The "Skinny" on the French

It was another exciting weekend here in France!!! On Saturday, my friend and I planned a trip to Toulouse, a city about 2 ½ hours away by train. We found a really great (and cheap!) hotel and stayed for the night! It was a really interesting city, noted for its large number of brick buildings, pink buildings, and violet products. Magnificent cathedrals and basilicas loomed over the tops of the buildings and beautiful public gardens filled with bridges and ponds could be found around every corner. It was certainly a city with a lot to see!!! The highlight of the trip for me was dessert on Saturday night—we found a great ice-cream place and I got Orange Chocolate flavored ice-cream that could stand the competition of Platters, I must say. I had it in honor of all of my loved ones in and from North Tonawanda!!! It was DE-LICIOUS!! I am very very VERY excited for next weekend because my friend and I are going to go to the French Alps, to a sweet little town called Chamonix, and we are going to go paragliding!!!! As the saying goes, “like father, like daughter”, right? Tee hee. I hate to wish my life away but, at the same time, I CAN’T WAIT FOR FRIDAY!!!!

Ok, so I thought that I would perhaps do a bit of a culture-blog, no pics (sorry, I know that pics make it all so much more interesting but hopefully this will still be good). I wanted to comment quickly on French bodies. Hopefully that doesn’t sound too weird, but it is an interesting thing that I have some thoughts on. There was a study done a little while ago and French women are generally perceived to be the skinniest of women in the world. It is interesting because, while there are certainly many skinny French women here, they aren’t all toothpicks, and the same thing goes for the men. Yet it is boggling because rarely do I see anyone overweight here and yet all of these healthy-looking people are eating pain au chocolat and croissants and cream tarts and “sandwich americain” (baguettes with mayo and fries and hamburger) and it just doesn’t seem to fit.

I am no professional on the matter, but in my opinion it is all about the walking. I forget how walking is a necessity here. It dawned on me the other day when I went to go mail some letters—I left the apartment and walked a good 10 minutes or so to get to the post office and then walked 10 more minutes to a grocery store and then walked 10 minutes back to the apartment. To do just those two little tasks, I had to walk for 30 minutes. I am used to the walking by now, and completely love it, but forget how, in the US, the walking for such tasks includes walking to and from the car and that is about it. So the amount of walking here, without being overwhelming, is substantially more than in the US. Another aspect that makes the women perhaps appear skinnier is that they wear clothes that fit them. The clothing isn’t super tight (like far too often in the US) but, instead, is flattering to whatever body shape they might have, showing that they are proud and confident of how they look. These two ideas together, I believe, make a HUGE difference in the body shape and appearance of the French and perhaps, contribute to the “miracle shape” of French women. I am not really sure but what I have to say is, “Pass the pain au chocolat and Nutella crepes, thank you very much!!”

FOOD!!!

Volvic, my favorite water/THE BEST crepe-man!!

Gourmet cookies that are delicious/beautiful nougat tarts

Nutella--no explanation needed/Vin de sable (wine chilled in the sand)

MEAL

Appetizer of tomatoes, olive oil, feta cheese, basil

BREAD!!!/Beans and potatoes and leg of pork

Cheese(at least 7 types to choose from)/tarte aux pommes

I tried to give a general idea of what the food is like here by taking pics of one meal that we had at dinner. I also have included some impressive window displays and some French food NECESSITIES!!! Enjoy!!

Weekend Trips

Okay, so here we go with some pictures of all types!! This blog is pics of places that I have visited over the past weekend or so!! I have seen some really great places, including hiking a mountain, getting a personalized tour of a vineyard, and visiting some old ruins/wonders named Aigues-Mortes and The Palace of the Popes and the famous Bridge of Avignon!!! I will leave it at that and let the pictures speak for themselves. Food pics are next on the list! I miss you and love you all!!!!



The Bridge of Avignon/Palace of the Popes

Bull Event at Aigues-Mortes/Beach view during wine-tasting

Carcassone(in the background)/Aigues-Mortes

Pont du Diable/Town of St.Guilhelm

St.Guilhelm hike/St.Guilhelm hike 2

Fathers, Fathers Everywhere...

