My last month of working in France!

Friday was one of the sadder days of my French children teaching career--three students just cut my class! I was in my room at 11:30 and waited for twenty minutes before going to ask the teacher if I had the right hour. Apparently, she had sent three students to me and they decided to leave campus for an early lunch instead of working with me :( It was rather heart-breaking...

I had another class where the prof asked me to prepare them for presenting texts for their final oral exam. The problem is that no one explained to me how it works, so I couldn't really answer their questions! Ugh. Only eleven more workdays to go.

Friday evening I went to Vitré to hang out with the ever-cool Caitlin and Katherine. We ate spicy chili, made brownies and pumpkin bread, and danced. The next morning was when we ate the pumpkin bread... Then we had to catch the train to Rennes.

At 5, assistant Kelsey was hosting a party to exchange clothes and books and just mingle in general with other assistants. She made a delicious champagne, vodka, and pineapple juice punch, and I brought White Russian fixin's. The offical invite was from 5 to 7, but we all stayed until 11ish, dancing and eating up all the snacks available because we had all missed our dinner! The last group of me, Caitlin, Kelsey, and Kelsey's French boyfriend Steven went to my place for hookah, then us girls went to the nearby club Delicatessan to dance awhile. I think we only made it to 2:30am this time, but we also didn't spend money getting in or buying drinks at the club, so it worked out just fine.

This morning, Caitlin and I are relaxing over leftover spicy chili and fresh pico de gallo with tortilla chips. It's gonna be a lazy day because her next train home isn't until 7pm. So movies, books, chillin'... My abs and legs are soooo sore from the hours of dancing I've put my body through this weekend.

Also, I officially enrolled at George Washington University! Hooray! Come visit me in Washington, D.C. next year!

PA's Birthday Weekend!

On Friday I had a lucky break when a prof was absent, so my eight hour workday went down to five, finishing at 3:30. That night, I went out to a pizza dinner at Trevi with PA, Adrien, Wajd, and Philouze. His 25th birthday party started right afterwards in my apartment with his usual crowd of friends. At midnight, we could all sing him happy birthday!

Shortly after midnight, Caitlin called me to meet at the train station because she was walking up from another party. I had promised her a night of clubbing, but PA's friends weren't ready to leave, so I headed out by myself. We went to Pym's and danced for an hour or so before PA called me--they wouldn't let them in without IDs (which is weird because none of us had ever been asked for an ID in France!). So his group headed to another club, Espace. Caitlin and I left ours and found some nice kids in the street to show us the way to Espace. They apparently thought we were their age, and when I said Caitlin and I are English teachers, one guy said he wished he has a hot English teacher! Haha!

Unfortunately, Espace didn't let them either--I'm guessing it was just too many guys in the group. We went back to my place to close out the party around 4am. What was super exciting is that I could wear my pretty new dress:

Saturday afternoon, PA and I took the train to Vitré for his and his niece Clémentine's birthday festivities. PA ended up with some new clothes and a little guide to Washington in honor of our GWU choice :) We had really delicious pork and potatos with blue cheese sauce for lunch and galettes for dinner. Mmmm!

Sunday morning, PA and I went to his basketball club for a 10:30 game. The last quarter was super close going back and forth by 2 or 3 points... In the last nine seconds, it was 71-72 in favor of the visitors. PA's team ran down court--PA was supposed to take the last shot, but a guy blocked him. PA passed the ball to a younger player who shot and missed. PA grabs the rebound and shoots with one second left--AND MAKES IT!!! A buzzer-beating, game winning shot! It was AWESOME! I was so excited to be there for that game!

Phew! Also, Sunday was the big family party day for 4 year old Clémentine. Both sides of the family came to Vitré for a long aperatif with hors d'oeurves, foie gras, filet mignon, potatos, asperagus wrapped in bacon, cheese, and two birthday cakes of fruit and chocolate! PA's nephew Martin (age 2) sleepily asked to sit in my lap, probably mistaking me for his mom, but then he actually stayed there to play with his truck and animals and chatted with me. I learned some new animals from his book: moufette (skunk), paon (peacock), poulpe (octopus), poussin (chick), hippocampe (seahorse), and coccinelle (ladybug). I like little kids because their vocabulary is similar to mine ;)

Now PA and I are back in Rennes readying ourselves for another week of work/classes. Only 16 workdays in 4 weeks left for me! Hooray!

