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!

First Riding Lesson and Some Pastries

Hello all! Yesterday (Friday) afternoon was my first riding lesson at Les Ecuries de Chateau-Galland! It was a very nice day outside: probably about 55 degrees and sunny, but with lots of wind. In the morning I taught three classes, which all went fairly well. The best so far has still been Magali's CM2s. I'm teaching another CM2 class on Monday (their English lessons will be Mondays and Tuesdays, which is why I didn't have them this week), and I'm hoping they will be just as attentive and fun to teach as Magali's class. At this point I'm planning to do one curriculum for the CM2s, and another curriculum for everyone else. But we'll see how lesson #2 (a review of "What's your name?" and learning the numbers) goes.

So around 1:45pm I boarded the #6 bus in the direction of Tilleroyes. It took about 35 minutes in the bus, plus a 10 minute walk to get to the barn. When I got there Beatrice (the daughter of Marie, the directrice) was putting a bridle on a 6-year old they had just purchased at a stock sale of a Hanovarian farm. The mare has never been ridden before, and as of yesterday they were just working on voice signals (whoa, walk, trot, canter, etc) on a lunge line (for those of you who don't speak horse, this is a long "leash" usually made of fabric or nylon that the rider or trainer holds as the horse moves around them in a circle). Upon my arrival Marie noted that I was taller than she remembered, and that the "horse" (my quotes, not hers) Beatrice had assigned to me was probably going to be too small. She didn't change my mount though: I rode a pony (yes, a pony) named Quenotte. His name is a familiar term for a baby tooth, which I assume comes from his white (technically gray) coat. Quenotte is a Connemara, and a large pony, but still greatly resembled Jeremiah Bullfrog, the very first pony I ever rode in a horse show .... at age 6.5.

So you can imagine this lesson was not the most pleasant riding experience of my life. I have ridden worse ponies before, but I have also definitely ridden better. I can say one thing, it was easy to get on! I assume they assigned me the bombproof pony because they had never seen me ride before and wanted to play it safe. Despite the mismatch, I got to jump with the others (just a cross-rail with a vertical behind it, it couldn't have been more than 2-2.5 feet tall). There were two other people in my lesson: a man named Cedric and a woman named Emmanuel. We spent a lot of time in equilibre (two-point), which was sort of rough on my quads/thighs. I was already sore last night during Ultimate practice.

I had a really hard time understanding what Beatrice was asking us to do, and the heavy wind only made it harder to hear. I tried to follow what the other two were doing, and if I really wasn't getting it, Beatrice would mime what I was supposed to do. There is so much equestrian-specific vocabulary for me to learn; it's really intimidating. And a little frustrating too, because I come off as incompetent or uninformed in an area where I really do have a lot of experience. But everyone was very patient and Beatrice seemed pleased with my equitation. It seems like they carry their hands much further back than we do in American hunter-jumpers, because she kept telling me to put mine down and back. And I learned the term for "heels down!": baissez les talons! 

At my request, Marie loaned me a horsemanship book for beginners so I could learn all of the vocabulary. Steph and Charly were teasing me about it last night because most of the words are fairly common; but I think it will be really helpful for me, because I didn't even know the word for saddle!

So now for the food. Last Friday when Charly got back from Bordeaux he brought back with him six little cannelés, a Bordelais specialty. The cake itself is moist and slightly spongy and is flavored with cinnamon, vanilla, and rum. Charly bought them the day before he left (and the trip took a whole day), so he claimed these weren't as good as they would be fresh, but I thought they were pretty tasty:

Yesterday after my lesson I stopped at a boulangerie and picked up some multi-grain bread and two tiny pastries. This bakery, Le Moulin des Pains, was recommended to me by Gaël, one of the guys from the Ultimate team. It's one of the 3-4 bakeries near my apartment, and I asked him which of those is the best (he also lives nearby). I was pleased with his recommendation -- the multi-grain bread was quite good, and slightly less expensive than some of the others I've tried (although the loaf was pretty small). Anyway, I thought you might appreciate some photos:

These are the two mini-pastries, a Paris-Brest and a lemon tart. I had never heard of a Paris-Brest before and discovered it's sort of like a re-arranged eclair: the same eclair pastry and filling, but shaped more like an Orea. Lemon tarts happen to be one of my very favorite pastries, but the miniature format of this one meant that the ratio of crust-to-lemon filling was off: too much crust and not enough filling. Too bad!

