Luck, Whiskey and Lots of Castles

The past few days have been so nice here. As our vacation has commenced, Amy and I have been taking advantage and doing as much relaxation as possible - reading, sleeping in, cleaning, organizing and just enjoying time at our little home in Apt. In trying to save money before our trip and before our first paycheck comes through (we get paid at the end of every month, but we are not sure exactly when), we have been eating in and trying to cook new recipes. After our amazing time at the creperie on Thursday night, we decided to try our hand at making some crepes for dessert on Friday.*

We decided to fill them with nutella, bananas and chocolate hazelnut ice cream

One word: YUM

Today was more filled with packing and planning, making lists of what to do and see for the next ten days of our trip.  Speaking of which....

Just like the last time I went on a major trip, I will give you a few hints on where I am going... (and if you already know, I guess you don't have to play along and can skip to the bottom)

I might be singing a little bit of this...

And some of this too!

Might be drinking a glass of this...

and a bit of this as well!

I'll be seeing lots of amazing castles and churches like this!

So where am I going you might ask??

If you haven't figured it out, I am going to Scotland, Ireland and le Mont St Michel! To be specific, I am spending 3 days in Edinburgh, Scotland (hopefully with an excursion to the highlands to see Loch Lomond), 3 days in Dublin, Ireland (with a day trip to see the Cliffs of Moher!) and 3 days in Nantes, France (with a day spent in the amazing Mont St Michel). Now I will show you pictures of all these places to make you incredibly envious of me. 

DUBLIN!

So excited to stand at the edge of these amazing cliffs!

Edinburgh!

And again, who doesn't love a castle island?!

So anyway, I will be out of touch for the next ten days, though will probably be updating a little on whatever Wifi is available. Expect copious pictures and stories, and of course blog posts, when I return! May the luck of the Irish be with me!

*I say "we" but really Amy is amazing at flicking those little thin pancakes around. I mostly just opened the Nutella jar and offered moral support. 

Time for the holidays!

Yesterday was a packed day to say the least. Again, Thursdays are the only days I truly work all day in France – with six classes to teach from 9-5. But yesterday was also a day that I also had to teach 2 lessons myself and give individual pronunciation help to another class, while 3 classes I was still introducing myself. So it was the busiest day I have yet to have actively teaching here. 

I’d say that it went alright. I absolutely love helping students with their pronunciation; I have always been extremely interested in phonetics. Plus, it helps that these students are the ones that are the most advanced in English, so they are extremely motivated and curious on how to sound more American. They are a joy to work with. 

During the two classes in the afternoon that I taught, I used the same lesson but for two different levels: one terminale (last year at the high school) and one premier (second to last year). You would think that the terminale students would understand the activity more easily than the premier students, but this was not the case at all. The activity was to play the game two truths and a lie, but slightly different. Students were able to write out their phrases first, put them on the board, and answer questions posed by the other students to try and figure out which sentence was false. Then they got to vote on which phrase was a lie. In my first group, I had 5 very shy students who were quite confused on the rules of the game. But once they figured them out, they seemed to enjoy playing, though they kept speaking in a lot of French in trying to make up their phrases/questions. I didn’t mind this, as they were still focused at the task at hand.

The second group I had couldn’t have been more opposite. I had 12 students who knew exactly what we were doing and understood the activity, but were constantly just carrying on conversations in French during it, not caring at all. I had to tell them numerous times that if they weren’t speaking English, they shouldn’t be speaking at all. This didn’t make an impression on them. When the bell rang at the end of the lesson, I blocked them from leaving and told them that their behavior was unacceptable today, and if they wanted to profit from my knowledge and help this year, they were going to have to act better than they did today. I am not entirely sure if they understood every word of my lecture at the end, but I think that their shrugged shoulders and muttered “thank you”s and “bye-bye”s with guilty eyes as they walked out the door proved they understood enough. 

But for now, it is the holidays! That is how they say it here, as well as how Amy says it, so I am trying to assimilate myself. But in my mind it still is amazing that I have only been working for two weeks (not even that) and am granted a two week vacation. Last night, Amy and I decided to celebrate by going into town for dinner. We went to a crêperie that we have been dying to try for a while, where I got a salmon/cream/lemon juice crepe for dinner and then a scoubidou crepe for dessert (which included vanilla ice cream, nutella and speculoos* cookie crumbles). Yes, that is pronounced like the famous, crime-solving dog. Pretty awesome.

Savory salmon crepe. It was interesting.

Scoubidou crepe = PURE HAPPINESS

Thursday also marked one month of me being here in France. Crazy to think it’s been that long already, time has really been flying! I will be home again in 7 or 8 months**… still have so much to see, do and experience – I can’t wait to continue on this amazing journey.

