Achats rêverie 2

Here's the male answer to that female French clothing vocab sheet last week.  For any of you artsy types who might like to design your own clothing for them, please check out the download links to the model bases here: Female / Male

I will join my mom in Marseille this weekend, and we will tour around France and Italy for the next two weeks.  I'll check back in ASAP with an update, but you stay classy until then, Internet!

R-U-D-E

Behold my crimes against the 180-degree rule.

We count our dollars on the train to the party

VOYAGE FRANCE week 3

Woof, I'm writing this after a grueling hike to the top of Seyssel's Montagne des Princes (900m elevation).  On Saturday morning I set out with a bunch of parents from the area to pass a test that would allow us to chaperone our kids' school snowshoeing trips this winter.  The test was mostly about finishing the hike in under 2 hours, but we also had to answer emergency scenario questions (in French!) one-on-one with a Department employee, and I felt lucky to get even half of the points on that.  Honestly, I would have gotten a couple of the questions wrong in English!  I hope I'm never the only chaperone on those trips... (0_o)

 

Nice view from the top! Cows jingling their bells by a drinking pond, sprawling landscape, snow-capped Alps in the distance.

My host mom bought a second car for me to use!!!  I am mobile!  I started learning to drive manual transmission cars in August under the tutelage of my friends Cat and Jeremy, since pretty much all cars in France are manual and I knew that driving would be a part of my job.  Currently I'm comfortable enough to run errands alone, but it's still stressful for me every time I get into the driver's seat (not least of all because the roads here are scary.  I don't even want to risk freaking my parents out by describing them).  I stall on every single hill stop.  Ugh.  But by next summer, I want to be a pro!!

I had my first difficult night watching my kids, and it all started with telling a 12-year-old he could NOT play his new video game (Grand Theft Auto 5). (-_-) My two kids had two friends over, and while the girls were getting into trouble upstairs, the boys were locking themselves in the TV room with the video game downstairs.  I had to watch both groups while making dinner and cleaning up after.  It was overwhelming.  I will say, though, that I'm very thankful that in 3 weeks I only JUST had my first difficult night, and it was an abnormal situation.

In happy news, I met another au pair (let's call her "A"?) who lives next door to the one I met last week ("C").  I really like them both, and they were super welcoming to me.  We had a night in and a night out this week and they were both fantastic.  We bonded more than you would imagine over missing Mexican food, and are laying plans to recreate it as best we can between the three of us!  And there's a good chance we'll be in the same French class (starting tomorrow!!).

Annecy nightlife gets my prance of approval.

The way that comics are used/treated in France makes me SO. HAPPY.  My 6-year-old is learning comics terminology in school right now.  Her textbook uses text, images, and comics to teach.  She and her 12-year-old brother both have projects in school where they have to make comics (like, a report, but in comic form!).
Here's a sign at the entrance to the forest near Seyssel:

My host mom made a good point that since there are so many tourists in France who don't speak French, comics are a great communication tool.  If the words don't make sense, the images alone might.  And here's a full page in this week's Elle magazine for Penelope Bagieu and Joann Sfar's new BD, Stars of the Stars:

More photos from this week:

I was proud to introduce my host family to Lorde's Royals this week!  It started playing on the radio a few days later.

MEANWHILE IN PORTLAND: Rose City Comic Con was this weekend!  Check out this aaaaaawesome It Girl cosplay by Ellie, with author Jamie S. Rich:

Achats rêverie

Someone is VERY excited to go shopping in Paris next month.

Baguettes make you FAT??

(Chocolate Shelf is seriously a full shelf and a half of nice chocolates meant to be consumed on a daily basis, right next to the fridge and more accessible than the eggs or grains.  I love it.)

