Thanksgiving dinner photos!

Hey! I forgot to take pictures myself, so I've stolen some Thanksgiving photos from Caely and put them in my Autumn album: click here!

I forgot to mention that Caitlin and I were the official turkey carvers! What an honor ;)

Caitlin and me carving!

The Christmas Market, or Marché de Noël

On Sunday, Caitlin and I spent most of the day working on our grad school applications since we were still feeling stuffed from Thanksgiving. In the evening, we decided to venture out into the cold to get a little exercise. We window shopped and walked around the old town for photo opportunities. Click here for my Rennes Hiver/Winter album.

We started seeing people in the streets with food and drinks, so we followed the crowd to Place de Parlement where the Marché de Noël (Christmas Market) was up and running! Like you can find in Germany, the stands are little wooden cabins selling Christmas gifts and food. I got a sausage, tomato, and onion sandwich with the spiciest mustard ever (seriously, it felt like eating wasabi!), and Caitlin waited in a super-long line for chichis, basically churros but with only sugar, no cinnamon. Apparently, it will be open during the week too, so it should be less crowded than that grand opening Sunday evening!

Me digging into a sausage sandwich!

Rennes' Christmas Market

And now I'm headed back to the classroom to teach some English texting abbreviations and acronymns...

A Wild Turkey Day

Double meaning in that title!
1) The only whole turkey we could find was an expensive, happy, free-range one for 70 euros (fed 10 people).
2) Last night was one of the wildest and silliest Thanksgivings that I've experienced.

The evening started out when Caitlin arrived, and we headed down to the food section of Galeries Lafayette for fancy foods. I couldn't find celery or sage at my usual grocery store, and Caitlin needed chutney and tobasco sauce from the store's extensive international aisle. We also found some flowers as a hostess gift because my mother trained me so well.

We chilled in my apartment for awhile, putting together my dressing and her spinach and apple salad before we went out the door. Dinner was supposed to start at 8, but the turkey, of course, took longer than expected, so the time was changed to 9. We got there around 8:45, so I could use the oven to back the dressing. In the end, we had nine Americans, one Canadian, and one Guatemalan to celebrate with. We had a long appetizer phase while the foods were being reheated, so dinner started at 10:30. Caitlin and I were the turkey carvers!

Now, the food!
-Appetizers: Bread, pâté, cheese, baked brie with fig jam.
-Main meal: Turkey, mashed potatos, gravy, stuffing and dressing, sweet potatos, brussel sprouts, spinach salad, cranberry sauce.
-Desserts: Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, apple pie, apple brownie goo (didn't cook properly), ice cream.
-Drinks: Ten bottles of wine for eleven people!

After dinner, we were stuffed, so we took a long break to chat, listen to music, drink wine, and play the game Cheers Guv'nah. Dessert was served around 1am. After that, everyone was either falling asleep, taking silly pictures, or doing dishes. I did some dancing and tipsy yoga in an effort to stretch my stomach out (didn't work... I still feel full at 12:20pm the next day). Caitlin and I were the second and third to leave around 2:30am. A good night, even though I felt so full that it hurt to breathe. In France, you have to take advantage of these American moments to get you through all the French times!

I forgot to take photos, but I'll steal some from others when they pop up!

Time and food

Recently, I've really started to feel at home in my apartment and in Rennes. I know where things are, I have 'usual' stores and restaurants I frequent, my apartment is completely set up, I have a regular work schedule, etc. I've also found ways to take up the free time I have, like yoga, running, reading--and thank God for nytimes.com for keeping me in-the-know! Plus, I have exciting travels planned for the next month! Things are looking up this holiday season :)

Since my cultural lessons have been absent awhile, I'd like to share some observations with you on how the French eat. Breakfast when I was in Versailles was last night's leftover baguette with jam, sometimes a croissant. That lasted you until lunch at 1-ish where I usually grabbed a baguette sandwich (ham and cheese, tuna salad, camembert) and sometimes a dessert like pain au chocolat or flan. Now that I have my own place in Rennes, I more commonly eat there or at Pierre-Antoine's place rather than outside. What I have seen a lot here is that the French grab a snack, or gouter, around 4 or 5pm--I see people with little pastry bags on the main squares and shopping streets every day. That works because dinner isn't until 7 or 8pm, a fact that shocked my family the other day when I hadn't eaten before 8!

