Gypsy:
One day not too long ago, I was driving from Gréoux to Manosque. I was running late to pick up the kids from school. At the top of the hill btw the 2 towns on the plateau was a man pulled over on the side of the road with his car. He was running about on the street flagging people down for help. Most people drove passed him. At first he looked Indian, so I though he might be a poor Indian ITER employee who has car problems and needs help and being foreign, doesn't know what to do. I pulled over and he came up to me, he spoke poor French, so I spoke to him in English. His English was ok, but not great. He said he is from Turkey and he has his family in the car and he's out of gas. My instinct was to call the police for help for him, but he asked me for money to get gas.
This was the first red flag. But, I know that if he came from Turkey, maybe his bank card doesn't work and maybe he couldn't find the gas station in Manosque because they aren't obvious and easy to find. So, I gave him 20€. He offered to give me his gold necklace or his gold ring. I said no, just take the money and I left. His whole family inside his car was thanking me.
I was feeling pretty good about myself. Like I'm a good samaritan who helped another person in need until....................
2 days later when I saw the same man, on the same side of the road, at the same time of day, doing exactly the same thing. I was pissed. He was parked on the opposite side of the road and I couldn't make out his license plate number. I debated whether or not I should call the police. After I got the kids and came back, I was hoping he would still be there and I could get a better look at his license plate and perhaps ask for my money back, but he was already gone. I've kept a look out since, but have never seen him again.
I heard he scammed another one of my friends in a different area of town, same story, same gimmick. As I was infuriated at the man who cried wolf, I told my neighbor and without going into details, she said so he offered to give you a silver necklace or other jewelery item in return? Uh hm. She said, he's a gypsy. NEVER give them any money. I've learned my lesson. It turns you a little callous, which is not a good thing.
Phone Company:
We went to our phone company called Orange on Oct 13 to change our contract because we were being severly overcharged. We have an internet phone and a landline as well. We had a bill for the internet phone (internet, satellite included) for over 100€, then a separate phone bill just for the landline through France Telecom for 38€. Xavier was pissed, so we decided to stop the landline. Then our internet phone stopped working. This means I can no longer call people for free especially the US. Today is Oct 28, 3 phone calls later to Orange, still no phone. Everytime I called Orange they said it was because our new contract wasn't finished being processed and therefore there is nothing they can do until it's finished. IF our phone still doesn't work by Oct 28, which we ALL know will certainly be the case, then I'm supposed to call back and then they will actually begin resolving the problem. So, today I called yet again and explained the situation. They said they don't know what the problem is, but they will call me back on Tuesday Nov 1. I said "are you actually going to do anything between now and tues?" They said they think the problem is from their hardware someplace, or maybe my phone cable, or maybe my phone jack in the wall. They really don't know. If they cannot solve it, then on Tues they will explain it to me, then put me on a list for sending out a technician, you know like a week later to resolve the problem. I will be going at least 1 full month without a phone. I will try to negotiate not paying the full bill since I haven't had full service, though I know that in France, that will be an exercise in futility. I'll let you know at what date, I will actually receive the service I pay for.
One more thing, when we changed our contract, our new contract comes with something useless but costly called 3G and Gigamail. We want neither. The guy representing Orange signing us up is somehow NOT able to NOT sign us up for these options. If we want to "Delete" them, then I have to call Orange myself. Now, I DID call Orange and was able to delete gigamail after about 1 excruciating hour on the phone, however, they were not able to delete 3G. You see, it is NOT their department, and they cannot transfer me. So, as polite and as seemingly excellent service as they offer, I will have to call back the main line and ask for commercial service to get rid of 3G. And by the way, EVERY time I call my own phone company for anything, I pay per minute to resolve my own phone issues. Now, that's what I call EXCELLENT customer service!
The Bank:
Now that we have established the wonderful efficiency of French phone companies, let us expound on the BANK EXPERIENCE.
I bounced a check, well 3 checks to be exact. Whoops. I wasn't watching my account closely, it is my fault. 2 were to the canteen at the kids school. I wrote those checks in June. They bounced in July, then all banking hell broke lose. Overnight, ALL my cards and checks froze. I could no longer access anything. I have 2 banks. 1 in Manosque near me, 1 in Aix. I only bounced checks at the bank in Manosque, yet somehow EVERY bank I own in France went into blackout.
Now being checks to the school, the school closes during the summer. By the time we figured out which checks bounced, mind you, I called my bank numerous times and even physically went in and asked the simple question "which checks bounced?" The answer from the banker always was "I don't know." Surprisingly, that answer just isn't much help. If they are able to freeze my account, you'd think they'd be able to do a little research to find where the problem originated.
So, my husband being good and thorough, went through our mail to hunt down the letters from the banks and make sense of everything. The school being a school closes down in the summer, so I had to wait until Sept for everyone to come back to work to resolve the problem. Now we are 2 mos without access to my account. Xavier had to buy the gas and pay the groceries. We ran out of checks and our bank refused to send us more since I was in a bank blackout. Finally I got from my bank that I need to physically get the checks back and bring them along with a receipt to the bank. Now I have 2 days off mon, thurs. The bank is closed on mon. This doesn't leave much opportunity to resolve things.
I finally got the checks from my school. They said that I then needed to bring them cash. How? I asked when I cannot use a cash machine? So I went back to the bank on wed morning when I was in Manosque every wed and asked for the cash. Brought the cash to the school on Thurs. Once I procured the checks and the receipt I waited again until I could go to the bank. Everything was supposed to be in order. The 3rd check was to a grocery store in Lyon and after a few phone calls, Xavier negotiated with them to pass the check on through a second time.
On Wed, my bank now had ALL the information they should need to get the issue resolved. However, NEVER trust a french bank. So, the following Wed, I went back to see what was "happening" since I was still sitting pretty in blackout. They said they were still missing a check. I said no you have the check. They argued with me. I said look for it, you have it, there is nothing I can do. She looked and oh my goodness, the check was just sitting there in the pile. It never got processed. 1 week wasted.
The following Wed, I go back to the bank and said "so, what's going on?" Why can I not yet use my cards? She said it is now at the bank of france, it will take about 15 days to process so you should be good by the first week of oct. Remember, I'm in blackout, I have no checks, I cannot pay bills and I have to come to Manosque to the bank physically to take cash out. They are not open on mon, sun and are closed during lunch hours and basically any time someone is NOT at work. They are open Sat morning for about 2 hrs. DO I really want to drive 1/2 hr there and back to get cash?? That's an awful lot of gas to waste, esp when a full take costs about 75€. I said how can 15 days take me all the way into Oct? Do you mean 15 business days? As in 3 weeks? "uh, yes ma'am." Then you should say 3 weeks.
So, every couple of days I called the bank. Same response, we don't know. We cannot contact the Bank of France, I just have to wait. "Can I call the bank of france myself?" "No, ma'am, you cannot call them, they don't have a phone number, no one can call them." Every Wed, I went into the bank and asked about the progress. No ma'am nothing's changed yet. Finally, after 3 weeks, I went into the bank yet again and they said, Oh yeah, it looks like the bank of france lifted the blackout, but it was LCL who was freezing my accounts. I said, "so, can you take off the freeze?" They did, then we said we want to close our account.
Xavier has been trying to close the account for over 1 year. He sent certified letters, we came into the bank. This last reason is oh, yeah, once we got a letter returned to us that we sent to you, so you need to bring us proof of your address. We need a bill from the electric company that is less than 3 months old. In the meantime, they are charging us like 30€ in charges every month per account. Xavier was so pissed. I finally made an appointment with our banker for Thurs, you know the one day I don't work, the bank is open, and I don't have children with me. Our banker, Mme Yde said yes, she closed the account of my husband and transferred everything into my account. His account had 0€.
Then, I had to go back to the bank to make sure everything was in order for my account because I wanted to close it as soon as the blackout was lifted. Xavier was no longer working at ITER at this point and was going to go to Morocco soon, so I wanted to bring him with me, just in case, you know, so if he needed to, he could "go French" at someone. Mind you, we showed up there in the morning. We asked about Xavier's account and they said, no it's not closed, and showed that there was money in it. Xavier was infurious! We demanded to speak to Mme Yde and that we are closing both accounts right now, today and want paper proof of the close. At that particular moment, Mme Yde was present and had NO ONE in her office, but in order to talk to her, we must make an appointment to come back in the afternoon. Xavier wanted it to be clear. We asked what must we bring to close our accounts?
The answer was the usual ID, proof of address, bank transfer paper to the new bank, electric or water bill that is less than 3 mos old or rental agreement, and this was new, they wanted us to bring in ALL of our unused checks. We said "are you joking??? The account is closed, what will a check do??" She said it will put us back into blackout lockdown again and will be harder and more difficult to resolve.
We came back at 15:00 spoke to Mme Yde. She looked nervous. Xavier tried to remain calm and NOT go French at her. She closed the account and gave us proof of it. I now have a file going for LCL Bank because I still don't trust them. I understand now why Xavier was so keen on keeping French papers for years and years. In France, you absolutely have too! Never trust anyone.
In the meantime, my other bank in Aix. Apparently, I was still in blackout lockdown with them even though my bank account at LCL is closed. I called and they said it's because it takes 8-10 EXTRA days for the bank of france to lift the other accounts. That puts me in blackout for over 1 month. My extra problem is back in July, just before lockdown, I forgot my bank code and put in the wrong one 3X. Now I'm in blackout and lockdown from the Bank of France, but in special lockdown #2 for putting in the wrong code. The bank said I need to come and get a new card and give them the old card.
Remember they are located in Aix, I live 1 hr north of Aix. The toll road is 6€ to get to Aix, parking in Aix is an extra 4€ min, gas will be at least a quarter of a tank, about 15-20€. Total cost out of pocket to make a quick 1/2 day journey to Aix to swap bank cards is about 30€. Now, after some negotiation with my new bank, they offered to mail me the card with the assurance that I will be able to use my old code.
Remember bank of france lockout on HSBC last 4 weeks, after ban has been lifted and phone call to bank was made, it takes an extra week to receive new card. I had written down my old code, so am sure of the code being correct. Banker said in order to activate my card, I must buy something. I received my new card with great joy on Oct 24, the day Xavier was supposed to leave. I then went to a place and tried to spend some money on the card. What happened?? Card did NOT go through, it said I used a false code. I reluctantly tried a second time after much insistance from store owner.
Remember, 3 wrong codes keyed and card gets locked out again and will have to call bank for a new card and wait yet a minimum of 1 week. Xavier is leaving in 2 days. 2nd time, code came up false. I stopped and paid cash. I called the bank and she insisted that my code is correct. She said I should go to a cash machine and try it. I said "no." I asked her to please mail me my code. Xavier said my code should change and that the banker is wrong. So, I should be receiving my new code on Tues. Let's hope there won't be something wrong. I just might have to make that trip down to Aix afterall.