Nothing wrong with gaining weight, but buying a new wardrobe is simply not an option on an au pair stipend, knomsaying?  But hey, as long as I don't outgrow my clothes I am DOWN for this rich new diet.  An afternoon espresso with chocolate is my new favorite ritual.  Dessert cheese is heavenly.  Fresh bread is dope.  I am so buying myself a raclette when I get back home, because everyone deserves to have one in their life (I feel the same way about kotatsu).  And I don't miss protein shakes, oatmeal, or energy bars...although I do miss Mexican food with a passion.

One thing that surprises me is how much time we spend at the table.  Meals are more stretched out than what I'm used to.  Well, breakfast is virtually nothing, but lunch can be the equivalent of an American family dinner, and dinner can be drinks at 6, main course at 8, dessert at 9, coffee at 10, and talking around the table late into the night.  I'm used to stuffing my face and leaving the table as quickly as possible, so it's taking some adjustment to go slow and focus on the conversation as much as the food.  My parents did a good job of encouraging that at our family table, but it's even more exaggerated here.  We brought my host sister home from school for lunch, and she was with us for so long I started to wonder if she had the afternoon off, but it turns out that elementary school lunches are like 2 hours long.

VOYAGE FRANCE week 2 was good!  Jet lag is gone, the routine is becoming more natural for me and definitely for the kids.  I've driven a little more and that gets easier and easier. 

 

We went into Annecy and that city is breathtaking.  I saw a FNAC in the flesh for the first time. :P

Dude so okay.  This is just the community pool.  Not a millionaire's infinity pool.  That breathtaking view of the Alps?  So commonplace it's not even commented on.  I think people are getting tired of hearing me say, "It's so pretty here!" and "I can't believe this view!"

Til next time!  Ciao~

Something good can work and it can work for you

VOYAGE FRANCE week 1:

I'm here!  I've been here for a week!  Things are great!  My host family is wonderful!  I just got my computer connected to the wifi this morning, so here's an update...

THIS PLACE IS BEAUTIFUL.  I cannot believe it.  Sunrises and sunsets over the Alps.  Mont Blanc on the distant horizon.  Green green green green with white and brown cows and stone houses and blue mountains and red tractors.  Animals!  4 farm cats, grasshoppers, butterflies, bees, lizards, beetles, snails, horses, goats, foxes, badgers, a billion birds I can't identify, and, apparently, even wild boars.

The house is gigantic.  My room is much larger than my room at home, beautifully decorated, and has a private bathroom (swoon).  The whole house is beautifully rustic with modern comforts like wifi, satellite TV, laundry machines, and a dishwasher.  We keep the doors and windows open to the summer breeze and it's so QUIET after NYC.  I hear insects, the wind in the grass and trees, the occasional tractor or car, and...silence!  What even is that?
True story: on my first night here, someone was pouring a bath upstairs and I was lying in bed trying to place the sound ("Police siren...?  Wheels squealing on the pavement...?").

There's a historic castle in town and a pretty church.  There's a restaurant, post office, mayor's office, and a family that makes wine, and...that's kind of it!  The population is under 500.  It's remote enough that there isn't public transportation and a car is the only practical way to get to a "big" town (with cafes or supermarkets or whatever).  The roads are wide enough for cars to pass each other (barely...and oh god do they go at high speeds), but a lot of things are unmarked and unpaved.
It's hard not to completely objectify/fetishize the aesthetic of our house and of the town.  To me everything is new and romantic (and I need to take photos of it alllllllllllll), but I could see that being annoying for people who live here.

It's warm!  70/80 degrees and sunny, meals outside on the patio.  There have been some EPIC lightning storms in the evenings, too.  We protect the glass doors and windows with wood shutters.

My host family doesn't farm, but we live on fields that grow grass for hay, so there's lots of open space for romping.  We're also really close to a couple of good look-out points for taking in the surrounding area.  The neighbors raise geese to sell for Christmas dinners!

 I'm in love with my new running path:

And I have no excuse or commentary for the rest of these.  They're just photos for you because...pretty!  More soon~