12/2

Teaching today was great. All of my classes went super. I’m really starting to get to know each of the classes and understanding what works best in each class. Games seem to be the best in every class and stickers work amazingly for the young one. In some of my classes I started with days of the week and months of the year and in my other classes I finished up the lesson from last week, which was numbers. For some reason the numbers 12-15 are the hardest for them to say and remember in all of the grades. But today is the first Thursday where I wasn’t worn-out by the end of the day. Not to mention the snow really helped as well. It’s been snowing for 2 days now, on and off. Nothing is sticking but it’s still really nice to see it coming down. Really makes it feel like Christmas.  

12/1 Rabbit Rabbit

WOW can’t believe it’s already December! I’ve been in France for 2 whole months.

Charlotte and I needed to get out of Laval for the day. As much as I really love Laval, it can get kinda boring and old really quickly. Our friend Liz went to Vitré a few weeks ago and loved it. It’s only a 20 minute train ride west from Laval and about 8 Euros for a round trip. The town is super cute; it looks like an old ski resort town. All the buildings are old and rustic looking. It was also snowing that day so it made it that much more enjoyable and picturesque. 

OK so there was this room in the castle with a bunch of dead animals. It was creepy, but they stuffed these frogs and put them in such funny poses. Kinda creepy and kinda funny at the same time, but at one point these where actaul living frogs....

11/30

Class cancelled! YEHA! I know right, how lucky am I. I only work about 8 hours a week and one class gets cancelled so now I have to work 7 hours. Sometimes life is so hard here in France… hahaha jkjkjk. So what did I do with a whole Tuesday off you ask! I made turkey soup and homemade bread.  We actually had quite a bit of turkey left over and I decided since I tackled a whole turkey, why couldn’t I make turkey soup too. The task was really quite daunting at first but all in all the soup came out amazing and everyone really loved it. I also bought way too much flour for the big dinner and I needed to use it so I made about 40 dinner rolls to go with the soup.  Great dinner!

11/29

Video teaching is the worst thing every invented! The worst! I can promise you this. My friend Sarah and I work together for our video conference. They paired up all the primary English assistants to work together on the video conference. Each group has a middle school out in the middle of rural France. The first class we have is probably the equivalent of 7^th grade and they think they are so cool. They think they are too cool to talk in English and participate, and that they have the ability to talk whenever they want to. Get this, there is an actual teacher in the room and she is no help. I’m telling you guys it the most frustrating experience. The kids are constantly talking, they don’t listen to me or Sarah, and their actual teacher won’t even try and get them to listen, she is too busy worrying about the clicker (control that operates the TV).  So here is a little background on the actual conference set-up, it’s like a fancy skype system. On our TV screen we have a picture of the whole class and a picture of me and Sarah. So this teacher that they have finds it necessary to hold the clicker the whole time and when every a child is answering a question she feels it necessary to zoom in directly on the child’s face.  Now you may think this is helpful to us but it’s NOT. Because the class is so noisy and she won’t stop them, we find it difficult to see who the actual culprits are, not to mention she goes so fast with the clicker from one kids face to another, it makes me sea sick. It’s the most annoying thing in the world, constantly going left to right or up and down. I would never recommend this for any school system anywhere.

OK, so I know there are a lot of pictures, but there are so many more and I couldn't decide which ones I wanted so I just put a lot.

This one is Charlotte and all the ingredients that go into the stuffing that my friend Robin chopped up for me.

Theses are the pumpkin pies that Robin made from a actual pumpkin. So I called my mom at 6am on a Sunday morning about these pumpkin pies. Robin and I were getting worried because they had been in the oven for over an hour and they still were really soupie in the middle but they turned out great. Sorry mom about that early wake up call but it really was a pumpkin pie emergency. lol

This is turkey #1, not to be confused with turkey #2. Turkey #2 was chopped down the middle.

This is turkey #2 all finished. I also called my mom a few more times after the pumpkin incident to get more instructions on cooking 2 turkeys at one time in a small french over. The result was that I ended up taking out the bottom rack and rested the actual pan on the floor of the oven and putting the second bird on the middle shelf and rotating each turkeys every half hour. I also put the birds in at 1 pm thinking they would be done by 3pm but they weren't. They were cut and ready to eat by 5pm.

My friend Doug helping me out!

We had tons of food, this it the list of food and who made what:  

Turkey:Jen

Mash potatoes: Sibel and Michelle

Sweet potatoes: Liz, Laura K

Neaps n’tatties (turnips and potatoes): Charlotte

Potato Pancakes: Alicia

Peas: Laura

Carrots: Laura

String beans: Stephanie

Corn: Jen

Stuffing: Jen

Mac n’cheese: Sarah, Anna

Special brussel sprout dish with bacon: Sibel and Michelle

Cranberry sauce: Liz

Gravy: Jen

Rolls: Doug

Corn bread: Liz, Stephanie

Robin made name tags of all the food with both the English and French translation.

