Long-distance beer delivery!

This is a part of a much longer comic about fear and travel, comic soon!  FYI, the service I used to find the carpool was Blablacar, and I recommend it.

I went to a huge book festival in southern Paris last weekend called Salon du Livre.  The closest thing I've experienced in the US is the American Library Association conference.  It was a really nice, open, polished show with tons of book diversity.  I'm not buying books because books don't move easily, but I loved browsing and just seeing such a robust convention dedicated to books!

 In other news, I storyboarded a short story to add to my portfolio (you can read it here), and it was chosen for a Daily Deviation on Deviant Art!  Exciting!  The only other time that's happened for me was my Monsters & Dames drawing in 2010.

Glory of glories, my incredible boyfriend acquired a bottle of Oregon's own Black Butte Porter!!!

Everyone should spend a winter homeless in France

 It's so hard not messing up SOMEONE's picture in downtown Paris.

Whoo, it's been an eventful month.  I got a bit overwhelmed by how much I needed to catch y'all up on here, but today's the day.  Basically, my host family and I ended our work contract at the beginning of December.  We had decided I would stay through Christmas, but...the plans changed suddenly, haha.  They needed my bedroom available for the new help, so I went from employed and housed to neither in 24 hours.  It was an unexpected twist, but it's actually turning out to be amazing, thanks to the help of some incredible friends.  I've been couchsurfing with friends in Annecy, Geneva, Lyon, and Paris, enjoying myself thoroughly, and looking ahead to what options I have in 2014. 

The Annecy marché

MEANWHILE, my new book came out and got all kinds of fantastic coverage, my studio's Kickstarter campaign is heading into the final 24 hours, and a for-funsies comic I posted went completely viral.  MADNESS.

The view of Lake Annecy from a viewpoint hike through frozen woods

I was super sad to have to say such quick goodbyes to the kids I au pair'd for, and leave the village community I'd begun feeling a part of.  Luckily, I got a little quality time with each of my kids, was able to move and clean up after myself, and felt I did my best to end things properly.  It had been killing me how difficult travel was from my little town (30 minutes to the closest airport or TGV, and with only 2 days off in a row, it wasn't enough to go anywhere), and I've really been dying to get back to work on comics. :-/ The future is clouded in mystery, but I'm excited by the prospect of freedom.  It's not exactly what I had planned, but I was hoping for challenges and adventures when I left home.  Allons-y!

I stayed 8 nights with two generous comic book artists in Annecy (the authors of Tib & Tatoum!), which allowed me to continue my French class and keep seeing my friends in the area.  I got to see Annecy all festive for the holidays, with the Christmas market and the city lit up and beautiful.  It's incredible, getting to stay with locals and see the city through their eyes.  I would never have visited a swing dancing class, or shopped for vegetables at the street market, or known that December 6 was the Fête de la Saint-Nicolas, or discovered that I prefer soy yogurt to dairy, or found the American burger restaurant in the old town.  I'm newly convinced that, whenever possible, visiting friends or Couchsurfing is the best way to travel.
I was very curious how daily life might be different for a comic artist in France.  Seeing how they live and work, it's raising my aspirations for what kind of life I can build myself.  It reminds me of when I went to Periscope for the first time and suddenly had 25 real-life role-models for the career I wanted but could not previously picture.  It's opening my eyes to new possibilities.

On December 7, I ran the Course de l'Escalade in Geneva with a family from my old village.  They reached out to me this fall and invited me to run by the river in Seyssel with them a couple of times, took me to a BD signing in Annecy, introduced me to a comic shop owner and told him about my work, had me over for tea...  They are the sweetest.  At the race, the family's kids ran with their age groups, and then the mother and her sister ran with me in the afternoon women's 5k.  We had gauffre, hot dogs, sweet tea, coffee, fresh bread, and bananas.  The race weaved through Geneva's old city: narrow cobblestone streets, streetlamps, people cheering on the sidewalks and overpasses and out of their windows.  So pretty!  It was an unforgettable experience.  There were people calling my name and making eye contact with me as I ran by--I was so confused!  I thought maybe someone from Tumblr had come out to support me or something.  After the race, the mother of the family said that strangers had been cheering for her, probably because our names are written on the paper pinned to our chests.  D'oh!

Post-race glow

After the race, I stayed to visit my friends Chelsea and Pierre in Geneva for 2 nights.  We went to a French dinner party (only 2 French conversations went completely over my head!), saw the Museum of Art and History, marathoned Taken 1 and 2, and I went to Lake Geneva to see the touristy stuff.  Chelsea and Pierre helped me out big time, offering to store my unmanageably large suitcase at their condo until I relocate in January.  Now I'm free to travel around with my duffle bag and backpack containing my necessities.

Next was a trip to Lyon to visit Atelier KCS.  Woooooow.  I kind of fell in love with it.  I mean, I felt something special in Lyon back in October, but finally seeing a French comic book studio...!  It was magical.  I got to work there for several days with 10 professional cartoonists, see more of Lyon, and meet lots of wonderful and talented people.  I couldn't believe my good fortune.

Expérience, a comic shop in Lyon, sports sharpie drawings from hundreds of famous artists around the ceiling.

 

Foggy, freezing Lyon

A thank-you drawing for our Lyon host

And now I'm in Paris, seeing the city all festive for Noel and New Years.  I've taken a couple of work meetings on my search for What Comes Next (I'm hoping it's drawing comics for a French company and staying in France through the end of my visa, but...we'll just have to see).  Mostly I am enjoying my freedom, the people I find myself with, and the places I find myself in.  I'm so glad I'm here and doing this.  If I ever have kids they are definitely getting encouraged to take a year off in Europe.

