Supermodel Documentary Hour

HOLA!!! Notice, I’m starting this off in Spanish instead of French! I suppose I should really be doing it in Catalan, but I haven’t quite gotten around to looking that up. Anyways, the adventure has commenced! I am currently on the TGV on my way to Paris so that I can leave tomorrow!!!!

i'm in the right seat ya'll check that out!

I’m very proud because I am in the correct car and seat so WIN! However as usual, I have way too much stuff with me and I’m annoying people all around with my gros sacs. I have a giant suitcase full of goodies and surprises for loved ones in the US, plus my backpack for Barcelona, and then another sac that has breakable items/laptop/books that I’ve already read in it. I’m getting a seriously awesome workout lugging these bad boys around… guns of steel baby guns of steel!

Well to recount, I’ve had a very shall we say… interesting week. Tuesday was a pretty good day because I got to eat galettes and crepes at Odile’s house. Odile is the lady who took us up in the hills picking grapes and stuff earlier this year. I love galettes and crepes and these were wonderfully homemade and so YUM! Plus we spoke in French the whole time and Odile was like “gurl yo French is balla!” except not like that at all, but anyways that’s basically what was said. However on Tuesday sheesh got weird at school because I told the Principal that I would not be there Thursday because of my medical visit. Because Ron Burgundy is who he is, he was like “Meaghan why aren’t you going to be in school on Thursday?” Before I could respond he started throwing out options, like “its your boyfriend isn’t it?” and I was like no not at all. Then clearly since it wasn’t my boyfriend, the next logical conclusion he drew was that I was a lesbian. He goes “oh well if it’s not your boyfriend then it must be your girlfriend… Ah I’ve found your secret!!” And started winking at me. I was like no absolutely not that is not my life haha. He was like “don’t lie, you Americans are so funny!” I was just like you are a nut Ron Burgundy, you are a nut.

I also found out that the Spandex King is as old as my dad, which was weird. He definitely looks like he is 65-70 range and my dad is not anywhere near that. He was talking to me about the movie, “the Incredible Shrinking Man” which came out in 1957 and I was like “oh I’ve never seen it, it came out the year my dad was born so…” and he goes “oh your dad was born then? Me too!” It was weird like so many other things.

Also I was proprosed to by a student, again. This is now the second proposal I’ve received from 5^th graders. Sw33t Lyfe.

But really the biggest news all week is about my medical visit. As you know, I had two canceled and then got myself locked inside an apartment all day for the third one, so my one yesterday was my fourth. Thankfully it was not canceled, I made it there on time and everything seemed to be going well. The doctor was really nice and telling me how he thinks its silly Americans have to do it because if you can afford to come to France, you can afford health care, meaning we aren’t bringing infectious diseases into the country, which is a pretty valid argument. When he looked at my X-rays he said, “In all my life, I’ve never seen an American with tuberculosis” and I was like I mean is it really that common anymore? His response, “yes it is I see it all the time and I deny people their visas because of it.” Definitely realized how “first world” this conversation was. Anyways so that was all good, I went in for my interview with the lady who would give me my Stamp-thing that tells customs that “this person is allowed to enter France, their visa is valid” or something like that. I realized something was wrong when she started throwing her hands up in the air pacing going “I know I saw it I know I know” which when I asked what was going on, she replied “ I can’t find your stamp” To say that I was freaked out is an understatement. So the conclusion is, someone lost it. Somehow my folder had a photocopy of it, but not the actual thing… great job OFII of Lyon, thank you so much for doing your job and keeping everything together. So now I have a handwritten letter on the photo-copy saying I can enter but…. I’m SCARED!!!!

This is just a pretty great example of beauracracy here. I love France very much and I love every minute here even the bad ones, but sometimes I just want to strangle someone and say THIS WOULDN’T HAPPEN BACK HOME!!!!!! When the OFII guy was trying to figure out who exactly lost it, every single person blamed the post. He was like no, the post did not open an envelope take out that sticker and throw it in the trash, it was lost before it was sent but no one would claim responsibility. He looked at me and says, “I work with a bunch of idiots.” I laughed it was funny.

So now I’m in limbo visa status…LE SIGH…

Last night I went out with my friend Adrian and Stephanie to this one café/bar in Nyons called Palmiers. It is a pretty nice place, I get coffee there a lot (it tastes the best) and the server guy is really nice. Last night while we were there having drinks, I made like 2 jokes in French and the server guy laughed. I was so proud of myself, joking in a foreign language… PROGRESS! He also told me that I spoke well and I didn’t fake-speak French which confused me, how does one exactly “fake speak” French?

This is how you fake speak French…

Well I will try to do a Barcelona (Ay Caramba!) update when I get back to Paris before coming to the states but we will see what happens!

Ill leave you with my TGV photoshoot (the lady next to me definitely thinks I’m weird) enjoy homeiz!

