This time last year, I found myself in Montréal visiting Val and Katt.  I remember I was so excited to visit, unfortunately, almost immediately after I arrived I got sick and that somewhat altered our new years plans.  Val and I mostly stayed in and watched movies, and later Katt joined us to make a lovely New Years Eve dinner. Towards midnight we headed to the Old Port to watch fireworks. I remember trying to find a few of Katt’s friends and in all the confusion we missed the countdown and the new year surprised us. Then Katt carried me on her shoulders and she ran around the Old Port, we ran around wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

When I was little my dad always said that however you welcome in the new year will reflect onto the new year. I’ve always been a very superstitious person; this especially applies to welcoming the New Year. Like I said, last year the New Year surprised me, and 2012 was definitely a year of surprises.

As I was flipping through my agenda the other day trying to find something, I realized that 2012 has been quite a unique and memorable year. The first half of my planner was filled with intern trips to the North West Territories, London, and Alberta, and had many scheduled meetings with important figures in Ontario and Canadian politics. Then there was that brief, yet stressful, few months of unemployment, followed by my move to France. In the past 12 months, I have worn many different hats, had 4 phone numbers in 3 area codes, and had the opportunity to meet so many great people. It has been a challenging and fulfilling year.

I don’t know what next year holds, but I am excited to experience it. In an ideal world, where I keep my new years resolutions, I would like to start learning German and learn to ski or surf (which would also help determined my next move).

Thanks to my incredible friends that have supported me through all my phases this year, no matter the area code or the time zone or idea.

Wishing everyone nothing but the absolute best in 2013! 

Confetti from the ball drop in NYC with people’s hopes and wishes for 2012.

Some things never change. These past two days I’ve been sick as a dog, and for the most part have been incredibly unproductive. Mostly, I’ve just been trying to make myself feel better with soup, oranges and tea.

Sometimes when I’m bored I like to entertain myself with certain activities, like playing translation or researching the origin of words. For example, according to the Real Academia Española, procrastinación is of latin origin. I don’t really know what this means or if it matters, but I figure it’s a word I can now use in French or Italian. Other notable words of latin origin include: Sylvia. On the topic of languages, I really want to start studying German when I get back to Canada, that or Arabic. I am also excited to go to Italy to see how much Italian I remember, regardless of my linguistic (in)ability I am sure I will still be the master of bargaining with street vendors. Italian is a really pretty sounding language, although on the spectrum of my life I’m not sure I will continue to study it, at least not formally. (Michael if you read this that reference was for you ;P). If anything I am mostly worried about losing my Spanish, now that I don’t live at home I rarely use it and often find myself cornered when trying to express myself. Bah.

Anyway, I should get back to lesson planning and paper writing. But before that I must say I am excited for the holiday season, especially to see Thomas and Thalia.

If anyone actually reads my blog, I would like to thank all of my wonderful friends who have sent me encouraging words these past few months, and also wonderful surprises in the mail. You guys are awesome!

Also, I mostly wanted to write a blog entry today because it’s 12/12/12! Quick make a wish! 

Random picture from the East Side Gallery in Berlin

Thursday, November 22, 2012.

At some point even our closest friends are strangers then we become familiar and comfortable with each other. I think that most of the time this is a good thing, you have people there to love and support you, but I think it can also be a hindrance to meeting others and experiencing new things. I know I haven’t posted anything in a while, and quite a bit has happened between then and now. I’ve started teaching and I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Germany. I tried writing a post, but I felt it was just boring to read/write; it was mostly a timeline of what I had seen and done during my trip. Plus, I feel no blog post could do some of the sights and cities I visited justice.

I would rather talk about one of the things I love most about traveling- meeting strangers. One of the greatest things about being so far from home is that no one knows who you are. There are no expectations, no obligations, nothing but a clean slate. I wouldn’t say I am any different then I would be at home, but there is something exciting and liberating about it. I remember the first day I arrived in France I emailed an assistant who I had met once in Canada, we went for dinner and she showed me around the city. The following day I sent out a Facebook message asking if anyone wanted to grab a drink and I met one of the girls that has become one of my closest friends in Saint-É. Everyone was so keen on making everyone feel welcome.

