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Look who's got a french driver's license!!

Halloween in France!

Last night I had my first Halloween party in France. Yes, even though I'm beginning my 3rd year in France, I've never had nor have been to a Halloween party here. I decided that it was time! Everyone came in a costume (even the french guests!) and everyone said they had an awesome time! Who could ask for more. I didn't have a lot of time to cook unfortunately but I made a quiche lorraine and cut it into small bites and also made some cupcakes (but the icing was terrible!) I can never get it right. Oh well. Since I'm poor at the moment, I couldn't afford to buy a costume or to buy things for a costume so I looked through my closet and found something that resembled a cheerleader ensemble. That with a little zombie makeup and voilà; I'm a zombie cheerleader! Lol ok not very creative but I couldn't think of anything else. Other very interesting costumes included: a mummy, 2 witches, a goddess, légume man (does anyone know who is this?), the ikea fairy, Amy Winehouse and many others! I gave a bottle of Bethanie wine from the Jura to the winner of the best costume: legume man! He deserved it too because he worked on it all week!

In other news, work is going well. I'm getting more and more hours! Which means that I'll be rolling in the money soon. Ok, not really but I'll be making a decent salary. (Much better than the assistantship salary let's just say!) Which makes me happy!

Sluggish!

Ca y est!
Summer is officially over. The morning are at freezing temperatures and our apartment doesn't heat enough to keep up with the sudden cold temperatures. It literally went from one week to temperatures in the 70s, to a drop into the 40s and 50s! I don't think that I'm really looking forward to winter as I never am. By January/February I tend to get really depressed. It's almost systematic. But this year, I should be working a lot of hours and seeing a lot of people and getting out of the apartment a lot. This wasn't so much the case last year. Christophe is almost always busy planning his classes so it can get a little lonely. Last year it was the same with his concours. However, my job right now is really slow. Maximum, I have worked 15 hours during the week. Then most weeks I work around 10 hours. This wouldn't be so bad if I had a fixed monthly salary. Unfortunately, I get paid by the hour. I'm anxious to start making a real salary and to be busy. I enjoy my job but so far my classes don't start until 4pm or 5pm which is a little late. The rest of the day I don't have much to do. For example, today I woke up at almost 11:30am! Just like back in college. I hate sleeping that late, but I guess that's what happens when you're day is empty. However, I'm very proud of myself because this year I've been consistently going to salsa dancing classes and also to the pool. At least I'm doing something regularly.

Halloween is also in 10 days so I'm really excited about that! We're having a party here on Halloween night and it's mandatory costumes! I'm going to bake a lot of traditional sweets and try to make a punch. My mom sent me a package with some decorations inside so that will be cool as well. I'm so excited! It's been so long since I've celebrated Halloween. I think it was senior year in college. :( I'll be sure to post a bunch of pictures.

And lastly, Christophe and I are going home for Christmas!! I'm so excited! I didn't get to go home last year because I couldn't afford it but this year is a totally different story! I'll miss New Year's eve though because I'll be on a plane. It was 200€ cheaper to fly back on the 31st than on the 1st. Oh well, we'll have a celebration on the plane!

Meet my car

Isn't she cute?

The stalling queen

My new car arrived yesterday! We bought it this weekend (well Christophe's mom technically paid for it) and I had to go to the Prefecture on Monday to get the Carte Grise and to buy insurance in order to drive it back to Besançon. The car is in really good shape. It's almost like the other car I was going to buy. It's a blue Peugeot 106 from 1997 and it only have 50,000km! It was owned by an older man who can no longer drive it because he has cancer in one of his legs. Excited as I was, I decided to test drive it last night when I got home from work.
Lately, I've been driving Christophe's car to work so that I can get used to driving alone. However, Christophe has a much nicer car with assisted steering and it's easy to shift. My car, is not easy to drive for a beginner. The pedals are very sensitive and there is no assisted steering so when backing out of a parking space, I need to turn the wheel with all my might!
We also tried to do a lesson on how to start up on hills...and I couldn't do it. I must have tried 10 times and each time I stalled so of course my natural reaction: I started crying.
It's very frustrating when you think that you've finally learned how to drive a manuel and then reality smacks you in the face. I've still got a lot of practice ahead of me.
With Christophe's car I hardly stall anymore but this new car is completely different. I couldn't afford to buy a fancier car so I guess I'm stuck with learning to drive this one.
Anyways, I'm just really disapointed in myself. I thought that I had (almost) mastered standard driving.

To talk about other things, I've been at my job for a couple weeks now and I really like it. My co-workers are all great and the clients are cool. I'm still waiting to get more hours but that will be when they assign me outside of Besançon and that means I'll have to drive!! This weekend will be used to practice on hills.

Oh and one last thing, my cavemen neighbors that I wrote about a couple weeks ago, they moved out!! We are so happy. It's soo quiet now; there's no more grunting or swearing or yelping. Too bad we are moving in 2 months...just kidding. I'm excited to move to a better apartment.

French Wedding!

This past weekend I attended one of Christophe's friend's weddings in a small village in the Doubs department. Like any normal french wedding, the couple first gets married in the town hall - Mairie, then goes to the church to have the religious ceremony. Afterwards, the vin d'honneur is held for everyone for a couple hours. You basically just drink a yummy aperitif and eat hors d'oeuvres for about 2 hours. Then the celebration begins! The meal consists of 6 courses, two appetizers, or in French, 2 entrées the first usually cold and the second hot. Between the "entrées" and the main course, a strong liquor is served I guess to wake you up a little since the wedding ends near 4 or 5am! An hour later, the main course is served. The dancing begins as well the showing of slide shows of the couple. The next courses are of course, the cheese plate, then the dessert, and last but not least, another strong liquor and coffee! The French really know how to party and eat well. I think I much prefer French weddings to American weddings. There are no strict times frames and the food is much better!
Here are a few photos:

The grand entrance of les mariés
The churchle vin d'honneurMy place setting (with my name spelled wrong!)One of the yummy courses!

Dupped!

Well, I guess that car was too good to be true. The people selling it called me the next day to tell me that their mother changed her mind and didn't want to sell it anymore. We were really upset because it was such a great car but I guess they are going to sell it more expensive which makes sense. But its ok, there are other options in view at the moment. Of course these cars have more mileage and more wear and tear on them but I guess I can't be expecting too much for the budget that I have.

In good news however, I was able to exchange my driver's license! I went to the prefecture yesterday and had all of the paper work ready and everything. The guy looked at the date of entry on my CDS and said it was ok. No questions asked! He then took my US DL and said it should be ready in a month. Yay! But I'm kinda upset. I really liked my US driver's license, it actually looks real and the French one looks fake! Now when I go back home I have to bring my passport with me everytime just to get a drink. I don't even want to know what will happen if I get pulled over by the cops and they ask to see my license. They'll laugh probably because they won't know what a french driver's license looks like. I guess it's sad as well because that was my last connection to the US. I mean I'm still a citizen and have my US passport and everything but it just emphasizes my permancy here, which is a good thing! But it's emotional in a way.

I'm a real frenchy now I guess :)