The Holiday Season

Every year I look forward to the holiday season when I can spend quality time with friends and family and celebrate another year ending while a new year begins.  This is by far my favorite time year.  We all have our family traditions that have to be carried out each year: decorating a family christmas tree, baking a giant feast and stuffing ourselves till we've surpassed contentment and maybe even celebrating the new year in two different time zones just to keep the party going (yes, I did that once).  These holiday traditions that bring about old memories and adding on new ones is something I new I'd have to miss out on this year.  Luckily I didn't have to spend the holiday season alone.  Chad is fortunate enough to have taken several weeks off his blossoming work schedule to spend this time with me in France.  Also, my housemate Deliece would be sticking around with two of her friends from Trinidad.  We had a house full of people and culture and I loved every minute of it.
We started out the christmas break with a free trip to a modern art exhibit going on in the center of Lille.  This art exhibit was a part of the Phantastique festival that has been going on since October and will end sometime in January.  I'm a lover of art and I like to think I'm a fairly open minded person, but this exhibit was down right bizarre.  There are somethings in like you just can't un-see.  I don't entirely understand the motivation for this art exhibit and there are really no good words to describe so I will just post a series of photos and let you take it all in for yourself.

 

 

 

Now, onto CHRISTMAS!  When we woke up Christmas morning Santa had figured out that Chad and I were not spending the occasions at our homes in Indiana and instead delivered all of our presents to Lille, France.  Just kidding we just bought each other gifts.  We spent the morning opening presents and cooking a Christmas brunch that we shared with Deliece and her two friends from Trinidad.  We had homemade crepes, a potato, egg, peppers and cheese creation a la Chad and spicy Trinidad fried mushrooms.  A food coma soon ensued.  We of course couldn't complete the day without a giant Christmas feast.  Thanks to our new Trinidadian friends we didn't have to go without.  They cooked a giant meal to share with us consisting of entirely traditional Trinidadian dishes (loaded with spices and seasonings).  It was AMAZING!  Chad and I have already decided that our next big trip will be to Trinidad and Tobago.  We ended the evening watching Home Alone 2, packed up our bags and headed into Lille center.  Chad and I would be leaving for Florence, Italy  very early the next morning and since the metro system doesn't seem to be overly reliable in Lille we decided to rent a hotel room right across from the train station in town for the night.  We woke up at 4:30am the morning after Christmas to catch a train into Paris Charles de Gaulle airport where we then caught a 9:00am flight to Florence, Italy with a layover in Frankfurt, Germany.

 

We didn't have any problems while traveling to Florence and once we arrived we quickly found our hotel and dropped off our bags before heading into the city for some sight seeing.  Our hotel was in a great location, but then again most everything in Florence is no more than a couple blocks away from each other since it's such a small city with so much packed into a tiny area.  At first glance our hotel room seemed quaint and ideally Italian, but after one night in that room we soon realized that there was little to no hot water for the shower, the beds were made entirely of springs in uncomfortable to sleep on and there were little cockroaches crawling out of the door frames in the bathroom.  We tried to chalk this up to being a part of the experience and not letting it affect our trip, but none the less it was very disturbing.  Let's just say that hotel did not get a very good online review from us.  

 
Our first afternoon in Florence was spent eating real Italian pizza, checking out il Duomo from the outside and then taking the free walk through of the inside, exploring the Piazza della Republica, stopping to listen to live musician play in the streets, crossing the Ponte Vecchio, stumbling upon the Piazza della Vecchio and ending a rather long and tiring day with some much needed gelato.

Day 2 in Florence started off with some souvenir shopping in the San Lorenzo market.  It was mostly leather goods: purses, belts, shoes and books.  We moved onto the church of Santa Maria Novella, but before that we had to stop for authentic cannoli.  Next we went back to the Piazza del Vecchio to see all the statues in the day light.    We revisited the Ponte Vecchio to take in all of its gaudiness and decadence.  If you are on the market from some expensive jewelry this is the place to come to.   We saw the Pitti Palace from the outside, but decided against going inside.  We stopped for lunch at what would become our favorite sandwich cafe in all of Florence.  You could make your own sandwich including 5 different toppings (meats, cheeses, sauces and vegetables) for only 4.50 euro.  We crossed the river that runs through Florence by way of a different bridge and stopped for yet another serving of gelato.  We quickly scanned through the southern part of the city to see a couple more churches (Santa Croce and Sanata Spirito).  It was beginning to get dark and we were getting hungry so we stopped for dinner at a small restaurant just off the Duomo for some authentic cheese, pasta and wine.