FYI, we did our time change, so I'm back to six hours of difference from EST.

Brussels, Bruges, and Back to Work

Ah! Here is a quick catch-up on the last few days!!

Wednesday, I took the train into Brussels, Belgium, where Katherine and Caitlin were awaiting me at the station. We visited a brewery of sour gueuze (sp?) beer, ate fries and waffles, and saw Autoworld, a museum of old cars! We found an awesome cafe with the best chai tea lattes in Europe. Dinner was at an Irish pub that I've been to many times, including this past summer where I watched a World Cup game there, standing in the crowd for two hours!

Chocolate Mickey sculpture for Ma!

Note the grey skies of Wednesday...

 

The next day was a leisurely outing to Bruges under grey, drizzling skies. It was an hour train ride, then a long, slow stroll up to the center of town with lots of photo ops. We had tea/coffee, cupcakes, and chocolates at a tea shop. I made them stop to see the Michelangelo, the Jesus Blood, the canals, and my favorite chocolate shops. We also had a yummy pasta lunch and an afternoon Bruges Zot beer. Oh, and I managed to buy a necklace in a funky little shop. Back in Brussels, we ate more fries for dinner, then Caitlin and I got hookah and drinks before hitting the hostel.

Latte, chocolates, and a red velvet cupcake! Mmmm!

For Friday we just met at the chai tea cafe to hang out before our trains left. We all had different itineraries, so I ended up on one train with C and the next with K! And I was back in Rennes by 5:15pm to hang out with PA a bit.

Why I like travelling with C and K: We eat/drink/chill a lot. We can speak franglais. We can just be happy strolling.

Saturday to Sunday, I was in Vitré to hang out with Caitlin--make baked brie with fig jam and veggie soup and watch movies. It was a nice chill weekend :)

Started work up today, and my schedule was very messed up! Two of my classes were not even there... including my 8:30am one :/ For a class I did have, I did Two Truths and A Lie, and this girl wrote "I like scream" instead of "I like ice cream," lol!

Back to the grindstone... 23 days of work to go! Then family and friends visit! Hooray! And spring is arriving, so life is getting much happier around here :)

Winter in Prague

I have a lot to say this time!

Pierre-Antoine and I were in Prague from Tuesday to Friday! It was cold (and even snowed on us once), but if the sun was out and the wind stopped, it felt great!

We had a long travel day starting with a train at 6:10am to the airport; then we had to wait around for an afternoon flight to Prague which takes only an hour and a half by air (it really makes you think about how small Europe is). Once there, we had to take a bus to the metro--a bus we didn't pay for because we only had big 1000 CK bills from the ATM and the driver spoke no English!

The hostel was right off of the main Old Town Square, and the five minute walk from the metro to the hostel just took my breath away. All of the buildings in Prague are GORGEOUS! A mix of old and new, all decorated, many painted bright colors! Check out the photos to get a better idea.

Me on Old Town Square with a Starbucks in hand.

So that first evening, I got a Starbucks latte under the name of "Lopen" :) and we wandered around the main square and over to the famous Charles Bridge to get a view of Prague Castle. PA convinced me to eat KFC for dinner :/ It's really different in Europe: the only sides are fries and coleslaw, no biscuits, and the only chicken varieties are original and spicy. Ah, well... We capped off the night by finding a huge mall that had bars on the top floor and enjoyed a Pilsner.

The famous astronomical clock!

View to Charles Bridge and Prague Castle on the hill.

The next morning (Starbucks in hand!) we caught a free city tour from German/British Michael. He was pretty funny and took us to all the main sights in Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Quarter. Look through the photo album to get all the stories with each picture. Lunch with the tour was at Bohemian Bagel where I actually got a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel! It must have been owned by Americans because the food was just like home! Here are some building pictures to give you an idea:

Near Prague Castle.

