problem in Brest. There is even a particular area we were instructed to avoid (as far as housing goes) because of the drunks. In any case I imagined drunk middle-aged men. Whatever, not a big deal. HA! The first Thursday that I was here I was walking back to the dorms (we stayed there while we looked for apartments) with my co-workers and passed by loads of heavily intoxicated people coming from the University. Turns out the drinking problem is within the University. Then last Thursday I witnessed something that I still can't believe as I was walking home from dinner. Every Thursday the students go out and drink in front of the TOWN HALL! Hundreds of students were there. Broken glass everywhere and ambulances just hanging out in case they were needed. I can't believe that the city allows this to go on!! Then the next morning the Town Hall square was spotless.

I am writing this post from my apartment in Brest. It’s a nice place only 10 minutes by foot from the college where I’m working. They call it a T1. One big main room (with the bed area slightly seperated), bathroom, and separate kitchen. It came fully furnished included pots, pans, dishes and silverware. Currently, I have internet that comes and goes. I’m paying for it so hopefully I can figure out what the problem is! When the technician came by last Friday to install the box he told me that it could take 30 minutes or half a day to get access. How very typical…

At the beginning of this (very unorganized) post I mentioned that I went sailing this past weekend. It was an amazing trip! Katie had friends in Brest who sailed to Europe from the states this past summer. In any case, they came and picked us up in Brest and we sailed to Ile de Oeussant. In the middle ages people believed that this Island was the end of the world. It was a fairly empty place with houses scattered about, basic stores and a few cafés and restaurants. I shamefully admit that I got a bit seasick on the way to Ile de Oeussant. So for our trip to Camaret the next day they gave me some meds. The weather was fanastic all weekend. Katie kept telling me "We have to soak up this sun while we can!" since Brest will become very rainy soon. Katie's friends; Eric, Rob and Stu, are really great people and I'm so glad that I was able to tag along with them for the weekend. I even learned a bit about sailing! :-)

Quick Post

I made it to France Sunday evening without any problems. I had a nice lunch with my former host brother at the airport in Paris before heading to Brest. It has been a very stressful few days but hopefully things will calm down soon. Right now I am still looking for an apartment and waiting to get a phone, internet, and other logistical things taken care of.
I will update when I find an apartment!

One week until I move to France...

One week from today (and I think almost to the hour, although I should check my plane reservation!) and I will be in the air headed to France.
I'm flying to Paris, where I will have an 8 hour layover (looking for ideas to help me kill time in the airport...), before I fly to Brest. Hopefully one of the English professors meets me at the airport and takes me to my temporary housing.

Just recently, I looked on a map to see exactly where I was moving. Fortunately, I've been telling people the correct location! Below is a map of France. I will be living in the region of Bretagne -- to the Northwest



And here is a map of Bretagne:



I'm excited to meet the other 4 'lecteurs' that I will be working with. Sarah and Katie are from the East Coast and David and Sorcha are from Ireland. I'm also looking forward to learning more specifics about my position at the University. There's so much that is up in the air regarding my move to France. My hope, however, is that everything will fall into place once I'm there. For now I've got plenty of packing to worry about!

A bientôt!