Auf Wiedersehen!

As of 4:15 pm today when I finished my last class-  I am on vacation until January 2nd.

Naturally, Cecilia and I have planned an awesome trip and this time we have taken on quite a bit.  The last break when we headed to Normany & Brittany was great but relatively simple.  This time, we are going the full two weeks and exploring Germany and Austria.  Neither of us speak a word of German so it's going to be interesting.  Oh wait sorry- thanks to Heidi Klum & Project Runway I know how to say goodbye, "auf Wiedersehen!".  Of course I had no idea how to spell it until I looked it up right now.  NOTHING like the way it sounds when she says it.  Great.
...
Tomorrow we are staying the night in Paris because we have an early flight on Sunday.  From Paris we are headed to Berlin for 4 days.  Then we have a flight to Munich (our friend Lauren is joining us for this) to spend 4 days including Christmas & I am pretty excited because Christmas is huge over there.  After Germany- we are taking a train to Salzburg, Austria for 2 days and then to Vienna for 3 days to celebrate New Years.

I am only bringing my backpack.   I have to fit a fat Europe guide book,  Cecilia & Lauren's Christmas presents & for one flight I have to actually stuff my purse inside my backpack because of some annoying rule about literally ONE carry-on, not a carry-on and a purse. We are most definitely going to need to do laundry at some point- but that's ok.

So, yes.  I will be signed off from the internet world for two weeks.  But, I will pour out a tell-all when I get back.  I hope we meet some cool characters and discover some interesting places.  We are pretty good at it usually.

Cecilia and I have actually never hung out in the states together- but we have traveled a whole lot in Europe.  We sometimes (jokingly) wonder if we would get along at home because we are usually speaking French when we are out together and are often traveling.  It's kind of crazy actually.

Sidenote:
Today at one of my schools- I got a gift from each class.  The youngest ones each made me a card and gave me a bag of homemade brownies that they made together.  The seven year olds gave me a star ornament that they painted and put glitter on with the name of their school. & The eight year olds gave me little candies that they made with nuts and chocolate along with a card signed by all the kids and the teacher.

This makes me think two things.

First- I feel loved.

Second- I feel old.  I am getting TEACHER presents.  Geezzz.
....


To everyone who reads this crazy little thing,
I hope you have a wonderful holiday and that 2011 brings you good health & TONS of love.

;o)

Christmas in the Classroom

So since we have two weeks off from school starting this Friday,  I am doing a Christmas theme this week.
We are learning "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"  half because it is classic and half because it repeats the same line three times in a row- speeds up the learning process.  So, first I sing the song and they listen and look completely BEWILDERED and kind of scared  Then, I have a cd with the song on it that one of the teachers made me and we listen to it on that.  After, we learn each line and sometimes we have two different "teams" to see that everyone is getting the words.  If it is so-so I say, "Can we sing better!?" and everyone says "YES!".  Better means (a little) louder and more correctly pronounced.  I had to make that distinctly clear when I first said "better" and everyone starting yelling the words incomprehensibly.  Sometimes, I sing it first and I put my hand like a microphone and then I turn the microphone to them when it is their turn.  They love when I do it.  Sometimes I put the microphone to someone and they sing louder.  It is brilliant.  This version of the song that I am using has a nifty little second part instead of that bizarre "now bring us some figgy pudding".  Instead we say, "Let's all do a little clapping (3 times) "and spread Christmas cheer".  Good stuff.

Then, we are making Christmas cards.  I printed big color pictures of a stocking, snowman, wreath and santa and they pick one and write it on the outside.  Then they draw it.  In the inside, they write To: and pick Mom, Dad, or Santa.  Then, Merry Christmas!  And then, From: with their name.

A couple of the cutest things I got asked / told (in French) today included: "Can we write it to Mom, Dad, Santa AND Grandma?" and "How do you write baby sister in English?".

During the card making we listen to some good solid Christmas music, with my favorite being the "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" song from the movie, Home Alone, that begins with "Ba doobie do buh buh buh ba duh".  Anyone?

THEN, at the end of class, I'm showing two pictures.  One of my house on Jocelyn Court all lit up with candles in the windows, a wreath on the door, and a tree in the window, which garnered a "Ahhh! la classe!"- which I appreciated.  And then the grand finale is this picture of me on Santa's lap taken two years ago.  I told my class of 7 year olds that it was "le vrai père noël" and they all were in awe.

