A Happy Moment and a Horse

This entry is going to have to be really quick because it's already late and I have to catch a very early train to Lyon. I'm a bit rushed because the dinner with the teachers from Ecole Bourgogne took a lot longer than I expected. I showed up (early!) just before 7:30pm and the rest of the group didn't get there until 7:50pm or so (I asked if people generally show up early, on time, or late, and the response I got was never early but don't be late). And we didn't really start eating until 8:30pm....

Anyway the happy moment came earlier today when I was on my way home from school. My three classes today went really well. The sixth, seventh, and eighth versions of my Halloween-themed lesson were vast improvements on the first few tries. The kids seemed to enjoy it and retain the vocabulary and structures I taught them (I'm sure the candy at the end helped too). Last night I made more squash/pumpkin soup with the left-over ingredients from when I made it earlier this week. My mom sent me a recipe for butternut squash soup, but squashes seem to be less popular here and the only option at the market was something giant resembling a cross between a pumpkin and a squash. Although I asked for courge (squash), I'm pretty postive it was a pumpkin. Anyway, the soup was delicious.

When I got off the bus at Place Flore I decided to stop in the little boulangerie bakery) and get some bread to go with the soup, which I was planning to reheat for lunch. I have bought bread from this boulangerie once before (when I made the stuffed peppers for Steff and me) and I also asked if I could put up one of my flyers by their cash register. The woman working there recognized me as the girl who asked about putting up a flyer, and we started chatting about what I do and why I decided to come to France. She was very curious and friendly and at the end of our conversation (another patron came in), she gave me the demi-baguette for free! I thought it was a really nice gesture. You can bet I'll be going back to that boulangerie more often, just because the woman was so friendly.

Here's a pic of my clean-out-the-cupboard-and-refrigerator-before-vacation lunch:

The red flakes in the middle are crisped ham (they look purple in this picture but I can assure you they weren't). The redish dots in the soup are paprika. The cheese is called sapin (I think that's the name of the cheese, but it might be the brand). Anyway, yum!

As for the horse bit, today was my second riding lesson and it was highly successful. I can attribute this to two factors: 1) this time, I was assigned a mount more suitable to my height and riding ability, 2) I reviewed the terms in my Être Cavalier book before my lesson. We also rode inside (no wind), which made it easier to hear Beatrice and thus follow her directions. Today was dressage, as opposed to jumping, and my mount's name was Nouba. Nouba is a chestnut mare, about 16 hands (average-to-slightly-tall, for those of you who aren't familiar with the terminology), and of a light build. If we were in the US I would say she had some Thoroughbred in her, but I know that isn't the case. She was hugely uncooperative when I tried to take some pictures, but here's one just for an idea:

So not only was Nouba more appropriate for my height, but she was much more responsive than poor little Quenotte. We did lots of bending exercises and she actually collected quite nicely. It was more like riding and less like careening. She didn't have the most comfortable gaits in the world, but I would be perfectly happy to ride her again. She also wasn't very friendly, but again, that didn't stop it from being a good lesson. And based on how saddle-sore I am now, I did a lot more work this week than last. I won't have a lesson next Friday because I will be in Vienna, but I'll pick it back up the week after that. Oh, I forgot to mention, after our lesson we go for a brief walk up past the stadium jumping ring (yes, there's a ring dedicated just to stadium jumping, with elaborate jumps just like at big horse shows). There's a national park, or some kind of protected space just behind the equestrian center, and both times we walked around there for just a few minutes after my lesson. It's absolutely magical! It looks and feels just like an enchanted forest and approaching it on horseback makes me feel like I'm in A Knight's Tale or Lord of the Rings. Too cool!!

Oh, and Quenotte was equally unhelpful when it came to taking pictures, but here are two shots of my mounts, to give you a sense of their respective heights (the stall doors are the same height):



Well tomorrow I'm off to Lyon. Bonne nuit and bisous!

What's New

What's new in France: First Lady Carla Sarkozy delivered her baby last night, a girl named Giulia. Carla has a son from a previous marriage and President Sarkozy has three sons, two from a first marriage and one from a second.

