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...

Je vous jure que je suis toujours vivant!!

SORRY EVERYONE!!! I know its been forever since I've posted and I have three excuses, and you can take 'em or leave 'em... I've been real busy hanging out with people, getting prepaded to start teaching, or just knockin around town, 2.) I've been really tired a lot from all the walking i'm doing here or just the weird schedule of staying up till 3 one night and getting up at 11 or 12, then going to bed at 10 the next night to get up at 6am to teach. My schedule is kinda weird here lol, because i have to get up to teach early during the week, but on the weekend the soirée doesn't start until about 11 and goes till 4-6am... and finally the main reason i havent updated very often, MY INTERNET CONNECTION IS GARBAGE or as I hear from the brits here always, Rubbish lol... by the way the title of this post is "I swear to you all, I am still alive!" anyway, this morning i taught for the first time all by myself four classes back to back.. Lets just say that I have a lot to learn about how to teach children!! I spend the past 3 days in Clermont-Ferrand 100km away at the stage d'accueil which was like a meet-and-greet/ orientation session for all the assistants in the region. Although I received a good bit of instruction and training on how to teach the children, all the teachers were using tons of visual aids (flash cards, posters, storybooks, etc.) which I can't seem to get my hands on anything here in Moulins though I do have some flash cards. Another thing is that I get extremely nervous in front of the kids and I definitely didn't spend enough time preparing my lessons for today, but I was exhausted by the time I got home from clermont-ferrand last night so I didn't have much time to spend getting ready. I only have one day of classes with the same students as today then I won't teach again until after the Toussaints holiday which goes from Oct 24 - Nov 6. So i will have about a week and a half to start preparing my "real" lessons. Today was more of an introduction and basic stuff "Hello my name is Pierre, What's your name?" which i will have to probably do several more times. They told us at the stage that each lesson should be 10% new material and 90% review, so apparantly teaching a language to young children is a very slow process. Add the fact that most of my classes i only have one 45minute session a week, I don't see how they will learn much more than "hello my name is" over the next 9 months. Especially with the 8 weeks of vacation spread throughout the year. I am currently looking for an apartment here in Moulins, because I know now there is NO WAY i can stay in this foyer all year. The room is too small, the people here arent too friendly, its WAY too far from town (though two of my schools are right next door) its in the ugliest poorest quarter of moulins, it costs too much, and i cant cook. Currently I am spending almost all of my money paying for 2 meals a day either in the restaurant here (€6.35) or somewhere else (€ 5-10) Even a big mac meal at mcdonalds is € 6 which is absurd since thats twice as much as you would pay in the US when you convert the euros... And I find that Moulins is much more expensive than other parts of france...even bigger cities. its cheaper in Clermont-Ferrand and Montpelier than Moulins, which i dont understand at all. Rent is high here, food is expensive..i cant get a haircut for less than €18 which is rediculous because in montpellier i found a barber for €9. I doubt Euros have inflated that much in two years... So Im looking to share an apartment with the Mexican assistant, Lorenzo Recio. Then we can split all the bills and he can cook me some great mexican food, and i will cook him....ummm....pasta, vegetables, and hamburgers. I keep getting the question about american cuisine and im like...umm aside from a few casseroles and stuff down south, "american food" doesnt exist... As far as the upcoming vacations, I don't think I'm going to do anything because I need to prepare to start teaching plus I can't really spend any money right now. I might go back and spend a couple of days in clermont ferrand as some of the assistants there told me I could come stay with them. They are so lucky, Clermont is AMAZING with two universities, tons of young people, libraries and great shopping every where (for example a four-story FNAC, which is kinda like best buy but better, more books and media, less hardware stuff)