Mego

supermodel documentary hour!

Adventures in lock picking and other awkward moments

So today I was supposed to go to Lyon to have my medical visit so that I will be able to stay in France until May. Well I think the fates do not want me to stay here because this is the 3rd appointment I’m going to miss/have changed. Why? Oh because I am currently locked into my friend’s apartment in Grenoble. How does one lock oneself IN an apartment? Good question. This morning one of her roommates locked all the locks from the outside, leaving no keys on the inside not realizing that I was here still. So, now I am trapped here until someone comes home. I am not looking forward to having that conversation with her roommates. See she works about 2 hours away from here and will be home around 8 pm. Also she might be the first one home. So I’m here all day basically… feeling awkward. That also means I need to reschedule my appointment for another day, missing more work… sighhh what is going on in my life.

This is another one of those “oh shit i just got all my credit cards cancelled” moments. Except maybe this is worse because I fixed that within an hour and this has been going on since 10am. Also,I’m going to have to have a really awkward converstaion in the future with one of her roommates.Depending on what time it is I might not even be able to make it back to Nyons tonight, which is  not good since I have to work early in the AM….

Well you may ask,”Meaghan what did you do to try to fix your situation?” and I will break it down for you: first I tried the set of keys that were on the table. None worked. Second I cried. Third I thought “perhaps I can jump out the window” but then quickly realized that was stupid because I am onthe 4th floor and I don’t want a broken leg. Fourth I decided I would try to pick a lock. Never having picked a lock before this was a challenge that I failed miserably at. I tried watching youtube videos and reading tutorials but I could not manage it even though the internet says its easy. Now you may be asking yourself why did you not call Mathanee? Well I did. 15x. Her phone is off.

I’d also like to point out that a teacher from one of my schools just called me and when I explained what happened she was like “I’m sorry, I don’t understand…you are locked IN an apartment? How does that happen?” and trying to explain this in French is really hard. Le sigh…LIFE.

And now, I awkwardly wait…

Houston, we have a problem!

So as many of you know, my life is generally one disaster after another, and I’m really unsure of how I manage to survive on a daily basis. When I say disaster, I mean like relative to my life, like how I managed to get all my credit cards cancelled my very first day in France…that was pretttttty awesome. Well I have a few addictions that are pretty serious, one being coffee, and another being my computer which provides me with pretty much all my entertainment (music, skype, american tv, the news, salacious celebrity gossip…) so not having it is like a death sentence. Sure I do spend a lot of time reading and knitting and cooking and coloring, but I can’t be a domestic goddess ALL the time. Even Betty Crocker needs her Perez Hilton fix. So in my wonderful Christmas travels I did so awesome at not losing ANYTHING. I managed to keep my gros-sacs in control and not lose a single item. I was so proud of myself because generally I lose everything (finding my keys in my 1 room apartment is generally a challenge). Flash forward to Tuesday night when I realize I left my computer charger in Paris and I only had 5% battery left. OH SHEESH YA’LL, twas not a dream. What’s a MAC girl to do in a PC world in France? Hop on the first  bus up to Montelimar (closest MAC retailer) and buy a new charger… The good news is, my new one isn’t held together by masking tape… YAY for progress!

Anyways, Holidaze update timez!! Paris was fun! The city is definitely growing on me but I’m still unsure if it is a city I could ever live in. I did a fair amount of shopping while there, which was great because now I have some fabulous pretty new things! I did go on a freaking wild goose chase all over the city after this one pair of shoes. Granted these shoes are totally bad ass and I’m so obsessed with them and I wish I could wear them every day but unfortunately sparkly 5in high heels are not acceptable every day wear except for if you are Lady Gaga which I am unfortunately not haha. Anyways I saw them in Strasbourg and I was like “dang those shoes are hot. I need them for New Years. Eh, I’ll get them in Paris I don’t need be more of a bag lady than I already am.” Well after going to SIX stores in Paris I finally found them. Apparently every girl in France wants to wear these same shoes in size 7. I mean who can blame them? They are so awesome!!!! That was probably the most exciting thing I did there haha. I wanted to spend a day in the cemetery Pere Lachaise (creepy! I know but really its cool, I promise) but it was kind of rainy and gross so I went on the Great Shoe Hunt of 2011 instead.

be jealous cuz these are FABULOUS, except mine are silver so they are cooler

I did get to go to Hotel Matignon which is the house of the Premiere Ministre of France to get some foie gras with my cousin’s husband. Not many people get to go inside the court of it so that was reallllllly cool! Yay for culture!

gettin my culture on with the premiere ministre yeahhhhhhh

keepin' it classy at hotel matignon

Germany was fun too! Hamilton lives about 1h30m from Frankfurt in a tiny lil baby town called Bruchmulbach. It is smaller than Nyons, BUT it had a train-station so it gets more street-cred pointz for that. When I got there Friday I was exhausted since I’d been up since 3am and so I slept all day then we went to the Christmas market in the next town over. The Christmas market there was basically one giant street party. People were drinking profusely in the streets, blasting German techno, and ordering Gleuhwhein (mulled wine/vin chaud) with like Jagermeister in it. I did not partake in drinking jager in my wine (that would not have ended well for anyone involved) but I did watch a lot of drunk German people do that! It was pretty funny, and I got a sweet Christmas 1997 mug.

jagermeister+Jesus carousel=Christmas in Germany

Magi rollin' up!

