finishing up...

My job contract was supposed to just be for the month of August. Then the end of August I found out that I was renewed for 2 more weeks. Then last Saturday I found out that they added 1 more week. So technically I'll finish up tomorrow. I'm replacing a woman that comes to work maybe a month or two out of the year and as she has a CDI contract they can't really fire her. But as she is often out "sick" she might come back and then leave again.

The other good thing is that now that I've "proven" myself in a local branch the chances could be good that they call me for another position in a different town. In the meantime I'm on the look out for that dream job cause I don't hate this one but it isn't a job I see myself doing for the next 5, 10 or 20 years either... hard to say because the money and the advantages are quite good!

Baby corn!!!

You can feel that  summer is on its way out... the mornings are crisp and the wind has changed (yes, spoken like the true profound gardener! haha). This Summer was a big disappointment with Spring having the summerlike weather and too much rain in July and August... I'm hoping for Un bel été indien ...

In work news the woman I've been replacing is coming back to work September 13th so my contract which goes until September 10th most likely will not get renewed. That said she's coming back part-time so who knows what may happen. I'll have to wait to see with the director as well as HR. In the meantime I'm getting ready for some family fun in October. I'm so excited my little sister is coming to visit! She hasn't been here since I lived in Caen back in 2005 (pre-blog!!) I think it was... and I haven't seen her since I went to Australia! She's coming all the way over here for only a week so I'm planning things to do... hehe

job update

This week has been busy, a huge learning curve and on my feet all day. Plus I'm working Tuesdays through Saturday so now that it's Sunday I'm totally confused!

This have been going well. Luckily I'm familiar with the computer system from my experience with the Company last year but it's a whole new world other than that. Before I was on the phone all day, in English. Now I'm on my feet all day and dealing with customers face to face in French - aside from the random English person coming in and then asking where I learned my perfect English (haha).

I think the hardest thing is dealing with numbers. I know my numbers in French but have always had a hard time with rapid fire telephone numbers etc. So when someone comes in and spits out their number I'm trying to catch up on the quatre-vingt-douze etc by typing in a 8 first then deleting it for a 9 and then missing out on the rest of what they've just told me. But I'm getting better.

Surprisingly I haven't had too many comments on my accent, maybe once a day but never criticizing, just curiosity which is nice especially considering that I'm not working in a big city so people aren't exposed to that many foreigners around here and country folk can be extremely wary of foreigners. Luckily here in Normandy Americans still have a very good reputation from the war (not like the English and their more recent, and well deserved I might add, reputation) so when I do say I'm American people smile instead of giving me snide comments.

So the job it self is going pretty good so far. It's a one-month contract for now but there is a chance it could be  prolonged. But at least it's a great experience, my first 100% French job for a big French company and that will be nice to put on my CV in any case.

back to the grindstone

I got a call on Friday from the DRH from where I used to work in Caen offering me a 1 month contract locally for the month of August.

I jumped at the chance - not only does it look good for the unemployment office to see that I am "actively seeking work" but it might be my foot in the door working for them in the future.

I start August 2nd.

And am totally nervous.

See the thing is that I've never worked in a 100% French environment, all my jobs here up until now have been to utilize the fact that I speak English and therefore there is a certain leeway when it comes to language stumbles etc. It will still be an asset that I speak English given that there are English customers and tourists around but it will not be the focus of the position. And it is a customer service position so I'm going to be face to face with (French) customers all day long.

I am totally looking forward to the fact that I'll have an 18km commute each way instead of 118km commute each way!

The good thing is that if it all goes well it gets my foot in the door and if it really is not my cup of tea then it is only a month (and with decent pay, no SMIC this time!)

Friday market & coffee

les journee du patrimoine

This post has been a while coming! It's just been busy around here but the weekend of September 18/19 was so fantastic I didn't want this post to never see the light of day :)

My Dad and Anne came to visit the week before and sadly they left just before these "heritage days" as I guess you would call them, because I know they would have loved all of the activities as much as I did! Plus all the visits were free! We did a couple of tours last year.

