Paris and Bordeaux!

To see some pictures from Paris and Bordeaux last weekend, click this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/mary.a.hollis/ToussaintsParisEtBordeaux#
I did some camera sharing with the other girls, so more pictures will be coming later!

Beautiful Paris in the Latin Quarter! I think this is my favorite neighborhood of one of my favorite cities in the world. It's pretty and everyone speaks French, what's not to like? One of my friends from church, Pierre, offered to drive a couple of us assistants up to Paris for the weekend because he was going for work! On Friday afternoon we hopped in the car, and made the 5 hour road trip through the pretty countryside into the city! We stayed for free in his friends' flat and spent a couple of days playing around the city.

This is my assistant friend Anna, who's a student at Durham in England! Together with our friend Claire, we wandered around Paris and saw some of the sights. We toured Victor Hugo's apartment, visited Notre Dame, and went in Paris' newest Museum called Quai Branley. Pierre met us for dinner at one of his favorite restaurants in the Marais, and then we got to ride around the city in his car to see everything at night!

Sunday morning, I got to meet up with a younger Vandy TriDelta who's studying abroad in Paris! We had a traditional French breakfast together at a cafe and had a great time visiting.

Then I hopped on a train over to Bordeaux to meet up with another TriDelta friend, Whitney Anderson, who's also doing the assistant program there! Along with her cute roommate from Wales, we stayed in the city for a couple of nights and saw the sights in Bordeaux. All day on Monday, we did a wine tour of the St. Émilion wine district!

We went with a small group of other people and a private tour guide and got driven to several different vineyards in the morning to tour the châteaux and taste the wine! The wine regions that make up Bordeaux are stunning. Every couple of miles there is a beautiful château surrounded by huge fields of grape vines! At the second vineyard we visited, we were treated to a delicious lunch to taste the wine with.

From there, we went to the actual historic town of St. Émilion! We had a tour of this very well-preserved medieval village and then spent an hour in a little cafe getting crêpes and coffee.

After two great days and fantastic dinners in Bordeaux with Whitney and Jen, I headed back home. I realized through traveling how much I love my little apartment and Valence! I was happy to get back to my normal routine at home for a couple of days. Cloé picked me up at the train station, and we went out for dinner and drinks with a couple of her friends. I've been hanging out around town for the past day or so enjoying my vacation. I went to my bible study as usual, and I went for the first time to run in a nearby park with people from church who go weekly! It makes such a difference, when settling into a place, to have so many weekly opportunities to get together with people! I feel very lucky in my situation, and I know it hasn't been quite so easy for assistants in other places.

On Sunday, my friend Susan, who's an assistant in Strasbourg, is coming to visit for a couple of days! I'm planning a day hike for us on Monday with a couple of other girls, and I'm so exited get to hang out with her and see what else our vacation has in store for us!

Les Vacances!

Vacation has already arrived! Starting today, I'm on vacation for 2 weeks thanks to la Toussaint which is observed by all the schools. This kicks off the first of my 5 weeks of paid vacation during the program- the French system has its perks. Strikes still caused several of my classes to be canceled this week, but those that I did have were wonderful! We worked a lot on Halloween, and I had the kids color their own jack-0-lanterns so that they could learn the shapes! They thought this was super cool, and I showed them a bunch of neat pictures of jack-o-lanterns online and me dressed up in Halloween costumes when I was little. The kids love when I come to their classes, and they're always really excited to see me around the school. Provided I continue to come up with interesting things for us to talk about, I think we'll have a great time in the class together!

Strikes translate into beaucoups of free time for me! (got to love a french word turned english) I've had plenty of opportunity to wander and (window) shop with girlfriends around town, play tennis, plan my vacation time, and do whatever I want. I even met with a lady at Maison Pic this week to get things straightened out so that I can translate for a cooking class here and there. The great thing about my program here in Valence is that all of us assistants have loads of free time, so we're able to plan things together, invite each other over for gatherings, etc. This week's culinary adventures include Vichy carrots, cauliflower au gratin, and homemade pizza with market ingredients! I also went to a crêpe party with people from church (NUTELLA CRÊPES), and last night I tried out another cool restaurant and bar with my roommates, our Argentinian assistant friend, and Cloé's childhood friend Pierre-Julien. It's been awesome to get to know some of Cloé's friends and hang out completely en français. As a general rule, I always speak French unless I'm teaching or interacting with another assistant where French isn't really possible or practical. I can already tell loads of improvement, and I'm even getting familiar with some slang. It's always encouraging to hear compliments from the French people I meet about how I speak. I know my accent will always prevent me from sounding like a native, but people mostly seem to be finding me easy to understand.

