Dear friends,
I’ve had quite a great week since my last post – lots to talk about! To start with, I mentioned in my last post that a couple other assistants and I were going to take a walk to the Panorama du Bec d’Allier, the place where the Loire and Allier rivers meet, a little ways out of Nevers. We set off last Sunday afternoon for our weekly walk, knowing that this one would be a little longer than normal. When we left, the sky was blue and the weather was nice, just a little bit windy… After walking for about an hour and a half, we finally reached the Bec d’Allier, and I think we were all slightly underwhelmed, although we were glad it was another thing we could check off the list. About 5 minutes after we turned around to start back to Nevers, we started feeling light raindrops. We were all wearing scarves, so we wrapped them around our heads and continued walking – not too big of a deal yet! Over the next 45 minutes, however, the light rain turned into an icy, apocalyptic, torrential downpour that resulted in all 4 of us getting absolutely soaked to the bone and freezing. We were finally so miserable that we actually stopped at a random house (out in the middle of nowhere, of course) to ask them if we could come in and use their phone to call a taxi – mostly just because we wanted to get out of the rain! Of course, as soon as we stepped inside, the rain stopped and a double rainbow appeared – great. It ended up being an older couple living there, and the husband ended up driving us the rest of the way back to Nevers; it was so nice!! From the comfort of my warm and dry living room, our Bec d’Allier promenade was a hilarious adventure, but at the time it was pretty awful!
It turned out that my other Tuesday school wasn’t striking, so I still had to work, but at least I got an extra-long lunch break! On Tuesday night I went to Never’s Maison de la Culture with Lizzi and Tish, 2 other English assistants, to see Cendrillon (Cinderella). It was being performed by the Geneva Ballet, and I think it was the most interesting interpretation of Cinderella I’ve ever seen! Cinderella was an Asian woman, and instead of a Fairy Godmother she had 5 men wearing nothing but tighty-whities (with wings sequined across the butt), fluffy white socks, and glitter all over their chests…. It also ended with Cinderella topless on stage and the Prince wearing only a jock strap. Like I said, it was interesting! It was a much more modern interpretation than I was expecting, but I still really enjoyed it – and will be laughing about it for a long time!
I didn’t really do anything on Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving, but we did have a big Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment on Friday night for 11 people – all the Nevers assistants (as well as some out-of-town friends) – it was a smashing success! As I believe I mentioned in my last post, we had ordered a turkey from a butcher shop in town. I called them on Thursday afternoon to confirm that we still had a turkey and that we could pick it up on Friday morning. The man told me that yes, it would be ready for pickup on Friday morning, but that maybe it was a little bit bigger than what I had requested (I’d ordered one between 5 and 6 kilos, or about 12-13 pounds). Exactly how big was it, I asked. He told me they only had one turkey, but that it was 9 kilograms – almost 20 pounds!! (It was also going to cost €90 – that’s like a $130 turkey, as a reference point) Because we neither needed a turkey that enormous nor had €90 to spend on one, we decided to scrap the “turkey-as-the-main-dish” idea and get a chicken instead. We still had turkey – 2 turkey tenderloins – and all was well! We also had sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, green salad, green beans, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and brownies. Everything was delicious, and it was really fun to share such a quintessential American holiday with our English, German, and Costa Rican friends.
Right now I’m looking forward to the next few weekends, as we have lots of fun things planned. Next weekend a few of us are off to Lyon for the weekend for the Fête des Lumières, then the Saturday after that we’re going to Orléans for the day, and then the next weekend our Christmas break starts! I’ll be spending Christmas with an aunt, uncle, and 2 cousins in Bedford, about an hour outside of London.
That’s really all the news I have for now, hope all is well avec vous!
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Medical visits, strikes, and turkeys
Bonjour mes amis,
Since my last post I’ve officially been medically cleared to stay in France for the entire duration of my visa, I’ve paid my first bills here, and helped cook an English Sunday roast with nothing more than one electric burner, two toaster ovens, and a microwave.
As I believe I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I had to go to Dijon on Monday for my visite medicale, a pretty important part of the process that allowed me to get my titre de séjour, a yellow sticker with my numéro étranger (basically like a resident alien number) that’s now stuck inside my passport. The OFII (l’Office Française de l’Immigration et Intégration), which handles the legal aspects of immigration into France, had set aside two days for all of the language assistants in the Académie de Dijon to have their medical visits and to get their titres de séjour, so half of the assistants went when I did, while the other half went the week before. I got the day off work because the visit is mandatory, so I took a morning train to Dijon, arriving there around noon for my 1:30 appointment. Once I got called in, the visit just consisted of a chest and lung xray (which had to be done torse nu, or topless), an eye exam, and then checking blood pressure and breathing. It was easier than I was expecting it to be, and I now have my very own xray of my chest and lungs, which is pretty cool!
On Wednesday night I ventured back to the Foyer Les Loges, where I lived for my first month and a half in Nevers, for a Repas Anglais. The Foyer organizes activities for its residents, and once a month they do a big group meal – each month is a different type of cuisine, and an individual resident organizes the menus for these meals. I have a English friend still living in the Foyer (her schools are only five minutes à pied from there, lucky thing!), and she somehow got roped into organizing an English meal for 20 people. Although I had hoped to never need to return to the Foyer again, I went with 5 other assistants, both as a sign of solidarity and to help with the preparation for the meal. As Lizzi, Mari, and I were waiting at the train station to meet another assistant to walk to the Foyer together, we received a phone call from Tish (the English girl organizing the meal), who shared the news that the oven and four burners weren’t working on the gas stove and that we would have to cook for 20 people using only two toaster ovens and one electric hot plate. While it took 3.5 hours to prepare the meal, it went better than I was expecting, and it ended up being pretty tasty as well!
