I am a geek

So, I went and saw Shrek 3 at the Gaumont on Wed and I gotta say I really don't know how they do it, but yet again, it was pretty darn good! I mean, the things these people come up with and their intense creativity blows my mind. "I suck-eth" taped on someone's back...that's just classic. A store called Versarchery? Very clever. Ye Olde Foot Locker? Again great(won't spill on that one, though, don't want to ruin it for those of you haven't seen it yet!) But, if you liked the first and second, definitely go see the third. I'm dying to see it in English because I can only imagine it would be even funnier and I also prefer Mike Myers as Shrek and, umm, kinda would've preferred Justin Timberlake over some random French dude playing Arthur. Besides them, Julie Andrews, several gals from SNL, etc, etc.

Speaking of animated films, would l'Age de Glace(Ice Age) be still funny for a CM2(5th grader)? I'm hoping so as I'm planning on showing it next week for my LAST.WEEK.OF.CLASSES!!! Youpiiii! JK, I am not actually a 8 yr old French child who would say that, I was just in the moment, quoi. Yeah, so I wanted to do something to celebrate the end of the year and those kids are already gone on vacation in their cabezas anyways, so I figured something like a film would be fun and CALM. I'm planning on showing l'Age de Glace in English with French subtitles provided that is actually a possibility. If not, I'll have to scour Geant, Carrefour or LeClerc for some cheap DVDs and invest in one myself. I was thinking a long the lines of Shrek 1 or Finding Nemo. Definitely an animated film, but I'm cheap, so I'd rather not buy one myself especially if I do end up leaving France and then the film would be of no use to me. We will see.

That reminds me, I still have to see Shrek 1 in English! I saw it in French in 2002 when I lived abroad in Rennes for the first time as a study abroad student. My friend had already seen it and we watched it together. Well, she was apparently a pretty big fan because everytime something should have been funny in the film aka would have been funny in the English version, she repeated what was said in English. Let's just say my friend, who is not a middle-aged black man, didn't really compare to hearing Eddie Murphy play Donkey. Also, somehow l'Ane just doesn't work...especially said with Shrek's scottish accent, it just isn't the same. However, I loved loved LOVED Pinocchio and the Gingerbread man's voices in French. Espec the part when Pinocchio is trying so hard not to lie so just keeps on saying really vague sentences, I was literally cracking up. Ok, I need to stop talking about Shrek because now it won't be my negativity that scares y'all away, it will be my geekiness! Haha.

Anyway, a subject I have been wanting to share for a while would be my pet peeves. I'm pretty detail-oriented and by that, I mean anal, so a lot of my pet peeves are things I have to deal with quite often. So, for your knowledge and for my entertainment(I enjoy making lists...ahem...as I said anal) and in no specific order, I have composed a list of my...

ALL-TIME GREATEST PET PEEVES:

1) sitting in the aisle seat on the bus-let me just clarify that I don't feel the need to always sit down on the bus and especially don't like sitting with STRANGE*ers, but I just think it's so very inconsiderate to take up two spaces because you want to sit by yourself. In that case, too bad, find a place standing then!

2) rudeness-this can encompass so many different things and can exist in so many different ways from the grocery store clerk that doesn't even say hello or goodbye to a lady that poked a guy on the train with her umbrella because she was in a hurry(so was he, btw.) I am a polite person with excellent manners and I cannot stand for people being rude whether to me or others. One guy once yelled at my mom when my fam was all together at a James Taylor concert in MA. He told her to not step on his blanket(it was an outdoor lawn and tons of people brought blankets and/or chairs and picnics). It was jam-packed with people by the time we got there and there was no other way to find a spot but to make your way through the people already sitting down and find an empty spot of lawn. I'm sorry, but too bad my mother(one of the nicest people in the world who does not have a rude bone in her body) stepped on your precious blanket. So, my mom told him he was rude for yelling at her and he said "no, you're rude" and I turned and said "actually, you're the one who's rude." I could have said something about the fact that we had no other choice, but to make our way through all the people and we were trying our best not to disturb people's set-ups, but it's super crowded and we're carrying chairs, a cooler and a blanket, but I didn't because I could tell he was a bitter, old man and he didn't even deserve my time. So there!

