Week before CHRISTMAS VACATION!!!

So not much has happened that is all that exciting.  (I’m just counting down the days until Jordan comes…6 days as of today)!

Last weekend I went to a Christmas concert with a friend…turns out it was more concert than Christmas.  There were two groups that played, a local group that some of my students played in,  (Random Fact: regular public French schools do not have band/chorus or sports.  If you want to play an instrument, sport or sing, you have to join an outside group/club/team that normally costs $$$$), and a Big Band (like jazz) with a talented singer.  In all there were only two Christmas songs but regardless I am glad I went.  It really made me miss playing my instruments…haven’t picked up an instrument since high school.

Friday night my friend slept over and Saturday morning we were picked up by our French friend and went to a macaroon museum. We learned everything there is to know about almonds.  (Another Random Fact of the Day: there is a type of almost called a ‘bitter almond.’  If you eat 20 or more you will die of poison.  If you eat one before you drink, you will not get drunk because the poison stops the alcohol from being absorbed into the blood stream).  And of course there was a tasting involved as well…of the macaroons not the crazy bitter almonds.  We then went to a really lame Christmas market and only one thing caught my eye.  I passed it by though.   Go Me.

This week has been ok.  The kids are pretty crazy because it is the week before vacation.  I totally get it but at the same time it is really annoying.  I think everyone is in need of a break right now.  Need to recharge my batteries and get away from these crazy kids who have no respect and don’t know how to keep their dang mouths closed!  I gave 2 classes lectures (one of which in French) telling them that I try to plan fun activities that are different from what they do in the rest of their classes and that I do not have to.  If I wanted to I could give them books to read and questions to answer and I should doing that seeing as they aren’t cooperating and are being impolite and disrespectful.  Basically threatened them with boring lessons rather than fun things (ex. Listening to a Christmas song in English and filling in the missing lyrics).  The lectures worked for approximately 2.5 seconds and then they went back to being rowdy, annoying, sophomores (except it’s their first year in high school, so they are basically freshman, just a year older). 

So that has been my week thus far…almost done, thank God!  I am ready for my vacation to Rome, Italy, and Paris with the boyfriend.  6 days and counting!

Arts and Crafts

No turkey and stuffing for me at Thanksgiving.  Instead, I taught about Thanksgiving a million and a half times to all of my classes.  We read a short reading giving the basics about Thanksgiving that most students didn’t really understand…to help them, I played story time and told the story by acting and drawing pictures.  This is what the board looked like each time.

After the reading, each student was asked to write 3 sentences about what they are thankful for.  I was even nice and told them they could work in groups of two!  So they had to write 3 sentences, I would read and correct their mistakes and then they made a final copy.  After I did this a billion and a half times and bought markers at the store, my project began.  This was what I made this morning.

Here are some examples of my favorite ones!  Either because they nice, interesting, ridiculous, or funny.

"I am thankful for religion because we have public holdays"

"I am thankful for Delee because she teaches English and it's fun."

"I am thankful for Bob Marley because he was the greatest singer of "smoke to join."  I am thankful for Coca Cola because it mixes well with whiskey.  I am thankful for Jamaica because it's a beautiful country."

"I am thankful for rugby because of the beauty, simplicity, and purity of the sport through every left pass, harring run (?), with every kick, scream, and line-cut.  "A hooligan's game played by genllemen (meaning gentlemen)."

"I am thankful for Delee because she is a very good teacher."  With a backwards American flag...Perfect :-)

Hope you enjoyed arts and crafts because my students did...and I definitely did too!

Oradour-sur-Glane, WWII, and an Unjustified Massacre

Another weekend closer to Christmas break and Jordan and my vacation in Italy!  Can’t wait.

Friday night I stayed in and cooked dinner and watched some Gossip Girl.  AKA my newest obsession, especially because Jessi (friend from HWS) introduced me to a new website to watch American TV shows…this one doesn’t have any limits and doesn’t freeze up unlike the site I was using!  It’s a great time-killer and I am often bored so it’s perfect!

Saturday morning I went with some friends to another town called Ouradour-sur-Glane.  During WWII the Nazis massacred 642 people…and they weren’t even Jewish (not that it makes it any better or worse) AND this was in a town in France that wasn’t even occupied by the Nazis.  It was a free zone.  And after all of these people were shot, the town and all of the human remains were burned making mourning impossible.  The bodies couldn’t even be identified.  The worse of this whole thing was that there wasn’t even a good reason that all of these people were killed...they weren’t Jewish, gypsies, or whoever else they prosecuted…just everyday people.  Here are some pictures.  They are touching and this experience weight very heavy of my soul.

This says: 642 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane, of which 197 were male, 240 were women, and 205were children were savagly massacred by the Nazis, the village was set on fire and completely destroyed.

This tells people to remember these people, say a prayer for them and their families.  It also says may they rest if peace because they are living in eternity.

Self explanatory.

Remnants of bikes.