Thinking about all of these meals has made me rather hungry! I'm going to a Thanksgiving dinner party of assistants tonight to get my fill of turkey and all those sides!

Also, I added some photos to the Rennes Automne album. I'll start a Winter albumn after Thanksgiving tonight!

Oh yeah...

IL FAUT QUE JE DORME !

Forgot to say that I am thankful for skype letting me sit in on Thanksgiving with the Williams/Bodies and with my family too!!

Also, I'm super-thankful for Pierre-Antoine, the silliest kid I know and the French boy version of me :) Je t'aime!

:*

Thanksgiving in Rennes

This is my first Thanksgiving away from family! So sad!

At least, today was a good day of classes--I had them drawing hand turkeys! Then, IT SNOWED/HAILED! A Christmas in France miracle to say the least ;)

So what am I thankful for? Mostly for the box of American foods that Ma sent me! Today, I've munched on Goldfish crackers, drank Sleepytime tea, and made a Jello pumpkin pie dessert.

I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with a more authentic meal on Saturday with some other American assistants, but for tonight I have the pumpkin dessert and a Shepherd's Pie on the menu--something hearty and home-y.

And if anyone wants to FedEx me some leftovers, I would not be opposed! ;)

Happy Turkey Day everyone! :*

Working in France v. the US

I suppose holiday nostalgia is just making me miss all things about home... I've been very reflective this week!

My thought of the day is about American v. French work ethic. I miss the teamwork and striving for excellence that the US encourages. I don't see creativity or passion in the workplace here, or at least not yet. None of the teachers care what I do with their students; only one has even asked me about it! Here in France at my school I feel like no one cares much about their students--maybe that is also related to lack of school spirit and community. I remember Mrs. G from my high school, the kind of teacher who gets to know you and who goes the extra mile to take care of you.

Another issue hs been PA asking his professors here for recommendation letters for US graduate school applications. Professors and students have no personal relationship here--you don't chat with them, you don't have department picnics with them. While I could ask professors who knew me and my dreams, PA has to rely on professors who have just read his masters work and seen him in class. It seems rather cold to me after the experience of my university.

A tangent off of this: the strikes in October made me angry because I felt like it was silly and selfish to be out protesting when children needed to be in class learning. I thought of my high school experience when I wouldn't dare miss a class because I needed every second of learning for the AP exams! And these kids here lost three weeks with no tangible consequences, just their own intellectual losses! Vacation be damned, kids need structure.

And now I'm off to work, hehe!

Plans for this weekend: maybe dancing tonight at an international student party, lunch with Caitlin tomorrow, a Thanksgiving meal on Saturday with the other assistants in Rennes.

School spirit

I think I figured out something that is missing from French schools--school spirit!

While I do admit that I wasn't the biggest sports fan back in my day, there is something to be said for having a school mascot, teams, clubs, pep rallys, etc.; these are all means to fostering communities be it schoolwide or just between students and teachers of mutual interest.

There is definitely not this spirt of community here. I feel like the students and teachers are more at odds because they interact only in a competetive classroom setting--there is no room for getting to know the student or teacher as a person (I'm thinking particularly in the senses of coach/athelete or mentor/club participant). When I think back to high school, I remember most the teachers who had a hand in the clubs I was in--Honor Society, French Club, Band. I also remember beig proud of my school's and fellow students' accomplishments in sports and academic competitions.

The school I work at is just a workplace. Imagine the different experience that a French assistant at a US school would have--a French club, football games, school dances, art performances! I miss the feeling of celebrating school.

Ugh!

So today was not so good. In one class, I sent one student away. Then in my last half of the last class of the day, I took EVERYONE back to the professor.

What happened was that I was walking them from their classroom to mine; I unlocked the door and walked in, and only four out of nine students showed up. I looked out in the hall to see the rest just hanging out, two on their cell phones. I tried to good-naturedly herd them into my room. Once there, I realized that they had brought an extra girl with them! So these kids are talking on phones, talking to each other, talking to a random girl. I decided to scrap my Thanksgiving lesson for a round of Tongue Twisters to get everyone to pay attention to me--three did it, some ignored me, some told me they couldn't read.

