i'm going to turn so emo

I think this is my first downer post.
It's just that things aren't so hot right now.

But I know they'll get better. I just have to sit with me and my brain and a cup of tea and think. And then I should knit and listen to Christmas music and think some more.

I also plan on drinking copious amounts of egg nog and eating millions of Christmas cookies in the next few weeks. And listening to "Feliz Navidad" always makes me feel good.

In other news, I wrote this really awesome Christmas letter and I also made homemade Christmas cards (read: me and artistic abilities? notsomuch). Last weekend I enthusiastically went to the post office and sent off my stuff to all my peeps out there and then I realized that I forgot the Christmas letters. I sent only the (reallyreallycrappy) homemade Christmas cards. Am hoping for round-two of holycrapican'tbelieveitcoststhatmuchtomailthisstuff Christmas mailing v. soon.

Also, I finished my g-ma's Christmas present and must now shop for my English family members, one of whom I haven't seen since he was like 2 weeks old and the other I've never met. Should be interesting, eh?
In 10 days I'll be in England. Holllerrrrrrrrr

embarassing things I did today

Number One: I just finished up the most random and confusing IM conversation of my life, thinking I was talking to one friend but really not talking to her at all. I could have been talking to someone in Papua New Guinea for all I know. How'd I do it? Well, I thought I'd added my friend's IM name onto my buddylist correctly but... guess what... I didn't. So I started talking to her and for a hot sec it was making sense b/c I think these two peeps might be kinda similar (random and weird AGAIN!) and then she was like "did you get the math homework?" and I'm like WHAT the bananas? And THEN the friend who i THOUGHT I was talking to showed up on GChat and started talking to me THERE and I was like huh? but I thought we were just doing a double-communication thing. We weren't.
what the heck.


Number Two: Got back from work at school number two today and realized that I'd left my teaching book there. This teaching book contains notes from every class that I teach describing what we did for the day and what we should do next week. It also has random notes like "why the bleep does this teacher leave this class?" "oh my god, she took out her cell phone in the middle of class! oh no she didn't!" and "[bleep] she just saw me texting. [bleep]"

It's been an awesome day.

how to get little kids to love you

1) mention "High School Musical" as much as possible

2) do the Macarena in class.

We did some of the Macarena last week just for fun (as in: I got to class and completely BLANKED. I couldn't remember my own name, let alone remember what I was supposed to do for class. So I turned on my computer and we danced the macarena). Turned the Macarena into a numbers-song: "One maca two maca three macarena." I'm going to try it with body parts, too: "hand maca hand maca hand macarena maca arm maca arm maca something macarena."

One little girl didn't know the song and she felt pretty left out. After class, our exchange went like this:
"emilie, emilie, peux tu m'apprendre le macarena la semaine prochaine?"

OK YOU ARE SO CUTE I LOVE YOU LITTLE KID

aaaaand see y'all later!

cultural things in 'n around Avignon

Good morning.

The Mistral is blowing something FIERCE right now - so much that it kept me awake most of the night - well, that and my intense fear of teaching. But yeah - the Mistral is laying the smack down and taking names.

So I've done some very cool cultural things around Avignon and I figure I better write them down before I forget. Forgive me for this list-y trip I've been on. Eventually I'll get around to writing in an eloquent way (let's hope) and it'll be more fun for your eyeballs and brains!

1) Avignon is the new Ann Arbor
What does that mean? Well, Avignon has its very own food co-op! On Wednesday night after our French class we all went to what we thought was going to be a pizzeria (and can I just tell you that if I don't have a pepperoni pizza STAT I might go freakin' crazy! - oh yeah - there's a Domino's here. And it may or may not be true that one of the assistants here has a discount card because she's a frequent customer... yeah buddy) and it turns out it's a food co-op kinda thing. Ca veut dire: it's open three nights a week, I think, and people sign up to provide food for the night. Ok, that's not clear, is it? Shoot, it's 6:30 am! What I mean is that you can sign up with a group of homies and present a menu to the people who own the place and say "Bonjour, on veut faire ca, s'il vous plait." And then you go rock that stuff in the kitchen. You can sign up as a group or individually so you get to meet Frenchies and all of that! And by Frenchies I mean the "let's all get our instruments and have band practice in the room over"-dreadlocks-hemp clothing-coop-peaceloving-AnnArborite Frenchies. I was feeling very at home. Almost like I was in Lester co-op or chilling on the diag. So I hope we do that sometime! And then I can go have French friends, too!

2) Church. Les deux.
Went to a Catholic church last Sunday.
Whoa.
I'm not going to go again. I'm glad I went because I got to hear church music and I got to hear liturgy (French) but I realized that it's definitely not what I'm looking for, no matter how church-y it is. Our plans for Protestant church-going had fallen through so we went to Catholic mass and we decided that it's not for us so...

Went to Protestant church yesterday.
It rocked.
It was so so simple. There was one celebrant and no one else up at the front. The church itself was like how Avignon usually rolls - you know, stone, tall, 'fortified'-like, old, etc. etc. The service was an hour long with a sermon that I could follow when I wasn't daydreaming (sorry, guys, my mind wanders no matter where I am) and it was beautiful saying the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene Creed in French. One problem: only three hymns! What the bananas? I go to church to sing! No matter, though - I'm glad I went.

3) Piano concert at the Opera Theater House on Saturday night.
Saw a concert pianist play and it only cost me 3 euros. He was stunning. The Opera House is bautiful and majestic and there are so many reasons that I'm glad I went. What's extra awesome is how there's still so much left to discover here (cue violins for this cheesy part) and I have so much time to really hunker down and live the Avignonnaise life... makes me happy.

4) Ice Skating
AssocEchanges is going ice skating on Friday night! Yeahhhhhhhh buddy!

In other news, I found Sarah McLachlan's "Wintersong" CD and I've been listening to it on repeat. It's the only holiday music I have on my computer! I mean, it rocks, but I can't wait for more from home :)

REALLY GOOD THINGS!

This is my excited voice:

OHMYGOSHYESTERDAYWASTHEFIRSTTIMEI'VEEVERSKYPEDMYFAMILY
ANDISAWALLTHEIRFACESANDITALKEDTOEVERYONEANDITWASAMAZING
BECAUSEIMISSTHEMALLANDISAWTHEIRSMILESINSTEADOFJUSTHEARINGTHEM
ANDTHEYAREWONDERFULANDIMISSTHEMALOT

ahem.

ANDIFOUNDOUTTHATHEATHERBOUGHTHERPLANETICKETTOCOMETOFRANCE
ANDSHEISCOMINGONSUNDAYMARCHSECOND,FLYINGINTOMARSEILLEANDSHEIS
STAYINGUNTILSATURDAYANDSHEISGOINGTOMEETEVERYONEANDITWILLBEAWESOME

And my Dad's going to send me Christmas music!
And I bought my plane tickets for my England Christmas!
And I'll be in Avignon for New Year's!
And my family knows how to Skype!
And I had this awesome cake at a cafe today!


And more good things...
Thanksgiving this year was a little weird - it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving time because I'm not getting time off from school, I'm not making the trajet from Ann Arbor to East Lansing, I'm not in a land of snow or (tremendous) cold, and I'm not around my fam. I missed out on Buffy marathons, I missed out on my yearly turnip consumption and I missed out on Pajama Day. But I made do and ended up having a really good Thanksgiving anyway!

The American assistants decided to have a lil' Thanksgiving of their own. Twelve of us got together at Celine's and rocked the hell out of Turkey Day, I kid you not. Amy and I spent the afternoon cooking stuffing (great recipe, Mom! it was a huge hit!) and a corn/pepper souffle (heaven in your mouth - good one, Amy!) and Nicole made to-die-for mashed potatoes. We hurried through the rain to Celine's and were greeted by pots and pots and pans and plates of food. It was an enormous spread. The twelve of us managed to put together a delicious meal - who knew we could all be such gourmet chefs? And I think we're all gourmands now, too! Turkey, stuffing, corn souffle, mashed potatoes, green beans, Serbia soup (we made Darija make it even though it is, in no way, a part of Thanksgiving), mashed sweet potatoes (Emily went out and found marshmallows - they exist here!), quiche, cookies (praise everything! They were off the HOOK), salads like whoa, apple crumble and ice cream, aaaaand six baguettes. Because you really can'th ave a meal here without a baguette. Good gravy it was all amazing.

