Le fin de mes jours en France

The end of my days in France have arrived. In just four days time, I will be stepping off a plane in Atlanta, walking straight into 80 degree heat after spending the past month shivering in 50 degrees or less. People often talk about experiencing culture shock when returning from living abroad, but I think I am more likely to experience weather shock. Especially since I will be wearing my giant winter coat as it does not fit in my suitcase, and quite possibly every sweater I own if I need to get under the 50 lb. limit.

Scottish coast

I will find out soon enough just how extreme I will need to be in order to get everything home. Though my time here is dwindling, I have yet to direct any of my energy toward actually packing and cleaning out my apartment. That will come tomorrow and Monday. Tuesday I take a train to Paris, stay with my friend Abby for the night, and then Wednesday it is off to the airport for my triumphant return home.

While I still must actually put my life in a suitcase, I have been quite busy in the past week erasing my presence here in Vannes. Between several goodbye lunches at school, small parties with colleagues, and countless phone calls and appointments with the bank, internet company, and electric company, I have managed to say au revoir to nearly everything and everyone I need to before I leave. And if I am permitted to pat myself on the back, I will say that starting the process before the holidays was a great move; there were only a handful of surprise letters to be sent, and overall the stress involved in moving quickly through the bureaucracy here has been minimized.

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent over half of this past month on vacation. Not bad for my last month in France. It started with my friend from camp-Asaf-coming to stay with me in Vannes. A few days later we flew to Leeds, England and spent two nights there at his friend's house and one night in Manchester at my friend Laura's. The following day, we took a bus up to Scotland, where we stayed for four nights at my friend Toby's house, about half an hour from Glasgow. Toby lives in the countryside, and I could not have imagined a better trip to Scotland. He and his girlfriend Louise, another close friend and fellow teaching assistant, did their best to show me and Asaf how wonderful their country is. And I fell in love. Between majestic coasts, beautiful mountains, and gorgeous lakes, as well as the picturesque city of Edinburgh, I was constantly in awe. Adding to my euphoria was the delicious Scottish food we ate, which was not that unlike food from home. Shepherd's pie, roast pork, sausages, eggs, and bacon-all things I severely missed in France. All in all, it was the perfect way to say goodbye to Toby, Louise, and Laura, three of my closest friends during my year in France and people I miss already.

Following Scotland, Asaf and I went to Amsterdam and met up with Eli, my old roommate. Eli and I spent just one night and two full days there, after which we took an overnight bus ( a miserable experience and one to be avoided at all costs) to Paris. Eli stayed with me in Vannes for a week, and I did my best to show him the wonderful nature this area of France has to offer. The end of his stay overlapped with the start of my last week of work, and it was wonderful to have an old friend around for the beginning of this difficult week.

I have often been asked to describe my feelings as I leave France. Am I happy, sad, excited to go home? The word I typically use is bittersweet. Every month that I have been here has been better than the last, and I do not feel tired of the experience or necessarily ready to go home. That said, I cannot mask my excitement to see friends, family, and a bit of familiar culture. And with many of my close friends either leaving or already gone, my job finishing, and the weather refusing to warm up, I do feel it is time to move on. Of course, leaving the friends behind that I have made here has been difficult, and I felt a surprising amount of attachment to the high school as I left. Leaving this country and continent gives me a sense of loss, as I do not know when I will return. So you can see my indecision, and as such, bittersweet seems to me to be the perfect word for my feelings at the moment.

For those of you that followed me over my time here, thank you. I hope you felt connected to me and my life in France and enjoyed my updates. I assume you read them because you were interested in what I had to say, and if not, I hope you became interested after reading them. Perhaps you learned a bit about me in the process. With that, I bid you a bittersweet goodbye, and wish myself a bon retour to Atlanta.

Au revoir
Tommy

Spring Break 2012!!

Spring Break '12! It is finally upon us! Can't wait to go to the beach and get my tan on in...Scotland. Yes, for my April vacation, rather than search a locale with balmy, tropical beaches, I've chosen to head thousands of miles north for one last blast of winter. I just could not get enough of that arctic air during this winter's record cold temperatures, so I thought I would search it out one more time.

