France, January 2009 - #10

Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse!

Sing along if you know the song!

I saved this moment for when Mariel came, and I think I did well! I don't care if this is as tourist as you get, I'm embracing it!

France, January 2009 - #9

Some pictures from Christmas vacation (in backwards order)

New Years Eve at Sushi's house in St. Rémy, where Mariel and I were perfectly dressed.

The giant head in the luxembourg garden - photo taken by someone I thought was speaking Spanish but was definitely speaking Italian (I discovered this only after I told Mariel to speak Spanish to her).
Myrto's family in Nemea, Greece. So hospitable and such good cooks!
Picking an olive in Greece! Cooool!
Myrto and I at the ruins in Nemea, actually in the ancient bathhouse (Can't you tell!)
Npafoli (I think) at night - gorgeous
The New Balance store in Athens after the riots
Mryto and I taking advantage of the storybook children's walk set up in the National gardens.
Me, as a politically active Greek. Viva la Revolution!
The Theatre of Dionysis - I was really excited to see it since I've studied it so many times!

France, January 2009 - #8

Improving my Greek vocabulary

First of all, Happy New Year! Although I didn't send out any e-mails or cards, I was thinking of all of you and hoping that you were thoroughly enjoying yourselves! (Better late than never, right!)

So it is high time I wrote about my Christmas vacation, during which I went to Greece for 5 days and Mariel came to visit me in Avignon. I'll start with Greece. As you know, there have been crazy riots and a lot of violence in Athens recently because an innocent teenage boy was killed by the police, sparking a lot of anger and demonstrating against the government. This all happened about a week before I went to Athens. But once I got there, the violence was on temporary hold and Athens was doing its best to put on a happy face for the holidays. It was really cool to be there at that moment, because in addition to seeing the Acropolis and other Greek monuments, I got a little taste of what was actually going on in the country, and very modern movements which starkly contrasted the majestic ruins that cover the city. It showed that although Greece is famous for it's antiquity, it is still very much alive and changing and trying (still!) to improve its democracy!

I stayed with my housemate, Myrto, who's mother lives in Athens and who's father lives in a town about an hour and a half away called Nemea. I hung out a little with her friends and it was really interesting to hear their take on it. The young people in Athens are really frustrated by the government, who, for example, completely encircled the christmas tree in the central square in Athens with riot police, but did little to protect the store owners or citizens during the rioting and fires just a week before. This boy who was killed seems to be the straw that broke the camels back, and people are finally fed up with the corruption and negligence of their government. I went to the street corner where the boy was shot, and people have taped letters to the walls across the whole corner, and there are candles and gifts and flowers all over the side walk. In the letters, people wrote to the boy, saying that they would miss him, or that they would not forget what happened. Others were more militant, criticizing the government or vowing revenge. Half a block on both sides of the corner building are covered with these letters. It's really impressive, and touching too. I saw a lot of grafiti as well, and stores with broken windows or tape over the doors. There was a New Balance store across from the National Archeological Museum that was completely burned out. There was nothing inside and it was all charred and destroyed. Despite all of this, Athens did a pretty impressive job of cleaning up for Christmas (which agravated Myrto's friends because to them it is just symbolic of the gov't's corruption and superficiality.) And all around, Athens is a really cool place.

After we spent a few days in Athens, we went to visit Myrto's family in Nemea. Nemea is a cute little town, and Myrto's family took great care of me! I have never eaten so much in my life as I ate for the 3 days we were in Nemea! They kept feeding me different delicious home-made Greek dishes, and I couldn't say no because I wanted to taste everything! By the end of those 3 days I thought I would never have to eat again. There were meatballs, stuffed vegetables, spinach, pork, cabbage salad, really good oil and vinegar (you know how I feel about vinegar!) and of course endless christmas desserts! And Myrto's grandmother makes fresh bread every day, so we always had homemade bread with every meal. Her family was so hospitable, and even though I had only learned about 10 words of Greek and they didn't speak English or French, we figured out a way to communicate (with lots of gestures and guessing! it was fun!) Myrto and I took a couple day trips to nearby towns and visited the ruins of Nemea which were really interesting because we got a little tour of what they're doing to restore them. Overall a wonderful Christmas vacation.

