Defining Moments.

Being a bit more than half finished with my teaching assistant contract, I’ve become a bit… reflective (hazy screen and fade out). After applying in late November, I found out that I indeed got this position the following spring, specifically during spring break. In the middle of a drinking game I checked my Gmail on my iPhone (do I perfectly represent our generation or what?) and saw the acceptance letter. All I knew was that I had a job in France in some place called “Besançon.” My first reaction? To tell my friends and family, starting with my roommate whom I had to wake up because she goes to bed by like 9 p.m… even on spring break. My second reaction? To try to learn how to smoke a cigarette, since I was going to France and all. Katie mustered up some excitement before falling back asleep and the cigarette thankfully didn’t take.

The next morning walking along the beach (I can’t remember for the life of me where we were… Panama City? Orange Beach? Gulf Shores?), my friends went ahead to go look for shells or something and I sat in the sand just at the break of the waves. Burying and uncovering my sun burnt shins in the sand and meeting the water with my toes I looked out at the horizon of the pale sky meeting the gulf (how cinematic is THAT?). I thought about what this experience could mean and if I could really do this. I felt what you’d expect, the mixture of excitement and fear that comes with most new things, no way could I have anticipated this reality. I remember the morning so perfectly well that it seems like I just fast-forwarded here.

I thought of that moment tonight while I stood in the snow outside my apartment after walking a friend to the bus stop. I think I’ve gotten used to the inconveniences of snow: the extra clothes, the different consistencies of it under your feet, the weird bus schedules (if they run at all... as mom can now attest) but I still get taken aback by how pretty it is. I’ve said it before, but I swear… it sparkles. And when it’s falling it’s really something. So heavy and fast that its shadows underneath the streetlights look like swarming gnats… but in a pretty way, I promise. I stood there for a bit trying to capture it in my mind and had another one of my “whoa, I’m in France” revelations and thought about what this experience has meant to me so far. Two distinct moments, separated by nine months, an ocean, and about 60 degrees of temperature but I think I’ll always connect them in my mind. Tonight in the snow kind of felt like the answer to whatever question I had in the sand last April.

Nostalgia managed!

As I said before, this is the halfway point and I want to make damn sure I get the most out of it. Next vacation is coming up (haha, this is SUCH a cake job – a job I actually feel like I getting better at and will attempt to cover in the next post). Skiing and a visit to London are on the agenda. Since I’m a complete skiing debutante, this vacay could either be the beginnings of a fun new hobby or an opportunity to injure myself and take advantage of the socialist healthcare. Oh well, it’s a butterfly either way! And LONDON?! That’s a whole new country for me, which is great, but it’s a whole new country that actually speaks English! Will be traveling with sweet Caroline (whom you’ll recognize from Adventure #4) and I am SO excited! Let me know if you have any tips. Cheers!

Defining Normal.

2010 has been a bit busy so far, mom left and got home safe and I’ve been getting things back to normal… haha, normal. My definition of “normal” has changed in the last four months and how much it will continue to change at this time in my life, even once I get home. I suppose I now define “normal” as being the only American in my building, relying on buses and walking to get everywhere, teaching children mostly of North African descent, dealing with yet appreciating the snow, using Facebook chat almost daily, wearing leggings under my jeans, and a million other little things that I’ve accepted/embraced in my new little life here. Oh, and everything’s in French. I’m at the halfway point in my contract and if the past four months are a precursor, then the next four are going to fly by SO quickly, but hopefully be amazing. With every New Year comes resolutions and mine include saving money and traveling wisely as well as figuring my life post-France. Because this current brand of normalcy is only going to last until April, I’m going to have to find a new one. I guess I should consider this exciting, right? Since I’m on the brink of the rest of my life and all… scary though, too. The decisions I make now could possibility determine what my normal is for the next fifty or so years. A bit intense, no?

But in the meantime, I owe y’all some pictures and things. Click here for our last week of our vacation that includes Mom’s stay in Besançon bookended with some nights in Paris. I was kind of over the whole “taking pictures” thing at that point and we did Paris very slow and lazylike but I promise we saw all the big highlights anyway. You can Google image Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower if you really need to know what they look like. Also, I’d recommend checking out the Besançon at Christmastime folder to see some pictures of the Christmas Party at my school (that was indeed over a month away… sorry for the tardiness). More to come soon. PROMISE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A little sneak-peak to our time in Paris... the Eiffel Tower from our viewpoint on the Passerelle Debilly (a pedestrian bridge) at midnight on New Year's Eve. In the words of the loud, screaming, drunk guy in the background: BONNE ANNÉE to you all!

Adventure #10: Lucerne

For Christmas, I got a little iPod shuffle that my brother Timmy loaded with songs for me. On the train to Lucerne I listened to Alan Jackson, Nickelback, and the LSU Pregame, a pretty unique soundtrack to the views of snow-capped mountains and tiny Swiss and Austrian villages. Haha, I LOVED it!

Lucerne was special. The inspiration of my mom’s whole trip out here was actually my grandmother, Mattie Ruth. She adored Switzerland and visited it eight or nine times just since I knew her. Mom and I never took the chance to go with her so we made this one in memory of her and tried to trace her footsteps a bit. We even stayed in the same Lucerne hotel she did and visited the same gift store (Casagrande) where she always bought her presents for us. It was nice to see those same bags Mat carted home full of Toblerone bars (even though we could buy them in Baton Rouge she swore they were “fresher” brought straight from Switzerland) and I even recognized some of the knick-knacks and jewelry as things I have back stashed home, gifts from her. I like to think that she’d be especially proud of me for being here and she would have definitely been the first to visit and we would sure have had some fun! She was some lady… and became an important influence in my life.

I think Lucerne has been my favorite. (Already, Salzburg seems like SO long ago…) I’m not sure if it was the mountains, the colorful and detailed architecture, or the connection with Mat, but I loved it. It turned out to be a nice place to pass my birthday, too! Have a look at the pictures… it was hard to not take pretty ones!