First stop on Saturday was a guided tour of the stacks in Valognes. They only open once a year or for specially organized guided tours (but you have to be part of a school to get access to those ones). The librarian was really nice and very interesting. She explained the history of the library and it's collection (larger collection of medieval books than that of the Univeristy library in Caen!) Apparently one of the members of the bibilical school in the 17th century was an avid book collector and donated his collection to the church and should the school be closed to the city of Valognes. They have an extensive collection of pre-printpress books, all orginal maniscripts including quite a few illuminated ones.

It was unbelievable just to stand there, put on gloves and turn the pages! Fantastic!

Next, on Sunday Mystery Guest and I went to a few other locations. First stop was the castle in Bricquebec and had a guided tour of the castle.

We even got to go inside the tour and climb all the way to the top! That was fantastic especially since the inside of the tour is totally empty, the original flooring was wooden and has rotted away and not restored. You do really need to be on a specially guided tour to get the inside view. The guide told us some great tidbits on the history of the castle and live back then... for example, you know when you go to a museum and the beds are teeny tiny? "'Cause they were so small back then"? Actually people would sleep sitting up!! Only the dead lie down so the beds didn't need to be very long anyway!

The view from the top of the castle. Inside the castle in another building was a small museum with Norman life. One of the documents cracked me up... I don't know why but back in the day when using a printing press there was no difference between the printed letter "s" and the letter "f".... Case and point:

Je fouffigné.... LOL
Afterwards we trundled down to Saint Sauveur which has an equally cool castle as well as a museum for one of its well known writers (had never heard of him before moving here). I had wanted to see the museum but never wanted to pay the hefty entry fee. I'm glad I didn't pay! The museum is great, its really modern, lots to read and see and well organized. The only problem is that if you don't know who this guy is or the books he wrote it really isn't that interesting.

The bar across the street is named for one of his novels:

We finished up the day again with a guided tour of the castle in Saint Sauveur, again with a view from the top tour!

As well as a guided tour of the local abbey which had an amazing history of its own. There had stood an abbey in this city since the 10th century (when it was in the castle grounds) and on this location since the 11th or 12th century. When the abbey was abanndoned it fell into ruins and even was pillaged for the stones through the 18th century when a nun decided to restore the church to its former glory and add the adjoining building.

Again the guide was fabulous and really explained the history in amazing detail.

It was a long day but we go to see so much and it really makes you realize just how much history is within a 15km drive from the house... I love it!

*tap* *tap* anyone there?

I know, I'm a bad blogger, poor orphaned blog was getting lonely! But things have been insane around here. We're working on the house all the time and last weekend we moved all of our crap from V-town out to the house. It was a big game of tetris, not helped by the fact that the tile guy hadn't finished all of the grouting or the tiles along the walls. So we had to find spots to put all of our stuff, and we've got tons!

But that's done, we haven't moved in yet because again we are waiting on other people. The electrician and plumber show up when they feel like it but at least it is all tiled now. So this week we're staying with the in-laws but hopefully (fingers crossed!) it should be liveable by Monday at the latest when the electricity company comes by to hook us up to our permanent contract.

In other big news I retook my driving test again and passed! Avec un "petit oui" as the lady said. She wasn't impressed with my driving but apparently saw no major problems so she gave it to me, thank god. I was so sick of paying for more and more lessons and tried not to let the stress get to me. She did that oh-so-French thing of huffing and puffing with a big Gaelic sigh, "ohhhhhh bahhhh voyons, il faut regarder derriere vous quand meme... siiiiiighhhhhh". Whatever, I just told myself, like water off a duck's back, like water off a duck's back... it became my mantra.

So that deal's sealed, hopefully my big pink drivers license will come in the mail soon!

