Je suis LAME-o

OK- so it has now been two weeks since I've arrived and I haven't really blogged much. And I can't really use the excuse that I don't have internet, because, well, I have internet...really REALLY fast internet. I guess that just leaves the lazy excuse. My b.

So, basically the last two weeks have been super busy, I feel like I've been here more than a month, I guess because I've just done so much.

To catch you up- I officially finished my first week of school, my first week of practice, have become settled in my new apartment, and have a whole slew of awesome new friends (which, I wish I could say are French, but most of them are international students like myself).

Last weekend I went down to the Cote d'Azur with 300 other students from school for a weekend of integration. Suffice it to say, French people are crazy. It kind of reminded me of a rugby party- a really really big rugby party, with free alcohol. You can imagine what kind of shenanigans could ensue. There was singing, jumping around on the tables at every meal, and of course lots of random hook-ups and people getting sick and passing out. Oh French people, you amuse me.

In between drinking, singing, dancing on table tops, and random hook-ups (not by me, clearly), there were games and sports. Saturday morning was like a giant field day at the beach- it was awesome. I don't mean to brag, but, I was the mud wrestling champion of the weekend. Representing USA, baby!! I also did quite well in the chicken fighting and fight someone for the rugby ball game.

Saturday afternoon I went on a VTT excursion (VTT= velo tous terrain= mountain bike). I learned that 1) I hate VTT and 2)VTT hates me. I will NEVER go again, and any self confidence I may have gained as the mudwrestling champion in the morning, went completely out the window as I began walking my bike down the "scary" hills an hour into the ride. I also have massive bruises all over my legs where branches snapped me in the legs, or I fell onto the bike pedals at high speed when I lost control after hitting a giant rock. Not sure what part of this is supposed to be fun.


But, a few hours in VTT hell paid off with a snack at the end- oranges, nutella on cake, and coca-cola. Seriously, after a snack like that I could almost forget that I had just had the worst two hours in recent memory.

Sunday was chill, I just hung around the pool and talked with my cool new friends. Good times, and then we headed back to Lyon Sunday night. The way home would have been pretty relaxed, but then I got bitten by an Assassin Bug that somehow got into my sweatshirt. It bit me during a dinner break, and I must say, it was the most painful bite/sting I have EVER had. Worst than any hornet or wasp. My shoulder swelled up and bled from the bite, but not to worry, I captured the bug to take home and research online, since no one knew what it was. Assassin bug = KILLER!!!! No really, they can kill other insects with their poisonous saliva that liquefies the insides of bugs. It totally liquified a small portion of my shoulder!


The first week of class was pretty intense. I am only really taking one course at the moment- Virology- which is about 16 hours a week (plus 2-4 hours of other random stuff like bioethics). There were a few days where I was in Virology like, 4-6 hours a day. Crazy! But it is REALLY interesting, and I'm really getting into all of the awful infectious diseases.

This week was also my first week at handball practice with ASU Lyon, a Division 2 team here. I was really nervous, but the coach is cool, the girls seem nice, and it feels great to be able to practice almost every day of the week. Practices are intense, but efficient. I am still trying to figure out exactly what they do on defense, and how to read the backcourts (what a disaster last week, I must have run into people like, three times), but I am looking forward to see things progress. I will have to wait until I get my "recipisse" from the French government before I can get my license to play, but I've heard it is pretty short in Lyon, so hopefully I'll be able to play some games in 2-3 weeks. We'll see.

That's my wrap-up! I will try to be better about updating my blog. There are other stories I want to tell- like about my bank card that I had for 45 seconds before it got taken away, and all of my fantastic new friends. Next time. Seriously, I'm going to try to stop being so lame about updating my blog.

Jen in France: Take 2

I'm here! Despite the long trip, I actually feel pretty good. I took a flight from LA to Dublin, Dublin to Paris, and then the train down to Lyon. I slept a little bit on the plane, but was functioning better than I expected when I arrived in France.

Not sure why, but all of the hotels were totally booked up in Lyon. I thought I would be able to just take one of the several places near the train station, but had no luck. Then it started to pour rain. By the time I found somewhere with a bed, I didn't really care that they had jacked the price up twice what the room was worth. Annoying, but after a full-day of traveling and being soaking wet, I really didn't give a damn.

I settled into the hotel, and woke up super early (yay jetlag! the only time I would ever wake up at 6am by myself) Friday morning, and took my time getting ready to go to the university for the first day of orientation and moving into my new place.

Things went pretty smoothly when I arrived at the school- they made my ID/security badge (you have to have it to open any of the doors on campus), gave me the keys to my apartment, and even hooked me up with a few students to show me around.

My new place isn't huge, but it is cute and super convenient (I even have a little balcony, how cute). I only have to walk about 50m to the classrooms and labs. Since the French love to start their classes at 8am, I figured it was easier this way than trying to find a place on my own downtown and having to commute everyday. I did that for a few months last year and wanted to die. Leaving the house at 6:30am to take two buses to school= lame. Plus, I was hoping being in the student apartments would mean that I could get to know some more students and expand my social circle a bit.




I met a few of the other international students, and some of the French students who were helping out during orientation. So far, so good, everyone seems nice and most of the French people here speak decent English. Always a plus.

Friday was a long day- I moved in, went shopping to buy essentials for my apartment (sheets, dishes, pots/pans and some food), and by the time the evening rolled around, I was EXHAUSTED, but really pleased about things.

Saturday was rainy, so instead of going out to explore my new city, I organized my clothes and my apartment, and relaxed a bit. It felt good! Other things that please me, include the fact that my apartment has super high speed internet and a bath tub. My two favorite things in life.

Sunday I am going to try to meet up with a new English-speaking friend, and then there is a soiree at the school to welcome the students back. Should be fun. The theme is centered around Lyonnais culture and food, which means I probably won't be able to eat much (it is all creamed and covered in cheese I think), but should be a good way to meet more people.

Also, on the handball side- the good news is that there is a gym in my building, with a handball court and goals, open until 2am every morning! That means I can take my ball and shoot at the goal whenever I want! Or whenever there aren't 20 people in there playing soccer :) That's fun stuff, and a weight room that is supposedly open 24/7. Haven't checked it out yet, but I will see if it has the stuff I need to keep up my viking workout program.

Yay France! My first two days have been pretty good. I'm looking forward to the next week of orientation at the school and hopefully starting handball practice (although I still don't have my handball clothes/shoes with me yet, they are still at a friend's place where I left them over the summer).

A most incredible piece of mail!

Today I got a very unexpected letter from Paris, and when I opened it, I found the contents of my wallet that was stolen in St. Etienne last February.

Unbelievable! It was mailed to me by the American Aid Foundation of Paris, who had received my cards (sadly not my nice wallet or obviously any of the money that was inside) from the US Embassy. I can't believe they made it back to me!

After my wallet was jacked, I filed a police report in St. Etienne but despite checking back several times, it was never returned. It was the most irritating thing to happen to me, after just moving to a new town, subsequently breaking my foot, and having to find a new apartment without money or ID. This random act of thievery nearly forced me to leave France, as it took me more than a month to try to sort out my bank accounts on both sides of the Atlantic, and survive on borrowed money while doing so.

Most of the things in my wallet were replaceable, but I can't tell you how happy I feel getting this letter and this stuff again! I think about how many people cared about getting these cards back to me- whoever mailed it from St. Etienne to the US Embassy in Paris, the people from the Embassy who decided to send it to the non-profit group American Aid, and the people there who- free of charge- mailed it all back to my house in California.

Wow, I guess that for every bad person out there (ie the person who stole my wallet in the first place), there are many more good people who want to do the right thing. This miraculous return of my driver's license, insurance card, student IDs and French bus pass has temporarily restored my faith in humanity!

Yay nice people! And yay for having duplicates of everything that I can now keep in a safe place in case my wallet is ever stolen again :)

A visa, a flight, and too many endorphins?

Well the fantastic news of the week is that I got my visa! Yayyyy!!! Although I was confident I had all of the paperwork I needed, I nearly did NOT get my visa because the French people didn't like the letter I had from the school (ie. my admissions letter). They read through it and were like "this isn't sufficient."

I couldn't believe it, since I had used the same letter to get my approval from Campus France (the annoying organization that you are forced to pay $150 to "check out" your university admissions). Not to fear, my extensive experience with French bureaucracy has taught me not only to bring 5 copies of everything, but also to bring every extra paper you can think of. Does the consulate ask for your high school transcript? I bring my grades from elementary school as well, because it is inevitable they will want to see your kindergarten transcript just for kicks. But anyway, being the prepared person I am, I pulled out another paper from my arsenal (which, PS, seemed to be to be completely useless as it was merely a printout of my online application to the school) but shockingly, it did the trick. Nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a French bureaucrat nod in approval at something they couldn't really care less about.

Also, my favorite thing about my visa is my newly photoshopped official passport-sized photo, which will also be used for everything else official this year. The french always want you to provide your own picture, for everything from your student ID to your train pass, bus pass, and even your grocery store discount card. I was glad I could photoshop mine into something cute that I won't mind seeing on everything. Not only did I save money by printing 12 copies of my official picture for 50 cents, but I also look good. I highly recommend DIY photoshopped-for-perfection multi-purpose passport-size photos, just for reference.

