Sunday, September 30, 2007

attention: ADDRESS!!

Emily Findley
c/o Mme Jaula
5 rue saint thomas d'aquin
84000 Avignon FRANCE

You could also write:
Emily Findley
who lives above the old woman who lives in a shoe
next to the palace wall
windystreets confusingville FRANCE

bon.

Donc, for those of you who don't have the pleasure of reading my mass e-mails but who do, for some reason or other, read this here blog, I've put out a plea to my homies and honeys (honies looks weird) asking all y'all to send me a postcard from your places of residence. I figure I should show my little kiddies as much of the American world as possible. and you don't live in America, just think of it as a way to help me "ouvre les cerveaux" de mes petits eleves.

Thanks!

American city/state highlights include but in no way are restricted to:
Portland/anywhere in Oregon
San Francisco/the O.C./anywhere in California
Washington, D.C.
New York City
Detroit
Ann Arbor
Chicago/the Chicagoland area
northern Michigan/the UP/Lansing :)
Florida

Where else do you guys live?

And if you're abroad, I wanna hear from you too

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Let's Pepper!

There's a restaurant here in Avignon that has very really used www. freetranslation.com to English-fy its menu for all the tourists out there. You can have salades/salads, les sandwiches/sandwiches, possion/fish and, to top if all off, you can have...

poivrons/let's pepper.

Yup, the menu says that you can have a pizza with "pineapple, ham, and let's pepper."

Darija and I found internet in our house! In her awesome blue room she gets th einternet at her desk but I'm the lucky one who gets to sit on the extremely cold floor in the hallway in order to connect to y'all. Bummer. Get it - bummer? Hahaha. C'est rigolo.

Italians arrived today - we are living "L'Auberge Espagnole" and it makes me really really happy! It makes us all speak French with each other because that's the one language we have in common. Here's hoping we all become best freaking friends so I can go stay with them for free when I hit up Italy. And I like friends.

k. bye.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Les ecoles

Bon matin!
I'm blogging for a hot sec because today very well could be the last day I have internet for awhile. Mme Jaula is from another generation and I think that she, literally, has never heard of the Internet. This is triste for Darija and I since we would like to hook some internet up so we'll have to see about that. Here's hoping we can stumble through French words like "telephone jack," "hook it up," and things like that. But internet is going to be way expensive, too, so there's a chance we won't get it at all (surtout if Mme Jaula doesn't even allow it) and then we'll cheapify ourselves and borrow internet from our assistants amis.

Word.

So I have to go to my schools today and ask them to be nice to me and make sure all my hours are squished together so I don't have to commute between Sorgues and Avignon all the time. Sorgues is only 11 km away but taking the bus is a pain in the what and all of that. Then this evening the assistants are supposed to have a pique-nique somewhere near our fortified walls and that should be fun because we got a new one last night and we're getting three new ones today.

Ok I'm so nervous I could pee pants. Yikes.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

apartment, food, money

Check, check, and check!

What up, everyone!

I got an apartment today! Yes, the wait is over! It only took me three days to get a place to live so now I can breathe a little easier. Now I just need a bank account (hopefully I'll get one on Tuesday) and a cell phone (which will come, like, 10 days after that). The month of October is going to be a crazy one, I feel.

Ok, so here's a description of the house:
it is RIGHT next to the walls. The walls that make Avignon the "walled city" to protect the Palais des Papes. Yes, that's right. I live by a palace. You gotta walk down a lot of narrow roads that all run into each other in order to get to my new apartment sur le boulevard de saint thomas d'aquin. The house goes straight up three stories, there are green shutters on the bottom two fenetres (windows) and the whole thing looks like we just took it out of a period film. For REAL (oh - non sequitor: in France, the period is called "les regles" so that means... we're regulated by our periods? periods have rules? rules for not getting pregnant? just something to think about...)

Anyway, Darija, another assistant (from Bosnia!) has the top room that's the Blue Room. It is very cute and has maps all over the walls and it's nice and big and there's tons of space. I get the room next to her, also on the top floor, and it has more of a tiny theme going with it. The bed is freakishly small (no for real - I think only the elementary school students I'll be teaching would be able to fit on it). Mickaela thinks that the house was built in the nineteenth century - I'm going to check on that. Mom, Dad, you can't wait to see it, I bet! Hahaha it's so awesome and it reminds me of old school stuff in England so thanks for all those trips to l'Angleterre pendant ma jeunesse parce que maintenant je suis contente avec mon logement. Whoa that was French. Well, you know.

