Lay of the Land

This week has been all about settling into my new home! I still feel like I'm trying to absorb and process the fact that I'm living in France!

My new roommate Nicole and I have gotten to know each other over the past few days. Yesterday we wandered all around the town and I helped her pick up a few things that she needed. We got sandwiches and sat on a bench in a square in Centre Ville to visit and eat. I've come across some great places to get sandwiches and crepes and pasta to go in the past few days! Those are some of the things that I really love about France. Today I picked up a sandwich and had a picnic lunch in Parc Jouvet with two other assistants in my program.

Speaking of parks, I christened Valence with its first jog yesterday afternoon! I'm so happy because I discovered a great park for running at the top of my street that connects with the Parc Jouvet in the center of town! I also found another assistant who plays tennis, so as soon as I figure out where to buy balls, we're going to go try to hit around. Word on the street is that there's also an indoor swimming pool somewhere near where I live.

Last night we had our second dinner party at the apartment! Cloé's coworker is also subletting his apartment to an assistant, so we invited a mix of her friends and other assistants over chez nous. It's so nice to feel a little bit social, even though I really don't know any of these people yet. Some of the other assistants and I bonded over the fact that it's very difficult to make friends in a foreign language because it's practically impossible to crack a joke. The French people that I've met so far have been very patient and understanding of the fact that I'm constantly butchering their language and I'm sure saying things in the most awkward ways.

Today I felt very accomplished and adult because I went to the bank and took care of a few matters concerning my account, en français. I've signed a lot of papers at the bank since I arrived here, and I haven't had anyone there to translate my interactions, so I certainly hope that my French actually is as good as I think it is. The coming weeks hold a mountain of paperwork in French legalese.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading out to Grenoble and then Autrans Mountain for a training retreat with the rest of the assistants! I'm excited to finally meet everyone and get things moving! I went to my schools this week and got to see all of my new students' shining faces, so now I need some training so that I can actually know what to do with them!

Lyon and Annecy with Mom!

For pics of Mom and my adventure through Lyon and Annecy click this link! http://picasaweb.google.com/mary.a.hollis/LyonAndAnnecyWithMom#

What a packed weekend! Mom and I left Valence on Friday morning to spend the weekend traveling around the region:

Lyon is the second biggest city in France, and despite some rain, we had a great time touring around for 2 days! We arrived just before lunch and did some walking around. The bad weather caught up with us, but thankfully we hopped on tour bus to see the sights right before the worst part came. We then took a boat ride down the Saône river! Thank God for hot nutella crepes. Mom heard that a student of the chef Paul Bocuse had a restaurant there called L'Ouest (West), so I called and we managed to get a 10:00 reservation for dinner! We sat at a 2-person table right by a big open kitchen and got to watch everyone at work! Our dinner and service was wonderful, and at the end of the night we got our picture taken with the chef! Then next day we wandered around Old Lyon and saw traboules, or passageways betweens building or streets, that were first used for the silk trade and were later used to hide Jews by the French resistance during World War II. Lyon has a huge basilica on a hill and many beautiful churches. The old town is all cobblestone streets and little shops, and we had a nice time strolling around. We liked eating at L'Ouest so much, that we decided to try its sister le Sud (South) on Saturday night. It was also good, though I'd recommend l'Ouest more.

Sunday we slept in late and made our way leisurely over to the train station where we hopped on one just in time to ride over to Annecy! This is a gem of a place! It's a small town, but it receives 2 million visitors a year due to its extraordinary beauty, complete with swans. It's on a clear blue lake surrounded by tall and sometimes snow-capped mountains. It's a huge vacation destination in the summer for sunbathing and playing in the lake, and we even saw a few people still skiing in September. The town itself could not be more picturesque with flowers hung every 10 feet and canals running all throughout. It has the nickname of the Venice of France. We spend just one night here, ate more crepes, cruised around the lake, and took another pretty train ride back to Valence!

That is where the adventure began again! Cloé and I went to the train station to pick up our third roommate Nicole! We found her, but at the same time Cloé ran into an old friend who she hadnt seen in years who was in the middle of a travel crisis. He and his two friends from Paris ended up eating dinner at our apartment with Mom, me, Nicole, and Cloé. They were on there way to a smaller town an hour from us to help with an exercise at a nuclear reactor (cross your fingers for us tomorrow).

Tomorrow I'm off with my coordinator, Rosine, and Nicole to take a tour of our schools! When I get back, mom and I are heading to Lyon again for the night so that I can see her to the airport on Wednesday morning for her flight. We're hoping to meet up with my friend Halley Anne, who will be a teaching assistant there this year!

Pics around town!

Here are some picks of a walk around Valence: http://picasaweb.google.com/mary.a.hollis/AroundValence#

After Mom and I got me settled into my apartment, we spent an afternoon walking around Valence and taking it in. We ate lunch in a cute little cafe and then explored Parc Jouvet. It took us a couple of days to actually want to walk around that much because the trip and the jet lag kind of took it out of us. We dedicated our first day or two to running errands such as opening my bank account and unpacking my stuff into my apartment, but by Thursday afternoon we were up to getting the lay of the land. We found some cute stores and lots of little cafes and restaurants! I'm sure there will be plenty more to discover and the next few weeks unfold.