Then on Christmas I flew back to Paris, and stayed with my mom's cousin, France-Lea. It was great to spend time with her because I haven't seen her since I was maybe 14. Claudine (France-Lea's sister) and Reine (her daughter) were there too, so I got to spend some time with family that I really never get to see! We went to a museum, saw the view from Sacre Coeur, and had chinese food (which I have decided is not worth it anywhere in France). Then they went to their parent's house, and Mariel flew in for a quick stay in Paris (wonderful!) and then a few days in Avignon! Highlights of the trip were:

1.Discovering that the hotspot for lunch in Paris on the weekend is an American themed restaurant with pictures of JFK all over. They have a very good cheeseburger with REAL cheddar!

2.Dancing on the bridge of Avignon as a family stared and laughed. But it was tooootally worth it, and I have a video!

3. Delicious beat and cheese salad with fresh bread, all from the local baker and the local market

4. Being absolutely perfectly dressed for New Years - almost every girl at the party was wearing a little black dress and black shoes! We were so French!

5. Discovering a hidden circus behind the Vieux Port in Marseille.

6. Almost peeing in my pants laughing as we tried to figure out how to eat the most disgusting bouillabaisse in the world!

I was sooo happy to have Mariel here! We laughed so much and I finally had a shopping buddy!

So that is the story of my Christmas vacation. This Friday I fly back to the states for Inauguration, which surely will give me lots to write about! Miss you all! I love hearing from you, so leave me a comment or drop me a line and tell me how you're doing!

Bisous!

France, January 2009 - #7

Sometimes being an elementary English teacher is like being a rock star

The week before Christmas vacation was one of the best weeks I've had teaching. Not only did I know that vacation was coming up (always makes teaching better) but I got to teach Christmas songs as lessons! Every class learned at least one Christmas song, and we also colored in gingerbread men, which meant telling the story too. There's nothing I like more than singing and telling stories! One class even applauded my rendition of the Gingerbread man! It was great! I did voices for the different characters and they loved it, and they basically understood what happened because I also acted it all out (it was rather applause worthy I guess). Anyway, at the school where I teach on Tuesdays, we had an impromptu concert with the two classes who learned "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" in the courtyard. Afterwards, different kids came up and asked me if we could have more concerts, and the students who didn't get to sing really wanted to learn the song and perform with their classes too. It was so cute! Then on Thursday, I again decided to have an impromptu concert with my fifth grade class who had learned two Christmas songs. Except that their teacher is really Type A, and if we do anything, we do it right. Which means that instead of doing the lesson I planned we practiced singing the whole class, not just Christmas songs but all 4 songs they know well (Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Twinkle Twinkle, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town). They were instructed to sing Twinkle Twinkle gently, like a lullaby, but then the Christmas songs with lots of energy - this teacher means business. When recess came and it was time for the concert, she informed me that it would be better to do it in the gym room than outside in order to hear the students, and she assembled all the students who were having recess to come be the audience! It was a real concert! We sang the four songs, and the kids loved it- they clapped really loud and shouted "Encore" at the end. All the students from the other classes asked me if they could have a concert too. Then, after the audience had gone back to class, the teacher of the fifth grade class pushed me into the middle of the room and I realized that the entire class had formed a giant circle around me. They started chanting my name and saying thank you, and then they all rushed me at the same time, gave me hugs, and every single student gave me a kiss! And to top it all off, when I went into my next class, they were all humming the songs from our concert. Sometimes the simplest things work the best. And after however many weeks of teaching, all that humming and those kisses were much appreciated.

France, December 2008 - #6

Le Jour de remerciment

A.K.A. Thanksgiving! So here's an update on what I've been up to, mostly revolving around cooking.