Work is busy and staying with the in-laws has added an extra part to the commute, it's a nice drive during the day but with these short days I'm leaving at night and coming back at night so I can't enjoy the view. That should be changing soon! I'm still enjoying my job but wondering a bit what will happen when my contract ends the end of February - those 6 months sure went by fast!

I'm starting to get my application in order for my citizenship request... once we're in the house I'll take a look to see exactly what I need and what documents need to be requested from the States and then find a certified translator.

So like I said, busy busy!! I'm looking forward to a bit of calm when we move in... and taking a long hot soak in this:

Snow!!! 5-7cm!

No luck :-(

Just took my drivers test, the guy was so mean. He totally stressed me out, it took me 4 tries to parallel park (normally i get it in 1 try!!!) and then he made a snide comment and another one when I didn't understand what he was saying in French. But the kicker was I had to turn right at a stop sign onto a busy road - looked to me left, nothing, then to the right and finally another check to the left: nada. So I went, then as I was shifting up a big jeep passed me and I failed then and there because I didn't pay attention!?!?! I never saw the guy!!
So at a yield sign I was yelled at for not not pulling out quickly enough and then failed for a car I never fricking saw.
Might not get my license for another 6 weeks now :-(

Big boo.

Sent from my iPhone

trick or treat

Happy Halloween!



The first couple years I lived in Caen I tried to spread the Halloween spirit, but like so many others have said France just isn't with the program. Not that they should be, they have Carnival and that's fun too.



But they tried, I saw kids dressed up, even had a kid come trick or treating a few days before. When I asked why he was early he said he couldn't go on Halloween cause they were leaving on vacation so he's doing it early.



Yeah, that and broad day light just doesn't cut it kid.



So I stopped carving pumpkins and having candy ready. This year I was tempted to carve a pumpkin but seeing as how we are still in our appartment we don't have a real front door so I decided to save it for next year.



Late this afternoon as the sun was going down I heard the doorbell ring, thinking it was a late birthday present I scampered down the stairs. By the time I got there and unlocked the front door no one was there. I looked around the corner and saw a Mom and her kid walking away, the little boy was probably 3 or 4 years old and dressed up as a ghost. When I said I was sorry but I didn't have any candy the mom told the kid "make the lady cry" and he yelled "BOO!" It was so cute!



Then later once Mystery Guest got back from work we heard the doorbell ring again. This time there was a group of 5 kids, dressed up as witches, spiderman and monsters. When they asked for bon-bons I had to say I was sorry but no candy. I felt horrible! Here they were in the spirit of Halloween and I didn't have any candy! It didn't even feel like some lackluster imitation, I felt like I was back in the States for a minute. By the time I realized that I had some candy upstairs left over from treats for the lycee kids they had gone and no one else came to ring the doorbell.



Next year kids we'll have a jack-o-lantern and plenty of candy for you!!

Pizza Saturday

I recently started a tradition of Pizza Saturdays. See Mystery Guest works Saturdays and gets Mondays off, I work Mondays and get Saturdays off... So it's nice to have lunch together when he comes home on Saturday. That's when Pizza Saturday started, especially after having read the best pizza dough tutorial. I make it on Saturday morning if I have time, if not I've got a stock in the freezer. Since our easy-bake oven is so tiny we can only get 1 pizza at a time, but the recipe makes enough dough for 2 so I make it, divide it in half and freeze the second ball for next time.

To make the sauce I buy the small cans of tomato paste (concentrated) and use about half a can. I add dried garlic, salt, pepper and herbs de provence until its got a nice kick. Then I layer the veggies that we've got (anything from zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, red peppers etc..) and then cheese (1 ball of fresh mozzarella cubed and a sprinkle of emmental) and then another sprinkle of herbs de provance. Whatever I want to get golden brown I leave for the top, this time was pepperoni!

Stick it in the oven for about 25 minutes and presto! Pizza Saturday!

