1/25 The Throw Down!!!!!!

So the half marathon is right around the corner and I’m training hard, I just wanted to let you all know. But the weather has been great and I’ve been running about 4 to 5 times a week. I’m also getting everyone else in on the running club too. My other friends like Laura and Stephanie have been running with me too. I still trying to convince them to run in the half with Robin and I, but I don’t think they'll have any of that. Well, I can’t say that I blame them; running by choice for 3 hours seems a little foolish. Hey Tim, are you planning on running the Shamrock half or 8k with my bro? or are you guys too scared? Yes that was a challenge I just threw down! I mean an 8K should be a walk in the park for you guys, right? Or how about we all do the Rock n’Roll half marathon in September? And then I can beat you both! Oh and Danny you really need to layoff the performance enhancers cause nobody likes a cheater and we all want a fair race!  

1/23 Sorry France, I promise I'll try to be nicer!

So this week kind of sucked. And I realize now reading all my blogs from this week that I’m complaining a bit and I’ll try and stop that, but this week was very trying and it definitely tested me. I think I may have lost my cool a few times in the classroom, but I do realize this opportunity is amazing and I wouldn’t change it for the world and as much as I complain sometimes about France and Laval, I truly love it here. This place has taught me so much and I’m constantly learning new things everyday: things about myself, the language, the culture, being in a professional career (even though I only work around 12 hours), and adapting to new situations and people. So thank you France for all that you do, good and bad!

1/20 Buses Suck!

I hate public transportation and I want my car back. I don’t know how anyone can do it. It sucks to have to depend on someone else to get you from point A to point B in a timely fashion and I hate waiting outside in the cold and rain and there are always a bunch of creppers on the bus.  

1/19 Met my first American hater

So Wednesday morning was something I was really looking forward to. Stéphane, he is the Director of all the primary school assistants, he is the one who set us up in the beginning, he is also in charge of all the primary school assistants and is the director of the English program within all the primary schools. Well he has these meeting on Wednesday mornings for other French teachers. The meeting is also like a class for the French teachers and he teaches better ways to teach English and more effective lessons, homework, and exams all in English. Well each week he brings 2 assistants with him, the assistants help out with pronunciations and new vocab. Charlotte and I were kind of excited to go, since all the other assistants said it was a good time, and that all the other teachers were super nice. Well our group was not the case. They were the exact opposite.  They were so rude and unprofessional during Stéphane presentation and then at the end I want to knockout this stupid French teacher. He was clearly an American hater and my first, mind you the whole time I’ve been in France. I think that’s pretty good, 4 months and only one American hater. But this was my first one on one experience with one and I really didn’t like him. OK so it all started as a game during the whole presentation, Stéphane gave all the teachers an English quiz and Charlotte and I read aloud the oral parts. Well all the teachers then kept asking us where we were from but Stéphane wanted to save that for the end as a little game. So towards the end of the class he split the class up into 2 large groups, I apparently got the rude noisy American hater group. Well the whole time they weren’t listening and they just kept asking me where I was from. Every time I said a word they would be like, “Oh she’s from America.” And they would say America and then make this face. Now, when talking about something you don’t like you tend to make a face, am I right? When I talk about seafood, I make a face of complete disgust because I think it’s gross. Well their faces were sort of kind of like that. Then at one point I said the word “water” and then all hell broke loose (not really), but they were like you’re definitely from America and I was like ok you got me, I from America, and then this one guy asked me again to say the word “water” and so I did, and he was like, “OMG, the way you say water is clearly American.”And he face was of utter disgust, so then I asked him, “how do you say ‘water’?” and he said it, and then I said, “Oh I guess you say ‘water’ the British way.” But there was tons of attitude behind it, I just can’t express it through this blog, but I’m not a fan of his, and I hope that I never see him again.    

1/17 Video Conference

Yes, video conference is cancelled, sadly because my partner is sick but we are both happy we don’t have to deal with the little devils. I honestly don’t know why they have this stupid video conference class, everyone who has one hates it and they all find it completely pointless and useless for both us and the kids. My friends Charlotte and Stephanie, who are partners for the video conference, told me that their class doesn’t even have an English notebook and that they arrive 20 minutes late every time. Honestly there is nothing that can be accomplished in 15 minutes of teaching over a screen.  

