La Vie en Breton

Copenhagen

2008-05-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

This vacation I visited Paul in Eastern France (Dijon, Besaçon) but I don't have the pictures from that trip yet so I'm going to write about the trip I took to Copenhagen after France. My friend Dave from college has an internship there and I thought it would be fun to visit him! The first two days he was working and so I just walked around and saw all the touristy stuff:

I'm pretty sure this is the Parliament....

Royal Ballet:

Striking Danish health care workers. They were circling the square I was having a picnic in and singing protest songs in Danish to the tunes of "When the Saints Come Marching In" and "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain."

They got closer and closer to me. They handed me a piece of candy (normally I wouldn't accept candy from strangers but they were nurses...) and a helpful leaflet explaining their plight (in Danish). I've never been more flattered than when actual Danish people thought I was Danish. They are the most attractive people I've ever seen.

Nuhavn, Famous Canal

I just wanted to take a picture of the boat and I got caught by a sailor.

Cute café:

Queen's House:

Cool building near Queen's house:

Famous Little Mermaid statue with random people who wouldn't give other people a chance to take pictures in front of it:

Fun fact: This statue is an homage to Hans Christian Andersen's character. Hans Christian Andersen is one of the Danes' favorite native sons and they affectionately call him Ho C.

Underwater statue of the Merman and his 7 Sons. I don't know why its underwater.

The next day I went to a really cool art museum that had an interesting mix of art including Danish art which I'd never really seen much of before. I even saw several paintings by a guy named Dahl! Here is the museum:

I also took some pictures of some cool buildings that day:

Dragon Spire Building (At least that's what I call it)

Black and Gold Twisty Spire:

The next day, Dave and I went to Christiania which is basically a hippie commune set up in abandoned military barracks. The people have been living their for 30 years and they consider themselves to be an independent state:

Entrance:

Exit: "you are now entering the EU"

There was a really delicious vegan restaurant where we ate in Christiania so I was pretty much in heaven. The next day I was leaving in the evening and we mostly just walked around Copenhagen. Dave told me about how in Denmark people use the graveyards as public parks (having picnics in between gravestones is totally normal) and the gravestones are really well kept up and unique.

We really liked the quotation on the top of this one:

"Give me the grace to take a joke and pass it on to other folk"

I also have to include a picture of one the lakes built around Copenhagen to keep out invaders:

OK, I guess that's it! It was a great long weekend!

Playing Catch Up 2

2008-04-07T07:12:00.001-07:00

After getting back to Paris, I took the train to Strasbourg to visit Paul. We visited the modern art museum there and I took this picture because this piece was done by someone from St. Brieuc!!

After a few days, Clare joined us and we took at a day trip to a castles whose name I forget, Riquewihr (with is on the Route du vin / Wine Route) and Munster. The castle was on top of a mountain and we were allowed to go in because of the high winds but it was still really cool to see it from the outside.

view from the top:

view from far away (it's possible that this isn't the same castle. Also ignore the scary black smudge next to the castle. It seems like I somehow managed to take a spirit picture or something)

vineyards of Alsace:

cute town in a valley:

Riquewihr was a really cute town where they make and sell really delicious wines (mostly whites). We went to a cave and got to do a taste test before selecting some to buy. Even though these wines were really high quality, they are not expensive at all in France (about 7 euros a bottle or around 10 dollars). In the supermarket, spending over 3 euros for wine is pretty classy. Here are some pictures of the town:

Munster was cute but less picturesque. I was able to buy some real Munster cheese (not at all the same as what they sell in the US.) I loved it but I'm not sure how pleased my car companions were to have me with them because it was a little bit smelly. When we were in the bakery to buy bread to go with the cheese we heard the cashier and another worker speaking Alsatian, which is a dialect of German spoken in that region of France. (It's right next to Germany and the area has been under both French and German control during its history.)

I was pretty sad during this trip because I had found out that morning that my dog Sandy had passed away. She was 16 so it wasn't a huge surprise but it'll be hard to go home to a house without her!!

Playing Catch Up

2008-04-07T05:21:00.000-07:00

To all my dedicated fans, I apologize. I have no excuse for my long absence other than laziness. So, on the eve of my next vacation I’m finally going to write about my last one in Berlin. You’ll be spared a lot of the historical details since I don’t remember them any more and mostly you’ll just be able to look at the pictures! The first night we got to Berlin it was late and so we just made our to Sophia’s grandfather’s apartment and hung around and went to sleep. The next day we walked into town and saw a cathedral that was damaged during a bombing in WWII and never restored in order to remind everyone who saw it about the realities of war.

We also saw a really cool break dancing/ street performance. Interestingly enough the men conducted the entire performance in English (I guess because there were so many tourists) and his English was almost perfect. I haven't encountered any street performers in France with such a high level of English....

Cool sculpture:

We then made our way to the Brandenburg Gate, which was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II and built between 1788 to 1791. It used to be the gate to the city and later became part of the border between East and West Berlin.

Next, Danae and I went to the Reichstag which is the German government building. If you look closely you can see me in my light brown coat at the bottom of the stairs on the right.

There is a really cool modern glass part of the Reichstag that Danae and I climbed up:

After our day we went home and relaxed with some beers at the apartment. This is Barbara and me enjoying some green beers from Berlin:

The next day we went to the Turkish Market in the area of Berlin where there are a lot of Turkish immigrants:

After the Turkish market we went to the Jewish Museum, which traces the history of Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages up to today. The architecture was really interesting and was made to make you feel unsettled / unsure to show how the Jews have felt throughout history after their many journeys to new countries.

The next day we went to Potsdam, which is a suburb of Berlin and home of lots of the castles of the German (Prussian) royal family. We took a tour of Sans Souci (French, not German, for Without Worry), Frederich the Great's summer palace.

More castles:

At Potsdam, I bought a book about Kaiser Wilhelm II's mother (Empress Frederich/ Princess Victoria of England) and I'm still working on it seeing as its about 500 pages but its really interesting to read it after having seen all of her palaces and the places she visited in Berlin.

That night we went out to a club to experience Berlin's famous nightlife. I wasn't disappointed! We managed to find a club that was both huge and really unpretentious. It was sort of like being at a huge party with all of your friends. This is us before we went out:

The next day after an (ahem) late start, Danae and I went to see Checkpoint Charlie and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Checkpoint Charlie was the barrier between American Berlin and Soviet Berlin:

Then we went to a Sri Lanken Restaurant for dinner where we decided it would be a good idea to take pictures like this:

I'm pretty sure the waitress thought we were insane. I guess Barbara was either too classy to participate or just really liked being the photographer.

The next day we went to the East Side Gallery which is a part of the wall that still standing and is covered in murals and graffiti.

This is us on the walk there followed by some pictures of graffiti:

Note Barbara's head at the bottom.

Barbara, Danae and me in from of the River Spree

(not me)

("we were here" also not us)

not on the Wall but still so nice.

