The Great Flood and a Happy Birthday

It’s been a few weeks since I updated, again, and there has been a lot that has happened. First things first, I suppose.

Just two weeks ago, the building that I lived in experienced a great flood, so I am very lucky that I live on the side of the building that I do. Long story short, a guy on the 4th floor who was really out of it took a shower, passed out, and didn’t turn the shower off. The building also tilts a bit to the other side, so at least 4 rooms on every floor of the building were effected by the water. My friends down the hallway had one heck of a time – one of the girls had her laptop on a desk where the water was flowing down the wall, and her laptop was full of water, and another one had a soaking mattress, and nearly all of them had soaking wet floors. Another friend also thought he was locked into a party that night, so he climbed a barbed wire fence and had a bit taken out of his hand. Yup, this place is full of good stories.

A couple of days later I also went into Paris with some friends. I went in earlier than everyone else, and wandered around all day. I started at Notre Dame, and walked to the yarn store at Les Halles. I realized then that making a blanket might be more expensive than I would like, so I am currently looking for online purchasing alternatives. After that, I walked to the Louvre and just people watched out by the pyramids. I then slowly made my way back to Notre Dame, with a stop by a Starbucks. It was pretty good, but I accidentally got the Caramel Frappuccino without coffee, so I need to avoid that mistake in the future. I also went into a couple of bookstores and browsed, and I found this one store that was selling books for 20 cents apiece! I probably should have stocked up, but I decided to only buy one book. It’s about a cat named Missouri ☺. I went back to Notre Dame, and there was something happening – either a drill or they found a package… Anyways, there were police everywhere with shields and guns (and gasmasks) blocking off the area in front of the cathedral and as I was approaching there was the sound of an explosion. All of the pigeons flew into the air, and a couple of minutes later the police were taking down all of the barriers. I then met up with Mandira, Ayoola, Sarah, and Ben for dinner. We then went on a little walk around the Mairee and the Hotel de Ville.

But, the biggest adventure was my trip to Dublin. I hadn’t realized how much I missed being in an English speaking country. Yes, I love France, but not having to make too much of an effort to be understood was a definite plus. Hopefully someday it’ll be that way for French, too.

I arrived in Dublin and I immediately saw a sign for something called the Dublin Pass. I went to the tourist area to ask about it, and they were all incredibly friendly. A couple of the women were teasing eachother and joking around in Irish, and there was another man working there who kept rolling his eyes at them. It just seemed like a fun place. I then buy the pass (which allows free entry to many attractions in Dublin) and take a bus shuttle to the center of the city. I was told to get off the bus, and my hotel was supposed to be right there. Well, there were a lot more little streets in the actual city than what showed up on the map. I ended up thinking I was lost, so I asked a man and a woman working a flower booth for directions. They were also friendly, and it turned out that I was going in the right direction. I kept walking, and I found my hotel. I absolutely loved my room. I had a bathtub, a double size bed, a television, an easy chair… everything I’ve been missing in France. I set my stuff down and decided to go for a walk. I ended up in the shopping district. I bought myself a pair of shoes, dinner, some fudge, and tickets to go see Swan Lake the following evening. On my way back to the hotel I came across a pharmacy and found some bath salts. It was wonderful.

The following morning I set out with the plan to see Dublin Castle. On my way trying to find it, I accidentally walked too far (the castle is set in from the street) and ended up by Christ Church. I decided to turn around, and stopped for breakfast (French toast and a mocha cappuccino). I then continued walking and found the castle. There really isn’t much ‘castle’ left to the building – it blew up when a fire got into the gunpowder tower. The majority of it was rebuilt in an 18th century style, and the one original tower is under renovation since it is starting to fall in, so the only part tourists get to see is the new part. It was very interesting, though. And they did take us into the remains of the gunpowder tower where there is still water that comes from the same source that made the moat.

After the castle I first walked out to the garden area. There was a cat near the bench I decided to sit on, and she started walking around me. I decided to pat her head, and the next thing I know she has jumped onto my lap and is refusing to move. I thought she wanted food, but when I picked her up off of me and stood up so that there was no lap for her to sit on, I saw that she was well taken care of in the food department. It looked like she had fresh milk and chopped up steak. I patted her one last time, and then continued my journey.

I walked back up to Christ Church and walk through. The weirdest thing inside was that while they were cleaning out old pipes, they found a mummified cat chasing a mummified mouse. They had the remains on display in the crypt. Ick, right? As I was leaving, the choir was starting to sing, and it just made the cathedral really peaceful.

After I left, I thought I would try to find St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It didn’t look very far away on the map, but when you walk in circles that can be quite a long ways. First, I started walking down the road I thought led to the cathedral. That road took me down to the river, which was gorgeous, but it wasn’t the cathedral. I consulted my map, and decided a new path to go back. I ended up doing this many times. I did get to see the yard of another church while on my journey, but I could not find St. Patrick’s.