Close-up of the Paris-Brest: it had both chocolate and regular cream filling, yum. 

And the multi-grain bread. I'm going to try their cornmeal bread next time, Moulin des Pains is the only one I've seen which advertises it. 

Now I'm off to make the long bus ride on the #1 to Chateaufarine, the grandes surfaces center (for us, those shopping plazas with Sam's, Best Buy, Rack Room Shoes, etc). I'm going to Casino Geant to try and find oatmeal and look at the prices for things like a hairdryer. I'm almost finished with Au Bonheur du Dammes and I'm definitely going to read it on the bus. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

First Day of Teaching!!

So today was my first day "intervening" in the classes (that's a literal translation of the French word for what I'm doing), and it was a success! I taught four different classes, two at Ecole Champagne in the morning and then two in the afternoon at Ecole Bourgogne. Normally I would have three at Ecole Bourgogne but one class was on a field trip to the library. I'm glad I got a bit of a break -- four classes was enough for one day.

The first one was definitely the hardest. It's a class of CP/CE2 (I've mentioned it earlier, it's a mix of 1st graders and 3rd graders) and their level of English was pretty much nonexistent. I knew that it was going to be harder to teach the littler ones, but I think I'm going to have to go even slower than I expected. After today, I'm planning on sticking just to sing-alongs. I found that teaching "what's your name...?," "my name is ______," and "your name is _______" can be incredibly difficult if you don't take great care distinguish, beyond just intonation, between which is the question and which is the response (something I was careful to do in the following three classes). We sang the alphabet song quite a few times, and will probably do so again many times before moving onto something else.

But despite the slightly rocky start, the next three classes went really well. The best was undoubtedly Magali's CM2s (5th grade). Of course it helps that all of them had some foundation in English, so distinguishing between "What's your name?" and "My name is _________" was a lot easier. And this class was particularly attentive and eager to learn. After an introduction to the question and response, I presented them with flashcards with people or characters I thought they would recognize -- Spiderman, Dora the Explorer, Spongebob Squarepants, President Sarkozy, President Obama. The first three I picked based on what I had seen on their t-shirts, bookbags, and pencil cases while I was observing. I also added the two presidents and some other characters like Asterix and Obelix, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Santa Claus. Next we moved on to a chant. 

The chant came from a book authored by Carolyn Graham, who apparently is famous in the pedagogical world for creating a serious of language-learning tools based on songs and chants. After today I could see why she's famous, the "Hank/Frank" chant I used worked really well and seemed to help the kids both understand the vocabulary it introduced (some American names and the words bank, hill, bike, candy) and some practice with asking each other their names (each kid received a piece of paper with a name on it, they had to find a partner whose name rhymed with his or her name -- as in Jill/Phil, Hank/Frank, etc). Then, after reviewing the alphabet, we played Hangman using the names and vocabulary in the chant. And, at another teacher's suggestion, I wrapped up each session by asking the students to summarize what we had learned that day (in French).

I repeated essentially the same lesson for the next two classes, although I omitted the Hank/Frank game for Myriam's CE1 class (2nd grade) because it seemed too complicated. The game didn't work quite as well for Michele's CM1 class, and I'm not sure if it's because there were more of them (25 versus 21), or because they were younger, or because they were generally less attentive. I'll know more after a few more classes, I think.

