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:)