Xavier is now gone and I still don't have a functionning bank card. I at least have received checks, so I can buy groceries, etc. Let's hope for the best. Worse comes to worse, I might be able to cash a check at another bank if I need cash. Who knows??
Those are some thoughts and experiences I thought I'd like to share. Xavier said Casablanca is sort of like as he put it "hell." He said it's all the negative of Marseille, to the nth power. He said it is the opposite of Germany. It is dirty, polluted and totally chaotic. He said there is no real public transportation system and driving it is hell. There are donkeys on the street. Casablanca is an ugly dump. He also said that Rabat is not 1 hr away, but 2 hrs away, so we can forget about moving there. His job is south of Casablanca, so I said why don't we just live south. He said he almost got killed crossing the road in Californie. He said he has never feared as much for his life as trying to walk Casablanca. Which means, forget parking in Casablanca. Hmm, a bit of a problem.
He found a colleague who lives south in some sort of house/compound. His colleague will be moving soon and his house will be available. Apparently the house comes with a butler. Yes, that's right, the house comes with a butler. How the heck can a house come with a butler??? I'm thinking that's probably out of our price range. I'll have to go and see for myself.
Explanation: To go French at someone:
Verb (used both with and without object)
1. To yell at a person in a truly direct manner. Why the cuss are you unable to do what I'm asking?!
2. To lose all forms of sophisticated composure and let out ALL of your negative emotions in the exact way your are feeling them at that exact given moment. You are the most incompetent group of cuss cuss cusses I have ever met! How can you live with yourself?
3. Will probably include verbal expression of extreme dissatisfaction with a specific person and or the institution they represent. How many times do I have to come here to resolve this? It's as though I have to do your job for you? This is totally unacceptable! (followed by fist pounding on individual's desk)
4. Is usually in reaction to extreme incompetency.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
News Barcelona, Corsica, Morocco October 2011
Lots of news since the last blog:
Barcelona - Xavier and I went to Barcelona, Spain for work for Xavier. I drove to Lyon to drop the kids off with Yvette and then hit the road with just Xavier for 3 days in Barcelona. He had a seminar for one day and we hung out the other 2 days. It was a great chance to put to use my 1 trimester of college Spanish. I really wanted to see all things Gaudi (the best architect for my personal taste up to date). Ever since a Korean friend of mine went to Barcelona and brought back photographs of Gaudi architecture and pictures from Park Guell, I've been decided to go too. I had Barcelona on my list of things to see before I die, especially this cool beautiful Gaudi bench that wraps around a seating area in Park Guell.
Xavier and I enjoyed a relaxing stroll around Barcelona. I found the city to be pleasant and spacious, though I wouldn't want to live in the center. No privacy, everyone can see into your yard or your house. It is way too crowded in terms of shared living space. We found Starbucks, so had a nice break there and just drank Chi Tea, which I haven't enjoyed since 2009 in Munich. We read books and spent the day on the beach playing in the waves. I had a really nice time. When I had the day to myself on Monday, I was on the long stubborn journey to Park Guell which was extremely difficult to find. The tour book looked easy, but on foot it was impossible. I ended up asking everyone for directions off the street in Spanish. No one spoke English, except for these nice Indian men working in a Kiosk. With a little French, I was able to understand enough. I didn't bother trying Catalan. I figured they would at least try to speak to me in Spanish, but I speak so little, it doesn't really matter anyway. Images from Park Guell are at the following link.
http://www.google.fr/search?q=parc+guell&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=I52&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=G0qNTrGhDKa00QXMgsk_&ved=0CDkQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=665
After 1 hr of meandering uphill and asking directions from every passerbyer, I finally made it to ParK Guell. It was very cool. I took photos, and will attemt to post them? There is no one interesting in the photos, just a little beautiful architecture. Gaudi looks a lot like the Palais du facteur Cheval in France. The Palace of the postman Cheval. I think he existed about the same time as Gaudi and wonder if Cheval was influenced by Gaudi or if they were influenced by the same things common to their time period. It is very cool to visit as well. I think it is near the area of la Drome. The kids loved running through it. There are lots of little passages and windows from which to peek.
http://www.facteurcheval.com/
There were other things I wanted to see in Barcelona regarding Gaudi, but I didn't have enough time. We saw the outside of the Cathredral designed by Gaudi called Sagrada Familia. http://www.google.fr/search?q=sagrada+familia&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=bpN&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&biw=1366&bih=665&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=TEuNToubMumx0AWuzY0d&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CBEQ_AUoAQ
We also visited the old city center which is the Barri Gothic Quarter.
http://www.google.fr/search?q=barri+%2B+gothic&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=SXi&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=6kuNTuyRMaiw0AXEorgm&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBAQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=665
Barcelona is supposed to be about 5 hrs without traffic from Gréoux. It took us 8 because it was in high tourist season.
Corsica: In mid August we took the kids to Toulon, climbed on Corsica Ferries with the car and slept overnight during our boat ride to Ajaccio, Corsica in the Mediterranean. A few years back we took the same boat company from Livorno Italy or some place like that to Sardinia before Nicolas was born. The kids loved being on the boat, but this time neither of them could remember it. It was like they were experiencing it again for the first time.
http://www.corsica-ferries.fr/
Corsica, how to some up in a few words??? Hot, Hot, Hot, sunny, wasp infestation, mafia, tourist rip off, beautiful nature, beautiful landscape, beautiful beaches, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
We camped for 2 weeks with the kids. It was about 40 celcius (95-100 farenheit) every day from about 9 AM onwards. It was hotter at the campsite than at the beach. The wasps are around you from dawn till dusk. The first day we arrived, we made the horrid mistake of attempting to cook hamburgers. We were attacked by a swarm of wasps. I litterally had my hamburger on a fork and was walking briskly to keep ahead of the wasps, since I was being trailed. We never cooked during the daylight again. There were always about 5 wasps around us as we ate breakfast, as I cleaned dishes, etc. They would fly into my body and bounce off me, fly into my face, land on everyone. Miraculously, no one was stung during the entire 2 weeks!! We brought a picnic salad with us to the beach everyday. We realized we forgot to pack tupperware, so there we were all 5 of us spooning salad collectively out of my cooking casserole pot and spooning the food directly into our mouths. I don't think our children ever ate as healthy as during those 2 weeks off of different kinds of salads. They normally don't like lentil salad, etc, but suddenly when hunger strikes and there is nothing else, they can't stop saying how good it is!! We couldn't eat chocolate because it was so hot, it would melt into a river.
After 1 week of camping and swimming in the Mediterranean and playing on the beach, snorkeling, etc, the kids had enough and started asking to go home. They didn't want to see another beach. We also wanted to go home. One night our blow up mattress broke so we deflated within the hour. I didn't sleep real well that night. We had to buy a new smaller air mattress since we couldn't fix the old one. One day we went to Quick for lunch, just to escape the wasps and have AC for a change. The kids were very happy until we said it was time to go to the beach again. That's when all the moaning started.
It's funny at any other time the kids always ask to go to the beach. 1 week of excessive heat, excessive wasps and beach, and the kids have had enough. One day towards the end, we made the mistake of going to one of the local mafia run restaurants on the beach. A few signs of shadiness: 1. it was almost always completely devoid of customers 2. there were the same 2 men sitting at a table at the entrance all day every day during the work week, reading magazines, smoking and drinking beer. My question is, how do they live? What do they do? Even mafia can't make much money off 5 customers a day. Xavier said he had coffee there and he saw some local people get a great meal so he wanted to try it.
How does one spot local mafia? Well.....I'm just going to give you an educated guess at the following description. When we were there, we saw 2 families. 2 fat older tubby men each with very, very young, as in half their age kind of skanky looking wives. Every single person was covered in these gaudy thick gold chain necklaces, including the 2 yr old baby. To increase the confusion in new money, poor taste, the skanky young wives wore, bsides their bikinis showing off their stretch marks, large diamonds wedged inside their belly buttons. Given Corsica is isolated and seemingly poor, and since it has no industry outside of 3 months of tourism and some fishing, and everything costs 2X as much as the already overpriced mainland, it makes you question???
My one and only meal at this restaurant by the way which was part of the "lunch special" and costed a whopping 20€ was called grilled chicken. Imagine what you would envision as a 20€ meal of grilled chicken for a moment....... This was my meal: 1 overcooked thigh from an anorexic chicken (A chicken thigh, as you may know is the CHEAPEST part of the chicken to buy) and about 20 french fries still swimming in grease, yes actually counted them, 20. There was more plate than food. I was really pissed but wasn't sure what to do. Other restaurant options were limited, kids were hungry and this retaurant had the ONLY toilet on the beach, which I'd been using for free for the entire 2 weeks!
During our 2 weeks, a weatlhy french entrepreneuer was shot dead by a sniper on his own boat. At least one person on the island has skills I suppose, be it as nothing more than a hired sharp shooter.
We met some nice people, hiked up to one of the waterfalls inland, canoed on the Mediterranean, and snorkeled. I took some photos of the kids. It was an interesting vacation and I don't need to go back. However, I must say Corsica is a truly, truly beautiful place. I have never seen a more beautiful place. If you have a choice between Corsica and Sardinia, go to Corsica. Sardinia has terrible beaches. Corsica beaches are large and pretty. Just remember to bring your own toilet. Corsica is a part of France and therefore toilets are few and far between and no one will share theirs willingly. Most beaches don't have toilets and therefore if you want to use one in a restaurant, then you have to buy something. At least the beaches and parking are for free. Otherwise, we'd be REALLY broke after out trip. A family of 5 at Quick (McDonalds) was 40€ ($55).
http://www.google.fr/search?q=corsica&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=Kn4&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=yWONTtGBMYeZhQfAnbAH&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CCgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=665
Morocco: OK if you can still stomach reading, the REALLY BIG news. Xavier has accepted a new job in Morocco. He leaves October 24. He will come back every other weekend. It will be hard to be without him. I was very worried and panicked to be on my own in France. I was worried about stupid things like if my car breaks down, if I can't get the computer to work right, or if I get sick. I have friends, but my stand by back up will no longer be here. My computer techy husband will be gone and I will be forced to deal with the PC alone not to mention the French Administration. I'm feeling better now though.
The goal is for us to move to Morocco for the next school year, only if things go well for Xavier there, only if the region seems stable enough, if it's safe and if he thinks we will be happy. He has to find a nice school for the kids. It will probably be in only English. Which makes coming back here difficult, since the kids will then lose at least 1 yr in French. We'll see. So far, Xavier's contract is for 2 yrs. We have 3 2 week breaks coming up, X-mas, Feb, spring. I just found out my sister's getting married, so we will fly back to Chicago during the summer. I will have to stay behing in Gréoux to get the move into order. School here ends July 5. It will take maybe 2 weeks of packing and camping here and moving our things into storage and shipping the rest to Morocco. I think I will see if I can give the kids to Yvette during that time. We want to sell the cars. I will lease a small crappy car there. I don't want the hassle of shipping my car. Then we can be free to go wherever we want afterwards.