1/13 Hokey Pokey

So I tell myself every Wednesday night that the next Wednesday is going to be different. I’m not going to stay up late trying to plan a lesson. I’m going to change and plan the lesson over the weekend or during the day on Wednesday. However, around came Wednesday night and it was 11pm and I had no lesson, so naturally I got on fb (facebook) and looked at some photos and talked to some friends and then I got on skype and started talking to my Dad. I told my dad about my struggles on trying to plan a fun and exciting lesson and something that's not boring, and he suggested the Hokey Pokey. At first I wasn’t sure but then I thought I could do a lesson on the body parts and BAM I have a lesson. So along comes Thursday and I’m feeling good and happy about the lesson. So I’m there printing the lyrics off in the teachers room and then I have to cut them into 6 pieces, they have this huge cutting thing, I think you all know it. It makes a really loud noise and cuts huge pieces of paper with straight lines. So there I am cutting it and before I know it I have cut off part of my scarf. Sometimes I just think I’m not made out for this teaching stuff and I was hoping this wasn't going to foreshadow my day. Luckily my black scarf is only missing a few tassels and the Hokey Pokey was a huge success. The kids and the teachers loved it, by the end of each class I was sweating cause I was moving so much in each of the classes, but the kids really got into it and even some of the teachers. Thanks Dad for the great suggestions. I am currently taking any suggestions for my next Thursday classes, feel free to suggest or write my whole lesson plan. Lol.

1/11 CURRY...YUM

Curry night was a huge hit. Naturally I forgot to take pictures of everyone but I do have a picture of the curry and rice. But it was so yummy and everyone enjoyed it. I pretty sure if was the first Japanese curry experience for everyone, Charlotte, Laura, Robin, Robin’s mom, Doug, and Liz. They all came over for curry and wine. Thanks mom for bringing over the boxes of curry, much appreciated. It was a little taste of home.

ok will add pictures later on tomorrow or today but i left my camera upstairs and now i'm currently downstairs to use the internet.

1/10 DAY #1

I’M DOING A HALF MARATHON IN MAY!!! ok there I said it, and now I have to do it. Training begins today! I have found a half marathon to do after I’m done teaching and before I go home to the states. It’s May 8^th and it’s in London. I think that’s kinda cool, I’m doing a half marathon in London. My friend Robin will be my running partner/training partner, my friend Liz will be our training coach, and my friend Laura will be our water girl.  These are my closest friends here and my friends I will be traveling with after I’m done teaching. Very excited and nervous but it should be fine and I have plenty of time to train; now I just need the weather here in Laval to cooperate with me. Wish me luck!

1/6 First day back to work!

Getting back into school was a bit difficult. Today I did a review of the things we have covered before the break and the general questions that they should know. It went well in a few of my classes and others, well, they just completely forgot everything. Oh well, I still think they had a good time. I am being to prefer my older students to my younger students. It’s much more enjoyable when they know more words and general information but the younger ones are so cute and well behaved. And they are easily pleased when I give them a sticker.

Madrid part 2

Food: So the food was good in Madrid, I didn't eat out a lot there, I mostly made food in the hostel with Robin but we made sure to try the paella. It was so yummy, so I'm not a fan of seafood but they have veggie paellas and chicken paellas so there is something for everyone. I had the veggie paella at this local little restaurant in Madrid, I wish I had a picture of the place and the paella but silly me forgot her charger. Sorry guys, I’ll try harder next time. lol. The tapas is really popular in Spain but I didn't have too much of it and ham is also super popular too. They eat ham all the time and I think they just overall enjoy the pig more than any other country, maybe not as much as the south but they really do like the pig. Chocolate and curros is another famous dish in Spain. It’s good; you definitely need to try this when in Spain.

Hostel: The hostel I stayed at was great, it's the perfect place to stay for younger travels, although you sometimes find that random older person from time to time in the hostel but the majority are in there younger twenties. The hostel was called Mad Hostel. It was one of the bigger hostels I’ve stayed in and they had a great common room and some interesting folks. Great was to meet new friends, like Max, Ollie, Sarah, and that Indonesian guy. (can’t remember his name)

They have a free walking tour in Madrid just like Dublin and I learned a few cool things. The tour was not as great as the tour in Dublin but still really good.

Ok I think that’s it on Madrid!

