Boy Movies

Well as you already know or just incase you forgot there is a total of 21 assistants here in Laval, the majority being English speakers and the majority being girls. Now all throughout my French career, starting in high school the majority has always been girls. You would think these boys would smarten up a bit and realize the odds are in their favor but I guess boys will be boys: clueless.

Ok back to the story, there are 2 English speaking boys here, Doug and Michael, and I pretty sure they are the ones who got clued in on the amount of free time we would have and we girl assistants remain the clueless. Why is that you ask? Because they brought tons of movies and we girls brought a combined total of 10, half of them being the same films. Hahaha so I guess the joke is on us. So these movies come in handy with all the free time and I think the boys they would need to be entertained. Smart boys. So we are all constantly borrowing movies from them. Now as far as the movie selections goes, well lets just say there is no Maid In Manhattan, or Twilight, or Legally blonde... The movies that I've seen so far here in Laval, and mind you I've never seen any of these, are: Full Metal Jack, Eyes Wide Shut, Pulp Fiction, Ingourous Basterds, Role Models, Godfather I, Godfather II, and finally the GodFather III. I think I can quote most of them and now I get some jokes that I've never really got before. hahaha but these movies that I've always deemed as typical boys movies are actually really good and I'm kind of mad that I've waited this long to see them. The Godfather trilogy was amazing, Francis Ford Coppola is a genius, and becuase of him I think I'm going to try to go to Sicily before I leave. Maybe go to Corleone.

2/22 Happy birthday Stephanie and Laura's mom

Happy birthday Stephanie, so my friend here in Laval, a fellow American from LA, Stephanie wanted to celebrate her birthday in clear Stephanie fashion. For those of you who don't know her, she is an amazing cook and baker and loves great French food, so she picked the best restaurant in Laval to host the soiree. Bistro de Paris! Now anyone who is anyone who lives in Laval goes to Bistro de Paris at least once and being that I’m someone (hahaha) I had to part take in this event. Now this isn't just any typical fancy French restaurant this restaurant has a Michelin star. Yeah I know OMG, right! Just kidding, I know most of you are just as confused as I was, when I heard about it for the first time. What the heck is a Michelin star is it that good year tire man giving stars out? And the answer is sort of. So here is the info on the star situation the company Michelin evaluates restaurants and hotels and then can give out one to three stars for outstanding quality. For restaurants one star indicates a "very good cuisine in its category", a two-star ranking represents "excellent cuisine, worth a detour," and three stars are awarded to restaurants offering "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey". A three-star Michelin ranking is rare. As of late 2009, there were 26 three-star restaurants in France, and only 81 total in the world.  So you get the idea that you have to be amazing to get 3 stars, now these star are rare and for Bistro de Paris to have one is kind of crazy, I mean Laval isn't some great big metropolis, its a small town, so it's really surprising that a town as small as Laval has one and this my friends why, if you are somebody in the great little town of Laval you must try, at least once, Bistro de Paris. Ok the dinner was everything and more than what I expected. I mean you expect great food from a Michelin star restaurant but I didn't expect to be treated like royalty.  The way they take care of their customers is really quite remarkable and the attention to detail is great, no stone goes unturned. I was amazed the whole time. There were 4 servers for the whole restaurant and all 4 of the servers took care of the each table. One was the wine guy, the other was the bread girl, another took the order (this guy was the owner too and he was really young, I was very surprised) and the last guy who clear the table. But they all worked together and it was just really well organized and pretty to watch them at work.

OK so now to the important stuff: the food. It was beyond amazing and the best meal I have had in France!
 
Entree: Oeufs mollet et légumes de nos maraîchers, crème de fromage
Plat principal: Hampe de bœuf poêlée, compotée d’échalotes, et pommes coin de rue
Dessert: Coupe cheese-cake, streuzel et fruits rouges

Now I know you all would have enjoyed this restaurant but I think especially you Uncle Richard, this would be right up your alley.

here are come pics:

Mine: Oeufs mollet et légumes de nos maraîchers, crème de fromage

Alicia: Royale de foie gras aux fruits secs et balsamique

Charlotte: Saumon fumé maison, yogourt citron vert, laitue iceberg

This is how it came to the table and then the servers lifted them altogether, so cool.

Mine: Hampe de bœuf poêlée, compotée d’échalotes, et pommes coin de rue

Charlotte: Filet de sandre, pâtes fraîches et champignons mijotés

Alicia: Crevettes sautées à l’ail et brocoli, risotto al salto au chorizo

Amandine: Quasi de veau rôti au thym, pomme purée maison, herbes fraîches

Birthday girl, Stephanie: Tartelette citron et pomelos, pistache concassée

Mine: Coupe cheese-cake, streuzel et fruits rouges

they gave everyone this little icecream at the end, no clue what it was but so yummy

The girls!

2.19 ballet

So I went to the ballet, it was more of a contemporary piece, not the traditional point. It was really interesting dances they put together. The dance company was from Canada and my Robin was super excited because not only is she Canadian but she was a ballerina when she younger. She is the one who organized the whole trip and got the Foyer to pay for the tickets. An overall high class evening in Laval.