Xavier's contract is for 2 yrs. He won't really know the situation or the needs until he gets on the spot. He is going to be head of project management for a phosophate mine or something. I'm not really sure what he will be doing. The job is in and near Casablanca. The Sahara dessert is in the south. I've always wanted to take a camel ride through the Sahara!! That will be first on my list of things to experience. I will need to learn Arabic. I would like to speak and read some Arabic. I've always been very curious about that. I also need to work while I'm there. It is very important for my mental and emotional balance. I had depression since I stopped working and during the past 10 yrs have slowly reflected and figured out the specific balance I need in my life in order to be happy. I'm not sure how it is for others, but I've learned that I need 1. constant intellectual stimulation 2. feeling of positive production (meaningful work, not JUST work) 3. family 4. lots and lots of socialisation 5. being busy (also sport) 6. accomplishment in some form, or working towards new goals 7. travel. When I moved to Dresden, I was totally deprived of 1,2,4,5 and 6. I was completely depressed. When I went to school the first month, I was totally happy and could deal much better with being in a new place because I had so much socialisation and mental stimulation, but once that month ended and we couldn't afford for me to continue, I fell into a horrific depression. Sometimes it takes us to have difficult situations in order to learn more about ourselves. I've also learned I am an Expat no matter where I am and that's ok. I don't need to fit into the local culture because I will ALWAYS be an outsider, which is ok too. The people I will most likely become friends with are expats and locals who have travelled and who have also experienced expatriation. They also feel out of place with the other locals. It doesn't matter to get involved with the locals and or to be accepted by the locals. You will have a hard time becomming friends with the locals, but have a much faster time becomming acquainted with the expats because the expats are all in the same boat. They are ALL away from their families and have no back up so you become each other's back up. It is like have a large transient extended family constantly surrounding you. It is very good and important.
We have an appt with the US consulate Oct 12 to get our passports in order. Hopefully we will be able to get our passports by x-mas. Xavier is going to Paris this weekend. Then next weekend is passports in Marseille, then the following weekend is the first weekend in the fall break and goodbye to xavier. Being away from my husband isn't such a bad thing since it will force me to stand on my own a bit more and become more independent, which is never a bad thing. The goal is to slowly introduce the children to Morocco in a positive manner so we can move there next year. 9 mos alone is 1 thing. 2 yrs alone is a lifestyle. I want my family to be together and I think this is a wonderful way to visit Africa. I have always been curious about Morocco. I have always wanted to go to Morocco and have recently wanted to visit Africa. Of course Morocco is just the Maghreb. While we are there, I would like to extend his contract if possible so we can stay at least 2 school years there and take the time to visit the rest of Africa like Kenya or something. I've always wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro since I learned about it in college. It has been on my list of things to do before I die.
I'll keep you posted. Today is the first day I'm actually home since school started Sept 5. Craziness.
Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania Africa
http://www.google.fr/search?q=mount+kilimanjaro&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=ptO&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VluNTtZ7g7qEB_rmnfoP&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=665
Casablanca, Morocco
http://www.google.fr/search?q=mount+kilimanjaro&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=ptO&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VluNTtZ7g7qEB_rmnfoP&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=665#hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=9uO&rls=org.mozilla:fr%3Aofficial&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=casablanca+maroc&pbx=1&oq=casablanca&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=85182l87563l0l95435l10l10l0l4l4l1l724l2399l2-2.1.2.0.1l6l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=5d2108b9fb05369&biw=1366&bih=665
By the way, I don't anticipate Casablanca to be pretty or anything. I figure it will look like a run down version of Marseille. At least they speak French. I think it goes like this. The common blue collar majority will speak Arabic (that means all shopping, food, etc). The university educated people will speak both Arabic and French. The higher educated people (doctors, higher degrees, Moroccan expats) will speak Arabic, French, and English. Either way, I think it is important that I learn Arabic. I started writing my first novel called Isabelle in July. I have to hurry and get that finished because I want the heroine in my next novel to speak Arabic. But, I cannot start that until I finish this first one. I have to make it a habit to write EVERY night after the kids go to bed in order to get my novel finished, otherwise it will just sit there and not get done!!!
Barcelona - Xavier and I went to Barcelona, Spain for work for Xavier. I drove to Lyon to drop the kids off with Yvette and then hit the road with just Xavier for 3 days in Barcelona. He had a seminar for one day and we hung out the other 2 days. It was a great chance to put to use my 1 trimester of college Spanish. I really wanted to see all things Gaudi (the best architect for my personal taste up to date). Ever since a Korean friend of mine went to Barcelona and brought back photographs of Gaudi architecture and pictures from Park Guell, I've been decided to go too. I had Barcelona on my list of things to see before I die, especially this cool beautiful Gaudi bench that wraps around a seating area in Park Guell.
Xavier and I enjoyed a relaxing stroll around Barcelona. I found the city to be pleasant and spacious, though I wouldn't want to live in the center. No privacy, everyone can see into your yard or your house. It is way too crowded in terms of shared living space. We found Starbucks, so had a nice break there and just drank Chi Tea, which I haven't enjoyed since 2009 in Munich. We read books and spent the day on the beach playing in the waves. I had a really nice time. When I had the day to myself on Monday, I was on the long stubborn journey to Park Guell which was extremely difficult to find. The tour book looked easy, but on foot it was impossible. I ended up asking everyone for directions off the street in Spanish. No one spoke English, except for these nice Indian men working in a Kiosk. With a little French, I was able to understand enough. I didn't bother trying Catalan. I figured they would at least try to speak to me in Spanish, but I speak so little, it doesn't really matter anyway. Images from Park Guell are at the following link.
http://www.google.fr/search?q=parc+guell&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=I52&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=G0qNTrGhDKa00QXMgsk_&ved=0CDkQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=665
After 1 hr of meandering uphill and asking directions from every passerbyer, I finally made it to ParK Guell. It was very cool. I took photos, and will attemt to post them? There is no one interesting in the photos, just a little beautiful architecture. Gaudi looks a lot like the Palais du facteur Cheval in France. The Palace of the postman Cheval. I think he existed about the same time as Gaudi and wonder if Cheval was influenced by Gaudi or if they were influenced by the same things common to their time period. It is very cool to visit as well. I think it is near the area of la Drome. The kids loved running through it. There are lots of little passages and windows from which to peek.
http://www.facteurcheval.com/
There were other things I wanted to see in Barcelona regarding Gaudi, but I didn't have enough time. We saw the outside of the Cathredral designed by Gaudi called Sagrada Familia. http://www.google.fr/search?q=sagrada+familia&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=bpN&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&biw=1366&bih=665&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=TEuNToubMumx0AWuzY0d&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CBEQ_AUoAQ
We also visited the old city center which is the Barri Gothic Quarter.
http://www.google.fr/search?q=barri+%2B+gothic&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=SXi&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=6kuNTuyRMaiw0AXEorgm&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBAQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=665
Barcelona is supposed to be about 5 hrs without traffic from Gréoux. It took us 8 because it was in high tourist season.
Corsica: In mid August we took the kids to Toulon, climbed on Corsica Ferries with the car and slept overnight during our boat ride to Ajaccio, Corsica in the Mediterranean. A few years back we took the same boat company from Livorno Italy or some place like that to Sardinia before Nicolas was born. The kids loved being on the boat, but this time neither of them could remember it. It was like they were experiencing it again for the first time.
http://www.corsica-ferries.fr/
Corsica, how to some up in a few words??? Hot, Hot, Hot, sunny, wasp infestation, mafia, tourist rip off, beautiful nature, beautiful landscape, beautiful beaches, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
We camped for 2 weeks with the kids. It was about 40 celcius (95-100 farenheit) every day from about 9 AM onwards. It was hotter at the campsite than at the beach. The wasps are around you from dawn till dusk. The first day we arrived, we made the horrid mistake of attempting to cook hamburgers. We were attacked by a swarm of wasps. I litterally had my hamburger on a fork and was walking briskly to keep ahead of the wasps, since I was being trailed. We never cooked during the daylight again. There were always about 5 wasps around us as we ate breakfast, as I cleaned dishes, etc. They would fly into my body and bounce off me, fly into my face, land on everyone. Miraculously, no one was stung during the entire 2 weeks!! We brought a picnic salad with us to the beach everyday. We realized we forgot to pack tupperware, so there we were all 5 of us spooning salad collectively out of my cooking casserole pot and spooning the food directly into our mouths. I don't think our children ever ate as healthy as during those 2 weeks off of different kinds of salads. They normally don't like lentil salad, etc, but suddenly when hunger strikes and there is nothing else, they can't stop saying how good it is!! We couldn't eat chocolate because it was so hot, it would melt into a river.
After 1 week of camping and swimming in the Mediterranean and playing on the beach, snorkeling, etc, the kids had enough and started asking to go home. They didn't want to see another beach. We also wanted to go home. One night our blow up mattress broke so we deflated within the hour. I didn't sleep real well that night. We had to buy a new smaller air mattress since we couldn't fix the old one. One day we went to Quick for lunch, just to escape the wasps and have AC for a change. The kids were very happy until we said it was time to go to the beach again. That's when all the moaning started.
It's funny at any other time the kids always ask to go to the beach. 1 week of excessive heat, excessive wasps and beach, and the kids have had enough. One day towards the end, we made the mistake of going to one of the local mafia run restaurants on the beach. A few signs of shadiness: 1. it was almost always completely devoid of customers 2. there were the same 2 men sitting at a table at the entrance all day every day during the work week, reading magazines, smoking and drinking beer. My question is, how do they live? What do they do? Even mafia can't make much money off 5 customers a day. Xavier said he had coffee there and he saw some local people get a great meal so he wanted to try it.
How does one spot local mafia? Well.....I'm just going to give you an educated guess at the following description. When we were there, we saw 2 families. 2 fat older tubby men each with very, very young, as in half their age kind of skanky looking wives. Every single person was covered in these gaudy thick gold chain necklaces, including the 2 yr old baby. To increase the confusion in new money, poor taste, the skanky young wives wore, bsides their bikinis showing off their stretch marks, large diamonds wedged inside their belly buttons. Given Corsica is isolated and seemingly poor, and since it has no industry outside of 3 months of tourism and some fishing, and everything costs 2X as much as the already overpriced mainland, it makes you question???
My one and only meal at this restaurant by the way which was part of the "lunch special" and costed a whopping 20€ was called grilled chicken. Imagine what you would envision as a 20€ meal of grilled chicken for a moment....... This was my meal: 1 overcooked thigh from an anorexic chicken (A chicken thigh, as you may know is the CHEAPEST part of the chicken to buy) and about 20 french fries still swimming in grease, yes actually counted them, 20. There was more plate than food. I was really pissed but wasn't sure what to do. Other restaurant options were limited, kids were hungry and this retaurant had the ONLY toilet on the beach, which I'd been using for free for the entire 2 weeks!
