From Right Here

Well people…vacation is so, so, over. I’m thinking that it would be impossible to go through life and not spend a few months living abroad again. If you’re thinking of a vacation, try going to a language school like I did - spend an extra few hundred dollars, go with a friend or by yourself, and meet tons of great people and get more out of your experience.

For all you Americans out there that are afraid to travel- there’s a whole other world that exists beyond our borders. I know it seems crazy, but it’s true. And people out there are not mean, and they like us…in fact, they’re obsessed. So go out there, and make some new friends.

I’m back in New York and I’ve found myself a job. Yes, even in the economy, people are still partying and drinking, new restaurants are opening every day, and there is still work out there for people who are not picky.

But I, dear friends, will no longer be blogging. I don’t want to blog about my life…I just want to live it. And I’m ready now, more than ever.

It was fun blogging about my experience abroad and I thank you so much for sharing it with me. I wish I could have shared a lot more, but right now…do a little digging and you will find a wealth of other blogs out there. Try www.wordpress.com or www.technorati.com - Look into the “tags” section and you will find blogs about anything and everything, and if I find some good ones, I will occasionally link to them here.

For now - try reading www.stillgoodnews.com - This is a site I have with a couple of friends where we find all the quirky, positive and hopeful news out there (Yes, there is still some good news out there!). It’s everything from - ‘re-using old subway cars as coral reefs’, to ‘why watching Law & Order makes you hungry.”

http://www.stillgoodnews.com/?p=122

If anyone would like to take over this site and write about your own adventure- please contact me at channon(’AT’ symbol)fromrighthere.com!

Thank you for reading!

My vacation of a lifetime is now over. I’m no longer in France, I’m no longer dating french guys with  motorcycles. I’m no longer eating baguettes and frommage-frais on a daily basis. I miss my vacation, but honestly- I knew it was only temporary. I’ve got to grow up sometime. It’s great to see friends again, and to jump back into living the high-life in New York City.

I’m back in NYC and all my friends are scaring the shit out of me with all this economy-crise stuff. I’m very happy about Obama…but the magic he’ll try and pull out of his hat is a little too early for all the job-hunting I’ll have to do. More on that to come…

One thing I will NOT go back to is a daily-grind that excludes doing the stuff I want to do — like writing. I’m attempting to write for 3 hours every day except Saturday - blogs/short stories/the outline stage of a novel. I’ll keep you up on my progress.

I started on Wednesday and so far - Week 1 - I got a 3 1/2 out of 4. One day, the mess I created in my mom’s living room just made me crazy and I cleaned. (cleaning along with cooking - will be my nemesis…I can already see it now… Clean room….Packed fridge…and nothing else getting done.)

To make up for my serious lack of writing in the past few weeks, check out “Slow Like Honey” a super-fun blog about baking, j-crew catalog shopping, and fiona apple. This is such a sweet and successful blog, and author Amanda updates all the time-

http://slowlikehoney.net

Thanks for the Fiona Apple link, Amanda! This really takes me back.

www.cheriefm.fr

Oh CherieFM, Cherie FM…

Only you can play Phil Collins and George Micheal and Carla Bruni and James Blunt and Daniel Pewter and all those spanish guys that sing from the top of their lungs and you can TELL are sexy just from hearing it…only you, Cherie FM can make it all seem like it’s supposed to go together.

CherieFM - Love Songs from France. You may not be adored by all those techno-kids over here, but you got me-(but if you could stop playing that ONE Colbie Callait song over and over and over, I’d appreciate it).

From the article by Phillip Pullella www.thestar.com

You can say “Ce m’est egal” which means, “I don’t care”. Or you can say “Ce n’importe pas” which means “It doesn’t matter” or my favorite and which you say whenever someone says “Sorry” -

“C’est pas grave”

The pope was here a few days ago, and no one I know has even mentioned it. Ce n’importe pas. I suppose if we were in Paris, we might have had more long conversations. But like many countries, France is place where fewer and fewer people go to church. Once the “daughter” of Rome, France has a long history of staunch catholicism - remember that whole story about Joan of Arc? (you didn’t get it either, right?….why England owned France…HUH?I know it’s confusing - try this link - www.wikipedia.org).

Nowadays, I don’t know anyone that goes to church, and you can often visit beautiful, majestic cathedrals that are barely half full on Sunday mornings. But I can’t say that people here aren’t “spiritual”…many of the people I’ve met do believe in God, and the presence of religion is “partout” all around.

In Montpellier you’ll find many many choral groups and even a baptist church or two.

The church youth-groups are in full swing here, and I’ve seen many student groups singing songs in the park and gathering for spiritual picnics.

