Thursday, September 27, 2007

Success!

Adoring public (mom) have no fear! The man can't hold me down any longer! I found an internet café in town and am no longer restrained by the high school's internet filter. Who knows, maybe I'll even try to bring my picture card here tomorrow; I see a USB port!

OK so I have a lot of stories about St. Brieuc. I hope I can remember them all.

When I got off the train in St. Brieuc my responsable picked me up at the train station. Her English is almost perfect and even her accent is really good (although its a British one not an American one). We ate lunch together at the school cafeteria and she told me a little about the school. For one thing, I found out why we assistants only work 12 hours a week; it's because the "full-time" teachers only work 18 hours a week!! In fact my responsable was saying how she only works 15 hours a week. I had to bite my tongue when she complained about teaching for 7 hours every Monday. American teachers work at LEAST that much every day!

After lunch we got some men to help us take my suitcases up to my little dorm room on the 4th floor. The dorm room is fine. It came with sheets/blankets and there's a sink in the room which is nice. The bathroom and the "kitchen" are close by. The kitchen just has a mini fridge and a microwave. It will certainly be fine to live there until I can work something else out. The weird thing about the room is that there is only one electrical outlet. So I can only plug in one thing at a time. I brought a power strip with me so I could plug more than one thing in at a time so my first night there I put the adaptor on the power strip and tried to plug it in. When I flipped the switch on the power strip the electricty went out for the whole floor!! It was around 11 so I figured people were probably mostly done using electricty any way and the maintenance men were definitely not around so I decided to wait until morning to deal with it. Someone noticed before I woke up, however, and the electricians knocked on my door to fix it the next morning. I'm probably not the most popular resident of the dorms . . .

Speaking of the other residents of the dorms . . .I know there are lots of them. I know this because I can hear them. One has a dog and at least a few of them like to get their exercise by running up and down the stairs and rearranging their furniture at 10pm. But, apart from the man who lives directly across the hall from me, I never see anyone!! It's like the building is haunted. Two nights ago I heard them pounding up and down the stairs so I decided to walk down to the kitchen to try to catch a glimpse but the staircase was deserted. It's really a mystery!

Another mystery: I walked down the street to the supermarket the other day to get some food I could eat in my room. I was looking around, trying to kill time (there isn't a lot to do until the other assistants get here) and I noticed an international aisle! It was a pleasant surprise to find that they sell some Asian and Mexican ingrediants but, and here's the mysterious part, why was peanut butter in with the Mexican foods? I guess all North American countries are the same over here. Also, FYI, they were selling a half-sized jar of Skippy for 3.58 EUROS. That's closing in on $5!! I didn't buy any.

Yesterday was my first journey into the town center tout seule and I completed a successful transation at the Orange store and got a French SIM card. This means it no longer costs €1/minute on my cell phone! Let me know if you need my number. Incoming calls/texts are free for me so call away!

The town is really cute but I have been a little bored with the lack of other assistants/people my own age to hang out with. It's so different from the beginning of the trip when Sophia and I were always together! This is all about to change, however! I'm meeting some people to play pool tonight and tomorrow, one of the other assistants, Jessica, is visiting from Rennes. After that, Jessica and another assistant move in on Sunday and a former assistant is coming back for a visit on Sunday so my social life seems to be perking up!

More Later!

Sarah

P.S. the dorms don't have heat yet . . .

My School Thinks No One Should Be on BlogSpot, Even the Teachers

Hello everyone,
Sorry for the lack of posts. Right now I only have access to my high school's internet and they have blocked blogspot so I'm having my Mom post this note. I'm working on finding an internet café but this town isn't really set up for tourists so I'm not sure when that will be. I have a lot of stories to tell about St. Brieuc and I'll post as soon as I can!
Sarah

Saturday, September 22, 2007

St. Malo

Yesterday, Sophia and I left Rennes for a quick trip to St. Malo, a resort town about an hour away by train. We were lucky and the weather was gorgeous, although not bathing suit worthy. After getting lost on the way to our hotel (obviously) we found out that we couldn't have the room we'd booked because the previous tenant's husbabd had just died in a car accident and the owner of the hotel didn't have the heart to make her vacate. Obviously, we understood, especially when the owner told us that she'd booked a room for us at the same price at a nearby hotel. We saw that we had our own toilet, shower and towels provided once we got there and so we were pretty thrilled. We spent a lot of time on the beach and went to a bar in the Intra-Muros section (the vielle ville). It was cute but really quiet. At first we were jealous of the assistants placed there but it seems kind of touristy and is probably more exciting in the summer.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Last Day in Paris and First in Rennes

