anyone who says soccer isn't a contact sport is crazy

hello all - here are some pics from a soccer match between the club that i play with and another regional club - it was really fun to watch (though we lost 2-0) but man, was it cold and yucky out. these guys are pretty damn serious about their game and they fought hard - by the end everyone was cut or bruised or muddied or all the above. our team is the one in blue and yellow.

practice happens at a field about 40 minutes from my house by tram and bus. everyone seems impressed that i come so far every week. little do they know how little i have to do!!

dunno if i mentioned this before but i got knocked the *hell* over during one practice and it took about 3 weeks before the bruise on my leg finally went away. i toughed it out though - got right back up, no complaints, etc. :-) usually though, the boys are pretty good about being careful around us delicate flowers.

something i find endlessly amusing is how dramatic the boys get during the games. they're constantly complaing, fussing at one another and throwing tantrums. us girls just roll our eyes at one another, of course. this is somewhat indicative of french culture in general i think. the squeaky wheel gets the grease and, boy, do they squeak!

our intrepid coach - wish i could tell you his name but i don't know it! only know about half the boys' names so far...

so right now i'm sitting at home listening to the wind HOWL outside. a storm, very like a good old long island nor-easter, is blowing through brittany. hope we don't lose power. tomorrow begins the second round of vacation in france, already....i'll be heading to quimper for a couple days, then to paris to meet my mom, who is very bravely travelling solo to visit me. we'll spend a couple days in paris and then tool around nantes and the loire valley.

stay tuned!

ok, ok, i know....it's been too long since the last update.

i will try to be better i swear!

not much new or special though - still teaching away, when i can!

this week half of my classes were cancelled - had an all-day training on Friday and Thursday, the whole country went on strike! i attended the protest and it was quite something - 40,000 people in the streets!

saw a guy dressed as Sarkozy leading the parade in a convertible surrounded by bogus secret service. hilarious. he was, of course, dressed in Napoleonic robes and an olive branch crown.

also a whole bunch of folks following the car with sheep masks on, baaaa-ing.

then more of the usual, flags, banners, firecrackers and chanting. during the parades, the whole downtown area shuts down and you can't get anywhere, so might as well participate. you can also collect stickers that the national unions hand out. my collection is slowly growing.

i'm in that crowd, somewhere!

still playing soccer (which is so much fun! i headed the ball the other night and the boys thought that was hilarious!)

the inauguration was wonderful to see - watched it online. made all the headlines in the papers that day (see below). Obama's got quite the following over here - everyone loves him.

it continues to be interesting to be somewhat disconnected from daily events in the US.

kinda nice in a way!

the weather is the same as well - lots of misty rain and wind, not cold enough to snow though.

every few days we get some real sun, which is GREAT! here's a pic of a great sunrise i saw the other morning....don't have to get up too early for them either - sunrise tends to be round 8.

one more week of class before the next vacation - already!

my mom will be coming over and i'll join her in paris for a few days before coming back here to show her around town.

another bit of news is that last week i met an american guy, randomly, and turns out he is from NC and plays for the semi-pro team over in Cholet (about a half hour from here). So we went to the game and it was an experience! they all played pretty good, the band played the *entire* time and you could only get something from the concession stands at halftime and after the game! afterwards we walked a bit round dowtown Cholet and it made me so glad to be in Nantes - Cholet is much much smaller and pretty sleepy.

last thing is that it seems NC is pulling me back in - i'll be interviewing (over the phone) for a position at Jordan High this coming week - wish me luck!

miss you all! and now that i've posted - it's your turn! send me some email and let me know what's up!!!!

christmas on two continents!

Hi everyone and happy new year.
One of my resolutions this year is, as per request, to post more often here.
wish me luck!
anyhoo, here's some pics from christmastime on either side of the atlantic ocean....

down in the center of town for christmas they set up little stands - markets - with all kinds of crap for sale. i say crap cause none of it was anything special or unique to france (in fact, i would bet that a lot of it came from, shhhh...china). notable exceptions being vin chaud - (mulled wine), some kind of cross between waffles and funnel cakes and roasted chestnuts.
that's what this guy is doing in the picture below...

the decorations all over downtown were pretty, though there was a lot of blinking going on which is not my favorite....kept expecting ramapant seizures...thankfully there weren't any.