I ate so much that I had a stomachache alllllll day on Friday. In fact, I might still be recovering.

But it was great - we ate, we drank wine, we played guitar and sang songs. It was homey and comfortable and it was really really nice to be in such good company. We're all missing home on varying levels and in different ways and I couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving Abroad than the one I had on Thursday.

I'd like to give another shoutout to all my postcard pen pals: Thanks, guys, for sending me all the postcards! I think I get at least two a week and it does wonders for my mood and ego - I'm feelin' pretty popular all up I here :) Haha, it's just really nice to have these things from home. I miss y'all.

I hope your Thanksgivings were awesome and family- and friends- and fun- and smiles-filled. I hope you're all preparing your stomachs for the holiday season. Don't forget the egg nog!

love,
emily




p.s. Saved by the Bell, Seasons 1 and 2 are sale on Amazon.com. Yeah buddy.

Vive la France!

My teachers are all on strike today so I don't have to teach!

Wheeeeeeeeee!

i'm going to go embrace my day!

xox

Today I got my first bisous from my students.

I melted.

Vacayyyy de la Toussaint, Part Two

PARIS

Yes, mesdames et messieurs, I hit up Paris. And it was beautiful.

Thursday, arrived from Tours. Nicole, Amy, Emily, Darija and I got into our little Hotel Printemps, turns out we were to stay on the top floor. Ok, I know the French are all into being skinny and buff and stuff but good lorde, could you please put an elevator in your VERY TALL building so I don't lose die every time I ascend your stairs? Just a few things to consider: premature death by respiratory failure, fire hazards, death by falling (wobbly banisters like WHOA) and over all death by fatigue. Yes, my friends, making that ascent with our eight hundred-pound valises was not a pretty sight. But hey, I just figured every time I walked up I got to reward myself with a pain au chocolat, right?

Hotel Printemps worked nicely for us, though. We were right by the subway stop so, as soon as we'd put down our bags, we we headed for the Eiffel Tower.

No, just kidding, we headed to Starbucks. Seriously. Starbucks.

Now, before you write me off as a coffee-crazed, addicted and slightly pathetic American, hear me out: I haven't had a coffee larger than a shot glass here. Ever. I pay a euro fifty once a week for a teeeeeeeny tiiiiiiiiny coffee and knowing that Starbucks was in Paris was like knowing that the Cadbury Chocolate Superstore is in your hometown. We just HAD to go. And go, we did. I will neither confirm nor deny that I went to Starbucks a (truly satisfying) four times while in Paris. I own that! I loved every single over-priced sip! I savored the sugary syrup of my latte, the four pounds of butter in each muffin, the stares I got from the Parisians as I took out my knitting to do what any American does in a coffeeshop - stop, put her feet up, and people-watch . I leafed through their "We're environmentally-friendly and we're humanitarians, we swear!" leaflets and I browsed through their beautiful shiny thermoses (thermoses is a weird-looking word, eh?) and I salivated over their caramel macchiatos, their chocolats chaud and their regular old coffee. Holy whoa, who knew I could write such a long paragraph dedicated to Starbucks? I think I'm longing for some America back in my life.

After Starbucks, our first stop on our Paris-tour was Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. It was a Thursday afternoon, grey and dreary - reminded me of England. Amy had scuttled off to meet with her friends so it was just me, the D(arija, my colocatrice), Emily, and Nicole. We saw the stairs. The stairs were intimidating. We took the stairs by storm.

Yeahhhhh buddy.

Once we got to the top we got to look out over all of Paris while simultaneously getting to listen to some dudes sing Bob Marley. It was like a flashback to college except I wasn't eating ramen and no one was locked out of the bathroom. It was beautiful, it was breathtaking, it was exciting. We posed for pictures for approximately eight million hours and then headed back down to wander the streets of Paris. I decided to start a photo shoot of me looking like a fool at every grand Paris monument. I'm pretty sure I succeded!

Next stop on Paris Tour was the Champs-Elysees. I'd like to give a shout out and a hollah to Madame Weltzer, who put me through French 2-4 at East Lansing High and had us sing "Au Champs-Elysees" a million times. Hollah! Thanks to you, I know the song and I know how singing can really help in a class with foreign languages (heads up: I taught my kids "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" the other day and it was one of the greatest moments in my life). We walked down the street, we checked out l'Arc de Triomph, we strolled down the Avenue. I couldn't help but feel a little like I was in New York walking up 5th Avenue and then I got all nostalgic for New York but I was in Paris so what was I doing thinking about New York but hey , homesickness is hitting me a little bit at the moment so it makes sense.

ANYway. I made a video. On the Champs-Elysees. And it goes a little like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKHLd9jwy-Q

Next stop was... the Eiffel Tower! It went a little like this:

"Hey guys, let's take the metro to the Eiffel Tower!"
"Ok!"
yaddayaddayaddachattingonthemetromakingfoolsofourselveslookingreallyamericanlaughingourbuttsoffmakingdarijacringewitheveryhugeloudguffawandthen
BAM
the freaking Eiffel Tower. Out the window.




Good gravy that was amazing!
I seriously was very very close to crying. Not sure why - it's not like I have a history with the Tower or anything but it was just like WHOA I was not expecting that. Emily and I fumbled around on the metro for our cameras, as we wanted to get a shot of the Tower as we whizzed by, but we couldn't do it. Nice-looking Parisians (say WHAT!) smiled at our touristy-efforts and we basically ran off the metro at our stop trying to get to the monument AFAP.

Photos photos photos. I went to the Tower a total of three times during the trip wait maybe more and I took artsty ones, stupid ones, fun ones, ugly ones, blurry ones, night ones, I got 'em all. So good to go with four girls who all realize how important it is to get everysingleangle for everysinglecamera for everysinglepersoninthegroup. I'm surprised our cameras didn't all run out of batts there! Oh yeah - I too my "Hi I'm Emily the crazy American tourist" shot at the Tower, too.

Amy had gone off earlier in the day to go meet up with her British Uni friends and Nicole took Thursday afternoon off for herself so it was just me, the D, and Emily who then went to the Louvre. It should be said that we're all ballers on budgets and were trying to do Paris on the cheap so we didn't acutally go into anything. Seriously. Photo ops on the outside were just fiiiiine by me. Some day when I am famous and make a million dollars makign stilly videos on YouTube or singing covers of Girlyman I will be able to go back to Paris and live it up but for now... outside-of-important-buildings shots are a-ok with me. And holycrapican'tbelievewe'reinparislet'slookreallyshockedandhappy shots are also ok.

So we went to the Louvre and went all DaVinci Code on it and took pictures of the giant triangle thing. That was cool.

I just realized that I think I've gotten my days mixed up. Or I've made my Paris experience into one long adventure, like the sun didn't set on my vacation. But, uh, I just can't remember when one day ended (Eiffel Tower at night) and the next day began (obligatory Starbucks). So bear with me, it'll make sense or something.

Ahhhhh I think I remember. I went to the Louvre on Friday. Ok who the hell knows. We'll just say that's what happened.

Friday was my day with just me, Darija, and Emily. We went to the Louvre (on the outside - hells no were we gonna pay to go in! Ciao, Mona Lisa) and we went to the Notre Dame and we went and ate ice cream at the best ice cream place in all of Paris and we walked on the Seine and took artsy fartsy photos and we went to this really famous square but I can't remember what it's called. That night Darija left to go party with her fam out in Lyon and Nicole and I took an amazing repose back at the hotel that consisted of us watching Scrubs for a lil' bit. That night we met up with Nicole and her friend, Lorraine, and had a delicious Menu meal (you know, like 14 euros for an entree, plat, and dessert) and I drank, literally, 7 carafes de l'eau - j'ai soif like WHOA here in France!