Jewish Quarter building detail.

On a main square in New Town.

Cubist architecture. We ate at the cafe here!

The tour lasted until after 2, so our plan to go to the zoo was too late... Instead, we walked up to the Castle, which is more a palace complex than a traditional castle. We didn't pay to go in but just admired the views from up top. We then went to the hostel to take a nap and prepare for the night's fun ;)

We had a delicious Indian meal before meeting the Bar Crawl group. The first bar was actually inside an old church and only half-finished. There we had a Power Hour of free drinks and hookah... and a lot of British teenagers on a trip together that become a nuisance as the night goes on. The second bar was M1 Lounge, which was AWESOME! The interior was stellar--like from a movie--and the music was awesome. I got this Tiramisu martini that was delicious and got to dance to American music! The annoying part was that there was only one toilet and three British girls locked themselves in it for half an hour. Two French Canadian girls and I were waiting, so we got the bouncer to open the bathroom door and kick them out! You would think that British teens could hold their alcohol...

The third bar was DEJAVU, which PA thought was funny. It was ok... we sat at the bar sipping White Russians for the most part. The last stop on a bar crawl is always a club, which was also cool. Happily, the Brits didn't make it this far, so the atmosphere was a lot nicer. We danced a bit, then headed out around 2:30. It was a fun night :)

The next day we did a tour out to Kutna Hora, again with Michael! About an hour's train ride took us to this town that used to be super rich from the silver mines there--producing one third of Europe's coins in Medieval/Renaissance times. The site to see is the bone ossuary--a blind monk was given the job of organizing old bones in a chapel, making pyramids, garlands, a crest, and a chandelier of them! Again, see the pics!

Inside the bone chapel!

And since it was a tour, we also got stories on Hussite War battles, the mines, the politics. The other site was St Barbra's Cathedral, which looked positively gloomy--Kutna Hora was the coldest day with grey skies and a bit of snow. Lunch was at a Czech pub at 3pm, so we were starving! Here we tried beef in a cream/cranberry/lemon sauce with bread dumplings (slices of bread coated in flour and egg and boiled). It was pretty good, but we sat at a table of Norweigians, a Dane, a Russian, and the German/English guide, so the conversation was odd...

I guess I haven't mentioned that I had developed a cold on this trip... After Kutna Hora, I was rather miserable. I just had to be lame go to sleep that night...

Our last morning, we did a communism tour, which showed us quite a few new sites and took us to a nuclear bunker where we could dress in authentic uniforms and drink a beer! That is where these amazing photos come from:

Afterwards, we just had time to eat lunch, walk around the Jewish Quarter once more for a few extra photos, and have dessert inside a Cubist cafe before we headed to the airport. It was altogether a satisfying trip, though I wish we had one more day to see the zoo! My sole recommendation: go to Prague when it's warmer...

We got to Rennes at midnight Friday and slept at my place. Saturday and Sunday were spent in Vitré because all of PA's family was in town. Had a delicious meal at Au Vieux Vitré and lots of laughs as a 'magician' kept stealing the kids' suckers ;)

Here in Rennes, I have two days to do laundry and get rested for Brussels! I'm meeting Caitlin and Katherine for Wed-Fri just for kicks--I can't wait to get some Bruges chocolates!

Another update after Brussels, I suppose. Until then, my friends!

Mont-Saint-Michel on a Sunday in February

Sunday morning, I was picked up by Katherine and her landlords. She is at a school on the outskirts of town, so she rents a room from a family near the school. They offered to take her and a friend on a daytrip to Mont-Saint-Michel, the abbey built on an ocean rock off the coast of Normandy.

View of Mont-Saint-Michel from the parking lot.

By highway, it took us an hour to reach the site, and we parked right at the foot of it. The wind was wild, but the sun was out, and once you made it inside the walls, you could take your coat off and feel the sun warm your back. We trekked up the hill on the only street on the rock, surrounded by tourists admiring the hotels, restaurants, and gift shops that lined the way. At the very top is the abbey, but you have to pay 9 euros to get in, so we decided to just tour the ramparts and eat lunch in a garden overlook. I'm pretty sure we walked every free inch of the rock, since we even found a little cemetary. A lovely way to spend a few hours on a sunny day.