Remnants of a burned car.

This says "On this site, the population gathered."  The Nazis went from house to house and gathered all of the people in this space.  After this, the men wer sent to several different places while the women and children were sent to the church.  All of the men were shot simultaneously in the different locations.  The soldiers then went to the church and killed all of the women and children by shooting them and throwign grenades.   After everyone was shot, the bodies and town was burned.

The church

Taking a step back to look at the city.

I can’t even put into words how I felt when walking through this.  It was unreal.  In America, we don’t have things like this, and what schools teach is the watered-down version of history; it always teaches students that “America is the hero” and we always “saved the day.”  Students will never fully understand history unless they take courses in college or educate themselves by means other than text books. 

On a brighter note, we then stomached some lunch and walked around a Christmas market.  It was cute but nothing really caught my eye besides the chocolate shops.  I ended up buying a small raspberry jam just because I wanted to try it.  It was probably over priced but it’s ok, I will enjoy my over-priced raspberry jam!

La Vraie Paix.

"Pour trouver la vraie paix, il faut réfléchir à ta vie."

This is what I learned today; translation: In order to find true peace, you have to reflect upon your life.  Deep right?  I was feeling bad for myself today, this what happens when I have a day off with nothing to do.  I miss my family, my friends and just being able to 100% be myself.  And you may think, well why don’t you just start acting like yourself then?  Easier said than done.  It is border line impossible for me to be 100% myself here, not because I don’t want to, but because of the language barrier.  Many of the comments I would say at home, I don’t say here because A.) I don’t know how to say it.  B.) In the case that I do know how to say it, people may not catch my sarcastic tone C.) I don’t want to offend anyone and I haven’t really figured out what is/isn’t offensive for the French.  Besides that, I often feel bad for myself because I don’t have many friends.  At home, it’s so easy to make plans.  Here, not so much.  It normally involves a train or occasionally someone else’s car.  I can never just hop in my car and drive away.  It always involved a second party (AKA another form of transportation).  And even if I did hop in my car and drive away, a drive of 30 minutes plus would be involved to even see someone that I may or may not even consider a true friend.  Oh the complications of living in a foreign country.

I decided to go on a run because I had nothing else to do and they normally calm me down.  So I left for my run hoping to release some endorphins.  And it worked…Bellac is a very pretty town and when I stopped running and walked down 102 steps that are un-even, not the same height, and on multiple occasions I thought my knees were going to give out, I sat down on one of these so said steps and took in the beauty.  It was borderline breath taking.  I analyzed and enjoyed the architecture (which is very different from American houses), the small river flowing through my town, a bridge for trains, and a church—more or less a cathedral.  It was an amazing experience.  It is moments like these that verify my belief in God.   From the trees, to the river, to the sky and all of the amazing surroundings that surrounded me, I know that this all of this beauty cannot be sheer coincidence.   It was too perfect.  In this time I also thought about my dream.  My dream of teaching in France.  And then, if I am living my dream right now, why am I not ecstatic to be here?  After pondering these questions and many more, I concluded that life is what you make of it. It is MY choice.  Happiness is a choice.  The way I respond to life’s happenings is my decision.  I have been taking for granted all of the things that have happened in my life to help me get where I am today.  My family.  My friends.  My education.  And life—everything that happened along the way as I matured into a young woman.  I should be thankful for all of the things in my life and I was wasting time feeling bad for myself because of my lack of friends.  Instead, I should be thankful for the friends that I do have here.  So after all of this, I felt at peace with myself and was ready to start my run again. 

Now that my mind and spirit were feeling like a million bucks, I was at ease and felt lighter.  My strides were long and strong and I was running like a gazelle (ok, not quite.  I run more like an elephant on most days, but I felt like a gazelle, so that’s all that matters).  And then of course I was almost back…and had a slight problem.

I stepped on something which I thought was a leaf and then it got stuck on the back of my calf.  I was almost done with my run so I decided to ignore it and keep running  When I stopped running, I wiped the so called leaf off my calf (without looking), and when I looked at my hand…this leaf was not a leaf.  It was dog crap.  And would you like to know what I did?  I laughed out loud.  What else could I have done?  I thought it was funny.  I finally felt at peace with myself and then I step in dog poop, and even worse now it was on my hand!  And I just laughed, by myself in the street, and people probably thought I was crazy, and I didn’t care. 

So I went back to my room.  Took a shower and am now blogging about it.  Hope you liked the ending to my lovely day.

(I thought I'd share a picture because today was pretty much the epitomy of epic).

Bienvenue en France

So the title of this post translates to ‘Welcome to France.’  For those of you who haven’t read my entire blog, I use this expression when a problem occurs and the solution isn’t quick or easy and more so, it’s frustrating, complicated, and really doesn’t make sense at all.