Aaaaaaand we went back to the Eiffel Tower for some night shots. Holler!
Found a lil' art exposition on the Seine as we finished up at the Tower. Very very cool.

And of course we had to go to the Moulin Rouge! At night!
Crazy sketch.
I've never seen so many sex shops in my life. Here in Europe they're called "sexy shops" and, for some reason, that makes them sound dirtier than usual to me.
I hunted around for Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman but, alas, they weren't there. Instead, the group of us were whistled at, men gave me confused look (the garcon ou fille? look) and there was all that whistling and hollering that comes with being young (totally beautiful) women in France. The guys who do all the catcalling are called drageurs and they're everywhere. And annoying. Luckily, I don't get much of that.

Anyway, we were pretty excited to be on the street of Lights 'n Filth. Elysia met up with us that night (ok i remember! This was Saturday night!) and she had her first Paris crepe and it was all merry and stuff.

Sunday was our last day in Paris. I'd left Avignon at 5:00 am on Tuesday and, being the homebody that I am, by Saturday night I was ready to be back in my fortified walled city, back at the Lalogene, back at Place Pie, back at 5 rue Saint Thomas d'Aquin, back on Rue de la Republique, back at the Palais, back to everything that's familiar. But just because I was feeling like I wanted my Avignon home didn't mean we didn't live up Paris for our last day!

We checked out of Hotel Printemps in the morning, took all our bags to the train station for the day. For those of you who are doing international travel and all of that, i totally recommend it! Useful and not too pricey and useful!

After the Gare me and Emily and Elysia took off for the Louvre again, to give Elysia a few sights to see. This time we went IN the Louvre because guess what! All museums in Paris are free to the public on the first Sunday of every month! And we were there on the first Sunday of November! Woohoo!!! But someone shoulda given me a whistle or something to blow because I got lost in the Louvre and I couldn't Marco/Polo my way to my friends. Oh well - found 'em and then we went and saw the Mona Lisa.
And then I saw a bunch of statues.
And then I saw a bunch of paintings.
And then I saw a lot of African art.
And then I wished I knew more about art. I couldn't fully appreciate the Louvre. But it was still freaking cool.

Sunday was our first and only beautiful day in Paris but we really took advantage of it. We went to Place de la Concord, we went to the Louvre, we went to l'Arc de Triomph. It was all beautiful. And we went UP l'Arc de Triomph because guess what oh yeah it as open to the public and it was AWESOME. I looked out onto Paris from its center - it was breathtaking. That was an wesome moment.


Ok, so I think that ends my Paris Tour. Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, Champs-Elysees, Montmartre... I feel like I did it all! Of course I didn't and I need to go back a million times to get the city in its entirety but it was a nice entree to a plat, I feel. And I was with these really freaking sweet people the whole time. I wish Parisians wore color. I wish they picked up after their dogs. I wish they smiled more. Makes me miss home :)

Paris was an awesome time!

Attention: email is DOWN!

Hi everyone!

I wanted to apologize: I haven't been in contact too much recently and I've been trying to write e-mails back alllllll day but my e-mail is down for some reason, although I can blog and I can do other things. I think gmail is having some sort of hiccup. Hiccup is a weird word to see.

Anyway, please know that I am trying to get back to you. Internet here is ALWAYS iffy and for some reason I can access IM sometimes, sometimes not, I can access e-mail sometimes, sometimes not. I see it as a part of France - doing what it wants to do and not letting you in on the game.

So yes - I am here, things are nice... I joined a gym (hollerrrrrr), I listen to Joshua Radin on repeat and I am still discovering Avignon. Next week is Thanksgiving! I hope I can find some turkey other than the pre-sliced dinde meant for my baguette. Fingers crossed!

Montpellier and Nimes!

So this past weekend I went to Montpellier and Nimes.
I took a trip with the Association Echanges, a group from the University of Avignon that works to bring all the foreign kids together and tries to get them with Frenchies so we can all live in multilingual harmony. I'm going to become a member of AssocEchanges so I can get all their e-mails and get hooked up on other amazing trips - next month we're going to Lyon to see a festival of lights! Or something. Ok, I'm not really sure what's going on but it's guaranteed to be cool and cheap and cultural and stuff.

Thursday night I went to a soiree for the AssocEchanges which is where I had conversations with Frenchies (this is hard for me to do because I get so nervous and, unfortunately, I don't do it enough (but, Mom and Dad, know that I'm speaking lots of French every day!)) and learned about the trip. I wasn't going to go because I didn't want to give up a weekend of extremely thrilling lesson planning but then oh wait people started talking sense in to me ("Emily, you gotta go, why would you NOT go to Montpellier and Nimes with a bunch of foreign kids for only 25 euro for the whole weekend?"). At 8:30 on Saturday morning I dragged my booty to the University bus stop and was whisked away to the coast of la France. On our itinerary was: the Pont du Gard, drive to Montpellier, stay in Montpellier for the night, and head to Nimes on Sunday. Awesome.

Besides the fact that we didn't leave the bus stop precisely at 8:30, the trip was the most organized I have ever seen in France. More organized than the French educational system, than our disastrous orientation in Marseille, more organized than the circonscription in which I work, more organized than the bank to which I (unfortunately) belong. Simply brilliant! I just want to give a hollah and a shout out to the organizers of AssocEchanges for being amazing and actually making things happen! Hollah!

Here's a rundown of each part of our trip:

Pont du Gard... wow. Everyone, please forgive my ignorance about the area of France I live in (and, unfortunately, my general ignorance of the country/of life at the moment)... I didn't know there were a bunch of Roman ruins chillin' all around us. Well, there are. In Arles there's the giant arena, in Nimes there's another one, and halfway between Avignon and Nimes is the Pont du Gard, an freaking huge. How bleeping amazing. So we took lots o' pics and I tried to be all artsy and stuff but it didn't really work out. I also spent a lot of time chatting up other foreign kids, attempting French, and figuring out how we can all be friends. Because this is something I need to do - I need to put myself out there more with people outside this 'posse' I've jumped into in Avignon and hell, we were spending the weekend together so why not!?

Then we all piled back into our bus and went to Montpellier. Montpellier's a big city on the coast. We were supposed to meet up with Montpellier's AssocEchanges but they didn't show up (vive la France!) so we all just dispersed within the city to go explore and discover it for ourselves. I spent the afternoon with the world's two greatest Italians and what did we do? We got to rent bikes and take them around town. It only cost 1 euro for 4 hours! Oh man, that's the ONE good deal I've found here in France! Aaaaand so we took it and it was so much fun. Highlights of our stay in the Mont? Jardin des Plants, conquering the hilly tiny roads of Montpellier, watching the leaves change color and thinking of Michigan, and happening upon a "wishing tree" (passersby have written tons of hopes and wishes on pieces of paper and left them in the little cracks of this tree). We also witnessed this little kid just JAM on a bongo drum at the town's center and I saw a street protest. All in all, an eventful day!

Saturday night was a chill evening of kabab-eating. Somehow, at the end of the night we found ourselves at a reggae-DJ-rock bar with a bunch of dreadheads. I, of course, was wearing my American/French combination of my pink Northface winter coat (very chic, non?) and my H & M hat... I don't think I've ever looked more out of place. But the music was great and it was nice to see a little bit of Montpellier's nightlife - they're pretty renowned here for it.

We spent the night in Montpellier's giant youth hostel. Yeahhhhhh buddy! It was my first time in a youth hostel and it was a good time. It reminded me of ASB and of youth group trips and stuff - tons of people crowded into not-so-awesome bathrooms and sleeping in bunk beds and all of that. I don't know why but I chose the room with ten beds. So I spent the night with two Italians, three Germans, two Spaniards, one other American and a Brit. That is why I love it here - I meet so many people from everywhere. We all had polite chit chat in French throughout the evening but as the night wore on we all just gave up and spoke to one another in our native tongues. Phew! I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes to slip into the good ol' comfort zone of speaking in my langue maternelle.