Mom the stuffing turned out great!

There was about 25 of us there!

All the desserts, here is the list and who made what:

Pumpkin pie: Robin

Apple pie: Jen

Vanilla Ice cream: Maiten

Apple Crumble: Doug

Cake : Liz

So this is my apple pie, and yes that bottom corner is my other apple pie that i sorta left in the oven for too long! The crust was just a little crunchy.

It was a great dinner but I know know what most mothers go through and why Thanksgiving is luckily only once a year!

11/27

Time to buy the turkey! So Charlotte and Liz went with me to pick up the turkey that I ordered earlier this week. I made sure that we got there kinda early, I really had no clue what to expect, and I was preparing for the worst. I wanted to give us enough time, so if for some reason the turkey still had all its feathers on it they could take them off or if they gave us some crazy looking thing I could get something else instead. But fortunately everything was good. They didn’t have a big enough bird so they gave us 2 four kilo turkeys. Unfortunately they still had their heads on them. At this point I would like to thank my dad for preparing me as a child for what I witnessed at the butcher shop. I kindly asked the butcher if he could cut off the heads. At that point he whipped out this HUGE cleaver and then Charlotte and Liz went running out of the butcher shop. Yes Dad, your years of hunting and hanging dead animals around our house have come into handy. I’m not saying I enjoyed the beheading, because I didn’t but the French butcher did make fun of my 2 friends for running out of the shop as fast as they could and not me. So thanks again dad. The birds both weighed a little more than 4 kilos a piece and together they both cost around 80 Euros. So the three of us walked 30 minutes home with 16 pounds of turkey. Once we got home we then ran into the problem of storing the birds. Both Liz and I had to rearrange our little mini fridges and take our shelves out in order to fit them and then we each took a bird.  

Christmas Lights and Fireworks

So for the past month or so the little city of Laval has been hard at work putting up lights all over the city. They have stuff hanging from trees, these crazy looking circles in the river, and they put up a huge frame over the bridge to hang lights. They really went crazy; I mean there isn’t a place in Laval that doesn’t have some type of light hanging from it. So I was getting kinda of excited and on top of that all the Frenchies kept saying how great these lights are.  At 5:30 we all walked down to the little light show.  (oh btw, (dad this means “by the way” I know you’re not all up on this high tech stuff…hahaha) its freezing here in France, so I tend to wear many layers, this night was no exception, tights, leggings, jeans, long sleeve shirts, t-shirts, sweater, fleece, a big jacket, scarf, gloves, and a hat…. I’m definitely not used to this weather and everyone else makes fun of me cause everyone else is from a place in the cold. Canada, England, Scotland, and Milwaukie. ) They started off the lighting ceremony with about 15 minutes of fireworks. They were good, the fireworks didn’t go that high but they were pretty decent. Then came the lights, I think these pictures explain it all. They are super tacky and they look like aliens saucers.      

11/25 Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! It was great to skype with you all today!

11/24 baked ziti

Made dinner for my friends tonight, baked ziti and then for dessert I did a dry run on the apple pie to prepare myself for Thanksgiving. Both turned out great, I used white sugar for the apple pie instead of brown sugar.  Also, funny story, British people have no clue what baked ziti is. No clue. I had to repeat the name of the dish like 10 times and still they called it everything else but it’s actual name. Charlotte (Scottish) kept calling it noodle city and Laura (England) could not comprehend the word ziti if her life depended on it. They both kept asking, “What is a ziti?” I tried to explain to them but I still pretty sure they have no clue what the dish is called. Oh well they both still really enjoyed it.

11/23 Turkey madness!

Ok, so I finally spoke with a turkey farmer from a local butcher shop, this isn’t the one who I called over the weekend, but she has a turkey for me and its 6kg at 9,90 Euros a kilo. In American dollars/weight the turkey will be about 13.23 pounds and cost us 90-100 US dollars. OMG! This is turning into one very expensive Thanksgiving. And I have no clue if this will be enough turkey for 25 people. Yes there are 25 people attending this dinner. I’m just thinking about ordering a Turkey over in the States and then having it shipped over because I think it still will be cheaper and I’ll probably get a big enough turkey. Lol 

11/22 Thank You Grandmere

I want to dedicate this blog to my lovely grandmere (side note: that’s French for grandmother, and I’m not just writing that cause I’m in France now, I actually call her that all the time). But she has sent me so many cards and so many pictures and it’s really great to check my mailbox and find mail and especially great when there are pictures in it. Grandmere, I just got your card today and it has made my day, I can’t wait to put the pictures up tonight. I’m so happy that you found some old ones too and I love the picture of Pokey and Buddy. I forgot to bring one so it’s nice to have that photo.  Thanks again!

