The theme for my week has been all about the holidays. I did Thanksgiving lessons in all of my classes, which went over pretty well. I had planned out different levels of activities for each of my classes. Ultimately I'm not here to teach grammar and stand in as an actual teacher, I'm to be used as more of a cultural tool who helps the students improve their english through subtle ways of learning. So I play lots of games with the students and trick them into using english. Works every time. Most of my students had vaguely heard of Thanksgiving once or twice before, but had no clue as to what it meant. That's where my lessons came into play. I think most of the students are just excited for a reprieve from their normal boring lessons filled with worksheets and grammar exercises so they always beg me to come up with another game to keep them for just another 5-10 minutes. I tried to explain to all of my students to story of the first Thanksgiving and how we celebrate it in modern times, granted this story had to be changed for each level of students. (I work with 4 different levels.) I did get a couple rather interesting questions and comments regarding Thanksgiving, such as, the students confusion between turkey and Turkey. I tried to explain to them that they are pronounced the same but mean totally different things, and the only signifying factor between the two words is that one is spelled with a lower case "t" and the other is spelled with an upper case "T". Some of my students are either of Turkish origin or have family in Turkey and for the life of them they couldn't distinguish the fact that it just happens to be a coincidence that the words are spelled and pronounced the same but have completely different meanings. Instead they took this confusion as an insult to Turkish people thinking americans are calling them "turkeys". I also had a student ask me if the real story of Thanksgiving is when all the pilgrims landed in America, killed the Indians and took their land. This startled me at first. (How does he know that part of history?!) I tried to lightly answer his question with a "yes, well..." and then get right back to the lesson pertaining to traditional Thanksgiving food.
As all you Americans know, Thursday was Thanksgiving for us and that is by far my favorite holiday. I do like Christmas and all the holiday cheer that comes with the season, but there is nothing like Thanksgiving to kick it all off and have the first big family gathering of the winter. I had hoped to make a big Thanksgiving feast for all of my non-American friends, but unfortunately my package with the necessary ingredients never arrived. So, I made do with a half feast on the ingredients I could actually find in France. I made a small piece of turkey (France doesn't seem to sell whole turkeys), garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, and a corn. It wasn't the same without pumpkin pie, but still a very good meal. I was able to share with my two housemates: Janine and Deliece. I am happy to say that after a second helping we all slipped into a nice food induced coma for a couple of hours.
Yesterday I went to the Christmas market with a big group of friends. I don't think Christmas markets like this exist in the US. I've been to the one in Chicago, but it was a little different than this one. One part of the center of town was set up with a ride and musical attractions for little children. In the Grand Place there is a giant ferris wheel and a little christmas village all set up. At first I thought this man dressed as santa was a part of the display, but then I realized he was a homeless man posing as santa to make a little extra cash if you want a photo with him. Pretty clever. The last part of the Christmas market was set up with wooden booths selling all kinds of food and drink and then some Christmas trinkets. Unfortunately it rained the entire time, making it a little but miserable. I tried some vin chaud- hot wine. It was ok but a little too sugary for me. I also tried a speculous crepe. For those of you who have never tried speculous or as it's referred to in the US biscoff, you must stop reading my blog post at this very minute and go to your nearest grocery store and buy a jar. Or even two jars, you'll be glad you did. You think nutella is good? Speculous/Biscoff is out of this world amazing!! I digress...
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