Last night I went to a "Soirée Country" in Villers. It was hilarious and everybody wore cowboy hats that they handed out and a group from Belgium who wore awful American flag shirts taught us line dances. Haha! I will post pictures about it later, but right now I need to do my final preparations in order to leave for Paris soon!

La roue de la fortune

Someone loaned me a TV for my apartment. I only get three channels though, and one of them is in Flemish. But fortunately for me, one of the two channels that I get and can actually understand shows La roue de la fortune, aka French Wheel of Fortune. It’s basically the same thing as ours, but the differences make it hilarious. The girl who turns the letters over is young, ridiculously blonde, and wears dresses that look to be about two sizes too small for her. In the credits they only call her Victoria, no last name. She makes remarks throughout the show and makes faces when the contestants guess a wrong letter. Also, one time after a commercial break, the host definitely unzipped the top part of Victoria's dress...which zipped down the side. Since it was so tight, he couldn't get it zipped back up and some other guy who must have been a tech guy or something had to come on and help him. It was weird. The host is pretty entertaining as well. He has a dog that sits with him on the set. I haven’t figured out the reasoning behind that yet.

The people who come to compete are quite similar to the ones who go on Wheel of Fortune, c’est-à-dire usually overenthusiastic and not necessarily all that good at the game. It’s a little less frustrating to watch it here than back home because at least I’m at a disadvantage with the whole language thing and am less likely to solve the puzzles early on, but sometimes I still know the answer to a puzzle long before the contestants seem to. Really?

My favorite part about La roue de la fortune is that on the wheel there’s a removable slice called “caverne.” If the wheel lands on that, the contestant stops what he’s doing and goes with the host to another part of the stage where there are a bunch of expensive things—electronics and kitchen appliances and a scooter. The contestant has thirty seconds to grab as many things as he can, and then the total value of the things that he’s gotten is added to his overall score. It’s really bizarre.

I don't watch much more than that show. But I did catch an episode of Bob l'Eponge the other day, and the dubbed voice for Spongebob is way too deep instead of high-pitched and annoying. French children are not getting the full experience!

Today I went to the health food store here for the first time. It felt like home! It had that health food store smell and everything. I bought some tofu and some meatless deli slices and some rice cakes. I forgot to bring a bag with me, but the bag that they gave me is 100% biodegradable and compostable. And they didn't even charge me for it, which is pretty unusual here. On my way home I stopped in a bakery and the lady told me the baguettes were warm so I bought one. (I did not make it home with an entire baguette.) As soon as I stepped out of the bakery, a student saw me and got all excited and was all, "Ca va?" and came to give me bises. It was cute.

That's about all I have to say right now, but I do plan on writing about the hilarious French version of Wheel of Fortune, which has become one of my favorite things, soon!

France, land of bises

Yesterday I saw an outdoor jazz concert in Feignies, where Mme Carmalez lives. It was pretty entertaining. I went with Angèle and later Isabelle, a young teacher from the school in Villers, came. They both knew a lot of the musicians, and I was standing next to them afterwards, the musicians kept giving me bises (where you put your cheeks together and make kissing noises; it's the standard greeting). I think that's probably the weirdest thing about France.

They passed out free champagne, orange juice, and brioches at the concert. I asked Angèle and Isabelle if they ever make mimosas here, but they said no. They thought the idea of mixing orange juice and champagne was is crazy. I still think it's delicious.

After the concert Isabelle took me to eat at her parents' house, where she still lives. We stopped at a bakery first, where she bought a couple of loaves of bread. The lady who worked there put the bread through a machine that cut it. I told Isabelle that I'd never actually seen that before, and she said that at the grocery store up the road from her, you have to put your bread through the machine yourself. She said she'll take me there someday so I can do it...haha, exciting.

Lunch involved a cheese course. I think cheese courses are my favorite thing ever. I ate quite possibly the most delicious cheese I've ever tasted. It's a soft white cheese and I normally don't even like cheese like that, but this was amazing. I would have gone out and bought some today, but unfortunately just about everything in France is closed on Sundays because you have to pay lots of taxes in order to be open. (I learned today from the TV that there's some Best Buy-like store that pays its employees double to work on Sundays. Not even time and a half, but DOUBLE. That's crazy. I should probably work there.)

