Back to Strasbourg

Well it's been a few days since Amy and I were there... but I can't just leave you hanging with pictures and no explanation, now can I?

Here's a quick background check for you: Strasbourg is located on the French-German border in the Alsace region. Throughout history, claims on who owned the area were violently disputed. Many of the original buildings were destroyed, several times, during many different wars, most notably during the Allied raids in WWII when Alsace was annexed by the German Reich. After WWII, Strasbourg was liberated by the 2nd French Armored Division. Today, Strasbourg is one of the seats of the European Union's Parliament. Strasbourg is obviously very much influenced by its close proximity and historical ties to Germany. It is supposed to have the best marches de Noel in all of the Alsace region (we shall see how it compares to Colmar!).

We started our day with our McDo breakfast down the street, checking our email, and leaving our baggage in the storage closet behind the front desk. The front desk lady allowed us to eat our take-out breakfast in the breakfast room, which was nice of her to do... since we didn't pay the 7 extra euros per person for breakfast (from what we saw, we were glad to have spent just 3 euros at McDonald's).

After we got all bundled up (big sweaters, coats, scarves, tights under our pants, thick socks, and gloves!), we headed towards the markets by the Cathedral . We stopped at the square with the Christmas tree and a nice couple took our picture (and then we took theirs). There were a few stalls around this area, and since they were the first ones I saw... I got a little Christmas market happy and bought a jar of pumpkin spice jam from some nice old ladies. It was a weird first purchase, but after having had it for a few days now, I have thoroughly enjoyed my touch of pumpkin in my otherwise non-pumpkin flavored diet.

The markets by the Cathedral were by far the best, and where we did the bulk of our shopping/drinking of the famous vin chaud (hot wine, pronounced vahn show). It is kind of like a hot sangria with oranges and cinnamon added to the red, or sometimes white wine. It was a perfect remedy for cold hands... but we also tried hot orange juice... which kind of sounds gross, but was actually quite delicious. I think I might have even preferred it to the vin chaud! We each found Christmas presents for just about everyone we know (almost)... there was everything from jewelry to wooden objects to scarves, ornaments, and vin chaud spices! We happened to still be around these markets at noon when the big church bells went off, which was definitely a cool thing to experience. We noticed though that the markets were getting more and more crowded. We passed by the ice skating rink, but didn't stick around long because there were so many people in that area.

About this time, we both started to get very very cold. We wanted to eat pretzels and gingerbread for lunch, but the warmth of a nice restaurant was inviting. We found a really nice place, bustling with market goers. I wanted to try the Alsace specialty choucroute (sauerkraut), only God knows why. It came out with heaps of cabbage, topped with several different kinds of meat. The picture from the other post speaks a thousand words. Needless to say, the elderly women sitting next to us, who both ordered the choucroute, were none-to-impressed with how much of it I actually managed to eat (they practically licked their plates). The couple on the other side of us sort of laughed and said something about tourists always wanting to try sauerkraut, but never really liking it. On the upside, I did manage to pick a delicious chocolate cake desert, with a warm fudgy filling and raspberry sauce drizzled around the side. Amy went with a safer menu option, some sort of honey glazed meat and pasta and a fruit tarte for desert.

After lunch, we walked towards la Petite France, which is the area of town we hadn't seen yet. We were so glad we walked through it because it was incredibly cute, with rows of wood-framed houses and flower boxes. We did a little more shopping and headed towards the markets by the train station. We got our last vin chaud for the day, a pretzel for the train ride, and headed back to the hotel to warm up and pick up our luggage. It was a very successful shopping day, but more importantly it was a lot of fun to walk around with no real schedule in mind and shop and see what we could see!

We had a long train ride back and it snowed the entire way until we got to Lyon. It was a good thing we got cookies to go with our pretzels:)

neige neige neige! (snow, snow, snow!)

This morning I got ready a little early again because the electrician was to arrive at 7:30am. While I was getting ready, I got a phone call, from whom I think is the man who delivered my oven. He must be some sort of town hall handy man because I'm pretty sure he's coming to fix my toilet that has been on the fritz for about a month now. I contacted the lady from the mairie, about a month ago to get it fixed and I think she forgot about it until she saw that I had written a sign in my bathroom about turning the water on and off, etc. when she was here to give the keys to the electrician yesterday. Anywho, he's coming on Friday morning... I was still basically asleep when he called, so I'm not sure if he is coming to fix the toilet or not... but we shall see. I told the electrician when he got here at 7:30 sharp that the plumber might be coming for that reason on Friday... and he was like... huh what's wrong with your toilet lol. I was like, hmm he must not have seen my signs yesterday, which explains why my toilet is working even less well than usual.

Before I left for work, I went to say au revoir to the electrician (who's name I still don't know)... He then followed me out, I guess to make sure I knew he'd close the door after me, and then he said in English, "Have a nice day!" haha, at least he's a nice guy, let's hope he's a good electrician too!

I was a little early, so I went to talk with Corinne... who was kind of busy... but I didn't mind sort of wandering around her classroom. Maternelle classrooms are much more colorful than their upper elementary counterparts. Even in the CP classes, there's hardly anything on the walls! I worked with a small group again, going through numbers and colors while they played with blocks. This one little kid made a pair of glasses with the blocks...it was super cute.... he said, "Maitressssse, voila mes lunettes!" and then put them up to his face. After my small group, we sang our good morning song (which is getting much much better) and the number chant. They're so cute!