Sunday we woke up, ate a giant breakfast of bread, bread, and more bread and headed to Nimes.

I'd like to make an announcement? I freaking love public transportation. I mean, I could ride the bus or the train all freaking day. I really think I've regressed or something. You know how I love having the ceiling fan on at night so I can hear the sound of the blades moving in the air and I can watch the fan if I have trouble falling asleep? Well that makes me feel like I'm four, as does my love of public transportation. But no matter! So everytime we got on the bus I was really sad to get off it. No matter, though, because everything we did rocked.

In Nimes we had the chance to walk all around and take in all the sites of the city but I ended up passing out at the town's fountain with Amy and Emily, after a visit to the church (it was Sunday, after all) and feeling a little overwhelmed at the sound of church music. I need to find myself an Anglican church here, that's fo ho. Nothing compares to All Saints, but I want the music and the liturgy and the community.

So after our nap we went and had our giant lunch that was included in the price of only 25 bones for the weekend!

Then we went and saw the Arena of Nimes. Giant giant Roman ruin in town and we got to go in it (for free!) and I took so many pictures. I also was the coolest foreigner around as I walked up and down the ruin singing "The Top of the World" by the Carpenters. THat made me rul popular, fo sho.

All in all, a great weekend. I am so glad I decided to up and go - two more French cities under my belt, I saw the Pont du Gard which is bleeping fantastic, and I met a million new people and had tons o' fun with my usual homies. But don't let me go on a trip like this again without doing a little lesson plan before hand!

Vocabulary

So we all know that my knowledge of French vocabulary is pretty crud. In an attempt to ameliorate it, I bought a book full o' helpful words in helpful list-form at a bookstore in Paris. Uh-oh, repetition of helpful... need a thesaurus, too.

QUAND même...

I was with my friend, Alice, yesterday at our new favorite Avignon cafe, "francoise," and we busted out the book to learn a few words. I am telling you, dear readers, that I can now say: “Quotidiennement je télécharge des images des cafards.”

This of course means:
"Daily I download images of cockroaches"

Merci.

Vacayyyy de la Toussaint, Part One

Vacances de la Toussaint started for me, Emily Findley, on Wednesday, October 24th. My vacation ends on Sunday, November 11th. There is seriously something wrong with that. Vive la France!

After a rockin' bday weekend, I went back to work on Monday the 22nd and I did some Halloween stuff. By "did some Halloween stuff" I mean that I'd completely panicked the night before teaching and couldn't come up with anything except a coloring worksheet. Not my brightest or proudest moment. It was pretty much like I'd procrastinated the heck out of studying for a big exam and then BAM the multiple choice were way harder than I thought they'd be. Actually, I currently feel that's how teaching is - one big ol' test that I freak out about every week b/c I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know how to prepare and I procrastinate a bit too much. Hmm...

ANYway, after my two days of work for the week, I found myself in vacation. I was actually kind of surprised on Wednesday when I realized I didn't have to go back to work for two and a half weeks. Surprised, overjoyed, etc. So it was time to get my vacay-on. And I fo sho did!

I spent the first few days of vacation in Avignon. While I'm currently trying to turn myself into a fancy shmancy world traveler who's seen everything and is all cultured and amazing like that, we all know how much of a homebody I am. So staying home in Avignon for a few days in vacation was still vacation and still fun and homebody-ish - just how I like it. I'm really glad I stayed in Avignon because I hung out with other assistants with whom I spend less time, usually, like Marius, Neil, Ciaran, Robyn, etc. All of these people are amazing, of course, and I had a freaking sweet time chillin', playing cards, going on a picnic, going on a bike ride through the French countryside, eatin' candy, and talking with all of them. I am always smiling here because I am always always happy with the company I get to keep. I feel so lucky.

Then on Tuesday I left Avignon. At 5:00 am.

At 5:06 am on Tuesday morning, my TGV train left Avignon Centre for Tours. My first train took me to Paris, I cabbed my way to Gare Austerlitz and took another train from Paris to Tours. On the second train I sat next to a really sweet girl who brought her cats with her (oh man, peeps and their pets!) and I tried to have conversation with her but she was really shy and quiet and when she did speak, I could not understand a word she said because she mumbled like WHOA and, of course, my French isn't that good yet. So I sat, loving public transportation, knitting and smiling to myself as I listened to my iPod and watched the French landscape zip by.

I interrupt this blog post to state that it smells like burning in my bedroom but I have no idea why. Hmmmm...

Back to Tours. I was met at the train station by Emily and Amy and it was like we hadn't seen each other in ages. Everyone remember the movie "Love Actually"? And how, at the film's beginning and end, the narrator person says that Love Actually is all around and the film montage is all about how you can see love in all its forms at the airport and all of that? Well I don't think there's anything quite like being picked up at the train station. It rocks. So Amy and Emily swept me up in their arms and we headed back to our Hotel Foch (everyone pronounce that however you want) and then we went to a castle with Nicole and Darija. I'm ashamed b/c I can't remember the name of the castle but I can tell you that it was beautiful and very castle-y. My camera was without battery, unfortunately, so I couldn't take any pics but I think there are tons of them on facebook and Nicole and Emily both have pics up, prob, so y'all can see. There was a maze, there was a super long walk up to the castle, the leaves were perfect shades of red and orange, it was a beautiful day... picture perfect, really! Also, that night I had my first crepe in France (the first of my time here) and I died from happiness. Ok, so I had two crepes: a dinner one and a dessert one and it was all amazing.
Me and the D(arija)
Emily and Amy


That was Tours, day 1.

Tours, day 2, was a day for Nicole and I to hang out in the city while the others went off and castled all day long. I think they say five of them or something like that. Oh, I should mention that Tours is in the part of France that's known for its castles so that's the reason for going. Nicole and I hung out in Tours and took pics and had a grand old time. Very chill, very beautiful. It was nice to be in a bigger city. Good preparation for...

PARIS.

I've been to Paris. And OMG it's exactly how I thought it'd be. Yeahhhhhhh buddy!

But more on Paris later. I currently have to go into my room and clean it up so my landlady doesn't yell at me. Yay.

Champs-Elysees like WHAT

I think I just updated my first-ever video onto YouTube! Click on the link below and get whisked away to the whackiness of singing "Au Champs-Elysees" in Paris. It was a beautiful day, I was with my amazing friends, and of course I had to sing the song. Oh p.s. - that's the Arc de Triomph behind us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKHLd9jwy-Q

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Nicole and I were walking through the streets of Tours today, avoiding the patisseries, looking longingly at croissant after croissant, and we passed by two little kids with their mom.

One kid was a witch and the other kid was a ghosty-monster thing.

And they were decked out in their costumes.

So of course Nicole and I freaked out and basically screamed "Happy Halloween" at them. Their mom said "merci" and the kids just looked terrified as they walked (read: ran) away.

Happy Halloween anyway!

Awwww shoot!

Hey everyone!
Once again, sorry it's taken me so long to get back here. This past week has been ridiiiiiiiiic and I am now processing it.

1) I GOT A GUITAR
bleep yeah!
I went to this place outside the walls with super friendly French guys (who, by the way, told me that I speak well in French) and they sold me a second-hand guitar for only 70 euros. Amazing. It is an acoustic/electric but the electric part is broken which is, I'm assuming, why the guitar was sold to the store. Add a capo and a case to that and my total was around 100 - just what I got from my peeps for my bday for guitar-purchasing! So freaking sweet. I have played "You Took me by Surprise," "Both Hands," and "Stay" multiple times for people since I got the guitar. I am so so so happy with it. Oh AND my friend, Silvia, asked a local restaurant/open mike guy if I could play at his place sometime... he's booked through January but after that, I'm good to go! Of course I still consider busking like I did in New York but, just like in New York, I'm too scared, so I won't do that. But I could definitely use the euros!