street performers took advantage of the presence of holiday shoppers and were out and about in great numbers....
and one night i accidentally happened upon the christmas parade. it was definitely a different experience. first of all there's the masks on the majorettes - very bizarre looking to me.
also, no marching bands so the floats went by with techno/rock versions of the traditional christmas songs blaring over loudspeakers. lastly, the black, empty eyes of the snowmen. ugh.
if i were a child i would have nightmares...but to each their own. i'm sure everyone else found it delightful.


it was rather crowded.

there goes pere noel on his sleigh!

then i got to head back to the us for christmas, ny style.
did so much good eating - mama's cooking of course, bagels from bagel boss, delicious smoked fish from russ n daughters, terrifically spicy indian food on the lower east side, pad thai and the last day i got the bacon egg and cheese sammich i'd been dreaming of.
(still no bojangles biscuit though, nor any mexican. gotta wait for my return to nc for that!!)
however - i did score some dried black beans and some sazon to bring back with me! hallelujah!

and then there was time with the kitties! i think rico was pretty mad at me and he's become obsessed with the kitten, (aka little baby buttonhead) so our time together was not all i dreamed it would be but the last night i was there he deigned to sleep on the bed with me....thanks rico.

my bro and sis-in-law's eco and kitten friendly tree.

the folks' tree.

and i was very psyched to have seen snow a few times while i was there.

it's 'snowed' a couple times here since but nothing that was at all significant.

weird snow in CT

and so now all is back to normal - made it back to europe without incident. back to the grind with classes - i brought candy canes for the french kids which they loved. they were surprised at the mint flavor though - most thought they would taste like strawberry. suckers. and it was so funny - they did the exact same thing kids at home do - which is to suck on the bottom of the cane until it's turned into a sharp point and then stab each other with them. funny, right?

some random pics from my first week back

rampant english

who doesn't love mcdonald's? oh yeah, the french....

but actually i take that back cause obviously they do enough business to stay open over here. it's mostly kids and young adults (high school, early college) who fill the restaurants.

i haven't been back since my wifi adventure eary-on. go me!

The hood. (aka - Zola)

Since it was sunny, I thought I'd take some more pics of the neighborhood....here goes!

Parc de Proce - you couldn't ask for a nicer place to go walking/running.

The Intermarche where most of my grocery shopping happens and Place Zola, for which the neighborhood seems to be named.

cool little bakery that is often open when others are closed. random fun pic...

pretty church whose bells i hear each day from the apt
view of the tour de bretagne, located in centre ville, from rue de la montagne.

I had fun at a post-thanksgiving feast at the home of another american assistant and her french roommate. the menu included guinea fowl, sweet potato casserole, (complete with marshmallows believe it or not), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce, apple and pecan pies and stuffing, (which i made for the first time in my life and it turned out pretty good!)
It was a challenge to adequately explain the what and why of Thanksgiving to the few French and English folks who attended and they were surprised that you would put a little of each dish on your plate all at the same time! Everyone was groaning at the end of the meal and us Americans laughed and said - 'Welcome to Thanksgiving'. I think they were properly initiated!

Some of you may have already heard that Greenpeace has been running a "SarkObama" publicity campaign in Paris with posters depicting Sarkozy in the style of the Obama campaign posters, demanding that Sarkozy - who is currently president of the EU - to work harder on getting greenhouse gas emissions down. It's been getting a lot of attention in the press lately....

finally, i learned that today is Aid al-Adha - a Muslim holiday - and had a few students absent because they were home celebrating with their families. Here's what i discovered online...

Eid ul-Adha (عيد الأضحى), or the Festival of Sacrifice, falls approximately 70 days after Eid ul-Fitr (end of Ramadan) and is celebrated in honor of the prophet Abraham willingness to sacrifice his son as a proof of his loyalty to God. Celebrations usually include presenting an animal (usually a cow or a sheep) sacrifice, and the meat is shared with family, friends and those in need.
The festival also marks the end of the Pilgrimage or Hajj to Mecca.

Also in the news today, a muslim graveyard (in another city here in France) was defaced, which highlights the tension that still exists over Islam in France. Living here in Nantes has been interesting for me, coming from Durham, (which is prolly 50/50 in terms of minority/majority) because there are so many more Muslims here than I've ever been around before. Often women wear hijab, though usually it's just a head scarf, long sleeves and skirts - I've not yet seen any women wearing the niqab, chador or burqua, (ironically enough - i've seen plenty of these latter kinds of coverings in NC!)

Anyway, there's been plenty of controversy and the following Wikipedia article covers it pretty well if you're interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_france