Then there were my experiences in Germany. I took two carpools during my trip, one from Cologne to Munich and the other from Munich to Berlin. In the second car we met Elena the driver, and this other man that was also carpooling, Shtephan. He was so excited we were going to Berlin that he started researching ideas of things for us to see and do, he also pointed out interesting things during the drive, and shared stories and facts about Germany with us. When we arrived in Berlin he even walked us to the nearest subway station and helped us purchase tickets. Two nights earlier, Max and I were taking it easy at the hostel bar; I felt we were being anti social so I decided to introduce myself to the table beside us. There we were- 2 Canadians, a guy from France, another from Sweeden and a couple from Vietnam. Somehow that turned into a 6 hour hang out with the Swede and French guy buying us a few rounds of beer and suggesting things for us to see and do (intertwined with a conversation about the end of the nation state and my racial ambiguity). And although I will never see those people again, I enjoyed the time I spent with them and feel like I learned something from them.

Today, I sat at the kitchen table trying to start and finish an application while doing some lesson planning for my class tomorrow. Between the time I sat down to start and got up I had agreed to travel to Strasbourg with a stranger this weekend, and found a place for Rebecca and me to stay during the Fete de Lumiere in Lyon (from an assistant I have never met).

I wonder why life can’t always be like this. Why we don’t open ourselves up to new people and experiences on a more regular basis? Why we don’t welcome strangers into our lives and homes more often? (Of course still applying some level of caution and discretion). It is interesting because I think that some of the times I have felt the loneliest have been times I was surrounded by people I knew. Living here, an ocean away from home, I feel more connected and closer to the goodness of humanity than ever. 

Thursday, October 18, 2012.

After almost a month in France I think I have finally established a routine; although there is still much to do (such as get internet), I think Saint-Etienne is beginning to feel more like home (in the sense of familiarity with the city).

This week marked my first official work week. It started bright and early with a meeting in Saint-Chamond for all language assistants in the Loire department. Mariaim and I, being the responsible young women that we are, made sure to give ourselves enough time to get to Saint-Chamond from Saint-Etienne, and find our way to the school where we would be meeting. We made it to the station just in time, bought our tickets and made our way to the train heading toward Lyon Part-Dieu. Little did we know that not all trains towards Part-Dieu made regular stops along the way, including Saint-Chamond. So as I sat there trying to enjoy my morning pain au chocolat and we chatted away, Mariam and I saw our stop come and go. A moment of panic followed when we realized our next stop wasn’t until Lyon, and that we were going to be late (if not completely miss) for our induction. I immediately called the program coordinator and told her the situation. To give you a better idea of the gravity of the mistake, imagine having to go to a meeting in Burlington from Hamilton, and ending up in Toronto during rush hour. As soon as we arrived in Lyon, I bought myself a pain au chocolat and a ticket back to Saint-Chamond. In the end we were over an hour late but it gave us a funny story to tell our colleagues when we arrived.

Tuesday, I made my way back to Saint-Chamond (luckily on the right train) and visited the three schools where I will be working this year. Everyone seemed very nice, although some of the teachers seem worried because none of them have ever had a language assistant. And the kids we super cute! I will be working with primary school aged children (mostly 7-11 year olds), they were so excited to see me and some of the classes had even looked up where I came from on the map. I am not sure who is more excited- them or me!

Yesterday was another early start in a village a little past Saint-Chamond. It was the day we were introduced to all the teachers we would be working with, when we discussed our responsibilities, and most importantly when we negotiated my schedule. This semester I am working everyday (except Wednesday). Because I am the first language assistant in my schools, it seems that the teachers were just as lost as I was. In the end we decided that I would mostly focus on talking about culture to the students, while they would focus on developing the grammatical components required by the curriculum. Trying to establish consensus in any group is always a difficult feat, but doing so in another language (and trying to adapt to a different educational system than the one I am familiar with) adds another level of difficulty to the process.  Nevertheless, it was a very productive morning. I took the bus home with Rebecca (a fellow English assistant from Birmingham, England) and although we often have loads to talk about, neither of us said anything on the way home out of sheer exhaustion. Thursday, Friday and all next week I will be observing classes to familiarize myself with the students, and I will start my duties as an assistant after the autumn holidays.

