The Bay of Arcachon

Two weekends ago, I was invited to spend the weekend with one of my high school professors at her home near the Arcachon Bay (in a little town called Salles).

First off, immediately when we arrived Friday afternoon, I was greeted by a dog and a cat -- definitely a good sign. We went to run some errands and then came home to cook dinner. I spent quite a while with the cat curled up next to me (she eventually shifted onto my lap later in the night), and then we dined on confit du canard (duck thighs -- it's supposed to be the absolute best meat of the duck) and homemade fries. We also watched the Secret Life of Walter Mitty (in French) and then headed to bed.

On Saturday, we slept in a bit before eating breakfast. My professor and her husband went for a run while I watched a bit of French TV with the cat.

Kitten

The puppy was so cute, he just loved getting pets and would shove his face under my arm to make sure I was paying attention to him.

She looks kind of angry, but I swear she was purring.

Then, after lunch, we headed off to the Dune du Pyla (Pilat?) which is one of the tallest sand dunes in Europe (at 100m tall). Climbing the dune was hard work (stupid sand), and then of course I was terrified that I was going to fall down it. We admired the view for a while (and rested our legs) before heading back down the dune (like STRAIGHT down the side -- I thought I was going to faceplant and roll down). Next we drove to Arcachon, a beautiful little city on the bay. We walked along the coast admiring the beautiful weather, and then headed back home for dinner. On the menu was a pâté made of black pudding (blood pudding?), and I was worried that it was going to taste too much like... well... blood. But it was actually really delicious, and is a basque country specialty.

This looks really flat, but we're like up 100m here.

You can sort of see how big it is here -- those little black dots in the distance are people.

Looking down the side of the dune (where I thought I was going to fall down and die)

Looking back up the side of the dune

On Sunday, we had oysters for lunch. I actually managed to eat two! But right before I ate my second one, I was informed that the oyster is actually alive when you eat it (if you're eating it raw). I still ate the second one, but couldn't eat any more. The taste wasn't really that bad (just very, very salty), but the texture was a bit weird, and I'm quite certain I never want to put a still-living thing in my mouth ever again. Maybe I'll try cooked oysters...

After lunch, my professor took me to see some of the ports where they harvest the oysters (some of the best known oysters in the world). The ports were quite cute (the second was cuter than the first), with tons of little cabins (like tiny little cabins -- maybe the size of my studio, probably smaller) lining the water. The first port also had a few restaurants (advertising oysters -- what else?). 

Then we took a walk in a local nature preserve before I caught the train back to Dax. It was really a wonderful weekend -- it was nice to have a cat cuddle with, haha. And it was really interesting talking to my professor and her husband.

Oyster boat coming in (at low tide)

Low tide at the port

The view at the nature preserve

Last week was a little trying with my students -- the second group of 5ièmes (that I had trouble with a couple weeks ago) was back to not paying attention. At this point, they're just digging their own grave since I'd like to give them a treat and just let them watch Doctor Who for the last class I'm there, but if they haven't finished their work, I'm not going to let them off. So instead of getting to sit back and watch the episode, they'll still be working on questions. Entirely their own fault.

My high schoolers were mostly okay -- I've got one group that was a little raucous last week. Many of them had been absent for a while, and so had missed out on reading a Shakespearean sonnet in front of the class. I was going to let it slide and move on to discussing leadership like I am in the other classes, but 5 minutes in, I was so annoyed with the level of chatter that I made them read sonnets anyway. 

When I saw some of my middle schoolers this week and reminded them that I would only see them one more time after vacation, I got a lot of pouty faces, and one marriage proposal from one of my little 5ièmes. (I told the poor guy that I think he's a bit too young.) I officially only have 1 more class with each of my middle school groups, and that's quite sad to think about. I've made an email address for them, so if they want to keep in contact, they can. Hopefully some of them will. 

This week is my last week with the high schoolers. The one raucous group I'm not entirely sad to see go, but the other groups I'll miss. I've been working with them on preparing their subjects for their oral examination which they'll take in early July, and they seem to have come a long way, even if they don't believe in themselves. Mostly I ask them to prepare one or two things (facts, sentences, etc) to say about their subject, but I always ask "Anything else?" just in case they want to say more. One kid gave me about 5 sentences, and when I asked "Anything else?" he shook his head sadly and whispered, "I'm an idiot, I can't speak English." My heart almost broke for the kid and I had to stop all of them and be like, "You can speak English because you just did for like 2 minutes. I asked you for one or two facts and you gave me five -- you're doing wonderfully." Poor thing. Sometimes I just want to shake them and make them realize that they're not as bad as they think they are.

I can't believe how fast everything is coming to an end. This week is Luis' last week at the schools (he only works 3 hours on Mondays and Tuesdays, so he's arranged to make up his lessons before break, so that he'll be free to travel). The collège is arranging a little dinner for us on Thursday night --we'll stay after school for a pot luck before going to see a local production of Molière's Le Misanthrope.

And then after class on Friday, the last vacation of the year (for me) begins. Friday night I head off to Paris where I will be joined by my best friend, Vanessa, who flies in Saturday morning. We already have a wonderful week planned out including dinner at several amazing restaurants and Easter brunch at a teashop called Angelina's which is reputed to have the best hot chocolate in Paris. So we've got 9 glorious days together in Paris, then she will head home and I will head on to Cardiff with a friend from OU who is living in Paris. We'll spend just a couple days there before I come home to Dax to prepare for my two final days of class. Then I'll spend the weekend in Orléans, and then it's all preparing to come home.

I've finally made a decision for grad school (with tons of help from three of the best professors at OU), and I'll be moving to..... (*drumroll please*) TALLAHASSEE, FL to complete my MA (and hopefully my PHD as well) at Florida State University. I really couldn't be happier to be going there (though the thought of moving twice in a little over two months -- home from France, then MI to FL -- is more than a little bit daunting). But HELLO SUNSHINE. I've started looking at apartments online, but hopefully I'll be going down to take a look at the city in June and can do some more serious apartment hunting then.

Not sure if I'll have time to do any updating while I'm away in Paris and Cardiff, but there will be plenty of updates and pictures when I get back, for certain! Until then, DFTBA.