April showers bring May flowers?

If this old saying is true, Nantes should soon have roughly 3 million flowers per inhabitant. Without getting into the sticky argument of whether Nantes is in Bretagne (Breizh), I found this to be very fitting:

But even that time when I left without an umbrella for the first time in days and it suddenly started hailing, I still loved Nantes.

Plus when it rains I am less upset about not being able to run and play sports. It turns out that when I hurt my foot in rugby at the end of February it was actually slightly fractured and the ligament/tendony thing that runs across the arch of the foot was injured. But I kept using it (see: Paris Half Marathon) which didn’t help and now I’ve got to spend the month of May glaring jealously when runners pass by.

The upside of the injury was more time to job hunt. First, the best news: I will be a lectrice again! This time at the Université de Nantes. I will miss my elementary school kiddos, but university level is a lot of fun too and a different challenge. Plus it’s a 12 month contract that can be renewed for a 2nd year.

And for the summer it looks like I will definitely have one short term job and I have an interview next Monday for another one, so keep those fingers crossed. If all else fails, it also seems unemployment is a possibility but I’m trying to be a good citizen and work (also, unemployment surely involves more paperwork and I’d rather do any other type of work than the paper kind).

May is also the Month of Holidays. Now it’s your turn to be jealous: I had no less than three 5 day weekends this month. Yes, three.

First up was May Day, la Fête de Travail or France’s labor day. They are really serious about not laboring on labor day. This is the only day I’ve ever seen the entire transport system in the city shut down.

Luckily, the service industry was a little less serious about it. So Melanie and I took off to La Roche Bernard for the day. La Roche Bernard is a charming town in the south of Brittany where lots of violent things happened during the Revolution (you guys, they did more than just storm the Bastille and off Marie-Antoinette!) and where a very large war boat was once built.

But mostly it’s just very charming and has a little bay full of boats and we ate pizza by the water and wandered the streets and had tea at my new favorite tea and coffee place, Le Goût du Bonheur. The tea was excellent and they roast their own coffees and have clever little tea timers and the decor was classy but laid back. The lady was also very nice and the windows opened up to let a breeze in.

I want to go back and learn to sail but Melanie wants to go back and just camp. She’s very grounded in so many ways.

Next up was May 8th. If I had a Euro for every time a journalist said “Two Presidents, SIDE BY SIDE!” with exaggerated surprise while covering the WWII remembrance ceremony, I would not need a summer job.

The Month of Holidays concludes with Ascension tomorrow. For you heathens out there, this is the celebration of Jesus ascending to heaven.

“WAIT! JESUS? I thought the French were obsessed with “laïcité“?!” you may ask.

It’s true that France is a non-secular country, proudly and decidedly so. You would never hear a French politician talking about how he prayed while searching for an answer to political decision. But the French, too, have their limits and when strictly adhering to their non-secular ideals means losing a four day weekend*, that’s just “pas possible!”

This is convenient because one of my very favorite people in the world – Andrew – is coming to visit and he is only here Thursday and Friday. Thank you, France and your metaphorical bridges.

More later on the French elections and the time I accidentally said Weewee in class (that’s what my students heard, anyway).

Well, I’m going to end this one here so I can add a few shorter more focused posts later.

*Many people, including schools, take Friday off as well which in French is called Making the bridge “faire le point”.

Malinda Lo’s new novel!

Malinda Lo’s book, Ash, was my first Kindle purchase and I’ve read her second novel, Huntress, several times.
I never re-read things. It’s just that good.

Her new YA novel comes out later this year and they just released the cover:

You can win a signed advanced copy here (US/Canada shipping only): http://www.malindalo.com/2012/03/presenting-the-adaptation-cover/

March Madness

It’s mid-March and March Madness is in full swing. I’m not talking about basketball, but rather the “Spring is here and when it is over so is my job/visa/etc!” panic that has become my annual ritual.

I’m currently waiting to hear if I can extend my contract through June to finish the school year. This would be good for me because I want to stay but also very good for my students some of whom only have English lessons when I am there to teach them. Someone was told we would have a response this week. It’s 5:25pm, Friday. Generally, in this program, dates that require someone else to do something are generally fairly fluid.

