Picnic, etc.

Yesterday I spent the day with my French friend, Mélanie. We had the most French picnic of my life at the pretty lake in town. I am talking several baguettes, wine, assorted cheese & charcuterie, some interesting spreads that I ended up not being grossed out by after all, and eclairs for dessert. Minus the fact that I got my first sunburn of the season, it was so great.
We were sitting and relaxing and people watching for a while. We even got to giving life stories to people, which I think is super funny. I had never done it in French before so that was a first.

Then, we had tea and just chatted at her apartment.

Later on, we went to see this band play called Breizh Amazir. It was about 7 people total- a violin (this girl musician had great style), bagpipes, several guitars, some flutes, etc. The music was really pretty and different and it was in this remarkable stone building dating from the 13th century, that was actually used to house the lepers during the Middle Ages. Hence it is called the "Maladrerie"- "malade" meaning sick in French. It had a courtyard and a fountain and it was just altogether charming. Three of my students were there at the show. One of whom, Silya, was running around the place in circles at one point and each time she passed us would say "Hello, Miss Sara!".
Pretty silly.

After some music, we went to my friend Nazim's place. A few of us met him a while back and he loves hosting get togethers. Last night he made sushi and we all hung out because a bunch of my fellow English teachers finish up next week and leave. Not me though- I still have 2 months left with my munchkins.

Also, there was a gourmet market in town back in October that I think I mentioned. Well, it was back this weekend. It is quite nice. I ate a vanilla macaroon today that was delicious. Mmmm! France tastes good. That is for sure.

Michael Jackson

One of my classes is working on an environmental project and the teacher asked me if I would help them learn the lyrics to Michael Jackson's "Heal the World", so that they can sing it at a little show for their parents.
So, that is what we are doing for the next few weeks at the end of class.

Helping children appreciate the late king of pop while also teaching them to respect the earth?

I can die happy.

Chantilly

This past Saturday, my friend Lauren & I went to a charming town called Chantilly, a little bit further south- known for horseracing, lace, porcelain, whipped cream and their château- adorable, right?
It was sunny and 70 degrees out. Glorious!

We took the train in the morning and played some Rummy to pass time. Recently, we have been on a kick and usually have an ongoing tournament to play. I lost this one. I usually lose. Yeah, I'm working on it.

We arrived at around 11am and walked along this little dirt trail that led to the racetrack, l'hippodrome de Chantilly. The first horse race here took place in 1834. Also, apparently a James Bond movie shot a horse racing scene here. Voilà.
When we went up to get a ticket to see the premises, we get told that we are being given a complimentary wine glass. We think, "hey that is kind of odd, isn't it?" As it turns out, there is a three day wine festival going on inside with specialties from all over France. We go in and act as serious as we can muster while trying the wines. We enjoy wine but we know practically nothing! Well, we tried a bunch of different sips of things and loved it. Everyone was getting a kick out of us and it probably showed that we had no idea that this wine thing even existed until 10 minutes before. We also bought cherry nougat, which was delicious.

We then proceeded to have a photo shoot with the contraptions that the horses start in to race.

After that, we continued to the château. It is surrounded by a forest and everything was so green and pretty. The château from the outside was wonderful, with these silver roofs looking like snake skins in the sun. We went inside and appreciated some history and then meandered through the French and English gardens. Then- we found a fabulous nook with a perfect view. We sat on the steps of a small house on the property and classical music was coming out of the windows. We each ate a clementine and took a moment. The sun shining. Me in my prescription Ray-Ban sunglasses. Hearing classical music and people speaking French in the distance.
dreamy.

On our way back to the train, we bought fresh raspberries and ate those while people watching.

April 1st

I walked into one of my classes today and instead of setting up our calendar, I looked at all 25 of those seven year olds and I told them that we are having an essay test on the history of the United States of America. I told them to get out their pencils.

They did so very promptly and in silence.

After a few moments of them exchanging glances and looking pretty concerned about this exam, I told them that I was kidding because 1. all we have said about the United States is that that's where I'm from and that we speak English there and 2. it was April Fool's Day!

It almost made me cry when they all just took out their pencils right when I said that, ready to take this so called exam at 7 years old.

Happy Fool's Day ya rascals!

Random Facts #6

1. The weather here has been beautiful lately.
2. I realized that my kitty Bojangles is going to be nine this year and almost cried.
3. I was hanging out with some people last night and one French guy was wearing a shirt that said "Rochester" on it. I asked him if he knew where that was and he had no idea. Then, he responded by saying- "When you wear a shirt that says Beauvais on it in the States, no one is going to ask you where that is." My only answer was that I don't ever plan on doing that.
4. It is one hundred and ten percent sure that my kids are getting good in English. Ok, not "good", but we're making serious progress.

Oh, and tomorrow I will have officially been here six months.
Odd.

Delicious Raclette

Two weeks ago, my French friend Mélanie took me along to a weekend excursion in Normandy. It was her friend Elsa's birthday and there were a lot of people my age there. It was interesting, fun and refreshing. But quite frankly it was slightly overwhelming. I think half of the people thought I didn't speak French at all so they didn't approach me and the other half wanted to know about New York. It's ok- it was an experience and my friend Mél is great fun, so there you go.