So I arrived at school at 9:20am or so to make some photocopies and do final preparations for my lesson, and I didn't end up leaving until nearly 5pm because the last class (Myrian's CE1s) were celebrating a birthday! One of the little girls turned 9 today and her mom brought in a magnificent cake decked out in bright pink frosting and glitter, and topped with fruit-shaped candies. We had a little party in the préau (the term for the big open interior space in an elementary school where the kids have recess if the weather is really bad and is sometimes used for the kinds of games we would play in gym class at home). We sang Happy Birthday in five languages (all of us sang in French and English, then another student sang it in German, and another in Persian, and another in Jamaican Patois) and ate the cake with Orangina and orange soda to drink.

So although technically I was only teaching for 2 2/3 hours today (the class with the littlest ones was only 25 minutes instead of the typical 45 minutes), I actually spent 7 hours at the school. And usually I won't have to stay that late, but ithe job will definitely entail more than 12 hours per week. The two-hour lunch break in the middle puts sort of a dent in things, because from door-to-door my commute is about 40 minutes, too long to merit the trip home and back. But it's nice to eat lunch at school, because I get to chat with the other instituts (short for instituteurs, which means teachers). So far I've only been eating at Ecole Champagne, because I'm there in the mornings and put my lunch in the refrigerator there when I arrive. But I think I'm going to split the lunches with Ecole Bourgogne, because I want to get to know the teachers there too. At Bourgogne, most of the teachers gather in the salle des maîtres during the afternoon recess for coffee or tea and a quick treat, if someone brought something to share. But I'd like to get to know them a little more beyond those 15-20 minutes. One of the teachers at Bourgogne invited me to a dinner for all of the teachers the Friday of the Toussaint vacation (a week from tomorrow). And a professor at Champagne invited me over for dinner at her house next Tuesday. I've been really lucky to encounter so many friendly people here!

Two more brief but exciting things: 1) Today I got an email regarding the flyers I put up offering English tutoring! The process was a bit of an ordeal, because once I figured out the standard size/format and had the flyers printed up, I got a new phone number (I'm finally on the monthly plan) and had to have them all reprinted. At home it wouldn't be a big deal, but since I have to go to the CRIJ (regional youth center) in the c-v (only about a 15 minute walk from my apartment, but still), during their business hours, it took a bit longer. But I spent quite a bit of time Wednesday afternoon walking around and asking local merchants if I could put up my petit pub (advertisement) in their window or by the cash register (a fairly common practice). I distributed about a dozen to a few bakeries, two tabacs (sort of like a newspaper stand, but a store and with cigarettes too), a fish merchant, a florist, a cafe, and the local supermarket. I also hung them up in the Fac des lettres (Arts and Sciences College in the c-v) on the notice boards there. But even though I distributed so many, I was still uncertain as to whether I'd get any responses... so it's nice to have even one!

2) Both yesterday and today I went for 45-minute runs, which represents a serious improvement in my fitness level from when I first arrived. At Claire's suggestion, I researched the marathon schedule in Europe and found quite a few in France in March and April. So I've drawn up a workout schedule and am hoping to be ready by that time, despite the much-dreaded cold/snow. And it's definitely been easier to run the past few weeks when I wasn't really teaching yet. But hopefully I'll be able to keep it up.

That's all for now!

Rain, Cold, and, of course, Ultimate

Yes, indeed, the warm weather and sunshine is gone. The transformation took place overnight: I went to bed Thursday after yet another day of 80-ish degrees and bright sunshine, and woke up to 40 degrees and rain. Yuck! And it's been like that ever since. I think it's supposed to get at least a little warmer tomorrow (hopefully we didn't skip fall entirely), but the skirts-and-t-shirts phase is definitely over. Boo!