I’ve both applied to teach at the university here, as I did in Le Mans two years ago, and to renew my assistant position. I’d love to do either so I can keep improving my English teaching. Both have their perks – university is better paid and higher level of conversation skills opening up some interesting teaching options, but primary school involves more drawing and singing and being adored by your students. Today I taught a little girl who always wants to do the Bises (the French kiss on the cheek) how to fist bump and ‘splode it instead.

I’m looking for summer work which isn’t easy without the proper “formation”. The French have a certification or training program for EVERYTHING. Think of something you could legally be paid to do and I bet you can a training program for it. My teaching experience, English skills and determination might turn something up yet, though.

The weather has suddenly gone spring like. Which is lovely. If only it were easier to job hunt while lounging in the grass. The lounging will have it’s moment, I’m sure.

Finally, in what many would describe as Madness, I went to Paris two weeks ago to run the Semi Marathon de Paris. With the company of Mr. Jonathan Langley, the support of the Mrs. Sarah Hayes Langley, and the help of my Dad who bought the train tickets, I ran 13.1 miles (21.097km) in 2 hours 32 min and 45 seconds. Jonathan beat me by one second so I demand a rematch.

I completed the majority of the course – which if you’ve forgotten was THIRTEEN POINT ONE MILES – while wearing a Hog nose. What started out as a show of Razorback pride to go with my UA Rugby shirt and my race bib nickname Razorback, turned out to be a real boost. Wearing it kept the cold wind off my nose making it drain less (overshare?), which meant I coughed less and ran better. Also, it led French people all along the race course to call out “Allez, le petit cochon!” which means “Go little pig!”. On any other day I’d be offended, but even if they didn’t get that I am no simple Little Pig, but a Razorback (“sanglier”), the personal encouragement really kept me moving.

Representing the Razorbacks

I hadn’t kept my training up since the new year due to business and iciness, so I was pretty pleased with my time. Rugby has made me a faster runner, even if I’m the slowest runner on the rugby team.

The race itself was a lot of fun. There was lots of different music along the course including a woman who opened her apartment windows and blared We Are the Champions while waving at everyone. With 25,000 runners going by, she probably had to listen to the song several times. A group of guys from Paris’s LGBT running group were shaking it to pop music at the last 500 meters.

25,000 is a lot of runners. (Photo by MaindruPhoto.com)

Finishing the first 10k I felt myself starting to tire so I grabbed an extra sports gel from the drink and snack station and saved it for about the 13th kilometer. Which probably only made a difference mentally. By the 15th k I was feeling my legs really weaken and knew I’d need some extra energy to finish. I grabbed two orange quarters and a banana which I absolutely devoured. In my Hog nose. I’m sure it was a sight. The only thing that kept me from walking the last 3k was knowing it was the last 3k.

The ladies in the background are maybe the only people more excited about the finish

 

I spent so much time smiling when I got back to Nantes that Mélanie suggested I run a half marathon every weekend.

Of course, she didn’t really mean that. I was so sore Sunday night that by the time I got off the train and outside the station everyone else had been gone for a few minutes and Mél thought I’d fallen asleep in the train. The next day I would randomly shout “Hey, look!” and then rip my hoodie open like Superman getting ready to bolt off and save the world, revealing my Finishers Medal underneath. She’s a patient woman, but no one could put up with that every weekend.

Happy to have our medals (Photo by Sarah Hayes Langley)

Thanks so much to Mom (who bought my official race pictures for me) and Dad, Lindsey and Jeremy, Steph and Emily and Gwen, Sarah and Johnathan and Momma Hayes, Lynn, Mélanie, Hicks Park, and everyone who helped encourage me to finish or helped me recover. I still remember not being able to run a mile not very long ago, so I’m pretty proud.

Next stop: marathon. Maybe in the fall?

The Wonders of Dawn or whatever the Carrefour brand or orange dish soap is

I’ve learned a lot here in the English Teaching Assistants program. Mostly about teaching English and speaking French, but also about how to live below minimum wage. This is a lesson most people learn in college, but I got spoiled with a generous scholarship from the U of A, so I’ve only really learned low-budget living since graduate school.