During our 2 weeks, a weatlhy french entrepreneuer was shot dead by a sniper on his own boat. At least one person on the island has skills I suppose, be it as nothing more than a hired sharp shooter.
We met some nice people, hiked up to one of the waterfalls inland, canoed on the Mediterranean, and snorkeled. I took some photos of the kids. It was an interesting vacation and I don't need to go back. However, I must say Corsica is a truly, truly beautiful place. I have never seen a more beautiful place. If you have a choice between Corsica and Sardinia, go to Corsica. Sardinia has terrible beaches. Corsica beaches are large and pretty. Just remember to bring your own toilet. Corsica is a part of France and therefore toilets are few and far between and no one will share theirs willingly. Most beaches don't have toilets and therefore if you want to use one in a restaurant, then you have to buy something. At least the beaches and parking are for free. Otherwise, we'd be REALLY broke after out trip. A family of 5 at Quick (McDonalds) was 40€ ($55).
http://www.google.fr/search?q=corsica&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=Kn4&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=yWONTtGBMYeZhQfAnbAH&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CCgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=665
Morocco: OK if you can still stomach reading, the REALLY BIG news. Xavier has accepted a new job in Morocco. He leaves October 24. He will come back every other weekend. It will be hard to be without him. I was very worried and panicked to be on my own in France. I was worried about stupid things like if my car breaks down, if I can't get the computer to work right, or if I get sick. I have friends, but my stand by back up will no longer be here. My computer techy husband will be gone and I will be forced to deal with the PC alone not to mention the French Administration. I'm feeling better now though.
The goal is for us to move to Morocco for the next school year, only if things go well for Xavier there, only if the region seems stable enough, if it's safe and if he thinks we will be happy. He has to find a nice school for the kids. It will probably be in only English. Which makes coming back here difficult, since the kids will then lose at least 1 yr in French. We'll see. So far, Xavier's contract is for 2 yrs. We have 3 2 week breaks coming up, X-mas, Feb, spring. I just found out my sister's getting married, so we will fly back to Chicago during the summer. I will have to stay behing in Gréoux to get the move into order. School here ends July 5. It will take maybe 2 weeks of packing and camping here and moving our things into storage and shipping the rest to Morocco. I think I will see if I can give the kids to Yvette during that time. We want to sell the cars. I will lease a small crappy car there. I don't want the hassle of shipping my car. Then we can be free to go wherever we want afterwards.
Xavier's contract is for 2 yrs. He won't really know the situation or the needs until he gets on the spot. He is going to be head of project management for a phosophate mine or something. I'm not really sure what he will be doing. The job is in and near Casablanca. The Sahara dessert is in the south. I've always wanted to take a camel ride through the Sahara!! That will be first on my list of things to experience. I will need to learn Arabic. I would like to speak and read some Arabic. I've always been very curious about that. I also need to work while I'm there. It is very important for my mental and emotional balance. I had depression since I stopped working and during the past 10 yrs have slowly reflected and figured out the specific balance I need in my life in order to be happy. I'm not sure how it is for others, but I've learned that I need 1. constant intellectual stimulation 2. feeling of positive production (meaningful work, not JUST work) 3. family 4. lots and lots of socialisation 5. being busy (also sport) 6. accomplishment in some form, or working towards new goals 7. travel. When I moved to Dresden, I was totally deprived of 1,2,4,5 and 6. I was completely depressed. When I went to school the first month, I was totally happy and could deal much better with being in a new place because I had so much socialisation and mental stimulation, but once that month ended and we couldn't afford for me to continue, I fell into a horrific depression. Sometimes it takes us to have difficult situations in order to learn more about ourselves. I've also learned I am an Expat no matter where I am and that's ok. I don't need to fit into the local culture because I will ALWAYS be an outsider, which is ok too. The people I will most likely become friends with are expats and locals who have travelled and who have also experienced expatriation. They also feel out of place with the other locals. It doesn't matter to get involved with the locals and or to be accepted by the locals. You will have a hard time becomming friends with the locals, but have a much faster time becomming acquainted with the expats because the expats are all in the same boat. They are ALL away from their families and have no back up so you become each other's back up. It is like have a large transient extended family constantly surrounding you. It is very good and important.
We have an appt with the US consulate Oct 12 to get our passports in order. Hopefully we will be able to get our passports by x-mas. Xavier is going to Paris this weekend. Then next weekend is passports in Marseille, then the following weekend is the first weekend in the fall break and goodbye to xavier. Being away from my husband isn't such a bad thing since it will force me to stand on my own a bit more and become more independent, which is never a bad thing. The goal is to slowly introduce the children to Morocco in a positive manner so we can move there next year. 9 mos alone is 1 thing. 2 yrs alone is a lifestyle. I want my family to be together and I think this is a wonderful way to visit Africa. I have always been curious about Morocco. I have always wanted to go to Morocco and have recently wanted to visit Africa. Of course Morocco is just the Maghreb. While we are there, I would like to extend his contract if possible so we can stay at least 2 school years there and take the time to visit the rest of Africa like Kenya or something. I've always wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro since I learned about it in college. It has been on my list of things to do before I die.
I'll keep you posted. Today is the first day I'm actually home since school started Sept 5. Craziness.
Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania Africa
http://www.google.fr/search?q=mount+kilimanjaro&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=ptO&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VluNTtZ7g7qEB_rmnfoP&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=665
Casablanca, Morocco
http://www.google.fr/search?q=mount+kilimanjaro&hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=ptO&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VluNTtZ7g7qEB_rmnfoP&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=665#hl=fr&client=firefox-a&hs=9uO&rls=org.mozilla:fr%3Aofficial&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=casablanca+maroc&pbx=1&oq=casablanca&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=85182l87563l0l95435l10l10l0l4l4l1l724l2399l2-2.1.2.0.1l6l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=5d2108b9fb05369&biw=1366&bih=665
By the way, I don't anticipate Casablanca to be pretty or anything. I figure it will look like a run down version of Marseille. At least they speak French. I think it goes like this. The common blue collar majority will speak Arabic (that means all shopping, food, etc). The university educated people will speak both Arabic and French. The higher educated people (doctors, higher degrees, Moroccan expats) will speak Arabic, French, and English. Either way, I think it is important that I learn Arabic. I started writing my first novel called Isabelle in July. I have to hurry and get that finished because I want the heroine in my next novel to speak Arabic. But, I cannot start that until I finish this first one. I have to make it a habit to write EVERY night after the kids go to bed in order to get my novel finished, otherwise it will just sit there and not get done!!!
Friday, March 25, 2011
March 2011
Apparently I haven't written since November!! Yikes!
It's nearing registration time again at the International School in Manosque for the kids for next year. We'll see how that pans out for Nicolas. We are as usual worried. This time we are worried he may not get into the school next year. I think we'll have to go through the usual paperwork and just find out.
Work is going great for me. I am very happy teaching at the school. I have a good team that I work with, lots of nice and talented people. I couldn't be happier. I think we all work well together. I work only in the maternelle this year so I can only account for us. When I work, we have all the foreign language teachers together on the same day, so it is very varied. We do music and sing songs in English, French, German, Italien, Chinese, and Japanese. It is a lot of fun, though difficult for me outside of German and French.
Working part-time is really great. I feel like a mommy with a hobby. I didn't like staying home full-time. It was boring AND really stressful. It is more fun going to work. At least the art projects I do with the kids I can test on my own kids at home at first. That seems to work really well. I can bring in their examples to show the kids the end results. My kids enjoy doing art projects and cooking.
Sitting here there is so much to say, yet not sure what to tell you. I don't want to bore anyone to tears!
I was grocery shopping the other day in LIDL with all 3 kids, which I usually try to avoid because they are so unruly. Anyway, I end up with a cart full of items which annoys anyone behind me because there is no such thing as an "express lane" in France. I always let anyone with a few items to bump ahead of me in line. There were 2 older men (grandpa aged) behind me and started talking a few lines to me in English. We ended up chatting a bit, then they starting helping me unload the cart which was really nice, then they also started helping me load it back up after the cashier checked out the items. We don't have anyone bagging groceries for you in France and you don't have time or the space to bag a cart full of groceries yourself, so you have to throw the items back in the cart as fast as possible so the people waiting behind you won't get too angry, then once you get to your car or home, you can bag them. I had other Americans new to France complain because they try to bag their groceries on the spot, which is normal because that's how we do things in the states. However, they feel the pressure of the other patrons waiting behind them and try to work as fast as possible while holding up the line. Meanwhile the cashier will just sit there and stare at you and watch you work, but won't offer to help. This comes across as very strange for an American, because part of the cashier's job in the states is bagging groceries. In America, we find it odd when a customer is bagging their own groceries. It's a big no no in the US.
My first job was bagging groceries in the states. I was 15. I was already tired of baby-sitting and wanted to get a "real job." Who knew that after taxes and union fees, I would earn so much more babysitting!! As a teenager you want to go out with your friends and not babysit children on Friday and Saturday nights. I liked my job. I worked with immigrants who could barely speak English and with mentally handicapped people. I don't know of any other country that would allow mentally handicapped people work. I think it is very important for them to hold down a job. It gives them stimulation and independence. During my time working in highschool at the grocery store, I learned about a social constraint that I call the "foodchain mentality." About 80% of the customers who came into our grocery store were nice, polite people. They would talk to you, say hi, etc. However, there is that unfortunate other 20% who subscribe to the "foodchain mentality." These are the people who rate your, their and everyone's value based on 2 apparent objectives. 1 The amount of education you have. 2 The amount of money you make and/or are subjectively valued. If one of the said individuals comes across another who is subjectively deemed their equal or superier, then they will treat that person with respect. However, if they come across an individual who appears "inferior" to themselves (most immigrants will automatically fall into this category especially if they cannot speak English), then the "foodchain mentality" person will allow himself free licensce to treat this person differentially and without respect. The key commonality between all of my experiences with the "foodchain mentality" person is that they undoubtedly ALWAYS thought of themselves as quite high up on the foodchain, like a lion or a shark. As a teenager who was employed as a lowly bagger and then later promoted to cashier, you can only guess where I fell on the foodchain. My youth didn't always exclude me from this disrespect. I found that in general the "foodchain mentality" people only remained with the educated upper middle class. Men were more likely to be of this group than women. When a woman does subscribe to the "foodchain mentality," she can alomost be worse than the men.
This doesn't mean that all middle upper class people are rude. Like I said, the remaining 80% are always very nice and polite.
I have to say I am really glad I had this experience. I am glad to work with mentally handicapped and with immigrants. It was very important to learn about openness and acceptance. And more importantly, I always vowed that no matter what I do with my life, no matter how high I achieve, I will NEVER be a "foodchain mentality" person. I will always be one of the nice and polite customers. When I did go to work in large companies later, I made it a point to talk to everyone, especially the housekeeping, though I couldn't really speak much Spanish. It is important to treat everyone with mutual respect because at the end of the day everyone is the same. People fall in love, have families, and work. I don't see why anyone should think they have a free license to treat anyone different or lower than themselves.
