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.

Venice Verte

Venice Verte, Coulon

Venice Verte, Coulon

Venice Verte, Coulon

Venice Verte, Coulon

Monday October 19th I woke up early and carpooled to Chauvigny with Leidy and the computer teacher, Eric, who will be driving us to and from Chauvigny for the remainder of the year. I really enjoy Chauvigny the teachers are very friendly and helpful and the town is gorgeous and tranquil. I have a huge break between my morning and afternoon classes from 11:30-2:30 so my professors proposed that I ride the school bus with the students every week to the town pool and go swimming. How awesome is that!! I don't know if I'll go every week, because I'd like to explore the town a little too (there are castles and tons of tourists sites here) but I'm still super excited to be able to exercise during my lunch break. One of the english teachers also informed me that her family owns a house in Rouen (in the north of France) and if Leidy and me want to take a train there one weekend she'd give us the key (I think every french family owns a cabin somewhere that they only use on some weekends and holidays, usually near the coast). I was also invited to have dinner at a teachers house in Poitiers later in the year (nothing better then a little homemade french cooking as long as you like escargot, because they are usually on the menu). So needless to say they've made me feel right at home and I'm looking forward to working with them all throughout the year.

On Tuesday Leidy and I caught an early morning bus to Poitiers for the second half of the language assistant "stage". This time instead of going over documents and making us fill out a lot of paperwork they were training us on how to teach a class and prepare lesson plans. Needless to say I was extremely bored again. I already knew all this stuff, because I'd taught last year (of course I had to change my teaching style a little because I'm working with older students this year) and I'd already spent hours researching it all on the internet. The teachers constantly had us break up into pair work and come up with lesson plans. I seem to have a natural talent for coming up with things to do. People actually told me after we finished that my students are lucky to have an assistant like me in their classes (some actually told me they wished they worked with me, because I have all the best/creative ideas), go figure I'd be really good at something I don't really care about (I have absolutely no intention of becoming a teacher, although I might stay a language assistant for a few more years so I can do some more travelling...I'm thinking Asia next...). After the "stage" a few of us went out for a few drinks and tried out some new bars before catching our buses and trains home.

Wednesday I found a message in my teacher cubby hole stating that I was to meet the bus outside the school the following morning at 8:30am. I was at a total loss. Had I volunteered to be a chaperone and if so what for?? The teachers usually talk to me in french and I always think I understand everything, but then something like this occurs and I think I've missed something very important during one of our conversations (or maybe they'd just asked me a while ago and I'd forgotten). I went to one of my classes and tried to play it cool by asking nonchalant questions to the teacher about the field trip, but apparently they weren't nonchalant enough because she quickly caught on that I had no idea what was going on (I don't know what gave me away all I did was ask a few questions like do I need to pack a lunch with me). Thankfully I hadn't forgotten about the field trip, I'd just been volunteered and no one had bothered to tell me until the day before. That's France for you. But no complaints here. I free trip to another town, full of fun/free activities and they call this a job.

So bright and early Thursday morning I eagerly waited in the front of the school with 50 students standing around me (25 french and 25 british, it was some weird exchange thing they have set up with a town in England, the brits get hosted here for a week and the french are hosted in England for a week). I think I was looking forward to it more than the students even though I still had no idea where we were going. Once aboard the bus the teachers quickly filled me in what the plan was and where we were going. We spent the day in a town north of Niort called Coulon, also known as the "Venice Verte" or "Green Venice". Basically the area was built on huge wetlands/marshes so a bunch of monks in the 1300s decided to start building canals everywhere to take control the marshes. Now there are canals throughout the countryside, which why its called the "green Venice" because its in nature and not the city. We started our day in Coulon with a little walk and then a trip to a museum that showed us a video on the history of the region and some other displays about the region. After the museum we had a picnic in a park and then walked to a place called the "embarcadero" where we climbed into some boats and went floating around on a guided tour of the canals. It was very beautiful and tranquil. After the boat ride the Embarcadero provided us with some samples of the regional foods. All in all it was a very pleasant, relaxing day even though I had to share it with 50 students.

