In Angers!

Hey all,

It is 2:50am California time, 11:50am France time.

I just touched down in Paris and, after playing musical chairs with my train tickets, will arrive in Angers two hours earlier than expected. This is good news and bad: I am glad that I will be able to see the high school before its closing at 6pm, and perhaps move in to the room where I'll be staying for the next 9 months! It is a bad thing, however, in that I had planned to be picked up at the train station by a teacher at the school. Not only was she going to pick me up, she was going to feed me dinner and let me crash chez elle for the night!

I'm hoping I will simply run into her/intercept her at the school before six rolls around. If only my cell phone was activated for the month of September... ah well. Pay phones work too!

The nine-hour flight went by far faster than I had expected! I watched a good film called "On va te manquer" and listened to Johnny Cash to pass the time. The great food served by Air France didn't hurt any, either: I had requested low-sodium meals on a whim, only to realize that my meals were served a good ten minutes before anyone else's. Though a bit awkward, I got the most delightful ego inflation out of the deal.

Leaving Albany was hard - having had such an eventful, productive summer, it was hard to believe that anything could top the sheer pleasure I had of coming home after a long stay abroad. I worked for ten solid weeks, spent quality time with friends old and new alike, saw my only sister get married, got to know San Francisco better, began an ongoing gardening project in my mother's backyard, cleaned out the garage, and learned how to lay brick. I got teary-eyed thinking that I won't see my mom for a long time, and had a hard time leaving my old cat, Mercy, who I worry may not be around when I return. We've spent a good fifteen years together, and he's the best pet I could ask for.

Caught up in looking back on all the great things that have happened this summer, I lost sight of what lay before me: a trip back to a country that I am slowly coming to love, a language that feels more and more like home, and an adventure unlike any other. This year I hope to be completely financially independent of my mother, earning my wages as a teacher and learning to budget. Needless to say, this is going to be an exciting, formative year for young Benjamin Calder Hair.

Waiting for baggage claim, I got to talking with two other guys who had gotten off the same flight - they were two Marseillais who had just returned from spending a week of vacation in San Francisco! I got to chatting with them and I'm going to plan a visit to Marseille soon... perhaps at the end of October.

Speaking of traveling, I'll be making my way to Brest, a college city at the westernmost extremity of France, Bretagne (Brittany) on the 14th of the month. I'll be paying a visit to Assistant Prof. Francalanza, a professor who had taught two of my classes in Bordeaux and will be writing a letter of recommendation for my graduate school application. For those who don't know, I'm applying to various PhD programs across the US in Comparative Literature and French. Were I to be accepted, I would start graduate studies Fall 2010. If I am not accepted, I will most likely stay to teach another year here in France.

As one would imagine, I'm very excited about the prospect of pursuing a PhD - applying and being accepted is the single most significant step on my career path following the obtention of my Bachelor's Degree. I am applying across the nation - North Carolina, California, New York, Wisconsin, New Jersey... I'm seeing it as an opportunity to see another part of the country about which I feel I know so little.

I'm currently reading a novel lent to me by a friend of a friend, Caroline. The book is entitled Please Don't Call Me Human, and it was written by Wang Shuo in 1989. It is an extremely satirical piece on late 20th century communist China, and it would provide laughs far less painful had the social ills which incited the satire not become so dramatically virulent in the past twenty years. Corruption, greed, and excessive pride run rampant, and though I'm only halfway through, I can tell that Shuo has no intention of sparing any of his characters any kind of sympathy; he is absolutely ruthless, and perfectly justified in being such.

A smile the size of a watermelon slice has spread its way across my face as my ears bask in the radiance of the French language.

It's 7pm, and I am currently chez the teacher who offered to take me in for my first night in Angers - I wasn't able to move right in to my room at the school (at which many male students live as well, along with the other language assistants), so I will be staying with her and her husband for the night. She very kindly drove me to her place, which is a bit removed from the city center, and now we are settling in, getting ready for dinner.

I had arrived in the town at 4pm, and at the high school at 4:30. The teacher who was to take me in was teaching until 6pm, and I found myself with an hour and a half to kill. I took advantage to soak in what I could from the town by foot. My first stop, the Jardin des Plantes, is gorgeous - about the same size as Bordeaux's Jardin Public, there is a beautiful lake in the middle with a small waterfall. The flowers are amazing, and more than a few formidable trees broke up the stunning colors. What suprised me most was a windy purple plant that looked like a mini alien tree - upon closer inspection, I realized it was no other than kale! The same stuff I'm growing in my mom's backyard is principally featured in a public garden! And let me tell you, it was a glorious plant - a deep, taro purple were the stalks while the huge crinkled leaves were a darker purple-green. Unreal. Photos soon.

The town is under construction for a tramway which they hope to have in two or three years, so thus far it hasn't been much to look at. I suspect with time, and especially a bike, I will gain a deeper appreciation of the city's style.

Ciao!
Ben