Venice, Nice, and Ardèche...finally!

So as you probably know, I had an action packed vacation in April and am just now getting around to writing about it. But not for lack of material! I spent a week and a half in (and around) Venice on a beautiful bike and boat trip. Then I spent three days in Nice, checking out the Cote d'Azure (it really is Azure!) and finally I spent the weekend in Ardèche with friends celebrating Rémy and Sushi's 4 year anniversary in a country house in the middle of rolling hills and cow pastures (far enough away to make for a pleasant view without the accompanying not so pleasant smell). So I'll start with Venice.


I met up with my parents in Venice after discovering that in fact all the ferries to our B&B closed before I even got there, and so finally I took a nice night ride in a water taxi and was greeted by a sleepy but very happy Daddy. My mom booked an adorable B&B on the island of Murano, where Venetian glass is made and where the masters work, so we spent the next day wandering around the different glass studios and watching demonstrations (A glass horse is not as hard to make as it seems! Not that I could do it...) In the afternoon, we went on an adventure with all of our luggage to find the boat that would take us allong our bike tour. It was kind of like a treasure hunt! The directions were not at all correct, and after crashing a little Italian child's birthday party, Mom saw with her eagle eyes that our boat was several docs over. So we went in search of said dock, and after one or two mishaps, we wandered into a large boat yard at the end of which was our little Dutch cannal boat waiting to greet us. It's name is Vita Punya, which means "Life is a struggle." How apropro.

We were greeted by our incredible tour leader, Hein, who is Dutch and has lived all over the world. Our whole trip was constantly enlightened by his musings on life (always very apt!) and his consistant and goofy smile. He truly made the tour - he was a ball of fire, full of energy and always ready to chat. And if ever something didn't go according to plan, well, we learned that "that's how life is" and we moved on with it.

The bike trip was 8 days between Venice and Mantova, a city to the west of Venice. We followed the Po river delta, and so we saw a lot of water and farms and beautiful poppies everywhere! Dad was all decked out in his gear, including a fancy rear view miror that clipped onto his sunglasses. Mom and I went more for comfort but still looked pretty good with our bike gloves and diaper biking shorts. There were about 20 of us on the trip, from all over the world. Aside from me and another girl who was traveling with her mother (14) most people were between their late 30s and 70s. This made for wonderful stories, charming personalities, and an inspiring trip! I hope that I am doing bike trips when I'm in my 70s! Each day we biked between 45 and 65 km, usually around 50 km. We always stopped at least once, and often twice for coffee and also for lunch, so we had a very relaxing trip. At night we ate delicious Italian food cooked by a girl my age who learned to cook from her mother. Real home cooking!
Highlights of the trip:
- Standing on a wall down the middle of Lado (I think) and seeing the Sea on both sides! That's how narrow the island is! Incredible!
- Seeing flamingos taking off while biking through a private aquaculture
- Watching the re-assembly of the Captain's room of the Vita Punya
- Wandering around the medieval commerce streets with Mom in Ferrara
- Watching a fellow biker (who was using an electric bike because he had had a stroke) zoom ahead of everyone else as they struggled against the head on wind. He turned around and smiled with such endearing pride!
- Hanging out with Mom and Dad in our itty bitty tiny room on the boat. It was so small that only one person at a time could fit between the two beds that were on either side of the room. MMmm cozy.
- A lesson in coffee - aka the millions of ways to order it - in Italy from the Italian somalier that was biking with us for the week (whose wine we drank all week also - it was wonderful)

So those are some of the highlights from the bike, which was all around beautiful, fun, and rewarding, even (or especially) when it rained!

After the bike trip, Mom, Dad, and I spent three days in Venice. I'll finish this part later.

Tansoleil - or something like that

Feast your eyes! I have been taking an African dance class since I got here, and we finally had a performance! It was a Mali Festival and all the classes from the association had different dances that they did for a wonderfully encouraging audience. Here is a video of my class's performance of one of our dances - tansoleil! (Try and catch the move that I can't figure out how to do for about 20 seconds - it's not that hard to pick out! hahaha!)