So Darija and I are going to live on the top floor in two separate bedrooms. Our rooms over look le boulevard which is right by the school where Darija is going to work so that is awesome. To our left is the wall of the palace and if you go right you will be heading into town towards Place de l'Horlage, one of the meeting places of we assistants? Us assistants? I think I'm getting my languages excuses (I'm going to blame faulty bilingualism for just not knowing some things ;) ) Our really really old landlady lives on the 2nd floor. Her name is Mme Jaula (don't know her first name) and she's approx a million years old. Mickaela says she's "French bourgeois" and we're lucky to know her because she's old school and... well, I think that's it. She's decorated her house beautifully. She lives only on the second floor - she's got it hooked up to the hizzy! Bedroom, office, kitchen, prob a bathroom. That's pretty tight.
Below Mme Jaula is the first floor (aka le rez-de-chausses) and that's where Darija and I will live the rest of the time. As in, the first floor is where we'll use the toilet, the salle de bain (the shower and bathroom), and la cuisine (the kitchen). When we leave the kitchen we will step out onto the patio! Holler! We have a patio! Hopefully we'll be able to have les autres assistants over for tea or something.

Was that the most boring description of an apartment ever?
I like that we're living next to the walls in a quiet part of town. We're only approx 10 minutes from anything (10 minute walk - if y'all are gonna visit, don't forget to stretch!). I love walking everywhere and it's a good thing, too, because of all the fromage and pain there is to eat! (cheese 'n bread). France is stunning.

Oh yeah, speaking of food...
Had another eight million course meal tonight
no appertifs (that's ok!)
pumpkin soup for starters. with bread
main course: pork chop, mixed vegetables, eggplant (i've never had eggplant!)
salad and cheese (three types of mild cheese. Mickaela's kind enough not to spring Stilton on us)
dessert: apple cake baked-goods kind of thing. and custard. heaven on a plate.

Breakfasts have been amazing, too.

Back to the apartment:
Rent is 310 euros a month
everything except heating is included
Rent is due on the first of every month
There are three keys - this woman has been broken into twice before! who would do that!?
there's no oven (boooo. i wanna make cookies!)

Oh yeah - Europe is crazy expensive, y'all. I suggest you wait for the dollar to gain some oomph befor eyou get here. It's $1.40 for every euro. So here have been some expenses:
Rent and deposit: 620
carte 12-25 (for train): 49
cash on hand: 100
chez mickaela: 80
So that's at least 850 euros so far. In four days. That's $1200 gone. What the bananas!?

But, as depressing as that is, it's also like this: I'm only going to be here once in my life, doing this thing once, being with these people once, eating this food once, singing karaoke like this once, etc. I'm going to carpe the diem out of this town and this country and this continent and I'm going to take a million pictures and hug a million people and see a million things and it's all gonna be amazing. So I know I'm going to spend a lot of money. But it's going to be so worth it. Because remember: I live here. With these people.

Tomorrow I am going to go visit my two schools in Sorgues. I have to catch the 8.15 bus which will arrive at 8:45 even though my meeting is at 10h because the only other bus to run is at 9.45. So is France. Fingers crossed! I'm scrrrred like whoa!

random thoughts on life, 1st wk in France

In New York's SoHo Apple Store I saw a guy buy three iPhones.
Three iPhones.

And at Spring Awakening I saw a woman walk by pushing her cats in a stroller.
Her cats in a stroller.

I live "intra muros" in Avignon which means I live within the fortified walls of the city so I'm basically a queen. Holy crap. There's the walls and the turrets and the cobblestone streets. Let's go make a period drama starring Keira Knightly or something.

