Sophia's Monde

La Fin

2008-05-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

I'm back in the United States as of last Thursday, and before leaving for Israel this Thursday I wanted to write one final entry to round off this blog. If I make it back to Europe (either for an internship or grad school) I may very well start up a new one, but for now it is time for Sophia's Monde to come to a close and for Sophia's Normal World to resume, though what that world is at the moment is a bit unclear.

After my April vacation, I only had a matter of a couple weeks left in France. My last weekend, Danae, Barbara, Nicolas, Marcelo and I went to a nearby island called Île-de-Bréhat, which I really wanted to see before going because I had heard many times it was beautiful. Unfortunately we didn't have great weather for most of the day but we still had fun exploring the island, even in the rain.

I also wrapped up my last few days of teaching, which was fun because with all the classes I planned a game and stayed with the whole class. Of course in my last 3 days at the school I didn't end up having 3 of my classes, so my experience teaching ended the same way it began. Here are pictures of me with some of my classes:

Sunday night before I left, I went out for dinner and drinks with a few of the girls from my basketball team. I hadn't played in a while because of my ankle and then vacation, so it was nice to see some of them before leaving.

Monday nights were always our big dinner party nights because Celine was there and Nicolas would come over, and my last night in Lannion happened to fall on a Monday, so we got to have one last dinner all together which was really nice, but also bittersweet as evidenced in the 3rd picture.

Tuesday afternoon I said goodbye to Lannion and took the train to Paris to spend that evening and Wednesday with the Arribard's before flying back to the US on Thursday.

I feel as though I am supposed to end this blog with something extremely thoughtful and insightful or at least conclusive of my 8 months in France. I'm not exactly sure how to go about that, but what I can say is that I am extremely pleased with my time there, all the experiences I had, the travel I was able to do, and over everything else, the people I met. I will not necessarily miss Lannion as a town, except for the memories now attached to it. Lannion was a small town, not exactly exciting, and not somewhere I would have wanted to keep living for much longer. It did have it perks though, it wasn't especially expensive, the market was great, as well as the proximity to the beach. I did enjoy living in Bretagne, exploring different sections of the region, learning about their specific culture, their food, etc. I won't necessarily miss the school, either. While I loved many of my students, the program at my school was not extremely well organized and while easy, it wasn't an ideal working situation. However I was very lucky to be able to go to Paris and Ireland with some of the students, and I can thank my great responsable for that. He and the other teachers in Ireland were fantastic. My friends are what I will really miss. We were lucky in Lannion to have a great group of assistants, and I grew especially close to Barbara and Danae (and of course Steffi, who left much earlier). Also, thanks to our low-key work situation, we got to do a lot and spend a lot of time together. My favorite memories are simple ones- cooking dinner and eating together, going jogging, having a coffee in a cafe, walking through town, hanging out in the teacher's lounge. As I've said before, I always find it much more difficult to leave such a program than to leave home to live abroad. We will never be in this situation again, where we are all living and working together, and that's what makes it so hard to leave. But I am so happy and feel so incredibly lucky to have made such great friends, and will never forget my time in France, in Lannion, in my Monde.

April Vacation Part II

2008-05-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

After my Eastern Europe extravaganza with Jess, I flew over to Stuttgart. I already wrote a bit about Tübingen, so in an effort not to be too redundant and not to waste any of my remaining time in this country (of which there is precious little- 4 days and counting), here are the rest of my pictures from the trip.

Dinner party:

Ellen and I before hitting the town (which means taking the bus to El Chico):

The original 4 at El Chico:

Sushi dinner in Reutlingen:

The Marktplatz:

Luca and I made tiramisu for David's birthday:

Giovanni getting the royal treatment:

Typical hanging out in the kitchen:

Typical hanging out in Ellen's room:

Friday morning I took the train to Stuttgart, then the train to Paris, and then the train to Soissons where Yohannes picked me up to take me back to his little village, Coucy-le-Chateau. I had to get off at Soissons because Coucy is so small that they no longer have a train station, and on top of that, Yohannes' family's house IS the old train station that the town used to have. Friday night we cooked dinner and hung out, nothing too crazy as I was tired after my day of travel. The next day, we took a day trip out to another town to see the very impressive Château de Pierrefonds, and that evening we went out to a dinner with a large group of Yohannes' old high school friends.

The house/former train station:

Château de Pierrefonds:

Our tour guide told us that this cat entered the Chateau 15 years ago, and some believe it be a reincarnation of Violette-le-Duc, the famous architect who reconstructed the castle. It is said that he was a big fan of cats, and on the castle there are supposedly 30 feline related constructions/symbols. I pet him!

I certainly stretched out this 2 week vacation as far as I could, and am very happy I was able to see all the people I did before heading back home.

Vienna, Budapest, and Prague

2008-04-30T05:43:00.000-07:00

I started out my vacation in Vienna where Jess is studying abroad this year. She and I spent a couple days there before leaving for a week in Budapest and Prague and then I flew to Stuttgart to see my study abroad friends from 2 years ago and then spent my last weekend with Yohannes in his little village called Coucy-le-Chateau. I wrote a bit here and there during my vacation so this post will be a quick recap (who am I kidding, my blog posts never end up being quick recaps). I had a really great time, and was happy to be able to see Jess and my Tübingen friends before flying back to the States (which is in a week from Thursday, by the way).

Vienna:

I had been to Vienna once before, with Jess in February of 2006, so I can't say we did much sight-seeing in the two days I was there. We checked out a market which was great, walked a bit around the city, drank delicious Viennese coffee, and went out with her friends.

Budapest:

This was my first trip to Budapest, and I was very excited for it. I didn't really know much about the city before going, to be honest, but for some reason it was always a place I imagined visiting. I ended up loving the city, a bit more than Jessica I think. Though we tend to have different tastes, when we travelled in 2006 she fell in love with Amsterdam, I preferred Brussels, etc. Budapest is a very real city, something I didn't really feel about Prague. And though I wouldn't call Budapest the most beautiful city I have ever seen, it has some really nice areas, the Parliament building is incredible, and very impressive synagogues and basilicas. We didn't make it to the famous Budapest bath houses, but we did have a nice time on Margaret Island and in the Hungarian House of Wines. We also got to see some of my good friends from home, Bennett and Judy, who are teaching in a town 2 hrs outside of the city.

Prague:

I don't want to say I was disappointed by Prague. It is an extremely beautiful city. One of the most beautiful I have probably ever seen. The baroque architecture in the Old Town was gorgeous, the Charles Bridge is what it is cracked up to be, and the view from up high is breathtaking. That being said, at times in Prague I felt like I was in an amusement park. You know, like Busch Gardens Europe where every section of the park is a different country in Europe. Tourists in this city are taking over. Paris is touristy, Venice is touristy, Prague has gone past touristy. I'm sure there are also parts of the city we didn't get to that are less touristy and I'm a tourist, too, so how much tourist bashing am I really entitled to. Either way we had a good time and met lots of other young travelers in our hostel which was great.

Look what I found!

TOURISTS:

Recap of Tübingen and Coucy-le-Chateau to come soon!

Tübingen Reunion

2008-04-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

For the first time since my study abroad semester in Spring of 2006, I am back in Tübingen. The regular crowd is still here- Ellen, Magnus, Andi, Luca, Schweizer, Noemi... plus a few new exchange students from the US, Italy and Cyprus. I got in yesterday morning and Ellen, Magnus and Andi were at the airport to pick me up and then we all had a nice brunch together. That night we cooked together and after pushed the tables out of the way and danced in the kitchen until 2 in the morning, just like old times. And Drew who is teaching English in Nurnberg came down for the night to see us! Today we got off to a late start but after a while made it into the town for an ice cream and a beer in the biergarten. The weather was beautiful today and in Tübingen that means everyone gets ice cream and sits by the Neckar.

2006:
2008:

And finally, after all this time, I have a video of Magnus dancing:

2008-04-16T02:40:00.000-07:00

Sia! That is how to say 'hi' in Hungarian and in my mind that is how it is spelled. Jess and I are actually in Prague now as of this morning, but spent the last couple days in Budapest. In Budapest we hit the major sites, danced like crazy to a gypsy band one night, and spent a considerable amount of time in the Hungarian House of Wine, a place where for a fixed price you receive a glass, a packet of crackers, and unlimited access to as much wine as you would like to "taste" for up to 2 hours. Pictures to come later when I can upload. Bennett and Judy also came up for the day to hang out with us which was so much fun. Then last night Jess and I took the overnight bus to Prague, a 7ish hour trip, with a group of Turkish university students doing Erasmus (study abroad) in Budapest. We made friends with them and needless to say did not sleep very much. We arrived at 7 this morning to find out that check-in at our hostel is at 2pm, so after a little walk around the city (Prague is absolutely beautiful) and getting Jess new glasses (they broke yesterday during our wine tasting...) we are now sitting around in the hostel waiting to be given our room. We have been so delirious from fatigue that we have been laughing all day, especially when Jess dipped a good amount of hair into her caramel cappuccino this morning. Oh! We also met two Mexican language assistants from France in the hostel here in Prague. One of them knows Danae, my roommate. Small world, this continent. More to come later. Visslat! ('Bye' in Hungarian, I have yet to learn any Czech vocabulary, hopefully by the next post I'll have a couple words down).

On y go?

2008-04-10T03:08:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Ireland on Sunday and I'm already on the go again, leaving tonight for Paris and Saturday for Vienna to meet up with Jessica. She and I are spending a few days there and are traveling to Budapest and Prague together. Afterward I am flying to Stuttgart to spend 6 days with my study abroad friends in Tuebingen. Then it's the train back up to Paris and I'll spend my last few days of vacation with Yohannes, an old friend who lives an hour outside of the city.

Unfortunately I don't have the time to talk all about the school trip to Ireland, but here are some photos at least. We stayed in Connemara which is in County Galway, the most Western part of Ireland. Connemara was absolutely beautiful, very natural and rural. Highlights of the trip included hikes in the Connemara National Park and in Inishmore, the biggest of the Aran Islands, helping the kids cook dinner at night in the hostel, watching the kids clean up after dinner, playing piano with the kids, sheep and all the other cute animals we saw everywhere, our day of eating and shopping in Galway City, learning how wool is made, helping the kids ask random people on the street questions for their projects, the teacher meetings, the beer, the Irish Stew we ate on our last night, the ferry ride back/celebration of Gael's birthday (NOT the ferry ride there).

Another thing I wanted to share with you was this guy: (He's Breton though, not Irish)

When I was walking to school yesterday, his head popped up over that wall. I went to the right side of the wall to get a better look, and he followed me over, propped himself up again and was very cooperative during the photoshoot. This might be silly, but I really think he is smiling at me!

It is also nearing the end of our program here in France, and by the time I return from vacation, 3 of the assistants will have already gone home. Last night we had a goodbye dinner of sorts for Noelia who is leaving on Saturday. It's cliche, but time really does fly. I can't believe I'll be home in less than a month.

Ok, time to head upstairs and wrap up my packing before lunch at Barbara's and my last 2 classes of the week. Then it's straight to the train station to head for Paris!

J'ai fait la galette

2008-04-02T05:06:00.001-07:00

J'ai fait la galette literally means I made the galette but colloquially it means 'I threw up' in Brittany. And that is exactly what I did, multiple times, on the ferry over to Ireland. Apparently I get seasick, who knew. Anyway, we have been in Ireland now for 5 days, and we are having a fantastic time. The students are adorable, very polite and agreeable. The other teachers are super fun, and daily we have what we call a reunion pedagogique (educational meeting) which is code for we all gather in the hostel's bar or one of our rooms and drink wine or whisky. We are in County Galway, staying in the Connemara region which is absolutely beautiful. Off to lunch!

Hoping for Calm Waters and a Well-Behaved Ankle

2008-03-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

In a few hours I will be on the ferry that crosses the English Channel, starting in Roscoff and docking (is that the correct jargon?) in Cork, Ireland with 58 students and 5 other teachers. I had been afraid I wouldn't be able to go because I sprained my ankle pretty badly last week at basketball practice, but I've been resting it and had an xray yesterday which confirmed that nothing is broken. I'll be in an ankle brace for about 3 weeks and I might have some trouble during some of the hikes we have planned in Galway, but my responsable assured me I can always take a day off if it hurts. Anyway, we leave at 9:30pm tonight and arrive only tomorrow morning at 10:30am. It's quite windy today so I'm hoping the ride isn't too bumpy, on verra! I'll try to post something from Ireland if I get the chance, if not see you in 9 days friends!

Senoritas? Sarah does Paris, Lannion & Rennes

2008-03-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Sarah and I started out her week in France with a couple days in good 'ol Paris, hitting all the major tourist sightings and eating very well. Sarah had been to Paris once before as a 12 yr old but only for a couple days and didn't remember seeing much, so it was nice to be able to show her around. She had arrived Friday morning, jetlagged of course, and I was also exhausted just because I had stupidly not gotten enough sleep the night before. She was a trooper through, and we managed to get in a good afternoon of sightseeing before retiring back to Chelles where a delicious raclette dinner was awaiting us.

