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!

Free Advertising...

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!

---------

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!!

Weirdest Halloween Ever.

Halloween 1993 - The Balges hit the streets!

I wasn't expecting to see a lot of Halloween decor, or tons of kids dressed up for Trick or Treat, or grocery store aisles full of candy especially for the holiday. I wasn't expecting to see temporary Halloween Express stores crop up every few blocks. But I guess I had hoped for a little bit of Halloween spirit...to remind me of being at home this time of year. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and at Valpo there were always parties to attend and plenty of costumes to ogle. But out and about in Laval yesterday and today, I only saw a handful of kids in costume: 2 girls who had written "666" on their foreheads in lipstick (scary, and not in a Halloweeny way), and a couple toddlers, one of whom was just wearing a cape with his normal clothes...so I'm not entirely sure that was a costume. Oh, and we saw a few teenage girls dressed in all black (like that took any effort, this is France!) wearing witch hats.

I guess we kind of got the costume bug out of our systems early this year (with Jen's birthday party) because no one really made a fuss about not dressing up. But we went out anyway, which gave me an opportunity to get rid of some of the 200 Halloween tattoos I brought (thanks Target!). I'm happy to say Halloween did not pass without me eating way too much sugar; the Tootsie Rolls and Fun Dip my mom sent took the place of bags of trick or treat candy. I definitely got nostalgic reminiscing about sorting my candy on the family room floor, and deciding which piles to eat and which to save. Any peanut butter cups would be gone first, no matter how hard I tried to ration them.

Also: I just realized that not a single person mentioned Charlie Brown or The Great Pumpkin this year. And I didn't hear a single note of creepy haunted house music!

Busy weekend....

I haven't been posting a lot lately because, to be honest, there isn't much happening around here. I've been running errands around town, relaxing. It's been nice, if a little boring. The weather's been a bit on and off the past couple days...some misty rain and fog. But today has been beautiful! One thing I still can't get over is the sunsets here. I literally take a picture of the sunset every other day. And the sunset is fleeting, probably only worth looking at for 5 or 10 minutes. That's probably why I like it so much.

I get to see this sherbet-colored sky every single day!! 

Last night I went to Anne-Marie's house to babysit for her adorable daughter Anaelle. It was so fun, and I think I made a new friend haha. We played Barbies for 2 hours. Anaelle has such an imagination! She kept coming up with elaborate stories (most of which involved witches who wanted to imprison animals...) and she would tell me what my character was supposed to say or do. The best part about going to Anne-Marie's house? They have a dog! I've really missed my dogs and just cuddling with animals in general, so you can imagine I did my best to take advantage of snuggle opportunities. I had a lot of fun, and I stayed for a delicious dinner after babysitting. It looks like this will be a semi-regular thing, so that'll be nice!

One crazy thing: Anne-Marie told me she's never seen a fresh cranberry before. We had some cassis/cranberry yogurt stuff, and she said, looking at the picture on the container, that she could only assume it was a picture of a cranberry because the other berry pictured was cassis. I couldn't believe it! Cranberry is my favorite thing in the whole world. I told her I'd try to bring some fresh ones back for her after Christmas and we could make cranberry sauce. Mmmmm.

Then today, I met at a cafe with Ludovic, a man who wants to start English lessons/conversations every week. We chatted about his job (something about pumps?) and the military. He was really curious about military service in the US. I am like the least knowledgeable person on that subject. I tried to answer his questions but it was tough because he doesn't understand English very well. Anyway, he just wants to converse in English a bit and be able to express himself. It'll give me something to do on saturdays!

Ambroise Pare

Since the weather was so nice, I walked over towards school to check out the weekly market. I bumped into two women whom I had asked for directions last night on the way to Anne-Marie's, and we chatted a bit. So friendly! I snapped a couple pictures of the school in the sunlight, and a really cute cat came over and meowed at me. Of course I had to pet her! I'm sure she was someone's pet, because she was super clean and fluffy.