The next day we went back to Frankfurt to pick up my friend Mika, and then back to Bruchmulbach! Mika and I decided around 10pm that we were not being festive and needed a Christmas tree of some sort to be in the spirit fo realz. At 10pm we set off into the German wilderness on search of our Christmas tree, hoping we wouldn’t meet any bearz in the Black Forest. The good news is we didn’t meet any bearz and we did find a branch that became a tree…we are jolly!

army boot tree stand=classy

tree of dreamz

On Christmas we spent the day preparing a feast and then feasting. Although I did have to defrost our Christmas sausage in the bathtub since Hamilton burned up his sink plug (LOL). We had Christmas sausage (its Germany shutttt it), macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, stuffing, roasted potatos, Christmas cookies, and pecan deliciousness. It was a baller feast, I think my mom would be proud of how domesticly inclined I have become.

10 points for sausage innovation!

time to feast ya'll!

So on this trip, I tried something new called “covoitruage” which is ridesharing in English (sorry mom and Sarah). It was really cool, for 30 euros I rode with a guy, his girlfriend and another girl from Paris to Valence (2 hours from Nyons). It was great because I practiced my French the entire time and we got to talk about culture and all sorts of things. Although I will say there were times I thought I was going to die because French people just drive WAY faster than Americans (seriously the speed limit is like 80mph) so I spent a lot of the ride with my eyes closed haha.

Anyways I’ll leave you with some cool or wtf pix, happy new years ya’ll!

BARBAPAPA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm obsessed with these guys

anyone need a 3 story tall necktie?????? it'd be a nice addition to any front lawn

SUPRISE! its my d*** in a box!

I do have to comment, WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON IN THIS PICTURE… I found it in a store in Montélimar, and I just don’t understand what is supposed to be going on in it. The only thing I can think of is that SNL skit d*** in a box bahahahaha

Silly Santas and Scary Elves: Adventures in Strasbourg

So as you know, I just spent the weekend in the land of Christmas OD: Strasbourg, France. It was the stuff of dReAmZ fo realz ya’ll! If you love Christmas and want to have an overdose on Christmas cheer, then you should probably try to make it a life goal to visit Strasbourg at some point in your life. I want to go back, like now. However I have so many other things to accomplish this winter break 🙂

There are like 800,000,00,000 reasons why Strasbourg was B.A. but I’m just going to list my favorite reasons:

*Crazy Santas… everywhere you looked there were Santas and they all looked ridiculous, usually drunk, and enormously obese. Santas don’t look like this back home and I loved it! I took pictures of as many drunk/crazy Santas as possible

the fat b... "get in my belly" santa... also potentially drunk as well

"why yes i'll take another BOWL of vin chaud!" (drunk) santa

the "i'm going to break into your house and steal all your sheesh" santa

*Evil Elves… apparently evil Elves is like a “thing” in a European Christmas. The Children’s Market had an “evil elf” that would “trick you” if you lost sight of him. Ummm whatever happened to Rudolph? This is like the Miser Brothers (if you don’t know what that is well go youtube it. Its freaking weird but I loved it as a kid) on acid and like scarier.

happy holidays just doesn't have the same ring if an evil elf (in sunglasses) and a bat (?) aren't included

just what you want on your christmas tree, spreading holiday cheer

*Drinking in public… IT IS ENCOURAGED TO DRINK WINE IN THE STREETS. YUP you read that right! Everywhere you turn there is a stand selling “Vin Chaud” or Mulled Wine and it’s freaking awesome. Not only is it acceptable to drink wine in the streets its encouraged… Drink up people! It’s good for the economy!

helping the economy thrive by drinking wine in the streets

*Crazy hats… Not only is it encouraged for people to drink wine in the streets, it is also encouraged that they wear crazy hats while doing it. I’m not talking children, or parents with kids I’m talking full grown adults with no reason at all to be wearing crazy hats wearing crazy hats: polar bears, wolves, crazy Santa hats, birds, and a bunch of other weird things. It’s like a “thing” and I LOVED it!!!

normal

santa strip tease?

*The Lights… My pictures do not do the lights of this city justice. They were AMAZING! Even better was the cute town of Colmar that I visited. Both were spectacular and awesome and well words don’t really do it justice, and neither did my cheap (but handy) little camera.

check out this badboy rockefeller center!

