Hair Products

When I got my hair cut last week I bought some fancy conditioner that one of the women said I should use. I have rather dry hair, and from what I could make out of the French the woman was speaking to me, if I use this stuff I am going to have some old school Charlie's Angels hair working for me.
I was suckered, so now I sit with this stuff and am not sure how to use it. I thought she was telling me to sleep in it, but I don't think that is right. I think she was just saying to put it on my hair before I shampooed it. Tonight I thought I would put the directions into the Google Language Tools thing to see how to use it. Apparently I will be needing some heavy tools and flower. Here is what the translator spit out at me:

Apply to hair not wet in small quantity sure the lengths and tips, a hammer, using a brush and let set a minimum of 15 minutes, preferably in paper or aluminum-free cello. Eliminating the product followed by a light shampoo refer to your type of hair, or cream flowers if the hair are very dry.

A hammer? Come on...my hair isn't THAT dry. And do I "cream" the flowers myself? How does one do that exactly? I'm thinking a mayonnaise type thing...

JAY-OH-BEE!!

That would be a job!! Though sometimes it seems to take forever for things to happen in life, sometime things just fall into place and in the blink of an eye you have a whole new part of your life taking shape. Since Thursday at 10am my life took a nice little turn.

I received an email from Mari about a university that was looking for someone to teach 1st year Business English. The class is to familiarize students with things like human resources, company structure and other business type of language. I didn't think I had much of a shot, but I called the woman and left a message. She called me back and said that they had actually found someone already for the role but that she had a schedule conflict with one of the classes. By the time the conversation was over she asked for my resume and thought maybe I could take one of the classes. They were going to move the class so the other person could teach it, but if I could do Tuesdays then it would work out great.

I sent off my resume and received and email right back asking me to come visit with them today. Oh how I love having an actual reason to shower and put on clothes that match...In my usual American fashion I arrived 30 minutes early for the interview. I was to meet my contact at a specific Metro station and it was sunny so I just kind of wandered around a bit. Then I realized I didn't have her phone number in case she didn't turn up or I was at the wrong station. Let's all give a great big "YOU ROCK, THANK YOU SO MUCH!" to Mari in Lille!! I called her and she pulled up the original email and gave me number just in case.

Turned out I didn't need it, she showed up right on time. But if I would have needed it...I had it! We went to the school, I met the dean and they offered me the job right there. It's just one class, but hey, it's a start! I am really looking forward to it. Now every Tuesday I have a place to be at 2pm! I'm meeting my contact again tomorrow at the book store to buy a book for the class. To be honest I don't really think it was my amazing teaching prowess that impressed her so much as the fact that I am a native English speaker and I am breathing. Meaning I think they were pretty desperate. But hey...I'll take that!

I am also super excited about this coming week. I meet friends on Sunday then family on Monday in Paris. I am also hoping to get the chance to meet up with some fellow blogers Leesa and Ksam (of former Sam de Bretagne fame) while in town. I'm feelin a rhumrhum coming on...

Oh...I also got my hair cut and it looks pretty good. There are a lot more layers than I am used to but I think I like it. At first I was a little scared I had a fancy-mullet (if there is such a thing) because it is shorter around my face, but I think I like it. One of my friends said it didn't look that much different, I hope that doesn't mean that I already had a fancy-mullet...

A Day at the Zoo

I went to get my hair colored again today. Cyr's still in Angola and I wanted to celebrate the Fete de la Music on my own somehow, so I made a date with the Knights of the (Clarol) Round Table here in Lille. So dubbed because we actually do all sit around a circular table.

Anyway...those of you that know me know that I have pretty thick hair. Last time I went it was like a 3.5 hour ordeal getting my hair colored and cut so I thought I would just tackle the color this week and the cut another day. So I got there at 14h (that's 2pm) and left at 17h (5pm). I look great though! The stylist guy wanted to straighten my hair and it took him more than 45 minutes. He actually had to pull up a chair half way through. He said he was fatigue when he was done. Ha!! So was I. I have a lot of hair, which makes me not mind paying a bit more for color or cut. Those people earn their money with me I tell ya.

I do feel like I'm at the zoo when I'm there. The only thing is that I feel much more like the chimp behind the bars undergoing a grooming process rather than the people looking in and eating popcorn. Maybe in a few months I can move to the other side and be an observer once I learn the language better.

La Mairie and Me

Picture at the end of this email with my new hair if you don't feel like reading. :-)

So this morning Cyr and I went to the Mairie (city hall) to see what all we need to get married here. We have both seen lists online, but with French bureaucracy you never know and you are probably wrong no matter how many things you read online. The good thing is that we had no lines to wait in, but we did have to go to two different Mairies to get all of our answers. Turns out we need the following:

1. Justificatifs de domicile - we have to prove one of us has been living in Lille for 3 months. No problem. Not sure why they do this, but I guess they want to make sure you have a place to live once you are married. Oh, don't even get me started on how hard it is to get an apartment. You typically must go through an agency and most of them wanted us to have a separate bank account with THREE YEARS of rent in the account to prove we could pay. This was because Cyr was still in the "probation period" for his job. Somehow Cyr got us past that one, but we did have to sign a 3 year lease. Yes, you read correctly, 3 years, and that was the shortest lease they offered. You can break the lease with 3 months notice, but you have to give 3 months notice and rent.
   
