Time is really picking up speed. My friend Hannah's visit is upon me already, which means that my time in France is quickly coming to an end (at least for now). I am headed to Paris tomorrow to pick her up, and we'll be spending a luxurious day wandering the streets of the older neighborhoods of Paris, sitting in cafés and munching on delicious pastries and Parisian street food (and as she keeps reminding me, drinking coffee!). Her visit will also include (if all goes as planned) a trip to Chenonceau, a nearby castle, the light show at the Blois castle, a few evenings out, shopping, and lots of Erin-Hannah fun.
Thursday, my choir is having a concert at the retirement home, so Hannah will also be attending that. We're singing several wonderful songs, mostly in French, but also in English, Spanish, and Breton. Here are some links for your listening pleasure:
Mon Amant de Saint-Jean (My Lover from Saint-Jean)
C'est de l'eau (It's All Water)
L'embellie (The Sun Breaking Through the Clouds)
Kookaburra
A la claire fonatine créole (At the Clear Créole Fountain)
I only have two and a half weeks of teaching left. I've been doing pets with the younger kids and action verbs with the older kids. Everyone seems to be getting antsy as the weather turns more and more springy, so I've been having discipline issues again. Today, however, I've had two successful classes, so perhaps there's hope. I'm now trying to decide what I want my last lesson with these kids to be.
Two weeks ago, I went to the nearby engineering school to find out if there were any job openings for English assistants and ended up bumping into Marie, an Australian English professor whose been in France for over 30 years. She welcomed me into her classroom, and I've been a visitor twice now. She's really nice and is helping me with my French job search. I have a couple of leads for a job in France, but nothing solid yet. I shift back and forth between enthusiastic hope and a strong desire to give up and go home. We'll see what happens.
This past weekend Blois celebrated Carnaval. I'm not exactly sure what we were celebrating as it's too late for Mardi Gras, but it was cool nonetheless. This year's theme was something about the living dead, so that was rather creepy, but otherwise it was good fun. I watched the parade which consisted of many be-costumed adults and children and had confetti thrown in my face by several little kids. Then I had to get back to my room to talk with my parents, but I definitely heard "Thriller" being played really loudly over the speakers, so I'm hoping there was a major "Thriller" dance party in the middle of the street.
Harriet, Amy, and I are shuffling to check all those things we haven't seen/done yet off our lists. This mainly involves castle visits. Later this month, I'm hoping we'll rent some bikes, grab Suzie, and go for a Loire River tour by bike, seeing castles along the way.
Harriet and I have booked our Chunnel tickets for London (fun fact: the Brits don't call the Chunnel the Chunnel), and I've reserved a bed at an awesome hostel in the heart of London and purchased a London guide book. Getting excited!
Mainly, I'm just shocked by how fast the time has gone. Can this year really almost be over? More to come.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Germany and All Things Lush
I've been back from Germany for nearly two weeks now. Adel and I had an extremely successful adventure. I would say that we had more of a social adventure than a touristy adventure, which I rather loved. Staying in host families was absolutely wonderful, albeit overwhelmingly German at times.
In Köln, we stayed with Hans and Dorothea, Adel's brother's host family from nearly 12 years ago. English-speaking Dorothea was in the hospital for surgery, so we mainly interacted with Hans, who spoke minimal English. Adel, of course, is fluent in German, but I, having no German skills whatsoever, ended up having broken conversations with Hans through hand gestures, nods, and smiles. All and all not a bad way to communicate. Hans took us out to a German pub for dinner and I got to try schnitzel, a classic German dish of breaded, fried pork, and a lot of regional German beer. We also were invited to a lovely German brunch with family friends, where we were served a smorgasbord of breads, cheeses, meats, jams, honey, fruits, and vegetables, all with a side of butter, Germany's favorite condiment. Touristy sites included the Köln cathedral and the NS Nazi prison museum. I also got to see a German hospital in action when we rode bikes over to visit Dorothea.
The ever-efficient German trains took us to Bielefeld, where my friend Rhea met us. She gave us a tour of her city, and I got to go into a coffee shop for the first time in six months (!). We had an excellent night-in making pasta, watching The Devil Wears Prada, and chatting. The next day we checked out the Barnhaus museum where we saw a fully restored German barn house from the 17th century, a functioning mill, and cute bunnies. Unfortunately it was cold and snowy, but we warmed up over a traditional German lunch where I had another go at schnitzel (this time with mushroom sauce) and tried Adel's beverage of choice apfel schorle (fizzy apple juice). We then enjoyed "caffe" (German tea time) at a fancy bakery where we sampled three kinds of German cake--so lush. We spent the evening at a nearby hot bath and spa center relaxing and people-watching. I loved being reunited with Rhea and felt right at home in Bielefeld.
