Hi from the Netherlands!

Hey y'all,

So technically this is a hello from my bus, which is in the Netherlands. The bus has wifi which is amazing, and making this long ride much more bearable. We dropped people off/picked people up in Brussels and Antwerp, but hopefully that's our last stop until Amsterdam!

I picked up Jenn from the train station yesterday and had a great time showing her around Lille.

My phone says we're a little over an hour away, and you can see where we are on the map!

Luv,
Sarah

Friendly faces

Hey y'all,

First of all. You should listen to this song while you read this post. It may or may not enhance your reading experience. You're welcome.

So I had a great time in Paris. It was a really short trip - I arrived about 10am on Sunday and left around 9pm Monday - but it was great. Sunday morning, I was able to figure out the time change issue- (which by the way, I was wrong. Y'all haven't had daylight savings time, so now we're only 5 hours apart. So wild.) - and made it to Paris sans problème. I got off my train and looped the train station three times looking for Bonnie and when I finally saw her, I let out a huge sigh of relief. It was so fantastic to see her. I hadn't seen anyone from home since being here and it was just surreal. We kept saying how weird it was to be in Paris...and to be seeing each other there. Rome has been treating Bonnie well and I loved catching up and hearing about all of her traveling and Roman adventures.

We made our way to Shakespeare and Company, the famous English bookstore next to Notre Dame and perused. I loved it, because I haven't really found a good (English) bookstore here in Lille, aside from the library. We then did a little window shopping and then went to my favorite restaurant street in all of Paris. It's super touristy, but I love it. We ate at a random restaurant, but spent about 2 hours there, just chatting and catching up. I loved it. Brittany, my little in Phi Mu, sent me a package a while back and in it she put two letters for me to give to Bonnie, one from her and one from Colleen, my greatgrandlittle. Sorority lineage crash course real quick - Brittany is my little, Bonnie is her little (aka my grandlittle), and Colleen is Bonnie's little (aka my greatgrandlittle), aka my FAMILY. Bonnie didn't know the letters were coming and the look on her face was precious.

We walked over to the Louvre after lunch and took a picture with "Flat Colleen". I assume y'all have heard of Flat Stanley. Well, Colleen made one for Bonnie. Flat Colleen has been all over Europe - even to the Vatican!

I was trying to explain to my roommate what Bonnie and I did, but we really didn't do much besides walk around. It was actually a lot of fun though, because we just got to chat and walk around and see everything. We had both done all of the touristy things in Paris, so it was just nice to explore my former stomping grounds. It was nice to not have to run from tourist stop to tourist stop, and to just walk around with no real direction.

Bonnie and I parted ways around 5pm and I went to meet up with Russell. I studied abroad with him in Tours. Here's a refresher - a picture of me, Monica, and Russell at Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire Valley, summer of 2009.

 We all look a tad different now. Here's us three at graduation (with Monica's mom and brother).

Anyways, I met up with him and went to drop my stuff off at his apartment. He lives in a great studio in the Marais. There's ton of stuff to do around where he lives and it's just in a great location. He really lucked out with housing. Again, we just sort of hung out on Sunday night and chatted and got caught up on each others' lives. It was a lot of fun hearing how grad school in France was and I liked telling him all about Lille. He had class on Monday from around 1-6pm, so we chilled some in the morning. And by chilled, I mean we went to Starbucks. It was the first Starbucks I'd had since mid-September, and let me tell you, it was glorieux. Parfait. Magnifique. Incroyable. Basically, it was amazing. I didn't go crazy or anything, I stuck with my regular order - grande coffee. 

After Russell went to class, I just walked around. It sounds so mundane, but it was actually great. I had no agenda, so I could just walk around and take everything in. It was really fun to walk by places where I'd spent so much time just a couple years ago. It was great seeing things that had stayed the same, but it was interesting to see when things had changed. Paris is absolutely my favorite city in the world. There's just a je ne sais quoi to it. It's magical, even during the day.

Of course I made my way over to the Eiffel Tower, but since I was alone, I was in charge of taking pictures of myself in front of the tower. Oh goodness, y'all. I never realized how short my arms were, so it was for sure a strug. The first few photos were extremely comical, but I ended up with a few good ones. 

Gosh. Paris, je t'aime. 

