Joyeux Noël

Here we are finally - Christmas vacation! Well not really there yet, I still have one full day of teaching tomorrow, but I won't have time to write before I start my crazy journey home.
The past few days have been quite solitary. With only two classes Monday and two today, I have a lot of free time on my own. This is something I wouldn't normally mind, but as Amy left last week to go back to England for the holidays, I couldn't help but feel a little alone here in Apt. However, I had much to keep myself busy with: cleaning, laundry, last minute Christmas shopping, reading and watching movies. And the thought that Friday evening I will be back with my family at home has been pushing me through these last days.

I decided to do a nice thing for all my teachers that I work with and wrote Christmas cards to them (in French) with Lindt truffles attached. I just couldn't help myself to get into the spirit of the season, and I think that they really appreciated them.

Christmas cheer!

Plus, I also received a very nice card in return from one of the teachers. It is this simple gesture that warms my heart this time of year. Not only that but they had been planning on trying to have a Christmas get-together with all the English teachers based on my schedule, but unfortunately everyone is extremely busy this time of year so they promised to have a dinner and invite me in January. I was touched knowing that they tried either way, and am excited to be able to even have the opportunity to see and speak with them outside of school.

She even drew a snowman on the envelope!

Hectic doesn't even begin to describe tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow I will teach six classes and have a two hour lunch, which I must run back to my apartment and grab my bags and make sure everything is in order before I leave.* Then, a quick bus to Avignon to stay at Liz's and after a short night's sleep, we are taking a 5am TGV to Paris. With navigation of the metro to Charles de Gaulle, I have a flight from Paris-Montreal, then Montreal-Chicago. Even with the three hour drive home from there, I know I won't care as I will be with family! I cannot even begin to describe the excitement I have to be home and to see family and friends. I am so happy and grateful for the amazing opportunity to be living in France for this year, but there is nothing like being home for the holidays. So, until January when I return to France, I am saying au revoir to this blog - I am going to profitez-bien this time with those I love most. So to you and yours, joyeux noël et bonne année!

One last holiday window mural

*I say grab my bags because I have only 20 minutes to catch the bus to Avignon after class, which doesn't leave me enough time to go back and fetch them. So instead, I am relying on the women at la loge, whom I haven't asked yet, to let me leave them there for my afternoon classes. Here's hoping that I can!

"It's a vacation!" - Weekend in Germany with Weiners, Glühwein, and Weihnachtsmarkt

Our long journey to Bavaria began very late Friday night, with an overnight train from Avignon. As I nor any of the girls had rode in overnight train, we did not know quite what to expect. The train itself had places where you could just sit in a reclining seat all night or you could opt for a bunk. We decided that we wanted to be able to sleep and chose the bunks. What we were greeted with were small compartments with three bunks stacked on each side. We had lots of fun climbing and playing in our own private compartment, and although the excitement and adrenaline of going to Germany kept me up a while, I did get some sleep on this overnight train.

Clearly, we were excited for Germany.

Awaking at 9am when our train arrived in Strasbourg, we enjoyed the beautiful decorations and architecture in Gare de Strasbourg while eating some pain au chocolats from Paul.

The train station was quite pretty, with interesting ceilings and sculptures.

My fav!

After a short train ride across the border, we arrived in Stuttgart. Once we found a map of the city and asked for some orientation of where we were in the city, we found the apartment we rented on airbnb with minimal trouble.* The host was very nice and showed us the room, kitchen and bathroom and even left towels for us to use. Not to mention, when showing us the changing uplighting behind the bed in the room, he said "I like to keep this light on because it reminds me of a disco!" Pretty cool dude.

Once we were all cleaned up, we headed back into the heart of Stuttgart and instantly found the massive Christmas world that is set up in the city. With over 250 vendors, Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmarkt** boasts one of the biggest and oldest Christmas markets in Germany. Meandering from booth to booth, I was entranced by the crafts, talents, and food of each and every owner. Even the booths themselves were a sight to see, with each of them being expertly decorated and full of Christmas cheer. Although the vendors do try to make the main focus of their booth be the product that they sell, in so many cases the ornate expression of holiday cheer, which is individually different from booth to booth, made a greater effect to the passing eye. Not just the market booths were carefully decorated but the many trees, nutcrackers, and other festive garb made this market breathtaking to view.

Christmas wonderland

Booths upon booths.