Tuesday was our last day in Paris. We spent most of the day in Montmartre where we went to a restaurant recommended by our trusty Let's Go book for lunch. It was called The Sancerre and it was ok except that the waiter tried to speak to us in English. After lunch we climbed up to the Sacré-Coeur and watched a street performance featuring some pretty sweet soccer moves including spinning the ball on the tip of a hat and balancing it on his lips. The performance was set to rap/pop music which was fortunate because it helped drown out the off-key rendition of New York, New York being sung on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur. After walking around among the street artists for a while we decided to have a goûter of some crêpes au chocolat. After our crêpes, we were thinking of walking down for happy hour near the Métro stop and on the way down we apparently walked too close to one of the portrait artists. He said (in very poor English), "ooooh 2 chicks on my back." Don't ask me where he picked up that expression. We had never heard it before; I'm pretty sure he made it up. Sophia told him, in French, that we weren't on his back. He then told her not to try to speak French. I thought that was pretty audacious considering his butchering of our language. He also told Sophia she was too belligerent and that's why she wasn't married. I guess he thinks 22 year olds want to be married because he said it like he thought he was really insulting us. After that bizarre encounter we were even more ready for our happy hour.

After a couple of drinks, we decided to buy some pastries to bring home for dessert as a present to the family for letting us stay. On the subway ride home Sophia was having trouble because the car was so crowded and she was slowly falling forward. As she slid further and further, she started laughing and this crazy man in a hat thought she was laughing at him. He got all worked up and that of course just made us both laugh harder. He told us we were laughing at nothing and that we didn't make any sense. He went on yelling about it for about 10 minutes which just made us laugh more, except when he tried to touch our box of pastries; that's no joke.


The day after that (Wednesday) we traveled to Rennes. (With our 8 months worth of luggage that was quite a feat.) Luckily, we met a nice older couple in the Paris train station who were interested in my crocheting. It turned out that they lived near Rennes and their son owned a little restaurant right outside the gare in Rennes. When our train arrived in Rennes they were waiting for us. They took us across the street for a coca and got their son to drive us to the hostel. It was really nice of them because with all of our luggage it would have been really expensive and annoying to take taxis.


When we got to the hostel it seemed nice enough and we left pretty quickly to explore the city and find something to eat. Rennes is really precious as you can see from the photo. We found an awesome crêperie. I had a galette (a certain kind of savory crêpe) with chèvre and honey and Sophia got a really good pizza with tomatos, apple, mozzarella, and oregano. We also had a really good endive salad with raisons, blue cheese, and pear and a dessert crêpe with caramel and butter. It was all wonderful, especially with the cidre. After dinner we went out for a little more cidre and then starting walking home around 11:15 for what we thought would be an early night. (No one is allowed to be in the hostel between 10 and 3:30 so we knew we had to get up early-ish). Little did know that the jeunes français think it's cool to scream all night and pound on doors at 7am. If it had been in the US I would have put the fear of God in them but I don't know the right kind of French to get that job done yet over here.



Today, Sophia and I had a leisurely morning café before a wonderful lunch at an organic, vegetarian place. We stopped by an internet café to check email and update our blogs and now we're off to Jardin du Thabor which has a rose garden with 1700 varieties and built-in ping pong and fooseball tables! That's all for now!


Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Paris II

Yesterday we had quite an adventurous day in Paris! We got into the city around 1 and, since we'd only had a light French breafast, we were starving. Our Let's Go France book had alerted us to the existence of a Breton crêperie near the Champs-Elysées. 2 hours later we were standing in front of the restaurant which just happened to be closed. After a mild temper tantrum, which Sophia captured on film, I regathered my composure and we walked down the block to une petite brasserie where the very accomodating owner/chef/waitress made us some delicious croques madame (sans jambon, bien sûr).

Next, we walked back to the Champs-Elysées to visit the Swatch store so Sophia could fix her watch. After that, we walked to the Rue de Rivoli where we saw a movie/tv show/ commericial being filmed and each had a chocolat afrique at Angelina; very rich, thick hot chocolate that I have been dreaming about since the last time I was in Paris 8 years ago.

From there it looked like the Eiffel Tower was really close, so, forgetting that big things look closer than they are, we set off. An hour later we were there and it was raining. A very helpful employee directed us to the nearest Métro stop after we took a few pictures and we ran through the rain to get there. (side note: despite out stereotypes the Parisians have been nothing but super nice and helpful to us, even when we are butchering their language). On the way to the subway we saw a man so drunk he couldn't walk stumble out of a café. (Keep in mind it was 7:20) He fell over a chair and onto the ground before stumbling off into the rain. Let's all say a little prayer to the traffic gods that he didn't fall into the street. French drivers, or at least Parisian drivers, are as bad as those in Rome.

Despite running through the train station we missed our 8:00 train and had to wait until 8:30. This meant that we missed Aunt Lila who was giving us a ride home at 8:15. So we walked home in the rain and, after walking in pretty much a complete circle around Chelles, Lila found us about 3 houses away from home. Apparently, because of the rain; she decided to wait for us at the train station after all!

We got home at 9:15 and ate a lovely meal with the family (Mélisse was not wearing any pants but since that's pretty standard for her and since she's only 3, we barely noticed).

Monday, September 17, 2007

Paris!

