J'ai dit NON

I want you all to know that I accidentally partied with 18-19 year olds last night, and this morning after reviewing my photos (which i uploaded on fb already) I realized some of them are my students. ALso, I def recognized one of my students last night and went up to the bar where he was behind the counter (which was actually some kind of abaondoned/empty building) and said in english, "Where can I get a drink?" We just stared pretty dumbfounded at each other but ended up having a good clean time together. He left before I got absolutely wasted with the other girls, as none of our usual boy counterparts were along for the night, and probably wouldn't have allowed us to leave the well lit bar we were at to go to the dark and secluded "house party" 10 minutes away. Word to the wise French jungle juice involves any possible liquor and whatever boxed juice is available on the countertop/elevated dance platform.

It was fantastic. The French in so many ways are more reserved than Americans which makes large raucous parties less about Seven Minutes in Heaven and more about dancing in a circle with your arms clasping the stranger's next to you. Although the French and maybe Europeans in general still have that sense of patriarchy which governs male-female relationships, something which I don't think is as prominent at home. For example. During the party, this guy grabbed me and made me dance with him to the song Johnny Be Good (no freaking joke), and tried to kiss me out of nowhere before I shoved away. Then a SECOND guy grabbed me when we were outside together and tried to kiss me. After that I marched inside the warehouse/covert operations headquarters and announced in English, "I'M READY TO LEAVE NOW" and launched into a slurred tirade on how in MY country we have marketing campaigns against forceful come-ons. Terrible tourist.

Despite all of that, I've been dying to find where the kids hang out and what happens when the 3 bars in town close at 1 a.m. and am now completely satisfied. Now I feel settled in and don't feel like I'm missing so much at home. I feel like I can enjoy my experiences here and not wonder who's singing what at Sardos.

I got to bed at 4:30 in the morning after eating a can of Tartiflette (fancy potatoes and ham) all in all very pleased with the evening and this general case study on French culture and teenage social settings I call 'work'.

Settler'd In

It's December and I'm well nigh settled in after 2 months in France. I haven't really REALLY gotten homesick (despite my last entry) except for on Thanksgiving day. Explaining to my students the deliciousness of pumpkin pie (which you can't find in France) and telling the day's general timeline of Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, football, food, sleep, football, food, sleep was just depressing. "In my country in approximately 4 hours...."
It's a pretty incredible thing that a country the size of the United States engages for the most part in one holiday from coast to coast. Shops shut down, people migrate home, and turkeys meet a butcher for the first and last time from California to New York. I made a powerpoint explaining the somewhat tainted history of Thanksgiving and describing how modern day Thanksgiving came to be, including: The presidential turkey pardon each year dating back to Truman and Black Friday. I never really gave much thought to this holiday as anything more than a TON of food and as I grew up, an excuse to meet old high school friends and get drunk on college vacation. Trying to convey TG's significance to a bunch of non-American teenagers and feeling the heaviness of home sickness (maladie du pays) actually gave Thanksgiving the validity that 24 years of Hallmark always tried to but could never accomplish.
The 5 Americans in Vernon created the most impressive Thanksgiving dinner of substitute ingredients that ever was and shared it with our English and German counterparts to unanimous applause. Delicious. Because if there's one thing the French and TG have in common, it's butter.

December 1st: SNOW! Yes, I've seen falling snow 2 or 3 times, and been to Tahoe and snowboarded (attempted to) but I have never lived in it. It. Is. Glorious. COLD. But glorious. It's 5 days in and I'm still giddy at the sight of the now brown clumps. Will this honeymoon period last through March (as I'm sure the snow will)? Who knows! For the time being I'm exhausting my camera and enjoying the frostbite :)