In effort to save money for longer travels after I am done teaching, I have decided to not travel as far and as much as I have during the past semester. This weekend, Amy and I decided to go into Avignon to see our friend Alison. Although I had already experienced les soldes on Wednesday, Amy wanted to tinker around so off we went on Friday to shop. After successfully finding a few new things, we all sat and enjoyed a drink at the highly anticipated Milk Shop. I had heard about this place from several people in Avignon and was so happy that I finally got to experience it this weekend. It is a cute, little café which serves sweet stuff, but mostly American style sweets - this place is not your typical boulangerie. What they are known for is their milkshakes, which are very hard to come by over here. Having a hankering for chocolate, I ordered a chocolate milkshake and was very impressed by the rich creamy concoction that was given to me. Not bad for the French trying to imitate something American! They also make awesome cakes/pastries on special that change every few days, coffees, teas and hot chocolates. Needless to say, I think that this won't be my last visit to the Milk Shop!
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| How do you say.. delicious? |
We spent much of the day with Alison, catching up after the long holiday break and walking in the sunshine, under beautiful blue skies. At night, Alison took us by the Université d'Avignon. As Avignon is a university town, there are many young people that live there and go to this establishment. It was so beautiful to walk around the small campus at dusk, seeing that the two buildings really embody French culture at the moment - one old and architecturally preserved and one new and technologically updated. Respect for the past and pushing to the future. Alison also took us to an amazing lookout point, where we got to see the University as well as the rest of Avignon from a higher view.
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| Blue skies and sunshine in Avignon |
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| Old building at the University |
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| Avignon at dusk |
After all that walking, we really had worked up an appetite. We proceeded to grab ingredients and go back to Alison's apartment to make homemade pizzas with her roommate Vivi. Although Amy and I were especially happy to be cooking with an oven (reminder: we don't have one of those), after several attempts it did not look like the pizzas were cooking. We changed a setting and continued to sit and wait, talking and drinking glasses of our Côtes-du-Rhône. I started smelling something funny ... sure enough, Vivi's pizza had burnt to a crisp! As all of our pizzas were quite big, there was more than enough to go around, and then some! After scarfing down our food, we sat down to watch a little Les Miserables before drifting off to sleep.
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| My pizza. Note the lack of cheese, my kinda pizza! |
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| Cajun style pizza! |
Saturday, Amy, Alison and I explored the market in Avignon briefly, which surprised me in how much smaller it is than the Apt market. We next said goodbye to Alison and many thanks for hosting us. It is nice to be able to get away from home a bit, do something different and meet new people. I was happy that I got the chance to go to Avignon on Friday. The rest of Saturday was really just a lazy day. My back has been pretty painful lately, so that left me pretty bed-ridden Saturday and Sunday**.
The major problem of this weekend was an unknown smell from our drains in our toilet room. After speaking to my parents and learning it could be dangerous, Amy and I took precautions by opening up all windows to let the smell out and contacting the only person we knew, my coordinating teacher Cathy. Typical France: this was a Saturday night, meaning that we couldn't get anyone out here to help us and wasn't able to contact anyone Sunday. After many conversations with Cathy on the phone, we decided to wait until Monday and talk to someone in the office about it, though Cathy felt so bad she even offered to have us come stay on her couch if the smell was too bad that we couldn't sleep. She is so kind, not to mention that after the several conversations with her on the phone these past few days, my French via phone has certainly improved. Score!***
It was hard crawling out of bed to teach this morning, but found that my classes were incredibly enjoyable, with each student fostering interesting opinions and ideas and starting to be a little more confident in showing them. Today's topic was home-schooling in America, something that does not exist in France. I think I am getting better on finding things that get them talking and asking me questions - here's to more successful lessons!
This afternoon, I had my business English classes as well, where we discussed controversial topics with food (genetically modified food, dieting, etc) and email etiquette. I was impressed with both groups today, as I could rarely get a word into discussion because they had so much to say and were talking/debating each other. I took time to say this at the end, asking them if they realize how much they have improved. They blinked as if they couldn't believe it, thinking that the holidays had tripped them up. On the way home from the lessons, I found myself talking in constant, consistent French with Alain, with ease and clarity - though he did manage to teach me a new word: roublard****. I guess my students aren't the only ones improving!
*Missy, I really hope you read this. I'm really missing the pickles right about now! <3
**Besides a brief walk on Sunday.
***Update: Talked to the office today, they sent someone to come check out this situation. Amy thinks that he said that it isn't sewage gas but that he would come back to work on it. Hoping so, can't deal with this much longer!
****Translation: cunning or clever, but in a more derogatory way. Calculating.
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