In the market stands themselves, you found an array of items to buy as gifts, from hand-painted ornaments to jewelry and little wooden toys to handmade lights. Each vendor was exquisitely proud of their craft, and willing to show you what they do, or even explain it to you. As none of us spoke German, sometimes this just ended with a bunch of nodding, but if they happened to speak English, they were more than happy to explain the best they could in another language. Although I still don't know any German, I do say that my experience in Germany was an extremely positive one, as all the people I met were extremely friendly and if they didn't know how to speak English, they would try to explain slowly with lots of hand motions and a smile. The German people made a great impression on me.

We spent three hours in the afternoon wandering the whole length of the market, mostly looking but with a bit of buying here and there. Along with shopping booths at the Christmas market, about half of the booths housed food and the German Christmas market staple: glühwein. Glühwein is pretty much the same thing as vin chaud, or mulled wine, but in my opinion is even better in Germany. They give you the wine in a collector's mug, which you pay a little extra for, but you can keep going back and refilling it, or even turn the mug back in and get the money you paid for it back! Definitely enjoyed many a glühwein throughout the day on Saturday.

Another reason I was excited to visit Germany was for the food it promised, and it sure did not disappoint! First, I enjoyed the most popular item being sold at the Christmas market: lebkuchenherz, or heart cookie necklaces. Seriously, we saw SO many stands selling these things, and although they are normally given as gifts, I had to enjoy one because... it's a vacation!

Mine said Princess in German - are you really that surprised?!

Next, we all split a bratwurst and sauerkraut. As I had never tried either, I was surprised at how much I liked them, they were both so tasty! Since I have been in France, I have had trouble getting enough protein, as meat is hard for me to come by (and hard to cook on my hot plate). Needless to say, I was so happy to have such delicious weiners this weekend.

To be exact: it was a Rote Wurst

Cabbage, a type of potatoe-dumpling-noodle and bacon. I'm in love.

After three hours of wandering, shopping and eating outside, we ducked in to a small cafe to warm up a bit. Not knowing exactly what I ordered (again, this German thing is hard, ok?!), I was surprised by a lovely hot lattino caramel, which was basically a hot caramel latte. Now many of you know that I don't really like coffee, but this was honestly one of the best coffee drinks I've ever had. I could have drank it every day!

By the time we left the cafe, the sun was down and all the lights within the city were turned on. Although we had explored the market during the day, it had a whole different look and feel at night, with the lights twinkling and street musicians playing christmas carols on their instruments of choice. In one of the biggest squares in town Schlossplatz, we found the beautiful courtyard of the Altes Schloss and Neues Schloss (Old and New Castle). Already beautiful on its own, this square right now is filled with a children's toyland for the holidays, complete with ice-skating rink and carnival rides along with more market vendors.

As hunger was calling again soon, I decided to have another German tradition: a butter bretzel. Basically a soft pretzel with butter in the middle.

Yummmm

... and I maybe had another Rote Wurst.

Just couldn't stay away!

Walking back through the market again with all the lights on made me full of true Christmas spirit. I was extremely lucky to be able to have gone to these markets, something that I have always wanted to experience. Under the twinkling lights, with great company and delicious food, I could not be more grateful of my quick trip to Germany,

Sunday morning, we awoke early for our short train to Strasbourg. Once arriving in the station, we were told that there were were Christmas market vendors for Strasbourg's market right outside the door to the station. With an hour to kill, and maybe feeling some withdrawals from Stuttgart's market, we went and enjoyed a quick glass of white glühwein, which is even better than the German red version I had drank the day before, along with bretzel and a quick wander through the market. After a long 5 hour train ride back to Avignon and a 2 hour bus back to Apt, I have made it home after another whirlwind weekend of travel. I am so thrilled to have been able to go to Germany - the country actually really surprised me, I really liked my visit there! I definitely want to go back again sometime in the future. So for now Germany, you're in - Auf Wiedersehen!***

*The only real trouble was the fact that it was lightly raining and we ended taking about 45 minutes to find the apartment. We were a little wet.  Oh, and the fact that we were trying to be more German and not cross roads during red lights, even if there were no cars around. Those darn Germans always follow the rules!
**Translation: Stuttgart Christmas Market.
***I really hope someone gets the Project Runway reference with that or all is lost.

I'm coming for you, Allemagne!

After a busy week teaching here in Apt, I am happy to say that it is the beginning of my last weekend in Europe before Christmas break. One week from today, I will be in Avignon and will take the first train to Paris Friday morning, beginning my flights home. I can not begin to explain my excitement to be able to see friends and family for the holidays so soon, what a blessing this Christmas!

