photos!!!

ok i realized that you CAN in fact still share facebook photos so here are the most recent
for you non-facebook users (ie. people with real lives):

http://uga.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131001&l=bf1e3&id=4923654

http://uga.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131007&l=384d8&id=4923654

I have a lot more i want to upload but as im limited to public computers for the moment i dotn really have te chance so be patient with me!!!

Ma nouvelle adresse...

no time for an update now...internet café...paying for time...flat broke and annoying keyboard.
but quickly for everyone my new address is below. I should have internet within 3 weeks. yeah it takes 3 freakin weeks in france to get adsl set up; even though they charge you immediately for the subscription:::blag. hope to be around more often by the end of the year.. hope everyone has a great thanksgiving; ill be celebrating it teaching class since it doesnt exist here but the students are really interested to learn about it even though they find the concept of pumpkin pie disgusting. im gonna try and find the ingrediants and make them one to show them its the best dessert on earth... also with my new internet subscription i can call fixed phone lines in the us for free so you should literally be "hearing" from me by the end of the year... bye everyone!!


Patrick Ladue
15 rue de l'Oiseau
Résidence St. Pierre, Bâtiment A
03000 Moulins, France

Le bordel qui est France Télécom

So yesterday i waited in line two freakin hours in order to open my phone line so i can get adsl with SOMEONE else...avoiding france télécom as much as possible. so anyway everyone in there was pissed off needless to say because there were only two workstations out of 7 open... so the lady finally calls my number around 615 and tells me she cant do it because she cant call the service technician after 6pm.... so i have to go back today...freakin awesome...ça me fait chier...in other news Im starting my move tonight i already have the keys, signed the lease and they delivered my sofabed this morning....freakin awesome!!! anyway bye.

Sorry for the wait!

hey everyone...sorry for the long time since my last post...been busy teaching full time (finally!) which is actually already starting to go a lot better than i expected. Today was a good day, it was my first day at my second school which went much better than the first day at my other school. Im much more used to the kids now. I went to clermont this weekend for my medical visit which went smoothly so i should have my carte de sejour within a couple of weeks so i can start getting reimborsed for my rent. I finally got paid for the first time last week! that was nice because i was starting to run a little low. I ended up staying in clermont all week and going out some with the assistants there...I was truly almost dead this past weekend. Thursday night was this annual Soirée d'étudiants here in Moulins. Its this huge party for the whle department of allier (which is kinda like a county, but a bit bigger) so they took this convention type center and basically turned it into a huge discotheque which was open till 5am. I didnt want to go because i was already tired cause i hadnt slept much the night before but lizette talked me into it...promising me we'd only stay like an hour...should have known that wouldnt happen. It must be noted that my train left for clermont ferrand the next morning at 7h13.... So anyway, i ended up going to bed at 4h45 and got up at 6h00 to catch my train...so thats one hour of sleep. missed my train, had to change my ticket, so i was late, had to RUN to the doctors place from the train station, then walk to the other side of clermont (5-6km) for the xray of my lungs (they are all worried about tuberculosis...cant say that i understand why) anyway so after that i met up with some other assistants and was completely exhausted but i didnt nap or anything because i didnt have anywhere to stay...just drakn a lot of coffee...so that night we went out and i was up till about 430 again and got up at 9am on saturday, hung around for the day, then went home around 8pm....also didnt know that nov 11 was a holiday in france for the end of the first world war so there were no trains on saturday had to take a bus so it took me 2 hours to get home instead of one. Got home and was supposed to go La Gloria the other italian restaurant for the birthday of the owner, Serafino but i went and told them i was too tired lol, so now im just now recovering from all that.

Been keeping up with the elections here too, I could almost say its talked about more here than in the USA, its a pretty big deal. I really wont get into the results much more than to just say that the French are very aware of American politics. I guess they have to care though because what we do affects everyone. itll be interesting to see if anything can get done with a democratic congress and a republican president.