But the bad weather didn't stop my weekend plans: Friday night was the annual UC-Vesontio team elections / team meeting. This meeting was both to elect new leadership and to act as a formal start of the new year: the first half of which consists of the indoor league through January and the second half of which consists of the outdoor league, which ends in April/May. It was held in the Besançon Sport Nautique club (rowing, canoeing, kayaking, swimming) club house, which is conveniently very close to where I live. We were all instructed to bring some munchies and/or beverages to share for the socializing part after. I figured the fare would be the chips/pretzels/popcorn variety, so I ate dinner before the meeting at 8pm. I'm both glad and sorry I did so -- the "meeting" part itself lasted nearly 2 hours!!

Now, in the past I have sat through some long team elections (any Ruckus player reading this will know what I'm talking about), but in this case it wasn't even the elections part that took long! It was the summary / vision for the future bit that went on forever. But once that was over (and I was pleased that I understood everything that was said), we had a feast! There was in fact one bag of chips, but besides that there were sausages, four kinds of cheese -- two types each of Conté and Concoillotte (all local, all in massive quantities), many many baguettes, lots of loaves of what looked like banana or zucchini bread but was savory rather than sweet, biscuits, mini cream puffs, three kinds of chocolate cake, even homemade M&M cookies! And of course, local wine and Belgian beer in serious quantities. What started as sort of a tedious meeting turned into a really excellent social evening!

Saturday afternoon Candice and I took a bus to Ornans to see the recently-renovated and now quite fancy Gustave Courbet museum. Courbet, the 19th century painter, became famous for a number of reasons: his realistic style, the "real life" scenes he painted on a scale previously used only for religious or historical scenes, his scandalous The Origin of the World (Google Image at your own peril). But he came from humble little Ornans, a village on the Loue river about a 30-minute bus ride south-east of Besançon. The museum is small but state-of-the-art; I was quite impressed.

Here's a cool example: an early Courbet portrait, with a picture of the screen that was displayed next to it. Many of his paintings have darkened due to age (he started with a foundation of black covering the entire canvas and the chemicals in that paint have started to seep through the color he painted on top). So, for a few of the paintings, the museum curators used intense back-light to recreate the original colors, took pictures of the painting, then displayed those pictures on the video screen next to it, along with a brief description of why that section is interesting.

Unfortunately all of Courbet's really famous paintings are in much bigger museums: the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the Musee de Beaux Arts in Lyon, etc. But it was cool to see such a broad sampling of his work, and to get a fuller sense of the cultural changes that were going on at the time and why his art was provocative. It's a shame that the weather was so yucky on Saturday, because Ornans is an adorable little village and the scenery is breath-taking, even in the chilly drizzle.

Even more unfortunately, almost every single shop and restaurant in the town was closed. And since the only bus back to Besançon wasn't coming until 7:35pm (we got there around 1:30pm), we had to spend 3 hours reading the newspaper in the only brasserie which was open. So what started off as a fun adventure turned into sort of a long afternoon/evening. But I'm glad we did it!

And then on Sunday, up early for a one-day Ultimate tournament in Vesoul. Until Friday evening I wasn't planning to go to the tournament (I'm a little worried that my life in France is turning into nothing but Frisbee...), but during the team soirée I was convinced. It was then too that I found out that the Discjontes, the team I played with in Dijon, would be there. It was so cool (and really bizarre) to see them again! Pretty much everyone I played with is still there, and they looked exactly the same. I guess 2 years isn't a long time....

So this tournament was indoor, which resembles outdoor Ultimate even less than you would think. The most basic difference is that everything is truncated: 5 players on each side versus 7, shorter field, shorter stall count (8 seconds instead of 10). But even more than that, there are no natural elements to get in the way of really absurd passes. One team consistently threw straight blades (not even hammers, these were more like knives); that sort of thing would never work with even the slightest breeze. But, seeing as it was again 40 degrees and raining, indoors turned out to be sort of a good idea.