(also YUMMY with pesto instead of pizza sauce)

vroom vroom

Last night Mystery Guest and I celebrated the fact that I finally passed the dreaded code... step 1 of getting my French license! Today I went over to the auto-ecole to drop off my paper saying I passed and to see about getting a date to take the driving exam.

It works a little differently - heck - totally differently if you're talking about the license process! But the driver's ed teacher wants me to do an hour or two more before the exam to make sure I'm ready. The cool thing is that they will pick you up from the train station to do your driving practice. So the week before I'll be doing 2 night drives, hope the sun will still be up! Hate driving at night... boo just realized that...

Then I asked when the first testing date would be, October 27th. My. Birthday. LOL! How 16 do I feel right now? Good thing is that if on the driving practice he thinks I'm not quite ready it will just push back the date by 1 week, but what a great birthday present that would be! When she said that I was reminded of this scene...



Let's hope I won't be that blond!

I've been looking for cars online now, leboncoin here I come! Any suggestions? I'm looking for something not more than 5,000e obviously with not too many km and diesel would be nice but not necessary. I see all the French brands but have no clue where to start...

journees du patrimoine

This is probably the first year that I've gone out and done stuff for the Journees du Patrimoine (this year the 19th and 20th of September). Mystery Guest and I went into town to check out the Musee du Cidre and eau de vie. Sadly neither of those offered free taste tests! But they were really interesting and well done museums with lots of local history and KSam would like it cause you see what it would have been like to live in V-town back in the day! The best part was an old cider barrel carved into a bed (see picture) that this guy did in the early 1800's - he said he was inspired by Biblical verses but it was muuuuuch kinkier than it says in the Bible!

It was fun to go into museums and not pay, no long lines out here either. Just a nice afternoon with the MG-man! :-)

elderberry syrup

After reading about Elderberry syrup on this Garlic Breath (from These Days in a French Life) and on David's fantastic blog I got inspired as I started to see these bunches of black gems weighing down tree boughs in the countryside. Both of these blogs were talking about making elderberry syrup a good month before our Norman berries were ripe... I tried to scope out where I could go foraging... Yesterday the sun was out and after tinkering with my new/old sewing machine (mine broke about 6 months ago and I only just got around to sending it back - still under warrenty - thanks Lidl!) I decided I needed to get out of the house.

Armed with scissors, a plastic bag and my podcasts I took a long walk all around V-town. I tried going down side streets where I thought I might find some trees... only blackberries. Nope, not today, save those for another time, I was after Elderberries.

I found a big tree in an abanndoned lot and managed to bend some of those hard to reach ripe berries down to picking level. I got a whole bag full and on my walk home found another tree, but these ones were wayyy to far out of reach.

Apparently elderberries are really good for you, if cooked and if you avoid the green berries/leaves/bark which apparently contain cyanide! Go figure. I read up a lot, making sure I wasn't picking some random berry that would kill me in my sleep and when I was sure I got ones that looked exactly like the real thing I set to work. Piece of cake, I boiled the berries with some water, a squirt of lemon juice and a little sugar for a good 45 minutes letting them stew a bit. Then I let the mixture cool a bit, ladled it into an old t-shirt and wrung the berries dry. I got a good bit of juice out of them. Then I added 1/2 their weight in sugar and boiled it a bit longer. When it cooled it was thicker but still not a really thick syrup. I'm curious to try it in some of the ways suggested, in yogurt, over ice cream, in water. Apparently it really boosts your immune system, good for winter and this dreaded Grippe A...

brief update

Busy!

There's my update! ;-)

No but seriously this weekend flew by... lots to update but I'm sleepy and got to get up early to go to work tomorrow. Decided to stick with the bank, after re-reading my contract the pay is actually better than I had thought... there are different bonuses (13th month etc), plus I just can't beat the atmosphere for the time being.