On a more personal note, getting to meet a lot of new people (mostly assistants) has also been fun and exciting. I have mentioned Mariam before (she is the first person I met in France), but I also spend a decent amount of time with Maren. Maren, is a German language assistant, working at the lycee level. She has worked as an au pair in France previously (Paris and Lyon) and her level of French is exceptional. She is very friendly and is always finding things for us to do. Because she feels her French is stronger than her English, we mostly speak in French when we are all together. I hope that when I leave France, my level of French will be as good as hers.

Fleur is another assistant I have become friends with and I think she is just the coolest person alive! She is from Melbourne, Australia, and before moving to France to become an English assistant she had been practicing law for a number of years. I joked with her the first time I met her that I didn’t realize you could still do programs as a “real person”. Although she joked that she wasn’t sure you could either, I think it is so ballsy for her to move to a different country (with from what she has told me, a minimal study of and exposure to the French language). The other day we went to “fnac” (kind of like HMV but with books) and I bought a number of children’s books to read and practice my French. We also made a small detour to a toy store to look at some French board games to improve our French. She is very funny, and is always cracking me up with her funny stories and sayings.

Lastly, this week I finally got a new roommate. His name is Luis; he is a Spanish assistant from Venezuela (he is trained and works as a translator). He has told me he speaks four languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese and French. Although, I was hesitant to live with a male roommate he seems really cool. Our official language of business is English, but when we hang out with his friends we communicate in Spanish. Yesterday evening tested our language abilities as my friends and his friends met in our apartment. There were three languages simultaneously spoken in our apartment, and we tried to speak in all three depending on whom we were talking too. He seems like a very bright guy, and seems to be able to talk to you about any subject. Most importantly, though, he also made sure to get our Internet situation sorted out the day he moved in (we should have internet by sometime next week).

Apart from all the socializing with assistants, we find other ways to keep ourselves busy. Last weekend, Mariam and I went to Lyon to explore the city. I love Lyon. I think it is a decent (people sized) city, great food, less expensive than Paris, and very pretty. We wandered through old Lyon, ate some very savory crepes, and indulged in some delicious ice cream (by the end of the day I had had three scoops- lavender, salted caramel, and rose with rose petals). We wandered through many impressive churches, including a Cathedral and maybe a basilica (I think I have been to more churches in the past three weeks than in the past three years), and we people watched at the old roman theatre. We had decided to go at the last minute, and had not really planned anything to do, nevertheless, we had a great day of sightseeing and I feel we accomplished quite a lot. I am happy to live so close, and look forward to visiting the city many more times during the duration of my stay here in Saint-Etienne.

We have also made an effort to meet more locals, by attending the language café on Monday evenings. It is a pretty cool concept, every week a group of strangers meet to exchange languages. This week there were German, Spanish, French, and English speakers in attendance. We showed up pretty late, so unfortunately we missed most of it, but I am excited to go back to the Voltaire next week and chat with strangers.

Lastly, we have also been attending an English club for Stephanois (people from Saint-Etienne) that want to improve or practice their English. It is mostly elderly people but it is always quite fun, we talk about countless topics, including: art, politics, geography and etcetera. They have been quite welcoming, this one man and this lovely older couple have offered to give us a tour of Saint-Etienne and to share a little more with us about its history and culture. Often, when I attend cultural events such as these I like to pretend I am talking with my constituents, I find it makes it a lot easier to approach and talk to strangers. Next week after the club we are all going to dinner, so hopefully we will have the opportunity to spend more one-on-one with the club members.

There is so much more to share, but I feel this blog post is already quite lengthy so I will leave it at that…

Sights of Lyon, France

Monday, October 8, 2012.