In my CP classes, I read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" to go over colors. The first class didn't catch on quite as fast as the other class... which is odd because the other class is the one with the older, non-English speaking teacher. I'm beginning to really enjoy her class...even with the little trouble makers (this is the class who has the little boy that wrote the word "putain" on the board on my first day there). They seem a little more motivated and the teacher apparently had them spend a long time working on their hand-print turkey cards, which they were very proud to show off. When I told them what I ate for Thanksgiving, they all gasped and got really excited that I had chocolate pie for desert lol.

I only had one CE1 class today, Eve's class was at the library in Saint-Priest. I asked Elise, the teacher who has several classes and a hard time with these kids, if we could work with the kids in 2 small groups. There's only about 21 kids in this class, but there are so many of them that need extra attention that it can get out of control fast. I took my group into Eve's class, where I chose their seats for them, went over what we were going to do, and said those students who are showing me they are super stars will receive a sticker (sometimes... you just gotta bring out the stickers). The kids obviously tried to pull a few tricks over on me... but even though I wasn't able to react as quickly as I could if I were speaking in English, I was proud of how well I managed their behavior. Even with the second group, who had the 2 most challenging kids in it, we got through everything I wanted to get through and everyone got their stickers:) Yay!

While I was teaching the second group, 2 kids from my new favorite CP class came in to do their work (they were being punished and were sent to Eve's classroom). When I was done with my group, but the bell hadn't rung yet, I helped the 2 boys get through their word sort. There was one word I didn't quite know where to place in their spelling columns.... so I said something like... meh, that's where I'd put it but I'm not really sure... I'm American. One of the boys said, oh really? I used to live in America too, in Bel Air. I was like... oh really? He said, yeah, I'm African and my mom always tells me to remember that I'm from Bel Air and that I'm a Muslim. (lol) I realized later that there is a neighborhood in Saint-Priest called Bel Air... and that the child was not from the Bel Air in California, like the Fresh Prince. I asked the other kid if he was also from a different country, and he nodded, smiled, and said he was from Algeria. I'm glad I stayed to help them:) They were awfully cute!

I stayed to eat lunch with the other teachers and then left to go renew my metro card and buy train tickets to Italy for when Victor comes to visit. I renewed my metro pass, no problem and very quickly. Buying the train tickets didn't go so well, they aren't for sale until 2 months prior to the trip... which kind of makes trip planning a little difficult for me. I could see trains online... so I'm not sure what's up with that.... but it does explain why I couldn't buy the tickets online. On my way out, I stopped by the Lyon Christmas markets which are set up right outside of the Perrache train station. If it wasn't snowing so much, I probably wouldn't have gotten so close to each stand... which made people think I was going to buy something. There was a hot chocolate stand that I momentarily stopped at, thinking it would be kind of nice to have some hot chocolate. Before I could get my wallet out to see if I could even pay 3 euros for a cup, the man at the stand had already gotten it all prepared. It turned out I didn't have 3 euros... and then he was pissed that he had already made it for me.... but oh well. I would have come back with the money, but he was kind of a jerk anyway.

I got home on the metro and then ran to catch the bus (running very cautiously with all the snow). I got home to find a note from my electrician that he left early because he felt sick and had a fever ("I have a fievre" he wrote). The note was also signed, ELECTRICIAN... lol. I went to survey the damage from today... not too bad, looks like he finished my room... however, there was a nice layer of dust on everything (although my bed seems to be ok... I think he must have pushed it out of the way). My room smelled awful though, so I had light a candle to get rid of the burned plastic smell.

And... while I've been home, the snow has continued to pile up. I probably have a good 3 inches on my balcony. It's supposed to snow all night and tomorrow...so we'll see if I have tram/bus access to the metro to get into Lyon. I had planned on meeting Hannah to see Harry Potter again (she never saw it and I needed something to do to get out of the electrician's way). However, Mr. Electrician called to say he's going to be out sick for the rest of the week and he sounded awful... so I guess I don't have to worry about him until next week. After HP, I was going to buy train tickets with Lindsey for our Switzerland trip... so we shall see if the snow throws a wrench into any of these plans!!!

The pictures up top are from about 4pm. Miss you all!

Reste cool:)

Electrician Has Taken Over

This morning I got up a little extra early to meet the woman from the town hall who was coming to wait for the electrician... and to give him an extra set of keys (so as he can come and go freely, oh great). I stupidly thought my bus had already left, so I ran to catch the tram (literally ran)... and while on the tram, I saw my bus arrive. Bah.

School was ok.... my first class is still a nightmare... actually worse than ever. I feel like the kids respect me at least a tiny bit more than their own teacher, but not by much. Next time I think I'm going to bring in a crossword puzzle so that they can start their day with a mindless, easy activity, that gets them to shut up. They have no morning work and any sort of routine is messed up with me being there... so we'll see if this can at least get them to calm down some. It seems though, that they are spiraling out of control. Later I saw them in the hallway leaving for lunch, and they are like a bunch of wild animals. The other teachers were like, omg... they are nuts! I'm so interested to see how it changes when the director comes back from being on sick leave in January.

I did weather in most of my classes... the kids were cute trying to figure out my directions in English on how to make their weather wheels. When they figured out how the 2 circles went together to turn and show different pictures, I could see the light bulbs turn on in their heads hehe. Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful teaching day... however, I will soon get to sing Christmas carols with them! Hurray!