So I took all of them back up to their teacher and told her what happened. She sent me back down with the four on-time kids and kept the rest. I was so pissed, I was shaking!

So with only four, it was much quieter, so we proceeded with the Thanksgiving lesson, which they all did well on. Then, the teacher showed up again with the rest who apologized and sat down quietly. I gave them paper and had them draw hand turkeys because I didn't know what else to do with them.

I talked to the prof afterwards who said to just send one or two to the disciplinary office next time as examples. She also said that it wasn't just me, that they are horrible with everyone. They actually told her that they did not understand what they did wrong and why I was upset!!!! That is ridiculous--how about they did EVERTHING wrong! I really could never be a grade school teacher because these kids are so disrespectful. They told their teacher that my classes are interesting, but they certainly didn't act interested in them!

So that's my rant on discipline... and on people who are not nice to others.

Two thoughts

First, a quote I currently love: Distance to love is like wind to a fire--it inflames the great and extinguishes the small.

All of you out there who take time to chat with me, even though I'm far away, I LOVE YOU!

Second, I want to take up a hobby. Anyone know something good to get into? I'm considering knitting...

Peace

After a glowing end of the week review about being 'magic,' I had an equally magical weekend. Firstly, I received a package of wrapped Christmas gifts from the family on Friday morning. That afternoon, I took the train with PA to Vitre to visit Caitlin, my favorite assistant here! We had fun making lemon bars and going out to eat Indian food with Sara the German assistant (samosas and Matar Paneer); the waiter even chatted with us a bunch and was impressed that Caitlin and I actually ate the spicy sauce that French people never touch! After that was all the fun of a good old-fashioned American slumber party with sugary snacks, tv, joking around, etc. Tons of fun!

Side note: Caitlin taught me that a "French press" is known as an "Italian" coffeemaker here! LOL!

Our baking challenge for this morning: biscuits and Southern style sausage gravy! We googled recipes and made it all from scratch--me the biscuits and Caitlin the gravy. They were soooooo delicious! We had a lazy morning of cooking, eating, and drinking coffee before a grocery store run. She had to get things done for classes since she is day-tripping to Paris tomorrow, so I stopped in to see Pierre-Antoine before catching the 5:30 train back to Rennes. Did some intense grocery shopping for myself here, then I enjoyed the first box of Kraft mac and cheese that Ma sent me from the States! Now I'm having some real Sleepytime tea and clementines :)

Speaking of clementines, PA's niece Clémentine talked about me recently, saying that my country was very far away from hers! So cute!

Here are all the recipes we used!

Biscuits: http://www.joyofbaking.com/Biscuits.html

2 1/2 cups (325 grams) all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar (optional)

1/2 cup (113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup (180 ml) milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Topping:

1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs (use pastry blender, two knives, or fingertips). Add the milk and slightly beaten egg and stir until just combined. (The texture should be sticky, moist and lumpy.)

Place mixture on a lightly floured surface and knead the dough gently until it comes together and is a smooth dough.

Roll out dough to 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) thickness. Cut out biscuits with a lightly floured round cookie cutter. Place on prepared baking sheet and brush the tops with the beaten egg and milk mixture and bake for about 10 - 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the biscuit comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Serve warm with butter.

Makes about 12 3-inch (7.5 cm) biscuits.

Southern Style Sausage Gravy: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,175,135176-243195,00.html
1/2 pkg. mild sausage
2 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. all purpose flour or Wondra
4 cups whole milk
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. pepper

Cook sausage until done. Add butter and flour. Simmer for a few minutes on medium heat stirring frequently. Add milk, salt and pepper. Simmer over medium-high heat stirring constantly until desired thickness.

Lemon Bars: http://www.joyofbaking.com/LemonBars.html

Shortbread Crust:

1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup (25 grams) confectioner's (powdered or icing) sugar

1 cup (130 grams) all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Lemon Filling:

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice (approximately two large lemons)

1 tablespoons (5 grams) grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons (25 grams) all purpose flour

Garnish:

Confectioner's (powdered or icing) sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, an 8 x 8 inch (20 x 20 cm) pan.