For the past two weeks, the buildings and grounds/maintenance people have been working on completing our ‘kitchen.’  Right now, my ‘kitchen’ is in the hallway and consists of a microwave and a mini-fridge.  They are in the process of re-doing a room (painting, putting down new floor, and adding ventilation).  After two weeks, the only noticeable difference I see is that they painted and did something with the floor, buffed or sanded it or something.  There is A LOT of noises coming from the kitchen on a daily basis, but when I look, I rarely see any difference in the room. 

Yesterday, I had class from 3:30-5:30 and I saw that one man was doing something with the breaker and the electricity.  After my class at 5:30, I unlock my door and turn on the lights…well I guess I should say I flicked the light switch but the light didn’t come on.  All of the lights in the hallway were on, the fridge still worked, the light in the bathroom worked, just not my room.  I knew I was running out of time because school ends at 5:30 meaning that most of the staff leave then as well.  I went to one of the offices and told them that I didn’t have electricity.  Their solution was to move me to a different room for the night.  WHAT??  What kind of half-ass solution is that?  So then I left, stunned and semi-pissed and losing hope by the second.  As I was walking back to my room, I saw one of the ladies I eat lunch with who is in the accountant.  I told her my problem and her first word was ‘shit.’  She told me that the workers already went home and she also told me who I should go talk to.  I went and spoke with this women and after I told her my problem, she asked me to wait a few minutes so she could finish something, after walking in circles for 5 minutes, she was done.  She decided to call the worker’s home phone to ask him if he knew what the problem was…but he wasn’t home yet meaning he just left school.  Awesome.  After about 20 minutes have passed, she decides to make a visit to my room see for herself.  She didn’t know what to do but then I showed her where the breaker was and eventually she started flicking switches until the lights came on.  And violà.  Problem solved after speaking to about 5 people, one of which told me to move to a different room…quelle solution (meaning ‘what a solution’).  So that is my drama of the week.  I am lucky the problem was solved at all  I suppose.  Tomorrow I am doing some site seeing with Elisa, the French girl I went to Lacanau with, one of my students, and my friend from Montmorillon named Stefanie who is another American assistant.  Should be fun!  I will post pictures and write about it eventually!  Until then.

The Weekend and the Start of the Week

Once again I haven’t been good about posting.  What else is new?

I had a good weekend, nothing too exciting but I had fun nonetheless.  Friday night I went to visit a friend in a town called Montmorillon (I went there about a month ago to celebrate her birthday).  I ended up sleeping over her house because she has an extra bedroom so why not?!  We made dinner, and when I say we, I really mean  that I watched her make dinner.  Spaghetti with an olive oil sauce with tomatoes and homemade meatballs.  It was really good and now I know a cheap way to make meatballs in France.  Well not exactly cheap…meat is so expensive here!  Chicken is about $7/lb and ground beef is $5/lb.  I just find that ridiculous.  For 2 pieces on boneless chicken, it costs about $5!  And people wonder why I eat so much pasta and bread!  Anyways, Stefanie and I watched a movie and talked a lot and then I headed out on Saturday afternoon.  I would have stayed longer but it was Jose’s birthday party on Saturday night.  The birthday party went well although it was a little awkward at times because not everyone knew each other and there were many different ‘clicks’ there.  And of course, I often feel like the awkwardly shy foreign girl.  I did have fun though and ate paella for the first time.  For those of you who don’t know, paella is a Spanish dish made with rice, peppers, tomatoes, seafood and/or chicken.  It was good (and that’s saying something for someone who doesn’t like sea food)!  After dinner we ended up playing a game called Mafia (the ‘mafia’ kills people during their sleep and the police have to guess who the mafia is).  The game was a tad bit complicated but I got the hang f it eventually.  It was good that we played the game though because it made everyone talk to one another!  Otherwise, that probably wouldn’t have happened.  I didn’t end up getting back to Bellac until 3:30 in the morning, it was quite the evening. 

I ended up staying awake until 5AM watching an online show and needless to say, I had no problem sleeping in on Sunday.  I slept until noon, which for those of you who know me, NEVER HAPPENS!!!  Sunday was spent watching shows on the internet, eventually I went for a run and lost an earring. I noticed in the beginning of my run that I had my earrings in but I was too lazy to bring them back to my room so I ran with them in and could hear them hitting against my headphones so every once in a while, I would become conscious that they were still there because I heard the noise.  I was back in my room when I realized I lost it and remembered hearing that they were still there within the last 5-10 minutes of my run.  So I decided to re-trace my steps…I walked for about 10 minutes and couldn’t find it so I turned around.  And apparently I missed it the first time around and I found it on the way back!  Woohoo, I was really happy because they were the earrings that Jordan gave me.  So I learned to not be lazy and if I realize that I have my earrings in while I am running, I need to take them out! 

I did some cooking on Sunday night and made pasta and some fried peppers for the week.  Something to spice up my pasta a little bit. 