French karaoke is freaking hilarious:
They take themselves very very seriously. And they choose the saddest, cry your heart out songs. No "I wanna dance with somebody" or "Wannabe." Definitely stuff in the genre of "How Do I LIve Without You" but sadder and with voices less pretty than LeAnn Rimes. Imagine karaoke sung like an American Idol contest of the World's Saddest Songs.
Oh - and the DJ played "My Way" by Frank Sinatra THREE times. Count 'em - THREE times. What the bananas? They really like that song! Not only did he play it three times, but he played it twice in English and once iN French, with the time in French coming immediately after the first time in English! Oy vay!!

French beer: they put syrup in it. So it's kinda like an Italian Soda that you get overcharged for at Starbucks. But there's beer in it.

First night in Avignon

Hey e'erybody.

So getting the internet connection has been pretty difficult so far so I've only been able to respond to/write a few e-mails and just googled some things for info that I needed. Thus, no blog. But here's the blog I wrote to myself on the train from Paris to Avignon on my first day. It's probably kinda whacky sounding because I was all cracked out from lack of sleep but maybe it'll be interesting/fun. It's about ALL my travels,a ctually, from New York to Paris and Paris to Avignon. Woohoo!

Amusez-vous! :)

[this part was written on Monday the 24th]
Bon matin, tout le monde! Je suis ici! Je suis a Paris!
Hi, everyone! It’s 5:42 your time and 11:42 my time…I just realized that I’ve been traveling for fourteen hours. It’s weird to think that only nine hours ago I was making a “farewell tour” of phone calls to a few of you, in my last-minute, hurried attempts at good-byes. Well here I am so hello!
Traveling has been very successful thus far. Well, for me anyway. The guy next to me on the shuttle out to Newark has not been so lucky and here’s why… [warning: this part might be boring but I wanted to tell it anyway...]
Dan was my neighbor on the shuttle and he’s a guy from Switzerland who came to the US to get a taste of LA and NYC and to learn English in the hopes of going into international business. So our shuttle but was around 20 minutes late, with the promise of arriving ever 15 minutes and instead being crazy late every time. No good. I planned my trip out with a ton of time as cushion but my chum, Dan, did not. Apparently the airline told him that he only had to check in an hour pre-boarding rather than the usual 2 hours. I find this really odd and hard to believe but anyway, Dan took this to heart and was squeaking by, time-wise. Then our shuttle was late so he missed his check-in time. He proceeded to spend the shuttle ride calling the airport asking them to check him in, insisiting that since one can check-in online, one should be ablet o do this over the phone. For the curious of you out there, this is not possible. So anyway, we arrived at Newark at the very last minute he could do anyting about his flight and he ran inside to plead with the airline. Oh – on top of this, Dan had just spent a week in New York with his dad with whom he hadn’t spoken in two years so that was all tense and then he missed his flight and THEN the airline told him he had to buy a nnew ticket b/c he was the non-refundable, non-exchangeable kind bought through Orbitz or something and if he wanted to talk to the online provider he could, but he’d have to wait till Monday. To put icing on the cake also known as the dagger in his eye, it was Dan’s birthday yesterday. So I’m thinking he didn’t make it home to Zurich. Or else his credit card bill is now maxed out.
Now on to my travels: Air India was awesome! And by awesome I mean I was passed out for most of the flight which rocked. I think I was awake for one listen-through of “Spring Awakening” on my iPod and then the last half hour of the flight. Didn’t eat a thing because, while the croissant for breakfast looked like a croissant and felt like a croissant, it had the curious stench of vomit lingering on it. Awesome. Oh but we got dinner and breakfast and a movie. And screaming babies. A lot of them. Funnest part about Air India was going to the bathroom. Why? Well, most of the people I encountered at hte bathroom didn't speak English and I for sure as heck cannot speak to them in their native tongues. So at the bathroom we were all trying to be polite in line and gesturing toward the open stall and everyone was just gesturing and nodding, gesturing and nodding and smiling, no one moving but everyone had to pee. Eventually we got it. Oh yeah - I also opened the bathroom door on someone. Guess what - there's not much of a place to hide in an airplane bathroom. That's just somethin' to think about...
Going through customs took approx 2 minutes. I was SO NERVOUS about saying anything in France that I handed the woman my passport and said “Hi” to which she replied “You’re supposed to say bonjour.” Well I just about died – there I go, effing up in France already! And she was cute! But it’s all good b/c when I went to buy my Carte 12-25 I definitely spoke in French – woohoo!
I have 2.5 hours till I get on my train and then a 3.5 hour train ride after that. I cannot believe I am here. I keep thinking that if I click my Adidas together I’ll end up on my couch at home but that’ not the case. I’m in France. And a Charles deGaulle look-alike (the man, not the airport) just walked by.
So far: Emily- 1. France-0.
I’m gonna go call my couchsurfing girl to see if she can tell me her address.