What's new in Besançon: Tomorrow is the first of two days of the Braderie d'automne, a huge fall market with more than 500 vendors. Pretty much all of the bus routes are being diverted around the c-v because of the expected traffic. I might be able to see a little bit tomorrow, but will probably miss most of it since I'm leaving at 7am Saturday morning for Lyon.

What's new at my schools: At Ecole Champagne, where I spend most of my time, the big issue of the moment surrounds a handicapped student who will be starting school after Toussaint. The controversy is sort of complicated -- no one is opposed to a handicapped student having access to the education system. First of all, it doesn't seem like the larger school system administration handled the issue very well. The teachers were informed earlier this week that this handicapped boy (I'm not exactly sure what his handicap is because I can't remember the French term they used, but he's confined to a chair and cannot move his arms or legs). He's only 6 years old and will be placed in Caroline's CP class (first grade). His family just immigrated to France from Spain and he doesn't speak any French (he speaks Catalan, not Spanish). And apparently he hasn't gone through any kind of testing or placement process, so if he has any mental handicaps, the teachers aren't prepared to deal with them. And the school isn't handicapped-friendly... there are tons of stairs everywhere. I have found so far that Besancon is less handicapped-friendly than most cities I've lived in so far in the U.S.

So why isn't he going to a more suitable school? The answer: bureaucracy. Well, that's my interpretation. Ecole Champagne is in Planoise, a neighborhood that is heavily populated by immigrants. So there are programs in many of the schools (possibly all) called CLIN -- one or more teachers whose sole responsibility is to teach French to children who recently immigrated and don't know enough French to be learning other subjects in that language. Because this boy doesn't know French, he HAS to go to a CLIN school, and all of those happen to be in Planoise, and all are equally ill-equipped to cater to a handicapped child. The further complication -- these schools are already stretched a little thin -- the classes are relatively large and the kids sometimes have stressful or complicated home situations -- their parents don't speak French, they recently immigrated, etc. So, you can see how this could come across badly. But as of this morning, the boy had been assigned by the school district, a special assistant to follow him around, which should make it a little easier for the teachers at Champagne.

At Ecole Bourgogne: tomorrow evening most of the teachers are getting together for dinner at a restaurant called Cafe des Pratiques which happens to be very near my apartment. They invited me to join and I'm excited to spend an evening with them, because at this point I know the teachers from Ecole Champagne much better and I'd like to get to know the Bourgogne teachers more.

What's new at my apartment: this morning for breakfast I ate homemade yogurt! When Charly went home this weekend he brought back the necessary unpasteurized milk and he made a batch of 8 verres (glasses) on Wednesday. Those of you who followed my emails in Morocco know how things ended up the last time I consumed unpasteurized milk products, but this time it was yogurt, not milk, and I sort of assumed that the yogurt-making process would make it safe to eat. And it worked -- no serious illness! The yogurt was delicious!! Charly added a mild vanilla flavoring and the yogurt itself was incredibly cream. Definitely the best I've ever had -- and it doesn't get any fresher than made the day before. He made another batch tonight and I took a picture of the little machine:

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but the French are obsessed with yogurt (which in French can be spelled yaourt or yoghurt). At the grocery store, there's a whole aisle dedicated to yogurt. In contrast, I had to ask someone to help me find the butter. And the milk! Usually it's unrefrigerated and at the end of some obscure aisle. But yogurt! Natural, fruit-flavored, dessert-style mousse-yogurt, you name it, they have it. And interestingly enough, it's usually eaten after lunch or dinner, not as a breakfast food. Next time I'm in the grocery store maybe I'll try to take a discreet picture...

Other points of interest: On Tuesday evening I had dinner at Magalie's house. Magalie teaches a CM2 class at Ecole Champagne (the very best of all my classes, certainly) and she invited me last week to come have a meal with her family. She has a son who is in 10th grade and a daughter who is in 7th grade (I forget their names at the moment). The son was a bit brooding but her daughter was precocious and very talkative. Charlotte, Magali's niece, also ate with us. Magali made two pizzas: one with all kinds of super French cheeses: chevre, bleu, Conté, and many others and the other with artichokes, mushrooms, and onion. They were both really yummy and we had a salad and a tarte aux mirabelles (plum tart, I think) for dessert. I got to Magalie's around 7:30-8pm and didn't get home until after midnight! Magalie wanted to talk long after we finished dinner, and I was happy to oblige, but got really quite tired by the end. I have a harder time formulating my thoughts in French late in the evening, and Tuesday had already been sort of a long day because I went for a long run before classes, taught 4 classes, then met with a family for my new tutoring job.