Monday and Tuesday (today) have been average.  Classes are going fine, not awesome but not terrible.  The more I teach, the more aware I become with the major differences between the American and French education systems.  I really prefer the American way much more…but maybe that is because I am used to it.  The teacher/student relationships and completely, 100% different here.  For example, at the beginning of every class, the students wait in the hallway until the teacher arrives (normally in between classes, the teacher go to the teacher’s lounge).  When the teacher arrives and opens their door, the students wait to enter until the teacher says to ‘come in.’  After this, the students go to their seat and stand behind it.  They are not allowed to sit down until the teacher tells them to ‘sit down please’ and the teacher does not say this until the students are silent.  It is only then that they are allowed to sit down.  It is just so formal.  I would really like to shadow a student during a day to see how all of their classes go.  On top of all of the formalities, I also feel like the teacher’s are not available to the students for extra help like they are at home.  Teachers are only in their classrooms when they are teaching a class, they don’t just ‘hang out’ in their classroom because each teacher does not have his or her own classroom…they share (yet another thing I don’t like).  Meaning that if I was a student and I didn’t understand something, I either ask a teacher or I am S.O.L.  Maybe at the same time this could be a god thing…teaching the students self-responsibility?  I don’t know though, I would bend over backwards for a student who came to me for extra help.  The system is definitely different and I don’t care for it very much.  Maybe it will grow on me?

Alright, I think this is all for now.  I am just counting down the days until I get to see Jordan.  21 days!!!!  WOOHOO!!!!  I am unbelievably excited!!!! 

Un jour des sports!/ A Sports Day!

So yesterday was a Sports Day for me.  I only had one class (and it went really well because my students are actually well-behaved, intelligent, and participate and let me tell you, that does not happen often).  After lunch I played badminton with the student club.  Let’s just say that I am TERRIBLE at badminton and I couldn’t even serve the dang birdie in the beginning.  I would swing, drop the birdie right before I was going to serve and then would miss the birdie and it would fall to the ground.  It was bad.  AND THEN, we started doing drills and the coach/gym teacher was giving directions serve, short hit, long hit, SMASH (AKA SPIKE).  I WAS LUCKY IF I COULD HIT THE THING IN GENERAL.  Aiming…forget it.  And all of this was whatever because I was playing with the German Assistant Carina.  BUT THEN, everybody changed partners!  I was so terrible I felt bad for the other people who had to play with me.  I told the people I played with it was my first time playing and apologized before we even started.  They were all very nice and told me not to worry.  Now why on earth did I think it was a good idea to go to badminton in the first place?  I thought it was going to be just recreational and fun…nope these girls and boys were LEGIT!  On the other hand, I was the exact opposite of legit, I was a joke.  I think I had only played once or twice in my life at a picnic…of maybe never.  So after doing these awful drills with every person there and after failing, we then started playing games.  And she assigned teams.  When everyone started, she pulled me aside and taught me how to serve and I practiced on a court, by myself, and practiced.  Believe it or not, by the end of the 2 hours, I could serve and wasn’t missing the birdie anymore!   Improvement.  So, I played about 5 games and lost every single one but it was ok.  One game was close, there was another girl who also just started playing badminton a couple weeks ago.  She was very helpful and I was thankful for her.  She helped me as much as she could.  Let’s just say at the end of the two hours, I was sweating (who knew badminton was so tiring??) and very happy to leave!!!  I’ll probably go back next week and won’t give up quite yet.  It was fun even though I embarrassed the crap out of myself, but there was improvement and I am NOT a quitter…so I will go back and at least try give it one more shot.

THEN…a few hours later I went to the pool with Jose!  We already had this planned and we were both really excited to go.  I swam 70 laps…so after the conversion from meters to yards I believe I swam about 1900 yards…meaning about 76 laps in a yard pool.  Not too shabby.  Then I went into the hammam and sauna this time there weren’t any complications because I drank tons of water.  Saunas are supposed to be good for colds, and I’m not stuffy today so I think it helped!  Perfect.  Needless to say I was very tired last night after my busy day.

This brings us to today…I AM SO SORE.  My shoulders, my back, my butt, my legs…ugh everything.  J’ai mal partout (I hurt everywhere)!  I miss feeling like this!  I took some ibuprofen and feel a little better but still am super tight and sore.  I could really use a back rub right about now.  Too bad my dad or my boyfriend aren’t here right now!  I guess I will live.   

My 'Crib' or lack thereof.

So I realized I never posted pictures of my room and after thoroughly cleaning on Saturday morning I decided to take some pictures (no this is what my ideal room looks like--not what it looks like on a day-to-day basis).

So this is a picture of my room standing at the door.

Here is a picture on my desk with my computer, a picture of Jordan and I on our last date, the X-Ray of my lungs symbolizing me being a legal resident in France, and a map of "downtown" Bellac.

This is my wardrobe and this is where I hang the cards people send me and hang the post cards of the places I have visited (so far Paris, Madrid, and Lacanau).