On a bizarre and rather scary note, you’ll also find a lot of young people from Utah and Nevada. They come over for a few months in large groups, learn french in master classes and then spend the remainder of their time standing on corners and talking to young french people, trying to turn them on to the Mormon faith or something…..

I thought I’d escaped the “Holy Rolling” when I left New York, but every morning on my way to the tram, I smile at the old men in their ties and suits handing out “Good News” pamphlets  - I smile and run….

For many people here, perhaps it’s not that people have lost Faith in God…it’s that they’ve lost faith in the Catholic Church. I even have a friend from Italy, who says people their are less and less apt to attend mass and are tired of the corruption that has plagued the Vatican both recently and in the past…oh…thousand years or so.

In France, one reason for their disillusion may be that Pope Benedict still refuses to recognize divorce and believes that any union created outside the church is “null and void”. Here in France, they use a different type of civil union called a “Pacte Civil de Solidarite” - which is used by homosexual and hetero-sexual couples alike. It’s far less complicated than a regular marriage license and it offers protection to couples who choose to live together without the exorbitant costs and rituals associated with regular marriages.

The french government tries to keep up with the times…and The Roman Catholic Church, under Pope Benedict (now 81 years old) isn’t even attempting. Maybe that’s one of the reasons, 700 people gathered along with la Fédération anarchiste to offer up a good old french “manifestation” aka PROTEST which the media ignored.

For that original article - go to the UK’s http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/499266

For the protest, try -

My breakfast - coffee, cheese, baguette, french magazine with dictionary

I just came across this posting from http://fromtheartofit.wordpress.com . It’s about social networking and perhaps, the way it involves us even deeper into our friends’ lives. Even if we live close to them, we know far more than we would had we just to rely on conversations over coffee or quick snippets over emails.

I don’t like to think too deeply about technology, but since I’ve been away from life in NYC and my friends and family in the US for the past 4 months, it’s strange to me that I don’t feel so far away as I’d thought. I know all the barbecues my friends go to, where my roommate’s band is playing, who’s going on vacation, who’s sick of their job, who’s spending all their time on the internet at work again…. And let’s face it. SOmetimes it’s TOO much…Sometimes you see things you don’t want to see. But there are more good things than bad I think. There are people I’ve met at my Odyssea Language school here in Montpellier (and many people in general) that I may see maybe only once more in my entire life. But I am forever connected to them on Facebook. If I find myself in Barcelona, or Italy or Switzerland or Germany or Taiwan, I’ll send them a note so we can hang out again, and it will make those places I visit that much better. I never have to worry about losing their number or email, and I’ll always have the photos.

But for my american friends, I have to say that I would much rather hear about their life in real conversation in real time. BUt it’s just not possible and I knew that before I came here. And this internet connection thing, seeing as it’s all that I have, really isn’t so terrible.

My life is something that, yes, I live somewhere else, but that in-fact exists in a way still in New York. When I moved here, I thought I’d be moving far away, that I’d be leaving something behind…but behind what..it’s still there isn’t it?

In Montpellier, I’ve found myself surrounded by so many people for whom, living abroad for a little while, is just absolutely normal. In fact, the world has just become a lot smaller. I don’t just live in NYC anymore, I live in a much larger community. University students in Europe rarely finish school in only 4 years. Anyone taking a few language classes finds it rather customary to travel to the UK to work in a pub for a few months, or go to Barcelona for a semester to study Spanish. France is chocker-block full of Germans, Germans, Germans, who come here in droves to study French (their english is already presque parfait).

It’s only us in the USA, who think that crossing the ocean is like boarding a space ship for Mars. There were too many people who, when I told them I was living abroad for a few months, looked at me and wished they did the same. So, what? Do it already?! I’m almost 30 years old. I no longer have a career, and I have barely real savings (okay that does kind of suck, but it’s VERY french, oh la la :), but what would I have done if I hadn’t moved here? I would have gone on thinking that the grass is always greener wherever I am not. And that is NOT true. The world is the same everywhere, and NYC is pretty freakin’ sweet, so I’m now finally happy to go back.

It’s just the friends that make the places you live different. The friends and the language…

In France, they use social networking slightly differently. If you don’t have a car, you can try www.covoiterage.com - where you can hitch a ride with a stranger for an addition of a couple of euros for gas. If you want to go to a club and none of your friends are up for it, it is altogether normal to make a little posting on an internet site advertising your desire to go out. You end up finding like-minded people who will meet you at the club so you don’t have to be alone.

Of course, I’m sure this is followed by all kinds of things like buying drugs or having one-night stands. But in France, everyone’s just kind of all in the same community anyway. This is just like Online Dating on Speed. (Don’t worry mom, I won’t be trying it).