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.