You can bet I scratched the heck out of those ears. So cute. 

Beautiful weather for a picnic!

We're all on Fall Break this week (and for part of next as well), so instead of having very little to do, we have nothing to do. A lot of people are traveling, to Dublin, Norway, around France. I'm ashamed to admit I dropped the ball on my Granada plans...so I'm sticking around here for most of the break. I'm hoping to visit Kellie in Rouen and possibly head to Paris next week. I don't know, we'll see. I'm so bad at making all these plans...I need someone to nag me a little bit or it'll never get done! Today though, Charlotte and I packed a picnic lunch and went to the Jardins Publiques. It was beautiful and relaxing and quiet...perfect!

First French dinner party

Tonight Alicia and I went to our first French dinner party! Her advising teacher is married to my advising teacher, so we went to their house for dinner tonight. The rest of the guests were also English teachers, friends and coworkers.

When we arrived at about 7:45, we enjoyed some samosas as an appetizer, with wine and beer. There was a lot of conversation among the teachers, with snotty jokes about Nicolas Sarkozy sprinkled in. A few comments on the strike (thank goodness no one asked my opinion…). After about 45 minutes in the living room, we moved to the dining area for dinner. Of course more wine. The meal was really good, possibly Kenyan-inspired (Jo is from Kenya)? We had a beef stew with cabbage, sweet potatoes, cassava, and a sort of flatbread. It was all really flavorful and yummy! The conversation around us was loud, fast, and confusing. There were a lot of jokes and side comments and conversations. I had a really hard time following it, and after a while I just kind of switched off my brain. Easier to just zone out. After the main course and a long pause, Jacques and Jo brought out bread, cheese and salad. And more wine. By the time we finished the cheese and bread, it was after 11; Alicia and I were exhausted. Jacques ran us back to the foyer before the dessert was served.

Some weird things:

The conversation focused on a couple of topics: the school system, politics, healthcare, the strike. The “grown-ups” seemed to greatly enjoy the discussion, and they all got really into it. But no one ever tried to incorporate me or Alicia into the conversation. We just basically sat in silence as they all talked and talked. Not that I would have had a lot to add, but it was just strange since we’re kind of the new kids in town. There wasn’t even any talk of, like, “how has your time in France been so far?”

It was overall a really tiring evening, but I’m glad we went!

Signs of cold weather to come...

I was up before the sun today to go to school. I opened my window when I woke up, and two things happened. First, I realized I could see my breath. Second, I heard someone scraping ice off their car windows. Two signs that, though winter isn’t quite upon us yet, it’s right around the corner. The mornings are so tough already. Getting up when it’s still pitch black outside is not easy. It’s weird to walk through the center of town at 8 am. Cars have headlights on, the lampposts are all still lit, and there are even small lights lining the sidewalk across the bridge. It feels like the middle of the night, and without a clock, you wouldn’t know the difference. Yet, everyone walks around normally in the dark, carrying briefcases and backpacks on the way to work or school.

Dawn.

School today was pretty good. I talked with one class about Rosie the Riveter. They just finished a unit on stereotypes of men and women, and gender roles. I showed them a video of the song about Rosie that came out in 1942. I’m not sure they totally got what I was saying about women in the workforce, but they definitely liked the song. A couple of the boys were singing along.

In the other class, I watched a bunch of really terrible skits about going to England. I shouldn’t say they were terrible; there’s a handful of kids in the class who speak English really well. They must have learned the phrases “my accent is rubbish” and “I’m crap at English” in class, because almost every group used one or both of those lines. Something that surprised me: only one student (the one girl in the class who does drama) even made a tiny effort to act in the skit. There was literally NO emotion otherwise. I feel like, when I was in high school, that was my favorite thing to do. Anyone can write something to prove they know the language. It’s a lot more fun to write and perform a skit, isn’t it? Maybe everyone is just too afraid of making mistakes to enjoy themselves?

