La chiromancie

Can we talk about that word for a second? I've kind of been holding off on writing a post about la chiromancie, mostly because up until just now, I didn't know that there was a word in French for it. La chiromancie is the science of palm-reading, which up until recently, I didn't think was much of a science. Let me tell you, reader: I am a believer. (I also like that romantisme is almost sort of hidden in there)

For our 2-week break for Toussaint, I not only explored Disneyland and hiked up to Chateau Gaillard with the other Les Andelysienne English assistant Chloe and her boyfriend, but I also decided to spend a few days out in Paris with my loves Hannah, Alexis, and Lia. We got to celebrate Halloween by watching Tim Burton movies with the Swedish House at the Cite Universitaire with caramel apples and home-made gourmet Reese's that I made at home. The next day, we headed to Les Peres Populaires, where Hannah works, to have a more intimate Halloween party with friends, where we dressed up, played Set, and had a drinking game with "Je n'ai jamais" ("Never have I ever"), which ended maybe a bit after it should have ended.

• 1: Ligne de vie (Line of life)
• 2: Ligne de tête (Line of head)
• 3: Ligne de coeur (Line of heart)
• 4: Anneau de Vénus (Venus ring)
• 5: Ligne de Soleil (Line of sun)
• 6: Ligne de Mercure (Line of mercury)
• 7: Ligne de chance (Line of luck)

The day I decided that I would head back to Les Andelys, Alexis drove me on his motorcycle over to Les Peres Populaires to hang out with Hannah while she was working. I enjoyed a delicious sandwich made by Hannah herself and worked on some of my Christmas cross-stitching projects. There was a guy sitting next to me at the bar, finishing off his third cup of coffee when he said he had to go, but I could tell that he definitely wanted to linger around more. As he stood up, he asked Hannah if I was her friend (we had been speaking English to each other, so I don't think he could tell whether or not I spoke French). She said yes, and I confirmed it, and he approached me and said that he had been looking at my hands since I sat down and asked if he could look at them.

I was a understandably a bit taken aback, but when I got the thumbs up from Hannah, I knew that this guy knew what he was doing (or at least did it often enough). He started off by telling me that I've had some health problems and that when I was around 8-10 years old, I had breathing problems, which was true! I got my tonsils and adenoids taken out around 10 years old because I could never breathe through my nose. He said that water is my element (truth), and that swimming would help with my breathing issues, but that water is not where my clarity lies because water has the ability to dilute oneself (he insisted- no baths when I need to clear my mind!). For clarity, I need to go to the Earth. Which is what I've been saying all along in terms of finding myself a relationship, but I digress. He also mentioned that around age 14, I had the realisation that I didn't have to always do what everyone told me to do anymore. I was always an obedient kid, but this is where I started to follow my own path and choose what I wanted to do (this is also when I started high school and decided that I would go against my parents' wishes and take French instead of Spanish, and also when I finally came out to myself and my friends).

This is about where he pointed out that he was getting goosebumps and that he could tell from afar that I had very special and very rare hands. He pointed out my Luck line, which ran all the way from the Moon section all the way nearly up to my fingers to Saturn. He said that this was extremely rare and that he'd never seen it before, and that it's a sign of heightened intuition. It doesn't quite mean that I can read other people and objects easily, but rather that they come to me and speak to me. He said that this is especially true of people who can't always speak for themselves, like toddlers, handicapped people, and immigrants (c'mon, everyone who knows me: how true is this???), and that I can find the innate beauty in objects from one simple glance.

After pointing out his goosebumps again, he moved onto my heart line. He told me that he saw lots of "trahisons", or abandonment, in all of my past relationships. This is about where he started to cry in recounting to me how up until now, I never was able to be complete in a relationship because I lost myself in the other person. I was always giving so much of myself until there was nothing left for the other person to love (this is where I started crying, too). I let people in up until a certain extent but never let them get any further, which is why I turn the focus onto them. He reasoned that my exes were never able to love me because I was doing too much loving them (sound familiar, all of my exes?).

He did say that there was a huge shift in my life about 8 months ago (!!!) and that I am finally on my way to loving myself enough to be a full person for myself and learn to trust others enough to love all of me. He showed me that my heart line was full of lots of love and was just a pure and loving heart in love with lots of people. The amazing thing is that he pinpointed the moment where I was just getting really sick and when my ex and I broke up and I had just had enough with getting turned down for who I was; having my girlfriend and my own body turn against me was my ultimate turning point for beginning to truly get back to me as a person and figure out who it is I am and what I want and need out of life and of the people who surround me. I don't think that I've lost the caring person that I was, but I'm finding myself to be more truthful to myself and to others about what my abilities are in love and in life.

