Last Night in France

Hey there,

It's late, and I'm tired, but I wanted to share a couple of thoughts with you before I leave tomorrow. 

I have been so blessed with unexpected kindness this year. Moving abroad is hard, especially when you're not there long enough to really plant roots. It can be difficult to introduce yourself and expect someone to put effort into a relationship with you when you're leaving 2 months after you meet them. That being said, the people who do try and who go out of their way to be helpful are some of the best people in this world.  I cannot even explain how much I appreciated anytime that someone took a couple extra seconds to make sure I understood what they were talking about and to have a conversation with me. Seriously, that is a big deal. 

And what about me? Am I a new person? Have I changed?  I don't know about that, but I like to think that my lenses are a little wider, that my tolerance has increased, and that I better understand the importance of kindness. If I walk away with that, it's a success. The French is just a bonus. 

So, am I sad to leave? Heck yes. But I am so excited for the next few weeks and then to be home that I can hardly handle myself. On to the next adventure, I say. Tomorrow will just be about breathing, appreciating the country that I'm in, and the people I've grown to care so much about. 

So until the next time, this is la fille qui rit signing off for the last time from France.

Much love,

Angie 

Learning French: Youtubers I Love

Fellow French Lovers,

With all the resources out there, it would be silly to not use Youtube as a way to improve your French.  The only problem is that all those resources are out there.  Sometimes it's just too overwhelming. So, French learners of the world, I present to you the list of French Youtubers that I know and watch and recommend.

Cyprien: This guy (along with Norman, who I don't watch as often) is the golden child of French Youtube.  People know him, they think he's funny, and his videos are always widely viewed.

Comme Une Francaise: I love this woman. Her videos are all in English, but she lays out very useful French phrases and helps explain French thinking on some basic, everyday things that are incredibly useful like not to say "Bonjour" twice to someone in the same day.  I watch her videos often, and she's great about adding a new one every week.

Golden Moustache: This is a cohort of Frenchies who all make videos and put them on the same channel.  They are hilarious, and have a bit of everything. My personal favorites are the Suricate videos.  What's your favorite?

If you find yourself really liking these videos, you may want to check out Suricate's Julien Josselin's channel for vlogs to hear more conversational French.

Another similar Youtube channel is Palmashow which I don't personally watch a ton, but I've heard good things about!

Parole de Chat: If you are at all entertained by the cat mania that has taken over the internet, you will love this channel.  It's like AFV for animals in French, just not always family friendly.  It always makes me giggle.  And there are English subtitles, which is sometimes helpful, and sometimes just funny.

Herve Cuisine: If you're a Food Network addict like me, you will really enjoy Herve's channel.  It's great to learn the cooking vocab, and make you crazy hungry all at once.  I also really like his channel because he seems like a guy that just really likes to cook, started making videos, and is determined to make a living off doing something he loves.  I'm always down to support people like that.

madmoiZelle: This is a channel all for women! It's a hodgepodge of fashion, bands, interviews, and anything else that someone wanted to make a video about.  It's another well-known channel in France.

Bonjour Lovelies: If you're looking for your hair, makeup, and fashion fix, you need this channel.  This woman has great style, and I love that her videos aren't scripted which means the French is more authentic and conversational. 

Disney FR: Disney's French Youtube channel. You can now watch "Libérée, Délivrée" nonstop.  

So there you go! I often find that it's much easier to work on French comprehension when you enjoy the videos you are watching, so I hope that at least one of these channels suits your tastes and helps in your French learning endeavors.  If you have other channels that you enjoyed, I'd love to know about them as well.  Don't hesitate to leave a comment below!

Love from France,

Angie

Easter 2014

Easter is just one cool holiday.  We celebrate Jesus rising up from the grave, there's awesome music at mass, we eat ridiculous amounts of food, and we hang out with family.  What's not to love about that?  Nothing, I tell you, nothing...except for maybe double negatives.

As I was in Saumur visiting my friend Allison for Easter weekend, I wasn't able to go to my "regular" church, although nothing has been regular about my weekend schedule this year, so that was no big deal.  We found a church which had a nice mass. I missed "Jesus Christ is Risen Today", but whatcha gonna do, kids?

And then our friend Rebecca, who is also an American teaching English in France for the year, had us over for a ridiculously delicious brunch.  Get your droolers ready.

