I have posted once beforehere about French TV. If you check out that post you will even get to see The Dukes of Hazzard theme song being sung in French. Really...it's a must see. I'll be here when you get back, go ahead, click and listen.
So, if you are thinking "I would love a little more French singing" then you have come to the right blog my friends!! Here we have the theme song to Dallas. Now you might being saying to yourself "but there are no words to the Dallas theme song Susan!" Oh contraire mon frere. (Or soeur.) I really like this clip because it has some dialog in French with subtitles in Flemish. I think it's Flemish. My favorite part; "DAA-las!!"
Awesome. Right?
So here is a Name that Tune for you. I have found that I am a complete dork like 70s French music. Specifically Claude Francois. :-) He is a French singer who I think Cyr showed me because he thought he was funny. Turns out I totally dig this guy. I have a 3 CD set that I luuuuuuv. I think Cyr might regret introducing me to Claude. He does a lot of songs you might know in English. Such as "Mandy", remember Barry Manilow? Claude actually was the first to do "My Way". I love that song in Spanish, and it's not bad in French either. So anyone out there recognize this gem? The French title is "Dimanche Apres-midi" translated it means "Sunday Afternoon".
I'll leave you with that bit o'trivia. I'm going to listen to Claude.
Well, the week ended not so badly after all. I (of course) made a few mistakes, but nothing life threatening. Maybe job threatening, but not life threatening.
After thinking more and more about the conversation with my Small School supervisor I ended up sending her an email. I let her know that since the end of our semester is in two weeks I really thought it might be better for the students to get their new professor at the start of the semester as opposed to half way through it. Changing teachers half way through in such an unorganized place leads to incredible difficulties with grading. I didn't say this but it's true. There are no standards as to what a 10 is or what a 15 is. (All grading in France is done on a 1-20 scale.) All I know is that "no one gets an 18, 19 or 20." So why have them? Why set grades that are not attainable? This drives me friggin nuts. But enough...bottom line is that I asked to be let go early from my contract and we are meeting Tuesday to talk about it.
One a good note, I went to my Big School Thursday to check in and they found my key under the desk. Yeah! I looked all over that classroom but apparently I missed it. Whew. Too bad I alerted my boss about the whole situation. If I would have kept my mouth shut no one else would have known other than the receptionist, the technician who found it, and me. Grrrr...Drat my need to communicate!
On Friday Cyr went with me to my day of French Integration. This whole process started last July 16th when Cyr and I went to the Marie. Only 6 months to get my card. Huh...so we were running a little late (how very French of me) but we got there before anything started. The day was scheduled from 9-5 (break into song! what a way to make a livin', barely get-ting by...) which seemed pretty long to me. Apparently it seemed long to the instructor too. Here is how the day went:
9:05 - Instructor enters but does not say hello. He untangles wires from projector and laptop to plug in. 9:15ish - All wires in, role is taken. He asks us all to say our names and what country we are from. I'm the only American and the only one who needed a translator. 9:25ish - He begins a presentation about the history of France, it's symbols and government. It was actually kind of interesting. 10am - Let's take a 30 minutes for a break. My thoughts "let's not and get out early." Ah! Here is my fatal flaw of liking to end things early...it has followed me here I see and has reared it's ugly head. 10:45 - Class resumes, more history. I had no idea Clovis was the first King of France in 481 AD. Damn...this country is old. 12:00 - We break for lunch. He gives us 1 hour and 50 minutes. Again...could we just take an hour and get our early? It's Friday man! Already I have counted almost an hour and a half we could lop off this day. They brought lunch in but Cyr and I decided that with almost two hours it might be nice to get outside. 2:10 - Class starts up again, he tells us we get out at 4:00. It's actually all the interesting stuff now though. We talk about where we can work and all that jazz. Here is what I learned about the Titre de Sejour:
Turns out I can only work in France, I thought I could work in the Schengen Countries, but nope, just France. Well pooper...it's going to be hard to find an English speaking job in France other than English teacher.
It's only good for a year from the date of first application, which means mine expires November 11, 2009.