This is no complaint- I chose this program and not as a last resort. But I thought maybe a bit of what I’ve learned could be useful to those of you also skimming by or just wanting to skim a bit off your own expenses.

Here are a few ways I’ve learned to stretch my budget:

1. If you need to clean something, the odds are dish soap can do the job. Supermarkets offer aisles full of different combinations of chemicals packaged so that you have a different plastic bottle for cleaning the floor, the bathtub, the shower, the toilet, the sink, the table, etc. Let’s be real here: dish soap can clean all of those things AND get stains out of your clothes. Even the under a Euro store brand that does not in any way smell of citrus despite its neon orange coloring and the claims made on its label. For the toilet, I pour in some hot water and dish soap and let it soak before giving it a brush and flush.

2. Spices are your friend and variety is key. When you can’t vary what you eat, vary how you season it. I admit, the magic wears off in the long run. But at least for a while you can convince yourself that lentils with tomatoes, rice and Italian seasoning, lentil curry with rice, and lentil chili are three entirely different meals. This is also handy as a time saver if you want to cook lots of something for multiple meals without eating the same meal 4 times. Make a big pot of beans or whatever, split it in two and then add seasonings.

3. Buy the cheap muesli that has no flavor enhancers and tastes like cardboard because it is actually just a mix of oats. Add a bit of sugar and instant coffee along with your milk and you are good to go.

4. Having an apple in your bag will make you less tempted to justify a stop by the pastry shop.

5. Hotel soap bars. Because cheap dish soap will clean your toilet but is kind of hard on your hands.

2012, Bienvenue

As usual time is passing more quickly than I can grasp. It’s almost February, so an update is overdue.

Holidaze

The season was lovely and the holiday time went by very quickly. For Christmas, one of the girls from the rugby team, Dori, invited me to have Christmas Eve dinner with her family. She drove me to  her grandmother’s house in a small town just outside Nantes which, much to my confusion, is called La Montagne (“the Mountain”).

Dori: My grandmother lives in the Mountain.

Me: Ooookay…. (Pictures mental image of France, searches for nearby mountain range… wonders how long the drive to the Pyrenees is…)

The dinner was delicious – home made foie gras, boudin blanc with sauteed apples, salmon – and the evening a lot of fun. The little ones got all excited about the gifts Father Christmas left. We played a game that was similar to Apples to Apples which was a lot of fun but rather difficult with my accent that gets worse as I wear out. It made it much easier to be far from home to be able to celebrate in a family atmosphere.

Christmas Day I spent with a fantastic group of fellow assistants (and Laura’s sister who came to visit) who didn’t go home for the break. We each brought goodies to stuff stockings with which was fun to open up on Christmas morning. I made brunch for everyone and the others made a fantastic dinner – steak, green beans, fancy salad, mashed potatoes, cheesecake. I left the carol singing to Laura and Dave. We also all took turns skyping home. Thank goodness for the interwebs!

Christmas Morning (Photo by Jordan Adams)

Hit that line, hit that line!

Well the Razorbacks were busy showing Kansas how it’s done, I survived my first rugby match. We lost 26-12 to Facture, which was a disappointment after we played a great first half and then let it slip in the second. But I had a great time anyway, learned a lot, and look forward to more matches to come. Especially matches at home, since the 2nd game in Toulouse taught me that games on the road are exhausting. It also taught my team that Americans love us some PB&J when we’re in for a long-haul.

Bretagne Nantes Ladies XIII

 

Home Sweet  Home

I couldn’t go home, but I made a few decorations to make my little studio feel more like home. I found these little easels at a home deco store in town and painted some close ups of a few Tulsa landmarks. I had a great time making them and they give my little space a bit more character.

The Philtower, the Golden Driller, and the Blue Dome at night

Some days are better than others

Yesterday it was cold and wet and my to-do list for the day went all to hell. I should’ve gone back to bed when I went to take the tea bag out of my already over-brewed tea only to realize I’d put in two tea bags. One before I put the water in one after. I salvaged it by heating extra water, splitting the seriously black tea into two cups and watering them down. It wasn’t great, but I didn’t waste two bags of perfectly fine tea.