I had one class on Friday and then my two weeks of paid vacation commenced. YIPEE!! Since the start of vacation I've basically spent my time wandering around Montmorillon exploring all the streets and planning my vacation to Norway and Sweden. Yep, you read right I'm headed to Northern Europe for a week. I'll post my itinerary online here soon. Friday night Leidy and me checked out a band that was playing in one of the bars in town and it was really good, although really quite funny to me. The band was dressed as greasers and playing 50's rock music, but the best part was that the songs were all old american songs and the lead singer was singing them with a french accent which kind of sounded as if bugs bunny was singing the song. I was trying really hard not to laugh, but I couldn't help myself (thankfully no beer sprayed out of my nose). The band was great and they seem to have a following because the bar was packed with people dressed in 50's outfits (it was like something out of the movie crybaby) including little kids (who apparently are allowed in bars in France, I even saw one of them drinking). Monday night we went a saw a french movie called "Les Regrets" which I thought was a comedy because at least that's what it said in the movie listing, but it was a romance (there was no comedy about it, but lots of drama) and it sucked and like all french movies it didn't really have an ending and just kept you hanging. Oh well.



Here's a quick clip of the band that played Friday night. They call themselves Las Vargas. They are singing an oldie the goes "...but Memphis I won't do what my big sister does...". Check out the hair style of the lead singer and the huge cello they use. I actually really enjoyed the music (it made me want to sock hop ;P)

First Week Back in France

So Thursday September 24th I jumped on a plane to return to France. I took off from the Seattle/Tacoma airport before the birds even started to sing and arrived in Toronto, Canada later in the afternoon. I was only suppose to have a six hour layover, but unfortunately there was some sort of mechanical probably with our plane so the six hour layover turned into 9 hours and a departure time of midnight (I guess I shouldn't complain though because at least we weren't flying over the ocean when they realized there was a mechanical problem). I arrived in Paris at the Charles De Gaulle international airport Friday September 25th around noon, which didn't leave me much time to get to the train I had to catch at 1:15pm so I was rushing to get my luggage, pass through customs, get to the train terminal and buy a ticket. I made it to the platform with ticket in hand with only 10 minutes to spare (that was no easy task with two 50 pound checked-bags and a 25 pound carry-on). I took the train to Poitiers and then a bus to Montmorillon (the small town where I'll be living for the next 7 months of my life).

Veronique, one of the english teachers from the school, was waiting at the bus station for me to arrive. She had sent me an email a few weeks before offering to let me stay with her during the weekend when I first arrived (of course there's no polite way of saying 'no actually I really just want to move into my new apartment' so I agreed), so we headed to her place, had dinner and then I crashed out (lots of travelling always exhausts me). Saturday we visited the Saturday market in Chauvigny. Chauvigny is a small town north of Montmorillon, famous for the five castles that surround the town and is also another town where I'll be teaching at once a week every Mondays. We bought some fruits and veggies, stopped for a 'cafe' and then went at visited one of the castles before returning to Montmorillon and dropping off my luggage at my new apartment.

Saturday night I stayed at a different english teacher's house. Her name is Valerie. She made me dinner and then I crashed out again (ever hear of jet lag...yeah it sucks). Before going to bed we discussed what we'd do tomorrow (any one who kept up with my blog last year knows that nothing is open on Sundays in France) so I mentioned that I liked hiking. So Sunday morning Valerie took me to a hiking trail by the "Gartempe" river. It was absolutely beautiful with the rapids and cliffs and I couldn't have asked for better weather. After our hike we visited for a while at her house before she dropped me off at my new apartment.

My apartment has 4 bedrooms. I have the largest room and its also the most secluded (first come, first serve). When you first enter the apartment you walk down the hall way and pass three doors on your right, they are all bedrooms. The two doors you pass on the left are the shower and toilette (because in France the toilette is always in a seperate room from the bath). At the end of the hall is a large living room furnished with couches, tv, a bar and a kitchen nook. To the right of the Living room is the kitchen and right of the kitchen is my bedroom. I have two other roommates (although one I've only seen once in the apartment, because he only stays here very rarely) one is a french boy (who I never see) and the other a columbian girl named Leidy. She doesn't speak much english, so only french is spoken in the house which has made my french improve phenomenally.

Monday morning I was giving a tour of the school that I'll be working in for the year. It's called Lycee Jean Moulin. The students range in age from 11-19 years old and I teach all of them. During the tour I was introduced to my new columbian roommate, who had just arrived. I also was introduced to one of the classes I'd be working with throughout the year.

Tuesday I took my new roommate around town on a tour and showed her the ropes as far what paperwork you have to fill out and where, opening a bank account, etc. I also was introduced to more classes that I'll be working with. When I get 'introduced' to a class it is basically a question and answer. They practice their english by asking me questions about myself and I answer. Like "Wat izzz your name?"

Wednesday morning Leidy and I took a bus into Poitiers for the day to get cell phones and see the city (I've already visited there a couple of times, so I was playing tour guide once again). Basically the first half of my week was spent exploring the new city that I live in, meeting my future students and filling out paperwork (because the french love paperwork. They actually have an expression for it that goes 'why do it the easy way when you can do it the long way').