Rebecca made this unreal quiche filled with zucchini, lardons (look it up if you don't know what it is..definitely worth your time), and comté (yummy, gooey cheese).  With it, she served fresh green beans (bought at the Saumur outdoor market) covered in garlic and almonds.  SO GOOD.

With it, we had a nice magnum (double bottle) of bubbly that we purchased on a tour and tasting at a wine cave the day before.  As champagne (but we can't call it that because it is technically from Champage...whatever..) is a specialty of Saumur, it was both highly appropriate and highly delicious.  And because we're goofs, we had a couple photo shoots with the bottle.

Who needs men when you have a bottle of bubbly?

France has really changed me.

Note: bottle is empty.

And if that wasn't already delicious enough, Rebecca made crêpes from scratch with a homemade salted caramel sauce that tasted almost too good for human consumption...almost.  We were all just eating the sauce out of the pan afterwards.  It was too good to resist.

Topped with strawberries and happiness.

I know I've said this a few times, but I'm always hesitant around holidays here.  Without family, it can be a little hard to not be bummed out on missing all the fun.  However, this weekend was a total success, and I can say with all my heart that I had a wonderful Easter weekend.  Thanks to all my friends for keeping it real and delicious with me.

Lovesies,

Angie

PS - Rebecca cooked this whole meal in her little French apartment kitchen. Mad props, girl.

Castle Time!

So this weekend we went to the ridiculously gorgeous castle of Chambord.

Gorg, right?!

Unreal.  But guess what! They built that thing without thinking about a kitchen, so it was a total pain in the butt to eat anything there.  Its whole existence should be brought into question.  Why have a building you can't eat in?

Regardless, it was a great Saturday spent with wonderful friends, new and old.

Me & My Buddy, Allison

I was goofy.  Shocker.

My Saturday crew!

Nice quick trip! I'll be missing these Loire Valley treasures when I leave France on Sunday!

Lovesies,

Angie

Moving to France: Phone

Hello, all!

[Friends and family, skip this post...unless you're planning on moving to France soon.]

As new TAPIF-ers are being chosen, I thought I'd add some words of not-quite-wisdom to this blog that will at least give you one option for what to do when you arrive in France.

Phones. A necessary expense, but luckily France has extremely affordable plans.  I personally went with SFR's RED online deals.

I chose the third plan for 20 euros a month.  All the big providers like B & You and Free Mobile (but not Orange!) have identical plans. So why SFR?  I liked that I could have unlimited calls home, the price was reasonable, and their wifi kept popping up everywhere.  With their plan, you can log into an app that will automatically sign you into SFR Mobile Wifi throughout France, which I used pretty often.

To be honest, I could have probably gotten away with the 12 euro plan as I rarely used all of my data, but I think that has more to do with how slow the phone I have is.

Speaking of, before you leave France, make sure that your phone has a SIM card, and is unlocked.  I had a Galaxy S2 before leaving that I really liked, but didn't have a SIM card (how is that even possible?!).  Luckily, a family friend gave me an old iPhone 3GS which worked...although there were a ton of moments when I wished I had a phone with a better camera.

So do you need a smartphone at all?  I think with the price you can get these plans for, it's silly not to have one.  I use my phone all the time to text my family, or throw pictures on Instagram...and I get lost more often than I'd like to admit. And with all the wifi out there, you could get a cheaper plan and rely more heavily on finding free internet.

So, there it is! Any questions? Throw them in the comment section! I'd love to help any way I can.  I know preparing for and moving to another country can be stressful, so think of me as your new buddy who wants nothing more than to make your life easier!

Cheers!

Angie

Music Teacher Moments

Ok, this is officially really cool..

I joined a choir, Accord'Elles, back in the beginning of January.  They were instantly welcoming, and it's really been a joy singing with them every Tuesday night.  What's more, it's an all-women choir, which was just what I needed to feel like I was home after having been in amazing all-women choirs at SMC for the last four years. So that's already cool, right?  It gets better...

We had a concert last Sunday, and took precious pictures..

Classy, singing ladies.

Did someone say action shot?

At the concert, I had mentioned to my director (the rebel without a scarf), that I'd love to teach them a song if she'd be interested.  Well, she was interested!  So the following Tuesday, I taught them a simple arrangement of the spiritual "Yonder Come Day."  Here's the result:

Dancing or singing? Pretty much all the same for me.

