February Pics

"South American Invasion of Montmorillon" - Getting ready to leave Le Buvard



"South American Invasion of Montmorillon" - I have another 'Bonne Idea' and like usual it involves vodka ;P



"South American Invasion of Montmorillon" - Yupanqui and me at Le Buvard Saturday night



"South American Invasion of Montmorillon" - Group picture at Le Buvard bar Saturday night



"South American Invasion of Montmorillon" - Eating empanadas Saturday evening



"South American Invasion of Montmorillon" - Star gazing on the soccer field next to our apartment Friday night



Sugar cookies - my favorite one is the Jamaican looking one :)



Sugar cookies



Group photo at Kennedy's Pub



Pamela and me at dinner in La Cabana



Celine, Nalleli and me

February 2010

Monday February 1st - Sunday February 7th
Monday
I spent the day teaching in Chauvigny like usual. Teaching in another town is a bit of a bother sometimes. First off, I always arrive early at the school because I ride there with another professor who starts teaching earlier then me and then instead of being able to return when I'm finished teaching for the day I have to wait around for our driver to finish teaching too. So basically I spend an entire day from 10am (sometimes earlier) until 5pm at the school even though I'll only have two to four hours of teaching a day. Then sometimes (like today) the teacher has meetings after classes so we end up waiting around for an extra hour or two. Not worth it considering lots of times I only go there to work 2 hours. This evening during the extra two hour wait I did happen to learn a very valuable/embarrassing lesson. Apparently in French you can't say "I'm so excited" because its taken in a sexual context (i.e. that you're sexually aroused/excited). I've been saying this in french (Je suis trop excite) for two years and no one ever bothered to correct me before and explain why you shouldn't say it. Needless to say I said this in front of all my colleagues and afterward turned bright red and was extremely embarrassed after they explained to me the cultural differences with this expression.

Tuesday
I received a care package from dad packed full of goodies and Valentine Day gifts. I was signed up by Jean-Pierre (the CDI teacher) to help with an expo being put together to explain 'Development Durable' in March by a program called 'Lafi Bala' (I agreed to supervise a group of students, but refused to build and give a presentation in french on the topic).

Wednesday
All my classes were canceled for the day because the teachers were once again on strike about something. I gave my first tutoring lesson to Eric's 9 year old daughter Lisa in the afternoon(Eric is the teacher who drives me to and from Chauvigny every Monday). She already knew a lot more english then I had expected so I ended up 'winging' the lesson because the things I'd prepared for the lesson she already knew (good thing I've had a lot of practice at winging lessons). In the evening I made sugar cookies to take with me to Angouleme this weekend. By the time I was finished I was covered in flour. I didn't decorate them however because I wanted to get some decorating ideas off the internet first, but the internet hadn't been working all day. In the evening the internet still wasn't working so Leidy and me watched one of the movies dad had sent me for a Valentine's Day gift and played some card games afterwards (we get so bored when the internet doesn't work in the apartment, what did people do for fun before the age of internet and cellphones? I can't even remember anymore how to entertain myself). I fell asleep reading materials that make me contemplate what I'm going to do in the future for a career (a good read, but always a little stressful/worrying to think about the future).

Thursday
I had an extra class of BTS (post-graduation, similar to community college in the states). It was great to meet a few more people around my age. They invited me to go out with them in the evening to have a drink and play pool and I gratefully accepted. While waiting for the hour of rendez-vous with the BTS I decorated my sugar cookies I'd made the day before, some of them turned out pretty cool. I'll post pics. At the prearranged hour Leidy and me met the students outside the school and they drove us to the bar. Once at the bar I realized that 'billards' is different from pool in the states. The table is a little smaller and so are the balls. There are wierd lines drawn on the table and the balls are yellow and red (not stripes and solids and there are no numbers). I explained to them that I didn't know the 'rules' and they'd have to teach me, which they took to mean 'that I'm a silly american girl and I don't know how to play pool'. Big mistake. They quickly decided that I was a 'pool shark' pretending that I didn't know how to play and then cleaning the table better than the boys. But I explained to them that not knowing the rules and not knowing how to shoot are two totally different things ;) After playing a couple of rounds of billiards the students went home to have dinner and Leidy and me walked to the creperie in the medieval area of town to have a crepe for dinner (these aren't sweet dessert crepes, they are dinner crepes with cheese, egg, potato, meat, etc in them). After dinner we met back up with a couple of the students and we all went to Civaux to go bowling. Civaux is a town nearby where the nuclear power plants are located and the bowling alley is right next to the power plant, literally in the shadow of the two towering nuclear towers.

