Well, I arrived in Foix yesterday and was picked up by the site director and driven up into a fog shrouded mountain to the summer camp where I wil begin my job tomorrow. I am a little nervous about it now that I am here, because it is going to be a time intensive job and there is a pretty specific schedule to follow, which I have only a vague understanding of. I think the first week will be a bit rocky, and then hopefully I will settle into the swing of it and enjoy hanging out with the kids.
All the other counselors seem pretty nice so far. There are three Canadians, two Americans, an English woman, and yesterday there was a French guy, but he left this morning for another camp. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves so far, and also have offered help in settling in. I found the coffee pot this morning and made coffee straight away, so I am feeling alright so far.
My week in London was uneventful, but relaxing. It was nice spending a bit more time with Nat there, and I really like the area of London that she lives in. It was rainy most of the time I was there, but the sun broke through a couple of times. By the time I got to Toulouse, late on Tuesday night, I was used to the cooler weather and when I ventured into the center the next day I was completely unprepared for the heat wave that hit me. I walked around the center for a while, going in and out of stores for the air conditioning, and finally I found a shady place in the park to rest a while. My hotel was a twenty minute bus ride from the center, or an hour walk, so going back to change wasn't really an option. But I dressed more appropriately the next two days and got a little more sun on my still white legs, so they aren't such a shocking difference compared to my very brown arms and face.
Toulouse is the 5th largest city in France and it is called the pink city because of the distinctive color of brick used to build many of the buildings. One of the things that is nice about most of Europe, especially the larger cities, is how international the populations tend to be, and Toulouse is no exception. There were a ton of people around at every time of day, including tourists, many of them French. In the morning on the main road into the center, the sidewalks were lined with food markets stretching for several blocks. There were flowers, vegetebals, all kinds of fruits, and of course fresh meats and cheeses. The guy who runs the hotel I stayed at said that there is a restuarant in one of the buildings on that street that is only open for lunch and all the meals are prepared using food that comes from that market. Needless to say, it is a popular place to lunch and fills up quickly.
27.5.07
13.5.07
It's raining in England
Lisbon was great. It felt much more like a big city than Porto, but was pretty and super fun. There was tons going on, and tons of people everywhere. Also, we found a restaurant where we ate a wonderful Portuguese meal and listened to fado, a locally famous type of music. We weren't sure what we were in for, but once we got there and ordered, it started almost immediately. There were three different singers and each got up and sang 3 or 4 songs with one guitarist for the background music. Fado is a loud, melancholy, operatic kind of song, and it was wonderful. We liked it so much we each bought a cd from each one of the first two professional singers. The last singer was one of the cooks from the restaurant. It was a wonderful evening. We made it back to Porto and spent the afternoon by the waterside before catching our plane back to Marseilles on Sunday night. All of Monday was spent getting retrieving our luggage from the hostel and making it back across town to the train station. Then we took the TGV from Marseilles to Paris. (The TGV recently broke the record for the fastest train in the world at 357 mph.)
Upon arriving in Paris we were met at the train station by Christina and after getting all of our stuff back to the apartment, we went to the steps of Sacre Couer and saw the lights of the whole city from the hill. Despite Jed trying to start a fight, it was nice spending one last night with Justin and Christina. The next day I accompanied all three to Charles De Gaulle to see them off. After a few small issues, and Justin buying an extra bag to distribute the weight out of his gigantic suitcase, everyone made it off ok. So I spent the next three days in Paris alone and staying in Christina's friend's apartment in Montmarte, the neighborhood made famous by the film Amelie. I even shopped at the store highlighted in the film, and had a lovely conversation (albeit a short one) with the guy running the shop.
I wandered around Notre Dame, The Orangerie and the Eiffel tower on Thursday. The Orangerie is a lovely museum with some of Monet's giant Waterlilies paintings exhibited and a lot of other expressionist paintings there. It wasn't open last time I was in Paris, so I was excited to get to see it this time. Then, at the hostel I stayed in my last night in Paris I met a girl from New York state, Kristy, who was super nice and invited me out to hang with her Parisian friends, and it was super fun.
I am now in England with Nat. All of her flatmates are really nice (there are 5 of them, three Brits, an Aussie, and another Kiwi besides Nat). It's been raining since I got here, but I think I will take my chances with the weather tomorrow and go and see some of the sights. London is huge and feels even bigger than Paris. I think that by the time I get back to Toulouse I will be ready for a medium sized city in the south of France, complete with mountains and sunshine.