*The food… sausage? Yes preaze! Sauerkraut? Yes preaze! Bread? Yes preaze! Beer? Yes preaze! Crepes? Yes preaze! Pretzels? Yes preaze! Vin Chaud? YES PREAZE… Did I gain an extra 10lbs on this trip? Probably. Was it worth it? I’m not sure yet but that food was DEELISH.

I couchsurfed here with a cool dude who took a lot of time to show me the city and the food and culture. He took me to the town of Colmar to see their lights one night and it was amazing. It was much smaller, quainter and more lovely. It’s like how I went to Toulon when I visited Marseille; the big cities were grand and spectacular but I’m a sucker for a small, quaint, lovely little place.

I spent Saturday with an assistant friend going to all the different markets throughout town (there are like 10, not exaggerating), and then on Sunday I did the same thing just by myself. Also it snowed Sunday afternoon! Talk about Christmas wonderland!!! The only thing that could have made it better would have been if all of a sudden people broke out into song and a choreographed dance in the street and then I met my true love or something like that. You know, typical movie business. Also this all would have happened while it was snowing and I had perfect hair.

Also, while trying to take a picture with Pere Noel (Father Christmas for all you non-frenchies out there), I was PHOTOBOMBED by a child. Look at the lower right hand corner of this picture… and then check out the zoom action.

just tryna get some last minute face time with santa!

PHOTOBOMB

Now, I am on my way to Paris (well when this is published I will have already arrived… but still) for a few days and then it is off to THE GERM aka Germany. I’d also like to point out my absolute inability to pack in a reasonable manner. The guy sitting next to me on the train is probably thinking “what the hell is wrong with this girl? She has like 17 HUGE bags” well not 17 but 2 gros sacs as I like to call them. Sighhh… sometimes I wonder how I make it through life unscathed. (post script: he gave me a super weird look when I attempted to arrange my things to get off the train, which took some serious effort)

2 gros sacs, plein de trucs (2 big bags full of random things)

Anyways, sending Christmas cheer and winter wonderland magic across the Atlantic!

Mego

My Little Knitters

So the keyboard is back and working wonderfully and looking all shiny and new J. I feel like I have a whole new computer! The dude told me now it should last me another 4-5 years. Macs are awesomeeee

So title story time. Recently I’ve started babysitting on Wednesday mornings for a family with two children, Cesar (7) and Paloma (5). They are super funny and they are actually teaching me a lot of things which is great! Since the weather here is marvelous we play outside a lot, like hide and seek, tag, or my personal favorite “mummy” where I am a mummy and they laugh at me running into things. Anyways Cesar is a little cheater. All the games we play he cheats at hardcore. In French the words for “to cheat” and “to knit” are pretty similar (tricher, tricoter) and every time he cheats at a game I always try to say “you little cheater!” but instead I always say, “you little knitter!” Sighhh… language barrier…

Anyways in other news since I havn’t updated ya’ll in forevs (and I’m sure you have been dying to know what fabulous things I have been up to lol), I’ll start with Thanksgiving. Stephanie and I did Thanksgiving dinner at one of her colleague’s house. I made, pumpkin pie from scratch…

This became a pie, SKILLZ

YUM PIEEEEEEEEE

Stuffing from scratch…

Kitchen Queen! Watch out Mario Batali!

AND I roasted a chicken (no turkey sadness )

Chicky chicky chick chick

All I’m saying is that I kicked some serious ass in the kitchen and it was SO delicious. I know it was a little sparse, but for one meal I was at home and it was wonderful. The next day we had lunch with another colleague of Stephanie, who made us a wonderful traditional Sunday lunch, meaning it lasted like 4 hours no exaggeration. We ate raclette which is basically where you melt a bunch of cheese and put it on random food. If you are thinking, “dang that sounds like the best meal ever” I’m going to go ahead and say, Yes you are right. I’m thinking I should throw a French Sunday lunch party one day when I am home in the States so everyone can experience this!

Later that afternoon we went on a walk up in the hills of Nyons and picked grapes off of the vines and ate them. It was pretty French, and a perfect way to end the afternoon!

Fairytale land!

Me being FRENCH holla! bonjourrrr

 

Saturday we decided to go to Montelimar and see Mika for the night. I’m not sure what was going on, but apparently there was this HUGE festival/party/THING going on in Nyons and Montelimar called Telethon. In Nyons there was karaoke and wine tasting (?????), in Montelimar they turned the city center into a tropical paradise. To each their own I suppose haha.

Whatup Montelimar Beach in December????

BEACH BUNGALOW!

Sun shines so bright, I wear my shades at night... Montelimar Stylez

We also went to a sweet art museum with an exhibit on Cathelin, which was the style of art that I love. I wanted to steal all of his paintings and hang them up in my apartment. Instead, I settled for some postcards I’m going to frame and hang up in my house in America some day.

so pretty! want to steal!

