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!