What have I been up to? Other than rambling of course...

Hello All!!

I know I wrote last about the Fête de Lumiere and I have been thinking about what has been going on since then. It was, after all, already two weekends ago! What I have been doing for the past week and a half? The truth is, I'm not quite sure. Perhaps falling back in love with France.

You see, I got here and, of course, was happy! I loved it!! It was all I remembered and all I wanted it to be. And then, for about 3 weeks or so, I was disappointed. I couldn't help but be frustrated as I picked out all the ways in which France is different from home. In essence, I was homesick. For the first time since arriving in France, I cried. I wanted to go home. I didn't tell this to many people back home for fear of scaring you or making you think I wasn't happy. Strangely enough, that wasn't the case. I somehow managed to still be happy while being beyond frustrated with the... well, the BS that is France. The grèveing (a made up Franglais word that combines the french word for strike "grève", with the typical English verb ending "ing"), the fermature (closing) of things on Mondays, the way you can't even go to the grocery store on Sunday, the way things close for 2 hours at lunch, the way there is poop all over all the sidewalks no matter where you go, the messed up French Post that has, I'm certain, lost one of my packages from home and took a ridiculously complicated method of delivering another, and the little things that my roommates did that just rubbed me the wrong way, got on my nerves.

But I can share these things with you now- even laugh about them a little. Why? Because I'm over it. Roommates are roommates- and as they come, mine are WONDERFUL!! I have been without computer for a month or so now as mine died of mother-board problems. My amazing roommates have been letting me use their computers as often as I need to do everything from real work for school, emailing home, facebooking and blogging and whatever else. They have been amazing! No roommate is perfect and of course there are little things that bug you, but that's normal. I have great roommates.

The French Post is the French Post. It sucks. I should, at some point, get everything that has been sent, assuming of course that the post man himself is competent enough to read my name on my mailbox (that was actually one of the problems.... one of them could not find my name... it's right there on the box...). I have little faith in the system, but it is a lesson learned. Please don't send me anything fragile or expensive, haha. I'm sure I will get whatever it is.... eventually. (You might think that as expensive it is to send things now that it would be a rockin' system.... but apparently not). Anyway, I've excepted it and thus am moving on.

And the other things... it's France. I've realized you have to take the good with the bad. And truthfully... it's not all bad.

I think I broke the spell one night when I had been out with Kim. I don't remember where we had been... it was right after the Fête de Lumiere I think... anyway, I was walking home. I had just parted ways with Kim- we live about 5 minutes from each other and we feel safe enough to walk those remaining 7 from which we part ways alone. As I walked up to Place de la Croix-Rousse I paused and just looked upon it. It truly is beautiful. "I like it best like this," I thought to myself, "with no one around, lit up slightly in the night." And then I began appreciating France again. It was that simple. The biggest truth of it that I realized is that I like Lyon best by night. It's beautiful and you can appreciate it because there are simply less people crowding your view. Once you are able to see it clearly, it is old and graceful and beautiful in architecture and style.

From there things progressed. I have had a few strange days at work where I have either not had to work at all or had specific classes off because of grèves or exams (it's finals time here too) and such. I've been in a better mood because I got done reading a depressing book and it's Christmas time so that helps. And most of all, my family is coming!! I can't help but be excited that 5 days from today I will be hugging them all!! What could make me happier?

So... outside of that I think the past couple weeks have passed very typically- I go to work, I come home, I knit, read, or meet up with friends. I have decided I need to explore more museums and I want to start teaching English privately and getting paid for it- which would be a nice way to earn some extra cash for my travel fund! I am slowly but surely discovering a variety of local establishments. For a while there I was sticking strictly to my salsa bars, but I have expanded to incorporate much more. I went out to one of the Bar Boats, called Marquis, with Lucy (an American from Chicago), Andrea (my German friend) and Carina (Andrea's sister). Will (my roommate) joined us later in the evening. We had a fun time dancing and whatnot. To be honest, one of the best parts of the evening was, once again, the walk home. Not only is Lyon by night amazing, but it is fantastically funny when Lucy drinks and has a hard time compartmentalizing her languages so she speaks a confusing melange (mix) of French, Spanish and Wololf (I think that's how you spell it- some Senegalese language she knows a little of). She ends up speaking very little English under these circumstances. It's marvelous. I love my multilingual friends! :)

And lastly, this evening I went to Groupe Biblique des Jeunes Adultes (Young Adult Bible Study). This time I got it right though and I didn't end up with all the 90 year olds. Rather I was in a room, reflecting on Romans chapter 6 and 7 with 5 other young adults like myself and the young priest. I happen to love Romans, even if chapter 7 confuses me a lot!! So it was a good discussion and, once again, a wonderful opportunity for me to focus on my faith. Always good.

That, I believe brings me to a close for now. I will, of course, keep you updated as I hope to visit museums, teach some private English lessons, and maybe even teach some dance in the new year!! What an exciting year to come!!

In the mean time, have a Wonderful Holiday everyone!!! Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!! Wrap your arms around yourself and squeeze- this, of course, is your Christmas hug from me!

God Bless!

Fête de Lumiére

Good Afternoon/Good Evening... I suppose I could adjouter (add) Good Morning for those that open this at that point in time. I have a feeling that I will be Franglaising it up as these posts continue... it's just what natural when I speak and think now... I'll do my best to add the correct English term nearby :)

I'm in a good mood. I took ballet tonight, then ate delicious Pumpkin Cheesecake, which I am proud to say I made without proper measuring devices (in case anyone didn't know, grams is a weight device, not a volume device, so going from cups to grams is not as simple as it sounds. For example, a 1/2 cup of plain white sucre is 100 grams, but if you have granulated sucre (crap... sugar) 1/2 a cup is 75 grams. Now try finding the correct conversion for Cream Cheese on the internet... especially when you aren't really using cream cheese but the closest thing France has to it... which isn't exactly the same thing but if you futz with it it's not too bad. Anyway... good evening, ballet and Pumpkin Cheesecake!! (Even Olivier approved of my Cheesecake and he claims he doesn't like cheesecake- you'd have to have lived here for a while to understand I think, but that makes me really proud... secretly... I don't tell him that I care what he thinks about my cooking. It would be worse that way.)

Anyway... the real reason for this update- La Fête de Lumiére (Festival of Lights).

About a month ago, or perhaps even longer than that, I first heard about this grand fête (big festival) and was intrigued. There were supposed to be about 4 million tourists coming to Lyon for the weekend to see what was due to be a spectacular weekend. I was told that the city would be illuminated with... well light. There were to be light shows and fancy light fixtures and whatnot partout (everywhere). I was excited to see what brought tourists from all over to France's second largest city for a weekend!!

As we got closer to the weekend itself I began to realize just how many people really would be coming into town. Within my group of friends alone we'd have several visitors. Andrea's roommate from Germany, Marine's German boyfriend, Kim's American friend living somewhere near here, Lucy would have a friend in town, and then my friend, Andrew, who I had met in Caen 3 years ago and would be rejoining me in France as a language assistant in December. That's 5 additional people to the city right there... and we are just 5 etrangers (foreigners). Think of all the friends of the French who live closer and can come in easier! This was going to be one crazy party. Drinking in the streets, lights all over, good times!

Friday night came around and I barley had time to realize that the fête was starting-- I had been busy with work and trying to locate lost packages in the French postal system. But Friday night arrived sure enough and Kim asked if I wanted to go out to meet her two English friends who were in town. (What? More out of town friends?? Ok.) So we grabbed some food at the grocery store and headed back to her place quickly to eat before meeting up with her friends. On the way we came upon our first taste of lumiére (light). Giant Tetris!! You could play tetris! They had a big projector showing the game on the side of a building and on the other side of the street you could step on the right, left, and rotate arrows to control the pieces. Sweet! Kim and I took turns holding the groceries to play. Turns out it's harder than it looks- playing with your feet- but not too bad. This was going to be a fun weekend!!

We ate our food, drank some wine (of course) and then headed out to see her friends. We decided to walk in order to come across more lumiére. We ran into a few things as we were headed down the hill. A giant circle of light projected onto a wall that ended up being a smiley face because of the stuff that was on the side of the wall normally. Strange colored lights hung in trees. A giant tutu made out of that bright yellow cloth construction workers wear (which, incidentally, the French were to demonstrate their displeasure with something when there is a grève (strike) going on. I see these yellow construction vests daily at work currently as there is a strike going on against a reform in the schooling system. I have had a few classes canceled because of it. Ahhh the french). Good times. We rushed through the crowds as quickly as we could to meet up with Kim's two friends and found ourselves in a little bar off the main drag in Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon). We had a glass of Kir (kind of wine... made out of cassis, which is black current I believe) and chatted for a while. Then we all agreed on calling it an early night and we split up. Kim and I, both tired at this point, planned to take the metro, but due to the "monde" (when there are a lot of people the french say there is "trop du monde" or "beaucoup du monde", which means "too many of the world" or "lots of world" respectfully- literally translated of course- it really just means there is a expletive-ton of people!) we were forced to walk back.

