French Press: Simple gifts

(Listening to yo-yo ma and Allison Krauss's Simple Gifts)

Teaching at a university in France is an eye opening experience. It's surprising and almost funny to another new lecturer Dan and myself how unstructured it is for new teachers from abroad. No one is there to really explain big or little things and the old lecturers are just expected to take care of everything. To make matters worse communication is often sorely lacking. For example, they unexpectedly added a new lab class a few weeks before the semester ends- another thing that using computers for scheduling could have avoided. I was assigned as a teacher but no one told me. It's totally normal. And a teacher or two was shocked I didn't show up to teach. The poor woman who schedules the classes without using a computer- well she's been at work at next semester's for more than week and she has a sign on the door to not disturb her.

The little day to day surprises and questions are accompanied by lots of cool things about living abroad. One of them for me in Angers includes Parc de Balzac. (Another is Christmas markets, more on that soon!) The first time I went to this park it was a cold, misty Sunday morning and the marsh was eerily foggy and almost mystical. I purposely left my camera phone at home that morning then regretted it upon seeing the sights. I've gone back since later in the day and it's a different kind of cool. Le marais, which means marsh in English, is a district in Paris that was built up on marshes. And le marais in Parc de Balzac makes up one part of the 15 or so different sections of Parc de Balzac, including a grassland and woods by the lake where kayakers practice.

One afternoon a week ago the marshes looked so cheery and completely opposite from my first visit I went to the curb to take a look down at the marsh.

From there it seemed worth another visit in a new light.

And then yesterday after a few Thanksgivings I thought a jog, strike that, walk was in order so I saw the woods for the first time. So many surprises in that park, depending on the location and the time of the day I love it.