But in order to get paid I have to have an account with them, so I opened one up yesterday in V-town. My banker here was soooo sweet! Probably my age and a few minutes into the conversation said, well since we're colleagues do you mind if we "tu" eachother? So sweet. Plus I get all sorts of discounts on my account, cheaper bank card, monthly payments etc. So that rocks my socks.

Then today we got up bright and early to go work on the house. The pressure's on, the roofer comes on Wednesday! After huge storms last week the sun was out and it was hot this afternoon. Much better than the wind and rain. Hopefully Mystery Guest & Co. will get most of it done tomorrow (while I'm at work...) so the roofer can do his think starting Wednesday! Then the pictures will really start to change!

So that's about all I can muster for right now, I feel that until I get used to the new job and schedule posts around here are going to be a little sparce, but I'll try to do a little iPhone blogging while on the train too ;-)

Norman History

Yesterday Mystery Guest and I went geocaching in the late afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day and even though we didn't find the two caches (boo!) we had 2 really nice walks in the woods near V-town. The second cache was the most interesting because the person who set the cache up made sure to put up information about the history of this small town. Turns out that there are some famous connections! The family of Robert the Bruce of Scotland was nobility from this town (the Latin name of the town was Brus) and went over with William the Conqueror back in 1066. There is a footpath dating back from this time where the old castle used to be. They tried to reconstruct it but apparently some wars got in the way ;-)

That's what I love about living out here, there are a million little things like that which are not advertised or have a million people tramping around, even on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon like we had yesterday. Makes you feel like you discovered something special :-)
Just a little side note about Norman French, it fascinates me to no end that English was not just influenced by French as the history books say, but by Norman French with William the Conqueror. Here are some examples of the differences and how English ended up getting influenced by both Norman and standard French as time went on. (Sometimes I hear old people out here still speaking Norman and it always surprises me that it still exists... however it is not the most beautiful patois... ) Another really interesting read on all this (and more!) is Honni Soit Qui Mal Y Pense. It is written in French but it is a very very easy read, very clear and straightforward. Her books are soooo interesting!

Anglo-Norman morphology and pronunciation can be deduced from its heritage in English. Mostly this is done in comparison with continental French. English has many doublets as a result of this contrast:

• warranty - guarantee
• warden - guardian
• glamour - grammar (see below)
• catch - chase (see below)

Compare also:

• wage (Anglo-Norman) - gage (French)
• wait - guetter (French)
• war (from Anglo-Norman werre) - guerre (French)
• wicket (Anglo-Norman) - guichet (French)

The palatalization of velar consonants before the front vowel produced different results in Norman to the central langue d'oïl dialects which developed into French. English therefore, for example, has fashion from Norman féchoun as opposed to Modern French façon.

The palatalization of velar consonants before /a/ that affected the development of French did not occur in Norman dialects north of the Joret. English has therefore inherited words that retain a velar plosive where French has a fricative

PS. Does anyone know what this fruit/tree is??? It grows out by the house and is a little bigger than a blueberry and the inside is yellow and looks like a plumb... but is tiny tiny... any thoughts?

a morning walk in V-town

This morning as Mystery Guest headed out the door I took a look outside and the torrential rain from yesterday had finally stopped. There were a few rays of morning sunlight so I headed out to catch V-town as it is waking up on a Saturday morning. There are some really beautiful hidden areas of town. There's one street I wanted to photograph but I got turned around and couldn't seem to find it. I'll go back though, it's all on my front stoop :-)

hot hot hot

Well I dragged myself into the kitchen this afternoon, we've been having a heatwave (I'm not complaining! I looooove hot days but wish the beach were closer...) Anyway, hasn't really made me want to cook but I was invited to a 4th of July bbq in Bayeux tomorrow and last time I was invited to this lady's house I brought my cookies and they were a BIG hit so I offered to bring more. The dough is in the oven to chill for a bit. In this heat if I stuck them in the oven right now they wouldn't stay in nice cookie shapes but form a monster cookie me thinks.

