Sarah's Life in Dijon

Sarah and Debbie's trip out west!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:45:00 +0000

So I may make this several parts because it has been a while since I last posted. I have essentially started a new life here and it is fun, weird, exciting and scary all at once.

The last time I posted I was somewhere on my way to Minnesota with my mom. Since then, we went to Minneapolis to visit my friend Anna. It's really beautiful there. Then we drove through South Dakota, hit up Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills. Then off to Yellowstone, the Tetons and all the way to Corvallis. Where I am now. On the way out here, we also were lucky enough to visit the Corn Palace (a must see!), all of the signs for Wall Drug, and lots of Harley Davidson riders headed to some Harley reunion/conference thing in Wisconsin. It was a great trip that involved a lot of driving but I got plenty of practice on my Honda Fit!!! Although, since I've arrived in Corvallis, I barely have used my car since it is so bike friendly.

Then, we finally arrived in Corvallis and started settling down a little bit. We signed my lease, bought a bed and began enjoying the beautiful September weather. It's amazing how nice it is here in the summer, it is just the other 8 months out of the year that is apparently what gives this area its bad weather reputation. The wet winters were described to me as "a cold that penetrates completely". So that sounds like fun.

So back to my mom's trip. So we spent part of that first week here, me working on administrative stuff while my mom was bored to death. She did relax and enjoy being quaint in Corvallis though. We went to Seattle to visit family and had a great time. Seattle is always a fun place to visit. I also went to my first ever baby shower there, so that was interesting. From there, I dropped my mom off to the airport and then headed back to Corvallis to kind of begin my life in this new and interesting little microcosm of life that some would call a college town. It is very bizarre and I'll post more about findings here soon enough but since this post has been a long time coming, I figured I would put it up now anyways.

Ciao for now,
Sarah

Back from Brazil and in....

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:58:00 +0000

Howe, Indiana. In other words, the middle of no where. My mom and I just completed about 9 hours of driving on Day 1 of our road trip out west. We just went to dinner at this Greekish type restaurant with tons of Amish people eating there. We spent the whole day driving and I'm getting really good at this whole manual thing!!

I spent yesterday packing after my great trip to Brazil, which I will now briefly summarize. First, Lauren and I arrived in Rio and safely found ourselves at our hostel on Ipanema Beach. I woke up the next morning to Lindsey waking me up and we had our roomie reunion. We spent a few days in Rio going to soccer games, dancing in Lapa, walking around and running. The weather wasn't so great though so we headed to Minas Gerais (the place where Lindsey was doing research) a day earlier. We took an overnight bus to Ouro Preto, which is a goreous mountain town with amazing portuguese architecture. We toured a gold mine and spent the day just wandering around and shopping for gemstones. It was definitely cool. The next day, we took a bus to Vicosa, where Lindsey went to school and met her friend Louisa and her family. It was our first real experience with being around a lot of very friendly Portuguese speakers. We ended up spending quite a bit of time doing this so it was a good little break-in session. They were so nice to us and fed us really great cake before we took another over night bus to Itatiba, Sao Paolo, where Lindsey is living with her boyfriend, Adalto's family.

It was really great getting to meet Adalto. It was fun staying with his family even though it was a little overwhelming with all of the people speaking a language that Lauren and I didn't really understand. I got to spend my birthday with my best friends and it was a definite up-grade from last year. I also got cake and happy birthday sang to me about 10 times in Portuguese and English. My birthday happened to be a night of Adalto and his brother's show so I'm showing a video of that. We spent most of the week visiting and seeing what Lindsey's life is like. Definitely, different from anything that Lauren and I are used to here. But Adalto is great and Lindsey is happy!! We just hope that Adalto and his brother can become famous singers so that she can spend more time in the US!!

Lauren and I left Itatiba 2 days before leaving Brazil so that we could see the Christo in the Sun and spend a day or 2 at the beach. We took another lovely overnight bus during which we did not sleep. (Lauren and I are way too short for these special seats so we spent a lot of time being thrown forward every few minutes). We spent the first day at the beach and relaxing. We both got pretty burnt, Lauren more than I and I went running all along Copacabana beach. The next day we did this awesome hike up to the Christo in Rio. Everyone kept telling us that we couldn't do it without a guide, but we did. Of course, when we got to the to the top we were disgustingly sweating and then we were told that we had to take a bus back down to buy tickets. it was pretty funny but totally worth it. That day we did a little more beach and then got ready to head home. We slept in the airport and began our journey home.

So that's a nice little summary. Overall the trip was awesome! It was so great to be with Lindsey and Lauren again. It was amazing to see Lindsey's life down there. And everyone we met was so welcoming and warm. Plus, we got the opportunity to practice out Portuguese at dinner and by watching the Olympics!!

Ciao ciao,
Sarah

Bastille Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:28:00 +0000

Well, I'm back but I have some catching up to do about my last days/weeks in France. It was pretty crazy but fun too. The weekend before I left was a whirl of cleaning and packing, meals with everyone I know in France and even more drinking then usual.

On Thurdsay and Friday before I left, I went into the field. I had to fight a bunch of plants and take samples in the rain. I saw Carole and her husband Chris and then I headed back to Dijon on Friday night. I spent most of Saturday freaking out about all of my stuff and filtering samples. It was a pretty nice day and I made sure to go on one more run with Katie before I left for the States and she left for internship. On Sunday, Carmela and her family had me over for lunch along with their family friend, Phillipe and his two kids. It was cool because these are people who have been so nice to me since I have arrived and they all speak both English and French so they have been extra amazing when I've really needed help. I also gave Carmela's daughter, who is obsessed with the movie "Sweenie Todd", a t-shirt and hat that Maresa got for free from work. Now, I think I will always be a good memory for her. We spent the rest of the day wandering around their village and relaxing in Carmela's house. That night, we returned to Dijon and I gave away a bunch of my furniture to all of the kids. It felt good to finally get rid of some things. I should have started giving away/selling things sooner but I guess it is just in my nature to do things last minute. I had dinner at my friend Corinne's and then hung out with friends for the rest of the night.

For Bastille Day or the 14th juillet we had a big picnic at the "fontain de jouvence" (I think that is how you spell it). It's a really cool park right outside of Dijon. It was kind of like my going away party/Bastille Day celebration. Most of my friends from the University came and it was a beautiful and really fun day. I spent the rest of that day working and then sorting out my apartment. My friend Aurelie came over and helped me soooo much. It was incredible. She just made me put everything in a box and like that, my apartment was being prepared for actually leaving.

After Bastille Day, I really had only 2 days to move out and head home. It was definitely a whirlwind and I don't even remember half of it. I can say that saying goodbye to everyone was hard and that I hope that I'll be seeing most people pretty soon. I got a really nice Burgundian cookbook with a little message from all of my friends at the University in it! It was a crazy few week following a crazy few months and an amazing year! I can't believe that last year is over; I think I'm still in shock. But I'm sure the years to come will be just as interesting, but never compare to my year in France.