Sarah attacking her steak-frites:

In the Latin Quarter:Before entering Notre Dame:
In front of the Pantheon:

Cool rollerblading street performance we came across:

The next day was our big sightseeing day. We started off in Montmartre/Sacré-Coeur where twice people asked us if we were Spanish, or in one case, an artist in the Place du Tertre came up to us and asked, "Senoritas?..." I know Sarah and I have dark features, but if you'd listen for a second you would hear us speaking English.

Lunch:

What I have there is supposed to be a salad but it's basically a few greens with fried potatoes and half a fried hunk of Camembert on top. I like this concept of salad.

It started to rain in the evening once we hit the Tour Eiffel, so we rushed through the storm into the nearest metro with hundreds of other soaked tourists, and then made our way over to Châtelet to have a drink and share a pizza.

Pauvre Sarah! Mais j'aime bien cette photo:

While in the restaurant, Sarah and I were invited to join two older men at their table. They were bankers who offered to pay for the meal we had already scarfed down (we declined) and kept trying to buy us a drink though we were planning on leaving. Bref, in the end one of them gave us his card, and that is what Sarah is holding in this picture:

Sunday morning we were sitting in the train, direction west, destination Lannion. I don't remember us doing much Sunday, besides taking naps. On Monday, Sarah came to one of my classes with me, and on the way we hit up Lannion's major sights, including les escaliers de Brélevenez, seen below. We also stopped for a quick snack at a cafe and Sarah ended up getting sangria at 2pm in the afternoon. But hey, she was on vacation.

Sarah leading a game of "Sarah Says" with a group of my students:

That night Danae cooked us her delicious chicken mole, and Nicolas (our Spanish teacher friend) and Celine (our French teacher friend/Monday night roommate) were there, so it was a nice little get-together.

Tuesday night, Danae, Sarah and I went to Atmosphere for a drink and to show Sarah a bit of what Lannion's nightlife has to offer. The night started off slowly, until a very joyeuse girl entered the bar, exclaimed it was her birthday, and took over control of the CD player. Minutes later, she had picked Sarah, of all people in the place (granted there were only about 10 of us) and started singing in her ear. Sarah, a good sport as always, cupped her hand on her ear and feigned very interested facial expressions.

After that excitement, we had another drink and then decided to leave shortly thereafter. In the process of waiting to pay, a guy from the table over started talking to Danae in Spanish, claiming to have been one of her students. We ended up sitting back down with them and had a good time talking in a bunch of languages and telling the guys all the bad words we have learned so far in French. I enjoyed whispering funny phrases and words in Sarah's ear and having her repeat them outloud. On our way out when the bar was closing, an angry little man started telling me that in France, being polite is very important, and things of that nature. The guys took over to try and calm him down, and apparently the man thought we had been using the gros mots to describe him. I guess I must have said a word and then looked in his direction accidentally, because he was only lecturing me. Either way I think the guys had fun "protecting us" and in the end I got an apology.

Sarah and our new friends:

The next day we were really fortunately to have beautiful sunny weather and went to the beach. We started off in Ploumanac'h and then drove over to Tregastel and then stopped in a cafe for a beer.

Thursday night Sarah and I took the train to Rennes. Since Sarah was leaving Friday from Paris, Rennes was a great halfway mark so that I could take her part of the way and show her the capital of Bretagne. We went to my absolute favorite creperie in Brittany, though we had pizza, and then ended up dancing at a club until 4 in the morning before Sarah took her train at 5:30am.

Overall it was a fantastic week, we saw a lot, ate a lot, and laughed a TON. I think we scared a considerable amount of Frenchies with our animated American ways.

Julia and Zach do France

2008-03-24T04:45:00.001-07:00

Blogging has taken a backseat to hosting guests the last couple weeks, as I was lucky enough to have first Julia and Zach and then Sarah in France with me on their respective spring breaks. After a lot of organization and planning it was decided that Julia and Zach would come directly to Lannion for a weekend, then head back to Paris where I would meet them a couple days later to spend their last two days with me. The day they left Sarah arrived, and I spent the weekend with her in Paris before taking her back to Lannion and then spending her last night in Rennes.

Julia and Zach enjoying their first cafe in The Lannionais, one of Lannion's more populated cafes. Luckily, we were able to acquire a table in the cafe's highly demanded heated terrace, not an easy feat:

We spent Saturday at two beaches, getting off the bus at Tregastel and hiking over to Ploumanac'h because the tide was so low. We did a good two hour trek over and under rocks and through little streams, played with little sea creatures, and of course took lots of pictures. The weather was ok, we got a little sun here and there which was nice and it wasn't too cold. Anyway, I will let the pictures speak for themselves, the rocks are impressive enough I think.

The next two pictures I have to comment about, as they are dedicated to our Opa. A quick background: When we were young, as most children, we had dreams for the future. I wanted to be a teacher as I loved children. Julia wanted to be, well, rich. So during summers spent in South Carolina with our grandparents, we would drive in the car with our Opa, and when we would pass a big fancy house, he would proclaim that Julia, future business woman or banker or something of that nature, would own such a house. Then we would pass a tiny shack-like residence, and he would chuckle to himself and say that this would be my house- and that I had better marry rich. So, here are Julia and I, following through with Opa's hypothesis, standing first in front of Julia's gorgeous waterfront chateau, and then my pile of rocks (fortunately Julia has promised to take me in when it's raining).

After a couple hours on the beach by the water, one becomes famished. We found an unassuming crêperie that we thought might not mind too much if we entered with our muddy shoes, and soon were happily munching away on Breton specialities. Zach chose a scallop flambée crêpe, Julia the all-traditional galette complète, and I had moules frites. God those french fries were good.

After lunch we explored Ploumanac'h a bit more before returning home for a delicious raclette dinner.

The next morning Julia, Zach and Noelia came to my basketball game to watch us lose again. That evening was Julia and Zach's last night in Lannion, so we went out to another crêperie and had a fantastic meal.

After the weekend, the two head back over to Paris and I met up with them Wednesday evening. We took the RER over to Chelles where I would introduce Julia to the Arribard's for the first time and play translator. The next day we went into the city where we would have yet another very enjoyable dining experience.

After lunch, Julia had organized us to take a free walking tour of a particular part of the city. We rushed over to meet our guide, a nice middle-aged woman named Valerie. The guide was actually really interesting, as she took us through the 13th arrondissement, a district of the city I was not very familiar with. She told us a lot of interesting facts, like there used to be a river in this part of the city that eventually was put underground because it got so disgusting. Apparently the area used to be quite poor, and all the vendors and commerce going on by the river polluted it so much that they had to get rid of it. The picture below shows a set of white houses in the back which were built for Russian taxi drivers who came over to France after the Russian Revolution. They were built on top of a parking garage I believe.

The fountain in this next picture was a gift to France from England (I hope I am getting this all right) because Parisians did not have access to enough clean water. I think there are various ones that can be found around the city. I have seen similar ones in Lisbon and Barcelona.

This district is also neat because it is quite diverse. There is a lot of subsidized housing in the area, middle class housing mostly occupied by fonctionnaires, as well as cute little houses with gardens, a real novelty in Paris. Here are Julia and Zach standing in a corner of the district filled with houses:

Another cool thing about this arrondissement was the street art. In particular, Valerie told us about one female artist named Miss.tic. who draws women all over this area, usually with some sort of quote or message. Here is one example, I took too many to post them all but I will probably do another posting later showing more:

Valerie then led us over to the Latin Quarter where we took a lot at the market and then spent a lot of time (and a lot of Julia and Zach's money) in a cheese store. Afterward we enjoyed a happy hour cocktail before heading back to Chelles.

That night we made tacos for everyone, and they were a huge hit. Not only were the regular Arribard's there, but Samya as well as Sarah and Khadil, two more relatives we had not met before.

The next day Julia and Zach left France, and Sarah arrived. A recap of her trip will have to come later because all this blogging has taken up an obscene amount of time and made me very hungry!

2008-03-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

I had an absolutely lovely weekend here in Lannion with Julia and Zach and also still need to write about the end of my vacation in Rochefort, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, but for now here are two cartoons I stumbled across while preparing for class.

When I mention in class the fact that French people are known for eating snails, something many Americans find quite unappetizing, a lot of my students tell me that they have never eaten snails nor would like to ever try them while making that scrunched up face that is universal for "ewww". So there you go, not all French people love to eat escargots. Another stereotype shattered, and we all know how much I enjoy doing that.

In other news it is unbelievably windy today. Probably the windiest day I have experienced during my 6 months in Bretagne. Barbara just called to tell me she saw a tree had fallen over and warned us to be careful on our walk home from school. Oh la vache...

Berlin II

2008-03-07T01:22:00.000-08:00

Ok, where was I. I think we had just left the Turkish market Friday afternoon. After the market we walked over to the Jewish Museum, a really architecturally interesting but massive museum with massive amounts of information that I had been in with my mom once before. They also had a special exposition of photography of Israel which I was especially attracted to since (fingers crossed) my sister and I will hopefully be going there this summer. We probably spent about 4 hours in the museum by the end and after that our stop was dinner at a vegetarian burger place I love.

Danae in one part of the museum:

Kosher gummybears!:

Sarah and I after dinner:

With larger than usual Ritter Sport bars, my favorite German chocolate:

The normal little ones in various flavors:

The next day was the day when the 3 girls went to Postdam to check out the castles and I stayed back in Berlin and had my 4 hour march through the city that I wrote a bit about a few posts ago. We woke up that morning to a group of guys playing instruments outside on the street, hoping people would throw money down to them, either because they liked them or to make them go away. Since our area Wilmersdorf has a very high concentration of elderly people in general (I read in one book that one out of every 5 of so habitants of this area is over 65 or something) and old people seem to like standing or sitting by their windows and peering out, this doesn't seem like such a bad tactic.

A picture of the little band from our window:

Pictures from my day of walking including Bergmannstrasse, the Neue Synagogue, markets and my sushi lunch:

I wonder if this 6 yr old got to dress herself:

Sophia in the Sophienkirche:

So this last guy, he was the one dressed up like Elvis that I mentioned in that other post. I stumbled across this "performance" in Alexanderplatz before going home. He and his friends had set up a sort of stage and had a microphone and plenty of beer. Later I understood that he was going to get married soon and this was part of his Bachelor's party, and a large part of that was making a huge fool of himself. So his friends made him do ridiculous tasks like sing, drink whisky from a bottle for long periods of time, and smash a guitar (I'm assuming a fake one). Then they had a random "panel" chosen from the audience (3 teenagers) rate his performances.

Since it is was Saturday night we went out to a club, as experiencing Berlin's nightlife is rated in the Rough Guide to Berlin as the number 5 most important activity in Berlin and we'd already done most of the first 4 (Potsdam, markets, Jewish museum, etc). I didn't take my camera to the club because that just didn't seem like a good idea, but here are a couple pictures of us beforehand:

We had chosen a club with multiple floors, with the logic that if it's small and there's only one kind of music and it's techno we are going to cry. The club we ended up choosing was in Prenzlauer Berg in the East, supposedly where the best nightlife is. This particular club was no-frills, not at all pretentious or chic, but the music was good and we had a lot of fun. We were finally back in the apartment at 7am.

Naturally the next day got off to a bit of a late start, so I don't think there's really much to write about that. Danae and Sarah went to Checkpoint Charlie and Barbara and I went to an American diner themed cafe (I know) and then we all later met up for dinner at an Indian/Sri Lankan restaurant. My plans in Berlin included as much ethnic food as I could get considering our variety in that area in Lannion is limited to a Tex-Mex place I've been too afraid to try and my "copain" (story to come another time) at the Thursday market who sells overpriced Chinese/Vietnamese spring rolls and dumplings.

The food was great and very reasonably priced, and then for some weird reason after dinner, we decided to fiddle around with our hair and take the following pictures:

The next day was our last day in Berlin, and we went to the East Side Gallery (longest remaining section of the Wall which was also painted by many artists from around the world after it came down). We then found a cafe to have kaffee/kuchen, one of my favorite German traditions, and then we split up once again so that Barbara and I could go to the Dali exposition on the Ku'damm and Danae and Sarah to the Berlinerdom (cathedral).

Pictures on the way to East Side Gallery: (Barbara didn't quite make it into this first picture)

River Spree:

I know this is a bad word in Spanish!:

We had an early flight the next morning so we all got up around 4:30am and were on our way to the airport before 6.

Bis zum nächsten Mal, Berlin! A la prochaine!

Vacation: Paris and Berlin Part 1

2008-03-04T01:48:00.000-08:00

Once again the long series of vacation posts begins. I am going to try and do better than Christmas vacation time because I don't think that was fun for any of us. What did that take, 3453845 installments?