The abbey at the top.

Shrine and French flag.

Cemetary cross and the abbey church.

We left around 3, and they drove us along the coastline. We saw a lot of little Breton towns and beaches and stopped at Cancale, the Point of Grouin, and Dinard. Grey skies took over and a rainstorm followed us home. I was dropped off around 5:45. To see all the photos, click here!

At the Point of Grouin.

Grouin.

Coastline of Brittany.

I packed a bag and took the train to Vitre and Pierre-Antoine for the night. The poor baby has a stuffy nose right before our trip to Prague!

This afternoon's stressor was a letter I had to send to my landlord in Andorra saying that I'm moving out at the end of May. You have to give three months notice (which means by today!) and send the letter with an "accusé de réception" so you can track it and get a receipt back because it's a legal document! So I had to pay over 4 euros to mail a piece of paper to Andorra... Boo!

By the way, this week and the next are school holidays!!! Yes, more holidays--as the couple who took me to Mont-Saint-Michel said yesterday, "The French teach their children to do nothing from an early age. And when they have to do something, they strike to get more holidays!" LOL!

So Pierre-Antoine and I are going to Prague Tuesday-Friday! You'll get a ton of photos and updates this weekend! :)

The Strike Strikes Back!

Let me summarize the last few days for you...

Monday (night): Finally ordered Speed Rabbit Pizza, the place under my apartment! It was really good--tried a barbecue/onion/ground beef/pickles and a chicken/curry/potato/bacon bits. Both yummy!

Tuesday: Went to Vitré in the afternoon to get my haircut with Caitlin! It was 19euros at a walk-in place... I have some funky layers at the moment, but it looks and feels soooooo much better short again! We spluged and bought 16euros worth of fancy chocolates at a shop we passed and spent the evening eating chocolates and these gratin potatos:

Serves 6

Baking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

• 3 pounds (1.5 kg) Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1/2 pound (225 g) Gruyère cheese (either Emmental or Comté –Comté being stronger, or Beaufort if you can find some –it's very expensive in the US)
• 8 oz. (225 g) crème fraîche (french cultured cream), or heavy cream if you can't find crème fraîche
• 1 egg
• 1 cup (20 cL) milk
• salt and black pepper
• butter (just enough to butter the dish –no oil please!)
• 2 garlic cloves

1. Peel the potatoes. Slice them thinly (about 1/8") and place in water to remove excess starch.
2. Butter a deep oven-safe dish. Peel and press the garlic cloves or chop them very finely. Spread at the bottom of the dish.
3. Preheat your oven at 390F (200C).
4. Dry the potato slices in a clean cotton cloth. Place a first layer of potato slices in the dish. Season with salt and pepper. Spread 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.
5. Add a new layer of potato and proceed as described above. Repeat until all the potatoes are layered. Make sure to keep 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche for later. Finish with cheese.
6. Pour the milk on the potatoes.
7. Bake for 1 hour at 390F.
8. Beat the egg with the remaining crème fraîche and pour this mix on the gratin. Bake for 15 more minutes. 

Wednesday: After some stovetop oatmeal, I took the train back to Rennes to drop off my stuff then headed back to the station at 12:30 to meet Pierre-Antoine for a trip to Paris. His interview was right next to the Eiffel Tower, so we wandered around the park there for a few hours beforehand. The interview itself took only 15 minutes and seemed to go well, but he will not know anything until April!!! After that, we metroed to Opera and my favorite steet in Paris--Rue Sainte-Anne in the Japanese quarter! Had a delicious Oyokodon dinner and metroed back to the Montparnasse Station where there is a STARBUCKS!!! Needless to say, I was content with the day ;)

Thursday: Another STRIKE day! It's about the same things as back in October, but recently, the government said that all retiring professors will not be replaced in order to cut jobs... One prof was saying that next year was going to be all messed up since they won't have enough profs for their current student grouping system. So out of my three classes, I had three students, two, and zero... I bought groceries and then went to the CAF office to sort out why I am not yet getting my housing aid money. I was there almost an hour, and the lady just made yet another photocopy of my salary bulletin (I had already mailed them two). Hopefully, nothing else will be messed up.

