Le prix de la liberté

This post should have been written almost a week ago, while everything was still fresh, but I’ve been so busy between school, socializing and sightseeing I haven't had time to sit down and write it. Feel bad for me, won’t you? While I don’t think I’d ever want to pursue a career as a teacher, I’ve got to say that I really like this job. Thursdays in particular are always such great days because the kids are always so excited to work with me and really get into the activities. Last Thursday with one group of 6ème we worked on frequency (i.e. often, sometimes, rarely, never, etc.) and routines. I did a game with them where they had to mime the activity that I said – brush your teeth, wash your hands, sweep the floor, watch TV, etc. – and once I made it into a competition they really got into it. Even though they have them here, the winners got Silly Bandz, which made them even happier. At the end of the hour when I saw their teacher again, she told me that the group that I had before she took them for the second half hour was whining about how they weren’t getting to mime with her too. Maybe to these kids I’m the American Game-master, because with another group of 6ème I played a game called “Effacez” that I took from my high school French teacher. I wrote the words for certain foods on the board in French and then said the word in English, but they had to smack the right word before the person on the opposing team. Again they really got into it, running in place with hands at the ready, and just to mess with them a little I used some dramatic pauses like they do on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” The lycée kids make me feel old and young at the same time; old because for a couple of classes, I was in kindergarten or first grade when they were born and young because they look way older than me. Actually, now that I think about it, I’ve seen kids in collège rocking full-on mustaches. I’m pretty sure I could not shave for a month and I still wouldn’t have a ‘stache. Not complaining at all though, let’s hope it stays this way. Must be the good genes *cough* yeah my nose is pretty tan.

Last Friday I went to a 22nd birthday party for Elsa, one of the students from my BTS classes. Benjamin, their ginger friend (no joke, they call him ‘le roux’) gave her a lap dance sporting a mankini from Borat, and the 30 or so of us there saw more of him than we needed to. I couldn’t stay very long because I knew that the next morning I had to get up early to travel with Jean-François and Sylviane, but I stayed long enough to get invited to go clubbing in Paris (they told me I can’t leave France without going out in Paris). Also they told me that they’re going to have a party for me before I leave. I have to say, either the stereotype about French people not letting outsiders into their group of friends is false, I’m really cool, or I was just lucky to meet a nice group of kids (it’s N°3).

Saturday morning came way too early. Qunxing and I were outside waiting for them before the sun was even up. Our first stop: Bayeux. Bayeux is most famous for the Bayeux Tapestry, sometimes called “La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde,” which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England. The tapestry dates back to the 11th century, and was supposedly made by Queen Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror, and her ladies-in-waiting. It’s hard to fathom how long it must have taken them to make this when you see how big it is and how detailed the scenes are. I really like the story of William the Conqueror, not only because he was a BAMF, but also because his story shows you that with enough hard work you really can make a name for yourself. Before his conquest of England, he was called “William the Bastard”; quite an improvement, huh?

How you could cross the ocean in these, I'll never know.

After we’d finished at the museum for the tapestry, we headed over to the Bayeux Cathedral. The cathedral was consecrated in 1077 although the site was once occupied by Roman sanctuaries. While in the cathedral, with Jean-François as our tour guide, I learned how to distinguish Gothic from Roman and Greek architecture as well as the following fun facts: all cathedrals (and maybe churches in general, I forget the exact word he used) are built in the shape of a cross, and the altar faces Jerusalem. Essentially all of the cathedrals in Europe have crypts dating back to times when practicing any sort of religion was forbidden. There also used to be a divider that separated the public from the altar so that parishioners could hear, but not see, the members of the clergy (again I forget what the name of it was in French, I need to start putting a notebook in my pocket).

Bayeux Cathedral.

In the crypt. 