2) I bought a bike!
Went to Decathalon, a giant sports good store like Dunham's, which is prob like 7 km away. Maybe more. Anyway, they were having a second-hand bike sale all week and I found a beautiful racing bike for only 45 euros. Yay aGAIN. Too bad I couldn't put the bike on the bus on the way back so I had to ride it home. Actually that was awesome because I was tailing the bus the entire way and it felt hella good to ride a bike again. And to get some exercise. Because walking to get a baguette every day isn't really workin' out for me.
On Sunday I took a long bike ride with a few assistants away from Avignon and into the French countryside. It was beautiful and peaceful and I definitely had to pause and take a moment as I thought what I always think here: "I can't believe I'm here, that I'm doing this, that my life is like this." It's always surprising and always amazing.

3) I leave for vacation tomorrow at 5:00 am! yes, that's right - my train for Tours leaves the Avignon Centre station at 5:06. It's quarter to 1 right now and I'm going to wake up just before four so... I should go to bed. But I just had tea and I have a lot to think about so I'm pretty wired right now. I am going to Tours for Tuesday and Wednesday and then I will arrive in Paris on Thursday! Holy crow I am so so so excited. It's my first major trip outside of Avignon (besides Marseille which was for orientation so it kinda doesn't count even though it was fun and cool... anything associated with orientation/Monique Lheman/French bureaucratic incompetence is NOT cool...) and I am ready to see more of France. I'm also ready to see my peeps who left on vacay before me - Nicole, Darija, Emily, and Amy are already in Tours and I'm kinda itchin' to see 'em. Definitely am.

4) We got paid! With real money! Like, it was in my bank account! But not it's not really there b/c I paid rent, I paid Micaela, and I did a lil' shopping. But still! I got paid! And I finally went to the CAF office (gives you $$ help with lodging) to get started on that whole process and they gave me all the papers so maybe I'll get mya ct together some day so I'll get money back in January. When I get back from vacation I gotta remember to go to the cell phone store and the CAF place again.

5) Avignon is amazing. Avignon at night is amazing. Avignon with all my peeps is amazing. I love Italian coffee, baguettes at any time of day, the 'petit gout,' running into assistants from Germany or El Salvador on the street, drinkin' a beer with my French teacher, walking around the walls, picnics on Le Rhone, bike rides in the countryside, guitar singalongs with Anglophones and Francophones, dancing and singing at karaoke, chocolate after every meal (yes, even breakfast, sometimes), awkward times with my landlady, fighting with the bank (more on that later, I'm sure), pasta pasta pasta, Dano, Celine Dion in French on the radio, and everything. I love it all. I love that now I love tomato and mozzarella, that I love salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and that the tofu here is amazing. I love that I turned on the radio last night and I heard amazing French church music that made me miss home and made me listen to French. I love that there's an old guy who walks around minstrel-like with his guitar on sunny afternoons in Place Pie serenading/bugging the people sitting at the cafe. I love that I can have five days of vacation and be non-stop busy, non-stop involved with everyone here. There is always someone to talk to, always someone to cook with, always more to learn about everyone. I love conversations in three languages. I love the little bubble (bulle) that's been created here in Avignon. It sounds cheesy, and it probably is, but it's just freaking fantastic.

So I have to go to bed. Must be up in 3 hours. Bueno nolta! (I'm going to try to learn a few Italian phrases for y'all).

I'm hungry.

Birthday. like WHOA.

Greetings!

I know I know I know it has been way too long since I last updated (thanks, Nicole!) and I am sure that all of you are waiting with bated breath to hear the amazing goings-on of my life. Well, I would love to tell you now but I have to finish lesson planning so I will try to tell you in a few pictures.

Words cannot properly express the emotions that were all up in my head for the weekend. My friends here in Avignon threw me the most amazing birthday party EVER. I kid you not. My face hurts from smiling so much. I've tried explaining it in English and in French to my friends and family and so far I think all the words I've chosen have fallen short.


Ok I'll try for a little description:
I love my birthday. Love love love it. Birthdays are big in the Findley family - we take 'em very seriously. I guess I've been talking about my bday pretty much... ever since I got here (sorry, everyone!) because I was so excited but also because it was going to be my first bday without ma jumelle and that was really weird and sad as was being without my family. So that's where these awesome Avignon friends stepped in.

On Friday afternoon I spent the day chillin' and drinking coffee and walking outside the walls (the shock! the horror!) to find Avignon's guitar shop. And find it, I did. It was beautiful. I could feel my body react to being around so many musical instruments - it's very apparent that I NEED to have something to play around me all the time. Guess I didn't realize how much I missed the guitar. I think I've been talking about wanting a guitar to play for as long as I've been talking about my b-day. And, um, my friends put 'em together.

Saturday was the night we chose to properly celebrate the birthday of moi because having one on the actual day (today) woulda been harder for congregating and also very silly, considering I teach tomorrow. So a bunch of us decided it'd be cool to have a picnic and go sing karoake. I just wanted an excuse to get as many of my friends together. It worked!


I was expecting a get-together of like 20 peeps, everyone eating baguettes and cheese, chillin' and waiting to go to karaoke. Well, I walked into a room of a bunch of people, a smorgasboard of food spread out, and the good times were rollin'. We had pastas and salads and chocolates and wines and cakes and so many people game: the English, the Italians, the Americans... freaking amazing. And peeps brought prezzies! I'm like WHAT!

So I ran around like a crazy person getting pictures with everyone. EVERYone. So many people, so much food, great music (French pop music is a little behind the times so "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston is v. popular here - AWESOME), so much good, great music, amazing amazing amazing friends. Amazing.

Then, while I was in between bites of something spectacular, my friends stopped all the talking and frolicing that was happening and made everyone focus on me (yay). Celine presented me with a 3-D cut-out/card of a guitar. What's that, you might ask? Well, as it was put to me "Emily, you've been talking about playing the guitar ever since we got here and we would like to hear you play. We were gonna have it ready for you but then we thought that you should pick it out yourself." And inside my guitar-card was enough $$ to buy a guitar here in Avignon.

I was speechless. I was speechless.

So of course I did a "Findley" and started tearing up immediately. Had to go into the hallway to compose myself - freaking brilliant. Oh my good gravy - toDAY I can go buy a guitar! I will have an instrument in my hands! I can't wait! a;lskajdf;alskdjfas;dj I am so so so excited.

THEN the lights went out and "Happy Birthday" was sung to me in multiple languages and Amy presented me with four gateaux with candles in them and the party recommenced in full swing. Oh! I gave an "I thank you and I think you all are amazing" speech in French but I was so freaking caught up and so happy that I don't think I made much sense. Putting words together to form coherent sentences in any language was way too difficult at that point.


It was after all the feasting and presents-giving and after I composed myself well enough to be presentable was that many of us set off on a walk to L'Americain to sing karaoke for the rest of the night. And sing we did! And we finally got the Frenchies to lighten up!


Amazing.

Amazing amazing amazing.

So that was Saturday night. I still can't believe it.

I very very much had a joyeux anniversaire. Merci.

predicate, ink

www.predicateink.com

www.predicateink.com

www.predicateink.com

Ok all, here's an explanation for the above links:
My friend, Tessa, from high school and middle school and Kehillat Israel and all that has had her own business for awhile (um, she's amazing and started it while studying art history at Barnard in NYC). She designs t-shirts/tote bags and she and her products are all amazing. So this is a plug for my dear T3P2 because she's got her own website, her own business and she's only 22. Holler!

I can vouch for her stuff because I own practically all of it. Yay.

And here's a picture of me wearing one of her shirts at the Louvre. yeahhhhhh buddy! I'm taking her merch around the world!

American Idol (that's me!)

"Es-tu une fille ou un garçon ?"
(Are you a girl or a boy?)

I was asked this at school yesterday by my 8 year olds. Thanks, guys.

