Nearly Christmas!!

Well, it's almost Christmas vacation! (I leave tomorrow today and still have a million things to do, YIKES!)

There was a strike at my high school; the teachers were striking because the academy wants to cut two of their programs. I think they're worried that in a few years, the whole school will just shut down. The strike started last Wednesday, so I didn't have classes Thursday or Friday (I went to see The Hobbit on my unexpected days off). On Sunday, the other assistant and I were invited to go see La Course Landaise (regional bullfighting). Of course I had already seen a bit of it at he Cocardes and Championnat at the end of September, but this time it was in an indoor arena -- one of the first of its kind, and had just opened a week or so before. One of the younger professors (who was also invited by our lovely librarian) drove everyone, which was really nice.

The show was basically exactly what I was expecting, though quite a bit shorter than the Championnat (thank goodness). I saw some "familiar" faces that had been at the Cocardes and Championnat, which was interesting.

The senior class of the local high school did a little show to entertain the kids -- they dressed up as Santa Clauses and played musical chairs (except with a calf running around trying to knock everyone/everything over) and did a dance routine. They also apparently have a rivalry between two villages (the one with the arena, and another not far away). So they had older teenagers representing each village do some competitions.

For one of the competitions, they had to do a relay (take water from a big bucket into a smaller bucket, crawl through a tunnel, run up and over a ramp, and empty their buckets into a vial). Sounds simple? Except then they put an angry bull in the middle of the ring. So suddenly it wasn't so easy.

In another game, 4 people from each team got into a contraption that was basically 4 giant inner-tubes stacked on each other and were given a giant hula hoop to hold (they could stick their arms out between the innertubes). Then, yep, you guessed it! They let an angry bull loose in the ring. The object of the game was to get the bull to charge you and slip the hoop around it, so that it went completely through the hula hoop. (Yes, they were wearing helmets, but not much else by way of protection.)

Suffice it to say, contraptions were completely wrecked. But I don't think anyone got seriously injured. I think I'll stick to my wild and crazy hobby of reading books after school, but it was fun to watch. And all the kids clearly knew what they were doing, so though it sounds pretty unsafe to me, I'm sure it wasn't actually that much of a risk.

Other than that, I have just been plugging away at grad school applications. (Finally completely and totally done. Just waiting on a few letters of recommendation and then it's on to the next stage: waiting anxiously while university after university inevitably rejects me. ha.)

I am quite ready for Christmas break (even if I'm not at all prepared for it). All of the professors have been getting sick and the kids are getting antsy. But my 11/12 year olds remain as ADORABLE as ever (dare I say, maybe even more adorable???). I think I might be starting to get somewhere with some of my high schoolers (some groups are just zombies, but other groups are coming along). I've got to find a way to lay off on the cookies, though. These kids are breaking the bank. But I do kind of love how much they love the chocolate oatmeal cookies since they're a family recipe and my personal favorite cookie in the whole wide world.

Other than that, I'm really not doing much of anything. (I hope to be changing this when this break is over and I am finally free of the grad school application shackle.) I got a wonderful package from my lovely best friend yesterday, and I am now equipped with fake snow and (more) tea (no such thing as too much tea!), a good book, and a good many other things besides. My mom sent me a package, too; I got a packet of postcards from my aunt and uncle; and I might be (finally, maybe) almost done with paperwork to get housing assistance.

Tomorrow I jet off to Lyon, then Geneva and Marseille during the Christmas holidays. I was really excited to go paragliding near Geneva, but it turns out that they're not open in December. I'll just have to find some other thrilling, daredevil activity to occupy my time. I'm also super excited to go visit CERN and the large hadron collider (*nerd*).

So with that, lovely people, I shall leave you. If you have any suggestions on things to see in or around any of those cities, drop me a line in the comments. Oh, and DFTBA.

(p.s. I have photos and video -- mostly video -- from bullfighting on Sunday, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to edit it/get it up before I leave, so it might have to wait until I get back in January)

Tri-Lingual "Frenchgiving", and "How Do I Get There"

This week was Thanksgiving! I did lessons about it with almost all of my classes -- teaching them some vocabulary, telling them the story of Thanksgiving (the simple "Disney" version, not getting into all the strife that happened afterward), and having them say what they are thankful for. The lesson mostly went over really well -- and I even had a couple kids say that they were thankful for me being in class with them (d'awww). It was an interesting mix of things they were thankful for -- some of the kids were thankful for Christmas/presents, a lot were thankful for births of cousins, a lot were thankful for their families/parents/siblings, one young boy was thankful for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, and there were some touching stories as well. I had one high schooler really trying to butter me up (thinking he'd get more cookies), who said that he was thankful for me making cookies, for me helping them with their English, and for me cooking for them. And with the high schoolers, instead of vocabulary, I had them pretend to be turkeys and they had to convince me to eat the other turkeys instead of themselves. That's probably the most amusing activity. 10/10 A+++ Do recommend.

On Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving, I bought myself one sad little slice of turkey and some potatoes to mash up. Except, turns out, those potatoes weren't actually for mashing (there are special mashing potatoes???) and so the mashed potatoes were horrible. But I did get to Skype with my family (where they set me in front of the pumpkin pie I couldn't eat -- thanks mom! xD). Friday, I was busy making more cookies (the third batch of no-bakes in three days) and getting ready for our Thanksgiving à la française ("French style") that Kirstin was hosting on Saturday.

The saddest Thanksgiving dinner ever. (And my Disney Princess advent calendar. ....I'm an adult....)

Friday night/Saturday morning, I even attempted to make apple cider (since the only cider you can get here is the alcoholic kind). Unfortunately, I got a little distracted wrapping Christmas presents for my parents and all the water boiled off and the apples burned a little bit. "No big deal," I told myself, "I can fix this". And I tried. Oh goodness, did I try. Saturday morning, after letting the apples cool overnight, I mashed them all up and tried to strain them as best I could. The recipe also called for cheese cloth to use to squeeze all the juice out of the apple pulp. But, as hard as I looked, I could not find cheese cloth anywhere. I ended up using a clean t-shirt as cheese cloth -- putting the apple pulp in the shirt and squeezing the ever-loving daylights out of it. And even after all that, the burnt taste unfortunately came through in the cider and I had to throw it all away. An exercise in futility. C'est la vie ("That's life").

The beginnings of the apple cider. I had SUCH high hopes...

Saturday morning was also supposed to be the Christmas market in Dax. But um, search as we did, there was no Christmas market to be found. :(

BUT,  I went with one of the other Americans from Dax down to Biarritz where her friend was having a big Thanksgiving get together.

First off, Biarritz is beautiful. It's on the Atlantic coast, and Kirstin has an apartment with a FANTASTIC view of the ocean. I ended up spending the night in a B&B not far from where Kirstin lives (I didn't think there'd be enough room in the apartment), and it was honestly just lovely. It didn't have the same view, but the bed was tempurpedic (aka: HEAVEN) and breakfast was incredible.

Tempuurrrrrpedic. (I need to buy one of these someday)

Adorable room

View out the kitchen window

Basically, Thanksgiving was a blast. The food was good, the company was even better, and we spent the evening laughing and drinking wine and talking and playing games. Basically it was perfect, and much appreciated. We even had a couple Spanish-speakers, and a French girl (Kirstin's roommate, her roommate's friend, and a friend of hers). So we spent the night swapping back and forth from English to French (to "franglais") and learning some useful words in Spanish.

The lovely Kirstin with the wine (and Becky)

Molly rocking the mashed potatoes!

Mulled wine, yeah!

Beautiful flowers

"Turkey" (aka chicken)

Carving the "turkey"

Schooled on carving meat the French way (with a spoon and a fork)

Getting ready to eat!

Belated food picture

Another belated food picture

Turkey turkey turkey!

At dinner!

This morning, I went down to the center of town to see when the bus left for the train station (my train was at 12:30), and had some time to wander around. Originally, I thought I was a lot further from the ocean than I was, so I was going to find a cafe to sit at to kill some time. But then, all of a sudden, I looked to my right down an alley between some buildings and BAM! Ocean. Unfortunately, I couldn't get down that alley to the ocean, but all of a sudden I had a purpose: "There's the thing; how do I get there?"

First view of the ocean

And get there I did. Needless to say, the ocean is spectacularly beautiful. And there were plenty of people surfing. I decided to go down to the water to stick my hand in... I went wading unintentionally. Basically, I was standing at the edge of the water and bent down to stick my hand in when I saw a little baby wave rolling in. I was like, "Aw, how cute? Come here baby wave!" But as it came closer, I saw that baby wave wasn't so baby after all. It crashed in around my feet and knocked me back a bit. My pants got wet. Luckily my boots are mostly waterproof, so only the barest hint of damp got through them. I did, however, manage to avoid falling completely on my butt. And honestly, it was just so ridiculously funny that I just had to laugh at myself.

All the crazy surfers

On the way down to the beach

OCEAN

This beach is seriously beautiful

GPOY (p.s. lookit my fancy new coat!)