Not bad eh?

The CHALLENGE!

Today was a very important day in Monteux (the small town where I work) for the elementary schools. It was the Challenge des Langues Vivantes, Anglais! A day of skits, songs, and games in English and the culminating event of what the kids have been learning all year. (For me it happens to fall two months before the end of the year, but what can you do?) Even though the Mistral was blowing its hardest and I managed to get sun burned, it was a really rewarding day.

Of all the students there, 6 of the 8 classes were mine (3 schools total, two of which I teach at). Each class had to prepare a little performance, which meant that I was running around for the first half of the day figuring out cds, singing with the kids, and encouraging them to sing plus fort! plus fort! Everyone did alright, but I was most proud of two of my classes. My youngest class of first and second graders sang the best of any of the students! They sang "I love you" (people don't have the same Barney hang-ups here that we have in the states) and "This Land is Your Land" which is particularly impressive because of its complicated vocabulary (gulf stream waters is not easy to say if you're a French 7 year old). They sang so loud and so well; I was so proud of them! The second class that I was really proud of performed a skit of Go Dog Go. Over the spring vacation, they all made dog ears and props for the skit (to my surprise!) and memorized all of their lines and movements! They looked so adorable with their little cardboard ears! Also when we rehearsed yesterday, I told them to be more enthusiastic because it's more fun to watch, and they actually did it today! They jumped and smiled and hammed it up! It was great! Afterwards a bunch of teachers came up and complimented me on the idea and how well they did. It felt so good because I was not sure we were going to pull it off at all, or that it was worth spending that much time on, but in the end everyone had a really good time doing it! Here they are (I'm on the edge...same size as them!) with their ears on!

They were proud of themselves too. All around a success I would say! The next youngest class did a skit of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? Unfortunately, they were far less prepared and impressive, and it was maybe a little painful to watch for the kids in the audience. They are a cute class but don't pay any attention and goof around all the time. But in the end, I think it was worse for them than for me, and the teacher just shrugged and said something like, what can you expect and we laughed and it was over. (Phew! They are certainly not going to get the big scratch n'Sniff stickers that I'm giving to my Go Dog Go class! Maybe a sparkly insect instead...) Another class sang "It's Raining It's Pouring" and "He's Got the Whole World in his Hands" which they sang very well even though the music didn't work for them. Another fifth grade class sange "If You're Happy and You Know It" and my last class did a little Beatles medly - "Hello, Goodbye" and then "All Together Now." They chickened out on the movements for Hello Goodbye, but they did an excellent job sailing the ship, chopping the tree, and skipping the rope for All Together Now. Then finally the performance part of the day was over and it was on to the relay of games based on English vocab, structures, and culture!

The game I was running was Guess Who, and included people that I certainly didn't know about in Elementary school - Mohamed Ali, Carl Lewis, Andy Warhol. But they did ok - and had fun running around and showing off their American knowledge. They all had teams of 6 or 8 kids, two each from different classes, with a little scoreboard that one team member wore around their neck. At the end, the scores were tallied and there was 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, and then everyone got a snack before going home. As the kids were getting ready to go home, two of the girls in one of my classes came up to me and thanked me for my excellent English classes that had taught them so much. They were thrilled because they had come in First! It was so cute and I was so touched that they did that! It was really fun for me to see them feeling proud of themselves for the English they knew. I feel like this year has been a good year for them, and there are definitely some kids who really care about learning English now, which is great. A mother of another of my students who was chaperoning told me how much her son loved English. Then she told me how he comes home and tells her about what we do in class every week - and she knew everything we had done! She knew his English name (Steven), about my little powerpoint that I put together after going home for inauguration, about my sister coming to visit, about the Go Dog Go skit (her son had particularly excellent ears). It was so rewarding to hear that he gets excited about what we do in class! It was a day that came at just the right time, when I was not particularly looking forward to teaching for another 2 months. But after doing this day with my students and seeing them have so much fun and feel so good about what they learned, it got me a little excited to play games with them and think of fun lessons to do in these last months of school. Even though I don't want to be a teacher, I think I'm going to miss being Miss Becky when this is all over. It can be lots of fun.