Someone said that it wasn't the real one because the real one doesn't need glasses.
& one kid actually said that Santa didn't exist.

I stared him down and didn't let him kill the moment.

Random Facts #1

1.  The French don't know what splenda is, and I miss it.

2.  I met a German boy the other day who gave a new meaning to the word blonde.

3.  Sometimes my students try to hug & kiss me and I just smile, say hello and walk away.

4.  I skype with my mom every Monday and it usually takes us ten solid minutes to say goodbye.

5.  I sometimes eat at the cafeteria in my building for lunch and it is DELICIOUS.

6.  I am going on a two week trip to Germany and Austria starting next Sunday with Cecilia.  We can't wait.

7.  I take salsa classes every Tuesday with a group of other teaching assistants.

8.  This Saturday night I am staying over with my host mom, Armelle, who I lived with for 6 months in Paris in Spring 2009.  Excited doesn't quite describe it.

9.  French yogurt tastes better than yogurt from home.

Babysitting Gig

The secretary, Isabelle, downstairs in my building got a call from a lady who has 3 kids and is looking for an English speaking babysitter.  It was noted that the 10 year old girl is very shy and that she wants someone to bring her out of her shell.   I got a note from Isa that day in my mailbox about it - because she described me as "not at all introverted"- bahahaha.

I met the family last Wednesday for the first time.  They are all really nice and the house is so French that I can hardly stand it.  Dark wooden beams, crazy nooks & crannies, and millions of windows with intricate latches on them that look like they were made in the Middle Ages.  The kids are super cute- Emma is 10 years old, Nathan is 4 & David Alexander is 2.  The mom is stay at home and has her stuff together.  She quickly informed me of things like never giving medicine, never answering the door when I am alone with the kids, and to eat/ drink whatever I wanted comme chez moi.  They have an awesome dog who looks like a golden retriever with curlier hair and two cats (one is a persian, which melts my heart).

Saturday I watched the two older kids for a little under two hours.  It was super cool.  I showed them pictures from home and a map of the United States.  It actually took me a minute to point out where I lived exactly.  New Jersey is insanely small, I sometimes forget why no one in France even knows that it exists.  Then we played with the pets.  After that, we played foose ball, me vs. Nathan.  He was standing on a basket so he could reach the things and he could still really only man half the controls.  Emma kept score.  Then we played building blocks.  I built a tower that was enormous and Nathan knocked it down and laughed for about 5 minutes.  Later we watched that ridiculous Scooby Doo movie with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar.  I pointed out that they were married in real life and NO ONE cared.  Towards the end of the movie,  Nathan got Christmas books for me to read to him.  I read a couple of short ones, but he was looking at the movie the whole time.  I asked him if he was listening and he said "Well yeah, I'm doing both", and I promptly continued with story time.  Then he whipped out a French- English picture book with fruits and veggies and other vocab like that.  He loved hearing me say the words like watermelon, eggplant, etc.

Soon after, the parents got back with a bunch of really interesting looking antique furniture for the dad's computer room that they had bought at an auction.  Annnnnd she handed me 20 euros.

Thanksgiving.

I will start this by saying that I had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving.

Let me explain.

So, here in Beauvais we have a bunch of Americans and a bunch of British people.  Like a week early, we got a little message thread going for everyone to say what they would be bringing and to determine the time, place, etc.  I claimed carrots (my mom's style, YUM), cranberry sauce (which I was going to make from scratch- none of that funky circle shaped jelly stuff) and gravy (because it's not thanksgiving without it) .

Well, I was a little hesitant as to how things would turn out but OH man.  We had the full spread (besides stuffing. I got over it.)  and it was beautiful how things came together!  We slowly trickled in and the table got more and more crowded with dishes.  I was one of the first because it was taking place in the basement of my building where there is a big kitchen and common area with an enormous table to eat at.

At around eight thirty- all thirteen of us were there.  Lauren brought the handprint turkeys that she did in school with her 4 year olds, and I came up with the idea to use them as place-mats.

