First Lesson: Gender!

Jube recently volunteered to teach a community education course at a nearby school: Introduction to French Culture and Language. He was in for a bit of a shock when he read the course description...

"If you want to learn about France and its language, what better person to learn from than Jube? She is a native of France, educated at Universite Montpellier III in the south of France, and she has worked at several middle and high schools in France as an English teacher. Her informative course will cover beginning French for travelers/tourists, a discussion of contemporary French culture, and analysis of French stereotypes."

"One of my coworkers pointed it out to me," he said. "I guess the first thing I do will be to make sure they know I'm the teacher! Actually, maybe I could get you to teach the class... they'll never know the difference!"

Over the river and through the woods...

We're off! It's more like "over the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and North on 17," but we're going to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. The past few weeks have been pretty intense, so a little holiday will be great.

Have a wonderful week!

Détrompez-vous!

Le Pacha just called to talk to me about visiting the US next summer.

Le Pacha: "I'll be on vacation, and I'll bring my friend Manou! I told him that he could see some hot girls in the States."

Me: "Oh really!"

Le Pacha: "Yeah, that's right! Everyone thinks that the girls in the US are fat because they eat at McDonald's all the time. But there are skinny girls, for sure!"

Me: "And you tell your friends?"

Le Pacha: "Yeah, I tell all of them, 'Open your eyes, guys! [Détrompez-vous!] I went to America and there are definitely skinny girls there!' I show them pictures, and they all say, 'Well, they must not eat at MacDo.' I even tell them about your brother's girlfriend, that she's vegan or vegetarian, I don't know which, but that she definitely doesn't eat there."

Me: "You know she isn't vegan anymore, she eats cheese and eggs."

Le Pacha: "That must be because she visited France and tried all the good cheese!"

Me: "Yeah, that must be it. And what do you say about your belle-soeur, do you say she's fat because she eats at MacDo?"

Le Pacha: "No, you're skinny! But I can't tell my friends that you're hot, you're my sister now!"

Me: "Okay. You can come visit us in the US."

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was our first anniversary. We weren't planning on celebrating on the real day, because I had to prepare a big presentation for class. But when I got home, Jube needed to go out and get some supplies for work that he'd forgotten before, so we made a night of it and went to the Indian restaurant. Our waiter was very nice, although I think he was embarrassed to talk to women, so he addressed all of his conversation to Jube. Unfortunately Jube finds it quite difficult to understand Indian accents, and he kept trying to direct our waiter's attention toward me.

We had already gone out to eat for our anniversary on Friday night. We headed to The Monastery restaurant in downtown Norfolk. It is a very nice place with an Eastern European theme. I had duck with sauerkraut while Jube had the entrecot de boeuf grille aux champignons - the waitress said that he was the first person to pronounce it correctly.

The part of the meal that I was most excited about was our appetizer - raclette! It wasn't real raclette, since the cheese was pre-melted for us and came out as a puddle on the plate, but it tasted very authentic.

And that was how we celebrated our first year of marriage!

Lunch Party!

A couple of weeks ago, while watching The Office, I was surprised by one of the jokes. The officemates had created a banner that was supposed to read, "Launch Party!" Instead, Phyllis messed it up and printed out a banner that said, "Lunch Party!"

It was a cute joke, but it reminded me of my junior year in high school when my friends and I would put together our own Lunch Party! every Friday. It operated on basic potluck principles, with everyone bringing a dish and sharing. I usually brought the drinks, 2-liter plastic bottles of pop. I even bought plastic champagne glasses from a party supply store. I'd bring them to the Lunch Party! and rinse them out afterwards, keeping them in my locker for the next Friday.

One of my friends was the editor of the school paper and wrote an article about Lunch Party! (forever immortalizing the silly exclamation point). Another one of my friends painted a posterboard that said "Lunch Party!" and hid it behind the pop machine in the cafeteria. I think it lasted for a couple of weeks before one of the custodians threw it away.