Walking up the main drag we saw strange swirly lights in trees... that's it... Ok, I'm thinking, I must be missing something. Kim and I have every intention of going out on Saturday to really see it all. On the way back we happened upon La Fountaine des Poissons (Fountain of Fish). This was part of the Light Festival. There were giant plastic fish skeletons... sort of... that were white and then lit with different colors of light or back lit to create shadows on the walls around the square... neat... and strange... ok, well, we'll see the rest of it tomorrow, we were thinking as we made our way towards home.

Saturday arrived and Andrew came into town, along with several other tourists. We met up with Kim and her friend and we all hung out at Kim's for a while. Then, in an odd twist of events, we ended up sitting (with our shoes off) with a group of 9 girls in a Hawaiian bar that had overpriced hot chocolate and brownies. One or two of these 9 girls happened to be friends with Becca, the friend of Kim. So now there were 13 of us... ok. So after overpriced drinks we all headed up the hill- not my hill- the other one-- to Forviere.

I must say: Lots of people like forviere. I am not one of them. I think the view of the city is better from Croix Rousse (where I live) and I think Forviere itself is an ugly church. It doesn't make much sense to me really-- I'm sure there is Catholic doctrine to back it up somewhere, but there are 10 statues of men on the front (as opposed to 12, which would make much more sense) and there seem to be extra people at the scene of the Birth of Christ (also in statue form on the front of this church). I could probably live with that if it was the only downfall of the Cathedral. But you walk inside and it's just downright gaudy. There is gold mosaic everywhere and it's just TOO decorated. What happened simple elegance? It's terrible!! And what a waste of wealth!! Yes, I understand the desire to offer God an beautiful House... but really? This is a little extreme. If I was God I would walk back outside and sit on the steps with the poor people... the view is nicer and it doesn't offend your eyes.

So anyway, our group of 13 walks up this massive hill to see the ugly church and the view. We do this mostly for the visitors in our group. After all the picture taking and whatnot is complete we are ready to redescend (does that word work in English?? Do re-descend? whatever... to go back down) and we realize we are missing Kim and Becca. No one can find them. I pull out my phone, which of course is almost dead, and I call Kim. She and Becca are inside the church. "Ok," I say, "We'll meet you in front of the church." We hang up. There is singing and praying going on inside the church (as it turns out the Fête de Lumiére was originally a thanksgiving day to Mary for saving them from some plague or something). So we all went inside briefly to check it out, but I left quickly to save my eyes from the ostentatiousness around me.

We waited and waited and Kim and Becca were no where to be found. I tried again to call Kim and she didn't answer. Well, at least they were together... the group of 9 girls were ready to move on and since Andrew and I didn't really know what to do we just kind of went along with them. I sent a text to Kim saying we were leaving and off we went. Just as we were rounding the corner however, Kim and Becca were spotted- they were just leaving the church. We waited for them and all 13 of us went down the hill together.

At the bottom of the hill we found ourselves at the other main church in Lyon- St. Jean. This church is much more beautiful!! Very typical French Gothic architecture inside and out. And these lights were impressive! The projection on the front of the church added such color and decoration. All the statues had been taken down off the front of the church years and years before- when the stone was more valuable. The projection showed the statues and was very... charming. (My first thought was to say stunning or breath-taking... but truly, it wasn't THAT cool... it was cool, but not like "Oh my goodness that's amazing" cool).

So we stood there for a while, listening to more singing from inside and taking it all in... along with the "monde" that was all around us. As we were preparing to leave, once again Kim and Becca were missing. This time the group didn't want to wait and my phone had died so off we went without them- Andrew and I and these 9 girls we didn't really know. We held hands through the crowd like kindergartners on their way to music or gym or whatever class takes them out of their normal classroom. We wandered around, looking at the lights- saw the Fountaine des Poissons again and some large building front that had a light show on it. Then weaved through the crowd trying to get to Place de Terreaux- where the really good light show was supposed to be. Getting stuck in crowds and closed off streets we stopped to grab some vin chaud (hot wine- yummy!) and a few people also got Kebabs. We finally made it to Place de Terreaux and saw the big light show. It reminded me of going to the Naval Base for the 4th of July, only not as good. It was neat. Like the things they projected onto the buildings were cool... at one point they splattered the Art Museum and the City Hall with paint (not really, just with light projection) and that looked really cool. But overall it wasn't what I would call spectacular, just neat.

We finally met back up with Kim- I got enough juice in my phone to call her one last time and we met up at Place de Terreaux- Becca then took off with another group of 8 friends she had run into. Kim and our large group all went to sit down in a bar after walking around so much in the cold. We had one drink and then Kim, Andrew and I decided it was time our large group of 12 become a little group of 3. It was, by this time, about 10:15 and we were considering heading out-- this wasn't going to be possible with a group of 12. So we delicately thanked our new friends for the afternoon and departed for Kim's apartment, where we took a few minutes to recharge phones and strip off layers before heading to the warmth of a crowded bar.

Barbarrous is a bar Kim's French boyfriend showed us a weekend or two previously. It's a fun bar with lots of cheap shots and great music for dancing- even if there's not really that much space. This, we discovered, is where the French people come. Many of the bars we'd been to were usually filled with a few French and a lot of foreigners-- Lyon is a very cultural city-- with 3 universities plus the assistantship program it's not uncommon to hear a lot of spanish and english while out and about and it's very possible to hear a little German every now and again (maybe it's just the friends I've made plus the salsaing I love, but that's what I've found at least). But this bar has all the French people!! We danced and tried to hook Andrew up with a couple of French girls (sadly, no go... French women are too closed off and uptight). It was a fun evening.

On Sunday Andrew and I grabbed baguette sandwiches and headed to the stellar Croix-Rousse view to eat them. Then we met up with Andrea (my German friend) and Jenni (her roommate) for a hot chocolate before taking Andrew to catch his bus back home- which was due to depart around 3:30.

After Andrew left (the unmarked bus stop we just kind of assumed was where we were supposed to be despite the lack of any information telling us so- lucky for us we guessed right), I wandered into Old Lyon with no real intentions and happened upon Christmas Carols in English- due to start at 4PM. SWEET!!!! This, truthfully, was the best part of the weekend!! When we started singing O Come All Ye Faithful I almost started to cry-- I had missed this expression of Faith- so simple and so pure- but so real and in a language I am sure to understand. :) It was a beautiful ceremony with carols and readings and a fun part where children came up and played Go Tell It On The Mountain with bells based on the color of their bell and flashcards.

Then I met up with Kim and we headed to Marine's to meet her German boyfriend and have dinner. Due to crazy metros and trop du monde we were a little over an hour late. Oops!! But we managed to have a lovely night and then Kim and I went home to crash as Marine took Johannas to the bus station.

Monday started as Mondays tend to- I slept in. Then I prepared holiday lessons plans for my classes for the next two weeks. I made early dinner and headed out once more. Having only spent about 40 minutes or so with Andrea and Jenni the whole weekend long I headed back to Old Lyon to meet them for a drink. We went to one pub and then another- just to show Jenni around a little. We chatted and joked and even played a round of Never Have I Ever- a game I told them about when I was in Germany for break. (If you don't know what it is... I'll explain later... or google it.) It was an enjoyable evening. But it had been a long evening and it was, after all, a Monday night. So we headed for home.

Once again, due to "la monde", the metro was still messed up and I had to walk most the way home. Monday was the 8th- the typical day they celebrate the fête de lumiére. Everyone had put candles in their windows. It was neat.

After the whole weekend, the whole experience, my first ever Fête de Lumiére, I was left... underwhelmed. As I've said repeatedly... it was charming and neat. It wasn't something I would come in from out of town specifically to see. It just wasn't that cool. The lights in Time Square or in Downtown Chicago coupled with the window decorations and whatnot totally outdo the whole business. It's that it wasn't cool in the spots where it was... I guess the thing is that it wasn't EVERYWHERE. There should have been MORE light. The swirls in the trees along the main street just aren't enough to impress the Americans I guess. Oh well, it was fun.

And thus life returns to normal. As normal as life in a foreign city can be. I might not have class on Friday... the teachers (and students) might still be on strike... normal.