I set the table with paper plates and plastic forks and we opened a couple bottles of wine.  We went around the table and said what we were thankful for (a Peterson tradition) and then we started passing.  I said that I was thankful for France, people that I think are cool who are here with me, and my health.  There are of course many other things I am thankful for ---my mom, dad, character of a brother, kitty kats, friends at home, my mom's english tearoom, etc... but I thought it best to keep it short and sweet.

Well, the dinner was delicious.  There were quirky parts like garlic bread, cous-cous & sausages, but there were also really traditional parts like turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes & cranberry sauce , which turned out really awesome.  My secret ingredients were one clementine rind and cinnamon.

This was what I ate for dinner.

  And

This is what I ate for dessert.

That's right.  We had 4 pies- apple, pecan, sweet potato, and pumpkin.

We had the best night together.  I was totally smiling the entire time.

Here's all of us.

My Pad

Some people have expressed an interest in checking out what my French bachelorette pad looks like.
So, come onnnnnn in.

My door.

That tapestry is straight from New Hope, PA and was an obvious choice to make the trip with me.  To the left is my picture collection.  Family, friends, cats, Teaberry's and random pictures of my house at 11 Jocelyn Court.  

My desk.  So what do we have here? A basket with my jewelry & headbands. A crazy little photo thing with pictures of my family who i MISS.  An orange lamp that I got for 7 euros.  My teaching notebooks & supplies.  A bag with books from the library for English Assistants.  A bowl with halloween candy in it.  Underneath?  My ridiculous boot collection.  The wall is slowly getting to be decorated by me cutting out cool pictures from magazines/ putting up postcards that I buy from places & cards that people send me.

This is my little refrigerator, toaster, water heater, and food.  Oh, and my Gustav Klimt poster that I find to be very beautiful.

Inside my fridge: orange juice, peach tea, milk, half an avocado, yogurt, lettuce, mustard, a bag of brussels sprouts, butter, and some apples.

Exciting, right?

My bathroom!  

I love that lime green shower curtain.

Here's my view.  That tree used to be big, green & beautiful back in the day.  

....

So yes.  That's my place.  It's very cozy.

French Plumber

My toilet has been running lately.  When I asked Isabelle downstairs what to do, she came up and turned a random lever behind the toilet and acted like a hero.  That was Friday morning and when I went to brush my teeth later that day, there was no cold water and then the toilet wasn't flushing- and it hit me that I should probably pull that lever back to the right spot.   Well, Isabelle really messed with it because I tried but I couldn't do it (whatta weakling, I know).  So, I had to wait until Monday morning to get Isabelle to undo this little "favor".  Thank god for nice friends who let me shower at their place and for the fact that there are bathrooms downstairs in my building.

So, the plumber is actually in my room right now to fix this for real.  He is an older man with crazy teeth and his young helper.  They are so nice and jolly.  He just came out after 10 minutes and gave me the biggest "Bonne Journée Mademoiselle!" of my life.  Woah!


Two important sidenotes...


1. French toilets are twice as loud as American toilets when they run.
2. It is quite hilarious listening to two people work on a toilet while speaking in French.

Rainy Day

We just got over a 4 day rain spell here in Northern France, which is forecasted to pick back up tomorrow.  Seriously, the weather has been terrible.  Yesterday,  I got up and was talking to my friend Lauren, and I suggested that we should go to the movies.  She agreed.  We both had no school because of Armistice Day (the end of WWI).

So this was my rainy little day...

I hopped in the shower and left my place at around noon because we were grabbing lunch.  On my way, I saw a very elderly French lady battling her umbrella and just screaming as it went inside out and pulled her around.  It was kind of sad but funny.  I was going to help her but she figured it out.  No worries!

We got food at this adorable bakery/ lunch place.  I ate a salad with goat cheese and an onion quiche (because they were out of tuna quiche, which has become my favorite).  It was quite good!  Then Lauren , the queen of the sweet tooth, got a chocolate banana tart for us to share.  WOAH.  That thing was ridiculous.  It was hard chocolate topped with banana slices, with mashed banana in the middle.  ((Meanwhile, there was a HORRENDOUSLY awkward date going on right next to us.  We both agreed that we were so glad to not be a part of it.  They were barely talking, yiiikes.)
After lunch, we went to a bookstore to kill a little time and looked at travel books to Germany because we want to go there for Christmas.  Apparently, out of the top ten Christmas markets/festivals in Europe, about half of them are in Germany.
Then we got soaking wet as we trudged to the movie theatre.  This movie theatre is huge, I think they must play something like 18 movies at a time.  So we along with apparently everyone else that lives in Beauvais got in line.  We saw "Welcome to the Rileys", which was really quite good- thank god being that a ticket was 9 something euros.  It stars James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart, and it is almost a tearjerker.  It was in English with French subtitles, so there were only like 5 other people in the theatre with us.
It was the second time I have been to a movie theatre in France, the first time was to see "Slumdog Millionaire" in Paris.  I loved that movie, especially the end.  I actually wore a sweet Bollywood costume last year for Halloween that I think was subconsciously because of that movie.