Upon arriving in Paris we were met at the train station by Christina and after getting all of our stuff back to the apartment, we went to the steps of Sacre Couer and saw the lights of the whole city from the hill. Despite Jed trying to start a fight, it was nice spending one last night with Justin and Christina. The next day I accompanied all three to Charles De Gaulle to see them off. After a few small issues, and Justin buying an extra bag to distribute the weight out of his gigantic suitcase, everyone made it off ok. So I spent the next three days in Paris alone and staying in Christina's friend's apartment in Montmarte, the neighborhood made famous by the film Amelie. I even shopped at the store highlighted in the film, and had a lovely conversation (albeit a short one) with the guy running the shop.
I wandered around Notre Dame, The Orangerie and the Eiffel tower on Thursday. The Orangerie is a lovely museum with some of Monet's giant Waterlilies paintings exhibited and a lot of other expressionist paintings there. It wasn't open last time I was in Paris, so I was excited to get to see it this time. Then, at the hostel I stayed in my last night in Paris I met a girl from New York state, Kristy, who was super nice and invited me out to hang with her Parisian friends, and it was super fun.
I am now in England with Nat. All of her flatmates are really nice (there are 5 of them, three Brits, an Aussie, and another Kiwi besides Nat). It's been raining since I got here, but I think I will take my chances with the weather tomorrow and go and see some of the sights. London is huge and feels even bigger than Paris. I think that by the time I get back to Toulouse I will be ready for a medium sized city in the south of France, complete with mountains and sunshine.
10.5.07
More Pictures...
Lisbon, Porto, Porto, Justin in Lisbon, Amy in Lisbon (notice the short hair and big glasses...)
Pictures...
Justin in his class on the last day, Justin and Amy in St. Aff for a picnic on the last day, & Amy, Christina and our friend Liz in Millau...
My Soapbox
I recently heard a statistic that only 15% of Americans have passports, and fewer than that travel abroad with them. I am on month 8 of my total travel abroad experiences, and month 3 of this particular trip (and yes I understand the luxury I have as a young American when I say month 3, though my sister would use the word priority instead of luxury...) and still it's not enough time to see all the things that should be seen, experience all the things that should be experienced in a foreign culture, to learn all that can be learned from other lifestyles and perspectives. We rented a car for a week and saw most of Aveyron, the county I have been living in) and yet when I look at the map of France, I think to myself how little of it I have actually seen.
Perhaps we can really only ever know our homes well, but I think that traveling abroad as an American is an important experience and seeing foreign customs against foreign landscapes with a foreign language being spoken all around gives a new perspective about what is important in life. It's a sad thing about American culture how few Americans travel, but even more sad that so few want to. Traveling abroad is not only a chance to learn about foreign cultures, but to learn more about your own.
It's true that time and time again travelers are subjected to the same questions, especially as Americans: Do you like France? What do you think of the war in Iraq? How do you feel about President Bush? And while this line of questioning happens often, and can become tedious, it helps define one's sense of being an American, and also it makes me realize that we truly are spokespeople for our country, and suddenly it feels even more important to travel and meet foreigners. These conversations also include the line, I know and like Americans, but the government blah blah blah. It is that knowing and liking of Americans, or Frenchmen, or Iraqis, or Turks, or whatever nationality that helps to lessen the gap between cultures. There is no other way to break down the cultural divide which sometimes seems so wide. Jed has said more than once over the past few weeks how much he has come to understand that the French are just people, and people are just people everywhere. This isn't a novel concept, yet it is one which can't be properly understood without being experienced. It's easy to say that the French hate Americans, that they are lazy for shutting everything down for their daily two hour lunch breaks and for not wanting to work more than 35 hours per week. But the truth is, they have different priorities than Americans, and they integrate those priorities (for instance time spent with family) into society at large. Certainly we all have cultural beliefs based from a sense of Nationalism which lead to how we stereotype others, but it isn't often that you come across someone who isn't more interested in meeting and having discussions than they are in condemning you for your nationality. And if the French want you to like their country, it isn't because they feel superior, it is simply because they love it, as much as we love Montana, and even the United States.