You must renew your TDS 3 months prior to it's expiration. So basically you are doing something every 3 months almost because of all the receipts and crap.
I can renew my 1 year TDS 3 times, then after the third time I can request a 10 year TDS.
If I want to have French citizenship we need to live in France for 4 consecutive years, then apply and it takes 18 months to process. So that would total 5 and a half years in France total consecutively to be a French citizen. We won't live here that long because of the business Cyr is in, but our instructor said that "everything has an exception" That sounds very similar to "everything is negotiable." Hmmm...ok. But the laws change all the time and by the time we get back they will be different.
France allows duel, tripple even quadruple citizenship.
Our kids will be French no matter where they are born (an American too of course).
3:00 - Take a break, he fills out paperwork and starts up again about 3:30. 4:00 - He let's us go right on time!
And there you go. Now I have a shiny new Titre de Sejour and am integrated! Now we will probably move in 3 months...ha...you have to laugh really.
For those of you that don't know about the soldes...France being the interesting country it is actually has government regulated sales twice a year. Yeah, you read correctly. The government regulates how often stores can have sales. Wouldn't want to encourage competition you know. Any way, the sales time is now! There are a three weeks in January and then three in the summer. Yes, it's true, the government tells them when they can have huge sales. Wouldn't want to get all capitalist and just run your business the way you want to now would you?
One of the things I really like about the Soldes is that each week there are bigger price cuts. So now things are on sale for 20-50% off, but next week they will be a little more, then the final week it's just bananas!! Here is the best part though, the part that makes me glow from the inside of my left ventricle all the way out to the tips of my slightly dry hair...I'm the perfect size for the sales. That's right ladies. You know how in the states all the 8s, 10s and 12s are GONE by the time things go on sale? Well here it's the 0s, 2s, 4s and 6s that are all sold out first. HA! It's like a Nordstrom's shoe sale and I have a size 6! I actually have a 7.5 so all my sizes in the real world are sold out. :-/ But here I can buy tops and sweaters and coats until the very last day. I have yet to try on pants in this country. Very few of these women have hips and an ass so I am relatively certain mine would explode out the rear pockets. I have great tops though!
So if you are thinking about coming to France to visit...come week after next when things are 75% off. They are practically paying you to take things home! I don't really need anything, but there is this one really cool store I might have to check out. I will keep you all posted on any fantastic purchases...
First, before I tell you about the Braderie I would like to say "miss you" to my blog friend "Le Tigre" out there. I go to Munich for a week and you have taken your blog off line! Email me when you can, or post...we newbies have to stick together.
SO! The Braderie (which happened the first weekend of September) was great! I really do think that the estimated 2 million visitors came to the event. There was everything you could imagine...new things, old things, crazy things, fantastic local food vendors, and beer. Fantastic beer sold on the street in plastic cups so that you didn't break anything and could walk around while sipping. Here is our grand place with a few tents. It seemed that all the streets downtown were lined with vendors. There were miles of them...not exaggerating! Here is my first picture that I thought was funny. People were crowded around this table and I just had to know why. What was such a great deal? Ah, yes. Converse...the crack cocaine of the French casual shoe world. They are friggin crazy expensive here. They thought this was a good price, I had to take a photo. Back home Target sells them for $20-$30 a pair. As you can see, these are 70 euro, which converts to about $105 a pair. I should stock up on my next trip.
An then there are the moules, known as mussels in the US. The food item of the Braderie weekend is moules and frites. That is steamed mussels with a bowl of French fries on the side. Mmmmm...fantastic!! Many of the restaurants take the shells and pile them outside the restaurant to show how many they sell. There is a competition amongst the owners. Not sure who won, but this picture was taken on Sunday morning, they still had the rest of the day ahead of them! Known fact: France is not exactly customer oriented. Example: Our friend Crystal wanted just an order of fries. They would not sell them to her. She HAD to order moules with her fries. Think of this...they could have charged her more, she was willing to pay. There were three of us, after she had her conversation (she is French so she could tell them what she thought) we left and found a place that would attempt the very difficult task of separating the fries from the moules.