Now while this is reason enough to go to Scotland, the real motivation for me is to stay at my friend Toby's house. He is another assistant here in Vannes and has graciously offered to move the party from Vannes to his house outside Glasgow. His girlfriend Louise, also an assistant in Vannes, and another assistant Laura, will all be there to welcome me and my friend from camp, Asaf. Asaf is arriving in Vannes this Saturday, and then we spend the next two weeks together trekking through France, England, and Scotland. At the end of our trip, we will swing over to Holland and meet up with Eli, my old college roommate, in Amsterdam. After spending one night and two full days there, Eli and I come back to Vannes. It is sure to be a whirlwind tour and a fantastic trip-provided I don't blow all my remaining paycheck during the festivities.

While I cannot be more excited for my trip, it does underscore the very sad fact that the end of my year in France is quickly drawing to its close. Toby and company will finish their work at the start of the vacation and are going home for good. So while this makes it possible to come visit them in the UK, it does mean that they are moving away from France. And while I look forward to our time together in the coming week, I dread the end of it shortly after. We have developed quite a close group of teaching assistants here. We are all each other's family in France, and weekends pass where we spend nearly all of our time together.

The past few weekends have been as such. With temperatures soaring to the mid-70s ( 20s for you Celsius users), we have spent as much time as possible enjoying the beautiful springtime sunshine. Eating outdoors, drinking beer outdoors, walking outdoors. But that's about as physical as it gets. This past weekend we took a day-long cruise around the scenic Gulf of Morbihan. Aside from the fact that we were the only participants under fifty, it was one of the best Saturdays I have spent here. Great company, beautiful weather, and a stop on a wonderful island community named Ile Aux Moines.

House on Ile aux Moines

All this time spent talking about my leisure time activities, and not a word about school. Perhaps you can see where my thoughts are at. The last few weeks at work have passed swiftly, though they have seemed more like time-fillers in between great weekends. That said, most of my time over this last work period has been spent in Terminale classes, who are the oldest students in the school. As part of their graduation requirements, they must take an English oral exam following strict criteria and administered by their teachers. So while the English teachers have been taking students one-on-one for this exam, I have been handling many of their classes. The results are mixed, and not surprisingly, my feelings about my position change after each hour of class, depending on how it went.

With my time in France winding down, and with my next two weeks spent on vacation, I have also started the incredibly complex process of closing down my life here in Vannes. As France is noted for its amazing grasp of bureaucracy, I have decided that I want no surprises during my last week here when I return from travelling. So this week I have spent my free time drawing up lists of every account that needs to be closed, and then visiting or calling each item on the list to determine what needs to be done. And as I feared, my life is going to be quite difficult to close up here but at least I am now forewarned and know what I am facing.

The Frisbee Team

After spending today knocking off items on my list, it is high time I go enjoy the start of my last vacation in France. My days of having two weeks off every eight weeks are disappearing before my eyes, so as the French say, "il faut profiter!" (roughly, "Get on it!") With that, I bid you au revoir, and I will check in at least one more time before I head back to America.

Tommy




P.S. Link to my last article for Like the Dew: http://likethedew.com/2012/03/30/mcdonalds-an-american-institution-in-france/

Spring Fever

Read the title. Now you know how I feel, except it's worse than any spring fever I have ever had. The combination of beautiful weather and the fast-approaching end of my teaching assistant contract has done a number on my motivation. It is not that I am counting down the days until I leave France; rather I am counting down the days until I don't have any more lessons. Unfortunately, those two dates go hand in hand.

Here we are over halfway through with my last work period in Vannes. After today's classes, I will have completed four out of the six weeks between February and April vacation. And after the holidays, I have one week of work, and then I fly home. I find myself full of mixed emotions as this point. While I am excited to see friends, family, and familiar American culture, I am also aware of how great a year this has been and how much I will leave behind. With that in mind, I have been trying to do as much as possible during the last two months that I have in Vannes.

Suscinio

So to recap my last few weeks. Aside from the daily grind at school, where my remaining lessons seem to pass slower and slower each day, I have taken a few trips on days off. Two weekends ago, I spent a night at a fellow teacher's house, met her family, and was introduced to a part of the Brittany coastline I had not seen yet. In addition, Mireille lives a short drive from the beautiful Suscinio castle. So despite experiencing severe foot pains at the time, I sucked it up and jumped on an hour and a half tour of the castle.

