Americans Abroad

Welcome Back, Sorley

2010-02-06T09:35:00.002+01:00

I have completed my first week of teaching conversational English and, boy, are my arms tired!

Anyhow, I now have a better understanding of what my position entails, and I know that some of you are curious what I will (hopefully) be doing for the rest of my time here in France. My new employer, International Language Training Company (or ILTC for short), offers services in three different arenas of training.

The first is composed primarily employers who have contracted ILTC to provide training for their employees. These types of lessons are typically small in nature, usually one on one, or one on two. Apparently, it is unusual to have a large number of trainees for these sessions, and they rarely exceed more than eight trainees even in these cases. These sessions usually occur at ILTC’s offices (although it is possible for the trainer to travel to the trainee’s location). These are probably the most comprehensive, as the trainee has face to face lessons as well as Gymglish, and online training course, which they can practice at their leisure (and is not required, but recommended). In ILTC vernacular, these are referred to as ‘Lessons,’ and they may also incorporate the next type of training listed below.

The second is similar in nature to the Lessons, and is sometimes a component of them. These are the telephone training, known simply as “Telephone”. In these lessons, the student is sent information and training to work on at their leisure. Then, at a scheduled time, they will call a trainer and practice their speaking and comprehension by discussing the lesson they were sent. These are scheduled as 30-minute telephone calls and, as a benefit; the trainer can do these from home.

The third and final training is English training at two local business schools (simply known and ‘Schools’ or ‘Classes’). In this instance, ILTC is contracted to provide general English training and preparation for TOEIC testing (more on TOEIC in the next paragraph). Classes are usually two-hours long; however, both schools have different thoughts on this preparation. The first, IFAG (pronounced e-fag, don’t laugh), has comprehensive training, frequent classes, and regular testing to assess the student’s progress. The other, 3A (Twahz-Ah), has infrequent classes and little to no assessment except for a final project and the TOEIC test itself. Because of this difference, lessons plans differ greatly between the two schools. Whereas IFAG provides a more balanced course in English, 3A is more rushed, and the lesson must pack more content into a shorter time frame.

TOEIC (Test Of English for International Communication) is an international standard for testing English skills in a variety of areas. Developed in 1979, and continually revised since, TOEIC is an important test for business students who plan on seeking employment with a company that would require them to speak and/or write in English. The top score is 990, and most businesses that require English comprehension in a candidate have a minimum requirement of 700.

So, what is this teaching like: well, I have not yet done any Telephone yet, so I cannot comment on that, but I have taught at 3A and, as of today, have completed two Lessons. To be honest, the difference between Classes and Lessons is worlds apart. Classes involve a structured lesson plan devised jointly by the school itself and ILTC. As trainers, we are given leeway on adapting or altering the lesson if needed (either due to student comprehension or, as is more often the case, technical difficulties), but the objectives and goals of each individual lesson are solid and immutable.

Lessons, on the other hand, are more open to interpretation. After the trainee is audited by ILTC, and receives an assessment across several criteria of their English skills, ILTC and the client (the trainee’s employer) determine a path of objectives to be reached over the course of the training (usually between 40-60 hours total). Outside of that, the trainer has a fairly free hand in developing lesson plans that fit the trainee’s temperament and needs. The trainer also is allowed to adapt and develop the direction of training as needed.

Another difference is the attitude of the trainees and students. Trainees for the lessons tend to be more outgoing and positive. Also, with Lessons being on a more intimate level of personal interaction, a strong rapport between the trainers and the trainer is typically built.

The students, though, can be a holy terror! I’m not sure of the French attitude of student/teacher relationship, but I can tell you this much: The general attitude of the students I have taught and observed would never fly in the United States. They will challenge you, try to talk over you, or ignore the lesson and instructions and chit-chat away.

