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)

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?

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!

Some pictures

Cooking onions for the soirée des crepes that we had at my house with some friends. We made dinner crepes, and then lots and lots of desert crepes! My favorite was Nutella and banana. Mmmmm.
I bought these flowers to brighten the house, and Myrto bought a pineapple. 
Before going out to a restaurant/bar called Fenouil au Vapeur, which is a coop restaurant that serves food two nights a week and has different local bands play. In the picture is me, a friend of Kasia - Fannie, and another assistant who just arrived, Zandra.
Kasia and me on her birthday. We had a little cake and a delicious salad for lunch before I went off to Marseille for orientation.
 In the process of re-potting the plants. So far, my plant in my room (the big one) is doing very well. The thyme seems to be doing ok, but the basil is...well...completely dead. But for me, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Je commence à m'installer

Salut tout le monde! I have been here for about two and half weeks, and it is still wonderful!! It has begun to get a little chillier, and the wind started to blow this morning when I woke up. But Avignon is still bustling with festivals and students and lots of fun things. I was walking around about a week ago when I happened upon a bike race set up in the middle of town. When I walked by, the adults were finished and the races were between children of different ages. Everywhere I looked there were teams of kids dressed in matching biking uniforms and little bikes all over the sidewalks! There was a group of kids racing, and they were just as concentrated and intense as the bikers in the tour de france. The difference was, when I walked by, I thought I heard the announcer say, "For number XX it will be very admirable if he crosses the finish line as it is his first race!" So cute! There were parents all over, yelling, "Ride! Ride!" from the sidelines, just like the moms and dads in the US on the edge of the soccer field. It was absolutely adorable. There were kids as young as 5 or 6 all the way up to teenagers, or les ados. The race was on the main street in town, and they had to do laps back and forth several times before it was over. I was very impressed with the tenacity and focus of all those kids on bikes!

Later in the week, Avignon had a food fair. It was to celebrate l'ecole d'hotelerie, or the restaurant/chef school that's here. There were four different stands set up at different points in Avignon and all representing a different kind of food. You got a card, and circled around to each stand, tasting the different foods. There was a mousse stand that had all different kinds of mousse (my favorite), like one that was meat based, and asparagus mouse, and others. There was an Italian stand with cheese, pizza, and sardines, and yummy cookies with chocolate in the middle. There was a Spanish stand, but all they had left was this delicious smoked (I think) ham that they were slicing right off the bone. And the last stand was Provence, with lots of delicious pates and combinations of veggies and cheese. Carly (another Assistant from the States, who is actually Leora's friend from high school) and I went to all the stands, and filled out the little questionaire on the back of our cards to enter the contest to win a dinner or other little food-related prizes. It was really fun to walk around Avignon tasting little samples of wonderful food! Then, at the end, there was a contest for carrying trays laden with cups and bowl full of water (to signify food/wine) around the center square. The first was for kids, so they lined up all these little kids who signed up, gave them trays with plastic cups full of water, and told them to run around the carousel without spilling. The smallest group of course all spilled their cups and bowls everywhere, and at the end it was three boys running with all their might carrying three empty trays. It was really cute. Then the older group did much better carrying their trays, and in fact, Carly's host family won several of the races, in both the young and old age group! Afterward, there was a race for "professionals" but I didn't stay to watch that one. The kids were so excited to do it, and the announcer kept saying, "They have a future in the restaurant business" which made them very proud. 

Other than finding myself in the middle of little Avignon town activities, I have been hanging out a lot with my housemates and other people I've met here. I joined an African dance class which is once a week, and I love it. It is really fun, and I've met a few girls that I really like. It's such a work out, and I always feel so happy after throwing my arms in the air and jumping around for an hour and half! I also had the beginning of orientation, where the American assistants were wined and dined by the Consul General of the US. She has a stunning house with a beautiful view in Marseille, and they made us quite a spread of provincial food to literally give us a "taste" of the region. It was fun to meet the other Americans in my department. A lot of them had studied abroad in Senegal, which was really cool because I got to reminisce and immediately had something to talk about with lots of them! The next day, we met all of the assistants in our region, which was close to 300. There were 25 different nationalities, which was really cool, and I met lots of people from all over. My favorite part was talking to people with different English accents- oooh I just couldn't get enough! There was a whole group of cute British boys and a Scottish guy who is actually working in Avignon. It was really fun! But in the end, the actual meetings were not that helpful, and as I have come to find out is common of government and official business, not very well organized. The second half of our orientation was cancelled and we got to go home early, which was nice but also confusing as the only told about 40 people and the rest had to hear by word of mouth. But we got home safe and sound, and last night I had a delicious dinner with my housemate and her French friend who brought over duck and made the most wonderful dinner! This morning I spent hours watching youtube with my housemate, making fun of both American and Polish politicians. It turns out they're just as idiotic in Poland as in the US!

I begin teaching in a week and have lots to do to get ready. I'll keep you posted, and keep me posted too! 

Bisous!

First Post!

So I've arrived and begun settling in! I live with two housemates, one from Poland and one from Greece. (The Polish girl, Kasia, is peeking from behind the tree, the Greek girl, Myrto, is laughing in a little street we visited in Carpentras.) They are really nice, and we bought a red tea kettle together for our stove. We live on a tiny street called Rue Agricol Perdiguer between a beautiful old square and "Main Street." (The third picture is of my street.) There's a park with fountains at the end of the street, and lots of cute little restaurants and cafe all over. The weather has been cool, like the beginning of Fall, and I have to keep telling myself I do not have enough money to buy all the beautiful clothes in the shop windows, which are all over! I went to an African dance class with a friend of my housemate's and it was so much fun! I'm going to join and it will be every week with a class full of other white girls trying to do African dance. There are middle aged women and high schoolers, so it's really a diverse group - which is great! Other than getting things organized and figuring out logistics like internet and cell phones, I've met another assistant and we've gone running along the Rhone and visited a small museum of contemporary art which was...very...contemporary? But interesting none the less. It was the Collection Lambert, and I guess all of the art belongs to a wealthy family that rotates their personal collection and sometimes invites artists to display their work. It's in a beautiful old stone building (as most things are here) and I keep feeling like I'm in a fairy tale, walking down tiny cobblestone streets and seeing palaces in the distance. It's wonderful! Oh! One more amusing anecdote: a few nights ago, I spent an hour or two trying to explain sororities, fraternities, and secret societies to my colocs (housemates) and one of their french friends. It was a lot harder than I thought! The concept does not exist here, and simply having a network did not seem a sufficient justification for paying a lot of money to live in a house with other people. I told them there were lots of fun activities and a lot of people do it, etc, but they just couldn't wrap their brains around it! The closest they came to understanding was to equate it with the houses in Harry Potter (Gryffindor, etc.) I thought that was an inspired comparison, but also that the only way to understand was to watch American movies...so perhaps we'll have a movie night with movies like Animal House, Legally Blonde...any other suggestions? Ok, for now I'll have to stop - I'm still using the internet at a cafe around the corner, but I will continue to post and put pictures up so that you can lead this incredible French life vicariously!

bisous!