Anyway- with visa in hand, I was finally able to get my flight back to France, yay! I will leave on Sept 3, which will get me to France just in time for the new handball season to start, and to make it to my Master's degree orientation. Couldn't be better.

On the training side of things, I've been keeping up with my Kathy-designed weight lifting program (AKA "The Viking Plan"), and my French coach's delightful running program. All in all, I feel pretty good. Definitely in fighting form, although I realize that the transition from the track to the handball court will still be hard. I am kind of sad I left my handball in Paris accidentally and don't have a ball to practice throwing around at home. It might be a little more tragic than I would like in the beginning as I get used to throwing a handball after three months and a half months. Hmmmmm. I will try to use some sports psychology visualization techniques instead.

Overall, I'm really looking forward to going back to France; there are a lot of people I want to see, and the year seems filled with possibility. Despite some bad news on the Team USA front (apparently we are withdrawing from our international games this November due to lack of preparation as a team), I feel very motivated about everything I have going on in Lyon.

Oh, and as an aside, I find myself writing this blog post at 7:00am, which may make it seem like I have some kind of intense discipline that forces me to get up on Sundays and be productive- but really, it is just too many endorphins. I had a really hard run last night (too late, I guess) and despite staying up to watch USA basketball win a brilliant gold medal game and going to bed at 3am, here I am, wide awake a few hours later. Lame! This is the second or third time this has happened to me since starting my more hardcore running program. Hope this annoying side effect is somehow representative of me becoming a human machine, because it is ridiculously irritating for someone who is trying to relish as much sleep as possible before starting the "real world" of school and practice in one week!!

Hopefully I will fall back asleep until noon, at which point I will wake up, see a movie, do practically nothing all day and enjoy my parents home-cooked Sunday night grill-out. Until then, maybe I will dip into my cache of downloaded episodes of The Shield :)

Blisters, must be a good sign

After amping up my running over the last few weeks with some more intervals, I was starting to prepare myself for what would be some way more challenging pre-season workouts.

I've been working with my new coach in Lyon (via the internet, since I am still waiting for my visa), to design a new running program to help me keep up with what the team is doing now that they've started their official pre-season.

Before he would give me the program, he had self-administer some fitness tests to see where I was, and what I needed to do. I was actually dreading this, knowing that the endurance runs have always my weak point, but was pleasantly surprised with my results. Guess those interval runs were actually doing me some good.

Today was my first day on the new running program, and while it was definitely intense, I felt pretty good afterward. "Good" as in I wasn't completely dead and didn't vomit.

There was a real sense of accomplishment in pushing myself through a 45-minute running workout that I probably couldn't have done a month ago. I love progress!

Also helping my cause was when one of the other runners on the track stopped me to ask what my 100m time was. I laughed and said I had no idea, I'd only ever run 40m for time (on our national team fitness tests), and I didn't remember the results. He was like "well, I think you are really fast. I'd love to know your time, because you seem really speedy." Even if the guy is totally full of it, it made me feel good.

Even though I didn't have a lot in me at the end of the workout, I still felt strong and fast, and as I've realized in handball, the mental part is important.

I'm going to be really nervous to show up to my first practice with the girls in Lyon- D2 is a huge step forward. I just hope these intense workouts get me up to pace so I can at least be close to their fitness level, since their handball skills will be far superior. We'll see, it is certainly motivation to keep pushing myself!

When I got home tonight and took off my shoes, I realized that both of my feet were covered in blisters, with some nice blood blisters on the bottom of my feet. Since Kathy mentioned that her first week of pre-season in France resulted in everyone on the team having blisters, I knew it was a good sign. If you don't have blisters during pre-season, your not running enough. So, the good news is, it looks like I'm right on track (pun partially intended)!

We'll see how I survive the rest of the week, but I have a positive feeling about things. I have an appointment with the consulate on Wednesday, so keep your fingers crossed!

Getting ready for France

It has been a really nice summer so far. I spent all of June traveling through Europe with Clay and Rachel, made it back to LA by the first week of July after stopping through upstate New York VERY briefly. I also just got back from a week-long trip to North Carolina where I saw a bunch of my old friends for a wedding. Good times.

As you can imagine, all of this traveling, and well, just general relaxing, has not been keeping me in tip top shape. But, never fear, while I may not have touched a handball since the end of May, I have recently been hard at work on the Viking workout program, courtesy of my dear friend Kathy.

There have been a few stops and starts, but I am feeling pretty good, and am hoping that by the time I get to France in a few weeks, I will at least be in good enough shape that I won't embarrass myself. I keep my expectations fairly grounded- just try not to show up and get beaten by any of the goalies on the run. One part of me was thinking maybe I would try for a six-pack, but then the other part of me remembered that I promised to gorge myself on all of the foods that I missed out on all year in France.

My body was kind of freaking out at the beginning of the workout program, not just because I'd spent the last 4-6 weeks doing practically nothing (unless you count walking around the Balkans and the occasional bike tour/kayaking trip), but because I hadn't really lifted weights in a year.

I have probably mentioned this before, but the French just aren't loving "musculation." It almost doesn't exist; finding somewhere to lift in France is like finding a Chick-fil-A north of the Mason-Dixon line...good luck. On the plus side, not lifting very much in combination with running a ton (which the French like to do, despite smoking a pack a day) helps a girl get down to French weight. Still, as tempting as it is to lose 10 lbs, losing 10lbs of muscle just isn't as exciting.

So, my goal this summer was to get my strength back a bit so that I could try to maintain some muscle with body weight exercises when I got back to France. Strength has always been one of my more important qualities, so I'd really hate to lose that, especially at my position where the ability to overpower your defender can mean getting 2-3 more shots or penalties every game. Even as my strength wained over last season, it still helped my confidence to know that I was stronger than 90% of the girls who were trying to defend me. I may not have the same skill or experience, but I can definitely bring brute force to the table!

On the physical side, I definitely feel like I'm on my way to being ready to start the season. Paperwork-wise, which has seemed to play an even bigger role in my French handball career so far, is probably not quite up to snuff. I have submitted all of my papers for the visa, but am waiting on a "confirmation" from Campus France before I can make an appointment with the French Consulate to get my visa.

Campus France is a huge scam- despite the fact I already have all of the papers I need for my visa, including an acceptance letter from the University in Lyon where I'll be going to school, I am forced to RE-APPLY to school using this dumb website, and then pay them $120 to say that yes, you have received your admissions letter and you can apply for your visa. Scam.

So, right now I am waiting for the letter...I am kind of afraid to buy my plane ticket until I KNOW I have everything, since last year paperwork was drama for all three of us going to France. So we'll see, keep your fingers crossed that this year things go a little more smoothly on that front.

Other than that, I feel pretty calm about my "rentree" this fall in France. I feel like things will go much more smoothly the second time around, now that I know how almost everything works. There is only so much you can do to hurry the paperwork, but at least now I know what to expect when dealing with the French government. I also already have a bank account, a phone and a social security number. Yay for that! Oh yeah, and all of my stuff is already there, so hopefully traveling back will be a cinch.

For now it is just keeping up my fitness and getting myself mentally prepared to go back to the french-speaking world, where doing almost any task takes twice the effort. At least this awesome summer has me renewed and ready to face the challenges of a new year! And if all else fails- here is always Plan B...working on a farm in Australia?

Backpacking trip...

For those of you who didn't know, I spent almost 4 weeks backpacking through Europe with my brother and good friend Rachel.


Here is a link to the blog we kept during our trip:
www.jenbackpacking.blogspot.com

Foods I miss

I will be heading back to the US at the beginning of July, and as the time starts ticking, I'm starting to fantasize about all of the foods I want to eat. Some of these foods I used to eat all of the time, others I haven't had in years, but I just can't stop dreaming about them.

1) Mexican food- real, delicious, made in a restaurant by real Mexicans, delicious Mexican food. Salsa, guacamole, chicken tacos, rice and beans. Though I make a pretty good fajita in my own kitchen, its just not the same. I NEED Mexican food to have any quality of life.

2) Japanese food- I miss bento boxes at the Plum Tree in Ithaca or a yakatori combination with udon at Taiko in LA. I have supplemented myself this year by learning how to make my own sushi and tempora shrimp, but still...I miss a Friday bento box with my best buddies.

3) PF Changs lettuce wraps- I probably only have this two or three times a year, but it seems SO good right now.

4) Chick-fil-A- I long for a 12 pack of nuggets, waffle fries, and a lemonade. I will stop at every Chick-fil-A on the way from New York to North Carolina.

5) Indian food- can't find anything decent in France. Tried, and failed, to make my own curry and chicken tikka. Would kill for some masala chicken or a dosa from my favorite dosa place in Cary.

6) Japanese cook on the table- totally not authentic, but I LOVE japanese steakhouses, and will need to gorge myself on that at least three times this summer.

7) Schlotzkey's- as far as I know, the last one in existence is near the RDU airport. How I love a smoked turkey breast sandwich on sourdough with black pepper chips and a coke. Yummmmy.

8) American Coca-Cola- SO much better than European coke.