Friday
I went to my morning classes (extremely tired because we hadn't returned from bowling until around 2am) and then caught a train to Angouleme for the weekend to see Pamela and Celine. In the evening we had a huge slumber party at Misty's apartment with all the assistants from last year (well only the ones who had returned to France). We spent the evening gorging ourselves on food (Celine had brought a lot of Swiss chocolate with her, I'd brought my sugar cookies and Michaele brought a Galette de Roi and Misty made an awesome roasted veggie stew that put all my recent cooking adventures to shame), gossiping, telling each others 'love fortunes' by using playing cards and drinking. I couldn't have asked for a better evening in with the girls!!

Saturday
In the afternoon Nalleli and me did a little shopping and then we met up with Pammy and Celine for dinner at La Cabana mexican restaurant (mmmm, chicken fajitas). After dinner we met up with everyone (around 20 others) at "le Girafe" bar for drinks before going to L'Havana to dance (holy deja vu from last year, visiting all our old haunts). After Havana we headed to Kennedy's Pub, but it was closing for the night so we decided to take the party back to the boys' house where we stayed drinking and dancing until leaving at 4am to walk across town to Misty's apartment.

Sunday
Sundays in France are always lazy and uneventful. Celine had to leave early in the morning to catch a train back to Switzerland. Misty and Kena made us a lunch of tossed greens, garlic eggs and chicken salad accompanied by fresh bread from the boulangerie. We spent the day at Misty's being lazy and gossiping (there's nothing else to do on Sundays, especially when its cold outside). It was Superbowl in the USA, but it didn't come on until midnight in France because of the time difference. I stayed up watching it, but everyone else turned in for the night.

Monday February 8th - Thursday Februay 11th
Monday morning I caught an early train back to Montmorillon in order to see Leidy before she left for her vacation to Italy on Tuesday. I spent the evening with Leidy helping her plan out her itinerary for her vacation. Telling her the best routes to take to see all the sights of Rome and how long it would take, recommended hostels and things to see and do, etc. After she went to bed I stayed up job hunting on the internet trying to find something to do this summer. Leidy left early in the morning on Tuesday and I woke up sick, so the rest of the week was spent getting better before I had to leave on Friday for my vacation to Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Thankfully I recovered quickly and was even able to make some chocolate chip cookies for my vacation ;)

Monday February 22nd - Sunday February 28th
Lots of my classes were canceled for the week (I don't know why and I don't complain) so I only ended up working about 5 hours total. Thursday night there was a kick ass thunder and lightening storm that was awesome. In fact it was storming the entire weekend, which was cool to watch and listen to, but I later learned that it flooded a lot of areas in our region of France and had killed around 40 people and destroyed many houses. We had a 'South American Invasion of Montmorillon' during the weekend. Our friend Yupankie (Brazilian) and Caroline (Colombian) came to visit. We met them at the train station Friday evening and gave them I evening tour of Montmorillon before returning to the apartment for dinner and drinks. Saturday afternoon Liedy gave them a tour of Montmorillon while I stayed at the apartment to clean and take care of a few things. In the evening we made empanadas (a colombian specialty) for dinner and then headed to the bar. Sunday morning I woke up and made french toast and bacon for breakfast for everyone. We spent the afternoon chillin' in the apartment (there was a lot of spanish being spoken so I'd excuse myself occasionally in order to get some things done on the internet and work on planning my April vacation). In the evening Leidy made fried chicken and fries for dinner before our two guests had to leave to catch trains home.

January 2010 pics

Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Kennedy's Irish Pub in Angouleme



House party at the Boys' in Angouleme.



House party at the Boys' in Angouleme. Caroline, Leidy and me



Drinking at Kennedy's Irish Pub in Angouleme



Dancing at La Moon in Angouleme



Drinking at Kennedy's Irish Pub in Angouleme



Drinking at Kennedy's Irish Pub in Angouleme

January 2010

Sorry about not updating more regularly. Thankfully I keep a journal so I don't forget anything and you don't miss out on anything.

