2009? My last post was in 2009? How could I do this to you? I'm sure you've been on the edge of your seat since LAST YEAR waiting for a blog post.

But seriously. Since I last wrote, I have flown to Denmark, then back to France, then to the USA, then back to France. And more than feeling tired, I am feeling very, very guilty about my carbon footprint. I'm still in the process of thinking of a way I can make it up to The Earth for all that carbon emitting I'm responsible for.

Anyway, in a few words, Copenhagen was unbelievable. To see Anna in and of itself was just wonderful. We got to catch up and I was very grateful to be at the conference with her because we had consistently challenging and stimulating conversations (she's doing a Masters in globalization and was thus very helpful and knowledgeable). I got shut out of the conference (as well as many other venues), welcomed to protests and rallies, and attended an alternative meeting area called Klimaforum. Copenhagen itself was buzzing and alive and every minute I felt grateful to be there during the summit. By the time I left, my brain was tired, I was exhausted, and honestly a bit disappointed with the negotiations. But that's a whole other can of worms. It was hard to say goodbye to Anna, but I know we'll meet again soon of course.

After one night in Paris, (HA! Anyone?) I hopped an Ohio-bound plane. After a long journey, I arrived safely in Columbus, overjoyed to see my mama waiting for me. After give or take a dozen Christmas cookies I was as content as could be. My two weeks at home were spent waitressing, hanging out with the family, running in freezing temperatures, shopping for presents, shopping for myself, eating, seeing old friends, and bedazzling my face. I can't express how happy I am I went home, and how happy I was to do absolutely nothing and just be in the same room with my family.

Now, I am back in France and very content to be here. After another long journey and a couple sleepless nights and sleep-filled days, I am almost back in the swing of life. Everyone is still excited to see me (bonus) and Claire and Becky are having a wine and cheese party tomorrow (double bonus). I taught my kids slang today and my favorite one was 'foxy lady,' though 'good vibes' came in for a close second. I also really enjoyed teaching them what 'Well, that was a bust' meant.

As for tonight, I am for all intents and purposes snowed in. Aside from the fact that I may miss my lunch with Isabelle et al, I welcome all the beautiful snow Mother Nature wants to throw down right now.

All my love,

Sam

Our beautiful tree that was up for a little over a week.

Us kids with our newest addition to help make trouble.

The family, version 2010.

The littlest additions to help make trouble.

Traditional Christmas tacos.

ALL of those went in my belly. And you think I'm joking.

Peacefully putting up the Christmas tree.

Anna on our 'Christmas Day' which was in part dedicated to sight seeing!

Le beau Copenhague!

Salut! Becky and I just got back today from Lyon for the Fete des Lumières (Festival of Lights) -- it was a bit of a whirlwind. Friday I was running around like crazy, all the way up until our train at 7pm. We got into Lyon at about 11:30 at night and walked right into a huge house party, hosted by the guy we were staying with. It was super crazy. In true Euro-20-something fashion, it went on until about 6 or 7am and we were wimps for turning in at 3am.

The next day I walked around the city with a fellow Kenyon alum. It was really nice to talk to someone who also spent four years in sleepy little Gambier. We found a cool thrift store, shared a Nutella crèpe and hot chocolate, and explored all the different parts of the city. Lyon is wonderful! I really liked the vibe there. Similar to Paris, but more manageable, it seemed.

Saturday night was filled with light! The light shows were amazing- artists and designers from all over the world collaborated to put on the different shows. I was mesmerized. I don't think the pictures do it justice, but hopefully it conveys a bit of how cool the show was. I was so tired from the night before that I went to bed 'early' again at 2am, and our train left at 9 this morning. We got back home this afternoon and I have school tomorrow.

I leave for Copenhagen in a week (Obama moved his visit to December 18, so I'll be there when he is. Hopefully he and I can hang out a little one on one, depending on his schedule). The Christmas spirit is really starting to kick in here in Franche Comté: lights, Christmas markets, sales, trees, all of it! Very excited and hopefully Claire and Becky and I will take cheesy pictures with the Santa and elf decorations soon. All the assistants are doing a Secret Santa exchange on Tuesday, so that'll be fun as well.

Joyeux fêtes, tout le monde!

Love,

Sam

Tonight was dinner at my apartment! It actually turned out very well: I borrowed a table and chairs from Diana and miraculously all seven people fit comfortably. It turned out to be a stimulating mix of German, French and English speaking. The Motown playlist I made was a big hit. The menu was as follows:

Appetizer: Baguette, pesto, tomato and melted goat cheese (from the farm, of course).

Salad: Pears, walnuts and a homemade dressing.

Entrée: Cream of broccoli soup, from scratch! With sautéed mushrooms, peppers and onions on the side.

Dessert: No bake cookies (the Germans and UK kids had never tasted them before!), vanilla ice cream, and clementines.

A photo of Diana, Carina, Fleur and me. Lots of other pictures were taken, but in all my hosting I myself didn't take many.

