birthday

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Joe & I have spent most of the week scrambling about Nancy, trying to sort out the remaining odds & ends of our apartment. This means that by the time we’re back to the apartment and done with work, we don’t feel like going out to McDonald’s to steal the Internet. Today, we’ve finally made it out & I’m stealing a friends Internet before we spend the evening at the park listening to live music.

Nancy Jazz Pulsations is a week-long event held every year to celebrate France’s rich history in, well, jazz. Restaurants, bars and concert halls are having concerts and soirées all week—some free, some for a bit of a fee, & something for everyone’s taste. To kick it all off, there is music in the park all day. It’s hard to argue with that when the park also has a zoo, a section of kiddie rides, the best ice cream stand in existence and a massive rose garden.

This week has been busy, but it has also helped me feel more accustomed to our new way of life. It has included multiple trips to the electric company, multiple meetings at the bank, writing nine letters to send to the states, buys tons of bread and cheese, answering countless student e-mails and making sushi for the first time at a dinner party last night (which was an awesome mix of Asian food, American television, good drinks and all kinds of English/French accents bouncing around at once).

It also included my birthday. The big 2-3 happily landed on a Tuesday, a day when I work for exactly one hour. Joe worked for most of the day, so I spent the morning cleaning up the apartment (something I actually love to do) before heading to “work” at 11. One of the best presents of the day happened in the English conversation group I was hosting. A young student has come to every hour I’ve hosted, but she gets too nervous and flustered to speak. I try to encourage her, but after the first bit of embarrassment she settles in to just listening for the hour—but this week there was a breakthrough!

We were discussing American and French films, and she had some strong opinions. I could tell by her facial expressions that she was dying to join in, so I asked her a question. And she was off on a role! She talked about the “blockbuster” American movies and the television shows she still loves to watch. She was smiling and not slowing down for the mistakes she was making, which is actually a crucial part to really getting yourself into speaking a language. (I’m still crippled by the fear of making the wrong verb conjugation and sit quietly, much like this student, in most scenarios.)

The day kept getting better—beers and a surprise cake with a friend, three birthday cards in the mailbox, presents hidden around the apartment and my husband waiting on my when I got home.

I’m really lucky to have friends and family that understand me often better than I understand myself. Lauren, who also treated me to the beers and cake, found an old copy of East of Eden (as I’m a HUGE Steinbeck fan) in French with James Dean on the cover. Joe had tons of surprises—from daisies on my pillow to this little man, who I really wish would come to life.

I love teapots, and I’d been passing this hibou in a store window and wishing he could be my pet. He was paired with loose-leaf rooibos, something I’d been missing since our arrival in France, and ginger-infused chocolate.

Since my birthday, the cards have kept arriving and the surprises keep coming. Students somehow heard it was my birthday, and I got birthday wishes as I walked between classes. My parents slipped a birthday surprise into my account, allowing me to buy these:

Finally! Waterproof shoes! I opted for bringing my favorite shoes instead of my practical shoes. In the rainy days of fall, I’ve realized what a mistake this was. Now and through the winter (which I’ve heard gets snow, but not much), my toes will be warm, dry and rather fashionable if I do say so myself.

I’ve been feeling exceptionally lucky lately, exceptionally homesick and more full of love than any time I can remember. So thanks for sharing in my birthday, thanks for reading and thanks for allowing me to just ramble about how happy I am some days. I like to think it makes up for the rather whiny posts that come toward the end of the month when the paychecks are gone and there still is no progress with the electric company. (At least there’s a French law that says they can’t shut off the electricity when it gets too cold outside, so there won’t be a post about me crying because we can’t use our hotplates.)