11/20

So I called the turkey farm today to reserve my turkey. My friend Sarah and I prepared for about a half hour on all our French turkey questions. It was real education; I can pretty much ask a turkey farmer anything in French. But anyway I finally got up the nerve to call and guess what?  Nobody picks up, so naturally I hang-up during the voice mail. I wasn’t prepared for this so I then wrote out a formal French voice mail and called again and left the message. Hopefully I’ll hear back soon. The French aren’t big on returning calls so I might have to call them again on Monday.

Later that night, after the turkey call, my friends and I went to our very first French house party. It was very interesting… really similar to American house parties with a little twist.

·         The guys who live there, kept the place like that of a typical house of American boys…it was a dump. check

·         There was plenty of alcohol for all. Check

·         Music. it was ok... Check

·         Fog machine. No-check… I have never been to a party with a fog machine that wasn’t for 8 year olds on Halloween, but that’s just me.

·          Beer pong… half-check… yes people were playing beer pong but it wasn’t the correct way. First of all they didn’t have the proper red SOLO cups or even the proper size cup. It was way too small. Then they filled the beer to high in the little cup, this was their second mistake. They also only used 3 cups; usually it’s a 6 cup game or 10 cup. There was no water cups to clean the ball off after it hits the floor (Don’t want to get any germs or dirt in the beer…lol!)  They only used one ball during the game and it is typically played with 2 and it gets worse, they don’t even know really how to play, yes they were trying to get the ball in the cup but you are supposed to take turns with your partner and they don’t. Now my friend Liz (she is an American from Milwaukee) and I felt it extremely necessary to educate the fine French folk on the proper rules and regulations of the game. Well it went completely lost in translation and the French still don’t know how to play appropriately. But oh well.

Other than that it was a good time and we all left with tons of stories

Oh... Grandmere, Anne, Yvonne, and Sara it was great to skype with all of you! Missed you all tons and wished I could have been there.

11/19 Happy 30th Sara!

Happy Birthday to my other cousin Sarah!

11/18 Happy Birthday Caitlin!

Happy Birthday to my little cousin Caitlin!

11/18 teaching!

Wow probably the most frustrating day teaching. It started off all wrong. I was in my Marcel Pagnol in my CM2 class (about 5^th/6^th grade), and the first question out of my mouth to a girl in the front was, “What’s your name?”  And then nothing…. Nada… Completely blank. Now I’m not being hard on them cause they have had English now for a few years, at least 2 probably 3 years. This is the very first thing one learns in an English class. The very first. I was like how do you not know this (don’t worry I really didn’t ask her this but I was thinking it).  This pretty much set the mood for the rest of the day.   By the end of my CM2 class, the teacher and I were completely frustrated and irritated beyond belief. At one point she asked the class what they learned last year, I mean they didn’t know numbers past 12, no colors, couldn’t tell me their name, age, nationality, or where they lived. Very simple questions that they should all know by this age. I was so disappoint because I really thought this was going to be my more advanced class. Needless to say my lesson didn’t work for them because it was a little too advanced. The same exact thing happened in my CM1 (3^rd/4^th grade) at Marcel. Luckily my little saving graces at Marcel was CE1 (around 1^st/2^nd grade), who were right on the ball. They could count up till 12 with no problems and all of them could tell me their names with no hesitation. And in complete sentences too!

Then I went to my afternoon school, Saint Berthevin “Le lac”. It sorta kinda started off the same way. There is one particular teacher there whose class never goes as plan. He is super nice and really hands on and the children are great and so cute but the class always turns out not as planned. The class is CE1 (1^st/2^nd grade) and it was so bad. My lesson was too advanced for them and I had trouble recovering from that. Then after that my class was CM2 and they are by far my noisiest class and won’t stop talking. It doesn’t help that there is around 30 students and they don’t even listen to the teacher. I have no problem reprimanding a child but sometimes I feel like I’m undermining the teacher. I mean she has trouble getting them under control. So pointless to say but my lesson didn’t go as planned. This was the common theme of the day and I’m beginning to learn that no matter how much I plan there is always the chance that it won’t work as I want it to. Fortunately I had two saving graces at Saint Berthevin as well. After CM2, I went to CM1/CE2; it’s a combined class of advanced 2^rd graders to 4th graders. Those kids are brilliant, the best I have at all my schools. There teacher is great! Absolutely the best!  She has taught them so much, they know number (1-30 that was the best I have seen in all my schools), colors, vocabulary, their names, age, nationality, and where they live. And get this, toward the end of all my classes I try and play a game about the lesson I just taught them and right before we started I asked them, “Are you ready?” and then in complete unison they all said, “Yes, we are!” I nearly fell over. I don’t know if you understand the shear amazingness of this, but this made my day go from horrible to great. Normally when I say this, the kids look at me as if I have six heads and then I have to explain to them in French that I’m just asking them if they are ready to start and there usually like, “oh… OUI.”  So for me to not have to explain this to a class and for them to know this from the get-go is fabulous and amazing. My last class of the day was great too, they didn’t know as much as my previous class but probably my second smartest class I have. They knew number (1-20), colors, vocab, and their names and ages. And they too also knew what I was saying when I asked them if they were ready. I was so glad to end on a high note but I have to admit by the end of the day I was exhausted. I know I don’t work that much but these kids really do tire you out and I now understand what teachers go through every day.  