My week of teaching was full of ups and downs as usual. On Tuesday, I had a great day full interested motivated students. One even came up to me after class and inquired about having private lessons with me starting after the break! Such a joy to teach when the students are invested in learning.

Wednesday, I continued to have good classes and got another offer to give private lessons for a student at the college*. His teacher is one that talks with me quite often in the staff room, as she studied at Albion College and has been to Kalamazoo. Small world, right? Anyway, she said that he does not know much English and may not be that motivated but she thinks he would benefit from the lessons. I am excited to have this potential opportunity as well, being able to use my knowledge for teaching all levels. Plus, it is always great to have a little extra money and more to do around Apt!

After class, I had a lovely lunch with Amy and Alison back at the apartment, complete with wine and baguette. It was nice to all catch up after so much traveling, we all had many stories to share. As the daylight was soon ending, I managed to squeeze in a pile of errands in town. As I was walking back into town while the sun was setting, I realized clearly how comfortable I have gotten here. It was one of those rare times you reflect on where you've been and how much you have changed - the person that arrived here in France three months ago is certainly different than the person I am now. I have pushed myself to see new places, use French in everyday life and in some sticky situations**, meet people from many different countries and walks of life, and overall become a stronger, more independent and self-assured person. All of this has happened in three months, I can not imagine how I much I will change within the next 4-5 months after I come back to France. All I can say is I am excited for the journey.

Today was just my typical busy Thursday of six classes, though upon meeting my teacher for my second class, I was free from my duties as they were watching a movie and forgot that I was coming. Some things never change. Also with that sentiment, I was informed today that I do not need to show up to any of my classes Tuesday, as all English classes are taking the BAC blanc - a mock version of the big standardized test that all French youngsters take at the end of their high school career and determines the outcome of the rest of their lives. Think of the SAT, but on steroids. Either way, this means that I will be only working 10 hours next week - Merry Christmas to me!

A couple interesting things happened in class today. The first was in a very well behaved class, one of the best students who constantly participates accidentally said f***. I know what you're thinking, how can you accidentally say that?! But he was trying very hard to make his phrase and accidentally said something wrong grammatically and before I could help him, it slipped out under his breath. What ensued next was a comical scene of him digging his hole deeper, by saying "oh my gosh! S*** I mean, crap, I'm so sorry!" and so on. I told him it was fine and that everyone makes mistakes but for it to not happen again. Poor kid even came up to me after class to apologize to me again!

In one of my more difficult classes to teach, I was told that I was going to take five students as usual, but to be prepared as these ones would probably not want to talk or participate. As this was normal for me with this group, I made no big reaction. However, one of the students refused to go, and he got in a heated argument with the teacher, which led to him screaming about the last time he went with me "je n'ai pas pu comprendre rien!"*** Needless to say, he was sent down to the Vie Scolaire and issued some punishment. Was still interesting to witness an argument about me... that I could definitely understand every word...

Then, in my final class of the day, you may remember that I had to kick out a kid from this class last week. Upon the teacher asking, I showed her which student it was. Then she proceeded to lecture the whole class while I was standing there, pinpointing the student and asking him what happened. He was forced to apologize to me in front of everyone. Though awkward, it made his behavior much better and the class better in general. I hope the impact of this chat continues to future weeks.

With all of this, I am happy that it is the weekend! Even more so, I am so excited to say that I am visiting a new country - Germany! Tomorrow, after a day of packing, planning and cleaning at home, I will take an overnight train from Avignon to Stuttgart with Liz and Nysa. We will have all Saturday to explore the city and wander around its amazing Christmas markets, traveling back on Sunday. I can  not think of a better way to spend the weekend before I go home for the holidays, soaking up as much Bavaria as I can in one of the oldest Christmas markets in Germany. So until next week, Auf Wiedersehen!****

Will be walking through here so soon!

 
*college = middle school in France. No, it's nothing like college in the U.S.
**Though I still feel like I can/need to improve A LOT more. But that's what I feel like learning a foreign language is: a lifelong education.
***Translation: I could not understand anything!
****Also, say a little prayer for me... I just had to look up what goodbye was in German. Hoping my English and French will get me by!

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas...

The past few days here in Apt have been absolutely beautiful - blue skies, sunshine and 55 degrees. All you need is a light jacket and scarf to be outside. With this picturesque weather, it is making it quite hard to think that Christmas is just 16 days away*. I can't help it, I find my mind dreaming of a white Christmas....