He said that all of my lines are very weak, but they're getting stronger. After turning my hands over, he said that there are equal amounts masculine and feminine in my hands, and that there is a true balance between the two. He added that my hands and body have always been strong and that my head is just trying to catch up to them, to be as strong as the rest of me.

The last thing that he said was that I have come to a point in my life where I have to decide between a boring job and something more creative and artistically pleasing. For the moment, I'm taking that to mean that I just need to find creativity and passion through teaching the kids English and finding ways to make it interesting for all of us, though he also said that I would be really good at writing kids' books. I like to think that being an ASL interpreter would give me that kind of creative artistic satisfaction, though I haven't completely put away the idea of starting my own patisserie in America one day. I feel like I'm already well on my way to feeling complete, and I still can't believe how lucky I am that an old man in a bar was able to tell me all of the things that I already knew but needed to completely acknowledge and understand in order to truly accept myself as I am and get ready for all that life has to offer me.

Hello from Les Andelys!

So, after a crazy time moving into my apartment in Rouen and the 4-hour round-trip commute to school every day, I decided to move out to Les Andelys where my school is. Daniel, a new teacher at the school from Martinique (he teaches "carrosserie", or auto body repair, with the vocational school students) was offered an apartment on campus, and as it had three bedrooms, he decided to share the apartment with me and David, the school's Spanish teaching assistant from Spain. I couldn't be having a better time! I am platonically in love with both of them, and they have both expressed that they would do absolutely anything for me. David left last night (we've got a two week vacation, so he's back in Sevilla until we start school up again), but right up until he left, he'd been making us dinner every single night. He said that he used to be a chef in Spain but didn't like cooking for work, but now he loves making meals for the people he cares about. And oh my gosh, it is so wonderful. He made his own pate the other day, and I'm still dreaming about the zucchini and roquefort potage that he made (his grandmother's recipe). It has been an interesting adjustment from basically eating vegetarian to now living with some serious meat-eaters. As we were driving David to the airport last night and passed lots of cows in fields, I would coo over them and David would say, "Non 'awww', 'mmmmmm! yum yum!'" They are goofy guys, and I love them.

I really don't know what I would've done without them- after I informed my landlord that I decided to move out to Les Andelys, he let me know the next day that he had found someone to live in my apartment and that I'd have to vacate ASAP! I had about 45 minutes' warning before I literally packed up all of my things, handed over my keys, and headed out. Luckily for me, David, Daniel, and our friend Rafa were all in Rouen with Daniel's car, so they all helped me move everything into my car, drop off Rafa at his house in Rouen, and headed back to Les Andelys (and only momentarily stalled out a couple of times! I can't believe all of the things I have now, thanks to all of the things that Sylvie's graciously given me). It is a lot of stuff, but I'm happy for all of it, especially all of the kitchen stuff, which both David and I are so enjoying! It's hard getting used to only having a hot plate and a microwave to work with, but we're getting used to it. I'm excited to make Ceilidh's avocado and orange salad and some stir fry with peanut sauce tonight!

It's just me and Daniel for today, though Daniel is heading out tonight, so I'll probably invite Chloe over. She lives "in town", which is about a half hour walk from our high school, and she works at the middle school out there. I'm definitely spoiled with the nicest company, and I just don't know how I got so lucky as to be surrounded by such lovely people.

School is also going very well. I only just started working in the classroom yesterday, and it's taking some getting used to. I think I just need to strike a good balance between friend and teacher, since I'm not officially a teacher and I'm really just there to get them comfortable speaking in English. Just need to hearken back to my days in Anouk's classroom and authentic communicative experiences going!

For the vacation, I'm excited to do lots of laundry, probably head into Rouen tomorrow to pick up my bank card from the bank out there, going to Disneyland on Tuesday, and headed to Paris for a couple days to see my friends out there at some point. Am I really living this? Is this really happening? I am just so happy!

