Winter Break - Paris, Strasbourg, and Aix

We're back from a two-week winter break. I've finished unpacking (meaning I have a large pile of dirty laundry on my floor), I've counted all my travel bruises (one large one from a hostel bed and four that cannot be explained), and I've completed all the very important coming-home tasks (painting my toenails, eating cookies and drinking lots of tea). So now I think it's time to write a little update on our trip!

Hard to believe it's mid-March already. When Jen, Laura, Charlotte and I left, it was still February, and apart from a few sunny days it definitely felt like winter. After a fortnight Laval is finally feeling a bit of a thaw, despite the constant clouds. We headed first to Paris for a few days, including one day spent at Disneyland Paris. We were giddy the entire day at Disney, thanks in part to Laura and Charlotte's mood-enhancing Minnie Mouse ears. I was happy to hear that French Mickey's voice is the same as American Mickey, only in French. A little over half of the day was spent in the actual Disney park, and the other half at Walt Disney Studios park. 

Get it? We're all from different places, so it's a SMALL WORLD?

I'm proud to say we used our time wisely and made it to the majority of the "lands" (Frontierland, Adventureland, etc.) and experienced a lot of rides. Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, It's a Small World...and more. We had a delicious Mexican meal in Frontierland. I was disappointed not to see characters walking around the park; as a result we have no adorable photos posing with characters. Overall it was a great day, even our ride on the Rock'n'Rollercoaster, which was completely terrifying. But I survived! 

Our next stop was Strasbourg, in the east of France, really close to the German border. In fact, there's a bridge where you can apparently walk to Germany. Laura and I tried to get there one afternoon but it was really cold and we missed our bus so that didn't happen. Oh well. Strasbourg is a beautiful city, with lots of characteristic architecture. My favorite part was the amazing enormous gothic church in the center of town. 

We took a boat tour on the Rhine river and got to see the various parts of the city. We ate at a wonderful cafe/bar called Jeannette et les Cycleux, where we became immediate (imaginary) best friends with the waitress/owner?/bartender. It was such a cool place, and the food and drinks were awesome. I had a heavenly beverage made with hot milk and Speculoos paste (a spread made from Speculoos cookies, which are kind of like gingerbread). It tasted like Christmas! I'll definitely be making it now that I'm back in Laval, if I can find that paste somewhere. Also, if anyone knows how to get a case shipped to the US for when I get home, please let me know! Strasbourg also has a chocolate museum where we learned about the history of chocolate and got lots of free samples at a demonstration--yum! Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Yes, that's a BOWL of hot chocolate at Jeannette's

After one more day in Paris (during which we mostly shopped at H&M--someone please ban me from that store!!), we met up with Michael and headed to Aix-en-Provence, in the south of France. I was really looking forward to a bit of sun and warmth, which we definitely found! Charlotte's friend Lucy was nice enough to act as a guide, and we were able to see a lot of this adorable city. Aix has tons of beautiful fountains and a lot of hidden little areas with parks and churches. 

We walked to Paul Cezanne's studio, which was this fantastic house nestled in a little forested area. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos inside, but there were a few of his coats and hats, his palettes with dried paint on them, the ladder he used to paint the walls, various vases and pitchers that you can see in his paintings, a chest of drawers containing photos and articles documenting the building's history. It was incredible. It reminded me of Monet's house at Giverny, but honestly it all felt so much more...accessible. Giverny is obviously now a museum. None of it looks the way it did when Monet and his family lived there. But in Aix, the studio was set up as if an artist were still working there, with a still life bowl of fruit on a small table covered in white cloth. After walking through the house, we spent some time lounging in the sunny garden and exploring the woods around the house. Awesome.

Cezanne's garden

We also went to a great little museum that had Cezannes, Picassos, Paul Klees, and lots of stuff by artists I have never heard of. It was pretty quiet in there, which gave us plenty of time to enjoy every part of the museum. There was an interesting interactive exhibit that used electronics, images, pools of water, projectors and cameras. I didn't really understand it but it was very cool, haha. 

And, after an extremely long day of travel on Friday (starting at 4 am), we arrived back in Laval. I've never taken so many trains in 2 weeks in my life! It was a fantastic break and I'm not at all ready to go back to school on Tuesday. I don't even want to say it, but we only have 6 weeks left in Laval. It's bittersweet. And now I have a sink full of dirty dishes to attend to (that didn't take long) as well as a LOT of clothes to wash. 

