“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” Vincent van Gogh

Last night I didn't end up going out to dinner because plans changed, reservations were lost, and I was already on the tram going a way that would have taken me forever to get to the newly proposed restaurant... so I got off at the Porte des Alpes mall and just walked around in a bad mood. What else was going to happen.... no fun dinner, nothing to look forward to when I went home, I ate a crappy lasgna at a mall restaurant all by myself, the guy serving me commented on my English accent making me feel insecure about my French speaking capabilities.... UGH! It just wasn't my night!

But.... I came home and talked on the phone with my family and realized, all is not lost, I still have my family, I'm still very fortunate to have the opportunity to be here... I need to suck it up and roll with it. What would life be if we had no courage to try new experiences, new places, new people? I may not be in an ideal situation at the moment, but it's not the end of the world.

This morning I was met by the painter, who was very concerned that I was still in bed. Turned out that the electrician never finished the intercom thingy after disconnecting it yesterday, so I didn't hear him buzzing in. He asked if I like the color they were painting the apartment (a bright, but pale yellow). I said yes, it's great, my favorite color actually... And he was like, was this not your choice? I was like.... hah, not at all, none of this was my choice, but thankfully I like it:)

I went to school, knowing that today would be a little weird. The classes that I teach were having an all chorus sing along after the mid morning break, so I went around to all 5 classes to review our Christmas songs. The kids are so cute.... they're getting extremely excited for Christmas. One little girl made me a Christmas card in Franglish (French-English). To top it all off, it started to snow, so the kids were fit-to-be-tied!

After the break, we all crowded into the gymnase to sing songs with a special choral lady that comes once a week. They were fairly crazy up until they started singing- kids spinning around, pushing each other, sliding on their stomachs, etc. Once she had gotten their attention, they sang 4-5 songs with her that I'd never heard of.... and then, I got up in front of all the kids and had them sing Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It was great! I was in shock that there wasn't mad chaos with 150 little bodies grouped together.

At lunch time, the teachers all commented on how well the kids did with the songs in English and how much they loved me (well... if that couldn't put me in a better mood, I don't know what else could!). The teachers I don't work with said they wished I could work with their kids too....

And then, the teacher who is hosting the dinner tonight told me that she did an internship right outside of Washington in a French immersion school. I was like, oh what was it called... she said Fairfax! What a small world! She lived with a family for one month, in Fairfax, Virginia. Hah.

For the moment, I'm feeling pretty good, considering I know that I eventually have to walk home from school in the cold snow and return to my paint fume-y apartment. My ipod is recharged and I have a ride to the party tonight:) Now, let's just hope that the snow stops soon so the party is still on for tonight!

Reste cool mes amis:)

Tirrreeed, but Fête des Lumières tomorrow!

Usually, I try not to complain too much about being tired... seeing as how I only work 12 hours a week (well more like 15 once you factor in staying for lunch and tutoring on Sundays). But, most people don't get stuck on a train for 7 hours during the weekend, so I feel like it's ok to comment on being tired this time:) I'm having a hard time catching up!

I woke up at 5am, thinking it was 6am... and tried to wake myself up....only to realize that I still had an hour to sleep. When it was actually time to get up, I got ready in a hurry because the electrician was on his way over. I sat to write some emails when he got here. After about 5 minutes he asked.... you're going to work today? I figured that was my cue to leave. I tried to stay out of the apartment all day to let him do his thing... but came home around 2, instead of 3 when he leaves. I'm trying to think of what I can do all day while he's here tomorrow. Usually.... I would clean my apartment, do laundry if I have any, go to a museum, etc. Cleaning is out of the picture... I can go do another load of my laundry, but that takes up all of 2ish hours.... so I guess I'll be hanging out at the library or something for a while. I'd go downtown, but I'm going at night for the big first night of the Fête des Lumières (Light Festival).

The fête happens every year on the 8 décembre (which also happens to be my dad's birfday!). The tradition dates back to 1643, when the town of Lyon promised to pay tribute to the Virgin Mary if their town was spared from the plague. The tradition has grown from a simple procession/candle lighting, to every household putting candles in their windows, to major light displays on the monuments of Lyon. People travel from all over France and all over the world to see Lyon lit up. The biggest events happen on the 8th, but the light displays usually last for 4 days. Tomorrow, there are a million things going on. Saint-Priest is giving out hot chocolate and doing a light display on the castle. The neighborhoods of Lyon are all putting on different spectacles or light shows. The one I'm hoping to catch is a musical light show in a region of the city to the right of the Rhone river. If possible, I'd also like to catch the fireworks. The metro is free and runs until 2am tomorrow, so we'll see how much I can stand the crowds. It's supposed to be in the 60's tomorrow, so it should be perfect weather!

