Weirdest Halloween Ever.

Halloween 1993 - The Balges hit the streets!

I wasn't expecting to see a lot of Halloween decor, or tons of kids dressed up for Trick or Treat, or grocery store aisles full of candy especially for the holiday. I wasn't expecting to see temporary Halloween Express stores crop up every few blocks. But I guess I had hoped for a little bit of Halloween spirit...to remind me of being at home this time of year. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and at Valpo there were always parties to attend and plenty of costumes to ogle. But out and about in Laval yesterday and today, I only saw a handful of kids in costume: 2 girls who had written "666" on their foreheads in lipstick (scary, and not in a Halloweeny way), and a couple toddlers, one of whom was just wearing a cape with his normal clothes...so I'm not entirely sure that was a costume. Oh, and we saw a few teenage girls dressed in all black (like that took any effort, this is France!) wearing witch hats.

I guess we kind of got the costume bug out of our systems early this year (with Jen's birthday party) because no one really made a fuss about not dressing up. But we went out anyway, which gave me an opportunity to get rid of some of the 200 Halloween tattoos I brought (thanks Target!). I'm happy to say Halloween did not pass without me eating way too much sugar; the Tootsie Rolls and Fun Dip my mom sent took the place of bags of trick or treat candy. I definitely got nostalgic reminiscing about sorting my candy on the family room floor, and deciding which piles to eat and which to save. Any peanut butter cups would be gone first, no matter how hard I tried to ration them.

Also: I just realized that not a single person mentioned Charlie Brown or The Great Pumpkin this year. And I didn't hear a single note of creepy haunted house music!

Busy weekend....

I haven't been posting a lot lately because, to be honest, there isn't much happening around here. I've been running errands around town, relaxing. It's been nice, if a little boring. The weather's been a bit on and off the past couple days...some misty rain and fog. But today has been beautiful! One thing I still can't get over is the sunsets here. I literally take a picture of the sunset every other day. And the sunset is fleeting, probably only worth looking at for 5 or 10 minutes. That's probably why I like it so much.

I get to see this sherbet-colored sky every single day!! 

Last night I went to Anne-Marie's house to babysit for her adorable daughter Anaelle. It was so fun, and I think I made a new friend haha. We played Barbies for 2 hours. Anaelle has such an imagination! She kept coming up with elaborate stories (most of which involved witches who wanted to imprison animals...) and she would tell me what my character was supposed to say or do. The best part about going to Anne-Marie's house? They have a dog! I've really missed my dogs and just cuddling with animals in general, so you can imagine I did my best to take advantage of snuggle opportunities. I had a lot of fun, and I stayed for a delicious dinner after babysitting. It looks like this will be a semi-regular thing, so that'll be nice!

One crazy thing: Anne-Marie told me she's never seen a fresh cranberry before. We had some cassis/cranberry yogurt stuff, and she said, looking at the picture on the container, that she could only assume it was a picture of a cranberry because the other berry pictured was cassis. I couldn't believe it! Cranberry is my favorite thing in the whole world. I told her I'd try to bring some fresh ones back for her after Christmas and we could make cranberry sauce. Mmmmm.

Then today, I met at a cafe with Ludovic, a man who wants to start English lessons/conversations every week. We chatted about his job (something about pumps?) and the military. He was really curious about military service in the US. I am like the least knowledgeable person on that subject. I tried to answer his questions but it was tough because he doesn't understand English very well. Anyway, he just wants to converse in English a bit and be able to express himself. It'll give me something to do on saturdays!

Ambroise Pare

Since the weather was so nice, I walked over towards school to check out the weekly market. I bumped into two women whom I had asked for directions last night on the way to Anne-Marie's, and we chatted a bit. So friendly! I snapped a couple pictures of the school in the sunlight, and a really cute cat came over and meowed at me. Of course I had to pet her! I'm sure she was someone's pet, because she was super clean and fluffy.

You can bet I scratched the heck out of those ears. So cute. 

Beautiful weather for a picnic!

We're all on Fall Break this week (and for part of next as well), so instead of having very little to do, we have nothing to do. A lot of people are traveling, to Dublin, Norway, around France. I'm ashamed to admit I dropped the ball on my Granada plans...so I'm sticking around here for most of the break. I'm hoping to visit Kellie in Rouen and possibly head to Paris next week. I don't know, we'll see. I'm so bad at making all these plans...I need someone to nag me a little bit or it'll never get done! Today though, Charlotte and I packed a picnic lunch and went to the Jardins Publiques. It was beautiful and relaxing and quiet...perfect!

First French dinner party

Tonight Alicia and I went to our first French dinner party! Her advising teacher is married to my advising teacher, so we went to their house for dinner tonight. The rest of the guests were also English teachers, friends and coworkers.

