TGIF!

I am so glad it is Friday!! This week had been really long, and I have not been feeling well either. Plus the kids have been so loud and misbehaved. I also gave them all a test this week, which probably made it even worse.

I think it all started with the time change Saturday night. Now it doesn’t get dark until almost 8:30! It has really thrown me off this week. I think that is the latest it has ever stayed light anywhere I have lived and that it in the middle of summer. It is going to be really weird this summer when it is light until 10 pm.

On Monday I had a very embarrassing moment in one of my classes. We were reviewing the parts of the body, and I wanted to kids to show me the words I was saying. I attempted to say “Montrez-moi,” which is show me, but instead it came out “Montez-moi.” Only one letter different, but inside of asking them to show me I told them to climb me. I then had 15 kids staring at me. I think they were trying to decide if I really meant to say that. The little troublemaker kid just sat there smirking at me, and he asked, “what” so I then said it again. Then there was a kid in the back who said “monTREZ-moi.” Then everyone laughed at me. I am sure it is a story they will remember for a long time. They will say, "Remember the crazy American girl told us to climb on her!"

Then on Wednesday I had to do laundry, but it seems that three homeless guys have taken up living in the Laundromat. Last week they were in there when Sarah was doing her laundry with a big 5-liter barrel of wine at about 11 am. They proceeded to tell her their life stories. I guess they are from Poland, and it is two brothers and a friend. They told her they were trying to find work, but apparently they are not trying very hard. This time when I went in they were sleeping in the only chairs available, so I have to stand while I did my laundry listening to them snore for an hour and a half. By the end I was a little nauseous from the horrible smell coming from them. I hope by the next time I have to do laundry they have moved on because I don’t know if I can take the smell again!!

Tomorrow I have a meeting with all the other English teachers. Matt, the other American assistant, and I are giving a presentation on a lesson plan for teaching sports we have come up with. We thought we would give a little explanation of football as a cultural aspect. I am not sure how that will go over in a room of European women, but we will give it a try!!

Finalizing My Plans

Well, it only took over two weeks, but I have finally finished putting up all my pictures from my trip on my Web site. So check them out…

I now have less than three weeks before my next big trip, and I think I have it almost all figured out now. I bought a Eurail Pass, which offers me 7 days of travel anywhere in Spain, France or Italy. When I bought it I thought it would take care of all my travel expenses, but I was wrong. For all the trains we want to take we had to make a reservation, which of course costs more money.

So Sarah and I went to the train station today, and we were at the window for about a half an hour. Needless to say the people behind us in line were not too happy. The first train we wanted was fully booked, so we had to take the train the next day. That in turn changed all of our hostel bookings, so in the end we had to pay about 85 more euros for our travels (on top of the 220 euros we already paid for the pass) and deal with changing or hostels. We are still waiting to hear back from the hostels about changing our dates. Hopefully it won’t be too big of a deal because we gave them about three weeks notice.

I am just glad that we almost have everything finished now. I know it will all be worth it in the end, and we will have a great time. I am just going to have to eat bread and cheese until we leave, so I can afford this trip!

Random Happenings

There has been some crazy weather here in France the past couple of days. Last week it was beautiful, sunny with the highs in the 60’s, and this week it has been snowing off and on since Sunday!!!! At least nothing is sticking, so the snow isn’t too bad. Right now it looks like a blizzard outside.

I read in the paper that this year has actually been the mildest winter in recorded history for this area. It seems all the bad weather has stayed in the US.

Today I have been working on planning my next big trip. I am going to Barcelona, Rome, and Venice in April. It will be another trip with lots of traveling, but it will be nice to go to some different countries. This afternoon Sarah and I went to FNAC, THE bookstore in France, and bought guidebooks for Rome and Venice (she already had one for Barcelona). I am getting very excited.

We haven’t planned any other trips before then because we are trying to save our money for this trip. It has been kind of nice just to have some down time. We only have about three weeks before we go…YEA.

Teaching has been going all right. We have been doing the parts of the body for the past week and a half. There have been some problems grasping the concept that you don’t pronounce the “k” in knee and it is mouth and not mouse. The “th” sound is really hard for the French to pronounce, so I have them really stick their tongues out and between their teeth, so I end up getting covered in spit. I have to make sure I stand far away.

Now it has stopped snowing and the sun is shining. It reminds me a lot of good, old Colorado weather!

Snails!!!!!

I am one step closer to experiencing all that France has to offer.

Yesterday was Sarah’s birthday, so we went out for dinner. She ordered escargot, and I gave them a try. I was not impressed at all! They have a very weird rubbery texture, and I think they tasted like dirt. I thought of flower gardens and soil the whole time I was chewing.