I know I've been raving about how wonderful Paris is, but being in Paris for that short amount of time, really made me realize how glad I am that I'm living in Lille. I definitely considered requesting Paris as my teaching assignment, but I think it's good to live in a new city. Life is so different in Lille. It feels more like the real world and a real city than Paris. Maybe it's because there are so few tourists and less monuments, but it just feels real. It feels like I'm discovering what real French life is like. It reminds me a lot of my experience in Tours a few years ago. Lille is definitely bigger and has more going on that in Tours, but that's beside the point. Going to Paris really made me appreciate where I am right now. It's a bit hard to explain. I'd heard before that life outside of Paris was so different, and I guess I hadn't really understood it, but now I feel like I get it. Anyways, there's a good chance that this paragraph makes no sense, so I apologize. All I'm saying is that I like Lille a lot, and I'm really happy I was placed here. Ask me again in a couple of months when it gets colder and rainier, and it may be a different story.

Anyways, I'm off to do my WAY overdue laundry. Oops. 

Jenn is coming tomorrow and then Thursday is Amsterdam!

Luv,

Sarah 

Home sweet Paris

Hey y'all,

Paris is so wonderful. I've really missed being in this city. There's just something magical about it. I met up with Bonnie and spent the day just walking around. Now I'm chilling with Russell and taking the train back around 9pm. Will update y'all more once I'm back in Lille.


Luv,
Sarah

froid froid froid

Hey y'all,

I can't lie. Il fait froid. 

The cold weather has arrived in Lille. Check out the forecast for the next week. I can't believe it's not going to be above 50 degrees. And it's only October.

I'm going to need a bigger coat. 

We bought some roasted chestnuts today while we were out. I'd never had them before, and while we were eating them, I couldn't help but think of that Christmas song about them. It was actually extremely fitting, because Jack Frost was nipping at, no, DEVOURING our toes. 

Anyways, I've had a really relaxing last few days. I'm getting into marathon training mode, so I ran an 11-miler on Friday, but honestly that's really the only productive thing I've done. I got caught in a downpour for the second time while out running. Fortunately, it was in the mid-50s, so I didn't catch hypothermia. Phew. Everyone tells me that it'll start raining more and more as winter comes, so I've got to learn to be a little more prepared for that. I'm mildly terrified. 

Emily and I were out walking around today and all of the sudden we were an extremely loud commotion down the road. Coming down the street was a zombie walk. I'd never seen one of these, but I'd heard about them. With Halloween being in just a few days, hundreds of people dressed up as zombies and had a police escort down the streets of Lille. It was kind of neat, but really bizarre. Some people got really into their costumes and there were some downright terrifying people doing it. A lot of people had face paint and fake blood all over their bodies/clothes. Gross. 

Here are a few pictures, although they don't do it justice. 

If you look close enough - on the left - there's a sign in English that says "Zombies never say YOLO." Touché. 

I feel like as a 22-year old, I should understand the concept of daylight savings time, but I just don't get it. Apparently it's already happened in the States, but tomorrow is France's daylight savings time. Fortunately, since we're falling back, had I forgotten about it, I wouldn't have missed my train to Paris, but at least now I can sleep an extra hour.

My train is at 8:45am and I should be getting to Paris just before 10! I'm really excited to see Bonnie and Russell, and of course I'm thrilled to be back in my favorite city in the world.

À bientôt, folks.

Luv,
Sarah 

Déjà Wednesday?

Hey y'all,

 I can't believe it's déjà Wednesday. The last time we spoke, I was basking in avocado greatness. I'm still pumped about that steal. Anyways, l'automne arrive in Lille! Leaves are changing and I love it. It does make me wish I could be at Leatherwood with the Senter fam. I bet it sure is gorgeous up in those North Carolina mountains. Alas. This will have to do.

I work half days on Mondays and one of my teachers at Victor Hugo asked me to prepare a lesson on Halloween. Easy enough. This was for two CM2 classes, which as far as I can tell is basically the equivalent of 5th grade, so the most advanced English speakers of the school - which still isn't saying much. But hey, I couldn't form a sentence in French until about the 10th grade, so they've got me beat.

Anyways. I searched long and hard for a cute, short song to play for them regarding Halloween. Turns out, there are none. QUOI? I guess I'd never thought about it, but besides Monster Mash, there are really no songs about Halloween. So I went with a classic - The Addams Family theme song. I was a bit unsure as to how well that was going to go over, but they loved it and really got into it. Especially the snapping part. Score one for Sarah the maîtresse (teacher).