This weekend, a few old friends joined some new friends in Paris to experience a Nuit Blanche. A few days before leaving Canada, Max (an old high school friend) and I met at a coffee shop to discuss places we would like to visit. Since we were missing Nuit Blanche in Toronto this year, I suggested we do Nuit Blanche in Paris!  To my surprise he agreed. A few weeks later, there we were.

I arrived Friday afternoon and had the opportunity to explore the city as I waited for the others to arrive. I hadn’t really planned what to do, but I decided to take the metro to the Louvre. The exterior of the museum was as impressive as I remember from my first visit to Paris in grade 11. However, being a tourist on a budget I decided that seeing the Mona Lisa would have to wait. I wandered around the exterior of the museum, around the glass pyramids and water fountains. From there I walked along the Seine to Notre Dame de Paris, and later the Eiffel Tower.

Often one of my favourite things to do when I travel is to people watch, and Paris provides so many great spots to do so. Later that afternoon, after an unsuccessful attempt to find something filling and affordable to eat I made my way to this area across the bridge from the Eiffel Tower, and up these stairs to a lovely park where tourists go for a scenic view of the Tower and Paris. Having worked in tourism, I am used to watching tourists do silly things, but I feel every city provokes certain stereotypical tourist behaviour. When you think of Paris certain images come to mind: romance and/or fashion, among others. I feel Paris has the most fashionable tourists I have seen, but I bet take the same tourists and bring them to Toronto and you get a bunch of people in jeans and a t-shirt waiting in line to go up the CN Tower. It is also funny watching all the couples do coupley things. Of course Paris is a stunning and impressive city, but I feel lovers in Paris is a little cliché, the equivalent of a romantic Las Vegas if you will. When everyone else is doing the same thing as you, kissing under the Eiffel Tower, paying for the same overpriced meal, how romantic can it really be? Maybe I’m just not a romantic person or a little too judgmental, but nevertheless it is fun to watch. I wonder what people would think if they watched me exist as a tourists…

As I sat there waiting for the sun to set, I also watched the illegal vendors try to sell their little Eiffel Tower souvenirs to wandering tourists. Later that night, as I waited for Max to arrive I watched this documentary about them in the hostel. Many of them are undocumented workers, and the government is constantly trying to break up their operations. I felt bad passing them by not buying anything, or assertively telling them to leave me alone when they are being too pushy, because everyone has to make a living. Some of us are just born lucky and are lucky enough to be the tourist and not the vendor.

The next day, Max, Cory, Bill and myself had breakfast at the hostel. We joked about our first world problems as we complained about eating stale bread. Bill was heading back to Canada that day, so Cory accompanied him to the airport. Max and I decided to wander around Montmartre that morning. We visited Sacre Coeur and wandered around the little streets around it. Standing outside the church gave us an impressive view of the city. Later that afternoon, we met up with Cory and decided to look for something indoors to do as we waited for the rain to calm down. We made our way to Galleries Lafayette. It is this very extravagant shopping centre in Paris; we got off the metro and instantly tried to find a door out. Although the building itself was impressive, the atmosphere was comparable to being at the Eaton Centre during Boxing Day. Luckily, Tess and Gemma (Max and Cory’s friends from their academy) joined us soon after and we all decided to wander out of the area and plan our Nuit Blanche.

I am happy we had the group we did that night, as Nuit Blanche would prove to test our patience. Nuit Blanche was supposed to start at 7pm, but when 7pm rolled around there did not seem to be a lot of buzz in the city, and events and displays were not well marked. At this time, the light rain also started to pour down. Regardless, we continued walked around in hopes that we would find something. We decided to walk towards some museums near the Champs Elysees. All of a sudden we head this loud scream, and we saw this man get shoved to the ground as another ran over to kick him in the ribs. It all happened so quickly that we were not sure how to respond, luckily, some of the people around us stepped in to break up the fight. It was a scary moment, which made us rethink our decision to wander the streets of Paris all night. Tired, wet, broke, and grumpy, we stopped at Quick for a bite to eat. I had asked for a mozzarella and tomato Panini, when I ordered they failed to tell me that they were out of those ingredients, so they decided it would be alright to give me a warm bread (within nothing inside it) instead without telling me. However, making a complaint about the service made me feel very fluent in French, so I guess it wasn’t a total loss. At that point in the night, it seemed everything that could go wrong was going wrong. In the frustration of the moment, we realized the absurdity of it all and just laughed at the situation. We decided to make the best of the night, and ended up having a great time. We saw a few exhibits, and saw many of Paris’ famous sights.

