So another month later here comes my latest installment with some words of advice...steak in france, is no bueno:( I've been sick for the latter part of last night and the majority of this morning because of a poor choice at a poor restaurant (I let my frenzy for the fact that the university was paying for my meal overrule my good sense that steak from a less than par restaurant is never a good idea), my theory only to be proved by the house of stabbing pain in my stomach interrupting my enjoyment of what should have been an evening of beer and rugby with anglophone buddies. Sigh. Oh well, at least I can update you with the last months worth of the latest adventures in Sarah land:)

I can't believe that we're already half way through the second semester, I can't believe I have been here for over six months...it really does seem like just yesterday that I was tearfully getting on a plane and wondering what the hell I had chosen for myself while I stood in line at the grocery store having to pay for bags to carry my assortment of strange french goodies home for the first time. I can't believe everything that I have learned, I can't believe how much I have changed already...and finally on the list of can't believes, is that I can't believe how much I don't want it to be over. Two weeks ago was our mid-winter vacation, and instead of traveling I spent the latter part of this week compiling over 25 dossiers (that's french for resumes, cover letters and letters of recommendation) to send off to every corner of France to every university I could think of so I can buy myself at least another year here. Being past the halfway point now has put a different spin on my perspective and has definitely made me realize that I want more of whatever it is (can't exactly put my finger on it yet) that France has given me. Granted there still are a lot of days when I have my mute clown moments (when I feel like a mime in makeup waving my hands frantically around in the air because no one can understand me and I've had to resort to gestures and grunts to get what I need) but then there are days like last Friday, when I pop into the mobile shop to change my plan and end up being a make-shift translator for a couple who speak no french and only english (granted I was slightly judgmental of the fact that they had been here for over a year and still needed a translator, but I let it go and decided to help them out and exercise my brain a little)...I have to say I was pretty impressed with myself and had some nice feelings of satisfaction that lasted almost the rest of the afternoon until I tried to order a full pint of been and ended up with a demi pint because either my accent sucks or I didn't understand something the bar tender had said to me...either way, feelings of self satisfaction gone...

I find myself having all kinds of awkward yet unique experiences here almost everyday. Sometimes i really think I'd love to write a book with my picture on the cover and one of those metal plates superimposed on top of my mouth, to which I would love the title to be Mute-Clown-Moments: Life in France for the Foreigner. (No one had better steal that idea!!) My favorite experience as of late was when I was moving apartments and my two big burly Russian guy friends (I have to say I love the Russian man mentality of helping the damsel in distress, granted I don't nearly qualify as said damsel in distress or really in need of a man...but it's still nice to have someone else do the heaving lifting for you). Anyway, I had gone to IKEA to pick out all the furniture and my two Russians came and met me there, we rented a little Camionette (french for work van) to move all of the stuff to my new place and I felt like it was just a moment from a movie when three six foot tall people (me and the two boys) all crammed into the font bucket seat of the van with our knees practically in our chests while the two sat there speaking in russian and I sat on the other side bobbing my head back and forth to the imaginary music playing since there was no radio and I had no idea what they were talking about (my russian classes aren't going that well yet). Eventually I started laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of the situation, which of course they thought was bizarre because they aren't well versed in the american sense of humor, let alone well versed in Sarah:) A similar moment followed when a week later two more Russians went to pick up my new washing machine and were lugging it up my teeeeeeenny tiiiiiiiiny narrow stairway (literally about an inch of leeway on each side for the machine to pass) all the while swearing and cursing in a language you only can pick out a few words in...I must say, you learn the pronunciation of your name very quickly and get pretty annoyed when they start laughing and you know it's a joke a your expense because you just heard your name followed by rompus laughter...oh well, I'll get there eventually.

