Getting used to the time difference

So one of the most annoying things about having no WiFi is that often when I can actually get access to WiFi, no one in the States is awake yet, so I either don't have e-mails to respond to or I have no one to talk to online. Hopefully it won't be for too much longer that this is a problem - cause it makes me feel pretty lonely. Tomorrow afternoon Marina and I are going to go the youth information center in town. Apparently the people who work there are very friendly and will even set up appointments for us to see apartments. Which means I won't have to worry about making phone calls; it's so much harder to understand someone in a foreign language on the phone than in person.

After hanging out in the bar yesterday afternoon (which is what I'm doing again now), I went and met some English speakers who are also assistants, although they are all teaching at the primary level. One girl was American, one British, and one was from Canada, but she was actually Mexican and Salvadoran. It was a bit of relief to speak English; it gave me a break from the brain-strain that is speaking French 24-7. We grabbed a drink at an outdoor bar and then wandered until we found a restaurant. I was finally hungry for the first time in days and had an amazing crepe full of different types of cheese, walnuts, and raisins. This morning  I wandered around with Daniela, the Mexican assistant at Bertran de Born, and ended up back at this bar which, thank goodness, bucks the French stereotype of being closed on Sundays.

But here's some more interesting stuff: pictures!

Here's a good view of the cathedral and the town from across the river. I live on the same side as the cathedral, but there's a great walking path along the river on the opposite side - and I even saw people running, so maybe I can run over there and not be weird and conspicuously American while I'm doing so!

I've been really lucky that the weather has been so nice so far. It has definitely helped me in thinking more positively about the next seven months here. I think if the weather had been nasty on top of my crappy room and my lack of a steady connection to the outside world, I really would have been in bad shape. Did I mention that the shower is just a curtain-ed off corner of a big tiled room with a drain in the corner? And that you have to push a button to get the water to turn on - and it only stays on for 20 seconds (I know it's that long, I counted)? So I spend my showers pressing the button every 10 seconds to keep it from turning off.

This was the main church for Perigueux from the 1100s until about 1575. Then the wars of religion happened and a lot of stuff got destroyed. It apparently used to have a lot more domes. It's very plain inside - but they still have mass there on most days.

These are the ruins of a castle that was owned by the Catholics for centuries until the wars of religion (again) when the Protestants came and destroyed it just because some Catholics lived there - and had lived there for several centuries.

The town has this amazing mix of Medieval and Roman history. The building in this picture is Medieval while the archway in the forefront is one of the last standing gates from the ancient Roman wall that used to surround the city. It's pretty amazing that within a mile radius you can see building from the first century to the 12th century to the 21st century.

Just an old tower. That's all. You can't go in it, and there's no informational sign outside of it to explain what it is. But it's kind of a landmark - as in someone will tell you "go to the big tower and turn right."

Standing on one of the narrow streets! Which is incredibly empty because this picture was taken on a Sunday. I don't know what the French do all day on Sundays. I guess they just hang out at home. But pretty much everything is closed, so unless they want to go for a walk, there's not really anything to do in town besides church.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but these are the ruins of the Roman amphitheater. It's fenced off and surrounded by a very pretty park with a fountain and a playground. It's just not a big deal that there are these 2000 year-old ruins in the middle of town. It's a totally different world than in the U.S...

So that's a run-down on what I know about the town so far. This is just stuff I've learned by wandering around by myself or with other assistants. I assume I'll learn more details as I live here longer.

Tomorrow I start "teaching," though really I'll just be sitting in and observing classes and introducing myself to the students. After I do that in the morning I'm heading out to start looking for apartments. And then Wednesday we have an orientation day with all the other assistants. I'm hoping by the end of this week I'll feel much more settled and comfortable here.

I'm here! But my internet connection isn't.

Just a quick post to say yes, I am alive. I'm in Périgueux.

Good things

• The town is gorgeous, old, Roman ruin-y, Medieval, super-French
• Everyone is incredibly friendly, both the people in the town and the people at the school (Bertran de Born) where I'll be working
• I've met a few other assistants who are also working at Bertran de Born who are very friendly

Bad things

• I don't have an internet connection in my room at the school (no WiFi, no cable hook-up) - which is why I am currently looking for an apartment
• And the bathroom is icky. So no WiFi plus no kitchen (and the cafeteria at the school is closed from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon) plus gross bathroom totally cancels out the benefits of "free housing"
• It's really hard to get to know people when you have to speak French all the time!