A quick Paris overview...
Of course our vacation started off in Paris, because for some odd reason, neither major airlines nor the TGV make it out to Lannion, though I really can't come up with a good reason why not. I'm not sure they are aware that Lannion is France's former capital because if they knew that I'm sure we would be treated with the respect we deserve.

I spent the few days with the Arribard's as usual, making it out a few days to the city as well to meet up with Danae who was staying there with a friend. Barbara came and spent the last couple nights with me in Chelles before we were off to Berlin which was nice. Lila is getting confused with all the nationalities I keep introducing to the household, but hey it's more enriching this way. One of the highlights of the trip was explaining to my 8 year old cousin Line how we are related because apparently she was convinced that we were not. She was probably wondering who this girl is who keeps coming over all the time.

Line and I ice skating:

Danae and I in Paris:

Fountain outside of Centre Pompidou:

Barbara and I did make it to the Musée Rodin, our one cultural endeavor of the weekend (unless you count eating éclaires... food is a huge part of French culture after all, just ask Sarko). This museum is really quite nice, with a spacious courtyard filled with sculptures as well as the indoor section, which was great because the weather was cooperating. Afterward we ate a sandwich for lunch and then found an overpriced café to sit in while we ate our pastries. Paris is expensive... our grand café crèmes cost €4.50 which seems even pricier than Starbucks. Fortunately Berlin was in our near future where prices are generally much lower.

At Rodin:

Cute message someone left for Rodin:

(Hello Mr. Rodin! You have spoiled us. Me and my German wife Helga. We are happy. Thank you)

Wednesday evening Sarah met the 3 of us in Paris and we flew to Berlin. It was my first return to Germany since August 2006. I find the juxtaposition of Paris and Berlin to be really interesting. Both capitals are fantastic cities, but while Paris to me is overwhelmingly beautiful and as Barbara likes to call it, almost magical, Berlin is a lot more raw and candid. Paris is definitely a city for tourists, a place to wander about for hours, sit around in cafes and people-watch, and maybe check out a museum or two. In Berlin there is so much to see and do it can be a bit overwhelming if one only has a few days. I've been to the city about 5 times now and there are still things I haven't gotten around to seeing. I wouldn't call Berlin beautiful and I most certainly wouldn't call it magical, but it has a charm it its own special Berlin way.

In Berlin we got to stay at my grandfather's apartment which was great because it was clearly free and we had everything to ourselves, but at the same time my grandfather's apartment is located in a building full of senior citizens who are extremely noise sensitive. Lauren and I had a problem in 2006 when we stayed there and tried to do laundry past 8pm. The result was the woman below us using her broom to pound against our floor and lecturing us the next morning. This time I knew better, but unfortunately we arrived quite late Wednesday evening due to our late-ish flight, so when we moved around a little furniture and pulled out the futon couches so we would have somewhere to sleep, we managed to piss off broom lady once again and she started pounding. I felt badly, but at the same time we had no choice! We didn't get a lecture this time though.

Barbara and Danae on the S-bahn after arriving in Berlin:

The Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche which was bombed during the war but left in that condition as a memorial:

Cool street performance we stumbled upon:

After the street performance we found a little food market where Sarah and I indulged in one of my favorite German foods, kartoffel puffer. My Oma used to make these for us sometimes and they are absolutely delicious-- basically they are fried grated potato pancakes (like latkes) that you can eat plain or with applesauce on top.

While Sarah and I were munching away, a very small guy about our age wearing a hat came over and presented Barbara with a bouquet of flowers. He told her, you smiled at me, so you deserve these flowers. Then he walked away, without asking Barbara her name or phone number, leaving us all in a fit of giggles.

After our market experience (first of many to come, just a warning), we decided to walk over to the Brandenburger Tor. For some reason no one on this continent thinks a group of girls like us are capable of walking longer than about 10 or so meters. Sarah and I have dealt with this before both in France and Ireland, that when asking people how to get somewhere they claim that not only is it difficult to get there by foot, but pretty much impossible. I'm sorry, but it's never impossible. We're not asking for directions to Poland here, just another part of the city. Yes, we weren't close to the Brandenburger Tor, but we're tourists, it's relatively nice out, and we have nothing else to do. In fact, we are actually here to SEE the city, if you can believe it. After numerous attempts we were finally guided in the right direction, and maybe 40 minutes later were standing in front of the Tor.

Afterward Sarah and Danae went into the Reichstag and Barbara and I went into the nearby Starbucks where we practiced my articles and adjective endings and checked out a massive group of Spanish guys also in the café.

The Reichstag (Sarah is the small speckle in the bottom right hand corner):

The next day we had planned on checking out the Turkish market which happens Tuesdays and Fridays in a part of the city called Kreuzberg which is home to many Turkish immigrants. The market was fantastic, tons of people and food and yummy samples. Barbara and Danae stuck with the theme and ate something Turkish for lunch while Sarah and I settled on some Ghanaian food.

The rest to come soon!

2008-02-28T05:07:00.000-08:00

I'm back in France, spending a few days with my buddy Neetu from back at UMD who is an assistant in a town called Rochefort. Yesterday we took the train up to a town called La Rochelle (where we ate sushi for lunch and saw the beautiful aquarium) and tomorrow we have big plans to go to Bordeaux for the day (2 hrs away by train), which I am very very excited about. Neetu doesn't like wine so I am going to do my best and try to convert her tomorrow. I am currently at one of the schools she works in in the teacher's lounge, and before we ate lunch in the cantine with some of the teachers. One thing I noticed right off the bat was that there were bottles of wine on the teacher's tables. I thought back to Lannion where my responsable once told me that it used to be allowed for the teacher's to drink wine at school but now it is forbidden, though in certain small towns around France the teacher's still enjoy some red with their cafeteria lunches. When I told the teachers that here they gave me an incredulous look and poured me a glass. I guess I picked the wrong region.

The first thing I noticed on the train ride down to Rochefort was how different the houses and buildings looked. The houses were lower and longer, and the buildings a white/cream color that looks a bit dirty but is still charming. The picture above of La Rochelle I stole from flickr as I am not able to upload my pictures at the moment, but you can see what the buildings are generally like. Though this is not very south, this is how I imagine the south to look like, though maybe a bit more colorful. Either way the towns here look quite different from the celtic architecture I am used to in Bretagne.

A lot more to come about Paris, Berlin, and Bordeaux!

Halli Hallo

2008-02-23T08:25:00.001-08:00

Greetings from Berlin. I am currently writing this in an internet cafe which overlooks Alexander Platz and the Fernsehturm (TV tower). My better 3/4ths Danae, Barbara and Sarah are spending the day in Potsdam looking at castles, and since I did that a couple trips here ago with Lauren I decided to stay back in the city and do some exploring. We actually had some sun today so I was determined to leave Berlin's fantastic public transport system behind and 4 hours of walking later I am exhausted. I do now however, feel as though I know the city a lot better, or at least the parts I have been walking in today which cover from Bergmannstrasse/Mehringdamm up to and through Checkpoint Charlie, Unter den Linden, the Museuminsel, Oranienburg strasse, Hackescher Markt and Höfe, and finally over to Alexanderplatz. During the journey I stumbled across two flea/food markets, a great sushi lunch deal, and some guy dressed up as Elvis putting on a show with his drunk friends cheering him on. I think it's time to rejoin my friend the U-bahn to get myself home.

That's Amore

2008-02-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

Today on the way home from school, I asked a cat to be my Valentine. I have seen this cat before, it's a pretty fat one that must belong to some house near our apartment. Usually he/she (let's say he to make it an ounce less pathetic) runs away when I approach him, but today I was patient and waited until he came up and sniffed my hand. Then very slowly I started to tickle and pet him, and eventually he was all over me. Rubbing against my legs, purring, the works. When I started to walk away he even followed me up the street at a brisk pace (though he was more waddling than anything else, he really is quite fat), so I stopped occasionally to pet him a bit more before finally leaving my Valentine alone in the street to enter my apartment.

I am also sick as of this morning which is no fun at all considering vacation has officially started. It was bound to get to me eventually, this bug has been infecting my students, my basketball team, our Monday night roommate... hopefully it will wear off soon so it doesn't interfere with my upcoming Paris and Berlin plans.

Picture above: My other Valentines and I at the beach last weekend.

Beautiful Weather in Bretagne

2008-02-12T01:12:00.000-08:00

Once again we had beautiful weather this weekend. Saturday, the usual suspects (Danae, Barbara, Noelia) and I took a picnic to a nearby beach called Tregastel which is one of my favorites. This particular beach is extremely calming to me, the water is so still and blue next to the orangy-pinkish rocks that the Côte de Granite Rose is famous for. We made sure to pack fresh bread and all the fixings for yummy sandwiches, wine, lots of chocolate, a blanket, and mini speakers so we could even have music. After we stuffed ourselves we had a little dance party on the rocks, complete with salsa lessons and some strange looks from other beach visitors.

Sunday I got up nice and early for my basketball game in Brest that day. We lost, as usual, and afterward the girls decided they wanted to stop at McDonalds on the way home. Besides a one time drive through stop for french friends this was my first McDonalds trip in France since I have gotten here and noticed a few differences from the McDonalds I have seen in the United States. First off, the place looked like a chic restaurant, minus the pictures of Ronald and the kids running around. The second was that any menu could come with a beer instead of a soft drink for the same price. And the third was that they offered regular fries and something called "curving fries". I am not sure if "curving" fries are supposed to be like "curly" fries, either way the name doesn't make any sense to me. The only place those fries are going to be curving are in your stomach if you ask me. I had a McChicken meal with regular fries and a coke, and though I didn't ask for it, the girl assumed I wanted the "Maxi" menu which comes with larger fries and a larger coke and is 50 cents extra, and I had to tell her that no, I only wanted the regular menu. In that respect France seems to be just like the US.

When we got back to Lannion that afternoon, a few of the girls from the team invited me to go to the beach with them. I accepted, and before we left we stopped by the little fair going on in Lannion this week, called the fête foraine. It was in the parking lot next to the post office, with lots of candy stands and some rides. I was peer pressured into one of the rides that spins you all around in the air at multiple speeds and in multiple directions and needless to say after the McDonalds my stomach was not very happy with me.

We then went to Ploumanac'h to walk along the beach and have a beer/coffee. Since it was beautiful out and Sunday there were many other people doing the same thing, and I have never seen one of these beaches so populated before. Gave me an idea of what it would be like here in the summer.

Adeline and I climbed up to this very high rock (well she hopped on it and then pulled me up):

Ennnnnsemble!

2008-02-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Noelia, here is a flip book version of me shooting a free throw after a technical foul at our game last Sunday. It is not a perfect shot, as evidenced in photo 6 I was nervous it was not going in but thankfully they both did.

Il faut profiter, quoi

2008-02-08T02:44:00.001-08:00

We tend to feed a younger Spanish teacher about once or twice a week chez nous, and in exchange he has agreed to take us sometimes to various nearby towns in his car. And since once again this past Wednesday we were graced with beautiful weather and school ended at noon, we made the most of it and went to a nearby town called Belle-Isle-en-Terre. We have been to many beautiful beaches but this time wanted something different, so we hiked in the nearby forest, visiting a teeny village and a château along the way.

The little village we walked to:

We went into the little church and through the graveyard which lay right behind it. Then we walked over to the Château de Coat-an-noz. There are in fact two of these châteaus, because Lady Mond had ordered a second one built in town. We visited the one in the forest which is now deserted. Nicholas said it is owned by some English people but apparently is too expensive to reconstruct so for now it is abandonned and not in great shape. Technically one is not permitted to approach it.

In this last image, one can see a painting of a woman. Nicholas said that the place had been owned by various artists over the years and that inside there are apparently quite a few paintings which are supposed to represent different emotions. This woman seems to be smiling so maybe this emotion is happiness?

Other highlights of the day:
When Danae fell
Nicholas' photo shoot against a tree

Noelia's general hatred for mud

Him
When Danae, though slowest of the group, started running... when we saw a boulangerie. Unfortunately I have no picture of this, she was too quick to catch on film, but here is one of the three of us enjoying our well-deserved treats.

There is only one week of school left before we are once again on vacation. I am off to Paris on Saturday night to spend time in Chelles before heading with the girls to Berlin on Wednesday. Hopefully this weekend we will get in another day trip, because well, the title says it all.

Roscoff

2008-02-03T05:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the 4 of us took a day trip to Roscoff, a very small port town 2 hours from Lannion by train that is a ferry connection between Bretagne and England/Ireland. According to Wikipedia, a lot of people come to Roscoff from England solely for the purpose of buying lots of French wine. We were very lucky with the weather which is good, because there is not much else to do in Roscoff besides hang out outside by the water and sit in cafés. Roscoff had a lot of small town charm- a tiny but adorable city center, little houses, little old men, you get the picture. The old man who took the above picture had fun guessing our nationalities (what, it's not obvious we are American, Mexican, Spanish and Swiss??). As I'm used to in the States he thought I was Italian, though I tend to get "Espagnole?" more here in France. As he took the picture he put his hand under his shirt and moved it back and forth and told us, "N'ayez pas peur, c'est mon coeur!" (Don't be scared, it's my heart).

