New Friends and a Walk in the Countryside

Today was another productive and enjoyable day, but my "run" this morning certainly wasn't the productive part. After the Ultimate practice last night my legs were pretty shot, there was a significant amount of walking during the 35 minutes I was gone this morning...

At 11am I met up with my liaison for the schools where I will be teaching (not to be confused with the advisor from the CIEP (Centre international d'etudes pedagogiques)). The liaison is responsible for the langues vivantes (modern languages) program at a number of schools in the city. The advisor is in charge of the logistics for the assistants (making sure we have places to stay, helping us figure out how to get around the city, etc). All of this is to say that this morning I got to find out more about my schedule and the kids I will be teaching from the woman who knows these things:

#1: No class on Wednesdays or Friday afternoons. Wednesdays because in France younger kids don't go to school on Wednesdays, and Friday afternoons because my liaison wanted me to have the option to take an earlier train if I was going somewhere for the weekend (very considerate).

#2 : Definitely will be teaching kids ages 6-10 years old, in two different schools. I'll be helping in 7 different classrooms, each two times per week, and two other classrooms each once per week. Each class lasts for 45 minutes.

#3 : I will never be the only teacher in the room. But I may be the only teacher in the room who knows any English, and therefore, I'll be responsible for most of the teaching. YIKES! I was very much excited about the "assistant" part, but being the primary teacher intimidates me quite a bit. Luckily the first two weeks are solely observation, and hopefully between that and leaning heavily on my education-major friends, I'll be ready to go once called upon for active duty.

The liaison is also going to take me to the schools on Thursday to show me around and introduce me to the director of each school and the teachers, so I know where to go on my first day (this coming Monday).

After that meeting I hiked up to the gare to catch my train to Liesle (pronounced, wait for it, "Lee-el," trust me, of all of the pronunciations I attempted, none of them was that). A quick 20 minutes later I descended from the train and met Susan, who was waiting with her Cairn terrier Sparky. We walked down to her house, only a few minutes from the train stop. It's a beautiful home -- exactly what I would picture if someone told me they lived in French countryside. She, her husband and I ate lunch on their back patio (surrounded by tressles covered in grape vines). First we started with homemade apple juice (more on that later) and pistachios and then dined on a quintessentially French meal: a salad of fresh greens, potatoes, pieces of chicken, lardons (they sound funny, but they're sort of cross between ham and bacon), tomatoes and cucumber, plus homemade bread and three kinds of cheese. For dessert Susan made an apple and raspberry tarte. Yum!! It was all delicious. Susan and Emmanuel met while they were both at UPenn -- he's French and they moved here after living in Algeria for two years where he was teaching as part of what was then required military service.

Now he works as a consultant for the development of national parks (turning them into visitor-friendly spaces while respecting the environment) and she is a counselor at a private middle school. The original plan was to go for a walk in the forest very near their house -- one of the largest complete forests in France. But Emmanuel had to scout out a site in Mouthe in order to turn in a proposal in less than 48 hours, and he invited us to join him. So we all piled in the car (Sparky included) and drove about an hour to this national park. The map below gives you an idea of how close we were to the border (Mouthe is circled at the bottom left, the part labeled CH = Switzerland):

Even if we had just driven there and driven back, it would have been worth it for the view. But fortunately, we were able to get out and hike around. Emmanuel took pictures of the three buildings on the site (hopefully he'll be able to turn one into a nature center). The landscape was very hilly and exceptionally green. There were lots of coniferous trees, with some deciduous ones sprinkled in too. The elevation was nearly 4,000 ft, so this area gets lots of snow in the winter. For now, there were cows grazing and the tinkle of their bells sounded like wind chimes. Susan told me that the different tones come from differently-sized bells, and the cows are assigned the bells based on the relative rank in the herd (the top dog gets the lowest-toned bell). There were also some horses in a pasture connected to one of the barns: three mares and their foals -- it looked like they were all born this past spring. It was cute how exactly the babies matched their mothers' coloring. We hiked in a big loop for about an hour, then drove back. It was really neat to see so much of the countryside -- the leaves haven't started to change yet, but the autumn sunlight cast a magnificent golden hue over everything.