It's nearing registration time again at the International School in Manosque for the kids for next year. We'll see how that pans out for Nicolas. We are as usual worried. This time we are worried he may not get into the school next year. I think we'll have to go through the usual paperwork and just find out.
Work is going great for me. I am very happy teaching at the school. I have a good team that I work with, lots of nice and talented people. I couldn't be happier. I think we all work well together. I work only in the maternelle this year so I can only account for us. When I work, we have all the foreign language teachers together on the same day, so it is very varied. We do music and sing songs in English, French, German, Italien, Chinese, and Japanese. It is a lot of fun, though difficult for me outside of German and French.
Working part-time is really great. I feel like a mommy with a hobby. I didn't like staying home full-time. It was boring AND really stressful. It is more fun going to work. At least the art projects I do with the kids I can test on my own kids at home at first. That seems to work really well. I can bring in their examples to show the kids the end results. My kids enjoy doing art projects and cooking.
Sitting here there is so much to say, yet not sure what to tell you. I don't want to bore anyone to tears!
I was grocery shopping the other day in LIDL with all 3 kids, which I usually try to avoid because they are so unruly. Anyway, I end up with a cart full of items which annoys anyone behind me because there is no such thing as an "express lane" in France. I always let anyone with a few items to bump ahead of me in line. There were 2 older men (grandpa aged) behind me and started talking a few lines to me in English. We ended up chatting a bit, then they starting helping me unload the cart which was really nice, then they also started helping me load it back up after the cashier checked out the items. We don't have anyone bagging groceries for you in France and you don't have time or the space to bag a cart full of groceries yourself, so you have to throw the items back in the cart as fast as possible so the people waiting behind you won't get too angry, then once you get to your car or home, you can bag them. I had other Americans new to France complain because they try to bag their groceries on the spot, which is normal because that's how we do things in the states. However, they feel the pressure of the other patrons waiting behind them and try to work as fast as possible while holding up the line. Meanwhile the cashier will just sit there and stare at you and watch you work, but won't offer to help. This comes across as very strange for an American, because part of the cashier's job in the states is bagging groceries. In America, we find it odd when a customer is bagging their own groceries. It's a big no no in the US.
My first job was bagging groceries in the states. I was 15. I was already tired of baby-sitting and wanted to get a "real job." Who knew that after taxes and union fees, I would earn so much more babysitting!! As a teenager you want to go out with your friends and not babysit children on Friday and Saturday nights. I liked my job. I worked with immigrants who could barely speak English and with mentally handicapped people. I don't know of any other country that would allow mentally handicapped people work. I think it is very important for them to hold down a job. It gives them stimulation and independence. During my time working in highschool at the grocery store, I learned about a social constraint that I call the "foodchain mentality." About 80% of the customers who came into our grocery store were nice, polite people. They would talk to you, say hi, etc. However, there is that unfortunate other 20% who subscribe to the "foodchain mentality." These are the people who rate your, their and everyone's value based on 2 apparent objectives. 1 The amount of education you have. 2 The amount of money you make and/or are subjectively valued. If one of the said individuals comes across another who is subjectively deemed their equal or superier, then they will treat that person with respect. However, if they come across an individual who appears "inferior" to themselves (most immigrants will automatically fall into this category especially if they cannot speak English), then the "foodchain mentality" person will allow himself free licensce to treat this person differentially and without respect. The key commonality between all of my experiences with the "foodchain mentality" person is that they undoubtedly ALWAYS thought of themselves as quite high up on the foodchain, like a lion or a shark. As a teenager who was employed as a lowly bagger and then later promoted to cashier, you can only guess where I fell on the foodchain. My youth didn't always exclude me from this disrespect. I found that in general the "foodchain mentality" people only remained with the educated upper middle class. Men were more likely to be of this group than women. When a woman does subscribe to the "foodchain mentality," she can alomost be worse than the men.
This doesn't mean that all middle upper class people are rude. Like I said, the remaining 80% are always very nice and polite.
I have to say I am really glad I had this experience. I am glad to work with mentally handicapped and with immigrants. It was very important to learn about openness and acceptance. And more importantly, I always vowed that no matter what I do with my life, no matter how high I achieve, I will NEVER be a "foodchain mentality" person. I will always be one of the nice and polite customers. When I did go to work in large companies later, I made it a point to talk to everyone, especially the housekeeping, though I couldn't really speak much Spanish. It is important to treat everyone with mutual respect because at the end of the day everyone is the same. People fall in love, have families, and work. I don't see why anyone should think they have a free license to treat anyone different or lower than themselves.
Friday, November 19, 2010
News November 2010
Hello all. I know it has been a long time since my last blog but that's because there isn't much news to share. So I'll just dive in....
Over the summer we lost one of our beloved cats, Rocky. We went to Lyon to visit Xaiver's mom and when we came back, Rocky wasn't here. We suspect he disappeard shortly after we left. I was very upset and stressed about his disappearance. The kids didn't seem to care much, only Anaïs has been sad and still talks about him. All of the kids first words was either cat or Rocky. Nicolas still calls Zoé, Rocky. For him all cats are called Rocky. In one moment of particular shocking callousness, Anaïs asked if we could trade up Zoé for a hamster. I said no. They want another cat since Zoé isn't particularly friendly to kids. Again, we said no. We're not ready to add another animal to take care of. I'd rather do something else.
Xavier got a work promotion to PVC I think, which means project manager of something. I don't really understand what he does, but he is very happy and really loves his job. His contract comes to end this time in Feb, so he'll have to wait and see if he can get it extended again. I am very happy for him. He joined a gym and works out regularly and still goes crewing and canoeing on the weekends at Lac d'Esperron. I joined the same gym this year and can only go 2 days a week that I have free of children, so it's not much, but it helps my back pain.
I received a job offer to work at the int'l school part-time (2 days a week) this year and it is really great! I teach ESL for pre-schoolers PS and MS (3-4 yr olds). It is a lot of fun. Teaching is truly the one job I've had that I really like.
Anaïs: did some pony riding over the toussaint break. She seemed to enjoy that alright. She's been asking to pony ride for a year now, so that went well. We'll see what we'll do for winter break. She is in CE1 (2nd grade). She seems happy. still sruggling to read in French and English. I worked with her over the summer just in English to help her with phonics and reading in general. I didn't push, I just wanted it to be fun. I also do soutien with her during my lunch breaks when I'm at school and I don't have meetings. She seems happy. I do soutien with her in English and maths. Her maths has greatly improved over the summer because we worked on that together as well. She desperately needs to do sport, so I have to find her something. Gréoux doesn't offer a whole lot of options. Sadly dance and gymnastice are not a part of them. She is limited to tennis and martial arts. We'll see. I don't consider pony riding as a sport, it's more of a bourgeois hobby.
Austin: in GS (kindergarden). He is learning his letters, though that seems to be coming slowly. He is fairly stubborn, but wants to work with me at night. There may be a bit of jealousy with Anaïs. So, we work a little on letters and numbers at night. I discovered recently that he can't recognize numbers beyond 5. So, we can work on that I suppose. He also needs sport, but I haven't signed him up yet. He is an out-doorsy boy and would love fishing and rock climbing. Boy scouts exist in Manosque, but is has a weird reputation as a far right wing religious exclusive group. Not something you want to be a part of. It comes across a little like a milder version one of Hitler's youth groups. So, needless to say, austin isn't a part of that. I need to get more info anyway, plus I'm not keen on driving to Manosque on my days off. That would be too much driving!!
Nicolas: going well. he is in daycare 4 days a week. He likes it and seems to have some friends. he is sweet and I got him potty trained over the summer!!! Yeah!! Caca is still a problem, but at least he can wee wee in the potty. I think it is easier to train boys that girls. You simply let them run around naked during the summer and let them wee outside on plants, trees, bugs, etc. They learn quickly it's fun to wee on stuff. Gives them a goal, not to mention aim.
One of my students from last year lost her mommy over the summer about 1 week before school started. It was horrible. I have never seen more people cry at once in my life. It is horrible to see children in such pain. It was almost unbearable. It was august, hot sun, so very hot. The church was so full about half the people had to stand in the back. One young woman passed out during the service and got carried out on a stretcher. That's the first time I've seen that. I brought Anaïs with me. I wanted her to be there for my other student, since they know each other. I think it's important for children to support other children. It's bad enough to lose a parent, but it doesn't help to be surrounded by adults on that day either. Her brother played the violin when they laid their mom to rest and it was truly one of the most beautiful and saddest moments of my life. I'm sad but grateful to have been able to be a silent whitness of such love and beauty.
I read a great book called Night by Elie Wiesel. It is about his experiences in Auschwitz. It is haunting. I started doing some research about the holocaust afterwards which is also a little too vivid and hard to digest that a country could systematically murder and torture sooo many people and children for a few years and that no one said anything and just allowed it to happen. I see the people in Germany as silent whitnesses, just getting on with their lives and not asking questions about what goes on behind the barbed wire and just allowing it because they have other more important things to do like go to work and make money to feed their families. Remember this was during the time of the great depression. My mom and I visited Dachau while we were in Munich. I'm glad I saw that. It makes more sense to me after seeing that. I've seen photos of Auschwitz and it feels like I've already been there.
Genocides have happened since then, the Congo for example. There will be more as long as no one says anything. Look at Guantanimo. We know this is wrong, right? They are holding children there illegally and other adults. Yet, who of us have stood up and said something? Not I. I am ashamed of this. I have strong feelings about injustices and things that make me sick, pretty much everything that George W Bush did during his presidency, yet I never said anything, nor did I march in the street and demonstrate. I am no better than a silent whitness to crime. Perhaps, real crime is all of us who are aware of injustice, yet we are guilty of not moving a finger to stop it or to speak out against it. I don't see how anyone of us can judge the German people during the war anymore than we should judge ourselves, for we are no better.
Thanks for taking the time to read about our news. I finally bought a new camera, so I can share some photos of the kids soon.
Cheers,
Jennel
Over the summer we lost one of our beloved cats, Rocky. We went to Lyon to visit Xaiver's mom and when we came back, Rocky wasn't here. We suspect he disappeard shortly after we left. I was very upset and stressed about his disappearance. The kids didn't seem to care much, only Anaïs has been sad and still talks about him. All of the kids first words was either cat or Rocky. Nicolas still calls Zoé, Rocky. For him all cats are called Rocky. In one moment of particular shocking callousness, Anaïs asked if we could trade up Zoé for a hamster. I said no. They want another cat since Zoé isn't particularly friendly to kids. Again, we said no. We're not ready to add another animal to take care of. I'd rather do something else.
