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Joyeux Noel!

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I am zanksfullll for......

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vacances part deux

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oops.

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the darndest things

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14 January 2013

Back (Home)

After a very wonderulf 2.5 weeks in Chicago, I am back (home) in Angers! (Sorry, Dad) Being that most of the people who read this little cyber hot mess of a journal (I'm guessing) are my family strewn throughout the US, I don't see much of a point of recounting what I did, since I was lucky enough to have you all experience it with me. 

 I will, however, take this time while I have you all here to express how grateful I am that I got to spend time with you all, and how incredibly fortunate I am to have had the opportunity to see you. I love you all so very much and I literally would not be able to be doing what I'm doing in France without all of your support. You all are incredible, amusing, inspirational, and loving beyond words and I hope you are reminded of that every single day. 

 Anywho, not much has happened since I arrived back in France besides a bit of jetlag (and a jetlag-fueled decision to re-arrange my room; promptly cut short by a near-death experience moving a 12-foot armoire all alone), some good classes (some not-so-good classes), a brief potential run-in with the flu epidemic sweeping western France (verdict's still not out on that one...), some nice long walks with friends (some old, some new; see below), and a cutesy wedding-themed party hosted by another assistant who  unfortunately had to miss her friend's wedding back in the States.
Tried way too hard to coax this lil' bugger off this wall.
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10 December 2012

Joyeux Noel!

Christmas season is here! 

 Things that are similar in France as in Chicago:
       - The Christmas Market: One in each little French town, little huts much akin to those at Christkindlmarket. However, the things being sold in these markets are MUCH different. Although they do have the standard churros/crepes/waffles/sugary delights, they also have various devices which can only be described as "As seen on TV!" merchandise (read: microwavable pillows, flower stamps for manicures), which I find a little strange to be in a Christmas market....
       - Christmas music: There is a store that I have to ride my bike past everyday to and from my school that, I kid you not, transformed OVERNIGHT from a normal women's clothing store to a crazy everything Santa-themed store that blasts Christmas music. A little part of me gets homesick when the classic "I'll be Home for Christmas" blares at me on my way home from dealing with demon high school students all day.
       - Advent calendar: These little suckers popped up a little too early in the Christmas season for my liking (around the first week of November), but CLEARLY I had to purchase one for myself and my two good friends, Diana and Emily. They truly are exactly the same here as they are in the states -- same weird Christmas scene on the front, same Christmas-themed chocolate shapes, and same shitty waxy chocolate....JUST as I remembered! Diana and I have both lamented about how let down we were about the awful quality of chocolate. I guess I shouldn't have expected much from something that cost 1 euro though.....

10 days into this mess and not so secretly hating every minute of it


Things that are different in France:
        - No lights: Besides the lights that the city installs, there are no Christmas lights on people's houses! I guess it's an American thing....
        - Christmas music: I know, I know, I had this under "similar", but it is also very different and here's why; they play it on speakers on the main streets, and sometimes they play raggae. I don't get it.

 Anywho, I went to the opening ceremony of the Christmas market the weekend before last, and here is what I saw:

Whatever these things were supposed to be were literally terrified of my spikey phone case
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23 November 2012

I am zanksfullll for......

Alas! Thanksgiving day has come and past and it has not been forgotten about here in France. My celebration of the holiday began last week teaching about the holiday in all my classes. Some of my kids knew a bit about the holiday, but, for the most part, it was something new for them. I began by teaching them about the historical aspect of the holiday, then moving onto modern observances, and then discussing the controversial aspect of the holiday if I felt the kids would be capable of understanding the ideas. After that, we watched a scene from "Smallville" where Clark Kent stands up to say why he's thankful, his mom cries, then dinner rolls are passed as early 2000's sappy music plays in the background. Afterwards (my FAVORITE part), I tell the kids about hand turkeys, laugh while the guess what it means, then force them to draw their own and then present to the rest of the class what they are thankful for. Some of them are really sweet and heartwarming, but also some of them were about cats, which is also nice I guess. Without fail, they all begin by saying "I am zankssssfullll..." There is no S in the word, and that's not even part of the French accent so....why? Anywho, it was fun and made me happy to be able to talk about this American holiday, and I even got a couple "HAPPIEEEE ZANKSGIVING!"'s yelled at me today in the hall, so at least a little something stuck with them, if only the date.
Um....? Also please note the white-out that covered up the "s" in thankful....WHY.
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17 November 2012