This weekend I'm headed to Paris with a couple of girlfriends! One of our friends from church is driving up there for business and offered us a ride in his car and a flat to stay in for free! Then I'm going to take the train over to Bordeaux for a couple of nights to visit my friend Whitney (Vandy TriDelta love over homecoming weekend), then head back to Valence on Tuesday night. After that I still have a week left of vacation, so I think I might try to do a little hiking around the area before it gets too cold and hopefully entertain assistant friends from other cities who pass through!

The art of leisure

Some cool graffiti that I found on the back of a building

In case you've heard anything on the news, not to worry, the strikes here in France have only affected me in the most convenient ways! For instance, I only worked Monday and Friday this week, and a deviated bus route precipitated my being dropped off right at the door to my apartment with all my groceries! Nicole and heard that there will be a demonstration in centre ville tomorrow, so we're going to check it out.

It's been another full and wonderful week! I haven't exactly been working (thank you Sarkozy), but I've been busy not being busy. There seem to be plenty of things to get involved in around here, and two of my projects are cooking and exploring. After a week full of both of these activities, there are two myths about French people that I'd like to address:

1. French people are serious about food. TRUE. At one of my schools, I eat lunch in the teacher's lounge with some of the other faculty (they are so nice!). On my first day, I experienced some serious shame about the baguette, apple, and cheese that I brought for lunch. Each of the French ladies brought a beautiful 3 course meal. She would bring out something, eat it, then disappear back into the kitchen and bring out something else, etc. I decided then and there that if keeping myself alive wasn't reason enough to really learn to cook for myself, then pride was. I posted my email address and told all the teachers to email me if they had easy recipes. I feel that great strides have already been made! At the moment, I'm eating a lunch of homemade ratatouille (made from vegetables I bought at the market) with gnocchi and chicken. Apparently, French people love to potluck, so I've been both giving and receiving a lot of free food recently. Night before last, I had the special treat of eating dinner with some of Cloé's friends from work (which included a sous chef at Maison Pic!) Cloé created a foundation for Maison Pic, and sometimes they go to hospitals and give cooking classes to sick kids and their families. There are usually lots of leftovers, and Nicole and I were included in the post hospital visit dinner at our apartment. The theme was autumn fruits and vegetables (heaven).

2. French people don't exercise. FALSE. Especially in the Drôme where the outdoors is so beautiful! This place is teeming with parks. Every time I go out exploring I find a new beautiful park or path to run on. I think my favorite might be the one I tried most recently that runs north along the river. French people do exercise, they just usually don't do it publicly. They prefer the privacy of a tree-shrouded park, such as this one, complete with outdoor exercise equipment.

Or, they LOVE the pool. With the anonymity of swimming caps and goggles, you can sign up for a water aerobics class any time of day: they can't seem to offer enough. And, more exciting for me, there is great tennis in Valence! I heard about a club with a ton of indoor courts from a friend at church, so I went this week and checked it out. I hit around for about an hour one day with one of the pros, and he introduced me to a cute girl giving lessons who wants to play with me. I ended up getting the numbers of several good girl players, two of whom are English professors! And even better, nobody seems to be expecting me to pay anything.

Three Brides, Three French Bulldogs, and a Ferret

Just a typical weekend in Valence. On Saturday morning, I got up and set out on a jog in search of one of the public pools- no such luck. After viewing a lovely residential area and yet another park, I set out in defeat back towards centre ville. I spent an hour or so walking around the little streets, poking around in stores and trying to get some sort of mental picture of how everything spread out. I came across some very beautiful things and places! If I had all the money in the world and didn't have to ship back to America- I could get a place looking pretty nice with what they have over here. I also came across no less than 3 French Bulldogs in the course of about an hour. Definitely the dog of choice here, that or some sort of terrier. Unless you're a homeless youth, in which case you have a mutt that weighs no less that 70 lbs. If anyone has interest in having an actual French French Bulldog (French^2 Bulldog), let me know.