Things that I did in Paris today:

- Ate a delicious goat cheese and tomato sandwich from the bakery down the street

- Saw Michel Gondry at a cafe

- Shared a round of tea, Mister Yellow, and a cupcake at Miss Cupcakes in Montmartre

- Got lost in Montmartre and proceeded to finally find the longest outdoor flea market that I've ever seen (pictures follow)

On the street, when we were lost.

(Want to buy a hot doog?)

Walked to a park and saw a waterfall

Came home and had delicious ratatouille as the sun went down
(while watching Mystery Science Theater 3000)

Re-bienvenue en France !

Bonjour from Paris, everyone! I arrived Wednesday afternoon, and after a couple of hours in the airport, hassling the employees to stamp my passport (to no avail), I am officially in Paris.

I forget that the French can be kind in their own way. I think my experience was definitely skewed the first time around because I did have so many American friends with me. There is a specific kindness to American English; for example, hardly anyone says, "Have a nice day", and those that do would more likely say "bonne journée", the meaning of which is more akin to "Good day to you", which definitely doesn't have the same ring to it!

Anyway, the kindness I experienced while lugging my nearly 130 lbs of luggage up and down so many flights of stairs to and from all two of my metro transfers (though maybe more out of pity than anything else) was stunning. I never had to carry all of my luggage up or down the 15 or so flights of stairs that I experienced on my way to chez Alexis and Hannah. People were very kind, though I did take particular note of one guy, who, when he asked me which way I was going up out of the metro station and I didn't reply the one he needed, he gave me this look of disgusted incredulity that I can only express as lovingly familiar. It almost felt like home.

On another note, I can't even imagine having impaired mobility in this city. Those stairs really did me in, and my legs (and arms) are still howling. Though that was probably also from the 6 flights of stairs at Hannah and Alexis' apartment, too. No elevator. Awesome. =D

It is so good to be around Hannah and Alexis! My first night in, Hannah and some friends and I went out for an apéro of a very sweet-tasting beer-type drink down the block, and it was super fun to be alternating between Spanish and French and English again. Afterwards, we got back to the apartment and watched funny youtube videos and made delicious vegetarian carbonara. I fell asleep probably around 10:30 pm and woke up at what I thought was 9:00 am. I had looked at my laptop clock, but realized that it was still on New York time. Boy, was I surprised upon learning that I actually woke up at 3:00 pm! I know that I often sleep more than most, but those nearly 17 hours were exactly what I needed to jump-start my recovery from jet lag. Here's hoping it's gone for good!

Yesterday, we made spinach and goat cheese feuilletés, which were so good, but even better with the Sancerre wine that accompanied it (I thought of you, Chrissy!). Wow. Best white wine EVER. I'm not often fond of whites, but this changed my life forever. Just, wow.

Today, I'm off to my old stomping grounds. Going to see if I can figure out my old cell phone chez Bouygues, headed to Reid Hall to say hi to my junior Smithies abroad, and then making my famous petits gâteaux americains for dinner at my host family's house tonight! I am quite excited to be back.

Leaving on a jet plane!

I'm leaving for Barcelona in several hours! I'm so excited to get out of Paris for awhile. After being with my family for a week playing Super Tourist, I can't wait to explore some sites that I haven't seen yet.

I'll be in Spain from today until Tuesday, and then Wednesday morning I'm leaving for Nice. Of my three travel buddies, I've never travelled with two of them, so I'm anxious to see how we wind up working together as a travel team.

Anyway, having my family in Paris was a fun experience. I hope that it's given them the bug to explore some more countries. In the meantime, I can't wait to have new travels in the future. Seeing as the 7-hour direct flight to Paris all but wiped them out, I can't see my family hopping on a 24-hour flight to head to New Zealand or Australia with me. Any takers?


I don't want to sound like I'm too good for Paris. Quite the contrary. Since I've been here, I've consistently been shown that Paris's standards far exceed mine, in terms of fashion, culture, and communication skills. I like to think that I've adjusted pretty well, but I find it pointless to try and pretend that I'm a French person and be serious about it. I have enough French friends, but it's not because I said to myself BON JE VAIS ME TROUVER DES AMIS FRANCAIS. Through working at the soup kitchen and playing frisbee, activities that interest me, I've had conversations with other people. And not just French people, but Tunisian, Algerian, Italian, American, Australian, German, Scottish, Irish, Spanish.. the list goes on. We all speak in French, Spanish, and English as necessary, and it's not a problem if we're not ALWAYS speaking French!

