Ces bottes sont faites pour marcher...

OCTOBER 3

What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four little hours. Today started off like a dream. I woke up at 6:30 am without an alarm, had freshly cleaned clothes, and was ready to trot off to Limoges for orientation to my job. And then, upon arriving to the station a few minutes late, I was relieved to see that our train was late too! An hour later, the loudspeaker announced that we had arrived in Chateauroux, a town one hour in the wrong direction from Limoges. Shhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

The next train didn't come for another hour and would take an hour and a half and then another half hour on a bus, getting us to our meeting at noon, just in time to sign some papers, get really confused, and go to lunch. The better part of the afternoon was dedicated to other assistants who needed to figure out their schedules and an introduction to lesson planning (which we had already done a few times this week). So, our trip to Limoges was worthwhile for about 15 minutes and then it was time to get the hell out of there and attempt to have a better day.

I'm spending the weekend with Kendra, who has an apartment as enormous as mine in the middle school in La Souterraine. We moved her in today and then went to a restaurant for dinner. We found the most adorable lovely delicious inviting "créperie," with about 7 tables and many families dining together. I had an admirer from across the room all night; a 4 year old Italian boy making eyes and funny faces at me to the point of incontrollable giggles. I think I might have pissed his dad off after a while because I was provoking such impolite table manners, but I didn't care, we were in love!

The food was, of course, amazing. Buckwheat crêpes called "galettes," cooked on a pan with lots of butter, filled with house made andouille sausage, fried onions, and emmental. A carafe of house wine and we were rosy cheeked American girls with nothing to do but enjoy! We spent the remainder of our waking hours speaking in French, looking up words that we felt were pertinent to know: gate, fence, slippery hill, climbing, jumping, tripping, falling. Needless to say our trek home was quite the adventure!

Zut Alors!

Well, another great start to a day. I woke up, took a bath, got dressed, and started doing the dishes for breakfast. I put my hand and the sponge into a mug, took one swipe and blod was everywhere. I sliced my pinky finger with a shard of porcelain that was sticking out of a crack inside of the mug. Half an inch long and deep enough to almost touch the bone, it is really disgusting and painful and should probably have stitches but I think a "Made in France" scar would be the ultimate souvenir. Ahhh! I have a picture, but I'll spare you.

After I bought some antiseptic and "blood stop" bandages, we made our way to the Saturday morning market. It is in a beautiful grove of trees and has everything from matresses to chickens to prunes. Big, stinky wheels of cheese no smaller than a large dog, farm fresh eggs and artisan breads and sausages. I went to take a picture of the cheese and the woman was not happy that she might be in it, yelling "Oh la la!," as she ran to hide. Oops.

We stocked up on beets, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, garlic, and the best baguette I've had so far in France. We came home for a rest and because everything is closed from noon to 2 o'clock.

This cute town, it takes 5 minutes to walk from one end to another and has the medieval city wall still standing with different "doors" into the city. All the roads are in a circle around it, and it makes it feel as big as New York City to a stranger. We walked to the "outskirts" of the city to a junk store, kind of like Tuesday Morning in the States. The first thing you see as you walk into the store is a shelf of porn and flesh covered tea pots that have penises as their spouts. Oh. La. La. I welcome any special orders, at a small fee.

I found a funeral home across the street and had to go inside. I think its safe to say that I'm missing a certain American mortician, and that drew me in. The thing I've noticed about this region is that there are loads of babies and old people, and therefore, loads of schools, pharmacies, and funeral homes. I talked to the directore, who complimented my "perfect" French, and left.

I then had my first experience at the infamous French "hypermarché," a step up from the super market, its a HYPER market. What grocery store lets you have a glass of wine and foie gras as their sample?! This is ludicrous and delicious and should be implemented in all stores everywhere. Shopping has never been so relaxing.

We returned home, I cooked, we feasted and had a bottle of Bordeaux, and then went to the movies. La Souterraine has a one-theatre movie house, connected to the little public library. It was playing an Egyptian film titled "Chaos," in Arabic, with French subtitles. Two hours of cheesy soap opera drama, gratuitous and disturbing violence, and the pleasant portayal of real voluptious women as sexy and beautiful, we walked out of there so satisfied having simply understood what happened. Our language skills surprised and delighted us, even if the movie was bad.

**pictures coming soon**

Le Livre de Jungle

So, turns out Disney is really awful in French. Kendra and I were watching the Jungle Book tonight because it is one of my favorites and it was featured in one of our lesson plans today... Oy! No thanks.

I had my first day of "work" today. Les francais really know how to do it. We all met at 9 for coffee and sweets and then went about the work of talking with each other about the parameters of our jobs as teachers. Then it was time for lunch--and I know what you're wondering, the answer is yes it DOES take 2 hours to have a proper midday meal--le plat du jour was an enormous pork chop with mashed potatoes, "puree de la maison," and gravy, with apricot mousse and cafe for dessert.

We spent the entire afternoon attempting to sort through all of our schedules, and our training for the next few weeks. I have four different schools I will be working in, but never work on Wednesdays (the kids only go to school MTThF here!), and only once per month on Fridays. Uffdah, ya!

We ate dinner at chez Evelyne, she made quiche, with fresh eggs from the farm nextdoor, which was delicious. I got to taste "gateau creusois," which is a moist buttery cake made with hazlenuts, egg whites and flour. Yum.

I've started noticing the regional specialties and this is what I have sofar: the aforementioned cake, baguette a la gueretoise which I have yet to see or taste, and pate aux pomme de terres which looks like an enormous baked brie with a crown, golden buttery crust and thinly sliced potatoes and cream on the inside. Looks amazing and Evelyne's mother apparently has a recipe that I might someday get my hands on!

Kendra and I are planning our vacation at the end of October which starts on the 24th and goes until the 6th of November. We will most likely go to Paris and visit Mady, meet Tomas (the older brother of an exchange student of my grandparents...), go with him to a soccer game in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and then from there fly to Prague to visit a friend of Kendra's, fly to Montpellier to stay with family friends of Kendra's, and train back to Limoges when it is time to go back to work.

Sounds like a lot, but with people we know, Ryanair flying free from Frankfurt to Prague (and only 15 euro to Montpellier), and our "Cartes 12-25" from SNCF (cutting our train fares in half), it is entirely possible to do it on the cheap. How can you not love Europe at this age?!

We'll see where our travel ambitions lead us.

News in Gueret

As I am spending part of my afternoon reading the news, I find an article on the NY Times website that seems to be a French perspective of American politics as seen from an American point of view, which, I suppose is something I could offer as I spend more time picking the brains of those around me.

In other news, I have found, and this is for Britches, and IRISH PUB in Gueret. They're everywhere and we're going to write a guide book.

I'm spending my first night alone here as Kendra has gone off to move into her high school accommodations in La Souterraine. We start classroom observations tomorrow and I get to have a sleepover at Evelyne's house again (yay!), and then its off to the big city of Limoges!

We have an orientation for all of the assistants in the Limousin region, and there are around 200 from all over the world. I think it will be a mass exodus from the train station on Friday morning.

Not much else, I love it here and my body does too. I get to cook for myself again and buy really cheap wine. Sending much love!