LATER THAT DAY...
Passport, baggage in hand, I walked to the TGV station. Waited for three hours.
Ticket said Gare de Lyon… turns out I was in the wrong place! Yeah I waited for three hours just to find out that I'm an idiot and I wasn't in the right place. I guess the 'shot' of coffee I had (un cafe really means a teeeny tiny cup of coffee) didn't relaly wake me up enough to help me realize my huge mistake. Anyway, I quickly changed my ticket so could get a later train from Gare de Lyon. Paid 8 Euro to go from CDG to Gare de Lyon. Took train to Chartrelles-Halles, switched trains to get to Gare de Lyon. Waited forty minutes in the station. Boarded 4119 or something like that. “Composter” mon billet, got onto Car 15, put my baggage in, sat in seat 88. Borrowed a cell pone of a neighbor to call Sonia (couchsurfing host) but she didn’t pick up.
Am now on the train, it’s 5:17, my original train was getting into Avignon at 5:30. Now I won’t get in till 8:00. Fingers crossed.

[written tonight, Wednesday the 26th]
EVEN LATER IN THAT DAY...
Well, it turns out that Sonia, the couchsurfing lady, never got back to me. As in, I got to the Avignon train station (which is outside of teh city's center so really you have to take a bus from the train station into the city adn it was getting dark and I was exhausted and it wasn't the coolest thing I had to do) and I had NO idea what to do. I didn't have a cell phone, the information people weren't too helpful, and I couldn't understand how to use the pay phone (sorry, Madame Peterson... perhaps my French isn't great). The most helpful person in the entire train station was the woman working in the restroom (there are classy bathrooms in the train stations in France where you pay 50 centimes to pee and then these ladies give you towels and all that. I find it incredibly awkward but hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.). This woman and I mumbled around together in French about how I had a lot of luggage (tu as beaucoup de baggages! oui!) and how I should get a cart (il y a des chariots dehors!) and I should get to the bus station (a gauche, a gauche!). She held the door open for me as I struggled with my 100 lbs of luggage (not including that which I was carrying on my back) and walked out to the bus. And from the bus to Avignon centre.

So I took the bus to Avignon centre, arriving at approx 8:00. I had realized it'd be a good idea to call phone numbers of contacts in France, whether they were Parisians I didn't know (just asking for help!) or other couchsurfers or assistants. I got through to Celine, an assistant, after borrowing the cell phone of a French woman (they're all so freaking nice and helpful) and Celine agreed to pick me up from the bus stop. Which she did. Then she called me a taxi so we could get all my stuff to her apartment. Where I ended up staying the night. Celine basically saved my life.

So Celine and I, having just met, settled down into her beautiful apartment that is tres chic and moderne and went to work going through the run-down of our lives (v. interesting) and she made spaghetti. Which I inhaled. Then I got to write an e-mail to all of you saying that I got in ok (despite a lot of mishaps) and went to bed. On the floor. Instead of at my couchsurfing hosts's place (makes me lose faith in couchsurfing.com but perhaps I'll try again...).

OK. that's everything, start to finish!
New York was an amazing trip with so much Broadway, so many songs listened to, so many friends seen, so many places visited, so many pictures taken, etc. etc.
The traveling was stressful but it turned out ok. My new motto is "it'll all work out" because, well, it just has to, right?

Now I have you up-to-date on all that. I will write more on the rest of the week soon. Perhaps, since I can't sleep, I'll just write that up now. We'll see.

peace.
xox.
bises.
emily

First French meal!

First French meal

The first French meal that I have eaten in Avignon DEFINITELY deserves it’s own entry. From start to finish.