11/17 the search begins!

So my friends and I have found another grocery store in Laval. Hahahah I know what you all are thinking, wow she has way too much time on her hands and what a loser and I can’t believe I’m going to read another blog about a grocery store. But in all honesty and to be fair I was/am searching for some particular foods. So this search all began a few weeks ago when a few other assistants and I were talking about Thanksgiving, my English friend Laura got so excited and demanded that we make a Thanksgiving dinner. Apparently, last year some of her American friends from UNI(that’s English for college or university) made a Thanksgiving dinner and the English people loved it. So a few more weeks went by and then Laura reminded me again about Thanksgiving dinner here in Laval at the Foyer.  So over the past weekend the wheels got put into motion, somehow I got elected team captain for the turkey dinner. So we set out in search for some turkey day provisions. Naturally we all had to go to the newly found grocery store to try our luck. (ok so I’ll say this quickly and I won’t spend that much time on it but the store is called le Clerc and its bigger than Carrefour but not as great as Auchon ( the target one) and I personally enjoyed my shopping experience there) so back to the search for the Thanksgiving food.  So France does not have cranberry sauce or cranberries to make the sauce, this, my friends is a huge problem. I’m not sure if all of you know this but personally my Thanksgiving isn’t complete unless I have the canned jelly type cranberry sauce minus the actually cranberries in it. You know the kind of sauce that has the actually ribs in it from the can and probably has no nutrition value in it, that’s the best kind. But I’ve come to terms that I will not have this kind of cranberry sauce for the big dinner but still I would enjoy some type of cranberry sauce. So Cranberries are on the list, along with brown sugar. I’m in charge of the apple pie and I want to make sticky buns too. I need brown sugar for both. And finally we need pumpkin mixture, naturally for the pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread. However none of these things are in France or in Le Clerc. We are on the hunt for all of these things and not having much luck. Some good news I do have is that Liz works with a teacher who knows a turkey farmer. So we have to special order the turkey from a straight up turkey farm. I am calling them soon so they can have it killed and plucked for the 28^th (this is when the turkey dinner is going down… I know what you are thinking, how come you are not having it on Thursday dear Jen, we all know you only work 8 hours a week why  not have it on the actually day? But we all actually have work on Thursday, one of the only days.lol). So we must order this turkey fresh off the farm, isn't that crazy? I’m going to a turkey farm next week in France...bahahaha just cracks me up. Lol.  Soooo guess who get to cook the turkey… yup that’s right… me! For some reason everyone here thinks I’m most qualified. lol guess I’m going to have to Google how to make a turkey lol.

Oh so we found none of these things at Le Clerc but I did buy an oven! So our little kitchenettes don't come with them, just 2 hot plates, a sink, and mini fridge. No it’s not the type of oven you are thinking of but like a toaster oven but bigger. Here’s a pic.

11/16 What do you know about the United States of America?

So I now have one 40 min class on Tuesday in the afternoons. The class is usually a little hyper after lunch and recess but they are still really enthusiastic. So I put together a power point with only a few slides on it. The teacher told me to do a small lesson on the United States and my family, so I put pictures of maps, the Statue of Liberty, North Carolina, the beach, our Christmas photo from last year, the mountains in Wyoming, and Wes skiing. It was super cute. Well the class that was only supposed to be 40 minutes but took about an hour and we only managed to get through the first few slides. The kids were so funny, my second slide was asking them what they knew about the United States, and you should have heard the answers, they started with hamburgers (side note: I think that every French person thinks that we (meaning Americans) eat hamburgers every day, when in reality we really only eat them in the summer and maybe once every other week). Then they started to get a little braver and said a few cities like New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and then one kid said Montreal. I was like no that’s in Canada, and then another kid said Mexico, and then I really lost it. It was so cute and funny and I just couldn’t hold it in. Then the kids started talking about famous American people, they all knew Obama and Michael Jackson, they also said Brad Pitt and then one kid said the Beatles. I think the teacher nearly fell out of his seat. I personally think he loves England, so it took it kinda personally. Lol but I think he was really offended. One kid really surprised me though, he’s super smart and speaks really well compared to the others, but he named all these famous directors, Scorsese, Tim Burton, and James Cameron. Very smart little guy. But the class was tons of fun and I really like this job a lot.       