-Liz

Off Day

Some days you wake up and everything goes your way. You feel like you're seeing things for the first time, you have a spring in your step, and the sun is shining. Today is not that kind of day for me. I'm going to blame it on the weather. This morning, when everything was covered in a thick layer of fog, Robin said "I love these days when it starts out cold and grey and turns out to be beautiful later." I agreed, obviously, because who doesn't love those days? But it's now quarter to two and the fog is still here! On top of that, it's bitter cold. Hope wind-burned faces are in this spring...

But yes, my off day. I have only really had to teach one class so far today, and it was a complete failure. No one was listening, I was even bored with the topic...I let them go early when I realized it was sort of a lost cause.

Oh well though, right? I mean, everyone is allowed a day like this once in a while! Looking forward to a fun (and maybe relaxing?) weekend!

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Got this email from Target in my inbox this morning, and it really made me long for a hot, sunny summer. I guess I'm looking forward to a good old American summer after I get home from this crazy European thing I'm doing. Look at those beautiful healthy Americans, flouncing around in their cute Target clothes! And oh! Wedge sandals! And oh! Mix-and-match bikinis! I love the moments in early spring when you realize your coat is open and the sun is shining, and suddenly winter is over. Unfortunately then sometimes you have icy cold pouring rain the next day and you realize it's only early February and you shouldn't have gotten your hopes up.

We've been doing lots lately! Friday was Robin's birthday, so after a mini-party in Laval, we caught the last train to Rennes for a night on the town. It was a good time with the group, even though we didn't get into the club we wanted to. The bars were PACKED, and there were tons of people hanging out in the street. We met a really nice cab driver who chauffeured us to McDonald's. By the time our 7:30 am train arrived at the station, we were really ready to head home and go to bed. I can't believe we actually spent the whole night out. There are a few reasons why I would never really do this at home:

1. My friends aren't really "club people"

2. Everyone has a car

3. There aren't any bigger cities easily accessible by train

So, while it was a really fun time wandering the city, I think we'll wait until the weather is warmer to try it again. Always fun, though, to get dressed up and celebrate!

I also made a rainbow cake to go with a yummy pancake dinner.
It was beautiful and pretty delicious! Yes, those are party hats. (Thanks, mom!) 

Here's a sneaky picture of a woman with a dog in her purse on the bus.

I ate a really delicious grapefruit with sugar on top for breakfast this morning. Unfortunately I spilled juice all over my bed. Typical. Good thing tomorrow is clean sheets day! If Laura and I keep spilling juice in bed they'll probably refuse to wash our sheets soon....

This coming weekend we're celebrating Valentine's Day with a little party in my room! Really looking forward to it! We're making this classy recipe; feel free to try it if you're bored and sober any time this week. Let me know how it turns out!

Quick Rant: Bus travel

Hey, we take this bus to go to the big Carrefour

As much as I enjoy taking public transportation, sometimes I get annoyed with the bus system in Laval. Yes, there are lots of buses and lots of lines and stops, so it's pretty convenient in that way. If I'm looking for a bus on a weekday, I usually don't have to look very far or wait very long.

BUT. In a slightly silly move (how could this have been a good idea?), I just looked up the actual distance from Pierre de Coubertin (where we live) to my high school. It's only 2.7 km (1.7 mi). Whether I take the bus or walk there, it takes me close to 40 minutes to make that journey. FORTY MINUTES!!! That's ridiculous.

It's more than twice that distance from my house to Pick N Save on National (our grocery store), and that takes me, what, 4 or 5 minutes in the car? Even if I get stopped at a couple red lights!

It just hit me that perhaps it's not the bus system's fault. Perhaps it's the roads themselves that I should be ranting about! Maybe there's no efficient way of getting from point A to point B here! Ahh!

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For those of you hoping for a real blog post, sorry. Things are going just fine, although some of my students (and teachers???) seem intent on breaking my spirit this week. Had a delightful weekend in Nantes leading up to my immigration medical exam thingie, which went fine. We have lots of fun plans for the coming weeks, and I'm eagerly anticipating Winter Break at the end of the month (Disneyland Paris!!). Perhaps more pictures in the coming days :)

Oh, also: it has come to my attention that people don't think Laval is a great place to live. In Nantes, some of our new friends, upon hearing where we live, felt compelled to apologize! I don't really get this, as the only real faults I've found here are the inefficient bus system (obviously) and maybe the fact that it's pretty small. But it could be worse, as I have been told by several assistant friends. So this isn't gay Paree, big deal. It's nice here (apart from all the rain).