Love these ladies.

This was really an incredible moment for me for a lot of reasons.  First, I was able to be a music teacher.  B. I taught a song all in French!! III. These women were kind and respectful enough to put up with my French and youthfulness and were really responsive to me as a teacher.  4. I was able to leave a little musical memory of myself in France.

See? I told you it was going to be a cool post.

Harmonically yours,

Angie

PS: All of these photos are stolen from a woman in my choir! Thanks, Christine!

Accord'Elles 2014

So that's what they're calling a palm these days?

This is what I received for Palm Sunday. Doesn't seem very palmy to me...

Peace,

Angie

A Weekend in Rennes

Yo, gangstas! Wasssuppp?!?!

Enough of that, I know.

Anyway, last weekend I went to Rennes, the capital of Bretagne (or Brittany) with my friend Allison!

She's beautiful.

We were only in Rennes for about 26 hours, but man, did I have a good time! While we were there, we wandered the town, acting like the huge tourists we are...

We rented an apartment through airbnb, and took waaaay too many pictures with the cat that lives there.

Friendly guy.

Tried our hand at the infamous Rennes night scene, which was everything we had hoped it to be and more.  Showing Frenchies how to dance in an old, underground jail? Check.

And then I woke my butt up the next morning, realized I would be about 15 minutes late for the mass I had planned on going to, stopped at this church instead, met a really nice French woman who's been teaching English for years and has actually worked with many English assistants, met her American friends who are teaching in Rennes during this year and the next, was asked to read the Prayers of the Faitful at mass, said I'd love to as long as they didn't mind my American accent, read the intentions (in my American accent), and had a nice talk about ways to live abroad with the American couple I met.  This was easily a highlight of the year for me.

So though we weren't there long, I will forever hold my memories of Rennes near to my heart. Wonderful trip with a great friend. 

Phew. I think I'm almost caught up on blog posts now.

Lovesies.

Angie

My Favorite Crêperie

Hey, everybody!

There are few things that I love to do more than eating, so this blog post is dedicated to the best (and pretty much only) place to eat out in the town of Savenay: my crêperie, O Crêp'uscule.

The food is wonderful, and the service is even better.  Though we only went there six or seven times over our six months there, the server knew us about half way through the year.  By the end, we were telling him about our plans for next year, why we were here, discussing language differences, and laughing at the fact that he still spoke in hyper speed.

Open every day except Tuesday (I think), this little restaurant seats no more than 40, so you always feel like you're sitting in someone's really nice dining room.  I just can't say enough about how much I'll miss this crêperie.

He's the man.

Note about the picture: I would have cropped it so that you could see everyone's faces better, but I love that you can see the restaurant a little this way.  Just behind that counter is the little kitchen where they cook all the crêpes.  If I'm not mistaken, they only cooking surfaces for three crêpes or galettes at a time.  It's the best!!

Much love to all,
Angie

The Big Two Three

So, I turned 23, the beginning of the end of birthdays that are inherently really cool, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy myself all the same!!

Spoiled with birthday love.

Even though I haven't been home for any of my previous four birthdays, I was a little worried that it would be a bummer to be so far away from everyone on the 19th of March.  Oh was I wrong...

One of my colleagues at the collège where I work invited me over for lunch with her three precious daughters. That obviously worked out well. I now live with her.

Then, my awesome, awesome roomie, Natalie, offered to make me lasagna for my birthday without even knowing that's my go-to birthday meal at home.  Talk about wonderful.

Yes, it was as delicious as it looks.

I was also just showered with lots of birthday love from friends and family around the world. It was really a special day that showed me how strongly you can feel love from people, no matter what the distance!

My turn to wear the birthday hat.

 Lovesies.
Angie

St. Paddy's in Nantes

Apparently St. Patrick's Day is really gaining popularity in France.  As it was Bailey's last night here, and, well, one of the best holidays in the year, we decided to try our luck going out in Nantes. Not only were there people out, they were all over the place! Every pub had people inside, outside, and down the street.  What a fun atmosphere!! They were even throwing St. Paddy's paraphernalia off the roof of one pub we visited.  I got a little hat.

Cheers.
Angie

And to finish in Nice...

We spent a day doing nothing but strolling the market, eating 1.5 kilos of strawberries, and sitting on the beach.

This is the life.