3)men who wear murses, fanny packs and jeans tighter than mine aka many french and spanish man-ok, this one's kinda a lark, but come on, now!

4)people who walk really slow in front of you or right behind you-more annoying is the right behind, just go in front of me!

5)close-talkers and loud breathers-nuff said!

6) loud and/or gross eaters-this one really bugs me. Any variation of lip-smacking, food dribbling, slurping, sloshing, teeth or mouth picking is bound to drive me bonkers. There's a lady that eats her breakfast on one of the trains I take and she eats a full-blown bowl of cereal. Well, this train is pretty early, so it's pretty quiet and her milk-slurping resonates through the whole car. Grr.

7)being hot-I have little to no tolerance for this and find myself unable to carry on a normal conversation until I have cooled down. Let's just say, my hair and face are not friends with humidity.

8)on-the-go t-shirts-Yes, it's nice you went to Florida, but can't you find another t-shirt that doesn't have a huge smiling alligator with a hot pink background?

That's all for now, folks! Off to the Beaux-Arts museum with Jen that I've still never been to after all this time here.

*Oh, the lady on the bus next to me was a case. She was talking to anyone and everyone whilst shoving crackers into her bouche non-stop which I can only assume crumbled all over me as she might as well have been sitting on top of me. She was dressed like a homeless person would be on a very cold night in December which is a mystery to me because even when it was raining and a little chilly earlier, it wasn't THAT cold. I always get the winners, I tell ya!

Sienna has nothing to do with this post except I mention something belonging to my cat once very briefly aka I like long post titles!

Well, I do feel a little better about the staying in France situation. I won't say anything here because I do believe in jinxing things, but let's just say there might be a teeny tiny miniscule possibility of me staying. And, hey, I'm clinging on to that like there's no manana. That is all I will(try to) say about that because even though a lot of why I started this blog was to be able to remember my experience and be able to have a sort of online diary, I also wanted to keep everyone up-to-date on what's going on in my vida and I now fear I have scared everyone away. So, I will try to squeeze every last ounce of positivity out of my veins that are clogged with negativity up the wazoo because, well, that's just the new plan. I also want to warn people who don't know me, but read the blog, that I'm not a pro-blogger or great writer or anything, so BEWARE. MWAHAHA! Kidding...really...well, mostly anyways!

So, to lighten the mood, I thought I would talk about food I miss from the US and then also give you guys abroad a recipe that I found recently that definitely made my morning a little sweeter(hint, hint.) And, by sweeter, I mean maple syrup-y sweeter...have I said too much? Anyhoo, here goes the list of grub a gal like me misses from the good ol' U S of A:

Microwave popcorn

GOOD peanut butter

Cottage Cheese

Mac&Cheese

Stone Ground Wheat Thins

Zatarin's Black Bean&Rice Mix

Readily available cheddar

Bagels&Cream Cheese(no, Boursin is just not the same!)

Sandwich shops(mom&dad kind, Quizno's, Panera Bread, etc...I loves me some sandwiches)

Turkey burgers, Turkey sausage, Ground Turkey/Chicken(basically more options for non-beef and pork eaters like me)

My mom and dad's home cookin'

Ok, I feel like there's prob a ton more, but those are the top ones I can think of. The top of the list after mom&dad has got to be cottage cheese. Yumm-o. I really, REALLY wish it existed in France because I am a CC addict. And before you get all in a tizzy about my patriotic list, I could also list a gazillion things I love in France too, believe-you-me:)

Now, for the recipe. I woke up Saturday(after a bad end of the night where a French guy was extremely rude to me) and I was hungry for some comfort food from home, so I thought about the (little) cooking ingredients and food I had and magically came up with...PANCAKES!!!