After lunch, it somehow came about that we should go to a glass museum fittingly called the Musée du Verre. It was a little bit of a drive to get to, but I do enjoy seeing the countryside and all the little villages. At the museum, you could watch people blowing glass. Isabelle's parents asked if I could try it because I'm American...so they let me. I clearly knew what I was doing:

Then one of the glassblowers made me stand in front of the oven to show me how hot it was. And then he gave me a flower made of glass as a souvenir. So I now have a handmade wooden mushroom and a handmade glass flower. I was then expected to do the whole bises thing again. People honestly don't understand how I'm not used to that sort of thing. Isabelle's dad caught the moment of my awkwardly not knowing I was supposed to give bises perfectly on camera:

We then saw the rest of the museum. There were lots of old bottles that used to be manufactured there, and in the basement there was a little installation of art made from glass. It doesn't sound very interesting, but it actually was. I think I just like museums.

There was something happening in Valenciennes last night, but I heard about it too late and couldn't go. But that's okay. After we got back from the museum, Isabelle's mom made us crêpes, which were really tasty. She asked if we make "pain perdu" back home, which as it turns out is what we call French toast. They call it "lost bread" because they only make it from bread that's slightly stale- if they don't eat it as French toast, they'd have to waste it and throw it out. Fun fact.

After the crêpes we played Rummikub, which I always see at people's houses but had never actually played. We also had a conversation about how we don't do the whole bises thing in America. "But what about your parents? What about with all your friends on New Year's?" Oh France.

I think it was by far the most random day I've had in France, but I really enjoyed it. I also acquired a whole bunch of apples yesterday. Mme Carmalez had asked if I wanted some apples from the garden and I said sure, but I did not realize she meant a whole bagful. I don't have an oven so I can't make a pie or anything. Does anybody have an idea as to what I can do with them? Applesauce?

Oh yes, and for your viewing pleasure...a glass menagerie and the people I spent most of the day with (in front of a glassblowing oven, what else?):

well that took a while

Okay, so obviously I wasn't very on top of my blog entries, but that wasn't my fault; I've been having major issues with internet access. However! I've managed to get online with my own computer in my landlords' house. It turns out that one letter of the wifi code they gave me was wrong, so I couldn't actually connect. I'm sitting approximately five feet away from the box right now, so hopefully I will be able to get some sort of signal downstairs in my apartment. We'll see. But maybe this can actually be a bit more of a regular thing now. I didn't postdate (predate? whatever) the entries, but I conveniently made the titles the dates that I actually wrote them. Please read!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Yesterday I went on a field trip with one of my schools to Felleries, a little village that took about half an hour to get to. It was a fun day overall, though it seemed a little bit random. The class is CM2, which is basically like fifth grade, so the kids are pretty much all ten years old right now. They must be learning about birds right now in school, because half of the day was about that. They got into groups of four and made “nichois” (basically resting places) for birds out of plastic bowls covered with newspaper and glue. Then we went to another room and someone led a little class on different kinds of birds, which was educational for me since I don’t know the names of many birds even in English. We then went on a really short bird hike, but there weren’t many birds to be seen.

The second half of the day was devoted to learning about the old forestry industry in the region and the mill. There was a little five-room museum about all the forestry stuff, and all the kids were paired up to answer questions about the things in the museum. I got paired up with a little girl named Mathilda so that I’d have something to do. After that the guy who had taught us about birds took us out to tell us about the mill. I’d always thought that “moulin” only meant windmill, like Moulin Rouge, but it actually means any kind of mill. This moulin was “à eau,” so it was operated by water. It was kind of interesting to see how they controlled the flow of the water to turn the wheel (the kind that you’d find on a steamboat) and make mill work. The guy poured wheat into the mill and then we went downstairs to where the flour was coming out, at which point some of the kids found it appropriate to pick it up and then eat it. I thought it was funny with our whole stereotype about the French eating bread all the time. Obviously American kids will eat sugar plain out of their hands, but flour, and whole wheat flour at that?

