Walk

Pictures of the trails behind Echirolles that go up to Haute Jarrie and beyond. I know, I know, I've already posted a bunch of photos from this place, but it's amazing and deserves more. 

International Dinner

One of the assistants hosted an "international dinner" (basically a pot-luck) tonight. There were some other assistants, a couple French girls, and a girl from Portugal. I spend 95% of my time here with people either under the age of 11 or over the age of 35, so I sort of started thinking that French people my age didn't actually exist. It was really nice to prove that theory wrong. And it also made up for this year's failed Thanksgiving (I'm pretty sure I ate enough to last me the rest of the week.)

And people also complimented my food, which was a big deal considering how self-conscious I am about my terrible cooking.

It made me feel old...in a good way, if that's possible. Up until now, pot-lucks in my mind were this: one person brings the cheapest bread they can find, another person brings a cheap Nutella knock-off product, a third brings some chips, we meet under a tree in a park somewhere because we have nowhere else to go because either we live at home or our apartment is too small, and there you go. But we had real food, like...a chicken and fish and stuff. It was great.

Lyon Fête des Lumières

This weekend a few of us took a trip up to Lyon to go to the Fête des Lumières (the festival of lights). I took a few videos but they were really choppy on my camera so I'm just going to steal some from YouTube to give you an idea of what it was all about. This first one was my favorite.

There were four of us that went together, each from a different anglophone country, which inevitably meant half of the conversations went something like "wait, you think pants mean what?" "Okay, who says it's a lift? Who says it's an elevator?" Very confusing. (And this week I had to teach a lesson on clothes and I almost gave them a mini-lecture on why they shouldn't use "pants" in the UK the same way we use it in the US... and then I figured that my mini-lecture on the different pronunciation of the letter "Z" was enough for their brains.) 

The Fete started at six. We walked around and found some food (bread and mayonnaise, lots and lots of mayo, with a little bit of tuna), and then we went from one light show to another. They were spectacular, really intricate and creative light shows displayed on the sides of buildings all throughout the city. And it was CROWDED. At one point we were standing in a huge mob of people and we didn't move for a good five minutes. Totally worth it thought. 

By ten we couldn't feel our feet and we headed back to our place. We rented a whole apartment though Airbnb, so we made some tea and watched Miss France and confusing French "comedy" until 2 am. Then, despite being in the most comfortable bed I have ever been in, I couldn't fall asleep until 5 am. But besides that it was a really great trip. I missed the lights festival last year when a few other study abroad-ers went (the semester was coming to an end and finals were coming up... oh wow, it's been almost a year since I came back home from Mont. Geez, time flies by fast), so it was nice to make up for it this year. 

I only regret not taking more pictures. They would have been awful without any good lighting, but still... should have at least done a group one. Ah well, tant pis. 

The time I actually took a camera

I went to the Chateau again and this time I actually took my camera 

Up the hill

That little nature reserve I mentioned in the last post, one of my favorite places to go

A good chunk of my "runs" is basically this, me laying on the dock

Why hello there chunk of history

Just texting someone while riding her horse on the sidewalk...yeah sure

Les Vaches!

Persimmon tree! I may or may not have taken one

Update

I realize that it's been a while since I've posted any sort of update. Two reasons for that: only like two people actually read this thing (hi mom), and, to be honest, nothing really interesting has been going on.

When I tell people I moved to France for a year, they tend to think that that means my life is full of adventure and crazy stories and constant travel. True, moving abroad is an exciting adventure in itself, but in all honesty, my day-to-day life is pretty ordinary. I plan lessons, I go to work, I buy food, I eat food, I buy more food. That being said, I do meet up with other assistants regularly enough. A few weeks ago we went to a chocolate festival (where I ate my weight in chocolate), last weekend we went on a hike up the trails behind the Bastille. We celebrated one assistant's birthday by going out to Tex Mex. (Side note: I don't think you understand the significance of this, so I'm going to explain. France wins at certain things, and it fails absolutely at others. Providing me with Mexican food? That falls in the latter category. So I was very excited that this place (El Tex Mex, it's called...very original guys) existed. The food, though, was kind of a disappointment. Not awful, but not what I was hoping for. Hey, they tried. But France, in the future, just stick to crepes.)

Chocolate festival 

La Bastille, another beautiful view

The car I watched burn outside my window

But besides that...

On my week:

Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday I teach at my schools. Besides my regular job, I've been lucky enough to find babysitting/tutoring gigs: Tuesday evenings I have one private student not far from where I live, and Wednesdays I go to Crolles, which is a really nice, rich neighborhood about an hour north of me. I babysit one girl for 3 hours, then I walk over to their neighbor's house where I teach her three kids, one after another, for two hours, then I go one house over to her friend's house and teach her son for an hour. Apparently they've worked out a system that they've already been using for a few years: the first family finds an assistant willing to babysit, and they they sort of "share" her among themselves. I like it, it lets me see how other French families live, they feed me free lunch that I don't have to cook for myself, and it makes it worth my while to go all the way up to Crolles.

On coffee:

Ever since Toussaints I've been downing the stuff like it's finals week all the time. I give France a lot of crap for its sub-par coffee, but even so I think it's safe to say I'm officially addicted. "Okay, I'm just going to finish this box since I've already paid for it, and then no more." Guess what I buy at the store the very next day?

On handwriting:

This has been a constant issue ever since I started teaching. In France all the kids learn cursive, and for the most part their handwriting is impeccable. Mine looks like that of a ten-year old boy who has partially lost control of his extremities... and I don't write cursive. Probably 50% of the time I write something on the board, at least one kid isn't able to read all of it. And apostrophes, they do those differently here, which has caused some confusion. Last week I went into one of my kindergarten classes while they were doing handwriting exercises and I legitimately took notes.