When we first arrived we found the nearest boulangerie, grabbed a croissaint/pain au chocolat and found a café by the water. During this time, Danae managed to spill a good amount of my grand café crème on my white turtleneck. After I beat up Danae, we went closer to the water and walked along the town's bridge that leads far out into the water.

Barbara did a little model runway show for us on the bridge and then she and I raced to the end. She won but she cheated by blocking my path. The water was absolutely beautiful, and from the end of the bridge we had a nice view of a neighboring island called Île-de-Batz.

Afterwards we sat by the port and watched a fisherman feed seagulls the innards of what he had caught that day and sell fish right off his boat. Doesn't get much fresher than that. The people buying stood above and told him what he wanted, what size, etc. Then he wrapped up the fish and climbed up to his customers to complete the transaction.

We then ate lunch, and afterwards hung out on the beach, collecting massive seashells and enjoying the sun. We tried to take a look at the town's church, but Danae who went in first quickly came back out and let us know there was a funeral going on. Luckily the 4 of us didn't go in together and start taking pictures. On our way to the train station later that afternoon, everyone was piling out of the church and musicians were playing bagpipes.

Where I Live

2008-02-01T02:40:00.001-08:00

Pictures taken on and around the Côte de Granite Rose:

I don't really know why everyone complains about Bretagne's weather. Though it can be rainy the rain usually doesn't last all day, and temperatures are generally more mild than what I am used to this time of year. The main problem I find is with the wind, which can make it seem much colder than it actually is. Yet when one is lucky enough to have a day as beautiful as we did Wednesday and is able to visit beaches like these, a little rain or wind really isn't such a big deal.

Catching Up

2008-01-29T01:37:00.000-08:00

I've been a bad blogger this past week or so. I guess since I'd fallen so far behind in my postings I wasn't motivated enough to try and catch up and three weekends have gone by that I haven't talked about. One update is that I have started playing in the games with my basketball team which makes me very happy, even though they have never won. The first game I played with them 3 weeks ago was against the number 3 team in the league (we are ranked last out of 12) and we actually were winning throughout the entire first half, but in the end were so exhausted as we had only 6 players and one girl fouled out, that the other team ended up winning. This past weekend we got crushed by the number 1 or 2 ranked team, I forget, but it was my best performance to date so at least I was proud of myself. This weekend we have a home game and hopefully some of my friends will come to support us, naturally we don't draw huge crowds.

In other news, my schedule at work has changed. Just as I was feeling like I had met all 200 or so of my students I get a brand new set of them, but I like all my new classes which is very encouraging. Unfortunately it has gotten around that I tend to bring sweets to class, so yesterday when I didn't my students were not happy with me and asked why it was always the other group who got candy and never them. I am no longer working for the teacher who never showed up and who's replacement didn't show up which is nice. I actually don't think I ever explained that story, apparently the teacher who was from England had a problem with her leg and went into early retirement, though shortly thereafter I saw her hurrying through town without even so much as a limp and when I tried to say hi to her she completely ignored me. I am still however, working with the teacher who is constantly sick (though at least in her case I'm pretty sure it's real, and the other day she actually was limping), but unfortunately I am never in the know before hand and end up being at school for no reason. Last week on Thursday there was also a national strike, like Sarah wrote in her blog I'm not exactly sure what it was about but I had only 1 of my 4 classes for the day.

The last few weekends have been pretty eventful. Three weekends ago there was a little trip to a nearby beach called Ile-Grande. The weather was unfortunately not so great but we found an adorable cafe nearby and had hot chocolate and listened to music and watched the patron dance and hit on another customer. The weekend thereafter we celebrated Barbara's birthday and us girls took a day trip to Brest, a town about 2 hours away by train. We had all been told the town was nothing special but we went to see the aquarium which was fun. We even got to see the seals get fed! The picture at the top of this posting is not just me being ashamed of being a bad blogger, but of me sleeping in the train on the way to Brest. I like to cover myself with my coat not only to block out light but to avoid people staring at me when I sleep with my mouth open. This past weekend I was in Rennes and St. Brieuc and learned how to make crêpes with Ben's mom!

Barbara, Danae, Hannah and I at the aquarium in Brest:

The girls a few weekends ago, doing the "French" look (don't worry, I have not started smoking):

Girls at Ile-Grande:

Barbara on her birthday:

There are only a couple weeks of class left before we are once again on vacation. Sarah, Barbara, Danae and I are going to Berlin for about 6 days, and hopefully will make it to Poland for a day somewhere in there. After this upcoming vacation I have a feeling the rest of my time here is going to fly by, with visits first from Julia and Zach and then from Sarah taking up two weeks in March and then me leaving for Ireland the end of March to help out on a school trip, and then vacation again in the middle of April. C'est fou!

Quoi.

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

2008-01-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

Multilingual Christmas Caroling:

Ben's favorite song:

Noelia's first experience with peanut butter:

And lastly, not a video but just as good:

Bad Results for Baked Goods

2008-01-16T03:32:00.000-08:00

It's time for a little social commentary, Sophia's Monde style. I'm going to start off by saying that French people tend to be honest, I would say in general more frank and open than Americans and therefore, at times, less friendly in a superficial sense. I would not go as far as to say they are less polite, because in some ways I find the French to be extremely polite, for example when people say bonjour to me as I huff and puff past them during my jog or enter a store. At the same time, the tendency to be very "cash" (colloquial term in French for being frank, comes from our word for money) can at times come off as a bit impolite or tactless. In our everyday lives here in France, my roommate Danae and I have come into contact with this blunt honesty in regard to our edible gift offerings.

Example 1. Ever since I made brownies for Ben's family the first time I met them, I have decided they are a good gift to keep in mind for other French people. A nice gesture, I thought, to make something homemade and American. So around Christmas time, I made a big batch, and gave them as gifts. I took the first plate down to our neighbor Patricia, who is a very nice women who lets me go into her apartment whenever I want to use internet and brings our mail to us. As I walked in with the plate, she replied with a short thank you but that she would only like one brownie. One brownie from the plate of maybe 8 or 10. I returned to our apartment, plate in hand with a defeated look on my face. How could she not take the whole plate? Later, our Monday night roommate Céline told me that Patricia tries not to eat a lot of sweets. Ok, Patricia, that is all good and well, but I know you have a boyfriend, daughter and grandchild and they can't all be watching their sugar intake as well. Why not just accept the plate, say thank you and figure out what to do with them afterward?

Example 2. For Céline's birthday a couple weeks ago, Danae made a cake. Danae is very good at throwing ingredients together without a real recipe and almost always, the result is tasty. This time, she had made an apple cinammon cake. A younger teacher from the school and our buddy Nicholas was also at the dinner, and after we served the cake and everyone commented on how good it was, he bluntly stated, "Yeah, when you first brought out the cake it really didn't seem like it was going to be that good but it actually is pretty good." Quoi????

Example 3. I wanted to do something nice for my responsable for Christmas after he has done so much for me, so I bought a cute little Christmas cookie container and stuffed as many brownies in it as I could (he has 3 kids). After the Christmas vacation we ran into eachother in the teacher's lounge and Renaut thanked me again for the brownies and then proceeded to tell me that he told his wife that since an American made these brownies, they must be the best in the world, but that she shook her head and said no, they were in fact not the best brownies in the world. Now, I don't remember putting a survey inside the box with my brownies, asking his family to please rate my brownies on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being the worst brownies in the world and 10 being the best. Comments? Suggestions? Contact Sophia Burton in the teacher's lounge.

And finally, example 4. Danae was invited the other day to eat lunch at a Spanish teacher's house with Noelia and Barbara. Being the polite girl that she is, she made a delicious chocolate cake to take along and offer to the teacher. Her teacher had also prepared a dessert, so in the end there were 2 cakes and a fruit salad, clearly too much for the 4 women to finish. By the end of the afternoon, her teacher had packed up the cake pan with the dish towel on top into a bag and handed it to Danae. Only when Danae and Noelia got home, did she take the cake pan out of the bag and realize to her astonishment that the uneaten half was still inside. I was happy I got to eat the rest of it, but that is besides the point here people. If you bring a cake as a gift, it should stay with the people you have given it to. Of course the cake pan should be returned, but she could've placed the leftover cake on one of her plates and then given our cake pan back to Danae. Another option would have been to ask Danae if she wanted the cake back and let Danae insist on her keeping it, as it was a gift afterall.

A cultural difference? Miscommunication? Simply a question of manners? You tell us, because at the moment Danae and I and our baked creations are feeling a little unwanted.

Grande Finale

2008-01-14T02:21:00.001-08:00

I'm trucking through here, trying to make an attempt to catch up on my postings. Last night I fell a bit short and didn't manage to talk about New Year's, so here is what is hopefully the last posting of the Christmas Vacation Saga. I think we are all ready to move on.

The evening of the 31st I arrived in Paris. My mom had already arrived that morning and we were all gathering that evening at the Arribard home in Chelles to celebrate the New Year. We ate a lot of traditional celebratory French foods, like oysters, pain surprise, smoked salmon, foie gras, and other goodies. Of course for dessert we had a bûche de noël, an ice cream "log" cake with different flavors that is commonly eaten in France during the holiday season. Somehow I didn't make it into any of the pictures from that night but here are a few of the party.

Samia, Rachid, Mama, Lila, Katy:

Oysters:
Picture of a bûche de noël that I stole from the internet (ours was the store-bought kind):

Mama and Samia:

Melisse, worn out from the festivities:

The next day we spent mostly lounging around the house and Danae came that evening for dinner and ended up spending the night, mostly because the adults wouldn't let her take the RER back late that night for fear it was too dangerous.

The next day, my mom and I went into the city and had dinner with Rachid. Here he is with an interesting contraption that is used to dillute Pastis.

Mama and I with our desserts:

Fooling around with the kids:

The next day, Mama and I were off to Bretagne. We took the train to Rennes where Ben picked us up. Then the three of us went to dinner at a crêperie called La Pommeraie, which is the first restaurant Sarah and I ate at when we first arrived in Bretagne. I just noticed it is the 14th which marks 4 months since Sarah and I arrived in France! It goes by too fast.

Mama with her first galette:

Christmas Vacation Troisième Partie

2008-01-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try and wrap up my tales of Christmas vacation in one post, we'll see how it goes. I'd also like to talk about this weekend because it was really great but I don't know if I'll get there.

So after Lausanne with Jess for Christmas I met up with Steffi in Lucerne, a town in the German part of Switzerland that I have never visited before. Steffi's brother lives there with his girlfriend so we stayed there one night and went around the city during the day. Lucerne is one of the most beautiful cities I think I have ever seen. It is not super exciting or vibrant but very enjoyable and pleasant and the Christmas decorations made it even more lovely.

I arrived in the evening of the 27th and Steffi, her boyfriend Stefan and I walked around town, did a bit of shopping and had a hot chocolate before returning to Steffi's brother's apartment. It was interesting for me to be back in a part of the world where one speaks German, but I had a lot of trouble the first evening remembering what language to speak. Fortunately, since it's Switzerland, most people speak a bit of French anyway and words like "merci" and "pardon" are completely acceptable to use here, even in the German part of the country. I find the language aspect of Switzerland really fascinating, especially Swiss German because the dialects vary widely and there is no standard for the writing of it.

Steffi and I on Lucerne's very famous Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge):

Cute shopping street in the city center:

Shot of the town from the bridge:

Another shot from the train station:

Man feeding swans:

Stefan and I enjoying our hot beverages:

Delicious looking cakes that I did not try after eating an obscene amount of sweets in Lausanne:

I like Lucerne:

We went back to the apartment and Steffi's brother and girlfriend, Natasha, cooked us a very nice meal that is apparently typical Swiss. There was chicken and cheesy polenta involved. After dinner we had plans to go out but the 5 of us were having such a good time drinking wine and hanging out that we ended up staying in.

Steffi, me, and half of her brother:

The next day we woke at a reasonable hour to take advantage of our day in Lucerne. The morning/early afternoon we spent sightseeing, which to Stefan's dismay included a couple museums. Our first stop was the Bourbaki Panorama/Museum. The Panorma depicts the point in the Franco-Prussian war where the French retreated into Switzerland and were aided by the Red Cross. From a little internet research I learned that it is one of the largest canvases in Europe covering 11,836 sq. feet.