Now, to be fair, not all of the students are like this, and a combination of class-size as well as comprehension of English play a part. For example, I have two two-hour classes at 3A, back to back. The first is small, about 16 students (I was also lucky in that only ten of them showed up on my first day). Because of this smaller size, it is easier for the instructor to engage the whole class at once, or to quickly quell any bad behavior (of which there wasn’t much). As there were only ten students, I also feel that I created a positive rapport with them. So I am hoping that when I finally meet the other six who were absent, I will have a majority of the previous students already on my side. Win their hearts and minds, I say!

My second class is much larger, though. It is a total of 24 students, 22 of which were present on my first day with them. Larger groups are harder to teach because it is difficult to address their concerns individually. Another issue I instantly realized is that, while they were all placed in this class based on an audit of their English abilities at the beginning of the school year, some seem to have progressed much more quickly than the others. This difference in comprehension required me to spend more time with those who were having trouble. It also leads to the more advanced students to pay less attention, and also to be a bit cocky due to their self-assuredness.

And so there you have it. A more concise run-down about what I am and will be doing. I sure I am only touching the tip of the iceberg, and there is probably much that I still have yet to discover. But we can talk about that later.

Coming up in the next entry of Americans Abroad: Jeff and his friends visit a Teppanyaki-Style restaurant for Jeff’s birthday dinner. How will it go? Will the food be just as good as in the States? Will lots of Sake be involved?!? Okay, we know the answer to the last one. It is YES!

Food, part Deux

2010-01-22T12:09:00.003+01:00

You know what I am having a hell of a time finding here in Lyon? A good hot sauce. Really!

I mean, is it too much to ask to have a little heat in your food? Sure, I know that the French have refined palates, and that they prefer their food to be on the creamy, fatty side with gentle overtones of soothing flavor. But this is supposed to be the gastronomical capital of France. WHERE'S MY HOT SAUCE!?!

Don't get me wrong. Just about every grocery store has red Tabasco (some even have the milder green blend), so at least there is that. But here is the thing about Tabasco: It is like a light beer, Miller Lite for example. It's passable and good for when you got nothing better around, but you can have as much of it as you want and it still won't screw you up. Tabasco is safe. Tabasco is for the masses.

Thus far, I have only been able to find two (2!!!) other hot sauces. The first that I found (even before I found Tabasco, which is usually in a completely different section), is Louisiana Hot Sauce, and that's only the Original flavor. This one is OK. It has mild heat, but little to no flavor.

Next I found Grace Hot Pepper Sauce, a Product of Jamaica. This one is a bit hotter (the label lies and says "very hot/tres piquant") but, still, no flavor.

Of course, their are also Asian pepper sauces you can find at any Asian store, but they are different, you know? Their favor doesn't really lend itself to meals like tacos and other southern foods as much as they work well with eastern cuisines.

I don't know if there is no market for hot sauces here, or if they only import hot, yet unflavored hot sauces because the French only want "Hot" sauces.

Verily, woe is me...

Oh, and I got a call from my new employer, and they moved up my start date from February 11th to next Tuesday. Woohoo!

I never tried that, but I know I don't like it.

2010-01-20T09:34:00.002+01:00

Really, most of you would be surprised to learn that, at one time in my life, I was one of the pickiest eaters. Now look at me, I eat stuff many of you have never heard of! I'm not sure when my love of food fully blossomed, but I think I do have to credit my old room mate Garen Gaston, and my friend Ian Miller, for introducing me to new cuisines that began my love affair with food.

So what is the food like in France? Well, in some ways it is not much different. They still have McDonalds, and it is about the same. To be honest, we haven't eaten much "French" food since we have been here. Being more situated to the center of the known world, France (and Europe) seem to have a lot more international cuisines all over the place. So what have we eaten...

Asian cuisines

There is a lot of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian restaurants. Since France tried to 'colonize' a lot of Southeast Asia, immigrants from that region have also relocated to France, and have brought their cuisines along as well. Interestingly, many of our friends have also remarked that most Chinese restaurants are actually run by Vietnamese. Hmmm...

