to market to market

This morning, I felt very energetic:) (Hurray to hopefully knowing what's wrong with me and knowing how to fix it!!!) I went down the street to do my laundry and forgot that it was also market Sunday. I fought the crowds of people on the sidewalk to get my laundry in the washer before going out and doing some shopping myself!

The market seems to have grown with the coming of warm weather. There were more vendors, selling everything from fruits, veggies, clams, rotisserie chickens, and boxed cereal to knick-knacks, mattresses, and clothes. There were more people too- families, little old women, teens, screaming kids, cute kids, parents telling kids not to touch things, dogs, and lots of singing market people, yelling out prices and deals. Despite the sometimes overwhelming hustle and bustle, the smell of a market is delicious- the chickens and cheese, the fresh flowers, the produce, the bakery selling fresh bread- yum!

After walking around a bit looking at clothes, I decided I was too inexperienced at negotiating prices to know how to get a good deal. But I knew I would get a good deal on the produce and made sure to buy myself a chicken:) I figured I could sacrifice being followed by dogs and cats today for the extra iron!

Now I'm home to get ready for my week! Only 3 more teaching weeks to go! I'm in the home stretch- literally!

Reste cool:)


Some market pics- note the one I took of the old men standing off to the side... lol.

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!

they do exercise!

Yesterday afternoon, after my tutoring lesson with Julien, I went on another bike ride with Corinne's family (including Luc this time, but still no Julien.... guess he's too cool!). We took a route I am familiar with (from the bus) to a park called Parilly, pronounced Pa-ree-ee. I often get the metro from the Parilly metro stop, but I had never ventured into the park. From the road it doesn't look like much, but it's actually huge! There are bike paths and hiking paths.... soccer fields, handball courts, and rugby pitches... a hippodrome (horse race track) and a tree farm. On a chilly Sunday afternoon in winter, there were tons of families and couples out biking, scootering, walking, and running. They even have exercise stations with outdoor weight machines, ellipticals, rowing machines and more! Apparently this is the place to go in Saint-Priest when you want to run in public.... although I have to say, French people still look very fashionable when they work out!

After our ride through the park, we went over by the University I pass on the tram. Even Luc who's a professor at another University branch in Lyon said that this particular branch looks so run down you'd never know it was still in use. That kind of made me feel better to know they don't all look like that! We soon wound our way back to their house where we had the afternoon gouté, or tasting, I've become so used to:) They brought out an Italian pound cake covered in powdered sugar. The girls soon had sugar everywhere.... but so did the parents, so I figured it was just one of those things that was supposed to be messy and dug in!

I'm babysitting (hopefully for real this time) for them on Friday night:)

I had a good day at school....but I can tell the kids and teachers are all ready for vacation (me too!). I actually came home and took a 2 hour nap because I was so tired from actually waking up on time today hehe.

Tomorrow I'm staying at school for the afternoon to make cookies with Nathalie's class. Corinne told me they're making crepes in the late afternoon too.... so perhaps I shall find something to do in the computer lab in between the 2 so that I can make an appearance at both:)

Hope you're all having a nice day! Maybe you have the day off for President's day??

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:)

lovely sunday

Although I am not celebrating Super Bowl Sunday (not that I usually do much anyway), I still had a very nice day. I went over to Corinne's to tutor Julien. I brought brownies, which we tasted after we went for a little family walk. I played freeze tag with the girls and had some left over birthday cake from Lucie's party (which was yesterday). She turned 6 and was very proud to tell me so when I got there. After our little desert tasting, I sat and chatted with Luc and Corinne who are going to give me another babysitting go for Valentine's Day (hurray!). Luc drove me home because Corinne is still feeling under the weather (she got the flu right after me.... this horrible thing is everywhere!).

Have fun to all you football fans (American football that is!). Time for me to get to bed. Can't be late for the important lesson I'm giving on family members!

Reste cool:)

Boots on the brain...

This morning started out as a dark, dreary, pouring-down-rain kind of morning. But... thankfully I had a lunch date, so I got my butt up and ready to go into Lyon. I met Lindsey and her dad, who's visiting, in Vieux Lyon. She suggested either going to a fondue restaurant they had passed by or to a boulangerie... and I basically said "you had me at the mention of cheese." It ended up being a very cute little restaurant with yummy savoyard fondue. It was also very wooden (the restaurant, not the fondue). Everything from the paneling on the walls to the menus were made of wood. And while we ate in our little wooden restaurant, we caught up on all of our respective trip news. It was nice:)

Then, because obviously you can't show your dad around without showing him the desserts, we stopped for atarte aux pralines. The place we went to has Lindsey's favorite type of tarte... I had never had it before. Instead of being more of a liquidy filling with pieces of pink praline, it was the opposite with lots of pieces of praline with a very sweet sugary glaze. It was delicious, but sadly, because it was kind of sharp, it cut up the roof of my mouth... So I guess I'll have to stick with the more liquidy pie filling type of praline tart. I know, how sad that I should need to cut myself off from even one type of pastry.