I'm beginning to really enjoy talking with Sophie and Sabine at lunch. They like to gossip about which celebrity is dating who... and they talked extensively about Tony Parker and Eva Longoria's split. I had no idea... apparently he cheated on her with another basketball player's wife! I forgot that Tony Parker was French, but had no idea he used to play for the Lyon basketball team. In fact, I had no idea Lyon had a pro-team. Sabine said she'd tell me when she'd go to one and I could come along!

After lunch, I went home... a little afraid of what I would find. The electrician was very nice... he showed me what was where and why (wires hanging everywhere, boxes of materials everywhere, dust everywhere). He asked me if I was French, which was nice to not just assume I was English speaking. When I told him I was American, he said he'd spent a year in England and knows some English... so we'll see if he ever tries speaking to me in English. He will be here at 7h30 sharp tomorrow morning:) Oh joy! Just one week of this... I can handle it....

Reste cool:) Gotta go get ready for tomorrow!

More Avignon Pictures

Scroll down for more on Avignon:)

End of a great week!

Well... Amy and I woke up early early this morning to catch the bus so I could put her on the train to the airport. My little American guest is all growed up and riding French trains by herself (I hope she made it back ok... she should be almost home). It was a blast to have her here.... I can't believe how much we did (not to mention how tired I am from everything!). I'm still working on the blog post about Avignon... we started it on the train home last night, but with the wind and snow, the train got a little rocky for Amy to type (I would have never lasted as long as she did). I haven't attempted the blog post to explain the Strasbourg pictures.... I guess it will all just have to wait until tomorrow when I get home from school! But, I will update you on the rest of today... so I don't get toooo far behind.

After taking Amy to Part-Dieu (the train station), I amazingly caught a bus right back home (same driver too). I went straight back to bed... and got a few more hours in before I got up to clean the apartment (we hadn't even had time to wipe the table down after Thanksgiving we were so on-the-go). I played lots of Christmas music and put up the few Christmas decorations I bought the other day with Amy... which helped cheer me up after my guest left. I also got to talk with both Victor and my family (saw all 4 of them today!) which was really nice. After all of the holiday cheer from yesterday and after seeing Amy off, I think I was getting a little down... it's hard to believe I've been here for only 2 months. It feels a lot longer than that.

Anywho, I went to Corinne's house around 5 to tutor Julien for the second time. They are such a nice family! Corinne came out to greet me, the little girls ran to the door, the dad put on a pot of tea for me (hehe... they also asked if I wanted milk in my tea... I said, no thank you I'm American, not English...which they thought was SO funny), and the older of the two girls had helped make a cake for us to eat when I got there. I'm wondering if this is going to become a pre-tutoring ritual.... desert and family get-together? If so, I am certainly ok with that.

Then Julien and I worked on irregular verb tenses... draw, drew, drawn (etc.). This one in particular messed him up... he couldn't remember which tense was spelled with an a or an e.... and then gave up and started using an o... which turned the last one into "drown." I laughed... and explained what he had written, which he thought was funny...and actually helped him remember how to conjugate the verb correctly. He also had a hard time remembering the meaning for the verb "to feel".... which led me to sing "I feel good...dunnananana." He's a really nice, polite kid, but he gets really frustrated and embarrassed when he can't remember stuff... he almost looks in pain actually... so I try to make it a little less intense. He couldn't remember what the verb "to find" meant either... and for some reason the only thing that came to mind was, "I can't find my PANTS!" I'm sure he thinks I'm insane, but tant pis... hopefully he'll ace his quiz tomorrow!

After our lesson, Corinne drove me home and we had a nice little chat. I'm glad she drove me because her dashboard said it was -1 degree Celsius, which is really just 30 degrees F, but still cold. I got to talk to my family some more... and ate some Thanksgiving leftovers (yum yum). I guess I never told you all that we had turkey (not a whole bird but slices of turkey baked in the oven), mashed potatoes (Amy's first, very tasty whack at it), stuffing (from an American box mix), pumpkin bread (from an American box mix), green bean casserole (ingredients brought over), creamed corn (Lindsey's yummy recipe), cranberry sauce from a can (brought over), mac and cheese (that I have an entire pan of in my freezer), and last but not least, chocolate pie (ingredients brought over). It wouldn't have been quite so successful if Amy hadn't brought so much food with her (thanks again!).

Now I'm fading away and thinking that getting to bed an hour early sounds like a perfect plan. The lady from town hall is coming at 7:45 (right before I leave for work) to give keys to the electrician who is going to be doing work on my apartment all week. I'm really hoping I don't have days or hours without electricity... but somehow I have a feeling that this is implied when having an electrician do a week's worth of work. Grr.

Nighty night!

Lovely Snowy Strasbourg (Picture Post)

Capitale de Noel!

Well- I'm still too tired to do both an update from tonight and a blog about our day in Avignon, so you'll have to wait just a few more days for that one! But, I will give you the scoop on Strasbourg!

Amy and I left at 12h35 (from Lyon) and arrived in Strasbourg at 17h36 (5:36pm). We both sat on the aisle (so, we were next to each other, but with the aisle between us) and got some good napping/reading/music listening in during our 5 hour train ride. It was nice to not have to do anything after our big Thanksgiving day. And, after my first nap, I woke up to a winter wonderland! I felt like I had woken up on the polar express it was snowing so much. It got us both very excited for our final destination...the only annoying part of the train trip was sitting behind a young, and very lovey couple. I don't think I've ever seen people go at it in such a public place in my life... and for 5 straight hours at that! I guess they were excited about getting to Strasbourg too....