We are lucky to have two such restaurants nearby, each only about a block or two away. One is Vietnamese and is pretty good, the other is Cambodian (with some Thai influences) and that is also very good.

Kebabs

Kebab shops are all over the place here. basically, kebab = gyro, but this is the Turkish version and is spiced a bit differently. They are still damn good, if not healthy. There is one right down the street that I have partaken of a couple of times. Since Erika doesn't regularly eat lamb (or whatever the meat actually is), she usually goes for a chicken sandwich, although some restaurants spice their chicken with something that gives her an allergic reaction. =(

Raclette

Raclette is kind of like fondue, in that you spend more time socializing rather than eating. Basically, you have a bowl of boiled potatoes. then there is the machine where you have a cute little dish that you put cheese and deli meats on, and stick it under a heater to melt the cheese and warm the meats. Then, when it is ready, you pull the dish out and pour it on your potato. Very tasty, but very, very, filling.

Mussels

Although we have made mussels at home a couple of times, we have also had them at restaurants. The first time was at Leffe, a bar/restaurant run by the makers of Leffe beer. This was in a bit of a touristy area and, while the mussels weren't great, they were just average.

However, last night we went to a place called Palais de la Biere (basically, Palace of Beer). This place serves a plate of either mussels or sausage, and has a lot of excellent beers. The mussels were spectacular, and beer was awesome! Erika had the Saison Dupont, and I had La Trappe Quadruple. Awesome!

Bouchon

We haven't had this yet, but this is known as the traditional Lyonnais cuisine/restaurant. Technically, 'bouchon' means 'cork' as in wine bottle cork. Although this type of cuisine has nothing to with corks (or, at least, not anymore than anything else). From what I understand, it is very meat-centric, and most of the meals comprise of the parts that normally don't get used. It is also supposed to be very fatty.

Aside from these, we have also had some tasty meals for dinner at friends' houses. Some of these meals are regional, and I couldn't tell you what they are to save my life. But one thing is for certain, food is definitely very important here. Looks like I have come to the right place!

New banner for the top of the page!

2010-01-19T12:50:00.001+01:00

Whipped this one up whilst eating lunch!

This is the worst blog ever.

2010-01-19T11:34:00.002+01:00

Holy cow! It has been a month since my last update. Boy, am I lazy!

Not surprisingly, I do have quite a bit to talk about so, in the interest of brevity, I will split them up over the next couple of days.

WORK

When I last left you, I found out that I got the job teaching conversational English to business people. On the 6th of January I went in to sign the work contract... and that is it. It turns out I don't start my training until February 11th. I was supposed to go in on the 12th of January for a meet-and-greet with the employees of the company, but that was postponed because the other new employee doesn't have her Carte de Sejour (residence card) yet, so she couldn't sign her contract. So, now I am waiting on that as well.

HOME

We are still working on getting settled in. There is still some furniture and light fixtures we need to pick up, as well as a washing machine, and some more kitchen cookware. Other than that, its pretty nice. We are getting a new (used) entertainment center from a friend and, once that arrives, the current wire-shelving entertainment center will move into the sejour (living room) to be used as a pantry and other storage. Wall decorations will go up once that is settled.

HOLIDAYS

The holidays were blessedly relaxed for us. We talked the talk about going somewhere for or after Christmas but, once it came down to it, we stayed home and relaxed. On Christmas day we went and saw Avatar in 3D. It is a fun movie, and visually stunning, but the plot is so cliche and generic, I can't understand how James Cameron actually thinks he has created a story for the ages. Oh well... Erika had problems with the 3D glasses fitting over her regular glasses, so it wasn't as cool for her. =(

For New Year's Eve we were invited by our friend Patricia to a small house party. We ate raclette and drank lots of wine. People danced. One guy drank so much that he passed out at around 1am, only to wake up refreshed and ready to go again at 3am, when everyone else was winding down. We got home around 4-4:30am, and the kids upstairs still had the music blaring for their party. We kindly asked them to turn it down, but when it was still going at 6:30am, I went up there, knocked on the door and, when one of the guys answered it, I walked right in and turned the sound off of his stereo. Ha!