Annnd after reading about making your own dill pickles I was inspired today at the market when I saw pickling cucumbers this morning. Usually in France you find those long cucumbers, which I adore, but I spotted some short fat ones that look just like the ones she used in her recipe. At only 50 cents each I snapped on up to try. I also managed to fenangle some fresh dill from the same lady. I've never seen fresh dill sold as an herb here (dried only) but it was attached to the bulb (finocchio) so I asked her if she could snip some of the dill off for me - score! Free dill! The spice lady also had mustard seeds for a euro a package so I picked some of those up too. Anyway I followed the recipe as best I could (without canning tools) and figured I'd keep the pickles in the fridge after canning them (instead of in the cupboard). I can't wait to try them!! (just found out they have to sit for at least 3 weeks... boo! oh well the wait will just make them taste better!) Grrr... turns out fennel and dill are NOT the same thing, even though they use the same word in French... I wonder how it's going to taste...

Phh I'm beat! I escaped the kitchen and am going to tackle some admin phone calls to the Prefecture (surprise surprise my carte de sejour wasn't ready after all... grr!) and the ANPE but something tells me the reason they're not answering their phone is that they've decided to take Friday afternoon off... grr...

vroom vroom

Just a quick driver's license update.. I've spent the whole morning on the phone doing all sorts of different things, but one good thing is that I called the DDE to see if they've gotten me a new date to pass the code. I had received a letter a few days ago saying that I would be getting a date sometime in September. I also asked if there was any possibility of either taking it in English or having more time etc because I'm not a native French speaker. He said there is 1 test offered every 3 months for non-francophones and the next one is September. So if I have to wait until September anyway I might as well take that one! It will still be in French but I'll get more time per question and if there is difficult vocab I can ask for a definition. I just think that the testing environment will be less stressful that way and I might not choke the way I did last time..

I also found out that my new carte de sejour is ready and waiting for me at the Prefecture. Problem is that my old one hasn't expired yet so they won't send me the new one. Say WHAT? It just cracked me up that they've actually managed to get a new one done before the old one expires! Normally I'd be waiting a good 4 months for a new one! I just can't believe it! Or the fact that it was the easiest carte de sejour to get ever! All I had to do was send a few documents (in the mail, not even through the mairie):

-proof of address
-copy of my old carte de sejour
-70 euros of OMI stamps
-my last paystub
-the formula they had sent me to fill out

That's it! No PACS docs or anything... I'm still holding my breath but it sounds like I'll have that puppy in my hot little hands next Tuesday! Wow...

touched

Inside the church in Barfleur.

I've been tutoring a sweet 13 year old girl in English since February. She saw my ad in a bakery and wanted desperately to get into seconde euro next year. She does fine in English but was not exceptional and mostly lacked a lot of confidence. We met once a week on Saturday morning and in the beginning we did very school based activities but it evolved into conversation, I didn't feel like I was doing a ton besides talk to her but I guess that's what she needed! In March she came over one week grinning from ear to ear; on her recent English test she got 20/20! Her grades continued to get better and better, for her oral exam the teacher couldn't see himself giving her a 20/20 so he gave her an 18, she was extatic!

Then it was crunch time, she had an interview coming up with the English profs to see if she'd get into that class next year. We worked really hard on what she should say and what kind of questions they might ask, personally I thought she sounded great. I told her not to stress out too much and she would probably be fine.

On Monday I texted her to ask how it went. Terrible, she answered.

My heart sank, we worked so hard and this little beanpole is obsessed with physics and math and knows that she already wants to be an astrophysicist- at age 13. She's a smart cookie and knows that as a scientists research and conferences are done in English and while it's not her strongest subject being in this class will help get her to where she needs to be.

Yesterday I got another text, she was accepted afterall!

Today she came over for one last session before her exams and the summer vacation with a red rose. So sweet.