I hadn't thought about Lunch Party! in years. High school might not have been the best four years of my life (as promised in my class's valedictorian speech), but I had a good time with good friends.

12 Hours in London

This Christmas Jube and I will be heading back to France to visit with la belle-famille. It took us the better part of a month to find an acceptably-priced plane ticket. Unfortunately it leaves us with a 12 hour layover in London and some of the worst ever arrival and departure times. And we have to switch airports during the layover. Added to that - we're flying into Marseille instead of Montpellier, so Beau-Papa will have to drive about an hour and a half to the airport to pick us up. I wonder if it was worth saving $400...

The only good thing about having such a long layover is that it will give Jube and me the chance to visit London together. I've been there twice before, and he has been there once, so we'll be able to take touristy pictures in front of the Houses of Parliament, ride the London Eye, have tea at the Orangery and be able to say, "We visited London!" Of course, the $400 we saved on our tickets will probably all be spent during our time in England.

I've been having a good time planning our "trip." I learned the importance of planning these things out during our trip to Vienna in 2005. We were visiting one of my friends who was teaching in Austria, and that was about all the planning I'd done. We managed to do lots of fun stuff - touring the Hapsburg palace, the cathedral catacombs, checking out Schonbrunn, and even watching the Lipizzaner stallions practice. We also had a huge fight that almost ruined our trip when my friend and I lost Jube; we didn't eat at any nice restaurants because neither of us had any idea where to find one; and we didn't even visit the art gallery that I discovered later was full of Klimt.

Our 12 hours in London will be really great with all the planning I've put into them. Now we just have to hope that we won't be too jetlagged to enjoy them...

Refurry

After writing about my mp3 player-less state a couple of posts ago, I decided to treat myself and bought an iPod nano (2nd generation). It only cost about $80 because it was refurbished! What a wonderful idea it was to refurbish old models and sell them for cheaper! And with warranties and everything!

So after I ordered it, Jube teased me for awhile. You see, Jube has some kind of resentment for Apple... He says it's because everyone thinks they are SO COOL but really it's just overpriced and we should all buy the "normal" stuff because it's better. But when my refurbished iPod came in the mail, he realized that this made it affordable.

Of course, it hasn't softened him toward Apple.

But it has made him scour the internet for refurbished deals. I've had to deal with him saying, "One of these days we'll get one of those flatscreen TVs so I can play video games on it." But he knows we can't afford one right now. The problem is, now I'm hearing things like, "We can get this Philips TV for only $300! Isn't that a great deal?"

Oh well. At least the new Radiohead album is pretty rad on my new iPod!

Aw Man!

I can't believe it's been more than 2 weeks since I last posted! I am becoming a bad bad blogger! I've got all the same excuses: I've been busy, nothing has been going on, etc etc, but of course I have some stories. Here's tonight's:

Jube has been super nice lately. Today, while I was checking out some stuff on the internet, Jube gave me a nice back massage and gave me a little cuddle. And then he said, "You know I must really love you, right?"

"I guess so," I said, jokingly.

"No really, look! See that?" he said, pointing at my MagLite, Sleek*.


"Yeah," I said.

"Well, I use that in the morning instead of the light so I won't wake you up when it's dark outside!"

"Gosh, that's really nice!"

"Yeah, and yesterday, I went all the way down to the car when I realized that I hadn't reset the alarm for you. And I came all the way back up so you could make it to work."

I really have a nice husband, it's true!

*My brother JW and I used to go camping every summer with my dad. We had bought this humongous MagLite that used about 6 D batteries. It was named Big Ben. Then one year we lost Big Ben, probably at MidOhio. The following summer Dad bought us both our very own normal-sized MagLites that we promptly named. Sadly I forget what JW named his, but mine was named Sleek. And then at my wedding Dad gave it back to me. We also bought an even bigger MagLite that we named (of course) Bigger Ben. Now Jube just thinks it's funny that I have one of those flashlights they use on Cops...

Done anything fun lately?