When I got off the beach, I saw what looked like (at first glance) a little garden on an island in the middle of the ocean. But there were people walking around on it! So once again, I asked myself: "The thing! How do I get there?!" (There was a bridge.)

The island (not from the original view)

Bridge to the island

There were a couple locks along the railing; it's apparently a popular thing in France

Lighthouse!

As I finally started walking back to the bus stop, I had a sort of epiphany: when it comes to physical places, I am very good at finding a way to get to where I want to go. Oh, yeah, I get lost along the way, horribly so at times, but I generally get to the thing that I see from a distance and say to myself, "THAT! I need to find THAT!" But when it comes to real life? I'm not actually very good at the "How do I get there?" game. I know where I am, and I see where I want to be, but the steps in between to get me there are just never as simple or as obvious (or as risk-free, in general). So sometimes I don't even dare to step at all. Basically, I'm challenging myself this year to take those scary steps (hellooooo grad school applications; yes I will finish you.....), to forge ahead even when there is no evident path.

Life, unlike cities, doesn't have a map. And that can be terrifying. But the more I wander around cities with no map, the more I get lost and find things that are even more exciting than what I was originally looking for, the more I want to find those things in life, too.  /extended metaphor

So today, in one last "spirit of Thanksgiving" post, I'd like to say that I'm thankful for my family; I'm thankful for the amazing friends I have back home who've been keeping in contact through Facebook and sometimes keeping me sane; I'm thankful to be here in France; I'm thankful for all the people I've met here so far (and all the people I've yet to meet); and I'm making a promise to be more bold. (To boldly go, as it were.) Here's to life and taking the scary steps forward. Tchin, tchin!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

So I've just finished my third week of teaching at the middle school, and I'm really enjoying my classes there. As always, the youngest classes are the cutest. Sometimes I am even greeted with a rousing chorus of "Kaf'rine! Kaf'rine! Kaf'rine!" when the kids see that I'm there. My favorite part is probably how they pronounce my name since they try really hard for the English pronunciation of my name (with the English "th" sound), but it always comes out as "Kaf'rine". It's basically the most adorable thing ever.

So far with the middle schoolers, I did the initial class where they asked me questions about myself (in various different ways depending on their level and the teacher I worked with). After that, I made a powerpoint with pictures of my family, Michigan, and other cities around the US that I've been to so that I could take them "sightseeing".

This week, instead of going to school on Tuesday like normal (for my long day -- 6 classes), I had to go to Bordeaux for my medical visit to get my longstay visa certified. I made up the classes I missed last week, and mostly just followed along with the professors' lesson plans, helping out where I could. On Friday, my one class of 5ièmes serenaded me with a few English songs they've learned this year ("Hello, Goodbye" by the Beatles, "The Bare Necessities" from Jungle Book, and "Singing in the Rain" by Gene Kelly). That was really awesome. One of the professors wants to use Doctor Who to work with the students, so I'm also really excited about that.

Last weekend, one of the professors at the middle school also invited me over to her house for lunch. We ended up spending the day together--she and her husband came to pick me up in Dax, then we went to her friend's house for an apéro (before meal drink). After that we headed out "into the country" to this tiny little village where she lives. I helped her cook lunch while her husband went and got wood for the fireplace and we had fun just talking about everything -- travel, TV shows, American culture. We went for a walk after we ate and stopped by her friend's house (to tell her the name of "Downton Abbey" because her friend wanted to know the name of the show) and ended up stopping in for a cup of tea. And then we went back to her house and sat in front of the fire and talked for a while. Her house is absolutely gorgeous -- from the middle ages. It even has arrow slits on the outside! And the view is spectacular. Honestly, I can't say that I've often had jaw-dropping experiences, but when I walked up the stairs into her kitchen and saw what lay beyond her window, my mouth fell to the floor. I literally had to stop and stare for a moment.

The view of the Landes from the kitchen window

Tons of useful plants in the garden like verbena and mint

This is the back of the house

I'm in love with this view

The trees in the garden were fabulous

Arrow slits

Garden :)

So Tuesday I went to Bordeaux with the other North American assistants which was really nice since I haven't actually seen most of them since... October? Most of them I hadn't seen since before break in October. It was nice to catch up and spend part of the day together. There were also more familiar faces at the OFII office. While in Bordeaux, we checked out a couple book shops, and I ended up getting a couple small anthologies of poetry (in English) to hopefully use with my students.