I also made it my goal to find all the awkward chairs in Montelimar and sit in them. Mission accomplished. And Hannah, I’d just like to say that the chairs themselves are awkward, I was not trying to be awkward in normal chairs. I know you are thinking that, haha.

maj awk

It looks normal but ZING its not. GOTCHA!

Also there was a random marching band wandering the streets…

Why are you here????

A random bike race…

Tour de Montelimar!

Basically Montelimar was a happenin’ place this weekend!

Also, if you want to send me some mail (which I would totally LOVE) send it to:

Meaghan Dill

FJT Constantin

36 Avenue Paul Laurens

26110 Nyons, France

 

WHEW SORRY THIS IS SO LONG I just love TYPING sldkfjsaklsd;fakdjakldkajlkaks

Sending Christmas love across the Atlantic!

Meaghan

Halloween is over… you know what that means!

Thats right people, as of November 1st it is officially acceptable (according to me and anyone else obsessed with the holiday season) to start listening to Christmas music! My beliefs have been officially confirmed by the fact that Kinder has officially released their Christmas products for sale in the grocery stores.

For those not in the know, Kinder is a chocolate company in Europe that is da bomb. All their chocolate is amazing, and I don’t even like chocolate. That good.  Also another sign from the heavens that it is completely socially acceptable to listen to holiday music is that not only did Justin Bieber release an album on Nov. 1, but Michael Buble did too. Call me crazy or weird or schwatevz, I don’t care because I’ve been listening to both on repeat. And it is awesome.

Anyways break is over starting tomorrow. I’m pretty happy about that since I need some direction in my life. However, I don’t work on Fridays so I just have to work for 3 hours tomorrow afternoon and then I am free. Did I ever mention that my job is awesome? WOOP WOOP.

The end of my break was supa fun. I went to Marseille for a few days with Stephanie and Mika. Everyone in town kept telling us that we were for SURE going to get mugged/robbed/murdered while in Marseille because I guess its kind of dangerous. But then again, pretty much any other city in the world is more dangerous than Nyons haha except for maybe Mayberry. Anyways, since I’m a little bit of a crazy person, I felt the need to knit myself a money belt for my credit card and ca$h money.

Don't even think about tryna steal my moniez! I have these bad boiz

Don’t pretend like you don’t wish you had a sweet money belt that was custom made by me! Actually if anyone wants one I’ll knit you one for 5 euros/dollars. Ok enough with the shameless self promotion… It worked out pretty awesome aside from the fact that it made me look like I was pregnant in most of my pictures. Case in point, me with the Barbapapa section I found in a store:

Is that a Barbapapa under my shirt or just an awesome money belt?????

So needless to say I looked a little funky in all my pictures because of my super nifty money belt. However I don’t know anyone who has made themselves a money belt before so I still think its awesome. Zing.

Marseille itself was really cool. I really liked it. It was very beautiful and had some really awesome restaurants. We met some other assistants staying at the hostel we were at so it was fun to hang out with them. All in all I think it was a good trip!

I'm on a boat and its going fast and I got a nautical themed pashmina afghan

At any minute "Eye of the Tiger" is going to start playing...

I had my toez in the water, but I did not have my a$$ in the sand as Zac Brown band would say haha

Also in Marseille I’d like to point out that I found something so elusive and rare in France that I had to make it a Kodak moment. Can you guess what it is? I’ll give you a hint, it is rarer than a unicorn…

MIND BLOWINGLY AWESOME

If you guessed an old man with a mullet you are my new favorite person! Definitely one of my most favorite pictures from France ever. Thank you French Mullet-Man for absolutely making my day everytime I look at this!!

Well thats about it round these parts… I’ll do a food blog this weekend 🙂

PEACE YA’LL

Meaghan

Story of my life: It Got Weird

Strangely enough vacation is almost over… WEIRD! It seemed like it would be soooooooo long but really it is halfway over. I spent the last few days in Thionville with Natalie and believe me did things get Weird. With a capitol W. Traveling there was a long and tiresome journey… 12 hours en totale. But I had a long layover in Lyon, the second largest city in France, which I took advantage of and explored with Mika.

Oh hey Lyon! Oh what's that? You have a fake Eiffel Tower? Cool beanz!

There was nothing strange about the journey, except maybe the old lady who was snoring the entire time in the seat across from me. It sounded like I was traveling with a large seal of some sort. She even kind of looked like a seal, if seals had cranberry red hair and crazy outfits on. Anyways upon arrival in Thionville I thought it was super cute and SO much bigger than Nyons. Not that it is exceptionally hard to be bigger than Nyons lol… Anyways Natalie and another assistant that she lives with from Scotland were telling me about a man who works there who they call Monseiur Baguette because he always brings them baguettes. There is only one problem, he is like a “silent penguin” according to Natalie and that is a perfect description. He kind of silently shows up and is kind of creepy about it, gives the bread, and silently fades into the darkness. Literally. Anyways Natalie has just finished telling me this story and I heard a noise in the corridor and turns out its Monsieur Baguette in the other assistant’s room. Granted he had a ton of baguettes but still totally creepy and weird and just reinforced the idea haha.