Revelations and Contemplations

Perhaps it is just that time, or perhaps my spontaneity has momentarily taken a hike, but I have been thinking A LOT lately...

Thinking is good and thinking is bad. Thinking leads to good, solid, stable decisions and a planned out future full of security. Thinking also can lead to missed chances because you worry too much about what's GOING to happen and you miss out on what's currently HAPPENING. Thinking can take a simple thing and turn it into a monster in your brain. This is how things usually happen for me.

Thinking can also lead to simple discoveries. A while ago my brother told me that your taste buds change every 7 years so he continues to try foods he used to not like because it's possible that he likes them today. Since then I have been doing the same. Since in France I have given a chance to several things I used to avoid and found pleasurable results. Strawberry jam for example. Growing up I was a strictly Grape jelly on my PBJ kind of gal! No messing around with that strawberry crap! But... I'm in France-- they make wine with their grapes, not jelly. And thus I have been using all the other wondrous jellies and jams that exist in the world- like Cassis (black current) and Mur (blackberry) and, of course, Fraise (Strawberry). And believe it or not, I have truly come to enjoy the Strawberry jam. It's quite delicious.

I've had the same realization with tea. I used to hate tea. Then I started drinking it here with some of my tea-drinking friends and discovered that it's actually quite good. Hmm, who'da thunk it?

I've had bigger realizations too. For example, I came to France thinking I wanted to live here for a few years. I didn't know when I would be returning home. I don't feel the same way anymore. After 2 and a half months here (less than half the time I WILL spend during this sejour yet just shy of doubling the total amount of time I've spent in the country over the past 3 years), I have discovered that perhaps this isn't where I want to be. Don't get me wrong- I LOVE it here. I truly do. And you never know, maybe once things work out with this carte desejour business I will feel differently... but I get homesick more than I ever did when I was in Normandy. I get frustrated with the French way of doing things more often than I ever did back then either. I've gotten over the "anti-france" stint I was on for about a week and a half, but I've come to the realization that the things that are grinding on me are simple cultural differences that won't ever change. I'm either going to have to become accustomed to them or I'm going to have to move on.

And then there are the contemplations... what am I going to do in May when my contract is up? Can I extend my contract to stay an extra 2 months? (I know, it doesn't make sense-- I want to stay and I'm not sure I do... I'm a weirdo really.) Do I have enough money set aside/ will I have enough money set aside that I could just travel for a month or so when my contract is up? Do I want to start grad school in the fall of next year? Is that even possible? Where do I want to go to school and what are the science requirements for the program? Do I have to go back to undergrad in order to make this work? Where do I want to be at this point in time next year? Do I want to stay in Europe? Yes-- that answer is always yes. Just because I'm feeling... prepared to leave, we'll put it that way, France- that doesn't mean I don't still LOVE and want to stay in Europe!! Ireland, Scotland and England are all, for the most part, unexplored English speaking territory-- AND they have grad schools that have programs that will be accredited back home. Germany and Italy are places I'd like to visit... along with the rest of Europe, but I can't see myself living there- mostly because I don't speak the languages and doing Physical Therapy in Italian or German would suck-- I wouldn't understand anything and chances are any degree I managed to come out with wouldn't mean anything back home. Where do I want to go? What do I want to do? And how soon do I want to do it?

There was a time when I didn't have a back up plan- I just knew that coming to France was what God wanted me to do and so I prayed that the means I found was the means He wanted me to find. I'd like to have that sort of trust again- to know that He has a plan for me and that as long as I continue asking guidance that I will follow it. FAIL... I like to plan... I like to know ahead of time... and how do you balance that sort of blind trust and yet still make provisions? How do you get where God wants you to go without preparing the way? But how do you prepare the way if you don't know where you're going? **sigh**

There are other things I'm contemplating too... but I suppose not everything can be for the public eye... besides, these entries get to be too long as it is. ;)

Substitute Thanksgiving x 2

I've had a few people ask how my Thanksgiving was, so I'll try to write a brief synopsis of my double substitute Thanksgivings :)

On Wednesday night I went shopping with two of the other Americans and we made mashed potatoes, gravy, pecan pie and pumpkin cheesecake. I believe I told you about this already-- it was wonderful!

On Thursday I took the mashed potatoes and gravy with me to work. I handed them off to one of the teachers who said he would leave them in the fridge in the cafeteria (which they all call a cantine) and I could get them any time. Great. I taught my classes, trying to teach a little bit about what Thanksgiving really is and why it's a special holiday that everyone should celebrate- everyone should take the opportunity to think about the things in their life they are grateful for.

On Thursday afternoon I found the crappiest site ever that you can watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade on for free-- there is no sound and you can't see anything at Harold Square, but at least I saw a few balloons go by and whatnot. Then my family called and I talked to them for 20 minutes- which was wonderful!!

That evening when Olivia, the history teacher who loves American culture who would be hosting my Thanksgiving, got done with work we went to go get my mashed potatoes and found the Cantine locked... we got the key and found that the fridge was also locked... and for that we couldn't find the key. So, no mashed potatoes and gravy...

So we stopped at a store on the way home to get new potatoes and I remade mashed potatoes while Olivia cooked the chicken. Then I remade gravy that wasn't anywhere near as good as the first time. Oh well. We had chicken and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie (SHE MADE PUMPKIN PIE!! It was awesome!!)

The next morning I woke up to find that her cat had peed in my boots. :( She lent me shoes for the day and I'm still trying to figure out if my boots are salvageable or not.

On Saturday we had a large Thanksgiving Fest for all the Americans and the internationals we invited-- German, British, Irish... they all experienced their first Turkey Day, which was super fun but a little interesting. We were supposed to eat around 4 but some people didn't know when it stared and showed up later. Vince and Jane, our hosts, put the turkey in the oven at 2, so clearly it wasn't done on time. We all dug into the side dishes everyone had brought around 4:30 and then the desserts immediately afterwards. My pumpkin cheesecake was amazing and everyone loved it. I even got a few requests for the recipe. :)

We basically sat and stood around everywhere-- there where about 35 people there and no furniture. They had borrowed a few chairs from the school and there were two mattresses on the floor. This was perfect as if there was any furniture there wouldn't have been enough space for everyone. We formed little clumps, changed our clumps, mingled, ate, drank lots of wine. It was great. Around 8:30 the turkey was done and we took the baguettes someone had brought and made Turkey sandwiches- WONDERFUL!!

Then around 10ish a smaller group of us: Andrea (German girl I stayed with over my birthday), Kim (American from Milwaukee), Kim's french boyfriend (Vivian), Kim's french roommate (Olivier), Lucy (American from Chicago), Michelle (Irish girl I went to Annecy with) and I all went out to this great little bar that Vivian knew where they had cheap shots and good music. It was a fun evening and a stellar substitute thanksgiving!!

I hope your Turkey Day was wonderful and you're all starting out the Christmas season with warm fuzzy feelings of love, family, good food and good friends!! Take care!

Note: There will eventually be pictures here... when I figure out A)how to get pictures off of my camera and onto my roommate's computer as he doesn't have canon software... and B)how to add pictures into the blog itself... I'm not that computer savey..

Scotland Part 2

So on to the amazing part of Scotland...

We got up and went to check into Haggis Adventures: Scottish Highland Tours. We boarded Reginica, our bus and were on our way by 8:45. Steve drove us through part of Edinburgh and Tony told us brief snippets of what this and that was. It was already at this point when I knew I had the best of cameras-- out the window pictures turned out pretty well!

Our first stop was at an old bridge. We got out and Tony told us all about the Real Braveheart and the battle that took place at this bridge. So, going back in time, the nasty British Red Coats are trying to conquer Scotland and they hear there is a revolt, so they come up to squash it. They get to this hill and laugh because across the bridge they see a large grouping of mostly women and children with farming equipment as weapons. The Red Coats on horseback start across the bridge and upon reaching the other side realize that they have marched right into a marshy swamp and their horses are sinking in the mud. It is said that the men had their feet on the "ground" while seated the horses had sunk so much. They line up anyway, trying to keep order, when they hear, from over a hillside in the distance, the sound of hundreds upon hundreds of metal weapons hitting metal shields and the slow solid chant of Scottish men. Then, over the top of the hill, come these men in kilts with long vicious looking weapons pounding against their sturdy looking shields. The Red Coats, now intimidated with mud up to their asses (literally) decide maybe they should go back to the other side of the bridge. But they are having trouble moving in the sludge and in all the confusion the Scots attack. At the end of the battle you could walk straight across the river for all the English bodies floating in it.