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my long days where I work at both schools. Tuesdays are actually my favorite days of the week though because I get to go to the école maternelle (preschool) attached to Victor Hugo and work with 4-5 year olds for two 30-minute sessions. Oh man, y'all. Those kids are too cute. I can't even handle it. As soon as I walk into the room, I get a chorus of "Bonjour Sarah!!" For these kids, it's basically the first taste of English they've ever had, so we don't really do anything super substantial. In the first class we just worked on saying "my name is..." (which was still a STRUG), and then we started the "one, two, buckle my shoe" song. Although the latter was not very successful.

The second 30-minute class is memorizing a French poem and the teacher thought it'd be fun if I translated it in English and read it to them. The title of the poem is "The Squirrel and the Leaf". After I read it, we proceeded to go around the room and see if they could say the word squirrel. Oh the hilarity. That was such a struggle. I don't think a single one of them could say it, but they sure did have fun trying.

I'm currently babysitting the 7 year old that I spoke about a couple posts back. His name is Duke and he's super chill. I met up with them around 12:30 and I'm leaving around 8:15. That's a long time, but it's really not horrible. We rode bikes from his house to where he has rugby practice. Now that was pretty comical. His mom didn't want us riding on the streets (thank GOODNESS), so we were just riding along the sidewalks on the bikes, which I think is a bit taboo here in France, but whatever.

I hung out there for about 2 hours, reading my Mary Higgins Clark book, and now I'm just chilling. We worked on his English homework and now he's just watching tv. In a couple hours, I'll make dinner, eat some, and then head home. Not too shabby of a day! I'll hang with him on Mondays for a couple hours and then all afternoon on Wednesdays.

Also, the French are ALL about holidays and vacation. The French have an average of 37 paid vacation days per year. So insane. Fortunately, I get to tap into a lot of that. Starting Monday, I am off of work for two whole weeks! I just got here, how am I already on break? C'est la vie. At least in France.

Sunday, I'm going to Paris to meet up with my grandlittle in Phi Mu, Bonnie. She's studying in Rome this semester and is on fall break. It'll be a really short trip, as I'll come back to Lille on Monday. Just long enough to spend some time with her and then explore my old stomping grounds. Plus, I'll get to see another Wake friend, Russell, who's getting his master's right now from the Sorbonne! It'll be great to see some faces from home.

Then! Wednesday, another one of my sorority sisters, Jenn, who's studying in Germany this semester, is coming to Lille. The next day, we're going to take a bus to Amsterdam to stay for 4 days with one of her friends from home. I've never been to Amsterdam, so I'm super excited about that.

Then I'll come back to home sweet Lille and have a solid week to work on grad school applications for fall 2013. Should be riveting.

Anyways, hope all is well at home. I hope the family get together at Leatherwood goes well. Missin' y'all crazy.

And I almost forgot. GO DEACS! BEAT CLEMSON!

Luv,
Sarah

I'm all about a bon marché

Hey y'all,

Today has been a good day, and it's only 4pm. So much more time for activities.

Emily and I got up today and went to the marché des Wazemmes. This is a huge market only about a ten minute walk from our apartment. I think I've written about it before. It's where we got all of our kitchenware and such. It takes place on Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays, but Sunday is the biggest and busiest day. They really have absolutely anything. And I mean anything. Random things that you can buy here: whole chickens, panty hose, pots, the koran, scarves, any and every fruit/veggie, makeup, nail polish, cheese, bread, olives, shoes, spices, mattresses, microwaves, and the list goes on and on. It's actually really overwhelming. I even passed one stand selling Werther's Original caramel candies. I thought all the Senters would enjoy seeing this. For all you non-Senters reading this (if you exist), this was one of my granddaddy's favorite candies.

It's a pretty cool market, except that there are tons and tons of people- especially if the weather is nice. Crowds don't freak me out, but sometimes I just can't handle being packed in like a little sardine. It drives me a tad crazy.

Alas, it was worth it today. I hadn't really been planning on getting anything, because I really didn't need much. I've got enough veggies and couscous/pasta/rice to last me at least another 5 days, BUT I was not expecting to stumble upon avocats (avocados). We passed one stand and they were selling 3 for 1.50 euro, which I thought was a fantastic deal. Took a mental note, obviously. Then we passed another stand that said 3 for 1 euro! Started salivating. And then, we hit the mother of all stands and I saw a sign for 4 avocados for 1 euro. Incredible. I walked around a tad more to make sure that was the cheapest I could find, and eventually made my way back there to purchase the avocados. Legitimately made my weekend. A bon marché means a good deal in French and this was the epitome of bons marchés in my book. Here they are.