Here is some photographic evidence…



Here goes nothing…



Don’t think I will be eating more snails any time soon!


Look below for more evidence of me slowing becoming more French than American!!!

A little recap

I realized that I never wrote about the rugby game I went to a couple of weeks ago…so here it goes.

We had a great time. The game didn’t start until 9 p.m., so before we went to an English pub near the Champs Elysées to watch some of the other games that were going on the day. When we were leaving we went by a hotel, and the entire Welsh rugby team was leaving to go to the game. It was really exciting, but I just wished I actually knew who the players were!!

When we arrived at the stadium we decided we had to buy a beret. It seemed that is what all the French fans wear. It was funny because the mascot of the French national team is a rooster, so the beret has a little rooster on it. We had a lot of fun taking pictures of ourselves in the crazy hats.

I enjoyed the game, and by the end understood everything that was going on. In the end France beat Wales 32-21.

Below are some pictures from the game. Also I have been working on all the pictures from my trip today. I have updated my Web page with all the pictures from my Paris weekend, Nice, Monaco and San Remo. I will continue working on the others. Hopefully I will have them all up soon!




The Welsh team, and a very excited fan, leaving their hotel before the game.



Singing of the national anthems



The rugby action



I guess I wasn’t quite sure about the beret yet.



It didn't take long for me to realize how cool wearing a beret really is! We look so French!



All smiles at the end of the game…sadly, the beret was a little tight on my head, so I had to trade it for another hat by the end of the night.

I'm back...

Well…I finally made it home just after 2 a.m. last night, after a very long day of traveling.

It was a great trip. We covered a lot of ground, but also saw a whole lot. The weather was incredible except for one morning of rain while we were on Corsica. The only bad thing was having to carry our stuff everywhere. Most train and bus stations have taken out all of their lockers for security reasons, so we didn’t have anywhere to leave it.

Last Sunday we left Nice and headed down to Aix-En-Provence, to stay with Mandy’s friend from school. I really like it there. It was different than the rest of France. It definitely had a "South of France" feel with more stone and adobe type houses.

On Monday we went to Marseille. I was not thoroughly impressed with it. It is the second largest city and France, so it was really busy and dirty. We did take the little tourist train up to a church on a hill overlooking the city. That was a lot of fun, and the view from the top was excellent. You could see all of Marseille, all the way from the mountains to the sea.

That night we took the ferry over to Ajaccio on Corsica. It was a long night because it was hard to sleep on the ferry. We were going to take a train to the top of the island where we were staying. They are working on the tracks, so they have taken all train routes and changed them to buses. It was probably better that we were on the bus because we were able to see a whole lot more. I was amazed at the scenery of Corsica. I didn’t know it, but they have mountains that are over 6,000 feet tall. We left Ajaccio and within about 25 or 30 minutes we were already in the mountains, which still had some snow.

The bus ride was almost 3 hours, but well worth it because I got to see a great deal of the island. While on Corsica we stayed in Ile Rousse. From there we visited Calvi and Bastia. All these places were little city with great beaches and a little port. Everything was really quiet because it was still the off-season. It was both good and bad. It was nice that it was relaxing, but there were also a lot of places that hadn’t even opened yet.

On Thursday night we took the ferry back from Bastia to Toulon, and from there we went back to Nice to fly into Bale. We actually landed just after 9 pm, but we had to wait for the next train back to Belfort, which wasn’t until 1 am.

Although I am still sore and tired I had a good time!!!! I really enjoyed seeing another region of France. I took so many pictures I don’t even know where to start with them. I will put them up as soon as I am finished. I know what I will be doing all week!!!!

Now it is time for me to go back to school. I have another 5 weeks before I have another two-week break. It really isn't TOO long. (Although it seems like it rigth now.)

Livin' It Up Down South...

I have been in the South of France for two full days now, and I am having a great time! Nice is in fact really "nice"! Tonight we are going to the last parade for Carnival. There should be lots going on.

Yesterday we went to Monaco. It was amazing because you can see pretty much the entire country from the top of a little hill. It was also really interesting to see all the really expensive cars. I have never seen so many Ferraris, Mercedes, and Porches in one place! The weather was so nice we even went to the beach and put our feet in the very cold water.

Today we went up the coast into Italy. It was the first time I have ever been to Italy, and I wasn't disappointed. The weather was once again fantastic, so we walked all around the old town and up to a church on a hill for some more fantastic views!

Tomorrow we are headed down the coast to St. Tropez and Marseilles. Then on to Corsica at the beginning of the week.

It is hard to believe I still have another week of vacation!