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!