BRRRR!

So im happy to say that winter has finally arrived here in Moulins. I have two more days before Christmas break! IM SO READY FOR A BREAK!!! I need a minute without having to deal with screaming kids. They are great and full of heart, but it shows that they need a break just as much as I do...they have been a handful this week. This past week its been around -5C in the mornings which is around 23F. in the afternoons its only getting up to 2C which is 35F. I knew it was gonna happen like that all at once because everyone kept saying they'd never seen Moulins so warm in November, then all of a sudden BAM, Freezing! anyway, Im gonna go to bed now, but i'll be back around mes potes.... Bonne Nuit est Bonne Vacances, Joyeux Noël, et Bonne Année à tout le monde!

My Crib

Finally, as promised, I was un-lazy enough to tidy up just a bit and post some photos of my new studio.... and Here they are!!

Photos from my schools.

So far I've only taken photos at one school, but I will post photos from the other 2 as the week continues. Except for Les Champins because my class is cancelled thursday afternoon so It will have to wait until after Christmas Break.

My Job! My students and schools.

talk to you all again soon! A lot of you heard from me last night, those who didn't probably will soon. Like I said, leave me a facebook message or email at elklips@gmail.com with your phone numbers! Free calls to the USA people, FREE!!

YAY FOR BROADBAND!!!

OK! So i don't want to say it was worth the wait, because i shouldn't have had to wait a whole month BUT!!! My broadband now works and yes....it was worth the wait...averaging about 4megabit download (~500 kb/sec) and up to 8megabit (one megabyte per second...meaning an mp3 in 3-5 seconds and cd's worth of data (700mb) in less than 12 minutes. ok sorry...the nerd is happy...let him be happy. Even my upload is one megabit! ok so, also the phone works GREAT! I have unlimited FREE calls to the US, Canada, and 25 other countries including all the european union so, if u want me to call u, leave ur number either here or on facebook or email me and you shall be summoned. So i dont really have time to write a huge post now because i want to upload some more pics and make some phone calls but here are the pics I've uploaded so far, And be sure to revisit because I haven't added all the descriptions yet.

Clermont-Ferrand II -- Various Clermont Photos (with a couple Moulins shoved in)

Clermont-Ferrand III

Joyeux Noël de Moulins et Clermont-Ferrand

Tété

Le Reste....La Fin de L'Année 2006

check back often on this last on as I will be adding more photos (probably tomorrow, I should have time)

Love you guys and I should be in touch more from now on!! Bye!

Updates! Updates! Updates!