My students still constantly amuse me with the hilarious things children say and do, and I laugh every time I swap stories with my fellow assistants about things that have happened in their classes. On Friday morning, for example, I was working on animals with my CM2 class (they’re about 10 years old). We were working on spelling English words, so I would say an animal and then they would have to write it on their little whiteboard and then hold it up for me to check. The first few went fine and most of the students got them right, but then we came to ‘polar bear.’ Out of about 24 students, no one got it right, but I was trying VERY hard to keep from cracking up – one kid had written ‘polar beer,’ but my favorite was the boy who wrote ‘paul webber.’ Close, kid.
The weather has been oddly and surprisingly nice here for the past few days, so this afternoon we’ve planned a walk along the path beside the Loire River, which, if you follow it for long enough, leads to the meeting point of the Loire and Allier rivers – it’s supposed to be very pretty.
I might get to become officially French on Tuesday! There’s a strike scheduled, and I already know that one of my schools will be closed because the teachers there will be en grève (on strike). Tuesdays are my long days, and I’m really hoping that my other Tuesday school, where I have 3 classes, will also be en grève.
As I’m sure you can imagine, France does not celebrate Thanksgiving, so all the American assistants are a little bit sad that we have to work on Thanksgiving, for the first time in our lives! We’re planning a big meal though, and will be introducing the holiday to our English, German, and Costa Rican friends. They don’t sell frozen turkeys in the stores here, and the French really only eat turkey at Christmas, so even the first butcher shop I visited told me it would be impossible to get one for November 27. Luckily we found another, more accommodating butcher shop, and have ordered a turkey. I’m a little nervous, however, that we might just get a turkey with its head, feet, and feathers still on – I hope it’s at least beheaded and plucked!
That’s really all my news for now, j’espère que tout va bien avec vous!
Since my last post I’ve officially been medically cleared to stay in France for the entire duration of my visa, I’ve paid my first bills here, and helped cook an English Sunday roast with nothing more than one electric burner, two toaster ovens, and a microwave.
As I believe I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I had to go to Dijon on Monday for my visite medicale, a pretty important part of the process that allowed me to get my titre de séjour, a yellow sticker with my numéro étranger (basically like a resident alien number) that’s now stuck inside my passport. The OFII (l’Office Française de l’Immigration et Intégration), which handles the legal aspects of immigration into France, had set aside two days for all of the language assistants in the Académie de Dijon to have their medical visits and to get their titres de séjour, so half of the assistants went when I did, while the other half went the week before. I got the day off work because the visit is mandatory, so I took a morning train to Dijon, arriving there around noon for my 1:30 appointment. Once I got called in, the visit just consisted of a chest and lung xray (which had to be done torse nu, or topless), an eye exam, and then checking blood pressure and breathing. It was easier than I was expecting it to be, and I now have my very own xray of my chest and lungs, which is pretty cool!
On Wednesday night I ventured back to the Foyer Les Loges, where I lived for my first month and a half in Nevers, for a Repas Anglais. The Foyer organizes activities for its residents, and once a month they do a big group meal – each month is a different type of cuisine, and an individual resident organizes the menus for these meals. I have a English friend still living in the Foyer (her schools are only five minutes à pied from there, lucky thing!), and she somehow got roped into organizing an English meal for 20 people. Although I had hoped to never need to return to the Foyer again, I went with 5 other assistants, both as a sign of solidarity and to help with the preparation for the meal. As Lizzi, Mari, and I were waiting at the train station to meet another assistant to walk to the Foyer together, we received a phone call from Tish (the English girl organizing the meal), who shared the news that the oven and four burners weren’t working on the gas stove and that we would have to cook for 20 people using only two toaster ovens and one electric hot plate. While it took 3.5 hours to prepare the meal, it went better than I was expecting, and it ended up being pretty tasty as well!
My students still constantly amuse me with the hilarious things children say and do, and I laugh every time I swap stories with my fellow assistants about things that have happened in their classes. On Friday morning, for example, I was working on animals with my CM2 class (they’re about 10 years old). We were working on spelling English words, so I would say an animal and then they would have to write it on their little whiteboard and then hold it up for me to check. The first few went fine and most of the students got them right, but then we came to ‘polar bear.’ Out of about 24 students, no one got it right, but I was trying VERY hard to keep from cracking up – one kid had written ‘polar beer,’ but my favorite was the boy who wrote ‘paul webber.’ Close, kid.
The weather has been oddly and surprisingly nice here for the past few days, so this afternoon we’ve planned a walk along the path beside the Loire River, which, if you follow it for long enough, leads to the meeting point of the Loire and Allier rivers – it’s supposed to be very pretty.
I might get to become officially French on Tuesday! There’s a strike scheduled, and I already know that one of my schools will be closed because the teachers there will be en grève (on strike). Tuesdays are my long days, and I’m really hoping that my other Tuesday school, where I have 3 classes, will also be en grève.
As I’m sure you can imagine, France does not celebrate Thanksgiving, so all the American assistants are a little bit sad that we have to work on Thanksgiving, for the first time in our lives! We’re planning a big meal though, and will be introducing the holiday to our English, German, and Costa Rican friends. They don’t sell frozen turkeys in the stores here, and the French really only eat turkey at Christmas, so even the first butcher shop I visited told me it would be impossible to get one for November 27. Luckily we found another, more accommodating butcher shop, and have ordered a turkey. I’m a little nervous, however, that we might just get a turkey with its head, feet, and feathers still on – I hope it’s at least beheaded and plucked!
That’s really all my news for now, j’espère que tout va bien avec vous!
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