Xavier got a work promotion to PVC I think, which means project manager of something. I don't really understand what he does, but he is very happy and really loves his job. His contract comes to end this time in Feb, so he'll have to wait and see if he can get it extended again. I am very happy for him. He joined a gym and works out regularly and still goes crewing and canoeing on the weekends at Lac d'Esperron. I joined the same gym this year and can only go 2 days a week that I have free of children, so it's not much, but it helps my back pain.
I received a job offer to work at the int'l school part-time (2 days a week) this year and it is really great! I teach ESL for pre-schoolers PS and MS (3-4 yr olds). It is a lot of fun. Teaching is truly the one job I've had that I really like.
Anaïs: did some pony riding over the toussaint break. She seemed to enjoy that alright. She's been asking to pony ride for a year now, so that went well. We'll see what we'll do for winter break. She is in CE1 (2nd grade). She seems happy. still sruggling to read in French and English. I worked with her over the summer just in English to help her with phonics and reading in general. I didn't push, I just wanted it to be fun. I also do soutien with her during my lunch breaks when I'm at school and I don't have meetings. She seems happy. I do soutien with her in English and maths. Her maths has greatly improved over the summer because we worked on that together as well. She desperately needs to do sport, so I have to find her something. Gréoux doesn't offer a whole lot of options. Sadly dance and gymnastice are not a part of them. She is limited to tennis and martial arts. We'll see. I don't consider pony riding as a sport, it's more of a bourgeois hobby.
Austin: in GS (kindergarden). He is learning his letters, though that seems to be coming slowly. He is fairly stubborn, but wants to work with me at night. There may be a bit of jealousy with Anaïs. So, we work a little on letters and numbers at night. I discovered recently that he can't recognize numbers beyond 5. So, we can work on that I suppose. He also needs sport, but I haven't signed him up yet. He is an out-doorsy boy and would love fishing and rock climbing. Boy scouts exist in Manosque, but is has a weird reputation as a far right wing religious exclusive group. Not something you want to be a part of. It comes across a little like a milder version one of Hitler's youth groups. So, needless to say, austin isn't a part of that. I need to get more info anyway, plus I'm not keen on driving to Manosque on my days off. That would be too much driving!!
Nicolas: going well. he is in daycare 4 days a week. He likes it and seems to have some friends. he is sweet and I got him potty trained over the summer!!! Yeah!! Caca is still a problem, but at least he can wee wee in the potty. I think it is easier to train boys that girls. You simply let them run around naked during the summer and let them wee outside on plants, trees, bugs, etc. They learn quickly it's fun to wee on stuff. Gives them a goal, not to mention aim.
One of my students from last year lost her mommy over the summer about 1 week before school started. It was horrible. I have never seen more people cry at once in my life. It is horrible to see children in such pain. It was almost unbearable. It was august, hot sun, so very hot. The church was so full about half the people had to stand in the back. One young woman passed out during the service and got carried out on a stretcher. That's the first time I've seen that. I brought Anaïs with me. I wanted her to be there for my other student, since they know each other. I think it's important for children to support other children. It's bad enough to lose a parent, but it doesn't help to be surrounded by adults on that day either. Her brother played the violin when they laid their mom to rest and it was truly one of the most beautiful and saddest moments of my life. I'm sad but grateful to have been able to be a silent whitness of such love and beauty.
I read a great book called Night by Elie Wiesel. It is about his experiences in Auschwitz. It is haunting. I started doing some research about the holocaust afterwards which is also a little too vivid and hard to digest that a country could systematically murder and torture sooo many people and children for a few years and that no one said anything and just allowed it to happen. I see the people in Germany as silent whitnesses, just getting on with their lives and not asking questions about what goes on behind the barbed wire and just allowing it because they have other more important things to do like go to work and make money to feed their families. Remember this was during the time of the great depression. My mom and I visited Dachau while we were in Munich. I'm glad I saw that. It makes more sense to me after seeing that. I've seen photos of Auschwitz and it feels like I've already been there.
Genocides have happened since then, the Congo for example. There will be more as long as no one says anything. Look at Guantanimo. We know this is wrong, right? They are holding children there illegally and other adults. Yet, who of us have stood up and said something? Not I. I am ashamed of this. I have strong feelings about injustices and things that make me sick, pretty much everything that George W Bush did during his presidency, yet I never said anything, nor did I march in the street and demonstrate. I am no better than a silent whitness to crime. Perhaps, real crime is all of us who are aware of injustice, yet we are guilty of not moving a finger to stop it or to speak out against it. I don't see how anyone of us can judge the German people during the war anymore than we should judge ourselves, for we are no better.
Thanks for taking the time to read about our news. I finally bought a new camera, so I can share some photos of the kids soon.
Cheers,
Jennel
Saturday, May 15, 2010
News May 2010
Some news to share:
I am still teaching at the International School and will continue until the end the the school year on July 2. I kept waiting and getting permission to get an extension. The time kept changing. Finally, all is okayed. I don't think the woman I'm replacing is coming back to school this year. I have an appointment with the school director Monday to see if I can secure a contract for next year. I would really love to continue teaching. It is a great job! I don't work on Wednesdays and we have 8 weeks of vacation during the school year. I work at night and on the weekends though to get my classes set up, but I've worked a bit in advance, so that makes it easier. I don't have soutien anymore during lunch, so I will have 2 hr lunch breaks to get photocopies done and things organized. I also am officially in the public french school system I think. So, I am technically building retirement, I think. I also have just recieved a French social security number.
Anais's first grade french section won a trip to Paris for writing a book. There was a contest with a publisher with 600 first grade classes all over France to write the story of a book and create a cover. Anais's first grade came in 3rd place. They are going to get their book published and will have some kind of ceremony in Paris. The kids are leaving by train from Aix-en-Provence this Tuesday early and will stay in a hotel overnight and come back late Wednesday night. They will see the Eiffel Tower and take a Bateau de Mouche on the Seine. They are very lucky.
I will now start doing some translations for the school soon. When my kids are ill and I take off of work, we have to make it up and one way that everyone is forced to do is translating, since the school has no official translator. So, I am the only person yet to translate. At least I will be able to put that on my resume. This Wednesday I have to work because we will be testing about 30 kids for their English abilities. It is only for pre-school, 3-4 yr olds. But this is my first time doing this. We have a friend whose son is getting tested, there are few spaces available, but I will see what I can do.
I'm going to get my papers together for l'autoentrepreneuer. It is a status for people in France that is easy to begin and become self-employed. I want to buy some educational books for school for references and for me to save time getting my classes set up each time. If the school doesn't pay me back which is likely, I want to be able to deduct my costs if possible. I will have the whole summer to work for myself as well.
I got Nikki into the local daycare here full-time, thank goodness and so far, found one person who is reliable who can watch Nikki when he's ill. I also offerred a set up to pay her to fold our laundry and iron our clothes. I'm overwhelmed with housework, laundry taking up the most amount of time. I don't want to spend my free-time doing laundry. Next on my list is find a cleaning woman to do the dirty work and I'll be all set.
Other news, Xavier got corrective eye surgury 2 weeks ago. He is not yet completely healed, but is seeing already pretty well. Austin will be going on an overnight exchange as well with his pre-school class soon. I still have to get his teacher the papers back.
My next goals are to get l'autoentrepeneuer set up Monday, get the education system figured out. I want to get my translation certification and go back to school and get an advanced degree. Most education is afterall free in France, so I want to take advantage of that. I'm going to keep my career in education because my kids are small, I want to have more time to spend with them. I have a hard time making choices regarding career and I know I choose not to compete in the traditional way, ie. kill myself regarding working hours. I want to have a well rounded life. I still want to write novels and become published, but it is more important right now to get my career started and stabilized a bit. Writing will come later. We also want to buy a house here, though the costs are staggering and the size is nothing more than a human box. That is a little frustrating. I knew I wanted to go back to work. I just didn't realize how badly I needed it. I like getting out of the house and having a purpose. Educating kids, you actually see them learn and increase their knowledge. It is nice. I'm learning a lot. I really wanted to work for myself, but lacked the self-confidence, because I had very little experience. That was my problem. Now, I feel much better, even though I've only been teaching full-time technically for 2 months. I've learned a lot in 2 months. One of my American colleagues said the English teachers got together and all support hiring me on full-time for next year. They are giving me a positive reccomendation. I had a very rocky beginning, but I think everyone does. I still have a lot to learn about teaching methods and more importantly for things that don't come nearly as naturally as teaching as controlling a classroom and children. I'm buying books now about classroom management and sort of reward systems and punishment for naughty kids who are disruptive and don't learn. There
is a huge amount yet that I need to learn regarding teaching. It's nice to use my brain again. Xavier is much happier as well. I finally have a perfect balance in my life. I feel much better and am soooo thankful to be able to work again and really, truly have the perfect job for the current time in my life. I couldn't imagine anything better than what I'm doing right now, including the hours. It is really great! I am very happy and have luckily shortened the length of depression one associates with moving to a new country. The first 4 months being in France were difficult, being socially isolated. But we have started to have friends now and I feel much more integrated. I am very, very fortunate. The international school is a bubble and the international people are well educated and well-travelled. I don't want all of our friends to come from this bubble, but I am soooo thankful to have access to this bubble in the first place.
Have a good day!
I am still teaching at the International School and will continue until the end the the school year on July 2. I kept waiting and getting permission to get an extension. The time kept changing. Finally, all is okayed. I don't think the woman I'm replacing is coming back to school this year. I have an appointment with the school director Monday to see if I can secure a contract for next year. I would really love to continue teaching. It is a great job! I don't work on Wednesdays and we have 8 weeks of vacation during the school year. I work at night and on the weekends though to get my classes set up, but I've worked a bit in advance, so that makes it easier. I don't have soutien anymore during lunch, so I will have 2 hr lunch breaks to get photocopies done and things organized. I also am officially in the public french school system I think. So, I am technically building retirement, I think. I also have just recieved a French social security number.
Anais's first grade french section won a trip to Paris for writing a book. There was a contest with a publisher with 600 first grade classes all over France to write the story of a book and create a cover. Anais's first grade came in 3rd place. They are going to get their book published and will have some kind of ceremony in Paris. The kids are leaving by train from Aix-en-Provence this Tuesday early and will stay in a hotel overnight and come back late Wednesday night. They will see the Eiffel Tower and take a Bateau de Mouche on the Seine. They are very lucky.
I will now start doing some translations for the school soon. When my kids are ill and I take off of work, we have to make it up and one way that everyone is forced to do is translating, since the school has no official translator. So, I am the only person yet to translate. At least I will be able to put that on my resume. This Wednesday I have to work because we will be testing about 30 kids for their English abilities. It is only for pre-school, 3-4 yr olds. But this is my first time doing this. We have a friend whose son is getting tested, there are few spaces available, but I will see what I can do.