We went straight to our hotel to check in/add more layers, which was very easily found from the train station (literally across the street). The man checking us in gave us a map and suggested places for us to eat dinner. We went off in search of the Cathedral, lights, and food.

We passed by the big Christmas tree and thought that it was going to be lit up at 7... so we waited around a bit and realized it wouldn't be lit until tomorrow night. However, we walked a few blocks further and saw that Santa Clause was being "called" to light the town's Christmas lights. We wanted to wait, but were cold and hungry, so we went to find dinner (we figured the lights would still be on when we were done!).

We found a cute little restaurant, nicely decked out in Christmas balls and cherubs... I had escargots (snails, yumz) and a tarte flambee (kind of looked like pizza, but had cream, ham, and cheese on top, it was pretty good too). Amy had a steak and we both got desert (creme brulee for her, apfelstrudel for moi, both amazing). After feeling a little warmer and much more full, we headed back out into the cold to see more lights. It was beautiful! There are lights everywhere! It's a little kid (and ours) Christmas dreamland.

Tomorrow, we will be hitting up as many Christmas markets as possible (there are several spread all over the city and with different themes to some). We will be trying vin chaud (hot wine), soft pretzels, gindergbread, and more. So exciting!!!!

Enjoy the pictures:)

Reste cool!

It snowed last night!

Hello all! Just a quick update- Amy and I are headed to Strasbourg today. We will be spending the night to be there for the opening of the Christmas Markets tomorrow. I'm going to bring my laptop, so hopefully I can update you on a few things, like our trip to Avignon and our Thanksgiving feast... but we shall see!

It snowed last night! It was so weird to wake up to buildings and grass covered with a half-inch this morning....

Got to go get ready! Reste cool for now:)

Happee Tanks-geeving!

This morning Amy and I got up and ready to go to the Berliet school. Today was a big day for us anglophones... and so Murielle, the directrice told her kids that I was bringing a special surprise for Thanksgiving. As Amy and I walked up to the school, all the kids started turning to each other, realizing that the surprise was probably not a turkey dinner, but an American amie, coincidentally named Amy, and not Emmy as the French spell it.

In Murielle's class, the duel level CM1/CM2 (ages 9-11), they went through their regular morning routine of doing the attendance and lunch count in English. When they were finished they all turned to the back where we were sitting, to stare at Amy:) Murielle asked them to ask her questions to get to know her a bit... What is your name? How old are you? Where do you live? etc. She answered them slowly and in clear-as-a-bell English, but they still said... her accent is so hard to understand! I thought to myself.... hrmm, I wonder if I make my English sound French or if they have just gotten used to hearing me.... Anyway, after the interrogation, we went over some Thanksgiving vocabulary and had the kids make Thanksgiving place settings. There were given cut-outs to color and paste onto their mat, anywhere except for in the very right-hand corner, where a picture of us would be placed. The kids were like, Oh! They're going to be our Thanksgiving stamp! Murielle took our picture and said, Voila, your first stamp:)

In this class there are some very cute and thoughtful kids... a few asked us our favorite colors so that they could use them in their place setting.... a few wanted to know what we would be eating tonight. But then there is a little boy, who is new this year, and therefore doesn't quite fit in as well as the other kids who have been together since the maternelle. Although he's very smart, he often gets himself into trouble and attracts negative attention.... he decided to ask Amy if she looked at Playboy. I guess he figured he'd ask the innocent newcomer... but Amy just said no and sort of laughed it off. Had Murielle heard, he would have surely gotten in BIG trouble... but he was spared this time around.... lol. Oh kids!

In the second class, the combo CE1/CE2 (ages 7-8), we did almost the same thing, except for their table setting was smaller and they were asked to make a hand-print turkey on one side. They had very colorful turkeys... and we went around to help them figure out where to place the beak and feet. It's so amazing how exciting a hand-print turkey can be!

While the kids were working, we talked with Murielle a little bit... and she told me that she was leaving to go to the doctor after school. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance last week from school because she was having such severe back pain. Turns out she has a different infection in each kidney! So, even though she was very nice in talking with Amy and wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving, I could tell she was a little off today.

At the break, she showed Amy and I the Catherinette hat she made for the CP teacher. Apparently, today is also a holiday for the French (well, Nov. 25th specifically). It is St. Catherine day... and for all woman who are unmarried and 25, they are given a special hat, almost like a princess cone hat to wear. I guess it's kind of like a good luck tradition... hope you get hitched soon kind of thing. Interesting, non!

After the break, which was frigid, we went to the CP/CE1 class (ages 6-7) to explain Thanksgiving in French (with pictures of course) and make hand-print turkey thank you cards. They, too, enjoyed making the turkeys.... although these were the most creative. Some looked like they had fur... some had tattoos... some were spotted. They would have done well in the Cincinnati Newspaper turkey competition:) Amy brought her flip camera into the class to tape a little bit of a French classroom for her kids to see... and we got them to say Hello and Happy Thanksgiving at the end. Cute!

We booked it home because it was raining and super duper cold. Now we are resting a bit before cleaning up and cooking for our Thanksgiving feast:) So more later!

Happee Tanks-geeving as my kids say!