On New Year's Day, we watched a downloaded copy of the Champs Sports Bowl (go BUCKY!) and Erika and I made a meal of fried scallops, sausages, and escargot. Oh, and we drank lots of mimosas.

Tomorrow's subject: FOOD!!!

Working on the Chain Gang

2009-12-18T08:33:00.002+01:00

OK, so… Hooray! I’ve got a job!

I have been offered, and accepted, a position at ILTC, a language-training institute here in Lyon. ILTC just celebrated its 25th anniversary this year and has offices in Paris and Lyon, and is in the process of opening a new office in southern France. ILTC trains on a variety of languages and offers training in the classroom, by telephone, and document translation.

I will be on the English training side of things and, after my own training, will probably start out in one of the general conversational (spoken) English courses. From my understanding, the classes are mostly personnel from business and the like, although there is also courses for college students looking to improve their English as well.

The position itself is sort of what we would call a ‘probationary period’ in the states. It is a 200 hour contract at a set rate of pay. The two main perks in the contract is that I will be enrolled in one of ILTC’s French language courses, so that I may continue my French training; and they also cover, in part or whole, my mutuelle (private, supplemental insurance to cover what the French Social Security system does not). After those 200 hours, my contract will be reevaluated based on my progress and a new one will be written up (or I will be let go). I don't go in to sign my contract and start work until January 6th, so I have a lot of time to get all antsy about getting to work and stop hanging around the house!

That being said, at this point I have no idea what my weekly schedule will be like. Classes are only taught during the week, but work is based on what is currently going on. So it’s entirely possible that I could work as little as 10 hours a week, or as many as 50 hours, or it could be different every week. Who knows?

Well, that’s about all I can think of right now. If anything new comes up, I’ll let you all know!

Long time, no see. Part 2

2009-12-12T11:56:00.002+01:00

Job Update: I got the call yesterday, and I do not have a job yet. However, I do have the coveted 'second interview' this coming Thursday. So let us hope for the best. I have never NOT gotten a second interview in a position which I have applied for that warrants one. And out of the six second interviews I have had in my life, only one didn't pan out. So my success rate is fairly high in these situations!

Anyhow, I promised more updates over the weekend regarding recent events, so this is update #2.

On Monday, November 30th, our stuff FINALLY arrived from the good ole' U.S. of A. I'd like to take this moment to thank the following people for their direct assistance: Anya for helping us load the moving van back in State College. Lance for storing our stuff until the movers could pick it up (as well as dealing with the whole U.S. side of that process). Dad and Kellie for dropping us off at Chris', and Chris for taking us to JFK. Finally we'd like to thank Tarlis, Patricia, Joanna, Emil and Alex, Gergely and Agnes for helping us in quickly and efficiently getting our stuff up from the moving truck to our apartment.

Barring some minor damage (a piece of wood from the pallet pierced the bottom of a box and damaged the case for one of my Playstation 3 game; and well as a plate, a bowl, and a glass were broken) things were in fairly good shape.

The biggest issue was probably the preceding week, where we were having unpleasant and stressful discussions with the movers, who insisted that we had to pay 110 euros for a 'local agent' to have parking in front of our building reserved for the truck on the day of delivery. Needless to say, it was fishy because we were to pay the movers in cash when they arrived and, furthermore, the local agent (who was supposed to handle everything himself), didn't follow through and, hence, we paid for a service that wasn't provided. Cars were still parked there and the moving truck had to unload while essentially blocking a lane of traffic.

After Erika and I composed a strongly worded letter to both the local moving company, as well as the company in the U.S. who we contracted to oversee this process, they have agreed to refund us the 110 euros. Now let's just see if it actually shows up!

Long time, no see.

2009-12-11T09:23:00.003+01:00

Hell, things have been BUSY lately, and I haven't been updating this as a I should have. I do have several important things to mention, but I will most likely discuss the most important today, and spread the others out over the weekend.