I'm going to get my papers together for l'autoentrepreneuer. It is a status for people in France that is easy to begin and become self-employed. I want to buy some educational books for school for references and for me to save time getting my classes set up each time. If the school doesn't pay me back which is likely, I want to be able to deduct my costs if possible. I will have the whole summer to work for myself as well.
I got Nikki into the local daycare here full-time, thank goodness and so far, found one person who is reliable who can watch Nikki when he's ill. I also offerred a set up to pay her to fold our laundry and iron our clothes. I'm overwhelmed with housework, laundry taking up the most amount of time. I don't want to spend my free-time doing laundry. Next on my list is find a cleaning woman to do the dirty work and I'll be all set.
Other news, Xavier got corrective eye surgury 2 weeks ago. He is not yet completely healed, but is seeing already pretty well. Austin will be going on an overnight exchange as well with his pre-school class soon. I still have to get his teacher the papers back.
My next goals are to get l'autoentrepeneuer set up Monday, get the education system figured out. I want to get my translation certification and go back to school and get an advanced degree. Most education is afterall free in France, so I want to take advantage of that. I'm going to keep my career in education because my kids are small, I want to have more time to spend with them. I have a hard time making choices regarding career and I know I choose not to compete in the traditional way, ie. kill myself regarding working hours. I want to have a well rounded life. I still want to write novels and become published, but it is more important right now to get my career started and stabilized a bit. Writing will come later. We also want to buy a house here, though the costs are staggering and the size is nothing more than a human box. That is a little frustrating. I knew I wanted to go back to work. I just didn't realize how badly I needed it. I like getting out of the house and having a purpose. Educating kids, you actually see them learn and increase their knowledge. It is nice. I'm learning a lot. I really wanted to work for myself, but lacked the self-confidence, because I had very little experience. That was my problem. Now, I feel much better, even though I've only been teaching full-time technically for 2 months. I've learned a lot in 2 months. One of my American colleagues said the English teachers got together and all support hiring me on full-time for next year. They are giving me a positive reccomendation. I had a very rocky beginning, but I think everyone does. I still have a lot to learn about teaching methods and more importantly for things that don't come nearly as naturally as teaching as controlling a classroom and children. I'm buying books now about classroom management and sort of reward systems and punishment for naughty kids who are disruptive and don't learn. There
is a huge amount yet that I need to learn regarding teaching. It's nice to use my brain again. Xavier is much happier as well. I finally have a perfect balance in my life. I feel much better and am soooo thankful to be able to work again and really, truly have the perfect job for the current time in my life. I couldn't imagine anything better than what I'm doing right now, including the hours. It is really great! I am very happy and have luckily shortened the length of depression one associates with moving to a new country. The first 4 months being in France were difficult, being socially isolated. But we have started to have friends now and I feel much more integrated. I am very, very fortunate. The international school is a bubble and the international people are well educated and well-travelled. I don't want all of our friends to come from this bubble, but I am soooo thankful to have access to this bubble in the first place.
Have a good day!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
News March 2010
I finally have some news to share. I finally have a job teaching ESL (English as a second language) at the International School Manosque where my kids go to school. I am replacing a woman who injured her knee and has been out for a few months now. The school got permission to hire me for 1 month. I will be hired like a normal teacher in the French public school system. I got the job as of Friday morning and I start tomorrow. I'm scrambling to find daycare for Nikki. They can take him all day every day but fridays at the daycare, so I am looking for a Nanny for Fridays and so far cannot find anyone. I'm very stressed about this.
I will be teaching 4 yr olds, 3-5 graders. Some are beginners like they never learned English in their lives, some are intermediate. I will be supporting the English teacher for 3-5 graders. They have almost zero supplies and no money to buy some. They have a computer, but I must find out if I can get an access code. I also need an access code for the photocopier, which I do not have. The school kids have work books and the pre-schoolers have nothing. I still have my book that I purchased in Germany for the kindergarten, so that will work out. I have no CD player for music. I will have to see if Aude the director of Primary school can hook me up with the materials. What is odd is I think I will really enjoy this job. I am sooooo happy to go back to work and this has all been extremely short notice.
I really hope I will be able to stay permanently, so we will see how I do. They said they will have no money to pay me after march. I'm not sure how the bureaucracy works in France, except there is a lot of it. I was welcomed on the staff by everyone, so things are moving along. I was praying that they would hire me for March to take over Sue's spot. I am stressed and worried, but very happy. It feels like when I worked for Sphairos in Munich, they just drop you off on the spot with little direction and zero supplies. It is pretty crazy. You just have to go with the flow, except I want to coordinate with the 3-5 grade teacher to support her curriculum.
Other than that, things are ok here. Anais is having a hard time with numbers. She can't grasp anything past 10, I don't understand why. She fails her spelling bees EVERYTIME no matter how much we practice at home, every day, she still fails. So I'm working with her on that.
I would love to remain onboard the school permanently if possible, get the kids set up for daycare and take care of things. That would be great. It is very hard to plan anything in advance when I may or may not have a job for April. They will probably let me know on March 31 if I can continue into April. Craziness. Unless the other teacher comes back, then I will be out of a job, but may be able to secure an ESL teaching job for next year, since they will be expanding their ESL pogram. They are creating a European school in joint with the international school. I'm not sure what that means, but they did tell me that if I do a good job I might be able to come back and teach in the fall for a yr long contract. I hate being stressed like this, but it's normal. I was soooooo happy to get this job. Things couldn't line up any better.
Xavier is not as stressed about his job either. A friend of ours gave us a line about Fusion for Energy which is part of the European commission, good salaries, no tax. They are based in Barcelona Spain, but our friend has a contract here in France for about 5 yrs. Xavier seems just fine with the prospect of maybe moving to Barcelona. Let's just try to get him this job first. They will be publishing their jobs in the next few days. Xavier negociated to work 1-2 days a week out of the Altran office in Aix to put together a large scale risk and project mgt sales pitch-contract for Altran for large scale projects. The rest of the time he works here at ITER. This way he was able to extend his contract until June and now his boss at ITER said he's going to try to get his contract extended until Sept. So, at least now he still has a job until June. After that, we will see. If I could secure a job for next yr for Sept, that would really help us psychologically.
I really wanted to start a company teaching English on my own but had very little work experience and thus don't feel confident enough to do it. I really want to get more work experience. I started teaching a few korean friends French, so that helps to give me confidence as well in working with adults which is different than working with kids. I work a lot on confidence. When I get experience, I feel more confident and will be able to do more later. By the way, one reason why I got this job at the school is because they are looking for ployglotts. Most people can speak about 3 languages fluently. They needed people who speak French fluently and also German or Spanish. I also had ESL certification, probably the only logical decision I made in college. Anyway, this feels like a psychological springboard from which I can re-begin my adult career and finally get rid of my children, god bless their little souls, and do something for myself. Re-establish goals for myself, finally!!
Cheers!
I will be teaching 4 yr olds, 3-5 graders. Some are beginners like they never learned English in their lives, some are intermediate. I will be supporting the English teacher for 3-5 graders. They have almost zero supplies and no money to buy some. They have a computer, but I must find out if I can get an access code. I also need an access code for the photocopier, which I do not have. The school kids have work books and the pre-schoolers have nothing. I still have my book that I purchased in Germany for the kindergarten, so that will work out. I have no CD player for music. I will have to see if Aude the director of Primary school can hook me up with the materials. What is odd is I think I will really enjoy this job. I am sooooo happy to go back to work and this has all been extremely short notice.
I really hope I will be able to stay permanently, so we will see how I do. They said they will have no money to pay me after march. I'm not sure how the bureaucracy works in France, except there is a lot of it. I was welcomed on the staff by everyone, so things are moving along. I was praying that they would hire me for March to take over Sue's spot. I am stressed and worried, but very happy. It feels like when I worked for Sphairos in Munich, they just drop you off on the spot with little direction and zero supplies. It is pretty crazy. You just have to go with the flow, except I want to coordinate with the 3-5 grade teacher to support her curriculum.
Other than that, things are ok here. Anais is having a hard time with numbers. She can't grasp anything past 10, I don't understand why. She fails her spelling bees EVERYTIME no matter how much we practice at home, every day, she still fails. So I'm working with her on that.
I would love to remain onboard the school permanently if possible, get the kids set up for daycare and take care of things. That would be great. It is very hard to plan anything in advance when I may or may not have a job for April. They will probably let me know on March 31 if I can continue into April. Craziness. Unless the other teacher comes back, then I will be out of a job, but may be able to secure an ESL teaching job for next year, since they will be expanding their ESL pogram. They are creating a European school in joint with the international school. I'm not sure what that means, but they did tell me that if I do a good job I might be able to come back and teach in the fall for a yr long contract. I hate being stressed like this, but it's normal. I was soooooo happy to get this job. Things couldn't line up any better.
Xavier is not as stressed about his job either. A friend of ours gave us a line about Fusion for Energy which is part of the European commission, good salaries, no tax. They are based in Barcelona Spain, but our friend has a contract here in France for about 5 yrs. Xavier seems just fine with the prospect of maybe moving to Barcelona. Let's just try to get him this job first. They will be publishing their jobs in the next few days. Xavier negociated to work 1-2 days a week out of the Altran office in Aix to put together a large scale risk and project mgt sales pitch-contract for Altran for large scale projects. The rest of the time he works here at ITER. This way he was able to extend his contract until June and now his boss at ITER said he's going to try to get his contract extended until Sept. So, at least now he still has a job until June. After that, we will see. If I could secure a job for next yr for Sept, that would really help us psychologically.
I really wanted to start a company teaching English on my own but had very little work experience and thus don't feel confident enough to do it. I really want to get more work experience. I started teaching a few korean friends French, so that helps to give me confidence as well in working with adults which is different than working with kids. I work a lot on confidence. When I get experience, I feel more confident and will be able to do more later. By the way, one reason why I got this job at the school is because they are looking for ployglotts. Most people can speak about 3 languages fluently. They needed people who speak French fluently and also German or Spanish. I also had ESL certification, probably the only logical decision I made in college. Anyway, this feels like a psychological springboard from which I can re-begin my adult career and finally get rid of my children, god bless their little souls, and do something for myself. Re-establish goals for myself, finally!!
Cheers!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Well we made it to France
So, we made the journey from Germany to France on June 13, 2009. It was a long, long, long drive. We left in the evening and stopped someplace in France just beyond Switzerland at around 1:30 AM. We were bone tired and all the hotels made us take 2 rooms because we have 3 kids. Next time I will lie about the number of children I have. It is ridiculous. So when we got to the rooms Xavier and I had an argument as to where the kids would sleep. He won and Anais and Austin slept alone in a room, while XAvier, Nicolas and I slept in our room. So I heard lots of mischief and had to be cop for awhile. Finally, I thought they were asleep around 3 AM and went to sleep myself.
It's a good thing I can smell smoke in my sleep....