Vesoul is about a 45-minute drive north of Besançon. We took two teams: les vieux (the veterans, literally, the old people) et les jeunes (those who haven't been around since the club was founded 5 years ago). I played with the jeunes, obviously, and our team included two guys who just started playing Ultimate around the time I arrived in Besançon. Luckily we also had Gael, Thomas and GuiGui (Jean-Guillaume), who are very athletic and good handlers. Our combination of youth and skill managed to beat out age and treachery: not only did we win our pool, but we beat les vieux on universe point in the semi-final. It was pretty exciting, we were down 5-8 and came back to win 9-8. And although I had a couple of bad throws / drops, overall I was really pleased with how I played. We played five games, each about 25 minutes long. In between our matches we cheered on les vieux. There were 11 teams total, all local to the region. Apparently lots of the players on our team are good friends with the team from Strasbourg, and both Besançon teams lost to Pontarlier, the tournament champions. They play exclusively indoor, and it was they who threw all of those blades.

The atmosphere at the tournament was really convivial -- it's more of a local event than a serious tournament. I certainly found it to be more casual than any tournament I've been to in the U.S. And the food was a lot better too! Never have I ever eaten so well at any Ultimate tournament (and it wasn't expensive either). We went out for dinner as a team after, so it turned into a really long day (7am to 11:30pm), but it was a great one. I'm so glad that I went!

So that's all of the news, except for one more thing:


I have finalized my plans for the Toussaint holiday! I know, I know, I haven't really done any work yet, let alone enough to merit a vacation -- but it's the public school system's schedule, and if they want to give me a vacation, so be it. As of about a week ago I was planning to do a little tour of the south of France with Grace and Mary-Kate, two other Wake grads who are also assistants in France (Grace is in a tiny town outside of Tours and Mary-Kate is in Lyon). But the logistics were too complicated, so I looked into other options. And fortunately Brooke has gotten all settled in with her family (she's going to be an au pair in Vienna for a year) and was eager to have me come visit. So I'm going to Vienna, by way of Lyon! I'll leave Saturday morning, spend the weekend with Mary-Kate and get to see Lyon (one of the major cities in France after Paris, and I've never been there), then on Monday evening I'm taking a flight to Vienna, where I'll be staying with Brooke until the following Monday morning! If all goes according to plan I'll be back in Besançon by that Monday night and have all of Tuesday and Wednesday to get organized before school recommences on Thursday!

At first it did seem a little silly to go to Vienna, considering I have been there before and there are so many other places in Europe I haven't been yet. But since Brooke has been there now for about 6 months total (2ish in the summer of 2010 and 4ish this past summer), she's become sort of an expert on the city. And between a cheap flight, free lodging, and the chance to catch up with a good friend, it just seemed like the right choice. And by flying through Lyon rather than Paris, I'll get to see another friend, and a new city! I'm quite excited about it all. Bed time now!

Two Cups of Coffee and Two Glasses of Wine

For those of you who find this blog entry title disconcerting (probably my parents), I am happy to assure you that I have not become a caffeine addict nor a wine-o (although I guess I probably wouldn't admit it if I had). But nonetheless, this blog title comes from the two very interesting conversations I had recently: one yesterday afternoon and the other evening.

Yesterday was Wednesday and as I "work" (I put it in quotes because I don't actually start teaching until next Thursday, so it still doesn't feel like real work yet) in the elementary school system, I have Wednesdays off. So I woke up bright and early to go to the CAF (Caisse des Allocations Familiales -- the bureau which offers reimbursements to young workers who don't get paid very much, like me) to pick up some forms. Then I made some serious progress in Au Bonheur des Dammes -- only 95 pages to go, out of the original 495! I had just made some lunch when I got a phone call from my downstairs neighbor.