About 20 minutes after we left Bayeux, I was back on American soil at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial where some 9,387 American servicemen that died in World War II are honored. While I’m sure everyone has seen pictures of this place in their middle school and high school history books, nothing compares to actually being there. As soon as I got out of the car, I could immediately tell that we were back in America. Perfectly manicured lawns and shrubbery, edged grass, and signs in English first and French second all confirmed that we weren’t in France anymore. The first thing I saw was the time capsule. To be opened on June 6, 2044, it contains news reports of the June 6, 1944 Normandy landings by the newsmen who were there. Jean-François commented that that will be a huge day for France and the United States, but it’s unlikely that he’ll make it to 94 to see it. As I processed that, I wondered what it’s going to be like for me on that day; who knows where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing, the only thing that’s certain is that I’ll be 55. How will I feel and what will I remember when I flashback to March 12, 33 years before? It’s a scary thought.

Once we rounded the corner, I purposely avoided looking to my left at all of the headstones. I could see the flags waving in the breeze, but I didn’t want to look below the tree line until I had read about the invasion. War-related history never really interested me, sure I memorized the dates and some battles way back when, but I was unaffected by it – it happened way before my time and I hadn’t know anyone who’d been there, so what did it have to do with me? After I’d finished reading about D-day and the events leading up to it, I finally turned left and looked out onto the 172.5 acre cemetery and its rows upon rows of white marble headstones.

At the time I was feeling an emotion that I’ve never felt before, and I still don’t know exactly what it was; maybe a combination of awe, disgust, pride, remorse and anger, but none of them uniquely. As we wandered through the cemetery, no matter what direction you looked, the headstones formed a perfectly straight line. It was eerily quiet, the only sounds coming from birds chirping, the wind and the sea. On our way back to the Visitors Center we walked along Omaha Beach. Again it was strange and hard to imagine such a beautiful place a little more than 66 years before as being the site of intense and brutal fighting. Sylviane pointed out the cliffs further up the beach and told me how the Allied forces had been decimated as they tried to scale them. Then, as we were looking at the map, she showed me a town famous for the story of one paratrooper who had landed on the church’s bell tower during a mission. He was up there for two days and had to watch in horror as the Germans killed all of his comrades on the ground (the Germans didn’t need to look up, so he went unnoticed). He also went deaf because of the bells in the tower.

Omaha Beach.

The Visitors Center was excellent. It was free, but I would have gladly paid 20€ to get in. You could easily spend the entire day there reading everything and watching all the different films. It was incredibly moving; I had goose bumps almost the entire time. The pictures you see in books and what you learn in school doesn’t do it justice. The feeling you get from being there, from walking amongst the graves, and from seeing the faces and learning the stories of the soldiers who fought there is indescribable. These were great men who gave up everything, crossed an ocean and fought to free people they’d never even met.

As improbable as it may seem to you readers at home, the two and a half hours spent on American soil in France have changed my life more than I ever would have expected. I’ve realized a newfound appreciation for everything that I have and just how much others have had to sacrifice so that I can have the life I have today.

By the time we left the Visitors Center, there was no hope of finding a restaurant that would still be serving lunch, so we stopped off at a small fishing town up the coast to get some sandwiches. Once we’d finished eating, we continued on to Longues-sur-Mer to see some of the German cannons. Although they’re all rusty now, when you’re behind one you can almost imagine what it must have been like to be in control of one. We also visited a small German blockhouse that looks out over the cliffs. Sylviane, who was raised nearby in Caen, told us that back in the ‘60s they converted some of the blockhouses into nightclubs (just to give you an idea of how big some of these are). Arromanches was our next stop, most famous for its “Mulberry Harbor” (a temporary harbor) developed to offload cargo to ships during the invasion. They used a series of massive concrete blocks called caissons, together with pontoons and steel frames to form temporary bridges. Jean-François and Sylviane thought that it was important that I see these because they say that in 10 or 15 years they won’t be there anymore grâce à erosion.

In the blockhouse.

You can see what's left of the ring of concrete blocks.

Our last and final stop of the trip was Caen – home to the Château de Caen, built circa 1060 by William the Conqueror. We also stopped off at the Abbaye aux Hommes, completed in 1063 and also the final resting place of William the Conqueror. By the time we left the Abbaye, it was getting dark and it was starting to rain, so we headed back to Louviers.

