Perpignan and a Spanish haircut

Hello all! I'm writing a little sooner than I have been because I'm leaving this afternoon for Perpignan, where my host father's parents live. Perpignan is a Catalan city close to the border with Spain. Apparently Salvador Dali once said that the train station in Perpignan was the center of the universe, because he got his best ideas there. He even painted a picture of the Iberian Peninsula rotating around Perpignan, which is now there on the left. I'm not quite sure how that shows what I just wrote, but apparently that's what it means. However, I'm not quite the art guru.

Anyways, my point of writing all that is that I'm going to be away from the computer for a few days, but hopefully I'll come back with some good pictures for you all to look at. I'm also going to get a haircut in Spain while I'm staying in Perpignan, because apparently haircuts are cheaper there.

I went to a market yesterday morning. It wasn't a market for produce, mainly clothes and some other products. It was on one side of the stadium for the soccer team Nimes Olympique, which is in the Ligue Nationale, two leagues below Olympique Marseille or Olympique Lyonnais, two teams that you might see on TV playing in Ligue 1 or the Champions League. On the other side of the stadium was a huge market for flowers. I bought a sweatshirt at the market, and now I'm going to stop myself from buying much more than a t-shirt, because if I don't I won't be able to close my suitcase in June. There are weekly markets for produce in the surrounding towns, although I don't have much of a need to go to those because I'm not buying my own fruits and vegetables.

I'm much more settled in here now. Last night when my local coordinator and his British wife came to check up on my I caught myself talking French accidentally every once in a while in the middle of a conversation in English. I also have to keep catching myself from saying "Oui" or "Quoi?" when I'm talking to people on Skype. I've been really enjoying riding here. On Saturday I rode 100 kilometers by myself. It would have been nice to ride with someone else, but at the same time I was happy I was alone cause I had some really awesome moments where I was happy it was quiet. Just me winding up that valley, then rolling along in the sun and smelling really good bread baking, an old French guy clapping for me right after climbing the "colline" at St. Comes, etc. It was awesome...

Bisous

The title is the hardest part...

So it's been about a week and now I have a few things to write. I have more time to be on the internet tonight because I'm waking up late tomorrow. Being on the internet means writing this blog and watching interviews with presidential candidates on the Daily Show website, my new method of narrowing down the Democratic candidates. It's weird having to actually make a decision for voting now that I can. But anyways, I'm waking up later tomorrow because I only have one hour of class! I'm actually not sure if I'm going to go, because the class is from 1 to 2 and going all the way to Nimes for that is kind of worthless. So I think I will start my vacation early.

HUZZAH!!! Vacation! The way French school works is there are about 7 to 8 weeks of school followed by a vacation. So I have one that starts tomorrow afternoon, I have the winter vacation, another "ski" vacation in February, and the spring vacation in April before school ends in the middle of June. During vacation I plan on getting to some more of the local sights and taking some pictures for everyone to see, riding my bike a ton, hopefully cooking some, reading, and of course learning French.

And speaking of school, there were two interesting things that happened this morning. For one, all the students bags were looked in when they entered the school and they were told nobody was allowed to leave the campus before noon, which is usually not the case. This was because yesterday someone lit a firework, threw it in a room, closed the door and ran away. The other thing at school this morning was a field trip close to the town of Rochefort du Gard, which is in between Nimes and Avignon. It was a geology lesson, and while I froze my ass off and tried to understand the other students took lots of notes on the age of the rocks and the chemical compositions on the rocks around. I understood a little better when we were allowed to go search for fossils...

I saw my first match of European handball last weekend. My host brother Axel plays on a team in a nearby town, and I got to see them play a team from Nimes. They won, which was good, and it was interesting to see it cause it's kind of a mix of basketball and lacrosse and hockey to me. I also cooked jerk chicken and New-Orleans style fried potatoes last weekend. The jerk chicken didn't come out as well as I wanted, and it was way too spicy for the kids here. Not sure what I'll get around to cooking this weekend/vacation, but we'll see. I'm also riding a lot more now. I'm trying to do at least 100 miles a week for now. Unfortunately I don't have many people to ride with and the wind here can be strong at times, but it's better than nothing. Plus other people get impatient if I want to stop and take a few pictures, which I will try to do on my next ride so you can see more of my route.

A prochain!

Ouais, j'ai le WiFi!

I now have a pretty reliable wireless connection! That means you can send me emails to either address: jonah.meyers@verizon.net or wayfarer4900@yahoo.com. The first address is a little quicker for me to get to because I don't have to go through a browser now, but do whatever your hearts desire. Wireless also means that I can talk on Skype much easier, and the sound and picture quality is better. So if you have a Skype name we can talk!

Also in the French news is a "greve," or strike. Basically, years ago when certain jobs, such as driving trains and buses, were very difficult the people who practiced those occupations were given certain benefits, including earlier retirement. Right now the government is trying to take those perks away, so bus drivers and train drivers all over the country are striking. There are some marches happening in Paris, but the most that has happened around me is a one-day strike by the bus drivers, which meant that I did not go to school yesterday! I really could have, but I only have two hours of Physics because my other three teachers decided not to go to school as well. So instead I....

