tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240603562011-12-21T07:17:51.873-08:00Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.comBlogger361100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-91371652486798975882009-06-01T17:42:00.000-07:002009-06-01T18:01:00.368-07:00

This was an actual letter I sent to a friend of mine a few days back. It was going to be one of those "Hey, here is what I have been doing for the last six months" notes and that would not do! So, for my dear verbose, literary friend, this was the letter for her.Dear Friend,“A note!” cried she, one day,For her friend had much to say, From a friend, news is good All the trials she’

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-54632081974029795782009-04-12T01:07:00.000-07:002009-04-12T01:11:51.098-07:00

Here is something fun to watch because I'm too lame to write anything... and I love Wil Wheaton. Find more videos like this on Channel Frederator RAW

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1457632963043548642009-02-22T22:15:00.000-08:002009-02-22T22:37:22.320-08:00

I have nothing profound to say about this video at all - I just wanted to share. Sigh, it is very beautiful. It makes me almost as happy as one I found a long time ago - here.Mykonos from Grandchildren on Vimeo.

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-33580672434679401282009-02-16T10:41:00.000-08:002009-02-17T19:16:05.072-08:00

Well, did you? That was the power of the Internet whooshing by!Last we left my sad, Stephen Fry-less existence, I was bemoaning the loss of his wit and candor. Cursing the Twitter Fates!The next morning, still blurry-eyed with a cup of coffee in my hand and wearing my disheveled pajamas, I blindly groped for my computer. Distracted by my bagel, I missed the message reading "Stephen Fry is now

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-64460227485757035882009-02-15T11:54:00.000-08:002009-02-15T12:50:28.236-08:00

Twitter is something that I have been actively avoiding for a while now. Sure, I facebook. Sure, I blog. Sure, I know a lot about the different Google Apps (my latest experiment involves Google Notebook as a way to organize recipes I find). However, Twitter seemed a bit outside of my purview. But then something changed. Stephen Fry started Tweeting. As one of the original followers of his

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-73522941894249481722008-12-23T11:43:00.000-08:002008-12-23T12:39:10.457-08:00

"We looked upon a world unknown,On nothing we could call our own.The blue walls of the firmament.No cloud above, no earth below, -A universe of sky and snow!" ~John Greenleaf Whittier "Snowbound"The cold came first this time, as if in preparation for the snow I thought would never materialize. Then one morning, I opened my front door

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-35322944639306213422008-12-06T12:10:00.000-08:002008-12-06T12:51:31.266-08:00

My mind keeps wondering today... and to nothing in particular. I am sitting at the Cafe, trying to study "Урок но. 1" and having no luck at it. My goal is to write a summary a day for each chapter - forcing myself to read every single word.Wow! How many details slipped through my fingers. Did I just not read that one detail about "in cases other than the nominative or the accusative, the

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-69121487673189566562008-11-28T17:42:00.000-08:002008-11-28T21:31:13.034-08:00

"I believe it is very difficult to know who we are until we understand where and when we are."This is the first thing that caught my attention in Carl Sagan's The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, and it is a question that I am still not equipped to answer. When and Where are we? If Carl Sagan does not know, how in the world am I going to figure this out

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-3916674865108189012008-11-10T16:57:00.000-08:002008-11-10T17:03:59.824-08:00

People have been pestering me for over a year now to start posting things to my blog again. I just don't think I have anything terribly interesting to talk about, but I am sick of the e-mails and think that it will be best to give in. Part of my struggle is to define, redefine rather, what my blog is going to be. After reading many blogs and giving it a lot of thought, I have decided not to

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-14227226728418394492007-05-02T08:10:00.000-07:002008-11-28T21:40:56.777-08:00

What can I say. My father visited me in Europe and all we did was drink beer, wander through trenches from WWI, cheer on Tom Boonen in bike races, and, did I mention drinking beer? BORING! One can only take so much walking through the picturesque streets of Flanders, eating at the best restaurants (like legendary Tom's Dinner), and perfectly sunny 70 degree weather! It is just too much for

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-38830481021928973702007-05-01T06:49:00.000-07:002007-05-01T07:45:18.856-07:00

Arriving in Dijon, I fell in love with the city itself tout de suit and during the following week the love spread from the city to the whole region of Burgundy. It is more than mustard and expensive wines, but a je ne sais quoi that rolls in from the countryside. (Too much???)Day 1: After an interesting train ride involving a not-quite famous actor, I wandered the beautifully Medieval streets

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-71348254695193445992007-03-20T03:37:00.000-07:002007-03-20T04:10:24.319-07:00

The Sights...The Duchess Anne castle has finally reopened after nearly a year of construction. Ever since I have been in Nantes, the Castle, which sits in the center of town, has been covered with blue tarps, freshly dug mud, and yellow hatted construction workers. It is quite an interesting building - roughly oval with high brown stone walls and approximately five towers. From the far side of

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-7335581409031460372007-03-02T05:44:00.000-08:002008-04-18T22:57:16.188-07:00