Back in the USA!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:12:00 +0000

Yes, I'm back. And even though the blog address is "sarahindijon" I will continue my blog and not change the address because that is too difficult. Yesterday afternoon, I arrived safe and sound to the most welcoming place in the US, JFK airport. After a relatively nice Luthfansa flight and 4 movies, I arrived in the US. It is still a little bizarre being home. I think I'm in shock, but it is nice to be here and catch up on my missed TV. I'm still exhausted from the moving/traveling. It is very difficult to move from a foreign country and I learned that it is better to try and sell your belongings earlier than a few days before you leave. I worked until the day before I left Dijon. Then, I left my apartment and I spent the last night in France in Paris and flew out that morning.

On Friday, I got home. We were called like 10 minutes after we walked in the door to be told that this super cute new car that my mom reserved for me was at the dealership and I had to go and organize those things. I am officially picking up my new car on Tuesday and it is so weird. I'm like a real adult!!! Since I returned in Binghamton, I hung out with my friend Lily and went swimming. Then I finally saw my sister yesterday evening and had a nice dinner with my family and my half-sister Josey. I've been mostly relaxing and enjoying time here.

Overall, it is weird and nice to be home at the same time. I miss everyone in France but have missed people here as well. There are so many SUVs and American flags in the US, which is weird. It really is a different world, but it's home so I'm trying to take it in and enjoy while I can.

Ciao for now!

To Germany and back...

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:22:00 +0000

I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to post but I've been busy traveling, working and then preparing for out grand 4th of July party that my American friend Katie and I hosted. It was really her to had the idea but because she had exams until 3 pm on the 4th, it was me who was put in charge of a lot of things. Which we all know can be a bad idea. But the party turned out great and I've had a relaxing weekend. Although, trying to pack up all of my belongings is not fun.

I got back from an amazing trip to Deutschland (aka Germany) to visit two friends. I had an amazing time and I really felt like I was on vacation, and those of you who know me know that doesn't happen very often. First, I visited Paris for a day and had a nice little lunch with people from the Franco-American/Fulbright Commission and stayed with Chris that night. The next morning, I flew out to Munich and had a really fun time walking around aimlessly and viewing all of the sites. It was weird being in a country where I didn't speak the language at all (like nothing except for "thank you') but I ended up being helped my some really cool people and I found this really cool biergarten (yes a beer-garden) in this beautiful park in English gardens. And as an extra bonus, they were having a special musical performance that day and I met this Swiss women who lived in Minas Gerais, Brazil (the place where Lindsey is studying) for 18 years. It was really fun. That evening, I took the train to Rosenheim, this German city at the base of the Austrian Alps to stay with my friend Connie. Rosenheim is very Bavarian and she took me to a small village for the evening that was straight out fo the sound of music. It was beautiful.

The next day, we went to Munich again with Connie's friend Roxy and spent the day wandering around and visiting the Olympic Village there. It was really fun and nice to see. We saw this really cool standing wave that is a part of the river in the park where there are these crazy surfers and tons of spectators. We ate really great food, I almost had a Burrito!! And had a great day. On Sunday, I left Rosenheim for Mainz. But first, Connie and I did a tour of Rosenheim and saw all of the preparations for the Germany vs. Spain European World Cup Finals. In Mainz, I had a little tour of the city from Bettina and then went to straight to watch the Soccer game. Unfortunately, Germany lost but the Germans had plenty of spirit and were yelling (according to Bettina) things like "it's ok, we played well" in the streets after the game ended.

On Monday, Bettina went to school and I went running and exploring. For the afternoon, we went biking along the Rhine into wine country. ( I was forced to rent since I was too short for her mom's bike). We went swimming in the Rhine on the way back, which was first for both Bettina and I!! It was so fun. That evening, I saw the Sex and the City movie in German which was quite funny and wierd. And on Tuesday, we spent the day in Heidelberg. It has this beautiful old castle that is half in ruins and half still in tact. It is also the site of "The Philosophers' Path" because it is this huge and famous University town that has been made famous by many German academics, especially philosophers. Heidelberg is also located next to some pretty big American military bases and the American presence there was really palpable, which was kind of nice. We spent the whole day wandering around, hiking the philosophers path and then we went paddling on the Neckar which is a tributary of the Rhine. It was an awesome day!!!

The next day, I headed back to Dijon on a quite long and circuitous route due to train problems. I spent more than 13 hours on a trains and was on a total of 7 trains but thanks to a very kind and interesting train companion (who spoke fluent French and German) I made it back to Dijon the same night. I'll try to post more (and include photos) of the rest of my week including the 4th of July celebration.

I hope everyone is doing well and Happy 4th!!!!!

Ciao,
Sarah

European Family Reunion- Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:53:00 +0000

So I'm sorry that it has taken me quite a while to get to part 2 of this post but life has been a little crazy. Plus, it is really hard to write about a family reunion in Italy and all of our daily adventures.

So where did I leave off, slowly everyone started arriving at our pretty cool villa, a.k.a. Podere Macchione. First, the Philadelphia crew arrived, then Heidi, Donald, Rachel and Paulina (their Finnish exchange student from a few years ago, she's the blond in the pictures). It was getting kind of late after all of the hugs and excitement and we had to buy groceries (since the next day was Sunday and then Monday was a holiday and we were in the middle of nowhere Italy). The grocery shopping was an interesting experience in itself since everyone was confused and then we got in line to realize they don't except credit cards and no one had enough cash. I used my "Fritalian" to figure out where bank machines were and we finally got food, but not without a struggle.

When we finally returned, Steph, Grady and baby Phoebe were there and everyone was sitting around drinking wine. It was so exciting to see the new baby and she was really a highlight of the trip. So our group was finally complete and we did a potluck type dinner for the first night and enjoyed our villa. It was really the only full day of sun so it was a good thing we relaxed a little. (The picture up and to the right is a view of the Lago Montepulciano) from our Villa during sunset). All of the people just arriving in Europe were pretty crazy from the jet lag and excitement of finally have our family reunion in Italy and we went to bed pretty early. Which, contrary to the Strano/Ferrraro family tradition, became the norm for this trip. I think it was a result of the constant exhaustion caused by visiting too much of Italy too quickly.

We started slowly by waking up late the next day and going to a local town built on Etruscan ruins and kind of just exploring. We ate a "fabulous", in Heidi's words, dinner and went to bed pretty early. The next day started the craziness....

My immediate family had to go to Roma to drop my grandma off at the airport so most everyone else joined in and Maresa, Paulina, Rachel and I were relegated to taking the train. The day consisted of visiting the train station for about 3 hours while waiting for everyone who drove and seeing the Colosseum. Below is a video from our trip there. It was pretty cool because although I've been to the Colosseum before, I've never gone in because it was too expensive for my budget. But thanks to my lovely mom, I finally got to see it and it really is pretty spectacular. The tourists take something away from it though.

The next day we hung out and went to the town of Montepeluciano which would have been lovely if it weren't for the fact that it rained (a lot) the whole day. However, that night we had an incredible dinner in this little Osteria just a 2 km from our villa. It was all made of fish from the lake and it was pretty incredible. The next 2 days we did Sienna and Florence. So that was kind of a whirlwind. Both were pretty crowded with tourists but it only rained for part of both days, so that was nice. We saw the Duomo in both places and agreed that the Duomo in Sienna is more beautiful but it was cool to climb to the top of the Duomo is Florence. To the right you can see Maresa, Rachel, Paulina and I at the top. It was raining at the time but it was still pretty nice. We also saw the Synagogue and got quite a riveting recount of its history (more interesting then the one I heard 2 years-ago). We didn't end up going into the museums, something for which I was very thankful.