Today, we are taking a sort of lazy day as our first day on vacation - went grocery shopping; sitting right now at Pizz'Burger uploading pictures, blogging and catching up on American TV shows; planning on eating in tonight, reading and relaxing. Not a bad way to spend our time before 10 days packed full of travel starting on Sunday. Where are we going you might ask?? Stay tuned for my next post....

*Speculoos is a cookie that is very popular here. It is very sweet and has a gingerbread like flavor. (Amy wants me to note that it is not a cookie, but a biscuit. Oh, the difference between American and British English)

**I am still not sure as I still don’t have a return ticket… but looking at the end of May!

“Do you have a boyfriend?” “No” “YAAAAY!!”

Today could not have been more opposite than yesterday. It’s like when I woke up this morning, Fall decided that it was going to wait a little longer to join us. You could not see a cloud in the sky today and the temperature was a brisk 80 degrees Farenheit. Not bad for the middle of October, eh? 

Not to mention that it was a Wednesday, and as you should know from previous posts, not much happens here on Wednesdays. The high school here is not open on afternoons and many shops close down, leaving it hard for one to be productive. Actually, in Apt, the only days you can truly get things done are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and maybe Saturday.* That leaves about half the week to relax and spend time doing… whatever. No wonder it is said that the French do nothing, half of the week is dedicated to relaxing!

At school this morning, I taught my first “real lesson” by myself. I took the class in two groups, so I had half an hour with about 10 students. Since I heard that they were working on reality TV as a topic, I decided to have each of them introduce themselves to me (since I hadn’t met this class before) and tell me about their favorite TV shows. After, we divided into teams and played a game kind of like Taboo, but without the forbidden words. On the pieces of paper were popular TV shows, mostly American but a few English shows as well. After the student picked the paper, they had 2 minutes to describe the show to their team, without saying the title of course. The students had fun trying to describe the different shows and were excited when they heard that I watch some of the same shows that they do. The only problem was that they didn’t know all the shows, so sometimes it took a few picks to find a show they’d recognize. I tried to do my research on what shows play on TV here in France, but I guess I didn’t get it quite right. Either way, they seemed to have a lot of fun and said they couldn’t wait for next time. I’d say it was a success!

In my other class, it was just another day of introducing myself and answering any questions the students had for me.** It is hard that I only see most of my students every other week, as I have SO many faces and names to try and remember and I feel like it has taken me awhile to meet everyone. I would like to just jump into making lessons and teaching them things, but I understand that this getting-to-know-you process is taking a little longer in my case. When I come back from break though, it’s my lessons all the way – and I can’t be more excited! 

This afternoon, I bought some groceries, stopped by Pizz’Burger and grabbed my adapter***, did laundry, dusted and washed the floors in my room and did some budgeting/organization for my upcoming trip that I am taking. Doesn’t sound like a typical French way to spend a Wednesday afternoon? Well I did spend an hour sunbathing through the living room window.

View from my sunbathing spot. Heavenly.

And I even tried to make a new recipe on the infamous hot plate tonight: gnoochi with tomatoes, avocados, basil, garlic, oil and lemon juice. And who can forget the baguette and wine – truly enjoying this French mercredi!

Yum.

*The reason I say maybe is that things are open, but with the many tourists and the chaotic nature of the market on Saturday mornings, one is left mostly to just dedicate the day to shopping. What a bummer.

**The title of this post is again another question that I get about once each class, but this had to have been the funniest reaction. Even the teacher couldn’t stop laughing for about 2 minutes.

***Yeah, they finally opened today, AFTER I had just bought a replacement adapter, which cost me a fortune. The way I went about it was a little sketchy though, I just walked in, grabbed the adapter still in the wall where I left it on Monday and walked out, while two French construction workers, who were watching a French soap opera mind you, just watched me like I was a side-show freak. Oh well, got my adapter back!

"You sound like the voice actor for My Little Pony!"

Autumn has truly arrived in Provence. Today, from my view at the nearest cafe with Wifi, you can see the leaves changing in the trees and beginning to fall to the ground. It is nothing like the burning reds, firey oranges and bright yellows that I am used to, but the tan-brown color of the foliage almost seems to fit the nature of this small town at this time of year. Things already move slowly in Provence, but with the change of seasons, things are moving at an even gentler pace in the countryside. Stores and restaurants are never guaranteed to be open*, people bundled up in bulky jackets, scarves and boots take their time walking slowly about town (when they do decide to leave home) and the only time you see this town bustling with people is on the Tuesday and Saturday market. Or maybe at a local cafe, having a café noisette or une verre du vin with friends.

The past few days, I have been acclimating myself to this change of pace as well. Monday, I had one class which was full of more introductions and hilarious questions or comments. The title of this post was said by one of my students, telling me how much she loves My Little Pony. You really can't make this stuff up. This morning I already had one class** and will have only one more this afternoon, as one of the classes is cancelled since the teacher is gone. That's right: when the teacher isn't there, class just gets cancelled. No substitutes.