So several weeks into the new apartment and several loads of washing later life is going well. As most of you know I have taken up running, as I have taken up cooking and therefore the sport of eating:) I went and bought my first pair of runner shoes (and shelled several euros to many on them) but totally worth it. although I still have a hard time running outside in them because of the need to play hopscotch to avoid all the god forsaken dog shit everywhere on the pavement...this is one thing I loathe about France...people who don't pick up after their pets...I mean really, how lazy are you, that's just gross! Anyway, the running is going well and I have my first 10k race in five weeks back in NYC!! That's right, I've decided for my two week easter vacation (did I mention I love working here) that I've decided to head back to the US to spend a wild week with my besties in NYC and then down to see my family and friends in TN. I am very much looking forward to all the eating I am going to do:) Not that I don't do enough here...last week after my trip to the grocery store my hiking backpack (yes this is what I wear to go food shopping) was so full I thought I was going to fly off the back of my friend's motorcycle...I was clenched onto his backpack for dear life in a ab-locked position for the entire 20 minute ride home...needless to say I was not pleased when he took a different route (the longer one). I started screaming at him in English through my helmet (which did much good because he barely speaks it) to which he started laughing because he thought it was absolutely hilarious...what is it about men that makes them think we're so cute when we're really pissed off? Don't they know it just pisses us off even more when they laugh because we're angry about something!?!

Ah anyway, it's been super interesting here lately to say the least. But I am quite excited to visit back to the land of I don't have to think before I talk every time I want to say something...and by that I mean I don't have to prepare every single sentence and have what I like to affectionately think of as the equivalent of the new york stock ticker going through my head at all times only with french instead of stats...that will be most refreshing. however I do have to say that I am quite pleased with my French skills, but the more I study the better I want to get, and the more and more I just dream of being bilingual...which will just take time...or a French man....one or the other, whichever comes first:) I often want to stop French children in the street and ask them if they know how lucky they are that they get to learn French as their first language...because let me tell you folks, English has got to be one of the easiest languages to learn...French on the other hand...sometimes makes me want to die inside when I realize just how much I still DON'T know...le sigh. So it goes.

Well that's all for now on this side of the pond. I promise I will try to be much better about getting updates in more often. I know how much I enjoy reading my friend's blogs and I really do appreciate hearing from all of you every time I write one. I think of you often and fondly!!

Much much love,

Sarah:)

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Well the semester is back in full swing now, I've officially been back and teaching for the last week. I am quite pleased to report though that this semester I am teaching a much less heavy course load, now allowing me to have lots of free time, to which I have of course translated into learning! (wow, I want to learn and study with my free time..who knew?) I have decided this semester to follow several of my colleague's courses; I am taking a 2nd year grammar french/english class (this is very good for me, as most of the time, even though my french has gotten a lot better, I am afraid I still sound like an ignorant foreigner trying to communicate) I also had my new favorite class for the first time yesterday, translation! It is a french to english or english to french translation class and I am taking it with my good friend Marica (another lectrice and my american soulmate I have come to find in France) and it is taught by our friend Charlotte (a Frenchie who you would think is actually american by her accent, I couldn't believe it when I found out she was French...she's so good it makes me want to cry, I found myself spending the latter part of the class contemplating the size of her brain...) Finally the last class I am taking is a Russian class. This my friends, is the trial of my week, to learn 3rd foreign language as taught in your 2nd foreign language will make you head want to explode, just thought i'd put that out there for you. So far I have discovered I have a knack for translation, that I really suck at grammar and that Russian, may not be as hard as I thought.

The end of the christmas holidays wound down with a bang as I ended up going mano e mano again with my french landlady...it's a long complicated drawn out story that ends with me, and most likely Siobhan (my other flatmate) moving out of the flat. (If you would like an in depth email as to why I am happy to send you one). However since said experience with said landlady, I have found myself more involved with people watching here, and taking note of all the little idiosyncrasies that these people don't realize are just strange as hell (well, to me anyway). For example, you have at your disposal three types of French students, those that we call "achievers" that sit in the front row, answer most of your questions, actually want to speak English and do speak english all through class. They generally shower, wear a fresh pair of clothes and have at least brushed their teeth before coming to class equipped with at least a pencil and paper. Then we have our "tourists," they are what I like to think of as the hippies of the group, they shower a lot less, and their style in clothing (as french young people are either jcrew or hippied out with MC Hammer pants that I really thought would never exist again...I'm not kidding, and in the ugliest colors you've ever seen) they tend to answer some of the questions, but thoroughly make you want to bathe yourself just by looking at them and pull that ugly piercing out of whatever inappropriate part of their face that its attached to. About 3/4 of the "tourists" end up flunking out and never coming back. That leaves my least favorite kind of students "Beavis and Butthead." Those two jackasses who like to sit in the back row, talk all the time, pretend they don't speak english, and mock your french when you try to explain what you already said in English. Generally you have to emotionally abuse these students, at least that's what it feels like to me when I single them out in front of a room of 30, make them stand up, move seats, remain standing speak to me in English outloud while I ask them if they remember who the professor is, let them sit back down mortified and then end up kicking them out five minutes later because they still won't shut the hell up. I really am going to have to re-learn appropriate teaching methods when I get back to the states, as most of the time here I feel like a lion tamer with a long whip...ha, I am the Indiana Jones of students...or something like it.