After the Wall it was just about cake time (something that really exists in Germany!!) and so for the sake of full cultural immersion we decided to participate:

After cake, Danae and I went to Museum Island to visit the Cathedral:

We got up the next day at 4 to catch our flight (which, of course, was delayed!) and then I went off to Alsace which I will document in my next post in about 10 minutes!

Tour de Cesson, Mont St. Michel, and St. Malo!

2008-03-03T06:53:00.000-08:00

Well, even though this all happened two weeks ago I've just gotten home from Berlin and Strasbourg so I'm going to post it all now. Before heading to Berlin, Paul came to visit Brittany. The day after he got in we decided to take a walk to the Tour de Cesson which is a tower, now in ruins, built in 1395, that was used to guard St. Brieuc from pirate attacks. It was about a 45 minute walk and we also got to see the port. Unfortunately, we found out when we got there that the tower is private property and so we couldn't get right up next to it. (It seems like something the owners should think about changing since they could make a little money charging a euro or two to get close to it. Ah but there I go being a typical capitalist American).

Port area:

The port; the tower is visible on the hill on the right:

Tower on the top of the hill:

Ducklings we saw in someone's yard:

On Saturday we went to Mont St. Michel and St. Malo with Chantal and Clare. Mont St. Michel was totally incredible. It's technically in Normandie but its just over the border from Brittany so it wasn't too far of a drive. My pictures from Mont St. Michel don't do it justice at all so I'm going to wait 'til tomorrow to post any. (I'll have to steal them from others).
St. Malo was really nice too and the weather was warm enough that we could stick our toes in the water. By random happenstance we saw our friends Jessica, Otman and Rodrigo there as well.

In this picture you can see the ramparts of St. Malo as well as Paul and Chantal looking at Paul's camera.

Just some pretty views of the islands from the shore:

I'll add more pictures with people in them as I can collect them from others. Even though it was February it was warm enough to wade a bit! I'm tackling the Germany and Alsace posts tomorrow.

Morlaix!

2008-02-19T23:50:00.000-08:00

I've gotten a bit behind on my blog entries. I don't really have an excuse either because, let's face it, it's not like I'm swamped down at the office or something. Last Monday, Chantal, Clare and I visited a really cute town in the département of Finistère (the westernmost département in Brittany) called Morlaix. According to legend, this town got its name because when the English tried to attack the villagers screamed "S'ils te mordent, mords-les!" ("If they bite you, bite them back!" pretty vicious!). To understand this legend, it must be explained that "mords-les" and "Morlaix" are, inexplicably, both pronounced "morlay."

We tried to do what was called the Circuit des Venelles, which is a tour of the town's historic sights, but we ended up only making it to half of them. The entire tour is supposed to take one hour and fifteen minutes and it took us about three hours to do half. I like to think it was because we stopped to smell the roses but I think it had more to do with my less than stellar sense of direction coupled with a hand drawn map from c. 1976. In any event, the town was really cute and really breton!

Famous Morlaix Viaduct:

Chantal and Clare and a historically important fountain (dry):

Graffiti translation: "Ticked off High School students." Someone probably tried to get them to learn English and so they went on grève.

Breton Venice:

Cute houses:

Anne de Bretagne's house (she had many):

Well-earned hot chocolate in a café after climbing up and down venelles all day.

All together a successful trip! More about Paul's return trip, Mont St. Michel, St. Malo and la Tour de Cesson soon! Now I'm off to Berlin!!

Cahutta, Dinan and a Party

2008-02-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

As usual, Ellen, the sole assistant in Loudeac, came to St. Brieuc for the weekend. We planned on going out to one of our favorite bars but we accidentally got sucked into watching approximately 15 episodes of Real World: Sydney on mtv.com. Our favorite roommate was a fun-loving hillbilly from the Georgian mountains named Cahutta. We both basically fell in love with him. His accent was too funny and we couldn't stop watching his romance with Texan KellyAnne bloom. At one point he talked about how he wanted two or three mountain babies running around and that he'd better start looking for a girl cause he wasn't getting any younger (he was 23). In short, spending Friday night having a Real World marathon was a fabulous use of time.
The next day Ellen, Clare and I took a day trip to Dinan. I went once before with Paul but that was right before Christmas and it was cold and already dark. Saturday was a beautiful day and it was light out so the town looked totally different.

Dinan Cathedral:

Some views from the ramparts (which are the longest in Brittany):

Château de Dinan:

Medieval Commode:

View from the top:

Sun Worship:

Walk down to River:

Rance River:

Saturday night we had a very successful party at my house to welcome Clare as our 5th roommate:

The assistants at Lycée Rabelais:

A French girl and two North Americans:

Dancing with Jessica:

All in all, an excellent weekend.

Retraction

2008-02-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

La Vie en Breton would like to issue a retraction. As it turns out, many people who had not consumed any quiche became violently ill as well and, as such, we have concluded that it was, in fact, a 24 hour bug. La Vie en Breton wishes to apologize to whomever made the quiche. It was delicious and we hope that we have not caused you any undue pain nor defamed your reputation as a quiche chef. La Vie en Breton sincerely regrets the error.

p.s. Paul sent me some pictures so I added them to Odds and Ends!

Raw Oysters and Food Poisoning

2008-02-04T04:25:00.000-08:00

Interestingly enough, the two subjects in the title of this entry are unrelated. I'll elaborate:

On Friday night, our friends Kati and Lena threw an oyster tasting party. Not steamed or smoked oysters either, raw oysters. Normally, in the States, I don't eat seafood at all (being a vegetarian) but since living here I try some from time to time since it is a specialty of the region. For some reason that doesn't make sense to most people, I would much rather eat an oyster than tuna fish so once in a while I'll make an exception in my vegetarianism for a mollusk.

Anyway, the party was really fun and it turns out raw oysters mostly just taste like a mouthful of seawater. Here are some pictures:

Our victims:

The table:

Lena and her precious landlord, René, who helped throw the party:

Lena, Kati and Ellen:

Me and Clare:

Ellen and me:

After the party, most of us headed to O'Kenny's.

Rodrigo (my Spanish teacher), Clare, me:

Clare, Jessica and Ellen

Ellen, Me, Chantal:

The next day we went to visit our pals in Rennes. We went to a party at their friends' house where there was a lot of food. Jessica and I were really hungry and so we pretty much camped out next to the snack table. The others tried a little food but not much. We especially liked a quiche/tortilla espanol thing and, since no one else was eating anything, and there were two whole quiches, Jessica and I went to town with one of them and pretty much ate all of it ourselves. If we knew then what we know now...

These are our shiny, happy faces after we ate the quiche but before it tried to kill us (Julian on the left was quiche-free):

Gwendal, Ellen and Clare, also quiche-free:

Note: Gwendal looks really tough but he has a heart of gold.

I'll leave out the details but suffice it to say, the next day Jessica and I were supremely nauseous and had to travel back to St. Brieuc in a terrible state. I will tell you one story even though its possibly slightly inappropriate:
At one point, a man came up to Jessica outside the train station and asked her for money, while she was literally in the middle of throwing up. Maybe that's too much information but it was too funny not to tell.
The moral of the story is, don't eat quiche that has been sitting out God knows how long, and that has been prepared under possibly slightly unsanitary conditions. Fin.