Han Solo doesn’t believe in luck…

But I sure seem to have some. Mélanie drove me to Guérande, a beautiful town that was a medieval salt producing center, and the beach at La Baule. We didn’t rest on the beach long since winter decided to come that weekend, but after dinner we went to the casino where I won 18 Euro. Maybe instead of luck it was just self-control… most people probably would’ve kept playing with such a small winning. But I’d had enough fun winning a euro a two at a time and hearing the tink tink tink of coins as I cashed out. The casino was also the only place in Europe I’ve ever had unlimited Coke refills. Which of course, is in their interest. If you get tired or thirsty, you’re more likely to leave than keep losing your money.

Hello very much!

Sometimes my students make such adorable mistakes, I don’t want to correct them.

Teaching has been a lot of fun. We drew monsters together to learn the parts of the body while reviewing numbers and colors. “How many eyes does the monster have? What color is it’s hair?” They get REALLY excited about it. One day when it was nice I took my littler ones outside to play People to People to practice body parts. It was great to get them moving.

It’s amazing how a class has almost a shared personality. Some days the ENTIRE class of students is sleepy. Some days they are all eager or chatty or distracted. Sometimes it’s easy to explain such as when there is a windstorm at night that keeps the whole city from sleeping well. Other times it’s a mystery. One of my classes is learning animals and the week before this one they were little zombies staring at me as I tried to get them to tell me whether elephants were tiny or enormous. This week I started off with the same activity meaning to spend 3 min max reviewing and dozens of little hands shot up in the air when I asked “What animals are tiny?” and “What animals are big?”. They eagerly shouted “Elephants! Mice! Bears!” (usually mispronounced Beers, we are working on that) and asked how to say the names of about 10 different animals we hadn’t learned.

Overall, Nantes is as wonderful as ever. Better even. Hope everything is well with all of you!

Happy New Year! 

Oh hi, December, you snuck up on me…

The More You Know

For two months, every time I left one of the schools I teach at I’d find or buzz the school’s guardian to let me out through the front gate. I did this because when my adviser took me to the school for the first time she told me this is how it is done. Every week the guardian seemed a bit confused when I rang. The week before last I discovered that the side gate is unlocked and if I walk about 20 yards to my right I can exit that way all by me onesie. It’s always nice to be a pain in the ass for two months for no reason.

La Météo

We start every class pretty much with the date and the weather. It’s only recently started to get wintery here. Wet, cold (low 40s, still not freezing), wet, wet, and windy. But much like home the weather changes minute to minute. I once arrived at my school and as usual bunches of little children ran up to me like I was the ice cream man saying Hello and asking if I was teaching them today. It was cold when I’d left my apartment ten minutes earlier and when I arrived I took off my jacket and enjoyed the warm sunshine in a t-shirt. We practiced saying “It’s sunny” and “It’s nice”. Five minutes later we began class by asking “How is the weather today?” and the students had to change their answers to “It’s raining”, “It’s cloudy”, and “The sky is grey”.

I want rain boots. This week it rained so much we can’t play rugby on Saturday because the mayor banned all use of grass fields for the weekend.

Allez les Bleus!

I don’t know much about the current state of les Bleus (the French national soccer team) except that Fran feels very strongly and probably accurately that Ribery is past his prime (to be more polite than she was). But I’ve got plenty of my own bleus – bruises that is – these days since I started playing rugby. I’ve been having a great time learning a new game – or trying to – and getting in better shape. I might be able to do a push up before spring time. The team has been supportive and patient as I run left and right trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing. I like defense- if someone with the ball runs near you, TACKLE HER. At least I get the concept there, even if the execution is still flawed.