Avignon/Orange/Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Amy and I started our day at 4:45am (gasp). We took the bus to the train station and got on a very nice TGV (high speed train) en route to Avignon. The only other people on the train were business folk so it was nice and quiet for a little nap. We arrived in Avignon at 7:45am and then had a pleasant (and by pleasant I mean frigid and windy) jaunt on the side of a highway towards the city center of Avignon (note to self, take a taxi next time).

We made it to the St. Roch hotel, which was our original pick up destination for our tour of Provence (we were told to choose a hotel to be picked up from). The day before we found out that our half day trip would be starting at 1pm rather than 9am, so we wanted to make sure we knew where the hotel was for later. We also went inside to steal a map and warm up. We were soon questioned about why we were sitting in the hotel’s lobby and asked if we had any affiliation with the hotel. We responded that we were meeting friends which was met with the question, “Which friends, who?” We said, “Our friends, they will be outside soon. It’s just cold outside.” The guy shrugged and walked away. But we decided we should probably find another spot to warm up and study the map.

We headed towards the Office du Tourisme where we were given a much nicer map and a discount pass for the local attractions. We made our way, with me struggling on the cobblestones in my new boots, towards the Pope’s Palace or the Palais des Papes. On the way there, we stopped for a formule tonique at McDonalds, which includes a boisson chaud (we had cappuccino), orange juice, and a trio of pastries. While we sat to warm up I had to figure out how to respond to a phone call about the electrician coming to do work on my apartment next week. That was annoying. More later on that subject.

We finally got to the Palais des Papes where we bought our tickets from a man who sang “Money, Money, Money” by ABBA when asking for our money. The French are strange like this... they seem to be able to relate every situation in English to a song. Anyway, a little background for you, at one point the Catholic Church had two Popes, during the Great Schism, one in Rome and one in Avignon. This was back in the 1300s. A good part of the palace was built in a mere 20 years. Our self-guided audio -tour took us through about 25 massive rooms in the palace. Most of them were not very ornate but were very impressive in size.

Once we had had our fill of stone steps and drafty rooms, we headed towards the famous pont d’Avignon. Only half of the bridge still exists, but it is most famous because of the French children’s song of the same name. It was built in the late 1100’s… so I guess it is allowed to have fallen apart a bit… We enjoyed the bridge, for the most part. It had quite a sharply cobbled surface, which was kind of murdering my already tired feet. It was also crazy windy up there… on our tour we learned that Avignon is especially windy due to the mistral winds which come from Morocco and over the Mediterranean.

After switching shoes (I have a very nice friend), we booked it back to the office of tourism, where we asked to be picked up. The 9 passenger van pulled up and was already packed with people. The others had been on the morning tour and were continuing on for the afternoon tour as well. Our guide was a funny French woman in about her mid-30’s. She said “up, up” often, as I’m finding many French do… kind of like a sound they make when they want to fill the silence while they are putting on their seat belt or something…. Hard to explain, I’ll have to reflect on a translatable American sound we make…

Anyway, she drove us to Orange, an ancient Roman city, which has nothing to do with oranges of the color orange. It is a name derived from something in latin. Orange is home to a pretty neat triple arch de triomphe (one of the best preserved in Europe) and a huge Roman amphitheater. Unlike the ones in Lyon, the amphitheater wall still stands. Amazingly, this theater is one of the most well preserved theaters in all of Europe (1 of 3). It played a major role in the original Roman town, the center of entertainment, but after Christianity became the official religion, it was shut down and abandoned, pillaged by barbarians. In the 16^th century, it was turned into a village of sorts with houses built into it. It was a prison up until the French Revolution and in the 19^th century, it was finally restored back to its original use. Several grand opera shows are put on each year.

After the theater, which we walked through in much less than the allotted hour we were given, we walked around the cute little provincial town, stopping in a few shops. We also went into the town museum, which had an exhibit of roman theater pictures from around the world. When it was time, we got back into the tour bus and headed towards the town called Chateauneuf-du-Pape, which is also a famous type of very expensive wine. To be a Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine, the wineries must use only a certain few types of grapes and grape combinations, the grapes must be hand-picked (no machinery), and the grapes must only receive natural rain/sun… creating a different taste from year to year. The wine is mostly red, with some white, no rose. The only wine that is imported to the US is the red because there isn’t enough white to send over…

There are over 300 vineyards in this town; we were taken to one called Skalli. The Skalli family has owned this vineyard for a ridiculously long period of time… and we were given a wine lesson/tasting by one of the family members. He taught us which types of grapes they used, which regions had the best type of Cote du Rhone (Chateauneuf-du-Pape is the top of the line version of the Cote du Rhone variety… the 2 euro bottles Maggie, Thomas, and Heather and I bought were bottom of the line), and how to taste the wine. To taste the wine, you do a lot of swirling and swishing…sifting and smelling, putting your nose in the glass several different ways. He said we were supposed to smell different fruit, etc…. I just nodded and went along with it. Perhaps I am not quite as cultured as the others, but I never really smelled strawberries or citrus. I smelled spicy, winey, and fruity. Done and done.

After our wine tasting, we hopped back in the bus, and asked our driver to take us back to the train station. She was sort of like, all the way over there??? But, she really didn’t mind. Plus, we got to talk to her more about the city of Avignon and asked her questions about Strasbourg. She told us that the wall surrounding the city of Avignon has something like 39 tours and 9 entrances (it’s been a few days, I may be making these numbers up). In any event, the wall was built for added protection for the papal palace.