Well, not really! One of my coworkers is sick right now and so I've taken over all of her duties. Good for my resume, bad for my blog! Besides work, lately I have:

-Gotten a haircut! Yes, my hair is newly styled. I like it a lot. I have to admit that I'm still having the urge to cut it all off to where it was a year ago when Belle-maman cut it for my wedding...
-Eaten sashimi and sake. We tried a new restaurant--Domo in downtown Norfolk. It was really good and we ended up eating tons of food.
-Finally read the last Harry Potter book. Better than I expected.
-Helped Jube pick out some new suits.
-Bought this really neat lamp/aroma-spreading-thingy at Disabled Army Veterans Thrift Store.

What I haven't done... well... let me start at the beginning. I really like Radiohead. I have since high school, but I was too embarrassed to tell my friend Robyn. That's kind of weird, because she's the one who first played me a Radiohead song or showed me one of their albums. But basically I was too embarrassed to tell her that I really liked the same band she did. And I still haven't told her. So, hey Robyn! I like Radiohead! I actually went to see them in London in 2003! And it was awesome!

And I haven't yet bought their new album. My dilemma is this: they have made it available online--a download--but they make you pick the price. That's right, the consumer decides how much to pay. And every time I go to the webpage to buy it (I've been there at least 3 times), I get choked up on how much I should pay. Should I support my favorite band and pay more than I would if I were buying a normal CD at the store? Should I go for the wimpy way out and pay exactly the same as another CD? Or should I go with my base miserly instincts and pay nothing?

Plus I don't have an mp3 player, so it makes for a very tough decision...

Summers in Mende

Jube and I were talking about French songs the other day. I have to admit that I enjoy quite a bit of French popular music, mostly on the pop-rock continuum. I really like Anais and Emilie Simon (she's from Montpellier, you know!), plus some other groups. One of my first posts was about Francis Cabrel singing Cat Stevens. That was the first day I heard him sing, and I think I forgot about him for two years. Then Jube, talking about popular French personalities with Southern (French) accents, pulled up his song L'Encre de tes yeux. Wow! I'm not sure if I was feeling sad that day or what, but the song really touched me. It brought tears to my eyes (seriously--and also kind of embarrassingly).

Jube told me how funny it seemed that I was just hearing the song for the first time. "It reminds me of summers in Mende spent at my aunt's house. I was young..." he broke off, reminiscing. Then, as Francis sang "quand meme" in the song, he turned to me, excited, saying, "Hear his Southern accent?" It reminded me of how he played me a song when we first started dating, a song whose singer lingered over the word moquette to show that he was really from the South. Today I can hear the difference, but at the time I heard nothing.

Anyway, whether you can hear a southern French accent or not, here is the song:

Uhh..

Today while browsing an online newspaper, I saw the following headline:

Chirac opens among cheers and protests

What is this? What is Chirac doing in the news? Who was cheering? Who was protesting? What the heck was he opening? The one-line summary was obscure as well, something about fetuses and boos. I clicked on the link. I then realized that I had misread the title. Instead of Chirac, it was "Clinic opens among cheers and protests". It makes more sense, except... am I really that obsessed with France? I didn't use to think so...

Bruises, 1

This week has been full and busy. Some bad things happened and some good things happened. I'm going to split it up into two posts, with mixed good/bad elements. Let's review:

I started working out three weeks ago. I didn't want to talk about it on here too much because, well, I'd just started. I've never worked out before... I used to play racquetball and swim two or three times a week, but ODU is undergoing some really annoying construction which has closed the pool and the racquetball courts. Actually, I don't know if there ever were racquetball courts, but the new Rec Center will have some. It's due to open next spring, about a month before I finish my master's program. Very convenient timing for me, isn't it?

There are two weight rooms open on campus, as well as basketball courts and soccer/field hockey/lacrosse fields, but I don't play any of those sports. My boss encouraged me to sign up for the Monarch Quick Fit Program. It basically gives you a commitment to work out three times a week, half an hour for weight training and half an hour for cardio each of those days. When I went in for the initial explanation, I was shown 8 different weight machines. On the first one, my personal trainer (for 10 minutes!) asked me what weight I normally used. "Uhh, I've never used any of these machines before," I answered. I didn't realize that I looked so muscular and strong! Even a seasoned professional couldn't tell that I don't normally work out! Why did I sign up for the Quick Fit program again?