Change is the only constant

I’ve been here two months and already the city’s changing. Black or White, a great lunch time cafe owned by a very kind Chicago native named Kimberly, closed its doors this weekend. The cookies, the burritos, the cookies, and the warm welcome will be really missed. Another restaurant, Façon Maison, is closed for good now too. I unfortunately never got around to eating there as I haven’t done a lot of sit down in a restaurant meals, but they threw soirées every now and then that were a lot of fun. It’s where I met my friends Fran and Melanie on Halloween.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

The lights are on all around town- even the cranes are lit up. I saw some of my students rehearse their Christmas concert last week and went to the Christmas market at the school afterwards. In addition to holiday decorations the kids made themselves, cake and beer were also for sale. I was definitely not in Oklahoma. There are several Christmas markets around town from the regular market (which is mostly not too Christmasy aside from the food items), to the market for charities to the market for artists. In my classes we’ve played Christmas bingo, made Christmas Crackers, and sang a version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas that involved clapping, jumping, and turning. Today some of my kids gave me chocolates and drawings for Christmas. I was especially pleased with the two drawings of the Statue of Liberty since I’m certain many if not most of my students still believe I’m English despite the map of America marked with my hometown carefully glued into their notebooks.

Another brick in the wall

I was really alarmed in my first big lecture class in le Mans back in ’06 when 70 students simultaneously pulled out pen pouches and began taking notes carefully color coded and underlined with a ruler. Before most of them had taken their seats my notes were already adorned with a doodled pig and tree which were drawn with the one pen I’d remembered to pop into my purse. Now that I’m teaching in elementary schools I see the origins of this seemingly spontaneous group think. These students are carefully trained to take notes from an early age. My job is mostly oral but I occasionally ask my students to write a word or phrase or draw something in their notebook. I say/mime “Write this in your notebook” and the mass panic begins almost immediately. “Pencil? Pen? What color? On a new page or below the old one???” I try to reply that I don’t care, they can pick, so as to avoid telling them to use green for something any well-trained Frenchman would only ever consider writing in blue. But this just leads to increased worry and time lost as I assure half the class individually that Yes, whatever that writing utensil you are holding up questioningly is just fine. They then knowingly pass the details to their neighbors “You have to use this one, she said.”

I’ve also learned that if I hand out a paper that I don’t want glued into the notebook, I must make this very very clear before handing it out.

Born to Run

If only that song title applied to me more literally instead of in the figurative sense of the lyrics. I wasn’t born to run a marathon, but I’m getting there. This week was my first week of scheduled marathon training and… well… if running marathons were easy they probably wouldn’t bother with giving out medals at the end. I was supposed to do four runs this week: 3mi, 5mi, 3mi, 8 mile. So far I’ve done 3, 1 +rugby practice (can that count?), and 5 mi. Tomorrow I hope to do 8. My 5 mile today was miserable. I wore different socks hoping they’d be warmer since they are knee-high and instead cut off circulation to my calves until I rolled them down, then there was a light icy rain to finish the cold, windy, slow torture. But I was glad I did it and made myself stay semi-on track. I signed up for the Paris Half Marathon in March and the big goal is the Nantes Marathon in April. My friend and fellow Arkansas alum Johnathan is running the half with me and we both got Razorback as the nickname on our bibs.

Hopefully I’ll have more thoughts to post here soon since I’m on vacation now. And some pictures to add. Until then, Happy Holidays!

The Coast

Yesterday my friends Fran and Melanie took me to the coast around Pornic and wandered around in the wind and rain while I took a million pictures. Good company is definitely more important than good weather.

I thought these looked like butterflies and kept throwing them in the air to make them fly

 

This beach made crunchy sounds

Tangled up

Fishing huts

No idea how the claw thing works...

Work and play

Work

It’s back to work after my long All Saints holiday.

Well, for two days anyway. Friday is Armistice Day so I have a 4 day weekend ahead. Life is hard, eh?

Actually, I’m a bit bummed because my Friday students are probably my best. Or at least  my most endearing.

My students are between 5 and 11 and I teach at three different schools.

Louise-Michel is right near where I live and I teach there Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. The moment I arrive kids run up to me on the playground to ask if I come to their class today. If only I could be greeted this enthusiastically at all my future jobs!