Shortbread Crust: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the flour and salt and beat until the dough just comes together. Press onto the bottom of your prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool while you make the filling.

Lemon Filling: In your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer,  beat the sugar and eggs until nice and smooth. Add the lemon juice and zest and stir to combine. Fold in the flour. Pour the filling over the shortbread crust and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling has set. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. 

To serve: Cut into squares and dust with powdered sugar. These are best eaten the day they are made but can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for a day or two.

Yield: 16 - 2 inch (5 cm) bars

Quick smile

Today a professor told me, "Yesterday, I heard kids speak English that never said a word before, and I thought, 'Lauren is magic!"

Just knowing that a few kids appreciated my silly lesson has cheered me up so much.

:)

Life lessons

Today I realized that I was the worst kind of student--sure, I was a nice kid with good grades, but I was so quiet! Like many, I was shy and too often afraid of making a mistake. Now that I am a teacher of sorts, I see that it is the talkative, maybe even the 'troublesome' kids that are the best in the foreign language--and maybe any--classroom. They are the ones who have no fear in talking to me, so they can play along with the games and lessons I bring up, using broken English, but English nonetheless.

Today's first class was full of nice terminales, so their English should have been pretty decent. They didn't say a word besides 'yes' or 'no'! During Would You Rather?, a game that kids two years below them could play along with for half an hour, I had to give up on because they refused to answer--it was like deer in the headlights! I told the professor this after the class, and she said that all of their teachers complain about it. They're great on paper and in their graphic design classes, but they are as silent as mice.

For my second hour, I got the best five in the class for the whole hour, while the others revised their last test. I did the powerpoint on Tennessee, talked about stereotypes, taught some American slang, and played Two Truths and A Lie, where they had to make up their own three and I had to guess the lie. The stereotypes lesson is hit or miss, I'm finding. Some groups stare blankly, and others really get interested when they hear about French stereotypes that Americans have, including:
-They eat cheese, frog legs, snails, and drink wine.
-They all smoke.
-French people hate Americans.
-They wear berets.
-French people are always well-dressed and stylish.
-French people are lazy--they don't like to work and they often go on strike.
-The French don't take showers. (The students all want to know where this comes from!)
-All French people live in Paris.
-French people always wear black.
-French cooking is the best in the world!

I think this lesson helps because it makes them realize that I'm not a normal teacher and that I am a foreigner with different ideas about people.

So tonight is a birthday bar gathering for one of the British assistants, Eleanor! PA is working a wine and cheese tasting for foreign university students, so I'm just hanging with the assistant crowd. Luckily, I don't have work until 3 tomorrow!

First day of scheduled classes

Here’s another French mystery for you—no one is out on Sundays! I see about one tenth of the people I usually see on Place Sainte Anne on Sundays.

A thought from fellow assistant Caitlin’s father was that living in France is like living in the US in the 1950s. Hours are shorter for businesses, nothing is open 24/7, and most things are closed on Sundays!

I don’t think I mentioned yet that Christmas things have been up around here since before Halloween! I guess since Halloween and Thanksgiving aren’t here to break up the holidays, Christmas shows up a lot earlier. Besides décor and ornaments in shops, there are also gift wrapping tables outside the toy store and lights hung across all the main streets and squares. I’ll be sure to share photos when they get turned on.

Enough random thoughts. Today was my first full-scheduled day of classes, four hours worth. Lycée is the last three years of high school here called secondes (10^th grade age), premières (11^th), and terminales (12^th). What I learned today was that English levels are vastly different among these grades :/ My terminale class at 4pm on Mondays is considered one of the worst rowdy groups in the school, but they are my favorites because they are not afraid to speak and interact with me. Plus, they understand so much of what I saw that I need double the activities to fill their half hour. My secondes just stare blankly at me, and usually just one or two are clever enough to translate my questions into French for the others. They’re just so nice and shy, it’s annoying!

In talking with the more active classes, I think I will incorporate more music and tv into my lessons to keep them interested. Next week, I will do something on slang and texting/chat lingo which I hope they’ll enjoy.