Here is some kind of pita with some kind of meat in it that I ate. I always have them put the samurai sauce on anything that I can. It's like a mayo based spicy reddish sauce. The first time I ordered it the man told me "It very spicy!" Cyr said; "she's from Texas, she can handle it." Oh yes, I can handle it. Really frites are just a vehicle that enables me to consume the samurai sauce. Notice the little red fork? They love these, you get them with fries when you order from the baraque a frite (french fry sales guy on wheels, like a French mobile taco stand). So cultured, you don't get your hands dirty! Well, I do of course, but that's me...
I didn't find my bicycle, but I did find some cute gifts for folks and two great scarves that were 2 euro a piece. The weather was great Saturday but on Sunday it rained off an on. It didn't seem to bother many though, people were out in force again. One thing I love about the French is that they don't seem to get bothered much by the crowds. This picture was taken Saturday at what seemed like the busiest time. The streets were packed. Sometimes at certain areas you had to take baby steps and make it through a narrow passage until it thinned out. But not once did I hear someone yell "mooooove people!" in French. We all just packed in and ambled along. There was shoving, but not shouting or frustration. I guess everyone here is used to standing in lines and living with a million folks around them. It was a great weekend. I hope next year we get TWO sunny days to enjoy it. Not all the streets are so crowded either. The best ones, with all the used junk, are in the back of the city and the sides. Easily walkable from the grand place and sure to have many hidden treasures. And of course great food and beer...
So last night Cyr and I did the picnic thing, which turned out to be pretty cool. We showed up bringing fruit and others brought quiches, cheeses and other assorted goodies. We ate our fill then rode our bikes along with the group to the movie theater. We saw a British film called "Be Happy". I really liked it. Not much of a story, just the theme that one chooses to be happy or not. I completely agree with this. When life happens and things occur, you choose how you react. You can be angry, aloof or slightly entertained all by the same happening. Read on...
Before I get to my theory of Conscious Optimism (as I have just named it) I would like to post an observation about French movies and movie theaters. The first is the need for the French to retitle something in French, even if it isn't necessary. It's as if they have to change the title to sort of make it their own by saying; "We do not sink zat ewe can make a good title, so wee do zis for you. D'accord?" Take for instance a few titles they have changed;
"Knight Rider" - "K2000" Please don't Hassel the Hoff... "Happy-Go-Lucky" - "Be Happy" notice the new title is in English? "The Departed" - "Les Infiltres" Translated: "The Infiltrators" "The Dukes of Hazzard" - "Sherif fait moi peur!" Translated: "Sherif, I dare you to scare me!" This one is my personal favorite as "The Dukes" are the people, their last name being "Duke" and "Hazzard" is the county where they live...so it should be the same no?
Another thing I find interesting is that at the end of the movie they don't turn the lights on. The whole audience sits there and watches the credits. This I don't actually mind and sometimes it's fun to see if my favorite gaffer or grip was on the shoot, but sometimes I need to run to the ladies room and it's all dark. Maybe this is a good thing though, this way all those folks who worked their butts off for George Clooney and other celebs can be recognized. Just an observation...something different.
So at the end of the evening, after we have given everyone kisses goodnight, I hear Cyr say; "Hey, I don't see your bike." Yes...you are correct...someone stole my BRAND NEW BICYCLE!! It was only the third time I had ridden it! I didn't even get to take a picture of it! It was locked up and someone just came along with some clippers and snapped the lock in two. I have to say though, I was super duper glad it was just my city bike and not my road or mountain bike. I would be all kinds of torn up if Blue Bell or Lana went missing. An APB would have been put out to all points! And since APB probably doesn't translate it would have been a rough evening.
Since it was 11:00pm when we made the discovery we were able to walk to the tram station and take the tram home. The sad thing was that they cut the lock, took my bike, but left Cyr's there. Poor guy, he has such a battered bike the thieves didn't even want it. I was a little offended for him. Funny thing was, I was never really upset or mad about it. I'm following the example of Poppy in the movie (who by the way, gets her bike stolen too) and not going to let it tarnish my optimism. I can choose to be pissed off and angry, but instead I am choosing to believe that the person that stole my Black Beauty really needed it. I think that this thief, who is a good person forced to do a bad thing, will ride Beauty to pick up medicine from a pharmacy far-far away, that he could never have gotten to on foot, to pick up a cure for his extremely sick child who would parish without it. So in fact, it is a good thing my bike is gone. It is serving a higher purpose.