I realized yesterday that I'm pretty much a pop star in my schools. Remember how all the little kids are obsessed with "High School Musical"? Well, I happened to mention to them, after they started asking me (again) if I had ever met "Troy" or "Gabriella," that I had seen HSM both 1 and 2 and they all flipped out. Then a group of four girls split into "filles" and "garçons" to act out the finale from the second one. Really freaking cute. They then asked me to sing a song from one of the movies. Luckily I watched the movie on repeat during one week this summer so I knew the tunes of a few of the songs. So I sang a few songs for all the kids and they were freakin' out. Then of course they kept asking me to sing and sing and sing. They wanted me to sing in English and in French and then they wanted to know if I'd ever met J.Lo.

And then they asked if I'm a boy or a girl, if I'm married, and if I have kids.


Gotta love 'em!

Here's what I taught yesterday (drum roll, please):

the alphabet!
I taught it five different times!
I never want to hear the alphabet song EVER again!

I also taught the sounds "h" "m" "n" "r" and "th"
Tryin' to make it fun, I told them that "r" is like the "aaaaargh" a pirate makes like Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean" - that went over well :) "Th" is fun because the kids get to stick out their langues to make the sound. A lot of them have lost their two front teeth so I think the "th" sound is even harder. So there was a lot of spitting, which all the kids enjoyed.
The "h" has become a classic/favorite in all of my classes because I have them pant like dogs. Comme les chiens. I'm sure their parents would be so proud.

Did I get beyond the alphabet? Not really. Well we did 'pant' to say "Hello" and "Happy Halloween," but, other than that, no. So far we've done a little self-presentation but that's about it. Next week is "Halloween" week ("No, kids, not Appy Alloween! Happy Halloween!") so hopefully I'll be able to bring in lots of fun vocabulary that they will (maybe?) retain and we'll have a ton of fun.

And I might bring in a CD of High School Musical so we can all sing "We're All in this Together." Ain't nothin' like American pop songs to get my kiddies going!

Avignon is drunk

I think that France just lost the giant Rugby World Cup to good ol' l'Angleterre so the French are pissed in every sense of the word - angry and drunk like whoa. Avignon est torchée ! Haha.

I have almost finished my first five-day weekend. I gotta tell you, folks, I'm not sure if I'll want to return to the States after having experienced the reverse of the average person's work week - two days on, five days off. It's been pretty incredible. I've cooked myself amazing food (look, Mom, veggies!) and I've hung out with awesome people and I've chilled myself out like whoa. Unfortunately all this chillin' has coincided with (and caused) procrastination of a new degree (unlike that time I wrote the 10 page paper the night before it was due with Jenna and I curled up on the floor of East Quad's ResComp trying to come up with thesis statements at 2 am) to which now I must own up tomorrow. Because tomorrow is Sunday. And on Monday I teach seven classes, I'm prepared for none, and I can't, for the life of me, remember at which levels all my students are. So tomorrow is the "take a deep breath and pray that you do it right" kind of planning day. Tomorrow also marks the 'week before my birthday' talk that I like to do every year. Look, Heath, only a week till our birthday!

On this here Saturday the 13, 2007, I spoke a ton of French. "Emily, you live in France - no duh." Ah, thank you. However, let me say that it's far too easy not to speak French here because I live with an anglophone, I don't really have to leave my house five days out of the week (again - I must repeat that I have a five day vacation chaque semaine), and I hang out with American/English assistants.

J'aime "le petit gout" en France. It means I get to eat whenever I want. I mean... "whenever I want."

Right now it's the little things

Like the fact that I woke up this morning and the first thing I did, after brushing my teeth, was talk to Giovanna in French for a good 25 minutes. Score! That has to help make up for yesterday which was a miserable day of parler-ing in French.

The fact that I've received two packages in the mail over two days from peeps back home. Birthday prezzies! Don't worry, e'erybody, I will exercise enough will not to open them! I think. I might have to have Darija hide them.

The fact that I went to the local LGBT group meeting last night so I can start getting involved in my community! I was unimpressed with the meeting, unfortunately, because the first hour and a half of it (consequently, the only part of the meeting for which I stayed because I was so freaking bored) was a debate among the older crowd discussing elections and all of that. But I did get work on the gwoir so I hope to be singin' my guts out next Wednesday at 20h30! After my 3 hour conversation class! Hurrah! There are also anglophone meetings in the LGBT group for anyone who wants to talk in English - weehaw! And one in Spanish but I know that none of my Spanish-speaking amis want to come to Les Ils et Les Elles but... oh well... Even though the meeting was hellishly boring, there are tons of things to do with all these people and, although they're all hitched and there are no single people in sight, it's still a great way to meet people and feel comfortable in the city in which I live and all of that.

The fact that I've been getting fun, news-filled e-mails from back home. I know that right now I spend (a lot of/little too much/ton of) time on the computer but it's just so nice to be able to talk to everyone, despite the six hour time difference, and to have e-mail buddies and all of that.

Oh gross - I downloaded "Zephyr and I" by Suzanne Vega thinking that I like it but really I hate it and every time it comes on I want to vomit on my computer. Go away, SV, go away!

*click*

On to more little things...
The fact that I found a post office that is just down the street from where I live rather than a kilometer away.

The fact that today will be the day I eat gelato here in France for the first time. It's gotta happen.

The fact that I can hop on a train and get to Paris in 2.5 hours whenever I damn well please.
Awesome.

[edited at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday: the fact that I got to video chat with Heather AND gchat with Lisa simultaneously yesterday evening. That made me so happy!]

Teaching McTeachertons: Day Two

Tuesday was my second day of teaching at Ecole Mistral. The differences between Mistral and Elsa Triolet seem pretty big. First of all, the teachers in Mistral smiled at me. Secondly, Mistral is hooked up with hella great furniture/rooms for all the kiddies while Elsa Triolet seems to lag behind in, perhaps funding, perhaps caring, about the surroundings for the kids. Mistral is a bigger building with fun chairs, chalkboards that movie (!!!) and all of that. Elsa Triolet has immobile chalkboards (gosh, what are they thinking!), it's small and cramped, and... yeah.

I didn't really teach at all on Tuesday because, luckily, I'd sent an e-mail to the person, Stef Molan, who had e-mailed me my schedule and I had asked if it would be ok just to observe how the school rolls. I guess Stef got the message out because no one was surprised when I repeated this request on Tuesday. My e-mail to Stef began "Merci, Madame, pour mes horaires" and then on Tuesday a tall lanky guy came up to me saying "C'etait moi qui vous a envoye (accent aigu) l'e-mail." Oh crap. How was I suppsed to know that Stef is a man? These French with their confusing gender-neutral men and their metrosexuality and their boy-girl-androgyny! I love it but it confuses the hell outta me.

Annnyyyyway so Mistral. The little kids crack me up - they are all hooked up to the nines with the latest stuff. They are so particular. They all have their little pencil cases that they place just so on the desk and they all use really nice pens (Heath, like the pens that are your favorites) to write down anything. I now know why all French notebooks comew ith grids on them - it's so the kids can learn to write in a straight line. And if, heaven forbid, they're not writing on the grid paper, they get out their little rulers and make lines with them. Wow. When the ruler isn't in the kid's mouth it's on the paper making straight lines for him/her.

So I observed on Tuesday. The first class i observed was a math class and I sat behind a girl and I asked her how old the kids are in the class and she said that they're all nine and ten. Then she pointed to the boy sitting next to her and said Il a douze ans parce qu'il est un peu simple. ("He is twelve (and in this class) because he's a little simple"). Tellin' how it is, she was. She was super cute. In another class I had a question-answer period with them... They were 4th graders, I think. They knew a little English but the Q&A was in French and they asked me everything from Avez-vous deja vu les stars?/Michael Jordan?/Vanessa Hudgins? Avez-vous nage? Est-ce que vous etes marier? Avez-vous des enfants?* ("Have you seen any stars?/Michael Jordan/Vanessa Hudgins? Have you swum? Are you married? Do you have kids?") These kids definitely weren't shy. They were awesome, though. I can pinpoint the ones who are the most like me and with whom I'll butt heads the most but I am just so excited to work with them.

