American Election from Abroad + Bordeaux pt. 1

 Hello, friends and family. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and took time to think about “all of the good things in your life,” as I said to my students as part of my explanation of the holiday in basic English. I know that I am thankful for the opportunity to write to you from Paris, France with a roof over my head, warm clothes on my back, and plenty of food in my belly since I just returned from my second Thanksgiving celebration in 3 days (at the time I wrote this on the evening of Saturday, November 24). I am also thankful for each and every one of you, because I can feel your support as I write these entries.

I’ve been pretty busy, but I wanted to post something rather than nothing, especially since I hadn’t written to you in a while. So this is basically just what I wrote in my journal on these nights with my current reflections added in italics and, for the most part, within brackets. I know it may be a little hard to follow at times, but that’s the best I could do with the time that I had. I’ll do my best to finish the Bordeaux story before my work week resumes on Wednesday, Lord willing.

Peace and love, Morgann

P.S. Way to go Dawgs!!! Sorry to any Tech fans who are reading this. But not really ;) 

Monday, November 5 – Trip Prep + Worms?! 

From my handwritten evening journal entry, which always begins with the day, date, and location from which I am writing…

Wow. I was unsure of the day, month, and date. But at least I knew that I was in Paris! Tryna post on my blog, but the Internet is acting up, even downstairs. Feel bad cuz now I’ve got a little following. Don’t want to let them down. Maybe that’ll get me up at 5 am. Spent a lot of time today planning out the financial aspect of my trip, which involved a lot of moving money from place to place. [Referring to my trip to Bordeaux on Wednesday 11/7-Friday 11/9 for which I had to “move” money from some categories of my budget to other categories to make sure that I stayed within my monthly limit. You have to be careful about big-ticket items like vacations when you don’t have that much money to begin with!] I can’t go crazy, but it’s definitely doable, praise God. Also worked out a schedule for Tues-Wed before writing the blog entry on Thurs 10/18 (put away laundry in between to rest hand). Have a lot going on in the next few days, but I think that if I remain excited rather than fearful about it, I will have won at least half of the battle. 

Earlier, text from kitchenmate re: worm invasion on 3^rd floor got me up a little earlier than planned. [So this turned out to be pretty crazy even though I was just annoyed at first by her group text on a Monday morning, particularly since I’d gone to sleep at 3 am the night before due to a late-night blogging endeavor. Found out in bits and pieces over the next couple of weeks that a girl in the other kitchen on my floor had been practicing very bad hygiene, which had led to some sort of “worm” infestation in some of their food storage areas. That led to a severe, inspection-based crack-down on hygiene in all of our kitchens, including deductions from the security deposits of every person who shares the kitchen if there are dirty dishes or overflowing trashcans, for example.] 

Ended up signing up for 12:30 laundry then getting dressed b/c/o kitchen cleaning & eating prior [By this I meant that I intended to eat before getting dressed, but our kitchen was being cleaned so I reversed this order while waiting to do my laundry at 12:30, which was the first open slot when I went to sign-up after receiving the worm text]. Looked into ent. options [Meaning entertainment options for Bordeaux. So far all I had was a train ticket, a hotel room, and a reservation for a walking tour, but I wanted to plan at least one or two things to do for fun, especially since it was going to be a solo trip]. Laundromat (no « pressing » guy) [The other half of the laundromat is a dry cleaners (« pressing »), so I was saying that the guy who normally runs this operation was absent since I was there at a different time from my normal Monday routine.], McDo (no fries), random bazar stuff (kitchen clean) [I figured out a great cultural equivalent for the « bazars » that I sometimes mention: dollar stores. Except that the stuff doesn’t always cost a euro, but it is cheap and the merchandise usually represents a random assortment of items. So this time my main goal was to buy “Tupperware” – which apparently they say in French too – in which to place all of my open food items so that they wouldn’t be thrown out during any worm-related inspections. Again, when you don’t have a very large margin for error money-wise, you can’t risk having anyone throwing your hard-earned food away. So as soon as they wrote this rule on the white board downstairs, I began placing almost all of my food in the required airtight containers, whether or not it was actually likely to attract pests.]

Here's a couple of views from the window of this particular laundromat in my neighborhood as well as the machine where you put your money and the facility itself.

Tuesday, November 6 – Wednesday, November 7: Election Celebrations + Circus in Bordeaux

This is a combination of 2 journal entries that I’ve merged here because I didn’t actually go to sleep on this evening, so there was no real separation of these days for me.