I am writing this post from my own home

2008-02-01T04:11:00.000-08:00

I can't express with words my joy over having the internet in my house. Its totally thrilling. So thrilling that I'm not going to ruin my good mood by posting about how my landlady is INSANE. I'll save that for another day. As a teaser, yesterday she reached new lows of irrational and illogical behavior.

I have a few more stories about things my students say:

1. Mathieu: (points to self) It's a good boyfriend.
Me: How old are you?
Mathieu: 20
Me: (incredulous look)
Mathieu: Bahhhh, 20 in 4 months.
Me: Soooo, 19, in other words
Mathieu: but I am major! (He meant that he wasn't a minor. This is actually alarming since he's in the French equivalent of 11th grade and should be almost 17 not almost 20)

later....
Mathieu: Sarah, we like you (meaning he and his friends in class).
Me: That's nice, Mathieu, I like you guys too.
Mathieu: You are very interesting
Me: uh huh
Mathieu: (points to self) It is man (points to me) It is woman. It works.

No, Mathieu, it doesn't.

2. In Anglophone Jeopardy, students were asked to give the capital of South Africa. One boy raised his hand very enthusiastically and yelled, "Venezuela!!!"

3. Similarly, when the question was "Name 3 Presidents of the US not including George W. Bush," a very excited girl called out "Canada!!!" Really, there's no excuse for that since the words in English and French for "president" are exactly the same.

Sigh.

In other news, Clare has held 3 different students' hands. Thankfully, these have all been guys in the technical college program; she hasn't done any hand holding with high school students...yet.

Odds and Ends (updated with some new pictures)

2008-01-28T06:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't written recently because I don't have a whole lot to report on. My schedule at school changed recently so now I have one class on Friday mornings (still no classes Monday!) I have some new classes to work with but some of my classes are the same as last semester. My schedule is really complicated. I have a lot of things that vary between Semaines A and B. The teachers are always confused and never seem to really know if I am supposed to be with their class or not. This leads to a lot of canceled classes because I'll show up and the teacher was planning on me being there the next week and so he or she won't need me. Also, at least once, my new schedule resulted in a teacher getting upset with me because she thought I was skipping her class (I wasn't, I had her class on the opposite week). On the other hand, my new schedule means I have twice as many students whom I see half as often which means I only need to do half the lesson planning (and by lesson planning I mean googling "ESL games" 15 minutes before class).
There was a grève last week which meant that a lot of teachers didn't come to school. I honestly don't know what they were striking about but I'm sure Sarkozy did something shocking and unfair again. One of the four teachers I had that day told me she wouldn't be there, one other promised me she'd let me know her final decision and the other two said nothing. Out of five classes, guess how many I had that day. 1/2!!! The first class was the one where the teacher promised me she'd let me know. Having not received a call, I came to school. Of course, she wasn't there and neither was most of the class. Three boys did come and we had fun playing "Who am I?" and Hangman. They are really adorable and they vouvoyer me and call me Madame. Technically they shouldn't be doing either since they should be speaking English but they're my youngest class and so cute I can't get too mad. So that was my half of a class. My next class I knew was canceled, two more classes were canceled because that teacher was sick and for the class class not one student showed up (but the teacher was there). I could have gone home at 11 instead of 4 but I did get to use the Internet for free all day and watch True Life on mtv.com, so I can't complain too much.
Things haven't been totally business as usual here though, I did go to Strasbourg last weekend for a visit and to celebrates Paul's birthday. While there, we took a day trip to Freiburg, Germany which is a really adorable town. Here are some pictures I stole from Etienne (Paul's roommate who, along with his really sweet girlfriend, Eva, came with us):
A cute street and the cathedral which has sort of the same style as the one in Strasbourg.

Etienne enjoys a sausage while the sausage lady watches:

One of the highlights of the Germany daytrip was going to a store called Vom Fass (which means something like "on tap" or "draught"). Basically, its a liquor store where everything is stored in glass barrels and where you can buy a bottle to fill up. It also had all different kinds of oils for cooking etc. in barrels. Our favorite was olive truffle oil. Here is a picture of some of the different alcohol choices to better explain:

Etienne and Paul:

The funny thing about this store was that the logo seemed so familiar to me and I knew I'd seen it before but I couldn't remember where. Then when I got home to St. Brieuc I realized that we had the same store here though I've never been in it. Its one of the only two Vom Fasses in France!! (It might have something to do with this area being the most alcoholic part of France for seven years running. Vom Fass must have done some demographic research).
I have also included a picture of Paul blowing out his birthday crêpe. There was one votive candle stuck into the ice cream. It was delicious, though melty:

All in all we had a lovely weekend and I'm looking forward to Paul's triumphant return to Brittany sans streptococci!
One thing that being in Germany made me realize is that I speak French much better than German. Maybe this should've been obvious since I've never studied German a day in my life so I guess what I mean is that it made me appreciate how much better my French has gotten. In Germany, I couldn't carry out the simplest exchanges. I think the only German I said was "danke." ("Danke" to Wayne Newton for that). At one point a man came up to Paul and me in the cathedral and started gabbing away. Luckily, he didn't seem to need a response nor did he seem to notice that our eyes were wide with utter uncomprehension. Eventually, satisified, he wandered away. Thank goodness Etienne and Eva both studied in Germany and could help us buy souvenirs! This short trip to Germany did make me super excited for my trip to Berlin with Sophia, Danae and Barbara, though! (Especially since Sophia and Barbara are both Germanophones because I think Freiburg proved that I need supervision if leaving an Anglo- or Francophone zone.)

In other news, Hammy is doing well and I think his name has to stay Hammy (although I appreciate all the suggestions). I can't call him anything else now and even my roommates call him Hammy (or, Ammy, rather). It has been suggested that I train my webcam on him and call it HamCam but I don't think my life has gotten that sad yet. (Also, that would assume that I had the Internet at my place, which, of course, I don't and have given up expecting.) Also, my good pal Clare is moving into my house tonight!! We have a spare room and since she is always over it just made sense that she move in. I'm very excited because it can get a little lonely on the weekends in that big house when all my roommates are gone and now Clare will be there to keep me entertained! Last but not least, I have talked to my friend Rodrigo about giving me Spanish lessons which I will pay for by cooking for him. I decided to start because I have started to get bored with only 12 hours of work a week and I've got to nip that in the bud. There's no greater waste of time than boredom and I don't want to spend a minute of my time here not appreciating it.
There, I guess I did have a lot to say after all!

Funny/Strange Things My Students Do/Say

2008-01-15T05:50:00.000-08:00

1. When instructed to create a sketch about the Holidays, 2 students referred to Santa Clause as "Christmas Dad" (direct translation of Père Noël)

2. One student asked me if it was possible to buy "cooking foods" in America (when pressed, he defined "cooking foods" as eggs and sugar) because his sister went to England once and came back telling people you could buy pre-made meals there but no ingredients.

3. Asked me if I had a "little friend" (direct translation of petit ami, i.e. boyfriend). I told him I don't discriminate based on height when choosing my friends.

