Sunshine, feelin' fine

Happy Monday from the beautiful South of France! As I didn't have to teach this morning, I have thoroughly enjoyed my morning reading, exercising, organizing the cabinet full of old lesson plans (and getting more ideas for future classes), and laying out under the sun in the common area of the apartment. Thats right, Friday was just the beginning - I have opened up the windows every morning this weekend and gotten a little sun. I might just have a little tan by the time my birthday rolls around.*

This weekend was a much needed relaxing break. I decided to not go anywhere and just hang around Apt and the apartment. As I was starting to feel a little ill during the week, this was just what I needed to get myself feeling good as new. I had a lot of time to myself to just relax, sleep, read, watch How I Met Your Mother and watch movies. It felt like I was at home for the first time in a long time - although I love traveling and living in a foreign country, at times it can be tiring. I am glad that I took a break this weekend and just took a breath.

Friday night, I went and saw the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It was completely different than I had expected to be and caused me to think and reflect on traveling in a completely new way. Now, more than ever, I want to go and see the world - being here has definitely bitten me with the travel bug! I find myself daydreaming of far off places and making tentative plans in my future. What this experience has taught me is that if you want to make it happen, you have to be active in pursuing your goals. I can say that I want to travel to Machu Picchu in the future and list it as a dream in my head, but I know now that if you want to go somewhere, just make the plans to do it! You will never regret your decision to see a new place, no matter how much money it costs to get there.**

Feeling like I needed to get out of the apartment for a bit on Saturday, with Walter Mitty's spontaneity on my mind, I decided to go out for a walk on the cycling track with camera in tow. Maybe walk is not an appropriate word, I should say hike. I had never explored this part of town, and especially by myself I sometimes get wary. But I found this to be such a nice and peaceful walk, with beautiful views spanning over the city, that I did not mind the weird looks I got from passersby. It also proved to be some great exercise, climbing a huge flight of stairs after walking for an hour on the trail left me a little out of breath - not just from the activity but from the gorgeous sight at the top of the hill.

Told you there was a lot of stairs....

Saturday night, I enjoyed a dinner made from the new crockpot - honey sesame chicken with rice. Coupled with a great Bordeaux, I settled in and watched Chocolat, a movie I have seen before but realized how much I enjoy it now - with its setting predominately showing the culture of provincial French towns. As I now have much experience living in one of these towns, I related very much to the subject.

Yes, that is Barney Stinson in the background. I might have watched some How I Met Your Mother too...

With my lazy weekend over, it is time to start another week of teaching - filled with new lessons like role-playing the 3 little pigs. This rest was just what I needed, and now I am geared up for another sunny week here in Provence.

*Side note: I CAN NOT believe I turn 24 in 9 days. Cue quarter life crises right.... now.
**Plus, there are super affordable ways to travel out there - don't let money get in the way of your goals!

Les nuances

With the sun shining on my face this beautiful Friday morning in Apt, I can honestly say that I am feeling so happy to be here today. When I return home, I think the first thing that I will miss about this place is the abundant sunshine that permeates every day*, making even the chilled breezy weather seem to be a Michigan spring. This morning, I opened the double windows in the living room and laid for an hour underneath the rays, soaking up every bit of sun. I have a little bit of color now… crazy to think that this is a typical January morning here.

Mmm... soleil

The past week has been uneventful to say in the least. Monday, while I was at my Business English classes, they mentioned the documents I have been translating for them. I honestly haven’t had much time to work on them – resulting that it would become a project for this weekend, which seemed do-able as there are only 3 documents to do. When I explained this, my boss gave me a funny look and said “send them over to me when you are done, there is much more we want to send you!” I am grateful for the opportunity not only to teach for this company but to also do some translating for them, but I hope that I have not gotten myself in over my head. Either way I’m taking it all in stride, as the days are rallongé** now. As my boss tried to explain to me the meaning of this new word and how it is different from its near partner allongé, we had a discussion about les nuances. Nuances in language, but also in life - this includes understanding the meaning of a word or action but also why it is necessary to use it in that context. Much of my time here in France is spent learning to understand the nuances of everyday life, and I constantly am trying to educate myself further in this.