We had about an hour to kill before catching our train, but we didn’t mind… starting your day at 4:45am makes 5:00pm seem like 11pm. We were ready for bed!

Well that’s the post you’ve all been waiting for (I’m sure hehe).

More Hand-Print Turkeys and BOOTS!

This morning I went to school, while Amy stayed in bed, the lazy bum (hehe). I met with my preschoolers for a bit and then did the same lesson, for once, 4 times in row (by the end I was getting pretty good at explaining Thanksgiving). I explained Thanksgiving in French with pictures, then had the kids make gestures for a couple key words (so that when I said them during my story, they could at least listen for those words and make the gestures instead of getting lost in the English). After reading the story, I had the kids make hand-print turkeys on thank you cards for their parents. After they made their turkeys (which they thought was SO cool to do using their own hand-print), I asked why they made turkeys in their Thanksgiving Thank You cards. A common answer I received was, "Because it's a turkey." I said, "Yes, but why do we talk about turkeys during Thanksgiving...." "Oh, because you kill turkeys...?" hmmm.... close enough I guess.

Laurence was observing the teacher in the last class, which was fun, because she got to see me explain Thanksgiving. I'm glad she was in there because this is the teacher who has 4 different classes and she has a hard time with these kids. And after class, she (Laurence) gave me the rest of my laundry, woohoo!

After school, I came home for lunch. Amy and I decided we should probably hit up the mall because there was a strike going on (allegedly... we were unaffected except for we did see that the post office was closing an hour early). The mall is closer than going all the way into Lyon... and I needed to look for another casserole dish for Thanksgiving feast preparations anyway. So, we went to Porte des Alpes, in search for boots (my priorities changed a little). It's going to snow this weekend in Strasbourg, and I have no appropriate shoes to wear in the snow without having very cold/wet feet or ruined suede boots... so it wasn't frivolous. We went to a few shoe stores... and decided to go have a look in Auchan, the Wal-marty store at the mall. Miraculously, we both found very cute, reasonably priced boots. We also left with juice, disposable aluminum baking dishes, a small xmas tree, cookies, and winter window decorations. The store was seriously decked out... and I realized after Thanksgiving, I'd need at least a few decorations to put up....

We stopped by a few other stores, Amy having lots of luck, me not so much (which is a good thing). On our way home, we stopped by the post office because I had gotten a notice in my box that I had a package! I got a few more mini-toiletry items and LOTS of hot chocolate, courtesy of Valerie, Vic's sister (thanks by the way if you're reading this Valerie!).

We just finished making pumpkin bread and chocolate pie for Thursday (figured we should get a few things out of the way since we'll be dead tired after we get back tomorrow night). We're going to try to be in bed by 9pm.... because we're getting up at 4:30am (bleh). We thought our tour started at 9am, so we got train tickets that leave at 6:35am... turns out, the tour group switched the time to 1pm... which means we could have gotten a later train, but oh well. More Avignon for us!!!

Reste cool:) Wish you were all coming with us tomorrow!

Dimanche et Lundi avec Amy (Sun/Mon w/Amy)

On Sunday, Amy and I started along the Saone river at the creation market (where they sell art and hand made creations). Amy found a little man with a stand who explained in great detail how he drew his various Lyonnais prints. She bought 3 (for only 15 euros!) to decorate her apartment at home. We also found a jewelry stand (and I may or may not have bought someone a present).

Lindsey met us there and we took Amy to our new fondue restaurant find (the wooden one)... which coincidentally also does raclette. It was a perfect raclette day, kinda gloomy and chilly (but it thankfully cleared up while we were eating). This was the third way I've seen raclette served... they gave us a hot plaque thingy where we put our cheese and then dumped it on our potatoes/deli meats/salad. No matter how the cheese is melted, either in an individual frying pan, from a half cheese wheel, or on the plaque thingy, it all tastes pretty delicious. (Amy seconds this deliciousness...)

After our yummy cheese, we went to the yummy macaron store... which sold a bajillion different flavors. A macaron is a little meringue cookie with a filling (kind of like a gourmet oreo). The man let us taste test one each, and then we picked out 3 each... eating them all immediately. Next, we went into St. Jean (which is still covered up by scaffolding). We saw that the old clock would go off at 2, 3, and 4, so we decided to try to catch it later. We left and rode the funicular up to Fourviere hill (praying hill) to show Amy the Notre Dame Basilica. She was just astonished at its beauty (her words, not mine). It is pretty spectacular:)

Lindsey guided us towards the left of the church to the Roman Ruins. The last time I went, we went a different way and I had no clue they were so next-door-neighborly. We started at the top of the big amphitheater, walked down to the bottom, and asked a kind old lady to take our picture. She took 2 really good ones. Then, we went to the Odeon (smaller amphitheater) where Amy showed off her Roman acting talent (on stage).

From there, we went back down to Vieux Lyon via other funicular to go back into St. Jean to see the old 14th century clock go off. The little figurines turn and dance at the top while a little chime thing sounds. It was about 20 seconds of coolness. Guess that's all you can expect from a clock built 7 centuries ago.

Then, we went to the MINIATURE MUSEUM (haha get it, it's in all caps). Anyway, this was an interesting 5 euros spent. The first floor was a creepy movie set of some movie with Dustin Hoffman... the rose murder or something? The next floor was movie memorabilia (which explains the picture of Stuart Little). The last two floors was everything in miniature size (food, furniture, rooms, shoes, people, etc.). It was like a doll house maker's dream come true. Many of my pictures of the mini scenes actually look like real rooms... the one in the picture was titled "Manhattan." There were also little pieces of paper cut into tiny figures... like a really detailed tree the size of a penny. Huh. (I wondered who has this much time on their hands to discover how to cut tiny images into paper?) The building itself was beautiful and almost worth the money just to be inside... but the miniature things were pretty neat too.