After the mill demonstration, we went to a place where another guy, the one who’d made the nichois with us, showed us how he makes things out of wood. He put a block of wood on this machine that makes it spin really fast, and then he used some tools to carve it (or just make woodchips fly everywhere). He sanded it down a bit and by the time it stopped spinning, it was a perfect, smooth spinning top. It was pretty impressive. Then he made a mushroom out of part of short log. All the kids got a top at the end of the day, but a dad who was along as a chaperone and I both got mushrooms. Ooo.

After that demonstration, the kids got to play the various games, all made of wood, that were outside the museum. A group of girls who decided that I’m their new favorite person had me play with them. I think my favorite part was bowling. I think their favorite part was holding my bag and umbrella (I couldn’t put in my bag because it was all wet, so I had to hold it even after it wasn’t raining anymore) for me whenever I was taking my turn at whichever game. They also enjoyed playing Mary Poppins with my umbrella.

It was a fun day, but I was exhausted by the end of it. The same group of girls had me sit next to them in the back of the bus, since that’s the only place with five seats in a row, but it was hard to concentrate on what they were saying by that point. I think everything is more tiring when you really have to think about what you say and what people say to you since everything is in a different language.

Either way, at least I got a handmade wooden mushroom out of it.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Today I had my mandatory medical visit so that France could affirm that I’m healthy enough to live here. But since it’s France I couldn’t go to just any doctor’s office for this visit; I had to go to Marc-en-Baroeul, just outside of Lille…which is an hour and a half away by train. It wasn’t such a bad train ride though, and I met another American once I got there since our appointments were conveniently at the same time. She actually lives sort of near me in a town even smaller and uneventful than Maubeuge, but her boyfriend lives in Lille so she was already there from the weekend.

The medical visit was kind of silly. One person weighed and measured me, then asked if I was pregnant. Then another person asked me if I was pregnant and then X-rayed my chest (apparently they’re really paranoid about TB here?), which was slightly awkward because I had to take half of my clothes off and they didn’t even give me a smock. Then a doctor asked me if I took any medications, etc., took my blood pressure, listened to my heart and breathing, and then signed some papers that I have to turn in for my titre de séjour. It just seemed a little silly that I had to go all the way to Lille for such a simple procedure when I literally live across the street from a doctor.

This did, however, give me some time to explore Lille a little bit. I went there last week for our orientation, but that was a day full of rain and boring information, so that didn’t really count. Since the train station is right in the centre ville, I was really in a perfect spot for wandering. Since the other American more or less knows her way around, I didn’t have to worry too much about getting lost. We returned to the train station a little before noon so she could catch the metro to meet her boyfriend for lunch (you know my sense of direction; I was worried that if I didn’t at least go back to the train station with her first, I’d never find it again), and I wandered a bit more on my own.

Lille is cool. I definitely wasn’t there long enough to have a definitive opinion about it, and I can’t really see bothering to go back there unless I have a specific reason (a concert or some other opportunity), but I liked it. I went to Monoprix, the store that I used to shop at all the time in Montpellier but that we of course don’t have here, and I ate a panini that I bought from one of those little shops that looks like a stand because it’s open to the street—something else that I definitely associate with France but that you don’t find much of here.

I hate to be so negative about Maubeuge all the time, but I have to admit that it was really just nice to be in a real city. And I really shouldn’t complain so much; they tell you from the beginning that there’s a good chance that you’ll be in a smaller city or rural setting. It’s just frustrating that Valenciennes is so close, yet basically inaccessible at the times when I’d really want to be in a bigger city (mainly, any time after five o’ clock), and that I’m so solitary over here.

Tomorrow I’m going on a field trip with one of the classes from the school here. I don’t really know where we’re going, other than that it’s somewhere out in the country. The teacher just told me to pack a lunch and plan on walking a lot. Either way, I’m looking forward to it. These days I look forward to just about anything that means less time in my apartment. How sad is that?