This is my lovely twin bed and night stand.  It's nothing special, not comfortable but not uncomfortable either.  Notice the teddy bear that Jordan sent me :-)

This sink and medicine cabinet are in my room and are quite convenient.  The thing I don't like is that as of this moment, I don't have a kitchen, so I wash my face, brush my teeth, and wash my dishes all in the same sink and I find that disgusting. 

These are my scarves (the blue and pink one were only 1 euro...so like $1.45!!!) I use to decorate my walls...they are hanging on my "clothesline." 

So  this is my shower that is down the hall, pretty normal.  Thank God it is not one of the showers I had last time in France that was a glorified bathtub with a hose and shower head not attached to the wall forcing me to hose myself off like you would a dog.

This is the lovely toilet I use.  NOTICE--it has no toilet seat?  France what is wrong with you, is it that much more expensive to put a toilet seat on a toilet?  I just don't understand you sometimes!

To get even better, this is a sign on the back of the bathroom door saying "Prayer of throwing nothing in these toilets, neither cotton nor napkins, use the garbage can please."  So...my question is then--am I allowed to put toilet paper in the toilet?  I don't really care either way because I put it in the toilet...I refuse to put my toilet paper in a garbage can next to the toilet.  Abso-freakin-lutely not. 

So there it is, my lovely abode.  I feel like I am living in college again except with half the work.  Hope you enjoyed.

Really France? Riddle me this...

How does this happen...I bought these oranges a week prior, go away for a weekend and look what I came back to...

2 oranges and one green, moldy, disgusting, remnant of an orange.  AFTER ONLY ONE WEEK?!  And the other two are still perfectly fine but there is no way in hell I will put my hand in that bag to even attempt to even eat the other two. 

This is at least the 3rd time this has happened!!!  It has also happened to my pears and clememtines.  I hate wasting good fruit but I can only eat it so fast...AND PLUS--(maybe not pears but) oranges and clementines should last longer than a week!!!!  What the heck!!! 

GOOD NEWS AND THANKSGIVING

I am the bearer of good news.

A.)   I do not have to call another lender for my student loans until May or June and ALL of my loans (besides one) are either deferred or in forbearance…about 50 phone calls later.  That may be just a little bit of an exaggeration.  The one loan that I am still paying is the lowest payment of all of them so it’s no big deal.

B.)    I had a doctor’s appointment last week and am now a legal citizen or alien (of whatever it is that I am) in France.  I don’t have to deal with any more visa stuff and can now get a French social security number and sign up for health care!  And another plus is that I can't get deported and can leave the country as I please.

C.)    Jordan will be in France in 25 days and I get to spend Christmas in Rome and New Years in Paris (with a stop in Venice in between).  While it sucks that I won’t be ‘home for Christmas,’ I know I am going to be having a blast across the pond and I am really excited!  

SO…today is a good day (even though I am catching a cold, feel like crap, and repeated myself about 100x today during my 2 classes at the middle school today).  I taught about the basics of Thanksgiving (I wish I could explain it in more details but I am lucky they understood the basics).  It was a fun lesson because I acted out Thanksgiving pretending I was a Pilgrim (ex. “No no no, I do not want to be Catholic because I am Protestant).  After we spoke about the history of thanksgiving, I explained that Thanksgiving is the day when we recognize and say thank you for our friends, family, and the food we eat (they don’t understand the word blessing and I tried to not make the lesson too ‘religious’). 

Today is a day where I don’t have class from 12:10 until 4:30.  I eat lunch and then waste my next few hours.  I really hate waiting just to teach one class, not that I really have anything to do, but I feel like that one class just hangs over my head and I wait and wait and wait for it to come.  Yuck.  But in general, my schedule is pretty awesome, I don’t work Monday mornings or Fridays so I guess I can’t complain too much.

Ok, I suppose I should get ready for class now and get all my papers together.  Class is in 15 minutes.  Here we go…Thanksgiving round 4 for the day. 

Lazy yet Productive Weekend!

Hello everyone.  I haven’t been very good at posting but what else is new?  This week went by fast just like every week does.  One general observation that I think you should know: I am doing well.  I am proud of myself for being here and even prouder that I am happy about it.  I am beginning to feel comfortable (granted I often still feel like the awkward foreigner) with my daily life…French culture, food, speaking, my meal times, everything.  I feel like I am getting into a routine and I love routine.  Yes of course I like a little spontaneity in my life as times but I also like having a flexible game plan.  I’m not home sick or America-sick…not yet although I do miss certain things but that’s normal…family, friends, the boyfriend, and before I would have said that I missed normal life…but my life here is finally getting normal and it’s refreshing!

Teaching is going fine, nothing new to really report about that.  This week I am going to teach about Thanksgiving in one way or another (I probably should start planning)!