After the excitement of the mini museum, we went to a crepe cafe for some dinner-desert. I had a lemon crepe, but Amy had an AMAZING crepe tatin, which was basically apple filling in a crepe with whipped cream on top. Yumz. (She wants to eat this for dinner every night). After crepes, we said adios to Lindsey and went to the Place des Terreaux (favorite horse fountain and Hotel de Ville). We went inside the Hotel de Ville, which I've never seen open to the public, but it was showing some weird kid Russian art exhibit.... We got on the metro after that and headed home:)

Today, I went to school (while Amy, the bum, slept in). I was being observed by a conseilleur pedagogique (pedagogical advisor?) who followed me around, gave me suggestions after each class, and I tried my best to integrate them into my next lesson. She was sort of annoyed that I was in each class for such a short period of time... but that's not my fault. She was nice and I appreciated some of her ideas... and after classes she told me I had good "teaching presence" in the classroom, whatever that means. So... at least I haven't lost everything I learned in my teaching training...

After I got back, Amy and I made lunch and headed back into Lyon. We had planned on going to the Resistance Museum, but of course it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.... so that won't be happening while she's here unfortunately. Instead, we decided we'd go to the Musee des Beaux-Arts (the art museum I've been to, but never completely finished). But first, we started off in Vieux Lyon, because I needed to use the free public facilities. Then, we miraculously caught a bus (one of like 4 that I know) from Vieux Lyon to Place Bellecour (the red square). We took some pics of Louis XIV... and hopped on the metro to Croix-Rousse (the working hill). We saw the view of Fourviere hill (praying hill) and walked down a bunch of steps through the winding streets of Croix-Rousse. We took a pit-stop to see the last of the Lyonnais Roman Ruins.

We ended up in Place des Terreaux again, so Amy could see the fountain in the daylight... and then into the Museum which is right next to it. The Museum got a few more cool points because th floor that I missed out on was the sculpture collection... which had a few more Rodin pieces... and a baby Statue of Liberty.

Last, but certainly not least, we went to find pink praline brioches. En route, we went inside St. Nizier (the church with the huge organ inside) and went to a very exciting Christmas store. We spotted a boulangerie across the way. Amy bought a pink praline bricohe galette... which meant that the pink juice was a little runny (well, that's what it was doing). I bought a rock with some pink pralines thrown in. It was actually called a croquant praline... which just as it sounds, means crunchy, crack your tooth, praline cookie. Amy, needless to say, devoured hers... I more or less sucked on the stupid cookie.... trying not to break a tooth. It was good, but I will not be buying it again. I'd rather have runny pink juice bread than rock cookie.

Now we're chez moi (at my place) about to make some din din and get ready for another day at school/bumming around. It is also a strike day tomorrow, so we'll see how far we get on the tram... it may be a St. Priest castle/village afternoon with some Porte des Alpes shopping thrown in the mix... just depends! We also have to go to bed super early because Wed. morning we are leaving my apartment at 5:15 am to catch our train to Avignon. YUCK and exciting.

More later! Reste Cool:)

Amy and Lindsay

Amy's 1st Real Day= Lyon Marathon Visit

I'm feeling a little worn out after our big day and still being sicky... so here is what we did today in pictures (in backwards order haha)! We did A LOT. I'll explain them tomorrow:) Enjoy!

Amy is HERE!!!!

Yay! So I picked Amy up from the airport... no problems what-so-ever. Her plane landed early so I didn't have to wait long before she was coming out of the arrival gate! We got back to my apartment and ate lunch, she's freshening up after her long trip, and then we're going grocery shopping. Sadly, I also woke up with a sore throat this morning... yuck, so we won't be doing anything toooo crazy tonight... but hopefully we'll make it downtown just for an hour or so to see Lyon at night.

Just a quick update- but there ya go!

Ice Cream Corn, the Nouveau Beaujolais, and Audrey Tautou

So much to update you on!!! I just got home from spending the night at Lindsey's house, which is why you didn't get your daily post yesterday... but now I can tell you all about my avant-premiere experience!

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? I went to school (Berliet) and did two lessons on Thanksgiving and one with the number friends (in the youngest class). Murielle, the directrice, did most of the work for the first 2 lessons, creating flashcards and laminated pictures from the book I brought... I merely read the English while she went back to reexplain with pictures and French. I had talked a little about Thanksgiving last last week (since I didn't have work last Thursday for Armistice day), and so yesterday was mostly a Thanksgiving story recap and review of key vocabulary (Pilgrims left England, didn't have much food when they got the Plymouth, Squanto saved the day and taught them how to hunt turkey, fish, and grow corn and pumpkins, Pilgrims and Native Americans enjoyed a 3 day feast, which us Americans recreate in one day). With the middle age-group, when we asked what food the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow, they said "cones? Like ice cream cones?" and of course laughed hysterically.... I guess corn and cone would sound similar. They did fairly well with all of it considering how random this group of vocab words seems to them... and how difficult the words are in general to pronounce. Plymouth was never really achieved... but that's ok... I can't imagine when they would need to say Plymouth any time soon... or ever for that matter.