Here is me and Lexy on that very night!  Two reasons I am posting this picture (aside from the fact that it rocks)...
1.  I miss Lexy a lot!  She sent me a wonderful package last week filled with things I love including trashy celebrity magazines, that I can't find here.  Also including a CD of her greatest hits from our radio show, "Petey & Lexy's Idea of Fun".  Greatest hit meaning either one of her favorite songs or one that we ROCKED out to in the studio.
2.  I didn't dress up this Halloween and it still is depressing me.

Ok, I am off to teach 3 classes.  Today we are learning the alphabet, and with my older kids I am going to introduce some classic American tongue twisters.   A little sally sells seashells by the seashore action.
Yup.

Bojangles

If you know me at all, you know that I have a cat named Bojangles.  You also know that I love her probably a little too much.

In 2002, my mom and I were driving on a winding country road near our house in New Jersey.  She told me that a few days ago she had seen a couple kittens in the area, but couldn't find them when she got out of the car.  Well, that day we spotted them and took them home with us because there was no mom in sight and they would've been hit by a car otherwise.  There were two little furball kittens with long beautiful hair and big golden eyes in my mom's light blue mini van (oh, the windstar days).  They were both girls, and we kept one and the other we gave to my mom's friend.  My brother came up with the name Bojangles, and we all thought it was perfect.  Soon though, she would come to have tons of nicknames including Baby, Bo, Mimi, Princess, Moomoo, Bebe, etc.

She is part Maine Coon so she has long hair and tufts coming out of her ears.  She also is part wild cat, which you are reminded of when you take her to the vet.

She sleeps with me every night at home and she is always hanging out in my room when I am around.  I feed her treats and give her spa treatments, which include a foam shampooing, brushing, and of course a gentle ear cleaning with qtips.  Basically, she's completely spoiled.

So, I miss my cat.  Plain and simple.

Well, on Monday when I was skyping with my mom, she whispered "You are never going to believe who just walked in the room".  Yup, Bojangles herself.
She closed the door and brought her up to the camera.  My mom held her furry body and Bojangles just stared at me for a minute.  It was the most adorable thing.

So, yes.  I would possibly fall under the stereotype of "crazy cat lady".

This is me and Bojangles the day before I left.  I think I woke her up for this.

And this is the cutest picture ever taken.

Me at the Market

So, there is a pretty cool market in Beauvais every Wednesday and Saturday from early morning until about 3.  I go often because it's fun and because I don't work on Wednesdays or Saturdays.  It is in a big square downtown, around a five minute walk from my building.  Half of the market is food goods and beautiful flowers and the other half is everything else including clothes, shoes, jewelry, kitchen utensils, doilies, etc.

In case you were wondering, this is me at the market:

I usually get there between late morning/ early afternoon.  I always start on the food side.  I like to go down the aisles and look at all the different stuff.  I check out the numerous fruit/veggie stands and sometimes I switch it up, but usually it is the same stand that I go to.  It is big & really clean and some of the fruits & veggies look fake because they are so perfect -- the cherry tomatoes I got there a few weeks ago were absolute ART.  Today, I got 7 clementines, some brussels sprouts that I am going to saute, maybe tomorrow?, an avocado and a nice looking zucchini.  Then, I asked the lady what this weird looking huge, light green vegetable was and she told me it was a hybrid cauliflower/broccoli.  Crazy!  So, then I usually continue on and go to the bread man, where I like to buy something whole wheat, sometimes with herbs de provence (fennel, basil, thyme, lavender, etc).  After that, I usually check out the cheese display cases, avoiding the raw meat display at all costs because it's frightening.  I usually get around 10 "Bonjour Mademoiselle!" 's during all of this.  Occasionally, I go to the stand where they roast chicken and potatoes and buy a piece to eat for lunch, because it's delicious and only 2 euros.  Then, I mull around the other half of the market, where I have bought random things like a bottle opener, bed sheets & earrings.  The best part of this side is this nice guy selling hair clips.  One of the first days I was here, a bunch of us American girls were together, and he picked up on it.  He said "Ohhhh, Americans- are you from New York?"  Then several times after that he would say "HELLLOOOoooo" to me, he clearly loves speaking English.  One day, I was looking at one sweet black hair clip and I asked him how much it was, he said "For you- free!".  I said thank you very much and said that he can practice his English with me a little every week from then on. :-)