Hello there!! I hope that all is going well for everyone back in the United States! It looks like the stock market isn't going to COMPLETELY fall in on itself now so that is encouraging for everyone, I am sure! Things must be getting pretty heated over the elections that are just around the corner!! I must say that I do miss the political signs in York lining the overpass for the highway and the HUGE political signs in people's front yards. Tee hee. I imagine that the leaves are beginning to change and fall and that the air is becoming crisp! The change of season is perhaps what I miss most about Maine right now, not including the people there, of course. I will miss the apple picking followed promptly by fresh apple crisp or pumpkin carving and scrumptious pumpkin seeds!! My friends and I want to try to find pumpkins here to carve--I think we might be out of luck. Haha. The weather continues to be sunny and warm and beautiful. On Wednesday, we had our FIRST day of rain since I have been here!! Supposedly September and October are filled with rainy days and then the rest of the year is nice and sunny. From what I have seen, it is always warm and sunny! So yeah, it was strange having to use an umbrella for the bit of drizzle that day.
My interesting thought that I had this morning on my walk was in regards to the strong presence of fathers here. I have spoken with my friends here about the phenomenon of fathers taking an active role in the lives of their children here in Montpellier. It is so refreshing to see!! Here, the norm is to see fathers picking up their children from school, walking the little ones in their strollers, or riding bikes with the older children. Mothers with their children are definitely the minority and it is an aspect of Montpellier that has certainly been surprising. I am lucky enough to have a very loving and involved father who has always taken an interest in all that I do. However, and this is a stereotype I know, I feel like in the US it is far more common to see mothers participating in school events for their kids or taking care of their children afterschool. It is wonderful to see men carrying little pink princess backpacks as their daughters run off to play in the playground or to sit in the park and see father after father walking with a rented pony on which their children are riding. I absolutely love it and it brings a smile to my face every time as it makes me think of my dad and all that he did for Aaron and I. So I guess I will end it here with a special thought and thanks to my daddio--I love you and miss you (and everyone else too)!!

French Class Questions

Hello there Classes of Mme Zicarri!!!

I wanted to answer your questions in the last blog but couldn't remember what they were, so figured that I can just answer them in a blog itself. In regards to the French 3 questions: I must say that I have been really surprised with how clean this city is!! One would imagine with all of the dogs and all of the people that it would be very dirty but it isn't!! Every morning when I leave early, there are people hired by the city that are hosing down and scrubbing the pedestrian areas and cleaning them off for a new day!! So the streets have rarely ANY garbage on them. There is the occasional pile of dog droppings but that is inevitable throughout the day. Otherwise, everything is very clean and you wouldn't even know that you were in a city. The air feels a lot more clean than in NYC or Boston as well and I have tried to figure out why since I got here. My guesses are a combination of things. First of all, not a lot of people drive here so there aren't as many gas fumes and smells in the city. Second of all, the tramways are above-ground and run on cables so there is never any gas or smell emitted from the public transportation. And finally, there aren't any big factories in or near the city. I am sure that there are factories around here somewhere, but I haven't seen a single one and thus the smoke and smells from those aren't sensed here in the city either. It is a beautiful place and you would NEVER guess that you were in a city!! In regards to the strangest thing that I have eaten, yesterday provided me with some things to share on THAT topic. We climbed a mountain and had a picnic partway up and the picnic was BIZARRE!! We each got half of a baguette and then we all tried bull sausage (which looked red and raw and disgusting and i couldnt bring it to my mouth), paté made from duck fat with shreds of duck meat, liver of SOMETHING (who knows what) with spinach--my favorite of it all because it tasted like a meatball if you shut your eyes--and then this other thing that I dont even know the name of but I had to spit out. Then we had different types of cheese and then fruit and chocolate. Those meats were CERTAINLY the strangest things I have ever eaten!!
For the French 1 Class: Surprisingly enough, not a lot of people smoke here. I think the high price of cigarettes has definitely taken a toll on the smoking population and it is RARE to find someone pull a cigarette from a pack in their purse. However, the people that I have found smoking here generally buy their own liners and "stuff" to put in them, which can be worse for those standing by. It is definitely more cost efficient and common to see someone rolling their own cigarette or such than to see anyone buying/smoking cigarettes from "un tabac". Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised by the LACK of smoking!! I will be sure to take some pics during dinner and of nearby "boulangeries" and "patisseries" for everyone!! Thanks for your questions!!

Pictures...finally!!!