Château de Caen.

William the Conqueror's tomb.

The week flew by, and despite bad tennis on Monday, a terrible class of 6ème on Tuesday, and some sort of lingering sickness, it has been a pretty good one. Thursday I did Saint Patrick’s Day with a couple of my classes; riverdance was a hit, as was trying to get them to say “leprechaun” and “shamrock” (sounded like “leprocharrrran” and “sharrrharak”). Thursday evening I was treated to lamb and couscous at one of my teacher’s house. We started with a soup made of carrots, red lentils, leeks and celery root (which I’ve never seen in the United States), followed by the couscous with chick peas, zucchini, carrots, leeks, and some spices, and then finally the lamb. All of this was served with mint tea and a really nice nine year-old pinot noir from Alsace (cue wine snobbery). Top it off with an obligatory cheese plate and fresh mangos for dessert et voilà!

This weekend I’m traveling with Jean-François and Sylviane again, but I hope this time it won’t take me a week to get the recap up. The rest of the assistants went for a night out in Rouen, but you can’t do everything. It’s tough being in demand.

A new No. 1

Vacation is over and “work” starts again tomorrow morning, but I’m not sure that I could have dreamed up a better past two weeks. Sightseeing in Madrid, swimming in Grand Canaria and skiing in the French Alps, I mean really?

The trip didn’t start out on the most positive of notes, which was partly my fault and partly the fault of a connard airport security employee. I’d left a bottle of juice in my bag by accident, but the thing is after taking everything out of the main compartment of my backpack and searching through my toiletries, he still hadn’t found the juice. After about 10 minutes of searching in vain, he told me I had to throw out some of my “liquids.” There were certain essentials that I couldn’t throw away (i.e. sunscreen, contact solution, etc.), and then after ogling my deodorant, he decided that that should go in my “liquid” bag as well. Already annoyed that he was going through everything, I got into an argument with him about why he put that in with the liquids. His response: “c’est un liquide dur” or “it’s a hard liquid.” At this point I was so frustrated that what he said didn’t exactly sink in, but after I sacrificed shampoo for the sake of smelling fresh, I was mad at myself for letting that one get by me. A hard liquid…aka a solid.

Madrid has the coolest airport.

After some serious thought, I’ve decided that Madrid might just be my new favorite city. It reminded me of a cleaner, less smelly New York, and probably the strangest thing was that literally everyone, even the old people, was at least a 6 or better. I don’t understand how there can be so many good-looking people in one place, but it was crazy. Unlike France, stores were open past 8, so that was a nice change, and everyone goes out night. The streets were packed with people even at 2.00 AM, which is something you don’t even see in Paris.

We got in around 4.00 AM and spent the next day at two incredible museums, the Reina Sofia Museum and the Prado Museum. It was raining and both were free so it was an all-around win. Usually after walking around for a while, I get museum-ed out, but every room had at least one or two pieces that were genuinely interesting. For our last day in Madrid we walked around the city to see all the touristy sites, and I got to wear sunglasses for the first time this year!

Perfect.

I want this in my house one day.

The next morning we moved on to Grand Canaria, where sun, sand, and so many naked old people awaited. The temperature hovered between 70 and 80, and even though the ocean was still chilly, it was too hot on the beach not to go in.

Three days flew by, and before I knew it I had to head back to Paris to meet my brother. Greeted by cloudy skies and rain, after meeting up, Ned and I headed down to Lyon to spend the afternoon/night with our cousin Katie before continuing on to La Plagne. We saw some Roman ruins that I hadn’t seen the last time I was in Lyon in addition to all the standard favorites. After a few too many beers at this really cool pub, we went to an interesting tartiflette restaurant for dinner.

