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.