Today

So this is the outside of my place; I realized that I haven't put up the outside yet but you all have seen the inside. Ah! And you see that window up at the top among the shingles? That's my window!

Went out to Paris again today. Trip #2! It was a lovely fall day, leaves were turning colors, the sky was blue with fluffy clouds, and the air had that nice crisp feel to it. Ah autumn in France! How beautiful! What's amazing is that the leaves on the trees across the river from my window are also turning colors and not just the brown before they fall like in southern California. Light greens, yellows, and even some red! Such lovely colors. Who knew fall had such colors! :-) (Alas, it's dark now and I didn't take pictures of those trees earlier so those will have to wait for another day.)

What made today even better was the de-lic-ious crepe that I had walking along the Siene! Une jambon et fromage crepe (ham and cheese)! Though the guys in front of me had a Nutella and banana crepe that also looked delicious. Too bad I couldn't eat two crepes and take pictures at the same time!




Note:
~ Paris is beautiful.
~ Fall is beautiful.
~ A brisk walk through the city is beautiful.
~ A good way to combat homesickness is enjoy a beautiful day in a beautiful city!

=)

Pictures part 1 and part 2

Things that remind me of home

~ The books I've brought from home
~ American tv shows on the internet
~ The dismantled Ikea desk that Thomas brought back from college that two of my friends have had in the past
~ The Honda Accord parked outside my street :)

Rainy day writings

Yesterday I was introduced to the teachers of the three schools I’ll be working with. In most cases I was introduced to the students as well. What was so cute was that the kids seemed so surprised at the fact that I was from San Francisco. Albeit, as children, and this applies for children of any nationality, you can say almost anything to them and they would “oooh” and “ahh” over it. The children were quite interested in me as it would seem, which ultimately sets the bar quite high for me. Well perhaps a different sort of bar. If the kids weren’t interested in the first place, then I’d have to work very hard to get their interest and keep it. In this situation, I’ll have to keep their interest and not mess up. So perhaps the bar isn’t that high to begin with. But teaching a class – a French class no less – for forty-five minutes a day for only twice a week has its sets of challenges. I’ve seen Voon try to teach an unruly class for thirty minutes and for the most part it’s very unfruitful. At such an age, any distraction for the kids is a welcomed one. They are able to chat and talk for the five or so minutes it takes for transitions to occur. Most of the times teachers tend to take advantage of that few minutes to catch up on latest news or the simple “hi, how have you been”s. In those fleeting moments, children take advantage of that and begin conversations of their own. And with good reason. Why not take the next few minutes to chat with your neighbor about who knows what? Teachers do it, why not them?

So I suppose the best way to discontinue that is to have them start doing something when I get in. A song perhaps. I wish I had some of my teaching stuff with me that way at least I’d have some references to begin with. Mmm.. what’s a good song to start my lesson with. Abc’s would be too childish but I might just have to start there.

I’m glad I have a good view of nature outside my window however small it may be. It’s very strange to be looking out into a river and a hill full of trees. Living in the Bay Area definitely gives you more nature than Southern California, but to be able to look out my window and see a river and trees is something rather uncanny to me. It’s truly beautiful and the leaves on the tree are beginning to change colors. I don’t know yet if they’ll be as pretty as the pictures of New England’s fall foliage, but there are signs of promise. I might actually see a real fall here! The weather’s that of a Bay Area winter already. Low sixties in temperature, sporadic rain, and grey clouds. Yep, definitely a winter I’m accustomed to. However, it’s only the first day of October. There’s much more of fall to see before the real winter shows its face. From what I’ve gathered, chances of snow are actually rather slim. Creil is about the same latitude as Canada and it snows in Seattle. Perhaps I’ll see more snow fall this winter. What an auspicious winter that will be.

What definitely reminds me that I’m not in a middle of nowhere town is the recurrent trek of a barge crossing my window view. At least there’s some industry going through the city. The sounds of motor vehicles constantly flow through my open window. Even voices from the street are heard from my third floor room. There’s a tall building atop the hill between the thick forest of trees. Swans calmly bob in the river and every so often I catch them hopping along the water’s surface, their immense wings outstretched, as they begin to take flight away from the next barge carrying its massive load. Beautiful nature surrounded by industry and the ever-present human.

My break schedule (aka. wouldn't it be nice to have a french vacation around these dates?)

All Saints' Day Holiday: Oct 25 - Nov 6
Christmas Holiday: Dec 20 - Jan 5
Winter Holiday: Feb 21 - March 9
Spring Holiday: April 18 - May 4

Q & A letter to my parents (which basically sums up my past few days in more detail)

(In italics are parts of my parents' letter to me. And yes, it was numbered.)

Hi Pa/Ma,

I've played with the clock and I still can't quite figure out how to adjust the time; the beeping at every button i push though quickly eats away at my patience too so that could be a reason why I haven't figured it out yet.