4. Told me my hair was too long and then suggested that he could help me shorten it with something he had set on fire. (He had some kind of flint/steel combo that he was sparking at people). Don't worry, afterwards he was nice enough to tell me that he liked my hair, long though it is. Thanks, creep.

p.s. No, Mom, I'm not naming Hammy after you. He's a BOY!! Besides, its weird to name a hamster after your mother.

Happy 2008!

2008-01-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

I haven't been writing during my Christmas vacation because this is supposed to be a blog about France (or at least Europe) and not about the US but I did have a really good time and got to visit family in IL and FL. Florida was especially wonderful because it was 80°F (for any non-Americans that's about 25°C) and sunny everyday. I also got some lovely Christmas presents including 3 new cookbooks which will come in really handy for me and Clare when we need dinner ideas. I will tell one story about my trip home. When we were in Springfield, IL my mom and I decided to try out the hotel's Jacuzzi (indoors, obv.) We put on our bathing suits and went down to the pool area. There is a little foyer before you get to the actual pool that is locked to prevent ne'er-do-wells from using the pool. Hotel guests can use their key cards to get in. Or so we thought. Our card didn't work. Weird. "No big deal" we thought. We'll just reenter the main building and talk to someone at reception. Of course, the door to the main building had locked behind us and we needed our key cards to get in. Fabulous, don't panic, we're completely trapped except for a door to the outside. We discuss the best plan. We can't both go outside because then we might not be able to get in at all and we'd be trapped outside all night (Only to be found dead the next day. Very undignified to be found dead outside in your bathing suit in December) My mom decides to brave the elements, exit the only open door and run in her bathing suit to the front door. This was very brave for 2 reasons. 1. Neither my mom nor I have anything resembling a sense of direction and locked in the little room, we had lost our bearings. So, basically, she had no idea where to run. 2. She was in a bathing suit and a t-shirt, we were on the prairie at 9pm in December. It was about -21545° (n.b., that is an exaggeration in both Fahrenheit and Celius). Debbie Dahl is a trooper, however, and she ran out into the night to try and find the main entrance to the hotel (I'm not at all exaggerating about our senses of direction. They're terrible. We think we might be legally handicapped). My job was to wait vigilantly at the door and let her in if she needed me to. Of course, just then a helpful hotel guest spotted me and was going to help me escape from the pool foyer. So, I had to lean out the door and yell until my mom heard me and ran back inside. At which point, the helpful guest let us into the main building and my mom went to reception and got our cards fixed. After that, we took a well-deserved dip in the Jacuzzi. Fin.

In other news, 39 Avenue Corneille is now in possession of a lovely pet hamster!! I call him Hammy (short for Hamster, if you're slow) because we couldn't think of a name and I had to call him something. Blandine, being a true paysanne, insists that he be named a "D" name because 2008 is a "D" year and, therefore, all the farmers name any cows born in this year "D" names. Suggestions welcome!! The name has to be something that my roommates and I can all pronounce. Here he is:
running like the wind in his ball:

having a drink:

Strasbourg etc. UPDATED W/ PICS!

2007-12-18T05:07:00.000-08:00

Lord, its been too long! I haven't written about Strasbourg because I kept hoping and hoping that I would be able to write about it from my house! I'm sure no one is surprised that 39 Avenue Corneille is still without Internet. Maud and I got the livebox in the mail and set it up only to realise that our phone line had been disconnected. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal. A simple call to your landlord and the problem is fixed, right? HAHA! You may remember that it took our landlord 2 months to cancel the Internet contract he had so that we could sign up for a new one. I'm anticipating a repeat of that situation. Although, it is Christmas so maybe we can all pray for a miracle. In any event, on Friday I'm returning to the States where I know that I have plenty of Internet so its nothing to worry about right now.

ALSO, I forgot the memory card for my camera (I'm sure that surprises no one) so Chantal has all the pictures from Strasbourg and I wanted to wait 'til she posted them. She hasn't yet but I have full confidence in her and I'm sure I'll be able to add them soon. Bref, Strasbourg is BEAUTIFUL. It's very different from any city in France that I've ever seen. The Christmas market was adorable and the cathedral is breathtaking! We were also fortunate enough to get to stay with some real live Strasbourgeois (Paul, a friend of Chantal and his roommate Etienne) They were really hospitable and took us to lots of parties hosted by their friends. They also provided us with late-night paella and all the Cocoa Krispies we could eat. It was a really fun weekend.

UPDATE: Chantal pulled through with the pictures.

Skinniest buildings ever:

Lovely view of cathedral:

Inside lovely cathedral:

Crazy clock in cathedral:

2 views from the tippy top of cathedral:

and:

Part of town called La Petite France:

Lovely friends with lovely beers:

After listening to Chantal and me talk about St. Brieuc, Paul became nostalgic for his childhood holidays spent in Brittany and so he decided to visit us this past weekend. The weekend could have gone more smoothly.

Let me list all the issues we had, note how all but one of them are directly related to my landlord and lady's incompetence:

1. Approx. 60% of my home had no heat. My very kind roommate, Blandine, volunteered to use her lunchbreak to wait for the chauffagiste at our house. When he got there they discovered that the door to the boiler room was locked and that the landlady had taken all the keys to Nice with her. The landlady had to FedEx us the key to the room and then (sans chauffagiste) we had to fix the heat 3 times during the weekend.

2. We lost electricity Saturday night. At about 8:30 or 9 Blandine called the landlady who, of course, had taken the key to the garage where the fusebox is. Lucklily she was in St. Brieuc for the weekend and promised to stop by. She didn't show up for a while. I called her wondering where she was. No answer. The electricity came back after a while so I tried to call her and tell her that, in fact, she no longer needed to come. No answer. She finally called at 12:30am! I told her that the power was back and she said, "Okay, I guess I won't come by then." As if it would've ever been okay to come by at 12:30!! I was in bed!!

3. The boiler room flooded.

4. The phone line situation

5. Paul had strep throat.

Quel week-end!! We did have a fun party Friday night at my place to celebrate Maud's 25th and yesterday Paul and I were able to visit some areas in Brittany I hadn't been to where he used to vacation as a child. (Pictures to come!!) Donc, despite the best efforts of my landlords (and streptococcus A) the weekend wasn't totally ruined!

Pictures of Brittany:

Pléneuf-Val-André's harbor/port/someone teach me the difference:

Beach at Erquy:

and again:

Cap d'Erquy (cap = cape, not hat):

and again:

2 Extremely Cold Top Models:

I thought I was cold on Cap d'Erquy, I was a fool. I have never been colder than I was at Cap Fréhel.

Cap Fréhel, the coldest/most beautiful place on Earth:

and again:

and again:

We also journeyed to Dinan, which is a super cute Medieval town near St. Brieuc. It was decorated for Christmas. Here is a pic of one little street:

This trip was made possible by Paul's sense of direction. As many of you know, if I'd been alone I'd still be trying to figure out how to get on the highway from my house (that's assuming, of course, that I'd found a car with an automatic transmission).