We left early the next morning, and were greeted by some more speed bumps once we got off the train, but things worked themselves out and in the end I couldn’t have asked for a better trip. With the gondola to the top of the mountain five minutes away and a nightclub downstairs, Caoimhlin’s chalet had an unbeatable location. Prices for rentals and lift tickets were ridiculously cheap compared to what you pay at home. It’s ridiculous to think that you pay 2x as much for a lift ticket in the Poconos than you do for the Alps. Highway robbery. Plus, we were treated to two days of fresh powder - the first they'd seen seen before Christmas!

Last night was spent out in Rouen with some of the assistants and their friends visiting from home. After dinner at an “American” restaurant we went out for drinks and then went to the outdoor market this morning. Even though these past two weeks were an “official” vacation, for the past several months I’ve been on vacation. I’m in the process of trying to extend my visa to take part in this English summer camp in June, during which I could make $2,000 for 7 days of work. Not too shabby huh? Only problem is I have to deal with French immigration officers…let’s hope my name can help me out again.

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!

Again I’m going to have to take you back a week or so to bring you up to date. On Thursday the 3rd, I celebrated Chinese New Year with Qunxing, her friend Chung, one of Chung’s professors and Sam. We had Chinese fondue, which was more of a stew than anything, composed of a spicy red pepper broth with beef, pork, two types of tofu (I never knew there was a stringy kind), carrots, cabbage and mushrooms. We also had “ravioli” or what we Westerners call “dumplings” filled with pork, cabbage, garlic and ginger, as well as tea and a starter of Chinese sausage and peppers. My neighbors brought over their pet rabbit Nanar for good luck since it’s the Year of the Rabbit. He was a huge hit with Chung and her teacher. Speaking of rabbits, I’m sure this part will incite an “awwwwww” from my Mom; I ate rabbit for the first time this past week. Honestly, it has to be one of the tastiest meats I’ve ever had; tied for my favorite with lamb (I must have a thing for eating all the loveable animals). It was tender and flaky and delicious, although a bit boney. Now I would never cook it for myself, it’s everywhere in the supermarkets here, but one of my teachers at the collège had made it and saved some for me. To make it, she slow cooked the rabbit in cidre with potatoes, leeks, mushrooms and cloves. I put it over rice so it’d be more filling and c’était si bon.

On Saturday the 5th I went to the 6 Nations Rugby match between France and Scotland with Fiona, Alex, Sarah and her friend Matt from Belfast. After being out on Friday night, I didn’t have time to make it back to Louviers to grab my camera before heading into Paris, but I nicked Sarah’s photos to show you.

The tickets.

Stade de France.

Final Score: France, 34 : Scotland, 21.

Fiona and I knew nothing about rugby, but thanks to the patient teachings of Sarah, I was really able to get into and understand the game. It was exciting not only being in the Stade de France watching the match, but also being a part of the crowd and the stadium-wide wave. I really need to learn the national anthem because that, along with “Allez les Bleus!” and “Olé!” seem to be their cheering staples (along with oh la la la la, but that’s a given).

For the past couple weeks I’ve been working with some new classes on Tuesdays, and together we’ve been talking about American food. Each time I get a new group, I ask them what they think of when they hear “American food.” Responses include everything off of McDonald’s and KFC’s menu, with the occasional all-star throwing doughnuts and pancakes into the mix. Next question, “What do you think of when you hear ‘American?’” Every class said short and fat. Unfortunately, I can’t disagree with them when 70% of the population is overweight or obese. I probably didn’t help their word-association any because I showed them the intro of “Supersize Me” and we discussed what they saw in heard in the five minute clip.

At collège I did lessons on American middle school, Groundhog Day and the Super Bowl. I shared some of this year’s commercials with them; their favorites were the Dorito’s pug, the Darth Vader kid, and the Bud Light dogs. I also showed them my middle school yearbook, and one of them asked me if I was famous because I had this book with all these signatures and pictures of me in it. Ha!

Friday night I went out to dinner in Rouen with Françoise and her son Alexandre, Qunxing and another one of my teachers, Sandrine. We ate in a fondue restaurant that in my opinion was grossly overpriced for what we got, but it was fun spending time with Françoise and Sandrine outside of the classroom. Saturday I went into Paris to make the most of the last weekend of the winter “Soldes.” I got a couple of sweaters and some CDs, and justified it by telling myself that I wouldn’t be able to find any of them in the US.