I keep stopping to think about how I will describe this whole travel experience to people.  I want to recommend that everyone does what I've done, but it's simply not possible.  You'd have to have met Chelsea and Pierre and Aline and Nicholas and Flora and Sandra and Barbara and Alex and Damien and Ulric and Marine and Bartholemy and Nathalie and Ben and Jerome and Anne-Claire and Arnaud and Virginie and Olivier and Emy to have some of the best experiences I've had, and I just cannot guarantee you'd meet them if you took off for France.  I guess what I'll tell people is: don't be afraid to be open to friendship with people you think you will not know for very long.  My friendships with Aline and Chelsea were completely haphazard.  It would have been easy to think, "Ehh, this experience is temporary. Why invest in new friends?  I'll just wait it out and get back to my friends back home next summer."  We are not each other's normal types.  But oh my goodness, I can't even imagine if I'd missed out on knowing them!  That's a lesson I'm going to carry forward with me.

She's got a ticket to ride

Yeah, don't try to ride the train in France without a ticket.  This man happened to be very nice and saw by the panic on my face and my travel itinerary that I had in fact purchased a ticket online and was simply a France train n00b.  He told me that no, you can't print e-tickets out at the station, unless the station is open, which it rarely is in my small town.  You can print them out at the post office, though!  (Of course you can)
Travel here has been fine, but there always seems to be some little detail that trips me up.  You know the only 2 times my credit cards haven't worked here?  When I was buying a train ticket back from Geneva 10 minutes before departure, and when I needed gas late at night in the middle of nowhere.  Two weeks ago, I was riding an older model of train, and when we stopped I couldn't open the door.  There was no one around and we took off before I could open the door, so I took a 90 minute detour to the next stop and back.  Things here aren't backwards, but they are different from what I'm used to, and learning the ins and outs is a long and laborious process fraught with mistakes.  I leave a lot of margin time on my itinerary when I travel!!

So what's new in the last couple of weeks?  A lot!  Things here are going really well. 
We cleaned out the garage and moved the outdoor furniture and trampoline inside for the winter, as we've just started seeing snow in the mornings (EEEEE).  The mountains around us are slowly turning white, and everyone's gearing up for 4 cold cold months.  I borrowed a gigantic puffy coat from my host mom that I think is going to save my life.  I look like a giant black marshmallow but I love it.

We celebrated Halloween in my village, which was a treat for me.  I was shocked by how homesick I got around Halloween, thinking about my traditions like throwing a party with Hannah, going to a big PDX comic scene party, making some elaborate, geeky costume, getting crunkity with my friends on the Saturday before, and handing out candy on Halloween itself to the adorable neighborhood chitlins.  In our little French village, Halloween is in the early stages of catching on.  We trick-or-treated many houses that did not answer or did not have candy.  We received an egg from one house.  We trick-or-treated a building I thought was a house that turned out to be an industrial kitchen with several farm hands processing milk late at night.  The amazing thing was that the woman who answered the door rushed off to find some candy and returned with a ton of jelly beans!  It was a super fun night.

I made some new friends!  These two ladies from my class (also au pairs, from Spain and Italy) invited me on a day trip to Lyon, and have been very very fun to hang out with.  S on the left lives 3 minutes away from me and we've been able to carpool, which is such a treat.  We save money on gas and have company on our commutes!

I went out dancing for the first time since getting here.  I felt like I was in college again, but it was great.  So crazy.  Spanish people party hardy!

I got a library card and have been enjoying the bounty of even our tiny town's library.  So many comics!  You wouldn't believe it.  At least half of the stock is comics.  I've been continually amazing by how well-read people here are, and how often I find myself in conversations about new comics or a storytelling technique someone found clever or what materials they prefer in the comics they read...it's unbelievable!  And I've been fortunate enough to find people interested in trading comics, so I can save a little money and discuss books with other people. :)

Annecy transformed, seemingly overnight, into a winter wonderland.  I spent Saturday in town at a BD dedicace and then wandered around the city at twilight.  It was freezing cold and gray outside, but that made the warm lights of the stores feel magical and inviting.  I got a Nutella crepe to go and learned that hot red wine is a thing here (in little to-go cups while you walk the street!).  There are Christmas lights and the lake is so, so pretty...sigh!

There's a sweet family in my village that has invited me on a few outings with them.  I signed up for the Course de l'Escalade with the mom, who is training for her first full marathon in April!  We've gone to run by the river a couple of times while the dad and kids run or play on bikes and roller blades.  On December 7 we'll run 4.8km through downtown Geneva with a ton of other people.  I've heard the whole city comes out to watch/run/party, and I'm really excited about it.  I only wish I'd brought some giant Nike or PDX sweatshirt to rep my hometown!! ;_; I might use face paint to draw an American flag on my cheeks or something...

And lastly, there was this "coq-au-vin" fundraiser for my little girl's school in the next village over.  We went to a community center and drank and ate dinner with about a hundred people from the area.  It was so fun.  It cracked me up that it lasted until 11:30, when the same kind of thing in the US would be over by 7:30!  I was amazed how welcome and comfortable I felt.  It made me step back and realize that, actually, I know more than a few people here, between waiting for kids at the morning and afternoon bus stops, kid play dates, babysitting for other families, etc...people here are great, and I'm starting to feel a little bit integrated in the community.  It's a wonderful feeling.