Waiting game

Most of this summer has been a waiting game... and we all know how well I like to go-with-the-flow and let things plan themselves, haha. After graduation, I waited to find out if I got into the program and which region I'd be in (yes, Lyon). Then, I awaited the arrete de nomination (my contract) telling me which school district I'd be in and most importantly how long I'd be in France (St. Priest, 7 months). Next, I waited and prepared for my visa appointment, sat in the waiting room of the French Embassy... waited (not so patiently) for them to call my name, and then waited for the visa to be sent to my house by express mail (all of which worked out and went surprisingly smooth). I've found out more and more information, piece by piece, (I will hopefully be living in an apartment in St. Priest, owned by the Mairie, I will work with 3 different primary schools, and I will have an orientation before I get started), but still I am waiting on plus.

As long as I get it all confirmed and figured out by September 21, I will be happy. And even if I don't, I'll still be ok:) C'est la vie!

Adventures to Ohio, Georgia, and NYC

I'm writing this post, that clearly has absolutely nothing to do with my trip to France, to practice writing for the real thing:)

Ohio: At the end of July, my mom, brother, two friends (Maggie and Thomas), and I traveled to Columbus, Ohio to visit my grandma... and to eat our way through the Ohio State Fair. We (at least one or more of us) succeeded in eating the following: fried mac-n-cheese, apple dumplings, fried snickers, chocolate and rainbow sprinkle covered frozen banana, fried cheese, fried manicotti, fried pizza, corn dogs, regular pizza (not fried), fried mashed potatoes, fried oreos, fried buckeyes, fried nutterbutters, italian sausage, pulled pork sandwich, and fried three musketeers bar... give or take a few things:) I should also mention that many of these items happened to be on a stick.

My mom also wants me to include a few farm animal pictures so as to maybe find similar French farm animals for comparing and contrasting purposes:

Georgia: At the end of August, my brother Michael and I went to visit family friends in Covington, Georgia. We spent a wonderful and relaxing week with the Roberts and the Doziers. We ate delicious meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, picked pink-eyed purple hull peas and okra from the "garden" (or small farm hehe), shelled these same peas (or shucked as I incorrectly called it), saw the Sound of Music at the beautiful Fox theater in Atlanta, went to a high school football game (go East Side!), played cards, read Southern Living magazines cover-to-cover, and went to the pool... among many other activities. I also learned that a muscadine (or mus-kee-dime ) is a type of grape and that a scuppernong is a bronze colored muscadine variety. Who knew? (If I had pictures, I'd put them up so we could compare southern grapes to French grapes...)

New York City: As a last hurrah! before summer vacation ends for my brother and before I'm off to la belle France, my family went to visit my sister Leslie in NYC for a bit of the Labor Day weekend. Leslie attends Pace University in Manhattan (who wouldn't want to visit!) and has just moved into an apartment "off-campus"... aka another tall building with a pretty sweet view. Leslie showed us around her new digs and the roof, which has stellar views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. We met up with a friend from Georgia (Lydia) and together we all went to see Billy Elliot on Broadway by taking advantage of the half-priced ticket stand. After the musical (which was fantastic!), we made our way over to the John's Pizzeria that used to be the Gospel Tabernacle Church (shown in the picture below...which I didn't take). It was yummz. As a parting gift, Leslie received an old pair of roller blades; she has decided to take up rollerblading in Central Park;-)