Allons au marché!

Today there was a farmer's market in Bourg-St.-Andeol, so I went down there hoping someone would have a few of the staples from my former diet of Mexican cuisine. 

I have never been so excited to see an avocado,

not to mention red and green bell peppers.

Despite the fact that French grapes always have seeds, I was convinced to buy some after being offered one to taste by the marchand. These grapes were sweet enough to make up for the seeds.  

I snapped two quick pictures of one part of the market, but they don't quite do it justice. 

There were many more stalls up and down the surrounding streets, but I'm too chicken to have my camera out for very long. I need to work on that.

I didn't see any pumpkins at the market, but I've been getting in the Halloween spirit via my pinterest. 

Castles, Scorpions, and Pumpkins

This is where I went on Sunday.

There's a park not ten minutes away from my host family's house called Chateau Pradelle. That's right -- although French elementary school playgrounds leave something to be desired, their parks have real castles. The only castles I remember from my childhood were at Golfland (the one we'd pass on the freeway and shout, "Beast castle!" at) and on Patterson Elementary's playground, a metal tower at the top of the slide that burned you upon contact even in November. Not that I don't still feel nostalgia for both of those places, or at least the memories associated with them.

The above picture is the castle as viewed from below and there are swings, trees to climb, and a jungle gym up the steps and to the right. It was a very cloudy, windy, blustery day. 

This picture is taken from the same spot, but in the opposite direction. While I was at the park, two little girls from CP (the first grade class) came up and said, "Bonjour maîtresse!" I'm starting to get a lot of random children saying that to me as I walk around town. It's adorable and a little odd at the same time since I don't know hardly any of their names yet. I'm usually really good with names but seeing as how I haven't met any of them individually and I'm only going to be in their classes for 30-45 minutes a week, memorizing names will be a more difficult task, especially since most of them are French names I've never heard of before.

This Monday and Tuesday I did more observation at a school and then showed pictures of the desert to the CE2 class (3rd grade) as well as the scorpion sucker I bought from Walgreens before I left for France. In somewhat stereotypical gender fashion, the boys wanted to spend at least a full two minutes holding the specimen and pretending like they were opening the packaging to eat it while the girls quickly glanced and passed it on with just two fingers pinching the end furthest from the scorpion. One girl whispered to her friend, "Ça me fait peur." 

I have to admit that I jump a little every time I come across it in my purse.

Last week I observed my first English lesson. They sang a song to learn how to ask basic introductory questions and how to answer them. It was hard not to laugh though because the song was so robotic and unnatural sounding. I guess there's nothing wrong with a bit of repetition, but I can just imagine the stares little French children would get for coming to America and asking, "What's your, what's your, what's your name?" 

I am really excited to get started, but unfortunately I won't actually be teaching for quite awhile. Next week I'll be in Grenoble for a training and then the week after that is the Toussaint vacation, so I won't be back in the classroom until November 3rd! We'll need to have a belated Halloween celebration because I have about 300 stickers, tattoos, pencils, erasers, and other Halloween-themed stuff to use up. This will be a much more low-key Halloween than usual, but I'm hoping to at least get my hands on a bag of candy corn pumpkins via my sister and the French postal service. 

Yum!

How to Open a Kinder Surprise Egg

Step One: Admire the Kinder Egg and congratulate yourself on keeping your head held high during checkout despite the funny stares given by the marchand at the l'epicerie.

Step Two: Slowly tear away the foil wrapping as if you expect a Wonka golden ticket to be hiding underneath.

Step Three: Well, at least there's still the chocolate.

Step Four: Crack the egg in half to reveal the surprise in Kinder Surprise.

 

Step Five: Set aside the chocolate (or at least the half you haven't eaten yet).

Step Six: Open the inner egg.

Step Seven: Empty contents of the egg onto the table and scratch your head with a puzzled look on your face.

Step Eight: Oooooooh, those are quad parts. Got it.
 

Step Nine: Remind yourself that although you are quite the opposite of a qualified mechanic, you are perfectly capable of putting together a simple children's toy.

Step Ten: Voila! A new quad!
Too bad the quad isn't life-sized.

Step Eleven: Receive disdainful look from Chatouille because you haven't fed her yet.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Un rendez-vous

I enjoyed my low-key Saturday chatting with everyone on Skype and GChat.

It's not quite the same as a regular girls' night, family night, or date night, but I suppose it will do for now.