Yes, I finally got in touch with the woman who contacted me about tutoring -- I need to look up the French term for 'phone tag'. Anyway, I met her two daughters Tuesday after classes and they're adorable. It turns out that they too ride at Les Ecuries de Chateau-Galland (along with the daughters of the French-German couple who lives on the second floor, I'm starting to think the daughters of everyone in this town ride there). This time we just sort of chatted and got to know each other, but next time I'm going to take some books to read and maybe plan an activity. It will be interesting doing this in addition to teaching classes, because it's a different style and will require different resources. I'll let you know how it works out. The logistics worked out really well though -- they live about 8 minutes from my apartment, and right next to the bus stop where I catch/get off the bus.

Word count tells me I've already surpassed my limit, so I'm going to wrap this up. Teaching this week has been a mixed bag. Lesson #3 for all of the classes has been about Halloween and on Tuesday I had a huge flop -- the song I picked was way too complicated for the kids and I had the horrifying experience of seeing all of their blank faces staring up at me as I attempted to warble along with the tune. Not good. The teacher helped me out though, and I revised my plan for the next class. You can't win them all!

One more point to note: I noticed today on my run that the leaves have finally started to change! I hope I don't miss all the pretty fall colors while I'm in Lyon/Vienna. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures during my voyage and even more of Besançon when I get back.

A bientôt!

Hockey game, and lots of pictures

Going into this weekend I had very little planned, but it ended up being quite busy. After my successful shopping excursion to Chateaufarine, I took my time getting back and some time finishing Au Bonheur des Dammes in a little park I discovered on the c-v side of the Doubs, facing Pont de la Republique (Republic Bridge). I really enjoyed it at the end... the conclusion wasn't exactly a surprise, but the heroine had overcome such incredible strife that I was quite content for it to end happily ever after for at least one person. I didn't bother with the spoiler alert since I'm confident none of you are eager to read a Zola novel which focuses on the rise of department stores in 19th century Paris...

Then at 5:30pm, I joined some of the Ultimate team members who were going to watch a hockey match! The Besancon Remparts (ramparts) are in Division III and Saturday they played Luxembourg. The match took place at a rink in Planoise and I'd say there was a crowd of about 100 people or so. GuiGui (Jean Guillaume) works with one of the players, and Gaeten, another friend from Ultimate, is a big hockey fan. I got a ride with Fred and his son Benjamin, and Gaëtan's friend Marion came too. I haven't seen a hockey game in person since I went to a Cincinnati Mighty Ducks game when I was about 10, and this one was pretty exciting. There were two fights, but both were brief. We ended up winning 6-5, although I'm not sure we deserved it. The Luxembourg goalie was much better than ours, and their team was much more aggressive. It was pretty funny how riled up the fans got, despite the relatively low-key setting. And I learned some new vocabulary: le palet (the puck), la crosse (hockey stick), and hors-jeu (off-sides). Despite the small size of the "arena" they had a concession stand selling hot wine and hot dogs. Knacki is the brand of hot-dogs which has market dominance in France -- here the name has replaced 'hot-dog' the way Kleenex has replaced tissue (or whatever the real term is). I think it's so funny to see people eating hot dogs in baguette halves... and usually slathered with mayonnaise. French people think ketchup is silly, but I find mayonnaise pretty much revolting, let alone on a hot dog!