Whew! One third of my classes are done for the week already! I feel so much better knowing when and where I have to go. I also like having the autonomy to do what I want with the kids.

Rain and reflections

Nonstop rain today, so I had no motivation to go out. Plus, the party last night lasted until 5 or 6am, so I didn't sleep all that much. I did a little work, a lot of reading Guns, Germs, and Steel (only a chapter left!) and Moins que zéro, a novel that Pierre-Antoine gave me.

The most fun of the day was when my door buzzed this morning. I wasn't expecting anyone on a Saturday morning, so I ignored it. Then, I looked out my window to see a yellow postal delivery van driving away. Ma had sent me some packages, so I realized what was going on immediately. Still in my pjs, I ran out into the rain in my bathrobe and chased the truck down. The guy seemed rather surprised, but he got the package out for me quickly so I could get in out of the rain. Nor many people were out on the Place at the time, but I saw smiles and laughs and heard a woman yell 'pyjamas' at me! Ah well, all for the sake of adventure.

The package had little Christmas decorations/home goods, which I've already hung up and set out, and some GOLDFISH CRACKERS!!! Eating some today made me feel like a little kid in preschool--very theraputic.

My internet died for a few hours, so I took the time to reflect on my life here. I've been very negative lately about the students misbehaving, miscommunication with French people all the time, the bad weather, the strange food... A skype conversation with Ma ended with, "No one is going to want to hang out with you if you're so negative." Very true. I'm resolving to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" in the words of Spamalot! Here I have a minimally demanding job that allows me to live comfortably in a foreign country in a nice town. I should remember my blessings; perhaps celebrating Thanksgiving soon will help.

Also helping me cheer up is the prospect of holiday travel. I am going to Copenhagen to see my Africa study abroad buddies EBrown and Lily for the weekend of December 9-12. For the Christmas holidays, I'll hang out with PA and maybe (tentative plan here) go to Eurodisney and/or Strasbourg for the Christmas markets--or if anyone has a Christmas in Germany suggestion, that'd be nice too ;) For the February/March break, my dream is to do Spain, Portugal, and Morocco for a week or two. We'll see how the cards fall, but a change of scenery and something to look forward to may be just what I need.

As always, thanks for reading my confessions from France. Hope to hear back from you sometime!

Long weekend...

So today was far less exciting than planned... The wedding was called off at the last moment, so I stayed in Rennes while PA went to check out the family drama--of which there wasn't any in the end! How dull!

So I texted around and got an invite to the movies with Katherine and Julia. It was the usual French style of slow movie, multiple stories, lots of drama/emotion, lots of smoking and drinking, etc. Oh, the title was Les Petits Mouchoirs or The Little Tissues. It was rather sad at the end, and I definitely don't recommend it.

Afterwards, we had a delicious pizza dinner at La Casa Pepe. Thin crust and way bigger than the plate, it was the best pizza I've had outside of Italy! Whoever visits me here must try it!

There was a brief interlude in my apartment while we waited for some friends to finish their dinner, then we headed to the Cactus bar with Georgia, Seth, Jackie, and her two Guatemalan friends. The music and conversation was good, but they are all traveling to nearby cities for the day tomorrow, so they headed home around midnight.

And here I am... back in my apartment to update y'all and chill. I'm pretty sleepy myself, but that might just be the wine from dinner.

I also learned that I am on the cover of the Furman University Engage magazine with my Africa study abroad buddies! I've made it to print in three continents: Africa, Europe, and North America!

Caitlin is awesome!!!

Haha! So as you can imagine from the title of this post, Caitlin came in to visit from Vitre again! We had planned an evening of fun and dancing... but things did not work out exactly right...

But starting from the beginning: She arrived yesterday evening, and we ran to H&M to buy 80s-esque clothing in order to get free admission to an 80s themed party at a club last night. For some reason, a lot of French fashion is currently 80s revivial. I ended up with big bracelets, a lace skirt, and "reddish purple" leggings. We cooked and ate chili that tasted just like home. Then Caitlin napped and made an 80s playlist, while I cleaned up and chatted with PA.

