happy poisson d'avril!

Ugh! What a terrible start to the month of April! I got up on time, after a weird dream about having a wolf/saber tooth tiger attack at my home in Virginia. I got ready for Corrine to pick me up and take me to the lab to get blood drawn. We got there, waited 2 hours, and I paid 50 euros for the stupid prise de sang. When my number was finally called, I went into the room with the scary old French woman who didn't say much but, "You didn't eat breakfast, did you?" I said no... and explained that I sometimes pass out when I get blood drawn. She went, buff, and stuck me with the needle. Before I knew it I was seeing spots and out I went! I woke up with my legs in the air and the woman saying, "Caldo? Caldo?" Wait- or was that in Italy... he he HA. (april fool's!)

Yes- that was all made up.... it is April Fool's Day, don't you know! :) Except for the part about the wolf/saber tooth tiger dream- that part really did happen.

In all actuality- getting my blood drawn was no big deal. Corrine came to pick me up at 8:05 on the dot, we drove over to the lab, and found a parking spot right in front. She helped me talk to the receptionist and figure out how much I could weigh in kilos (I had no idea!). The woman asked, "What kind of accent do you have??" She was very nice, before and after realizing I wasn't French.... I was doing a very poor job of speaking coherent French because I was nervous.... so it was a good thing Corinne was there to both translate my mumbles and listen to everything she said because I wasn't catching it all. I paid 30 euros, but will most likely get reimbursed for most of it.

As we waited (only about 10 minutes), I asked Corinne a few questions to make sure I understood what the receptionist had said. She sort of chuckled at me.... probably thinking- it's a good thing I'm here! When I was called up, I went into the back and was ushered into the room by a very sweet French woman, who asked me all about where I was from and what I was doing in France. I felt the prick and started to feel a little faint. But, the woman got me talking again.... and I didn't even know it was over:) I know, I know, I'm such a baby.... but I have been known to pass out from a finger prick....

She said, "You're all set," and gave me a little green card to bring with me tomorrow to pick up my test results. They do not send the results directly to the doctor.... which I find odd, but Corinne explained that once you get the results, you look over them and if anything looks like it's not right, you take them to your doctor to be re-examined. I was like- ugh... I have no idea how to examine blood test results. She said they'd take a look at them for me tomorrow when I come over to tutor/babysit. I got switched to tutoring Saturday because they're going to lunch at a friend's house on Sunday.... and since I'll already be over there, they asked if I'd like to stick around and babysit for them... so I said, of course!

After coming out of the back, we said au revoir to the other people in the waiting room (you say bonjour as you come in to everyone sitting down and you say au revoir as you leave.... it's kind of cute).... and across the street we went for some pain au chocolat- Corinne's treat:) She's so nice!

She dropped me off and said let us know if you need anything! After my little feast of chocolate croissants and OJ.... I'm feeling pretty good:)

I know I didn't write anything yesterday, but I did have a good day. At my first school, I got to work with a few small groups in the CP class, which was a nice change. However, one little girl pinched a kid when she thought I wasn't looking, so I had her sit out of the game for a few minutes. Before letting her rejoin, I bent down and asked her if she knew why she was in trouble. She just laughed at me. I said, ok then, I can wait. So less than 5 minutes later, I said would you like to participate in the game? (Yes.) Can you tell me why you're in trouble? (Because I was too loud.) No, that's not really why you are being punished. It's true you could have been a little quieter, but you're not being punished for that. Why else, do you think? (Because I pinched Matthieu.) Yes, and why did you pinch him? (Because I wanted to.) Is it very nice to pinch others? Do you like being pinched? (No.) What should you do differently next time? (Not pinch or be loud.) Can you participate in the game without pinching and treat your peers nicely? (Yes.)