And what a day today is! I had what I consider to be a very successful interview on Tuesday and should be getting a call today as to whether or not I have a job (I'm pretty sure they will call because the it is the Human Resources Manager's last day, as she has taken a position in Australia, which is closer to her home of New Zealand).

Its a language school here in Lyon, and the available position(s) are for teaching English. The company, ILTC, is celebrating their 25 year in business- so I know that they are well established.

The position would most likely be English training to a small class (about 10 people), as well as phone training where the student has a packet of materials to study and work on, and then they call at a set time to practice with a trainer, who then fills out an evaluation sheet for the student.

Because of the fluid nature of the company, the offered position(s) may either be salaried (full-time) contract work, or hourly (which typically means part-time).

Aside from that, the interview process was extremely interesting. Instead of just a one-on-one interview, the candidates they selected to come in were asked to present a 5-minute lesson to the rest of the candidates, while three of the employees evaluated your lesson and presentation skills. You were provided with a whiteboard and markers, and were allowed to bring whatever props you wished. The only two rules were 1) That it NOT be about teaching a language, and 2) that it is restricted to 5-minutes, after which you were cut off.

Some were good (me, of course), some... not so much. The candidates were asked to volunteer for the order they would go in so, of course, the one person who showed up late immediately raised her hand to to go first. Among the lessons taught were card tricks, how muscles work, and how to make a 10-minute chocolate cake (that last being, aside from subject material, one of the best presented lessons, as well).

For my lesson, I immediately knew that, if I wasn't supposed to do something language related, it would be something art-related. I settled on something that was extremely easy for me to draw: me. That's right! I taught 12 strangers how to draw a caricature of me in 8 easy steps. In between I explained what caricatures are, what features to focus on, and how, with a little bit of practice, ANYONE can start doing caricatures. After I showed the group how to draw me, I asked a volunteer to come up and, using prompts from the group, draw me on the whiteboard. Needless to say, it was excellent! In fact, almost everyone in the class did a perfect job. This means either I am a great teacher, or a happened into a group with flourishing artistic talent. Let us hope for my sake that it was the former and not the latter!

After all of the presentations were done, the three employees got together for a quick discussion and then started bringing in the candidates one by one. I went fifth and believe that I made a fairly good impression. The head interviewer mentioned that they felt that there were three strong candidates in the group, so I hope I am one of them.

Anyhow, as I mentioned in the beginning, we are supposed to get word today on the results. Keep your fingers crossed and, hopefully, I will be updating this blog with good news instead of bad later in the day!

World Cup a Go-Go (final qualifiers)

2009-11-19T12:51:00.002+01:00

The past week here in France was a big one, as the national football team (soccer to us Americans) faced Ireland in two matches that would determine who gets to go to the big show, and who stays home.

This is interesting because France, generally considered a powerhouse on the national stage and a regular shoe-in for the World Cup Finals, has been lackluster to put it mildly. For them to come down to the wire against a scrappy upstart like Ireland speaks volumes. I don’t profess to know even a tenth of the whole story or to understand the sport as just about everyone else in the world but Americans do, but let’s just say there has been a lot of well-published tension within the team that has made this a trying qualifying season for them.

Needless to say, the first match was Saturday the 14th. Erika and I went to watch the game at an Irish pub with one of her lab mates. The match was unusually dull with France pulling a win out of the hat 1 – 0. The more interesting thing is that I have finally gone into one Europe’s famous “Irish Theme” pubs. Yes, the drinks were typically whiskeys, beers, and ales from the Green Isle, but that’s where the Irishness stopped. The Rambler (sounds Irish, don’t it?) was staffed by French-speaking bartenders and the majority of the crowd were there in support of Les Bleus.

The real action was last night, Wednesday the 18th. At about 8:30pm local time cars outside started honking and cheers of joy reverberated through the streets. Either this was a pre-celebration or something else happened. Peeking out our window, our street was clogged with traffic as, about a block down, hundreds of people were lighting off flares and fireworks. It turns out it was the local Algerian contingent celebrating their country’s own do-or-die moment against Egypt, thus qualifying for the World Cup Finals at the last chance. Yaaay!!! Our first football victory street celebration!!!

