Another Beautiful Day

After minimal sleep last night from too much Netflix and an overfilled brain, I took it easy today and instead of a half day excursion like yesterday, did a short visit to the same town and made sure to find the train station before I need it on Monday. I went to the same little shop for lunch because I knew I could save half of the "complet poulet" for dinner and I like buying two meals for under 5€. I wandered to other new parts of the town and got to see the trolley move through an alley which was fun and I walked through "le jardin du Musée des Beaux Arts". The sun was out for most of the day which was great but it was a bit chillier and I wore 6 layers.
Since I got back, I haven't left my room and I just finished an hour long meditation and magically managed not to fall asleep although I feel ready. Maybe I'll be asleep by 7 or 8 tonight.

Partial Success

Well, I found WiFi but the place opens at 10 AM and its a 45+ minute walk to get here but better than not having any. I was able to buy a bus ticket for Monday and transfer some money into my second account. This morning's walk was wet but pleasant; I want a good walk everyday anyway. I started my walk around 8:20 this morning and found my way across the river to the center of town with the castle and of course another beautiful cathedral. The "free" breakfast provided was well rounded and filling.(I'm sure the breakfast was free because they charge a fair amount more than most youth hostels.) I had muesli, yogurt with fruit, two cups of coffee and bread with butter and finished all of it.  There was also a machine that squeezed fresh orange juice for you and I topped my meal off with some of that.

So far it's been a really good day. I found some cheap food even though the same place charged €1, 40 for about 3 tablespoons of coffee. I got a sub and 5 small doughnuts for €5,70. (They use commas in their currency.) Plus my feet are finally dry and no longer numb from the cold, wet weather so that's another plus.

Don't worry, I'm not trying overly hard to find things to be happy about, I just like trying to add a bit of dry humor to my posts.

No WiFi

I'm using data from my phone because none of my tech can connect to the Wi-Fi here. If I don't write for a few days it's because I don't want to run out of data. Wish me luck with recovering internet because I need it to order bus or train tickets or to find another carpool.
C'est la vie.

Plans for the Day

So I'm leaving at 11 for Vernon and then my carpool ride is at 1. The sun is finally out with the beautiful blue sky all around it and I went for a good walk around the neighborhood.
Knowing that it will be a bit late when I arrive in Angers and that I may be too tired or more interested in exploring the new place, I'm writing now.
Yesterday after spending much of the day watching rain come down, I got to see a museum with my host for a half hour before it closed by which time the sun had come back out. After a brief walk by the river (the wind made it too cold to take our time) we returned to the house and I got to have dinner in front of the Dreamworks movie Spirit (in French) of course with French sub-titles. Today I look forward to practicing more French on the three hour carpool.

Attempt at Future Tense

Demain j'irai à Angers. Je ferai du covoiturage de Vernon à Angers et je resterai à une auberge de jeunesse pour quatre nuits parce-que je ne veux pas voyager à Pâques. Après je reste là, je pourrais revenir ici pour une nuit avant de prendre un train à Paris afin de utilise OuiGo, un train à grande vitesse qui est moin cher. Le train peut me prendre aussi loin que Marseilles ou Montpellier.

Traduction: Tomorrow, I will go to Angers. I will take a carpool from Vernon to Angers and stay at a youth hostel for four nights because I don't want to travel on Easter. After I stay there, I might return here for a night before taking a train to Paris in order to use OuiGo, a high speed train that is cheap. The train can take me as far as Marseilles or Montpellier.

Also, I realize I omitted a couple songs the other night. If you enjoyed the previous French songs, these might be even better.

Caresse Sur L'Océan (Caresses on the Ocean): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyFF96eTfkg
La Nuit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKzMUA1vBgc

Fun New Words

Covoiturage: car-pool                                                   
Faire des courses: to go shopping
Sec: dry
Tournesol: Sunflower (because they turn with the sun)
Huile sur Toile: oil painting (literally oil on canvas)
Mec: guy
Fougère (arborescente) : Fern (fern tree)
Falaise: cliff
Ombrelle: umbrella (for shade)
Parapluie: umbrella (for rain)
Foncé: dark (as in color)
Sombre: dark (as in lack of light)
Ombre: shade/shadow
Gouttes: drops (as in drops of water)
Goûté֔: taste or sample
Ronflement: snoring

Plus Français (More French)

J'écris en Français encore parce-que j'ai besoin tous les entraînement je peux obtenir. Mais j'aime ça aussie. Mon voyage était destiné être un défi culturel parce-que je veux apprendre une nouvelle langue.