11/15 Happy Birthday Aunt Cindy

Happy Birthday Aunt Cindy!

I love Carrefour, if you don’t already know it’s the grocery store here in France. I don’t know what it is about it but I can spend hours in there and I often go there multiply times a week. I mean I have always secretly loved grocery shopping but it seems like in France it’s so much more fun. Last week I spend an hour and half in the store and came out with only 13 Euros worth of food. And today, omg, another hour and half but I spent much more this time. I keep on discovering new items and wanting to try everything. It’s like every aisle has a little secret treasure. Lol. I know, I’m a loser, but this store is amazing. Truly it is. It’s also super cheap, they not only have the store brand generic food but then they also have the store brand generic discount food, which is even cheaper. The store brand discount food is called: Carrefour Discount, I know it’s so creative but I have officially become the Carrefour Discount girl, and I love it. Mom I can’t wait to take you grocery shopping with me in Laval. Don’t worry everyone we’ll take lots of pictures. Hahaha

11/13 Happy Birthday MOM!

Happy Birthday Mom!

11/11 Happy Veterans!

Apparently Veterans Day runs across the world, so NO SCHOOL TODAY! 5 day weekend!

11/9

The kids in France are slightly different from the children in the US and I think the kids from the US could learn a few things from them. For one they have impeccable handwriting. And I’m not talking about that printing shenanigan. I’m talking about super neat, super pretty cursive.  And it’s not just the girls… it’s the boys too. They write beautifully. I’m amazed, truly I am. I’ve notice this the very first day I observed but I really just thought it was a fluke. But it’s not and they could probably even teach some adults and me a lesson on how to write neatly.  Another interesting qualities about the French children is the amount of respect they have for adults, it’s really amazing. I’m not saying the kids in the US don’t have respect, because they do, it’s just different. Ok for example the kids are not allowed to enter the room until a teacher tells them to enter. I know, that seems like a given in both countries, but they wait and they wait and they wait and they will not enter that room until that teacher is present and gives them the “ok”.  Another thing I have notice is that they don’t sit down until I tell them to, it was kinda weird at first because I was like, “what are you all standing there for? just sit down.” But no, I have to tell them that they are now allowed to sit down. When the director/directrice (principal) walks into the room the kids stand up as quickly as possible and greet them. I know this all sounds like stuff that Americans kids do but sometimes I feel like I’m at a military academy with young adults. They really have a strict way of running their programs but I guess to each his own.

11/6 Laetitia and Cecile’s party

Laetitia and Cecile’s party

So as you all already know I went to Paris for the weekend to celebrate the girls 18^th birthday. Yes they are twins. So as you also already know Laetitia, her mom, and I went shopping to get all the supplies for the soirée. They bought tons of candy and alcohol and food for all of Cecile and Laetitia’s friends. They made this punch rum punch for the night. I have already tried this punch at my Foyers welcome party, so I’m beginning to think this is France’s punch, the punch consist of simple syrup, orange juice, pineapple juice, grapefruit juice, and rum. I know this sounds yummy however the rum is a little different in France, I’m just trying to forewarn everyone before your order rum and coke or a strawberry daiquiri or some other type of rum drink. I know you are all wondering how different can it be but it’s different, noticeable different. I’m not saying it’s necessarily bad but very different. Have I said it’s different cause it really is. So anyway they had this punch and Laetitia’s mom taught me how to make French quiche, they made 3 different types of salad, had a huge pizza, loads of candy and chips, her parents also bought some vodka and beer for the kids. Needless to say their parents went all out on them for the party. Right before the party started Laetitia’s parents and younger brother came into the living room with a suitcase, I was a little confused at this point, but her parents went and spent the night at Isabel’s (Laetitia’s mom) sisters house to give the kids their own space. Never in my life have I ever seen an American set of parents leave their teen age children unattended at a party where they provided the alcohol. I think this just goes to show the amount of trust French parents have in their children. This never has and will never happen in my life time and I’m 24 years old now. Even if I bought all of my own food and drinks my parents still would never willing let me have a party at the their house. OK back to their party, the girls made it a casino party and they rented a roulette table, they had blackjack, and they also had this game 421. I’m not too sure if it’s actually called 421 or if it has another name but you get 3 dice and have 3 chances to get 421 on the dice or close to it and you play against the dealers.  The dealers were 3 of their friends and they did a great job with the games and rules. I really had a good time.