From where we stood, listening to this story, we could turn around and see the monument built in honor of the man who let that attack. We then drove up to get a closer look.

From there we boarded the bus and headed North. Tony, our charismatic tour guide, used the greatest Scottish accent ever and we stopped all over throughout the trip for a "wee photos". In fact, everything was "wee". A wee castle, a wee photo, a wee lunch break. Everything was wee. :)

One of our first photo stops we ran into some wild life. A goose that Tony fed some crumbs to. The goose was perfectly comfortable getting photographed and hanging with us... well, up to a point. You know how there is always that one person on a tour that is just a little... off. This is the sort of person that asks the awkward questions and follows people around and makes strange comments and is just, well, not cool. Ours was named Ricky, and he quickly earned the nickname "ducky lucky" from Tony as he tried to pet our goose and scared it away. Shawn and I gave him a nickname which we found to be much more appropriate!! Awkward Turtle. That's how we referred to him throughout the trip.

We drove on and I swear there were tons of stories and things that Tony pointed out but it's a matter of remembering all of them and which mountain passages they go with... which, of course, I don't. There was one we heard on Sunday I think about a couple of Irish boys who came to Scotland and fell in love with these two Scottish girls. They stuck around for the week while getting some work done on their boat by the girls' father and at the end of the week they asked for the girls' hands in marriage. The father was sorry but he couldn't give it because he had 5 older daughters and if the younger ones got married off first he was worried the people would wonder what was wrong with the older girls and they would never get married. The two Irish guys sulked away and that night they opened up some whiskey and were "tinkin and drinkin, drinkin and tinkin, tinkin and drinkin" (Tony's Irish accent for thinking) until they came up with a solution. The next day they went back to the father and told him their idea, "we have 5 older brothers back home! We could marry the girls and promise to return with our brothers to marry your lovely older daughters!!" The father thought this was a great idea- all his daughters married at once, how lucky he would be! So he agreed and the 2 Irish boys married the 2 Scottish girls and then left on their boat for home, promising to be back in a couple of weeks. The older daughters waited with impatience and everyday they would ask their dad if he had heard anything from the boys. Sadly he had not. Time went by and the Father began to worry that even if the Irish boys did come that his daughters would age and lose their beauty and the Irish boys wouldn't want to marry them. He was angry with the Irish boys for their failure to keep their promise. So he headed up to the witch on the mountain and asked for her help. But her powers did not extend to Ireland so she couldn't bring the boys back. She said she would think about it and come up with a solution, he should come back tomorrow. So the witch thought about it overnight and when the man came back the next day she told him that she was going to cast a spell on the 5 sisters keeping them beautiful until the time when the Irish boys returned. The father was thrilled. He returned home, however, to realize what the old witch had meant. There were 5 new beautiful, tall mountains surrounding his home. The witch had turned his daughters into mountains- beautiful and eternal- while they waited for love to come and find them.

There were several stories like this one that Tony told along the way.

That day we stopped at The Green Welly for lunch. Tony recommended the Cullin Skink (which I quickly started calling Skank Stew), a white fish and potato chowder. I'm not usually a fish person, but I decided to go for it and I was pleased, it was actually really good, not very "fishy" at all, and nice and warm!!

We drove through the highlands, stopping a couple of places to get breath-taking pictures and hear more fun stories. Then around 4:30ish, as the sun was set and it got dark, we pulled into Loch Ness-- sadly there are no pictures (they wouldn't have turned out in the dark) and we didn't see the monster. Maybe next time.

Then we went for a presentation on the highlanders, their way of life and their clothing mostly. Ken, our presenter, wore a traditional kilt which, when unfolded and laid out is approximately 17 feet long. He showed us how to fold it and explained the historically practical uses for it in the very difficult lifestyle the highlanders lived. The kilt can be worn in different ways depending on the needs of the people-- long for warmth or tucked up shorter (as we typically see today) for hunting or dancing. Then our very own Awkward Turtle volunteered to put on the kilt and we all laughed at his shyness as Ken told him to take off his silly trousers and he tried to hide and pull his shirt down and all that. He was so excited to do it, but then so afraid. He finally got dressed like a highlander and then Ken needed a woman to volunteer to get dressed up as well. We all sat there for a while looking around at each other and when it became apparent that no one else would do it, I got up. Lucky for me I didn't have to undress. I just tossed on a nightgown looking thing over my clothes and then got my own "kilt" of sorts. Apparently back in the day the bigger your backside the sexier you were, so the goal was to fold up as much of the material as you could so it hung over your butt. There are pictures of Turtle and I all dressed up in our highlander gear- I'm holding a pot of oatmeal with a mouse in it. Yum.

Then we got out of our highlander clothes and sat down and Ken asked for a volunteer to die. It took a minute, but Shawn volunteered to die for the team. So he got up and Ken proceeded to show us the typical highlander weapons and how they are used. Damn those guys were vicious!!
After the presentation was finished we went to check into our hostel for the night. There we ate Haggis, potatoes and salad for dinner. Really, the Haggis wasn't bad. You just can't think about what you're eating. It's sort of like spiced up ground beef.

That evening the "Scottish Robby Williams," as Tony described him, was playing at our hostel's bar. Yeah, that's right-- our hostel had a bar!! It was pretty sweet! So yeah, Shawn and I played Jenga with a college girl and her Aunt that were on our tour while listening to acoustic covers and fun Scottish music. At one point Tony and our musician teamed up to teach us a Scottish folk dance and Shawn and I did it quite well I think :) Walk Forward (1, 2, 3, 4), swivel walk backwards (5, 6, 7, 8), no swivel- just walk forwards (1, 2, 3, 4), swivel walk backwards (5, 6, 7, 8), 4 spins (1- 8) and doe-see-doe (1- 8). SO MUCH FUN!!!

That night finished out with the pulling out of a karaoke machine! We had some swing songs, mostly sun by this kid David who had a great voice, and then some oldies classics and of course MC Hammer's Can't Touch This- to which we had a little dance off. GREAT FUN!!

We slept well that night after such a long, fun-filled day!!

On Saturday we woke to a light dusting of snow!! Shawn and I, both midwesterners knowing that snow in London and Lyon wasn't likely any time soon, were thrilled with this development, as were the 3 Indian people who had never seen snow. We all had breakfast at the hostel and were on the bus again by 8:30. Off we went for another great day of touring!


While on the bus Tony told us about DSL. At first I think many of us were wondering what modern computer technology had to do with the Scottish Highlands but soon we discovered that DSL stood for Deep Scottish Love. We had been counting white horses since the day before and now we got to understand why: In Scottish myth seeing a Unicorn means that you will fall deeply in love with the next person who's hand you tough. Sadly, though, unicorns in the highlands are, nowadays anyway, few and far between. Good news though! If you see 50 white horses it counts as a unicorn!! So we were counting horses all weekend long and ended 8 shy of DSL. Sad story.

On our journey today we stopped at the valley of Glencoe and Tony told us the story of the Massacre of Glencoe. This is a super sad story!!! I don't really feel like writing it right now, but maybe I'll add it later. Anyway, as I'm sure you can gather- lots of Scottish people died. But it was a beautiful area and so we climbed up part of the mountain side and took some more pictures.

Our next stop was at a castle that people still live in today! Eilean Donan Castle was a medieval stronghold castle. But when the English were taking over Scotland they were worried and didn't want any strongholds to exist so they ordered the destruction of all such castles. Eilean Donan, along with many others, was blown apart. But before this happened, all the castles had been claimed as the ownership of the King of England. And since he wanted to know what all he owned, sketches were taken of all the castles. So, in the early 1900s when a stone mason/architect saw the drawings and was in need of work he went to the original family owners of the castle- still rich- and asked if they wanted their home rebuilt for them in its original state. And thus we have Eilean Donan Castle- rebuilt in 1929 or something like that even though it looks like it is much older than that. While standing in front of the castle drinking hot chocolate and eating little cookies Steve and Tony had bought for us, listening to the story, 2 old women (sisters) and one of their husbands all came out of the castle and locked the gigantic front door. They STILL live there!!! CRAZY!!!

From there we piled back into Reginica and went off to see more gorgeous things. We stopped at a lake but I don't remember which one... it might have been Loch Ness actually... apparently Loch Ness is something like 23 miles long and more than 700 feet deep in some places. You could fit the entire population of earth- all the people in the world- into Loch Ness and still have space. Ridiculous!