We spent one night in Frankfurt with my old friend Tony who is studying abroad this semester in Mannheim. There wasn't much to see in industrial Frankfurt, so we opted to go shopping in the huge mall and have a nice dinner out at a restaurant called Helium (the name says it all). It was so good to catch up with Tony, and I'm looking forward to his France visit in about three weeks!
Our last stop in Germany was Adel's host family's house in Batten, a little village of 155 people. Martin and Margot have three daughters: Maya (14), Myriam (11), and Minerva (5). Margot was an au pair in London for six years, so she is fluent in English and has been teaching it to her daughters since they were born, so Adel didn't have to play translator quite as much. I was immediately swept up into family life, doing everything from shoveling snow (we got between 6 and 8 inches) to playing Yahtzee around the table after caffe. Margot and I really hit it off--we're both English teachers, flute-players, and major chatters. My last night with them found us in the basement, playing flute duets for Adel (I haven't played in four years--poor Adel) and chatting about life, especially living abroad. Margot sent me back to France laden with four jars of homemade jam as a parting gift. Quite a special weekend that I will treasure for always.
I left Adel and hopped a gloriously French SNCF fast train to Strasbourg, where I met up with Suzie. We wandered around Strasbourg and both decided we should move there immediately, then went back to our hotel where we made pasta, drank Orangina, and savored chocolate mousse while watching French television. Our favorites included Top Chef: France and Sex and the City (in French). We spent the next day wandering around again and hitting up the Museum of Strasbourg and the European Union Park. We finished our evening with a lush (Suzie's favorite word--I've picked it up) dinner at the Chinese restaurant recommended to us by the guy at the Apple Store. It was, well, lush.
We went back to Blois via Paris on Wednesday, and Suzie spent the night. I relaxed Thursday and Friday, doing homework and being lazy, until Harriet came back Friday night.
Since then, I've been up to my usual school routine. We've been learning food vocabulary and the phrases "Do you like...," "Yes, I like...," and "No, I don't like...." Still liking it, but they can be real pains at times. But then they say hi to me on the playground all big grins and I forget they were obnoxious in class.
I am spending a lot of time with my friend Dina, who's from Colombia. She is fluent in English and French, so we just talk in whatever language we feel like. Quite fun. She invited me out with her group of Colombian friends last Friday, so I spent an evening absorbing Spanish. I've decided it's my next language. We went out for sushi, which I actually liked, much to my surprise, and then got beers at Le Singe vert (The Green Monkey), a Latin bar that holds latin dances on the weekends.
I spent Saturday night in Romorantin with Suzie. Romo, as we call it, is a small town about 45 minutes south of Blois. Suzie and I went out to dinner for crêpes, both savory and dessert (lush) and then had a proper sleepover. Romo is adorable and full of parks and boulangeries (bakeries), and I got to hear birds chirping and smell some farm-fresh air and eat humungous homemade burgers with Suzie for lunch while watching Gavin and Stacy (British TV show--check it out). Lovely. Lush.
Thanks to a pep talk over dinner from François, my French neighbor, I have decided to try to stay in France next year, so I'm on the job hunt. François diligently helped me perfect my CV (resumé) in French and I'm hitting the streets of Blois tomorrow in search of a position as an English language assistant at any school that will take me. I'm starting with the engineering university where basically all my friends go and working out from there.
Other than that, I'm working on my online course to get my TEFL certification and gearing up for my last two months in Blois. Important things on the agenda: my friend Hannah's visit over Easter weekend, Tony's the following weekend, a trip to England to visit Harriet and Suzie and get my fill of London awesomeness, and then home on May 13th. Exactly two months left. They're going to fly by, and I'm in for quite a ride.
In Köln, we stayed with Hans and Dorothea, Adel's brother's host family from nearly 12 years ago. English-speaking Dorothea was in the hospital for surgery, so we mainly interacted with Hans, who spoke minimal English. Adel, of course, is fluent in German, but I, having no German skills whatsoever, ended up having broken conversations with Hans through hand gestures, nods, and smiles. All and all not a bad way to communicate. Hans took us out to a German pub for dinner and I got to try schnitzel, a classic German dish of breaded, fried pork, and a lot of regional German beer. We also were invited to a lovely German brunch with family friends, where we were served a smorgasbord of breads, cheeses, meats, jams, honey, fruits, and vegetables, all with a side of butter, Germany's favorite condiment. Touristy sites included the Köln cathedral and the NS Nazi prison museum. I also got to see a German hospital in action when we rode bikes over to visit Dorothea.