11/6 Auchan

Holy moly…. I finally found the French version of target, but wait it gets better because it is a Target, Wal-Mart, and Costco all in one. It’s like they took the best of all three and combined it into one store.  Laetitia and her sister, Cecile, are having a party with their friends to celebrate their birthday. (oh I’m in Paris for the weekend by the way) Laetitia, her mom, and I had to do some shopping to prepare for the party so off we went to Auchan, that’s the name of my new favorite store. So this store Auchan, it has great shoes and clothes like Target and their home good’s section is outstanding. They have all the cutest serving platters, glassware, and dishes just like Target. All of this is located on the second floor, yes that’s right it’s 2 stories high and it gets better because they have this huge conveyer belt that takes you and your cart to the second floor. It was amazing. The bottom floor is like Wal-Mart, they have aisles upon aisles of food, but they have a better selection than Wal-Mart because they carry everything.  You know what I mean cause sometimes Wally-World doesn’t have everything you need and you have to run to Harris Teeter or Foodtown.  I was truly amazed by their cheese selection, 4 aisles with both sides of the shelves pact to the gills with cheese.  Anything great find in the grocery section is the chips, now they don’t nearly have as big as selection in the US but they do have some interesting flavors, for example: cheeseburger, chicken and thyme, bacon, and bolognaise.  Now I’ve only tried the chicken flavored chips and I’m not a fan. Maybe it’s me but it’s kinda weird when a chip tastes like meat…right? But I’ve digressed back to Auchon, it also has samples in some spots, just like Costco and some things even some in bulk packaging. I’m beginning to think that France really isn’t that much different than the US.  

11/4 First Day of Teaching!

So I finally have my schedule and I only work Mondays and Thursdays. Not too sure what I’m going to fill the rest of my time with. Maybe learn how to knit? But finally I had my first day of teaching. I know what you’re thinking… yes I have been here for a month and yesterday was my first day of teaching. But I had very important meetings to attend too…lol…oh and I just got paid today too for my month of meetings hahahaha…but any ways it went well; it was a little difficult to plan the lesson because I didn’t know the levels of English for the children.  So I planned a lesson on Halloween. I went over all the common Halloween characters and they made Jack-o-lanterns on a paper pumpkin, then they did a worksheet with connecting the English word to the picture (it was a Halloween theme worksheet too), and finally I played the song Monster Mash for them. I think they really like the song and they didn’t seem too bored with the worksheets. I wish I would get more directions from the teachers as to what they want me to plan but oh well. 

 In the morning I taught at Marcel Pagnol, this is the school where I did all of my observations at. The principal is super nice and helpful. I much prefer this school to my afternoon school at St. Berthevin, Le Lac. The teachers are really nice in all my schools (I have 3 elementary schools, an online video class with a middle school, and on Thursday nights I teach teachers English.) but I definitely feel most comfortable at Marcel Pagnol . Myriam the principal at Pagnol has the most advanced class. They are probably in the equivalent of 5^th grade and her class I can see myself having the most fun with. I can’t wait to show them some American games and songs. If you guys can think of any fun american songs or games that would be most helpful.

10/27-11/2 IRELAND

Ireland was great. I had a blast… I have a few pictures I’ll put down below so you can see them.

Places I visited:

·         Guinness storehouse: this factory is huge about 7 floors high and they have a cool rooftop bar call Gravity Bar. FUN FACT: Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery.

·         Trinity College

·         Stephens Park: absolutely beautiful and everything is green with all the rain they get.

·         Temple Bar: we went to temple bar almost every night; it’s a street in Dublin with tons of pubs, bars, and clubs. All the pubs we went to had great Irish music and good local beers.  

·         Christ Church

·         Jameson Distillery: I preferred this to the Guinness storehouse, it was much smaller but it was a guided tour and the distillery was more personal and interesting. Believe it or not but I learned a lot about the whiskey. If you ever go on this tour be sure to sit in the front of the room when watching the first introduction movie. After the movie is over they ask if anyone wants to be part of the whiskey taste test. It’s pretty cool; at the end of the tour you test Jameson, Jack Daniels, and the scotch John Walker. But they only take a few volunteers so it’s best to sit in the front so you get picked first.

·         James Joyce center

·         National Gallery of Ireland: saw many painting by the artist Jack B. Yeats. He is one of the most well known Irish painters. I found his later work to be a bit disturbing but I enjoyed the gallery.

·         Kilmainham Gaol: be sure to go on this tour, it was great. It reminded me of Alcatraz but with an Irish twist.