1)What did you eat for your three meals?
1) So far I've been eating simple stuff, haven't cooked much. Mmm beef ravioli and some pasta sauce, croissant and coffee, pizza, sandwiches etc. I started to really crave hamburgers though. Want to send a cheeseburger over? ^_^ I haven't completely ventured out to try all the food possibilities here yet especially because since it's a small city everything closes down between 12 and 2 for lunch break. And when I mean everything, EVERYTHING.. eesh, I'm starting to imagine how fun it must have been for icia in New Mexico. Least everyone there spoke english though! So yeah, by the time I get hungry and I don't have anything in my fridge and i wander out, lots of things close. I know now that I shouldn't go out around those hours. It's sooo annoying. EVERYTHING!! =(

2)What is the best time to call you with the tel.# you had provided Papa Mama?
2) My host mother's in Canada until the 18th, my host sisters live elsewhere but pop in every once in a while because their children go to school near here, my host brother is pretty much out all day, so I basically have the house to myself. Which is good and bad. VERY lonely after a while though. So i go out and wander around town or take the train out to Paris, but even so, traveling alone is quite lonely. Mm.. I can't give mama/papa a good estimate of what time to call me. I'll usually be home around 6pm on (9am for CA) and I've been waking up around 8am too (11pm but that might be too late for mama/papa) I'm looking into buying a prepaid phone plan here, but I'm waiting for someone to come with me just so they can talk about the specifics since I don't know all the terminology yet. (Man, today looking for a surge protector was sooo difficult! I even looked up what a surge protector was in french first, but the guys at the store still didn't understand what it was. I was starting to think that they don't use surge protectors at all.. which then would have saved me and the guys at the store who were trying to help A LOT of confusion. *edit* I just asked my roommate about surge protectors and he says that the electricity here is pretty stable so I won't need one. I'll look into this further.)

3) if you feel lonely, did you email your doggy brother or doggy sisters? (Good buddy buddies, in Chinese "Goh Hsung Goh Dee",) Tell them get over there to visit you some time.
3) I've spoken to some of my friends since I've been here but it's rather limited still. Which is I suppose also a good thing. A number of them are on during the mornings or in the evenings so I get a chance to talk to them on Skype. Then there are those who are never online to begin with, mainly my socal friends. Funny how my norcal friends are so addicted to the internet with Silicon Valley being right there. =) Ask Shanley about Skype and then Mama/Papa can use it too instead of long distance calls.

4)When does your teaching work start?
4) Tomorrow my supervisor (maybe, I'm actually not quite sure what she is to me) will take me to my school to get a tour around and then orientation will be on Oct 2nd which probably means either we start that following Friday or the following Monday. Either way it'll be soon which will be great because the less occupied I am the unhappier I become. =T

5) If stupid French people jokes about your last name "CHIEN", tell them you are a flying dog flying across the Atlantic Ocean to kick their butts, so what?!
5) =) No one's made any comment of my last name yet. My host family (of the ones I've met so far) are rather pleasant. If they've said anything about my last name then I haven't heard it to my face (or they've said it in french and too quickly for me to understand. In that case, it serves me right to not be good enough in french to have a retort at hand ^_^) Though at the store today (what seems to be the french version of a Costco or Sams Club) the moment I turned into an aisle a woman who was saying something to her friend saw me, immediately stopped mid-sentence, turned and whispered something to her friend and both started staring. Very strange. If you're going to whisper and talk behind my back at least be more discrete about it! Eesh. Honestly I don't care if they say anything since I didn't do anything, but geez.. freaking obvious!

6) Practice more of your French. In Chinese "Shu Dao Yong Shieh Fang Heng Shaou", meaning, Hate once learnt too little when now come to use it. Like your French language.
Shu: book
Dao: come to
Yong: to use
Shieh: the moment
Fan: so as; then
Heng: to hate
Shaou: little.
6) Not to worry, I'm practicing my french. I'm understanding more and more of each conversation i hear. It's still a bit difficult when they speak fast, but it's getting there. Again, technical terms and specifics are rather hard seeing as I didn't learn everything in class, but of those I've talked to, they've been really friendly about helping me. My host brother's very patient with my french too. He understands a bit more english than his sisters so it helps significantly in conversational progression.
6b) Papa's translation sucks! I'm still staring at it and I don't quite understand it. Tsk tsk, what bad grammar! ;-)

On a happier note, things are looking up. Though, fall and then winter are around the corner things might take a quick turn to more grumblings from me. A California girl only has so many warm articles of clothing!! >_< But again in light of that, it seems as though I've been wearing less clothes than the french. I'll be walking around in a t-shirt and jeans with a jacket in my backpack while everyone else is still wearing those jackets! Dunno... perhaps I still need to adjust to the climate?

ps.
What I need so far:
- sushi
- warm beaches
- california sun
- cheeseburgers
- american tv shows!!!

Day #5 in France

It's cold and foggy here and I can barely see the other side of the river.

Finally, some pictures! It's about time right? =)

The first few days

It's now day three in my French escapades and I must say, how lonely it is to travel on your own! After a very frustrating first day in which I landed, realized I was missing a luggage only to find out that it was left in DC, then with the help of the very helpful baggage claim representative, found the bus I was supposed to take to Creil, then to reach my place only to find no one there, and that no one would arrive for the next 45 minutes while I go about in my broken french trying to find someone who had a phone I could borrow, and then finally get in to my place once the lady arrives with her daughter, only to realize that I don't understand about 75% of what's being said at me, so I smile and nod like an idiot, then unpack and sleep and rest and whatnot, and then a second day where my second luggage finally comes! but unfortunately it has no handles anymore (thus its extended stay in DC), and I find out that I need multiple papers before I get my official stay in France "carte de sejour", and then I sleep more, finally, I realize on my third day here that traveling alone off in a very distant country is downright lonely and sad. =( It's nice for a while, but then you realize that there's no one to enjoy it with you! Alas, the downside to this choice I've made...