Good times.

Angie

Gelato Break

There are many beautiful things to see in this world, and there's this:

Delicious gelato.

Bailey and I made a stop at Fenocchio (pronounced like "Pinocchio" with a strange "p" turns into "f" speech impediment) while we were in Nice, and can I just same yum?!

Here are the flavors we selected. See if you can guess which is which:

passion fruit, cassis (blackcurrant), salted caramel, Bailey's, cactus, and spicy chocolate

Worry not. They were all delicious.

Mmm.

Angie

Row, Row, Row Your Yacht

So this is Monaco:

What a gorgeous place, right? Because of their tax laws, it often attracts the rich and richer, which means that we had some fabulous boats to oogle at.  Ya, oogle.

Well-chosen name.

These will go nicely with our new wheels. Thank you.

We tried our hardest to meet a couple of handsome, young yacht owners who wanted to whisk us away, but alas, all I whisked was gelato into my stomach. No complaints!!

Much love!

Angie

Trying Our Luck at the Monte Carlo

Bonjour a tous,

Guess what! We get to keep living the fun of my trip with Bailey through pictures and happiness!! WOOOO!!!

So, while we were in Nice, the same day that we stopped in Èze Village, we went to the sovereign city-state of Monaco. (No, totally did not have to look that up.)

Our first stop off the bus was the beautiful Monte Carlo!

It's the one on the left.

Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside, or else I'd show you what the lavish interior looked like.  We did, however, try our hand at some slot machines. I lost my 10 euro reeeeeally quickly. We don't need to talk about it.

Probably my favorite part of the Monte Carlo was all of the ridiculously beautiful cars parked out front.  Bailey convinced me to take a separate trip back up to the casino because we didn't take any pictures with the cars the first time.  I am so glad she did because if she hadn't we wouldn't have these beautiful snapshots:

My new ride.

Yes please.

Just stopping by the casino for a minute.

Girl's Day Out!

This was a huge reminder that sometimes you just have to be a tourist.  I'm pretty sure that every local was cracking up at us, but it was totally worth it!

Much love to all of you!
Angie

Gettin' Essited!!

Hey, everyone!!

I just wanted to let you know that I'm super excited to move in with family. It could be a terrible idea, but I know it's not. You want to know how I know? Because there's no way in heck this happiness is going to have anything but a good time there!

So, go and choose your happy, people! Today is as full of smiles as you make it!

WOO! Time to go finish packing!!

Lovesies,
Angie

And This Is What My Apartment Looks Like Mid-Packing

Too bad you can't see the bed covered in piles of clothes!

I really should work on shortening those titles. 

Peace,

Angie

A Walking Tour of My Apartment in Photos

Hey, everyone!

Big news! I'm moving in with a super precious French family tomorrow evening.  I'll be there through the end of my time here, so I thought this, my last night in the apartment, would be the perfect time to put up pictures of my beautiful home in Savenay.

Without further ado, I present to you my apartment...

When you walk in the door, this is the first thing you see: my kitchen!!

AKA YUM ROOM

Let's look around to our right, shall we?

Oh hey there, little oven!

You still make no sense to me.

 

So there's one half of the kitchen.

Our lovely little table.

Check out the year on that bad boy.

So, that's the door you came in through.  Let's go back out and to the left to see the other rooms!

Ooooh! Hallway!

 First door on the left is:

Natalie's Room!

P.S. I totally did not ask before taking these picture of her room. Sorry, Natalie!

Back to the hallway. Next stop: first door on the right!

And here we are...

Woo! Sink!

And our lovely shower.

So, that's it for that room.  You may have noticed something's missing from a typical bathroom, and you are right... if you're not in France!  The toilet is generally in its own little haven in French homes.

Back to the hallway!

Now we'll go all the way down to the end of the hallway, and down the stairs...

And there she is.

Complete with pink toilet paper.

And there's only one room left!! I bet you can guess which one it is...

MY ROOM!

Welcome!

My bed!

My wall and desk!

My clothes!

My post card and map wall!

Another picture of my bed!

Well, kids, I think that's about all! That's where I've been living for the last 6 months, and I must admit I am a little sad to leave it.  My room has been home, and I've made a ton of great memories here, but I am so excited to spend a few weeks living with a French family! I'm sure it will be a great end to a wonderful year.

Love from France,

Angie