At the high school, classes have been going pretty well. All the students are in love with the "no-bake" cookies that I made for them (a family recipe). Some of them have even asked for the recipe, so I might do a lesson on it for them. I'm starting to enjoy my lessons at the high school, even though sometimes the students are kind of a pain and don't want to speak English. Hopefully as the year goes on, they'll open up more and more. A student surprised me on Thursday because he doesn't usually talk too much, but when I made it a competition (whoever asks the most questions gets an extra cookie), he totally stepped it up and asked 13 questions. I think most of these students are a lot smarter (and better at English) than they think they are, it's just going to be trying to find the right motivation to open them up.

Other than teaching, I've been really putting my nose to the grindstone for my grad school applications since most of them are due next month (*big gulp*). I can't even believe that's its almost Thanksgiving, even though I've been putting up Christmas decorations already. I've also been planning for April when my best friend in the whole wide world (Vanessa LP) will be coming to Paris for a WHOLE WEEK to visit. I'm also trying to plan for Christmas vacation (I'm thinking of going to Wales and maybe Sweden or Norway).

Today was market day, which is quickly becoming my favorite day. I just love going and smelling all the lovely smells and seeing all the wonderful things! Today I ended up getting more jam (I'm almost out!), and got some fresh local honey for infusing in tea (or by itself in hot water). I've already been drinking honey infusions all day -- it's so good! And, of course, I got some bread and cheese (aged goat cheese is the best thing on the planet). I also FINALLY got around to getting a plant. I've been thinking about it for quite some time because it'd be nice to have at least ONE other living thing in the apartment (and since I can't have cats...). So I got a mint plant that's sitting pretty on my windowsill. I'm debating whether to bring it inside (it smells so good!) or to leave it out there where it can maybe get a bit more sunlight. I can't wait to make some fresh mint tea though.

Christmas lights

Christmas garland (and I rearranged a bit)

My little baby mint plant outside!

I also found out last night that I am officially a published researcher. (It's only an undergraduate journal, but still exciting). If anyone's interested in reading my article about the role of women in medieval French literature, here's the link. (It's in English.) So that was extremely exciting news since I've been worried about whether the article was accepted all summer.

Until next time, dear readers, DFTBA. :D

3 Cities in 3 Days

On Wednesday morning, I made my way from Amsterdam to Brussels where I spent the day. Mostly I kind of wandered around, made my way to the Grand Place, St. Michael's Cathedral, Parliamentarium, and Coudenberg.

The Grand Place and the cathedral were absolutely spectacular. And the architecture around the city was just generally amazing--it felt like I saw something magnificent around every corner.

Tower in the Grand Place

I just really like towers, okay?

Absolutely incredible architecture

This is seriously all in the same square. It's incredibly breathtaking

Church-y church church church

I actually really liked this church. It was HUGE (bigger than Notre Dame maybe; it seemed a lot bigger than Notre Dame)

I don't actually know who this is a statue of...

Inside the cathedral

Coudenberg was really cool, but also insanely creepy. Basically, it's the remains of the old palace that have been excavated. Most of it is underground, and it doesn't seem like many people really visit (or at least there weren't many people there when I was). So it was pretty big, very dark, and I kind of felt like I was in a horror movie at some points. Nevertheless, it was well worth a visit.

This is where I thought I was going to die (if you looked down into that glass pane on the left, all you could see was this like infinitely dark hole and it was terrifying)

Stairs that lead to nowhere

The Palace

Palace again

Parliamentarium was also really cool. I wanted to visit the European Parliament itself, but it was closed to the public. Parliamentarium is pretty much this big interactive museum/exhibit that details the history of the European Parliament. It's really quite awesome (and totally free).

In the evening, I took a train to Antwerp where I stayed with some friends of my aunt and uncle. Antwerp was absolutely amazing. On Thursday, their daughter showed me around town and I got to try some incredible Belgian beer.

Antwerp is absolutely beautiful, and it was wonderful to get to see it through the eyes of a "local" who told me stories about the history of the city. My favorite part was probably the cathedral (sucker for the architecture) which was filled with paintings by Peter Paul Rubens; the castle comes in a close second, pretty much tied with just sitting around drinking beer and talking about everything from politics to religion to feminism. Also, there was this awesome bar that had collected old religious objects that were going to be thrown away. (I spotted two Jeanne d'Arc statues!)

The cathedral in Antwerp

Neula, the lovely puppy, kept us company.

The castle in Antwerp

Brickwork is the best.

Inside the cathedral

The crypt

Tourist time!

I could spend all day on that little bench, I think. Absolutely gorgeous.

Church tower

The cathedral at night

Thursday night we had dinner out and I got to try a Belgian alcohol (not beer!) called jenever which is sort of like a gin(ish) but is flavored. Pretty delicious.