My lesson with the number friends went over well, as it has in the other schools. Who wouldn't like numbers with faces and names??? I also taught them the songs... which are just so cute to hear them sing with me. And then I gave out stickers that had little English expressions (Good Job! Wow! Excellent! Super! Super star! Goal! Touchdown! etc.). This was very funny...I'd give out a sticker, they'd say merci, and then I'd move to the next kid. After they said merci to me, they'd turn to their teacher and say... maitresse.... what does this mean??? Lol, and then she'd explain, even though sometimes the words would be/mean the exact same thing in French (super, excellent). And then they'd go ouuuaaai!!! I'm a crowd pleaser, what can I say.

After work, I ate lunch with the teachers. Murielle invited me to a Christmas festival thingy for the last Friday before the winter break. Apparently the teachers and parents bring in holiday goodies from around the world and the kids go around and try them all. So of course they want me to bring something American. I told them I'd try to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (even though I don't think they have quick-oats in France, my mom is sending me a mix). But then, right before I left, Murielle asked me to send her the recipe so that she could try it before we made it as a class.... I was like... oops... now I have to dig up the recipe and translate it. So I did, and I threw in a translated recipe for pumpkin pie too because they kept asking what was in it (I guess it sounds so foreign to them to put pumpkin in a pie and eat it for dessert). After translating the ingredients for both recipes... I realized... there are very few Christmas cookies I can even make here! Hershey Kisses... non-existent, peanut butter sparse, crisco... non-existent, quick-oats...maybe.... Ah! I guess I'll just have to live with French pastries this year.

After a quick gchat with my mom and Vic... it was about the time I needed to head out to meet Lindsey at the tram stop. I went with her to her house to drop off my stuff to spend the night, we watched some French tv, and then went out into Lyon for a quick dinner before our advanced screening of De Vrais Mensonges (True Lies.... maybe ?) with Audrey Tautou. I realized as we were on the bus coming down the hill that I haven't really been in Lyon much, if at all, after dark... so I haven't seen how things are lit up. Thankfully I had my camera to show you some pictures. It really is a very pretty city, don't you think?

We were a little early for restaurants to be open (it was about 6:45, they open at 7ish). So we walked around a bit and decided to take respite in a grocery store.... which just so happened to be having wine tastings of the Nouveau Beaujolais. The wine comes from this region, so there are big festivals all over town and in the little towns of the Beaujolais region. Lyon residents are often quoted as saying Lyon has three rivers, the Rhone, the Saone, and the Beaujolais (as in...the wine is a-flowin'). Apparently it isn't known for being a particularly good wine, just a tradition.... but I thought it tasted alright.... but what do I know?

After our wine tasting, we went across the street to a cute little italian restaurant for pizza. Lindsey and I shared a yummy tomato/mozzarella salad and each had our own cheese pizza... that was big enough to feed 2-3 people. We both kind of made ourselves sick trying to eat it all (we didn't succeed, although I got pretty close). We figured we wouldn't be allowed to waltz into the advanced premiere with our cheese pizza... so no doggy-bags... if that's even allowed in France.

We ended up finishing our dinner at about 8:10... running to catch the metro... and running to get seats. We got pretty good seats considering... although the people by the aisle glared at us as we scooted in a little late. Had I had air to breath I would have said... oh don't glare at me, at least the lights are still on!

The movie was hysterical... I laughed out loud for 3/4 of the movie... got a little teary eyed at one moment... and thoroughly enjoyed being able to understand a movie entirely in French. (Quick recap of the story line: Audrey Tautou's character owns a hair salon, has a guy working for her that writes her a romantic anonymous love letter, she sends it to her depressed mother, who figures out it was from the guy at the salon, who figures out that Audrey sent it to her mother, who is now in love with the guy.... all while Audrey and the guy are falling in love with each other... kind of a weird love triangle story, but very funny as you might imagine... the mother's character especially was hilarious, as was Audrey's.)

Then, as if seeing a cute little film in French wasn't enough, all three main characters and the director came out for a question and answer time. The actors were very nice and funny answering questions about their roles, getting along on set, working for the director, etc. But about half-way through, I started to zone out a bit because I was really tired as it approached 11pm. They answered one more question.... and I thought, well surely they'll just escort them out, but no! They stayed down there to take pictures and sign autographs with people. We awkwardly followed Audrey around until she just about left the cinema and finally got a chance to ask for a picture. Obviously, as you can tell, she is a super tiny person... and we were really excited, haha. Then, we thought! Yes success, we can leave now. But, we saw the male actor and thought, why not, let's a get a picture. A guy had us take his picture with him, so we asked if he wouldn't mind taking our picture. The guy took the picture and said... oh it's perfect. The guy must have been drunk, because the picture is blurry... but oh well. You can still sort of see (up top).

We left the theater at about 11:15.... and the next bus didn't come until 12, so we went to see about taking the funicular and walking... but once we got there decided it would be quicker to walk back to the bus stop and take a more direct route home in the end. But... it wasn't that bad. There were tons of people out... maybe for the Nouveau Beaujolais... maybe that's just how it is on Thursday nights... but it wasn't too cold and we enjoyed looking at the sites all lit up.

We got home exhausted! I left pretty early this morning so I could get home to start cleaning the apartment for Amy's arrival tomorrow... and I'm still pooped! I see a nap in my future... among the other things I need to do!

Reste cool:)