So, here she goes:

2 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 c. milk

2 tbl. melted butter

1 whole apple cut into small pieces

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg and milk. Add this to flour mixture and then, stir in melted butter. Serves 4.

The apple(possible substitute also would be peaches, strawberries, blueberries, etc) idea was all mine because I had to bootleggedly(is that a word?) use honey instead of maple syrup as I had none, so I wanted to make sure I had something sweet in case the honey was a bust which it surprisingly wasn't. Oh, and I also didn't have baking powder and measured the cups with a glass because I was too lazy to look up the conversions and I do believe I have a decent eye for that. Let me just add in the fact that I do have a 1/4 cup measurement I use to feed kitty cat that I could have washed and used. That's just to show you how bootleg and lazy I am! Anyway, they turned out great, so I invite you to try this recipe sometime soon. Enjoy!

Strength

Well, after battling it out with the Rectorat and then after not hearing from them and receiving an email from the CIEP saying they had bien recu'd my dossier, I started to feel a teense better that I did still have the option of being an assistant if ever anything turned up. Well, being experienced with one person saying something and then another person saying something COMPLETELY different, I thought it best to email the CIEP and just confirm everything was fine. Well, at first they did, then I got this second email...

Après vérification, il apparaît que vous avez déjà travaillé deux fois en tant qu’assistante de langue, il ne vous est donc plus possible de postuler à nouveau. Merci de prendre bonne note de ce message.

Ok, well, since my contract isn't up yet, I assumed she was referring to 2004-2005 when I was an assistant and 2005-2006 when I renewed but didn't accept and according to them, quit. So, I wrote her back a nice, but firm email indicating that this year is my second time as an assistant and next year would be my third. The rules-as I knew them from the responsable for the primaire assistant ie someone WHO SHOULD KNOW-were that you can be an assistant three times total, with a max of two years in a row. Well, he told me the WRONG INFO which I found out in this next email...

Je pensais avoir été suffisamment précise, vous ne pouvez PAS renouveler votre contrat, la limite étant de deux années.

Wow and I thought that someone in an important role would not be so bitchy and also not use bubbly font that is inappropriately large and childish for even a 7th grader. Oh, I'm sorry, was that rude? So, this was my response because I couldn't let her get away with that, but I also wanted to be the bigger and better person...

Bonjour Mme Snarky,
Non, ce n'était pas clair, je pensais quand vous avez dit que j'ai déjà travaillé deux fois en tant qu'assistante que vous ne parliez pas de cette année comme ce n'est pas encore terminé. Donc, Monsieur Frenchy McFrencherson ne m'a pas indiquée la bonne information quand il a dit que j'avais le droit d'etre assistante une troisième fois. Merci quand-meme pour votre réponse et bonne journée.

I'm sorry, but telling someone something when you don't know that it is 100% correct and then leading someone to believe for three months(and what would have been longer had you not contacted them!) that their dossier was fine and dandy, is JUST SIMPLY WRONG. I'm pissed off because now that is one more possibility that is in the gutter. I don't know what I will do next year and I know if I have to go back, I will be ok. But, for now, I want to stay and I'm soooooo unbelievably annoyed at how impossible it is all seeming. I will do my best to keep positive and I can be an m'effer when I'm motivated, but Dieu give me strength! Wish me luck:/

PS-The red and all caps are supposed to represent my ANGER. Umm, in case you didn't get that already...

PPS-You might be wondering why there is a picture of a teeny bopper hunk. Well, when I did a search for Strong in google images this is what came up and I thought it was too funny and I needed to lighten the mood. Almost all my posts are me venting(sorry bout that.) Plus, who didn't love Boy Meets World? Haha!

A final au revoir?

Wow, so many crappy things have happened to me in the past month that you really start to wonder what you did to deserve it all! I believe things are meant to be and that things happen for a reason, now what reason that would be, I could not tell you. But, it's at least semi-comforting to know I'm meant for life to shite on me...well, because then I can do nothing about it, I guess.

