little by little.

small victories today:

finding the canadian equivalent of target!

getting over my fear of lighting a gas stove.

homemade cinnamon applesauce.

finding another huge grocery store right by the apartment! with peanut butter! and hummus!

  

and THE victory of the day:

finally feeling like the cat hair is gone from this apartment!

(reminder to future self.  don't rent from a cat owner)

it was boilllling hot here today, 90 and humid.

reminded me of midwest days.

but don't worry, i'm not fooled.

i've already seen (on 4 separate occasions)

people replacing and repairing roofs.

and i know why,

even though i don't really want to think about it.

rumor has it, is that it's going to stay toasty all the way till november this year.

but not for very long afterwards!

tomorrow night is the graduate students wine and cheese orientation night.

which i'm very excited about!

i feel like the last few transition weeks have been realllly long.

can't wait to meet my classmates and professors!

a+

alli

does it shape you?

an interesting article.

having lived in france for 3 (2 consecutive) years...

conducted my life in two languages...

been in a relationship with someone who's mother tongue is different than mine...

recently moved to a country where the language is both familiar and foreign...

i've thought a lot about language.  

about how it forms us,

our thoughts,

our prejudices,

like it or not.

is it something we can overcome?

should we overcome it?

when is your mother tongue mindset a positive?

and when does it hinder? 

would we even recognize a situation like that?

and once you acknowledge that language shapes you,

how do you become conscious that others are shaped just as you are.

but in completely different ways.

this is something that became interesting to me 

during an intercultural management class i took in france.

it picked up again when i had classrooms full of french teens and middle schoolers.

and now that i'm starting a masters program 

all about education across borders,

teaching and learning in the past and future,

learning in a different language,

i think this is something i'll be revisiting quite often.

give it a glance

how are you influenced by your mother tongue?

a+

alli

photo & article via

first impressions.

montreal is almost a french chicago.

there's an exhilarating zip to the city.

part of the campus i'll spend the next two years at.

notre dame church in la vielle ville.  

inside is made entirely of wood!

a modern chapel with an amazing fresco in bronze i believe.

if you can see, there are three gates with people walking up through them

up to the dove at the top.

one of the gates is at the end of childhood,

the next at the adulthood,

and the last, for when the soul has matured beyond than the body.

i like that.

the botanical gardens.

our first montreal day visit.

to a tiny village on a lake,

oka.

we went on a little hike that wrapped around 4 old calgary chapels.

lots of colorful fungi.

the last and biggest of the chapels was across from a wonderful outlook.

oka.

ferry boat from oka to hudson.

it was a bit windy.

next, we found a great little verger. 

french for u-pick!

i like to think we got the best pick, since we were a little early for the season.

and this is what came from it!

mmmmmm.

 and many more recipes to come i suppose.

apple sauce

apple turnovers

apple crisp

apple salsa?

it's a big bag after all.

any suggestions?

a+

alli

land of les quebecois.

2,388 miles. 3843 kilometers.

37:17 total time in the car.

one italian restaurant in laramie, wyoming.  stumbled upon while searching for some mexican food.  

a couple bags of beef jerky, pretzels, fig netwons and nutter butters.

4 books on tape, two thrown out before the 3rd chapters.

one dinner in granger, indiana with old friends.  ice cream shared on a summer evening.

one impromptu family reunion off of highway 44 outside of cleveland.

a zig zag track through ten states (one of them new on my list).

a 2 hour wait at the canadian border.

a rainy drive through ontario and quebec.

and here i am, nearly a week into my stay in montreal.  

i'm still getting my bearings here. 

sometimes it feels so much like home- english drifting from store fronts or metro conversations.

others, i wonder where i could possibly be.  these people around me, 

they're speaking a language i usually understand quite well.  

the only way i can find to describe the way it sounds to my ears here...

is to say it's like hearing a duck trying to speak french.   

how do you concentrate when a duck is speaking to you in french?

what i feel about the city so far, is such a mix. 

sometimes i stroll across french-named streets. 

boulevard st. laurent, chemin de côte des neiges.  

others are clearly anglophone.  

sherbrooke, ontario, westmount. 

but no one seems shocked. 

i feel like i'm in the french version of the film, spanglish.  

i order at cafes in french, which turns to english.  

i spoke to my banker in french, before she switched to an unaccented english somewhere in the middle.

listening to peoples conversations on the streets are just as amusing and mysterious.

i heard this on the walk to the metro tonight:

"ca va bien?  hi how are you, this is my friend valerie.  oh, tu étais là?  c'est super, wasn't it?"

