stoopeed americans, puh

After spending a good amount of time switching between shutterfly (the online photobook maker... such a nifty site for anyone who wants to make custom calendars, albums, and more with their own pictures) and a few wedding dress websites (hey, an engaged girl can look and tell now, right?), I got ready for my afternoon with Corinne and company.

I hadn't gone outside much this weekend, as I was making myself stay in and rest up, so it was a nice surprise to feel the warmer weather and sunshine on my face as I walked to their house. Luc was in the garden and Corinne was doing house work. Lucie swung open the door with a big welcoming smile. Before Julien and I got to work they all came to see if I had brought any pictures from my trip and to hear all about it (too bad they can't read my blog!). I'll have to send them some pictures, but I did get to retell some highlights from our trip:)

Julien and I worked on pronouns and verbs for a bit; he was amazed that we used "it" for so many nouns. In French, every noun is either feminine or masculine, and therefore is replaced with "him/her" in certain cases where pronouns are used.... although it sort of depends on the situation, and to make it more confusing, the pronoun may need to be placed somewhere else in the sentence. English, however, is much simpler. Anything that isn't a person or living thing with a gender identity is called "it." When given the sentence, "John put his pen away," Julien tried to replace the nouns like this: "He put him away." Although this is nice poetic personification for the pen, in non-artistic language, we would normally say, "He put it away."

During our little grammar exercises, Julien asked me if all Americans were like a girl he saw on tv, who when asked if she could find Iraq on a map, said, "What's an Iraq?" I laughed and said.... no, I guess there are ignorant people everywhere, but we aren't all that stupid. He then asked, "Do you know where Libya is?" I said, yeah of course.... it's that little country in the middle east off of Saudi Arabia. He laughed as I was saying this and it dawned on me that, huh, do I actually know where it is? He went to get his globe, and sure enough, it is not a small country but a rather large country situated between Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. I guess I was getting it confused with Qatar or Yemen or something... Now, had I been given a map, I would have found it fairly easily, but I had to say to him, "Nope, guess I'm just like all the other stupid Americans haha." He said he doesn't really think we're stupid.... but from the sound of it, they learn a lot more world geography than we do. He could name and place every African country I named off on a map he drew! Wow!

After our lesson, I got to feel a little bit smarter when I was able to answer tons of questions by all 3 kids about English song lyrics. They sing all these American pop songs, but have no idea what they're saying! Our song session was interrupted by the parents who said, "Enough bombarding Lindsay with song lyrics! Let's go on a bike ride!"

So we all went out, except Julien who went to a friend's house, on a nice Sunday afternoon bike ride. While we were riding, I passed a few students who yelled out my name from across the street. I felt a little bit like a celebrity;)

When we got back, we had a nice chat and cookie tasting. They asked me questions about Victor and if he had fun seeing where I lived. They asked if he was surprised by Lyon or Saint-Priest... and I said, actually he was slightly surprised by where I lived. They said, you know, we were surprised by where you live too. I said, I was surprised when I first moved in, but I've never had a problem or had anyone hassle me. I don't put myself in a lot of unsafe situations by going out late and I keep my head down, walking with purpose if I do. It's been a really nice living and working experience here overall. They said that they really haven't minded living in Saint-Priest because there are some really nice neighborhoods, but they're about to start looking for a house to buy. The one they are in is rented because they are still in the process of selling their house in Marseille. They said unfortunately there aren't many houses for sale in the neighborhood they live in now and are thinking about moving to the north side of Lyon, closer to the parc de la tête d'or (and understandably so, I'd want to live up there too! Who wouldn't want to live within a few minutes drive to the zoo?!). But they also have concerns about moving the kids out of their schools again and Corinne likes being so close to work.... so it sounds like they're still trying to decide what to do!

Luc drove me home on his way to the Apple store to look at macbooks, lol. I did some video chatting and am just about ready for bed. That bike ride wore me out!

Hope you all have a nice week:)

Reste cool!

Some Sunday Cycling

This afternoon I tutored Julien for about an hour and a half while the rest of the family went out to eat for lunch. One of Luc's cousins was coming into town later in the day and they had spent all morning gardening and cleaning, but didn't have enough time to do any grocery shopping for lunch. We worked on reading, understanding, and translating little texts that I thought up and wrote down. Most of what I thought up was just about what I had done this weekend, but after a few of those paragraphs... I asked if he was interested in anything particular, US-wise. He wanted to know about US-Russia relations, if we were really scared of the world ending in 2012, and the Civil Right's Movement. Between tv, his parents, and school history lessons, for a 13 year old, I thought those were pretty intellectual topics. I threw in something about Justin Bieber, but only because I had just watched an episode of David Letterman on youtube and thought he might be interested since he's only a little bit older than Julien. According to him though, "everyone makes fun of him because of his expensive hair cuts...." lol. Oh well, at least I tried to relate to the younger crowd:)