Anyway, so we stopped and saw some more good views and then we went to see Saucy Mary's castle. So THIS castle is actually in ruins; it is along a water passage that is the safest way to avoid the harsh open waters and get from one part of Scotland to another. Mary, being the snazzy business woman that she was, decided to toll the passage past her castle. I'm sure she made tons of money. But she earned the name Saucy Mary for doing a little something special. You see, breasts are supposed to be calmers of waters and bringers of good weather- hence the busty women that lead the way out to sea on all the tall old ships. And so Mary, after each ship paid their toll, would flash her breast as they past, wishing them good weather and safe sailing.

Tony suggested that the women on our trip pull Saucy Mary's to help better the weather as it was cold and slightly rainy. One girl from Australia, Tali, was gutsy enough!! Whether because of her Sauciness or just the turn of events, the weather did get better as the day went on.

We stopped off for a couple more wee photos on our way to lunch. The town we stopped in for lunch had the most deadly of all sea gulls ever! Tony even warned us. Shawn and David, the cool grad student with the good voice and decent swing dancing skills, and I grabbed some food from a bakery and headed towards the shore. We chatted about David's grad work and his thesis and all that sort of thing as we wandered. Then, as we were heading back towards the bus, Shawn saw a sea gull and was like, ok, let's just try this. He threw a small piece of what was left of his sandwich into the air and sea gulls seemed to pop out of thin air to attack it! Then it was like a game- Shawn tried to see how close he could get a sea gull to take the food- so he held it out in his hand and one almost took off his head as it flew directly at him to get it. Of course we did not get this on camera and it was his last piece of bread. But Shawn wanted to try anyway- so he gave me his camera and we started recording- he tried to trick a sea gull into thinking that he food, but it wasn't buying. But at his feet another sea gull was getting closer and closer. All of the sudden Shawn sort of kicked and the sea gull, frightened, flew up into my face. I, of course, screamed. This is where the video ends. We got a laugh out of watching that repeatedly over the course of the weekend. :)

After another gorgeous wee photo we stopped at the River of Tears. (This exact story is in the captions of the photos- if you have read it already, skip ahead :) )

River of Tears-- Ok, so there was a man and a woman. They lived in the highlands and every summer they would climb up to the top of the mountains in the previous photos and spend their days looking out at the glorious country. One day the old man woke to his wife crying beside him as they sat up on he mountain top. "What's wrong?" he asked. "I'm an old woman and I don't think my body can make the climb anymore. I think this will be the last time I can come up here." The old man tried, to no avail, to comfort his wife. But up in the mountains lived the Wee People/Fairies. They loved the old man and the old woman; for years they hid and listened to the old woman chatter on to her husband as he sat, half sleeping, beside her. Watching her with sadness they ran to the king of the Wee People, Elvin, and told him about the woman's sadness.

Elvin went to the old couple and overheard them saying how they wish they could stay there on the mountain top forever. Elvin, in his mercy and magic, turned the old woman into a large rock, her face looking out to her beloved Scotland. The man cried out and began to weep, "What have you done to my wife?" Elvin explained how she would now be able to rest on the mountain top forever, he had granted her wish. The old man continued to weep for his wife and Elvin, moved by compassion, turned the old man into a rock next to his wife. The two stand, side by side, overlooking Scotland forevermore. The creek here is said to be the tears the old man cried for his wife. (Personal note: What kind of fairy king thinks it's nice to turn people into rocks? rude.)

The story continues:

So there was a lady named Maggie and she was due to unite her family with an enemy family via marriage. She and her husband to be spent a week together on a deserted island to be sure they could live together in marriage, as was the custom. They fell deeply in love! They returned to their homes and set the date for the next weekend. On her way to her wedding ceremony Maggie fell off her horse and gouged her eye out on a rock (great story, right!). She was worried about her now hideous face but was sure her husband to be would love her anyway and continued on her way, after bandaging herself up first I'm sure. She got to her wedding ceremony and her husband to be saw her and, thinking someone in her own family had done this to spite him- "make me marry an ugly woman, huh?"- he went around punching people and getting into fights. It didn't take long for the old feuds to rekindle and the whole place was a brawl. He didn't want to marry Maggie looking the way she did (jerkface).

Maggie's dad, pissed at the turn of events, blamed Maggie and banished her back to the Castle. Maggie climbed back on her horse and headed towards home. She got as far as this creek and cried her eye out (haha, get it!). Then Elvin came and asked her why she was crying. She explained her day.

"but don't you know the story of the old man and the old woman? don't you know the power of the Wee People and the magic of this creek?" Elvin asked. And he promised her that if she cried out that she believed and stuck her face in the water for 5 seconds she would be beautiful once again. So she got down on her knees and cried, "Elvin I believe!" and put her face in the water. She came out 10 times as lovely as before!! She headed towards home. Her fiancé came back to her a week later, apologizing, but like a good strong woman, she turned him away, knowing his love was weak. Her own father apologized for his rudeness and stupidity and Maggie lived a happy life.

We, of course, being the awesome tour group we were, reacted the whole scene. Lindsay, an American girl, played Maggie (Tony acted along with her). Then who could resist the possibility of magic water that makes you beautiful??? Steveo (the driver), another guy from the trip, Shawn and I all went down to the water's edge, cried out, "Elvin I believe!" and put our faces in the water. It was pretty refreshing actually, and really fun.

Next we went up to Kilt Rock- a cliff view of the water and surrounding mountains- AMAZING!!! This is also where Shawn and Tony played Sheep Shit Roulette. Just see the pictures for this one- it's worth it, haha.

We went up to one more cliff area where people had found dinosaur bones at some point. There were things you could read but I was really cold and didn't really want to stand there and read all about it. I went and took pictures instead. Shawn, breaking the rules, climbed over the fence and then went to stand next to the sign that said "Dangerous Cliff! Do Not Cross the Fence!", then went to peer over the edge. Rebel.

At this point the sun was setting and so we headed back south towards our hostel. Tony put in a movie about the Loch Ness that was informative but so boring that after another long day most of us dozed off. We ate dinner at the hostel again that night- pasta, no crazy dishes this time around. Then a bunch of us gathered in the bar area and watched the movie Stardust. Cheesy but cute and portions of it were filmed in Scotland.

That night we all went out to a local bar where an old man played the bagpipes for us. Then from there we headed to a "club". Shawn and I decided after being in said "club" for about 40 seconds that we weren't going to stay. Shawn, living in London for the past couple months, had pretty high standards for clubs. And anything that looks like a fishing bar a single strand of blinking Christmas lights across the ceiling as the "club lights" didn't sound to great to me either. So Shawn and I called it a night early and headed back to the hostel. Apparently the bar closed around 12:30 anyway. Some people went with Tony to a house party in town and apparently that was fun but Shawn and I didn't real mind missing out- we weren't hung over the next morning like half the tour, including Tony.

Sunday was our last day so we were back on our way at 8:30 again and we stopped to see some more castle ruins, then into a town where there had been lots of Nessy sitings. They had a large metal Nessy that we tried to climb on... and failed. But it was cool and apparently this place won the Loo of the Year Award, but I didn't go into the bathroom so I didn't see it. But there was an award framed in there and everything.

We moved on to a battle field and a thatched-roof house that was next to it. Tony told us which battle took place there but I don't remember.

Then we went to a place where people lived 9,000 years ago. They had build large round stone structures for worship. According to the researchers speculations, when members of the tribe died everyone would gather in these circular structures, pile the bones in the middle along with different herbs and elements. They would then smoke herbs and chant and burn the pile. Because of the structure of the place and the heat that would encompass the place, the pile of burning bones, herbs, etc. would separate and because of the sound waves of all those people chanting bouncing off the stones you could actually see the dust particles moving. Researchers speculate that these people believed the movement of the particles of bone, etc was the body's spirit moving on to another world.

This settlement is set right along magnetic tracks for the tectonic plates. There is is a large flat rock that you can, supposedly, stand with your back and palms against and you're supposed to feel something. I did not feel anything, nor did Shawn. However, he did take the opportunity, while my eyes were closed and I was concentrating on magnetic pulls, to throw a very distracting snow ball at me. In fact, the whole tour group then got in a snow ball fight. Very fun!

Two more stops!! (Are you sick of reading about my trip yet??)

The 2nd to last stop was at one last site of ruins. This one was really the best though because you could walk through them and climb on them! We went wandering through all the different parts and the Shawn and I climbed up on the old walls of what had to have been some sort of barn or house or something. It was pretty cool. We ran back to the bus- we were the last ones to get back to the bus since we'd been taking so much time climbing around- and Shawn decided to slide down the big hill the ruins were on. He ran, started sliding on his feet, then tumbled and slide the rest of the way down on his backside, getting his coat all muddy. But again, totally worth it! Adventure!!!! (I shuffled safely down- my socks had been soaking wet for 3 days... I really didn't need my whole body to be covered in snow. But it was still fun to watch).