Merry Christmas to all and I'll see many of you soon!!

ça souffle!

2007-12-03T05:52:00.000-08:00

I don't know how to make a capital "ç"

Have you ever experienced wind so strong you actually couldn't breath? If not, I suggest you move to Brittany because that happens here all the time. When it's blowing right in your face its like the air is moving so fast your nose can't catch it. Also, when it rains, there's really no point in bringing an umbrella because it will turn inside out as soon as you step outside.

This weekend I had another party. This one was a crémaillère (house warming party). The party was great and Maud's friends came too, which was also lots of fun. Here are some pictures:

This is Maud and this is her favorite pose:

This is Ben and Chantal laughing at a Québécois CD:

Me and Chantal:

Maud and Erwan deep in conversation:

Olivier, possibly asleep:

Hannah and Phillip:

There were other people at the party but I don't love taking pictures and so I only did it for about 5 minutes. If you were in the bathroom/getting a snack during those 5 minutes, sorry!

I have befriended one of the other English teachers at my school and sometimes on Wednesday afternoons, when neither of us work, she takes me to interesting places around Brittany. So far we've gone to Blinic and Paimpol. The beach near Paimpol was really beautiful. It looked like the beaches near Lannion except that the stones were less round and more jagged. They were still sort of pink though and so, especially since the tide was out, it looked like we could have been on Mars (except, obviously, for the English Channel just beyond the rocks; not very Martian). Before we went to Paimpol she had me over for lunch at her house where we had a lovely vegetable quiche and some delicious blue cheese afterwards. It's nice to feel like I have made a real friend at school who's nice to me because she likes me and not just to be polite.

Also, this weekend I am going to Strasbourg with my friend Chantal!!! I am really excited because it is one place in France I really wanted to make sure I visited. I wanted to go right before Christmas too becuase they have a Christmas market that is supposed to be the best in France. Here is a picture I stole from the Internet:

I am really excited and hope to find lots of good Christmas presents there!

That's all for now! Say a prayer to the Internet gods that the next time I write it will be from my very own home! The man is supposed to come this week . . .

death, riots, and a cabaret singer

2007-11-29T07:16:00.000-08:00

I have good news and bad news.

The good news is, I killed the mosquito!

The bad news is, she wasn't alone.

Therefore, I've started to sleep coated in bug spray. My room smells like camp. I'm not sure why my little blue thing that I plugged in stopped working but it's really getting me down. I just thank God every day that I don't wake up with a bug bite on my eyelid (as my dedicated readers know, this as happened to me twice in my life) or on the tip of my nose (this has happened once). Alors, things could always be worse. I did figure out how to turn down the heat in my room. It's now less of a tropical swamp habitat and more of a temperate deciduous forest.

Today at my high school (about 2 days behnd the rest of the country) the students decided to go on strike. Now those less familiar with the French mindset might ask themselves, "What are they on strike from? They don't get paid nor do they produce any goods/provide any services" This would be a valid point if it weren't for the fact that French people aren't tied down to logic. There are host of reasons why various students across the country are on strike (the privitization of the univsersities, the riots in the South etc.) but it seems, from talking with my students, that lycéeans in St. Brieuc are mad because Sarkozy has proposed to shorten the length of time it takes to earn a bac pro. A bac pro is basically a vo-tech high school diploma. Now, a student first must complete a BEP (don't ask me what that is, its some kind of pre-bac pro), which takes 2 years and then moves on to 2 more years studying for the bac pro exam. Apparently, Sarkosy wants to get rid of the BEP all together and replace it with a 3 year bac pro. Don't ask me why a shorter vocational diploma made so many students so mad. As some of my students who didn't protest said "I think they love school." Maybe; I think its more like they don't like Sarkosy and so they are willing to protest any changes he tries to make. Also, they are probably in agreement with the more legitimate concerns of the university students and the fonctionaires. Who knows? The students here did brake some windows in their enthusiasm. That's dedication.

I also feel the need to tell the world about a special lady named Maman. Not my maman, who is also very special but whose actual name is Debbie, but a cabaret style singer at a local bar who calls herself Maman. Maman and her husband, Titi, who plays the piano, perform every Tuesday night at Le Piano Bleu. They sing French favorites in a truly cheesy fashion and they
sometimes play a name that tune style quiz! I have an advantage when they play American songs but since I know approx. 4 French songs I never get those right. Luckily our team is made up of French and American people so we have all of our bases covered. My friend Leah has convinced me a total of 3 times to sing with her when Maman needed a pause. Our perfomances have ranged from borderline catastrohic to mediocre but its been fun all the same. I've included one picture of Maman and one of me singing with Leah and this other girl who sings sometimes there. I don't remember her name but she is very nice. In that one you can also see Titi playing the keyboard.

P.S. My roommate Maud called our landlord the other day about the Internet. He had a new story of course. This time he said that we need to call the company and deal with getting it installed. We'll pay for it but he'll reimburse us for some of it. This new plan is fine with me since I know Maud will actually get the job done instead of lying about it for almost 2 months like the landlord.

Thanksgiving à la Française

2007-11-27T06:26:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday several of us Americans went to Rennes because we had volunteered to cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for some French friends. (We all worked onThanksgiving Day, which is why we had to go on Saturday.) We got there around noon and ourfriends came and met us at the train station. We went to Carrefour to pick up the ingredients and then headed to our friend's place to start cooking. The French guys had managed to find a turkey (it cost 67€) but it was not sufficiently butchered for most North American tastes. That is to say, it still had a head and organs. Luckily some brave souls, who, afterwards, named themselves the Gutwrenchers, got in there and did what had to be done while the vegetarians hid in the living room.

We prepared a huge fest having been told that there would be about 10 hungry French people joining us. In addition to the turkey we had green bean casserole, herbed potatoes, roasted vegetables, salad, sweet potatoes, creamed corn, cranberry sauce, two pumpkin pies and an apple crumble. I am proud to say that the North Americans pulled their weight at the dinner table. To my great shame and disappointment, the same cannot be said for our French guests. Not only did they not indulge in the gluttony we expected after slaving in the kitchen all afternoon (only one serving each??), but some of them (sin of all sins) had eaten BEFORE THEY CAME! The North Americans tried to pick up the slack but, frankly, we were not expecting France to drop the ball like that and there were a lot of leftovers. (Which we happily consumed the next day for brunch.)

While the French people were very nice to let us take over their kitchen for the day and it was fun to spread our great holiday to an interested and curious new audience, the moral of the story is, North Americans have more robust appetites than French people and Thanksgiving just doesn't really translate.

p.s. I am also very disappointed to report that a slightly (read: perhaps more than slightly) immature Frenchmen drew a rude picture on our Thanksgiving (paper) table cloth, which we had decorated with bilingual Thanksgiving greetings, pictures of cornucopias and pumpkins, and hand-turkeys.