Two final things to bring you completely up to speed: 1) My trip next week to Madrid and the Canary Islands is booked. I’ll be heading there for six days before returning home to meet my brother in Paris and then we’ll continue on to the French Alps to go skiing for a week. 2) I inadvertently got two students a hour of detention after a teacher turned them in for this hallway banter: “Oh la la! Regarde ses fesses! Magnifique!” I’ll leave it to you to do the translating.

I’ve got a golden ticket alright

Sorry about the lack of updates as of late, but the weather has been so nice and I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had the chance to sit down and put out an entry. Alright so I’ll take you back two weeks now to my trip to Versailles.

On the train ride home I had time to reflect on the day between laughing with Sam and Alex and worrying about whether or not we’d make the bus back into Louviers. After a couple of minutes of silence, I said it to them, “I hate that I sound so spoiled, but I wasn’t that impressed with Versailles.” Almost immediately after I’d made this announcement I cringed at the thought of what I’d just said. Versailles – the pride of the French monarchy, their stomping grounds for more than a hundred years where royalty from Europe and beyond had been entertained – didn’t do it for me.

Now I could write a couple of paragraphs to explain why it is that I’m not spoiled, but honestly I think it’s better that I just fess up: I am incredibly spoiled. I mean, in the short time that I’ve been here, I’ve probably seen and done more than many could hope to do in a lifetime. But the difference, however, between me and the Veruca Salts and trust fund babies of the world, is the how much I appreciate everything that I’ve been given.

Enough introspection for one post and now onto the explanation of why I said what I did. Now don’t get me wrong, Versailles is magnificent (I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much gold in one place), and I can’t even fathom what it must have been like to live there. Yet, in spite of its grandiosity I felt that it was neglected. Maybe I pay too much attention to detail, but it was dustier than my room has ever been, the chandeliers looked more like plastic than crystal, and you could only see a small portion of the château. Plus, the fountains were frozen, the statues covered and the plants dead, so I’m sure that brought it down a couple of notches as well. I plan to go back in the spring, when everything is alive again to reform my opinion; after all thanks to my Pass d’Education I have free access to all national monuments and museums for three years ;).

Not too shabby

Just got in from seeing “La Chance de ma vie,” a comedy about Julien, a marriage counselor who is jinxed when it comes to women. Even though at times they talked really fast and it was difficult to understand some things, it was really funny and had a great soundtrack. It was a nice way to end a fairly busy week.

I had off on Monday so I slept most of the day. On Tuesday I had my afternoon classes before I went to my neighbors for dinner. We had the French version of chili – struggling, but Corinne gets an A for effort – and la galette des Rois or “King cake” celebrating the Epiphany. It’s a combination of puff pastry and frangipane, baked to a crispy buttery perfection. Inside the King cake is “la fève” or a little porcelain figurine, and whoever is lucky enough to get the fève in their slice gets the crown and is King or Queen for the day. Emmanuel got the fève (must be the name), but everyone got a crown because Paul and Émeline had saved theirs from years past.

On Wednesday, I had the day off so Qunxing and I went to Dieppe. I never made it last Sunday, but I saw the weather was supposed to be nice so I took advantage of the extra free time. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day, and that’s reflected in the fact that pretty much every one of the pictures I took that day looks like it could be a postcard.

Thursday afternoon at the collège I attempted to teach the 6ème how to tell time. Their teacher had yet to do it because she didn’t have a clock, and now I understand why she wasn’t exactly eager to get to it. They had a hard enough time telling time in French, let alone trying to understand it in English. I thought it would be pretty clear for them, especially since the American way of telling time is less complicated, but after a half hour they still weren’t getting it. In my last class of the day I had a 4ème from one of my Tuesday classes come and ask if he could sit in with the 6ème because he wanted to learn more. Normally if a kid asked that you’d think he’s a nerd, but he really isn’t very good at English, and it’s not hard to understand why considering his classmates make it impossible to learn.