The revelers made their way down our street towards the center of town, blocking the oncoming traffic (which is no mean feat as we live on quite a busy road). Erika and I grew concerned that if the second France vs. Ireland match, which started at 9pm that same night, ended in a victory, we would have to go through this again. Sure enough, around 11:30pm I did hear some honking but not that raucous celebration I was expecting with a French win. When I had last checked before going to bed Ireland was up by 1 – 0, so I assumed that the honking might have been celebration by Lyon’s small, but dedicated Irish community.

It turns out I was wrong. France tied up the game in extra time, thus giving them a higher aggregate score and qualifying them for the Finals. The problem is that the scoring drive was assisted with an obvious handball by French superstar Thierry Henry and, since none of the referees actually saw it happen, the score had to stand (there is no video replay rule for officiating, yet within seconds of the video of the dastardly crime was playing on the giant screens in the stadium for all to see).

And so now I am living in the country that will have gotten into the World Cup Finals on an obvious violation. Even if France goes all the way and takes the tournament, that one violation will hover over them always.

Go Les Bleus!!!

Do you think Furries can sell Pepsi?

2009-11-02T11:54:00.004+01:00

OK, we all know that advertising is really different depending on where you are in the world. Japanese commercials tend to be way out there. But considering that Europe is basically our cultural relatives, there is simply no reason for what I am about to show you.

Have you ever heard of Furries? For those who don't know, Furries is the name for a group of people who find anthropomorphic animals in sexual situations to be very erotic. Whether it be via artistic representation, or even dressing up as animals, these people really get off on it. And that's fine for them.

Now, have you ever heard of Orangina? Orangina is a carbonated citrus beverage popular in Europe.

What do these two have in common? Well it seems that Orangina has embarked on a disturbing marketing scheme which I can only think is aimed to appeal to to the burgeoning European Furry demographic. I first noticed this as I walked past a shop and saw this sign. I didn't think anything of it until about a block later, when I realized that what I had seen was an advertisement of a sexy pinup girl with the head of a giraffe. My suspicions were confirmed as I began to pay better attention to these little quick mart-type places everywhere I went. Sure enough there were Furries on these ads all over the place. Even worse, it was for Orangina. Its kind of disturbing seeing all the Furries around hawking a drink that is aimed towards the whole family. Imagine Pepsi or Coke doing the same thing and you'll get the idea.

But that's not all. I was looking online to find an image to include here in the blog, just so you would know exactly what I am talking about. What I found instead was much more, and much worse than I could have imagined. Bear-man and Deer-woman flirting on the swings. Octopus-woman giving a lap dance... WTF?!?

This commercial is a little under two minutes long but I recommend, in order to ensure the most damage to your psyche, that you sit through the whole thing.

This will temporarily blind you and/or make you question your faith in humanity (ie- the Orangina Furry commercial.)

Whoa... what just happened?

2009-11-01T09:21:00.001+01:00

We were told that it is slowly catching on here in France, but it is still not that popular. But, man, Halloween was way weird yesterday.

Our friends informed us that children don't regularly dress up and that adults may throw on a costume for a party. So we knew it was going to happen but it was still surreal. We were out around the town yesterday and, in all that time, saw just one little girl dressed as a witch. The only other costumes I recall seeing were the two of the cashiers at the supermarket, one dressed as a witch and the other one simply wearing a wig. The witch theme was the most common by far, by a count of 2 to 1 over wig lady.

This got me to thinking about how Americans tell time. Sure, we have clocks and calendars and watches, but we also tend to rely on the commercial nature of our holidays. Oh, there's a whole aisle at the store dedicated to cheap Halloween costumes and another dedicated to candy: must be October (or late September)! Look, Christmas ornaments, decorations, and displays: must be November 1st!!! Hey, Easter decorations: must be March, and about time for Christians to celebrate the zombie transformation of Jesus!