MAYDAY

2007-11-22T01:39:00.000-08:00

My little friend the mosquito is back!! I thought mosquitos died in the cold but this seems to be some kind of genetically engineered super mosquito. I think she may be back because now I have heat in my room. It's possible that I have to make a choice between have a warm room and not being covered with mosquito bites. Maybe we can find a happy medium because right now my room is like a jungle. It's probably about 80° and I can't turn the knob on the radiator. I'll think I'll have to get my land lady back over to fix it so I can create a more temperate environment that is less conducive to mosquito life than the rainforest habitat I've got going on currently.

In other news, two of my classes were canceled today, unless any more are canceled that will bring my total to 8 hours of work this week! ahhh France . . .

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

P.P.S. Update: Another class was canceled giving me a grand total of 7 hours of work this week.

Another Great Weekend

2007-11-19T08:58:00.000-08:00

Thursday night was a very special day here in France. It was the day the Beaujolais Nouveau came out and all the bars in town had specials going on featuring it. A few of my friends and roommates went out to experience it together. It was pretty fun and the Beaujolais was good and reminded me of Thanksgiving! Friday night was nothing special but Saturday night a lot of the St. Brieuc assistants went to a party in Lannion chez Sophia. We had a lot of fun and the next day we were able to visit some of the Lannion beaches. See below:

My landlady came over today to help me with some paperwork so that the French government can start paying most of my rent (which is what they do for poor people, even foreigners). She also fixed the heat in my room (!) and told me that the Internet was coming very soon since they'd finally gotten a response from the Internet provider. Right now I'm supposed to be working on a translation as a favor for one of the teachers t my school so I'd better get on that!

Fun Weekend!

2007-11-12T06:42:00.000-08:00

It's Monday afternoon after a really fun weekend. Friday night I had a party at my house for the assistants in St. Brieuc and Lannion. My excuse was that it was to celebrate that we were all back from our various vacations but really it was just because I like parties. I made chocolate covered pretzels and bought cheese and bread. I also found a bottle of wine for €1.20 and one of cidre for €1.50. They weren't good but I was still impressed. We had a good time and then went out to O'Kenny together for some Kilkenny (obviously). We also went to the worst (and only) night club in town. After that all the out of towners came back to my place to sleep on couches etc. Lot's of fun!
The next night we went to a Fest Noz (which means fête de nuit, or night party, in breton) in Lamballe. There were traditional musicians playing breton music and we all (tried) to learn the traditional dances. It was a really good time. It started at 9pm and I couldn't believe that by the time we were all ready to go at 2 there were lots of Grandmas and Grandpas still going strong. There were also lots of young people there, which was interesting because I don't think teenagers in the States would be interested in dancing in lines all night with their parents, holding on to each other by their pinkies but they were really into it. There was one huge guy in a kilt, which I later found out is not really traditional breton gear so I think maybe he was just insane, but he knew the words to all the songs and whenever the musicians tooks breaks he would sing songs along so people didn't have to stop dancing. I forgot my camera (of course) but I'll add pictures once someone sends me some!

p.s. By popular request I'll add that there was call and response singing, accordian, guitar, violin, bagpipes and some kind of recorder type instrument (maybe a clarinet or a bombarde). The music was really good and lively; similar to the feeling of Irish traditional music. The pictures are still in the works!

Out and About in St. Brieuc

2007-11-05T05:32:00.000-08:00

Pictures of My House and Town:
my house:

my room:

my desk in my room:

kitchen:

dining area:

living room:

crazy toilet 1:

crazy toilet 2:

St. Etienne's Cathedral:

Super old Church from the 1300s:

Beautiful Valley:

View from my old room at the high school:

Ireland!! (Lots of new pictures!)

2007-11-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

I just got back yesterday from my trip to Ireland with Sophia. I have lots of stories and I hope I remember all of them. If not though, I'm sure Sophia will, so reading both our blogs should give you the full picture. Also, I've brought my laptop to an Internet cafe so I can load my pictures. There were several days that I forgot my camera but Sophia was a diligent picture taker and I'm sure she'll upload lots of pictures I can steal!
First and foremost, I started with a picture of Kilkenny which is a delicious creamy beer that must be made by Guinness since it's always served in a Guinness glass. It deserves its place at the top of this entry as it played an important role in our Irish Experience.

Our plqn flew out of Nantes and we got to the airport a very responsible 2 hours early. We stopped in the bookstore to look at some guidebooks of Ireland (since we hadn't done too much planning) and a little girl walked over to us and starting staring. Assuming that as a 6 year old she wasn't used to hearing people speak another language I greeted her with a friendly "Bonjour." She answered back "Hello" in perfect English. Her name was Cody and she and her parents and her brother Patrick were living in France now but we from England originally. Its especially funny because Patrick looks, well, like a Patrick and not at all like a French boy. I'd seen him early in the airport and wondered if maybe he spoke English (or maybe looked really Celtic because he was breton?) My Anglophone-dar turned out to be right and Patrick joined our conversation pretty soon, too. Cody was, as many 6 year olds are, very blunt and after telling her we were American she asked "Is that why you talk so weird?" After telling her we were English teachers she gave us her (tentative) blessing, saying "Yea, I guess you sort of speak English." I think Sophia and I really were destined to meet Patrick and Cody though because after telling them our names Cody informed us "My goat's called Sarah and we used to have one called Sophie too, but she drowned." (Sophia was only slightly put off by my suggestion that she was somehow the reincarnation of Sophie, the dead goat).
Oh yea, and we almost missed our plane. This was not our fault since the gate number was not listed on the departure screen and we were also given some bad directions by a cafe worker. Luckily Sophia's sharp ears recognized our names being called (pronounced terribly, of course) by the woman over the loud speaker. If Sophia hadn't been there I'd probably still be in Nantes, waiting in Hall 3, wondering when they'd get around to announcing our gate number.
Luckily, that wasn't the case and we made it Dublin just fine. Once there we checked into our hostel and went about finding something to eat. Note to travelers: Dublin is much more expensive than small town France, budget accordingly. Sophia and I managed to find an Indonesian place (Along with my stellar Anglophone-dar I also have developed Ethnic-food-dar) and split some serviceable vegetarian food. After that we found a really fun bar and after a couple of pints of Kilkenny pushed our way to the front of the crowd and sang along to the live music. The musician was really fun and played The Beatles, Oasis, Elvis, etc. We went home quite early that night because we were tired from traveling and Sophia was a little sick. We felt like we had gained an hour though because of the time change.

The next day we set about sight-seeing in Dublin and first we went to see Trinity College where the Book of Kells is housed. We decided to take a guided tour because it was only 2 Euros more than the admission to the Book of Kells exhibit and it was super interesting. For one thing, we learned that the library at Trinity contains the largest room of any library in the world. (It's only a tiny bit bigger than the library at Trinity College,Cambridge but as the tour guide said, "They treasure every centimeter.") We also learned that there's a bell that rings every day during term at 6:15 calling all the students to dinner. This dinner is mandatory and students need special permission to miss it. However, no one ever misses it because its free! (Not too surprising that the 2 facts I most remember about Trinity are about books and food . . .) This is a picture of us in front of the Commons (Dinner) Bell and next to it is a picture of me in front of a scupture just like the one we saw at the Vatican.