So, I mentioned homemade apple juice earlier. Apparently every year the Coudels have an day-long apple festival which involves picking bushels of apples from a nearby orchard and using a masher/press/pasteurizer to make over 500 bottles of apple juice and apple cider. This family event has come to include friends too, and they invited me to come to this year's incarnation, which is taking place on Saturday. It's going to be great! And I promise to take my camera this time.

I hope you all are doing well! Tomorrow's plan is to make a quick trip to Carrefour (the French equivalent of Wal-mart, but don't tell them I said that) and then off to explore the citadel and some museums with other assistants.

A demain! (Until tomorrow!)

Flea Markets and Frisbee

Hello all! The past two days have been great -- I've met lots of new people and seen/done a few new things. First, for Sunday:

On Saturday afternoon Charly asked if I would be interested in accompanying him to the vide-greniers (collective garage sale/flea market) the following morning. He and Steph had already mentioned that they frequently go to the ones which are held on Sundays in and around Besançon to look for video games and books, respectively. I obviously have nothing to offer in the video games-advice department, but I thought it might be an interesting experience, so I agreed to tag along. I actually ended up buying a book, Le Premier Jour by Marc Levy. I also bought a set of Allemand pour les Nuls (German for Dummies) CDs. The set was new (still in the wrapping) and I thought it might be a neat way to complete my "learn a third language in a second language" goal. Obviously this one is a bit humbler than my original, world-famous-language-institute plan, but at 2 euros, you really can't beat the price!

So we left our house around 8am (Charly and I, Steph was at her family's house) and drove east for about 10 minutes. There were about 50 vendors set up selling all of the typical flea market items: clothes, books, jewelry, sundry electronics. There were also a few less-predictable items: a giant donkey statue, tires, headlights from a car (but not at the same table as the tires), board games, boat keychain fobs, and more. Charly suggested we go methodically down one side and return by the other. About halfway there was a food vendor's table set up and we each bought a piece of gâteau au ménage, which is apparently a regional pastry. It's a sweet bread, a cross between cake and bread, with a thin layer of sugary glaze on top. Very tasty! We continued, and eventually Charly found what for him constituted a jackpot: a Sega console and 10 games. He bought the console for 25 euros, pleased because he is planning to sell it online for 40.

We were at the first vide-grenier for about 45 minutes, and then drove to another on the other side of Besançon (but equidistant from our house, about 10 minutes). The vendors were much more concentrated here, but I didn't find anything and Charly bought only one game, a Lemmings game. We also ran into Charly's uncle, who lives near by and collects stamps. Sort of an interesting mix of people at the vide-grenier: lots of families, some older people, but mostly younger ones. Charly pointed out one professional vendor, but most of the people there appeared to be locals just trying to clean out their closets and basements.

Sunday afternoon I also got to meet up with some other assistants -- Gemma (from Southampton, England) and Sean (from Helena, Montana), who are both assistants at the same high school in Planoise. I had coffee with these two on Saturday. At that point they were the 4rd and 5th people I knew in Besançon, so I was pretty excited. And then Sunday we met up with Candice (from Michigan). It's sort of nice getting to know people as they trickle in, rather than all at once as we will at the stage d'accueil (orientation) next Tuesday.

And then Monday: I had hoped to check out the horseback riding opportunities today, since so many other things are closed, but alas, the centres équestres (stables) were closed as well. Zut! So, it was pretty much the standard: run in the morning, breakfast, errands, reading, etc. But then I got some good news: details of the practice times/locations for the local Ultimate team. They have practice on Monday and Friday evenings and both locations are sort of in the middle of nowhere, so I asked if someone could give me a ride. Gaëtan, the club president, volunteered to pick me up on his way, at 7:45pm outside the gare. It took about 15 minutes to get there, and the practice took place on what they call terrain stabilisé. I could in no way find a translation for this, and I'd never seen sports intentionally played on gravel before, but that's basically what it was like. Smaller than gravel though, and dustier.

The club is called UC-Vesontio and there were about 18 of us there tonight (including 3 other girls and me). Apparently the club is 5 years old, but most of the team members haven't been playing that long. Gaëtan told me on the way over that they recently lost a lot of veteran players and have acquired a bunch of rookies, so there's a pretty big disparity amongst different players in terms of knowledge of the game. The practice was similar to any I've ever done: warm-up, drills and then a scrimmage. 