We got back and made a pretty big dinner that night. And decided that the next day, our last day we would take it easy and explore the "city" closest to us, Casteglione del lago, right on Lago Tresimeno. It was my favorite day there because it was super relaxing and the lake was so beautiful. And it was a real lake!!! It was a wonderful change from the gross ponds that I've been dealing with all year. It was a beautiful sunny day and my father had magically recovered from the "illness" that kept him from coming to Sienna and Florence with us. The last night, we all made a big dinner and enjoyed our last night dinner with lots of wine and 5 lbs of pasta, which my father wanted to send home with me in a plastic shopping bag. The next day we packed up and parted our separate ways.

All together, the trip was quite comical and definitely a landmark for our family. I hope that we get to do it again soon!!!! This blog entry really doesn't describe it as well as I wish it could but I hope you enjoyed anyways.

A dopo!

European Family Reunion- Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:51:00 +0000

So my parents and sister left yesterday morning. Of course, it happened to be a day when the SNCF employees were striking and their train to the airport was canceled. Needless to say, they are safe and sound in the US and I miss them. But we had a great vacation together and I will see them relatively soon, so I can't complain too much.

I won't be able to recapture the magic of the full 2 weeks but that probably doesn't matter anyway since the majority of people who read my blog were there. For those of you who missed out on the wonderful adventure...

It all began on a crazy Monday morning, when Maresa and I left Dijon, forgetting all of the paperwork we needed and haphazardly met up with my Mom, Dad and Grandma outside the apartment we were renting in the Marais, the Jewish and new hip neighborhood of Paris. We spent the first day allowing the 3 travelers to recover from jet lag and explored Paris a little. That night, Maresa, Mom, Dad and I took a walk to Notre Dame (where my dad was in complete awe over the flying buttresses and the stone work on the streets) and then we ended up walking all the way to the Louvre. For those of you who don't know, nothing compares to seeing the amazing sites of Paris lit up at night without too many tourists around. The next day, we went to Roland Garros (the French Open). It rained the whole day and we only saw one match. But it was pretty cool being there. Maresa, my Dad and I were soaked afterwards because we were lacking raincoats and umbrellas. That night, all 5 of us did another tour of Notre Dame (the outside) at night and it started to pour down buckets of rain again. My parents 2 weeks in Europe were quite wet. You'll notice the trend.

The last day in Paris, my Mom, Mima, Maresa and I saw "Sex and the City" in English, which was silly but highly entertaining. Then I had to head back to Dijon to finish this big final report I was forced to write before we went to Italy. Consequently, Maresa was left to lead the pack to Montmartre and the Latin Quarter. As well as, an apparently difficult journey from Paris to the place where they were staying in Dijon. I worked on my report until we had to dinner together in Dijon that night and then we prepared for our road trip to Italy!

The next morning, my dad and I picked up our rental car and all 5 of us left for our 1100 km journey to Italy. We stopped by Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman as everyone in Europe calls it) on the way, drove through the Alps and then stopped for the night in this amazingly beautiful little town called Santa Marguerita. It is just east of Genoa on the Italian Riviera and it is gorgeous. Apparently, it resembles the town my grandma was born in and we can see why moving to Brooklyn must have been a little disappointing; the beaches just don't compare. It was great to finally be in Italy with my family and really cool to be there with Mima. It was amazing hearing her speak Italian; it was the first time ever. When we were calling hotels from the road, we just kind of thrust my cell phone to her ear when it started ringing and she started speaking, like magic. It was also one of the first times I really heard her talk very concretely about her childhood. And we learned things, such as, when she left Italy, she departed from Genoa!!!

On our way back to the autostrada we got hit by a motorcycle, so that added a little bit of adventure to the already crazy Italian driving scene. The best part was that the motorcyclist was not hurt and seemed completely un-phased by the fact that if my dad hadn't swerved, he probably would have died. I guess that is Italy though. Maresa did not enjoy this part though, as she has her extreme fear of other moving vehicles on the road.

From the beautiful coast, we began the rest of our journey down toward our villa in Umbria (really the boarder of Tuscany and Umbria). We were all a little skeptical of the place since it cost so little and when we finally arrived at the "road with no pavements" that our villa was on we just assumed that the first dilapidated house we saw was the villa. We decided to keep driving and after Maresa and I scouted out the area, we found a 3rd house and our villa. It was so perfect for our family and our price range!! The landlord, Giovanni, was really nice and he gave us two bottles of wine to welcome us to Italian wine country. After he left, we only had a few minutes to wait until the rest of our party arrived....

Keep checking my blog for Part 2 of this long entry!!

Ciao for now!

Normandie et Jour "J"?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:39:00 +0000

So Maresa is still with me and this week we took a long weekend to make a little trip up to Normandy. Katie and Maresa and I left Dijon in Tiziana's car to pick her up at CDG and head north, it felt like a long ride and for this reason, I think I've been in France too long. Once we arrived in Noramandy, we realized that every Parisian had the same idea we did (everyone was in Normandy) and made it a little more difficult to navigate the tourist sites as well as find a decent hotels. We actually had nice weather there, which was weird, and Maresa was a little disappointed since it made the setting less authentic and somber for her. We did all of the cool things such as Mont St Michel (the picture to the right is of the 4 of us walking around the Mont during low tide).

So the first night we drove to Caen, which was probably a really beautiful city until it was bombed a lot in WWII and now there is still the castle, a few churches and then tons of modern cement buidlings; it looks really weird in contrast. We saw Mont St Michel, which was truly tourist central and took a nice walk around the Mont to avoid tourists after a few hours in the city. In case you don't know Mont St Michel is not an Abby but it is almost literally a city in the ocean (well during high-tide), during low tide it is like the beach of a bay all around. It really is incredible how long Mont St Michel has lasted. Here is a video to capture a part of our day there...

That night, we went to Arromanches-les-Bains, which is one of the D-Day beaches. It is Gold beach, where the Brits disembarked and it was pretty cool. It looks like ruins, with all of the concrete installations that were brought to set up these crazy bridges to bring all of the tanks and soldiers on shore after the initial offense. Here is a video of us picnicing there as well:

The next day, we went to the Peace Museum, which is a memorial to WWII and D-Day although they barely talk about D-Day or Jour "J" as they call it here. From there we drove along the shore roads to a few really touristy (and by touristy, I mean Parisian) town which were quite pretty but a little bit too overwhelming. That night, we were forced to leave our lovely and inexpensive hotel in Caen for Le Havre (aka the ugliest city in all of France). I feel bad for all of the people on the cruise ships who arrive there. It was probably pretty at one point but was also destroyed during WWII and is not a huge port city. We managed to find a good bar and a good restaurant, which kept us out of our insufferable hotel for awhile. I don't know if Maresa and I have stayed in as uncomfortable a hotel since that fateful time in Vancouver (you who know the story, know what I'm talking about).