It was forbidden to take pictures of the Book of Kells so the ones up there are from the Internet to show you what it looks like. Before getting to Trinity all I knew was that the Book of Kells was a famous illuminated manuscript so I'll tell you what I learned to make it more interesting. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript of the 4 Gospels created in the 9th century by monks in Scotland and brought to Kells, Ireland for safekeeping (the Vikings were beginning to raid the monasteries of the British Isles around this time). Apparently there are several theories about the origin of the Book of Kells but that is the one we were told at Trinity. The Book had a beautiful gold and gem-encrusted cover and therefore was quite valuable. Eventually it was stolen but it is hypothesized that the thief was so frightened once he realized he'd stolen a copy of the Gospels that he hid it in a field. (He wasn't too religious to take the priceless cover, however.) The farmer who owned the field eventually found it and returned it to the Church where it stayed until they turned it over to Trinity for proper preservation. It was extremely beautiful in person and so were the other illuminated manuscripts on display there.
After Trinity we had a delicious "cooked Irish breakfast" (it was 2pm but we weren't complaining about details) and then headed over to Christ Church Cathedral, which I was surprised to find out seeing as we were in Ireland, was a Protestant Cathedral. This is because, until the 1800s it was illegal to have Catholic Churches on major roads. So, although like every other 1000 year old Church, it started out Catholic; the English changed it to Anglican after the Reformation, and it remained that way. The only Catholic churches are on smaller roads. St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin is also Protestant for the same reason. Here is Christ Church:

After the Cathedral we went to Dublin Castle where we learned a ton about the history of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England. I'll spare you the gory details (pun intended) since I'm sure you know that it's a long story and would turn this into even more of a history lesson. One cool thing we learned, though, was about the Irish flag. The orange strip is for the Loyalists who wanted to remain a part of the UK, the green strip is for the Nationalists who wanted to separate from the UK and the white in between represents peace between these two groups. This picture is of Dublin Castle:

That night we went back to the same bar as the night before and after it closed we were making out way to (ahem) another bar when a drunken (probably) homeless woman, clutching a beer (in a glass!!) approached me and asked for a Euro so she could by another drink. I had to laugh, although I appreciated her honesty, and decline, telling her I needed my money for my own beers. She then told me I had ugly teeth and an ugly smile. At least I have teeth, lady.
This is the approximate location of our encounter with the drunk:

The next day we made our way to County Cork where we stayed in Cobh (cove). Cobh is a beautiful fishing village with the steepest hill in Ireland with beautiful, brightly colored houses along the road. Its called the Deck of Cards.

Cobh was also the last port of call for the Titanic and town where the very first person to be checked in on Ellis Island came from. Cobh also had a beautiful Cathedral which was Catholic, because it was built after the law passed allowing big, Catholic churches on main roads.
We looked around Cork City a little bit, too. It's a really cute city and it felt more Irish then Dublin, which is so international. Here it is!

Most importantly though, we saw Blarney castle and kissed the Blarney Stone!

The picture to the left is Blarney Castle and the one on the right is the view from the top. They really aren't kidding when they say Ireland is green! Apparently, since we've kissed the Blarney Stone, Sophia and I now have the gift of eloquence!

The picture is of me kissing the stone.

After visiting Blarney we headed back to Dublin in time to take a Halloween Ghost tour of the city led by Zazimus the blind street poet. Here he is:

We heard ghost stories about Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Audoen's Church (built in 1190!!) and the medieval city walls. It was really fun, pretty cheesy but a little spooky at the end, especially when we were in the graveyard at St. Audeon's. I'll just tell one ghost story:
The Church was going broke so they decided to rent out the crypt of Christ Church to whomever wanted it. The man who took them up on the deal starting running a brothel (I'm serious) out of the crypt. However, he had to close it during the winter months because it got so cold and damp down there. On the last night of the season he had a huge party at the crypt and at last call he threw everyone out. When he came back the next Spring he found the skeleton of a British officer with his sword drawn, surrounded by the skeletons of rats. The officer had been too drunk to realize it was last call and was locked in all winter with the rats who ATE HIM ALIVE before eventually starving to death themselves. The moral of the story is don't go to brothels, especially one in the basement of a church.

We flew out of Dublin the next day. We stayed two nights in Rennes with some friends from St. Brieuc and Rennes to celebrate Halloween and prolong the vacation (esp. because we all got paid on Friday!) and now I'm back in St. Brieuc having a post-vacation vacation!

2007-10-25T02:23:00.000-07:00

This week has been fairly eventful. Last Friday my roommate, Maud, had 2 friends visiting from Brest. They were really fun and outgoing, corrected my pidgin French and got really excited to try to speak to me in English. Unfortunately, Maud usually goes home to Brest for the weekends so this was one of her few Friday nights in St. Brieuc. Probably the funniest part of the night was when we decided to go home around 2 and got a ride home from one of our friends who lives outside town and always drives (sober, don't get worried). Maud and her friends were going to go to this discothèque in town but decided not to at the last minute, after we had already filled the car. They said they didn't mind walking home so we left in the car. After dropping off one assistant we headed in my direction only to see Maud and her friends faisaient le stop (hitch hiking) on our street. Of course, we picked them up and took them home but they were really surprised when they saw it was us in the car! It was pretty funny.
One Tuesday night, I met my friend Jessica in a bar called Le Piano Bleu where they often have live music. Unfortunately, the music was truely terrible that night. Really cheesy. There was one singer and one keyboard but because they were using a synthesizer it sounded like they had a whole orchestra behind them. To make matters worse, the singer heard us speaking English and announced to the whole room that there were some beautiful Americans in the room. She also tried to speak to us in English. This made it really hard to leave when we wanted to because as soon as we got up she announced that we were leaving and said how sad she was. It was pretty annoying and made us think about how inappropriate that would be at home. Imagine some Spanish people came into a bar in Plymouth Meeting and the singer started saying. "Hola! Look everyone! Spanish people!" It would be so rude! Anyway, things like that happen all the time here and we often feel like we're on display. After that though, we met Maud and some of her friends from IUFM (teacher training college you attend after getting your Bachelor's Degree) at one of our favorite bars, O'Kenny (NOT O'Kenny's, I made that mistake only once). They were really fun and we had a great time. They all have to take a music class so they can work on music with the kids and so they were singing the songs they had learned in English to me. It was really funny to hear French voices singing spirituals!
I've also been wanting to go to the movies here but ALL the American movies are dubbed here. They almost never use sub-titles. However, this nice teacher just left me a schedule of movies in the version originale in my mail box! November is Documentary Month in his film club and so I can see Murderball in the original English if I want. I ahve been wanted to see it so I think I will.
Tonight, Sophia is coming to stay so we can take the train tomorrow to Nantes to catch our plane to Ireland!! I'm getting really excited to get there!

p.s. I'm still sans Internet chez moi!

My new roommate!