Maintenent j'écrit sur ma journée hier. Après avoir dormi tard et mangé ma petite-déjeuner, j'ai écrit un article de blog et regardé quelques videos sur YouTube. Quand j'ai finis avec ma déjeuner, mon hôte et moi, nous sommes allé au Château de Gaillard qui a été construit au 12ème (douzième) siècle par Richard Coeur de Lion. J'ai pris plus photos encore parce-que c'est une ruine impressionnant. Il y avait des falaises de craie que nous pouvions voir quand nous etions debout près du Château. En suite, nous avons traversé la petite ville dans la vallée à côté de la Seine.  Le ciel était beau hier et j'ai pris photos de ça aussi.

Traduction: I am writing in French again because I need all the practice I can get. But I also like it. My trip was supposed to be a cultural challenge because I want to learn a new language.

Now I will write about my day yesterday. After sleeping late and eating my breakfast, I wrote a blog post and watched some videos on YouTube. When I finished my lunch, my host and I, we went to the Castle of Gaillard which was constructed in the 12th century by Richard the Lion Heart. I took many photos again because it is an impressive ruin. There were cliffs of chalk which we could see when standing next to the castle. Next we walked through the small town in the valley next to the Seine. The sky was beautiful and I took photos of it as well.

Practice (Mon Entraînement)

Hier j'ai visité la ville Evreaux et marché tout autour le parc. J'ai vu une petite serre et decidé aller à l'intérier. J'ai lu chaque plaques dans la serre et j'ai compris plusiers mots parce-que ils quelquefois resemblent des mots d'Anglais. Après mon départ du parc, je suis allé a la Cathédrale et j'ai pris beaucoup des photos parce-que c'est très magnifique. J'etais dans la ville pour quatre ou cinq heures mais j'ai seulement visité le parc et la Cathédrale parce-que je ne voulais pas me perdre.

Traduction (Translation): Yesterday I visited the town Evreaux and walked all around the park. I saw a small greenhouse and decided to go inside. I read each plaque in the greenhouse and I understood many words because they sometimes resemble English words. After I left the park, I went to the Cathedral and took lots of pictures because it was very magnificent. I was in the town for four or five hours but I only visited the park and the Cathedral because I didn't want to get lost.

A Unique Park and An Amazing Cathedral

Today I woke up at 11. No surprise there because I was exhausted when I went to bed yesterday and the time just changed in France which means it is now six hours ahead of the East coast again. After breakfast and lunch, I got to walk around another town a bit and saw an awesome park with a tall greenhouse with a fairly small perimeter. While walking through the greenhouse I stopped at each plaque to see how I'd do with reading French and it turns out to be easier (when it's all in the present tense) to comprehend when reading than when listening because I can deduce many words by their spelling. Also, while learning through immersion, it feels as though each spoken sentence might as well be one word since they seem to talk a mile a minute.
Each day I am learning new words but there are hundreds of thousands of words in each language so I am aware that it will take a lot of time and effort. There are just as many words that have no association with English as there are ones that do but I've been forming my own sentences fairly well lately as long as it is past or present tense because I never fully covered the subjunctive or the future tense in school.
After touring the small greenhouse, I walked through each part of the park and took more photos; there were unique things in the park, an art structure, two amazing looking playgrounds I would have loved to have behind my elementary school, a statue, and a pretty array of flowers.
An hour or two later, I went a short ways to the cathedral in town and got to take a good look inside for another hour or so.
I spent a fair amount of time taking pictures of the windows and the designs and sculptures carved out of stone. It was very impressive and left me feeling mystified and in awe. You can feel how ancient it is and how much the builders honored their work. A tremendous amount of care has to go into it and cathedrals are often built so high it feels as though you might be in a small castle. I think there are people that believe they were built as the tallest structure in town so as to be the closest to the heavens.

Monet's Gardens et Une Fête

I found out on my way to Vernon yesterday that Giverny had opened for the season and when the sun broke out from being the clouds at noon, I decided I better go today since there is a chance of rain every day this coming week and plenty of clouds attending with or without the rain. So I spent 4 or 5 hours walking and taking pictures. I felt extra lucky for a second reason, I had arrived a few hours before everyone and their brother showed up so there are almost no people in the pictures and I got to fully enjoy the enchantment of being there. It's hard to believe that I got to see them in person years after falling in love with Monet's paintings. He has always been my favorite impressionist but I don't know enough about art to provide an essay explaining why.
After a successful trip, I ended up attending a party in which only two or three out of the 8 other people spoke any English. So I mostly sat and listened but at some point, and I can't say how this happened but I guess they had asked me what I did to practice my French before coming here and I ended up sharing the songs I had learned. A few people recognized the group Kids United and the movie Les Choristes so there ended up being a bit of a sing-along. If you're curious enough to hear the songs here they are.