Other highlights from Ecole Mistral:
scrunchies
rolly backpacks
pencil cases
boys with earring studs (in the left ear)
more mullets (why, lord, why)

When I asked a teacher if I could leave 5 minutes early at the end of the day (I know, not the greatest way to start at a new job but...) so that I could catch my bus (the next bus is an hour later) I had a teacher offer to give me a ride to the bus stop after school. She's nice and her kid plays the saxophone.

French teacher discipline is scary. It goes a little like this:
CLAUDIA, JE DETEST TON CARACTERE!"**

Lunchtime at Ecole Mistral was a combination of scary/awkward/fun. Like most of my life, currently.
Scary: Going to the teacher's lunchroom and listening to French women teachers gossping. In French. Scary because I thought they could be talking to me. Scary because they ate like one piece of lettuce and then loads of cream on pasta and they are all as thick as twizzlers.
Awkward: Sitting in the lunchroom all by myself (at the end of the tables) eatin' my carrot and apple and yogurt (and... and... and... (I was so hungry!)) and not understanding a word of what was going on. I turned their talking into background music. Rapid-fire, occasionally ugly-sounding background music.
Fun: Finishing my lunch and going outside to hang out with the CP kids (the littlest ones). They were running around like insane-os and I chilled with the lunchyard monitor who spoke to me (v. nice to have a friendly person). I went so far as to ask her about Sarkozy and his views on immigration - crazy, eh? And I understood what she was saying! Of course we got interrupted from time to time with little French girls (scrunchies in hair, of course) running to Lunch Room Monitor with the teeny tiniest problems. So cute.
Back to Awkward: Going inside during my two hour lunch because it was too cold outisde and sitting in the hallway reading my "Insider's French Dictionary" book. Teachers walked by and were like "wtf?" Oh well.

Back to class:
My last class of the day was with the little ones - It's a CE1 and CE2 class meaning they range from 7-9. Or 6-8. I can't remember. Before class was la recreation (recess) and most went outside but I decided to stay in with a few kids who were doing work. We started talking and the kids were AMAZING. They hung out and talked to me (doucement and lentement, for my benefit). When I didn't understand a word they said (which was, unfortunately, way too often) these kids were so patient with me and circumnavigated the word with other words so I would understand. At one point they started asking me if I could do the splits (who the hell knows how to say 'the splits' in French?) and when I looked at them quizzically, they acted the splits out for me. These are tiny 6 year old French boys in their very trendy jeans gettin' down on the floor to do the splits. So cute.
After recreation I had class with these kids. Anyway, CE2 peeps have had a little French and the CE1 peeps hadn't had any. So what did I do? I taught all the kids to high five, which they, apparently, don't do here in France. They freaking loved it. I also did a lot of "Hello my name is" and gesticulating and all of that. We're going to have a lot of running around games, I feel.

Conclusion:
What thrills me about teaching in primaire is that I'm kinda at the same level with these kids. So far I've only had kids who have been so patient with me, so anxious and eager to communicate with me (in either language) and who are really eager. My momma told me that when she was younger she spent a week in a homestay in France and she would feel completely overwhelmed at dinner with the parents and all the French speaking and all of that but then she and the little girl would go on walks through the woods and the girl would take time to explain things to her/define things/etc. That's what I think my kids are going to do. I feel an awesome energy in the classes, you know? Ok so it's only been the first two days and I know it's going to change but right now I'm feeling hella positive about it. Now I just have to remember to make lesson plans for next week!

Here's a giant cyberspace HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my bffffffff Anna! Happy bday, buff-izzle! (yesterday)

*Apologies to all you French readers/speakers out there - I have no idea how to rock the French accents on my computer. Once I figure it out, I will write in French that is pleasing to the eye. Merci.
**Again, sorry about the lack of accents.

Wednesdays and Mullets

Today is Wednesday - c'est mercredi. Before you x out of this page because you could care less about the previous sentence, hear me out: Wednesdays in Avignon are crazy! In France, a lot of schools get off Wednesdays and then they have half days on Saturdays. This sounds like a really great idea, right? A mini-vacation in the week! Admittedly, going to school on Saturday would suck, but having a whole day off in the middle of the week would rock.
So Wednesdays in Avignon are crazy because... teenagers are everywhere. Everywhere. You've got your angsty Goth types, your hip quasi-Parisians, your Awkwards, and everyone in between. And, most importantly, you've got your Mullets. There are girl mullets, boy mullets, big kid mullets, little kid mullets, and just plain ugliness. It hurts all of the senses, in some way, I'm sure. There are no sunglasses dark enough to block them out, I have no magic powers to make them invisible, thus, I suffer. We all suffer. What the bananas.
The teenagers in Avignon scare the bananas outta me because they kinda look really angry all the time. And of course I have mini crises of confidence when I walk by them and they're speaking in French because, unless I'm right there with them talking to them, I can't understand them.* (Oh man, it will SO be great when I can understand conversations that I'm not necessarily involved in. As in, it'll be great when I can successfully eavesdrop on French people).

So Wednesdays are Teenager/Mullet days in Avignon. That's why I'm inside right now.

In other news, the Old Lady at the Top of the Stairs (as in, the lady with whom I live) offered Darija and I a French conversation lesson/date tonight after our conversation class at the University. I have a feeling it will be a little complicated, considering my French comprehension abilities are low as are the OLatTofS's hearing abilities. Yay. There will be much yelling and gesticulating, I feel.

Monday night = Melting Potes
Tuesday = salsa dancing at RedZone (the local nightclub. yes, a nightclub. AWK)
Wednesday = karaoke night at the bar L'americain. French karaoke is serious business. I bring in da noise and bring in da funk while the French bring in the angst and the pain. It works.
Thursday = 2nd Thursday of every night is some sort of meeting up with Avignon's LGBT group. I hope to go because then I'll be able to get some info on a gay women's choir I'd like to join (a gwoir, if you will). We'll see. I miss singing fo SHO.**






* An assistant friend, when discussing with me how frustrating it is to learn this French language and our desire to make some French friends has just said to me, "At somepoint you've gotta jump out of the nest and hope you don't wind up a pancake." I couldn't say it better, Dan. Couldn't say it better!
** the two asteriks do not have anything to do with the sentence to which they're attached ("I miss singing fo SHO"). I'd just like to point out that I've been listening to Lisa's "Rock is alive 2" mix from the summer and it is bleeping amazing. Some of the songs include...
"Keep the Car Running" by Arcade Fire/"All the Swinging Around you" by The New Pornographers/"Stuck Between Stations" by Hold Steady/"Lying is the most fun a girl can have with her clothes on" by Panic! At the Disco/"Whites Only Party" by The Dears
Check 'em out!

Teaching McTeachertons: the First Day! (bah bah buuum)

*

Today I taught for the first time ever.

I stood up in front of seven classes of 20 kids each and taught them how to say "Hello, my name is _____" and "How are you?" and "I'm fine" and "My phone number is ______." I can't freaking believe it - today I kinda became a teacher. For a hot sec, though - let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I haven't had too much time to reflect on the day, seeing as the actual teaching part was a whirlwind of activity (every time I see whirlwind I think of "she can throw a whirling dirvish out of whirl" from The Sound of Music and then I get sad because Julie Andrews can't sing anymore because some doctor messed up her throat and then... well... I digress...) and then after work I came home and hung out with Darija, my roommate/wife, and then the Girls came over (holy cow, I just said that) and we all went to Melting Potes for language lessons avec de la biere. So basically... it is just *now* that I am fully absorbing the day.