Beyond these more academic things, I also believe that being a part of and experiencing something extremely foreign, witnessing another successful lifestyle, has personal advantages as well. American society is far too insular on this point, too full of self-regard, and a good dose of 'foreign travel' is necessary from time to time to keep one's head of the clouds of egocentrism. Is France better than America? Yes and no, and in the opposite ways that America is better than France. It's not about superiority of culture or even lifestyle, it's about the all the pieces making up the whole of the global community. Experiencing other cultures is more than vacation, or even discussion. For me, it's about seeing the world map in my mind's eye as I walk the shores of a river so distant from my own home, seeing the lines I cross on this map by foot, and knowing that no one in the world knows where I am - sometimes not even myself - as I ask myself over and over again, in this foreign land, "Where am I?" Being lost and finding your way out is good for the soul; being lost and learning that lost isn't so bad is good for the soul, and finding out that you were never really lost in the first place is better still.
Perhaps we can really only ever know our homes well, but I think that traveling abroad as an American is an important experience and seeing foreign customs against foreign landscapes with a foreign language being spoken all around gives a new perspective about what is important in life. It's a sad thing about American culture how few Americans travel, but even more sad that so few want to. Traveling abroad is not only a chance to learn about foreign cultures, but to learn more about your own.
It's true that time and time again travelers are subjected to the same questions, especially as Americans: Do you like France? What do you think of the war in Iraq? How do you feel about President Bush? And while this line of questioning happens often, and can become tedious, it helps define one's sense of being an American, and also it makes me realize that we truly are spokespeople for our country, and suddenly it feels even more important to travel and meet foreigners. These conversations also include the line, I know and like Americans, but the government blah blah blah. It is that knowing and liking of Americans, or Frenchmen, or Iraqis, or Turks, or whatever nationality that helps to lessen the gap between cultures. There is no other way to break down the cultural divide which sometimes seems so wide. Jed has said more than once over the past few weeks how much he has come to understand that the French are just people, and people are just people everywhere. This isn't a novel concept, yet it is one which can't be properly understood without being experienced. It's easy to say that the French hate Americans, that they are lazy for shutting everything down for their daily two hour lunch breaks and for not wanting to work more than 35 hours per week. But the truth is, they have different priorities than Americans, and they integrate those priorities (for instance time spent with family) into society at large. Certainly we all have cultural beliefs based from a sense of Nationalism which lead to how we stereotype others, but it isn't often that you come across someone who isn't more interested in meeting and having discussions than they are in condemning you for your nationality. And if the French want you to like their country, it isn't because they feel superior, it is simply because they love it, as much as we love Montana, and even the United States.
Beyond these more academic things, I also believe that being a part of and experiencing something extremely foreign, witnessing another successful lifestyle, has personal advantages as well. American society is far too insular on this point, too full of self-regard, and a good dose of 'foreign travel' is necessary from time to time to keep one's head of the clouds of egocentrism. Is France better than America? Yes and no, and in the opposite ways that America is better than France. It's not about superiority of culture or even lifestyle, it's about the all the pieces making up the whole of the global community. Experiencing other cultures is more than vacation, or even discussion. For me, it's about seeing the world map in my mind's eye as I walk the shores of a river so distant from my own home, seeing the lines I cross on this map by foot, and knowing that no one in the world knows where I am - sometimes not even myself - as I ask myself over and over again, in this foreign land, "Where am I?" Being lost and finding your way out is good for the soul; being lost and learning that lost isn't so bad is good for the soul, and finding out that you were never really lost in the first place is better still.
1.5.07
Port in Porto
Well, we packed up and moved out of the chalet this weekend. Christina and Jed left for Paris on Sunday morning, so I went to St. Aff on Saturday night to stay with Justin, because we didn't leave for Marseilles until Monday afternoon. We had intended leaving on Tuesday, but as today is the first day of May, everything is closed, and we couldn't get a bus out of St. Aff on Tuedsday, and so had to leave classes early and take off on Monday afternoon. May 1st is a worldwide holiday like labor day where people strike, or don't work in order to express worker rights. I don't think it is very prevalent in the U.S. because we have Labor Day later in the year. Anyway, on Monday I went to Justin's last classes with him, and it was again really fun to see all the kids again. We played bingo and gave out prizes. All the prizes were things left over from Justin's apt that he didn' want to pack home or throw away, and included a penny bank in the shape of two smiling bananas, two flurouscent yellow plastic vests, a Casino (the supermarket) teddy bear, and a Casino lanyard. Of course, in the second class 7 out of 9 children got a cover-all bingo at the same time and so we gave away all of the gifts along with two dollars and 50 cents of American money. In all the subsequent classes, because they had heard about the previous prize giving, we gave away one dollar bills, which were pretty much a hit. In the last class we didn't play bingo, but Justin just talked to the class for a few minuutes because we had to leave like 15 minutes early to catch our bus. They had just got an aquarian and they told him that they wanted to name one of their fish after them, and they let him choose the fish. It was very cute. Then we had to grab all of our stuff and run to bus station through the rain. We made it, but just barely.