Well, first off, I was late to my first-ever French meal. I was at another assistant’s house and she was being awesome and helping me out. I was to go to Mikael’s for dinner and Darija left before me because she was hungry. As she left I said “save some for me!” and we parted ways. Well, over an hour later I got back to Mikaela’s (I’ll admit to getting totally lost in Avignon in the dark for awhile) and there were Mikaela and Darija sitting at the dinner table waiting for me. Oh, the shame! But then we got down to business.

Appertifs:
Tortilla chips (hello, USA!)
Sangria

Starters:
Pumpkin/squash soup
Bread

Entrée:
Chicken in a mustard-y sauce
Mashed potatoes
Green beans
More pumpkin/squash thingy
Rose wine with the meal

After-Entrée
Salad with a really great light dressing
Cheese – I forgot the type (sorry!)

Dessert:
Plum and apple custard thing
Vanilla ice cream
tea

Wow.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Back to life, back to reality: part 2

Guess what Iiiiiiiiii did last niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!


I saw Spring Awakening! Again! Only this time with pictures and more autographs! Oh - and it was the whole original cast this time. Hay-Zeus it was amazing!


Ok, but pre-Spring Awakening, life was really good, too.


This is Back to life, back to reality: part 2 because Thursday was another day of reuniting, just as Wednesday was a day of Dodge reunions. On Thursday afternoon I wound my way downtown on the A train with a stop at Times Square to buy Spring Awakening tickets and freak out about my luck. So five minutes after scoring my partial view, but very cheap, student rush tickets, I got back on the C train and who was sitting just one bench down from me? Derreth Duncan, my friends. From God's Love. Heyyyyyyy oh well I freaked out, plonked myself down next to her and proceeded to ride the train down to the Spring Street stop where we got off, went for sandwiches and M & O, and headed to God's Love and on the way I saw... Anthony! Hurrah! My boss from the summer was walkin' down the street and we ran into him and it was awesome.


I need to take a deep breath because I'm getting so happy must writing all of this.
Done.

I eventually made my way to God's Love and was greeted by Ava, Brandon, Frank, and Pat. I met the new boss of teh volunteer department and she seems awesome. We bonded over the fact that I'm going to France (It's 3:33 on Sunday... only 5.5 hours till take off!) because her son moved to Chile for six months to teach. We are both cool. Here's hoping I made a good impression. Like that one time when I met the CEO of GLWD and didn't know who she was. LUckily I was cute like whoa (and, of course, v. professional) and we got along like peas and carrots so that was good.

ANYway... pictures were taken by the ton at GLWD and that was awesome. Saw all my peeps, i LOVE them and I can't wait to go back and visit.

Ok, I'm going to stop this post right now because I started writing it a few days ago and I'm now trying to remember how the rest of the day went and I can't really. Ooh! But Kacy and I saw Spring AWakening on Thursday night and it was PHENOMENAL and we got pics with some of the cast and that was awesome.

I'm leaving for the airport in fifteen minutes. More posts will come from there, fo sho, because I will have a lot of time to chill.

In summation, I'm really glad I came to NY before leaving!
And I love GOd's Love. Like WHOA

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Back to life, back to reality

Only seven hours after exiting LaGuardia Airport, I was working at the Dodge, shredding paper. And I shredded paper for four hours. Some might find this boring, mindless, silly, or other such things. I, however, find it amazing because I actually got to earn money at the same rate I'm spending it! (that's what Chipotle and 2 Starbucks runs in a day will do to you). It's fabulous. I'm scheduled to work on Friday and Saturday and I'm ecstatic at the thought of doing other random office tasks to fill my life and my checkbook.

In other news, I reunited with all the Dodge people yesterday. One of the things that amazes me most about life is how I manage to make pretty dang good friends with my coworkers. Well, that's actually not too surprising because I usually spend the majority of my time working (at U of M it was, on average, 20-30 hours a week... this summer I was doing a total of 50 hours a week at two jobs). So anyway, at the Dodge I had an amazing time with Tanya, Kacy, Ricky, Nora, etc etc. And I was reuinted with them all last night. I do believe I kept a few people from working for a lil' longer than I should have but it was just so freaking good to see everyone again. Made me so happy. And now I have a few days to chill with them and that rocks.