The next morning, we blew out of Le Havre as soon as we could and found a super cute small town for a little breakfast and cafe. Then we drove (via the national roads because the autoroute is so expensive) to Giverny (the gardens Monet created to paint in) where we encountered even more tourists. Due to a huge line to enter the actual gardens, we decided to picnic and look around the rest of the very cute town. It is incredibly picturesque and it is easy to understand why the impressionists all went there to paint. From there, we drove the 4 hours back to Dijon to spend Sasha's last night in France with her and to make a round of Happy Mothers' Day calls from my house. Sadly, Sasha had to leave Monday morning and even though it was technically a French holiday, I worked for most of the day. I tried to get outside a little bit because it was so beautiful this weekend!!!! That can be a rarity in Dijon and you have to profit from the sun.

Right now, I'm procrastinating because I don't want to finish my memoir and prepare for some English classes that I have to teach today and tomorrow. Maresa left for Ireland today and will be coming back on Sunday so I have a few days all alone at my house, which should be good. Well, I hope this blog makes sense since I'm writing it at like 1 am, sorry if it does not.

Ciao,
Sarah

How to sum up Morocco?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:29:00 +0000

So I'm sorry that I have been horrible with respect to posting. That is what happens when you have too much work (hehe) and not a whole lot of free time at night, which is partly because I seem to work until about 8 pm many nights and I actually have somewhat of a social life. But, it should calm down soon, or at least it better so that I can handle the upcoming visits of my parents, my Mima, my sister being here, Sasha (she arrives tonight) and the impending due date of my memoir (mini-thesis/report type thing).

So Morocco was beautiful, sunny and a true vacation!!! I've been back from Morocco for more than a week now and sadly, I'm already starting to loose some of my color. There was so much sun there and the vitamin D was working wonders for both Katie and I. It made it a lot less annoying when every guy in the world tried to figure out what country we were from and sell us something at an outrageous price. It was so incredibly useful being able to speak French and I can't imagine going without them. There were actually some vendors that were so cool and not too creepy who we actually drank the sugary mint tea with (everyone invites you in their shops for this and they can trap you forever).

The most fun part about all of these people trying to sell us stuff was the game that Katie and I created: Guess where we are from? they all tried to figure out where we were from, which became like a game. We spoke French, so they immediately eliminated the idea that we could be American, but they knew we spoke with foreign accents so that confused them. Then, Katie looks Irish, English, German and I look a little more southern European, especially with some sun. In the end, they could guess Quebec but rarely American, which was probably good since American tourists don't have the best reputation. Despite the state of the dollar they still view Americans as more likely to spend money then Europeans. The few times when they did guess American, they got excited to talk to American girls and partly because they thought they could jack up the prices more.

It seems like our days consisted mainly of these games because everywhere you walk, unless you end up in the middle of nowhere, this happens. Fortunately, we met this awesome French couple (featured in a video), and we did some wandering with them so we weren't just two western girls alone and we could wander alone (that was more in Essaouira).

Marrakesh was just completely crazy. We couldn't take out a map without getting accosted with offers for "directions and accompaniment", which meant harassment and paying them money. This lead to us getting lost in some interesting places and usually finding our way back to tourist central, sometimes after a few hours called Place Jamaa el-Fena (also featured in a video) where all was good. Well, I'm off to an interview so maybe I'll get to write a little more later. If not, I'm sure I'll share more about our adventures later!

Until next time....

M'aaselema

Les gazelles!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:48:00 +0000

So Morocco was pretty awesome. It was great to be in a new, yet confusing place. We spent 3 day in Marrakesh and the rest in Essaouira (the famous site from Othello). Katie and I stayed in awesome riads, got plenty of sun, ate plenty of very great coucous, tajines and orange juice and met some really cool people. We also got heckled a lot, being two clearly non-Moroccan girls in a foreign country (apparently it happens to Moroccan girls who dress like Westerners as well). It was a god-sent that we spoke French and it really made it easier to negotiate prices and make friends.

I need to post more but things are a little crazy with the arrival of Maresa and her friend Snook at 6 am yesterday morning combined with lots of work!!! Until I can tell some of the stories, here are 3 videos from our adventures.

My friend, Katie is in most of the videos (she was awesome to travel with) and we met a really cool French couple that we spent a lot of time with and who are in the 3rd video. So, voila!! I hope you all enjoy. More updates later!!!

Ciao,
Sarah

Off to Morocco!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:57:00 +0000

So I'm sorry that I have not posted lately. Life has been busy, while not being too exotic. It's about to get crazy so I hope that everyone is ready for fun posts with lots of pictures. I'll post after I get back.

So, until next time....

Bonnes fetes du Paques!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:15:00 +0000

Happy Easter everyone!!! And that really does apply pretty well in French because I learned this week that the French word for Easter, "Paques" is in fact derived from Pesach (the Hebrew word for passover) and that Paques means both Easter and Passover. Even though they are not at the same time this year, which makes no sense to me but I suppose it is futile to try to make sense of the Catholic Church all of the time. Easter is not as big a deal here as it seems to be in the US, however, Monday or "Lundi Paques" is a national holiday (i.e. everything is closed) and people seem to get really into that.

This weekend, I celebrated a strangely long week during which I did some normal work and gave a talk to some of the people in the department here. It was supposed to be a talk to explain to people why I'm in France (since they don't understand the idea that someone could do research with out a PhD) and describe my research to faculty members. But due to some scheduling conflicts (hehe, won't really discuss on blog), there weren't that many people there and it really was like a practice one. I almost did the whole thing in French (45 minutes) but Carmela, the English teacher, convinced me that it would benefit everyone else more if I did it in English. So I only introduced things in French. I practiced it in French though and it made me proud just knowing that I was capable of it.

On Saturday, I relaxed, went to the market and cleaned my apartment. I needed that after my weird week. I also decided to make burritos for some of my French friends who were still in town. It was the first time that I really made them by myself but I had to soak and boil the beans and everything. They turned out pretty well too!! I think so, at least. My friends also bought chocolate and hid chocolate eggs in my apartment to introduce me to the French Easter tradition. It was really cool. We played with Kinder Surprise for about half of the night which are like the coolest things ever. My friends gave them to me for Christmas too and it was when I started thinking that maybe these people understand me more than I knew. And here's why: kinder surprise is a cheap chocolate egg with a cool plastic eggshaped container inside which contains a cool toy or game. It's just a fun egg of entertainment!!! Perfect for my ADHD self!! So that was Saturday night.

Sunday, I went to Easter Mass with all of my foreign friends at Notre Dame. It was pretty cool and I think I criticize the church less when the mass is in another language. However, it did bring up some interesting questions, such as, what were masses like pre-Vatican 2 when they were still in Latin? Why is Easter always on Sunday when Passover changes? And what city in Southern France is the priest from? (he had a pretty strong southern accent). Afterwards, Katie showed us a little bit of her family tradition which includes a huge brunch and mimosas. So she made great omelettes from eggs I bought at the market on Saturday and we hate delicious bread. It was quite a nice Easter morning. That afternoon I saw a pretty good film with my friend Philippe and that was pretty much my weekend.

Now, I'm back to working and ruminating in my apartment until I continue my adventures in Dijon, France and beyond...

Ok, that sounds stupid but I'm tired and don't have too much to write at the moment.

So, until next time...