But we don't have that here. At least not for Halloween. It makes me curious as to whether or not the rampant commercialism associated with other holidays will be present here as well. If not, how am I ever going to know what time of the year it is?

Well, Erika and I stayed home last night, she cooked dinner while we drank beer and watched scary movies. Drag Me To Hell was the first film on the list and it sucks. I understand what Raimi was trying to do but he failed miserably in my mind. I simply don't think you can make a campy horror film with a real budget and CGI effects. I also think his camp skills are wearing thin anyways. Erika thoroughly enjoyed it, so that's good.

Next we were going to watch the highly-acclaimed Swedish vampire film Let The Right One In (which is so highly-acclaimed that, of course, Hollywood is rushing an Americanized remake), but the version we had was done in an incredibly bad English dub, enough so that it was distracting and we simply had to stop it.

So, instead, our last movie was the ever reliable and well done 28 Days Later. I have to say, that film has aged well, and Danny Boyle is just an excellent director!!!

Technology does this just to spite me.

2009-10-30T08:21:00.002+01:00

What does one write in a blog? Why does one do it in the first place?

Well, for the first question, I assume they write whatever they want. I once thought that, once you started a blog, you were kind of required to update it on a daily basis. But then when it came time to write something new I said to myself: screw it, I've got nothing to say right now. This is the good thing about not doing a comic strip. People really tend to expect regular updates with comic strips (almost on a daily basis). Blogs... not so much.

For the second question, I think I kind of answered that in the first post ever.

But I can say this: Technology seems to be trying its best to spite me. It all boils down to localization on the web. When we first moved here, all of my commonly used websites such as Monster, Google, and (yes) Blogspot decided to immediately sense that I was in another country and localize themselves by changing to the French language. Let me tell you this, if you don't know French yet, changing them back to English isn't very easy.

Furthermore some sites, like the aforementioned Monster, think they know what I want more than I do. You see, whenever I type in: www.monster.com I am automatically redirected to www.monster.fr which is, you guessed it, all in French. No matter how I try to connect some little demon lurking in the interwebs sees that I am in France and redirects me to the French version of the site I want to visit.

I'm sure there is something I can do with my browser's settings to stop this from happening, but if I did that already, I wouldn't have had anything to write about.

Beware the dreadlock John Travolta

2009-10-27T16:18:00.000+01:00

Proof that the French ain't so bad.

France fines Church of Scientology for Fraud

Let's light this candle!

2009-10-27T15:27:00.001+01:00

So, my brother-in-law chatted me through Gmail to say they were showing the Ares 1-X rocket on launch on NASAtv. Well, weather is not permitting, and chances are I'm going to be on my way to French class well before this thing gets launched.

Anyhow, this is my blog. In case you haven't been made aware, my wife Erika and I recently moved to Lyon, France. She has a post-doc position at the university, and I can't find a job (probably because I don't speak French). Sadly, my unemployment woes have also made me a little stir-crazy and it has been suggested that I decompress by either A) Making a comic-strip detailing my 'fish out of water' experiences, or B) write a blog about my 'fish out of water' experiences.

While option A certainly takes advantage of my prodigious art skills, the problem is that I don't have any of my art supplies. I know that many people would say that a true artist makes do with what they have at hand, but I'm a spoiled brat and need my toys. And we're kind of poor right now so I can't purchase any. Instead, I've decided to practice my wordsmith skills on a semi-regular basis by writing this blog. With that being said, this is not to say that a strip or two won't make it into these blogs at some point or another. Just don't get too anxious to see one.

So, on that note- this is my blog, which I have appropriately titled 'Americans Abroad' because that is exactly what we are. This will probably be an exposition about culture shock and all the little things that we just don't get about our European neighbors.

However, for now, I should get ready for my French class (at least I am trying to learn). Bonus points to whomever can guess where I got the name for my blog.