..... It was so weird. It was like no one had ever asked her why she was being punished.... and I can understand that coming from this class/school. In the same class period, this teacher screamed at 2 other kids and had them sit out of the game for good.... not once asking them why they were being punished or talking to them about their behavior. This teacher also had one kid stand behind his chair for the rest of the hour because he kept fidgeting in his seat.... and it was only because he excited about the activity. What a way to humiliate him and ruin his spirit! Then before lunch, the teacher had them line up in the hall... called one kid out for talking (although many were), and had them all go sit back down. While they were sitting, she said, "You can all thank Killian for making you go sit back down." The kids actually said merci Killian, out loud. I was just like, blown away at that.... what kind of message does that send to these kids? And poor Killian!

But thankfully, I had had two great lessons before this one, and I was able to save the one kid from missing out on the entire game.... so that was a plus. I left school with a lot of the kids leaving for lunch. One kid walked with me and told me all about where he lived and pointed out his apartment.... how to push the button to go in.... He said, "Our name is even in all caps on the door!!" It was super cute. He asked me where I was going and I said.... I'm catching the bus to go home for lunch too! He looked down the street and said, "Well, it's coming, so I guess... à jeudi!" (See you Thursday!)

Before my afternoon class, I passed a coach bus carrying Corinne's class on their way to the pool. It was so funny to turn and see all their hands waving at me (Corinne's hand included hehe). I also ran into Nathalie in the hallway, and she wanted to see if I wanted to come over to her house for lunch/dinner before I left the country. She said maybe the last week I'm here we could work something out:)

Then later last night, I received a nice email from my afternoon teacher, saying how much she and the kids enjoy my lessons. She also said she'd like to get together with me and the other teachers one last time before I leave too! How nice:)

Anyway, it is supposed to be a gorgeous weekend- high of 72 and sunny. Once I am fully recouped from this morning, I may go find a sunny spot to read a book this afternoon:) We shall see!

Bon weekend! Reste cool:)

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!

Leen-say the Baby-seater (and more)

Last night, Corinne and Luc came to fetch me around 7pm in their brand new Volkswagen Touran... a mini-van that would be eaten by my family's Ford Freestar. (Even the big cars are so little in France!) They were very excited to show me all the features (including an ipod jack and long sunroof)- they had just gone to pick it up before picking me up.

Corinne and Luc crack me up because even on a date night (where they're supposed to leave and I stay), they chitchatted with me forever and still had to make a quiche for our dinner.... they joked about just staying home to eat with us, or better yet, taking us all out to dinner. They couldn't find the rolling pin to roll out the crust.... the girls wanted to help set the table but got into a little tiff, Luc took all the kids for a little ride around the neighborhood, Luc called around to make dinner reservations, etc, etc. Finally, around 8:15, they were ready to leave (after Corinne changed clothes). I thought they'd never go! (But at least I did get to see how to make a real French quiche!)

Les enfants and I played some wii bowling while the quiche baked (they proudly told me they'd been bowling for real, once), had our quiche dinner with mousse au chocolat for dessert and watched a kids talent show until the parents came home around 10:30. I mostly entertained Lucie, the youngest, but during dinner I got asked some cultural questions by Julien (Are we allowed to talk at the table in America during dinner time?) and talked about the Biebs with the girls. Lucie kindly announced that her mother's chocolate mousse reminded her of le caca and the other two said it was good, but not her best. I said- you guys!!! Don't tell her that! I think it's yummy! Their response was, we like having Leen-say as our baby-seeater and laughed... in a cute way, not an evil way;)

During the kids talent show, Qui sera la meilleur... Ce soir? (Who will be the best... Tonight?), we saw adorable little French kids battle it out through song, dance, magic tricks, gymnastics, and fact recall (I don't know how else to call it, one 4 year old could find countries on a globe and a 5 year old could tell you about every major league soccer team in France). Lucie would get up and mimic the performers... Emilie would give her expert opinion on the performances and Julien laughed at all the American song choices... saying: "You're everywhere!!" I couldn't tell if he meant it in a good way or bad way....but he ran upstairs at one point to retrieve his full size American flag. Apparently, he really likes flags, and ours is his favorite because of the 50 stars and 13 stripes haha. And then, Lucie pété-d.... Julien yelled out- "Nooo! Lucie!!! That stinks! You're representing France for goodness sake!!!!" And ran to open a window. I just laughed... kids are kids everywhere:)