I'm writing this from a bar that has WiFi. The French don't mind if you buy a drink and then sit around and mooch off their WiFi for several hours (which is what I've been doing this afternoon with the two other girls who will be working at Bertran de Born). I'm researching apartment options with one of the girls, Marina. (She's from Spain and way better at French than I am. She has studied abroad a few times already - and for much longer periods of time than I have.) I think if I can find an apartment - and apartments are much cheaper here than you'd think - I will feel much more comfortable, cause it's been quite a rough adjustment!

I have lots more to tell but right now I don't have enough battery on my laptop. I promise a real update and pictures as soon as I'm able!

I don't remember how to blog

After being thoroughly confused by Blogger's new and "improved" settings, I've figured out how to reincarnate last summer's blog - with new colors and fonts! It may, however, take considerably longer before I remember what exactly I'm supposed to write about while blogging. I need to get readjusted to this concept of writing a summary of my current life and then shooting said summary out into cyberspace. Luckily, I have a jumping off point.

For those of you who don't know, on Wednesday, AKA today, I'll be moving to Périgueux, France (that's waaay down in the southwest of France, close to Bordeaux) for the next seven months to teach English/American culture in a French high school. I'm doing this program through the French government; basically the French Ministry of Education hires young people from the US, Spain, Germany, Italy, Australia, [insert country here] to come and work as assistant teachers in public schools all over France, both at the secondary level and the primary level. From here on out, I'll refer to it as TAPIF, the Teaching Assistant Program in France. (Didn't make that up - it came with that name.) We work alongside teachers of our respective languages to give a perspective on the cultures of our countries. It's a pretty sweet gig: 12 hours of work a week, a decent monthly stipend, vacation whenever the schools are off, and (in my case) free housing.

Now you know about as much about my job as I do, but after I start next Monday (and have orientation next Wednesday) I'll hopefully be able to tell you a heck of a lot more.

This link might also be useful for anyone who doesn't speak French - and even for people who do, because "Périgueux" is not the simplest word in the French language. And here's the link to the Wikipedia article itself. Hopefully that will tide everyone over until I get there myself and can go exploring. Assuming that I have better internet connection than I did in the Villemanzy last summer, the blog will actually include pictures this time around.

I fly from DC to Paris Wednesday evening with my friend from UVA, Karen, who is also doing TAPIF. She's in an even more French-sounding town, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, about two hours southeast(ish) of me. From there I'll hop on a train to Bordeaux and then transfer to one to Périgueux. Except I won't be hopping, I'll be lugging. It's not easy to cram seven months worth of stuff into three suitcases, something I've been learning over the last few days of packing. One suitcase is weighing in at a risky 49 lbs, a fact I know thanks to the luggage scale I've been searching for for a week and which, thanks to some karma gods smiling down on me for some reason, I found in a bag at the eleventh hour of my packing stress fest. I'd add a picture here to prove how efficiently I've packed but A. the suitcase that is still open would be putting my undergarments on display and B. my camera is packed in the depths of one of the three bags, so digging it out would ruin the efficient packing and defeat the whole point.

And, to be clear, it's more like two-and-a-half suitcases. Cause I'm just not going to count the small one as a full bag. It's not willingly that I'm not taking a single pair of high heels with me.

Signing off

I’m writing this wrap-up blog post on the plane home.  Somehow the plane movie (a poorly acted drama about that one-armed surfer girl) just isn’t doing it for me.  I was supposed to have my own screen and therefore my choice of movies, but yesterday US Airways switched our aircraft so instead of being on the giant, nice overseas plane we’re on an old, crappy plane that you’d be bummed if you only had to take it across the United States. Plus they messed up everyone’s seats and infuriated a whole plane of people – who pretty much all banded together against the nasty flight attendant who was yelling at everyone and rearranged seats so they could sit with the people they had originally booked seats with. Plus there’s a 50-50 chance we’re going to miss our connection because we were an hour late taking off. You’ll get an [angry] update if that happens…

Update: we didn’t miss the flight but we were this close to doing so. We had an extremely stressful day.