Madrid

Spain: To go to Spain with the flu or to not go to Spain and recover in Laval? TO GO TO SPAIN WITH THE FLU!!! I decided to go to Spain even though I had the flu and have never felt that sick before in my life. The day before I left I went to a doctor in Paris and got tons of meds. So my rational thinking was that I have all these medicines and I have already been sick for 3 or 4 days now, it’s gotta be leaving my body by now. Hahaha. Spain is a go! Don’t worry mom I didn’t go crazy partying every night. The trip was very mellow and not crazy partying antics. Although Spain is considered the party capital of Europe, so I guess I will have to go back this summer. OK but my trip to Spain was great. I went with my friend Robin and we spent about a week there. I wish I had more pictures to show you but my camera died the first day I was there and naturally I forgot my battery charger. Here are some of the highlights without pictures:

Reina Sofía: I think this is by far my most favorite museum in the whole wide world. Now, to be honest and fair, I haven’t been to that many but, I really enjoyed it. They have some of the most beautiful artwork I have ever seen. The museum is mostly made of Spanish artist and contemporary work, there is a lot of cubism, from famous artists like Picasso and Dalí, a little confusing looking at the pictures but when you have the headphone set they tell you what it is and then you see things you didn’t see before, and sometimes they tell you about the artist as well.  But the likes of Pablo Picasso was there as well as his old friends Salvador Dali, Joan Miró, and Angeles Santos Torroella and many other artists as well but these 4 are the ones that stood out the most to me and of course, they are the artists with the most popular paintings. My two favorites were Guernica (naturally), which was amazing and beautiful and really moving as well as “The World” by Angeles Santos. I would definitely recommend you google both of these paintings so you can see them. They are not your traditional paintings but you should try and read a caption or find a little background on the pieces and I think you would appreciate them so much more.

On Sundays at the Reina Sofía there is free entry between the hours of 9am and 12pm, it closes at 2pm, so if you ever go make sure you get there at 9 or a little before 9. (Helpful hint to avoid the line, there is the front entrance that everybody knows and there for creates a long line at the opening but there is also a back entrance behind the building, just go to the back and you can avoid the whole line altogether.) But the Reina Sofía was great, since it was free; I rented the headphone set that gives descriptions of the paintings. Now, another helpful hint: RENT THE HEADPHONE SET. It’s only a few Euros at most places and I’m telling you it makes all the difference... OK another helpful hint, start on the second floor, that floor has all the best work and the painting you really want to see, then when you are finished and have enough time go to the 3^rd, the 1^st was ok but since you may have limited time you definitely want to see the 2^nd floor. Wow that was kinda long just for a museum but I’ll try and keep the others shorter.

Prado: its good, not as good as the Reina Sofia, they had a few cool painting that I remember. Ok, moving on!

Beun Retiro Park: This park was great, sorta kinda like Central park in NYC. On our last day in Madrid, Robin and I rented bikes and rode through the park, great stuff!

NYE: so the tradition for NYE is to go to this plaza, called Puerto Del Sol, there is a huge clock tower located directly in the middle, and when the clock climes midnight you have to start eating grapes. For every chime you eat another grape and there are 12 climes. It’s suppose to be good luck for the coming year. Well, Robin and I bought grapes days before and we were very prepared, the plaza was packed, probably the equivalent to Times Square in NYC but on a smaller scale, but there was tons of people, so many in fact that we could hear the clock tower chime. So when we thought it was chiming we ate the grapes, don’t know if we did it correctly but we tried. Still had a great time!

Mad hostel: This was our hostel and it was great, in our room we had a Finish couple, Ollie and Sarah, and then there was Max a 20 from Boston who was studying abroad, and then this little guy from Indonesia, did you know that Indonesia has the 4th largest population in the world? isn’t that crazy, I didn’t know that. We hangout a lot with our new friends, they were all really great people.  

There was tons of other stuff but maybe I’ll put that in another entry, this one is getting kinda long

So I added some photos form online of the park and my 2 favorite paintings, the first is Guernica and the second is The World.  Enjoy!