Between the drills and the scrimmage though, the two captains called everyone over and began describing some of the basics. However, instead of using a dry-erase board, they used .... Lego men. Seriously! Someone set down cones in a not-at-all-to-scale representation of the field, they plopped down a Frisbee (with one of the handlers' tiny tiny hands touching it) and proceeded to explain a vertical stack, cutting, etc. I can't remember the last time I wanted my camera so badly... the two captains crouched around these little Lego men was hilarious! It was actually pretty effective though, or at least I thought the explanation was clear. 


So then we played!! It was a perfect evening -- in fact pretty much since last Monday, when it rained all day, the weather has been unbelievably great. It's cool, around 55 degrees in the morning, gets up to about 70 at noon, then slowly cools down again. The air is crisp with little humidity. So despite the less than desirable surface, the conditions were really great.


And the players were very friendly! When they heard I was from the US everyone assumed I was studying at the fac (short for faculté, meaning university). I know the 3 other girls are still in school, and I would guess lots of the other players are too. There was one older guy there, but the average age was probably early 20s. Overall, the evening was a huge success. It felt great to play again; although I was really tired by the end. We did drills, then 3v3, then a scrimmage for about an hour with 2 subs for each team, and I'm out of shape! I'm definitely going to go back for the indoor practice on Friday. 

I'm worried that I'm going to be awfully sore tomorrow. The only reason it might be unpleasant is that walking is actually one of my scheduled activities: around noon I'm taking a train to Leisle, a little town only about 20 minutes away. There I'm meeting up with the family of my high school physics teacher's sister (yes, a little tenuous, I know). She invited me over for lunch and a "walk in the forest." I'm very excited! Before that, I'm meeting with my liaison for the school where I'll be teaching, she's the woman who will introduce me to the proper people on Monday when I start. All this adds up to a busy day, so I'd better go to bed.

(PS I know I fudged a little on the word count, I hope you'll forgive me!)

Getting Settled In

So this week has been very full of housekeeping-type activities:

• Purchasing a phone
• Setting up a bank account
• Purchasing a bus pass for October
• Getting a library card (okay, that part was optional, but it was free with the Carte Avantages Jeunes I purchased on Thursday, which also allows you to get discounts at restaurants, movie theatres, etc)
• Touring the city (also optional, but I've been doing my best).
• Going grocery shopping
• Etc...

So now I am pretty settled here in Besancon. Yesterday evening I got back to the apartment around 7:30pm (I had contemplated going to see a movie, but decided not to). I'm glad that I didn't, because Steph and Charly invited me to join them for dinner and to go check out an exposition in the c.v. called "Nuit des Cherchers" (Researchers' Night). Basically it's a grown-up version of a science fair, featuring researchers from the university, and presented in an interactive way. Also -- the Art and Archeology Museum was open to the public, with demonstrations and presentations going on inside. It sounded cool, and getting to know the couple I'm living with a little better seemed like a good idea.

Speaking of whom, I should probably tell you a little more about them. They're both 26, and both from this area (Steph's family is less than 30 minutes away and Charly's is an hour away). Steph works at a nursing home near Planoise (the neighborhood where I'll be teaching), in a management role. Charly is working on his PhD in archeology at the university here. In their spare time... Charly does karate and apparently likes video games (he has an extensive collection, but I've never seen him playing them). I'm not sure exactly what Steph does. So far I've really only seen them coming home from work, making dinner, watching TV or a movie, and going to bed.

So last night we walked down the Rue Battant to a little restaurant called "Indian Restaurant" (original, right?) But the food was delicious!! It's always a good sign when an "ethnic" restaurant is populated by people of that ethnicity, and that was the case here. But unlike a lot of Indian restaurants in the US, this one was very bright and open. I had lamb curry, yum! Afterward we walked to the c.v. and checked out the exhibition. It was a little less interactive than I think they had expected, but we participated in a couple of the activities ("do men and women perceive smells differently?") and wandered around the museum. Besançon sits on the foundations of an ancient Roman town and so they have a lot of cool artifacts, including some magnificent mosaics. The curators have set up the exhibit so you can walk out onto a platform and see all of the mosaics around you (they were originally the floor of Roman dwellings). Really neat! By then it was nearly 11:30pm and we walked back home.