2. Actes de naissance - Birth certificates, mine has to be less than 6 months old and translated into French, Cyr's has to be less that 3 months old. I understand the French translations, but how odd. Most things in the US require the original or a certified copy which seems to be the opposite of a new birth certificate. Oh, and French birth certificates change. Weddings, PACS and births are supposed to be added to them. Maybe that is why they want a new one...ahhh....
   
3. Pieces d'identite - Passports. No problemo.
4. Temoins - Witnesses, we need 2-4 peeps over 18 and not related to either of us. We are working on this one. An interview schedule will be published. Bribes will be taken and are in fact encouraged.
   
5. Epoux de nationalite etrangere (spouses of foreign nationality need the following)
1. Certificate de Celibat - REALLY? You track that here? I had no idea the Catholic Church was so involved! Well...actually "celibat" or "celibataire" is the French word for "single". Ironic I know. So apparently the US Embassy in Paris will give me a letter saying "yup, she is single". Do some countries have a single card? That might be a good idea for the US. "Yeah, before I get my hopes up here, would you mind showing me your single card? What, you forgot it at home? Really..." Could save some time.
   
2. Certificate de Coutume - It sounds to me like they want to know what I dressed up as for Halloween last year, but translated it is a "certificate usual". No problem, just the usual certificate. Huh? The lady told Cyr something and scribbled something that looks like Martian in the margin. I do know that the Embassy will also give me this one.

All the lists we had seen also included a certificate from a doctor who checks us out as well. I guess they don't want anyone bringing sick folks into France. Apparently this has been removed. The lady at the second Mairie scratched it off our list. Woohoo! Once less thing! I now have a hundred other questions after having an afternoon to think about things.

I also had lunch today with a friend!! YEAH!! Marine is a great, I met her in Houston but she is from Lille. It was so great to talk to someone in English in person! Especially someone who knew the town. She showed me a few cute places and I picked up some cards to try to remember them. She was visiting her parents and so we had lunch. She also told me about Alexandre the Great (Hairdresser). See below for new hair. Don't I look French with my scarf? I look a bit pained but it's the best I could do for now. I was also wind-blown all day. I took it on our balcony.
I also would like to point out one more thing I like about France. These people know how to window shop. Somehow the stores have managed to overcome a HUGE obstacle I have seen in the US. Apparently it is physically impossible to put a visible price on ANYTHING that inside of a jewelry case in the US. Really folks, if I ask how much it is and it's more than I want to spend, I'm not going to change my mind just because you went through the trouble of opening the case and flipping the tag to read the encoded price. AND...if I saw a price on something that I thought was less than expected I might actually make a purchase because the price was there!! See picture.

Now, if any of you would like to buy a Cartier watch, THAT is how many Euro you are going to have shell out to get one. I love it. No mystery. It's like they are saying; "Don task me owe much zee watch ees. Eef you see dee price and can not afford eet, zen you do not buy eet and you do not bozer me with zee asking owe much eet ees. D'accord?"

Red horses are cool...

So...I have a friend (hello Marine!) who is actually from Lille and now lives in Houston. I consulted her on who she could recommend to cut my hair. I have a little gray going on and wanted to cover that up and get a trim. Once I had the correct person to call I bravely called and set the appointment myself. Surprisingly I was able to actually book a color and a cut. I did however have Cyr call them back to confirm the time and make sure I didn't book a tattoo or body piercing.

Part I - The Color
This morning I found the street on the map, made my way downtown and was even early. As I have mentioned, I have problems with French when I get nervous. After finally figuring out where to sit and establishing that I was in fact "Sue-zan" I then had to somehow tell the color girl how I wanted my hair. I'm seated at a round table (the Knights of Clarol I guess) with 5 other ladies getting their hair colored. But this is France therefore I was drinking an espresso and feeling very fashionable while pretending to be able to read French Vogue. I then proceeded to tell her that "j'aime bien mon cheval rouge". Which directly translated means "I like my horse red." Surely I am not the first person to make this mistake. "Hair" is "cheveaux" but all I could think of was "cheval"! I guess they got the point though, because I have to say; my hair color is rockin!!

Part II - The Cut
So then I move on to Alexandre. He has a shaved head which leads me to believe that at least he is good with clippers as I saw no scaring or fresh wounds on his head. After miming that he could do what he wanted as long as I didn't look like a "champignon" translate "mushroom". He then called three people over to see how much hair I had. No kidding, it was like I was famous for 20 seconds. I just laughed and used my word of the day "cheval" (horse). He then began clipping and took an hour to create my new due. About 45 minutes into it a woman with wet hair sat down and glowered at me until he was done. Apparently I was not his last appointment. She had very thin short hair and I thought, "man...he could cut her hair while I took a trip to the ladies room." As it turns out I was close to being right. He put me under a dryer so my hair wouldn't "POUFF!!" (his words, not mine) and she was done by the time I was dry. No 20 seconds for her.

So I now have a new French hair cut and am ready to face both the washing machine repair guy and the oven delivery guys that are supposed to come Thursday. Auchan is delivering our new oven and fixing our clothes dryer. This will be the third time Auchun has been here delivering things. Same guys both times, not 10 words of English between them.

Stay tuned to see if I can use "cheval" again this week....