Steffi and I and part of the Panorma:

Next we went over to two more of Lucerne's most visited sights, the names of which can be seen below:

(Glacier Garden and Lion Monument)

Steffi and Stefan in front of the Löwendenkmal:

In the Glacier Garden:

The Gletschergarten didn't knock my socks off, mainly because of my own lack of interest in such matters, but after we went through the first part, we came to the fun part of the museum- a mirror "labyrinth". Inside one had to walk slowly with one's hands out front to avoid running into a mirror. I don't know what any of this had to do with glaciers but it was very amusing.

Time to play.... how many Steffi's, Stefan's and Sophia's can you find?

Outside of the labyrinth, there were more fun mirrors to play with:

After playing around with the mirrors we went back to Steffi's brother's place to have a real Swiss speciality, fondue! No surprise there, I'm sure. But before we went back we had to go to a Käserei (cheese shop) to buy the mix for the meal. The woman behind the counter asked what kind of mix we would like and how many people who be eating and then proceeded to approximate how much of each cheese we would need before chopping it all up and putting it in a bag for us, ready for the fondue pot.

That night I went back to Lausanne and the next morning it was back to Bretagne for Ben's birthday. The 30th was Ben's 25th birthday and he celebrated by inviting his friends and some family over for a dinner. I forget the name of what we ate (something like Giros? Ben, feel free to correct me) which he ordered from the boucherie but it included chicken and some other meat in a very nice sauce.

Ben with his singing birthday card:

This next one is of Ben's sister Virginie and I. I used to have a lot of trouble with the pronounciation of her name but now I first say the German word "hier" in my head and then rhyme her name with that and I say it correctly. Before I pronounced the first part like "vierge" which in French means (you guessed it!) virgin.

Toward the end of the party Ben's father brought out this potent beverage made of prunes that have been fermenting or whatever things do in this sort of a process for a year. I managed to drink the liquid but I didn't make it through an entire prune:

After a couple days in St. Brieuc it was back to Paris where my mom had just landed! That is where we celebrated New Year's but for now this is going to have to do because I am tired of blogging for the moment. À plus!

Christmas in Switzerland

2008-01-09T05:19:00.001-08:00

Based on the overwhelming response to my last post, I thought I had better hurry on posting the second installment to my Christmas Vacation Saga. Seriously people, I have more important things to do than read your multitude of comments, I do work 12 hours a week after all.

I arrived in Lausanne the evening of the 23rd. One of her brothers picked me up at the station and Jessica, who is studying in Vienna this year, arrived later that evening with her parents. A little background on Jessica's family. Jessica is the only girl with 3 brothers: Sergio, Enzo, and Giampi. They live in Lausanne which is in the French part of Switzerland, but Jessica's mother is Italian and her father is originally from the German part of Switzerland. Due to this mix Jessica speaks 4 languages (French, Italian, German, English) though in the house the language is French. She and I speak German when together, but since I am living in France and working on my French I tried to speak more of it with her this time. Though I have been to Jessica's in Lausanne several times before, this was the first time I really felt like I knew what was going on and could understand pretty much everything at. It's a lot more fun that way! Jess and I were responsible for cooking dinner Christmas eve. A vegetarian meal, since the whole family is vegetarian. Our menu:

Course 1: Apéro
Kir Royal
Chips/bread with various dips (Tzatziki, Roasted Artichoke Pesto, Guacamole)
All dips were hand-made by yours truly.

Course 2: Pumpkin Soup with a drizzling of cream

Course 3: Main Course
Pate feuilleté with a Champignon Béchamel
Wild Rice with Baby Peas and Carrots
Roasted Balsamic Red Onions with Thyme and Honey

Course 4: Salad

Course 5: Tiramisu and Fruit Salad

After dinner it was time to open the gifts. The Klinke family is a subscriber of the Secret Santa gift exchange method. This means everyone is responsible for buying gifts for only one person in the family, and with the monetary limit they are allowed to buy as many or as few gifts as they would like. They had me go to a different room where one by one everyone handed me their gifts, and then I was to bring all the gifts to the main room and lay them under the tree. The purpose of this was to continue the anonymity of the gift givers and receivers.

Me playing Père Noël:

It took me quite a few trips to get all the gifts under the tree, and my work didn't stop there. My next job was to randomly distribute the gifts, one at a time, until all the gifts had been opened. However, while everyone was dropping their gifts off in the little room before I brought them under the tree, I noticed that there were quite a few gifts for Jessica's mother, and I realized that some mistake had been made and two people thought they had the same person. It turns out that both Jessica's father and Giampi bought gifts for Jessica's mother, which in turn left Sergio, the oldest brother, with no gifts at all. Poor Sergio.

Sergio with his one present, a chocolate Kinder egg:

All of the Klinke siblings:

Me, opening a gift from Jessica's parents:

After present opening, Jess's parents went to midnight Mass and Jessica, Sergio and I watched Pirates of the Carribean II. The next day, the 25th, we went up to the Klinke ski chalet in the Alps. Sergio, Giampi, Jess and I went up first and their parents followed a few hours later. That night we ate raclette, a traditional Swiss meal I have eaten a couple times in Paris before.

On the 26th, Jess took me skiing. I have only been 3 times in my life, the first time being also with Jess in 2006. Though I'm not a pro by any means, I made it to a slightly more difficult piste this time and had a good time, though it might not seem like it based on the next picture:

The lift device I despised in 2006 because I kept falling off of it. I have gotten better since then, no falling this time!:

With Sergio and Giampi:

That night we went up to Jess's friend Maud's chalet to celebrate her birthday. The next morning I took this beautiful picture of the view from her chalet:

Next to come: Lucerne with Steffi!

Christmas Vacation

2008-01-06T08:58:00.000-08:00

My Christmas vacation was eventful, to say the least. I spent an excessive amount of time in trains but I saw everyone I wanted to see and had a very nice holiday. I should start at the beginning, which is right before the vacation started. Right before everyone left, we had a Christmas dinner at our apartment with all of the language assistants. Everyone was responsible for a different course of the meal (leading to an eclectic but delicious menu), the apartment was decorated and we exchanged Secret Santa gifts.

The last week of classes before break I talked about Christmas and brought in Christmas music and candy. The three songs I chose were Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas", "Rudolph" and "White Christmas". Mariah Carey was a huge hit with my older girls and Rudolph went over pretty well in general. Here is a video of some of my younger students singing Rudolph:

I think the teachers were happy I took over the classes for the day and were very pleased with my lesson and the singing. See France, learning can be fun! Though before I get too big of a head, I should admit that my last class of the day/before vacation didn't go over so smoothly and ended halfway through the class period with me walking out. I arrived to the class and the teacher wasn't there, so I told the students I would do a class with them anyway, as it had gone so well with my other classes. I reminded them a few times that since the teacher wasn't there they could leave, but they were welcome to stay. The students all stayed but save a couple girls in the front no one was participating. I cut my first discussion short and went straight to the songs to wake them up but they just played the "we're too cool" card and refused to sing. After a few more attempts my enthusiasum was wearing and when the students started rolling their eyes and making exasperated noises I had had enough and resorted to speaking French (which I have never done), letting them know they were very impolite and that there was no obligation for them or for me to be there so if they didn't want to participate we could all leave. I told them they could now see my French was not perfect but that unlike them I make an effort. I then gave them the choice of either staying and participating or leaving, but all I got was silence so I packed up my stuff, erased the board, wished them a happy holiday and left.

This is going to have to be written in installments (mainly because I have not prepared anything for my classes today yet), so next to come is Christmas in Switzerland!

A Vegetarian Swiss Christmas

2007-12-23T11:01:00.000-08:00

I am officially in Lausanne after 11 hours of travel. A shower (in a nice real shower unlike the thing we call a shower at home in Lannion) and a Christmas cookie later and I am as good as new. Train travel really doesn't bother me at all, I slept the entire 3 hours from St. Brieuc to Rennes and then Rennes to Paris, and then mostly read and stared out the window during the 4 hours from Paris to Lausanne. Saw my first snow since I have been in Europe! When I got off the train in Lausanne I hopped off with my suitcase and a couple nearby railroad workers chuckled and said félicitations. Congratulations for not falling, I guess. Everyone seemed so happy today, even with the massive amounts of people all lugging their suitcases and children and animals (I saw the following on the trains today- two dogs, a cat, and an unidentified creature crawling about underneath a blanket) and Christmas gifts and waiting in line and finding their way to the right car and seat on the train. It's contagious, this Christmas spirit!

The next two weeks are going to be a bit of a whirlwind with all the traveling I have planned but in the process I get to see Jessica, Steffi, Ben on his birthday, and my mom and the Arribard's in Paris, so it should all be worth it. I really should be entitled to a permanent seat on the TGV with a plaque above, my name written in calligraphy or something. The TGV and Rio Grande. I've given them both an absurd amount of business in my day.

I'm not only preparing myself for my first Christmas without my family but also my first vegetarian Christmas as Jessica's entire family is comprised of vegetarians. Thankfully I got my fill of meat the past two days at Ben's parent's house so it shouldn't be a problem. Apparently Jessica and I are in charge of Christmas dinner so we will see what we come up with. Either way Jessica's mom is making tiramisu for dessert and that is so much better than meat.

Joyeux Noël!

And Happy Birthday Celina!

À bientôt, Steffi!

2007-12-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

I'm going crazy and adding two posts today so I can put up some new pictures I just uploaded. This past weekend was pretty busy, between going to St. Brieuc for a party at Sarah's on Friday and then having a party at our place Saturday for Steffi and a goodbye dinner for her Sunday as well.

Dancing at the party:

Afterwards, tired... well I was, anyway:

The next day was Steffi's last day, so we went with her to a nearby beach called Ploumanac'h which lies on the Côte de Granite Rose. It has been very very cold the last few days but it was sunny and beautiful nonetheless.

Famous lighthouse of Ploumanac'h:

I have seen many beautiful beaches in my day, but there is something so soothing and almost eerily serene about the orangey-pink rocks on this coast, especially in winter when the beaches are for the most part deserted:

Christmas in Lannion & Goodbye to Steffi

2007-12-18T01:30:00.000-08:00

Though it has been bloody cold recently, the weather has also been pretty sunny and agreeable. Last week, a group of us girls took a walk around town and did a little window shopping. We also walked over to Lannion's famous escaliers de Brélévenez, the stairs that lead back down to town from a church called Brélévenez.

View of the stairs from the top:

View from the bottom:

Danae, Barbara and I in the centre ville:

Lannion's Hôtel de Ville decked out for Christmas:

All the Christmas lights in Lannion have been turned on and music is played from speakers on the streets. While it is certainly a nice touch to have music being played throughout the town, the variety isn't so fantastic. I have already heard one particular Britney Spears holiday song 3 times. We are in our last week at school before Christmas break which lasts from this coming weekend until January 7th. Much better than having school on the 2nd in America, though then again the kids here have school until 5:30 in the afternoon so they deserve a few extra days of break. On Friday I will head down to St. Brieuc and on Sunday I'm off to Switzerland to spend Christmas with my friend Jessica and her family. While I'm in Switzerland, Steffi and I have plans to meet up for a couple days in Lucerne where her brother lives, which is the halfway point between Lausanne, where Jessica lives in the French part of Switzerland and Altstetten, in the German part of the country where Steffi lives.

Yesterday, I let my kids go a few minutes early so I could rush down to the auberge and help Steffi get to the train station with her luggage. I boarded the train with her and we said goodbye, trying not to cry too much in front of the other passengers. It is very surreal to see her go as she was the first friend that I made in Lannion and it doesn't seem to make sense for her to leave before the rest of us. It also means that 3 months of my séjour in France have already flown by and the halfway mark of this program is not far off. After her train rode off I sat by the river trying to digest her leaving. It certainly isn't easy, to move to a different city or country in the first place, and to say goodbye to those at home, but one can usually be assured that one will return and find their home the way they left it. I have always found it much harder to leave a temporary home, when one knows they will never again be in the same place with the same people. Though I am considering being an assistant again next year, I don't think I could stay in Lannion. It would be too strange to be in this town with an entirely new group of people. It will already be strange enough without my Steffi.

Sitting bundled up yet still freezing by the river yesterday, I also reminded myself that it is always worth it- to travel and live abroad, make friends and foster relationships with people from all over the world. Jessica, who I am spending Christmas with, is a friend I made while taking part in a month long summer program in Germany. She, another friend of ours, Priscilla, and I have done extremely well when it comes to staying in touch and have managed to see each other multiple times since we left Tübingen 3 and a half years ago. So it can be done, to stay close with friends who live far away and one can't see often. And though I am sure one day I will have a desire to be settled and rooted in one place, for now I very much value being able to move around, learn about new places and meet new people. On that note, I am going to get off the computer and make lunch with my Mexican friend Danae and my Swiss friend Barbara, because I only have 5 more months to do so.

Pineapple, Potes, and Protests

2007-12-12T02:07:00.000-08:00

I have decided it is time I catch all of my loyal readers up to speed on the most recent and pressing news stories of this region I currently call home.