When we arrived at about 7:45, we enjoyed some samosas as an appetizer, with wine and beer. There was a lot of conversation among the teachers, with snotty jokes about Nicolas Sarkozy sprinkled in. A few comments on the strike (thank goodness no one asked my opinion…). After about 45 minutes in the living room, we moved to the dining area for dinner. Of course more wine. The meal was really good, possibly Kenyan-inspired (Jo is from Kenya)? We had a beef stew with cabbage, sweet potatoes, cassava, and a sort of flatbread. It was all really flavorful and yummy! The conversation around us was loud, fast, and confusing. There were a lot of jokes and side comments and conversations. I had a really hard time following it, and after a while I just kind of switched off my brain. Easier to just zone out. After the main course and a long pause, Jacques and Jo brought out bread, cheese and salad. And more wine. By the time we finished the cheese and bread, it was after 11; Alicia and I were exhausted. Jacques ran us back to the foyer before the dessert was served.

Some weird things:

The conversation focused on a couple of topics: the school system, politics, healthcare, the strike. The “grown-ups” seemed to greatly enjoy the discussion, and they all got really into it. But no one ever tried to incorporate me or Alicia into the conversation. We just basically sat in silence as they all talked and talked. Not that I would have had a lot to add, but it was just strange since we’re kind of the new kids in town. There wasn’t even any talk of, like, “how has your time in France been so far?”

It was overall a really tiring evening, but I’m glad we went!

Signs of cold weather to come...

I was up before the sun today to go to school. I opened my window when I woke up, and two things happened. First, I realized I could see my breath. Second, I heard someone scraping ice off their car windows. Two signs that, though winter isn’t quite upon us yet, it’s right around the corner. The mornings are so tough already. Getting up when it’s still pitch black outside is not easy. It’s weird to walk through the center of town at 8 am. Cars have headlights on, the lampposts are all still lit, and there are even small lights lining the sidewalk across the bridge. It feels like the middle of the night, and without a clock, you wouldn’t know the difference. Yet, everyone walks around normally in the dark, carrying briefcases and backpacks on the way to work or school.

Dawn.

School today was pretty good. I talked with one class about Rosie the Riveter. They just finished a unit on stereotypes of men and women, and gender roles. I showed them a video of the song about Rosie that came out in 1942. I’m not sure they totally got what I was saying about women in the workforce, but they definitely liked the song. A couple of the boys were singing along.

In the other class, I watched a bunch of really terrible skits about going to England. I shouldn’t say they were terrible; there’s a handful of kids in the class who speak English really well. They must have learned the phrases “my accent is rubbish” and “I’m crap at English” in class, because almost every group used one or both of those lines. Something that surprised me: only one student (the one girl in the class who does drama) even made a tiny effort to act in the skit. There was literally NO emotion otherwise. I feel like, when I was in high school, that was my favorite thing to do. Anyone can write something to prove they know the language. It’s a lot more fun to write and perform a skit, isn’t it? Maybe everyone is just too afraid of making mistakes to enjoy themselves?

Other than that, not a lot going on. It was my birthday on Tuesday so a bunch of us had dinner together (including an enormous and fabulous cake made by Jen) and then a little party. We had so much fun hanging out! It feels like, because there are so many of us, we’ll be celebrating a birthday every couple of weeks. Not that I’m complaining, of course…!

The strike continues

I woke up super early to go to school this morning, because I wasn't sure if classes would be canceled. Just my luck, the gates were closed and the students had created bigger barriers. Everyone was just kind of hanging around. I figured that meant the school was on strike so I came back to the foyer and took a nice nap.

But more importantly!! I saw my first French Guido today! I didn't know they existed in France but I guess they do! It was kind of hard to tell because his fake-bake looked more like a sunburn, but he still had a variation of the Guido hair. Yikes.

Yogurt Review!

La Mayenne is known for its dairy products (just like Wisconsin!) and I have really been enjoying the dairy stuff so far! Obviously I eat cheese and bread basically all day, every day. And I’ve been eating a LOT of yogurt. It’s strange because I almost never eat yogurt at home—it always makes me feel sick. But not here, for some reason. Selective geographic lactose intolerance?

I just bought a giant pack of fruity flavored yogurt: Danone Taillefine. The first one I tried was lemon. It was SO refreshing! It was a really light flavor, and granted I love anything lemon, but it’s really just a tasty yogurt. It’s funny because I feel like in the U.S. it would have to be lemon meringue pie or lemon cheesecake or something. There’s always a gimmick. Extra creamy or fluffy or moussey or whatever. They should start selling more basic flavors. I bet that would do well.