Christmas

Christmas:  I went to Paris the Friday before my mom arrived in France and spent the weekend with Laetitia and her family. I had such a great time. On Saturday night we went to a Magic show and then after out to dinner in Paris. The show was great and I got a good laugh, but the whole time I was sitting in fear that they were going to call on me when they needed a volunteer. I’m not quite up to speed on my French magic vocabulary. Luckily they never picked me and I’m not writing about an embarrassing incident with a French magician. Dinner was absolutely amazing and everything you would imagine of a great French restaurant. I had the rump roast and a common French side that consists of potatoes, string beans, mushrooms, and bits of French bacon/ham (it’s a little bit a hybrid between the two). Oh for all of you non- informed Americans (this was me before the dinner), when ordering your before dinner drink, aperitif, never ever order wine. I made that mistake and was corrected; you only drink wine with dinner. (OK this only applies when you are in France, no need to practice this in the states) Some helpful hints as to what to order (well they usually have a selection devoted to this in the menu but here is some just so you are prepared): a whiskey drink (maybe mixed with Perrier or coke), gin martini, vodka martini, kir , champagne, or that French punch that I had mentioned earlier.  The whole weekend while I was in Paris before my mom arrived it wouldn’t stop snowing, I thought for sure that her flight would encounter some type of delay, luckily, come Monday morning my mom’s flight was one of the only ones that made it into Charles de Gaulle airport. Then we were off to Lyon. Lyon was great and it was so nice to see the family. Vincent reminds me so much of Great-grandpere. They look alike and act a like and sometimes it felt like he was right there in the room. Brought back some great memories. If you ever get a chance to travel to Lyon be sure to stop at the restaurant “Les Garcons”, amazing food and great people.  Lyon has some of the most remarkable food in all of France. I really don’t think you can go wrong with any restaurant. Saint Cyr is where my mom and I stayed, it’s the home of my great- great uncle Vincent. We had many a great meals there as well, couldn’t pick a favorite cause they were all so delicious. We spent about 3 days in Lyon and then went off to Paris for the day. My mom and I went to Les Champs Elysees and shopped around at the Christmas market there, then off to Laval later that night. This is the night when the awful flu reared its ugly head and attacked. My mother and I then spent the next three days in my 15X15 room because I was unable to move and deathly sick. I have never been that sick before in my life and it was so bad. Sorry mom for not being able to show you Laval and having to stay in my room the whole time. My mom was great and took care of me. So glad to have my mom here on Christmas and especially since I was sick. My mom and I went back to Paris where my mom spent the day at the airport because her flight got cancelled, but thanks to her we got to stay in a nice hotel near the airport and 2 free dinners and 2 free breakfasts. The people at Continental only gave my mom a voucher for a room for one person and one free dinner and one free breakfast but my mom is very quick and assured the man at the front desk of the hotel that it is indeed meant for two. Thanks mom for that!  It was great having my mom here in France for one more day. And thank you so much for coming Mom! I promise next time I won’t get sick! Hahaha  

A Charlie Brown Christmas tree

OK so I keep on remember more and more things I want to tell you about the month of December, so much has happened. But this blog entry is about French Christmas trees or should I say more like Charlie Brown trees. lol. OK so I guess I should probably explain further cause I'm not sure if everyone understands the term Charlie Brown tree. Well a Charlie Brown Tree is a term my family refers to a Christmas tree that is lacking. Have you ever seen a Charlie Brown Christmas? just think of the tree and you will understand, if not here is a visual aid.

But I had the pleasure of going into quite a few French homes over the holiday season, and well they were all the same. The first home I went into was for the 2 little boys I tutor for, the tree was right in the foyer area near the door (yes I know a little awkward spot for a Christmas tree) but the tree was pathetic and a sorry excuse for a tree. I’m sorry to be so brutally honest here but as my brother can tell you from years of experience I’m somewhat of an expert on Christmas trees and I have perfected the art of picking out the perfect Christmas tree, and I have displayed this talent year in and year out for the past 24 years. I just have an eye for good trees and my family would always willingly and happily let me choose the Christmas each year and we would all enjoy the experience so much. Hahaha! Ok but back to French Christmas trees, now this first house I thought was a fluke. You know, maybe that was the only option they had? So I let it slide and I tried not to judge them for it, but then I went to another and then another and then another and with each house I just kept on getting more and more confused. I asked myself, why would you willingly pick that 6 foot tree that has 4 branches on it? Now if I could I would have taken pictures of all of these catastrophes for you as to prove my point and show you the shear misfortune of them. But being that I do have some manners I thought it was probably a little inappropriate to wipe out the camera and document the horrible footage. But you all can take my word for it; they are straight up Charlie Brown Trees. Danny, what would we have done if we lived in France? You probably would have killed me for sure. Hahaha.  I dedicate this entry to you Danny and for the years of dealing with me at the Christmas tree farm in Colts Neck.   

December: sorry it's a little long!