Yesterday, I got to spend some time with Amy's friend Georgia, who came to Cannes for Amy's birthday and then came to visit in Apt. She is a teaching assistant as well but right now she is placed in Germany, but also speaks French. I can't even imagine being trilingual - I have enough trouble with just two languages! It was nice to be able to get to know her more, and to hear about life in Germany as well as what assisting is like there. Always great to meet another English person as well, I feel like I am always learning so much about English life!

While we were grabbing some Wifi yesterday, we also had a lovely chat in French with the woman who always serves me at the restaurant I go to. I can still never get over the fact that people here in Provence just automatically make you feel at home. It was getting breezy so she closed the door to keep us warm, she asked if she could sit down next to us to watch her favorite soap opera, les feux d'amour, which I guess is an American soap that is just dubbed in French, and proceeded to just chat with us like we were old friends. Southern hospitality truly exists, in the United States as well as here in France.

For these next few days, time well be spent planning a few more lessons, teaching and enjoying a little more of Apt before we depart for the two week vacation (post forthcoming). But for right now, on this eery, cloudy, misty day in Provence***, I might just snuggle up and watch Harry Potter in French. I just couldn't help but buy the third one to have a small piece of Fall on this mid-October Tuesday.

*This posed quite a problem yesterday and today: I left my American to French adapter in a restaurant that I use for Wifi yesterday (named Pizz' Burger. Again, can't make this stuff up). When I realized and went back during dinner hours last night, they were closed. I was going to go back for lunch today to grab it, but Georgia said she saw a sign on their door saying that they were closed today. No reason, just randomly closed on both accounts when they should have been open. I don't understand France.
**Where the students proceeded to say "l'américaine!" when they first saw me and said to the teacher when I wasn't in the room that they had so much fun with me today and are excited for this year! Awesome.
*** By the way, this weather never happens. This region is known to get 300 days of sunshine a year, and when it does rain, it normally pours. Kind of anomaly, today is. 

Cannes

Saturday began with a very early morning. Waking up at 5:30am to catch the bus to Avignon, we were on our train to Cannes by 9:30. The train ride through the Riveria was beautiful to say the least, with constant stunning views of the coastline passing by the windowsill. With our arrival in Cannes at noon, we settled into our "hostel"* room, grabbed some lunch and headed to the beach.

View from the balcony of the hotel room

Although the wind was a bit chilly (those who know me know that this is a bit of an understatement), it was an absolutely beautiful day to just lie on the beach and relax in the sunlight. Then we met up with Amy's friend, Claire, who is from Cannes and she showed us around the harbor, old town and walked us up to the highest point in Cannes for some great views of the city. We also made a stop at a wonderful patisserie named Jean Luc Pelé and devoured some sweet delicacies.

Harbor

View over Cannes

Intense - chocolate mousse with a chocolate ganache shell and creme anglaise.

After relaxing on the beach for a bit more, we bid adieu to Claire and went back to the hotel once again. It was so nice to have such a great place to stay, in a central location, with FREE WIFI and for such a small price! Then, Amy's friend Georgia joined us and we went out to a nice dinner to celebrate Amy's 21st birthday, the occasion of this weekend trip to Cannes. We ate at this lovely place called Chez Vincent, which I may have indulged in some canard (translation: duck) and creme brulée. As I have barely eaten any meat since I have been here, it was the best dinner I have had in France thus far - I felt so happily full!

Canard! With vegetables and fries, so good

The rest of the night, Amy, Alison, Georgia and I spent time talking and getting to know each other all more. One thing living abroad and doing this program has given me is the ability to meet so many different people from different places. I am truly blessed to be able to jet off to a new city, or country, for the weekend and spend it with some amazing new friends.

Sunday morning we all woke up and had a nice breakfast at Paul, my favorite chain patisserie in France. And since we don't have one in Apt, I was more than excited to be able to enjoy it in Cannes! Then we went down to the coast for the last time, enjoying the relaxing view of the Mediterranean on a Sunday morning. Oh, and we made one last trip to Jean Luc Pelé for more pastries - couldn't help ourselves!

One more time! Bagatelle - basically like a strawberry shortcake pastry

After the train and bus back to Apt, and our weekend sadly finished, we all realized how well it was spent. Although a little cold for a weekend at the beach, it was a beautiful way to spend such a great birthday. And now, to start another workweek... and then after, a 2 WEEK VACATION! Thats right, work for 2 weeks, get a 2 week paid vacation. Vive la France!


*When I say hostel, it is because we booked the room with hostelworld.com. So when we came in, we expected it to not be the best quality. Seriously, it was one of the nicest hotels I have stayed in Europe thus far - I would highly recommend.