Overall Paris was a fun trip. I look forward to my next adventure, most likely at the end of the month when we will have a two-week vacation.

Beautiful stained glass windows in Notre Dame de Paris

Gargoyles and grotesques?

Team Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche exhibit made of shoes.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

I left Canada a little over a week ago, but it seems like much longer. In that short span of a week, I have moved into a new city, traveled to Germany, moved into a new apartment. Although hectic, I feel like it has been a long week and I am anxious to get started.

It turns out that I will not start work until mid October. And although this is convenient because I have so much paper work to do before I start work, it is also daunting to think that I will not have anything to do for the next two weeks. Without knowing anyone in the city, or being connected to people back home via Internet or a phone I am longing for something to do. Luckily, I have met Mariam, she is a third year French student from Glasgow. I sent out a Facebook message a few days ago asking if anyone in Saint-Etienne wanted to meet up because I had just arrived in the city. We’ve hung out quite a bit this week, including our trip to Ikea.

My impressions of Saint-Etienne are mixed. It’s small city, and I feel that if I had family here or knew more people it could come to feel quite homey. However, the city also seems quite run down and I don’t particularly feel safe walking home in the evening by myself. For some reason, it reminds me of being in Tres Rios. It is small but has everything you need, and although it is located in a generally green area, it also seems quite dirty. Interestingly, it also seems quite ethnically diverse. There seem to be a lot of Algerians and people from Northern Africa, there are also many Muslim women wearing traditional clothing. I think it is not the French experience I imagined having while here.

Quite frankly, I am still wondering if I made the right choice settling in Saint-Etienne, I would much rather be in Lyon. I think I will continue to search for places online, even though it seems many of the students are having difficultly finding places to stay.

With all the free time I find myself with, it is difficult to really know what to do. Last weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Munich for Oktoberfest. We left Friday at noon, and arrived in Germany in the late evening. We carpooled with two other people Sebastian, the driver, and this other guy from Germany. We grabbed a bite Friday night, and then prepared for the festivities on Saturday. We had rented dresses to wear- mine was baby blue, and didn’t fit all that well, but we made do. We showed up at the grounds bright and early the next morning- around 8:30am, by the time noon had rolled around we had all consumed at least two liters of beer, and multiple pretzels. I quite enjoyed the environment; there was a lot of socializing and talking, obviously drinking, and singing and dancing on tables. Despite the amount of beer I had consumed, I was not drunk at all. At around 2 or 3pm our area of the tent had to vacate because they had to make room for others that had reservations. I welcomed the change because I did not really want to spend my entire day drinking in a tent. We wandered around certain subway stations, such as Odensplatz and Maireplatz. Although we were not in Germany very long, I quite enjoyed it. It seemed very clean, the people we very friendly, and Munich seemed like quite an impressive city. I honestly, wish I could learn German and become an English assistant there.

This weekend I have made plans to go to Paris for Nuit Blanche with Max. I am quite excited to see him and to experience Nuit Blanche in Paris. However, I am also concerned because I feel like this trip is going to cost me an arm and a leg; however, I think this is worth it for the unique experience. I love going to Nuit Blanche in Toronto, and have always wondered what it would be like to do the one in Paris. In planning this trip, and trying to save money I have considered carpooling again. There are quite a few people leaving from Lyon. But being female and traveling alone with a male driver makes me a bit uncomfortable. Departures is one of my favourite shows, but I really wonder how much of your experience is shaped by your sex and your skin colour. I have always wondered if I made the same trips they did if I would be putting myself in physical danger (I feel like carpooling or hitchhiking is just not as easy or safe when traveling as a lone female), would they treat me the same (when I am not necessarily seen as someone from a western industrialized country)? I am excited to see Max and compare notes about living in smaller cities.