vacances part deux

After my first week of vacation spent lounging in Angers, I decided to get out of town for the second week. My first destination was.....Paris (for the 6th time in my life).  After my last time in Paris, I felt more keen on the place, now that I don't feel the need to visit all the tourist-y places, and because my friend Alex would actually be there this time! Saturday afternoon I boarded the TGV in Angers sans communication with Alex (for the two days leading up to my departure), unconcerned figuring it would work itself out by the time I arrived in Paris. Well, it didn't. I arrived in Montparnasse around 6 pm still with no contact with Alex, and by that point realized that her phone was also completely off. Feeling confident in my Parisien knowledge (ha!) I waddled to her house with my bags and plopped down at a bar to have a drink and wait for word from her. Luckily, I had contacted my friend who I studied with in Grenoble who is now living in Paris a couple days before, and he came to rescue me from my lonliness and had a chance to catch up. Eventually Alex turned her phone on, informed me that she had no idea I was coming that day, and met up with me at her apartment after she got off work. The rest of my time in Paris was spent partying with Alex and her comrades (until 6AM on a SUNDAY! These Parisians are a different breed....), meeting lots of people, and a short stop at the Musee d'Orsay to see the Impressionism and Fashion exhibit (which, was kind of a let down, but I can't complain since I defied authority and got in free).


Beautiful sunny day! (The day I left...)

Mandatory lock bridge photo.
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02 November 2012

oops.

Oh gosh, here we are again.....following a three week blogging hiatus. Well, I'll say one thing: it was inevitable.  What's funny is that I have not even been that busy. Alas! My laziness got the best of me.

 As I look over the last three weeks, a couple of events stick out in my mind: dinner parties (LOTS of 'em), Halloween, and VACATION.

 After some serious reflection, I have realized I have been to six dinner soirees over the last three weeks, including two which I hosted (which were rather small and barely justified a "soiree", I think), an international one, and a raclette one!  They were all wonderful and great and keep me eating well and staying as rotund as ever.

 Halloween has oddly been a large part of the last couple of weeks in my life. If you were wondering, the French don't celebrate quite as much as we do back in the States, and, had it not been for my teaching job, I think I might have almost forgotten it was happening (as I did with fall in general...).  From my understanding, little kiddos get dressed up and go "trick-or-treating", although the fun of it is sort of lost, being that it is not their own tradition, which is understandable.  I have seen only one apartment with pumpkins smiling down at the street, and, based on my expertise, the artists must have been expats, judging by the expertly crafted grins they were sporting. After the age of maturation, not much is done to celebrate Halloween in the style francais. I enjoyed telling my students all about the "grown-up" tradition of dressing scandily State-side, and watching their reaction as I described/mimed the infamous Mean Girls scene (below). 
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11 October 2012

the darndest things

I just finished up my second week of work here at the lycée.  Whenever anyone asks me how my kids are, I always say it's a huge range, which is the most honest answer I can give. The kids are from 14 to 19 years old, and are all over the place in terms of oral skills and comprehension. Not surprising considering I teach 11 different classes during the week, meaning I interact with close to 250 kids. However in my introductory Q&A sessions, they all seem to ask the same questions, the most popular being:

      - What music you prefer?
My go-to is "Kanye West....Lady Gaga.....Drake....(Ugh I don't care) Moving on."

      - Do you have boyfriend?
"No, and I'm not looking for one here at the lycée."...except that's not completely true, some of my students are super sexy. Judge away comrades! I say age is just a number.

      - Do you know celebrities?
Like.....Does it look like I know celebrities?

      - Do you like France? What do you think of the people?
"Oh my gosh yesss cheese! Wine! Everything's so relaxed! So nice!" When I really just want to say Americans think you're kind of rude and that you/your cheese smells.

      - What is different about France?
"Everything inconviently shuts down on Sundays (and sometimes Mondays too), and dryers don't exist." Also I casually mention how they've been suckered into going to school until 6:00 pm, whereas Americans end at 3:00 which really sets them off.....sorry profs!

      - Do you smoke drugs? Do you have gun?
"Um no and no."....It is clear what they think about Americans!
Overall the teaching is going well. I have to admit, I was super concerned last week while observing when one of the teachers said to me "If they're misbehaving or talking or, you know, making fun of you, just send them back to me." 
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06 October 2012

Just a couple of photos to remember my first two weeks in Angers! Can't believe I've been here that long -- time is flying!
View of the Chateau from the other side of la Maine

Chapel within my lycée
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