In Marseilles we had two goals: to eat boullibasse and have my hair cut. I am in Porto, Portugal right now, and happy to say that we accomplished both of these goals. Bouilliabasse is a fish stew famous from the Provence region of Southern France, particularly in Marseilles. It was delicious and I am glad that we found it. We earned it, after walking into the center of town from our hostel (2.5 hours) and searching out a restaurant that was selling it for less that 35 euro. Also, I got my hair cut, causing us to again just barely catch our flight to Porto, but it looks good and is so much easier for traveling than when it was longer. I will probably post a picture at some point, but it is quite similar to the last time I had my hair cut off, for those of you who remember it.
This brings us to Porto. We are so excited to be here still. Last night after getting in, we walked around for a while and saw quite a few cathedrals all lit up. Many of their buildings here are tiled, and they are hideously gaudy and gorgeous at once. I love them. We walked all over Porto today, and by all over I mean that all together we probably spent about 7 hours just walking. But we saw a lot of the city, and disregarding the painful blisters on my feet and the many hills and stairs that we climbed, and then walked down only to climb again, it was beautiful. We made it to the coast and saw the ocean, we spent time in the center where the river goes through town, I got pictures of quite a few bridges, and to wrap things up, we tried Port, which is from Porto and also the thing it is famed for. Never having had it, or even having wanted to try it, it was truly a cultural experience. We went to the museum of Port first to learn about it, and then finally found the recommended cafe to have it. I had mine with chocolate cake, and learned why port is an after dinner drink. It is a sweet, strong, wine served in small amounts and is certainly a slow sipping drink. We really liked it and are glad that we got the chance to try it here in Porto.
Besides that, things have worked our swimmingly for us to go to Lisbon tomorrow, so we are on our way. I am looking forward to more of Portugal. Both Justin and I agree that Portugal is not like anywhere else either of us has ever been. And of course, as always, being here really inspires me to learn the language. It is just close enough to seem easy, and just different enough to seem entirely exotic and beautiful. Perhaps someday I will speak all the languages. I think I would like that, but for now, I guess I will stick to learning the essential words and traveling where I can get.
In Marseilles we had two goals: to eat boullibasse and have my hair cut. I am in Porto, Portugal right now, and happy to say that we accomplished both of these goals. Bouilliabasse is a fish stew famous from the Provence region of Southern France, particularly in Marseilles. It was delicious and I am glad that we found it. We earned it, after walking into the center of town from our hostel (2.5 hours) and searching out a restaurant that was selling it for less that 35 euro. Also, I got my hair cut, causing us to again just barely catch our flight to Porto, but it looks good and is so much easier for traveling than when it was longer. I will probably post a picture at some point, but it is quite similar to the last time I had my hair cut off, for those of you who remember it.
This brings us to Porto. We are so excited to be here still. Last night after getting in, we walked around for a while and saw quite a few cathedrals all lit up. Many of their buildings here are tiled, and they are hideously gaudy and gorgeous at once. I love them. We walked all over Porto today, and by all over I mean that all together we probably spent about 7 hours just walking. But we saw a lot of the city, and disregarding the painful blisters on my feet and the many hills and stairs that we climbed, and then walked down only to climb again, it was beautiful. We made it to the coast and saw the ocean, we spent time in the center where the river goes through town, I got pictures of quite a few bridges, and to wrap things up, we tried Port, which is from Porto and also the thing it is famed for. Never having had it, or even having wanted to try it, it was truly a cultural experience. We went to the museum of Port first to learn about it, and then finally found the recommended cafe to have it. I had mine with chocolate cake, and learned why port is an after dinner drink. It is a sweet, strong, wine served in small amounts and is certainly a slow sipping drink. We really liked it and are glad that we got the chance to try it here in Porto.
Besides that, things have worked our swimmingly for us to go to Lisbon tomorrow, so we are on our way. I am looking forward to more of Portugal. Both Justin and I agree that Portugal is not like anywhere else either of us has ever been. And of course, as always, being here really inspires me to learn the language. It is just close enough to seem easy, and just different enough to seem entirely exotic and beautiful. Perhaps someday I will speak all the languages. I think I would like that, but for now, I guess I will stick to learning the essential words and traveling where I can get.