But it's been good, I've been keeping to the workout schedule and have already lost 3 pounds. It's very exciting! So that's something GOOD that has been happening lately.

What's something BAD? Well, our toilet has been acting up lately. The water just keeps running and running without collecting in the tank or the bowl. I figured out that it has to do with the black rubber stopper that regulates the flow of water in the tank. But, since we live in an apartment building (where they just raised the rent by $30!), I was not about to buy a new rubber stopper and install it myself! I informed the apartment manager on Friday. We lived this weekend by turning the water on and off and manually adjusting the rubber stopper so that we could flush the toilet. It's super annoying, too! I was tempted to follow the "yellow is mellow, brown goes down" rule, but Jube thinks that it's pretty disgusting to do that. I have to admit, though, that at 4:00 in the morning I wasn't about to turn the water on just to flush.

Today, after having complained again to management yesterday, someone came by to fix the toilet. She worked on it for awhile and then told me, "It should be fine." She left, and the water kept running... and running... and running... Obviously she hadn't fixed the toilet at all! So I ran downstairs to the management office (which, by the way, is only open from 10am-1pm, so it's hard to catch them when you work!) to try to get her before she left. The apartment owner was very unhappy that we had had to wait nearly a week to have the toilet fixed and came up to fix my toilet himself. Now it's working again, and I'm very happy to know that I can flush the toilet whenever I want.

"Date Night"

I've always been kind of annoyed when reading magazine articles about "making time for your significant other," full of suggestions about "date night," "talk time," or even "flirty Friday." But it seems that Jube and I have instituted a kind of date night in our household since he started his new job. He works hard during the week, which gives me plenty of time to study. When the weekend rolls around, though, we're both ready to get out of the house.

So far we've tried two different restaurants in Ghent. One was wonderful, but a bit expensive (for us, of course!). The Green Onion serves "large entrees" and "small entrees," has an extensive wine list, and also offers artisanal cheeses for appetizer or dessert. Jube enjoyed a "large" pork tenderloin served with vegetables and spaetzle, while I had an amazing "small entree" of baby artichokes served with crab meat. Wonderful! We finished the night with a five-cheese plate. As is common in America, the cheese was served with crackers. Jube refused to eat any of the cheese until he had ordered bread with it. It may be the best meal I've had since moving to Norfolk (and it was certainly the most expensive!). The other was an okay Italian restaurant--nothing amazing, but nothing bad either. The prices were definitely more reasonable than the Green Onion.

This Friday, after our meal, we went to see 2 Days in Paris (careful, there is noise). (For those of you who haven't heard of it, the plot involves a French woman and her American boyfriend visiting her parents in Paris before heading home to New York.) Before it started, Jube told me he was worried that it would just be a big mess of French and American stereotypes. Instead it turned out to be an over-the-top farce about a couple in crisis that didn't rely on culture clash to make its point. Of course, there were some hilarious scenes involving our American at home with his French "in-laws"--these scenes reminded me of my first trip to France, in fact! It was like Meet the Parents in Paris--because what is meeting your significant other's family if it isn't culture shock? (Actually I thought it was much better than Meet the Parents; though just as farcical there weren't as many pratfalls--plus there was full-frontal male nudity, so that's always a plus.) Anyway, I do recommend the movie. Most everyone in the theater seemed to love it as much as I did, so maybe you will, too.

And that has been Date Night in Norfolk with Gem and Jube. Let's see what happens next week when they consider seeing Mon Meilleur Ami (My Best Friend).

Surprise!

The other day, Jube and I were watching TV around 9pm, relaxing after a day of work. We had even finished our household chores, taking out the trash, checking our mailbox, folding our laundry...