And lastly we stopped in a little town and saw an old church. I climbed in a tree. We made snow angles. The Indian people made a snow man. It was good fun.

We then got back on the bus for the last time and headed towards Edinburgh. We needed to sign the Haggis Tours book with our clan name and thoughts on the tour so we came up with the name Clan Sexy-Ness. See, Tony, all weekend long, had been calling everything "sexy"- the Scottish people, the mountains, the lakes, the Loch Ness Monster herself. If it was Scottish, it was sexy. As it turned out later, Haggis tours even calls Scotland sexy in its paperwork! haha. So yeah, at one point Tony said, "that's where the word Sexyness comes from you know", referring of Nessy. So we named our clan Sexy-Ness and Tali drew our Clan picture (with a baby Awkward Turtle at the bottom!!) and we all signed the book with our praises for the tour we'd been given.

Finally we got back to Edinburgh, said final goodbyes to Steveo and Tony and the rest of the group and went to find me a hostel bed for the night. Shawn was taking a 10PM bus back to London that night. So we grabbed me a bed in a hostel and lucked out as we picked a hostel that serves free dinner on Sunday night to its guests. Shawn and I ate up and then Shawn went on his way and I journaled a little then passed out for the night.

In the morning I got up, checked out, grabbed a bagel and cream cheese and headed towards home. What an amazing weekend!!!!

I won't tell you what a pain in the ass it ended up being to get home... as it turned out, I accidentally bought my tickets for the wrong day- Sunday, not Monday. Long story short my train tickets ended up working out but I had to buy a new flight ticket back to Paris... more expensive than I would have liked, but honestly it hadn't been too expensive of a weekend so it wasn't too bad. I basically begged my way onto a train from Paris to Lyon and everything worked out just fine in the end.

I got back to Lyon feeling a little DSL as I looked back at the pictures of one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in the world!

Thanksgiving- international style

I woke up this morning feeling very happy. Today, I thought, is Thanksgiving. I thought about how to explain this day and its significance to the students I would see today and to any other French that wanted to understand this typically American holiday.

I decided that, truly, Thanksgiving should be an international holiday. What could be better than a day to realize all the things in your life you sometimes take for granted and truly appreciate them? What could be better than a day to realize all the blessings in your life? Even if you aren't religious, surely you can humble yourself to the point of being grateful for the clothes on your back and the house you go home to when you see a homeless man in the street. Surely you can humble yourself to the point of seeing the wonders of a loving family and all they offer to each of us daily. Surely everyone could benefit from some giving of Thanks, even if they don't give it to God, just give thanks to each other and to the circumstances of life.

Now, being religious, I woke up giving thanks to God this morning. Yesterday two other Americans and I went grocery shopping- Carrefour is kind of like any other grocery store on the day before Thanksgiving, only it's like that all the time and you can't find Libby's pumpkin mix anywhere. But we braved the crowds and found what we could that's as close as we can get to the ingredients for Pecan pie, cheesecake and mashed potatoes and gravy. So after an evening of cooking up a storm and smelling delicious foods with other Americans, I was in a good, happy, thankful place. Sure, I wasn't I going to be with MY family in MY home watching the parade, watching football, cooking, etc on this day. But I get Two substitute Thanksgivings. The first is tonight- I will eat chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie and I don't know what else with Olivia- a history teacher who has family in America and loves American culture- this evening. Then the second is this Saturday when a bunch of assistants are gathering for the biggest Thanksgiving I've ever had. There look to be about 20 or so people coming and everyone is bringing something. We'll even have a Turkey!! How much better can a substitute come than that? So, it was with a glowing sense of appreciation for my substitute Thanksgivings that I began my day.

I wanted to think about all the things I should appreciate and all the ways in which I'm blessed. After all, this is the whole point of the holiday, as I would later explain to my students. Looking out the train window on the way into work I noticed a light dusting of snow on fields and the stunning way the sunrise cast its light across the heavy fog, barley allowing for the tops of the low mountains in the distance to peek over the earthly clouds. I am thankful for this view, I thought.
I got off the train and looked into the clear blue sky and tightened my scarf around my neck in the brisk morning cold and thought about it reminded me of days at home when you gather with your family in the warm, sweet smelling kitchen to share stories and laugh. I am thankful for all the memories and the brisk morning which reminds me of them, I thought.
I got to school and spent the day explaining Thanksgiving and the wonders of this holiday to people and most of them understood. I even got a small group to tell me things they are thankful for- all of them told me little stories about people in their families that have been there for them in one way or another and how grateful they are for each of them! It made me so happy to know that they understood and to see it in their eyes that this wasn't some stupid holiday about American history, it was a holiday as viable now as it was in 1621. We can, and should, always give thanks.

:)

I'm excited to see how my substitutes actually turn out, but I'm keeping my hopes up for good things!! Thank God for my amazing life and all the wondrous blessings He has offered me, including this opportunity to live out my dream, here, in France, and to not miss out on my absolute favorite holiday from back home!!

Scotland part 1-- getting there

Scotland was amazing!! There's no other word... well, there's probably lots of other words, but none that sums up my amazing 3 day trip so succinctly.

I left Lyon via TGV headed to Paris-Gare de Lyon. My train left around 7:30 in the morning and while I was slightly groggy I was excited to be on my way. To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect of Scotland. I had never had any desire to go and when this trip randomly popped up it was more of a "why not" than a "hell yeah! I've always wanted to go there!!" But I was excited to be leaving France at the very least. Don't get me wrong, I love it here... I've just been feeling frustrated lately and it would be nice to take a little break.

As I pulled in to Paris two hours later I felt even more excited. This is Paris!!! I know that Paris isn't the greatest place in the world, but it is a great city and I couldn't help but think that even though I was just passing through, any trip that started in Paris HAD to be a good trip! (This also made me really excited to go to Paris just after Christmas with my sister!!! That will be fun!!) This elation continued as I waited in line to buy my ticket for the RER to change train stations. It even remained as I stood, confused on the platform trying to figure out which RER was the right RER. It remained up until the moment when I started to panic that my train from Paris Gare du Nord to Beavais (where my flight would be leaving from) was not there. I looked on the departure board-- no train was leaving at that time. I looked at the vois (platforms), no train to Beauvais. I only had 7 minutes to find my train and board it-- yup, tight connections-- par for the course when you have so many legs to your journey. I asked one of the workers and they looked it up and gave me the correct voi number-- I then ran (looking like a fool with a back pack on my back and all that jazz) to voi 22 where nothing was posted regarding any train whatsoever. What? What was going on?? I asked some guy and he said he was taking the same train, no worries, it hadn't arrived yet. Breath. It's ok. Didn't last-- 2 seconds later, "Bum, bum, bum" sounds the start of an important announcement and sure enough my train has been canceled. In fact, all trains going to Beauvais are canceled until 16:something-- much too late for me to catch my flight. FAIL!!

So I follow the guy to the Welcome desk and the lady tells him there is nothing she can do but I go up and as nicely (after the now angry french man stormed away) and as not panicked as I can manage I asked if there was any other way to get to Beauvais. I had heard there was a bus, did she know anything about a bus. Her colleague heard me and said, yes, there was a bus that left from some place out by La Defense. She gave me directions and I thanked them kindly then speed walked back to the RER, went back one stop, switched to a normal Metro line and took that several stops, then got off and walked, following signs for the bus to the Beauvais Airport. I was worried that my fantastic luck would continue and I would watch the bus pull away in time to realize that the next wouldn't leave for hours and would still miss my flight. UGH Frustration with France!

But holding out the slightest bit of hope paid off and I bought a cheap 13 Euro ticket direct to the airport. I boarded a bus and was on my way in less than ten minutes. Breath. I would make the flight after all!! Now I was really ready to take a break from France.

I got to the airport, checked in for my flight, ate lunch, boarded, flew to Glasgow-Preswick Airport, and got on yet another train- this one headed to Edinburgh (via Glasgow central). I was told that my plane ticket would save me 1/2 price on my train ticket and I could buy them onboard. Sure enough, when the guy came around it would only cost me 6 and change to get to Edinburgh. Great. I pulled out the Euros and he just looked at me and in his polite Scottish accent said, "We don't take Euros, we use pounds in this country." FAIL! How could I have forgotten that they don't use Euros in this part of Europe!?!? Big Opps! Luckily, I could pay for my ticket by card and then a lovely Scottish couple offered to show the way from Glasgow
Central to Glasgow- Queen Street (I had to change stations- it's about a 5 minute walk). They were so nice and despite the husband's heavy accent we had a nice simple conversation and they were pleased to know that I wouldn't be traveling alone throughout Scotland. It was safe, but they had daughters and would hope that some nice couple would help them out if they were ever in a strange city. They left me at Queen Street station and I boarded my next small train.