The end of the holidays here passed much too quickly as usual and I very soon found myself with LOTS to do and not a lot of time. I corrected over 360 exams in a little under two weeks (and drank copious amounts of beer to go with it, because when you ask a 1st year law student what the difference is between a red state and a blue state in the US and get the response that the "two colors represent the EYES of the world" it really makes you want to cry). My personal favorite, as Marcia and I were both grading our exams and sharing our favorite mess ups, was when she asked a question about Thoreau's influences (as we had learned about civil disobedience) and one of her responses cited Ghandi as one of THOREAU'S major influences...not that I'm a genius here, but I'm pretty sure several decades passed between those two, and as far as I know, Ghandi didn't have a time machine....oh my. I do hope that some of this is making you laugh, as it made us laugh till we cried, which is good, as you need a sense of humor when marking franglais essay exams, otherwise you might just cry cry, and that's no good. However, there are those students who make up for everything in spades, and I do have to say, I had the pleasure of being invited to lunch with said favorite students this week. We chatted for two hours about everything (all in French as well...which is good for me, as the majority of French I speak, be it a lot, is with non-francophones, so switching to actual francophones at their normal speed and being able to keep up is quite an accomplishment for me, especially when there's 5 of them and one of you).

So then, these have been the happenings in the adventures of Sarah lately, not too much terribly new to report and I'm sorry it's taken sooo long for me to get another post up. Friends coming and going, parties and re-entry back to school kindof took it out of me these last few weeks. I hope everything is well back stateside and I wish you all a very good start to your new years as well.

I love you, I miss you,

Sarah

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Switzerland 09

Schilthorn

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Christmas 09

Paris 09

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So it's about 5.30 am here in France and I've been touring around Paris for the last two days with my sister Jessica. I have had a jam packed couple of days of everything you can imagine, all the sites, all the food, all the drink. Needless to say I'm a bit proud of myself and my ability to communicate for two, as I've kindof gotten accustomed to having my better speaking French friends around and I usually let them do all the work, this time it was my turn, and I have to say I surprised myself. So jess and I are off to Switzerland this morning (yes I know you feel really bad for us) but being the genius I am, I booked at 6.30 am flight out of Paris to an airport that doesn't have mass transport that early in the morning, so Jess and I have been chilling in the Orly airport for the last 9 hours...our home for the evening. Finally on the other side of the boarding zone I have found a comfy lounge with carpet and reclining chairs, unlike the tile floors and wooden stools of yesteryear that they had on the previous side of security. We're heading off to Geneva for two days and then up to Interlaken for another four nights. It's been an amazing and beautiful trip so far in Paris, the snow has really added to our experience, the highlight of which was touring Versailles in the snow storm...absolutely breathtaking.

So anyway, the title of this blog (Reconnaissant) means thankful...as I've been sitting here these nine hours in the airport I've had lots of time to chill, surf the net, talk to old friends, browse through pictures and what I've come to realize is just how lucky I am, and I wanted to take a moment to send out my thoughts of thanks to you (all of you who follow me) and to the universe slash divine creator in general. Sometimes, even in Europe, it's easy to get down on ourselves, the holidays (when not traveling home) can become fairly lonely, but I have been so blessed by such happy memories and happy people in my life that I can't really do much accept sit here with a smile on my face as I reflect back through all I've done, everyone I've been and who I'm becoming. The beautiful part about having someone like Jess around is that someone who has been in your life for that long (going on 11 years now) serves as the best thing for us, a mirror, because they carry with them all their reflections of our experiences that we've had together. Sometimes when you're trying on new skin and a new place, it's nice to look back on all that you've been, and being with jess just these last two days has been so wonderful. Laughter, love and friendship really are the best gifts; and this holiday season I am most thankful for those. I am thankful for my wonderful family, both genetic, old friends, and new found souls in Europe. I am thankful for all the love in my life, and I am thankful to each and every one of you for how you contribute, or have contributed to me in the past...even just reading my blog gives me a little lift when I know your'e there. So in the spirit of the season I send to all of you, the very best of what you have given to me, my love, my thoughts, my prayers; sometimes feeling at home has nothing to do with where we are, but who we're with. For all of you that I've ever been able to find a home in, thank you, I love you.