Sorry its been FOREVER guys i gotta do better, ive just been busy and i know thats no excuse but i just really dont sit down at my computer very often, mostly because having only dial up internet makes me wanna off myself with a bazooka blast to the colon... anyway, still waiting on my ADSL which could be AFTER christmas now....blaggle...at least i have dial up though... So seriously though im sorry and i will update more often... oh and by the way...Neuf Télécom says they wont be performing the dégroupage of my number from France Télécom until the 25th of décembre. So where as they told me the maximum delay would be 21 days, i put in my command for the dégroupage on the 20th... so that makes more than a month...blarg what can i do?? So where to begin?!? I've been going to Clermont-Ferrand every weekend now for a month straight...all the assistants there are a blast and theres a lot more to do, but im definately staying in Moulins this weekend because its the birthday of Lizette and Trésor. We´re all gonna go out to eat at trésor's restaurant, La Gloria, then probably go to the small nightclub Le Pressoir here in Moulins. So the freaking SNCF is worse than France Télécom...its almost two weeks now that they've been en grève which means on strike... I swear people here just quit working if ANYTHING goes wrong...so SNCF is Société Nationale de Chemins de Fer which is National Railroad Company. It surprises me that there aren't more trains in the USA because here it can be cheaper and quicker than taking a car. It costs me €7.40 to go back and forth between Clermont-Ferrand and Moulins and it takes about one hour and ten minutes. but normally its 14.80 i get the discount because of my 12-25 card which gives discounts to young people. so weekend before last i RAN to the train station to catch my train only to find out that they were on strike, so a friend of mine who works as a librarian in moulins 4 days a week but lives in clermont, Sandie, let me crash at her place and we took the train out monday morning. apparantly there were some disgruntled employees who had laid down onthe railroad tracks to prevent even the trains that should have still been operating from departing...and already its one train out of 3 that is running, and the grève is STILL going on right now...which leads me to my next note of interest!!!!! PARIS!!!!! Yes you are all jealous right now because I, Patrick Ladue, will be spending december 31st through january 4th in PARIS! Yes that is correct, I will be spending four nights (including new years eve!!!) in the fabulous 2-star resort (lol jk) Hôtel Malar. (click to see the location). Which is pretty cool because Its the same hotel i stayed in the last time I was in paris before going to montpellier so i know what to expect. Its small and quaint but located in between the Champs élysées (main strip) et the Champ de Mars (eiffel tower). just a 5 minute walk from each! Most of the other assistants are going home (to germany or Great Britain) for Christmas but I'm just gonna stay here and celebrate with Lizette and Santiago (US and Argentina) since we are too far to go home. So as far as the Christmas Decorations here in Moulins...wow....I think its not even worth the effort. I'll post pictures as soon as I get my internet but I tried to post some pics with my dialup and its just not worth it, waiting 45 minutes just for it to glitch out at the end to upload 5 pictures...just know that when i get my dsl you will have a LOT of new stuff to look at :) but contrary to Moulins, the Decorations in Clermont Ferrand are spectacular! On the main place (Place Jaude) there is a HUGE Sapin de Noël (Christmas Tree), and an even bigger Ferris Wheel...and when i say ferris wheel i dont mean some petty county fair crap, i mean a full blown Ferris Wheel...I will post one picture here, but just know that there will be a lot more soon.
So voilà, there you have it, Place de Jaude full blown Noël style... Also this past weekend I went to a Concert in Clermont Ferrand which was AWESOME considering the time I've been in France is definately the longest i've been without seeing a concert in the last four years. I went to see a French singer-songwriter named Tété (click for website) If you want to listen to some extraits, click on Tété on the bottom left of the site, Tracklisting, and then Try out Fils de Cham, Madeleine Bas de Laine, La Relance, Caroline, La Croisée des Chemins...hell the whole album is excellent. Also from another album, absolutely BEAUTIFUL is A La Faveur de L'Automne... I recommend the download to anyone interested in French, or just in good Music. but the words are truly amazing. I might also go see Grand Corps Malade which is the "Slammer." Slam is somewhat like rap, but more resembles poetry. Check out the website here, the track Les Voyages en Train is my personal favorite, he compares peoples love stories with travelling by train... and my other favorite is Toucher L'instant where he talks about poetry and writing's ability to overcome evil and pain. The visual metaphors are amazing in this song...

On a trempé notre plume dans notre envie de changer de vision
De prendre une route parallèle, comme une furtive évasion
On a trempé notre plume et est-ce vraiment une hérésie
De se dire qu'on assume et qu'on écrit de la poésie
Il existe paraît-il, un instant dans l'écriture
Qui oublie la page blanche et efface les ratures
Un véritable état second, une espèce de transe
Qui apparaît mystérieusement et s'envole en silence
Que l'on rape ou que l'on slame, on recherche ce moment
Il allume une flamme qui nous éclaire brièvement
Cette flamme est la preuve, laisse moi t'en faire une démo
Qu'il est possible de combattre le mal par les mots
C'est tout sauf une légende, on espère juste toucher l'instant
Les quelques secondes du poète qui échappent à l'espace-temps
Les moment rares et irréels que la quiétude inonde
Rouda, n'oublie jamais notre parole du bout du monde