Now, you might be wondering about that casual reference to severe foot pain. Is he ok?
What happened?

Let me calm your fears. I may be the first person ever to get tendinitis in the foot from walking. I can tell you it is very painful, but when I try to explain why it happened I have no good story. One minute I am walking to school, and the next, my foot decides it wants to feel like it is on fire. So after a week of gimping around Vannes, the other English teachers decided for me that I should get an x-ray and see a doctor. Four hours later, it was determined that I have tendinitis, and I was prescribed some medication and told to rest.

After taking care of my foot, I moved on to other fun, adventurous activities. On a beautiful, sunny, and warm Wednesday morning-one of my days off-Cyril, another teacher at the school, took me kayaking in the Gulf of Morbihan. I have to say it was the best Wednesday I have spent in Vannes. It was both my first time out on the water here and first time realizing that kayaking does involve work. But the best part of the day came after we beached our kayaks for lunch. As we searched for a good spot to eat, we came upon a group of retired teachers who also happened to be picnicking. Before long, we sat with them and enjoyed a glass of the red wine they brought. A perfect cap to a wonderful trip.

Giorgio de Chirico

Finally, March has not been without great company from home. Last weekend I took a trip to Paris to see friends from UGA. While I was not wild about returning once more to the city, it was wonderful to get away from Vannes and see some familiar faces. We enjoyed beautiful weather and visited the Centre Pompidou, an enormous museum full of art from the 20th century. All in all, a great weekend and a great halfway point until my last vacation in France.

Now that you know what all I have been up to, perhaps you can understand my mindset. So much to do, so little time. But I have not been playing the whole time. This month I have written several articles for "Like the Dew," an online journal of Southern culture based in Atlanta. Below are the links to the series of stories. Enjoy! I will be sure to check back in soon.

Ciao
Tommy

http://likethedew.com/2012/03/20/feels-like-home/
http://likethedew.com/2012/03/08/inside-teaching-english-in-france/
http://likethedew.com/2012/02/06/searching-for-a-taste-of-the-south-in-france/

The Bledsoe's Do France

All you film makers out there, take notice! "The Bledsoe's Do France" is a blockbuster just waiting to happen; all it needs is someone to take a chance on it. The story is complete with tension, drama, love, and most of all, humor in every shape and form. We had engagements, rental car rides from hell, and your stereotypical embarrassing American at French restaurant adventures. But most of all, we had an excellent two-week vacation for my February holidays.

Maybe you can tell..it was freezing

On February 10th, the Friday of the first weekend of vacation, mom, dad, and my brother Roger flew from Atlanta to Paris for the start of our tour de France. The first weekend, spent in Paris, was mostly a battle against pickpockets. However, none of these so-called professional thieves were prepared for Robin Bledsoe's line of defense: safety pins. After a few of our backpack zippers were found half-opened during a metro ride, those zippers were never without pins again. The strategy worked quite well, except when we went to the Auguste Rodin gardens, and security asked dad to open his bag. So while he struggled to fight his way through mom's handiwork, we all stood aside and did the only appropriate thing we could. Laugh at the tourist who locked his own backpack! Needless to say, we never had any problems after that.

Escape from the Louvre!

After seeing many of the incredible sights Paris has to offer, including Montmartre, Sacre Coeur, the Louvre, et Le Marais district (which Roger and I found is totally different at night from the Jewish district it is during the day), we made our way down south to Cahors. We chose this town because of its proximity to a nearby cave filled with prehistoric paintings. Unfortunately, we would never make it to this cave. After a wonderful birthday celebration for dad at a local French restaurant, we rented a car the next day to drive to the caves. Our goal: Hit one cave named Font de Gaume and then drive back and see the cave closest to Cahors in the afternoon. When our one and a half hour drive turned into three hours to get to the first cave, complete with an instructional episode of how to push a car on an icy road, we knew this was the only cave we would see. So despite the difficulties in getting there, the sight was amazing and worth the effort. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to see these 15,000 year old drawings.

