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)