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:)