I guess I'm Just Feeling Autumnish

One of the main squares in Brussels

It officially feels like Autumn here :) The weather is chilly, my heat is turned on, I cook squash at least once a week, and I have a constant desire to drink tea or hot cocoa.  The scent of chestnuts lingers in the kitchen, as one of us is inevitably cooking them up for a snack.  I have a pile of leaves that blow through the door with me if the mistral is picking up and I live in my LL Bean slippers.  In many ways it feels like the Autumn I know from the US, but one bonus about the south of France is the sun.  In the North East, we get cold weather and each day it creeps closer to Christmas it also gets darker and grayer.  In Avignon, our time change hit a week earlier, so sunset is around 7PM, but I expect to have a lot of sunlight come the holidays.

Two weekends ago I was in Brussels, which was a different change from Avignon.  It was damp, but warmer than the south.  It is amazing how wind can make everything feel colder!  I was working Megavino with some other Finger Lakes and New York State representatives.  Megavino was an interesting experience, and after the long weekend I was exhausted of explaining that New State ≠ New York City.  A countless number of people asked me if we grew grape vines atop apartment buildings in New York City, *sigh*. I did get to spend some time seeing who else was attending the exposition and I got to taste some wines from all over the place: Slovenia, Hungary, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, and South Africa.  There were other countries present, but I could not taste everything :) I had some delicious meals and a comfortable hotel room as compensation for working the show.  Of all the things I tried, I made sure to try horse meat while I was in Belgium.  Many people would probably beat me over the head for eating it, but it is a cultural staple in Belgium.  In all honesty, it tasted like beef.  I do not particularly love beef, so I do not have a burning desire to eat horse in the next year.  Here is an interesting article on the history of horse meat. If you enjoy beef, you would probably love horse.

Sasha and I with our Belgian beers!

While in Brussels I did seek out some chocolate.  I bought a cup of hot chocolate for my lunch and I invested in chocolates for Christmas. I bought the chocolates from Pierre Marcolini a well-known chocolatier in Belgium.  Supposedly they have won for best chocolate in Belgium a few years in a row.  After my taste test, I can see why–delicious!

I returned from Brussels to finish out my week teaching about Halloween.  I read The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything eleven times.  By the time my last class heard the story, I was nearly reciting it by memory! I should thank my mom for mailing me the book along with some Halloween stickers that I handed out.  I now have off until November 12 because of Toussaint vacation. It is a two-week break from school to celebrate Toussaint (All Saints Day).  I do not mind the break as it is allowing me to get settled into my home and Avignon. I can just meander the streets and nearby Villeneuve-Lez-Avignon without worrying about work.  I suppose next week I will think more about lesson planning, but for now I will relish in the sunshine and abundance of pastries available to me in France!

Tomorrow will surely be a lazy day and I am just awaiting my next tutoring session so I can buy a charger for my camera.  Someday soon I will have pictures from Avignon and my local visits to share!

Because some people just Can't Speak French...

Settling In.

It is a weird feeling when it finally hits that you will be staying somewhere for more than a few weeks.  This happened today. A mix of extreme sadness and joyful anticipation swirls inside of you and out comes a headache.  Fortunately, mailing a few letters in the direction of the US tends to relieve headaches brought on my this type of stress, so I did exactly that today. Le mistral has begun to pick up, but I still managed to fight back against the wind to send some mail stateside.

The joyful anticipation of what is to come occurs everyday in the silly things that happen to/around me.  If I did not know how to laugh at myself I would never survive. Here is a tidbit from this past weekend (and the necessary back story).  I live with five people.  Sometimes, however, we become eight when my landlord and his two daughters are around the house.  They are wonderful, so I am not put off by his presence, but I had a very "French" experience on Saturday.  I tutored in Pujaut Saturday morning, caught a bus back to Avignon around 2PM, and then met up with a couple other assistants around 2:30PM. We meandered around a bit, but we decided to swing by my house after I bought some groceries that needed a fridge.  I walked into the kitchen to find all of my housemates and landlord sitting around our kitchen table.  I was about to miss the octopus cook-off! I really did not want to miss this.  My one housemate (Etienne) is French, but from Mayotte (think Comoros islands near Madagascar).  My landlord (Raynald) is French as well and wanted to defend his style of octopus preparation after Etienne said that it was only "okay."  The rest of us were called upon to be judges in the important event.  I innocently dragged two language assistants into the competition as well, and one of them was not a fan of octopus. So I spent Saturday stuffing myself with octopus, one in the style of a sauce over rice and the other in a tapas style. In the end, my landlord won by one vote (we were nine) and he stood on a chair pounding his chest.  I have never rented a room from someone like this before. I like it. I think that all landlords/landladies should take a page from his book.

