Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that everyone is relaxing and enjoying their day off! I'm at work right now, as they don't have Thanksgiving here. In two of my classes my teacher wanted me to talk about Thanksgiving, and it was much harder than I would have thought. When you grow up celebrating something, you don't really think much about it, except the occasional "I'm thankful for x" or "I'm excited for turkey and stuffing and potatoes and..." and maybe you imagine getting together with family and friends. Well, trying to explain to French students, in English, why we celebrate the harvest and who the Pilgrims were and why we sit around and eat all day...well, basically, it doesn't really make much sense, does it? At least to outsiders. So, needless to say, it was kind of weird for me to take myself out of my American mindset and figure out what this Thanksgiving thing really is. And now that I made that list of food, I've made myself hungry and wishing I was home to eat everything I know will be there today. However, I'm making the best of the situation and heading to Caen tonight to celebrate Thanksgiving with some Americans, Frenchies, and whoever else shows up. I also insisted that I wanted Friday off so I could stay and celebrate the whole weekend. Hey, I might not be in America, but you're not taking America away from me! So two classes stand between me and my dinner, one of which is English Club. There was some confusion about times and stuff at first and since then no one has shown up for the last two meetings, but I mentioned it to some of the older classes and I hope they come because you'd better believe that they're making hand turkeys and playing Thanksgiving Mad Libs!!

So, a very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and think of me when you're tucking in to some turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy, and especially when you're on your second piece of pumpkin pie, because I'd sure like to be there with you!!

school life-part two

Ok, so last time I wrote about the school day, but I thought I’d add a bit about how the school calendar is structured here. This year, it looks like this:

Sept. 2-Oct. 21 School in session
Oct. 22-Nov. 2 Toussaint (All saints Day) Break
Nov. 2-Nov. 10 School in session
Nov. 11 No School-Armistice 1918 (like Veteran’s Day)
Nov. 14-Dec. 16 School in session
Dec. 17-Jan. 2 Noël (Christmas) Break
Jan. 3-Feb. 16 School in session
Feb. 17-March 6 Hiver (Winter) Break
March 7-April 16 School in session
April 17-May 2 Printemps (Spring) Break
May 3-July something I think, with a few days off in there somewhere

Basically, classes are in session for 6 weeks, and then there’s a 2-week break. I haven’t figured out how many days total that is, so I’m not sure if it’s more, less, or the same as the 180 days American students have to be in school. It’s a nice system, though, because right about the time you’re ready for a break, there you go. For the first two weeks, all of France is the same, but for the second two, Hiver and Printemps, the country is divided up into three different groups, and their breaks differ by a week or so. So if it seems like I get a lot of time to travel this year, this is why! I actually kind of like this system, though I do miss the random days we have off in America, just to mix things up a bit.

It’s almost movie time, so I’m going to end there.

school life-part one

Since there’s not anything terribly exciting happening around here lately, I thought I’d take some time to write about what it is that I’m exactly doing here in France. Of course, I’m an English language assistant. But, since one of the reasons that I came here was to find out more about French schools, I might as well share with y’all what my school life is like here. You might know that I only work twelve hours a week. That is to say that I’m in front of students twelve hours a week-like any other teacher, I spend more time than that each week preparing lessons, keeping a log book for future assistants, and surfing the Internet at school. Anyhow, to start, I thought I’d tell you what a typical day looks like for me. So, here’s Tuesday:

Week A
8:30-9:25am Seconde 1
9:25am-10:20am Seconde 2
10:20-10:40am Break
10:40-11:35am Terminale Litt.
1:50pm-2:45pm Seconde 3

Week B
9:25am-10:20am Seconde 2
10:20-10:40am Break
10:40-11:35am Terminale Litt.
1:50pm-2:45pm Seconde 3

Alright. So, obviously, I have two different Tuesday schedules. Classes here use what we would call block scheduling, similar to what we have in college. Students don’t have every class every day-classes usually meet 2-3 times per week. Some classes meet every week, and some every other, which is why I have a slightly different schedule depending if it’s Week A or Week B. The hours are also different from American schools. High school starts at 8:30am and ends at 5:45pm. Beginning in the morning, there are two hours (each class hour lasts 50 minutes). After, there is the morning break, which lasts 20 minutes. Then there are another two class periods, then lunch, which is 12:30pm-1:50pm. This is common in France-most stores close in the middle of the day so that people can go home for lunch. At 1:50pm, afternoon classes start-another two, then a 20-minute break, then another two, and then the day ends. Phew.