Well, well, well. We got to Elsa's house in Normandy on Friday night. People started to trickle in and the table was being set, set with these big grill sort of appliances. Then, a ton of cheese, charcuterie (assorted cooked meat), and various veggies were put out. I was informed that this is called a Raclette.

This was like fondue only more French (ok, technically it is Swiss). You put the cheese, which is actually called "Raclette" itself, into a little dish on the heat and when it is melted you scrape it onto your plate and eat it with whatever you want - some potatoes, gherkins, prosciutto, etc. You can even get fancy and put some things in with the cheese on the grill. The name actually comes from the French verb "racler", meaning "to scrape".

I am all about dinners that take a while and allow for some lingering and chatter. How disappointing is it when you set the table and then clear it 10 minutes later?
Everyone, look into this and add that appliance onto your christmas list for next year.

Have a nice Saturday, friends!

Greek & Turkish Fun

Oh my goodness, it has been a while since I have posted. I have missed it! I got back from my adventures in Greece & Turkey about two and a half weeks ago and have been busy!! Busy babysitting and teaching and catching up with all the anglophones in Beauvais. Busy reading the Kite Runner (great). Busy enjoying the sunny weather, for once.

Greece and Turkey were mind boggling. The languages were refreshingly different, the food knocked my socks off, and I learned a lot. Cecilia and I (in my opinion) are sort of dorky travelers. We like to taste all the different foods, meet other cool backpackers in the hostel & go out occasionally but we are secretly in LOVE with museums, archaeological sites, etc. We had a splendid little time, although we were drenched in rain in Istanbul and got little sun in Greece. It's ok!

Here is a little recap for you.

On February 22nd, we arrived in Istanbul. We stayed at this funky place decked out in carpets on the walls with a cool guy named Volcano at the desk. We bought a really delicious kebab next door the night we arrived and tried to sleep in a room with our noisy Brazilian roommates. The next couple of days, we did Istanbul up. We learned things, we haggled, we got stared at for having blue eyes, we discovered awesome, cheesy foods, and bought cool stuff. We went to a bunch of really gorgeous places like the Hagia Sophia (part mosque, part church, officially a museum) the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cisterns, the Suleymaniye Mosque, etc. But, oh my goodness. The best and most outrageous part of this city was the bazaars. We went to the Spice Bazaar first, where we ate pistachio candy and gazed at the heeping, perfectly placed piles of colorful herbs. We thought we were in heaven. UNTIL, we realized that that was the baby bazaar and that the Grand Bazaar would be a hundred times bigger and crazier. There was a general madness in the Grand Bazaar, but instead, I will tell you my personal madness that occurred. I bought an incredible tunic shirt dress after trying on around 15. I had someone take apart one bracelet so I could get the piece I wanted put onto a different bracelet, all the while talking about Wisconsin and the Great Lakes. The whole while I was being brought apple tea by the store owners. Cecilia was having an equally fun time - browsing, bargaining, and sipping. At one point, this carpet seller asked us to come into his shop. We said very honestly, that we won't waste his time because we could not even afford a thread of his carpets (this is not even a joke). He laughed and said "come on! Just let me show!" and we said "No, Really- they are beautiful but we are not the people for this!" In five minutes, I was sitting down on a comfy sofa, drinking an apple tea, and being shown carpets in five different color schemes in 20 different sizes- as this man hopped and kneeled and bent over and around to bring out the carpets that he had stacked up to the ceiling. Quite the time.


On February 26th, we took a plane to Athens. I thought Athens was so extremely awesome. The Acropolis was bigger and more majestic than I ever imagined (although the scaffolding sort of put a damper on things). On that Sunday, we checked out the Monastiraki Flea Market. A crazy mix of new and old- where I bought a delicious, crispy sesame bread to snack on. We checked out all the cool, hip areas like Exarhia and Psirri. We ate at Greek taverns. I ate a lot of feta cheese and loved every minute of it. The Acropolis Museum was amazing. The top floor was made to be the exact dimensions of the Parthenon, and it showed the statues that adorned each side depicting a scene from Greek Mythology. Cecilia got a little bit sick in Athens, so I spent some time with two of our roommates- Phil, an Australian living in London and Yves, a French-Canadian Engineer. We did a sweet walking tour and ventured around at night together. On our last day in Athens, I stopped at a cute place for lunch. I ate outside and enjoyed an awesome lunch of Souvlaki with a Greek "Mthos" beer. yum! :o)


In between our time in Athens, we actually squeezed in a visit to the island of Paros in the Cyclades. It was March, so it was quiet- and honestly, beautiful! We were in the main town of Parikia and we had fun wandering the white and blue lined cobblestone streets. I bought pretty leather sandals, starred at the Aegean Sea, continued to eat feta cheese and just relaxed. It was very peaceful. Plus, we found a few respectful nooks for coffee- which definitely doesn't hurt.


Honestly, we did a whole lot more than this- but if I went through it all I would not have stories to tell in person when I got back to the the States- and where is the fun in that?