Best thing about the days getting longer: I get to walk back home as the sun is setting. Just beautiful.

Tuesday at the end of one of my lessons, when one of my students got my contact information to set up  private lessons, all the others asked “what’s going on Rebecca?” I explained that she wanted to take private lessons and they responded “we can do that?!” After explaining a bit further, they took down my e-mail as well, excited for the opportunity to see me and speak English more. It is moments like this that make me feel like I am making a difference here, and make me happy to teach every day. 

Favorite boulangerie with the best baguette in town

Wednesday evening greeted us with a surprise visit. This entire week, a business has been coming into the apartments, dorms, and classrooms to do measurements as they are planning on doing some remodeling*** Getting a notification for this last week, I went to the secretary and set up a rendez-vous for them to come in the apartment when I would be here, so they could get in to all the rooms. That rendez-vous was supposed to be on Monday: it came and went with no visitors. I thought this was weird, but again, nothing really surprises me about this place. So when 6pm Wednesday rolled around and I heard 3 people speaking French in the hallway of our apartment, I opened up my bedroom door to find one of the maintenance men and two women with blueprints and measuring tape looking quite shocked to see me. They explained that they would be doing the measurements now. Normally, if I were living in the States, I would have seen this as a huge inconvenience: I had made an appointment and they had not kept it, and then came into my apartment unannounced at a time that I wasn’t expecting them. But the funny thing about living here is that it changes you a bit: I said it was fine and asked if there was anything I could do to help. Maybe this flexibility will continue when I return home?****

Thursday was another busy day of classes. Sometimes at the end of this day, I feel a bit discouraged, as the last class I have is always my worst behaved and I leave my workweek feeling less than satisfied. This week was the opposite. We were working on the second week of a two week project about football/soccer (they learn both British and American English). Their task this week was to make a skit about soccer and perform it. I had been worried about letting this class work in small groups, as their talking normally is hard enough to control, but they were great! They were concentrated on making their scripts as good as they could make them, asking me for grammar or vocabulary help, and even practiced before performing as I had coached them to do so. Leaving school for the weekend yesterday, I felt fulfilled for the first time after that Thursday class and am hoping it will continue. 

The rest of the today will be nice and relaxing: a private lesson with a student, shopping, reading and a movie – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Yes, in our little cinema in Apt, Walter Mitty is playing. For now, I am off to enjoy that sunshine….

*Correction: nearly every day. But still, this is the sunniest place I’ve ever visited or lived!

**Rallongé and allongé basically mean the same thing: lengthened – though from what I’ve read online rallongé is more to mean extended in a general sense, rather than allongé means the enlongating of object. So when we were talking about the days being rallongé, this means the days are getting longer.

***This couldn’t come soon enough. Seriously, really old buildings here folks!

****Unlikely. Very unlikely.

An Aix-traordinary Weekend

All cuddled and cozy with my warm blanket, listening to the faint drops of rain and wind from outside, I am pleasantly tired this Sunday evening. This weekend, though packed full of events which left me tired, was greatly spent even though the rain tried to bring us down a few times.

On Friday morning, I went to grocery shopping and to run a few errands in town with Amy, which included a stop at the Boutique SNCF on the other edge of town. Although we don't have a train station in Apt, we have always been told that we have a train boutique, where you can go buy tickets for trains. As I had always done this online, the fact that this store was never open was not a problem for me. However, due to problems online, I had to resort to asking around to inquire why this establishment wasn't open. Turns out, it has been open for awhile, potentially all this time - I probably had just gone at lunch hours the time I had went before. Très bien, Becca. Anyway, now I am happy to say that all accommodation and travel tickets are booked for when my parents, Dan and Brenna arrive in nearly a month! What a big weight of my shoulders.

In the afternoon, I had my first private lesson with a boy from the college. As this is the lowest level I have had to work with here, it posed quite a challenge and I found myself having to use a lot of French to try to explain things to him. I also taught him how to make and use flash cards to memorize vocabulary, something nearly unheard of here. After a successful lesson, I walked back outside to beautiful blue skies, with sun peaking through a few clouds. As this was the first time to have had sun in a while, and would be the last time I have seen it since, it was a welcomed change in weather.