After our meal and dessert stop, I said goodbye to Lindsey and her dad and went on my way. I had hoped to stop by the mall on my way back to pick up a few things from the grocery store and maybe look at a pair of boots. So I took the metro to the tram (the tram goes to the mall). But of course when I got to the tram stop, the announcement thingy came on saying that there had been an accident between 2 of the stops and that the tram would be out of service between Grange Blanche (where I was, and where the metro meets the tram) and Bron (a stop 5 tram stops away). I had the option of either getting back on the metro, foregoing my mall stop, and taking a bus home... or walking to the nearest tram stop that was in service. Of course, I opted to walk because I had boots on the brain. Thankfully, it was a much nicer afternoon... sunny and crisp with pretty yellow leaves everywhere... so not a bad time for a walk!

I walked and walked, passing the accident that had caused all the trouble (a motorcycle hit the tram or vice versa), got on the tram 4 stops later and got off at the mall. I had kind of wondered if I should just stay on the tram and go home, but again, boots were on the brain. As I walked through the empty parking lot.... I began to curse my decision to walk instead of just going home on the metro and bus, and then my decision to get off of the tram at all. The mall was closed, as I'm sure it is every other Sunday (at least after 1:30pm). By this point, I was thirsty and needed a potty break, so I stopped at the one restaurant that was open (Flunch, which is kind of like a Ryan's buffet for French people).

After my orangina (type of fizzy orange drink), I went back to the tram stop... saying to myself, oh well, now I know... don't come here on Sundays. I ran to catch the oncoming tram, which stopped and let everyone off. This tram was out of service, starting right then. The next tram wouldn't be arriving for 14 minutes. I decided I'd rather walk to the next stop than stand around and smell cigarette smoke (obviously, at the first sign of extra time, many French people pull out their cigs and light up).

I got to the next stop and the time said 11 minutes to wait. I thought, meh, I might as well walk to the next stop. On my walk to the next stop, I watched the tram go by... and I said oh well, I'll just walk home from here. There's only 3 stops left... I've gone this far. In total, I walked 8 full stops out of the 15 tram stops between Grange Blanche and St. Priest-Hotel de Ville... which means I actually walked more than halfway home from the outskirts of Lyon. Hah! At least it was good exercise (even though, had I not had boots on the brain, I might have decided to "read the signs" that said the tram is not the way to go today).

I got home and decided I needed to wind down with some American Kraft Mac and Cheese. It was yummy in my tummy. And now I need to get ready for my 2 days of work this week. I realized that I don't just have a 4 day weekend, but a 5 day weekend... I don't work Wed/Fri, so if I have Thursday off, I only work Mon/Tues this week! Haha! This is the best job....

Reste cool:)

Quelle Surprise!

This morning, I got up before the sun was up, on a Sunday, voluntarily. I knew I had a whole list of things to do today and I went to bed insanely early last night (I think I was in a cheese comma). First on my to-do list, LAUNDRY. It is so inconvenient to not have a washing machine close by. Even in college all I had to do was walk down a flight of stairs. Now, I have to walk down a flight of stairs and down the street. And today it is cold and windy. Bleh.

But, on the other hand, I do like being out and about on Sunday morning s. There’s a big market right by my Laundromat, so I decided today I’d stick my laundry in a machine and go take a look around the market. Of course, I ended up buying all of my produce and bread there for the week (adding more bags to carry home with the laundry). But, not only was it cheaper (10 euros for 3 huge apples, 2 pears, 2 tomatoes, 1 avocado, 1 huge and beautiful head of lettuce, a basket of strawberries, and a large pink praline brioche that should hopefully last more than 2 days), but it was great fun! The market people (I don’t know what to call them in English) genuinely want you to have the best fruits and vegetables. One market guy sang everything I ordered and asked when I’d be eating my food so as to pick the perfect ripeness. It was cold and rainy and I walked away thoroughly pleased with my experience.

I got finished with my laundry and back to my apartment. I was starved, and got all the ingredients ready for an omelette au jambon (ham omelet). I had everything ready, from the lettuce and tomatoes cut and ready for my salad, to the butter melting in the hot pan when Laurence called, inviting me to lunch at midi (noon). I had no idea what time it was… I said, huh, well I’m just about to make myself something, but I can leave it for later. She said she’d be there in 25 minutes.

Now, I had a whole list of things to do today- laundry was first, omelet second, cleaning, putting away my laundry, and grocery shopping third, and lastly, a shower. I was looking a little rough, so I ran to the shower, and miraculously got ready in 15 minutes with enough time to put away my omelet ingredients and laundry! The rest can wait, I thought! Here’s my chance at the big French, Sunday meal I’ve always dreamed of (or something like that).

As you can imagine, my insides were a-gurgling at this point. We got to Laurence’s house (her mother in tow), and nothing was ready yet. I thought, my God, I’m going to collapse. (But, not to worry, I survived). Laurence’s mother is hilarious. She’s very theatrical, deaf, and talks non-stop. She knows 2 words in English: Good Morning. Even though I didn’t quite catch all of what she said, she was entertaining nonetheless.