Wow.

Like I said a while back - you've got to learn to appreciate the little things in life. 

On a side note: The word en français for avocado is the same as the word for lawyer. So I could tell someone that my dad and brother are avocats, and they might think I'm telling them that my brother and dad are avocados. Oh man. The hilarity. 

Speaking of which. Today is David's 28th (OUCH) birthday! Have a great birthday, you avocado! 

Luv,

Sarah 

"United Steaks of America"

Hey y'all,

So it is Friday and officially the weekend. What am I doing this weekend? Obviously getting wild and crazy. Just kidding. Teaching is exhausting and I plan to relax all weekend. Here's a couple pictures I took while running this morning. Can't even begin to describe how being able to run here has kept me sane.

Funny moment of the week. In one of my classes, the students were working on saying "United States of America" and so we went through the class and every student had to repeat it. One student said "United Steaks of America"...after which the actual French teacher said "Bravo!" Oh man, y'all. I had to hold in so much laughter. Then they practiced saying Barack Obama. That's a tough name for most Americans, much less people learning English as a second or third language. The hard English "r" is tough for them, so most just said "Ba-wock". 'A' for effort, kids. I was reading an article yesterday about the debate and it said that over 80% of French people wanted Obama to win the election. I figured a large majority would, but 80% was shocking.

Speaking of politics. I emailed my absentee ballot in last night. Meaning, if I voted from 4,063 miles away, you have no excuse for not voting. Do it, folks.

I feel like we do the exact same thing in every single one of my classes, regardless of the level. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though. They have 30-45 minute English classes once (twice if they're lucky) a week, and so I think that in middle school is when they really start learning more languages.

I've sung SO many versions of "One, two, buckle my shoe" with the students. Every single class has a different version. It's pretty ridiculous. I've heard "Nine, ten, take a pen", "Nine, ten, big fat hen" (my fave), "Nine, ten, start again" and one more that I can't think of right now. Regardless of age, the students love singing, so I'll take it. And boy are they not afraid to BELT IT. I love it. Their enthusiasm is really encouraging as a teacher.

On another positive note, almost all of the bureaucratic nonsense is DONEZO. I've filled out so much paperwork in the last month, it's not even funny. (Also - I've been here over a month! How insane is that?)

I have two final things I'm waiting on:

1. My landlord to fill out a housing subsidy that the French government grants poor people. Aka me. No shame though. I'll take what I can get! Even if they gave me 50 euro off of my rent, that would be incredible.

2. My credit/debit card to come! Can't wait to get that one. I guess. I'm looking forward to getting it, but not looking forward to my bank account saying zero! We don't get paid until next Friday, I believe. So for about two days it'll have money. Then I have to pay for rent, utilities, and buy food. I'm guessing it'll be back around zero. Being a real-life adult sure is interesting. Honestly can't say I'm hurting though. I'm living in France, having the time of my life - and I just happen to be eating a lot of couscous, rice and frozen veggies- which for the record are all délicieux. I'd say life sure is good.

ALSO - Emily and I have been SO good this week about only eating at home. I spent 26 euro on groceries last Sunday and have eaten every single meal at my apartment (or packed a lunch for school) this week. Incredible how much money that saves. Plus, I can make exactly what I want to eat and don't have to worry about any viande (meat) showing up in my sandwiches.

That being said, I found two ways to make some extra cash!
This afternoon I'm heading to one of the other teachers at my school's house to tutor her daughter in English for a couple hours.
AND here's the big one. I got a babysitting job on Monday afternoons from 4:30ish to 6:30 and then Wednesday from 1ish to 7ish. The president of the American Club in Lille came to one of our orientations to give us some info on the group and said she was looking for a babysitter so I shot her an email and VOILA. I'll be starting next week. Holla.

It was rainy on Wednesday, so Emily and I found a cute little place to get a cup of café. We went up stairs where they had more seating and looked out onto the Grand Place. Not too shabby.

I've got to head out now. Sorry for being so long-winded.

Miss y'all. (I'll be home for Christmas in 2 months, 2 days, and 23 hours).

Luv,
Sarah

P.S. I almost forgot. DAD AND I ARE OFFICIALLY REGISTERED FOR THE PARIS MARATHON. THIS WILL BE US ON APRIL 7TH.