After tutoring, the fam came back and the girls went for a bike ride. Luc stayed to wait for his cousin and Julien went to a friend's house to study. I borrowed a bike, obviously as I have no bike here of my own, and we did a little 30 minute ride around the neighborhood. It probably shouldn't have even taken that long, but with Lucie, she stops and starts and needs help, so it took a little longer. She's very cute, I know I say this every time, but maybe it's her little French expressions that make me think she's just the most adorable little kid. In any event, it was nice to be on a bike, one of France's most popular sports, especially on Sundays. We saw a lot of families out on their bikes or walking dogs. It was maybe a high of 55 today, so not terribly warm, but pretty nice for mid-February!

After the bike ride (which by the way I saw Fourvière hill at a distance.... that was pretty neat), Anise, the cousin, had arrived. She's in town to take her concourse.... a written test that if passed, ensures her a job in working with infants to 18 year olds in the field of well-being (I'm not really sure what that means... but something like working in day cares or hospitals). I've learned that in France, for most public jobs, you take a test after a certain amount of schooling, and if you score in a certain percentile in a region, you are guaranteed a position. Like teaching, if you want to teach in the Lyon area, you take the concourse in Lyon. If you are in the top 400, you are guaranteed a position somewhere; if you don't pass or make the cut off, you have to retake the test again the next year or in a different region. A few teachers I work with said they had to retake the concourse 2 or 3 times before getting a job.... very interesting system....

We sat and drank tea (actually, I had also had a coffee right before the bike ride too.... so I won't sleep a wink tonight) and ate little italian cookies. I shared some Valentine's day cookies and red hots. They, too, enjoyed the little red heart candies, saying the same thing that everyone says, "They're spicy!"

Corinne drove me home around 6:15... the girls were very excited... and a little loud with their young second cousin visiting, so I was ready to head back. On the way back, Corinne asked if I could babysit for them this Thursday and we talked about me chaperoning a field trip to the circus in April. Yepee!

It was a nice little visit, but now I have to get busy! I haven't had time to plan yet!!!

Reste cool:)

Pants! What's the word for pond?

Hello mes amis:)

I finally got up on time and almost made the bus.... I think after having to get up extra early for the painters/electrician those last few weeks before break, my normal routine is thrown off and I take longer because I think I can, but I can't.... but all is not lost, I took the tram and walked. It was in the upper 40's today, so not quite as nice as this weekend, but I'll take anything above 38:)

I saw Sabine on my way in and she was fairly cheery, asking how my weekend went. I had a great weekend, up until the last few hours on Sunday when I was in the process of making dinner... and my electricity went out. I was using the stove, the oven, my computer, and had a few lights on.... which I guess over did it. I called Laurence, because walking around in the dark I realized I didn't know how to fix my little problem. I assumed I needed to just flip a switch somewhere, but where and how was my main issue. I also don't have a flashlight, just a few candles... so that didn't help me much either. She tried explaining over the phone, but with my expansive knowledge (not) of electrical vocabulary, I probably sounded more lost than ever to her. So, she said, "J'arrive, j'arrive," and was here in no time to walk around with her flashlight and turn my electricity back on:) It's a good thing she doesn't live too far away!

Anywho, I made my way up to my first lesson, Vincent's class (the one who had the sub). My goodness is this an entirely different class! All he has to do is snap his fingers very quietly when someone is acting out and they stop whatever they're doing. We had a discussion at the break about whether or not they were scared of him. The other teachers were laughing and saying, yep, that's why they're so good, they're scared! He said, no, they fear me, which is very close to respect. Lol. This lead us to comparing the US and France again... how American school teachers are much less severe than their French counterparts... they said they've always had the "if you're bad, you're punished and told to straighten up" system and that's what they were taught to do in their education classes. According to them, students should have a level of fear of their teachers.... whereas in the US, most teachers are a little bit more nurturing. I don't think these generalizations apply to everyone on both sides, as they are generalizations.... I work with 2 teachers at this school who I feel are very nurturing and much less severe, more fair, etc. But even with these 2 teachers, I have not seen one positive behavior system in a French primary school.... going over board to reward students for their effort, behavior, etc. It's interesting to see the differences between the 2 systems...

Sorry- I keep getting off track! My lessons all went very well... I had several teachers ask me, however, why I kept calling pants, pants, instead of trousers as they all learned in school. Apparently, in British English, pants are your underwear and trousers are your pants. Which now explains why, when giving Julien this example sentence , "Ah, I can't find my pants!" he burst out laughing.... I thought maybe he just thought the word pants sounded funny.