I'm back and I'm smarter.

We got back from our week long vacation yesterday.  It was great because I had fun and I learned a lot- which means I have returned back to Picardie... a smarter person.

Feels good.

The train was actually running on Sunday to Bayeux in Normandy- so we got all set in our nook with some wine, snacks and a deck of cards.  Lauren taught me and Ceci how to play Rummy and we did that for a bit.  We got to Bayeux and met this man from I think New Zealand?, who was staying at the same hotel- so he showed us the way.  Then the next day we got coffee and breakfast and then went to the Tourist Office, where unbeknownst to us at the time- the nicest lady ever was about to misinform us left and right.  Swwweet.
That day we attempted to go the D-day beaches but the nice lady nicely lied to us about the bus times.  Instead, we went to the museum of the Normandy Battles in Bayeux, the cathedral and walked around the town which was very cute.  The museum was fine.  There was this one man in there who did every job, he was literally everywhere and the place wasn't small.
After that, we found a park to eat lunch in- which we quickly deemed our park and got sad when other people were there. haa.   It was sunny and perfect!  I ate pistachios and clementines and a weird, delicious little sandwich.  Then we went to see the tapestry that everyone is obsessed with- which actually was really interesting.  It depicted the Norman Conquest of 1066- so it is almost a thousand years old.  It came with an audio guide, which cleared a lot of things up for me historically.
That night we got dinner out and went to a bar called "Pub Fiction" that had swings for seats at a big table- awesome.  I also drank a desperado- awesome.  Anyone who doesn't know what a desperado is, let me enlighten you- it is a beer brewed in france that is flavored with tequila.  It's quite refreshing and always stylish. ;o)
The next day we went to Omaha beach and the American Cemetery and Museum there- which was terribly shocking but really, really amazing.  The museum was just a good museum all around especially because it focused on personal stories rather than trying to sum up everything... and walking along the beaches was really cool.  That afternoon we bought a feast for ourselves to take back to the hotel including Camembert and cider (both made in Normandy) and baguette.  We had a fun little night in the hotel that night including Dawson's Creek dubbed in French and more Rummy.

The next day Cecilia and I got an EARLY train to St. Malo in Brittany.  On one of the trains we sat across from a young French lady who looked like a little innocent elf until you heard her hard rock metal song through her headphones on repeat the entire way.
We walked to our hostel there, which was this crazy complex of buildings with tennis courts and a cafeteria and everything.  We couldn't get into our room until 4pm and we got there at 10 in the morning, so we put our stuff down and headed into the Old City.  This was the coolest.
First of all, you walk right along the beach to get to the walled in city and when you walk in you don't even think it's real. Everyone is beaming with happiness and there are just a million awesome restaurants and shops and little hole in the wall places to go to.  We were in heaven.  I really recommend this place to anyone who likes nice places in general- (this should be all of you).  It is what vacation towns should be.
We ate galettes for lunch, which are buckwheat pancakes filled with whatever you would like, a Breton specialty.   Actually come to think of it, we had two galette lunches that day,  and my second was one with scallops and mussels.  Happiness.
After that, we just strolled because it was a beautiful day.  Then, I discovered the most dangerously delicious pastry know to man- under the name of "Kouign Amann".

While walking back we decided to find an internet cafe to check the email situation, which is always good.  Then, we got lost.  We found a little supermarket and got cheese (always & forever), bread and apple sauce to eat for dinner.  We went to bed early.

The next day we went to Mont St. Michel, which was very cool.  As you drive up, there are open fields with tons of sheep!  Then, you see the village and abbey built on a mountain encircled by the Atlantic Ocean.
This was the view from the bus.