Well, suh [as in, “sir”]. The day has finally arrived. On two counts, I guess: for one thing, I’ve reached the end of this journal. On a much more significant note, though, today is Election Day in America, « chez moi » [literally, something like “at my house/place” or, more generally, “where I’m from”] as I call it around here. Of course, seeing as it’s only 3:40 pm there right now [East Coast time], we’ve still got a long way to go towards seeing the outcome. But that’s why I’m writing to you so early – because I’m about to pull my first real all-nighter by attending the [party affiliation spoiler alert] Young Dems Election Night in America Rock Party (DJ Klaps :) ) followed by the Post-Electoral Breakfast at the Ambassador’s [invitation-only event; I was on the list because of my position as a Fulbright scholar supported by the French & American governments. In fact the U.S. Ambassador to France had already welcomed us all to France at a reception in October]. 11 pm & 6 am. I took a nap at around 1 pm after waking up at 5 am, and I’ve definitely had to resort to some migraine meds [woke up early to post my blog entry before midnight East Coast time since Internet didn’t work last night; nap was not planned; migraine-onset-feeling probably resulted from excessive worry about upcoming stressful situation of not sleeping then traveling right away], but I just discharged « mes fardeaux » [“my burdens”] on the Lord, essentially, as He invites us to do, because I truly want to have fun tonight. I’ve already gotten several FB likes [regarding my status about planning to pull my first all-nighter to witness the election from overseas].

Today: wrote to [my pen pal], CAF [went to the « Caisse d’Allocations Familiales » = government agency where I can get rent assistance b/c they’d sent me a letter saying that they needed to see my original birth certificate with its apostille and an official translation of the birth certificate that was okayed by a French authority, both of which I’d worked hard to get just before leaving], printing after tutoring [since I don’t have a printer and was on vacation from school, needed to go to a print/copy shop even just to print out basic stuff for vacation, like confirmations], forgot lunch 2 but Turkish lunch 1 [so preoccupied that I forgot to pack myself a “third meal” essentially, but sit-down Greek sandwich-type deal for lunch helped me last until dinner time]. Experienced social kitchen at dinner [Usually I eat much earlier than my kitchenmates, but tonight there was a ton of people eating when I was in there. Bade them farewell as I told them that I was going to get ready for an all-night election party, which caused them to start cheering for Obama]. Thank God that ITP from p. 1 has been resolved. :) [So when I reach the last page of a journal, I often look back to the first page to see what was going on back then and reflect on how far I’ve come by faith, to use the words of the hymn. In this case, the first page, which covers Friday, June 8, 2012, is striking because it includes a visitor pass from the Pediatrics section of the Emergency Department of Duke University Hospital. On this day, on which we found ourselves in Durham in between the high school graduations of two of my cousins, we learned that my sister had a very low platelet count due to a condition known as ITP, or Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. And yes, I had to Google that just now to refresh my memory. But that’s just the point – I’m thankful that this particular emergency room visit with my sister is now just a distant memory that has not had an overwhelming impact on the five months’ worth of life with which I’ve filled the ensuing pages of that journal. 

The last time I wrote to your predecessor [meaning, the former journal which was now full] was on Tuesday evening as I prepared to pull my first all-nighter in order to follow the election returns in the closely-contested race of incumbent vs. Mormon – President Barack Obama vs. Governor Mitt Romney. Well, I’m happy to report that I made it through the night – and quite enjoyed the experience! I am also pleased to report that America has voted in favor of four more years (including me, by the way): President Obama was re-elected, with the announcement being made on CNN a little after 5 am here, if I’m not mistaken. I’m glad I was at the Young Dems party rather than the other side’s ;) . [The nightclub had many TV screens set up all over the place so that we could follow the returns on the hour, and the DJ played sets of American music in between from oldies to current songs. Speaking of oldies, there were people of all ages at this event, especially during the earlier hours. I mean, the opportunities to gather together with a large number of Americans/other interested parties and have access to CNN all night long were limited in Paris, so not everyone in the club was in their 20’s or 30’s. Regardless of the age or nationality of the hundreds of people crammed inside of the venue, everyone booed for states that went to Romney and cheered for the ones that went to Obama throughout the night. And as far as the moment when Obama actually won, the place was dripping with jubilation. I have video footage, but I seem to be limited to still photos here. You’ll just have to take my word for it: it was a time of hugging and cheering, followed by cranked-up music and party-style dancing :) ]

Obviously, taking photos in a dark nightclub without disturbing people wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do, but hopefully these will give you an idea of the environment with the tv screen that says "Election Center" here.

Note the huge crowd!

This time the screen says "CNN Projects: Pres. Obama Wins Re-Election." This is the still photo I took right after the video in which everyone went crazy celebrating at around 5:15 am our time.