9) Rice crispy treats, chocolate cupcakes, and my mom's pineapple upside down cake. A million times better than some fruit tart in France.

10) SMOOOTHIEEEEESSS- I used to make at least one a day- they don't have blenders or frozen fruit in France. I will drink delicious smoothies everyday when I get home.

11) Whole Foods- I love everything about whole foods. Organic cereal, off the chain rice and noodle bowls, and just general delicious stuff made with high quality organic ingredients.

12) Waffle house- I don't even know where to find one of these, I haven't even eaten there in like 10 years, but for some reason waffles with some off the chain hashbrowns would really make my life complete.

13) Random cereals- like Lucky Charms, that I never eat but somehow feel the need to snack on right at this very moment.

14) Oreos and doritos. So bad, yet so good.

15) anything I crave whenever I want it, because the grocery stores are open 24/7.


America, I miss you!!! I will be home soon to gorge on your goodness!!!

FROST!!!!!

Since I was 8, I dreamed of becoming an American Gladiator. My brother and I used to watch that show every Friday evening while my parents were getting ready to go out (it was their weekly "date night" which meant my brother and I could sit in front of the tv all night eating pizza/spaghetti-Os and convincing the babysitters that our parents usually let us drink cokes and eat oreos in the living room).

For years, American Gladiator re-enactments took place in various locations including the rec room (Assault= shooting my brother with a nerf gun while hiding/jumping around furniture), the backyard (Power Ball= running around the yard with various balls while trying to avoid being tackled by the other), the playground (Hang Tough= fighting on the monkey bars, which resulted in many of my classmates broken arms in 5th grade), and any location good for some jousting with sticks or general wrestling.

So, now that the show has been resurrected by NBC, my childhood dream has been rekindled. It is my destiny to be on this show! Plus, I could totally rock one of those gladiator costumes, although I wonder if the TV producers would insist that I have a fake tan.

Sadly, I missed the Season 2 casting calls that took place earlier this year, but now I have time to get myself ready for Feb. 2009! Season 3, I'm going to dominate.

To get myself physically prepared, I have consulted the following website with helpful tips on gladiator training:
http://www.how2blogger.com/2007/12/06/how-to-train-for-american-gladiators/

I will also be recruiting my brother to spend the summer throwing tennis balls at me while I run around the park, and will maybe recruit the neighbors kids to hang on my legs while I try to cross the monkey bars. Not sure where I can find one of those giant hamster balls, but that will be on my summer to-do list too.

Any other training advice? What about my gladiator name? I'm thinking "Frost"- cold and deadly, she'll sneak up on you and cause you to lose your appendages if you're not prepared!!!!!!

First weekend out- 8 on the L'AE index

OK- so now that I've explained L'auberge Espagne, I've decided to rate my France experiences on an L'AE index. 10 being like, straight out of the movie super duper cool, and 0 being like, my life sucks and I wish I was back in Cortland, New York, where at least I had real friends and the $7 Ho-Ho buffet.

This weekend, believe it or not, was the first weekend I went "out" in St. Etienne. Well, technically I went to dinner with some teammates after one of our games a few weeks ago, but that kind of sucked, I'd give it a 4 on the L'AE chart. We were at a big table, and I didn't really talk to many people, and my best friends from the team didn't come so I was stuck with all of the kind of mean French girls. And a waiter spilled 10 glasses of kir all over us. Lame.

Anyway, back to this weekend. Saturday started out pretty well when my super cool French roommate Caroline invited me to come downtown and hang out in a cafe. Score! Totally L'AE!!! We spent more than 3 hours sitting outside at the Place Jean Jaures drinking appertifs and having conversations about life in France/life in America. Good times. I was speaking French and not sucking!

After our lovely afternoon out in the cafe, Caroline invited me to come with her to her friend's house for dinner. Like me, Caroline is new to St. Etienne, she moved here in March to do an internship for a few months. However, it turns out her cousin's girlfriend- Tiffany- is living here doing a PhD, so she kind of has an insta-friend. Very convenient.

Caroline's cousin also happened to be in town this weekend, so the four of us had a nice dinner at Tiffany's place. This gets a high rating on the L'AE meter- the food was great, and everyone was super cool and intelligent, so we had some "real" (ie. not crazy like the other night) discussions about politics and current events. A highpoint in the dicussion was when we realized that all high school world history class is the same: start with pre-historic man, touch on Egypt, do the Greece/Rome thing, MAYBE touch briefly on the Middle Ages before getting to World War I, spend some good time on World War II (don't forget the part where you make an impression about the Holocaust with gruesome pictures/movies for a week), and then rush through the rest of 20th century in one or two days. No mention of current events and recent history like apartheid, Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia, and the Israeli/Palestinian crisis. Glad to know it isn't just the United States.

At around midnight, we cleaned up the table and decided to head out in search of a bar or pub where we could continue our insightful conversation. We walked around downtown for about forty minutes, and the town seemed totally dead. I couldn't believe it was a Saturday night and the streets were silent. Finally, not far from my place, we found a little bar called "Le vol du nuit" (night flight), directly across the street from this stunning cathedral.

Walking into the bar, it was like falling down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. The silent, peaceful streets (and shining Cathedral) were replaced by a loud "hopping" bar that apparently was themed around sex. Huge posters depicting vivid sexual acts plastered the walls, and the drink menu (which, by the way, had no explanations) contained drinks with sexual names. It was an amusing conversation when one of the French people went through the menu to explain to me what all of the different drinks meant, my sexual vocabulary not being up to snuff (not sure why they didn't teach "blowjob" in AP French).

We tried to ask the bartender what the different drinks were, but her patience was limited (big shock, she was French). She told us "it's an adventure, just choose something." I ended up taking what looked like the house specialty, a "tumulc" which turned out to be delicious! It was SUPER strong, and I was afraid I'd hit the floor after three sips, but it was yummy (peach and apple blended with their secret lethal alcohol mix). On top of the interesting atmosphere, the drinks were pretty cheap and very good.

My favorite part of the evening was that the bar didn't really close. Last call was around 1am (bars close around 1am here), so they locked the door, turned off the outside lights, pulled down the gate/cage thing in front of the doors/windows, and just left everyone inside. At around 3am, we decided to leave, and in order to exit the building had to climb up a ladder into the attic, sneak through a secret hallway and down a back stairwell. When we finally arrived back on the street, it was silent. Looking at the front of the building, all dark and locked up, you would never guess there were still 40 people sitting inside having a good time. Hilarious.

Overall I give this a 8 on the L'AE chart. It was a pretty damn good time, although fairly tame. Nothing too wild, despite the scandalous surroundings of the bar.

I was pretty pleased with myself that I was able to spend the entire day speaking French with a bunch of French people, and fully participating in the social interaction. I didn't feel like an outsider at all, even if occasionally they had to explain something to me. I hope there are more days like this, I just wish it hadn't taken all of this time to happen!

L'auberge Twilight Zone

I think I have mentioned "L'auberge Espagne" in many of my posts since arriving in France. In case you are not familiar with this film, I will explain briefly what it is, and then insist that you go see it. It is one of my favorite films of all time, and up until I moved to France, every time I watched it, it made me want to run away to Europe. Now that I live in France, it makes me want to run away to Barcelona, where apparently, life is much MUCH cooler than France.

The principle plot in the movie is that this French guy moves to Barcelona for a year as part of the Erasthmus program (the EU student exchange program). Basically, his entire perspective on life changes as a result of his amazing experience. He lives in a cool apartment (ie. the "auberge" which roughly translates to student apartment/hostel) with 4 other foreign students, and spends his days hanging out, "learning Spanish" (the same way I am "learning French"), having adventures with other foreigners, and basically just living the coolest life ever in Barcelona.

Anyway- whatever you do, see this movie. Just be aware that there is a high risk of wanting to pack your bags and run away to Barcelona right away.

Basically, this movie was the foundation on which I built my European Dream. I wanted to live la vie "l'auberge Espagne," eating dinners with my international friends and spending days in cafes and nights in the cool bars, having intelligent and amusing conversation.

Well, tonight, I had what could be described as more of a "L'auberge Twilight Zone" experience. Allow me to set the scene:

I am living with three girls in my apartment, one of whom is French, a second who is never there but is reportedly Senegalese or something, and a third who is Romanian but speaks only Spanish. Not bad, on paper it has the makings for an interesting place to live.

Caroline, the French girl, has the room next to mine and she is very cool. We "talk" often (or rather, she talks to me in rapid French and I nod along/laugh when it seems appropriate and act like I understand) and usually eat together if we are both in the house at night. The Romanian/Spanish girl, Carmen, is gone for days at a time for her work, but is around occasionally, definitely more than the Senegalese girl who I've only seen twice. However, given that I speak no Romanian or Spanish, and she speaks no English or French, our "conversation" involves speaking several languages until one of the words get recognized by the other. Slightly tragic.

Anyway, back to this evening. Somehow the three of us (Caroline, Carmen, and myself) all ended up talking in the kitchen (we have no living room in our apartment and the small kitchen table is the only communal area besides the bathroom). Firstly, I only speak English and French, Caroline speaks French and some Spanish, and Carmen speaks only Spanish with a smattering of random English. Thus, all conversations are held through Caroline, who speaks in Spanish with Carmen, then translates to me in French.