I worked at the farm today at 7:00 and I'm totally wiped. Lots of love.

À la prochaine,

Sam

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week went really quickly with lots of menial tasks. I found out I was required to fill out a request for absence form regarding Copenhagen, so I had to do a lot of French paperwork (huge surprise, I know). I'm also in the middle of applying for my French housing subsidy, which is also a lot of copies and papers and writing. Hopefully that will be sent out next week, too. After being in France and dealing with the French social system, I don't think I'll ever have a problem with impatience in the States ever again.

We had a German meal cooked for us by Corina and Diana on Tuesday. They made salad, some German pasta delicacy, and apple strudel! It was scrumptious. Next week I volunteered to have everyone over to my place. It'll be interesting to se how I manage to get seven girls seated and served in my little apartment. It'll be an adventure!

This is a photo of Corina, our gracious host!

And on Thursday, I was planning to go to Champagnole for Thanksgiving at Josh's with his housemates and some friends. No matter how hard I searched, I could not find a train that worked with my teaching schedule. I just mentioned to a teacher that if she knew of anyone driving south that day, they should let me know, and I could catch a train directly from Besançon instead of from Lure. But everyone had staff meetings that night and it seemed like there was no way I could possibly get to Champagnole. Then I got a call from Françoise, and her daughter was going that afternoon. She had even gone through the trouble to talk to the teacher whose class I was supposed to attend, and he said it was fine if I missed it! So I hopped in the car with her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend and headed to Besançon. I got to Champagnole and successfully navigated myself (without directions or phone numbers no less!) to Josh's lycée. He made PUMPKIN PIE and CHRISTMAS COOKIES. Can you believe it? We ate entirely too much, drank good wine, and laughed a lot. It was wonderful. We stayed up so late listening to Lorent play the guitar and hanging out.

Josh and his delicious pumpkin pie. I couldn't believe that he made it himself. Did you know that pumpkin pie doesn't have to be made with pumpkin, but any of the different types of squash? Tasted just the same!

This is the Thanksgiving crowd. It was the first Thanksgiving for Zoe and Anne, where were from England and Germany respectively. We went around the table and said what we were thankful for. I think it was a memorable holiday for them! (Also pictured are Lorent and Remy, two of their French friends in Champagnole). And below is a happy photo of Anne and Zoe.

So yes! Thanksgiving was great, and I even (against all odds) got back to Lure on time to teach my three classes on Friday afternoon. Next week is my second to last week at school before my three week Copenhagen / Paris / US break. Very excited! Hope everyone is doing well- has anyone seen snow yet??

Love,

Sam

Hello!!

I feel like I have so much to tell you. To start, the sky has been blue for FOUR days and I've been on FOUR runs and it has been just wonderful. Talk about a pick me up.

On top of that, this Thursday was Beaujolais Nouveau, which happens every year the third Thursday of November. It's when this type of wine, the Beaujolais Nouveau, is released from the Lyon region. It's the first batch you can drink that was made in 2009. It was really fun, and I went to a teachers house and there were many people drinking wine, eating cheese, and just being merry. Among the ten or eleven people who were there, we drank thirteen bottles of wine. I still can't hang with the French.

The next morning when I biked to the farm (at 9am instead of 7am because of the festivities), I was thinking to myself I that I should have just stayed in bed. When I got there, I saw that Jacky was thinking the same thing. They had seven people over the night before for the holiday, and drank ten bottles of wine. Isabelle was okay, but Jacky was totally hungover. It was really funny. Needless to say it was a pretty low key day there. I made the cheese while Isabelle worked with the cows (we had one die this week) and Jacky and Remi worked with the hay and the sheep.

BUT! The great news is that I am finally helping! When I first got there, I was sort of a hinderance, with the fact that I didn't know the farm vocabulary in French, and that I had never made cheese before, etc. But now, when I'm there, I actually help them do things more quickly, and this week, Isabelle left me in the cheese room ALONE and TRUSTED me to MAKE it MYSELF. It was really cool, and I felt a lot of pressure-- I made sure that I did everything perfectly and cleaned up and did well. She inspected later and sent me a text message telling me that I did a good job. I felt like I had passed some sort of test.

So yesterday, we were all in a Beaujolais stupor, and their niece Eva stopped by the farm. She invited me to a brewery/party that night. I was supposed to hang out with my friend Fleur, so I invited her too. It turned out to be really fun, except that all the people were looking cool and chain smoking-- in a closed space. Ick, it was rough. But besides that, it was super fun and familial almost. I felt lucky to be there; it wasn't a place you would be unless you knew someone. There was live Turkish music, and the owner agreed to let me come for a day in the spring and learn to make beer. Toward the end Fleur and I became kind of like the English speaking spectacles and everyone wanted to show us how well they could speak. Which was not very well. But it was cool, and we got home pretty late. It was nice to sleep in this morning. Here's a picture of the boisterous table at the brewery, and one of me and Fleur (she's from Wales).

