Megan's Trip to Strasbourg

For the 3rd of my 4 vacations (For my 9 month contract, I have 8 weeks of paid vacation. This is a country that knows how to appreciate vacation time.), I was at a loss as to what to do. The 2nd week, Brie, Kate and I went to Berlin, but for the first there wasn't much going on. Everyone else had family visiting or was teaching extra courses. So, I looked into places I could get to cheaply and stumbled onto Strasbourg (Strasbourg).  It's a gorgeous city, with a well-preserved history but also plenty of current life. The later has become important to me since coming to understand that Laon peaked in the middle ages, and is currently sleeping in the beautiful remnants of that time. I spent an hour cruising couch-surfing and eventually sent out a request.

Have you heard of couchsurfng? If not, you should look into it: Couch Surfing. It's an website where people offer to let other travelers sleep on their couch or in their spare room for a few nights. I was naturally skeptical, especially being a woman traveling alone. But I have met a lot of couch-surfers through various means (pot lucks in other towns, random nights out here in Laon, etc.) and they've all been really pleasant to be around. There seem to be two things similar to all couch-surfers: an genuine interest in listening to other people and a certain sort of worldliness. So with the promise of good conversation and the many stories from friends of great couch-surfing adventures, I decided to take the risk of ending up staying with complete weirdos. In the end, I got so, so lucky, but that later.

 I took the train to Strasbourg Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of that day wandering around, just soaking in the gorgeous historical part of the city. The city, and the region of which it is the capital, has changed hands between the French and the Germans many times over the past 1700 years. Today it's a beautiful blend of the two. That evening I met my couch-surfing hosts for the first. Their house was about 15 minutes from the city center if you rode a bike or took the tram.

Couch-Surfing House. Cute, eh?

There were seven roommates at home that week: 1. Marie, a German student studying translation 2. Nico, a French student aqua-engineering (did I make that word up?) 3. Murielle, a French student studying something like public administration 4. Natsuko, a Japenese girl living in France to learn to make pastries 5. Flora, a French student studying the EU 6. Xavier, a French waiter who should probably actually be a musician for a living 7. Adrianna, a Romanian med-school student, and a former roommate who was visiting for vacation. Plus, an endless stream of friends visiting for the afternoon, evening, or a few days. Though it was admittedly a bit awkward and nerve-wracking in the beginning, everyone was incredibly open and welcoming from the moment I walked into the door. That evening they threw a soiree, and I listened to French until I was utterly incapable of understanding even a single word more. There's a point with foreign languages at which your brain just turns off and you have to stop. That point is usually around 1 am for me, but, happily, I'm finding that it's getting later and later.

Sunday, I borrowed a bike and took a big tour around the city. I started with the "European" section of the city, where there are European Council, Courts, and Parliament buildings. Lots of interesting, albeit not always beautiful, modern architecture. That afternoon I met some of the housemates at the Modern Art Museum. I'd intended to head back to Laon Monday afternoon, but Nico was generous enough to invited me to stay longer. Though I was hesistant to over-stay my welcome, as I always am, it felt too good to be in a big, cosmopolitan city. I ended up staying for 8 days.

 

 It turned out to be such a super (My use of that word is evidence of the French corrupting my mind) vacation. I spent the rest of the week hanging out with whichever housemate happened to be home, passing lots of time around their kitchen table; reading, drinking 3 or 4 cups of tea a day, taking turns cooking big meals, sharing pictures from our homes and our favorite youtube videos, being amazed by Natsuko's cakes. Have I mentioned the gateaus? She made at least one a day. Beautiful, home-made pieces of French heaven in your mouth. Often several a day.

Maria and Natsuko

I went to the Alsatian museum, saw a movie in English!, took 3 hour walks, drank decent beer and great wine, managed to understand most of a 2 hour, French tour of an art museum, saw a modern circus, got married, ate traditional Alsatian food, chopped off most of my hair (Don't worry Grandma, not all of it!), and learned more French than I probably had in the past month.

 Now, dad has often said that he that is very lucky. It's clear to me that I must've inherited his luck. Strasbourg is a lovable city, but mostly the week was made by the people I met there. Thanks to my good fortune, I got scooped up into this amazing little community of smart, interesting and big-hearted people. They were so generous with their space, their food, and their things, so patient with my terrible French, and so open with their lives. I'm completely incapable of expressing what a positive experience it was and of how truly grateful I am.

Adrianna making Romanian doughnuts!

Maria and Murielle

Brunch! It's gaining popularity in France and for good reason.

Les Simons, Flora, and Nico

Circus!

City-dwelling goats

Self-Portraits of CE1's/ 2nd Graders

We've been learning animals and practicing colors with the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" As their final project, the kids got to color all the animals the correct color and, more interestingly, draw pictures of themselves. Here are the most interesting ones:


Notice a difference in self-image
between these
two?

I'm legal!!!

So, for those of us who don't come from the E.U., fulfilling all the requirements to be here is quite the ordeal. I don't want to say that it's been frustrating, because really I haven't cared.  It's just been a lot of paperwork and visits to the local prefecture. I got the letter telling me when my first appointment was 4 days after the appointment was supposed to have happened. No matter. They gave me another one. The second one was when I was home for Christmas. Third times a charm. I went last week to hand in the final bits of paper work (proof of my identity and residence, the information from my medical visit earlier in the year, etc), and I finally got my tampon! (Tampon means stamp in French.) The French love tampons and put them on absolutely everything. So, now I am finally a legal French immigrant! I pay taxes, am entitled to health care, and get a weekly ration of wine and cheese.