Somehow we get on the topic of John Kennedy. How, I don't really know, but Carmen (who, by the way has never been the US), goes on a rampage about how the US secretly gives tons of money to the Vatican, and that this is why JFK was assassinated. At which point we jump off into the fun world of discussing religion and politics.

The conversation got RIDICULOUS. For four hours, Carmen (who I take it is a VERY religious person) went on and on about religion in America and how great it is. Of course I couldn't resist the opportunity to steer the discussion toward prayer in schools, gay marriage, "intelligent design" and those weird (not that I'm judging) churches that use rattle snakes in their rituals when they're not writhing around on the floor speaking in tongues. I also enjoyed invoking scenes from the Jesus Camp documentary to illustrate my points, which thankfully Caroline had seen, and we had a good laugh in French about the fact that America will someday be taken over by fundamentalists.

My favorite part of the evening was that Carmen and I could not debate by ourselves, it was necessary to go through Caroline for the translation from Spanish to French and then back again. Caroline was thoroughly amused, and the two of us were rolling on the floor laughing when the conversation kept coming back to the US and our secret ties to the Vatican. Oh yeah, that and the fact that all of the most intelligent people in America are European. And if they don't come directly from Europe (she was saying that we import all of the smart people from Europe because we don't have any of our own), they are at least European descendants. I found myself in a place too ridiculous to even debate, and could only laugh.

So much for L'auberge Espagne. At least this UN-style multilingual debate was more exciting than watching downloaded American TV, but certainly not as stimulating I was hoping for.

I didn't even know what to say about JFK- come to think of it, I didn't really have a counterpoint to Carmen's idea because all that came to mind was conspiracy theory, which doesn't translate really well, or sound very intelligent. Random act of violence? Doesn't quite have the flair of a secret mission by the Vatican to blackmail the US into giving more money. One point for Carmen.

The evening finished off in Caroline's room where the two of us discussed Bush and Sarkozy, and the future of our countries, the war on terror, and the rising costs of food in the middle east. Not a bad way to end a VERY bizarre evening.

Any thoughts on the JFK assassination? I'm prepared to discuss Iraq, September 11th, foreign policy, and the current elections, but I was not on my game for JFK. Will take suggestions for any future debates, feel free to leave comments!

Quarter life crisis

As usual, I have neglected my blog for months on end. Seriously though, I have a good excuse- no internet. FINALLY, today, months and months after my arrival, I have procured internet chez-moi.

So, that is my excuse. Because somehow, I can't sit down and write my blog unless 1) I am alone in my room and no one is bothering me and 2)I am actually connected to the blogger site (not sure why, but the words just don't seem to flow when I'm writing in Word, I think it makes me feel like I'm writing something for school). It also helps to be wired on sugar and caffeine, which happen to be abundant in my room.

Anyway- here is my massive update. In January I moved to St. Etienne (a former mining town outside of Lyon on the East coast of France, 1.5 hours from Geneva) to play with a new team after months and months of paperwork issues in Montpellier. Basically, I never got my "carte de sejour" saying I was a legal resident in France, so I couldn't play. Also, the club never had an international player so they did not know how to help me navigate the paperwork issues. So, I signed up with a new team, in a higher division, with a bunch of international players and a president who seemed keen to have me and help me get settled.

I arrived in St. Etienne mid-January, and then proceeded to break my foot in three places on the second day of practice. Go me!! Or, as they say in French "trop fort." So, then I am the new girl and the injured girl at the same time. January through March I struggle with my broken foot and getting back on the court. Many of the French girls on the team remain bitchy and French, and do not care to integrate me into their social circle. Finally, I get ready to play and then find out that, as it turns out, the Tunisian girl and I have the same license ("E" classification license for international player) and we can't both play at the same time. Big disappointment. At least the foreign girls are cool, and invite me over to play card games and hang out.

I am rather unamused with the President for omitting this important piece of information, but I guess you live and you learn.

I am now at the point where I am trying to decide what to do with my life, not so much in the long term (I still have a grand vision for my future AFTER handball that seems safe and far away), but for next year. Part of me wants to stay another year in France and see things go more smoothly, another part of me is not sure I can do it again. It has been too hard.

The upside is, now I know the process. Having crashed into just about every single hurdle along the way, I can honestly say that it probably can't be worse. I know what to look for in a team, and what to avoid. I know that a good coach is more important than good weather, and that whatever I do, I better avoid teams with too many "special" licenses that limit playing time. As long as I play in France I will always have an "E" license, and can never play with another "E" license or with too many rookie players ("B" license) or international players. I also know that breaking your foot and having your wallet stolen SUCKS and will try to avoid that in the future.

We'll see. I'm staying open minded for the time being and trying to make it through the end of the season. As frustrating as it has been, I still must have come out with more than I came in; I learned some handball stuff, improved my French, and realized that I am a ridiculously stubborn person who refuses to give up. That being said, I find myself contemplating the fine line between "persistence" and "stupidity."

Anyway- today I had a conversation with my good friend Kathy, who is also living la vie Francaise and playing handball. Like me, she is struggling with her plans for next year. After all of the hardships of this season, it is hard to think of putting ourselves through this again. We were also disappointed to find out that our backup plan- the Air Force- may not be a very good back up plan. Apparently they aren't taking officers into training until 2010 or something. What am I supposed to do for the next year and a half? Get a "real" job? God forbid.

Thus, I have made a self-diagnosis (via Wikipedia) of Quarter-life crisis, or "QLC" as it is commonly known. See the following link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_life_crisis

Of these symptoms, I suffer especially from the following:
* feeling "not good enough" because one can't find a job that is at one's academic/intellectual level
* confusion of identity
* insecurity regarding the near future
* insecurity concerning long-term plans, life goals
* insecurity regarding present accomplishments
* boredom with social interactions
* loss of closeness to high school and college friends
* financially-rooted stress
* loneliness
* desire to have children
* a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you

I especially enjoy the last two. Although a child is far from practical or truly desired, I can feel my biological clock ticking and it worries me. Also, somehow, everyone IS doing better than me. Did I mention that I have been out of school for almost four years and I do NOT have a law degree or medical degree? I also do not own any furniture and do most of my shopping (which doesn't include the purchase of meat because chicken is too expensive) at discount food stores like Aldi and Lidl. Some of my friends have houses. I, like all students in France, take advantage of the French welfare system to defray the cost of a 9m2 apartment.

Missing from the QLC list is the following:
* insecurity relating to the fact that 95% of your friends are married or engaged and you are still ignoring text messages from sketchy french rugby players.
* stress related to the fact that next year you will be "over 25" and France will be twice as expensive unless you can find a suitable fake ID that says you are 23.
* lack of ability to communicate freely in French despite living in France almost 8 months and taking French classes.
* sense of impending doom when forced to make phone calls/answer your cell phone.

In summary, I am having a quarter life crisis. What happened to my European dream? Where is my Vespa and my cool European friends who want to spend the day in a cafe with me discussing films and politics? My life is not as "L'auberge Espagne" as I dreamed.

So, here I am, wondering if I should give it another chance...or if I should give up and realize that it is NOT easy to live alone in a foreign country without friends and family (and internet access, that has been the real killer). Do I have to "grow up" and get a "real job" and never ride down the Mediterranean coast on a Vespa to meet my cool international friends at the hottest tapas bar in town? That would be sad...but also mature.

Oh Quarter Life Crisis, what is your solution? I try to self-medicate you with chocolate and alcohol, but you do not go away, you suck my soul and make me feel inadequate. Damn you.

Thanksgiving...french style

Well, first let me apologize for my slackness in keeping up with my blog. I will have to blame that on the difficult month I've had. Not that I didn't have access to the internet, just that I didn't have anything particularly positive to write about.

Not to focus on that, but to recap the last month: I'm having major issues with my paperwork. The French government has decided to take their sweet time with my "carte de sejour" (residency card), which I need to do everything. Most importantly, which I need to get my handball license. So, I haven't been able to play any "real" games since the season started- a major bummer.

But anyway, I find myself here, on Thanksgiving Day, after a really rough month and it is hard not to be a little bit sad (or a lot, really). France has been on strike for the last 8 days, so the trains are running sporadically and the university is closed. I have one American friend at school, but haven't been able to get in touch with her to find out if she has plans today and/or something I could invite myself to. Additionally, I've tried to explain the significance of the holiday to my French friends, but they just don't get it. And no one has an oven, and turkeys are hard to find.

And even though I shouldn't dwell on the fact I'm far from home, this is the first time in my life I haven't spent Thanksgiving with my family, and it is making me ridiculously sad. Every year the number one thing I am always thankful for is that our family can be together, no matter what else is going on. I am missing that a lot right now.

I guess everyone comes to a point where they don't spend Thanksgiving at home, but I feel like most of the time, you are at least spending it with someone. I went to school today, but it was still closed because of the strike, and then ended up coming downtown to the internet cafe. I thought maybe I would check out the French-American Center to see if there was something going on, but when I went there, it was closed. A guy came riding up on his bicycle, and was like "It is closed today for some holiday." I was like "Yeah, Thanksgiving...that's why I came."