it's fascinating at moments.  

to be fair,

i can't tell you the number of times 

i've been in the middle of an english conversation 

and wanted to use a french word or phrase to convey something.  

it just seemed more the better way to express myself.  

it's also happened in french- there are no french equivalents of 

nasty, creepy, or awkward 

that satisfy me, so sometimes i just throw those in for fun.  

imagine life in a culture where you really don't have to choose between languages, 

just throw in some of each.  

this could be fun. 

 if i can just concentrate long enough to get past the duck. 

move in to the new apartment is sunday, 

orientation is on tuesday, 

and i have my first class on thursday.  

stéphane is making fun of me because i've already been to the library, 

and can't wait for it all to start.  

not too long afterwards i'm sure i'm be eating my words.

a+

alli

life list: whistle with my fingers.

this weekend 

i went with a couple friends

to a beatles impersonation concert

by a band named Patchwork

which actually turned out to be quite good

their accents were spot on

as were their costumes-

black suits, perfectly coiffed wigs, some glasses for john

at our table,

there was a man who would whistle

after every song.

and besides thinking that it was loud and obnoxious...

i thought

how cool would it be to know how to do that.

so one day, 

i'm going to teach myself how to whistle with my fingers

that way

the next time i'm at 

a ball game

a dave concert

or 

imitating a fire alarm

i'll have the perfect solution!

maybe i'll start here

a step by step guide

with a picture of a slightly creepy guy

i like his camo fishing hat though

what's on your life list this wednesday?

a+

alli

reoccurring dreams.

do you ever have reoccurring dreams?

not the scary kinds

(as a kid I had dreams about tornadoes

ALL.the.time

one even chased me through a gymnasium)

some themes i seem to dream about on a reoccurring basis:

gymnastics, which i did as a kid for about 7 years.

flying. usually way too close to telephone wires, and on scarily short runways.

and most recently: palau.

the dream is always different.

i know that i'm in palau

but it never looks the same

i'm swimming

scuba diving

admiring fish

last night, i was buying post cards 

from an overcrowded tourist shop

for people at home

why do you suppose we dream about the same things

over and over?

are we trying to get back to something?

reveling in some warm worn memories?

do you ever have reoccurring dreams?

about...?

happy monday!

a+

alli

things i'm excited about.

well, since yesterday's post was about 

things i'll miss in france

i only thought it appropriate

(and positive)

to share a few things i'm excited for

outside of france

watermelon. 

seed spitting contests.

this booger.

driving!

mountains. hiking. picnics. 

baseball games! french don't understand the wonderfulness.

this lovely girl's wedding in two weeks!!

hammock naps :)

and i'll also mention 

target

to-go coffee

forever 21

plane rides

my bed!

and of course the fam. 

you thought i was going to forget. 

:p

what are you excited about?

a+

alli

ca me manquera.

photo

what do you miss the most when you leave a place you love?

what are the details, the sensations that stick out most?

les odeurs

baguettes and patisseries out of the oven in the morning

streets laced with the smell of thick, creamy butter

lilacs as they bloom in the spring, lining streets and driveways

fresh peaches arranged in crates at the morning market

waiting to be sprinkled with sugar, arranged in a tarte

les couleurs

yellow mustard flowers and colza in the spring

vineyards in the fall, grape leaves rusted orange and red

sun peeking through indigo stained glass windows

shutters painted vert, jaune, violet

gleaming proudly, arranged in a row

les bruits

toddlers bubbling french phrases

boots echoing on a cobblestoned street

the sncf ring tone, a ticket composted, the metro ring

ambulances, car horns, and the

first-Wednesday-of-the-month

fire station horn that rings eerily in each city

les saveurs

the crunchy croute of a baguette, the inside soft as a cloud

Chablis, Bordeaux, Gaillac, Muscadet, Cote du Rhone

foie gras, escargots, tartiflette, fondu, crepes, croque monsieur

camembert, brie de meaux, roquefort, epoisses, st marcellin

les sensations

letting my mind wander across the french countryside

witnessed from a train window

navigating city streets by bike

groceries and fresh cut flowers in the wooden basket

exploring french cities and villages,

each wrapped neatly around an immense but graceful cathedral

with ten days left in france

I can’t thinking about everything I’m going to miss

the obvious, the not so obvious

the tangible, the intangible

the small details, the immense differences

everything that has made

living in france

a wonderful experience

a challenge

two years passed quicker than I ever imagined

what do you miss when you leave a place?

a +

alli