Qui a le Droit (Who Has the Right):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8zMCf9rwlM

L'Oiseau et L'Enfant (The Bird and the Child):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQH1HlQeHdo

On Ecrit Sur Les Murs* (We Write on the Walls)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV5oVYVGfNc

Besides the songs, I have had 7 years of French in school starting in Middle School and for the first four of those years I had a teacher fluent in French. Then I took a semester in college as well. So I guess I'm well acquainted with the language but tonight I caught many of the smaller or more common words like "parce-que" (because), "donc" (so), peut-etre (maybe), "jamais" (never), "moyenne" (average) and "plus cher" (more expensive). I was way too tired to keep up with the project of breaking what was said into separate words. That's an essential trick so later you can ask what a specific word means.
*Mur explains the word mural

More Fun in More Places

After staying up much of the night, I successfully filled my day. I had an early breakfast and left the hostel before 8:30. I walked to the metro to get to Saint Lazare for a train to Rouen and wandered the town a bit. Then, after meeting up with someone I networked with before leaving the states, the two of us visited a cathedral and a church/museum dedicated to St. Jean d'Arc. Afterward I spent time listening to a few French conversations on the way to the house. I figured out the connection between fondre (to melt) and fondue, which turns out to be the past participle of the former. I've always loved word games and word association but now I making it a full time job and am enjoying every minute of it.
Hopefully tonight I can get plenty of sleep. Last night I was busy trying to form new French sentences and when my roommates started snoring, I looked up a few new French words.

Eiffel Tower

Today I got brave enough to take a bus towards the Eiffel Tower. Once I saw that it was only a bus ride away, I decided to go. I got approached a couple times by people who I am sure were scheming to prey on American tourists' money, but when they asked if I spoke English I said "non" and they left me alone. Unfortunately, I ended my excursion a little early due to the cold but I did use a super-marche to stay warm and learn new words. At the hostel I watched Juno in French with French "sous-titres" and a French movie with more French sub-titles. It was good practice even if the words won't stick right away.
Yesterday evening, after writing up my blog post, I spent a fair amount of time practicing my French with an Argentinian. It's been a fun challenge so far and I hope to make progress each day.

A Busy Day in Paris

Had a great day today! Did a lot of walking and got to meet up with people the first of whom I discovered through a customer at work who has family in France, from there my new network extended to a total of four! Oddly enough I haven't made any new friends at the hostel yet. My roommates either knew very little English or French or weren't interested in talking to new people. I was a bit quiet and shy myself during the hostel's free breakfast because it is hard to find a good conversation starter in a foreign language. I had tried to say "Bon matin" to someone but even though I mumbled it when I saw him put his phone down, he followed that motion with blowing his nose, so between my barely audible attempt and that, I wasn't heard. But later, I got a lot of good practice and created new phrases with 4 people who speak both French and English. I also successfully deduced the meaning of "sauf" from the road signs. It was written underneath many, if not all, the universal do not enter signs and means "except".
The hardest part will probably be learning the homophones. For example, "Toit" which sounds exactly like "trois" the former meaning roof and the latter meaning three. Then there is "fois"  which means time and "froid" for cold. But I think overall I made some good progress even if it was just a gain in confidence.

Retrospective

Well, yesterday was loads of fun! Hilarious even, looking back on it. A severely sleep deprived brain acts drunk but there's more to it than that. Yesterday's map quest could have been a piece of cake but it was like looking at 2+2=4 for the first time and trying to insist there is more to the problem than meets the eye, but being the devilish drunk brain it was, couldn't produce any further thoughts. The wheels were turning, but no synthesis could take place and thus I was staring at the map insisting that it had more to tell me when it didn't and that the information was incomplete which it wasn't. Such a fun predicament! Luckily, last night I got sleep and this morning I had my first cup of European coffee so it should be smoother today.

First Day

Saying the first day of this trip was eventful is putting it lightly. The very first hiccough occurred when my flight to Iceland changed to a 7 AM flight since the big plane they were going to use broke down & they had to split us up onto 2 smaller planes. Luckily my bag didn't get misplaced. So after two sleepless flights, I have to navigate the train system which seems straight forward on the map, but then the signs/letters & and color coding for the various lines of trains that are on the map aren't actually used in the station. Luckily, I was able to get help twice and asked in French the second time.