Because a year without Thanksgiving just won't do, I hosted a big Thanksgiving party at my house for the other American assistants, their (mostly French) housemates, and some of my friends here that I've made. It was definitely a Thanksgiving to remember. By the time the party was in full swing, there were Americans, Germans, French, an Italian, and a British guest all in attendence. It was quite a celebration. But even though it went well in the end, it was quite an...adventure pulling it off. It all started with a non-chalant suggestion that we have Thanksgiving for the other Americans we know, since we were all feeling sad about missing it. Over the course of 2 weeks, it turned into Thanksgiving for 30! This is mostly because I kept inviting people without thinking, and before I knew it the guest list had doubled. But I really wanted to share the tradition and have a big party chez moi! (These are some of my favorite friends I've made in Avignon - Rémi, Wolfram, Me, and Sushi - whose real name is Simone)

So the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I went to the market and ordered a turkey for 20 (I had not yet reached the 30 mark) to be ready at 7am Friday morning. I decided to have Thanksgiving a day late because I don't work on Fridays and I figured I would need all day to prepare and cook the turkey! (The first time I've ever done it myself!) On Wednesday, I bought various squashes to make pumpkin pie, and other ingredients for stuffing. Everything had to be from scratch, because they don't sell boxes of Thanksgiving foods here. So Carly bought a giant loaf of sourdough bread from our favorite Baker, and I cut it up into little squares and dried them all out. I cooked the squash, puréed the pumpkin and prepared everything I could do before Friday. Carly came over while I was working on Thursday and made the brine for the turkey, green bean casserole with fried onions on top, and really tasty mashed sweet potatoes with turnips mixed in (the turnips were from our organic veggie basket and the

sweet potatoes were left over after we helped cook at the co-op Wed. morning - what luck!) The kitchen was filling up with all kinds of delicious, or soon to be delicious things.

Friday morning, I woke up early, went to the market and picked up the turkey an

d got ready to start cooking. The poultry man gave me a box of livers and kidneys as a present too! Because I bought such a giant turkey! It was 52 Euros and like 9 kg. Yeah man. Big. So I took the turkey home, and realized that I needed to find a container big enough for the Turkey, the brine that was already made, and a gallon of ice water. Our biggest pot was almost full just with the brine. So I looked around the house, but the buckets we had were too small. I went up to my room, and thought that my trash can might be big enough, so I brought it downstairs and

washed it with dishsoap, and put the turkey in with the gallon of water. Unfortunately, it was not big enough! I hadn't put the brine in yet and it was already full! I had to find another solution. Sooo I emptied the kitchen trashcan, took it into the bathroom, and washed it thoroughly with soap. My coloc Myrto came in and saw me doing this, and suggested that I also put a clean plastic bag in it before depositing the turkey. Oh yeah....I have become far too tolerant of kind of gross things. (Thank you Senegal...it all comes back). So I put the fresh bag in, put the turkey in, and dumped in the water and the brine, and left it in the kitchen without the heat on (which means freezing!) for 6 hours. I then took a little nap (I woke up early!) and then Lucy came down from Lyon and we made the stuffing and got some last minute ingredients. Before we knew it, it was 2pm and time to start baking the turkey!

This is where it gets exciting. I don't have an oven at my house. So in order to cook the turkey, we took it out of it's bag, washed it, and wrapped it up again in its bag and then in a reusable grocery bag, and took it to a friend's who had an oven. She had pre-heated it and everything, and even though we didn't have a turkey pan, we figured out a way to catch all the yummy juices, and fit it (just barely - ovens are small here!) into the oven. We baked it until the top was nice and brown, and as we were coving it with tin foil and preparing to cook it for 3 hours, the oven shorted! It just stopped working! All of the electricity in her apartment went out, and when we finally got it back on and tried to turn the oven on again, it shorted out again! The oven refused to work! At this point, panic set in. I picked up my phone and called everyone I knew in Avignon who had an oven. Carly was at work and her housemate was not picking up. Stephanie's oven was too small. Finally I reached

another assistant, Zandra, who called her housemate who was home, and about half an hour later we were wrapping up the partially cooked turkey in tin foil, putting it into a new plastic bag, putting that into our grocery bag, and packing up all the juices that had dripped down and our other ingredients to prepare to transport the turkey to it's new oven. We stepped outside, and it was pouring rain! So with two of us carrying the turkey and the other two carrying the rest of the ingredients, we ran half-way accross Avignon to Zandra's apartment (which we had to find on a map). Her roommate (who we had never met) opened the door, and after a very quick hello, we rushed in, unpacked the turkey, which was thankfully still warm, and shoved it into the new oven to continue the roasting. What an adventure! We were laughing so hard as it was raining and we were running with this giant turkey! It was a real Turkey Trot! Hehehe. But very memorable! However, we lost valuable time, and now the turkey would not be ready before 8:30 (the party was set to start at 7:30). But there was nothing to be done, so we went home, and while the turkey cooked we made two pumpkin pies and heated up the other food, cleaned the house and set up the kitchen/living room for the party. I was not even changed when the first guests arrived, and I was in the midst of sweeping! But luckily people were patient, and as more and more people showed up, the table began to fill up with really wonderful Thanksgiving food!

