Une Joie de Vivre

Though it was not sunny when I woke up this morning, it was completely quiet in my neighborhood minus the birds chirping outside my window and my clock ticking.  I stayed there and just dozed for about an hour or so.  I felt no rush to get up and go somewhere.  My little postage stamp of a studio was nice and warm.  While it may have not been the most french thing to do, all I could think was, "This is the life."

Recently I have been researching ways to stay here for another year, or at least to go back for the next academic year.  Therefore, I am seriously considering getting my master's here at the University of Strasbourg.  I am also working on a french CV and cover letter to send off to other possible employers.  I am in the process of trying to renew my assistantship contract, but it is very rare that assistants get renewed.  Though it would be nice to discover a new part of France, I just love Strasbourg too much to leave it...at least for now.  Despite the frosty temperatures, there is just something charming about this univeristy city.  The swans, ducks, and ragoundins (in english coypu--GREAT scrabble word) in the river alongside the trees that look like upside down chicken legs aren't the most glamourous.  Nonetheless, Strasbourg is a quaint, medium-sized city that will never admit how great it really is (but that's one of the things I love about it).  To add to everything, it is an international city that has a place for everyone, literally.  You just have to find it.

With that being said, I just went to an Australia Day party hosted by my friend Anne.  It was quite a lovely evening with Australian desserts (caramel slice, coconut slice, melting moments, nougat, and Tim Tams).  We all chipped in and attempted to make an Australian dessert--and everything was a success!  It was nice to have a calm Saturday night.  My friends and I have an established routine by now: Irish pub quiz Sunday night (the bar is literally called, "l'Irish", Homemade meal Monday, IKEA meatballs Tuesday (they are half off on Tuesdays, ie a very cheap meal!).   

Tomorrow is Sunday in France, where you have the best excuse to do nothing--because everything is closed.  In nice weather they are ideal days for long walks or runs.  In the winter, I have adopted a routine of yoga and then the pub quiz.  It has also turned into a day where I try and do a tandem with other people (They help me with french and I help them with English).  As frustrating as it may sound, after all these years of learning french, I still have a lot of work to do on my french :-/  Oh well, one is never ever finished learning a language, because language is always evolving.

So, until next time, I'm just going to keep enjoying life...and I hope you all can say the same!  Enjoy the small victories, appreciate the humbling comments from your boss, take time to feel whatever emotion you feel but don't dwell on it.  Well, I'll stop preaching there.  Hope all is well on your side of the world!  Namaste :)

I discovered two more beautiful places in Germany this weekend...

I guess before getting to spend time in Germany I never really thought that it could be a quaint, adorable place.  However, this past weekend my friends and I went to Stuttgart and Esslingen to visit two different Christmas markets there.  So now I think my top three adorable, quaint cities in Germany are: Heidelberg, Stuttgart, and Esslingen.

We arrived in Stuttgart by train.  After getting settled in and dropping off our bags at Chrissy's house, we made our way to the Christmas markets.  The markets are beautiful like the ones in Strasbourg.  Actually, I think Stuttgart decorates the outside/top of their stands more than Strasbourg does.  Did you know that in Germany they view Santa Claus as skinny, pretty much the opposite of the American "jolly" and round Santa?  There was plenty of Glühwein (vin chaud, mulled wine) and blonder engel to be had this weekend.  If I remember correctly, blonder engel (white angel) is basically like warm white wine, a little bit of rum, a tiny bit of eggnog, and whipped cream on top.  It is D-lish!  I also had currywurst which is basically a wurst, or sausage, cut up and put into ketchup topped with curry powder.  Kartoffelpuffer was also a new discovery over the weekend.  It reminded me of a latke and came with apple sauce on the side.  We came back to Chrissy's house to an equally delicious bowl of black bean soup made by Chrissy's mom and then played a classic game of Apples to Apples.