When the parents got home, Julien promptly told on his little sister and both parents giggled, shook their heads and said, "It's a good thing she's cute or else we'd never be able to marry her off!" And with that, Corinne drove me home:)

This afternoon I went into Lyon to meet Hannah and Caroline for a quick lunch at the same tea shop my dad and I went to. They once again burned my panini... so I think I should steer clear if I ever go back. Hannah and I had thought about seeing a movie but we couldn't choose which one and when...and decided we were better off walking off our lunch and doing some shopping in stead. I've been having sharp pains in my heel again (I had plantar fasciitis the last time I walked all over France... so I think it's finally catching up with me). I got some new little walking shoes with comfy insoles (that was an interesting conversation with the sales lady in French...) and a few other little things for my trip.

Now I'm going to chat with my parents and watch a movie! 2 more days!!!

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:)

J'adore la famille de Corinne

This morning after I wrote, Laurence called to say she was just around the corner, coming to drop off my laundry. I ran down to meet her and she asked if I'd be going out and about today because it was so beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in the sky! I told her in fact, yes I would after tutoring:)

I actually walked to Corinne's house... and not getting lost this time it only took 15 minutes! Julien and I worked on more irregular verbs, including shake, wear, stick, and throw. For shake, all I could think of as an example was, "shaken, not stirred," and milkshake. When I explained what a milkshake was, he laughed because evidently kids his age say "shake the milkshake" for no apparent reason. When I asked, he said it just sounds funny because it rhymes.... but now it seems ridiculous because he knows what a milkshake is. For wear, he laughed uncontrollably because the word itself sounded so silly to him. I had to finally say, Julien, get a hold of yourself! It's a verb! For stick, he kept saying steak... I'd say, you have to say stiiiick. So he'd repeat and then after a second he'd say oh, steak. Haha. It was very funny... it was like he just heard a different sound. And throw- quelle horreur! We had both the "th" issue combined with the English "r." Let's just say we're working on it.

After our lesson, Corinne, Luc, Emilie, Lucie, and I went for a walk. We drove a few minutes to a path, parked, and walked around looking for rabbits. I actually asked if they eat rabbit, and they said yes, but they aren't the same as the rabbits you have at your house! They're different! (Rabbit fillets are found right next to chicken in the supermarket. Weird.) Besides rabbits, we talked about lots of different things... les soldes, when they lived in Marseille, places in Lyon (we're kind of both new to the area since they moved here just a year and half ago), etc. We went to a duck/swan pond, not far from the Porte des Alpes mall.

On our way back, I thought they'd just drop me off, but they asked if I wanted to come back for some tea and a snack. I said, why not? We talked a little more.... I'm going to babysit for them on the 28th. I met Julien's friend... who happens to be a girl. She isn't technically his girlfriend, but they hang out often. They were working on a project while we had our snack. They'd come and get cookies occasionally, but as soon as they'd leave, the parents would sort of roll their eyes with an "oh goodness what are we going to do with them" kind of expression. And then, they asked if I saw the most recent Grey's Anatomy... and I said, well no, I don't have a tv. They were in shock! But- I was in luck, they had a tv upstairs that they never used!

So Luc and Emilie drove me home, with the tv. He hooked it all up (after jokingly saying that had he known I lived on the top floor he would have thought twice about agreeing to this... haha) and now I have tv!!! I've been watching Desperate Housewives reruns (in French) ever since. I can't believe I've gone this long without one (a tv)! What a great language experience.... and more:) I can actually watch something and be on my computer at the same time!!!!

Welp- back to school tomorrow! I've had a great weekend! Enjoy your Monday off!