We spent the day strolling through the place, which is really like a maze.  We went into the church there, which was refreshingly different in style and ventured through a bunch of little nooks on the mount.  Then, the abbey sits atop the mountain, which is neat.  We didn't have time to wait for the English tour at 3 o'clock so we joined the French tour.  The witty little French tour guide asked us our nationality before we started and then of course singled us out during his talk a good solid couple of times.  Then we decided, hell with it- this guy is just cracking jokes and we want to just see the place ourselves.  So, we broke off from the Frenchies and breezed through.  The best part of this place was that it was constructed starting in the 11th century through the 18th century, so there are wild stories about conflicting styles and periods of thought (during the revolution, the abbey was used as a prison).
The last day in St. Malo- we walked all the way around the walled city on the ramparts.  There was a great photo exhibit at one of the points along the way, and we walked all the way out to this island where the French writer, Chateaubriand, is buried.  Cecilia and I went barefoot when the tide was still crashing a little bit over the footpath, which was kind of scary but fun.  We stayed up there for probably an hour, without even talking much, because it was just so crazy to look out.

That night, I will make a long story short.
We ate dinner at the hostel cafeteria and met a French gal, a French guy, and a Costa Rican guy.  They asked us if we wanted to hang out that night and we said sure.  We were in the mood to socialize and have a fun time, so we got a little dressed up and brought over a bottle of sweet white to the hang out.  There, we met an Austrian girl and another French boy named Ludo.  We then walked along the beach all the way to the old city and went to a very fun bar called "La Belle Epoque".  The night continued on and it was a good time.

The next day, Ceci and I had to ask if we could check out just a litttle bit later.

Now, I'm back in my little foyer common room saying "bonjour" to anyone at all who comes in, all the time, no matter what- which is what you do here- otherwise, you're rude.

Heading Out

It's 1 pm on Saturday.  I just woke up because the blind in my room is so good that you can actually believe it is night at anytime in the day.

I finished my classes yesterday and now we have break until November 4th.  I know, I just got here.  I don't feel like I earned it either.   Oh well!

Last week Cecilia and I planned our trip and we decided to go to Normandy & Brittany in northwestern France.  We planned to leave today to go to Paris in the morning to spend the day and night, and then train to Bayeux tomorrow morning- stay three nights- then train to St. Malo on Wednesday morning & stay for three nights.  Both towns were highly recommended from my awesome guide to France book that Marlene, a waitress at Teaberry's whom I love, got me.  Bayeux is in Normandy and houses what is apparently a tapestry that is a HUGE DEAL, and makes an awesome place to stay to make a trip to the D-Day beaches-- our friend, Lauren, is joining us for this.  St. Malo is supposed to be a very charming, walled in city on the coast- right near Mont St. Michel, which is a small town/abbey built on a mountain looking over the ocean.

Pretty awesome.

Well.

Last night Ceci & I were informed that the only train going to Paris was at 6:21 am, because of these insane strikes going on.  Well, we weren't packed yet & we were getting to bed pretty late.  So we made the decision to cancel our hostel and sleep in and pack today and leave for Bayeux on Sunday.  I was proud of us because we actually realized that if we didn't sleep and we had to rush that we would be pissed off and not into doing Paris things.  We both get a little funky when we are hungry/ tired- so it was a good choice.  Plus, it's raining today- which just puts a damper on things.  We wanted to catch the Impressionism exhibit at the Grand Palais and go out but we can do that another time.  Paris is only one hour on the train from Beauvais and it only costs 6 euros.

By the way, The Grand Palais is, in my opinion, one of the best museums in Paris.  Why?  Because it is a special exhibit space that changes probably around three times a year.  So it is full out and gets all of these really wonderful pieces because it is only temporary.  I went for a Warhol exhibit a couple of years ago and it was enormous and almost every notable piece was there.

I am such a Paris snob, it is hilarious.

I always say... I don't care about your religion, your skin color, your sexual orientation, etc.--- but if you don't like Paris-

I will judge you.