·         Adam and eve’s church: Alicia and I attend mass on Sunday at the church of the Immaculate Conception.  They call it Adam and Eve’s church because during the time when Catholicism was forbidden in Ireland they had to practice their faith in secret.  In order to go to mass one would have to walk through the bar call Adam and Eve to get to the church, so even though the name is Immaculate Conception, everyone still refers to it as Adam and Eve’s church. Even from the road one would not even notice its church but once you walk in a little bit the actual church is huge and beautiful.   

The local Irish fare:  

·         Irish soda bread: I had to try this naturally but I must say it was horrible and it’s not even in the same ball park as yours grandmere. I was very disappointed.

·         Irish stew: 

·         Irish beef and Guinness stew: This one was my favorite stew. It had large chunks of potato (side note: even stew had potatoes in it, and almost every meal comes with some side of potato. Mashed, boiled, chips (those are fries hahaha), roasted, fried, the list goes on) But any way the stew came with chunks of potato, carrots, and celery and large pieces of beef. The stew also came with a large serving of mashed potatoes directly on it. That was a bit interesting. Needless to say but by the end of the trip I felt like one large potato.

·         Fish and chips: as most of you may know but I’m not a big fan of fish and chips but I tried it any ways, still not a big fan but the chips were scrumptious.  

·         Guinness: I did have a pint at the Guinness Storehouse, its ok still not my favorite beer.

·         Bulmer: this is an Irish cider. I drank this most of the time while I was over there and every time I ordered one at the bar all of the bartenders felt it necessary to correct me in the pronunciation. Apparently I don’t say quite right with my American accent. But they always took my money but just always gave me a hard time.

·         Irish coffee

·         Jameson

Accommodations:    

Laura, Alicia, and I stay at a hostel in the city. It’s was called My Place Dublin. It was 8 Euros a night and we slept in a room that held about 20 people.  Our room was really tiny and there were about 10 bunk beds. Alicia said it looked like an orphanage. She’s right, it did. The bathrooms were located in the basement and it reminded me of a bomb shelter or gas chamber. It was really creepy and the majority of our bathroom trips were taken in groups. There were some interesting people there as well, a few Australians (apparently you can find an Australian anywhere), Romanians, Brazilians, South Africans, and a few other places.  We didn’t really have any problems but there was a thief lurking around the hostel, someone from our room got his iphone stolen and another person in the hostel got their laptop stolen.  We remained lucky.  On the last night the South African drank a little too much and had to be kicked out of the hostel. He was so paranoid that someone was going to steal something of his; he wouldn’t let anyone sleep until he found out who the thief was.  But other than that the room was clean and the place was cheap. I rate it a 7.5 out of 10.

Dublin

The city of Dublin was expensive but what city isn’t. I think it’s probably one of my favorite cities and I definitely prefer it to Paris. I think it’s in my top 3 with New York and San Francisco. I would recommend this city to the Fogarty side of my family especially; I really think you all would enjoy this city so much and really appreciate the culture and history as much as I did.

Kilmainham Gaol

This one is for you Dad

9,000 yr lease

10/17 MacDoe

Very exciting day planned: trip to large Carrefour and lunch at McDonalds. About 5 other assistants and me all agreed that we needed a little MacDoe in our lives, so we planned an outing to the only McDonalds in Laval. It’s kinda far from the center of town and even farther from where we live so this was an organized excursion. We hopped on our line B which is right outside of the Foyer and proceeded into town. To my great delight the bus was rerouted due to the grève. All the bridges, the main town square, and many of the side streets were completely blocked off and filled with demonstrators. We all were amazed and it was everything I hoped and dreamed for. Lol. But it was the type of greve one imagines with signs all over the place, masses of angry people, noise makers, sirens, people shouting chants, and pure ciaos. We were amazed. None of us have every witnessed quite an experience like that one, so naturally we all pulled out our cameras and proceeded to take pictures and videos of the masses rioting like complete tourists that we are. After about fifteen minutes we finally started making our way to McDonalds. It was amazing. A little piece of America. The menu was the same, it still had all the classics, but the dessert menu was beefed up. It had a ton of stuff like small pastries, lava cakes, doughnuts, ice cream, chocolate mousse, and chocolate muffins. The suaces are a bit different but still good. I have to say you always hear about the French commenting on Americans eating habits and our selections of restaurants like McDonalds, but the McDonalds in Laval was packed. We had to wait to find a table and then on top of that we couldn’t even all sit together. I was really confused. After lunch we headed over to the large Carrefour. The large Carrefour is probably the biggest grocery store with other departments as well. It’s just like Wal-Mart. But all in all it was a great day: Grève, MacDoe, and Carrefour!