January 4th-10
My first week back from Spain, I was sick and tired so I basically just laid around trying to get better. I think all my traveling and partying across Spain had finally caught up to me. It snowed Monday night (January 4th) so all my classes were canceled for the week, so I basically had another week of vacation, which worked out great for me because it gave me time to lay around and get healthy again. It actually snowed a couple of times during the week, which is why my classes kept on getting canceled. I got to love the french for their inabilities to deal with even the littlest sprinkling of snow. The reason France shuts down when it snows is because it usually only snows once every 5 to 6 years and only a light sprinkle that melts off in two days, so they never bother to buy snow plows and salt. This year has been a weather anomaly with it snowing multiple times and lasting for more then a couple of days. I'm beginning to think global warming is a myth ;) During the first weekend back (January 8th-10th) Leidy had a Colombian friend who's living in the south of France (along the French/Spain border) come to visit. Unfortunately, since I was sick I didn't really get to do anything with them, but they did cook up an awesome Colombian dinner for me one night.

January 11th-14th
Monday night Leidy and me went to the local cinema and watched a french comedy with Dany Boone called "Micmacs A Tire-Larigot". I'm really not that big of a fan of french films, in fact Leidy flat out refuses to go and watch anymore, because we never enjoy them. This one was suppose to be a comedy, but honestly it was rather depressing and really strange. On Tuesday I started Spanish lessons with Leidy. So I'm hoping my Spanish will be pretty good by the time I head to Spain with Dad in April. We had a new roommate move in on Thursday. He's only going to be staying on Thursday nights (like our other roommate that we never see) and he has a car so he always drives us to the good/big grocery store on the other side of town to do our shopping. He's the sports teacher here at the school. For his first night in the apartment we cooked him a dinner (its not very often that we get to host people for dinner) and got to know him.

January 15th-17th - Weekend trip to Angouleme
Friday afternoon Leidy, Caroline (a Colombian friend of Leidy's who works as an assistant just north of Poitiers) and me went to Angouleme. Normally I take the train but this time we tried out a thing called "Co-voiturage" which is basically like couchsurfing, but with cars. Its a website to find someone that's headed to the same town as you and you catch a ride with them. Its a lot cheaper than the train and you get to make new friends. Friday night their was a house party at the boys' place so we all hungout there. I turned in around 2am (that's early in Europe) and headed to Michaele's house where I was staying for the weekend. Saturday morning Michaele and me spent the morning gossiping and catching up, before I headed into town to meet up with the other girls for a bit of shopping. Unfortunately I was the only one in the group that actually likes shopping, so it wasn't that enjoyable :( In the evening I met up with a friend from last year named Brittney and her husband Alex at a new bar that just opened up in Angouleme. We had a few drinks and caught up, before they retired for the night and I met back up with Leidy and Caroline. We were suppose to go to the boys' house to meet up with everyone, but we decided to head out to Kennedy's Irish Pub instead. About 30 minutes after we arrived at the bar, everyone from the boys' house (~15 people) decided to join us. I guess the party just follows me where ever I go :P We all stayed at the bar until it closed at 2am. Fortunately the owner of the bar loves me, so I asked her if she could call over to the club "La Moon" to get us all in for free. She made the call and the huge group headed to the club (normally the guys don't go out to the clubs with us because they don't want to pay to get in, but I worked my magic and everyone got in for free so we were a huge possy). Our numbers slowly started to dwindle around 3:30am, but Leidy, Caroline, Roman, Benoit and me kept dancing until the club closed a little after 5am. We returned to the boys' house but didn't sleep. We ended up staying up even later playing a "word association" game in french (its where someone says a word and you have to find a word that is similar, but not to closely related for example: if I say 'church', the next person might say 'religion' and the following person says 'crusades'). Anyways, it was a very long night like usual in Angouleme (ha! and I had originally planned on turning in early Saturday night) ;P Sunday morning we woke early (surprisingly enough) and Nalleli, Roman and I headed into town to find an open boulangerie (bakery) to buy croissants and pastries for breakfast for everyone. After our communal breakfast, Nalleli, Leidy, Caroline and me headed to Misty's house to visit and catch up before meeting up with our "co-voiturage" driver, who drove us back to Poitiers, thus ending our enjoyable weekend in Angouleme.