Headline Story:
Pineapple Partout!
This past Sunday, language assistants Barbara and Sophia had plans to run a 10km race in a town called Quintin, a few kilometers from St. Brieuc. Unfortunately, a big storm rolled in that day and their plans were spoiled. Due to this same storm, however, various crates of products being shipped over during the time of the storm were damaged and fell into the sea and eventually, the contents of those crates washed up onto the shores of various beaches in Bretagne. This led to what can be seen above, nearby residents frantically gathering as many pineapples as they could manage to carry at a nearby beach called Trébeurden. Lucky for Lannion's assistants, one of their occasional Spanish teacher roommate's coworkers went up to the beach that day and filled a container to its capacity with this delicious fruit, and then generously left it in the teacher's lounge that day for other teachers to take home. Therefore, Rocio grabbed one and the assistants were able to enjoy it for dessert last night.

Rocio with the delicious pineapple that had been on its way from Côte d’Ivoire:

Dinner-Party Deluge!
The assistants of Lannion have been hosting one dinner party after another chez eux with their potes (word of the week- slang for "friends") this week. Last Friday night Spanish assistant Noelia cooked, Monday night was English assistant Sophia's turn, last night Swiss youth hostel worker Steffi cooked and today German assistant Barbara will be handling lunch.

Noelia and Danae Friday night:

Steffi and me, two different nights:

All the girls:
All the girls a different night:

Swiss-born Stéfanie Fehr Stuns Crowd with Violin Concert!

Stéfanie, or Steffi as her friend's affectionately call her, put on a stunning violin concert at Lannion's hot night club, Danphia, last night. The concert was intimate, with 4 VIP female guests intently listening as her fingers grazed the strings with ease and she played various pieces that the author of this article is too uncultured to recognize. In other related news, Steffi will be returning to Switzerland this coming Monday for good. A party will be held in her honor this coming Saturday night. She leaves behind a youth hostel and 4 heartbroken language assistants.

Putain, More Protests!

Lycée Felix LE Dantec high schoolers once again on protest last week. As English assistant Sophia walked to school one day last week, she noticed about 70 students making their way down to the centre ville, chanting and holding signs. "As soon as I saw the students I knew I should have turned around and gone back home," commented Sophia, "But I went to school, and sure enough my class was cancelled."

That's all the news in Lannion for now, tune in later this week for more updates!

Paris Weekend Part II

2007-12-07T15:14:00.000-08:00

I read over my last post and realized I forgot to mention something amusing. At the aquarium party, there was a buffet. Unfortunately, there was no special buffet/eating area for the teachers/directors, so we had to wait in line with the 800 kids to get food. This is partly why Renaut and I kept going up for more champagne, to put off getting in the buffet line. This also contributed to my being "joyeuse" because I had not yet eaten. Eventually we got in line and waited probably around 40 minutes to arrive at the buffet which was quite disappointing. Burgers, hot dogs, chips, some veggies, and pizza. I guess since the American School of Paris was hosting the conference they wanted us to have "American" food. Well, I eat a hell of a lot more sushi in America than burgers so it would have been nice to see some tuna-avocado rolls there as well. Anyway, when we finally got to the front of the buffet, I couldn't wait to have my plate and sit down so I grabbed a cherry tomato. Instead of eating it in one go, I tried to bite through half of it, which resulted in the second half flying across the buffet and some of the juices spewing out along with it. Ladylike, I know. A man behind me in line chuckled and handed me a napkin and then we started talking and I found out he was a teacher from Germany. Specifically from Heidelberg, a town very close to Tübingen which is where I studied abroad. Anyway, Andre and I became friends and we hung out during lunch and breaks during the rest of the conference. On Sunday, he and Renaut and I snuck off to a café during the conference (I say "snuck off" but really there was no sneaking as there was no use for us during the conference. Plus we were "directors" so we could do whatever we wanted! I like being important.) and talked about the various school systems in France, Germany and America. This was quite interesting for me since I have seen the differences among the three systems first-hand. I'm sorry France, but if this were a contest you would be losing.

On Saturday, Renaut told me I could do what I wanted, so I decided to go to Chelles for the afternoon/evening to visit Lila and the kids. It happened to have been Phillip's birthday a couple days before so that evening there was a party at the house. We ate "raclette" for dinner, which is this cool machine that gets plugged in and put on the table and people take cold cuts and cheese and heat it up in their respective slot in the machine, and then put it on bread or potatoes and eat it.

Raclette and other interesting cheese melting contraption:

Phillipe blowing out his birthday candles:

With Mélisse and Line:

Cute one of Mélisse and Lila:

Line and I:
I leave you with this adorable video of my cousins dancing:

Model UN Conference in Paris

2007-12-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I accompanied a group of 15 students from my high school and my responsable, M. Renaut Richard, to Paris to help out with the Model United Nations conference. My role was part English language helper, part chaperone, part head-counter. We left Thursday morning from Lannion and arrived in Paris sometime in the afternoon. After settling into our hotel (I got my own room!) we walked around Paris for the next 4 hours or so as our budget didn't include much room for entertainment.

After we had a dinner in a Chinese cafeteria style place where you pick out already prepared food and they throw it in the microwave for you (again, budget), but it wasn't awful. They had sriracha sauce on the table which made me happy and in the confusion of serving 17 of us I ended up with an extra appetizer.

The next day, Friday, was the first day of the conference. When we arrived we received folders with articles and information about the weekend. I spent some time before the opening ceremony helping the kids with the articles (since everything was in English) and then after the opening ceremony the kids went to their respective conference rooms.

During the conferences there really wasn't much Renaut and I could do because only the high schoolers were participating, so we would just observe or go to the teacher's lounge and hang out. I randomly ran into a friend of a friend from America also with her students from England, and she and I went off for a bit to Montmartre.

Friday night there was a "social event" planned for the 800 students and their teachers/directors, and it was held at an aquarium. As soon as we walked in, the adults (that includes me!) were greeted with a glass of champagne. A couple of kids tried to get a glass but the director of the American school of Paris was monitoring the table and shooing them away, telling them to go to the buffet and have their coke. Renaut and I went back for a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th glass over the course of the evening and then on our way back down to the main room we would pass the fish tanks and he would try to educate me about them. After the 3rd glass this was pretty futile, but he did tell me one cool thing that I remember. Apparently in order to put sharks and certain fish together they have to put robot fish in the aquariums so that the sharks won't eat the other fish. I guess they try to eat the robots and get discouraged and stop trying. I may not have all the details right there but it was cool to see the robot fish he pointed out. They are the ones that don't breathe, not surprisingly. I didn't get a picture of a robot fish (or maybe I did and don't know it) but here are some of the fish we saw there:

Here's one of me with some of the kids under the really cool entrance that had water shooting from both directions:

Touching the fish in the petting pool:

After the party our group walked around the city a bit, and went over to the Champs-Elysées which is all decked out with Christmas lights.

The kids Saturday morning outside UNESCO:

Renaut and I (note important director badges):

I have more to write but I am off to basketball practice so the rest will have to come later!

This weekend Lauren was in Tokyo and I was petting farm animals

2007-11-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to St. Brieuc to meet Ben's family for the first time and to watch his soccer game. After lunch at his house Sunday he left to go warm up for his game, and I went with his best friend Erwan to his house. Ben and Erwan live a little outside of St. Brieuc in a more rural area, and Erwan had a cute mini farm at his place that I was very excited about. We don't really have many farm animals in the Bethesda area...

Erwan opening one of the rabbit cages:

Rabbit with a beard!:

Petting Erwan's cat, Minouche (I probably have the spelling wrong here). She has an injured paw so she kind of hops around but she is very comfortable with all the other animals, even Erwan's dog Bingo who licks her a lot:

Various fowl:

Sheep:

That was fun, though I probably smelled a little afterward. Afterward we drove over to Ben's soccer match. Quite a few people were there, and you could buy beer and sausage galettes. Thankfully, entry is free for the ladies, and us females were few and far between. Just going to throw in that Ben is the captain of his team to embarass him, I'll just reference to him as "le capitaine" in the blog from now on. Je rigole! In the room where one could buy drinks, there were pictures on the wall of the former teams and players, and I found this picture of Ben taken when he joined the club as a 6 year old. He's probably never going to talk to me again, but here it is:

After we went back to his house to have dinner with his parents which was served in front of the fireplace. It was nice to be in a real house with a family. Though I have to say, we don't do so badly at our place in Lannion where meals are concerned. Unfortunately we have no fireplace, though.

Tomorrow I am off to Paris for the weekend to help my school's Model UN students with their all-English conference. We get back Sunday. Hopefully I will get in a visit with my family while I am there!

Strikes, Protests, and Riots... oh my!

2007-11-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

Par hasard, I went over the vocabulary related to strikes, protests and riots with one of my classes pretty recently, before I knew I would experience all 3 in the time period of about 2 weeks. As I wrote about in a previous post, the SNCF railroad workers were on strike or grève for over a week for reasons relating to an increase in the retirement age 5(from 60 to 65 I believe, anyone more educated in this is welcome to correct m). I am pretty sure they are about finished now, as when I go to the website to check train times I don't see the ominous "Pertubations Grève" link.

On to the protest, or manifestation, front, students all over the country have been demonstrating a new law allowing for the privatization of state universities. I am not entirely educated on this matter, but from what I have understood, students are afraid that if universities receive private investments, their tuition will rise and in a sense, become more like America's system which they view as unfair and serving more the interests of business than the students. Today on my way to school I saw a large group of students from the lycée (some of mine in there, as well) chanting with signs on their way down to the centre ville. I should've known better and just turned around and went back home, but I was good and went to school just to wait around until I found out both my classes were cancelled due to a lack of students (or in the case of my second class, a lack of students and a teacher).

And finally, the riots, or les émeutes. Two teens on a motorbike crashed into a police car Sunday and people in the area claim that the policemen left them there where they died. Riots started that night but last night the violence apparently got worse (supposedly worse than the violence during the 2005 riots) and a lot of policemen were injured.

Ehhmm, how you say, Eppy Tanksgeving?

2007-11-22T01:46:00.000-08:00

Earlier today in my first class...

Me: Does anyone know why Americans celebrate Thanksgiving?
Student no. 1: It is national holiday?
Me: Yes, Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States. But why do we celebrate it?
Student no. 2: It is because of Christ?
Me: No, it is not a religious holiday. Someone else have an idea?
Student no. 1: It is when America was, how you say, libération?
Me: No, the pilgrims did not liberate America. They pretty much did the opposite.
Student no. 3 looks at Student no. 1: C'est quoi, le Thanksgiving?

Jolie Quimper

2007-11-19T11:24:00.001-08:00

I never got around to writing about the rest of my vacation, so here it is a little late. After I got back from Ireland, Sarah and I both spent a few days in Rennes and then I met up with Danae, Barbara, and Neetu (a friend from UMD) and we decided to be spontaneous and go somewhere the next day since we still had a few days of vacation left. Though I wanted to discuss where we were going to go during our night together in Rennes since being spontaneous isn't exactly my style, the girls were adamant about not deciding until we literally got to the train station the next day and picked out a location. Of course the next morning we spent an hour and a half deciding where to go, buying tickets, and waiting for the train. This is what happens when you want to be spontaneous, people! Neetu and I waiting for the train to Quimper from Rennes:
Danae and Neetu on the train:
Barbara and I on the train: (me pointing to our destination)
Eventually we were on the train to Quimper, a town lying on the Southwestern side of Bretagne (not Northwestern as previously written, merci Ben) and about 2 hours from Rennes. Quimper was actually my suggestion (I of course had been debating various practical possibilities in my head the day before) because I had heard that it was one of Bretagne's more traditionally Breton towns. In some of their schools, in fact, everything is taught in Breton. I had also heard it was extremely cute, and that it was indeed with a beautiful center, adorable Celtic buildings, and little bridges covered in flowers around the river.

When we first arrived we had to find a hotel. Fortunately the weather was good because we had to walk around the city and find something reasonably priced. After settling into our room, we walked through the city center, took pictures, and eventually parked ourselves in a café to drink beer where we randomly met another language assistant from a town nearby.

Then we found a Chinese restaurant where we ate for dinner, and come dessert ordering time this is what ensued:

Girls, looking at menu: Let's get a liégois! (Ice cream concoction made usually with either coffee or chocolate ice cream and whipped cream on top). But which one? We want both coffee and chocolate ice cream, let's ask if we can mix the flavors.

Waiter, after being asked if this was possible: Well, a liégois comes with two scoops of ice cream and one can order either the coffee or chocolate version. In the coffee version, it comes with one scoop coffee ice cream and one scoop vanilla ice cream, and the chocolate version comes with one scoop chocolate ice cream and one scoop vanilla ice cream.

Danae: So it is not possible to have one scoop chocolate and one scoop coffee?