A little backstory: last week I wrote a letter to each of the two families who live on the bottom two floors. Steph and Charly told me that they both have kids and that the English teaching assistant who lived with them last year, Anna, would babysit for these kids occasionally. Having your babysitting job in the same building seems like a pretty sweet deal to me, so I dropped a note in each of their mailboxes explaining who I was, how long I would be here, and that I would be more than willing to babysit. I ran into the first-floor neighbor last Saturday and he told me that his family doesn't use babysitters very often -- no luck there. So it was Mr. Oldendorf, whose family lives on the second floor, who called yesterday to say that they would love to have me babysit occasionally for their two daughters and invited me down for a cup of coffee. Since I happened to be in the building and didn't have any other plans, I accepted. Mr. Oldendorf is German, but his wife Corinne is French. Their two daughters (the one who was home yesterday appeared to be about 6 and was very shy, and the other is apparently 11) speak both French and German. He is an artist/professor at the art school at the university here and she works for the French ministry of culture.

Mr. Oldendorf brewed us both a cup of very strong but very delicious coffee and we talked for quite a while about Besançon, Bern (the area where he grew up), and Paris. Then his daughter's friend came over for a playdate, so he brewed some more coffee for the playdate's father, and it turned into quite an extensive conversation about the United States, 9/11, and many other things. Afterward, I reflected upon whether this conversation could have taken place in another context. For instance, was the interaction only interesting because it involved two (later three) people from two (later three) different countries who were interested to hear the opinions of someone from another country? For instance, even if I was the "new neighbor" at home, another American would probably be less inclined to ask how I felt the US had changed in the aftermath of September 11th. I am positive that my sending the letter offering to babysit was what prompted the invitation for coffee -- otherwise I might have gone the whole 8 months here never meeting or having a real conversation with my neighbors. Maybe part of it too is that this conversation took longer because it involved translation -- Mr. Oldendorf speaks fluent German and French and his English is fairly fluent (I would probably classify it as fluent, even if there were a few words he asked me to explain or define). My French is certainly fluent by American standards, but not quite there when compared to the speech of a local. Or maybe it's because I'm not yet incredibly busy, the way I often become when I'm at home or when I was at Wake. It made me wonder if I ever missed out on conversations like this, because I was zealous in filling my schedule with activities...

And now for the two glasses of wine. So Charly, the second half of the couple with whom I share this apartment, has been in Bordeaux for the past week. He is working on his PhD in archeology and part of his thesis research involves analyzing soil cores from Greenland. Apparently there are some scientific devices at the university in Bordeaux which they don't have here in Besançon, because he had to drive some of the cores there this week to analyze them using said equipment. I noticed earier this week that Steph hasn't been cooking as much as she normally does when he's home, so I offered to cook dinner for the two of us tonight.

The entree itself was pretty simple: peppers stuffed with a combination of rice, chickpeas, tomatoes, onions, and cheese. But along with that we had a simple salad, some whole-grain bread from a local boulangerie, a bottle of Pinot Noir from Bourgogne, and for dessert some chocolat noir noisette (dark chocolate with hazelnuts) made by Cote d'Or, a brand which is available in the grocery store but which I selected at random my second week here and found to be absolutely delicious. The stuffed peppers turned out to be quite good -- I made quite a few substitutions and sort of guessed for the measurements, since it was an American recipe, so I was particularly pleased that they worked out. This picture doesn't quite do the meal justice... I took it somewhat hastily, I promise it was much more appetizing than it appears here:

But the best part of the evening was the conversation. I didn't really note what time we started eating... it was probably about 8:30pm (I got back from observing in the schools around 5:45pm after running a few quick errands on the way home, went for a run, showered, then started cooking). But we didn't finish until nearly 11:45pm! We didn't talk about anything earth-shattering, but all sorts of things both banal and personal. It was very pleasant to take the whole evening preparing dinner and enjoying the meal -- I wasn't wearing a watch and had no reason to consult the time outside of cooking times. I know that my schedule will not always be this free-form, and so I'm glad the Type A that dominates my personality was able to take a backseat tonight, even if it was just for an evening.

Well now it's well past my bedtime! Bon soir!