Font de Gaume

Our adventures continued in Tours, a town located in the chateau region of France. From there, we took a train to nearby Chinon castle. Chinon is famous for being the location of Joan of Arc's first encounter with King Charles VII. Luckily for us, this journey provided no unforeseen surprises, aside from an embarrassing dinner in Tours. I will admit that being the tour guide got the best of me in this situation. Ordering dinner for everyone resulted in ordering one too many pasta carbonaras. Also, we learned the hard way that the concept of a doggie bag is still foreign to the French, so if you want one, you may have to make do with their leftover ice cream box.

Following our chateau excursions, we made it to Vannes and rested for a few days. Roger stayed with me, however my parents stayed at my teacher Francoise's house. But the big news arrived from Paris. My sister Joanna and her brand new fiance Idan met us in Vannes, fresh off the Eiffel Tower and newly engaged! We celebrated the news, and spent the weekend allowing Francoise to show us the good life in Vannes. On Monday, we all left and headed to Mont Saint Michel, the second most visited tourist spot in France. And it is worth all the hoopla. Surely it must be the inspiration for the Magic Kingdom. This abbey sits on a rocky island out in the middle of a bay; at the foot of the abbey is a small medieval village. And once all the tourists part at sundown, leaving only the cool ones-us included-who were staying on the island, you have this deserted fairytale place to yourself.

Mont Saint Michel

We spent the last few days in Paris, checking out must-see tourist spots and chasing down souvenirs for friends back home. After my parents and Roger left on Thursday, I hung around with Joanna and Idan through the weekend. In fact, I left them before they left Paris, as some of us had work to get back to. It was a fantastic vacation, wonderful to see my family, and one that recharged my batteries for the end of my work here in France. Five more weeks lie between me and my last vacation. After that, one week until my position is over and I return home. So time to live it up! With that in mind, I'll leave you for now, enjoy the downtime till we meet again.

Tommy

Thank you Russia for sending your weather

It is cold. I'm talking bone chilling, teeth chattering, wart freezing cold. (The last part had nothing to do with the weather, but it still happened nonetheless). What I once considered to be a toasty little studio is in fact a leaky sib. The incoming draft from the window and hallway is too much for my heater, and I sit here writing in two sweaters and a long sleeve shirt. It beats being outside in the cold...but that's about all I can say. My daydreaming about returning home, which was at a minimum until very recently, has seen a dramatic increase ever since this arctic air from Russia swept across Europe and into Vannes. However, I can take solace in knowing that everyone in Europe is freezing at the moment, and many places are far worse than here. I have never felt so connected to my European brethren as I do now.

While I am slightly exaggerating the weather at the moment, I do feel a sense of guilt as well. You see, my parents and brother are coming to visit me next Friday for my February vacation. One week later, my sister and her boyfriend are joining us. And I have spent the past four months telling them how the weather is mild here, not as cold as Atlanta, and not to worry too much about their trip. Of course karma reared its ugly head again, and now the coldest temperatures of this winter, and some of the coldest on record, have arrived just in time for their trip! Still, freezing temperatures cannot dampen my excitement to see my family, and neither can any number of exhausting skype planning sessions.

I feel ashamed at my blogging for the month of January. One post is unacceptable. Even if no one else is reading this, I owe it to the world to do a better job of keeping you people updated. After all, when I become famous in the future, how is history going to remember what happened in January 2012 if I don't tell it myself? So here goes:

I did in fact get my hair cut, and it turned out even better than the last time. So good that I will consider having it cut again before I leave, whereas I had intended for that to be my last trip to the coiffeur. Unfortunately, I don't have photos at the moment to prove it, but there will be soon enough; vacation will provide that. In addition to improving my style, I have been keeping quite busy at school and home. January has flown by in a haze of long hours at school, job searches for the future, resume updating, and trip planning. For the six weeks between New Years and Winter vacation in February, I have had extra hours at school. While it has meant more work, I have settled in well and feel comfortable in my classes. Apparently the students have taken to me well, and they all feel compelled to say "hello!" whenever I pass them. Never mind what happens if I try to take the conversation to "What's Up?"...