One big treat of our first couple of days was dinner at the Maison Pic bisto with Cloé! She gave us a tour of the hotel and restaurant later and filled us in on much of the history of Anne-Sophie Pic and the 3 generations of chefs before her.
Here is our pic from dinner, and click on the link above for more snapshots of the day!

le cindre- hanger

As you can see, Mom and I quickly discovered that I would need more of these when we first arrived. My little closet is nice enough, but it only came pre-stocked with about 5 hangers.

I didn't know the word for hanger, so one night when Cloé and I were watching episodes of Desperate Housewives dubbed in French, I went and got one and asked what it was called. "Cindre!" I asked her where I could buy some, but she was stumped. She told me she'd get me some more from her mom's house, but I told her not to worry- I'd find them.

The next day Mom and I set out in centre ville in search of them. My trusted Monoprix (think Target) did not have any, so I went into a beauty shop and asked one of the workers. She directed me to a strange little store called Bimba (think Big Lots) right down the street. Here mom and I found all sorts of cheap wonderful things for my apartment!

The French people that I've talked to in Valence have been so nice and helpful. I had to make a second trip to Bimba later in the day to buy out their remaining stock of hangers. The man threw in some extra hangers and a little nick-nack for free! One of the benefits of living in a smaller place is that people are fascinated by Americans who speak french rather than fed up with them as tourists. Everyone I've met, at the banks and in the stores and restaurants, have been so kind!

Un goût- a taste!

Voila mon appartement! It's late at night, but here are a couple of photos chez moi!

Click on this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/mary.a.hollis/ChezMoi#

Final Countdown!

I've been about up to my eyeballs in French paperwork this week, but I think I've cut through enough red tape to get securely into the country with mom! Once I arrive, the paperwork will continue for a while as I essentially "immigrate" to France and begin receiving healthcare and maybe even housing subsidies from the French government. Struggle of the week: getting a "certified" translation of my birth certificate in French. That business makes the big bucks.

Despite the legality issues, I'm SO excited to get there! I heard from my American roommate, Nicole, this week, and I think that we will get along very well. She wants to learn how to play tennis with me, and I'm hoping she'll teach me how to play the guitar. (and be a teacher, because she actually knows what she's doing). We also both like to hike and ski, so I bet we'll be able to take advantage of the mountains around us!

I also heard from my French roommate, Cloé this week! She's got my room ready for me- and I have a double bed! This is a serious step up from the cot I had the last time I lived in France. She's going to come get Mom and me from the train station when we arrive, and Mom's going to stay in the third bedroom of the apartment while we settle me into Valence.

AND my girl Cloé may have gotten me the hook up for a job! She works for Anne Sophie Pic, the only female 3-star rated Michelin chef in France. This is the highest rating offered, and only 26 restaurants in France have attained it (there are 81 in the world). Maison Pic is a boutique hotel, restaurant, and cooking school where Cloé does HR and Marketing. She told me that they're having an American chef come in to teach a cooking class at the school, Scook ( http://scook.fr ), and they thought I could translate for her during the class because she doesn't know French! This is just a one-time deal, but Cloé said there could be other opportunities in the future!

Maison Pic

Anne Sophie Pic

As I reflect on my journey to France up to this point, I can't help but be amazed at how sweet and patient God has been with me! A year ago, I begged in my prayers for this opportunity, but when I finally got accepted into this program I bawled because I was so confused about what I should do. He has kindly encouraged and blessed me at each point of doubt and uncertainty that I've encountered along the way. My prayers recently have been that He would make good use of me while I'm over there and prepare me for my good-byes in America.

Home Sweet Home

I'm two and a half weeks from D-Day! That is, departure day with mom! Everything is all set, the flights booked, visa procured, and HOUSING FOUND! In what can only be described as a miracle, a nice French girl emailed a bunch of us about her apartment in the center of town, and she picked me as a roommate! We had to girl-flirt for a while first: send sweet emails, have a skype date for about an hour one afternoon, but it all worked out! She lives less than a kilometer from the beautiful Parc Jouvet and the center of town. The apartment is the second floor of an old home that has been renovated. It's fully furnished, has internet, cable, a dishwasher, a washing machine, and a cleaning lady that comes once a week! I've attached a picture below of what I think my house is, as best as I can tell using Google Earth.

The best part of the deal is Cloé herself who is 27 and does marketing and HR for a gourmet restaurant in town called Maison Pic. Her whole family is from Valence, she studied in Aix for a Year where I went with Vandy, she did an internship in America, and she seems very sweet and helpful. She has a car and she's already offered to drive me around. She's also going to sublet the apartment to a girl who is 29 and has a masters in teaching! I'll be the baby of the group, and I think that this will provide me with many benefits.

The next few weeks are going to be filled with all sorts of little errands to get me ready to leave and be a teacher. Today sweet Minor met with me for a couple of hours to give me pointers about teaching English to elementary school students. Thank goodness for those Peabody girls! I also want to get busy planning Mom and my week and a half long jaunt together in the south of France!

My house

Parc Jouvet