Waiter, completely serious: That wouldn't be a liégois.

Me, trying to keep my eyes from widening with a "wow you're stupid" look: Ok, but I am pretty sure the coffee, chocolate, and vanilla flavors all cost the same amount, and I'm also pretty sure the dessert has yet to be made as ice cream is usually scooped at the last minute, so is it really a problem to have chocolate and coffee flavors in our liégois?

Waiter: What I can do for you is bring you the 2 scoop ice cream dessert with the flavors chocolate and coffee, and put some whipped cream on it.
<<Please note that this is, in fact, a liégois>>

Girls, perplexed but amused: Sure, that would be fine.

As soon as he left to make our desserts we looked down on the menu and realized the 2 scoop ice cream dessert cost €3, while the famed liégois €6.

To the left, the infamous "Not-liégois-2 scoop-ice-cream-dessert":

Danae and I at dinner:
The next day, Monday, we got up early to make the most of our day in Quimper where we were lucky to have fantastic weather. After a makeshift breakfast of bread from a boulangerie, jam, cheese, and fruit from a grocery story and coffee in the same café from the day before, we walked into Quimper's famous Cathédrale Saint-Corentin.

View of the Cathedral from a city street:

Inside the Cathedral: After our Cathdral visit we wandered around the city a bit more, came across a cute little garden and then this fantastic sweet-shop filled with goodies like differently flavored macaroons, little Kouign-Amans called "Kouignettes", and tons of lollipops and chocolate.

After a good amount of time in this shop, we went over to the train station and said goodbye to Neetu because she had to leave a bit earlier than us to go back to her town. Danae, Barbara, and I then went back to our favorite café for the third time. It was a really nice café.

Lunch:
Then Danae used her old trick of jokingly asking the waiter if there was a Carte de Fidelité (Frequent customer card) and hoping he'll give us something for free. Thank you Danae, for the following round of beers.

We tried later to go to the Musée de Bretagne but it was unfortunately closed, so in lieu of that we did a little shopping before heading back to Lannion later that evening.

A great shot of the 3 of us during the trip:

Le Week-End

2007-11-18T11:29:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone. Once again my weekend has been quite eventful... maybe they seem so eventful because they are so long. Thursday night I went to Rennes to see Ben and Steffi was there as well so the 3 of us went to a bar to have a drink. I had Kilkenny, as per usual. The next day I spent in Rennes with Steffi. We did a little shopping, checked out the Musée de Bretagne and found a wonderful street in the city with lots of fantastic bakeries. I'm not usually good with remembering street names but I don't think I will have a problem with this one. Rue Vasselot. By the river. And not far from the H&M.

After much debating, I eventually settled on a €1 palmier (I believe in America it is called an "Elephant's Ear") which was bigger than my head. See below for proof that this is no exaggeration.

By the end, I felt a little sick. It's a lot of butter and sugar for one person to consume.

Here are Steffi and I being mignonnes with our matching winter looks. It is COLD here now, people!

Because of the transportation grève (strike), our options for returning to Lannion were limited, but we managed to grab a train to a town called Guingamp (not at ALL pronounced the way it looks... I learned this the hard way the night I met Ben and he and all his friends laughed at me when I said I was switching trains there to go to Lannion. The real pronounciation is more like "Gang-gon) and then a bus from there back to Lannion. We even made it back for basketball practice, though we were about 20 minutes late.

Saturday was a big day because it was the first time we were throwing a real fête at our place in Lannion. Since Lannion lacks night clubs and is so small, we invited everyone to come party at what we called "Danphia" (Dan for Danae, phia for Sophia), Lannion's hottest night club in the former capital of France. We like to tell people that Lannion is France's formal capital and give people our address when they ask us where we go out in town. Sarah and quite a few assistants/buddies from St. Brieuc came up for the night, as well as Ben and his friend Erwan and of course all us Lannion folk were there. We had lots of snacks, plenty of boissons, Emma brought her famous tiramisu (ohh it is good), the girls danced for hours, the boys in true French fashion went outside a lot to smoke cigarrettes (Danphia is strictly non-smoking, except for Danae when she sticks her head out the window but she is entitled to this as she is a partial-owner of the establishment), and then everyone found a bed/air mattress/couch/corner to sleep on/in for the night.

Les filles de Lannion:

Ben and Erwan:
Sarah and I shortly before we lost balance and fell over, not because we were bourrée, really just because we are clumsy:

Ben and I: (His glasses and track jacket have come off and my party top has been replaced with a sweatshirt. What inevitably happens during a 5 hour long party)

On another note, Christmas has come to Lannion. Here are a few shots of the street decorations, though they have yet to be lit up.

Europe does Christmas well. And early. But I guess they don't have Thanksgiving to bridge the time before December like we do back in the States. Speaking of which, I am hoping we will get our act together here to have some sort of Thanksgiving dinner. Even if it involves baguette instead of rolls and pâtisseries au lieu de pumpkin pie. My family was never one for the traditional meal anyway (I believe last year was Surf & Turf and pomegranate martinis at the Burton household). As much as I love it here, I think I will be a little sad not to be with my family this coming weekend. My first Thanksgiving without my family! Christmas will be even harder I am sure, but my mama is coming to visit for New Year's which will be great.

2007-11-15T04:32:00.001-08:00

C'est pas vrai. I have heard multiple French mothers use this phrase when appalled at some misdeed their child has just committed and now it is my turn to use it. I think the English teachers are playing one big joke on me. I guess they think I am fat, and that I need some exercise, because why else would they have me walk not once, but twice to school today when all my classes are cancelled? The stage that my second teacher was attending is in fact for all the English teachers (why she didn't include that bit of information when I talked to her this morning is beyond me), and therefore I have not one class today. My 5 hour work day has turned into a 0 hour work day which means my 12 hour work week turned 6 hour work week has now become a 4 hour work week and once again I have made the trek to the lycée for no reason. At least this time I got an apology.

2007-11-14T23:43:00.001-08:00

Fourth time this has happened!!! (see previous post)

But here's the real kicker...

After I checked the 3 possible rooms for my 8am class with the teacher who will still remain un-named, I saw my teacher for the next hour and went in to ask her if she had seen said teacher this morning. She told me she didn't think the teacher was present today and then let me know she has a stage today so my 9am class with her was also not going to happen. So my next class today is at 1:30. Meaning I got up at 6:30 this morning for nothing. And my one class yesterday was cancelled, and my last class today is cancelled as well, meaning that my hours for this week come to a grand total of 6 out of the scheduled 12.

Also there is a grève going on right now by the SNCF railroad workers which is supposed to hit full force this coming week, so god knows how many classes will be cancelled because of that. I'm going to Rennes tonight (by bus and Ben's car, thanks to most of the trains being cancelled) and meeting Steffi there tomorrow. We are supposed to come back by train to go to basketball practice but I wouldn't be surprised if we got stranded there.

2007-11-13T00:15:00.000-08:00

It's 9:12am. I should be in my first class. That is why, after all, I got up at 7am this morning, showered, ate, walked over to the Marché Plus in the dark to buy candy as a prize for the activities I had planned, and then got to school early to put the final touches on my game before the bell rang. That's ok, teacher who will remain un-named, this is only the 3rd time so far that this has happened. The first time it was because of the transportation strike, last time it was because you were sick, but this time? No explanation. No students waiting outside of the classroom like I was. Was everyone aware we were not going to have class today save the lowly English assistant?

After waiting around for a few minutes, I ran into my responsable who is the history/geography teacher who helped me get settled when I first arrived. I told him it is strange for me that if the teacher does not show up, there is just no class for that period, where as in the US we have substitute teachers. He explained that a couple years ago, there used to be substitute teachers, but that they were given real posts as teachers. Then the regular teachers were told they would replace missing teachers but that meant that a math teacher would have to take over an English class or vice versa, and the teachers were not happy with this. So they refused (I'm sure there was a grève involved in the story somewhere) which means that now there is no substitute teaching at the lycée level.

On another note, my responsable also talked to me about the Model UN conference that he asked me to help out with. So for a long weekend toward the end of the month I will be accompanying him and 15 high school students to Paris to help them with their English (since the whole event is held in English). As if a free trip to Paris weren't enough, I also get to count those hours as work hours and therefore will have most to all of my week off beforehand.

A Couple Blocks of Heaven

2007-11-09T07:05:00.000-08:00

I'm not ready to write about the rest of my vacation yet because I think it will take too long and I'm just not up for that right now. But I did want to share with you all the purchases I made at yesterday's Thursday market. They went something like this:

€2 something for 2 zucchinis and 10 nice, big mushrooms
€2 something for 3 delicious, crisp "Pink Lady" apples
€3 for half a pizza for lunch
€10 for two pairs of hand-made earrings
€24 for two monstrous blocks of fromage, specifically of the harder Gruyère and Comté varieties.

No, that's not a typo. I spent €24 on cheese and I'm not even sorry about it. Granted, next time I will buy less, and this won't be a weekly affair, but I'm in France... what else should I be spending my money on?

I'm going to go eat some cheese now.

I'm Back!

2007-11-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a good two weeks since my last post which is only acceptable because I have been gone on vacation during that time period, having returned to Lannion last night. I left Lannion Thursday the 22nd of October to go to St. Brieuc to meet Sarah. The next morning (after a night out, quelle surprise) we got up very early and made our way to the train station to take a couple trains to Nantes where we could take a bus to get to the Nantes Airport to take our flight to Dublin. At the airport we had some extra time so we checked out the Ireland tour guides in one of the stores (because neither of us had really done any research on Ireland before hand) and after a while noticed a little girl staring at us. We said bonjour and she responded in English and we learned that this little girl, Cody, was from England but currently living in France with her family. We told her we were from America and she retorted with, "Is that why you speak so weird?" and as Sarah wrote in her blog, informed us that we only "kind of speak English" when we told her we were English teachers. She also told us she had a goat named Sarah and when I told her my name said they used to have one named Sophie but that she drowned. Unfortunately, her mother who we met a few minutes later confirmed the story to be true. Despite all these things she was actually quite cute and when we saw her later in the airport she waved incessantly at us. Then we almost missed our flight because our gate number was not written on our tickets and some cafe employee responded very strangely when we asked where Hall 3 was and where security was located. Our names were called over the loudspeaker and after rushing through passport control and security we sheepishly joined the rest of the flight.

I've already written a nice big paragraph and my stories haven't even left the airport yet. At this rate this post is going to become a book. Ok, Ireland!

Sarah and I started out in Dublin because, well, our flight flew there and it's the capital. Our first night we walked along O'Connell Street and then made our way over to the Temple Bar area. After looking around quite a bit we found an acceptably priced Indonesian restaurant (which were few and far between, and when I say that I am talking about reasonably priced, not Indonesian... I'm sure there were more of the latter) and continued our tradition of eating as much ethnic food as possible when together. On mange comme les goinfres! Just a little joke for my France buddies. Wow it's been a while, I think I've forgotten how to write one of these things. Bear with me. Of course we had to go out after dinner, it being Friday night and Dublin and all. We found a nice bar with a nice guitarist and that was where I discovered my love for beer. It's name is Kilkenny and it combines my love of red beers with my love of creamy beers and now I must scour Lannion to find an establishment where this exquisite concoction is served.

Our second day we spent very responsibly, enriching our minds with Ireland's history and culture. That might sound sarcastic but toward the end of the day I was telling Sarah I was on a high from all the learning and we excitedly exchanged different facts and trivia we had learned throughout the day. And then we went for a Kilkenny to calm our brains. Anyway, we started off with a tour of Trinity College and the Book of Kells with a tour guide who's voice was the definition of booming, which for me was a little strange because he seemed to be maybe 3 years older than we and as soon as someone stepped aside to ask him a question his voice sounded about 3 octaves higher. We walked through the campus and were told about the college traditions and the story of the Book of Kells before we entered the library. If you'd like to know about the history, check our Sarah's blog because she did a good job explaining all that. I'll do a good job explaining what we had for lunch.

We found a traditional Irish pub past Temple Bar by the River Lithe called "Maggy's Maguire" or something of that nature with a sign out front stating that "traditional Irish breakfast" was served until 5pm. Sarah and I were delighted after 2 months of skimpy French breakfast and headed in to order two Irish breakfasts (but the vegetarian version, which turned out to be about 2 euros cheaper). Our breakfast came with one perfectly fried egg with a nice runny yolk, a delectable mix of sauteed vegetables, a few chunks of potato, 4 slices of (wheat!) sandwich bread, and a nice warm kettle of breakfast tea. We were so excited when the food came that I neglected to take a picture of it (this happens to me frequently at restaurants) but here we are with our tea at least.

After lunch/breakfast we walked over to the Dublin Castle and signed up for a tour there. We had some time in between so we walked over to Christ Church Cathedral and took a look. The Dublin Castle was really fascinating. I think our really nice and interesting tour guide with fiery red hair definitely didn't hurt. She was very clear in her explanations and answering questions about "the troubles" and whatever else we were curious about.