I had planned a pregame party at 10, so Berit, Madeline, and Ellie showed up. We just chatted, smoked hookah, and played the drinking game Moose, which was super fun! It was like college parties... but with only 6 people :/

Around 1:30am we head to a club called Pyms, about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. In France, clubs are open from 11pm or 12am until 6-7am! So we arrive to a huge line! We get in it, feeling optimistic, and do move forward. But eventually we realized that instead of the line moving forward because people are going in, it is moving forward into a big mob that keeps pressing closer and closer. So we ended up trapped in the mob for about an hour with people pushing from all sides... They really need some velvet ropes because it was chaos!!! So we all gave up and pushed our way out feeling super angry that French people cannot manage to maintain an orderly line! Though, my mother does have an anecdote about this from our trip to Eurodisney, I had forgotten my love for straight lines until last night.

Caitlin and I were back at my place around 3, and we tried to watch a French movie but decided to sleep. And we slept until 2pm today! I don't know how, considering there was some demonstration marching through the Place a few times in the morning. We had kebabs for breakfast/lunch/snack, did some returns/window shopping, got to-go flavored lattes at Le Haricot Rouge (which was better than Starbucks!), hung out!

I also learned that there is a band that practices in the apartment above me! It's nice rock, and they sing in English (or at least I heard one English song in the stairway).

Caitlin just left to train back to Vitre, and I'm going to meet up with PA for dinner soon. The plan is to go to an international student party at a bar tonight with some assistants. Hopefully, it will turn out better than Pyms! And tomorrow I will go to a French wedding--PA's cousin. We'll miss the ceremony at the mayor's office but get to enjoy the dinner party afterwards.

Photos of fun to come! :*

Using all those brochures I have...

This is another short week of school because of Armstice Day on Thursday. We have no work Friday, and I have no classes tomorrow, so it is a five-day weekend for me. You would think I'd be excited, but I'm really just bored!

I worked two hours yesterday and one today (because the other class did not show up), talking about vacations and what activities people can do in cities, countryside, beaches, and mountains. I then passed out brochures from Las Vegas, DC, Tennessee, and Chicago and had the kids look through them to find an activity they would like to try, whcih they had to present to the class. More successful with some groups than others--language ability is super varied. Group size too--between four and ten--can chang the dynamic of chattiness versus participation in the lesson. The plan is for teachers to give me half the class for half an hour, and then we switch for the second half hour. It is better to have small groups but also tiring to do the same lesson four times in a row. I'll have to find a rotation system to keep myself alert.

Also, I did finally get a schedule from next Monday until the holiday break. I have 4 hours Monday, 2 Tuesday morning, 2 Wednesday afternoon, 4 Thursday, and Fridays off. Monday is a 9:30 start, Tuesday 8:30, but I'd rather get going now that I have official work to do! The reason that it will change in January is because professional schools have internships that their students go on for weeks at a time, so some of my students will leave then, and others will arrive to take their place at different hours.

This weekend I pledge to prepare more lessons and games! Next week I want to do a lesson on stereotyes between French and American people. I also want to play a song and have the kids fill in blanks in the lyrics, so we can talk about music and learn some vocab. The week after will be for my Thanksgiving activitites! ;)

Another thing I've noticed is that French people start sentences with "euh/bah..." and end them with "quoi" which means "what." I guess it is just their way of saying "um" and "you know" like we do in English, but it is funny to observe. I even notice some of the assistants doing it to sound more authentically French! Maybe I should join the bandwagon on this one.

I'll let you know what excitement I get up to this weekend too! Bisous !

Fun weekend!

I had a pretty fun weekend! Friday night, Seth, Georgia, Berit, Sinead, and Pablo (a Spanish assistant), came over for drinks, bread, cheese, and pate. We listened to jazz music and just chilled. Saturday I had a visit from Caitlin, the assistant in Vitré who is from the Seattle area. We chatted, ate date balls that I made and mini-muffins she bought at Vitré, bought candy from a candy shop, ate Creole food at King Creole--very good!, watched some online tv, and exchanged some good music. After a lot of big group activities, it's good to get to know someone one-on-one. We also share a love of dancing, so we're arranging a club night on Wednesday since there is no school Thursday or Friday!