There were cooked carrots, improvised cranberry sauce (with cranberry juice and some other fruit), corn bread, mashed potatoes, the green bean casserole that Carly made, mashed sweet potatoes, two small herb encrusted turkey breasts (because I didn't think I would have enough - ha!) Broccoli casserole, Stuffing, Mashed sweet potatoes, pumpkin pies, apple pies and more! And, I had originally been worried about having enough wine, so I had asked a few people to bring a bunch, but everyone ended up bringing at least one bottle, so we had tons! (And this is what happened! - note - this was staged)

I was still really nervous about the turkey, but people seemed to be showing up and having a good time. We finally started eating, even though the turkey had yet to arrive, and Kasia and Fanny (whose oven had shorted earlier) went to check up on it and help bring it over when it was ready. Finally, around 9, the doorbell rang and in walked Kasia and Fanny (and Zandra and her

housemates and a German assistant who had also been helping) with a beautiful golden turkey stuffed with crispy brown stuffing. It was amazing!

Everyone clapped and we gave a little toast about what Thanksgiving was all about and what we were thankful for, and then I carved the turkey and dished it out, to very satisfied guests! In the end it worked out, and everyone had a great time! People ended up staying till 2:30 in the morning, and we were all very fat and happy:)

But what I really loved was that in preparing for Thanksgiving, so many people helped me! It was such a collaborative effort for everything that we made, cleaning the house, setting up - I didn't do anything alone. At the end of the night, after everyone left, Kasia, Fanny, Carly, and I did all the dishes together, and it was actually really fun and we laughed and then all collapsed on the couch together. I felt so happy to have made such good friends here, and I was so touched by how much they helped out and got into Thanksgiving with me! I love moments that make me stop and realize that I'm so lucky, and that even though it's hard to be far away there are people here that I have grown to love! It's a wonderful feeling!

So I'm sorry I got sappy on you guys at the end, but I was so happy that it went well, and that Lucy came all the way from Lyon to help, and Carly cooked all day Thursday at my house without me, and Kasia and Fanny took valuable study time to run accross Avignon with a practically raw turkey to make this party happen. For all those things I am truly Thankful!

(Me and Fanny with the Turkey)

France, November 2008 - #5

Miss Becky

So I realized I have not yet posted about teaching, which is technically what I'm here to do! So here goes. I started teaching the second week of october, and I've had a two week vacation already, so I haven't actually been doing it for that long. But each week it gets a little easier as I start to get the hang of it. For my first class with each grade, I introduced myself and told them to call me Miss Becky. If they call me Becky in class, I say, "uh uh uhhh, MISS Becky." Hahaha I get such a kick out of it! But also I think It's important to know how to address people, right? (Mostly I just think it's so cute when little French kids say "Mees Béckie?") I also told them the three rules for the class: 1)Raise your hand to speak 2) Don't talk to your neighbors 3)If I ask a question in English, you have to answer in English. This last rule got a gasp from more than one of my classes, and then I taught them two key phrases: How do you say ___? and I don't understand. Hahaha sooo cute and they actually use them all the time! So that was my first class.

So far I have done Halloween lessons and some basic stuff like colors and days and months. After Obama won, I put a big picture of him up on the board, and asked why it is important that he was elected. Most of my classes had pretty legitimate discussions about it. They are between 6 and 10, and when I asked them that question, they were pretty well informed. They knew that he was the first American black president, they said he has good ideas, he wants to stop the war in Iraq, he wants to help poor people, he wants universal health coverage. I was pretty blown away by how aware they were. Some kids were a little confused about things they had heard on the news though - one girl thought that Obama was replacing Kennedy because he had been assassinated and we didn't have a president anymore. I think she misunderstood the comparisons between Obama and Kennedy, but then I explained it and it was much clearer. Then, I showed them pictures of Obama's family and told them that his daughters were their age, and asked if they could imagine their fathers becoming president. When I showed them a picture of the white house, they were thoroughly impressed, and gasped audibly. (Also very impressed with my mac I might add:) ) They asked how many rooms were in the White House, and many kids said, Do they have such a big house only for their family? A lot of kids also said, Wow, I would like to be president. It was fun to show them pictures and answer their questions, and one little girl brought me back a copy of the LA Times from Nov. 5 because she was on vacation in the states! I was so touched!