Suddenly our door burst open. Jube looked up, surprised. I shrieked a little bit, startled at the intruder. And a young Indian man, looking even more shocked than we felt, started stammering out an apology.

"I am so sorry!" he said, in his lilting accent. "I thought this was 514, not 513!"

He was so uncomfortable and embarrassed that I had to stand up to shut the door for him--he had thrown it open so that it was resting at 90 degrees from the exterior wall, and he didn't want to take the step in to our apartment that closing the door would require.

"That's okay," I said, "No harm done!"

When he left, I burst out laughing. Jube winked at me, saying, "At least you were wearing decent clothes!"

I had almost forgotten about this, but on Sunday my mother asked me over the phone if we had met any of our new neighbors yet...

Bay Days

This Saturday Jube and I went to Hampton for the annual Hampton Bay Days festival. The weather was beautiful and the festival was packed. It also gave us the opportunity to check out Hampton for future rendez-vous at cute cafes or bars.
This was the main festival street, King's Way. It was paved with stone and brick, lined with vendors and full of people!
This was a cool optical illusion we saw. The Bay Days has a "Bay Education" section for children, with ideas on how to conserve water, protect the native Chesapeake species, and have a good time doing it. The kids loved this spigot sans pipe, and were very confused about how it worked.
There were also three or four different stages with music at the Bay Days festival. Here we listened to Slapwater, a band that covered funk and pop tunes and featured a guitar player who looked like Santa Claus! I love this picture--I call it "Funnelcake Love," and it features a native American couple sharing a plate of sweet fried goodness. Although I usually enjoy fried foods, like any good American, I am not a big fan of funnelcake. This disappointed Jube, since he preferes his friture sweet. He couldn't bring himself to buy a $5 funnelcake all for himself, though. Instead we ate burgers and chips in a churchyard and then headed home for a relaxing evening.

Coincidence or Destiny?

I bought some nice tasty chocolate today in my favorite flavor: Dark Cherry Almond. In France I could find the Lindt version of this flavor at certain times of the year, but I hadn't seen it at all in the US until I went to our local "Natural Market." It is so expensive that I buy it very rarely, but I went for it today. On the outside of the wrapper, it said, "Love Poetry Inside!!" I thought it was kind of weird, but also kind of neat.

When I got home, I unwrapped the chocolate and took a look at the love poetry. I was very surprised to find that the poem was Shelley's "Love's Philosophy"--the same poem that my cousin read during Jube's and my wedding! It's been about 10 months since we were married and the wedding is not often in my thoughts. What a nice reminder to receive (and even better, it came with chocolate).

Of course my memory was tainted when Jube said, "That's what she read? Who picked that?" Which, of course, prompted me to vigorously defend myself by pointing out that he had had final veto power over all of the points of the wedding, and then he had to defend himself by saying, "No, no, I'm not saying I don't like it. I do like it! I just don't remember it..." which then... but you don't care, do you? Just enjoy today's chocolatey love poetry:

Love's Philosophy, by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle--
Why not I with thine?

See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

I Love Labor Day

This weekend has been really great. I've been eagerly awaiting a vacation and I was able to ignore school and work for awhile.

On Saturday, Jube and I biked from our apartment to downtown Norfolk, where we caught the ferry to Portsmouth.

It only costs a dollar each way. In Portsmouth, there was a Labor Day Sidewalk Sale, but it wasn't very interesting. I bought some stationery and we enjoyed walking around Old Towne Portsmouth a little bit.
After our return trip, we visited the Pagoda Tea House and Restaurant for a drink before biking back home. The inside was as nice as the outside. We had our drinks on the second floor of the Pagoda and were able to take some pictures outside on the balcony.
In the Pagoda, we were seated next to a table with a couple at it. They were really amazing, drinking 3 bottles of sake, two strawberry daiquiris and two beers between them in the time it took Jube and I to finish our tea and Diet Coke (though Jube did get a refill). By the time they got up and went outside to take their own photos, we were surprised they could even walk straight.

After we biked back to our apartment, Jube said, "I've had a great day, really relaxing." I was surprised--biking 7 miles isn't exactly relaxing in my book. It was definitely fun, though!