When I awoke to smoke fumes and I heard Anais and Austin giggling in the next room. I flew out of bed as pictures of the hotel burning down flashed across my mind, I wondered why aren't the smoke alarms going off? When I got to their bedroom, they had shut the adjoining door and also shut the door to their bed. When I got inside, smoke was pouring out of the lit table lamp next to Austin and he was standing there stark naked laughing. I asked " What is going on in here?" as I ran to the lamp to stop the fire. He answered, "We're baking a cake." : )
I turned off the lamp and pulled the smoldering clothes out of it that were wedged inside the lamp shade. I found Austin's PJ's closest to the light bulb. There were holes and it was covered in embers. I attempted to blow the embers out, but they merely flew off his jammies and landed on the bed. Naturally, starting a fire on the bed is a really bad idea, so I put his PJ's, smoldering embers and all in the sink. Needless to say, his pyjammas are ruined, so he was forced to sleep naked for the rest of the night. I put him in the cot next to Xavier and I went to sleep with Anais in her bed. All was well for the rest of the night.
The next day, we drove another 7 hrs to get to the gite since we didn't have keys to get into the house. The weather was already better in France, the vegetation had changed and it was a lot warmer and SUNNIER!!!!
Oh the sunshine, dry air and the smell of lavender. Oh happiness, oh joy. My nose was in shock. I've had a sinus infection since the year 2004. My nose tried very hard to get a sinus infection. I kept sneezing and sneezing and waiting for it to come, but it never happened. I just sneezed and was well again. How crazy.
KIDS:
Anais spoke French right away and understood that here she doesn't speak German or English. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with her attitude. Sometimes she would cry and say she missed her friends and Martina, her teacher. She also missed Lukas and Eva our neighbors. I felt terrible for her and wanted to get her to make friends as soon as possible. I put the kids in summer camp locally for July and August and started Nicolas in daycare as well. Anais made a few friends in camp and was ok happy. We met the only other American in Greoux, she is from the East coast and is a writer. I thought I was going to faint from joy. I always wanted to meet writers, but I never know any. They always seem so mysterious. Our kids made friends with their kids, so the summer went by without too many hitches.
Austin hated camp and hated France. He wanted to go back to his friends in Germany and asked a lot after his best friends. I explained he won't be able to go to their house because Steingau is too far away now but he'll make other friends here. He didn't much care for that answer. The camp counselors had a lot of grief with Austin because he made no pretense about hating camp. He couldn't understand and would refuse to join the group. He told me no one likes him and he tried to speak to the other kids in German at first, then English. Some of the camp counselors could speak English and tried with him, but he was also unresponsive.
Nicolas reacted ok to daycare. It took the entire summer to slowly get him acclimated to going to daycare, starting at 15 min and finally getting up to 3 hrs. That was a little frustrating. The daycare ladies had an issue because Nicolas doesn't speak French. Mind you, Nikki was barely a year old. They wanted me to speak French to him at home. It was bad memories of Kinderpark with Angelica all over again. I told them I will not speak French to my son, but will do baby sign if they like. Having already taken a course, we quickly ran through the different signs. Well, guess what? German baby sign is totally different from French baby sign, so I had to learn their sign language and practice it with Nicolas. I told them to keep speaking french and using the sign together so he will learn quickly. He's a clever little chap afterall. He can't speak much but can say "It's what?" and "What's that?" That took me a long time to understand. He would point to things and ask what they are. So, when I finally got it, I would tell him the words and repeat them and he would laugh and laugh.
The house is ok. We live in a village of old people. The old and ailing come here to Les Thermes. It is an old Roman Bath House filled with doctors curing every need. So, in the summer Greoux is flooded with silver haired people. I heard the numbers are this: Greoux has 2,500 permanent residents and in the summer we have 40,000 residents, all of whom are retired and ailing. At least it's not Lourdes. Lourdes, France is an interesting place to visit at least once in your lifetime. If you can stomache thousands of people working for the Red Cross, monks, and thousands upon thousands of nuns and little dime store shops of the virgin Mary paraphanilia, and of course the worst form of the sick and ailing, all of whom are very close to death. It is a famous and sacred place where some random farm girl claimed to see the virgin mary appear like 20 times. There is a natural spring that has become holy, so the sick and ailing cue up to be dipped into the holy water to be cured of their ailments.
I just received my carte de sejour so I am legally able to work in France now. My sisters came to visit for about 1 month total. Rhonda kept me very busy as we discovered the area. My favorite is still canoeing in the Gorges du Verdon. Sharone and I went hiking in the Calanques near Marseilles. that was really fun. Oddly, I had never visited the Calanques before. So, I think we had a good time. Life felt very calm after they left.
I haven't experienced much culture shock, just with everyone smacking their kids around. That was a little shocking. No such thing as time outs in France, just smack, smack, smack. Walking across the street, bam. Walking through the grocery store, a little yelling, then smack. Out on the play ground, the kid doesn't come over fast enough or share his toys, smack. The amount of light and semi-frivilous smacking was a little shocking. Beyond that, people were so nice to me. They always talk. There is a lot of banter. I think banter is important with people in the south. It is important to chit chat, who'd a thunk it?
That is all the news there is here. Oh yes the kids got into the international school in Manosque. They are in the English-French section. So they have English 2 days a week and French 2 days a week. They are also in FLE which is French for foreigners to get their French up to speed with the other kids. Hopefully the next news I will give you, I will have a job.
Talk to you again soon. I do think about all of you often. Take care everyone!
Love,
Jennel
It's a good thing I can smell smoke in my sleep....
When I awoke to smoke fumes and I heard Anais and Austin giggling in the next room. I flew out of bed as pictures of the hotel burning down flashed across my mind, I wondered why aren't the smoke alarms going off? When I got to their bedroom, they had shut the adjoining door and also shut the door to their bed. When I got inside, smoke was pouring out of the lit table lamp next to Austin and he was standing there stark naked laughing. I asked " What is going on in here?" as I ran to the lamp to stop the fire. He answered, "We're baking a cake." : )
I turned off the lamp and pulled the smoldering clothes out of it that were wedged inside the lamp shade. I found Austin's PJ's closest to the light bulb. There were holes and it was covered in embers. I attempted to blow the embers out, but they merely flew off his jammies and landed on the bed. Naturally, starting a fire on the bed is a really bad idea, so I put his PJ's, smoldering embers and all in the sink. Needless to say, his pyjammas are ruined, so he was forced to sleep naked for the rest of the night. I put him in the cot next to Xavier and I went to sleep with Anais in her bed. All was well for the rest of the night.
The next day, we drove another 7 hrs to get to the gite since we didn't have keys to get into the house. The weather was already better in France, the vegetation had changed and it was a lot warmer and SUNNIER!!!!
Oh the sunshine, dry air and the smell of lavender. Oh happiness, oh joy. My nose was in shock. I've had a sinus infection since the year 2004. My nose tried very hard to get a sinus infection. I kept sneezing and sneezing and waiting for it to come, but it never happened. I just sneezed and was well again. How crazy.
KIDS:
Anais spoke French right away and understood that here she doesn't speak German or English. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with her attitude. Sometimes she would cry and say she missed her friends and Martina, her teacher. She also missed Lukas and Eva our neighbors. I felt terrible for her and wanted to get her to make friends as soon as possible. I put the kids in summer camp locally for July and August and started Nicolas in daycare as well. Anais made a few friends in camp and was ok happy. We met the only other American in Greoux, she is from the East coast and is a writer. I thought I was going to faint from joy. I always wanted to meet writers, but I never know any. They always seem so mysterious. Our kids made friends with their kids, so the summer went by without too many hitches.
Austin hated camp and hated France. He wanted to go back to his friends in Germany and asked a lot after his best friends. I explained he won't be able to go to their house because Steingau is too far away now but he'll make other friends here. He didn't much care for that answer. The camp counselors had a lot of grief with Austin because he made no pretense about hating camp. He couldn't understand and would refuse to join the group. He told me no one likes him and he tried to speak to the other kids in German at first, then English. Some of the camp counselors could speak English and tried with him, but he was also unresponsive.
Nicolas reacted ok to daycare. It took the entire summer to slowly get him acclimated to going to daycare, starting at 15 min and finally getting up to 3 hrs. That was a little frustrating. The daycare ladies had an issue because Nicolas doesn't speak French. Mind you, Nikki was barely a year old. They wanted me to speak French to him at home. It was bad memories of Kinderpark with Angelica all over again. I told them I will not speak French to my son, but will do baby sign if they like. Having already taken a course, we quickly ran through the different signs. Well, guess what? German baby sign is totally different from French baby sign, so I had to learn their sign language and practice it with Nicolas. I told them to keep speaking french and using the sign together so he will learn quickly. He's a clever little chap afterall. He can't speak much but can say "It's what?" and "What's that?" That took me a long time to understand. He would point to things and ask what they are. So, when I finally got it, I would tell him the words and repeat them and he would laugh and laugh.
The house is ok. We live in a village of old people. The old and ailing come here to Les Thermes. It is an old Roman Bath House filled with doctors curing every need. So, in the summer Greoux is flooded with silver haired people. I heard the numbers are this: Greoux has 2,500 permanent residents and in the summer we have 40,000 residents, all of whom are retired and ailing. At least it's not Lourdes. Lourdes, France is an interesting place to visit at least once in your lifetime. If you can stomache thousands of people working for the Red Cross, monks, and thousands upon thousands of nuns and little dime store shops of the virgin Mary paraphanilia, and of course the worst form of the sick and ailing, all of whom are very close to death. It is a famous and sacred place where some random farm girl claimed to see the virgin mary appear like 20 times. There is a natural spring that has become holy, so the sick and ailing cue up to be dipped into the holy water to be cured of their ailments.
I just received my carte de sejour so I am legally able to work in France now. My sisters came to visit for about 1 month total. Rhonda kept me very busy as we discovered the area. My favorite is still canoeing in the Gorges du Verdon. Sharone and I went hiking in the Calanques near Marseilles. that was really fun. Oddly, I had never visited the Calanques before. So, I think we had a good time. Life felt very calm after they left.
I haven't experienced much culture shock, just with everyone smacking their kids around. That was a little shocking. No such thing as time outs in France, just smack, smack, smack. Walking across the street, bam. Walking through the grocery store, a little yelling, then smack. Out on the play ground, the kid doesn't come over fast enough or share his toys, smack. The amount of light and semi-frivilous smacking was a little shocking. Beyond that, people were so nice to me. They always talk. There is a lot of banter. I think banter is important with people in the south. It is important to chit chat, who'd a thunk it?
That is all the news there is here. Oh yes the kids got into the international school in Manosque. They are in the English-French section. So they have English 2 days a week and French 2 days a week. They are also in FLE which is French for foreigners to get their French up to speed with the other kids. Hopefully the next news I will give you, I will have a job.
Talk to you again soon. I do think about all of you often. Take care everyone!
Love,
Jennel
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