First things first: Copenhagen.  We had atrocious weather the whole time we were there. We didn’t even glimpse the sun – though judging by the color of the Danes’ skin, they don’t see the sun much either.  I was also a bit underwhelmed by Copenhagen.   The city didn’t have the character that the other cities had.  Amsterdam was by far my favorite, and Mark’s favorite was Brussels – but Copenhagen was a bit blah compared to the rest.  However, we still did some pretty sweet stuff, and I had a good time.

The first day we were there we walked down the main pedestrian shopping street (Lego store! I even wore my earrings!) and explored a bit.  In the town hall there’s an old, elaborate clock that measures everything from the time to the hours of daylight to the rotation of the solar system – pretty amazing.  The highlight of the day though was a giant tower (there are lots of giant towers to climb in Copenhagen) in the center of the city.  Apparently however many centuries back there was a king who was too lazy to climb stairs to go up to his observatory.  So he had a tower constructed that was a giant spiraling ramp so he could ride his horse to the top; unfortunately, the tower is no longer historically accurate, as we had to walk up the ramp rather than ride horses.  Afterward we found a couple really nice parks and then went to see the famous statue of the Little Mermaid, which is in Copenhagen because Hans Christian Andersen lived there – also, Copenhagen won’t let you forget this, as there are statues of him all over the place. Every time we saw a statue of a man in the distance I guessed that it was Andersen. I was right most of the time.

If you’ve ever seen a picture of Copenhagen, it’s probably a canal with bright-colored building and docked sailboats. That’s what one street in Copenhagen looks like. The rest does not look like that at all; it’s mostly plain buildings and few canals.  But we ate on that street for dinner (where Mark was served a whole fish, lungs and eyeballs included).  It’s so chilly and icky in this city that almost all restaurants (outdoor and indoor) come equipped with blankets for the customers. No joke.  There are usually two blankets per table.

The next day the weather was worse, but we went and saw the changing of the guard at the royal palace, tried Copenhagen’s specialty for lunch (an open-faced sandwich of all different varieties that is called a smo-something but is not called a smorgasbord – but that’s what I kept calling it, despite being reminded by Mark that that’s Swedish), climbed up another tower which had a spiral staircase on the outside of the tower (one of the only times I’ve gotten shaky knees climbing a tower), and went to Christiana.  Christiana is the area in the city that was set up in the 60s by some hippies who didn’t want to follow the law.  Basically weed is legal in the area and it’s separate from the rest of the city – but open to tourists, as long as they don’t take pictures.  Despite the fact that there were tons of tourists and we were there in the middle of the day, I was not a fan of this area. We didn’t stay long.

Overall, Copenhagen had some cool and pretty attractions – it simply wasn’t my favorite, and probably wouldn’t be somewhere I’d recommend that people visit.  Plus, despite how beautiful and blond all the Danes are, they aren’t nearly as friendly as the Dutch.

Sunday we went back to Paris for one last day.  It was also the last day of the Tour de France, aka my favorite sporting event besides NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl, so we went down to the Champs-Elysees to watch the last leg of the Tour. We – and several thousand Frenchman and tourists standing around us – saw the bikers go by. We were at the end of the Champs-Elysees, by the Arc du Triomphe and had a great view of them as they made the U-turn in from of the Arc.  I’m really glad I got to see that.  That evening I went with Mark and his family (who he was meeting up with in Paris since he is going to travel with them for another week) to meet some relatives in Paris that he didn’t know he had, and then he and I went to dinner with Emily and her brother to catch up.  I headed to the airport with Emily and her brother this morning – and that’s a wrap on Europe!

Do blogs need conclusions? I’ve got to sign off in some way.  There are a million more things I could say about Lyon and my weekend trips and this last excursion, but you probably wouldn’t want to hear all million of them.  I’m so glad I got to study in France, despite the fact that I now need a break from the French for awhile, and I loved all the people I made friends with.  And my trip at the end was awesome – I can’t even complain about the hostels too much. J

So thanks for reading!

"If you hear the bell, run like hell."