On teaching: 

The first few weeks of teaching were actually a lot harder than I had expected. I had no clue what I was doing and most of the teachers weren't helping much. But the last few weeks it's gotten a lot better; I see what works, what doesn't work. I've gotten better at adjusting on the spot if what I prepare doesn't fill the time or doesn't seem to be working. At the same time a handful of the teachers actually started doing their jobs and preparing things as well. There are still a few that don't do anything though, they don't seem to understand that the time I'm there isn't another coffee break for them. Yesterday I was having some trouble explaining a game to them so I asked to teacher to explain it better "oh...what? Sorry I wasn't listening." Really dude?

On the kids:

I've been there for two months, and still, every time I walk through school grounds, hoards of kids shout my name, "Ola! Regarde, c'est le prof d'anglais!" It's cute, but I don't think I'm meant for stardom. I'm not going to lie, sometimes I try to hide a bit to avoid being mobbed by little humans.

The younger ones are funny. I was doing a game which required them to first learn some food words, and I made the mistake of adding brussel sprouts to the list. Half of them didn't even know what it was when I said it in French, and I actually felt bad watching them struggle to pronounce it. One kid never got it:
"Brushel shprushle!"
"No, it's: bru-sel sp-rout."
"Brushel Shprushle"
"...yeah okay, good job kid."

I tried to teach some of the youngest ones "ice cream." I don't think they quite understand that English isn't just French pronounced differently. I showed them a picture of ice cream, "what's this?" (Ice cream in French is glace, just by the way).

"GLEES! GLOOS! GLASE! GALOOS! GLEES!" I couldn't correct them I was laughing so hard, it was like something Dr. Seuss would name his characters.

On housing:

Still slightly awkward. In order to get from my room to anywhere else in the apartment I have to walk through the living room, between the TV and the couch, and the people I live with always seem to be watching TV. I can't get used to basically announcing every time I have to go pee or get a snack. I can't complain too much though, the rent isn't high, I live really close to work, and the city isn't too far away either.

On feelings:

For a couple of weeks I was feeling kind of crappy. It wasn't homesickness, and it wasn't really loneliness. It was two things: I felt very isolated, for one. I'm an awkward person as it is and it takes me a long time to feel comfortable around others, it doesn't help much when they all speak French. At home, at work, even going out with assistants, I constantly felt... closed off. At the same time, a few weeks ago I made the mistake of realizing how quickly this is going by, and that I needed to start thinking of some sort of a post-TAPIF, big-girl, real-life plan, which is always a dangerous road for me to go down. Long story short, I had something of a quarter-life crisis. And I dealt with all of this by sitting in my room and binge watching Suits on Netflix. It all peaked on Thanksgiving. It was the second year in a row I wasn't home for it and I was feeling a little down. We didn't do anything to celebrate it here, so it passed quietly.

Looking back, I feel unappreciative. I'm living abroad, fully supporting myself working half-time, I was able to find side jobs, I can travel. Feeling isolated... quite frankly that's my own fault, personal demons I have to deal with that have nothing to do with France. As for my future, I'll give myself a few weeks before I open that box up again (so basically sticking my fingers in my ears and shouting "la la la, I can't hear you.")

Alright, there you go mom and the odd person or two who find themselves reading this. Consider yourself updated.

It's funny how things turn out...

I was working on lesson plans and listening to Spotify when Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien came on, and I had a little flashback to high school french where we learned this song during one of our units. I still find it funny, thinking about where I am today considering how much I detested French for the first few years I took it. I was convinced Madame hated me (but then again, at that point in my life I was convinced everyone hated me... ah, adolescence), I was annoyed by almost everyone else in the class, and what I hated most of all was putting effort into a subject I was "never going to use." Well...you can eat your words, past self.

I often wonder what Madame Hallenbeck would say if she found out I not only kept up with French, but I'm living here, doing this.

It's funny how things turn out, what I thought would be the most useless class was the one that eventually let me travel and led to my first post-college job.

The time I ran to a castle

I've said this before, but I swear, every time I go out and explore this area a little I fall more and more in love with it. It's not everywhere that a simple run can lead you to a chateau. 

Behind my apartment there is a big hill which takes you out of the city and into the countryside. If you go a little further you get to a little nature reserve (which has become my favorite spot) where you can sit on the dock over the small lake and watch the birds (Skribbles flies here! Only my mom and Kerry will get that though...). I had never gone past there before, but today curiosity got the better of me and I kept going...and going and going. I ended up in a little town, and I kept seeing signs for Chateau de Bon Repos, so I followed those and a little farther up, there it was, a 15th century chateau, just chillin' a few hundred meters from some peoples' houses, overlooking the mountains, with some donkeys right next to it just to add some extra charm. I just stood there smiling at it like an idiot (and pet the donkey, of course).

Not a bad find, for a morning run...

On the way back I ran on a gorgeous trail I had never been on before. More donkeys. And horses. And cows. I stopped and stared at a cow for a while, it stared back at me... I don't think it  liked me much, so I left. 

Remember a week or two ago when I published a post about finding miles and miles of trails behind that park five minutes away from my place? Well somehow I ended up there again, and from there I went back home.

I was gone for hours, and when I got back I was muddy and starving. It was amazing.

And to think I almost decided to live in the city, I would have never discovered this if I did. It's one of those places you would never find on TripAdvisor. That's what I love about Grenoble (and Echirolles), the longer I live here the more hidden gems I find.