 

 

 

 

 

Our second full day in Italy was spent in Pisa.  Yes, if we were so close we figured we may as be the tourist that we are and see The Leaning Tower.  We took a train from the main station out of Florence through the Tuscan countryside and into Pisa.  Pisa isn't a very big city and since there is pretty much just The Leaning Tower it's not as big of a tourist trap as Florence.  We made the trek through the city and over the Ponte Solferino to the Duomo plaza.  We decided against climbing the tower (maybe out of fear that it would topple over and we couldn't justify the 15 euro it would cost to climb to the top).  Instead we took a bus out to the marina and spent some time walking along the coast and enjoying the waves lapping up to the rock beach.  We had lunch at a small cafe and indulged in some more Italian pizza.  We took a late train back into Florence and rested up for our final day in Italy.

 

 

 
The majority of our last day in Florence was spent souvenir shopping, filling ourselves with as much pizza pasta and gelato our bellies could handle and waiting in line to see The Statue of David.  We waited around an hour to see the giant statue of Michaelangelo's David.  I of course got in trouble for taking a photo, but then didn't delete it off my camera.  There wasn't much else to see in the Academia art museum besides David.  We ended out day on the Michaelangelo plaza at sunset.  We had bought a bottle of wine and some chocolate to enjoy while watching the sunset over the mountains and city of Florence.  We spent at least an hour or two at the Plaza taking in the breathtaking city scape of Florence but once the sun had set it quickly got cold so we headed back towards our hotel for one final amazing dinner.

 

 

I think I'll resume my Christmas break blog at a later date, otherwise this will turn into a novel.  Hope you enjoyed reading about my Christmas celebration and traveling around Florence, Italy.  I'll catch you up on the rest of my travels shortly!

So much to say so little time

So so sorry I have not updated my blog in several weeks, which means this post will be extra long.  So without further ado, I'll get started!

Two weekends ago I went on a weekend trip with Emily, Deliece, and Janine to Rouen, France.  We left really early Saturday morning via train.  Rouen is in the Haute Normandy region of France and is where Joan of Arc was held captive by the British (since this city used to be under British rule way back in the day).  She was also burned at the stake in this city, a little eerie.  We tried to sleep on the train, but I think we were too anxious for the trip and the train was rather old and rattled a lot making it too difficult to sleep.  When we got into the train station we quickly scanned a roadside map and started out our trek for the hotel/main part of the city.  Like champs!  We had to wait a couple of hours before checking into the hotel so we strolled around the city getting an idea of where everything was located.  We quickly visited a christmas market and ate lunch on a park bench on the side of the road.

The hotel we stayed at was very very nice for a european hotel, and was placed right between the river that split Rouen in half (Le Seine- yes the same river that splits Paris in half) and the inner part of the city.  Throughout the day we visited Le Seine, the christmas market on several occasions, the Hotel de Ville which had an ice skating rink out front, an abbey, the location where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake and a church dedicated to her, an art museum which was free (Deliece and I had some fun imitating the paintings) and we got a couple glimpses of a famous astronomical clock placed right in the middle of town.   We ended the long day with a hearty dinner at a restaurant called Holy Cow.  I had a grilled chicken burger with all the toppings and thick cut french fries.  They had ketchup bottles at each table that were bigger than the size of your head. Of course I couldn't pass up a photo opportunity. 

 

 

On day 2 we slept in a little and made our way out for another fun filled day of adventures.  We started off the day with another trip around the christmas market and then toured some more churches.  Since all the museums were free for students in the city we decided to see as many as we could.  So, we toured a pottery and ceramic museum, a iron and metal work museum and the tower where Joan of Arc was held captive.  We had lunch in the christmas market where I tried Tartiflette.  It's kind of a thick stew of stinky cheese, potatoes, onions and lardons or slices of ham.  It was very very good!  We had to take a little break in the middle of our day for a coffee and pastry break.  I bought a little man made of bread and dipped in chocolate.