It was definitely a little Oliver Twist-ish of me just to show up like some orphan at the door, but in my fantasy, someone would have opened the door, said "Oh no, a poor American student all alone in France...come home with us and eat Thanksgiving!" But sadly, just a French guy on a bike informing me of "some" holiday. So, then I walked back to center-ville to try to at least make myself feel better by having noodles at my favorite Chinese place.

Sadly, the walk was longer than I thought, and by the time I arrived at my favorite noodle place, it was 1:55pm, and they told me they were closing the kitchen. So, I found some Chinese place that is open all day and bought myself some chicken lo-mein, and ate by myself. I would have probably broken down at that point, but I thought about that movie "A Christmas Story" when the dog ate their turkey and they had to eat Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant. It made things seem a little better until I realized that at least they were together as a family.

When I walked back onto the street, it started to rain. Out of nowhere, a torrential downpour...I was soaked. Then I just laughed, thinking about how ridiculous my whole day has been and that seriously, my life must be some kind of real-life French farce.

Since then I've been online, trying to avoid people's chirpy "Happy Thanksgiving" messages and keeping myself afloat with the schadenfreude of knowing that at least my friend Kathy (one of my friends from the National Team playing in Bergerac) is just as depressed as me. We both agree that the coke we drank at lunch was the highlight of our day.

Soon I will be off to practice, trying (unsuccessfully) to explain to my teammates why I am depressed and what makes Thanksgiving so damn special. No, it isn't like Halloween or Fourth Of July...it is a time to be together with people you love, to share a meal and take a moment to be thankful, not just for the things you have, but for the people. I definitely am thankfully for a lot of things, but being alone at Thanksgiving reminds me that what I cherish most- my family and friends- are far away right now.

So, Happy Thanksgiving...

Cliches come true

Today I saw a mime in the street. In France. And also a guy playing the accordian and wearing a beret.

How much do I love it when French cliches turn out to be real? Beaucoups!

France Rant 1: Bureaucracy

OK, I've tried to keep my blog fairly positive, but now I've come to a point where I just have to rant a little bit about the French. Sorry.

Before I blast into them, I would just like to say there are some things I love about living in France. Delicious baguettes for example...cliche, I know, but also true. Nothing like getting some damn fine artisan bread hot out of the bakery oven for less than a euro.

I also enjoy being able to buy a decent bottle of wine for 2-3euros. And the general culture that revolves around eating good food and drinking nice wine. All big plusses to la vie francaise.

Par contre (but, on the other hand), there are some really annoying things. Mainly the bureacracy and the fact that there is no such thing as customer service. Here, the customer is always wrong.

My first run-in dealing with French inefficiency (on a grand scale, not just the fact that it takes 30 minutes to get your food at McDonald's, totally defeating the point) has been over the last few weeks while I anxiously waited for my handball license from the French Federation. Whereas the US Olympic Committee was exceptionally fast and diligent, receiving all of my paperwork and filling it out and returning it the same day (thanks Mike!), the French took their time. In fact, it was almost four weeks before I heard anything from them. And the result? License denied!!!

My freaking license was denied because I didn't have my carte de sejour, which is the document that declares I am a temporary resident (for a year). So, I went in search of my carte de sejour. Even though we checked with the French Federation before and they said all I needed was my visa. Liars.

So, I arrive at the prefecture with every piece of paper I could possibly need, with 5 copies each. The prefecture is kind of like the Los Angeles DMV- a billion people there waiting to see a few pissed off bureaucrats who have no qualms about stepping outside for some coffee, a cigarette, and a 15 minute conversation despite huge lines and only two other people "working." You can spend your entire day at the Prefecture only to be told you are missing some inane piece of paper and will have to come back.

Luckily, after only waiting a few short hours I was told that since I was a student, I should go to the "Maison Etudients" to file my paperwork. So, I went about trying to find that building and then standing in line there. And of course, comme l'habitude (as usual), I didn't have everything I needed. I was missing a copy of the backside of a driver's license and, oh yeah, something that proved I had 1300euros in an account in France.

So, I spent the next two days collecting more random pieces of paper that they might want, and the things I was missing before. THey told me to bring 2 stamps, but I bought a booklet just in case. And an entire packet of enveloppes (even though they said to bring 1). I went to the bank to deposit the cash I pulled from my American account, and then the shit hit the fan. I asked for a copy of my statement to prove I had the money in my account, and they were like "sorry, it takes 1-2 days to get that."

I flipped. And I channeled my inner French person and refused to leave and pitched a fit until they got off their asses and did something to help me. They fought with me for 10-15 minutes before finally sitting down, opening the computer, and printing something that took 45 seconds to do. Seriously? And then they told me that I was lucky they were willing to make such an extraordinary effort on my behalf. Yeah, merci. Lazy asses.

So, with all of my papers in hand, I went back to file for my carte de sejour. And, a major miracle, I got it, on only the second try! Hooray! And thankfully I brought along the extra things, because I definitely needed 3 stamps and not 2, and also some papers they didn't ask for the first time. I'm telling you, they want all of this stuff, and they bitch if you don't have it, but they don't even read it or look at it if you do.

With that finished, I can only hope that the French Federation will unblock my license in time for me to play this weekend. I'm getting really anxious waiting!!

Great French Moments!!

OK- I thought the first one was an isolated experience, but now that I have two of what I call "Great French Moments"- I'm going to share them with you!

As we all know, the French are a little different than Americans. However you want to describe them, I think it is kind of like Eddie Izzard says- "They are French, they are spikey, because...well, they're fucking French!"

Things that I doubt you would see in the USA, or at least not with the same emotion:

1) I was walking down the street downtown a few weekends ago, right off of the main shopping district at the Place de la Comedie, when a girl comes out of what must be an apartment door. She is dressed in normal clothes, and walking calmly down the street. 30 seconds later, a guy (who happened to be really cute and have a nice bod) comes running after her, dressed only in boxer shorts. He is yelling at her, begging her to turn around, which she finally does and coldly says something to him (which I wish I knew enough French to understand), then keeps walking. Then he starts crying. A grown-ass man, half-naked in the street crying...like, for real crying, tears and the whole mess. Then he starts walking after her, begging her to come back, and crying while she completely ignores him. I try not to stop and stare, but well, I stop and stare, because I have NEVER seen such a dramatic movie-like scene in my life. It was like that scene in Bridget Jones when Bridget goes after Colin Firth in her underwear, only reversed and in French. This continues for several blocks until they are out of eyesight, at which point I have to move on.

LOVE it. Almost as European as dropping kitchen appliances out of windows like they do in the movies when they are pissed.

2) My second great moment came yesterday when I was eating lunch with a friend in a restaurant downtown. We were enjoying ourselves when all of a sudden we heard the crash of pots and pans and screaming coming from the kitchen. The restaurant, which was packed at the time and had been filled with the sound of loud conversation, fell silent as everyone listened to the cook screaming at someone in the kitchen. He literally slammed something down on the floor and SCREAMED, as loud as possible. "You do NOT talk to me like that, you DO NOT talk to me like that- I said, DON'T EVER TALK TO ME LIKE THAT, I am NOT your dog!" Seriously? A French chef throwing things in the kitchen and pitching a royal fit so loud that everyone in the restaurant stops their conversation in awe. Fabulous. I have never experienced anything like that in my entire life!


I heart France, these moments just lighten my life!!

Jen Drives Stick 4: Elle na marche pas

So, over the last few weeks my little car has had a few hiccups, and not any attributable to me. It has stopped randomly and not wanted to start again, most of the time in harmless places (like the parking lot at the gym), but once in the BIG round-about in Montpellier. That did not go well.

Naturally, I alerted my host family that there was a problem, and they took it into the garage last week to be checked out. "Oh, no, la voiture marche bien...pas des problems!" said the guy at the garage (Oh no, it is working just fine, no problems at all). So, I looked like an idiot American that doesn't know how to drive a French car. But even an idiot American can start a car, I mean, really. When it just sits there and refuses to crank up (well, you can crank it, but it doesn't turn over), it isn't because I'm used to driving an automatic!!

Anyway, I was hoping that the problem would remain rare or go away completely, but I guess mechanical problems don't fix themselves. The car stopped again yesterday when I was driving downtown, but eventually, as usual, it restarted again after a few minutes of trying. So, when it did it again on the way to school today, I was concerned, but at least I made it to class on time and the car was running OK.

I thought maybe it was frustrated because it was low on gas, so I took it to the station to fill it up and it broke down in line at the gas station. Some people behind me got out to push my car into the pump, but after I filled it up, it stopped again!! I cranked it and cranked it and finally got it going, only for it to die 15 seconds later in the middle of the road (THANKFULLY in a turning lane so I wasn't blocking TOO much traffic).

Then, the same people who came to help me before, turned around the road and came back to help me out. Of all of the luck, after speaking bad french for a minute, the woman was like "Do you speak English" and I was like, YES! Turned out she was Irish and her fiancee was American and they were my good Samaritans of the day.