I do like the JYA Paris program enough, but the constant pressure to BE French and to MAKE French friends is stifling! If I thought to myself at the beginning of the year that I was just going to talk to French people all the time and try to work my way into their clique, I would've wound up miserable. PASSION is what really brings people together, no matter the language. Language comes next.


Anyway, that's enough. I'm still happy to be here, and I still have so much to see in Paris! I need to see pretty much every museum and cemetary ever. Thank goodness I still have one last First Sunday of the Month to see the museums for free. AND we're going to Parc Asterix! Log flumes and rollercoasters, here I come!

Sssssso.

I've learned that I stutter and stammer a little bit. I thought that it was just in French, but apparently it's in English too. If I don't think a lot about what I want to say before speaking, my words come out mixed up, whether it's in English or French. I'm speaking up more now though, which is better than just shutting up. I've kind of resigned myself to being embarassed no matter what I do/say, so it's become easier to just try to get my ideas out!

Greece was INCREDIBLE. I've been dreading writing a re-cap, but I'll try to recall what all was done. Alix and I left for the airport on Thursday evening because our flight was very early Friday morning. I brought my HUGE laptop in order to have a video teleconference via Skype with one of the jobs I wanted. We wound up having to hold the interview at 3:40 a.m. Paris time. Being cracked out and on NO sleep at an airport was NO GOOD. HOWEVER! I found out that they offered me a second interview tomorrow evening, where I'll have to teach a lesson on telling time to non-native English speakers via Skype. I'll let you know how it goes!

After no sleep, we headed on the plane for Athens! We arrived, took a nap, and then headed off. I really can't remember in what order we did everything, but in all, we saw the Ancient Agora, the Acropolis, lots of souvlaki, tzatziki, and free wine (pretty ladies get the free crap wine). We also got to go to a wine festival, which was awesome. There were countries from all over the world, and we got to sample little bits of all of the different ones. One of the wines was so smoky that it reminded me of whisky. I couldn't help but think about how weird it was that here I was at a wine festival when in my own home country, and yet I wouldn't be trusted to have a drop of alcohol for another 4 months.

After four days in Athens, we took a 6-hour ferry over to Santorini. It reminded me so much of an aircraft on the inside that I forgot that we were even on water. The seats were like airplane seats, and watching the world go by from my crouched position, we could've easily been skimming the water from the air. When we finally spotted Santorini, we could tell that it was our island because of the red and black sand all over due to the volcano (which has an eruption once every 50 years or so, and it's due!). There was practically no one on the island except for us two, and so we were treated with the utmost hospitality wherever we went. We had particularly exciting adventures when we went to the black beaches of Perissa, since we were literally the only people on the beach. It was raining and cold, but we braved it to dip our toes in the surprisingly warm water. We also made lots of animal friends, including a very cuddly cat and two dogs. The island animals could've quite easily had many diseases, but I'm still living, and we didn't get bitten, so I'm pretty sure that they were just friendly. Through all of Greece, we saw dogs as if they were any other city rodent. Notably in Athens, they were a big nuisance, barking at motorcycles and going up to bite the tires of moving cars. But the dogs on the island were some of the sweetest animals I ever met.

After braving the rain and cold and realizing the next bus wouldn't be around for another hour and a half, we sought shelter in a nearby restaurant, which I'm sure must be hopping during the summer season. However, we were the only two who came in who weren't locals, and we took every chance to try out our newly-acquired knowledge of the Greek language.

We also went to the red beaches, which weren't as red as we would've expected, and we came across a dredlocked dog who showed us around. Alix named him Hercules, but he looked a heck of a lot like our dog, Maggie.

He led us up on top of a hill to get a view of the other islands, and then we met up with him after grabbing an authentic dinner at a "restaurant", where the whole family was gathered, doing sewing, drinking, watching TV, doing their own cooking, and ironing. They sat us in the corner, where we watched Hercules and his assumed wife with an underbite and their two babies.

Afterward, we waited for the bus with our Japanese friends who were also staying at our hotel, and Hercules sat with us until he got too bored with getting pet to death.

After Santorini, we took the ferry back to Athens, stayed in an AMAZING hostel for 15 euros where we had a room to ourselves (I LOVE the off-season), and took a plane back to Paris in the morning.

Anyway, here are some more pictures!

Acropolis

Athens, theatre, and the new, not yet opened museum of Greek history in the back.