Thursday mornings I have two classes at Jean-Moulin. They are generally good classes, but there are a few who are very quick to catch on and it’s hard to stop them from whispering in French to their neighbors before they can figure it out themselves. We’ll get there.

Jean-Moulin is in the east of the city in an area that is permanently under construction. The school itself is very new and it is surrounded by high rise apartment buildings and the constant drone of drills and hammers. These kids probably think everyone’s house sounds like a construction zone.

It’s also a ZEP school – a “priority education zone” meaning it gets some extra support to try to close the achievement gap. So in addition to my 12 hours (like I said, life is hard) I have 1 hour of an English workshop after school at Jean-Moulin. It’s optional for students and we had our first meeting yesterday. We split an hour between playing games in English with me and working on computers with another teacher.

My last school is right by the train station in an old school building – it still has “School for Girls” etched into the stone above the front door. Since I am there all day Friday and tend to have lunch in the teachers’ office, I see a bit more of the staff there and they have been extremely welcoming. They’ve made sure I have paper to print at my residence with, helped me look into second jobs, and are always asking to make sure I’m not bored or lonely.

The kids there are probably the cutest too. They run up to hug me as soon as I get there and are very eager to learn. I have one class of CP – about 5 to 6 year olds. I only spend 15 or 20 minutes with them and we either read a book, practice a few words, or talk about American culture (that last part we do in French). They recognized Obama in the picture I found of him buying pumpkins for Halloween which really impressed me.

We’re working on colors and animals now and reading “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”. After class last Friday a little one came up to me on the playground and pulled me over to a maze painted on the ground. I didn’t understand at first and thought he was trying to get me to do the maze. Then he pointed more distinctly at the paint and said loud enough I could hear him better: WHITE!  It was so cute how excited he was to show me he recognized the color.

Play

On Sunday I went to Le Mans with my softball team – the Mariners – for our first official match of the season. It was really bizarre to be back in Le Mans (especially on the campus) and only be staying a few hours. The game was a lot of fun and we won 12-8. It was indoors which makes things challenging, but better than playing on the gravel field they have there. The Nantes team is a lot of fun. Everyone gives their best, but without egos or flipping out over errors. Some of my teammates are also great at baking cakes, bonus! I’m particularly skilled at eating cakes so this works out well.

The Mariners after a win against the Le Mans Grey Jays

 

There were a handful of players still left on the Le Mans team that I played on two years ago, but  none of them recognized me at first. I’d told one guy that I’d kept in touch with I’d be there, but he didn’t come until after the game since he’s not playing right now. The old coach was the ump and he saw me on the list and even when looking for me couldn’t find me until he called out my name and I answered. I guess the short hair has really changed my look?

After the game when Correntin asked around looking for me the others recognized me and accused me of treason. Don’t worry guys, I don’t remember any of your secret signals!

Sarah and Jonathan (aka M. et Mme. Langley), my friends from Arkansas who are teaching in le Mans this year came to the game and brought me rillettes! Rillettes are a le Mans specialty, basically a pork paste. You have to try it, really. I don’t know how to describe it so it sounds delicious, but it is. Romain also came to the game and it was great to see him after so long! I think I might have alarmed the le Mans team tearing through their dugout area to run over and give him a hug when he got there.

Rillettes du Mans - the French aren't bothered by associating their eats with the creature they are eating

I’ve just remembered that my morning class has a field trip tomorrow so I start an hour later than usual. We’ll end this update on that happy note!

Time is crazy, even without a Tardis

I’ve been here one month now.

It feels like I just got here and like I’ve never been anywhere else. Time is just a series of numbers designed to mess with your head.

Honestly, I already find it upsetting to think that I might be leaving in just 6 months.

Life

I haven’t been bored since I got here and I can’t get over how easily I’ve met people. It’s not the world’s best kept secret that I’m pretty shy. Which maybe does not fit the profile of someone who has moved – with enthusiasm – about a dozen times in the last 7 years with. But from my first few days here I put on my big girl panties and went out – to CouchSurfing meetups, to meet other assistants, to the LGBT center, to softball – and everyone has been really friendly. In the last week I’ve played in a softball game, been to a nice restaurant, a jazz concert, a game night where no games were actually played so we left and got a drink at a bar, and a night out for a concert/bar hopping/dancing that I am recovering from as I write this. I’ve been more social in a month than I’ve had the occasion to be in the last year.