AND my life is random. I saw Katie Tobin at Lion's Head last night! And Sarah from the summer! Pretty much everywhere I turn I know someone which is surprising and fun and occasionally awkward. Yay life.

Now I'm on my second cup of coffee, watching a creepy commercial on the TV, and biding my time till I leave for God's Love. Hecks yes. Reunions are great.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

In twelve and a half hours...

I should be landing in New York! LGA here I come!

In the meantime, I think I'll do some quality freaking out pre-departure. I've packed up my life into four bags (ok, one HUGE suitcase, a duffel, a backpack, and a side bag) and I'm ready to go. Bought a new watch, bought a luggage scale I'm not going to use because I know I'm over the limit and both Spirit and Air India are going to charge me extra for the extra weight, and I've bought two new black t-shirts because 1) i can't get enough of Target (I just recently discovered it!) and 2) black is always chic in France. And we all know I want to be chic. Oh - to continue the chic-ness, I got a hrrcut today. It's chopped off, very layered, and dyed some blonde. I hope it makes me look very European. Or just cool. But probably it just makes me look very gay. And where's the harm in that?

Today was a very weird day. It was a day of waiting. And procrastinating (didn't finish packing until... 10:30, I think!). I woke up hella early, was productive with the hair cutting thing and then I procrastinated and waited. Hung out with B and H (should I talk in 'code' on this thing? We'll see...) for a looooong time and procrastinated over Georgio's (ummm Mrs. Georgio told me to make sure to write them! The local pizza place wants a postcard from me! I'm famous! Or I just eat a lot of pizza). Then I went home and ran around the house packing, burning CDs and DVDs, being bummed with the lack of teaching materials I have, and going through every single document I have, double-checking content and number of copies. I am so cool.

Now I'm too nervous to sleep. I pretty much died when I said 'bye to Heather today because we've never been apart on our birthday (although heads up, Heath, your bday present from me is pretty cool!) and that's gonna be weird. And I'm not going to see my family on Thanksgiving and Christmas (Dad, take a picture of yourself in the Santa hat and Heather and Lisa, have fun with the stockings!) and I'm not gonna get to see my mom while she's on sabbatical and it's all so weird and sad and everything. But still! It's so exciting! Lisa's getting a new apartment in the city she loves (Chicago) and she's working at her new job and Heather's the smartest in all her classes at State and Mom and Dad are going to England soon and so everyone's happy and doing cool things. Now I just have to say 'bye. And I'm not good at those things (example: airport with my Dad before New York). I know tomorrow's going to kill me a lil' bit on the inside but everything is so amazing and exciting right now that I can't wait to hear from everyone and to blog my life away for them and all of that!

All right I'll admit that this wasn't the greatest post so now I'll just go take a huge breath and try to sleep. Check out my pics for pre-France chaos, packing, family 'n friends and joy!

And... scene.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Reactions to living in France

Word's been spreading about my upcoming life in France for quite some time now. I started talking about the possibility of a teaching assistantship there in December when I first heard of the program, then more in February as I actually got my act together and applied, and finally a ton when I got my acceptance letter in May. Over the summer I spent a lot of time at GLWD printing out news/info on the program, researching what (very little) I know about France and my teeny village of Sorgues, and checking out assistantsinfrance.com for contacts with people/stories/helpful hints, etc. Now I talk about France all the time (obviously) and especially in the past few days, as I've been saying a fresh round of goodbyes and thinking about how much I'm going to miss EL/my family/my friends/the life with which I am familiar.

But I'd like to take a moment and discuss the reactions that I've received from people when they've heard I'm doing this nine-month teaching extravaganza in the south of France.
"Oooh you'll be in Paris! You'll absolutely love it!"
------> I'm going to be in the South. Thus, emilieausud.blogspot.com :)
"Emily, you better watch out, you're going to get fat from all the baguettes and the 'fromage!'"
------> thank you - I was trying not to take my American-bred body image issues over to France but methinks they'll be following me
"Drink some wine for me!"
-------> If it's not red, no problem!
"Beware of the creepy French men!"
-------> With my current haircut, I might be mistaken for one of those men
"Have an amazing time, Emily! Um, what are you doing when you get back?"
-------> Good question, my friend, good question.