December: No clue where to start…

Teaching in December was super easy, I did Christmas lessons for the whole month of December, and by the whole month I really just mean the first 2 weeks. I’m sure you are all wondering about my lovely little angels in my video conference classes that I teach on Mondays with another English assistant Sarah. The little angels (and by little angels I mean horrible mean little devils) need to be entertained for the whole class, we (Sarah and I) have come to realize. So we have thrown everything out the window and now use youtube to teach them. It actually worked out pretty well. We only had the video conference one time in the month of December and we played a clip from the movie A Christmas Story. My friend Sarah is from England and she has never seen that movie so when we were planning our Christmas lesson for the kids I said we had to play a clip from that movie. Can you guess what scene we used? I’m sure you all can… yes it was the scene when the boy sticks his tongue to the pole. But anyways Sarah and the kids loved it; they thought it was the funniest thing ever. One kid even asked what the link was so he could watch it at home.  My other Christmas lessons in my other schools were good, I gave them a word search with American Christmas vocabulary. Not sure if you all know this, cause I didn’t but the Brits call Santa Claus, Father Christmas. I know kinda weird. LOL. One of the Christmas vocabulary words I used was eggnog. Big mistake, it was kinda really hard to explain to 8 year olds what eggnog was and then teachers were even more confused. I guess they have never heard of it, which I can understand but the teachers were like “there are eggs in it? And milk? And I’m really confused as to what this drink eggnog is…” But even though the kids don’t really understand the word they actually remember it and like to stay it. OK so enough about teaching…

The weather: I have decided that I’m not cut out for this cold weather nonsense. I know I’m from New Jersey and its cold there in the winter, but being in North Carolina for 5 years has really changed my blood and I just can’t hang in this weather. I have become the hermit and no longer enjoy going outside. When I do I have about 15 layers on. For a few days in the middle of December we were getting snow everyday but since it rains here all the time nothing really sticks, which is a major bummer. And school was never closed either. Another major bummer.  

OFII: Now I know none of you know what OFII (the pronunciation is OH-FEE) is but it truly is a pain in the butt for all non-EU members. OFII is the program that runs all the visa information for all visa holding foreigners. I hate them! Really I do and so does all the other North Americans (I say North Americans cause we do have some Canadians here too) and all the South Americans and Australians and everyone else who has to experience the OFII. But boy do they give you the run around. So as some of you may know over the summer I had to go all the way to Atlanta, Georgia to get my working visa. Well it turns out that that whole trip was horse shit. That visa doesn’t really work here and only is really good for 3 months. But what I’m trying to get at here is that I had an appointment in the city of Nantes, which is about a 20 euro and 4 hour train ride to. The city is actually really nice and pretty and I had a great time there and my appointment was on a Monday so I got to miss all my classes that I teach on Mondays.  I know, I know…. Why are you complaining Jen? You want to know why… it’s the principle. They make you run all the way to Atlanta and make it seem like it’s so important and you won’t be able to get into France without it but that’s just not the case. And then they have the nerve to make me run all over France to actually make it so that I’m legal and won’t get deported. It’s really frustrating. But Nantes is a great city and I really want live there.      

Saw the latest movie Harry Potter here in Laval, and no, it wasn’t in English, but I understood most of it and it was my first movie experience here is France. I love going to the movies and I’m a personal fans of the Harry Potter films, the whole French movie experience was great, just like the movies in America, over priced tickets with over priced candy and popcorn. Oh but the one difference is that the popcorn is more like kettle corn than buttered popcorn, NOT A FAN! But that’s ok, oh and another thing that’s different is grape skittles. I do enjoy a good pack of skittles from time to time and especially at the movies and grape is the best flavor but I was extremely disappointed with the French skittles. They are not nearly as good as American skittles and they don’t even have the grape flavor ones, they have the a purple skittle but it’s not grape flavor, it’s some nasty flavor purple color skittle.


Christmas Market: So these Christmas markets are huge here in Europe. Every town and city has these little Christmas markets during the month of December; you can find them in any city big or small. They are great too, they are outside, and there are tons of little sheds like houses, and everyone decorates them all Christmasie and each shed has a theme or is a certain product or store. They have ones that sells food, wine, cheese, toys, bread, hats, scarves, and well you get the idea, but they are really festive and can put you right in the holiday spirit. The one in Laval was super cute but the one in Paris on Les Champs Elysees was huge and had tons of stuff.

OK so these are the highlights of December!

1/7/2011 happy new year

Wow so it’s been a whole month since I lasted blogged. I'm really sorry but my computer died on me at the beginning of the month of December but I’m back in action now and I plan on filling you in on December and Christmas and New Year’s Eve and getting back to teaching and everything. I'm hoping and planning to have you all filled in by the beginning of next week. So please stay tuned and no worries cause I haven't left you!