Other than that, not a lot going on. It was my birthday on Tuesday so a bunch of us had dinner together (including an enormous and fabulous cake made by Jen) and then a little party. We had so much fun hanging out! It feels like, because there are so many of us, we’ll be celebrating a birthday every couple of weeks. Not that I’m complaining, of course…!

The strike continues

I woke up super early to go to school this morning, because I wasn't sure if classes would be canceled. Just my luck, the gates were closed and the students had created bigger barriers. Everyone was just kind of hanging around. I figured that meant the school was on strike so I came back to the foyer and took a nice nap.

But more importantly!! I saw my first French Guido today! I didn't know they existed in France but I guess they do! It was kind of hard to tell because his fake-bake looked more like a sunburn, but he still had a variation of the Guido hair. Yikes.

Yogurt Review!

La Mayenne is known for its dairy products (just like Wisconsin!) and I have really been enjoying the dairy stuff so far! Obviously I eat cheese and bread basically all day, every day. And I’ve been eating a LOT of yogurt. It’s strange because I almost never eat yogurt at home—it always makes me feel sick. But not here, for some reason. Selective geographic lactose intolerance?

I just bought a giant pack of fruity flavored yogurt: Danone Taillefine. The first one I tried was lemon. It was SO refreshing! It was a really light flavor, and granted I love anything lemon, but it’s really just a tasty yogurt. It’s funny because I feel like in the U.S. it would have to be lemon meringue pie or lemon cheesecake or something. There’s always a gimmick. Extra creamy or fluffy or moussey or whatever. They should start selling more basic flavors. I bet that would do well. 

On my 3 hour lunch break...

Just tried to have my first serious conversation about the grève with 2 of my colleagues at the lycée. Did not really go well. I said I didn't understand how kids--14, 15, 16 years old--could really be thinking about retirement. They said that it DID concern the students because raising the retirement age means people will be working longer, which means that these kids will have an even harder time finding jobs. Well, to me (and I think to a lot of young Americans) that's just reality. There haven't been enough jobs for years. Recent graduates are scrounging around for any job they can get (TJMaxx, anyone?) and a lot end up taking positions like the one I have, as a way of postponing the real life job search. Or they choose grad school, in hopes of better qualifying themselves and getting the edge over competition.

In the US, if you're complaining about people not having jobs, you don't show it by skipping out on work! Seems counterintuitive to an outsider like me.

I'm tempted (and it would be easy) to say that this strike is stupid. But that's not really true...It's just not something I understand.

So when I got to school at 7:45 this morning (in basically pitch blackness), there were tons of students outside the front gates. That's sort of normal, because usually they all stand out there and smoke before school. But they had also blocked off part of the street with traffic cones and garbage cans, and they had made a couple signs attached to the fence. I had to fight through the crowd to get in, and I even had to break up some guys who had linked arms to form a chain. When I got to the teachers' lounge there was a meeting under way. Apparently, they were voting about whether or not to join the students on strike.

The vote was a yes (from the 10 teachers present), and they made signs declaring their support. Isabelle (not participating) and I went to our class and only had 2 students. They decided to switch the schedule around and combine classes for English. This meant that Isabelle and I had a free hour, so we went and had a coffee in the lounge.

When we went back to the room an hour later, there were about 7 students in our class. Another 4 joined us from another class, and there were rumors going around that the headmaster had told all the profs to go home. We decided to have class anyway, and spent a good half hour talking about what was going on. Eventually we got to some English. I introduced myself and told them a little about where I come from, and then they asked me questions. Typical. I can't wait to actually teach a real lesson.

Everyone keeps saying that things will be back to normal after the fall break. That's three weeks from now! I seriously don't know how anyone gets anything done in France! If I had this much extra time in the US...imagine how productive I would be!