What was very striking is how racist they thought America was. Because the French news spent most of its time talking about how Obama is black and how much it would affect the election, and because there are so many movies about the 50s, 60s and 70s, many of the kids thought that America was this incredibly divided and racist country. One student told me that she thought Sasha and Malia would not go to school but be homeschooled instead because they were black and it was too dangerous for them to go to school with other children who would hurt them. I had to explain that we've come a long way since segregation and the civil rights movement, but that is something that is very hard to explain to an eight year old! I was starting to get really worried before the elections because I was thinking that race would be a serious problem even though I definitely didn't feel that way in the states, and I realized that it was a result of the amount of time the French media spent (and spends) talking about Obama's race as opposed to what he's all about. I think, in the end, that all of the talk about racist America is more of a reflection of the racism that exists here rather than the reality of things in the States.

Anyway, I did a class about Obama and the President, and now I'm moving onto other fundamentals before I get into Thanksgiving. I have A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving that I am going to try to show to my oldest classes, and maybe I'll do hand turkeys with the little ones. I teach three days a week, from kindergarden to fifth grade, at three different schools. The teachers are really nice, and helpful if I ask them. Otherwise they mostly just correct homework or hang out at their desks while I teach. I helped one teacher translate a letter from her class to her American cousin's class in Florida. It was adorable! The French students asked about recess and if they American student's teacher was nice! Overall, I don't love teaching, but the kids are really cute and I don't have to work that hard, so I can't complain. And, after all, I get to be Miss Becky. What could be better than that?

France, November 2008 - #4

2 weeks of work, 2 weeks of vacation!

So after two hard weeks of work (6 total work days total) it was vacation time! It is the Vacances de Toussaints (All Saints Day). I love France! I decided to visit parts of France that I have never seen, and on Friday the 25th of October I set off for Grenoble. My friend Lucy who was on my Senegal abroad program met me there. (She is an English Assistant in Lyon) Grenoble was beautiful, and I also had my very first experience surfing someone else's couch through couchsurfing.com. It was wonderful! We stayed with a poli-sci student named Anne Sophie for two nights and met her housemate who was heading off for vacation also. After walking around Grenoble, which is in a y-shaped valley created by glaciers (which means it is surrounded by steep mountains) we came back to her house and watched American tv-shows with her on our computers. She was exposed to Lipstick Jungle (as was I) and then the next night, The Office and Project Runway. We went to her friends house for dinner the first night, and found out that young people in France all learn to juggle. Who knew? There seemed to always be someone juggling in the hallway with a friend. And they're pretty good at it! We also tried lots of delicious cheese and I think I probably smoked an entire pack of cigarettes second hand. Vive la france!

Then, after visiting Grenoble in a very leisurely way, we headed to Dijon. We decided to go to Dijon at the last minute and so had not made couch surfing plans for the city. Instead we called a hotel and reserved a room, but we never ended up going! Instead, we ran into Anne Sophie's housemate who lives in Dijon and was actually meeting her friends at the train station to continue their vacation! She insisted that we stay with her parents in her room since she was leaving that evening and wouldn't be using it. Her family was so nice, and made dinner for us both nights. Her mother is half-American, and so we spoke in English and French and discussed all the differences between the two countries. We talked a lot about politics, which I can't get away from nor can I stop myself from bringing it up. But it's always interesting to discuss with French people, because they just don't understand our right wing, which is far more right than theirs ever will be. The father was really interested in the political situation, and we had long talks over dinner. The whole time we were in Dijon, they took such good care of us, and it felt so good to have a mommy for two days! We also did some delicious tastings while in Dijon. There is a small town next-door called Beaune, and we went there on both days to taste teh specialties of the region. We tasted 20 different wines on one day, many of which were very good. We also tasted Creme de Cassis, which might be the best alcoholic thing I have ever tasted in my life. It is this super sweet liqueur made from a fruit that doesn't exist in the US. The closes thing we have is black currants, but they aren't exactly the same. It is thick and syrupy, and oh so good! The second day in Beaune, we visited a mustard factory and learned all about Dijon mustard (which is a recipe rather than mustard from dijon!). We learned that 80% of mustard seeds come from Canada! We also got to taste different kinds of mustard with different little nibbles of local foods, mmmm. It was really fun, and Lucy and I ended up translating the entire tour for this American couple that didn't speak good-enough French to understand most of it. We got to make some mustard which was really disgusting, but luckily the tasting came afterwards so we ended on a good note.