February 21st - The day Heather became legal!!!At one thirty, a comfortable 15 minutes early, I arrived at the massive neoclassical building of the Nantes' Prefecture. Waving my appointment conformation paper, I was directed a machine where I took a number - 47. In the familiar waiting room (this was my third time waiting in this particular room) I wondered why I was given a rendez-vous if I

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1916321720781358092007-02-24T09:05:00.000-08:002007-02-24T09:54:19.258-08:00

Day 5: The Tate Modern - my home away from home! Modern Art museums are where I could spend days, let alone hours. My favorite artist of all time is Mark Rothko who was prolific in the 1940s-1960s. Overall, his paintings are not paintings but "washes" - a technique that involves using layers and layers of diluted paint over a canvas. He belonged to the school of abstract expressionism and his

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-79969495322270852872007-02-23T02:19:00.001-08:002007-02-23T03:18:58.563-08:00

A week in London/Londres...Day 1: Starting out around noon, I took the train from Nantes to London. I cannot describe how much I anticipated the Chunnel! Everyone says that it is a disappointment, but they are so wrong. For an entire 20 minutes you are flying underground in a dark tunnel that just keeps going and going. After that excitement, my old college roommate, Amber, met me at Waterloo

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-67132645256529359602007-02-03T02:13:00.000-08:002007-02-03T02:59:16.467-08:00

An unfortunate cultural lesson... in poor taste.I have had a run-in or two with one particularly high-strung teacher at one of my schools, but this one takes the cake and provided an unwanted cultural lesson.She took over for one of the teachers a few months back, and just before Christmas break her and I had a discussion about me assisting in some classes. Now that things have settled into the

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-70559119484140732292007-02-02T04:24:00.000-08:002007-02-02T04:48:02.762-08:00

Alright, alright. I'm back (Dad)...Actually, there is a very good, legitimate reason for not writing a post - I've done nothing. Quite literally, metaphorically, etc. Nothing. It was not out of slothfulness or an overwhelming fear of everything French, but a lack of funds. Yes, the school system forgot to deposit my January paycheck. Normally, I receive a healthy 752 Euro cheque de paie

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-59341957573718724032007-01-17T03:29:00.000-08:002007-01-17T06:07:57.380-08:00

The best day of the week... Tuesday.I live an a quiet residential area of Nantes, just off the busy star-shaped Plaza Zola. On my road, about a block closer to the plaza, is a large supermarket with a parking lot around back and a moderate blacktop in front. Most mornings this blacktop is home to renegade shopping carts and the occasional beggar. However, Tuesday is different. Sometime before

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-33620479183421816682007-01-17T02:45:00.000-08:002007-01-17T03:28:49.143-08:00

Discovering the joy of Socialism...In general, I am a healthy person. As my mother may proudly boast, I have used antibiotics less than ten times in my entire life; however, the weather and the climate in my new home caused an interesting health condition. Nothing serious - just a circulation problem in my toes - common in old men. This brought about an interesting situation: Heather had to go

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-75571010194993749972007-01-02T04:45:00.000-08:002007-01-02T05:45:35.282-08:00

Christmas Day...Around 12:30 a knock on the door roused me from my coffee and alternate news reading. I opened the door to find a very large Danish man who informed me that I should head to the "main house" around 1:30.Perhaps I should start at the beginning. Camilla and Guillaume invited me to have Christmas dinner with them and their family. You have no idea how excited I was - a real French

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1166871191841459292006-12-23T02:48:00.000-08:002006-12-23T02:56:25.540-08:00

As I was reading the NY Times this morning I came across an article about Paris... It is about the man who is in charge of creating the lighting for the City of Lights. There is something so French about having someone in charge of creating a unified lighting plan for a city. What to you think? Read it athttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/23/world/europe/23jousse.html?ex=157680000&en=

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1166699358770724432006-12-21T02:13:00.000-08:002006-12-21T03:09:18.823-08:00

----- Day 3: The morning was foggy and damp. There was only one thing to do: go to the graveyard. The Pere Lachaise Cemetery is located on the Northeastern corner of Paris proper, and it is situated on acres of hilly rocky land. The fog was even heavier on the hill, and I was one of the first people to arrive. For the majority of the time I spent there, it was just me and thousands of

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1166633207445122592006-12-20T08:13:00.000-08:002006-12-20T08:46:47.496-08:00

----- Day 2: After a less than refreshing night of sleep, I woke-up early and headed to the famous Musee d'Orsay. Housed in a decommission train station along the Seine, this museum was created to house all of the city's impressionist art. This is where you go if you want to see Monet, Degas, Renoir, etc. Alright, I admit that I am labeling myself as one of the world's biggest dorks when I

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1166436220643468752006-12-18T01:37:00.000-08:002006-12-18T02:03:40.666-08:00

A week ago I made reservations at a hostel and bought train tickets to Paris. Ever since I was a child, I have loved (obsessed about?) Paris - in elementary school I had already memorized the pocket map I was given one Christmas. The rest of the week seemed to drag on and on and on with the exciting prospect of three full days in Paris. ------ Day 1: I arrived at the Paris train station, took