:)

My Halloween Class Lesson

Halloween is my favorite.
the evidence--
1.  I usually have about 3 different costumes.
2.  The last two years of college my roommates and I had sweet costume parties complete with my delicious red wine cider, tons of candles, creepy decorations- like a Freddy Krugar that was on our bathroom door until we moved out, and solid halloween music- with the start of the playlist just being sounds like creaky doors, bats and cackles.
3.  My mom got me into it because it's her favorite holiday.  I always had the best costumes growing up because she would hand make them ((my gold belle dress from beauty & the beast was extraordinary).  Also, everyone wanted to trick or treat at my house because my dad would put on a ridiculously realistic and terrifying old man mask and my mom would be a spooky witch and the porch had crazy jars of weird stuff labeled "toad's feet", "witch's hair"--- with stuff inside to feel! of course with music playing and scary jack-o-lanterns all over.

yyyeah.
well, halloween doesn't exist in France.
So it clearly makes for perfect subject matter from an American teacher.

So, because I have my first two week vacation starting this Friday- I am not going to have my classes the last week of October.

Therefore, this week I am dedicating one lesson in each class solely to Halloween.

Today I had my 10 year olds from 8:30 to 9:15.  We started out with picture flashcards of a bat, black cat, skeleton, witch and ghost.

Then we sang this song that I found online.
"Witches, witches, skeletons and bats
Scary ghosts and big black cats
Wooohh, woooh what a fright
It's scary, scary on halloween night"

Which they loved.  Then we did a word search with the vocabulary- even throwing in "pumpkin".

Here comes the best part--

At the end, I played "purple people eater" and "monster mash".

&&&
showed this picture of myself two halloweens ago

From their faces it seemed like they were a mixture of scared/confused, some even jealous that they can't get away with this type of behavior in France.

They think I'm a little out of my mind.  But, I'm just trying to keep things authentic.

Social Life

So, this past week was pretty solid.  I had a bunch of really good classes and did some fun stuff.  My living quarters are thirty times cozier now that I hung up my tapestry and pictures and a Gustav Klimt poster that I found.  Although it is a bit mismatched.  Sadly, my duvet cover is of the New York skyline- haha!!  I bought rainbow sheets at the market in town on the second day I was here because I was depressed by all of the white in my room.  Then, I went shopping for duvet covers and the only neutral choice was a black and white New York skyline print - which doesn't seem that bad.  Until you are an American girl, who actually lives sort of near there and it looks like you are obsessed with yourself. :o), sweet.

Last weekend, we went to Paris and stayed over Saturday night.  Ceci and I went to all our favorite places and the weather was absolute perfection- 70 and sunny.  We met the most adorable American couple from Baltimore in our favorite quiche restaurant.  They take a month a year to go to Paris together and rent an apartment on the left bank.  They each got a coffee and a lemon tart and you could tell they just loved being together.  So we all went on and on about how much we love Paris and then they left holding hands. Wonderful.

We did some shopping and Ceci bought super euro kicks with little stars on them, which I offered to remove, hahaha. Then for dinner we got fondue at this great place where they serve wine in baby bottles- where mine was actually an inverted nipple so I had to get a replacement bottle, no joke.  After that, we went to Rue Princesse for some hanging out and then to Le Mix- where it was gay night, unbeknownst to us.   We danced to the likes of Madonna's "Holiday" and Britney Spears' "Crazy".   Very, very interesting experience.  There was a lady there making balloon hats for everyone, which was a little added bonus.

Cecilia came here this weekend and we did some exploring.  As it turns out, Beauvais has some secret gems for meeting people/live music/ tasty drinks.  Like an Irish Pub called "After Hours" which plays really loud taped live shows all night like Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers--- and a Harry Potter bar/restaurant with live music on the weekends complete with a full out themed menu including a drink named, "Vous savez qui" in English, "you know who"- yes, yes- voldemort.  too funny.

On Friday, we met some British guys who were in town filming a video for what they described to be "The John Deere of France", which I laughed at for probably too long && on Saturday we met some interesting French characters at the harry potter joint.  

There was a beautiful artisan market that was in town for just this weekend- with red and white striped tents in the town square near the carousel- so picturesque. Yet SO impractical.  This nice Belgian man was describing to us about this dehydrated, not dried, fruit- which keeps in all of the natural vitamins and sweetness.  Well, we were pretty impressed by the sample he gave us.  Annnnd we each picked up a little box to fill- pears, strawberries, mango, kiwi, ginger, etc.

Mine cost 11 euros.  Cecilia's was 7 euros.