This morning I went for a run/walk along the Doubs (I asked Charly and Steph last night if all of the paths/trails/quays were safe and they told me which ones to avoid at night, but that for the most part the area is very safe). The part where I was running is actually a bike path which extends from Nantes in the south of France to Budapest in Hungary! As I was running, I contemplated how confusing the French language can be. For instance, these words are all pronounced the same way ("do"):

• Doubs : as in the river
• D’où : literally "from where"
• Doux : soft or gentle (this spelling indicates the word is describing a masculine noun)

I know we have homophones in English too (right Amy Jo?), but they seem infinitely more confusing in French.

Now I'm off to meet with two other English Teaching Assistants who just arrived in Besancon. They're living in Planoise, the area where I will be teaching, but we're meeting up in the c.v. I'm about to double the number of people I know in this city -- woohoo! Check out the photos below for more pictures of Besançon; I took them yesterday afternoon. 

 A view from one of the quays (I believe this is under the "Pont Rochereau" (Rochereau Bridge)):

A view looking out at the Doubs. You can see a bridge (le Pont Battant) connecting the c.v. (left) with the rest of the town (right bank):

A really funky fountain in the middle of the Doubs. I haven't been able to establish any kind of pattern for when it shoots out water:

I thought this was cute. We walked by here on our way to dinner and apparently it was painted within the last week!

A more comprehensive picture of the monument I described in an earlier post (and the wording for the one in 2005 was "External Operations"). For the record, the two plaques to the left and the one closest to the statue on the right are all from North Africa in the 1950s. The one on the far right is Korea and Vietnam.

A really pretty park by the Pont de la République -- it's very extensive and includes a huge playset and a carousel for kids (and I've seen a lot of families with young kids so far). I spent an hour or two reading here yesterday and when I went running this morning I passed through here.

A view of the citadel in the distance:

More pictures of Besançon, or, I discover a garden next door

In case you were wondering what my living quarters look like, voilà! Unfortunately the photos are no longer affixed to the wall because of some deficiencies on the part of the tape (shouldn't have gone with the generic brand...) Hopefully I'll find something better tomorrow because it's nice to have so many friendly faces up in my room. As you can see, the room gets plenty of sunlight:

And the closet is huge! I have all kinds or room (the fronts of both closet doors are composed entirely of mirrors, which explains why this pic might be a little disorienting):

So this afternoon I discovered the park that is right across the street from where I live. Steph and Charly mentioned it when I visited the apartment on Sunday, but I hadn't actually seen it except from the road. It's actually quite idyllic:

This is the view looking down toward the c.v. You can really see here how the town itself is located in a valley. The Doubs is on the near side, at the base of this hill:

And you can see how close the train station is! It's the low white rectangular building in the distance to the right, below the orange roofs. The monument in the left rear is to the soldiers from the canton (county) of Doubs who fought and died in WWII.

The city is covered with these gorgeous sycamore trees. They line the Doubs on the near bank and offer shade for the sidewalks and benches. There are also multiple parks in the c.v. full of enormous sycamore trees like this one:

I thought this monument was sort of interesting. I have found it to be very typical for each town/city to have a monument for the local residents who fought and died in WWII. The inscription on this one read something like "in memory of all the civilians and soldiers buried in France's territories overseas during a war consecrated for the greatness of France."

 

On the left (not pictured, not sure why I photographed it this way) is a giant stone plaque with "North Africa" and names listed (all of the dates are from around the time of the Algerian Revolution). On the right (also not pictured) is "Indochina." Below the names under "Indochina" is another set (I wish I could remember which term was used), dated 2005 (presumably Afghanistan). I thought the wording on the inscription was very interesting considering the contentious nature of all of these post-WWII conflicts. Although it is important to note that the original language is "à la grandeur de la France," which could technically refer to either greatness as in goodness or righteousness or greatness as in physical size. But I sort of assumed it mean the former.