The ever-efficient German trains took us to Bielefeld, where my friend Rhea met us. She gave us a tour of her city, and I got to go into a coffee shop for the first time in six months (!). We had an excellent night-in making pasta, watching The Devil Wears Prada, and chatting. The next day we checked out the Barnhaus museum where we saw a fully restored German barn house from the 17th century, a functioning mill, and cute bunnies. Unfortunately it was cold and snowy, but we warmed up over a traditional German lunch where I had another go at schnitzel (this time with mushroom sauce) and tried Adel's beverage of choice apfel schorle (fizzy apple juice). We then enjoyed "caffe" (German tea time) at a fancy bakery where we sampled three kinds of German cake--so lush. We spent the evening at a nearby hot bath and spa center relaxing and people-watching. I loved being reunited with Rhea and felt right at home in Bielefeld.
We spent one night in Frankfurt with my old friend Tony who is studying abroad this semester in Mannheim. There wasn't much to see in industrial Frankfurt, so we opted to go shopping in the huge mall and have a nice dinner out at a restaurant called Helium (the name says it all). It was so good to catch up with Tony, and I'm looking forward to his France visit in about three weeks!
Our last stop in Germany was Adel's host family's house in Batten, a little village of 155 people. Martin and Margot have three daughters: Maya (14), Myriam (11), and Minerva (5). Margot was an au pair in London for six years, so she is fluent in English and has been teaching it to her daughters since they were born, so Adel didn't have to play translator quite as much. I was immediately swept up into family life, doing everything from shoveling snow (we got between 6 and 8 inches) to playing Yahtzee around the table after caffe. Margot and I really hit it off--we're both English teachers, flute-players, and major chatters. My last night with them found us in the basement, playing flute duets for Adel (I haven't played in four years--poor Adel) and chatting about life, especially living abroad. Margot sent me back to France laden with four jars of homemade jam as a parting gift. Quite a special weekend that I will treasure for always.
I left Adel and hopped a gloriously French SNCF fast train to Strasbourg, where I met up with Suzie. We wandered around Strasbourg and both decided we should move there immediately, then went back to our hotel where we made pasta, drank Orangina, and savored chocolate mousse while watching French television. Our favorites included Top Chef: France and Sex and the City (in French). We spent the next day wandering around again and hitting up the Museum of Strasbourg and the European Union Park. We finished our evening with a lush (Suzie's favorite word--I've picked it up) dinner at the Chinese restaurant recommended to us by the guy at the Apple Store. It was, well, lush.
We went back to Blois via Paris on Wednesday, and Suzie spent the night. I relaxed Thursday and Friday, doing homework and being lazy, until Harriet came back Friday night.
Since then, I've been up to my usual school routine. We've been learning food vocabulary and the phrases "Do you like...," "Yes, I like...," and "No, I don't like...." Still liking it, but they can be real pains at times. But then they say hi to me on the playground all big grins and I forget they were obnoxious in class.
I am spending a lot of time with my friend Dina, who's from Colombia. She is fluent in English and French, so we just talk in whatever language we feel like. Quite fun. She invited me out with her group of Colombian friends last Friday, so I spent an evening absorbing Spanish. I've decided it's my next language. We went out for sushi, which I actually liked, much to my surprise, and then got beers at Le Singe vert (The Green Monkey), a Latin bar that holds latin dances on the weekends.
I spent Saturday night in Romorantin with Suzie. Romo, as we call it, is a small town about 45 minutes south of Blois. Suzie and I went out to dinner for crêpes, both savory and dessert (lush) and then had a proper sleepover. Romo is adorable and full of parks and boulangeries (bakeries), and I got to hear birds chirping and smell some farm-fresh air and eat humungous homemade burgers with Suzie for lunch while watching Gavin and Stacy (British TV show--check it out). Lovely. Lush.
Thanks to a pep talk over dinner from François, my French neighbor, I have decided to try to stay in France next year, so I'm on the job hunt. François diligently helped me perfect my CV (resumé) in French and I'm hitting the streets of Blois tomorrow in search of a position as an English language assistant at any school that will take me. I'm starting with the engineering university where basically all my friends go and working out from there.
Other than that, I'm working on my online course to get my TEFL certification and gearing up for my last two months in Blois. Important things on the agenda: my friend Hannah's visit over Easter weekend, Tony's the following weekend, a trip to England to visit Harriet and Suzie and get my fill of London awesomeness, and then home on May 13th. Exactly two months left. They're going to fly by, and I'm in for quite a ride.
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