She left this morning, so now I'm working on preparing games and lessons for my classes! I want to try talking about American-French stereotypes, so that should be interesting ;) It's exciting to be doing real work! I guess I still have my American work ethic, despite my exposure to French strikes.

Here is a burning question I just reseached online: Did the French make French Toast? 

Answer: No. It is more likely that the recipe dates back to the medieval ages and may have been a logical "invention" by different people , akin to battering and frying any food. Supposedly it was originally known in England and America as "German toast" , prior to the First World War , when it was changed because of anti-German sentiment. [From http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_the_french_make_french_toast]

Anyone recall hearing about "German Toast"? Haha!

A rough week

Even though we only had class from Wednesday to Friday this week, I had some tough times. I've really started preparing for classes since I will be getting my official schedule on November 15. I've made powerpoints on Tennessee, traveling in the US (to use with the brochures everyone has been collecting for me), and the American school system, and I've set up games to play, like Would You Rather, Two Truths and A Lie, and Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. Some of the profs let me steal groups of three to ten students for conversation, games, and these presentations this week, so I've been really getting my feet wet.

So far the students are generally nice, but there a definitely some groups and people who care a lot more that others. You just have to hope that they will be willing to play along. I think, in general, they do like me since I am younger, American, and more fun/interesting/different than regular class.

What has been rough, you ask? Well, one of the professors and I are having some communication issues since between her English and my French understanding, something is getting lost in translation. This is making some moments uncomfortable, but hopefully, all will work out in the end.

I also learned that next week is another three day week! Thursday is Armstice Day, so we're off for that and the Friday. I'm thinking of doing something fun--traveling somewhere nearby for a day perhaps. I'm trying to budget well so that I can live off of my euros and not exchange anymore dollars. Wish me luck! ;)

Besides work, I also had some fun last night going out with PA and two of his friends. A bar was having a belated Halloween theme night, so if you went in costume you got a free drink. I was a devil again, and PA and his friends wore morphsuits:

It was a release to be a crazy person wandering around in a costume on a Thursday night! People talked to us on the street to laugh or ask questions about how they can see out of the morphsuits. It was just funny! We also had a guy buy us free caramel vodka shots! It was silly but much needed.

PA is in Vitré for the weekend, and so I am looking for ways to entertain myself. I definitely need some down time to read and chill after a stressful few days.

A nice French doctor

Today was yet another adventure in French—I had to go to the doctor! The owner of Caely’s (another assistant here) apartment recommended one to her, so I got the name and address. The medical office is run without secretaries, medical history forms, nurses, or even appointments! I just walked in at 8:30am, and the doctor waved me back as the first person of the day. He sat behind his desk, and I had a seat and just described my symptoms to him. I studied up on vocabulary the night before, but with some of the questions we switched to a bit of English and used his handy French-English medical dictionary. So without a physical exam, temperature, blood pressure or anything, he wrote me a prescription and said he hoped he never had to see me again! How nice!

Since it was my first medical visit, the doctor also had to fill out a form for me to deliver to my medical insurance office here. I also haven’t yet received my Carte Vitale, the social security card here for medical reimbursement, so I had to pay for the visit (22 Euros) and the medicines from the pharmacy (11 Euros) up front and deliver the relevant receipts to the insurance office to get my money back later. So yes, I also stopped by that office to drop all of these things off. Luckily, there is no line during the regular workday :)

Just ate a sandwich in my apartment, waiting to go to observe more classes this afternoon. My boss called to say that I will have a schedule starting November 15 since this week and next week have strange scheduling for some reason. Thank goodness! Soon I will actually have (steady) work to do!

Otherwise, things are quiet around here. I’ll try to get to some cultural notes soon, but I haven’t really been inspired by anything lately…

Halloween

My Halloween party was a huge success!! Friends old and new from the US, France, Canada, Spain, UK, Austria, Germany, Italy, and Lithuania showed up! Not many did costumes, but I was a devil and PA the Phantom of the Opera.

To see photos, click here! The link is also in the photo albums sidebar on the right!

Happy Halloween to you all!