So basically I talked to a non-Fulbrighter [I only identify her this way because I originally went to the party very early with a group of Fulbrighters in order to get good seats for the night] who wanted to grab a seat on one of the tables in front of our area. [We talked at length about various parts of our life stories.] We were mainly just tryna make it thru the 4 am hour, but they played some cool tunes at least. And there was a false fire alarm that cleared it out some. Ate a hot dog, brownie & Coke in the middle of the night for the 1^st time [They had “American food” set up at a buffet at the nightclub for us. And by the way, I didn’t consume any alcoholic beverages other than the one free glass of champagne that I received with my €10 cover charge. With everything being ridiculously overpriced, some of us decided that we wanted our calories to come from actual food rather than drinks].

Kind of surprised that Obama won, honestly [couldn’t tell based on my limited access to the pulse of America whether folks were actually gonna turn out for him more than Romney in the end]. Realized I’m not into this whole “politics” thing as much as some of my peers, especially after we transitioned to the Ambassador’s (no, he didn’t greet us at the door in silk jammies [as someone joked that he would during our delusional, early-morning metro ride given the fact that the breakfast began at 6 am and was being held at his “residence”]) & didn’t want to interview as others were doing. Be interviewed, I should say. I was getting really tired, honestly, but I socialized as much as possible & listened listened (am I spelling that right! Wow I’m tired) to both candidates’ speeches [Remember that this is a reflection of my original journal entry from Thursday evening. That’s what happens to your brain when you pull an all-nighter, I suppose]. Got a keepsake newspaper on my way home, which I showed to a couple of my kitchenmates who were eating breakfast upon my return.

My Election Night buddy who helped me stay awake all night! I got the Obama pin from another Fulbright grantee.

Leaving the club just before 6 am

They had cutouts of both candidates as you entered the Ambassador's Residence for photo opps. The person taking my photo suggested that I purposely choose sides and cut out Governor Romney.

We watched the victory speech on a big screen.

There were lots of people, just as at the Young Dems Party.

The entrance to the Ambassador's Residence, festively decorated.

Slept for 2 hours before waking up confusedly. Final packing took longer than expected, so I grabbed snacks from fridge & sandwich from bakery [rather than sitting down to eat in the kitchen] on way to Notre-Dame-de-Lorette [1 of my 2 closest métro stops]. Only abt 5 mins to wait @ Montparnasse looking at timetable. On train, asked for rightful window seat. Worked on budget [as in, accounted for – literally! – stuff I’d spent money on within that last several hours], read Pope book [there are some religious groups that meet in our building, so sometimes the members leave books with a sign saying « Servez-vous » = “Help yourself.” I’d acquired a book about Pope John Paul II in this way.], napped, snacked a lot. Wrong way walking to hotel at first [sleepy and in a new place without my nice Paris map – thanks again Tori for this invaluable resource!], but it’s nice! Also had NICE dinner cuz it was close to circus = cultural experience, though unexpectedly. [It wasn’t exactly Barnum and Bailey in terms of scale, but this family operation attracted quite a big crowd in Bordeaux, and the father figure, who yelled and marched around to keep everyone on task throughout the show, addressed the audience at the end to butter us up so that we’d buy one of his 3 books on life as a gypsy. It worked in my case! I was intrigued, especially by the thought of being one of the teenagers in this circus, so I bought a book to learn more about this group of social outcasts that has found a path to acceptability through performance. This was particularly intriguing to me given the fact that a city official from Bordeaux was present in the audience, so the circus director thanked him directly for helping them get all of the administrative affairs squared away. The circus crew also got me with the hot beignets that they offered us on the way out for my return ride to the hotel on the tram = Bordeaux’s equivalent of the subway of Paris. So the “ringmaster” was right – he succeeded in getting us almost everyone to pull out their wallets again before leaving the tent.]

Waiting to see which "gate"/railway I needed to go to for my train to Bordeaux from Gare Montparnasse since it was only posted 20 mins. in advance of the departure. Didn't mean to photograph the lovebirds below the screen.

The train station in Bordeaux (or, at least, the left third of it)

My hotel room - watching TV in French was neat since I don't usually do that

Nautical-themed room...

including the bathroom, which looked like part of a submarine. Perhaps you can see the doorway in the mirror reflection?

Small circus tent that I staked out before eating dinner...

at this fancy seafood place across the street that was right on the river that runs through the city.

Back of the circus ring

Center stage, if you will

I told you it was crowded! It was a fun show, complete with live music and lots of cool tricks, but I couldn't take photos of all of that, unfortunately. Glad I checked out the Office of Tourism guidebook for ideas on what to do in town!