Happy Happy Holidays and Much Much Love to All,

Sarah

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Ahhhh, I've been such a terrible blogger lately, I know I KNOW, I've fallen off the face of the NorthWestern Hemisphere. But I am back, and here to report that I am so close to the finish line I can taste it. This last month in France has been the most fantastic ever. I don't even know where to begin. Last I left off I was about to head to Germany for the weekend, which I did indeed do. I went and stayed with my lovely friends Gus and his husband Justin. I was welcomed to Germany with open arms, lots of beer and my favorite food on the planet, SAUSAGES!! I went to Gus's opera on friday night, it was so wonderful to see such a dear friend doing it and living his dream in Germany! Proof that you to, can do it. I spent the majority of the weekend consuming as much food as possible. I got to go hang out in the super uber cool mansion owned by the music school in Müchen and got to sing opera for the first time in ages; it was seriously liker regaining part of my soul! I bid farewell to my friends (bags packed full of authentic german Haribo gummy bears...those of you who really know me, understand the importance of this)!

I've spent the last two weekends solid (for a change since I've been bopping all over lately) in Tours with my new friends:) All the christmas festivities have begun here, complete with a Marché de Nöel (stands, mulled wine, crafts and roasted chestnuts oh my!). I've mostly been trucking along at school. This week begins exams finally! I am officially done teaching as of the end of this afternoon. I have taken slight joy in making exams for my pain in the ass classes very hard. You should've seen the distraught faces of my students in law this morning...I hate to admit it, but part of me really enjoyed zinging them for being such brats all semester, ha! Actually yesterday at fac (that means uni) all of the other professors and I compared our exams and laughed about how only like five of our students would actually be abel to answer the questions...seriously, when I said half of the first years flunk out, I wasn't kidding.

Well since being paid this month, my girly side has taken over, and my bank account has sufficiently been depleted these last two weeks as I am finally splurging on some French fashion (well I don't know if it's exactly fashion, but by the time I get back I'm definitely going to look like a transplant, complete with skinny tapered jeans...that's right ladies, I even bought tights!) :) I am looking forward to this being my last week of classes and in celebration I decided to buy myself some new nice treats. I also am impatiently awaiting the arrival of my "sister" in 10 days! Jessica lands in France and we are straight off for Christmas in Switzerland! (Sidenote: I'm having the hardest time typing right now since I have finally made the habit of typing on a French keyboard...also I find myself speaking in franglais more and more often since the majority of my friends that I spend my time with now don't speak any English). It leads to me feeling a lot like a mute clown at the end of the day when I have to resort to hand gestures to be able to explain myself because I can't find words in either language to express myself.

When I get back to France I am excited because I get two Christmases this year, I got invited to spend Christmas with my Russian friends (since they're Greek Orthodox) who celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. Score! I was originally so worried about being sad and lonely here at the holidays, but all of the new friends I have made have really afforded me a new family. Last weekend i went to my first "raclette" (like a fondue, but not quite and too complicated to explain on a blog, so fondue will have to suffice) for my friend Ben's birthday. Little did I know it would be me and 9 Frenchies for the entire evening...I did okay at the beginning, but after so many bottles of wine and what they apparently call «eau de vie» (literally water of life) a drink I will never endure ever again because it tastes like shit and burns like fire so badly that even chugging another glass of white wine and choking down cold cheese while all the frenchies laugh at you doesn't help. Needless to say by the end of the evening the frenchies were in full force banter and i was just sitting at the end of the table trying to decipher anything comprehensible out of what they were saying. I had a blast:) The next day of course we had our "French Thanksgiving" with myself and a mélange (mix) of french and anglophone friends. It was seriously the most food I think I have ever eaten in a two day period of time. Shani and I went running the following week and did 5 miles instead of the usual 4...:)

I hope all the preparations for the holidays are going well in the states, I miss all of you so much. I am always around and I always love hearing from everyone, because as in any location, life can sometimes be lonely and get the best of you. But lately it seems I am getting the best of it:)

Much much love,

Sarah:)

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