Of course I would be hunting the bastard down if he had stolen one of my other bikes. One can only be so optimistic you know...
France does many, many things very well. They have the best food, wine and being close to Belgium some of the best beer I have ever had. I even love some of their movies (will get into this at another date). One thing I think rather interesting though, is that they have HUGE microphones for anyone who is on a game show or interview session.
I know, sounds crazy. But it's true!! You watch any game show and they all have on these over the ear, wrap around the head microphones. It's like they have not gotten the notice about the small black one that clips to ones lapel. Seriously folks, are you using this as a fashion devise? They mostly look like this: I don't know why I find this so amusing, but I do. The land of large microphones...this is where I live. Has anyone else noticed this interesting fact? Come on Le Tigre and Leesa...I know you have...
Why is it that every time I plan to go home I seem to get sick right before I leave. I'm no where NEAR the sick I was the last time I went home, but I did wake up with a sore throat and have felt nauseous all day long. I'm also friggin hot. All these damn people talk about how friggin cold the north of France is and how I am going to hate it because it's so cold and the sun never comes out. Guess what folks, I'm sitting here melting with an oil slick on my face, the sun pounding it's way through my curtains and no air conditioning. Oh, and I'm going to miss Cyr's birthday and that makes me a little grumpy too. I love birthdays. Cyr hates them, is that a French thing? The good thing is that I get to have a wedding shower and see friends and family. Oh, there is also the slight possibility that being hot and sticky makes me grumpy.
I did want to blog about something I see here all the time. When I go grocery shopping I always see what I like to call the Strangely Focused Shopper. These people, the SFS's buy a whole bunch of one thing. Often I see men or women with no less than 10 baguettes in their arms. Why? Are they feeding an army? That bread will only last a few days you know, you can't store it like jelly. Or water, I always see people with shopping carts FILLED with water. Just water, nothing else. This happens EVERY time I go shopping. I'm not just talking about oh that one time I saw the guy with the shopping cart full of water. I mean I always see it, often more than once in an outing. I have also seen the soda pop cart. The last time I saw this it was a family with a shopping cart overflowing with coke, ginger ail and tonic water. They love tonic water here too, how interesting. I thought the French were supposed to drink wine all the time. What's up with all the water and soda? Are they meeting the people that have all the bread for dinner?
Our oven was not actually hooked up and working until I was away in the US and since I have been back I have been cooking on the stove top and had no need to venture into the realm actually inside the oven. Well all this changed yesterday. In the quest to become Healthy Susan (translate drop a few pounds/kilos for the wedding) I have been cooking a lot of boring things on the stove top and eating cereal since Cyr is out of town. I don't mind eating the same thing a few days in a row so I went out and bought a package of chicken breasts and thought I would bake some mustard chicken. Pas de problem right? Non...
It started off well. I had all four ingredients out; chicken, salt, pepper, mustard and even a nice clear Pyrex thingy to cook it in. Once I have used my top secret and highly complex method of applying the mustard, salt and pepper to the chicken I then go to preheat the oven. I do this after the coating because I decide I'll let it hang out and soak up the mustard while the oven warms up. I mean...I'm not actually going to prepare this early and let it marinate. It's just me so 5-10 minutes of marination works fine.
So I check out all the crazy knobs and opt for the one I think is just "bake". There are no words, just pictures of things (see photo) so I'm not sure, but I know I don't want a pizza, cake, bread or what looks to be a speedy snail to come out and I'm fairly sure that all the modes make heat occur in the oven. I end up going for the empty box on the right of the "0". I try to set the oven to 350. It won't go over 250. What?! You mean to tell me that Cyr finally managed to get the oven to fit in the space, fixed the electrical outlet and the stupid thing is broken? That is just ridiculous. I keep turning the knob to the left but it won't move over 250. It will go down, just not up. So I keep it at 250 to warm up and look for the manual just in case. I don't want to hit an ejector seat button or something and blow the place up.