I was so happy to have a busy day! I really am not a person who is content doing nothing :/

So now I am enjoying some tea with my new favorite snack of baguette with fig jam and brie cheese. SOOOO DELICIOUS! All of my high-class blog readers should jump on this bandwagon!

Pictures to come when my camera is recharged, lol!

Parties and sleepiness

The weekend was rather whirlwind here for me!

Went from six hours of work on Friday direct to the train station to go to Vitre! Caitlin, Katherine, Amanda, David and I had a fun filled evening of coffee, Indian food, bar, microbrewery, club, and a McDonald's visit at 5am! Damn! We were also stalked the entire night by a Brazilian guy who came to speak English with us... Funny how "Americans," North and South, seem to band together to survive Europe.

Our brunch when we were up again around noon consisted of a delicious breakfast casserole that we all helped cook :) It was like being in college again! Haha!

Back in Rennes around 5pm, I napped, ate dinner, and headed to PA's for another party with his friends. I don't really know most of them, and I was exhausted, so I retired to sleep in his room for most of it--and let me tell you that the party lasted past 6am! French students can just keep going and going and going and going...

Sunday was another day of recovery! Luckily, my lessons were already planned for the week, so I could concentrate on sleeping and watching tv. Phew!

It was so good to get out! As Caitlin pointed out, there are only nine weeks of teaching left with two weeks of break the first week in March! That's only about 90-100 hours of work (what we normally did in the span of a week in college)... Oh, how life will change when I'm back in the States, hopefully in grad school!

PA's Fulbright interview is Wednesday! Wish him luck to get some grad school money! xD

:*

Updates in this, the second month of 2011!

Another class cancelled without warning this morning, so I shall blog!

The week was pretty typical... Wajd and Philouse (PA's roommates) had a party Wednesday night of other dental school students. I just DJ'ed most of the night, but one girl actually had a convo with me! Hooray for friendliness!

For classes, I've been having the kids fill in the stories to blank comic strips. They're doing a great job--if a really funny one pops up, I'll take a picture for y'all!

I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately... I think that since the weather is warming up (it's spring-like here, so haha to you Chicagoans in the snow right now xD), people are going crazy! They're out partying on my square and singing "Who Let the Dogs Out?" under my window at 1am... :/ Boo... And I ALWAYS get woken up by the trash collecters at 6am! Ahhh!

So what else is up? I'm taking up running again, especially since the weather is nice enough to run in SHORTS in FEBRUARY! I'm so bad though! I used to run 4/5 days a week for 30 to 45min, and now I'm doing 2 days with just barely 30mins! Yoga is still going strong though! I'm trying to put my free time to healthy use.

I'm headed to Vitré this afternoon for Indian food, assistants, and partying :) Then, back to Rennes on Saturday for another party at PA's place for his friend that is finally coming back from her assistantship in Ireland. Pictures and stories to follow, I'm sure ;)

Business as usual

Quick life update for my faithful followers:

Wednesday was a Vitré outing to hang out with Caitlin--I saw her open her Christmas presents in her newly returned suitcase that AirFrance lost over the holidays! I got to eat chili, rice crispie treats, and chicken nuggets with fries while watching Teen Mom. It was like being a kid in America for an afternoon :)

Two early 8:30 workdays were draining for Thursday and today... One of the teachers has the flu, so I got out two hours early today (good for me, horrible for her!). I did, however, spend another extra hour at school being interviewed by the Graphic Industries class for the school paper! It should be exciting to see what the article ends up being like... They asked questions in English, so hopefully it won't be translated back to French awkwardly. They're even going to take my photo for it next week! I'll be sure to share it all with you when it is printed :)

I've also been talking with Ma about when the family is going to visit. Remember, folks, I'm on vacation here February 26 to March 14 and then April 23 to June 7! (Though, PA and I were just talking about visiting Prague for a few (cold!) days at the end-of-Feb/beginning-of-March part!) Will let you know how things work out, of course. All are welcome!