I mean, come on - this is beautiful! But I can't help but dream of the white, fluffy stuff...

Yesterday was a great lazy day, spent relaxing and reading. One of my goals during this experience was to read 15 books. I have been somewhat lax in reaching this goal, but I did get a step further yesterday, with completing my third book since arriving here. In the evening, I made myself get out of the house and decided to see another movie. Now that I am comfortable going to the theater by myself, I feel oddly more at home by doing this, as many of my friends back in the States would be able to vouch for my love of going to the movies. From many people's recommendations, I decided to go see the French version of Frozen, called la Reine des Neiges. I really liked this film, the music was very pretty, the animation beautiful, and since it was an animated Disney movie it was easy to understand in the foreign language. I am liking going to French movies, as I do watch movies and shows in French on my laptop at the apartment, but most time with French subtitles. I like the added challenge of not having these, and being surrounded by other French people reacting to the movie along with me. I always find myself thinking in French on my walks back to the apartment, without even realizing it.

Translation: The Snow Queen, which is the folk tale that the movie is based on.

On my walk back, I took the opportunity to take more pictures of the beautiful lights around Apt. With the center of town deserted, due to it being a Sunday night, it was quite eery walking through town by myself. However, because there were no other people around, I managed to get some nice shots of this quaint, quiet town at night.

In front of the Prefecture

Translation: Happy Holidays!

This morning I spent some time lesson planning and talking to teachers in the salle de profs. This afternoon, I had my second week of modern English classes at the business that I am working for. I am happy to say that this week went much more smoothly, which is also because I was much more prepared, knowing now what kind of levels I would be teaching and what areas to focus on. I actually over-planned for today, so now I have plenty of material for next week. Score! It is always nice being able to have this extra job here during the week, plus the fact that I am able to speak and learn a little French in the process too.

Due to a little malfunction I had with the copier this morning**, I ended up with a lot of extra scrap paper for the apartment. And what is the best thing to do with scrap paper? Crafts! To be specific, the lack of snow and chilled weather made me itching to make some paper snowflakes for the apartment. I only made a few, but I feel like I will continue making them - making my own Provencal winter wonderland.

Let it snow!

*Countdowns: Christmas in 16 days and HOME IN 11 DAYS! Can you tell I am a little excited?
**And when I say little malfunction... I mean I had 200 extra copies that I didn't need. Woops.

Léger Life in Apt

I have neglected this little blog lately, mostly because I feel that nothing much has happened since the beginning of this week. But today I realized, sometimes documenting the every day things that occur here in Provence will allow me to look back later and remember what every day was like.

Tuesday, not much occurred besides classes, which went pretty well. However, I do have to admit that I was shocked when I walked into my first class of the day and realized I did not recognize any of them. After talking to them and the teacher, we realized that I had yet to meet this class. It is the first week of December, and due to orientations, meetings, and, honestly, a whole bunch of cancelled classes for no reason, I had not met this group of students yet. C'est la France. I have also been dabbling in cooking other dishes than the normal ones that have slipped into a routine while I have been here. Tuesday night, I made a Turkey mushroom marsala. It was alright, it is hard to get meat to cook incredibly tender on our hot plate.

Sometimes, I eat fancy.

Wednesday, I had my classes in the morning and then went shopping around town with Amy during the afternoon, both grocery and Christmas. It has been nice this past week to get out and walk around town, every day having been a sunny day with clear, blue skies. Oh, and the high of 55 degrees Farenheit isn't bad either.

Just a normal day here during Provencal winter.

Thursday was my busy teaching day, and as my lesson hadn't been going so well earlier on in the week, I was sort of dreading repeating it all day. I decided to prepare a lesson about Michigan, since my students always seem interested when I had mentioned home or the United States in general. I realized that the lesson I planned was really better if I had an hours worth of time, not half an hour like so many classes I work with. As Thursday is filled with hour-long periods of teaching, I was thrilled that my students were interested in the lesson, asking questions and singing along with this video I showed them.