After Dijon it was off to Bretagne (Brittany). In Brittany there is a very strong Breton culture, and all of the street signs are written in both French and Breton. We spent the longest part of our vacation here. First we stayed in Rennes with another couch surfer who was very nice and accommodating. We visited the city, saw all the important buildings, and froze to death! But Rennes is very pretty and full of cool architecture. We also ate a lot of crepes and galettes (dinner crepes made with a darker, saltier flour) because that is what the region is known for (and with reason!) I decided that I don't really like galettes but I LOVE crepes, and boy did I have my fill! From Rennes we did a day trip to Mt. Saint Michel where my American friend from Avignon, Carly, met up with us.

We got there, pretended to be Monks, and decided that the dreary weather and rain definitely made it easier to want to stay inside and pray. It was beautiful, and because it was Lucy and Carly's first time there, we sprung for a delicious and very overpriced meal at La Mere Poulard, the most famous restaurant there, known for their giant fluffy omelettes. It was yummy and a lot warmer and dryer than outside! From Rennes we went to St. Malo, a small beach town on the channel.

It was gray and misty, and we couldn't help thinking of Virginia Woolfe and "To the Lighthouse." It was sooo beautiful. Since we were on the coast, we spent a long time searching for the best seafood restaurant, and were very satisfied with our decision! We had coquilles St. Jaques, giant scallops, that the region is also known for. MMMmmmm. After almost missing the train the next morning, we headed off to Nantes, in the Southern part of Brittany.

There, we saw the city, and at night went to a dinner party based on melting cheese in little pans and mixing various kinds of meats with it. It's called Raclette and it is always a giant party. We went with our couch surfing host and there were about 20 of his friends there, all of whom sang along enthusiastically to the classic French music that they put on during dinner. At one point, we all got up in the middle of eating, linked pinkies, and started dancing in a giant circle around the table. It was ridiculous and so much fun! Bretons are very proud of their culture and love to dance! It was a night full of cheese, singing, and dancing - nothing could be better. After dinner it got a little too ridiculous - I think the absinth and large quantities of alcohol and pot started to kick in, and for those of us not partaking it was a little overwhelming. But definitely an experience I won't forget. We got home very late, sqeezed onto a double fold-out couch, and left early the next morning for Quimper, our last stop. Quimper is a quintessential Breton town, and we went to a museum of Breton culture where we saw the traditional costumes which are beautiful and a little silly. The women wear hats that are shaped like little lace cubes on top of their heads, and at some points in history were as tall as 30 cm. They were really cool to see. We also went to an earthen-ware workshop, which is what Quimper is known for, and got a tour of how they make their famous ceramics. The traditional designs are kind of what you would see at your grandma's house - pretty but a little fussy - but they have a lot of really nice designs that are based on the traditional ones but are simpler and more modern. It was fun to see the women painting the designs on the different bowls and statues, and to see the process from start to finish. After the workshop visit, Lucy and I stopped into a cookie store that had lots and lots of free samples. There are butter cookies all over Brittany, and we tried about 10 different kinds of butter cookies. Mmmmm. Then we finished our day at Point du Raz, the western-most point on continental France.

It was gorgeous - wind-swept with steep cliffs, and we sent all of our love and positive energy to you in the States since we were so close! We also sent all the luck we could to Obama! And thus concludes my first big vacation. Sorry this one is so long, but we did so much! Miss you all!

Bisous!