Tonight, I'm meeting up with a few assistants for dinner and movies. Caitlin is staying over so we can go to the market and/or Irish brunch at Apple Pie. As long as I can sleep a lot this weekend, I'll be happy.

Bisous to you all! :*

Gingerbread, or pain d'épice!

Despite my illness, I trekked out to Vitré Monday afternoon to hang out with Caitlin before she left for her Christmas in Norway adventure. We made good spicy chili and cookies! First, her creation of oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip, and walnut! Mmmm! Then we found a gingerbread recipe online and tested it out. Caitlin wasn't a fan, but I was! We also had no cookie cutters, so we had to freehand a gingerbread man, horse, tree, star, heart, santa hat, present, etc. I also kept half the dough to make later.

Oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip, and walnut cookies! Phew!

Hand cutting the gingerbread shapes!

There was also a shopping run sometime in there so I could find a a last Christmas gift. Apparently, Vitré also blasts music through speakers on every corner, so I was serenaded by Lady Gaga's "Telephone," lol! I stopped by PA's mom's house to say hi to the whole family and share cookies. PA also tried to talk me into going to the doctor the next day... :/ I took the train home to Rennes for a good night's sleep.

I did feel kind of better the next morning, so I did laundry and cleaned up... Then, I noticed my ear hurting, so I went to the doctor that afternoon. Lucky me, I had a sinus infection that had spread to my ear! Tsss... I got five medicines to cure me and felt better by that evening. PA also came back to hang out with me, so it was a cozy evening of watching ninja movies and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

That brings us to Wednesday, which was PA's mom's birthday. We stopped in Leonidas for white Belgian chocolates for her. We took a bus to Saint Gregoire to meet PA's sister Nathalie, Samuel, and the kids for a ride back to Vitré for the birthday evening. I finished off the gingerbread cookie making there using shape ideas from PA and Clémentine, so we ended up with flowers, a star, a man, a sheep, a scooter (Clé's special request), a basketball, a heart, a cat, and some others I can't remember now. Everyone liked them :) We had a lovely veal and potato dinner capped off with gingerbread, a chocolate-strawberry birthday cake, and the white chocolates I had bought! Mmm!

Now, PA and I are back in Rennes to run errands. I'm going to take him to the Mairie (Mayor's building) for the lights show tonight! I'll try to film some of it to share as well! Tomorrow night is a Christmas dinner at one of his aunt's houses in Rennes, and Friday is another at another aunt's house! Lots of presents to come too!

Let me share some of my apartment Christmas decor with you:

Christmas tree surrounded by gifts!

Stockings on the "mantle."

My ornament wall says it all!

Visting in Vitré

I made it to Vitré Saturday evening at 5:30. I read my French Cosmo magazine for the thrity minute train trip and realized that I felt rather comfortable traveling like this. I know what to do now.

I was greeted by the whole Levillain crowd--Pierre-Antoine's sister Nathalie was in town for the holidays with her husband Samuel and their two kids Clémentine (3 years) and Martin (1 year). While shy at first, Clementine eventually asked me to read her a book at PA's prodding. I think my accent was rather confusing, and I found that there a words in French children's books I don't know... :/ We also spent time coloring together--I did a horse and a sheep on request and her abstract Aurora and Prince Charming were very colorful. I also got a goodnight bisous (kiss on the cheek)!

Having the kids around was fun and funny! At PA's basketball game, we got Clémentine to cheer, "Ne piquez pas le ballon de mon Tonton 'Toine!" ("Don't steal the ball from my Uncle 'Toine!") She also screamed "Allez les rouges," which was "Go red!" or the opposing team's color, and "AN-TOINE," which she shrieked during a qiuet moment in the gym, lol!

PA and I returned to Rennes this morning on the train. He's doing some studying, and I'm working on this and things around the apartment. I also added photos of the market in Rennes and some scenes from Vitré: click here to see my photos!