My work consists of a mix of different lessons. Sometimes I take small groups from the class and coordinate with the teacher on the lesson topic. After that, it is up to me to choose how I want to deliver the message. Lately, that has involved a lot of material I brought from home about Atlanta. In other classes, we work on popular American rap and rock songs, filling in the lyrics and discussing their meanings. And in others, I help the oldest students practice 1 on 1 for their oral English exam at the end of the year. My best class, by far, was being asked to play basketball with my favorite class of students. They are the oldest in the school, and consequently the best behaved and most fluent in English. Unfortunately, their English skills do not translate to the court. Any of you who know my basketball level know that I have a ways to go, and yet, on this day, I was the star of the game. Just another day at work, building up my legendary status at school.

January has also brought a few potential writing opportunities. I won't say too much yet, for fear of inciting more bad karma-the cold weather is enough for me-but I will have updates in the near future. Sometime in February, I hope to have more National Geographic work completed. And even before that, I hope to have an English article up for you all to check out. I cannot say I have much of an update on future jobs, other than I am in the process of updating my resume and applying to several. Most of these involve writing or media backgrounds, however one is an archaeological position for history majors.

So there you have it, one productive month, which has not left a lot of time for blogging. That said, don't let me fool you too much. While blogging may have been pushed to the side, somehow I managed to find enough time to watch the entire Arrested Development series, as well as delve into Breaking Bad. However, I feel strongly that neither show has been a waste of time, and I highly recommend both if you find yourself needing new entertainment. Now that I mention it, I think that is exactly what I'll do next. And with that, I'll wrap up this novel and let you get on with your lives. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope it won't be long before I check back in again.

Catch ya later
Tommy

Oh I'm Halfway There..Whoa!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, this here correspondent, as of tomorrow, will officially be over halfway through my program as a teaching assistant.

That's right Harry Potter fans. Be jealous. It's ok.

 I realize it has been several weeks since my last post, and as I promised last time to update you following my Christmas excursions, I will start there. The first week was spent in and around London, staying with various members of my brother-in-law's family. Highlights included spending time with Dave and Gabe, my sister, touring London at light speed, and enjoying my first English cream tea. This is basically a heart attack on a plate; the recipe calls for one scone, topped with jam, and clotted cream, which sounds just about as unhealthy as it is. And of course, that means it is delicious. Aside from the wonderful English delicacies I tried, perhaps the best part of the week was spent dominating the family board games. I never failed to impress with my knowledge of useless trivia, finally finding one real-world application for a history degree.

After one whirlwind week in London, I took a bus to Brussels to spend four days with Ophir, a friend I had worked with at camp three summers ago. It was the first time we had seen each other since that summer, and I cannot think of a better way to spend New Year's than ringing in 2012 with an old friend from 2009. Highlights included meeting some of his other Israeli friends and family, touring Brussels, and taking a trip to Dinant, a town in the south of Belgium. Dinant is the home of the inventor of the saxophone, Monsieur Adolph Sax. Go figure. It is also the home of probably the world's smallest casino, but as it was the first casino I have ever been to, I will remember it fondly. My earnings on the night are not important for this conversation. Perhaps if they had been in the black, as opposed to the red, I would brag to you.

Me and Adolph...Sax that is

Now that I am back home, and faced with the reality that my seven month adventure as a teaching assistant in France is slowly drawing to its close, also known as my buffer between college and the real world, I have dedicated January to being a work month. I have extra hours at school, because apparently I was spared from working my full allotment over the past few months, and I am trying to continue writing as much as possible. On top of this, I have begun the somewhat dreaded but also exciting process of searching for jobs and life after France. Not much to report yet on this topic, but hopefully by the time February vacation rolls around I will have a better idea of my plans for my return home.

Brussels' most famous tourist attraction. Seriously.

My hair is rather long these days. I have avoided cutting it since October, when I managed to get a passing, albeit short, haircut. My goal is to wait just one more week, and then hopefully I won't have to cut it again until I can stop by my favorite Mr. Haircut, in good ole' Athens, Georgia. So perhaps next week you'll hear about haircut round two. If not, it is safe to assume I lost the battle, and I would prefer not to speak of it again. So with that, I leave you to await my return in the near future.

A plus mes amis
Tommy