My first professional vacation!

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Happy All Saints!
Yes it's true, I get an entire week and a half off from work in observation of All Saints. Funny enough, I asked the students what All Saints was and what were the traditions, and they had no idea. Nothing to say. Then I asked, "ok, so is it just an excuse than to get off of school?" and they all gave me a loud and positive response. I'm thinking about taking a day trip to Tours and Chenonceau to see the castles there along the Loire sometime next week. Other than that and a Halloween party, I don't have many plans for the holiday. My second week of teaching is over, I find that the younger students are a lot harder to keep focused and I'm trying different tactics to get through to them. The older students are responsive and I like to think that they think of me as "a hip" teacher. 😊 So I thought I would make another list of the things I like and dislike of the Frenchies.

1. DISLIKE: The laundromats. I went to do my laundry today and found that one wash cost 4 euros and 20 cents! I only had about 12 euros with me, so I could only do 2 loads of wash and 10 minutes of drying which costs 1 euro. I'm currently trying to find every nook and cranny that I can hang my mass amounts of laundry on.
2. DISLIKE: Women here past the age of about 45 dye their hair a HORRENDOUS shade of purple, pink, orange, red. It's like the color of a plum depicted in a cartoon. I was sitting across from a woman on the tram and seriously thought she had a clown wig on because of the awful color of red, but I knew it was real because I saw her gray roots. I'm going to try to sneak some pictures in my gallery soon because you really cannot get the gyst until you see it.
3. DISLIKE: Many banks here do not have money. You can do account openings etc, but if you want to deposit money at the counter to take out money at the counter, you have to go to the special bank that has tellers. It's quite frustrating.
4. LIKES: Pretty much all the wine tastes good. You can buy wine for very cheap and it still tastes better than an expensive wine in the states.
5. DISLIKE: Halloween here is not a big deal. THat's just no fun.
6. LIKE: The downtown area here is wonderful. Lots of places to eat and socialize as well as tourist attractions and plenty of cute boutiques, etc.
7. DISLIKE per roomie Rachel: The men are short. And they all wear white after labor day (per Lauren). But seriously, they do. I've seen several men who wear outfits consisting of one color scheme, too damn bright. Sometimes I think Boy George might walk down the street next to me, you never know.
8. LIKE: New Kids on the Block is coming to Paris. I'm going.
9. LIKE: The late night discos, open past bar close.
10.LIKE: No matter how hard the French try to be part of the American pop culture, they will always be French. For example, the other I saw a man who seriously looked like Busta Rhymes... and then, I saw he was carrying a baguette. It was hysterical.
11.LIKE: Public transportation, I know I said this before, but I tell you it saves my life! I can live in a big city and still make it to a little town to work.
12.DISLIKE: The French are paper pushers. For a country that cares so much about conservation, they use a HELL of a lot of papers for trivial procedures.

Well that's all for now, I'm going to a soiree tonight!

xoxo
Cara

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Photos

A Unique Place
The was the former "Petit Beurre" factory. Petit Beurre is a breakfast biscuit/cookie that's buttery and delicious with coffee. Nantes is the city that makes all of these for France

Comments

[anonymous]

you're going to the vallee! no fair. seriously.