putain.

Well...

Things here are officially, absolutely and hopelessly in the merde.




But on the upside, today I swam in the med sea.

Narbonne -- amazing and sunny.

umm, de quoi parlez-vous?

Last night was adventure. I had no idea that French people could have such American tendencies.

The last few days, I've been with my parents -- mostly we've been hanging around pubs and cafes doing what we Robinsons do best. Which is drink, obviously (napping comes in second).

Papa Robinson with a lovely Hoegaarden. Yum.

As we were searching around the Compans Cafarelli area for somewhere to eat dinner after a few drinks at a local brasserie (brewery), we stumbled upon this restaurant called "L'Entrecôte." It was jammed packed inside (which my dad always takes as a good sign) but when I looked at the carte (menu) outside, it was mostly just drinks and apératifs. Nevermind, though! There are tons of people here, it must be good.

We headed inside and an exasperated woman in her mid-fourties in an oversized yellow polo, pencil skirt and kitten heels looked up at us, smiled, and told us to go upstairs to find a table. Which we did. Where another exasperated middle-aged woman in the same outfit led us to our table without any menus. Meanwhile, throughout the restaurant, there were screaming children, the screech of tables and chairs scraping along the floor and noise bouncing off the obnoxious yellow and green plaid wallpaper -- already quite unusual for a french restaurant.

The server came up to our table and said something along the lines of "how would you like it prepared?" To which all three of us looked at each other blankly. "Oh! L'Entrecôte! It's a fixed menu and they're serving steak! Trois mediums," my dad exclaimed. Steak? Hm, haven't had that since I was in France a year and a half ago, but sure. Pourquoi pas? As we sat, we noticed a line forming outside and quite a substantial one at that. I felt like we were at some weird French-American TGIFridays.

Anyways, as we sat, our server brought us mini-salads with raw walnuts on top. And the first thing I noticed was a big nappy bug sitting on top of mine. Yes, somewhat off-putting... But these things happen in restaurants, so I let it slide and just ate around it. Meanwhile, the big table next to us filled with the aforementioned screaming children were starting to get restless. One of the girls was dancing in circles behind my dad's chair and kept bumping into him. Then the mother decided to pick up one of the kids and stand right beside our table. I was having a serious "Sears moment" which, if you don't know what that is... I'm really not sure what to tell you besides saying it's the feeling I get whenever I go into a Sears (read: it's not a positive feeling).

Then she brought our meals. Which was a pile of overly greased steak-frites and a few pieces each of steak in a mustard sauce. I looked around us and everyone was eating the same thing. The fries were not very impressive -- at all. The steak was alright too, but I'm not really the best judge given the whole pseudo-vegetarian thing. By this time, the line outside was already around the corner. Mind you, this is 9:30 pm on a Monday night and there were all these happy french people chomping away at their steak-frites and children screaming and wine being drunk. Am I in the mo-effing twilight zone or something? What is this place?! I'm thinking that the prices must be really good in order for it to be this crowded.

So we finished our meals and the bill came: €60 for three meals plus a small bottle of wine. So, I walked out completely not understanding the appeal of this place... Loud people, crammed little tables, people woofing down food and leaving after 25 minutes, mediocre food quality... I thought this was supposed to be France! Luckily, we headed to a little café near the Capitole afterwards and got a nice little ice cream which was amazing. I felt much better after that.

So, the experience at L'Entrecôte was sorta disappointing. But I know that the french can't be french all the time and even though they won't readily admit it, I know there are certain aspects of American culture that they just eat up. Literally.

la vérité

So, it's been a week now in France. A week. But it feels more like a month. Maybe two. Sometimes I think I'm absolutely insane for doing this. I wonder, did I really hate my life so much that I felt that I needed to put 6,000 miles plus an entire ocean between myself and everyone and everything I know? Of course I didn't, but I think about these kinds of things and what really drove me to this crazy and deluded adventure. I'm not sure how long it will last or how long I'll want it to last. Maybe until this job contract ends in June, maybe later. Maybe much later. Right now those thoughts are daunting and I'm just trying to figure out each day.

Sorry, that was sorta weird.

Yesterday, we had our training session/orientation and all of the new teachers met each other. It was good, I'm still in the process of recruiting children for the young classes but I have two adult classes of intermediate English speakers. They're two hours long on Tuesday and Thursday nights, so that's a good start. Never taught adults, never really taught anything, truth be told, but we'll see how well I can pretend I know what I'm doing. That's how I tend to roll for the most part.