So, I sat in this park and read Au Bonheur des Femmes by Emile Zola. I'm now 90 pages in and really enjoying it. We read Un Page d'Amour in my French class semester (also Zola) and I enjoyed his writing style. And yes, in case you were wondering, there were indeed lots of couples making out in the park. The different social norms continue to boggle me: showing skin on both arms and legs at once is gauche, but wearing super-tight leather shorts with stockings underneath is totally normal. Hugging is weird, but making out (quite demonstratively) in public is totally normal. I was prepared for this, but it still makes me laugh. 

One more quick thing: I made my first meal this evening. I went to the grocery store after my morning run and purchased the ingredients for one of my favorite comfort foods: ratatouille! I know, I know, how can it be a comfort food if there's no melted cheese involved? But I love ratatouille, and it seemed like a perfect first meal in France. And it worked!! The oven here is a mini one (about the size of a toaster, actually), so I had to roast the eggplant and zucchini in two batches, but it still tasted just as good. 

I hope you all dine on something equally yummy this evening. 

Bonne soirée et bon appétit!

Snapshots of Besançon

Here are some pictures of the city, as I promised. More to follow as I do more exploring!

This is a view of the river Doubs from one of the bridges:

The other side of the same bridge, looking out to the far bank (not c.v.):

This is the fountain at the Place Jean-Cornet, the inscription as the top reads "Utinam" ("May it please God" in Latin, the city's official motto):

Just a cool scene:

A typical street view -- the architecture is very similar to that of Dijon:

The "Porte Noir" and the spire of the Saint-Jean Cathedral. The "Porte Noir" was recently restored to its original white color -- when I say recently I mean it was unveiled sometime between when I arrived in France on Sunday morning and when I took this picture Tuesday afternoon. It is an "Arc de Triomphe" typical of cities which were once part of the Roman empire. This one was built in the 2nd century CE to honor Marcus Aurelius:

This marker indicates that there once was a Roman theatre in what is now a park:

Inside the Saint-Jean cathedral:

An incredibly elaborate nave:

You can see part of the citadel in the distance:

And see how close the next hill is! Besançon sits in a valley, enclosed by the Doubs on one side and the citadel on the other:

Here's a map to give you an idea. Everything inside the circle of the Doubs (in blue) is the CV. I live between the gare (#3 on this map) and the nearest bridge, but closer to the gare:

Apartment hunting = successful

I found an apartment!! Woohoo! I looked at a couple of places yesterday and the one which was at the top of my list pre-arrival was just as great as I hoped. I was going to wait and see at least one more apartment today, but I called the owner up and told her I would take the room -- I didn't want someone else to snatch it!

So technically I do not have an apartment, but a colocation (think "co" + "location," which in French usually refers to an apartment rental). Colocation means a situation in which you're sharing a living space with one or more persons. Colocataire means a male roommate and colocatrice means female roommate. These terms are sort of ambiguous though -- they could mean you're sharing a room with someone, or just living in the same house/apartment (think of the way the English language doesn't really supply a term for someone who lives in the same apartment as you do, but not the same room. I suppose you could say "apartment-mate," but 4 syllables seems like a bit much).


Anyway, my colocation is with a couple named Steph and Charly. They're both 25 and they live in an apartment on the fourth floor of a cute little house just south of the gare (train station) and just north of the centre ville (downtown). It's less than a 5 minute walk from the gare and a 5-10 minute walk from the c.v. -- I walked it yesterday on my way from my auberge (hostel) and on the way to see another apartment. My room is on the side of the house which faces the c.v. (and the citadel in the distance). I will be sharing the rest of the apartment with them: kitchen, living room, bathroom, etc. Not only were they very friendly and accommodating, but I was impressed with how well-outfitted the apartment was compared to many of the other places I was considering (which cost a lot more per month). For instance, their kitchen is fully-equipped with an oven, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, freezer and plenty of counter space. These amenities may seem basic to those of us accustomed to American apartments (particularly in the suburbs), but most of the studios I saw within my price range contained only a hotplate or two and a refrigerator and sink. They also have a washing machine in their apartment, which is great.


I move in tonight!! So long, hostel! I'm very excited. I'm also eager to really explore Besançon. Now that I have an address, I'll be able to go set up a bank account this week -- and then get a phone plan. I had a bit of difficulty with the phone situation yesterday morning (the no-contract plan I wanted to get requires a French bank card, which requires a permanent address, but in order to find an apartment I needed a phone -- gah!), but I got a re-chargable phone in the interim, and I can use the same phone for the plan I want once I get a bank account.