 

 

The architecture in Rouen is so distinct and striking to this part of France.  I'm going to include a couple photos so we can all enjoy the regional architecture of Rouen :)

 

After months and weeks of counting down the days till Chad would come visit me, my present finally arrived!!!  Unfortunately I had to work the morning he flew into Brussels so he had to navigate the train system from Belgium to France on his own, but luckily he made it safe and sound and on time.  As soon as I was done teaching I high tailed it to the train station to pick him up.  It was so nice to see him again, almost surreal.  

We have been enjoying our time together this past week, touring Lille and meeting my new friends.  It took him a couple days to get over the jet lag and change in sleep schedule, but I think he has finally converted to the European way of life.  So far we have visited parts of Lille: the chirstmas market, the art museum (just from the outside), Euralille, old book sale, and plenty of shopping.  When we were touring around Lille last weekend we came across several street performers, but only one group was worth stopping and watching.  There were 4 men who all played different musical instruments and danced and sang together.  So French and so entertaining.  We also went bouldering this past week.  For those who don't know bouldering is a means of exercise similar to rock climbing but without the harness and you don't climb nearly as high up the wall.  While I'm away at school Chad just stays home occupying himself with reading and writing until I can come home.  I've been introducing him to french food and drink, all of which I think he likes so far.  

Last Sunday my housemates and I celebrated christmas with a traditional British christmas dinner shared with some of our teaching assistant friends and Chad.  Janine and Emily cooked the meal.  We had "crackers" that we opened and contained a paper crown and a little prize.  The food was very good!  

School has finally finished for the semester and I'm glad for the small reprieve.  Now that my schedule is becoming more firmed up I can better plan for my classes.  My students aren't becoming any easier to work with but that could have been due to their excitement for the holiday.  I had planned to do christmas lessons and activities with the students, but then at the last minute several teachers changed their minds and had me do non cultural lessons.  Not nearly as much fun for the students or I.  At my school in Hellemmes (my better school) there is only 1 full time teacher left and two part time teachers.  All the others have up and quit their jobs and so have their replacements.  Next semester shall be interesting.  

So far I have been able to handle France and its nonsensical chaos will minimal composure and ease but this past Thursday was the straw that broke the camels back.  Thursdays I wake up around 6am to be at school a little before 8am.  I got on the metro as usual and when I got to the main station in town to change metro lines to get to my school I was informed my transport personnel that the metro line I need to take to school was not running at the moment and would be down for an undetermined amount of time.  Great!  How am I to get to work?! WALK?!  Nope, don't worry France has it covered.  The brilliant solution is to use 4 public buses to run the metro line transporting people where they need to go.  1.  The buses hold about 1/4 the amount of people the metro can carry.  2.  The bus takes 2-3 times longer to get to each stop than the metro, prolonging a normal transit.  3.  The buses operate above ground and there was a mass of at least 150-200 people waiting outside in the freezing rain at 7am in a hurried panic to get to work and school.  I made sure to text one of my teachers informing them that I would be late due to the metro, but I am making an attempt to catch a bus to get to school.  After waiting an hour and forty-five minutes in the rain crowded in my sneezing coughing people I decided this job was not worth the trouble to continue putting myself through this mess.  So, I went home and took a 2 hour nap.  It was lovely and well deserved.  I later found out that the metro was not operating due to a computer malfunction.  You see the metro lines in France are predominately operated by computers rather than human conductors driving them.  You can't leave everything up to technology...

Christmas is coming up and even though I will be far from home, family and friends at least I have Chad here with me :)  We will be spending christmas in Lille and then leaving the day after for 4 days in Florence, Italy and then 3 days in Paris.  Rough life, I know.  (I probably won't have another blog post for a while, and the next one will be a big one!) 

I will end this posting with a wish of health and happiness for all of my readers and followers.  May you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and congratulations on surviving the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar.