Some Pictures, Barcelona and the Pyrenees

Kasia, Carly and Myrto being the Pyrenees in front of the house where we stayed.

The view from where we were staying. Beautiful and breathtaking.

Kasia and I looking at some mosaic in Park Guell (The park in Barcelona that Gaudi designed).

Laughing and enjoying delicious tapas!

The delicious tapas!

Some Pictures, Barcelona

Carly and Fannie in the metro with their masks

A small street in Barcelona

Les Quatres Gats for my birthday dinner!

Fannie and Carly interpreting Gaudi's La Perrera.

Road Trip! Setting off for Barcelona!

Some pictures, Avignon

Carly and I in front of Palais des Papes, 5:30 am

Steve performing for Jesus and Mary

Bringing my apple pie (for the International dinner with my land lady and her family) to Carly's. She has an oven. I don't!

Tuckered out after an invigorating game of tag.

Delerium - the place to be in Avignon.

Birthday in Barcelona!

For my February vacation, my housemates, Carly, and Fannie (a French friend) decided to take a road trip to Barcelona and the Pyrenees. The five of us piled into Myrto's little two door car, and set off for Spain on Monday morning (March 2). On our drive we stopped in Caraques to see Dali's house (with two egg statues and two cracked head statues on top) and walk around the town's small cobble stone streets.  Then we spent the night in Fugueres, and went to the Dali museum the next day, which was amazing! I have never liked Dali's work before in my life, but the way he presented his work really helped me understand and appreciate it! It was soo cool! It completely changed my perspective by showing me his perspective. If you are ever near Barcelona, I would highly suggest making a detour to see this museum. 

After spending a day with Dali, we piled back into the car and headed to Barcelona. We had slight setbacks meeting up with our couch surfing host, and when we finally did meet up it was about 9pm. We ended up hanging out with his friends for a couple of hours, who were very nice, although having the same conversation over and over due to limited English and non-existent Spanish can get a little tiring. Our host had to do his laundry and we had to wait for him to show us where we could park for free, which meant hanging out for a while. The more we hung out, the more we realized that there was no way we were going to sleep at all if we stayed the night. There were far too many people staying the weekend, and the party had only just begun around 11 or 12 when we finally decided to go park the car ourselves. We made an executive decision and got a hostel instead. By the time we parked the car and got all our luggage back to the area we were staying, we were starving! (We had not eaten dinner and it was already past midnight!) Backpacking packs and all, we headed for the first restaurant we saw, which was a touristy tapas restaurant with a table of rowdy Italian girls who ended up singing me happy birthday in at least 5 different languages. Not a bad start to the trip!

The next day, we did a Gaudi walk and saw his major designs. His architecture is so playful and imaginative! I loved it! I felt like I was in a dream! We saw the house he designed from the outside, and went into La Perrera (whose roof was breathtaking!) and La Sagrada Familia, which is still in the process of being built. Then we went to the Fondacion Miro, and saw a lot of Miro's work from his earliest paintings to latest works. Barcelona is such a cool city with so much art and beautiful architecture everywhere you look! 

