Première impression

Friday afternoon I skipped off down the road to check out the town. About 25000 people live here hence its a vibrant little place with a thriving centre: a few bars, restaurants specialising in Alsacian and Lorraine cuisine, banks, clothes shops, bakeries, etc. The German army destroyed the town on their retreat in 1944 (one of only four in France completely wiped out), so most of the architecture is modern; functional, simple and contemporary rather than elaborate stone and grime. Two cathedrals in town, one faithfully rebuilt after the war according to the neo-Roman style of its original construction. Four bridges traverse the la Meurthe; the first hastily thrown up by the US Army soon after the Wehrmacht went scurrying and the others by the French. Malheuresement, no pictures just yet (the camera took too long doing its hair, got caught in traffic on the Gateway and missed the flight). St. Dié was the place in which the first map of America was made in 1607 and has since (self) christened itself la maraine de l'Amerique (the godmother of America). Not a bad feather in its cap I suppose, and the annual FIG (International Festival of Geography) that follows this theme starts in town tomorrow.

Saturday Patrice said he was making a trip over to Basel in Switzerland as he needed to change some Swiss money and asked me if I wanted to tag along. Passing into Alsace over the Vosges, I saw a definite contrast in landscape from Lorraine. This is a region of vineyards and produces some of the highest quality vin blanc in the country. We made a stop at one of the jewels of Alsace - the town of Colmar. Very attractive place popular with tourists, lined with gorgeous, classic germanic-style Alsacian houses (richly-coloured facades and dark timber beams criss-crossing the exterior walls). Was wonderful to take a peek at some of the older buildings dating back to the middle ages. Beautiful enough even to keep the Germans from unloading the TNT. Onwards to the city of Basel - silver and gold, abruptness and sour faces. A facile Swiss stereotype or the inevitable shadow of a big city? Not sure, but I like my last trip into the Confederation earlier this year, I was glad to revenir en France. Passed back through Colmar for some dinner.

Sunday was match day...Ireland versus Argentina at Parc des Princes in Paris, a 4.5 hour trip by bus. The college generously put on the trip for the group of 15 students. Many of whom come from working class backgrounds and had yet to see such a spectacle. Departed St. Dié at 8.15am, most of les petits déodatiens having donned emerald, faithfully stiched DIY Irish flags and slapped green and orange on their faces. Picked up some more students from a little village between St. Dié and Nancy.


Conversed a bit on the way with the teachers, one of whom is from Marseilles and works with some of the disadvantged students at the college. His southern twang thick and loping, I started the trip understanding 15 percent of the conversation...by the end of the day it had climbed to 17. He was eager to give me some tips on what to see down south...I'm heading down there for sure.

By the time we got into the capital the students were in full swing - the 26 of them sounded more like 126 as they bounded down the streets shouting out the name of their adpoted country to the bemused looks of the paddys spilling out of the cafés. Absolutely wild inside the stadium, a full house with at least three-quarters of the crowd behind les verts. Every promising touch of the blokes in green saw the place erupt. An entertaining match, but the Argentinians were all over the Irish. Got back to St. Dié just before 2am. Kids sang at the top of their hoarsening voices most of the way home.

Monday was my first day and after observing in a few classes, I had my first small group of 6 students in a separate classroom on Tuesday. A tad nervewracking and fumbling but looking forward to sinking my teeth in a bit more (the work, not the kids). More about the school on my next post. Tripped out to Nancy today (Wednesday) for a training seminar with about 40 other anglophone assistants (Poms, Yanks, Canadians, me the poor lonesome Aussie) - got some good tips on teaching materials, spent about 3 hours learning about the miles of red tape I'm preparing to cut through to get my Social Securty, insurance, visa, etc. and met some of the others, including a Canadian and American based in St. Die.

The weather: 8-10 most days. Warm afternoons last few days.

Ca c'est combien!!!!????- 5 euro ($8.50) for a load of washing at the local laundromat.

'Textbook' French behaviour: Woman cutting a poor bloke off in traffic and thereafter abusing the hell out of him.

Best meal: Ratatouille at school canteen.

Best remark on Australia: Don't you have lots of rabbits going round eating everything?

On my iPod:
Johnny Thunders - Chinese Rocks. Bruising. Full marks for honesty, too.
Travis - The Humpty Dumpty Love Song. Forget the daft title and get in touch with your inner wimp.
The Smiths - Asleep. Atypical. No self-deprecation here.
Midlake - Head Home. Name a better album from 2006 and a small cash prize awaits!
Marvin Gaye - Sad Tommorows. Nowhere to run.

Arrivé

Where to start? Arrived here, in St Die-Des-Vosges, Tuesday afternoon France time after about 48 hours on the move. As expected, the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Paris was long and tortourous but I seem to have pulled up pretty well. Having touched down in KL at about 6.30 Tuesday morning, I had the rest of the day to kill before the flight out at midnight. Grabbed the KLIA express - a convenient 25 minute shuttle train service to the city. A city armed with two humungous steel and concrete towers...KL must be the New York of Asia I thought to myself - an intriguing, pulsating metropolis. Not quite. Actually about as alluring as a hatful of a*seholes. Thanks for the tip, Ted! First I tried to mount my assault by marching up the one of the spaghetti-like freeways linking Sentral Stasion (that's Malay, friends, the poor man's language of love) and the city. Soon discovered that cities with perpetual 90% humdity are not designed for backpackers. I shamefully chucked a u-ey (why isn't that in the online dictionary?) and took the soft yet logical option of the train.

Got off at KL station. Aesthetically, the city reminded me of Brunei and in a two hour period of spotted 23 locals having a well-deserved mid-morning snooze (on the sidewalk, in parked cars, etc.) which reminded me yet again of Brunei. Same for the perplexing feeling that by smiling at whoever I had to deal with, I was actually causing them some discomfort. Which reminded me of Brunei. Not quite sure what area I trudged through but it was mostly rundown, smelly streets with monolithic concrete office blocks sitting next to small restaurants, some medium sized buildings whose architecture seemed to take some inspiration from the colonial period. Walked past the beautifully restored court house, which dates back to the 19th century.


Back to the airport. Had a great Nasi Goreng and frankly must rate that as the highlight of the stopover. The airport really is something else - very large, plenty of shops and eateries, easy to get around. One of the best I've seen. Was glad to grab a room at the transit hotel for 6 hours for a much-needed shower and nap. I'd recommend doing so to anyone on a long-haul flight with time to spare. Flew out at midnight.

Into Paris at 6.15. Quite a few Aussies on the flight - here to see some rugby perhaps. The city was just starting to wake up as I grabbed the RER to Gare du Nord and then walked over to Gare de l'Est, Paris' link to its Eastern towns and beyond. A pretty, well-preserved station in an area whose surrounding streets are named after these regions, Rue d'Alsace, Rue de Strasbourg, etc. Trip on the ultra-fast TGV was comfortable and swift. Picturesque countryside - mostly wide-reaching plains and fields broken up by farmhouses, pockets of forest and quaint (apologies, I'm sans thesaurus) villages. Changed trains at Nancy for the regional service out to St. Die.

Haven't had a decent look at the town yet, but its located in a lovely little region near the Vosges mountain range. Very lush with wooded areas, streams, hilly surrounds. Will be able to provide a better description and some photos at a later date. I was welcomed at the station by Patrice, who is the Adjoint-Principal at the school. They've gone to a lot of trouble to put together some living quarters for me at the school, fitting out a few rooms in the admin block with a kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom. The three most senior school staff members (including Patrice) live on campus as well. Off to see the Ireland-Argentina match in Paris on Sunday with a group of 25 students and three teachers. Should be interesting!