It took me a bit to get used to this schedule, and sometimes I still need to reassure myself that it really is Week B and I don’t have to be in class. However, I’m learning to like it, and you certainly won’t find me complaining about all those breaks and long lunches. I also have Mondays off (it doesn’t make sense to spread 12 hours over 5 days…) and Wednesday afternoons as well, since the schools in my town are closed then (I have no idea why.). Another interesting thing that I found out is that full-time teachers only spend 18 hours in front of the students each week (unlike the 25-30 of American teachers). I think they’re just given more time for planning and grading than teachers at home, which I think is awesome. This also means that all of my teachers have at least one other morning or afternoon, or maybe even a whole day, off. I could definitely get used to that schedule.
So, there’s part one of what school is like here. Soon I’ll write about other stuff, like my students and the curriculum, but for my brother’s sake I’m trying to keep things short! ;)

workin for the weekend

I don't know why, but I'm really glad it's the weekend. My classes went well, there aren't any problems, but I'm ready for a lazy morning lounging on my clic-clac and catching up on writing letters that I haven't had time for this week. You might think, since I only work twelve hours, that I had spare time coming out of my eyeballs, but no. I don't know where it all goes, but I feel busy, even if I'm not. I don't have any big plans for the weekend, other than doing some work and hanging out with the Chilean assistant, Yasmin, and her friend Francisca Saturday. Don't know what we'll do, but oh well. There is some sort of fair set up in town that consists of bumper cars and about 25 of those claw things where you grab stuff. That's it. I don't know why it's there, and I don't know why that's all there is, but oh well.

And for those of you that were worried, I have already taken next Friday off for Thanksgiving. That's right, I'll be having myself a fantastic long Thanksgiving weekend here in France. Thursday night there's a dinner in Caen, and either Friday or Sunday or both I'll be celebrating with assistants there. Did you really think I'd let a perfectly good eating holiday pass me by just because I'm not in America?

merci mille fois!

Many, many thanks to everyone who sent birthday cards and birthday emails, left me messages on facebook, or just thought about me yesterday. Even though I had to be away from home on my birthday, I felt very loved. :) I really truly do appreciate it-it really means a lot to have people thinking of you when you're so far from where you'd really like to be that day!

Even though I couldn't be at home, I still had a great weekend in Caen. Although if I had known I had Friday off earlier, I might have arranged to spend my weekend somewhere on the Mediterranean. :) It was a pretty relaxing weekend full of food, good talks, and oh yeah, horse riding! Saturday I went horseback riding with fellow assistants Jen, Jane, Kristina, Kristina's French husband Charlie, and Charlie's friend Etienne (I just found out when spell checking his name that "Etienne" is the French form of Stephen. Weird, no?) I was a little shaky at first, because I am certainly not an equestrian pro, but I did enjoy myself. We actually went out in Ouistreham, and the ride was along the beach there, which is the same one in my pictures from about a month ago (Sword Beach, eh?). I didn't get any pictures this time, but picture me there on horseback. Oh, and my horse's name was Lostique, which I was told roughly translates to "rascal," so that tells you about how he acted for the first half of the ride.

Anyhow, I came back to Carentan yesterday, and this morning I woke up to my doorbell because La Poste was there with my package! Very exciting. I now have more clothes, and some delicious homemade cookies. I'll have to ration them out, since I don't have an oven to make my own here. If anyone wants to follow my wonderful mom's example, you have my address. :)

Well, I guess I'll go do some grocery shopping. I bought myself a French pastry yesterday, so I could have some sort of birthday cake, but I picked in a hurry since the lady was waiting and it turns out that what I thought was chocolate on the bottom was actually prunes. I guess I should have listened when she was telling me what was in it, but I was too busy thinking about chocolate. Story of my life, I tell ya.

take tomorrow off? okay!

Apparently there's no school tomorrow. It's Armistice Day. I don't know exactly what all it means, though I know it's related to WWI, and from the name I suppose you can pretty much guess. In any case, I'm not complaining. Tomorrow I'm headed to Caen for a fun-filled birthday weekend. Actually, filled might not be right, but I'm sure it'll be fun. Friday night I think Jen and I are going to head to another assistant, Karina's, place for pizza night. It's something they do every weekend in Caen, but it will be my first. Basically they go to Karina's to eat pizza and watch Star Academy, which is vaguely like American Idol but more in school format, kind of. I don't really know, I've only seen it once. Saturday we're supposed to go horseback riding, and I'm pretty excited (even though my mom tries to tell me otherwise!) So all in all, it should prove to be a good weekend. Holy cow, the teacher sitting next to me is the fastest hunt-and-peck typer I've ever seen! As for me, I finally figured out how to change the keyboard to good ole American QWERTY, so no more of that crazy French typing for this girl!!

