Of course all by my own doing, I hit the ground running on my first day back from my two month adventure in the States. It was SO incredible to be back with my family and friends. In the city I love. In cities I loved before. In cities I saw for the first time. It's hard to believe how fast it flew by. Well not that hard if you consider I went back and forth from Seattle, Yakima and Tacoma, to San Francisco, Houston and New Orleans. At this moment I am pondering how exactly am I going to choose the pictures for this blog entry??? TBD*****. I got some quality time with my family individually and, well, as much as a whole as I could. It's hard when everyone lives in different parts of the state! Of course I would have loved to have more, but it was time to go back to work, and I was ready (amazingly enough) to pole jump across the world back onto that bandwagon.
*** I decided pics of my family (and Seattle) as a small tribute to my grand affection for them (and it)
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| The Sistahs (minus one) at Carrie's babyshower |
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| Me and the Bro doin' a little tribute to our man Jim Croce after the Hawks came. |
I spent my flight from Seattle to Paris next to a lovely French woman in about her early 60s, I imagine. She was petite and very sweet, speaking in soft voice as we were trying to figure out why our headphones weren't working. I was oh so pleasantly surprised when, after several hours of flight and two movies/plane "sleep" later, she orders a Cognac after I order my baby bottle of red. The conversation took a different speed then, and then next thing I knew we were landing in Paris. Merci MMe Michaud! I was able to practice my French for more or less the entire 11hour flight to Paris, with an offer to stay at your chalet near Geneva. Merci beacoup! I'm off to a good start coming back to begin my new year...
I continued to feel that way when the nice gentleman in his late 40s with whom I sat with on my flight to Marseille, of which I barely made by the skin of my teeth thanks to delayed flights and passport security, offered to show me how to get the shuttle from the airport to the gare in Marseille. I knew how to do it, but I enjoyed his pleasant company and the chance to speak as much French as I could before seeing ma famille Marseillais, and put to the test on my "loss of French" from my trip.
I was still feeling good even after the fact that AirFrance did not actually transfer my bags back in Paris, because the cute little " sorry-we-lost-or-misplaced-your bags" bag with my new travel toothbrush and oversized T-shirt and promise that my bags would be delivered that evening made it all seem ok. I think delirium had set in to not set me off, because I honestly didn't care. I had to go to Lycee Perier, the Immigration Office and La Banque all before I would be able to even unpack anyways. It's all about how you look at things, right?
The meeting at the high school was to get all my documents necessary for the large meeting at the University of Provence the day after with the rest of the Language Assistants of Provence. Of course I thought I had every document necessary as I checked it all off the list, but of course there was something missing, and I needed to return back to the school. Same thing goes with my second appointment at the Immigration office. (shit - I still need to go back there!) But this is France and how she does things and why she drives me crazy and thus why sometimes the strain on our relationship.
There had been talk about my saying a few words to the incoming Assistants about my experience with some helpful tips, and while I had asked the Rectorat a few times over the summer if this is something I would actually be doing, it wasn't until the day before at the rendez-vous chez American Consulate that Mr. X (and I'm just gonna leave his/her name out for all intended purposes) that I was asked if I would mind speaking. Of course I said of course, and asked if it would be ok if I did it in English, feeling a lot tried, a bit lazy, and more than a touch annoyed that they hadn't answered my emails asking about this before. "Yes, yes. Sure. Just 5 minutes, d'accord?" I remember the year before one of the returning Assistants mentioning (in English) something about "eating a different cheese everyday". While this was a very good tip and one that I followed to a large extent, I wanted to give this new group of 200+ people a few more practical pieces of advice. I practiced my speech with my lovely departed Wifey, Marianne, who was also returning for a second year of assisting. She was going to cover a few cultural topics, while I mentioned several helpful hints.
I've never been nervous about speaking in front of groups of people. Seriously. Yeah, yeah... In the chain of life's biggest fears, death follows a close second to public speaking. Or so the rumor goes. I dunno- Call it a gift. Until now. When I stood in front of all those people in that lecture all, I could barely keep the microphone from slipping out of my shaking, sweaty hands. So I begin, with Marianne by my side, and about 30 seconds in I am interrupted by one of the ladies from the Rectorat. She walks up to me, takes the microphone out of my hand and says, " Yeah, I think its better if you do this in French." I just stood there and stared at her. My jet-lagged, dehydrated, only slept 7 hours in the 48 that I've been in Marseille brain that wrote a speech in English because you asked me to yesterday, was absolutely frozen. I literally couldn't move. Thank gawd, I repeat, THANK GAWD Marianne was there to grab that sweaty mic out of my hand and launch her cultural piece to the crowd. I gathered myself to the best of my ability and translated what I wanted to say, condensing my 5 minutes into 20 seconds because suddenly, somehow, we were out of time. Ironic indeed, as after Marianne and I sat down in our seats, the Rectoract finished the next part of their presentation and then stalled for 15 minutes while they waited for the late guest speaker to arrive. This was a moment when I really, really wanted to break up with France.
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| Giving Gma a ride back home (see FB album for the full, hilarious journey). |
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| My Mama and Sistah. |
Alas, I am back at Lycee Perier and getting back into my groove. France and I for the most part are on good terms, with no plans to break up in the near future. I am back in my home, my bed, ma famille Marseillais, mes amis. My park I love to run in, the Mediterranean I love to swim in (and I did,see?! In mid October!), the Mistral that reminds me where I live. Let another year of adventures begin.
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| Me swimming in Carry-le-Rouet 15 Oct |