Un film debile and Pierrelatte

Last night I watched a movie with my host "parents" (heretofore known as M. T and Mme. T). It was called Halal Police d'Etat and they warned me that it was going to be "un film debile," aka really silly and a little stupid. Luckily for me, the film was easy to follow since it was a predictable thriller parody and most of the humor was situational. Think Dumb and Dumber meets a censored/televised Borat. 

Today I went to have lunch in Pierrelatte with other language assistants. Unfortunately there are only a few buses that go back and forth between our towns and the last bus back to Bourg-St.-Andeol is at 5:20pm. I'm thinking that next time I'll just stay overnight because a few of the assistants have an extra bed in their room and that way I'll be able to participate in the marginally more active nightlife of Pierrelatte. I swear that not a single twenty-something lives in Bourg-St.-Andeol.

Anyway, here are the two pictures I took in Pierrelatte:

Windmill

Giant rock thing

Weather permitting, I promise to leave the house and take more pictures this weekend. 

Brr!

La fin de ma premiere semaine en France

I have officially been in France for a week! Although I expected the first week to go by quickly, it actually has felt quite slow -- more like one month rather than just one week.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I went to Privas on Monday. To get from Bourg-St.-Andeol, I had to take a bus at 6:45 am, make a transfer in another town, and then arrived at the l'Inspection Academique (IA) by 9. My second bus driver was extremely friendly, partially because I chased his bus down and frantically knocked on the window, thinking that it was leaving me behind when it was actually just going to the stop on the other side of the road (where I'd been standing before) to pick up other people (me). After I made it quite obvious that I was not from the area, he kindly asked me where I was from and we proceeded to have a very pleasant conversation for the rest of the ride. He pointed out various sights and towns of note that he insisted I visit. Biggest lesson I've learned so far: Sometimes you have to embarrass yourself to meet people and make sure that you don't get lost!

Our meeting at the IA didn't start until 10:30, so I walked down to a cafe to pass some time and wake up with a cup of coffee. We mostly just took care of administrative paperwork during the meeting so there isn't much to say about that aside from the fact that it was overwhelming. Past assistants weren't kidding when they said that I'd need about ten photocopies each of every document. Madness.

At lunch we (2 American boys, 1 Canadian girl, 5 English girls, me, and JN, the conseiller pedagogique) went to JN's house for lunch. I volunteered to ride along with one of the British girls (L) in her car and follow behind JN. Within three minutes of following JN, we lost him. L wasn't comfortable driving as fast as JN and I don't blame her -- I'd be a little more cautious too if I were all of a sudden needing to drive on a new side of the road! We tried to guess which way he might have gone and made several wrong turns before deciding to simply return to where we'd lost him and wait until he came back to pick up the rest of the assistants from the IA. Sure enough he came back, but we ended up losing him again on our second attempt. Luckily his house wasn't much further and he was able to flag us down.

Here's JN's backyard:

We had pasta, sausage, cheese (compulsory), bread (also compulsory), and grapes. Every time I have grapes in France, I forget that they're not seedless. And the seeds are bitter and unpleasant. Just trust me. We went back to the IA afterwards to make more photocopies and then I began my trek back to Bourg-St.-Andeol.

Tuesday afternoon I visited the two other schools that I'll be working at, but it turns out that they won't need me quite as much as the other school that I've started at. The plan is to be at the main school for a full day once a week, and the other two schools for a half-day each. The teachers at the other schools weren't nearly as friendly as the other teachers I've met so far, but we'll work on that. Hopefully they'll be able to see that I'm just there to help out, not take over.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. I made my appointment to open my bank account, had a raspberry ice cream with the little girl (P) in my host family and her grandmother, played various board games, got destroyed by P in an Asterix & Obelix themed memory game, and tried this fish pot pie food that I can't remember the name of. Today I observed more classes at L'ecole du Centre (the main school I'll be at) and got to see a thoroughly-entertaining English lesson! The teacher was so nervous that I was in the room but I assured her that I was not going to judge her accent. The kids had to listen and sing along to a song that repeated things like What's your name? What's your address? Where do you come from? What is your nationality? How old are you? etc. I had a hard time not laughing out loud because the person singing on the recording was so monotone and robot-like.

On my way back home, I met the mother of two American students at the school. They're from North Carolina and insisted that I come over for dinner sometime. Although I'm enjoying all of the French practice I'm getting, it's such a nice feeling to be able to listen and speak without needing to concentrate so much.

Next week I'm just doing more observation and going back to the other two schools again. I have some tentative weekend plans to go to some other towns, so hopefully that works out. I'm starting to feel a little trapped in this tiny town because there isn't much of a bus system and I haven't met many people near me yet, but that should improve soon.