All 3 kids were there and the husband went to fetch his mother, so we were 8 in total for lunch. Laurence made raclette, which is similar to fondue in that it involves melted cheese… but different. With fondue, everyone eats from the same pot of cheese, dipping their meats or breads in it. The cheese is also mixed with wine and cream and spices of some sort. With raclette, everyone is given a mini-frying pan, that has its own spot in a heating device put in the center of the table. In this frying pan, you put a type of cheese, cut especially for the raclette dish, in your frying pan. While it heats up, you take already cooked potatoes and cut them up on your plate… along with various charcuterie (cold cuts). Then, once your cheese is melted, you pour it over your potatoes and meat. It’s delicious. I probably had 8 little frying pans of cheese (they kept giving me more, it’s hard to refuse!). We had this with an appetizer of quiche and salad, and a dessert of almond cake and espresso. OH- it was good. Well worth the disruption in my planned out Sunday.

After lunch, we talked for a while, they asked me about my upcoming trips… gave me suggestions, etc. I told them I was a little afraid the strikes would interfere, but they didn’t seem too worried about it (but then again, this is normal for them). Laurence asked if I wanted to go see a movie with her and Laura, but I told her I needed to get back. But, what’s exciting is that she told me the movie theater in Saint-Priest, located a block away, will be reopening on Wednesday! And! Harry Potter is on the list of films that they will eventually show. Now, I don’t know if it will be in its VO (version originale) or the VF (version française, with dubbed over voices)… but who cares! I’ll go see both!

So now I’m home, ready to explode. I feel like I’m going to wake up with cheese coming out of my ears tomorrow after such a cheesy weekend. But, there are worst things I guessJ

Reste cool mes amis!

Sundays in France

Bonjour tout le monde!

Today hasn't been a particularly exciting day of adventures, but just a regular old Sunday (full of laundry, cleaning, and getting ready for the week ahead). However, I thought I'd comment on a few interesting French Sunday habits... (and show you a picture of the laundry-carrying contraption I've created. It's quite nice not to have to lug laundry down the street on my shoulder, but I still haven't worked out how best to get this thing up and down my 5 flights of stairs...).

In the United States, if you are up early on a Sunday, you are probably going to church, or at least you see cars of people dressed up on their way to church. In France, although the majority of people would categorize themselves as Catholic (if anything), most people do not attend Church every Sunday, and usually just on major holidays. (There is also a large population of North Africans and Turkish in this area who are Muslim.) Instead, on Sunday mornings, there are tons of people up, bright and early, for the open-air markets located around the city. There is one (well, at least one that I know of) in Saint-Priest on Sunday mornings, there are huge "creation" markets along one of the quais or riverbanks in Lyon (I'm guessing kind of like a craft-fair, but with more professional looking crafts), and even larger open-air markets in La Croix-Rousse part of the Lyon. Everyone you see is carrying a big bag full of fresh produce and a baguette (or 2 or 3) under their arm.

This is probably because later in the day, the French have large Sunday meals. Some families continue the very French tradition of having 7 course meals, others I'm sure are a little less traditional. I have yet to experience this first hand, but hopefully I'll be invited some day to the more traditional Sunday feast by one of my new French pallies.

Between the big French meals and the mornings at the markets, you often see families going for bike rides, old men playing the bocci-ball like game boules, and hear screams from the local bars (or even from the apartments below mine) with people watching a football match (soccer games).

This is a little off the topic, but I've also decided that the French love Americans (or at least like us a whole lot more than we think they do). Maybe I've had such a positive experience because I genuinely try to speak, dress, and act French while I'm here... but there are always moments when I have to fess up to being American, and I always get the "Oh really!... I know so-and-so who is from Las Vegas... or my son-in-law is in New York studying finance... or I've always wanted to visit America... or I know some English" kind of response.

For example, today when I was at the laundromat, the woman who must own the shop asked me if I had set the temperature on the machine before inserting my money. Of course, I kind of looked at her funny while I was processing all the laundromat vocabulary in French, and so she looked at me like I was an idiot. I said, I'm sorry, I'm American, so I'm not sure I understand. And she immediately said, "Oh really! Well, my nephew just married a woman from Pittsburgh. I know some English. Let me try to explain." We got through with the washing machine conversation and she asked the particulars of why I am here. Everyone always asks, "Are you studying here?" And I respond, that no, I'm an English Assistant, which amazingly needs no further explanation. They ask how long I'm here for, if I'm here alone, do I teach younger children, etc. This woman asked all those questions and asked for my email address to give to her new American niece-in-law (named Liz), I guess so that we can be fellow-American-in-France kind of friends. The woman also told me that her husband owns the bar right next door and that she's often in their helping out, so if I ever needed anything I could come find her, or at the very least go in to swap bills out for change. Chouette!

Anywho- I hope you've enjoyed this little culture segment:) I'm off to spend the rest of the day making my own personal French feast (an omelet), video chatting with the fam, and getting ready for my first real day of being in a French elementary school:)

Stay tuned and reste cool:)