"Bing!" The oven is warm now, put the chicken in.
The good thing is that I actually picked the correct picture to bake on. Oh the sweet scent of victory... The interesting thing is that they have a chart with foods and suggested cooking times and temperatures. I look at the chart and most of the foods are at 200 for an hour or less. Huh? How the heck do they get anything to cook in under an hour at 200?
With my super spy-like grasp of the obvious I then notice the headings at the top of the graph. Degrees Celsius it reads. Holy seared chicken feathers Batman!That's not the smell of victory, that's the smell of mustard chicken!! I open the oven and a waft of very warm mustard scented air puffs out my hair and makes my eyes squint a little. The sides of the pan are a rich dark brown, the very same color (I'm sure) that mustard would be if you were to light it on fire. The chicken has been in for less than 10 minutes so it's ok. I turn the knob down to 190 and run to my trusty laptop to look up on the conversion calculator what the hell 350 F is in Celsius then set the oven to 175.
I should have taken a picture of the chicken, it was fabulous! The Pyrex also looked very nice with the burnt top portion. Like I had really done something!! My father would be so impressed!
I know many of you were hoping for (and expecting) a post here similar to my "Flaming Nacho" experience in my Houston house a few years ago where I was able to experience first hand what it is like to use a fire extinguisher, but alas I am (and have been for years) flame free. Watch out Rachel Ray, I'm cookin now. In Celsius.
"Sherif, Fais-Moi Peur!" Translation: "Sheriff, Scare Me!" (sort of "I dare you to scare me Sheriff!') Reality: The French title of "The Dukes of Hazzard"
I can see the big green monster that goes by the name "Jealousy" rearing it's head as you read this. Yes my friends, it is true. I do have the ability, dare I say opportunity, to watch the Duke boys in all their tight jeaned glory race around in the General Lee while speaking French. Please, I ask again, please...if you are feeling a little down right now. Just click and listen to the intro of "Sherif, Fais-Moi Peur!" You can't help but smile. Really, the French have some great music, but country really isn't one of their strengths. It is so hard to sound tough while singing in French.
Feel free to bookmark this video and watch it often. One of the things you should know about French TV is that they are typically a few seasons behind the US in popular shows. I think this is mainly due to the fact that they do not subtitle. Everything is dubbed. They show "Cold Case" and a few newer shows at night but I have yet to see them. I typically turn the TV on during the day. As is true in the US and must be so in all countries; daytime TV is special. Special meaning not really special but more like "My cousin Jimmy is marrying my other cousin Brenda. Isn't that special?" Not only do they have super cool shows on during the day. They realize, as surly is the case, that just one show really isn't enough. They show 2-4 episodes in a row every day and work through all the seasons. Then they replace the show with whatever is next in the stack. When I first moved here they had 4 episodes of "The Nanny" back to back every day. Did you know they ended the series with Fran having a baby and then the family moved to LA? Yeah...I know. Crazy. I mean, how can she live in LA with that accent and not be laughed at all the time?
So you can imagine my fascination at watching Kelly from Beverly Hills 90210 whine in French. What is even cooler (if that in fact is a word) is that they try to match the voice of the dubber to the actual actor. Thus allowing Kelly to be just as whiny in French as she is in English. This fact in itself will cause you to completely understand why now Sylvester Stallone is a channel stopper. I can't pass him up. The French Sly is hypnotic. Like watching a 4 year old child carry a full glass of red wine to Mommy while walking across a white carpeted room and singing "Y-M-C-A!". Come on...everyone has to dance just a little when you hear it.