Inside one of the beer gardens at Oktoberfest

New friends in lovely outfits 

View of Lyon from my hostel.

Statue in Brussels

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The past three days have been a blur. I left Canada Monday evening, arrived in Brussels around 8am local time, and finally arrived in Lyon yesterday afternoon. The sleepless overnight flight made it seem as though I had been traveling forever. 

As tired as I was, I decided to take advantage of my stop over in Brussels. I took the train from the airport to the centre of the city.  While trying to figure out my way and hoping I was headed in the right direction, I met a fellow Canadian tourist. He was a researcher at the University of Guelph visiting Germany for a conference. Neither of us knew much about Brussels or what to see, so we decided to wander around and explore the city. We saw some very impressive churches and a cathedral (or maybe basilica), wandered through a few shops, and unsuccessfully attempted to find the little statue of the boy peeing into the fountain. It was soon time to head back to the airport. Luckily, we asked a man for directions and he was kind enough to walk us to the station. We asked him about the statue that we had been searching for and he told us it was on our way, we stopped to snap a few pictures at the statue and continued forward. We asked him what the significance of this well-known statue was and he told us that according to legend this boy had urinated on a weapon and had saved Belgium.

I was soon on my way to France. My flight from Brussels to Lyon was about 1.5 hours on a very small plane. I assume most of the people on my flight were traveling on business because everyone but me was in a suit (maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to pack my suits). I was in and out of sleep on that flight, but as the plane began to land and I could see small cities below and mountains in the distance. I was very excited. I took the train from the airport, followed by a metro, followed by this lift that takes you up a very steep hill all the way to the hostel where I spent the night. I was excited to arrive, especially after lugging around my luggage. I contacted Julia, a Canadian assistant from Toronto that I had met before leaving; we had dinner and walked around the city. This morning was a little stressful because the hostel I had stayed at was fully booked for the next two days, and the other one I looked into was also full. I found a calling centre and called Helene from Saint-Etienne who had emailed me about an apartment in Saint-Etienne. Although Lyon is a bigger city, and not terribly far from where I will be teaching I ultimately chose to live in Saint-Etienne because it was closer to work, I’ve been told it is more affordable, and because I wanted to avoid the stress of being homeless (as many of my fellow assistants are facing).

My first impressions of Saint-Etienne are limited, Helene dropped me off today and it has been raining the entire day. Mostly, I ate, got the keys from my landlord, and came home to change into some dry clothing, watch TV and relax. Tomorrow I will unpack, try to open a bank account, buy food and all that fun stuff. I am excited to be here, everyone seemed very chatty today. They were intrigued by why I was here, where I came from, and where my family was originally from, they had so many questions. Today, as I waited for my landlord I went to this sandwich shop for a bite. I talked to the man at the storefront and he told me he had been trying to guess my accent. It made me laugh because it happens all the time. He said he had guessed I might have been Mexican but wasn’t certain. The lady at the hostel made a certain assumption, we had been speaking French and later when I came back to the front desk she started speaking Spanish to me. Lastly, today at the pizza shop the man asked me my about my background. Makes me laugh, I seem to get the question wherever I go.

Excited for what lies ahead, and excited for Munich this weekend!

The unpredictability of life is a wonderful thing. This time last year, I was just beginning to settle into my new life in Toronto: excited for a new job, for new friends, and the incredible opportunities that lay ahead. One year later, I find myself in a similar position: excited for new friends, new experiences, new places and whatever the next few months will bring.

I am excited to be teaching. I have been placed in St. Chamond, a small town 45km outside of Lyon, France.  After a very surreal year of working in the political sphere, this will definitely be an interesting change. Nevertheless, I am excited to teach children about Canada, and hopefully inspire them to love and learn a different language.

Who knows what the next 6-12 months will hold, or where I will be this time next year. I guess all I can do is go with the flow and realize that sometimes it’s good to be me.