On Sunday we went to the Zoo again, where we were treated to a prairie dog fight, a spider monkey fight, and a Pavlovian chorus of pigs squealing to be fed. Le Pacha happened to call as we were walking by the pigs, and to prove that we were at the Zoo, Jube put the phone up to their noses.

"Tu vois, c'est un cochon!" Jube said. (See, it's a pig!)

"Non, je crois pas. C'est Gem qui fait le bruit," le Pacha answered. (I don't believe it. It's Gem making the noise.)

beginagain

Last May, Jube and I were surprised at how empty campus felt when most of the students left for the summer. After a few days we didn't even notice it, and we'd totally forgotten about it until yesterday, when the new students moved in. (You can't call them "freshmen" anymore, but most of us still do.) The parking lot across from us, empty all summer, is full again. Our apartment management put big signs near the entrances to our parking lot, saying, "NOT for Dorm Students!!" (You can't call them "dorms" either--"residence hall" is much preferred--but no one parked in our lot!)

While riding my bike to work on campus, I found it much more difficult to navigate with students clogging the sidewalks and crosswalks. Classes start on Monday. The year has cycled back around and we're ready to begin again.

Conclusive Evidence

We never ordered you. We went through at least three strongly worded e-mails canceling you. We cashed the check that we received in the mail for finally getting you out of our mailbox. But somehow... you keep coming back!

Definitive proof that Maxim is the Devil's Work arrived in our letter carrier's pouch today...

In other news, le Pacha called us today to tell us he is feeling sick, and even threw up! Because of this, he wasn't able to go to the free concerts on the beach in Palavas les Flots. Belle-maman, who called on his behalf and wanted to tell me that he had a little upset stomach, managed to get past her own squeamishness and tell me le Pacha a gerbe! Then she laughed and laughed, providing definitive proof that she reads my blog.

Finally, as if we needed more proof that Jube has a bad memory, we received a Netflix movie in the mail yesterday that neither of us had heard of. The Host is a Korean horror flick in the tradition of Shaun of the Dead (in that it doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, although it was not meant to be as funny). A nasty mutant monster that looks like a three-way cross between a squid, a newt, and an ugly fish begins terrorizing Seoul and kidnaps a 13-year-old girl. Her messed-up family goes after her, hindered by misinformation spread by the US government (who also, by the way, created the pollution that gave birth to the monster). He denied that he had ever heard of the movie and hadn't put it on our queue--and as proof that I was the one who had chosen it, he said, "You're the one who always wants to watch Japanese movies." But then he recanted when he found out it was Korean.

Next on the list? A Year in the Life of Metallica: Part 1. Seriously.

Pattern?

Have you noticed a pattern? Whenever I start a new job, I stop posting for awhile. I've been super busy at my new boulot, and I've taken it out on my blog, I know, I know! I was planning on having another BB guest post, but he has decided to postpone his trip because of my busy-ness at work. And Jube starts his new job next week, so we're off to a new year!

So what's new besides work? Nothing much. I've been doing a lot of reading... Since Digging to America I've read The Telling, The Road, and Le Petit Prince. Fun.

Oh! And followup to my battles with the magazine company... We finally received a refund for our Maxim mixup! I was very happy to get a check in the mail.

I'm sure interesting things have been happening to me, but I can't think of any at the moment. Umm...

We saw Rush Hour III last weekend. I love Jackie Chan, but Jube was a little bit annoyed at the "anti-French propaganda." It was not the best movie in the world, but I found it entertaining. We went on opening night, to a sold-out theater, and everyone laughed and enjoyed themselves.

Then on Sunday we saw Sicko. Wow, what a movie to make you nostalgic for France! I was just thinking about calling the Student Health Center to renew my prescription, and seeing Sicko made me long for the days when I could go to the pharmacy and get it for free (6 Euro up front which was reimbursed to my account later).

Okay, that is enough for tonight. Hopefully I'll have a real post for you soon.