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So as far as what I've been doing lately, really im still trying to get settled in still...there is constantly something I still need to buy so I'm shopping a lot but trying not to spend too many Euros. My birthday was fun, I hung out with Toni and some of his friends, and all the assistants invited me to this little bar where they had a cake and stuff, which was really nice considering we had all just met. As far as the assistants are concerned we are all getting along GREAT! We definately have a range of personalities and the chemistry is awesome within the group. Its really a shame that we arent all lodged at lycee banville. Natalie (germany), Santiago (argentina), Lizette (american), Jennifer (canadian), and Aimee (scottish) all live at the Lycee Banville. Jan (germany) just found a studio so he lives downtown alone, and the last two of us, me and Lorenzo (mexico)still live in the foyer but we both hate it...we are looking for a furnished apartment which is not easy or cheap here in moulins. Also im worried that if we live together we wont be able to get the CAF which is the program where the government subsidizes your rent, for example if i stay here, i will only end up paying about € 110 of the €300 rent (For the studio) or € 260 for the room. Also the lycee is real uppity about us coming to visit during the week because there are students who live there during the week too and apparantly there was an incident with some foreign students last year, bringing like 30 people into the lycée, throwing a party, and i think some girls ended up running around the campus naked and screaming at 3am, so now they are kinda uptight about us coming in, even though its just two of us...but what is cool is during the weekend, no one is there, not even the surveillant. I will explain the lay out, a lycee is a usually fenced in compound with several buildings with classrooms, living facilities, a cafeteria and administrative offices. I will try to take some pictures to show you, but there is one main door that must be opened with a key or by the guy at the reception. but on the weekends, the language assistants are the only people in the whole compound, so we usually get together and cook dinner together in the kitchenette and just hang out, watch a dvd, go out together, or whatever. Its actually quite fun. it makes me wish i lived there, or at least within walking distance.

anyway i have tons more i want to say, but im going to take a nap...plus my internet just croaked so i dont even know if I will be able to post this...wish me luck!

Le français parlé

Ok, this next post might seem a bit...égoïste but I'm going to write it anyway just because we all like to toot our own horns from time to time. I cannot believe how well I've done with speaking french since I've gotten here. Its so strange, I was curious before I left if I would just slip back into the culture in language and not experience much culture shock since I've already spent 3 months in France at a time before. Well there is still a bit of shock as far as the culture itself, but I think thats because Moulins is a much more French town than Montpellier was. Montpellier was a university town situated on the coast of the Mediterrenean with a lot of foreigners and students of my same age group, so the town has less of a french feeling, and its easier for foreigners to cope with the difference because one doesn't have to search very far to find someone who speaks your language, or even from the United States. But as far as Moulins is concerned, I haven't met any foreigners other than the other English assistant from El Paso. But concerning the language, I have ever surprised myself. Even on the flight from Atlanta - Paris, I sat next to a young french guy and we spoke a lot on the way here, and he couldn't believe an American could speak french so well. And in the taxi from Clermont-Ferrand airport to the train station, the driver thought I was from Québec. He thought I was a native french speaker! Here in Moulins too I have had several people comment on me not having a strong english accent, and some of them will even talk to me for 2 or 3 minutes before asking me where I'm from as if they just realized I wasn't French. And even those that do notice keep asking me what part of Great Britain I'm from. Apparantly its usually quite obvious when an American speaks french, I assume its because the vowels in Great Britain are closer to the vowels in French, and not so open and rounded and dipthongized as they are in most American dialects. I had dinner with Madme Lecole and her daughter sunday night, and her parents came over for a while to visit. Her father told me I was a liar and I wasn't an American, lol. He called me "un français qui comoufle comme un américain" which means a Frenchman in American camouflage lol. As far as the French accent itself here in Moulins, I like it a lot. It is a very very general accent, and to me it really sounds like basic french. It might have the smallest tinge of the bizarre nasal vowels that there was in Montpellier, but only in certain speakers, and in certain words. These speakers are probably native to southern France anyway. All in all, its an accent I would much rather adapt as my own than the accent in Montpellier, which makes me sound like a plouc (redneck).