When I googled "Creepy Bread Man" this came up...

The next day we walked down by the Moselle river and had a good time talking about Guilford and how the F we don’t know what we are going to do with our lives after this program. Well that was more me freaking out and Natalie listening to me rant. I took some pictures of some cows…  and yeah it was pretty cool.

Saturday night is where it gets WEIRD and awesome. If you’ve been thinking Ellvis is dead, please let me inform you of the contrary. Not only is he alive, he is singing at an American diner called “The Fonzie” in Thionville. That’s right people. I just blew your minds didn’t I. Proof:

Elvis ain't dead!

The Fonzie also indulged me in my craving for American food with a bomb burger and a coke and tons of Americana decoration and waiters on roller skates. Also Elvis GAH that is probably my favorite part.

GET IN MY BELLY... dang that burger was gooooood

Next we went out to an Irish pub for the night and it was pretty fun. However, I did get hit on by a 17 year old. YUP. That happened. Apparently the key to my heart is telling me I have a beautiful accent, because that is exactly what this kid did. In France the legal drinking age is 18 but they don’t card sooooooo if you look kind of old you can go to a bar. I definitely forgot about that so turns out I think I’m getting hit on by a suave French dude telling me how great my French is and how beautiful my accent is and turns out he is just a kid. That’s how it got weird. WEIRD. I know it doesn’t sound too weird, but I felt pretty much like a cougar. I’m 22, I don’t think I should be feeling like that haha. The night ended with me arguing with some kid (he was 18) over why I don’t want to teach French gangster-thugs English. Basically he was like Paris is awesome you should work there and my response was, “so they can put me in a bad school with kids that hate me and are gangster-thugs? No thanks” We argued for a long time about this, with my main argument being that teaching gagnster-thugs would in no way be enjoyable. Also France, like any other country, is full of gangster-thugs and if I can avoid them I will gladly do so. The gangster-thugs and blood thirsty pigeons are my two top things to avoid in life… easier said than done in France.

Fat from eating humans on the daily

Speaking of French gangster-thugs, Nyons seems to be full of them lol. They like to cruise through the streets hanging out the window of their best friends ride trying to holler (see what I did there? I’m bringing TLC back). It gets really weird. My favorite part though is when they are gangster-thug daddys and have pimped out strollers. Anyways, in Nyons since I am somewhat of a celeb here, people have started telling me how good I am at running. They pop out of their shops when I walk by and say things like “Hey! Good running! It is good for your health you know! Bon Courage!” It’s only adding to the delusion that is my life right now.

Anyways, back to the rest of my trip. On Sunday we watched the world cup of rugby in an Irish pub where New Zealand beat France. That was pretty fun I’ll say. Most of the pub was drinking beer at 10am but I had to stick with Orangina; the wine from the night before did me in. Monday was also fun; Natalie and I went to Metz, which is a 20 min train ride away and a really big city. It was super pretty and had a huge cathedral and lots of neat shops and things. Yay for being a tourist holla!

Monster Cathedral will eat all other Cathedrals!

Found: Camo fishermen in Metz

Currently I’m sitting in a lovely café writing watching the old men play petanque (like bocce ball but weirder), a woman walk her child on a leash, and the Nyons bike squad  bike by. They all have matching “Nyons, Pays des olives” shirts on (land of olives) and are looking like they want to be in the next Tour de France. They are kind of old and maybe they shouldn’t be wearing spandex but this is France and they get rill srs about their biking.

Me in a French cafe... all I need is a man with a mustache, a striped shirt and a beret and I'll be living the dream

Well I’ve been meaning to do a post on food/wine and perhaps I will get around to doing that in the next few weeks. All I have to say is that there is a reason French women don’t get fat: they don’t deny themselves anything but everything is so freaking healthy! I eat like a king on a poor man’s budget and it is awesome. I also drink wine, eat bread and cheese and yet I’ve lost weight. Sigh…. France: I love you. Even if your post office is full of all the crazies in France.

Well, I’m off to Marseille Friday (hopefully… I seem to have misplaced my tickets whoops!) so hopefully that will be fun!!! Keep it real back in the states ya’ll!

