Fall Banquet

Michelle, president; Julia, secretary; John, vice president; Ed, treasurer; Me, webmaster

At the risk of sounding nerdy, I belong to an association for foreign language teachers.  Its called Chautauqua County Foreign Language Teacher Association (CCFLTA).  Its a lovely group of people who share my same passion:  languages and imparting the passion of them.  I've formed some really neat friendships by belonging to this association.  It also was the source of a temporary job that I picked up with a software company writing an online French review. More on that later.  Our association meets twice a year for a banquet to eat together, share updates and news and more importantly to mingle with kindred spirits.  Tonight's banquet is at Vullo's.  We have approximately 30 members and I can't wait to see them again.  As mentioned in the photo caption, I am the webmaster of CCFLTA because we are directly affiliated with the state association NYSAFLT who requires all affiliations to have websites.  Knowing that I'm techno savvy, I was more or less volunteers.  Here's the website and judge for yourselves.

Haiti Bound?

Courtney and I floating in the salt water!

Our church is very involved and invested in missions work in Haiti.  This is the reason for my second trip to Haiti, Spring 2007.  We have more teams and trips being organized for 2009.  Our focus has been construction, medical attention and education.  For construction, our church has assisted in building an orphanage, school and medical clinic.  For medical attention, our church has sent teams to do checkups and other trips for surgical needs.  The education part of the focus has been in the form of vacation bible schools and supporting teachers in various villages.  All parts of the efforts seem to overlap.  The teachers we support use the schools that we build.  The medical staff we send use the clinic we built and so on.

The church bulletin is calling for more people to come forward to go on one of the trips.  I really would like to go.  The last time I went, over a year ago, I financed the trip on my own. Since I haven't been working steadily, that will not be possible.

I was not sure in what capacity I would serve but it soon became evident.  Arriving at the Miami airport and waiting to go to Haiti, I met Haitians everywhere.  Even boarding the plane, I was saying "excuse me, pardon me" in French and English while trying to get around people to my seat.  Haitians all around the plane started asking me questions wanting to know what my nationality was because of the rarity of an American speaking French.  It went on from there to be similar all around Haiti.

What was interesting was that I spoke with the Haitians without the use of a translator or interpreter because French is so similar to Haitian creole.  The first day I spoke with various people in French and had some neat discussions.  The next several days, people approached me and said "You're her!  You're the French speaking American!"  It was odd that people knew who I was without having seen me before but a white woman speaking their language would stand out, I suppose.  

For several days people came to talk with me because there was less distance between us because we could speak to each other without a mediator.  I finally asked someone how they came to know who I was and how they recognized me.  They all told me that the whole village and surrounding villages were talking about it. How odd!  I signed on to be a part of the vacation bible school team geared towards children but ended up speaking with local teens and adults.  It was like being a rock star being known and approached like they knew me but I did not know them.  I felt like I was contributing in a way that was not planned.  I was also put with the medical team to do some translating, too.  

We'll see what is in store for this trip.  Hopefully, I'll get to go again.  Time will tell.

This Semester

My writing has been sporadic lately because I've been busy with my lit course this semester. Busy reading and writing, I have been left with little time to write anything other than for my course. My reading list consists of surrealism, existentialism and theatre of the absurd.  Aside from work, church, flipside and sleep, my posts have been neglected.  All the items I am require to ponder for this course are less than noteworthy, in my opinion.  So, I'll spare you the details.

Job Quandary

In Angers, I had to give a speech to all participants and professors of our program in honor of the retirement of my professor who was retiring from being director of the program. (yes it was in French).

As many of you know, I started a new job in August as a French Customer Service Agent. The title is more glamourous than the job. Basically, I work for a company that services customers worldwide in the arena of wi-fi.

I've learned a couple things about myself from this job. I do well explaining how to connect to the signal and all the techy talk needed. This is multi-faceted in and of itself. Sometimes its a very tech-savvy person that calls in and needs help and other times it is a person who barely can locate the power button. Either way, I've had a lot of success working with people needing tech support. Another thing I've learned about myself is that I'm a decent sales person. I even had an instance a couple days ago where the person was unable to connect after all of my tech support and troubleshooting efforts and I was still able to get them to upgrade their plan. Not bad! Its an interesting position to be in having to sell something to someone and explaining the reason for which they "need" the service. I put need in quotes because I ranted on needs vs. wants in another post.

The question that I am now facing is whether or not I should leave this current position for a sales position. This is a daunting choice because ultimately I'm betting on my ability to generate income on my own rather than a guaranteed paycheck.

Thoughts? Honestly, I'm interested in all feedback here. Give me your best shot.

Take Time For Yourself

A sign in a museum in Angers.  It reads:  In this museum...As you please.  Muse, Converse, Smoke, Study, Touch, Mess, Look, Eat, Contemplate, Discover, Draw, Photograph, Stroll. Note: the crossed items on the sign are indicated by red text.

Today, I had the day off and the house to myself.  I had a list of things to do that would be productive but decided to scrap the list for the sake of my sanity.  This new job of mine has me on constant edge to the point that I do not take time for myself--not counting sleep.  Instead of doing dishes, laundry and changing the bed sheets I did some reading, watched tv and ate popcorn for lunch.  In addition to those activities, I went to Starbucks and had a pumpkin latté.  Generally, I'm not a coffee fiend but I do take advantage of a gift card if one comes my way.  Shortly, after I got there, there were only 2 young people working and I engaged them in conversation.  We had a nice time chatting and then a friend of mine walked in and we drastically changed the tone of the conversation--because we were speaking French.  What a rare delight to do one of my favorite things in a place I so rarely go.  Turns out, I may see one of these young people again as this person goes to places I go, etc.

Life is full of surprises and some of them are pleasant.  A nap, for instance, may be pleasant.

Things are Not What They Seem

Mural in Québec City on the side of a building.

Much like this mural, many things are deceiving.  On the surface, I'm a person who works, goes to a gym, attends a church and is married.  If you get to the depth of me, you'll find different results.  Sure, I'm still married and still go about daily business like most people.  What I mean is, we're different people on the inside than what we present to others.  We often put our best foot forward as the adage says of us.  It's not until we let down our guard or get close to someone that we let the truth reveal itself.

I have to say, as transparent as I am, I still keep distance with a lot of people.  There are only a few people that really know me well enough to be able to predict my behavior.  Most people know me for my Eiffel Tower collection, love of French things and love of youth and travel. What most people don't know is...

1. I have a love/hate relationship with cooking
   
2. I have the ability to convince anyone of anything--yet I'm not in sales
3. I am an introvert though I appear to be an extrovert.
4. I refuse to let myself get emotional.
5. I'm not just a pretty face, ya know

As I said, things are not what they seem.