That night, Alison came in from Avignon and we enjoyed our first dinner using our new Crockpot*. Brought all the way from the U.S., we haven't had a chance to use it yet - wanting to make sure that the first time we would use it, we would be in the apartment the entire time it was on in case the voltage converter I bought was incorrect. Thankfully not, and we enjoyed a delicious dinner of sausage casserole with baguette and red wine.

Awaking at 5:30am, we caught the 6:30am bus to return me to my French home: Aix-en-Provence. Although this route was the windiest one I have ever experienced, making your stomach feel like it was in your throat at times, I was so excited when we finally arrived at the all to familiar Rotonde in the center of Aix.

Felt like coming home!

I wondered if I would have trouble remembering where everything was at, was worried whether everything had changed or moved, and even thought that I just might not recognize anything in the city. My reaction was none of these things: it truly felt like coming home. It felt like I had never left. I could recount instantly where a good boulangerie was for breakfast, my exact route I took to and from class every day, and where O'Sullivan's Pub was (our normal watering hole). I can not fully describe how this feeling of familiarity with this city has put me even more at ease by being here in a foreign country, but it has.

Cours Mirabeau.

Even though the entire day it was raining, and sometimes it was pretty cold, it did not matter. In fact, I welcomed this change, as I had never seen the city so drenched in rain due to the amazing Provencal summer weather where every day is sunnier than the last. We wandered through narrow alley after narrow alley, me pointing out various things I learned about the buildings or squares we visited. We of course walked several times down the Cours Mirabeau, viewed many fountains, and visited the Cathedrale Saint-Sauveur. Amy and Alison even kept refering to me as the resident Aix-pert.**

My favorite fountain! In Place d'Albertas.

We sat for a long lunch at Geisha sushi, the place where I first tried sushi and fell in love with it. Dipping in and out of shops during the afternoon to avoid the rain as much as possible, we ended the day with a nice long hot chocolate with a friend of Alison's who just moved to Aix. Although it was a long day, when we got on the 6:30pm bus back to Apt, I couldn't help but feel a bit sad about leaving this amazing city. But, knowing I will be back again, I will just say à bientôt Aix!

This morning, I awoke starting to feel a little sick. I think the rain and colder weather, along with walking around in it all Saturday, is starting to catch up with me. But, as Amy and I had a lunch rendez-vous planned with Cathy (my coordinating teacher) and her family, I get myself up and bundled up to head off to St. Saturnin for the day. It was so nice to be welcomed back into this family atmosphere, as they had me over for Sunday lunch when I arrived in France. This time though, I feel like I did much better with my speaking as well as comprehension. There is always mistakes you make, but I feel like that is the point of being here: to learn. And to learn from the French who also speak and teach English, I could not ask for a better way to improve my language skills. I know that sometimes this experience has allowed me to get a little down or critical of myself, but what is important is that I am trying, I am being confident in trying to put myself out there and use the language.

The hospitality of this family is quite indescribable. Cathy made us a full lunch of aioli, cod with vegetables and a homemade mayonnaise, complete with several glasses of white wine and a galette des rois for dessert. As I have had the opportunity to try many galettes during this January in Provence, I do have to say that Cathy's homemade frangipane King's cake was the best one I have tasted yet. To digest our food, we enjoyed a quick, cold, wet walk and then a nice hot tea with nougat while listening to Marc and his two daughters play bluegrass music. It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and am continually realizing I am blessed to have these experiences.

Provencal countryside

*Thanks Dan and Brenna! We will be using it a lot more now, and it works perfectly! :)
**Forgive this horrible pun. And the one in the title of this post. I just had to.

Never counting down, always counting up

Happy Thursday from here in Apt! I have just finished yet another week teaching here in the South of France. Although many of the days have been gloomy and rainy, the sun did peak through the clouds a little bit - a reflection of not only the weather but my day to day life here the past few days.