After the museum, we went back to the hostel to rest a little and drop off our bags. As I was checking my copious facebook messages (thanks everyone!) the 4 girls I was with came down, took all my stuff and blindfolded me, and walked me outside to a nearby Flamenco bar where they had bought tickets to watch the show for my birthday! The dancers were so serious and intense, and the music was wonderful! It was such a great surprise! Afterwards, we went back and got changed, and went to Les Quatres Gats, the restaurant where Picasso used to hang out all the time. The girls had figured out everything without me knowing and had made a reservation for us. The night just kept getting better and better! We ordered delicous food (the arroz negro, suggested by Steph, was to die for) and yummy Spanish wine and ate so much we could hardly move! The girls bought me The Little Prince in Spanish as a birthday present since I'm learning Spanish, and when I thought the night couldn't get any better, our dessert came with a candle in it and the piano player started playing Happy Birthday.  We all shared the wonderful Creme Catalan and sorbet, and the waiter kissed me on the cheek because it was my birthday before we left. Afterwards, Carly, Kasia, Fannie and I went to a club that was right next to our hostel and danced our pants off for an hour or two before heading back to bed. (We did that thing we used to do at Cornell where each person makes up a dance move and you put them all together! The other people in the club thought it was hilarious!) It was a truly amazing birthday!

The next day, we walked around Barcelona and saw some of the Cathedrals and Churches. We did a little shopping, and had lunch on the beach. It was sunny and warm, and we had a really relaxing day getting lost and finding ourselves again. Then at night we went up one of the hills next to Barcelona and watched the sunset and the lights in the city light up as it got dark. Fannie, Carly and I bought paper kids masks for fun, and wore them on the subway to the fenicular, and then while waiting for Myrto and Kasia to meet us we had way too much fun playing around with the masks and staring at people with them as they got off the subway. It was so silly and so much fun! What was the weirdest thing was that people in the metro didn't even react at all! They acted as if there were always people wearing parrot, tiger, and flower masks on the metro! Only one little girl stared at us with a look of jealousy because our masks were fabulous. After going up the hill/mountain and coming down again, we had an evening of tapas, and went to two pays basque tapas restaurants that were delicous! We had sangria and all the traditional tapas at one, and then at the second had cider and more creative and equally delicious tapas. It was really fun and really filling in the best way! 

The next day, we went to Park Guell (designed by Gaudi) and walked around while Kasia tried to sell the earrings she had made (no success unfortunately) We had a picknick of Spanish ham and cheese that we bought at the main Barcelona market and basked in the sun which finally decided to come out in force. We left in the late afternoon and loaded up the car to go to the Pryrenees, to stay with a friend of Fannie's who has a house in a tiny village. 

The drive was beautiful, and the Pyrenees were striking and gorgeous. The house didn't have heat (they use it as a summer house mostly) and there were between 20 and 30 people there for the weekend! We lit the fireplace and played games until 4 or 5 in the morning before we finally went upstairs to the loft where there were shockingly enough mattresses for everyone to sleep on. Incredible. (My new sleeping bag kept me toasty warm, despite the lack of heat!) On Saturday, we woke up late, and then Fannie, Kasia and I went skiing for the afternoon in a mountain about half an hour from where we were staying. It was so much fun! The snow was powdery and landscape was so striking, I couldn't look away! (This proved to be dangerous while skiing). It was definitely one of the most beautiful sights I have seen. That night we got back and the power went out, so we ate dinner and played games by candle light for the rest of the night before going to sleep. The next day, before piling back into the car to go back to Avignon, we went on a walk around the village and through the fields nearby. It was such an amazing vacation, I never wanted to leave. Work on Monday was hard, man!

And that concludes the tales of my Barcelona/Pyrenees adventure! Signing off, a real grown up 23 year old, Becky

A Whirl-wind week

Here was the last week in February, which was definitely up there among the best weeks of my life!

First of all, Carlos came to visit! It was really fun!  I showed him around Avignon and we hung out with my housemates and drank lots of wine and ate delicious cheese. He got to meet Andy and Carly,  my best friend here. One night, he, Carly and I went out for wine before dinner to a small wine restaurant. We tasted all kinds of cheeses, and one of the best ones (that I've had in Avignon!) was a chevre covered in nice blue and green mold. MmmmM! While Carlos was here we walked all around Avignon and went to see things that I still hadn't seen, like the Fort St. André and Villeneuve les Avignon (a small town off of Avignon). He made me climb a tree (that he and his friend were already in) as French people walked by and stared, and I was mortified, but he thought it was funny. Americans! So inappropriate in pubic! 