Okay, I finally have the pictures uploaded and ready for everyone to see. I am sorry that I am a little bit late on this but it is difficult not having access to the internet at home!! These pictures are highlights from last weekend and the weekend before. The first weekend is when I went to the zoo and then I also visited a city nearby named Nîmes. The city is filled with ancient Roman ruins, as you can see, and the weekend that I went was a big festival so there were vendors on the streets selling EVERYTHING, various bands marching around playing music and dressed in themes (my favorite one was the group dressed as "schtroumphs" or, in english "smurfs"). There was a beautiful garden where we found this tower that overlooks the whole city. It was magnificent. The following weekend there was a festival at another town named Palavas, right on the beach. Again, there were vendors of all sorts and then they had bull-herding, which i took a picture of. They started at one end of the beach and put three or four bulls in the center of a circle of horses and rode them to the other end of the beach. Everyone stood on the beach, nearly getting squashed by the horses as they came by, and the children liked to chase the horses. I love the picture that I got because you can see the children trailing after the smoke of the bull herd. I hope that you enjoy the photos and there will be more to come soon!! Peace and love to all!!!


Fun at the Zoo/Bull Event at Palavas

Bizarre standing toilet/Temple carré

Tower overlooking Nîmes/Hat Fun with Beth

Ruins Gardens/Roman Ruins

Church in Nîmes/Colosseum in Nîmes

Almost October!!

Well, it is almost October and I don't even know where the time went!! It seemed to have flown by and now the fall weather has descended upon us here in Montpellier!! The mornings are crisp and cool while the afternoons are warm and sunny!! Classes have been going well and I am finally starting to get into the swing of things and start getting a schedule down. I begin my volunteer work at the middle school/high school tomorrow. I will be in two classrooms with students as a teacher's aide, helping with class activities and homework and such. After I have been at the school for about a month, I will begin teaching English classes once a week. They were going to throw me right into the thick of it this week but an experienced teacher at the school stood up for me and told the principal that it might be a little overwhelming for me to do so for the first month or two. I was so relieved because I was QUITE worried about planning lessons and activities and vocabulary and tests!! But thankfully they will have someone stand in for me for the first month and then I will hop right in!!!
The past couple of weekends have been festival after festival!! Between the heritage festivals of 2 weekends ago where EVERYTHING was free to the public to the bull herding on the beaches of Palavas yesterday, it has been a whirlwind of fun times, pleasant company, and DELICIOUS food. I must say that the vacation allure of Montpellier hasnt worn off yet and I still manage to go the beach at least once or twice a week to soak up some sun!! In the evenings, my brain is usually completely mush and I fall asleep to the relaxation of reading my favorite Harry Potter book in French. I just finished my morning reading book, The Stranger by Albert Camus, a very dark and sad book. I am excited because I went to the bookstore and, for the morning ride to the university, I am going to read my favorite Roald Dahl books in French, The Witches and Matilda!!! I think that they will be a much happier and perkier way to start my day!! I am going to put a blog up soon with recent pics of my weekends but forgot the USB today. Soon, soon!!
I am so glad that the students of Mme Zicarri's French class are able to read my blog and enjoy it!! Please feel free to ask me any questions that you have and let me know if there is anything that you would like to see, like pics of the AMAZING pastries here or perhaps what a typical French meal looks like. In regards to the questions posed already, YES I go to the beach often because, surprisingly enough, I don't have as much homework in my classes here as I do at UB back home. I find that I have a lot more free time but, at the same time, i am ALWAYS learning because everything is in French. To be honest, I am not registered to vote which I do not advise for any of you who are 18 because now I have one month to try to register AND receive an absentee ballot. That was bad planning on my part but, at the same time, I had so many things to do before I left that I didnt get a chance to take care of that.
The newest bit of information that I learned yesterday that certainly made me laugh will be my last bit of news for you on this blog. I have told most people that I have talked to that there are dogs EVERYWHERE here. Homeless people have dogs, young people and old alike have dogs, EVERYONE has dogs. I found this bizarre at first but thought that this must just be a dog-loving kind of town. Well, come to find out, the reason that they all have dogs is quite different. I guess that here, and I assume that this is a Montpellier thing and not an entire France thing, if a person has a dog in their possession they are not allowed to be arrested. How crazy is that?!?! So that is why all of these people have their dogs with them all of the time. That and the fact that public drinking is acceptible is just so bizarre to me. They sell beer in McDonalds and even at our school cafeteria!! It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO strange! So that is my bit of strange French culture that I will leave you with today. Tee hee. I love you all and miss you, as always!!