Simon, the American (who comes from Pasedena), got out and pushed my car into the parking lot where he and his fiancee Ceira helped me phone the tow truck, the garage, and finally a taxi to take me home. They stood by me in the parking lot for an hour trying to help me sort everything out. I couldn't believe my luck! Of all people to stop and help (I guess it shows that the Americans, and apparently Irish, are MUCH nicer than the French who didn't stop to help but instead honked at me and yelled obscenities when I was broken down), two people who speak English! And luckily they'd been living in France for 5 years, so they also spoke very good French, and that helped me make it through all of the phone calls I couldn't have done by myself.

Yay for guardian angels! So, now my little French car is in the shop- HOPEFULLY getting fixed this time. Thankfully I have a rental now so I can go to class and practice tomorrow, it was kind of strange having to get around without it this afternoon.

Jen goes to the Rugby World Cup: Take 1

Yay rugby! As most people reading this know, I used to be a rugby player in college. I love me some rugby, and rugby people are also pretty special. Short bus special, but I'm loving them.

Since the Rugby World Cup began a few weeks ago, Montpellier (which is one of the cities where the matches are taking place) has been overrun with rugby fans (and players) from around the world. It is pretty fun, mostly because they are overwhelmingly British, Australian, and American and are loud, obnoxious and English-speaking just the way the French like it. Besides the amusement of watching grown men cry when their team loses, it is also pretty funny to observe the French people sneering at them on a regular basis as they walk down the street proudly advertising their foreignness with their country's respective jerseys.

Anyway, I have been enjoying the World Cup since it started by watching rugby games on TV (even one of my 3 free channels shows the games) and downtown on the big screens they put up in the town center. But Wednesday night, I got to see my first game in person!

I was really excited when my friend Paul emailed me to tell me he wanted to come visit and go see a rugby game. So, we got tickets to the USA v. Samoa game in St. Etienne, since Paul couldn't make it for the other USA games being played in Montpellier. Besides cheering for our boys in red, white and blue, we figured of all of the games in their pool, this was the one they MIGHT have a chance to win!

So, Paul and I left Montpellier on Wednesday afternoon for what turned out to be quite an adventure! He rented a car- the "Panda" (made by Fiat, that's its real name!) and we took to the autoroutes to make the game. We were making pretty good time cruising through the southeast of France, until we hit MAJOR traffic coming out of Lyon and into St. Etienne.

Tragic. We barely moved for an hour and started to watch the minutes until kick-off count down...from inside our car. Finally we made it into the city and the neon signs on the highway pointed us toward the stadium. We later found out that there were 35,000 people attending the match, in a city which usually has a population of 140,000, so I guess the town isn't really equipped for that kind of influx of people.

We parked French-style on the side of an access ramp to another road, REALLY close to some woods. Thankfully the Panda handled it, and once we had her jammed up on the edge of the road, we started running- and I mean RUNNING toward the stadium, with a bunch of other people.

Paul and I ran hard for a few minutes before we finally saw a bus-stop where busses were taking people closer to the stadium, thankfully, since we seemed to be a few miles away. We jumped on the bus, and then when the bus stopped, ran the rest of the way to the stadium as fast as we could.

We arrived about 25 minutes into the first half, sadly, but at least we were there. The seats were great, but we had to sprint about 8 flights of stairs to make it there! My quads were burning by the time we got to our seats, it was definitely a work-out.

The stands were packed, which was kind of cool considering it was the two worst teams in the pool playing each other. There were a lot of people with both USA and Samoan flags, and everyone seemed to cheer for both sides. It was an atmosphere of sportsmanship, and people just seemed to enjoy good rugby (or bad as the case may be), which was the fun part.

Half-time also brought an interesting surprise when Paul and I went in search for the bathrooms. Not only were they down the 8 flights of stairs, but they were communal (read: men and women) bathrooms, and there was no line, just 200 people pushing and shoving their way in. I was NOT amused by this because men are gross, and men's bathrooms are usually much dirtier than women's. Not to mention, I was being pushed around by a bunch of rugby guys. Oh yeah, and it was those disgusting third world bathrooms that were NOT toilets, but holes in the ground and a place to put your feet while you squat.

I was totally grossed out, but at least I had some antibacterial hand wipes in my bag which I used to totally disinfect myself afterward. Ew.

The second half of the game proved totally exciting. The USA scored two tries and made a penalty kick, but sadly, wasn't able to make up for the lost ground of the first half. Samoa ended up winning 25-21, but it was a really fun half, and Paul and I were convinced that if the USA had 5 more minutes, they could have won!!!

After the game ended, Samoa did their haka again for the crowd....five times. It was pretty fun, and the guys were obviously happy (hey, they won 1 game!) and then received their "Thanks for participating in the World Cup" medals. How tragic, and little league-ish.

At that point Paul and I headed out of the stadium and started our (very VERY cold) hike back to the car. The upside of parking so far away is that at least you don't have to wait in traffic to get OUT of the stadium! So, we got on the highway really quickly and started back to Montpellier.

It was quite a long hike back, but we stopped mid-way and bought a baguette and some sandwich meat at a gas station as a little snack. We arrived back in Montpellier around 2:30am, not terribly late, but late.

I'm SUPPOSED to go to see USA v. South Africa on Sunday, but I haven't heard from the people with my tickets in a few weeks, so I'm hoping that's still on! We'll see what happens!

Business lunches revived

Since Kathy decided to come back with me in Montpellier, I decided to give myself a "jour de conge" and skip my classes on Monday so we could hang out. I didn't feel exceptionally bad about this because 1) I figured it would be a LONG time before I had friends in town again and 2) It was still the beginning of school so lots of people are making schedule changes and trying to figure out what classes to be in.

Monday morning was pretty leisurely, we just hung around the house and had breakfast, watched some french TV, napped during "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader (French edition)" and then woke-up in time to head down-town for a classic Kathy and Jen business lunch!

I took Kathy down to the Place de la Comedie, which is the main commercial center of downtown Montpellier. It is a very nice place to hang out because there are several streets of restaurants and stores, but no cars. We were both in the mood for a bento box, but after searching several streets, didn't find a Japanese place open. So we settled for a Chinese/Thai place that I had eaten in before that was very good.

I rarely eat out, but the nice thing at lunch is that you can get the "Midi special" which is usually fairly cheap and includes an appetizer, main course, and meal. We both got a glass of wine, some appetizers (including some really good samosas) and I had the shrimp satay. It was good and we enjoyed sitting outside, chatting, and of course eating.

After spending some time at the gare (train station), trying to get Kathy's return ticket, we decided that it was time for desert. So we stopped for a coke and a waffle with chocolate (waffles are desserts in France, by the way). Certainly we won't make French weight if we keep eating crepes and waffles with chocolate, but it was a special occasion, so we enjoyed the indulgence.

The evening was also pretty fun, and like most things that Kathy and I do, revovled around food. I cooked fajitas and we drank some Muscat and watched more french TV. Including a series called "L'hopital" which looked like a combination of every successful American medical drama of all time (Grey's Anatomy, with some ER and a bit of House thrown-in). Although, instead of Dr. McSteamy, it was Dr. McTepid- the French need to work on having hotter TV stars, I mean, I can't really understand what is going on, but at least I could look at someone nice!

Sadly, Kathy had to leave Tuesday morning, but we had an awesome time, and I totally hope that there will be more business lunches in the future!!! I miss the Ho-Ho buffet and bento boxes at the Plum Tree!

Reunion in Toulouse!

The week passed by pretty quickly, I finally got my schedule sorted out at school, and went to my first classes on Friday. I had art history in the morning, which was pretty cool, and then two hours of grammar right after that. I was surprised that I could follow along with everything pretty easily, although I definitely feel like I am behind most of the other people in my level in terms of grammar. Need to get to work on that soon!

Anyway, Friday night I went to practice and then just came home and chilled. Saturday was also pretty relaxed, I cleaned, studied some grammar and then helped my host family's little boy with his English homework. After that I got showered and pretty to go the Montpellier men's professional game against Trembley.

It was really fun to see the Montpellier game, especially since I had VIP floor seats! I could talk to the players on the court if I wanted to, I was so close. Thankfully Montpellier won the game, so it was exciting.

Sunday morning I woke up and decided to go to Toulouse to see my friends Megan and Kathy play against each other! The trip was pretty easy, 2 hours exactly (direct) by train, so that was nice. I arrived around 1pm, and Megan was there waiting.

Christian had come to watch the game also, so the three of us went in search of chicken kebabs for lunch. Yay Chicken! We walked through Toulouse downtown, which although it is cool and definitely a bigger city, I have to say that it is not as pretty as Montpellier!!

After we finished lunch, we took the metro to Megan's gym and watched the younger team play. Soon Kathy arrived with her team and we were sitting and talking and having a great time catching up.

It was funny to see the look on everyone's faces when we talked- I can imagine it would be the same if my teammates could see me with my friends talking in English- I talk 100 times more!

We had a really great time chatting and then Megan and Kathy started warming up with their teams.

As expected, Megan's team won the game (her team dropped down from the second division last year, but are trying to move up again so they are very serious), but both Megan and Kathy played fantastic games. I had fun cheering for both of them despite the bizarre looks from the people in the stands who couldn't figure out why I was cheering for both sides....in English!