On ressent comme une coupure dans la nuit, comme un rêve
On oublie les coups durs de la vie, comme une trêve
C'est un phénomène puissant, je ne te parle pas d'inspiration
Mais d'un souffle plus profond comme une seconde respiration
On voit et on entend l'encre devenir vivante
On goûte et on sent la saveur d'une rime errante
On touche du doigt l'instant qui nous enveloppe de sa puissance
C'est sans cesse la renaissance de l'essence même de nos cinq sens
C'est le moment où on passe de l'autre côté des paysages
On sympathise avec le vent et on tutoie les nuages
Il fait jour en pleine nuit et il fait nuit en plein jour
Profite de cet instant, il ne durera pas toujours


C'est tout sauf une légende, on espère juste toucher l'instant
Les quelques secondes du poète qui échappent à l'espace-temps
Le moment où le voile se lève et la magie s'élance
Là où j'ai croisé Souleymane au bout du sixième silence
Si on a pas atteint le Nirvana, on doit en être au seuil
Pourtant je suis simplement assis là devant ma feuille
Peut-être que cet instant n'existe que dans mon esprit
Et que je suis complètement mythomane lorsque j'écris
Mais laisse moi mon stylo, y'a pas moyen que je m'arrête
J'ai une envie d'écrire comme t'as une envie de cigarette
Et pour m'enlever ce désir je te demanderais de repasser
Car tant que je pourrais écrire je continuerai de penser
Que c'est tout sauf une légende, on espère juste toucher l'instant
Les quelques secondes du poète qui échappent à l'espace-temps
Les moments que l'on redécouvre, que l'on connaît plus ou moins
Tu l'as déjà touché Jacky, j'en suis témoin
On a trempé notre plume dans notre envie de changer de vision
De prendre une route parallèle, comme une furtive évasion
On a trempé notre plume et est-ce vraiment une hérésie
De se dire qu'on assume et qu'on écrit de la poésie.


I also love where he says J'ai une envie d'écrire comme t'as une envie de cigarette. One day im gonna translate all this stuff into english and post it on here... Definately this song though. The only reason i hesistate to go is because i dont think hes coming to clermont ferrand and also, i find it touch to pay 20 euros or more just to go watch someone talk...there isnt really much value in the "Live experience" with Grand Corps Malade. Getting back to Tété however, the concert was AMAZING the venue was the Coopérative de Mai in Clermont Ferrand where the concert hall wasn´t much bigger than the Georgia Theatre in Athens, so it was pretty intimate, which i really like, i hate huge arenas for concerts. it was great though he talked in between all the songs and had everyone laughing, and at the end he even hushed the crowd and turned off his mic and amp, and sang the last song completely acoustic which was awesome because not one person in the whole venue so much as coughed while he sang. The Song was "La Croisée des Chemins" which is one of my favorites. The guy who opened was pretty awesome. It was some guy from Australia named Jeff Lang who played slide on this dobro type instrument but it was very much NOT australian music at all. it reeked of bluegrass and had a good bit of derek trucks-ish slide action so if course i was glued. so if u get a chance, check out Jeff Lang on the internet. Also the guy couldnt speak french at all which was pretty funny when he tried to talk to the crowd. ok its official im rambling. but just to let you all know im doing really well, ive been living it up on the weekends either here in moulins, or throwing down with the assistants in clermont-ferrand. My classes are going pretty will im definately getting more used to that, and am finding that its not too terribly difficult. There are still moments when i wanna rip out my entrails with a golf club but other than that its pretty straight. as far as speaking french, its starting to get kinda scary...like the english speaking assistants we dont even speak english anymore..its like 100% french now. i definately think in french when im walkin around or layin in bed or what not. It doesnt bother me to read english or hear it, but to speak it or write it seems kinda weird, and i can already tell im gonna have trouble when i come back home getting used to everything again. anyway i will try to update more often with more banal things and not try to cram 3 weeks into one post next time. bye!

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!