Anyway, back to today.... I'll just worry about what to do during the day, during the day tomorrow:) At work I read my little critter Christmas story and taught the kids how to sing Jingle Bells in all of my classes. It wasn't just me who was tired today.... the kids were either so tired they looked asleep or so tired they were a little kooky. Even getting them up to sing and dance only lasted so long! Next week, the kids are all singing Jingle Bells in English during an assembly.... so we'll so how that goes (hopefully the teachers review it a few times before then hehe).

During lunch, we talked about who was bringing what for the staff Christmas dinner next Tuesday, hosted by a teacher I don't teach with. I'm bringing American Christmas cookies... and the host is preparing a raclette. Everyone, who isn't bringing a drink or dessert is bringing meat or cheese. I have high hopes for this dinner party:)

I went to the post office after work, did a little grocery shopping, returned books at the library, and stopped at a little shop I'd never seen before that has very reasonably priced shoes and clothes (woohoo for a time when I have more money). After the electrician left, I made myself a yummy mozzarella and tomato salad and talked to Vic. I kind of needed a relaxing, do-nothing-evening. If I get around to it, I'll take more stuff off the walls for the painters coming on Thursday. The work on the apartment feels like it is never-ending!

Reste cool:) Happy Birthday to Maggie! And an early Happy Birthday to my Dad!

uh oh spaghetti ohz

Well, I'm going to try my best to get this typed out and sent. It seems that my windows vista has decided it's going to crash. I keep getting the "blue screen of death" as they say.... which is not a good sign. I have very few computer problem solving skills and no one to take my computer to. I don't even know if I took my computer to Best Buy type store if they would know what to do with my American computer! So merde merde merde if my computer crashes. I kind of need this thingy. Anyway, I will try my best not to panic so I can update you on my day.

I went to school and was shocked at how warm it felt outside (low 50's today). I had high hopes about giving my crazy class a word search as morning work... and guess what??? I'm a genius! (hehe) The kids came in, got started on the word search with minimal disruption and we got through the roll call in all of 3 minutes instead of the 15-20 it usually takes! I was able to get through all of the lesson I had planned for last week and preview a little of what we'll do for next week. So all is not lost on this class:)

In my next few classes, we started singing Christmas carols and working on "What would you like for Christmas?" I hadn't realized until today that silly bands have infiltrated France. For those of you unfamiliar with this elementary/middle school trend... they are little rubber band bracelets; when taken off of your wrist, they take the form of an animal or some sort of object. They're just called bracelets in France... I think I might have even heard a kid say "des crazzees." Anyway, on most wish lists, kids were asking for video games or board games... action figures and barbies.... so not much is different. Kids are kids:)

During lunch, I tried explaining the movie Elf to the teachers because in one of the classes we talked about elves and Santa.... and it turns out elf is also the word for eleven in German. So in any event, while we were re-discussing this, I brought up the movie out of curiosity. No one had heard of it... or Will Ferrel for that matter. I can't believe they don't know who he is because almost all American films are shown in French theaters, either dubbed over or with subtitles. So I did some research and found the French movie titles and sent them to my teachers. We shall see if they figure out who he is. One teacher did like the sound of the movie "Elf" and wanted to see if we could show clips during class to see how much the kids could understand. I like this idea.

After lunch, I went to visit Laurence who asked me over the weekend if I needed any snow attire.... which was a huge YES. I'm having shoe issues with the snow. And wouldn't you know it, she wears almost the same size and had an extra pair of boots. Now I don't have to worry about buying a pair before I go to Switzerland, where it is sure to be very snowy!

Anyway, after talking to her for a while, I stopped by the boulangerie, where the shop lady knows me and greets me like a regular:) I took my baguette and croissants home... to find Mr. Electrician working hard... with dust everywhere. He was very nice, though, in explaining again that he was sick, when he should be completely done (Thursday hopefully because the painters are starting then), and asking where I would like my phone jacks. He left at about 3, explaining he had gotten a call to repair someone's electricity that was out about 45 minutes away. He will be back tomorrow at 7:30.