Have a great day and a wonderful Super Bowl weekend (Go Pack Go!!!)

Whoops, France.

"In what will only enforce the belief that some French citizens are saddled with an insufferable insouciance, federal air marshals had to subdue an intoxicated man flying to New York from Nice when he repeatedly shoved a female flight attendant who caught him smoking in the plane’s bathroom.


After being handcuffed, suspect Franck Lebrun announced, 'I’m French, fuck you!'"


Oops. Full story here.

Yes, I am actually still in France.

Well, I might actually be the worst blogueuse ever. Sorry to my loyal fanbase (ahem mom and dad) for not updating in sooo long. My 12-hour workweeks have really caught up with me and I'm just incredibly busy, you know how it is. And my full schedule is probably also the reason my room is so messy. That must be it...right? Right.

Anyway, I thought I'd ease myself back into the whole writing thing by doing a little photo update, starting with pics from Thanksgiving (so many months ago...)

Slightly blurry pic of our Thanksgiving spread...mmmm!

Spent a weekend in Paris, which was beautifully decorated for the holidays.
This tree was enormous, even next to Notre Dame! 

And adorable Christmas market, ice skating rink, and fake snow play area....all under the Eiffel Tower!

Lights on the bridge, Laval

Adorable donkey! at the Christmas market in Laval

Yum yum vin chaud...

Rowdy ski relay game at the foyer's Christmas party

Getting back into teaching has been a bit tough. It seems that all my students have forgotten everything they knew before Christmas! I'm a little afraid my accent has deteriorated over the holidays as well...although I received a really nice compliment from a student the other day: I have two English girls in one of my classes. They live in Laval with their families and have sort of become peers. One day during class, Hannah asked me (in French) if I ever speak French, and I said (in French) that of course sometimes I do, but that I try not to since I'm here to work with the kids on English, etc. etc. And Maisie said "You know, your accent is not shocking. I can tell you're not French but it's not at all obvious where you're from." Maybe that doesn't sound all that great, but to me that's one step closer to a believable French accent!

Tour de French Supermarkets

Today continued the Great Cranberry Hunt of 2010. As we begin to plan our Thanksgiving repas, we're realizing that the ingredients we take for granted in the US and Canada are not so bountiful here in France.

Who would have thought this would be SO hard to accomplish?!

Turkey: Dinde in France is a Christmas thing, so we're obviously way too early for grocery stores to be stocking them. Luckily a teacher at my school offered me the name and number of a turkey farmer he knows. While I know this is going to be a very different experience from picking out a frozen turkey at Pick N Save, I think it might be our only option unless we want to have weird turkey filets at Thanksgiving dinner. Fortunately Jen has cooked a turkey before, so at least we won't be experimenting with technique!

Sweet potatoes: The ones I've seen at the grocery store are shriveled and pathetic-looking. Luckily, we found out the Asian market carries plump, beautiful patates douces, however they are not orange like in the US. They're the same beige-y white of regular potatoes! Weird. But at least they'll taste the same. No discussion yet of whether there will be marshmallows on top.

Brown sugar: Yeah right. Impossible to find. They have cane sugar, but it's not soft and I'm wondering how it'll affect the apple pie...

Canned pumpkin: I'm actually afraid we won't be able to have pumpkin pie, because no one seems to know where to get this. I talked about Thanksgiving in one of my classes today, and they couldn't even believe that we eat pumpkin at all, much less that it is part of a dessert.

Cranberries: I went to 4 different grocery stores today, searching for this elusive fruit. My teacher suggested I look at the frozen food store, but when I asked the woman there, her answer was very blunt: "We don't have those." I ended up buying some frozen airelles, which I thought were currants but which wordreference.com translates as "bilberries." I'm going to cook some up and see what happens... At E. LeClerc, I asked in the produce section and the woman said, "Cranberries, what are those?" and then suggested I look in the dietary needs section. At the organic/natural foods store, the man responded by saying, "Oh, those come from the US" and I said, "Yes, I know. I'm American and I need them for Thanksgiving, which is next week." He replied, "Hmm, Thanksgiving....do you mean Christmas?" He proceeded to lead me to the vitamin section, while asking if I had urinary tract issues. It's possible to find cranberry juice and dried cranberries...may end up concocting something out of those ingredients...

As hard as we're trying to create an authentic North American Thanksgiving, I'm beginning to wonder if it might be impossible!!