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1165154685390768262006-12-03T05:37:00.000-08:002006-12-03T06:04:45.436-08:00

"It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." Having no day-after Thanksgiving as a bench-mark to the beginning of the holiday season, the French people have reserved December 1st as decorating day. This is the day when tensile, garlands, trees, and Santa Claus make their first appearance of the season. Most importantly, however, December 1st is the official day for every city in France to

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1165009106501953702006-12-01T12:43:00.000-08:002006-12-02T03:48:53.086-08:00

Thanksgiving, with a dash of France for good measure, makes for an interesting evening. In the weeks leading up to November 23rd, I spend the majority of my in-class time describing the voyage of the Mayflower and attempting to purge the word "Indians" from the students' English vocabulary (No, Indians are people from India. The country India. They are called N-A-T-I-V-E A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N-S: Who

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1163952078007435162006-11-19T07:47:00.000-08:002006-11-19T08:18:47.416-08:00

It is a difficult thing to be the tour guide for a trio who have no opinion and are truly content to just be in France. But so it was these past ten days when my parents came to visit me here in Nantes... I was at work when they arrived, but when I called to let them know that I was on the tram heading their direction my father's slightly frantic/tired voice responded by saying, "We're lost."

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1162643152952875392006-11-04T04:18:00.000-08:002006-11-04T04:25:52.963-08:00

SO, I'm rather adept at travelling cheaply and happily; however, not really this time and I regret nothing! It may have to do with travelling alone or with the region... either way I ate and drank my way through Carcassonne, Toulouse, and Bordeaux... oh, and there were some great museums too. This past week was All Saint's Day holiday at my schools. Rather than being bored here in Nantes, I

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1161526044985103262006-10-22T07:04:00.000-07:002006-10-22T07:07:25.000-07:00

Looking over my past posts, I notice that there is a glaring omission. Mainly, what about the classes I am supposed to be teaching? It is, after all, the reason I am here (and getting paid). Actually, this is something that is going to a bit difficult... I teach at two Collèges which house students who are 11-15 years old and are roughly equivalent to junior high/middle school in the States.

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1160914599404691762006-10-15T04:26:00.000-07:002006-10-15T05:16:39.563-07:00

After many unfruitful meetings with gruff landlords and countless miles put on my poor shoes, I have found a place to live! Things just seemed to fall into place, and in order to fully appreciate the joy this house gives me you need to know the events that led up to its discovery... I had been living in a hotel for a week and I still had not found a suitable domicile (and I really was not all

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1160055738713791332006-10-05T06:30:00.000-07:002006-10-08T06:01:43.630-07:00

When you think of France and French people, often a less than attractive picture comes to mind. One of snotty waiters and people on the street who would rather get their teeth pulled than direct you to the Place de la Concorde. However, like all stereotypes, this is simply not true.As one of my fellow assistants put it, "If someone's only experience with France is in Paris, then it is no wonder

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1159706659081893292006-10-01T05:04:00.000-07:002006-10-01T06:12:21.796-07:00

Welcome to France, and what a journey it has been!For those of you unfamiliar with my situation, let me enlighten you: I am an English assistant in St. Herblain, a suburb of Nantes. I will be teaching in two Colléges (roughly equivalent to Jr. High Schools). Currently I am living in a hotel in the heart of Nantes, looking for an apartment or a room to let, navigating the unorganized world of

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1149867735190830232006-06-09T08:06:00.000-07:002006-07-21T09:32:04.776-07:00

An exploration of an artist: BarcelonaOur last stop in Spain was one of the most eagerly awaited, for me at least. I have been waiting to see a city that was built on a fascinating and unique cultural and social identity. Unplanned though it was, each day our journey focused on a different artist... Day three was Miro, day two was Dali, but...Day One: Gaudi Early in the day we left our hostel and

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1149432090888599742006-06-04T06:51:00.000-07:002006-06-04T07:42:00.066-07:00

I´ll be the first to admit that I am a well traveled person and that I know the best ways to get it done. Nevertheless, sometimes there are things that blind side me and convincee me once and for all that I really have no idea what I am doing...Here are two perfect examples: Granada - former land of Muslim glory, whose beautiful castles (Alcazars) can still be seen today. On this particular day,

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1149000631033411002006-05-30T07:25:00.000-07:002006-05-30T07:56:21.833-07:00

For however much I love and belong in a city - nothing can compare to the calmness that pours over you as you walk along empty, dusty, forgotten country roads. As I sat in a pasture, with cows and goats in the distance, I would like to say I was able to gain a glimpse of what true peace is.But first - how did I get to this place... Almost nine months ago, my friend, Jennifer, and I decided that

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24060356.post-1142375954368863442006-03-14T13:50:00.000-08:002006-03-14T15:06:22.986-08:00

The first post... it has to be something exciting and mind blowing (or a test run to make sure that this new-fangled technology works correctly). Something up lifting and true to who I am. I hate to disappoint my many fans, so now I will write a "Heather's Blog" manifesto that each and every blog post will live up to. Think of it as a check list or personal mission to insure quality,

Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07519017540514195842noreply@blogger.com1