This was sound advice from our tour guide in Amsterdam. Like I said before, there are a lot of bikes in Amsterdam, and they do not like to stop for anyone, particularly anyone with a map. We took a free tour (well, we tipped her a lot at the end) of the city - which was actually a really awesome tour. There's a company that runs free tours in a lot of major cities in Europe, and our guide was really great. We learned a ton about Amsterdam that we wouldn't have known otherwise, and saw a lot - particularly because the tour was three hours long.

After our tour we ate pancakes (yum- though it made me reminiscent of the Tavern and this supposed "close" of it which is going to happen in December) and went through the Anne Frank house. The house/museum is extremely well done and very sad, of course. Since bad weather has been our thing on this trip, it was raining when we left the museum, so we went and saw Bridesmaids. I was thwarted from seeing Harry Potter again. Apparently Amsterdam sells movie tickets like you would sell concert tickets, as in selling assigned seats. So they didn't have any seats together for the showing of un-3D Harry Potter. What the heck, Holland? But Bridesmaids was a good replacement!

We finally went out that evening; we had to go out if we were in Amsterdam! We went to our hostel bar and then decided to follow a pub crawl that was leaving the bar. We followed them through the Red Light District (which is an alien place, let me tell you - more on that later), discovered we'd need wristbands to get into their next bar, and went and sat in a different bar instead. Then we found another pub crawl, followed them, got into a bar and managed to swing two rounds of free drinks from them. This was entertaining, since we went to the bar to buy drinks and the bartender asked if we were with the pub crawl. I shook my head but Mark said, "What if I said we were?" and she shrugged and handed us the drinks (test tubes of Jaegermeister) they were handing out to the pub crawlers. Then as we were walking out of the bar with the group, they were filling everyone's test tubes with a drink, so we just held our test tubes out and got another round. Success!

The Red Light District really is bizarre. During the day it's fairly quiet, and all you see are sex shops and coffee shops (where you can smoke pot) and shops selling cannabis lollipops and energy drinks (ironic much?). And day and night there are lots of people smoking pot and there are literally prostitutes in windows everywhere - plus there are no open-container laws. But at night the streets are packed with people, and nobody is angry or out-of-control, they're just milling about and hanging out with friends, so it doesn't feel unsafe. Very strange. It was an experience, to say the least. And one night going out was probably enough, but we definitely had a good time.

Though here's another piece of advice from the tour guide: don't take pictures of the prostitutes. They will push open their windows, chase you down, grab your camera, and break it. Or they will throw a cup of piss at you, which they conveniently keep in the window for just such a purpose. No joke.

Anyway, the next day we had some time in Amsterdam, so we milled around, bought some souvenirs, and did a canal tour on a big touristy boat. Then we had to take a plane to Copenhagen (NOT FUN because it had propellers and it was sooo bumpy landing in Copenhagen - No, Mom, I am not exaggerating) which got majorly delayed, blah blah blah, and we didn't get into our hostel until after midnight. Ick. I am also thoroughly sick of hostels. But at least I can say I did it, since I guess anyone who travels in college is supposed to stay in hostels! Though I'm really looking forward to a normal hotel in Paris...

A last thought on Amsterdam: the parts that aren't the Red Light District are really nice - and not a prostitute for be found! The architecture is gorgeous and strange (all the houses lean in funny directions because, hello, they built their city on a swamp) and the canals are pretty. There are really cool house boats on a lot of the canals and everyone is amazingly friendly - and knows English! Amsterdam has definitely been my favorite city so far.

I'll do the Copenhagen updates tomorrow. This is bordering on the "too-long-of-a-post" zone. Bye!

Here we (Van) Go(gh)

It's updatin' time! I hope I can remember everything I've done in the last few days. We're in Amsterdam now - pretty much smack on the edge of the Red Light District, meaning there are lots of weed and sex shops specializing in designer condoms and dildos close by. Mark wondered aloud today if the Dutch of the colonial era would be pissed if they could see what happened to Amsterdam, which was once an important and moderately successful colonial power. Past Amsterdam: sophisticated trading center. Current Amsterdam: Mardi Gras on steroids year-round. Yeah, they'd probably be pretty angry. At least they're nice and green here, because aside from loving pot (which is also green), the Amsterdamians (?) really love bikes. They're everywhere!

