"So how's it goin', Sarah?" : a response.

this is the giant screen for the International Animation Film Festival





Well...

I love my life here in Annecy. I'm on permanent vacation here. My job is over in Aix-les-Old people and I've moved to Annecy to hang out with people I know here (including, of course, my cheri Max). I'm living in an apartment in the center of the old town with 2 French people (sometimes more) and 2 Irish people. We eat breakfast together, usually around noon and then, if it's warm, we go to the lake to swim and bask in the sun. No mosquitoes + very little humidity + 88 degree weather + clear blue lake + stunning mountains around the clear blue lake = permanent bliss. We eat dinner around 9 or 10. Eat, sleep, go to the beach. Some days I take my bike and ride along the bike path beside the lake until I get too tired. Other days I stay in and teach myself how to play the guitar. And when Max is not catering at the Imperial Palace (oh la la) we go kayaking or swimming or music playing somewhere. Oh yes, and I've also babysat a bit to make a little money. And by "a little money" I mean 7 Euros per hour. and SIX EUROS AFTER 9 pm. It's slave labor, I tell you. Three crazy kids for the equivalent of 9 dollars an hour? Is that right? Anyway, I'm living very modestly, to say the least.

HA! I crashed my bike into a moving car yesterday. I was turning right when suddenly my Lance Armstrong skinny tire caught the curb, and I went flying into the driver's side window of a car that was approaching. I can only imagine the driver's horror as he sees this girl on a man's blue bike, face contorted into denial, come careening into his window before rebounding in slow motion to the ground. In fact, after I hit the car I was almost able to stand up properly, but I couldn't quite get my balance and just sort of tipped over slowly to the ground. My ego was hurt worse than my scratched foot. The guy rolled down his window to ask if I was ok. No damage was done to his crap car. I had just collapsed the collapsible side mirror that he easily popped back into place. After we exchanged words, I hobbled the remaining 30 feet to my front door and waited for the adrenaline to wear off so I would shop shaking.

This week Annecy hosted an International Animation Film Festival. Animators from all over the world brought their creations to be judged and watched by thousands of people. Every night in the big park beside the lake, an animated film was played on a giant screen. I saw Lady and the Tramp (in French..weird) and Hoodwinked-The Real Story of Little Red Riding Hood (also in French, less weird). It was nice. I went to see a competition of short films that were between 3 and 40 min long. It was excellent! The films were like moving art. Beautiful. I never knew, however, that animators/animation students liked to dress and act so strangely. I mean, is it really necessary to shave your entire head except for one long dread that you tuck in front of your ear? Anyway, this week has been filled with artsy tourists with their artsy admission badges hooked securely around their necks.

In the past week I've been to 3 barbecue. First, for a Frenchman, a barbecue means neither hamburgers, nor juicy steak, nor tender roasted chicken breasts. Instead we take they roast a saucission, a sausage/hot dog like thing that is 5 thousand times better than any hot dog I've ever tasted, and put it into a piece of baguette like a little sandwich. So good. Also they roast kebabs. But never the meat alone. It's always on a kebab. No big deal though. It's delicious. So, the first bbq I went to last week was at max's house, and it poured the rain. Bummer. The next bbq was the following night at a giant house in the mountains about 1.5 hours away. We went to the birthday party of a friend of Max's. This house had 20 some beds in it, people. Insane. Anyway, there were about 25 people there and we stuffed ourselves with saussion and bread. The night went ok. I was a bit of an outsider, which is never too fun. The people that were there had all been friends for 10 odd years or something ridiculous like that, and it can be difficult to force yourself into a group. In addition, I was awake until past 5 am because some creative boys thought it would be fun to go "mountain climbing" up and down the wooden stairs in the center of the house. Equipped with ski poles for banging on the stairs and heavy boots for "climbing" they succeeded in waking up the entire house with their racket. Eventually I cracked and, in an angry, sleep-deprived daze, I made them turn over their ski poles and threw them in the kitchen. I don't know why I thought that would be effective, but luckily it was. Of course they all make fun of me the next day. But it was worth it; I would have exploded otherwise. These people are all around 21-23 years old! Amazing. I guess I can say I enjoyed the experience of celebrating some girls birthday in a chalet in the mountains overlooking Mount Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe.

The last bbq I went to was yesterday night, again celebrating the birthday of a friend of a friend. But this guy was turning 30 instead of 22. HA the difference. We were about 15 people from all over France and the EU. It was really nice. Lots of good food and plenty of pushing people into the pool in the backyard. I sort of pushed myself in charge of starting and maintaing the bbq itself, because, well, I really like fires. So I successfully lit the fire (despite critique from a rather large, self-confident guy who very UNsuccessfully lit his side of the fire, HA) and cooked the saucissions. We had couscous and chocolate cake, olives and raspberry tarte. I talked to many people and had a nice time.

I feel like I'm at an awkward time or awkward age right now, though. I don't really fit in with other French people my age, because they are all still in school, and somehow I feel more mature than them. But I don't fit in with people slightly older than me because they all have jobs and are seem more mature than me. I'm jobless and don't know what I'm doing. I feel in the middle.

Speaking of feeling in the middle, I am having a lot of difficulty with this "leaving France" situation that's soon approaching. I know now that I am on a waiting list for next year (to repeat this program as a teacher), just like all Americans, and must wait for someone to decline the position before I'm offered a position. So I could find out as late as the end of September. It makes me crazy knowing I could leave France not knowing if or when I'll return. Not to mention Maxime. I'm going to really hate being separated from him, not knowing when we'll see each other again. GRR. I love this city and my life here and I don't really want to leave. I do, on the other hand, want to see my family and friends, but I want to know I'm coming back to continue relationships and things here. I'm leaving in one month now, and will be home sometime in the third week of July. I need to come home though because I need to make money before I come back. I can't work here sufficiently enough to support myself. It's so obnoxious. So I guess I'll just wait and see what happens and try not to worry about it too much. There's not much I can do but wait around and enjoy my time here.

Oh yeah, babysitting French kids is a riot. I think I've forgotten about kids. I don't know what to do with them or what they are capable of. I just kind of stared at them for awhile at first, the three of them, and then started making faces and showing off my muscles. They cracked up. It's so weird though because I don't know how to talk in French to little kids. The kids loved it when I would make a grammatical mistake. They thought it was hilarious and pointed it out every time. Ha ha, so funny. And then the worst: I had to read them kiddy stories before bed! Quel horror! I could never tell if the words were invented words or if they were just words I weren't familiar with yet. Plus, when I read aloud in French I don't always immediately follow the story, because I'm concentrating too hard on the words themselves. Then, I lose the main ideas of the story and have to pretend to understand and encourage comprehension of it. It's tragic. I guess I need more practice.