And now for the big news: after some chaotic trip-planning with Anna and Heidi, I decided that instead of spending an inordinate amount of money to go to Morocco for the holidays, I would put it all toward a flight home. Thus, I will, in fact, be back in Ohio for sixteen whole days. And I can't express how happy that makes me. Like I told my mom, doing all the researching of things to see and places to go, I realized the only place that I really wanted to be was with my family. So I am very fortunate, and my flight leaves December 21.

Copenhagen Dec 14 - 20, Paris Dec 20, and home Dec 21 until Jan 5. How exciting! Now, of course, I'm itching to get to Denmark, and see Paris at Christmas time, and see my family! But all in good time.

Happy Thanksgiving soon! I gave a lesson about it, and I went around the class and made each student say something he or she was thankful for. It made me happy. I said I was thankful for my friends and family.

Love,

Sam

This is one of the last days of fall. It was unreal how pretty it was that day. This is taken in a small village outside Besançon.
Aaaaaand Mathilde's grandpa. A gem. He doesn't have just one accordion. He doesn't have just two, but THREE accordions. And I had the privilege of hearing him play a very French in a café kind of song. It was just wonderful.
This is Mathilde and her mom and her grandpa. Her mom sent me home with a contraption to purée things like applesauce and mashed potatoes, and some homemade jelly, and a laundry basket full of apples and a box full of walnuts.
And this was the prettiest view of the day. I couldn't get over how beautiful it was.

Now that I've posted these exceedingly pleasant photos, I need you to do me a favor: picture the exact opposite. The weather has rudely changed from a vibrant fall to a purgatory of seasons-- what I like to call the grayny season (gray and rainy wordsmith). I don't know why it changed its mind, but now it is almost constantly raining, drizzling or spitting. And the gray is this pressing, heavy, thick kind of gray. It makes me constantly ask myself, in a whiny voice, "Do I HAVE to go outside today?" My hair is asking the same question.

So I'm working on embracing the grayny season in which I have found myself. And I am also working on smiling double my usual amount to counteract the weather issue. Things here are moving steadily along. I'm becoming more confident in lesson planning and lesson giving. I am also so happy to see the students everyday, because honestly, I never know what to expect. Their spontaneity is refreshing. And invigorating. Isn't Thanksgiving soon? I'm going to make a lesson about it. I want to dress up, but I'm not sure that I could find things to wear. Maybe I could dress as a Native American?

I am still working on the internet/phone debacle. What's a stronger word than debacle? Catastrophe? Hash? Botch? Washout? Ruin? Alas..

But to end on a positive note, I would like to pay tribute to the newest albums of Maria Taylor, Regina Spektor, and the Avett Brothers for being spot on and making me so happy. Also, Becky found out about a PLACE in LURE where you can LISTEN to LIVE MUSIC. Hopefully we'll GO there SOON because THAT would be AWESOME.

Always sopping wet, but with love,

Sam

The Jewish Memorial. It was enormous, and really moving. All different size stones, and from ground level you can't see how tall they are. We also stood on the bunker where Hitler committed suicide, saw Checkpoint Charlie, and the German parliament.
One of the parts left of the Berlin Wall. There's also another area, the longest maintained section, where artists from around the world have painted murals. Really inspiring.
The famous TV tower in eastern Berlin.
Claire, another American assistant in Lure, and I with Natalie from England. We met her our touristy pub crawl which turned out to be a very memorable night filled with people from all over Europe. We're drinking a beer that was brewed in Berlin. We tried a few different quintessentially German beers. Perhaps one too many?
Claire and I with Sofia who was from Spain. We met on the four hour walking tour of the city. It was so fun and super informative (and freezing).

So there are some pictures of Berlin. It was just an unreal experience. It is my most favorite city that I have ever visited -- apart from the fact that all the words I heard were impossible combinations of consonants. I was inspired to learn German after being there though, it's such an impenetrable seeming language. I thought it sounded like a record being played backwards. The city in its current form is just so young, and bursting with young people and ideas. Simultaneously, it's so rich in history and in culture. Such a stimulating and ever-changing place to be.

So besides becoming fluent in German, I went on a long walking tour of the city, visited the Berlin Wall in several different locations, went to a TECHNO club that didn't close until 11AM, visited a former concentration camp 35km north of Berlin, went to the Jewish Museum, and mulled around various farmers' and flea markets. I loved every minute I spent there.

Now I'm back in Lure, and happy to be here. It felt like I was going back to my cozy little small town home. I like that I'll be here for about a month, then have another two weeks to travel, then another month, then travel. It's seems to be a perfectly punctuated academic year.

I also got confirmation that I will in fact be a National Wildlife Federation delegate at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change. I can't believe that I have this opportunity to be there to witness history happening, and hopefully changing for the better. I'll be in Denmark December 15-20, then Paris for a few days near Christmas time, and I don't know after that. I may go to Spain/Morocco with Anna and Heidi.

That's all for now, I apologize for the length. All my love.

Sam