And here's my favorite:
"Oh, the south of France, eh? That's where all the terrorists are. You better watch out."
This was said to me by a customer at Baskin Robbins. I think I responded with something like "Um, ok. Would you like one scoop or two?"

And here are my reactions to going to France:
"Holy crap I can't believe they accepted me. Do they know I haven't spoken French in two years?"
"Sorgues... Sorgues... where the hell is Sorgues?"
"Bye bye, bling."
"Two weeks vacation for every six weeks I work? I haven't been this lazy in my entire life!"
"Nine months is a long time... I could get pregnant and have a baby in nine months!"
"I hope they have spicy nacho Doritos over there... I hope I hope I hope."
"If I don't come back fluent I'm gonna punch my own self in the ovaries."

It's Tuesday an 2:00 am. 35 hours till I'm in New York!

Monday, September 17, 2007

One Week till liftoff

Hello, world! Rather, Bonjour, mes amis! It is Sunday, September 16th and, with the creation of this new blog, I announce to you that I am leaving for France in exactly one week to begin my nine-month stay. Actually, in exactly one week minus one hour and 23 minutes I will have departed Newark airport in New Jersey for the runways of the CDG in Paris. Paris. Paris, France.

Holy whoa.

I intend to write my first impressions, my fears, my surprises, my loves, my dislikes, and my experiences in France. Thanks to the WWW I will be able to write down all of these thoughts and attitudes almost as quickly as I feel them and think them which is to benefit you, dear reader, as the recipient of every single thing going on in my brain! Hurrah! I'm so looking forward to a life post-college in France but I also have so much anxiety that I am going to pour out my heart and my lil' soul onto this thing for the world to view. Hopefully it will be full of humorous anecdotes for the most part as well as "they have THAT in France?" and other such exclamations.

However, as much as I am excited about this new blog as a way to stay in touch with those back home and as a way to remember all my stories a few years from now, I must also remember that writing in this thing cannot take over my life. Staying online and checking out nerve.com is fun, as is writing my every thought down, but the whole point of going to France is to live there, to be in it, to make a place for myself there. Wish me luck, everyone!

So yes, I'm going to try to write an amusing/informative/helpful/insightful blog of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in France. And my pictures of the country and my travels elsewhere are to be posted on http://picasaweb.google.com/emily.findley. All very straight forward, easy to use, and hopefully very cool.

My life pre-France is currently full of nervousness and planning, packing and buying (gotta put a stop on the buying - I must remember that they do have stores in France!), as well as visiting and picture-taking and holing up in my room trying to figure out where to put everything. My goal since I got home to EL has been to box up my room and put it in the basement so that all my stuff is ready to be shipped wherever it is that I intend to live post-France and this has been a labor-intensive and interesting projet - I found a marionnette that I've had for the longest time that I thought I had hid from myself and it still scares the crap out of me. I've found love letters from high school boyfriends and poems that Lisa wrote me and friendship bracelet string that I never turned into arm jewelry. I've also inhaled more dust in the past few weeks just from moving all my junk as to cause alarm and the occasional mental request to get an inhaler. I've been to church to see my All Saints family, I had one last trip up North to Glen Lake, and I had an amazing weekend of fun on the west side of the state with my family on the weekend the midwest decided to flood.

Now I have two days before I leave for New York - yup, I'm hitting the Big Apple pre-France in an attempt to see all of the friends I made this summer and to volunteer one last time at God's Love We Deliver (plug: www.godslovewedeliver.org). I'll be working at the gym and going to Lion's Head and traversing the city and having a wonderful, English-filled time before I land in France. I just found out that my ISIC card (International Student Identity Card from STA travel) can get me some pretty freaking sweet discounts to museums in New York like the Jewish History Museum. If I can get my butt out of bed while I'm there I'd really like to hit that up.

In the meantime, I plan on not sleeping (due to anxiety) for the next few nights, visiting Ann Arbor and my loves over there one last time, going out to lunch with some amazing church family, and baking cookies. Got my visa, my passport, my documents saying that I'm an English teaching assistant in Sorgues, and all my tickets (two plane tickets, one train ticket), and a couch to crash on once I get to the south of the country. I think I'm pretty set.

Fingers crossed, everyone... it's about to get crazy!