Baby's first manif

Today after school I went to the grocery store, dealing with delayed and canceled buses on the way because of the strike (perturbé is the big buzzword these days). Oh, maybe I forgot to mention...the national strike is under way. Obviously there are still some people working, but lots of teachers and students are not coming to school. They had to shut the Eiffel Tower and turn away hundreds of tourists the other day, and 30% of the flights from Charles de Gaulle were cancelled. For us, the main consequence is limited buses and missing teachers and students. For those interested, the strike is in response to a government announcement that they're raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. Anne-Marie really reamed out one of  our classes today when they expressed interest in demonstrating. She said (and I agree) that the students skipping class for the strike were just looking for a reason to skip class. This issue doesn't affect them, so it's really silly for them to get behind in class just for this. I sat in the back of the room with my mouth hanging open, really glad she wasn't yelling at me.

On my way back from the grocery store, though, the buses were really messed up so I just decided to get off and walk back home. As I turned a corner, I heard chanting and was face to face with this:

A group of hundreds of high school students, diverting traffic and marching towards the center of town. As you can see, there were police officers around too, which made me nervous, but they were helping to direct traffic, so I'm not really sure what purpose they served. Here's a video of the exodus. The big cheer at about 00:22 is when the two groups of demonstrators came together in the plaza. I would estimate it was over a thousand kids in total. All missing school in the middle of the day....tsk tsk.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. We celebrated Jen's birthday on monday with a costume party. I went as Rosie the Riveter....symbol of American femininity, all that. Love her.

Me and the birthday girl!

It was a really fun party and luckily I didn't have to go to school until 3 pm the next day! My schedule has been pretty easy so far, but I'm not looking forward to tomorrow...I have 5 classes, starting at 8 am! And with the buses as perturbés as they are, I may end up walking to school. Have I mentioned how short the days are here? It's still dark at almost 9 am!

Hilarious story in the local news

20 tons of ham spilled on the highway, near Saint-Roch.

Yum yum

The best thing about living in France is that I'm totally justified in eating bread and cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The downside: crumbs all over my apartment...

Personne ne laisse Bébé dans un coin

 

Translation:

"That would be SO cool, if our guys knew a whole routine by heart so they could do that with us!"
"Yeah, even if that implied that they were gay."

(Image from the delightful http://www.penelope-jolicoeur.com/. Can I just be her best friend already??)

Day Trip to Rennes

Yesterday a bunch of the female assistants headed out on the train to Rennes. We've come to realize that weekends are basically full of nothing here, so we should take advantage of any opportunities to get out and about. So the 8 of us enjoyed a day of shopping in Rennes!

The train took us past some beautiful countryside and adorable towns. It took less than an hour to get to Rennes, so it made a great day trip. We headed straight for the center of town, and probably ended up hitting a dozen shops. The streets were crowded with people and the stores were even more full. Apparently saturday is the day to shop in Rennes? It got a little overwhelming at times, with the music and the talking and the chaos. But overall it was a good day and the city is beautiful. I'll post some pictures later of the architecture in Rennes.

As we walked over one of the many bridges in the city, someone remarked, "Does every French city have a river running through it?" It makes sense, if you think about it. Rivers were/are ideal for communication, transportation, and industry. I'm sure we've talked about this in one or more of my classes over the years. There's a quote by someone...can't remember who, that talks about how in France and Europe, the cities were here first, and then the roads were built to serve the cities. In the US, the railroads and highways dictated where cities would be placed. Sarah Vowell has this amazing essay about the intersection of Michigan and Wacker in her book Take the Cannoli. It's all about how the entire history of the US can be told from that physical location.

Wow. This has gotten really off-topic. I bought a cute dress for work and some earrings, and really enjoyed the day out.

Later we went out to L'aventure Cafe, a sort of beach/jungle-themed bar that has a couple of inches of sand all over the floor (yuck). It was fun, and definitely very different from O'Regans! Today is another jour de rien, so I'm going to clean my apartment and maybe force myself to write a few lesson plans.

Tomorrow we're having a costume party to celebrate Jen's birthday. Should be fun to see what everyone comes up with out of our very limited wardrobes!