I'm getting sidetracked though. I need to start with Brussels, Day 2: We started at a flea market and Mark bought a one euro Belgian beer glass. Later we walked around the "European quarter" of Brussels, the area where all the EU buildings are. It was maaaybe a wee bit long, but I had to be nice because I broke Mark's beer glass during it (note: I subsequently replaced said beer glass in Bruges). And the building that houses the EU Parliament is enormous and really cool - and closed on Saturdays. Overall, Brussels was cool and very unique; all the areas of the city are different.

We took a train to Bruges, a medieval city north of Brussels, that afternoon. I announced our presence to all of Bruges with my rolling suitcase and cobble stone streets combination. The weather in Bruges was pretty bad too - chilly and damp and rainy, which our waiter at dinner assured us was highly unusual. We wandered, bought some different types of Belgian beer, and decided that the Belgians are decisively nicer than the French. Bruges is a really gorgeous little town. We wandered again the next morning, checked out the French fry museum and the chocolate museum, and then bought both fries and chocolate. We didn't necessarily do a ton in Bruges, but, like I said, it's a really neat town, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Belgium. The city is so old that they can turn buildings from 1500 into fry museums and not worry about a thing.

From Bruges to Amsterdam. We were overwhelmed getting into the city at 9:30 (it takes all of two minutes before the smell of pot reaches your nostrils and all of five before you see the "Sex Museum") and stayed in for the evening. But today we got up and saw a lot of the city as we walked to the Heineken brewery - which was super fun and included lots of beer with the ticket price, plus Mark and I got to print a cheesy Heineken bottle label with our names on it - and then to the Van Gogh museum. Here's the thing about the Van Gogh museum: it has more than 200 Van Gogh paintings, including the Sunflowers one and the most famous self-portrait. Here's another thing about the Van Gogh museum: it does not have Starry Night. That's at the MoMA in New York. We're fairly certain Amsterdam is...bitter about this, to put it lightly. There is not a single reference to Starry Night in the museum or in the museum shop (which sells plenty of Van Gogh posters) - and it's arguably Van Gogh's most well-known work. Sorry, Netherlands. Or sorry, the Netherlands. The US beat you on that one.

Interestingly enough, there was also no reference of that whole chopping-off-his-ear thing. Hmmm...

And as a final note, one of our roommates in this hostel has a snore that is indescribable. But I'll try anyway. It starts with coughs, then has a burp, then a disgusting phlegm-sucking noise. If that sounds gross, too bad, cause you know what sounds even more gross? - the snore itself. I may not have slept too well last night.

I'm really not in Paris now.

I have (really good) free WiFi access at this first hostel, so why not capitalize on it and write a blog post?

Yesterday was the last day in France - tres triste! It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, particularly when Abena whipped out her ukelele and sang beautiful music to us during our farewell dinner. A bunch of us went out to one of our favorite bars, Flannigan's - an Irish pub, one last time and consequently got roughly three hours of sleep since a whole pack of us left the hotel at 7am this morning to get to the train station. Farewell, Lyon, you treated us well! Except for that whole hill thing.

Luckily I got to adventure on - and am currently in Brussels, Belgium! Upside of Brussels: waffles and french fries (they were invented here). Downside of Brussels: its weather hates us. Today was extremely dreary and rainy and chilly. I apparently did not have my brain on hand when I packed before I came to Europe; we are currently the farthest south we will be on our eight day trip - and I only have two pairs of pants. In my defense, I really could not have fit too much more in my suitcase, so I'm either going to be chilly in my skirts, or my pants are going to be real grimy by the time I get home.

Today we wandered around Brussels and saw their 15th century town hall, Manneken Pis (the fountain of the little boy who's peeing) who you would have guessed is three feet tall or so but is actually all of one foot, and other old stuff. Then we took the metro a ways to go to see a giant statue of an atom that was built for the World Fair in 1958. NERDS. Mark chose it, not me. It's an enormous structure that you can go inside of and can probably see much of Belgium from; we just saw a lot of Belgian fog and clouds. But there are also exhibits inside and a sweet gift shop where people's geeky boyfriends can buy shirts with pictures of the atom that say "Atomium" on them. Tonight we considered Harry Potter cause of the crappy weather, but the only showing was at 10, which is well past your bedtime when you've been up since 6.

Tomorrow is more Brussels, then off to Bruges. I hope I see some canals.