However, my last class of the day was not enjoying it too much. This class splits into two groups, so I see each group for half an hour. In the first group, I realized my power point nor my video would work on the computer. As I was trying to figure out how to fix this technical difficulty, I heard a loud slam and turned to see one of my girl students slamming her backpack into one of my boy students, nearly knocking a table over. I proceeded to yell at the both of them, half in French half in English, and told them that they had to go back to class since they couldn't behave themselves with me. However, when they got up to leave, the other group had arrived for their lesson. They were saved by the bell, you could say. The second group proved to be worse behaved than the first. At one point, after I had been holding a map of Michigan talking about it for 10 minutes, one of my students asked (after talking to his friends in French and not listening) "Is that New York?" This was the breaking point, and after I explained to him that it was Michigan and he should be listening, he turned back to his friends and continued their conversation in French. I got his attention again and said "je suis fini", please go back to class. After an explanation, again half in French half in English so he would understand, I watched him walk to the classroom and knock on the door. I finished my lesson, which of course ended better without this distraction. However, when running into the teacher after class to tell her I was sorry about sending him back to class, she looked incredibly confused. Turns out he didn't go back, and decided to just leave school early. Woops. On the bright side, the young woman who I had yelled at in the first group came back to my room at the end of class and apologized to me, mostly in French but she did muster up some English at the end. It is moments like that which still keep my spirits lifted after a poor end to a day of teaching.

Friday, I spent the morning doing some much needed cleaning and planning. However, I did manage to take a break in the afternoon to do a bit of shopping in town and see a movie. I saw Casse-Tête Chinois, a French film which is the third film in a series that is quite popular here. I had seen the first film in the series, Auberge Espagnole, but not the second, Les Poupées Russes. I was happy to find out that I didn't miss much from not seeing the second film, and could follow along with the plot quite easily. As this was the first real French film I've seen in a theater without subtitles, I think I did pretty well to comprehend what was going on. But it does help that due to the nature of the storyline (it takes place in New York City), much of it was in English. After my afternoon out, I enjoyed a polonais* back at the apartment and then Amy and I watched Miracle on 34th Street to complete a nice night in.

Translation: Chinese head ache.

un polonais: a lemon custard filled donut, topped with lightly burned marshmallow cream and chopped almonds

Today, Amy and I ventured through the market, looking for more gifts and trinkets to bring back home for the holidays. We also enjoyed a nice, little leisurely lunch at Chez Sylla, a little wine cave here in Apt. There we enjoyed a nice salad, an assortment of 4 cheeses**, bread, a fondant au chocolat for dessert, coffee and two glasses of wine - all for 12 euros! It was an amazing meal, and good to just sit and enjoy the afternoon as the French do, slowly eating our food for 2 hours, savoring every bite.

Best meal in a while

fondant au chocolat. aka: heaven.

I even drank the coffee, mostly because I didn't want to ask for something different, fearing it would be impolite. But I actually quite liked it - it was extremely strong, as the coffee served here is basically just a pure shot of espresso, but also small enough that I could handle the few gulps.

Later, we went to the Cathédrale Sainte-Anne for a concert. There is a telethon going on here in Apt this weekend, with several different vendors selling things and events going on and all proceeds go to charity. This concert was a part of that, and as I wanted to see at least one concert while I was here, I thought this would be a good one to attend. As the pamphlet said the concert started at 4, we were there right on time for it to begin. However, we quickly realized the French do not have this essence of timeliness, and at 4:30, the choir began to sing its first notes. It was a short program, filled with Vivaldi, Mozart and Bach pieces. I recognized some of the strains of Agnus Dei and Gloria in Excelsis and it was a relaxing, different way to spend the afternoon.

Blurry but the cathedral is beautiful

This evening is filled with more work and play, planning lessons while listening to Christmas music and taking breaks to read. Plus, I am excited to bite into a French tradition tonight: la buche de Noël, the yule log! People back home know that I have tried to make this in past years... but only ended in failure and buying one from a local bakery. So today when I saw them packaged in bulk at the supermarket, I just had to get one. Although I know the quality is probably quite different between this supermarket version and the version that one would find at a local patisserie, it still makes me happy to have this traditional French Christmas dessert to celebrate the season.

Not the best quality, but its chocolate, cream and cake - what is better?!

With so much Christmas around, it is making me so excited to be home for the holidays in just 13 short days! I can't believe nearly 3 months have passed since I have moved to Provence, time is surely flying by.... must remember to profitez bien!

*Although I am happy to be trying one new pastry a week, I have to say that this was my least favorite. I would not get it again.
**Now, the funny thing about this is that both Amy and I hate cheese. But we mustered up the courage in good taste, as leaving all the cheese on the plate would have been poor manners. I actually found that I liked one of the cheeses. I know, shocking. It did help that it was covered with jam.