Esslignen's Christmas market was a medieval one, complete with costumes, ceramic mugs for glühwein, smokey goodness, and even a pig roasting over coals.  There were woodworkers, silversmiths, people juggling fire, medieval bands with instruments that looked like mandelins--it was a really cool experience to be in a very different Christmas market setting.  Here I tried Eierpunsch which was hot eggnog with some alcohol in it.  It's very similar to blonder engel, but more creamy.  I also had pork and sauerkraut which was a tasty delight of smokiness and tenderness.  I also tasted what was basically fried apple slices in what tasted like a funnel cake batter with plenty of sugar on top.  While we were only here for a little over an hour, it was a great unique experience nonetheless.

In other news, I have started planning a trip to Morocco next semester with friends!  We would be going late February to early March.  I find myself starting to like teaching more and more every day.  Obviously, there are still a lot of challenges that come with the job, but what job doesn't come with challenges? 

I have been listening to Christmas carols as much as I can, now that Christmas is only 12 days away :)  My favorite artist include Faith Hill, Whitney Houston, Glee, and other choirs.  Though there are some modern Christmas songs, I've been sticking to the classics.  I mean, nothing says Christmas more than a choir singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  Faith Hill does beautiful versions of O Holy Night and Little Drummer Boy.  Well, I hope everyone is well, see you most of you very soon!  xoxo

AlMoSt Joyeux Noël!

Hello all, I hope everyone has gotten into the holiday spirit despite the cold weather.  Here in Strasbourg it has been snowing a somewhat good amount, but then it warms up and rains...either way it is very gray...but the lights all around centre ville at night make up for the gloominess of the days.  I have to say that even though my family is in Chicago, Strasbourg has a certain charm about it especially around Christmas that just makes it irreplacable (insert Beyonce lyrics here).  Typical treats of the season at the Christmas markets include vin chaud, tarte flambées on a baguette, warm orange juice with honey, and many more.  Despite the cold/crappy weather conditions, there is a lot to enjoy/be thankful for during the Christmas season in Strasbourg (although I am never thankful for transportation strikes).

Thanks to one of my friends celebrating her birthday last week, I found a restaurant in Strasbourg where my lactose-intolerant dad could actually eat.  It is not a french restaurant but it is called TigerWok and actually is pretty good.  It is basically stir fry from a wok...a little bit like Flat Top, but you wait for them to cook your food in a wok instead of on a grill.

This past weekend was one of those weekends where you don't really have anything big planned, but cool things just come up.  Friday night my friends and I had a chill night with wine and Love Actually to celebrate the holiday season.  On Saturday, I went to a hospital in Strasbourg for a free wine tasting.  Yes, you did just read correctly--I went to a wine tasting at a hospital.  Actually, the hospital was originally a wine cave in Strasbourg in 1395.  It wasn't until the 17th century that it became a hospital officially.  I tasted an especially good Pinot Gris, a white wine typical of Alsace at the wine tasting.  I was looking for a 2004 wine (they say that 2004 was an especially good year for wine), although it's probably safe to assume that all the 2004 wines have been consumed by now.  Either way, it was great to taste good wines for free.  On sunday my friends and I went to see a "modern dance" at the Museum of Modern Art in Strasbourg.  Sidenote--the museum of Modern Art is well, modern, and pretty cool.  It is definitely worth going to if you come to Strasbourg.  Ok, on to the "modern" dance show...as my friend Mark said, it is kind of like "sway dancing".  I have seen beautiful modern dance before, although this dance was pretty much just swaying, running, walking, lying on the ground, getting back up...um yeah.  That's about it.  Nonetheless, it was comical to see.

Other than the weekend activities, I have been allowing myself to listen to Christmas carols as much as I can--anything from Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby to modern day takes from the Glee cast.  Of course, I always have to have Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" in my playlist also.  So far, my Advent calendar has six windows opened which means I have eaten six chocolates so far this december.  No offense to my old Advent calendars, but the chocolate ones kind of outdo all the others for me.

Anyway, I hope this blog post finds everyone in good health and spirits.  I am going home in 11 days and am very excited to see my family and friends :).  Next weekend I am going to Stuttgart in Germany with a bunch of friends.  I'm sure you guys will be hearing about that weekend also.  A la prochaine!