Grand Bis

Meaghan

Probably one of the strangest things you could ever put in your window... Found: Thionville

Believed Ham and Crystallized Plug

WOW! Sorry, long time no write. I’m sure all you avid readers (cough my parents cough) are dying to know what I have been up to recently. The good news is LOTS of fun things and I have lots of funny stories to tell so you are in luck (quelle chance!)!! My title is from a menu that Stephanie found in Nyons… the owner tried to have translations of meals in English and this was one that I found. Another favorite was “vagueness of St. Jacques on his crawfish beach” which really meant like clams on crawfish but hey to each their own crappy English translation LOL. I told Stephanie that I’m going to tell the owner that if he gives me free dinner one night I’ll redo his translations so that they actually make sense. If he says no well then it is funny and if he says yes then holla free dinner!

YUM I definitely want "vagueness of St. Jacques" in my belly!

I also started my first week of school last week. I worked two days, what horror! Ha just kidding it was awesome. I think I’ll be working something like half days Mondays and Thursdays and all day Tuesday. My life is awesome! The schools are pretty cool they are just basically like “talk about America” so I tell the kids things like we do nothing but play sports and eat McDonalds erryday and drive SUVs because we have nothing better to do with out time. Just kidding! I do talk a lot about sports though and for some reason spend an inordinate amount of time explaining that America is NOT England. That however has gone right over most children and teachers heads. In one class the teacher said “Alright you are from America you know English, here explain this map of England to the kids.” That ended with a bunch of 10 year olds staring at me like “who the hell is this girl and what is she talking about?” because I stood up there and looked like an idiot. I don’t know the first thing about England’s geography. I said things like “well here are some rivers and that is London and Scotland is at the top and Ireland is over there and yup that’s all you need to know…”

The kids are pretty funny though. One class asked me if, since I lived in America, I knew any rappers. I was like no but I live like 6 hours away from ATL (durrty souf) which is where T.I., Jermaine Dupri, Usher, and Justin Bieber (I’m a biebliever don’t hate), all live. The girls immediately started screaming “JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!” and then asked me if I knew him. I said no but that didn’t stop one girl writing me a love letter on the back of her math notes for him. She asked me to give it to him the next time I go to his house (where she got that out of the conversation I don’t know). The note is written in terrible French and doesn’t really make sense. She says things like “I live near a ‘pisseria’ that you can see my mom from at my house” and that she lives in “nionce.” She also misspelled his name. Before you jump to conclusions and say “oh but it is just a child!” I will say to you she was 10 and I feel like 10 year olds should be able to spell the city that they live in haha.

Justin Bibere pleese come to nionce!!!!! We can eat pissa!

On Friday my friend Mika came to visit and it was super fun. We went out with Stephanie to our fav club called La Ruelle and it was fun. Naturally since I love clubs I am now becoming bffs with the manager and bartenders. SW33T LYFE. Also I’d like to point out that it is our favorite club because it is literally the only thing open past 10:30pm in town. Anyways, the next morning I had to pack for our stage (orientation/learn how to teach/seminar/truc idk) in Grenoble since Stephanie decided to do a weekend in Grenoble before the stage. Unfortunately packing hungover is not conducive to bringing things that one might actually need. I managed to bring an iPOD cord, my charger for my computer, and hairbrush but forgot underwear, pajamas, and enough clothes to wear. I had to buy underwear and PJs in Grenoble. Grenoble was fun though, we couch surfed with a young guy who was nice but a little odd but he was nice for letting us stay so I can’t really complain. We also hiked to the top of the Bastille, which was AH-MAZING!!!!!!

Str8 illin with Mika at La Ruelle the most bumpin club in Drome!I didn't photoshop myself in

I didn't photoshop myself in, I promise this is real

Our stage started yesterday and was in a building downtown somewhere and then they bused us up to the Vercors mountains to a town called Autrans. It was super cute! BUT we managed to miss the bus. YUP we missed the bus and were chauffeured up by a nice lady working for the department of education. Embarrassing, yet awesome because tour buses are kind of smelly and weird. Anyways after dinner last night Stephanie and I wandered into town and went to some bar. The manager started talking to us and showed us a bunch of pictures of himself with Prince Albert of Monaco playing petanque together (sidenote: petanque is basically bocce ball but French). I don’t think I really believe that they are bffs or else he wouldn’t be working in a ski town bar, but the pictures looked real enough. Also he was like kind of really old.

Sad faces... bus missed!

Well I’m pretty sure that’s the update… France is getting weirder by the day! I’m sure I’ll have more stories about the chitlins as soon as I start spending more time with them. I’m excited because this week is when our fall break starts and I am heading to Thionville to visit Natalie for a few days then hopefully to Marseille with Mika and Stephanie for the end of it. FRANCE GIVE ME MY PAYCHECK so I am not poor/ using all my savings…  Well until next time avid readers, go and eat some believed ham for me!