This makes it Saturday night. Of course we had to go out, it being Saturday night and Dublin and all. So we went back to our bar from the night before and drank some more Kilkenny. I promise we are capable of trying new things, but these things were too good. We spoke with people from Switzerland, Ohio, Australia and Canada and then after witnessing a fight and Sarah being called ugly by a drunk homeless woman because Sarah wouldn't give her money to literally refill the glass of half-drank beer she already had in her hand, we made our way to another bar and after that to a place called "Abrakebabra" where we ordered a lot of french fries.

The next morning we took the bus to Cork. Cork is 4 hours from Dublin by bus but the drive is quite pleasant, passing through a lot of landscape, cows and sheep. Basically a lot of green. From Cork we took a train to Cobh, a beautiful fishing village 20 minutes from Cork where we were staying for the next two nights. After arrived at the train station in Cobh we realized for probably the 6th time so far in the trip that we had not adequately prepared ourselves, and looked all over the map of the town to find the street where our hotel was. We thought we had it, and after 10 minutes of walking along the water we ran into a very drunk Irish man who told us we were way off (approximately 6 minutes off, we realized later) and called us a taxi which he refused to let us pay for. After settling into the hotel we found an Indian restaurant for dinner (I wasn't kidding about the ethnic food thing) and then found a little bar to have a drink in. No Kilkenny so I had Guiness and Sarah had cider. There were actually quite a few people in this small-town bar, including a few girls our age wearing next to nothing which seemed really inappropriate and awkward in a bar where there were 50 year olds with their families.

Where are we now? Monday morning I think. So Monday morning we spent walking around Cobh to see the town a little. We found the famous deck of cards which is a colorful row of houses on what is claimed to be Ireland's steepest hill.

We also visited the Cobh Cathedral...

...which was massive in comparison to the tiny, hilly town, and then took a bus down to Cork for the rest of the day.

In Cork we walked around, had a nice lunch, did some shopping and then decided to go to Blarney which turned out to be a bust because we got there after the Castle had closed. But we did eat overpriced but good Thai food there to pass the time until the bus came back.

So the next morning we got up extra early to see the Castle and this time were successful. The Blarney Castle is apparently Ireland's most photographed site and is known for the Blarney Stone, which of course Sarah and I both kissed. According to the legend we now possess the gift of gab or "blarney" which is not to be confused with "baloney". Blarney is claimed to be a way of speaking that enables one to receive whatever they desire by using flattery and clever speech.

After our time at the Castle we took the bus back to Dublin for our last night in Ireland. We had arranged before hand to go on a ghost tour of the city and that we did. We had a ghost tour guide with the name of Zozimus and he led us around the city blindfolded with a cane and told us ghost stories.

Of course afterward we had to go out, it being Halloween Eve and our last night in Dublin and all. So we went back to our bar (yes, for the third time) and had one last delicious Kilkenny before leaving Ireland the next morning.

This was only the first 5 days of my two week long vacation, mind you. The rest was spent in Bretagne, in Rennes and Quimper, but that will have to be saved for another time because it's almost 10pm and a girl needs to eat some dinner.

It's Vacation Time!

2007-10-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

Baguette eating on-the-go is really dangerous. Yesterday after class I stopped by a boulangerie to grab some bread for lunch and once I ripped off one hunk I lost control and ended up eating at least half of the thing. As soon as I had it in my hands I could tell it was all nice and warm from the oven and I couldn't help myself!

Yesterday I also had my first ever medical experience in France. Unless you can count that time my earring got stuck inside the hole in my ear in a hotel in Paris when I was 11 or 12 and my grandfather had to poke it out with a needle. After that he wouldn't let me put it back in and my ear closed up and for awhile I had only one earring in and looked like a boy. Anyway, back to yesterday.

The reason I needed to go to the doctor was to receive a medical certificate so I would be allowed to play basketball. I had made the appointment with the help of my favorite secretary here at the Lycée on Monday and was pleasantly surprised when she got the appointment for the Wednesday of the same week so easily. I was even more impressed when I entered the doctor's office on Wednesday and had to wait a total of maybe 4 minutes before the doctor called me in and then there was no additional waiting after the routine questions and checking of height and weight and so on. Maybe this is normal for some people in America but it certainly wasn't this way at the HMO I belonged to all my life (which no longer offers me prescription coverage for all the asthma and allergy medicines they got me hooked on over the years because I am "too expensive" for them, but I digress). The doctor was a very pleasant elderly man who spoke slowly and clearly to make sure I understood everything. He had me strip down to my sous-vêtements (undergarments) and checked my reflexes, muscles, so on. After that he asked me to do 30 squats quickly up and down in the time period of I think 25 seconds. I didn't know why I was asked to do this but there I was, in my bra, my underwear and my socks which I had neglected to take off, bobbing up and down while he sat at his desk. Later I realized this amusing (and tiring!) exercise was to check my heart rate.

My first vacation period officially starts at 4:30 today! After class I am taking the train to St. Brieuc to stay with Sarah for the night and tomorrow she and I are flying to Ireland. We come back on Halloween and are staying in Rennes a few days after that. Hopefully I will have lots of interesting stories to share after the break.

Assistant Life

2007-10-23T04:49:00.000-07:00

I spend a LOT of time in the staffroom... either on the computer, drinking the surprisingly good 40 cent coffees from the machine (I usually get the café crème, though sometimes the slightly sweeter cappuccino really hits the spot), or chatting with the other assistants. Us girl assistants like to call each other by pet names, or rather patisserie names, that we have devised for eachother. Danae is ma petite crêpe caramel au beurre salé for example, while I am her petit pain au chocolat, and Barbara is our eclair au café. Calling out these terms of endearment in front of the other staff might not be the most professional thing to do, but hey, it keeps us entertained.

My first time to the staffroom I was really overwhelmed when all the teachers were gathered together during one of the 10 minute breaks during the day (I'm still not sure when exactly these breaks are, somehow I am always early or late to class but rarely right on time). Now I am somewhat more used to it, and Tuesday and Thursday when I have massive amounts of time in between classes, this is where I can usually be found. Right now for example, I am hanging out in here until 4:30, when my last of 4 classes of the day starts. I'm looking forward to my BTS boys who I have next, because I know at least some of them try to participate. Though it may be a little strange seeing some of them since I saw a good amount of them drunk at the Halloween party the other night.

I realized that I haven't exactly described in detail what I do at this school, in part due to the fact that I myself have still been trying to figure that out. I work with 7 teachers and 13 classes in total, making the amount of students I work with somewhere in the 200 or 300 range. Every week I am given a different group of students from each class to work with, meaning I do not see the same students for weeks at a time. The amount of students in each group also varies drastically, depending on how the teacher wants to organize her class (or his, in one case). The smallest group I have worked with thus far was 4 students, while the biggest about 20. This makes it somewhat difficult to prepare, because I don't always know how many students I will be working with, if they will be all boys or all girls (which happens quite frequently) or a mix, what ages they will be (even in the same class or grade level they can vary a lot), what their level is, how willing they will be to participate,or what they are interested in talking about. My general rule is to enter every class with at least 2 or 3 prepared activities, and to gauge the class by talking to them for the first few minutes so as to decide which activity would fit them the best.

It's clear my experience here is quite different from what my friends Danae and Barbara are experiencing. It is evident that the teachers I work with are not really all that interested in what I do with the students. My one clear-cut responsibility is to make sure the students speak English, and it doesn't seem to matter how I accomplish this task. This can be nice, because it is gives me the freedom to choose my own activities and make my own lesson plans, but on the other hand it can be difficult because I am usually not in the know about what the students are learning, what they need to work on, and what they have already learned. In addition to that, not having the same students regularly doesn't allow me to mark any sort of progress or get to know them on a more individual level. Danae and Barbara on the other hand, often feel like they are given too much structure and not enough freedom. They are usually not only told what to do with the students but also have planning sessions with their teachers before classes. Barbara is basically never left alone with the students and is always required to stay with the teacher during class while for me it is the complete opposite. It is not at all unusual for me not to see or talk with the teacher before or after the class. I'm not exaggerating when I say that not one of the 7 teachers I work with has asked me even once what I have prepared for a class or what I am planning on doing with a group of students. Even when I have volunteered the information the teachers have seemed disinterested. Today one asked me how things had gone after class, and when I started to explain what activity I did she just nodded and smiled and kept walking out the door. I thought that was more of an American thing to do, ask a question and not wait for the answer.

It's almost 4:30! I'm off to my last class of the day. Kenavo! (The one word of Breton that I know, means goodbye)

We have entirely too much fun here...

2007-10-21T05:12:00.000-07:00

One might think that a small town of 19,000 in Northwestern France would have limited options when it came to having fun, but as shown by this weekend the complete opposite is true. Of course it doesn't hurt that I have made great friends here, making everything consequently more amusing.

On Thursday night Danae, Barbara and I went to a Halloween party organized by the nearby University. The entry price was reduced for those who wore costumes so we decided to go as gypsies, or les gitanes, which is really not that difficult to do if you have a scarf, makeup and some big earrings.

At the party I saw about 6 of my students (the older BTS kids, so they are around the same age as I) and we danced and drank 1 euro "punch" and then made our way home around 2am.

Friday I went with Stefanie to play basketball with the Lannion-Tregor women's team. Some of the girls/women were actually quite good and after I get a medical visit out of the way I will be allowed to play in the games which will be really great. It will be fun to be part of a team again and have something to do every week. It wasn't entirely easy to partake in the practice because of course the coach explained everything in French and when we played a game at the end of the evening the girls communicate entirely in French. At one point I was dribbling and the girl defending me yelled, "Aide!!" Of course I know this means "Help!" but I had never heard it yelled before in such a situation so I was worried I had done something wrong and stopped dribbling until the girl laughed and told me I could keep playing. I also kept stepping out of bounds for some reason, I am not sure if the courts in France are smaller or if the red line threw me off because it's a different color in America. I'll have to work on that.

Friday night Ben came up to Lannion and on Saturday he, I and the 4 girls (Stefanie, Barbara, Danae, and Noelia) took a 2 hour boat tour along the seven islands (Ile Rouzic, Ile Malban, Ile Bono, Les Costans, Ile Plate, Le Cerf, and Ile aux Moins) and the Cote de Granite Rose which includes Tregastel, my favorite beach that I have seen so far. In certain months of the year some of the islands look like they are covered in snow because flocks of birds rest there. Though we didn't see many birds, we did see a seal!

The seal is the gray thing in the middle of the picture hanging out on one of the smaller rocks.

Zoomed in!

All the girls and then Ben and I before getting on the boat.

Ploumanac'h, a beach on the Cote de Granite Rose famous for the reddish rocks and this lighthouse.

The beautiful port of Tregastel.

Ooh, Noelia just came in and told me she is making us lunch so I am going to go eat and after that I must go to the laverie and do my laundry. Not the most exciting activity but at least they are open Sundays. So is the bowling alley actually. 3 other assistants are there right now but I am still so sore from basketball and jogging this afternoon that I don't think my body would appreciate all the bending over that bowling requires.

Marché Hebdomadaire

2007-10-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Stefanie and I at the marché.

Thursday never seems to run smoothly for me. Last week I couldn't find my first class, and this morning, after approximately 5.5 hours of sleep, I made my way to school alone in the dark just to find out my first class was not taking place because of a transportation strike. I knew this would happen eventually. France is famous for their strikes. So when such a strike takes place and some sort of transportation is cut off for the day, school may go on but not everyone seems to show up... including my entire first class of students along with the professor. I only found this out after checking all 4 possible rooms my first class can take place and then stumbling into a room with a Spanish professor waiting at the desk for any of her students to arrive. She seemed very surprised when I told her this sort of thing is not common in the United States.

In other news, it's Thursday which means it is market day! After my second class ended at 10 I headed down to the market to meet Stefanie since I wasn't teaching again until 1:30. My friends and I joke that we don't ever see people in this town, but there they all are Thursday morning and early afternoon, buying their groceries, eating a crêpe, gossiping with their friends, and bartering for a sweater or pair of shoes. Here are some of the many pictures I took of today's market:

Walking from the school to the city center, the start of the market.

Le Poulet!

View of the stands by the river from Pont (Bridge) St. Anne.

More of the market on the left, showing off my new pashmina on the right.

Les Saussissons

Les Fruits

Les Tomates

Le Pain

One of the largest blocks of fromage I have ever seen. And I tasted it... delicious.

Endless quantities of fromage.

Seriously, endless...

Cute sign for poultry.

Stefanie with our pizza lunch on the left, me with my crêpe dessert on the right.

Tonight the girls and I are going to the Halloween party thrown by some students at the local University. We are going as gypsies which works well for my roommate Danae and I because, well, half the time we look like gypsies anyway.