Finally, around 5 pm I arrived in Edinburgh. I found a place where I could ask for a map and if someone could point me in the right direction for my hostel. I found Scottish people to be extremely nice!!! I made it to the hostel and checked in without any trouble. Then I called Shawn, the guy I would be meeting up with for this trip. He was working in London this semester and was taking a bus up, arriving at the hostel around 7:30. When he showed up it we shared a great all-American hug with all the excitement of being in a foreign country!!! Once again, the excitement had returned. This was going to be a fun trip!

We went and had dinner at a place where they have super cheap deals for people staying at our hostel. All we had to do was flash our hostel cards and we got a special menu with discount deals. Shawn was brave and ordered Haggis. I tried his, it wasn't bad, but I ordered a burger- simple and difficult to find in France. Already I was feeling more at home!

Shawn and I wandered the streets of Edinburgh, taking photos and chatting, then returned to the hostel for an early night. Our tour started the next day and we knew we needed to get some sleep.


I am leaving you here... I know, just when it all is about to get REALLY GOOD!!! But I am going to try to get pictures up and ready to share too. I promise that I will get you more of the story ASAP!! Along with pictures. Patience is a virtue ;)

Love and Hugs and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Elizabeth

Think Positive

It has been an emotional few days- death of my computer (which I knew, but still... you'd think they could have told me 2 weeks ago when they told me I needed a new mother board that it wasn't covered under my warranty instead of waiting for me to transfer my account to France before dropping that bomb), Carte de Sejour problems, general homesickness and general frustration with the French (who know, that whole- let's not work on a Monday- thing, even when our posted hours claim we do actually work on a Monday, and other such frustrations)

But I have been trying to look on the bright side and not be frustrated. I have been trying to remember all the things I LIKE about France and why it is I decided to fly across a very large ocean away from all I know and love to come here. The crappiness of the weather has not been helping. It's not as cold as it is back home, but it's gloomy.

And while the weather is not likely to improve where it is that I'm heading, I think this brief vacation (I know, I never work really) will be refreshing- it will help me remember that I actually do love Europe despite the fact that the shower and the toilet are in different rooms, their juice cartons glug and spill, they take 2 hour lunch breaks so you can't ever get anything done and no one ever is able to give you a straight answer to any question you ever ask... breath... I do love Europe.

And Scotland will prove this to me! Scotland, despite the cold bitter winds I see in my near future, will be a lovely (to use the fantastic British English term that seems to somehow have slipped out of American vernacular, along with trousers and jumper) trip that will remind me of the wonders of history that Europe holds and the abundance of culture it has to share. I'm guessing it will also point me in the direction of some marvelous little pubs where I can experience Scottish culture first hand. ;) And with any luck, I will even uncover some Galloway plaid-- you know, make Pop proud.


And with that I'm off to pack my bags and get ready for my early departure from Lyon in the morning- it will be a long travel day, but, with any luck, well worth the effort.

Why I'm a ballet snob

So I went with a friend to see Romeo and Juliette last night at Ballet L'Opera de Lyon. She liked it and I well... I didn't really. But I, I recently discovered, am a ballet snob.

Let me explain. I have loved ballet since I was old enough to twirl and I have been seeing dance since I was old enough to appreciate it. Everything from the musicals, the Rockettes, and major jazz and tap dance companies to American Ballet Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet and to the presentations at my own university. I have seen a lot of dance.


The best dance I have ever seen... well, that's hard. Honestly, I think some of the best choreography I have ever seen was at the University of Iowa- some of the stuff that Deanna created was amazing, genius and beautiful! So fluid and dynamic, you sat there watching pure poetry in motion. There was a piece by Armando Duarte that was beyond beautiful as well. Truthfully, I went to a stellar school for dance with stellar teachers and choreographers.

The best dancers I have ever seen... well that's difficult too. The best tap dancer I have ever seen is Mark Yonally- Artistic Director of Chicago Tap Theatre; the best male ballet dancers I have ever seen were in Ballet L'Opera de Paris when I saw La Bayadere there 3 1/2 years ago; the best female ballet dancers I have ever seen were in ABT when I saw them do Swan Lake; I loved the 4 fairy dances in Cinderella at Milwaukee Ballet too; The best contemporary/modern dancers I have ever seen were from Alvin Ailey; and the best dancers I have ever known personally are Elizabeth Parkinson and Jenna Riegal; The best dance I've seen in a musical was Movin' Out (Twyla Tharp choreography- so it was stellar in both ways). So yeah... I've seen a lot of dance.

I also know a lot about dance. I am an educated dancer. I'm not the best or most educated out there by any means. In fact, if you lined up all the educated dancers and made them take a test on history and modern day dance, I'd probably be in the bottom 40%. That being said, I still know more about dance than the average non-dancer... probably by a long shot.

Thus, I am a ballet snob. And when I go to see Romeo and Juliette, even with the knowledge that it is a contemporary rendition of it, I sort of expected it to be, well, Romeo and Juliette- a love story portrayed in movement that evokes feelings of love, lust and joy between the two principal characters and deep-set hatred between the gangs/families. I expected, regardless of its contemporary status, to see life, love, sadness, desperation, gang-hatred, and death portrayed in movement.

What I saw instead was a troupe of well-trained dancers moving around on a stage with little or know emotional connections to each other. There was no life in the movement- I can't decide if it was the dancer's fault or if it was the choreographer's... I think I'd have to see more work by the dancers or by the choreographer to decide for certain.

What I saw instead of angular, repetitive choreography with no sense of flow or dynamic. The same plain, static sequences were repeated over and over with slight variations as the characters on stage changed.

I'm not disappointed I saw it- it's always good to see dance. I'm just disappointed that it wasn't good. Oh well, I'm a ballet snob, what do I know.

Only in France

Only in France can you walk through the train station and see a man in a kilt with huge boots and a mohawk.
°
Only in France do you have to look twice to realize the young sexily-dressed woman in all black is really a 65 year old woman.

Only in France do people take 2 hour lunch breaks and still expect to get off of work at 5:00.

Only in France is EVERYTHING shut down on a Sunday.

Only in France can you find people who simultaneously hate America and love Americains.

Only in France can you eat chocolate for breakfast every day and not get fat.

Only in France can you wear a scarf in 100° heat and everyone still finds you normal.


Ahhhh, the french

Great news ramblings

Hello Family and Friends!

I have marvelous news and not so marvelous news. I think we should start with la merde as they call it in French so that we can get that out and then talk about all the great stuff!

My computer est cassé... that means it's broken. There is a problem with the spot where the AC Adaptor plug fits into the computer-- just looking at it, not even being a computer person, I can see it is dislodged. This, so Dell people tell me, means I need a whole new motherboard. Merde. Well, I'm still under warrenty so I can get it taken care of as long as I can figure out how to get someone from the French Dell to fix it... sigh... this might take a while. Hence, you will recieve less emails from me. However, on the up side already, my roommates are very nice young gentlemen who let me borrow their computers on occation and I work at a school where there are computers in the teachers lounge. Thus, I should be on at least once a day to check mail and whatnot.

More good information: I have started a blog. This will obviously be apparent to those of you reading it via blog, but since I'm also sending this via email it seemed imortant to say. I feel like this way I can take short spurts of time on the internet and turn it into a letter home. I can also keep track of my travels better for myself. Hopefully you will enjoy this ability to regard my ramblings at your leisure on the internet. :)

What's been going on in my life other than crappy computer troubles? Oh, this is the good stuff!

Last weekend a lovely Irish girl (I really like saying Lovely... it's so... non-American, it's cute!) and I took a two hour bus to Annecy, which happens to be a lovely little town in the Alps. I am attemtping to upload pictures without putting my pictures on a hard drive anywhere, but thus far I have failed... once I figure this out I will of course show them to you all as I think they're gorgeous!! There is a lake there and the water is perfectly clear- it is the purest lake in all of France. It's a great old town, like many in Europe, and the scenery couldn't get any better. After a day of site seeing- mostly church seeing really- our Couch Surfing host (if you don't know what couch surfing is I will explain shortly, if you already know what it is, feel free to skip that paragraph :) ) called me and offered to drive us up into the mountains and lead us on a short walk to get a magnificent view of the city. This sounded great so Michelle and I met up with him and he drove us up, up, up. What we weren't prepared for was that this so called "short walk" would actually be a hike through muddy, rocky, slippery, sometimes steep, mountanous sometimes non-path. Right... I'm very proud to say that I only fell 3 times. :) Once on the way up when I tripped on a piece of fallen timber that was covered in leaves and thus I didn't see it. Twice on the way down on slippery muddy earth and slippery muddy rock. Lucky for me I brought a 2nd pair of pants of the weekend, so it was ok.