After the game, the girls showered and the four of us went out to dinner downtown. I was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but happy that Kathy had decided to come back on the train with me to hang out for a few days!

It was a really fun weekend of handball and friends.

First "Real" Match!

OK- I haven't posted in a while, but in my defense I do NOT have internet at my place, and since I get home really late from practice (11pm), I can't bust up in my host family's house and steal theirs. Dommage.

But, I'm working on "finding a solution" to my internet problem ASAP, because otherwise I will go insane.

Anyway, back to my update! The team played its first match last Saturday in our awesome home gym. My license still has not been processed, so I was not qualified to play. But there were six other people who were in the same boat as me, so we sat together in the stands.

I was actually REALLY excited to see my team play a real game, and very nervous. I was sweating through my clothes just sitting there wondering what was going to happen. The team we played against, St. Julien Denize de Gleise, was one of only three teams we lost a game to last season, and they had a lot of big players, so I was a little concerned.

The first ten minutes were disastrous, but after that, things fell into place. We finished the first half up by five, and won the game by eleven! 31-20 was the final score, and everyone was really happy.

It was Laurent's first game ever as a coach, and I think he was pretty stressed through most of it. I looked over and saw him pulling his shirt over his head or banging his head against the wall at times, but as usual, he was really positive when he spoke to everyone, so I think that helped people not freak out. You could tell the first few minutes of the game everyone was really nervous, and it was only after we calmed down that we started to pull ahead.

This game was a fun way to start the season, winning in our home gym by 11 points! Next week we play away at Lyon, who is supposed to be a very strong team (they have a D1 team as well), so we'll see!

Yay winning!!

Le weekend

Although by no means strenuous, I had a fairly productive week last week, so I was definitely looking forward to the weekend. Friday night I ate dinner with my host family and watched the opening match of the Rugby World Cup, with Argentina beating the French in a very fun game.

I had plans to go back to my apartment and finish unpacking after the game ended, but instead was lured into my bed to begin watching the first season of HBO's Rome, which has turned out to be totally addicting! So, I left the mess in my apartment for another day.

Saturday morning I woke leisurely, made myself some tea, watched an episode (or two?) of Rome in my bed and then finally motivated myself to put my apartment together. A few hours later, all of my clothes were unpacked, and my room was clean, and I finally felt like I had a home. It is sooo cute!

I decided to enjoy the rest of the day by taking a walk downtown and buying some bread at the bakery and a few items at the local store. It was really nice outside, very sunny, but not too unbearably hot. I enjoyed the walk around town, it also felt good to stretch my legs a bit which were still sore from the games and practices of the week.

I made my way back home and then got ready to go to my handball game. I left "early" so I could have some time at the gym to get my mental game on, but when I arrived, the game was already in progress. I totally flipped out! Apparently I had misunderstood what time we were supposed to be here. My coach had said "dix-huit et demi" (which is 18:30, or 6:30pm) and I just heard the "huit heure et demi" (8:30pm), thus, I arrived at half-time.

It was the worst feeling EVER. I couldn't believe that I had missed half of the game because of not understanding French correctly. I was extremely upset, but sat on the bench and cheered my team on during the second half. We ended up winning 29-16 against the Spanish team, which was a nice victory, but I couldn't feel too happy because I had made such a terrible mistake.

Thankfully the girls and my coach were super nice about it- they realized how upset I was and told me it didn't really matter, it was just a friendly match. But I still wanted to crawl into a hole and die. After the match there was a barbecue and then a bunch of the girls decided to go "en ville" to party a little bit. I was excited when they invited me to come along!

So, my crappy night had begun to improve as we set-off for some wine and snacks at one of my teammate's apartments. After chit-chatting and having a glass of wine, we headed into downtown Montpellier to go to a bar. It was a lot of fun to be "out" and it was my first real night in my new town.

After hanging out with my teammates (who spoke progressively more English with each drink) and meeting some fun foreigner's who also spoke English (a Canadian, some Swedes and a Swiss guy), the bar closed at 1am. Since I had agreed to play in a tournment with the younger team on Sunday at 8am, this is where I called it a night, much to the disappointment of my teammates who wanted me to come party with them at the disco until 5am!

Sadly, because everyone can smoke in the bar, I had to take another shower when I got home at 1:30am. Haven't had to do that in years, since maybe I was a freshman in college and smoking was still allowed indoors? Crazy! So I showered, put my clothes outside to air out and finally hit the sack.

7:30am came around early, and I really had to drag myself out of bed and into my handball clothes. I arrived at the gym around 8am, and there were very few people there, so I had the gym and the goals to myself. Since I am working on improving my shot technique, I spent 30 minutes or so shooting from different places on the six-meter line, trying desperately not to lean too much.

The day went by fairly quickly, and I played four games. The level was not nearly as strong as with the first team, but it was good to build my confidence. I could be a little more agressive and try some new things because there was nothing to lose. In between games, when the court was free, I practiced my shot, so by the end of the day I was completely exhausted and my shoulder was ridiculously sore.

I left the gym at 5:30pm, showered and enjoyed the rest of my Sunday evening relaxing and taking it easy.

French vocabulary lesson of the weekend: Trompe l'heure (to screw up the time)

Jen Drives Stick, Take 3: Stuck

Just for your amusement, I have decided to recount my latest adventure driving stick shift. Before you get the idea that I completely suck, I to give myself some props, I have been driving all around Montpellier for the last week or so with relatively no problems. My little car (needs a name, any suggestions?) and I are getting along very well, and I am actually quite fond of it.

Sadly, I guess I am not the complete pro I thought I was!

I was coming out of the mall parking lot yesterday (think underground parking structure) when I got stuck, and my perfect little world of driving stick shift came crashing down around me.

It went something like this: I put my ticket into the machine, the gate lifts up, and I pull out toward the sunlight. Sadly, I had to stop halfway up the ramp because the stoplight at the top of the ramp had turned red, and the two cars ahead of me stopped. So there I was, at a dead stop in the middle of a steep ramp.

I figured I would have to gun the engine a little bit when it was time to go, but I did NOT think I would continue to roll backward as this happened. And there were 4 cars behind me honking their horns. I stalled out twice, missed two lights, and still went nowhere besides back down the ramp. I wanted to cry, but instead settled for panicking and screaming obscenities.

Finally the guy got out of the car behind me and started yelling in French. I panicked more and was like "I don't know what to do" in French. He took pity on me when he heard how bad my French was and realized I was foreign. Then he came over, put his hand on my shoulder and said "OK, tu calme, tu calme" (calm down). Then he asked me for the keys, tried to explain how to work the car in French, and I pretended I understood while I hoped he would just move my car up for me. And he did.

So, with 15 cars now backed up behind me annoyed as hell, Mr. French Guy in the Green Peugeot pulled my car all the way up the ramp until the ground was flat again and I was safe. Yay! I made it! Thanks to the kindness of a stranger.

The important lesson I learned here is that I will NEVER ever stop on a hill ever again, because I still can't figure out how to get my car to go forward instead of backwards on a steep incline. I hope this doesn't mean I have to avoid the mall though, because it is pretty nice.

Pre-season Match 3

I spent today taking my entrace exams for the University, to determine my exact level of French. I was surprised when I scored so highly on my oral exam, placing me in level 4 (advanced intermediate) out of 6.

I guess having been here for the last two weeks has already affected my oral comprehension and speaking skills. So, even though I FEEL a long way from being fluent, I guess I'm understanding a pretty decent amount of Frech.

In the afternoon I took my written exam, which was 4 pages of grammar excercises and then two hour-long essays. I felt OK on about half of the grammar excercises (I think I bombed one section though), and fairly good about my essays. They aren't terrible complex, but I think they turned out OK. We'll see, if I do OK I should stay at level 4. If my grammar was really bad, maybe I'll have to drop into level 3, I'll have to wait another week or so to find out.

The cool thing about spending the day at the University taking exams is that I met a bunch of people; a few Americans, an Austrian, and some Norweigens. They were all really cool and I had a fabulous time talking to people in English. I know, I'm here to learn French, but it has been a while since I could actually carry on a conversation with people in English!

So, I'm looking forward to classes starting so I can make new friends and start to have a social life. That will be fun.

Anyway, when I finished at the University, I had a few hours to kill before going to the handball gym. I went downtown and hung out at the Polygone, the big shopping mall near the Place de la Comedie. I was on the look-out for a new school bag and some shoes, but didn't see anything interesting. So, instead I had a smoothie and a waffle with chocolate while I browsed what was "la mode" in French fashion. When did MC Hammer pants become sexy? That is NOT acceptable, and will be another fashion item I avoid along with skinny pants and 80's clothes.

When I finished my snack and had had my fill of nauseating fashion items like overalls and hammer-pants, I headed over to the gym.

As usual, I got lost for 40 minutes before I found it, but at least I had given myself enough time that I could arrive early for practice. We started at 7pm, but only ran through plays and did general passing and shooting warm-ups to prepare for the match at 8:30pm.