(P.S. My post about Scotland is below, and all the new pictures are on my photo site with descriptions!)

safe and sound

Just wanted to say that things here are fine and the riots that are happening in France have not hit my town, nor do I expect them to. The only town in Normandy that I'm aware that they've occurred in is Evreux, which is not all the close to me. I'm going to start actually keeping up on this news, though, since most of you probably know more about it than I do. Just had to say that things here are fine!!

scottish fun

Saturday in Carentan. I wish I could say that today was exciting, but that would be a lie. The weather was nice, though, plus I got groceries and called my Mimi for her birthday, so the day wasn’t so bad. Hopefully I’ll be in Caen next weekend for my birthday? We’ll see.

So Scotland. Gorgeous. Amazing. I loved it. As I flew into Edinburgh, I could look out over the Firth of Forth (I guess what we would call the Bay of Forth?) and Arthur’s Seat, which is this huge mountain-like hill in the city, apparently caused by an underwater volcanic eruption a real long time ago. When I got there on Friday, it was rainy, so Nate and I got some groceries, ate an excellent dinner, and then stayed in for the night. Saturday he took me to see some of the local sights, including the not-so-Scottish Scottish Parliament Building and Holyrood Palace, which is Queen Elizabeth’s Scottish residence that she apparently visits once or twice a year. Oh, and she also has her own pond full of geese and swans, which I find pretty funny. Nate and I walked up to the top of Arthur’s Seat for a great view of Edinburgh and the surrounding area. It was fantastic, and so crazy that something like that exists in the midst of rather large city (Edinburgh’s population is about 500,000). After that, we set off for Britannia, the former Royal Yacht that is now permanently in harbor in Edinburgh. Talk about royal comfort. Holy cow. I still don’t quite get the point of monarchies, but I do know that when you’re royal you pretty much get what you want. In all fairness, the “yacht” wasn’t quite as extravagant as it could have been, but the fact that it ever even existed is pretty crazy to me. It was, for Queen Elizabeth, the homiest of the all the Royal homes, but alas, it was decommissioned in 1997 because it was costing Britain too much money. Well, shoot. Saturday night, Nate and I met up with a couple people from his program for a drink, and then home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Sunday we overslept for church (oops!) but had a nice big breakfast instead. Then we walked a few steps up the street to Edinburgh Castle. The castle itself was nice, but I could have done without the huge admission fee that included things like the Scottish War Museums and the Scottish Crown Jewels, which required a 15-minute walk through a “storybook” before I actually saw anything. Show me the jewels, tell me they were hidden from Cromwell, lost and then found by Sir Walter Scott, and send me on my way. The castle does have a beautiful view of the city, though, and it’s huge, so it was fun to walk around, but some of it was a bit too touristy for me. I might be wrong, but I have a feeling the former Scottish royalty wouldn’t appreciate a magic show in the Great Hall. Strange.

On Monday, Nate had to do some work, so I had a day to explore Edinburgh. I decided to start out at Calton Hill, which overlooks the city and Arthur’s Seat. Again, beautiful weather, so the view was incredible. I could have spent all day up there, but Nate had recommended that I visit the Royal Botanic Gardens, so I decided to keep going. The Gardens were beautiful as well-the leaves on the trees were bright orange, and some flowers were still holding on. I took advantage of a few opportunities to play in the leaves, since it was Halloween and it only seemed appropriate. Don’t worry, Mom, I made sure there was no one around first-I know I shouldn’t make a fool of the family. Speaking of which, did you know there’s a Cunningham plaid? It’s black and red, and actually quite nice. I have no idea if my family is actually related to the Scottish Cunninghams though. (Grandma, Dad, any help?)

Monday night Nate and I watched some scary movies with people in his building, because we had to do something for Halloween. In the middle of one of them, Nate came running in from upstairs and told me to follow him, and we went outside to find this crazy Halloween parade. Come to find out, there’s a decent-sized Pagan community in Edinburgh, and every Halloween (All Hallows Eve) they have a parade to celebrate the spirits and such before All Soul’s Day. I wish I had my camera on me to take pictures, but it was basically a bunch of crazy costumes and makeup and dancing. Think Carneval, but on a smaller, less debauchery scale. Craziness!