I decided after that, that I need to familiarize myself better with the metric system.

Bon Appetit!

Bonjour blogosphere!

I decided I wanted to blog over the summer but of course didn't get my act together until now, now that I've been in France for two weeks. 

So yeah! I'm in France.  I am a language assistant, teaching English to 6-10 year olds in public school.  I teach 12 hours a week and I'm going to be doing this for nine months.  I am in Northern France, in a small city called Beauvais.  There is a sweet downtown, a beautiful cathedral that my street opens up onto, and an airport- which is very cool because ryanair flies out of Beauvais to pretty much anywhere in Europe for really, really cheap. So yeah, on these flights people may sometimes clap when you land but that can be overlooked.

I live in a foyer thing which exists in France for young, working people to live in sort of grown up dorms, which may seem unbearably awkward- but it's really not.   I have a room and a big bathroom and we share a kitchen on the floor. There is a huge window in my room that looks out onto this massive French tree, which is pretty.  Sorry, for some reason I love to state something that normally occurs and put French in front of it.  For example, "Oh my gosh look at that French squirrel! It's so cute!" ahahahah. I digress.  

There is a first floor and big basement with a library, coffee machine, washing machines and some other stuff.  Not to mention two really nice older ladies, Isa and Dina who work at the desk at the front of the building- who already love me.  Bahaha.  No but they love me- Isa tells me all of her secrets about living in France like how she puts the detergent in a ball first because it just works better that way and how to get places by bus using crazy shortcuts.  

Sorry, excuse me while I open my 2 euro bottle of wine entitled, "Domaine Saint Pierre le haut, vin de pays de la vallée du paradis".  Beautiful.

Anyways,  these last two weeks have been absolutely nuts.  I left all my packing until the day I was leaving because that's what I do and I legitimately thought my father was going to wring my neck as we were leaving.  Then I thought I forgot something and I had to get out of the car to look in my suitcase in the trunk, when all of my vitamins came spilling out of my backpack onto the street.  My vitamins were in my backpack because I stuffed them in there last minute.  A 200 pack of vitamins in my backpack, WHAT?  It was chaos.  I couldn't even bear saying goodbye to my cat Bojangles because that's just not my style.

 I arrived on September 28th- so jet lagged because instead of sleeping on the plane I met this awesome lady named Angie.  Angie is from Philly and she was going to Paris for the week with her two daughters.  Turns out that she is the coolest mom in the entire world because she takes international students into her house every year- from a different country.  So, she has seen the world because then these students invite her to their country- I'm talking Australia, Korea, Belgium, etc., etc.  Awesome.  When she fell asleep her feet were literally on me but I let it slide because she rocks.

When I got into my room.  I had no sheets or toilet paper- so the first couple of days I was just buying everything I need for my room --kettle for tea (obviously), plates, silverware, soap, candles (necessary.) --- etc.

The first week summed up-  My first dinner out in France was Chinese food finished with a banana split (I don't transition well.)  I met my two schools and all of the students, quickly learning that basically all they know how to say in English is "good morning"- which has proven to be interesting.  I made friends with some other assistants --- 2 Americans, 2 English gals, and 1 Scottish -who I love but I struggle to understand.  We went to Amiens, a city further north, for orientation where I finally met up with Cecilia.  Cecilia is one of my favorite people in the world and I met her in Paris when we were there for the semester.  She is from Wisconsin and we requested to be in the same place for this program we're doing.  Weeellll, our schools are actually an hour apart but we have all the same breaks and we visit on the weekends for party time, which is the best.

Last week I started teaching.  I have 7 different classes divided between two schools.  My youngest class is kindergarten level and my oldest class is 3rd-4th grade level.  It'sss... interesting.  I like it but it's really hard.  I just make everything fun.  We learned "One, Two buckle my shoe" and played Bingo for numbers (I gave out pennies as prizes which was a HUGE hit) and we played Simon says when I was trying to teach them things like "Listen!" and "Be quiet!"for which I made up silly gestures.   I have each class two times a week for 45 minutes and I can teach whatever I want, because I got the hardcore contract of nine months where you are in charge.  Which is pretty sweet.

This is so long.  wooooah.  I am going to sign off now with this last thought- 

 Is it ok to have a cat on a leash as several French people do in this town?  Debatable.