Saturday night there was a birthday party for Alex (team captain), hosted by him and his girlfriend Lucie (who also plays on the team). It included everyone from the hockey game, and maybe another 6 or so people. It's a good thing it was a small party because there wasn't any more room in the apartment. I tasted the much-acclaimed Pontarlier Anis, but found it about as appetizing as anything else licorice flavored, which is to say not very much. I had an easier time following the conversation (and contributing to it) on Saturday evening than I did when we went out after practice on Friday. It's really frustrating sometimes because I know I come across as dumb when I can't articulate what I'm trying to say. And usually I know what's being said, I just can't formulate a contribution quickly enough before the conversation changes. Or someone asks my opinion during one of the times I don't know what's going on... I'm sure it will get better, but it makes ordinary conversation a lot more of a challenge.

And sometimes, I find myself getting a little metaphysical about the whole thing. I'll catch myself thinking about how I'm living my life in a different language, and try to catch myself when I'm really fully immersed in it and my thoughts come fluidly, without me thinking. I haven't dreamed in French yet since I've arrived, but I'm hoping it will happen soon.

Sunday I went to church at the Eglise Reformee, which was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the "Scoutisme Unioniste" (what appears to be the equivalent of the Boy Scouts for the Reformed Protestant Church in France). The pastor was wearing his scout scarves and they had past and current members participate in the service. We sang lots of songs, as we did when I went two weeks ago. I think it's interesting too how much other members of the congregation participate in the service. Both this Sunday and the time before, the pastor called upon several adults and children to come forward to read passages or prayers. After the service I was looking at some of the materials, and the pastor came up and introduced himself to me. He told me about the group they have for students (ages 18-25) and gave me the email address of the group leader. Apparently they meet every two weeks or so, usually for a meal. I haven't heard back yet, but I'm definitely going to check it out.

Here's a pic of the church from the outside:

After a long run -- the weather this weekend was spectacular -- I went back to the c-v for a free guided tour of the Musee Beaux Arts et Archéologie (Fine Arts and Archeology Museum). This one was entitled "Chefs d'oeuvres du musée" (the museum's masterpieces) and I was particularly interested in attending because the museum is slowly being dismantled, in anticipation of closing for renovations in 2013. That's sort of a long way away, but apparently the museum's most famous painting, a Courbet, is already gone. So sooner is better! This tour focused on five works: the Mesuda mosaic, which was the floor of a giant Roman domus located on the site of the c-v, a Bronzino which was originally comissioned for the personal chapel of the Medici family of Venice, a painting from the workshop of George de la Tour, a Courbet, and two paintings by Pierre Bonnard, which were commissioned to hang in someone's home facing each other. Here are the pictures:

This picture is to give you a sense of the size of the Medusa mosaic... the whole thing is 6 square meters (64 square feet):

 And it's namesake:

 It's amazing to me that a 2,000+ year old mosaic can be this well-preserved...

Can you spot the anatomical mistake in this representation of Poseidon? (answer at the end of the post)

"Saint Joseph" from Georges De La Tour's workshop (I had never heard of him before this tour, but the lighting in the picture really is quite remarkable -- check out how the glow permeats the young Jesus's hand):

The Courbet. This painting's 'realism' caused a scandal because the pig is in the primary plane and thus given lots of visual importance:

Place Clichy by Pierre Bonnard. I absolutely love this painting, I can't believe someone once got to keep it in their living room:

Oh, the Rhodenbaughs, it was so nice of you to have this picture of B placed in the museum to remind me of home (when I saw it I thought instantly of him):

And finally, here are some pictures from the Ultimate tournament in Vesoul a few weekends ago, as taken by Lucas (pronounced "Lucca" in French), Gaetan's brother. He's a photography major and took some really neat shots -- here are a few.

The whole team (both vieux and jeunes):

"Comtois, rend-moi! Nenni ma foi!" -- our cheer

 

 Fred about to make an excellent catch in the endzone:

GuiGui for the jeunes in our game against the vieux (Gaeten guarding):

 

Face-off in that same match. Bob (real name, Yves, in the blue) is significantly taller than Gaël (in the red), but Gaël has some serious hops. I don't remember who came out victorious in this instance: 

Team Jeunes (L to R: Colin, me, GuiGui, Tete, Erik, Gaël, Thomas in the back)

Okay, time for bed for me. The answer to the question about the Poseidon mosaic -- he has two right hands!