Front gate with blue skies

 
Tuesday was another day filled with teaching, which included more conversations about home-schooling. I am becoming continually amazed at how much better my students are behaving and how they are trying to participate more and more. In one of my other classes though, we were talking about equality between men and women: the past and present. The teacher had me lead the part of the discussion about the present and told me to share how things are in America and have the students compare that to the French perspective. While things like salary, careers, roles at home, etc came up in conversation, the portrayal of women in the media came up as well - all stemming from me bringing up Miley Cyrus. It is the most I have ever heard this class talk, and in that moment, I felt I did a good job, bringing up something coherent and interesting to the students and still putting towards the topic at hand.

Homeschooling Advantages and Disadvantages

 
The rest of the day, I read, enjoyed the sunshine and a new French film I rented from the library: les Demoiselles de Rochefort. A typical 1967 musical in film, it featured amazing dancing, catchy songs and a predictable love-story. It was a light-hearted film that I think everyone should see - and it included Gene Kelly... speaking French! What could be better? Along with this flick, the biggest news was that we received a microwave in the apartment! After arriving in September, Amy and I realized that our microwave was broken. When we had the reimbursement incident with the hotplate, we were intimidated to ask to get the microwave replaced. Upon returning in the New Year, I mustered up the courage and went to the secretary, explaining the situation. After a short, curt conversation, she agreed to try to get us one. Knowing how the French work, I figured it would take two weeks. I was so surprised that it came only one day after this talk, maybe the French aren't so slow after all!

Wednesday morning, I taught a few more classes - these ones discussing more New Year's Resolutions that the students had. I was so inspired by some of their responses like "I want to be kinder." We even discussed ways they can reach these goals, talking about following through on these actions.

Sseiously, so proud!

 
In the afternoon, I took a little walk out to a place I haven't visited in a long time: Pizz'Burger! I talked to my favorite French woman, who commented that I hadn't been there in a while. It was nice to see her and catch up a bit, while watching some French news and eating a hamburger. After grabbing groceries and walking back into town, I took in some of the last bits of sunshine and blue skies - it will be awhile until we see them again.

Sun for days

Today, I did not want to crawl out of bed. After a mishap last night that led to me with a three hour French customer service call with no end solution, all I felt like doing was to stay in bed cuddled up and watch some movies. But I have bills to pay, so off to work I went, in the pouring rain and le mistral bearing down on me. Turns out today was class pictures and a special training for the English teachers, so half my classes were cancelled. Well that's awesome! Either way, it meant a lot of trekking back and forth in the rain and cold. After this year, I will never take for granted again the ability to have my own car - especially in weather like this. Today's lessons were just as great as the others. Memorable quote? "Rebecca, I know it is not in the lesson but what does the word timber mean??" Me: "Is this about the Ke$ha song?" Student: "Yes....." After explaining the definition, she said that made a lot more sense than the definition Google translate gave her: wood. Oy vey!

I also finally met the replacement teacher that I will be working with while one of my teachers is away on maternity leave. He is about my age and when he came up to me in the staff room very timidly and said "par hasard, est-ce que vous êtes l'assistante d'anglais?", I hesitated to say yes. He quickly switched to English and said "Oh good, our colleagues said you would be tall!" Glad to know that it is my identifier. Either way, he seems nice and asked me lots of questions about the students and trusting my expertise with them. It felt good to be able to give advice, like I have found my place here!

After a long, wet day, it was nice to just stand in front of the hotplate and try a new recipe tonight: pasta with garlic, mushrooms, and lardons, all sautéed in olive oil. It seriously was THE BEST meal I have had here - you can bet that I will be having it many more times in the future!

BEST DINNER EVER!

 
Tonight, I am going to relax. Tomorrow is a full day of running errands, cleaning, cooking, and having my first private lesson with a boy from the collège. From today it is: 5 weeks until Winter Break (when my parents, Dan and Brenna arrive!), 3 months until my teaching contract ends, and 4 months until I will be home. Although I love being able to look forward to things here, I have to constantly remind myself to not constantly count down for the next thing to occur. I must live in the present and not in the future, especially as time appears to be slipping away from me here. I was told before I left that I must profitez-bien - I will continue to do that with my remaining time left.