The view was, indeed, magnificent! Again, the pictures will be uploaded ASAP but I'm not sure they'll do it justice. It was just so great. For better or for worse we got up there just as the sun was setting, which made for a beautiful view, somewhat difficult picture taking, and a walk down in the dark. Keep in mind it took us about 30 mintues to get up the mountain side with light. Now you should understand why I fell and probably feel slightly guilty for laughing at me. Hey, chalk it up to adventure, right!

Now is the couch surfing explaination paragraph, feel free to skip this if you understand already: Couch surfing is an online program where people sign up and give information about themselves and offer their couches or spare beds for travelers to sleep on. It is a way to avoid costs of hostels or hotels and it is a wonderful way to meet people, share stories, learn about culture and see new places- as often, if they have time, the hosts are more than willing to show you around their town as our host did with our hike. I know what you're thinking... well, half of you are probably thinking, "Cool! What a great thing!!" and you're right. The rest of you are probably thinking, "is that safe? how do you know some creeper isn't going to stay on your couch? and further how do you know that you're not offering your couch so some creeper?" These are good questions, but not to worry, couch surfing is actually a pretty safe program. You see, upon signing up you are asked to give a decent amount of information about who you are- the more info you give, the more people feel comfortable staying with you or allowing you to stay. But that's not it; you can get validated by giving your address and having the couchsurfing people send you a piece of mail to verify that the address actually exists and you acutally live there. Also, as you get to know people you have to explain to couchsurfing.com how you know them and whether they are trust worthy or not. This allows the site to give you a value in terms of your trustworthiness. And lasty, people that have known you long enough or are already validated can vouch for you- which means that not only have they been to your address they truly believe you are a non-shady person who would be safe to stay with. All of these things contribute to your page and then as you couch surf you can chose to stay with the people who are the most safe. Taadaa! Now everyone should be thinking, "wow, what a great way to share your space and get to know people!" If you don't have a couch- for example, Olivier doesn't want couch surfers staying here at the apartment, you can can set your status to Coffee Talks, or something along those lines, which means you'd love to show someone around your city or meet up with other couch surfers to make friends, but you can't offer a place to stay. At this point some of you might think, "hey... this sounds like a sneaky way to meet men/women..." egh... it's probably not bad really, but that's not its intended purpose and actually, part of the terms and aggreements is that you won't use couch surfing as a dating survice.

Ok, back to the story at hand. So... we, Michelle and I, went with our host, Baptiste, back to his apartment. He has a female roommate who we saw breifly and then she locked herself in her room never to be seen again. The night passed fine, we spoke English when it was just Basptiste and us, but when a few of his friends showed up we all spoke French. It was a decent evening and the fold out sofa bed was comfortable enough that Michelle and I got a decent night's sleep.

The plan was then to rent bikes and bike "around the lake", as Baptiste has suggested. But seeing as how 23 miles of bike riding would probably be followed immediately by death in both our cases, Michelle and I adjusted the plan-- we'd rent bikes and ride a ways down the path and then turn right around and right back. Well Failure- the bike rental places aren't open on Sundays. I swear, really, what DO the French do? I mean besides vacation and take 2 hour lunch breaks? It ended up being ok though as the weather turned a little nasty- it had gotten chillier and started spitting rain so Michelle and I took the next bus back for Lyon and decided to make up for our lack of lake-side bike riding with dinner and drinks back in Lyon. Sounds like a perfect exchange!

We both went home to shower and nap and then met back up at my apartment for dinner and proceeded to drink a bottle of wine with my roommant while playing cards- always an amusing experience when each person has new games from their country! Then we headed down the Big Hill in search of a pub that would be open on a Sunday night. We were in luck- the Sham'Rock was packed! They were playing bar/music games and it suited us perfectly, although we didn't take part in any of the games but rather were observers to the fun had by all.

Monday I tried to work a little more on the "let's get Liz's computer fixed and functioning" campaign to no avail, but hey, people lived without computers before, i'll just steal my roommates for now ;)

Tuesday was yet another holiday- I told you the French don't work! So I spent most the day with some assistants having coffee, making and then eating birthday cake, cleaning Kim's apartment (she lives with 8 people... it just had to be done), making and eating dinner, sharing stories and laughing lots.

Wednesday I went to work (finally) and then decided, once I got home, that I was so sick on NOT dancing that I needed to take a ballet class immediately! I pulled out my list of dance studios in Lyon to find any that might be close to me. LUCK! There were three in Croix-Rousse! Two ballet and one jazz. I went in search of a job and a dance class. MORE LUCK!! The first one I went to had a receptionist who was very nice and told me that there was a class for advanced young adults at 8:00 that evening, if I returned then I could speak with the Director about working there. The second one I went to I waited for the class to be over and then spoke briefly with the studio owner who was not helpful at all except to say we wouldn't be hireing anyone. The third place I went to I waited around for the only staff member I could see- I'm assuming the director- to finish a class and tell me that she wasn't hiring anyone either, nor did she have classes for someone at my level, but not only did she give me the name of a studio that does teach advanced classes, she also gave me the phone number to an agency whose purpose, supposedly, is to help dance teachers find jobs!! Woohooo!!

Thrilled with the progress I had made I rushed home to change, grab food, and head to the first ballet class I've taken since May! The class wasn't the most challenging I've ever taken, but it wasn't bad and I think I'll stick with it for a while as it so convinent- about a 3 minute walk from my apartment!! Eventually I might add in other classes other places to give myself some variety or some more challenge, but while I'm warming myself back into things I figure this should suffice. After class I spoke with the Director and she seemed to very much like the idea of hiring someone to take over all her classes. She reminded me a lot of Leslie, my boss from the Nolte Academy, as she told me that she teaches all the classes working sometimes from 9am to 10pm. I explained the English expression "burning the candle at both ends" and she aggreed it was taking its toll on her. She wasn't prepared to shell out classes at the moment as they were working on choreography for a performance, but come spring she thinks this would be a wonderful idea!!! Wooohooo!!!

Then, as if God wanted to top off my day with more happiness, 2 of the girls in the class came and introduced themselves to me and we started talking and then I got to know most the girls who took my class (there were only a few of us- 7 total, but one had already left) and they were so nice!! It was the birthday of one of the girls and another had made her a cake, which she shared as we chatted in the lobby. As it turns out, the two girls who introduced themselves to me first, Clemence (I think...) and I can't remember the other one's name..., live literally across the street from me!! We walked home together. It was great! I even got complimented on my level of French- YAY!

Thus life is good!

And... I know, you're like, "what? there's more? was there even any bad news in this email???" Yes indeed!! There is MORE exciting news!! I am going to Scotland!! I know, random, but a friend who is currently in London asked me last week if I wanted to go and I was like, sure, why not. So, in the past couple days, I have set things up with my friend and bought my cheap ryanair tickets and will be heading out next Thursday! Woohooo!!! I emailed my teachers to make sure it was ok that I take Thursday and Friday off of school as long as I am willing to make up the hours and everyone was so great about saying, "no worries! enjoy yourself!" So off I go!

Ok, I think that actually is all the good news I have... let me think... I believe I already told you all that I bought tickets for the ballet- Ballet L'Opera de Paris (which my new french dancer friends think is a decent enough troupe with good, quality dancers but not the best choreographic direction) is putting on a rendition of Romeo and Juliette. My German friend Andrea and I are going tomorrow night. I hope it will be good, it's a contemorary version and in the poster Juliette has pointy-young madonna style boobs... scary. We'll see.

Ok, truly, that's it. The weather is getting colder and wetter, as it will as the seasons change. And I miss you all back home so very very much, regardless of the fun amazing dream life I'm living. So don't forget that while many of you might live vicariously through me, I still want to know about your lives!! Keep me updated! Send me photos!! Even one-liner emails are appreciated!! And snail mail is prized beyond belief, so if you feel up for it, you could even send a card! :) No requirment though.

Love and Hugs to all!!! I'm sure I'll send more emails before then, but just in case, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Eat lots of pumkin pie for me!

Elizabeth