After my lessons, I ate lunch at school. They had couscous, with an odd combo of meatballs, sausage, and veggies poured over top. There was also a mystery breaded patty of sorts. I'm beginning to wonder if I should just make my own lunches. Usually I enjoy at least 3/4 of the meal, but today... was too out of my comfort zone. We also had salad with carrots in odd dressing, plain yogurt (not my favorite), and chocolate wafer cookies. Not even one slice of cheese today!

During lunch, Vincent suggested that we speak in English. This lasted about 30 seconds after he said something wrong and everyone laughed. I didn't think it was that bad, but they're so hard on themselves! So instead, anytime they brought up a new subject, they'd ask me for the English word. They were talking about a pond behind the school (une mare) and I couldn't think of the word... I said puddle, but Sabine said she thought that was more like a flaque. I said I thought you could probably use the word puddle for both, only because I wasn't really clear on how big this pool of water was. And then... another teacher who's second language is German, jokingly said, "It seems to me that English is a very vague language..." Lol. Yes, let's go with that. (When I got home, I looked up all of these words and emailed them to the teachers with the title, les mots précises en anglais.... precise English words...hehe)

My not-up-to-usual-par French cafeteria food motivated me to go grocery shopping. I was almost out of TP, so it's a good thing I went:) I made myself an excellent dinner, if I do say so myself, and have yummy leftovers for tomorrow (tuna steak with avocado, mozzarella and tomato salad, and pear+cheese for desert). AND- my electricity stayed on throughout the entire making of the meal:)

Hope you had a nice Monday!

Reste cool:)

long time no write!

Hello! Bonne soirée à tous:)

I guess I'm only one day behind.... I didn't do a whole lot yesterday.... it was an absolutely gorgeous day, 60 degrees and sunny, sunny, sunny! I walked down to the laundromat happy as could be to just be outside... if I knew how to whistle, I'm sure I would have been a-whistlin'!

While I was at the laundromat, there was an interesting looking family doing tons of laundry. I had my ipod on, so I couldn't hear all of what they were saying, but basically I got that they are a "caravan family." They explained to some curious others at the laundromat (it was packed, guess it was a Saturday) that they had 2 caravans, a truck and were stationed near a road with a wall somewhere in Saint-Priest before moving on. One day at school, a teacher said something about a child that was going to be moving but coming back after a few months because they were a part of the caravan lifestyle.... I guess we would consider them sort of like gypsies.... but I'm not sure if they are considered Roma or Romani or not? I often see, who I think are Romas, asking for money in the metro, and they usually only know a certain few key French phrases.... but these people at the laundromat spoke perfect French, albeit a little accented... and seemed to be doing ok if they owned 2 caravans, etc. So.... I just don't know. I may ask tomorrow at school because I think it's pretty interesting.... I googled Romani people and there seems to be a lot of conflicting information. They do mention, however, that they usually don't mark themselves on any sort of census information, so it's sort of hard to know who's who and where the are since they move around so often. To be continued I guess!

After doing laundry, I got home to find a package slip. So I went straight over to the post office (I was just so happy to be soaking up the sun!) and found myself in a 20 minute line. Everyone was so upset to have to wait in line... but I wasn't about to leave. I had a package to receive! It was from Valerie, Victor's sister. It included yummy brownies, some hot cocoa, and some toiletry items.

Around 1:45 I left to go tutor Julien. Corinne asked if I'd be willing to come Saturday instead of Sunday because they had something else to do. Of course I said yes, it's my weekend of nothing, why not? I didn't know it would be as beautiful as it was... but it wasn't so bad. We did our lesson, I brought them some gingerbread cookies, and then I stayed to chitchat with the parents outside while the girls played with their new spin art (present from Santa). Lucie, the youngest, asked if I got anything from Santa... and then listed off every single thing she got:) She's so cute. I told Corinne and Luc that I'd love to babysit anytime! They said... actually we might need you in the near future, we'll let you know! (They also informed me that Lyon is NEVER like this in the winter. I guess we can thank global warming??? Do we thank global warming... hrmmm).

I walked back because it was so nice and I sort of felt bad about breaking up the happy family for someone to drive me back. I've never walked back before, so I got a little turned around, but thankfully found the tram. It wasn't that big a deal, it was fun to see kids running around blowing bubbles and playing soccer. It made me want to stay outside a little longer!

Today the weather wasn't so nice.... rain rain rain. I stayed in to make stuff for lessons, update my resume (why not right?), and get ready for this week. I got several emails from my teachers... I think I've gotten them all into a habit of exchanging ideas for the week on Sundays... which is nice. I don't have to guess or pray that they like what I've planned:) I even had one teacher ask if I'd be staying for lunch (I skipped out last week because I didn't have any food haha).

