I'm in the middle of profiting.

I can't tell you how many times I have used Frenchisms in the past couple of days.  "I'm going to search a sandwich," "Is it possible for one to do that,"....  Hence my title.  "Profiter de + something" means that you are living it up while you have the opportunity.  One can profit from their time spent somewhere.  One can profit from the sun.  There are lots of profits in life.

 I had originally planned to blog weekly.  Laughable.  As is now clear to the world:  Resolution #1 has been broken.  Resolutions are meant to be broken.  Just normally people’s resolutions last longer than one week. But I assert that Resolution #1 was not, in fact, first priority.  Resolution #3, “take advantage of opportunities as they arise”, was.  At the fault of Resolution #3, Resolution #1 was broken.  Resolution #2 remains never started*.

Whilst “taking advantage of opportunities as they arise,” I have experienced many adventures over the past couple of weeks.

Nantes Bretagne XIII
Adventure #1

  Adventure #1:  My rugby team travels quite frequently all around France.  A couple of weekends ago my team went to play Marseilles.  The Marseilles match reminded me of my first match against University of Idaho.  Many injuries occurred, gentle and loving words of affection were exchanged, and the game ended with no social.  Fortunately, the French are too nice to spit in people's faces.  If that weren't the case then this match would have been a complete deja vu moment for me.

Team America
Adventure #2

Adventure #2: The "Baby-Foot Cup du Monde" aka International Table Soccer Federation's World Cup.  Broadcast live on Eurosport2, this sport attracted supporters by the tens.  Actually, I think the only supporters who were not in some way related to a competitor were us.  We came out loud and proud.  During one finals match between US and UK, tensions were high. But, naturally, the US team won.

Rhys and Me at Misty's Birthday Masquerade
Adventure #3

Adventure #3:  There's not a lot to say about this party.  I had to leave early because of my match, so I missed most of it. Rhys was black. Misty, my love, is one year older. Happy Birthday, Misty!

Some homies from the motherland

I was thinking about sending this picture to my dentist to ask if I need my wisdom teeth out yet.
Adventure #4

 Adventure #4: I spent last weekend in England.  I love spending time with my British family so very much, and last weekend just happened to be the birthday celebration of Dad and Sophie.  Now that I'm living significantly closer, I decided it would be a good idea to take a weekend trip to England.  We sang, we danced, we conquered.

The last couple of weeks have been action-packed.  I'm a little ready for a down weekend.  I don't know if I'm capable of relaxing.  I guess we'll see.

Welcome 2011

Since my arrival in Nantes, France, I have been surrounded by a very special group of people.  Secrets can rarely be kept, we teach each other our language (all different forms of English), and everyone keeps a blog.  The only people I knew before coming here who kept a blog were either English majors or angst-ridden teenagers.  Mary, Mary, quite contrary… blogs are hot items.  Turns out you can start fights over blogs  AND have your grammar and spelling analyzed by the world*, as well as update friends and family about life without ceaseless repetition.  So, for the New Year, I resolve to become a blogger.

 

So, hello world.  My name is Keri Ann Moore and I am currently living in Nantes, France.  I am from a city near Seattle and I miss Seattle almost as much as I miss my family and friends.  A couple of weeks ago I was in Antwerp and I almost cried when I walked into the Starbucks.

I just upgraded apartments here.  My old place had a small problem.  Pun intended.  Actually I really moved so I could look at all the cool posters on the wall of my new place.

Cool Poster #1

Cool Poster #2

There’s a lot more where this came from.

The new place is quite a bit smaller, but the atmosphere is priceless.

So, about school.  My school – Lycee Clemenceau – is a very prestigious school in the area.  Jules Verne went to the school.  My students are rockin.  They’re high-schoolers and prep students.  The prep students have already finished high school but they take the two years after high school to study for a big test that lets them in to the Ivy Leagues of France.  It reminds me a lot of the high school I went to except it’s beautiful and everyone speaks French and it’s well-known and a lot of famous people went there. 

 The staff at the school are something else.  I can’t figure them out.  There are the workers, the same three guys who basically live in the teacher’s workroom.  There are the drinkers, who drink coffee between classes together and sit together at lunch while discussing world issues over wine.  There are the sitters who sit in the teacher’s lounge and work while the drinkers drink.  I mostly socialize with new English teachers.  There’s one new teacher doing her practicum work at school who is fabulous and energetic.  There’s another who just switched to Clemenceau.  It’s refreshing to see teachers who have not yet lost the passion to teach.

I want to have passion for everything I do.  If I’m going to commit to something, I want to do it all the way or not at all.

Resolutions for 2011:   Blog. Save money. Take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Go big or go home - when going home’s not an option.    

*This shout-out goes to Carly