I recently found out that on the channel CNN international which i have in my room, but wont have right away at my new apartment :( there is the Daily Show Internation edition which is awesome because I was really missing some john stewart....Here it is your international moment of zen lol...

I go today to sign papers for my new apartment and i move this weekend. im hoping that I can get the process started for the internet connetion because it can take up to 3 weeks... The problem is that before in france, France Télécom had a monopoly over all phone service but in the last 5 years or so i think, it was opened to other companies...so now france telecom is the most expensive but if you want to use someone else for phone or internet they make you wait because the other companies have to get permission to use the equipment of france telecom...its stupid too because all it is is someone flipping a switch somewhere to turn the phone on and then set up the line for adsl, they dont even have to come to the apartment... anyway sorry this update wasnt too long, i wanted to write in more detail but i dont have much time right now because i have to go meet the owner of the apartment. also i bought a phone card to call some of you but the freakin thing doesnt work...I called the customer service and all she could tell me was to wait 48 hours and try again....anyway here is a small list of what im listening to these days...


Club Music
David Vendetta - Love to Love You Baby
David Guetta vs. The Egg - Love don't let me go
Fedde La Grande - Put Your Hands Up For Detroit
Moby et Mylene Farmer - Crier la Vie
Supermode - Tell Me Why
Tom Snare - Philosophy

Other Music
Evanescence - The Open Door (album)
Faf Le Rage - Pas Le Temps (Prison Break)
(i must note here that the french are NUTS about the show prison break...)this is the french theme song for the show...
Faudel - Mon Pays
Gérald De Palmas - Un Homme Sans Racines (album but mainly Elle Habite Ici)
Grand Corps Malade - Midi 20 (download Toucher L'instant and Les Voyages en Train)
Julieta Venegas - Sí (album but mainly Lento and Andar Conmigo)
Kyo - Le Chemin (album)
Olivia Ruiz - J'traine des pieds
Pleymo - Rock (album, French hardcore music...didnt think it existed)
Tété - Le Sacre des Lemmings (very good album, download Fils de Cham also La Relance) this is the best; you must download this album!!!

Enfin! Je déménage!

Finally, I'm moving!!! This will be a short post because its 930 on a saturday night and i think im going to go meet the other assistants or maybe Toni and Trésor later to see whats going on tonight. Just wanted to say that YES I found a studio. I'm going to take the first one I looked at because it was the perfect size and in a perfect location just outside of downtown but i can still walk to my schools... Maybe...it is already freakin cold here...-5C this morning... which is 23F. Which is why Im so ready to move. Its no problem to take a bus during the day from downtown (my new apartment) to the schools, but now when i go out at night, i have to walk back home 30 minutes in the freezing cold because the buses stop at 8pm. I move November 20th. Everything fell into place nicely actually. This is the first studio i went to see which was disgusting, but the owners are really nice and have hired a company to clean it. Also they are putting some new furniture in there. A "clique-claque" (click-clack) i LOVE this word..basically a fouton...A couch that also serves as a bed. lol. And the fact that im moving the 20th is perfect, because i went to the CAF office, where they were extremely helpful...I should have done my dossier myself to begin with but the woman here at the foyer insisted on doing it, and taking 3 freaking weeks to do what would have taken me 5 minutes. Annnnnnyway... :) I went to the office and she told me to still recieve the rent aid for my time here at the foyer i have to be here 2 months...well i arrived september 21, so i will have been here exactly 2 months ;) also with the fact that i was a student last year with no real income, and the fact that im under 25 and recieving such little pay, When i take the studio, the CAF will pay 100% of my rent (Sometimes...you just gotta love socialism :) (supposedly 100% ...time will tell on that one). All that will be left for me is electricity which is gonna be pretty high during the winter because i have an electric radiator as opposed to gas :( also cell phone, internet, food, etc. The only drawback is that I have to get my Titre de Séjour for my passport first, which could still take a month or two... so for right now i have to pay the rent, but later i will receive a fat wad of cash paying all the previous months as well...hopefully i will get that by christmas vacation so i can hit up new years in paris as planned...But i have my medical visit in clermont ferrand this friday the 10th so i think thats the last thing i need to do to get the titre de sejour, but knowing france it could still take a month after that. I think I'm going to go ahead and spend next weekend in clermont since i will have already bought a train ticket to go there for the medical visit. ummm im sure im forgetting a lot of stuff, but ill leave it at that..hopefully i will be on more...i DEFINATELY will be updating more once i get into my studio and have a stable internet connection. Also did i mention france is number 2 in broadband after north korea....14 euros here for a 20megabit connection! 20 megabits!!!! w00t!

