All 8 of us packed like sardines into the 2 tiny French cars with all of our ski equipment bright and early on Saturday morning and hit the slopes of the southern Alps around 10:30! We got in a long day of skiing, and it was so warm and sunny that I took my jacket off during lunch and sported a t-shirt (and later a sunburn). The snow was pretty good considering the springtime heat, but we tried to stay a little higher up on the mountain.
After a really late dinner in the historic town of Briançon and "sleeping" 3 girls to a bed in our apartment, I decided to send the others ahead in the morning and get some rest. Let's be real, this girl has learned to take getting enough sleep seriously. I took a walk up the mountain to the beautiful historic center of town and wandered around for a little bit before heading back to the apartment- just in time to beat the rain and my friends returning from the slopes.
beautiful Briançon, France- an old walled city
It was an awesome weekend, and it made me really thankful for the great friends that I've made here who have welcomed me into their lives for 7 months!
The past week at school has been good as well! I adore my 2 elementary schools and have really gotten settled in at them (I can even finally keep some of my 250+ students' names straight now!) I will miss chit-chatting with the teachers during breaks and hearing choruses of "hello" every time I go anywhere in the school. Here is a list of some of my favorite/my most popular student names:
Ludivine
Océane
Baptiste
Fannie
Inès
Thibault
Clementine
Enzo
Adjil (I have a high percentage of students of Muslim descent)
Shainez
Johann
Vincent
Giovanni
What do I do with all these French kiddies in the classroom? Well, in one class this week we played Guess Who with caricature faces that I found, and then I started teaching them the Hokey Pokey. You guessed it, we've been learning face and body vocabulary. I always try to give them as many opportunities as possible to move around the room and talk. With fun activities like that, they don't even realize they're learning!
After getting in another long run this weekend- the 1/2 marathon in Annecy is rapidly approaching- I went with some of my Valentinois friends to a superbly French event: Le Salon du Chocolat et des Gourmandises! I found out that this was happening in Valence, so I got a group together to go. Imagine: One room, 5 euros, and chocolate beyond your wildest dreams! (or at least from all the local artisans).
Let's just say that we all got our 5 euros worth in free samples. But they also won because we almost all purchased something...
this cool product was a nutella-like spread with pop rocks in it
there was also chocolate sculpture
this was my favorite- is that really chocolate??
After our fill of chocolate, we went and laid out in Parc Jouvet for a couple of hours and soaked up the sun, along with about half of the rest of Valence. EVERYONE was out and about on Saturday enjoying the weekend. I am loving it now that spring is here because the smoothie hut and the ice cream hut have both opened back up on the main drag, and the fountains are running again in all the parks! We closed out an awesome day with an American-made Mexican dinner outside dans "le jardin" at my friend Fiona's house. Claire, Fiona, and I made the Mexican and the French folks brought wine and dessert (what else?!)
I can't let myself think about how I'm going to miss the food here yet- saying goodbye is going to hurt. I'm hoping that at least a little French food wisdom has rubbed off on me.
Tomorrow, I'm taking a day trip to Paris! I couldn't go back to the US without one more trip up to my favorite city! What to do with no agenda in Paris? This girl is planning to dress up, shop, walk and eat!
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