I read somewhere that listening to French TV or music can help you get used to the rhythm of the language and can subconsciously help you learn the language quicker. I'm a little leery about what I am going to "subconsciously" learn, but hey, maybe being able to say "Je suis Rosco P Coletrain" will someday help me. Here are a few other daytime shows of note:
Le Prince de Bel Air - go Will Smith! Magnum - stop...it's Magnum PI you dirty minded folks! "PI" doesn't translate well. (side note - Tom Selleck is for me the only man I can find sexy with a mustache. All others should refrain from even giving this a try.) Buffy Contre les Vampires - Sarah Michelle Geller at her best Les Simpsons - yeah, that guy still does the rude "Ha-hAAA" laugh in French VIP - Pamela Anderson's boobs are still HUGE in France (so many ways to read that) Fame - This is the 1982-1987 series that was on TV. This is a new one they started last week with a 4 show back to back viewing a day. I totally forgot that "Aeriel" (Lori Singer) from Footloose was in that show. Gilmore Girls - oh my gosh...these people talk fast in English. I just sit there with my mouth open and try to catch something they say. Les Super-Flics de Miami - Miami Supercops. Ha...this is actually a 1985 Italian movie but the title is so funny I had to share. Have not seen it, but it is on tonight so I might have to check it out. I saw a few Ally McBeal episodes too. Oh that dancing baby...
Well, I'm off to work my subconscious into speaking French! A'bientot dawgs! (In the words of the French Will Smith)
Well, it's Monday and I feel like I'm at least taking baby steps ahead with my life. As you may have read, Friday was frustrating. I didn't update the blog, but about an hour after I posted I finally got a response from the company I have been talking with in London. I wanted to actually post the three sentence response I got, but the email has that little disclaimer about privacy. So here is a summary:
"We are having problems with the work permit situation. I don't think we are going to be able to get you a permit. If you lived in the UK we would definitely hire you!"
The good thing is that this is neither a surprise nor a disappointment. I'm just glad that at least now I have an actual answer. I love to be able to check things off of a to do list. My next steps are to research what I need to do while in the US to get married here and to sign up for French classes in June.
The rest of the weekend was great. We didn't do much, but maybe that is what made it so fantastic. We went into town Saturday and shopped a little, which brings me to a few of the observations I was talking about earlier. Today I would like to cover two thing; 1) The French Paradox and 2) France; a Casual Chic Country.
Before I moved here I would hear about this "French Paradox". This is the uncanny, nay irritating, fact that French women eat good food, drink wine/beer, smoke and still live long lives and are thin. Is it genetics? Maybe it is the fact that they don't eat fast food and that cheese and wine are good protein/carb pairings. Or they only eat one meal a day and the portions are smaller. Or maybe every time they eat the great food and drink the great wine/beer they run to the toilettes and heave. I don't know, but the truth is that every time I see someone over weight I have the strangest pull to walk close to them and see if they are speaking English. I can't help it, but I do it almost all the time when I'm out alone. I even look for clues like maybe they are carrying a book or a magazine in English. So far I have not heard them but I know soon I will. I figure this is good practice for when I am offered a job as an international spy (the good kind of spy fighting for justice and all).
The "French Paradox" thing leads directly into the next observation; "France is a casual chic country". Most of the women are thin, so they can all wear cute clothes. I have been here 3 months and have yet to see one pair of cotton sweat pants on anyone. Seriously!! I just returned from shopping at Carrefour which is almost exactly like a Super Walmart, and you know what...no sweats. Everyone here dresses up. Maybe sweats are so unattractive that stores refuse to sell them because they don't want to be responsible for casualizing (made that word up) France. Maybe people only own nice clothes, maybe athletic shoes are expensive. I just don't know. The footwear alone amazes me. At any given time 70% of the entire female population that are wearing shoes (all ages taken into account) in Lille are wearing a pair of black or brown boots, 20% are wearing heels or flats with hose, and 10% are wearing Converse tennis shoes (Converse are huge here and like $75 USD a pair). I'm actually not complaining about this, it's kind of nice to see all the folks wearing cute clothes. Those of you that know me know I wear boots all the time, sometimes I even bust out my cowboy ones just to add a little originality. Plus, at least I don't feel like I'm in Walmart, even though I might be.
Later this week I will cover such thrilling topics as "Franco-American TV" and "France is closed on Sundays". I'll also let you know how things progress in my quest for a life in France.