Grand Bis

Meaghan

Juice box wine HOLLA

Adventures in Nyons

So I love Nyons. Not only is it beautiful, cute, adorable, and pretty much what I imagine a fairytale city looks like, but I kind of feel like a celebrity here. Everyone stares at me and the other assistant, Stephanie, when we are out. Occasionally we hear them whispering things like “oh there are the Americans!” even though she is Canadian (eh). It is a common fact that French people don’t really have tact and are kind of just blatant about everything (probably one of the reasons why I like them so much) hence the obvious staring/whispering. However, it lends itself to my delusions of grandeur. I like to imagine that I am a celebrity of some sort, preferably a rich heiress so I don’t actually have to do anything, and that these people staring because I am famous… sigh… what dreams! Haha.

Anyways, I’ve been exploring more and more here finding little things that make this town quirky.

Look at the kid's face... he must really love vinegar! haha!!!

I really want to know who painted that because it is supposed to be vintage-y but they kind of just look like aliens. And the kid’s face just kills me.

Le Tex, specializing in kitschy americana decor

Wanted: a better criminal name

I’m tempted to try this place who claims to serve tex-mex food but there is no way it will even come close to Rio Grande in Greensboro and I might just get all sad and depressed. This is probably the second longest time I’ve gone without eating Mexican food (sad, yet true) with the first being when I studied abroad LOL.

On Thursday mornings here there is a HUGE market. Everyone from all the towns around come in and it is just insane. Anything that you could possibly want to buy is there: clothes, jewelery, plants, food, fish, cheese, bread, shoes, scarves, random things, JEGGINGS!!!! LOLOLOL. I actually did laugh out loud when I saw jeggings, they were probably my favorite find of the day haha. I also spent time reading in a park in the afternoon where I promptly fell asleep on a bench and probably looked like a homeless woman.

Last night Stephanie and I attempted to go out at the only club for like 40 miles. First we started off the night on an embarrassing foot by showing up too early. Apparently it didn’t open until 11 and we showed up at 10:50. Embarrassing… And we were like THE only people there all night. Also embarrassing. Haha I love my life.

Today we went in all the antique shops in town and found some cool things. There was also plenty of weird things as well. Like this,

Why yes I would love to buy a creepy African deer leg for my room

And this…

I'd just like to thank Lafeyette for helping the American Revolution by buying this plate with his face on it

I’m confused as to why this plate exists. Oh the 70s… what a silly time.

Tomorrow we are going to an English breakfast/bruch/coffe hour. That should be interesting. I also start working on Monday or Tuesday (whatever I feel like) and by working I mean teaching kids English games/songs/poems. Yeah this job is awesome! Have a good rest of the weekend everyone!!!

Grand Bis

Meaghan

Bread in your pocket is better than a pen in your hat

Oh the French, always talking about how much they love food. I saw that expression on a sign today in Grenoble, but what am I talking about? I LOVE FOOD too! More specifically French food and I would most definitely love to have bread in my pocket rather than a pen in my hat. Wouldn’t you? haha

Anyways Grenoble is amazing! You havn’t seen mountains until you’ve seen the ones here. Maybe the Rockies but eh I’ve never seen them so I can only compare them to the ole’ Appalachians. Speaking of which, so I’m currently couch surfing with a friend of mine in Grenoble and we are staying at this guys apartment (this is relevant I promise… also Sarah don’t be freaked out I am totally safe:) ) and he lives on the top floor and has this amazing view of the mountains. Like this is a picture from his deck:

Can you say "tres magnifique"

We climbed up on the roof to watch the sunset and it was so cool. He was saying that in winter it reflects off the snow and it looks like a rainbow. SOOO AWESOME. I want to see that. Anyways he made us this fabulous plum risotto for dinner and then sereneaded us to John Denver’s “Country Roads” where he mis pronounced like a lot of the places like Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah river. But thats ok. It was quite hilarious. Anyways thats where I was going with the whole story involving Appalachia… but anyways… him and his roommate are so funny. The roommate told me the secret to his success as an event planner is to listen to reggae, smoke a joint, and just let the creative juices flow. I said, sounds like a nice way to live dude. Also one of them makes their own alcohol from the plants that he collects in the mountains like legit real liquor. Yeah. Awesome.

This is me enjoying Grenoble today,

Makes you wanna sing "The hills are alive with the sound of muuuusiiiic" doesnt it! Thats what I thought

Anyways the rest of Paris was fun, I saw the Guard Republicain do some cool sheesh in their Napoleon era dress uniforms. This is me with one of them… also it was like 85 and those outfits are wool so this dude was mad cool for taking a picture with me:

Hot Hot Hot

I also went to the Musee d’Orsay. That was mad sweet. I liked it like a million times more than the Louvre. Well now I know. Anyways I’ve got a life to go live so be jealous of it 🙂 I’ll leave you with a picture of some Barbapapas and a random statue of Thomas Jefferson in Paris!!

They are saying, "eat me"

Thomas Jefferson, why are you here?

Grand Bis,

Meaghan