After making a quick lunch with Nicole back at the apartment, I set out with another assistant to play tennis in the park! The tennis courts are tucked back over on one side of Park Jouvet, near one of the entrances. While we were playing, some sort of wedding procession began taking place along the path that ran by our court into the park. Over the span of about an hour, three 3 brides decked out in their white dresses with their whole wedding parties paraded past our court. Some of the posses had musical instruments and drums, and all of them were shouting and chanting. Although the brides were dressed in a very typical western fashion with poofy white strapless dresses, a lot of the other women around them were wearing head coverings, and their chanting was in a language that I didn't recognize. Someone mentioned to me that there happen to be a lot of Armenians in Valence, so that could be an explanation. The groups would walk about 10 feet, stop and sing and dance and cheer, then walk another 10 feet, etc.

At one point, I also saw a crowd of small children gather around a woman on the path. I went over to the fence to try to get a look at what they were all looking at, and I saw that this lady had a ferret on a leash. She was walking- or, more appropriately, dragging- this ferret around, and all the kids had gathered to observe this bizarre occurrence. Is it a terrier? Is is a cat?...

I came home and got cleaned up and decided to act on an email I had received about a young people's night (offering pizza) that was sponsored by the church that my friends have gotten involved in. I walked about 5 minutes down my street and found the group, which turned out to pretty much be a youth group! It's for 13-25 year olds, but there were only about 5 of us over 20. I knew two German guys from a free french class, and I recognized the two guys who were programming activities from the bible study I went to. I made small talk with them, then we all ate pizza together and then broke into small groups for an activity. It was such a neat experience to hang out with tween-age french girls and take part in a night like that. This morning, I tried out the church myself, and everyone was so welcoming to all of us assistants. An older French couple invited me and two other girls over for lunch and proceeded to serve us the most amazing 5 course meal!

The Wild and Wonderful World of Valence

I have become totally enchanted with my new city! I've decided that the best way to see a place is to jog it. I've started taking my camera with me on runs because I always see the most wonderful things then: old french couples strolling the park holding hands, children playing, and just plain old pretty scenery. View my pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mary.a.hollis/TheWildAndWonderfulWorldOfValence# and expect me to add to this album throughout my stay!

In France, everything feels unexpected! When I got back from training in Autrans, I ate dessert with Cloé and her married friends and their baby who are visiting from Germany, then an Argentinian assistant spent the night with us while she searched for apartments. Last night, I went to a French gymnastics arena and got to jump on the hot trampolines! One of Cloé's friends is a male gymnast, and he invited us to come use the equipment and then he gave us all dinner afterwards. We did a song exchange, and I taught all the Frenchies how to line dance and introduced them to Achey Breakey Heart- which they went CRAZY over.





Today I didn't have training or work, so I ran some errands with Nicole and the girls down the street, and we got ice cream and ate it in the park. Then I came home and Nicole taught me yoga, then I went to an awesome French bible study for college students!

Teacher Time!

Yesterday I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar aloud to a French elementary school class. How my life is different in such a sort time! I've spent the past week or so getting all sorts of training on how to be an elementary school teacher. At the end of last week, my coordinator took me on a tour of both my elementary schools to meet the 11 teachers I'll be working with this year. All of them seem really nice, and I got to meet a lot of the precious students as well! There's much to learn about how to teach foreign languages to small children, and France is pretty progressive in their techniques. Teachers speak no French during English time, and it's amazing what level of meaning you can learn to convey using simple vocabulary and gestures.

Last weekend, all the Grenoble Academy teaching assistants went on a retreat to the mountains in Autrans for training! There are people from all over the world participating in this program for various languages. I met people from Germany, England, India, Italy, Jamaica, Spain, Argentina and even Trinidad and Tobago! Although our accommodations were a little rustic, this was the view, complete with hot air balloons over the Alps!


I feel very lucky because I became friends with a bunch of really nice people who are living in Valence! There are more assistants here than any other city in the region. There are some great girls living right down the street and plenty of other people nearby! Here's a pic of some of my new Valence friends and another pic of our night out in Autrans:



My coordinator, Rosine, has actually done quite a bit to prepare us Valence primary school assistants for success. She planned further training for us at a university in Valence two days this week to practice, observe classrooms around Valence (where I got called upon to read to the children), meet with all the other coordinators and the Academic Inspectrice, and get more help with our paperwork. All the coordinators made a delicious lunch for us on the second day, and Rosine got us access to the library at the university for free. Tomorrow and Friday I'm spending all day observing my classes, and then Monday I begin officially!