A funny story… so last Friday Jose and I went to lunch around 1.  Lunch starts at 12 and ends at 1:30, or at least so we though.  At 1 we went to go get some lunch at the cafeteria and the workers weren’t there.  So one of the servers comes and asks “D’où venez-vous?” which literally means “From where are you coming OR from where do you come.”  When people want to know where I am from they ask me this question the translation being ‘Where do you come from?’  So I told the worker I am from the United States, from New York State.  And he says ‘ok’ with a weird look on his face.  Then he continues to say well we close at 1, this is the last time you come right at 1.  We apologized and went to go sit down laughing the whole way back.  When the guy asked me “d’où venez-vous” he literally meant ‘where are you coming from’ NOT ‘where do you come from’…so he wanted to know why we were late and where we came from and I told him I was from the United States, from New York to be exact.  So technically I answered his question, just not with the answer that he wanted.  I was embarrassed but I also thought it was funny…and Jose thought it was hilarious and we made fun of me the entirety of lunch.  I felt like an idiot, but whatever, I was the dumb foreigner once again.  Oh well, it happens.

So this weekend was super relaxing for me.  It was the first weekend that I spent both nights in my own bed and didn’t visit another town!  Friday was super productive; I went to the post office to send my health care information in so soon I will have a French social security number and health insurance shortly.  I also went to the bank so I can sign up my French bank account with PayPal meaning that I can use PayPal to transfer money FOR FREE from my French bank account to my US bank account!  (A big shout out to Aunt Lori for telling me to check into using PayPal)!  I also went for a run and spoke to my dad on Skype (which doesn’t happen often because Skype doesn’t work after 4PM US time and he is just getting home from work at 4…and now its hunting season so he’s not home on the weekends either)!  Friday night I went to Bingo with Jose.  It was a fundraiser for a private middle school is Bellac.  It was a fail, neither of us won but of well.  The prizes were a little odd…a hair dryer, a digital camera, a crepe maker, a charcoal grill, a humidifier, some other things I didn’t understand and the grand prize being a dishwasher!  (WHAT?  Who has dishwashers as prizes?).  Regardless I had fun even though Bingo went until 11:30 and it got quite boring by the end!  I then got home and somehow got a second wind and watched what I thought was an “Private Practice,”  apparently it was a 2 hour episode so I didn’t get to bed until 3!  No biggie though seeing as I had nothing to do on Saturday!

Now moving on to Saturday…Saturday I woke up at 11:30 and started cleaning my room…hard core cleaning.  Wiping every surface, sweeping, mopping (including moving everything on the floor in the hallway, etc), I then went for a run, did CORE stuff, and showered.  By this time it was around 5 and at 6 I headed to Limoges with Jose to see a movie with him and some of his friends.  We went to see “Moneyball” the movie with Brad Pitt.  We met up with 2 Mexican girls and a French guy and about halfway through the movie, the screen went blank!  After waiting for 20 minutes we were told they had an electrical problem and that we can either get reimbursed or watch another movie.  So, we got reimbursed and decided to go to an Irish pub for a drink.  We then went to one of the Mexican girl and the French guy (later found out they just got married!) apartment for dinner and we had tacos with HOMEMADE MEXICAN TORTILLA!!!!   I watched the whole process and let me tell you, homemade tortilla is so much better than store bought tortillas!  By the time we finished dinner and stopped chatting we didn’t get home until around 2!  And that brings us to Sunday…

Sunday AKA today I didn’t do much.  I went to the grocery store and bought all of way too much.  I learned that as I was sweating and dying carrying 2 oversized, filled grocery bags back to my room.  The reason why I bought so much is that Jose and I went snooping and found some pots and pans so now I can use the hot plate that one of the teacher’s gave me!  So today was spent making lunch (pasta with pesto sauce and fresh bread dipped in olive oil with salt and pepper.  Delicious.  Then I made a bunch of pasta to last me through the week and then cooked some chicken to put on my salad.  For dinner, I then made 2 grilled cheese sandwiches, a delicious salad and had some of my bread/olive oil concoction.  By the time I ate my grilled cheese sandwiches I didn’t have room for my salad and am saving it for tomorrow.  Besides cooking, the only other thing I did today was Skype with my mommy for a while, went for a run, and showered.  I am really glad I had a chill weekend.  A weekends like this are just needed every once in a while.  And considering, I wasn’t even ‘chill’ or ‘lazy,’ I would say I was pretty productive!  I wasn’t just lying in bed or watching TV…I was mostly busy, just busy in my room as opposed to exploring another town.   Well I guess that’s all for now.  I am going to be posting pictures of my room (obviously post cleaning!) soon because I don’t think I’ve ever posted pictures of my room!  Hopefully I will write again soon and stay disciplined! 

A Weekend Trip to the Atlantic Coast

Well I have been a bad girl and haven’t written in a while!  It all started when I went away this weekend and didn’t start blogging.  Once it’s not fresh in my memory I get lazy and don’t feel like catching up!  But here it goes…

Friday morning I left early to go to Lacanau—a town on the west/Atlantic coast of France!  It’s a little weird to say that I went to the west coast but was still looking at the Atlantic ocean!  I went with 2 French girls which is the best part!!!!  I’m making friends…I’m not a loser after all!  Haha.  The one girl found me on facebook because she went to the high school I teach at and wants to practice her English.   Her name is Elisa…and then Elisa invited her friend Elodie with us (she is going to college to be a Spanish teacher)!  So Friday they both met at my school at 8:30 AM.  We stopped at about 10 to get groceries for the weekend and continued about an hour or so to a town called Blaye.