January 18th-24th
Monday was spent in Chauvigny like usual. Eric, the science teacher who drives us back and forth between the towns on Monday, has decided to have me give english lessons to his little daughter. So I'll be making a little extra money on the side tutoring. In the evening I was struck with a "bonne idee" (a good idea). When we'd driven from Spain to France we had stopped at the border and loaded up with cheap alcohol, which we had yet to consume. So around 11pm I was extremely bored and offered a glass of vodka and orange juice to Leidy. Pretty soon our "one glass" turned into one liter of Vodka. We stayed up all night drinking until 5:30am just chatting, watching YouTube videos, trying to learn the dance to the Thriller music video, etc (basically just being silly drunks). Unfortunately the next day my "bonne idee" didn't seem so great anymore. Leidy had class at 8:30am and ended up going to class with only 2.5 hours of sleep and still completely intoxicated. Fortunately my first and only class of the day wasn't until 4pm, but it still wasn't a very pleasant class since I was hungover and not feeling that awesome (I ended up releasing the kids 10 minutes early so I could return home and recuperate). Thursday there was a STRIKE in the schools so my classes were canceled! Leidy and me decided to go into Poitiers for the day and do some massive "Soldes" shopping. The "Soldes" are the time of year when all of France goes on SALE because they are trying to get rid of all of last years/seasons designs/collections. I don't think Leidy realized what she had volunteered herself to go through when agreed to go shopping with me (which is why my friends in Angouleme refuse to go with me, because they know I'm a hardcore shopaholic and they aren't that into it). First we hit up every store and I mean EVERY store just looking at what they had and prices, then we returned to the stores where I'd found things that I liked and tried everything on. Leidy had never seen anything like it as I walked into a changing room with 20 articles and end up leaving with half of them (she thought she'd bought a lot when she'd only purchased 3 little things and a pair of boots, I dropped around 200 euros!). We literally shopped all day from when the stores opened at 10:30am until around 6pm. After I finished shopping we met up with a couple of assistants who work in Poitiers for a coffee before heading to the train station to catch a ride back to Montmorillon. Ahhh, its amazing how a much better a little "retail therapy" can make you feel. Friday morning I ended up having a new group of students in my 2nde class (that's about the equivalent to juniors in high school). The are really great and actually try to speak in english, so I really like the new group, except there are a few students in it that are always hitting on me which is not only embarrassing, but extremely uncomfortable. Leidy was suppose to be heading to the south of France to see a friend and go skiing for the weekend but she was not feeling well so she ended up staying the weekend in Montmorillon with me. Saturday I hungout at the apartment cooking all day (shrimp, yum!) and in the evening Leidy and me went to our favorite bar here called "Le Buvard" to watch a live pop/rock band play. I randomly started talking to some french people at the bar and they invited us to go drink at their table with them. Yeah!! We finally made some french friends in Montmorillon!! We're all planning on getting together after the vacation and going to a club together. So I'm looking forward to hanging out with some new people. Sunday was spent cooking again. Beef egg drop soup: Success!

January 25th-31st
Monday I worked in Chauvigny like usual. One of the english teachers asked if I'd be willing to work more than my contract of 3 hours if they paid me more, I said "OF COURSE!" Tuesday my class was canceled because they were having a test, so I started a thorough cleaning and reorganizing of my room. Wednesday Leidy and me visited the 'Salon de The' (The Tearoom) for some tea and cake in the afternoon after my classes (we hadn't visited since before Christmas break and we were starting to have withdrawls). In the evening I made fish for dinner, yet another success in cooking. Thursday I made egg drop soup: success (did I mention that I've been doing lots of cooking lately?). Our new roommate took us shopping and then made us supper, which was very nice of him. Since he's the sports teacher he's offering to let us take a woman's self defense class that he's teaching in the evenings and he's also set up a workout machine in the living room for us. Yes! During the weekend Leidy left to go to Angouleme to see the Bande Dessinee, which is a huge comic book convention. I went last year and decided I'd rather stay in Montmorillon for the weekend, since I'll be in Angouleme next weekend to see Pamela and Celine who are flying in from Scotland and Switzerland to see us all. I didn't do much over the weekend except organize everything for my trip to Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Other than that, just a lot of cooking :)