Happy Birthday to me

Hellooooooo friends and family!
This week was my birthday week and lots of stuff has happened, so let's begin!
Monday was just another long day at school, both schools.  I continued my Thanksgiving lesson with all of my classes.  I had several educational games and worksheets planned out for each of my grade levels, but after the 6th or 7th time handing out the same turkey themed word search this lesson is getting a little old.  I found out that there are now two english teachers at one of my schools that have just up and quit their jobs mid semester.  Luckily the French school system has found replacements for both teachers so their classes can continue as scheduled.  Somedays I wish I could just up and quit my job when things get tough, but then again that won't be carrying out the American spirit, now would it? I got to administer a test at the end of my very long day, which provided a nice reprieve from 6 hours of teaching.  Two students had missed class the week before so they still needed to take a test.  The teacher had explained to me before class exactly how he wanted me to administer the tests and told me I could speak with the students in French to make sure they completely understand what is expected of them on the tests.  So, when I began explaining the directions (in french) the looks on their faces were priceless.  Utter shock that an American can speak french.
Tuesday is one of two days off during the week and this particular Tuesday I got a special xmas care package from my mom.  It had a miniature xmas trees with lights, ornaments and even a little tree skirt. She also put xmas gifts and stockings for Chad and I inside.  My housemates were happy to see some American xmas goodies had been packed inside as well.  Our house is now decorated with paper snowflakes and a miniature xmas tree.  We are all ready for the holiday season!  Later in the day Janine, Deliece and I took the bus to check out the local library, but of course we spend those 5 hours shopping instead.

 
Wednesday is my second day in a row of no teaching so I made a big batch of my grandma's chicken noodle soup and it tastes AMAZING!  Just like grandma makes it :)
Thursday morning was again spent at school all morning.  I needed to make photocopies for a couple of my classes so I woke up at 5am and got to school at 7am to find out that the school doesn't open its doors till 7:30am.  It was freezing and raining and still pitch black outside so I waited out in the bank lobby just down the street from my school.  For one of my classes I was working with 5ieme students (12-13 year olds) on talking about their best friend in as much detail as possible.  They were scheduled to have an oral exam over this topic the next day so their teacher wanted them to get in one last practice with me.  I had a great lesson planned out to help them practice, but of course no one wanted to pay attention and focus.  I think this was due to the fact that these students are realizing I can't give them grades so they figure "why should we do any of the work?".  Two of the students switched names and played this up for pretty much the entire class until the very end when I called on one of them to practice their presentation and the student with the correct name answered me first.  The look on their faces when they realized the joke was up was priceless.  I of course played this up to really emphasize that they can't mess with me.  I told their teacher what had happened after class and she gave them quite the lecture right in the middle of the hallway telling them their privileges with the assistant are gone and they will never get to work with me again.  Thank god for that cause they were very exhausting students to have to work with...
Friday I had 3 hours of teaching in the afternoon, which again went by as usual.  By usual I mean riddled with little problems.  I was so happy when the final bell of the day rang I about ran out of that school faster than the students do.
Saturday was my birthday and I had lots planned to celebrate the occasion   I was afraid it would be difficult spending a birthday away from friends and family from back home, but my new "french family" helped keep me occupied all day and made it a fabulous birthday.  The started off with a trip to the hair salon for a new hair cut!  I decided to take a leap of faith and chopped all my hair off, well not bald but a short pixie cut.  Janine went with me and I'm so glad she did.  As the hair stylist was chopping off chunks of hair I had to keep looking at Janine for reinforcement that what she was doing didn't look horrible.  About halfway through the haircut I considered stopping and trying to reattach the hair somehow, but then figured that would look even worse than if I just let her finish.  By the end of the haircut I really loved what she had done with my hair.  Next on the schedule was a girly shopping day with the girls (Janine, Deliece, Emily and Grace).  We went to the big shopping mall in Lille and spent several hours wandering through the shops.  I had to buy myself a hat because my head is now cold in the freezing winter weather.  For the evening we had a big pizza party with the group (Janine, Deliece, Emily, Grace, Jack, Jason and Max).  We had plenty of food and desserts to go around.  Janine made me a homemade white cake with butter cream icing in the middle, melted Milka chocolate on top and sprinkled with speculous cookies.  (Best cake ever!)  I opened my presents, which I was not expecting, and ended off the evening with a movie (Crazy, Stupid Love).  Very good birthday!!

Well, it's Sunday afternoon and Janine and Emily are making mince pies (a traditional British pastry made with some kind of jarred mince filling- I believe a mix of apples, raisins and cognac).  I've tried one and while I'm not a fan it was still good to try.