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Today was an interesting day. I had my first meeting at l'inspection académique which is like the board of education that administers all the primary schools here in Moulins and the surrounding areas. (I must not that when I say primary school, it refers more to the english elementary school. The school system here is as follows; école maternelle [maternal school] is free but not obligatory from ages 2-5, and is required at age 6. School is compulsory in France from ages 6-16. École primaire [primary school] starts at age 6 and goes to age 11. Then the collège [middle school] begins which is age 11 to 15. Then begins the lycée which is like high school though age 18. Students are required to complete at least one year of Lycée to age 16.) Whew! Just thought I'd get that out of the way! Anyway at the meeting this morning I met with several professors of English and German from the area who were mostly older French women or English or German men or women; of course I was the only American present. But they all seemed very nice and willing to help me with how to prepare lessons and what not. As far as the job itself I am somewhat scared because there was a lot of talk concerning discipline and keeping the kids attention. I also learned that I will not be allowed to speak any French while teaching, which I think is actually going to make the job harder rather than easier. But alas, on verra! We will see! Anyway It's midnight and although I don't have anything extremely pressing tomorrow to do, I would like to get up in time to eat breakfast which ends at 7h45! I think I'll put a movie on and crawl into bed. Thursday morning I go to visit the schools I will be teaching in...I'm pretty excited to have any opportunity to meet more people here in Moulins. The fact that it is a smaller town and most people here already know each other is making it a bit more difficult to meet people at first, but I think after some time, it will make it easier to meet more people as my social network grows more. I mean, it hasn't even been a week yet; I shouldn't expect to know everyone in the city yet. It just gets lonely in this little room sometimes, and especially when I'm out walking and everyone else is walking in a group and I'm alone. Anyway, Good night everyone and you will hear from me again soon! Bonne nuit à tous!

I Love getting shafted...

So today I went the the Préfecture to start the process of getting my carte de sejour. Everything went very smoothly, I had all the necessary documents except for 4 photos d'identité; which was a problem easily solved by walking to Monoprix and taking four pictures in a photo booth. Then I turned everything in and recieved my récipasse which is basically a reciept valid for 3 months showing that I've applied for the carte de longue sejour. When I was leaving the guichet (booth) I saw that Lizette from El Paso was waiting to apply for her carte as well. So I waited on her to finish and we walked downtown and ate at a nice chinese resaturant which was delicious except it cost me €11... She is an American citizen but of Mexican decent, so we spoke Spanish at lunch. I am happy about this because I was very worried I was going to forget all my Spanish while i was here, and since she is the only other American assistant in Moulins, I imagine we will probably hang out a good bit. After that since I had my récipasse for the carte de longue sejour, it was now possible for me to open a bank account. This is where the shafting begins. Actually I got a great deal on the account itself. I opened an account at Crédit Agricole Centre-France which is a widely used popular bank throughout France, and my debit card will be valid all over France and most of Europe. There are CA atm's all over France. Normally it costs money to maintain a bank account in France, anywhere between €2-4 a month. Also it usually costs €15 for the carte bancaire but I opened a Compte Mozaïc which is only for those between 18 and 25 years old, where I get my checks and bank card for free, and the account is free for the first 3 months and only €1.80 per month after that. How I got shafted was in the exchange rate for my travelers' checks. This morning I looked up the exchange rate online and it was €1 = 1.279...well at the bank the best they could give me was 1.349...Its not a massive difference but I would prefer to keep my money rather than watching it fall into the void of nothingness, lol. Not to mention a 6 euro fee just for accepting the travelers' cheques...thanks american embassy for telling me that travellers' cheques would be the best way to avoid fees... I should have just taken cash from an ATM with my American debit card and given them that to start the account, i would have gotten away with a better exchange rate probably, but only time will tell, when my reciepts start rolling in from my debit card transactions and I can calculate the exchange rate on those... anyway enough financial talk. Now I have to go and deal with more paper work and apply for the CAF (Caisse d'Allocations Familiales Which is the government program for subsidizing my rent. I now have to pay 262 euros a month, but I should be able to get about 156 back thus only owing a little over €100 a month which will help greatly seeing as my monthly income after taxes is only going to be €760. kbye. Will update more later, New pictures of my walk downtown and downtown Moulins here.

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