Finally, I decided to just take a taxi. I started walking the opposite direction down the original street I walked down, and the first couple of cabs already have passengers. As I get to the top of the hill, I see the cathedral on the other side. And now, looking at other maps, it does look like my map was slightly mislabled, or at least the roads were in the wrong order (or I completely screwed up on reading it). But, I did find it, and I walked through the cathedral. It seemed a bit larger than Christ Church, and it was grander. There was also a park outside where I decided to sit down for a little bit that was lovely. I saw clouds starting to come in, so I hailed a taxi and went back to my hotel until Swan Lake.

I had never been to a ballet before. It was good, not as boring as I thought it might end up being. But some of the most amusing parts had nothing to do with the actual show. Everyone in the theater was very dressed up for the ballet. I had not anticipated this, and had arrived in jeans. There were a few others in jeans as well, and I think that was how one could distinguish them as the tourists. Then, the theater was selling concessions in the theater during the intermissions – sort of baseball style. No cracker jacks, though, but ice cream, water, and candy. There were also booths outside to buy other drinks and snacks. And then, the lady sitting next to me was very into the ballet. Her enjoyment made me appreciate it more. I’d also like to know how often this happens – one of the ballerinas fell during the performance. There was a cry of ‘Oh!’ that came from the audience, and she jumped right back up and continued dancing. It’s good she wasn’t hurt!

The next day in Dublin, I went to Malahide Castle. Malahide is about 30 minutes north of Dublin by train. When I arrived in Malahide, I looked at the town map and worked out the route to get to the castle. I started walking, and walking, and walking, and walking. I had seen pointers to the castle along my walk, but at one point the somewhat residential setting turned into country, and there were no more roads off of the main road. I saw a sign for a guesthouse, and I decided to go ask if I was walking in the right direction. The person I asked came out and looked like he worked there, but it turned out he was just a guest. He was able to help me out, and it turned out that I was only another 5 minutes from my destination. When I arrived at the castle, I obtained the tickets to go on the tour, and waited about 5 minutes. This tour was one of the oddest I’ve ever been on – a tour guide comes into the room to tell you that the tour is unaccompanied, and that there are speakers in every room. So, you listen to a recording in every room and then move on, and they press the play button for the next room. This worked all right, up to a point. Then there was a room where they said to take as much time as you want, and then go on to the next room. The problem was that they started the tape when the first person reached the second room, so half of the tape wasn’t heard by half of the people. Then, if a person had a question, there was no one to ask. But other than the actual tour, going through a castle is always fun. Unfortunately, the last inheritor of the castle had to sell it to pay the inheritance taxes on the property, but that does mean that it is owned by the Irish government now and anyone can visit. Walking back out was a lot easier than walking in. Apparently there were paths through the forest that would have gotten me to the castle in a quarter of the time I spent. And, walking out of the castle, there are some magnificent ruins from an old church, and the forest was lovely.

Once I got back into Dublin, I decided to go to the Bram Stoker Dracula Experience. The pamphlet did a good job selling it to me – Bram Stoker’s life, his inspirations for Dracula, and kid friendly. The most entertaining part was watching the people in front of me get scared to death. It was set up like a haunted house, but there were only scenes from the book that were depicted. So, once you get to the next scene in the book, the scene ‘turns on’ and the Dracula bat started to flap his wings or something. I am scared to death of haunted houses, and this one really seemed like it was nothing.

When I left, I hailed another taxi. The driver insisted on telling me about the ‘hidden history’ in Dublin, and that was quite interesting. He pointed out a pub where Michael Collins would meet with his men and tell them who to assassinate. Creepy. He was extremely influential in the Irish was for independence, though. The driver also told me a lot of other places I should visit, and when he dropped me off he insisted on kissing my hand.

Jump ahead to the next day, and it’s my birthday! I flew back to France, and met up with everyone in town to have a lunch of falafel. We then walked around, and got Starbucks, and then went back to Jouy. By this time it was about 6 or later, so I decided to at least start on the tortilla soup I was making for everyone. That was when I realized that I did not have a can opener yet. Thankfully, Mandira has a lot of contacts, and was able to find one for me! Disaster averted. I made the soup (which was delicious, thank you mommy!) and they all gave me a nice French coffee maker ☺. My mom sent me popcorn, and my brother sent me a hard drive loaded with TV shows. Thanks everyone! The group here also got me a birthday cake that was really good and really rich – I think it was some kind of chocolate mousse. Yum.

The next morning I woke up with a really bad earache (I’d been fighting a cold for 3-4 weeks) and I decided to go to the infirmary. Since my complaint was about my ear, the nurse said I had to go to a doctor. I went that same day, and was put on antibiotics. I guess I really didn’t start feeling better until Friday, and I am slowly feeling better slowly. Hopefully it will be completely gone soon.

That’s my life update in a large nutshell. Work is still going well… I think I’m going to try to do laundry in Versailles this week (laundry on campus really annoys me) and other than that I have no big plans on the horizon. Stay well, and I’ll write again soon!

Three weeks notice

I arrived here in Jouy en Josas just three weeks ago. At times it has felt like the time has flown, and at others it just seems to drag by.