Misc. Bits of January

Getting ready to leave for Mini- Skirt Night hosted by the local Uni

11th Century Abbey Ruins & the lovely French/ Bulgarian family who took us

Basquiat exhibit in Paris: Basquiat (wikipedia)

Brie and I's weekend in Paris....

The 2 hour line we had to stand in to see the exhibit

Day trip to Rheims- Drinking Irish beer in the capitol of the Champagne region

Kate cut my hair. It looked good in the end.

Maria, Xiomara, and Kate had their first peanut, butter & jelly's, albeit on a baguette. Maria is skeptical.

Yes!... She changed her mind.

Before the weather got awful I used a lot of my free to go for walks.

I've been trying to sketch a little again...

Now that its gotten freezing,

That, and we've been becoming connoisseurs of all 2 euro wines.

A Typical Day at St. Exupery Primary School

9:30 am : I arrive, kiss all the other teachers, draw pictures of cartoons looking sad/tired/hot/happy, and make copies of fruit flash cards.

9:45 - 10:25 (CM2/ 5rh graders) : The kids are old enough to be self- conscious, which often makes teaching less fun; however, they have longer attention spans and are better at guessing what I'm trying to convey. Sometimes, when we're practicing saying "Hello," I shake their hands and they all giggle uncontrollably. When I'm really tired I start giggling too, and we all giggle together for a while. It's very counter the French ideal of scholastic discipline.

10:25 - 11:00 : The first recess of the day for the kids. Teachers drink coffee/tea and smoke. My director teases me for not liking coffee.

11:00 - 11:40 (CE2/ 3rd graders) : We begin by singing a song about the days of the week to the tune of the "Adam's Family" theme, proceed to take a survey about on what food students like. Most of the students get confused when I ask them to "glue their papers" because they think I'm saying blue. I make the kids write "I listen to my teacher" three times when they get too unruly. Then we translate it together, and it becomes a fun exercise.

11:40 - 2:00 : Lunch- Everyone gets 12 - 2 off to eat. The neglected kids with "bad parents" have to eat in the cafeteria rather than going home for a proper French meal. I eat with the other teachers for an hour, slowly understanding less and less. Occasionally, we talk about American movies, food, or the weather, in which case I keep up with the conversation. Otherwise, I smile a lot, and ask questions of whoevers sitting next to me. They are very sweet about looking out for me. On some lucky days we all drink delicious wine. Eventually, when I can no longer concentrate, I sneak off to read or work on lesson plans.

2:00 - 2:40 (CE1/ 2nd graders) : We sing, read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to review colors and learn days of the week, play flashcard games in which the kids always cheat. A little girl vomits on her desk and is too shy to interrupt me. It takes me several minutes to notice her neighbor has his hand up, because he always has his hand up. Always. And most of the time he doesn't actually have anything to say.

2:40 - 3:20 ( a different group of CE2/ 3rd graders) : We sing, do the same class survey. I spend half the class telling them to "listen, please." The three worst students spend the whole class ignoring me, but drawing me pictures that usually include the phrase "Megane je t'aime." The boys decided the survey is a contest and begin to say that they like every type of food in order to have a higher number than the girls. Some bully others into saying "yes" for everything. Everyone stays in the class for two minutes at the beginning of recess as a punishment for not listening.

3:20 - 3:55 : Recess again. I drink tea and get bombarded by my favorite class of five year olds, who all want to kiss me and tell me about their dogs and cousins.

3:55 - 4:10 (CP/ 1st graders) : Lots and lots of singing. I feel so bad for the teachers who have to listen to my terrible voice all the time. I speak a little French and have to change activities constantly to keep them engaged. There are two little boys in the front who smile at me and talk to me the entire class, no matter what I'm doing. When I was showing them a map of America and telling them that I live in Virginia, one of them told me he lives in Kansas. I think he was serious. He said it with such a precious, spacey little smile that it made me want to visit that terrible state.

4:10 - 4:45 (different group of CE1/ 2nd graders) : We count backwards and forwards to ten, saying the words out loud and using our hands. When we get back to zero, everyone claps their hands above their heads and shouts "Blast off." I've never explained what it means, but they love it. More singing, games, and books.

5:00 - As I leave for the day the students are in the halls, pulling their coats and backpacks on. The five year olds again kiss me. The seven, eight, and nine year olds tell me "Hello" and immediately afterwards, "Goodbye," with big smiles and genuine eagerness to communicate. The oldest kids say "Goodbye" shyly, or else burst into laughter after they say it. Making it to the front office, I ask one of the administrators to unlock the door for me. He says "No, you must stay here." We both chuckle. It's hard to make jokes in a foreign language, but it's easy to make someone feel welcome.

Maria and Iris' Birfdays (explained through native drinks)

Maria's 24!

For Maria's birthday we drank eggnog made by her momma out of tiny, chocolate-coated waffle cone-cups...

_______________________________________

Iris turns 25!

And for Iris', we drank tequila so good you want to shoot it. Iris introduced us to "Pigeons": tequila and grape-fruit soda.

Favorite French Moment of the Week, #3

Hanging out a few days ago, the conversation came round to cheese. It often does in France. We all discussed our love for various French cheeses, and, finally, the question that always comes up, came up: What good cheese does America have? Some one had the brilliant epiphany that we have spray cheese (Cheese-wiz). Unable to come up with an exact translation, Kate explained to our baffled French-friends that it is "cheese that comes out of a whip-cream bottle." Shocked and bewildered one of them said, in perfect English, "You are the most powerful country on earth and you eat this?"

I think I might've redeemed us if I'd only been able to explain string cheese.