finally...what should have been 10/27/06

Im on vacation right now and while everyone else is traveling or whatnot, im staying here saving money looking for an apartment. Ive seen 2 furnished so far but they were both disgusting and the 2nd one was way too small, there wasnt even a closet to put my clothes in! I think i might take the first one but first i gotta find out if i can get the CAF which is the government aid for my rent, im pretty sure im eligible. I get it here at the crappy foyer tower... By the way, i wanna say that the logo for this place has little dots which are "Hébergement, Formation, Restauration, Réinsertion sociale, Hébergement d'urgence" which means "lodging, ummm formation is like the transation from school to work, i.e. writing resumes and internships and whatnot, restauration just means there is a restaurant, you can eat here; and now the scary part... "reinsertion sociale" which is exactly what it looks like social re-insertion which only makes me think of one thing....Prison... and also "hebergement d'urgence" means Emergency lodging. Plus the fact that there IS a prison right up the road from here AND the fact that there are some pretty rough looking people living in this place... Im so ready to get out of here... Also the first apartment i looked at was PERFECT for my needs and a good location, but it was completely filthy, but i looked through it with the owner and he didnt know it was like that, because the last guy who was there said he left it clean and apparently he hadnt been to look yet. it was GROSS!!! But he was very embarrassed about it and said he would have it cleaned immediately (which in french could mean....months lol) and he was also gonna put some new furniture in it. But its in a good location very close to downtown but still walking distance to 2 of my 3 schools. anyway i wasnt really intending on writing a post right now because i dont really have time.
I will keep you updated though...Im on vacation right now until nov 7th... I only worked about 3 real days and then i got 13 days of vacation...cant complain... "on ne peut pas se plaindre!" I think i am going to visit some local stuff next week...go visit some castles in the region and possibly go spend a couple of days in clermont ferrand... anyway bye all and PLEASE email me! keep in touch! i love nothing more than opening up a full inbox! And I will try to do better as well about emailing you all and keeping in touch, its just hard not having internet access in my room now...it hasnt worked in over a week now, ive just given up pretty much...

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Also last night I went back to "Les Murs Ont Des Oreilles" (the walls have ears) for the soirée bouef where everyone plays music together and not only did i play drums the majority of the night, I sang too! lol, The people playing at the time started playing "Welcome to Paradise" by Green Day, and i couldnt resist, so i jumped up and sang it all lol, then we went right into "She" by green day. Some of the girls took pictures so I will try to get those pics at some point and post them on here...I think the time change is tonight which all the discotheques are advertising for, because they get to stay open an extra hour its "The 25th Hour" as charlie folie's advertises, so i assume we will all go out tonight. Im starting to eat tuna and pasta all the time and im not really drinking much when we go out because im still waiting on my first salary which i dont really know when ill get it or if i even will before the end of november. I requested the advance but i have no way of knowing if all the paperwork went through or not.

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Hey everyone, I can't remember what pictures ive posted links to on here and which ones i havent so ill just put them all up from newest to oldest. Anyone with facebook can access these already but I know there are some of you out there without facebook... anyway here they are!

WELL @E#R?I@"o38h/w2OIEF@o3h923rf I hate facebook...Now i see they have decided to remove the ability to share photos with non facebook users...isnt that special...I'll see what i can do and get back to you...this REALLY annoys me...that stupid website changes formats about 13 times a week..its impossible to keep up with it...