Then Friday night my housemates and I cooked an international dinner for my land lady, her husband and her daughter, who are all wonderful. We started off with Greek - salad and cheese puffs, then moved on to Polish cream of mushroom soup, and chili (by yours truly! It was spicy and delicious!) accompanied by Polish potatoe pancakes. Then we finished with apple pie a la mode for dessert. It was such a nice evening, and I love my land lady! (What a refreshing change from last year!) After dinner, we met up with Carlos and his friend Nigel (who had eaten dinner with Andy) at a club/bar called Delerium. They always have live music and stay open all night, and we danced every kind of dance  (salsa, swing, hippie swaying...) and stayed until they finally asked us to leave because they wanted to close at 5am. (5 am is unusually early for them to close but there weren't that many people left). Since Delerium had closed, we had to find something else to do until the market opened at 6 for breakfast. We decided to go to the Palais des Papes (what Avignon is most famous for, aside from the Pont d'Avignon) and play tag in the square in front of the palace, with statues of Jesus and Mary looking down on us. This also happened to be the one night I decided to wear heels out (not to be repeated- too many cobblestone streets) and they flew off in about 5 seconds, leaving me at a slight disadvantage and running around in my stocking feet on the cold stone square. But it was amazing! Finally, around 5:45, we worked our way over to the market that was just opening, got fresh croissants, and sat down to have coffee and hot chocolate at 6am. Not ready for the night to end, we decided to go watch the sunrise from Fort St. André when we finished, so we all piled into Andy's British car (driving wheel on the right!), drove over, and watched the sun rise over Avignon. It was beautiful (albeit very cold) and for all my (very vocal) complaining I loved it. Afterwards it was time for bed, and I went home around 7:30 to go to sleep for a little.

After a lazy Saturday and early Saturday night, (Carlos left for Spain in the early afternoon) Sunday came around, and Andy and I went to the opera! We got dressed up (even though a) it was a matinee, and b) no one really dresses up for the opera in Avignon) and saw Manon. It was my first opera, and there were some parts that literally took my breath away. The duets between the male lead and female lead were so beautiful I was in a trance. A wonderful afternoon! After the opera, we went out to a delicous dinner with delicious red wine and we tried the things you have to try at least once in France: escargot (ok) and foie gras (amazing though I hate to admit it). The rest of the dinner was amazing! All around a wonderful weekend!

But it doesn't end there! On Monday, Andy, Carly and I went skiing at a small mountain about an hour away from Avignon. Andy and Carly have not really skied before, so I was showing them how to do the snow plow and turn. It was really cute! We decided to brave the intermediate slope, and so we got on the lift (which is actually a pole with a circle at the end and you put it between your legs and it drags you up the slope, called a tire-fesse in French, which means butt pull). Andy did not make it up as he lost a ski early on and then fell off the tire fesse trying to grab it! But Carly and I made it up only to be nearly blown off the mountain by a ridiculously strong wind. It was terrifying! We didn't know what to do and couldn't figure out the best way to get down. Carly took off her skis and crouched down with her head between her legs, and I tried to look around to very little avail. We couldn't see more than 5 feet ahead of us, and the wind was blowing snow and ice up the mountain that stung our faces if we tried to look down. Finally, the ski patrol came up and told us that we had to go down the slope, but the wind was so strong that I had to use my poles to go DOWN the run! Finally we made it past the windy section and skied down the rest of the mountain, and Carly got rewarded with some hot chocolate. We finally found Andy, and the three of us finished off the day with some sledding in rented saucers. Quite the adventure.

Andy moved back to England a couple days later, and I left for Barcelona, but that will have to come in another post. Thanks for reading!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!