Tuesday I left to go back to France, and what do you know, here I am. England and Scotland were both fantastic, and the break was just what I needed. Beautiful scenery, good talks with good friends, and plenty of rest. Oh, and plate after plate of good food from Nate, who, as it turns out, is an excellent cook. So now that you’re all caught up on my British adventure, I think it’s time for bed. Don’t want to sleep through church two weeks in a row.

il faut parler le francais

Back in France after an absolutely wonderful 10 days in the U.K. It was a little hard to come back here after being around familiar faces, especially since I knew that Evan wouldn’t be here when I got back. In any case, the trip back actually went really smoothly, and I have clean clothes once again, so I guess I can’t complain.

I never did get a chance to write about London and Scotland while I was still there, so I’ll do it in chunks so it’s not so long, because we all know I tend to write and write and write!
Before leaving for break, I had decided that I was going to see London while I was in England, even if I had to go alone. Luckily, Beth didn’t have classes Wednesday or Thursday, so we were able to go together. Wednesday morning Beth finished up a paper, and then we were off. We got to London in the late afternoon, and since we both really wanted to see a show while we were there, we decided to go get tickets first thing after checking into our hostel. We ended up getting tickets to The Producers, which I had wanted to see for quite some time. All in all, I liked it, though I do wish that I had seen it with Nathan Lane, because I’m sure he really fit the part. The material kind of was on the fence in terms of political correctness, but I think it was more of a "let’s not be uptight about all this" kind of way rather than just being ignorant. That might not make sense. Too bad.

Since we didn’t have much time between buying our tickets and the time the show started, we stuck around the West End. We ate a delicious dinner in China Town, and then started to wander towards the theatre. On the way there, I glanced up once and we were right outside Murder One!! Murder One is a crime/murder mystery store that my friend Lindsey worked at last fall. So of course I had to go in and have a look around. It was what you would expect-crime/murder mystery books. Funny how that works out, huh? We also spent some time wandering around Covent Garden before, but once the show was over we went back to the hostel and crashed.

Thursday we were up early and off to see as much of London as we could in a day. We started off at Shakespeare’s Globe, which was pretty much the highlight of the day for me. We spent hours looking around the exhibitions, which I thought were well done. Of course, we also went on a tour of the theater-very fun. Our tour guide was pretty informative, and she took us up to every level so we could see the stage from all the angles. Unfortunately, there aren’t any plays there this time of year, but it would be fun to go back and see one there sometime!

After that, we went to Tate Modern (an art museum), but the only exhibit that piqued my interest was closed, so we continued on toward the London Eye. The Eye is essentially a huge Ferris wheel overlooking London-the ride around takes about a ½ hour, and the views are supposed to be amazing. We would have liked to go on, because we had amazing weather and the visibility would have been great, but the lines were way long. Instead, we treated ourselves to some fish and chips and rested a bit before heading over to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We decided to take a tour of the Abbey, and I have to say, it’s really not my thing. First of all, there’s always been something a little strange to me about touring places that are supposed to be for worship. Yes, I have been to tons of cathedrals, so that statement is a bit hypocritical, but still. Westminster especially got me because it’s essentially a burial ground for the rich and famous. I don’t like having to walk over people’s graves to move about a church, nor did I really like the crazy ornate tombs everywhere. I appreciate the history of it all, but I couldn’t escape the feeling that they were all there to be in the public eye, even after their death. It all felt like one big parade of English who’s who. I won’t lie, though-I do harbor a special appreciation for the poet’s corner-not many countries honor their authors, so it was pretty neat.

After that we strolled through St. James Park on our way to Buckingham Palace, which is, as I have heard before, nowhere near as fancy as you might expect for the Royal Family. Again, wrong time of year to actually tour it, but I’m sure that the inside is spectacular. To end the day, we walked down The Mall to Trafalgar Square, then headed back to Leicester Square for some evening entertainment. We stumbled across a restaurant with a set menu for dinner-first time I’d seen that in England, though they’re everywhere in France. Quite tasty, for what we paid. To finish the evening, we saw Pride and Prejudice. Though I liked the older version much better, it was still good, and Keira Knightley surpassed my expectations as Elizabeth. I guess I just like that the older one is truer to the novel.

Friday morning we were up early once again. Beth caught a train back to Cambridge, and I headed to the airport to get on a plane for Scotland. More news to follow!