2/14 Valentine's Day

My lesson for the week was Valentine's Day. I made a few homemade Valentine’s Day card for examples to show the children and I brought in cards that people have sent me. Thanks Anne for sending me that cute little one, it was the perfect example of a real valentine card for my students. But in the beginning of the class, before I told them the lesson, I had each student write their name on a little piece of scrap paper and then I collected them. After that I explain to them the lesson giving a little background information about how I celebrated the holiday in elementary school. You all know, with a class party and giving all the students a Valentine’s Day card. I didn't have enough time to have all the students make cards for each other, so I told them they have to make 2 and that the cards have to be in English, naturally. The first one goes to the name they pick out from the hat with each person's name in it. When I told them this they all giggled. They, especially the boys, didn’t understand that you can just send a Valentine’s Day card to a friend and it doesn't have to be someone you like. It was so funny watching them deliver the cards, you can tell they have never done that before and it was really cute. All the kids put a lot of effort into them. Then I told them that the second card was for the person of their choice, friend, mom (I really pushed this one but it didn’t really work out sorry moms), or a grandma or grandpa, or something like that. I think the second was the funniest because some of the boys would write it to a girl they liked in the class and it was so cute. I would try and peak to see who it was for and they would hide it with their arm. But each person had to deliver the card if the person was in the class so I eventually got to see who it was for. It’s so cute with all the little elementary romances. lol. But all in all, the lesson went over so well, they really enjoyed it. And special thanks to grandmere for sending me those great Valentine’s Day stickers. They loved them and used them to help decorate the card.

Oh and mom and dad thanks for the Valentine's Day chocolate heart!

2/6 Super Bowl

My American friend Liz and I wanted to celebrate and share the Super Bowl experience with all of our friends, especially the friends from the UK. When we were organizing the party my friend Charlotte from Scotland said, “so is this like baseball or basketball we’re talking about here?” hahaha Liz and I got a good laugh out of that one.  So we organized a party for the Super Bowl and if you ask me it was the best one because we didn’t actually watch the Super Bowl. We made all the typical Super Bowl party food and we watched funny commercials from past years and then we watched some football bloopers. Overall great night and it turned out that the Green Bay Packer won and Liz is from Wisconsin! Oh this is just to remind everyone but no I didn’t watch the actual game because I’m six hour ahead of the east coast, believe it or not many people asked me this question and I’m in France, I don’t think they would play the Super Bowl on French ESPN (this is another joke as well France does not have ESPN hahahaha).   

So this first picture is an indoor s'more, Debbie, I will have to make this for you when I come to VB, you would love it cause it has Golden Grahams in it. Liz taught me how to make them and they are amazing.

Pigs in a blanket and pizza bites. It turns out our friends from the UK call pigs in a blanket somethign else, sausage rolls and their version of pigs in a blanket is a hot dog wrapped in bacon. It was very confusing for them at first.

Liz made spinach artichoke dip and it was so great!

2/4 Peanut Butter Time

I tutor this little French girl Léa every Friday afternoon for about an hour and half, and she is the cutest thing every. She is so sweet and nice and knows English really well, so one Friday afternoon I was having trouble trying to plan a lesson for her and right before I went to her house I checked the mail. And there was a package from my parents and it had peanut butter it in. Now peanut butter is nearly impossible to find over here is France (even if you do find it there is a really good chance it’s going to taste like crap), they don’t like it and so therefore they don’t eat it hence you can find it anywhere. Well ok, so my lovely parents sent over some peanut butter and I thought how about a lesson on American culture and food. (side note: in her English text book they have sections on culture and one bit is about American food, so they have a picture of peanut butter, pretzels, donuts, pancakes, and stuff like that. I have asked her if she likes any of them but she has never tried them) OK so before the lesson I popped into Carrefour (the grocery store) and I bought some things to eat with peanut butter; like chocolate, celery, pretzels, and Oreos (if you haven’t tried peanut butter and Oreos you haven’t lived, it’s so good) I took out everything and she was so surprised, it turns out she has never tried Oreos either, but she loved everything, the peanut butter and Oreos and the combination of the peanut butter mixed with everything. She was like where can I buy this. I have to say it was my most successful tutoring lesson ever. Now I just need to find some more peanut butter for her!

My new comforter

Wow! Take a look at this great blanket! Isn’t it fabulous? I think so. I just came home from work one day and it was on my bed. (side note: they come into our rooms every 2 weeks to take our sheets and clean them. At first this bothered me but then I got to thinking and that’s one less thing that I have to wash, so it’s actually great.) So, towards the end of winter they decide to give me a comforter but that’s ok because personally I think it makes my room pop and where else would I be able to find this pattern? Lol The blanket is much better than the fleece but it’s so new it’s like trying to wrap a cardboard box around you at night, it’s very stiff, but really warm.

Here is a pic of my old blanket which was just a fleece blanket, kind of looks like a prison bed right? Hahaha

And here is my new blanket… I love it, I may try and bring it home with me! Hahaha