French Food Markets

So, the three things I was supposed to do this week? Didn't end up doing any of them! Haha. Well I already said I wasn't doing the first.. the second one got postponed by the friend who invited me (because something came up) and the third... I ended up changing my mind at the last minute because I accidentally found some scary articles online about Couch Surfing which freaked me out. In hindsight it was stupid of me to get so worked out about it and reading too much into everything but I'm kinda glad I didn't go today anyway as the weather is/was crap.

Well I did do 2 random social things this week though! And I had awesome fun at both of them.

1. One morning, one of my lovely friends offered to take me around to do my errands which is so much easier to do with a car and just as well too as it was raining that day. He ended up taking me to the town market, which - as everyone knows - France is famous for. I knew about this market when I first arrived but I couldn't coordinate it with my schedule since I work every morning and wouldn't really have enough time to get there before it closed, and back before lunch was over. This time, we didn't have a lot of time either but my friend still ended up buying a lot!

Now, I'd been to and seen markets in France before of course (during my travels to other towns). But this was the first time I was shown how it all 'works' by a local. What a treat I was in for! At first I just wandered around by myself taking photos and one of the greengrocers offered me samples of his fruit to taste. All the market sellers seemed very friendly and you could freely taste anything you wanted. Apart from fruit/veges (fruits et legumes) there were also stalls selling bread (pain), cheese (fromage), dried meats (viande sechée), olives (olives), spices (piments), and other such typically French foods. There were also a whole heap of stalls selling things like clothes (vêtements), shoes (chassures) and handbags (sacs à main).

I thought I might buy something while I was there and picked out some mandarins (which the French call clementines), bananas (des bananes) and apples (et des pommes). The guy weighed it for me and then I was about to pay for it when my friend was acting all weird and told me to put my purse away.

As I quickly realised, he was going to haggle with the owner (who he'd obviously bought from before) to get a good deal. He ended up buying boxes/cases and then I got my stuff for free! Woohoo. What a great friend and what a nice lesson. Haha.

It is SO nice to be shown stuff like that by locals... I was hoping I'd be shown around more in this town but those moments have been very far and few indeed.

A bit off topic but... we made it back just in time to eat lunch in the school cantine (yes a highlight of our day - haha) and I noticed a couple of my students sitting nearby. Nothing strange about that. But because we weren't sitting with any other teachers or staff (it was almost time to pack up and not many people were around then but usually the cantine is totally crowded) I just had this feeling something was gonna happen later... and yes, it happened. Those students later asked me about him. Oh gosh. I actually think I went red with embarrassment. A few female students asked me, "Is he your boyfriend?" (yes, in English). I said, "You don't know who he is? He works at this school. He's just a good friend, that's all." Oh dear.

2. The second social/exciting thing I did this week was... last night I met up with someone in my town from Couchsurfing. Before we agreed to meet up I said I was a bit scared walking back home by myself late at night, which is something I've never done here as usually I'm with other people or with someone who has a car (not to mention it's kind of boring and freezing cold and up a big hill too so not exactly that much fun) and he kindly offered to walk me home which was so nice (and also because he didn't have a car either).

He was super nice and friendly and we shared a nice dinner in town. It was totally a spur of the moment decision of mine so I'm so happy he agreed to spend some time with me. He's fairly new in the town too, and lived in several cities/countries too like me so we had lots of stories to share. He told me he always wished someone would want to 'surf' with him and I said the problem is, noone would think to look up our town's name because it's so small! (whereas people in big cities get bombarded).

I've realised that.... How much I enjoy my time in France seems to depend a lot on how much human interaction I get with interesting company!! I really tire of people who can only talk about their work or their family or the news... and I also really tire of being asked about the floods in Australia (yes, still!) because it's obvious they have no idea what to say to me...

Pic: by me, taken in Chambéry.

What I learned from watching Le Divorce

I briefly wrote about the film Le Divorce before and ever since coming to France, certain elements of that story pop into my head.

I remember thinking at the time that the story was incredibly UNrealistic and far-fetched and was heavily dramatised to make an interesting book (by Diane Johnson) and film.

After having spent almost 6 months here, and being surrounded almost exclusively by French people and having experienced some fucked up shit I would say that that story is EXTREMELY accurate about French people and society. Also, things that have happened that I've been aware of, that were told to me by locals, which shocked and amazed me at the time, really doesn't shock or amaze me anymore.

And also, from chatting to French people online (all over the country) I've also come to the conclusion there is a lot of fucked up shit happening here... (not saying that this sort of stuff doesn't happen in other countries... it may be even WORSE in other countries) but...



I wish I could give you all those dozens of examples (that would make your mind spin) but boy-oh-boy it's just out of this world incredible. I guess I've lived a far too naïve and innocent existence prior to coming here!

So what did I learn about watching Le Divorce? That there is some seriously fucked up shit going on in French people's lives!

I want a car and random thoughts

If I end up staying in Europe and getting a decent job, and if I don't end up living in a biggish city, the first thing I'm gonna do (after finding accommodation) is to buy a car! I wanted to buy one when I first arrived but then I told myself it would cost too much and be too much hassle, plus I didn't know how long I'd be staying. It was just too much work to find a car that I liked, in my price range as well since, annoyingly, I needed a car to be able to go and look at cars!!