On the job front, things are not looking good AT ALL. I was accepted to work at a language immersion program for July and August, but now that I'm probably leaving for good in August, I think I'll probably stay and try to find English lesson/babysitting jobs. Yeah, good luck, Leah. In any case, that was just a temporary thing to sort of have something to do while I waited out The Decision by the Inspection/Rectorat/Daric/Academie/CIEP/Your mom. It was going to allow things to be easier in terms of all my stuff here in France and money-wise when I (hopefully) would find out I was offered a post as an assistant for next year. As for June 2008, well, I would figure something out then. Well, now it's all gone to merde.


I found out today that because I renewed in 2005-2006 and then didn't take the post, they count that as a renewal and that I quit and since you can only be renewed once, I can't be accepted this year. Mother effers! The deal is you can only be an assistant three times total, 2 consecutive years max and you can only renew using the spiffy renewal form ONCE. Well, I would fulfill those requirements if they weren't counting 05-06 as me being renewed even though I didn't accept the poste. Now, I will try to work my way around this. But, it really is not looking good in the least, kids.

This is pretty much my only way to stay in France that I see as reasonable in terms of what I'm doing with my life-I feel au pairing or taking up studies just to be able to stay would be really taking a huge step backward. Although, maybe I could try out the CAPES or AGREG in order to eventually be a legit teacher. But, if I don't eventually become a citizen, all the studying would have been FOR NOTHING because you can only teach if you're a citizen. I dunnooooo. I maybe have an interview coming up, but I really doubt I would get it. But, please, please, PLEASE cross your fingers for me.



You know, I wasn't expecting to be renewed, but obviously still was counting it as POSSIBLE. To now learn it isn't possible because of an m-effing TECHNICALITY that they have not bothered to mention to me for the THREE MONTHS they've had my dossier....well that pisses me off. No, more than anything, it makes me sad. Sad to think about leaving and never coming back. Because if I don't get something for next year, I'm 99.9% sure that will mean au revoir to France for good. Siiiiigh...

Une recette pour vous

Ok, so this clearly is not a picture I took nor is the recipe exactly like the one I make, but I saw the limes and the pretty presentation and thought, perfect! Haha, so I wanted to make some sort of personal blogging record and post not once, not twice, but three times in one month! I also wanted to add in a lighter post as yesterday's ended on a majorly negative note. I must say I'm still feeling just about the same, but trying to distract myself from my painful head. So, without further delay, here she blows(sorry in advance for the shite french and lack of accents, but I'm lazy.)

Poulet marine/Sweet Marinated Chicken
2-4 escalopes de poulet/2-4 chicken breasts
4 gousses d'ail emincees/4 cloves minced garlic
65 ml. de jus de citron vert/1/4 c. lime juice
125 ml. d'huile d'olive/ 1/2 c. olive oil
30 ml. de jus de citron/ 1/8 c. lemon juice
30 ml. de miel/ 1/8 c. honey
sel et poivre/salt and pepper to taste

Melangez tous les ingredients tout ensemble avec le poulet et mettez au frigo pendant une heure. Apres, je mets sur 200 celsius au four et ca prend p-e a peu pres (je dirais) 30-40 minutes. Franchement, je regarde pour savoir et chaque fois je fais jamais attention.

Mix all ingredients together with the chicken and put in the fridge to marinate for an hour. Next, I can't really tell you what temp or the amount of time as I don't really pay attention. I would guess maybe 325 for 30-40 mins. Just keep an eye on the chicken and all should be fine!(I hope at least:)

Anyways, I totally love this recipe because it's so simple and it's things I always have in my house. I end up making it pretty often, actually. A tip is that if you don't have lime juice, you can replace that portion with lemon juice and it will still be delish. Happy cooking/eating!!!

As promised

Two posts in one month...I really deserve some sort of medal. Anyhoo, as promised, here are some pics from my April vacances trip.