I'll try to write again soon. Loveya! xxx

December Pictures

Leidy's first snow

A snowy Montmorillon

Sudoko player machine. A present from the grandparents

A snowy Montmorillon

A snowy Montmorillon

A snowy Montmorillon

Dancing at La Moon

Dancing at La Moon

Dancing at La Moon

Dancing at La Moon

Dancing at La Moon

Beto and me at Cinq Sens

Beto and me at Cinq Sens

Picture of part of the group in Angouleme

December

The first weekend of December (4th-7th) was spent in Angouleme visiting friends. My former spanish roommate Gloria took a train from Madrid, Spain to Angouleme for the weekend to see everyone. Some of our other friends from last year came to visit too, so there was a huge reunion in Angouleme. I arrived Friday evening and stayed the weekend at Misty's apartment, so that's where my fun began. Upon arriving at Misty's we quickly headed to the market to buy some food and alcohol for the weekend. Friday night was suppose to be the "pre-game" night and Saturday night the huge blowout party night. But we didn't exactly follow that plan. Everyone started drinking early and hard Friday night as we all got together and discussed what we did over the summer. We visited a bunch of our "old haunts" from last year, like Kennedy's Pub, Cinq Sens, L'Havana Bar and ended the night at "la Moon" dance club. It was a long night (we arrived home around 6am). Everyone ended up sleeping in Saturday. In the evening a group of us went to a Pizzeria that I'd never visited before. It was really cool because the pizza is super long (about 4 feet long and one foot wide) and with really different types of toppings (how often do you eat potatoes and salmon on your pizza?). We ended up going out again after the dinner to Cinq Sens, L'Havana and La Moon, but everyone was still pretty hungover and broke from the night before so we didn't drink that much. We did dance at La Moon dance club until around 3:30 am though. Sunday was a "chillaxin" day. Misty and me cleaned the apartment a little, made some cookies and in the evening all the girls came over and we had a large slumber party in the living room. Monday morning Nalleli and me took Gloria to the train station to see her off and then headed into town to do some shopping. I was suppose to catch a train back to Montmorillon in the evening, but Nalleli talked me into staying for another night (I'm not quite sure why, because she had a dinner meeting with some professors so we didn't really get to hangout much more). Since Nalleli had dinner plans already I met up with the boys (Beto, Fabien and Benoir) and we all went to "le Souris Vert" (the green mouse) for some drinks while we waited for Nalleli. I took a train Tuesday morning back to Montmorillon because I had class at 4pm. It was a really fun weekend and I'm looking forward to more like it. Pamela (from Scotland) and Celine (from Switzerland) are already discussing when our next reunion in Angouleme will be, since they weren't able to join us for the last one (sounds like probably the end of January or the beginning of February).

The second weekend of December (11-13th) was the "Marche de Noel" (Christmas Market). So we spent Saturday wandering around the different markets and booths, looking at things and trying free samples. We ended up buying ostrich sausage, pear cider and escargot pate. All of it was absolutely delicious. I also bought some books on the history of Montmorillon to aid me in my research for writing my book. There's a carnival in town for the festivities too, but no "fun/adult" rides (boring).

My weekdays consisted of reading, preparing lesson plans, cooking (potato salad = failure; Crab salad = success), teaching, researching info for my book, etc. I received a couple of care packages in the mail (thanks you guys! they were all awesome and very thoughtful) and it snowed for a few days causing some of my classes to be canceled (YES!!). It was Leidy's first time ever seeing snow. The last week before the start of vacation was the 15th - 18th, but all my classes were cancelled from Tuesday on so I ended up teaching on Monday only in Chauvigny (so my vacation actually started Monday evening). Wednesday the 16th I had to go into Poitiers for the day to visit the Immigration office and finish all my paperwork. A stupid pain in my butt, but it is all finished and taken care of so there's no more paperwork for me to do (yeah!).