 (*Side note: on the way there I didn’t understand what they were saying quite often and wondered what I got myself into!  They spoke SO FAST and used words that I don’t know.  When I speak, I speak like a professor or old person because I know formal French…thus, informal French gets a bit tricky!  With this said, I often had no idea what we were doing or where we were going…I was the dumb kid in the back seat most of the time…I think they gave my French too much credit!! Keep reading to find out more about my French level/comprehension.

 Blaye is a citadel and kind of reminds me of Fort Niagara.  It was cool—but there wasn’t too much to see and it was kind of boring once we walked around.  It wasn’t very informational, but was cool nonetheless.  We then ate our picnic style lunch (sandwiches and clementines) and went back on the road.  We stopped at a few tourist viewpoints to take pictures and stopped at one winery or shall I say chateaux OR in English- CASTLE!  I learned that wineries in the Bordeaux region, AKA where I was, are all called Chateaux, so if you are looking to buy a Bordeaux wine they all say Chateaux because it means winery…learn something new every day!  Elisa and Elodie don’t like wine so we opted not to wine taste.   I didn’t want to be the only lush and ‘good’ Bordeaux wine is dry and red…and I prefer sweet wine, so I’d probably be offensive if I told them I only want to try the sweeter wines seeing as that is considered as bad wine and isn’t their specialty.  Next thing you know (2 hours later), we were back at Blaye…I eventually figured out that we were going to take a ferry across the Gironde river (see map above) to get to Lacanau.  (Well actually first I thought we were taking the ferry to visit the other side and then I realized that the car was coming with us)!  The river was an ugly brown color.  So it was 5PM by this point so apparently we were just wasting time driving along until the next ferry crossed…who knew??  Not me, that’s for sure. 

(Picture above right is taken from the outside of te citadel- that is the wall that protects the fort from intruders.  Pitcure above left is a picture of the complex layers of the citadel making it difficult for intruders to cross ).


After this we continued to Lacanau and found our aparthotel (hotel that is made of apartments).  We checked in after we waited in line for thirty minutes (welcome to France where everything is slower) and found our room.  We then dropped our stuff and went straight to the ocean.  The sun just set so it was dark but we could still see.  It was very pretty but my camera didn’t take very good pictures so we didn’t get the full effect into morning when we walked on the beach a little more.

(Picture above: it's hard to tell where the water ends and the sky begins, it was much prettier in person and the colors were a lot more vibrant).

Ok time out for now, I have to go teach at the middle school even though I’d prefer to finish my recap of the weekend’s events.  To Be Continued.

Now we are onto Saturday.  Saturday we woke up semi-early (8:30) and did another tour of the beach.  Now you can see the beach in all it's glory.

(Picture above: the waves were HUGE and people were surfing on the ocean! It was really cool. On Lacanau lake, there was a wind surfing competition that we saw in passing, it was realy cool to see a bunch of wind surfing boarder things on the lake all in a compact area).

(Picture below: At Cap Ferret, you can see bluer water than Lacanau and you can also see the dunes in the background!)

 Later on we went to Cap Ferret, another town on the coast about an hour and a half away.  It was really pretty there and the water was bluer than in Lacanau.  From what I understood, Lacanau is sort of an inlet or a bigger cove type thing so the water isn’t a blue as in other places.  From Cap Ferret I saw “Les Dunes de Pilat” across the river…basically a big sand dune.  We decided it’s better to go to Cap Ferret (see map above) and see the dunes across the river than to go to the dunes themselves because other than trekking up to the dunes there isn’t much else to see.  After walking the coast a little bit we started the trek back and stopped at a few viewpoints to take pictures.  When we got back (and I felt car sick—as always), we watched a movie (in French), made dinner and then watched another movie that I politely slept through.  I normally fall asleep during movies and then you put them in French and it’s ten times easier to fall asleep.  And especially after only listening and speaking French all day, my brain gets tired quickly! 

I just realized I forgot a CRUCIAL part!  On Friday night they made crepes!  Our dinner crepes were ham and cheese and then we had dessert crepes with Nutella!  YUM YUM.  I am curious to try and make crepes when I get home…it seems super easy.  3 eggs, 250 grams of flour (but they didn’t measure) and then add milk until it’s pretty thin! And then cook!  They probably made it look a lot easier than it was, it will probably be a disaster if I try but I am sure it will be worth it!