These first two were taken from Lille where I started off. The first is the Place Gen. de Gaulle in the vieux part of the city. It was cute with a fountain in the middle and right near was the vieille bourse which was really pretty. The other pic you see is of a beautious peacock...there is a free zoo in Lille in a park that I stumbled upon by accident(you see some of the best things by accident in Europe, I swear!) There was a really good variety of animaux and I took way too many pics of animals, that I can definitely say. I ended up eating at a food stand-y thing right outside the entrance of the zoo. That made me sad as I was dying of hunger and ended up with a half-cooked cheese panini and fishy-tasting fries...yum. All in all, Lille was a nice city, though. It's definitely too big of a city for me, but was pretty and I'm glad I got to see it.

Next up, we have Bruges, Belgium(or Brugges as the Belgians call it.) Let me say, I fell in L-O-V-E with this city and already want to go back! Which is funny because Belgium never interested me before, but it definitely has peaked my interest now! I only had 5 hours which I actually believed to be 7 because military time still messes me up sometimes and that was def not enough time. Tant pis.

The first pic here is of the main place of the city...it had some sort of amusement park-y thing set up in the center which sort of took away from what I imagine it would normally look like. But, there was a cute fountain right in the middle and all the buildings, I mean like, every single last one were so beautiful. I took a seat on one of the benches after ordering some Belgian fries which I obviously HAD to try(they were delish.) Basically my time in Belgium consisted of a lot of walking and a lot of eating. Haha. After I had my fries, I went to this chocolate shop I read about in Rick Steves guide to pick up some chocolate as a present and some for myself. Then, I made my way to the Burg, then I took a canal(hence the 2nd pic) tour with 5,000 children and old people. It was actually pretty funny because the boat tour was in three different languages with French being second and English third, so the dude had to start talking about each thing we were to see wayyyy before the actual thing came up. By the time the English came, it was right next to us. Sucks if you don't speak English! After, I got a Belgian Waffle(also necessary and delish) and walked around where the shopping area is. I ended up a little early back at the train station where I proceeded to eat the majority of the chocolate I bought myself. Haha! All in all, a great day.

These pics are from my Loire valley castle tour. The first is Chenonceau and the second is Amboise. I ended up doing a half-day tour that was about 5 hrs long because I couldn't get a train from Lille to get me into Tours early enough to do the full-day one. I did get in about 2 hours before the tour started and got the chance to walk around Tours. It seemed like a cool city along the lines of Rennes, so I was happy to walk around aimlessly and with little knowledge of where I was going(ahem, kind of the theme of my trip.) Anyway, I was super happy to get rid of my backpack and start up the castle tour in our little minibus. Ever since I fell in love with french and France, I had always wanted to see the castles I had read about in so many books...especially Chenonceau and Azay-le-Rideau. Well, I didn't get to see AlR and so many others, so like Bruges, I will definitely need to go back!

We went to Chenonceau and I explored the interior as well as the gardens(didn't get to do the maze, though!) I could have easily spent two more hours there. I got myself a peppermint ice cream and strolled down the tree-lined path and tried to imagine what it was like to live there and all the history. I also decided Diane de Poitiers(the mistress who originally had the castle) was a) not that hot and b) got a pretty sweet deal in the end when the king's wife kicked her out, but gave her an entire other property. I decided I could totally be a mistress...that is, if I wanted to! After Chenon, we headed to Le Clos Luce which is the house Da Vinci spent his last three years in and that was ok, but I prefer castles I think. Next, we headed to Amboise which had kind of a sucky exterior in comparison to Chenon, but it did have a chapel where Da Vinci is allegedly buried, so that's pretty cool. Also, the city of Amboise was super cute and I would have liked to have more time to wander around. Although, I was a bit sick of wandering aimlessly by myself, so that will have to be for another time.