Here are some random pictures that hadn't made the blog yet:

 French board games in my room

 Random bird decoration above my bed

 Chatouille

Bridge to Pierrelatte

My housing option...

As I mentioned in my other post, there is one other housing option for me in Bourg-St.-Andeol -- a few rooms in the upstairs of the school. When I first arrived on Wednesday and then saw the rooms on Thursday, I was still a little too jet-lagged to make clear decisions about housing, so I went back today to take some pictures and a video to show you all.

It's hard to tell since the video is so dark (no electricity), but although the place is quite spacious, it is also seriously dilapidated. Really. I'm still thinking over my options and I've started to check out leboncoin.fr and seloger.com, so we'll see. For now, here are some more photos...

Hallway 

 First big room

 2nd room? Or maybe just another view of the first?

 Third room

 Kitchen

 Shower and sink

 Shower and sink again

 Toilet...

Outlets. And some dirt in the corner.

Le samedi, on s'amuse bien!

I had a very busy, wonderful Saturday. 

In the morning, we watched the Rugby World Cup between France and Tongo -- France lost by quite a lot. I must have been the bad luck because I've never watched a full rugby match in my life. 

Then after having delicious steak-frites for lunch, the dad, children, and I went down to les Gorges de l'Ardeche because the mom was canoeing to train up for a canoeing marathon in a few months. We went down by the water and although they did their best to convince me that diving in the freezing water was good for the heart, I could only stand to put my legs in just to my knees -- la riviere etait trop trop froide! The scene did make for some pretty photos though.

   

While we waited for the mom to finish canoeing, we played "mimes" (charades) and I did a commendable job of pantomiming various "metiers" (professions) and animals. Luckily I haven't needed to resort to charades too much in communicating with my host family. I'm sure my grammar is horrendous, but being surrounded by French every day has definitely brought back a lot of vocabulary I had forgotten since I finished taking French classes.

After charades, we went down to a cafe by the bridge for a quick drink, looked at the fish in the water, and headed back to Bourg-St.-Andeol with everyone in tow.

Shortly after getting back to the house, we all cleaned up to drive to Aubenas for the opening concerts of the venue where the dad used to work a couple of years ago. On our way there, we also stopped by the home of  some family friends. Every person I've met through my host family has been incredibly kind and generous, even going so far as to compliment my timid French. Who ever accused the French of being rude? 

We stopped at a cafe briefly before heading to the concert and I met the conseiller pedagogique for Ardeche, the person in charge of the English assistants in my department. I wouldn't have ordinarily met him before heading to Privas this Monday for a meeting, but he happens to be a close family friend of my host family and the godfather of their son. On the first night of my arrival, he called my host family's house to make sure that I arrived safely and to tell me, "Welcome to France!" He spoke more English (at least with more ease) than the majority of people I have met so we switched back and forth between the two while talking about preparations for Monday, English immersion, and how to say cauliflower in English, etc. -- you know, the really important stuff. 

We all went inside for the first concert, a group called Slow Joe and the Ginger Accident. The leader is a rather elderly man from India backed up by a group of somewhat ginger-headed young men. The style was a bit of rockabilly with an occasional hint of Pink Floyd, The Black Keys, and one a cappella rendition of "Embraceable You." The group sang and spoke to the audience almost entirely in English; there was a constant murmur of "Qu'est-ce qu'il a dit?" ("What did he say?") and I'm betting I was the only one to notice the mistaken lyrics of "Embraceable You." It was a nice change to feel like I was one of the few to understand everything going on around me for once. Here's a little sample of the group's rockabilly style:

And a much better quality video that I found on youtube:

Then there was a band called Pneu with a guitarist and drummer that played outside. Not gonna lie, it was definitely not my style and it didn't appear that my host family was too crazy about it either, particularly the children with their hands covering their ears:

We drove back to Bourg-St-Andeol before the third concert started. Everyone else in the car (besides the driver of course) fell asleep since an hour long drive seems long to the French; not so for us Arizonans! I loved going down the winding roads and looking at the stars through the window.  

Not too much has happened today. I went to the Carrefour (their Wal-Mart equivalent and the only supermarket open on Sundays) with the mom and daughter to do some shopping and we had salmon for lunch. A relaxing Sunday after a busy Saturday.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to Privas for an orientation day and then Tuesday I'll be at one of my schools during the day to start to plan out how I'll manage to be at all three of my assigned schools during the upcoming weeks. I'm excited to start working and be a little more busy. 

Miss and love you all!