10/15 Laundry DAY

Ok.... i have no clue where to begin. I guess i'll start with the fact that I have been putting off cleaning my clothes for about a week and the end result was a very large smelly heap of clothing. The foyer has one washer and one dryer in a very, very small, small room on the bottom floor for 140 people. This small room has 2 keys (I know what you’re thinking, “why are there 2 keys and only one washer and one dryer?”…I have no clue. If they thought that would help speed up the process of using the washer and dryer, they were wrong cause it doesn’t. It only makes it worse). So there are 2 keys to the laundry closest…whoops I mean room and residents are only allowed to wash their clothes after 2pm Monday through Saturday. Nothing is open on Sunday, NOTHING.  The room is closed between the hours of 8am and 2pm every day. Now in order to get the key the office must be open but the office usually closes around 6pm. Sometimes the staff is in the building during off hours but you must track them down and they usually are only around until 9pm at the very latest. So our window of opportunity to wash clothes is really short. Only about 42 hours a week, but no I’m really not complaining about that small window of opportunity, I’m really upset about the ways one must get the key. There is no organization with the handing out of the keys. However after stalking people for days or harassing the front office endlessly one is able to obtain the key. It took me hours, I probably started around 11am looking for them. I know what you are thinking, “why would they hand out keys if the laundry room doesn’t open until 2pm?” wow that’s a great question…. I have no clue. But anyways I first went to the office at 11am to request the key at 2pm but the secretary informed me that both of the keys were out of the office and that I had to track them down if I wanted them. Needless to say I finally found the keys and was able to do my laundry. I finally got done with my clothes at 10pm. (I only did 2 loads of laundry) Yes it was a long day and I’m not exaggerating. I managed only to get my laundry done for the whole day. Lol… glad it’s done though cause I was really running out of clothes.  

10/12 Greve

WOW I was so excited for my first grève only to be incredibly disappointed. I walked into the center of town hoping to see tons of people holding banners and yelling and posters all over the town square only to find NOTHING! It was like any other Tuesday at lunch. Very disappointing, I expected more out of you frenchies!

10/11 MON ANNIVERSAIRE et l'anniversaire de mon frère aussi

So it's my birthday and it’s was also my first day observing classes at my school. The teachers are all really nice. I spent the morning with Myriam, the principal of the school. Myriam teaches CM1, the children are around 10 years old, so I'm guessing that would be equivalent to 4th or 5th grade. During the lessons I actually learned a lot of French and some more vocab. Many of the assistants who are teaching at Lycees (high schools) are actually taking French grammar classes with their students to help them work on their French. I'm considering the same thing but only in my elementary school. hahaha. I met up with Laura to grab a bite to eat for lunch. Laura's teaches at a primary school that is only a few blocks away from mine and we usually commute together. So I decided to have a costume party for my birthday and during my lunch break I planned to get some decorations and help Laura find a costume, so we just assumed we would eat quickly and then shop for a costume. For the majority of the school here in France there is a 2 hour lunch break for the students and faculty. The children and the teachers have the option to either go home to have lunch or eat lunch on the school grounds. Considering the long lunch break we thought we would have plenty of time to find a costume and decorations.  We did forget however everyone else has a 2 hour lunch break in France. Not one shop was open, even some of the restaurants were closed too, which makes no sense to me but c'est la vie. After searching for an open store we gave up and found a café. That afternoon I went to two other classes, one class with 7 year olds and the other one was another CM1. I'm not sure how many classes are at Marcel Pagnol but I believe there are about 6. Still haven't seen the whole school, but the school grounds are quite large. After observing for the day Laura and I went to the Carrefour and we picked up some treats for the party.

Side note about Laure: Not only is there a language barrier with the French sometimes but there is also a language barrier when speaking with someone from the UK. Case in point, when I first told Laura that I was having a costume party for my birthday. She then said, oh a fancy dress party, in her cute english accent. i wasn't sure if she was confused, maybe she thought she had to actually find a cocktail dress because she thought the party might be formal. So i repeated myself and said costume party but to make a long story short, English/ Scottish folk call costume parties "fancy dress parties". There are many other differences, it’s almost like it’s another language. Fries are chips. Chips are crisps. A hot guy is usually called dishy. Trashy girl is a tart.

But after the Carrefour i cleaned my room and got my costume together. Everyone here is very poor and we all had to think of costumes on a tight budget. I bought yellow paper mache at the Carrefour and tape them to a black dress… So I was a bumble bee. (bourdon en Français) I invited all the assistants and some of my new French friends who live at the Foyer. Everyone dressed up in their costumes and looked great. There was a lumberjack, a geek, hula girl, 2 cats, Amy Winehouse, batman, and a few others. The party was hopping. I finally had to kick the last few stragglers out at 2am. Everyone was supper creative with their costumes. My favorite was between Anna (the geek) and Robin (lumberjack). But all in all my 24^th birthday was great in France.

Happy Birthday Danny!