I did a little sweep sweep of the apartment because even though I know he's coming back, I can't stand to walk around and hear the crunch of dust under my slippers. I warmed up some of the last macaroni and cheese I froze from Thanksgiving and tried watching Elf again (I had it on the brain)... and my computer crashed (4th time today). Every time, I reboot and it works for a while and I think it's ok.... but then it happens again. I just don't know what I'm going to do about that. AH.

Anyway, if you have any advice, I'd love to hear it!

Reste cool:)

Colmar Pictures

one-orse open sleigh, ay!

This morning I was a little scared to go out into the snow, and if my bus would be running, but it really wasn't so bad. The streets had been plowed.... the sidewalks had paths walked into them... and my bus was only a few minutes late.

I wish I had brought my camera to school because it was a quite sight to see all the kids in the snow-covered courtyard where they have recess. They were running and throwing snowballs left and right, their cheeks were all rosy red, and they all had huge grins on their faces.

Murielle, on the other hand, didn't look quite as in form.... but she was just as welcoming and nice as usual... asking if Amy had gotten home safely. When we went inside, the kids had a ton of questions for her because they hadn't seen their maitresse in several days.... but when we got on to English, the first thing Murielle wanted me to do was to sing Jingle Bells for the class (just the refrain). So I sang, then we had the kids sing a part of the line, then I sang another part, then they sang.... until we were able to sing all 4 lines. For the end of the second verse, (in a one-horse open sleigh) Murielle wrote the words on the board to help guide students who were kind of mumbling through that part (it's a hard group of words to say). However, when she read the line, she said "one-orse open sleigh," which then lead to all of the students saying "orse" when singing. Oh well.... that darn, non-existent French "h" can get you sometimes. Otherwise, they did quite well and for 9-11 year olds, they actually looked like they were enjoying themselves:) Murielle had them all stand up to practice how they will sing at the winter festival on the last day before winter break. We will need some more practicing:)

I then read a Christmas story to them... that wasn't very complicated, but I guess with all the new Christmas vocab, they were a little lost... so I had to explain a lot in French. They also asked me questions about what I do for Christmas and told me what they do for Christmas. Many of them leave their shoes out for Santa to put goodies in them (I guess in lieu of hanging stocking like we do). For the next time, we will be playing Christmas vocab bingo. This job is so fun sometimes:)

In the second class, we sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and the kids LOVED it. I feel like this class is easy to entertain:) I also read the book and went over vocab so that we can play bingo next time as well.

During recess, I talked with Salima, the special education teacher who has a child in the crazy class at the Marendiers school. I told her how things were going and she was shocked to hear that they were giving me (and the sub) a horrible time. After we got talking more about it though, she said she had wondered if something was up because her son comes home crying many days, not understanding the homework.... it probably has something to do with the fact that the kids talk so much no one can hardly hear what's going on! Ah! She did say that regardless of the teacher, the class has a few students that are really tough cookies...

With Anne-Laure's class, the CP/CE1 class, I did the number/color activity (they had to color in the number I said with the color I gave in English). They did the best by far of any of the other classes I've done that with. Then I taught them Jingle Bells and that was that for them. At lunch, I told them about my Electrician, and they said, oh no! I bet you'll have dust everywhere for months! I was like.... yep, I would believe it (although as of right now, I'm doing pretty good... I mopped yesterday and got a lot of it up!).

After school I got to talk to my mom:) and then went to the post office to make a few copies of travel books I got from the library and to mail a few things out. I also went to the bakery and bought a demi-baguette (small one), a praline brioche (which I ate immediately), and 2 pain au chocolats.... I've kind of missed having them for breakfast!

The plumber showed up at my door at about 4pm.... he was supposed to come tomorrow at 8:30.... although now I'm wondering if I've misunderstood something and someone else will be here tomorrow morning..... However, the main thing here is that my toilet is finally fixed!!! Thank goodness!

Now I'm just hanging out.... going to do real laundry tomorrow morning and then meet Hannah in Lyon to see Harry Potter again (like we had planned on doing on Wednesday). Then, she's coming home with me to spend the night before we go to Colmar on Saturday! Yay! More Christmas markets!!!!

Reste cool:)

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:)

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!