I didn't start this game, but went in around 15 minutes at the circle, after the other circle dominated with 4 goals. I didn't feel particularly confident on offense after strugging to connect with my backcourt in the last game against Nimes. I also have a hard time understanding the nuances of the plays, so for the time being, I feel like my backcourts are really frustrated with me. I scored one goal on a nice pass from the right back, drew a penalty on a second, and then hit the goalie in the stomach (arggggh) on the third, which really threw me off.

As a team we were killing the other team- they didn't even score for the first 18 minutes. We finished the first half 16-2, and then won the game 29-8 in the end. I played 40 minutes in total, and actually felt pretty good physically. We were finally able to run the fast break as a team and I enjoyed being on first wave. So, even if my offense is struggling at the moment while I get used to playing circle with a different group of people, at least my defense was solid and I was able to run like crazy through the whole game.

Laurent was pleased to see that some things were finally coming together (I say it is thanks to our awesome team-bonding weekend!). The plays that we practiced earlier in the evening looked good and we significantly reduced our turnovers. It is definitely looking positive for us if we can continue to keep it together.

New Apartment!

Monday I finally moved into my new apartment. Yay! I am really close to my host family, so I can still go over there and eat meals with them when I want to, and for the time being borrow their wireless internet since I haven't gotten it set-up in my place yet.

Hooray apartment!! Now with my own place, and the car, I feel like I'm starting to have a real life here. I went tonight to buy a bunch of things at the Wal-mart equivalent for my new place (even though it was almost completely furnished).

So cute, so now I just have to get it organized and then I will feel like I am really settled.

Pyranees: Pictures!

Want to check out my pictures from the Pyrenees? Click on the picture below and view the album in Ofoto!

Pyrenees: Canyoning!

Sunday morning was pretty relaxed. Laurent let us sleep-in, and then we had a leisurely breakfast outside. Bread, fruit, and various cantines of tea and coffee that Pierre brought over from his house.

After rinsing quickly in the creek that ran through the vineyard, we took down the tents and packed our bags into the van.

We spent the rest of the morning laying around and chatting, and resting in the sun. Around noon we had a quick lunch, and then we were off to go "canyoning."

Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I had never heard of canyoning before. And, like most things since I've been in France, my lack of language skills leads to everything being a mystery or a surprise. This was no exception, and I had no idea what to expect when we arrived!

We drove up the mountain this time, and parked at what looked like a scenic lookout off of a mountain road. The views were amazing, and there were mountains on all sides with a very deep canyoning running between them. The canyon was quite deep, but very narrow, so even though we knew there was water at the bottom, we couldn't see anything.

Our guide, Jerome, soon arrived. He is what I would describe as a French hippie. Very skinny, with long hair and a rugged look to him, clad in a speedo with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Classic. He sets us up with full-body westuits, including rubber socks and shoes, and of course, to top it off, a stylish pink helmet!

We started our hike around the mountain with just the rubber socks and shoes, and our wetsuits in hand so we wouldn't pass out from heat stroke. We hiked a few kilometers around a small road at the top of the mountain until we got to a place where we could hike into the canyon.

Sidenote: We were told to leave everything in the van except the swimsuits we were wearing and the wetsuits we needed to go canyoning. The exception to this was a small plastic jar that we carried for emergency items that could not get wet. Despite what you might think, that was not a cell phone or wallets or anything like that it, the "emergency items" were everyone's packet of cigarettes and a few lighters. And a granola bar in case anyone had a blood sugar issue. Love it. Seriously, a waterproof jug so that everyone would have their cigarettes! Welcome to France.

When we arrived in the canyon, we put on our wetsuits and helmets and started "canyoning." Here is my best explanation: Basically, it is like hiking in a river in a canyon. There are places where the water level is low and you are hiking through ankle/knee-deep water on rocks. Other places where it is very rocky, and you are pretty much scrambling over large rocks. There are also places where the water is deep, and you swim, or flow with the current, and better yet there are places where there are large drop-offs and you end up cliff jumping into the water below (if it is suitably deep). Very very cool!

The jumps were definitely the best part, but the views inside the canyon were also amazing. The mountain walls were really high and the canyon very narrow, so once you climbed in and got going down the river, you could not get out until you reached the end. It was a funny feeling to be inside the canyon, with these grand mountains towering over you, making you feel tiny and insignificant. At the same time, it is refreshing to be in awe of nature like that.

So, at times it was scary and took a lot of nerve to make some of the jumps. There were some where Jerome would tell us "if you are not absolutely confident you can jump farther than that rock, then don't do it, or you could get hurt." Luckily I am not afraid of heights, but I definitely had to give myself a pep talk to jump 30 feet into the river below! After doing it though, I felt invinceable, like I could do anything. It was also a nice feeling of comraderie with my teammates as we sang and cheered each other as each person prepared to make the jumps.

By the end of the 4 hour trek through the canyon, my legs were like jello, and my wal-mart watch (waterproof to 100meters) was completely busted from what I can only guess was the force of hitting the water during the jumps. The hike back out of the canyon was murder, and was more like climbing a mile of steep stairs than anything else. But it was a beautiful day and a fabulous weekend, and when we finally reached our mini-buses at the top, we were exhausted but happy.

We ate like we hadn't eaten in a year, stuffing bread and granola bars in our mouths at a rapid pace. My hair was all nappy and when I took off my wetsuit (ie. had 3 other people pull it off of me), there were bruises and marks all over my body!

When we'd finally dried off and put on some clothes, we got into the van to head home. I passed out right away, and when I woke up in Montpellier I was sad the weekend was over, but SO happy I'd gotten to go.

The point of the weekend was team-bonding, and I think it accomplished that. We all had a great time, there was no drama, and for the first time I feel like people on the team are getting to really know me as a friend. Taking on all of those challenging activities also gave everyone a good kick of confidence, and I think we all finished the weekend feeling like we could do anything.

Pyrenees: Going Climbing!

I've decided to break-up my awesome weekend into three parts, since there is a lot to say about it!

We started off for our trip at 7:30am on Saturday morning. We met at the gym, where the "club" (our social area) was open and there was tea and coffee and croissants waiting for us. Then we packed up the mini-buses and headed off to western France!

My favorite part of the drive was sleeping. Clearly. I was kind of tired after a week of getting up early and actually doing stuff. Although, I also enjoyed that in our 2.5 hour trip, there were multiple smoke breaks for the coach and the players! God forbid people go an hour without a cigarette.

So, after a leisurely drive to the Pyranees, we arrived in St. Paul de ????. Some small little village at the base of the Pyranees an hour or so from the city of Perpignan. We drove around a bunch of roundabouts (see: Jen Drives Stick Take 2) for another 30 minutes until we finally found the road we were looking for.

We pulled up in front of a gate at what turned out to be a gorgeous vineyard and orchard full of grapes, apples, plums, figs, and blackberries. It belonged to a friend of our coach named Pierre, who was a true outdoorsman. He told us not to touch his fruits, but we couldn't help ourselves and would reach-up to grab a fresh plum or some grapes when the temptation got to be too much!

After settling in a little bit, we set-up our picnic lunch and enjoyed the beautiful day. Soon after, Pierre brought us a bunch of climbing harnesses and got us ready to go for a climb!

We drove 3 minutes away to the base of a mountain that has several nice faces for climbing. We hiked 30 minutes through the brush until we reached the first face, where Pierre hooked up our ropes. Then, we got down to the climbing!

I'd been climbing a few times before, but it had certainly been a few years. I was confident before I got started, but about 6 feet of the ground I got stuck for a minute and my adrenaline started pumping. After I got past that one tricky part, I was good and shot up the rest of the face without too many problems. When I reached the top, the view was amazing, and I had a major high from the rush of making it all the way up!

We climbed 1-2 at a time, so once I got up to the top, I hung out for a while with some of my teammates while we waited for the others to finish. The views were amazing, and everyone was in a really good mood from having successfully completed a challenge. It was a positive atmosphere the whole time, with people helping each other out by yelling out encouraging words or telling them where there were nice footholds in the rock.

After we all finished the first climb, we started on the second. The second face was much more challenging, and the top was especially tricky. I was feeling good at this point and ready to go. I started my climb when the other person was 2/3 of the way up and was pleased when I raced past her and made it to the top first. Not that it was a competition, but it was a good confidence builder for sure.

I've felt like the last few weeks have been a challenge for me, and my body has been totally stressed out even if I feel OK mentally. Being on the mountain and really getting to know my teammates and do physically and mentally challenging tasks really had a positive effect on me. I could feel the stress leaving my body and I felt much more calm and relaxed than I have been since I arrived, like I was finally finding some balance. I love that about being in nature!!

After we finished the second climb, we started our descent back down the mountain before it could get dark. We set-up the rappelling and got down to business! I was a little scared because I couldn't understand ANYTHING that was going on during the explanation process. But, when it was my turn, my coach looked at me, told me not to worry that he had my ropes and he would make sure I made it down safely, and I sat back and started to rappell. It was smooth as glass, and a great trust excercise!

The trip down went quickly, and soon we were all on our way hiking back to the mini-buses. Everyone got excited when they saw there were "real" toiletts at the basecamp, so there was a mad rush for the bathrooms. Face it, it is much easier than going in the woods!!

All in all the climbing was fabulous! The day was gorgeous and the beautiful views and sense of accomplishment had everyone feeling like they were on top of the world.