2007-10-18T06:32:00.001-07:00

I have a new roommate! She sleeps in the same room as me but she's usually awake eating all night and sleeps all day. She's a mosquito! I would tell you her name but the things I call her aren't fit to publish. Last night she bit me on the end of my nose. I had never experienced the urge to mortally wound another creature until last night when I sat in bed, half asleep, at 4am waiting for her to fly by so I could kill her. Tomorrow one of my fellow teachers is going to give me a truc that emits some kind of sound only mosquitos can hear and keeps them away (supposedly). I really hope it works since she especially likes to bite my face and there's only so much that makeup can cover!

Other than that (and the lack of Internet) my new house is wonderful and my roommates are très sympa! It's SO nice to have a kitchen. La Dolce Vegan is getting a work out (especially since I discovered that sweet potatoes and squash are available at the market and that international and tofu type foods are available at the organic food store).

2007-10-16T05:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to write in a while. We still don't have the Internet hooked up in my house and since I only work 3 days a week, Thursday through Monday I am basically without Internet.

This weekend was the semi-final for the Rugby World Cup and, unfortunately, France lost to England. I think the loss was especially painful because England and France have such a long standing rivalry. I also watched the other semi-final in which a very scrappy Argentinian team was badly beaten by South Africa. (A non-Anglophone country has never won the Rugby World Cup.) Argentina's team was really adorable, though, and they all cried during their national anthem (that was before they lost, so they are just an emotional group I guess).

In other news, yesterday I was in Rennes for my medical appt. (which all non-EU citizens must have to make sure we don't have tuberculosis or something). The appt. itself was uneventful but it was fun being back in Rennes (although, the nurse who checked my eyes did tell me I had the vision of a pilot!!). We ate lunch at a really good crêperie in the Place Sainte Anne where I had a ratatouille and egg crêpe. After that, we did a little shopping and headed home.

My classes have been going fairly well. Some better than others, of course, but for the most part, well. I did have one girl not understand the word "Paris", which was alarming since she'd been studying English for 4 years, but I have also had some students whose levels were surprisingly good.

Also, Sophia and I are going to Ireland for our Toussaint vacation!! Dublin and Cork! It should be very exciting.

Hopefully, someday before I leave France I'll have the internet in my very own home and I'll be able to load pictures. On verra. . .

Rugby!

2007-10-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the rugby match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the French team (Les Bleus). I had to put aside my love of New Zealand for a night and root for France mostly for my own safety but also because they were the home team and the under dogs. We watched the match at a bar called L'Atalante where they had an outdoor projection screen set up. It was really exciting and intense and it was only the quarter finals! Rugby is fairly easy to follow if you're a fan of American football. If you see a guy running really fast to his end with the ball/kick it really far to his end that means that they're going to score a goal (don't say touchdown or the French boy next to you who speaks perfect English will laugh at you). They even have an extra point kick after they score a "touchdown" (except its really 2 extra points). Don't ask me to explain why they sometimes pick each other up by the shorts. I'll never get that. Probably the coolest part of the game was at the beginning when they were trying to initimidate each other and the All Blacks did a Maori war dance that I remembered from my time in New Zealand. In any event Les Bleus a gagné so everyone went wild and sang the Marseillaise and chanted "Allez Les Bleus!" It was very exciting.

In other news, 2 of my new found friends had birthdays recently which were both really fun. And Sophia was here this weekend which was also really fun and will hopefully be happening a lot. Yesterday I moved into my sweet new pad and got my room (sort of) set up. Today I'm going to try to cook dinner in my new kitchen!

I guess that's it for now. I'll add pictures when the wifi gets worked out in my new place (this weekend supposedly). In the mean time Sophia's been able to add lots so check her blog for those! I'm so amped for Saturdays rugby match against Angleterre!! I'll keep you posted on the results!

First Day of Teaching

2007-10-04T04:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first day of classes. The first 2 classes went really well. I just talked about myself for a couple minutes. (It's actually kind of hard to speak slowly enough and to not use slang or Americanisms). I told them about where I am from and they all got excited when I sang the theme song from Fresh Prince of Belair to remind them that Philadelphia is where Will Smith is from. Some of them asked such serious questions too! One very small boy in the 2nde (10th grade) was so brave and was asking questions like if I was for or against the death penalty. It was really adorable. They were also very interested in Paris Hilton and Las Vegas.
After these two really cute classes I had a super awkward experience. I went to my next class and, besides the teacher and me, there were only 2 girls in the class and the boys were a little rowdy. I was there maybe 10 minutes when the teacher started screaming at the students that she was ashamed of them. Then she turned very nicely to me and said "Thank-you very much, Sarah. See you next time."
The next 3 classes were much better. I had 2 that were pretty standard (except in one a girl demonstrated a dancing style called techtonique that is sort of like raving/pretending you're losing your balance) and one where we watched David Letterman's interview with Paris Hilton. It was really funny but the humor and vocab were kind of advanced so I was the only one laughing. (The teacher had left me alone with the students.) I think after watching it twice and having me explain the hard words they pretty much got it, though.
In other news, Sophia is coming tonight!! She came to St. Brieuc on Wednesday for our orientation but it wasn't super relaxed because she had to catch the train home at 10. Tonight she is going to stay over in a spare dorm room that is unlocked for some reason so we can faire la fête!
Also, I found a place to live!! It's a colocation with 3 french girls! I'm moving on Monday! We will have wi-fi! Hurrah!

I'm in the Teachers' Lounge!

2007-10-01T07:56:00.000-07:00

So, turns out, I can access the ENTIRE Internet IF I hide in the Salle des Profs. Apparently the computers here are not restricted at all. I had been using the computers in the library before. One of the librarians told me today that if I wanted to use AIM (well she said messagerie or something like that) I should go into the Teachers' Lounge because the kids will get jealous if they see me chatting away. So, I came in and Voilà! access to the whole Internet! Very exciting!
Another very exciting piece of news: Today, Michael (the other assistant) and I got our teaching schedules and not only will I only be teaching 12 hours a week but I don't have any classes on Mondays or Fridays! What's up four day weekend!? Also, Tues.,Wed., and Thurs. I don't start 'til 10! Sounds good to me! We start Thursday and I'm actually less nervous about that then most of the other things I need to do because teaching will be completely in English.
Last night I met a bunch of other assistants, both German and American and apparently there are even more to meet. We have our stage (orientation) on Wed. for the whole département so maybe then I'll meet even more. Also, since Lannion is in the same département as St. Brieuc, Sophia will be coming to town Wednesday! In the mean time the assistants I met last night seemed really fun. I'm really excited to hang out with them more.
I'm still in the process of finding an apartment. There were lots of cheap apartments advertised in the Saturday paper so I just have to work up the courage to call and pray that they don't mind leasing for only 8ish months. That's all for now!

Success!

2007-09-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

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

St. Malo

2007-09-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Last Day in Paris and First in Rennes

2007-09-20T05:33:00.000-07:00

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!

Paris II

2007-09-18T02:11:00.000-07:00

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).

Paris!

2007-09-17T02:04:00.001-07:00

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!

Nous sommes arrivées à Paris

2007-09-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

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

News Flash!

2007-09-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

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 . . .

Preview of St. Brieuc

2007-09-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

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!

Bienvenue

2007-09-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

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!