Home Sweet Home

It's already been 3 weeks since I touched down in France and have made Montlucon my temporary home! Time flies quickly, and there has not been a moment (except within the first 24 hours) where I've not felt at home.  I feel as if I've been here forever, and tasks such as going to the post office, the bank and other places like that are starting to become easier (before they were scary-I would recite to myself over and over the script I prepared in my head!). Even though I feel like I've been here forever, there are always new challenges creeping up on me; I'm still working on completely understanding the television-I watch a lot of Friends and E! shows since I know those plot lines and I have a better shot at picking up what's being said, lol.  Many of you that I have spoken with have been asking me about my apartment, and if you've skyped with me you've been able to get a glance at my new pad.  But for those of you I haven't had the luxury of skyping with (add me! hbuskard), here are a few pictures for you to look at:

Living/dining room

that, friends and family, is our refrigerator

and this is our electric stove (Jose had to teach me how to use it)

My bedroom

Mere laughed out loud when I told her that this is my closet. I know anyone reading this will laugh out loud too!

Nous sommes tes moutons!

Traveling around Europe has become my new hobby now that I am here, and there is no better place to kick off my new hobby than Paris.  We (Jose, Caely and I ) hopped a train Friday night to Paris to spend the weekend sightseeing and relaxing. We stayed in a youth hostel in the 18th Arrondisement, which is where things like Sacre Coeur, the Moulin Rouge and Montmartre are located. In fact, we had a view of the top of Sacre Coeur from our little room in the hostel...

Saturday we spent the day sightseeing, hitting all the hotspots; Caely and I were very fortunate to have our very own personal guide, Monsieur Jose, who really and truly grew up in Paris.  He knows the metro system, where everything is and how to be a Parisian, and not just a tourist.  We told him that we were his followers, his lemmings, or his "moutons" (sheep) because she and I would be trailing behind him ever so slightly so that we could follow him and blend in.  He pretty much had two shadows for the weekend, but he is too much of a gentlemen to just desert us in Paris. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll just post some of the pics I took on Saturday....

Sunday, after we dragged our tired bodies out of bed, we dragged our tired bodies to the Jardin du Luxembourg, where we napped, read and lounged for about 3 hours. Seriously. The gardens are so beautiful and the sun was shining (it doesn't like to do that very often here in Montlucon) so we grabbed 6 chairs and parked ourselves right by the fountain.  We didn't even want to move for lunch, so Caely and I went in search of food to bring back to our little piece of paradise.

It was most certainly a weekend in Paris well spent, and I'm sure it will be something we do quite often if we find ourselves with some extra free weekends.

Establishing life in France: Steps 1 & 2

The first, and a very important step when you move to a new country, is to acquire an address. For those of you that might care to send me some fun snail mail, my address is as follows:

Mlle Heather Buskard

1 Rue Mme Stael

03100 Montlucon

France

The next step in acclimating yourself to a new life in a new country is to make friends with a local bar owner that is super nice, and let's you use his internet for as long as you'd like, even if you've only bought one drink.  

This little bar/cafe has become our second home, since we do not yet have internet in our apartment.  It's a great little hang out place, and we enjoy coming here.  We get to talk with some of the locals, including the little kids that venture in here to play the Wii that Greg (the owner) has connected to the tv in the place.  Yesterday we spent our afternoon here playing Mario Kart with French kids! If that's not a great way to acclimate yourself to this culture, then what is?

La vie en France thus far!

Hello friends & family! 

I hope you are all doing well back in the good ole USofA! My new friend Caely, who comes from Michigan, and I arrived Thursday afternoon in our town (Montlucon), slighly worse for the wear after lugging luggage through 3 Paris metro trains, a two and a half hour train ride and then another 2 hour bus ride; but we managed to make it in one piece, luggage and all! :) 

Most French high schools often have places of residences for some of their teachers and teaching assistants, and that is my new semi-permanent home. It is nice being on the campus of the high school, because nothing is very far away.  It is also nice to be there because the other language assistants are living there as well.  There are four in total- 2 Americans, 1 Austrian and 1 Spanish.  Our conversations are very interesting from day to day, as Jose, the Spanish assistant, does not speak much English, and the other American assistant does not speak much French; but with the help of hand gestures, visuals, and lots of "Comment dit-on ______ en francais?" we manage to get by.

School here in France has been in session for about a month, and tomorrow I will get to observe one of the classes I will be assisting.  Everyone here thus far has been nothing but gracious, kind and extremely helpful, including Jose, who really is completely bilingual, having lived in Paris for 12 years (maybe we depend on him a bit too much right now! ;)).  

As much as I am loving being in this country right now, please know I miss all of you back in the States! Perhaps the next time I write I will have some pictures that I could show you of my new life here in France!

A bientot!

Heather