I am living in a beautiful snowglobe!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Even though I missed being with the family, the other assistants and I managed to pull off an amazing Thanksgiving last night!  I think the majority of people went up for second plates right after the last bite of their first plate.  One of Harris's (where we had the Thanksgiving) roommates had even written everyone's name on a plastic cup so we wouldn't get the cups mixed up!  Hats off and many thanks to them for hosting it :)

In an attempt to not get too down about the grey weather or this cold, my friends and I have actually been keeping busy with ice skating and going out to a great Korean restaurant for a friend's birthday and I also made a visit to Syracuse's "family night".  If you haven't guessed by the title, It has started to snow here and the Christmas markets and lights are all around the city of Strasbourg!!  I will say that walking home at night under those lights and seeing the little wooden huts of the Christmas markets is very pretty.  On the other hand, walking into centre ville when there are a ton of tourists is not so pretty.  I even saw one tram yesterday that was so full the doors wouldn't close haha (keep in mind there was a transport strike, so the trams were running a bit more sporadically). 

The snow here is beautiful :)  It is perfect snowball making snow, and it has not started to stick on to the ground or anything, but it will stick to bushes and trees, so in my mind it's like the perfect snow.  I realized today that I will be home for Christmas in three weeks from yesterday, which makes me very excited to see everyone!  Meanwhile, I'm going to go out in my winter wonderland, get some vin chaud, maybe a waffle or crepe or both, and enjoy life.  Oh and maybe get a heavier coat.  :-D

Hello!

So I am technically still on vacation for two more days.  Well, the rest of today and tomorrow.  Last week I went to Paris just for three nights; it was so great to be back in that city.  I met up with a family member from my dad's side of the family, Megan.  My dad and her mom are cousins, so that makes us second cousins, right?  Not cousins once removed or something?  I never got all of that lingo...so she's just a cousin of mine haha.

We did a ton of walking around the city.  We ate lunch on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower, on the steps of Sacré Coeur, explored Montmartre, went to the Arc de Triomphe (which actually has the name Amberg engraved in one of its columns), went to Notre Dame, took a boat tour on the Seine at night (Bateaux Mouches was a pretty legit company...boards right at le pont d'Alma, about 10 euros each).  We also walked around the Tuileries gardens which at that time were beautiful with the green, red, yellow, and orange there to contrast the grey gravel.  We found Café Angelina, which is right next to the Tuileries gardens: home of the best hot chocolate ever.  I mean, it is basically like drinking chocolate fondue in a way.  Let's put it this way: the hot chocolate is so rich and think that you don't even ask for "une caraffe d'eau" (jug of tap water that is free), it just automatically comes.  On top of that, they asked us if we'd be willing to move to a smaller table to make room for a bigger party of people and we did, which resulted in us getting four free macarons!

I had been hoping this trip that I might have been able to really splurge on a great french restaurant, although after looking up the prices for Joël Robuchon's L'Atelier, I was proven wrong.  However, I still had great classical french food when I was there.

I got home Friday afternoon and have just been hanging out since.  All in all, life is good here.  When it really comes down to it, I'm living here.  My slippers don't have that awkward new slipper feeling anymore, they've molded to my feet.  I have my re-usable grocery bags that I take with me every time I go to the grocery store or market.  I have even tried out a climbing gym here in Strasbourg, which was pretty cool, although I need to meet some other people who climb here haha.  I have a laverie (laundromat) that I go to semi-regularly where everyone walks in and says Bonjour to you even if they don't know you.  I think that at this one bar/café that I really like, Jeanette et les Cycleux, the woman who always works there has started to somewhat recognize me.  I have a group of friends who I really like.  I still keep in touch with my host mom from when I was last here.  So, all in all, life is good...and I can't really imagine myself wanting to leave here for a while (minus Christmas break when I go home).

Basically two weeks paid vacation??

So right now I am technically on vacation, "les vacances de Toussaint."  Apparently, Toussaint was a general who led the only successful slave revolt against Napoleon.  Anyway, since I have last blogged not a lot has gone on.  I do feel like I'm getting into the swing of teaching, of course, right as we get a break.  I have been trying to live as much of a budgeted life as I can.  I realized that everything in my place is store brand--except for laughing cow cheese.  Hopefully when I go to Paris on Tuesday I will be able to budget there also.  Then again, it's Paris, so we'll see.  Then again, I'm only going Tuesday through Friday, so hopefully that should make it a little cheaper also.  I do not mean to say that Alsace does not have good food, because it has great food, but I'm really excited to go eat in Paris...I guess I should tell you not to read my next blog post if you're hungry...