This weekend has been nice to get back into a routine and to get caught up on lesson planning.... but I'm excited to get this week rolling. I begin my museum month (hopefully going to make it to the Resistance museum and the Contemporary Art museum), I'm excited about me lessons, and I invited the girls over for a potluck lunch on Saturday! (Apparently the Brits don't use "potluck" in their vocab, so I had to explain. It's so much work being their friend, hehe jk. I'm glad they're all back!)

Reste cool:) Bonne semaine! (Have a good week)

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!

A Cours Particulier

Before I explain what my title means, I have something to say: Can someone please turn off the wind? It's a little much. Thanks. (All last night the wind kept me up because it was howling! This morning I decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to walk to the laundromat with my over-flowing laundry bags because the wind was STILL crazy. And when I went to wait for the bus, I have never felt the wind whip around like it did today! Gah!)

Around 1:30pm, I left for my first meeting with Julien (the son of a teacher I work with at the Simon Signoret school, she's the teacher in the maternelle). Corinne, the teacher, thought it would be a good idea to have desert first to meet and greet before I gave any real English lessons. So... I thought, this won't be too bad, they're giving me desert!

Stupidly, I didn't bring a map or write down any directions from the internet. All I knew was the house address, cross street, and which bus stop to get off at.... thankfully, I got to the bus stop early, and the bus got there early, so I was in the neighborhood of their house with 10 minutes to spare. I walked around aimlessly until I saw the cross street she wrote down and found the grande maison blanche (big white house). I knew I was at the right house because 2 little girls come running out saying in French, "Do you speak English???" And then Corinne came out to unlock the gate (all the houses are gated in this area... more to designate property than security, but I guess it serves a duel purpose).

The whole family came out to greet me, Corinne's husband, her 2 daughters, and her son Julien. They were so funny... it was like they had been waiting for me all day. The little girls were super excited, asking if they were going to get lessons in English too. The dad was falling over himself asking what I'd like to drink and where I'd like to sit. The desert was already all set out... on beautiful china. The desert itself was beautifully prepared... a delicious piece of chocolate cake with what kind of reminded me of caramel rock candy on a stick sticking out of the top and a small bowl of creme anglaise and some sort of poached sugary egg white with caramel drizzled on top (they called the white stuff an island... I still haven't figured out what it really was, but it was GOOD). The kids got to drink sparkling cider and the adults had coffee with sugar out of a cute little china sugar dish. I felt like the queen!

While we ate, they asked me questions about where I lived and how I was finding the job. We talked about tv shows they watched in French, but come from America (Corinne finally gave me an explanation for why so many tv shows in France are actually American... and it's because after WWII, part of the Marshall plan was to import American films and tv series to Europe because the European countries were too poor to produce such luxuries... and ever since then they have continued to have American tv shows, dubbed in French, of course). I felt like the French was sort of a shock to my system because it was spoken so fast, especially with the little girls...and some stuff just got lost in translation... but on the whole... I thought it went pretty well.

Then Corinne asked if Julien would show me the material he's been working on (all the "W" questions and responses)... and then said... would you like to give your first lesson right now? I was like, uh... why not! So they shooed the little girls away, cleaned up the desert, and we got to work. Apparently, Julien is in the advanced language section at school, taking not one, but two foreign languages. His main foreign language is German, his second is English. He showed me his last few English tests and he super failed both. So I guess I understand why his mom was so excited to have me come tutor him. But once we got working, I really didn't think he was that bad. He would take a minute to respond sometimes... or he'd say, "Can you repeat please?" or I'd reform the question with more hand gestures. I think for the most part he just lacks the confidence.... most times he'd say this is going to be wrong, but it was exactly right. When we went over his tests... you could see where he had written something, but second guessed himself and got it wrong. He was very motivated and patient with my French translations... In the end, I'm going to get just as much out of tutoring him because I'm not as afraid to ask how to say something and he enjoys correcting me after I've corrected him haha.

After our lesson, which seemed to fly by, I went upstairs to see the little sisters' rooms (I had to give them some attention too lol). Corinne paid me my 12 euros, we planned for our next lesson (in 2 weeks after Amy leaves), I awkwardly shook Julien's hand (they're not a big hand shaking country, but I didn't know how appropriate the double cheek kiss would be) and I was on my way. I felt bad when I got to my bus because I realized I never said thank you for such a delicious desert... so I emailed Corinne right when I got home.

Now it's time to get ready for my little ones at the Les Marendiers school tomorrow!

Bon dimanche (Have a good Sunday!)

oh and a cours particulier is a private lesson...or like tutoring...