Friday morning I slept in a bit longer than I probably should have (I stayed up late getting a grad school application done on Thursday night), but headed off to Bruges for a couple hours. I didn't really *do* anything much in the city nicknamed "The Venice of the North", but just wandered around marveling at all the beautiful architecture. (I also climbed a windmill which was a great idea until I got to the top and remembered I'm terrified of heights.)

Saw this in the distance; guess what I had to go find!

Seriously, does it get more perfect than this??

(Apparently, yes; yes, it does.)

I love this tower.

Tourist

The canals

Shoe planter!

The first windmill I saw

The view from the top of the windmill.

Friday night we went to an Asian fusion restaurant where I had the BEST curry I've ever had in my life (sorry, Lance!). After dinner, the daughter of the couple I stayed with was scheduled to play a set at the restaurant, so we stayed and listened to her. She was absolutely incredible! She played a mix of original songs and covers and it was pretty much perfect.

Saturday morning bright and early I hopped the train back to Brussels where I got a train back to Paris, where I boarded a TGV that brought me straight home to Dax. And thus concluded my adventure in Holland and Belgium.

(Apologies for not blogging about it sooner!)

This week it's been back to the grind of teaching. I got to meet most of my middle school classes, and I'll be honest: they're quite adorable (except the 3ièmes who were a bit more sullen).

First, let me explain the different classes I'm assisting in. At the middle school (collège), I am teaching three different grade levels; at the high school (lycée) I'm teaching two different grade levels:

Collège:
6ième (6th grade ~11 years old)
5ième (7th grade ~12 years old)
3ième (9th grade ~14 years old)

Lycée:
Première (11th grade ~16/17 years old)
Terminale (12th grade ~17/18 years old)

So basically the 11/12 year olds are adorable and super enthusiastic. The first class I had at the collège was with some 5ièmes and when I said that I was from the United States there was this audible, collective gasp of wonder and amazement which actually almost knocked me off my feet (SO CUTE). So they're all very full of questions and work really hard to speak in English as much as they can which is really cool to see.

My favorite part of teaching (in general, but especially with the younger ones) is when they make cute mistakes. For example, in French when you ask someone how old they are, the question literally translates to "What age have you got?" And so, one girl, tried to ask how old I was but didn't know the word age; she just looked at me and goes "What have you got?" and I had NO idea to respond. Luckily, the teacher helped her clarify. (For the moment with the classes at the collège, I'm in the classroom working with the teacher and not with a group on my own.)

This week my classes at the lycée have been kind of tough. Maybe it's just that we've all just come back from break, but I felt like I was torturing the poor kids this week trying to get them to speak in English which is absolutely no fun for them, I'm sure, and is just heartbreaking for me. I want so much to have FUN with them, to have them enjoy the games that I have them play (even though it's hard). I do have a few really good students who can brighten up my day, though, who are enthusiastic and funny. One of my students today even got really into the exercise (like I was hoping they all would) and so took it a step further than the rest of the kids, which was awesome.

I'm working on a system of rewards to try to encourage the kids to speak less in French (but still speak in English). So this week I started something which I'm hoping will work (and not bankrupt me). Basically, when each group enters, they start with 20 points; each time I hear them speaking French, I take away a point. If they've got more than 10 points at the end of their time with me, they get cookies/candy/whatever next time. So far, all the classes succeeded so I get to make them cookies next week. I also decided to award students who volunteer/go above and beyond. So I'm hoping that these two systems together will work to encourage them to leave the French behind and speak English more. We shall see. I might go broke first.

I'm also going to be starting an English club so that students who want to have some extra time with me to speak English can come and we can...I don't know yet. Play games and maybe cook some things?? I hope so. I've got a few students interested, so I'll have to figure out something for them to do.

Finally, I got around to decorating my room a bit with postcards I bought from the Van Gogh Museum and the cat museum.

Yes, those are two snuggly kittens by my pillows so that I can at least pretend I'm cuddling with something fluffy.

The Assorted Works of Van Gogh that now adorn my wall

Featured left: The lovely cards/letter I have already received; featured center: YOU, DEAR READER. That is your space.

As you can see, there is still quite a large blank space on the wall I stare at while I eat dinner. This is where you come in, dear reader. I love getting mail (cards, letters, postcards, whathaveyou) and so far I've gotten a few that I've put up. But I'd love to have some more things to hang up. 1) Empty mailboxes are incredibly sad. 2) So are empty white walls. So, if you feel so inclined, please send me stuff (not STUFF, but letters, cards, postcards). I promise, I'll write back (so you can get mail too!!). If you need my address, send me a message on Facebook, or email me, or talk to my parents.

Until next time, mes amis: DFTBA!