What just hit me is the simplest thought about the day: I got up, in front of a bunch of kids I don't know, and I taught them something. It's my hope that they'll remember what we went over next week and that they'll be eager to learn and excited to play games and sing songs with me and all of that but most importantly, for a hot sec, I was feeding these kids information that they were absorbing (albeit probably only momentarily) and it was good. I am doing something my mom does every day, something her mom did before her, something my aunts do, something some of my favorite people do. I think teaching is one of the most noble professions out there and today je l'ai fait. Even though I probably looked and sounded ridiculous and the other teachers were probably thinking "why the heck did she get put into this program?" there is something really incredible about knowing that I taught some kids some stuff. As exhausted as I am, both physically and mentally, from the day, I'm excited to do it again - I can't wait to hear if Anthony can say the American "th" sound, if his sister will come hang out with me during lunch again, if the CP teacher will engage me in conversation at recess again, if the kids will remember their numbers when we do our phone numbers game next week. There's a lot to be nervous about but there's a lot to look forward to and... well... hurrah.

For now, je suis contente.

Now, for actual day:
My day in Elsa Triolet was split up into seven class periods with each teacher's class. So I taught the kids of Pierre, Yannick (who is also la directrice of the school), Magalie, Celine, Valerie, Olivier, and Marina. I taught kids from age 6 to age 11. I taught boys, girls, kids who were shy, kids who were outta control... everyone. Some of the teachers really got in there to help me (which was SO amazing I just wanted to hug them) and some of them threw me into the classroom like Daniel into the lions' pit. It was stressful but great.

With each class I switched it up a little bit, which was important because not each class was the same age group, but also so that I could see at what level each class is. I did a lot of repetition, a lot of "repeat after me" a lot of work in pairs, a lot of singling kids out (although they get shy so I'm not sure if I'll do that a lot), I used visual images (pictures and postcards), and I wrote on the board for visual confirmation of the words/sentences they were hearing. Something that surprised me right away was realizing how necessary it is to use so many teaching techniques in such a short amount of time (many classes were just 1/2 hour long).

Just for future reference, here are the ages of each class:
CP: the littlest ones!: 6-7
CE1: 7-8
CE2: 8-9
CM1: 9-10
CM2: 10-11

I went into today basically completely blind and came out with a better picture of things. First of all, I have a better idea of who knows how to read and who doesn't, who tends to have longer attention spans, who knows how to read and who doesn't, who is a perfectionist and who isn't, etc. etc. What excites me is that most if these kids are eager to learn and definitely eager to please, even when they're exhausted and ready to finish the day.

All in all, despite a few hitches (i.e. starting teaching today when Iw as told I was just going to observe, having one teacher leave the class when the teachers are supposed to remain in the room at all times, having to give commands in French to the little ones because they can't understand me in English and not knowing exactly how to say what I mean in French) I think today was a very positive experience at Elsa Triolet. Here's hoping tomorrow is just as good.

Phew.**

*A note on Katie's party, as promised:
It was basically awesome. Katie invited assistants and Frenchies and it seemed like, literally, the entire world was holed up in her apartment. Kinda like the Noah's Ark of languages, seeing as we had Italians, Columbians, El Salvadorians, Frenchies, Americans, Brits, Germans, etc. all in her two bedroom place. Of course most of us split up into groups where we got to speak our native languages but I also heard a lot of people attempting to speak in different tongues. I, myself, attempted to speak in French to Emma (a Brit) for quite sometime (applause). Lisa says that I have to try to speak for at least 2 hours a day in French. Oh MAN by the end of 20 minutes my brain is exhausted! But I'll try.
So yeah, the party was great and I can't wait to have another. I'm going to have a French friend, dammit, if it's the last thing I do!
**Melting Potes was tonight, again at O'Neill's Irish Pub (does anyone else find this funny?). Bruno, a guy who organizes it, hooked me up with a website for a gay women's choir here in Avignon (I call it a gwoir). I'm pretty dang excited... here's hoping!

Le Stage part Trois: Marseille

So the assistants all went to Marseille.

Now when we all went to Marseille is another story. You know how they gave us all individualized horaires of our week? It turns out that they decided to switch them up on us at the last minute because they're cool* like that. I was supposed to go to Marseille on Wednesday, stay the night, and have Thursday there, but they told me on Monday "whoops, we don't have the reservations with the hotel so you're not going to go." On a scale of one to awesome it was so NOT. It was basically just the primary school teachers from Avignon that they prevented from going and, essentially, kept us from the coolest part of all of orientation. Rarr.

Anyway, so some of us left on Tuesday, others on Wednesday, and I was (re)scheduled to go on Thursday. However, I had free time on Wednesday night and my friends had accommodation at Etap Hotel so I decided to go, although with Ashley from Apt, to Marseille and crash on someone's floor. Glad I did this because I had a great time! I was able to crash on my friends' floor AND crash the dinner they hosted for the assistants so I felt pretty good about it. Yup, there was a dinner provided for the assistants at a nice restaurant in Marseille which I attended without invitation. But that was ok because when we got there, they told us they were expecting many more people. That is because originally there were going to be many more people there but then they cancelled on us. But of course the French educational people didn't tell the restaurant that. What the crud. So I had awesome salmon ravioli and bread and I cling-clinged** my wine glass with assistants from all over the world. The one upside to the incompetence of the French was that there was an abundance of wine due to the drop in attendance.

After dinner and wine we headed to a bar by our hotel and we spent the evening chilling and talking in all different languages and I'm still so shocked and bewildered and pleased to listen to everyone communicate. Good times.

I awoke on Thursday morning to the image of Chloe, my roommate in Marseille, getting dressed and ready to go out at 6:45 am. "Chloe, praytell, what are you doing?" I asked. Turns out she was going to hike up to the Notre Dame de la Garde with Elicia and a Canadian who was studying in Finland. Sounded cool to me so I tagged along.

We took a 20 minute hike wayyyyyyyyyyy uphill to the top of this beautiful Catholic Church. We looked out onto Marseille. It was amazing. Really breathtaking. Really really awesome and exhausting.

The whole point of all of the assistants (finally) being in Marseille on Thursday was to have a giant day of orientation where we were to meet the heads of the French educational system in the Aix-Marseille academy (France's educational system is split into a bunch of regional academies). Of course they didn't really give us all the names properly so I can't remember who I saw speak but I know they were all dreadfully boring and very silly. Especially Monique Lheman, the woman with whom many assistants have had contact the woman who makes most of our lives living hells while we're here. No love for her, for real.

During the talks on Thursday morning, the very important people sat all 270 of us down to tell us how amazing we are. "Vous etes les fenetres au monde!" they kept telling us. I think they told us that we are the doors and windows to the world approximately 20 times. Not a single speaker was charismatic, most were cheesy, and they bored us to tears. There were some awkward moments during the lectures, too, like when Monique Lheman singled out a few assistants. Who'd she single out? The two Chinese assistants. As Celine says, it was like she'd never seen a Chinese person before. Wtf. And she singled out a guy named Scott who plays rugby. She made all of them speak, without warning, in front of all of us. If she'd asked me to do that, I would have punched her in her ovaries, prob. I can't imagine anything more terrifying! I spent most of the morning looking like this.

After our two hour speech we had lunch and then there was another section of orientation in the afternoon at the parliament building of Marseille. What was this part of the orientation about? Um. It was the exact same thing as the first part of Thursday. The exact. same. thing. Monique Lheman spoke, she singled out the Chinese guys and Scott again (although Scott was really smart and had dipped out) and she did all this because she was trying to impress the head of the education whatchamacallit. Literally, she was using us to make her look good. Oh good lord, there was so much brown-nosing on Thursday I really wanted to barf. Grrrrr Monique Lheman you took hours of my life! I want a refund!

So that was the end of orientation in Marseille. For the rest of Thursday, me and a few other assistants took a big hike up so we could have a nice view of Marseille and the Mediterranean. We chilled and it was awesome. After a long day of frustration, we took the TER home to Avignon, food, and relaxation.

Orientation = not fun.

Soon to come:
Friday: Palais des Papes, French educational system's incompetance, and a party at Katie's!







*nope
**cheers-ed
*** She threatened to deport one assistant because one of her folders was missing a document when she had been told months earlier that she'd turned it in perfectly. Awesome