Work

I taught for one week before our 10 days off for All Saints. Can you see why I want to work in France?
And by one week I mean 2 days because I only teach 3 days anyway and one of those days they weren’t ready for me so I observed classes instead.

My kids are cute and excited about English, but managing their energy and getting it directed at speaking English is definitely going to be a challenge. The little ones – about 5 years old – were excited to see a picture of Obama buying pumpkins and learn that even the President celebrates Halloween.

I’ve noticed that teachers in France can be a lot harsher with their students than I am used to from home. Americans are all about positive reinforcement, even if something is wrong. “Good suggestion, but not the right answer,” “Good effort, but your result is off by 3000″, etc. Teachers here don’t hesitate to say you’re wrong, occasionally with sharp sarcasm. One teacher kicked a student out of class into the hallway and called him the village idiot who never knows anything while I stood there utterly stunned.

Pride

I’ve been running now and then. Starting to run a lot more as I plan on doing the marathon here in Nantes in April. Today I ran my first mile in 10  min 30 seconds without feeling like it was a lot of effort, so I’m definitely seeing progress. That’s down from 12 min. That’s also keeping in mind that my hours of sleep to miles run ratio today was 1:1 – 3 of each.

I’ve had so many people compliment my French and every single time it’s like a wonderful surprise. Today someone even said my accent wasn’t that strong. By comparison to what, I don’t know, but I’ll take a compliment without asking too many questions! I’ve still got a lot to learn though- every day there are words and phrases I can’t find or don’t understand. I’m excited to keep learning and excited to see 10 years of work pay off.

Best. Run. Ever.

I’m pretty bummed that I didn’t manage to keep up my training schedule just before I left/when I first got here. So I won’t be trying to do the half marathon I wanted to do the next weekend, upping miles too quickly could cause a serious injury instead of just an injury to morale.

It works out okay since we have a softball game that day anyway. Still, it was a goal for a while and I didn’t make it which is disheartening.

But I’m hoping to find another to do in the early spring and am planning to start training with the goal of the full marathon here in Nantes in April. I scheduled out my runs for next week and decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and go for one yesterday morning as well.

Thanks to mapmyrun.com, I managed to find out how far 4 miles along the Erde river would be and set out from the Ile de Versailles – a lovely island in the center of Nantes that is the home of a big Japanese style garden.

Ile de Versailles

I intended to run 2 miles up the river to the area where the university is and then turn around and run back.

But then I made it to the university and it was so nice out and I felt good I decided to go just a little further.

The longer I went the prettier the run got. Wooded areas alongside a peaceful river, birds chirping, a duck wrestling lunch out of the water (RIP Fishy), cool fall air.

I’ll just run up to that next bridge so I know how far I went. The bridge came and went. I ran right out of Nantes, actually and into La Chapelle-sur-Erdre. Then a sign: I was entering a forest called la Desnerie and there was a chateau, so of course I had to keep going. Turned out the chateau was private property and you couldn’t see much of it (here is a photo taken from on or across the river), but it did make it feel like I was running through a fairy tale (though I did note that fairy tales often don’t end well, so I was glad I wasn’t the only one on the trails).

I finally chose a turning point and headed back with no idea how long or how far I’d just gone. I managed to keep running with just some short walking breaks to drink my water all the way back to my start point, even with a blister making its presence known the last two miles.

It was such a gorgeous morning and I ran through a beautiful area I would’ve probably never got out to see if I hadn’t started running. I felt amazing and when I came back to MapMyRun to map my new route and saw just how far I’d gone – 8.42 miles – I felt like a rock star. Previously the furthest I’d gone was 6.21 miles also known as the 10k.

I do have to admit though, that much of that last two miles was spent wondering what pastry I’d treat myself to at the open-on-Sundays bakery I’d noticed near my apartment. The winner:

Un Duo – half chocolate cream half coffee cream

All runs should end with a giant pastry.