To have a look at the world, at people’s daily round — no matter what anyone says, it’s like a living book, a second education.
-Nikolai Gogol, "Dead Souls"

I'm not sure if anyone out there is still reading, but I came across this quote last week and thought it would give the perfect sense of closure to this blog.

I was looking back at some of my -many, many- pictures today and I realized that as much as I complained about being placed in a tiny French city and about the challenges of keeping busy in such a boring town, I loved my experience. I'm glad I did it and I don't have any regrets.

I just received a letter from one of my students today asking me how I was doing, if I had returned home safely, and if I could read French (duh). My mom saw the letter and said "wow, you must've really made an impression on those kids. Doesn't it make you sad that you won't see them again?" And it actually did make me sad, some of the kids were awesome and I wish I could go back and see them next year, kind of watch them grow up. I won't only miss the kids, I'll miss my whole existence in Laval. It was, if nothing else, a relatively stress-free nine months and an amazingly rewarding experience.

Onwards and upwards!

Au Revoir Laval

Today's my last day and I'm almost done packing!

I'm off to Russia for a week and then back to France to the beach at La Rochelle.

I'll be home in just over two weeks! See you soon!

A Comcast Technician Sleeping on my Couch

This has nothing to do with Laval or with my life here, but I read about it in the New York Times and I think it's funny. Silly little things like this make me excited to go back home!

Allez les Bleus!

This is my favorite commercial right now. It's (obviously) for the World Cup and is basically showing an English guy, Swiss woman (and man?) and a Spanish guy all chanting "Allez les Bleus" in support of the French team (les Bleus) just so that they can get a ride in the Toyota.

It was a very tense atmosphere here tonight when France played Togo. If they didn't beat Togo they would have been eliminated (much like the Americans had been a few days earlier). The French team has been playing so badly that I've taken to chanting "Allez les nuls" instead of "Allez les bleus." This week at dinner (now eaten in front of a huge screen showing the matches) I was joking at how poorly France had played in a previous match and one of my French friends just looked at me with a very straight face and said "Am I laughing Laura? There are some things you just don't joke about ."

Since a lot of people get pretty riled up about the French team in the World Cup I've taken to instigating a bit. This week I kept asking my students "so who are you going to support when France loses on Friday?" If ever they come back with a comment like "well the Americans are already eliminated" I have the perfect response: "C'est normal, we're pretty crappy at football, nobody expects us to win. But France....you guys won in '98...."

It works everytime!

France is playing Spain next. I'm not actually convinced that they're going to win, but it's going to be LOTS of fun to watch with the Frenchies.

"We're leaving next week"

My days in Laval are numbered and I've been running around nonstop trying to get everything done. Tessa and I were running errands in town the other day and the guy at the video shop asked if I wanted to put more money on my account with some new promotion they had going on and I replied "oh, no, c'est pas la peine. we're leaving next week." He said "oh, the trip's over?" Umm...he's seen us spend long amounts of time in his shop trying to decide what to rent since January. Does he really still think we're tourists? And what tourists join a video club in a foreign country anyway? I don't hold it against him though, he's a sweet guy (unlike the aforementioned evil bakery lady).

Next stop, the gym (full discretion: this is only my second time stepping foot in the gym since early May and I didn't even go to exercise). Sebastian - aka my personal trainer- was really happy to see us. I think he assumed that we had left with the rest of the English girls because he hadn't seen us in months. It took a fair amount of coaxing to get Tessa to even go with me to drop off my last payment (60 bucks down the drain...) but Seb didn't even give us grief about not going anymore. When we told him we were leaving next week he said "so, the adventure's over, huh? You guys will at least come see us once more before leaving" I took the summer schedule and said "maybe I'll come by for a class....but I probably won't."

Next week - the last one in Laval- we're having a going away party and we were trying to figure out a day to have it. One of the Frenchies said "no, not next week. let's do it in 2 weeks" and I said "in 2 weeks it'll be too late." When Tessa heard this she said "Laura, you realize, in two weeks it'll BE TOO LATE! We'll be gone!" We find funny ways to bring it up to each other like "in 10 days I'll be on the train to Paris and you'll be on the ferry to England!" or "so what if they're only showing "The Break-Up" in VF (French)? You can just see it at home in English in 2 weeks!!" Can you tell we're eager to get out of here?

As excited as I am to get back home, I think I'm actually going to miss this place (or at least some things about this place). It's just as I was walking down the street today on my way to run errands -after 2PM of course when everything opens up again after lunch- that I realized how accustomed I have become to life here. Not working on Wednesdays, not running errands from 11:30AM-2PM, only being able to get milk at the supermarket and nothing being open on Sundays - all of this has actually started to seem normal to me.

Anyhow, no more mushiness on the blog. This past month has literally flown by and I'm sure these next 10 days will too. It'll be sad to leave here, but it will be AMAZING to go home! My story's not over yet though, I still haven't told you what I've been doing these past few weekends and I've got plenty of blogging left in me.

My boulangère hates me

The lady who works at my bakery is by far the most unpleasant person I've encountered in a French bakery (and trust me I've been to lots of them). The problem is that her baguettes aren't even that good and her pain aux raisins was the worst I've ever had. The one day I finally had the nerve to stand up to her and ask her for a baguette that was less cooked (aka less burnt) I thought she was going to breathe fire in my face.

Since I had run out of food in my room, I had no choice but to get a sandwich from the bakery today. I asked for the simplest thing, a ham and butter sandwich. I know this can kind of sound weird to the uninitiated, but it can actually be a quite yummy sandwich. As I was eating my sandwich I kept thinking how buttery it was, but it wasn't until I was almost finished that I opened up the sandwich to see just how much butter there was. It was then that I decided that my boulangère might be trying to kill me for standing up to her.

Does this look like a normal amount of butter to put into a jambon beurre sandwich?

If it's Wednesday...

then you know I'm definitely not working. Primary schools are closed on Wednesdays around here, so I took advantage of the fact that I was flying back to Paris from Dublin on Tuesday to stay the night in Paris and get my tourist visa at the Russian Embassy the next day. After paying 58 euros for the privilege of visiting Russia for a week, I met up with my friend Corinne for lunch. Afterwards I wanted to see the latest Almodovar film Volver but didn't have enough time before my train back to Laval so I decided to go to the Cinémathèque Française instead to see an exhibit on Almodovar. After trekking all the way across Paris, I arrived at the Cinémathèque to find that it was closed because the workers were on strike. Vive la France!

The day in images

What I wanted to do with my afternoon:

What I ended up doing instead:

All in all, it was a lovely day. The visa process was less stressful than it always is at the French Embassy in New York, it was nice to catch up with my Parisian friends who I hadn't seen in ages, and the weather in Paris was splendid. I had a great afternoon on the grass at this really charming park at Bercy. I'll catch the exhibit and the film when I'm back in Paris next week to pick up my visa.