Superstar!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:41:00 +0000

I hope that everyone imagines Molly Shannon doing that! That was the goal at least. This post will primarily be about my adventures running a 10K last weekend in wine country as Supergirl. I was actually running with a whole team of Supermen and we kicked ass. We won a real award (a huge cup trophy called a coup, that must be brought back next year) for being the best group of people who were dressed up (deguiser, en francais) and it was pretty hilarious. My friend Corinne and I got the idea to dress up for this race and then we decided it would be easier for everyone to be the same. Superman was what we decided on because I made flying a requirement. It is the coolest superpower, in my opinion. So everyone put all of their mental energy together and we conjured up really awesome costumes complete with capes and everything. It was pretty hilarious.

I ran with my friend Angeline for most of the time. We did pretty well together and it is really fun running with someone else. I'm including pictures, both of the group and me because they are pretty fun. Unfortunately, we took off our costumes before we knew that we won that award so we don't have a picture of us up on the podium. If it weren't for the fact that one person left the shirt on, we may not have been given the grand "coup" and our bottles of frou frou champagne (really the name). By the end of the race I had accumulated 3 bottles of alcohol. It's amazing how that happens when you hang out in wine country.

So that was really fun. The rest of the weekend I spent hanging out with people and relaxing because for some reason I've been very tired lately and I have a lot of work. Last Thursday, I learned that a presentation I'm giving on Friday, which I originally thought was for just a few people, was in fact for the whole department here. I did so much English teaching last week and then when I learned that it just made me a little crazy. Luckily, most people will not be able to come due to a scheduling complication and the fact that Easter is this weekend. So now I will do it on Friday and then again in about 10 days. So Friday will be like practice. I still need to do it for more people because most people still don't understand what I'm doing here. Lots of people still think I'm a postdoctoral student and we need to clear things up and explain what this crazy American girl is doing here (that's what they want to know at least).

So that is an update for now. Life is not too exciting at the moment besides the super awesome race we did. Easter weekend should be relatively calm since a lot of people will be going home. And then my friend Anna is coming to visit next week. So that should be really nice!!

Well, until next time...

Hello Dali and other adventures with Sasha Bilow

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:04:00 +0000

So I kind of stole the title of my post from Sasha but it was just so catchy. I know I haven't posted for a bit but that is because for a little bit my life was pretty stable here. And I knew that visiting in Sasha in Perpignan would provide tons of good material for the blog so I decided to wait (plus I was busy). But I was right and I now have tons of things to tell, although only Sasha and I may think that most of it is funny. The whole weekend started out with a bang when my first train was "supprimé" (suppressed or erased). I managed to get on another train and by complete chance, made my train change by 1 minute. I get on my train heading south and I found a really nice train neighbor sitting next to me; it was a dog! So yah, dogs have more rights in France then in the US but this dog was just sitting on the chair (the seat) like it was a person. It kind of smelled and was in general super amusing situation!

So I got off the train in Perpignan (8 hours after I left Dijon) and am greeted by one of my favorite people in all of France, my dear Sasha! We then proceeded to fight the wonderful wind that Perpignan and Montpellier are famous for. I met her friends at the "auberge espagnol", which is a play on a classic French comedy about a student apartment with people from all different places. Most of the people only speak Spanish and a little French and it was really like being in a different world. After our brief repose from the wind at the "auberge espagnol" we walked the 30 minutes or so to Sasha's humble abode (a.k.a. a dorm room in a lycee, high school, outside of the center of the city). She does have an extra bed due to the fact that her roommate moved into the "auberge" so all was good.

The next day, I saw Sasha's world, complete with wind, tons of high school kids and adventures trying to teach English. We spent most of that day at her lycee helping out and exploring. Then that evening, we ventured out into the city of Perpignan. It was really a completely different world then in northern France. It was more like being in Spain (the main place was completely Spanish), or Catalonia since that is where I technically was. In Perpignan and much of northern Spain many people speak Catalan which is a mix between French and Spanish (but more like Spanish), it was very confusing. It was really fun exploring with Sasha...we always find new cool things to do. We ended up eating at this hippie restaurant and then going to Sasha's favorite bar, which really is quite awesome, called "la divine comedie". They play great music and it really is weird everyone hangs out there. All of the other teaching Assistant's in Perpignan, converged there and it was cool to meet some of them.

The next day we ventured off to Figueres, Spain (and Catalonia). First we stopped in Portbou which is just over the border of Spain and we got to go to the beach for about 20 minutes! We ran into a friend of the "auberge espagnol" there and it was so random. Figueres was pretty awesome to go to Spain. I had a great time. We went to this insane Dali museum where Sasha and I tried to unravel the mystery that is Salvador Dali. We didn't really have much luck but we definitely had fun. For the afternoon, the time when everything in Spain closes, we took a little walk around the largest fortress in Europe (still unconfirmed) but it was still cool. It was pretty big and on one side you could see the ocean, on the other the Pyrenees. After that, we were pretty much beat and headed back to Sasha's for a night watching a rediculous French movie and going to bed early.

The next day we attempted the almost impossible, we climbed the big rope pyramid across the street from Sasha's school. She had been waiting for me to visit to try this so it was kind of a lot of pressure (despite the fact that kids climb it every day). In the end, we surmounted the obstable thanks to team work and our cool sunglasses and we managed to chronicle most of it on my camera. However, the videos were too big to put on my blog so you will have to wait to view the whole journey. For now, I'll just give you a short preview.

After mounting the great pyramid, we headed into town for me to catch my train and return to the dark and cold north. It was a sad moment but I managed not to cry on the train by making a train friend. We had coffee in Lyon and then I headed home to start my week. It's nice to be back despite the busy week I have. I should probably actually try to work.

Adéu. Fins ara,
(Goodbye, see you in Catalan),
Sarah

Les vacanes!!! (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:40:00 +0000

So, I haven't posted for a while because I've been busy and we had vacation (during which I worked as well as had some fun). The weather has been incredible here. It is like we came out of this winter fog and it has been sunny and in the 40s or 50s almost every day. It's crazy!!! Before vacation I was busy recovering from my trip to England, working, teaching some new English classes and I've started writing my French short thesis type thing. (It's really hard!) Now that's officially the second semester of school here it is really hitting me that I'm leaving in less than 6 months!! It's crazy to think about how much I've done (and not done) in 6 months!!

Anyways, enough reflections. Since I last posted I worked a lot and continued running and stuff. Then last weekend vacation started!!! On Saturday, I "helped" a friend move. In fact, I did nothing except eat and watch confusedly as other people helped. He has a permanent position as a lecturer here now so he has become a real person and purchased a really nice apartment. I got really lost going to his house even though it is about a 5 minute walk from my house and then didn't understand directions on the phone, it was one of those depressing situations where I realize that I am still not even close to being fluent in French.

I went into the field with a doctoral student, Aurelie, on Sunday. She was so helpful and it was really fun to be in the field with her. It was so beautiful outside and with my magical pump it was just like spending a beautiful day outside with a friend!!!

The next day, I left for Anjou to collect fossils with my friends Corinne and Thomas. I thought we were going to collect samples from the actual field but it turns out we were really moving a doctor's incredible collection of fossils that was given to the University. It was still really fun, despite waking up at 4 am for the 2nd day in a row. It also turns out that I had been pretty close to Anjou (in the Loire Valley) before with Stephanie and Grady. So that was nice. So we collected fossils and then were tourists for another day. We stayed at the houses of Corinne's brothers. The first was not actually there but he lives in a very traditional regional house and it was so cute!!!! Then we stayed with her other brother and his family, and we saw her 1 month old niece. She was so cute and it made me so excited to see little phoebe.

We returned from Anjou on Wednesday evening with all of our fossils in our 2 vans (with no radio) and unloaded all of the fossils and then prepared to work for the next 2 days. For me, I'm filtering samples and it is never fun. I have less time to filter all of my samples now but it was worth it for the trip to Anjou. I spoke mostly French for 4 days straight, I spent time with people I really like and I got to see another part of France (again!!!)

Ok....must go work.

Ciao for now!!

Les vacances!! (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:23:00 +0000

Hi again,

So after returning from Anjou and having some filtering issues for 2 days. I hate filtering!!! I went to the Jura (the region just east of Burgundy) for a weekend of fun in the snow with 7 other people from the University. It was so beautiful and so fun!!! We went cross-country skiing, which I haven't done since I was little and it was really funny. I don't think I ever actually learned skill and whenever Betsey told Maresa and I what to do we rebelled so consequently, I have no technique. Making it even more fun. Our friend Thomas was the teacher and he told me to do what I do when I run so I did that on the uphill parts but it was quite tiring.

After, skiing on Saturday we drove to a down-hill ski village called Lelex and hiked up to a refuge. Some snowshoed and others were on back country skis and the journey took us a little longer then expected. We arrived at the refuge, which was warm and had good food, after dark and were so happy to here that there were beds open for us. The next day we hiked to the summit of the Jura and you could see all the Alps, Mont Blanc and Lake Geneva! We were actually in Switzerland for about 20 minutes. For me, this is very cool. I didn't even need to show anyone my passport as there was just a barbed wire fence that magically appeared!!! It was so cool.It was another beautiful, tiring and completely fulfilling day. I love snowshoeing, despite the fact that I only had my Merrel hiking shoes and they were completely soaked by the end of the day. (I'm lucky it was nice out!)

The weekend was really awesome. It was so nice to spend time with friends (it is so nice to have friends who invite me on ski weekends) and to just hang out with people.

It was a pretty great vacation. Exhausting, but good. I got back and slept really well on Sunday night and then proceeded to finish my filtering.....finally!!! It was an extra slow process this time and I really wanted to kill the pump. Luckily, I persevered and nothing was harmed.

Ok. Well, I'm going to take a break to practice more of my French language skills!!! (I'm getting better, which is also gratifying and I can actually spend multiple days speaking French without my brain freezing up. However, it is still a grand work in progress.)

Until next time....

Paris and London!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:08:00 +0000

I've had a big week! I saw my Fulbright friends, including Sasha as well as my sister, Maresa!!!! It was so awesome.

Paris was great because it was fun seeing all of the Fulbrighters again. Sasha and I shared a great hotel on Boulevard St. Michel. By pure chance, the hotel was just 5 minutes from the Sorbonne , where our meetings were held and was next to the restaurant the commission to took us to eat one night. The meeting was pretty good and I believe that my and Sasha's presentations on the regions inspired others to come visit us. (We both agree that in many ways we are lucky to not be living in Paris.) There were also some pretty interesting discussions on diplomacy, women's rights, immigration and of course the sciences. It was cool to see everyone's thoughts on France after being here for a while. Mostly, Paris was great because Sasha and I had so much fun together, like usual! And it was nice having someone around when my bank card was taken from me by my bank's ATM the night before I left for London. Luckily, I had Sasha to lend me some money and a credit card (thank you Mom and Dad).

Off to London I went...

And guess who was waiting for me when I arrived to London's Victoria Station after a flight and long bus ride? If anyone knows her you would be shocked but it was Maresa!!! We practically attacked each other with hugs on the busy sidewalk. She looked so London trendy it was kind of shocking. (No more mesh shorts.) But I suppose now she has to fit the part. We then proceeded to navigate the hectic Victoria Station to buy me an underground card and go back to her gorgeous apartment next to Primrose Hill. Another shocker, she knows how to use the underground! She actually looks at maps!!! I was so proud of her.

It was a beautiful day and after we arrived at her very nice apartment I proceeded to take on the role of mom and wash all of the dishes in their apartment (after eating of course). She was sick and I think her and all of her friends are a little exhausted from their fast-paced London lifestyles. They seem to sleep and nap a lot during the day, so I used that time to explore Regent's Park which is right across the street from her apartment, Baker Street (where Sherlock Holmes "lived") and Abbey Road. I also went to an English book store!!!! It was so exciting and I wanted to buy everything. Luckily, I managed to restrain myself.

We all culminated the weekend together by watching the Super Bowl! It was the most American thing I've done in a very long time. I didn't really even know who was playing and I suppose I didn't focus on the game but it was on TV in the background while I chatted with people. The whole weekend was a little bit bizarre because it was like college all over again but it was strangely comforting. And since Maresa was sick, she did not feel the need to go out and party while I was there, which is more fitting to my laid back lifestyle.

After going to sleep at 4 am on Super Bowl night, we woke up so that all of the girls could go off to work for the day. Maresa showed me the super chic neighborhood where she works and then I proceeded to walk through all of London to Victoria Station (my departure point). I don't know why I decided it would be great to traverse all of London with no map, my backpack and a time schedule but it ended up working. (Sometime I really need to go there with a guidebook, or at the very least, a map.) During my walk I stumbled upon many of the landmarks that makes London famous. The following are 2 videos that capture a little bit of my confused experience walking around London.

Finally, I am back in Dijon. And I need to try to do work. So I will return to that task. Until next time...

Criminals run rampant in Dijon!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:35:00 +0000

Not really, it would make a change in the headlines though. In reality, the only criminals here are the ones that occasionally steal bikes and I was the victim of that crime last week. It is demoralizing and makes me feel used inside. Not really, but I am very sad. And it really sucks. I didn't ride it and when I returned in the evening I noticed that it wasn't in the hallway of my apartment, yet the other bikes were still there. At first I thought I was crazy and left it somewhere but did a quick rethink and realized that was not the case. It sucks because now I have no choice but to walk or take the bus. I also really enjoyed going on bike rides. Whoever did this is very mean!! Enough, complaining about my bike.

Not much else super exciting has been going on. This week, I commence a month of more craziness and I'm sure after that I'll be searching for boredom again. I've had plenty of birthday parties and nights seeing movies and hanging out over the past few weeks which make my life seem interesting to me, but just normal to everyone else. I suppose one fun thing about this month was 'les soldes' but they just mean my neighborhood is busier during shopping hours. I tried my best not to profit from the sales I'm trying to economize. I only did a tiny bit. Some of the prices are really quite incredible. Other times, the whole thing seems overrated.

The weather has been pretty nice lately which has allowed for nice outdoor excursions on the weekends. During one trip, we took pictures to prove that I actually have French friends since all of the pictures I post on here are pretty much taken by or of other foreigners. I've also been experimenting with baking and recently introduced the 'cookie cake' to France.

Well, I just realized that I forgot to publish this. I don't know if it is finished but it is a little recap of life here in January.

Ciao!!

Thank god for John Stewart and Stephen Colbert!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:40:00 +0000

The past few days have been relatively uneventful. Last week, I filtered samples. Marion and Kevin returned on Thursday and we went out for a last dinner together in France. They finally had the opportunity to eat French escargot and Kevin had the audacity to say that it wasn't as good as escargot he ate in Aspen. Then they left the next morning (another goodbye) and I taught an English class.

Friday night we commenced our goodbye Anna celebration with some yummy Minnesota wild rice soup and Minnesota Port. Saturday, I relaxed, did yoga, "fait des soldes" (the expression used only for shopping during the months of January or July when everything in France is on sale) with Anna. For the evening, I joined people from the University to wish my friend, Olivier, from the university a happy birthday and then I went to a grand Pizza and wine party called a Crémaillèur (house warming party, in picture above). This doubled as Anna's final going away party.

Sunday, I introduced the idea of the cookie cake to the French (we put a little too much butter in it, but I've decided that I've never put enough and that may be the source of my previous blunders; must find a middle ground). People actually kind of liked the cookie cake too!!! So we did that for Olivier's actual birthday.

The rest of the week was normal: coming to the university, working, fighting my computer, trying to catch-up on election gossip. Thank god the Daily Show is back so that I can actually get hard news and let me tell you, I learned a lot about the world. (Just kidding dad, I read the New York Times and other Liberal propaganda regularly, don't you worry.) Many people here ask me what I think about French politics so I thought I needed to become a pro, it is more difficult without my family here to guide me, but I think I'm managing. We've talked about our crazy election system in most of my English classes lately (it was the students request). I will not express any political views on this blog now that I know its open to the world, but lets just say that thank god John Stewart and Colbert are braving it without their writers.

I've been doing lots of yoga to recuperate my knee. I would like to add that a combination of the yoga and antsiness, which forced me to go running at 5 am the other morning, which magically healed my knee. It really is a miracle and now I'm going running tonight. Tomorrow, I'm going on a field trip about soil science and I'm really looking forward to it.

Ok. Well I should work but I will write again, even if nothing exciting happens.

Ci vediamo!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:18:00 +0000

So nothing super interesting happened over the past 2 weeks but I have some cool pictures to post!! The first is of me eating yogurt on top of one of the mountains in Chamonix!!!

While nothing super interesting has happened, I'll post a small recap for those people who like to read about my life. I was in Chamonix (aka Mont Blanc), the epitome of ski resort village (they actually designed Vail and some of those places after it). I had a really great time. It was so open; like nothing I've ever seen and you could ski almost anywhere. They had the most snow they've had for Christmas in 30 years so that was pretty great!!! At first I was nervous about skiing alone but by the second day I almost came to prefer it. There was something so liberating about being up there alone and being able to do whatever I wanted. This video is of the wierdest Christmas parade ever in Chamonix.

After Chamonix, I took the train to Mirabel and checked into the hotel I shared with my friend Marion and her boyfriend Kevin. I immediately took advantage of the fact that I had a warm shower that was in my room and tried to do the same from the TV but it took a day for me to discover how it worked. (It was pretty exciting when I did though!!) Marion and Kevin arrived after a long trip and we all went out and got some pizza and beer. It was so nice after being forced into the demi-pension thing at my hostel and eating rich French dinners every night; I'm just not cut out for those! I only did about half a day of skiing in Mirabel due to the fact that I did a little something to my knee my last day in Chamonix and instead I tried to explore a little bit of the town we were staying in. Unfortunately, aside from a ger (yes the Mongolian house tent) there was not a whole lot there for me to see for free. It was quite a change from being in Chamonix and being able to hike to places like the mer de glace but I was with Marion and 2 of her and Kevin's friends from Germany so it was a different kind of fun.

After the Alps excursion, we drove back to Dijon and proceeded to leave the next day to do my field work. Marion and Kevin came with plenty of goodies including microwave popcorn, sample bottles, filters and the icing on the cake, a peristaltic pump!!! This last item was quite magical and made sampling seem relatively easy. All of the lakes were frozen over which presented a small problem but it could have been worse. Kevin was forced by the local farmer (who called Kevin Mr. Big Arms) to pull both Marion and I (the farmer thought it would be funnier to make Marion come on the boat too) across the lake and the three of us formed an icebreaker!!!

Until next time....

Greetings from Chamonix!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:38:00 +0000

Merry Christmas!!!

This won't be a long post because I'm busy and freezing. The room with wifi in our hostel is quite chilly. I also managed to loose my toothbrush somewhere so I need to search for a new one. I hope a store is open. Something should be since I am barely in France (everyone speaks English here). I've had to turn off my English radar because I would just end up talking to the whole world. I did manage to score a free day on my skipass because I was the nice American who was speaking French after a bunch of Americans were yelling at the poor workers, so that was pretty cool. I've been skiing a bit and the views are truly incredible. The weather has been perfect and my hostel isn't too bad. It's a little too festive sometimes but most people are pretty nice and interesting. Overall, not a bad place to spend Christmas. I'll post more information when something truly interesting happens!!!

Have a great vacation everyone at home!! I miss you!!!

Lindsey and Sarah in Dijon: Part deux!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:27:00 +0000

Coucou,

This is a very common, non-formal greeting used here between friends. It's kind of like "hi there" but not quite. It also sounds very cute when the French say it. I can't quite pull off using it so I stick to the safe "salut" for informal situations or the good old stand by of "bon" plus whatever part of the day it is.

So I have not gotten to write too much because I've still been busy. As you all know, Lindsey was here for 2 weeks. It was so awesome having her here and I miss her so much now that she's gone. I think I really showed Lindsey Dijon and Burgundy (minus the cows). We did the Christmas market where we drank vin chaud (all the rage here), the Saturday market, lots of shopping. No, for real, we had lots of traditional food and I probably gained a bunch of weight. She also spent some time teaching English with me and hanging out at "le fac". I think/hope she had a great trip too. (To the right are photos of me lighting Channukah candles, I had guests and everything, and Lindsey, Katie and I in a salon de the in Dijon).

She left last Friday morning bright and early in the morning. And then I headed to Strasbourg for the weekend, which was awesome but also further exhausted me. More on that later...

There have been 4 thesis defenses here in one week so that's been interesting. They are slightly different then ours in the US. They have a larger "jury" or committee then we have and they are almost forced to have a foreigner on the jury. Therefore, most of them must make it so that this foreigner can understand it. All of the defenses were mostly in French, however, 2 out of 4 powerpoints were in English. I think its amazing that "the defender" then can change languages when answering questions; I would already be pretty nervous. All of the defenses went very well and I believe they are now all considered doctors. This lead to lots of celebrations in the form of "pots" or cocktail parties. You'd think that most people would be poted out but with the holiday season there is no shortage. It's a bit crazy. Also, with all of these defenses, the pots and work I have had very little time to exercise and it is driving me a bit crazy. I'm really missing our American culture of having gyms on every corner. Hopefully, I'll get a good dose of exercise in the Alps (don't see how I can't).

I've been managing to keep busy and semi-distract myself from the fact that most people seem to be leaving for home this week and I'm leaving for who knows what. The next two weeks should definitely satisfy my adventurous self (10 days in the Alps, mostly by myself!), hopefully not for too long though. I'm pretty determined to meet ski buddies. And there is something about pride that goes out of the window when you are alone in foreign countries; the rules of your life change and when I'm determined to meet people in foreign countries I'm even more forward then I am at home. Well I should get back to working. I'll try to update some time soon.

Cheerio for now!!!

Weekend in Lyon.

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:06:00 +0000

Salut!!!

So it's been a bit since I posted last and a good amount has happened in that time so I will probably do this in multiple parts. I went to Lyon with Sasha and we had a great time, after she had some train issues (her train was "shocked" and then stopped for a while) and having some issues because we were trying to open the wrong door to our hotel. We stayed up talking (in English) the whole time and toured around Lyon. We ate yogurt in archaeological ruins and saw a really really cool mural. We also watched a fabulous 2 hour documentary on Narwhals; not having tv really makes you appreciate it after 4 months. We ended up meeting these guys from New Zealand who are going to be snowboarding and working in Mont Blanc (the Alps) for the season so I'll have people to hang out with over Christmas. We discussed the French phrases that we strangely use when we speak English and had a great time explaining to these New Zealanders the idiosyncrasies of France. It was really great to see a new city and to be there with a fun person. Plus, the whole time I knew I was seeing Lindsey in a few days so it was overall a great weekend. This video is of us being silly in Lyon...

After Lyon, I took the train to Paris and hung out in the Marais (the jewish neighborhood) with my friend Chris. I also bought some dreidels and challah to educate people in Dijon about the joys of Channukah. And then I saw Lindsey at the airport!!! It was really nice although we were both quite tired. I'll chronicle that part of this week later.....

A bientot!!!

Oh and check this out...its a house reunion of sorts: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1240334282

And the saga continues....

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:56:00 +0000

So as some of you may not know, 2 1/2 weeks ago I was given the oh so coveted "titre de sejour" to stay in France for the rest of the year. This past weekend, I managed to lose this identity card. Apparently this is not a very common occurrence because neither the Fulbright people, nor my contact at the Office that helps foreign students knew what you do to get a duplicate. After some minor freak outs I've managed to calm myself and dealt with the crisis in stride. After spending all of Saturday searching for the stupid thing I went to the police station and filed a report. Then Monday I went to the prefecture and had the nice lady. I was informed that I had to fill something out saying I lost it and then resubmit a few papers. Everyone thought it would be very difficult to get a new one because normally you have to prove that you lost it which is kind of a Catch-22 but alas, I had a lucky week. Aside from that I've actually been doing some work lately. I have a very time consuming yet strangely satisfying job of transferring mass amounts of meteorological data from a website to excel. I guess it just feels good to be busy.

I'm about to embark on my travels through France. I'm leaving for Lyon (big city south of Dijon) to meet a Fulbright friend, Sasha and then Sunday I'm taking the train up to Paris to meet Lindsey at the airport on Monday!!! So excited that she is coming!!

My life has definitely become more monotonous due to the break in train strikes (although word is that it will recommence soon) and the cancellation of the blockade at the university. However, that does not mean that others are not being affected in more interesting ways. According to an article by Europe Solidaire Sans Frontieres "literally everyone is under attack" and examples given are:

on the pensions issue, workers are supposed to work longer to get less in the end, sick people will have to pay a “franchise” (fixed rate fee) to be allowed access to social security, immigrants are submitted to more restrictive laws, the possibility of DNA testing of immigrants to prove family relationships was voted in Parliament, illegal immigrants’ children are threatened, the right to study is put in jeopardy both by the loss of thousands of teacher jobs and the autonomization of universities, preparing the competition between them...

(http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article8367)

I think one of the most interesting things about being an American in France at this point in time is that I will never understand this attitude. I'm just too American. Every time I discuss this with a French person, no matter anti-strike they are, I still find myself not understanding why they sympathize with the strikers. As one of my colleagues said "it's our national past time". I think that is a pretty good way of putting it. Many French high schools are currently on strike in support of anything anti-Sarkozy. This includes the high school where my friend Sasha works. This morning she had to go to school just in case any of the students made it through the blockade and could enter the classroom; she's always ready to teach even though there is a huge barrier (i.e. stack of chairs and desks) in between her and the students. I think this says words about the French attitude towards their fellow Frenchmen and to why they all seem to understand and sympathize with these incessant strikes. I will never understand it but then again I guess I'm not meant to.

That's my little commentary for the day. I don't know exactly what people are hearing in the US. I know everyone is hearing about the shootings in the Paris suburbs but thought I would give a little point of view from an outsider in the inside.

Until next time,
Sarah

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Strano) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 07:20:00 +0000

It doesn't actually feel like Thanksgiving here as I have a regular day of work and don't even know if I'll be doing anything particularly Thanksgivingy (yes, that is now an adjective) with my 2 American friends but c'est la vie. I'm missing family a bit just because I know that people are getting together over there in the States and even in Paris but Dijon is seriously lacking in Thanksgiving spirit. Quelle surprise? The weather here is also pretty gross, cool and rainy so that is not really putting anyone in a very good mood. It also makes it harder to run, which is not good because I need an outlet for my sadness about not being at home and with family. On a bright note: I really enjoyed my race on Sunday in Beaune! I ran with this other girl, Angeline, who I met and it was really fun and relaxed (and they really do give you a bottle of wine when you are done!). There were close to 4000 people running and it was full of costumed escargot and caterpillars. It was really cool. I felt like I had a runners' high like Dad always says except that was impossible because I felt it before I started running; I think it was because I was with people, doing something I enjoy and it was just an overall good experience. The whole weekend was really great actually. Saturday night, I spent with people from "le fac" to celebrate my friend Corinne's birthday. Sunday I cleaned up my apartment (since it was being used as a lab last week) and Anna, Bettina and Katie came over to eat and watch sex and the city. It was a really fun way to spend part of Sunday (it made me feel more at home).

In general, most of the strikes are wrapping up with the exception of the train strike which is still a bit of inconvenience. Pretty much everyone was on strike on Tuesday (2 of every 3 schools and many hospital employees just to mention a few groups) so that was interesting. The humanities faculty voted against a continuation of their blockade and classes have recommenced. However, there are still signs everywhere telling the students "good luck with your studies, sell your-self well" (a rough translation) and such so that is really great. As many of you know, the train strikes are still continuing so I hope that they clear up by next week. This weekend I will take a breather and stay in Dijon but the next weekend I am meeting my friend Sasah in Lyon and then going to Paris to meet up with Lindsey. She will visit for almost 2 weeks and just in time for Channukah!!! We will probably spend most of the time here and maybe travel a bit. Then the next weekend I'm heading to Strausbourg because some of my friends are driving there and its supposed to have a really cool Christmas fair thing. Then for Christmas.....I'm going to the Alps for 10 days!!!!! Yeah!!!! I'm so excited. Marion and Kevin will be meeting me there just before New Years' Eve so I won't even be alone the whole time.

So I better return to working. I am teaching a new English course today so I don't have all day to putter around in my office. I will try to enjoy my thanksgiving despite the rain. I hope that everyone else has a great Thanksgiving and eat some good food for me!!!

Ciao,
Sarah