Anyways, so all of the new teachers met and we went out for drinks later which was nice. They're all obviously English speakers though two are French natives and the other girl is originally from Newport Beach (ha) but she's lived in Europe for nearly five or so years. She's quite interesting. I really don't care who I hang out with at this point, as long as I'm not by myself. So, as much I would love to be meeting more French natives, I don't think that will happen for a while.

outdoor concert, only a tiny photo of it.

I know this is the hard part of this adventure, the trying to land on my feet part. This was the part I was dreading most and is, I think, what scares most people out of doing this sort of thing. And for good reasons, too, I've discovered. And I know it will take time to figure everything out, but I'm really just ready to turn a fresh page.

pink buildings as the sun goes down

Anyways, on a different note, the more I discover and see in this city, the more I really am starting to enjoy it. Apparently, because the mayor is so "left" as one of the frenchies put it, there are lots of free things to do all the time. Last night, I waited at the Place du Capitole for everyone and there was this enormous concert going on outside which was completely free. The metro system is only 10 euro per month for anyone under 27 years old (with the card of course) which is an absolute STEAL! All the metro rides you want in an entire month for TEN euro. Crazy. There is also a huge surplus here -- finally, a city that isn't drowning in debt! And the city itself is more liberal in comparison to the rest of France. But it's nice, people here are quite a bit different than they were in Aix, much more casual. Lots of dirty hippies, people wearing (gasp!) flip-flops and shorts and tank tops even.

this made me smile

The sun has been out the past couple days which makes it so much more enjoyable. It got up to 85 on Thursday! I love the cool breeze blowing, the big sunglasses on, Jenny Lewis rocking on my ipod with the cuffed jeans and vans on. So I'm embracing my Americanism a bit -- not all the time, but it's nice to feel more at home at least just in my clothes.

a tout, bisous!

p.s.

yessssssssss....

la ville rose

Toulouse: The pink city.

I arrived here on Sunday evening and as soon as stepped off the train, a cold breeze hit me and I quickly realized that it was going to be colder here than in Paris. So unfair. BUT! At least I get to wear my new coat (which I bought from Buffalo Exchange for $24 -- CHING!)

I'll glaze over the part where I was wandering around the outskirts of the city at night in the rain searching for my hotel. That was sorta dreadful. But the hotel is nice, and it's amazing to sleep in a big bed and have one of those things outside the window that shut out all the light. That means daytime naps. Yessssss...

the view

The interview with the school went well, I guess I'm sorta employed? Ahhhhh.... I'm not sure. It wasn't so much an interview as a "here's what you're going to be doing and you start now." We ended up talking for nearly two hours and I'm into the company and stuff. So, though I haven't exactly said yes, I think I did. The actual job sounds great, but the only problem is that it's extremely part time. And I told him that I was under the impression that there would be more hours available, and he said that I shouldn't worry and that I would find another job without a problem. Um, easier said than done maybe. But he's holding a meeting for the new teachers on Thursday for us all to get to know one another and do introductory stuff. He told me that I should ask the other teachers to introduce me to their other employers to see if they are in need of workers, which I plan to do.

So, for now, I'm doing some publicity for the company, passing out advertisements and stuff -- basically, the more people that I get to enroll, the more classes are held, the more hours I have, the more money I make. If this seems sorta weird and uncertain to you, it's because it is. But my main appeal to this job is the amount of networking that is possible -- you really meet a lot of people and get to know a lot of the locals which is really appealing to me. I would try to explain exactly what the job is, but it's rather complicated and it would be boring for you people to read.

         The park I sat in today while people watching

The city itself seems pretty cool -- it's not too big, but still big enough to have a metro system which is really nice. Granted, there are only two lines (three if you count the SNCF) but still. One thing I have mysteriously noticed here is that I have seen three American college sweatshirts on actual FRENCH people, which is not only weird because they usually do not wear such items (for whatever reasons) but also because two of them were University of Arizona sweatshirts and the other one was for Penn State (and I thought of Mandie, of course). Awesome, but a little strange.

For the most part, I have been wandering around in between passing out flyers, getting off at random metro stops to find myself completely lost and then wander around until I find another one.I found this, which I thought was silly:

 

The movie poster for The Hangover -- in France, it's called "VERY BAD TRIP" which is incredibly hilarious.

I like this city, so far. I just wish it weren't overcast and raining all the time. I'm looking forward to seeing my parents though, they're coming on Sunday.

I'll let you know how this pseudo-employment thing goes, I'm pretty uncertain about it myself. We'll see.

A tout a l'heure! xoxo