That night I had fondue bourguignonne at Sylviane and Jean-François’s house. Fondue bourguignonne is different from “regular” fondue in that you dip beef in hot oil rather than bread in cheese, and you have a variety of dipping sauces. I think that Jean-François and Sylviane were both genuinely amazed (and maybe slightly disgusted) at how much I ate. I was hungry and it was that good. I lost track of how many times I heard “oh la la” and “I’ve been beaten” from Jean-François, and from both of them “I’ve never seen anyone eat so much.” Sylviane recounted the spectacle the next morning to the students, telling them that she and her husband are thinking of entering me in a contest.

Friday night I went to a 20^th birthday party for one of my students. It was smaller than the last one so it was easier to talk to everyone and make the rounds of bisous. For one of her gifts, she got tickets to Barcelona – nice friends huh?

Say "la vie"

Even though the music video is terrible I really like the song. After a combination of OneRepublic, this article, and a Friday night at home, I’ve realized that I’ve regressed a little and let myself slip into some sort of “comfort zone;” something that I set out to avoid when I started this adventure. I went to a graduation ceremony and party at the lycée by myself tonight, and it really was weird being the only English speaking person in a gymnasium full of people. I did get the chance to talk to some of my students and teachers, but being there was still a little overwhelming. While at that point I was looking over the metaphorical edge, in terms of taking full advantage of my surroundings, point number 2 of the article has really made me reflect on my experiences so far. In the beginning, I started off strong and surprised myself at how I was breaking out of the shell that I’ve managed to build over the years. But now I realize I’ve done what every person in a new and unfamiliar situation does – I found a group and I’m sticking with it. Yet after the commencement ceremony tonight, I’ve realized that some things need to change. The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend, so Sunday I’m going back up to the coast to visit Dieppe – one of the cities on the “Bucket List” I made before I came back. Time to do work.

On Tuesday I had a couple new groups of kids for the first (and unfortunately last) time. I learned that I’ve got a nickname circulating: “BG” because “tu es un beau gosse.” Hey, I’ll take ‘em where I can get ‘em. The kids were all really enthusiastic, which after seeing how things can be sometimes with their real teacher, is a nice change of pace. Wednesday afternoon I had a class by myself because the teacher never showed up. After waiting for her in the hallway for about 5 minutes, I opened the classroom to let the students in and found that she had left her bag, laptop, projector, etc., on the desk, so I figured she was just running late. I sent a couple of students to go look for her, but they were unable to find her. Honestly, I was impressed at how long they paid attention and participated so late in the afternoon. After the first exercise though they did crash and burn, and with 10 minutes left in class I had to pull teeth and cut my losses. Thursday afternoon at the collège was fun as usual; I did a physical description crossword and several rounds of “Guess Who” with the 6èmes and watched different versions of “A Christmas Carol” with the 4èmes (tough, I know). Marianne, the 6èmes teacher asked if my timetable was going to change any time soon because she wants to put me with a different class. She was smiling while she said this but she commented that, “they come back to me and are like, ‘I hate you!’ They think I’m terrible.” I know that’s not the case because when I sat in on her classes even I enjoyed them, but I guess they prefer me because I'm something different and have given them candy.

While I didn’t end up booking my trip for the first part of winter break, I’m glad I held off this long because originally I had planned to go to Tunisia and Morocco - dodged a bullet there (literally) because now there are massive riots in Tunisia with people dying and things getting burnt.

But back to the ceremony earlier this evening. So the theme was “Gastronomy through the Ages.” They did a really nice job of decorating the gym with different booths from Neolithic and Egyptian times to the 1800s and even the future. Each booth featured a couple of different cocktails as well as a variety of fancy finger foods. Faculty, friends and family were all invited; one of my teachers said they were expecting around 500 people, which is a pretty big deal considering the event was in honor of at most 30 some students. Here are some photos of a couple of the booths:

Bon week-end à tous!