While Sophia has been industriously blogging away I've been too lazy to try to type on the mixed up French keyboard. I've decided that was no longer an excuse and I am going to try and muddle through. We are staying with Sophia's aunt and uncle in the suburbs of Paris in a town called Chelles. Her family is extremly warm and welcoming and the kids are adorable (see her blog for pictures). Two days ago we took the train into Paris and walked from Notre Dame to Les Invalides. We almost made it a little farther to the Eiffel Tower but a directions related mishap had already set us back a few minutes and we had to be home in time to eat one of Lila's delicious dinners. The night before a mosquito had bitten me on the eyelid and by that morning it was really swollen and creepy looking. I had to wear sunglasses all day so no one tried to kidnap me and make me ring the bells in Notre Dame. Sophia and I will post our Paris pictures when we can use our own computers but you'll never see my Quasimodo eye! We are going into Paris again today; this time we can take pictures sans sunglasses! I'm going to help Sophia with breakfast; sounds of a struggle are coming from the kitchen!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Nous sommes arrivées à Paris

Our flights were uneventful. We only slept for one hour. Will write more when have had sleep.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

News Flash!

There have been some new developments! I finally got in touch with my French boss (my responsable) and she has turned out to be very helpful. Apparently, she was in Senegal all summer and was having trouble getting the school to forward her emails to me. She did tell me some bad news: they are renovating the assistants' rooms this year so, while I can stay there when I first get to France, I'll have look for an apartment once I get there. This could be a blessing in disguise, however, because this way I can live somewhere with a kitchen but still have somewhere to stay when I first get to St. Brieuc. Now I just have to find roommates. It would be nice to live with other assistants but it seems like most of them have housing provided by their schools so maybe I'll be living with French people (which would be scary but would certainly improve my French). The lycée where I'll be teaching is a professional high school for kids who need job skills and who aren't going to college. My responsable told me that I'll be teaching 16 year olds who have been studying English for four years but most of whom "aren't too good" (her words). I'll also be working with some students who have already passed their bac (graduation exam) and who are going into the construction field. They need help reading technical documents in English. I hope it isn't a problem that there is most likely a lot of construction related English vocab that is completely unknown to me . . .

On the packing front, what I thought would be a simple hemming job on a few pairs of pants turned out to be an ordeal of Homeric proportions. There's something seriously wrong with my new sewing machine and we've been to the sewing machine store to have someone fix the same problem 3 times . . .basically the bobbin case seems to be trying to escape from the machine. So today I had to go to the tailor to get my last two pairs of pants hemmed (I managed to get two others done myself). On the bright side, the Korean couple who owns the tailor shop was really sweet, especially when they found out I was going to France to be an English teacher.

I guess that's it for now. Sophia and I are flying to Paris tomorrow night . . .

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Preview of St. Brieuc

I'm copycatting Sophia and adding pictures that I googled of St. Brieuc to tide us over until I can take actual pictures.

This is a picture of the Bay of St. Brieuc:


Here is the harbor:



Some street:


Some square:


Some buildings . . .:


Some Celtic dancers in a square:


You get the idea. It's adorable!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Bienvenue

Hello all,

I guess the best thing about starting a blog before a long stay abroad is it reduces the need for the infamous group email. Although I don't want to abandon emails totally, my good pal Megan recommended that I do a blog instead so people can read about my life at their leisure ( and don't feel the need to read or respond to my ramblings whenever I feel like sending them out).

First things first: the details of my trip. For the next 8 months I'll be living in France, teaching English to high school students in St. Brieuc, Brittany. St. Brieuc is a town of about 46,000 right on the English Channel. The whole region of Brittany is pretty interesting because the people are Celtic and so there are a lot of ties between Brittany and other Celtic areas (Ireland, Wales etc.) That relationship also explains the title of my blog: Breton is the traditional Celtic language of the area. The title is a play on La Vie en Rose (life in pink), so mine is life in Breton. It's not strictly true since my life will hopefully be played out mostly in French and not in Breton. Breton's not related to French at all (its close to Welsh and Gaelic) and so, apart for a few phrases, my life will be la vie en français (or, more accurately, franglais). Breton sounds cooler though, so, voilà.

I'm heading to France on Sept. 13. 9 days from today. I'm flying to Paris with my friend Sophia who is also doing the teaching assistant program in another town in Brittany (Lannion) about 40 miles from St. Brieuc. We'll be staying in Paris with her family for several days before a little vacation in Rennes and St. Malo. After that, it's off to our towns. I'm so thankful that I'll have a buddy close by!

Although the principal at the highschool I'll be working at is currently ignoring my frantic emails, I do know that I have housing at the high school. It sounds like its a dorm room and there's no kitchen but there will be about 7 other assistants living there and I'll have a single AND we have a microwave to share so it sounds like a pretty good deal since its free.

Besides wondering when the principal of my school will acknowledge my existence, I'm not currently too worried about anything in particular, mostly just a general fear that I'll forget something important. Oh well, que sera, sera.

That's all for now! Maybe next time I write I'll actually be in France!