Yesterday(22nd) Leidy and me were invited to lunch at a co-worker's house. We went and had a wonderful time. They were so hospitable. Jean-Pierre is a librarian in our school and his wife Deborah is an art teacher in the school. They have two children a 13 year old boy and a 5 year old girl who were also pleasant and polite. We started the meal off by having a bottle of white wine (Jean-Pierre is from Bordeaux so he is a wine expert and he explained to us all about wine) and pate (I don't actually like pate, but I ate it anyways to be polite...I almost threw up...I really, really don't like pate). For the main course we had a potato dish that is similar to our scalloped potatoes and some dried ham and a bottle of red wine (with another explanation of how the wine, was made, why they chose that wine for the meal, where its made, etc). French tradition with wine has always amused me. During a typical meal you will go through many bottles of wine, depending on how many courses you eat. Each course requires a different type/flavor of wine to bring out the best flavor of the food. This can also make for a very long meal, because a new course will not be brought out until the bottle is finished. After the main course we had apple tart (similar to apple pie) and a coffee (it's traditional to drink coffee after a meal to help the digestion, in fact they call it a "digestif"). Then we moved to the living room to chat. We ended up chatting for a long time. They are very nice, open-minded people, so the conversation was excellent. We had some tea and cookies before returning home. We'd been at their house for 5 hours. My how time flys.

Anyways, we leave tomorrow evening for Madrid so I've just been getting everything ready for that trip. I'll post my itinerary a little later. LoveYa.

A weekend in Angouleme

Having a few beers by the Charente river

Entrance to the Jardin Vert in Angouleme

Having a drink in Cinq Sens with a few friends

Friday October 9th Leidy and I caught a train to Angouleme. I wanted to see all my friends and pick up the stuff I'd left from last year. We stayed at the boys' house (which is the house I would have been living in if I'd moved back to Angouleme, instead of to Montmorillon) and they threw a big welcome back party (it wasn't just for me, they had just returned Monday from spending the summer in Brasil). The partys there are always huge and last until the wee hours of the morning, so I think I didn't make it to bed until around 5 am.

We slept in late Saturday, but then I took Leidy on a tour of the town around the ramparts and all my favorite gardens and stores. We ate lunch on the steps of the St. Martial church in the center of town (which was one of my favorite things to do last year, because its great for people watching). In the evening we met up with Nalleli, Michaele, Emily, and Emily's friend who was visiting from the states (weird story...I told Emily's friend that I was from Townsend, Montana and he said he actually knew some people from there {even though he is from North Carolina} because he'd dated a girl from east helena. I asked him who it was that he knew and he told me he knew Chris Ludwig who is a good friend of mine. but it was a little awkward because the reason he knew my friend was because he'd stolen his girlfriend...its such a weird small world that I'd be living half way around the world and meet someone who'd stolen my friend's girlfriend and happened to be friends with one of my friends in France...what a coincidence). Anyways, we had supper at a little italian restaurant and were there eating for a good three hours, before we headed to L'Havana to do some dancing. We got bored of l'havana a while later, so we grabbed some beers and walked down to the Charente river where we drank and chatted until the wee hours of the morning.

I woke up Sunday and began packing my suitcase full of all the things I'd left behind last year. Sundays are usually very boring and relaxing in France because everything is closed, but once I finished packing Leidy and I decided to walk into town real quick to see if anywhere was open to get something for lunch. As we rounded the corner to the center of town the streets were packed with people and venders. It was the weekend of the yearly bizarre. I was super excited that the one weekend I'd randomly decided to visit Angouleme happened to be the same weekend of the once yearly bizarre. Leidy and me looked around at all the venders and grabbed something to eat before wandering back to the house to grab our stuff and head to the train station. Kena met us at the house and helped me carry my stuff to the train station. She hung out with us and saw us onto the train before taking off. I was glad she stayed and visited with because she was one of my roommates last year and she hadn't seen her all weekend. All in all, I passed a great weekend in Angouleme and was able to see all my friends from last year and make some new friends too. I plan on visiting Angouleme at least once a month (hopefully twice) while I'm in France. My town is small and there's nothing to do on the weekends anyways, so it'll be great to be able to go to Angouleme, visit with my friends and always have a free place to crash ;P