Campus is spacious, and there are a lot of trees. It is located at the top of a hill, and it is a bit of a hike to make it back down into the village. I think it might get a bit dangerous to go down the hill when ice arrives as it can be quite slick at times. The majority of the buildings on campus are dorm rooms. They are small, seventies-style buildings. The rooms are fairly large. I share an apartment with another lectrice, Anna. We each have our own bedroom, but if I want to go to the bathroom I have to go through her room, and if she wants to go to the kitchen or leave the apartment she has to come through my room. It’s a shotgun setup, but it is working out well right now. My mom also sent me a better quilt than the one that was provided, so now I am starting to feel like this place is more like home. Not to mention my new Halloween decorations :-).


There is really not much in Jouy, but there is more than there is on campus. There are two grocery stores, two boulangeries, a tabac, a librarie/papeterie, a post office, train station, and several restaurants. I've only tried the pizza place, but it was fairly good. I'd say it takes 15-25 minutes to make it all the way down to the train station, and then climbing back up the hill is not very fun. Luckily there are several busses that go up to the campus, but they are few and far between.

My job is going well so far. I'm really not working many hours per week, but it is a bit difficult to be around all of the time. Since it is the beginning of the semester, there are a lot of last-minute things that need to be done, so if I originally have an afternoon off I might find out that morning that I need to help give a TOEIC exam or something else of that nature. But, my job basically consists of correcting English CVs, helping with the language resource center, and being generally on call to help with classes (if a teacher is sick or if they want us to do a presentation about American universities or other things).

I've been to Versailles a few times. A couple of times for the carte de sejour with Anna, a couple of times for fun. The carte de sejour visit was not too difficult, they just refused to give it to us the first time we went because the school was meant to do the paperwork for us. However, since I am not a real student (and not a real employee) the school will not do any of the paperwork. So, I had to go back the next day with a letter from the school basically saying that I was not a student and they would not prepare the carte de sejour for me. After that, it literally took the person working at the desk 2 minutes to fill out the paperwork. Now I need to return in December to continue the process.


During both of those trips, I made a trip to Monoprix as well. I was able to buy a lot of the household items I needed. Monoprix is really just a great place, a bit like Wal-Mart, but a little more pricey. But they seem to have nearly everything a person might need. Too bad there's not one in Jouy :-).

I also recently had my first late night out experience in Paris. I went with a group of people, and we walked down the Champs Élysées and window-shopped. It was a nice leisurely pace, and the streets were still crowded with people.


My second trip into Paris was even better. We started out by grabbing lunch and taking it down to the river and eating by the Seine. Since Saturdays are mainly the day for weddings in France, we saw 3 different couples go by. Where we were seemed to be a popular place for wedding photos.


It was also the weekend of the Patrimoine (where people are able to go into government buildings for free), and so we went to the Palais d'Élysée, or the home of Sarcozy. I guess it is the equivalent of going on a tour of the White House, but in this case security seemed pretty minimal and anyone was allowed inside. We waited in line for 4 hours, but it is definitely worth saying I was there. And it was also so much larger than the White House! I was impressed :-).


Last Saturday I also went into Paris for the day. We went to Les Halles metro, and walked down a street until we found a boulangerie called ‘Paul.’ Apparently everyone loves that chain here. We ate lunch there and it was pretty good.

And, since we were in the area, I decided to check out the yarn store that is supposedly the place to go for yarn in Paris. It is called La Droguerie, and it does have quite a fine selection of yarn. I bought enough to make 2 scarves since I didn’t bring many with me. I plan on going back in the next week so that I can buy enough to make an afghan and have a blanket to curl up under.

After La Droguerie, I went to Montmartre with Anna, Sarah (the British lectrice) and Sarah’s friend Rebecca. I had never been to that area before, and it was quite interesting. We went to Sacré Coeur, which was beautiful. You climb this hill all the way to the top, and there are people everywhere. There were some guys break dancing right outside of the entrance to Sacré Coeur, and it just felt sort of surreal. The funniest part was after you walk through the church, and everything is so quiet and peaceful and then you get to the exit and the people right outside are break dancing to very loud music.

That evening, Anna and I continued on to meet with another American working at HEC, Mandira. Together, we all went to watch the first presidential debates at this place called CineAqua. It is located right next to the Seine, across from the Eiffel Tower, and the entrance looks like there is nothing there. However, once you go underground, the place is massive. It is a huge aquarium, but it also has a lot of movie props and movie information. There are at least two movie theaters inside this building, and they show movies throughout the month. For example, in October they are showing movies like Dracula and The Addams Family. But, for some reason, they decided to show the first presidential debates free of charge. Pretty cool, huh? And did I mention the view of the Eiffel Tower? It was gorgeous! And after nightfall, the Tower is lit up with blue lights. I have been told that this is because it is supposed to be a representation of the European Union flag since Sarcozy is the EU president right now.

I’ve also had a nasty cold the past week. It has been quite a roller coaster ride – felling like I am getting better then going way downhill again. I was way downhill yesterday, so I didn’t end up going out to Paris like I had originally planned. Last night was ‘La Nuit Blanche’ in Paris, and everything stayed open all night long and it was just supposed to be a an interesting experience. Although I missed out on it, I’m sure there will be more events in the future.

A bientôt!