I thought that my eventful Saturday was over once my belly was full, but how silly of me!  Raynald's younger daughter has really taken to me.  She is ten, and upon her discovery of my sticker collection for my students, has become my best friend.  I think that she is trying to sweet talk me into free stickers.  I mean, I am suspicious that Kelby dates me for the same reason :P So she really likes me, and as I was getting ready to go out to a bar for the night she asked to come along. I told her to check with her father assuming that he would say no.  How silly of me. Raynald thought that it was a fine idea and told his daughter that she could go.  He also offered to drive us, so seven of us (plus the dog!) piled into a little Renault to make our way to the bar.  Needless to say, it was a really tight squeeze.  I also ordered drinks with a child for the first time.  Raynald's daughter did order a Coca-cola, so I cannot say that she was drinking crappy red wine with me, but even so, how many people can say that they went out with a child and her pet dog? I assume not many.  I really hope that this assumption is correct!

What could be more "Provence?" Drinking wine in the street, at a bar with a child and dog, a warm night...Also, did I mention that I had two Spanish couchsurfers staying over Saturday night? They found this entire situation hilarious. However, there was some mild confusion since they had little grasp of the French language.

I guess the part of me that gets sad is when I know that I cannot share these types of moments with the person that means the most to me.  *Sigh*, as I told myself earlier today: soon enough!

Well, until next time! I suggest taking a child and her dog to a bar with you so that I am not the only one :D

Sur le Pont d'Avignon...

Avignon

While working in Fox Run's tasting room this summer, I had an unexpected number of people break out into this French classic.  They were trying to connect with me when I told them that my future plans were not to pour wine for strangers, and that for the moment I was headed to Avignon for seven months.  On the rare occasion they would even do a twirl when it got to the "on y danse" line of the song.  Silly tourists. 

My bedroom! (Well, some of it...)

That little intro to announce that I am in Avignon and I have been here for almost two weeks.  I arrived at the end of September on a rainy night after 28 hours of travel.  As one could expect, for irony's sake, the last leg of my trip had a hiccup.  The train I was on got delayed en route to Avignon because of something that had fallen across the tracks.  Thirty minutes away from my end destination and I got stuck on the train. Damn.  When I finally did arrive I had to get to my couchsurfing host's apartment by taxi.  There were, of course, no taxis at the station.  I got drizzled on for about twenty pathetic minutes while I awaited a taxi to swing by and scoop me up. Fortunately, I had been hanging out in the wine production facility at Fox Run long enough to not mind a bit of dampness.  I mean, it is never ideal, but I was okay with it.  My host, Charlotte, was kind enough to boil some water and offer me some chamomile tea.  It was a good end to a long trip and miserable weather.

The next morning I took my time getting up and dragged myself out of their house to start what I was dreading: house hunting.  Ugh! It just sounds terrifying, doesn't it? When landing in a new country the last thing that you want to deal with is finding a place to live.  I buckled down for a frustrating and potentially fruitless day.  Perhaps to prove me wrong and perk me up, my day took an unexpected turn for the best! I was waiting at the bus stop and realized that I had no idea how to arrive in the center of Avignon.  There was one other person waiting for the bus, a young man, and I asked for help.  The conversation about where I was going soon turned to why I was headed there.  I informed the young man, Thomas, that I was looking for a room to rent.  As it turns out, Thomas is a student at the local university and there was one free room in the house where he had just begun renting.  He asked if I would like him to call the landlord, Raynald, and see if the room was still available.  I said that I would appreciate it (but I was a bit sketched out) and he called.  Well, the room was available and I am typing this post from it! Everyone turned out to be great, and I live with three students and another American teaching assistant.  Within 100 feet of Charlotte's house I found a room to rent for seven months, who would have guessed it!

From that point on everything has been great.  Ignoring the mountain of paperwork necessary for the French government, my life is Avignon is going well.   I have two families that I "tutor" for (it is more babysitting in English than actually tutoring), I started going to my schools this week, and next week I am off to Brussels for the International Wine Expo. 

A great picture from Fox Run! Thanks for sending it, Peter :)

Things that I will not do this year:
-Take in stray kittens
-Eat a lot of rice
-Drink café Touba every morning
-Grade A LOT of 4th grade math assignments
-Get tan

There are aspects of Senegal that I miss, but I may be much better at keeping this blog since I will always have power/Internet when I fancy writing about my experiences in France.

As always, I love mail, so send me letters, postcards, anything!

Julia Hoyle
36 Rue du Rempart Saint-Lazare
Avignon, 84000
FRANCE

Until next time I get the urge to blog, à plus!

Dix-neuf

Nothing much has happened since yesterday except a good night's sleep, so this will be a quick update:

Weird, right?

What am I looking forward to? Rain.  When you are away from it for a long time you being to miss it.  I have seen in rain twice in the past seven months (excluding when I was home in December) and that is not enough! One of those two times was when James first got here and we went for a jog in the rain–it felt great! I am so looking forward to late nights listening to the rain pound my roof while drinking tea, hot chocolate, wine, or something else delicious!

A picture I took of Seneca Lake after staying up for the Perseids (2009)

When I leave I will miss waking up with the sunrise.  Everyday the sun is rising as I rise for work–I love it!  Getting out of bed in the dark makes me feel even more exhausted than I am, and waking up once the day has started makes me feel lazy. I love that the sun and I have the same schedule in the AM while I am over here :)



Because Creedence Clearwater Revival always puts me in a summer mood: