Why is Returning to Work so Difficult?

Week 24 & 25: 02/26 – 03/09

Welcome to /miel/, a written account of my life and what my days hold here in France. Thank you for coming to read today.

It’s been busy around here, hence yet another week missed… Luckily it wasn’t too action packed. But onward and upward, here we go!

Returning to work last week… what a drag! I am always excited to see the students and it felt good to be back and in the classroom, although coming off of a two week, amazing vacation makes it extra tough to be actually present at school. Nonetheless, it was fine and it was good to see colleagues again and hear about their vacations too.

My timetable was another mess when I got back from vacation, as it changed again. Am I surprised by this point? Nope, not one bit. While this part especially with my schools has been insanely frustrating, it has taught me so much patience this year, and to be flexible, and to set boundaries as well. Those of you who know me, know I love a good ol’ Outlook calendar, or a rigid schedule with every 15 minutes scheduled in. I still love this method very much, but I am learning to truly “pencil” things in. It’s been a stretch of comfort zone, but of course, that’s how we grow.

Tuesday, Nicole and I were on a local radio talk show! We were invited by one of our teacher friends who hosts a monthly segment. We talked about typical food in the US, what we eat for different meals, what we miss about the US food, and in turn, what have we found comfort with eating here in France?(My answer, a lot of pain au chocolat and espresso.) I was so nervous, since it was live, and in French, and I didn't want to mess up. I think we did pretty alright, and maybe we'll be famous one day in Noyon.

Thursday, we went out with some colleagues from one of my schools, I lost at darts… again… and we discussed how it’s difficult to be funny in a second language. It helped me to think more deeply about how much of a role humor plays in daily life, and how much slang is used in humor, and how difficult it is to either contribute and/or understand this humor in another language. It’s something I’m trying to be more conscious of, and trying to practice in French. It takes practice and I’m still learning!

Saturday, Nicole and I went to Paris for the day and we saw the Louvre Museum! It was really great. I had been on the fence about going, I was worried about the masses of people, the Mona Lisa doesn’t really interest me, and it can be expensive to enter. However, Nicole and I have a special pass for teachers, so we can enter national museums for free, and if not now, when?! So we went.

First, we stood in line for about 20-25 minutes, even though we had reserved our tickets online and showed up at our reserved time. We finally got in and made such a DUMB mistake. We saw the first bathrooms as we entered, and stood in line for about FORTY-FIVE (45) MINUTES. *FACE PALM*

It was the classic: “Do we keep waiting and we’ll get there faster in this line, or do we take a chance and find another bathroom, just to end up starting over and waiting longer?”

We waited. And as we got to the front, FINALLY, it turns out that there was ONE STALL only available. So, I don’t know what all those women in front of us were doing (there were probably only 15, maybe 20), but I just want it to be known that Nicole and I each were in and out in under one minute, so it is indeed possible.

As we were exiting, this other woman is yelling at the line, “There is only one stall, there’s a bunch of huge bathrooms over this way!”

Ah… hindsight…

We finally entered into the wing we wanted to see, as you should definitely do research ahead of time concerning what art/artists/mediums you want to see, because there is so much.

We went to the Denon Wing, Level 1. There were a lot of famous works throughout this wing, including the revered Mona Lisa. After we wandered in a bit, spending time looking at the paintings, we happened upon the room with the Mona Lisa. This was not high on either of our lists to see, and we definitely did not wait in line to get close. My analysis: If she was placed among all the other works of art, all the other portrait paintings within the Louvre, she would get as much attention as the other portraits, and wouldn’t be this amazing phenomenon.

Anyway, we moved on and I got to see two of my favorite paintings I have wanted to see in person for so long, “The Coronation of Napoleon” by David, and “Liberty Leading the People” by Delacroix. These are both insanely famous, but especially the Delacroix painting took my breath away. It was enormous and beautiful.

Similar to my experience with my first viewing of the Eiffel Tower, it felt like I had studied this painting and had done so many analyses on it, and on Delacroix, and on Liberty, that to finally have it truly in front of me was surreal. I could hardly tear my eyes away.

There were quite a few other paintings that were magnificent that I did not previously know of, and you can view them in my Google photos album HERE if you would like.

Nicole and I spent about 4-5 hours in the Louvre, not nearly enough time, and we only saw the Denon Wing, Level 1 and a little bit of the sculpture wing, Level 0.

It was time for us to go, because Nicole and I had a hot date to eat some raclette! Raclette, if you are unfamiliar, is a French specialty dish, especially in the winter months. It is insanely basic, with boiled potatoes, raclette cheese, and pickles on the side. It’s kind of difficult to explain, but there’s two main ways to prepare raclette. If you are in a big group or in a restaurant, it’s often prepared as a half-wheel of raclette cheese, melted a layer at a time and scraped onto the plates of boiled potatoes of the people. For less people, or less fancy restaurants, you get a little grill plate and you placed the individually sliced raclette cheese on the grill, and when it’s ready you scrape it onto your potatoes. It’s a must-eat if you have the opportunity! It’s not my favorite French food, but it’s definitely delicious.

After dinner we had to leave to catch our train at 7:20 pm back to Noyon, and through a course of events, missing a metro by 30 seconds, sprinting (yes, truly sprinting) through the train station, we watched as our train left the station… without us.

Saturdays often have less options of times to travel, so our next available train was at 10:40 pm. Here we were stuck in Paris for three extra hours, at night. So we clutched the opportunity and ran with it!

We went up to the Sacre Coeur basilica and saw Paris at night. It was beautiful. You could even see the tippy-top of the Eiffel Tower from the right vantage point. There were plenty of people up here, many sharing a bottle of wine or a beer, and people just hanging out, playing music, without the venders/scammers around, without the world of tourists around, and it was peaceful.

We finally wandered down to an itty-bitty bar called Le B’Art, and shared a bottle of wine before showing up with twenty minutes to spare to catch our train to Noyon. We rode off and returned safely back home.

This week has been fairly uneventful. Just working. I have FIVE weeks of work left, then my contract is up and I am a FREE WOMAN! I am ready to be done. I love my colleagues, I love (most of) the students, and I like living here. The program, the administration… I will be happy to be done with come April 14.

With that, I have a LOT of trips coming up. This is my last free weekend, and then I’m off to Toulouse, to Amsterdam, to Lille, to London… and I am still in the process of planning my three weeks of vacation before I go and meet my family in Ireland in May! So much planning to do, but as the French say, “Il faut profiter!”

Saturday, Nicole, Linda and I are heading to Compiegne for the day to meet another assistant, Eleanor, and have a tour of the chateau (my favorite chateau), and have a nice cup of tea.

I’ve also been working a lot on applying for jobs for next year, as well as starting to make my PT graduate school application. Busy, busy, busy, but I like being busy!

TL:DR

High: Seeing “Liberty Leading the People” painting by Delacroix, in real life!

High #2: Getting excited for all of my upcoming trips!

Low: It’s been really grey and cold here this week, I need the sun.

Low #2: Getting re-homesick as I anticipate seeing my family and returning home.

New French Word:

Pois chiche – chickpeas

Lesson(s) Learned:

1. The Mona Lisa is truly overrated, yep I said it.

2. Think that public transport takes two times the amount of time to get somewhere… so you don’t miss your train.

3. I love being here, but I’m ready to go home.

4. Sometimes you have to reorder your priorities, and it can be hard.

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Until next week, I wish you all well. I miss you all incredibly much. Please send me a message, an email, some snail mail, whatever suits you best.

All the love,

Abigail

Below: Nicole and I at the Sacre Coeur Basilica in Paris at night