Santorini


Now that vacation is over, I've been surprisingly productive! I'm excited to see more of Paris once my family gets here, and I still can't believe that we only have three more months here. This Thursday, I'm going to an apéro (apéritif, or basically an excuse to have people bring you wine and food for a party) for the girls' frisbee team, Friday I'm going to see my first opera ever, Saturday I'm going to Reims for a champagne tasting, and Sunday we're going to Reid to watch one of my favorite movies, "Kirikou et la sorcière", which I learned about in high school from my bilingual school in New York. My host family and I are on pretty good terms as far as I know, and I've got a bunch of good friends and acquaintances. And the weather is starting to look more like spring every day! As much as I complain sometimes, there's no where else I'd rather be at this moment. Je suis contente, in the Frenchest meaning of the word.


Tonight, I'm going to polish up my lesson plan to show the directors of the program tomorrow night, and maybe finish some homework. Tomorrow, I'm off to hang out with Yael, see an art expo with Abby, rehearse my lesson plan one last time, and show it off to the directors at 9:15 my time! Thursday, I'm probably going to check out if Le Roi Lion still has student rush tickets (how great would it be to see The Lion King in French???) and maybe even just chill out and explore Paris on my own. I've learned that I always like being with someone when going anywhere, but maybe flying solo wouldn't be a bad idea for me to see what it's like.

Je ne le crois même pas. On a moins de trois mois qui nous restent, et je ne me sens toujours pas accoustoumé à la vie parisienne. My goal for the coming week is to see something in every arrondissement, just to get a feel for them. I might even descend at Bonne Nouvelle and see what really goes on at that metro stop!

Things have changed for me! But that's okay. I feel the same. I'm on my way...

I've been watching this video like it's my job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XBE49k3zzM

Her cover videos and my pile of peanut butter that I brought with me have been satisfying my needs for American/English-speaking things. Though there's a lot of English around here.

I feel sad when people try to speak to us in English! I try in French, and I don't even use any English words, but they always know that I'm American! It discourages me a little bit, but I haven't broken my pact yet. Every French person I've talked to, I've spoken French to, or waited until the French explanation of what I meant to say popped into my head. I have been letting myself be more lenient around the other Smithies though. I've found that there are three types of Smith JYA Paris students.

They are the following:
1. Pretends to know what's going on in class and muddles through French conversation only with the Smith administration, until it's time to leave the classroom and it's English all the way.
2. Generally directly translates from English to French without adhering to French conversation rules. These are the folk who don't know what I'm saying when I try to speak like a French person, and I instead need to refrain from any colloquial language and speak more slowly.
3. Speaks and tries to think in French all the time, and only breaks from French to complain to others about our director.

^ That last one is me (among others, who are the ones I'm closest to in the program). I just don't get a good vibe from him.

My host mom isn't here tonight, so my host dad, sister, and I are left to fend for ourselves dinner-wise. We usually eat in a half hour, so I'm going to go outside after I finish posting this to see if I can help with dinner.

Right now, I hear classical music outside my door. Before, I heard dad and sister next door playing something on the computer. I kept hearing "Strike!" I'll have to ask her later what she was playing.

About my family:
Host dad:
Is adorable. I feel that he's awkward like me, which makes our interactions easier to understand. However, I always feel like we're never really done with our conversations when one of us leaves awkwardly. I learned from him "Beuh.. ben, voila." I expect to perfect this phrase before I leave.

Host mom:
She's about half my height and reminds me of every cute mom I've ever known. She always makes sure that I tell her when I need something, and she wants me to feel like a part of the family. She makes THE best food ever.

Host sister:
She's 10 years old and really bitty. I always hear her through the house, which I like. She is super-witty and makes me laugh out loud quite often. I usually ask her about the words I don't know. Yesterday, when I asked her what "moquette" meant, she grabbed my hand and we ran to her room. She showed me the carpet on the floor, since that was the easiest way for her to explain it. Now, she's playing one of her father's dozen recorders.

That's what else I love! There's always music in the house. They all sing wonderfully, and they know their "do my sol"s by heart. My host sister plays the cello and the recorder. Yesterday, she and her dad played a beautiful duet. It was THE cutest thing I've seen in a long time.



It should be about time for dinner, so until next time!


FUN FACT OF THE DAY: The metro in Paris doesn't have all of the doors automatically open at stops like in New York. If you want the doors to open, you have to push down on a little lever on the door!