In other news, this has been a rough past two weeks for me after my vaca. I have been sick with a pain in my head(also general fogginess and nausea and some other unpleasantness I won't mention) for about three weeks now and these past two weeks, it has been getting worse and worse. I actually went to the emergency room this past Sunday after going to the doc twice, then for an x-ray and finally to get my blood taken. Now, if you know me, you probably know that I a) am a huge hypochondriac(how French!) and b) hate doctors/hospitals/anything medical, really. So add that in as a factor as to how stressed/terrified/upset I have been. The docs think it is a tension headache(ie when the muscles in your neck tense up and cause terrible headaches.) Well, I don't know what caused it...maybe my crappy mattress and pillow or maybe just general stress. But, it is still not gone and I finish up my meds today, so I prob am gonna have to go to get a neck/shoulder massage, go back to the doctor and/or go to the eye doc to make sure it's not related to possible eye problems. Oh, the joy! Plus, Friday was my b-day(25...yikes!) and I've had too many either just ok b-days or even a couple bad ones, so I was not thrilled to have the same thing happen this year. I did luckily have fun going out to din with my copines and dancing our tails off, but it just wasn't the same with my stress and the fact that I was very sober! Needless to say, I will be re-feting my anniversaire this Fri. Haha, you know me!!

Besides all the head pain stuff, I've also been feeling stressed about not knowing if I'm going to stay in France or not. I've applied for a summer job recently, so I'm waiting to hear from them, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much. Then, I also reapplied for next year, but renewing assistants are SO last priority that I don't have much hope for that either. On top of that, I waiver a lot, because besides my french friends and one English friend that is most likely staying and my love of Rennes and France, there isn't a whole lot more to convince me to keep being away from my family in the states. I miss seeing them every week and I just couldn't spend my whole life in another country away from them for years and years. I mean, there are options like if I can snag myself a frenchie, I could eventually do the AGREG/CAPES and be a teacher and spend the summers back home for example. But, if and when I have kids(yes, I know I'm getting ahead of myself here), I couldn't stand for my family to not see them very often at all. I just don't know. If I do end up back in the states this summer, I think it will be for good which makes me very sad, but I think that's the reality. I mean, I'm getting older and can't keep living backandforth like this. I will prob study to be a French teacher there, but again, not positive. Ugh.

Ok, well let me leave on a positive note after all that ranting:) I only have to work tomorrow and then have Tues off...yay! Alright, I'll be back sometime!!

One wonders....

...why I choose 30 mins before I'm supposed to leave to write a post when I could be doing more productive things? Truth is, I started vaca this past Mon and have had oodles of time where I could have updated, but I just don't know where to begin. It's just not like anything a-m-a-z-i-n-g has happened since I last posted in January. I've been up to the same ol', same ol'...teaching, vaca in Feb to Puerto Rico, sortir-ing, soirees with amis and dinners...ok, that sounded snooty, but nothing to REPORT report if ya know what I mean. I suppose if I updated this thing like every week, I could talk about what happened that week and would have interesting things to say. Well, I don't, so I won't.

But, I will say this. I am leaving today to head to Lille, Bruges(in Belgium) and Tours(Loire Valley) to see the castles. I am super, super excited! There is so much of France I have yet to see, so I wanted to focus on that this vaca and since the other assistants I'm good friends with(aka two people) already had plans with fam from home and the other with her boyfriend, it wasn't like I could finaigle my french friends into taking off a week from work. So, I'm all by my lonesome-ish...I'm staying with two assistants who stayed with me at the end of Feb during their vaca who live in Lille from today(Sun.) to Wed. On Mon, I'll explore Lille. On Tues, I'll go to Bruges for the day on my own which is my very first time in Belgium. I know Belgium is known for chocolate, fries, waffles and beer....oh, what a healthy day trip that will prob be! Then, early Wed. morning, I'll head to Tours and walk around the ville a bit. And from afternoon til night, I'll go on a mini tour where I'll get to visit two castles, Le Clos Luce(where DaVinci spent the last 3 years of his life) and end the day with a wine tour. Not too shabby pour Lea! Anyway, I might be back on this thing...might even post pics...but, I can't promise much. Oh well...we'll see! Better go for now, a bientot(ish)!