Yesterday I went to the médiathèque and rented some cds and tv series and stuff...but all I could notice was the different names given to American tv series/movies...the funniest one to me was instead of the Hangover, the box said, Very Bad Trip.  They call CSI "Les Experts", and Law & Order "New York".  But then for the movie "Stand By Me", it just said the same thing.  I always wonder sometimes what translators think/have to do at their jobs.  I mean, there is a french word for hangover, well multiple.  So why didn't they just call is "Mal au cheveux" or something like that?  One thing I do know for sure is that I would not like to be a translator--there's just too much lost in translation.

Other than that, things have been pretty chill here.  I have actually been toying with the idea of possibly doing a masters here.  It turns out that an American bachelor's degree equals M1 here (in order to complete a full masters, they have to do M1 and M2 here).  So if I did, I could technically enroll in M2 and only have to do a year of it.  However, having to battle the French University system by myself is intimidating.  Actually I think just typing that sentence gave me a headache.  Oh well, we'll see, there are a lot of pros and con to it.  Until next time.

TGIF

TGIF--while I am glad that it's Friday, I am kind of anxious for next week to start--that is after I do some lesson planning this weekend.  I taught my kids TGIF today among other things.  I only taught for an hour today so now as I sit on my bed with my kiddy cocktail and store brand "little school boy" cookies I can finally update you guys.  It is about 20 degrees Celsius here in Strasbourg and sunny :-D (so like high 60's I think).

Last week Thursday I went to Triberg, Germany which is in the Balck Forest.  It was actually a very cute little town, apparently known for making cuckoo clocks.  There are stores where the walls are covered with all different kinds of cuckoo clocks not ticking at the same time...I don't know how someone could work at a store like that and not go crazy.  Their main attraction is having the "highest waterfalls in Germany."  We climbed up the path as high as we could, which was quite a feat.  After the hike, we got lunch at a tiny little restaurant--I of course got a brat and sauerkraut with a little bit of Hefe Weissen (I mean, who goes to Germany and doesn't get those things?).  After a somewhat salty meal, we were in the mood for something sweet so we made our way to a german boulangerie and had a slice of the Black Forest Cake.  The Black Forest Cake is basically like a rum cake with cherries in the middle...it was not bad.

This past week I started teaching and shadowing.  At my junior high I was mostly just shadowing the teachers and answering questions from little kids in English.  The questions ranged from "what is your origin" to "what is the fashion like in America" to "have you ever seen jackie chan" to "do you have a boyfriend" and so on and so on.  The first question that I was ever asked (and I hope I didn't put this in the last blog post?) was "do you have any hobbies?"  However, I heard the word "hobbies" to be "obese" because the French have a hard time with our H sound.  I think the funniest question however, was "Miss, I am Muslim, does that make you scared?"  I answered with a blank face, "No."  Then she recanted with "But if I am Muslim, that means I am terrorist.  Does that make you scared?"  Again, unpahsed, I asnwered, "No."  The levels of English that I will be teaching range from very good, where the teacher can talk in english 90% of the time to first time learners of English where I have been given the authority to sing nursery rhymes with them if I so choose.

I will admit that I was a little shell shocked in terms of teaching after this first week, but the last class that I had today went really well so that gives me hope for the next week.  I do have some classes that don't behave but that's natural.  I realized one day that I kind of felt like Mr. Stanek from freshman year humanities at ETHS, so after that class all I could do was laugh.  Anyway, I feel like things are finally starting to pick up and now that I have an actual schedule (and internet at my place!!) I am feeling more completely settled in.  I continue to live on a pretty tight budget here, I am certainly not living in the lap of luxury out here.  I mean, when it comes down to it, when you live somewhere and are setting yourself up it's kind of all the same--minus the quality of bread, freshness of food, and relaxed lifestyle.  Oh well, more to come later.  A bientôt!