When I got to the hostel I broke the one rule of adjusting to a new time zone and passed out. I was dizzy with fatigue and didn't feel safe standing upright so I made the mistake of lying down and fell asleep. There were no dreams but I felt better when I got up a few hours later.

Now, as I am about to go to bed the fire alarm in the hostel is going off and no one is running around trying to get us out of here so we're just lying here waiting for it to stop permanently. It has had brief breaks but mostly it insists there's a fire somewhere.

Take-Off

Today's the day and I'm here at the airport waiting at the gate! Super excited to be in the air. Hoping to get a few hours of z's before landing in Iceland for the brief layover. I will only have an hour between flights! Talk about an early morning adrenaline rush! I can hardly wait to land in Paris! There is still an hour and 10 minutes til boarding. My parents got to see me off together...I haven't flown alone since my trip to Montana to do trail maintenance back in 2011 but that was only 10 days and had a set itinerary. So far, I only reserved the first three nights in a Paris youth hostel after that the plan is wide open! Can't wait to fill these open pages and days with new adventures!

Trail Photos!

Thank you to the person who retrieved the lost photos for free! I got 100% of the photos from my dead phone from a person who will of course remain anonymous and I am so grateful, and euphoric even, to know that they didn't enter the void. When I have everything figured out, I will post them all because they are still not all in the same file on this computer but there will be more to come!
Anyway, I will be leaving for Paris on Monday on a red eye flight and am praying that I will be tired enough to fall asleep for at least a few hours on the plane. I've got a small network started over there and my couchsurfing account is up an running so here goes! The next grand adventure awaits and I plan to keep this blog updated with any and all news. Europe, here I come!

The Little Soul and the Sun

I heard this very unique and thought provoking parable today by Neale Donald Walsch, the title of which is the title of this post.

The story spoke to me on a very profound level because I believe we all contain souls and that each soul is the essence of God. When I hear a preacher proclaim that we are made in the image of God, I do not get the impression that God is a Man in the sky, but that our souls are made in the image of God. As mentioned before, I do not believe that we can be condemned to hell for being unable to comminucate with that aspect of ourselves.

Anyway, the story is about a soul who wants to fully experience being what it knows itself to be, which is light, and God explains that this is difficult because at the moment the soul is surrounded by many other lights (souls). You can't fully understand light without darkness so for you to do this we have to surround you with darkness. The little soul asks if it will be afraid of the dark and God says "Only if you choose to be. There is nothing really to be afraid of unless you decide there is. You see we are making it all up. We are pretending." If you're interested in the story thus far visit this link to read the rest: http://www.sapphyr.net/largegems/littlesoul-thesun.htm

What I love about this story is that it brings up the fact that anything and anyone who comes into our life is there for the purpose of showing us who we truly are. As I've once said a long time ago, I firmly believe that I went through hardships so that I could see proof that I was strong, courageous, loving, and capable of forgiveness.

New Vision

So this past week I got a new idea for what direction to take for the next chapter of my life. I want to go back to school to get a couple masters degrees, one in behavioral science and another in education. As I have mentioned in more than one post I want to use my past to carve out the future and I hope to complete some practical research in how to best facilitate learning when you have a class made up of children with and without special needs.
Back in Montgomery College, I wrote up a paper about teacher centered instruction vs. student centered instruction and wrote an argument for balancing the two. My new, more robust idea is that the whole class will support each other's learning and work together to understand a given problem and it's solution. Encouraging the class to not only treat each other with respect but to provide each other with emotional and academic support. I want to experiment with the idea of peer tutoring and to find a way to create a classroom where no one feels excluded. This is not to say we make the teachers obsolete. Teachers would be facilitating the learning process and the children would get a chance to fully digest each lesson by discussing and practicing the lesson among themselves. Obviously, this would be more beneficial for older children who will have enough of an attention span to stay focused for half an hour or so.
Due to the direction we are going in with social media, part of my goal is to make sure future students will be able to develop social skills which is why I like the idea of a collaborative classroom. Even people in my own generation feel uncomfortable asking for emotional support from friends.  When a child struggles through the school day, they feel alone in their struggle and feel as though they are lacking much needed support. I firmly believe that schools should, once they get enough federal funding that is, start making more of an effort to help those on the fringe to interact positively with their peers and to make and extra effort to notice how students are being treated by their peers when they think there are no adults around to witness their behavior. Hopefully it doesn't require extra funding but teachers are already on strike for being mistreated by the government.