Megan's Trip to Ireland, Part 1

Caroline, one of my best friends from college, and I spent 6 days in Dublin. After debating between all of Ryanair's cheap destinations we settled on a the place where people spoke English. I can't tell you how nice it was to be perfectly understood at all times. That said, I didn't always understand what was being said to me. After some confusion in a pub one night, a jolly middle-aged Irish man said to me "Listen faster lass."

Below are pictures from our day trip through the Mountains and to Kilkenny, a small village south of Dublin. The hostel we stayed in gave you a free day trip if you stayed for two nights. Well worth it. The countryside was incredible, even if the weather was awful. 

The tower in the background is part of the monastery founded by St. Keven in the 500's. St. Keven is famous for throwing a beautiful, naked virgin off a cliff. He believed that she was the devil tempting him.

This is the top of a burial chamber which predates the pyramids!

Kilkenny Castle

Kilkenny Castle was originally built by Strong-Bow, the infamous Norman Invader of Ireland, in the 12th century. Strong-Bow's real name is Richard de Clare, which just sounds so much less intimidating than his English name. His ancestors, the Butlers, lived there until the 1930's. Today they've renovated the inside to look how it did in the 1800's. Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

A drawing of Kilkenny from the 1800's, borrowed from wikipedia

To come: Pictures and Stories from Dublin

Soisson

 Over our first of four two week paid vacations we took a day trip to Soisson. Soisson is about 30 minutes away from us by train. Although it's the same size as Laon, it has a very different feel. First of all it's flat, so less impressive when you first approach it. Secondly, 80% of it was destroyed in the first world war. Thus it has a much more modern feel.

Hilights of the day include meeting up with Haley, who graduated from my college a few years ago, and other Soisson assistants. Also, Chinese food for the first time since being in Europe! All you can eat Chinese food...

The Cathedral, burned first by the protestant Huguenots in the 1600's and later by the Germans. Below, pictures of the inside. 

allo!!

Hey world of mainly Megans friends. I'm Brielle. For better or worse I was just given access to be a co-conspirator for this blog along with the other assts and I thought I'd type a little something today..just a short hello.

I thought it was really awesome of Megan (Queen Megan, if you happen to be a primary student under her authority that doesn't know any better) to introduce me as the founder of free wifi :) . I live in la ville basse de Laon ...le quartier champagne. Basically lower Laon, at the bottom of the plateau instead of up in the bourgeois FANCY PANTS medieval city with the others. One day at the very start of this whole adventure, I was meeting everyone uptown for a picnic and while we were gallantly looking out over the ramparts at teeny tiny lower Laon, someone mentioned how 'peasantville' looked nice on said day ... peasantville... lower Laon...mmm my home... and since the eternal caste of peasant and the jokes that come with it.. have stuck.


I love being in France. This is my first time teaching. My french is funny.
This adventure is hilariously rad from absolutely every angle.


Anyway, I'll get my camera working and try to be charismatic and funny next time...


Yours truly,

Our Town Fortress

On top of the plateau in our town is the amazing park. There's an old fortress, although we have no idea exactly how old. There are no signs explaining it anywhere, but I do know that our town has been fortified since at least the 400's. Since it's Europe, you're allowed to climb all over the fortress and through it's tunnels. There is also super fun and dangerous playground equipment to play on. The last time we went, we ran into 7 year old students of Lindsay who were lighting matches and pretending to smoke them.

Megan's Room

Laon

The Medieval City, where I live, is on top of a big hill. It's the only hill for about 50 miles in any direction, and no one has been able to tell me how exactly it came about.

At the base of the medieval city are the suburbs for about 3 miles in any direction, and then farms. The people here love to welcome us to the "countryside" and then laugh hysterically about our bad fortune at being assigned to work here. It is a sleepy town. You can walk from one side of the medieval city to the other in 20 minutes, and there's not much to do in the lower part of the city. There are two bars worth going to, one night club, lots of bakeries, a branch of a university whose campus consists of two buildings, and no shops are open past 7pm or on Sundays. All that said, the locals don't see the town's charm which has so enamored us. To them the cathedral, the ruins from the 1000's, and the green forests covering the sides of the hill are just tired pieces of scenery. 

The cathedral, built in 1100's

The dark buildings on the left are the school where I live. The church on the far right is an abbey also built in 1100's. There are incredible walking paths all through the woods near my school.

Lastly, my favorite statue in one of the town's best parks.

What am I actually doing in France?

This is the boring stuff, so I'm going to go through it quickly:

I'm working for the National Department of Education, 12 hours a week, as a language assistant. After I somehow tricked them into believing I spoke enough French to be helpful, they assigned me to Laon, in the Amiens region. 

Since I'm assigned to an elementary school, I'm working in classes where the teacher isn't certified to teach English. Most often, the teachers I'm working with barely speak English. So, together, me speaking barbarian French, as Brie says, and them speaking slowly and repeating themselves over and over we work things out. I'm working with kids between the ages of 5 and 11. They are all very excited to learn English, sometimes too excited. 

My contact, who is the epitome of everything good about France, found me housing at one of the public high schools, or lycees. Most of the lycees have dorms where students stay during the week. A French school day last from 8:30 in the morning until 5 or 6 at night, with a long lunch and several breaks throughout the day. (I'll post pictures of my room soon.)

My schedule isn't totally fixed yet, but as of now it looks like I'm going to work Monday, half of Tuesday, and Thursday. Primary schools are closed Wednesdays, and the teachers at my school convinced me that I needed Friday off in order to enjoy France. 

Tomorrow there is a big strike all across France. It seems like an important land mark in my time here. Too bad I already had the day off...

To come: more pictures, of course and information about my town