Now to Sunday…we slept in until about 10, went to the grocery store to buy bread, (grocery stores in France are only open Sunday mornings and then close for the afternoon…they really take Sunday is the day of rest to heart), said our final goodbyes to the ocean and beach and started our trek home.  We ended up stopping in a few cities to look at the beach and then stopped at Fort Médoc…basically a French Fort Niagara.  It was ok, was pretty cheap, and we picnicked there and it broke up our trip a little.  As we continued we went down a road in Bordeaux where all the famous chateaux are located!  They looked awesome from the outside and I am sure they were (BUT it was Sunday and working on a Sunday…what’s that?  Obviously they were closed) but we didn’t stop!  Maybe I’ll go back at some point, maybe not though!  Who knows?!  So we started out trek around noon and I got back to Bellac at 7PM.  The drive was only 4.5 hours but we stopped a lot.  Basically by the end I was sick of being in a car and just wanted to get back!  I am not a big fan of road trips in general, and French roads (AKA me being car sick) and speaking French for a whole weekend get difficult real quick. 

In summary, I am completely glad I went and got to see the Atlantic coast.  It was nice and it was a cheap weekend (70 euros including 2 nights in a hotel, 6 meals, and gas for the weekend) which is always awesome.  AND—by the end of the weekend I understood a lot more than I did on the way there.  It’s crazy how just one weekend with native speakers hlped my comprehension.  Also, by the end of the weekend I was speaking a lot more because I was more comfortable and confident!  Yay French—I actually felt like I am fulfilling my purpose of coming here…to improve my French!  SCORE!   

(Picture above: this is a picture of one of the MANY apartment/hotel buildings on the resort. Some people own their room, some are rented like hotel rooms, while others have time shares!  For 12.50 euro/night, I couldn't go wrong.  This was the last weekend that the complex was open meaning that tourist season is officially over.  I am sure Lacanau would be a bumping place in summer!  Definitely somewhere I would want to go if I ever return to France in summer.  Someday that will happen...)

Happy Wednesday to Me!

Hello everyone, just wanted to share with you my awesome day.

First of all, as you probably don’t remember, on Wednesdays, French students only go to school is the morning and have the afternoon off.  I don’t know why, that’s just how it is.  Instead, some schools have classes on Saturday morning (not mine thank God)!  So normally on Wednesdays I either have 1 or 2 classes depending on if its an A or B week.  Today I was supposed to have one.  I went to my one and only class today at 9AM and waited…and waited…and no one came.  I then reported to the attendance office to tell them and after ten minutes, I was informed not to worry and that they were probably taking a “BAC blanc” test.  (Side note: the BAC is our equivalent of the SAT.  Except it’s really not equivalent at all.  It’s MUCH harder, incorporates all subjects, and if students don’t pass the test-they don’t pass high school.  On the contrary, if they do pass, they can attend any public university in France for free!  At least from what I understand).  Point being, I didn’t have to teach at all today!  And it figures that this class that I didn’t teach today is my favorite class!  They have a better vocabulary than the rest of my classes and they are very nice. 

On top of having my only class cancelled today, it was a beautiful day...about 65 degrees and a beautiful fall day.  I watched a movie, ate lunch, took a nap, and then went outside and wrote some letters on a park bench.  Leaves covered the ground and the sun was shining through the trees, it was just perfect.  The weather this far has been nicer than at home.  On a normal day it’s about 50.  I’ve only worn my winter coat 2 times and I was almost too warm wearing it.  I just don’t have many choices for coats…seeing as I didn’t bring any and only bought one!

Lastly, I went to the pool today with Jose in a neighboring town.  The pool facility was pretty awesome.  It had a large locker room with free lockers (well 1euro deposit that you get back!), showers, a shallow pool with jets you can sit on, a regular competition pool, and then a hammam and a sauna.  The way I describe a hammam is a moist heat.   When I think of a sauna, I think of dry heat.  Who knows if that is an accurate description or not!  Jordan told me that saunas can be moist.  Who knows?  I decided to make a tour of the facility starting by relaxing on the jets, swimming 50 laps, then going into the hammam for 10 minutes, take a shower, then go into the sauna for 5.  Well apparently that was too much for my body because I got very dizzy and my vision started getting dark and blurry.  I sat down for a few minutes and then was ok to continue to go to the locker room.  When I got to the locker room I was trying to open my locker and I couldn’t because my vision went completely black.  Luckily Jose was there and led me to a seat and got me my water out of my locker.  Basically I was an idiot and was so dehydrated it started shutting down.  After I drank my water bottle my vision came back and I felt better.  I was really scared but luckily I wasn’t all alone.  So I learned a huge lesson today, DRINKING WATER IS SUPER IMPORTANT.  I will always make sure I drink water before, during, and after I am at the pool from now on.  I am excited to start swimming again…I miss the pool.  Granted, I am in super terrible shape right now but whatever, it’s good for my physical and my mental health.  The pool washes all of my problems away and I come back less stressed and in a better state of mind.  Can’t wait to go back next Wednesday!

Great Wednesday overall (minus the whole passing out thing)!  Whoops...I learned my lesson the hard way!