One more reason to be excited: yesterday when I had a little down-time before an apartment showing I stopped in a cafe and grabbed a coffee. As I sat there I flipped through a local newspaper and found a list of a bunch of cool cultural activities going on this week: concerts, guided tours, film screenings, etc. All of them cost less than 5 euro and many of them were free! I plan to do lots of exploring and touristy things before my teaching contract starts. Speaking of which, I'm off to shower and then go take pictures of the city. Hopefully I'll have a whole post of pictures for you later.


Bonne journée! (have a good day!)

One Very Long Day... But I Made It!

So as this blog entry title suggests, the past 24 hours or so have felt like a whole lot longer. Probably because I've been awake for most of them. But the good news is, I arrived safely in Besançon, and as an added bonus, I have all of my luggage too!

This is an unexpected treat because I somehow seem to have acquired a reputation for bad travel karma (see Morocco trip). But not this time around! The flight from Cincy to Chicago was uneventful, as was the flight from Chicago to Paris. The trans-Atlantic flight was totally full and I had very little room between the grandmother from Michigan on my right and the French teenage guy on my left.

It was really neat disembarking at Charles de Gaulle, I've flown into that airport enough times that it felt like a sort of homecoming. The welcome wasn't entirely friendly though -- the gangway was patrolled by 3 French soldiers carrying M-16s. I know they're supposed to be protecting the passengers, but it still threw me off.

Haussmannian architecture, and some cool advertising in the background

Cool mixture of old and new architecture -- pictures I took while wandering around Paris

Eglise Saint Eustache by the Forum Les Halles

Customs was no problem, finding the shuttle to Gare de Lyon was equally easy. But once I got there I hit a few snags: waiting in line for an hour to purchase my Carte 12-25 (allows me to get discounts on train tickets in France) and my train ticket to Besançon. I found the lockers to store my luggage, but the machines only accept change and the change machine by the lockers wasn't working, so I had to walk to another part of the station and asked vendors until the fourth one agreed to change my 10 euro bill for coins. Then I got back only to find out that all of the large lockers were full! Yikes! Right as I was starting to get frustrated, a man came and collected his bags from a large locker, opening one up.

Cool spire near Les Halles (need to look up name)

So with my luggage carefully stowed, I set off to try and find a phone. An assistant from last year recommended a plan through Virgin Mobile, because it allows you to pay monthly without signing a contract (1 hour of calling and unlimited texting). Before I left Cincy I looked up the addresses of Virgin Mobile boutiques in Paris. Once I dropped off my bags in the train station locker, I consulted the free map of Paris I got from the welcome center and set off for the metro. I took the RER to Les Halles and then walked up Rue Montmatre. I ended up seeing quite a bit of the 2eme arrondissement (neighborhood). It was a fairly cool day in Paris, about 55 degrees with a bit of sun and some sporadic clouds. I didn't see a single identifiable tourist, most of the people walked around appeared to be families out for a walk. Most of the stores were closed because it's Sunday. Including the Virgin Mobile store. I was a little bummed, but I got a chance to walk around Paris so the excursion wasn't at all a waste.

Place de La Bastille -- when I walked in the neighborhood around the Gare de Lyon

Cute little garden by Les Halles

On the train ride to Besançon I sat next to a French guy about my age. His name is Pierre and he goes to IPSA (L'Institut Polytechnique des Sciences Avancées -- aeronautiqual engineering) in Paris and was headed home to Besançon to see his family, who lives outside of the city itself and very near the border with Switzerland. We chatted for a little while, but also listened to our own music or wrote (he was writing a letter and I was writing in my journal). He helped me with my bags when we transferred trains in Dijon (I was only there long enough to walk through the train station, but it felt surreal to be back). We parted ways in Besançon, but exchanged email addresses -- maybe he'll show me around next time he comes home for a weekend. 

Now I'm all settled in my hostel room. It's fairly spartan but perfectly adequate. It felt heavenly to shower and change into pajamas. Now it's time for bed! I hope you're all well and enjoying your weekend. I'll keep you posted on my apartment search. 

The view from my hostel room window -- a pretty sunset tonight!

A bientôt!