Tonight I got invited to a soirée in another town not far from me. It's only about 15 minutes drive away. I could take the bus but it's still a hassle since I'd have to get myself to the train station, then wait for the bus, catch the bus. Of course if I had a car I could just drive myself home afterwards but since I don't and the last bus is at around 8:30pm  I'd have to stay the night (which these people (Couchsurfers) generously agreed to let me without me even having to ask), BUT then I start work at 8am tomorrow so I'd have to get up before 6am to make sure I got to class on time and I can't stand early mornings (particularly when they are still cold), so I decided not to go. :( And I'm upset because if I had a car I could've easily gone.

Oh well. Hopefully there'll be another time.

One of my friends here at the school invited me out for a girls' night out Friday night. Woohoo, can't wait!

Well, I've been speaking to someone from Shared Talk for only 8 days (which started because I was bored out of my brains here during the school holidays) and it's rare that from the very beginning we got along really well. We had so much in common, I couldn't believe it! He had travelled all over the world (which I find is rare for people I know around here as they just stay in Europe) and we had so much to talk about and this weekend he invited me over to spend some time with him and some friends (bonus: he only lives 30 minutes away by train). At first I was hesitant. I mean... we've only been speaking for 8 days, actually less than that since we obviously don't speak every single night. We've only known each other for 8 days but spoken around 5 times. I said sure, "I'd love to come over and meet you all but my last train is at..." (the usual story).... and he said, "Don't worry, you can stay over here."

Now, I have actually stayed with people I met through those language exchange websites before (but that was because I knew them fairly well. I'd talked to them for over a year!) Normally someone inviting me only after 8 days would've freaked me out and I would have had to decline, but luckily, he also does Couchsurfing and has a profile there so I checked out his comments to see that he's trustworthy. Since he doesn't live too far away he actually knows of my town (most French people don't as it's small and not well-known) and from the beginning would constantly make jokes about how it's the ugliest and worst city in France. Now I don't know if that's true or not... but when I tell people where I live and if they happen to know this town, they say that too (yes they are very blunt!! The French are not PC at all!!) It's a running joke and I just play along. Seriously, I'm not offended but I do NOT think it's the ugliest town in France by a longshot. Sure it's small and really boring but it's certainly not that ugly!

So anyway, that's THREE things I've been invited to in one week. This is all without me asking or hinting or anything. These people are just kind enough to invite me. 3 in one week, that's just too much!! ;)

Random but I've reached 100 contacts on LinkedIn (connecting me to almost 1.5 million people) - woohoo!

I can't believe how fast the time passes. I know it's a clichéd thing to say but still, it's true!

I have absolutely no hope of it snowing anymore. It's just getting too warm. There are only tiny patches/remnants of snow high up on the mountains that I see here and melting rapidly day by day. Gosh it seems like a lifetime ago where I saw my city covered in fluffy whiteness and felt like I was dreaming...

Ah yes.. the magical summer. I think a part of the reason why I've been a bit down lately is because everything just looks dead at the moment (I mean landscapes). There's no more beautiful snow, just dead trees and dead grass. In fact, the grass reminds me a lot of Australia. It's extremely dry and a yellowish shade. Often I've wanted to do something (a tourist attraction) whilst visiting a particular city but discovered it was closed due to the season being winter and everywhere I go people tell me to come back during summer because "It's beautiful during summer". So in my mind I imagine that EVERYWHERE in France and Europe just becomes super duper amazing during summer. Of course I know that that's not entirely true. For one thing I've already experienced huge mosquito bites and it wasn't even during summer, it was during autumn (and they don't have flyscreens, nor air con nor fans in houses in Europe!). However, I'm still very much looking forward to spring, and flowers, and colour... and the joy of feeling the sun on my bare skin!

On Saturday I went on a mini shopping spree and bought some spring-y clothes! Bit sick of wearing drab colours all the time and a big, heavy coat.  I bought a cheery nautical-print shirt and navy blue cardigan from Mango, a denim skirt and pair of black work pants (down to 6€!) from Pimkie, a white cardigan from H&M (down to 10€), and a professional-looking short-sleeved striped shirt from Zara (down to 7€!). I didn't actually know there was some special sale on (as I heard that France is only allowed to have sales twice a year) so I got lucky as most shops had some sort of sales rack.

I'm loving the fashions at the moment. I love the red/white/navy blue stripey nautical theme and even 'collected' clothes like that back home... In winter I hated the French fashions (too many drab colours and weird designs) but loved the shoes (boots) and now I love the spring/summer fashion range but hate the shoes! I can't win. The summer shoes are just not nice and not comfortable at all. I tried on lots and couldn't find anything much that I liked. Just as well. I remind myself I am supposed to be saving... oops!

I'm such a nomad at the moment. I wonder if I'll ever settle down. Perhaps I'm just immature. I do not look forward to having a mortgage and spending my weekends cleaning the house at all. I feel like I can't relate to a lot of my friends and co-workers because apart from work all they talk about is home stuff and child(ren) stuff (neither of which I have). I don't want to settle down. Or maybe I just don't want to settle ;)