Woke up at 8 instead of 6, ate breakfast, and rode my bike alone for over two hours! And what a magnificent ride it was. I did the same gorgeous route as Sunday, winding up through this valley with limestone and pine trees around me, and with an excellent view. Also passed through plenty of small villages with the beautiful French "plain trees," and I even rode through one village which is called "Campagne," the French word for country. I think it has about 200 people living in it, so the name is definitely just!

Today was a pretty good day as well. Only five hours of class, which actually is pretty easy now. I got a math test back and I had the third highest grade in the class, believe it or not! Then for lunch a friend and I bought "steak-frites" sandwiches, which the guy in the cafe calls "American"s and went and ate in the Jardin de la Fontaine. Plenty of wind here, so it isn't always the warmest, but it's still beautiful.

But now I must go take a shower and watch a rugby match. It's between France and Argentina (Moi contre Katherine) for third place in the rugby world cup. Unfortunately last weekend France lost to England in the Semi-Final. England will play South Africa tomorrow night. I'm also going to put up a few pictures of my new bedroom, so you can check those out if you'd like.

Bonjour Tout le Monde!

Sorry I've been a little slow in getting to this post, but there's a reason for that. I am now very settled in here. The language is still hard, but I have a schedule I'm used to and people I'm used to seeing, etc. I still refer to Maryland as "chez moi," or my home, but living here isn't so strange to me now, after a little more than 6 weeks. So anyways, that's why I haven't posted in a little while, because I don't think my daily schedule is that interesting. But finally I have a few things to write, so here goes.

When I decided to come to France I thought that this would be a good opportunity to figure myself out and to figure out what I want in the future. It's still early in this whole experience, but I've already thought about it and basically found an answer for myself: I don't need to think about my future. It's comforting that I know where I'm going to school next year and what dorm I'm going to live in and all that, but that's all I know and that's all I need to know. It's nice to be able to not really worry about where I'll be in five years and just decide "Hey, why don't I go to France for 10 months?" (Thanks Mom and Dad!) Plus, if I did decide what I wanted half a decade down the road I would probably change my mind half a dozen times.

Speaking of college next year - University of Maryland, College Park - my dorm room is going to be a huge change. This past weekend I moved into the new bedroom here, which is pretty big and doesn't have that much in it. So next year it's going to be a little different with a room about half the size, two times the people, and four times the stuff.

What else has been going on here? Hmm... I had a pretty good weekend. Sunday morning I rode about 40 miles on beautiful roads with not many cars, so that was excellent. Saturday and Sunday I spent some time fixing the family's bikes, so I can keep my skills from getting too rusty. And Sunday I also ate what the French called Pain Perdue, or "Lost Bread." They mentioned to we were going to eat it later, but I couldn't really understand what it was they way they were describing it. So later, when I took a break fixing bikes to go eat some, I realized that it was French toast, which is a name they laughed at. There are a few differences to the real French version though. It is eaten in the afternoon, between lunch and dinner, instead of for breakfast. Also, it is always made with the stale baguettes, which is why it's called Lost Bread, because you don't want to eat the bread anymore without soaking it in eggs and frying it. And it's eaten with a little sugar on top instead of maple syrup. When I mentioned that it was eaten with maple syrup in the U.S. they joked that that's why Americans were fat. But, I said, then again I'm American, I weigh 140 pounds (63 kilograms), and I can eat what I want when I ride hard for 40 miles in the morning!

Hope everyone is doing well, and I've heard a lot of people are reading, so thank you and keep it up. I miss you all! Chao

Allez Les Bleus!

Last night France defeated the New Zealand All-Blacks 20-18 in a quarterfinal rugby match! A world cup victory is in sight! Allez Les Bleusssssssssssssssssssssssssss!

Oui, je suis americain...

I've had to say that a lot... And it's not bad, I don't mind that people can tell I'm not French because I don't speak it that well or I just plain look different. But my math and geology teachers don't really like Americans, which I think is ridiculous, because not all of us are the same. They might not like Americans because they think we go parading around taking over everything and refusing to speak anything but English, but that isn't me, now is it? I didn't put Bush into office...just saying...

And although I'm definetely not the most patriotic person in the world, I do have no point out how much America affects the world. The French (and much of the rest of the world) listen to American music, watch American movies, and wear clothes by American companies. The clothes are in English and I've been surprised by the number of kids who wears clothes when they don't understand what's written on them. Now I want to look at my math teacher's favorite movies...

Speaking of classes, I got two tests back yesterday. One was in geology, which the teacher wrote "Non!" on in big red letters. I don't understand that class at all, obviously. But the other one was Physics/Chemistry, which I managed to get a 9 out of 20 on. That sounds bad, but it's awesome for me and it's actually the average of the class, because the tests are real difficult here and they teachers also grade hard. The last question on the Chemistry section of the test was a chemical equation where you had to find the amount of ethanol and CO2 produced in the fermentation of the grape juice, and determine the alcohol content of the wine! Now THAT'S French!

Other than that, I haven't been up to much. I've been pretty tired because it's exhausting learning all the time. And right now I'm trying to figure out the specific gravity of different foods so I can convert milliliters to grams, after converting from cups of tablespoons or teaspoons. Although I tend to think the metric system makes more sense in general, with cooking that's not the case at all. Sorry this post hasn't been very interesting, but that's all I've got going right now. A bientot!